[Ohio-Talk] Ohio Consider attending this meeting tonight with National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Personal & Career Development Group Meeting on October 5, 2020, at 7:30 pm central time

Mon Oct 5 22:02:54 UTC 2020

Ohio, 

Consider attending this meeting.

I have inserted the article below!

Suzanne

///

Dear Friends:

On Monday, October 5, 2020, at 7:30 pm central time we will have a meeting
of the National Federation of the Blind Personal & Career Development Group.
The meeting will be held on Zoom and the invite is at the bottom of this
message.

We will be discussing a short article that appeared in the May, 2015,
Braille Monitor titled “Blind People and Talking Dogs.” No, this is not a
fancy new guide dog for the blind; the article provides some insight about
the issue of the lack of blind CEO’s and executive managers. 

You can read the article 

Blind People and Talking Dogs

by Dick Davis

>From the Editor: Dick Davis chairs the National Federation of the Blind’s
employment committee and will soon retire from BLIND, Incorporated after a
long and distinguished career in work with the blind. He is the assistant
director for employment at BLIND, Inc., and as a sighted advocate he wrote a
response to the question of why there aren’t more blind executives.
Undoubtedly many issues come into play when talking about employment and
advancement, and I hope that this piece will start an in-depth discussion
about what we can do to realize the dream of Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and other
founders who believed that a job, a home, and the right to participate in
the community were the reasons for the creation of the organization and the
movement it represents. Here is Dick’s take on the issue:

I like the article Michelle Clark recently posted on the NFB Jobs Listserv,
“Where Are the CEOs and Executive Managers with Disabilities?” by John D.
Kemp, president and CEO of The Viscardi Center. You can read it at <
<https://usodep.blogs.govdelivery.com/2015/03/13/where-are-the-ceos-and-exec
utive-managers-with-disabilities/>
https://usodep.blogs.govdelivery.com/2015/03/13/where-are-the-ceos-and-execu
tive-managers-with-disabilities/>. 

Mr. Kemp, who has four prostheses, asks a valid question: why are disabled
people being left out of executive and management jobs? 

I think it is because most people look at blind and disabled individuals as
“talking dogs.” What do I mean by that? There is an old saying, sometimes
attributed to Mark Twain, that the remarkable thing about a talking dog is
not what it says but the fact that it talks at all. Public expectations are
so low that anything a person with a disability can do is thought to be
remarkable. But “talking dogs” never make it to the higher echelons of any
organization. They are curiosities at best. 

A few years ago one of our local television stations did an article on
Disability Employment Awareness Month. It featured an enclave of
developmentally disabled people who were able to get part-time jobs cleaning
the equipment in a local gym. The anchors were so touched that they almost
cried. I didn’t throw a shoe through our TV screen, nor did I attempt to
explain to the station that what they had done was worse than if they had
done nothing at all. Weren’t those disabled people remarkable? No, they
weren’t. They were “talking dogs,” trotted out once again so that people
could marvel at the little things they could do. 

We must really ditch this charity thing. No employer hires a person because
it feels sorry for him or her. And the ADA, although helpful from a legal
sense, has not been the employment panacea that many people thought it would
be. In my opinion the diversity movement has more potential, because
employers have not been trained to hate the diversity movement like they
have the ADA. The healthy thing about the diversity movement is that it
teaches that difference is not a weakness but a strength, and blind people
are definitely perceived as different. 

My belief is that blind people are stronger than sighted people, because
what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Dealing successfully with
blindness through effective training makes a person more creative, more
organized, more persistent, tougher, a faster computer user (no mouse to
slow you down), and better in a whole host of other ways. Blind people are
definitely the better hire. If you really think about it, you will come to
realize it is true. Many sighted people lack those
mind-and-character-building experiences and in my opinion are weaker as a
result. So instead of thinking of blindness as a disability, maybe we should
think of sightedness as one instead. In my opinion blind people belong at
the top.

Media Share

<http://twitter.com/home?status=Blind%20People%20and%20Talking%20Dogs%20http
s%3A%2F%2Fwww.nfb.org%2Fsites%2Fwww.nfb.org%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2Fnfb%2Fpublica
tions%2Fbm%2Fbm15%2Fbm1505%2Fbm150506.htm>
<http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=%3c;url%3e> 

(
<https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm15
/bm1505/bm150505.htm> back) (
<https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm15
/bm1505/bm1505tc.htm> contents) (
<https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm15
/bm1505/bm150507.htm> next

by clicking the link below:

https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm15/
bm1505/bm150506.htm

Or you can listen to the mp3 version by clicking the link below:

https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/braille_monitor/2015/may/09_blind_peopl
e_and_talking_dogs.mp3

The goal of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Personal &
Career Development Group is to encourage people to find employment and
develop their careers through personal growth strategies. In the Personal &
Career Development Group we believe that personal growth leads to career
growth. Though it is important to have a good resumé, network, etc., to find
work, it is equally important to be confident about yourself and what you
can accomplish. 

Daniel Garcia is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Personal & Career
Development Group October 2020 Meeting

Time: Oct 5, 2020 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8166210902

Meeting ID: 816 621 0902

One tap mobile

+13126266799,,8166210902# US (Chicago)

+16465588656,,8166210902# US (New York)

Dial by your location

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

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        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

Meeting ID: 816 621 0902

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kzA7bCWkg

Regards

Daniel Garcia, Public Relations Chair

National Federation of the Blind of Missouri

dangarcia3 at hotmail.com <mailto:dangarcia3 at hotmail.com> 

(816) 621-0902

www.nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org> 

www.nfbmo.org <http://www.nfbmo.org> 

Live the life you want.

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