[Perform-talk] Article about NFB Braille Monitor editor, Barbara Pierce
Donna Hill
penatwork at epix.net
Wed Jan 21 14:54:38 UTC 2009
Hi Everyone,
The article copied below is posted at:
http://www.chroniclet.com/2009/01/21/woman-devotes-life-to-helping-the-blind_122/
Donna Hill
Woman devotes life to helping the blind
John Light | The Chronicle-Telegram
Contact John Light at 329-7148 or
ctnews at chroniclet.com.
OBERLIN — Barbara Pierce retired as president of the National Federation
of the Blind of Ohio last November. Her work, however, is far from
finished.
Pierce, a resident of Oberlin, has been actively helping blind people
for more three decades. She talks passionately of her work and of the
issues she has
championed, although she feels that not nearly enough progress has been
made.
Pierce moved to Lorain County to attend Oberlin College in the early
1960s but she did not become involved in the federation until 1974, when
she came across
its literature. After reading it, she said she had a new appreciation
for the struggles that she and other blind people faced daily.
“I realized, if I was honest with myself, that I talked a better game
than I lived. I pretended that I was comfortable using a white cane and
doing what
I needed to do to take care of my family and so on,” Pierce said. “But I
found that here were people who were living boldly the life that I only
sort of
pretended to live. … Here were people who were doing what I didn’t dare
to do.
“And then there were other blind people who absolutely were being
discriminated against — having their children taken away from them,
being told that they
couldn’t rent houses or rent apartments. … I just simply hadn’t had the
hard time that a lot of people had, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m not
pulling my weight.’
”
Within a few months, Pierce founded the Lorain County Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. And 10 years later, in 1984,
she was elected
president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, a position
she held until last November, when she chose not to stand for re-election.
Pierce also serves as editor of the National Federation’s monthly
publication, The Braille Monitor, a position she plans to continue at
least through the
end of the year.
But while being heavily involved in her work at the state and national
levels, Pierce has remained active locally as an advocate for
inclusiveness in Lorain
County, said Brian Wilbert, Pierce’s friend and the pastor of Oberlin
Christ Church.
“You’re not going to get Barbara focused on handicaps or physical
challenges,” Pierce said. “You’re going to get Barbara talking about how
inclusiveness
is a way of life. … It’s not just one thing, it’s everything.
“I don’t see her ever really retiring. I see her letting go of some of
the administrative stuff, but I don’t see her ever really giving up
helping people.
People call her that want to speak to her because they have a child
that’s been born blind, or they themselves have gone blind and they want
to know what
it’s like. She’s there to help people make that kind of transition.”
Sherry Ruth, Pierce’s successor as president of the Lorain County
chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, relied on
Pierce when she first
lost her sight.
“I was very unsure of myself as to what I would do with the rest of my
life,” Ruth said. “Barbara was a major inspiration to me by the way she
traveled
independently and the way she kept her home, always baking and cooking.”
Pierce takes a direct approach to helping people cope with becoming blind.
“I get them to tell me what bothers them,” she said. “If they can’t dial
a telephone, I can teach them over the telephone how to dial a
telephone. You put
yourself in the other guy’s position and you try to think, ‘OK, what is
it that bothers this person, and what can I suggest out of my experience
that will
help get them grounded, let them know where to start?’ ”
When asked how blindness affects someone’s life, Pierce replies that it
doesn’t make the individual feel deprived.
“When you’ve never had it, or you’ve lost it early on, or you’ve lost it
gradually, you fill up the rest of your sensory world with the data that
you have
that do come in,” she said. “The world is full no matter what your
experience of it is.”
Contact John Light at 329-7148 or ctnews at chroniclet.com.
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