[Sportsandrec] More Beep Baseball

[Peter Donahue]

Hello Kelly and listers,

    It definitely is when an adaptive technology company feels blind people 
are too stupid to learn that pressing a particular key sequence will cause 
their notetaker to do a hard reset so they require the user to press a 
button that's barely  feelable then try to blame the user for their machine 
malfunctioning. Had the user been able to enter the keystroke to do the cold 
reset their unit wouldn't have had to be shipped back for an unnecessary 
repair and be harassed by the company in question for improperly performing 
the cold reset. And I know about this because it happened to my wife Mary 
who received a new Pacmate Omni from Freedom Scientific. Had these folks 
designed the firmware so one could perform the cold reset with a few 
keystrokes none of this would have been necessary. When she asked a tech 
support person about this all she was told was that, "There were reasons for 
it." Guess they spent too much time playing Beep Baseball. Deane Blazie had 
more faith in the abilities of the blind and designed his products with our 
true capabilities in mind.

    It's not so much the game, activity or program that is at fault, but the 
beliefs about our capabilities which determine whether we'll be treated as 
children, or as responsible members of society. Now I'm done.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thornbury, Kelly" <kthornbury at bresnan.net>
To: <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 6:08 PM
Subject: [Sportsandrec] More Beep Baseball


First of all, my class experience as one blind person on a team of 10 
playing softball is certainly different than 10 blind people out there 
trying to find a ball that's quit rolling (or worse, beeping), trying to 
find bases, and trying most of all to avoid running into each other. All my 
classmates were immeasurably helpful in integrating me into the game.

Second, I personally have no problem considering beep baseball to be a 
"blind" sport...because unless I am mistaken, everyone wears sleep shades, a 
rule in itself that makes it a sport where vision is eliminated as an 
ability. I have no problem calling adapted sports what they are, or playing 
by the rules set within them. Does it really matter if a batter gets three 
strikes or four, or if there are two bases instead of three, honestly? 
Baseball and softball have similar rules and strategic concepts, but 
specific rules are considerably different...despite the similarities they 
are two different games. I have no problem calling an orange an orange, or a 
"blind sport" what it is.

This might  be where I stray from NFB teachings, but I accept that there are 
many things I am no longer able to participate in...I will never again take 
off on a solo bike trip; partake in some knarly back country, out of bounds 
skiing; trek solo across the high route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I'm fine 
with that...I have a disability that doesn't allow me to safely participate 
in such activities. I am happy, in fact more than happy, to play the games I 
can, come up with rules or alterations that allow more participation in 
"mainstream" games, and to leave alone the ones I don't feel comfortable in. 
I don't consider myself to be a blind athlete (despite being totally blind), 
I am an athlete who happens to rely on other senses and abilities besides 
vision to participate in activities...I am a person who happens to be 
blind...I define the blindness, it doesn't define me.

Thank you for the information on the beeping Frisbee. I've been looking for 
one; I'm hoping to get involved with the ultimate Frisbee intramurals on 
campus.

Now a question for the list: For any guide dog users out there who are into 
water recreation like canoeing, I am looking for a good life vest for my 
guide (yes 99.9% of all labs can swim, and do it willingly, but better safe 
than sorry). I have seen a couple that I didn't care for the design of, but 
it seems that as a rafting guide when I was sighted, I saw many more 
different designs that I can't seem to be able to "GOOGLE."

Kelly
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