[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 80, Issue 25

Mon Jan 3 18:41:44 UTC 2011

Shawn,
You're absolutely right about the need to make blindness and how we cope 
with it "relevant to the rest of society." As a journalist, this is my 
greatest struggle. My thinking nowadays is that we have two toe-holds: 
blindness is on the increase (especially re the CDC predictions of 
diabetes-related blindness in working-age Americans trippling by 2050), 
and the cost to society of permitting blind children to be "educated" 
without Braille and other non-visual skills. On this last point, I have 
not been able to find sources for the amount spent on SSI & SSDI to 
support otherwise able-bodied blind adults of working age. I called the 
American Foundation for the Blind, which has many statistics on their 
site, but never got a return call.

I think that without tying in to these issues, all of the success 
stories become merely another Horatio Alger story, painting a few as 
heroes capable of overcoming some ill-defined "obstacles" of being blind.
Donna

Read Donna's articles on
Suite 101:
www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/donna_hill
Ezine Articles:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=D._W._Hill
American Chronicle:
www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3885

Connect with Donna on
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/dewhill
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/dwh99
FaceBook:
www.facebook.com/donna.w.hill.

Hear clips from "The Last Straw" at:
cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
Apple I-Tunes
phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374

Check out the "Sound in Sight" CD project
Donna is Head of Media Relations for the nonprofit
Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind:
www.padnfb.org

On 1/3/2011 12:40 PM, Jacobson, Shawn D wrote:
> Amen to your point about Governor Patterson.  The fact that he is in high political office and dealing with these issues is, if nothing else, instructive to the public (or at least that part of it that reads and considers these issues).  The first part of winning our battles is to make blindness, and how we cope with it, relevant to the rest of our society.
>
> In other news, I'm sorry I missed the December call.  I was in Iowa with family and I think we had just finished supper (there were 27 of us) when it was call time.  I plan to be on the January call.
>
> Until then God bless you all.
>
> Shawn
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kerry Thompson
> Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 4:19 PM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 80, Issue 25
>
> [Since Sunday night I've been trying to send this message, but something
> always goes wrong. Hope it takes this time!]
>
> Jim, I missed you on the phone gathering and hope all is, if not well,
> at least as well as can be expected with your wife. Please give her my
> best and know that you both are in my thoughts and prayers.
>
> Robert and everybody, it was a very enjoyable gathering. Thanks for
> being so nice about my coming in late.I've contacted Rob Sawyer,
> multiple award winning novelist and member of SFWA (the Science Fiction
> and Fantasy Writers of America). Haven't heard back from him yet, which
> isn't surprising given the time of year. When I do hear back, one way
> or the other, Robert, I'll let you know.
>
> ---
>
> Robert, thanks for passing along the recipes, I think. Reading them made
> me very hungry, especially Jim's meat loaf. I love meat loaf!
>
> Without reading the article on Gov. Paterson I'll just say that some
> people are conditioned to think that being blind or partially sighted is
> somehow dirty and disgraceful, something to be hidden. My own mother
> used to think - and for all I know still does think - that "You don't
> look blind" was a compliment. I was also discouraged from learning to
> read braille or acquiring any other blindness skills. Maybe Gov.
> Paterson was raised in a similarly wrong headed environment.
>
> Justin, I agree. Whatever Paterson's failings as a blind person and/or
> as governor, it is very important that the nation and the world see that
> a blind man *can* be governor of one of the largest, most important
> states in the union. We need to keep chipping away at the perception
> that we are helpless, useless and unemployable. The more things we do,
> especially the more things in the public square, the better for us as a
> group, a community and the better for society at large.
>
> Solidarity and Peace,
> Kerry
>
> _______________________________________________
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