[stylist] Comments about the request by the sighted writer

Wed Feb 1 19:00:00 UTC 2012

Your quite welcome.

When I went to Iowa Braille, even in ninth grade, the school told you what classes you would take.

When I took some classes at the Vinton public school and found I had a choice, that seemed a revolutionary, alien, concept since the Braille school was all I know.

I think that Iowa Braille was a better school in the mid '70's when I left than it was in the mid '60's when I started there.  At any rate, it was less insular.  When I started there, it was the sort of place you wanted to be if the world were coming to an end (because everything happened there 30 years after it happened anywhere else (smile).

Anyway, just wanted to reiterate that you wrote one heck of a letter.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Donna Hill
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 2:43 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Comments about the request by the sighted writer

Shawn,
Thanks for sharing your school experiences. The perspective of the variety
in available courses is one I hadn't thought about, and if I heard it
somewhere along the line, I had forgotten.

I had enough vision early on to read regular print, though only under the
most ideal conditions of light and very slowly. I had been doing fine for
1st and 2nd grade, but my 2nd grade teacher, who didn't like watching me
struggle with my workbooks, recommended I be put in the "special class," in
3rd grade. It was what they called a garbage can class -- all types of
learning, sensory and social/emotional disabilities all thrown together with
one teacher.

I was started off with a large print version of my first grade textbook. I
never liked large print because my field restriction made it even harder to
read and parts of a letter would seem thinner or less bold than others.

The worst thing was that the teacher didn't want me to progress to grade
level and would make me go "play with the blocks" in the back of the
classroom. When my ophthalmologist found out, he pitched a fit, telling my
parents to get me out of that class immediately or he'd come up to our town
and take me out of there himself. He was a born and raised Philadellphian,
and rarely left town. When an Arab sheik offered to give him and his family
an all expense paid trip to the Middle East to see his kids, Dr. Spaeth told
him that if he wanted his kids to see him, he could bring them to
Philadelphia. His willingness to leave town to drag me out of the special
class was a major turning point in my life. He didn't have to actually do
it, as my parents got the message. The sickening truth that I had to deal
with was that in the space of less than two months, I had stopped caring
whether I caught up with my peers and had gotten to the point that I was
just doing what I was told as fast as I could so I could go play.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacobson, Shawn D
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 10:03 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Comments about the request by the sighted writer

Donna

I finally got a chance to read your letter, it was quite good.

What I remember about the Iowa School for the Blind was that you could get a
good basic education but that your options for high school classes were very
limited compared to what was available in a normal high school.  Towards the
end of my stay at Iowa Braille, kids were starting to take classes at
Vinton's high school and we were finding out about the variety of
instruction you could receive.

You could learn Braille there, but if you were partially sighted you were
intensely steered to large print.  I wasted one year between kindergarten
and first grade in "primary" where I spent pretty much the whole year
messing with very simple large print.  I was finally transferred to Braille
(I think someone in my family pitched a fit) and then I started moving
through the system.

This is better then what happened to some totally blind people (there was
definitely a pecking order based on sight) who were held back in first grade
for several years (they didn't graduate until their mid 20's).  They
couldn't advance until we got a really good first grade teacher who moved
people up the line.

Which brings me to something I've noticed about NFB.  We seem to believe, as
an organization in beauromancy (that you can come up with the perfect
organizational structure that will work regardless of everything else.  I am
not sure I subscribe to this.  I think that the right people will make any
organization work and the wrong people will not make any organization work.

Anyway, not a sermon, just a thought.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Donna Hill
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 10:20 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] Comments about the request by the sighted writer

Hi Friends,

I have written to Rachel Peterson after reading her letter to David. I
thought some of you might like to read my comments. Perhaps, you will take
acception to some of what I have said, or you will have something else to
add. At any rate, it's pretty long, but it's under my name.

Donna

Hi Rachel,

My name is Donna W. Hill, and I am a blind writer of articles and fiction. I
am 62, and I am currently writing about blindness issues, chocolate and
knitting for the online magazine Suite 101. I am also preparing to publish
my first novel "The Heart of Applebutter Hill," which features a blind teen.
I read your letter to David Andrews on the NFB's Writers' Division e-mail
list. I also visited your blog and read several entries.

Initially, I would just like to toss out some thoughts. I don't know how
informed you are about the realities for blind people nowadays, so forgive
me if you are already familiar with the following stats. 70% of blind
Americans of working age are unemployed. This is not for lack of skills. Tim
Cordes graduated from medical school in 2010, and he was not the first blind
man to do so. Blind people work successfully in fields like engineering,
law, mechanics and in a host of professions that most people generally
believe to be off-limits without sight.

Despite studies showing that Braille literacy is a major factor in the
likelihood that a blind person will complete an advanced degree, obtain
full-time employment and earn over $50,000 a year, only 10% of the nation's
blind kids are taught to read it. This is down from around 50% in the '60s.
In fact, technology has blown the lid off what is available in Braille and
made it possible for college students to carry their textbooks in a device
not much bigger than a calculator.

Myths persist in the sighted world -- even among teachers of the visually
impaired -- that Braille is unnecessary, a relic of a bygone era. Children
with limited vision are forced to read large print, even when doing so means
that they will suffer from headaches and eye strain, have no time for
extracurriculars and recreation, and fail to keep up with their peers
academically and socially. Falling behind is expected.

Audio books are given to those who can no longer see large print, but audio
learning has been shown to result in a poor understanding of language,
spelling and sentence structure, and it results in substandard thinking and
writing. Parents would be justifiably outraged if their sighted child came
home with the news that they didn't have to learn to read and were getting
all of their books in an audio format, but this happens to blind kids every
day. Braille and blindness itself are seen as failures.

I have interviewed mothers who fought the system on this. Even when the
child was diagnosed as legally blind and the prognosis was for total
blindness by early adulthood, Braille and other nonvisual skills were not
taught.

The dichotomy between the successes of some blind people and the overall
condition for blind Americans is largely due to social prejudice. Laws
governing discrimination against people on the basis of disability are not
written to the standards set for discrimination against other groups. I am
currently doing a series of articles on web and digital accessibility based
on a new academic study published in the First Monday Journal (U. of IL,
Chicago) in November. The study, written by three Maryland professors who
are sighted, contends that the laws are creating a permanent underclass and
fostering a "separate but not equal" online environment in which 80% of the
internet is not fully accessible. The technology to make software, websites
and digital products accessible has been around for over a decade, but
manufacturers are not required to use it.

Blind people, who used to be able to use their laundry machines, stoves,
entertainment systems, thermostats and other household and office equipment
independently are now finding their independence eroded because the new
touch-screen technology is inaccessible to them. Apple's iPhone, which has a
built in screen reader and can be used independently right out of the box,
proves that this problem need not exist.

My first article on this issue is an interview with a legally blind senior
information management specialist with the federal government. I will
include links to the study and my article below.

I think you should also be aware that many blind people in the movement for
equality are more than a little hesitant about sighted writers who portray
blind characters. The Nobel Prize winning author Jose Saramago in his book
"Blindness" presents newly blinded adults literally as not being able to
wipe themselves. Meirelles, the director of the movie based on this book,
when confronted with the opposition to his characterization of blind people
by the NFB,

Dismisses us saying, ".this organization don't really work for blind people.
It's more like a PR organization." I'll put the link to his comments below
my name.

In fact, we run 3 training centers and the only research and training center
operated by blind people. Many nasty comments about blind people appear on
the internet, yet few blind people respond, because the online comment forms
either don't work with our screen readers or the form requires the solving
of a graphic security Captcha -- something screen readers can't access.

Additionally, the blind characters who have made it into the mainstream
literature are stereotypes. Blind women are portrayed as vulnerable and need
protecting, though they may have almost super-human powers. If you'll think
about it, you'll realize that blind women, unlike women from other
minorities, are not present in the mainstream. When I do presentations for
sighted groups, I often ask them to name some famous blind people. They
think of Stevey Wonder, Ray Charles and the former NY governor David
Paterson. I then ask about blind women. They can only recall Helen Keller.
Ms. Keller, as you may know, died over 50 years ago. No minority has been
welcomed into the mainstream without the help of prominent women from that
minority.

There are few blind authors whose fiction is published by mainstream
publishers. Deborah Kent (now Debbie Kent Stein) who has written many books
for young adults, has a book called "Belonging." If you haven't read it, I
suggest you do so. It was written several decades ago, but the truths it
addresses have not changed much. Debbie is now the editor of Future
Reflections, the magazine of the National Organization of Parents of Blind
Children.

I know several blind authors who report that agents and publishers claim
that their blind characters are unrealistic. We are not deemed capable of
telling our own stories.

As far as your specific questions about life for blind women in the 40s, I
am a bit young to have direct knowledge about that. I was part of the
initial wave of integrating blind kids into the public schools in the early
'50s. I did, however, have a couple older blind women in my life who told me
about those days, and I interviewed Doc Watson, the acclaimed flat-picking
guitarist from North Carolina. Doc went to school in the '30s and '40s. The
interview was conducted in the mid '70s. He attended the NC school for the
blind. At some point, he begged his father not to send him back, saying that
they treated the students worse than animals. He overheard his father tell
his mother that, if half of what he had told him was true, he would not
allow him to return. In fact, Doc did not return to the school for the
blind. Doc has always been willing to share details and has a kind and
forgiving heart, but he could not speak about the specifics, and I saw a
hurt and anger in him that I've never seen even after his son died.

My dear friend Marion, whom I knew when she was in her 50s in the '70s, told
me stories about life at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Pennsylvania.
Marion had some vision in one eye. She said that the staff used the
"partials" like slaves, making them "watch out" for the totally blind kids.
She loved kids and was heartbroken by how many blind children were dropped
off at the school at the age of two or three by parents who would never see
them again or even contact the school to see how they were. The kids slept
in dormitories and had very little personal space or private time. The
message was that blind people should stick to themselves and "know their
place," which was not with the sighted world. Some went home for holidays
and summer vacation, but many weren't ready for or accepted by the real
world. Some sadistic staff members used to scar the kids by saying that
demons were around every corner. Children were also impacted by the beliefs
of their parents about the reason the child was blind. I've heard many
people say that their parents believed God had sent them a blind child to
punish them.

Those who were exceptionally intelligent went to college. I knew a woman
named Dr. May Davido in this age group who had a doctorate in math. She
taught at Overbrook. The brightest blind kids were encouraged even in the
'60s to pursue careers within the blindness system rather than attempting to
enter the mainstream job market. Very few broke out of this. If you have
seen the movie "Children of a Lesser God," it contains many truths about
society's feelings toward deaf people that resonate with me as a blind
person.

May used to talk about her days as a student in a residential school for the
blind. She said that every night, her house mother would come to check on
the girls in her dorm to make sure they were all lying on their backs with
their hands folded over their stomachs. For some reason, that image always
stuck with me. May always traveled with a sighted companion rather than
using a cane or guide dog.

Blind people like Marion and Doc learned Braille and used white canes,
though I don't know at what age or how much practice they had traveling
around away from the schools. Despite the conditions in the residential
schools, many people found lifelong friends there and felt that the
education was superior to what mainstreamed blind kids receive today.

To sum up my answer to many of the questions you raise, blind people are
first and foremost people. Blindness itself is not the same for each person.
Some are totally blind; others have enough vision to see print; some have
severe field restrictions while others have no central vision. Some see only
a tiny bit of light; others have vision that changes depending on the amount
of light they have available or whether the light is changing, as happens
when clouds pass over the sun. I knew a man who was blinded in a welding
accident and continually saw a blinding brightness; another was blinded in a
fall and saw only a red glow. Some are born blind; some are legally blind,
but their vision is stable, while others have degenerative conditions that
worsen over time. Some diagnoses are absolute while others have uncertain
prognoses.

Some will learn better than others. Some will pour themselves into  learning
what they need to survive, while others will have little interest in
learning. Some of us are type As, while others are type Bs. Some will have
fiery personalities and find it hard to maintain the methodical approach to
mobility necessary to avoid running into things. Some are shy and would wait
to be told where things were in a new environment, while others would set
off and explore on their own. Some will not want to accept the truth that
they are and will remain blind, and this will limit their ability to learn
the nonvisual skills they need. Some will be broken by the lack of
acceptance. Some will experience massive amounts of bullying in the sighted
world and it will impact their entire lives.

In short, your character is whoever you think she is, and she will bring her
basic personality, her intelligence level, her emotional adjustment and her
secret dreams into her experience as a blind person. As with any other
writing project, your job is to know who your character is and then make her
actions conform to that vision.

I hope you find this information useful, and feel free to contact me, if you
want more feedback.

Blessings,

Donna

The study is:

Retrofitting accessibility: The legal inequality of after-the-fact online
access for persons with disabilities in the United States by Brian Wentz,
Paul T. Jaeger, and Jonathan Lazar, published in the November 2011 issue of
the First Monday Journal, U of Il, Chicago.

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3666/3077

My first accessibility article is:

U.S. Federal Government Already Limits Web Access | Suite101.com

Jan. 19, 2012

Is internet access a civil right? Apparently not for all Americans. A
federal worker explains how the U.S. is ensuring a "separate but not equal"
policy.

http://donna-w-hill.suite101.com/us-federal-government-already-limits-web-ac
cess-a401448

A few articles on Braille literacy, blind kids and their parents

 Braille Literacy: For the Love of Reading, A Mother's Struggle with
America's Special Education System

May 25, 2009

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/103762

If you were a modern American educator would you expect a legally blind
child to rely upon his remaining vision to use power tools or go snow
tubing? How slow would a child have to read print for you to consider
teaching him Braille? How bent over would he have to be, before it occurred
to you that he might benefit from a white cane? Now that Carrie Gilmer's son
is headed off to college, she can talk about their ten-year ordeal. As
President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization of Parents
of Blind Children, she knows that her experiences are unfortunately all too
common. From her initial reactions to learning that her son was legally
blind to the mistakes she hopes other parents won't make, she is candid
about the fight she has just been through. Carrie's story is a must read for
anyone with a friend or loved one dealing with poor vision.

Braille Literacy: Lessons from a Right-Handed World

May 18, 2009

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/102885

Anna Walker is a legally blind eight-year-old second-grader who is fully
mainstreamed in her public school. She has finished at the top of her grade
level for two years in a row in a national Braille reading contest. In
Pennsylvania, where the Walkers live, advanced certification for Braille
instructors is not required as it is in some states. This means that many
low vision children are expected to accept a substandard education. But
Pennsylvania has Anna's Mom, a lawyer and president of the Pennsylvania
chapter of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, who
volunteers to help parents of blind and low vision children obtain the
education their children deserve. Carlton Ann Cook Walker shares valuable
insights into the special education system and the often overlooked issues
facing students with severe visual limitations who are not totally blind.

Nebraska's Braille Law Tabled Despite Taxpayer Benefits

July 24, 2010

http://blind-students.suite101.com/article.cfm/nebraskas-braille-law-tabled-
despite-taxpayer-benefits

Braille Literacy: Insights from a Michigan Home School

June 10, 2009

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/105637

Michigan psychologist and Christian homeschool Mom Beth Brown shares her
views on Braille. She has a wealth of experience which highlight the
advantages of teaching Braille to students with visual impairments. She has
witnessed first hand the increased independence experienced by Braille
readers, as well as the struggles, limitations and dependence encountered by
people who are trained to rely on faulty vision. Her recommendations are a
must read for families who have a child with low vision. Other families will
enjoy a look at the Brown's thriving home school.

Link to the comments by director of the movie Blindness, Mireles:

http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/blindness-fernando-meirelles-interv
iew

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