[blindkid] Some more perspective...

[Carrie Gilmer]

I gave this address in Colorado recently, I put it in my newsletter in
Minnesota and sent to some but I don't think I put it on this list, I
apologize for the length to a list-"delete" is available for those who do
not wish the length.Maybe it will help give some more perspective to the
long and winding road..and how much we need everyone's efforts.

 

 

We are the Bridge

Freedom, for any group of people who have not had it, comes in stages; it
never comes fully at once.  Did you know that there were both free and
non-free blacks living in the 13 colonies and the first to come who were
free arrived in 1619-a year before the Pilgrims in 1620? Did you know that
thousands of free blacks helped to win the Revolutionary War? When we
prevailed in that war and won our freedom as a country, a document to
outline the rights of the citizenry and to declare the independence of our
new nation was crafted. The first draft of this declaration contained
provisions intended to eliminate the practice of slavery. But the colonies
in the south refused to join in the proposed new nation unless the clause
eliminating slavery was removed. And so Jefferson took it out. Of course, no
black people had been self-represented at that meeting.

 

 The words that Jefferson did write, "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness", these words gave enough vagueness for the
southern colonies to accept passage of the document and yet had enough
specific-ness to, in time,  apply to all people; male and female, black and
white, sighted, blind, where ever you might draw a marking line. The
declaration and the constitution initially were a bridge to freedom only for
some, but they carried the possibility to be a bridge for all, including the
blind. But people had to act in order to ensure the possibility was
realized; black people had to intend progress.

 

 It would be more than 100 years after the signing of the declaration before
slavery was outlawed. All during the hundred years there was incalculable
suffering by blacks but at the same time the acceptance of slavery gradually
began to dissolve. It began to dissolve because of the actions of black
people themselves-in 1787 the Free African Society was founded in
Philadelphia.  This was perhaps the first bridge to equal status for African
Americans.  In his book entitled Martin Luther King on Leadership,  Donald
T. Phillips writes, " that event (the forming of the Free African Society)
set off a chain reaction where fraternal lodges, schools, mutual aid and
improvement societies and various cultural organizations were also
established. Also founded were wide-ranging correspondence networks
-providing for the sharing of information and ideas-serving to link African
Americans geographically for the first time.and the various independent
African American churches came into existence. In the north, workers
organized demonstrations against segregation and discrimination policies." 

 

 What is commonly known as the civil rights movement did not truly begin in
the 1960's.it had stopped and started from the 1660's, and African Americans
had formed the first structural bridges to civil rights as early as the
1790's. Freedom comes in stages.

 

 Another 100 years and a step forward in the law; the 13th and 14th
amendments, citizenship and voting rights, came. And for a few decades after
the civil war blacks again joined every aspect of society and built their
own networks and proved their respectability and capabilities as free
citizens alongside whites, in every level of society. But it was too fast
for some and violent rebuttals and new legal constraints came- sweeping new
laws were passed to keep blacks in their so called place. And so on, and
back and forth it went, through to the civil rights movement of the 1960's.
>From the non-violent resistance of the 1960's nearly another 50 years have
passed and here we are today, having elected a black man to lead the entire
country. We have turned an important corner, and hope abounds, but there
remains evidence of the old deep prejudices and even the hatred and
violence-but we have evidence of hope even there because those who espouse
these ideas toward the new President or any black citizen are seen by the
majority in society as kooks and criminals. It is a new day; it was a long
time coming. Black people were told, and they themselves believed, even
until last Monday, that they would likely never get there. And they never
would have if they had not constructed their own bridges. It means, other
minorities who have been oppressed can get there too. It means what we all
know, blacks were always first class citizens; they just were not treated
that way. Blind people too, have always been first class; society has just
not recognized it yet.

 

There was a methodology that I think you recognize. Get as many of us as
possible organized for collective action. Get laws passed or struck down.
Educate the public and ourselves. Don't allow others to speak for us.
Network. Protest. Form Alliances. Take the long view. Experience and meet
resistance. Do it again. Stick together in unity of purpose. Sacrifice for a
purpose for the greater good.  Do not wait for freedom to come on its own.
And above all else do not give up, keep trying, keep telling, keep acting
out the truth.  And build your own bridges.

 

 Bridges enable us to get across the something that divides or separates us
from where we want to be or where we need to be. I often think of the NFB,
made up of all its individuals, affiliates, chapters and divisions as a
bridge. We are the bridge to somewhere-for blind people. We are at the
forefront of all the progress that is made for the blind. We have been the
force behind that progress. We are, and have been, the bridge that gets
people across from isolation and dependency, discrimination and lack of
opportunity, oppression and yes occasionally violence--to integration on
terms of equality. We bridge blind people across the divide, and we also are
the ones who bridge society across. The divide we must get them across is
the divide of myth, misunderstanding and lies. 

 

 In gaining freedom, you have to build your own bridge across the divide.
You must build expansive bridges such as laws and collective action that
will cause sweeping progress to bring the whole across. Also, individuals
must be built up to act as bridges to bring other individuals across. 

 

We have similarities with the American black experience, but also some
unique challenges. For blind people the road to freedom has been longer than
400 years.  Oppression, marginalization, misunderstanding, myths, violence,
forced or unfair labor practices and belief of inferiority have occurred for
the blind in every culture. There have been small bands of organized blind
people and singular instances where blind people broke through towards
freedom before us and they too were met with rebuttal. Many have not hated
us but have strangled us with protection, kindness, dependency and
isolation. We are a far smaller minority than blacks. We are not able to get
into advertising ads and TV shows and movies and professions in the same
masses, not even close. 

 

We have one unique challenge and difference from the American black
experience that I view as particularly important to think about. You see,
black children were almost always raised by black parents and for a long
time predominately educated by black educators. This meant, for the future,
and the present, there was someone raising the child who KNEW the truth
about what it meant to be black. There was someone there to show and tell
the child-all this disrespect and all these ideas are lies and are WRONG and
TOGETHER we will find a way to resist and overcome them.  The importance of
this can not be overstated, it is a fundamental difference we have had.
Blind children are predominately not raised or educated by other blind
people. Usually, there has been no one there to show or tell that the
prejudices were indeed prejudices and wrong and to say we are in this
together. 

 

In just a little under 7 decades the National Federation of the Blind has
made simply astonishing advances, especially when you consider the length
and breadth of our divide and the smallness of our numbers. Even so it has
come in stages. In the beginning of the NFB, children and parents were not
the primary focus. There were more immediate concerns of daily hunger,
survival and the basics of human dignity for the adult blind population. If
you've read your NFB history you know of which I speak. 

 

In the first two decades of the NFB, blind children were overall receiving a
fairly decent education, most learned Braille- and they were growing up with
other blind people around them- but they had to leave their families to get
this. But when they graduated with their educations they had no place to go.
So security and jobs obviously needed to be an early focus. Even the right
to organize at all had to take up many of our early energies. In the next
two decades, while the NFB was fighting for fundamental civil rights, and
meeting the rebuttal of the established agencies for the blind, we also
gained opportunity in higher education and revolutionized rehabilitation
training and established even more employment opportunities. But all during
this time a significant thing was happening. Blind children, en masse, were
leaving the residential schools and growing up in their own homes and
communities. While this was a desirable thing. it created a fundamental
shift and a new need. No longer were blind children surrounded and growing
up with other blind children. Many in fact began to grow up without knowing
any other blind person at all. Parents were now raising their child and
overseeing their educations.  And while some parents had normal expectations
many did not know they could expect normal things.Additionally this mass
exodus from the blind schools created an immediate need for many more
teachers. And coinciding-as the rehab agencies were resisting or ignoring
us, so did the newly forming teacher colleges. Teachers trained to fill
these newly needed positions were trained with sight biased philosophies-and
quickly the near demise of Braille, multiplication of sight saving, and an
explosion of low vision focus was about to occur.  This was the atmosphere
as we entered the 1980's. 

 

Then, 25 years ago, on July 2, 1983, something revolutionary, something
historically significant, and unique occurred. The National Organization of
Parents of Blind Children was formed. To paraphrase Barbara Cheadle (the
dedicated and formative president of the NOPBC for 23 years), Never before
had a national organization of parents chosen to be guided,  and mentored
by, and act in true collegial partnership with--an adult organization of the
same disability-for the same purpose: participation on terms of equality.
Under Dr. Jernigan's leadership and vision-a  solemn commitment to the
future of the blind was made. He charged us all to think of blind children
as our own spiritual children and he directed that the NFB would direct its
force, power, wisdom, resources and treasury to making the NOPBC succeed and
flourish.

 

 

The primary focus for the NOPBC in the 1980's was canes and mobility.  In
the late 1970's Doris Willouby and Dr. Fred Schroeder had each separately
and with out knowing the other had done it, started giving canes to young
elementary aged children. They didn't wait for years of federal dollars and
research they did what common sense told them and they were right. In the
1980's they came to the NOPBC with their ideas and then came Joe Cutter, and
we started a revolution for blind children's mobility. In less than one
decade we created an explosion of young children-even toddlers-using canes
all over the country. Children's canes began to be manufactured for the
first time. And the rehab agencies and established professional agencies
rebutted; claiming we were irresponsible and endangering the children. But a
wonderful thing was happening, once the children got a cane in their hand
they would not give it up. Once they had tasted freedom they would not go
back.

 

Also in the first decade we began to establish and distribute literature
especially about raising and educating blind children, and our magazine
Future Reflections was first created and assembled on the dining room table
and floor of the Cheadle's home.  We reached out to parents and gave
educational seminars, in 1986, 22 states had local seminars for parents and
in 1987 the first workshop on IEP's was held at national convention.

 

By the 1990's the use of and instruction in Braille had dropped to a
shockingly low 10% of the blind student population. Moreover many teachers
did not even know Braille, and if it was a  requirement to get a teaching
certificate  it was not a serious requirement. Braille became our focus in
the nineties as canes had been in the 1980's. But Braille was not as simple
as canes and mobility. You can not just place Braille in a child's hand and
off they go. Working in partnership the NFB and NOPBC fought to get Braille
laws in many states. Then in 1995, more than 1,500 letters were sent in a
letter writing campaign to Congress in support of Braille literacy. In 1997
we got it in to federal law and we got it for children not based on amount
of vision but based on reading efficiency and function. Some of the agencies
and established professionals were not happy and in order to get them to
agree to getting the Braille law passed we had to put in a provision that
essentially says a child gets Braille UNLESS they don't need it. It is a
loophole you can drive a dump truck through.  Remember the broadness of the
Declaration of Independence took time.  Freedom comes in stages. 

 

By the year 2000, 26 states had a parent division. We had also long
established resources for parents of blind children with additional
disabilities. The advent of technology allowed parents to network day and
night without geographic limitations; they began to network with each other
and with blind adults and teachers on our list serv. In 2002, 449 students
read 637,993 pages in the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest, NFB members
and NAPUB worked with us, acting as judges verifying all those pages and
getting out awards. In 2003 the Braille Flea market was established, and NFB
leader Peggy Chong has taken the initiative to partner with us and
coordinate this wonderful place where blind children can browse the shelves
for books to their heart's delight. I would like every member to think about
donating a brand new Braille book to the flea market this year. Well, I
don't want you to just think about it, I want you to do it. I don't know if
you have ever dared to go in to our flea market, but the enthusiasm is
awesome, it is like the rush at the front door of  WalMart or BestBuy the
morning after Thanksgiving.every man for himself.  We established our Parent
Leadership program and we have more parent leaders than ever before who also
have gotten to know each other well and are able to easily network and
support each other through our new POBC presidents list. We are truly
becoming a cohesive acting national force. In addition parents of grown
children have now expressed a desire to form an Alumni Group, led by Marty
Greiser. 

 

These days my in-box and phones are filled daily with several stories that
make you want to scream and cry and rip your hair out. Yes, every day,
several NEW stories. Teachers from the old school are still there, we don't
have enough teachers, children are isolated from blind peers and role
models, parents don't know anything about blindness. Parents must become
practical lawyers to get their child a free and appropriate education.
School budgets are stretched and technologies are expensive. With the
internet, many new parents are desperately searching looking for hope and
answers. The NOPBC got an Imagination Fund grant to build a revolutionary
new web site that we intend will revolutionize our ability to reach new
families and empower them with all the resources we have. We want to double
the number of Braille readers and expand our Braille programs-so we have to
double at least the number of teachers and we want them to be without bias.
Joanne Wilson and Affiliate Action got excited with me and we are creating a
new teacher recruitment program which Dr. Maurer has enthusiastically
approved-look to be asked to become a part of this soon. We are planning an
Educational Symposium with the Jernigan Institute to build alliances and
identify issues we can solve together and to bring all the players to our
table sometime next year. Another Youth Slam from the Jernigan Institute
will occur. I want to have a blind Continental Congress for youth-or a blind
youth Model United Nations Assembly-I keep bugging Mark Riccobono (not that
he doesn't like the idea)- I encourage you to email him at
Mriccobono at nfb.org and tell him you like the idea and you are willing to
help find the money for it!  We are partnering with the new teacher division
to develop a new IEP and Special Ed. Law video. We have just started a new
blog site for teens, thanks in part to Rosy Carranza. And of course the NFB
Braille Initiative and the promotion of the coin has begun. Go to
www.braille.org <http://www.braille.org/>  and get involved!

 

 When they graduate our kids need a place to go, and many will need more
training in blindness skills, so our interests also lie in higher education,
employment and rehabilitation. We are reaching out to new partners who are
believers outside the NFB. Within we are finding new ways to partner with
the teacher, rehab and student divisions. Eventually, we intend to build
strong partner and mentor-ships with every division. If you are a division
leader-oh of say for example the merchants division, or the lawyers
division, or ah.the computer science division-let's think about what we can
do for blind kids together. We are YOUR future, and you are ours-it is that
simple and profound. Parents and children have a vested interest in ensuring
the strength and success of the NFB, and you have a vested interest in
ensuring their strength and success. There are tens of thousands of students
and adults seeking assistance to reach their full potential every day. The
vast majority are met with a limiting containment wall rather than a bridge
to success.  They are in need of a bridge or they will not get to where they
are capable of being. We are at a crucial time I believe, the fight of our
lives for cementing our movement, I believe is happening right now.  NAC is
back? Blind people can not be parents? The movie Blindness? People saw it as
no big deal? Freedom comes in painful stages.

 

Have you ever been across the vast expansion bridge in San Francisco? It is
a wonder of engineering achievement, it works, it withstands, and it is a
beautiful thing. I think we are like that. Together the NFB and the NOPBC
are like this huge expansion bridge from the island of isolation to the
mainland of freedom. We are a wonder of engineering achievement, we work, we
withstand and we are a beautiful thing: but we need to continue to expand.
Individually we all need to act as bridges. Dr. Martin Luther King said,
"People are often led to great causes and often become committed to great
ideas through persons who personify those ideas. They have to find the
embodiment of the idea in flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to
it." Build a bridge. Mentor a child or young adult or a parent or someone
newly blind. Get involved. Be a bridge. We will get to the other side. Yes,
we can.

 

 

Carrie Gilmer, President

National Organization of Parents of Blind Children

A Division of the National Federation of the Blind

NFB National Center: 410-659-9314

Home Phone: 763-784-8590

carrie.gilmer at gmail.com

www.nfb.org/nopbc