[blindkid] more than just blindness

[Leah Pratt]

I have a son with other disabilities too.

Whoever is passionate about a certain area related to blindness will be the
person to step up and lead the way in that area. Maybe that will be Lalena.
We all know how hard it is to think about leading things when we are just
trying to get a kid to walk, or talk, or go potty, or fill in your own
blank.

The NFB/NOPBC really is grassroots. Each member has the ability and
potentially the authority to do big things. And we all need each other
because unless you're a large corporation, many hands, minds, and resources
are needed for each big thing.

Recently for work I was reading first-person accounts of the Montgomery bus
boycott. I took a lot of history in college and somehow I STILL didn't know
how much work happened on a volunteer level. Networking with community
members. Tons of meetings. People writing flyers and creating a
distribution network for thousands of flyers. Volunteers creating from
scratch, an alternate transportation network with their personal cars so
that people could get to work without using city buses. FOR A YEAR. How did
I pass three African-American history courses and not even know the boycott
lasted an entire year?

Anyway - those people are us, potentially. The NFB is an organization OF
the blind, and in the cases where those blind people are not yet able (or
ever able) to participate because they are little kids or because of other
disabilities, then it falls to their parents, their families, their
helpers, and their neighbors to take their place in running the
organization and advancing the cause.

And I say this as someone who has mostly only read the publications,
attended the conferences, called the phone numbers, and not yet offered the
help - but I am SO GRATEFUL to every person who made those happen when I
was running around with a little boy in a diaper in a wheelchair.

Okay, off soapbox.

Leah
mom to John
Austin, Texas