[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

Thu Nov 6 00:12:53 UTC 2008

I made a point awhile back on the webmasters list which was very similar. I 
noticed our state site and others would show up for searches on Google with 
the word blind but not the word visually impaired. Sometimes, the product 
needs to be tweaked subtly to bring in more visitors and hopefully members.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Corbb O'Connor" <corbbo at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 6:06 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

>I didn't write the subject line, but I am assuming that was a blanket 
>marketing e-mail. That is, it was meant to be forwarded around. Just  as we 
>want to attract new members (as has been said by me and others),  we 
>wouldn't want to push people toward the delete button after only  reading 
>the subject line. Marketing, my friends, it's marketing. I  agree with all 
>of you -- we in the Federation are blind, even those of  us with some 
>residual vision. Let's not push people away from our  great organization 
>before they even know who we are and why we use the  words we do. I don't 
>think we're undermining ourselves or our  philosophy -- we're trying to 
>find others out there who don't see as  well as their peers (seniors, 
>students, and...well...everybody else)  to show them our positive 
>philosophy on blindness.
>
> -----
> Corbb O'Connor
> studying at the National University of Ireland, Galway
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 5, 2008, at 10:33 PM, Janice wrote:
>
> Hello Karen, Terri and Listers,
>
> Wow, Karen!! I must say, thanks for calling us, as the nabs board and as
> nabs members,  out on this very interesting point. I have recently 
> noticed
> something like this also. I think that Terri's point can be a good  one. 
> It
> might be important for the Federation to use terminology such as  visually
> impaired or low vision, to try to attract a larger facet of people.  These
> people might be uncomfortable with their blindness, they might not  want 
> to
> identify as blind... so, we say- Hey you visually impaired person...  this
> group is for you too!
> Once we have their foot in the door so to speak, then
> we can teach them about our philosophy and educate them in the fact  that 
> we
> are all blind individuals> We can then wow them into believing that   the 
> visual hierarchy does not matter. Even if you
> are legally blind,    the key word is blind. One is not going to be
> recognized as a legally visually impaired person, are they?
>
> However, I do wonder in certain instances where the lines get blurred  and 
> if
> we are sacrificing what we are as an organization to try to get these  new
> individuals into our door. For example, not  to pick on one specific
> facebook group, but I will use the 411 group, since it seems to be the 
> most
> recent one and has sparked some debate. The salutation line- "Attention
> blind and visually impaired high school students!" This makes some sense
> according to Terri's argument. We want those who self identify as 
> visually
> impaired to come to our group. Yet, why would we need to use the 
> terminology
> visually impaired among ourselves and within our Federation family?
>
> Why would we use the words low vision, visually impaired, to refer to 
> other
> Federationist? One such example I an talking about is the email  subject 
> line
> :"for the sake of ne, in which the group was actually announced to the 
> NABS
> list. the official heading was something like- Blind and Visually 
> Impaired
> Teen Group on Facebook. why not just use something like, "new blindness
> group of facebook!
> ? I am definitely not trying to point fingers at any specific group or 
> person... I am really curious, because I have seen terms such as  visually 
> impaired, low vision, and high partial , in our literature  recently, 
> also. I
> am merely using the facebook post as the most recent and relevant 
> example.
> Is this a new trend in Federation philosophy? or do we believe that 
> perhaps
> trying to be all inclusive has caused us to become a little lax and blur
> the lines of philosophy? Are the philosophical boundaries of all blind
> members being equal, thus united we stand and divided we fall, not as 
> solid
> , and binding, now, as when I first joined the Federation...?>
>
> I really am confused and would love to hear the philosophers among us 
> debate
> this observation. What are the effects of these happenings, to our
> philosophy? Do we need to tighten our concepts about blindness and  what 
> it
> stands for within the Federation, or is inclusion the matter of 
> importance?
>
> Thoughtfully yours,
>
> Janice
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terri Rupp" <terri.rupp at gmail.com>
> To: "NABS list serve" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 2:25 PM
> Subject: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology
>
>
>> Karen and all,
>> The NFB is using different outlets to try to reach out to nonmembers.
>> Facebook is just one of them.  Although as you said, the philosophy  of 
>> the
>> federation is based on the word "Blind", that word "Blind" is  sometimes 
>> a
>> negative things to those people struggling to deal or accept their
>> blindness.  It was only until a few years ago that I was one of  them.  I
>> didn't want to associate with anything that labeled me as blind.  I  felt
>> ashamed to be blind and called myself "visually impaired".  The 
>> acceptance
>> of one's blindness is a grieving process that each person goes through
>> differently.  What we have to do is serve as positive blind role  models,
>> and show that being blind is no different than being short.  It is 
>> simply
>> a
>> characteristic.  Once we attract them to these groups, we can  promote 
>> NFB
>> activities, scholarships, etc and reel them in with our philosophy.
>>
>> Yours,
>> Terri Rupp, President
>> National Association of Blind Students
>> (707)-567-3019
>> nabs.president at gmail.com
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>
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