[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

Sun Nov 16 14:47:59 UTC 2008

I am fine with saying I am blind even tho I can only see light andd shadows. 
If people ask me what I can see if anything at all I just tell them.
Rania,
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lora and Myrtle" <blindhistory at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 8:27 AM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology


>I usually call myself visually impaired or legally blind because it is alot
> easier to explain my vision to someone. When I say I am blind people
> automatically assume I can't see anything and then get really confused 
> when
> I can read large print. I also think the NFB has taken this terminology 
> way
> to far. I am fine with thinking myself as blind.
>
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:57 AM, Dezman Jackson 
> <jackson.dezman at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I'll be volunerable here and say that when dealing with people in 
>> general,
>> I feel that the word blind often carries a harder punch than say the 
>> phrase
>> "visually impaired". I'll take for example instances where I'm scheduling 
>> a
>> job interview or trying to volunteer in the community. Although I am 
>> totally
>> blind and have no problem thinking of myself as just simply blind, I
>> sometimes struggle with saying such things as visually impaired in such
>> situations to lighten the blow so to speak. I don't particularly have a
>> problem with different phrases, but it's your motivation behind the 
>> phrasing
>> and for me it was to feed into the public's perception of what James 
>> Omvig
>> calls the hierarchy of sight. This is basically the belief that your 
>> success
>> in life is a function of how much vision you have, the more vision you 
>> have,
>> the better off you are than someone who has less vision and vice versa. 
>> Of
>> course, this concept is contrary to our philosophy. Alright I'll stop
>> babbling now.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Dezman
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Hogue" <harryhogue at yahoo.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" <
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 9:25 PM
>>
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology
>>
>>
>> Thank you! This has always bugged me that people who are merely legally
>> blind or who read large print, or who are otherwise not completely blind
>> would call themselves blind. To me, if you have some vision you are 
>> visually
>> impaired. There is nothing negative about that at all. If you have no 
>> vision
>> you are totally blind. Nothing wrong with that either. And if you have 
>> some
>> light perception? If you can't read large print, you are still blind. But 
>> at
>> the end of the day, it really shouldn't matter what you choose to call 
>> it,
>> so long as you understand and accept within yourself that you have 
>> trouble
>> seeing, and this is what you need to do alternatively (use a long cane, 
>> read
>> braille, etc). What other people choose to call it shouldn't matter 
>> either.
>> Just as you pointed out, when someone says they are deaf, I think of them 
>> as
>> totally without the ability to hear; when they say they are hearing
>> impaired, I say, "well they can hear some but
>> they are not totally deaf." And the same with blindness. You can take
>> anything too far, and I am afraid the NFB and perhaps taken this a bit 
>> too
>> far--the distinction needs to be made when it comes to what people 
>> need--if
>> someone needs a cane fo steps, but can still read large print, what's 
>> wrong
>> with calling them visually impaired? Just because someone has a cane does
>> not automatically make them blind, although this is what most people 
>> think.
>> And here again, you cna't please everyone. I gave up on that a long time
>> ago.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --- On Sat, 11/15/08, Chris Westbrook <westbchris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Chris Westbrook <westbchris at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" <
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 8:10 PM
>>
>> Also, I don't think that just because you call yourself visually impaired
>> you are necessarily denying your blindness.  I will use an example with
>> another
>> disability from my own life.  I am hearing impaired.  Notice I said 
>> hearing
>> impaired, not deaf.  I choose not to call myself deaf, because deafness
>> generally implies profound hearing loss, sign language, the inability to
>> speak,
>> etc.  If any of you have been around me for a while, however, you no that 
>> I
>> do
>> not deny my hearing loss.  I wear two hearing aids.  I also accept that
>> certain
>> things are much harder if not impossible for me, such as street crossings
>> and
>> socializing in crowded situations.  Why is it deemed OK for me to call
>> myself
>> hearing impaired when it is not OK for a visually impaired individual to
>> call
>> themselves visually impaired?  after all, even if you are totally blind 
>> you
>> are
>> visually impaired.  The more I think about these things, the more I find
>> myself
>> struggling with some of the stricter points of NFB philosophy.
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "T. Joseph Carter"
>> <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:24 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology
>>
>>
>> I think you are all getting too hung up on empty words.  The NFB
>>>
>> philosophy is about actions and attitudes.
>>
>>>
>>> If you call me blind and mean by it that I am helpless, I will take
>>>
>> offense.  If you call me impaired and mean that I just can't see much but
>> am
>> otherwise like anyone else, I'll accept your words as respectful.
>>
>>>
>>> I can almost always tell the difference, and I bet you can too.
>>>
>>> Joseph
>>>
>>> On Wed, Nov 05, 2008 at 11:06:10PM +0000, Corbb O'Connor wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/jackson.dezman%40gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/blindhistory%40gmail.com
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Lora and Leader Dog Myrtle
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/raniaismail04%40gmail.com