Trying to Get Honest with the Hope of Becoming Involved

by Katrina Wright

From the Editor: Sometimes what we carry in the Braille Monitor are statements clearly articulating what we believe and why. Sometimes the articles we run do not involve policy positions but reflect the challenge we all have to explore and think about difficult issues. The author of this article submitted it to me with the hope that it would generate discussion. I hope that it does. Here is what she says:

I’m an educated woman who’s been hovering around the periphery of the Federation for years in places as varied as Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Kansas. The thing that’s kept me from throwing my considerable weight behind the organization is that I’ve felt unable to express honestly some of the biggest concerns about stuff going on in the blind community that I’ve witnessed firsthand. This being the start of a brand new year, I’ve decided to just put it all out there. If nothing else, it may get people talking. We’re at a place when more is possible than ever before; sometimes a reality check is necessary to clear things in preparation for the next step.

First, no person has the right to inappropriately touch, grope, or feel any other person without invitation, particularly if both people are blind. I have had countless experiences in work-related conditions with a blind man where our need to move in close quarters is taken as a kind of tacit agreement that any unsolicited touching is acceptable. Often none is necessary, which is exactly why certain instances stand out. Although chances to engage in “adult” behaviors may be a little harder to come by for some blind people—when compared to the sighted population—it’s exploitative for anyone to just physically impose those needs on anyone else. We have to get comfortable enough with exercising the right to be frank about it to allow for meaningful suggestions and opportunities for improvement.

Second, being a blind person with a job doesn’t mean you automatically incur some kind of elite status. I for one have often found that those of us with jobs keep them forever, never striking out to either explore or cultivate new opportunities for employment growth. The trend in many cases is to just stay put, never testing one’s chops but instead becoming more and more complacent. Those who push, especially in ways that make it easier for the ones coming after, are the real winners.

Next, those of us who have people we can rely upon for active assistance with most things are blessed, which is why it’s unfair to undervalue the real effort it takes for those with less help to get things done. Here too—as with the work thing—the sense is that there’s almost a kind of competition. Some of us take pride in our ability to do things which would be virtually impossible without sighted help. If one has consistent aid, I’d say that’s wonderful. You can have that; I handle my own business with much less involvement from others and still manage to get a lot accomplished. I think that is the mature way to look at it. We need to get to a point where we genuinely respect each other. Empowering ourselves at the expense of our differences clearly marks us as a disenfranchised group with very little hope of joining the greater community in an irrevocable way.

I enjoy outdoor activities and have found that the best way to gain solid access to them is through visiting camps established and maintained for the blind. Something I encounter a lot, which constitutes a major challenge, has to do with the fact that many of the other campers have mental impairments in addition to blindness. This often means they require extra help. Volunteers linked to these kinds of experiences seem to have trouble seeing the blind as individuals. Many resent the notion that it’s essential to treat each camper in response to his or her own capabilities. Considering the number of us who financially support camps for the blind, there should be ways we can have a say.

I don’t appreciate all the patronizing and handholding, but some may really need it. Accordingly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being of the opinion that sometimes it makes more sense to just serve groups with dissimilar requirements separately. It would be no different from separating those participating in a yoga session from those participating in choir practice. Reasonable divisions actually offer more chances for the many types of us that there are to live the lives we really want.

I truly believe all entities, agencies, etc. that claim to serve the blind must be accountable—first and foremost—to the blind. It’s no more than would be expected for any other business or applicable situation. The pizza shop had better serve good pizza, there’d be no sense in a place calling itself a bar if it only sold chocolate milk, and no outfit serving the blind should have goals more concerned with looking good on the tax-exempt paperwork than doing just that.

I’m reminded of the staff at a blindness training center I attended some years ago refusing to post a Braille sign on the door of a laundry room detailing what its hours of operation were. There was a large-print notice but no Braille, not even when I volunteered to gather the intel and create one myself. It’s a complete disgrace that so many individuals, agencies, etc. bill themselves as providers of services to the blind that are failing utterly yet still cashing in.

I can certainly appreciate that what I’m saying here encompasses quite a lot. Some of it might not even be germane to the Federation’s direct mission, but I’d like to get a dialogue going at the least. We all deserve the best, from each other as well as the sighted community. No child born blind today in America should have it nearly as hard as we do right now. Nor should that child’s life be seen—by others or himself—as a kind of judgment or misfortune. I challenge all Federationists who read this to think ahead; we can’t lose track of the parts of ourselves that are at the heart of the matter and thus the root of everything the Federation will ever be.