We Who Have Multiple Disabilities Also Have a Place in the Movement: Reflection by and about Krystal Sanford

by Norma Crosby and Krystal Sanford

From the Editor: In late September I got a call from a woman wanting to write an article for the Braille Monitor. She thought that readers should hear directly, or at least as directly as possible, that the Monitor is important for folks with disabilities in addition to blindness. She also wanted us to know what a transformative force the Federation and its members have been in her life. Here is what she and Norma have written:

Krystal Sanford is a force of nature and the epitome of a great Federationist. Despite her multiple disabilities, Krystal participates in every Federation event she possibly can. She does volunteer work for an area animal shelter and is active in Special Olympics. She never uses the fact that she is on a walker, has hydrocephalus, is legally blind, and has a speech impairment stand in the way of doing what she needs to do in life.

Krystal has been a member of the Lone Star Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas for several years. She has participated in our advocacy efforts by attending the 2021 Washington Seminar. She talks to anyone who will listen about the great job her chapter does at recruiting rural members, and she is always eager to volunteer to distribute Federation materials.

We often talk about high expectations in the Federation, and Krystal has high expectations for herself, and as anyone who has met her knows, she expects others to toe the line as well. She is an avid user of NFB-NEWSLINE®, and is always anxious to let our Texas NEWSLINE team know when we aren’t measuring up to her high standards.

She is a beloved part of our Federation family, and we look forward to years of her presence in our community.

“I love being a part of this group and having people to talk to about what we are doing and what we are going to do. I enjoy reading the Braille Monitor, and I am excited to be one of the people who has multiple disabilities and has decided to say to readers just how important you are to me and how important I want to be to you. I want to make this an even better organization, and I thank all of the people who care about me and let me care about them too.”