Competing on Terms of Equality As Blind Students

Competing on Terms of Equality As Blind Students

Future Reflections Spring/ Summer1989, Vol. 8 No. 2
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COMPETING ON TERMS OF
EQUALITY AS BLIND STUDENTS
by Fred Schroeder
Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the
Fall-Winter, 1987-88, Student Slate, the publication
of the Student Division of the National
Federation of the Blind. It was then reprinted in the
April, 1988, Braille Monitor. The author, Fred
Schroeder, is a member of the Board of Directors
of the National Federation of the Blind. He is also
the Director of the New Mexico Commission for the
Blind.
We are all familiar with the words of Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan, Executive Director of the National
Federation of the Blind, who has told us that,
given proper training and opportunity, the blind
can compete on terms of equality with the
sighted. The truth of this statement has been affirmed
time and time again through the achievements
of blind persons in virtually all fields and
professions. Blind persons work as lawyers,
teachers, engineers, scientists, computer
programmers, secretaries, independent business
persons, and, in each, perform at levels comparable
to their sighted peers. The question,
therefore, becomes not whether the blind can
compete but rather how the individual blind person
can best equip him/herself to function on
terms of equality.
Far too often we as blind persons are led to
believe that functioning on terms of equality
means nothing more than producing an
equivalent product. This thinking leads to the assumption
that if a project is placed before us, we
are functioning competitively if we are able to
complete the project adequately. For the blind
student, this concept is often applied since the
nature of university training is frequently outcome
based. The university instructor routinely
gives reading assignments and assigns various
projects and term papers, each with a deadline
for completion. For this reason the blind student
may grow accustomed to assessing his or her
ability to function competitively solely in terms
of whether he or she is able to complete assigned
work within the prescribed time period. The
problem with this way of thinking is that it overlooks
the need to function competitively within
the process. It is not enough simply to be able to
produce a high quality term paper. The process
by which the paper is researched, organized, and
eventually written and produced is of equal significance.
When
I was in college I knew a blind student who
maintained a 4.0 grade point average. However,
to maintain this average this individual told me
that he never took more than six to nine hours
each semester. This fellow did not know Braille.
When I asked him how he took notes, he told me
that he recorded every class session and later at
home hooked two tape recorders together so as
to make an edited or condensed copy of the lecture
material. Since this process meant that for each class hour it was necessary to spend an additional
hour to hour and a half to edit the tape,
nine class hours during the week would require
an additional nine to fourteen hours in preparing
recorded notes. To make matters worse, this fellow
told me that he handled textbook material in
the same manner. He would order texts on cassette
from Recording for the Blind (RFB) and,
hooking two tape recorders together, would
make a condensed version of the portions he felt
to be most important.
This example highlights a variety of problems,
both technical and attitudinal. It is clear that the
method used by this student was, at best, cumbersome
and inefficient. Nevertheless, from a purely
outcome-based perspective, his system
seemed to work. That is, he maintained a 4.0
grade point average, albeit taking in excess of six
years to earn a baccalaureate degree. I could not
help wondering whether upon graduating from
college this fellow would realize that his methods
of functioning placed him at a real disadvantage.
I am sure that he did not consciously think that
an employer would happily assign him half as
much work as his sighted peers or, alternatively,
that he would expect to work twelve to sixteen
hours a day to produce at the same rate as his
coworkers.
I suppose if the problem were merely technical,
then my friend (the student, intelligent as he was)
could surely have been made to understand that
process and product must be taken together as a
whole. I believe that the real problem faced by
my friend was, in truth, related to his attitudes
and beliefs about blindness. He had never taken
the time to learn Braille - not because he was too
dimwitted to learn it but rather, I suspect, because
Braille is associated with blindness, and he
was reluctant to regard himself as a blind person.
If a person believes that blindness necessarily en- inferiority, then the individual will jMNd thinking of him/herself as a
blind person. The tragic twist m iMf eomple that, in an effort to avoid thinking of temetf » blind, my friend rejected the skills thai wuid
have made him competitive in lieu of techniques which in practice made his performance inferior.
During the era I was in school, portable cassette
recorders emerged on the scene and were
heralded as the fundamental tool by which blind
students could function competitively. No longer
were blind students encouraged to use the slate
and stylus; instead they were told that with a tape
recorder in class we would no longer risk missing
vital information. With this reasoning we cashed
in a note-taking device which would have us ending
each class period with a half dozen pages of
concise notes for a device which consolidated
nothing, providing us merely with a verbatim
record of the hour's lecture. Mostly, I found that
I never got around to listening to all the tapes I
made during a semester. Therefore, rather than
making me more competitive, the tape recorder
resulted in my performance declining. I am
ashamed to admit that, had I been honest with
myself, the real reason I cashed in my slate and
stylus for a tape recorder was that I did not truly
believe that as a blind person I could compete on
terms of equality and, therefore, I was willing to
settle for an inadequate system which placed me
at a disadvantage.
Of course, tape recorders serve a purpose and,
when used properly, can result in efficient use of
time. The problem comes when a tape recorder
is used so that an individual can put off learning
the skills of blindness which, in the final analysis,
will allow him/her truly to function on an equal
footing with others.
For the current generation of students a new
panacea has burst onto the scene. I refer to the
current fascination and preoccupation with computer
technology. As with the cassette recorder
of a decade and a half ago, the computer is touted as the single most significant tool for today's
blind students. I do not mean to suggest that computer
technology is not useful. In fact, this article
is being prepared on an IBM PC. The computer
is terrific for editing text, revising drafts, checking
for typographical errors, and so on. However,
I think we should be careful to keep the computer
in perspective.
Today there are blind students who, like my
friend of years ago, do not know Braille. And, like
my friend, many of today's students who do not
know Braille will argue that Braille is bulky,
tedious, and in a word antiquated. They contend
that speech technology gives them technological
literary without the long hours of study necessary
for good Braille reading and writing. When I say
that a computer should be kept in perspective, I
suppose the best way to look at it is in terms of
whether, on the one hand, a computer is being
used merely as a tool to enhance learning or, on
the other, as a way to avoid dealing with blindness
or thinking of yourself as a blind person. It
is necessary that as blind people we not sell ourselves
short, nor should we settle for inadequate
training, placing us at a disadvantage.
For blind students the measure of effectiveness
needs to be whether you are functioning competitively
both in terms of outcome and in
process. If you believe that blindness makes you
inferior, then you will settle for inferior methods
of functioning. You will come to believe that a
tool that allows you to do more than you did
before is good enough rather than considering
whether a variety of tools applied correctly might
enable you to perform on an equal basis with your
sighted peers. Functioning better is not good
enough. We as blind people must insist on the
training which will allow us to function equally
with the sighted.
It is vital that blind students seek training in the
skills of blindness before pursuing academic
training. Once the student is proficient in cane
travel, the use of Braille, the abacus, and other
techniques used by capable blind persons, then
he/she will be able to keep in perspective the
other tools that become available. The skills of
blindness not only allow you the techniques to
function fully but provide the means through
which true self-confidence can be established.
Before an individual can function as a whole
human being, he/she must believe that he is a
whole human being. Conversely, truly to believe
in yourself as being equal with others, you must
have the skills to put your beliefs into action. I
have been told by ambitious blind students that
they cannot afford to interrupt their studies to acquire
training in the skills of blindness. The cost
of this decision is often paid through settling for
less than adequate techniques and, worse,
through assuming a belief that you cannot be expected
to function at a level comparable to your
peers.
Computers are valuable tools, as are cassette recorders,
but it is the skilled craftsman who knows
both the abilities and the limitations of each tool
and when best to employ their use. Perhaps the
single best means for learning the skills of blindness
is through participation in the National
Federation of the Blind. The skills of blindness
were not given to us by the educational or
rehabilitation establishments but rather come to
us through the collective experience of tens of
thousands of blind men and women. The techniques
together with an attitude about blindness
which assumes full participation are necessary to
be able truly to compete on terms of equality. In
July of 1988 thousands of blind people will meet
in Chicago, Illinois, at the annual convention of
the National Federation of the Blind. It is in this
setting that real progress for the blind in society
can be realized. As a part of the National
Federation of the Blind, you will have the opportunity
to join with us and promote both the training
and attitudes necessary for full participation so that we as blind people will be able to
demonstrate to ourselves and others that we can
compete on terms of equality.
to examine ways to improve library services to
blind and physically handicapped children. Finally
Mr. Cylke asked the National Federation of the
Blind to appoint a contact person to discuss matters
relating to library services for blind children.