The Voice of the Fourth Generation: Blind Kids Express Their Views

The Voice of the Fourth Generation: Blind Kids Express Their Views

Future Reflections Winter/Spring 1990, Vol. 9 No. 1
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THE VOICE OF THE
FOURTH GENERATION:
BLIND KIDS EXPRESS THEIR VIEWS
[PICTURE] Ruby Ryles, a veteran speaker, is pleased to share the
podium with her son, Dan, at the 1989 parents seminar.

[PICTURE] Darrell Shandrow speaks with confidence while
mother, Betty (also on the agenda), looks on with pride.
Reprinted from the November, 1989, Braille
Monitor.
From the Associate Editor: Our opponents are
inclined to dismiss the National Federation of
the Blind as a bunch of type A overachievers
with half-baked notions about how the blind can
compete on terms of equality if given an even
break. When confronted with the evidence of
ordinary blind people successfully living normal,
productive lives, they mutter about our
philosophy's being nonsense but the training we
advocate being sound.
It is not clear how these apologists would explain
away the crop of youngsters who are emerging
now as products of the NFB's philosophy as expressed
and lived by the members of the NFB's
Parents of Blind Children Division. Informed
and reinforced by the Federation, these parents
are demanding that their children receive (often
for the first time) appropriate and necessary instruction
in Braille, keyboard skills, and cane
travel. These parents are coming to understand
that their children can live normal, fully productive
lives if and only if they learn to believe in
themselves and equip themselves with the skills
they need to compete with their sighted peers.
Two young men, products of the NFB philosophy
so disdained by these experts, took part in a panel
discussion during the parents' seminar preceding
the 1989 convention of the National Federation
of the Blind, sponsored jointly by the Parents of
Blind Children Division and the Job Opportunities
for the Blind Program. Their remarks are
inspiring and highly instructive. As the mother of
three sighted youngsters, the youngest of whom
is older than these two teen-agers, I am tempted
to ask whether most sighted teens could have
written and presented talks as interesting, well
constructed, and inspiring as the two reprinted
here. Most of us would agree that blindness,
while it does not confer special powers, certainly
does provide extraordinary opportunities for
growth. The remarks that follow illustrate this
point.
Dan Ryles, son of Ruby Ryles, first vice president
of the Parents of Blind Children Division, is fourteen.
He is now a sophomore in high school. Here
is what he had to say to parents of blind children
when given a chance to tell it like it is. This was
his first real public address, and he delivered it
from a Braille text:
Good morning. My family moved to the Seattle
area the summer before my eighth grade year. I
was, and still am, the only blind kid in my school
district, and the teachers and students had little
or no experience with blind people before I enrolled.
The kids' preconceptions about blindness,
along with the normal junior high mentality,
made the first semester exceptionally difficult.
Not many people spoke to me or had much to do
with me. Of course, there were those few who
constantly hung around me wanting to know exactly
how I did everything. I could live with that,
but what hurt me were the times spent getting
dressed and undressed for gym class in the locker
room. Surely most of you remember what eighth
grade locker room talk is like. Much of it is
obscene and very cruel. My blindness seemed to
make me the perfect target for insults and
ridicule. I couldn't cry in front of the kids, but I
did cry on occasion at home. Even my new girl
friend had lots of negative attitudes, which were
painful to me.
The science teacher took it upon himself to
decide for me what assignments I could and could
not do, never considering the possible adaptations
I might make. I knew his attitudes were not
good when on the first day of class he assumed I
would need to tape his lectures instead of Brailling
notes with my slate and stylus. Those were
hard times, but my mom helped me through them
with the philosophy of the National Federation
of the Blind. She told me that the things the kids
said weren't really true. Junior high kids will find
something wrong with everyone, and they will
greatly exaggerate it. My blindness was the most
obvious characteristic they could see.
I have come a long way since then. The kids have
gradually come to accept me. This last year (my
ninth grade year) I took algebra, Spanish,
chemistry, American history, English, and symphonic
band. I would never have gotten to where
I am today if my mom had not had the necessary
reading and writing skills to teach me when
everyone else was learning them in print. I also
learned basic cane skills in first and second grade.
That may seem early when compared to some
kids' experience, but not as early as I should have
been taught it. If I had had a cane in preschool,
things would have been a lot easier. The earlier
you teach a kid cane skills, the sooner he can
travel independently.
Now I can travel as well as anyone and have a
daily paper route, which brings in $120 a month.
I do the route entirely on my own, including
collections, for which I Braille the receipts. I was
lucky. I had a mom who didn't over-protect me.
I did, and still do, occasionally scrape a knee or
bruise an elbow. I once even had stitches in my
head, but that's just a natural part of growing up.
It has nothing to do with my blindness. What is
not natural is for blind kids to have reading and
writing skills taught to them later than sighted
kids. This may sound a little crude, but if you'll
be as mean as my mom, your blind kid will be
okay.
Darrell Shandrow, son of Betty Shandrow, president
of the Parents of Blind Children Division of
Arizona, is a junior in high school. He has taken
public speaking, but speech class was never like
this. Here is what he had to say:
vJood morning everybody. I have congenital
glaucoma. I lost my left eye when I was little, and
I have very little usable vision in the other. I was
also bora deaf, but I have been able to hear since
age five. My parents and the National Federation
of the Blind are helping me to live independently.
My parents felt that it was important that I learn
cane travel and other orientation skills at an early
age so that I would be independent. By doing so
I have been able to participate in public service
events and communicate using amateur radio for
the last four years. My parents said that I could
do anything I set my mind to. I was raised as a normal person who cannot see. I was not overprotected,
and this is the major reason I can
function normally.
My parents always felt that I should be allowed
to function on the same grade level in school as
that of the sighted. My mother took classes at the
University of Arizona in Grade II Braille,
Nemeth Code, abacus, structure and function of
the eye, and daily living skills. With this
knowledge my mother helped me learn how to
read and write and to have a normal life. By
tutoring me at home, she made sure that I was not
held back. Due to my experiences with amateur
radio, my parents felt that I was ready to use
high-technology equipment. They got me an
Apple II-E computer, an Echo III synthesizer, a
printer, a Braille 'n' Speak, and computer
software that is written for the blind. This technology
makes things go much easier in school. I
can take notes on the Braille 'n' Speak at school,
and when I get home, I can send the notes to the
computer, where they are printed and saved onto
a disk.
The National Federation of the Blind has reinforced
my independence. I can't help but get that
feeling of independence when I'm around people
like Jim Omvig, Norm and Bruce Gardner, Ruth
Swenson, and the other Federationists. I feel that
the NFB promotes independence in many ways.
I feel that one of the major ways is through the
National Convention. It's great to be around so
many independent blind people. I also feel that
the Braille Monitor gives ideas of independence
through its informative articles. This is the key to
Federation philosophy. We must be independent
to fight discrimination. We are the blind speaking
for ourselves. That's what makes the National
Federation of the Blind unique.
The philosophy of the National Federation of the
Blind has caused me to decide that I want to fight
against discrimination. The National Federation
of the Blind hired Richard Arbach and Ruth
Swenson as my attorneys in my case against the
Moranna School District to be allowed to attend
public school. The case was settled in my favor,
and the Moranna School District pays for
transportation and tuition for me to attend Pallaverty High School in the Tucson Unified
School District. I am now a junior and have a 4.0
grade point average. I would like to thank Ruth
Swenson, Richard Arbach, and the National
Federation of the Blind for helping me to get into
public school. Now I have a famous quote from
the Braille Monitor that I feel goes along with
what I've said about the Federation, and I'm sure
you can guess which one it is. It's in the front, I
guess on the masthead. It goes like this: "The
National Federation of the Blind is not an organization
speaking for the blind -- it is the blind
speaking for themselves," and that's it for me.
Thank you.
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