Partially Sighted--Really Blind

Partially Sighted--Really Blind

PARTIALLY SIGHTED, REALLY BLIND

by Catherine Horn Randall

FROM THE EDITOR: Catherine Horn Randall is currently Second
Vice-President of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. An active
Federationist, she has also been an Alderman serving in the Jacksonville, Illinois,
City Council. This article appeared in the February 1989 issue of the BRAILLE
MONITOR, published by the National Federation of the Blind.
One rainy afternoon a young mother stood across the street from
Main Hall on the MacMurry College campus in Jacksonville, Illinois, watching
the busy, laughing college co-eds come and go. She cried for her four-year-old
daughter who might not have the opportunity to go to college or to lead a full
life, because she only had partial sight in her right eye. She was afraid and
wondered about Cathy's future, and all she knew to do was to have Cathy evaluated
by the professional staff of the Illinois Braille and Sight-Saving School in
Jacksonville.
The professionals told her that Cathy had so much sight that
she wouldn't need to bother with Braille. The bewildered young parents were
grateful to the experts for their advice; who else could they turn to? The school
didn't tell them that the National Federation of the Blind even existed. Cathy's
parents took her home, determined to enroll her in the sight-saving program
in Quincy, Illinois.
From this point on, I shall tell my own story. As I look back
at the enormous implications to my life and to my education from being denied
the opportunity to learn Braille as a child, I am as angry and frustrated now
as my mother was afraid for my future in 1951.
I happen to be an only child, and I like to think that I was
constructively spoiled by my parents. They could not have been more supportive
of me. If they had received commonsense guidance, I know I would have learned
Braille. Whatever I needed to help with my education, my parents enthusiastically
provided. If we had only known it, what we needed most were the National Federation
of the Blind, Braille, and cane travel skills. Unfortunately for me, we used
the term "partially sighted" while I was growing up. I wasn't really
blind, because I had some sight. So I didn't think of myself as "blind"
until I began losing my remaining vision in my late twenties.
I was a blind child and a blind college student who was trying
to get along without either of the most important skills of blindness, namely
Braille and cane travel.
I took typing lessons when I was ten, and again in both junior
and senior high. Typing, I believe, is another essential skill for blind and
legally blind students.
A partially blind student who reads print, takes notes with
pens or markers and uses tape recordings is still greatly handicapped if he
or she does not know Braille. I didn't have much confidence in myself in high
school or college, and I think not having the skills of blindness was part of
the reason, although I did not realize it at the time. Eye strain was a constant
problem for me in school. How wonderful and practical it would have been to
make an easy transition from print work to Braille when I used my eyes too much.
For years my father tutored me every night in math. My mother
read to me so much that by my senior year in high school she had damaged her
vocal chords. I always loved school despite the hard work. I was feature editor
for both my junior and senior high newspapers.
I earned a bachelor of arts degree from that same MacMurry College,
where my mother had despaired for my future 19 years earlier. College took me
four and a half years, and four straight summers, to complete. I am now convinced
that, if I'd had good Braille skills, I would have been able to handle four
courses a semester like everyone else, instead of taking only three. I had a
totally blind friend a year behind me in college who took full course loads
each semester and used Braille.
To blind and partially blind students I would say this--and
I would say it with every fiber of my being: Join and become active in the NFB.
It is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself. Take the initiative to learn
Braille and cane travel. This may seem a tall order, but believe me, it is an
essential one. You will find the role models you always needed in the NFB. You
will learn that it is respectable to be blind.