Change in the Wind at the World Blind Union General Assembly

Change in the Wind at the World Blind Union General Assembly

Braille MonitorNovember 2016

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Change in the Wind at the World Blind Union General Assembly
by Marc Maurer
The World Blind Union and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment held joint meetings in Orlando, Florida, during August of 2016. This was a joyful opportunity for the National Federation of the Blind because our organization served as the primary host for these meetings. One of the more notable results from this meeting is that Dr. Fredric Schroeder was elected to the presidency of the World Blind Union. In 1964 Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founding president of the National Federation of the Blind, was elected as founding president of the International Federation of the Blind, one of the two organizations that formed the World Blind Union twenty years later. This brings the presidency of the primary world organization of blind people back to the United States. Dr. tenBroek would be pleased.
I served as chairman of the host committee, and from this position I came to know innumerable details about the operations of the meetings we held. I also reflected about past meetings of the world organization and about my participation in them.
I first traveled to the World Blind Union meeting that was held in Madrid, Spain, in 1988. My experience with blindness-related organizations consisted mostly of interacting with the National Federation of the Blind and certain agencies doing work with the blind in this country. The World Blind Union was startlingly different from what I had known. In planning the 2016 meeting, I wondered how startlingly different the delegates to the world meeting would find their experience in the United States.
In Madrid, to begin with, the food was not standard American fare—how unexpected is that for an inexperienced American? And the Spanish didn’t eat it in a pattern that seemed comprehensible to my stomach. The days began early, and they continued into the night. We stayed at an international hotel, which meant that a modified American breakfast could be found. The breakfast was part of the hotel package, and we felt some compunction to eat it because it would be wasteful not to do so. In 1988 the National Federation of the Blind had come out of a period of our history when the organization had wondered whether we could gather the funds to continue, and we were quite conscious of not wasting a dime. Of course we still have that view, but differences in cultural norms are sometimes easier to accommodate when we’ve had a little more experience with them. If I traveled to Madrid today, I would probably spend more time resting and a little less with breakfast.
My problem was that the restaurants didn’t open at night until 9:00 PM, and the dinner hour was a leisurely affair. It often concluded after midnight. Then I would have to be prepared for breakfast at 7:00 AM. Apparently Spanish people have a nap in the middle of the day (sometimes called a siesta), but we had meetings. After a few days the 7:00 AM to after midnight schedule began to wear on me.
Of course Spain is a fascinating country. We visited la Alhambra, a hilltop fortress which also includes royal gardens and palaces. During the tour we passed through the throne room, and I wondered what distinguishes a throne? After all, a throne is a place to sit, and monarchs are not strikingly different from other people in their sitting requirements. Many years later when I was visiting the House of Lords in London, Lord Colin Low told me that the person who chairs the House of Lords, the Lord Speaker, sits on a bag of wool. I concluded from this and from my reading about the British Constitution that the Woolsack was adopted as a piece of history. Wool became a primary export for England in the thirteenth century, and the government of the country stabilized its financial operation by a modest tax on the wool export. However, these reflections have still not told me what there is essential about a throne. I feel certain that it is not an ordinary chair. When I was visiting the throne room at la Alhambra, I wanted to find out, and I stepped over the rope to touch the throne. A guard in the throne room warned me away. I still don’t know what there is special about a throne.
Our hosts in Madrid, leaders of ONCE, the Spanish National Organization for the Blind, were most gracious. They took us to a restaurant where Ernest Hemingway had enjoyed dining, El Sobrino de Botín, and I tasted suckling pig for the first time. I have been convinced ever since that the Spanish know what to do with pork. One of the days in Spain was set aside for tours, and some of us went to Toledo, the former capital of the country. I had read novels about how a single human being could block a street, and I did not really believe it could be done. But some of the streets in Toledo were built between stone walls and were narrow enough that I could reach almost from one side to the other. The construction of such passages was both fascinating and impressive.

In 2016 we did not plan for a siesta in the middle of the day. I wondered how this would seem to delegates who were coming to our meeting for the first time from countries where such a custom is part of the tradition. I also wondered what other customs that we take for granted would seem unusual.

The meetings we planned in Orlando lasted eight days. Sometimes they were meetings for the World Blind Union, sometimes they were meetings for the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, and sometimes the meetings were jointly conducted. One element of these meetings was the tea break. One occurred from 10:30 to 11:00 in the morning, and one occurred from 3:30 to 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon. We don’t have these at NFB conventions. However, they are expected at World Blind Union meetings. At the tea break it is anticipated that everybody who wants to have tea, coffee, muffins, or pastries available, will get them. In planning the World Blind Union meeting I was charged with the responsibility of assuring that these breaks would occur as scheduled with the beverages and food available for each participant. I have managed a great many meetings in American hotels, and I know that buying coffee by the gallon is a dramatically expensive experience. Nevertheless, I planned the tea breaks. When I checked them, I noticed that they were well attended.

At some of the World Blind Union general assemblies a set lunch is one of the elements of the program, but the international organizing committee did not request that we plan prepared lunches for the delegates. We do like to eat in the United States, but we don’t like restrictions. We usually hope to find many different kinds of food outlets wherever we go that remain open most of the day and much of the night and that offer a wide array of choices. Our more adventuresome colleagues tried the restaurants in the Rosen Centre and nearby the hotel such as the Red Lobster, Denny’s, a barbecue spot, or fine dining establishments. Some like pizza, some like fast food, some like products of the sea, and some like seared steak. It appeared to me that our colleagues in the World Blind Union felt much the same.

Two basic types of entities exist in the field of work with the blind. These are agencies serving the blind and organizations of the blind. In many parts of the world organizations of the blind are scarce. Organizations of the blind are made up of blind people who elect their leaders and who, through a democratic process, determine the policies and direction for the organization. In places where blind people have established organizations of the blind, the concept that blind people should run their own programs is no longer novel. However, where organizations of the blind have not been created by blind people, the idea that the blind have the ability to manage the planning and detailed execution required to run a complex organization with significant programs is often regarded as a form of insanity. Blind people cannot lead other blind people, it is thought, because when this takes place, all fall in the ditch. Consequently, the thought that democracy exercised among blind people can create programs that sustain independence for blind people is controversial.
How, I wondered, would delegates from other nations feel about being with members of the National Federation of the Blind who are blind themselves and who expect to run the organization in which they are a part? In many of the World Blind Union meetings the volunteer contingent assembled to help delegates consists of sighted people. I planned to have volunteers available, but a great many of them were blind people. How would the delegates react to this, I wondered? Would they feel uneasy with this kind of volunteer? Pam Allen served as coordinator of volunteers. Federation members who have attended our national convention know that we follow the custom of creating a system of talking signs to direct individuals to various activities and locations. “Meeting room this way,” is not an unusual expression at our meetings. I wondered how this would work with World Blind Union delegates who are new to the experience. My observation is that the delegates seemed to manage quite well.
One event for every World Blind Union General Assembly is known as the cultural night. The host committee has the opportunity to show off the culture of the country where the meeting is taking place. How can the culture of the United States be characterized? What elements synthesize the American spirit? How can this be demonstrated? We decided to show five very different things: the blind driver car, baseball, exploration of space, a mechanical representation from a rodeo, and American music.
The car that we built to be driven on the Daytona International Speedway by Mark Riccobono combines two elements of American culture—the inventive spirit of blind people and the cars that we as Americans love to build. President Riccobono offered people rides in the vehicle using the space available in the parking lot of the Rosen Centre hotel. He was the chauffer. Although these rides were brief, they demonstrated part of the ability of blind people. The blind-drivable car would not have been developed without the work and the spirit of the National Federation of the Blind.
From the concept of the rodeo comes the mechanical bull. Invented in the United States, the mechanical bull is a machine shaped like a bull which can be made to behave as if it were an untamed creature prancing in the arena for cowboys, or World Blind Union delegates, to ride. It exemplifies the American West, the frontier, and something of the unusual playfulness of the American spirit.

Another part of the cultural night was a pitching station where delegates could throw a ball tracked by a speed gun. The best pitchers in baseball can cause the ball to travel at a hundred miles an hour. Delegates could discover just how good their pitching arms were. In addition, they could enjoy baseball food—hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, and soft pretzels.

For the space exploration element, we displayed artifacts used by astronauts in the space program. An astronaut, Mike Foreman, spoke about the space program. What must a person do to qualify to become an astronaut, and what are the requirements for a spacewalk? How does life change when there is no gravity, and how does it feel to be back on Earth? Our astronaut posed for pictures with delegates from around the world and answered many questions about the experiences of being in space.

To cap off the evening we enjoyed music performed by our own members. JP Williams, the singer-songwriter who has made a name for himself in Nashville (sometimes joined by James Brown, our Tennessee president and a member of the board of directors), offered musical selections from American artists. Delegates responded enthusiastically to the songs showing musical development in the United States over more than half a century. JP Williams and James Brown concluded the evening with a rendition of their own creations that had been performed for the National Federation of the Blind’s seventy-fifth anniversary.

As chairman of the host committee it was not my responsibility to plan the work of the World Blind Union. However, I observed a great deal of it when my other duties did not call me away. I have attended all of the meetings of the World Blind Union General Assembly beginning in 1988, and I believe that the organization has changed from what it was in the early days.

The World Blind Union is a combination of organizations of the blind and organizations for the blind. In 1984 the International Federation of the Blind, an organization of blind people, and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, an organization composed of representatives of agencies for the blind, came together to form the World Blind Union. The result of this combination was uneasiness and distrust. Some delegates wanted the organization to be a representative one made up largely of blind people, and some delegates wanted the organization to be a think tank directing worldwide policy for the blind which would be made up of professionals who would speak on behalf of blind people. This second group wanted the union to become a coordinating body to direct resources from the wealthier parts of the world to blind people in parts of our globe where resources are scarce. In the early days, delegates fought fiercely over the nature of the organization.

In 2016 the arguments are largely a matter of history. The World Blind Union adopted for the first time this year a policy requiring all of its officers to be blind people. Although many sighted delegates remain part of the organization, the WBU is becoming an organization of the blind.

To serve as a representative body for blind people from around the world, the World Blind Union must learn what blind people want. Then, it must gain sufficient resources to exercise influence in places where decision-making about blind people occurs. Finally, it must exercise the authority of the organization with sufficient diplomacy that the use of the organization’s power does not damage its structure. This is a very delicate challenge. However, if the World Blind Union has no power to make change, it is irrelevant. If its members have no power to make change, it is also likely that the World Blind Union will have no power to make change. Consequently, the challenge for the World Blind Union is to help its members to gain power, and to coordinate the use of that power to address the most important priorities for the blind.

More than a decade ago the World Blind Union attempted to influence the United Nations to create a legal document, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Dr. Fredric Schroeder served as a representative from the World Blind Union to the United Nations for the purpose of assisting in the negotiations. The head of the World Blind Union delegation to the United Nations was its then-president William Rowland. The Convention was adopted by the UN ten years ago, and it has been ratified in more than 150 countries, but unfortunately not in the United States. Although the World Blind Union is not as well known around the world as it might be, this United Nations activity brought its name forcefully to the attention of many international organizations.

Another convention sponsored by the World Blind Union, the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, has been negotiated through the World Intellectual Property Organization, one segment of the United Nations. This treaty, which eases legal restrictions on the transfer of books for the blind from one nation to another, became effective in the summer of 2016 just as we were gathering for the World Blind Union General Assembly. This is the only treaty of which I have ever heard that deals exclusively with the needs of the blind and print disabled. Once again Dr. Schroeder was one of the negotiators along with Scott LaBarre. Maryanne Diamond, who served as president of the World Blind Union during the negotiations, was a fierce proponent of the rights of the blind. It was she who persuaded the National Federation of the Blind to invite the United States to support the treaty. Although this treaty has become effective for the nations that have ratified it, the document is still in the negotiation stage before the Senate of the United States.

What happened at the 2016 General Assembly of the World Blind Union? Delegates considered the governing structure of the world organization but left most of the systems established previously in place. The one exception is that all officers must now be blind people. Technology for the blind was reviewed, but no new programs were created regarding technology. Recently a group of organizations dealing with blindness caused a low-cost Braille display to be produced, which is making its way onto the market. This Braille display is not dramatically different from others currently available, but it is cheaper. The cost difference may enhance the use of Braille technology in places where it has previously been cost prohibitive to use it. Programs of rehabilitation for the blind received attention. Although new plans for rehabilitation did not appear to come from the discussions, a number of countries where rehabilitation had not been emphasized may find that there is sufficient interest to proceed with teaching the blind. Exhibitors showed their products to delegates. Most of the items on display are known to the people who have attended our national convention, but some new products made their appearance—such things as a digital Braille watch that can display the time and perhaps text messages in Braille characters.
Sometimes startling change comes not from a dramatic event but a subtle alteration in the pattern. In this general assembly it seems to me that the important news is that more blind people are taking more independent action to produce more opportunity for themselves and their peers in more places around the world than has ever previously occurred. Programs for the blind get better when blind people help to shape them. The World Blind Union is causing this to happen. This is good news for world programs for the blind.

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