What a Waste

What a Waste

Braille MonitorMay-June 1986
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What a Waste
(The National Federation of the Blind
of Maine is becoming increasingly active.
As a result, things are happening. Patricia
Estes--who lives in
Auburn, Maine--'s President of the Central
Maine Chapter. She is also articulate
and perceptive. When the members
of the state legislature decided recently
to play at being handicapped for
a day, Mrs. Estes was not pleased--and
she let people know about it. Here is
what she said on March 6, 1986, on the
editorial page of her local newspaper, The Sun.)
One week ago members of our state
legislature observed Handicapped Person
Day, or some such thing. State representatives
who participated became 'blind" for a while, then "deaf," then
spent some time in a wheelchair. In
every case, of course, the "handicap"
could be discarded at the end of the
day. WCSH-TV in Portland carried the
event and covered it as a very positive
thing. At the end of the experience the
conclusion drawn by the legislator who
was interviewed was that, "We have to
remember that handicapped persons need
our help."

What a waste of a day to come up with
such a pathetic conclusion! But what
else can one conclude from pretending to
be disabled for a few hours? With no
training and practice with the use of a
wheelchair, white cane, or sign language,
one could necessarily become
extremely dependent on other's assistance
in order to communicate or get
around.
As handicapped people, we are fighting
personal and public battles for the
right to independent living styles, for
equality in employment, and against
discrimination based on inaccurate information
and stereotypes. Prevailing
prejudices and attitudes apply the perception
that we need the rest of the
public to become our caretakers. This
is an erroneous and unfortunate belief.
I view this practice in the legislature
as a step back in our fight against
discrimination and feel it to be very
nearly a slap in the face! I don't want
my state legislators to come away with
the misleading notion that handicapped
people can only survive through some
benevolent attitude bestowed upon us by
a generous public! We have a right to
be here. We have a right to use our
canes and our wheelchairs and our signing
and Braille, or whatever it takes to
maximize our independence.
What we need from our state legislature
is that our rights as citizens,
equal in the eyes of the law, are protected.
We need real opportunities,
equal opportunities to employment, education,
and access. We do not need
legislators play-acting for a day. We
need consistent support born of a sincere
belief that we are real people, not
freaks to be pitied. We are normal. We
want what the rest of you want. It
really doesn't take that much effort to
understand us!

My question is this: Where were these
handicapped people, these legislators
and the media, on February 11? There
was a very important public hearing
conducted by a special education committee
appointed by the legislature. The issue was state certification standards
for teachers of the hearing impaired and
of the blind. It seems that our state
agencies have accepted federal monies
for certified teachers in these areas
when they had neither the standards nor
the system to certify. This is in direct
violation of federal law. The
scheduled hearing in Augusta was the
consumers' chance to have input and was
very important. It was sparsely attended.
There were a handful of professionals,
three legislators, a representative
from the Advocates for the Developmentally
Disabled, and an agency
head. On the consumer side, there was
no representation from the hearing impaired,
but the National Federation of
the Blind (NFB) had ten members there--most of whom testified.

I'll admit that the hearing wasn't the
easiest thing to find out about. Agency
heads were tight-lipped and the notice
in this newspaper was obscure and miniscule,
having been put in smaller than
usual type. Although reporters were
notified, there was no coverage from
this paper, never mind television!
I believe that attendance and participation
in hearings and activities such
as this will do far more to help our
cause and to deliver a positive message
about handicapped persons. On the other
hand Handicapped Persons Day is not only
a waste of time to all those involved,
it is a detriment to the position and
public acceptance of Maine's handicapped.

If
you or a friend would like to
remember the National Federation of the
Blind in your will, you can do so by
employing the following language:
"I give, devise, and bequeath unto
National Federation of the Blind, 1800
Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland
21230, a District of Columbia nonprofit
Corporation, the sum of $ (or
"percent of my net estate" or
"The following stocks and bonds:")
to be used for its worthy purposes on
behalf of blind persons."(back)(contents)(next)