Myths and Facts About Blindness

Myths and Facts About Blindness

Future Reflections May/June 1983, Vol. 2 No. 3
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Myths and Facts...about blindness
As the parent of a blind child, you have often encountered
situations that are inappropriate for
your child until some adaptation is made. The
schoolbooks are in inkprint, and we must arrange
to get them recorded or Brailled. The menu on the
wall is too far away for the youngster with limited
vision to see, so we read it aloud.
It is perfectly right and appropriate that we make
allowances for these "special arrangements," or
this "preferential treatment" if you will. They
help provide opportunities for the child to learn,
to participate and compete equally with their
sighted classmates.
However, there are times when special
arrangements are not only unnecessary but
actually harmful. Consider this example. A blind
child's pre-school teacher always allowed him to
sit next to her during story time. She thought that
way he could see the pictures better. What really
happened was that his classmates became jealous
and resentful of him because of this special privilege and he did not try to look at the pictures
anyway (with his limited vision, he had to hold the
book and put his nose to the page to get any
benefit from most pictures). What had started out
innocently as a "helpful" modification turned out
to be harmful. The teacher gladly changed her
procedure once she realized what was happening.
The same kinds of problems occur when society,
through a private or public agency, decides to
offer a special service or produce a special device
for the blind. Sometimes the results will be
helpful, but sometimes they will do more harm
than good. Unfortunately, it is a popular modern
day myth that any special service, treatment or
gadget for the blind can only be positive and good.
This is a tragic misconception and one that not
only sighted people buy into, but often blind
people will believe as well.
Blind federationists are always alert to these
misconceptions and realize the importance of
resisting implementation of well-intended, but
unnecessary and harmful services or devices. Of
course, federationists also realize the necessity of
fighting for needful services and for blind persons'
rights and responsibilities as first-class citizens.
The two are only different sides of the same coin.
Dr. Jacobus tenBroek (founder and first president
of the National Federation of the Blind) spoke at
length on how we can distinguish between the
two --services and devices that are helpful and
necessary, and those that perpetuate helplessness
and dependency of the blind. In "Pros and Cons of
Preferential Treatment of Blind Persons,"* Dr.
tenBroek had this to say:
Preferential treatment of the blind based on
favoritism, privilege, whim, prejudice,
patronage, pity, charity, self-interest of others,
or feelings of like or dislike, cannot be justified
and indeed does a great deal of harm. On the
other hand, preferential treatment which takes
account of the special qualities or needs of the
blind or aspects of their situation not shared by
others, which is aimed at a desirable social
objective and which employs proper means
adapted to this purpose is not only justifiable
preferential treatment but is treatment which
should be at the foundation of all public and
private policy toward the blind.
As parents of blind children, we too have a
responsibility to distinguish between "good" and
"bad" services; between devices that are helpful
and those that are unnecessary or even damaging
to blind people. By supporting or opposing such,
we set an example for our blind youngster and we
help determine the kind of world he/she will live in
as an adult.
Of course, it isn't always easy to make these kinds
of judgments. However, it will help if we study the
kinds of decisions and judgments the organized
blind have made regarding various services and
devices they have found to be helpful or harmful.
Following is an article from the Winter, 1983 NFB
of Washington newsletter, Newsline. It should
provide some insights into why the blind oppose a
service that might, on the surface, seem a helpful
thing.
*"Pros and Cons of Preferential Treatment of
Blind Persons" is available free of charge from
the NFB National office. Write to: NFB, 1800
Johnson St., Baltimore, MD 21230.