An Ongoing Commitment: Why I Joined and Why I Continue My Work in the National Federation of the Blind

An Ongoing Commitment: Why I Joined and Why I Continue My Work in the National Federation of the Blind

Braille MonitorApril 2019

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An Ongoing Commitment: Why I Joined and Why I Continue My Work in the National Federation of the Blind
by Daniel Garcia
From the Editor: Daniel Garcia is a bright young professional who has decided to give some of his intelligence, enthusiasm, and energy to our organization. After studying the history of blind people and looking at the needs that confront us, he came to the decision that in recognition of those who worked before him, he would give back. To help those who would come after, he would pay it forward. Here is what he has to say:
The first time I came in contact with members of the National Federation of the Blind was in November of 2011. At the time I was receiving skills of blindness training at the Training Center for the Blind in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The actual training center was undergoing a $5 million renovation at the time, so the training was being held at what was then the Clarion Inn. By pure coincidence, the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan had its 2011 Convention at the same hotel that year. On Friday evening, many training center students and I walked around the exhibit hall. I talked with a few members of the Western Wayne County and Ann Arbor chapters who encouraged me to attend their chapter meetings once I graduated from the center. Little did I know at the time that this would foretell the journey that I would embark upon a mere three years later.

Once I finished my training, I went home and decided to learn as much as I could about the history of the blind. I came upon a book titled Walking Alone and Marching Together. This book is enormous not only in size, but also in the profound way that it changed my thinking about blindness. While reading the pages of this monumental book, I started to get acquainted with the core philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind: that it is respectable to be blind, that with the proper training and opportunity blindness can be reduced to the level of a nuisance, that blindness is merely a characteristic, and that the real problem of blindness is not blindness itself but people’s negative reactions to it.

In 2013 I decided to go to World Services for the Blind in Little Rock, Arkansas, for training to become a collections representative at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Though I was not an NFB member at the time, I started reading the Braille Monitor, and I decided that whatever city I ended up working in, I would join the NFB. In March of 2014 I started working for the IRS in Kansas City, Missouri. In August of that same year I joined the Kansas City Chapter of the NFB. In 2015 I was asked to serve on the state affiliate board of directors; I was elected to fill a partial one-year term when another board member was elected to the position of corresponding secretary. In 2016 I was asked to serve as my chapter’s first vice president.

I have been privileged to be a part of many NFB of Missouri events. In February of 2016 I attended my first Jefferson City Seminar, the NFB of Missouri’s equivalent to the Washington Seminar. Though I was a novice, I was still expected to do the work and to get around the Capitol building by myself. On the second day of Jefferson City Seminar, another NFB newcomer and I were paired up and assigned to visit the offices of various state legislators. The fact that two beginners were entrusted with such a huge responsibility was nothing short of empowering. In October of 2016, the NFB of Missouri had an employment seminar in St Louis, and I was asked to give a presentation. Since I am part of the lucky 30 percent of working-age blind people who have a job, I thought it important that I do whatever I could to try to put a dent in the unemployment rate of the blind. In 2017, I started to chair the NFB of Missouri’s Public Relations Committee. Our committee has had moderate success in promoting the goals and programs of our state affiliate.

I was elected chapter president and started serving in this capacity in January of 2018. It is certainly not an easy job, but I do have a great chapter board who help me run the chapter. At the state convention in Jefferson City in 2018, I introduced a resolution about the AV START Act which was passed by the convention. I also gave a fifteen-minute speech about the AV START Act and the coming age of the fully autonomous vehicle. As I write this, the chapter is experiencing explosive growth in membership. In fact, we had a chapter membership seminar in February of 2019 to introduce to the NFB the nine members who joined our chapter since October of 2018. This increase in membership is due to the work of the state membership committee and the work of chapter members telling our story and asking blind and sighted people to join our ranks.

Looking ahead, I am very excited about the Strategic Plan for 2019 through 2021 that was recently launched by our national body. I am particularly enthusiastic about the NFB’s goal of developing leadership as well as the opportunity to enhance our advocacy skills. Though doing the work of the Federation can at times be exhausting, I am committed to becoming a more effective leader and advocate for the blind. I dream of a world, hopefully in the not-so-distant future, where all blind people can own and operate a voice-activated fully autonomous vehicle.

We all need to work collectively to define what we need, demonstrate that need to the public, and then make sure that it is translated into products and services that make everyone’s life better. The autonomous vehicle is the most obvious example of something that will both transform our lives while at the same time making society safer and more productive.

If history has taught me anything it is that freedom is not achieved easily. Freedom is not something that is merely granted to us just for the asking; we have to continually fight for it.

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