An Introduction to the 1987 Fall/Winter Issue of Future Reflections
"Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming."--William James
"Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past."-- Thomas Stearns Eliot
A little boy is approached on the school playground by a group of his playmates. "Hey Chaz," the ringleader yells, (feet shuffle, snickers tremble soundlessly) "You're BL-I-I-ND!" The little boy turns and faces his would-be tormentor. Without missing a beat, head held high, he retorts, "So what!?" then walks away with all the dignity a five-year-old can muster.
Children, it seems, have a way of getting straight to the heart of things. The essence of all that can be said about the problems, progress, and possibilities of blindness today was contained in that simple playground episode.
That encounter, by the way, actually occurred to our blind son four years ago. It was, perhaps, the first time he had to face squarely the real problem of blindness. That problem was first defined nearly fifty years ago when the National Federation of the Blind was organized. Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and the other founders of the NFB realized that the basic problem of blindness was not the loss of sight but the mistaken public attitudes about blindness. With training and opportunity blind people could compete on the basis of equality with their sighted neighbors. It was the pity, shame, and belief in the inferiority of the blind which ultimately kept blind people down, not the lack of sight.
The problem cuts across time. The incident on the playground happened in my son's "time past." Yet, it is also a part of his "time present" and "time future" for as long as my son lives--as a child playing and learning, as a young man seeking a job and his place in the world; as a mature man raising a family and taking part in his community; and as an old man imparting wisdom to the next generation--he will have to respond to all the nuances and meanings our society gives to that remark, "You Are Blind."
Public attitudes about blindness unite the young and the old in a common cause.
Public attitudes about blindness unite the young and the old in a common cause. I once received a letter from a parent who didn't like one of the articles I had written. She thought I was wrong to criticize a parent organization because of its ties to an agency that has done a great deal of damage to the blind. She seemed to feel that the problems of blind children and the problems of blind adults were separate and distinct. She didn't understand why the difficulties of blind adults today had anything to do with her blind child;
The answer to that, of course, was pretty simple. Peter Pan is a myth. Children do grow up. You cannot tie up in separate little packages the child that "is" and the man or woman that "will be."
They flow one into the other. They overlap, they are intertwined.
And so it is with the blind, children and adults. The obstacles encountered by the one are impediments to the progress of the other; advancement for the one is betterment for the other. And both young and old will share the future we are shaping with the actions we take, and the decisions we make today. This is why the National Federation of the Blind is so important to all of us.
Like William James, I, too, find it hard to pin down the present. But I think that the articles in this issue, when read together as a whole, give an accurate sense of blindness today. As you read you will notice that, although public attitudes remain the basic problem of blindness, there have been changes in emphasis and increased complexities.
For example, where "You are Blind" once meant total exclusion from society, it now more commonly means conditional acceptance.
At one time it was just assumed that blind people couldn't--couldn't work, couldn't keep house, couldn't go to school with sighted children--just "couldn't." Today, the tone is more of a "Yes, but..."
--"Yes, I believe that you can work.. .but not in my business."
--"Of course you can ski in a special program...but don't take weight-class at school. You'll hurt yourself."
--"You can go to college...but we'll hire and supervise the readers and make all the special arrangements for you."
--"Yes, your son can go to public school.. .but our Vision teacher has never taught Braille, and she can see him only once a week."
--"I suppose it's all right for you to have a family. . .just don't watch my kids."
The problems this new element of conditional acceptance poses for the blind--and the progress the blind are making through the National Federation of the Blind--are addressed throughout the articles in this issue. It is expressed with particular poignancy in "Whose Blindness Is It?" the story of a young blind mother's struggle to be accepted as an equal.
There are other problems facing the blind which are also signs of progress. It is well known, for example, that progress toward first-class citizenship has never been made for any minority group without some hostility, even violence. The blind are no exception.
It is well known, for example, that progress toward first-class citizenship has never been made for any minority group without some hostility, even violence. The blind are no exception.
This is hard for many people to understand. Pity and charity have so long dominated the thinking of the public regarding the blind, that most people find it inconceivable that anyone could act with ill will or physical force against the blind.
It is true that most members of the public--if properly educated- -are willing to give up their feelings of pity and superiority and accept the blind as equals. But others are not. Out of insecurity and fear they react with animosity, even violence, to this new "breed" of blind people who don't know their "place." The article "Air Travel and the Blind: What is the Problem, What is the Remedy," describes this new element in the problems and advancement of the blind today.
But this new struggle in the progress of the blind would not even be possible if enough blind people had not rejected society's concept of the blind as inferior objects of pity. This repudiation of the element of shame among the blind themselves is a direct result of the activities of the National Federation of the Blind.
For many years the National Federation of the Blind has been working to make the theme "It is respectable to be blind" a reality for blind people in this country. The theme is a direct attack on the element of shame and inferiority that continues to haunt the blind. It is behind every public education effort, every civil rights suit, every article in the Braille Monitor and Future Reflections. It is the driving force behind legislative efforts, seminars for parents of blind children, seminars for blind adults, and the tons of free literature distributed each year.
And it is working. The little boy on the playground, my son, is one example. Because of the National Federation of the Blind, Chaz has been raised to believe that it is O.K. to be blind. Blind adults have been always present for him as role models. They have been his baby sitters, they have cooked for him, played with him, read to him, disciplined him, and have been there to show him, in all ways, that it IS respectable to be blind.
Many of these blind adults are, like him, partially sighted and can use their vision to read large print or do other tasks visually. He has also seen how these adults use blind techniques when their vision isn't efficient. More importantly, he has seen for himself that they are not ashamed to be identified as blind.
His response on the playground that day was, I believe, a direct result of the kind of positive exposure he has had to blindness. Without it, his reaction would have been quite different.
I believe he could have accepted the comment "You're BL-I-I-ND!" as the accusation and putdown that it was intended to be. "I am not!" he could have yelled; his voice full of anger, fear, and shame. And inside his head the wheels would be turning. "It's bad to be blind. You aren't as good as everybody else if you are blind. Maybe if I deny it and fake sight, nobody will know that I'm not as good as they are. But what if they don't believe me? What if I lose more sight some day and can't fake it anymore? What will happen to me then?"
And why do I believe that this is what could have happened? Because that is the story I have heard from literally hundreds of blind, partially sighted adults who grew up with those very feelings. Their parents did not have, as parents today have, the resouces of the National Federation of the Blind to draw upon. They did not have Future Reflections, the Braille Monitor, and the NFB Parents Division to help them understand that it is respectable to be blind.
Other blind children and adults are also shedding the legacy of shame and denial with the help of the National Federation of the Blind. Read the presidential report in this issue which outlines the progress made by the NFB in 1987; read the article about the blind youngster in Boone, Iowa; and read the story of the mother in Illinois. But, the progress is not universal. For many blind children and adults the only way out from under the burden of shame our society places on the blind is denial. Tragically, this unhealthy response to blindness is actively perpetuated by-of all groups-- the very professionals who purport to serve the blind.
In education, for example, teachers are no longer teachers of the blind or Braille teachers. They are not even called teachers of the visually impaired-they are "vision" teachers! The new title accurately describes both the emphasis and attitudes educators today take toward blindness. If a technique is visual, it's good. If it's a blind technique--such as Braille--it is inherently inferior and you don't teach it unless you have to. Their attitude toward blindness is as obvious as if they shouted it from the rooftops, "Blind people are inferior."
One of the consequences of this attitude is a generation of blind children who are being denied the opportunity to learn Braille and are, therefore, functionally illiterate. This dangerous trend, and what the National Federation of the Blind is doing about it, is discussed in the article "A Taste of Rarebit" by Dr. Jernigan.
Yet, despite these problems, the progress the blind have made is tremendous. And so are the possibilities. The opportunity for employment and full participation in the community is greater than it has ever been for the blind. But the blind have not come to this point through accident or chance. Life is better for the blind because the blind, working through their own organization, the National Federation of the Blind, have made it so.
Life is better for the blind because the blind, working through their own organization, the National Federation of the Blind, have made it so.
And any progress made in the future will come the same way, through the hard work and commitment of blind people and their sighted friends and relatives--including, and especially, the parents of blind children.
Join your local and state chapters of the National Federation of the Blind. If there is an NFB Parent's Division in your area, join it. If not, help us organize one. Our collective efforts can bring about so much faster all the brightest hopes and aspirations we hold for our children who happen to be blind.