Thunder Dog (19 page)

Let me repeat a statement which I violently oppose. There is a slowly evolving fiction which can be summed up in the generalization, “Blindness is a mere inconvenience.” I do not agree with this, and I do not know what to call such exaggeration in reverse. I think it has done its share of harm, throwing some very well-intentioned people off the track about what blindness really amounts to in people’s lives.

It seems to me that Dr. MacFarland is as far off the track as the person who would contend that blindness is not even important enough to be considered a nuisance. I think it would be pleasant to look at a sunset. I think it would be helpful to look across a room and see who is there, or glance down the street and recognize a friend. But I know that these things are peripheral to the major concerns of life. It is true that it is sometimes a nuisance to devise alternative techniques to get the same results I could have without effort if I were sighted, but it is just that (a nuisance), not a tragedy or a psychological crisis or an international incident.

It seems to me that many of the problems which are regarded as inherent in blindness are more like those of the left-handed—in other words, created as a natural side effect of the structuring of society for the sighted. It seems to me that the remaining problems (those that are truly indigenous to blindness) are usually vastly overrated and overdramatized.

Blindness can, indeed, be a tragedy and a veritable hell, but this is not because of the blindness or anything inherent in it. It is because of what people have thought about blindness and because of the deprivations and the denials which result. It is because of the destructive myths which have existed from the time of the caveman— myths, which have equated eyesight with ability, and light with intelligence and purity. It is because the blind, being part of the general culture, have tended to accept the public attitudes and thus have done much to make those attitudes reality.

As far as I am concerned, all that I have been saying is tied up with the why and wherefore of the National Federation of the Blind. If our principal problem is the physical fact of blindness, I think there is little purpose in organizing. However, the real problem is not the blindness but the mistaken attitudes about it. These attitudes can be changed, and we are changing them. The sighted can also change. They can be shown that we are in no way inferior to them and that the old ideas were wrong, that we are able to compete with the sighted, play with the sighted, work with the sighted, and live with the sighted on terms of complete equality. We the blind can also come to recognize these truths, and we can live by them.

For all these reasons I say to you that the blind are able to compete on terms of absolute equality with the sighted, but I go on to say that blindness (even when properly dealt with) is still a physical nuisance. We must avoid the sin and the fallacy of either extreme. Blindness need not be a tragic hell. It cannot be a total nullity, lacking all inconvenience. It can, as we of the National Federation of the Blind say at every opportunity, be reduced to the level of a mere annoyance. Right on! We the blind must neither cop out by selling ourselves short with self-pity and myths of tragic deprivation, nor lie to ourselves by denying the existence of a problem. We need your help; we seek your understanding; and we want your partnership in changing our status in society. There is no place in our movement for the philosophy of the self-effacing Uncle Tom, but there is also no place for unreasonable and unrealistic belligerence. We are not out to “get sighty.” Will you work with us?

National Federation of the Blind

From the Web site: “The National Federation of the Blind is not an organization speaking for the blind—it is the blind speaking for themselves.”

200 East Wells Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

410-659-9314

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.nfb.org

American Foundation for the Blind

Nonprofit organization enabling blind or visually impaired people to achieve equality and access.

2 Penn Plaza, Suite 1102

New York, NY 10121

800-232-5463

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.afb.org

American Printing House for the Blind

The world’s largest provider of accessible educational and daily living products with over 150 years of service.

1839 Frankfort Avenue

Louisville, KY 40206

800-223-1839

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.aph.org/

Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired

1703 N. Beauregard Street, Suite 440

Alexandria, VA 22311

877-492-2708

Web:
http://www.aerbvi.org

Braille Institute

Nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate barriers to a fulfilling life caused by blindness and severe sight loss.

741 North Vermont Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90029

800-272-4553

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.brailleinstitute.org

Braille Monitor: Voice of the Nation’s Blind

A monthly magazine of the National Federation of the Blind. Available in large print, Braille, audiocassette, or by e-mail. Back issues are available online through the online directory.

510-659-9314, ext. 2344

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Braille_Monitor.asp

Daisy Consortium

International association promoting the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) standard for talking books.

Grubenstrasse 12

8045 Zurich, Switzerland

Web:
http://www.daisy.org

Google’s accessible web search
for the visually impaired

Web:
http://labs.google.com/accessible

Guide Dogs for the Blind

Nonprofit, charitable organization with a mission to provide guide dogs and training in their use to visually impaired people throughout the United States and Canada.

P.O. Box 151200

San Rafael, CA 94915

800-295-4050

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.guidedogs.com

K-NF B Reader: Reading Technology from Kurzweil Technologies

Software packages that run on a multifunction cell phone to enable the user to read printed material by way of scanner and digitized voice technology.

415-827-4084

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://knfbreader.michaelhingson.com/

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at the Library of Congress

Free program that loans recorded and Braille books and magazines, music scores in Braille and large print, and specially designed playback equipment to residents of the United States who are unable to read or use standard print materials because of visual or physical impairment.

Library of Congress

Washington, DC 20542

1-888-NLS-READ

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.loc.gov/nls

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic

Works with leading publishers and technology innovators to bring accessible materials to individuals with visual and learning disabilities.

20 Roszel Road

Princeton, NJ 08540

800-221-4792

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:
http://www.rfbd.org/alt

Chapter 1

1
. Alex Lieber, “How Do Dogs Sense Oncoming Storms?” PetPlace. com,
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/how-do-dogs-sense-oncoming-storms/page1.aspx
.

Chapter 2

1
. Dennis Cauchon, “For Many on Sept. 11, Survival Was No Accident,”
USA Today
, December 20, 2001,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/19/usatcov-wtcsurvival.htm
.

2
. James Glanz and Eric Lipton, “How the Towers Stood and Fell,”
New York Times Magazine
, September 8, 2002.

3
. Nancy Lee, Lonnie Schlein, and Mitchell Levitas, eds., with an introduction by Howell Raines,
A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
(New York: New York Times/Callaway, 2002), 24.

Chapter 3

1
. Reporters, Writers, and Editors of
Der Spiegel
magazine,
Inside 9-11: What Really Happened
, edited by Stefan Aust and Cordt Schnibben (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).

2
. Martha T. Moore and Dennis Cauchon, “Inches Decide Life, Death on the 78th Floor,”
USA Today
, September 3, 2002,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-09-03-floor-usat_x.htm
.

3
. Ibid.

Chapter 4

1
. Reporters, et al,
Inside 9-11:
50.

2
. Ibid.

3
. William Roberts, “Plane Hits Building: Woman Survives 75-Story Fall,”
Elevator World
, March 1, 1996,
http://www.elevator-world.com/magazine/archive01/9603-002.htm
.

Chapter 5

1
. David Frank, “America, 9-11-01,” Mount Wilson Observatory Association Web site,
http://www.mwoa.org/David_Frank.html
.

2
. Mitchell Fink and Lois Mathias,
Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 46.

3
. Reporters, et al,
Inside 9-11
, 53.

4
. Guide Dog Users of California,
California Penal Code
, Part 1: Crimes and Punishment, Title 9, chap. 12, sect. 365.5 (a),
http://www.gdu-cal.org/law_cal.html
, accessed December 8, 2010.

Chapter 6

1
. Quoted in Ernst Peter Fischer,
Beauty and the Beast: The Aesthetic Moment in Science
, trans. Elizabeth Oehlkers (New York: Plenum Trade, 1997), 12.

Chapter 7

1
. Julio E. Correa, “The Dog’s Sense of Smell,” Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Alabama A&M University, UNP-0066, July 2005,
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0066/
.

2
. Jim Dwyer and Michelle O’Donnell, “9/11 Firefighters Told of Isolation Amid Disaster,”
New York Times
, September 9, 2005,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E1DC1331F93AA3575AC0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
.

Chapter 8

1
. James S. Nyman, “Unemployment Rates and Reasons: Dissing the Blind,”
Braille Monitor
, March 2009,
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm09/bm0903/bm090307.htm
.

Chapter 9

1
. Nancy Lee, Lonnie Schlein, and Mitchell Levitas, eds.,
A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
(New York: Callaway, 2002), 116.

Chapter 10

1
. Kenneth Jernigan, “A Definition of Blindness,” special issue (
Low Vision and Blindness
),
Future Reflections
24, no. 3 (2005),
http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr19/fr05si03.htm
.

2
. Rachel Aviv, “Listening to Braille,”
New York Times
, January 3, 2010, available at
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm10/bm1002/bm100203.htm
.

3
. Gene Raffensperger, “Kenneth Jernigan: Power to the Blind,”
Des Moines Sunday Register
, June 2, 1974,
http://www.braillerman.com/jernigan.htm
.

4
. Tracy Smith, “A Blind Army Officer’s Challenging Vision,”
CBS Sunday Morning
, September 5, 2010,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/05/sunday/main6837189.shtml
.

5
. Catherine Mabe, “Blind Artist Wins New York City Photography Contest,”
Disaboom
(a network community providing information and resources for people with disabilities), September 9, 2010,
http://www.disaboom.com/blind-and-visual-impairment/blind-artist-wins-new-york-city-photography-contest-exposure
.

6
. Kenneth Jernigan, “Blindness—A Left-Handed Dissertation,”
http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/blndnesl.htm
.

Chapter 12

1
. Editors of
LIFE
magazine,
One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001
(LIFE, 2006).

2
. Nancy Lee, Lonnie Schlein, and Mitchell Levitas, eds.,
A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
(New York: New York Times/Callaway, 2002).

3
. Ibid., 234.