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From: Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Phil Scovell)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Emergency Exits
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Date: 19 Jul 90 04:49:38 GMT
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Index Number: 9337

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a previous message, Tom wrote:

>I believe in the NFB
>there is a splitting of blinks into blind guys with dogs
>and those without.  As a dog user I saw this first hand at every
>convention I attended, which was about ten.  There has always been a
>sort of under current about this subject.

Tom,
I don't doubt what you say but I doubt this attitude is limited to the 
NFB.  I can do you one better however.  I went to the Nebraska school  for 
the blind  for about four years before going back to public school in Omaha. 
At the school for the blind, the partially sighted guys were honored over 
the totally blind guys. In shop, those of us who were totally blind were not 
allowed to use the table saw but the partially sighted guys were.  The 
partially sighted students were allowed to walk three blocks to the little 
neighborhood store alone but the totally blind guys were not allowed to do 
so.  Some of this began to change over the years but this attitude still is 
around in some circles today.  My wife went through the Iowa Commission for 
the Blind many years ago, more than twenty years back, and this pholosophy, 
if you can call it that, was not at the Commission.  I went to visit the 
Commission once and spent the day there.  I went to the shop and while there 
asked the shop teacher if the totally blind guys were allowed as much shop 
freedom as the partially sighted kids.  As we talked, he said, "You hear the 
table saw just fire up?"  I said, "yes."  He said, "A totally blind guy is 
running it and no body is over there watching him."  Have I left the topic? 
I don't think so but one thing we shouldn't forget is the individuality of 
the blind.  I have several friends with guide dogs and everyone of them that 
I know are very independent travelers and also take very good care of their 
dogs and likewise are concerned about the image of the blind in society.  I 
know other blind people with dogs, however, who don't care about themselves, 
their dogs, or what the rest of society thinks.  Their dogs are dirty, 
unruley, and one lady I know brings her dog to work and the dog has such a 
bad case of fleas that no body in the office will get within fifty feet of 
her or the dog.  On the other hand, I know cane users who themselves are so 
dirty, and for all I know have fleas, too, I wouldn't let them in my house. 
If you think I'm joking, I knew a blind couple with two sighted kids who had 
cockroches so badly that no one ever wanted to be around them.  This same 
blind guy always said everybody was out to get him and always had 
personality conflicts with everyone.  I know for a fact what you say is true 
about the attitude toward those with guide dogs because I used to think like 
that until I began to meet blind people locally who weren't like that with 
their dogs.  People like Steve Gomes and Vicki Ireland who use this echo. 
If it weren't for them, however, I'd probably still have a bad attitude 
toward people with guide dogs.  I was the second vice president of the 
Nebraska NFB for awhile and went to monthly meetings and state conventions 
and never saw this attitude which you speak of, but I know it exists in more 
than just the NFB.  Would you agree?  By the way, I'm not an NFB or ACB 
member now so I don't have an axe to grind. Since such a problem exists, 
however, it would be apparent to me the we, the blind, still have attitude 
problems and prejudices.  It looks like we have a long ways to go before 
even we can operate without such attitudes as Captain Kirk and the 
Interprize crew does.
Phil.  
 

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