Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89.0!William.Wilson
From: William.Wilson@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (William Wilson)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: SUBWAY SAFETY
Message-ID: <14854@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 9 Oct 90 20:24:57 GMT
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Index Number: 11001

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 >  DS> That special tactile stuff makes us look inferrior to the
 >  DS> sighted.
 
Paula,
    Tell the truth now...What 3 letters come to mind when you read 
statements like the one above that Darrell left?
 
 > I guess that means that because they need light in order
 > to function,
 > they look inferior to us.  And of course, how we "look"
 > to the sighted
 > is more imprtant than our safety.

You know, the one thing that bugs me about the tired, old philosophy 
so commonly spit out by blinks who subscribe to the NFB doctrine 
is that it so often professes a knowledge of what sighted folks think, 
and yet from this former winks perspective, they're just plain wrong!

     Darrell, their just ain't no way a sighted person would look 
at tactile tiles and say, "Oh, them poor blind people!"  Not only 
would this not happen if they actually knew what the tactile tiles 
were for, by far most of them wouldn't even notice them or recognize 
their particular purpose!

    Look, I know I'm opening myself up for the rath of you fully 
convinced NFB types, but picturing completely unrealistic scenarios 
of how the sighted world would picture us because of a few adaptations 
made to the environment in order to help equalize things for us a 
bit seems to be a common practice of your favorite organization, 
and it does tend to get a little old to me!

     I wonder if the wheel chair people have a similar group 
representing their needs who advocates the tearing out of wheelchair 
ramps and lowered door handles and drinking fountains, or if the 
deaf community has someone trying to remove the closed captioning 
from tv shows, or at least the public announcement that the broadcasting 
station makes of the service?
 
     Despite what you may hear from others Darrell, I just don't 
think the whole sighted world is out to get us, or to discriminate 
against us, or even to perceive us as inadequate because something 
like floor tiles with bumps on them can be used by us as an extra 
safety precaution.

     Paula has convinced me, however, to take all the damn light 
bulbs out of this apartment till we get those bumpy tiles in the 
subways, and thus I am announcing the
"Bump for a Bulb" campaign!
Donations gratefully accepted at BlinkLink Inc.   170 Lincoln Ave. 
 Pittsburgh, PA 15202.
                                        Willie

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