Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm
From: barbour@boulder.Colorado.edu (Jim Barbour)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Becoming more nearsighted
Message-ID: <15082@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 23 Oct 90 03:05:25 GMT
References: <14943@bunker.UUCP> <15067@bunker.UUCP>
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: barbour@boulder.Colorado.edu (Jim Barbour)
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Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
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Index Number: 11209

Hello,

My name is Jim Barbour and I am blind.  I work as a computer
programmer at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and until a
year ago at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

I want to say that losing one's vision is a very difficult thing to
go through.  I have talked with many, many people who are becomming
blind.

However, It is really sad when a person fails to get the support,
skills and confidence they'll need as a blind person because they
don't want to deal with losing their vision.  It is not hard to
learn how to live a full, happy, productive life as a blind
person.  Many blind persons hold down jobs, maintain households,
raise children, belong to community organizations and do all the
other things that make life full and rewarding.  I know this sounds
like a big sales pitch, but it isn't.  It's the way most blind
persons live.

If you are losing your vision, or know someone who is, please do
not hesitate to contact me (see below) or the nearest chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind (national office phone number
below).

I aplogize if I stepped on anyone's toes with this article, but it is VERY 
important that persons who are losing their vision be aware that blindness
is not the hell that most people (blind and sighted) are taught that it is.

Sincerely Yours,

Jim Barbour

(303) 530-1375

national Federation of the Blind -- National Office, baltimore, Merryland

(301) 659-9314

there is a chapter of the National Federation of the Blind in every state and
most major (and quite a few not so major) cities.