Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!samsung!olivea!oliveb!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89!Lois.Briggs From: Lois.Briggs@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Lois Briggs) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Re: hot topic Message-ID: <16503@handicap.news> Date: 28 Jun 91 14:34:21 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.isc-br.com Reply-To: Lois.Briggs@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA Lines: 87 Approved: wtm@bunker.hcap.fidonet.org Index Number: 16503 [This is from the Blink Talk Conference] Hi David, I don't know why I chose to jump in on your message after listening to quite a few on this subject, but I guess I just want to throw my two cents worth in. You quoted: JD>> many things wich JD>> cost the average sighted person only cents costs us so much JD>> more. The brailler verses the ball point pin is a perfect JD>> example. There are so many more. This is so very true and as you later said most blind earn so little when compared with the sighted that sources of information as well as pleasure aren't available to many of us. DA> Yes, there are things that cost us more, but there are things DA> that we don't have to buy at all, such as cars. Most of my DA> sighted friends pay from $200 to $500 a month for car payments, DA> plus another $100 for insurance. No matter what, I know that I DA> don't spent that much money on taxi cabs and buses in a month. However, many of us don't go many places at all simply because we can't afford taxis and you can't always get where you want or need to go by bus. I know for a fact that if I were sighted I would have been working at a decent paying job for years and would own a car and be able to go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. It's certainly isn't that way now. JD>> this whole issue brings to mind the thought that for so many JD>> years blind activists fought for just such considerations as JD>> extra tax exemptions and reduced public transportation fees. JD>> It seems a shame for this new radical view of blind JD>> independence should be deystroying so many hard won victories. This is what you quoted that prompted my response. In my opinion once something is taken away it's never restored. Those who can afford to ride the buses full fare and who don't need the tax exemption are certainly free to not avail themselves of them, but for those who really need it, once it's lost, their lives are going to be effected greatly. I am certain there are those who will take anything free they can get. By that I mean anyone, not just the blind. Then there are others who feel degraded by freebees, but on the whole I believe most blind people need a little extra help IN ORDER TO BE AS INDEPENDENT AS THEY CAN BE. That may sound contradictory but it isn't. For instance if they came out with a car with artificial intelligence and I could open the door, push a button and say, "take me to K-Mart" I certainly would be more independent because I wouldn't have to ask a neighbor or friend for the ride and I wouldn't need a bus fare reduction. The only problem then would be that upon arriving at K-Mart I would once again be dependent because every time I go in that store they've moved everything that was in the front of the store to the back and everything that was on the right to the left and I'm back to needing sighted help, and to some that's not being independent. If I could afford an Arkinstone I could be independent and read many things, but would still be dependent on someone to read those things the Arkinstone can't deal with. It's a never ending problem this elusive independence. We can all be independent to one degree or another depending on what special, expensive equipment we can afford to take the place of human assistance. Those who are sighted aren't one hundred percent independent in all things either. For instance my husband who can see can't boil an egg, but he can jump in the car and go get an egg McMuffin, so he won't starve. He can't sew on a button but he can stick a safety pin in his pants and they won't fall down. I on the other hand will never find out what's inside the envelope the postman brought today unless someone reads it to me and when school calls that I have a sick child that needs to be picked up, I can't go and get him. This happened more than once and where I live I couldn't even get a taxi to come from the city to the suburbs pick up the child and deliver him home because by car the school is only 12 minutes from my home, but the school isn't going to allow a sick child to walk home in the snow. Sometimes things are no win situations and I know I got really long winded here, but I guess I'm feeling sort of sorry for myself today, which luckaly doesn't happen often. At any rate I'm not for giving up anything. I feel I've given up quite enough in life due to the lose of sight. Lois -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89!Lois.Briggs Internet: Lois.Briggs@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org