>>  >From: Jim Marks <[log in to unmask]>
>>  >
>>  >Here's the local NFB Chapter's response to the toilet for the blind:
>>  >
>>  >Missoulian
>>  >Wednesday, May 3, 2000
>>  >Opinion/Letters
>>  >
>>  >Toilet for the Blind: Open your eyes and stop the bigotry
>>  >By Dan Burke
>>  >
>>  >Dan Burke is vice president of the Montana Association for the Blind,
>>  >Missoula Chapter, and access coordinator for the Disability Services for
>>  >Students at the University of Montana.  Write him at
>[log in to unmask]
>>  >
>>  >         Breaking news: The blind have bigger worries than whether they 
>>  > will be
>>  >able to wipe themselves in a public restroom.
>>  >         The Missoulian's April 25 article "Flush the Promise" is an 
>>  > example of the
>>  >biggest problem we face - the stereotype that we may be so helpless and
>>  >dependent that we worry about whether we'll be able to carry out the
>most
>>  >basic personal hygiene if we leave our own bathrooms.
>>  >         That is, we face the kind of bigotry that keeps us out of jobs,
>
>>  > that leads
>>  >too many of our schools to fail in educating us, that kind of doubt
>about
>>  >our useful citizenship that makes people surprised if we own our own
>home,
>>  >have families, achieve anything beyond feeding and clothing ourselves -
>at
>>  >public expense, of course.  These are the attitudes that result in low
>>  >expectations for blind kids to have meaningful, productive lives, for
>whom
>>  >turning 18 and getting a Social Security check is the first and final
>>  >epiphany.
>>  >         The product described in the article does not help us, nor does
>its
>>  >publicity.  In fact, it humiliates and demeans us, a side-effect that
>I'm
>>  >sure the inventor never intended.  Through he contacted many of us in
>>  >Missoula who are blind for an endorsement, we all politely told him no. 
>In
>>  >fact, more than one of us told him there was no problem to be solved.
>>  >         Coincidentally, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals last month 
>>  > referenced
>>  >blindness in a decision about the Americans with Disabilities Act - a
>civil
>>  >rights case that didn't have anything to do with blindness.  It said
>that a
>>  >blind person couldn't be a college professor since we couldn't keep up
>with
>>  >the necessary reading, or that hiring a reader would be too costly an
>>  >accommodation.
>>  >         Why single out blindness as an example in an employment case 
>>  > involving
>>  >fertility?
>>  >         Answer:  because too many people really believe that blind
>people 
>>  > may not
>>  >be able to wipe themselves without assistance.  The blind are apparently
>>  >the yardsticks by which we measure pathetic incompetence.
>>  >         Forget that there are blind college professors all over the 
>>  > world, and
>>  >that they have long been around.  Forget Jacobis Tenbrook, founding
>father
>>  >of the National Federation of the Blind in 1940, a renowned
>Constitutional
>>  >law scholar.  Forget Missoula's own George Kerscher, world leader in
>>  >developing digital technology for audio books for the blind, who travels
>>  >around the globe alone several times a year.  Forget Jorge Luis Borges,
>>  >Argentine author, college professor, student of languages and one-time
>>  >chief librarian of Argentina's national library.
>>  >         What?  A blind guy in charge of all those books?  The secret is
>
>>  > out - it
>>  >was his ready supply or emergency paper!
>>  >         I find myself bringing this article up with everyone I meet -
>bus 
>>  > drivers
>>  >and shopkeepers, neighbors and co-workers - for fear they have read it
>and
>>  >are wondering if I can clean myself.  I can't help but imagining their
>>  >noses crinkling, expectantly, as I come into the room.
>>  >         Instead of fighting for better education for blind kids,
>instead of
>>  >advocating for real job opportunities for the nearly 80 percent of blind
>>  >working aged adults who are unemployed, instead of sounding the trumpet
>of
>>  >freedom and justice for blind people everywhere, maybe we should beg the
>>  >Legislature of service groups for enough money to buy a cell phone for
>>  >every blind Montanan - in case we get…er, stranded.
>>  >         Or maybe I could invent a toilet paper dispenser I can carry on
>
>>  > my white
>>  >cane.  I would never have trouble finding the goods again.
>>  >         If you read the article, and said to yourself, "Huh, I bet that
>
>>  > would be a
>>  >problem for blind people," then it's time to rethink your assumptions
>about
>>  >blindness.  Will you ever want to pay for our teachers so we can get a
>good
>>  >education?  Will you ever even consider hiring us at your business? 
>Will
>>  >you ever think of us as anything but "those poor people?"  Those are the
>>  >very prejudices that we must fight against.  They have no merit, and
>have
>>  >been proved wrong again and again - but they just won't flush!
>>  >         We need education, skills, opportunity and the right to live
>with 
>>  > dignity.
>>  >  But, like so much in life, we can't get these things from a toilet
>seat.
>>  >
>>  >=-=-=-=-=-


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