by Pamela Metz
Twenty-five years ago, due to an autoimmune disease, I became totally blind. I attended the training needed to learn to live as a blind person.
By 2003, I was ready to be more involved in the blindness community and joined the California Council of the Blind (CCB). There were many reasons to get involved. I initially joined because I was getting my first guide dog and at that time, CCB was working on transportation and guide dog issues. I also joined because I wanted to be part of an organization that believed in and advocated for the independence of blind people. Yet it would take me over the next 20 years to feel that I was fully a part of CCB.
Even though today, belonging has a different meaning, for me belonging means that I've paid my dues and that I am a part of an organization. My feeling at that time was that I was part of CCB but excluded because I lost my vision later on in life and was told that I couldn't fully understand the life of a blind person. I was part of CCB but excluded because I am an African-American woman and there were others who were uncomfortable with who I am.
My personal sense of being included and being fully seen for the ideas, the perspectives and what I can contribute began in 2019, the first time I attended ACB national convention by myself. My skills, my commitment to books and library access, self-advocacy within the health care system and transportation were being recognized. It was a bittersweet realization that with the passing of my husband, I began to be more fully recognized for my abilities to contribute to the work of the organization. Additionally, the wider world was changing, and I think attitudes which existed prior to George Floyd's murder were changing.
Today, I am a proud member of CCB who actively contributes to improving the lives of blind and low vision people locally, statewide and nationally. As a member of the Multicultural Affairs Committee, I have worked to improve cultural and racial and ethnic understanding within ACB. Within California I am on the CCB Board, lead Inclusive Diversity of California (IDC) and California Library Users of America (CLUA). As a member of CCB, I contribute to the rebuilding of CCB and the advancement of independence for blind and visually impaired people. For me inclusion means ignoring those who doubt me and focusing on who I am and what I bring to CCB. Today, I know that I belong and am included.