by Penny Reeder
In a week when news about Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act seemed to be popping up on every corner, in every media outlet and company board room, I planned to write about 508 and the optimistic expectations we, as people who are blind, have for its impact on our lives. Because of the market-share that the regulations of 508 represent, we may find that our fax machines talk to us, that printers which communicate with the screen-readers on our PCs are cheap enough for us to buy, that those text-to-speech cell phones make their way into our pockets and backpacks. The possibilities are exciting, and the law, the regs, which ACB folks like Debbie Cook, Pat Beattie, and Julie Carroll had a hand in crafting, the media hype and the actual implementation are cause for some celebration and certainly worth a story or two in the pages of “The Braille Forum.”
So, as I planned this August issue while attending 508-related press events and speaking with reporters about its meaning and its impact, and I thought about what we would include among our articles and columns, 508 was on my mind. Then folks started sending me copies of the article in the June “Monitor.” What is this, I asked myself, as I read through the invective, the unveiled threats, and the vitriol of people who seem to be throwing one whale of a tantrum. I guess, after 40-plus years, the NFB has finally realized that ACB is a real organization that actually represents a significant segment of the people who are blind in this country, and that we’re not going away. So, it seems, they’re throwing tantrums, stamping their collective feet, calling us names, and pretending that, just because they wish it was so, we don’t really matter.
The leaders of the NFB have, finally it seems, discovered they can’t always have their way, they aren’t the only fish in the sea, and — yes — ACB is a real organization of blind people who will neither be silent nor complacent as an organization of rehab service providers which purports to represent the interests of consumers who are blind throws a seemingly endless series of temper tantrums, uses all the tactics of a playground bully, and attempts to distract its members and the readers of its publications from the issues that really do matter to blind people.
Mr. Maurer, Mr. Gashel, Ms. Pierce, readers of the Monitor, and people who are blind and visually impaired, and people who care about people who are blind and visually impaired, now hear this! ACB will not be deterred from representing the true needs of people who are blind because the Federation calls us names or pretends we are too insignificant to care about. We believe in the spirit and the promise that are the foundation of vocational rehabilitation in this country. We believe in freedom of choice for blind consumers, and we believe that the agencies that provide rehabilitation services to people who are blind have an obligation to tell their consumers all the facts and allow them to make meaningful choices about their training and their future. There are no “Charlie’s Laws,” but our 13 Principles of Consumer Cooperation are real, fair, and accepted principles of good rehabilitation practice, and those principles continue to be accepted by our members and advocates for blind people across this country and, in fact, the world. Calling the principles “Charlie’s Laws,” and attempting to diminish their value and the truthful way they reflect the best interests of blind people won’t make the principles go away, and neither name-calling nor derision will eliminate these principles of good rehabilitation practice or deter us from making sure that they become the guidelines of every vocational rehabilitation agency that serves people who are blind and visually impaired in this country.
ACB is, in fact, a democracy. Gashel sneered that we call ourselves a confederacy, and that is true. We are a confederacy of people with a range of perspectives, and there is room in our confederacy, and in the pages of our magazine, for all kinds of perspectives and opinions. We do not threaten our members with excommunication if they venture to disagree with our president, members of our board, or our executive director, and we are proud of that fact, and proud of who we are. That is why the American Council of the Blind is the consumer organization of record, with local chapters and state and special interest affiliates where government, industry, agencies, educators, and families come to learn how to include people who are blind in the mainstream of society, and where just plain blind folks come to learn, to find acceptance, and to solve the problems that lack of sight creates.
Have the leaders of the Federation veered too far away from what blind people really need and want? Are they unable or unwilling to take a look at the real world and real blind people and realize that their positions are screening people out and threatening their safety?
Say what you will, Mr. Maurer, Mr. Gashel, Ms. Pierce. Jump up and down, stomp your feet, call us names, and pretend that you are the only people who matter. But, blind people, and that includes lots of your members, and even more of the folks who are leaving your organization and coming into ours, blind people know that access to the built environment is crucial to our inclusion in the society that that environment supports. Blind people know that it’s better to know what’s going on on television than to wonder or pretend. Blind people know that consumers of rehabilitation services need all the facts, all the information, and all the options available to them. Blind people know that there are all kinds of ways to get around and no one way is the right or only way for every blind traveler. (Yes, there are members of ACB who use those long white canes with the Federation seal of approval embossed on them to travel from place to place, and there are folks in ACB who use guide dogs to go from here to there — and we welcome everyone with every mobility aid and we don’t attempt to make one mode seem superior to another.)
The June “Monitor” has momentarily succeeded in distracting me from the course of action I had originally planned to take. I just could not resist the impulse to respond to their invective and their innuendo. There will be time and future pages to discuss Section 508, and voting rights bills that will finally allow blind people to have access to accessible and secret ballots. The subject of video description on television, no matter how much Gashel and Maurer and others in the NFB leadership might wish it to, will not go away, and “The Braille Forum” will continue to cover ACB’s actions on that important front. When we hear that rehab agencies are pointing their consumers toward the Federation and not bothering to mention that the ACB has another opinion, a divergent viewpoint, a different kind of chapter, and a magazine that does more than tout one organizational philosophy, you had better believe that ACB will be at that agency’s door, reminding them of the 13 Principles of Consumer Cooperation which offer just as much protection to the NFB as they do to the Council.
I have been momentarily deterred from my original plans for the August “Braille Forum,” because like a responsible adult, I feel compelled to tell the writers of “The Braille Monitor” to go to their rooms and think about the disgraceful way they have behaved. There is no war; saying it’s so will not make it so. The founders of ACB were right all those years ago to point out the mistakes which NFB’s leaders were making, and ACB was right to become a confederacy of people who welcome a variety of viewpoints and a range of skills, abilities and opinions. When we know we are right, when we know that we do speak for people who are blind, rest assured that we will be speaking out and taking the actions that need to be taken. When you’re ready to engage again in civil discourse, to put aside the tactics of the playground bully and behave like responsible adults, then we will be ready to listen to your opinions, to reach consensus where consensus is possible, and to get on with tackling the issues that are really important to people who are blind.