Carl Nimis sent us his article to promote discussion on a topic surrounding people judging the BVI people on the level of sight one has rather than their competence. How do you feel about this topic?
I have something that I need to address which we need to talk about as a group. We have to start loving ourselves as blind individuals before our sighted peers can respect us. There is nothing wrong with being blind and the techniques we use to get through every day life. I, Myself, use Braille, a white cane, abacus, and technologies provided by Apple to accomplish my daily tasks. I happen to be totally blind. I have been this way since the early '70's through a horrible trauma. I have retained the abilities to compete on the terms of equality with my sighted peers since that time. It took a lot of work, motivation, self-empowerment, and a lot of support of those around me. It was not easy to transition as a sighted child to a blind individual who was expected to be the best at anything I attempted. As a child, I was raised in the restaurant industry where I was expected to work. When I lost my sight, there was no exceptions to those terms. My family also expected me to know how to read and to travel indpendently from point A to point B. They made this a strong priority when I first lost my sight. My family also did not trust the government and their point of view on this issue. I currently work 2 full time jobs in the restaurant industry. I am considered one of the better workers at both my jobs. I work in a Japanese bistro and sushi shop where I clean and maintain the facility, do all the physical prep, and make all the sauces. I cook on the robotta and do saute. I make all the desserts 3 times a week. I work with the sushi chef a few times a week. I also do ice carvings for events. My boss also has enough confidence in me to throw special jobs my way like creating the breakfast menu. At my second job I clean and wash dishes, do prep, and cook on the grill. I also organize the walk-in cooler and storeroom. Last but not least, I do special cleaning projects. This is all accomplished through the skills I have learned as a totally blind person. Again I use Braille, iPhone apps, travel skills, and my culinary knowledge of almost 50 years. Any time I have failed it was not because of my blindness, but because I didn't do the right things. With all this being said, there is something I find extremely frustrating. Why is it that I keep getting asked by both blind and sighted alike how much sight do I have. First off, I find this question very degrading and insulting. Why is it to be on an equal footing we have to have some form of sight? When blind people ask this question, we are telling sighted people we will never be on equal terms with them. Even after all the legislation that has been passed, our competency still seems to rest on whether or not we have any sight. Therefore, if you are totally blind, you can't do anything. Why then are we taught blindness skills and how to live life every day independently if sight is such an almighty important factor? In order for sighted people to respect us, we first need to love and respect ourselves. Asking this question says to the sighted person how similar are we. If you have no sight at all, we have nothing in common. If you have some sight, you are a bit closer to being my equal. We need to stop having sight be the main factor in independence and ability. I think that we as blind people need to stop asking this question of each other and starting working to get things done. Judge us on our competence, not our sigh level. On a lighter note, in my household, if we do something like bump into the other person or miss a hand that's reaching out, we say oh sorry my 20/20 sight isn't working today.
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