[nfb-talk] Open Letter to Marc Maurer

[Steve Jacobson]

Marcia,

I don't have time to do your entire note justice tonight, but I think you raise a number of interesting points.  One thing you 
said did get my attention, and I am hoping you find my comments interesting.

You mentioned that people can't afford to buy money identifiers and that such things add to the already long list of things 
we must buy.  You mentioned how you paid for some of your access equipment as well.  I have done the same thing.  I 
work for a large corporation who could certainly afford to purchase equipment for me, but budgeting isn't done at the 
large corporation level, it is done at the department level.  Nobody makes corporations budget access equipment in a 
particular way.  This means that while my requests would not be noticed at the corporate level, they would definitely 
impact my co-workers, the very people I would just as soon not impact.

When we first began talking about money identification, someone suggested that the government make money 
identifiers available to people who needed them and perhaps do some research to develop faster ones.  This approach 
appealed to me partly because it would not require changing the bills, but just as much because I think that it is a 
propper role for government to play, and that perhaps it would open the door to get other special equipment paid for 
again.  At one point, it was pretty automatic in many states that the agency for the blind would pay for equipment that 
resulted in employment.  We lost this along the way, however.  The Republicans wanted to cut government budgets, 
and the Democrats believed that those rich corporations should pay the bill.  As a result, it really does put blind people at 
a disadvantage sometimes.  In general, any time we can get technology to do a job for us rather than have a mass 
change to accommodate us, it is going to be to our advantage.  In other words, I see possible solution to the problem of 
identifying money as an access technology problem that could be dealt with.  It is my believe that in a few years, a 
device like the KNFB Reader will probably be standard equipment for most of us, and we'll need to develop a funding 
source for many of us.  Having said this, I do recognize that changing the currency might well make our currency 
consistent with much of the world's currency, but my seeing the money issue as part of a larger access technology issue 
is an example of how people can see that there is a problem but see different solutions.  

I'm not as upbeat about the changes to employment, though.  It will be quite a while before all old currency would be out 
of circulation.  Also, I suspect the same people who might cheat a blind person handling cash will attempt to create 
tactile equivelents which would be a strange form of counterfeiting.  The same jobs that involve the handling of cash 
also tends to require price verification of purchases.  I think it is likely that some kind of technology will still be needed to 
get us into those jobs.  We'll see what happens though, and I could be wrong.  I suppose the casual trick of saying 
something was a ten that is really a one would be less likely to happen, though.

Anyway, thanks for responding with some thought.  

Steve Jacobson

On Mon, 4 Dec 2006 20:41:12 -0600, MARSHA R WALLEN wrote:

>Steve we seem to agree more than disagree in a lot of this.  I strongly
>agree not every intersection needs APS signals and in all honesty it
>would be way too costly to do this however as you say there are those
>that simply do need them.  No APS signal should be put in place to
>satisfy one individual but in places as the ones we have that are a
>benefit to anyone who might need them.  I live in a very busy area in
>west county and the intersections we are taking about are different.  One
>is angles on a busy six lane street and the other is one of the few
>intersections with a double right turn lane and some other problems. 
>However in no way do you not have to posses decent mobility skills to
>benefit from them.

>On the issue of quiet cars we too in the ACB have discusses this issue
>but lets be honest we are far less likely to do anything about this as
>the manufacturers will work harder and harder to make cars queter so we
>will have to look at other ideas and accomodations.  That battle with car
>manufacturers is one we will never win.  Talk about big bussiness they
>simply will not care.  So that in itself is a good argument in part for
>APS signals becasue they make drivers aware as often the beep or tone may
>make a driver pay attention.  However if you guys have better ideas on
>how to deal with quiet cars I would love to know them.  It takes a
>village as they say.

>On the issue of the money here is the argument I have.  By making money
>accessable you will in fact open up even more jobs for the blind.  We
>could then handle more jobs involving money and without costly money
>identifiers.  This would be a big plus to mainstream employment of the
>blind.  While there are people in the vending program and other blindness
>related programs who have managed to either secure or have their bosses
>secure costly money identifiers to do their jobs when handling large sums
>of money you simply cannot do this in private bussiness.  You cannot walk
>in and apply for a job and then say Mr Manager I need a device to tell
>the bills but if you could tell what they were when you walked in the
>door how cool would that be.  

>Lets look at the issue of employment.  Most of those I know who are the
>working blind work in blindness related fields, i.e.VR counselors,
>teachers, vendors, and or technology fields using access software.  Yes
>there are blind folks out there doing other jobs but they are few and far
>between.  Even my job as a travel consultant is somewhat a blind job in
>that more and more the hospitality industry is hiring the blind for phone
>work but when I started they had never hired a blind person at my company
>and were quit hesitant.  I literally took in my own equipment and for
>five years used it until I got a manager who said he thought it was crazy
>in order to get a job I took in my own equipment and took over supplying
>what I needed.  I explained to him you do what you have to do to get a
>job and I wanted this job bad enough to do what I had to do to get it. 
>You cannot just walk into an office for an interview and demand what you
>need to do your job.  When I started we had under 40 people so the
>company did not have to provide anything and if I had walked in to that
>interview and siad you will get me this this and this I would not be
>where I am now.  However how many blind clerks do you see in stores at
>fast food restaurants, department stores, gas stations, any bussinesses? 
>No they may not be the best job but they are better than unemployment in
>my book.   However with easily identifiable money and registered adapted
>for us then a  world of jobs open up.  Having money easier to identify
>does not make us look helpless or unemployalbe but makes us look more
>capable.  We want to get the unemployment rate down dont we so what we
>can do to improve the gap is one step in that direction.  You may say we
>have blind people in some of these jobs but what I have found is either
>most are high partials or have some type of assistant who helps count
>money if they have no expensive device to do it.  

>Some of these people have secret lives away from the blindness community
>so that you may not know what they really do.  I know of a man whom was a
>very successful computer programmer for a major company and went on to
>sell adaptive software and to all who knew him he was the most well
>adjusted blind man in the world. He had all the training in the world. 
>People in both organizations spoke of how successful this man was however
>as I got to know the family I learned his dark secret.  I wont say his
>name because he was a wonderful man who is no longer with us but he kept
>a lot of secrets.  It turns out this successful man had a secret
>agreement with a driver who would go on trips with him to drive and also
>to help with all the paper work.  No one ever saw him when this guy did
>his work so they did not know about the arrangement.  This man could not
>cook nor clean for himself nor did his blind wife.  They had a
>housekeeper who came in to clean for them and relatives who came over
>each day to help them pick out clothes and get dressed.  Because they
>were both diabetic and had other health issues they also had a visiting
>nurse come in to give their insulin shots and test sugars.   This person
>never went anywhere alone and while his job involved dealing with the
>blind community he was able to keep enough of a distance that no one knew
>his dark secrets.  I thought the world of this man as well but how sad to
>keep such dark secrets and have to add this stress to your life.  Why do
>people feel so compelled to hide what they can and cannot do.  He had 
>training but for whatever reason it just did not work for him and once he
>established a successful bussiness and respect of the blind community he
>could not dare let anyone see how vulnerable he was or to ask for more
>trianing because he knew it would be the start of his failure and his
>ridicule.  I know of people in NFB who also are successful yet I have
>never seen them walk without a sighted guide and on the rare occasions I
>do they seem unsure of their own skils.  There are also those in NFB who
>are in major denial of their blindness.

>That is one issue I have with the NFB view.  I have seen a lot of people
>join the NFB who recently lost sight.  Many of these people honestly are
>not ready to admit they are blind and the philosphy that blindness is
>just an inconvenience and we are just like everyone else and can do
>anything anyone else can feeds on that desire not to admit they are
>blind.  Lets face it blindness is a disability just like any other.  It
>is not crippling and we can do most things that other people do but in a
>different way but we are in fact blind and a lot of these newly blind
>people are not ready to admit they have a problem and take the idea in
>the wrong contest.  There is nothing wrong with being blind and you
>cannot overcome it until you admit you are blind.  We certainly agree on
>that point.  However while NFB cannot help how people take the philosphy
>it is important to realize there are those who hide behind it as well. 
>The same is true in ACB in that you cannot depend on other people to make
>the world a perfect place for you and all the accomodations in the world
>do not equal good solid blindness skills. 

>Now I realize that those blind people who do not make a good impression
>and do not have good skills may reflect badly on the rest of us but lets
>be honest all people are different.  There are as many poorly skilled
>sighted folks in this world and they took make the rest of us look bad
>but it is important to realize that we are all different and some people
>with all the training in the world will never be as successful as the
>rest of us.  The bottom line what we really need to do is to educate the
>public on our differences and to show them those who cannot master all
>the skills of blindness are a small population and that we need to have
>things available to them that can help and that accomodations may make us
>more employable at lesser cost in the long run. 

>I honestly believe fundamentally in a lot of ways we agree.  The issue of
>importance of each issue comes up in both groups.  What is important to
>one person may not be as important to the next so in my view each battle
>is worth fighting  knowing that you can not win them all.  To me marking
>my appliances is far easier than getting manufacturers to make them
>accessable and I would rather concentrate on the money issue where you
>may see it the other way.  I feel that identifiable money is one way to
>help the employment issue and you may not feel this way but that
>disagreement is in both groups.  

>These are just my thoughts.

>Robyn

>I dont just sit around and talk about all this I submitted an idea to my
>bosses to hire more blind and low vision people because overall we can
>compete on a level playing field.  We want jobs and because of the
>massive turnover in my proffession hiring blind individuals would be in
>their best interest because 
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