[nfbmi-talk] FW: Omvig article_great expectations.doc

[Fred Wurtzel]

Hello,

 

I just sent this piece to the MCB 2020 list.  There are about 30 Commission
staff who subscribe.I want to energize the discussion of expectations and
assisting blind clients to achieve their ultimate goals.  What are your
thoughts?

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Fred

 

  _____  

From: Fred Wurtzel [mailto:f.wurtzel at comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 12:41 AM
To: Michigan Comm for the Blind Vision 20/20 List
(MCB2020-L at LISTSERV.MICHIGAN.GOV)
Cc: 'J.J. Meddaugh'; Jo Ann Pilarski (pilarskij at charter.net); 'Geri
Taeckens'
Subject: Omvig article_great expectations.doc

 

On Friday, the NFB of Michigan presented some scenarios related to the state
of services within the Commission, as we see them. We believe that the root
of the problems encountered by MCB clients can be traced to a generalized
attitude ablut blindness. The following article eloquently articulates the
difficulty of blind people to fully benefit from the abundance of services
available and withheld on a regular basis.




  _____  

Great Expectations:  From the Hierarchy of Sight to the "Hierarchy of Truth"

by James H.  Omvig

 

            One of the most devastating things that can happen to any human
being is to be trapped in the prison of low expectations, but, for the vast
majority of people who are blind, this condition has been the norm rather
than the exception throughout recorded history.  President George W.  Bush
has referred to the problem of lowered expectations as "soft bigotry," and I
think he is right.  Usually, of course, when we think of bigotry, we also
assume a wrong.  In the case of lowered expectations, however, we are
looking at an unintended consequence rather than an intentional wrong.
Perhaps President Bush was alluding to "unintended" when he used the word
"soft." 

 

            As we discuss lowered expectations concerning people who are
blind, just whom are we talking about?  Are we talking about the blind,
themselves?  How about parents and other family members?  Perhaps we are
talking about educators?  Or, could we possibly be talking about blindness
professionals who are employed in the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system?
Could we be talking about members of the general public, or could we be
talking about all of the above?  

 

            The fact is, of course, that we are talking about all of the
above.  While there are exceptions to every rule or to every declarative
statement, it is commonly understood that, throughout history, blind people
have been thought of and regarded as inferiors, incompetent, inept and
virtually irrelevant.  Blind people have been thought of as wards and as
people who need to be taken care of.  They have not been expected to be able
to do for themselves or care for themselves, and they have certainly not
been expected to participate fully in or contribute to society.

 

            Recently, I was asked to devise some way in which expectations
could be measured.  This is a daunting task.  However, I have thought of at
least one possibility:  I call it "the hierarchy of truth."  

 

            Before turning to a discussion of this hierarchical approach,
however, let's examine some cases of low expectations--of soft bigotry.  Dr.
Ronald J.  Ferguson is a Senior Research Fellow at Louisiana Tech
University.  In his recent book, We Know Who We Are1 , Dr.  Ferguson tells
the following disturbing true story about a young, totally blind teenager:

 

When Jessica [fictitious name] was in ninth grade she underwent two weeks of
vocational and academic assessment in conjunction with the writing of her
rehabilitation plan.  A number of tests were administered to determine her
vocational interest as well as academic achievement and potential for
college.  The results on all of the academic assessments showed that
Jessica, although only in ninth grade, had scored in the ninetieth
percentile or higher on tests normed for high school seniors as well as
those normed for first year college students. 

 

                        Jessica's parents permitted an informal survey to be
conducted in several 

                        classrooms at three different universities.
Jessica's test scores were shown 

                        to upper level undergraduates majoring in education
or graduate classes of rehabilitation majors.  The professor asked the
students to give their impression of the student's (a fictitious name was
used) academic potential.  In addition, class members were asked to suggest
possible careers that this person could pursue based on the test results.
Overwhelmingly, class members noted the student had outstanding academic
potential.  Some of the suggestions for a career included engineer, medical
doctor, scientist, and lawyer.

 

            Jessica's parents had not told the university students who
participated in the informal survey that she was blind.  Even so, these
university students were mystified when they learned that, reviewing these
same test results, Jessica's rehabilitation counselor had suggested that she
consider careers not as an engineer but as a secretary, not as a medical
doctor but as a receptionist, not as a scientist but as a customer service
representative, and not as a lawyer but as a computer operator.  

 

            Just consider:  The blindness professional who had been trained
to serve and help the blind, expected about the same of the bright blind
teenager as might have been expected by the average person on the street.
No one would suggest for one minute that this professional intentionally
tried to hurt the young blind woman or do her wrong in any way.  His or her
motive would have been the exact opposite--to help in a positive manner.  It
was the counselor's understanding of blindness--or lack of
understanding--which led to the problem and the soft bigotry.  One is
tempted to wonder how the VR counselor's expectations could vary so markedly
from those of the young college students who looked at the same test scores.
Obviously, the counselor did not know the truth about blindness.

 

            Consider another case.  A student working on a Master's degree
in orientation and mobility (O and M)--another blindness professional--tells
her classmates that she has just met the best blind traveler she has ever
encountered.  She is working with him in the San Francisco area to teach him
how to manage the BART rapid transportation system.

 

            A classmate, a blind person named Fred Schroeder, asks
innocently, "If your student is such a great traveler, why does he need you
to help him?"  

 

            The O and M student responds, completely oblivious to the
implications concerning lowered expectations of her reply, "He needs me
because a blind person cannot learn to manage BART without help."  

 

            The young Fred Schroeder asks, "Who do you believe taught me to
handle the BART?"

 

            The sighted student replies, "I don't know.  Who did?"  The
young student was in a master's class to learn to teach blind people, and, I
am certain, she believed that she held high expectations for the
capabilities of the blind in general and her students in particular.  She
didn't!  The fact is that Schroeder had taught himself.  The problem was
that the young sighted student did not understand the true nature of
blindness and, therefore, did not understand the true capabilities of blind
people.

 

            The question of lowered expectations is complex.  Blindness
professionals of today all discuss the need for raising expectations, and
they give the impression that this is happening routinely.  I am sure they
believe that the issue has been addressed and, since it is so prominently
discussed, that the historic problem has been fixed.  I should point out
here that when we are talking about the problem of lowered expectations, we
are not implying that there has been an intentional wrong.  In work with the
blind, it is almost universal that people intend to do right.  However, even
though we are dealing with good intentions, expectations continue to remain
too low, and therefore, the problem for blind people continues to be soft
bigotry.

 


The Interpersonal Expectancy Effect2


            A Harvard researcher, Robert Rosenthal, showed the remarkable
effects of expectations in a study conducted in 1964 and 1965.  Rosenthal
was concerned that "one person's expectation for another's behavior could
come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy."3   He conducted his study in a
California school which operated under an ability-tracking system, whereby
each of the school's six grades was divided into three groups:  fast,
medium, and slow.  After the principal of the California school had read a
Rosenthal article on "investigator expectancy effect" which discussed the
fact that the bias of the researcher was reflected in the outcome of certain
studies, she wondered if the expectations her teachers had for their
students had anything to do with the level at which the students performed
along with their resulting placement in one of the three tracks.  Because of
this concern, the principal had invited Rosenthal to conduct the study at
her school.


 


            rosenthal began his study by administering IQ tests to selected
students.  He then lumped students into two groupings--those who were
expected to improve at an average rate and those who would be expected to
improve at a superior rate.  He told the teachers who would be working with
the youngsters which students were expected to be average and which should
be superior.


 


            Rosenthal returned to the school several times over a two-year
period, and he retested the students on each visit.  His findings were what
he had feared:  the self-fulfilling prophecy had come true! The average
students functioned at an average rate, and the so-called superior students
improved at a superior rate.  In fact, the tests showed that the IQ levels
actually increased significantly and tracked with the expectations of each
group.


 


            When the study had been completed, Rosenthal revealed the
startling truth.  When he had split the students into two groups, he had
done so randomly.  However, he had led the teachers to believe that those
listed in the average group consisted of students who had tested at an
average level, and the ones listed in the superior group included those who
had tested superior.  Because of the expectations the teachers had for the
members of each group, this is precisely how the students achieved.  No
doubt, the teachers who were involved in this study believed that they held
not only fair but also high expectations for all of their students in both
groups-no doubt they were people with good intentions.


 


            Since this problem of soft bigotry could arise among teachers
who assumed that they were teaching "normal" children, just imagine the
impact of lowered expectations on an entire group of people who are
perceived by society to be something less than normal.  Among other things,
this study shows clearly that people who believe they have high expectations
for those with whom they are working often don't, and good intentions alone
don't cut it.  


 


 


The Hierarchy of Truth


            Federationists may exhibit some skepticism if I introduce a
hierarchical approach into the issue of expectations for an appropriate
level of achievement among blind people.  In the past, for example, those of
us who have been involved in the orientation and adjustment process have
disavowed the myth of the "hierarchy of sight," and we have debunked it.
Those who adhere to this hierarchical approach believe that the level to
which a blind person can be competent and successful rises or falls in
direct proportion to the amount of vision he or she has.  Those who hold
this view are dead wrong.  The fact is that the amount of vision-if any-a
blind person possesses has nothing whatever to do with competence,
happiness, success, or anything else.


 


            But, I believe that the hierarchy of truth is another matter
altogether:  that is, the level of expectations an individual has concerning
maximum achievement and success for the blind as a group--or for a
particular blind individual--rises or falls in direct proportion to the
level of "emotional"--not just intellectual--understanding and acceptance he
or she has regarding the "truth" about blindness.  This is true regardless
of whose expectations are being examined--the family, society in general,
the blind individual, or, particularly, the blindness professional involved.



 


            And what is the "truth" about blindness?   It may be stated
quite simply and in only a few sentences.  First, (as Dr.  tenBroek was fond
of saying) blind people are "normal" human beings or, at least as normal as
human beings are:  That is, we are ordinary people who just happen to be
blind.  The physical condition of blindness is nothing more than a normal
human characteristic no different from all of the others which, taken
together, molds each of us into a unique person.  We who are blind are
merely a cross-section of society as a whole, and, given proper training and
opportunity, the average blind person-not those perceived as the
super-blind-can participate fully in society and can compete on terms of
absolute equality with his or her peers.  The real problem of blindness is
not the loss of eyesight itself, but rather is rooted in the public's
misunderstandings, misconceptions, and superstitions about it.  In short,
the blind are a minority in every sense of that term, and service providers
must come to understand this significant fact and focus their blindness
services accordingly.  Simply put, it is respectable to be blind! It is this
truth that should be adopted by schools and agencies as the "defined
philosophy" they teach regularly to their customers.


 


            From all of the above, it naturally follows that, if a blindness
professional truly understands blindness and believes that blind people are
normal people who can do what normal people do--that is, if the blindness
professional knows the truth about blindness--then proper (normal)
expectations will be set for blind customers.  Further, the blindness
professional, whether educator or rehabilitator, will arrange for services
which will raise the expectation bar for the blind customer to the level
they should be, and the customer will be empowered as a result.  In general,
the expectation level for a particular blind customer should be precisely
the same as it would be for that same individual if blindness were removed
from the equation. 


 


            Here is a true story concerning a proper level of expectation.
When Joanne Wilson was directing the Louisiana Center for the Blind, she had
high expectations--expectations of normality--for her students.  When one
young male student left the Center, he went on to college at a major
university.  There were five or six other blind young men in his dormitory.
They had not experienced National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Center
training and empowerment.


 


            A couple of years later, Joanne encountered this young man at a
meeting.  He thanked her profusely for "making me different."  Joanne asked
him what he meant, and he recounted the following story:


 


            On a Sunday afternoon, when he felt that he had some extra cash,
he grabbed his cane, left his dorm room, went to the bus stop and took a bus
to the local K-Mart, purchased a TV, rode the bus back home, and connected
his new treasure.  That evening, he invited his blind friends in to watch
his new TV.  


 


            To a person, they were shocked.  "How did you do that?"  "You
mean you took a bus and went to the store by yourself?"  "How could you find
the store?"  "How could you find the TV's and decide which one to buy?"  


 


            Joanne Wilson knows the truth about blindness and sets
expectation levels in accordance with this truth.  Then she routinely passes
it on to those around her.  As a result, they have great (normal)
expectations for themselves and are not prisoners in the very system that
was intended to set them free.


 


            I pointed out above that the problems of lowered expectations
are very nearly universal.  They are shared by members of the general
public, employers, family members and friends, and, all too often, by the
blind themselves--they have bought hook, line, and sinker, into the myth of
the hierarchy of sight.  Ultimately, of course, the general public will come
to understand the truth of the normality of blind people--the blind
themselves have the primary responsibility for making this happen.  So, too,
family members and friends will "get it," but this will probably happen only
when blind people themselves have come to know the truth and can share it
with others:  that is, when their success and happiness have risen to the
level which is commensurate with their comprehension and internalization of
the truth about blindness.  


 


            This brings us to the ultimate question:  How, then, can blind
people learn the fundamental truth about blindness and thus become
empowered?  There can be but one answer--the duty rests with blindness
professionals!  It is their obligation to give their blind students or
customers inspiration, optimism, and the golden gift of hope.  It is their
obligation to raise the level of expectations to that level which is
"normal" for each of their blind customers.  It is not the function of
blindness professionals to tell their customers what "cannot be done."  The
main function of the genuine professional is to help his or her customers
raise expectations and do what to them, in the beginning, may seem
impossible.  There are obstacles enough in the path of the blind person
without having the blindness professional or the blindness system itself add
to them.  


 


            The NFB has discovered the truth about blindness, and this truth
is routinely shared with blind students who attend NFB centers.  Similarly,
this truth is presented as a part of our Master's degree programs at
Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.  One of the most exciting developments
to occur in recent years has been the acceptance of this truth by more and
more educators and rehabilitators.  There seems to be only one way that
people-either blind individuals or blindness professionals-can internalize
this truth universally and raise the bar:  that is, through immersion into
blindness.  Full immersion is what happens at the NFB training centers, and
it is also what happens for students of the Louisiana Tech program.  This
practice must become the norm across this nation.


 


            Therefore, my urgent plea is that blindness professionals take
advantage of the information that is available for the asking and learn the
truth about blindness.  By so doing, you will be empowered to raise the
level of your own expectations for your customers to what will be normal
levels for each of them.  In turn, you can guide them to raise their levels
of expectations accordingly.  Give them inspiration!  Give them the truth
about blindness!  Give them hope because where there is no hope for the
future, there is no power for the present!  If you give your customers all
of these things, they will have appropriate expectations for themselves and,
therefore, they will be encouraged to do all of those things which normal
people do.  For the blind, great expectations are nothing more than normal
expectations as measured against the truth about blindness.


 


 


            

            

 

 

            

 

                        

 

            

-------------- next part --------------
Great Expectations: From the Hierarchy of Sight to the "Hierarchy of Truth"
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Hello,
 
I just sent this piece to the MCB 2020 list.  There are about 30 Commission staff who subscribe.I want to energize the discussion of expectations and assisting blind clients to achieve their ultimate goals.  What are your thoughts?
 
Warmest Regards,
 
Fred
 
From:
Fred Wurtzel [mailto:f.wurtzel at comcast.net]
Sent:
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 12:41 AM
To:
Michigan Comm for the Blind Vision 20/20 List
(MCB2020-L at LISTSERV.MICHIGAN.GOV)
Cc:
'J.J. Meddaugh';
Jo Ann Pilarski
(pilarskij at charter.net); 'Geri Taeckens'
Subject:
Omvig article_great expectations.doc
 
On Friday, the NFB of Michigan presented some scenarios related to the state of services within the Commission, as we see them. We believe that the root of the problems encountered by MCB clients can be traced to a generalized attitude ablut blindness. The following article eloquently articulates the difficulty of blind people to fully benefit from the abundance of services available and withheld on a regular basis.
Great Expectations:  From the Hierarchy of Sight to the "Hierarchy of Truth"
by James H.  Omvig
 
            One of the most devastating things that can happen to any human being is to be trapped in the prison of low expectations, but, for the vast majority of people who are blind, this condition has been the norm rather than the exception throughout recorded history.  President George W.  Bush has referred to the problem of lowered expectations as "soft bigotry," and I think he is right.  Usually, of course, when we think of bigotry, we also assume a wrong.  In the case of lowered expectations, however, we are looking at an unintended consequence rather than an intentional wrong.  Perhaps President Bush was alluding to "unintended" when he used the word "soft."
 
            As we discuss lowered expectations concerning people who are blind, just whom are we talking about?  Are we talking about the blind, themselves?  How about parents and other family members?  Perhaps we are talking about educators?  Or, could we possibly be talking about blindness professionals who are employed in the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system?  Could we be talking about members of the general public, or could we be talking about all of the above? 
 
            The fact is, of course, that we are talking about all of the above.  While there are exceptions to every rule or to every declarative statement, it is commonly understood that, throughout history, blind people have been thought of and regarded as inferiors, incompetent, inept and virtually irrelevant.  Blind people have been thought of as wards and as people who need to be taken care of.  They have not been expected to be able to do for themselves or care for themselves, and they have certainly not been expected to participate fully in or contribute to society.
 
            Recently, I was asked to devise some way in which expectations could be measured.  This is a daunting task.  However, I have thought of at least one possibility:  I call it "the hierarchy of truth." 
 
            Before turning to a discussion of this hierarchical approach, however, let's examine some cases of low expectations--of soft bigotry.  Dr.  Ronald J. 
Ferguson
is a Senior Research Fellow at
Louisiana
Tech
University
.  In his recent book,
We Know Who We Are
1
, Dr. 
Ferguson
tells the following disturbing true story about a young, totally blind teenager:
 
When Jessica [fictitious name] was in ninth grade she underwent two weeks of vocational and academic assessment in conjunction with the writing of her rehabilitation plan.  A number of tests were administered to determine her vocational interest as well as academic achievement and potential for college.  The results on all of the academic assessments showed that Jessica, although only in ninth grade, had scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher on tests normed for high school seniors as well as those normed for first year college students.
 
                        Jessica's parents permitted an informal survey to be conducted in several
                        classrooms at three different universities.  Jessica's test scores were shown
                        to upper level undergraduates majoring in education or graduate classes of rehabilitation majors.  The professor asked the students to give their impression of the student's (a fictitious name was used) academic potential.  In addition, class members were asked to suggest possible careers that this person could pursue based on the test results.  Overwhelmingly, class members noted the student had outstanding academic potential.  Some of the suggestions for a career included engineer, medical doctor, scientist, and lawyer.
 
            Jessica's parents had not told the university students who participated in the informal survey that she was blind.  Even so, these university students were mystified when they learned that, reviewing these same test results, Jessica's rehabilitation counselor had suggested that she consider careers not as an engineer but as a secretary, not as a medical doctor but as a receptionist, not as a scientist but as a customer service representative, and not as a lawyer but as a computer operator. 
 
            Just consider:  The blindness professional who had been trained to serve and help the blind, expected about the same of the bright blind teenager as might have been expected by the average person on the street.  No one would suggest for one minute that this professional intentionally tried to hurt the young blind woman or do her wrong in any way.  His or her motive would have been the exact opposite--to help in a positive manner.  It was the counselor's understanding of blindness--or lack of understanding--which led to the problem and the soft bigotry.  One is tempted to wonder how the VR counselor's expectations could vary so markedly from those of the young college students who looked at the same test scores.  Obviously, the counselor did not know the truth about blindness.
 
            Consider another case.  A student working on a Master's degree in orientation and mobility (O and M)--another blindness professional--tells her classmates that she has just met the best blind traveler she has ever encountered.  She is working with him in the
San Francisco
area to teach him how to manage the BART rapid transportation system.
 
            A classmate, a blind person named Fred Schroeder, asks innocently, "If your student is such a great traveler, why does he need you to help him?" 
 
            The O and M student responds, completely oblivious to the implications concerning lowered expectations of her reply, "He needs me because a blind person cannot learn to manage BART without help." 
 
            The young Fred Schroeder asks, "Who do you believe taught me to handle the BART?"
 
            The sighted student replies, "I don't know.  Who did?"  The young student was in a master's class to learn to teach blind people, and, I am certain, she believed that she held high expectations for the capabilities of the blind in general and her students in particular.  She didn't!  The fact is that Schroeder had taught himself.  The problem was that the young sighted student did not understand the true nature of blindness and, therefore, did not understand the true capabilities of blind people.
 
            The question of lowered expectations is complex.  Blindness professionals of today all discuss the need for raising expectations, and they give the impression that this is happening routinely.  I am sure they believe that the issue has been addressed and, since it is so prominently discussed, that the historic problem has been fixed.  I should point out here that when we are talking about the problem of lowered expectations, we are not implying that there has been an intentional wrong.  In work with the blind, it is almost universal that people intend to do right.  However, even though we are dealing with good intentions, expectations continue to remain too low, and therefore, the problem for blind people continues to be soft bigotry.
 
The Interpersonal Expectancy Effect
2
            A Harvard researcher, Robert Rosenthal, showed the remarkable effects of expectations in a study conducted in 1964 and 1965.  Rosenthal was concerned that "one person's expectation for another's behavior could come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy."
3
   He conducted his study in a
California
school which operated under an ability-tracking system, whereby each of the school's six grades was divided into three groups:  fast, medium, and slow.  After the principal of the California school had read a Rosenthal article on "investigator expectancy effect" which discussed the fact that the bias of the researcher was reflected in the outcome of certain studies, she wondered if the expectations her teachers had for their students had anything to do with the level at which the students performed along with their resulting placement in one of the three tracks.  Because of this concern, the principal had invited Rosenthal to conduct the study at her school.
 
            rosenthal began his study by administering IQ tests to selected students.  He then lumped students into two groupings--those who were expected to improve at an average rate and those who would be expected to improve at a superior rate.  He told the teachers who would be working with the youngsters which students were expected to be average and which should be superior.
 
            Rosenthal returned to the school several times over a two-year period, and he retested the students on each visit.  His findings were what he had feared:  the self-fulfilling prophecy had come true! The average students functioned at an average rate, and the so-called superior students improved at a superior rate.  In fact, the tests showed that the IQ levels actually increased significantly and tracked with the expectations of each group.
 
            When the study had been completed, Rosenthal revealed the startling truth.  When he had split the students into two groups, he had done so randomly.  However, he had led the teachers to believe that those listed in the average group consisted of students who had tested at an average level, and the ones listed in the superior group included those who had tested superior.  Because of the expectations the teachers had for the members of each group, this is precisely how the students achieved.  No doubt, the teachers who were involved in this study believed that they held not only fair but also high expectations for all of their students in both groups-no doubt they were people with good intentions.
 
            Since this problem of soft bigotry could arise among teachers who assumed that they were teaching "normal" children, just imagine the impact of lowered expectations on an entire group of people who are perceived by society to be something less than normal.  Among other things, this study shows clearly that people who believe they have high expectations for those with whom they are working often don't, and good intentions alone don't cut it. 
 
 
The Hierarchy of Truth
            Federationists may exhibit some skepticism if I introduce a hierarchical approach into the issue of expectations for an appropriate level of achievement among blind people.  In the past, for example, those of us who have been involved in the orientation and adjustment process have disavowed the myth of the "hierarchy of sight," and we have debunked it.  Those who adhere to this hierarchical approach believe that the level to which a blind person can be competent and successful rises or falls in direct proportion to the amount of vision he or she has.  Those who hold this view are dead wrong.  The fact is that the amount of vision-if any-a blind person possesses has nothing whatever to do with competence, happiness, success, or anything else.
 
            But, I believe that the hierarchy of truth is another matter altogether:  that is, the level of expectations an individual has concerning maximum achievement and success for the blind as a group--or for a particular blind individual--rises or falls in direct proportion to the level of "emotional"--not just intellectual--understanding and acceptance he or she has regarding the "truth" about blindness.  This is true regardless of whose expectations are being examined--the family, society in general, the blind individual, or, particularly, the blindness professional involved. 
 
            And what is the "truth" about blindness?   It may be stated quite simply and in only a few sentences.  First, (as Dr.  tenBroek was fond of saying) blind people are "normal" human beings or, at least as normal as human beings are:  That is, we are ordinary people who just happen to be blind.  The physical condition of blindness is nothing more than a normal human characteristic no different from all of the others which, taken together, molds each of us into a unique person.  We who are blind are merely a cross-section of society as a whole, and, given proper training and opportunity, the average blind person-not those perceived as the super-blind-can participate fully in society and can compete on terms of absolute equality with his or her peers.  The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight itself, but rather is rooted in the public's misunderstandings, misconceptions, and superstitions about it.  In short, the blind are a minority in every sense of that term, and service providers must come to understand this significant fact and focus their blindness services accordingly.  Simply put, it is respectable to be blind! It is this truth that should be adopted by schools and agencies as the "defined philosophy" they teach regularly to their customers.
 
            From all of the above, it naturally follows that, if a blindness professional truly understands blindness and believes that blind people are normal people who can do what normal people do--that is, if the blindness professional knows the truth about blindness--then proper (normal) expectations will be set for blind customers.  Further, the blindness professional, whether educator or rehabilitator, will arrange for services which will raise the expectation bar for the blind customer to the level they should be, and the customer will be empowered as a result.  In general, the expectation level for a particular blind customer should be precisely the same as it would be for that same individual if blindness were removed from the equation.
 
            Here is a true story concerning a proper level of expectation.  When Joanne Wilson was directing the
Louisiana
Center
for the Blind, she had high expectations--expectations of normality--for her students.  When one young male student left the Center, he went on to college at a major university.  There were five or six other blind young men in his dormitory.  They had not experienced National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Center training and empowerment.
 
            A couple of years later, Joanne encountered this young man at a meeting.  He thanked her profusely for "making me different."  Joanne asked him what he meant, and he recounted the following story:
 
            On a Sunday afternoon, when he felt that he had some extra cash, he grabbed his cane, left his dorm room, went to the bus stop and took a bus to the local K-Mart, purchased a TV, rode the bus back home, and connected his new treasure.  That evening, he invited his blind friends in to watch his new TV. 
 
            To a person, they were shocked.  "How did you do that?"  "You mean you took a bus and went to the store by yourself?"  "How could you find the store?"  "How could you find the TV's and decide which one to buy?" 
 
            Joanne Wilson knows the truth about blindness and sets expectation levels in accordance with this truth.  Then she routinely passes it on to those around her.  As a result, they have great (normal) expectations for themselves and are not prisoners in the very system that was intended to set them free.
 
            I pointed out above that the problems of lowered expectations are very nearly universal.  They are shared by members of the general public, employers, family members and friends, and, all too often, by the blind themselves--they have bought hook, line, and sinker, into the myth of the hierarchy of sight.  Ultimately, of course, the general public will come to understand the truth of the normality of blind people--the blind themselves have the primary responsibility for making this happen.  So, too, family members and friends will "get it," but this will probably happen only when blind people themselves have come to know the truth and can share it with others:  that is, when their success and happiness have risen to the level which is commensurate with their comprehension and internalization of the truth about blindness. 
 
            This brings us to the ultimate question:  How, then, can blind people learn the fundamental truth about blindness and thus become empowered?  There can be but one answer--the duty rests with blindness professionals!  It is their obligation to give their blind students or customers inspiration, optimism, and the golden gift of hope.  It is their obligation to raise the level of expectations to that level which is "normal" for each of their blind customers.  It is not the function of blindness professionals to tell their customers what "cannot be done."  The main function of the genuine professional is to help his or her customers raise expectations and do what to them, in the beginning, may seem impossible.  There are obstacles enough in the path of the blind person without having the blindness professional or the blindness system itself add to them. 
 
            The NFB has discovered the truth about blindness, and this truth is routinely shared with blind students who attend NFB centers.  Similarly, this truth is presented as a part of our Master's degree programs at
Louisiana
Tech
University
in
Ruston
.  One of the most exciting developments to occur in recent years has been the acceptance of this truth by more and more educators and rehabilitators.  There seems to be only one way that people-either blind individuals or blindness professionals-can internalize this truth universally and raise the bar:  that is, through immersion into blindness.  Full immersion is what happens at the NFB training centers, and it is also what happens for students of the
Louisiana
Tech program.  This practice must become the norm across this nation.
 
            Therefore, my urgent plea is that blindness professionals take advantage of the information that is available for the asking and learn the truth about blindness.  By so doing, you will be empowered to raise the level of your own expectations for your customers to what will be normal levels for each of them.  In turn, you can guide them to raise their levels of expectations accordingly.  Give them inspiration!  Give them the truth about blindness!  Give them hope because where there is no hope for the future, there is no power for the present!  If you give your customers all of these things, they will have appropriate expectations for themselves and, therefore, they will be encouraged to do all of those things which normal people do.  For the blind, great expectations are nothing more than normal expectations as measured against the truth about blindness.