WOW! It's been awhile since I posted here!  Sorry for the absence, I have been working on finishing up my Bachelor's Degree and as of December, 2015 I am a college graduate!!

I finished up my long started History degree with a final research paper on the Disability Movement and boy did I learn a lot that I didn't know even happened during my life time!

The disabled have been fighting for rights since the 1940s with little success.  Even FDR's disability was hidden from public view during his presidency.  The first significant legislation changes didn't happen until 1973 with the Rehabilitation Act that allowed disabled people to work and live with accommodations in the real world.  This Act opened the door for the disabled to venture forth for new and exciting experiences and fight for more rights. (with many bumps in the road along the way) I found my research very enlightening and interesting on how Americans view the disabled.  I knew most thought of us as "unable" and "useless" or even "freaks".  I get asked quite often, "why are you getting a college degree?" or "what are going to do with a college degree? You can't do anything." Well, my intention is to prove everyone wrong.  I can and I will.  Just because I cannot see like someone with 20/20 or even 20/60 vision can doesn't mean I can't do something.  Reagan thought that the disabled caused "undo burden" on businesses and tried to eliminate the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  This caused a mountain of letters and phone calls to Congress and the White House that he did not expect or plan for.  Not to mention that this happened just 2 years after he signed a proclamation declaring a "Decade of the Disabled Person" which is mentioned very seldom in major newspapers across the U.S.  The "Decade" was to spread awareness of the abilities of the disabled, not hinder them.  Other countries had events and programs introducing the disabled and educated the public regarding the disabled.  Today, these countries are well adapted to the disabled and offer many opportunities.   The U.S.? Not so much.  In 1988 Gallaudet University, a deaf university in Washington D.C., elected a hearing president to run their school. This new president was elected from a pool that included 6 qualified deaf candidates.  The new president did not know sign language and was not a previous employee of any disability community.  The students and some of the administration did not like this decision so they rallied which resulted in marches down Pennsylvania Ave. and shutting down the university for 2 weeks.  During this protest, the new president stepped down and they appointed a new, deaf president. Through a group effort disabled people gained the American's with Disabilities Act in 1990.  The movement is not over though.  This is only a step in the right direction.  The minds of the nation's people need to be educated and informed.  Everyone deserves the same right to succeed or fail and the discrimination needs to be stopped.  Unlike the other civil rights movements disability can happen to anyone at anytime.  It is not something that should be swept under the rug and ignored because it doesn't include you.  At 18 or even 24 I would have never guessed I would lose my eyesight, but I am.  I would have never guessed at 45 I would be wearing hearing aids, but I am.  Life is a hat filled with challenges and I am pulling them all out at once.  I am preparing for the next chapter of my life and it will be a loud one!

My next chapter is this....I am starting my new journey at Western Michigan University in their Vision Rehabilitation Therapy Masters Degree program.  I want a Ph.D. but there are NO programs that high for disability.  This is how new and misunderstood disability is, they can't even create a degree for it yet.  I even looked at Rehabilitation and the only degree I can find is Rehabilitation Counseling.  I want to do more than that!

I sign off with this thought.  What would the high and mighty government people do if they were suddenly disabled and stuck by their own laws and inaccessible dreams?  Wallow in their own self pity? Take others' pity?  How would they handle being told, "you can't do that now"?  Disability is not prejudice or discriminatory.  It can happen to anyone, anytime, at any moment.

What is blind and/or visually impaired

What is Blind and/or Visually Impaired

                   


What would you do if you suddenly lost your eye sight?  Do you even know what being "Legally Blind" is?  Millions of people wear glasses and everyone is different.  Most cases don't happen as suddenly as the one in the video below but it can happen.

Blind Devotion by The Jubilee Project

My eyesight was considered "normal" until I was around 25 years old.  I wore glasses but nothing major.  I knew ahead of time that there was a chance of something going wrong with my eyes.  Both my maternal Grandfather and my mother were consider "legally blind" by the time they were in their 40s and 50s so I thought I had plenty of time to enjoy life.  I was wrong.  Time flies.  Life goes on.  By the time I was in my late 30s I was considered "legally blind".  My vision clinically hasn't changed since then.  There are certain aspects of my vision that have changed though.  For instance, color vision....it sucks.  There isn't a day that goes by that I mistake orange and pink or yellow, blue with green or black, and do get me started with pastels.  I have changed my wardrobe to have either vibrant colors or neutrals so everything goes together.  Another thing that has changed is the sensitivity to light.  Most days I wander around in the dark because lights hurt.  I don't watch TV much anymore because I can't see it very well from a distance.  I manage.  I can't see my feet when I walk so I trip over things. (Try explaining to a 2 or 3 yr old that they have to keep things off the floor or grandma will get hurt)  Like I mentioned in my last post I tend to not use my cane as I am supposed to.  I am making it my life's goal to do this more often.


                      

What do Blind people see?

As defined by the American Federation of the Blind, legally blind is having eyesight no better than 20/200 corrected vision in the better eye, or a visual field not extending beyond 20 degrees in the better eye, or a visual efficiency of no more than 20 percent.  To most people this is all Greek.  In everyday terms it basically means what a normal person reads at 200 feet a "legally blind" person can't see until it is 20 feet away.

Personally, I think the correct term should be visually challenged.  But society hasn't caught on yet.



Deconstructing Disability - The Stream

Educating the public will be my next blog but I thought the above video summed up the overall thoughts.

Welcome to my new blog page!!

Originally, I thought of writing this page to work out a book I wanted to write.  Well, after six months I have nothing!  I blame everyone and everything except myself.  Then today, one of the worst days that can ever happen, an idea came to me.  Let me first explain what brought me to this idea:

I normally avoid stores like Walmart, for obvious reasons.  Today, though, I was on my way home and the closest store to my house is the Neighborhood Market Walmart (a smaller version of the Superstore, just grocery).  We needed to just run in for two things and run out.  Well, upon entering we went straight for the aisle that houses one of the items we needed.  In this aisle I push my cart, on the right side of the aisle, and notice a lady with her three teenage children walking straight down the center of the aisle.  I slow my cart so she can choose her side to walk on and she passes me.  Now, being legally blind I see fuzzy shapes past about 20 ft in front of me.  One of her children is approaching my cart with his head down and playing a game or something of the like.  I stop my cart so not to run into him.  As the child walks into my cart because he is not paying any attention, I hear from behind me that "I" need to watch where I am going because her child is Autistic and doesn't know better.  Well, I have a couple of problems with this statement.  1.) The child is competent enough to walk and stay with the group and play a game, 2.) if said child is that incapable of avoiding problems then he needs to be watched more closely, 3.) A disability is no excuse for anything.  I informed the lady that, 1.) I had stopped and he ran into me and 2.) How am I supposed to know he is Autistic unless he is wearing a sign.  I never mentioned that I, myself had a disability.  I believe that is no excuse for ignorance.  My daughter ended up pulling me away before I said anything else and caused a scene.

This incident really bothers me.  I raised a high functioning Autistic child.  I always told him that just because he is disabled doesn't mean he can't do anything.  How else is he to be a contributing citizen.  I won't say he is perfect but he has come miles further than his doctors ever said he would.  Children learn by example and the lessons this lady is teaching her children are not good ones.  In the end her son will need someone to take care of him for the rest of his life.  Where my son, holds a job and has his own family now.  He still has some communication issues but we work through them every day.

Disabled does not mean you are not able to do things on your own.  It means you just have to do them differently.  For instance, my disorder is Retinal Cone Dystrophy.  It affects my vision with light, glare and distance.  I cannot read a printed book very well at all but I love to read.  If at all possible I find books on audio.  Audibles, Inc. (www.audibles.com) is an awesome resource for audio books.  There is also the Library of Congress who offers free audio books for the blind and disabled.  So, I can still enjoy reading a novel just like everyone else.  I also enjoy playing World of Warcraft.  This is a bit more tricky but not impossible with the assistance of add-on programs to alter some of the features. Just to top off all of my capabilities, I also drive a car on a regular basis.  There is nothing more satisfying than to get out of a driver's seat with a blind cane (that I am reluctant to carry due to being stereotyped). I drive with what are called Bioptic glasses, they have a sort of telescope on them to help with the things that require distance vision.

I am in the process of finishing my first Bachelors' Degree in European History in college.  I am scheduled to graduate in May, 2016!  (Get this, my education is the same education that everyone else gets!!! Amazing isn't it??)  My next step is to enter the Education Department and get a second Bachelors' Degree in Secondary Education and Special Education.  My plans are to educate both the "normal" world and the "disabled" world.  I find it fascinating that I can go out into the world and run into at least 2 - 5 people who treat me like I have a disease or that because I am not "normal" in their small universe that I am incapable of being intelligent.  I don't get special privileges just because I have to do things differently.  I do get what are called "accommodations".  These are things I need in order to do the work (i.e. a program to blow up a computer screen, note takers, recording devices...).

Enough about me and my thoughts on the day.  I am going to start posting entries that educate and inform everyone.  I think starting with the next post I will explain exactly what "legally blind" means and that it is different for everyone.

Until next time, I will leave you with this article from New Zealand.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2992594/Woman-28-left-humiliated-tears-bus-driver-laughed-face-refused-believe-s-blind.html