I just returned from the National Federation of the Blind convention in Dallas. I feel extremely exhausted, yet reinvigorated with energy from all that I learned and the people I ran into. Making a summary of my adventure here are the things I learned.
1. You never know who you are going to meet and what difference you may make in their lives. Liz Graves and I had the pleasure of meeting an 8 year old who had never used a cane before. We got her a cane, showed her how to use it, and she took some lessons in cane travel with sleep shades. She was really excited to be amongst other people who share her same characteristic.
2. Going off of the above observation, our schools are failing blind, and especially our visually impaired children. For some reason schools all over the nation are still focused on how much a child can or cannot see, and are not teaching them braille and cane travel. This is not an isolated incident, but a reoccurring theme. If a child has to strain his or her eyes to see what’s on a page and cannot see the board, they should be reading braille. If a child cannot go down stairs without constantly looking down, then they should be using a cane.
3. People still question equality on many levels. Don't get me wrong, we are still far from understanding equality in other areas, but this is one issue that people still try to reason. Currently in the United States it is totally legal to pay people with disabilities LESS than the minimum wage. This is justified by saying that people with severe disabilities could not be employable otherwise. People are getting paid cents on the dollar. This is by no means a wage to live on. Yet people still try to justify why this practice in in place. We are currently working to get that portion of the law removed, but until then many people are not getting a fair wage. Anil Lewis put it best by saying it is "unfair, discriminatory and immoral"
(Anil Lewis speaking at convention, very engaging, let me just say I got to interpret his speech into Spanish and I had a blast doing it)
4. All my friends know that I am a huge fan of Ray Kurzweil. Yes I am a bit obsessed. But come on, this guy is a genius. He spoke about how our brain how millions of connections, and if we want to change a thought, it is not just one connection, but many. He said it much better by the way.
(For those of you who do not know Ray Kurzweil invented scanners, text to speech software and other technology that will blow your mind! Not to mention he has invented things that at present cannot be made, but will be with future technology. Ok I will stop now.)
5. It is always great to see old friends and meet new ones! As much as I am busy, I always make time to hang out and socialize. Even if this means staying up past the early morning hours. I am always surprised by how much fun I have and how people have such different experiences. I laugh till my stomach hurts, dance till my feet hurt, sing till my voice is gone and share stories till I know people at least a bit more.
6. The last thing I learned is that I totally need to take more pictures! I used to take so many, now I just have too much fun. Who wants to follow me around and be my personal photographer?
Until next time off I go to get some sleep and buy some food! Already missing my NFB family, until next year!
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