Nebraska NFB State Convention

So today is Monday and I am barely recuperating from a convention put on by the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska. The convention is an annual meeting to discuss points movig forward, educate all people on blindness and to meet blind people for support and networking. It was a great convention and here are some highlights.

The above picture was from banquet.

There is a banquet where everyone dresses up and hears great speeches. Banquet was a big success.. The Keynote speaker was Jim Gashel from the national office. He spoke about change and how it needs to be more than words. We need to change what it means to be blind. He mentioned how we do not always make the best decisions for ourselves and other blind individuals, but as we grow we learn and have the collective power for real change.
At Banquet we played a game using ducks and you lost your ducks as the game went on. I think I am a good photographer at times and this is what I did.

Lets be real, the banquet  also gives us an excuse to get all dressed up, and who doesn't love that?

A huge part of convention is the socializing aspect and hangng out with people that you normaly do not see.

This year Nabs idol was a huge success. It is an event put on by the students to raise money. Antonieta pictured below put on a great performance telling jokes and playing the cuatro. The cuatro is an instrument from Venezeula that is like a guitar but only has four strings.
 

Once Nabs idol was over, a small group of us stayed up past the early hours of the next day playing guitars and singing. I do not play the guitar and my singing skills are not exceptional, but I try to follow along.

Of course the winners of the show were the kids (as usual) who spoke about participating in Project Innovation in Baltimore Maryland. They had an awesome experience.

I taught a class entitled  "Looking Good Without Looking. " Basically we went over how to apply makeup using alternative techniques. We had a lot of fun and it was all hands on!
Keeping with my post, here are some misconceptions that were proven false at this event:

1. The blind need to be led by sighted people: False. This is completely false as we need and want to make our own decisions. The whole event was put on by blind people and you can only hold an office if you are blind.

2. Charity is a great way to help the blind: False. Charity is the little demon that dresses up cute and seeks to help. Because of charity many people see the blind and other people with disabilities as helpless and in need of saving by the dominant culture. We want to set our own path, and the money we do raise is through fundraising and promoting a positive belief in the blind

3. All blind people are musically inclined. False. If you would have attended our after Nabs Idol party you would have heard me singing along and that stereotype would have been broken pretty fast. Blind people are not any more or less musically inclined than any other group of people.

4. People with low vision do  not need braille they can read print. False. We had a presentation from the BELL program which seeks to promote braille. Many kids in the program are not getting braille  in school because they have some vision. This causes difficulty with reading, being behind in school and poor grammer and spelling. Braille is vital for low vision people to be literate!

5. Blind people have super hearing abilities. False. Most blind people cannot hear any better than anyone else, they just learn to pay attention. During the convention we had some sound problems and there were plenty of blind people who could not hear what was gong on.

So there you have it. Blind people coming together changing what it means to be blind and having fun at the same time.