By Brian Charlson, President, Bay State Council of the Blind | From BayLines Express, December, 2020
2020, a year that should have been all about literal vision, became a year filled with everything but that. Racial inequality, economic imbalance, health care shortcomings and frightening trends in our weather have all taken front stage, leaving very little time and energy to focus on issues of concern to those who are blind or have low vision. Or did they?
While the world seamed to wake-up and recognize the racial imbalance that is a part of our everyday lives, BSCB and our national organization, ACB, were already engaged in taking action. On the state level, we have added topics to our meetings on the chapter and state level acknowledging the commonwealth’s multi-cultural past. We take pride in the fact that people of color are not only members of BSCB, but are in leadership positions as well.
On the national level, ACB has a very active Multicultural Affairs Committee engaging in educational programming including tours to museums that focus on the arts and cultural histories of people of color. Again, these activities are not off to the side; they are part and parcel of what ACB is all about.
When it comes to economic imbalance, our organization has worked tirelessly to support state and national public and private agency programming that we believe will assist those who are blind or have low vision to get the education they need to find employment. We also acknowledge that discrimination does exist and that more than a good education is required to get and keep a job. We work together to promote programs that assist those who are blind or have low vision to find employment and work with elected officials to enact and enforce legislation intended to level the employment playing field.
Health care access challenges are nothing new to the blindness community. We have been and continue to be fully engaged in the battle to achieve equality in access to health-related technology. Making sure that medical personnel respect patient privacy when assisting blind and visually impaired people fill out forms has been another of our priorities. With Covid having made its way into our lives, we have had to work hard to assure that those who are blind or have low vision have equal access to information and services intended to bring this pandemic to an end. When the only way to be tested was by way of a drive-through testing site, BSCB and ACB worked with local and national health care officials to make sure that there were non-driver options. Now that a vaccine has become available, we are working together to assure that those who are in care facilities and those who are at greater risk as the result of secondary health issues are provided with access to the vaccine at the same time and in a way that their vision issues do not interfere with their place in line.
The fires along the west coast, the flooding in the Mid-west and South, and the hard winter expected in the Northeast have brought home the reality of the need for improved access to emergency information and emergency services. When evacuations need to take place; when emergency announcements give people only a few minutes to react; we need to make sure that systems are in place to assure that the needs of those who are blind or have low vision are taken into account. Rest assured that BSCB and ACB are working on this very issue.
If you didn’t already understand how much each and everyone in the blindness community is part of these issues, let me assure you that they are. We, as a community, do have our own special concerns associated with each of them, but we are also engaged in solving problems as they arise. We do what we can to be part of the solution, not just a complication to be delt with.
As members of BSCB and of ACB, we will continue to work together, not only to hold our own, but to help improve the lives of everyone around us. This may not have been the kind of year we were hoping to have, but rest assured that we have become stronger as a society as a whole and as the blindness community in particular.
For now, please take the time to reach out to one another, to offer help when needed and to ask for help if you are struggling. Together we will come through this as the kind, thoughtful generous people I know we all are.