I didn’t know that referring to myself as a blind person is ‘in’, compared to saying a person is ‘visually impaired’, until I attended the National Federation of the Blind’s 2020 virtual national convention last week.

The NFB’s convention of 8200 blind people ran for five days without any glitches. We had music, voting over the phone and online, door prizes, virtual choir, speakers, fitness breaks, and multiple meetings!

Most notable were the two speeches by the NFB president Mark Riccobono, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (One Country, One Destiny speech). We even heard a recording by John Lewis who spoke to the NFB’s March on Washington blind crowd in 2007.

What we as blind people believe regarding blindness affects what others perceive, think, and believe about blindness. For example, sometimes people see Blind and project their fears onto me. They underestimate what I can do as a blind person. Often I’ll be in a meeting where I’m the only blind person in attendance, and without me asking, they will lean over and tell me what was just said. I know they mean well; however, I know what is going on! I’m blind, not incapable (and not deaf). Being without physical sight doesn’t mean I have less intellectual abilities than others.

Being called “visually impaired” is comparing ourselves to having less sight than sighted people. This subtle comparison in language is enabling others to see blind people as less than.

Let us call a spade a spade. We are blind people. No matter the visual acuity, blind is blind.

Blindness is a blessing, not a curse. Just because you don’t know how you would handle me or my blindness, doesn’t mean I don’t know how.

Similarly, it is our choice to walk on the arm of someone with sight or not. Calling this person a sighted guide again infers they are superior because they have sight, and they are the only ones who can possibly guide us. In reality, we don’t need anyone to guide us. It is not the choice of the guide, but our own choice as blind people. Thus, the sighted guide should instead be referred to as a human guide.

Another example is a dog guide (a dog who provides sighted assistance). The dog does not think for me, nor does he/she have the power. We work together as a team. The dog provides his/her vision, and I provide my brain. Together, we get the job done.

These language changes were made in 1993. After hearing Mark Riccobono’s speech at NFB 2020, I wondered “where have I been”? Now that we are aware, we must respond to the changes.

Let’s all of us take out the word ‘impaired’ from our vocabulary. Now is the time to change the way we think, change the way we speak, and change the way we act.