Keeping Resource Knowledge Current is Difficult for the Disalbed, but Crucial

Posted by Andrew Leibs Nov 6, 2008

Two years ago, I discovered that, as a blind person, I’m entitled to a property tax abatement. I was thrilled, and annoyed. I’d asked realtor, mortgage broker, and titlist about disability related discounts when I bought my house. They said no. I believed them.

It reminded me that even those of us who believe we are aware of all resources and available assistance resources must remain vigilant.

Order a shirt from one company and catalogues from every clothing maker soon fill your mailbox. Disability organizations have no incentive to find us: budgets are mandates or endowments; marketing focuses on compliance or capital campaigns.

Yet the number of programs, products, and services that exist for the disabled is astonishing, and inspiring.

In 2004, I was helping blind students at a Vermont camp co-sponsored by Rochester, NY-based Camp Abilities. Each prepared a career-focused report on someone they admire which they presented to Joanne Wilson, the US national director of vocational rehabilitation.

One student chose NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., which struck me as an absurd choice for a career role model. Then Lauren Lieberman, a professor of adaptive physical education at SUNY Brockport who founded Camp Abilities in 1996, mentioned the Eye Rock 500, a fundraiser where blind drivers using either bioptic lenses or sighted navigators race 50 miles around a half-mile dirt oval track in upstate New York.

I was amazed, and chastened. One race can’t constitute a career, but the event reminded me that even advocates must work hard to be aware of opportunities that arise, and barriers that fall.

Listen to an Eye Rock 2007 audio podcast (including a race report and a Lauren Lieberman interview) from Out of Sight XYZ.