Annual event addresses issues for the blind

Members of the Kansas community gathered in Lawrence this weekend for the state convention for the blind.

The yearly event through the National Federation of the Blind attracted a number of area residents for a weekend filled with education and activity.

About 60 people congregated at the Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive, Saturday to take in the messages various speakers had to deliver. The presentations ranged from the educational to the inspirational to the political, with injustices addressed and resolutions offered.

Robert Fuller, the local NFB chapter treasurer, said the local chapter distributes information about the blind to the community, a necessity considering the rarity of blindness. Fuller, whose son is blind, said blindness affects about a quarter of 1 percent of the national population. Even small efforts to inform people about the difficulties the blind face can benefit the nonseeing community.

“It’s about blind people being independent,” Fuller said. “It’s not always about getting the world to accommodate blind people.”

Donna Wood, the state affiliate president, said the event presented an opportunity for members of the blind community to escape the feeling of isolation that can often accompany blindness.

“It gives us the support,” Wood said. “The ability to get together like this to share experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings, it eliminates part of that isolation at least for a little while.”

Membership with the NFB is not limited to the blind, though Wood said blind people comprised the majority of the group. She stressed education as an important part of the federation’s mission.

“We try to dispel the myths and misconceptions about blindness,” she said. “It’s an absolutely important part of what we do.”

Along with working to educate the community about blindness, the NFB, the nation’s largest organization for the blind, also helps the blind receive an education. Wood said the state affiliate offered five academic scholarships to legally blind people entering the college, vocational or technical school ranks in Kansas.

The convention’s activities are scheduled to continue through this afternoon.

For more information about the National Federation of the Blind and scholarship opportunities, visit nfb.org.