Reid My Mind

Last night during the Salute to Stevie Wonder, the host, LL Cool J asked the audience including all of the viewers watching at home, to close their eyes “to share Stevie’s inner visions.” This request which supposedly came from Stevie was right before LL introduced Neo to perform “Isn’t She Lovely.”

As a Stevie fan for life, it’s hard for me to say this but honestly I thought this was whack.

I can’t understand the possible message here. Stevie celebrating the birth of his first daughter wrote this great song to share the incredible feeling of love he had for his child. The genius behind this song has nothing to do with the fact that he cannot see her face. It’s the ability to capture these feelings and put them into words and rhythm we can all feel. Stevie’s genius his totally based on his abilities. The fact that he is blind and had such incredible talent was Motown marketing. It was the obvious way to promote the young artist.

The bigger issue here for me and I’m sure others who advocate and promote the inclusion of people with vision loss in all aspects of society is the act of closing your eyes in no way simulates blindness. All you did is close your eyes.

Blindness is not simply the inability to see, in fact, most people who are blind are not totally blind. The issue that blindness presents is the lack of access to information. When the studio audience closed their eyes, they missed nothing. Host LL continued to speak and fully related the information.

With access to information, money, people and probably anything that each of these brings, chances are Stevie probably doesn’t have this issue. Now again, I need to say that I love Stevie, his music, his activism and his genuine love for humanity. I know he probably meant for something positive to come from the on air exercise.

With that said, I would challenge anyone interested in learning more about the issues faced by people with vision loss or those with disabilities not to simulate what it would be like to have the disability, but rather take a look at things you encounter every day to find the accessibility challenges.

For those taking public transportation, take a look and ask if the method is accessible to those with disabilities. Can a person in a wheel chair get on the bus or train? Chances are that train station either doesn’t have an elevator or it’s out of order. Does that software or web site that you use to perform your job functions, does it work with screen readers or magnification software? There have been improvements but the estimate is that 90 percent of public websites are not accessible. And if you think government sites are better, “Most VA websites Still Inaccessible to Blind Vets.

We’re not done. Out of the millions of people watching last night’s program who closed their eyes, chances are some of them have the ability to employ some of the 50 to 70 percent of the blind people currently under or unemployed.

Last night’s performance was one of the first to include audio description to help provide information to those with vision loss. Big shout out to Stevie for his advocacy in helping to make this possible. Unfortunately, turning on SAP, which carries the description audio, is a process that requires sited assistance for most since the selection is often buried in an onscreen menu. For the record, it didn’t work with Optimum Cablevision in the Bronx where I watched the program.

Stevie has done so much for this world and I selfishly hope he will be blessed to continue for many years to come. I would just like to see the “close your eyes” segment used to start a real conversation that can lead to some much needed changes in how we as a culture view blindness and disability.