Because a lot of social justice movements have been about how we are all human, we are all worth the same regardless of orientation, race, etc. This means though that when society comes across a minority like the blind, who arent different in a way people can relate to (how being gay is the same kind of love as being straight, how black skin is just like white skin) they dont know what to think. They dont know how to quantify our struggles or even fathom how they could affect us, hence they ignore us completely. The issues disabled people face are ingrained in the very evolution of society, much like racism and misogyny. But the difference is unless you actively seek out that information, society doesnt talk about it. No one knows about the "ugly laws" and how biased that time was. No one knows that the majority of contributions to the advancement of technology or science has been through someone disabled, and no one thinks to explain to their children that being disabled isnt different in s bad way. Its scary because its different but its not bad. So to answer your question- there are movements gor blind people, and for autistic people and gor chronically disabled people. But not many people care to listen...

We need to create a disability pride movement. We need to change the language able-bodied people use for disabled people - confined to a wheelchair, suffering from blindness etc. we need to change the way we look at disability overall - bring the social model of disability into the limelight.

yeah it's always just a few randomly picked groups the media cares about. Also, using websites has become worse than ever, in my opinion... if I have biggish fonts then next to nothing works properly. I know this is about more than that, but it's really annoying me. lol.

In Australia part of the story is that the eye charities have been “captured” by sighted people.

They aren’t keen to rock the boat. So if there is a test legal case about a blind kid staying at school that kid’s family needs to raise money and find volunteers for legals etc. The blind charities won’t touch it. That’s because that industry is too small - they can’t change jobs to the relevant government department adferwards.

It’s about understanding it and living it. I know that the people in charge of our charities understand the issues but they haven’t been to a job interview with a guide dog. Or tried to get to a location outside of public transport. Or experienced banking discrimination.

We need to take the leadership back. Blind and low vision people should lead blind and low vision charities.

Honestly you’re exactly right. We need to speak up more, time to use our voices!

Because people forget about us. They just don't care until it stares them in the face. It's sad, and maddening, but true.

I'm not sure where you are located, OP, but in most places I am familiar with have quite a bit of equality, both social and other, lobbying going on. In the US companies that belong to a particular category can get sued for being inaccessible, more and more companies are trying to make their workforce more diverse which includes people with a disability, that is stuff a lot of places in Europe are only now slowly starting to do. If you mean lobbying similar to the BlackLivesMatter movement, I'd say that being refused an uber ride because of a guide dog is slightly less problematic than being gunned down by a trigger-happy cop with a bee in his bonnet for having the wrong skin color.

Not saying blind people aren't being discriminated against, we are. Not saying we are not being excluded, we absolutely are. I'm saying there's quite a bit happening on this front. How effective said happenings are, however, is a different matter, and that brings me to your point regarding "sighties" often being somewhat ambivalent. As a blind person you know what the NFB, ACB and friends are doing, and you also know what they're doing if you happen to be a company that gets targeted by them. Everybody else though, is largely unaffected, and therefore unbothered by this until it's brought to their attention, and even then, most of the time people just can't properly imagine what it's like to have that kind of exclusionism and discrimination leveled against you, it's either too subtle or too alien. And all the dumb money-grabbing commercials that portray blind/visually impaired people as helpless without the benevolent sighted overlords really aren't helping that case, see also: that "feel the need" commercial done by the RNIB several years ago.

I dare to honestly bet that most people consider people with a disability, and that includes PWDs themselves, as being either lesser, worse off or in some way less able to go for all that life has to offer them. That view needs to change, and change radically, before we can properly start a conversation about equality and proper inclusion. After all, pets, children and zoo animals don't get to decide what's best for them, nor do people in a mental institution, nor do people who need a handler to get around. Unfortunately a LOT, a huge lot of people put pretty much all people with a disability in that same category at least initially, and convincing people so far can really only be done one at a time.

Check out Crip Camp. You'll learn quite a bit about the movement you are looking for.

I mean, those two things are not mutually exclusive. I also think it's very country dependent since like, that's something where consciousness has to be raised among the general population before anything at all can happen, and I'm glad to see that happen both for social issues and for disability.

For instance, my country has had what basically amounts to affirmative action for workers with disabilities since the mid 2000s. I'm not going to say everything is perfect because some people have still said some dumb ass shit but it goes a long way towards people realising you can have a disability and still work a number of jobs provided you have the relevant kind of accessibility support.

What's elegant about it is that the cost of making a workstation accessible (eg you're a VI office worker and they give you a lamp, or you're a wheelchair user and they put in an elevator, or whatever) is picked up by a fund, which itself is paid into by big companies not meeting their quota of disabled workers, which virtually none of them do since we're disproportionately more likely to be away from the workplace. So in the end it's not a fine so much as an investment into making hiring disabled workers more viable by making workstations more accessible.

I'm part of a support group for parents of kids with VI in ireland and we do advocacy because school is where the kids are being left behind. People think now that the children have been integrated into mainstream schools (like all disabilities) and they have their classroom assistant and large print books then the kids are fine, but they're not. Also one way to get the publics support and teach them is to do a media piece, a child struggling, a parent trying to fight for rights etc, but none of our kids and parents want to go forward to do a news piece or article. They don't want to publicly piss of the school their kid is in or the visiting teacher that they have until the kid is 18. They're afraid of rocking the boat and their child being put in a worse position than they are now. The 3 or 4 governments agencies and charities that help the VI and blind are all rivals and don't work together, instead they all protect their own piece of the pie and funding.

So we only have a handful of people that can legally teach braille to kids and they have to get trained in another country, but they only work school term, so really the kid misses out on a lot as we have one of the shortest school years. But the charity that teaches adults braille is not allowed to teach the kids over the summer. Parents can only learn braille in 1 place in the capital and have to pay alot to do it.

There is no joined up thinking.

The majority charities , autism, downs syndrome, gets loads of publicity, not necessarily government help but help and knowledge in society, supermarkets do weekly quiet shopping days, everyone knows someone with a kid with autism and TV has characters with autism. So society learns about them.

Sorry rant over!

My ¢.02. It starts with me.

I’m not blind. I am a person with blindness.

i‘m not disabled. My abilities are just different than the average person.

I don’t demand or expect special treatment I expect to be treated as I treat others, with respect, compassion and empathy. How can I expect people to care about me if I don’t show I care about them?

It starts with me.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with a lot of the comments being made here.

I don't think disability is being left out of the debate, least of all blind people, and I don't get the impression anyone is trying to dismiss anything. Society has been programmed for years and years not to treat people unfairly and I think if it comes up that you are blind and people change the subject it's because they are so terrified of saying something wrong. I don't think people are ignoring it, I think they're hyper aware of it, they're just terrified of being accused of saying something wrong. Personally I'd much rather it was overlooked. If I need something I will ask for it but for now, let's just have a glass of wine and talk about something else.

The whole social justice thing is pushing equality issues super hard, it's crazy to say it isn't, and I do think it sometimes goes too far, accusing people of having certain views just because they're a certain gender or race or not disabled or whatever. Whether it's true or not that is not fair and it's not a good way to get people on side. Sometimes people will say dumb stuff which would annoy anyone, but it's not a good idea to come off as an activist. It risks making people's whole impression of you as a person about the disability which is exactly what you didn't want in the first place.

I had a couple years of normal adult life with sight so I know what life is like in both situations. I would encourage people to look for an innocent explanation for what someone has said before leaping to take offence. I have had people complain about stuff to me that just sounds like normal conversation or at best someone just being awkward and a bit stupid, not deliberately unfair. If you go out looking for it you will find it and I don't think that does you any favours long term.

I've never wanted to build my identity around being blind. If I'm listing identifiers, blind is there, but not first.

If I was a person who was working construction and lost a hand, I wouldn't want, from then on, to think of myself first and foremost as one-handed, to me that would be giving a disability more strength than it deserves.

And it also seems to me that culturally being blind is fine. There isn't some cultural hatred towards blind people, most of the stereotypes are benine, and most people who can see are well-meaning, most of the time.

And the other thing is, I don't want to whine yell and scream about how I'm a victim and helpless, and from this place of fetishized weakness, I demand society do certain things. That feels gross to me.

Like, if they start murdering blind people for being blind, then I'll get all social justice.

But to me what you're talking about seems like begging for pitty.

And I really don't want to craft my identity on a physsical weakness.

Like, I'm cool being me, I like being me, I've made my peace with being blind and I can appreciate the disadvantages, but blindness is a disability, I think it's something you try to overcome and minimize whereever possible.