From: empower@smart.net
Subject: Newspaper story: "Her blindness is a teaching aid"
Here's an article, meant to be positive I'm sure, which nonetheless 
evokes mixed feelings in a Federationist reader.
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
   Read Across America Day: Her blindness is a teaching aid
   Monday, March 02, 1998
   By Bulldog Reagan
   It's a springlike day outside Sto-Rox Elementary School, but none of
   the third-graders inside are fidgeting or looking out the windows.
   Their eyes are locked on the tall woman at the front of the room with
   sunglasses and a harnessed German shepherd.
   "How do you match your clothes when you get dressed in the morning?"
   one student asks.
   "I get little metal Braille clothing tags with colors written on them
   and pin them inside on the label," answers Sally Hobart Alexander.
v   "Is it hard to read Braille books?" asks another child.
   "It is very hard to read Braille. That's why only eight out of 100
   legally blind people use it," says Alexander.
   Alexander's book, "Do You Remember the Color Blue?" a book answering
   children's questions about blindness, is due to be published early
   next year. Alexander is scheduled to speak this week and next at
   schools in Mars and Mt. Lebanon, in honor of today's "Read Across
   America" day, sponsored by the National Education Association.
   The 54-year-old Squirrel Hill woman's efforts in educating people
   about disabilities have resulted in an award from United Cerebral
   Palsy for a lifetime of "advocacy and awareness."
   Alexander was 24 years old when she began to go blind. She was
   teaching third grade at a southern California school and had met the
   man she believed to be her Prince Charming. They were engaged to be
   married.
   Then, one day at the beach, she noticed a tiny black line, about the
   size of an eyelash, wiggling about in her field of vision. It went
   away as suddenly as it had appeared. But it returned again and again,
   each time consuming yet another piece of her vision. Doctors told her
   she having hemorrhages, but they could find neither cause nor cure.
   She eventually lost more than her vision. Prince Charming found it
   difficult being charming around a blind woman, so the engagement was
   called off. She also could no longer teach, an even bigger loss.
   "Teaching suited me perfectly. The children's energy, enthusiasm,
   mischief -- I loved it all," she wrote in her award-winning
   autobiography, "Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness."
   She briefly returned to her hometown of Conyngham, Luzerne County, in
   Eastern Pennsylvania to stay with her family. She moved to Pittsburgh
   to attend the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind in Bridgeville,
   where she found the skills she needed for her new life.
   Here, she also found a career in teaching and counseling -- and her
   husband. Bob Alexander is a faculty member and acting dean at Point
   Park College. They have a son and daughter. As a young mother,
   Alexander found her children demanding to be told bedtime stories. It
   wasn't long before she began making up her own stories.
   At that time, a Squirrel Hill children's book store called Pinnochio
   was running workshops for writers. Alexander seized the opportunity.
   She wrote critically acclaimed children's books including "Mom Can't
   See Me," which teaches sighted children about blindness; and "Mom's
   Best Friend," about her guide dog, Ursula.
   Then Alexander turned to an adult audience. "Taking Hold" won the 1995
   Christopher Award for Literary Excellence. She also wrote "On My Own:
   The Journey Continues."
   But Alexander considers herself first a children's writer.
   "I want to write for kids because they are the future. Adults already
   have firm convictions, but with kids, you can help them form
   opinions."
   Alexander says she is not bitter about her blindness.
   "When you consider all the human suffering in the world, you almost
   have to ask, 'Why not me?' I really have a happy life. My blindness
   has deepened me. It has changed my values. I have more empathy now."
   It has also helped prepare her for her next challenge. Alexander says
   she is slowly losing her hearing. Like her blindness, its cause has
   doctors mystified. She doesn't dwell on it.
   "I don't think I could live my life worrying about becoming deaf as
   well as blind. It's just not a good use of my time."
     _________________________________________________________________
   Bulldog Reagan is a free-lance writer.
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