From: "Curtis Chong" 
Subject: Fw: avoiding misleading public images
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From: Curtis Chong 
To: ddunfee 
Cc: nfb 
Subject: Re: avoiding misleading public images
Date: Sunday, April 05, 1998 1:54 PM
Dear Mr. Dunfee:
After reading your various interchanges with James Gashel, Steve
Jacobson, and David Andrews and your response to my note concerning
the public face of NFB, I am forced to conclude that your comments
about the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind (and
by extension, its membership) are disingenuous and based upon
motives inimical to the organization.  You  are not a member of the
Federation, and you have not taken the time and trouble to observe,
firsthand, how policies of the organization are formulated and
carried out.  Moreover, from the tone of your various postings, it
is clear that you believe what you believe about the Federation and
that nothing anyone can say will change your mind.
Do you seriously believe that the Federation will engage Microsoft
in a lawsuit simply because you continue to press for this on a
number of Internet mailing lists?  And just where do you suppose we
would find the money to continue what will doubtless turn into a
long and protracted affair?  Will you come up with the necessary
funding?
Everything you have written thus far indicates that you believe the
Federation and Microsoft are, at the very least, in collusion with
each other to promote Microsoft products at the expense of blind
people.  It might surprise you to know that there are those blind
people for whom Internet Explorer Version 3.02 provides better
access to the World Wide Web than Lynx for Unix;  In short order,
similar access will be available for Internet Explorer Version
4.01--partly due to work done by Microsoft and partly due to the
tremendous work of the screen access technology vendors.  It might
also surprise you to learn that for some blind people, Windows 95
is easier to use than Unix or the Disk Operating System.  And as
far as my personal use of Windows 95 is concerned, you might be
surprised to learn that I have abandoned the use of Pine (a Unix
shell e-mail program) in favor of Windows-based Internet Mail. 
These things are happening not because of any collusion but because
the Windows-based software offers benefits not available in the
text-only environments of the past and also because facility with
Windows-based software will enable the blind to compete in the job
market.
You speak glibly about "some folk literally putting their bodies on
the line to overcome the entrenched intransigent of those who feel
they must be in control of doling out those (civil) rights."  I and
thousands of other blind people in the Federation have literally
put our bodies on the line to battle repressive agencies and to
fight for civil rights.  Your assertion that "this level of action
is almost totally lacking in the blind advocacy community,"
demonstrates a gross ignorance of history and a regrettable
tendency to make statements without having all of the facts in your
possession.  I know quite a few people who would be highly offended
by your remarks on this subject.
I can tell you from personal experience that Federation policy is
truly determined by its members, all protestations from our
opponents to the contrary notwithstanding.  Nothing you can say on
any Internet mailing list will have a significant effect on
Federation policies and practices.  If you really want the
Federation to change its stance with respect to technology and
Microsoft, or if you want us to do something specific, join up and
influence the organization from within.  Your continued sniping
from the outside will not have any positive effect.  In fact, if
you keep doing what you are doing, your credibility (what little
there is left of it) will disappear altogether.
Yours sincerely,
Curtis Chong
chong99@concentric.net
P.S. In case it is of any consequence to you, there is no truth to
     the rumor that I rely upon my wife, Peggy (who happens to be
     blind, by the way), to use Internet Explorer and to navigate
     the World Wide Web.  Anyone who knows Peggy and her views
     about computers would find such an assertion laughable.  CC
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