In this absorbing episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA speaks with Peggy Chong (https://medium.com/@chongpeggy10) , The Blind History Lady (https://theblindhistorylady.com) , about how a 1979 job clearing out the files of a closing Minnesota home for the blind turned into a lifetime of recovering the lives of blind Americans. Peggy describes finding a board member’s letter mentioning “our blind congressman,” tracing it to Thomas David Schall, and calling him her first blind ancestor. She explains why she prefers storyteller to historian or archivist, and why she insists on telling the ordinary and the unflattering lives alongside the celebrated ones, because blind people are a cross section of society, crooks and murderers included.
The conversation moves through a Colorado cigar merchant who took a railroad to the state Supreme Court in 1909 and helped seed the white cane laws, a Depression-era Iowa man who sold men’s suits door to door using a tape measure his seamstress mother had stitched with tactile marks, and a blind Minnesota milkman turned piano tuner who navigated Minneapolis by the bumps in wagon ruts. Peggy closes with a direct answer to anyone who has given up hope, that no amount of schooling or money separates the blind people she researches who succeeded from those who didn’t, only the decision to try, fail, and try again, and invites listeners to join her monthly email list.
TRANSCRIPT
Podcast Commentator: Greetings, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA, invites you to listen to her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible.
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Remarkable World Commentary. I am Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly through sound, through touch and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate and accessibility consultant, an author. I am also a lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its website accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June 23rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee Award for her tireless commitment to removing barriers. When I’m not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you’ll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal, and this is to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Now, before we jump into today’s conversation, let me shine a spotlight on today’s guest, a change maker whose work is as every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. Peggy Chong, welcome to my Remarkable World Commentary. I am pleased and privileged to have you as my guest.
Peggy Chong: Well, thank you very much and I’m very pleased to be here.
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: No, I’m just tickled that you have accepted our invitation and let’s get started. Okay, so. Hold on a second. Okay. Peggy, I’d like to begin with when your story begins. Back in 1979, you were helping clear out the files of a Minnesota home for the blind that was closing. And instead of tossing those papers in the bin, you stopped and read them. And you came across correspondence about a blind man who had served in Congress, someone who nobody had ever told you existed. Take us into that room with you. What did you find? Who did he turn out to be? And when did you realize that you were holding something that was about to redirect the rest of your life?
Peggy Chong: Well, I’ll tell you, I was given that job mostly because I had grown up in the blind community all my life. And the papers were files, records, stories, news articles, all written …