“When blind people speak collectively through the National Federation of the Blind, we are not being ungrateful for the help of sighted people. We are exercising the basic human right to define our own needs. Public officials, educators, employers, and service providers should welcome this. They should want policy shaped by those who live with its consequences. They should want programs tested against real experience. They should want blind people at the table: not as decoration, not as testimony after the decision has already been made, but as a dominant force in deciding what the decision should be.” -Gary Wunder, The Golden Rule, the Platinum Rule, and the Right to Speak for Ourselves, Braille Monitor, July 2026