by Lynne Davis, Carmel Jolley and Amy Curran
Welcome to this special anniversary issue celebrating 50 years since the formation of the National Federation of Blind Citizens (NFBC) in June 1975. From the very beginning, it was recognised that access to information was of paramount importance to our community. We have included David Blyth’s introduction to the first issue of our newsletter in September 1976 in which this point was emphasised. Communication has been a strength of our organisation. Early issues of the newsletter were typed over the kitchen table and then laboriously transcribed into various formats. Our production process is no longer so labour intensive, but the newsletter still depends for its strength on the contributions of our members.
This issue contains a mixture of articles written especially for the 50th anniversary (mainly tracing changes over 5 decades), and articles reprinted from our earlier publications. As editors, we took a deep dive into Blind Citizens News and its predecessors, NFBC Newsletter and BUFF, and discovered many gems there. Only a few could be included in this issue, but we hope to be able to make our transcribed publications available on the BCA website. Our sincere thanks to Susan Thompson, who spent many hours with Amy Curran transcribing her braille copies of BUFF, Carmel Jolley also spent long periods converting inaccessible files into screen reader friendly documents, as well as going down some intriguing rabbit holes! You will find some of these articles here.
Even before 1975, Hugh Jeffrey, one of our founding members, had written a charter for the blind of the world (reprinted here), which later became the template for the World Blind Union. Our organisation has always had an internationalist approach, and you will find examples of this in a number of reprinted articles as well as a review of some major moments written by Ben Clare.
The work which led up to the formation of the NFBC was spearheaded by a committee of 5 people: David Blyth, Hugh Jeffrey, Phyllis Gration, John Machin and Bill Jolley. Bill, whose memory after 50 years is amazing, has written the ‘origin story’ for this issue, and there is a reprint of an article by David Blyth outlining the organisations of people who are blind in Australia prior to the formation of NFBC.
Times have changed since 1975 and so have the lives of people who are blind as well as the way our organisation – now called Blind Citizens Australia – works. Susan Thompson has described changes in technologies which have affected her life, and Fiona Woods has vividly described the changes in the lives of women who are blind, while questioning whether they have been as profound as changes for women in general.
At the conclusion of this issue, we hear from some of the voices which have yet to feel fully included in our community.
Our thanks to the people who made suggestions about what might be included in this anniversary review, and to those who accepted our invitation to contribute to it. Curating this issue has been an amazing journey into the past, an obsession, a source of wonder and frustration, and most of all a huge effort in collaboration. We really hope you find the contents as absorbing as we did.