Aug 20 WBU GA Session 8 - Public Perceptions Campaigns - Perkins School Corinne Grousbeck

Saturday, August 20

4:30 – 6:00WBU Session 8

Public Perception Campaigns

Topic: Blind New World: A Social Change Campaign

Speaker:Corinne Grousbeck, Chair of the Board, Perkins School for the Blind

Blind New World Presentation to the World Blind Union

Greetings members of the General Assembly. I am honored to speak to you today about something I consider to be my life’s work. As you know,I am the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Perkins School for the Blind. I have two beautiful children…Kelsey, who is 26 and recently earned an MBA in non-profit management--and Campbell, who is 23 and attends Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When Campbell was three months old, he was diagnosed with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis. By the time he was two, he was totally blind. Realizing education was going to be critical to his success in life, we moved from California to Boston to access, what we believed, was the finest education in the world. Campbell attended and graduated from Perkins in 2014.

While this speech isn’t all about Campbell, it has everything to do with Campbell. You see, in the 23 years I have been his mother, I have borne witness to every form of misperception, bias, pity and misjudgment society has toward the blind. When Campbell was young, I could disarm it…I would force a smile when someone “blessed him”, I would defend his ability to respond to questions asked of me and I would always answer “let him show you” when asked the rude question…”what can he do?”. Some days, I didn’t have the fortitude to deal with the way people stared at him. I could be a bit “mama bear” when I had to. I convinced myself as Campbell got older, things would get better. He would be equipped to advocate for himself. His charming social skills would open doors and his O and M skills would enable him to walk through them.

But, that hasn’t been the case.

Over the years and through my involvement with Perkins students, these societal slights became a fact of life. And it was unfair. I started to wonder what could be done to change the way society perceives people like Campbell? How can we show sighted people that not only do blind people have so much to offer the world, but ever-changing technology enables them to function on a level playing field with them? With my background in advertising and marketing, I know the power of awareness and education to change perceptions. I was convinced that there needed to be a social change campaign that would demystify blindness, show society what blind people are capable of and promote inclusion. I grew increasingly impatient and frustrated watching Campbell take brave steps to transition into “the real world” only to stumble over and over again. Instead of waiting around for “someone” to tackle this issue, I realized that someone had to be me.

When I thought about all the social change that has and is occurring in the US—LGBT rights, “Black Lives Matter”, I decided the time is right for people who are blind and visually impaired to be heard. The hallmark of these movements is that they have a focused mission and are able to join forces and mobilize supporters onto a single platform. While many blindness organizations and individuals are out there saying the same things, they are scattered. Instead of one disruptive voice, there are many whispers. We neededto create a powerful campaign that would touch people’s hearts and open their minds to what society is missing by not including the blind. We have to link arms with peer organizations and individuals to create a voice loud enough to be heard. In other words, we needed to create our own movement.

I pitched this idea to my dear friend and founder of strategic marketing agency Brightmark, Jane Cavalier. She was touched by Campbell and motivated to change his reality. Jane put us together with famed director Tom DeCerchio…who wrote and directed two videos that would serve as the foundation of our effort. We got busy…we vetted the scripts, recruited two actors who are visually impaired to star in the videos and filmed in LA. Tom delivered two beautiful films that all agreed hit all the right emotional notes.

We created an ad hoc committee at Perkins to strategize how to best use these videos to shape attitudes. But, first we needed more information about those attitudes. So, we sponsored a study to dig into society’s perceptions of the blind. And…the results were startling. We learned that 80% of people surveyed feel sorry for blind people. Over half said they are “uncomfortable” around the blind. Only 28% of respondents feel someone who is blind could do their job. While a majority said they would consider hiring the blind, 32% said their workplace couldn’t accommodate them. And 74% of respondents said THEY couldn’t be happy if they lost their vision. Those statistics were disheartening. Pity is the most disempowering emotion there is. Nobody has a real friendship with someone, or hires them to do a meaningful job…out of pity. We had a big task in front of us to overcome the barriers of stigma, fear, discomfort and pity.

In order to tackle this challenge, we decided the videos would be used as an emotional hook, to create empathy and awareness. We planned to target society’s change agents—Millennials—through social media where they live. We created a dedicated website “BlindNewWorld.org” that would educate the sighted…providing tips, tools, and interactive elements to engage and influence our audience. We hired a PR agency, a social media agency and enlisted as many peer organizations as we could find. By the way, those who joined the effort told us “you had us at hello”. Such is the appetite for a campaign like this. We launched Blind New World at our annual Perkins Gala among 500 of our top corporate and social supporters. Before I go further, let me show you the videos. The first one is called “The Drive” and is focused on independence and job skills.

The second video is called “The Get Together” and its message is around social inclusion.

What has happened since the launch? In three short months, Blind New World hasgarnered XX impressions and was featured in several articles and news segments. The video has been viewed XX times. We’ve gained XX FaceBook followers, XX twitter followers and are growing on Instagram and Pinterest. The most important statistic is anecdotal. The response from the blind community has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s been vetted, shared and positively commented upon. “I love this campaign”, “This happens to me every day”, “Thank you for doing this”. Before the launch, I lost sleep worrying about our messaging. This is no small point.This campaign has to represent blind people’s reality authentically. It cannot appear to speak on their behalf, but must allow them their own voice. And it does. I am proud to say that what we HAVE achieved is that we created a compelling platform, a framework to host real stories of real people who are blind and living full and meaningful lives. And the plethora and variety of those stories is what is going to change attitudes.

So, what isn’t working?

Shockingly, we have a credibility issue with society. Sighted people simply don’t believe there is a problem. Don’t believe THEY ARE the problem. Even though blind bloggers jumped on board with their own stories, news editors didn’t deem the campaign “newsworthy”. While a majority of society claims to never have met a blind person, they don’t believe that the blind are marginalized, or that they, themselves, would be biased.There are 7.3 million blind and visually impaired people in the US…why aren’t they being seen? Maybe because 40% of them are unemployed. Or because sighted people’s workplaces, organizations, schools and communities don’t include them! Or because blindness is so stigmatized that many blind people don’t self-identify as blind. The fact that real barriers aren’t perceived as existing goes against every result from our survey. What the sighted say, and how they really feel are disconnected. “I know the blind can do amazing things.”…Hmmm…Then why aren’t YOU hiring them? Let me tell you as the mother of a blind son…I know that each and every day Campbell goes out into the world, he is stared at, underestimated and misjudged. Each and every single day of that young man’s life. And his experience is universal from every blind person I have spoken with. How is that not a problem?

We created Blind New World with the most benevolent and altruistic intent possible. This isn’t a fundraiser for Perkins, this isn’t to shine light on our brand. Our single purpose was to provide a platform that could support a movement. A movement that would create equal accessto inclusion. Why did Perkins sponsor it? Because year after year we watch our graduates go out into the world, only to have the door of opportunity slammed shut. We can’t fulfill our mission of educating our students to realize their potential if society doesn’t allow them to demonstrate it. So we tackled this. Didn’t ask for money. Didn’t ask for help. We have a limited budget that forces us to rely on organic social growth. I am told our numbers are amazing, based on what we were able to spend. We are trying to grab people’s attention on a subject that isn’t even on their radar screen. Trying to find a news hook around awareness and diversity when most of the world isn’t aware that they’re not aware. Trying to keep our content fresh, informative and motivating. Our success to date has been hard won, but I fear—without greater support and partnership, the opportunity to achieve critical mass and gain real traction will slip away. Discouraging others from trying. And then, nothing will change.

Anecdotally, we know our message is on target and we know we are educating the people we reach. What we need is to reach more people. We have exhausted our small circle. Perkins never intended, nor can we, carry this social change campaign on our own.

We need your help. Members of the general assembly…I pose these questions to you—Are you prepared to help make it a Blind New World? Are you willing to join this movement to help push forth your OWN missions and better serve your constituents? Can you find a way to leverage Blind New World to insure it has lasting potential to break down barriers and create meaningful change? If your answer is “yes” then please go to the website blindnewworld.org and contact us. We will work together with you and your organization to link arms and determine how to make a greater impact.

You’ve heard me outline a very lofty mission. I want you to know that I am not naïve…and I am not idealistic. But…look out, because I am a mom. As such, I have to believe that, together, we can create a kinder and more inclusive society. I was given the gift of Campbell for a reason, so I can make a difference for him and people like him to have the same opportunities to live beautiful, meaningful lives like the rest of society. I will not lose hope that the world can be a better place for people like Campbell. And I will not stop until it is.