Information sharing just never ends. The importance of sharing information and knowledge can never be overemphasized. Just when I thought I knew the importance of my numbers, I find there is yet something new to learn. Recently, I reconnected with a dear friend from my undergraduate days. We had seen each other through marriage and starting our families and even worked on the same job for a period of time.  Somehow through the journey of life we lost contact and yet I never stop thinking of the friend who shared my most intimate secrets. We laughed and cried together and got up and tried it again and again and again.
I had sent an email over social media and didn’t have much hope of making a connection. However, to my wonderful and delightful amazement, her daughter contacted me after a number of months. She said, “Obviously you know me because you know every detail of my life, including my birth. I asked my mother if she knew you and she responded with a resounding Yes, Yes, Yes.”   This is all communication via email including the exchange of phone numbers. With my friend’s number in hand, I wanted to wait until I had all the time in the world to catch up.  My travel itinerary had me off to the West Coast to facilitate a mediation/conflict resolution training. I was counting down the days to have some great marathon catch-up talks with my friend.
We literally screamed with joy at the sound of each other’s voice, then we talked for 3 nights until sunrise before we decided to sleep. With little or no preparation during our next conversation, she said, “Do you know that I am blind?” With the same suddenness I said, “Yes, your daughter told me and how are you handling that? You have such a busy schedule so you must be about your business just as you have always been.”   “I certainly am,” she said, ” and I am not about to sit in a corner and feel sorry for myself.”
Eugenia did not lose her sight until after age 40 and she had no idea how to function like an unsighted person. She was absolutely unintelligent about being blind. She had become a member of the Federation for the Blind (FFB) and was a regional president. She had 2 grandchildren and the way she interacted with them over the phone, I would never know she was blind. Take out your pencil and paper and let me see you practice your letters so that you can perfect your writing your name. Eugenia had spent her career as an elementary school teacher and majorette instructor. Eugenia had been a beautiful majorette with some of the best legs on this side of Oklahoma. Her laugh was infectious and remains that way with an Oklahoma accent mixed with the hit and miss cadence of the North. Eugenia was uniquely Eugenia with a cadre of international friends as big as her circle of friends in the U.S..
We talked about everything and all things in between, then somehow we got on the subject of numbers and the telephone. The teacher in her asked if I knew what the little notch above the 5 on the telephone meant. Frankly, I had never paid it much attention and had no idea what it meant. I learned from Eugenia that the notch over the 5 had been a policy initiative of the Federation for the Blind compelling telephone manufacturers to design the telephone in that manner so that unsighted persons would have a point of reference to independently use the telephone. I had no idea. Now I am very cognizant of the notch above the 5 on the phone.
Although my profession demands that I am thoroughly familiar with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), I missed about the mark about that aspect of the telephone and ADA compliance. The ADA covers more aspects of accommodation and compliance than is readily apparent. Not only did I reconnect with my friend, but gained knowledge and information I might otherwise have missed.
We never know how we are going to gain information and how valuable that information might be in helping to make the lives of others easier. Thanks Eugenia for letting me know why the number 5 is King.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
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