"The history of mankind is the story of the triumph of reason over superstition, of knowledge over belief, of fact over prejudice, and the progress of mankind is but the result of that triumph. In every area of human endeavor, advancement has come only with the crumbling of the barriers of ignorance. It has been so with science, with religion, with industrial technology and with human relations, and it is still so today. The struggle for enlightenment and justice has been and is the great issue of the age.
Of the many superstitions and misconceptions, which have barred the way to progress, perhaps none has been more firmly entrenched or has more stubbornly resisted the light of reason than traditional concepts about blindness. According to anciently honorable custom, the blind have been considered a group apart, a helpless and hopeless lot. They have been relegated to positions of social isolation, subjected to legal discriminations and denied that most fundamental right of all free men--the right to work for their daily bread and to earn their self-respect. They have been thought of not as unemployed but as unemployable.
These are the time-honored notions, the traditional concepts, but even the most respectable of fallacies cannot withstand the truth forever. The barriers have at last begun to crumble, and the blind to emerge from their long subjugation. In the democratic tradition, they have organized themselves for united action and now, instead of charity, they have begun to demand equality--the right to work and to live as free citizens in a free society; the right to succeed or fail according to their individual abilities."

"The feeling on the part of some that the blind are incompetent to perform jury service is simply one more manifestation of the ancient stereotype which regards blindness as helplessness. That the blind are competent to perform jury service is evidenced by the fact that blind persons have in many instances actually served as jurors, and several are currently serving as judges. Could it be that a blind person is competent to be a judge and not a juror? If so, wherein lies the distinction? Surely a judge is called upon to weigh evidence as often as a juror, and his duties are as complex!"