Category: Parent Talk
Hi there! Since I'm becoming a dual citizen I'm not sure where I would want to look into this, but do agencies allow blind people to adopt children? I would like to have a wee one someday, but not sure if I would like to have one naturally because there are so many who need good homes. Do any of you know aboat this?
I've heard that in Canada blind people are not allowed to adopt. Here in the US, it would be considered discrimination under the ADA for an adoption agency to deny someone the opportunity to adopt based on disability. That's not to say it doesn't happen. My advice is, if you want to adopt in the US and are turned down, fight like hell for your rights if you think the reason was your disability.
Becky
On a totally unrelated note, do you keep writing Aboat because it makes screen readers pronounce it in a more Canadian way? I'm very curious here.
lol I guess I'm so used to how my friends write that I picked it up.
To Post 1: You keep writing like that, you're gonna give me flashbacks to the early 80s and Bob and Doug McKenzie.
Well my answer here is probably different than some would give but what else is new for me here?
I personally have never adopted, though my wife and I were toying with the situation once. To me, the hurdles looked like natural selection at play, meaning I would have to come up with certain financing, and there are proofs one must make for the state to allow a public adoption. Unfortunately, while the lawyer we talked to said it was illegal, and that my work history and history as a father would have trumped any judge's feeling on blindness - my daughter was 8 at the time - caseworkers would have no doubt given us some grief.
Here's how I personally looked at it: Surmountable? possibly, and maybe even probably, yes. But sometimes the cost acts as the friction to make you think. At this point, I'm glad we did not choose that, as hard as that sounds, because of the situation for the child as it worked out.
You will find probably the financial difficulty far surpassing any "blindness" challenges, especially if you go for a private and not a public adoption.
But rather than fight like a sixties radical, I would get an attorney and demonstrate your heaps of proofs. For me, I was already the father of a daughter, had a good job at the time, good work history, etc.
But you will have to get through red tape including how much square footage, all sorts of miniscule data that keeps some of these folk employed, but treat it as the salmon treat the uphill streams ... if in fact after counting the cost you deem it worth it. I'd advise against trying to 'prove' anything except in the purest analytical form. Good luck with your decision.
Wow, thank you. You have some very good points there. Yeah, I don't think I'm quite ready yet, just thinking aboat it.
I and my husband are not totally blind but we are considered legally blind and I adopted my daughter Mel who is also blind. You always have the nay sayers but we forged on and just didn't let them tell us what we could do. I now do foster care for 4 other kids and as long as we show them that our vision is not an issue they haven't had any issue. It's not an easy road but a well worth one. My daughter is now 12 we got her when she was 2 and we just love her. Good luck to you. If you have any question maybe I can help you have a good one