From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Fri Jan 6 10:31:15 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2017 10:31:15 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, January 2017 Message-ID: <201701061831.v06IVFuC011191@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 1 January 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ?2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 1 January 2017 Contents Illustration: Connecting Blind People and Jobs Belief by Jonathan Mosen Answering the Spelling Conundrum by Gary Wunder Breaking the Glass Ceiling for Blind Actors by Gary Wunder In Hollywood, People with Disabilities are Almost Nonexistent by Alyssa Rosenberg In Hollywood, Diversity Tends to Ignore the Disabled by Tre'vell Anderson Let's Dance: How I Dealt with Choreography by Kelsey Nicolay The Otherness Factor by Alex Lester Addressing the Needs of Seniors by Barbara Pierce Dots from Space!: A Mysterious Quest Begins by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer Assuming They Know What I Want by Justin Salisbury Reflecting the Flame in Utah Rehabilitation for the Blind by Brian Dulude The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Independence Market Corner Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Holly Carneal and Amy Plumlee pose as they practice the art of mingling on Friday evening.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Bryan Schulz and Josh Goff enjoy the fine dining of a business lunch.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Members of the NFB of Missouri discuss difficulties of getting hired as a blind person.] Connecting Blind People and Jobs In Missouri the state agency for the blind is Rehabilitation Services for the Blind. It believes its most important goal is to get blind people working, so it helps by sending people to training centers; helps with the cost of training schools, colleges, and universities; and generously helps in the equipment it provides. But the agency shares a frustration with many state agencies: helping people jump from being ready to be employed to having that first job. The NFB of Missouri hosted an employment seminar called Empowering Yourself to Success, and from Friday evening to Sunday at noon students participated in mock interviews, learned about writing cover letters and resum?s, discussed filing online applications, and strategized about how to learn about companies where they would like to work. Students learned how to mingle while using one hand for cane or dog while carrying food and drink in the other, and practiced juggling all that while introducing themselves, shaking hands, and making small talk. Students and presenters alike were treated to table etiquette for fine dining and learned about traditions and manners we had never heard of before. The event drew thirteen potential employees, and we are hopeful it will live up to its title. Belief A keynote address delivered by Jonathan Mosen to the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired November 3, 2016 From the Editor: Dan Frye edited the Braille Monitor before me, and this magazine is the beneficiary of things he sees, hears, and sometimes writes. Dan currently directs the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and recently he called on Jonathan Mosen to deliver a speech to the commission's staff. I will let Dan introduce Jonathan in the memo the director sent to his staff to commemorate Thanksgiving and to express his gratitude for their service and accomplishments. Here is what Dan said: From the Director's Desk The season of Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday of the year) is again upon us this November. During the late autumn I generally try to find time to reflect on those achievements (both professional and personal) for which I am grateful. This year represents no exception to this practice on my part, and fortunately again this year we enjoy an abundance of accomplishment that may be celebrated by us all. Instead of focusing on the array of programmatic and strategic progress that we have realized at the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI or Commission) during this last year, I want to offer to our readership the text of the keynote address that Jonathan Mosen, owner of Mosen Consulting, respected international leader in the field of Assistive Technology, and recognized broadcaster and thought- leader among the world's blindness community, delivered during CBVI's second biannual State-Wide Staff Development Seminar on Thursday, November 3, 2016. Jonathan's focus on the concept of belief and his charge to our professional community to lift up the consumers that we serve represents the essence of why the Commission exists. This call, animated by his personal life experience, is at once a classic and definitive piece that describes our responsibility to our constituents and urges us to meet these professional obligations with a positive and transformative spirit. I am grateful to Jonathan for his insightful perspective, conveyed in a creative, entertaining, and inspirational fashion. As we move forward with concerted momentum to fulfil our organizational mission and deliver high-quality services to our consumers, I feel confident that the text of his keynote address will remind us of our commitment and duty. For those of you who were privileged to be present for our State-Wide Staff Development Seminar, I invite you to re-read and digest Jonathan's message; for those of you who were not able to be with us, I am pleased to be able to share with you a remarkable and moving address. Here it is: It's an honor to be with you today, to be in the presence of so many people who are changing lives and facilitating opportunity. I'm mindful that there's a lot going on as I visit the United States this time. As I talk with taxi and Uber drivers, listen to the conversations at restaurants, and spend quality time with friends, it's clear that some have been experiencing very tense times of late. Some people who usually get on with one another are finding that their friendship is strained almost to the breaking point. The process of finally determining the outcome seems to have been going on forever. But I'm confident that the wounds will heal, and people will be able to move on and reunite-now that the world series is over. But I promise not to talk about any contentious current events in the news during this address. Sadly, I'd have to sit down pretty quickly if this address were about baseball, since I have only fractionally more knowledge of baseball than I have sight. Instead, I want to say thank you for the difference you make. I used to be a frequent international traveler. A long time ago I sat next to a fellow passenger on a twelve-hour flight, and we got talking about our work. It turned out that he was an executive for one of the most successful fast food chains in the world. He said to me, "What business do you consider us to be in?" I was beginning to wonder if I was sitting beside one of those people who conclude that because your eyes don't work, you're also cranially impaired. But I decided to play along and said that obviously the company was in the fast food business. His reply caught me off-guard. He told me that everyone says that, but in fact their primary business was real estate. What made the company successful, he said, was the prime real estate it owned around the world, and the fast food was a means to that end. So it wouldn't be an inaccurate statement for this executive to tell people he was in the fast food business, but he was looking deeper, perhaps searching for more meaning in his life given the harm a lot of fast food is causing. When you provide education and rehabilitation services to blind people, it's true that the practicalities of that involve assisting someone to travel safely, perform household tasks well, read using the priceless gift Louis Braille left us, and so much more. All of those things are worthy vocations in themselves. Every night you can end another precious day on this planet knowing you did something to change a life for the better. Not every profession offers that satisfaction. But, in my view, there's one prerequisite without which none of these specific tasks would be possible-belief. It may be that someone comes to you with a well- grounded sense of belief in themselves, perhaps due to positive parenting, the support of fellow blind people through a consumer organization, or simply because the person is inherently optimistic by nature. But self- belief is often hard-won, fragile, and easily lost. How you as blindness professionals deal with that challenge of instilling self-belief can fundamentally set the direction of someone's life for better or worse. When I was twelve years old, a group of blind students of which I was a part met with a vocational guidance counsellor from our blindness agency in New Zealand. We were all asked to talk about what options we might be considering for a career. I didn't hesitate. The answer was the same as it had been since the moment I could talk. I wanted a career in radio. This meeting predates the wide availability of the internet; we're talking the early 80s, so networking with other blind people overseas who were in broadcasting was difficult. Yet I was determined to make my dream a reality, and I knew that there were indeed other blind people out there doing radio successfully. To my disappointment, the counsellor was discouraging. He told me he'd recently been into some radio stations and that they were starting to move to systems that were visual and inaccessible in nature. Not only did this meeting take place before the internet, it took place even before computers were accessible for most jobs. Perhaps I was just an arrogant kid who wouldn't accept reality from a grownup who knew, or perhaps I was showing a determination to succeed at whatever I put my mind to. But I refused to be told it couldn't be done. To help make sure it could be done, when I was seventeen I set up a radio station staffed by blind people which broadcast for two weeks during one of our breaks from school. The station had city-wide coverage. We sold ads to pay for hiring the broadcast equipment and the construction of the tall AM transmitter mast. When it was up and running, I phoned the manager of every radio station and all the popular radio personalities of the day, inviting them out to look at what we were doing. That way, I instantly established my own valuable network of contacts in the industry, and I helped change their expectations. Sure, you can wait for opportunity to knock, but there's no harm in putting a neon sign on your door to make it harder for opportunity to miss you. I was assisted in that endeavor by the principal of the school for the blind, who would take a bunch of us in his car to attend meetings. He'd encourage us, clearly taking pride in the initiative. I have never forgotten the attitude of the counselor who may have derailed my dream. Because, had I not been as resilient, maybe the discouragement I received would have prompted me not to follow my dream. But I don't think of him often. Instead, I think far more often, with considerable affection and gratitude, of the principal who believed in me: the man who went out of his way in his free time to show me that I could do anything I put my mind to; the man who, as I navigated the bureaucratic minefield of obtaining a radio license, reminded me that investing in hard work pays dividends, and that few things worth having come easy. It worked. I worked in commercial radio for a number of years. In that role I frequently had to be my own advocate, assuring potential employers that I could work in their studio without sight. So sometimes a professional may inadvertently discourage, when encouragement is appropriate. But it's not as simple as that. Because sometimes blind people can stomp on the dreams of other blind people too. At that same meeting, when the counselor was going around the table asking the kids present what they were considering as career options, one of the kids said he wanted to be an astronomer. This comment was greeted by the rest of us twelve-year-olds present with howls of derisive laughter, and I was laughing as hard as anyone. You're blind! You can't look at a telescope! How on earth do you expect to be an astronomer! And for weeks and weeks we laughed at this kid-we teased him mercilessly about wanting to be an astronomer. Kids can be cruel sometimes. I didn't really think about this much after we'd all moved on to other things, until a few years ago, I met a blind man, Kent Kullers, who'd worked for NASA. Now obviously he hadn't been looking through telescopes, but he had worked in some fascinating areas, including the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He talked knowledgably and fascinatingly about stars and black holes and the wonders of the universe. I don't know whether anyone ever laughed at him when he set out to be an astronomer. But it's a cautionary tale, because sometimes it's other blind people who seek to stop one of their own from reaching for the stars. When I was in my late teens and still determined to achieve my radio dream, someone told me about an ad in the paper they'd seen for a broadcasting course run by professional broadcasters. I thought that having a piece of paper to say I'd done the course might help me, so I did what the ad said and sent them a demo tape. They called me back in short order, offering me a place on the course. They also told me the price tag, which was way beyond my abilities as a penniless student. On that basis, I declined. But to my astonishment, they called me back again. The man from the course said that my tape was so good that they would offer me the course for half price, because it was in their interests to have me graduate from their course. They were sure I would be going places in radio, and they wanted to be able to say that Jonathan Mosen had graduated from their course. So I said, cool! I'll pay half price, and can I come in a little early as I want to get familiar with the equipment and put Braille labels on the media being used. And the attitude instantly changed. He asked me what I was talking about. I told him that I was blind, so I'd just make a couple of simple modifications, and I'd be up and running. He said, look, really there's no point doing the course, since a blind person could never have a future in radio. I never did the course, and a few years later I became his boss. I tell this story because this incident would have been enough to break some people whose self-belief was at a low ebb or nonexistent. One of the saddest things I come across is someone who has had one setback too many and is finding it hard to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep trying. Blind people like me will face ignorance and discrimination; it goes with the territory when you're a member of a minority. Where appropriate, of course, we should fight it with litigation. But mentally we need to fight it with determination, education, and belief. It is never, never too late to give your attitude a software upgrade. It's easy for us to become angry with the world. But anger is a choice. Viewing something as a setback or a challenging learning experience is a choice. Taking steps to become more employable, more presentable, more capable is a choice. Thinking that opportunity will simply fall into our laps is a choice, albeit a foolish one. The praise and feedback we get influences our aptitude at something. If someone is told or tells themselves that they aren't good at something, chances are they won't be. If some event causes them to revisit that same thing with a different attitude, the results can be very different. Blind people are exposed to a lot of negativity. No doubt many of you have seen the literature indicating that more people fear becoming blind than acquiring any other disability. Sight is a dominant sense, so if you have it in full measure, of course it's natural to use it and depend heavily on it. But that's quite a different thing from concluding that one can't function effectively without it, a conclusion many simply believe to be a truism. It's a conclusion sometimes reinforced by people and organizations who should know better, making the work of rehabilitation and education professionals like you more difficult. Only recently, a US organization raising funds to research cures for various eye conditions asked people to record videos of themselves performing common tasks while blindfolded and upload them to YouTube. Now if you're suddenly deprived of a valuable faculty on which you depend and have had no instructions about how to perform tasks in an alternative way, you're going to function as well without that faculty as I'm going to do if I talk at length about baseball. So most people walk away from a simulation experience like that frightened about blindness and misinformed about how a blind person who has received appropriate training can function in the world. It's a serious matter, because some of those people will be employers who eventually encounter a blind job applicant. They'll instantly recall their own experience of blindness, and that may contribute to their assessment of the blind job applicant's skills. Let me be clear, as someone whose blindness also comes with the added limited time bonus of a degenerative hearing condition included absolutely free-I understand the insidious nature of degenerative conditions. Something that was once easy gradually becomes tougher. It's horrible, and its demoralizing. Blindness has been my constant reality all my life. I'm used to it, and I personally have no desire for sight, although many other blind people feel differently. But I'd give anything to have my hearing restored to normality, and I know that's exactly how many people with degenerative eye conditions feel about their sight. I strongly relate. But it's foolish to put our lives on hold or sabotage public perception while we await a cure that may or may not ever come. That's a recipe for a wasted life, one full of missed opportunities and regrets. There are little proverbs, aphorisms, and clich?s that are so ingrained in our culture that few people seem to question them. My favorite is this little piece of absurdity: "In the kingdom of the blind, the one- eyed man is king." This one was triumphantly proclaimed to me by a supposedly learned lawyer who was on a nationwide TV show with me back in New Zealand to justify why no blind person should ever be allowed to serve on any jury. The origins of this phrase are unclear. Some attribute it to Erasmus of Rotterdam, a 16th-century Dutch Renaissance humanist, but there are variations of it in numerous languages. Another variation, translated from the French, is "When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow." These antiquated little pieces of ablest nonsense put forward the view that disability in and of itself makes you inferior, and further, the more disabled you are, the more inferior you are. But I sometimes find myself wondering, what would the kingdom of the blind actually look like? I mean if everyone were blind other than a single one-eyed person, or even a minority of one-eyed people, we'd have a very different world. So please accompany me for just a little while to the kingdom of the blind. Welcome! Vehicles provide a lot of auditory and tactile information here, so a blind person can drive them-we are the majority in this kingdom after all. Normal drivers, they being blind, are concerned about their safety because one-eyed people are being distracted by all the auditory and tactile feedback the vehicles are offering. On radio (there is no TV in the kingdom of the blind of course) debate is raging about whether it's safe for one-eyed people to be given driver's licenses. An organization has recently been formed, the National Federation of the One-Eyed, to champion the rights of this minority. Over a century ago a new form of writing using symbols was developed by a clever one-eyed inventor. He says it's more efficient for one-eyed people to use this new form of writing called print. A limited supply of print books are available, and recently an agreement was reached to transcribe standard Braille books into print without first having to seek the permission of the copyright holder. In recent years computer and smartphone manufacturers in the kingdom of the blind have, as a matter of human rights, added a new accessibility feature to their devices, known as a screen. Sure, all the computers talk and come standard with full-page Braille displays, but the National Federation of the One-Eyed have been fighting in the courts, where blind justice is practiced faithfully, for the rights of this minority to be accommodated. And this thing called a screen is seen to be essential assistive technology. Since the cost of production has to be spread across a very small user-base of one-eyed people, screens are hideously expensive. There's a long way to go before screens are affordable to everyone and work equally well across platforms, but a start has been made, and the one-eyed just need to be patient and grateful for what they have. I could go on, but let me try and sum up on this point: "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?" Seriously? Poppycock. It is society and its majority that disables us with attitudes and decisions, not the disability itself. But these outmoded and misinformed attitudes all make your job as rehabilitation professionals and educators more challenging. They eat away at the very core of what is required for success-belief. No one says it's easy or that it doesn't require some grit and determination, but plant the belief, and with the training provided by teams like this one, blindness is not the end of the story; it's a new beginning. In my view, exposing blind people to adult blind mentors from an early age is a must. But equally, I think parents of blind children need adult blind role models in their lives too. Many people have had little to no meaningful interaction with a blind person before. Then they find themselves a parent of a blind child with the questions and grief that that often brings. What can I expect of a blind child? How should I treat them differently? What's going to become of them when they're grown? As a father of four children myself, I know that it's instinctual to try and keep our kids from harm, and for many, those emotions are super-charged when they have a blind child. I grew up with kids who were wrapped in cotton wool, mollycoddled, not allowed to just be a kid who happens not to see. It was done with love; yet some of them are still paying the price as adults. When I was a kid, I was fortunate. I had an older brother who was blind and through him had access to a lot of great blind role models. Also, my parents let me be a kid. I rode bikes and even a skateboard. I had more than my fair share of bruises, just like any other kid. So parents and children alike need to meet blind people who are just getting on with life and successfully doing what people do. It all fosters belief. I don't know whether this is a uniquely New Zealand thing, but when I was the chairman of New Zealand's blindness agency, I came across this term super blind. As far as I can tell, it seems to relate to any blind person who doesn't conform to the expectations the user of the term has of what a blind person should do or how they should act. I gave an entire address to a group of parents in New Zealand about the importance of parents setting up mentoring programs both for their benefit and the benefit of their blind children. When I checked in afterwards to find out how the speech was received, the president of the group said that one of the agency staff present said that I had set unrealistic expectations and that we can't all be super blind. So I had to explain that blind people are a microcosm of society as a whole. You name it, we've got it: blind people doing a wide range of professions, some of us nicer than others, some more ethical than others, and with a wide range of skills. In some cases our professions or attributes will gain us more attention than others. But sighted people are no different. If someone eventually becomes chief executive of their company or president of the United States, I've never heard them described as super sighted. We must believe in our kids. In the United States parents tell their children: This is America; you can be anything you want to be, even president. Blind kids need to believe that as well, because it's true. Incidentally, while we're on the subject of parenting, when my first child was born, a daughter, I had lots of people asking me, in sort of hushed, whispering tones, "Is she, you know, like you?" This was an odd question to me since I'm clearly male, and she wasn't dressed in pink to make any kind of political statement or anything. But then I realized that they wanted to know if she was blind. When I'd answer the question straight, that no, she was sighted, they'd sound relieved and say that that was great and she'd be able to look after me. And of course, once I retire, I hope she will help keep me in the style to which I've become accustomed, since she's now an electrical engineering student and I hope will earn lots of lovely money. But I realized that if I could just find a way, there was an educational opportunity here. There had to be a way for me to gently point out that actually, blindness is OK. So I began answering the question by saying, actually she's sighted, but we love her just the same. And that seemed to make the point to most people. We've come a long way. New Zealand, like the United States, now has legislation making discrimination on the grounds of disability illegal. The incident I described with the radio course couldn't happen now. Of course, sometimes this causes the discrimination to go underground, and it's harder to prove, but for the most part it's great news. Yet such legislation is no panacea. It legally protects our right to equal consideration and reasonable accommodation. But in a difficult job market, we have to be prepared to put the work in. If we write poorly crafted job applications riddled with spelling mistakes because we haven't used a spell checker, why are we surprised when nothing ever comes back? If we turn up to a job interview and we're not well presented, we don't make an effort to try and look at the person we're talking to, we're not ready to educate and try and put people at ease, our hygiene is poor, then we can't expect jobs to fall into our lap and aren't entitled to get frustrated at the world when nothing happens. I'm sorry for the use of what is clearly a buzz word, but when you believe in yourself, it really does affect your personal brand. If you can imagine yourself in a role you really want, then you start to act the part: you write more professionally, you conduct yourself better. It's hard to maintain that level of self-belief when the rejection letters keep on coming in: sometimes because you were legitimately beaten by a more suitable candidate, sometimes undoubtedly because you're a victim of inaccurate stereotypes. But, if you don't believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in you? People who live life boldly and daringly will fall short and make mistakes sometimes. But personally, I'd rather go to my grave having made mistakes and learned from them than be tormented with a series of "what if" questions. The letter you don't write, the chance you don't take, the phone call you decide not to make could be the one that changes everything. The Beatles felt they were out of options; then an obscure record label took them on, and the world changed forever. A penniless single mother wrote a book, sent it off, and was rejected by twelve publishers until one company finally took her on and published the first Harry Potter book. Thomas Edison had many more failures than successes. What kept them going? Belief. A belief that they had something to offer, even if others couldn't see it yet. And in the jobs that you do, you're uniquely positioned not just to provide valued essential blindness services. You make sense of the need for such services by fostering belief. So when the admin seems unconquerable, you're dealing with someone with whom you're having difficulty establishing a rapport, and it all starts to feel like a daily grind, take some time to give yourself a pat on the back. You may sometimes feel like you're knocking your head against a brick wall with all the bureaucracy and some difficult people, but you're making a difference and changing lives. It's up to each individual blind person to make a go of their own lives in the end. Agencies and the people who run them can only be facilitators. But when you believe in a client and you demonstrate that belief, you can help plant the seed of self-belief, or reinforce it when it's at a low ebb. When you can have that kind of impact on the world, it's a very special thing. Thank you for all you do. ---------- Answering the Spelling Conundrum by Gary Wunder Back in June of 2016 we discussed problems some blind people have with spelling. A main cause of this problem is that the majority of our reading is done using audio, a wonderful way to get information and entertainment but a poor way to observe spelling, punctuation, and formatting to communicate headings, paragraphs, subordination in an outline, italicizing, bolding, underlining, and other attention-getting information. The question posed was how blind people deal with this deficit and what suggestions they offer to others. The Monitor received about ten responses, for which we are grateful. Not surprisingly, the advice in many of these can be distilled into the recommendation to read all the Braille one can. Several observed that they have heard Braille used as an excuse for being a poor speller. Certainly there are some words for which Braille allows the use of a sign, a letter, or a letter preceded by prefixed dots. As far as we can determine there are 148 words one must learn for which contracted Braille would give no clue. One would think that in any instruction in Braille and spelling would place such words on a spelling list and test, the rule being that any answer is always written letter for letter. Certainly most words can be deconstructed by looking at the signs used to write them. Congratulations is written as the con sign, the letters g r a t u l a, and the sign for the letter combination tion, and s, but is easily understood to be the letters c o n g r a t u l a t i o n s. Most of us carry around a memory of what words feel like in the same way print readers say they often spell words by visualizing them. All of this advice for readers of Braille is of no value to the person who doesn't know it, isn't proficient in it, or cannot read it because of physical problems. So, while Braille is a very helpful tool, lacking it does not condemn one to remaining a poor speller. The suggestions that did not rely on Braille were: 1. If you use a word processor or an email client with a spell checker, use it as more than a tool to ensure your latest document has no misspellings. Don't just search for and accept the right word and move on. Write the words it corrects and practice them like you did when getting a spelling list on Monday and preparing for the test on Friday. Mrs. Smith won't be there to grade you, so your success won't mean a good grade or a treat. Instead, your vocabulary will grow with each new word you master, your confidence in writing a quality document will increase, and your reliance on there always being a high- tech device at hand will diminish. 2. When reading with audio using a screen reader, concentrate not only on the content but do a mental check to see if you know how to spell the words being heard. If not, use your screen reader's review functions to spell the words you are unsure of and add them to your list. Note that not everyone who writes to you is a good speller, so before adding his or her word to your list, verify it is spelled correctly with a spell checker or a dictionary. This will increase the time it takes to read some of your email and other materials, but the benefit in what you learn is well worth it. Many blindness products have a built-in spell checker, and there are several dictionaries available to use online, including dictionary.com, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary, and more. 3. For words encountered while reading a book from NLS, Learning Ally, and other audio sources, here are some strategies for learning the spelling and meaning of a word. Most online or electronic dictionaries allow the partial entry of words and special characters for those letters one doesn't know. Suppose one knows the meaning of miraculous but doesn't know the spelling. If only one letter is in doubt, most online dictionaries will allow the substitution of a question mark and will return the word. So, entering m i r ? c u l o u s will return the correctly spelled word and reveal the mystery letter to be an 'a.' If you only know that the word miraculous begins with an 'm' and ends with an 's,' you could enter 'm*s.' The star indicates one or more letters which are found in the word being sought. Given the number of words which begin with 'm' and end with 's' (819, in case you were wondering), the more letters you know, the better. 4. For those with iPhones, when coming across a new word, tell Siri to spell the word you hear. If you are unsure about the definition, Siri can also be asked to define the word. If the word in question is catastrophe, say, "Spell catastrophe." If you want the definition, say, "Define catastrophe." This is a fantastic feature, but it is only a crutch unless you take the extra step of keeping a list and learning what you have heard. 5. One person recommends using the web to improve spelling, and a simple Google search of "learn to spell" will turn up a number of sites to visit. Another word of caution about learning words from emails from others: there are some spelling pitfalls that print and Braille readers struggle with together, so they are worth keeping in mind when reading emails or looking up words that your screen reader has told you: words that are spelled similarly regardless of how they are pronounced, and words that sound very similar but are spelled differently. Some common examples are loose and lose, accept and except, recent and resent, there/their/they're, to/too/two, and your/you're. When you use an online dictionary to check a spelling, glance at the definition of the word, and make sure that you have the correct word for the meaning you intend. Though these are common mistakes, they can have a dramatic impact in a professional setting. Remember that learning anything challenging takes time. Becoming a better speller takes time, but that time is rewarded with new-found confidence, one less thing to be defensive about, and feeling good about exercising a part of one's mind that has been shown to forestall the onset of age-related brain problems. The goal is not to become the next champion at the spelling bee nationals but to feel more confident in what you write, to lessen the apprehension when you do, and to better represent the thoughts and experiences your intellect and drive have provided. With patience and perseverance, you can hear or quote Thomas Jefferson's quip: "I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word only one way" and can smile, remembering the day when you spelled words many different ways. ---------- Breaking the Ceiling for Blind Actors by Gary Wunder As you can tell from the table of contents, a number of articles in this issue deal with blind performers and how little visibility we have on television and in the movies. When blind people are featured, too often our characters do not represent life as we know it. Characters are obnoxious dolts who represent people most would rather avoid. When blind characters do appear, seldom if ever are they played by blind actors. As with so many issues in our lives, those of us who are blind have to determine why we do not have the same opportunities as others. Generally we find that lack of opportunity springs from low expectations and significantly wrong perceptions on the part of the public and occasionally by the blind. Of course, sometimes obstacles we face are caused by the physical lack of sight and situations when there is no substitute for it. The glass ceiling faced by blind performers is but one example of how difficult it is to make this determination and how broadly to apply it. Should blind people be cast in roles in which the characters are blind? Should blind people appear on screen more than they do given the percentage of the population we represent? I suggest that the answer to both of these questions is yes. Can blind people act in roles in which the character has sight? This is a harder question and one that leads to so many others that it could certainly merit an article of its own. It is our hope to run an article later this year which represents the views of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division on these and other issues. For now, here is what two mainstream magazines and a blind performer have to say about the issue of people with disabilities in movies and on television. After you have had time to think about the opinions expressed here, share how you feel with the readers of the Braille Monitor. Collectively let's figure out how to meet yet another challenge and the strategies we will use in doing it. ---------- In Hollywood, People with Disabilities are Almost Nonexistent by Alyssa Rosenberg From the Editor: This article first appeared on September 7, 2016, in the Washington Post. The National Federation of the Blind does not believe that blindness is the characteristic that defines a person, but it is one of a number of characteristics that work together to form a person's identity. There has been a lot of discussion so far this year about mainstream Hollywood's diversity, or its failures in that department. But the controversies over the all-white slate of Oscar nominees, or the casting of white actresses as characters of Asian descent or origin, does not address the full range of diversity. Alyssa Rosenberg brings up a very timely reminder that diversity is not just about race but also includes disability as well. Here is what she has to say: I didn't need a study to tell me that people with disabilities are woefully underrepresented in the entertainment industry, but a new report from Stacy Smith and her colleagues at the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative casts a dispiriting new light on just how badly Hollywood is doing. And Smith's latest deep dive into whose stories get told on screen offers us an important reminder: fewer stories about people with disabilities mean a narrower vision of life in general. Smith and her coworkers have been tracking who appears and who gets to speak in the most popular movies released since 2007. In 2015, the first year Smith analyzed movies for the representation of people with disabilities, she found that just 2.4 percent of characters in the top one hundred movies who spoke or had actual names had disabilities. That's a significant gap between fiction and reality, since the Census Bureau has found in 2010 that 56.7 million people, or 18.7 percent of Americans, have disabilities. Characters with disabilities appeared in fifty-five of those one hundred movies. And of those characters, 61 percent had physical disabilities, 37.1 percent had mental or cognitive disabilities, and 18.1 percent had communicative disabilities. Characters with disabilities were overwhelmingly male; just 19 percent of characters with disabilities were female. Characters with disabilities were likely to be relatively marginalized in the movies in which they did appear: ten of the one hundred top-grossing films from 2015 featured characters with disabilities as leads or co-leads. Of the eleven movies that Smith and her colleagues classified as ensemble, two featured characters with disabilities as part of the core ensemble. As Smith and her co-authors put it, tartly: "Overall, the vast majority of characters with disability were featured in supporting (54.3 percent) or inconsequential roles (32.4 percent)." Some of the consequences of Hollywood's exclusion of people with disabilities are obvious. The entertainment industry's lack of interest in these stories makes disabilities seem less common than they actually are. And its tendency to tell stories that emphasize the struggles associated with disability limit the range of things that people with disabilities get to do in fiction. The result is not merely a limited number of roles available to actors with disabilities, but a limited range of roles. Smith's report also points to other troubling signs in Hollywood storytelling. Of the already small number of movies that feature characters with disabilities, just 2 percent of those characters appear in animated movies. In other words, Finding Dory, Pixar's movie about a fish with a cognitive disability, may be a smash hit, but otherwise "content targeting the youngest viewers all but erases this community." And the paucity of images of people with disabilities interacts with other ways in which Hollywood is profoundly and persistently unequal. Take, for example, gender. Women are already underrepresented in the movies: of the top one hundred films of 2015, just 32 percent had women as leads or co-leads, and 31.4 percent of characters overall were female. As I noted earlier, those proportions get even more skewed when it comes to characters with disabilities. As Smith notes, "For females, it is clear that Hollywood's preference skews toward youth, beauty, and ability." The lack of female characters with disabilities reinforces the pernicious notion that women with disabilities are somehow not young, beautiful, or capable. And the general exclusion of female characters with disabilities contributes to Hollywood's already narrow definition of what women are, what we look like, and what we can do. Similarly, the authors wrote, "For individuals who are LGBT and/or living with a disability, film is also a representational wilderness," in a year where no movie character with a disability was also anything other than straight. And 71.7 percent of characters with disabilities were white. These skewed statistics work in two directions. When it comes to sexual orientation, a lack of LGBT characters who also have disabilities contributes to a vision of the world in which disability is not part of the LGBT experience and where people with disabilities are often presented as sexless. In a similar way, the overwhelming whiteness of fictional people with disabilities suggests both that people of color do not have disabilities and that people with disabilities are not affected by the many issues that also face people of color in the United States. Stories about people with disabilities aren't just about one community or employment for one group of people. As Smith's report points out, these portrayals have implications for all of us. ---------- In Hollywood, Diversity Tends to Ignore the Disabled by Tre'vell Anderson From the Editor: This article first appeared June 15, 2016, in the Los Angeles Times and is gratefully reprinted with permission. Here it is: The story at the heart of Warner Bros.' recently released film Me Before You is what fairy tales are made of. An adaptation of Jojo Moyes' 2012 book of the same name, the movie follows the relationship between a young banker (The Hunger Games' Sam Claflin) left paralyzed after an accident and his caregiver (Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke). But to some, the choice of the able-bodied Claflin is yet another example of the film industry limiting the roles actual disabled actors get to play. Diversity has been the talk of Hollywood, but for the most part, the conversation has centered mostly on race and gender. Some have brought in issues of sexuality, but many feel the discussion should expand to include the disabled. "If you're going to discuss diversity, it has to be completely inclusive of the groups that really define diversity, not just a select group that is popular," said actor Danny Woodburn. "It's popular to say LGBT groups, women, people of color define diversity. It's not so popular to say people with disability define diversity. But the reality is that disability puts the 'D' in diversity." Hollywood has long received criticism over its lack of diverse representations of people in front of and behind the camera. The most recent critique came earlier this year when the film academy announced an all-white slate of acting nominees for the second year in a row. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, created by April Reign, immediately trended on social media. In an interview with the Times, Reign verbalized her stance on what she called "the erasure of marginalized communities" and posited a definition of diversity that included differently abled people. Most of the advocacy thus far, however, has centered on women, people of color, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Even when the film academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, announced the organization's commitment to diversity post-#OscarsSoWhite, only women and people of color were singled out. Additionally, the Times' list of one hundred people who could help broaden diversity in the academy-and in Hollywood-was focused on race, gender, and sexuality. To Woodburn (Jingle All the Way, Seinfeld, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), who as a little person counts himself as a person with a disability, such an exclusion puts forth "dangerous rhetoric" that ignores a significant group of people. According to the US census, about 19 percent of the population identifies as differently abled-that's 56.7 million people. Their conditions range from intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome to physical disabilities such as paralyzation or cerebral palsy. Others' sensory perceptions could be affected, such as those with autism, blindness, or hearing loss. A 2012 census report noted that this community has a lower likelihood of being employed and a higher likelihood of experiencing persistent poverty. As such, any diversity conversation that doesn't make room for disabled people is "dangerous," Woodburn said, considering the economic and policy-oriented ramifications. One way policy is affected by such exclusion can be seen in New York, where the Writers Guild of America East has endorsed and lobbied for modifications to the Empire State Film Production Tax Credit to include television writers and directors who are women or people of color. Woodburn, as vice chair of SAG-AFTRA's Performers With Disabilities Committee, is working to get disability added to the potential list of supported diversity. "It's that same separate but equal phraseology of the 1960s, that it's not your turn yet," he said. "It gets my ire up. It gets me activated." Gail Williamson, a talent agent at Kazarian, Measures, Ruskin and Associates, has been advocating on behalf of the differently abled for more than twenty years. With 120 disabled clients on her roster, she believes a number of them could have easily taken on the Me Before You role. "We refer to it as cripface, as in blackface or painting Italians to look like American Indians," said Williamson. "We're hoping in the future that these films would hold up more if they indeed had an actor with a disability." Preempting retorts that disabled people don't have the talent, training, or experience necessary to take on major roles-a similar refrain used to justify inadequate representations of women, people of color, and LGBT folk-Williamson, whose son is an actor with Down syndrome, echoed the words of winner Viola Davis' speech at the 2015 Primetime Emmys about just needing the opportunity. "We've got them waiting, people who are trained, have done their homework and have credits, but they won't open up the doors for them," Williamson said. "But my guys are never going to be able to come into the room with the experience that these other guys have, because it's not awarded to them. Someone is going to have to see it in them." Marlee Matlin, who as a deaf actress was cast as the lead in 1986's Children of a Lesser God, won an Oscar and instantly became a star for the role, her first credited gig ever. As for people the industry should be paying attention to, Williamson and other community advocates highlight Ali Stroker (Broadway's Spring Awakening, Faking It), Jamie Brewer (American Horror Story), JLouis Mills (Heartbeat, The Tribe) and Robert David Hall (the CSI franchise), among others. But as Adam Moore, SAG-AFTRA's national director of equal employment opportunity and diversity, added: "Not only do they not have the opportunity for anything that is specifically written about [disabled people], but when [the story does have disabled characters] they don't get the chance to even compete for those jobs more than half of the time." Moore likened the situation to casting experiences of people of color where roles are slated for whites unless otherwise stated. "It also means nondisabled, unless otherwise labeled," he said. "[Disabled people] are excluded almost from the beginning because stories aren't being thought of to be told in these ways." Furthermore, Moore cautioned, the experience can be doubly or triply oppressive for those living at the intersections of other identities disadvantaged in the industry, such as a disabled woman of color. But this is why disabled people need to be included in the industry's definitions of diversity, Woodburn said. They too should be able to see themselves reflected in society's cultural productions. "I don't want disabled people to be a footnote in this discussion," he said. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kelsey Nicolay] Let's Dance: How I Dealt with Choreography by Kelsey Nicolay From the Editor: Since we are focusing on the blind in performance, it is good to go beyond philosophizing and noting the poor state of the representation of the blind. In addition, we should focus on the performing opportunities blind people have had, and here is one as it was reported in the fall issue of the Buckeye Bulletin, the newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. Here is how it was introduced by Editor Barbara Pierce: Editor's note: Most of us know Kelsey from the Ohio listserv. She lives in Medina, so she has no chapter near her. Here is a chance to get to know her a bit better: I have been singing in choir since the fourth grade without much difficulty. However, one day in my freshman chorus the director gave us the music we would be performing at the end-of-year show with choreography. I was nervous about how it would go. How would I remember the moves? How would I move around without my cane? What about getting on and off stage? My choir director assured me that I would dance and participate like everyone else and that they would find ways to make it happen. We ended up having someone come in to help me. The choir director chose someone who was in show choir and had more dance experience. It worked out really well once the choir director found someone. The person the director found seemed to know instinctively that I could do the moves on my own once I learned them and made sure that, as soon as she felt I was ready, she insisted that I do as much as I could without her holding onto my arms. After about a week she said, "I'm not going to help you too much today because I want you to be able to do it on your own during performance." I didn't do the moves perfectly the first few times I did them alone, but I knew that with repetition I would learn them, and I did. By two weeks before performance, I could do almost all of it alone, and she could simply watch from a distance and correct me if necessary. Performance weekend went pretty well. While the first show time was mostly successful, I had a few setbacks. For instance, like most students, I chose to take part in my grade's student-led ensemble. We auditioned for the show and were one of the groups selected. When it came time to learn our choreography, the choreographer made a comment that he tried doing the ensemble's dance steps with his eyes closed, and he couldn't do it, so he concluded that I couldn't either. I felt devastated because I had been working hard in choir, and then he told me I couldn't perform the student ensemble choreography. The choir director decided to let me perform anyway and just sing the number with the ensemble. I was grateful he let me do that, but at the same time I felt robbed of an opportunity to prove myself. From this experience I learned that it is important to stay positive and keep working at your dream and trying to change minds even if others don't believe you will succeed. My sophomore and junior years, however, the performances were not as successful. Again the choir director found someone to work with me. However, this person did not have the same expectations that the former student had had. Instead of encouraging me to do the moves on my own, she stood behind me and moved my arms. It took a lot longer for me to learn the choreography, and on stage during performance she had to help me with most of it. The choir director allowed her to be on stage with me, but he overlooked the fact that she was practically doing it for me. My teacher of the visually impaired, family, and friends all commented that there was no reason for her to be on stage helping me. My TVI helped me with costume changes for one show so that my family could watch the performance. After both my numbers she told me that I could have done most of that myself. The same thing happened both years. My junior year I participated in the student ensemble again. It was comprised of the people I had been in the freshman group with, but they were all in higher choirs than I was. They were familiar with my blindness, and it didn't seem like a big deal to them until it was time to learn the choreography. The group leader chose to make up the choreography herself instead of having our choreographer do it. When it came time for dance rehearsal, no one bothered to teach me until the week of performance. My choir director told me one person was teaching me, my assistant told me something different, and another student in my choir said she was teaching me. I finally decided to call one of the members whom I knew from freshman chorus and who had helped me in that group as well. Luckily she agreed to teach me the next day. However, because it was so close to performance, I ended up dropping the group at the last minute because I could not learn the arm movements in time. My senior year I was determined to make this the best performance since it was my last one. I told my director that I wanted an assistant to help me learn the choreography but that I did not want him on stage with me. The director had a hard time finding someone who was free during the first period of the day, but she eventually found someone, and, once she did, it worked out fine. This person seemed to know instinctively that I could do the moves by myself. Once I felt confident, I did everything by myself. He was right there, but he never helped me when I didn't need it. It also helped that my sister was in the same choir as me, so she sometimes worked with me at home to correct my mistakes. I also participated in senior ensemble since it was my last performance. That started off shaky, but, once I was taught the dance, I was ok. One of the girls in my choir was also in the group, so she started teaching me. However, this person seemed to have the expectation that I needed constant help and therefore stood behind me and moved my arms. Two students whom I knew from middle school told me that they had decided to teach me instead. I met with them one-on-one, and we went through it. I learned the routine in about an hour, and by the end of our time I was doing pretty much all of it with very little assistance. The performance went really well, and my family told me that I fit right in, which is what I wanted. Based on these experiences, I have several suggestions for students dealing with a similar situation. The most important piece of advice is to be confident. It may be difficult at times, but try to stay positive through performance. Second, self-advocacy is critical. If you feel you are not getting the help you need, speak up. Try to talk to the person helping you and let him or her know that you want to do the moves on your own. It may be uncomfortable to bring this up with the student, but as long as you do it tactfully, there should be no problem. You can also ask your orientation and mobility instructor or TVI for help. She may be able to help if there is a particular dance move you are struggling with. Either way, speak up if things aren't going the way they should. Finally, show appreciation. For example, giving the people who helped you learn the choreography a gift card to their favorite restaurant or just some flowers go a long way. People will be more likely to help you in future ensembles if they know their work is appreciated. ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Alex Lester] The Otherness Factor by Alex Lester From the Editor: Alex Lester was the tenBroek Library's first intern during the summer of 2016. He is now a senior studying psychology and ethics at Misericordia University near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the NFB. In exchange for course credit, living quarters, and a stipend generously provided by Misericordia, Alex spent six weeks working on preservation projects with NFB archivist Anna Kresmer. His dedication to the work of the library, as well as his positive attitude and enthusiasm, were appreciated by all. However, the space where Alex truly excelled was in embracing the history and philosophy of the NFB and applying it not only to his own life, but to his research and thought processes as a philosophy student. As part of the requirements for his internship, Alex was asked to submit this article, which perfectly reflects his absorption of the Federation's philosophy. We gladly welcome Alex to the Federation family and wish him continued success as vice chair of the Human Relations Commission of the City of Scranton. Here is what he has to say: "Television could perform a great service in mass education, but there's no indication its sponsors have anything like this on their minds." - Tallulah Bankhead Television is a part of millions of Americans' everyday lives. In fact, "According to the A.C. Nielsen Company, the average American watches more than four hours of TV each day (or twenty-eight hours per week, or two months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a sixty-five-year life, that person will have spent nine years glued to the tube," according to an article by N. Herr. That's a lot of time to influence what everyday people are exposed to and how they behave. However, this puts producers in a position of great power and creates a moral dilemma since they are able to either inspire equality for all or create divisions where there aren't any. This also creates a specific issue for the viewers. How should one hold content creators accountable for their actions, and do we have an obligation to only view projects that promote equality? To wrestle with this issue, we must look to ethics. Ethics is the philosophical study of what is right or wrong, what is good or bad, and is concerned with how one should act. In ethics there are many different theories, but I want to focus on only one. This is a theory that Americans unknowingly use to judge daily actions. It is called utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics (the branch of ethics that focuses on how we should act) which holds that the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility. Utility is defined as what will cause the least amount of suffering and promote the most happiness. How does one measure utility? Utilitarianism is in a category of ethics known as consequentialism, which simply means that you can only judge an action's morality by the consequences it produces. There are two types of utilitarian ethics practiced but here I am just focusing on one, and it is called Act Utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism requires that for a person's act to be morally right, it must produce at least as much happiness as any other act that the person could perform at the time of the action. Instead of using this system of mass media influence to promote people with disabilities as equals to their nondisabled counterparts, television and film producers constantly find new and creative ways to depict people with disabilities by employing something I call the "Otherness Factor." The Otherness Factor is where a character with a disability is only represented via an archetype character (1) who is somehow "othered" or different in some way. An example of this would be if a character is blind, they either have a super power that romanticizes their disability as something mystical (such as the superhero Daredevil's radar sense), or they are represented as something undesirable or evil (such as the bumbling idiot or a serial killer). There are no depictions of an average blind person. The one unifying trait of the Otherness Factor Character (OFC) is that each and every OFC is defined by their disability and lacks any sense of being a well-rounded character. Now knowing what the OFC is, we must ask what the effects of the Otherness Factor are. Quite a few studies have been done on children's exposure to unhealthy food television advertisements and children's food choices, ultimately showing that "considerable scientific evidence establishes a link between unhealthy food marketing and children's food choices, purchases, and consumption," according to a 2016 article in the American Journal of Public Health. If advertising food to children can have such an impact on their actual behavior, what effects do depicting people with disabilities as othered and ultimately advertised as a person's defining factor have on both the disabled and the general public? With a lack of role models, disabled people are missing out on psychological benefits that their nondisabled peers have. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people with role models who exhibited certain traits (traits that are not depicted in an OFC) were likely to enhance motivation in a person. The continued reinforcement of the negative and misguided stereotypes of disabled people starts to become applied to the disabled community as a whole, not just to a person who has the disability with the promoted stereotype. For example, people with disorders that are not severe developmental disorders are treated as if they had them anyway, like a waiter asking a sighted or hearing person what the blind and/or deaf person wants to eat. In addition to these two negative consequences, the focus of over- or underachievement means that disabled people are exposed to rhetoric that they can never be who they are without striving to overcome their impairment. However, disability across the board does not have to define a person. The National Federation of the Blind's one-minute message states that, "We know that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back." I think that in the one-minute message, the word blindness could be replaced with the names of other disabilities. People are more than just their disability. It can be hard to believe that when the rhetoric is discouraging you from separating truth from fiction; when the distance placed between disabled people and the intended audience (nondisabled people) reinforces a socially constructed gap between disabled and nondisabled people. That gap creates stress not just for the disabled person, but also for the nondisabled person who then doesn't know how to treat a disabled person when they encounter them in the real world. The distance makes it hard, if not impossible, for them to interact with them as regular people. An Act Utilitarian would say that Americans and content creators would act morally if they snuffed out the Otherness Factor Character archetype from all films and television shows and replaced it with complex, well-rounded characters who promote the positive representation of disabled people. The Golden Girls is one example of a past production whose social influence was so great that it "inspired older women to dress and behave in a way they have always felt inside," by representing older women in a way that was unheard of during the 1980s according to Rue McClanahan in an interview in 2000. If a new show could pull off a similar stunt with its depictions of blind or disabled people, we would no doubt see a change in how disabled people are treated as whole people in real life, resulting in both disabled and nondisabled people becoming happier. This happiness would be greater than creating content that ignores an entire group of people and causes stress for another. Creating more complex disabled characters is the moral thing to do. Although Act Utilitarianism states that the act must create the most happiness at the time, their past actions cannot be condemned as non-moral unless they were aware that the project would cause such harm. One case where filmmakers can be held accountable with this theory would be when the filmmakers of the 2008 film Blindness, which contained a gross depiction of blind people, were made aware by the NFB that it would cause damage in representing blind people the way it did. Still they chose to release the project and by doing so perpetuated a non- moral representation of disabled people. Knowing that the moral thing for content creators to do is to create complex disabled characters and get rid of the OFC, what should viewers do to encourage moral representation? Act Utilitarianism also has something to say about this. The theory says to act only in a way that will create the most happiness, which means that viewers have a moral obligation to not purchase or watch films that feature OFCs, thereby using one's money as a means of social pressure. Political action is also extremely important; organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind lobby and engage in discourse with the local, state, and federal governments, production companies, and anyone who needs to be educated to advocate for just treatment of the disabled. It's important to understand that cutting off funding to these projects by not watching them and by advocating for equality by writing letters and starting discourse with friends, family, film producers, and the government-be it through an organization or on your own-will help millions of people benefit by getting rid of negative representations and an increasing positive representation. These actions will encourage positive depictions and a better understanding of what people with disabilities are capable of doing. Using Act Utilitarianism as a way to judge morality and conduct behavior can cause both great and tangible change as well as promote a great happiness for all of humanity. Footnote: (1) Although the Otherness Factor Character may be recognizable, it is an archetype character and not a stock character. References: Bankhead, T. (n.d.). Tallulah Bankhead Quotes. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/tallulahba393219.html Herr, N. (n.d.). Television & Health. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from https://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html Jordan, C. (2002, November). Motivation by positive or negative role models: Regulatory focus determines who will best inspire us. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(4): 854-64. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/lockwood/PDF/Lockwood 2002 Motivation.pdf Kelly, B. (2010, September). Television Food Advertising to Children: A Global Perspective. American Journal of Public Health, 100(9). Retrieved July 26, 2016, from http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2009.179267 Rue McClanahan [Television series episode]. (2000, June 19). In Intimate Portrait. Lifetime. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLmMZZrFGCw ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Barbara Pierce] Addressing the Needs of Seniors by Barbara Pierce From the Editor: No name is likely to be more familiar to Monitor readers than Barbara Pierce, she having served longer than any editor in the history of this magazine. She now edits the Buckeye Bulletin, a publication of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. It is always a pleasure for me to read what she writes, and I think what she has to say about addressing the needs of senior citizens is both timely and important. Here is what she says in an article entitled "Editor's Musing," which appeared in the fall issue of the newsletter: On September 1 Bob and I celebrated our first year of living at Kendal at Oberlin, a residential community for seniors. We have a lovely, air-conditioned cottage and one delicious meal a day in an upscale dining room. The tradeoff is that we spend most of our time with senior citizens, thinking about issues of interest to them. One of these is vision loss. Recent statistics suggest that 6.8 percent of people over sixty-five are losing vision. That is from the NFB website. The AFB says that 12.2 percent of people between sixty-five and seventy-five report vision loss while 15.4 percent of those over seventy-five are losing sight. Not surprisingly a number of people here are struggling with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Also not surprisingly people watch me very carefully. They are always worrying that I may trip someone with my white cane. They also want to know how I do things, and they worry about how I am going to get where I am going. I am also president of the NFB of Ohio Seniors Division. I am sorry to say that I have not done much with this job this year, but I have been thinking about the NFB's general responsibility to reach out to seniors losing vision. This is or should be a concern for every chapter across the state. All of us have competent people in our communities who are losing vision and who could be helpful members of our chapters. Retirement centers are a good place to search for these folks and recruit them to join us. In August I spoke to the Vision Support Group at Kendal. This is a group of people who meet monthly, mostly to learn about cutting-edge research in their particular type of blindness. Once a year they have Magnification and More come out to show them technology, and they are linked with an international group addressing senior low-vision issues. I have not attended a single meeting of this group this year because none of what they were doing was of any interest to me. But the guy who runs the group asked me to come in August and talk to them, and it seems to have been a great success. They had twice the number of people attend the meeting as the previous record, and they were quite interested in what I had to say. My title was "Exploring the World of the Other Four Senses." I began by suggesting that focusing intensely on what they could see had disadvantages. Their vision was failing, so they necessarily got less and less satisfactory visual information. I also told them that they were always getting information from their other senses but that their brains could concentrate only on a certain amount of data at once. If they were busy concentrating on vision, they did not have brain power left over to assess the other, more useful information coming in. I went through what they could learn from touch, hearing, smelling, and the kinesthetic sense of where their bodies were in the world. I covered what one can learn through feet on the ground, what temperature changes or sunshine or the breeze on a cheek can tell you, how to use the balance and weight of what is on the fork to help you eat efficiently, and how the weight and balance of papers can help you find things that are buried in a pile of junk. We talked about marking things with rubber bands or safety pins. I told them about listening for walls, doorways, bushes, and wide open spaces. I answered lots of questions and talked them through how I find my luggage on a carousel at the airport. I also put in a word for accessible voting machines. They asked good questions and begged me to come back again next summer, when I suspect they will have forgotten everything I talked about, so I can easily do it all again. I have bothered to describe all of this because I hope to inspire some of you to go and do likewise at retirement facilities near you. One could have done a lot more of course. This is a great opportunity for mentioning the NFB's vehicle donation program. One could urge them to come to chapter meetings or events or join even if they don't want to come to meetings. I also want to urge members who are seniors to join the Seniors Division by coming to our meeting at convention Saturday at lunch. Susan Day will be talking with us about how to stay safe in our homes. We will also be planning activities for the coming year. It would be great to hear that some new folks have made arrangements to talk with seniors in their communities. Seniors too can live the lives they want; blindness is not what holds them back. ---------- Dots from Space! A Mysterious Quest Begins by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer From the Editor: At the 2015 National Convention a new activity was introduced: the NFB Quest. It was designed to be a fun game that would challenge Federationists to learn more about the organization and help break the ice between members who had never met in person before. It made the players active participants rather than passive observers of articles and speeches. Monitor readers who did not have the opportunity to attend the 2016 Convention don't have to feel left out, however, since the Monitor will be running a serialized version of the NFB Quest from this year. Here is how Amy Mason, access technology specialist, and Anna Kresmer, archivist for the tenBroek Library, introduce it: Dots from Space! was the second annual NFB Quest. The quests are built to encourage both newcomers and Federation veterans to experience our national convention in a whole new way. They incorporate puzzle-solving, trivia, social challenges, and travel to many of the beloved events and locations that are integral parts of the national convention. Lisamaria Martinez, co-winner of the inaugural "NFB Diamond Quest" in 2015 said that the coolest part of playing "was that it got people up and moving, talking to each other, and learning really neat things in order to move on to the next round. I found myself visiting the Presidential Suite for the first time in seventeen national conventions. My husband talked to many blind people to ask them questions about trivia or to ask them to read something in Braille for him. We had a blast!" For its second iteration, the game wizards hoped to see the convention quest participants boldly go where no Federationists had gone before. This meant creating a bigger game with new challenges that would appeal to more players while weaving in a greater opportunity for collaboration. As part of this expanded game universe, we introduced the Dots from Space, a friendly and curious alien race. The story of these intrepid explorers allowed us to present the Federation philosophy in a refreshing new way while highlighting some forgotten gems from our history. In order to share some of the fun with members who were not able to participate in the game, the Braille Monitor will present the storyline of Dots from Space! as a series of articles over the next several months. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it, and we welcome you to participate in next year's NFB Quest! To read more of Lisamaria's blog post on winning the first NFB Quest with her husband Joe Bakker, visit . Here is the first episode: It is the year 2525. The Earth lies abandoned and still. A spacecraft, lured by the silent monuments of Washington, DC, looks for a landing spot on the edges of the Chesapeake Bay. The terrain is rough and uneven, with the remains of empty buildings partially submerged in the frigid water. The large, flat roof of one building in particular seems to provide a good spot, and the ship touches down. Later, inside the scout ship known as the Particle, the officers prepare to investigate the planet's surface. Captain Dottie orders a survey of the surrounding terrain, and the ship's computer instantly produces a 3D model of the immediate environs. Intrigued, the science officer rolls forward and flattens himself over the model like a giant ball of silly putty. Reforming into a ball, he exclaims, "Fascinating." "What is it, doctor?," asks the captain. "Most interesting, captain. It appears that the majority of the structure is still intact. I would recommend that we begin our investigations with the very building upon which we have landed." The captain considers for a moment before saying, "Very good. Let us proceed." The crew begins to prepare to disembark from the ship by running additional scans of the interior of the building, checking the atmospheric conditions, and readying their gear. Suddenly, one of the spherical aliens conducting one last scan cries out, "Captain! We've found something!" The captain sighs gustily, "Yes, ensign? What is it now?" "A game!" ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Salisbury] Assuming They Know What I Want by Justin Salisbury From the Editor: Justin Salisbury is now an orientation and mobility instructor with Ho`opono Services for the Blind. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University in March 2016 in the first cohort of the Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind master's program and the first cohort to receive the National Certification in Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind (NCRTB) in addition to the NOMC and NCUEB. His experiences in the states of Connecticut, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Louisiana have helped prepare him to empower blind people in Hawaii. Here is what he says: The Walmart near my apartment faces into its parking garage rather than facing the street. In order to enter the building, I climb a short flight of stairs and then follow a zigzag sidewalk past a Starbucks and a few other restaurants built into the side of the Walmart until I finally get to the door. Without fail, after I finish climbing the stairs, I get a few steps before I hear, "Sir, you're about to run into a wall." If I'm lucky, I even get to hear it again for one or two of the other walls in the zigzag pattern. I usually ignore it, but the other day I stopped and asked, "Have I walked anywhere that sighted people don't normally walk?" The man replied, "No, you're doing fine. It's just that you were about to run into a wall." I was not sure how he reasoned that I got myself all the way to the Walmart from wherever I had been only to risk it all by potentially running into a wall. I told him that it was actually not normal for people to run into walls, and I left him with that bit of genius. As blind people we often have experiences where we are out traveling, just going through our normal day, when well-meaning sighted people jump in to rescue us with an important piece of information to which they assume we are completely oblivious. They mean well, and their hearts are in the right place. Their expectations of us, however, bear a noteworthy degree of room for improvement. It can be valuable for us to take a moment to reflect on the foundations, shaky and inaccurate as they may be, and the consequences of these acts of kindness. When I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the doctoral students were always included in the Friday faculty coffee hours, and I grew a lot from those experiences. Sometimes the coffee hours were shared between two colleges, which generally meant more serious catering and a wonderful array of dessert items. One day, when we shared coffee with the College of Human Ecology, I met a faculty member who took particular interest in my blindness. In these gatherings, it was quite customary for people to talk about research interests, publication efforts, travel destinations in faraway places, and the newest fun things to do in Madison. In the general public, blindness is usually the first conversation topic most people try to breach with me, but this gentleman actually stood out for that in this setting. After we introduced ourselves, he jumped right in with a question. "So what should I do when I see a blind person?" His question was very simple. It was well-intended, and it even demonstrated an eagerness to learn about blindness and the needs of blind people. If anyone has a question like that, I want them to feel comfortable asking me. Why do so many members of the public, including some blind people, believe that blind people need something special? I suppose it helps if communication is nonvisually accessible, rather than just a wave or a peace sign, but what really makes us so different that we would need anything beyond that? I asked the professor what he meant when he asked what to do. When he would see a blind person on campus, he would often feel the urge to help the blind person, but he never really knew how, so he held back. He was generally uncomfortable with blind people. I told him that he ought to just do whatever he would do if he saw a sighted person. It would probably be a good idea to say hello, just as it would be for anyone else, and carry on as he would naturally. It is perfectly acceptable to approach a blind person to ask a question about something he or she is wearing or to introduce yourself for any of the normal reasons. It is not beneficial, however, to approach the person to offer help just because the person is blind. There is a common presumption that the sighted bear a responsibility or even a sense of authority to know what information a blind person needs and lacks. Even though that professor meant well and even made an effort to become more educated about blindness and the needs of blind people, he held the belief that he needed to be ready to do something for the blind people he encountered. In Honolulu people with low expectations for blind travelers have implemented the installation of an auditory traffic signal that we unaffectionately call "clickers." The button to push for the crosswalk signal emits a soft and slow clicking sound. Once pushed, and when the traffic light changes appropriately, the clicking becomes much faster and louder on both sides of the street. Custodial orientation and mobility specialists will teach students to choose their placement, alignment, and time to cross the street based entirely on these clickers. I have to teach my students how to ignore the noise pollution that they create and to refute the low expectations that their implementation demonstrates. My students aim to cross based on the sounds of traffic, which is, of course, safer and more reliable than audible crossing signals. When approaching the streets, we are often greeted by well-meaning sighted people who think they are helping us by telling us that we are about to cross the street. It must not occur to them that this might be our intention. Many times, when we are standing at an intersection waiting to cross, well-meaning sighted people will walk up or get out of their cars just to push the button for us to initiate the clicker crossing signal. They take time out of their day to do something that they think will help us get what we want and that they think we cannot do for ourselves. They assume that we want the button to be pushed and that the problem is that we are unable to push the button ourselves. They assume that we want to cross the streets using the audible traffic signals. Instead, we are then faced with the choice of either crossing with the distraction of all the noise pollution created by the clickers or to wait for a future cycle without the clickers. When they push the button for us, they make it harder for us to pursue our own objectives, even though they think they know what we want. When I was leaving a state convention of the National Federation of the Blind, I arrived at the airport about two hours and fifteen minutes prior to my departure, thanks to absolutely no traffic delays. As I was approaching the security checkpoint, a TSA agent decided to walk with me up to the podium where another agent would check my identification and boarding pass. I let her know that I didn't expect to need any help but thanked her for her kindness. She followed me anyway, marveling at how independent I was. I am not accustomed to custodial members of the general public mentioning independence on their own. After the man at the podium had returned my boarding pass and identification, the female agent told me to come with her. Now, I was at the back of a line which seemed to be about twenty feet from the conveyor belt, so I asked her where we were going. She told me that she was going to take me to the front of the line so that I could go through security. I had plenty of time, so I decided to take advantage of a teachable moment. I explained to her that I did not mind waiting in line, that I had plenty of time to catch my flight. She persisted, and the man at the podium asked what the problem was. They expressed to each other that they could not believe that I did not want to go to the front of the line, that I actually wanted to wait in line. Even though they each had jobs to do, they decided to focus themselves on talking to me about this seemingly irrational decision that I was making. If we blind people want to have rights equal to those of our sighted counterparts, we must bear equal responsibility, and this applies to waiting in line. I explained this to them. Then, we discussed how the members of any minority, if they wish to achieve rights equal to those of the majority, must bear responsibility equal to that of the majority. They informed me that they were both black, and that they knew very well that, as a minority, they must each take every special opportunity they could get. I told them that I did civil rights work for the blind for my career and that I was not going to contradict my job while on my personal time. "I'm going to bring you to the front of the line, and then I'm going to treat you equally," she said. I explained to her that equality is not something that can be switched off while cutting the line and then switched back on once I'm at the front. She finally let me go so I could stand in line like everyone else. She had been so sure that she knew what I wanted, but she made it harder for me to do what I wanted. I cannot think of any other subset of the population, except maybe children, who might have their priorities questioned to that degree. They think that they know what we want. They assume that they know our priorities, our hopes, and our dreams. If they try to act in pursuit of the priorities that they assume that we have, this takes our plans and our dreams out of our hands. In the National Federation of the Blind, we work to support the self-determination of blind people, which enables us to live the lives we want. The Federation continues to teach me that I should be able to pursue my own goals, which starts with being the one who knows what I want. Many well-meaning sighted people have attempted to help me while assuming they knew what I wanted, but the messages they sent in the process told me that they thought they were the ones with the capacity to know and pursue what I wanted. If I walk up to a street, it just might be intentional. If I walk up to a wall before turning, I might mean to do that, too. If I wait in line, it just might be that I am content there. My priorities, just like those of anybody else, can be more complex than what people who do not know me can perceive. The National Federation of the Blind is teaching me that I am the keeper of my own priorities, that I can live the life I want. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Brian Dulude] Reflecting the Flame in Utah Rehabilitation for the Blind by Brian Dulude From the Editor: Dr. Brian Dulude is a longtime member of the National Federation of the Blind who currently serves as the treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. He can boast of a number of educational accomplishments including a PhD, CRC, LVRC, and NOMC. Before leaving Utah to work as the assistant director for BLIND Inc. he worked as the vocational rehabilitation coordinator for the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Utah. Here is what he says about trying to improve the state agency and the efforts of other like-minded men and women, many of whom are a part of the NFB: In 1991 Dr. Marc Maurer gave a banquet speech entitled "Reflecting the Flame." In this speech, Dr. Maurer pointed out that three things are needed for an idea to move forward and not die: it requires an idea, a leader to promote that idea and defend it, and it finally requires others with the same idea to reflect the flame so that it continues to burn. I listened to this speech recently, and I felt I needed to tell my story of working in blind rehabilitation here in the state of Utah and how the blind of our state have endeavored to reflect the flame. Our blind rehabilitation program is a combined agency under the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation. Our title is the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We have a blindness training center, low vision services, deaf/blind services, an older blind program, vision screening for young children, and, until recently, vocational rehabilitation services. I started working for the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DSBVI) in May of 2010 in the blindness training center as a cane travel instructor. I had previously worked for the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston for over five years. Ray Martin is a long- time Federationist and had the dream of developing a training center that had the same philosophy as the NFB training centers. This philosophy centered around teaching the structured discovery method of training. As director, Ray experienced strong staff resistance to training under sleep shades, using the long white cane, and using the word blind. As director of the center, however, he hired many qualified blind instructors who had the same philosophy and dream that he had. When I started working at DSBVI, Ray had already hired Deja Powell as a cane travel instructor. He experienced staff criticism and hostility for hiring a person who is blind to teach cane travel. He also hired Brook Sexton as a cane travel instructor. Brook is a longtime Federationist, and she, as well as Deja, had been trained at Louisiana Tech University's master's degree program. Previously Brook had been working in Hawaii in the training center there and had seen a training center change its philosophy of blindness. Fellow Federationist Everette Bacon was an employee in Assistive Technology Services. At that time he was chapter president of the Salt Lake Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. Later he became president of the affiliate. Adam Rushforth was also working in the training center when I started. Adam was chapter president of the Utah Valley Chapter. He was also treasurer of the affiliate and director of our Project Strive program. So, as you can see, Ray had a dream of developing an effective training center that would change the lives of the blind of the state. He was a leader who promoted that dream along with Everette Bacon, me, and others that I have mentioned and many whom I have not mentioned. I feel it is important that I point out here that I have not mentioned the division director at the time as one of the leaders who held the same dream as Ray. The director at the time was Bill Gibson. Ray received no support from Mr. Gibson. In fact, he went so far as to remove Ray from being director for a period of four months in the later part of 2010. It was only the intervention of the National Federation of the Blind to the state administrators that made them reverse their decision. As I stated earlier, Ray and those of us who believed in structured discovery training were resisted at almost every turn from staff who did not believe in sleep shades, using the long white cane, or using the word blind. We would develop policies regarding these topics but were never fully supported by Bill or his supervisor, Don Uchita. I finished my doctorate in rehabilitation education from the University of Arkansas in 2011. I was certified as a rehabilitation counselor in the fall of that year. In 2012 DSBVI had an opening for a transition vocational rehabilitation counselor. I applied for the job and was hired. Later that year the vocational rehabilitation coordinator resigned, and I was asked to fill the position. I directed vocational rehabilitation for the blind for four years. During this time Ray still had the dream and continued to hire qualified employees who had the right philosophy of blindness. Some of these included Marla Palmer, a longtime Federationist in the Parents of Blind Children Division for the state of Utah. Amber and Chase Holiday were hired from Louisiana. Mike Harvey and Jim Reed were also hired. For the first two years as rehabilitation coordinator I had the privilege of being part of a management team alongside Ray, and I listened to him and supported his dreams for an effective training center. One of Ray's triumphs was incorporating cross-training or immersion training for newly hired employees of the training center. This was met with resistance by Bill and Don, but we were allowed to train our staff for those in the training center. Ray was permitted to have his staff trained for over three months. New vocational rehabilitation counselors and low vision specialists could train for only six weeks, and support staff could train for only two weeks. For those two years we battled regularly with staff who did not share our philosophy. Everette Bacon became a member of the management team near the end of that two-year period. Ray Martin retired at the end of my second year as supervisor. He felt he had fought the good fight, and he passed the torch to Everette and me to continue the dream. He had hope that we would receive more support from his supervisor than he had received. What did Ray accomplish in his tenure at the training center as director? He had hired enough staff with the right philosophy that the dream would not die with his retirement. Adam Rushforth was hired as the new blindness training center director. We now had three members of the management committee who had a good philosophy of blindness. We continued to try to be the leaders that Ray was and continued to hire counselors and training center staff who had the proper philosophy. These staff were reflecting the flame to their students. Jennifer Kennedy from Virginia was hired as a cane travel instructor. She is a former national scholarship winner and another graduate of Louisiana Tech. We also hired Barbara Elliott as home management instructor. When she was a blind homemaker, she was elected as chapter president of our Weber Davis chapter. Although Everette, Adam, and I were on the management team and could express our opinions on critical hiring and administrative policy, we were never fully supported by Bill Gibson or his supervisors. In November of 2014 the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation (USOR) realized that they had mismanaged the budget and needed to make drastic changes. One significant change was for vocational rehabilitation to go on an order of selection. This included vocational rehabilitation for the blind as well. Federation membership and leadership represented themselves well in public meetings that were held by USOR. Although it was pointed out that DSBVI was not the cause of the shortfall, because we are a combined agency, we were lumped together with the general agency. The director of USOR resigned during the legislative session in which USOR had to ask for six million dollars to cover the shortfall. Bill Gibson retired in the middle of that year. During the first six months of the implementation of the order of selection no clients were removed from the waiting list. Word spread among the blindness community that there was an order of selection, and applications for services declined. As a result, caseloads for the blind declined. As part of conditions from the legislature for the six-million- dollar bailout the legislature required USOR to be audited. DSBVI was specially targeted for this audit based on reports from angry clients or staff who left messages on a recently developed hotline for the agency where individuals could report fraud, misuse, and abuse of public funds. Many of the targeted client files which were audited for DSBVI were found to be out of compliance with USOR policy. In nearly every instance Bill Gibson was involved in the rehabilitation decisions that were out of compliance or an exception to policy. Some were due to counselor error, for which I take responsibility. Based on the results of the audit, USOR decided to consolidate blind vocational rehabilitation into general rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation counselors who were under the supervision of DSBVI would now be supervised by a general rehabilitation supervisor in their geographic area. I was reassigned from being a supervisor to working as a rehabilitation counselor for a general caseload. Public meetings were held at DSBVI explaining the decision. Members and leaders of the NFB of Utah gave public comment expressing their displeasure over the decision and the effect this would have on blind services. They also wrote a resolution which was passed by its state convention. Ray Martin had the dream of good rehabilitation for the blind of Utah. As a leader he hired us to reflect that flame. Although Ray has retired, I have been reassigned, and vocational rehabilitation for the blind has been consolidated into general rehabilitation, we who have the right philosophy will continue to reflect the flame. As members of the National Federation of the Blind, we can do nothing less. Rehabilitation for the blind here in Utah has had some setbacks, but there are still many employees who will continue to reflect that flame and change the lives of the blind of Utah. ---------- The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris From the Editor: Allen Harris is the chairman of the Kenneth Jernigan Fund Committee and was one of the people who came up with the idea of honoring our former president and longtime leader by establishing a program to promote attendance at the national convention, where so much inspiration and learning occur. Here is Allen's announcement about the 2017 Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Program: Have you always wanted to attend an NFB annual convention but have not done so because of the lack of funds? The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund invites you to make an application for a scholarship grant. Perhaps this July you too can be in the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, enjoying the many pleasures and learning opportunities at the largest and most important yearly convention of blind people in the world. The three biggest ticket items you need to cover when attending an NFB national convention are the roundtrip transportation, the hotel room for a week, and the food (which tends to be higher priced than at home). We attempt to award additional funds to families, but, whether a family or an individual is granted a scholarship, this fund can only help; it won't pay all the costs. Last year most of the sixty grants were in the range of $400 to $500 per individual. We recommend that you find an NFB member as your personal convention mentor, someone who has been to many national conventions and is able to share money-saving tips with you and tips on navigating the extensive agenda in the big hotel. Your mentor will help you get the most out of the amazing experience that is convention week. Who is eligible? Active NFB members, blind or sighted, who have not yet attended an NFB national convention because of lack of funding are eligible to apply. How do I apply for funding assistance? 1. You write a letter giving your contact information, and your local NFB information, your specific amount requested, and then explain why this is a good investment for the NFB. The points to cover are listed below. 2. You contact your state president in person or by phone to request his or her help in obtaining funding. Be sure to tell the president when to expect your request letter by email, and mention the deadline. 3. You (or a friend) send your letter by email to your state president. He or she must add a president's recommendation and then email both letters directly to the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Committee. Your president must forward the two letters no later than April 15. Your letter to Chairperson Allen Harris must cover these points: . Your full name, and all your telephone numbers and label them-cell phone, home, office, other person (if any). . Your mailing address and, if you have one, your email address. . Your state affiliate and state president; your chapter and chapter president, if you attend a chapter. . Your personal convention mentor, and provide that person's phone number. . Your specific request: Explain how much money you need from this fund to make this trip possible for you. We suggest you consult with other members to make a rough budget for yourself. The body of your letter should answer these questions: How do you currently participate in the Federation? Why do you want to attend a national convention? What would you receive; what can you share or give? You can include in your letter to the committee any special circumstances you hope they will take into consideration. When will I be notified that I am a winner? If you are chosen to receive this scholarship, you will receive a letter with convention details that should answer most of your questions. The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May 15, but you must do several things before that to be prepared to attend if you are chosen. 1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from attending, you can cancel the reservation. (Yes, you may arrange for roommates of your own to reduce the cost.) 2. Register online for the entire convention, including the banquet, by May 31. 3. Find someone in your chapter or affiliate who has been to many conventions and can answer your questions as a friend and advisor. 4. If you do not hear from the committee by May 15, then you did not win a grant this year. How will I receive my convention scholarship? At convention you will be given a debit card or credit card loaded with the amount of your award. The times and locations to pick up your card will be listed in the letter we sent you. The committee is not able to provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and state affiliate to assist you by obtaining an agreement to advance funds if you win a scholarship and to pay your treasury back after you receive your debit or credit card. What if I have more questions? For additional information email the chairman, Allen Harris, at or call his Baltimore, Maryland, office at (410) 659-9314, extension 2415. Above all, please use this opportunity to attend your first convention on the national level and join several thousand active Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind in the world. We hope to see you in Orlando. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Shown here are a slate and stylus and a Braille label maker, two low-tech items that significantly contribute to the independence of the blind.] Independence Market Corner The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind individuals. We plan to publish regular updates about what the Independence Market has to offer. This month we focus on Braille since January 4th is Louis Braille's birthday, and Braille is such an important tool for blind people to function independently at home, in school, and on the job. We sell various types of Braille paper and notebooks as well as a large selection of slates and styluses for writing Braille. The newest slate we just started carrying is the thirty-two cell Write and Read Slate, which allows the user to write from left to right with a special stylus which pushes paper over the pins in the Braille cell. This means that one forms Braille characters the same way one reads them. And, if one advances the paper with the roller, one can read what one just wrote. Those who have struggled to master a traditional slate may wish to try this writing tool. We also carry a variety of Braille labeling supplies so one can stay organized. Our transparent labeling tape and labeling sheets with a self- adhesive backing make it easy to label many things around the house and at work from spice containers to file folders. Our magnetic labeling tape for cans and our Brailleable food labels, which attach to cans and packages with an elastic and work well on frozen items, are truly useful in the kitchen. We also offer different sets of metal Braille clothing labels, which are sewn or pinned into garments. Of course, Braille is also fun and makes many games accessible. We sell various card games which have been labeled in Braille from a regular poker deck to Uno, Phase 10, Pinochle, Quiddler, Rook, and Skip-Bo. We also have some Brailled board games such as a Sudoku Board which enables one to solve Sudoku puzzles using magnetic Brailled tiles, and Megaword, a word game similar to Scrabble. Many of these games come with Brailled instructions. And if someone would like to learn Braille, we can help there as well. We carry The McDuffy Reader: A Braille Primer for Adults by Sharon Monthei, which was the first Unified English Braille curriculum for adults available in the US. If one wants to learn to write with a slate and stylus or simply wishes to sharpen one's skills, The Slate Book by Jennifer Dunnam contains many helpful tips and ideas for writing practice. For more information about the products discussed here or to request a catalog in Braille or in print, visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact the Independence Market using email to independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659- 9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- Recipes In the twenty-five years that the Monitor has been running groups of recipes monthly, hundreds of delicious ones have been printed. And we've decided to take another trip to the archives to bring up a few recipes we think are too appetizing to let them be forgotten. Baked Pineapple by Ada M. Stokes This recipe first appeared in December 2000. Here's what we had to say about Ada at the time: Ada Stokes is the wife of Ed Stokes, a lifetime member of the NFB of Delaware. Cooking is one of her favorite hobbies. Ingredients: 3 eggs 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 cup sugar 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple with syrup 4 slices bread, diced 1 stick margarine, melted Method: Beat eggs thoroughly. Add flour and sugar, mixing well. Stir in pineapple. Pour into 1-1/2-quart baking dish and place diced bread on top. Drizzle with melted margarine. Bake at 350 degrees for forty-five minutes. ---------- Dudley's Doggie Donuts by Betty Walker This recipe first appeared in July 1994 and was provided by Dave and Betty Walker, active Federationists in Missouri who are now deceased. They loved giving this special treat to their dog. Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour 3 tablespoons oatmeal 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 egg, slightly beaten 2/3 cup boiling water 1 bouillon cube, any flavor Method: Dissolve bouillon cube in boiling water; set aside. Mix together dry ingredients and stir in egg. Stir in bouillon with fork until dough forms a ball. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; roll or press to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with donut cutter. Gather together donut holes and scraps, flatten again, and cut more donuts. Place in microwaveable baking dish; cook on high for ten minutes. Donuts will harden as they cool. Makes twenty donuts. If all donuts will not fit in baking dish, place half in dish and microwave on high for seven minutes; repeat with remaining half. ---------- Spiced Beef by Linda Snider This recipe first ran in October 1999. Linda Snider was a member of the Masonic Square Club, a division of the National Federation of the Blind. Ingredients: 1 8- to 10-pound round of beef 1 gallon water 1 teaspoon saltpeter 1/2 box allspice 2 sticks cinnamon 1 dozen cloves 1 cup sugar 1 quart salt Method: Bring all ingredients (except beef) to a boil and cook for ten minutes, then remove from heat. When cool, add round of beef and store for two weeks. Weight it down. Turn meat over after first week. No harm will result if it remains in the mixture longer. To cook, place beef in stout kettle with lid and cover with liquid consisting of half spice mixture and half water. Cook slowly fifteen to twenty minutes to the pound or until thoroughly tender. Serve cold, carving in very thin slices. I recommend serving with thin slices of homemade white bread, although biscuits or rolls may be used. ---------- Cheesy Spinach Pie by Eileen Rivera (Ley) This recipe first ran in the April-May 1989 issue. It was introduced at that time like this: Eileen Rivera is a former NFB scholarship winner and is now a resident of Maryland, where she actively participates in Federation work and holds (see elsewhere in this issue) a responsible position with the Wilmer Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins. Ingredients: 1 single pie shell 1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar and/or swiss cheese 1 chopped onion 2 minced garlic cloves 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 packages frozen spinach 2 tablespoons crushed oregano 1 teaspoon each: pepper, sweet basil, salt 3 beaten eggs 2/3 cup milk 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese 1 cup cottage cheese Method: Prepare pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for twelve minutes. Remove shell from oven and spread grated cheese in the hot shell. In a large sauce pan, saut? the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Next add the defrosted spinach and spices. Stir the mixture over medium heat for about five minutes. Then combine the eggs, milk, and parmesan and cottage cheeses in the pot. Stir until mixture thickens. Pour filling into the pie shell and bake for thirty to forty minutes. Great with a crisp garden salad and warm rolls. ---------- Pasta Fagioli by Madeline Moreno This recipe first ran in March 2003 with this introduction: According to Joe Ruffalo, president of the NFB of New Jersey, Madeline Moreno is the "label lady" and ultimate volunteer; she is always ready to help. She and her husband Jerry are members of the Northern New Jersey chapter and dedicated Federationists. Madeline says that this dish is often pronounced "Pasta Fazool" (fa zool). Some make it more liquid, like a soup, but she makes it more like a pasta dish. If you like it soupier, don't drain the beans. She and Jerry are now active in the NFB of North Carolina. Ingredients: 1 16-ounce box elbow macaroni 1 6-ounce can tomato paste 16 ounces water or chicken broth 1 16-ounce can cannellini beans or chick peas (drained) Garlic cloves (as many as you dare) 2 teaspoons olive oil 1/4 teaspoon onion powder Pinch of basil Salt and pepper to taste Method: Cook macaroni according to package directions. While you are waiting for the salted water to boil, place olive oil in a three-quart saucepan on medium heat. Brown garlic (some prefer to mince it finely). When the garlic is browned, add the can of tomato paste to the pan. Occasionally stir for a couple of minutes, then add water or chicken broth. Bring liquid back to a boil, add beans and remaining ingredients, cover pot and lower heat to simmer. Cook for about twenty minutes. Serves three to four. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family [PHOTO CAPTION: Fred Schroeder, Joe Cordova, Christine Hall, Art Schreiber, and Adelmo Vigil] New Mexico Affiliate Holds Leadership Conference: The NFB of New Mexico held a full-day leadership conference on Saturday, October 30, 2016, in Albuquerque to set priorities for the upcoming year. Fred Schroeder, a former New Mexican, was on hand to speak to the fifty affiliate members who, by attending, committed themselves to taking a leadership role in our affiliate for the upcoming year. Fred recited some history about the NFB and in particular the accomplishments that enliven our past and make our present a better place to live. He recognized with pride past leaders and hard-working members who made many of the accomplishments possible. During the afternoon session, four working committees were formed. Each committee set its goals, assigned tasks, and set timelines to hold each other accountable for making the progress we want in 2017. At the conference, we had our current president, Adelmo Vigil, and all of the past affiliate presidents who served during the last thirty-four years. Pictured are Fred Schroeder, 1982-1986, Joe Cordova, 1986-1996, Art Schreiber, 1996-2008, Christine Hall, 2008-2012, and Adelmo Vigil, 2012 to present. Elected: At their September meeting the National Federation of the Blind of Montana Electric City Chapter elected the following officers: president, Sheila Leigland; vice president, Harold Leigland; secretary, Ted Robbins; treasurer, Joy Breslauer. Elected: The Kansas City Chapter is excited to announce our 2017 Board of Directors: president, Ruby Polk; first vice president, Daniel Garcia; second vice president, Jeff Giffen; secretary, Ben Blagg; treasurer, Jeff Wright; and board members Sarita Cann and Willa Patterson. Elected: The Greater Portland Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Maine would like to announce the following election results: president, Walter Woitasek; vice president, Bud Buzzell; secretary, Mark Hodgdon; treasurer, Randy Bellavance; and trustees John Lee and Gerard Landry. Elected: On Saturday, November 19, 2016, the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Columbia Chapter elected officers and board members for 2017: president, Debbie Wunder; vice president, Dacia Cole; treasurer, Carol Coulter; secretary, Gene Coulter; and board member Brittany Berk. The board and the members who elected us have much work to do and are determined to get it done. Elected: The following people were elected at the 2016 National Federation of the Blind of Washington convention: president, Marci Carpenter, reelected; first vice president, Mike Mello, reelected; second vice president, Maria Bradford, reelected; secretary, Andrea Travis, newly elected; treasurer, Corey Grandstaff, newly elected; and board members Noel Nightingale, reelected, and Doug Trimble, newly elected. We had 111 people in attendance at our convention this year. We are building the Federation in Washington state! Elected: At their November meeting the Mineral Area Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri held their election for the new slate of officers: president, Roger Crome; vice president, Bob Stamm; secretary and treasurer, Wendy Crome; and board member, Donald Goosens. Elected: The members of the board of directors of the Iowa Affiliate were voted in at our business meeting on Sunday, October 9, 2016, at our convention in Urbandale, Iowa: president, Jerad S. Nylin; first vice president, Karen Clayton; second vice president, Darrel Kirby; secretary, Scott Van Gorp; treasurer, David Hammel; and board members Cindy Ray, Tai Tomasi, Donna Prime, and Michael Barber. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. DOT and Southwest Airlines Reach Historic Agreement: The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced today that it has reached an agreement with Southwest Airlines in which the airline will ensure that at least 50 percent of its kiosks at US airports are accessible to passengers with disabilities by September 30, 2017. In addition, any automated kiosk that Southwest installs after that date will be an accessible model, so that in the future, 100 percent of its kiosks will be accessible to passengers with disabilities. Kiosks installed at US airports are used for a variety of functions, such as printing boarding passes and baggage tags, scanning passports to check-in, and canceling or rebooking tickets. "This agreement will enable people with disabilities to travel more independently by ensuring that there are significantly more accessible airport kiosks available for their use," said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "The Department is committed to ensuring that our air transportation system is accessible for everyone. We commend the efforts of all airlines that are actively working to ensure that they meet the Department's accessibility requirements for automated kiosks, and credit Southwest for instituting additional measures under this agreement to improve accessibility for its passengers." The agreement is available at , docket DOT-OST- 2016-0202. New Way to Use Uber and Lyft Without a Smartphone: GoGo is an automated hotline that lets people use Uber and Lyft without needing a smartphone. Uber and Lyft are available nationally; when you use GoGoGrandparent, we'll send you whichever one is cheapest at the time that you make your request for a ride. Their prices are typically up to 40 percent less than the cost of a cab. Using GoGo is simple: callers call from a number they have registered with us and hear a menu of options. They can press 1 for a car to be sent to pick them up from their home, 2 for a car to be sent to pick them up where we dropped them off last, or 0 to speak with an operator for a custom pickup location. Once the driver arrives, they tell the driver where they want to go. When you make a request, a car shows up at your door within fifteen minutes, typically less. To register free of charge, please call (855) 464-6872 or visit . ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Tue Mar 28 22:20:50 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:20:50 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2017 Message-ID: <201703290520.v2T5KoUN018951@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> [I apologize for the very late delivery of these issues of the Braille Monitor. Various factors conspired to cause there to be a log jam of Monitor issues. However, I now have all issues up to and including April 2017. Happy reading! -Brian ] BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 2 February 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 2 February 2017 Contents Illustration: Art Symposium Ensuring Our Children Are Literate and Using Reliable Indicators to Determine Their Optimal Learning Medium by Carlton Walker Remembering Mike Freeman by David Andrews The Quest for Normal Independence by Chris Nusbaum Challenges of Aging by Annie Schlesinger The Secret to Winning a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship by Patti S. Gregory-Chang Dots From Space!: Where No Dots Have Gone Before by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer Who Are the Blind Who Lead the Blind? Undefined by Blindness: Seeking Employment and Financial Literacy Opportunities for the Blind by Kathy Martinez Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein Recipes Monitor Miniatures Art Symposium [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis and Amy Mason explore the hanging sculpture Family Circus.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Lindsay Yazzolino with her Play-Doh sculpture] [PHOTO CAPTION: A flat print of a portrait of a Renaissance lady was given some dimension to make it more tactilely accessible.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Virginia Jacobs gets a feel for the large mushroom-shaped White Sculpture.] The National Federation of the Blind considers appreciation for and enjoyment of art as part of living the life we want as blind Americans. To help break down the barriers that result from the stereotype based on low expectations that "blind people don't do art," the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute collaborated with tactile artist Ann Cunningham to host a tactile art and tactile graphics symposium, "Putting More STEAM in STEM" at our Baltimore headquarters on December 9 and 10, 2016. With the thirty artists, educators, and art enthusiasts who attended this symposium, we began the creation of a community of supporters around tactile art and tactile graphics through education and the sharing of resources. Part of the symposium was devoted to the examination of tactile art and discussions among the participants on how to get museum curators, art collectors, and members of the general public to view art that is meant to be touched as serious art. To help facilitate this change in attitude, the Jacobus tenBroek Library was transformed into an art gallery for a public exhibit of tactile art by artists such as acclaimed blind sculptor Michael Naranjo, Ann Cunningham, Debbie Kent Stein, and Jenny Callahan. The sense of excitement of being able to fully experience an art exhibit that was felt by the blind adults and children who attended was palpable. [PHOTO CAPTION: Carlton Walker] Ensuring Our Children Are Literate and Using Reliable Indicators to Determine Their Optimal Learning Medium by Carlton Walker From the Editor: For far too long determining whether a blind child will be taught Braille, print, or both has resulted in a tug-of-war between parents and school administrators. Sometimes it is the school which suggests Braille, but the more likely contest has the parents pulling for Braille and the school district resisting. Like so many issues we tackle in work with the blind, the root of the problem is low expectations and the deep-seated yet often unspoken assumption that to be blind is to be slow, to be unable to compete, and to just make it through whatever the immediate challenge is with little thought as to how what is being learned or not learned will affect the student for the rest of his or her life. Is being a slow reader a natural consequence of visual impairment? Is being unable to read for an extended period of time the unavoidable result of being legally blind? Will the world make allowances for blind women and men when they compete for a job or start their own business? The answer to these questions is an emphatic no. The failure to determine early on the techniques that will make letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs a friend for life too often comes too late, if at all, and the cost is paid by blind people who have missed their greatest window of opportunity for learning to read and write with speed and ease. One difficulty facing combatants in this tug-of-war has been that no validated and standardized test has existed to determine whether a child's vision dictates he or she should read print, Braille, or both. Too often schools have relied upon the gut feeling of their professionals or have tried to use the fatally flawed Learning Media Assessment, a test which simply does not meet federal law in determining the appropriate reading media for a child. Without a reliable instrument to measure vision as it relates to reading, this most crucial decision is made by the side which has the most power; frequently this means the school. To create a test that would help parents and others who participate in the construction of a child's individualized education plan, the National Reading Media Assessment was created. Because the National Federation of the Blind was the prime mover in constructing the test and seeing that it conformed to the traditional standards that indicate whether a test is both valid and reliable, some organizations have taken the position that the test is biased toward Braille, ignoring the fact that one of the test's recommendations may be that a child learn print or even that both print and Braille are appropriate. Some have taken the position that individualized education as mandated by the law means there is no room for applying a standardized test to blind children. Still others have gone on record opposing the test with the argument that the National Reading Media Assessment is the only standardized test available and that blind students, their parents, and those who teach them should have more than one test from which to choose. If having another standardized and validated test is the answer, one would think it better to create that test than to oppose the use of an instrument which is already available. The need to determine whether Braille, print, or a combination of both is critical given what we know about the limited window of opportunity which exists not only to give students the ability to read but the ability for them to do so rapidly and to consider the reading experience second nature. Carlton Walker is a first-rate lawyer, a stellar educator, and a mother who is committed to seeing that her daughter can read and write competitively. Carlton is also the manager of Braille education for the National Federation of the Blind, and all of her training and life experience make her the ideal person to explain the law, reading assessments, key words we too often hear but do not understand, and the undeniable requirement that our children leave school armed with the tools and techniques that will let them compete in twenty-first-century America. Here is what she says: Literacy serves as the foundation for education at all levels. Independent reading and writing allows people to interact with and compose text so that they may more fully and comfortably understand information they receive and may more easily and effectively express their thoughts in written form. Most people use print to meet their literacy needs. These sighted people can easily access print in a variety of lighting situations, can read it at efficient rates, and do not experience physical pain (in eyes, neck, shoulders, or back) as a result of reading for one to two hours at a time. However, print is not consistently effective and efficient for everyone. For years, blind people were forced to use raised line print letters to read, and there was no means of independent writing available. Luckily, Louis Braille created a tactile code which provides full and rich literacy without the use of vision. Though it took some time, sighted educators of blind students eventually realized the power of Braille to enrich the educational opportunities and enhance the quality of life for blind people. Schools for the blind began to teach Braille to blind children, and those Braille readers began to succeed in life. Unfortunately, many of the schools still forced students with residual vision to use enlarged print rather than Braille. When blind and low-vision students began attending their neighborhood schools, this avoidance of Braille instruction intensified. Advances in technology and the increased availability of audio information led some to believe that Braille was no longer needed. They believed that it was reasonable to withhold Braille literacy from blind and low-vision students, even though sighted students are still offered access to print literacy despite audio options in this technologically-advanced world. Members of the National Federation of the Blind have long understood the vital importance of access to efficient and effective literacy for students whose vision was impaired enough to require special education through an individualized educational plan (IEP). In 1997 the US Congress amended federal law to require that all these students receive Braille, "unless the IEP Team determines, after an evaluation of the child's reading and writing skills, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media (including an evaluation of the child's future needs for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille), that instruction in Braille or the use of Braille is not appropriate for the child" 20 U.S.C. section 1414(d)(3)(B)(iii). This section of federal law is commonly referred to as the "Braille Provision" and will be so referenced throughout this article. While the wording of this law is clear, few schools follow its dictates. In reality students do not receive Braille instruction upon identification as a student with the disability of "visual impairment, including blindness." Schools refuse to provide federally-mandated Braille instruction until after an assessment is performed. Worse, the assessment that schools used for this purpose, the Learning Media Assessment (LMA), was not appropriate for this task, as discussed more fully below. In view of this discrepancy between legal requirements and educational practice, the United States Department of Education (USDOE) issued a "dear colleague letter" on June 19, 2013, clarifying that the law is to be followed and that the Braille Provision is the right of every child with the disability of "visual impairment, including blindness." For those who wish to read the letter in its entirety, it is available at https://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/memosdcltrs/brailledcl-6-19- 13.pdf. The USDOE noted that the law requires that, "evaluation of vision status ... should be thorough and rigorous, include a data-based media assessment" (Id. at 3.) and specifically highlighted the law that non- student-centered concerns, like the availability of qualified personnel, large print, and audio materials, "may not be used to deny Braille instruction to a child." (Id. at 4.) The development of the National Reading Media Assessment (NRMA) provided the field of blindness education a much-needed tool for assessing Braille appropriateness. The NRMA was designed to adequately, specifically, and objectively assess whether instruction in Braille would be inappropriate for the student. The Learning Media Assessment After field tests in 1992 and 1993, the text Learning Media Assessment, by Alan J. Koenig, EdD and M. Cay Holbrook, PhD was first published by the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in October of 1993. Its second and most recent edition was published fourteen months later and will be the document discussed below. That text set forth an assessment, also called "Learning Media Assessment," which will be referred to by its acronym for the remainder of this article. While the LMA was developed before the Braille Provision, its text acknowledges that, "students will be provided Braille reading and writing instruction if they will benefit from such instruction." As noted above, current federal law requires Braille use and instruction unless the IEP team finds, based upon an assessment of current and future reading and writing needs, that Braille use and instruction are inappropriate for the student. Despite the fact that this wording has been federal law for almost two decades, the LMA has remained unchanged and has never been updated to comport with the requirements of the Braille Provision. Additionally, the LMA exhorts teachers to continually monitor literacy appropriateness, but current federal law requires further assessment only when an IEP team seeks to withhold from a student the right to learn and use Braille. However, failure to keep up-to-date with federal law is not the only shortcoming of the LMA. The developers of the LMA acknowledge that literacy media is a part of the overall umbrella of learning media (Learning Media Assessment at page 1 and 7), but the LMA undermines access to literacy for blind or low- vision students by mixing non-literacy factors with literacy indicators. For example, if a child recognizes others using primarily visual means, that is considered an indication that the child's primary literacy medium is visual (Learning Media Assessment, page 187). Similarly, a child's visual exploration of a toy or object, visual identification of objects, and exhibition of interest in pictures primarily using vision are all considered indicators that the child's primacy literacy (reading and writing) medium is visual (print), (Id.). Using vision to identify individuals is in no way an indicator that a child will be able to read print for hours on end as an adult. Visual identification of people is a relatively short-lived activity and does not necessitate the rapid discernment of complex shapes which is required for print reading. People do not utilize fine details to visually identify people they know. Instead, shapes, body movements, and hairstyle or outfits are often clues blind and low-vision children use for identification. More than once, my daughter ran up to men with beards and moustaches calling them "Daddy," and she failed to identify me at four feet when I had changed clothes in the middle of the day. Yet her first LMA reported that her primary use of vision to identify people indicated that she did not need Braille instruction. By equating the use of vision with print use, the LMA ignores the very real impact of behavioral imprinting upon children. Most blind children with residual vision grow up in homes, or at least communities, with typically-sighted adults and peers. These children see adult's and peer's visual behaviors and, not surprisingly, imitate them. Moreover, many of these children receive little to no modeling of tactual exploration of objects. Thus, it should come as no surprise that most blind children with residual vision use their residual vision-even when it is not efficient to do so. The LMA does recognize this lack of opportunity to learning tactual skills to an extent and warns that the number of visual behaviors is not dispositive. However, the direction in such a case is to consider providing "diagnostic teaching" of tactual skills to determine if the child will develop tactual skills rather than to simply begin teaching the child Braille (which should have happened the day that child was identified as needing special education for "visual impairment, including blindness"). The LMA also fails to compare the visual behaviors observed with those of typically-sighted children. Exploring a toy visually within a few inches of one's face provides no information as to whether print (of any size) will be an efficient and effective means of reading and writing for a lifetime. In the LMA example for "Initial Selection of Literacy Medium," the LMA proffers a child, "Kevin," who uses the following viewing distances: Identification of objects: Accurate visual identification of objects: Object size: greater than two to three inches Distance: about two inches Accurate tactual identification of objects: Object size: objects identified visually Normal Visual working distances: Classroom materials (such as wall clocks, calendars): no greater than six inches Reading/looking at pictures: two to three inches Writing/drawing/coloring: two to three inches Additional observations (include implications of visual condition and additional disabilities): Kevin relies heavily on vision to accomplish near tasks but is accurate in use of tactual skills when requested. He has had little experience with Braille or tactually interesting materials. He would tactually explore if requested; accurate identification of objects when tactual exploration occurred. Learning Media Assessment, page 46. Kevin used a working distance of two or three inches in almost every task where typical working distance would be ten to fourteen inches. Two to three inches is an exceptionally short working distance, and its use can lead to eye strain, eye fatigue, and neck and back problems. Also, Kevin exhibited competence with tactual tasks, even though he had no experience with them. When I read this assessment, it was clear that this student would absolutely benefit from Braille instruction and that Braille instruction was not "inappropriate" for him. In fact, my experience as a teacher of blind students and as the parent of a blind child have taught me that Kevin will almost certainly need Braille in order to keep up with reading tasks, even in first grade. Nevertheless, the LMA developers indicate that it is not clear whether Kevin would benefit from Braille instruction. They advise as follows: The decision to begin reading instruction in Braille or in print is difficult in this situation and, indeed, cannot be made at this time. Kevin will need continued diagnostic teaching in reading to evaluate his use of visual and tactual skills before the most efficient reading medium for him can be determined. He should receive instruction to increase his sensory skills and learn to apply them in both print and Braille reading readiness activities. Following diagnostic teaching emphasizing sensory development, a clear pattern may emerge that will indicate Kevin's most efficient reading medium. It is important to allow enough time for a preferred sensory channel to become evident, even if he is older when a determination is made. If a clear pattern of preference has not emerged by the end of the first semester of first grade, the educational team may wish to consider emphasizing print, with the option of providing supplemental instruction in Braille reading in the future, if indicated during continuing assessment. Learning Media Assessment, page 48. Reading this, I was flabbergasted. A two- to three-inch working distance with toys (which, as noted above, are far less visually complex than are print letters) is a strong indication that print will not be an efficient literacy medium for this student at any grade level, and it certainly is not evidence that Braille instruction is "inappropriate" for Kevin. However, the developers of the LMA simply cannot accept that Braille is appropriate for Kevin, and they even advise concentrating on print instruction if Kevin does not pick up tactual skills quickly enough. It is notable that these developers provide no research basis for their assessment or the conclusions they draw from it. They reference a case study, but there is no evidence that Kevin was able to use print to efficiently and effectively perform all of his educational and employment tasks. Luckily, the Braille Provision does not force children to earn the right to Braille instruction. By including in the assessment factors which are irrelevant to current and future reading and writing needs, the LMA renders itself inappropriate for use as an assessment required by the Braille Provision. Unfortunately, despite the significant shortcomings of the LMA and despite its failure to adhere to federal law for almost two decades, most teachers in the field of blindness education rely on it to provide information required by the Braille Provision. The National Reading Media Assessment The National Reading Media Assessment (NRMA) takes an entirely different approach to the assessment required by the Braille Provision. The NRMA focuses upon visual tasks which are relevant to reading and writing. First, the NRMA seeks information about a student's visual functioning compared to typically-sighted students. Significant departures from visual performance indicate that vision may not be an efficient tool for the student. The developers of the NRMA recognized that children will use vision even when it is neither as efficient nor as effective as alternative methods. They recognized that children might choose inefficient vision because they grow up in a visual world and may not have mastered more efficient nonvisual techniques. Thus, by seeking information about the efficiency of vision, the NRMA more accurately assesses whether print will be able to efficiently and effectively serve the current and future reading and writing needs of a student. Next, the NRMA utilizes five different answers for the reporting of statements concerning observed behavior: always, usually, sometimes, rarely, and never. Developers of the NRMA discarded the binary yes/no answer system in favor of this reporting scale based upon information gathered in the first pilot study of the NRMA. Edward C. Bell, PhD, Jessica V. Ewell, and Natalia M. Mino. "National Reading Media Assessment for Youth with Visual Impairments: Research Report." 2013. The research can be found at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir13/jbir030201.html. This answering scale eliminates the subjective determination of the nature of an act and simply requests an estimate regarding the behavior's frequency. Samples of the observational questions, which should be answered with one of the five frequency statements, include the following: Child "leans in or bends over, in order to view near objects?" "Do you have problems seeing the cursor on the computer screen if you are sitting up straight (not leaning in)?" "The student shows signs of fatigue, such as a decrease in reading speed, tearing eyes, etc., the longer he/she reads?" and "Student writes legibly in manuscript, cursive, or both, depending on the child's age, using standard ink pen or pencil commensurate with sighted peers?" Additionally, the NRMA requires standardization of environment for assessment. As its developers point out, "Standardized conditions (i.e., eighteen-point font, normal lighting, and good posture) are to be used throughout the assessment process in measuring the youth's visual reading efficiency to insure that appropriate accommodations and/or interventions may be recommended. It becomes counterproductive to allow extra bright lighting, magnification, high contrast, and similar accommodations to be employed during the assessment process as these interventions cloud a clear understanding of visual reading efficiency and prevent accurate assessment results. Providing standardized conditions ensures that the assessment results will provide the student's educational team with the information they need to make crucial decisions about the child's educational needs." As stated in the NRMA "Quick Start Guide," available at https://www.nfbnrma.org/admin/users/nrma-quick-start-guide-accessible.pdf. The NRMA is easy to administer, requires standardized (reliable) conditions, and, unlike the LMA, is available free of charge. The NRMA employs observational questionnaires, using the frequency scale noted above, which are tailored to parents/guardians, classroom teachers, students, and educators of blind students. Results of these objective questionnaires are combined to produce a score indicating whether the student's literacy medium should be Braille, Dual Media (Braille and print), or print. This recommendation is then added to information regarding the student's visual ability, eye condition, stability of vision, and other factors to help the IEP team meet its duties under the Braille Provision. Attacks on the NRMA This summer, two organizations, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), passed resolutions openly attacking the NRMA. The common basis of their attacks is the growing movement in many states to require research-based, standardized assessments under the Braille Provision. These proposed state laws seek to provide students who receive special education services based upon identification of having the disability of "visual impairment, including blindness" the same access to high-quality assessments that every other child in this nation, both typically-developing and those with disabilities, have. ACB's resolution is titled, "Appropriate Learning Media Assessments," and AER's resolution is titled, "Advocacy for Appropriate Learning Media Assessments." The titles of these anti-NRMA resolutions underscore the fundamental misunderstanding of these groups about the subject matter of their resolutions. As noted above, the Braille presumption found in federal law requires evaluations of current and future reading and writing media. Nowhere in federal law are "learning media assessments" referenced or condoned. Instead, federal law calls for evaluations of literacy media, not learning media. For some reason, the proponents of these resolutions wish to abrogate federal law. Their failure to understand the requirements of a federal law which has been in effect for almost two decades indicates that one may not feel comfortable relying upon their conclusions. Indeed, one might reasonably conclude that either they do not understand what is clearly articulated in the law or that their judgement is clouded by other matters, which may include political considerations and an attempt to maintain their status quo in which print is presumed to be the preferred media. It would be quite unfortunate and unsettling if they are willing to stand in the way of accepted and time-tested principles recognized by the rest of the education community for purposes unrelated to preparing blind and low vision students for education, employment, and life. Opponents of the NRMA also claim that the standard conditions it requires prove a fatal flaw. In making this claim, the ACB and AER show that they fail to understand basic special education law. Federal law instructs us that: "Assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child under this section . . . are selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis; . . . are provided and administered in the language and form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is not feasible to so provide or administer; . . . are used for purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable; . . . are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and . . . are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of such assessments;" 20 U.S.C. section 1414(b)(3)(A)(i)-(v). The NRMA meets each of these five criteria, but the LMA, at best, meets only three of them. If we were to accept the NRMA's opponents' flawed requirements for accommodations for evaluations, there could be no valid evaluations. Imagine the standard vision examination by an eye care professional. These evaluations are performed under standard conditions in the office, using controlled lighting and controlled distance. Would an eye care professional allow a patient who said, "I can't really see that big letter on top. Let me get a little closer, or let me get my magnifier. Then I can tell you."? Of course not. The entire concept of acuity (20/20) has to do with what every typically-sighted person sees at twenty feet. A person with decreased acuity of 20/200 (meeting the definition of legal blindness) needs to be no further than twenty feet away from an object to see it as well as a typically-sighted individual can from two hundred feet away. As a society we accept and demand standardized conditions in virtually all situations. It is puzzling and distressing that the ACB and AER do not feel that our children with visual impairment, including blindness, are worthy of benefiting from these practices that are intended to measure and through measurement to enhance the chances for one to be competitive and productive. Under ideal circumstances, the LMA meets the first criterion (non- discriminatory administration), the fourth (trained administrators), and the fifth (administered according to directions). As shown above, the directions for the LMA are flawed and significantly biased against Braille, but following those directions would technically meet these criteria. The standardization of environmental conditions required by the NRMA meets the second criterion of the law-its requirement for the evaluation to be administered in a manner most likely to yield accurate information on what the child can do. The LMA's acceptance (and even encouragement) of using non-standard environmental and testing conditions fails this requirement. The ACB and AER opine that students are entitled to individualized accommodations in assessments, so non-standard conditions should be permitted. However, the individualization of accommodations is predicated upon a documentation of the accommodation needed. Such documentation is garnered through standardized evaluations as set forth in federal law. Non-standard conditions prevent the acquisition of reliable information regarding a student's abilities in the area of evaluation and subsequent need for accommodations. In other words, without a standard assessment, how can we know what individual accommodations a student will need? The individualization lauded by the ACB and AER is not present in the evaluation of students with other disabilities. Again, federal law requires the five criteria listed above for all evaluations which are performed to determine if a child has a disability covered by IDEA at 20 U.S.C. section 1414(a)(1)(C)(i)(I) and "to determine the educational needs of the child" at 20 U.S.C. section 1414(a)(1)(C)(i)(II) and section 1414(2)(A). For example, students with suspected specific learning disabilities in the area of reading are not offered the "individualized accommodation" of having a reading passage read aloud to them. While the student might need that accommodation on state assessments, the IEP team will not garner useful information about the student's possible disability in reading if the student receives an accommodation which masks the impact of the disability in the evaluation process. Federal law ensures that all students with suspected disabilities will be evaluated on matters relating to those disabilities with instruments designed to yield accurate information. For some reason the ACB and AER do not believe that blind/low vision students deserve this same protection. The NRMA also meets the third criterion for evaluations under federal law, that they be valid and reliable, but the LMA does not. As noted above, the LMA has been in use for more than two decades (since 1994). However, in that time period, the LMA has not been shown to be either valid or reliable in determining whether Braille use and instruction are inappropriate for children with the disability of "visual impairment, including blindness." In stark contrast, the NRMA has met these requirements. Reliability describes an instrument's ability to provide the same results based upon similar input or its consistency. For example, a scale is reliable if it indicates the same weight every time a particular item is placed upon it. The weight shown may be wrong, but the answer is consistent (reliable). The NRMA meets this test of reliability; the LMA has not. Validity refers to the ability of an instrument to accurately measure that which it purports to measure. Of course, the instrument must be reliable in order to be valid, but validity goes further than mere consistency. The NRMA has demonstrated content validity (it measures functional vision for the purpose of reading and writing), concurrent validity (the result of the questionnaires corresponds to the final recommendation), and construct-related validity (the NRMA yields results which are equally valid regardless of student gender, race, age, grade level, or presence of a specific learning disability). (NRMA citation noted earlier.) Again, despite being used for almost a quarter of a century, the LMA has not been shown to be a valid evaluation of whether Braille is inappropriate for a student with visual impairment, including blindness. The ACB and AER complain that more than one instrument should be used for evaluation purposes. I could not agree more. However, the fact is that the field of blindness education currently has only one instrument to evaluate whether Braille use and instruction are inappropriate which meets the requirements of federal law. Through their resolutions, the ACB and AER have demonstrated that they want to turn back the clock and rob our students of their federally- protected rights to quality evaluations and to Braille instruction and use. They try to obfuscate the issue by waxing poetic about individualization, despite the clear federal mandate that evaluations of disability must be standardized, reliable, and valid. One hopes that their positions evince a fundamental misunderstanding of federal law and professional standards in educational evaluation and not purposeful avoidance of the rights of blind children. Regardless, we must not allow our children's opportunities for success to be derailed by actors trying to strip them of their federal rights. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mike Freeman] Remembering Mike Freeman by David Andrews >From the Editor: Mike Freeman was a member of the National Federation of the Blind for whom I had tremendous respect. I loved his remarkable intellect, his friendliness, and his willingness to debate philosophy interminably. He was a staunch Federationist, who thought that one of his responsibilities as a fully engaged and participating member was to be able to debate both sides of any issue, sometimes making me wonder whether he agreed with the Federation's position until I challenged it and found him to be not only a proponent for it but a defender of the process that caused us to arrive at it. About the only thing that Mike Freeman and I could never come to agreement on was his conviction that the world was rapidly going to hell in a handbasket and that the use of the graphical user interface and all its accompanying visual prompts were nothing more than eye candy to placate sighted people who, like the blind, were suffering their own kind of literacy crisis. I have tremendous admiration for David Andrews and appreciate his authoring of this article. As the longtime moderator of NFBNET, David Andrews, assisted by Mike Freeman and Steve Jacobson, has spent countless hours reading hundreds of thousands of messages and trying to represent the views and the accomplishments of the Federation. It is with tremendous gratitude that I received Dave's article and feel the same pleasure in presenting it for the benefit of readers. Here is what Dave says: On the morning of Monday, December 26, 2016, I checked my email, as usual, to make sure that everything was going well on our many internet mailing lists. I was shocked to see the following message on NFBWATLK, the mailing list for the NFB of Washington state: It is with a heavy heart that I write to share the news that our friend and longtime Federationist Mike Freeman passed away last Saturday. As many of you know Mike had been diagnosed with terminal cancer last summer and had been undergoing treatment. In the last few weeks his spirits had been high, his treatment had been going pretty well, and he was planning to attend the NFB Washington Seminar next month. In the end it was his heart that gave out. Mike dedicated his life to helping blind children and adults realize their dreams. Mike requested that there be no service, so we will respect his wishes. I will forward more information when I have it. Please keep Connie and Shanti in your thoughts and prayers. Marci Carpenter, President NFB of Washington mjc59 at comcast.net The previous Tuesday, December 20, I and most of the other members of the NFB Research and Development (R&D) Committee had participated on a conference call with employees of HIMS Inc. to discuss the future development of their notetakers. Mike had participated actively and sounded good. Further, I hadn't known about his cancer diagnosis or treatment, so Marci's message came as quite a surprise! I feel like I have known Mike forever. This is in part because of his work as a "human sign" at national conventions. I can still hear his extraordinarily deep voice intoning "This way out" in the registration area. Mike was always there for me. He was an active user, supporter, and promoter of NFBNET from day one back in June of 1991. Around 2002, when my life became busier with marriage and the adoption of two kids, Mike and Steve Jacobson stepped in to help me with the monitoring of our lists. We split up the work as volunteers until 2009 when I took it over completely again. Mike and Steve still helped after that, watching a few lists each and substituting for me when I traveled. Over the years Mike probably read hundreds of thousands of messages and responded willingly and knowledgeably to many of them. In 2005 when I had some difficulties in my personal life, Mike was there as a friend. Recently when I slipped over the borderline and was identified as a type 2 diabetic, Mike was there with advice and support. Mike, who was sixty-eight at the time of his passing, grew up in Washington, attended Reed College, and got a master's degree in physics from New Mexico State University. This is also presumably where he developed his love of Mexican food. Mike worked for many years for the federal government as a computer programmer, being quite proficient in assembly language programming, which is just one level removed from being able to speak in the ones and zeroes that constitute machine talk. He was musically accomplished, playing many instruments; read voraciously; and was a die-hard baseball fan. Mike held his ham radio license for more than fifty years and was an active member of the Clark County Ham Radio Club. He also spoke multiple languages, at least three in addition to English. Mike was the president of the NFB of Washington for many years, serving first in 1996 and 1998 and from 2003 to 2014. He was also on the national board of directors from 2009 to 2014. As proud as he was of these jobs, he enjoyed a special sense of accomplishment in his work with the Washington state legislature, serving for much of his Federation career as the NFB of Washington's legislative chairman. When Mike took something on, he dug in, did his part, and became an expert. A number of years ago, Mike found out that he was a diabetic. He buckled down, learned about his new condition, and was soon the president of the NFB's Diabetes Action Network (DAN). He was well informed, practical, and helped many of us deal with diabetes. Gary Wunder, Editor of the Braille Monitor, had this to say about Mike: "He was a man terribly gifted with a good IQ, well read, a big heart, and whose biggest stumbling block was that he not only enjoyed but embraced being a curmudgeon. I found him a visionary whose self-concept often found him saying that we should be careful about too easily looking to someone else when the solutions might lie within our grasp, that they might not always be the easy ones, but if we could handle them independently, we would spend far less time worrying about the responsiveness of others, and, after all, they were our needs to meet." Personally, I don't think Mike was a curmudgeon to be difficult-at least most of the time-but because he believed in self-reliance and the power of the individual. He thought people should just get on with it, take care of business, and he was there to help you if you needed it. He also staunchly believed in the power of collective action through the NFB. While he worked with technology in his career and was a longtime member of the NFB R&D Committee, he never lost sight of good basic alternative techniques. I can't count the times on our lists that he urged people to use a human reader, or an "amanuensis" as he called her. While he embraced technology and was as good with it as anyone, he knew that it wasn't the be- all and end-all. His fear was that we would become so reliant on technology that we would overlook other means to get the job done and thereby pass up many opportunities which often are far too limited for people who are blind. I, for one, will miss Mike and his deep rumbling voice. Thanks for all you did! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Nusbaum] The Quest for Normal Independence by Chris Nusbaum >From the Editor: This was the keynote presentation made at the 2016 meeting of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) meeting held at the 2016 convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Chris Nusbaum is no stranger to those who regularly read these pages, but Melissa Riccobono's introduction serves well to refresh our memories. Introduction by Melissa Riccobono: I met Chris Nusbaum years ago at an NFB of Maryland convention. He was a little boy, full of questions about everything. I remember he was very curious about my guide dog. Chris's parents had been involved with the NFB from the time he was a baby. But it was when Chris attended an NFB program called the LAW program, Leadership and Advocacy in Washington, that he actually began to learn about NFB history and do some advocacy on our issues. That was when the NFB became Chris's NFB. It wasn't just for his parents anymore. He transitioned to become a full member of the organization. He realized what the NFB could do for him, and he understood that it could be more powerful if he became part of that building process. Chris now is a high school graduate. He is on the board of the National Association of Blind Students, and he is president of the Maryland Association of Blind Students. In the fall he is not going to go straight to college. First he is going to get some quality training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. I would like to introduce to you Chris Nusbaum: Thank you, Melissa, and thank you to the leadership of the NOPBC. It's a great honor to speak with you today. I've been asked to talk with you about my educational journey and transition into adulthood. Those of you who know me well will know that I am hopelessly devoted to our NFB history. Forgive me for giving in to temptation and referencing my favorite speech from one of our former presidents, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan. In his 1993 speech "The Nature of Independence," Dr. Jernigan proposed that there are three stages through which a blind person must travel in order to become truly independent: fear and insecurity, rebelious independence, and finally, normal independence. Not everybody reaches the third stage. Each stage is inevitable for a blind person's evolution from helplessness and despair to confidence and hope. What, you may ask, does this have to do with education and transitioning into adulthood? I can answer by pointing out the number of times we hear the word independence when we talk about parenting and educating blind children. Independent travel. Independence in daily living. Improving independence in the classroom. IEP goals talk about independently completing this or that task at school. The word is pervasive in the blindness field, even at this very convention! Since independence is the primary topic of concern related to transitioning into adulthood, I think it is imperative that we begin with a workable definition of the term. Dr. Jernigan's three stages are the best definition I can find. So at the risk of stealing an idea from a much better speaker than I am, I'd like to expand on Dr. Jernigan's theme as I talk about my own educational journey. I want to touch on how I have gone through each of these three phases in my life so far. I am totally blind and have been since birth. Naturally, my journey in the world of blindness education began at a very early age. I had what all the other blind kids had at that time: infant and toddler services, a special ed-affiliated preschool program, a TVI and cane travel teacher, and all the rest. I also was blessed with some benefits which, unfortunately, many blind children do not have. I had supportive and determined parents, a TVI who also served as an advocate for higher expectations, and a one-on- one aide who used her position to encourage my freedom rather than to stifle it. Most importantly, through my family and my teacher, I had an early connection with the National Federation of the Blind. I didn't think about blindness much in those early years. When I did, I knew one thing for certain: I knew that it is okay to be blind! I didn't know it then, but I know now that even in kindergarten my parents were teaching me the philosophy they had learned from the Federation. Then school began. I have always been mainstreamed, and I am thankful for that every day. But I remember learning in school that I was somehow different. All the other kids talked about what they could see, and for some reason I had no idea what they were talking about. But that was okay, I thought. I had already learned from my parents that blindness wasn't going to stop me from achieving my dreams. In the summer after first grade, when I was six years old, I went to my first blindness-related camp. It was a now-defunct program that sought to teach the basics of independence to blind elementary students. This was my first time living away from home. Though I was excited about the experience, I was afraid to do most of the things they asked me to do. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that I ended that week more afraid and insecure than I was when I began. Not only did I feel unsure of my capabilities as a blind person; I also felt that I was a failure, that I couldn't live up to the standards of independence that were expected of me. Looking back, I think the people who ran that program had their hearts in the right place. However, they may not have had much experience teaching young children. They didn't know how to meet me where I was and gently guide me toward independence. When I heard their claims of adherence to NFB philosophy, my six-year-old mind was made up. I wanted nothing to do with that organization, and I had no intention of doing anything with its people ever again! I continued with this mindset through elementary school and into middle school. I was content with who I was and where I was in terms of blindness skills. I didn't expect that I would make much more progress. My teachers seemed to think of me as a pretty bright kid. I was into acting and music and other extracurricular activities, and I had a tightly knit circle of friends. As far as I was concerned, I was doing pretty well. Adults and students alike started to call me amazing and inspiring. I bought every word, basking in the glory of being that courageous blind kid. Still, lurking beneath that contented fa?ade was that same underlying fear and insecurity-fear of failure, fear of frustration, fear of the future. These fears kept me complacent, and they resigned me to the status quo. After all, if I could be amazing without even trying, why waste the effort of raising the bar? As adolescence approached, I began to yearn again for a community of blind people who would understand the unique problems I faced. Yet, in all my stubbornness, I was determined that that community would not be found in the National Federation of the Blind. All that changed in the spring of seventh grade. For four short days I participated in my first Jernigan Institute youth program, the LAW Program. It changed my life! There I met mentors who showed me for the first time how I, too, can live the life I want. They gave me a reason to raise my expectations of myself. Most importantly, I met the Federation for what it truly is-a family that loves each other, encourages each other, and works together toward a common goal. I knew then that my passion is for the work of our community. That passion has fueled much of my energy for the past five years. I will confess, however, that I returned from my NFB LAW Program experience with a little bit of rebellious independence. Armed with the new skills I had learned, along with the brashness of a teenager, I wanted to prove to the world that I could do absolutely everything on my own! I think during this period I could be likened to a toddler who, faced with a challenging task, proclaims, "I do it myself!" [Laughter] Fortunately, this attitude changed as I went through high school. I learned even more skills at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in the Buddy and STEP programs. I learned that the can-do attitude with which I had been instilled in the LAW program is just as applicable to me as it is to anybody else. Most importantly, my parents and my Federation friends taught me to make my own decisions. This may seem strangely simple, but it is crucial. For the first time I learned that I could choose for myself what my independence would look like. I learned that it is okay to have my own informed opinions, even if those opinions differ from those of my parents or my teachers. By learning this essential skill, I have been able to serve as my own advocate, making it clear to my sighted teachers and peers what I can do and what I truly need. In short, I am now able to say with confidence, "I can do this, and here's how I'd like to do it." To me, then, this ability to make choices is the best indicator that I have reached the stage of normal independence. So as I stumble my way into adulthood, I reflect that I'm about as ready as I'll ever be. There are certainly many perks to childhood, and no longer having them will take some getting use to. However, because of the skills I have learned, the confidence I have gained during my educational journey, both in and out of the classroom, I know I can meet the challenges of adulthood with confidence, determination, and optimism. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but I'll get through it, even if it takes nine months in Louisiana. There is still much to learn, and I'm eager to learn it. Above all, I know for certain that I can live the life I want and that I have a nationwide family that will be with me every step of the way. In closing, what advice can I offer you as parents to help your blind child make a smooth transition into adulthood? When you get right down to it, it's really quite simple. First, come to know for yourself that it's okay to be blind, and show your child that positive attitude by word and by example from a young age. Second, start teaching the skills of blindness at home from the beginning. Nurture at home the skills that are taught at school throughout the childhood years. Third, teach your child to make his or her own decisions. Allow your child to succeed or fail on his or her own merit. This will help your child develop the decision-making skills that are essential for full, normal independence. Finally, and most importantly, get connected and get your child connected with the loving, supportive, edifying family that is the National Federation of the Blind. As many of you already know, the Federation and our philosophy have the power to change lives. Let your kids experience that change for themselves. When we commit ourselves to these core principles, I believe you and I, working together through the collective action of this great movement, can and will ensure that the next generation of blind people can live the lives they want. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Annie Schlesinger] Challenges of Aging by Annie Schlesinger From the Editor: For far too many seniors, blindness becomes the ultimate assault on their independence and the ultimate insult as life takes away things that once made it meaningful. Annie Schlesinger doesn't intend to let it do that. She knows what problems aging may send her way, but she knows how to think, knows how to plan, and knows how to ask those who can help her with strategies and inspiration. Although I interviewed Annie with an eye toward writing this headnote, I think that I can do no better than Bob Kresmer in what he says about her. "Annie Schlesinger is a long-time member of the NFB of Arizona and has served on the board of the Tucson chapter. She is very active in the chapter and is a leader of a vision loss support group in her retirement residence, where she has lived for five years. She is also involved in community activities and keeps her mind and body in tiptop shape. She is a well-kempt woman who dresses in a very nice hat for every occasion. She is a real friend!" Here is the candid and inspirational article she has asked the Braille Monitor to consider publishing, and we are honored that she wrote and submitted it: Two years after Arthur died I, at age seventy-five, moved into a large senior retirement complex. I love it! We have transportation to stores and to medical care, fifteen meals included per month, activities, and more. Now at age eighty, retinitis pigmentosa leaves me with a small circle of hazy but still useful vision. I am preparing for when it is gone. As a member of the NFB I pride myself on being independent, but, as total blindness approaches, I am anticipating difficulties coping with blindness and consequences of the aging process I see going on around me. Being in a senior development is both inspiring and scary. Many residents are active and independent; some volunteer here and at outside facilities. We shop, go to appointments, and enjoy playing cards and entertainments. But I observe changes in my fellow residents and me. Forgetfulness has a huge impact: forgetting to take medications, forgetting appointments, even forgetting to drink enough water affects health. We become hard of hearing and must manage hearing aids including changing batteries. Hearing aids require dexterity in inserting them. No one told me constipation (or colonic inertia, as my brother correctly called it) could be an ongoing problem that must be managed. I may be faced with urinary incontinence; the Depends are ready! I am a competent cane traveler. When I moved here, I admired the ubiquitous rollators and walkers that are used for balance. As I watched them I wondered how I could use a walker with my long white cane if my balance gets bad. An O&M instructor told me some end up in a wheelchair when balance becomes unsafe. No no no! But I know that some use a support cane along with the long white cane. Now I have had training in using the canes together. It takes practice and slows my walk, but I hope it will enable me to keep on the go. The thought came to me that it might be possible to use my four-wheel cart to help my balance, the one I pull behind me to carry groceries to my apartment. Bob Kresmer, past president of the Arizona affiliate, told me that there is a technique developed to use a walker and the long cane, which I will investigate. Our complexity of life seems to increase. I use the iPhone, but will I be able to adapt as the system changes? Older brains are less efficient in areas of learning, memory, and problem solving. From learning psychology I remember, "You can teach an old dog new tricks; it just takes longer." Motivation is key to learning; many of my neighbors are content in their niche. Some who used a computer have given it up. I am motivated to adapt now, but will this continue? I am pursuing two paths to keep track of appointments and maintain lists. Along with using the iPhone, I am looking at low-tech methods such as Braille tape on a magnetic board. I have used a digital recorder for notes. I journey on, and look forward to tomorrow's challenges! ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- The Secret to Winning a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship by Patti S. Gregory-Chang >From the Editor: Patti Chang is the chairman of one of the most important committees of the National Federation of the Blind. She and her committee are charged with advertising our scholarship program and choosing thirty students who evidence academic success, leadership, and a demonstrated commitment to helping others. Here is Patti's announcement about the 2017 scholarship program: Each July at our national convention the National Federation of the Blind gives a broad array of scholarships to recognize achievement by blind scholars. We offer thirty scholarships, and all are substantial and prestigious enough to warrant any student's time to complete and compete. Our $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship is the largest. The NFB Scholarship Program is our investment in the future of blind people who demonstrate scholastic aptitude, leadership, and service. I encourage every blind college student to apply. I am sometimes asked what the secret is to winning an NFB scholarship. I am going to tell you the secret. First of all, applicants must meet the eligibility requirements to receive a scholarship. All applicants for these scholarships must be legally blind; must reside in one of our fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico; must be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time postsecondary course of study in a degree program at an accredited United States institution in the fall academic year; and, if chosen as a finalist, must participate in the entire NFB national convention and in all scheduled scholarship activities. Many think the key to becoming a winner is a high grade point average. Others believe it is based on participation in extracurricular activities. Still others think it is one's level of commitment to the NFB. While grade point average is important because it demonstrates the ability to learn and be successful academically, it is not the only attribute that influences the scholarship committee. Participation in extracurricular activities is important in portraying oneself as a well-rounded person; it is not sufficient in itself to justify a scholarship award. Committed members of the organization recognize the attributes that are important to committee members when determining who wins a scholarship. The scholarship program is a tremendous tool for us to develop future leaders of the National Federation of the Blind, but scholarship awards are not restricted to members of the organization. The National Federation of the Blind is an organization dedicated to creating opportunity for all blind people. Recipients of NFB scholarships need not be members of the National Federation of the Blind. Many of our past winners were not even aware of the NFB before they applied for our scholarships. When you check the lists of past winners, you will see that students of all ages and in widely differing fields have won over the years. The class of 2016 included students entering their freshman year, as well as older students who were nearly ready to write their PhD dissertations. Past winners are working toward credentials for employment in diverse fields. There is truly only one way to win an NFB scholarship: that is to apply. Each November the new, updated scholarship application forms are posted on the Web at https://nfb.org/scholarships, along with important information about the contest, links to information on past winners, and a page of frequently asked questions. The application form for 2017 is already online. It will remain up until March 31. The process can be initiated with an online application, which we prefer, or students can ask for a print application by contacting our scholarship office at scholarships at nfb.org or by calling (410) 659-9314, ext. 2415. A complete application consists of the official application form and a student essay, plus these supporting documents: student transcripts, one letter of recommendation, and proof of legal blindness. The student must also complete an interview with the president of the applicant's state of residence or the state where he or she will be attending school. High school seniors should also include a copy of the results of their ACT, SAT, or other college entrance exams. Unfortunately, some applications are incomplete, so the committee is unable to consider them fairly. Applicants must ensure that all of the required information and supporting documentation has been received by our scholarship office either online by midnight EST, March 31, or by mail postmarked by March 31. Students should carefully consider who can do the best job of writing their letter of reference. A letter should support the application by being full of facts and observations that will help the members of the committee see the applicant as a smart, active student and citizen. Students can write their essays using word processing software. They should remember to use the spell checker (or a human proofreader) before uploading, printing, or copying and pasting it into the online application form. In an effective essay the applicant will talk about his or her life in a way that gives the committee insight into him or her. The essay should cover the ways in which one lives successfully as a blind person and describe one's personal goals for the future. Information about positions of leadership is especially helpful. Committee members give the essay a great deal of attention. The NFB scholarship committee is comprised of dedicated, successful blind people who will review all applications and select the top thirty applicants who will become the scholarship class of 2017. Note that students submit just one application to the program; the scholarship committee will choose the thirty finalists from all applications received. These thirty scholarship finalists will be notified of their selection by telephone no later than June 1. Finally, during the annual convention to be held July 10 through July 15, 2017, in Orlando, Florida, the scholarship committee will decide which award will be presented to each winner. Attending and participating in the entire NFB national convention is one of the requirements to become an NFB scholarship winner. Of course, attending the convention is also a significant part of the prize. The National Federation of the Blind's national convention is the largest gathering of blind people to occur anywhere in the world each year, with 2,500 or more people registered. Those chosen as scholarship finalists will have the opportunity to network with other blind students, to exchange information and ideas, and to meet and talk with hundreds of blind people who are successfully functioning in many occupations and professions. Our past winners often comment that the money was quickly spent, but the contacts they made and the information they gathered at convention have continued to make their lives richer than they ever imagined. Often students apply more than one year before winning a scholarship, so applicants are encouraged to reapply. The NFB may award three or more scholarships to men and women who have already received one Federation scholarship in the past if their scholarship and leadership merit another award. Individuals receiving a second NFB national scholarship are recognized as tenBroek Fellows. The secret, if there is one, to winning an NFB scholarship is to read carefully the application on our website, and then provide all of the required information and supporting documentation before the deadline of March 31. However, I actually maintain that there is no secret. The only way to win an NFB scholarship is to apply. ---------- [PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: A view of the desk in the atrium as seen by visitors arriving on the elevators. A bust of Kenneth Jernigan is visible against the far wall.] Dots from Space! Where No Dots Have Gone Before by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer >From the Editor: This is episode two from our serial "Dots from Space!" If you missed episode one, refer to the January 2017 issue. A short time later, Captain Dottie and the five other crew members in the away team surround the edges of a large glass skylight. On closer inspection a loose panel is discovered and gently lifted clear. Motioning to those around her, the captain says, "Team, we don't know what we will find in this structure. I will go down first. Cover me and follow after I give the all-clear signal." As the crew stands back, Captain Dottie rolls to the edge of the opening. Quickly, while grasping the edge of the metal frame, she begins to lower her body down into the hole. Stretching out, she touches down on the floor, twenty-five feet below, before releasing her hold on the skylight above. Rolling across the smooth marble floor, the captain quickly confirms that she is alone in what appears to be a reception area. As she explores, a small blinking light appears on the surface of her body, and a voice can be heard to say, "Captain, is everything all right down there?" "Yes, yes, Commander. I'm fine. Judging from the height of this front desk alone, I'd say it's pretty safe to say that the creatures who inhabited this building were close to our size and stature." After a brief pause, the commander tries again. "I'm glad to hear that, captain. Does that mean we can come down now?" The captain gives her approval and within moments is joined by the other members of her away team. They find her standing motionless before a small statue of wood. Atop the statue is the chiseled likeness of one of the aliens who previously called the planet their home cast in bronze, while a long, slim wooden pole extends down along one side to the floor. Curious, the crew members all move in closer to get a better look. The first to act, Captain Dottie reaches toward the statue, enveloping it in the folds of her clay-like body. "There is an inscription," she murmurs in a thoughtful voice as she passes a hand-like appendage over the engraved print and embossed Braille. "Dr. Kenneth Jernigan. He told us it is respectable to be blind." "Blind?" the young ensign asks. "Our translator has no equivalent word for this? What do you think they mean, captain?" "I'm not sure, Bean. I'm just not sure. What do you make of this, Doctor Spot?" "Well, captain, it appears that we now have three mysteries to solve: What is 'blind'? Why is this message written in two codes? And why was this place abandoned?" "All good questions, doctor. Let's go find out," calls Captain Dottie as she leads the team through double doors and down the dark hallway. Having made one last circle of the room Counselor Mote rolls toward the open double doors and picks a pamphlet up off the floor by mistake as she passes over it. Curious about the paper stuck to her body, she begins to read... [Note: If you wish to read "The Pitfalls of Political Correctness: Euphemisms Excoriated," by Kenneth Jernigan, Braille Monitor, August 1993, you may find it at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm09/bm0903/bm090308.htm] ---------- Who Are the Blind Who Lead the Blind? >From the Editor: Though brief profiles of the members of the current board of directors can be found on our website at any time, we periodically revise and reprint in the Braille Monitor a compilation we have used for years. It includes profiles of Dr. tenBroek, Dr. Jernigan, and members of the current NFB board of directors. It is high time to provide it again, so here it is: Introduction The National Federation of the Blind has become by far the most significant force in the affairs of the blind today, and its actions have had an impact on many other groups and programs. The Federation's President, Mark Riccobono, radiates confidence and persuasiveness. He says, "We seek to set the pace, determine our own direction, build our own dreams, and expand the boundaries of independence-we know that together we have the power to turn dreams into reality, and it is our goal to go to the places and do the things that have not yet been done to create equality of opportunity for the blind. We recognize that it is not enough for one blind person to have training and opportunity. If one blind person faces low expectations, misconceptions, and artificial barriers based on his or her blindness than it inevitably holds all blind people back. Together we raise expectations, build opportunities, explore new horizons, celebrate new achievements, and knock down barriers in order to make sure that each of us has the opportunity to compete on terms of equality and live the lives we want." The National Federation of the Blind is a civil rights movement with all that the term implies. The blind are a minority in American society, and we face the same problems that other minorities must address: misconceptions as to our capabilities, our aspirations, and our ability to assume the responsibilities that go along with the rights we demand. Although many organizations and agencies for the blind exist in the United States today, there is only one National Federation of the Blind. This organization was established in 1940 when the blind of seven states- California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin-sent delegates to its first convention at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Since that time progress has been rapid and steady. The Federation is recognized by blind men and women throughout the entire country as their primary means of joint expression; and today-with active affiliates in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico-it is the primary voice of the nation's blind. To explain this spectacular growth, three questions must be asked and answered: (1) What are the conditions in the general environment of the blind which have impelled them to organize? (2) What are the purpose, belief, and philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind? (3) Who are its leaders, and what are their qualifications to understand and solve the problems of blindness? Even a brief answer to these questions is instructive. When the Federation came into being in 1940, the outlook for the blind was anything but bright. The nation's welfare system was so discouraging to individual initiative that those forced to accept public assistance had little hope of ever achieving self-support again, and those who sought competitive employment in regular industry or the professions found most of the doors barred against them. The universal goodwill expressed toward the blind was not the wholesome goodwill of respect felt toward equals; it was the misguided goodwill of pity felt toward inferiors. In effect the system said to the blind, "Sit on the sidelines of life. This game is not for you. If you have creative talents, we are sorry, but we cannot use them." The Federation came into being to combat these expressions of discrimination and to promote new ways of thought concerning blindness. Although great progress has been made toward the achievement of these goals, much still remains to be done. The Federation believes that blind people are essentially normal and that blindness in itself is not a mental or psychological handicap. It can be reduced to the level of a mere physical nuisance. Legal, economic, and social discrimination based upon the false assumption that the blind are somehow different from the sighted must be abolished, and equal opportunity must be made available to blind people. Because of their personal experience with blindness, the blind themselves are best qualified to lead the way in solving their own problems, but the general public should be invited to participate in finding solutions. Upon these fundamentals the National Federation of the Blind predicates its philosophy. As for the leadership of the organization, all of the officers and members of the board of directors are blind, and all give generously of their time and resources in promoting the work of the Federation. The board consists of seventeen elected members, five of whom are the constitutional officers of the organization. These members of the board of directors represent a wide cross section of the blind population of the United States. Their backgrounds are different, and their experiences vary widely; but they are drawn together by the common bond of having met blindness individually and successfully in their own lives and by their united desire to see other blind people have the opportunity to do likewise. A profile of the leadership of the organization shows why it is so effective and demonstrates the progress made by blind people during the past half-century and more-for in the story of the lives of these leaders can be found the greatest testimonial to the soundness of the Federation's philosophy. The cumulative record of their individual achievements is an overwhelming proof, leading to an inescapable conclusion. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jacobus tenBroek] Jacobus tenBroek Founder of the National Federation of the Blind and First President Author, Jurist, Professor, and Father The moving force in the founding of the National Federation of the Blind, and its spiritual and intellectual father, was Jacobus tenBroek. Born in 1911, young tenBroek (the son of prairie homesteaders in Canada) lost the sight of one eye as the result of a bow-and-arrow accident at the age of seven. His remaining eyesight deteriorated until at the age of fourteen he was totally blind. Shortly afterward he and his family traveled to Berkeley so that he could attend the California School for the Blind. Within three years he was an active part of the local organization of the blind. By 1934 he had joined Dr. Newel Perry and others to form the California Council of the Blind, which later became the National Federation of the Blind of California. This organization was a prototype for the nationwide federation that tenBroek would form six years later. The same year the Federation was founded (1940), Jacobus tenBroek received his doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of California, completed a year as Brandeis Research Fellow at Harvard Law School, and was appointed to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. Two years later he began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley, becoming a full professor in 1953, chairman of the department of speech in 1955, and professor of political science in 1963. During this period Professor tenBroek published several books and more than fifty articles and monographs in the fields of welfare, government, and law- establishing a reputation as one of the nation's foremost scholars on matters of constitutional law. One of his books, Prejudice, War, and the Constitution, won the Woodrow Wilson Award of the American Political Science Association in 1955 as the best book of the year on government and democracy. Other books are California's Dual System of Family Law (1964), Hope Deferred: Public Welfare and the Blind (1959), The Antislavery Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment (1951)-revised and republished in 1965 as Equal Under Law, and The Law of the Poor (edited in 1966). In the course of his academic career Professor tenBroek was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto and was twice the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1947 he earned the degree of SJD [Doctor of Juridical Science] from Harvard Law School. In addition he was awarded honorary degrees by two institutions of higher learning. Dr. tenBroek's lifelong companion was his devoted wife Hazel. Together they raised three children and worked inseparably on research, writing, and academic and Federation projects. Until her declining health prevented travel, Mrs. tenBroek continued as an active member of the organized blind movement. She died October 7, 2005. In 1950 Dr. tenBroek was made a member of the California State Board of Social Welfare by Governor Earl Warren. Later reappointed to the board three times, he was elected its chairman in 1960 and served in that capacity until 1963. The brilliance of Jacobus tenBroek's career led some skeptics to suggest that his achievements were beyond the reach of what they called the "ordinary blind person." What tenBroek recognized in himself was not that he was exceptional, but that he was normal-that his blindness had nothing to do with whether he could be a successful husband and father, do scholarly research, write a book, make a speech, guide students engaged in social action, or otherwise lead a productive life. Jacobus tenBroek died of cancer at the age of fifty-six in 1968. His successor, Kenneth Jernigan, in a memorial address, said truly of him: "The relationship of this man to the organized blind movement, which he brought into being in the United States and around the world, was such that it would be equally accurate to say that the man was the embodiment of the movement or that the movement was the expression of the man. "For tens of thousands of blind Americans over more than a quarter of a century, he was leader, mentor, spokesman, and philosopher. He gave to the organized blind movement the force of his intellect and the shape of his dreams. He made it the symbol of a cause barely imagined before his coming: the cause of self-expression, self-direction, and self-sufficiency on the part of blind people. Step by step, year by year, action by action, he made that cause succeed." [PHOTO CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan] Kenneth Jernigan President Emeritus Teacher, Writer, Administrator, and Father Kenneth Jernigan was a leader in the National Federation of the Blind for more than forty-six years. He was president (with one brief interruption) from 1968 until July of 1986. Even after Jernigan ceased to be president of the Federation, he continued as one of its principal leaders until his death on October 12, 1998. He was loved and respected by tens of thousands-members and nonmembers of the Federation, both blind and sighted. Born in 1926, Kenneth Jernigan grew up on a farm in central Tennessee. He received his elementary and secondary education at the school for the blind in Nashville. After high school Jernigan managed a furniture shop in Beech Grove, Tennessee, making all the furniture and operating the business. In the fall of 1945 Jernigan matriculated at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. Active in campus affairs from the outset, he was soon elected to office in his class and to important positions in other student organizations. Jernigan graduated with honors in 1948 with a BS degree in social science. In 1949 he received a master's degree in English from Peabody College in Nashville, where he subsequently completed additional graduate study. While at Peabody he was a staff writer for the school newspaper, co-founder of an independent literary magazine, and member of the Writers' Club. In 1949 he received the Captain Charles W. Browne Award, at that time presented annually by the American Foundation for the Blind to the nation's outstanding blind student. Jernigan then spent four years as a teacher of English at the Tennessee School for the Blind. During this period he became active in the Tennessee Association of the Blind (now the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee). He was elected to the vice presidency of the organization in 1950 and to the presidency in 1951. In that position he planned the 1952 annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind, which was held in Nashville, and he then planned every NFB national convention through 1998. In 1952 Jernigan was first elected to the NFB board of directors, and in 1953 he was appointed to the faculty of the California Orientation Center for the Blind in Oakland, where he played a major role in developing the best program of its kind then in existence. From 1958 until 1978 he served as director of the Iowa State Commission for the Blind. In this capacity he was responsible for administering state rehabilitation programs, home teaching, home industries, an orientation and adjustment center, and library services for the blind and physically handicapped. The improvements made in services to the blind of Iowa under the Jernigan administration have never before or since been equaled anywhere in the country. In 1960 the Federation presented Jernigan with its Newel Perry Award for outstanding accomplishment in services for the blind. In 1968 he was given a special citation by the president of the United States. Harold Russell, the chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, came to Des Moines to present the award. He said: "If a person must be blind, it is better to be blind in Iowa than anywhere else in the nation or in the world. This statement," the citation went on to say, "sums up the story of the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the Jernigan years and more pertinently of its director, Kenneth Jernigan. That narrative is much more than a success story. It is the story of high aspiration magnificently accomplished-of an impossible dream become reality." Jernigan received too many honors and awards to enumerate individually, including honorary doctorates from four institutions of higher education. He was also asked to serve as a special consultant to or member of numerous boards and advisory bodies. The most notable among these are: member of the National Advisory Committee on Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (appointed in 1972 by the secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare); special consultant on services for the blind (appointed in 1975 by the federal commissioner of rehabilitation); advisor on museum programs for blind visitors to the Smithsonian Institution (appointed in 1975); special advisor to the White House Conference on Library and Information Services (appointed in 1977 by President Gerald Ford). In July of 1990 Jernigan received an award for distinguished service from the president of the United States. To date he has been the only person ever to be invited to deliver keynote addresses to the primary gatherings of the two worldwide blindness organizations in a single year. He spoke at the fourth quadrennial meeting of the World Blind Union in August 1996 and the annual meeting of the International Council for the Education of the Visually Impaired in spring 1997. In 1998 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind, the first ever International Leadership Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind's Winston Gordon Award for his leadership in establishing NEWSLINE for the Blind?. Kenneth Jernigan's writings and speeches on blindness are better known and have touched the lives of more blind people than those of any other person writing today. From 1991 until his death he edited the NFB's immensely popular series of paperbacks known as the Kernel Books. On July 23, 1975, he spoke before the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and his address was broadcast live throughout the nation on National Public Radio. Through the years he appeared repeatedly on network radio and television interview programs. In 1978 Jernigan moved to Baltimore to become executive director of the American Brotherhood for the Blind (now the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults) and director of the National Center for the Blind. As president of the National Federation of the Blind at that time, he led the organization through the most impressive period of growth in its history to date. The creation and development of the National Center for the Blind and the NFB's expansion into its position today as the most influential voice and force in the affairs of the blind stand as the culmination of Kenneth Jernigan's lifework and a tribute to his brilliance and commitment to the blind of this nation. From 1987 to 1997 he played an active role internationally as president of the North America/Caribbean region of the World Blind Union. He traveled widely and spoke frequently before international groups about blindness and the NFB's positive philosophy that changes lives and society. Jernigan's dynamic wife Mary Ellen remains an active member of the Federation. She works with dedication in the movement and is known and loved by thousands of Federationists throughout the country. Speaking at a convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Jernigan said of the organization and its philosophy (and also of his own philosophy): "As we look ahead, the world holds more hope than gloom for us-and, best of all, the future is in our own hands. For the first time in history we can be our own masters and do with our lives what we will; and the sighted (as they learn who we are and what we are) can and will work with us as equals and partners. In other words we are capable of full membership in society, and the sighted are capable of accepting us as such-and, for the most part, they want to. "We want no Uncle Toms-no sellouts, no apologists, no rationalizers; but we also want no militant hell-raisers or unbudging radicals. One will hurt our cause as much as the other. We must win true equality in society, but we must not dehumanize ourselves in the process; and we must not forget the graces and amenities, the compassions and courtesies which comprise civilization itself and distinguish people from animals and life from existence. "Let people call us what they will and say what they please about our motives and our movement. There is only one way for the blind to achieve first-class citizenship and true equality. It must be done through collective action and concerted effort; and that means the National Federation of the Blind. There is no other way, and those who say otherwise are either uninformed or unwilling to face the facts. "We are the strongest force in the affairs of the blind today, and we must also recognize the responsibilities of power and the fact that we must build a world that is worth living in when the war is over-and, for that matter, while we are fighting it. In short, we must use both love and a club, and we must have sense enough to know when to do which-long on compassion, short on hatred; and, above all, not using our philosophy as a cop-out for cowardice or inaction or rationalization. We know who we are and what we must do-and we will never go back. The public is not against us. Our determination proclaims it; our gains confirm it; our humanity demands it." [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] Marc Maurer Immediate Past President Attorney, Executive, and Father Born in 1951, Marc Maurer was the second in a family of six children. His blindness was caused by overexposure to oxygen after his premature birth, but he and his parents were determined that this should not prevent him from living a full and normal life. He began his education at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, where he became an avid Braille reader. In the fifth grade he returned home to Boone, Iowa, where he attended parochial schools. During high school (having taken all the courses in the curriculum), he simultaneously took classes at the junior college. Maurer ran three different businesses before finishing high school: a paper route, a lawn care business, and an enterprise producing and marketing maternity garter belts designed by his mother. This last venture was so successful that his younger brother took over the business when Maurer left home. In the summer of 1969, after graduating from high school, Maurer enrolled as a student at the Orientation and Adjustment Center of the Iowa Commission for the Blind and attended his first convention of the NFB. He was delighted to discover in both places that blind people and what they thought mattered. This was a new phenomenon in his experience, and it changed his life. Kenneth Jernigan was director of the Iowa Commission for the Blind at the time, and Maurer soon grew to admire and respect him. When Maurer expressed an interest in overhauling a car engine, the Commission for the Blind purchased the necessary equipment. Maurer completed that project and actually worked for a time as an automobile mechanic. He believes today that mastering engine repair played an important part in changing his attitudes about blindness. Maurer graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1974. As an undergraduate he took an active part in campus life, including election to the Honor Society. Then he enrolled at the University of Indiana School of Law, where he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1977. Maurer was elected president of the Student Division of the National Federation of the Blind in 1971 and reelected in 1973 and 1975. Also in 1971 at the age of twenty he was elected vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana. He was elected president in 1973 and reelected in 1975. During law school Maurer worked summers for the office of the secretary of state of Indiana. After graduation he moved to Toledo, Ohio, to accept a position as the director of the Senior Legal Assistance Project operated by ABLE (Advocates for Basic Legal Equality). In 1978 Maurer moved to Washington, DC, to become an attorney with the Rates and Routes Division in the office of the general counsel of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Initially he worked on rates cases but soon advanced to dealing with international matters and then to doing research and writing opinions on constitutional issues and board action. He wrote opinions for the chairman and made appearances before the full board to discuss those opinions. In 1981 he went into private practice in Baltimore, Maryland, where he specialized in civil litigation and property matters. But increasingly he concentrated on representing blind individuals and groups in the courts. He has now become one of the most experienced and knowledgeable attorneys in the country regarding the laws, precedents, and administrative rulings concerning civil rights and discrimination against the blind. He is a member of the Bar in Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, and Maryland and a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Maurer has always been active in civic and political affairs, having run for the state legislature from Baltimore. Through the years he has also served on the board of directors of his apartment complex's tenants association, the board of his community association, and the school board of his children's school. In 1981 Maurer was elected president of the National Association of Blind Lawyers and served in that office until 1985. >From 1984 until 1986 he served as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. An important companion in Maurer's activities and a leader in her own right is his wife Patricia. The Maurers were married in 1973, and they have two children-David Patrick, born March 10, 1984, and Dianna Marie, born July 12, 1987. At the 1985 convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Kenneth Jernigan announced that he would not stand for re-election as president of the National Federation of the Blind the following year, and he recommended Marc Maurer as his successor. In Kansas City in 1986 the Convention elected Maurer by resounding acclamation, and he served for twenty-eight years until July of 2014. From 1997 to 2000 he also served as president of the North America/Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union, and he chaired the WBU Committee on the Restoration of the Louis Braille Birthplace in Coupvray, France. In 2004 he became vice president of the World Blind Union North America/Caribbean Region, and in 2006 reassumed the presidency. Maurer was honored with the Maryland Black Caucus's Leadership Award in 1985, the United States Presidential Medal for Leadership in 1990, the 1990 Heritage Award from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Baltimore Business Journal's 1999 Innovation Award for Excellence in Workplace Technology. Recent honors include the 2002 VME Robert Dole Award and the Daily Record's 2002 Innovator of the Year award. He joined President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in July of 2001 to celebrate the success of the NFB Everest Expedition and once again when President Bush signed into law the Help America Vote Act of 2002. He received honorary degrees from California's Menlo College in 1998 and the University of Louisville in 1999. In 1987 he delivered an address at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and in 2000 he was invited to deliver addresses on civil rights at Oxford University and Birmingham University in the United Kingdom. In his tenure as president of the National Federation of the Blind, Maurer has boldly led the organization into a new test of its resolve, beginning with the visionary expansion of the National Center for the Blind- the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, which was completed in the spring of 2004. The facility, located on the grounds of the National Center, has added more than 170,000 square feet to the NFB's headquarters. The Institute, which is the first of its kind, conceived and built by the blind for the blind, is developing innovative education, technologies, products, and services that support independence for the world's blind. One of the early products of the Institute was the Kurzweil- National Federation of the Blind handheld reading machine, produced in conjunction with the noted futurist and inventor, Raymond Kurzweil. Maurer's unswerving determination to succeed and his absolute conviction that the organized blind are the best-equipped people to solve the problems facing them have set the tone and are guiding the organization into this exciting new period of growth and accomplishment. [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] Mark Riccobono President Educator, Leader, Visionary, and Father Born in 1976, Mark Riccobono is the only child of two hard-working parents of modest means. Both were high school graduates, and, although they encouraged their son and gave him an example of what persistence and hard work could do, they had no experience of higher education and no familiarity with blindness. Riccobono was diagnosed as legally blind at the age of five, glaucoma being the disease that took his sight. Although he knew he had a vision problem, as a child he never felt limited in what he could do. Being an only child just meant he relied more on friends, and his elementary years have left him with good memories. He benefited from going to his neighborhood school because his contact with children was not just at school but in play, birthday celebrations, and school holidays. His low vision meant he sometimes had to work harder, but the print was large, he got a seat in the front of the room, his teachers did what they could to help, and his friends were comfortable with their buddy who didn't see quite as well as they did. "I was comfortable in my own skin, and that made others around me comfortable as well." The obstacles he faced and the fact that he had some limitations simply emphasized that he should do what his parents did when things got tough: they just worked hard and powered through, and powering through became an indispensable part of his personality. Riccobono got a very good elementary education, but found himself in a rough middle school. It was probably what would be called a failing school today. Many of his elementary school friends went to other middle schools, so his social network began to evaporate. Now there were new friends to make and already established groups who had reservations about adding new members to their circles, and this further added to what was already a difficult transition. The year before he entered the school there had been a stabbing, and little emphasis was placed on academic success. This was the place where he learned to stay under the radar, to isolate himself from others, and to decide his place was in the back of the classroom, where he was less likely to be noticed or called on. There were no services to deal with vision loss, and the only accommodation he can recall receiving was a special lock for his locker that he could operate. Without a good way to read and to see the blackboard, he learned to rely on memory, but even a good memory could not consistently deliver good test scores, and he believes that sometimes he was simply passed. Riccobono remembers that he was sometimes challenged to do better and that often it was the math teachers who would ask more of him. But he was all too frequently allowed just to exist there in the back of the room with the students least likely to raise their hands, shout out answers, or be called upon by the classroom teacher. Riccobono describes this as learning to "be a passenger in my own life." To add to the difficulty of middle school, surgeries for glaucoma in eighth grade not only caused him to miss school, but eventually cost him a significant amount of the little vision he had. An uncle who observed these futile attempts asked his nephew, "What are you going to do if it doesn't work? What will you do if you don't get vision back?" "I began to ask myself with each surgery whether we might not be chasing the unreachable dream," Riccobono said. A surgery performed to burn off some of the scar tissue proved to be too effective, destroying the vision in his left eye and eventually causing it to shrink. So Riccobono went into high school totally blind in one eye and with little vision in the other. In Milwaukee one could choose a high school based on its specialty, and Riccobono chose the one that emphasized business and becoming an entrepreneur. Unbeknownst to him when he made his choice, this school had a resource room for blind students. This was the first time he had considered that there might be others facing the challenges that made school difficult. Riccobono is glad he chose to attend the high school emphasizing business. The teachers saw potential in him, and, for the first time in a long time, he found himself surrounded by people who believed he had capacity. "High school was better than middle school had been; it had some very good teachers who believed in my capacity, and it had people who worked to mentor me. They didn't understand where blindness fit into my career possibilities, but they knew how to teach, saw potential in me, and were determined to cultivate it." He joined DECA, an association founded in 1946 to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs. In this organization he engaged in competitions in public speaking, marketing, and creating a business plan. As a high school senior he was involved in statewide competition, where he won first place in public speaking and earned himself the opportunity to compete in national competitions representing the state of Wisconsin. During that same year he started a school-based business selling sports cards based on a business plan he developed the previous year. After high school Riccobono arrived at the University of Wisconsin with a folding cane, a laptop computer with no screen-reading or screen- enlargement software, and a closed circuit television to enlarge paper documents. "I had to study a lot because I read slowly, and memorization was the key to any success I might enjoy." But even with the extreme focus he placed on academics, Riccobono hit the wall in his sophomore year and almost failed a computer class because he had no access to the machines. Eventually his rehabilitation counselor sent him for a technology evaluation, and the use of speech and other technology was recommended. At this point Riccobono started reaching out to other blind people, knowing that, if some of them were successful, they had to be doing something he was not. He knew that the barriers he was facing were real and that he was making a significant effort to overcome them, but he was learning that effort alone was not enough: he needed techniques, strategies, and building on the experiences of others. So it was that he came to find the National Federation of the Blind, won a state scholarship, and attended the national convention in 1996. "A lot of what I heard at the convention resonated with me-gave me real hope-but I wasn't sure it was real because I hadn't had the chance to test it myself. But whatever skepticism I had, the truth is that my predominant emotions were excitement and hope that what these people were saying was true. For the first time in my life it was clear to me that in this group it didn't matter how much or how little I could see. In this group no one ever asked or tried to limit where I could go. For the first time I didn't feel as though I had to decide what I would or would not do based on my vision." In the summer after he found the Federation, Riccobono learned Braille, started using the white cane, and came to understand that blind people used other techniques that might help him. He immediately began testing what the Federation said about blindness and encouraged other students to do the same. In the fall of 1996 he founded and became the first president of the Wisconsin Association of Blind Students (a division of the NFB of Wisconsin). He also began rebuilding his dreams. He secured employment with the disability resource center on campus and coordinated the delivery of accessible materials to other students. Riccobono also began expanding his participation in the campus community, knowing that blindness was not the thing that held him back but rather his own low expectations learned over many years. Among his new activities Riccobono became the first blind person at the university to be certified to independently sail one-person sail boats in the Hoofers Sailing Program on Lake Mendota. Riccobono finished college in May of 1999 with a degree in business administration, majoring both in marketing and economics. He interviewed with Sears in his senior year of college and already had a job offer in hand when he graduated. While attending the Washington Seminar, people asked what he intended to do between his graduation in May and the start of his new job in August. They suggested he use this time for training. Finding the advice sound, he attended the Colorado Center for the Blind. There he worked on attitudes and skills and had a chance to test some of the Federation ideas he had thought about with such hope. He found they had verity in his life. After training with Sears, Riccobono moved to Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where he rented an apartment about three blocks from where he had grown up. At this point he was feeling good about himself: a college graduate with a job, living on his own, and the recently elected president of the National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin, having won that post in 1998. Before his election a proposal had been advanced to close the state's school for the blind. Riccobono was appointed to serve on an advisory committee charged with transforming the institution from a school to a center where ten programs serving the blind would be housed, one of them being the school for the blind. Riccobono learned from the Federation that his true passion was not necessarily business (although he exhibits the thinking of an entrepreneur in everything he does) but rather education and building innovative educational programs. When the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired was established, Riccobono was hired as its director shortly before his twenty-fourth birthday. He headed an agency with a budget of six million dollars and began to implement programs that required more of staff and students, consistent with the expectations of blind people he found in the Federation. He worked at the Wisconsin Center for three and a half years, and an audit ordered by the implementing legislation gave the new center good marks and was the best the school had received in over a decade. But Riccobono found making changes at the center painfully slow and thought that his focus on improving education would be better served by working on a national level. Having concluded that Riccobono possessed some skills that would be valuable at the Jernigan Institute, President Maurer hired him. Mark and his wife Melissa (a strong leader, advocate, and educator in her own right) moved to Baltimore. Given his interest in education, he took a master's degree in educational studies from Johns Hopkins University. After working for some time in education, he became the executive director of the Jernigan Institute, a position he held until his election as President of the National Federation of the Blind in July of 2014. In his Federation work he has led a number of critical initiatives including establishment of the National Center for Blind Youth in Science, building a national mentoring program, expanding Braille literacy programs (including the NFB Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning program), development of cutting-edge technologies (including a car that a blind person can drive-the NFB Blind Driver Challenge?), many advocacy priorities, affiliate-building projects, and serving as a point person for key relationships with NFB partners. Mark and Melissa have three children: Austin born in December 2006, Oriana born in May 2010, and Elizabeth born in June 2012, all of whom are growing up in the Federation. Their daughters both carry the same eye condition that Mark has, but they will have greater opportunities than their dad because of their connection to the National Federation of the Blind. With the emphasis on social media, YouTube, and communication that goes beyond the written word, his family and their activities have been more visible than those of earlier leaders. "While as a family we draw some lines, we are generally pretty comfortable with letting people know what we are doing, the message being that we lead normal lives and do the same things others with children do. We try to show people what we have learned- that blindness does not prevent us from being the kind of parents we want to be and from living the lives we want." Riccobono is always building-his social media presence frequently shows him engineering new creations out of LEGOs with his children. When asked about his responsibilities as the newly elected President of the National Federation of the Blind and whether it is scary trying to fill the shoes of Immediate Past President Maurer, Riccobono says, "It isn't so much trying to fill someone's shoes as building on a foundation. It is a tremendous responsibility to figure out how to go farther, to strengthen the movement, to lead in such a way that we go forward and build on what we have been given. My challenge is to meet the expectations of folks who have given a lot and have been around a long time, to meet their expectations and let them know they are still wanted, valued, and needed, while at the same time recognizing that the world is changing, that the organization must continue to evolve, and assuring people that these requirements are not in conflict but a part of continuing to exist and thrive. I worry less about the shoes I must fill or the comparisons that will be made than I do about figuring out how to lead us in the miles we must go, preserving the resources we have, while spending enough of them to make the world what we want it to be. I feel grateful that Dr. Maurer recognizes my challenge-he has had to face it in his own transition and presidency, and I feel confident that most of our members understand this too. The nature of this office demonstrates daily just how far we have to go, and, although we have a tremendous organization and significant resources, we have just a fraction of what we need to do the work that remains. "In accepting the Presidency of this organization, I pledged to give all of my energy, my creativity, and my love to our movement. This is how I intend to pay it back, pay it forward, and make a future full of opportunity for blind people. I have no illusions that this will be easy, but I have every expectation that it will happen when all of us pull together to create the kind of future in which we truly live the lives we want." [PHOTO CAPTION: Pam Allen] Pam Allen First Vice President and Board Chair NFB of Louisiana President Nonprofit Agency Administrator, Advocate, Community Leader Pam Dubel was born in 1970 and grew up in Lancaster, New York. She became blind when she was approximately two years old as a result of retinal blastoma, a type of cancer. Although her parents were shocked by her loss of sight, they fortunately realized that she was still the same child except that she could no longer see. Through love and high expectations, they instilled in Pam a sense of pride and confidence in her ability to succeed. They constantly taught her that her blindness was not a limitation to achieving her goals and dreams. Growing up as the youngest of six children also helped her learn to be independent. Since she was the youngest, nobody, especially the brother a year older than she, let her get away with anything. Pam attended a private Catholic school, where she was the only blind student. Her itinerant teacher provided a sound foundation in Braille, which helped her excel in academics. Her parents expected her to do her best and to engage in activities that would make her a confident and well-rounded person. She participated in horseback riding, skiing, and cheerleading during elementary school. During high school her interests shifted to performing in chorus, doing community service, and having fun with her friends. While growing up, Pam had limited contact with other blind people her age. In general she had no desire to associate with other blind people. She understood that every high school senior experiences some trepidation about the transition to adulthood and independence. However, as high school graduation approached, she began to grapple with questions that her sighted peers couldn't answer. She planned to attend college, and she hoped that she would eventually find a job, but she secretly wondered if she would truly be able to obtain employment. After all, she had had difficulty finding part-time work during high school. Her loving family and friends encouraged her, but she had questions that went unanswered. Although she entered college with some apprehension, she was determined to achieve her best. Her small liberal arts college provided an exciting environment in which to learn and grow. But those unanswered questions continued to nag at her. If people were amazed that she could accomplish the most insignificant tasks, would they ever treat her as an equal? She realized that she had to meet other blind people with more experience than she who could serve as role models. Her search exposed her to a wide variety of groups and organizations of and for the blind. However, not until she attended a student seminar hosted by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio did she begin to find the answers for which she had been searching. Although she didn't realize it at the time, that seminar marked the beginning of a new chapter of her life. She met Barbara Pierce, president of the NFB of Ohio, who told Pam about the Louisiana Center for the Blind. More than that, she spoke with Joanne Wilson, its director, who arranged for Pam to complete an internship at the center the following May. As soon as that was completed, Joanne invited her to work as a counselor in the children's summer program that year. Pam was a 1991 National Federation of the Blind scholarship winner when she was a senior at Denison University, where she majored in psychology and minored in women's studies. She served as vice president of the Ohio Association of Blind Students and as secretary of the National Association of Blind Students, and throughout college she worked summers for Joanne Wilson at the Louisiana Center for the Blind with the children's program. After graduation from college Pam decided to become a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. She recognized that she still needed to gain some confidence in her skills and in her ability to be a successful blind person. Since 2001 Pam Allen has served as the director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, one of three NFB adult rehabilitation centers. Prior to becoming the director, she served as the director of youth services, working with blind infants and toddlers and their parents, supervising the training of classroom aides to teach Braille throughout Louisiana, coordinating summer camps, and developing innovative programs for blind children and teenagers. People often ask her what makes the Louisiana Center for the Blind such a special place. Pam responds, "What sets our alumni apart from those of other kinds of rehabilitation facilities? The answer is that, by attending our center and the other centers conducted by Federationists, students are exposed to the National Federation of the Blind and its philosophy. The NFB is more than an organization; it is a loving family. Regardless of where you are, you can find members of the NFB who can give you support and encouragement when you need it. The NFB also provides a constant supply of mentors and role models who challenge you to set goals for yourself. Lives are positively changed every day at the Center because of the philosophy of the NFB." Allen recalls that she used to believe that she did not need other blind people. She thought that being independent meant succeeding without the help of others. Her involvement with the National Federation of the Blind has taught her that this is not true. She has learned that she needs reinforcement from her blind colleagues and friends. Pam lives in Ruston, Louisiana, with her husband Roland Allen, a dedicated Federation leader and a gifted orientation and mobility instructor at the center. She is currently the president of the NFB of Louisiana and vice president of the National Association of Blind Rehabilitation Professionals. In July of 2002 she was elected to the National Federation of the Blind board of directors. Four years later, in 2006, she was elected to serve as treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind. In 2012, Pam and Roland received the prestigious Jacobus tenBroek Award in recognition of their distinguished service in the Federation. In 2015, Pam was elected as first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind. Allen is also involved in a variety of community and professional organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Louisiana Rehabilitation Council. She says, "Being elected to the national board has allowed me to give back and to spread the message of our movement. It is an incredible honor and privilege to serve!" [PHOTO CAPTION: Ron Brown] Ron Brown Second Vice President NFB of Indiana President Businessman, Advocate Ron Brown was born in Gary, Indiana, the first of eight children, to Marzette and Myra Brown on May 15, 1956. When he was a senior in high school, he became blind after he was shot on his way home from a basketball game. At the time he knew nothing about blindness and was overwhelmed by the feeling that his entire life had been radically changed in an instant. One of the first painful lessons he learned was that many of his friends could not deal with his blindness and stayed away from him. Luckily he began to make new friends, members of the National Federation of the Blind. They became inspiring role models for Ron, teaching him that it was respectable to be blind and that he could continue to strive for the goals he had set for himself. Armed with this newfound freedom, Ron graduated from Ball State University with a bachelor of science degree in health science. He then went to work at Tradewinds Rehabilitation Center in Indiana, where he met his wife Jean, who was on the staff. Eventually he was offered a job in the Business Enterprise Program. He had always wanted to own his own business, and this gave him the opportunity to do so. He has now been in business for himself for thirty years. Recently Ron returned to school and earned a master's degree in educational psychology with a certification in orientation and mobility from Louisiana Tech University. He now owns a second business, Cane and Able Orientation and Mobility, teaching cane travel to blind people in the state of Indiana. As Ron Brown has developed and matured in his personal life, his commitment to and service in the National Federation of the Blind have deepened as well. In the early years he was a chapter president and was then elected to the NFB of Indiana's board of directors. He was first elected president of the affiliate in 1996 and has been reelected every two years since. In 2001 he was elected to serve on the NFB board of directors, and in 2008 he was elevated to the office of second vice president. He was the recipient of the prestigious Jacobus tenBroek Award in 2015. Looking back, Ron Brown says, "Becoming a member of the national board is the fulfillment of a life dream. I have been an advocate for blind people for more than twenty-five years, and with every passing year my commitment to serving the blind of this nation increases. My life indeed changed the night I became blind, but with the perspective I now have, I must say that it was for the better." [PHOTO CAPTION: James Gashel] James R. Gashel Secretary Advocate, Ambassador, Executive, and Father Jim Gashel was born in 1946 and grew up in Iowa. After his early introduction to the National Federation of the Blind as Kenneth Jernigan's student at the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the 1960s, he has been devoted to serving the blind community in various capacities. A 1969 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa with work toward a master's degree in Public Administration at the University of Iowa, Jim started his career teaching speech and English for one year in Pipestone, Minnesota. He then accepted a position as assistant director at the Iowa Commission for the Blind in Des Moines. With that move he found his calling is working with the blind and finding ways of solving the problems that face them as individuals and as a minority. On January 1, 1974, Jim joined the staff of the National Federation of the Blind as chief of the Washington office, where he became one of the best known advocates for the blind of the United States, combining his commitment to blind people with his interest in the political process. As the Federation's scope and influence evolved, so did his roles and responsibilities. In his professional career of almost thirty-four years with the Federation, he held the positions of chief of the Washington office, director of governmental affairs, and executive director for strategic initiatives. Jim's Federation work has led to significant changes in virtually every law directly affecting blind Americans: the Social Security Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Copyright Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Help America Vote Act. In addition to championing these causes, Jim has won the love and respect of the thousands of blind men and women across America who have directly benefited from his informed and effective personal advocacy. No matter what his position, through his drive and devotion to Federationism, Jim has earned the informal title of the organization's non-lawyer lawyer. With his first wife Arlene, Jim is the father of three adult children and the grandfather of nine. His daughter Andrea and her husband Jeremiah Beasley have four children, daughter Valerie and husband Sam Costanza have three, and his son Eric and wife Miranda have two. During Jim's service at the NFB, he received the Commissioner's Award for Outstanding Leadership in Rehabilitation Services to the Disabled, the highest honor presented by the commissioner of the United States Rehabilitation Services Administration. He is also a recipient of the secretary of labor's Outstanding American Award. In 2001 Jim and his second wife, Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, jointly received the NFB's highest honor, the Jacobus tenBroek Award, honoring them for their achievements through decades of leadership in work with the blind. In November, 2007, Jim and Betsy moved from Baltimore to Denver, Colorado, but Betsy soon died after a recurrence of the condition-retinal blastoma-which had caused her blindness from childhood. In September, 2012, Jim married Susan Kern, now Susan Gashel. Their marriage occurred a few months after Susan had returned to Colorado after retiring as an assistant attorney general in the state of Hawaii. Beyond continuing Jim's active work on behalf of the blind through involvement in the Federation, and Susan's work to uphold rights and opportunities for blind Randolph-Sheppard vendors, Jim and Susan are passionate about downhill skiing and all the Rocky Mountains have to offer near where they live in the Vail valley of Colorado. Beyond his volunteer activities, Jim serves as vice president of business development and product evangelist for KNFB Reader, LLC, where he works to develop and promote the NFB's KNFB Reader technology. While serving as the Federation's executive director for strategic initiatives, he led the public introduction and launch of the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, the world's first truly portable text-to- speech reading device for the blind. As part of this effort he raised and administered the funds necessary to support pre-release beta testing, product announcement, and public promotional efforts to bring the product to market in 2006. Jim's work with KNFB brings him full circle in his career since, after first meeting Ray Kurzweil in April 1975, he also organized and raised the funds necessary to test and launch the original Kurzweil Reading Machine, released in 1977 as the world's first text-to- speech reading system for the blind. Jim was elected to the NFB's national board of directors in 2008 to fill an unexpired term and was reelected in 2009. Then he was subsequently elected to the position of national secretary, a position he has held since 2010. Serving in each of these capacities, he brings to the board both expertise and contacts in the blindness field and an abiding commitment to the work of the NFB. In accepting his 2001 Jacobus tenBroek Award, Jim offered comments that remain relevant today and reflect his approach to our mission. "All I would ask is that all of you remember that it's all of our responsibilities to go out and work for the movement. We can't all go out and climb a mountain like Erik [Weihenmayer] did, and we can't all do the wonderful things that every one of you do all the time, or raise five or six million dollars like Betsy did, but we can all work for this movement. We all have a place in it." Jim's place is absolutely unique. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jeannie Massay] Jeannie Massay Treasurer NFB of Oklahoma President Counselor, Advocate, and Leader Jeannie Massay was born in 1968 in Oklahoma City, the youngest of three children and the only girl. She said she was blessed to be a daddy's girl, with brothers who did whatever she told them to do. "They always had my back and were loving and supportive," she said. Jeannie had good vision for the first thirty-seven years of her life, though she did suffer from severe astigmatism and wore strong glasses to compensate for it. She attended Windsor Hills Elementary School because her mother was a teacher there. "I have been an avid reader all of my life, and because my mom was a reading specialist who worked with sixth-graders, after school I went to her classroom to learn about Pompeii, the pyramids, and all kinds of things younger children didn't normally get to read about." In junior high she attended Leo C. Mayfield. As a student she was involved in competing in intermural basketball and softball. She was also involved in the Pep Club and Student Council. In ninth grade Jeannie had unexplained weight loss and severe abdominal cramping, but soon the symptoms went away. They would return every couple months, and initially she was diagnosed with hyperglycemia. When she was sixteen the cramping, weight loss, and lethargy caused the doctor to do a blood glucose tolerance test, revealing a blood sugar level as high as 900. A normal blood sugar is considered to be around one hundred, and one is considered to be a diabetic if blood sugar levels exceed 140. She was hospitalized for a week to learn to manage her diabetes. Jeannie attended Putnam City West High School, where she played competitive softball and performed in the band for three years. She was on the debate team and managed to get A's and B's, which kept her on the honor roll. "Although I didn't do badly, I wish I had done better. I was pretty social and liked to talk to people. I was a pretty well-rounded kid, but it was tough being a diabetic and wanting to eat like a teenager. Since I wanted to fit in and do what I thought was normal, at times I went to the pizza parlor and the hamburger joints." After high school Jeannie attended the University of Central Oklahoma, living at home until her senior year. She thought she wanted to be a lawyer until her first political science class and then decided this was not what she was meant to do. Instead, she began studying psychology, and in 1990, during a two-week period, she graduated, got married, and watched her husband leave for active military service. Jeannie got a job selling cosmetics in a department store. When her husband Mark was transferred from Fort Knox to San Antonio to go through medical training to be a dietitian, she moved to be near him. After his training was completed, Mark was stationed at Landstuhl General Hospital in Germany, the largest military hospital in the European Theatre. When Jeannie was eventually able to go to Germany, she loved it: the people, the food, and the opportunity for travel. She taught at a department of defense dependent school, providing instruction in reading, math, and language arts. She also worked with a behavioral management specialist, which led her to think at the time that she did not want to work with children-all the funnier because she eventually came to realize this was her calling and now part of her practice is counseling children and teenagers. Jeannie and her husband were in Germany just over three years during the first Gulf War. When the military began downsizing, Mark was offered early contract closure and both returned to the States. Jeannie went back to selling cosmetics, working at Est?e Lauder. She started by working behind the counter, then became counter manager, and then assumed the job of account coordinator, managing seven counters around Oklahoma. When Mark received a promotion, both moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he managed Marriott contracts for Georgetown University. Jeannie was able to continue her work with Est?e Lauder, but now she was back to working on the counter. Soon that counter was bringing in $1 million a year. Yet another promotion for Mark found the couple moving to Jackson, Mississippi. Est?e Lauder helped Jeannie find another job, this time managing multiple counters. The couple was in Jackson for two years, but a merger sent Mark to St. Louis, where he ran the food and conference center for Boeing. Jeannie went to work for a subsidiary of Est?e Lauder, Origins, where she worked as the coordinator for eight stores in Missouri and Indiana. While in St. Louis the couple lived in an old Jewish Temple which had been renovated into an apartment. This she loved. Soon she was given the opportunity to interview as an account executive for Origins, flew to New York for the interview, talked with Mark, and was gratified to learn that his reaction to making a move that would further her career was unequivocal: "You have followed me around for ten years, so now I will gladly follow you." The couple moved to Memphis, and Jeannie was responsible for the states of Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. In this position she managed eighteen counters for Dillard's stores and for other retail establishments. She supervised eighty people and loved the job. Even the jobs we love the most come with significant drawbacks. Jeannie was traveling more than three weeks each month, and this was tough on her marriage and tough on her physically. "Sometimes I would work so hard that I would forget to eat. I got really skinny and sickly. So, after close to four years of this kind of life, Mark and I agreed that something had to change." She chose to resign her position with Est?e Lauder because she could not keep up with the demands of the job without continuing to damage her body. They decided to move back to Oklahoma to be closer to family and friends, drastically improving their quality of life. Her next job was with the Oklahoma Blood Institute doing public relations and helping to run blood drives. She realized she liked working in this nonprofit organization because she believed in its mission, liked helping people, and felt she was doing something good for society. She worked there for two years before she had a hemorrhage in her eye. When she woke on a Friday morning and found that everything she saw was pink, she thought she was having a problem with allergies, because it had happened before. When the problem had not improved on Monday, she went to the doctor and on that day received 1,000 laser shots in both eyes. Problems with her vision would consume the next year of her life. Every two weeks she was having eye surgeries, procedures, and experimental injections. The frequent laser treatments on both of her eyes meant that she missed a lot of work, and the director of public relations called her in to ask why. No doubt feeling the need to expose her repressed inner doctor, the supervisor suggested Jeannie "get an eye transplant." In the quest to save her vision, she could not assure her supervisor that her attendance would improve, so she resigned. Four times during that year of struggle to save her sight, she lost all of her vision. Each time it would return, there would be less of it. Emotionally she tells the story of traveling to a 7 AM Rotary Club meeting and finding that, on that day, she had so little vision that her usual ten- minute trip took forty-five minutes. "I freely gave up driving because I was terrified that I was going to hurt someone else. "I went through the next six months of surgeries and injections and finally came to the realization that I was mostly blind and it was going to stay that way. I couldn't see to read or to sew, and at that point I had difficulty figuring out anything I could really do. Part of my self-concept is that I am a strong-willed person, but I couldn't see how that strong will was going to save me." Mark was initially terrified by the onset of her blindness and for a time was very overprotective. Neither of the Massays knew a blind person, and the only thing Jeannie knew was that blind people carried long white canes. The rehabilitation agency had not offered her one, she had no idea where a cane for the blind could be had, so she began using a three-foot carved walking stick her father had used. "Mark and I moved in with my mom because I was familiar with the layout of her house. I started receiving library services for the blind but was on so much medication that I really couldn't read or enjoy the books they sent. I signed up for rehabilitation services and tried to learn something about assistive technology, but only once did a rehabilitation teacher come to my house for fifteen minutes. Not knowing what else to do, I went to the Library for the Blind in Oklahoma City and spent hours there. They offered no formal training there, but I observed other people, listened to what they were doing, and came to understand a bit about the assistive technology used by blind people. "The one thing I got from the rehabilitation agency that did seem to help was orientation and mobility services. I appreciated my instructor because she showed up for appointments and was the first person I could clearly see who wanted to give me back my independence." When Jeannie decided that she would need more training than she could get from an occasional home visit by the Oklahoma agency, she looked at residential rehabilitation centers. She considered attending the Colorado Center for the Blind and was given a long white cane, but the information she had heard about the National Federation of the Blind and the rigor of CCB training, along with biased information and the opinions of her counselor, convinced her that she should attend the Carroll Center for the Blind. She was at the center about six months, and in addition to personal adjustment to blindness training, she also went through an office skills program so that she could learn enough assistive technology to go back to school and get her master's degree. As she gained confidence and a working set of blindness skills, Mark once again saw in Jeannie the fiercely independent woman he'd married. After her time at the Carroll Center, Jeannie went back to school to become a therapist. Working in the cosmetics industry had always been lucrative, but it had never been her passion. Mark also made the decision to go back to school, and both graduated with their master's degrees at the same time. After graduating in May of 2011, Jeannie set out to begin the supervision process, part of the requirements for licensure as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Oklahoma. The requirement consists of working for a minimum of three thousand hours under a counselor who is already licensed. Jeannie encountered discrimination when seeking a job to complete the supervision required for her to pursue licensure. "Although I was equally qualified and had a high GPA, many people saw my cane and assumed that I wouldn't be able to do the job," she said. After going on lots of interviews, Jeannie finally found a job in October of 2011. She began counseling children, adolescents, and their families who deal with ADHD depression, and anxiety disorders. Jeannie completed the state and national exams in November of 2013 after having had issues gaining appropriate and desired accommodations. She passed both examinations and was fully licensed as a Licensed Professional Counselor on January 31, 2014. Jeannie has been in solo private practice since that time and has most recently been certified to work as clinical supervisor for LPC candidates working towards their licensure. Jeannie's first association with an organization of the blind came when she joined the Oklahoma Council of the Blind, the state affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. Although she liked some of the people in the organization, she became concerned with how much time they spent complaining about this radical and militant organization known as the National Federation of the Blind. She did just enough research to realize that the NFB gave state and national scholarships, decided that she was as competent and capable as anyone else, and even decided that crazy, militant money was still spendable. She did not win a national scholarship but was invited to attend the 2008 state convention in Oklahoma. There were fourteen people at that convention, and, to her surprise, Steve Shelton nominated her for a board position. During the luncheon speech presented by the national representative from the Federation, Jeannie was touched by the idea of finding something larger than oneself and reaching out to help others. Although the Oklahoma affiliate did not award her a scholarship in 2008, it did provide resources she could use to attend the national convention. "I was a bit overwhelmed by the three thousand blind people in the Hilton Anatole," she said, "but once I heard the gavel drop, I knew we had to bring this kind of enthusiasm and the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind home to Oklahoma. I felt a duty and an obligation to organize a chapter in Edmund, so Steve Shelton, Dick Morris, Selena Crawford, and Dan Frye worked to make the first meeting possible. We had four people attend, and I thought this was great! I told myself we would have an awesome chapter, but at our first regular meeting only the officers showed up. I was disappointed but resolved. The chapter kept growing and pretty soon it came to have twenty and then thirty people on average. We kept at it, and at the same time we worked on developing the affiliate." Jeannie won a national scholarship in 2009, was invited by President Maurer to attend a leadership seminar, and at that time she told him that, when she graduated with her master's degree, she would run to be the state president in Oklahoma. Jeannie says she has never had problems believing in the teachings of the National Federation of the Blind regarding the need to learn blindness skills. She says that, after her initial loss of vision, what she can see has varied so much that she has never been tempted to put down her cane. "My vision isn't what I use to live-it is helpful and icing on the cake, but it cannot meet my daily needs for travel and other activities." Jeannie Massey was elected to the national board of directors in July 2013, and advanced to the position of treasurer in 2015. "When I was growing up, and to this day, my mother used to ask me 'What are you?' She taught me to respond in the following way, 'I am intelligent, capable, beautiful, and lots of fun to be with.' This was our way of affirming who I wanted to be and who I could become, and blindness hasn't changed any of it. This is the message I want to share with blind people: that our hopes, dreams, goals, and aspirations are no less real simply because we do not see." [PHOTO CAPTION: Everette Bacon] Everette Bacon, Board Member NFB of Utah President Rehabilitation Professional Everette Bacon was born in Huntington Beach, California. At the age of five he was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a condition which had run in his family on his mother's side for thirteen generations, causing rapid- onset blindness primarily in female family members. Despite the diagnosis, Everette's family took the advice of teachers and medical experts, believing (or, more accurately, hoping) that since Everette was male and his vision was not deteriorating rapidly like that of other family members, he was unlikely to go blind. As a result, Everette did not learn Braille or other alternative techniques during his school years. Looking back, Everette says, his mother and other family members wish that they had encouraged him to learn Braille and other blindness skills. When Everette was around eighteen his entire family moved to Texas. Everette pursued a degree in church music at Dallas Baptist University. He jokes that he was pushed toward music because "you know, blind people sing." His first job was teaching a seventh grade choir, but he found it not to his liking. Searching for other employment in order to earn money to help his wife through medical school, Everette ultimately accepted a management position with Blockbuster Video in 1997. He was very successful in this position, winning several awards and steady promotions. By 2004, he was managing ten stores in the Houston area. Everette's eye condition began to worsen, and instead of giving up, he adapted by using alternative techniques. "I started carrying a cane, mainly for identity, but I was using it when I felt I needed it." "I was never embarrassed or ashamed about becoming blind, because I grew up around blind people, adapting was something you just became accustomed to doing." However, when he asked for reasonable accommodations from his employer, instead of granting these accommodations, Blockbuster terminated his employment despite his outstanding record. The company even went so far as to describe Everette's conduct as "fraudulent," implying that he had deceived the company about his capabilities, even though he had previously been praised and awarded for his work. This experience traumatized Everette and his family. His wife, mother, and other family members sent angry emails to everyone they could; urging readers to avoid shopping at Blockbuster based on discrimination against the blind. One of these emails found its way to Scott LaBarre, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado and a successful disability rights attorney. Scott took Everette's case, and ultimately Everette received a settlement from Blockbuster. More importantly, though, he learned about the National Federation of the Blind and the many battles the organization has fought in the effort to advance and protect the civil rights of blind people. "I had heard of the Federation and been told that they were militant," Everette says, "but my experience taught me the importance of our advocacy." There are so many reasons to be proud of who we are as blind people, and the Federation has paved the way for our climb to the top of the mountain of civil rights! In 2004, Everette and his wife, Dr. Angela Peters, moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Everette became involved in the Utah affiliate and developed what he describes as life-changing relationships with dedicated Federationists like Nick Schmitroth, Karl Smith, and Deja Powell. These friends helped Everette improve his blindness skills and grow in the movement. Everette was also looking for new employment opportunities in Utah and heard about a job opening as a blindness skills teacher at the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Everette remembers speaking with Ray Martin about the fact that he knew nothing about teaching blind people. Martin told him that being blind was the most important qualification. The agency supported Everette in his pursuit of a master's degree in rehabilitation. He went from teaching technology to supervising the technology staff and now serves as the agency's field services coordinator, overseeing all of the agency's technology and employment services and supervising a staff of nine. Everette began advocating for Utah's blind residents with an effort to encourage a prominent local cinema chain to incorporate audio description technology into its theaters so that blind people who wanted to experience movies with audio description could do so. An avid movie fan with an extensive collection dating from his Blockbuster days, he believes that audio description can enable blind people to connect more easily with their sighted peers when discussing entertainment. "One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from the NFB is the understanding that blending into society is an important skill. Being able to relate to our sighted colleagues about movies, television, politics, and sports are excellent paths to opportunities that help change common misconceptions about blindness." In 2012 Everette was elected president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. He is proud of the affiliate's successful advocacy for a state "mini-508" law requiring accessibility of new state websites and procurement of accessible electronic and information technology, with agencies being subject to fines when they fail to comply. His advocacy for accessibility made him an outstanding candidate to serve as the Federation's representative on the Disability Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He was nominated for appointment to this committee by President Riccobono and duly appointed to serve by the FCC in 2015. Everette is chair of the Utah Library Advisory Board. He also sits on the Utah Assistive Technology Council and the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind's Audio Equipment Advisory Committee (Western Region). He was unanimously elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind at the organization's 2015 convention. He and Angela and their two dogs live in Salt Lake City, but Everette still roots for his beloved Dallas Cowboys. [PHOTO CAPTION: James Brown] James Brown, Board Member NFB of Tennessee President Father, Highway Administrator, and Leader James Brown was born in 1974. "I sometimes wished I had brothers and sisters, but, being an only child, I just went out and got me some. I've always been good at making friends, so being an only child didn't mean I was a lonely child." Brown started school with a vision problem but was not declared legally blind until the age of nine. No one really appreciated how difficult it was for him to read print, but reading would send him home at the end of the day with frequent headaches and migraines. "Vision simply wasn't talked about at my house, even though my mother suffered significant vision loss while pregnant with me." Brown says that she continued to drive on a limited basis, and never did she acknowledge that he might have trouble with his sight. He was always told to "look over there," or "read that," so "blindness" was the secret word never spoken. It is not surprising that Braille was never suggested or offered to Brown. He began his education at Lighthouse Christian, a private school he attended through the seventh grade. His need for large-print books that the private school didn't have eventually pushed him to go to public school for two years. As his vision continued to decline, Brown transferred to the Tennessee School for the Blind to finish his high school education. He was never encouraged to learn Braille, and, when he asked about it at the school for the blind, he was told that it would be inappropriate for him because he would end up reading it with his eyes. Interestingly, Brown went to school with Kareem Dale, a former official in the Obama Administration. Dale and Brown were the same age and had about the same amount of vision. Dale also asked for Braille and was granted it. Brown believes this is because Dale's grandparents were actively involved in their grandson's education and a part of the IEP process, while Brown's parents were not very involved. Both young men lost their remaining vision about a year after graduating from high school; Dale had a way to read-Brown did not. Brown found his time at the private school challenging, the years in public school less so, and his time at the school for the blind did not begin to challenge or stimulate him academically. When asked about his strengths in school, Brown says, "I was never exceptional at anything-maybe some of that was because I was trying to act sighted when I just didn't have the vision-but, while I wasn't outstanding in anything, I was fortunate to be good in just about everything. I didn't really take school as seriously as I should have, and I was not an honor roll student until college." Given these experiences, how did Brown decide to pursue a higher education? "Neither of my parents had a college education, and they really regarded it as something that only the exceptional could do or expect. Eventually I came to see that any real advancement for me meant schooling, and that meant going to college," Brown said. After high school Brown says he was ready for a little bit of life without school, so he worked at Custom Craft Cabinets. But after two-and-a- half years of sanding, wood planing, and attaching knobs, he realized the job would not pay enough to support him and his growing family. At this point he was a married man, having taken Crystal as his wife, and at that time they had one child, Christopher, who was born in 1994. They would also have another child, Joshua, who was born in 1996. "I was making about $9 an hour, and, although $9 meant more than it does now, it was clear to me that I could not raise a family on that kind of money. I figured out that the only way I was going to move up was by going to college, but, before I could do that, I had to learn some skills-how to use a computer, do word processing, and take advantage of the internet. My grades in college were good, but I had trouble with math. I was always good at it when I could see a little. Having no way to write down the problems, I could do only what I could keep in my head, and college algebra produced the only D on a transcript that was otherwise composed of A's. "My original goal was to attend law school, so I majored in political science. Before I graduated and applied to any of them, my cousin, who was then in law school, told me I better be prepared to go for a year or a year and a half without seeing much of my wife or my child. I decided that was not acceptable, given that I was newly married and had a young child, and that, if law school was to be something I did, it would have to come later." Given his change in career goals, Brown graduated from college and began applying for every job he could. The job he landed was as a transportation tech for the Tennessee Highway Department. He has since been promoted and now serves as a transportation specialist planner 3. In his job Brown conducts road safety audits. This involves analyzing safety data (the number of fatal crashes that occur on a given segment of highway) to determine their cause. If the analysis concludes that corrective action can be taken to eliminate or reduce the problem that contributes to the crashes, Brown must then determine how to fund the repairs. "If you look at the data and you see that most crashes happen when the road is wet, the corrective action is to add a high-friction surface to that part of the road. If you see a road which is well-traveled during the day but the majority of the fatal crashes happen at night, you then have to assume that night and the lack of light are playing a part in the fatalities. The answers are all there in the data, and my job is to figure them out." Brown came to know about the National Federation of the Blind when he won a scholarship in 2007, but winning didn't mean that he immediately became active in the organization. He relates that one of his first reactions when arriving at the convention in Atlanta was to observe to himself that "God didn't make three thousand blind people to be together. There were all these canes and dogs and people heading toward one another." At the same time he was thinking all of this, he couldn't help being impressed by all that the blind people who came to the convention were doing. At the bar where he sat, there was a lawyer sitting to his left, a television producer on his right, and next to him a scientist who was working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. All were blind. But, no matter how impressed he was by the national convention and the leaders he met, the weight of home life, work, and his participation in a graduate program meant that it took him more than a year to connect with the Federation. "Because of problems going on in Tennessee at the time, I wasn't really too impressed with becoming a part, but the Affiliate Action Team kept me involved and kept showing me that what was happening nationally could and should be happening in my state. Going to the Washington Seminar was one of the ways they kept me involved, and the first one I attended in 2009 happened to involve our work with the quiet cars-the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act-something I felt I knew a little about." When Brown earned a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, he decided he had more time for outside activities, and what he saw in the National Federation of the Blind helped to convince him that the work of the organization was worth his time and talent. "I liked what I saw in these people-they didn't hide from blindness, weren't ashamed to be blind or to say the word. The thing I appreciated most was that many of those I met walked the talk-they were real." Brown became the president of the Tennessee affiliate in March of 2012 and was elected to the national board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind on July 5, 2014. "I was extremely honored to have been elected, and I'll do my best to honor the trust that has been placed in me." When asked what he sees as the most important challenge facing the Federation, Brown says: "I think our most immediate challenge is to recruit young people and to train them to be leaders. Young people respect those who are older, but they also want people their own age. We have to let them know that the Federation is just as important for their generation as it was to those who created it and to those of us who work to sustain it. It takes work, persistence, and targeting our efforts, but we will persuade young people in the same way we were persuaded. They will become invested and committed, and all blind people will be the better for our ongoing work. I am proud to be a part of this organization and to see to this transition." [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Buresh] Amy Buresh, Board Member NFB of Nebraska President Rehabilitation Counselor, Advocate, and Mother Today Amy Rut Buresh says, "My blindness is simply another of my characteristics like my auburn hair." She didn't always feel that way. Amy Rut was born prematurely June 4, 1974, in Fairbury, Nebraska, and has been blind since then from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). When she was five, her family moved from their farm to Nebraska City so that she could attend the Nebraska School for the Visually Handicapped (NSVH). Her parents made the difficult decision to relocate to a new community far away from family, friends, and all they knew so that Amy could continue to live at home during her school years rather than in a dormitory. Young Amy received a solid education and had a normal family life, complete with two pesky little brothers, family campouts, picnics, dress-up, and backyard sports. Amy has said her family's sacrifice was crucial to her peace of mind in her formative years, and she has always been grateful her parents made the choice they did. While a student at NSVH, Amy received training in many blindness skills, the most critical of which was Braille, which helped her to excel academically. She participated in countless musicals, the track team, cheerleading, and speech competition. In her freshman year Amy began taking classes at the public school in Nebraska City. Although she was active in extracurricular activities, including "swing choir" and president of her school's chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Amy found it hard to make friends. She recalls that throughout her public school years she sat through many lonely lunches. With an outgoing personality Amy easily made acquaintances, but no one invited her to parties or asked her to go to the movies. Amy took piano lessons from kindergarten through her sophomore year and voice lessons from her freshman to her senior year. She still sings at churches, banquets, and karaoke as often as she can. She taught summer enrichment courses on the basics of Braille to school children in her hometown. Through the Nebraska Human Resources Department at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Amy also participated in a Big-Sister-style program, in which she was paired with a blind elementary school student whom she continued to mentor well after the program's conclusion. Growing up, Amy had few positive blind role models and limited contact with her blind peers. During her teenage years she first participated in youth programs sponsored by the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NCBVI), where she gained many valuable skills and met her future husband. For several summers Amy worked as a volunteer counselor at the Summer Kids Independence Program (SKIP) Camp, a program for children ages five to twelve, sponsored by NCBVI. She wanted to share with other blind youth the things she had learned during her high school journey: which plans had worked for her, and which hadn't. She believed then and believes more absolutely today that mentoring is important in improving one's attitude toward blindness and a great way to learn how to handle being different in our society. Whether at home or at school, participating in music, academics, or athletics, Amy was successfully working and competing with her sighted peers. She was even named second runner-up in the 1990 Nebraska City Miss Applejack Pageant. Yet in addition she had to face another, deeply personal aspect of life. As a senior in high school she began wrestling with life questions that neither her family and teachers nor her sighted peers could answer. Could she really be successful as an independent blind adult? Would she ever marry and have a family? What about employment? Could she get a job and do it well? Following graduation, Amy began conquering her fears and seeking answers to these nagging questions by attending the Orientation Training Center of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Lincoln. There she was first introduced to the underpinning philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind and, equally important, to kind and inspirational Federationists. Armed with newfound confidence and skills, Amy enrolled in Peru State College, graduating with a BS in psychology, sociology, and criminal justice. Throughout her time on campus she was active as a peer mentor, in student senate, and in residence hall government. She also soloed and toured with the concert choir. She helped found and held several offices in the Association for Challenged and Enabled Students (ACES), a group dedicated to breaking down stereotypes and eliminating discrimination against those with disabilities. ACES sought to educate the non-disabled public about the challenges people with disabilities face. During the years at Peru State College Amy began working with women and children who experience domestic violence, a field to which she still devotes time when she can. She served as a volunteer counselor for a nonprofit in Southeast Nebraska and other agencies. She has worked tirelessly as an advocate, role model, and leader for both women and the blind. She attributes her success with blind people to her discovery of and involvement in the National Federation of the Blind. In 1993 the NFB of Nebraska established a scholarship program, and Amy won that first scholarship. With this award she faced a turning point in the evolution of her personal philosophy and in her affiliation with the National Federation of the Blind. Growing up, she had been warned that the NFB was an organization of militants whom she should avoid. Thanks to the scholarship program, Amy attended her first state convention in the fall of 1993, discovered the warmth of the members of the NFB and the important work we are doing, and hasn't looked back since. In fact, the very next year, in October of 1994, Amy and a handful of other concerned blind Nebraska students were granted the charter for the Nebraska Association of Blind Students within the Nebraska affiliate. She was elected president of the student division, an office she held for two years. Since those early days in the Federation, Amy has held a number of chapter and affiliate positions in Nebraska. In 2003 she was elected to serve as affiliate president, and in the summer of 2006 she was elected by the national convention to the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind. Amy and her husband Shane (a leader and dedicated Federationist in his own right) live in Lincoln with their son Noah (born May 2, 2006) and daughter Sarah, (born February 14, 2014). She is employed as a rehabilitation counselor with the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. "My ordinary life, juggling family, Federation and work commitments, struggling to keep all the balls in the air-this is the life I've chosen- the life I've created. My life as a blind woman is ordinary, not extraordinary. Therein lies its beauty." [PHOTO CAPTION: Shawn Callaway] Shawn Callaway, Board Member NFB of the District of Columbia President Social Worker, Community Activist, and Father Shawn Callaway was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George's County, Maryland. When he was a sophomore at South Carolina State University, a classmate was playing with a gun and accidentally shot Shawn in the temple. The accident resulted in the detachment of his optic nerves, which caused total blindness. Shawn returned to the DC area and received blindness training at the Workforce Technology Center in Baltimore. He credits a blind man named Lou Smith with providing his training and being an early mentor. He also credits his parents for encouraging him throughout his transition to life as a successful blind person. After his rehabilitation training, Shawn earned his associate's degree in psychology from Essex Community College in 1995, his bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1997, and then his master's in social work from Catholic University of America in 2000. He began his professional career working with the homeless at Catholic Charities and then went on to counsel children in the Washington, DC, public schools system for the city's Department of Behavioral Health. He now works as a program specialist for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, specifically in programs of the Administration on Community Living and the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. In 2005 he married Latonya Rollins of Cleveland, Ohio. Shawn had heard of the National Federation of the Blind in the mid- 1990s but was initially convinced by a friend that the organization was too radical for him. In retrospect, he believes he was given bad information and wishes that he had become a Federationist earlier. After being invited to a chapter meeting by Linda Black-White, Shawn finally joined in the spring of 2009. He found himself leading the Washington, DC, affiliate when longtime leader Don Galloway died in 2011. Shawn already had confidence in most of his blindness skills when he joined the National Federation of the Blind, but he says that he was still apprehensive about becoming a parent. The opportunity to observe and talk to blind parents like Mark and Melissa Riccobono and Tracy Soforenco, as well as a DC Federationist named Vicky Smith, gave him confidence that he could be a successful blind parent. He is now the proud father of his daughter Camille who was born in 2014. Shawn also credits participation in the NFB with opening up other leadership and community involvement opportunities for him. He has served on the boards of the DC Center for Independent Living and the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and has chaired the DC rehabilitation council. He currently co-hosts a community radio program called "Open Our Eyes" on a local station. In addition, Shawn serves as the president of the DC Friends of the Talking Book and Braille Library and is a member of the DC Blind Bowlers Association. Shawn says, "I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on the NFB board of directors, both to give back to the organization as a whole and because so many past and present board members like Dr. Fred Schroeder, Anil Lewis, Dr. Joanne Wilson, Sam Gleese, Pam Allen, and Ever Lee Hairston have inspired and mentored me. I will strive to fill the same role for other leaders and members of our great movement and devote every ounce of my energy to building the Federation and advocating for all blind citizens." [PHOTO CAPTION: Norma Crosby] Norma Crosby, Board Member NFB of Texas President Mother and Businesswoman Norma Beathard was born on January 25, 1956, in Conroe, Texas. She was the first of five children born to Robbie and Joseph Beathard. Norma was born legally blind because her mother contracted rubella during her pregnancy; however, Norma's blindness remained undetected until she began walking. At that time her parents began to notice that she seemed to bump into things that a sighted child should see, and they had her vision tested. A determination was made that she was blind when she was two years old. Years of surgery followed with no improvement. Norma was an active child. She joined her siblings in most of the games they played, and her blindness was not a real obstacle when she was small. But she couldn't read the blackboard when she started school, and she experienced a number of problems related to her vision as she grew older. Norma always attended school in rural communities, a circumstance which she describes as "both a blessing and a curse." Because no one in her life knew anything about blindness skills, she wasn't able to learn Braille or cane travel. She used large print books, which were bulky and heavy for a tiny girl. Since her vision was extremely limited, she had to read with her nose practically touching the pages of her books, even though the print was enlarged. Despite the lack of training in blindness skills, Norma feels that she received a quality education because she had caring teachers who always found ways of making it easier for her to learn. She was fortunate to have the same teacher from her first grade year through her third grade year, and that teacher was determined that Norma would be included in everything the class did. Her name was Jean Todd, and she spent countless hours offering Norma one-on-one instruction. Other teachers with similar attitudes were a part of Norma's life throughout her K-12 experience. Professionals in the field of work with the blind were not as helpful. When Norma asked for Braille training, she was told by a rehabilitation professional that she was wasting his time, and she was made to feel guilty because, according to him, she was depriving a "real" blind person of the opportunity to learn by making this frivolous request. Eventually she was able to convince him that he should provide her with training, and he traveled to her small town and spent two hours with her. This was woefully inadequate, but it did allow her to learn the alphabet, Braille numbers, and some punctuation symbols. Her experience with inadequate Braille training has made Norma a strong advocate for providing Braille education to children with low vision. After completing her education, Norma found herself living in a small community with no opportunities for a blind person. She knew she had to leave her rural home if she was to become successful. Her father was opposed to her leaving, but her mother understood that a different environment would provide Norma with a better chance of living the life she wanted to live. So she took the unusual step of going against the wishes of Norma's father; drove Norma to the bus station in Lufkin, Texas, and purchased a ticket to a better life for her daughter. Norma traveled to Austin that day, and although she had no idea what she would do to become successful, she was confident that she would be able to make a life for herself. Norma began her working life as an employee at the Travis Association for the Blind. That employment did not last long because Norma found that she couldn't live on the $1.05 an hour that the sheltered workshop was paying its trainees, and her questions about how to make a higher wage went unanswered. In fact, it became clear that she was unlikely to be paid the federal minimum wage anytime soon, so Norma began to look for other work. She also married during this time and began a family. Her first son was born on March 10, 1976, and her second son was born on March 10, 1978. Once her children were out of diapers, Norma started work at the Texas School for the Blind. She worked as a dorm parent at the school from 1979 to 1982. After a divorce Norma found the National Federation of the Blind and became an active member in 1983. By 1985 she was living in Houston, and she was an important part of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas leadership. She didn't hold elective office in the Federation, but she worked hard to help the affiliate president and other leaders to carry out the organization's mission. She became president of the Houston Chapter in 1989, and she continued in that role for eight years. When Norma joined the Federation, she met Glenn Crosby. Glenn was serving as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, and as the two worked closely together, a personal relationship developed. They were married on April 15, 1989. Each of them had two children, and the two families have blended into a harmonious group. Glenn and Norma are now the proud grandparents of seven grandchildren, ranging in age from four to twenty-one. Four years before they married, Glenn asked Norma to begin managing the office for his food service business, and they became professional partners. The Crosbys owned five food service locations during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but they sold all but two of the locations and were operating those two locations when they retired in 2013. Though both Norma and Glenn grew up in Texas, they decided they wanted a change in 2001, and they spent about a year in South Dakota. Then they spent several months in Ajijic, Mexico. Ajijic is near Guadalajara, and, while they enjoyed their time there, they needed to be closer to home for business reasons. So in 2005 they moved to Ruston, Louisiana. Shortly after arriving in Ruston, Norma was elected to serve as president of the North Central Chapter of the NFB of Louisiana. She remained in that position until January of 2009, when she and Glenn made the decision to move back to their native Texas. They now live in Alvin, near Houston, on four acres of land and have a few cows. In 2012, Norma was chosen to serve as the first president of the Lone Star Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Then, at the affiliate's 2014 convention, she was elected to serve as the state president. While Norma believes strongly that it is not necessary to hold an office in order to be an effective leader, she is honored to serve as both the president of the NFB of Texas and, since her election at the 2015 National Convention, as a member of the organization's national board of directors. [PHOTO CAPTION: John Fritz] John Fritz, Board Member NFB of Wisconsin President Business Owner, Advocate, and Father John Fritz was born in September of 1966. He was raised on a family dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, the oldest of five children. He was lucky enough to have parents who made him learn the value of hard work early on. "We were a farm family, and I was the oldest son. I was expected to help with the chores and work outside with my dad." He was born legally blind but had some sight. This diminished to light perception by the age of three. He believed at an early age that sight was not a requirement to be successful. John attended the Wisconsin School for the Blind from kindergarten through the seventh grade, primarily because the public school didn't believe a blind child could be served in his hometown. In seventh grade he was able to persuade the school counselor to allow him to transfer back to his local public school. He remembers this being a very difficult adjustment. Having lived at the school for the blind for seven years and being away from his siblings, he found it hard to return and take his place again. Everyone had to get to know each other again. "I realized how much I was missing out on at home," he said. John graduated from Fennimore High School with honors in 1985. Before and after school he was responsible for milking cows and helping with general farm work during high school. He earned his letter in wrestling and played trumpet in pep band, marching band, and concert band. His most significant accomplishments came in Future Farmers of America (FFA). John was involved in an extemporaneous-speaking competition, the Creed Speaking Contest; dairy judging; and parliamentary procedure. He placed fourth in the nation in computers in agriculture and achieved the American Farmer Degree and served as president of his FFA chapter for two years. John attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where he graduated with honors in 1989 with a major in animal science, emphasizing dairy management, nutrition, and reproduction. He also earned a minor in computer science. While in college he participated in the academic decathlon in agriculture and in seven academic clubs and organizations. In these years John got his first dose of the low expectations many professionals have for blind students. When he told his Department for Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) counselor that he wanted to be a veterinarian, his counselor informed him that, if he pursued that career, DVR wouldn't fund him. The counselor announced that a blind person wouldn't be able to be a veterinarian. So John told the DVR counselor to leave. That day he learned quickly that, if he wanted to pursue his goals, he needed to find a way to pay for college himself. He found part-time jobs, work-study assignments, and scholarships to pay his way. "The most significant event of my life occurred the summer of my sophomore year at a national convention when I won a National Federation of the Blind scholarship in Phoenix, Arizona," John said. This was his first exposure to the NFB. He was relieved to find peers doing similar things and blind people with the same philosophy. He realized during that convention that he had finally found the biggest and most reliable source of information any blind college student could ever have-other blind people. While attending college, he continued to work on the farm on weekends. College provided him the opportunity to advocate for himself and become a self-sufficient person. John started working on the family dairy farm right after graduating from college. By this time he had decided that the dairy farm was the immediate need, and veterinary school would have to wait. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations and management of the farm, where he milked sixty-five registered Brown Swiss cows. In 1991 he started working part-time for a local computer store as a computer technician. His main responsibility was repairing computers. The next year he became store manager, where his responsibilities included the day-to-day operation of the store, sales, and service. He left the farm and moved to town. He continued at this job for six years. In 1995 he married Heather Ross. They met during the 1992 NFB convention in Charlotte and started dating after running into each other again during the Dallas convention in 1993. In 1997 he accepted a job with the Louisiana Center for the Blind as the computer instructor. He describes it as a very rewarding experience because it provided the opportunity for him to fully absorb and live the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind each day. While in Louisiana, John and Heather Fritz started their family. Lindsey was born in 1998, Christina was born in 1999, Mark was sponsored from Korea in 2001, and Andrew was born in 2002. In 2003 John made the difficult decision to leave his job and friends at the center and return home to Wisconsin with Heather's parents, who had just retired to Wisconsin from California, to begin his own vending business with the Business Enterprise Program. This is what he continues to do today. In 2005 the Fritzes adopted their daughter Katie from China at the age of six. In 2006 John and Heather built their dream home for their growing family on fifteen acres in Kendall, Wisconsin. He also built a warehouse for his business, J&H Vending, Inc. John says that he was honored to be elected president of the NFB of Wisconsin in 2006. He has enjoyed working with the affiliate, divisions, and the blind of Wisconsin. In 2008 he was elected to the National Federation of the Blind board of directors. He remains very busy with the state affiliate, along with being a member of Lions Club, the local Ham Radio Club, and various other clubs and organizations. He also likes to do woodworking, grilling, fishing, and hunting large game with his kids. As busy as he is, and as many activities as he pursues, nothing is more important to John than spending time watching his children grow-all seven of them! Child number six, a four-year-old boy from India they named Jacob, was adopted in May of 2009. The Fritz family has also been joined by a seventeen-year-old daughter named Anna, who was originally adopted from China by another family when she was nine years old, but became part of the Fritz clan in the summer of 2009. Reflecting on his life and work, John says, "The National Federation of the Blind doesn't prescribe what a blind person should do or even what he or she can do. It merely invites every blind person to dream and work to achieve those dreams. Its members blaze trails for one another and cheer each other along the way." [PHOTO CAPTION: Sam Gleese] Sam Gleese, Board Member Businessman, Ordained Minister, and Father In 1947 Vicksburg, Mississippi, was not an ideal place for a black child to be born with congenital cataracts. For years no one even noticed that little Sam Gleese had difficulty seeing, least of all Sam himself. He simply assumed that everyone else saw things with the hazy imprecision that he did. One day when he was in the second grade, the teacher in the segregated school he attended sent a note home asking his mother to come to school for a conference. To the Gleese family's astonishment she told them that Sam had significant difficulty seeing to read and do board work. By the fourth grade the bouts of surgery had begun. Glasses (which Sam hated and forgot to wear most of the time) were prescribed. But none of this effort enabled young Sam to make out much of what his friends could see. Then in 1962, when he was fifteen, Gleese underwent surgery that gave him enough vision to show him by comparison just how little he had seen until that time. He graduated from high school in 1966 and enrolled that fall at Jackson State College, where he majored in business administration. Looking back, Gleese is sure that he was legally blind throughout these years, but he never considered that he might have anything in common with the blind students he saw on campus. His struggle was always to see, and that made him sighted. Occasionally he was forced to deal with his difficulty in reading, particularly when a fellow student or teacher pointed out what he seemed to be missing, but for the most part he denied his situation and resented those who tried to make him face his problem. After graduation in 1970, Gleese joined a management training program conducted by K-Mart. Everyone agreed that he was excellent on the floor and dealing with employees, but, though he did not realize it, he was extremely unreliable in doing paperwork. He consistently put information on the wrong line. His supervisor confronted him with the problem and told him he had vision trouble. He hotly denied it, but within the year he was out of the program. During the following years Gleese applied repeatedly for jobs that would use his business training. When he supplied information about his medical history and his vision, would-be employers lost interest. Finally in late 1972 he got a job as assistant night stock clerk with a grocery chain. He had a wife to support-he and Vanessa Smith had married in August of 1970-and he needed whatever job he could find. Gradually he worked his way up to assistant frozen food manager in the chain, though it wasn't easy. Then in 1979 his retinas detached, and within a few weeks late in the year he had become almost totally blind. For a month or two he was profoundly depressed. His wife, however, refused to give up on him or his situation. Gradually Gleese began to realize that she was right. He could still provide for his family and find meaningful work to do. He just had to master the alternative methods used by blind people. Early in 1980 he enrolled in an adult training center in Jackson, where he learned Braille, cane travel, and daily living skills. He is still remembered in the program for the speed with which he completed his training. By the following summer he was working as a volunteer counselor at the center, and in the fall, with the help of the state vocational rehabilitation agency, he and his wife Vanessa were working in their own tax preparation business. It was difficult, however, to maintain a sufficient income year round, and the Gleeses had a daughter, Nicole, born in 1976, to think about. In 1983 he decided to try taking a job making mops in the area sheltered workshop for the blind. He worked there for two years until a staff member pointed out that he could do better for himself in the state's Randolph-Sheppard vending program, which had finally been opened to African Americans in 1980-81. In January of 1985 Gleese was assigned the worst vending stand in the state of Mississippi. Because of his degree in business administration, his phenomenal record in personal rehabilitation, and his work history in the grocery business, officials decided that he needed no training but could learn the program in his own location. He spent two years in that facility, mastering the business and improving his techniques. Then during the next several years he had somewhat better locations. But in 1992 he bid on an excellent facility and then appealed the decision that awarded it to another vendor. Though the appeal decision, which eventually came down, did not give him personal redress, it did correct unfair practices that had plagued many vendors in Mississippi for years. In April of 1994 Sam, with the help of his wife Vanessa, became the manager of one of the largest food service operations in the state vending program. Gleese has always been active in the Missionary Baptist Church. From 1973 to 1990 he taught the adult Sunday school class in his own church, and in 1980 he became a deacon. He was ordained to the ministry in November of 1992 and is now senior associate minister at the College Hill Baptist Church. He headed the scouting and the taping ministry. Currently he heads the members' ministry and works with several other ministries. Gleese first heard about the National Federation of the Blind in the early 1980s and attended his first national convention in 1983. He reports that from that moment he has been a committed Federationist. Vanessa has worked steadily beside him through the years as he has struggled to improve the lives of Mississippi's blind citizens. He became president of one of the state's local chapters in 1985, and the following year he was elected state president. He continued to serve in that office until 2016. Under his leadership the number of chapters in the Mississippi affiliate nearly tripled. In 1992 Gleese was first elected to the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind, where he continues to serve with distinction. He has dedicated his life to educating the public, blind and sighted alike, about the abilities of blind people. According to him, too many people in Mississippi believe-as he did for many years-that blind people can do nothing and belong in rocking chairs and back rooms. Sam Gleese is making a difference everywhere he puts his hand. In May of 1999 the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, chose Sam to serve as chairperson of the newly formed Mayor's Advisory Committee on Disabilities. In September of that year he was appointed and confirmed by the city council of Jackson as the first blind person to serve on the Jackson-Hinds Library administrative board. This board oversees the services of public libraries in each of the seven towns in the Hinds County area. In August of 2000 Gleese retired from the vending program for health reasons. He served one year in the AmeriCorps volunteer program. The project with which he was associated encourages and enables people with disabilities to become fully involved in the community. The program is the only one of its kind in Mississippi and is staffed by disabled people. Sam explains that other AmeriCorps programs are designed to assist in education- tutoring and the like-but this program allowed him to increase his outreach to blind people and the general disability community. It provided yet one more way of living his Federationism and ministering to the people he has been called to serve. In August of 2001 Gleese accepted a position as an independent living specialist with LIFE (Living Independence for Everyone) of central Mississippi. This position provided opportunities to work with adolescents with special health care needs between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one in Mississippi. The project, called Healthy Futures, was funded by a four- year grant through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services. In January of 2002 Gleese became the statewide project director for the Healthy Futures grant. This position enhanced his opportunity to serve all adolescents with special health care needs, including blind people. On October 1, 2007, Sam was employed by the City of Jackson as its ADA compliance coordinator. In considering the position with the city, Sam saw an opportunity to have an even greater opportunity to positively influence the lives of the blind and other people with disabilities in Jackson. "I believe that the energy and commitment I bring to this job will set a benchmark for other cities to strive for and meet." In 2014, Sam received the prestigious Jacobus tenBroek Award in recognition of his distinguished service in the Federation. He makes it clear by word and action that each advancement he has made through the years has been in large measure the result of the hope and determination the NFB has instilled in its members, and he makes it clear that he will do what he can to see that others enjoy a quality of life as good as or better than the one he has been privileged to live. [PHOTO CAPTION: Ever Lee Hairston] Ever Lee Hairston, Board Member NFB of California President Mentor, Advocate, Motivational Speaker, and Mother Ever Lee Hairston was unanimously elected to the board of directors at the 2010 National Federation of the Blind (NFB) convention on July 6, 2010, in Dallas, Texas. She brings considerable experience to this position, having served in various capacities with the NFB over the years- including nineteen consecutive years of service on the NFB Scholarship Committee and a fourteen-year stint as first vice president of the NFB of New Jersey. Ever Lee founded and served as the president of the Garden State Chapter of the NFB of New Jersey from 1991 until 2005, and for many years she was the coordinator of the LEAD Program, a mentoring program for blind and visually impaired teenagers. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Louisiana Center for the Blind and as president of the NFB of California. Born to Arizona and Clarence Hairston on the Coolemee plantation in Mocksville, North Carolina, Ever Lee is the third of seven children. She grew up and attended schools in the segregated South. "I felt like a second- class citizen, using hand-me-down books in school; and, due to unexplained vision problems, I had to struggle to read from the bulletin board," Ever Lee noted. In spite of the challenges of growing up in the segregated South and continuing visual problems, Ever Lee had a strong desire to become a nurse. Ever Lee's parents simply could not afford to send her to college; so after high school, Ever Lee went to New York City to earn money for college by working as a live-in maid. She returned to North Carolina at the end of the summer anxious to pursue a nursing career. However, she failed the required eye examination and was told that she would not be suitable for admission to Duke University Nursing School. "I was heartbroken but refused to be defeated," she said. She was accepted at North Carolina Central University, where she earned a teaching degree. After graduating from North Carolina Central, Ever Lee taught high school business courses in New Jersey. While working as a high school teacher in New Jersey, Ever Lee's eyesight continued to deteriorate. She finally sought answers and medical care. Ever Lee, along with three siblings, were diagnosed with a genetic eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa (RP). And, four years after starting a challenging teaching career, Ever Lee was forced to resign from her position because of her impending blindness. At the age of twenty-nine, facing total blindness, with a failed marriage, a child to raise alone, and uncertainty about future employment, Ever Lee admitted to being devastated and feeling sorry for herself. However, she held on to the hope that a better way of life was in store for her. Ever Lee admits to believing in the old adage that "When God closes a door, He opens a window." She began looking for the window. After inventorying her strengths, she stepped through a window of opportunity at New Jersey's Rutgers University, where she took graduate courses in counseling. In 1983 she landed a counselor trainee position with the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services. But, as Ever Lee explains it, "With no blindness skills, I was faking my way through." She notes that she relied heavily on sighted people to read to her and to act as guides. In 1987 Ever Lee received a call from Jackie Billie inviting her to an NFB convention in Phoenix, Arizona. At first she made excuses because she was afraid of requesting the time off from her job. Jackie was persistent, and Ever Lee finally agreed to attend the convention. Ever Lee describes arriving at the hotel in Phoenix to the unfamiliar sound of canes tapping and the unsettling feeling of dogs licking her legs. The most profound experience, as Ever Lee explains it, came when she started through the registration line. She remembers being asked, "Would you like a Braille or print agenda?" She could no longer read print and did not know Braille. It was then, according to Ever Lee, that a light bulb went off. "I am illiterate," she thought. She talked to as many people as she could at that convention in Phoenix and learned about the NFB centers. From then until 1990 she continued to function without blindness skills but worked on a plan with Joanne Wilson to get to Louisiana where she could be trained. Ever Lee attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind from October 1990 until April 1991. She learned to read Braille, mastered cane travel and independent living skills, and learned to utilize adaptive technology. She returned to New Jersey, after the Freedom Bell rang for her at the Louisiana Center, with a confidence she never had before, integrating blindness skills into her everyday life. Ever Lee credits her training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind with enabling her to succeed at her chosen career. After twenty-six years holding many successive positions with the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program in New Jersey, Ever Lee retired from the position of program director in 2006. In July of that year she moved to California. She continues to devote tireless hours mentoring and advocating for the blind, as well as delivering inspiring speeches to blind and visually impaired audiences and educating the sighted public about blindness. Ever Lee is blessed with one son, Victor; a wonderful daughter-in-law, Brenda; and three energetic grandchildren: Briana, Kendall, and Jasmine. She enjoys traveling, reading a good novel, and spending time with family and friends. She was elected as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of California in 2016. In July of 2015 Ever Lee became an author with the publication of Blind Ambition: One Woman's Journey to Greatness Despite Her Blindness. [PHOTO CAPTION: Cathy Jackson] Cathy Jackson, Board Member NFB of Kentucky President Advocate, Braille Specialist, and Mother Mary Catherine Brothers (Cathy) was born on October 25, 1949, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Charles and Catherine Brothers. She is the third of nine children, four girls and five boys. Cathy was born with congenital cataracts. In 1949 few resources were available to parents of blind children. The National Federation of the Blind was only nine years old, and the Kentucky affiliate was only two years old. The Brothers family had not heard of either. Her parents had never known any other blind people and couldn't imagine what the future might hold for their daughter. However, they decided that a commonsense approach was their best avenue. Luckily for Cathy, they never considered any approach to raising their blind daughter other than the methods they were using to raise their two older boys. After several eye surgeries Cathy gained some usable vision in her right eye. At age five she was enrolled in a Roman Catholic school. Her parents chose this educational setting since the school offered a sight- saving class, where she would have access to large-print books and other materials that would make classroom work easier. Then in the fall of 1960 Cathy was enrolled at the Kentucky School for the Blind, where she remained until graduating from high school in 1967. Her parents and teachers decided that it would be more beneficial for her to attend school where she would have access to all of her textbooks in large print and, perhaps more important, where she could learn Braille. This was Cathy's first exposure to totally blind peers and adults. Although she had been around other visually impaired students at her elementary school, the majority of them could see considerably better than she. Cathy and her parents soon learned that blindness was simply a physical condition, certainly not one that would keep her from achieving whatever goals she set for herself. During these seven years while attending the Kentucky School for the Blind, she began to learn not to be ashamed of her blindness. She learned to advocate for herself and others. Being student council president during her junior and senior years launched her political career. During the summer of 1967 Cathy attended the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind. An ill-advised rehabilitation counselor thought this training would be the crowning touch to prepare her for college in the fall. That summer school Lighthouse class of 1967 was comprised of very bright, outgoing, normal young adults, who turned the tables on the Lighthouse staff and teachers. As Cathy remembers the experience, the adults were the ones to get the education when the students refused to be bound by the low expectations and negative attitudes of the staff. At this point in her life she still had not heard about the National Federation of the Blind but was already preaching and practicing NFB philosophy. Upon graduation from high school Cathy attended Spalding University, formerly Catherine Spalding College in Louisville, Kentucky. She majored in psychology, minored in sociology, and took an active part in academic, student government, and social organizations. The blindness skills and attitudes she had learned at the Kentucky School for the Blind and even the negative attitudes she had been exposed to at the Lighthouse the summer before college were beginning to pay dividends. Cathy was growing into an adult with increasingly resolute convictions and positive attitudes. In 1972 Cathy met Betty Niceley, the longtime leader of the Kentucky affiliate and for many years a member of the NFB board of directors. The rest is history. This friendship began her formal Federation education. Although Cathy was slow to join the Federation, Betty never gave up on recruiting her. In 1975 Cathy became a member of the Louisville Association of the Blind, the former name of the local NFB chapter. Through the years Cathy eventually served as secretary, vice president, and president of the National Federation of the Blind of Greater Louisville. She was also treasurer of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille of Kentucky. In the Kentucky affiliate she has served as board member, treasurer, first vice president, and now president. At the 2002 annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind held in Louisville, she was elected to the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind. Cathy has held a variety of jobs through the years. During college she was employed at the Kentucky Industries for the Blind (now LC Industries for the Blind) to do seasonal contract work. For a short time after college Cathy worked for the state of Kentucky as a social worker in the Food Stamp Office. After staying home to raise her daughter, Cathy has worked successively as the program coordinator for the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky Braille Service Center, a clerical support staff member in a law office, and the Braille clerk for the Jefferson County school system. But her favorite job of all was stay-at-home mom to her daughter Dana Nicole. She volunteered as a classroom aide, did substitute teaching, and worked as a secretary in the principal's office. She served as president of the school Parent Teacher Association, secretary of the athletic club, and member of the parish council. In addition she coached both the peewee basketball team and the cheerleading squad. In June of 2010 Cathy joined the ranks of the retired. She is enjoying retirement to the fullest. She says it affords her more time to concentrate on her NFB obligations. She is also enjoying spending precious time with her family, especially her two granddaughters, Hana and Haley. Cathy has received a number of awards for academic and athletic achievement, but the awards she cherishes most are the Susan B. Rarick, Harold L. Reagan, and T. V. Cranmer awards presented to her by the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky. Cathy commented that her roots and commitment to the NFB go deep and that the past thirty-eight years are just the beginning. [PHOTO CAPTION: Carla McQuillan] Carla McQuillan, Board Member NFB of Oregon President Mother, and Executive Director of Main Street Montessori Association Carla was born and raised in Southern California in the early 60's, the youngest of 4 children. In the summer before fifth grade, Carla lost a great deal of vision but did not notice it until she started school in the fall and was unable to read the chalkboard from the front row. A few years earlier, her older brother had been diagnosed with a rare genetic eye condition called Stargardt's disease, which resulted in the loss of central vision. It was soon confirmed that Carla had the same condition. She was diagnosed legally blind in 1971. Because of her remaining peripheral vision, Carla did not "look blind," so she was not taught Braille or any other alternative techniques of blindness. She had very little experience with blind people. The only blind person she knew was her brother, and he was forever using his blindness as an excuse for standing on the sidelines. Carla knew that this was not the life she wanted and was determined to do everything in her power to convince the world that she was not blind. After high school Carla went to Humboldt State University in Northern California. There she met her husband Lucas. They were married in the summer of 1981 and moved to San Diego for Lucas's master's degree program. Though Carla had not completed her bachelor's degree, she was more than happy to put her college career on hold and work to support the couple. Her one year of college had not been very successful. Without the ability to read Braille and eyesight too poor to read print, Carla, who had been an A student in high school, saw her grades drop. She got a job as a Montessori preschool teacher in San Diego while Lucas completed his master's degree. Their daughter Alison was born in 1983. In 1985 the family moved to Illinois. Lucas enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Illinois, and Carla decided to complete her bachelor's degree. With Lucas' encouragement, Carla asked for accessible textbooks and decided to learn Braille. The staff at the university's disabled student's services office told her how difficult Braille would be to learn and how inefficient it would be. Discouraged and defeated, Carla wondered if there was any hope for her future. Fortunately she learned of a scholarship program through the National Federation of the Blind. She won a scholarship from the organization's Illinois affiliate in 1988. The state convention changed her life. Her negative attitudes about blindness and about her own potential to be a successful professional were replaced by confidence and self-assurance that remain a hallmark of her character today. After both graduating with high distinction from the University of Illinois in 1988, the McQuillans completed their family with the birth of their son Duncan. They moved to Oregon to be near Carla's family. Carla started her own Montessori preschool, which later expanded to include three schools and a Montessori Teacher Certification Program. Carla served as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon from 1992 until 2006, when her business responsibilities became too demanding. She also served on the NFB's national board of directors from 1998 until resigning from that position as well in 2006. She was re-elected president of the Oregon affiliate in 2012 and still serves in that capacity. She is the director of NFB Camp, the program that offers child care during the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Carla was again elected to the national board of directors in 2016. "I had such horrible misconceptions about blindness for most of my childhood and early adult life," Carla says. "I thought I knew what blindness meant, and I didn't want any part of it. The National Federation of the Blind taught me that blindness was only as limiting as I allowed it to be. My friends and colleagues in the movement have been more than ideal role models; they have saved me from a life of regret and underachievement." [PHOTO CAPTION: Joseph Ruffalo, Jr.] Joseph Ruffalo, Jr., Board Member NFB of New Jersey President Mentor, Community Leader, Activist, and Family Man Born July 6, 1949, in Montclair and raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Joseph Ruffalo, Jr., had already graduated from Bloomfield High School, attended Montclair State College, and served America in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star, before he learned in 1976 that retinitis pigmentosa would slowly claim his vision. For six years he continued his work as a manager in a Thom McAn shoe store, but by 1983 he began looking for guidance about how to achieve greater proficiency and control over his life as a blind adult. The staff at the Joseph Kohn Rehabilitation Center (JKRC), then located in Newark, told him he should not learn to use a cane, read Braille, or master any adaptive devices because he still had enough vision to do without them. Though eager to obtain the necessary skills, at the time Joe believed he had no recourse but to adhere to the advice of the only professionals he knew. Not until 1986 did he learn to use a cane, and he accomplished that by teaching himself. While at JKRC, Joe discovered a talent for baking, which led to a successful nine-year career as the owner of a pastry business. In 1988 Joe tentatively attended his first NFB chapter meeting in Newark. He reports that after ten minutes he knew that his life was about to change dramatically. Realizing that the NFB was a place of fraternity and empowerment, empathy and accomplishment, Joe says, "I saw blind people doing things I wanted to do. They were holding jobs, volunteering, and achieving in every pursuit." This was the beginning of Joe's own growth and achievement. In 1990 he became second vice president of the New Jersey affiliate; two years later he was first vice president; and by 1993 he was president of the NFB of New Jersey, a position he maintains to this day. The members of the NFB of New Jersey honored Joe at the fortieth state convention on November 12, 2016, with the Raising Expectations Award. "It is a tremendous honor and responsibility to promote positive attitudes about blindness and the abilities of blind people," Joe comments. But Joe's community involvement has not been limited to the National Federation of the Blind. He has been a leader in the Lions Club for over twenty-nine years, serving as president for three. He has also held positions as zone/regent chair and serves on the district cabinet. In over twenty-eight years with the Knights of Columbus, Joe has held the positions of guard, warden, and deputy grand knight. He also was an active member of the Boy Scouts of America for over fourteen years, serving as cub master for four years. As past president of the Special Education Parent and Professional Organization for thirteen years and past chairman of the board of trustees of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, he has further worked to assure the full integration of people with disabilities into society. Joe attended the Therapeutic Massage Center to obtain certification in massage therapy and from 1998 to 2001 provided massage for staff, patients, and visitors at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville before moving his practice to a private office. He has served as a consultant to the Somerset School of Massage, making recommendations to staff and students and answering questions about training methods for blind students. Joe also worked to smooth others' transitions from dependence to independence as a leader in two programs sponsored by the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He was previously employed by the First Occupational Center of New Jersey and the Puerto Rican Association for Human Development as a program manager in the Senior Community Independent Living Services (SCILS) program, which identifies people over age fifty-five in Essex and Ocean counties who have experienced vision loss, with the goal of teaching independence skills so that these seniors can remain active in the community and independent in their homes. As state program director and northern region coordinator of the Leadership, Education, Advocacy, and Determination (LEAD) program, administered in partnership with Heightened Independence and Progress, Joe provided mentoring activities for blind teenagers and their families. Unfortunately, the LEAD program was terminated as of October 1, 2013. However the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired established the Employment Development Guidance and Engagement (EDGE) Program, where Joe provides his experience as a mentor to raise expectations of blind and visually impaired teenagers and their parents. His goal is to help them transform their dreams into reality and to live the lives they want. Joe's many contributions to the community were recognized in November 2000 when he was honored with the Partnership for Progress Award at the New Jersey Commission's Believe and Achieve ninetieth anniversary celebration. In July 2001 his leadership in the blindness community was again acknowledged when he was elected to the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind. In October of 2002 the State of New Jersey honored Joe by presenting him with the New Jersey Vietnam Service Medal. Joe has always been encouraged and supported by his wife of thirty- nine years, Judy, and his two sons, Joseph and James and his two daughters- in-law Bettina and Kelly. In his spare time Joe likes sports of all kinds, especially baseball and basketball, and recently experienced surfing at Asbury Park in New Jersey. For nearly ten years he enjoyed hosting Thru Our Eyes, an Internet radio program www.thruoureyes.org that highlights blindness issues, discusses technology, and promotes positive attitudes about blindness. Joe's life and work express his commitment to the blind and their struggle for equality in society. His achievements stand as an example for others, like those of the Federationists who deeply impressed him at his first chapter meeting. He achieves and grows, facing every challenge with energy, enthusiasm, and common sense. In so doing, he exemplifies his belief that "One of the most important things for members of the blind community to do is to teach the public that blindness is only a characteristic. With the proper training, skills, attitude, and techniques, blindness can be reduced to a physical nuisance." [PHOTO CAPTION: Adelmo Vigil] Adelmo Vigil, Board Member NFB of New Mexico President Educator, Rehabilitation Professional, and Father Adelmo Vigil was born in the small community of Amalia, New Mexico, in 1951. He was adopted as a baby by his aunt and uncle and raised as an only child on their small ranch. Although it was clear very early that he did not have normal vision, his parents expected him to handle his share of the chores, which included caring for the horses, cows, sheep, and goats. At the age of five Adelmo received the official diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. He began his education in the local public school, but no one there had any expertise in the needs of blind students. Adelmo was not taught Braille, could not read the print that he was expected to use, and therefore did not read or write well. In 1964 when he was thirteen, his parents decided to enroll him in the New Mexico School for the Blind. Although the family did not wish to be separated, it was their hope that Adelmo would receive a better education at the residential school. Adelmo's first two years at the school for the blind were no different from his public school education-he was still encouraged to use his limited vision. He remembers that each weekend he had to write an essay for his English class to be submitted and read aloud on Monday. Adelmo would write the piece and memorize it because he could not read his own writing. But, after two years of struggling, he went to an eye examination and was told by the school nurse who had accompanied him to the appointment, "I have some bad news for you. You're going to have to learn Braille." The relieved Adelmo responded, "That is the best news I've ever heard. Maybe I'll learn to read now." Passionate about mentoring and teaching young people, Adelmo pursued a degree in elementary education at Western New Mexico University. There he met his wife Soledad, who was also pursuing a teaching career; they were married in 1975. When he began to seek employment in the Silver City area, where he had been a successful student teacher, Adelmo encountered discrimination for the first time. None of the local schools could hire him, because his name was not on the list of teachers available for hiring provided by the district administration, even though he had completed his student teaching at one of the district schools. Fortunately, his student teaching supervisor, Travis Columbus, believed in Adelmo's capabilities and helped him file a complaint against the district with the New Mexico Human Rights Commission. Ultimately, in 1977 Adelmo applied for a position in Shiprock, New Mexico, and began his teaching career. The principal at Adelmo's first school in Shiprock would not assign him to some of the routine responsibilities expected of other teachers, such as supervising students during recess. But when Adelmo transferred to a different school, the principal there was eager to have him not only assume all the duties of other teachers, but also to serve on the curriculum committee and in various other roles. Adelmo gained a reputation of being gifted with difficult students, and parents were asking for their children to be in his classes. He also coached junior high and high school wrestling. Adelmo's experiences teaching sighted students and combating discrimination earned him an invitation from Joe Cordova and Fred Schroeder to speak at the 1982 convention of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico in Albuquerque. That convention and his first national convention a year later were revelations to Adelmo. "I realized that I was not alone in facing challenges and discrimination and that I had the Federation family behind me. I also learned that the progress I had been able to make and that other blind people were making was due to the work that the National Federation of the Blind had been doing since its inception," he says. Adelmo immediately became involved in the affiliate and has served in various roles since that time, culminating in his election as affiliate president in 2012. Adelmo's passion for helping his blind brothers and sisters also led to his second career. In 1989 he was appointed to the Board of Regents of the New Mexico School for the Blind, a position from which he helped engineer the school's dropping of its NAC accreditation. In 1993 he moved to Alamogordo to take a position as director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind's orientation and adjustment to blindness center. In 1997 he became deputy director of the Commission and continued to serve in various roles there for the next ten years. He was particularly passionate about working with young adults in the commission's summer programs. He retired in 2007 but jokes that he has retired three additional times since then. In 2009 he received training as an orientation and mobility instructor through Louisiana Tech and has received the National Orientation and Mobility Certification (NOMC) from the National Blindness Professional Certification Board. He went on to supervise and mentor other blind travel instructors. Adelmo was elected to the NFB Board of Directors in 2016. He says, "I am honored and humbled to serve on the board and to give back the encouragement, support, and love that I have received from my Federation family. I remain passionate about helping the blind live the lives they want, particularly young people, and will do my utmost to build the National Federation of the Blind and to advance our goals." Adelmo and Soledad live in Alamogordo. They have two sons, Adrian and Gabriel, and six grandchildren so far. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kathy Martinez] Undefined by Blindness: Seeking Employment and Financial Literacy Opportunities for the Blind by Kathy Martinez >From the Editor: Kathy Martinez is the people with disabilities segment manager at Wells Fargo. She has appeared several times on our convention agendas, at least one of those times in her capacity as assistant secretary in the Office of Disability Employment Policy in the United States Department of Labor. She is a blind person with a diverse resum?, and her can-do message is always a welcome addition to our convention agenda. Here is what she said at the 2016 National Convention: My Federation family, I'm so happy and thrilled and honored to be able to actually spend a good chunk of time at this convention. At my previous job I was not able to do that. I would come in and say hello and would have to leave again. As Mr. Riccobono said, I am now working for Wells Fargo. Some of you remember me from the Department of Labor, and I will say, given that it has been more than a year of separation, I am so happy that you guys are collaborating-let's say-with AbilityOne and pushing them to new heights, which I'm sure they're capable of reaching with your help. Congratulations to you guys [applause]. I was asked to talk a little bit about my story, and then I want to talk about Wells Fargo, but I will say again that we are very, very proud to sponsor the BELL Academy. We meet with Carlton once a month to hear about the amazing progress that you all have made. We are encouraging our team members to volunteer so they can learn from the kids-that's really the goal. And I'd like to give a shout-out to some Wells Fargo colleagues who are also members of the National Federation of the Blind, and that's Jennifer Westbrook-I don't know if she's here, oh she is here, yay!-and David Tem, who I know is here-there he is. That's important to know, that I'm not the only blind person at Wells Fargo. There are many talented folks there, and we intend to hire more [applause]. Just a little bit about me: you know I'm always really inspired to hear the work that the Federation is doing, and I'll say that the Federation played a big role in my life in shaping me. I would say that I was also very lucky, because I had parents who expected a lot of me. Dr. Maurer talked about expectations and the impact that the tyranny of low expectations can have. Fortunately, I am one of two blind people in my family, and I say fortunately because I'm very lucky to have a sister, Peggy Martinez, who many of you know. She's the smart one, and she and I really served as touchstones for each other growing up. We're the middle two of six kids, nobody knows why we're blind, and frankly nobody should care at this point, but we do get asked quite a bit. We grew up in a big family-six kids, two parents, lots of pets-so we were kicked around a little bit, which was good; we kicked back, too. But we were not special, and believe me, special is not where we want to be in any part of society. We lose the quickest if we're considered special. So let's get disability off the special shelf and weave it into every part of life. We were mainstreamed, but we also were very lucky in that we had a recreation program for the blind that was in the days where you actually were not afraid-we didn't have to sign anything. We got hurt, we climbed mountains, we did a lot of things that I just don't know-I hope blind kids are getting experience like that, because it really helped us grow up. I went to the orientation center for the blind in the late 70s-I'm pretty old, by the way-and I was bored on the weekends, I was bored to death. So one of the things I did was I read almost every book in the library that they had, but I also found a pile of flexible disks with the speeches of Jacobus tenBroek, and I listened to every single flexible disk. It was like this treasure, this goldmine of brilliance, right? And in that same time, I don't know if anybody is old enough to remember the takeover of the Federal Building to strengthen the ATW regulations, which ultimately ended up with 504. Well, I'm old enough to have gone to that demonstration. I didn't go inside because I was told I would be kicked out of the orientation center if I actually helped take over the building, but I met a man named Muzzy Marcelino [applause, cheers]. Now I'm dating myself. But he really was an inspiration and a help, and he strongly encouraged me to dream my dreams and dream big. So I went back to Southern California where I grew up, and I wanted to work. Because I saw what poverty could do to people, I didn't want my goal to be an SSI check. I went to my rehab counselor, and he was very happy I wanted to work, but I didn't want to be a rehab teacher or a PBX operator or any of those things. So he very proudly-in his mind-placed me as a punch press operator in a lock factory. When that happened, I was very grateful at first, but then about nine months into it I thought, gosh, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. He closed my case, so he was very proud of himself. I came back, asked him if I could go to college, and he said, "No, we closed your case. You're a twenty-six, you're great, we got you a job." I just want people to know that we all grow up in different ways, and college does not have to be a four-year experience. It took me thirteen years to graduate [applause] from college, and I was well into my job with the World Institute on Disability. I worked there for eighteen years, and then I got a call in January of 2009 from John Lancaster, who used to direct NCIL, the National Council on Independent Living, because my work had primarily focused on financial impairment. As a kid I saw what poverty could do. I saw how my mother was often treated badly because she was a woman-you know she couldn't even get a credit card without my dad's signature. I just really wanted to have money, so I worked from a pretty young age. I also moved to Mexico, where I adopted my son. So it is possible to be a competent blind parent [applause, cheers]. All of that, just the work that I had done, living abroad, living in a developing country, just really made me hone in on financial empowerment, meaning financial literacy and employment. That has really been my life's work. In January of 2009 I was called by John Lancaster, and he said, "Are you interested in being the assistant secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy?" And I said, "Yeah, I am, actually." So it worked out that I was able to serve this administration for about five and a half years. I'm really proud of the work that we got done-especially 503, which is really allowing companies like Wells Fargo to scour our resum? banks for competent people with disabilities. I can say we're doing really well; our hiring has definitely increased. I was hired last year by Wells Fargo to drive the disability strategy. We have four pillars: customer experience, team member experience, philanthropy, and supplier diversity. We are very intent on becoming the bank of choice for people with disabilities and also the workplace of choice. It is a big ship to turn around. I am not the only one doing good work there. You know we were sued- that kind of pushed things along [laughter]. But there really is a commitment now to accessibility. We've hired a brilliant blind woman, Dina Wainwright. She's our online and mobile accessibility manager. She's really done a lot to get the bank in shape, meaning that every single line of business now has an accessibility liaison. We've just established third- party vendor requirements, so even though a lot of our vendors are not brick-and-mortar establishments, they can't say, "We're not covered by the ADA." I really think that by doing this, we are preparing for the future. We know that 10,000 people a day are turning sixty-five, and the senior market is a big market, and we are a bank after all. But we see the advantage of making ourselves as accessible as possible and really looking at banking and the opportunity to manage one's money not as a disability issue but as a usability and accessibility issue [applause]. I want to thank the National Federation of the Blind for being so central and crucial in my life at very critical points. And I'll say: together we'll go far and live the life we want, how's that? [applause] Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: KNFB Reader logo] [PHOTO/CAPTION: A hand holds a phone with the KNFB Reader app opening.] Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store which sells mostly low-tech items designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind people. Gaining access to print is an ongoing need blind people face. Since the early 2000s the National Federation of the Blind has been involved with developing a portable reading solution known as the KNFB Reader. These days the KNFB Reader is an easy-to-use app that runs on an iOS- or Android-based device. The app enables one to take a photo of printed text, which is then read aloud in clear synthetic speech almost instantaneously. One can either listen to the text or read it with a connected Braille display. The app makes it super easy to independently access print on the go. Use it to read mail, both letters and bills; restaurant menus; receipts; class handouts; medical reports; legal documents; food package labels; owner's manuals; books; and much more. The app has built-in features, making it easier for the user to take the best photo such as viewfinder assist, tilt assist, and auto text detection. Moreover, the app can read multiple pages, image-based PDF, and JPEG files. Some low vision users will find the synchronized-text- highlighting feature very helpful. The app also supports multiple languages. With the KNFB Reader app you can make the print yours and live the life you want. The KNFB Reader app has been available in the Apple App store and the Google Play store for some time. Now, with the new KNFB Reader Enterprise product, one can have access to the KNFB Reader app on multiple devices across multiple platforms. Two-, three-, and four-device versions are available for purchase from the Independence Market for $99.99, $139.99, and $169.99 respectively. For more information about the KNFB Reader app visit https://nfb.org/knfbreader. You may also contact KNFB Reader technical support through email at support at knfbreader.com or call (347) 422-7085. To purchase a version of KNFB Reader Enterprise visit https://nfb.org/independence-market and click on "Our Products." You will find all versions under "KNFB Reader Licenses and Accessories." You may also purchase KNFB Reader Enterprise by calling the Independence Market at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print, visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact the Independence Market by email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, from Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- Recipes This month's recipes come from the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut. Rice Pudding by Gary Allen Gary Allen is president of the Connecticut affiliate and a graduate student at Central Connecticut State University. He hopes to graduate this year with an MS degree in counseling with an emphasis on rehabilitation counseling. Ingredients: 2 cups cooked rice 4 cups of half-and-half 3/4 cup of sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup of raisins 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Method: Combine rice, eggs, sugar, salt, milk, raisins and vanilla flavoring. Mix all ingredients well. Bake in greased baking dish at 350 degrees for sixty to eighty minutes. Turn the rice pudding in the oven once or twice to make sure it cooks evenly. ---------- Slow Cooked Beef Stew by Gary Allen Ingredients: 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one-inch cubes 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 clove garlic, minced 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 onion, chopped 1-1/2 cups beef broth 3 potatoes, diced 4 carrots, sliced 1 stalk celery, chopped Method: Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Cover and cook on low setting for ten to twelve hours, or on high setting for four to six hours. ---------- Roasted Garlic Potatoes by Gary Allen Ingredients: 3 pounds small red or white potatoes 1/4 cup good olive oil 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves) 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley Method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic; toss until the potatoes are well coated. Transfer the potatoes to a sheet pan and spread out into one layer. Roast in the oven for forty-five minutes to one hour or until browned and crisp. Flip twice with a spatula during cooking in order to ensure even browning. Remove the potatoes from the oven, toss with parsley, season to taste, and serve hot. ---------- French Toast by Robert Palaski Rob Palaski is first vice president of the Connecticut affiliate and vice president of the Central Connecticut Chapter. He works as a massage therapist and is involved with the Sports and Recreation Division. Ingredients: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons butter 4 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 slices challah, brioche, or white bread 1/2 cup maple syrup, warmed Method: In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar and set aside briefly. In a ten-inch or twelve-inch skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk together cinnamon mixture, eggs, milk, and vanilla and pour into a shallow container such as a pie plate. Dip bread in egg mixture. Fry slices until golden brown, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with syrup. ---------- Banana Nut Loaf by Shirley Lebowitz Shirley Lebowitz was a charter member of the Hartford Connecticut Chapter. She was employed at Services for the Blind. These recipes were submitted for a cookbook that was never finished. Shirley passed away in June of 2011. Ingredients: 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup oil 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3 ripe bananas 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla Pinch of salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease eight-by-five-inch loaf pan. Mix and set aside flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat together oil, eggs, bananas, and vanilla with electric mixer. Stir in dry ingredients and beat well. Stir in nuts. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake forty-five to fifty minutes. Cool thoroughly before slicing. ---------- Peanut Butter Brownies by Shirley Lebowitz 4 squares unsweetened chocolate 1 cup all-purpose flour 1-1/2 sticks margarine 1 cup chopped peanuts (optional) 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup peanut butter, smooth or creamy 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease nine-by-thirteen-inch pan. Melt chocolate and all but one tablespoon margarine together. When completely melted, stir all but two tablespoons sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Stir in flour until well blended. Fold in nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan; set aside. In small bowl melt remaining butter. Stir in remaining sugar. Blend in peanut butter. Drop mixture by spoonful onto batter. Swirl with knife to marbleize. Bake thirty to thirty-five minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. Do not over bake. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares. ---------- Sausage egg and cheese casserole by Justin Salisbury Justin Salisbury grew up in Connecticut and has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind since he lost his vision. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University in March 2016 and is now an orientation and mobility instructor with Ho`opono Services for the Blind in Hawaii. Ingredients: 8 slices of bread, cubed 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese grated 1-1/2 pounds ground sausage 4 to 6 eggs 2-1/2 cups of milk 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 cup of additional milk 1 cup mushroom soup Method: Place the bread cubes in a nine-by-thirteen-inch casserole dish. Brown and drain the sausage. Put the cheese on the bread then add the sausage. Beat the eggs with mustard and milk, then pour over the casserole. Refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to bake, dilute the soup with 1/2 cup of milk and pour over the casserole. Bake at 300 degrees for one and a half hours. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Take the Lead: Every month the Braille Monitor begins with an illustration, a few paragraphs to go along with three or four photographs. Sometimes it's from a program that happened at the Jernigan Institute, sometimes it's a BELL Academy, and sometimes it's a chapter activity. While we hope that our readers enjoy this regular segment, we would also like to ask our readers to help us out. We can only run the pictures that we have about the programs that we know about. But all across the country there are events and programs put on by state and local chapters about which we may never hear. Undoubtedly these events were fun, informative, and helped to build relationships with the communities in which our Federationists live. Today, when almost everyone has a smartphone with a quality camera, the odds of having at least two or three decent photos from an event are pretty good. So if you have a karaoke night fundraiser at the local VFW Post or spend a Saturday at your local Barnes & Noble reading to kids or hold a seminar about Social Security at your local library that was attended by members of the public, let us know! Send us five or six photos from the event (preferably with the names of the people in the pictures) and a paragraph or two about your event. It doesn't have to be a lot: the when and the where, what the event was, how it went, that sort of thing. To submit your event, email either Gary Wunder at gwunder at nfb.org or his sidekick/minion Grace Warn at gwarn at nfb.org. Please send your photos as attachments to the email, rather than in the body of it, because we need the photos as large and high-quality as possible for the Monitor. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. 2017 Bible Conference: Camp Siloam 2017 Bible Conference and Camping session for blind adults will be held at the Golden Cross Ranch in New Caney, Texas, from Saturday, May 20, through Saturday, May 27. New Caney is just twenty-five miles north of Houston. We will be celebrating our fifteenth year in Texas. There is a morning and evening Bible study, and this year's theme is "Conformation or Transformation." Besides the morning and evening Bible studies, there are a host of other activities to enjoy such as horseback riding, swimming, a shopping trip, two hayrides, the zip line, and much more! Because of limited space, camp fills up fast. Why not come and enjoy the Bible studies and tons of fun? For any questions or further information you may email the camp director at geogray at sbcglobal.net or you can call our updated voicemail number at (866) 251-5165, then enter mailbox 7128. Leave your name, address, and phone number, and someone will get back to you. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Tue Mar 28 22:24:15 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:24:15 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, March 2017 Message-ID: <201703290524.v2T5OF9B022890@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 3 March 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 3 March 2017 Contents Illustration: The 2017 Presidents Seminar The 2017 Washington Seminar by Gary Wunder Washington Seminar Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans Priorities for the 115th Congress, First Session Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM HE) Act Access Technology Affordability Act Appropriation to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) for the Purchase of Refreshable Braille Devices The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled ("Marrakesh Treaty") The Future of Refreshable Braille is Refreshing! by Amy Mason In Rememberance of June Maurer by Marc Maurer A Dream is Born by Ray McAllister Stand Up by Courtney Cole Community Service Division Works with Habitat for Humanity by Darian Smith Across the World by Matt Jepsen Dots from Space!: Voices from the Past by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Independence Market Corner Recipes Monitor Miniatures The 2017 Presidents Seminar [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis, Ron Brown (IN), Fred Schroeder, Denise Valkema (IL), Carl Jacobsen (NY), and Patrina Pendarvis (right arm) (MS). State presidents come together to plan how best to improve the quality of life for blind people throughout the country. [PHOTO CAPTION: Sharon Maneki (MD), Jim Antonacci (PA), Micah Ranquist (VT), Everette Bacon (UT), and Mark Riccobono listen to the discussion at the seminar. [PHOTO CAPTION: Donald Porterfield (AZ), Pam Allen (LA), Adelmo Vigil (NM), and Cathy Jackson (KY) consider Ever Lee Hairston's (CA) words. Life is about renewal: new ideas, new people, and new leaders. This is evidenced by the number of new state presidents who serve in the National Federation of the Blind. To help in the transition to these most important offices, a seminar was held just prior to the Washington Seminar. State presidents began assembling on Saturday for a 6 PM dinner that would begin a series of meetings discussing the history of the Federation, the present programs we undertake, and what we should do in the future to remain the most vital force in work with the blind. On Saturday and Sunday we met long into the night, and still we were pressed to touch on all that needed to be addressed. The group discussed organizational priorities, the way to build and strengthen membership, and how to create the strong base of financial support that is so necessary to advancing our programs. State presidents shared their concerns with other leaders and developed relationships that will serve them well as they go about problem-solving and engaging in the creative thinking that will result in stronger and more vital affiliates. The 2017 Washington Seminar by Gary Wunder [PHOTO CAPTION: Fine weather and a fine crowd came together for this year's Washington Seminar.] With every Washington Seminar we build on a tradition, and even in the fast-paced, hard-working, and politically volatile world of the United States capital, inevitably turnover occurs, and each visit we make adds to our name recognition, face recognition, and credibility. This year the weather was wonderful for our gathering, but the Congress's institutional memory found us starting in-person meetings with a congressman or senator saying, "You were here last year during the big blizzard, weren't you? I think you even made it back here before I did. We were amazed that with the town shut down you people still showed up." What some refer to as the Midwinter Convention of the National Federation of the Blind began on Sunday with a job fair for those seeking employment and a meeting of the student division. In this latter meeting students discussed the challenges in getting a higher education, and talked about when individual effort could resolve the problem, and when collective action was necessary to bring about the use of accessible hardware, software, and other aspects of campus life. [PHOTO CAPTION: It was standing-room only at the Great Gathering-In this year.] When the gavel fell at 5 PM, ushering in the Great Gathering-In meeting which is traditional at the Washington Seminar, President Riccobono wasted no time in welcoming our members to Washington, DC, and explaining the issues that had caused us to travel from throughout the country to change the lives of the blind. Here is what he said: Fellow Federationists: Change has once again swept America- promises have been made, mandates are being claimed, and deals are being brokered. And, depending on your point of view, greater hope or uncertainty exists. Regardless of the promises, mandates, and deals, there is one great certainty that again expresses itself in this room tonight and on Capitol Hill this week: the National Federation of the Blind is on the watch. The blind stand self-determined to ensure that our equal participation will be part of the promise. The blind bring a mandate that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future. The blind say that every deal must raise expectations for the blind because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. We can live the life we want, and Washington will not hold us back. We bring our hope, love, and determination to Republicans and Democrats, freshman members and longtime veterans in Congress. Our collective voice offers our authentic experience on any topic affecting blind people, and we come with our own agenda for change. Now is the time for all great institutions of higher education to knock down the artificial barriers and make their educational technologies accessible. We are tired of having our ability to overcome inaccessible technologies tested rather than our competency in science, math, history, psychology, literature, art, or any number of other subjects we pursue. We have studied politics, and we know that when people come together with a unified voice, change is possible. From our seventy-six years of field experience as an organized movement of blind people, we know that when we resolve to tackle a problem, nothing will stand in our way. To the schools that continue to hold us back, we say: don't deny, aim high; don't deny, aim high; don't deny, aim high. We seek to participate fully in our communities in play and in work. We strive to have good jobs and, believe it or not, pay taxes. In order to have those opportunities to integrate fully into society, we need access to information in a nonvisual manner. We need to buy the accessible technology that will allow us to utilize our skills and talents fully for the betterment of our communities, and for our efforts to empower ourselves, we seek a tax credit when we spend our own dollars to buy the expensive technologies required to access information-not a handout but a step-up on the staircase of independence and equality. We seek not to avoid taxes but to get ourselves in a position to pay more of them. Give us a fair chance to get the technology needed to compete on terms of equality, and watch us give back to our nation as we pursue the American dream. We seek to equip all blind people with knowledge by giving them greater access to the most fundamental tool for reading and writing- Braille. We have one national library that distributes accessible content in Braille for our use, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and last year we helped change the Pratt-Smoot Act in order to authorize the library to distribute devices that would allow Braille to be read with refreshable displays. Now we seek the funds required to establish a national program so that no blind person will be required to live in the twenty-first century without Braille under his or her fingers. Braille is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Let us power the greatest revolution and literacy for the blind by establishing the expectation that all blind people will read. And finally, we seek to open up the borders of knowledge by creating the systems to share accessible materials around the world. For far too long the volumes of accessible materials have been locked away for only a select few to access. To the protectors of the world's knowledge in accessible form, we say "Unlock our books, and set the knowledge free." This week the Marrakesh Express has come to Capitol Hill, and the blind have a ticket to read. Because the National Federation of the Blind was a key player in getting this historic Marrakesh Treaty established, it is now time for the United States Senate to ratify the treaty for our own country and give us access to the accessible materials around the world. We seek knowledge; we seek Braille; we seek the opportunities to secure the technologies we need, and we seek equality in our educational system. These are the promises we seek; this is the mandate we carry; and we intend to broker the deal for all blind Americans. That is why the National Federation of the Blind has come, and that is the purpose of our Washington Seminar. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman Phil Roe addresses the Great Gathering-In.] After a rousing cheer for the statement of our commitment and the issues we would take to Capitol Hill, President Riccobono introduced the Honorable Phil Roe representing the First Congressional District of Tennessee. In his fifth term as a congressman he serves as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and is a member on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Congressman Roe comes to the House of Representatives after a distinguished career as a pediatrician, who has delivered nearly five thousand babies. So, when we went to Capitol Hill looking for someone who could deliver on the promises contained in the AIM HE (Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education) Act, it was no accident that we asked for the help of Dr. Roe. This distinguished member of Congress began by thanking us for our invitation and saying that good invitations to speak are few and far between given the poor reputation Congress enjoys. He said that he told the Speaker of the House that there were only three things that polled worse than the Congress: Lindsay Lohan, meth labs, and North Korea. Dr. Roe said that it is a credit to the National Federation of the Blind that we have worked to get such stakeholder involvement in the AIM HE legislation he is sponsoring. He wishes to commend us for helping to bring on board the Software Industry Information Association, the Association of American Publishers, EDUCAUSE, and the American Council on Education (ACE). He believes that it is through the cooperative work of all of these organizations that we have developed a common sense, bipartisan piece of legislation that has a good chance of passage in this Congress. Dr. Roe said that his interest in our issues came from what he learned about blindness from his mother. She lost her sight later in life, and as her only child, he was responsible for most of her care. He said that when he came to Congress and was greeted by our proposals, he would think about them, go home at night, turn off the lights in his small 800- foot-condominium, and challenge himself to learn to move about independently. The strong conviction he feels for the AIM HE Act is the result of the importance of education in his life and the brief attempts at orienting to a new and different situation that convinced him that blindness can mean very different things depending on the opportunity one is given. The country he represents wants the best she can get for all of her people, and he is determined to see that the AIM HE Act results in greater education, employment, and quality of life for blind Americans. His remarks, given their thoughtfulness, sincerity, and enthusiasm, were met with tremendous applause by the crowd, and he said he was looking forward to seeing all of us on Capitol Hill. President Riccobono presented the Great Gathering-In with the summary of legal cases with which we have recently been involved. He talked about a twelve-year-old girl who was once thought to be incapable of benefiting from instruction in reading and writing but who now has Braille as her primary method for reading and writing in the Individualized Education Plan that bears her name. The President discussed the recent release of regulations regarding the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, details of which will be found in the April issue. More and more in the public environment we are finding ourselves confronted with kiosks, and far too many of them have no nonvisual means one can use to access them. We find them in health facilities, dining, and grocery stores, just to mention a few. Seldom do we find any of these that are accessible, but this will soon be different as a result of the National Federation of the Blind. The kiosks placed in public locations by Pursuant Health will be accessible. This agreement was signed with Pursuant, the National Federation of the Blind, and the attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The signing took place on the twenty-sixth anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the week prior to the Washington Seminar, we reached an agreement with New York City's LinkNYC program, which has taken over thousands of no longer needed telephone booths and placed kiosks in them. Based on our agreement, these will be accessible. The only thing not covered in the agreement between New York City and the National Federation of the Blind is where Superman will go to change into his suit. Tackling the inaccessibility of university programs, services, and equipment, in August the National Federation of the Blind settled with Wichita State University, requiring that the university procure only devices that are accessible, and then ensuring that those who can benefit by using them are given the instruction necessary to do it. On a similar note, two years ago the Washington Seminar heard from Aleeha Dudley. Because Aleeha hung tough and because she had an ally in this organization, in October 2016 we announced, along with the United States Department of Justice, the gold standard for access to technology in instructional materials in universities, a settlement and consent decree that now should be the roadmap for every university in this country. Because of Aleeha's tenacity and the commitment of the Federation, there is good news to report in her case, and it will be found in the April issue of this publication. After briefly covering other activities, President Riccobono introduced two dignitaries in the audience. They were Karen Keninger, the director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and Diane McGeorge, the coordinator of logistics for the Washington Seminar for more than three decades. She talked about the changes since the first seminar she coordinated: the way we keep records, the room we use to coordinate activity, the hotel now taking reservations, and the large crowds which are routinely a part of our annual event. But not everything is about change, and the peanut butter pie that has been on the menu for lo these four decades has once again made its appearance for the Washington Seminar. Some traditions are longer lived than others, but it is amazing how many of them revolve around food. Shawn Calloway, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of the District of Columbia, announced that, after a two-year hiatus, the provision of donuts for those going to Capitol Hill would take place on Tuesday morning in the lobby of the hotel. These are provided courtesy of the National Federation of the Blind of the District of Columbia. He went on to say, "Two years ago we ran out. Now, President Riccobono, Anil Lewis, Pam Allen, and Gary Wunder: they were the reason we ran out. This is a warning for all of you to get there early tomorrow morning." President Riccobono's response was, "See, that's what I get for going down there to hand out doughnuts." On other matters, President Callaway thanked those who attended the networking and professional development meetings held on the previous day. He thanked members of the Virginia affiliate for helping to put the events together, and he also congratulated those who put together and attended the job fair held as one of the concurrent sessions that took place before the Great Gathering-In meeting. Chris Danielsen, the director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind, reminded us that our job was not only to go to Capitol Hill but to take our message to our fellow countrymen and women. One effective way to do this is through the use of social media, and he talked about how all of us could help in this effort. Whether we were members with shoe leather on the Hill or members at home wanting to help, all of us could have a role in seeing that what was happening at the Washington Seminar was widely posted and ensure that our issues were ones which trended on Twitter. [PHOTO CAPTION: Immediate Past President Maurer recalls previous trips to Capitol Hill.] Immediate Past President Maurer was introduced and began by asking Jim Gashel if he remembered the first significant gathering on Capitol Hill that began the convening of the Washington Seminar. They agreed that it happened in October 1973, that the event gathered lots of press and Congressional attention because it was new to have lots of blind men and women running around on Capitol Hill, but that all of that attention came to a screeching halt with the resignation of the Vice President of the United States, Spiro T. Agnew. As significant as this day in history would turn out to be for the country, Dr. Maurer no doubt understated his feelings and those of others who were present at the time by commenting that the shift in attention was "a pain in the neck." He observed that one thing that has not changed about the National Federation of the Blind since that beginning in 1973 is that, when we want something, we either build it ourselves or see that it gets built. This is true not only of products but also of programs, and he went on to describe our recent hosting of the meeting of the World Blind Union, an activity which was immensely helpful for us in showing to the world just what an organization of blind people can do to make a change in the world in which we live. [PHOTO CAPTION: World Blind Union President Fred Schroeder] Fred Schroeder, the newly elected president of the World Blind Union, came to talk about how changes made here in the United States will affect millions of blind people around the world. The passage of our AIM HE Act won't just make things better for students within the borders of this country. The existence of this law in our country will be seen as a beacon by others, will provide a precedent they can use in crafting their own laws, and will give them encouragement that, through their own self- organization, they can raise the bar for education and employment in their countries. The passage of this act will also demonstrate for people of other countries that blind people are worth educating, and that's really what it's all about. You don't educate children unless you think there is a reason to educate them. You don't worry about the unemployment of blind people unless you believe that blind people can and should be competitively employed. There is significant synergy that exists between our work and the work of the World Blind Union. One of President Schroeder's next activities is to travel to Geneva with the purpose of defeating a proposal in some European legislation that would allow the driver of a low-sound emitting vehicle to turn off that sound if he or she judged it unnecessary. Interestingly that switch has been called a kill switch, and Dr. Schroeder's goal is to see that it is removed from regulations being considered abroad. We are also working together on the Marrakesh Treaty, because the need for information transcends borders, and its provisions help blind people no matter where in the world they may live. He summed up his comments by saying that our most important objective is to build the National Federation of the Blind, for this will be the single most important thing we can do to help the blind of the United States of America and the world. [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis, executive director, NFB Jernigan Institute] Anil Lewis came to the podium to talk about a new program being created by the organization. Its acronym is BUILD, and it stands for Blind Users Innovating and Leading Design. The goal of this team will be to tell developers what we need, what works, and what doesn't. For information about how to become a part of the BUILD team, contact Anil by writing to him at alewis at nfb.org. For those who are interested in helping in the effort but believe they are not yet technically able to do so, Anil related a story about a woman calling to offer her help. He gave her the website she could use to fill out the form for volunteering, but she said she didn't think she had the skills to fill it out. He took her name and contact information, put her in touch with her affiliate president for further training, and fully expects to see her as an active participant on the team once she has received the training she needs. Again, we take people where they are, help them get to where they want to be, and benefit from their contributions as they benefit by becoming a contributor. Again this year we are conducting our summer intern program, and students who are willing to spend a good bit of their summer working at the Jernigan Institute should contact Anil Lewis at the address above. The internship provides a tremendous opportunity to get to know the workings of the Federation, to meet many of the people who are involved in making things happen nationally, and to grow to be one of them. For more information about the National Federation of the Blind 2017 Summer Internship Program go to . In 2017 we will once again be holding the National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam. In July we will bring one hundred young people from across the country to participate in the most dynamic STEM program of its kind for people who are blind. More information will soon follow on our mailing lists and in the pages of this magazine. One of the most important things we do is advocate for the rights of blind parents, and the program through which we undertake most of this activity is the Blind Parents Initiative. We need to capture experiences of successful blind parents through video, audio, and written presentations. Those interested in making a contribution to the project should contact Melissa Riccobono by writing to parenting at nfb.org. We must also work to adopt model state legislation that will remove the presumption in too many state laws that to be blind is necessarily an indicator that warrants greater watchfulness on the part of agencies charged with child welfare. We must remove the barriers that each blind parent must overcome in convincing child welfare authorities that they are capable, competent, and caring parents who are able to take care of the children they bring into the world. [PHOTO CAPTION: Parnell Diggs, director of government affairs] Parnell Diggs reported that we are now working on a case in Illinois in which a blind infant was removed from its parents because hospital authorities judged that the blind mother would be unable to determine when her child's feeding bottle was empty or when the child was wet and needed changing. The removal was also based on the concern that she would not be able to safely lift her child from a crib, her own mobility being suspect because she cannot see. Over and over again we are faced with the assumption that when the majority uses their sense of sight to accomplish a task, the absence of sight must mean that task cannot be safely accomplished without it. Our life experience denies this. We must share our reality and see that the full force of the law is brought to protect blind people and our children. President Riccobono reminded us that preregistration for the convention begins in March, that the convention will be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, and that details about the upcoming convention can be found in each issue of the Braille Monitor. The convention will be held from July 10 through July 15, and the President encourages us to come and bring ten or fifteen of our closest friends. John Par?, executive director for advocacy and policy, took the floor to introduce members of the government affairs team who discussed each of the issues we would take to Capitol Hill. The remarks they made are covered in the fact sheets which appear immediately following this article. John Par? was followed to the microphone by Scott LaBarre to discuss our Preauthorized Contribution Plan. Currently our members are giving over half a million dollars a year, but the ever-increasing number of programs we sponsor requires that we do even better. We now have three affiliates giving over $2,000 a month, and it is our goal to reach annualized giving of at least $600,000 by the end of the year. With the adjournment of the Great Gathering-In meeting, members went off to find food, organize in caucuses, and role-play for the legislative discussions that would follow. The National Association of Blind Students hosted a fantastic get-together complete with hospitality, music, and delicious desserts. Being as good as its word, the NFB of the District of Columbia did provide donuts for those heading for Capitol Hill, and although this writer cannot speak to the behavior of President Riccobono, Pam Allen, or Anil Lewis, he can say with confidence that he left the doughnut table with only one round tasty treat in his hand. His protest that "No one can eat just one," was ignored as people filed through the line, grabbed a napkin and their own sweet morsel, and filed off to Capitol Hill to begin a long day's work. [PHOTO CAPTION: A crowd gathered to listen to the student rally to support the passage of the AIM HE Act.] [PHOTO CAPTION: President of the National Association of Blind Students Kathryn Webster was among those who spoke passionately about the challenges facing blind students.] At noon on Tuesday many of us assembled in the upper Senate Park for a student rally to support the passage of the AIM HE Act. Twenty-seven students addressed the gathering, and whether their stories represented the gaining of a 4.0 grade point average or struggles that sometimes led to failure and having to regroup to try again, all of them had one thing in common: the biggest challenge in higher education is not learning the material that others are expected to learn; the biggest challenge is using the technology that is supposed to make learning easier but which sometimes makes it almost impossible. Our class participation, our papers, our test results, and our grades must reflect what we know about the subject matter being taught, not how skillfully we are able to work around inaccessible technology. Over and over again we challenge the schools: aim high, don't deny; aim high, don't deny; aim high, don't deny. [PHOTO CAPTION: Senator Jon Tester] At the conclusion of the student rally we returned to Capitol Hill to keep appointments, meet with our congressmen and their staff, and gather support for the four major pieces of legislation that constitute our 2017 legislative agenda. At 5 o'clock many of us gathered in Senate Room G50 for our second annual Congressional Reception. We were joined by six Senators and ten Representatives, each of whom made brief and moving remarks. Senator Jon Tester was the first to speak, and Federationists will be familiar with his work on our behalf to see that blind veterans have the right to travel on space available aircraft. The senator noted that we are in a time of change, that for some of us it brings about a time of uncertainty and for others a time of challenge. Regardless how we feel about the change that is afoot, we must see that it is positive and that it reflects what we need. He says that we bring a message that all parties should be able to get behind, and he offers his close working relationship with Senator Heller as evidence that this kind of work can and will take place in the current Congress. [PHOTO CAPTION: Michael Ausbun, Kimie Beverly, and Senator Dean Heller] Senator Dean Heller addressed the crowd and said that meeting with the National Federation of the Blind was one of the highlights of his senatorial year. He said that many people who walk through his door do so as representatives for some group or other, but he knows that when he meets with the National Federation of the Blind that we are in Washington, DC, because we are an organization of the blind who speak for ourselves. He says that he knows our work involves seeing that we are not defined by one characteristic and that we are given every opportunity to participate fully in our communities. He believes that every American, regardless of their circumstance, should have access to quality jobs, and as part of the Senate Finance Committee he vows to be an important part of the dialogue to see that the opportunity for those jobs and the jobs themselves materialize for people who are blind. At the same time he will continue to work closely with us to see that blind veterans are able to take advantage of the space available provisions that are offered to other former members of our armed forces. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman Gregg Harper] The next gentleman to approach the podium has the distinction of being at both of our Congressional rallies, the one held in 2015, and this one in 2017. The presenter was Congressman Gregg Harper. He has been the principal sponsor of the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act we have been supporting and which will again be introduced after some minor changes that have been suggested by the Congressman. He stressed that one of the reasons for the effectiveness of the National Federation of the Blind is that we realize success on Capitol Hill depends on building relationships. This not only means relationships with members of Congress but also with members of their staffs. Often a staff member will come to know more about the specifics of an issue than his or her boss, and it is because of the judgment and expertise of these staff members that many members of Congress decide whether they will support a piece of legislation and how much energy they will put into seeing to its passage. As important as our Washington visits are, it is essential that we get to know Congressional staff at the local level, for they too have tremendous influence over providing advice about how to best shepherd our legislation through the halls of Congress and onto the desk of the President. [PHOTO CAPTION: Fred Schroeder poses with Representative A. Donald McEachin] Representative Donald McEachin is a freshman representative from the Commonwealth of Virginia who brings a long background of service in the senate of Virginia and is excited to learn about the issues facing the blind which require federal action. He says that although he and his staff have a lot to learn, the door is always open, and he will always be attentive to the needs and concerns of blind people. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman Tom Rice] Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina came to address the crowd, and he is one of only a few representatives who has the distinction of supporting each and every proposal currently advanced by the National Federation of the Blind. Our own Parnell Diggs ran for the position that Congressman Rice now occupies, but both agree that they are united by a strong bond, that bond being the commitment to see that the needs of South Carolinians, and indeed the needs of all Americans, are uppermost on their agenda. Congressman Rice says that in Parnell Diggs we have a man who is brilliant, articulate, and persuasive, that the Congressman is honored to work with him, and that Parnell will always have the ear of the Congressman and his staff. [PHOTO CAPTION: Senator John Boozman shakes hands with a Federationist from his home state of Arkansas.] Senator Boozman of Arkansas was the next to take the microphone, and he said how much he admired the blind of the nation coming to Capitol Hill, especially those from Arkansas. He says that our presence on the Hill is far more important than any number of people we might send to speak for us, and he values those members of the National Federation of the Blind of Arkansas who work so diligently to keep him informed. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman David Young pledges to sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act.] Congressman David Young of Iowa was the next person to be introduced by President Riccobono, and readers of the Braille Monitor will remember that representative Young visited the Jernigan Institute in April of last year at the instigation of Jim and Sharon Omvig, who told him that there was nothing more important he could do for the blind than to see the programs and activities of our organization. He said that as a result of a meeting held with the Iowa delegation early in the afternoon, he agreed to sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act. He agreed this would be handled as a bipartisan issue and commended us on bringing concerns that should easily garner bipartisan support in the Congress. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jim and Susan Gashel, Congressman Gus Bilirakis, and Mark Riccobono pose together.] From Florida we welcomed our longtime friend, Congressman Gus Bilirakis. He began by saying that we could count him in as a cosponsor on the Access Technology Affordability Act. He thinks that nothing is more important than increasing the educational and economic opportunities for blind people, and he looks forward to being closely allied with us in making this happen. President Riccobono acknowledged the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers for their help in passing the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act and for their generosity in helping to sponsor this congressional reception. No doubt our work in the future will involve insuring the accessibility of autonomous automobiles, technology available in the near future that will help to significantly reduce one of the major limitations of blindness in our society. [PHOTO CAPTION: Senator Bob Casey] Senator Bob Casey came to offer his comments to the group, and in addition to endorsing the positive proposals that we have advanced, he said it was also important to make sure that we do not lose the significant gains we have made over the last twenty-five years. While it is always important to fight for necessary change, it is also imperative to fight against those who would reverse advances already made in this country, and he pledged to stand as an ally to defend the laws and the programs that we count on today. [PHOTO CAPTION: Representative French Hill] Our last congressional speaker of the evening was Representative French Hill from Arkansas. Representative Hill worked in the administration of Former President George H. W. Bush and witnessed the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the changes it has brought about. He pledges to stand strong to see that these are not eroded. He thanked us for taking the time to come, for visiting in his office, and for letting him share with us the pride he feels in representing the citizens of Little Rock and Arkansas. When the rally ended at 7 PM, there was quite some congestion at the Capitol as taxis, cars, and vans assembled to get people back to the hotel. On Wednesday we again took to Capitol Hill and at the end of the day assembled for our traditional 6 PM debriefing. Many of those reporting believe that their congressmen and senators will sign on to our legislative proposals, and there was real excitement in the air at what we had done and what we would continue to do after our stay on the Hill. On Thursday we finished our meetings with members of Congress, and the two major airports serving the District of Columbia were once again filled with the clicking of claws and the tapping of canes as we headed home to follow-up on the seeds we had planted on the Hill. Our work is far from over, but we understand what needs to be done, have the commitment to do it, and have promised ourselves not to stop until the job is done. This is what the Congress knows about us; this is why they respect us; and this is why, no matter the administration, the Congress, or the political mood in the country, we continue to receive support for the good we are intent on doing. We are not tied to any political party or ideology. We go where the needs of blind people take us, and we engage to meet those needs with open minds, strong hearts, and the resolve that comes from constantly seeking to be the fully participating citizens we are intended by our Creator to be. ---------- Washington Seminar Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans Priorities for the 115th Congress, First Session The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives we want. The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM HE) Act Electronic instructional materials have replaced traditional methods of learning in postsecondary education, but the overwhelming majority of ebooks, courseware, web content, and other technologies are inaccessible to students with print disabilities. The law requires equal access in the classroom but fails to provide direction to schools for the way it applies to technology. AIM HE creates voluntary accessibility guidelines for educational technology to improve blind students' access to course material, stimulate the market, and reduce litigation for schools. The Access Technology Affordability Act Currently, blind Americans rely on scarce sources of funding to acquire access technology. By providing a refundable tax credit for qualifying access technology purchases, Congress can stimulate individual procurement of access technology and promote affordability of these tools for blind Americans. Appropriation to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) for the Purchase of Refreshable Braille Devices Established in 1931, the NLS provides its patrons with accessible format copies of printed works. With the latest innovations in refreshable Braille, it is now easier than ever before to put Braille into the hands of more blind people. A one-time appropriation to the NLS will save money and lead to the proliferation of critically needed Braille material for blind Americans. The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled Despite the ability to convert print books into accessible formats like Braille, large print, audio, and digital copies, millions of blind and otherwise print-disabled Americans are excluded from accessing 95 percent of published works. The Marrakesh Treaty calls for contracting parties to provide, in their national copyright laws, for a limitation or exception that allows for the reproduction, distribution, and cross-border exchange of accessible works. These priorities will remove obstacles to employment, education, and access to published works. We urge Congress to support our legislative initiatives. ---------- Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM HE) Act Until a market-driven solution for accessible instructional materials is achieved, blind college students will be denied access to critical course content. Technology has fundamentally changed the education system. The scope of instructional materials used at institutions of higher education has expanded. Curricular content comes in digital books, PDFs, webpages, etc., and most of this content is delivered through digital databases, learning management systems, and applications. The print world is inherently inaccessible to students with disabilities, but technology offers the opportunity to expand the circle of participation. Studies have found that, of the 6.5 million students with disabilities in grades K-12, the number who go on to pursue postsecondary education is growing.[1] Blind students are facing insurmountable barriers to education. Instead of fulfilling the promise of equal access, technology has created more problems than the print world ever did. Data show that students with disabilities face a variety of challenges, including matriculation and college completion failure,[2] solely because, in the absence of clear accessibility guidelines, colleges and universities are sticking with the ad-hoc accommodations model.[3] Currently, schools deploy inaccessible technology and then modify another version for blind students, usually weeks or even months into class, creating a "separate-but-equal" landscape with nearly impenetrable barriers. With only an 18 percent employment rate, compared to 65 percent among people without disabilities,[4] students with disabilities should not be denied access by the innovations that could have ensured full participation. Institutions of higher education need help to identify accessible material and comply with nondiscrimination laws. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act require schools to provide equal access, and in 2010 the US Departments of Justice and Education clarified that the use of inaccessible technology is prohibited under these laws.[5] In the six years since, over a dozen institutions have faced legal action for using inaccessible technology,[6] and complaints are on the rise. Most litigation ends with a commitment from the school to embrace accessibility, but that commitment does little in a vast, uncoordinated higher education market.[7] Accessibility solutions are available, but guidelines are sorely needed to stimulate the market. The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act will bring together people with disabilities, the higher education, publishing, and tech developing and manufacturing communities to develop a stakeholder-driven solution to the issue of inaccessible instructional materials. With input from all relevant stakeholder communities,[8] mainstream accessible instructional materials can be achieved, benefiting both institutions of higher education and the students with disabilities they aim to serve. Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act: Develops accessibility guidelines for instructional materials used in postsecondary education. A purpose-based commission is tasked with developing accessibility criteria for instructional materials and the delivery systems/technologies used to access those materials. Additionally, the commission is tasked with developing an annotated list of existing national and international standards so that schools and developers can identify what makes a product usable by the blind. Provides incentive for institutions of higher education to follow the guidelines. Institutions of higher education that use only technology that conforms with the guidelines will be deemed in compliance with the provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act that pertain to schools' use of technology. For those instances in which accessible technology is simply not yet available, instances that will continue to diminish in frequency as accessible instructional materials become more mainstream, there is a limited safe harbor protection for institutions that otherwise adhere to existing disability law as well as some additional requirements as described in the AIM HE Act. Offers flexibility for schools while reiterating that pre-existing obligations still apply. Colleges and universities are permitted to use material that does not conform to the guidelines as long as equal access laws are still honored. Conformity with the AIM HE guidelines is only one path to compliance; schools can pursue a different path but will forfeit the safe harbor legal protection. REMOVE BARRIERS TO EQUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM. Cosponsor the Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act. To cosponsor in the House of Representatives, contact: Otto Katt, Legislative Fellow, Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN) Phone: (202) 225-6356, Email: otto.katt at mail.house.gov For more information contact: Gabe Cazares, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2206, email: gcazares at nfb.org For more information visit: www.nfb.org/aim_he [1] US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. "Children and Youth with Disabilities" (2016) http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp. [2] Brand, B., Valent, A., Danielson, L. College & Career Readiness & Success Center, American Institutes for Research. Improving College and Career Readiness for Students with Disabilities. 2013. [3] "Report of the Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities." (2011) 13 [4] United States Department of Labor. "Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics-2015." (2016). http://www.dol.gov/odep/. [5] Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and Department of Education Office of Civil Rights letter to College and University Presidents, June 29, 2010. [6] National Federation of the Blind. "The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM-HEA) Act." Last modified December, 2015. https://www.nfb.org/aim_he [7] Government Accountability Office. "Education Needs a Coordinated Approach to Improve Its Assistance to Schools in Supporting Students." Report to the Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives.10-33 (2009). [8] Organizations and institutions that have endorsed the Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act: https://nfb.org/aim_he. ---------- Access Technology Affordability Act Increase the availability of access technology and promote affordability of that technology for blind Americans Access technology enables blind Americans to participate in today's connected world. These tools enable blind Americans to perform tasks that they were once unable to accomplish themselves due to their disability. Braille notetakers are frequently used in schools, screen reading software allows workers to check their email at home, and screen magnification software can help seniors losing vision learn about community activities. Despite the need for access technology, public and private entities struggle to meet the demands and provide adequate access technology to their clients, including blind Americans.[1] This leads to untimely delays in the delivery of necessary technology and ultimately harms the blind consumer. Paying for access technology out-of-pocket creates a difficult economic reality. Nearly 60 percent of blind Americans are unemployed [2] compared to under 5 percent for the general population.[3] Most access technology can range in cost from $1,000 to $6,000. For example, a leading screen reader is $900, a popular Braille notetaker is $5,495, one model of a refreshable Braille display is $2,795, and a moderately priced Braille embosser is $3,695. Consequently, most blind Americans do not have sufficient financial resources needed to purchase these items.[4] These financial barriers can ultimately lead to a loss of employment, insufficient education, or even isolation from community activities. Medical insurance will not cover the cost of access technology. Current definitions of "medical care," "medical necessity," and "durable medical equipment" within common insurance policies do not and should not include access technology. These definitions were adopted in the 1960s when medical care was viewed primarily as curative and palliative, with little or no consideration given to increasing an individual's functional status.[5] However, Congress recognized that blindness, unlike other disabilities, could be measured easily.[6] Many states' Medicaid programs and individual health insurance plans have adopted similar definitions and will not cover access technology.[7] Access Technology Affordability Act: The Access Technology Affordability Act provides a simple solution that will increase the availability of access technology so that blind Americans can procure these items for themselves. It establishes a per- person individual refundable tax credit to be used over a multi-year period to offset the cost of access technology for blind people. Historically, Congress has created similar tax incentives (e.g., Disabled Access Credit) for business owners required to make accommodations- including access technology-for employees and patrons with disabilities. Congress removed financial barriers so that businesses did not view the needs of people with disabilities as a burden. These opportunities are currently available only to business owners, while blind Americans, for the most part, must depend on others to procure access technology for them. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to meet the access technology needs of all blind Americans. Accessibility requires an individualized assessment of one's own skills and preference. Therefore, blind Americans should be given the opportunity to procure access technology on their own to ensure that they are receiving the tools that are most useful for them. REMOVE FINANCIAL BARRIERS AND INCREASE THE AVAILABILITY OF ACCESS TECHNOLOGY Sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act For more information, contact: Kimie Beverly, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2441, email: kbeverly at nfb.org [1] Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research, "Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request," https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget17/justificat ions/i-rehab.pdf, p. I-66. [2] American Community Survey. www.disabilitystatistics.org. [3] Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 [4] Erickson, W., Lee, C., von Schrader, S. (2016). "Disability Statistics from the 2014 American Community Survey (ACS)." Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Employment and Disability Institute (EDI). Retrieved November 11, 2016, from www.disabilitystatistics.org. [5] National Council on Disability, "Federal Policy Barriers to Assistive Technology," (May 31, 2000) 8, http://www.ncd.gov/rawmedia_repository/c9e48e89_261b_4dda_bc74_203d5 915519f.pdf. [6] 26 U.S.C ? 63(f)(4) [7] Assistive Technology Industry Associates, "AT Resources Funding Guide," https://www.atia.org/at-resources/what-is-at/resources-funding- guide/ (last accessed December 15, 2016). ----------- Appropriation to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) for the Purchase of Refreshable Braille Devices An appropriation to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped will save money and lead to the proliferation of critically needed Braille material for blind Americans. There are 119,487 libraries of all types operating in the United States today; [1] however, blind Americans rely on NLS to distribute Braille books across the nation. Currently these are hardcopy offerings, but new, low-cost displays (known as refreshable Braille displays) can produce electronic Braille, saving money, saving paper, and providing a small device where formerly multiple and large volumes were required for just one book. Until all blind Americans have access to high-quality, reliable, refreshable Braille, blind people will continue to encounter artificial barriers in literacy, education, and employment. Innovative advances in refreshable Braille technology could save NLS $10 million per year. A recent GAO report indicated that the distribution of refreshable Braille devices will result in an annual cost savings of $10 million.[2] Since 1931, hardcopy Braille has been embossed and distributed to patrons through a network of regional and subregional libraries. It is impossible to predict the titles that would be requested at any particular regional library. As a result, there could be five copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (thirteen volumes of Braille)[3] in Boise, Idaho, and none in Richmond, Virginia, where several patrons are currently waiting. Moreover, in 2015 the cost of embossing, housing, and shipping hardcopy Braille volumes was $17 million per year.[4] Technological innovations now make it possible for Braille to be produced in electronic files. These can be accessed on refreshable Braille displays and distributed electronically at a cost of seven million dollars.[5] Like other types of electronic files (such as printed materials in .docx format), the same Braille book can be read by potentially thousands of patrons at the same time with refreshable Braille devices. Today, the mass production and distribution of Braille content is not only technologically possible, but the method is cost effective, and vast quantities of Braille material can now be stored, transported, and instantly accessed on refreshable Braille displays. Braille literacy is essential to employment for the blind. Among blind people who are employed, 85 percent are Braille readers.[6] In 1931 the Pratt-Smoot Act centralized the collection and housing of the very small number of individually produced Braille books then existing in the United States.[7] But even though library services have been made available to blind people on a national scale, the broad distribution of hard-copy Braille books is not feasible. Eighty-six years later, the unemployment rate among the blind in 2014 continued to hover around 60 percent.[8] Recognizing this fact, in acknowledgement of the importance of Braille literacy, the 114th Congress amended the Pratt-Smoot Act to authorize NLS to provide its patrons with refreshable Braille displays. A one-time appropriation of five million dollars to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped would: Enable NLS to purchase, through the bidding process, ten thousand refreshable Braille displays to be loaned to NLS patrons; Make Braille materials more widely available to blind Americans than ever before, thereby improving Braille literacy among blind Americans and leading to increased employability. Support Braille Literacy Cosponsor the NLS Appropriation for Refreshable Braille Displays. For more information, contact: Parnell Diggs, director of government affairs, National Federation of the Blind Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2222, email: pdiggs at nfb.org [1] "Number of Libraries in the United States." Professional Tools. 2015. Accessed December 12, 2016. http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet01. [2] United States Government Accountability Office. "Library Services for Those with Disabilities" Report to Congressional Committees. April 2016. [3] United States Government Accountability Office. "Library Services for Those with Disabilities" Report to Congressional Committees. April 2016. [4] United States Government Accountability Office. "Library Services for Those with Disabilities" Report to Congressional Committees. April 2016. [5] United States Government Accountability Office. "Library Services for Those with Disabilities" Report to Congressional Committees. April 2016. [6] Bell, E. C., & Mino, N. M. (2015). "Employment Outcomes for Blind and Visually Impaired Adults." Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 5(2). Retrieved from https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir15/jbir050202.html. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5241/5-85. [7] Pratt-Smoot Act, Pub. L. No. 71-787, ch. 400, 46 Stat. 1487 (1931) (codified as amended at 2 U.S.C. ?? 135a, 135a-1) [8] American Community Survey. www.disabilitystatistics.org. ---------- The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled ("Marrakesh Treaty") [1] An international copyright treaty will give blind Americans access to millions of published works and improve the distribution of books across the globe. Millions of Americans are being denied access to published works.[2] Despite the ability to convert print books into accessible formats like Braille, audio, and digital copies, over 95 percent of published works are unavailable to people with print disabilities.[3] Literacy and equal participation in society are critical elements of a fulfilling and independent life, but until uniformity is built into the international copyright system, blind Americans will be excluded from accessing works. A blind student seeking to learn Spanish will likely struggle to find an accessible format[4]; a work printed in English may have already been converted into an accessible format overseas, but because copies are not exchanged across borders, domestic entities might need to make a duplicate copy or just might deny access altogether by failing to reproduce the work. An uncoordinated legal approach prevents the cross-border exchange of accessible books. Unlike the United States, where copyright law includes the Chafee Amendment and other exceptions,[5] two-thirds of the world's nations do not have domestic copyright laws that permit making copies for the blind, limiting the number of works available in an accessible format. Moreover, many countries consider distribution of accessible copies an infringement as well, and even amongst nations that permit distribution, limitations vary. Instead of exchanging books across borders, works are needlessly duplicated, and circulation is significantly limited. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted to achieve this goal. On June 27, 2013, a diplomatic conference convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Morocco adopted the Marrakesh Treaty with enthusiastic support from the US delegation. The treaty, signed by the US on October 2, 2013, currently has eighty-eight signatories, has been ratified by twenty-five countries,[6] and has entered into force as of September 30, 2016.[7] The Marrakesh Treaty has broad stakeholder support. Blind people should have full and equal access to all works that enrich lives, further education, and share critical information; the treaty balances this priority with the interests of rights holders. WIPO's adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty was supported by American-based companies,[8] the international publishing community,[9] legal experts,[10] and blindness advocates.[11] The treaty will have tangible benefits for all involved. This is why Congress must act swiftly to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty and pass its associated implementing legislation. The Marrakesh Treaty calls for contracting parties to provide in their national copyright laws for a limitation or exception that allows for the: Reproduction of works by an authorized entity for the purposes of converting them into accessible format copies exclusively for beneficiary persons; Distribution of accessible format copies exclusively to beneficiary persons; Import of accessible format copies for the purposes of making them available domestically; and Export of accessible format copies for the purposes of making them available to a beneficiary person in another country. Remove Barriers to Access of Published Works. Support Ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty. For more information, contact: Gabe Cazares, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2206, email: gcazares at nfb.org [1]Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, June 28, 2013 http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/marrakesh/. [2] World Health Organization, Fact Sheet, Visual impairment and blindness, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/. Last modified August 2014. [3] World Blind Union, FAQ Sheets on UN and Human Rights Instruments, Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/resources/Pages/Global -Blindness-Facts.aspx. Last modified March 2014. [4] LaBarre, Scott. "Literacy Without Borders: The Road to Marrakesh," Braille Monitor, August/September 2013. "Originally I had planned on a double major in government and Spanish. Ultimately I dropped that Spanish major precisely because I could not get access to Spanish novels and other materials." https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm13/bm1308/bm13 0811.htm. [5] 17 U.S.C. ? 121. [6] World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO-Administered Treaties webpage http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=843. Last modified on October 6, 2016. [7] World Intellectual Property Organization, Marrakesh Notification No. 21 Entry into Force http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/notifications/marrakesh/treaty_ma rrakesh_21.html. Last modified on June 30, 2016. [8] Association of American Publishers, Statement on Completion of WIPO Treaty, Press Release, June 27, 2013. http://publishers.org/press/112/. [9] International Publishers Association, Closing Statement by the International Publishers Association, 27 June 2013. http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/stories/copyright/s tatements/closing_statementFinal.pdf. [10] American Bar Association, Resolution 100, August 11, 2014. http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/mental_ physical_disability/2014_hod_annual_100%20Marrakesh.authcheckdam.pdf [11] National Federation of the Blind, National Federation of the Blind Joins Stevie Wonder and World Blind Union Calling Upon International Negotiators to Conclude Successful Treaty for the Blind and Print Disabled, Press Release, June 24, 2014. https://nfb.org/national- federation-blind-joins-stevie-wonder-and-world-blind-union-calling- upon-international. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason] The Future of Braille is Refreshing! by Amy Mason From the Editor: This piece first appeared in the NFB Access Technology blog on January 3, 2017. Amy is an access technology specialist at the Jernigan Institute. Although her education did not start with a strong foundation in Braille, she was perceptive enough to identify the need and disciplined enough to learn the skill. Her observations about Braille are particularly timely given our emphasis on getting more refreshable Braille to blind patrons of the National Library Service and our wish to enable blind people to buy more technology themselves with the assistance of a federal tax credit. Here is what Amy has to say: Every year on January 4 we celebrate Louis Braille's birthday because of his invention of the Braille code-the most powerful and successful reading and writing system designed for the blind. It has given us freedom that only a scant 200 years ago we couldn't have imagined. It allows us to study the sacred and mull the mundane. From Christmas cards to Coraline, The Great Gatsby to grocery lists, the Bible to the beer menu, and everything in between, Braille has changed the fortunes of the blind by opening the written word to us. In the same way that Braille has transformed the lives of the blind, the refreshable Braille display has transformed the way that many of us use Braille. Braille displays make Braille portable so we can read anytime and anywhere. Automatic translation means any text can be Braille in a few moments, so even text messages and face-to-face communications for the deaf- blind can be Brailled instantly. I learned Braille just about the time Braille displays were beginning to become more commonplace, and I am deeply thankful that I did because I don't know that I would have met with as much success as I have if I hadn't had access to refreshable Braille. I began learning the code in the latter half of my high school career, and through the support of some amazing role models from the NFB of Nebraska who inspired me to practice (a lot), I learned to read about forty words per minute before starting college. Unfortunately my nomadic university experience did not provide me with much space or time to spend with Braille books, and my speed and comprehension suffered. Fortunately two opportunities were presented to me before I returned to college for my junior year. First, I was able to attend the Colorado Center for the Blind, and second, I was able to get my hands on a Braille notetaker with a display. I credit these two opportunities with my literacy today. If I had not had the time to keep Braille under my fingers for an extended period of time, I could have never improved, and the notetaker was a huge part of that for me. Because of the Braille display, I was able to practice whenever I found a free moment-on the bus, between appointments, and in bed- I was reading. I could quickly and easily get my hands on all sorts of documents, long and short. In a word, it was magical. Because of all of this practice, my speed increased to just above one hundred words per minute. I can't imagine going back to working without a Braille display. I wouldn't be nearly as efficient or as good at my job, and I know many others who would agree. Refreshable Braille is sadly still very expensive, though prices have improved some over the last ten years. The cost of forty-cell displays now average about $3,000, but advances in technology mean a better price is on the near horizon. I cannot express how exciting this is. A few years ago the National Federation of the Blind and several other blindness organizations decided it was time to make a significant change to the cost and availability of Braille and did so by creating the Transforming Braille Project. They donated money, time, and testers to the process of finding a cheaper way to produce refreshable Braille, and the first fruits of this partnership are coming to market shortly. The Orbit Reader is a twenty-cell display which employs a new method of raising and lowering the dots. The new cells use less electricity, increasing the display's battery life, and they are less expensive to create than traditional refreshable Braille cells. The new cells also refresh one at a time and remain very firm when dots are raised. The Orbit Reader will work with all major screen readers (mobile and desktop) that support Braille today, and its cost will be just under $500 for twenty cells of Braille. The NFB will be selling the Orbit Reader! Details are coming soon. The Orbit Reader won't meet everyone's needs, but in a very real way it is opening the door to more affordable refreshable Braille. Given my own transformative experience with Braille displays, I am a firm believer in what these devices can do for others. I can't wait to see them in the hands of Braille readers who were unable to afford them previously. Whether the Orbit Reader is the device you've been looking for or another display would better suit your needs, the access technology team would love to help you learn what is possible when it comes to refreshable Braille. The International Braille and Technology Center houses a wide variety of devices including simple Braille terminals, smart Braille displays, and full-fledged notetakers, so if you have been wanting to learn more about a specific device or just about what refreshable Braille can do for you, please feel free to reach out to us at access at nfb.org, or the Access Technology Answer Line (410) 659-9314 option 5. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: June Maurer speaks to parents at the 2009 National Convention.] In Remembrance of June Maurer by Marc Maurer From the Editor: June Maurer is the mother of Immediate Past President Marc Maurer. Some of you will remember her from national conventions. Still others will remember her from part of a story that appeared in one of our Kernel Books. We will include it at the end of June's obituary: June Maurer was born on November 28, 1923, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Adolph Davis and Ellen Bradshaw. June graduated from high school and went on to study chemistry at the University of Minnesota. June married Frederick V. Maurer in 1947, and they lived together in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Detroit, Michigan; Des Moines, Iowa; Boone, Iowa; and Bellevue, Iowa. Fred and June had six children, Peter (Laurie), Marc (Patricia), Max (Brenda), Matthew (Carol Bowman), Mary Ellen, and Mitchell (Theresa). She lost Fred in 1993 in Bellevue. In 2012 June moved to Westfield, Indiana, to be close to family, where she lived for the remainder of her life. She was preceded in death by her brothers William (Bill), Robert (Bud), and Paul Davis. June outlived all the relations in her generation and is survived by her six children, thirteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. June was a devout Catholic and a member of St. Patrick's of St. Paul Parish as a youngster; Sacred Heart Parish in Boone, Iowa, in the 1960's; and St. Joseph Parish in Bellevue, Iowa, from 1969 to 2012. June was deeply involved with each of these parishes, giving generously of her time and talent, and deriving deep spiritual benefit. June was an avid hobbyist, dabbling in many areas, and delving deeply in a few. She was a fast and creative knitter, a fine seamstress, a good cook, an avid reader, and she was well known for her love of singing and dancing. There are many layettes and mittens in the world thanks to June's fast hands. June loved to travel, be that near or far. She traveled extensively both domestically and abroad. She loved to go and have a good time. Her friends counted on her as a steady, willing companion, no matter where they might be going. Those who knew June well remember her loud, unique, and frequent laugh. You could find her in a crowd from that laugh. In her later years she was part of the Foster Grandparents tutoring program and became known to many youngsters as "Gramma June." Gramma June is now in the hands of God. She will be missed by those who loved her. [PHOTO CAPTION: June Maurer hugs her son at the 1998 National Convention.] Editor's Note: Of all the many wonderful memories that Marc Maurer has of his mother, he shares two that convey the essential warmth, intelligence, and strength his mother had and shared with the world: I was in the first grade. There were sixteen of us-two rows of eight. I was the sixth person back in the first row. We all got our Dick and Jane books, and the first child in the first row was asked to read page one. By the time it came to me, I had heard page one five times. I put my hands on the page and recited. For this performance I was invited up front to receive a gold star on page one of my book. My teacher urged me to take the book home with me on the weekend to show my mother what I had done. My mother asked me if she could borrow the book, and I gave it to her. My mother had learned Braille because she thought she might need it to communicate with me. Later during the weekend she gave me a piece of Braille paper that had lines of Braille on it, and she asked me to read it. I could not. She told me that the page contained an exact copy of page one of my Dick and Jane book. In the summer months between my first and second grade years, my mother sat me on the couch in the living room for an hour each day to teach me to read Braille. I was most annoyed by this because nobody else in the family had homework in the summer. Nevertheless, I learned to read Braille. It has been both a joyous skill to use and a most useful one for accomplishing the work that I do. These moms sometimes have a great deal of sense. Final Reflections: I visited with my mom the week before she died. For three weeks before I had come she had remained in bed and spent most of her time asleep. She was not able to sit up while I was there, but at times she was animated, and she appeared to be singing with us. Because her mind had deteriorated, it was not possible to understand the words she was singing, but it was quite evident that she was enjoying herself, and she smiled. When my mom died, I reflected that she loved to travel. She always liked to go to new places and to have new experiences, and she had faith in God and in God's goodness in creating Paradise. I feel certain that she wanted to travel on this most joyous trip to learn about what God had in store for her. My mom often prayed for me. For those who want to remember her, a prayer would be good. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ray McAllister cradles a newborn baby girl he helped deliver.] A Dream is Born by Ray McAllister From the Editor: Monitor readers may remember Ray McAllister as the winner of a Bolotin Award at the 2016 National Convention. He was one of the Semitic Scholars whose efforts have created the tools to allow future blind scholars to study works in ancient languages. In August of 2010 he received a PhD in Hebrew Scriptures. Dr. McAllister is totally blind, so he's the first blind PhD from Andrews University's seminary and the first totally blind person in the world to get a PhD in Hebrew Scriptures. He teaches distance education religion classes for Andrews University, but he isn't just a scholar focusing on the past. Ray chose to take a rather nontraditional path as both a blind person and a man, choosing to become a part of a most amazing everyday event that shapes the future: the birth of a child. In December, 2014, he became the first totally blind, male, certified birth doula trained to assist a woman during childbirth. Here is how he describes the journey to become a massage doula: For years I've dreamed of witnessing the birth of a baby. I have no children, and my wife is past childbearing age. Since I'm totally blind, sitting in the back of a delivery room while someone's having a baby wouldn't be helpful. So, in 2014, I took the journey to become a certified massage doula, most likely the first totally blind, male, certified doula. On this journey I would not only witness births but make a difference for three women in what some would consider the most difficult day of their lives. In June 2014 my wife Sally and I discovered the Institute of Somatic Therapy on the internet. This online distance education school has a program for training massage therapists to become massage doulas. A doula assists in childbirth to see to the comfort of the woman having the baby. A massage doula does this but incorporates all the skills of massage to have a special edge in reducing the pain, stress, and length of labor. Since I had been a licensed massage therapist for over a year, this looked like an excellent program. Even though male doulas are rare, I signed up the next day. I've always been the type to do things considered outside the box. I also agreed to help adapt this program so it would be accessible to blind people. Within a couple weeks I had completed the first steps of the program, theoretical and practical, becoming a certified prenatal massage therapist. Then I began actually studying the materials for becoming a massage doula. Learning the theory was easy. I read the materials with my screen reader, as I had done in the earlier part of the course. A female massage therapist showed me various birthing positions and techniques. One time we had to have Sally join us so this therapist could help me understand how two people can easily assist a woman into a pushing position. Meanwhile, I was writing down descriptions of all this for the blind using proper technical medical terminology, which anyone with massage training could clearly interpret. I passed the academic test for the doula course shortly after. Then came the difficult part of the journey: finding three pregnant women who would accept a blind male as their doula. None of the pregnant women I knew from my church or as friends were interested. I was offering free prenatal and post-partum massage care, and that didn't even get anyone's attention. Next I reached out to a homeless shelter where I had preached in the past and done infant massages when I was in massage school. There I found a resident who was very receptive to my offer to assist in the birth of her first child. Soon this resident referred another pregnant friend of hers to me, and by that time I was also waiting for two women to go into labor at about the same time. In fact I had to warn them that if they went into labor on the same day, I'd have to choose only one of them. On October 13, Canadian Thanksgiving Day, at 2 AM, my wife and I got the call that the first woman was at the hospital, about ready to start pushing. Just ten days after I helped her push, her friend went into labor with her first child, and I spent all day helping comfort her through labor and supported her through pushing. A few weeks later I was introduced to a friend of this woman who was almost due. On the day before American Thanksgiving, I had to interrupt the making of my pumpkin pie because she went into labor with her third child. Being part of all three births was the most amazing experience. I heard a baby's first cry. After one of them, the doctor who delivered the baby let me feel the placenta through my rubber gloves. A blind person won't get to see what that looks like on a television documentary. All the women reported that I had helped them significantly with everything from preparing for labor to easing labor pains to giving guidance through pushing. My blindness was not a hindrance. My Braille-reader's touch enabled me to provide effective relaxation, and I could lightly joke about how I don't peek. Truly, we all had much to be thankful for. Now I am a certified massage doula. I don't know exactly where this path will take me. I may find paying customers, and/or I may work for free for those who really need the support but could not possibly afford it. If a blind person really wishes to experience the miracle of birth and has a compassionate heart, doula work is probably the only way in to a delivery environment. Even if it is just for the three births for certification, the memories and experience will last me a lifetime. Update: It's now 2016. I have assisted in six births. Early this year I visited an area hospital's birth simulation lab. There they have a mechanical model of a woman having a baby. I could feel how the baby moves and turns during contractions and what the different birth presentations like breech really look like. ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Courtney Cole] Stand Up by Courtney Cole From the Editor: Courtney is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia. However, after a move in high school due to her father's military career, she fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. She now attends Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, studying psychology. She is on the staff of Rooted in Rights, a Disability Rights Washington program, where she works as a creative production intern to help in the production of media which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities. She is a member of her state affiliate of the NFB and has been elected vice president of the Association of Blind Students for her state. In her spare time she enjoys writing her blog, playing ukulele, and singing. Like Courtney herself, her article is short but powerful. Here is what she has to say: Everything feels surreal right now. I've spent the past two days at Seattle University, my new school, for orientation. My new school. It's still sinking in, as you can probably tell. It's so incredible because I sincerely, in all honesty, did not think I would live to see life after high school. I'm sure many of you can relate. In fact I think everyone feels that way at some point during secondary school. Now that time is over. I've finally stepped into the chapter of my life where people really start to define themselves, and I'm so excited. I know I have stars in my eyes for something brand new and that eventually it will become a place where I have a routine. In other words, the honeymoon phase will end. Of all the information I learned at orientation, I can't help but feel excited about how I walked with my cane confidently, how I introduced myself to others, and how I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. There was a portion of the orientation where we all assembled to discuss diversity. The speaker would say statements, and if it applied to you, you would stand. For me it pointed out that we are all very different, but we all have unique challenges and components to our lives that make us who we are. "If you have or live with someone who has a disability, please stand." To many of the students there the activity may have felt like a waste of time or just too invasive. Most of them probably thought it was stupid, and yeah, maybe it was a little melodramatic. There was a time when I would have felt the same, but yesterday I couldn't. I was too busy standing as tall as my four-foot-eleven stature would allow. In that moment, I realized that I am nothing but proud and confident about who I am. Everyone has their own challenges, and mine have made me who I am. I'm no longer ashamed or apologetic because I have different abilities from everyone else. This is all to say, "Do not be like me." Don't wait until you are eighteen years old to feel comfortable in your skin and to be proud of who you are. And if you're older than eighteen, do not wait another second. Time putting yourself down and not loving yourself is wasted time, and, in addition, you are preventing yourself from so much. You're going to make mistakes, and you have flaws. We all do. But you will never learn from them if you're consumed with punishing yourself. Don't be your own worst enemy. Be proud of who you are, and don't let anyone dictate how you feel about yourself. Stand up, and start moving. ---------- Community Service Division Works with Habitat for Humanity by Darian Smith From the Editor: Darian Smith is the president of the National Federation of the Blind Community Service Division. The purpose of the division is to show that blind people are more than takers and that real integration means taking our place as responsible givers. Here is one example of the way the division put this philosophy into action in 2016 as related by Darian: Earlier this month Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando asked our Community Service Division to work with them to contribute an article for its October newsletter. The newsletter is a paper publication, but I was able to work with their Marketing and Communications Manager to get a text copy of the article which is included below. Building without Boundaries Earlier this summer the National Federation of the Blind joined us on our build site for a day of volunteering. It was just like any other morning on our build site with our construction team working beside volunteers and ready to assist whenever needed. We welcome all volunteers with open arms and hearts, and this group truly proved that their blindness did not limit their ability to lend a hand and help build homes, communities, and hope. Our task for the day was hanging drywall, which requires strong communication and a lot of teamwork. The group jumped right in, and with some minor modifications, such as using black markers to indicate where to put screws and creating small divots to be used for drills, they got all of the sheets hung! For most of the volunteers, it was their first time working with a power tool. "Once we arrived, we-like any other group-were a little nervous, not knowing just what the work would entail. Once we learned the type of work we would be doing and just how to do it, we soon found it to be second nature," said Darian Smith, president of the National Federation of the Blind Community Service Division. The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines a blind person or his or her future and that all blind people can live the lives they want. By joining with one another on service projects, the Community Service Division aims to use service as a means to show that the blind have the talent and desire to better the world we live in. Through engaging in collective action, they are able to improve the lives of blind people all across the country, with love, hope, and determination. Every day, they transform dreams into reality. ---------- Across the World by Matt Jepsen From the Editor: Matt Jepsen lives in Moscow, Idaho, with his wife Erin and their four children. He works as a computer programmer with a local company called Populi. Matt is quite involved with the NFB of Idaho through his wife Erin and their daughter Abi, both of whom are blind. In the future he would like to do more work providing canes and Braille Bibles in local languages in Ethiopia and would welcome any information or contacts of people also working to that end. He can be reached at moscowcoffeereview at gmail.com. Here is what he says: Life always takes unexpected twists and turns, but I never would have predicted finding myself on a plane to Ethiopia with a suitcase full of white canes and Braille slates! In fact, six years ago I knew almost nothing about Ethiopia other than the fact that it was located in East Africa and occasionally cropped up in the international news. I didn't even know that the most common language was called Amharic. A few years ago we decided to adopt a little blind girl from Ethiopia, and that is how our interest in the people and culture of Ethiopia began. Having two biological children already and a third adopted domestically, we decided to adopt a fourth, this time abroad. My wife Erin has a visual impairment that prevents her from driving or easily reading print and has been an enthusiast for blind mobility skills since she was young. She is also a certified Braille transcriber. Because of this background and knowledge, we decided we would really like to adopt a blind child. After slogging through mountains of paperwork and walking over the emotional mountains and trenches that accompany international adoption, in 2011 we traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to appear in court and meet our new daughter Elizabeth. That was five years ago, and our daughter is eight years old now. In the meantime, my wife has taught her to read (she just finished the entire Little House on the Prairie series) and taught her to get around town independently with a white cane (age appropriately, of course!). Because we learned to love her country and culture as we tried to preserve some of it in her life, I read many books about Ethiopian culture and history, and we both used books and homemade flashcards to learn as much of the local language as we could. What I discovered along the way is that, while Ethiopia is a large country (about twice the size of Texas) of nearly 100 million people, almost nobody there is doing anything to serve the blind population. There are plenty of NGOs [non-governmental organizations] there digging wells and supporting mothers with HIV, but the blind are very marginalized. Every once in a while a team of doctors will fly over for a week and give a few hundred people cataract surgeries, restoring a handful of people's vision overnight, but for those who cannot be healed by medicine (and there are several million), the prospects are rather grim and far behind those found in much of the rest of the world. Over the past few years my wife and I have tossed around the idea of returning to Ethiopia to help with education and advocacy for blind people who live there. After a lot of phone calls and some serendipitous encounters over the past year, I connected with a couple of local Ethiopians who had only recently begun to organize for the same purpose. Berhanu Belay is an energetic man leading one of these efforts. He is blind himself from childhood and attended one of the only schools for the blind in the country, established by the last emperor, Haile Selassie, in the 1960s. When communist rebels took over the country during the 70s and 80s, concern for the blind declined severely, and the school has been neglected. Berhanu's organization, Zena Wengal, is a specifically Christian ministry, but nevertheless is working to improve the lives of blind people regardless of their religion. With all this in mind, I decided to travel to Ethiopia in October of 2016 for several weeks to contribute and learn as much as I could. I wanted to take some immediately useful materials, so I collected used and new collapsible canes donated by other NFB members in our town, as well as small ones that my daughter had outgrown. Beverly Cook, a blind woman from southern California who runs an organization called Global Cane Outreach, was also able to provide me with many canes for the trip. I was able to fill one suitcase with nearly forty canes. Additionally, I took a pipe cutter with me so adult canes could be cut to size for some of the younger kids. I also acquired over thirty metal Braille slates using money donated by our local NFB chapter, along with several jingle soccer balls, a Perkins Brailler, and some solar-powered audio units containing the Bible in Amharic and Oromifa, the other most widely-used language in the region. I also arranged to meet with some of my adopted daughter's relatives while I was there so I could learn more about her family and past. It felt like such a small gesture, but my gifts were enthusiastically received, and I had a wonderful time learning as much as I could during the two weeks I was there. Most of the materials went to a school for the blind in the town of Sebeta, about an hour outside of Addis Ababa. There, about 300 blind students reside, all gathered from the rural areas of the country. On average, one in four children had a Braille slate to use in class, so they spent a lot of time taking turns. Most of the children used wooden sticks to serve as canes. Because traffic accidents on the unpredictable streets are the number one cause of injury, having a white high-reflective cane is especially valuable. The children I met surprised and delighted me by acting just like children do the world over, sighted or blind. Some teenage boys, with arms linked together to help them not trip on things, joked around in between classes. Some teen girls listened to Ethiopian pop music on a cell phone one of them had. Surprisingly, everyone has a cell phone. Old-style flip phones can be had for only about $10 and use reloadable time cards. Some younger girls sang and played a clapping game together outside their dormitory. A Muslim girl wearing a hijab studiously copied down notes using a slate and stylus. Some younger boys played soccer using an old plastic jug that was remarkably easy to hear on the pavement. Lunch for everyone was a huge pot of lentil stew cooked over an open fire in the smoky kitchen. Only the most fierce and clever students are able to advance on to college and with luck get a job as a public school teacher making approximately $150 a month. Most of the volunteers I met were people who had been fortunate and resilient enough to make it to that point and who wanted to give back to the next generation. For the rest of the children, they might be able to work making brooms or baskets, but many will end up on the streets begging. The idea that the blind can lead normal, productive lives is not something found much in the public's imagination, and consequently in the minds of blind people themselves. By giving them canes and training, teaching them Braille, and telling them that they matter, we hope to plant a seed that can grow into a brighter future for them and for their families. I'm back in the USA now but am still thinking about the kind and beautiful Ethiopian people. I'd love to go back for a longer-term stay, although our children are still young, and it may be a few years before we are able to do much additional volunteer work there. In the meantime, my wife and I bought an older embosser on eBay and are working on producing some useful Braille materials in the Oromifa language that currently don't exist. A woman I met there named Meseret hopes to repair a closet full of Perkins Braillers that have been lying dormant for many years, and we will be sending her some tools and spare parts. My wife will continue homeschooling Elizabeth and helping her become more independent. If I may be allowed a quick brag, I'm pleased to report that she has been devouring her Braille copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and yesterday she climbed over forty feet straight up the rock climbing wall at our local university's recreation center. Through it all we've been very thankful for the support and friends we made through the NFB, especially our local chapter. Who knew that a little effort here could spread halfway across the world? I certainly didn't. I'm looking forward to what the future holds. ---------- Dots from Space! Voices from the Past by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer From the Editor: This is episode three from our monthly serial "Dots from Space!" If you missed episodes one and two, refer to the January and February issues. Some time later, as the intrepid crew continues their explorations, they find themselves in a large room with shining glass windows stretching all the way up to the ceiling. A once-stately wooden desk and leather office furniture, showing the signs of age and neglect, are positioned in the center of a semicircle comprised of fifteen chairs. Strewn among the chairs and across the surface of the desk are small structures made from miniature interlocking building blocks, while an enormous glass jar of candy-coated chocolates sits half-empty on the desk. The first officer rotates slightly as he considers the scene before them. Deep in concentration he stretches out a limb and uses two fingers to stroke what appears to be a small pointy beard on his nonexistent chin. It squeaks softly in the hushed room. "The room appears to have been abandoned, Captain," he says in an authoritative voice. "Indeed, Commander Point. Just like the rest of the building, perhaps?" the captain's exasperation is apparent. "Yes, er... I mean no, Captain. This room was obviously abandoned in a hurry in the middle of some strange ritual." Squeak, squeak, squeak. "An astute observation, as usual, Commander," replies Doctor Spot. Spot then turns to the fifth member of the group and asks, "How are you making out on reactivating that primitive computing device, Lieutenant- Commander Jot?" "Almost got it now, Doctor?" says a cheerful voice under the desk as ominous sparks light up the murky room. Suddenly the computer screen comes to life, and a voice from the past echoes in the long-abandoned room. As the voices from long-ago waft among the crew members, a faint squeaking sound can be heard. "Knock it off, Commander!" barks the captain. "I want to hear this!" "Oh, sorry!" A small pop can be heard as the commander quickly retracts the arm back into his body. LEGO and the Pattern of Experience [Video transcription] [Son] So, we're also going to need one base plate. [Father] Got it. [Son] And we're also going to need one two-by-one flat, please. [Father] So this base plate is eight-by-sixteen. [Son] A one-by-two flat. [Father] A one-by-two flat? [Son] Yes. [Father] Hello, I'm Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. I'm also a blind person who is a father of three children. It was shocking to me the first time in one of our science programs in the National Federation of the Blind when we were doing an activity, we were trying to get kids to build models that they were going to test with LEGOs, and these were high school students, and we found that some of them had never built with LEGOs before. And it was a little astonishing to learn that blind kids, especially ones that were interested in science, technology, engineering, and math just hadn't had the opportunity to learn concepts of engineering, building, spatial relationship, simply from playing with LEGOs. So it got me interested in what we could do in our organization to build greater opportunities, and one of the things that we decided we wanted to do was find ways to communicate the instructions for LEGOs, which are often presented visually in alternative ways. So I started with my son, developing a language that we use to describe different pieces. That's the way we build together; we look for different pieces together, we talk about the types of pieces we need-the key is using a common language. [Son] Put the stud one in the corner. This one up here. This corner. [Father] This stud one? [Son] No. Yeah, that one right in the corner. [Father] Right there. [Son] Okay, then put the flat piece across. [Father] Across? [Son] Yeah sort of across it. No not like that. Just get it down onto, next to it. [Father] Next to it? Like that? [Son] Yeah, good. And then put the studded one right underneath the end of that one, of the flat. [Father] Over here? [Son] Wrong, wrong, wrong. Right under it. [Father] Under it? In the middle? [Son] No, right here, man. [Father] At the end? [Son] Yeah, at the end. That's what I'm saying. Okay. [Father] One thing I think is really important is just letting children have the opportunity to build. So often in society it's focused on our kids building the right way, following the right instructions. But, you know, when I first as a blind child started playing with LEGOs, the focus wasn't on building sets. It was on just getting a bunch of bricks and building things from your imagination and starting to learn the concepts of building. And I think that's particularly important for getting blind children engaging with building. And it can teach so many great spatial concepts. [Son] And now we need one jointed double one-by-one, one-by-two joints. [Father] One-by-two jointed. Oh. Like this thing? [Son] No, but it's connected like one of these except, no, oh yeah. One of these except a different color. [Father] Oh, that's a jointed. [Son] Yes. And then we also need two four-by-one stud flats. [Father] What color? [Son] Gray. [Father] I just think LEGOs provide particularly a very fun and interactive way to teach spatial concepts, building concepts, that are very useful for everybody. And besides, they're a lot of fun, don't you think? [Son] I think that LEGOs are really awesome, and if there weren't LEGOs, the world would be pretty boring. [Father] So what do you think about building with me? [Son] I think that it's fun even though you can't see. I think that it's good to have the opportunity to build with somebody who has experience and knows how to build, what to do. [Father] So what did you learn from building with me? [Son] That you don't always have to follow the instructions. Just be creative. Build whatever you want. As the soundtrack of the video fades, Ensign Bean begins to bounce excitedly. "Counselor! This must be how they taught their young! This was some kind of mentoring ritual!" "I think you may be right, Ensign," Counselor Mote concedes. "A truly creative way to impart some important life lessons." [Note: Link to video https://youtu.be/0ncVyVcAG9o] ---------- The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris From the Editor: Allen Harris is the chairman of the Kenneth Jernigan Fund Committee and was one of the people who came up with the idea of honoring our former president and longtime leader by establishing a program to promote attendance at the national convention, where so much inspiration and learning occur. Here is Allen's announcement about the 2017 Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Program: Have you always wanted to attend an NFB annual convention but have not done so because of the lack of funds? The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund invites you to make an application for a scholarship grant. Perhaps this July you too can be in the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, enjoying the many pleasures and learning opportunities at the largest and most important yearly convention of blind people in the world. The three biggest ticket items you need to cover when attending an NFB national convention are the roundtrip transportation, the hotel room for a week, and the food (which tends to be higher priced than at home). We attempt to award additional funds to families, but, whether a family or an individual is granted a scholarship, this fund can only help; it won't pay all the costs. Last year most of the sixty grants were in the range of $400 to $500 per individual. We recommend that you find an NFB member as your personal convention mentor, someone who has been to many national conventions and is able to share money-saving tips with you and tips on navigating the extensive agenda in the big hotel. Your mentor will help you get the most out of the amazing experience that is convention week. Who is eligible? Active NFB members, blind or sighted, who have not yet attended an NFB national convention because of lack of funding are eligible to apply. How do I apply for funding assistance? 1. You write a letter giving your contact information, and your local NFB information, your specific amount requested, and then explain why this is a good investment for the NFB. The points to cover are listed below. 2. You contact your state president in person or by phone to request his or her help in obtaining funding. Be sure to tell the president when to expect your request letter by email, and mention the deadline. 3. You (or a friend) send your letter by email to your state president. He or she must add a president's recommendation and then email both letters directly to the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Committee. Your president must forward the two letters no later than April 15, 2015. Your letter to Chairperson Allen Harris must cover these points: .Your full name, and all your telephone numbers and label them-cell phone, home, office, other person (if any). .Your mailing address and, if you have one, your email address. .Your state affiliate and state president; your chapter and chapter president, if you attend a chapter. .Your personal convention mentor, and provide that person's phone number. .Your specific request: Explain how much money you need from this fund to make this trip possible for you. We suggest you consult with other members to make a rough budget for yourself. The body of your letter should answer these questions: How do you currently participate in the Federation? Why do you want to attend a national convention? What would you receive; what can you share or give? You can include in your letter to the committee any special circumstances you hope they will take into consideration. When will I be notified that I am a winner? If you are chosen to receive this scholarship, you will receive a letter with convention details that should answer most of your questions. The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May 15, but you must do several things before that to be prepared to attend if you are chosen. 1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from attending, you can cancel the reservation. (Yes, you may arrange for roommates of your own to reduce the cost.) 2. Register online for the entire convention, including the banquet, by May 31. 3. Find someone in your chapter or affiliate who has been to many conventions and can answer your questions as a friend and advisor. 4. If you do not hear from the committee by May 15, then you did not win a grant this year. How will I receive my convention scholarship? At convention you will be given a debit card or credit card loaded with the amount of your award. The times and locations to pick up your card will be listed in the letter we sent you. The committee is not able to provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and state affiliate to assist you by obtaining an agreement to advance funds if you win a scholarship and to pay your treasury back after you receive your debit or credit card. What if I have more questions? For additional information email the chairman, Allen Harris, at or call his Baltimore, Maryland, office at (410) 659-9314, extension 2415. Above all, please use this opportunity to attend your first convention on the national level and join several thousand active Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind in the world. We hope to see you in Orlando. ---------- Independence Market Corner The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind people. This month we want to highlight a product we have carried for a while: the PenFriend 2 Voice Labeling System. A tool for labeling and organizing various household items, this pen-shaped device, approximately six inches long and one inch in diameter, records voice labels of varying lengths and associates them with stick-on labels. The unit has four gigabytes of internal memory, which allows for up to 125 hours of recording time. The memory capacity can be increased by replacing the included micro SD card with one up to sixteen gig. 127 stick-on labels of assorted sizes and three magnetic labels are included. Individual recordings can be up to an hour long. Label playback may be paused and resumed, but rewinding and fast-forwarding are not possible. Labels can be re-recorded and additional label packages are available for purchase. Features include volume control, an external speaker, a headphone jack, and a lanyard. Audio instructions are built into the packaging and are accessed with the PenFriend itself. This audio labeling tool can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks. From labeling cooking spices; packaged, canned, and frozen foods; medications; CDs and DVDs; AC adaptors; to files and important papers, only the user's imagination will limit what one can accomplish with this device. For example, when labeling medications, place the label on the cap, so the cap can be switched out for the next refill of a prescription. If the prescription changes, simply re-record the label. One might want to follow the same procedure with cooking spices. One may not want to place the label directly on canned goods and other one-time use items, since the labels are reusable and re-recordable. The Independence Market carries plastic food labels, originally designed for Brailling, which attach to cans and packages using elastic. As it turns out, these labels are perfect to create reusable PenFriend labels. One could even combine the two labeling methods by creating a Braille label for boxed brownie mix and using the PenFriend label for the preparation instructions. Some people have even used an arrangement of PenFriend labels to create address books, calendars, and to- do lists. PenFriend laundry labels are also available for purchase. After the adhesive has had a chance to bond with the fabric, the labels can go through the washer and dryer. However, they are not suitable for garments that have to be dry-cleaned. Record the care instructions as well as a description of the clothing item and note what other garments match it. It's obvious that the PenFriend is a very useful device, especially to those who don't know or can't read Braille. With some creativity, the PenFriend can serve as an invaluable organizing tool. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- Recipes In February Federationists traveled to Washington, DC, to speak with their Congressmen about legislation that we in the National Federation of the Blind are supporting. But speaking to legislators is not something that can happen only once a year in the nation's capital. With that in mind, this month we went back into the archives to offer up a selection of refreshments suitable for setting out when entertaining your local politicians, regardless their office. NFB Tea by Kenneth Jernigan Somewhere around 1970, when the national office of the Federation was at the Randolph Hotel building in Des Moines, I began making a concoction which I called NFB Tea. I served it to the first seminar, which occurred in the fall of 1973, and I served it in the presidential suite at National Conventions. Some admired it; others couldn't tolerate it; but everybody knew about it. Then, as the seventies passed into history and the eighties came and went, the custom of serving NFB Tea at conventions and seminars faded. However, there are those who pine "for the good old days" and long to see a revival of the soothing brew. They continue to ask that the recipe for the NFB Tea appear in the Monitor. When I remind them that I put it into the Monitor sometime early in the seventies, they simply respond with annoyance, saying that they don't remember it, don't have that edition of the Monitor, or don't want to be bothered with irrelevancies. Since the recipe is now quite different from what it was when it appeared in the Monitor a decade and a half ago and since the requests continue, it seems worthwhile to print it again. So here it is as revised: You can make as much or as little NFB Tea as you want by increasing or decreasing the quantity of the three basic ingredients. Just keep the proportions the same. Pour equal parts of pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice or cranberry cocktail into a large container. If you don't intend to use at least as much as a forty-six-ounce can of each of these juices, it hardly seems worth the bother, not to mention which it will be difficult not to over flavor. After you mix these three basic juices, the fun begins. I usually add about one-third as much peach or apricot nectar and one-third as much apple juice as I have used of each of the three basic ingredients. Sometimes (but not always) I also add a small amount of pear nectar if I have it, about half as much as I have used of the apple or peach. Then I begin to sweeten the mixture with either sugar or sugar substitute and add flavors, tasting as I go. I regard certain flavorings as indispensable, but NFB Tea is a highly flexible brew, which should be crafted to the taste of the brewer. I always use vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I use liquid cinnamon and nutmeg, and if I don't have the liquid, I make it by heating the ground spice in water as strong as I can and straining it. Next I add small amounts of a large variety of other flavorings. I emphasize that you should begin with only dribs and drabs. Remember that you can always put more in; once it's there, you can't take it out. The mixture of flavors will depend on the whim of the moment and what I have handy. But I will always use at least eight or nine in addition to the cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Here are some of the ones I use: almond, Angostura bitters, anise, apple pie spice, arrack flavoring, banana, blackberry, blackcurrant, blueberry, brandy flavor, butternut, butterscotch, butter rum, caramel, cherry, peach, chocolate, clove, coconut, coffee flavor, English toffee, a tiny amount of ginger, hickory nut, lemon, pineapple, lime, maple, orange, orange bitters, pear, pecan, pistachio, pumpkin pie spice, root beer, rose, rum flavor, sassafras, violet, sherry flavor, strawberry, tangerine, walnut, and most anything else I can find. I don't use mint, eucalyptus oil, or wintergreen. It will also be observed that NFB Tea contains no tea. When I first started making the brew in the early seventies, I used Lipton tea, but I abandoned the practice before the end of the decade. It had to do with some of my Mormon friends and also with my evolving taste. I like it better without the tea. When the mixture has been thoroughly concocted and tasted, a good deal of ice should be added and stirred in. All that remains is to enjoy the product and try different proportions next time, but not different proportions among the three basic ingredients-pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice or cocktail. And no omission of the three basic flavorings- vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Anything else goes. ---------- Ginger Lime Punch by Carol Clark This recipe was originally published in July 1993 and introduced with this: Carol Clark has been a member of the NFB since the mid-1960s. She is currently the president of the Johnson County Chapter of the NFB of Kansas, as well as a state board member. Ingredients: 2 6-ounce cans frozen limeade concentrate 1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate 1 tablespoon chopped candied ginger 4 cups cold water ice 1 large bottle of ginger ale, chilled Method: Pour concentrated limeade and lemonade into punch bowl; add ginger. Chill for at least two hours to blend flavors. Add cold water and ice. Pour ginger ale down sides of bowl. Fluted lemon slices, small lime slices, and mint sprigs may be floated in punch. Yields twenty servings. ---------- Luncheon Dessert by Alice Fornia This recipe was originally published in February 1972, where Alice Fornia was described as an active member of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of California. Ingredients: 8 Heath candy bars 1 pint of Cool Whip vanilla extract (optional) 12 lady fingers sliced in half Method: Crush or crumble Heath bars, be careful not to crush into powder or too fine. Small chunks make a chewier filling. Use a blender, a rolling pin, or cut into fine chunks with a paring knife. Line nine-inch pie plate with halves of lady fingers. Combine crushed candy bars with Cool Whip. Add vanilla to taste if desired. Spoon into lady-finger lined pie plate and place in refrigerator. Filling will become firm and dessert can be cut in pie-shaped pieces. Remember to keep dessert in refrigerator when not serving. ---------- Apple Nut Quick Bread Originally published in May 1987, this recipe came from the Capitol Chapter of the NFB of Ohio. Ingredients: 3 cups whole wheat flour 3 eggs 2 tablespoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon ginger 1 teaspoon allspice 1 cup milk 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 cup melted butter 1 cup chopped nuts 2 cups fresh chopped apples 1 cup honey Method: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease nine-by-five-by-three- inch loaf pan. Line bottom with waxed paper. Blend flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice together. Add honey, milk, and eggs. Blend well. Add melted butter and beat. Add nuts and apples; mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake fifty minutes to an hour. ---------- Kuchen by Tom Bickford From the December 1990 Monitor, this recipe had the following introduction: Concerning his activities as a chef, Tom Bickford says: "The second nicest thing my mother-in-law gave me was a set of recipes for German coffee cake called Kuchen. My wife Virginia and her entire family are of German origin, and they use the German pronunciation: two 'k' sounds, and the 'u' sounds like the double 'o' in 'food'. Also, whichever way the dough is topped off, it is still called Kuchen. Virginia tells me that in her teen years she baked Kuchen every Saturday morning, and by Sunday afternoon it was gone! In recent years I have taken up the weekend baking and often bake a double batch, twice the amount given here, just so I can get more than two or three rolls for myself. I admit that nothing smells or tastes as good as freshly baked bread. It is very flattering to have my family utter that smiling `mmm' and then help me eat up all my work. Just as I share the Kuchen with my family, so I share the recipes with you. Much love and good eating." -Tom Bickford, Sligo Creek Chapter, NFB of Maryland. Main Recipe for the Dough Ingredients: 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, scalded 6 tablespoons margarine 1/3 cup sugar 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1-1/2 to 2 packages dry yeast 5 to 5-1/2 cups flour Method: Scald the milk and set it aside to cool. In the meantime cream together the margarine, sugar, and salt. Stir in the eggs. Pour in the warm milk, and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to a smooth mixture. Stir in two cups of flour. Stir in another 2-1/2 cups of flour. Spread 1/2 cup of flour over the kneading board before pouring out the dough. Knead the dough about ten minutes to form a soft elastic dough. Put the dough in a lightly-greased bowl, then turn the dough to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with wax paper, then a dish towel, and put it in a warm place to rise. Let rise about 1-1/2 hours or until the dough is three to four times the original size. Shape the dough as described in the following recipes into rolls, buns, or fruit upside-down cake. Put the dough in greased baking pans and let rise in a warm place about forty-five minutes, or until it is about double in size. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty-five minutes, depending on the thickness of the shape. Makes about three dozen rolls. Your imagination is the only limitation for the shaping and the topping of this good dough. Kuchen Toppings In our kitchen when we divide the once-risen dough into thirds, we have suitable quantities for our cooking pans. Therefore, most of the following recipes use one-third of the dough. Fruit Upside-Down Coffee Cake (The Simplest) Into a greased nine-inch pan, square or round, pour one can of fruit pie mix. My favorite is cherry. Roll or stretch one-third of the once-risen dough to the size and shape to reach all edges of the pan. Let the dough rise again in a warm place about forty-five minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes. Turn out onto a plate immediately after baking. Apple Upside Down Coffee Cake (Even Better) Grease a nine-inch pan, square or round. In a separate bowl mix: 3/4 cup brown sugar, one tablespoon flour, and one teaspoon cinnamon. Spread this mix over the bottom of the pan. For the next layer use three cooking apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced. Roll or stretch one-third of the once-risen dough to fill the pan to the edges. Let the dough rise in a warm place about forty-five minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes. Turn out onto a plate immediately after baking. Caramel Pecan Rolls (My Favorite) First the gooey sauce. In a small saucepan simmer together for five minutes: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons margarine, 1 tablespoon white corn syrup, and 1 tablespoon water. Chop 3/4 to 1 cup pecans and cover the bottom of a greased nine-inch pan, deep dish if you have it, with the nuts. Pour the sauce over the nuts. Prepare a separate mixture of 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Melt 2 tablespoons margarine, and get out the pastry brush. Now the rolls: With a rolling pin, roll out 1/3 of the once-risen dough to a rectangle about 6 by 12 inches. Brush on the melted margarine, and spread on the mixed brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough into a long stick. At this stage I stretch out the rolled dough to about 16 inches. With a sharp knife cut off sections two fingers wide, and lay them (cut edge down) in the pan. Leave space for the dough to rise. Let the dough rise in a warm place about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty-five minutes. You may want to place a cookie sheet on the rack below to catch drips. Turn out the rolls onto a plate immediately unless you like chipping out the pan with a mallet and chisel. Makes one dozen rolls. Half Cut Circles Roll out one-third of the once-risen dough into a rectangle six-by- twelve-inches. Brush about 2 tablespoons of melted margarine over the dough. Spread on a mixture of 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. If you like, sprinkle with chopped nuts, raisins, or the like. Roll the dough into a long stick. Place the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet, and bend it into a circle. With a sharp knife, cut most but not all the way through the dough, making the sections two fingers wide. Bend alternate sections in and out of the circle. Let rise in a warm place about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for fifteen to twenty minutes. To serve, break off sections at the cuts. Buns in Patterns For this recipe you may use more or less than an even third of the once-risen dough. Grab off lumps of dough the size of a ping-pong ball and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet. Arrange them in a pattern, perhaps a tree, and allow space for the dough to rise. Let rise in a warm place about forty-five minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for fifteen to twenty minutes. After the buns are cool, frost them with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk. You might include a drop or two of food coloring. Exercise your imagination for designs and colors. ---------- Strawberry Almond Bars by Sue Drapinski When this was originally published in February 1991, Sue Drapinski was the treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan. Everyone who has tasted these cookies agrees that they are something special. Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1-1/2 cups oats (quick-cooking) 1 cup sugar 1 cup butter (or oleo) 1/2 cup jam (strawberry, raspberry, peach, or apricot) 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 2/3 cup slivered almonds Method: Mix together the first four ingredients until crumbly, and set aside two cups of the mixture. Press the rest evenly across the bottom of an ungreased nine-by-thirteen-inch pan. Stir together the jam with the almond extract and spread evenly on the crust. Next mix almonds with the reserved crumbly mixture and spread evenly across the top, pressing gently. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. Cool completely and cut into bars. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Braille Book Fair 2017: Calling all Braille readers, teachers, and parents! It's that time again: Time to sort through all those boxes of Braille books and donate those gently used but no longer needed Braille books to the 2017 Braille Book Fair sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. Our primary goal is to get more Braille books into the hands of children, youth, and beginning adult readers, so . print/Braille story books (aka Twin Vision) . books in good condition . leisure reading (fiction or nonfiction) books Children are so hungry for their very own books that every year, despite generous donations of books, most of our books for young children are gone in less than an hour. So, begin your search through the boxes in your basement and spare room and get those books shipped to: 2017 Braille Book Fair, National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230. Please note that you are shipping the books FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND; you do not need to pay shipping cost for Braille items. Hand write, stamp or affix a label to the upper right hand corner of the box stating: FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND. Take your package(s) to your local post office. There is no shipping fee for Free Matter for the Blind when mailed through the post office. Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions (BLIND) Inc. Post-secondary Readiness Empowerment Program (PREP) 2017 Learning+Recreation+Friends+Job=A Great Summer Apply today to PREP 2017, a summer program for all blind/low vision high school students! When: June 11-August 5, 2017 Where: BLIND Inc.: 100 East 22nd St., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 Application deadline: April 15, 2017 What: This exciting 8-week summer program is designed to prepare students to reach their personal, academic, and professional goals as they transition to adulthood. The PREP curriculum empowers blind youth as they learn the alternative techniques of blindness and develops the self- confidence needed to become successful adults! Instruction: The core classes include Braille reading and writing, independent cane travel, adaptive technology, career exploration, and home management, which includes cooking, cleaning, personal care, and daily living skills. Students also participate in regularly-scheduled discussion groups designed to build confidence and learn from blind peers and adults. PREP students live with fellow students and adult counselors in modern apartments with free Wi-Fi. Counselors and instructors serve as successful and positive role models. Students shop for groceries, prepare meals, and clean their apartments as part of their home and personal management training, while using public transportation on a daily basis. They begin to learn how to live independently while still in a supportive environment. Students develop problem-solving skills needed to take care of themselves and determine their own future! Getting A Job: This program includes a three-week paid internship experience. Students will utilize the skills they have developed while earning minimum wage, working approximately 20 hours per week in local businesses and agencies. National Convention: In July, PREP 2017 students will enjoy the exciting opportunity by accompanying BLIND Inc. staff and adult students as we travel to Orlando, Florida, to attend the week-long National Federation of the Blind convention. During this convention, our PREP students will join hundreds of other high school and college students from around the country when attending the National Association of Blind Students meeting. Students will also attend other meetings and seminars, learn about new groundbreaking technology, and get involved in social and recreational activities. This annual convention is packed full of great learning opportunities and fun experiences. Other Activities: Throughout the summer, the PREP students will also participate in a variety of fun activities, including going to Wild Mountain Water Park, camping, rock climbing, shopping at various malls, and much more. Don't worry; there will be plenty of time to hang out with old and new friends! Contact Michell Gip, youth services coordinator, at 612-872-0100, ext. 231, or email mgip at blindinc.org for more information or an application. We can assist you to work with your local vocational rehabilitation agency to attend the program. Information about our summer programs can also be found at https://www.blindinc.org/programs/summer/ Apply today to ensure your space in this program! Applications are due by April 15. Elected: The Central Florida Chapter of the NFB of Florida elected the following officers at their November meeting to serve a two-year term: president, Sherri Brun; vice president, Marilyn Baldwin; secretary, Jerry Heichelbeck; treasurer, James Evans; board members, Paulette Williams, Dan Weiner, and Don Wilkerson. Elected: The following members were elected for one-year terms at the Treasure State (Montana) At-Large Chapter meeting on February 9, 2017: president, Rik James; vice president, Travis Moses; secretary, Joy Breslauer; treasurer, Linda Hurlock. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. BlindSquare Friends, Tell Your Story: The folks at BlindSquare are launching a contest intended to bring voice and reward to BlindSquare friends. BlindSquare often hears stories from NFB friends and others, either about discovering new and important benefits of BlindSquare or simply to tell how wonderful this technology is and how it has changed their lives. The transformation of dependence to independence, the elevation from movement-of-self to joyful steps, the evolution of travel from planned routes to the freedom of choice-all are wonderful and, for us all, very encouraging. BlindSquare would like to provide a way to capture these stories more formally-this contest is the first step. BlindSquare will also provide awards for those who told their stories well. This won't necessarily be measured in volume or fancy prose but perhaps the simple capture of a happy result. If you want to participate or help promote this fun contest, check out BlindSquare My Story Contest at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbKm9XhsqWbwPCEZXBHxQGw5NWVFlECqQI SvC5ypeGQ6mZDA/viewform. The form will gather teacher/sponsor information for the hundreds of BlindSquare friends under the age of eighteen. Contest ends April 1. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Tue Mar 28 22:29:22 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:29:22 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, April 2017 Message-ID: <201703290529.v2T5TMfG018591@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 4 April 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 4 April 2017 Contents Illustration: Cleaning Where No Human Has Cleaned Before Walking a Mile: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Simulations by Mark Riccobono Progress on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: The Regulations, the Law, and What They Will Mean for the Blind by John Par? Aira, the Next Technology Revolution in Devices for Blind People by Michael Hingson What Do We Really Think of Sight? by Eric Duffy There's a List for That by David Andrews The Urgency of Optimism by Marc Maurer Dots from Space!: Voices from the Past by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer David Young is a Champion for Blind Iowans by Jim Omvig Independence Market Corner Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: A view of the unspoiled wilderness and clear atmosphere of Mars.] [PHOTO CAPTION: The picture taken by the Mars Rover shows the pristine Martian vista marred by tracks left by the Rover.] [PHOTO CAPTION: NASA missions to the Moon have left not one but three of these Lunar Rovers abandoned to deteriorate without care on the surface of our closest celestial neighbor.] Cleaning Where No Human Has Cleaned Before April is the month when we celebrate Earth Day, a tradition started back in the early 1970s when we realized the vulnerability of our planet and the need for humans to exercise some care for it. Many in that original movement hailed from California, a state long known for its progressive attitudes and the willingness to tackle big problems. Always on the forefront of change, Californians, particularly members of the National Federation of the Blind of California, have turned their attention to other parts of the universe, creating the first-of-its-kind Mars Day. Why Mars, you might ask? The answer is best summed up by Ever Lee Hairston, the president of the affiliate. "Well, we know what we have done to our own planet, but what is more disturbing but less well known is what we have done to other bodies near us. We went to the Moon, walked on the Moon, and even golfed on the Moon. What did we leave: a sign saying we came in peace for all mankind-that's good, but think about the trash. We sent Ranger Seven to the Moon, admired its pictures as it soared toward the lunar surface, but we didn't land it-no, we crashed it. Any thoughts about picking it up: not on your life. That first lunar module that carried Armstrong and Aldrin: when we were through with it, what did we do? We crashed it into the Moon, and after observing the seismic impact, we haven't given it a single thought. We simply must be better neighbors in the solar system and in the universe at large, and if we don't start it here, who will?" Brian Buhrow, a man with a technical background, good literary skills, and a keen sense of fairness and justice goes further: "At this point Mars is a pretty pristine place. It has a few foreign bodies on it and a rover whose warranty is about to run out, but it's never too late to start reclaiming our trash and disposing of it in a manner befitting of at least one intelligent species in the universe. All of us want good American jobs and to build infrastructure, so why not create and deploy the first trash truck capable of interstellar travel? Perhaps we'll have to work on revising overtime rules for the waste disposal engineers, but we can do this in a way that creates good, well-paying, and meaningful jobs for Americans and at the same time dispel the myth that there are some dirty jobs Americans just won't do. There can be no better project to demonstrate America's commitment to hard work and the harnessing of technology and being for the world that city on the hill made so popular by Former President Ronald Reagan." Not surprisingly there are some Federationists who gently offer some cautionary advice. Lisamaria Martinez, the former president of the Sports and Recreation Division, worries that the gravity on Mars will be so much less than that of Earth that those who work there will become accustomed to the lower energy required to move about and heft objects into the space receptacles that will carry the trash away. "The gravity on Mars is about .376 that of Earth. This means it will take just over one-third the energy from our muscles to do on Mars what we do on Earth. Just how we will keep muscle tone when working, eating, and sleeping will be so radically different. Unless exercise is a part of our ambitious plan, I don't think our division can really get behind this, but I am confident that the Federation, given its tradition of negotiation in getting along with interstellar beings as evidenced by multiple incarnations of Star Trek, is up to the job." For more information about Mars Day, call (111) MARSDAY or 627-7329. Because of the intense effort in planning and advertising this event, please use only the number above. Members of the California effort are too preoccupied to take calls for general information and have contracted with the publicist for the dissemination of further information. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] Walking a Mile: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Simulations by Mark Riccobono From the Editor: Since a central tenet of the National Federation of the Blind is to change the way people think about being blind and by extension to increase the opportunity for those who are, we must think seriously about the tools we have to bring about this transformation. Simulating blindness has for some time now been a way in which we and others have sought to increase the public's understanding of what we need from it in order to enjoy lives that are as rich and productive as those of people who can see. In this article our President discusses the subject of blindness simulation, how it is used, the reasons for its use, when it is effective, and when it serves as a stumbling block that comes between blind people and our dreams. Here is what he says: One of the highest aspirations of human beings is to understand one's fellows, to know the world as they see it, and to share empathy without judgment or condemnation. Long before I heard the word empathy I was familiar with the adage, "You can never really know a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes." Since we don't all have the same size feet, what is the practical way to take this journey? Traditionally we have tried to do this by spending some time learning about and reflecting on another person's life situation: What is it like to have money? What is it like to be without it? What is it like to have a disability? For the past few decades the attempt to understand another person's life has been to try simulating it. Some of the most popular simulations have involved letting a nondisabled person spend some time as a person with a disability. The motives behind these simulations are as varied as the ways in which they are conducted, and here I'd like to look at what they are, how well they work, and specifically what a simulation is intended to communicate. Given the complexity of life, a reasonable question to ask is whether simulations not meant to train but to inform can ever serve a purpose. They can, but making sure they communicate what we want them to takes considerable thought, a clear definition of what we want to communicate, and an understanding of how much a person can absorb at one time. Let's look at a common disability simulation that seems to work, one in which a person is asked to spend some time in a wheelchair. If I am a user of a wheelchair and want the public to understand the lack of access I face, putting someone in a chair and showing him how impossible it is to reach a doorknob, walk a flight of stairs, or cross a street at which there is no ramp works quite well. I have not asked him to function without one of his senses; I have only asked that he sit in a chair and observe how many things are beyond his reach because we have failed to make simple environmental changes that will benefit everyone in a wheelchair and everyone who is a pedestrian. The problems become obvious and so do the solutions, ones society can implement with minor physical changes. If I spend an hour in a wheelchair, do I really understand the life of the man who uses one? I do not. I have to take his word for the way it feels when people talk down to him, stand behind his chair to converse, or show the pity they feel for him when they define his existence as being confined to that chair. To the extent that I am able to understand, that understanding comes through observation, conversation, and through the building of a personal relationship. Of course the goal of his simulation is not to get me to understand the condition that requires his use of a wheelchair, but to glimpse the environmental changes to make dealing with it easier. I come away understanding why my city taxes go for ramps and why we require all public facilities to have elevators. Before discussing the simulation of blindness, let's distinguish between simulations to help blind people function without sight and getting sighted people to understand blindness. We actively encourage blind students to do some or most long-term training under learning shades. If one has some vision, we encourage training that does not rely on it but relies on alternative techniques. In a society that is overly interested in visual cues, most people are quickly conditioned to subconsciously believe that vision is a requirement for success. Through our intensive training programs we break down the misconception that vision is the requirement for success and build the understanding that a variety of techniques including a robust set of nonvisual techniques can empower a blind person to live the life they want regardless of their level of vision. At the end of training, one's unreliable vision is no longer at the core of what he or she can do but serves as a supplement, and the individual can make an informed decision about which technique (nonvisual or visual) or combination of techniques is most effective. The loss of more vision due to age or deterioration through disease will be uncomfortable, but limited vision will not determine whether one can independently learn, travel, cook, clean, handle money, and a whole host of other things for which sighted people use vision. What is key in training is that students are allowed to proceed slowly in what they do under learning shades. There is time to explain the underlying philosophy in their use, they have the time to observe blind people doing what they will be asked to do, and the message is always that the students can and will be able to do what they need without vision. More importantly, the student has the opportunity to build an understanding of how to counteract the misconceptions and misunderstandings that come from interacting with a public who does not understand blindness. Unless simulations are well planned in terms of what we ask people to do, what we tell them about blindness, and how long we have to work with them under shades, the experience is likely to be more negative than positive, reinforcing everything they have felt about the world of darkness in which they believe we live. I submit that, in most cases, understanding blindness by one who is sighted is better communicated through observation than personal experience. Ask a newly blindfolded person to travel the streets so she comes to understand the value of traffic sounds, and her predominant emotion will be fear. Without understanding how blind people travel and having the confidence that she can do so safely, the experiment will scare rather than inform. How then can we make a case for modifications that are necessary for our continued independent travel? The answer is for us to do the traveling and for the person we are trying to influence to observe us. When I am observed walking with my cane and run into a guidewire hanging over a sidewalk at chest level, the person watching me understands the function of my cane, what it can and cannot detect, and how the problem I'm experiencing can be solved if the guidewire did not pass over the sidewalk or did so at an angle that wasn't impossible for a cane to detect. Now it becomes clear that the challenge is one for an engineer, and the work done will benefit everyone who walks that sidewalk be they blind or sighted. Suppose I want someone with influence to understand the difficulty when I try to use an inaccessible program. If he is blindfolded and made to sit at a computer, what simulation can we do? He may understand the concept of a screen reader, but will he know that most programs say a line when the insert and up arrow keys are pressed? Will he understand that movement between programs is done by pressing the alt and the tab keys and that determining which program has focus is accomplished by pressing the insert key with the letter t? The answer is that he won't. His initial impression will be that using the computer as he knows it is impossible and that a number of complicated key presses is difficult when compared with the point and click methods that constitute the majority of his navigation. On the other hand, suppose he observes me using a computer with a screen reader and a Braille display. When he watches the screen, hears what I hear through computerized speech as I navigate, and listens as I read what is presented under my fingers in Braille, he is likely to understand the problem that exists when I encounter graphics that aren't labeled, buttons that aren't identified, and programs that will not respond to keyboard presses. He will understand that navigation in addition to what is provided by a mouse is required and can see how easily arrow and tab keys can be used to efficiently navigate when I show well-designed programs. I have talked with many sighted people about the difficulties posed by misguided individuals we encounter in airports and the extra stress it puts on blind people. The physical travel through airports is mostly straightforward, even if getting information generally posted on signs is not. Although I have talked with people about the problems we encounter, there is no better simulation than traveling with a sighted person and letting them observe for themselves. As they watch the looks on people's faces; have the opportunity to tell people that they are not my caretaker but rather just a friend; witness me being grabbed, pushed, and pulled; and overhear the difficulty of my getting a simple question answered they understand in a meaningful way things that it was hard for them to believe when I first told them. I think the question we really need to address is this: Do I want the general public to know what it is like to be blind? Not really. In the first place I don't think they can. Many sighted people are convinced the blind see darkness; the reality is that some blind people do not see anything while many others see some unreliable combination of light, shadow, and color (that often varies from day to day). The understanding of blindness is only complicated by people who have some usable vision and the obsession of the sighted in understanding what those people see, particularly when that vision varies from day to day. Those who can see think I live in a world which is dominated by the absence of light, a world that deprives me of much that is meaningful. I contend my world has all the elements that make life worth living: the ability to experience love, to know the joy of happiness, and to raise my family. I know both the joy and the stress of being needed, the imperative of making a living, and what it is like when my children look to me in their attempt to understand the world. In short, the important things in my life are the same as for the person who sees, with variations that are sometimes difficult but which never obscure the joy of being human. I want the public to understand those parts of blindness that pose obstacles they can help me overcome. I want them to see how training can make all the difference and is deserving of their private and public support. I want them to understand that for training to be meaningful it must be followed by opportunity. True opportunity means more than failing to say no; it aggressively embraces the journey to determine how to say yes. I want people to understand that independent travel is crucial and that one important element that makes it possible is an environment in which cars make enough sound that I can hear and respond to them. I want people to understand that living in my own home is important and that my home is just as much a castle for me as theirs is for them. To live independently means being able to do the things they do: cook, clean, and enjoy the entertainments found in most homes. A challenge for me is that most new home appliances use visual displays that make no allowance for those who cannot see. Adding a function to make stoves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers talk is not only possible but inexpensive and beneficial to all, including senior citizens. I want the public to understand that the internet presents great opportunities for access to information as long as the websites are built with equal access in mind. Otherwise, I need to spend twice as much time trying to book an appointment at the doctor, find information about city services, read the calendar for the school our children attend, report crime information, or dozens of other things people take for granted. These are areas in which the general public can help, creating a community standard that considers unthinkable leaving out people whose inclusion could so easily be accomplished through inexpensive design and manufacturing techniques, of which there are many examples. To restate, in time I believe I can change people's perspective about the meaningfulness I find in life, but that belief about living in a world of darkness may be something they take with them to their graves. Perhaps they can't really walk a mile in my shoes, but they can help me get to the place where I can purchase those shoes and enjoy my journey through days of adventure, activity, and living life to the fullest. Even if we can effectively provide experiences to teach sighted people about the artificial barriers we face in the physical and digital environments we encounter, we cannot fully get them to understand the emotional experience of facing low expectations in society every day. A couple of years ago I was in a leadership program in Baltimore City. During that program we spent a morning in a "walk a mile" activity where we simulated the experience of navigating the struggle of a low-income family attempting to meet the demands of life. The activity helped me understand the barriers that poorly designed social services, lack of reliable transportation, and burdensome supports put on a family with limited means. However, my real understanding has come from interacting with and knowing people who live that experience daily and who can share all of the social bias they face. In other words, I think we need to be completely honest that any simulation activity does not impact some of the most important understandings we want the sighted to know in their heart and their head- that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us, that the misunderstandings and low expectations about blindness are our biggest obstacle, that those misunderstandings create artificial barriers that prevent us from fully participating, and those false limitations build into something that holds us back. Short of training blind people to be blind, are there simulations we can do that will let sighted people glimpse how we do what they do? I believe the answer is yes. We must make it clear that they are not experiencing blindness but that we are giving them a taste of the way we do some of our daily tasks. Having them sit in a chair, covering their eyes, and handing them coins can show how we identify them by touch. Dropping a coin on a hard surface and helping them learn the denomination by sound provides them another clue about how we manage money and adds to the message that we have quality alternative techniques that serve well in our daily lives. The tasks we give should not be threatening. If we want them to spend some time using a cane, explain that they will not be encountering steps and that their job is to find the wall in front of them. Tell them their task is to navigate around a chair and how the cane is used to detect it. Get sighted people to measure something with a click rule and mark a precise spot. Teach them how blind people effectively pour liquids without spilling, and give them an opportunity to practice. In a short amount of time I have been able to teach sighted people under learning shades to pour, and when I have given them the option of using the same technique to pour a cup of coffee for themselves many do so and have little trouble. There are dozens of other examples, and we should find ways to share information about the activities that work best. The activities must be supported by meaningful dialogue with blind people in an environment set up to facilitate honest communication. When those going through these experiences have an opportunity to engage blind people around some of the questions we know they are thinking about, a new avenue of understanding is created. So far we have not touched on one critical facet that determines whether a simulation of blindness is helpful or harmful, that being the motivation for performing it. This is further complicated by the fact that simulations are often paired with fundraising. This incorporates all of the baggage and emotional strings that come with the typical charity model- people participate to help those less fortunate than they are. The biggest problem with simulating blindness is that it all-too-easily plays into the sense of loss and ineptitude that people believe to be our lot in life and the lives they would live were vision to disappear. This benefits organizations whose goal is to reverse or eliminate blindness, the recent activities of the Foundation Fighting Blindness being a prime example. If the idea is to eradicate blindness by raising money for research, scaring people is a powerful motivator. As much as all of us support research to preserve or perhaps restore sight, raising that money must not make living more difficult for we who are blind. Preserving sight should be supported on the many merits of vision and not on the portrayal of its absence as a significant barrier to the enjoyment of life. So each of us must ask the question: At what cost is the way money is raised to do research too high? When we fight for the right of blind people to be parents and an organization suggests that the sighted try being a parent for one minute with their eyes closed, the experience can only serve to emphasize the danger when a young child is not observed, a situation bordering on leaving her unattended. The cost to blind people is too high! When one is encouraged to dine in the dark without first learning how to serve oneself, cut one's meat, or have the experience of finding one's mouth with a fork, how can the mess and the message be reconciled with blind people leading lives of independence in which we can feed ourselves, teach our children, and represent our employers without embarrassment when the job calls for us to attend lunches and dinners? Again, the cost to blind people is just too high! The potential to raise money through fear and pity is enormous, but so is the toll on the lives of blind people and the efforts we make to convince others we are capable of living in the world as competent human beings. Everyone has freedom of speech, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to speak truth, to do no harm, and to advantage rather than disadvantage the people about whom one is speaking. Because we in the National Federation of the Blind are the authentic voice of blind people- representing the broad diversity of people who experience blindness firsthand-we must raise expectations and lead the way regarding best practice for simulation activities. We must also honestly evaluate what we do and whether it meets our goals, the test of our philosophy about blindness, and ensure that it is authentic to the experience of a blind person who has had training and opportunity. We must make certain that the simulations we do meet this standard and should demand that others do the same. These should be our guiding principles as we teach the world what it means to be blind, and these should be the standards to which we hold other organizations who would diminish our lives and opportunities in the misguided belief that a quality life can only be achieved if one is sighted. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par?] Progress on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: The Regulations, the Law, and What They Will Mean for the Blind by John Par? From the Editor: John Par? is the executive director of strategic initiatives for the National Federation of the Blind, and he is the staff member who has put in the most time, energy, and intense concentration on the issue of silent cars. He shares the concern for the safety of pedestrians that all of us carry in our hearts and in our heads, but he is the person who has translated that concern into responses which distinguish the National Federation of the Blind by acknowledging our early work on the issue, our innovative ways to bring it to the attention of people capable of doing something about it, and riding herd over the process to make sure that it did not stall or go astray. Here is what John has to say about the fight to get a bill enacted, the challenge of getting that act into a proposed rule, and the difficulty in getting the Obama administration to publish a rule that the blind, other pedestrians, and the auto makers could accept as reasonable, doable, and in the interest of all involved: Much of what we do in the National Federation of the Blind focuses on enhancing the quality of life for blind people through creating opportunities and raising expectations. Anything that comes between blind people and living fruitful and fulfilling lives is something we target. But on rare occasions we are called on to do more than work on quality of life issues and deal with the preservation of life itself. This was the case when we found that something essential to our independent travel was changing in a way that could take it away and could easily result in injury or death. In 2005 the buzz was all about hybrid electric cars. They were coming to market, and many things about them were appealing: they used less fuel, emitted less pollution, and generated less noise. All of us were excited; all of these things we viewed as positive. But when we learned that less noise translated to no useable sound, a real issue of safety emerged for blind and sighted pedestrians alike that we could not ignore. Silent vehicles are essentially stealth vehicles to blind people, and although it is less obvious, they are nearly as dangerous for people who can see. This is because a pedestrian who can see is often alerted about where to look based on what he or she hears. For an in-depth discussion about how the Federation came to identify the problem of nearly silent vehicles, the denials that a problem existed, the work to find allies, and the struggle to get a bill passed and signed by the president to address the issue, I urge you to read an excellent piece written by Debbie Kent Stein entitled "Belling the Cat: The Long Road to the Passage of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act," which appeared in the June 2011 issue of the Braille Monitor. On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, requiring that the United States Department of Transportation write regulations to implement a minimum sound that vehicles must make when traveling the streets of this country. The signing of the act represented a big step forward in recognizing that it is desirable that vehicles be quiet, but that they be no quieter than safety will allow. Throughout this article I will simply refer to this as the act. Even in our most optimistic moments we realized that writing the regulations would take time, getting them reviewed would be painfully slow, and the phase-in period would leave us unprotected far longer than we wished. Even so, few of us believed it would be 2016 before the final regulations were published and probably 2020 before the act is fully implemented. In drafting regulations, four distinct issues had to be addressed: safety, stakeholder agreement, conducting and interpreting the research, and embracing the global trend that would set the direction of carmakers. Although we tend to think of American legislation as something that primarily involves Americans and American policy, the automobile industry is one of the few uniquely global marketplaces. In September 2009, before the passage of the act and certainly strengthening the case for it, a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that hybrid electric vehicles were twice as likely to be involved in accidents with pedestrians than their internal combustible engine counterparts. In a second report issued in October 2011, using a much larger sample size, the same agency said that there was a 35 percent greater likelihood of accidents involving hybrid electric vehicles and pedestrians. It also found a staggering 57 percent greater likelihood in accidents involving quiet cars and cyclists. In all, NHTSA produced three research reports that together totaled more than 900 pages. Separately and together, all pointed to the undeniable conclusion that sound and safety are inextricably bound together. Guidelines for the industry had previously stressed the reduction of sound through the establishment of a maximum noise emission standard. Noise was the enemy of the automotive engineer, a word so vile that there was no way to use it with these professionals and communicate anything hinting at something positive. "You will undermine your case for a minimum sound standard if you say you want the car to make noise. You do not want noise. You want usable sound, not noise." This was the message from one of the more vocal members at a meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers back in 2008, and his vocabulary lesson was one we took to heart. What the reports issued by NHTSA made clear was that safety would require a minimum sound standard so that pedestrians would be aware of vehicles in their vicinity and take reasonable precautions to avoid contact. What was needed was an addition to the law governing sound emissions by vehicles, a law that called for vehicles to be as quiet as they could safely be, but no quieter. When the law was passed, it called for the issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to be issued no later than eighteen months after its passage. The purpose of an NPRM is to alert interested parties about what the regulations for new laws will look like, offering a chance for those with an interest to comment on and influence how the final regulations will be crafted and the law enforced. But NHTSA did not issue a proposal by July 1 of 2012. That meant that the final rule that should have been issued by January 4, 2014, did not come out. The NPRM wasn't published until January 10, 2013, the agency arguing that the complexity of the issue and the research required meant that the time frames in the law for implementation could not be met. The NFB made our response to the NPRM in March 2013, and it wasn't until December 2016 that the final rule, the one which was supposed to be published in January 2014, was issued. In the interim the United States Department of Transportation commissioned a study to determine how many hybrid electric vehicles were being sold in this country, and that study concluded that, on average, 1,563 are sold each day. These cars are not yet covered by the act or its regulations; luckily some manufacturers have seen the writing on the wall and have implemented systems to provide sound alerts. Although they may not comply with the regulations that have now been published, their presence is welcomed by those of us who regularly place our faith in safely crossing streets on what we hear. So which vehicles are covered by the law and which by the regulations? What are the key points of each? We make a distinction between the law and the regulations because the regulations are not just a detailed prescription of how to implement the law, but differ from it in some significant ways. We are left to speculate as to why, but the rumor has been floated that differences exist because of insufficient data to support detailed regulations as envisioned in the law and that when such data becomes available the regulations may be modified accordingly. Here are the main points you should know about the act as it will be implemented: only four-wheeled vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds are covered, meaning commercial trucks and motorcycles have been excluded. They are part of the law but not the regulations. Fifty percent of vehicles produced after September 1, 2018, and 100 percent of vehicles produced after September 1, 2019, must meet the sound standard. One issue that sparked significant debate even among allies for the law was whether there should be a switch that the driver could use to disable the audible alerts it mandates. We were opposed to what in the industry is called a pause switch, but what has come to be called a kill switch by the blind. For us the issue is simple: the ability to hear a quiet car should not depend on the judgment of the driver as to whether or not a usable sound should be emitted by his vehicle. This would be equivalent to allowing a driver to make his car invisible simply because he believed he wouldn't encounter pedestrians, animals, or other cars along his journey. In the current regulation there is no selectable sound from which a car owner may choose, though the law clearly allows for a set of selectable sounds so long as those sounds are provided and certified by the manufacturer to meet the minimum sound standard. Although research indicated that duplicating the sound of a standard internal combustion engine would be the most identifiable sound by the greatest number of pedestrians, it also demonstrated that the sounds were not the most effective in penetrating the noise found in most rural and urban environments. Both pedestrians and automobile manufacturers were concerned that leaving the sound that a vehicle would make to the discretion of automobile owners could lead to situations in which a vehicle would not be identified as a danger to be avoided. Discussions on blogs indicated that if owners were allowed to select their own sound, some would choose the sound of a carousel, some an ice cream truck, and some the clatter of horseshoes. An arbitrary sound just would not do to provide certainty in identification. But a second concern was from the manufacturers. It was that a sound provided by a driver might be considered offensive, and the result would be the rejection by the public of all sounds. This would reflect negatively on the manufacturers, the law, and the pedestrians it was designed to protect. In the law provisions were made for vehicles to come with several selectable sounds from which the driver of a quiet car could choose, but the regulations make no provision for these other than to say that a 2020 Toyota Prius will sound like every other 2020 Toyota Prius. The same is true for a 2019 Chevrolet Volt. One point of contention between pedestrians and car manufacturers was whether a vehicle should emit some sound when not in motion. The car companies contended that where there was no motion there was no danger. The Federation took the strongly held position that knowing of a car's presence at a traffic light, a four-way stop, or any other kind of intersection was essential whether that car was moving or at rest. An informed decision to cross requires that one be aware not only of vehicles on the move but vehicles that are waiting for the opportunity to move. Both the law and the regulation make it clear that a vehicle is to emit a sound while stopped, but the regulation does provide that no sound need be made if the vehicle is in park. Although most hybrid electric vehicles do not use a manual transmission, those which do must make sound any time the key is on and the parking brake is off. While we would have preferred that a quiet car make some sound when the driver's seat is occupied, we have gotten most of what we wanted in this section of the regulation, and it is a far cry from what some of the manufacturers were demanding, provisions which, had they been adopted, would have done much to negate the safety issues spawning the creation of the law. How loud must a vehicle sound be? From stationary to less than ten km/h [kilometers per hour], it must create a sound that is at least forty- four decibels. A moving vehicle going from ten km/h up to less than twenty km/h must generate a sound of at least fifty-one decibels. From twenty to less than thirty km/h, the vehicle must generate a sound of at least fifty- seven decibels. At thirty to thirty-two km/h the sound emitted must be sixty-two decibels. For vehicles traveling in reverse, a sound of forty- eight decibels is required. These figures were based on significant testing by NHTSA, and only time will reveal whether the published levels are appropriate to provide an adequate and reliable warning for pedestrians, particularly those who are blind. With traditional internal combustion engines most of the sound generated by a slow-moving vehicle comes from the engine itself. At some point, no matter how a vehicle is powered, the majority of the sound comes from wind and tire noise. This is defined in the act as the "crossover speed." With quiet cars the issue that had to be negotiated was when the artificial sound could be stopped, and the sound from the movement of the vehicle would be sufficient. The rule as it stands today says that the electronically generated sound must continue until a vehicle reaches thirty- two kilometers, or 19.88 miles, per hour. From the perspective of the NFB this is good news, a lower crossover speed would have been preferred by the car companies. What complicates arriving at any fixed number is the commendable attempt by the industry to reduce tire friction and wind resistance to increase how far a vehicle can travel with a specific amount of energy. When tire friction and wind resistance change, so too does the sound generated. Numbers that are used today may be irrelevant tomorrow, so again we may have to reevaluate these sound levels as we gain experience with new cars coming off the assembly line. In negotiating what sounds a vehicle should make, blind people were committed to the idea that pitch shifting should be part of the car's sound emission. Pitch shifting is an easy way to detect acceleration and deceleration, and it is commonly heard with internal combustion engines. Although this provision was a part of the NPRM, it is not found in the law or the final regulation. Experience will again be required before we can say definitively whether the change in volume/amplitude will be sufficient to tell us what a vehicle is doing. If it is, the law can stand as is. If not, this may be something for which we press in future legislation. The car companies have filed a petition for reconsideration to extend by one year the time by which they must fully comply with the law. Their argument is that the law envisioned a longer time in which to comply than does the regulation. If their petition is granted, it will be 2020 before full compliance is required. While we understand the need for protection and the frustration of having watched as six years have passed, and knowing that every day we extend that compliance date is one more day in which vehicles are manufactured which make blind and sighted pedestrians vulnerable to stealth vehicles, we must freely admit that the law did offer a three-year timeframe for compliance. We have to acknowledge that if we were on the other side and the regulations suggested a longer period for implementation than the law states, we might be the ones appealing for a change. As complicated as all of this is, some points stand out clearly and require little explanation: we are the organization that brought this to the attention of the press, the industry, the public, and finally those who exercise the levers of power in the government. We have worked to turn a two-page law, which necessarily speaks in broad, guiding generalities, into a 375-page rule that seeks to be specific enough that manufacturers know precisely how to do what they must to make the streets safer for pedestrians. We have first sought to do this in the United States but are working to get standards that apply worldwide for pedestrians, no matter where they may live. No issue so clearly demonstrates our commitment to safe and independent travel, and no issue has tested our perseverance more than this one. At first we had no allies. The quiet car enthusiasts wanted less noise pollution, so they dismissed our concerns in favor of a quieter environment. The car companies started by denying there was a problem but eventually came to work with us. Bloggers asked why blind people would be so negligent as to attempt traveling by ourselves, and some even suggested that if we had no more common sense than this, it might be better for the intelligence of the world if we were no longer a part of it. But we know who we are, we will never go back, and we knew that with persistence, ongoing education, the goodwill of the public, and the dogged determination to see this through from start to finish, we would prevail. Keep following these pages for further details, but take some time to celebrate what it means to be a vital part of the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Michael Hingson] Aira, the Next Technology Revolution in Devices for Blind People by Michael Hingson From the Editor: Michael Hingson is a man who can boast of many accomplishments and who has made significant contributions in advancing the cause of blind people while keeping his Federation philosophy and active participation front and center. There aren't many blind people who are electrical engineers, but Michael is one. There aren't many people who are financial experts capable of making their living in the heart of New York's financial district, but Michael is one. There aren't many blind Californians who understand the techniques espoused by the National Federation of the Blind to lead active and independent lives and who are open to the positive changes that new technologies may bring, but Michael is one. Here is what he has to say about a new service being offered to the blind which harnesses the power of technology, joins it with the humanity of a highly-trained professional to relate what he or she sees, and merges these in meeting the infrequent but difficult challenges that blind people face when the blindness techniques we use aren't quite enough. Here is what he says about Aira [pronounced I-rah]: It isn't often that any of us can be involved with the birth of a technology that will significantly change our lives. Helping in that birth is an even rarer occasion. I had such an opportunity in 1976 when our president at the time, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, asked me to accept a job with the Federation to coordinate the day-to-day operation of a joint project between the National Federation of the Blind and Ray Kurzweil and his company, Kurzweil Computer Products Inc. to test and to bring the Kurzweil Reading Machine to market. Out of our joint project, blind people throughout the world gained access to a technology that brought the personal reading of print into our lives. I never thought I would have a chance to help steer another great advance that offered as much potential for change as the Kurzweil Reading Machine. However, in early 2015 I received an email from Mr. Lawrence Bock asking me to join the technical advisory board of a start-up company, Aira Tech Corp. Through conversations with Mr. Bock and the company's founder, Suman Kanuganti, I learned that Aira had developed a system that could provide blind people always-on information anywhere at any time. Far- fetched? Perhaps, but as I delved into the company's operation and saw its product in action, I realized that indeed the claims of its founders could be true. Here is how Aira works. The user puts on what is called a "wearable device," which in this case is a pair of glasses that contain a high definition digital camera, miniaturized sensors, and the ability to connect to the internet using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. The system also uses an app which resides on an iPhone or Android smartphone. When the user wishes to use Aira, he or she activates the app, which in turn establishes a Wi-Fi connection with the wearable device. Once this connection is established, the user can press a button within the app to contact an Aira agent. As soon as the agent comes online, they see images transmitted by the glasses. The agent also sees geographical information and information about the user's surroundings on their special software dashboard. The user has two-way voice contact with the agent through the smartphone and can request whatever information they require. The agent, through their dashboard, can access the internet, use the user's visual surroundings, and incorporate other tools to provide answers to the user's needs. The information requested by users can be anything from asking for help with finding something in a store to requiring assistance while traveling through an airport to seeking assistance in assembling a product he or she has purchased. Literally agents can help with any task by providing visual descriptions and information wherever eyesight is needed to create access for blind people. I became involved as an advisor with Aira because I saw the potential of the product and also to ensure that the technology, when brought to blind customers, would be provided in the most effective way possible. The most significant concern I had about Aira was how the agents presented information to customers. Given all my years in the NFB and from all my experiences with assistive technology, I know that good products and services work best when their feature sets consider what we who are blind want and need. Aira can either be a contributor to our independence and self-determination or it can be a barrier. If the agents, for example, are trained not only to provide information but to interpret that same information, then the product would be little more than the kind of service we presently get from untrained sighted people. For example, if I were using Aira to get information about a street intersection and the agent told me that it was now "safe to cross the street," then the agent would be drawing a conclusion that I should be making for myself based on my mobility skills. If, on the other hand, the agent said that the light had turned green and that they did not see any cars traveling across my path, then the agent would be giving me information I could use to determine on my own when to cross. This example is a simple one, but the point is that the agent should be charged only with providing information and leaving all decisions up to me, the user. One of my main tasks has been to help set the philosophical tone for how the agents operate. To date fifteen agents have joined the Aira staff. Its hours of operation are from 7 AM Eastern time to 7 PM Pacific time seven days a week. Over the course of this year Aira expects to offer 24/7 service. Aira has had a visible presence at the National Federation of the Blind national convention for the past two years and will be in Orlando again this year signing up users and showing any interested attendee how the product works. Aira is also gaining visibility with other organizations and agencies. Recently, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Aira Tech Corp was chosen by PC Magazine as the best new startup company at the show. The one drawback to Aira for many blind people is the same one that faced Ray Kurzweil in the 1970s, although not to the same degree. There is a cost to using Aira. At present, there are two pricing plans. Users can have unlimited access to Aira for a price of $199 per month. A lesser price of $129 per month will give users eight hours of access, and Aira anticipates a lower price plan in the next month. Aira is exploring ways to lessen the cost challenge by securing insurance coverage as well as looking for government agency subsidies for some of the Aira services. Aira is also working on rolling its free autonomous functionality through its artificial intelligence engine which is constantly learning. The National Federation of the Blind has partnered with Aira not only to help make the product the best it can be, but also to help find ways to make it available to all blind people. Aira is only at the beginning of its existence. I am certain that over time the cost of the product will drop significantly. The cost aside, Aira offers any blind person the most full and complete access to whatever information he or she might need. I personally have used Aira to move through airports, malls, and shops. While on a speaking trip I used Aira to explore a three-story guest house provided to me by an event sponsor. An Aira agent assisted me in assembling a laundry cart I purchased and received in the mail. I assembled the cart independently, with assistance from Aira after I discovered that the instructions were only pictures with no text at all. I know of others who have used it to read the contents of computer screens and kiosks. At least one person has used Aira while bowling and when experiencing Disneyland, just to name a few; Aira's uses are only as limited as our imaginations. You can learn more about Aira by visiting www.aira.io. On Aira's website is a link to a page you can visit to become an Aira Explorer and begin exploring the world around you in a way never available before. I truly believe Aira is the next revolution in technology that will help us further take our place as blind first-class citizens. I also believe that Aira will grow to provide services outside the specific needs of blind people, but Aira's core purpose and philosophy will always start with the needs of the blind. ---------- What Do We Really Think of Sight? by Eric Duffy From the Editor: Eric Duffy currently works for the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a technological support specialist. He is a former affiliate president, having recently served as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. Many of us have come from backgrounds in which we were more dependent on vision than we now consider comfortable or necessary. We value the alternative techniques that give us independence, still realizing that from time to time we need the help of people with sight or, as is becoming more and more possible, the use of visually aware devices to help us. For some people this creates an internal conflict-how dependent must I be on vision? When am I using vision when I could rely on the nonvisual techniques I've worked so hard to master and to offer to other blind people as a way to become independent. In this article, Eric Duffy discusses the extreme emphasis that was placed on sight by the family who loves him, his own journey to learn and use nonvisual techniques, and his awareness that in a balanced life there must be a merging of alternative techniques and visual ones to live the life he wants. Here is what he says: At times in our lives many of us have had to consider how much we value sight. Sometimes we ask ourselves this question because of an experience we have had, and sometimes we ask because of a development in the medical or technology fields. Most recently I have found myself pondering this question because of a visual interpreting service offered by Aira. Through a special pair of glasses or the camera on a smartphone, one can connect to a live agent who is looking at a computer screen and who can see exactly what the camera on the glasses or phone can see. During an Aira session the agent also has access to GPS on the user's phone, Google maps, and more. Shortly before sitting down to work on this article, I went to a store that I had not been to before. I bought some storage bowls for my home and a coffeemaker for my son. That was the first time I have gone to a store and shopped without the assistance of a family member, friend, or store employee. How did I do it? I did it with the help of an Aira agent of course. I first heard about Aira at the 2016 National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, where I saw a demonstration of the service. At that point I asked myself what I would be saying about me and blindness in general if I began using such a service. How would using it fit into my own beliefs about blindness and my understanding of the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind, which are very much one and the same? These two questions and the questions of several of my friends forced me to examine closely my attitudes about blindness. So I asked myself how much I value sight. In large part the answer defines how I feel about blindness. I was one of eight children and the only one with a disability. I had very limited functional vision as a child. I did what I could to learn colors and to identify as many things as I could using that vision. When I accurately identified colors, my parents were happy because I could see. When I misidentified colors or objects, I could hear the disappointment in their voices. They weren't disappointed with me; they were disappointed because I couldn't see. That told me how much they valued sight. I went to an endless series of specialists in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, New Orleans, and too many cities to remember in Ohio, which is where I grew up. Although my mom didn't like to drive in big cities, she would do it if she had to in order to get me to an eye doctor. That told me how much she wanted me to see. Sight was quite valuable to her. As a child I loved McDonald's. If I got close enough, I could see the McDonald's Golden Arches. One night as we were traveling in the car, my little sister asked if we could stop at McDonald's. My parents said they might stop at the next one they saw. My sister was quick to point out the next one that she saw, but my dad did not stop. I told my sister just to elbow me gently the next time she saw a McDonald's sign, and she happily agreed. When she not-so-gently elbowed me, I excitedly said, "There, I see it. I see McDonald's!" We stopped at that McDonald's. On more than one occasion as a child, I found my mother crying. She told me that she was sad because I couldn't see. She said that she often prayed and asked God to let me see even if she had to sacrifice her sight so that I might see. I learned how steep a price she would pay in order for me to see. In junior high school I lost the little bit of vision I had. A doctor told my parents and me that he could remove a cataract and perform a cornea transplant and that I would get some vision back if he did so. My mom thought that the eyes were too close to the brain to take such a risk, so I learned that she feared my losing my life or something else happening to me and that her desire to keep me safe was greater than my having sight. What did I think? I wanted to have the surgery. I knew what my parents thought about blindness. I knew that even at the Ohio State School for the Blind those who had some vision were expected to do things and allowed to do things that the totally blind students were not. I knew how valuable sight was. How does all of this relate to Aira? When walking into a crowded room, most blind people I know don't think twice about taking directions from someone with sight when looking for an empty seat. Getting assistance from someone with sight is the only practical way to do shopping. How many of us take the elbow of a sighted person (or for that matter even a blind person with usable vision) when walking through a noisy and crowded room? How many of us are willing to accept sighted assistance when going through a buffet line? Most of us need sighted assistance when at a restaurant that does not offer Braille menus. Many of us have at one time or another paid readers. Many of us use apps on our smartphones to identify currency. There is an app that will let us know if the lights in a room are on or off. Working with our friend and colleague Ray Kurzweil, the National Federation of the Blind has developed an app that enables us to read the printed word, the KNFB Reader. To do these things we rely on the cameras on our phones and artificial intelligence. In short, we rely on artificial vision. Yet none of us question whether or not we should use these apps, and I think that is the way it should be. Recently I called Aira and asked them to perform a relatively simple task on the internet for me. A friend asked me why someone with my technology skills would use Aira to do something that simple. My answer was immediate: "Because I could." I said we both know that we have the skills and confidence to walk to some of the places to which we wish to travel, but we also have the ability to use buses and trains. We could ask someone to drive us. We could in fact hire someone to drive us in a taxi. In fact we usually find it more convenient and less expensive to use one of those new-fangled ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber. All of these solutions insert sighted people and technology between us and walking to our destination. After completing my shopping trip today, I told my son and Claire, the Aira agent, how happy I was to do my shopping without assistance from those around me. However, after discovering that I had left my iPhone in the Uber vehicle, I was delighted to have my sighted son go and retrieve it for me. I could have done it, but it was more convenient and less expensive for him to do it. Aira provides sight assistance only when you request it. It is available when you need it, and there is no waiting until later when it is more convenient for someone to provide the visual information you have requested. Aira has not made me more dependent on sight; rather, it has changed the way I do some things. As far as I am concerned, this is a change for the better. ---------- There's a List for That by David Andrews From the Editor: David Andrews occupies one of the most active roles in our organization but with little visibility to members who are not a part of a Federation list. He has the unenviable task of reading almost every message that goes across our lists, and he does what he can to keep messages on topic and to deal with the most egregious of them when someone unfamiliar with or hostile to our mission tries to cause problems for list members. Our lists are a tremendous resource, and so too is our friend, colleague, and Federationist David Andrews. Here is what he says: Those of you who have read the Braille Monitor for a while will remember that in the 1990s and early 2000s we used to publish articles talking about new lists on nfbnet.org. However, with the growth of technology and its use, the proliferation of our lists, and the increased use of social media, this is no longer feasible. Consequently, we are going to publish short monthly columns that talk about mailing lists in one area. That area can be geographic, such as a state, or it can be a topic, such as technology or blind kids. We will alternate between geographic and topical presentations. As you may know, the site http://www.nfbnet.org offers hundreds of lists that discuss specific topics. These vehicles are often called listservs or listserves, make your choice. Technically, Listserv is a software package, not a list, like Kleenex is a brand, not a generic term for facial tissue. Personally, I prefer to call them "internet mailing lists." A list is something you subscribe to or join. It has a specific purpose and can be public or private, announce-only or open for discussion. Once you subscribe, your email address is on the list, along with that of everyone else who has joined. If it is an open list, anything you or anyone else who is subscribed writes is sent to all the other members. And if you reply to a message, it automatically goes to everyone else who is subscribed to the list. If it is an announce-only list, the number of people authorized to post is limited, and the list is only used for announcements, not discussions or questions. Overall, internet mailing lists are an easy, efficient, and quick way to get information out to thousands of Federationists and others in the blind community. It is a good way for local chapters, state affiliates, committees, divisions, and others to communicate and hold discussions. Who doesn't have email? An alphabetical list of all our public internet mailing lists can be found at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. There are approximately 240 lists on the page, so finding something can be a little overwhelming- hence this monthly column. As you can see from the webpage, each list has a list name and a short description. The list name is also a link and takes you to an info page from which you can subscribe. You can go directly to a list's info page with the URL http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/listname_nfbnet.org, where "listname" is the aforementioned list name. You can also go directly to a list's archive with the URL http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/listname_nfbnet.org. Finally, you can subscribe directly to a list using email by sending an email to listname- request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" in the subject line by itself. The NFBNet.org server also contains three lists to which you cannot subscribe, but you are probably receiving an occasional email from them. They are NFBNET-Members-List, NFBNET-Master-List, and NFBNET-Students-list. These lists are generated dynamically as needed. Their membership is automatically taken from the other lists on NFBNET.org. The Members List is composed of those lists concerned with the NFB and its business. The Master List is composed of everybody on all lists on the server-there are a few non-NFB lists that others may be on-generally dedicated to a specific topic, and the Students List is composed of people from all our student- related lists. We used to send important messages to all the lists that might be interested. This was time consuming for me and resulted in a person getting multiple copies of a message if she was subscribed to multiple lists, as many people are. This way you just get one message. You can ask to be excluded from these lists; however, they are the best way to keep up with what is happening in the Federation and with breaking events. We sometimes need to contact legislators on short notice, and other things frequently need immediate attention, and this is the best way to inform thousands of Federationists easily and quickly. The NFBNET server also supports approximately forty-five websites for state affiliates, local chapters, and divisions of the NFB. There are also approximately eighty private lists that support various affiliates, chapters, divisions, and projects run by the Federation. These are private spaces where people can openly discuss things only of interest to them. Membership on these private lists is by invitation only, and their archives are not public. Next month we will get started by telling you about the lists for the state of Maryland. Our lists are valuable resources, and the more we know about them the better able we are to make full use of them. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer at the 2008 National Convention] The Urgency of Optimism An Address Delivered by Marc Maurer at the Banquet of the 2008 Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind Much has been written about the balance between optimism and pessimism-as if these two approaches to living were opposite, mutually exclusive but equally viable methods of thought. McLandburgh Wilson said: Twixt the optimist and the pessimist The difference is droll: The optimist sees the doughnut But the pessimist sees the hole. Frederick Langbridge said, "Two men look out the same prison bars: One sees mud and the other stars." However, some imaginative thinkers have suggested that optimism is not simply a way of looking at a set of circumstances, but a positive element of power. William James said, "Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power." Nicholas Murray Butler said, "Optimism is essential to achievement, and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress." Colin Powell said, "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." For optimism to be an element in the acquisition of power, it must be more than a cheerful cast of countenance. Rather it must consist in a commitment to bringing into being a future containing elements of possibility that have not been a part of the past. Optimism and reality may (properly understood) be inseparable. If reality signifies all that has currently been created, this measure of existence is frozen in time. If, on the other hand, reality denotes both that which has been built and that which can be brought into being, the potential for growth encompasses a much more magnificent formulation of life than would otherwise be comprehensible. In other words, the grandest understanding of reality incorporates the optimistic anticipation of innovative thought, and it also implies commitment and effort. Ana?s Nin said, "Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living." Douglas Everett said, "There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." Although a goodly number of Americans have been pessimistic (Henry David Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."), ours is an optimistic nation. We have traditionally held the view that we could conquer the frontier, govern our futures, or invent the tools for our own success. There is even an American expression for this faith-Yankee ingenuity. Just as individuals have a life cycle, the theorists tell us that organizations do. They are established; they grow; they mature; they prosper for a time; and they cease to exist. At least a part of the reason for the continued existence of an organization depends on its optimism. Every organization must possess a purpose and the faith that the purpose can be achieved. When that faith dissipates, the organization dwindles, becomes dormant, and ceases to be. As we have observed in the National Federation of the Blind, leadership is one vital element of progress. As an organization must have faith in its future, the leaders of the organization must be optimistic. Pessimism signifies atrophy. Operating the same old program in the same old way will not encourage growth. Optimism and an openness to imagination must be a part of the leadership. Every organization is faced with the same imperative: build or wither, grow or die. The openness to imaginative thought and the faith to believe that better, more effective programs can be created are part of the spirit of the National Federation of the Blind. Reflections on optimism and discussions about blindness are rarely found in the same place. People who write or speak about blindness often grieve, sometimes weep, and frequently employ the most dismal descriptive words to signify the potential for blind people. It is extraordinarily rare for somebody to write or think, "Oh good, a whole bunch of blind people!" In fact, a convention of blind people is, in the minds of many, an anomaly- almost a contradiction in terms. At conventions people are supposed to have fun. But, if most of the people at the convention are blind, how ineffably dismal could this be? Adding one miserable life to another in thousands of iterations simply magnifies the horror of it all. Blind people who are optimistic about their future-they must be deluded or liars. How could any substantial group of people wake every day facing the disadvantages that blindness brings and at the same time maintain optimism in their hearts? Is there any group so na?ve as to take this position? Well, one group of this character does exist. We have created it. It is the most powerful force ever established in the field of work with the blind in the United States, and it has a purpose that will not be abridged or thwarted or denied. That purpose is hard to achieve but simple to proclaim-it is that the blind will have recognition, that we will be known for the vital human beings we are with all of the talent, the energy, and the joy that we possess-that equality must and will be ours. The organization we have created, the organization that carries this banner, the organization with the optimistic drive to change our lives for all time is the National Federation of the Blind. Some people depict the blind as unemployed, isolated, frequently uneducated, and beset with characteristics denoting inability. The assertion that this summation is reality is made by some of those dealing with programming for the blind. A senior official of the Department of Education responsible for rehabilitation of the blind said within the last few years that the 70 percent unemployment rate for blind people has remained unchanged for decades. Why, I wondered, has this figure remained so high? Do blind people not want to work? Are blind people lazy, lackadaisical loafers who are turning down good jobs so that they can continue to receive government benefits, or has the system failed? Are rehabilitation programs unequal to the challenge? Are the programs conducted by the Department of Education unproductive? Is the 70 percent unemployment rate for blind people an indication of a lack of leadership? "Not on your life," said this high official in the Department of Education. "This rate of unemployment is an indicator that blind people cannot achieve success unless they are among the most talented 30 percent of the blind in society. Continuing to spend money on programming for the blind," he said, "is a waste of state and federal resources." Rehabilitation for blind clients costs more than rehabilitation for those with other disabilities. Therefore specialized programs for the blind should be eliminated because they cost too much. Never mind that these programs produce positive results, create tax savings by limiting the number of people receiving federal and state support, and bring trained and talented blind people into the workforce. They should be eliminated because they cost too much, he told me. This federal official in the Department of Education gave up on 70 percent of the clients assigned to the programs he is expected to supervise. He thinks that handing out government benefit checks to blind people is better than training them to work for their own lives. With such an attitude, with such a failure of optimism, with such a lack of faith in the clients the Department of Education is expected to serve, it is not the least bit surprising that the programs of this department are failing. Sometimes it appears that certain officials of the Department of Education are seeking to punish the blind for demanding equality. Sometimes it appears that these officials are saying, "You can demand equality if you want to, but if you do, we will cut funds from your programs. If you do as we say-if you behave as we require-if you are docile, subservient, properly grateful blind people-we will grant you a modicum of support. However, if you want to be pushy, obnoxious, and uppity; if you want to be demanding and insistent, you will be sorry." Fortunately, though the Department of Education is responsible for making policies regarding programs it conducts, it has no power to make policy for the blind. We of the National Federation of the Blind determine our own policy and create our own destiny. Those who serve in government are responsible to the people who put them there, not the other way around. The blind of the nation have a right, perhaps even a duty, to examine the performance of the officials who are selected to conduct the programs to serve us. Those public officials are responsible to us to demonstrate that they have served well enough to continue to remain in office, and we demand an accounting. At the time of the founding of the National Federation of the Blind in 1940, almost no blind people in America were employed. By the late 1950s estimates were that 3 or 4 percent of the blind of the nation had jobs. By the mid-1970s this estimate had increased to 30 percent. In certain programs the number of blind people who receive employment after training is above 80 percent, and some approach 90 percent. What makes these programs successful? They listen to the blind; they are responsive to the needs and wishes of blind people; they learn from the organized blind movement; they form partnerships with the most powerful entity dealing with blindness in the nation. Do officials in the Department of Education know these facts? Do they care? Have they studied the factors that are part of the success for the most productive programs? Those who believe that inability or isolation or dismal despair describe our lives do not know us and cannot speak for us. We are the blind, and we will make our own way and live our own lives. We will do it with the support and encouragement of those who understand the reality we face. We will welcome partners from government or private programs for the blind who have the faith to believe in us. We will conduct our activities with the fundamental faith that blindness cannot inhibit our progress and with the optimism to know that we can face whatever obstacle may come. But above all else we will build our own future, and nothing on earth can stop us! One of the elements necessary to the public acceptance of the blind as equals in society is a correct understanding of what blind people are. How are the blind perceived almost a decade into the twenty-first century? A report circulated by Fox News in May of this year describes an incident in which a blind man was refused the opportunity to ride on a roller coaster because of blindness. The report says that the blind man had already ridden the roller coaster three times that day. When the owner of the amusement park discovered that the blind man was seeking a fourth ride, management refused. Management personnel said that safety requires a person to assume certain positions during a roller coaster ride. These positions can be anticipated only by those who can see well enough during the course of the ride that they can anticipate the twists and drop-offs before they happen. Furthermore, if the roller coaster were to malfunction, management said, a blind person could not easily escape from the contraption without danger. The denial of the opportunity to participate in the experience of riding a roller coaster is an example of the idiocy that blind people often face. The blind man in question had already ridden the roller coaster three times without incident or injury. The owner of the amusement park ignored the evidence. He had already decided that blind people were not welcome. Evidence was irrelevant. Of course evidence is not required from the sighted. If sighted people need not provide any evidence of their capacity to ride, blind people should not be expected to provide it either. Nevertheless, the evidence was there. Consequently, this is a case in which double discrimination has taken place. I am pleased to say that we in the National Federation of the Blind assisted in giving this case the publicity it deserved, and the amusement park owner has changed his mind. The blind are welcome to ride. In 1997 the Portuguese Nobel Prize winning author Jos? Saramago released the English version of his novel, entitled Blindness. The premise in this book is that the members of society become blind unexpectedly, totally, irreparably, and instantly. The description of society as an increasing number of its members become blind is one of filth, greed, perversion, and vice. Blind people are depicted as unbelievably incapable of everything, including finding the way to the bathroom or the shower. Saramago wants a world view that serves to offer an allegory for the worst description he can possibly imagine. He selects blindness as his metaphor for all that is bad in human thought and action. He describes the blind as having every negative trait of humanity and none of the positive ones. He argues that this is an allegory for a picture of the reality of the world today. The book was used as the basis for a movie of the same name, which has been shown at the Cannes film festival this spring. The only positive element to the release of this film is the almost universal reaction of the critics that it is a failure. The depiction of the blind in this movie is fundamentally flawed for two reasons. First, blindness does not denote the characteristics the author attributes to it. The capabilities of those who become blind remain essentially the same after they lose vision as they were before they lost it. Although the loss of any major asset (including vision) will bring a measure of sadness to some and despair to a few, it will also stimulate others to assert their will. Blindness can be a devastating loss, but it also has the power to galvanize some to action. The reaction to blindness is not the least bit one-dimensional. Therefore the description is false. In addition to this, the viciousness attributed to the blind is inconsistent with the assertion of incapacity. Viciousness demands both venality and ability-at least organized viciousness does. To say that the blind are completely incompetent and to assert that they have the ability to organize for the pursuit of vice is a contradiction in terms. But leave the internal inconsistency. The charge that loss of vision creates a personality alteration of sordid and criminal character is in itself sordid and defamatory to an entire class of human beings. To give a man who writes such foolishness the Nobel Prize for Literature belittles what has often been regarded as a prestigious award. For as long as I can remember, certain comedians have thought it good sport to make fun of the blind, and as pernicious as this may be, most authors have not sought to make us objects of fear and revulsion. The description in Blindness is wrong-completely, unutterably, irretrievably, immeasurably wrong. That such falsity should be regarded as good literature is revolting and amazing. We know the reality of blindness, we know the pain it can bring, we know the joy that can come from correcting the misinformation about it, and we are prepared to act on our own behalf. We will not let Jos? Saramago represent us, for he does not speak the truth. He does not write of joy or the optimism of building a society worth calling our own. We do, and we will. On November 13, 2007, an article appeared in USA Today entitled, "Blinded by War: Injuries Send Troops into Darkness," which describes the incidence of eye injuries to military personnel facing enemy combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan. This article indicates that current conditions for combat cause a higher proportion of injuries to the eye than in previous conflicts. Though the article is quite sympathetic to the troops who are blinded, it contains a reiteration of many of the myths and stereotypes that have inhibited progress for the blind during the course of recorded history. Brief portrayals of the lives of three soldiers are part of this writing. Here are excerpts from the article: "About 70 percent of all sensory perception is through vision, says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an army major and staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. As a result the families of visually impaired soldiers wrestle with a contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving personalities that have helped them succeed in the military. Now dependent on others, they find it difficult to accept help." I interrupt to say that though the army major may not know it, blind people do not necessarily lead lives of dependency, some blind people have hard-driving personalities, and the old story about visual perception being the primary method of learning is a myth of long standing but little credence. However, there are other pieces to the article. "Even now, more than a year after her husband's return from Iraq," [the article continues] "Connie Acosta is taken aback to find her home dark after sunset, the lights off as if no one is there. Then she finds him- sitting in their Santa Fe Springs, California, house, listening to classic rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was blinded in a mortar attack twenty-two months ago. He doesn't need the lights. That realization often makes Connie cry. 'You kind of never get used to the fact that he really can't see,' she says. 'He has no light in his life at all.'" Again I interrupt. If the article is merely reporting that this soldier is blind, I would have no argument with the fact. However, more is implied than the fact of blindness. The meaning is much broader and much more devastating. The spiritual, the poetic, the inspirational, the romantic aspects of life are no more for this combat victim, implies USA Today. Of course USA Today is only a newspaper. Its reporters have no extensive experience with blindness, and its editors have not studied in this realm or learned what reality is for the blind. Personnel at the newspaper have lived with the myth of deprivation, and this is what they report. They cannot comprehend that something else might be at least as important. Is it really fair to say for those of us who are blind that we "have no light in our lives at all" with all of the unspoken implications contained in this phrase? Is sight essential for poetry? Can there be no inspiration without the visual sense? Is romance a thing of the past? Is the song of the spirit only a faint echo in the lives of blind people when compared with that robust clamor which thrills the inner being of the sighted? When blindness comes, does it invariably signify meaningless emptiness? This is what the article would have us believe. Consider what the reporter says. "Nothing in the house can be moved [the article continues]; he's memorized the location of every chair and table." The final segment of the article poignantly sums up the grief. This is what it says: "The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro says. 'I've had dreams where I know I'm blind and, guess what? I've regained my vision,' he says. Reality floods back each morning. 'There's not a night that I don't pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I wake up seeing.'" This is the report from USA Today about the prospects for blinded veterans. The only good news is the dream of waking up seeing; everything else is bad. To imagine a life consisting in its primary elements of waiting from the time of each waking moment for the next hour when sleep can be coaxed to disguise the reality of daily existence with a dream world is to accept despair. What we say to this soldier, to USA Today, and to all human beings who have become blind is: "Don't you believe it!" Your reporter has missed the good news. Blindness is indeed a loss, but it is the loss of sight only, not the loss of the ability to live. Nobody can give us hope unasked, and nobody can create for us the kind of spirit that will give meaning to what we do or who we are. However, the hope is abundantly available for those who seek it; the joy is part of the world we can build; and the future is as bright with promise as any imagination that exists or has ever existed. This is what our experience has demonstrated; this is what we know; and this is the story that should have been reported. Incidentally, I get a little tired of the argument that 70 percent or 80 percent or 83 percent or 90 percent of all information comes through the eye. The implication is always that, although blind people have some information, we have only 30 percent or 20 percent or 17 percent or 10 percent of that which all other people have. This is false, and I find myself annoyed with the necessity of responding to this idiotic notion repeatedly. I am told that the beginning of this argument came from an advertisement in 1923 put together by Thomas Edison. He was trying to sell film projectors to school systems. In an effort to sell his projectors, he said that "83 percent of all knowledge comes through the eye." I wish he had found a better way to sell projectors. Though I presume sighted people might learn 70 percent of all they know by using their eyes, I also recognize that this is not the only way to learn. All of us learn through such senses as we have, and we learn through using such mental capacity as we possess. Sense impression is necessary for learning, but it is only one element in the process. Identifying and manipulating information involves pattern recognition. Sometimes visual observation helps in recognizing patterns, but other ways to recognize them also exist, and imagination is at least as valuable. Even though I have been thinking seriously about the subject of blindness for almost forty years, I am still amazed by some of the things that people believe about blindness. When I read articles like this one, I think to myself, "Did you say that, did you really say that, how could you say such things about the blind?" Can you really think that our lives are meaningless, or empty, or without romance or poetry or passion? Have you observed any of us for more than a moment? Do you know the struggle that we face to gain recognition for our talent? Have you heard the ripple of our laughter or the cadence of the song we sing? If you believe that romance and passion are possible only through the eye, your experience lacks perspective and imagination. Love, joy, a fascination with the arts and sciences, exploration of the unknown, and the unquenchable determination to build a better life for ourselves and for others-these we claim as belonging to us, belonging to the human spirit which is ours. In your reporting you have not included these factors as a part of our lives, but we know that we possess capacity, and we will not let you forget it. To give perspective to the thought of blind people and romance, consider the testimony of a Federation member who, as a college project, decided to find out how blind people fall in love. Here is a portion of the notice that this student distributed to a number of blind people in the Northeast: This year I am a senior, and I will be working on an honors thesis investigating the attraction and courtship process for individuals without sight. The purpose of this project is to explore ways in which blind individuals use senses other than sight in choosing partners and in maintaining intimate relationships. It is argued that sight is the most important factor in how people fall in love. What about those of us who lack the benefit of eye contact and visual cues? I want to explore the roles of other senses in the process of falling in love. This question is of great personal interest to me because I was able to experience 'love at first sight' when I met my future husband, despite the fact that I could not rely on my sense of sight. I am very interested in investigating the variety of ways that visually impaired individuals fall in love. These are statements from the notice created by the student. She takes for granted that blind people have romantic interest, and she seeks less to know whether it exists than how it operates. I suspect that the research has already been concluded. However, if more evidence is required, I will let you know. The National Federation of the Blind receives unsolicited proposals to support, endorse, or help to promote individuals, books, films, or projects about blindness on a very regular basis. Some of these make sense and get our support, but others have no redeeming social importance. A few months ago we received a proposal that the National Federation of the Blind become a promoter of a project known as "Charlesville," a housing community to be built in Georgia adapted to the specialized needs of the blind. The slogan of Charlesville, which gives an idea about the project, is: "A Community Where the Blind Can Really See." The promoters plan to construct 164 homes for the blind in a housing development along with a theater, places for other small businesses, a supermarket, playgrounds, and a "work facility." The proposal, laid out in a substantial notebook, contains statements such as, "Homes...will have Voice instructions to assist the Blind in being able to see in their homes, as well as in their outside yards," and "The streets will be designed to have Voice controls to assist the Blind in seeing where their neighbors live, their playgrounds are, as well as their work facility." One other statement in the notebook is, "Our firm has been given the 'Vision of Creating Home Ownership, and Employment' in Charlesville where the Blind can see themselves become normal independent citizens of our great country." Such are statements from the planners of Charlesville. And you thought you were normal; you thought you were independent-not unless you live in Charlesville. Move to Charlesville or you're not even a citizen of this great country of ours, according to the movers and shakers of Charlesville. I spoke with the people who sent this proposal to the Federation. They told me that they understood the problems of blindness; they sympathized with the plight of blind people; and they wanted to construct a living community in which the blind could have an experience of home as close as possible to that which is experienced by the sighted. With this in mind they imagined that specialized technology would be installed which would explain to the blind the interiors of their houses. Other technology would explain what was in the neighborhood. The explanations would include audible descriptions of where each neighbor lived and where each nonresidential building could be located. Special blind-friendly technology to control the streets would be one of the features of the community, though what this technology would do had not yet been completely planned. The mind boggles at what might be incorporated in the audible descriptions of the neighbors. It is tempting to try to offer certain imaginative examples, but those that you have already constructed are no doubt equally good. I confess that I found myself intrigued by the notion that the streets themselves could be controlled. What would a human being want the streets to do? Although I did not express these thoughts to those visiting the National Federation of the Blind, I wondered if they meant that control gates would be installed at street crossings similar to those used for railroad crossings. When a blind person planned to cross the street, the press of a button could bring down the control arms, halting traffic and providing a tactile railing or fence for the blind person to follow from one side of the street to the other. Indeed, the concept of controlling the streets tickled my fancy. I wondered if I should suggest to these planners that they build their community so that a blind person stepping out for a walk could instruct the streets to go downhill. Maybe the new slogan for Charlesville could be, "The Community for the Blind: Where All the Streets Go Downhill." Those creating the community thought that having sighted people to assist the blind with their medications might be useful as well as having individuals dedicated to leading the blind from place to place. The planners wanted to know if I had any suggestions for other specialized technologies or services, and they asked for a grant of more than a million dollars. I doubt that it will come as a surprise that I decided not to get the checkbook. I was polite, but I wondered if the people making the proposal had read any of the Federation's literature. We do not recommend that the blind be segregated from society. We do not believe that specialized homes are required for the benefit of the blind. We do not recommend that communities be built to isolate the blind even with voice-controlled streets, whatever this might mean. The concept of a segregated community is not merely offensive but also dangerously socially irresponsible. Some years ago in Japan, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, who was totally blind, and Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan were walking along the sidewalk. A bicyclist almost struck Dr. Jernigan. In the brief heated discussion that followed the near-accident, the bicyclist said that a portion of the sidewalk had been set aside with tactilely raised identifying marks for the blind. This is where the blind should be, the cyclist said. Implied in the statement is the further thought that blind people should not be permitted outside the specialized areas designated for the blind. Some people have advocated for a special college for the blind. The argument is that the needs of blind students are sufficiently different from those of other students that a college designed to serve the blind would be a significant advantage. Books could be provided in Braille or in recorded form. Blind people could have assurance that the lectures, the handouts, and the laboratories would be designed to ensure accessibility in nonvisual ways. However, we in the National Federation of the Blind have never endorsed such a concept; we have actively opposed it. No matter how useful it would be to have Braille books and tactilely labeled laboratory equipment, a college for the blind would segregate and isolate the blind from society rather than integrate us into it. We want to be a part of the society in which we live. We want to attend the colleges and universities of our own choice. We want our intellectual capacity to be recognized for the value that it has. We want all colleges to understand the necessity of making their educational curricula accessible to us and useable by us. We will fight for our right to be included in all aspects of community life. We oppose segregation for the blind, we oppose all schemes that would isolate us from the communities in which we live, and we promote full integration of the blind into society on the basis of equality. We demand equality of opportunity for all blind people, and we will settle for nothing less. Sometimes people ask me how I approach blindness. It is as much a part of me as dozens or hundreds of other characteristics. I don't forget it, but I don't concentrate on it either, most of the time. Other people often magnify this one characteristic out of all proportion to what seems reasonable to me. In the early 1980s I was conducting a law practice in Baltimore, Maryland. Each business day I traveled to my office, very often by bus, and each evening I returned home, using the same method of transportation. One summer evening I was standing at a bus stop in downtown Baltimore. I was dressed in a suit, which is my customary work attire. I had a briefcase with me, which is almost always a companion of my travels. I was also carrying a can of coffee. I had run out of coffee at home, and I needed this can, which, fortunately, I had on hand at the office. The evening was warm, and the bus was late. Because I had remained in my office to complete some work, the rush hour had already passed, and I was feeling weary. The breeze came off the hot asphalt and did little to dissipate the warmth. I was the only one at the bus stop, which suited me because I could review the events of the day without having to worry about fellow bus passengers or other distractions. A person came up to me and peered at me from one side. Then the person walked around to my other side and peered again. I was standing next to the pole that had the bus stop sign on it. My briefcase was sitting on the ground next to my left leg, I was leaning on my cane, and I had the can of coffee in my hand. After I had been examined from both sides, a man's voice said to me, "Where's the slot?" "What?" I asked. To which my companion responded, "Where do you put the money?" Although I was startled by these questions, I realized suddenly that he wanted to put some change into the canister I was holding. He thought I was begging. What else would a respectably dressed blind man with a briefcase and a coffee can be doing? "This is my coffee," I said, and my companion left. Sometimes we let others make us believe that blindness matters more to us than reality would suggest. Sometimes we let fear of the unknown control us, and we attribute the fear to blindness. One of the presentations that I have made as president of the National Federation of the Blind deals with the topic of getting lost. I have been lost many times, and I expect to be lost many more. In my younger days I thought that being lost was bad. However, I have learned that accepting the uncertainty of being lost means that I can find new places, meet new people, have new experiences, and expand my horizons. I also tell other people it is perfectly all right to be lost. How different is this attitude from the one that I found on the Internet recently. Here is what one blind person said: If I don't know a state, I won't take buses anywhere. Why on earth would I wish to get lost? I wouldn't even know how to tell the transportation where I wanted to go. I would ask others if they are going the same way I wish to go. If not, there isn't any reason to go there then. I would just stay home where I know I could get help if needed and not feel afraid of getting lost. Many of us may have faced this kind of fear as part of learning who we are, and many of us may face it again. Nevertheless, with the support of one another we know that we can solve the problems that come to us, large or small, dramatic or mundane. Though I sometimes find myself in unfamiliar surroundings, I never find myself without capacity, and I never encounter a day in which my colleagues in the Federation are not willing to help me if I need it. I realize that I have the ability to learn what I need to know to get from the place where I am to the place where I need to be. Furthermore, I will always want to know what we can do to build a brighter, more productive future. I will always want to know what is around the next bend in the road or over the summit of the next hill. I will always want to know what I can do to bring joy to my friends. I will always want to know how I can show them that there is excitement in being lost. Optimism is an element in the acquisition of power, and the power once derived fosters optimism. The power of optimism stimulates the optimism of power. Optimism is one element of our faith. It is inherent in all that we say and all that we do. Because it has come to be such an integrated part of our thought process, we sometimes fail to recognize the urgency of optimism. For all time blind people have been regarded as dependent, incompetent, and subnormal-some would even describe us as subhuman. However, we know better than to accept such a description of us, for it is false. We have decided to correct the error of the authors who tell us that we are base and unhuman, of those rehabilitation officials who write off 70 percent of us as fundamentally incompetent, of the newspaper reporters who tell us that our lives are empty and meaningless, and of the amusement park operators who believe that we can't even ride a roller coaster. We have made this decision because we know the strength which is within us, we share the spirit that is part of us, and we feel the determination to create the factors that will shape the future. Who can tell us what our lives will become? Nobody can do this except us. There are those who would like to dismiss us, but we will be heard. There are those who would like to instruct us, but from our experience we have gained more information than they can hope to accumulate. There are those who would like to control us, but if they try, they will do so at their peril. Partners we seek from every aspect of public and private life, but those who would seek to dictate to us what our lives should be will be tolerated not at all. As we face the struggles of the time to come, we know with absolute certainty that we will take whatever action is necessary to confront those who would stop our progress or belittle our ambitions. We will make whatever sacrifice is necessary; we will pay whatever price is required. We will demand the equality that must and will be ours, and we will never cease our efforts until we have it. We have the will, we have the strength, we have the optimism. The future belongs to us; we will make it our own! ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422 for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- Dots from Space! Voices from the Past by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer From the Editor: This is episode four from our monthly serial "Dots from Space!" If you missed any of the earlier episodes, refer to the January, February, and March issues. Drawn ever onward by the mysteries left behind by the previous inhabitants, the team rolls through the maze-like corridors, paneled in smooth wood, to the far side of the empty building. At long last they reach the end of another seemingly endless hallway and discover that they are standing on the remains of a large deck. Watery sunlight shines down on the explorers as they spread out to examine the debris strewn across the deck, while the soft breeze brings the sounds of water in the bay to them. "There's nothing here but dirt and rocks, ma'am," Lieutenant Commander Jot calls out, as she forms a trowel and eagerly begins to shove some of the detritus away. "Wait! There's something over here! You'd better come take a look at this everyone." The triumphant urgency in Counselor Mote's voice leaves the entire team with little choice but to clamor to see what she has found. "Report, Counselor," Captain Dottie commands. The counselor rolls a few feet to the side to reveal the twisted metal remains of a large charcoal grill lying on its side on the ground. Putting her trowel to good use, the lieutenant commander begins to sweep away the dirt to reveal grilling tongs, now long rusted, and a heavy-duty grilling glove riddled with holes. Eager to show off, the counselor quickly explained. "It appears to be the remains of a rudimentary cooking method, Captain. Unlike our species, which can simply absorb nutrition from the materials we come into contact with, I surmise that the inhabitants of this world burned their food with fire and then ingested it." "A most inefficient system indeed," mused Doctor Spot. Young Bean, curious as always, reaches into the pile of rusty metal utensils and pulls out the crumbling remnants of a pair of sleepshades. "What do you suppose this was used for? And why would they need it for food preparation?" he asks. The crew all ponder this question for a moment, but it is Counselor Mote, rolling her rotund body in a small circle on the ground in her haste to be first, who beats them to the punch. She pulls the sleepshades from the ensign's appendage and plasters the mask to the surface of her body, the impression of a nose and mouth appearing below it. "Isn't it obvious? This is a ceremonial mask used to ask their deities to bless their food!" "Interesting theory Counselor, however, I think there is a simpler explanation. Their mission was to teach others that there were alternatives to using sight to complete everyday tasks. I believe that this device was meant to discourage the use of sight during educational activities." "Sight, Doctor?" asks Lieutenant-Commander Jot. "From the evidence that we have gathered on this planet so far, we have discovered that most of the inhabitants used the perception of light to interact with their environment. However, not everyone used this method. Those that did, used what was called 'sight.' While those who did not or could not rely on this sense used alternative techniques and called themselves 'blind.'" "And what are you basing this theory upon, Doctor?" Captain Dottie inquires. "Simple, Captain. I read it in this article I found in the hallway." [Note: Link to "The Hierarchy of Sight", by Eric Guillory, Future Reflections, Volume 33, Number 2, https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr33/2/fr330211.htm] ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Iowa Congressman David Young] David Young is a Champion for Blind Iowans by James H. Omvig From the Editor: James Omvig is a man with a long history of work on behalf of blind people and whose mantra has long been "Let's go build the Federation." This he has done in every part of the country in which he has lived and in every part he has visited on behalf of the organized blind of America. Jim has spent more than eight decades on this earth and has more than his share of health issues, but he still manages to put the work of the National Federation of the Blind as one of his highest priorities. Jim did not attend the 2017 Washington Seminar, but he felt an obligation to carry forward the issues highlighted there. Here is an article which appeared in the Des Moines Register on March 2, 2017. Hats off to you, Jim, and thank you for writing: National Federation of the Blind of Iowa, Letter to the Editor Through the National Federation of the Blind, the world's oldest and largest educational and civil rights organization of blind people, the blind of America are working continuously to achieve security, equality, and opportunity for the blind. As we advance, many challenges still lay ahead. One of the most significant is the barrier the blind face with accessible technology. In the ever-changing market of computers, tablets, and phones, keeping devices accessible is always a work in progress for the NFB. One recent issue the blind have encountered is the high cost of custom-made, accessible technology such as Braille displays, screen-reading software, and other technology that is specifically designed for the use of the blind. These necessary devices can be extremely costly, making it difficult for the average blind person to afford them. Leaders of the Federation have therefore developed the Access Technology Affordability Act, which will be introduced into the Congress soon. It would offer a refundable tax credit for blind purchasers of specialized technology to help defray cost and therefore help blind people have equal access to information. At the Federation's recent Washington Seminar, hundreds of blind people from across America traveled to Washington, DC, to educate US congressmen and senators about this urgent need. After he learned of the problem of the exorbitant costs associated with this technology, Rep. David Young agreed to be our champion sponsor of the Access Technology Affordability Act. Congressman Young has repeatedly advocated for the blind and our causes and has sponsored legislation on our behalf several times now. We wish to offer a public thank you to Young for his understanding, his help, and his support. - James H. Omvig, National Federation of the Blind of Iowa ---------- Independence Market Corner The NFB Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our literature about blindness and how to adapt to living successfully with severe vision loss. Our members and friends use our literature to share our can-do approach to blindness to encourage other blind people and to educate the general public about the abilities of the blind. Through the Independence Market the NFB also makes available some products, which enhance the independence of blind and vision impaired individuals. Perhaps the product which has the greatest impact on the independence of blind people is the long white cane. Once someone has learned to use the long white cane effectively, that blind person can travel safely and comfortably both in familiar and unfamiliar places. The freedom gained from such independent mobility has a tremendous effect on the self-confidence of blind people. It is, therefore, not surprising that the white cane has become a symbol of our independence and self-reliance. Over the years the NFB promoted longer and lighter weight canes, as our members found the longer, lighter canes easier to use. The additional length provides users more advanced warning of obstacles in the environment, giving them the confidence and competence to walk at a faster pace. Knowing that one's longer cane will detect the top of a flight of steps with enough reaction time to approach the first step with ease contributes to a blind traveler's sense of safety and security. The NFB recommends that a cane is long enough that it reaches between the chin and the nose of the user. Some people who walk very fast prefer even longer canes. The NFB also pioneered the use of canes for young blind children, even toddlers. If young blind children already have canes in their hands when they start walking, then the cane becomes a natural tool to explore their environment. And once such early cane adopters reach the self- conscious teen years, they have already internalized the knowledge that using the long white cane enables them to move around safely and independently. The NFB Independence Market sells several types of long white canes ranging from rigid ones to telescoping and folding ones for all ages and sizes from toddlers to tall adults. All our light-weight canes are hollow and made either from fiberglass or a carbon fiber composite. The Care and Feeding of the Long White Cane, written by longtime member Tom Bickford, is a good introductory guide for those unfamiliar with using a long white cane as a mobility aid. This book gives good tips for using a long white cane in various everyday situations. The text is available on our website at https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/CFCANE/canetc.htm. The book can also be obtained in Braille or print from the Independence Market free of charge. Audio copies may be borrowed by NLS patrons from their local library for the blind. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month were provided by the National Federation of the Blind of Florida. Corn Casserole by Sylvia Young Sylvia Young has been a sighted member of the NFB for about six years. She now serves as the Tallahassee Chapter and state affiliate secretary. She and her husband James have been married for seventeen years and have nine children and thirteen grandchildren in their blended family. Ingredients: 1 can whole kernel corn 1 can cream style corn 1/2 cup sour cream 2 eggs 1 cup grated cheddar cheese 1 box Jiffy cornbread mix 1 stick of margarine (melted) Method: Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased pan or dish. Bake for forty-five minutes to one hour at 325 degrees. Let stand for ten minutes before serving. You may slice it or scoop it out. ---------- Traditional Lasagna by Scott Wilson Scott Wilson is a passionate cook, parent of two children, and a successful business owner for more than ten years. In his copious free time Scott enjoys learning new things, like languages. He currently speaks Irish, with more languages to follow. Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 3/4 pounds bulk pork sausage 3 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce 2 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper 3 large eggs 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley 3 cups (24 ounces) 4 percent small curd cottage cheese 1 carton (8 ounces) ricotta cheese 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained 6 slices provolone cheese (about 6 ounces) 3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided Method: In a large skillet over medium heat, cook and crumble beef and sausage until no longer pink; drain. Add next seven ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, one hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add parsley; stir in cottage cheese, ricotta and parmesan cheese. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread one cup meat sauce in an ungreased thirteen-by-nine-inch baking dish. Layer with three noodles, provolone cheese, two cups cottage cheese mixture, one cup mozzarella, three noodles, two cups meat sauce, remaining cottage cheese mixture and one cup mozzarella. Top with remaining noodles, meat sauce and mozzarella (dish will be full). Cover; bake fifty minutes. Uncover; bake until heated through, twenty minutes. Let stand fifteen minutes before cutting. Yields twelve servings. ---------- Yellow Squash Casserole by Alicia Kilby Alicia Kilby is a homemaker. As a single, disabled mother of two young children, she tries to be creative and likes to explore new recipes, keeping in mind children's tastes are sometimes narrow and limited. She's a responsible, independent, part-time student working on a degree in social work. She is also a volunteer and mentor at a local elementary school, living every day for a better tomorrow because she can live the life that she wants. Ingredients: 8 medium yellow squash 16 saltine crackers 2 cups mozzarella cheese (or whatever you prefer) ? cup milk 2 eggs 1 stick butter Salt and pepper to taste Method: Slice squash and boil until tender. Drain, crush crackers until fine, and beat eggs. Put all ingredients into two-and-a-half-quart casserole dish and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serves eight. ---------- Smothered Rabbit by Tinetta Cooper Tinetta is a legally blind, diabetic mother who has been an NFBF member for ten years. She loves to cook and bake. She says, "The recipe I've submitted is unique and simple to prepare, and the results are delicious!" Ingredients: 1 rabbit, cut into small pieces Salt to taste Paprika to taste Flour 3 tablespoons butter 1 to 2 onions sliced 1 cup sour cream Method: Season the rabbit with salt and paprika. Coat pieces with flour. Melt butter in a crockpot, add rabbit, and cover meat thickly with onion slices. Sprinkle onions with salt. Pour in the sour cream. Cover and simmer one hour or bake at 325 until tender. ---------- A Cup, A Cup, A Cup of Peach Cobbler by Sylvia Young Ingredients: 1 cup of canned peaches 1 cup of flour (self-rising) 1 cup of milk 1 cup of sugar 1 stick of butter 1 lemon Method: Preheat oven 350 degrees. Place peaches in bowl, add 1/8 cup of sugar and squeezed lemon, stir and set aside. Melt butter in backing dish. Mix flour and the rest of the sugar and milk together. Pour into the pan with the melted butter. Add fruit on top (with some of the juice). Bake one hour. Serve with or without ice cream on top. ---------- Floating Peach Cobbler by Alicia Kilby There's always room for variations in life, especially when it comes to delicious desserts. Ingredients: 1 cup self-rising flour 1 cup sugar 2/3 cup milk 1 29-ounce can sliced peaches in heavy syrup 1 stick margarine (not butter) Method: Preheat oven 350 degrees. Melt butter then pour into a ten-by- ten-inch baking dish. Stir together flour, sugar, and milk until smooth. Pour into center of dish on the margarine (do not stir). Spoon the peach slices all over the batter gently (so you don't stir). Then add the syrup from can. Bake forty-five minutes until golden brown. Serve at room temperature. ---------- Florida Cracker Orange Pie by John Bailey John is a sighted board member of the NFB of Florida Statewide Chapter and has been an NFB member for about five years. He got interested in the NFB because of his girlfriend Tinetta Cooper. He truly believes in the NFB and its philosophy. Ingredients: 6 large egg yolks 1 cup sugar 4 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons sweet butter, melted 2 tablespoons grated orange zest 2 cups fresh orange juice 1 nine-inch deep dish flaky pie crust Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put egg yolks in mixer bowl and beat until smooth. Beat in sugar, flour, butter, orange zest, and orange juice one ingredient at a time. Pour orange mixture into pie shell. Bake thirty minutes until set. Let cool completely. Top with whipped cream. Chill before serving. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family STEM Tutorials for Blind Students to be Offered at the 2017 NFB National Convention: Are you a blind student interested in studying science, technology, engineering, or math? Do you feel daunted by the prospect of doing lab work in a chemistry class or producing visually readable results in a math class? Perhaps you're a professional in a technical field who finds it challenging to produce graphs and charts for sighted colleagues? If so, then come to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind and plan to arrive in time for Seminar Day on Monday, July 10. The NFB in Computer Science, the NFB Science & Engineering Division, and the NFB National Association of Blind Students Division will host the STEM tutorial workshop. STEM educators and technologists will come from around the world to help blind students and professionals learn to use a variety of tools to assist them in excelling in their chosen technical field. Best of all, individual tutoring sessions will be offered throughout the week for those folks who want one-on-one training from experts who are familiar with the access technology they're teaching, as well as the technical field it's being used for. The topics to be discussed and for which tutoring will be available include: access math in electronic materials directly or to convert it to Braille; write math in formats directly accessible to sighted people; read STEM graphs, charts, and diagrams, and create simple graphics; and participate in chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering labs. There is no charge to attend either the seminar on Monday or the tutoring sessions throughout the week. The seminar on Monday will give an overview of the technologies to be taught, as well as an introduction to the tutors themselves. It is strongly recommended that folks who are interested in being a part of this invaluable opportunity plan to arrive at the convention in time to begin participating in events on the morning of July 10. For more information, contact: John Gardner, STEM tutorial coordinator, at john.gardner at oregonstate.edu. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. State Resource Handbooks Available for Purchase : I have created twenty-three screen-reader-friendly resource handbooks containing resources pertaining to the blind and visually impaired for use by consumers and professionals. This handbook is for the residents of specific states and includes the many organizations for the blind and visually impaired covering areas such as employment, housing, transportation, and more. Currently the handbooks are for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Oregon, Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, and South Dakota. The handbooks include contact information on the local, regional, and national level. For more information on pricing, order form, and formats please contact Insightful Publications by email at insightfulpub at gmail.com, by phone at (808) 747-1006, or by visiting http://www.insightful.com/orderpage.html. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Tue May 16 09:05:16 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 16 May 2017 09:05:16 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, May 2017 Message-ID: <201705161605.v4GG5GQt013073@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 5 May 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads, $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 5 May 2017 Contents Illustration: Teaching Designers About Nonvisual Access A Window into KNFB Reader: An Evolving Project, a New Platform, and New Horizons by Joel Zimba The State of Amazon Device Accessibility by Karl Belager The Tools of Self-Advocacy for Airline Passengers with Disabilities by Parnell Diggs Uber and Lyft Agree to Improving Service for Riders with Service Animals: We Need Your Help with Monitoring Their Progress by Valerie Yingling How Do You Work This Thing? by David Andrews A Legislative Update and a Call to Action by Parnell Diggs >From the President's Inbox: The Mail Must Go Through by Mark A. Riccobono Blindness: Showing Up for Parenthood by Noel Nightingale There Is a List for That! by David Andrews Independence Market Corner Dots from Space!: Inching Towards Understanding Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason demonstrates screen-reading software for Towson students on one of the computers in the IBTC] [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono speaks with a few Towson students] [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason and Mark Riccobono speak to Jonathan Lazar and his Towson students in the International Braille and Technology Center (IBTC) at Jernigan Institute] Teaching Designers about Nonvisual Access One of the reasons why technology is so seldom created with accessibility in mind is that too many developers simply cannot conceive of blind people using the mainstream products they design. A superb way to demonstrate the interest of blind people in this technology to those who will be designing it in the future is to talk with them when they are in the process of getting a degree, and there is no better ambassador than Jonathan Lazar, a professor at Towson University in Baltimore, when it comes to connecting blind people and soon-to-be computer scientists. On February 24, 2017, Jonathan and his students visited the International Braille and Technology Center at the Jernigan Institute to see the technology blind people use, the things it allows us to do, and the things that are made difficult or impossible because of shortsighted design. The staff of the International Braille and Technology Center demonstrated screen-reading programs, Braille displays, 3D printing, tactile graphics, and even how low-tech solutions can be used to demonstrate meaningful concepts. One example was the use of LEGOs to show the layout of the Windows desktop. This is a tremendous beginning and one we should work to expand throughout the country. Not every computer science major can visit our Jernigan Institute as the students in the Human and Computer Interactions class were able to do, but many of our chapters can get invited to classes and teach soon-to-be designers that there should always be a nonvisual alternative in the toolbox of every program they design. [PHOTO CAPTION: Pictured are Joel Zimba, Jim Gashel and several Microsoft employees all holding a tablet running KNFB Reader. All are wearing Cat in the Hat style hats in observance of Read Across America Day which occurred on March 2.] [PHOTO CAPTION: William De Pr?tre] A Window into KNFB Reader: An Evolving Project, a New Platform, and New Horizons by Joel Zimba From the Editor: Joel Zimba is the reading project innovation manager for the National Federation of the Blind. One of his major responsibilities is to supervise the innovation of the KNFB Reader, a dream come true for those of us who want to be able to read print with a device small enough to fit in our pocket. Joel and Jim Gashel recently had the opportunity to introduce the groundbreaking program to the wider tech world at the largest assistive technology conference on earth, hosted by California State University, Northridge. Here is what he has to say about that experience: I am taking the stage with Jim Gashel, vice president of business development and product evangelist for KNFB Reader, LLC, and Jenny Lay- Flurrie-the chief accessibility officer for Microsoft. The room full of onlookers quiets as she approaches the podium. It is the first day of the thirty-second annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, and we are launching a new product. After over a year of development, a project I was introduced to on my first day working with the National Federation of the Blind is being presented to the world. I man the controls and demonstrate the capabilities of KNFB Reader for Windows, while Jim describes the history as well as the globe-spanning collaboration that led to this moment. I can remember sitting in the audience of the 2014 National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, when Jim Gashel first demonstrated the modern incarnation of KNFB Reader for the iPhone. You can read Jim's perspective on those events in the December 2014 Braille Monitor article, "A New Era in Mobile Reading Begins: Introducing the KNFB Reader for iOS." In that article Mr. Gashel details his first meeting with Ray Kurzweil. He discusses events leading to the creation of the first reading machine for the blind, resulting in the KNFB Reader Mobile line of products. Finally these collaborations bring us to the indispensable KNFB Reader app so many of us carry everywhere and use every day. On that July afternoon, I never imagined I would be part of the team that would keep KNFB Reader evolving, much less metaphorically cutting the ribbon on an app that brings the power of KNFB's text recognition to Windows 10-powered desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones. The launch event, held in the Microsoft area of the CSUN conference rooms, is not the end of a story but the beginning of an ongoing tale. It consists of three madcap days of networking, demonstrating KNFB Reader on three platforms and multiple configurations, and promotion of the KNFB Reader technology, which is the most widely available, efficient, and powerful text recognition solution available to date. By night I am mingling, recruiting distributors of our multi-platform Enterprise product, and talking with researchers and other app developers. I am no stranger to conference exhibit halls. Since 2011 I have demonstrated various forms of assistive technology for both professionals and end users at dozens of such events. None compare to the size and scope of the CSUN exhibit hall. If you have attended a national convention, you will have some idea of the frenzy of such a loud, busy, and heavily populated space. Hundreds of vendors both intentionally and unintentionally competing for the attention of passersby with their colorful displays, video presentations, and of course the talking, beeping, and otherwise calamitous technology itself. On the second day I am already losing my voice from trying to be heard over the call of the great blue whale echoing from the Touch Graphics booth next door. Behind me President Riccobono announces the debut of KNFB Reader for Windows in our own multimedia promo created just for CSUN, while I demonstrate the stand mode feature of KNFB Reader, which takes pictures automatically as you turn the pages of a book. The gentleman I just met had not yet ventured into the modern era and still uses a desktop-based, stand- alone device from the last decade. My new friend will likely purchase his first smartphone just for KNFB Reader, which is not an uncommon situation. On Friday morning a visitor to our booth had a question about using KNFB Reader on her BrailleNote Touch from HumanWare. In November of 2016 all users of the BrailleNote Touch received KNFB Reader free of charge. The device I am now holding in my hand is the first product of its kind which can turn printed text into Braille with a single command. This makes good on the promise Jim Gashel made in the final lines of his 2014 article, when he teased the KNFB Reader expansion to the Android platform. I battle the typically congested conference WiFi to configure cloud synchronization using Dropbox for her. This is my job: to know the intricacies of our products on all platforms, to work with our engineers to squish bugs, and to provide support to KNFB Reader customers. I usually do this from behind a desk or at the end of an often-tenuous telephone connection. Meeting so many KNFB Reader users from all over the world face-to-face reaffirms my goal of improving this powerful tool that increases the independence of blind people worldwide, enabling them to live the lives they want. This is the mission of the National Federation of the Blind, and I am honored to play my part. Perhaps my favorite question comes from the sighted person being introduced to KNFB Reader for the first time. "How do you take a picture if you're blind?" Of course, I was wrestling with this question myself before the release of the app in 2014. When I demonstrate the program's Field of View Report, which details how much of the printed page is visible to the camera and how that can be coupled with tilt guidance to help keep the device in the horizontal plane, incredulity gives way to surprise and then often unease. No longer is this seemingly fundamentally visual activity solely the domain of the sighted. I now know that this is only half the story. The part we benefit from, but never directly observe, is the powerful KNFB image pre-processing system, which can turn a picture that would otherwise be unsuitable for recognition into a document that is read nearly flawlessly. I am often cavalier when I throw a piece of paper under a document camera at a rakish angle. I know I will soon be navigating the recognized output with ease. Some of the algorithms developed by Ray Kurzweil forty years ago are still alive and well in KNFB Reader. We use them every day. This is how that crumpled receipt still gives up the telephone number of the restaurant where I left my hat. I am not alone in representing KNFB Reader at CSUN. I am joined by Jim Gashel and William De Pr?tre. William is a chief software engineer with our partner Sensotec NV located in Belgium. He, very nearly single- handedly, coded the Windows version of KNFB Reader. Every morning we gather for a working breakfast to assess any new developments from the Twittersphere, take on long-standing challenges in real time, and plan for where we are going next. In addition to the pleasure of having a colleague become a good friend, I have the opportunity to personally express my appreciation to William for his herculean effort over the past year: deadlines, unexpected dead ends, and undocumented interfaces-he faced them all; developers all-too-often never meet the happy customers who benefit from their work every day. In the launch event speech, Mr. Gashel stressed the importance of partnerships. Indeed, I would say that is the thread which unites all of my experiences throughout the CSUN conference. Our ongoing partnership with Microsoft, which certainly shaped KNFB Reader for Windows, also led to changes and improvements in Microsoft products, especially with regard to accessibility. While I was acquainted with many of the Google contingent attending CSUN, many more of them were familiar with KNFB Reader and certainly with Ray Kurzweil, who is now a vice president at Google devoting his time to the arcane art of machine learning and artificial intelligence. A gathering composed of thousands of people from all over the world very quickly came to feel like a community. A three-day conference is never all business. Several of us spent the entire day wearing Cat-in-the-Hat-style hats in celebration of Read Across America Day-March 2. Several Dr. Seuss books were on hand for reading with KNFB Reader. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. Every year the National Federation of the Blind marks this auspicious occasion and promotes literacy-especially Braille literacy-and access to books for all. Speaking of community, our Federation family was well represented. Dozens of us descended upon a nearby restaurant early in the week. Before I knew it, I had plenty of volunteers for the exhibit hall booth. I am especially thankful for the help I received from Lisa Irving, Nahrain Spurlock, and Ali Farrage, intrepid members of the San Diego chapter who took on the duty of breaking down the booth and shipping everything home on the last day. The launch was not the end, and CSUN was not the end. The Windows product will establish a foothold, and it will grow and change. KNFB Reader will continue to become more robust and powerful. Very soon another of Jim Gashel's promises will come to pass; Chinese and Japanese will make an appearance. This will put KNFB Reader into the hands of countless more of the world's blind people. Soon a document recognized on your home computer will appear, ready for reading on your mobile device with no effort on your part. A separate multi-platform product called KNFB Reader Enterprise now brings our software to all of your devices at one low price. Looking ahead, major new developments are underway which will begin to reveal themselves at our National Convention this coming July. Stay tuned. To learn more about KNFB Reader and KNFB Reader Enterprise, go to www.knfbreader.com or call (347) 422-7085. You can also email support at knfbreader.com. To obtain a quote for volume purchases of KNFB Reader Enterprise or a site license, contact enterprise- info at knfbreader.com. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Karl Belanger] The State of Amazon Device Accessibility by Karl Belanger From the Editor: Karl Belanger is an access technology specialist at the Jernigan Institute. He has worked for the National Federation of the Blind for more than two years, coming to this position after working as a consultant for web accessibility and access technology training. In this piece he provides some history about the accessibility of products made and sold by Amazon and chronicles significant changes in accessibility that have resulted in some very exciting products for the blind. Here is what he says: Amazon sells a number of devices, from dedicated Kindle book readers to Fire tablets and the new and popular Alexa devices. Historically, many of these have had limited to no accessibility for blind users. Fortunately, with some involvement from the National Federation of the Blind, this is changing. Amazon released the first E Ink Kindle in November of 2007. It was wildly popular with the sighted public, but this device did not contain any accessibility features that could be used by a blind person. It was quickly replaced by the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, which added text-to-speech for reading of some books, but could not be independently operated by a blind person as the menus were not spoken. Shortly after the Kindle 2's release, the Authors Guild, which is the largest national organization representing the interests of writers, protested Amazon's deployment of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2. Viewing this feature as a potential threat to the audiobook market, the Guild argued that the automated reading aloud of a book is a copyright infringement unless the copyright holder has specifically granted permission. Any agreement of this nature would be against the interests of blind people, since it would set a precedent equating the very different formats of text-to-speech rendering and audiobooks. The NFB worked to oppose any such restrictions and stood with Amazon in opposition to the Author's Guild. Amazon ended up removing text-to-speech from titles whose authors or publishers were opposed to its continued availability, but did compromise in as much as they would only turn it off if explicitly requested instead of only turning it on with the publisher's express permission. Around the same time, the National Federation of the Blind also began to ask for increased accessibility because Amazon had become the world's largest eBook store and access would represent an enormous benefit for blind and otherwise print-disabled users. In 2009 Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin was the first Kindle reading platform that offered enough features for blind users (and many print-disabled people) to use books from the Amazon ecosystem at all, and its features were, like those on the hardware players, very limited. Many blind people began to read novels and other non-intensive text with this platform, but it could not be used for more active reading. Books could not be read with Braille because they were self-voicing, and the smallest unit a user could navigate by was the sentence, so it was not possible to spell words or use any of the study tools available to other users. The Kindle Keyboard (sometimes known as the Kindle 3), released in 2010, offered the first usable, if rudimentary, accessibility features for this population on an Amazon hardware device. Shopping, web browsing, and many of the reading functions were disabled, and navigation was limited to moving through the text in read-all mode or by page, but it was now at least possible for a blind person to make some use of it. The situation on Fire tablets was initially not much better. Upon launch, the first of the Android-based Fire tablets did include TalkBack, but the Fire OS had not been built to support it. Even basic features like the keyboard could not be used by a blind person when the device was first available. Despite the marginal level of accessibility in the Kindle platform, Amazon began to push into both K-12 and higher education with their books and devices. With the devices crippled by a lack of fundamental accessibility and restrictions on the titles that could be accessed using text-to-speech, the NFB became an adversary instead of an ally to Amazon. This resulted in a number of legal challenges in schools that used Kindle materials with blind students and a protest highlighting the lack of access in Amazon's tools at their headquarters in December of 2012. In May of 2013, Kindle for iOS gained VoiceOver compatibility for most books and immediately became the favored platform for blind Kindle users. Likewise, Fire OS gained further accessibility support in the next couple of years, and at the time the Fire Phone was released, it had reached a point where for a time it surpassed the accessibility available on traditional Android devices. These improvements were critical and welcomed by blind users, but Kindle continued to fall short of the robust accessibility required to read academic textbooks, and August of 2015 saw Amazon and the NFB in conflict once again. The New York City public schools were considering a large contract with Amazon based around the Kindle and Whispercast ecosystem. The National Federation of the Blind, aware that the partial accessibility of books on the platform would continue to put blind students at a serious disadvantage, prepared for a public protest of the meeting where the fate of the contract was to be decided. The buses were ready to roll, the signs were printed, and the Federation was loudly and publicly denouncing the partnership, when suddenly-at the eleventh hour-the meeting was canceled and the contract shelved. Not long after this very public conflict, Amazon and the NFB sat down to discuss opportunities to partner on the accessibility of the Kindle platform in order to ensure that blind users could derive as much benefit from its ecosystem as sighted users. The National Federation of the Blind has been working with Amazon on the quality of their educational content ever since. In the last year or so, we have begun to see the earliest fruits of this partnership. As of mid-2016, Amazon has begun rolling out its VoiceView screen reader to all its Kindle readers, tablets, and TV devices. It has taken steps to make its Alexa app for controlling the Echo devices mostly accessible. Finally, they retired the old "Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin" and have replaced it with a fully integrated version of the Kindle for PC software. This now works with NVDA to allow for much more robust accessibility in most Kindle texts. This brings us to the present day. Amazon is still working toward further accessibility on many of their products, but we have seen such rapid improvement that it is a good time to discuss the experience a blind user can expect today. Current Accessibility of Amazon Devices Kindle Readers Amazon sells four different Kindle devices, which all have some level of accessibility. These are, in ascending order of price and specifications: the Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle Voyage, and the Kindle Oasis. The most basic model, just called Kindle, is relatively inexpensive and has the most basic feature set. Each additional model adds higher quality screens, better lighting, etc. Activating VoiceView How you activate VoiceView changes somewhat depending on the model of Kindle you have. The basic Kindle uses a Bluetooth headset or speaker to transmit the audio. The Kindle Paperwhite uses an audio adaptor that plugs into the micro USB charging port. Both these methods have their benefits and drawbacks. The Bluetooth method means that the device can be charging while VoiceView is active. However, there is no immediately obvious indication how to pair a headset when a user first gets the device, without looking up instructions online. For the Paperwhite, the obvious drawback is that the audio adaptor takes up the charging port, so you will always be running the device on battery power. For the basic Kindle, to pair a headset the power button is held in for seven seconds once the Kindle has fully booted. Then, hold two fingers near the center of the screen for a little over a second. At this point the Kindle will begin trying all Bluetooth devices it can detect. Once the device you want begins to broadcast an audio message, press and hold with two fingers again until the Kindle confirms VoiceView is on. For the Paperwhite just plug headphones into the adaptor and then plug the adaptor into the Kindle, and VoiceView turns on within a second or two. Basic Gestures As with other mobile screen readers, the most basic gestures are flick left, right, and double-tap. Moving your finger around the screen to explore by touch is also possible. Page changing and scrolling is done with two fingers. Swiping left and right with two fingers will flip pages in a book or move through multiple pages of content in other areas. Slowly swiping up or down with two fingers will scroll through long lists or any other content that doesn't all fit on one screen. Much like on iOS, it is possible to flick up and down to move by a selected granularity, and the gesture to change granularity is to flick up then down or down then up in one motion. Reading Books The process of reading a book on the Kindle is straightforward. From the home screen, find and double-tap on the book you want to read. If the book supports the screen reader, the book will start reading automatically. If the book is not supported, you will receive a message to this effect, but the book will still open. Once a supported book is opened, a two-finger flick down from near the top of the page will start the book in continuous reading mode. While the book is shown, it is possible to flick left or right with two fingers to go to the next or previous page. To access the reading bar where it is possible to navigate through the book or go back to your library, simply double-tap on the text while reading. It is possible to select text and highlight or add notes, but the initial step of this is somewhat clunky. To select text, move your finger around the screen to try and find the word you want to select. After this is done, double-tap and hold on the word to be selected. This will bring up an interface with buttons to adjust the selection, define a word, highlight or annotate the selected text, etc., which works quite well. Limitations with VoiceView VoiceView on the Kindle has a number of limitations that significantly affect how useful the device is. There are many features that simply state they are unavailable when focusing on the button to activate them. The first instance of this a user may run across is when initially setting up the device. While signing into an account is accessible, creating an account directly on the device isn't currently possible with VoiceView. Probably the most significant of these missing features is the Kindle FreeTime kids section. This is where a lot of content for kids resides, and parents can also set up reading lists, goals, time limits, and book restrictions for their children. Not having this feature means the Kindle readers are much less useful for a blind child whose parents want to get them into reading by using this service or to blind parents having no access to the parental controls. The Kindle's integration with Goodreads, (an online site where people can share the books they're reading, reading lists, and reviews of books they have read) is also disabled with VoiceView. Fire Tablets Amazon's Fire tablets are a series of relatively inexpensive tablets that run Amazon's Fire OS. The current tablets include a basic, seven-inch tablet simply called Fire, plus the Fire HD6, HD8, and HD10 which have six, eight, and ten-inch screens respectively. These tablets all come with Amazon's VoiceView screen reader, which has a few additional features over the version on the Kindle devices. Activating VoiceView Several different ways to activate VoiceView are available, depending on what state the tablet is in. VoiceView can always be activated under Settings > Accessibility. For a brand-new or freshly reset tablet, press and hold two fingers on the screen to start VoiceView. In addition, the user can hold down the power button from anywhere in the system until a sound is heard, then hold two fingers on the screen until VoiceView starts. To turn off VoiceView, go into Settings > Accessibility and turn it off. Using the Fire Tablet VoiceView on Fire OS is very similar to the version on the Kindle, with a few added gestures. As is the case in TalkBack on Android, the angle gestures are present, such as swiping right then down to access notifications, or up then left to reach the home screen. One unique gesture that VoiceView has is the "jog wheel" gesture. To use this, swipe up then down or down then up to choose the granularity you want to use to navigate. Then, double-tap and hold, then draw a circle on the screen without lifting your finger. As you continue going around, VoiceView will scroll through items on the screen matching that granularity quite quickly. Draw a circle in the other direction to go back. VoiceView can handle the built-in apps on the Fire tablet, plus many third-party apps such as Audible or BARD Mobile. The responsiveness is very good, though gestures need to be fairly precise; the double-tap action needs to be quick, and these default controls cannot be customized. It is possible to navigate through web pages, but the granularity options are limited to sections (what other devices call headings) and lists. Reading books works just as it does on the Kindle. Braille Support There is a version of BrailleBack currently available for the Fire tablets. This version, like the Android version, lacks many necessary features such as contracted Braille input, word wrap, and consistent and complete sets of commands across displays. Amazon has stated publicly that they are working on a better, more integrated version of Braille support, but no other details or release date have been provided as of this writing. Current Limitations VoiceView and Fire OS accessibility in general do come with some limitations. As mentioned previously, the navigation in web content is extremely limited, which can make navigating larger pages awkward. Similarly, there are no headings or other navigation elements in the App Store, Kindle Store, and other stores, again making navigation difficult. The gesture recognition, especially on the lower-end devices, can also be somewhat picky, resulting in failed angle gestures, occasional misinterpreted flicks, and fast double-taps that make using the tablet occasionally frustrating. Alexa Devices Alexa, Amazon's personal assistant service, is on an increasing number of devices, both from Amazon and other companies. The devices that are most associated with Alexa are the Echo devices, which will be discussed here. Alexa devices work through the Alexa app, which acts as a hub for configuring, monitoring, and adjusting aspects of your experience. The Hardware There are three Echo devices in the line. The Echo is a stand-alone speaker which was the first device to have Alexa. It has a decent speaker, 360-degree microphones, and connects to your WiFi to provide access to Alexa. The Amazon Tap is a smaller Bluetooth speaker. Until recently the Tap could not listen for the Alexa command, rather requiring a button press to cause it to listen. Now the Tap can listen, thanks to a software update. It is also the only battery-powered device in the lineup. Lastly, the Echo Dot is a much smaller version of the Echo, which is primarily designed to connect to other devices. The speaker on the Dot is fairly weak, but good enough for a small room or bedroom. All three of these devices serve different purposes depending on where and what the device is used for. The App and Web Interface There is an Alexa app for both iOS and Android, as well as a web interface. The setup is basically the same whichever platform you're on. In the app it opens a home screen which shows your recent requests along with more information about them. These might be additional details about sports- or weather-related requests, information on the song playing, or other possible information. The app is also where it is possible to search for and enable skills, connect smart home devices, and configure or set up other Echo devices. The app is very accessible on all platforms, though it can be laggy on mobile. There are also some unlabeled links, mostly in the section at the bottom of every screen that shows what your devices are currently playing. General Usage To use an Echo device, simply say "Alexa," and state your request. "Alexa, what's the weather in Baltimore?" "Alexa, play the Nation's Blind podcast from TuneIn." There are a vast number of things it is possible to do with the Echo. You can ask for the info on most professional and college sports teams, play music and stations from TuneIn radio, read some Kindle books, and listen to content in your Audible library. If you are a Prime member, it is also possible to listen to music from Prime Music and even order products directly through the Echo. There is also an ever-growing number of skills which will be discussed further in the next section. If you've connected a smart home device, the Echo can also be used to control your thermostat, lights, connected switches, and many other types of devices. Smart Home and Skills The number of Alexa skills is varied and growing daily. From simple trivia games to recipe databases to controls for your security systems-you can find almost anything in the skills section of the Alexa app. To enable a skill, simply find it in the Alexa app and tap the enable button. Or, if you know the name, simply tell Alexa to enable the skill. Some noteworthy skills include Jeopardy, AllRecipes, and Uber/Lyft. Another growing area of Alexa is smart home devices. Many devices including thermostats from various companies, lighting from companies such as Philips, smart door locks, and even whole home security systems can be controlled through an Echo device. Generally the device must be set up either directly on the device and/or through its connected app, which may or may not be accessible. Once the smart home device is connected to your WiFi, it can be connected to Alexa. This is done in the app, generally by enabling a skill and connecting either directly to the device or by signing into the related account. Reading Kindle Books on Other Platforms PC Reading Kindle books on the PC has traditionally been a less than enjoyable experience. The book could only be read by the system's text-to- speech voice, and navigation was minimal at best. Very recently, Kindle for PC version 1.19 paired with NVDA has enabled much more granular navigation of Kindle books. It is possible to navigate by chapter, by page, right down to character-by-character navigation. However, only Kindle books that support enhanced typesetting will work in this version. Unfortunately, the only place this information is located is in the product details on the Amazon site, and no warning is given when opening an incompatible book other than it not being possible to read the book using the arrow keys. Highlighting and attaching notes is completely accessible with NVDA, and it is also possible to navigate by link or graphic on the current page. Currently, the best results are with NVDA, though JAWS does provide a reduced level of access, but selecting text and the associated functions are not compatible. Mac Kindle for Mac is, unfortunately, completely inaccessible. The login screen is unusable with VoiceOver. While the menu bar is accessible after logging in, none of the content can be used or interacted with in any way. iOS Kindle for iOS is very accessible. The login process, book selection, and download are all very usable with VoiceOver. Once in a book, a two- finger swipe down starts continuous reading. A double-tap on the screen shows the menu bar, where it is possible to navigate to different parts of the book, share the book, or return to the library. Android Kindle for Android is also very accessible with TalkBack. When loading a book, simply swipe right to start continuous reading. Just as with Kindle on the Fire, it is possible to drag a finger around the screen to find a word to start a selection. Once the start of the selection is found, a double-tap and hold brings up the usual selection options, though once something is selected, when returning to that location later, there is no announcement from TalkBack that something is there. Amazon's devices have come a long way since the original Kindle for PC was released in 2009. The Fire tablets and Fire TV are becoming increasingly viable entertainment devices for the blind and low vision. The Alexa devices are very popular, thanks to their ability to provide access to smart home products that may not be natively accessible. Even the Kindle reading apps mostly continue to show improvement. Amazon has made significant strides in accessibility in nearly all their products, and it will be exciting to see what new developments arise in 2017 and beyond. At the time of writing in March 2017, the products mentioned in this article are commercially available at the following prices: Kindle E-reader: $79.99 Kindle Paperwhite: $119.99 Kindle Voyage: $199.99 Kindle Oasis: $289.99 Fire Tablet: $49.99 Fire HD 6: $69.99 Fire HD 8: $89.99 Fire HD 10: $229.99 Amazon Echo: $179.99 Amazon Tap: $129.99 Amazon Echo Tap: $49.99 ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Parnell Diggs] The Tools of Self-Advocacy for Airline Passengers with Disabilities by Parnell Diggs From the Editor: Parnell Diggs is the director of government affairs for the National Federation of the Blind, a former president of the NFB of South Carolina, and the previous owner of a law firm in that state which bore his name. One of his talents is translating the technicalities of the law into prose that laypeople can understand. Here is what he says about the letter of the law: The general rule is simple enough: carriers are admonished that "You must not discriminate against any qualified individual with a disability, by reason of such disability, in the provision of air transportation" (14 CFR 382.11). But the pleasantries very often deteriorate from there, as many people with disabilities (including those who are blind) have experienced while flying the not-so-friendly skies. The stories are all-too-familiar for members of the National Federation of the Blind who travel to the convention, Washington Seminar, or on other Federation business throughout the year. The purpose of this article is to flag some of the regulations passengers can cite en route to the Orlando national convention, for example, if confronted with an awkward situation at the airport or during flight. Where appropriate, I will also give you citations to the Code of Federal Regulations, which will make your self-advocacy more effective and hopefully improve the flying experience. In this case, the origin of most of the regulations cited in this article are promulgated in the implementing regulations adopted by the United States Department of Transportation, pursuant to the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, which protects passengers with disabilities from discrimination in various aspects of air travel. The Complaints Resolution Officer (CRO) Every air carrier that operates an aircraft with nineteen or more seats must designate a complaints resolution officer. "In any situation in which any person complains or raises a concern with your personnel about discrimination, accommodations, or services with respect to passengers with a disability, and your personnel do not immediately resolve the issue to the customer's satisfaction or provide a requested accommodation, your personnel must immediately inform the passenger of the right to contact a CRO and then contact a CRO on the passenger's behalf or provide the passenger a means to do so... Your personnel must provide this information to the passenger in a format he or she can use" (14 CFR 382.151(c)(1)). The CRO must be available at the airport at all times that a US carrier is operating flights at that airport; for foreign carriers, the CRO must be available at the airport for all flights beginning or terminating at that airport. The CRO is intended to be a powerful individual with authority to make dispositive decisions for the carrier of all complaints and even overrule decisions made by other airline officials except where the "pilot- in-command of an aircraft" makes a decision based on safety. But, short of a safety decision made by a "pilot-in-command of an aircraft," the CRO can address your issue. Website Accessibility As of December 12, 2016, airlines that operate at least one aircraft with a seating capacity of more than sixty passengers and own or control a website must insure that the public-facing pages on its primary website are accessible using World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation (11 December 2008, Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for Level AA standards). This means that, whether you are booking a flight, changing a reservation, purchasing additional services, or dealing with frequent flyer programs, the Department of Transportation requires that those activities and services must be available to disabled passengers if they are made available to the general public online. The Airport Entities which contract with airlines are also bound by the Air Carrier Access Act implementing regulations. (e.g., those who provide gate- to-gate assistance for passengers needing to make connections or for passengers arriving at the airport or departing after reaching their destination.) Contract personnel are also subject to CRO authority. The Aircraft Quoting the regulations, "You must not require a qualified individual with a disability to accept special services (including, but not limited to, preboarding) that the individual does not request" (14 CFR 382.11(2)). The airlines are required to offer preboarding, and some personnel take this obligation very seriously, but a blind passenger who does not want to preboard cannot be compelled to do so. Under the regulations, airlines may offer an extra safety briefing to blind passengers, but blind passengers are not required to accept it. According to 14 CFR 382.115(b), "You may offer an individual briefing to any other passenger, but you may not require an individual to have such a briefing except as provided in paragraph (a) [referring to the general passenger briefing] of this section." Canes and Guide Dogs 14 CFR 121.589(g) In addition to the methods of stowage in paragraph (c) of this section, flexible travel canes carried by blind individuals may be stowed - (1) Under any series of connected passenger seats in the same row, if the cane does not protrude into an aisle and if the cane is flat on the floor; or (2) Between a nonemergency exit window seat and the fuselage, if the cane is flat on the floor; or (3) Beneath any two nonemergency exit window seats, if the cane is flat on the floor; or (4) In accordance with any other method approved by the Administrator. Longtime Federation leader Patti Chang recently used this regulation to convince a flight attendant to allow Patti to store her cane at her seat, though she was first threatened with forced removal from the flight by federal marshals. Also, 14 CFR 382.121 requires carriers to permit passengers to bring "mobility aids, such as canes (including those used by persons with impaired vision)" into the aircraft cabin. The final set of regulations in this article refers to guide dog users. Carriers have been making it increasingly difficult for guide dog users to travel in peace. Accordingly, the relevant regulations are being set forth below in their entirety as information for those who would like to learn and use them for future travel plans. These regulations can be found at 14 CFR 382.117 as follows: (a) as a carrier, you must permit a service animal to accompany a passenger with a disability. (1) You must not deny transportation to a service animal on the basis that its carriage may offend or annoy carrier personnel or persons traveling on the aircraft. (2) On a flight segment scheduled to take 8 hours or more, you may, as a condition of permitting a service animal to travel in the cabin, require the passenger using the service animal to provide documentation that the animal will not need to relieve itself on the flight or that the animal can relieve itself in a way that does not create a health or sanitation issue on the flight. (b) You must permit the service animal to accompany the passenger with a disability at any seat in which the passenger sits, unless the animal obstructs an aisle or other area that must remain unobstructed to facilitate an emergency evacuation. (c) If a service animal cannot be accommodated at the seat location of the passenger with a disability who is using the animal, you must offer the passenger the opportunity to move with the animal to another seat location, if present on the aircraft, where the animal can be accommodated. (d) As evidence that an animal is a service animal, you must accept identification cards, other written documentation, presence of harnesses, tags, or the credible verbal assurances of a qualified individual with a disability using the animal. (g) Whenever you decide not to accept an animal as a service animal, you must explain the reason for your decision to the passenger and document it in writing. A copy of the explanation must be provided to the passenger either at the airport, or within 10 calendar days of the incident." Enforcement The regulations discussed herein would be meaningless without mechanisms to enforce them. One thing is certain: if you say nothing when you feel you have been a victim of discrimination, no action will be taken. Ideally, you should make a complaint to the CRO at the airport prior to takeoff or after landing. If you do this, the CRO will be required to act on your complaint immediately. If the CRO agrees that your rights may potentially be violated, he/she has the authority to take action on behalf of the carrier to prevent a violation of the Air Carrier Access Act. Or, if the harm has already been done, the CRO is required to provide a statement summarizing the facts and setting forth the corrective actions the carrier intends to take. If the CRO believes that no violation has occurred, he/she must provide a statement in writing summarizing the facts and the reasons for the determination. The statement must also inform the complainant of the right to pursue enforcement action with the Department of Transportation. Whether the CRO takes favorable or unfavorable action on a complaint, the statement must be provided to the complainant at the airport if possible but within thirty days thereafter in any case. There is also a provision for filing a complaint directly with the Department of Transportation. This section is set forth verbatim as follows: 14 CFR 382.159 (a) Any person believing that a carrier has violated any provision of this part may seek assistance or file an informal complaint at the Department of Transportation no later than 6 months after the date of the incident by either: (1) Going to the web site of the Department's Aviation Consumer Protection Division at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov and selecting "Air Travel Problems and Complaints," or (2) Writing to Department of Transportation, Aviation Consumer Protection Division (C-75), 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590. (b) Any person believing that a carrier has violated any provision of this part may also file a formal complaint under the applicable procedures of 14 CFR part 302 [The Department of Transportation general administrative review process]. (c) You must file a formal complaint under this part within six months of the incident on which the complaint is based in order to ensure the Department of Transportation will investigate the matter. While this is by no means an exhaustive accounting of the applicable regulations concerning air travel for passengers with disabilities, these are the most common types of issues brought to our attention in the National Federation of the Blind Department of Advocacy and Policy. Familiarizing yourself with these regulations and discussing them civilly with airline personnel will give you the best chance of enjoying a positive traveling experience the next time you plan to board a flight. ---------- Uber and Lyft Agree to Improving Service for Riders with Service Animals We Need Your Help with Monitoring Their Progress by Valerie Yingling From the Editor: Many blind people have welcomed the arrival of new ridesharing services with open arms, but the same cannot be said for the services, which sometimes have refused to provide rides to blind passengers accompanied by guide dogs. In this article Valerie Yingling, legal program coordinator for the National Federation of the Blind, discusses settlements between the National Federation of the Blind and the two major ridesharing services that operate in the country, Uber and Lyft. Here is what she has to say: Within the last year, the National Federation of the Blind has resolved allegations of discrimination against both Uber and Lyft. In landmark settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to revise their policies and procedures to prevent drivers from discriminating against riders with service animals. With these agreements, the NFB has pushed back against biases and misconceptions regarding the blind and their service animals. Policy and procedure changes outlined in the Uber and Lyft settlement agreements are designed to afford blind riders with service animals the ability to travel to doctors' appointments, school, work, grocery stores, and elsewhere, with the same ease of travel that Uber and Lyft offer to sighted customers. In short, the agreements support our living the lives we want, and the NFB commends both Lyft and Uber for instituting these changes. As a result of the settlement agreements, both Uber and Lyft now require that existing and new drivers acknowledge their legal obligations to transport riders with service animals. Both companies have adopted stricter enforcement policies-if Uber and Lyft drivers knowingly deny rides to individuals with service animals, the drivers will be immediately terminated. Additionally, if either company receives plausible reports that a specific driver refused to transport or otherwise discriminated against riders with service animals on more than one occasion, that driver will be terminated, regardless of the driver's intent. Uber and Lyft have agreed to improve their complaint procedures, including implementing more effective customer service responses to riders who register service animal discrimination complaints. See the agreement terms in full at https://nfb.org/rideshare. The National Federation of the Blind will coordinate with both Uber and Lyft to gather data on the success of these efforts for the three- to five-year duration of the agreements. The NFB will gather feedback from its membership on both ride denials and the quality of rides provided for individuals with service animals. This testing will be a critical tool for measuring Uber and Lyft's compliance with its NFB settlement agreement. Testing Program Specifics This is where we need your help. The Uber and Lyft testing program is open to all NFB members and nonmembers nationwide. Riders with service animals or individuals traveling with riders with service animals are asked to complete the following online questionnaire promptly after requesting and/or completing a ride with Uber or Lyft: https://nfb.org/rideshare-test. This testing tool will be used to measure not only ride cancellations and denials, but also whether a driver appeared to understand his or her obligations to provide equal access and to not discriminate as per the protections provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, testers will provide the following information via the online questionnaire. Uber and Lyft Testing Questions . Rider's name . Email . Date ride was ordered . Time ride was ordered . Address for pick up . Driver's name . Did the rider alert the driver of his/her service animal prior to the ride? . Did the driver appear to be unaware of his/her responsibility to transport riders with service animals? . Was the ride denied? . How was a complaint filed regarding the denial (e.g., using website, app, or complaint hotline)? . Was the rider treated disrespectfully during the ride (e.g., threatened, harassed, ridiculed, or provided inferior service because of the presence of a service animal)? . How was a complaint filed regarding the driver's disrespectful behavior (e.g., using website, app, or complaint hotline)? . Was the rider charged a cleaning fee because of his/her service animal? . Did the rider encounter any accessibility barriers with the rideshare service's app or website? Please note that the Lyft agreement contemplates that the NFB will conduct targeted testing in predetermined metropolitan areas. Those areas are Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, and the District of Columbia. NFB's testing reports to Lyft will be built around the experiences of riders in these cities. That does not mean, however, that we don't want to hear from Lyft riders outside of those cities. The testing tool is not restricted by geographic area, and we welcome Uber and Lyft testing across all affiliates. I'm pleased to note that the testing tool will also be available in Spanish. NFB's testing program will open on May 8, 2017. If you are an Uber or Lyft customer who has a service animal or travels with someone who has a service animal, I strongly encourage you to participate in the testing program. Please know that the NFB's feedback to Lyft and Uber will only be as strong as the data we gather from testers. Please plan to join us on May 8 and for the duration of our testing program! For more information, contact Valerie Yingling, NFB Legal Program Coordinator, at vyingling at nfb.org or (410) 659-9314, extension 2440, or see https://nfb.org/rideshare. ---------- How Do You Work This Thing? by David Andrews From the Editor: One of the tools most helpful to me in editing the Braille Monitor is the World Wide Web. My searches usually begin with Google and end by navigating some webpage to which it directs me. I am surprised by how often I am asked for some tidbit of information by people who don't think I will know it off the top of my head but who believe that I have the capacity to find it for them. In their mind the key is that I know how to use the computer, and although many of them own one, they do not know how to benefit from a search engine or to navigate the webpage to which it will take them. As a person who has worked with a lot of blind people in his career, David Andrews has a good grasp of what lots of blind folks understand and knows how to make them more independent. Here is what he has to say about the basics of navigating the World Wide Web and gaining the freedom that so many sighted people take for granted: When we look back at this era, it will probably be remembered as the time of "the Cloud." What is the Cloud, you ask? Well, basically, the Cloud is a place and way of doing things on the internet. Applications and data are stored on servers which are reached using the internet and a browser. This makes it easy for a company to update an application because they just have to do it in one place, not on individual computers or servers scattered around the world. Consequently, we are using browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari to do more and more things. I order my groceries online, get taxis, use Facebook, read Gmail, etc. At work I use a browser to enter my time sheet, to approve time and expenses for employees I supervise, to recruit and hire people, and to do my taxes and banking online as well. Consequently, it is necessary to use and learn new websites on a regular basis. Unfortunately, many blind and visually impaired computer users are not taught how to explore new websites; they are only taught how to do very specific tasks on the web. A number of years ago at a technology conference I saw a presentation from Fidelity, the mutual fund folks. They observed blind computer users and categorized their techniques for using unfamiliar sites. One of the things they said that stuck with me was that most people just know one or two commands in their browser, and they keep using them whether or not they work. I am going to give you several techniques or strategies for exploring, learning, and navigating a new website. They will not be screen- reader-specific, that is, I am not going to list commands for JAWS or VoiceOver, but most screen readers have the same basic set of functions, and you can look up the specific commands for your particular screen- reading program. Screen readers put a web page into a virtual buffer which allows you to freely explore it like a word processing document. If you have the time, it is generally beneficial to fully explore a new website's home page, use your arrow keys or read all commands to explore the complete page. In this way you know what is there and have an idea where things are located. There are a number of strategies that can be used to explore a page in addition to reading the whole thing. You can tab through the page, going from link to link. This can be a relatively quick way to see what is there, but it doesn't give you a lot of context. A related strategy is to use a "links list." For some reason, for a period of time many JAWS users were taught to do this, no matter what. Personally I think this strategy is only good for sites with which you are familiar. A Links List, with first letter navigation, can be quick, but is of little help unless you know the site. Depending on your screen reader, there may also be commands to get lists of forms, tables, frames, or headings. Here again, these commands can be useful or of no help depending on your knowledge of the site and what you are trying to accomplish. Your screen reader may have commands to get other kinds of element lists as well. Probably the most popular means of navigation and exploration besides the arrow keys is the use of headings. A heading can be made to visually emphasize something, like the beginning of a section. Headings can also be thought of as parts of an outline. There can be headings from level one through level six. A given site will only use the levels it needs, depending on its structure and organization. Headings are ideally hierarchical, that is like an outline. You have a level one heading, then one or more level two headings below that. Below each level two heading there may be additional levels. Think of it as an outline, a way to organize content. If you read DAISY books, like those from NLS, you are familiar with the concept of headings. Good web practice says that there should be only one level one heading per page. Most sites follow this, although there is nothing preventing the use of multiple-heading level ones. The use of just one is most common, and it is generally at the top or the beginning of the content of a site. Below it will be other headings as needed. Most screen readers have commands to go to specific levels of headings and to skip from heading to heading. If a site has headings and uses them well, this is a quick way to get an idea of what is there, as well as to navigate around the site. However, not all sites use headings or use them correctly. An increasingly popular way of orientation and navigation is the use of landmarks or regions. A landmark denotes a part of the page and is used for things like banners, navigation, main content, and footers. Most screen readers have a command to jump from landmark to landmark if they are present. This is a quick way to make big jumps to different parts of a site. Many sites also have a "skip to content" link near the top. This may or may not be hidden from visual users and only available to screen-reader users. It is a quick way to get to the guts of a site. They can be useful but don't always work correctly. Some screen readers also may have a command to jump to the beginning of a site's content, but here again, they don't always work as intended. The Find command can also be very useful. You can search for a keyword on the site. It may be something you know is there or something you suspect is there and want to locate. Find will quickly get you to the right place. Safari and Firefox have a "reader button" or "reader mode" on some sites. This is a button or icon that appears near the top and that skips all the header information at the top of the page and jumps to the content. The feature in Safari is available on both the Mac and on i-devices. It isn't available for all sites but can be useful when present. Screen readers also have commands to move to different kinds of elements on a web page such as edit boxes, forms, checkboxes, buttons, etc. Knowing these commands and using them to explore and/or navigate through a page can be very useful. One peculiarity that crops up from time to time is links that the screen reader doesn't identify as links. This situation depends on the screen reader/browser combination and the tools used to author the website. Sometimes you will be reviewing a page, and you will hear phrases that sound like they might be links or buttons and from their context seem like they should be, but your screen reader isn't saying "link" or "button." They may in fact be links or buttons; it won't hurt anything to move to one and hit enter to see if it does something. If things don't work as you would like, you may want to try a different screen-reading program. Some people use NVDA, Nonvisual Desktop Access for this purpose. Also, with Window-Eyes now being free to Microsoft Office for Windows users, a second or third screen reader is available to nearly everybody. It can sometimes work to try a different browser as well. You might not use all of these strategies on a new website, but it is useful to have as many tools as possible in your toolbox. That way you will have a wide variety of strategies which you can use to master a new website. ---------- A Legislative Update and a Call to Action by Parnell Diggs From the Editor: in the March 2017 issue of this magazine we ran the legislative fact sheets distributed at the Washington Seminar. At the time of our visit some of the legislation was still being drafted, but we now have bill numbers and are requesting action. In this letter, which was circulated to members on our listservs, Parnell Diggs, director of governmental affairs, provides bill numbers and asks for our action. Here is his letter: Dear Federation Family, The purpose of this update is to bring you up-to-speed on legislative developments since we left the Washington Seminar two months ago and to ask you to activate on several crucial issues. Please use this information as a good reason to reach out to your two senators and your congressman or congresswoman and update them on developments since your visit to their offices. The summary of legislative developments will be followed by the call to action on three bills: The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act, also known as "AIM HIGH," H.R. 1772 Congressman Phil Roe (Republican, Tennessee) and Congressman Joe Courtney (Democrat, Connecticut) introduced this legislation in the House of Representatives. H.R. 1772 will promote instructional technology and content that are accessible to the blind and other students with print disabilities. The Access Technology Affordability Act of 2017 (ATAA) H.R. 1734 and S. 732 These companion bills were introduced by Representatives David Young (Republican, Iowa) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (Democrat, California) in the House and by Senators John Boozman (Republican, Arkansas) and Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, Maryland) in the Senate on March 28, 2017. Please remind your senators and representative that this legislation will establish a per- person individual refundable tax credit to be used over a multi-year period to offset the cost of access technology for blind people. The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act of 2017 H.R. 1377 As President Riccobono indicated, the TIME Act is still a priority of the National Federation of the Blind. It just wasn't front and center at the 2017 Washington Seminar. The bill was introduced by Representative Gregg Harper (Republican, Mississippi) on March 8, 2017, to remove barriers to employment opportunities for people with disabilities by phasing out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act and facilitating the transitioning of people with disabilities now working in segregated employment settings into competitive employment opportunities in their communities. There is low hanging fruit we can secure from cosponsors of previous iterations of the TIME Act. Please see if your senators and representative will cosponsor this bill in the 115th Congress, especially members of the House of Representatives who have done so before. Call to Action Please call both of your senators and ask them to cosponsor S. 732, the Access Technology Affordability Act. Also, please call your congressman or congresswoman and ask him or her to cosponsor the AIM HIGH Act (H.R. 1772), the Access Technology Affordability Act (H.R. 1734), and the TIME Act (H.R. 1377). This is an excellent opportunity to circle back with your senators and representative to provide them with updates on legislation that will help blind Americans live the lives we want. The number to the Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. From there, the operator can transfer you to your desired contact. Let me thank you for the groundwork you laid at the Washington Seminar, which has led to the introduction of this legislation. Let's build on that momentum as we turn our focus toward Orlando. As always, thanks for all you do. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark A. Riccobono] From the President's Inbox: The Mail Must Go Through by Mark A. Riccobono From the Editor: One of my favorite columns in the Braille Monitor when I started reading it in the early seventies was called "From the President's Mail Basket" and was written by then-president Kenneth Jernigan. In those days there was no President's Notebook and no monthly Presidential Release, most of President Jernigan's communication with the membership was done through the United States Postal Service, and these columns in the Braille Monitor spoke clearly to the issues of the day, the concerns of the membership, and the talented man who was responsible for coordinating it all. This article from President Riccobono brings some of the best of what made "From the President's Mail Basket" special: the interaction with a member, the highlighting of an important issue, and a chance to observe the thinking and the talent of our current president. Here is his article: We live in a communication rich world. With those rich communication tools-mobile phones, email, social media, etc.-comes a pace of activity that sometimes prevents us from taking the time to tackle the artificial barriers we face. Some of those barriers are a real nuisance when we face them, but the immediate move to the next thing makes stopping and dealing with a problem feel like more work than it is worth. A recent exchange and its outcome prompted me to take a moment to write this article. I believe this situation demonstrates the importance of individual members taking the initiative to raise their voice to activate our vehicle for collective action-the National Federation of the Blind. As President of the National Federation of the Blind I receive a lot of correspondence-mostly via email but often via telephone. Attempting to deal with them quickly and effectively can be a challenge. Yet I am often surprised by the correspondence that does not make it to me. I try- sometimes successfully and sometimes not-to stay plugged in to social media knowing that many members of the Federation are discussing important topics in those communication channels. One day I came across a tweet from David Bouchard of Oregon. I reached out to David and asked him to send me an email to tell me more about his situation. Here is what he wrote to me on September 24, 2016: Good afternoon, Mark, Yesterday, at approximately 5:00 p.m. PST, I went to the Post Office at 101 SW Madison Street in Portland, Oregon, to mail a package for a friend. I purchased a box for the item, and when I asked the attendant behind the counter to assist me with filling out the shipping label, she refused, stating that she was forbidden to fill out customers' shipping labels per a USPS regulation. She asked another customer to assist me. I accepted that assistance to save time, but pressed the issue once my package was shipped. Her supervisor informed me that employees could be fired for filling out the shipping labels and that I would need either the assistance of another customer or a "caregiver." When I asked him if this was a federal regulation, he said that it was. As we both know, this is unacceptable, and I will do whatever it takes to change this outdated policy. I am still trying to find the offending regulation. Please feel free to contact me with any questions by email or at _________. Regards, David Bouchard I appreciated David's email because it demonstrated that he had taken positive steps to solve this problem by himself. He had questioned the policy and pressed the local postal worker for as much detail about the policy as he could get. Furthermore, he was attempting to research whether a regulation of the type described really exists in the federal code. David's email stands in contrast to those that simply request help from the National Federation of the Blind without demonstrating that the individual has done their part to solve the problem at hand. Often, we can get the most effective outcome when the blind individual has done all that they can to solve the problem before activating the national organization. I asked Parnell Diggs to research this issue and draft a request to the United States Postal Service to get clarification on this regulation. Below is Mr. Digg's letter: October 17, 2016 The Honorable Megan J. Brennan Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Office of the Postmaster and Chief Executive Officer United States Postal Service 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Room 10022 Washington, DC 20260 Dear Ms. Brennan: We received the following inquiry from David Bouchard, a blind gentleman in Portland, Oregon: "On Friday, September 23, 2016, at approximately 5:00 p.m. PST, I went to the Post Office at 101 SW Madison Street in Portland, Oregon to mail a package for a friend. I purchased a box for the item, and when I asked the attendant behind the counter to assist me with filling out the shipping label, she refused, stating that she was forbidden to fill out customers' shipping labels per a USPS regulation. She asked another customer to assist me. I accepted that assistance to save time, but pressed the issue once my package was shipped. Her supervisor informed me that employees could be fired for filling out the shipping labels, and that I would need either the assistance of another customer or a 'caregiver.' When I asked him if this was a federal regulation, he said that it was." We would greatly appreciate your kindly providing us with the regulation in question. I have provided my contact information below so that we may further discuss this matter. Thank you in advance for your assistance, and I look forward to hearing from your office in the near future. Sincerely, Parnell Diggs, Esq. After receiving David's initial email, I mentioned the issue to a number of blind people and a surprising number of them told me they or someone they knew had encountered a similar situation. It got me wondering if blind people are sometimes too quick to brush off unfair treatment based on false information. Is the problem that the small incidents are too easily left behind in our fast-paced society? Is it that we believe some requests are unreasonable-even if they are small-or that we are afraid to question the officials that are directing us? Or is it simply that we face too many barriers in one day, and we can only choose so many to tackle? Whatever the case, I was surprised that the issue was known but had never been tackled in a way that would answer the question once and for all. In order to resolve the matter, I give you the response from the United States Postal Service so that you might use it whenever the question comes up in the future: November 16, 2016 Mr. Parnell Diggs, Esq. National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street Baltimore, MD 21230 Dear Mr. Diggs, This letter is in response to your recent inquiry to Postmaster General Megan Brennan on behalf of Mr. David Bouchard. The letter described Mr. Bouchard's visit to a Post Office in Portland, Oregon. During the visit Mr. Bouchard asked the window clerk for assistance completing a shipping label and was told "a federal regulation prohibited such assistance." Your letter asked to be provided with the federal regulation in question. There is no federal regulation prohibiting a postal employee from providing assistance filling out a shipping label for a customer with a disability. To the contrary, it is the Postal Service's policy to offer assistance to customers with disabilities if requested. Employees are expected to be flexible and responsive in providing such assistance. I apologize on behalf of the Postal Service for Mr. Bouchard's unsatisfactory customer experience. The Postal Service provides training to employees about serving customers with disabilities. We want all customers to receive great service from Postal Service employees, and it is our responsibility to ensure they get it- everywhere, every day, every time. Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. Sincerely, Samuel J. Schmidt Managing Counsel 9350 South 150 East, Suite 800 Sandy, UT 84070-2716 (801) 984-8400 As a follow up, I wrote the email below to David on December 1, 2016: Dear David, As the motto says, "the mail must go through." Your letter of September 24 pledged that you would do whatever it takes to change the outdated practices that you experienced at the Post Office on Friday, September 23, 2016. I appreciate that you recognized discriminatory practice and you activated the Federation network to resolve the issue. You could have walked away figuring it was just the way life goes. You could have decided that blind people simply had to give up some privacy to get equal access. You could have decided to never bother with that post office again. You did none of these things, and you did not expect someone else to solve the problem for you, but rather sought assistance on how you could be part of solving the problem. For that I am thankful, and I commend you on your active leadership. I am sharing with you the response we have secured on your behalf from the United States Postal Service. I believe you will be pleased with the response. I have asked Mr. Parnell Diggs, our director of governmental affairs, to respond to the letter and invite the postal service to work with members of the Federation on their training. I suspect if they accept our offer we might call on you for assistance. Thank you for raising this issue and for helping us secure this useful response. I am going to publish the letter and details of your case in the Braille Monitor so that others encountering this problem know the truth. The mail must go through, and the blind can expect equal treatment in the post office according to the leaders of the organization. Since your case came to my attention, I have talked with others who have experienced this problem or know people who have, and it appears as though they chose not to challenge the practice. I am glad you pushed a little further. Keep raising expectations. If you decide to take the response down to your local post office, I will be interested to hear how they react. Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind There you have it, the answer to the question of whether or not the United States Postal Service will assist you with your packages. I encourage all members of the National Federation of the Blind to continue to share with each other the barriers that are encountered and work together to break down those barriers. When an issue comes up locally, be sure to share it with your chapter president and, if appropriate, your affiliate president. If you find that an issue requires the attention of our nationwide network, please be sure to call upon the national President so that we might have an opportunity to evaluate the situation. I can be reached at our national office by telephone at (410) 659-9314 or by email at officeofthepresident at nfb.org. The more that we take the time to address the artificial barriers we face rather than shaking them off as a nuisance, the faster our pace of progress will be. We might find that in many cases, like this one, a simple letter requesting clarification from the entity involved might give us the answer we seek. Then, we should find a way to share that correspondence with others within our Federation network. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Jim Peterson and Noel Nightingale] Blindness: Showing Up for Parenthood by Noel Nightingale From the Editor: Noel Nightingale is the mother of three children who resides in Seattle, Washington, with her husband Jim Peterson. She first met the Federation when she won a national scholarship in 1991. Her work in the Federation has included service as a chapter president, a state president, and as a member of the national board of directors. By training she is a lawyer who currently works for the United States Department of Education in the Office for Civil Rights. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Blind Lawyers, a division of the NFB. Here is what she has to say about deciding to become a parent and the challenges it has posed in her life: Before becoming a mother, I asked an attorney I worked with what was so great about having children. My colleague had often described the inconveniences of parenting. Having children seemed to cause her to create boundaries that made life not as fun, preventing her from engaging in the social life of the law firm because she had to get home. When I asked her why she liked being a mother, if indeed she did, she told me, "When I come home and my kids run to greet me with hugs and kisses, it makes it all worth it." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, after all you have told me about how your children disrupt your life, the scales seem heavily tipped in favor of non-parenthood." However, after having had three children, my husband Jim and I now understand what my colleague meant. The rewards of parenthood, though perhaps not easily described, are real. Becoming a parent was significantly harder than becoming blind. When I became blind, other blind people taught me that I just had to acquire the skills and attitudes I needed to live well as a blind person. I already knew basic life skills as a sighted person, and I merely needed to tweak a few things such as: learning to use a long white cane; learning Braille; learning how to use various assistive technologies; and, hardest of all, truly believing that I could still do the things I wanted to do without limitations. Of course, I now knew about being discriminated against as well. When Jim and I became parents, our lives changed drastically, and I needed to learn new skills like diapering, nursing, functioning on limited sleep, and getting around with a child connected to me in some way. Bennett Prows, who is a father of three and is blind, told me that when he and his former wife, who is also blind, were expecting their first child, a neighbor came over asking how the two of them were going to take care of a baby. The neighbor expressed skepticism that Ben and his wife would be able to change the baby's diapers. Ben asked his neighbor what he looks at when taking care of his own toileting needs and that ended the neighbor's doubt, at least on that particular topic. The basic skills of parenting are not that hard, sighted or blind. The most dramatic challenge that came with parenthood was that I had to change my perspective and priorities. I realized that neither Jim nor I came first anymore, and I sacrificed many of the things I enjoyed doing to spend time with my children. Like the rewards of having children, it is difficult to describe how the mundane aspects of parenting rule our lives. I trained myself not to use profanity anymore lest I inadvertently do it in front of the kids. Along with Jim, I adjusted my schedule around my children's schedules, and I learned that my children's homework was also my homework because if Jim and I didn't nag the kids to do it or didn't help, it may very well not get done. The list goes on and on of the seemingly boring yet enormously important and trying things we now spend time on to even reach the low bar of being adequate parents. Though Jim is our primary stay-at-home parent and all I have to do during most weekdays is earn money, every day I think about all the things going on in my children's lives. I schedule doctor appointments and activities. I interact with teachers and have served on our elementary school's Parent Teacher Association board of directors. I feel guilty if I take "me time" when I could be spending time with my children exposing them to something new or just sharing quiet time with them. My motto of parenting is, "It's quality of time, not quantity of time." Some of the tasks and trials involved with parenting require the alternative techniques of blindness, but mostly they don't. For me, similar to becoming blind, becoming a parent involved a mental adjustment to a new way of life. But I have found the adjustment and the sacrifices a lot more daunting than the adjustment to blindness. All parents I know, both sighted and blind, have similar struggles with parenthood that Jim and I do. They wonder how to properly and successfully discipline their children, debate the question of how much screen time to allow, when or if to buy their children cell phones, and are seeking the right balance between children's free time and scheduled time. The parents I know are today discussing whether to make their children learn a musical instrument, participate in a sport, or engage in some other kind of skill-building activity, knowing that if they cave in to the child's resistance, the adult child will turn around tomorrow and tell their parents that they should have made the child stick with the piano or Chinese lessons. Parents are under their children's microscopes and constantly think about needing to live up to the role models they have envisioned they should be for their children. They wonder how or whether to help their children acquire grit. Parents reflect on how they were raised and whether to follow in their own parents' footsteps in child rearing. These things and other aspects of parenting are enormously philosophical, and how we meet the challenges of parenthood can determine whether our children's lives will be as fulfilling as they could be. No parent that I know believes he or she has found the right answers to all of the thorny issues associated with being a parent. Yet, when I tell sighted people that being blind is a lot easier than being a parent, they are invariably skeptical. Maybe it was because, as I lost my sight, I had a network of supportive blind mentors encircling me. I had blind role models to pattern myself after and quality training from blindness skills and attitude factories of the National Federation of the Blind and the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Consequently my acquisition of blindness skills and my emotional adjustment to blindness were simple and straightforward compared to the adjustment to parenthood. The challenges of parenting make the adjustment to blindness look easy peasy. Of course, I am constantly employing blindness techniques in my parenting, and of course, I never take my blind hat off to be a mom, but most of the time, I don't think those two aspects of myself interrelate. I just do what anyone does who is trying to live well and do their best for their kids. I recently read a book by Bill Gates Sr. that has a title that perfectly represents parenting to me, with a one-word change that I don't think Mr. Gates would mind. Mr. Gates' book is called, Showing Up For Life. To me, the charge of parenting that sounds easy but isn't should be called, "Showing Up For Parenthood." Our kids are not another hobby to be played around with when we feel like it. We must show up twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and be at our best. I have many pictures in my mind of my fifteen years of parenting. Leila riding her first tricycle given to her by my mother who was then dying; Cosmo jumping up and down in his crib bawling until he vomited; Dexter, being the social butterfly, and talking to strangers from the time he was a toddler about topics of interest to him like Transformers. Then, of course, there are those moments I won't get too graphic about but involve fecal matter, an airplane, a crayon, and dental floss. More and more pictures flit through my mind of those very small moments in life unappreciated by anyone but Jim and me, poignant and funny, the type which snatches of memories all parents cherish. Sometimes Jim, who is sighted, and I have fallen down on the job as parents. When our third child, Dexter, was about three, we noticed that he was telling us virtually every object around him was the color green. We asked his preschool teacher for an assessment of whether he was color blind, and she informally tested him and said that he may not only be color blind but be a very unusual type of color blindness, I think she said blue- yellow color blindness. Jim and I immediately made an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist. A couple days before the appointment, we sat down with Dexter and a bunch of Legos and told him what color each block was. Then we asked him what color randomly selected blocks were, and he correctly identified their colors. We took him to the ophthalmologist who said that he is not color blind. It turns out that neither Jim nor I had yet gotten around to teaching Dexter the different colors! Some call that third-child syndrome. With our two older kids, I had taught them the different colors using Braille picture board books but had neglected to do that for Dexter. An unexpected time when parenthood and blindness starkly coincided in my life was when a parent volunteer was sorting the books in Dexter's second-grade classroom and found a book published by the National Federation of the Blind. We used to publish a series of books called Kernel Books, a couple of which I had written articles for. The one the volunteer found in my son's classroom happened to be one of the books I had written an article for and while leafing through it, he found that article and showed it to my son. Dexter came home proud that his mom had written a book, not quite an accurate description of my role in that book, but nevertheless, it created an opportunity for a discussion about blindness. I asked the teacher how the Kernel Book had found its way to her classroom, and she had no idea. To this day, I wonder what the chances are of a Kernel book ending up in one of my children's classrooms since I had not distributed any of those books to the school, nor, to my knowledge, had anyone else I know. I have listened to hundreds of books from the library for the blind with each of my children, which I view as a way to spend time with my kids that also expands their worlds and vocabularies. I have now listened to the Harry Potter series more times than I can count and am looking forward to the day someone asks me to enter a Harry Potter trivia contest. Some of my kids' teachers have told me that the time I have spent listening to books with my kids is evident. In dealing with homework, I have just required my kids to read it to me when they need help. I figure it doesn't hurt them to have to do a little more reading, though it is not ideal, especially at times when they don't read every word on the page to me and then we are both confused. I know that I have a legal right to receive what my kids' schools provide in Braille or electronic format. I could ask for copies of their homework in an accessible form; but, whether it has been the right decision or not, I have not asked for it to be provided in alternative formats. I don't want to ask my kids' teachers to take their limited planning time on creating accessible documents for me if I can avoid doing so. I have usually found a way to help my kids with their homework, by hook or crook. There have been innumerable times when I felt left out of full participation in my children's education because I am blind. When I attend meetings at school for parents, any printed material distributed has not once been provided in Braille or any format accessible to me. I have never been asked what format I need to access documents. Because I usually know someone at school meetings, I have been able to ask him or her to read any important materials to me. Jim mostly reads any letters and documents the schools or school district mail to us. He does not, though, read every piece of paper that comes through our door. He is a Type B personality and I am a Type A. I am the one who signs up for the emails from the PTAs and school district and the one who obsesses about attending all the school events we can. However, Jim is my husband, not my reader, so I often have to let my obsessive-compulsive self sit in the backseat and relax about not reading everything that comes home from the schools in our kids' backpacks. Jim and I have attended many workshops at my kids' elementary and middle schools to teach parents how to help their children learn particular skills, usually math. Parents are taught games they can play with their children to increase their math proficiency. Ninety percent of the time, the math games involve print materials. One time I knew in advance that the math games we were going to be taught involved playing cards, I told the school that the workshop leaders could easily purchase a set of Braille playing cards for me to use during the workshop and that they could then have on hand for any blind parents attending their workshops, which the school said would be arranged. I showed up for the workshop held one weeknight in the school cafeteria, and no Braille playing cards had been acquired. So, while the parents all around me played math games with playing cards, I stood there trying to be supportive of my son but feeling inadequate. While these times have bothered me enormously, they are usually isolated incidents, and I have moved on. We believe that our kids are receiving a good education, have had excellent teachers, and nothing until recently has dramatically gone wrong because I could not access information provided by one of my kids' schools. Well, "until recently" is not quite accurate. Five years ago, during summer 2012, our school district changed websites. Until then, I had been able to obtain much of the information I needed from the school district's website; that is, I had been able to obtain any information available to all parents on the website. The new website, however, was extraordinarily inaccessible. I couldn't believe it. The majority of the links on the homepage didn't open when I entered on them. Apparently, something happened on the screen, but my screen reader didn't know it. The school district calendar of events-like days that school was not in session-was in an inaccessible table, so when I try to figure out significant events happening during the school year, my screen reader just told me the dates of the month with no information about what was occurring on those dates. When I saw that the website was horribly inaccessible, I wrote to the school district's webmaster. For the past four years, the webmaster has provided me with some of the information I sought but could not access on the website. Of course, this is not a good situation because the webmaster is not around at all times of the day and on all days of the week when I am looking for information. Also, the webmaster cannot browse the website for me, she can only respond to my specific information needs if my needs can wait until she is available. However, because the school district seemed to understand the problem and seemed to be willing to fix it, I patiently waited for the fix to come. My patience came to a full stop when Cosmo was in fifth grade. I received an email from Cosmo's teacher. All year, he had had math homework using an online program called ST Math. Every weeknight, Cosmo would get on our computer and, we thought, diligently work on his ST Math homework. Not so. The teacher's email to me said that Cosmo was less than 40 percent complete with his ST Math problems, and he was supposed to be at 80 percent at that point and 100 percent by the end of the school year. Jim and I quickly figured out that Cosmo had probably not resisted the temptations offered by a computer, and instead of doing his math homework had been playing Minecraft (a video game) or watching YouTube videos. Cosmo vehemently denied it but could not explain why his classmates were able to be at 80 percent complete and he less than half that. Jim and I concluded that we needed to institute an accountability system for Cosmo and monitor his progress on ST Math so he could catch up to where he was supposed to be. I went to the computer to have Cosmo show me how to log into the program so I could see what percentage he started at and then come back after an hour and see what percentage he had achieved by then. I got my first inkling that my ability to monitor Cosmo's ST Math progress was not going to be as easy as I thought when Cosmo said that the log-in was to click on a series of pictures. Not just one or two unlabeled graphic pictures but many unlabeled pictures. I had him login, then I went to find the part of the program that says what percentage he was at, and all I heard was "Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash..." The whole program was inaccessible. Now the school district's failure to ensure it is purchasing accessible technology was not only a significant accessibility problem for me in locating information on its website, but it was actually blocking my ability to monitor my son's homework progress. Now I was angry. Enter the National Federation of the Blind. My touchstone. My source of inspiration. The members of the NFB have always reinforced to me the importance of parents' full participation in children's education. I had put up with inaccessible documents for umpteen years and found ways around the problem. This time, there was no way around the inaccessible technology. Technology is either accessible or it isn't, and unless I have a reader sitting on my shoulder every time I want or need to use a website or a piece of software, it must be accessible out of the box. A public school district has a legal responsibility to make sure that its programs are accessible, and apparently our school district hadn't been taking that obligation seriously. So, with the NFB's help, I filed a lawsuit in federal district court. I had the dream team of lawyers, one of whom admits he was put to the test by Dr. Jernigan and Dr. Maurer and somehow made it through the trial. That is Dan Goldstein. Through the lawsuit, I secured a commitment from the school district to create a system whereby it ensures the technology it purchases or uses is accessible from the get-go. Thanks to those who continue the self-help movement founded by blind men and women in 1940, the National Federation of the Blind, we have the gift to learn from and lean on one another as we live full lives as blind people. I suppose there are organizations of parents who provide support for each other, but they don't and probably can't function in parents' lives the way the NFB does for me. My thanks to the organized blind movement that has given me a full life of working full time in a rewarding job and allowed me the freedom to choose the twenty-four/seven job of parenthood. ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives we want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit https://nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- There Is a List for That! by David Andrews This month we will start out our monthly column of internet mailing lists with the state of Maryland, home of the Jernigan Institute and the National Center for the Blind. And for good measure, we will throw in the state of Delaware, since it is small. The primary list for the state of Maryland is NFBMD. You can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmd_nfbnet.org or you can also subscribe by sending email to nfbmd-request at nfbnet.org and put the word subscribe on the subject line by itself. The list contains both discussion and announcements. Most of the chapters in Maryland also have their own lists. Below are the list names and a brief description of each. To subscribe substitute the list name in the command above for the NFBMD phrase. central-md-chapter Central Maryland greater-baltimore Baltimore, Maryland, chapter list md-atlarge At-Large Chapter of the NFB of Maryland md-sligo Sligo Creek Chapter nationalharbor National Harbor Chapter list nfbtlc-chapter Towson/Lutherville/Cockeysville Maryland Chapter list Two divisions in Maryland also have their own lists, Parents of Blind Children and Students. Their list names are MDPOBC and MDABS respectively and can be used in the web or email commands mentioned previously. The NFBNET server also hosts the NFB of Maryland website, http://www.nfbmd.org. Finally, as a bonus, since it is small and close to Maryland, we will mention Delaware. Its list name is NFB-of-Delaware and you can subscribe either by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-of- delaware_nfbnet.org or by sending an email to nfb-of-delaware- request at nfbnet.org. Put subscribe on the subject line by itself. Next month we will tell you about technology-related lists. As always, you can find all NFBNET.ORG-related lists at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. ---------- Independence Market Corner The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind men and women. With spring well underway and summer just around the corner, we want to highlight a few products that promote outdoor activity. We carry two different ringing balls, namely a basketball and a football. These balls contain two bells that jingle while the ball is in motion. More recently we replaced our ringing soccer ball with a rattle soccer ball. The rattles in this ball make more noise than the bells do, so it is better for outdoor play. We also have a beeping Frisbee, which emits a continuous beeping sound when turned on. This Frisbee, while not quite possessing the aerodynamic properties of a traditional one, is a foam disk covered with a bright orange nylon sleeve and includes a removable sound source, which is operated by one AA battery. Since the Frisbee is soft, it is suitable for both indoor and outdoor play by children of all ages. The Beeper Box is also sold separately. One may use it as a sound source for games and training situations. And if you want to keep track of your steps and don't have a smartphone, our basic talking pedometer may be for you. After you determine your average step length and select this number in the setup, the pedometer will keep track of your steps and convert it to miles. It also announces the time and features an alarm. Now all you have to do is go outside and have some fun! For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print, visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist you. ---------- Dots from Space! Inching Towards Understanding by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer Eager to learn more about the ways that the vanished inhabitants of the building dealt with blindness, the roly-poly adventurers retreat inside once more and navigate through the empty hallways until they find a metal door. Rolling forward, Lieutenant-Commander Jot presses against and twists the door handle, preparing to open it. The door, with Jot still attached, swings forward over open air. Astonished to find nothing under her mass, she emits a small yelp of surprise. "Jot!" cries the captain. "I'm fine, ma'am. But it looks like we'll have to find another way down. The stairs have collapsed." Captain Dottie reaches out a suction cup-like appendage and pulls the hanging Jot back onto firm ground. Once stable, Jot stretches out an exploratory appendage and feels the inside edge of the hole, whereupon she discovers the still intact hand rail. "I think we can slide down this, Captain!" "I'm not sure we should trust it," says Doctor Spot. "What if one of us begins to slide down while one of the others holds on to them from behind? That way we aren't putting all our weight on the rail at the same time, and we'll have a braking mechanism." Jot explains. "Alright," says the captain. "Let's do it, but we'll take it slow." Two by two the members of the crew begin to slide down the bannister, with each pair stretching and compressing their bodies like an inchworm as they move along. Soon they come to the door to the next level and make their way down another empty hallway to a large room. Dotted around the vault-like room are several statues and tactile exhibits standing silently on display. Lieutenant-Commander Jot admires a primitive rocket purported to have been launched in 2004, while Captain Dottie inspects a small white cane said to have been used by an alien called tenBroek, the first leader of the inhabitants of the building. Row upon row of shelves, some long since collapsed, wind back and forth across the dimly lit room. Countless books line the shelves, while others are strewn across the moldering carpet. Bending down to retrieve one brittle book from the top of a pile, Ensign Bean begins to carefully flip through its pages. A short while later, Captain Dottie discovers he has not moved from his spot for some time. "Report Ensign. Have you found something of interest?" "It's this book, Captain. You've got to see this!" His voice shakes slightly as he bounces with excitement. Squeak, squeak. "It appears that this book also uses multiple writing systems simultaneously." "It's not just that, Commander. It also uses these raised diagrams on top of colored images of space phenomenon, like nebulas and celestial bodies." "Oh? And what's so special about that, Bean?" Commander Point asks; a trace of sulking in his voice. "It all makes sense now, Commander. They wanted everyone to be able to access the information regardless of their ability. If that meant using three systems of communication, then that is what they used. As long as the content, the knowledge, was available to everyone then that was what counted." "That's quite a theory you've got there, son," the commander says with a squeak. "But what evidence do you have to base it upon?" Without a word, Bean hands Point a piece of paper which had been tucked into the front cover of the book. Giving the ensign a quizzical look, he unfolds the brittle paper, presses it to his chest, and begins to read. [Note: Link to or copy text from "Access for All," by Noreen Grice, Future Reflections, Volume 29, Number 4, https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr29/4/fr290408.htm] Silently, the commander hands the paper to Captain Dottie. "That's quite the discovery, Ensign. I think you may be onto something there. Access to information is one of the most basic rights of sentient life. It seems that these aliens understood this concept quite well." ---------- Recipes As many schools begin to adjourn for the summer, we at the Monitor thought we'd pull together some fun and kid-friendly recipes to make for and with your kids over the long break. Ants on a Log Ants on a Log is an old scout standard snack, and incredibly flexible in flavors. Easy and quick to make any time, this recipe is perfect for an afternoon snack after running around. Ingredients: 1 bunch celery (the logs) Filling options: Peanut butter Honey Cream cheese (plain or flavored by preference) Ricotta cheese other vegetable spreads Ants options: Raisins Dried currants Miniature chocolate chips Method: Wash and dry celery. Cut celery into snack-length pieces (two to three inches, usually). Fill celery pieces with one of the fillings, whichever you prefer. For Ants on a Slip-n-Slide, drizzle honey first, then fill with cream cheese or peanut butter. Place a line of "ants" down the log, usually three or four depending on size of ant and length of log. Enjoy! ---------- Indoor S'Mores Everyone thinks of s'mores as a camp treat-marshmallows roasted over an open fire. But when your camping trip gets rained out, or your seasonal allergies make spending hours in the great outdoors not an option, there's no reason to entirely miss out on this summer staple. Ingredients: 1 bag miniature marshmallows 1 box Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or similar cereal 1 bag chocolate chips 1 box large paper clips 1 unscented candle Method: Set up candle in holder on table or kitchen counter. Each person making s'mores will need a large paper clip. Straighten the paperclip, leaving only the smallest inner loop folded to create a handle, this is your roasting stick. Light the candle. Lay out two pieces of cereal and one chocolate chip in easy reach. Stick one marshmallow onto the end of the paperclip wire. Hold marshmallow over flame to toast. There are two schools of thought on the proper technique to roast a marshmallow: one says you hold the marshmallow slightly above the flame, turning slowly to allow the marshmallow to toast to an even golden brown. The other says to stick the marshmallow into the flame, then lift it out. Allow the marshmallow to burn briefly, creating a black crust around it before blowing the flame on the marshmallow out. Place the chocolate chip onto one piece of cereal, then rest the marshmallow on top of the chocolate chip. Place the other piece of cereal on top of the marshmallow, then pinch the cereal together and use it to pull the marshmallow off the paper clip. Repeat until candle burns out, you run out of ingredients, or get sick of dessert, whichever happens first. ---------- Bird Seed This recipe is a great way to practice using measuring spoons or cups as well as fractions, and allows for great personalization in this heathy snack mix to allow for picky eaters who disagree to exist in harmony on family road trips, sporting events, and other outings. Because there is no chocolate, this recipe is great for taking along in the summer heat without as much worry about mess. Ingredients: 1 Ziploc bag per person Toasted corn kernels Sunflower seeds (hulled) Chopped nuts (cashews, peanuts, almonds, pecans, or mix) Plain granola cereal Dried fruit (banana chips, raisins, currants, bananas, etc.) Method: Each person measures 3 tablespoons of each ingredient into their Ziploc bag, shake to mix. ---------- Breakfast Cookies Early morning marching band practice, summer school classes, or day camp? These breakfast cookies are easy and fun to make, then fast to grab and eat on the way out the door later. Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 eggs 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour 3 cups multigrain cereal flakes with blueberries Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray or cover with parchment paper. Place butter in a medium mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer for thirty seconds. Add brown sugar and baking soda, beat until mixed. Add the eggs, then beat until mixed. Add flour and beat until the mixture no longer looks dry. Stir in the cereal using a wooden spoon. For each cookie, pack the mixture into a 1/4-cup measuring cup, using a rubber scraper to get it out of the cup and onto the cookie sheet. Press mound of dough with your fingers to flatten it slightly. Repeat with remaining dough, leaving about three inches between cookies. Bake cookies for eight to ten minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cookies stand on the cookie sheet for one minute before transferring to wire rack to let them finish cooling. Makes twelve cookies. ---------- Bug Juice A fun and funky punch mixture that produces unusual colors and flavors to experiment with. Ingredients: 1 package of Kool-Aid or other non-sweetened drink mix powder per child, different flavors Sugar in quantity required by drink mixes Method: Combine drink mix packages and sugar as directed by mix packages in large pitcher, bowl, size of container determined by size of group. If group is large enough, mix packages in twos or threes in multiple gallon jugs. Add water as directed. The combinations of two to three flavors give that odd "byproduct of bugs" appearance. ---------- Aquarium Jell-O This cool treat is a cool treat for a hot summer, whether for a birthday party or just as a fun family dessert. Ingredients: 1 package blue Jell-O 1 package Swedish Fish 1 Package Life Savers Gummies Method: This can be made in one large container, such as a glass fishbowl, or in smaller individual servings in a clear plastic punch cup or smaller glass drinking glass. First use scissors to cut Life Savers Gummies into smaller pieces to make the pebbles the bottom of your aquarium (bowl or cups). Judge the depth of the pebble layer for your own preferences. Mix Jell-O according to package instructions. Pour over pebble layer. Place Jell-O into refrigerator for several hours to set. Once Jell-O has set, use a long, thin knife to cut a slit in the Jell-O to the depth you want your fish to "swim." Poke Swedish Fish into slit, using knife to push fish down into position. Repeat to populate your aquarium with as many fish as you like. You can sometimes also find gummie sharks or other creatures to populate your aquariums with. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Braille Book Fair Volunteering: The Braille Book Fair has become one of the highlights of the convention for many teachers, parents, blind kids, blind parents, and adult beginning Braille readers. But the event could not take place without the help of many dedicated, talented volunteers. And that's where you come in. As a past worker, or simply interested supporter of the Braille Book Fair, I hope you can either volunteer, or give me the contact information for someone that you recommend. We need people from 9:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12. You do not need to work the entire afternoon or evening, but I do ask that you try to work an entire shift, and we prefer a two-hour shift. We especially need for people who help customers to come before we open the doors at 5:00 p.m. and to commit to staying until at least 6:30 p.m. Book lovers are great for this shift, as you will assist visitors in book decisions/selections. Thanks so much for taking time to consider this request, and I look forward to hearing from you soon! If you can help, please contact Sandra Oliver, NOPBC Board Member at (713) 825-4573 or Sandra.Oliver at ey.com. If emailing, please provide the following information: . YES...I can work the following shift(s): . My cell phone number that I will have at convention is: . I live in (state): . MAYBE.....I'll check my schedule. If possible, my preference is to work these hours . Braille skills (including if you read by touch or by sight as a sighted person) Note: If you are a parent of a blind child under the age eighteen (or still in high school or below), we know that you will want to attend the NOPBC Annual Meeting which takes place just before the BBF, but we would welcome you to work either during the event or on the clean-up shift after the event. Elected: On Saturday, April 8, 2017, the Chicago Chapter held its annual election for all officers and board members. We elected the following: president, Steve Hastalis; first vice president, Patti Chang; second vice president, Jemal Powell; secretary, David Meyer; treasurer, Marco Gianotti; and board members Denise Avant, Gina Falvo, Howard Wilson, and Melissa Fuller. Kernel Books Available to All: In 1991 the National Federation of the Blind began publishing a series of small volumes called Kernel Books. The books contained stories written by blind people about our lives, designed to show that they are not much different from the lives of our sighted friends, family members, and peers. We called them Kernel Books because each story contained a "kernel," such as an incident or a challenge that revealed a truth about blindness and blind people. We encouraged the sharing of these volumes with the public to increase understanding and combat low expectations and misconceptions about blindness. The Kernel Books are a valuable part of our organizational literature and heritage. As an organization, we deeply value and treasure the real- life stories of hope and inspiration contained in our Kernel Book series. But the way that the public acquires information has changed, with more and more people reading and consuming information in a digital form. While the stories in the Kernel Books are timeless, the paperback volumes that contain them are not. Consequently, we are planning to repurpose these stories to make them more widely available in digital formats. At the same time, we would like to get many of the existing paperback Kernel Books in our storage facility out into the world and into the hands of those who would benefit from reading them. To that end, we are offering free cases (a case contains fifty books) on a first-come, first-served basis of the following Kernel Books published after 2000: . Oh, Wow . Safari . Reaching for the Top in the Land Down Under . Not Much of a Muchness . The Lessons of the Earth . Imagine . Celebrate . To Reach for the Stars We are making these cases of books available so that chapters, affiliates, and divisions can distribute them within their local communities or to new members and supporters. You might donate some books to your local library, distribute copies to senior centers, take some books to church or to meetings of community organizations with which you are involved, give the books out as free literature at community festivals and events, and more. If you are interested in receiving a free case of any of these titles, please contact Ellen Ringlein in the Independence Market at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, or at independencemarket at nfb.org. We hope that many individuals, chapters, and affiliates will take advantage of this opportunity to spread our message of hope, love, and determination far and wide. The Kernel Books show how blind people live the lives we want and invite others to understand and support our work for the full and equal integration of the blind into society. Let's make sure that all of the copies of these books we can get into circulation are distributed before we transition these stories to new platforms and formats oriented towards reaching a new generation of readers. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. NYSSB Alumni Association to hold Annual Reunion: The members of the Alumni Association of the New York State School for the Blind will gather for their annual reunion from Friday, June 9, through Sunday, June 11, at the Quality Inn and Suites, 8250 Park Road, Batavia, New York. Activities will include: . A technology demonstration . Bingo and Jeopardy with prizes . Our annual banquet, opening meeting, and business meeting . Lots of chances to socialize with old friends and make new ones . A picnic with the current students of NYSSB . Our memorial service to remember recently deceased alumni . A 50/50 raffle, money tree drawing, and auction . A public reading demonstration to support our third annual read-a-thon Annual membership dues are $15.00 with multi-year plans available. Our association began in 1918 and was incorporated in 1924. We will be celebrating our centennial and the 150th birthday of the school at our 2018 reunion. Membership is open to anyone at least eighteen years of age who either attended the New York State School for the Blind or has a substantive relationship to or is recommended by a member in good standing of the Association. If you wish to become a member or have questions about the reunion, please call Diane Scalzi at (586) 337-5226 or email dscalzi at comcast.net or send using postal mail to 21621 Briarcliff St., Saint Clair Shores, MI 48082. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Thu May 25 13:45:45 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Thu, 25 May 2017 13:45:45 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, June 2017 Message-ID: <201705252045.v4PKjjQJ010550@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 6 June 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only. Call (866) 996-6338. The 2017 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2017. The other 50 percent is not refundable. Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2017, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options, including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room service. The schedule for the 2017 convention is: Monday, July 10 Seminar Day Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day Thursday, July 13 Opening Session Friday, July 14 Business Session Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 60, No. 6 June 2017 Contents Illustration: Show-Me Earth Day Disability Simulations: What Does the Research Say? by Arielle Silverman The Perils of Playing Blind: Problems with Blindness Simulation and a Better Way to Teach about Blindness by Arielle Michal Silverman The Mechanics of Meeting One's Financial Obligations Without Sight by Gary Wunder There Is a List for That! by David Andrews >From Helplessness to Independence: A Philosophical and Practical Overview by Maurice Peret Audible Pedestrian Signals, Tactile Graphics, and the Need for the Blind to Get Involved by Ben Vercellone Blind Actors by Peggy Chong Do You Dream in Color? by Ellen Sullivan Dots From Space!: Getting in Touch with Braille by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer My Free White Cane by Heather Bird Independence Market Corner Playing with Clay by Deborah Kent Stein Climbing by Jennifer Dunnam Watermelons, Sharp Knives, and Peace by Bruce Gardner How to Pay for Your Hotel Stay in Orlando by Tony Cobb Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: The National Federation of the Blind Columbia Chapter's booth, situated between an organization dedicated to cleaning trash from the Missouri River and a woman selling tie-dye clothing.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Chapter members Bruce Stockler, Cheryl Meister, and Debbie Wunder have the table set up and ready for business Sunday morning.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Dottie is wearing her comic book dress and has her white cane in hand as she enjoys Earth Day. She is here because she knows that blindness doesn't mean she can't be a superhero.] Show-Me Earth Day In April the Monitor ran a lead playing off April's Earth Day. But in all seriousness, Earth Day festivals are a great opportunity for chapters to get out and spread the message of the National Federation of the Blind. The Columbia Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri has been attending Earth Day for more than a decade, and this year was no different. The chapter puts out literature for passersby to pick up, including Kernel Books. They bring a Braillewriter and write children's names and eco- friendly messages or names of flowers and trees on index cards and challenge people to pick up one of the Braille alphabet cards and translate the messages. They put up a posterboard with the national legislative agenda because Earth Day is one of the few times that members of the public will ask about the legislation that the Federation is working on, and chapter members have had great discussions about why the TIME Act [Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment] or AIM HIGH Act [Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education] are necessary. This year a new chapter member appeared at Earth Day. In sunglasses, a dress printed in panels of DC comic book characters, and her own to-scale aluminum cane, Dottie was ready to enjoy the festival to the fullest. Chapter member Grace Warn and her stepfather worked to create the cane for the eighteen-inch doll, making sure that it was sized correctly for her and would be collapsible just like a real cane. [PHOTO CAPTION: Arielle Silverman] Disability Simulations: What Does the Research Say? by Arielle Silverman From the Editor: Dr. Arielle Silverman is an independent consultant who has spent more than ten years doing research to better understand the disability experience. She has studied approaches to educating the public about disabilities as well as positive adjustment to disability. She offers disability research and training services to organizations nationwide. She received her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2014. Arielle has been an active member of the National Federation of the Blind for fourteen years and previously served as president of the National Association of Blind Students and the Greater Seattle Chapter of the NFB. Here is what she says in a follow-up article to one written by President Riccobono which appeared in the April 2017 issue: Disability simulations are one of the most popular activities used to teach about disabilities. They generally involve having people perform everyday activities with a temporary disability, such as a blindfold, earplugs, or a wheelchair. Notably, they are popular with educators, but highly controversial among disability activists, including members of the NFB. As blind people we are deeply concerned about how these simulations affect public attitudes about blindness, for better or worse. Recently President Mark Riccobono wrote about the possibilities and pitfalls of simulations. He distinguished between simulation-based activities that invoke fear versus activities that give people useful information about alternative techniques and accessibility barriers. He argues that the former kind of learning activity can worsen public attitudes about blindness, while the latter can help improve public understanding. I want to describe some initial research that supports this argument. I also want to emphasize that more research on this topic is badly needed. In the past I have written about my own research with blindness simulations. In brief, my colleagues and I conducted several experiments in which sighted college students performed simple activities either with or without a blindfold on, depending on the flip of a coin. Minimal instruction in alternative techniques was given. Afterward, they answered questions about how well they thought blind people could perform particular activities and how well they thought they would adjust if they became blind themselves. Consistently, the blindfolded students said they thought blind people couldn't perform activities as well as the un-blindfolded students. For example, about half of the blindfolded students thought that blind people have trouble "living independently, in their own house or apartment," but only about a third of the un-blindfolded students expressed this view. Further, when asked how well they would adjust to being blind themselves, the blindfolded students predicted that it would take them longer to adjust and that they would be more limited by blindness compared with the un-blindfolded students. It is clear that the blindness simulation focused attention on the initial hardship of becoming blind rather than the successful adjustment process. Just this month my colleague Michelle Nario-Redmond published two studies of multi-disability simulations (Nario-Redmond, Gospodinov, & Cobb, 2017). In the first study college students went through stations where they had to read someone's lips with earplugs in, pick up their lunch in a wheelchair, or read text written backwards (a crude dyslexia simulation). In the second study students read driving directions using low-vision goggles, read them backwards, and then listened to them read aloud with earplugs. Again, no instruction about alternative techniques was offered. Before and after each study, the students reported their moods as well as their comfort level interacting with disabled people. Dr. Nario-Redmond and her colleagues compared the students' moods and comfort levels before versus after the simulations. They found that after the simulation activities, the students felt more confused, embarrassed, helpless, and (especially after the wheelchair simulation) more anxious than before. They were also more likely to agree with statements like "I am grateful that I don't have such a burden" (of disability), and "I dread the thought that I could someday end up like them" (disabled people). In the second study, the students also reported feeling less comfortable interacting with disabled people in the future. Thus, the simulations not only made people feel negatively about disability but could also hurt their future interpersonal interactions. Again, both of these research projects used the traditional type of disability simulation, which thrusts people into disability without any training in alternative techniques or changeable environmental barriers. Such simulations are designed to produce fear and distress to play up the plight of disability. As the above research suggests, they do a good job of that. Perhaps a different kind of learning activity, one that instructs people in useful alternative techniques, could have a different effect. Recently, I tested this question by designing an activity for occupational and physical therapy students (Silverman et al., 2017). The students learned and successfully performed two activities: first transferring from a chair to a manual wheelchair and wheeling across the room, and then making a sandwich using their non-dominant hand and a variety of assistive aids. We deliberately set up the activities to expose the students to alternative techniques, without being so difficult that novice students would have a hard time completing them. Before and after the activity, we asked the students to rate how happy and healthy people feel who have paraplegia (unable to walk) or hemiplegia (unable to use their dominant hand). After the learning activity, the students thought that people with both disabilities see themselves as happier and healthier, compared with their views before the activity. The brief encounter with effective alternative techniques gave them a more positive sense of what life can be like with a disability. It is evident that experiential activities need to include a clear teaching component with instruction in specific alternative techniques in order to have positive results. Disability simulation without instruction may intensify people's preexisting fears and misconceptions about disabilities. But direct instruction, along with exposure to competent blind and other disabled role models, may be an effective way to promote accurate understanding and positive attitudes. Other types of learning activities, as President Riccobono mentions, warrant further study. For example, President Riccobono suggests that observing a blind person navigating both accessible and inaccessible web content or dealing with custodial attitudes at the airport could be a positive learning experience. This is likely true but warrants further research to determine the most impactful ways of teaching about environmental barriers. Additionally, the long-term effects of disability education activities in general are unclear and deserve further study. Finally, as President Riccobono points out, simulations are often used for fundraising purposes. There is a need to think carefully about alternative fundraising strategies that don't rely on fear and pity. In conclusion, there is reason to advise caution when designing learning activities for sighted people that include blindfolds or other simulation equipment. The benefits of such activities may not outweigh the fear, discomfort, and doubt they can instill. Educators should be mindful of the learning objective for any activity and provide appropriate guidance to help reach that objective. In the NFB we know from our collective experience that teaching by example can be a powerful change agent in the minds of the sighted public. Regardless of the equipment used, our leadership in designing lessons about blindness is an important ingredient for their success. References Nario-Redmond, M. R.; Gospodinov, D.; & Cobb, A. (2017, March 13). Crip for a day: The unintended negative consequences of disability simulations. Rehabilitation Psychology. Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rep0000127 Riccobono, M. (2017). Walking a mile: The possibilities and pitfalls of simulations. Available online: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm17/bm1704/bm170402.htm Silverman, A. M. (2015). The perils of playing blind: Problems with blindness simulation and a better way to teach about blindness. Available online: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir15/jbir050201.html Silverman, A. M.; Pitonyak, J. S.; Nelson, I. K.; Matsuda, P.; Kartin, D.; & Molton, I. R. (2017). Instilling positive beliefs about disabilities: Pilot testing a novel experiential learning activity for rehabilitation students. Rehabilitation Psychology. Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2017.1292321 ---------- The Perils of Playing Blind: Problems with Blindness Simulation and a Better Way to Teach about Blindness by Arielle Michal Silverman From the Editor: In the article that precedes this one Arielle tailored for the Braille Monitor a piece less technical and academic. In reading the references she provided in that article, the Braille Monitor thought there was so much good information in what she wrote for the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, Volume 5, Number 2 (2015) that our readers should get to see it as well. Here is what she said to her fellow researchers and academics: Abstract People often blindfold themselves to try to understand what it is like to be blind. Though this "blindness simulation" can trigger empathy toward blind people, it can also mislead people about blindness, because it highlights the initial trauma of becoming blind rather than the realities of being blind. In this article, I review disability research and scholarship on the positive and negative effects of disability simulations, showing that such simulations promote empathy but can also promote discrimination. In order to accurately teach about blindness, teaching exercises should incorporate mastery of blindness skills and meaningful contact with other blind people. More research is needed to determine how blindfolded learning should be best incorporated into the curriculum for training teachers of the blind. Keywords: Blindness, simulation, attitudes, discrimination, professional development Introduction In a banquet hall, the lights are turned out and attendees struggle to serve themselves a meal in the dark. Sponsored by a fundraising organization, this dinner culminates in an appeal for donations to support medical research on the elimination of blindness. Meanwhile, at a Girl Scout camp, children are paired off, and one child in each pair closes her eyes while her partner leads her about. The exercise is intended to help the Girl Scouts build trust and learn how to depend on one another for help. Finally, in a classroom, blindness professional trainees wear low- vision simulator goggles. They are asked to walk from one side of the table to the other, a task they find daunting. All of these are examples of "blindness simulations" critiqued by blindness activists (French, 1992; Maurer, 2012; Willoughby & Duffy, 1989). Disability simulations are active learning exercises in which people use props to temporarily adopt physical impairments-such as using a blindfold or low-vision goggles to temporarily obscure their sight. They are often used to educate schoolchildren about disabilities, to help train professionals who work with the disabled, and even to foster interdependence and teamwork (for a review, see Flower, Burns, & Bottsford- Miller, 2007). Blindness simulations often appeal to educators because they involve and engage students, and they motivate students to empathize with blind people. However, if not done carefully, blindness simulations can give a distorted impression of blindness, reinforcing misconceptions about the capacities of blind people. These problems can occur if the simulation is focused on the first moments of blindness rather than everyday life after adjustment to blindness. These risks have long been apparent to disability activists and, more recently, to experimental psychologists. In this article I review research and commentaries on the effects of disability simulations. I will argue that blindness simulation is beneficial only if it (a) includes hands-on training in the skills of blindness and (b) involves meaningful contact with blind people. More research is needed to investigate how existing simulations and other teaching exercises influence practitioners' attitudes toward blindness. Simulation Promotes Empathy Disability simulations are often intended to promote empathic concern and a desire to help and accommodate people with disabilities. There is evidence that simulating disability can indeed increase empathy and helping. In an early experiment (Clore & Jeffery, 1972), college students were randomly assigned (by a coin flip) to navigate their campus either on foot or in a wheelchair for twenty-five minutes. Afterward, the students who had used the wheelchair reported feeling more empathy toward people with physical impairments, reported liking the researcher (who visibly used a wheelchair) more, and indicated more interest in donating funds to accessibility-related groups than the students who had not used the wheelchair. Even four months later, students who had used the wheelchair were more likely to volunteer to assist a disabled person when asked. In another study (Wadlington, Elliot, & Kirylo, 2008), student teachers expressed more sympathy and desire to accommodate dyslexic students after they simulated dyslexia by attempting to read degraded print. Finally, rehabilitation professionals expressed more empathy in qualitative comments after participating in a multi-impairment simulation (Wilson et al., 2009). These simulations not only prompt a desire to help, but also promote student enjoyment and positive assessment of them, making them attractive to instructors. More generally, when people simulate other people's experiences, they tend to judge those others more kindly. In one study, research participants watched a video of a man wolfing down cheeseburgers. They judged the man less harshly when they were themselves feeling hungry (Nordgren, Van Der Pligt, & Van Harreveld, 2007). Participants expressed stronger anti-torture views after receiving brief bursts of pain which simulated torture (Nordgren, Morris McDonnall, & Loewenstein, 2011). Psychologists have theorized that people base their judgments of others, at least in part, on how they think they would react themselves to the other person's situation (Van Boven, Loewenstein, Dunning, & Nordgren, 2013). Simulations can give people an evocative "taste" of what it is like to be in a particular physical or emotional state-such as a physical impairment. People can then use this information to help them relate to affected others. In sum, disability simulations can pull on people's heartstrings, open their wallets, and encourage them to be lenient and kind toward people with disabilities. Sometimes this is a desirable outcome. However, I will argue that this comes at a price. Of the problems that blind and disabled people face, many can be traced to pity and paternalism rather than callousness (e.g., Ferguson, 2001; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Nario- Redmond, 2010; Omvig, 2002; Wright, 1983). If not done carefully, simulations can mislead people about the realities of blindness, which can contribute to paternalistic discrimination. Simulation Gives Misleading Information People often believe that they are discovering what it is like to be blind when they are briefly blindfolded, but this is not entirely true. Being blindfolded parallels the experience of first becoming blind, not the experience of being blind for many years. Typically, disability simulations are quite brief, lasting mere minutes or hours (e.g., a twenty-five-minute wheelchair simulation). Participants are thrust into blindness and immediately confront the challenge of attempting routine tasks nonvisually, often without effective guidance. While the onset of blindness can indeed be traumatic, it is very different from the reality of living with blindness after many years. People adapt to new disabilities over time by mastering alternative techniques, building support networks, and focusing their attention on areas of their lives that are unaffected by the disability (Ubel, Loewenstein, & Jepson, 2005). Furthermore, people who are congenitally disabled never experience the trauma of disability onset at all. Correspondingly, the simulation may barely have any connection to their experience. Simulations cannot capture these nuances and long-term effects. Consequently, simulations can give the mistaken impression that the entirety of being disabled is marked by loss, frustration, and incompetence. Indeed, disability simulation participants often report experiencing frustration and distress, even while rating the activity positively overall. For example, in the wheelchair simulation described earlier (Clore & Jeffery, 1972), participants most often reported feeling "weak, bad, anxious, and empathic" while in the wheelchair (p. 110). In another study, after a blindness simulation, participants reported loneliness, fear, and helplessness as "new insights gained into the life of the disabled" (Wilson & Alcorn, 1969, p. 305-6). In contrast to this, however, people with long- term disabilities frequently report high happiness and quality of life (e.g., Albrecht & Devlieger, 1999; Bonanno, Kennedy, Galatzer-Levy, Lude, & Elfstom, 2012; Quale & Schanke, 2010). For example, in one recent survey of 500 blind adults, participants averaged well above the midpoint on a well- validated scale of life satisfaction (Silverman & Cohen, 2012). Thus, the negative tone of simulations differs markedly from the emotions that people with disabilities actually experience. Disability simulations are also misleading because simulated impairments are escapable. A simulator can remove the blindfold or leave the wheelchair at any time whereas someone with a permanent impairment cannot. Furthermore, while simulations tend to over-emphasize the physical trauma of disability, they can also under-emphasize the impact of social discrimination and accessibility barriers, which become apparent only over time (French, 1992). For this reason, disability scholars have cautioned that simulations could unwittingly mislead participants about the realities of living with a disability. Wright (1978) argues that simulation "can enhance, not only understanding of some problems, but also pervasive pity and devaluation" (p. 178), and that "the main danger of role-playing is that the essence of life of people with a disability will be perceived in negative terms" (p. 182). In her critique of disability simulations, French (1992) quotes disability activists who contend that simulations not only represent disability as tragic, but also as an individual defect rather than a consequence of social barriers. Instead of simulation, French recommends "disability equality training" workshops conducted by disabled people which emphasize strategies to ameliorate the social inequalities disabled people encounter. The above analyses suggest that disability simulations tend to be "outsider-driven," favored by non-disabled people peeking into the disability experience. However, disability activists, "insiders," express concern that such simulations capture their experience in a biased manner. These biased perceptions can promote discriminatory treatment toward disabled people, including the blind. Brief Simulation Prompts Discrimination Recent research suggests that simulating blindness can reinforce stereotypes about blind people. Silverman, Gwinn, and Van Boven (2015) examined how a brief blindness simulation influences how sighted people judge blind people's capabilities. In two experiments, they randomly assigned some college students to complete a series of tasks while blindfolded for about thirty minutes. The tasks included pouring water from a pitcher to a glass without spilling, sorting coins, and navigating a complex path around the university's psychology building. Other control students were randomly assigned either to complete the tasks with their sight unimpaired, to view videos of the simulation, or to merely hear an explanation about what the simulation involved. Afterward, all the students were asked to estimate how well "the average blind person" could perform at a series of professions (e.g., chef, schoolteacher) compared with the average sighted person. They also rated how well blind people could live independently and walk around downtown, again relative to the sighted. In both experiments, blindfolded students rated blind people's capacities significantly lower than did students in any of the control groups. For example, averaged across both experiments, 52 percent of the blindfolded students rated the average blind person as less able to "live independently in their own house or apartment" than the average sighted person, but only 32 percent of students in the other conditions made this judgment. This pattern is concerning, given pervasive employment discrimination and common doubts of blind people's capacity for independent living and travel (Ferguson, 2001; Omvig, 2002). These results are not surprising once process variables are examined. In post-experimental comments, blindfolded students described their experience as being very difficult, frustrating, confusing, and frightening. In fact, a few students spontaneously uttered remarks such as "thank God I'm not blind" upon removing the blindfold. The students also projected their negative experience onto blind people. Compared with control students, blindfolded students estimated that blind people experience more fear, anger, confusion, and distress on a daily basis. Further, when asked to draw graphs showing how quickly they would be able to adjust to new blindness, the blindfolded students predicted a slower and less complete adjustment process than the control students (Silverman, Gwinn, & Van Boven, 2015; Silverman & Van Boven, 2012). It is evident that the blindness simulation gave students a sour impression of blindness, portraying it as an enormous physical and emotional burden. Thus, when the students considered how well someone could live on their own without sight, their recent struggles to pour water and navigate the halls while blindfolded colored their judgment. A few other studies have uncovered unwanted consequences of disability simulation. Brown (2010) had participants listen to intrusive sounds for fifteen minutes in order to simulate schizophrenia. Afterward the participants expressed more distant attitudes toward people with schizophrenia and more endorsement of forced treatment, than they did before. In another line of research, Nario-Redmond and Gospodinov (2015) had college students read driving directions while wearing low-vision goggles, listen to the spoken directions while wearing earplugs, and read the directions written backwards to simulate a learning disability. After the simulations, the students reported feeling more vulnerable to disability, less comfortable interacting with disabled people, and more pitying toward people with disabilities. Collectively, these findings underscore the importance of personal experience in shaping people's beliefs about conditions like blindness. If people are given a blindness experience marked by fear, frustration, and incompetence, they will be apt to conclude that blind people's lives are similarly marked by fear, frustration, and incompetence. This could inspire low expectations of blind people, or inspire paternalistic actions to ease the blind person's fear or protect the blind person from his/her own helplessness. If such beliefs are mistakenly taught to teachers of the blind, the consequences could be particularly dire for blind students. As an illustrative example, a preschool aide simulated wheelchair use to better understand the needs of her young student with cerebral palsy (Wright, 1978). Following the brief simulation, she began to assist him with tasks he had already demonstrated he could do without help (e.g., pushing him in his wheelchair). Unsolicited help can prevent children from developing skills and confidence, and it can also harm self-esteem (Gilbert & Silvera, 1996; Schneider, Major, Luhtanen, & Crocker, 1996). Furthermore, it is clear that low teacher expectations can directly restrict student performance. In classroom experiments, teachers who expected some students to perform less well in class paid less attention to them and gave them less challenging assignments, artificially limiting their learning and performance (Rosenthal, 2002). Nevertheless, this theorizing also suggests the potential for positive blindness experiences. If people are given experiences with blindness marked by mastery, pride, and joy, they should form high expectations and a full understanding of the methods that blind people use to interact with their environment. In the following sections, I will propose two conditions that, according to disability scholarship, should characterize positive blindness training activities: mastery of blindness skills and cooperative contact with blind people. Research is urgently needed to evaluate how specific training modules affect people's attitudes and actions toward blind people, such as blindness immersion training. Positive Blindness Learning Activities Notably, the simulations I have described in this paper are a very specific type of experiential exercise. Sighted individuals are blindfolded briefly and asked to complete activities. Typically they receive little instruction in nonvisual problem-solving techniques, and blind individuals are absent. However, experiential exercises need not be conducted this way. They can include opportunities for skill mastery, and they can incorporate contact with blind people. Skill Mastery Sighted students can be exposed to effective nonvisual methods. For example, an instructor can teach students to distinguish Braille letters while blindfolded, to eat a simple snack, or to navigate a simple path using a cane and appropriate auditory cues during a brief session (Castellano, 2005; Willoughby & Duffy, 1989). Over an intensive course or two, sighted students can master Braille reading, cooking, and cane travel under blindfold. The key is that blindfolded experiences lead to skill mastery and confidence rather than bumbling frustration. In order to achieve this goal, blindfolded experiences should be guided by knowledgeable instructors and allow enough time for repetition and practice. Involvement of Blind People Educational exercises about blindness will have a much more positive impact if they incorporate contact with blind people, "insiders," who intimately understand the complexities of blindness (Wright, 1975). Personal contact can go a long way toward the reduction of prejudiced attitudes (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). In order to effectively reduce prejudice, contact should be one-to-one, equal-status, and cooperative. Unfortunately, blindness professional trainees may only interact with blind people in a helping role, as their student teacher or camp counselor, for instance. In contrast, optimal contact is equal-status; that is, both the blind and sighted partners have equal standing in the relationship, and neither has authority over the other (Allport, 1954). Personal contact with blind people can be a useful teaching tool, either with or without a blindness simulation component. For example, in one exercise students played goalball (a sport that has been adapted for the blind) alongside blind people, while all players wore blindfolds. The exercise helped build cooperative relationships between blind and sighted people, and combined with similar exercises involving other disabilities (e.g., wheelchair racing), it improved attitudes toward people with disabilities more than did a simple lecture-based lesson (Krahe & Altwasser, 2006). In another exercise not involving simulation, blind and sighted college students were paired, and the sighted student was asked to suggest activities for the two of them to enjoy together. The blind student then provided guidance as to how he or she could participate and what, if any, accommodations needed to be made. The purpose of this exercise was to replace stereotypes and misconceptions about blindness with the blind person's expert understanding of blindness (Wright, 1975). We can follow the above principles when training sighted students to become blindness professionals, such as teachers of blind students, orientation and mobility professionals, and daily living skills instructors. One example is the immersion component of training for the master's degree accompanying National Orientation and Mobility Certification (NOMC). Students must receive at least 400 hours of blindness immersion training before beginning coursework for the NOMC and typically complete 500-750 hours of travel training under blindfold by the time they are certified (Aditya, 2004). During immersion training, students receive intensive instruction in cane travel and other skills while under blindfold. In most cases they receive this training alongside blind students at a rehabilitation center for the blind. Thus they are "immersed" both in the skills of blindness and the blindness community. They not only master the skills of blindness by completing rigorous assignments, but they also learn these skills on an equal level with the blind students at the center. Research and Evaluation Priorities In the above sections, I have presented a critique of traditional blindness simulations and proposed some positive alternatives. While these alternatives hold theoretical promise, their impact has not been assessed empirically. Research is needed to identify the best educational interventions for promoting positive beliefs and attitudes about blindness among blindness professionals and in the general public. Sound evaluation begins with valid and relevant outcome measures. For classroom activities, it makes sense to assess change in students' knowledge or new competencies gained. In the past, disability awareness activities were often deemed "effective" if participants enjoyed them or if they triggered empathy for people with disabilities. However, as I have discussed, common negative attitudes about disability tend to reflect pity and presumed incompetence more than callousness and avoidance. In my view, an attitude-change intervention can reasonably be considered "effective" if it moves attitudes away from the prevailing biases held by the public. The Social Responsibility about Blindness Scale (SRBS) is one good example of a measure of common misconceptions about blindness (Bell & Silverman, 2011; Rowland & Bell, 2012). Both quantitative and qualitative data should be gathered to assess how an intervention influences people's beliefs, feelings, and expectations about blindness. A researcher can most rigorously evaluate an intervention by comparing outcomes between randomized groups of people who do versus do not receive the intervention. In classroom and field settings, however, this can be impractical. One alternative is to randomly assign half the students to an intervention and the other half to no intervention, take measures, and then give the intervention to the other half of the students, a "waitlist control" design. If this is also impractical, a simple pretest- posttest assessment may be most reasonable; that is, comparing students' knowledge, attitudes, or competencies before versus after the activity. By following students longitudinally, researchers can also assess the long- term effects of interventions. These data are relatively inexpensive to gather and can be analyzed with only basic statistical expertise. There is a great need to empirically evaluate the existing blindness training modules that are based on simulations. A 2007 meta-analysis revealed that only a modicum of rigorous studies exist, and most of those reveal null effects of disability simulation (Flower, Burns, & Bottsford- Miller, 2007). More alarmingly, simulations could have unexpected negative effects that could be missed if they are not rigorously evaluated. On the other hand, practices like immersion training could have unanticipated positive effects persisting over time. Through rigorous evaluation, educators can identify the teaching approaches that lead to the most positive training outcomes. The field would be enhanced by convening dialogue between educators, research and evaluation experts, and blind people-groups which each offer a unique perspective on these issues. A final research question concerns the effects of "low-vision" simulations in which participants use goggles to simulate partial vision loss. On the one hand, low-vision simulations could help sighted people to better understand the limitations of low vision and the need to supplement low vision with nonvisual techniques such as Braille and the long white cane. On the other hand, like blindfolding, low-vision goggles could give an exaggerated impression of the hardships posed by partial vision loss. Like blindfolding, low-vision simulations could be improved by incorporating skill mastery experiences and involving people with low vision in their execution. Implications for Practitioners and Families The research reviewed here has important implications for the training of incoming teachers of the blind. First and foremost, it suggests that any blindfolded or low-vision training experience needs to be constructed and managed carefully so as to give trainees a balanced, accurate impression of blindness. This is best achieved when the trainees master the blindness skills they will be teaching. For example, future Braille teachers should receive enough Braille instruction and practice time so that they can not only teach Braille competently to their students, but also have positive feelings toward Braille and high expectations of their students. The same can be said for the nonvisual travel skills of O&M instructors and the nonvisual daily living skills of rehabilitation teachers. Additionally, blindfolded exercises should be supplemented with opportunities for trainees to interact one-to-one with blind people as equal partners. Additionally, teachers of blind children should be cautious about using blindness simulations to educate a blind student's classroom teachers or sighted classmates about blindness. Instead, they can teach about blindness by demonstrating assistive technology, inviting blind guest speakers to address the class, or guiding the students and classroom teacher through basic Braille exercises. Blind students can also participate in educating their peers about blindness without relying on blindness simulation. The same principles apply to teaching parents of blind children about blindness and low vision. Traditional blindness simulations could give parents a distorted perspective on blindness that could foster pity and low expectations for their children, placing artificial limits on their children's potential independence. For parents of congenitally blind infants, simulations can be especially misleading because it is virtually impossible for a fully sighted adult to accurately simulate the experience of someone who has never had sight, particularly a young infant. Instead, it would be more helpful for parents to observe how blind adults perform tasks. Above all, any exercise that teaches about blindness should incorporate the lived experiences of blind people. As stated by Carrie Ann Lucas, a disability rights blogger who uses a wheelchair: Placing a person who has not adapted to wheelchair use in a wheelchair is an exercise in frustration. It is far better to pair the non-disabled person with an actual disabled person who can teach about our culture, the fun parts of disability, and, yes, even frustrations at societal barriers. We can show how we can pop wheelies, how our kids can ride on the back of our chairs, and how we can keep up with our kids riding skateboards and bikes. (2015, para. 11). Imagine what a prospective teacher of the blind could learn from a blind child talking about reading her favorite Braille books in the dark, or a blind adult celebrating his first successful bus trip using a cane, or a blind couple bringing their kids to the playground. Such observations can truly show blindness professionals what is possible for blind people to accomplish and how they can become part of changing what it means to be blind. Editor's Note: For the full list of references cited in this article, check out its original publication in the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir15/jbir050201.html. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Wunder is shown with a Braillewriter on his lap, a piece of mail in his right hand, and a mail basket at his feet.] The Mechanics of Meeting One's Financial Obligations without Sight by Gary Wunder In mid-April I received a letter from Anna Kresmer, our librarian and archivist at the Jacobus tenBroek Library. For some time she had been trying to find articles in the Braille Monitor or other publications that would discuss how a person who loses vision handles incoming mail and particularly how they deal promptly, accurately, and securely with their finances. The person making the inquiry assumed that such information was readily available, and so too did Anna. I did a brief Google search and couldn't find anything, so I jotted the note which appears below and was then encouraged to put it in a place where it could be easily found. I urge some of you who know more about this subject than I do to use this article as a springboard for a better one: what alternatives did I fail to provide; which are out-of-date, and which would better serve blind people trying to wrestle with their incoming mail and the bills that make up so much of it? Here is my letter: Hello, Angela. I have your letter from Anna, and as I said in our call, like her, I don't know of any articles that discuss this in any detail. Let me see what I can do in a letter to you, and perhaps it can someday be worked into an article. Many bills that come to us have traditionally been delivered by the United States Postal Service. With few exceptions these are presented in standard print, and the question for a blind person is first how to read them and second how to pay them. The traditional answer has been the use of a human reader who could read the bill aloud, write a check at the instruction of the blind person, and, if necessary, write out an envelope to return it. Just how someone gets a human reader varies. Some people will pay an hourly rate for the service they need and schedule it one or more times weekly. Some will arrange to trade services, doing babysitting, housecleaning, or some other task for the reading they need done. Some people will actively look for volunteers from their church or a civic group to which they belong, and, in addition to being a friend, will compensate the volunteer reader with an occasional meal, a night out with the dinner and a movie, or some other arrangement that will let the reader know that he or she is appreciated. If you are going to use a human reader, it is essential that you find someone you can trust, and let them know that the work the two of you are doing together is strictly confidential. It is likely that I do not want to advertise how much money I spent at Best Buy last week or how many times we went out to eat despite the sizable grocery bill that is evidenced by my check register. If I get a notice in the mail that says Uncle Harry has left me $10,000, this is something I want held close. Building a good relationship based on trust and shared respect is absolutely essential, but it is also rewarding. One of the people who works for me uses the money I pay her to buy groceries. In the past I have had people who were able to make their student loan payment because of our work together. People who need money are extremely reliable, loyal, and the mutual need that we have for one another not only makes us a good team but often generates a tremendous friendship. As reading systems for the blind have evolved, a number of people have found that the printed page no longer presents the same kind of barrier it once did. We are able to read most of the correspondence we get, but there is still some difficulty in writing a check and returning it to the company or person we owe. There are computer programs that will print checks and some that will allow one to affix his or her signature to them. Many of us have adopted a nationwide service offered by most banks called Bill Pay. The Bill Pay system is tied directly to one's bank account, and a list of payees is entered into the system. In my own case Bill Pay is aware that I have an account with the electric company, the gas utility, and many of the major credit card companies in the country. It is also aware that I sometimes need to send money to people in the form of a check because they will not have a way to receive electronic transfers. Bill Pay will allow me to set up monthly payments when I have a bill with a fixed amount and a definite due date such as my house payment or my daughter's car loan. I can make payments at any time by going into the system, finding the name of the company or person I want to pay, and entering a manual payment. Not everyone is comfortable using a computer, and not everyone has the computer skills necessary to navigate the website operated by Bill Pay. For many of us, however, it is a dream come true. Although I enjoy using technology, have several products that can read printed material to me, and am quite able to use my computer to keep track of my bank balance and to pay bills with Bill Pay, I still use a paid reader at least once a week and sometimes twice. I do this because I know of no other way to handle incoming mail that is as flexible as a person who can both read and write directly on information I received. No technology- based system I know does as good a job at helping me fill out a form or review a financial document to see if all of the information on it is current. No technology-based system gives me the pleasure I get when I interact with a human being who needs the money I pay as much as I need the service he or she offers. No machine I can access has the ability to quickly sort my incoming mail into organized stacks I can process. I usually have a stack each for bills, advertisements, charitable solicitations, NFB material, and lastly the letters and cards that congratulate me on another birthday, express their sympathy on the death of a loved one, or otherwise convey something personal to me. I think the key to adequately handling one's finances is knowing how to keep track of the money you have on hand and the things that are likely to come along and claim it. A person who is blind must have a good way to communicate with herself. Memory simply will not do the trick. A good calendaring system is also helpful, for without some reminder about a bill I can't pay today but intend to pay in a week, I will find myself constantly facing delinquency notices and their accompanying fees. This is all I can think of at the moment that may be helpful to you in figuring out how blind people handle financial matters. If you need more information, please let me know. Warmly, Gary ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: David Andrews] There Is a List for That! by David Andrews This month we will continue our monthly column of internet mailing lists with technology-related offerings. If you are a regular user of our lists, you will know they are a great source of technology news and information. They are also a great place to get your technology-related questions answered. But which list should you join? Read on and see what is available. The original technology list we offered is called GUI-Talk. The GUI, pronounced "gooey" stands for the "graphical user interface." This includes Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, and any other graphical interface you can shake a mouse at. You can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org, or you can also subscribe by sending an email to gui-talk-request at nfbnet.org, and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line by itself. This is the best list to ask general technology and software questions related to the graphical user interface. Electronics Talk is for the discussion of home appliances and electronics. It is also a place where you can ask questions about the accessibility of consumer-oriented electronics. The discussion of phones is also permitted, although this is not the primary purpose of the list. To join either go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/electronics- talk_nfbnet.org or send an email to electronics-talk-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line. Two NFB technology-related divisions also have lists: the NFB in Computer Science, and the Science and Engineering division. The Committee on the Promotion and Evaluation of Technology also has a list. Their list names are nfbcs, nfb-science, and promotion-technology. Subscribe by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/listname_nfbnet.org or by sending an email to listname-request at nfbnet.org with "subscribe" on the subject line. Listname is the short name given above for nfbcs, nfb-science, or promotion-technology, respectively. The KNFB Reader, an important technology for many of us, also has a support list. To join either go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/reader-users_nfbnet.org or send an email to reader-users-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" by itself on the subject line. Blind Math is a list for the discussion of mathematics and how blind or visually impaired people can function in this area. Some of the world's leading experts in math and blind people are subscribed to this list, so the advice can be quite good. To subscribe go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org or send an email to blindmath-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line. A somewhat related list which we host as a service to the blind community is the Blind R Users Group, blindrug. R is open source statistical software, and according to the list's founder Jonathan Godfrey, is the most accessible option available for screen reader users. To subscribe go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindrug_nfbnet.org or send email to blindrug-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line. Two states also have lists for their technology divisions. They are Kentucky and New Jersey. The listnames are nfbktad and njtechdiv. Finally, there is nfb-web. This list is for webmasters of NFB-related websites. This list also supports the NFB Webmasters Group. To join go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-web_nfbnet.org or send an email to nfb-web-request at nfbnet.org. Next month we will tell you about lists in the Golden State, California. As always, you can find all NFBNET.ORG-related lists at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Maurice Peret] From Helplessness to Independence: A Philosophical and Practical Overview by Maurice Peret From the Editor: Maurice Peret is the chairman of the National Federation of the Blind Committee on Automobile and Pedestrian Safety and makes his living as the talent recruiter in the Human Resources Department at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland. This committee has a listserv, and what follows is one of the gems extracted from it discussing how one applies Federation philosophy and the choice that each individual must make in his or her life about when and to what degree they will apply it. Flexibility is the key, and Maurice does a fantastic job of expressing this. Here is what he says: Sometimes the most poignant analogies are those that appeal to our most primal impulses, survival instincts, and basic human senses. Thus the historic inception of the consumer-based model of rehabilitation can be likened to beggars at a feast of plenty. Gratitude and even reverence was expected of the blind for the voluntary charity of crumbs once in a while tossed their way. But, as is the pattern of the struggle of oppressed peoples, those crusty morsels merely triggered and amplified the growling pangs of hunger and discontent, giving voice to the growing demand for a place at the table. For a while a "highly functioning" token few were invited to sit quietly at table, preferably not to be seen nor heard. But the crescendo of voices gave way to the collective expression of dissatisfaction with having to wait to be served; after all, the palate must be cleansed, primed, and prepared to welcome the cacophony of textures, aromas, and flavors of variety in the dining and not just the feeding experience. It was not enough for the blind to simply wait to receive the fruits of those who knew what was best for their charges. They wanted to know ahead of time what was for supper. They desired access to the same information availed other feasters, to be able to make their own choices from a menu of options. The development of this new force grew to insist not only to be seated, not only to docilely accept what was given, but to have equal say in the decision process to determine what would be offered. Their efforts propelled them beyond the table and into the kitchen, accepting responsibilities according to their abilities, ranging from rolling silverware to washing dishes and even to performing light food preparation tasks which, after all, were recognized as well suited to tactile methods. But the blind must acknowledge their natural limitations, it would be said. The kitchen was replete with danger for the functionally disabled consumer. There existed extremes in temperature, slippery surfaces, sharp- edged and pointed implements, and all manner of mechanical and electric food appliances to negotiate, a veritable labyrinth of hazards for the blind who found themselves quite out of their element. Nonetheless did the powerful and diverse organized throng press their insistence on being present at and involved in all levels of the meal management process until they purchased a controlling share in the marketplace. And so it followed that the mere need to survive, to nourish body and mind, gave way to the full appreciation of the culinary experience, not just to taste but to savor, not only to shovel in but to enjoy and to articulate the finer dimensions of nuance, blended flavors, bouquets and hints of vegetable, mineral, animal, ferment, and hues of color, all by which the gourmet experience is described in fanciful and sometimes curious fashion. The highly refined palate draws upon integration of all sensory stimulation: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and of course, taste. And so it is in the development of human navigation and movement. Traditional rehabilitation models have historically operated predominantly from a behavioral psychology and visual-centric foundational approach, with nonvisual techniques and strategies often presented as methods of last resort. This seemed to imply an inferiority of alternative techniques to often inefficient low-vision strategies. The nonconventional or Structured Discovery Learning Method derived from the cognitive learning theory challenged the prevailing practice through immersion by visual occlusion to prove not only the viability of but often superiority of alternative techniques of independent travel. This, combined with confronting social and attitudinal misconceptions about blindness and about the capabilities of blind people, represented a paradigm shift within the field of work with the blind. In my many years as a rehabilitation professional, I have found the Holy Grail lies somewhere in the gray area between dogma and capitulation or selling out to mediocrity. I came to our NFB philosophy through its manifestation in the Structured Discovery Cane Travel or (SDCT) professional practice. I remember vividly back when I first heard about the National Orientation & Mobility Certification (NOMC) in an article written by our beloved James Omvig, "A New Certification," I was thoroughly driven to obtain it for myself. I was very much like a new convert to religious faith, more youthful vigor than knowledge. I recall, for instance, jumping in full tilt to the raging debate on the O&M listserv, predominantly populated by traditional practitioners. I innocently spread our Federation philosophy as it was emerging in the O&M field, this at a time when active debate still raged about the wisdom of blind cane travel instructors. Of course, that question has since been settled by incredibly talented blind professionals practicing their trade all over the country. I have long defined the concept of longtime experience as having made the same mistakes newbies make, only a few thousand more times. Isn't that what they say: that success is built upon a mountain of failure? Anyway, what years of working with actual blind people has taught me is that strict formulaic strategies rarely succeed when they are easily sniffed out by the newly often frightened and skeptical trainee. An example I will share is in working with a very new and very frightened student. She told me repeatedly and vociferously that she did not need to learn to cross the street downtown since she had no intention of ever traveling there by herself anyway. My answer was "Okay, fine. You don't have to cross the street at all, but let's just go stand on the corner and listen." Naturally from there my student gradually learned to cross the street with the light and admitted that it was nowhere as scary as she expected it to have been. She remained immovable, however, in her reticence to venture out on her own in that way. It was just too far a leap for her at the stage of life she was in. Beginning to see some possibilities to achieve some independence, however, especially to meet basic needs like making doctor's appointments, she wanted to learn to access the local paratransit system on her own. We discussed this from every possible angle, and in the long run we worked with her to apply her newfound confidence to independently use paratransit. The question is, was she more independent? Were her expectations of herself raised to a level worthy of our positive self-determinist philosophy? At what point do higher expectations intersect with informed consumer choice? How often have graduates of our NFB training centers reverted to some of those "more convenient" accommodations or to that short, rollerball-tipped cane they used prior to receiving SDCT training? For that matter, how many consumers having undergone full blindness emersion training but who retain functional vision put the white cane aside? When I accepted an O&M position at a conventional state agency, I was asked by the director if I really believed that the safety of my students was not my responsibility. Clearly, this director had been exposed to our philosophy and possessed fairly definite opinions about it. I carefully explained that while my job was to work with students to develop safe and effective self-monitoring techniques, naturally in the early stages of instruction I would be in close proximity, monitoring their safety to the extent of being able to react quickly enough should a harsher unintended lesson be learned. The point of all this is to say that the National Federation of the Blind exists as a collective vehicle, based upon our individual experiences, to identify problems, discuss and debate possible solutions, and finally arrive at a democratic consensus on how to carry out the work to address these issues. These decisions have and do change over time as society, technological advances, and social attitudes evolve. That is why we meet regularly to reexamine, if necessary, previously agreed-upon policy in the form of resolutions. I am reminded of a story told by Dr. Fredric K. Schroeder that there was a time when the idea of putting Braille signage in elevators was scorned by the Federation as an unnecessary adaptation imposed upon the blind by otherwise well-intended sighted folks. Blind people had used the elevator for years prior to that, after all, and did not need such gadgetry. Can anyone remember the last time they were on an elevator that did not have Braille signage? If so, I'll bet it stood out quite a bit as unusual. For my part, I certainly appreciate having Braille signage in public spaces and use it all the time. We live in an exciting and historic period as technology advances in unimaginable ways right before our eyes, seemingly at lightning speed. Our approach to ever complex smart streets, shared spaces, and autonomous vehicles must keep up with these changes so that we don't get left behind. We have to be flexible in our examination of these changes to adapt to them as we increasingly perfect our skills and abilities to accommodate them. After all, don't we say that it is not society that must adapt to the blind but the blind, ourselves, who, given proper training and opportunity, can and must adapt to the ever-evolving changes? ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ben Vercellone] Audible Pedestrian Signals, Tactile Graphics, and the Need for the Blind to Get Involved by Ben Vercellone From the Editor: Ben Vercellone is the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri Springfield Chapter. He is employed as a mobility instructor for Rehabilitation Services for the Blind, the state agency serving the citizens of Missouri. Ben is tremendously interested in the independence of blind people and the safety of all pedestrians. The history of the National Federation of the Blind and audible pedestrian signals, or what we once called audible signals, is long. When these audible signals first made their appearance, many of us were critical of them, believing that we could easily tell the color of a light by the traffic flow and that judging traffic flow was much more important than the light the audible signal was telling us about. Because blind people were not initially involved in the design of audible signals, very often they were too loud and too long and actually impeded our ability to hear the traffic. Many of us reasoned that it did not matter whether the traffic light was on our side or not; if we were hit by a vehicle weighing several tons, what the audible signal said was irrelevant. Over the years the position of the Federation has changed in keeping with the ever-evolving traffic patterns pedestrians face as well as the improved quality of audible pedestrian signals. At many intersections the choice is no longer to walk when the parallel traffic is moving and to wait when the perpendicular traffic is passing. Some intersections are so complicated that the signals will allow some lanes to go while others are stopped. Some have crossing times for pedestrians that depend on time of day, traffic flow, and whether or not a special pedestrian button has been pressed. For this reason our discussion of audible pedestrian signals is necessarily complex and nuanced. Here is what Ben has to say about audible pedestrian signals, not to be confused with iOS and Android applications of the same name, as daily he teaches people how to safely navigate the streets in Southwest Missouri: Audible pedestrian signals (APS) have both intrigued and frustrated me since I first encountered them. I cannot remember the time or location where I first crossed an intersection with operating audible pedestrian signals. To date I have only experienced APS at a limited number of intersections. My goal is to provide my opinions regarding what I know from my experience, which has almost completely been limited to Springfield, Missouri. I do not know how many intersections in Springfield currently have audible pedestrian signals. When I recently walked a 3.5-mile route for exercise and exploration, about half of which I had not previously traveled by foot, I learned that there are many more intersections with APS than I had thought. In my opinion the audible pedestrian signals in Springfield need significant improvement before they will be thoroughly helpful and meaningful for blind pedestrians. I plan to use and analyze APS in other cities as opportunities arise. I expect that there are some differences in the APS from one city to another but that this technology could benefit from improvements in most cities. If the APS in Springfield receive the improvements that I believe are necessary, I will welcome the expansion of this technology and may even advocate for them. Aside from using a cane or guide dog properly, I generally group the necessary skills for initiating street crossings into three categories. My categories are placement, alignment, and timing. For placement the pedestrian must make sure he or she begins each crossing from an appropriate location. For alignment the pedestrian must insure that he or she is facing the direction of the intended crossing. I believe that alignment is often one of the most challenging aspects in this list, but I will touch more on this again shortly. Finally, for timing, the pedestrian must determine a safe time to cross, and this depends on the type of intersection he or she is negotiating. Springfield has many lighted intersections with buttons that allow pedestrians to request the right of way and lengthen their time to cross. Sometimes there is only one of these buttons at a corner, and sometimes there are two. This obviously has a lot to do with the busyness of the streets and the way that the city decided to do things. When there are two buttons at a corner, they may be on one pole or on two. It is obviously the blind pedestrian's responsibility to gather a lot of information independently, and much can be learned through simple and sometimes diligent exploration. The simpler intersection technology just described is much more common in Springfield than the APS. The audible pedestrian signals in Springfield include recorded human speech, as well as beeps. Assuming the APS were installed according to the rules and regulations, a user presses the button that is directly off his or her shoulder when he or she is facing the direction of the intended crossing and when the pole with the button fixture is between his or her body and the parallel street. Each button has a raised arrow that is easy to feel. The arrow on the appropriate button should point in the direction the pedestrian desires to cross. So far I have only found one instance of what appears to be an inconsistency or a violation of the rules in which a button fixture seems crooked. Still, anyone with good O&M skills can work through this annoyance. When one presses the appropriate button, the voice portion begins. If it is not time to cross, the voice says, "Wait," and it will say this repeatedly, with an interval of several seconds, until the pedestrian has the right of way. When the pedestrian has the right of way, the awaited voice announcement occurs. I will give an approximate quotation of one announcement I recently heard. "Campbell Avenue. Walk sign is on to cross Campbell Avenue. Have a nice day." The last sentence in the above quote is not spoken at every intersection with an audible pedestrian signal. But the announcements in the APS in Springfield are otherwise similar in their form. As mentioned, the APS here make a beeping sound. I have been schooled in the Structured Discovery Methodology, and I could not have received better O&M training. Also, I strongly believe that the audible pedestrian signals in Springfield need a lot of work before they will consistently bring new and helpful information to blind pedestrians. For these reasons I do not use them very much at this point. However, I believe I would use the APS more if this technology is improved. Back to the beeps, they all sound the same to me in their pitch and volume, regardless of which corner they are coming from. Sometimes the beeps even seem to occur at the same time. These characteristics make the beeps nearly useless when it comes to alignment. So far I have not been able to hear the beeping from the corner I am crossing to until I am at least halfway across the perpendicular street. This makes the audible pedestrian signals useless for my alignment. Obviously I can use the sound of traffic for nearly all aspects of my decision-making at intersections, and this is what I have done for many years. But my point is to explain how I believe APS can be improved. I am not trying to generate social friction, but I have heard many times that the APS are not necessary for safe independent travel. This may be technically true in many instances. But since we are more than halfway into the second decade of the twenty-first century, and since technology is almost everywhere, I would rather focus on improving the APS technology than tuning it out. The technology is most likely here to stay, and our involvement can only help its development. Sighted pedestrians visually focus on both the traffic and the traffic lights. With no APS, or with APS that are not built well, blind pedestrians can only find thoroughly and consistently helpful information from the sound of the traffic. The fact is that hearing traffic but not having audible information that reflects the signaling of the traffic lights is comparable to visually perceiving only the traffic at a lighted intersection but not seeing the traffic lights. Sometimes we do need to analyze things in this quantitative way, regardless of whether we would personally use improved audible pedestrian signals. I strongly desire that the APS in Springfield and similar ones in other cities be improved regarding the tones they emit. I absolutely believe that for the APS to be anything more than half-baked, they need to provide helpful information regarding alignment. With an effective system of audible pedestrian signals, a blind traveler with normal hearing must be able to hear the sound coming from the corner he or she intends to cross to before he or she begins to cross. I do not specialize in acoustics or audiology. However, I know that if the beeps from multiple corners occur at the same time, pitch, and volume, they will not be helpful. In other words, the APS in Springfield need a lot of work before they can help with alignment. I am not sure how important the factor of volume is, but I know that the factors of pitch and timing are extremely important. In fact, there are critical factors in addition to those I mentioned, such as what sound is used in the first place, as well as the tone, timbre, etc. As I stated, I am not an audiologist, but simply a concerned and analytical blind pedestrian. But when this dilemma is eliminated, I will complain much less about APS and will probably use this technology on a weekly basis. I recently listened to an "Accessible World" Tek Talk episode from January 23, 2017, in which Mike May listed and described some technology he observed while attending the Consumer Electronics Show. The link to the audio file is http://www.accessibleworld.org/sites/default/files/tt-01-23- 17-features-mike-may-consumer-electronics-show.mp3. About nineteen minutes into the presentation, Mr. May briefly discussed a particular narrow beam speaker. I have yet to hear sound emanating from a narrow beam speaker, but from what I have heard, this technology allows sound to travel from a speaker in a very tight angle, even as small as five degrees. A person can listen to his or her audio content from a narrow beam speaker without anyone hearing it from outside the narrow beam. This usually means that anyone to the left or the right of the listener will hear nothing. The last time I did any research, it seemed that narrow beam speakers are largely meant for people who want to privately listen to media in vehicles, office spaces, and elsewhere without needing headphones. Mr. May said that he believes that narrow beam speakers may be helpful when installed at audible signal lights. I am assuming what Mr. May calls audible signal lights are the same as what I refer to as audible pedestrian signals. Mr. May stated that a narrow beam speaker may help blind pedestrians stay in the crosswalk, and I could not agree with him more. If a blind pedestrian can keep the sound from a narrow beam speaker centered, this technology may significantly help him or her prevent, detect, and correct any veering. Assuming the audio technology in narrow beam speakers can be installed in APS, this may constitute one of the best methods for a blind pedestrian to determine and maintain alignment. If the improvements that I believe are necessary in audible pedestrian signals are made, I would feel increased safety when crossing quiet lighted intersections. I am an orientation and mobility specialist and hold the NOMC certification. I work with Rehabilitation Services for the Blind of Missouri in the Southwest District. I was recently working with a client who told me that he has interacted with some lighted intersections where there is barely any traffic. This client and I agreed that with barely any traffic at an intersection, it would be easier to cross if it was a two-way or four-way stop than it would be if it was a lighted intersection. Unless one is willing to break the law and risk life and limb, one cannot simply cross at a lighted intersection when it is quiet. I am making the case that if some quiet intersections are still designed with traffic lights, they would be easy to nonvisually navigate if they had effective audible pedestrian signals. Furthermore, this improvement in the APS would help greatly when one desires to cross a busy street but has insufficient parallel traffic to reliably make decisions regarding both timing and alignment. At least in the United States, the difficulties arising from little to no parallel traffic may be more common when the parallel street is on the right side of the blind pedestrian. A well-designed APS system could eliminate this difficulty. Next, I want to address the topic of remaining time for pedestrian crossings. I am almost certain that some APS in other cities provide spoken feedback regarding the remaining time the pedestrian has to cross. However, I have not found this feature in any APS in Springfield. This topic is a no- brainer, so I will move on very shortly. I will reiterate the obvious fact that a blind pedestrian should be able to hear any relevant information from the APS even before he or she begins to cross the perpendicular street. I have the right to know how many seconds remain for me to cross, and it is not good that the technology to provide this information is lacking in the Springfield APS. I will now briefly discuss quiet cars. I am thrilled that the National Federation of the Blind and other organizations have done the grunt work to pass legislation that will insure that new vehicles emit a minimum level of sound. Still, until all the current quiet cars are either re-outfitted or scrapped, we will unfortunately have to deal with some quiet cars. I believe that well-designed audible pedestrian signals may help blind pedestrians overcome challenges posed by these vehicles. I believe that the only exception to this would be the factor of irresponsible driving. Honestly, we all take risks each day, from the moment we get out of bed, if not earlier. I frequently tell my clients that we must walk defensively, which obviously has a lot to do with environmental awareness and good O&M skills. Now I will address the topic of intersections with turn lanes, which are an occasional challenge for me and at least a few other blind pedestrians. My challenges are with alignment, and not so much with timing. I specifically have challenges in the beginning of such crossings, when crossing from the corner to the island. As may be expected, I love when islands are raised and have curbs. This 3D nature is not necessary, but is helpful. However, even before I reach the island, I need to be sure that I am headed in the right direction to get there. I admit that this is usually quite doable, though it is challenging at times. The one common thing for intersections with turn lanes, at least in my experience, is the frequent necessity to listen to the traffic of both streets, sometimes for multiple cycles. The purpose of this is to draw a right angle in my head, and go to the inside corner of this angle, where the island will be. This process is time-consuming for me and detracts from my enjoyment of independent travel. Furthermore, it would be unnecessary to spend this much time preparing to cross a turn lane in 2017 if appropriate technology was developed and implemented. I am aware that for crossing turn lanes, some people just face down the ramp and go straight. I would do this too if I knew that every person always did their jobs perfectly, especially those installing ADA accommodations. But since ramps are not always aligned perfectly, I will never use this technique the first time around and will rarely use it in general. I will only orient myself based on ramps and cut-outs on a case-by- case basis, and this is after I have previously confirmed the straightness of these man-made accommodations by using more reliable methods at these intersections. It would be quite helpful to have audible pedestrian signals at both ends of the crosswalk for each turn lane. I know that the sounds in APS are every bit as man-made as the ramps and cut-outs. But it is more helpful for a blind pedestrian to have a sound coming from the direction he or she intends to walk than to rely on dead reckoning after lining up with his or her tactile starting point. A basic understanding of geometry will make the validity of my statement obvious, assuming the APS are not placed where the cars travel. Since the APS are mounted on poles, and since these poles are located in pedestrian-safe zones, a blind pedestrian does not need to worry about the APS being placed where the cars travel. To conclude the topic of turn lanes, I will state that having high-quality APS would significantly help when the islands are not raised but are painted. Generally, I believe that the complexity of lighted intersections is a more important factor than busyness when discussing the benefits of audible pedestrian signals. One occasional exception to this, as previously mentioned, is when the parallel street is quiet and does not provide much auditory information, which can make even a less complex lighted intersection more difficult. I recently crossed a very large and busy intersection in Springfield without the help of APS. This intersection is busy, but not particularly complex. Furthermore, at the time I crossed, both streets were busy, which meant that I had adequate auditory information regardless of which street I intended to cross. If a blind pedestrian has good skills and adequate information, and if anxiety is not an issue, busy intersections are not very difficult to navigate without the help of APS. However, some lighted intersections are so complex with their traffic patterns that a person with no usable vision will have difficulty knowing when to cross and may even have difficulty with alignment if the intersection lacks APS or well-designed APS. Knowing when to cross and exactly which way to travel are critical, and well-designed APS could help greatly with this process at complex lighted intersections. I can already cross complex lighted intersections in Springfield more easily with the help of audible pedestrian signals than without this technology, so long as I can glean the necessary information for alignment by listening to traffic- though I do hope that this technology improves significantly. One type of intersection that would especially benefit from well- designed audible pedestrian signals is the diverging diamond interchange. According to Wikipedia, the first diverging diamond interchange in the United States was in Springfield, Missouri. It is a radically new type of intersection and still confuses many people, both blind and sighted. I have had at least two O&M specialists describe diverging diamond interchanges to me. I still only have a very basic understanding even after many words and after some personal on-the-ground exploration with one O&M specialist. I am certainly not ready to teach a client how to navigate a diverging diamond interchange, and this concerns me. I traveled through one of these intersections in Springfield, and with one in a different city in Missouri, each on different dates. On both occasions, I received some instruction from an O&M specialist. There were buttons to press that would request the pedestrian's right of way. But, to the best of my memory the technology in the buttons at these diverging diamond interchanges did not include verbal information and did not have the other characteristics of the APS in Springfield as previously described. I am reminded of the APS at Walnut and Campbell in Springfield. This intersection is a simple lighted one and in my opinion does not need this level of technology. It would be much more helpful for this technology to be installed at diverging diamond interchanges! I fear that at least some of the time it is simply assumed that blind people cannot and therefore will not cross these intersections. One blind O&M instructor has written in detail about how she negotiates diverging diamond interchanges. However, each of us has strengths and weaknesses, and one of my weaknesses is absorbing new and complex information solely by literary or linguistic means. Though I have not yet found the opportunity, I would be more than willing to negotiate a diverging diamond interchange with the help of the blind instructor I mentioned. Regardless, I believe that diverging diamond interchanges should include audible pedestrian signals that are the cream of the crop! It may also be helpful to use 3D printing technology to create replicas of diverging diamond interchanges. I know that this would benefit me greatly, especially since each of these intersections may be different from the next and since 3D printing is becoming increasingly available. I must become involved in making the changes I want to see, because complaining is not even at the 101 level, so to speak. Still, my desire is to point out the serious need for improvement. I believe that the APS in my city are half-baked, but that they can be improved. I also believe that once this improvement occurs, APS will make diverging diamond interchanges more manageable without vision. If audible pedestrian signals are designed better, and especially if competent blind travelers participate in this improvement, this technology will grow up to be what it should be in 2017 and beyond. I am finished discussing audible pedestrian signals. To wrap things up, I will briefly share my thoughts regarding refreshable tactile technology and why this arena deserves our attention and involvement. Interestingly, the most meaningful bit of information I received regarding diverging diamond interchanges was from a very basic tactile representation created by one of the O&M specialists who tried to help me understand this type of intersection. This representation did not answer all my questions, but it was somewhat helpful. Though it was simply made from paper and tape, it is still the most helpful piece of information I have received to date regarding diverging diamond interchanges. I will not get much into this topic, but I encourage people to go to the website of the American Printing House for the Blind (www.aph.org) and learn about the Graphiti digital tactile graphics display that is being developed. I believe that many things will be possible in hardware Version 1.0, so to speak. However, I am also incredibly excited about what almost certainly will be possible in future hardware developments. I sincerely believe that a picture is worth a thousand words for the blind as well as the sighted. I am not a neuroscientist, but I am nearly certain that the senses of touch and sight are more similar than are touch and sound or sight and sound. Furthermore, much of the information provided to the blind through sound is linguistic, even with most of the latest assistive technology that I know about. In other words, someone must observe an area or setting and put his or her understanding into language. Then the blind person must decode and integrate the linguistic information and hope that his or her understanding matches that of the sighted person who provided the linguistic information. I do not believe I need to explain to other blind people how difficult and inefficient this can be at times. I agree that linguistic descriptions of things are very important, but I believe that this is only one of many tools in the toolbox. I also believe that this tool has been overused in the absence of more creative development. In my opinion the best assistive technology in the O&M arena is that which is multimodal, such as the Nearby Explorer app for Android and iOS, developed by the American Printing House for the Blind. I have greatly benefited from this particular app. The linguistic information is not the only component of it. The synergy in it amazes me, and I use the app quite frequently. I have quickly learned a significant amount of information at four college campuses in Missouri with no help from a sighted person other than a couple questions asked of strangers along my way. If the Nearby Explorer app only had linguistic information, it would not have been anything new for me as far as learning new places. Even so, refreshable tactile technology alone can bring much needed information to the table and should be promoted and embraced. I expect that the Graphiti, as well as other tactile technologies, will help blind people to understand environmental information in a radically more meaningful, dynamic, and spontaneous way. I can hardly be more excited. This new level of information would be especially helpful with diverging diamond interchanges. I have heard several blind people say that they do not benefit from tactile graphics. I respect their feelings, but I feel it is important to remember that tactile graphics proficiency requires practice just like Braille proficiency. In the past Braille information has not been as readily available as print information, though with changes in refreshable Braille technology this is changing. Just as important is working to drastically improve the technology for tactile graphics to catch up. When this happens, it will be possible for blind people to become much more fluent in tactile graphics and expand the options for how information is presented to them. At the moment, the Graphiti and the possibilities it offers won't be available until at least the end of this year, but I look forward to seeing it. Back to diverging diamond interchanges, I know that refreshable tactile graphics technology may provide significant assistance for many blind pedestrians such as myself. This would be optimal when these graphics can be generated on-the-fly and quickly, such as with a camera connected to the Graphiti or a similar device. When tactile graphics hardware has an instantaneous refresh rate and can show multiple frames per second, this will allow blind people to have a video that can be felt. I know this may be years away, but I want to share this hope and perspective. When blind people can spontaneously gather necessary and meaningful information by touch, we will circumvent many of the obstacles we currently face when sound is not available, not helpful, or too loud. I believe that advances in tactile graphics technology will be extremely helpful for the deafblind as well. With all of the emphasis I have placed on technology, I want to emphasize that personal competence, good skills, and a positive attitude about blindness are absolutely essential to true independence. Technology is not the foundation of our independence but can make life on the upper floors much more convenient and enjoyable. Rather than taking a hands-off approach to audible pedestrian signals and their tactile counterparts, let us be the movers and the shakers that we are in other aspects of blindness, and let's change the built environment so that we may more fully live the lives we want. Let's make certain that the audible signals that have been installed for our safety and convenience are giving us the most accurate information in the most usable methods available. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Peggy Chong] Blind Actors by Peggy Chong From the Editor: Peggy Chong is affectionately known to many of us as the Blind History Lady. Her obsessive hobby and sometimes vocation is to track down little-known blind people from the thousands of sources she reviews and to put their stories into places where they can be appreciated for the pioneers they were. It is clear from the articles we have run this year that the Braille Monitor believes blind people should be seen more in television and movies, but what Peggy makes clear in this article is that a number have already appeared who have mostly been unsung in their own time and forgotten in the world of today. Here is how she takes a major step in putting things right for those who early on appeared on stage and in film: In the January 2017 Braille Monitor, several articles were highlighted regarding the lack of people with disabilities in Hollywood, the lack of opportunities for them, and the lack of characters that portray people with disabilities in a normal, positive light. As was amply observed, it is not for lack of trying on the part of the blind or others with disabilities. Through my research and stories presented by The Blind History Lady, I have found several blind men and women who worked hard to fulfill their dream to become movie or television stars. Most did not succeed, not for lack of talent or drive, but because their opportunities were tied to the era in which they lived and its attitudes about the blind. How they dealt with their blindness varies, and we can only guess how things would have worked out for them if they had handled it differently. Although there has never been a disabled actor on the "A-list," there have been some who have made a good living in the movie/entertainment industry. We should remember that the people I am highlighting rarely had an opportunity for blindness training. It just was not available for most of them. Talking about any disability was taboo. Yet we do have a legacy in the films if we know where to look. Sammy Brooks, a silent film actor who began his career at the age of fifteen after leaving New York to chase a dream in Hollywood, would today be considered disabled. He was featured in over two hundred films, working with stars such as Will Rogers, Vic McLaglen, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. By 1920 he was actually credited for his small roles in the films and according to a few websites, may have been taking home over $1,000 a week during the late 1910s and 1920s. Sammy was sighted for most of his comedic acting career. Depending on what one reads, Sammy stood between three-foot-one-inch or as tall as four-feet-five inches. Many of the silent film stars did not transition well into talkies, yet Sammy got many small parts in many films during his twenty-four-year career. When Laurel and Hardy cast for their 1936 film The Bohemian Girl, they remembered their friends from the silent film days and asked Sammy to take a role in their film. The newspapers called Sammy and the others, "Comedy Stars of Yesteryear." Sometime during the early 1930's Sammy began to lose his sight. Still, Laurel and Hardy wanted Sammy and his comedic talent for their film. Hal Roach, who Sammy worked for on many films, kept him in the studio extra crew, knowing he was blind. While filming Captain Fury, Sammy got better acquainted with the lead actor, Vic McLaglen. Mr. McLaglen was so moved by the blind actor that he bought him a seeing eye dog and presented it to him in the spring of 1939. Don Mahoney was also a child who had dreams from age four of being a cowboy movie star. In his lower-middle class family, several of his siblings began to lose substantial vision in their early teens. Don was no exception. You can read his life's story in my eBook, The Blind History Lady Presents; Don Mahoney, Television Star available through www.smashwords.com. When Don finally got some small parts in Hollywood, most of his vision was gone, and it was quite noticeable. When Don was honest with the studios about his blindness, the parts he was offered were slapstick roles such as in the proposed film, Blind Cowboy and his Seeing-Eye Horse. He wanted to be a serious entertainer, not a comedian. Don went back to Texas in 1949 and reinvented himself. This time he decided to keep his blindness to himself. That would not be part of the Don Mahoney brand. For almost ten years he kept his blindness a secret from the television stations he contracted with while he rose to be one of the biggest kiddie show hosts in the state of Texas. He built up a photography business, restaurant chain, and a small recording studio. Don Mahoney toys and products were licensed under his name. Acting was not where the money was, but acting was what marketed the other ventures. For a time, he relaxed on his 8,000-acre ranch. When Paul Lees, a blinded World War II soldier was recovering in the military hospitals, he was sent to Hollywood to an eye specialist. While out there, the military asked Paul to appear in some military-sponsored films. When he was well enough, before his discharge he traveled the country promoting the military films. He now had the Hollywood bug. After his discharge he thought he would have an easy time getting into the movies as a war hero. Approaching influential people, he often did get a referral, but as he quickly found out, more often than not he was the butt of a joke. Paul kept on trying and honing the blindness training skills he learned while in the military as well as creating a few of his own. He found that making friends with the set crew made life for him much easier. The set crew often came up with ideas for scenes for markers on the floor or within the scene itself to mark where Paul needed to come in, stop, or the direction to walk off. In 1946 he was uncredited in the film O.S.S. In 1947 he finally got a credited role in Smooth Sailing. Paul worked with many stars such as Peggy Lee, Richard Webb, Marlene Dietrich, Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, and many more. The next four years were good to Paul in Hollywood. But by the early 1950s his war hero edge had worn off. America had put the Second World War behind it. Although Paul continued to act in Hollywood films through the 1970s and local New Mexico theaters, his attentions turned elsewhere. With his brother-in-law he became wealthy, building new homes for the growing post- war population in the southwest-Texas and New Mexico. Paul taught filmography classes at the Albuquerque YMCA for underprivileged children. He taught university classes on several subjects relating to filmography and had his own freelance film company that did well making documentaries. Elena Zelayeta already was famous in the western part of the United States in the 1950s when she began her fifteen-minute weekly television cooking show, It's Fun to Eat with Elena on Channel 5 in the Bay Area in California. Elena had been blind for many years by this time. Her cookbooks were a way for her to support her two sons after the death of her husband. No one would hire the blind widow, so she hired herself. Before the death of her husband, she had gone to the San Francisco Institute for the Blind where she learned some Braille and soon became a volunteer instructor. After the first cookbook was published, she spent hours and hours on the telephone reaching out to the women's clubs, merchants, libraries, churches, Lions Clubs-anyone who would give her a chance to come and promote her books. Her will-do attitude gave little opportunity to refuse the short Hispanic woman with the big smile. She too worked with the set crews to develop a way for her to know what camera was on her by tying a string to her ankles. A slight tug on the appropriate string would tell Elena the direction to face. She went on to begin a Mexican frozen food company that her sons ran for decades after her death. We can all think of a few other blind actors in more recent years who have tried to break the Hollywood glass ceiling. Yet we need to have a better, more diverse voice on the small and big screens, representing real America. We need to be shown doing not only the heroic or the dastardly; we need to be shown taking our place as children in schools, adults making a living and raising our children, and as people who take life's ups and downs, blindness not being the focal point of our existence. ---------- Do You Dream In Color? by Ellen Sullivan From the Editor: Ellen Sullivan is the secretary/treasurer in the National Federation of the Blind of Delaware. At a seminar for communications directors held in February of 2017, Ellen saw the documentary she reviews. Here is her description of what she saw, along with the insights she brings about blindness and the way blind children are too often treated by the education system in America: Sitting in the film auditorium of the Jernigan Institute, I was waiting for my exhausting day to end. Chris Danielson stepped up to the podium and told us about these California film students, Abigail Fuller and Sarah Ivy, who had made this documentary film in order to graduate from college. My reaction: oh no-another amateurish attempt to capture the lives of blind people-but it was anything but that. The documentary takes us into the lives of four blind teenagers whose hopes and aspirations are frustrated by the persistent failure of the education system to provide them with the tools they need and have a legal right to in order to succeed as blind people. First we meet "Skateboarder Connor" who glides down the sidewalks of his town with an amazing sense of rapture and freedom. He sneaks into his school grounds with his friend Mira to practice some stunning feats with his skateboard. What does Connor want? He wants to be accepted by the town's elite skateboarding club. Next we meet Sarah "Destination Portugal." Sarah excels in school especially in her Spanish class. Sarah, whose Portuguese mother died when she was five years old, longs to visit her mother's homeland. Sarah wants to study overseas in Portugal during her senior year in high school, and she has all the right credentials, but she is blind. Carina "the prom queen" is a lovely Hispanic teenager who wants to graduate from high school and attend college. When her public school fails to live up to its commitment on her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) her mother, an undocumented immigrant, is afraid to fight the system for fear she will lose Carina in the process. Lastly we meet rock star Nick, who wants to be an "awesome drummer" and part of his own band and is thwarted in his aspirations by a school system that fails him when he moves from middle to high school. They don't want a blind child in their high school and thus force his mother into a court battle while Nick waits it out on the sideline-literally-he is not allowed to attend school for months. These riveting stories let us know that sighted people just don't believe in the true capabilities of blind people. They continuously underestimate the abilities of blind students and fail to accept that blind people have dreams too, just as full of depth and color as those of the sighted. Equally unfortunate is the realization that with opportunity the dreams of blind people can come true as often as the dreams of their sighted friends and neighbors. While I doubted the filmmakers early on, they honestly and openly captured the emotional turmoil many blind students experience. These students see themselves and their hopes and dreams as "normal" and attainable with passion and hard work. It was heartbreaking to watch their struggles and inspiring to see their determination. This is a great film for both blind and sighted people alike. It demonstrates to sighted parents, friends, and teachers how human and capable their blind counterparts truly are. For sighted people who may be unintentionally holding blind students back, this film serves as a wake-up call for the way they can support, enable, and inspire blind students to live their dreams. The movie ends with a poignant scene of Sarah standing at the edge of the ocean with her arms spread saying "I can see everything; I just need to be up close to feel it." Editor's Note: It is clear from this review that many of us should see the movie and should view it as a call to action in reforming the education systems where we live. Screenings are available on request. Contact Chris Danielsen at cdanielsen at nfb.org. We should take this opportunity to show this movie to friends and relatives and to recruit large venues where chapter members and their friends can see it. ---------- Dots from Space! Getting in Touch with Braille by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer Curious to see what other secrets the building holds, the six Dots dash down another hallway and make their way through some of the oldest parts of the building. Unlike the rest of the building they had encountered so far, this area has undressed walls, bare wooden floors, and the stacks and stacks of boxes made it clear that this area had been used for storage. Continuing on, the group rolls up to the open doors of an elevator shaft. The elevator car is nowhere to be found. Thick metal cables stretch into the darkness below. As the more mature members of the crew begin to confer on the best way to descend, the young ensign impetuously reaches out to the nearest cable, wraps himself around it, and disappears into the darkness with a joyful, "Wheeee!" "Ensign! Report! Are you injured?" calls Doctor Spot. "I'm fine, Doctor!" The crew can hear the excited ensign bouncing below. "The doors to the next level are open! I can't wait to see what else is down here!" The ensign's voice fades as he bounces away from the elevator. "When I catch that kid, I'm going to court-martial him, Number One." Squeak, squeak. "I'll handle it personally, Captain." "Now, now, Commander. We were all young once, and this is Bean's first away mission," soothes Counselor Mote. "Well, at this rate, it's going to be his last!" grouses Captain Dottie. "Shouldn't we go catch him, Captain?" Jot asks. A few minutes later, the rest of the team enters a long, rectangular room. Standing over in the corner, next to a large and unfamiliar machine, is the still bouncing Ensign Bean. Barely containing his excitement, he calls to the others to join him next to the strange contraption. "I found out how they make the dots!" "I'm going to dot you, Ensign, if you don't learn to listen to orders from now on!" snaps the commander, for once his beard forgotten. "Commander Point, it is unwise to waste time on demerits during the mission. Discipline can be better handled on the ship." Doctor Spot brushes him aside. "The dots, Ensign?" Bean hands him an embossed booklet from a stack nearby. Intrigued, the doctor immediately begins to read aloud, "Braille: What It Is and What It Is Not..." [Note: Link to or copy text of "Braille: What It Is and What It Is Not," by Sister M. Elaine George, IHM, Future Reflections, Volume 28, Number 1, https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr28/fr280106.htm] Most of the crew listens attentively as the doctor reads the short article out loud. However, Lieutenant-Commander Jot, being more interested in how the machine actually works than the end result, has moved in closer to inspect the massive embosser that had printed the Braille document. Producing a couple of tools and a battery pack that had been secreted on her person, she begins to fiddle with the apparatus. Then at the touch of a button, the dormant machinery roars to life and resumes its task as if it had never stopped. Marveling at her own work, Jot leans in with a soft, "Ooh..." While simultaneously Counselor Mote, startled by the loud noise of the machine coming back to life, takes a step backward and bumps into the lieutenant- commander. Unable to stop herself, Jot pitches forward and is caught by the paper-feeding mechanism, which flattens and sucks her into the inner workings of the ancient machine. As she silently disappears from view, the embosser begins to make strange popping noises, as if someone is bursting bubble wrap, which attracts the attention of the rest of the crew. "Jot!" exclaims Counselor Mote. "Where are you?" Jot's muffled voice can be heard from the inside of the machine, but her crewmates can't make out what she is saying. "What's happening, Lieutenant-Commander? Jot? Report!" yells Captain Dottie. Suddenly, at the far end of the embosser, Jot's voice begins to ring out clearly. "I'm fine, Captain! In fact this is quite invigorating. Even better than a massage!" Doctor Spot speedily rolls around to find the flattened edge of Lieutenant-Commander Jot, which had first entered the machine, slowly falling down into the waiting paper tray, hundreds of Braille dots now embossed across her skin. A mouth forms and cheerfully says, "You guys really should try this!" Bang! Crash! Boom! The room is filled with even louder noises as the machine grinds to a screeching halt. Silence descends upon the crew. In a quiet voice, Jot says, "Oh! That must have been my wrench... I wondered where that had got to." "Jot! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Bean asks. "I'm fine, Bean," Jot said, her voice as chipper as ever. "But I think this machine has embossed its last dot... And I appear to be stuck." ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Heather Bird stands in front of her house with her long white cane and her guide dog. Her two young sons, one on each side, hold their own child-sized canes.] My Free White Cane by Heather Bird From the Editor: Heather Bird is the president of the Rochester Chapter of the New York state affiliate of the NFB. Quite often I telephone those who submit articles to discuss changes I want to make or when I think their article may run. In this case, I called because I wanted to meet Heather and to verify that what she had written about the canes she was provided really reflected how she felt. This was not intended as an article, but as a thank-you letter in response to our free white cane program. Sure enough, the enthusiasm I saw in the letter was reflected in our conversation. So it is that we proudly run this piece: First of all, I would like to thank you for the two white canes that I received, one for myself and one for my older son, Gustave Jeremy Jonas. I understand the value as a guide dog handler of going out to keep my cane skills sharp a few times a month, and I also know the value of taking time to learn some routes with my cane prior to working them with my Seeing Eye dog. However, I have been remiss about doing so on a logistical and practical level, even though I know on an academic and cognitive level that this is something I should be doing regularly. This disconnect between best practice and real action is due to my very heavy, too short, collapsible cane from Ambutech. I am on the tall side for a woman and knew that I could benefit from a somewhat longer cane, but I just couldn't cope with the added weight that a longer, more appropriately-sized cane would entail. Using my previous cane hurts my right wrist with touch-tap or tap-and-glide techniques. Resting my wrist by employing purely diagonal technique or a constant-contact sweeping technique resulted in the cane constantly getting caught in cracks in the sidewalk, grass edges, and obstacles, which would jar my wrist or worse, jam the cane into my stomach or ribs, which obviously left me frustrated and only able to walk at a half to a quarter of the speed I can with my guide dog. However, this cane has made such a difference. It is so much lighter that I was able to walk one of my longer 2.5-mile-long routes with absolutely no pain or discomfort in my wrist. I was able to walk at a much more comfortable pace, perhaps 75 to 85 percent the speed I walk with my guide, because I wasn't constantly getting the clunky collapsible cane caught in cracks and my wrist action allowed me to easily transition between touch-tap and tap-and-glide techniques at considerable speed, but still with safe reaction time for changes in elevation and obstacle clearance. This cane is so much more responsive. With the old cane the truncated domes at the edge of a curb felt like rough pavement, but with this cane I can actually feel the individual bumps that make up the indicator. I accidentally ran this cane over my preschooler's leg, and I could tell that his father had changed him out of the blue jeans I had put him in and into corduroy pants. Crawling along the ground or having a five-foot-long arm that could sweep the ground ahead of you would be the equivalent of reading Braille with the fingertips. Using the old cane I had would be like trying to read Braille through a woolen sock placed over the hand. Using this cane is like trying to read Braille through a thin rubber glove or plastic wrap, because it just gives me so much more information. I am very fortunate in that I have had access to moderately to very good O&M and white cane instruction for my whole life. I got my first cane at age two, but I want to know why the heck no one ever gave me a cane like this to try. I still would have gotten a guide dog, but my childhood and teenaged years of grudging acceptance and sometimes real hatred of my cane would have instead been matter-of-fact use and sometimes enthusiastic appreciation of my cane. I honestly feel cheated at all of the awkward, clumsy, and frustrating cane travel I have embarked upon prior to getting my first guide and when in between guides with a cane ill-suited to me or my needs. So, in a roundabout way I am saying thank you very very much, and also why the heck don't sighted professionals get it and make a more concerted effort to help their blind students and clients? My eight-year-old son, Jeremy, had this to say about his new NFB cane, "This cane is so much better. My O&M instructor always gets mad at me and tells me to quit complaining that my arm is tired, and I really didn't like using my cane, even though I know I need to use it to be safe and stuff like that. This one moves where I want it to go and doesn't get stuck on things. I can feel more stuff too and tell what it is-easier than with the old cane. I can't fold this one up, but that's OK 'cuz the old one kept pinching my fingers when I had to fold and unfold it anyway. This cane feels like just a body part or something, like an ear or a hand or a nose or something. The old cane felt like I was just swinging a stick around." ---------- Independence Market Corner The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind people. Often blind people can easily tell their clothes apart by noticing some distinguishing characteristic such as the type of fabric; the cut of the sleeves, collar, or neckline; the shape and number of buttons; and so on. But sometimes this method does not work, and you need another solution. If you are looking for tools to identify your garments and manage your wardrobe, the Independence Market may be able to help. We sell aluminum Braille labels which can be sewn or pinned into clothing to help identify garments. Two different styles are available: colors and numbers. In the color style we carry two different sets, one with a larger color palette and fewer individual labels of each color and one with a smaller color assortment and more of each specific color. There are one hundred tags in the color sets. The number style contains twenty- five tags (the numbers one through twenty-five). The number tags might work better for ties or other clothes that aren't identified enough by a color. For example, you could use the numbers to match the jacket and pants or skirt that are part of the same suit. And, of course, the tags are suitable for items that are either laundered or dry-cleaned. In a recent issue of the Braille Monitor we highlighted the PenFriend Audio Labeling System. This device allows the user to associate an audio recording with a sticker. One can purchase specially designed laundry labels for the PenFriend. This labeling technique gives one the flexibility to record not only a description of the item of clothing and what matches it but also any care instructions. Please note that these labels are not suitable for garments which need to be dry-cleaned. If you are not the type of person who wants to go to the trouble of labeling your clothing, then a color identifier may be the right tool for you. We carry both the SpeechMaster and the Colorino Color Identifiers. These devices enable the user to detect the color of clothing and other items. However, they are not ideal for matching clothes. You are better off asking a friend or family member with a good eye for colors to assist with this task. Once you find out what goes together, and you may have to keep notes until you know this information by heart, then the color identifier or the Braille tags can assist you in identifying a specific garment. We also carry two different types of sock locks. Never wear mismatched socks again. Simply insert a pair of socks into a Sock lock, and your socks will stay paired up while in the washer and dryer. The square sock locks are more suitable for thick athletic socks, while the round ones are better for more delicate trouser socks. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print, visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Deborah Kent Stein] [PHOTO CAPTION: Debbie sits with her sculpture Transformation in front of her.] Playing with Clay by Deborah Kent Stein From the Editor: This article first appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of the Illinois Independent, the newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. Deborah Kent Stein is the editor of Future Reflections, and her name is quite familiar to readers of the Braille Monitor. Her insight and her ability to so movingly convey her life experience make reading what she writes a real joy. Here is what she says: When I was four years old, my mother set up a child-sized table in the corner of the kitchen. On the table she put some plastic forks and knives, a few aluminum dishes, and a box of Plasticine, a brand of modeling clay commonly sold in toy stores. She explained that while she was cooking dinner I could make believe I was preparing a meal, too. I was the oldest of three children, with two noisy, rambunctious little brothers. My mother hoped the clay would keep me occupied while she juggled between cooking and caring for the younger children. As far as keeping me busy, the plan exceeded her expectations. I didn't care about pretending to cook, but I loved playing with clay. I rolled long coils between my hands and twisted them into snakes. I learned to make a ball by rolling the clay between my palms. If I pressed a smaller ball onto a big one, I had the basis for a variety of animals. I could add long ears and a tiny tail to make a rabbit, or I could stick on short ears and a snake of a tail to create a cat. Plasticine came in sticks, each one a different color. I was totally blind, and at first I didn't care whether I made a green dog or a red banana. My mother used my interest in clay to help me understand the role of color in the world. When I unwrapped a new package of Plasticine, she showed me which stick was blue, which was red, which was green, and which was brown. "Brown is a good color for a dog," she told me. "You can use green and blue and red for birds." Soon I was interrupting her dinner preparations to ask, "What color is a rhinoceros?" and "What color is a sea monster?" Over the years I acquired more clay, more tools, and more space, with my own table in the basement. I made towns with cardboard houses and clay people. I made clay forests filled with multicolored birds. I made a castle with clay walls, a drawbridge of popsicle sticks, and tall clay watchtowers. One summer day my family visited the boardwalk at Asbury Park on the New Jersey shore. We kids stuffed ourselves with saltwater taffy, shrieked our way through the funhouse, and visited the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. My cousin gave me lurid descriptions of the two-headed calf, the tentacle of the giant squid, and the baby with transparent skin, all out of my reach in glass jars. At last we came upon an object that was out in the open, something I could experience for myself. It was a life-sized, sculpted head. I studied the regular features, the thick, curly hair, and the intricate whorls of the ears. What was this head doing here, among the oddities of nature? My cousin read the printed caption. "This head was fashioned by a man who was totally blind," it stated. "He made this likeness using only his sense of touch. Believe it or not!" I wondered how the nameless blind man felt about having his piece on exhibit in the Ripley's Museum. Did people really think a blind artist was as bizarre as a two-headed calf? On my thirteenth birthday my grandfather gave me six big blocks of clay-not from a toy store, but from a store that sold real art supplies. He explained that this was an oil-based clay that never dried out and could be used over and over again. If I took care of it, he promised, it would last as long as I lived. A few months later my mother and I visited a local art gallery. Without hesitation, the proprietor allowed me to touch all of the pieces on display. I studied life-sized ceramic heads, bronze nudes, and an assortment of animal figures. I discovered that art was not confined to realistic forms, and I found that artists worked in media as varied as balsa wood, paper-mache, plaster, brass wire, and welded steel. Inspired by a series of animal sculptures I'd seen at the gallery, I went home to my blocks of birthday clay. Night after night I rushed through my homework, eager to get back to my work in progress. It was the detailed figure of a lion, its head lifted above its outstretched front paws. When it was finished, my mother set it on a shelf in the living room and showed it proudly to any friends who dropped in. One of the family friends who saw the lion was a professional artist named Don Miller. To my amazement he offered to buy the lion from me for five dollars. A few weeks later he returned with a plaster cast of the original clay figure. It resided on top of the television for the next twenty years. Don Miller's interest transformed the way my family and I thought about my hobby. No longer did I play with clay. From that time forward, I did sculpture! At college I majored in English, but for one of my electives I signed up to take a studio sculpture course. I looked forward to exploring fresh possibilities and learning new techniques. When I arrived at the first class, however, the instructor, Mr. D., announced that I would have to drop the course. "Sculpture is very visual," he explained. "You won't be able to participate. It would be a waste of your time and mine for you to enroll in this class." I was shocked by Mr. D.'s narrow perspective. He utterly dismissed the idea that anyone could create or appreciate sculpture without eyesight. Even when I showed him some of my previous work, he insisted that there was no place for me in his class. I was so angry that I refused to give up. I was determined to take the class, even if Mr. D. made me hate every moment of it. I went to the head of the art department, who sent me up the ladder to the dean. The dean ruled that I could take Mr. D.'s class, with the condition that I would have an assistant with me at all times-essentially a classroom aide. According to the dean, the assistant would help me find the art supplies in the classroom. In reality, he was there as a buffer between me and Mr. D. The instructor and I barely spoke to each other all semester. Despite this unpromising arrangement, I learned a great deal in Mr. D.'s class. I experimented with wood carving and made mobiles with dangling wire figures. Most important of all, I gained an invaluable lesson in self- advocacy. I learned not to give up when a person in authority told me no. I discovered that I could fight my way past barriers to education and experience. My interest in sculpture has never flagged, though I've encountered plenty of believe-it-or-not reactions along the way. I create three- dimensional works with my hands, yet vision-oriented friends and strangers often find it amazing and inexplicable. I strive to be judged not as a blind sculptor, but as a sculptor. In my study of sculpture I always felt that blindness posed one insurmountable obstacle. My fellow students worked by looking at live human models. The only way I could use a model was through touch, and I couldn't conceive of touching someone's nude body in order to make a clay figure. I worked from imagination or used plastic models that I found in art supply stores. I studied a human skeleton to learn about structure and proportion. Nevertheless, I knew I was missing an aspect of training that is critical to most serious students of art. In 2011 I enrolled in a sculpture class at the Palette and Chisel, a long-established art school in Chicago. Ralph Cossentino, the instructor, had taught other blind students, and he welcomed me into his class. I began by sculpting the head of Michelangelo, basing my piece on a large plastic model that belonged to the school. From there I moved on to a self- portrait, exploring my own face and using myself as a model. But Ralph was determined that I should have the same opportunities as his sighted students. He asked me if I would like to work with a live model. I was stunned by the question. On one hand I was thrilled to find an instructor so eager to broaden my learning opportunities. On the other hand, I felt apprehensive and uncertain. Society has strong prohibitions against touching other people. Artists' models are very comfortable with being observed visually, but touch would cross a boundary that, under most circumstances, is strictly forbidden. I worried about how both the model and I would feel, no matter how professionally we treated the situation. In spite of my reservations, I knew this was a chance that might never come to me again. Ralph talked with the model, a young woman named Jessica. He suggested that I begin by doing a hand study, and Jessica said that would be fine with her. As I worked with the clay, I paused frequently to examine Jessica's outstretched hand. Step by step I worked to replicate the complex mechanics of muscle and bone. Yet a precise reproduction wasn't enough. The idea was to convey some form of emotional expression, the subtle difference between anatomy and art. I sculpted another hand piece, followed by a foot study. Then I did a sculpture of Jessica's head, complete with her magnificent braid. At last Ralph suggested that I was ready to attempt a full, seated figure. By that time Jessica and I were very comfortable working together, and we both said we were ready to give it a try. As it turned out, Ralph was more nervous than Jessica and I. He confessed later that he was worried about the administrators of the Palette and Chisel. What would they say when they found out that a student was touching the nude model in one of the sculpture classes? To his relief and mine, the director of the school had no objections. In fact, he commended Ralph for his flexibility and spirit of innovation. I have now worked with several models, both female and male. Each has been generously receptive to working with me. The models have always approached our work together as experienced professionals, and I owe them my deepest appreciation. I have met many blind people who are convinced that they do not understand sculpture or raised-line drawings. They are intimidated by the thought of working with clay or other art materials. To my delight, a growing number of people in the National Federation of the Blind are working to break down the notion that art is out of bounds for us as blind people. Some have even suggested that we expand our efforts in the STEM fields to include art. STEM could become STEAM-science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Few people, blind or sighted, ever become professional artists, but art can enrich life for us all. When my mother set up that little table in the kitchen, she couldn't have imagined where my love of clay would lead me. And my grandfather was right about that oil-based clay he gave me for my thirteenth birthday. I still have a three-pound package of it, carefully wrapped, and it is as moist and moldable as ever. It looks as though it will last for as long as I live. ---------- In the May issue of the Monitor we announced that the Federation would be repurposing older Kernel Book stories to be more widely available in digital format. To that end, we will be sprinkling some of these wonderful kernels into the Monitor for the next several months. These stories will run with the original introductions that accompanied them in the Kernel Books they were published in. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jennifer Dunnam] Climbing by Jennifer Dunnam From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind operates a number of training centers for blind youth and adults. One of our most effective training techniques is to teach a student to do something he or she believes to be virtually crazy for a blind person even to try. Success at something truly unthinkable causes the student to begin to re-examine all that was previously thought to be impossible. Jennifer Dunnam is a teacher in one of our centers, and one of the things she teaches is rock climbing. Unthinkable? No, not really. Here is her story: One of the many joys of being an instructor at BLIND, Inc. (one of the National Federation of the Blind's training centers) is that the students and staff have the chance to participate in rock climbing several times a year. Not all of us look forward to ascending walls of rock with equal eagerness, but I, for one, am energized every time I do a climb or work with someone else who is climbing. Sometimes I am reminded of my early childhood, when I was willing to try climbing on just about anything taller than I. My parents did not learn that I was blind until I was seven months old, by which time I knew how to crawl and could pull myself into a standing position. The doctor told my parents that since I was blind, they would need to keep me in a playpen and do everything humanly possible to protect me from harm. Despite their disappointment upon learning of my blindness, they saw no reason to follow the doctor's advice since they had so far treated me as they would any other child. I also believe that, by that time, my parents already had a pretty good idea that trying to keep me in a playpen would probably not have accomplished the protection that the kind but misguided doctor had intended. One of my earliest memories is of climbing a chest of drawers. I am sure I remember hearing the half-open drawers call out to be climbed like a ladder; being a most agreeable child, I obliged-my fingers gripped the top of the upper drawers as my feet stepped on the lower ones. I almost made it to the top before the chest and all its contents fell on top of me. My fingers still smart whenever I think about it. My pain and humiliation were sufficient to ensure that I did not try climbing on drawers again; my parents could see that I had been well-taught and did not need them to put any additional restrictions on my movement. During most of my childhood, my family lived in a house located on property owned by the natural gas transmission company that employed my father. My two younger sisters and I had twenty-seven acres of land at our disposal for play-including such useful structures as trees, a pond, an empty house similar to our own, and the compressor station where my father worked. We children were disappointed that we had no stairs inside the house, but we were delighted when we discovered them on the sides of the compressor station. We (or at least I) could spend hours just running up and down those metal stairs-a pastime to which my mother never expressed any objection. It seemed very natural to my sisters and me, therefore, to entertain ourselves in a similar manner the day we discovered stairs during a visit to the home of a friend of our parents. My mother did not see the connection at all, but she couldn't stop us quite in time to prevent my sister Becky from somehow breaking an expensive statue that stood near the stairs. At a very early age I graduated from stairs to the monkey bars in our backyard. I got to be rather good at climbing on them and was thrilled on my first day of school when I found out there were higher monkey bars on the playground. What a shock I got during that first recess when I tried to join the other kids who were climbing on the bars! As I approached, the children jumped off as fast as they could, screaming, "Don't touch her! You'll go blind!" It felt as though the floor had been pulled out from under me. Was it so bad to be blind? Fortunately, when I went home that evening (and every evening after), I found my world was still normal, my family didn't think I had suddenly gotten a terrible disease, and, best of all, my sisters were still willing to join me on the monkey bars. My family did their best to help me keep my expectations of myself high despite the misconceptions of many others around me. That basic support was invaluable to me as I went back to school each day and gradually made friends and acquaintances who, even if they did not always treat me as an equal, were not afraid of me and would share the monkey bars with me. At home, we had a swing set, which, together with several trees perfect for climbing, consumed much of my free time. My sisters and I, like most kids, were pretty good at thinking up alternative ways to use the swing set, like walking up the slide or standing in the seats of the swings while swinging. The caps had long since fallen off the ends of the crossbar at the top of the swing set, so we liked to climb up the side poles and use the long pipe as a communication device. Other creatures apparently made use of the open-ended crossbar as well; on at least two occasions, bees came out to express their anger at me for disturbing their home. The bee stings were nothing, however, compared to the time I put my mouth up to the pipe, and a little frog took the opportunity to jump in. All I can say is that a frog-at least in living form-most assuredly does not "taste like chicken." When I was about twelve, my sisters and I began incorporating the huge pipes behind the compressor station into our games. They were several feet in diameter, and some of them slanted upward from the ground at angles that were deliciously dangerous if you were trying to walk up them. (Oh, and did I mention that we were expressly forbidden to go near them by my parents?) For months and months my sisters and I enjoyed the pipes; they could not be seen from the house, so we could play without any annoying interference. Or so I believed, until the day my father suddenly hauled us all into the living room and yelled for what seemed like hours about how we should never, never play around those pipes. How he could have found out was beyond me, especially since we had not been near the pipes since the week before, when we took all those pictures of each other . . . Sudden dread shot through me as I racked my brain to recall what we'd done with those newly developed pictures. It wasn't long before that question vanished into irrelevance; my dad held up an envelope, from which he removed a series of indisputable photos of his three daughters in various poses on the pipes behind the compressor station. He stopped yelling, and fortunately for us, his amusement at our humiliation tempered his anger somewhat. As the years went by I became far too cool and mature ever to think about such childish exploits as climbing. Then, when I was fourteen, I joined the National Federation of the Blind-one of the best decisions of my life. I found new friends and learned that I did not have to be alone in dealing with the problems blind people face in our society. It was with a group of Federation friends that I had my first experience with rock climbing and immediately abandoned my notion that climbing is for kids. Here was something much more real and challenging than monkey bars or natural gas conduits! Now, as a teacher, I am pleased to have the chance to help students believe in themselves and their abilities as blind people. Rock climbing is one of the ways in which our Center challenges students to go beyond what they believe is possible. I treasure the time spent in such productive fun! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Bruce Gardner] Watermelons, Sharp Knives, and Peace by Bruce Gardner From the Editor: As readers of previous Kernel Books know Bruce Gardner spent a good bit of time as a boy trying to convince himself and others that he was not really blind. He did so because he did not believe that it was respectable to be blind. In this current story he reminds himself that although success can be measured by many outward signs, for it to be real there must be inner peace. Here is what he has to say: What is success and how is it measured? Is one a success by being a senior attorney with a major corporation, president of his home owners' association, precinct committeeman for his local political party, High Priest and member of the High Council at his church, and scout troop official? Should one be considered successful if he lives in a nearly five- thousand-square-foot house on a gentleman's farm with a citrus orchard, pasture, and barn with horses, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, and other farm animals? Or is success being happily married to a wonderful wife and having six bright, healthy, well-mannered, and well-adjusted children (three of whom are now teenagers)? Perhaps. But it is hard to feel successful unless one is at peace with one's self. As one who grew up blind in a predominantly sighted society it was not easy to imagine being successful or easy to find that peace. The blind are generally regarded as incapable of doing much of anything. I certainly grew up with all the same negative misconceptions about blindness, never mind the fact that I was blind. It was not until I found the National Federation of the Blind that I was able to begin making significant strides on the road to success. I remember several years ago when I was the scouting coordinator between our church and the Boy Scouts of America. We had a youth swimming party for all of the youth at our church including the scouts. All of the kids were having fun ganging up on their leaders and throwing them in the pool. The teen-age girls were ganging up on their women advisors, and the boys were ganging up on the men. All except for me. As scouting coordinator I had been with the twelve- and thirteen-year- old scouts at most of their weekly activities and on a number of outings and hikes, and was a full participant in all the physical activities and roughhousing, yet no one grabbed me and tried to throw me in the water. I began feeling very left out, so I left the pool area and decided to get some watermelon. Because we were running low on sliced melon I decided to cut some more. A good friend of mine walked up and would not let me cut the watermelon. He said, "Here, let me do that." I said, "That's okay. I'll do it; I slice watermelon all the time." But he insisted, saying, "No, I'd better cut the watermelon. That knife is sharp." With that, he took the knife from my hand. I was already feeling very conspicuous because I was the only youth leader there who had not been physically gang tackled and thrown into the pool. When my good friend refused to let me slice more watermelon, that was all I could take, so I left the party. I was so angry and hurt that I could not think straight. When I finally cooled off a few days later, I was disappointed that I had allowed myself to be affected that way. The next day I sent my friend a letter and tried to explain why his attitude about my cutting the watermelon had bothered me so much. My friend called to apologize and say that he was genuinely touched and impressed by my letter. By then I had cooled off a little, and I apologized for allowing myself to get upset. After all, I had spent years selling myself short and assuming I could not do many things. Why should I expect my friend to act any differently? I have tried to learn from these experiences and not allow others' attitudes and actions to affect my attitude. In small ways I think I am progressing on the road to success. For example, my law office is on the eighteenth floor of a twenty-story building in downtown Phoenix. A few weeks ago as I stepped into the elevator along with an acquaintance from the building, he commented that the light was out in the elevator. When the doors closed it was pitch dark inside. The other man in the elevator then said, "Now we're equal." I considered saying that there were a number of things besides the ability to see that would have to be considered before that judgment could be made. But I didn't. I just politely laughed and said, "Right." It would have done no good to get upset or offended. One does not have to be an attorney, president of an organization, or live in a big house in order to be successful. But regardless of how one measures success, one can hardly truly feel successful if little things in life get him angry. I am grateful to the National Federation of the Blind for giving me the confidence to know that I can be a successful, productive member of society, and I am particularly grateful for the realization that in order truly to progress on the road to success, I must also be at peace with myself and the world and not let negative misconceptions about blindness affect me in my own heart. ----------- How to Pay for Your Hotel Stay in Orlando by Tony Cobb From the Editor: For a long time Tony Cobb was a fixture in our national convention hotel lobby, and his kindness, wisdom, and experience helped to make the convention better for all of us. Here is a reminder we try to run each year to prevent the heartache that comes from an overdrawn checking account when one is not familiar with the practices of major hotel chains. The words below come from the wisdom of those years of service, and it is with gratitude that we reprint them: Here is some advice about paying for your hotel stay: every year at our national convention we have serious trouble with use of debit cards or cash payments at hotel check-in, and, having worked to solve these problems for years, I can tell you they can nearly ruin the convention week for those experiencing them. Planning to attend our national convention should therefore include thinking seriously about how to pay the hotel, and I cannot urge you strongly enough to avoid using cash or a debit card as your payment method. Doing so may seem convenient, but you should not do so. If you do not have a credit card of your own to use, prevail upon a close friend or family member to let you use one just for convention. Here's why: If you are paying in actual currency, most hotels will want enough cash up front at check-in to cover your room and tax charges for the entire stay, plus a one-time advance incidentals deposit to cover meals, telephone calls, internet service, and other things you may charge to your room. The unused portion of the incidentals deposit may be returned at check-out or by mail after departure. Understand, however, that, if your incidentals charges exceed the incidentals deposit credited, you are responsible for payment of the full balance at checkout. The total can end up being a very large sum indeed. If you use a debit card, however, you are really at a potentially painful disadvantage. The hotel will put a hold on money in your bank account linked to the debit card to cover the estimated balance of your stay-that is, for the entire week's room and tax charges plus a one-time incidentals deposit to cover meals, movies, and so on charged to your room. You should be aware that the hold can therefore be a considerable amount of money and that you will not have access to that amount for any other purchases or payments with your card. (Hotels sometimes also put authorizations on credit cards, by the way, but those are not often a problem unless they exceed your card's credit limit.) Holds can remain in effect for three to five days or even a week after you check out. If you have pre-authorized payments from your bank account, for example your monthly mortgage payment, or if you try to make a purchase with your debit card and it's refused, the hold from the hotel can cause you trouble or result in very large overdraft fees for payments you thought you had money in your account to cover. I have seen this hit some of our members in the form of hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees. This means that, if you use a debit card, you would have to be certain you have a high enough balance in your checking account when you come to convention to cover any debit card holds. This is a perilous practice since charges may exceed your estimate by a considerable amount. (Some frequent travelers even open a separate checking account used only for debits like these.) Remember, a hold is going to be placed on your debit card regardless of how you end up paying the bill, and the hold is not necessarily released right away, even if you pay with a credit card or cash when you check out of the hotel. Planning ahead in this area can ensure an untroubled week at convention, leaving you free to enjoy fully the world's largest and most exciting meeting of the blind. Come enjoy this fine hotel-using a credit card, I hope. ---------- Recipes This month's recipes come from the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia. Oven-Fried Whiting Fish by Dorothy Griffin Dorothy Griffin is the president of the Atlanta Metro Chapter of the NFB of Georgia. Ingredients: Bag of whiting fillets (thawed or fresh) 1 10-ounce bag of Louisiana New Orleans Style Fish Fry Oil of your choice: olive, coconut, almond, etc. Method: Preheat oven to 430 to 450 degrees. Rinse fish in cold water. Pick up individual fillet using thumb and index finger; press out excess water by running your fingers down the fish from top to bottom. Place on plate, set aside. Lightly oil cookie sheet and place aside. Pour approximately one cup of New Orleans Style Fish Fry into the gallon bag (mix is highly seasoned already so no need for extra seasonings unless desired). Place one fillet at a time into the gallon bag of fish fry mix and shake over fish to cover. Remove from bag and place on oiled cookie sheet skin side down. Repeat for all fillets. Pour some oil into the oil bottle cap and drizzle lightly over the exposed skin side up of fillets; use as much of the oil as is needed to complete each fillet. The fish will create its own oil so drizzle sparingly. Place cookie sheet in oven uncovered, let cook for about twelve to fifteen minutes and then check on it. If golden brown on the underside, flip over and let cook for another twelve to fifteen minutes. Flip as needed until golden brown on both sides. Once fish is golden brown on both sides remove cookie sheet from oven. This mix is good for diabetics or individuals that don't or can't eat deep fried but want that crispy taste. Please Google the nutrition facts; you will be surprised. ---------- Fried Rabbit by Allen Griffin Allen Griffin is a member of the Atlanta Metro Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia. Ingredients: 1 rabbit, cleaned and washed 1 cup buttermilk Salt, pepper, or your choice of seasoning Flour Cooking oil Hot sauce (if desired) Method: Cut rabbit into sections (legs, breast, etc.), and set aside on plate. Dip pieces one at a time into bowl of buttermilk, season with salt, pepper or seasonings of your choice. Place in flour and cover all over. Place in hot skillet of heated cooking oil (about 400 degrees), and do not overcrowd. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove from skillet; drain on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Shake on hot sauce and eat as desired. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Resolutions for Convention: Here is a message from Sharon Maneki, who chairs the NFB Resolutions Committee: Do you think we should change a government policy, take a stand concerning an agency for the blind, or create new regulations? If you do, consider writing a resolution. At the 2017 National Convention the resolutions committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 11. The committee will debate and discuss resolutions on a wide variety of subjects. If passed by the convention, these resolutions will become the policy statements of the organization. To ensure that your resolution will be considered by the committee, please send it to President Riccobono or to me by June 27, two weeks before the committee meeting. If you send a resolution to me by email and do not receive a response acknowledging your email in two or three days, please call or send it again. If you miss the deadline, you must get three members of the committee to sponsor your resolution and then get it to the chairman before the meeting begins. I will be pleased to accept resolutions by email, nfbmd at earthlink.net; or snail mail, 9013 Nelson Way, Columbia, MD 21045. New Text-to-Give Campaign: Our Imagination Fund Committee is pleased to announce a text-to-give campaign that we will kick off at our national convention. Text-to-give allows anyone to make a $25 donation to the National Federation of the Blind with a simple text message from his or her mobile phone. Anyone who can text can give easily, and thanks to AT&T covering the cost for a limited time, the National Federation of the Blind will receive 100 percent of each contribution. Contributors can make a gift regardless of which phone carrier they use. This is an opportunity for us to identify those individuals who are not members of the organization but want to support the good work that we do. We need your help identifying individuals in your extended network of family, friends, colleagues, and service providers. Their gift will assist a newly blind person with independent travel through our free white cane program, help a child to learn to read through our Braille Reading Pals program, assist blinded veterans to regain their independence, and so much more. Please take the time to share the names and email addresses of potential supporters by visiting https://nfb.org/text2017. When the campaign starts we will send an email inviting all of these individuals to share in the great things we do every day to help blind people live the lives they want. Announcements from the NFB Cancer-Survivors Group: The NFB Cancer-Survivors Groups' purpose is to help all cancer survivors get well, stay well, provide preventive measures, create a platform for cohesive dialogue, and help provide accessibility to information that may enhance the lives of cancer survivors. Our primary goal is to make sure that blind cancer survivors have information in an accessible format-Braille, large print, or electronic. Join the NFB Cancer-Survivors Group for a commemorative celebration of life dinner at the Cafe Osceola Restaurant inside the Shingle Creek Hotel, Thursday, July 13, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. We will commemorate the lives of our three Angels: Marie LaFargue, Julia Rembert, and Denise Shaible. This will be followed by "Why I am Thankful" tribute and a Commemorative Gift to registered NFB cancer survivors only. To secure your seat by June 23, call (803) 735-0821. Smile: NFB Cancer-Survivors, join us for a Cancer-Survivors group photo on Friday, July 14, at 6:30 p.m. inside the front lobby of the Shingle Creek Hotel. Be sure to wear your NFB Cancer-Survivors T-shirt. Don't have yours yet? Place your order by calling (803) 735-0821. T-shirt sizes: Small, Medium, Large, X-Large are $18.00; 1X, 2X, 3X are $20.00. You are invited to join the NFB-Cancer-Survivors mailing list. This list is sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind. To join the list go to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-cancer- survivors_nfbnet.org or send an email to nfb-cancer-survivors- request at nfbnet.org and put "subscribe" on the subject line. STEM Tutorials for Blind Students to be Offered at the 2017 NFB National Convention: Are you a blind student interested in studying science, technology, engineering, or math? Do you feel daunted by the prospect of doing lab work in a chemistry class or producing visually readable results in a math class? Perhaps you're a professional in a technical field who finds it challenging to produce graphs and charts for sighted colleagues? If so, then come to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind and plan to arrive in time for Seminar Day on Monday, July 10. The NFB in Computer Science, the NFB Science & Engineering Division, and the NFB National Association of Blind Students Division will host the STEM tutorial workshop. STEM educators and technologists will come from around the world to help blind students and professionals learn to use a variety of tools to assist them in excelling in their chosen technical field. Best of all, individual tutoring sessions will be offered throughout the week for those folks who want one-on-one training from experts who are familiar with the access technology they're teaching, as well as the technical field it's being used for. The topics to be discussed and for which tutoring will be available include accessing math in electronic materials directly or to convert it to Braille; writing math in formats directly accessible to sighted people; reading STEM graphs, charts, and diagrams, and creating simple graphics; and participating in chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering labs. There is no charge to attend either the seminar on Monday or the tutoring sessions throughout the week. The seminar on Monday will give an overview of the technologies to be taught, as well as an introduction to the tutors themselves. It is strongly recommended that folks who are interested in being a part of this invaluable opportunity plan to arrive at the convention in time to begin participating in events on the morning of July 10. For more information, contact: John Gardner, STEM tutorial coordinator, at john.gardner at oregonstate.edu. Elected: Sharon Maneki, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland writes: Join me in welcoming the newest division of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, the Maryland Association of Blind Merchants to our Federation family. The new officers of this division are: Melba Taylor, president; Patti Hollman Eitington, first vice president; Steve Brand, second vice president; Tassi Thompson, secretary; and Andre Sconion, treasurer. The three board members are: Don Morris, Mike Bullis, and Dr. Michael Gosse. At its creation on May 6, twenty-two people joined the division. I am sure we will be hearing more from this division in the coming months. Congratulations and welcome! First Pitch: The Columbia Fireflies baseball team kicked off their opening season on Tuesday, April 25, highlighting the work of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina. This served as the perfect opportunity for one of the Federation's leaders, Isaiah Nelson, who is a blind cancer survivor and serves as the second vice president of the Columbia Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina, to have the honor of first pitch. Isaiah said, "This was a historic moment and a great early birthday gift," since Isaiah's birthday is in August. The moment came: Isaiah, with a baseball in hand, reared his arm back to the right, slightly bent his right knee, lifted his left leg, and pitched the ball. In his own words, "The crowd cheered, and I felt invigorated. It was one of the most exciting times of my life and will be forever cherished. Since my favorite sport is wrestling, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try something different, and it was awesome!" Live the Life You Want Senior Retreat: The National Federation of the Blind Senior Division will sponsor a retreat. When: October 8 to 14, 2017 Where: Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center. This is a rural setting, a camp owned and operated by the South Carolina affiliate of the NFB. It is a beautiful location in the mountains. Cost: $325 per attendee. This does not include transportation to and from Greensville, South Carolina, the nearest airport to the camp. Transportation will be provided from Greensville to Rocky Bottom. Cost includes room, board, training, and any activities during the retreat. Applicants are encouraged to look for sponsors from service organizations, state agency, or to fundraise if necessary. Who Is Eligible? Legally blind seniors age fifty-five and older with a strong desire to learn alternative, nonvisual techniques taught by blind instructors. One must be responsible for taking all medications independently and have the stamina to be actively engaged for five full days of activities. Classes Taught: cane travel, daily living and cooking skills, computer and other technology such as using digital recorders, PenFriend; discussions on adjusting to blindness with family, community and social interaction, self-advocacy, confidence-building, and leisure activities. How Do I Apply? Send a letter requesting a retreat application to the attention of Mr. David Houck, 119 South Kilbourne Road, Columbia, SC 29205. Send the completed application back to the above address. All applicants will then have a telephone interview with officers from the Senior Division so we can learn more about your needs and desires. You will be able to ask your questions and learn more about what the retreat entails. The deadline to apply is August 1. Space is limited, so if you are truly interested, don't wait until the deadline. Applicants will be notified by August 15 if accepted. Monies are due at the very latest by September 1, 2017, and payment can be made to the NFB Senior Division, c/o Duncan Larsen, Colorado Center for the Blind, 2233 West Shepperd Avenue, Littleton, CO 80120. For further information contact Ruth Sager, president, Senior Division of the NFB at rsager78 at gmail.com. NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Mon Jul 3 22:20:21 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2017 22:20:21 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, July 2017 Message-ID: <201707040520.v645KLAK016369@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 7 July 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. Vol. 60, No. 7 July 2017 Contents Illustration: Nielsen Cares and a New Partnership is Born Need Vision on Demand?: There's an App for That by Chancey Fleet New Bill Seeks to Raise Wages for all Workers, Including Those with Disabilities by John Par? Is Braille on Life Support? by Kane Brolin Dirigibles, Blimps, and Looking Around by Justin Salisbury Dots From Space!: A Bunch of Cut-Ups by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer There Is a List for That! by David Andrews Anthony Don't: On Blindness and the Portrayal of Marie-Laure in All the Light We Cannot See by Sheri Wells-Jensen How I Live the Life I Want as a Sports Fan by Jonathan Franks Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein What Do They Say? by Lauren L. Merryfield Editor's Introduction to Celebrate by Marc Maurer Swabbing the Deck by Mary Ann Lareau Here's the Proof by James Gashel Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: The Nielsen Cares team poses with Anil Lewis, Mya Jones, and Jenivieve White] [PHOTO CAPTION: Matthew Ottwell helps with inventory of the education section] [PHOTO CAPTION: Gareth Kelly explains the procedure to Toni Moore] [PHOTO CAPTION: The entire Nielsen Cares team works together on a Braille Pals mailing] [PHOTO CAPTION: Part of the Nielsen Cares team poses with President Riccobono, Mya, Jen, and Mrs. Maurer] Nielsen Cares and a New Partnership is Born Many of us have heard of the Nielsen ratings and have probably been disappointed when a favorite TV show has been cancelled, and the excuse for taking it off has been the rating provided by this company. It turns out that Nielsen does much more than watch people watch television: its mission is to collect and analyze data, and television is but one of its markets. To help employees and to help the community, Nielsen has employee resource groups. Lou Ann Blake, Jenivieve White, and Anna Adler attended two meetings to learn about Nielsen and to help it learn about the Federation. The company has a program called Nielsen Cares, and at least once each year employees can decide to help an organization they select. The result was the Baltimore group choosing to help us on May 11, Global Impact Day, by sending nine employees to the Jernigan Institute. They helped reorganize the storage of our educational material, assisted in doing a Braille Pals mailing, and later participated in our Six Dot Dash race to raise funds for the organization. The Nielsen family is interested in expanding its involvement with us to include participating in state conventions and other activities in our local chapters. What a wonderful way to get to know our neighbors and to get them to know us. [PHOTO CAPTION: Chancey Fleet enjoys the great outdoors listening as she leans against a rock with her guide dog.] Need Vision on Demand? There's an App for That by Chancey Fleet From the Editor: Many of us who are blind have learned to do most tasks in our life without the aid of vision. We know that there are alternative techniques, we are proud to use them, and we treasure the independence they give us. Even so, there are times when we find the services of someone who can see very helpful. Maybe we need that vision for five seconds or for two minutes or for two hours. Traditionally we have met this need in several ways. Sometimes we wait until we have enough tasks in which sight would be helpful and then pay or get a volunteer to help us. Some of that waiting can seem long when we want what we want or actually need it sooner than the next scheduled visit from a person who can see. Even if we have someone with sight living in our house, we get tired of asking, and they get tired of all the questions, so some mutually-acceptable asking and granting must be agreed upon. Chancey Fleet offers an answer to this dilemma, which she calls visual interpretation. She is a tech educator for a New York City library and understands as much about technology for the blind as anyone I know. She knows most of the apps that can help us and has a gift for explaining what they are and what they do. Here is her brief overview of some of them: If you're a blind person with a smartphone or tablet, you can use it to get visual information on demand. This genre of service is relatively new and can go by many names: you might hear it called remote visual assistance or crowdsourced vision. Personally, I prefer the phrase "visual interpretation" because it precisely names the process of turning visual information into something more useful and because the concept of an interpreter is familiar to people in many walks of life. Working with a remote visual interpreter can be liberating: you decide what your interpreter can see, when the interaction begins and ends, and whether you need a second (or third, or tenth) opinion. A virtual interpreter can't touch anything in your environment, so you can't be tempted to abandon a task that is "too visual" to someone else's hands. Remote visual interpretation can be an empowering option when you'd rather limit the extent of your interactions with the public, avoid turning friends and colleagues into de facto describers, or when no one around you is available to give you the information you need. A variety of apps provide remote visual interpretation. Although they vary in price, functionality, and whose eyes are on the other end of the connection, there are some things you'll want to consider when you use any of them. Know your camera: it's important to understand how lighting conditions, glare, angle, orientation, and distance affect your camera. If you're not familiar with these concepts, Judy Dixon's National Braille Press book Getting the Picture is an excellent introduction. You can even use remote visual interpretation apps themselves to get feedback about how effectively you're using your camera. Think about how you want to listen: these apps are going to talk to you, whether using voice-to-voice connection or text and audio messages. If you plan on using them in public, invest in comfortable headphones. Unless you're an EMT or a trucker, two-way speakerphone interactions are almost never OK in shared spaces, and you do not get a pass on this article of the social contract just because you're borrowing some eyes. Besides, headphones will help you hear more clearly. If you're traveling outdoors, attending an event or tour, or otherwise engaging with these apps in a context where it makes sense to stay maximally aware of the soundscape around you, you can use a single Bluetooth earpiece or go with the timeless budget strategy of just wearing one earbud. If you like balanced sound and prefer nothing blocking your ears, check out the AfterShokz line of bone- conduction headphones (available in wired and Bluetooth models). They rest on the bones just in front of your ears and let you hear your phone or tablet's audio without blocking what's going on around you. Whatever you do, read some online reviews before you buy, or take a friend's headphones for a test drive: people tend to feel deeply about their audio gear, and no one choice is right for everybody. Don't run out of gas: live video connections and multimedia messaging will drain your battery and deplete your data plan. If you're counting on all-day access to your tablet or phone and plan on using these apps, carry a backup battery. Once you've started using apps that involve multimedia messaging or live video connections, check your phone or tablet's data usage statistics on a regular basis to make sure that you're not approaching your data limit; and, when you can, save your data by connecting to a wireless network. Free your hands: if you'll be sorting things, assembling something, or taking your own picture, check out your environment to see if you can use a box, a ledge, or some other stable resting place to set up your phone so that its camera covers the area you need. Depending on your typical workflow, you may consider investing in a document camera stand, clip case or tripod case to keep your phone where you want it. Protect your privacy: even premium apps that rely on paid interpreters might be subject to unsecured networks, data breaches, or human error. Think critically before exposing sensitive personal information to any internet-connected camera, ever. Work smarter, not harder: take a moment to reflect on what you want to accomplish before you start, and make a little bit of a plan. If you're looking out for some spices or sorting the mail, having a Braille labeler or some other system on hand will help you capture the information you receive so you won't have to ask for it again. If you're learning something complicated (like what button does what on the office copier, the layout of a new neighborhood, or a thirty-step origami project), taking notes or making a recording will empower you to read or hear the information whenever you like until you have it by heart. Look past the marketing: blind and sighted people are still learning how to talk about these apps, and you are guaranteed to come across marketing materials and news stories that don't exactly strike the chimes of freedom. When that happens, I'd recommend constructively engaging with the content, whether by posting a comment, dropping a line to the developer, or using social media to tell your own story about visual interpretation. Don't abandon the tool just because you found it in a tacky package. As with any technology, apps for visual interpretation come and go. Here are my top four sighted sources right now. TapTapSee (free for Android and iOS) How it works: snap a picture or upload one from your camera roll, and a combination of machine vision and crowdsourced web workers will send you a quick description. Typically, your answer arrives within twenty seconds and is short enough to fit on a fortune cookie. When it shines: for the simple things. TapTapSee is great at identifying products and describing photos in brief. I use it on a daily basis to sort and label mystery items in my home and office, get real-time feedback about the photos I'm taking, and double check that my pen has ink and my handwriting is legible. TapTapSee descriptions are text-based messages that can be read with magnification, speech, or Braille. BeSpecular (free for iOS and Android) How it works: take one or more pictures, or upload them from your camera roll. Type or record a question, and listen for text and audio replies to come rolling in from sighted volunteers over the course of twenty minutes or so. When it shines: for rich detail, diverse opinions, and a nuanced understanding of what different people notice when they look at an image. I use BeSpecular to ask for detailed descriptions of clothing and jewelry, ideas about what to wear with what, guidance in picking the "best" photo from a set, and impressions of photos and objects that are important to me. Once I've heard five or six different takes on the same image and question, I can find the patterns of consensus and divergence among the responses and arrive at my own informed understanding of the image. BeSpecular finds a happy medium between the brevity of TapTapSee and the live connection used by other apps. There's something special about BeSpecular's format of long- form questions and answers. Outside the rhythm of a live conversation, BeSpecular answers almost feel like postcards from a sighted correspondent passing briefly through your life. They're often full of detail, personality, and emotions like surprise and humor. Once, while delayed on a train at Union Station in Washington, DC, I asked BeSpecular to relieve my boredom by describing the scene outside my window. One respondent sent me an audio reply that explained, in a tone that was equal parts delighted and chagrined, that I had unfortunately sent her the most boring view she had ever seen. It was one train car, an empty John Deere forklift, and a cloudy sky. BeMyEyes (free, iOS, with Android reportedly coming soon) How it works: connect to a sighted volunteer who speaks your language and have a conversation about what they see through the lens of your camera. When it shines: for exploring, sorting, and troubleshooting. Every time I arrive at a new hotel, I check in with BeMyEyes to take the decaf coffee pods out of play, sort the identical little bottles in the bathroom, and learn the thermostat and media controls. I also use it to find out which food trucks are parked on the streets near my office, decipher mystery messages on computer screens, and grab what I need from my local bodega. Since BeMyEyes is powered by volunteers, I try to make the interaction upbeat and fun and let the person I'm working with decide whether they'd like to bow out of a long task after a certain amount of time. There are just over a half a million sighted volunteers and about 35,000 blind users currently registered with the service, so you can call as often as you like without fear of bothering the same person over and over. The system will always connect you to someone for whom it is a reasonable hour, so Americans calling late at night or early in the morning will be connected to wide-awake people in Europe and Australia. Since the volunteer base is so large, you're likely to get through to someone quickly even when lots of other blind users are connecting. Aira (iOS and Android, $89 per month and up, available 7 AM - 1 AM Eastern) How to pronounce it: it's a hard I, so pronounce it as "Ira." How it works: use your phone's camera or a Google Glass wearable camera to connect with a live agent. Agents can access the view from your camera, your location on Google Maps, the internet at large, and your "Dashboard," which contains any additional information you'd like placed there. When it shines: for tasks that are long, context-dependent, or complex. An Aira agent can start from any address, use Google Streetview to find a nearby restaurant, glance at online photos to clue you in to whether it's upscale or casual, suggest and explain the best walking directions to get there, read the daily specials when you arrive, and show you where to sign and tip on the check when you're ready to leave. Agents have watched and described completely silent YouTube videos with me so that I could learn origami models, counted heads in my local NFB chapter meeting, described 20 minutes of nothing but socks until I found the perfect sock souvenir, read online guitar tabs for me so I could write them down in my own notation, helped me pick out nail polish, and taken spectacular photos through my camera for my personal and professional social media accounts. Aira agents are great at reading handwriting, diagrams and product manuals that seem to have as many pictures and icons as words. When I can't read something with OCR, Aira can almost always help. Aira agents are paid, trained professionals. Most of them are unflappable, effective describers who are up for any challenge. Since you pay for their time, you should feel comfortable about asking for what you need, being assertive about the type of descriptive language that works for you, and calling whenever the need arises. Like any new technology, remote visual interpretation solves old problems and creates new ones. To use it well, we need to understand what it requires in terms of power, data, planning, and effective communication. We must employ it with sensitivity to our own privacy and to the legitimate concerns that people sharing space with us may have about cameras. Just as each of us makes different decisions about when and how to use a screen reader, the descriptive track of a movie, or a sighted assistant in daily life, each of us will have our own ideas and preferences about how visual interpreters fit into our lives. Blind and sighted people working together are just beginning to discover how to use language, software, and hardware in ways that employ visual interpretation to our best advantage. Collectively, we still have a lot to learn. The journey is long, but the view is phenomenal. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Senator Bernie Sanders stands at a podium with a #RaiseTheWage banner to announce the new bill.] New Bill Seeks to Raise Wages for all Workers, Including those with Disabilities by John Par? From the Editor: John Par? is the executive director of strategic initiatives for the National Federation of the Blind. Although he is responsible for many program activities, he is best known for his focus on government affairs. In this article he tells us about new and exciting developments regarding our quest to see that blind people are paid a fair wage. Here is what he says: On Thursday, May 26, 2017, Senators Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray, and Congressmen Bobby Scott and Keith Ellison introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2017. This legislation would increase the federal minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25 per hour to $15.00 per hour by 2024. While similar legislation has been introduced in the past two Congresses, this version included, for the first time, a provision to end the payment of subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. This is unquestionably due to the tireless and determined advocacy of the National Federation of the Blind. In a press release issued by the National Federation of the Blind on the day of the legislation's introduction, President Riccobono said, "The National Federation of the Blind has advocated for the elimination of the subminimum wage since our founding. The recognition of this issue by leaders in both houses of Congress and both parties confirms that the time has long passed to eliminate the unfair and separate wage system for people with disabilities. Time and time again, we have demonstrated that the idea of people with disabilities being less productive is simply an antiquated misconception that has been allowed to permeate throughout society. This wrong and harmful notion has resulted in multiple generations of disabled Americans being grossly underpaid and overly reliant on government assistance programs to survive. We want to work. We want to rid society of these low expectations. For those reasons, we applaud the promotion of economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities set forth in the bill." The press release further explained that under current law there is no minimum as to how little an employee with disabilities can be paid. Some workers earn merely pennies per hour, wages that were considered below average more than one hundred years ago.[1] Section 6 of the Raise the Wage Act of 2017 would implement an immediate minimum wage of $4.25 per hour for all workers classified under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This absolute minimum wage rate would increase by two dollars per year until it matched the minimum wage earned by the rest of the American workforce, at which point employers would no longer be permitted to pay employees with disabilities a subminimum wage. It is important to note that raising the overall minimum wage is a highly partisan issue. As of the writing of this article, not a single Republican in either the House or the Senate has cosponsored this legislation, making it extremely unlikely that it will ever pass through either chamber of Congress. Furthermore, while the National Federation of the Blind firmly believes that Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act must be phased out, the level at which the federal minimum wage should be set is not a blindness issue. Therefore, we do not take a position on the bill's primary purpose, which is to set a higher minimum wage rate. We can justly celebrate the great progress we have made by getting this issue included in such mainstream legislation. But the best vehicle for phasing out and repealing Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act continues to be the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act, H.R. 1377. The TIME Act is sponsored by Representative Gregg Harper of Mississippi and enjoys solid support from both Republicans and Democrats. While the Federation is certainly gratified by the language included in the Raise the Wage Act, our efforts must remain laser-focused on passing the TIME Act. Therefore, we need to continue to urge our Representatives to cosponsor H.R. 1377. With our trademark love, hope, and determination, we are sure to make subminimum wages for people with disabilities a thing of the past. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kane Brolin] Is Braille on Life Support? by Kane Brolin From the Editor: Kane is the president of our Michiana chapter which encompasses the states of Michigan and Indiana, as one might guess from the name. Kane is a financial analyst and works very hard to see that what is said about blind people and the techniques we use is accurate and reflects the views of the Federation. Here is what he wrote in response to a segment that aired on National Public Radio: It has to be an unnerving experience to learn that some in the press are reporting one's death, even though it hasn't happened yet. "In May 1897, the great American humorist, novelist and social critic Samuel Clemens-best known by his pen name, Mark Twain-was in London. It was one of the stops on a round-the-world speaking tour he'd embarked on in 1895. He hoped to use the fees from speaking engagements to pay off the considerable debts he owed in the United States, due to a series of unsuccessful investments and publishing ventures. ... While Twain was in London, someone started a rumor that he was gravely ill. It was followed by a rumor that he had died. ... It is true that in late May of 1897 the English correspondent for the New York Journal, Frank Marshall White, contacted Twain in London to inquire about his health. ... The next day, White wrote an article that quoted from Twain's letter. On June 2, 1897, the article was published in the New York Journal. It said, in part: Mark Twain was undecided whether to be more amused or annoyed when a Journal representative informed him today of the report in New York that he was dying in poverty in London... The great humorist, while not perhaps very robust, is in the best of health. He said: 'I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about, I have even heard on good authority that I was dead. ... The report of my death was an exaggeration.'"[2] For Mark Twain, premature reports of death were annoying but correctable. But for the Braille code, which has enabled nearly eight generations of blind people around the world to have access to the written word, a consensus opinion about its demise would result in nothing short of tragedy. Unfortunately, multiple reports about the impending death of Braille are issued each year and disseminated by the mainstream media as well as spread across the World Wide Web. We in the National Federation of the Blind must be vigilant to spot and correct them. I found out about one of the more recent mainstream media reports of Braille's doomed future from a friend while he and I were talking in the hallway after the conclusion of a church service a couple of weeks ago. My friend, who is sighted, was telling me about a story that had aired on National Public Radio during his drive home from work a few weeks before. My friend had some questions: "So why are they saying Braille is almost dead, even though I've seen you using it every day? They say it's the young people who don't want it anymore. Is that true?" I found the report my friend had listened to: "As Braille Literacy Declines, Reading Competitions Held To Boost Interest."[3] It was filed by Blake Farmer, news director of NPR affiliate station WPLN of Nashville. The piece went national when producers for the iconic public radio program All Things Considered picked it up and aired it on the evening of March 13, 2017. On first hearing, it seemed to me as though this reporter was defending Braille, even romanticizing it. The setting was the Tennessee School for the Blind, where students at the school were competing for a shot at prizes and nationwide recognition in the Braille Challenge. It is a contest sponsored each year by the Braille Institute of America, a not-for- profit organization based in Los Angeles, California. The atmosphere captured in Mr. Farmer's soundscape was upbeat, as several students were heard clacking away energetically on Perkins Braillers. A retired teacher from the Tennessee School, Joanne Weatherall, even had come back to the school to encourage students to take part in the Braille Challenge and to judge that part of the competition that the Tennessee School was hosting. But then, I took another listen and took more careful note of what some of the participants were saying. Of course, the statistic that "Braille literacy has fallen to about 10 percent for children" was featured front and center. Although this retired teacher Ms. Weatherall is blind herself, and although she remains personally enthusiastic for Braille, she concluded, "The kids are not wanting to do it (Braille) because it takes extra time, and it's harder..." Why is it harder?, she was asked. "The only thing I would think is because kids that start out in school very young learning technology-it's very easy for them," she says. "It's faster than reading and writing in Braille because that can be very slow and cumbersome." So there is a divide between people who use Braille and people who use "technology?" And what exactly is the difference between "Braille literacy" and just plain literacy? "What to do to really get the kids really charged up about Braille, I don't know because many of them hate it, which just makes me crazy," she (Weatherall) says. Even for those Tennessee School students who were competing in the Braille Challenge, this feel-good story expressed doubt as to whether it really mattered. At one point Farmer narrates as follows: "What makes Weatherall grin are Braille lovers like Marcus Johnson, who plans to attend a local university in the fall, though he says Braille will not be particularly useful in his college classes." Farmer never goes on to question the truthfulness of this assertion, but just seems to take it for granted: Braille serves as a nice-to-have tool now that might win Marcus Johnson some limited glory in this year's Braille Challenge if he is fortunate enough to be among the fifty finalists who get to go to LA, but at the end of the day it will prove irrelevant to his life in the real world. The more I reflected on this story, what bothered me most was what it had left unsaid: nothing about electronic, refreshable Braille; nothing about the usefulness of Braille for the expression of math, scientific, or musical notation; nothing about the recent project to keep Braille up-to- date through the widespread adoption of Unified English Braille as a standard; nothing about Braille's application to professional careers in STEM fields; and not even a cursory mention of the National Federation of the Blind or the work the Federation has been doing to qualify and certify new teachers of Braille. Most disturbing of all was this reporter's lack of discernment about the nature of literacy. Without the ability to see well enough to read print efficiently enough to meet the demands of today's world, doesn't a lack of Braille in a blind person's life make him or her illiterate? The question never was asked. So I decided to write to Blake Farmer myself. I did so in an email sent on Monday, May 8, 2017-just one day after listening to his story about the presumed obsolescence of Braille. My appeal was rather quickly written, so I am sure it is imperfect. But I just felt that something needed to be said. When confronted by a world that misunderstands and sometimes even now still ridicules blindness or legitimately proven blindness skills such as Braille, I believe it is imperative that I take a cue from the biblical Apostle Peter and "always be ready to give a defense" for my faith in the proven power and simple elegance of the Braille code. Here is what I wrote: Blake: I am pleased to make your acquaintance, even if just via email. I think your story set in the Tennessee School for the Blind . . . was well- meaning, and I know you made a valiant attempt to be balanced in your approach. But because many persons who occasionally do journalistic coverage of blindness have never knowingly met a blind person prior to their going out on the assignment, I wish to present you and your colleagues with another perspective . . . Having been a lifelong, totally blind person who learned to read at age five or so (in the early 1970s), I feel very strongly that in my own case, if it weren't for Braille, I would be illiterate, regardless of how much I could remember from oral learning. Among the blind who are advanced students or who work in the professional world, Braille is making a comeback-especially as we learn how to utilize it rapidly, digitally, and noiselessly while connected to postmodern, commercial devices like mobile phones and tablets via Bluetooth. After all, it looks a lot more respectable for me to be in a meeting and taking notes in Braille or reading Braille while interacting orally with someone seated in my office than it does for me to have earbuds attached to my head while acting as though I'm listening to my client. But this is not about just me and my own story or conditioned preference. Since I now serve on the board of directors for the Indiana State Affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind, I encounter a lot of situations in which a parent or guardian is referred to me, not knowing what to do after receiving a medical diagnosis saying that his or her child is "visually impaired" or "sight-challenged." What you should know is that, even though your retired (TSB) teacher Joanne Weatherall is excited about kids wanting to learn Braille, this seldom is an opinion shared among newer teachers of the visually impaired who are entering the field today unless those teachers happen to be blind themselves. A lot of the opposition to Braille comes from the sighted professional community tasked to serve the blind as teachers, school administrators, or vocational rehabilitation counselors, because they find it hard to locate individuals qualified to teach or proofread Braille, and they consider Braille expensive to obtain and to store. Even more of a factor than this perceived need for cost containment, though, is the stereotype that blindness is a fate worse than death in the mind of many persons who have never encountered it before, and they are particularly scared if it is their children who must suffer this unthinkable fate. Blindness is so frightening to so many that otherwise rational and well-educated adults when confronted with blindness will freak out and go with whatever the first so-called "professional expert" tells him or her. All too often, that advice sounds like "saving eyesight," "taking advantage of all usable vision the child has left," and trying "not to make him or her look blind." All too often, this well-meaning attempt to help a young student keep fitting in to his or her social environment in the classroom proves ineffective and ultimately harmful to the child's academic achievement and future prospects, and sometimes harmful even to the child's brain health. It is true that, according to statistics published by the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky, only about 10 percent of American blind children learn Braille. It also is true that some people who are blind are also people who hate Braille-because they don't like reading by touch, or because they believe the embossed books are too bulky or heavy to carry around usefully if living a mobile lifestyle, or because diabetic neuropathy in some individuals just makes it next to impossible for them to pick out nuanced shapes with their fingertips. I respect someone's decision not to learn or read Braille if it is a consenting adult who makes that decision for him/herself. Unfortunately, though, the question of defending Braille or heralding its imminent death is one that has been used to divide the blind community, and much of the time it is children who get caught in the crossfire. The National Federation of the Blind, which is the organization I have chosen to represent voluntarily, is a fierce defender of Braille. But other organizations-and quite a few sighted professionals in the fields of educating disabled children and rehabilitating disabled adults-push back against Braille, claiming that synthetic text-to-speech and/or magnifying technology in a digital world is all one really needs. Some make the claim that the NFB's defense of Braille amounts to little more than a branding distinction used to market and fund the National Federation of the Blind. I quite disagree with this cynical and narrow-minded conclusion. So what I wish to do is to present my pro-Braille argument from another angle, drawing from sources outside the Federation. First, I refer you to an article entitled "Is Braille Relevant?" It was posted by a blind working woman named Neva Fairchild; it appears as a blog entry on the website of the American Foundation for the Blind. Of her childhood, Ms. Fairchild writes: "As the print in books that I wanted or needed to read got smaller, my ability to read diminished. By fourth grade, I was listening to Talking Books for pleasure unless I could get my hands on the rare large print book. I was not always able to complete reading assignments in school because the amount I needed to read took too long and caused severe eye strain. Somewhere around eighth grade, I noticed that teachers told us the important content from the textbook during lectures, so finishing my reading was less and less attractive to me. I made passing (although not stellar) grades, and that seemed adequate at the time. I wish that someone had pointed out that I was selling myself short, settling for less, and not living up to my full potential. I also noticed during this time that my spelling ability was declining because the majority of written words that I read were written by me, and therefore, spelled by me. Would you agree that my literacy was suffering?" Note that the writer of this testimonial was not encouraged to read or write Braille in school whatsoever; but she has adopted Braille because she found it essential later in life as a productivity tool in the workforce. And there is a statistical correlation between those who read Braille and the higher likelihood of such persons to gain and keep competitive employment. It's documented in The Impact of Braille Reading Skills on Employment, Income, Education, and Reading Habits by Ruby Ryles, PhD.[4] Blake, you also need to understand the changing face of Braille, one you might not have seen at the Tennessee School for the Blind when profiling those contestants. Braille in the year 2017 is not just about carrying around a bunch of heavy, bound volumes that cost hundreds of dollars and hundreds of human-hours to produce. And it's not about just reproducing rows of dots by punching them mechanically into paper with a hand-held stylus or on a heavy, metal, nine-key manual typewriter. See Braille technology moves into the 21st century, available online from rawstory.com.[5] Anyone who spends time in my office or who attends public events at which I speak-or who even comes into the room where I teach Sunday school at a local church-will observe that most of the Braille I use is refreshable Braille that pops up on a little, one-line, electronic display that literally is small enough to fit into my breast pocket. I can use this both to read output from and to control my laptop, iPad, or iPhone. I even know of a couple of new devices that are stand-alone Braille computers: a fully Braille-enabled Android tablet that can run Google Books, Google Docs, and Google sheets, and can interact with the Internet;[6] and a Windows 10 tablet PC that also is fully empowered to interface with the user via Braille output and input.[7] Both the BrailleNote Touch and the ElBraille described here have synthetic speech built in, but either can be fully operated without synthetic speech, if the user wants Braille only. I don't own either the BrailleNote Touch or the ElBraille, but I could gain access to a unit temporarily and demonstrate their use in public if called on to do it. As for what you can do on paper, a variety of methods are being perfected that will allow for a standard commercial printer to be adapted so it may produce Braille hard copy output using touchable ink, not requiring embossing in the traditional manner and thus being far less expensive and far less labor-intensive than the embossed Braille available from specialized libraries for the blind today. Perhaps the code used for touchable ink printing wouldn't have to be Braille in the strict sense, but the basic principle is the same, and there is the possibility that this would make a gigantic difference as it enables blind people affordably and quickly to reproduce graphical material used in mathematics, science, and even the visual arts, or even to make their own graphs that could be accessed in real time equally well by blind and sighted project collaborators. Some of this R&D is happening in Bangkok, as outlined in a video from the international marketing company J. Walter Thompson.[8] And while on the topic of the sciences, you should know that a blind man named Dr. Timothy Cordes, a board-certified psychiatrist working in Madison, Wisconsin, says Braille played a large role in his passing prerequisite math and science courses as he prepared for medical school. Yes, Dr. Cordes is an MD and PhD who did a full medical residency at the University of Wisconsin.[9] The problem with all this? Electronically produced Braille is still far too expensive for most individuals to afford, especially if they live below the poverty line. But solutions are being worked out: including H.R. 1734 the Access Technology Affordability Act, which has been introduced into the House Ways & Means Committee in the 115th Congress. Last but not least, as my kids love to point out, Braille gives me a hidden advantage in life: being able to read in the dark. As my highly observant, seven-year-old, sighted son Max said one time, "Being blind in the desert wouldn't be hard. All you'd need is food, water, and Braille." I welcome your response. Since writing that letter to Mr. Farmer and a shorter version to the producers of All Things Considered on the same day, no response from anyone in public radio has been received. The battle for Braille continues. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Salisbury] Dirigibles, Blimps, and Looking Around by Justin Salisbury From the Editor: Justin Salisbury is a former scholarship winner who often offers his opinions about issues relevant to the blind and particularly ones involving the adjustment to blindness. Sometimes he reflects on his own adjustment: the denial, the hiding, the frustration, and the stages he has gone through on his way to acceptance. At other times he talks about his hopes and fears for blind people who do not get good adjustment to blindness training. Occasionally he talks about all of these, and in this article he does. Here is what he says about the words that people use, the guesses about their motives and intentions, and the way he should react: While teaching cane travel, I sometimes tell my students to look around and see what they find. One student recently became frustrated with me and said that he cannot see anything with sleep shades on and that looking around is a visual activity. It is entirely possible to argue that our vernacular has commonly evolved so that our concept of experience or awareness has many descriptions involving the sense of sight. We will regularly say that it was good to see someone. It helps to shed some light on the subject. Let us not keep them in the dark about this. If you don't want it to come out in the light, don't do it in the dark. She had been seeing this guy, but she had not foreseen that he was looking for a wife. We use these expressions every day. It is just as possible to argue that these references to the sense of sight reinforce or give rise to a belief that vision is the primary means to do many things. To be honest, I believe that it is the primary means employed by many sighted people. This, by itself, is not harmful in any way that comes to my mind. If they have the sense in its full form, they might as well use it when it is efficient. I worry sometimes that universal access is overlooked because of a lack of expectation that blind people will use a product or service. Someone might think that blind people are not living on their own and watching television on a Thursday evening when an emergency alert flashes across the screen. Since blind people could not be in a position to need equal access to that information, that equal access may not be pursued and created. Thankfully, because of the work of the National Federation of the Blind, equal access is being discussed in productive spaces. Equal access to instructional materials in higher education is a discussion topic only because the organized blind movement decided that separate but equal instruction would not suffice for blind students. We will continue to work to raise the expectations of blind people because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. There is also a problem, though, when blind people come to internalize the idea that visual means of experiencing or doing something is the primary or best way to go about it. I was one of the best disciples of this belief, and I even used to surround myself with other blind people who thought the same way. This way of thinking was so imprisoning. I cannot claim that I am perfectly immune to this belief, but I am grateful to the many blind role models in my more recent years who have taught me that this is not the case. It is easy to slip into a feeling that, when people use vision or eyesight in their daily expressions, they are rubbing our blindness in our face. Maybe they did not mean to do it. If we let that affect us negatively, it dooms us to a sustained onslaught of pain and a long hallway of closing doors. It may not be harmless, but it may not be intentionally harmful. I believe that perhaps the best thing I can do is change the way I look at it when people use these types of expressions. Back to my student's frustrated assertion that looking was a visual activity that could not be done with sleep shades on. I didn't want to get into a deep philosophical discussion about the nature of sight during our travel lesson, but I needed to answer him. And I love that my job requires me to think on my feet and be ready at all times with an answer. My first response to try to change his mind was to ask him, "Do you know what a dirigible is?" He cautiously answered, "A blimp?" "Well," I said, "blimps are only a subset of dirigibles, but they are the only ones that most of us ever discuss. Looking visually is only a subset of looking, but it's the only kind we often consider until we go blind." Maybe I should curtail my speech so that I avoid telling students to look around. Maybe it taunts them with the thought of being asked to do something which they can no longer do. I think, though, that it might be a disservice to my students. Instead of changing my individual speech and hoping that others will follow suit, maybe I should help expand my students' understanding of these expressions so that, when they encounter them, they do not consider them to describe activities outside the domain of blind people. If they do, there is some risk that these thoughts could erode their confidence or feelings of normality. In a long-term way, I want blind people, whether they are my students or not, to be able to truly feel normal, at least as it relates to their blindness. Just because our way of efficiently searching our environment often does not involve eyesight does not segregate us from the standard speech of our society. Even up until I finished college, I used to feel very awkward about my blindness. Carrying a cane was not a completely ridiculous idea, but I was not consistent about it. Daily physical pain from straining my eyes and neck was apparently better than looking weird by using a cane. I would have been using different means of gathering environmental information while traveling, but it would not have made me that different. To be honest, the lack of comfort in my own skin and occasional missteps while traveling without a cane were probably what did the most to make me different. Sometimes, I would be at a party and meet somebody I might like to see again. If I had my cane, it was easy to explain that I wouldn't be able to just spot them across a room and find them again. If I did not have my cane, they were rarely receptive to my explanation that I was actually legally blind and needed a little more than a wave from across the room. I tried to function like a sighted person, but I was no longer a sighted person. I was limited, not by blindness, but by the walls that I was putting up for myself by refusing to function as an independent blind person and by the walls put up for me by not being given good adjustment to blindness training. At work, when I meet a blind person, I am pro-consumer organization, meaning that I encourage them to explore organizations of blind consumers. When I am off the clock, I encourage blind people to take one of the most important steps which I have ever taken in my life, to join the National Federation of the Blind. I have been a member of a few different blind organizations over the course of my life, but the National Federation of the Blind is the one which has taught me the most genuinely empowering things about myself. The Federation has taught me that, if I am abnormal, it is not a direct consequence of blindness. If I cannot do something, aside from seeing clearly, it is not a direct consequence of blindness. Often I need to remind myself or someone else that blimps are only a subset of dirigibles. Through the National Federation of the Blind, I have been blessed to surround myself with good blind role models who have taught me that I can still live the life I want and that blindness is never what holds me back. It is in the Federation where I am constantly re-inoculated against the low expectations and misperceptions in society so that I can keep moving forward on the right path. Without the National Federation of the Blind, I could very easily have relapsed after training and gone back to using my residual sight for just about everything. I do not know of anywhere else that blind people can gain this level of strength and hope, so I point others in as clear a direction as I can. I hope all blind people look around, and I hope we all find the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer] Dots From Space! A Bunch of Cut-ups by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer From the Editor: Since January the Monitor has been running a serialized version of the NFB Quest from the 2016 National Convention. The NFB Quest was designed to be a fun game to break the ice between Federation members meeting in person for the first time and to make Federationists active participants rather than passive observers of the presentations and speeches. This is the final installment of the adventures of the Dots from Space crew, just in time for those Federationists attending the 2017 National Convention to embark upon the new NFB Quest. And now we return to the adventure with Lieutenant-Commander Jot trapped in an ancient device as the crew searches for a way to rescue her: After a fruitless hour spent attempting to extricate Lieutenant- Commander Jot from the ancient device, Captain Dottie called for a new plan of action. "All right, people! This is obviously not working, and there doesn't seem to be anything in this room that can free our shipmate. We need a new plan-and we need one now! Any suggestions?" "Well, Captain, as you say there is nothing in this room, so logically we should begin by searching some of the other rooms." "Excellent suggestion, Doctor Spot," replies Commander Point, stroking his beard meditatively. Squeak, squeak. "Yes, but I don't like the idea of leaving one of our members behind, even in this seemingly abandoned place. Just look what happened when we were all together!" the captain laughs sardonically. At this, Counselor Mote perks up, "I'm happy to stay with her, Captain. You should take the rest of the team on ahead. If anything happens, I'll contact you." "Very well, Counselor," she says. "The rest of you, come with me." Leaving their teammates behind, the rest of the crew begins to search the other areas of the floor, but finds nothing except offices filled with more obsolete technology once used by the previous inhabitants. Undaunted, they decide to expand their search to the floor below them. Reluctant to trust the tiny elevator that they encounter in the hallway, they choose instead to take the stairs. Rounding a bend at the bottom of the steps, they encounter yet another locked door. Still riding high on his boundless enthusiasm, Ensign Bean charges ahead, reaching for the door handle. "Hold it right there, Ensign!" the commander barks. "Charging ahead without waiting for orders is how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place!" "You're quite right, Commander. We should pause and look at the situation logically. What do you suggest we do?" "I think the ensign should be the one to hold this position while we ensure that there are no more surprises in the room beyond." Young Bean, drooping a little, begins to complain, but is brought up short when Captain Dottie nods approvingly and says, "Excellent idea. Make it so!" The junior officer steps forward, with a resigned sigh, and leans into the doorknob. Finding the door to be locked, Bean extends a thin filament into the lock, feeding more of himself in until all the internal nooks and crannies of the mechanism are filled. With a twist, he turns the knob, pulls the door back, and stands aside as the others file past him. Upon entering, they discover another storage room filled with rusty metal shelves. Aging Braille and print documents, covered with a fine layer of cobwebs, still stand in stacked piles on many of the shelves. In other areas of the room the floor has deteriorated and left gaping holes. The sound of dripping water can be heard, and the musty air is humid. "Fan out! You, too, Bean. See if you can find anything useful," Captain Dottie commands. "But be careful! That floor looks unstable!" The Dots search the room in silence, only the creaking of the floor and the rustling of pages marking their passage. "Captain, I believe that I have found something." "What is it, Doctor Spot?" "If I am reading this correctly, there's a tool somewhere in this building that may help us to free Jot." "In this building? How do you know?" Squeak, squeak. "Simple. The author of one of the stories in this small book that I have found-a Dr. Maurer, I believe-mentions a device for cutting wood and other hard surfaces that was stored in what they called 'the Center.' I think that may be one of the names they called this building." "Well, what is this strange device, Doctor?" "I believe it was called... a chainsaw." [Note: Link to or copy of "Children and Chain Saws," by Marc Maurer, To Touch the Untouchable Dream, the Kernel Books, https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/kernel1/kern1503.htm] After searching for a few more minutes, they discover that the shop is next door and contains precisely the tool that they are looking for. Hopeful that this is the solution to their problem, they return to their trapped teammate in the technology room. As they near the open double doors, they hear the soft voice of the counselor say, "Okay, here's another one! Why did the sun go to school?" Silence fills the room. "Oh come on! You know this one. Just take a guess!" In a deadpan voice, Jot says, "I don't know, Mote. Why did the sun go to school?" "To get brighter! Get it? Why aren't you laughing? Isn't that one funny?" Jot sighs gustily. "Okay, try this one for size. How do you organize a space party?" "You planet!" Bean bounces into the room followed by the rest of the team. "You got it!" the counselor exclaims. "Yeah, yeah, Mote. That's great. Captain! Tell me you've found a way to get me out of this thing!" "Yes, Lieutenant-Commander, I believe we have. But it may be dangerous." "That's okay, Captain, I'm ready now!" "What can you tell us about the inner workings of the machine? Are you near the top?" "No, Doctor, I've been trying to work myself free since you left. Most of my body is now wrapped around some of the rollers near the base of the machine. Something is still caught, and I can't get out, but I'm clear of the top third of the box." "Excellent. Brace yourself, Lieutenant-Commander," the doctor instructs her. Stepping forward, he pulls a cord, and the chainsaw splutters to violent life. Laying the edge of the idling blade against the side of the embosser, he waits for the captain's signal. "At your command, Captain." "Engage!" Epilogue: The Return of a "Klassic" Having freed their compatriot and feeling that they have now learned all they could from the long abandoned building, the six Dots (in two columns of three) make their way back to their ship, the Particle, which is still waiting for them on the roof. "I wonder what happened to them all..." "Who, Ensign?" "The people who lived on this planet, Captain, but especially the ones who lived here. With all that we have read about them, I feel almost as if I know them." "We may never know, Ensign, but I remain hopeful that we will find answers elsewhere." Later that week, as the Particle wings away from the lonely planet, Lieutenant-Commander Jot sits in engineering. She is surrounded by mountains of ancient hard drives and other media storage which the crew pulled from what they now called the Center. Grabbing a drive from the top of the nearest stack, she instructs the ship's computer to scan the device. The computer analyzes the contents and informs her that, "83.2 percent of the unique content on this drive refers to something called 'K-N-F-B Reader.'" "Computer, stop!" Jot cries. "I wonder, could it be?" Growing increasingly excited, she peruses the documents on the drive in much greater detail. Finally, several hours later, she calls the captain to report her findings. "Captain, you'll never believe what I have found! I was looking through the data we collected from the aliens at the Center location. I think they may still be out there somewhere!" "What makes you think that, Jot?" "Shortly before they disappeared, they had released a program for scanning and interpreting text that could not be read tactually. They called it K-NFB." "That sounds familiar. Where have I heard that name before, Lieutenant-Commander?" "It should sound familiar, Captain! The new translation devices we recently purchased in the previous sector, which we just so happened to be using while we were exploring that planet, were built by an organization which goes by that name!" "You don't suppose?" "Yes, Captain. I don't know how, but I think they are still out there. Living the lives that they want!" ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: David Andrews] There Is a List for That! by David Andrews This month we will continue our monthly column exploring internet mailing lists with the Golden State-California. The main list for the state of California is NFBC-Info. You can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbc-info_nfbnet.org, or you can also subscribe by sending an email to nfbc-info-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line by itself. The list contains both discussion and announcements related to the NFB of California and its chapters and activities. A number of the chapters in California have their own lists. Below are the list name and a brief description of each. To subscribe substitute the list name in the command above for the nfbc-info phrase. NFBSF: NFB of California San Francisco Chapter list NFB-River-City: NFB of California Sacramento Chapter list NFBC-SFV: NFB of California San Fernando Valley Chapter list Two divisions in California also have their own lists: students and community service. Their list names are CABS-Talk and CACommunity-Service respectively and can be used in the web or email commands mentioned previously. You can also locate all the California lists just by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ and searching for the word "California." Next month we will tell you about guide dog-related lists. As always, you can find all NFBNET.ORG-related lists at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Sheri Wells-Jensen] Anthony Don't: On Blindness and the Portrayal of Marie-Laure in All the Light We Cannot See by Sheri Wells-Jensen From the Editor: Sheri Wells-Jensen is a professor of linguistics at Bowling Green State University. She wrote this book review for Interpoint, the blog of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind. It is gratefully reprinted with the permission of the author and the Lighthouse. Here is what she has to say about the novel: When I think of All the Light We Cannot See, the latest, most popular portrayal of blindness, there are many scenes that run through my head. Here are two, summarized, for your consideration: In 1940, under the imminent threat of German invasion, a middle-aged locksmith and his twelve-year-old blind daughter are fleeing Paris. Everything happens quickly, and their escape is urgent. The locksmith is working furiously, but, short of running her hands over a toy model of the city, the blind daughter does nothing. Her father asks nothing of her except that she use the bathroom, and so she waits, passive as an upholstered chair, while he assembles their possessions, packs their food, then buttons her into her coat, and leads her out the door. Why isn't this adolescent girl participating in her own escape? Four years later, the locksmith is drawing his now-sixteen-year-old daughter a bath, despite the fact that there is a decidedly maternal female character just downstairs. The locksmith washes his daughter's hair, and she is docile as he explains that he is leaving. At the end of the bath he hands her a towel and helps her climb onto the tile. Why is a middle-aged man bathing his sixteen-year-old daughter, even if he does step outside while she puts on her nightgown? Who is this girl? Is she the heroine or the victim of the story? Does she get to be both? This helpless, sexless child is the blind girl who is one of the main characters of Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, a book which first enraged me, then began to haunt me and fill me with a kind of appalled despair. The book has raised neither widespread outrage nor offense in most readers. People love it. It won a Pulitzer [in 2015]. Book clubs are gobbling it up. Every morning, on my way to work, I hear ads for it on my local NPR station. And every morning, I feel the same gut-deep sense of despair, a kind of a mental nausea, as Marie-Laure begins to slide into her place in the public consciousness as a reasonable representation of what it's like to be blind. Marie really doesn't do much for herself in the novel, and when she does, her methods are decidedly strange, the reception she receives even stranger. She doesn't put on her own shoes, button her own coat, or help out around the house. Her ability to find her way around her own neighborhood is constructed and controlled by her father, who builds obsessively detailed models, accurate down to the last park bench, for her to use in navigation. Until the model is complete, she does not leave the house alone. He watches over her as if she were made of spun glass and sugar. When, one evening, she dances in the attic with her agoraphobic uncle, we are told that "her two eyes, which hang unmoving like the egg cases of spiders, seem almost to see into a separate deeper place, a world that consists only of music ... though how she knows what dancing is he can never guess." In case you don't know, not a single blind person I have ever met would count thirty-eight storm drains on a walk downtown. We walk to work, to the bakery, and back home again and manage this without the benefit of a single 3D model of the park benches we pass. We can also tell night from day. We carry our own luggage. We don't need to use a rope tied from the kitchen table to the bathroom to navigate the inside of a house. And all of us know what dancing is. But I am not here to complain about misrepresentations of adaptive techniques or tired blindness stereotypes. I honestly don't care if Marie- Laure counts her steps, reads Braille with her thumbs, hears the ocean from her sixth-floor window, or can detect the scent of cedars from a quarter- mile away. The assault on the dignity of blind people is not that this character has strange adaptive techniques, or even that there are so many things she does not do for herself; it is that she is utterly without agency as a character. Marie does not even pack her clothes, not because she can't find her bedroom or doesn't know her socks from her pantaloons, but because she is simply not expected to do that sort of thing. She's not especially timid or excessively shy. She is, in fact, intelligent and reasonably charming. But she is not the agent of her own life. Isolated, apparently friendless, she is led through her life by the hand and accepts everything that happens to her with dystopian magnanimity. She is moved about, remarked over, and admired, and she spends the majority of the novel in the apparently courageous and all-involving activity of simply staying alive while blind. She expects nothing-not praise, not condemnation, not challenge-and the people around her are glad enough to oblige. Even when she does manage to do something-to cast away a particular gemstone, or run an unsupervised errand downtown for the French Resistance-it changes nothing in her life, except that she eventually asks permission to go to school. Nothing really changes. She resists nothing. She asks for little. She is my nightmare. All the Light We Cannot See is historical fiction, and Mr. Doerr says in his numerous interviews that he did endless research while writing. You can tell he did read about blindness: He read about Jacques Lusseyran, a blind man who took part in the French Resistance in World War II; and apparently also about Geerat Vermeij, a blind evolutionary biologist now at UC Davis. You should take the time to learn about these two men; their stories are about active, joyful, curious, hard-working blind people, quick- witted and ready for a challenge. After reading their memoirs, you might think Mr. Doerr would create an engaged, vibrant main character who is blind. In what feels very much like a betrayal of the lively spirit that inspired and motivated M. Lusseyran and Dr. Vermeij, all Marie inherited from these successful men was a degree of composure and an innocuous predilection for mollusks. Blindness is Mr. Doerr's metaphor. Real living human beings-caring, active, blind human beings who are parents and teachers and artists and scientists-are not relevant in his story. And I can't tell from his prose if he cares about that or not. [Editor's note: Doerr first achieved notoriety with his portrayal of a mythical blind character in "The Shell Collector."] His defenders might object that Mr. Doerr's depiction has nothing to do with modern blind people-he was creating a historically real picture of a young blind girl seventy-five years ago in a European war zone when circumstances were different and women of any sort had less power and less autonomy than we do now. Similarly, you could argue-and friends of mine have-that Mr. Doerr, as an artist, can and should create as his muse prescribes. I'll happily grant that, too. But art, whatever its genesis or intent, flourishes or fails in a social context. We decide-by what we read, what we watch, and what we buy- if the muse is worth it. And the fact that this book and its blind heroine won the Pulitzer says something not just about Mr. Doerr's knack as a storyteller, but also about what sighted people expect from blind people. The fact that most people do not notice any problems at all with the depiction of Marie is sad to me. Many a friend, perhaps in an effort to redeem something from the uncomfortable hour of discussing this book with me, has implored, "Yes, but other than Marie-Laure, didn't you like the book?" I think they must want to preserve something of the glow they felt while reading. It was a pretty story, well told, right? Well, no. Not at all. Asking if I liked the book in spite of the portrayal of the blind character is like asking, "Except for the dog turd, didn't you enjoy that piece of cake?" So why, you might ask, did I read this book? I have started and discarded dozens of books-some slightly better, some worse-because of their depictions of blind characters. It just isn't generally worth my time to read insulting or stupid depictions of blind people. All things being equal, I'd rather clean the catbox. But I made myself finish this one, hoping for some resolution. I kept reading because this one will not quietly go away. I am an associate professor of linguistics in the English Department at Bowling Green State University, where Anthony Doerr received his Master's degree in creative writing in 1999, the year before I arrived on campus. I understand that he was quite well regarded at BGSU, and has since been named among our 100 top alumni. Although we have never met, he is respected by my colleagues and liked by many of my friends. And because of this book, he will most likely return to BGSU someday, probably to give the commencement speech, and then I'll have to decide what to do. (My choices range from confronting him angrily in the East Hall lounge to hiding under my desk for the duration of his stay. Both options have their appeal!) Would meeting a real, competent, employed blind person change his approach to writing blind characters? Would that make a difference? Or are the cultural stereotypes-and the permission to use them-just too powerful? The answers to those questions, although fascinating to me on both a personal and a professional level, don't matter. And my inclination to spit fire or curl up under my desk is not as important as the conversation we, as a society, should be having about what matters to us and how what we see in the media impacts our lives. Art is important. It is an echo of the real world, capturing our perceptions and reflecting them back to us. And what do we discover reflected in the story of Marie-Laure? A well-crafted homage to destructive stereotypes about blindness, softened and made pretty by artful prose. There's nothing pretty about the reality of prejudice, and there's nothing soft about the lives of disabled people who have been taught that they have neither the right nor the power to run their own lives. Art does matter because it not only reflects what we believe, it also helps establish those beliefs. And if an artist is unsure how to authentically portray blind people, then it falls to the community to begin the conversation, because we do not have "eyes like the egg cases of spiders," we can put on our own shoes, and we do, in fact, have reason to know what dancing is. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: With the football stadium behind him, Jonathan Franks shapes his right hand in the "Hook 'em" symbol.] How I Live the Life I Want As a Sports Fan by Jonathan Franks From the Editor: Jonathan Franks is a member of the National Federation of the Blind who lives in Austin, Texas. What he writes about is the simple pleasure of being a sports fan and his fear that the loss of sight would mean losing one of his favorite pastimes. But what makes Jonathan's story interesting is that he is blind, goes to the sports stadium alone, and doesn't think much of it. In the Federation we have plenty of sports fans and plenty of chapters that go to sporting events, but very few blind people who are willing to attend a game alone. Here is Jonathan's story: Since I was four my father has gotten me involved in sports in one way or another. I played soccer for eight years and even won first place on a number of teams. My father and I would go to the park and play football, basketball, baseball, or soccer. I had always wanted to play for the teams at my high school; however, my grades were not up to par. I grew up in San Jose, California, and we would often travel to Oakland or San Francisco to attend the Oakland Athletics or San Francisco Giants games. I have also had the pleasure of attending a New York Yankees game in New York and a Houston Texans game versus the Indianapolis Colts in Houston, Texas. My next goal is to attend a San Antonio Spurs game in the near future. Every Sunday and Monday during the football season, my father and I would watch the games on television. I started to lose my sight in December of 2005, and all of my vision disappeared ironically on White Cane Day, October 15, 2006. This was due to diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. At the time I was very concerned that I would lose my love of sports and particularly my enjoyment of games on television because I could not see. My father convinced me not to give up watching, and he sat with me on Sundays and would describe to me what was happening during the games I chose to watch. In 2007 and 2008 I attended a local training center, where I learned a number of skills that included Braille, screen reading technology, daily living skills, and, perhaps most important of all, orientation and mobility. One of my assignments was to attend a WWE Monday Night Raw event. This is the professional wrestling program that many of you watch on television. At first the tasks seem daunting; however, I was up for the challenge. This really brought to the forefront my concern about not being able to enjoy a sporting event independently. To my surprise I was able to enjoy myself. This was to be the start of something big. Since I have moved to Austin, Texas, I have been a major fan of the Texas Longhorns. For those of you who do not know, the Texas longhorn is the mascot of the University of Texas at Austin. I became a loyal fan when I moved here and even a more ardent fan when the team won the national college championship in 2006. But it wasn't until one day when my father and I went to get some dinner that I found that the Longhorn football games were on the radio. I was amazed by how descriptive the play-by-play announcer was in bringing the game to life. After that experience I decided to abandon television and listen to radio broadcasts. In 2015 I actually met the man who is known as the voice of the Longhorns, Mr. Craig Way. I told him how he had once again brought vitality to the game for me, and I do believe he was flattered. In 2011 my significant other at the time and I bought tickets for a Texas Longhorn football game. I had always wanted to attend one of the games, and in preparation I bought a handheld radio so that I could listen to Craig Way's broadcast. The announcer gave me all the play-by-play action, and I was thoroughly captivated by being able to witness the power, the tradition, and the excitement of being at the game. After that I was hooked. In 2013 I was accepted into the University of Texas at Austin, where I earned my bachelor's degree in social work with a minor in psychology. There was a sports package available to students, and I bought what was called the Big Ticket package. This gave me access to all of the Texas Longhorn sporting events for only $250. While a student I attended as many football, basketball, baseball, soccer, softball, and volleyball games as I could. During the games I was attending I would post on Facebook, and word got around. Many of my friends were simply amazed that I went to the games and asked me how I could enjoy them given that I was blind. I would happily reply, "I have my radio. It costs me a fortune in batteries, but it is worth it." I explained that I follow the crowd noise, and if I am unsure about what is happening, I will ask a fellow fan. The second most frequent question I receive is, "Why do you go to the games alone if you cannot see?" I reply that my blindness does not limit my ability to enjoy the games, and neither does it require that I be accompanied by someone. The event staff will help me locate my seat at the stadium, but by now I have learned the layout and know exactly where to get my food and how to get my ride at the completion of the game. Even after graduating from the University of Texas in 2016, I still continue to attend as many sporting events as time will allow. For the last two years I have purchased alumni football season tickets, and being a loyal sports fan is one of the most exciting things I do. I have been an avid sports fan for nearly twenty-five years now. The National Federation of the Blind says, and I have affirmed through my own experience, that my blindness does not limit what I can enjoy or dictate my life choices. I live the life I want, including enjoying sports, and I hope that my story encourages all of you to do the same. Hook 'em Horns! ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. Invest in Opportunity The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back. A donation to the National Federation of the Blind allows you to invest in a movement that removes the fear from blindness. Your investment is your vote of confidence in the value and capacity of blind people and reflects the high expectations we have for all blind Americans, combating the low expectations that create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. In 2015 the NFB: . Gave away over four thousand long white canes to blind people across the country, empowering them to travel safely and independently throughout their communities. . Produced hands-on educational programming for hundreds of blind children, allowing them to access the essential building blocks for their future. . Provided one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. . Delivered free audio newspaper and magazine services to more than one hundred thousand subscribers, providing access to the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities. Just imagine what we'll do next year, and, with your help, what can be accomplished for years to come. Below are just a few of the many diverse, tax-deductible ways you can lend your support to the National Federation of the Blind. Vehicle Donation Program The NFB now accepts donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call (855) 659-9314 toll-free, and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation-it doesn't have to be working. We can also answer any questions you have. General Donation General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work to help blind people live the lives they want. Donate online with a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit www.nfb.org/make-gift for more information. Bequests Even if you can't afford a gift right now, including the National Federation of the Blind in your will enables you to contribute by expressing your commitment to the organization and promises support for future generations of blind people across the country. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Pre-Authorized Contribution Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring monthly donations by direct withdraw of funds from a checking account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, visit www.nfb.org/make- gift, complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: 2016 NFB Convention Exhibit Hall] Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind individuals. The staff of the NFB Independence Market has been busily gearing up for our national convention, which will be held this year in Orlando, Florida, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort from July 10 through 15. In preparation for the convention we are adding new items to our stock and are updating our catalog. At the convention itself almost all our sales products and much of our free literature will be available in the exhibit hall. Convention attendees will have a chance to examine demo items of our products, including the new ones. Check the convention agenda to learn when the Independence Market will be open in the exhibit hall. We will share information about the new products in later issues of the Braille Monitor. If you would like a sneak peak of what's new, visit the https://nfb.org/convention page and follow the links for the exhibit hall and the Independence Market. Many volunteers will help staff our store at convention to assist with demonstrating products to our customers and processing the resulting purchases. Thank you to all of you who are helping out in some capacity. We would not be able to run the Independence Market at convention without you. We hope to see many of you in Orlando. If you are not able to join us at our convention, check out the Independence Market online or contact us by email or by phone. Please note that the Independence Market operations in Baltimore will be suspended while we are in Orlando. We will not be able to process any online or telephone orders while we are away at convention. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Lauren L. Merryfield] What Do They Say? by Lauren L. Merryfield From the Editor: Lauren Merryfield is a long-time Federationist and intermittent contributor to the Braille Monitor and Future Reflections. Her article "What Color Is the Sun?" was the title article for the first Kernel Book. Her book There's More Than One Way to Be Okay: A Blind Woman's PURRspective On Life is available in audio at www.audible.com. Lauren has served as secretary in several chapters of the NFB. Because she moves around, she has been involved in helping to resurrect or establish several new chapters. She currently lives in Carmichael, California, with her three cats: Maryah (Mariah with a Y), Tobias (Toby), and Lelaynya (Laynie). Lauren is an online pastor and Jesus follower. In addition, she has earned an MSW degree and certification in pet loss and bereavement. She counsels people online and has held pet memorial services using Skype. Lauren does not like getting old but is not ready for the alternative, stating that she would rather be over the hill than under the hill. She says she will never be an "old fogy," intending to remain young at heart. In this article Lauren discusses the almost-universal problem blind people encounter when receiving health care; the staff see our blindness and secondarily the condition we expect them to treat. Although they know quite a lot about their area of expertise, they often know little about how to treat a well-adjusted blind person, and our compromised health can limit our ability to do much to educate them. Here is what Lauren has to say about her recent health experiences: When I was young, I strongly believed that once blind people demonstrated to the sighted world that we could do a thing, we would be believed, and we could live the life we want without constantly having to confront doubt. It is many years later, and I feel quite disappointed that we too often find ourselves dealing with the same issues we did back when we were young. Though the NFB certainly helps the public make progress, there is still a long way to go for some of us. Each time we push the envelope so that we can more readily live the life we want, we help make it better for the next blind person coming along. I might not say much if an incident or set of incidents affected only me, but when I know how they could affect other blind people, I am less likely to be quiet about the situation. A case in point: For the last two years I have had the misfortune of living with what the medical people call "venous insufficiency" in my legs. My legs and feet swell up-at times like balloons-and they occasionally develop wounds and cellulitis. It has been necessary on far too many occasions for me to be hospitalized in order to be given IV antibiotics to combat the cellulitis. Being a patient has been stressful for me, mainly because, overwhelmingly, staff insists that I be treated like a two-year-old just because I am blind. The last two times I was hospitalized, the staff kept repeating, "Now don't get up unless there is someone in the room." One nurse wanted me to pee into pads on the bed. I felt embarrassed about that. She said that if I needed anything from my suitcase, she would get it for me. I, not being the most obedient person to such demands, would sometimes get up on my own to visit the restroom or retrieve an item from my suitcase. I was told later that when I did this sort of thing, a report was written up on me. I was not particularly taken aback by that. However, as one shift followed another and one day and night followed another, I got tired of this treatment. Over and over again I would say that I was ambulatory and that I could find the restroom and my suitcase by myself. However, they kept insisting that I use my call button to have someone else help me with these things. During my second hospitalization, I had three separate roommates who stayed overnight following surgery. In each case not only were these women allowed to get up out of bed; they were practically forced to do so as part of their recovery-quite a contrast from how it was for me. When I would point this out to the on-duty nurse or CNA, I was always confronted with the argument that, "Well, they can see." When it came time for discharge, I was invariably confronted with the argument that "We can't discharge you to go home, living alone blind. That is too much of a risk. You could fall. You can't handle your medications." They rarely asked me if I often fell or if I had difficulty managing my medications; they stated these things as facts. I would correct them at every possible opportunity, but it was like they just did not hear me. When I would finally make it home, without falling and without having any problems with my medications, I would be barraged by the home health care nurses who continued the same litany. About a week ago a social worker visited me. Although I have a master's in social work myself, I still tread on thin ice when a social worker comes to visit me. I never know which side of the fear-mongering they will be on. The latest visitor had heard from the home health care nurse that it was dangerous for me to live alone because I could fall, the reason being that I have quite a lot of stuff in my apartment. She also informed the social worker that I had difficulty with my medications because I couldn't tell them apart and could take the wrong ones. The nurse had written in print the names of my medications on the top of the bead box that I keep them in. The social worker laughed, stating that this was not exactly helpful to me. I said that if I needed to write them down, I could put Braille labels on the top of the bead box; however, I was the one who placed each medication into each receptacle, so I knew where my medications were located. I further was aware by the shape of the pills which one was which. For me there was really no problem. The social worker asked me when last I fell. It had been a year ago when my office chair dumped me out- forward. It had absolutely nothing to do with blindness, and I was not hurt. We decided that since I was not constantly falling due to blindness and was not having difficulties with my medications because I am blind, that she would report to the nurse-what do they say?-if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have subsequently filed a complaint with the hospital because it is obvious that its staff is not trained in how to treat blind people. It has been suggested that the floor on which I was a patient and could be again will undergo training. I suggested that, while they were at it, it might be a good idea to train all of the units in the proper way to treat blind patients. I am hoping that this will be accomplished soon. Before Easter I was quite insistent about my discharge from the hospital. My doctor understood my strong desire to be home with my cats, plus my desire to attend my church. She was able to make arrangements for me to have IV antibiotics only once a day as an outpatient. This arrangement meant that I could not leave town for Easter; however, I was able to attend church and experience the freedom of being at home. I am hoping that this kind of arrangement can be made again if or when I am dealing with another bout of cellulitis. Ironically, in the place I live, I am on the independent living side so that getting help is not all that easy. Therefore I am not smothered, and the staff is aware that I come and go on my own. This is quite a contrast from my hospital experiences. I realize that the hospital staff believe they are protecting themselves from liability. The problem is that there is no evidence that blind people fall more often than sighted folks or that they mess up on their medications more than sighted patients do. So, as far as I am concerned, they are barking up the wrong tree. I am further aware that many of the blind patients with which the staff interacts are people who are in the process of losing their vision or who are newly-blind. When they are met with someone like me, blind since birth, they see me through the lens of someone newly-blind, which is quite inappropriate. Fortunately I have not had as much trouble as an outpatient. In the infusion clinic I was just another patient who was a hard stick who needed IV medication. I am hoping and praying that this will be the route I go for any further IV treatment. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] Editor's Introduction to Celebrate by Marc Maurer From the Editor: As President Riccobono has noted on his monthly presidential release and in the President's Notebook, we are making a significant effort to distribute the Kernel Books published by the National Federation of the Blind. These books provide wonderful messages to the public about what it really means to be blind and are ideal when local chapters and state affiliates do public events and offer our literature. This month we will republish several articles that come from one of these books, its title being Celebrate. What follows is the introduction that Immediate Past President Maurer wrote, along with two articles from it. Here's what he says: Just a few months ago we in the National Federation of the Blind celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute-the magnificent research and training facility which you, the readers of this Kernel Book Series, have helped us to create and build. Indeed, as I write the introduction to this twenty- eighth book in the Kernel Book Series, I take great pleasure in the knowledge that we have much to celebrate, and I am keenly aware of the part you have played in making this so. It has now been fourteen years since we published the first Kernel Book, and six million of them have been circulated. As we add this new volume, Celebrate, to the Kernel Book collection, I want to tell you that the progress we have made together in those years-in understanding, partnership, and increased opportunity-has been a joy and a wonder to me personally and to the tens of thousands of blind men, women, and children who make up the National Federation of the Blind. We give you our thanks and our gratitude for your continuing care and concern. As I have said repeatedly in the pages of the Kernel Books, understanding blindness is more a matter of understanding what it is not rather than what it is. It is not lack of capacity to live a life filled with adventure. I tell you more about that in my story about "The Airplane, the Cobra, and the Lighthouse." As John Par? will tell you, it is not lack of capacity to ride a unicycle. Nor is it the inability to tour Greece and visit the Parthenon, direct a children's playground, serve as foreman of a jury, rake the leaves in your yard, teach your daughter to ride a bicycle, have a passion for astronomy, or cut your five-year-old niece's pancakes. So, if blindness is not these things, what is it? To state the obvious, it is lack of physical eyesight. But more important than that, is what all of us-blind and sighted alike-think about not being able to see. For it is only what we believe about blindness that can make it the tragedy that it sometimes becomes. But the theme of this book is not tragedy, but celebration. The blind men and women you will meet in these pages are not filled with doom and gloom. They are filled with hope and belief. We Celebrate the progress we are making toward the day when blindness does not limit our opportunities. We Celebrate the power of partnership with ever-growing numbers of Kernel Book readers and others in the general public who are joining with us in our work. We Celebrate the goodness of life and invite you to join with us to make it even better. ---------- Swabbing the Deck by Mary Ann Lareau From the Editor: Here is how this story was introduced when it appeared in the Kernel Book Celebrate: Mary Ann Lareau is an officer in the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts and is president of the Suburban West Chapter-one of our newest local chapters in Massachusetts. She is the mother of two daughters and is active in her community. On a daily basis she works to change what it means to be blind. In "Swabbing the Deck," she relates a simple incident that opened the heart and mind of a stern Navy captain. Here is what she has to say: In the summer of 1980 I was the mother of two daughters, ages eleven and thirteen. I was appointed the first director of a new neighborhood playground. Being the president of the playground board, I wanted this new park to be a success. We didn't have the funds to pay a highly trained director, so we decided to run the playground ourselves. Since I was a Campfire Girls' leader of three troops, I was urged to take charge of the task. We were supported by the city with a lunch program site, a few paid teen-aged staff members, a twice-a-week swimming program, some arts and craft supplies, and three trips with busses to transport the kids away from the city. The youngsters all seemed to have great fun each day. The arts and crafts program was my primary function on a daily basis. Many of the items we produced were made from materials that you could find around the house such as milk cartons, egg cartons, coffee cans, popsicle sticks, etc. Numerous things were assembled: sit-upons, trinket boxes, drums, birdcages, and much more. The final trip of the summer was scheduled for Battleship Cove at Fall River, Massachusetts, where there are two historic ships-the U.S.S. Massachusetts and P.T. 109. The latter vessel was made famous during World War II by the courageous feats of John F. Kennedy. The kids were excited for the final trip of the season. Three busses were loaded with lunches, kids, parents, and staff. The usual singing and jokes amused all during the hour ride to the Cove. Upon arrival the rules for good conduct were again given just to remind the kids of what they could and could not do. We all decided to tour the P.T. 109 and were to assemble in the mess hall at 11:30 for lunch. All parents and staff members had assigned numbers of kids for which they were responsible. I supervised four youngsters, because it was my responsibility to ensure that all went along smoothly. My oldest daughter and I were having fun lifting my guide dog, Koko, a forty-two-pound silver shepherd, up and down the ladders of the P.T. boat. My daughter would climb the ladder; I would pass the dog up to her and then climb up after. Koko was a lot of help because some of the passages had low entrances, and sometimes there were huge, unexpected steps. As lunchtime approached we all made our way to the mess hall. The box lunches were passed out, and all the kids were starting to eat when the captain made his first appearance. He inspected the scene and immediately came over to me. "I need to have a word with you," he declared in a firm tone. "I must ask you to leave this ship." I was very surprised and asked, "Why?" He replied, "Because of safety considerations we do not allow blind persons aboard." I struggled very hard to contain my initial anger but eventually informed the captain that I was the person in charge of the three busloads of children that were thoroughly enjoying their field trip to see the historic vessel so closely associated with the memories of the late President Kennedy. I made it clear that if I were being ejected from the ship, the entire group would have to join me. Just at that moment there was a great deal of noise behind us. Spinning around rapidly, I shouted out, "Peter and John-stop it at once!" As a milk carton came whizzing by my head, I shouted to those responsible for the disturbance that they would be responsible for the cleanup of the mess hall. We were not leaving until the area was as clean as it had been upon our arrival. I asked the captain if his men could provide the boys with the necessary equipment to clean up the hall. The captain kindly offered to have the mess cleaned up, but I insisted it was the responsibility of our youths to do so. He seemed rather impressed with this response and began conversing in a much more pleasant tone: "How did you know which youngsters were causing the problem?" I explained, "I know the kids by their rather distinctive voices, and I can generally assume which ones are causing the trouble." After the lunchroom was all cleaned up, and all the mess was taken care of, we all finished touring the ship and spent money in the gift shop. Just as we were about to depart the captain came over to say, "Blindness does not seem to be as much of a handicap as I believed it to be." "No," I replied, "but sometimes it is a nuisance." ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: James Gashel] Here's the Proof by James Gashel From the Editor: This is how this story was originally introduced in the Kernel Book Celebrate: James Gashel lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been a leader in the National Federation of the Blind for more than three decades and in that time has seen marked progress in the way blind people are perceived by members of the general public, and his story is one that relates that advancement. Here is what he has to say: I have been blind all my life, and I grew up in Iowa where Dr. Kenneth Jernigan was my teacher on matters dealing with blindness and life in general. He taught us that it is respectable to be blind. This is the most important lesson I ever learned. Knowing that blindness is respectable leads to self-confidence. I still see blind people holding back on trying things they could do if they only had the confidence to try. More than loss of eyesight, this is the real problem of blindness. Dr. Jernigan taught us this too. During the time I was in college in Iowa and starting to think about such things, I knew blind people who were told they couldn't take certain classes or be hired for certain jobs, for example as teachers. I knew this was wrong, and this is why I joined the National Federation of the Blind. I learned that a form of discrimination occurs when blind people are denied jobs or other opportunities based on misconceptions. Not all denials are discrimination, such as refusing to issue a blind person a driver's license. Denials based on incorrect facts or false reasoning are discrimination, but are almost never mean-spirited as we sometimes think of with racial or ethnic prejudice. Still, even if kindness is the reason, blind people do face discrimination in the form of exclusion from opportunities. In the National Federation of the Blind we share stories with one another about the successes we have and the barriers we still face. This is how I first learned that blind people were being excluded from jury service. I knew that blind people were working as lawyers, so I couldn't figure out why we couldn't serve on juries. Who would think that the legal system would discriminate against blind people? None of this seemed right, and it wasn't right. I wondered what would happen if I was called to serve. On whom can you count for justice when the law enforcer has already made up his mind against you? Many years went by, and I was never called for jury duty. Then it happened. I now live in Baltimore, Maryland, where the circuit court has a "one trial or one day" rule. This results in being called for jury duty as often as once a year and certainly within two years, but many more people are called than actually serve on a jury. The first time I was called the day was uneventful, but the second time was different. My summons number was 14, so if a judge needed a jury, I was certain to be in the group called for screening. In fact, this is exactly what happened as soon as we had received the general "pep-talk" about the importance of jury service. The announcement made by a court official instructed anyone with a number between 1 and 100 to report to one of the courtrooms in the building across the street. Using a long white cane, which I do, no one could miss that I am blind, but nobody mentioned it either. So, off to the courtroom I went where the judge told us the procedures and started asking questions to select the jury. This was a civil dispute. The plaintiff was an older gentleman, and the defendant was a young man in his early 20's. These two had been involved in a traffic accident, and the issue was over who caused it and who would pay. According to the instructions we were supposed to stand up if we had to answer "no" to any of the questions. I kept my seat since I had no reason to give a "no" answer. Then the judge started calling numbers, and what do you know, number 14 was the very first one called. When I rose, white cane in hand, the judge told me to take the first chair in the jury box. Actually, I had no idea where the jury box was, let alone the first chair, but I walked confidently toward the bench to an area where I assumed the jury would have to be seated to view the attorneys, the witnesses, and the judge. With two rows of chairs there, it turned out that I was right. I proceeded to the first chair at the end closest to the judge in the front row, figuring that this was the one intended for me. This view was confirmed too when the judge called the next juror's number as I confidently took my seat. Finally we were all seated, and the trial commenced. At noon we took a break, and a court employee escorted all of the jurors to a room where we were told to reassemble after lunch, after which we were dismissed for lunch on our own. I'm not sure when we were told that the juror in the first chair is the foreman, but I remember feeling a great sense of responsibility as I left the courthouse for lunch. Here I was, the foreman of a jury at the Circuit Court in Baltimore. Some time after 1:00 p.m., when everyone was back, the trial resumed. We listened to testimony for the next two and a half hours, nothing like the O. J. Simpson trial that lasted several months. Anyway, the judge started to read instructions to us at about 3:30 p.m., and we filed back to the jury room to deliberate. It was close to 4:00 p.m. The judge's instructions included three or four questions that we were specifically directed to answer. I wrote these questions down on a Braille device I use, and read my Braille notes to direct the jury. The crux of the case was who caused the accident? Did the older gentlemen fail to see the car driven by the younger man before he pulled out, or was the younger driver speeding out-of-control as the older gentleman alleged? All of the sympathies were with the plaintiff (the older gentleman) who had been seriously injured in the accident, but my responsibility was to lead the jury to evaluate the proof. With four years of intercollegiate debating and subsequent work as a high school forensics coach, I was probably the best-qualified person in the room to explain the burden of proof to the others. Emotions were running high as we argued the merits of each side, but no one mentioned that I am blind and cannot drive a car. If they had, I would have argued that this would leave me free from preconceptions that drivers might have in evaluating the facts of this case. Knowing about evaluation of evidence and burden of proof were more important in that setting than knowing about driving, so no one challenged me on that point. Anyway, when all was said and done, the jury reached a unanimous vote that the plaintiff had not established the defendant's fault. I directed another juror to complete the printed form for the judge, and we returned to announce the verdict. The day was almost over. It was now my responsibility to speak for the jury to confirm the decision, which I did. At that point we received the judge's thanks, and the trial was over. As I left the courthouse it struck me, blindness had not come up all day. I had gone to the bar of justice and been treated as a first-class citizen. There was no need to argue or persuade anyone that as a blind person I could still judge the facts of a traffic accident. No one seemed to doubt my ability. The message of the National Federation of the Blind is really getting through. Here's the proof: there was no discrimination at the courthouse. ---------- Recipes This month's recipes come courtesy of the National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii. [PHOTO CAPTION: Kyle Sabrina Laconsay] Pineapple-Coconut Scones by Kyle Sabrina Laconsay Kyle is the affiliate treasurer of the NFB of Hawaii, and the personal home management instructor at Ho'opono, the only Structured Discovery center in Hawaii. A past pastry chef at Alan Wong's Restaurant in Honolulu, she still loves to bake at home and at work, teaching the New Visions students. Ingredients: 2-1/2 cups of Bisquick flour 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup whipping cream 1/2 cup coconut flakes 1 can pineapple tidbits, drained Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place flour into a large bowl and using a butter knife or pastry cutter, cut butter into flour until the mixture becomes like large pebbles. Add sugar, then whipping cream. Knead dough until a ball forms in bowl. Fold in coconut flakes and pineapple tidbits-mix in well. The mixture should still be a little crumbly. Transfer dough onto a marble slab or cutting board, and shape it into a flat circle, using a light pressure with your hands or a rolling pin. With a dough cutter or long knife, cut circle into eight pieces. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place scones evenly on top of pan. Bake at 425 degrees for twelve to fourteen minutes. Meanwhile, make icing. Icing Ingredients: 1 cup powdered sugar Juice from 1/2 lemon Method: Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice. Add just enough juice to make the icing smooth and silky, not too runny. If icing is too sweet, add more lemon juice, or if too tart, add more powdered sugar. Using a fork, dip into the icing and sprinkle over scones when just taken out of oven. Enjoy! Aloha! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Debbie Gabe] Kale with Raisins and Nuts by Debbie Gabe Debbie has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind Hawaii Affiliate since 2006. She originally joined the Honolulu Chapter but currently participates with the Anuenue Chapter (anuenue means rainbow in Hawaiian.) She was born in Hawaii, was raised part in Honolulu and part on the Mainland, and then returned to Honolulu in 1980. She's been married for 34 years and has two grown daughters. She worked for thirty-five years as an audiologist, the last twenty-six years working with deaf infants and children. In 2006, she went through Ho'opono Services for the Blind New Visions Program to learn blindness skills, after not acknowledging her retinitis pigmentosa for thirty years. While she was a student there she attended her first NFB National Convention. She was so inspired and moved by what she learned and witnessed that she decided to change careers at the age of fifty-six. She retired early from her audiology job and took a job teaching cooking and home management with Ho'opono in 2007. Two years ago she switched to the Braille instructor position. About this recipe she says, "This recipe is husband-tested. It's the only way I can get my husband to eat kale." Ingredients: 2 cups chopped fresh kale 1 big handful of raw walnuts, chopped (you can use any other nut you like) 1 small handful of raisins, my favorite is golden. Or you can substitute any other dried fruit, chopped if pieces are large. Method: In a skillet on medium heat, lightly roast the nuts with a tiny bit of oil of your preference. Cook until you smell the nuts. Add the raisins and saut? for a few minutes until soft and plump. Add the washed, chopped fresh kale and turn off the heat. Saut? until kale is just beginning to soften. Do not overcook the kale. Combine everything in a bowl and add the dressing of your choice. I have found the best dressing is a very light one. I make a dressing with a little bit of rice vinegar, a little bit of roasted sesame oil, and a small pinch of salt and pepper. ---------- Blueberry Wild Rice by Justin Salisbury Justin Salisbury is a mobility instructor at Ho'opono Services for the Blind. He's an active member of the National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii, thriving after transplanting from the East Coast. So, mixing in with recipes that showcase the tropical tastes of coconut and pineapple is a traditional food of the Algonquian-speaking indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and northeast region. Ingredients: 1 cup wild rice 1 cup blueberries 3 cups water Method: Put all ingredients in a saucepan. Boil on high heat. When the mixture starts to thicken, reduce heat to medium-low to finish cooking. Serve hot or cold. This dish is a great summertime breakfast but can be eaten at any time of day. It can be enhanced by adding honey, maple syrup, pecans, walnuts, or using a different type of berries. If you use a wild rice blend including conventional rice, use less water proportionately. ---------- Shoyu Chicken by Debbie Gabe Debbie says, "This is another of my favorites that I don't eat very often anymore. But I continue to make it for my family and guests. Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce." Ingredients: 5 pounds chicken pieces (can be thighs or breast meat, cut into large bite- size pieces) 1/2 cup shoyu 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar is best, but white sugar and even coconut sugar works fine 1 1-inch piece of ginger, grated 1 clove garlic, minced Green onions 1 tablespoon sesame oil Method: Put everything into a pot with a 1/2 cup of water. Bring it to a boil, and then immediately turn down the heat to low. Simmer for about forty-five minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how much chicken you are cooking and how big the pieces are. Every once in a while, stir the pot so that all the pieces of chicken get all the flavors. Serve with rice. ---------- Pineapple-Carrot Cake by Kyle Sabrina Laconsay Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups grated carrots (about 7 medium-size carrots) 1 cup diced canned pineapple Zest of one orange Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a thirteen-by-nine-inch cake pan. In a medium-size bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Zest one orange and set aside. In a small bowl, pour pineapple out of can and drain juice. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and sugar. Add orange zest to egg mixture. Fold in flour mixture, about one cup at a time, thoroughly mixing after each addition. Add carrots and pineapple and mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake cake at 350 degrees for approximately forty-five minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before icing. Icing Ingredients: 1 8-ounce block cream cheese at room temperature 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted Zest of one orange Method: Zest one orange and set aside. Insert paddle in electric stand-up mixer. In the mixer's bowl, cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix well until smooth. Add orange zest and vanilla. Cream all together until smooth and silky. Ice cake and enjoy! Aloha! ---------- Chocolate Haupia Pie by Debbie Gabe She introduced this recipe saying, "This is a recipe that I don't eat often, but it is my favorite. It's an easy recipe even though it seems to have a lot of steps. Haupia is the Hawaiian word for coconut pudding." Ingredients: 1 9-inch prepared pie crust 1 can coconut milk 1-1/4 cup sugar or you may substitute coconut sugar 1 cup whole milk, but you can use skim or low fat milk, or non-dairy milk such as almond milk 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 cup water 7 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips or pieces 1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, or you can substitute non-dairy whipping cream Shaved chocolate for garnish Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake prepared pie crust until golden brown, about fifteen to twenty minutes. In a sauce pan, whip together coconut milk, one cup sugar, and milk. In a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch and cup of water. Bring the milk mixture to a boil in the sauce pan. Reduce to a simmer and whisk in the cornstarch mixture until thickened. You need to keep whisking constantly until it thickens to prevent any lumps from forming. Microwave the chocolate pieces or chips for thirty to sixty seconds until melted. Pour half of the haupia mixture into a bowl and set aside. Mix the chocolate with half of the thickened haupia and pour into the cooled pie crust. Layer the remaining haupia on top. You can use the back of a spoon to evenly pour it out. Cool the pie in the fridge for a minimum of one hour. Using a mixer, whip heavy whipping cream with the 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Garnish the pie with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Chill for another hour. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Daniel Goldstein Receives Lifetime Achievement Award: The Daily Record is an old and respected Maryland newspaper that launched the Lifetime Achievement category for the 2016 Leadership in Law program. This award recognizes an attorney or judge whose body of work over their career makes them stand out. This person should be well respected in their profession, active in their community, and dedicated to growing the next generation of legal leaders. The Lifetime Achievement award honoree each year will be selected by the Leadership in Law judging panel, comprised of past winners. One of the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award this year was Daniel Goldstein of Brown, Goldstein & Levy. The following is the profile the Daily Record published on May 16, 2017, about him: Most people take for granted the privilege to browse the web, read books, and make use of everyday items such as ATMs. However, those everyday tasks can be hard to accomplish for the blind, and Daniel Goldstein has dedicated his career to making access to these kinds of public resources more equitable. Take for example the case Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, which Goldstein considers the most important of his career. "The case arose from the Authors Guild's challenge to a number of universities who had allowed Google to digitally scan their entire print library collections and, in exchange, [gotten] back a digital copy of those scans," Goldstein said. "The court held that it was a fair use to allow unfettered access to the digital scans of these copyrighted works to blind and other print- disabled scholars." (In addition to blindness, other conditions that can make it hard to access printed text include dyslexia, arthritis, and cerebral palsy, among others.) The ruling also allowed non-disabled scholars to search and compile data based on the scans, Goldstein said. This created a compelling incentive for more collections to be scanned in the future, "thereby incidentally throwing open still wider the doors for those with print disabilities," he said. As counsel for the National Federation of the Blind, Goldstein initiated a national legal campaign to ensure equal access to technology. "Today, most ATMs can be used through voice guidance and a pair of earphones by blind consumers, because, in part, of a series of pioneering lawsuits," he said. "We have made the internet a more blind-friendly place, with successful resolutions with AOL, Amazon, Target, eBay, Ticketmaster, Scribd and many others." Goldstein has also been instrumental in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education that requires the online forms and notices associated with the student loan program to be equally accessible to blind students and in litigation to ensure blind people are granted the right to vote independently and privately. What is a key decision you made in your career that made the difference? "It was not a decision that I made that changed the course of my legal career. It was the decision made by the National Federation of the Blind to engage me as their lawyer that refocused my career and led to thirty years of exciting and meaningful work that brings me joy every day. Having learned so much from my mentors in the National Federation of the Blind and having been so supported by my friends in the blind community, I thank them for the extraordinary honor of representing them." Elected: On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, the Yellowstone County Chapter of the NFB of Montana held elections. The results are as follows: president, Jeff Haworth; vice president, Kristin Byram; secretary, Clayton Kuntz; and treasurer, Pam Haworth. NFB of Missouri Steps up to the Challenge: Members of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri are currently participating in the fifth iteration of the National Fitness Challenge (NFC), sponsored by the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Anthem Foundation. The challenge started in March and runs through the end of November. Twenty- five members of the NFB of Missouri were given a Fitbit Flex 2 and agreed to achieving various goals including walking at least ten thousand steps a day and being physically active for at least thirty minutes every day. The NFB of Missouri is one of thirteen organizations nationwide participating in the challenge and the only blind consumer organization. The first full month of the challenge was April, during which the NFB of Missouri had the third highest number of steps. Though this is certainly a good beginning, members of the National Fitness Challenge in Missouri are encouraging each other and pushing their own personal limits with the aim of ultimately winning the challenge. In addition to the personal daily goals, the affiliate agreed that members of the NFC would participate in an organized 5k run. To fulfill this pledge, NFC members from across Missouri were in St. Louis on May 7 to run and walk to benefit the Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments. This was the twenty-fifth annual fundraiser for the group, and the weather couldn't have been better. As a part of our participation, the affiliate will sponsor a Paralympic Day and will hold regular meetings to support and encourage all of our participants. Besides the obvious health benefits for those involved, the NFB's participation in this event shows both sighted and blind people alike that blindness does not hold us back from being physically active, something which is crucial if we are to live the lives we want. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. New Titles for our Children: Seedlings adds three brand-new titles in UEB to its big-kid book collection! Seedlings Braille Books for Children has just added three new titles to its all-Braille collection for independent readers: A to Z Mysteries: The Kidnapped King by Ron Roy, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, and Magic Tree House 48: A Perfect Time for Pandas by Mary Pope Osborne. All are in contracted UEB! Seedlings has also made two more of its big-kid books available in UEB: Holes by Louis Sachar and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. That brings to sixty the number of big-kid books Seedlings offers in contracted UEB! Order today at http://www.seedlings.org/browse.php?cat=12 Seedlings' nearly 300 print-and-Braille books for babies and toddlers and beginning readers are already in UEB. Order at http://www.seedlings.org/order.php Monitor Mart The notices in this section have been edited for clarity, but we can pass along only the information we were given. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the statements made or the quality of the products for sale. En-Vision America: En-Vision America is a pioneer in the assistive technology industry offering accessible products for the visually impaired and blind. En-Vision is the inventor of the ID Mate talking bar code scanner; Galaxy is the latest version which has a brand-new price check feature. We also offer accessible prescription labels through participating pharmacies. Formats include ScripTalk audible labels and prescription readers, large print labels, and Braille labels. These labels are available in seventeen languages. En-Vision America has partnered with pharmacies across the US and Canada, absorbing the cost of accessible labels so that the service is free. We are very excited to be able to offer this service to those who need it most. We strongly believe our product enhances the quality of life for blind and visually impaired people, and it is our great pleasure to be part of that process. For more information contact us at https://www.envisionamerica.com/ or call us at (309) 452-3088. You Sit, I Get: At our national convention do you ever find yourself resting in your room and decide you want some ice cream from downstairs? Do you want something from the gift shop but hate the thought of putting your shoes back on to get it? If you have cash for your item, for a $3 get-and-deliver charge, you've got it. The Grab It Guy is your man! To use my service simply send a text message to (573) 355-0907 or call at this number. My name is Ethan, and I'll be glad to help in any way I can. My goal is a new guitar, so text or call, and I'll do my best to help. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. ----------------------- [1] Bureau of Labor Statistics. February 2016. Monthly Labor Review. "The life of American workers in 1915." [2] Taken from This Day In Quotes for the entry posted for May 31, 2015. [3] For an audio archive and full transcript, visit http://www.npr.org/2017/03/13/519983877/as-braille-literacy-declines- reading-competitions-held-to-boost-interest. [4] Excerpted at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm98/bm980204.htm [5] See http://www.rawstory.com/2014/06/braille-technology-moves-into-the- 21st-century/. [6] http://www.rawstory.com/2014/06/braille-technology-moves-into-the-21st- century/ [7] http://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/Blindness/ElBraille [8] https://www.jwt.com/en/bangkok/work/touchableink/. [9] For a transcript of an explanatory talk Tim Cordes gave about his medical school experience, see https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm10/bm1010/bm101008.htm. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Fri Aug 11 12:46:33 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:46:33 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] Email survey Message-ID: <201708111946.v7BJkXev005200@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> [National Federation of the Blind] I write this letter to those of you who receive the Braille Monitor through email. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below and send your responses back to me using the address gwunder at nfb.org and using the subject Email survey When you receive the Braille Monitor in this format, do you read it from the email or does the email prompt you to go to the web or start looking for your hardcopy version in the mail? If you are one of those people who read the Braille Monitor cover to cover, it is likely that you cannot do so in one sitting. When you stop reading, how do you mark the place where you wish to start again? Because we present the Braille Monitor to you as one document, are you likely to read the first few articles, stop reading, and perhaps ignore articles which come later because it is too hard to navigate back to them? If you do not read the Braille Monitor from cover to cover but wish to go to a given article, how do you do that using the email version? Do you have any comments to make about the email version of this magazine that we did not ask about here? Thank you for taking the time to respond. We will do our best to make this the best publication we can and to make it as enjoyable to read as possible. Disclaimer The information contained in this communication from the sender is confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Wed Sep 6 22:41:29 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2017 22:41:29 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, August/September, 2017 Message-ID: <201709070541.v875fTxX021199@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 8 August/September 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE(R) information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. 2057400000 Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND -- IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 (C) 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots -- the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. Vol. 60, No. 8 August/September 2017 Contents Illustration: Strutting Their Stuff The 2017 Convention Roundup by Gary Wunder Presidential Report 2017 by Mark Riccobono A Word of Thanks for Our Scholarship Partners by Patti Chang Meet the 2017 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Class Innovation, Blindness and the Emerging Pattern of Thought by Mark Riccobono Leadership in Literacy: How Do We Know What We Do Not Know? by Marc Maurer Transforming Dreams into Reality: The Fulfillment of One Blind Man's Mission by Ron Gardner Transforming Hope into Action: A Report from the World Blind Union by Fredric Schroeder Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Passing the ADA Education and Reform Act Would Be a Step Backwards for Equality and Justice by Mark Riccobono Awards Presented at the 2017 National Convention Strengthening the Federation's Heartbeat Through Resolutions National Federation of the Blind Resolutions for 2017 Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action Lawsuit Convention Miniatures Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Allyssa Hillier] [PHOTO CAPTION: Oriana Riccobono] [PHOTO CAPTION: Abby Duffy] [PHOTO CAPTION: Rudifer Frausto] [PHOTO CAPTION: Jarrison Gray] Strutting Their Stuff Definitions of beauty can vary widely based on culture, age, and a host of other societal influences. Living up to those definitions can be difficult enough on the best day. When you add in the pressures telling blind people that they are broken, defective, or otherwise flawed, it can become nearly impossible to recognize our own beauty. The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children works hard to help parents as they do whatever they can to see their children mature into competent and confident adults. The style show is but one of many activities to assist in this process, but oh what an event it is. Young blind people from preschool to high school can participate, giving them an opportunity to strut their stuff and show that blind is beautiful. One of our youngest models this year was Allyssa Hillier. This poised Federationist looked every inch the princess with her white cane in hand as she smiled brightly for the camera. President Riccobono's daughter Oriana charmed the crowd in her pink floral dress. Abby Duffy rocked a different aesthetic as she posed confidently in her Harry Potter t-shirt and shorts. But it wasn't just the ladies working the runway with confidence. Rudifer Frausto and Jarrison Gray may have come from the heat of Arizona, but they were two cool dudes when they walked out in front of the crowd. The 2017 Convention Roundup by Gary Wunder What has four letters and never five? Replace the question mark with a period and you have your answer. Not so hard, was it? Let's try another. What event sometimes starts in June but always ends in July and causes blind people by the thousands to travel to one location to make policies for the blind of the nation? An easier question for members of the National Federation of the Blind and one of the high points of our year. The 2017 Convention started on July 10, giving many of us our first Fourth of July at home in decades. My fourth was filled with the anticipation of family events to come during the day, the blast of fireworks, and the sharing of love. So too was the convention that started six days later, and both went well beyond my expectations. The term I heard most in going through my email and talking with Federationists was excitement about the upcoming convention. Perhaps my perception is biased by my promise to bring fifteen-year-old grandson Ethan to Orlando, this being his fourth convention and his third in a row. Every few days he would ask me if I was getting ready, but the important thing he would ask is, "Are you excited?" Of course I said yes, but not just because it seemed the right thing to say. I am always excited to participate in the convention, but I admit that I was even more excited to see his enthusiasm, and he was excited to see mine. This shared anticipation resulted in feedback: not the whining, squeaking, irritating noise one wants stopped immediately, but the feedback that creates anticipation, causes one to dream about what will come, and starts the countdown clock that asks again and again, "How soon until we go? I wonder if I can stand the wait?" The District of Columbia, Shawn Callaway, president; Tennessee, James Brown, president; Hawaii, Nani Fife, president; and Arizona, Donald Porterfield, president, served as our host affiliates. They were assisted by the National Association of Blind Students, whose president is Kathryn Webster. These hosts raised the bar for all future conventions, and the reaction from those who attended and who listened to the convention stream affirmed this throughout the week. The information table was a benefit to all of us, the welcoming presentations were first-rate, the luau was exceptional, and the door prize was well worth waiting for and delivered a dramatic ending to an exciting and moving convention banquet. Throughout this report we will reference meetings of divisions, committees, and groups through which the Federation does much of its work. Mentioning these meetings will hint at some of our major convention activities, but to fully understand the breadth and depth of the meetings just held will require browsing the 2017 Convention Agenda which can be found at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/agenda. Also look in this issue and those to follow for reports of the meetings listed here, because each division, committee, and group has been invited to submit a few paragraphs to explain how they are contributing to bettering the lives of blind people. The National Federation of the Blind Parents of Blind Children division activities began on seminar day and continued throughout the week. The Federation's commitment to children and seeing that they have unparalleled opportunities in their lives is perhaps the highest priority of the organization. The seminars, workshops, and discussion groups of this division testify to the commitment we have made, and its program offerings make it real. Activities included Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Success in Elementary School Math; Stress Management for Parents and Their Kids Too; A Parent's Perspective on Raising a Blind Child with Autism; Technology Basics in Five Steps or Less; Using Google Drive, Google Docs, and Other Google Products in the Classroom; You Are Your Child's First Teacher: Encouraging Play and Exploration in Early Childhood; Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Surviving Higher Level Math; It's Recess Time: Encouraging Kids to Participate in Recess, Sports, and Other Social Activities; Remote Technology Instruction: What Is It, What Are Its Advantages, and How Can My Child Receive It?; It Might Not Be a Braille Thing: Recognizing Possible Reading or Other Learning Disabilities in Blind Children; and Learning to Drive: Take Control of Getting from Place to Place When Driving Yourself Is Not an Option. Seminar day was also filled with learning opportunities for adults, though activities for the youngest among us threatened to pull us away. We contented ourselves with previewing the newest JAWS features from VFO/Freedom Scientific; presentations on the BrailleNote Touch, the world's first Google-certified notetaker for the blind from HumanWare; and the newly released ElBraille, the only Windows 10 Braille notetaker from VFO. Adobe offered three sessions to discuss its suite of products which run not only on Windows but on iOS and Android. Google offered a seminar discussing enhancements in Android accessibility and the eyes-free Google Home, designed to enhance the home environment. Then there were the presentations from our own NFB Jernigan Institute such as Cutting the Cord: Accessibly Watching TV without a Cable Subscription; Microsoft Office 365: Reinventing Everyday Productivity; Web Browsing in the Twenty-First Century; and Refreshable Braille Rumble: An Overview of Braille Display Support across OSs and Screen Readers. The direction technology takes in solving problems for the blind requires our input, and what is developed must be evaluated and promoted if it is found worthy. A report from the NFB Committee for the Promotion, Evaluation, and Advancement of Technology will appear in Convention Miniatures later in this issue. But there is more than technology. What is technology if one isn't healthy enough to use it? So the sessions offered by our NFB Sports and Recreation Division in cooperation with WE Fit Wellness included learning about your health: Check out Accessible Activity Trackers and Other Health Devices; a chance to donate blood; and once all of that was done, what could be better than trying some fun activities like sword fighting, cardio drumming, goalball, and more. Then there was the session on essential oils, the benefits of which may include weight management, reducing stress, promoting quality sleep, reducing anxiety, and avoiding depression, pain, and sinus or allergy issues. Employment is one of the biggest steps we take in becoming integrated into our communities. So it is no surprise that a convention attendee would see "Load up with Ammunition for Your Job Hunt: Expert Advice and Great Ideas from NFB Training Centers, Agencies, and Employers." After that training, what's next: "Set Your Sights for the NFB National Job Fair," an event sponsored by the NFB Employment Committee. All of what we do is predicated on our ability to move from place to place independently, and we do this with guide dogs and canes. Not surprisingly one of our most active divisions is the National Association of Guide Dog Users. Its seminar featured sessions on maintaining optimal health throughout your dog's life, tips on preventative care, tips on grooming, and learning about the rights and responsibilities of guide dog users and the businesses they frequent. It is both encouraging and amazing to see how many new people come to the national convention each year. The Rookie Roundup plays an important part in letting them meet one another, meet our leaders, and hear about what is to come in the sleepless week they are about to enjoy. Because some excellent performers have emerged on the public stage, one of the stereotypes about the blind is that we are musically gifted. Karaoke Night puts this to the test, but the fun is not in the gathering of evidence but in the sheer joy of having a chance to be a rock star. For those singing a different tune, a meeting of blind students for getting acquainted, sharing common problems and possible solutions, and just having a good time was another opportunity offered at seminar night's conclusion. [PHOTO CAPTION: A Federationist tests out Cyber Eyez in the exhibit hall] Registration/resolutions day came early for those who met long into the night. The exhibit hall is a treat for many of us wishing to see what's new and to chat with the people we've met over the phone in purchasing and getting support for our devices. This year the hall was packed, and sadly we had to turn away exhibitors for lack of space. In 1996 our convention had fifty-three exhibitors from outside the NFB. This year we had eighty-three. Some of the specials at the convention featured significant discounts, and for convention sponsors the floor was theirs alone from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Proudly sponsoring our 2017 Convention are these progressive companies: Platinum sponsors included Aira and AT&T; Google Inc.; Microsoft; Oracle; OrCam; UPS; Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.; VFO (Ai Squared/Freedom Scientific/Optelec). Our Gold sponsors for 2017 are Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP; iSenpai, LLC; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Target; and Uber Technologies Inc. Silver sponsors include Amazon; Dropbox; HumanWare; Market Development Group Inc.; Pearson; and Sprint. Sponsoring at the Bronze level were Charter Communications; Facebook; National Industries for the Blind; VitalSource Technologies LLC; and Wells Fargo. Participants at the White Cane sponsor level include BAUM (USA) Inc.; C&P - Chris Park Design; Disability Relations Group; Duxbury Systems Inc; Educational Testing Service; Envision Inc.; En-Vision America Inc.; HIMS; iFactory; Lyft Inc.; OHFA Tech Inc.; Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP; and TRE Legal Practice. These sponsors take seriously the work of the National Federation of the Blind, and we are grateful to and thank them for their financial and public support. One challenge of being blind in a predominantly sighted world is coming to think of oneself as beautiful. While there are different definitions of beauty and different degrees of it, blind people have too often incorporated as part of our self-concept the idea that that we are flawed or broken. To really understand blindness and beauty requires a reset, and this is just what was provided by the style show that was sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. In the afternoon the resolutions committee met to propose policies that will guide the Federation now and in the years to come. A full report of the process, the resolutions presented, and those which passed is included in this issue. Other meetings were held on this afternoon and evening. Among them was a meeting of the deaf-blind division, the blind musicians division, the professionals in blindness education division, the National Association of Blind Students division, and the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille. To learn more about the meetings held and the topics discussed, continue to look in these pages and issues of the Monitor that will appear in the coming months. Since showing the world what blind people can do is important to our mission, learning how to take and share audio and video content is a must. To address this the communications team sponsored a hands-on photo and video workshop. Amazon took the opportunity to demonstrate the tremendous progress it has made in addressing accessibility in its products. Highlighted were its tablets, its hardware device for connecting one's television to the internet, and its line of home products which include those on which Alexa responds to our requests and answers our questions. Demonstrations and instruction in the use of the KNFB Reader and NFB-NEWSLINE[(R)] were a popular attraction, and these products demonstrate our role not only as advocates but as an organization that can and will provide a product or service when living the life we want requires it. The innovative spirit behind these offerings is a visible testament to the value of action through self-organization. In the evening, members of the National Association of Blind Veterans held a reception to honor the brave women and men who have served our country, and that reception was followed by the division's business meeting. Board meeting/division day began with the traditional meeting of the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors. All members of the board announced themselves as present with the exception of Jeannie Massay, who was kept at home by her doctor. She plans to be with us next year and shared most of the convention through the live convention streaming done for the board meeting, all sessions of the convention, and the 2017 banquet. She was also active on Twitter, energetically participating in convention conversations from a distance. After a moment of silence for those lost to death this year, President Riccobono called on Gabe Cazares for two important announcements. The first is that convention sessions are translated into Spanish and transmitted to special receivers provided to those who request them. Receivers operating on a different channel are also given to those who have trouble hearing convention business being conducted from the stage. President Riccobono read the names of those board members up for election and those whose terms extend until 2018. Sam Gleese of Mississippi called for the floor. He said that serving on the national board has been one of the highest honors of his life, but he now believes it is time to relinquish his position so that a younger person might take up the leadership and responsibility he has carried for so long in the organization. President Riccobono thanked Sam for his service, and Sam received enthusiastic applause both from his colleagues on the board and members of the Federation who were present in the audience. The President announced that our 2018 convention will be held at a Rosen property, but the hotel and specific dates will not be fixed until November. Given that it may be some time before we are back in Florida, we should do our best to see that the 2018 convention is well attended. The 2019 convention location remains a mystery except that we do know it will be held somewhere west of the Mississippi. The building which houses the NFB Jernigan Institute is owned by the Jacobus tenBroek Fund. Given that we have more space than we currently need, it is likely we will rent out some of it. The NFBJI is located in an area where space is extremely valuable, and the income the tenBroek Fund will likely receive would be very helpful in maintaining and improving this property. Patti Chang is the director of development for the organization. She encouraged us to advertise the NFB Vehicle Donation Program using the public service announcements available in English and Spanish. Materials for promoting the program are available at https://www.nfb.org/vehicle-donation-materials. Much of the work of the Federation is conducted through committees appointed by the President, and President Riccobono would like to hear from Federationists who wish to serve. A list of committees can be found at https://nfb.org/divisions-and-committees. One of the organizations we partner with is the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. A popular program it administers provides Braille books and magazines to children, and this year National Geographic has been added. If you know of children who can benefit from this service, have them contact Patricia Maurer by calling (410) 659-9314, extension 2272. Everything we do takes money. Accordingly the board and those assembled reviewed some primary funding sources. The Preauthorized Check Program (PAC) is the way many Federationists and other highly committed members of the public give monthly donations from a checking account or card. Chairman Scott LaBarre told us this year $493,000 was collected, though more than half a million dollars was pledged at last year's convention. Our goal this year is to raise enough in new and increased pledges to sustain our yearly giving so that it remains above half a million dollars. Chairman Everette Bacon reminded us that the Imagination Fund is supported not by members but by others who contribute to the innovative programs we run. To solicit that support requires us to reach out to family, friends, and people with whom we do business to tell them about the work of the organization and explain why they should be financially involved. The Shares Unlimited in the National Federation of the Blind is the organization's savings account. It is a fund in which money is set aside for the catastrophe we hope never happens. Chairman Sandy Halverson reported that at the beginning of the convention ten states had made no contribution in 2017, but by convention's end that number had fallen to two. The Kenneth Jernigan Fund raises money to help first-timers attend the national convention. Money comes from the sale of tickets for two drawings. One grants the winner and a person of their choice round-trip airfare to the convention, a hotel room, banquet, registration, and a thousand dollars. The winner of the second gets $2,500 in cash. But the real winners from the drawings are the men and women who can be a part of the transforming experience we call the convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Chairman Allen Harris reported that this year the fund brought fifty-seven people, and the cheer from present and past winners proves its value. Tracy Soforenko is the chairman of the Jacobus tenBroek Memorial Fund committee. This committee encourages contributions to the Jacobus tenBroek Fund which maintains the grounds and buildings at 200 East Wells Street in Baltimore that have become known the world over. Tracy welcomes suggestions about how to raise the money we need to maintain and enhance our facilities so we can continue to operate the stellar programs that bring credit to the work of the organization. The merit scholarships offered to thirty blind students from across America are second to none, and the students we invite as finalists represent the finest blind students in America. They are introduced at every preconvention board meeting and are given a chance to speak. Their remarks appear elsewhere in this issue. Following these, the board of directors voted unanimously to authorize a scholarship program for 2018. Much of what we do in the area of civil rights requires top-notch legal talent. No one exemplifies this more than our friend and colleague Dan Goldstein. He is retiring and has moved to New Hampshire, but his interest in our organization, our struggles, and our successes mean enough to him that he continues to join us at our convention. His presence was recognized with cheers and applause, representing not only our respect for this man but our admiration for the heart that drives him. Our legal work must continue, and our longtime friend Eve Hill, formerly employed by the United States Department of Justice, has returned to the law firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy. In her remarks to the board she quickly reviewed some of the legal priorities she is addressing at our direction. One is the accessibility of websites run by the government and the private sector. We are focusing on the design of web-authoring programs that result in inaccessible webpages, our commitment being to get these tools to produce content that is accessible. Our commitment knows no limits when it comes to protecting the rights of blind parents. Then there is our longstanding focus on seeing that blind workers are not inappropriately placed in sheltered workshops and that, when this is their preferred place of employment, they receive the benefits that should be given to all workers: the right to be treated with dignity and respect, the right to advancement, and the right to be paid at least the minimum wage. Eve said that a friend who writes books on disability rights said that, of the top ten cases in 2016 and 2017, the NFB was the lead in four of these. Valerie Yingling is the legal program coordinator for the NFB. She reminded the board and the audience that we have a rideshare program to monitor the activities of Uber and Lyft. We have a system in place for reporting both good and bad experiences, particularly those involving the use of guide dogs. She said we have filed a lawsuit against Greyhound in which we are requesting class certification because of its systems that cannot be used by blind people. She encouraged those who have had trouble using the website or the mobile app to contact her. The same is true if you have been charged a convenience fee for making reservations by telephone. People with experiences to share should write to her at vyingling at nfb.org or call her at (410) 659-9314, Extension 2440. Two affiliates were recognized for substantial bequests they received this year and are sharing with the national treasury. California presented a check for $21,671.67. In that same spirit, Nebraska presented a check for $122,898.54. These affiliates exemplify generosity, the understanding that we are one movement, and the importance of abiding by our longstanding policy of dividing bequests received by chapters and affiliates with our national body. The board meeting adjourned seven minutes ahead of schedule, a relief to those wanting to grab food before the afternoon and evening called them away to discuss issues specific to their job interests and aspirations. More than twenty divisions, committees, and groups met to conduct their business meetings, hold seminars, and receive presentations in the field of interest they represent. In addition to the formal meetings, one could attend an equally large number of gatherings. Those who love art attended the gathering entitled "Inspiring Artists, Beginners to Pros." Some of us attended the 1Touch Self Defense Workshops that occurred throughout the convention. Then there was the event that blind children look forward to all year: The Braille Book Fair made possible thanks to the help of hundreds of donors and volunteers. On Thursday morning when the gavel fell, the crowd of more than 2,400 applauded, and the convention was underway. Assisting with the opening gavel was seven-year-old Oriana Riccobono. Each of the host affiliates gave a welcome from their state, and this was followed by an address recognizing the fiftieth anniversary of the National Association of Blind Students. This stellar speech will appear in the Braille Monitor later in the fall. The songs that were sang by Blessing Arthur got the convention jumping, and everyone was engaged when Briley O'Connor, Tom Page, and Ryan Strunk concluded the ceremony with the song "Live the Life You Want." [PHOTO CAPTION: The first all-blind color guard to perform the opening ceremony] The convention recognized our veterans with a ceremony in which, for the first time, the color guard was composed entirely of blind people. In the tradition of past ceremonies, all veterans in attendance are asked to come to the stage, introduce themselves, and given a ribbon and a pin. This year Melissa and Oriana Riccobono offered these tokens of our gratitude. The event concluded with music performed by members of the performing arts division, and the warm applause let our veterans know they are appreciated for the patriots they are and the service they have given. Delegates were introduced as the convention moved to the roll call of states. Alabama said it would be holding its first BELL Academy; Arizona was rightly proud to have thirty-five first-timers at the convention, and it too will have a BELL Academy that will serve thirty-one students. Illinois proudly announced the passage of a parental rights act, and Indiana followed with the good news that it has secured one million dollars in support of NFB-NEWSLINE. Maryland proudly announced it would be holding not one, not two, but three BELL Academy programs. Minnesota loudly cheered as President Dunham was introduced, and an even louder cheer erupted from the convention when she asked it to remember the loyalty and hard work of Joyce and Tom Scanlan who could not be with us because of poor health. New voices were heard throughout the roll as new leaders take on the job of carrying forward the work of the Federation. One new voice was Shelia Wright from Missouri. She said that Missouri is involved in the National Fitness Challenge, is one of thirteen organizations working with the United States Association of Blind Athletes, and is the only statewide consumer organization to be involved in the competition. President Frank Coppel from South Carolina gave a shout-out to longtime leaders Don and Betty Capps and told the convention about a new program called Successful Transitions, which serves young people ages thirteen to twenty-three. Since the fall of 2016 this program has served more than 200 young people as they find their way through the education system and seek employment. This session of the convention ended with President Riccobono asking the audience to indicate in which decade they attended their first national convention. We had no one present from our founding decade, but in each of the succeeding ones we heard loud and enthusiastic cheers, the loudest being from those attending their first NFB National Convention. The afternoon session began with a presentation that would be referenced again and again throughout the Convention. This was the annual Presidential Report, and its theme was the heartbeat of the Federation and the rhythm of the movement. It appears in this issue, and those who listen to or read it will understand why it was followed by a prolonged standing ovation. The Federation and UPS have been working together for twenty-five years. UPS has been a tremendous source of volunteer help to us. Kim Wyant is the president of the Florida district of UPS, and she came to the podium to acknowledge our relationship and to present the Federation with a check for $90,000. You guessed it -- another long ovation both for the volunteer service and a contribution that will help us carry on with the programs that mean so much to blind people. [PHOTO CAPTION: David Strickland] Leadership in Self-Driving Automobiles: the Blind and the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets was presented by a man who has long been a friend to blind people as we have worked with the United States Department of Transportation to solve the problem of cars too quiet to hear. He is David Strickland, who now serves as General Counsel and Spokesperson for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The world is moving toward vehicles that drive themselves, and the challenge we face is to see that they are ones we can operate. Mr. Strickland and his organization are committed to this, and we will work hand in hand to see that we can go where we want to go, when we want to go, and we will soon join the rest of America in taking to the open road. What would a convention be without a presentation from our Immediate Past President, Dr. Marc Maurer? When he writes and delivers a speech, we are the beneficiaries of his intellect, his wisdom, and his enthusiasm. Perhaps as important as these are the other things he brings: his curiosity, his sense of wonder, and his willingness to dream. "Leadership in Literacy: How Do We Know What We Do Not Know," was the title of his presentation. In it he explores the way we get information and the way it differs from how people with sight get it. He also discusses the language we use as it relates to sight and the experience of coming to know what we do not know. His remarks appear later in this issue. For many blind people the written word has been the primary means through which we have learned and the way in which we express ourselves. Though there is beauty in language and what it allows us to learn and share, it is not the only way people learn. Pictures communicate in ways that words cannot. They touch our emotions where poetry begins, but they can convey so much more. Financial and scientific concepts difficult to explain in words are made clear using charts and graphs. For far too long these ways of communicating have been primarily visual. Tactile representations have been few in number, and we are just now coming to understand that interpreting drawings is not innate; it is learned, and many of us have been left out of that learning. But this is changing, and the next presenter is part of why we are finding more information that has traditionally required vision appearing under our fingertips. He and his company are giving us unparalleled opportunities to create this information ourselves. Josh Coffee is the president of E.A.S.Y. LLC, and the address he delivered is "Engineering Tools for Tactile Fluency: A Partnership with the Organized Blind Movement." This instructive and inspirational address will appear in full later in the fall. [PHOTO CAPTION: Gilles Pepin] Continuing with the theme of creating opportunities in STEM education and the employment it can make possible, our next presentation was "Empowering STEM Education through Technology: HumanWare's Commitment to the Future." Its chief presenter is a friend of the National Federation of the Blind, Gilles Pepin, chief executive officer of HumanWare. He said that today the computer world is working on artificial intelligence and deep machine learning. The goal is to give machines problems human beings are now solving, give them the answers humans come up with, and see if they can learn to take on tasks that can currently be done only with human intelligence. So excited is HumanWare about deep machine learning that it is doubling what it spends on research and development. HumanWare believes we will see the initial results of its work at our 2018 Convention. In furtherance of its promise to work with us in promoting STEM, HumanWare also announced its plan to offer a STEM internship in 2018 at HumanWare's headquarters in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind. [PHOTO CAPTION: Greg Stilson] Greg Stilson is the senior blindness product manager at HumanWare. He said that forging new paths in STEM education is personal for him. Because of barriers in the studying of STEM subjects, he wanted to avoid math and science in high school. Luckily for him and for us, pressure from a teacher of the blind who believed in him kept him from running away from learning the skills that now fuel his life's work. He said that attending a convention of the NFB is more than the opportunity to show and sell products; it is the opportunity to get the ideas that will result in products to solve real problems. He offers as an example the BrailleNote Touch, the world's first Google-certified tablet for the blind. KeyMath is included in the latest update of the product and now makes it possible for a student to do her work in Braille, print out that work for her teacher, and show not only the answer but the steps used in arriving at it. No longer must the blind student turn in late work because a human transcriber had to convert it into something the public school teacher could read, and no longer does the student's grade depend both on her own understanding and the reliability of the transcriptionist helping her. Greg ended his presentation with a request and a promise: that we keep our awesome ideas coming, and that HumanWare will continue to make awesome products. [PHOTO CAPTION: Betsy Beaumon] Betsy Beaumon is the president of Benetech. This company is best-known by blind people for spawning the creation of Bookshare, but their work has not stopped just because they have the largest library for the blind in the world. "Building New Paths to Accessibility: Powering the Next Generation of Accessible Educational Materials" is the title of the presentation she delivered, and it focuses on the "DIAGRAM Center" that Benetech has created. DIAGRAM is not only the right word to describe its work, but it is also an acronym: Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials. Mastering STEM subjects requires more than words; it requires access to diagrams, graphs, and even pictures. Solving a problem this large not only requires a committed company; it requires a community of really smart people, and the National Federation of the Blind is one of fifty organizations that are a part of it. Two clear challenges must be addressed: making images that are already available accessible, and creating standards that will aid in making certain that new images are born accessible. Making math more accessible is being enhanced by MathML Cloud, a repository where math images are stored and an environment in which conversion tools are developed and shared. The goal is that content from different software tools used in the subject can be made readable by the blind. Of course there are other images of interest to us, so, at the urging of Immediate Past President Maurer, Benetech is creating a new service called ImageShare. It is currently being piloted at several schools for the blind. The service contains or has links to two-dimensional and three-dimensional images that are described, and Benetech hopes to have a beta version in the spring of 2018. For more details on this and other exciting projects at Benetech, go to http://diagramcenter.org. When the afternoon session concluded, some of us wished humans could be omnipresent. There was so much to do but no way to attend events that happened at the same time. One could learn about the Ski for Light program, the future of wearable technology, or the future of autonomous vehicles and the way we ensure they are usable by the blind. Being a student in higher education means knowing something about advocacy, and, to borrow from and substitute one word, "There's a meeting for that." Seeing that admissions tests treat the blind fairly is something that the Federation and the Educational Testing Service have been working together on for some time now, and getting our philosophy and life experiences into academic journals is critically important. Again, how to be in two places at one time was our dilemma. When states are considering adopting new technology to assist in voting, how do we make sure the blind are included? How do we maximize the use of social media to reach blind people and to help sighted people understand that we are blind but we are just like them? We need outside contributors to help with our programs, so where do we look for grants, and how do we go about writing them? There was at least one meeting on each of these subjects and more that space limits us from covering. Watch these pages for further information as sponsors and coordinators of these and other meetings share their message. If you needed some downtime, were hungry, and wanted the opportunity to socialize, the host affiliates sponsored a luau. If feeding the mind was more important than feeding the body, the Community Service Division sponsored a trivia night to see who would be the 2017 trivia champions. On Friday morning the gavel fell promptly at 9 a.m., and President Riccobono said that at the close of business on Thursday, our registration figures stood at 2,465. At the end of the 2017 Convention that number increased to 2,481. He presented the organization's financial report. The 2016 year was a good one, showing that income exceeded expenses by about two million dollars. In the first six months of 2017 the figures are disturbing. While past trends indicate that income in the last six months tends to be higher than in the first, we must increase our efforts to fund the programs we run and the new ones we need. [PHOTO CAPTION: Everette Bacon] Pam Allen presented the report of the Nominating Committee, offering seven candidates to fill expiring positions on the board. The report was accepted and elections followed. Everette Bacon was elected to fill board position one. In his acceptance Everette quoted Cesar Chavez: "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate a person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." Everette's request is that those who are not a part of the NFB join and that we who are increase our efforts so that the social change we work for will not be stopped. [PHOTO CAPTION: Norma Crosby] Norma Crosby was the next to be elected. In her acceptance speech she said she grew up being told that she didn't see very well, and there were things she just shouldn't try. At the same time, the rehabilitation agency where she lived kept telling her she was not blind and should not ask for quality training in Braille and cane travel. When she came to the Federation she met a loving group who didn't tell her she was wrong for carrying a cane or wanting to learn Braille. Being a Federationist has meant finding a family and no longer feeling alone. Her leadership is the evidence of her commitment to share this with others. [PHOTO CAPTION: Ever Lee Hairston] Ever Lee Hairston was the next nominee elected to the board. Though civil rights was her passion and got her jailed in the 1960s, it wasn't until 1987 that she found that the struggle for civil rights also extends to the blind. She said that when she slept she dreamed about having the opportunity to live a life of service, but when she awoke, she found joy in living that life through the National Federation of the Blind. [PHOTO CAPTION: Cathy Jackson] Cathy Jackson was elected and said that once again she feels humbled and honored. In 2002 the National Convention was hosted by the Kentucky affiliate, so when she was called to the presidential suite by then President Maurer, she was certain something was terribly wrong. Her heartbeat was so loud that she almost missed President Maurer's request that she allow her name to be placed in nomination for a position on the board. She is delighted to serve and to do whatever she can so that blind people can live the life they want. Joe Ruffalo was elected to board position five. He is motivated each day by the realization that the first two letters of member are the word me. He had to be invited six times before attending a meeting, but that meeting convinced him that losing his sight did not mean losing his vision: his vision to be a good father, a good husband, a good leader, and a person who cares about people. This is what the Federation means to him and why he will continue to carry the torch and share with others his belief that the acronym NFB not only stands for National Federation of the Blind but also "Never Felt Better." [PHOTO CAPTION: Denise Avant] Denise Avant was elected to board position six. She said that she knew of the NFB long before she joined in 2005. Who didn't know that the National Federation of the Blind was the largest organization of blind people in the world? But she didn't think of herself as a joiner and had little interest in being a part of an organization that was made up of mean-spirited, radical extremists. But the people she met and the organization she came to find was nothing like what she had heard. "I attended my first Chicago Chapter meeting in 2005, and I've missed very few since then," she says. Denise being newly elected to the board, readers can expect to learn more about her when we update her biography in "Who are the Blind Who Lead the Blind." Amy Ruell was elected to fill the last board position. Amy said that when growing up she had little contact with blind people, the exception being a camp for the blind she attended as a child. Getting her education in a public school, she got no instruction in cane travel, and the Braille she learned came through the work of her mother and a volunteer, both staying a lesson ahead of her as the instruction proceeded. She came to the Federation when her job required that she attend the conventions of several national organizations of the blind, and at the NFB's gathering she found people doing for themselves and at the same time helping others get around the hotel, read menus, and do so many other things in a wonderful spirit of cooperation. When she joined, her intent was to be a good member but not to become overly involved. But, when she saw things that needed changing, she realized her choice was to lead or to shut up; she concluded that leading was a task more suited to her character and temperament. More about Amy will also appear in a biography that will be found in "Who are the Blind Who Lead the Blind." After a cheer for the newly elected board of directors and a fit break conducted by the sports and recreation division, the convention moved to three presentations focusing on fitness and the role it plays in physical health, mental health, and the development of a positive image and self-concept. The first presentation was from a CrossFit trainer who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, Ms. Bettina Dolinsek. The title of her presentation was, "Leadership in Fitness: A CrossFit Trainer Living the Life She Wants." She has traveled a road familiar to many of us: loving sports as a spectator but being excused from physical education because nobody knew how she could compete. Bettina Dolinsek has used CrossFit training to move from spectator to participant, has learned how to take control of her life, and has learned the value of sharing that empowerment with others. Her inspiring remarks will appear in a future issue of this magazine. Warmed up by Bettina's presentation, the convention was ready for the next program item titled "Running Across America: A Blind Ultra-Athlete's Challenge to Change." It was delivered by Jason Romero, an Ultra-Athlete who lives in Denver, Colorado. At an appointment with his doctor at age fourteen, Jason was asked what he wanted to do with his life. He said he wanted to be the first person in his family to go to college, but the doctor would have none of it. He interrupted to tell his young patient that by thirty he would have no light perception, that blind people did not work, and that the doctor had five minutes before his next appointment and asked if Jason had any questions. But Jason took his degree, achieved significant success in several Fortune 500 companies, but one day found himself without a job, without blindness skills, and without hope. The story he relates explains how one hits bottom and climbs out, and that story will appear prominently in an upcoming issue. "Breaking Blind: Staying Fit with a Dose of Federation Love, Hope, and Determination" was our next presentation. Its presenter was Maureen Nietfeld, the home management instructor at the NFB Colorado Center for the Blind. Maureen is blind as a result of brain tumors caused by von Hipptel-Lindau syndrome (VHL), a disease that creates both cancerous and noncancerous tumors in all of her organs. She went blind at age seventeen, and it took her ten years to come to terms with this. Maureen's moving presentation about the importance of health as she faces the challenges posed by VHL is available at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/bb. Maureen concluded her remarks with these moving words: "Each and every one of us is capable of making big changes for ourselves and for those around us. So with love, hope, and determination, let's defy expectations and turn our dreams into reality. Thank you, everyone. I love you all." As President Riccobono remarked, "If you're not inspired to get up and get moving after those three presentations, I don't know what else we can do." The last presentation of the morning was delivered by Scott LaBarre, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado and the National Association of Blind Lawyers. Its title: "A Worldwide Revolution: The Marrakesh Treaty, the Accessible Books Consortium, and Global Literacy for the Blind." Creating accessible books is often time-consuming and expensive. Cross-border sharing of accessible materials will help blind people throughout the world, but the United States has not yet signed the treaty negotiated in 2013. The process, the problems, and the progress we are making are all addressed in these remarks, and they will appear in an upcoming issue. The afternoon session began with President Riccobono introducing our guest and presenter: "To start off the afternoon we have a presentation which features an organization which has not been on our agenda in at least a decade. The American Foundation for the Blind has sometimes been at odds with the National Federation of the Blind, but there is a new direction for the future of the American Foundation for the Blind [applause]. Here to talk with us about it is a gentleman who used to direct the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind, where he demonstrated an openness and willingness to work with the organized blind movement, and he's bringing that perspective to the work of the AFB. So here to talk to us about the future at the American Foundation for the Blind is its president, Kirk Adams." Mr. Adams began by saying that listening to the acceptance speeches of the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors was well worth the price of admission and that it is always a pleasure to witness strong leadership in action. He says that he wants to work with us, that our advice to the foundation in its development of a strategic plan has been very helpful, and that his organization wants to help in confronting the most significant problems faced by the blind today and in the future. President Riccobono asked Mr. Adams if the foundation would support the elimination of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. His answer was that this section is an antiquated law that should be replaced, but his concern is that repeal doesn't suggest how those with significant developmental disabilities in addition to blindness will be served. The President also asked whether the foundation would support the Aim High Act, and Mr. Adams said the foundation would support a higher education bill that was released earlier in the week but that it has concerns about the safe harbor provision in the bill we are supporting. President Riccobono said that we must be realistic about the times in which we live, the mood of Congress, and the need to pass something now and not ten years from now. A copy of Mr. Adams' remarks and the dialogue that followed will appear in full later in the fall. Dr. Fred Schroeder was elected as the president of the World Blind Union in August of 2016. His presentations are always thought-provoking, moving, and persuasive. His speech this year has all of these characteristics. Its title is: "Transforming Hope into Action: A Report from the World Blind Union." In this presentation President Schroeder discusses the suffering we encounter as blind people. It is not the physical or psychological suffering that is so often assumed to be synonymous with blindness. Instead it is the suffering that comes when those in authority take away our children because they believe we are incapable of giving them a safe and loving environment. It is the suffering that comes from the fear that taking our children to the doctor may get us investigated by social service agencies. It is the suffering that comes from knowing that far too many people see us as broken human beings who are incapable of meeting the day-to-day challenges of the world. Dr. Schroeder's concluding remarks capture a pledge we have made to blind people in the United States and throughout the world: "Together we will continue changing the world until we are able to free ourselves from the tyranny of the good conscience standard, limitations not imposed by blindness but imposed on us by the misguided, well-intended beliefs of others. Together we will continue to change the world until we are finally able to live the lives we want, free from low expectations and discrimination." President Schroeder's address will appear elsewhere in this issue. President Riccobono introduced the next item on the agenda with these words: "I'm particularly enthusiastic about our next speaker, because I believe his being here presents a great opportunity for this organization to offer our expertise and our authentic experience as blind people to the United States Department of Labor. Our next speaker has served in three presidentially-appointed and senate-confirmed positions. In 2002 he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003 he was appointed assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. From 2005 to 2009 he served as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Please give a warm Federation welcome to United States Secretary of Labor, the Honorable Alexander Acosta." Secretary Acosta said he appreciated the opportunity to once again address the convention of the National Federation of the Blind, having done so when he served in the Department of Justice. His remarks focus on today's economy, the administration's commitment to grow that economy, and the importance of bringing people with disabilities into the workforce. What he said to the 2017 Convention, the remarks made by President Riccobono, and the question posed to the secretary by Immediate Past President Maurer will appear in full later in the fall. "From Knowledge to Power: A Report on Advocacy and Policy Programs" was delivered by John Par?? Jr., executive director for advocacy and policy for the National Federation of the Blind. He said we have four bills currently introduced in the Congress and briefly described them. He also reminded us that bills we do not support are receiving congressional attention, and they threaten hard-won gains that have taken more than seven decades to achieve. Director Par??'s remarks will appear in the October issue. The last item of business during the afternoon session was the reading of twenty-four resolutions submitted for consideration as policy for the National Federation of the Blind. Chairman Sharon Maneki's report and the full text of the resolutions passed appear elsewhere in this issue. On Friday evening Microsoft sponsored two sessions on the usability of its products with a number of screen reading programs and on several popular operating systems. A seminar to help advocates and recipients of benefits from the Social Security Administration was held, and so too was a session on Braille proofreading for parents, teachers, and others looking for employment in the field. People wanting to know how to use social media to find better jobs attended yet another seminar sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind Employment Committee. Do You Dream in Color? is a documentary about four blind students and the obstacles they face in getting an education and in interacting with family, friends, and peers. It highlights the work we must do to see that the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of these and other young blind people are realized. We are encouraging chapters to host screenings and to discuss how each of us can contribute to the success of young people in our communities. On the final day of convention, President Riccobono's stretch of twenty-one conventions without a door prize came to an end when he won one hundred dollars. This demonstrates once again that even President Riccobono and the Chicago Cubs cannot indefinitely maintain their losing streak. [PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Tiernan] The program began with a focus on technology. Giving the first presentation was the president and CEO of VFO, Tom Tiernan. His address bore the title: "The Future of Access Technology for the Blind: Progress at VFO." A year ago when he was approached about heading VFO, he knew nothing about assistive technology, but he did have members of his family who were blind or who had limited vision. He evaluated the company and concluded that the climate is right for significant change and advancement that VFO can bring to the community. VFO is committed to directing more revenue into cutting-edge development, to building on the expertise and the commitment of its staff, and to continuing as an industry leader in assistive technology to make more of the world accessible to the blind. At the conclusion of his presentation President Riccobono asked if VFO was looking not only at the equipment it distributes but at its functionality for children and how they learn to use it. The answer was indeed that VFO has a renewed focus on education, and serving younger children is a part of the company's focus. The remarks delivered by Mr. Tiernan can be found at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/vfo. We have had a longstanding relationship with Microsoft and have watched as it has progressed from thinking about accessibility to speaking about accessibility and now to actively doing a great deal in enhancing accessibility. The work on accessibility is no longer just in one department dedicated to it. Engineers who know and care about quality access are spread throughout the company, and this is due in large part to the work of the person who next came to address the convention, Jenny Lay-Flurrie. She is the chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, and her topic was "The Future of Equal Access to Technology: A Commitment to the Journey at Microsoft." She said that accessibility at Microsoft has had moments in which spectacular brilliance was displayed and moments of ugliness. This rollercoaster ride is not what she wants Microsoft to demonstrate. Rather, accessibility must be something that will be long-term, durable, and sustainable. To deliver consistently accessible products, Microsoft wants people with disabilities, is actively looking for them, and is finding them in such short supply that it is joining the community that encourages blind people to enter into science, technology, engineering, and math. Her address will appear in an upcoming issue, and it is well worth reading and hearing because of the information, enthusiasm, and commitment it communicates. One company that exemplifies a real commitment to accessibility is Expedia. As President Riccobono said in introducing Bhala Dalvi, the vice president of technology and the executive sponsor of accessibility, "For Expedia it's not just about crossing a finishing line of accessibility, but it's about making a real commitment to going further." Mr. Dalvi's presentation was "Worldwide Excellence in Travel: Accessibility in Partnership with the Blind." He began by saying that as of June 29, 2017, Expedia handed its website for booking hotels, flights, cars, and other travel products over to the NFB for testing. He said that four years ago when Expedia invited the NFB to evaluate its website and the services provided there, the experience was very uncomfortable; more than 50 percent of the functions provided by the site were not usable by someone who is blind. "Anne [Taylor] did a live demo using our website to our leadership team. During that demo, Anne couldn't even get past our homepage. That was when we realized that, even if we were 90 percent compliant, if a legally blind person cannot get past the homepage, how can they complete their travel? . . . We did not just want to follow the letter of the law. We wanted to go deeper ... we were interested in doing the right thing." These brief quotations hint at the journey Expedia has taken to make its offerings usable by the blind, and the remarks which will appear in an upcoming issue will shine a much-needed light on the pitfalls that come from acting on incorrect assumptions and the path to success that comes in working with the National Federation of the Blind. [PHOTO CAPTION: Craig Meador] A much-respected agency doing work for the blind is the American Printing House for the Blind. It has a new president whose background includes working with young people and partnering with the blind. The perspective he brings, and the keen interest he has in partnering with us promise a bright future. With these paraphrased remarks from our President, Craig Meador took the stage to discuss "Educational Leadership and Product Innovations: The Future of the American Printing House for the Blind." He discussed four ongoing projects at the printing house. The first is the Orbit Braille display in which the NFB has made a substantial investment. Production delays have all of us waiting for more units to be produced, but the result is a reliable and affordable Braille display that will place information under the fingertips of blind people around the world. Second is the Graphiti, the tactile graphics display board. The intention was to create the equivalent of an iPad which blind people could use to see and create tactile images. Having a math book on a tactile tablet would be a dream come true for a blind student, and this is their goal. Field testing will begin in the fall, and the product is expected to be available late in 2018. The third offering APH is working on is a Braille translation program called BrailleBlaster. This product will be free to anyone who wants it, and the printing house believes it is faster than any Braille translation product on the market. The beta version is currently available, and version 1 will debut in October. The last product on which APH is currently working is intended to enhance indoor navigation. The product under development is called Indoor Explorer, and one of the goals of the printing house in attending our convention was to understand what we mean by accessibility and what information an indoor navigation system should provide. "Tell us what accessibility is. What are the hangups, what are the problems? Because we knew if we came to you with those questions, we would get it right the first time." Mr. Meador's remarks can be heard by going to https://nfb.org/convention/2017/aph. "Excellence in Technology Led by the Blind: A Report from the Jernigan Institute" was the topic for our friend and fellow Federationist Anil Lewis. In his service as the executive director of the Jernigan Institute, he said he was more interested in having a conversation than in giving a presentation. But in his conversation one finds as much distilled wisdom as could be found in the most meticulously prepared speech. Anil Lewis's message was not only about forging relationships with the big players in technology. It was about making choices when it comes to what we want technology to do for us and what we want and can do for ourselves. It was about being a part of an organization with diverse opinions and building on them to make meaningful decisions about our futures as blind people. This message was delivered in that part of our agenda devoted to technology, but it could have as easily been placed in a section where we have a heart-to-heart discussion about who we are, what we want, and how, together, we will go about getting it. Director Lewis's remarks will be found in a later issue, but the mood and the flavor is best captured by listening to his presentation because anything less is like a song without its melody; the message is there, but the passion that gives it meaning is sorely missed. One of the more intriguing topics found on the agenda is "Supporting Equality for Blind Americans: A New Sheriff in the United States House of Representatives." It was presented by the Honorable Val Demings, a member of the United States House of Representatives from the Tenth Congressional District of Florida. Many have observed that we make the deepest connections when we share our stories, and this is the way Congresswoman Demings started the speech that Diane McGeorge was later to refer to as a "real stemwinder." The essence of the congresswoman's message was that success takes motivation and hard work, but it also takes the cooperation of others, the trails blazed by others, and the knowledge that those others have your back. Everyone in the house was stirred by her remarks and the parallels she drew between her life and the lives of those of us who are blind. Her speech will appear in the latter part of the year, and it will be well worth the wait. When the general public thinks about blind people, most believe we are singularly cursed and moderately blessed. The curse is what they believe we cannot do, the blessing what they believe we are better at. Dr. Marina Bedny is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies the mind using both psychology and magnetic resonance imaging. It is with this background that she spoke on the topic "The Power of the Mind: Research Exploring the Capacity of the Blind." Science confirms that the part of our brain that would normally be used in processing vision does not die but is reassigned to other functions. There is some indication that we benefit in the form of greater tactile recognition, stronger memory, and the ability to process complex sentences. Mostly the research bears out what we have said for a long time; our differences are far less than our similarities, and the research clearly indicates that those differences should not steer us away from the fields that are now so lucrative in the twenty-first century. Dr. Bedny's remarks will be one of the articles you won't want to miss when they appear in a future issue. Ann Cunningham is a hard-working member of the National Federation of the Blind. She works at the Colorado Center for the Blind as its art instructor, and her passion for sharing art with the blind is beyond measure. President Riccobono not only invited her to appear on the convention agenda but has asked that she head up a group within the Federation to take art to the next level. She addressed the convention on the topic "Touching the Imagination: Unlocking the Creativity of Blind Artists." Ann began her career as most all artists do, creating art intended for sighted people. When she began creating tactile art, she realized that there was more to art appreciation than that which was taken in by the eye. Her work with our organization has convinced her that there is a world of richness to be found in tactile art. Unfortunately, many of us who are blind were never given the opportunity to learn what young sighted children do when they are taught at an early age to look at and interpret drawings and pictures. She looks forward to the day when exposure to art will be as common for the blind as it is for the sighted and when blind children say, "What do you mean there was a time when blind people had no access to art?" These moving, eloquently constructed, and passionately delivered remarks concluded our morning session and will appear in a future issue of this magazine. One of the highlights of our last afternoon session has been the presentation of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin awards. This convention marks the tenth year that we have recognized outstanding individuals and organizations in work with the blind who exemplify the drive and the spirit of Dr. Jacob Bolotin. James Gashel is the chairman of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee, and his remarks and those of the Bolotin Award recipients are found elsewhere in this issue. Jim Gashel remained at the platform because his next job was to briefly discuss the expansion of the KNFB Reader technology to Windows 10 and our work to incorporate this technology into other products, services, and even wearable technology. In his demonstration Jim was assisted by Joel Zimba, who works at our Jernigan Institute as the reading project innovation manager. The demonstration and the comments about upcoming features can be found at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/knfbreader. [PHOTO CAPTION: Ray Kurzweil] Attending his forty-third convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Ray Kurzweil came to the podium to discuss "Exploring the Future: Disability, Technology, and Partnership." Over the years presentations made by this futurist, inventor, thinker, and the current vice president of engineering at Google have had an undeniable consistency, but the change in emphasis is worthy of note and consideration. The story of how Ray Kurzweil came to meet the National Federation of the Blind is well known, and the same is true for what it took to invent the first Kurzweil Reading Machine. He had to work on the invention of the flatbed scanner. With the images he was then able to acquire he had to write the routines that would do optical character recognition that could handle the variations in font, size, and color that are inherent in print. Next came the task of refining speech synthesis that could turn recognized characters into the spoken word. Over the years the emphasis on the power of computers, the way that power would increase as predicted by Moore's Law, and the resulting benefits to blind people has slowly transformed to a more philosophical approach that indicates just how far the development of hardware and software has come. Now the presentations he delivers focus more on the workings of the mind: it's biological construction or its hardware, its hierarchical construction or the way it organizes memory and decision trees, and how this understanding can be used to harness the power of machines to do what we have traditionally considered to be things only humans can do. What Dr. Kurzweil said to the convention can be found at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/kurzweil. President Riccobono introduced our next presentation and its presenter in this way: "In his presentation Ray Kurzweil mentioned Michael Hingson, and in the spring of last year he came by the national office and said he wanted to introduce someone to me who would talk about technology. He brought with him our next speaker who said a lot of interesting things about technology, but I admit I was skeptical. We hear about a lot of technological schemes, but I said that he should come to our convention, which he did in 2016 (he had been there in 2015). I said that I'm going to come out and visit you at your office in San Diego, and while I was out there I asked all sorts of questions. I noticed that the questions that I asked had answers, but, more importantly, the feedback that I gave was always thoughtfully internalized. I came to understand very quickly that our next speaker was thoughtful about technology, but he recognized the value found in the users of the technology. I think he exhibits some of the same traits that Dr. Kurzweil emphasized in his presentation in terms of interactions with the National Federation of the Blind. As a technology CEO he brings passion, intelligence, and personality; he's always studying to make sure that he understands what we're about, where we want to go, and where our hopes and dreams are. It is my pleasure to introduce for the first time to the stage the cofounder and CEO of Aira Tech, Suman Kanuganti." Mr. Kanuganti said that Aira is a company whose mission is to provide instant access to information when it is requested and provide it in a way that is personalized by the customer who uses it. Put in a more concrete way, this company wants its agents to act as a pair of eyes and not as a brain. This has tremendous implications in the way Aira provides information to its customers and even extends to how it perceives the ability of those it serves. Mr. Kanuganti's remarks will appear in full later in the year. Christine H?? is an author of cookbooks, a chef, and the winner of the season three show Master Chef. Her mother died when Christine was fourteen years old, and she never learned to cook the food that she found so pleasurable. When she got to college and decided that she needed to learn to do more than scramble eggs and eat frozen pizza, she went to the library for cookbooks and started teaching herself. But the challenge she faced in learning to cook paled in significance to the one she faced when she found herself paralyzed and blind. In her search for resources, she turned to the President of the National Federation of the Blind, and his letter of response led her to the resources that allowed her to get a master's degree in creative writing. The story she relates in her address is one of taking on adversities that life sends our way and figuring out a way to live a life full of opportunity despite them. Ms. H??'s remarks can be found at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/ha. "Transforming Dreams into Reality: The Fulfillment of One Blind Man's Mission" was movingly presented by our friend and Federationist Ron Gardner. Ron is the past president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah, and his long service to the Federation both as a volunteer and a staff member testify to his sterling character and the depth of his commitment. In his address to the convention Ron talks about the obstructions placed in his path by low expectations and how he overcame them through involvement in the Federation. Achieving his life's goals, Ron watched as much of what he built fell apart and described the steps he took to rebuild it. His honest and moving presentation can be found elsewhere in this issue. [PHOTO CAPTION: President Riccobono, Representative David Young, and Jared Nylin] "Leadership through Action: A Champion for the Blind in the United States Congress" was the message brought to us by the Honorable David Young, a member of the United States House of Representatives who serves the Third Congressional District of Iowa. Monitor readers will remember that Representative Young came to visit the headquarters of the Federation at the request of Jim and Sharon Omvig, and he has joined with us in pushing for the passage of our bills by sponsoring one and adding his name as a cosponsor to three of them. [PHOTO CAPTION: Sam Gleese] At the conclusion of the afternoon session, the crowd quickly made its way out of the room so that the hotel staff could ready it for the 2017 banquet. Immediate Past President Maurer was the master of ceremonies at this event, and I believe from the joy in his voice that one of the high points of his convention is giving out the many door prizes offered there. Sam Gleese is not only a leader in the National Federation of the Blind, but he is also an associate minister of the Hill Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Reverend Gleese offered thanks to God for all He has allowed us to do, for the dreams He has helped us to dream, and the progress He will help us achieve in the future. [PHOTO CAPTION: Scott LaBarre] In his capacity as the chairperson of the Preauthorized Check Program, Scott LaBarre presented awards to affiliates, divisions, and individuals who made substantial increases in providing monthly support for our movement. We end the 2017 convention with pledged amounts higher than ever before. Members and supporters have pledged $517,756.82 per month, a significant indicator of how seriously our members take the work we do and supported from their pockets. [PHOTO CAPTION: Members of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division perform three Federation standards.] The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division serenaded the crowd with three wonderful songs: the first was the battle song of the NFB otherwise known as "Glory, Glory Federation," the second was "Braille Is Beautiful," and the concluding song was "Live the Life You Want." A video created to thank the donors who make our scholarship program possible was debuted, and an article recognizing those donors will be found later in this issue. The master of ceremonies recognized the sponsors of the 2017 National Convention and thanked them for the tremendous support they give, not only to the convention through their donations but to the work of the Federation through their public support. Aira, a platinum sponsor and one of the companies we have partnered with to further independence for blind people, was next invited to present $30,000 in subscriptions to students in the National Federation of the Blind. Two recipients expressed their gratitude to Aira and the Federation in song, and we recommend these to readers who can hear them at https://nfb.org/convention/2017/airasongs. John Berggren served as the chairman of convention organization and activities, and the assembled took this opportunity to wish him happy birthday in applause and song. After introducing the head table, it was time for what everyone in the room came to hear: the banquet address that would be delivered by our President, Mark Riccobono. The address is found later in this issue, and it certainly is in line to be considered a Federation classic. The 2017 speech addressed the role of technology, challenging the all too frequent assumption that to be blind is to be broken and that the only fix possible is to be found in technology that will make the blind whole. This is not how our President sees it, and though we welcome the benefits that technology brings for all of us, we look to ourselves for the transformation that must occur if we are to feel like, act like, and live like first-class citizens. Ray Kurzweil was invited to the stage and spoke briefly about the remarks made by President Riccobono. He said that they expressed quite well the perils and possibilities offered by technology and exemplify the need for leaders like President Riccobono to see that technology plays the role we want it to play in our lives. He reminded us that he was involved in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, and when he came to his first convention of the National Federation of the Blind in 1975, he realized that there was another civil rights cause that would touch his heart and be worthy of his energy. He saw in attitudes about the blind the same kind of prejudice that has held back so many. "The most pervasive and pernicious implication of these prejudices is that they become self-fulfilling prophecies. If society sees a single group is less capable and less valuable, it inevitably sets up expectations and institutions and laws that make these outcomes a reality. I would say that overcoming these negative perceptions of blindness is, in my view, the greatest contribution of the National Federation of the Blind." The convention was moved by what he said and expressed its emotion in cheers and applause. Patti Chang was invited to the stage to award the most prestigious scholarships in the field of blindness to the thirty most deserving blind students. The presentation she made and the remarks of the winner of the $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship appear elsewhere in this issue. Dr. Maurer was appointed by President Riccobono to serve as the chairperson of the Jacobus tenBroek Award Committee. The next order of business was the presentation of that award, and both his remarks and those of the winner/winners are found later in this issue. The banquet concluded with President Riccobono thanking the convention for its strength, its passion, and its discipline. Immediate Past President Maurer gave the gavel presented to him by Dr. Jernigan to President Riccobono. With the dropping of this gavel, the 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind came to an end. In the aftermath of the convention, the reports received confirmed that this meeting is best characterized by the words excitement and change. As Ramona Walhof reports, "Idaho had more than twice as many members at convention this year compared to recent conventions. Sixteen of these had never attended a convention before. Two more have not attended for more than twenty years. This changed the experience for all of us, and our new conventioneers are excited as they look ahead. This is just one small state's experience, but it shows why our organization is growing." I couldn't agree more with this sentiment, so very soon now I will start counting down the days until we begin our 2018 Convention. Until then, keep reading, keep writing, and keep building the Federation. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: President Mark Riccobono] Presidential Report 2017 An Address Delivered by Mark A. RiccobonoNational Federation of the BlindOrlando, FloridaJuly 12, 2017 During the past year, the heartbeat of our organization has grown in strength and intensity. Our heartbeat is a rhythm created from bringing the diverse stories of blind people together with a unifying belief that blindness is not the characteristic that defines our future. As more blind people hear our message and join our march, the rhythm grows stronger. The rhythm carries us through times of challenge and refuels us in times of celebration. As the tempo of society changes, we adjust to keep pace, and often our rhythm sets the standard of excellence. Steady, determined, and full of optimism for our future, we contribute to the heartbeat through local chapters, state affiliates, and our national organization. Individually we seek to live the lives we want, and collectively we transform our dreams into reality. We are the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. As the primary organization of blind people in the United States of America, we express an authenticity that can be hard to find elsewhere. Although our primary work is within the borders of our own country, the impact of our heartbeat -- our sharing spirit -- is felt around the world. In August 2016, the National Federation of the Blind hosted the quadrennial general assembly of the World Blind Union in Orlando, Florida -- the first time this meeting has been in the United States. Our involvement in international matters impacting the blind goes back more than fifty years, and we have been active in the World Blind Union since its beginning in 1984. However, our hosting the world meeting was a unique opportunity to share the Federation spirit around the world. The WBU General Assembly was held jointly with the meeting of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairments. The joint assemblies spanned eight full days of conference activities and included 857 registered participants from 124 countries. Although this gathering was smaller than our own convention, there were more complexities in the logistical arrangements. However, the complexities were successfully managed by the Federation leaders who volunteered their time to serve as greeters, marshals, information workers, and general problem solvers during the assemblies. Encountering blind volunteers was a new experience for most of the assembly delegates, but they will never forget the rhythm of the Federation heartbeat. By the end of the assemblies, blind delegates from around the world were joining Federationists in marshalling -- especially in languages our members do not speak -- and were providing their own mentoring in the "each-one-teach-one" style of the National Federation of the Blind. Our heartbeat is carried in the ideas and actions those delegates now bring to their home countries. Essential to the success of this undertaking was the skilled leadership of our host committee chairman Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President of the National Federation of the Blind, and the dynamic coordination of the volunteer team director Pam Allen, the Federation's first vice president. What will happen when all 285 million blind people around the world come to share the Federation heartbeat? For the first time, the World Blind Union has elected a president who lives the Federation philosophy every day and whose leadership has grown out of the Federation experience. The work of the National Federation of the Blind is expertly represented by the president of the World Blind Union, Dr. Fred Schroeder. Blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future, but that is not how some see it. Stacy Cervenka is a member of the National Federation of the Blind. Stacy and her husband Greg are both blind parents who seek to be active in their community as they raise their family -- blindness is not what holds them back. Last summer Stacy came across a campaign by the Foundation Fighting Blindness that was perpetuating misunderstanding about the capacity of blind people in order to raise money for medical research. The campaign challenged sighted people to capture themselves in a video performing an ordinary task while wearing a blindfold. While the suggested tasks ranged from boring to ridiculous, they all sent a harmful message. The most offensive suggestion asked blindfolded participants to attempt to supervise their children. The fearful message that effective parenting is not possible without sight was further emphasized by a video entitled, "What Would You Do If You Could Not See Your Children?" Stacy attempted to raise concerns about the campaign in social media, but her posts were ignored by the foundation. When others rallied to support Stacy, she was blocked from commenting on posts to the foundation's Facebook page. The heartbeat of the Federation, however, cannot be blocked. Members of the Federation mobilized in social media and quickly took over the #HowEyeSeeIt campaign. After ten days of concentrated action, sharing the truth about blindness, the foundation closed phase one of their campaign early and well short of their funding goal. More importantly, they publicly acknowledged the concerns of the National Federation of the Blind. We support funding for research on blindness but not at the expense of the lives we live today. We will not tolerate low expectations creating obstacles between blind people and our dreams -- that is how we see it. The misunderstanding that exists about blind people does real harm to families. Blind people face discrimination that interferes with their ability to be parents, grandparents, and caregivers for other family members. We have continued to advance model parental-rights legislation to protect blind people from discriminatory actions of former spouses, judges, and departments of social services. We have strengthened the laws in Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Legislation has been introduced in other states, and we will not rest until equality is the standard for blind parents and caregivers in every state in our nation. We continue to provide support to blind parents through the family network that is the National Federation of the Blind. Through our technical assistance, sharing of resources, mentoring efforts, and public education, we are supporting the bonds of love that make families thrive. Sometimes blind people do not come to know us before the discrimination happens. In the worst cases we need to involve our legal team to help. This year we have provided legal support to blind parents in California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and New York. We have also come to the aid of a mom in Nevada. In the spring of 2016, we learned about a blind mother on the eve of a hearing to terminate her parental rights. This young single mother had her one-month-old child removed from her custody by protective services based upon claims of health and safety concerns arising from her blindness. When the claims arose, the mom did not know any blind parents, she was not connected with the National Federation of the Blind, and she had all of the same doubts that every new parent faces -- blind or sighted. When we learned about the case, we secured local counsel, and our local affiliate swung into action. Under the leadership of Terri Rupp -- a blind mother and president of the NFB of Nevada -- we established a local support network for the mom, paired her with other blind parents, helped her get training at the Colorado Center for the Blind, and began educating the court about the techniques blind parents use. The daughter is now two years old, and the mom is still fighting to overcome the challenges caused by low expectations for the blind. Our heart beats with hers, and we will not let the bonds of love be broken -- we will not quit until mom and child are reunited. When we seek careers working with children, discrimination also occurs. In 2015 I shared with you the story of Jeanine Rockwell Owens, a member of ours from California who worked providing direct care to children. She had over thirty years of experience as a childcare provider and educator when suddenly her blindness became an issue. A parent's complaint about a blind woman taking care of her child caused Jeanine's employer to send her to a doctor who knew nothing about blindness. The doctor opined that a blind person could not safely take care of a child in a childcare-type setting, and Jeanine was fired. We filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge against both the doctor for aiding and abetting discrimination based on disability and against the employer for terminating Jeanine in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Although the fight has taken some time, I am pleased to report that this matter has been settled in favor of Jeanine, granting her a substantial amount of lost wages and recovering our attorney fees in full. The doctor has received training on how to properly assess the effect of blindness in the workplace, and the employer will develop policies to ensure that employees with disabilities are evaluated on their ability rather than their perceived limitations. The discriminatory tag team of doctor and employer are no match for the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. Safety concerns about blind people in the workplace are not limited to childcare situations. Jacob Struiksma is a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington. Through the Apollo employment agency, he applied for an information technology position with Zones Inc. -- a contractor for Microsoft. He was immediately hired. He reported to work for two days before being fired without any notice. He later received an email indicating that his termination was due to the safety risk of his being inside the busy warehouse environment and his inability to read small labels on wires. Zones did not ask Jacob about these concerns, what techniques he might use, or what accommodations they might offer. Zones took the risk of running into the National Federation of the Blind, and in return we did not ask Zones before filing a charge of employment discrimination. We know the law is on Jacob's side, and soon Apollo and Zones will learn this too. They will be held accountable for violating the law. As we work to raise expectations for blind employees, we also seek to improve opportunities to apply for work. Many state and local governments use Governmentjobs.com -- a private employment website -- as the exclusive means to post and accept applications for open positions. Governmentjobs.com is a goldmine of public sector jobs, unless you are blind. We wrote to Governmentjobs.com to share our experience with accessibility barriers on their site, and they initially refused to engage with us. Maybe they believed that there were not blind people who wanted to work. Maybe they believed equal access was a standard that did not apply to them. Whatever the reason, they now know the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. We spoke to government officials in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington, and we filed an EEOC complaint. We are now engaged in meaningful negotiation with Governmentjobs.com. We will continue to pursue equal access to job applications, equal treatment in the workplace, equal pay for equal work, and to knock down the other barriers that stand between blind people and their employment dreams. Effective movement around our communities and from city to city is critical as we pursue our goals. Our organization is providing leadership to the growing community of automobile manufacturers, technology companies, and policy makers discussing the revolution that autonomous vehicles will bring to our nation. In 2011 we built a car that blind people could drive before some of these companies even began to work on their cars of the future. In recognition of our leadership, earlier this year I presented the perspective of the National Federation of the Blind at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. We are a founding partner in the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, where our goal is to ensure autonomous vehicles are available to the blind at the same time they are available to everyone else. Our authentic leadership in this new area of transportation will innovate solutions that will benefit all riders. Ridesharing services are the fastest growing segment of the transportation industry -- Uber and Lyft being the most well known. We have received hundreds of complaints of discrimination about these two companies from blind people who use a guide dog. In response, the National Federation of the Blind secured long-term, nationwide agreements with both Uber and Lyft to protect the rights of blind riders with service animals. Our case against Uber is the first successful application of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the sharing economy. While we should celebrate the establishment of these agreements, our work is not done until we have fully eliminated the patterns of discrimination. In May we launched a nationwide, rideshare testing program to monitor the progress of Uber and Lyft in implementing new policies and procedures that prohibit discrimination. We are aggressively monitoring these agreements and enforcing penalties for compliance failures. The active participation of Federation members across the country will be critical in this effort over the next five years. A major provider of intercity bus transportation -- and in some places the only option -- is Greyhound, which uses a website and mobile app to provide riders with scheduling and booking services. Greyhound has failed to make its website accessible and has taken the position that mobile apps are not required to be accessible under the law. We disagree and believe that systemic discrimination against the blind should never get a green light. We have filed a class-action suit in California that seeks to compel Greyhound to make its online services fully and equally accessible and to recover monetary damages. In sharp contrast, one major travel-related website is not only putting a stop to accessibility barriers, they are trying to exceed expectations in access to online travel. A number of years ago Travelocity -- who had previously agreed to work with us on accessibility -- was bought by Expedia. When we raised questions about our existing agreement, Expedia eagerly welcomed a new collaborative agreement to make the extensive, online Expedia platform accessible and to subject the site to testing by the National Federation of the Blind. In April of this year, Expedia held a lunch to discuss the importance of accessibility with technology companies in Seattle and broadcast a lecture and discussion on accessibility to the entire Expedia Worldwide engineering group. The featured presenter for these important gatherings was the President of the National Federation of the Blind. We will hear more about Expedia's accessibility journey and commitments later in this convention. Beyond websites, we are aggressively pursuing equal access to the use of touchscreen kiosks, which can be found in government offices, schools, hospitals, restaurants, stores, and even on street corners. Many of these touchscreen devices are built upon the Apple iOS or Google Android operating system, both of which have screen-reading applications to provide nonvisual access to the blind. Yet frequently kiosk developers do not enable this important functionality for equal access. The Social Security Administration, for example, has check-in kiosks at nearly all of its offices. They tell us that these kiosks have been designed to provide access to the blind, but our experience is that they only provide frustration and disappointment. We reported the extent of the inaccessibility to Social Security, but rather than recognizing that a systemic problem existed, they chose a second-class fix hoping that we would go away. We intend to file suit against the agency shortly, and we will have first-class access to the kiosks. In most Walmart stores, you will find a kiosk near the pharmacy that provides basic information about your health: your weight, blood pressure, body mass index, and other important data points. These kiosks, manufactured by Pursuant Health, were not designed to be used by blind people. The Massachusetts attorney general and the National Federation of the Blind joined together to gain equal access to the kiosks. To Walmart's credit, they indicated that if the kiosks were not made accessible to our satisfaction, it would remove them. Pursuant Health, to its credit, recognized the importance of making these kiosks accessible and available to everyone. In August of last year, Pursuant Health entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the National Federation of the Blind, and they are making progress in fulfilling their commitment to make the kiosks fully accessible by the fourth quarter of 2018. New York City is the largest municipality in our nation. Recently, city officials have undertaken a project to replace New York's thousands of payphone booths with kiosks featuring Wi-Fi, battery charging, access to police and fire departments, map information, and other services. As these kiosks were deployed to street corners, they did not include accessibility for the blind. Shortly after last year's convention, we filed suit against the city and the kiosk manufacturer, and by January of this year we had an agreement to ensure equal access. Most of the functions of the kiosks are now accessible, and at this time next year, all of the functions must be accessible. New York sets the pace, and other cities will be seeking to find innovative applications for these kiosks. Thanks to the work of the National Federation of the Blind, all cities should know that accessibility must be included from the beginning. Our goal is to make accessibility the standard of our nation, and we are actively working on technology in many other places of public accommodation. This includes touchscreen devices used in retail chains such as Applebee's, Chili's, and Panera. Additionally, we have worked with the Avanti company whose kiosk is used in micro-market facilities that are replacing many traditional vending machines. This work benefits not just blind people seeking a quick snack but also the blind entrepreneurs who wish to grow their business opportunities. Similarly, we continue to provide leadership in ensuring equal access at retail checkout counters where inaccessible point-of-sale devices have prevented blind customers from privately and independently entering their financial information. In the last two years, we have reached agreements with several large corporations, such as Children's Place, J. Crew, and Williams-Sonoma, among others, resulting in a significant increase in the availability of accessible point-of-sale machines. Negotiation has not always worked. We have sued the Container Store for their inaccessible devices. The Container Store has attempted to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that each blind customer has agreed to settle their complaint out of court through binding arbitration. Consider the fact that the only way one can agree to the arbitration clause is by reading and agreeing to it on the inaccessible flat screen that is the subject of our complaint. The federal district court in Massachusetts denied Container Store's motion, but they have appealed the ruling. We will not be bound by inaccessibility, the law is on our side, and we urge the Container Store and other retailers to think outside the box of unequal access. Our heartbeat is strong and we plan to participate fully in society -- we are the National Federation of the Blind. We also seek equal access to American democracy with the goal of all blind people having a fair opportunity to participate in electing those who represent us in the halls of power. Last year we brought suits in Ohio and New York with the hope of preventing inaccessible websites from diminishing the ability of blind people to register and access voting. In Ohio, the trial judge ordered the secretary of state to make the secretary's website accessible but declined to order the secretary to make an accessible absentee ballot-marking tool available. The website ruling was an important victory, but equal access does not yet exist, so we have appealed the ruling on the absentee ballot-marking tool to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In New York the state has dug in its heels and continues to fight our attempt to ensure that the websites for the New York State Board of Elections and the Department of Motor Vehicles are accessible. We expect positive results before the end of this year. Despite the existing barriers, we continue to expand our outreach to blind voters. We have added a Spanish version of our "Blind Voter Experience" video to the online resources we already make available. On November 8, we operated a toll-free, nationwide Election Day hotline for blind voters, poll workers, and protection and advocacy personnel to assist with barriers faced by blind voters. In addition, we again conducted post-election surveys, and we presented the results to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Election Law. Our data reveals our progress as demonstrated by the positive trend in the number of blind voters who successfully cast their ballots at the polls with an accessible voting machine. However, the survey results also illuminate persistent barriers due to the attitudes and lack of accessibility knowledge among poll workers. There is still more work to be done in voting; and our desire for full participation in our democracy fuels our determination. Consider also the participation of blind people as candidates for political office. Tim Nonn was running for one of five seats on a contentiously divided school board in Sonoma County, California, in the 2016 election. In the midst of the campaign, Tim suddenly became blind as a result of ocular surgery. Notwithstanding a lot of questions about how to function with blindness, Tim continued with the campaign and was elected to a school board position by a landslide of votes. In order to independently manage his responsibilities, Tim requested permission to bring his personal reader to public board meetings at no cost to the school district. One would think that attendance of a reader at a public meeting would not be controversial. However, three politically opposed school board members -- representing the majority -- voted to exclude Tim's reader from public meetings. They did not stop there. They went as far as publicly mocking their political opponent and suggested he was faking blindness for his political advantage even after Tim provided a letter from his doctor. The National Federation of the Blind will not tolerate the use of blindness and unequal treatment against the blind for political gain by any public official in the same way that we should not tolerate discriminatory politics based on other characteristics. We assisted Tim Nonn in filing a lawsuit in federal court. Today, school board member Tim Nonn has a reader during board meetings, our costs have been recovered, and Tim can be counted as another member in the strong heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. Our organization continues to provide leadership to our elected representatives in Washington, DC. While many disability advocates viewed the outcomes of the 2016 elections as something to fear, the National Federation of the Blind has sought opportunities to advance the understanding of blindness and strengthen the future for the blind. In the 115th Congress we are pursuing and monitoring more legislative issues than ever before. In all that we do we seek support -- not from a specific party but from everyone in a position to make a difference. Blindness impacts all segments of our society, and we continue to find success in working with those interested in equality for the blind. This is best observed in our effort to eliminate the discriminatory practice of unequal pay for people with disabilities that is embedded in Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Support for our position was included in both the Democratic and Republican platforms last summer, and our Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment legislation has support from members of both parties. Similarly, our efforts to provide tax credits to the blind to make it easier for those seeking work to secure critical access technologies, to establish accessibility guidelines for instructional materials used in postsecondary education, and to knock down the barriers to sharing accessible works around the world are all gaining increasing support by leaders from both sides of the aisle. During our Washington Seminar we held our second Congressional Reception, where six members of the United States House of Representatives and four members of the United States Senate -- representing both political parties -- came to join with the blind of America in raising expectations for our participation in society. We will hear from members of Congress from both parties later in this convention. From local communities across the country we come together to speak for ourselves. Our voice, our heartbeat, carries an authenticity that is unmatche! d in the halls of power. Education is essential to our full participation and our ability to achieve our dreams. This year, our organization negotiated on behalf of several blind college students who faced horrendous accessibility barriers at their respective universities. The result was broad systemic agreements with Wichita State and Southern Oregon University. Additionally, after more than two years of battle, we resolved claims for Aleeha Dudley, who was a pre-veterinarian major at Miami University of Ohio. Our efforts were successful in expunging the low grades that she had received as a result of being denied equally effective communication, compensating her for the unequal treatment, and reimbursing part of the Federation's expenses to assist in the case. The historic agreement between Aleeha, the United States Department of Justice, and the university is now the blueprint for ensuring accessibility for the blind at schools across the nation. With some schools we have found opportunities to work collaboratively to implement best practices in accessibility. One significant partner is found in Harvard University, where we are supporting their efforts to make accessibility a priority. We initially approached Harvard about barriers faced by individual blind students, and we challenged the leaders at Harvard to set a high standard that other schools might strive to meet. Harvard has accepted the challenge and is now providing leadership in discussions about accessibility. Harvard opened the door for the National Federation of the Blind to provide featured presentations to the fall symposium of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the annual conference of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. We continue to collect resources and best practices from the schools seeking to be leaders in accessibility, and we share them through our Higher Education Accessibility Online Resource Center found at nfb.org. Successful completion of high-stakes tests is often required to gain entry into educational programs or to advance in a career. We continue to knock down the barriers that threaten to bar our participation in these tests. One example of our work is found in the story of Iowa resident Kristen Steele, who was seeking a career as a massage therapist. In order for her to practice, she had to pass the Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination. Kristen has been a Braille reader since age three, so she requested the use of refreshable Braille for the exam. The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards denied her request and told her she had to use a human reader. Kristen could have elected to say nothing, attempted the exam with a reader, and only she would have known the difference. She understood in her heart that the denial was discriminatory and that if she did not stand up it would hurt the Braille readers that came after her. She heard the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind, and with our help she bravely filed suit to gain the equal access she deserved. Last month, Kristen Steele took the exam using refreshable Braille, she passed the exam, and today she is here at this convention as a certified therapist. We continue to reach out to testing companies to advance accessibility in high-stakes testing, and we will not stop until each of the testing companies receives an A for accessibility. We create opportunities to ensure blind children have the best access to education as early as possible. We partner to distribute free Braille books, slate and stylus sets, child-sized white canes, and the Future Reflections magazine to thousands of families annually. Through our Braille Certification Training Program -- which we operate for the Library of Congress -- we maintain a high standard for individuals seeking to be transcribers and proofreaders of Braille, working with hundreds of trainees each year. Yet our network of skilled role models who serve as advocates for the next generation of blind youth and their families is what makes the real difference. Examples of our advocacy during the past year include securing relief for an eighth-grade student in the Chesterfield, Virginia, school district who faced an inaccessible technology platform that made it impossible for a blind student to access any of the materials their sighted peers were using. We negotiated an agreement on behalf of a blind elementary student in Kansas whose mother's requests for desperately needed Braille instruction and tactile graphics were being ignored by the school district. And we assisted a four-and-a-half-year-old child who was brutally beaten by his father, which resulted in his blindness. There are more families who do not yet know us. There are other blind children who are held down by low expectations. We must find imaginative ways to secure greater funding and build a more robust network so that no blind child lives without the National Federation of the Blind. Through the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute we test the limits of blindness and develop innovative programs to create a future full of opportunities. Our research and training institute is a tool for sharing information and building programs throughout our fifty-two affiliates across the country. This will be our tenth summer offering independence and opportunity to blind youth through our Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academy. We expect thirty-five of our affiliates to offer fifty academies by the end of the summer with the theme of "Growing Readers. Growing Leaders." The NFB BELL Academies feature blind mentors, a fun and engaging curriculum, and training for parents. Most importantly, the academies are sharing the Federation heartbeat with the teachers, children, and families who participate. We continue to create opportunities for the blind in science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Through our National Center for Blind Youth in Science initiative we are developing the future innovators of our nation. Last summer we empowered forty blind youth by teaching them engineering design, and we extended the impact by providing forty educators with four days of professional development on access to STEM. This summer we will go even further through our tenth anniversary National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam on the campus of Towson University where blind students and blind mentors will explore some of the most cutting-edge aspects of STEM education. Additionally, we have applied our expertise to science museums across the country. Through our work, Baltimore's Port Discovery implemented BlindSquare for indoor navigation; San Francisco's Exploratorium created a tactile map of their building; COSI in Columbus implemented a fully accessible planetarium show; Boston's Museum of Science enhanced accessibility of its theater of electricity; and the Science Museum of Minnesota hosted a webinar for museum educators about making learning activities and environments accessible to blind learners. We are building the capacity to ensure that accessibility is the rule rather than the exception in the design, development, and implementation of technology. We have concentrated our expertise into an initiative known as the Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Access to Information in Education, Public Information, and Commerce. Accomplishments from the past year include hosting more than three hundred visitors and responding to over 1,600 calls to our International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind in Baltimore; facilitating training on everything from the accessibility of Google and Amazon products to wearable technologies and accessible gaming; providing accessibility expertise to major projects like the complete redesign of the web-based platforms used by the New York City Public Schools; and infusing more blind people into the testing and evaluation of technologies through our Blind Users Innovating and Leading Design pilot program. In addition, we have launched an online community of practice for industry practitioners, employees, and consumers to stimulate accessibility initiatives within organizations and corporations. The National Federation of the Blind Accessibility Switchboard -- found at www.accessibilityswitchboard.org -- creates an open forum for sharing of best practices and case studies in accessibility. The exchange of effective practices for building a culture of accessibility should not be a trade secret. Our switchboard will accelerate equal access to technology for all and ensure that the National Federation of the Blind is part of the innovations at every stage. We continue to innovate technology solutions to solve the real problems of blindness. Earlier this year we brought our industry-leading KNFB Reader mobile application to the Windows platform, giving unprecedented access to this powerful technology on tablets, phones, and desktops for less than one hundred dollars. We also launched KNFB Reader Enterprise, which gives users the ability to utilize the application on multiple operating systems. KNFB Reader is also available to users of HumanWare's BrailleNote Touch. Giving blind people powerful access to information anywhere they need it is our goal. What is our next dream? To bring the power of KNFB Reader to wearable technology platforms. Today we are announcing our plan to bring KNFB Reader to the Aira platform, which uses smart glasses to equip blind people with powerful access to information tools. What if you could just look toward a printed sign and ask your glasses to read it? Through the power of KNFB Reader and the Aira platform, this dream will become a reality. The NFB-NEWSLINE program is the longest running and most extensive technology project we have undertaken -- now spanning more than twenty years. Available in 46 states and the District of Columbia, the service provides, at no charge to its 115,491 subscribers, access to 366 newspapers, 24 breaking news sources, 17 international newspapers, 60 magazines, television listings, weather alerts, job listings, shopping ads, information about candidates for political office, and resources from the National Federation of the Blind. Accessible via touchtone phone, web browser, mobile application, email, or Wi-Fi-enabled device, NFB-NEWSLINE equips blind people with timely information in the most suitable format to meet their needs. This year we have launched the availability of all available publications in downloadable Braille files. We want NFB-NEWSLINE, like KNFB Reader, to be in all of the places where it is needed and to be as easy to access as possible. At this convention, we are widely rolling out beta testing on a device that you do not have to touch in order to get access to all of the rich NFB-NEWSLINE content -- you need only ask for it. We are now seeking NFB-NEWSLINE users to beta test our NFB-NEWSLINE skill for the Amazon Echo. This is the first time the service interface is enabled through the spoken word. We will need to learn what works, what does not, and what innovations blind people will imagine through this new interface. Our future is only limited by our ability to imagine and build the solutions we seek. The stories in this report are only a representative sample of our accomplishments this year, and there is much more that we plan to achieve in the future. The scope of our work is impressive, the depth of our efforts is complex, and the spirit of our movement is unbreakable. I am proud of what we have done together, and I am moved by the difference it makes in the lives of blind people, including my own, every day. Without you, these accomplishments would not be possible. The energy, time, imagination, money, and heart you put into our movement at the local, state, and national levels power us forward to a future where we know anything is possible. Thank you for pledging to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind, and accept my humble appreciation for the heart you share with our movement. It has been my deepest honor to coordinate our work as President of this great organization. I am inspired and challenged to do even better by the love, hope, and determination you put into this family of ours. Despite our record of success, I am well aware that there are those we have not yet found, there are barriers that still cause us real pain, and there are dreams that we have not yet realized. You have my commitment to give to our movement all that is required, to make personal sacrifices so that tomorrow may be better for all of us, and to grow our organization in ways that we have not yet imagined. I will do these things and more, and I seek your help and support in those efforts. The next phase of our movement starts today, and it will require the heart of each of us to achieve all that we imagine. As I come to the close of my report for 2017, I acknowledge the bond of faith we share and call us to action: Together with love, hope, and determination, let us transform our dreams into reality. ---------- A Word of Thanks for Our Scholarship Partners by Patti Chang The National Federation of the Blind scholarship program is the largest in the United States. Each year we award more than $120,000 in cash prizes. Our generous partners add to both cash awards and prizes. We want to take this opportunity to recognize the partners who contribute to our scholarships and those who add cash and prizes to help make this the dynamic program that it is. Our young winners are living the lives they want, and we sincerely thank those who believe in the capacity of the blind. You help make dreams come true. Thank you so very much. Many NFB scholarships are made possible in part through the support of the Jesse and Hertha Adams Charitable Trust. Through the trust, Jesse and Hertha Adams wanted to help people with disabilities lead productive and meaningful lives. Some scholarships are supported by the Lillian S. Edelstein Trust. All scholarships that are awarded to blind women and are not otherwise endowed are made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of Dorothy R. Olson. Before we thank specific scholarship donors, we need to thank several partners who add cash and prizes to each of our winners' packages. The Kurzweil Foundation and Ray Kurzweil add $1,000 to each recipient's award. Ray Kurzweil is a long-time friend of the Federation and deserves our special recognition. Google adds another $1,000 to each winner's scholarship. Our students receive a Chromebook from Google as well. Cary Supalo and Independence Science give a generous certificate toward the purchase of a Sci-Voice Talking LabQuest. From the Federation each student also receives a license for the KNFB Reader app, the leading app designed for low-vision and blind people giving access to print on-the-go. As to our specific scholarships, we begin by expressing our gratitude to the collective membership of the NFB for funding many National Federation of the Blind Scholarships. These awards recognize and honor achievement by blind scholars. We have one NFB Science and Engineering Division Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to a student studying in a STEM or related field. The science and engineering division is a group of blind students, professionals, and individuals committed to the success of the blind in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or a related field. The science and engineering division wishes to encourage the success of blind STEM students in their chosen field of study. We thank Expedia for two awards. These scholarships are awarded to students studying in STEM fields or any other field of study relevant to Expedia's business. The E. U. and Gene Parker Scholarship honors two longtime leaders of the National Federation of the Blind whose participation stood for strong principles and strong support of the Federation's work. We are also thankful for the $3,000 Charles and Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship. In funding this scholarship Charles wrote, "There shall be no limitation as to field of study, except that it shall be directed toward attaining financial independence." Thanks go to Betty Allen for funding the Charles and Betty Allen Scholarship. This scholarship is given by a longtime leader in the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky. Betty and her late husband Charles began this scholarship prior to his passing to support young people in attaining higher education. Charlie, who was extremely successful, left school at an early age to care for his family, but he retained a strong belief in education. Our Larry Streeter Memorial Scholarship is next. Federationist Larry Streeter worked tirelessly to ensure quality education for blind and disabled children inside and outside of the classroom. His wife Sandy and their daughters Erin and Jennifer, along with friends and colleagues, sponsor this scholarship to carry on Dr. Streeter's promotion of higher education that will assist blind students to elevate their quality of life, equipping them to be active, productive participants in their family, community, and workplace. Our next contributors remain anonymous. You know who you are, and we all thank you very much. The Adrienne Asch Memorial Scholarship is given in loving memory of Dr. Adrienne Asch, a consummate scholar and a longtime member of our scholarship committee. We also have four $5,000 awards for which we are thankful. The Pearson award is funded by Pearson Education and is given to a student who plans a career in education. For Pearson, learning is a never-ending road of discovery. The Mimi and Marvin Sandler award is funded by longtime friends of the Federation, Mr. and Mrs. Sandler. Marvin Sandler served as president of Independent Living Aids for more than thirty years. His wife and he wish to further academic excellence by sponsoring this award. We have two $5,000 Charles and Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarships. First established by Charles Owen in loving memory of his blind wife, these awards are now endowed by his last will and testament to honor the memory of both. In founding the scholarships, Charles Owen wrote: "There shall be no limitation as to field of study, except that it shall be directed toward attaining financial independence." This year we have two $8,000 scholarships, both donated by Oracle. Thank you, Oracle. The first is the Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in Computer Science. Oracle seeks to hire the best and brightest talent to build its products. They recognize the significant impact that their products and technologies can have on people with disabilities. This scholarship is for a student in the field of computer science, computer engineering, user experience, or related field. The second is the Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in a STEM Field. This scholarship awards academic excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Oracle wishes to promote excellence and funds this scholarship based on Oracle's understanding of its impact on disabled employees and customers throughout the globe. Our $10,000 scholarship is the JAWS for Windows Scholarship. This scholarship is funded by the developers of the JAWS screen reader, part of VFO Group. The developers of JAWS (Job Access With Speech) have been committed to expanding the opportunities of both education and employment for the blind with both speech and Braille since the late 1980's. In establishing this award VFO said, "On behalf of all the individuals responsible for the development and support of this product over the years, we are honored to establish this scholarship for students recognized by the Federation." Finally, we have our most prestigious award the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship for $12,000. This scholarship is given yearly by the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, a nonprofit organization that works to assist blind people and that creates Twin Vision publications and distributes them through the Kenneth Jernigan Library. Kenneth Jernigan is viewed by our field as the most important figure in the twentieth century in the lives of blind people. The Action Fund wishes to keep fresh and current in the twenty-first century the understandings he brought to the field and thus has endowed this scholarship dedicated to his memory and to the continuation of the work he began. These scholarships award academic excellence and promote leadership in the blindness community. They are possible because of the contributions of many individuals and partners. We sincerely thank each and every one of you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: The 2017 Scholarship Class: Back row left to right: Andrew Sydlik, Rachel Metz Wellington, Catherine Jacobson, Tabea Nadine Meyer, Chelsea Peahl, Luke A. Schwinck, Ayoub Zurikat aka Job, Cricket Xiao Jiu Bidleman, Sophie Trist, Shannon KS Cantan; Middle row: Qusay Hussein, James N. Yesel, Wayne Thomas Smith III, Carla L. Scroggins, Regina D. Mitchell, Aneri Brahmbhatt, Maureen Marcella Nietfeld, Heather Simmons, Trinh Phuong Thi Ha, and Jackie Mushington-Anderson; Front row: Ibeth Miranda, Zeynep S. Yilmaz, Cassandra Francheska Mendez, Lindsay Ball, Gloria A. Rodriguez, Efose Oriaifo, Alyssa Shock, Melissa Ann Carney, and Katherine Elizabeth Brafford] Meet the 2017 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Class The head of the scholarship committee, Patti Chang, introduced the 2017 Scholarship Class with these words: Thank you, Mr. President. I love the fact that we just talked about bringing money in; now we're going to talk about sending it out. Now, I want to tell you just a bit about this class. This class is especially interesting; we certainly have a variety of people in it. We have very few lawyers in it, for one [laughter]. We have a whole lot of people who want to be psychologists or therapists -- don't see that very often -- wishing Jeannie was here to mentor all of them, but I'm sure she will over the year. This is a class that I have to dub as The Class Who Does Not Know How to Be Brief, so I'm hoping that they'll prove me wrong. But when we asked them to briefly describe their career goals, one of them did it in less than three lines, and I think a third of them went way over their time. So please, please, please guys, prove me wrong on this one. Each scholar was introduced with their name, the state that they are from, and the state in which they will be attending school. "tenBroek" indicates that they have previously won scholarships from the National Federation of the Blind. Here is what they have to say about their hopes, plans, and the lives they want to live: Jackie Anderson, Georgia, Georgia, tenBroek: Through my involvement with the first BELL Program in Maryland in 2008, I've learned the importance of parental involvement in developing Braille literacy. This is what I will continue to study as I pursue my doctoral degree, where I'll be focusing on parental involvement and its impact on Braille literacy. I want to thank the Federation for believing in me. Thank you. Lindsay Ball, Maine, New York: I will be attending SUNY Brockport [State University of New York] this fall to earn my second bachelor's degree in adaptive physical education. I was a Paralympic athlete in Sochi, so I will be helping other blind and visually-impaired students learn that they can be athletes and physically active. I do that as a volunteer right now -- I'm the vice president of the main organization for blind athletic and leadership education. Cricket Bidleman, California, California: First I'd like to thank Patti Chang, President Riccobono, and the scholarship committee for believing in me and awarding me the scholarship. Life is about sharing stories, so here's mine. I was adopted from China when I was three. China, where if I had been unlucky enough to have a career, it would have been in prostitution. In America I have so many opportunities, but I still recognize the unique problems that blind people face every day because I am one of you. The NFB has taught me to advocate for myself and to teach others to live the lives that we want. Next year I will be attending Stanford University with the goal of attaining a PhD and becoming a college professor so that I can teach other people to live the lives they want. Thank you. Katherine Brafford, California, California: Good morning. I'm fascinated by the intersection between science and religion. I'm majoring in plant sciences at the University of California-Davis and minoring in religious studies. I hope to become an Episcopal priest specializing in ecological issues. I'm really thankful to the NFB for all the decades of work that have gone on before I was born, as well as the specific support I have received. Without the NFB my dreams would just be fantastical impossibilities, but instead they are tangible. I want to pass on the help that I have received. As part of that I have become vice president of the Southern Oregon chapter and president of the Oregon Student Association. I'm having a wonderful time at my first convention and learning a ton from all you amazing people. I'm so honored to be a scholarship finalist and look forward to continue learning here. Aneri Brahmbhatt, Illinois, Tennessee: Hi, everyone. This is my first convention, and this fall I will be starting my freshman year at Belmont University in Nashville. I am pursuing a degree in music and entertainment business, so if you want a record deal, hit me up in four years[laughter]. I am so excited to be here at my first convention. This place is amazing. I love everyone's enthusiasm for our cause here, and I look forward to getting to know all of you over the next many, many decades. Shannon Cantan, Hawaii, Hawaii: Hello, fellow Federationists. Thank you, Scholarship Chair Patti Chang, President Riccobono, and the scholarship committee. What does, "Live the life you want," mean? At seventeen years old I believed it meant girls, junk food, sports, and accepting that blind people could never be parents or ever have a job. At twenty-seven years old I'm helping raise my baby nephew, I'm reading him Braille books almost every single day. I'm pursuing my master's degree in business administration, and I am an active member of the National Federation of the Blind, and I am living the life I want and living the life I deserve [applause]. Melissa Carney, Connecticut, Massachusetts: Hi, everyone. I'm a rising junior at Mt. Holyoke College, double-majoring in English and Psychology. I want to start by thanking the scholarship committee for this honor. This is my first national convention, so it's been a great experience, and I'm taking every opportunity to further my independence. Ideally in the future I want to become a clinical psychologist, and I feel that the NFB has given me chances to be more of a leader, so thank you. Trinh Ha, Arkansas, Arkansas: Hi, everyone. It is a huge honor to be here today. I moved to the US from Vietnam in 2012. I'll be going into my second year at the University of Central Arkansas, studying nutrition. I want to be a registered dietician or a chiropractor. Yes, I'm blind, and yes, as Ms. Chang said, I'm a little shy, but I have not and will never let my blindness or my fear stop me from making my hopes and my dreams become reality. Thank you everyone, and have a great convention. Afton Harper, Missouri, Missouri: Well, I'm fresh out of high school. I will be going to Missouri State University in the fall as a freshman with some college credits, and I will be pursuing a major in journalism with a minor in photography. I've had a lot of struggles with my photography career, but I've found adaptive technology that I'm actually able to use for my camera, so that's wonderful. I hope to meet some more of you throughout the week. Thank you. Qusay Hussein, Texas, Texas: Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Ms. Patti, thank you, Mr. President. As I mentioned before, when I lost my vision in 2006 I was studying to become a plastic surgeon. But I lost my vision, and I switched to psychology, and I am studying right now to become a psychologist. I study at Austin Community College. I serve on the board for the Austin Chapter, I serve on the board of the student affiliate in Texas, and I am a mentor in the College Prep program in Texas. Catherine Jacobson, Minnesota, Minnesota: I just graduated from Hamlin University with a double major. I am really proud of my 3.9 GPA, but I believe that most of my growth came from outside of the classroom. I've held ten leadership positions in my university, including being editor-in-chief of our literary and arts journal. I've had life-changing internships at the Jernigan Institute and the United States Senate. In the fall I'll be starting my master of public health at the University of Minnesota, and I hope to conduct nonpartisan health care policy analysis. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Cassandra Mendez, Ohio, Ohio: Good morning, Federationists. This fall I'll be continuing my bachelor of science at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in the computer science engineering program. I've been honored to serve in the National Organization of Albinism and Hyperpigmentation as a writer for the quarterly magazine for three years. Ultimately I would love to go into the field of access technology to help us all live the lives we want. Thank you. Tabea Meyer, Colorado, Colorado, tenBroek: Good morning. Thank you, scholarship committee and national board. I am a master of social work student at the University of Denver to serve youth and marginalized communities. I am honored, grateful, and humbled to be here. I've served the Colorado Association of Blind Students and the Denver Metro Chapter. I deeply appreciate you, our leaders, on whose shoulders I stand, benefiting from your sacrifice, learning from your wisdom, and continuing your legacy as an activist on whose shoulders I truly hope future generations stand with confidence. Thank you. Ibeth Miranda, Texas, Texas: Hello, everyone. I would like to begin by thanking the scholarship committee again for giving me the opportunity to be here today -- thank you. I am currently working on a doctoral degree in developmental education at Texas State University. My goals for the future are to be an educator and a researcher to help students in postsecondary education persist and complete their educations. Thank you. Regina Mitchell, Nevada, Nevada: Thank you, Patti Chang, and thank you, scholarship committee for investing in me. I really appreciate it. Currently I am a nontraditional college student attending the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and I am majoring in psychology as well as neuroscience. My goal is to become a cellular immunologist. I would like to research and have a treatment for autoimmune deficiency diseases. Thank you so much for investing in me, and I hope to have a lifetime fellowship here with the Federationists, and I'm just so proud to be here. Thank you so much. Maureen Nietfeld, Colorado, Colorado: I had no confidence in myself as a blind person before receiving the message of the National Federation of the Blind while receiving my training at the Colorado Center for the Blind [cheers]. I am now able to share that message with my students at CCB and also through my YouTube channel BreakingBlind, where I have over 15,000 subscribers. I am studying human nutrition and dietetics at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and I hope to empower others through health and wellness. Thank you to the committee and to the National Federation of the Blind. Efose Oriaifo, Virginia, Massachusetts: Good morning. I would like to thank Ms. Patti Chang, the scholarship committee, the NFB, and the board of directors for giving me this wonderful opportunity. For a long time my life has been all about overcoming the odds from my racing and taking part in my school's mountain bike team to leading my high school's science Olympiad team. Just like my fully sighted peers, like Nelson Mandela said, "It always seems impossible until it's done." In ten years time I see myself in a research lab investigating therapies for cancer and other genetic diseases. Once again I'd like to thank the scholarship committee for believing in me so much. Chelsea Peahl, Utah, Utah: Hi. I first want to start out by thanking both the scholarship committee as well as my own affiliate, who has pushed me to be the person that I am today. I am a junior at Utah Valley University, studying behavioral science with an emphasis on family studies, with the ultimate goal to go into law and advocacy. I know how it feels to feel like I don't have a voice, and I plan on spending the rest of my life being a voice for those who need one. I read a quote once that said, "Great leaders don't start out with the mission to be a great leader; they just start out wanting to make a difference." That's all I want to do. I thank you so much for investing in my future; I promise to show you that you won't regret this. Thank you. Gloria Rodriguez, Washington, Washington: Maxine Hong Kingston once said, "In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; or a peaceful moment." Positively positive. This is the quote I live by, and maybe I take it a little too literally, because I seek to study destructive natural disasters, prep, and recovery. I grew up as low-income, first-generation, and blind. Absolutely nothing was expected of me. But I quickly learned that anybody can create something and create their own legacy, no matter who they are. Thank you very much. I love you all. Luke Schwinck, Kansas, Kansas: Thank you, everyone. Thank you to the committee. Thank you for everyone in the NFB who has taught me that it is in fact respectable to be blind. This has led me to a career in what I think I excel at; that is, talking a lot. That talking is used for sport marketing. I love going out and making new relationships, I love facilitating needs that I can discover, and you can't discover those needs unless you talk to people. I am routinely yelled at by my wife and my superiors that I stop and talk too much. I would encourage you all to stop me and talk to me because I don't care. Thank you. Carla Scroggins, California, California: Good morning. First of all, thank you to the scholarship committee, to the board, and hello Federation family. I will be attending the University of California-Davis in the fall as a junior, political science major. I intend to then continue with a concurrent degree program to reach a law degree and a master's in political science, ultimately reaching my goal of a PhD in international relations. I hope to work in the international community, potentially -- hopefully -- policy analyst, something like that. I appreciate very much the investment that's been made in me by this fantastic organization, and I look forward to spending a long time just giving back. Thank you so much. Alyssa Shock, New Jersey, New Jersey: Go New Jersey! Good evening -- or good morning -- oh my goodness! I want to thank the scholarship committee for giving me this opportunity, because I'm studying to be a mental health counselor. I'm studying psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and to that end I am also currently answering calls on a hotline for people who are suffering from struggles with sexual violence. Also, recently I have been tutoring a student in fourth grade, helping her. I'm hoping that those opportunities will help me live the life I want as a mental health counselor, and thank you to the NFB for helping me along to this goal. Thank you so much. Heather Simmons, California, California: Good morning. I would like to extend my gratitude to the President and scholarship committee for bringing me to my first convention. I just graduated with my bachelors in English from CalState-Bakersfield, and I will enter the master's program at CalState-Stanislaus this fall. I am quite active in both journalism and theater in my community and on my campus. And one day I hope to be a literature professor. Thank you. Thomas Smith, Maryland, Maryland: Morning, everyone. I would like to first thank the board of directors, Patti Chang, and the scholarship committee for this wonderful opportunity. I am going to the University of Maryland hoping to -- or I will -- gain a bachelor's degree in both computer engineering and electrical engineering. I hope to work with people like Cassandra to increase the technology that we have at our disposal to help us with accessibility. Thank you very much. Andrew Sydlik, Ohio, Ohio: Hi, everyone. I am a PhD student at the Ohio State University studying disability studies and American literature. I teach students about the misconceptions and prejudices toward blindness and other disabilities. When I graduate next year, I hope I continue to do that working with students. I've presented my research all around the country and world, including recently in Paris, France. I have been involved in founding a student disability group. This is my first convention, and hopefully the first of many. Thank you. Sophie Trist, Louisiana, Louisiana: A few of my fellow scholarship finalists have come to you with wonderful, inspiring quotes and words that have been passed down. I am going to be a rising sophomore at Loyola University New Orleans, where I'm pursuing a degree in English with a focus in writing. I hope to use my words and my talent to make the dreams of the National Federation of the Blind a reality. I want to thank the NFB for helping to make my dreams a reality. Rachel Wellington, Georgia, Georgia: Good morning, everyone. I just graduated high school. In high school I served as captain of my school's dive team for three years, and for two years I was the leader for a student-lead youth group. I'm entering the University of Georgia with a major in biological engineering with a focus in assistive technology, and I hope to enter law school to study patent law. This is my very first convention experience, and my very first experience with the NFB. That being said, I am ready to join the ranks of blind people who overcome obstacles and shatter expectations. Thank you. James Yesel, North Dakota, North Dakota: Hello, everybody. I would like to say thank you to the scholarship committee and the Federation in general. I'm going to be attending Dickinson State University. I will be a senior this semester. I'm going to be majoring in business administration and human resources, and my goal is to be an entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs will tell you that you should do what you want to do; the more you hesitate, the more the opportunity could be missed. I think the NFB would agree with that. I think we should do what we want to do, and we can do what we want to do. Thank you. Zeynep Yilmaz, Arizona, Arizona: Good morning, my Federation family. I am originally from Turkey and am still hoping that we would have a convention in Istanbul [laughter]. In Turkey, unfortunately, we do not have many opportunities for blind people to have core blindness skills and even career options. But I was really lucky to have my blind mentors who believed in me and really supported me to become an independent person who does not listen to others, especially the ones who have low expectations like my teachers. In 2011 I came to the United States. I received my master's in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Right now I am pursuing my PhD in rehabilitation counselor education at the University of Arizona, and my ultimate goal is to train future rehabilitation counselors who will not have low expectations. Thank you so much to the scholarship committee for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I am really honored to be one of the scholarship recipients, and thank you so much. Ayoub Zurikat, Texas, Illinois: Good day to all of you. I am originally from the Middle East. I am Jordanian. I got my undergraduate degree in theology and philosophy and then a master's degree in human services. I intend to get another master's degree in clinical psychology from Wheaton College, and I hope it will lead to a PhD. For the past twelve years I have had the honor of serving troubled teenagers and university students all over the Middle East, and I hope to be able to do that here as well through my master's and then leading to the PhD. I want to quickly thank two groups of people: in this movie called The Shawshank Redemption, there is this one line that I had carved on a plaque, and the line goes like this: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." So first, I want to thank the NFB for teaching me how to turn a disability into a hope. And the second group of people I want to thank -- by disability I am family, but by race I am an outsider -- so I want to thank Americans. I have lived here for two years. And I have been welcomed by nothing but kindness and love and honesty. Thank you, NFB, and thank you, America, as well. [PHOTO CAPTION: Maureen Nietfeld] At the banquet Maureen Nietfeld won the $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. Here is what she said: Oh my God, this is a surreal moment for me [cheering]! When I lost my sight I dreamed of being confident, and I dreamed of being independent and successful. I dreamed of being able to go back to work and go to school. Thank you to the Colorado Center for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind -- my dreams became a reality! Thank you so much to my husband David, for your love and support. Thank you to the scholarship committee for your mentorship and your investment in all of us. Thank you to all the members of the National Federation of the Blind for giving me love, hope, and determination. Let's go build the Federation! [cheers, applause] Following is a complete list of 2017 scholarship finalists and the awards they received. In addition to the awards listed below, each finalist also received: $1,000 and additional prizes personally donated by Dr. Ray Kurzweil; $1,000 from Google and the newest Chromebook; and a $1,000 certificate to the purchase of Independence Science technologies, specifically the new Sci-Voice Talking LabQuest. $3,000 NFB Scholarships (14): Lindsay Ball, Aneri Brahmbhatt, Melissa Carney, Trinh Ha, Afton Harper, Qusay Hussein, Catherine Jacobson, Ibeth Miranda, Efose Oriaifo, Gloria Rodriguez, Alyssa Shock, Sophie Trist, Zeynep Yilmaz, and Ayoub Zurikat. $3,000 Expedia Scholarships (2): Cassandra Mendez and Thomas Smith $3,000 Adrienne Asch Memorial Scholarship: Andrew Sydlik $3,000 Charles and Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship: Carla Scroggins $3,000 E. U. and Gene Parker Scholarship: James Yesel $3,000 Charles and Betty Allen Scholarship: Cricket Bidleman $3,000 NFB Science and Engineering Division Scholarship: Rachel Wellingon $3,000 Larry Streeter Memorial Scholarship: Heather Simmons $5,000 Charles and Melva T. Owen Scholarship (2): Shannon Cantan and Tabea Meyer $5,000 Mimi and Marvin Sandler Scholarship: Luke Schwinck $5,000 Pearson Scholarship: Chelsea Peahl $8,000 Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in a STEM Field: Regina Mitchell $8,000 Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in Computer Science: Katherine Brafford $10,000 JAWS for Windows Scholarship: Jackie Anderson $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship: Maureen Nietfeld ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] Innovation, Blindness, and the Emerging Pattern of Thought An Address Delivered by Mark A. Riccobono, President At the Banquet of the Annual Convention Of the National Federation of the Blind Orlando, Florida July 15, 2017 Consider with me technology and the human experience. Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. Science has its roots in philosophy -- the field of study we now know as science once was called natural philosophy. The great Greek philosopher-scientists Plato and Aristotle said the natural order could be explained through rigorous reasoning and investigation. Philosophy -- a pattern of thought -- therefore has an important role to play in the innovation of technology. Social historian Arthur M. Schlesinger noted, "Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition, and myth frame our response." The inventor Nikola Tesla once said, "The universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine." Technology entrepreneur Steve Jobs shared his optimistic view that "technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them." The futurist Ray Kurzweil writes, "artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold." He further notes that "The emergence of machine intelligence that exceeds human intelligence in all of its broad diversity is inevitable. But we still have the power to shape our future technology, and our future lives." We live in a time in which technology is constantly a part of our human experience, but of course we've always lived with technology. However, the difference today is the speed with which technology is becoming increasingly important in our lives. The changes that occur as technology alters the pattern of our lives take place not in decades but in days. The increased velocity of change will soon demand altered patterns of thought and behavior from us hour by hour or minute by minute. Technology has changed the way we work, play, and even the way we think. We know this is true because we can use technology to study our own minds. Technology is changing our patterns in society, but we maintain the power to shape those changes, Ray Kurzweil tells us. If we are to control the change, what is required of us? For centuries a pattern of thought has existed that has had a harmful impact on blind people -- a pattern that we the blind did not create and have not been entirely able to control. This pattern -- the vision-centered approach -- has exploited the application of technology to perpetuate the central premise that vision is a requirement for success. In the vision-centered approach the blind are understood to be severely limited by the inability to see -- we are merely broken sighted people -- and something external like technology is required to bring the blind closer to the normal human experience. This pattern of thought went mostly unchallenged and was poised to grow into an unstoppable force with the technology revolution of the twentieth century. However, when blind people bonded together in 1940 to organize the National Federation of the Blind, a new pattern emerged that has influenced the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands, illuminating the capacity of the human experience and transforming the nature of innovation in technology. We have altered the pattern of human thought and thereby modified the blueprint for technology in the foreseeable future. We, the blind, again assemble this evening to consider where we have been and what our future might be as we live in the most dynamic time of technological innovation in the history of civilization. We come together to refine a pattern of thought. We stay together to share and expand our authentic intelligence as blind people. We move forward together to create the tools for our future with the resolute faith that we can make them work for us. We are the National Federation of the Blind. The Federation philosophy, or pattern of thought, has only existed for a short time compared to the centuries of low expectations and misconceptions that preceded our founding. Yet our pattern is being adopted at an accelerating pace. Although the application of our philosophy has evolved, our principles are the same as they were at our founding. We think for ourselves, we speak for ourselves, and we act for ourselves to create understanding through our authentic experience. Individually we seek to live our lives fully, and collectively we mobilize the machinery to transform our dreams into reality. The founding President and leader for the first generation of the National Federation of the Blind was Jacobus tenBroek. A thoughtful leader of the blind and a brilliant scholar of constitutional law, Dr. tenBroek firmly established the foundation for our philosophy about blindness and rallied the blind to understand we deserve equal treatment under the law and in society. As blind people internalized the Federation pattern -- that blind people are normal people who happen to be blind -- it became clear that our biggest obstacle was not blindness itself but rather the impact of the vision-centered approach. Dr. tenBroek's understanding of blindness was clarified and tested by the growing ranks of Federation members across the country. A young man from Tennessee would emerge in the 1950s, and he would immediately start putting the Federation pattern to the test for the second generation of our movement. Kenneth Jernigan, who would become the second great President of the National Federation of the Blind, was a teacher who understood that the Federation's discipline in thought would only have a lasting impact if it led to concentrated action and rigorous testing by blind people. For decades Dr. Jernigan tested and expanded the Federation philosophy along with a corps of blind people who lived it in their lives every day. The concentrated pattern of thought and action that came to characterize "Federationists" dramatically shifted the balance of power from the agencies for the blind to the organization of the blind. The dynamic growth of the second generation of our movement occurred during the time period when advances in science and technology accelerated the pace of innovation in the United States. As a result, we, the organized blind, came to measure the value of technological innovations against our authentic understanding of blindness. This stood in sharp contrast to the vision-centered approach, which used the perceived limitations of the blind as its measure of value. While the work of the second generation was critical in accelerating our pattern of thought, it was the third generation of the Federation that set the standard of innovation we know today. The dynamic leadership of our next great leader and longest-serving President, Marc Maurer, brought greater diversity to our movement and used our pattern of thought to explore the perceived limits of blindness in imaginative ways. Dr. Maurer's sharp intellect, understanding of the tools of law, and ability to personalize and test our philosophy were essential in taking our movement to the next level. Blind people living the Federation's pattern of thought now emerge from the most innovative training programs available to the blind anywhere in the world. These programs can be found in our training centers in Colorado, Louisiana, and Minnesota. They can also be found in each of our fifty-two state affiliates, where the pattern of thought gains strength and authenticity. This pattern has been internalized and tested by both blind and sighted people of different ages, backgrounds, talents, and perspectives. Furthermore, we have applied our pattern of thought to partnerships with outstanding technology developers to create the most powerful access-to-information systems ever imagined. With every generation of our Federation, our philosophy has led us to raise the standard of excellence for blind people. This brings us to the current fourth generation of our movement, one in which technology influences our lives more than at any time in our history. You and I are challenged to raise our own expectations, just as those who preceded us raised theirs for themselves and for us. We have the power to shape our future lives, and we must not fail to use that power. We must command the attention of the inventors, and we must insist that they recognize our right to be involved in the decision making that determines our use of the systems they invent. When we are in the room, patterns of equal access change; and we must demand that we be there. The vision-centered approach has promoted the idea that vision is a requirement for success. It has said, "use your vision, use it whether it works or not, if no other method will enhance the ability to see, use technology that gives you something -- no matter how little." When these technologies make it possible to use whatever limited vision is available, no matter the cost, no matter the difficulty; they are celebrated as the answer to a prayer. The closed-circuit television system, for example, emphasizes vision and diminishes alternative techniques for gathering information. This technology for the educators and rehabilitation professionals says to the blind, "use your vision; stop being lazy; if you try a little harder, you'll be able to see." This approach continues to hold blind people back even today. Am I against vision? Of course not. Do I think closed-circuit television is good? Only when it works. What I believe is intolerable is the theory that learning in nonvisual ways is inferior to the vision-centered approach. Some teachers and some counselors have enough sense to understand that the range of educational systems should be explored, but many emphasize vision to such an extent that nothing else is tried. Does this happen everywhere and every time? It does not, but the pattern is broad and deep. Technologies based on the vision-centered approach have also focused on creating a perception called vision through other senses. If these devices produce basic results, no matter how few or how limited they may be, they are celebrated for their success. The assumption of those who created them is that the technology is responsible for any productive capacity. The blind people who use them are not given credit for their abilities. The technology is the important thing. The blind are thought to receive, but not give value to the human-computer interaction. Take for example the BrainPort -- not a new technology but one with a mildly exotic and somewhat highfalutin name. Is the BrainPort a slot to connect the internet to your skull? A recent article describes the device this way, "The BrainPort device mounts a small video camera to sunglasses that are connected via an electrical cord to a square-shaped, lollipop-like mouthpiece with a grid of four hundred electrodes. The video feed is translated into digital signals expressed by the electrodes as light electronic pulses on the tongue." Reports about the utility of the BrainPort claim exaggerated benefits that do not match our authentic experience as blind people and that do not take into account its effectiveness compared to other tools. They tell us the BrainPort has "helped blind people navigate sidewalks without a guide dog or cane, helped blind children in China learn to recognize Mandarin characters and play games of darts," and my favorite, "aided a blind rock climber to more confidently pursue his passion." The rock climber mentioned is Erik Weihenmayer who, years before trying the BrainPort, successfully became the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest with the support of the National Federation of the Blind. I have not asked Erik, but I believe it is no exaggeration to state that his confidence was pretty high before he decided to experiment with this novel approach to accessing information. In the vision-centered approach the value of technology is often generated by diminishing the capacity of even the most talented people who happen to be blind. Another damaging premise of the vision-centered approach is the notion that the blind cannot travel effectively. Inventors come to the National Federation of the Blind with the technologies they are sure we need. They don't ask us before they build them. They imagine how they would feel, and they give us the benefit of their brilliant ideas. One man came to our center in Baltimore with a novel white cane. In addition to the tip on the end, it contained broom bristles to permit blind travelers to sweep objects from their path. The man asked us to help him patent the broom cane and to suggest methods for having it produced for the blind. Another man came to our office with an electrical device that looked much like a pistol with a very short barrel. He said that if a user pointed the barrel of this electronic device toward the ground and moved it from side to side, it would be possible to identify the transition from the concrete sidewalk to the grassy strip next to the walk. The device was powered by a 9-volt battery. When the beam of light that came from the end of the short barrel identified the grass, the palm of the user would receive an electrical shock. This inventor asked us to market the device. How much better it would be if the inventors ask us if the devices they are thinking of making add any benefit to our lives. When the users are part of the inventive process, the design improves dramatically. However, those who believe in the vision-centered approach begin with the premise that without vision no contribution can be made to the inventions that might be needed. Consequently, they do not invite the blind to participate because the blind have no value -- nothing to contribute. There are too many other examples of technologies premised upon the vision-centered approach to cover here. It is sufficient to say that they have covered everything from helping blind people eat, dress, manage personal communications, live more safely in the home, explore fitness, use bathroom fixtures, and almost anything else you can imagine. These technologies have been harmful to us as blind people, and they have expended resources that could have been better used elsewhere. In contrast, the technologies that have had the greatest impact on blind people have been effective because they incorporated an approach that was consistent with the Federation pattern of thought. An area where our philosophy has had significant impact is the intersection of Braille and technology -- Braille being a powerful innovation itself. Many vision-centered technologies have been introduced with the premise that there is a better way for the blind to read than using Braille. The people who invent these technologies are convinced that technology itself, any technology, will be beneficial to the blind. Consequently they expect us gratefully to accept whatever they have devised. Rather than adopting technology as unquestionably helpful, our pattern of thought gives us a framework for testing technology with our authentic experience. As a result, we have contributed significantly to the development of computerized Braille production systems and refreshable Braille devices -- dramatically increasing the speed of production and availability of materials. Our recent involvement in Braille-related technologies has stimulated the development of low-cost Braille displays, innovative methods for producing tactile images, and research into technologies to improve Braille instruction. The most widely recognized of our technology efforts is our work with the inventor of the first reading machine for the blind, Ray Kurzweil, a relationship that now spans more than forty years. The partnership that produced the first Kurzweil Reading Machine demonstrated the vital importance of our involvement at the initial design phase of technology. It also emphasized the value of our serving as an objective evaluator of technology solutions. In our own publications we admired the innovation of the Kurzweil Reading Machine while expressing concern about its then limitations, including portability, technical performance, and affordability. Today, that reading machine has transformed from being a specialized device to a mobile application widely available on smart phones and tablets -- an evolution driven by the application of our philosophy to the advances of technology. Over the past four decades, we have continued to strengthen and expand our engagement in the development and objective evaluation of technology. This includes establishing the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind, the National Center for Nonvisual Election Technology, and our next-generation technology effort known as the Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Access. Over the years our organization has worked on innovating technology products spanning the areas of education, travel (including driving), consumer electronics, employment, finances, and recreation. Today we provide guidance and consultation to major companies, emerging start-ups, and university engineering-design programs all based on our tested pattern of thought. Technology plays an increasingly interactive role in today's society. The computers get smaller and more powerful. As this happens, specialized uses for them increase. Some are wearable such as the Fitbit and the hearing aid. We hear within a certain spectrum, but there are other ranges of sound that can be detected. The hearing aid of today lets us appreciate the auditory range of sounds that an ordinary human ear can hear for those of us who have diminished capacity for this sense. However, the hearing aid of tomorrow will give us access to an auditory range that human beings do not now know. The hearing aid will not restore hearing but enhance it. The same is true for our other senses. Immersive technology being developed today blurs the line between the physical world and the simulated one. Perhaps this type of technology will create experiences that we cannot comprehend today. This deeply embedded use of technology in our daily lives requires that, in the fourth generation of our movement, we think much more broadly about access to technology than we have in the past. In the past, the significant majority of the Federation's time, energy, and imagination was spent on specialized access technologies for the blind. Although this area remains important, today the significant majority of our effort is focused on equal access to the technologies that are used widely by all of society. In case the reason is not obvious, if accessibility is not included in the general consumer technologies, then the number of artificial barriers to our participation will be too great for us to overcome. We know from our prior experience that it is always smarter, less expensive, and more functional to build accessibility into technology at the beginning rather than as a second-class add-on. The expectation of the fourth generation of the Federation is access to the same technology, at the same time, and at the same price. Even with that as our standard of excellence, we must recognize that the technical details of providing equal access to the blind, although sometimes complicated, are easier than overcoming the persistent patterns of low expectations and misunderstanding about our capacity as blind people that are at the core of the vision-centered approach. Bad philosophy leads to bad technology. This is where the continued and aggressive application of our Federation pattern of thought is essential. The general technology and design literature includes many recent examples of technologies being calibrated to include bias. At least one facial recognition system could not identify different shades of skin, and at least one automated picture classification system thought human beings of certain races were gorillas. The designers of such systems permitted them to reflect bias. What bias might be reflected in technology due to an overemphasis on the visual interface, a lack of involvement with the blind at the design phase, or simply a lack of expectation that the technology will ever be used by a blind person? Moreover, what problems might we encounter from using technologies that incorporate visual bias? Take the example of electronic copies of books -- an innovation pioneered to provide blind people access to printed works. Once commercial ebooks became popular, we were required to fight for years to establish equal access in the digital publishing industry. We have worked to help establish strong standards for ebook accessibility, to get publishers to produce books to those standards, and to ensure that the technologies are available to read those books without vision. We now have access to tens of thousands more books than ever before, but the bias against us continues. We have discovered that one of the barriers to ebook accessibility is that the authoring tools are inaccessible. We have often been met with surprise when we suggest that blind people need and want to author their own publications. Is it really news that blind people might have something to say? If you have met some of us, you probably know that we can be as opinionated as any sighted person. Why is it acceptable for us to read the books but not author them? The artificial limits placed on our role in the digital publishing world are just one example of the bias built into technology that negatively impacts the blind. Far too frequently and enthusiastically, the media, the general public, and even many blind people talk about technology as though it is the thing that gives us capacity and freedom. The most commonly used clich?? to describe the impact of technology on the lives of the blind is "life changing." The problem is that use of this term oversells the difference that technology makes in our lives as compared to our sighted peers. Technology has changed the pattern of life for all humans -- not just the blind. Technology has changed the way we communicate. We need not use a telephone for an extended conversation with distant friends as we can share thoughts instantly through text messages. If we are short on words we might only use emoticons to express our ideas. Technology has changed our patterns of travel. We all have been passengers with drivers who follow the instructions of the GPS even when the directions are obviously wrong. On the other hand, you need not wait out in the rain hoping that the bus is on time that day, because you can track it in real time and carefully plan your arrival at the bus stop. Technology has changed the way we consume food. You need not stick to the same-old neighborhood diner because you can easily discover new places, learn which ones your friends like best, read the menu before you get to the door, and even monitor your place in line. Technology has changed our access to knowledge. If you are curious about something, you can instantly look it up using your favorite search engine. However, you still need to make the judgment as to whether the source presents real or alternative facts. These are life-changing patterns for all in our society. As blind people, we should not buy into the idea that technology is life changing for us but is simply a normal part of the evolution of human experience for the sighted. Technology is influencing the human experience, and it is our belief that blindness is a normal characteristic within the human experience. Every year a large number of articles is written about the life-changing technologies for the blind. With titles such as "Five Amazing Gadgets that Are Helping the Blind" or the seemingly more inspiring and vision-centered "Four Innovative Technologies to Help Blind People See Again," authors attempt to educate the public that technology is the defining factor in making us normal people. To those who do not know us and our capabilities, these articles perpetuate a pattern of thought that is misguided and harmful. Consider an article from the online magazine Slate that was published in February 2016. In the article entitled "How Technology Is Helping the Blind Navigate the Physical World," the author describes the ways that technology is changing the lives of blind people and opening up new possibilities. One example given is the story of a man who began experiencing blindness at age thirty-two, and how he benefits today because "everything" he needs is available through his phone. It summarizes the breakthrough this way: "He couldn't keep up with his paperwork-intense real-estate business, but he transitioned to a job impossible for a legally blind person a generation ago: bartender." Thank goodness for us the mystery of mixology has been revealed to the blind through the wonder of technology. The article does not say if there were any drinks that blind people could mix before mobile-app technology. Even if the labels on the bottles were not readily identifiable, most blind people should have been able to figure out the classic rum and coke, gin and tonic, and the more contemporary gin and juice. Are they serious or is this just an example of Slate's witty style? Either way, it falsely represents our capacities and overemphasizes the impact of technology in our lives compared to the lives of others. That same Slate article touts "a low-cost fix to help visually impaired people exercise more effectively." The approach is a drone that can be used to guide blind runners around a track. The article notes that while the commercial unit costs approximately $300, you can get a used one for about $225. The premise of the project is that technology will be the change agent to get blind people out and exercising more. The premise will most certainly have harmful impacts on blind people who do not yet understand that blindness is not the characteristic that defines their future. While it is probably obvious to most in this audience that a person who does not believe that the blind have ability will not be likely to go running after the sound of a used drone, this project perpetuates the idea that technology is required for greater independence of the blind. Technology is not the answer to the real problems we face. Building understanding of our pattern of thought, creating faith in our capacity for full participation, these are the driving forces in every solution we seek. If we are to compete in the twenty-first century, if we are to achieve the equal treatment and equality of opportunity we deserve, then we must put more faith in ourselves than we do in technology. The essential element in our ability to utilize our capacity to the fullest, to overcome the artificial barriers in society, to create understanding in the hearts and minds of the sighted is the love, hope, and determination that flow from our philosophy about blindness. If we do not possess the internal belief in ourselves as blind people, if we do not continue to test the limits of blindness as a characteristic, if we do not build our organization due to the mistaken belief that technology will solve all of our problems, we will not reach the independence, equality, and opportunity that we seek. We must not fear technology, but we must also not believe that it is our greatest hope. We must especially prevent the newly blind from placing all their hope in technology and neglecting their internal human capacity. We know today that we have the power to shape our future technology and our future lives, and we intend to use that power to share our pattern of thought. We cultivate a bond of faith among blind people. We believe that if you give blind people tools, they will do wonderful things with them. However if the designers of the tools, the marketers of the tools, and most importantly the users of the tools do not believe in the capacity of the blind, those tools will only serve to perpetuate the vision-centered bias that has held us back for centuries. We will not let that happen. We come together to refine a pattern of thought. We stay together to share and expand our authentic intelligence as blind people. We move forward together to create the tools for our future with the resolute faith that we can make them work for us. We are the National Federation of the Blind. Do not misunderstand what I have said as a rejection of technology. In fact, it is our deep understanding of the truth about blindness that fuels our enthusiasm for the tools that technology provides us. Technology has significantly changed the patterns throughout society, and we view ourselves as full participants in that society. We reject the bias that positions technology as the defining factor in our independence. Yet we seek all the advantages of technology, and we intend to innovate using technology to solve the real problems of blindness. This is why we have sparked the creation of powerful access-to-information tools and explored technologies to enhance our participation in society. In the same way that we should not accept the idea that technology defines the limits of our capacity, we should not close our minds to the idea that technology can be used to enhance our capacity. While we seek equal access to the technologies used by the sighted, we should continue to explore areas where specialized technologies for the blind will better serve our interests. Furthermore, we ourselves should take a hand in building the technology we need, not just for the blind but also for sighted users of the products we invent. In the past we have taught each other how to effectively compete as blind people using a variety of tools and techniques. We must continue to teach each other, but we should explore the effectiveness of new technologies to perform some of those same tasks. We must do so not out of a belief that one approach is better than another but to learn which approach works under which conditions. There are many variables that must be weighed in our evaluation: cost, time, ease of use, effectiveness, portability, flexibility, and a dozen other factors. We must use our pattern of thought to go even further into areas where we can play a critical role innovating approaches for all of society. We must bring our perspective and talents to the development of nonvisual interfaces, natural language systems, self-driving vehicles, standards for the Internet of Things, tools for perceiving in realms that cannot be seen, sensors and haptics for things that today cannot be touched, and dozens of other areas where we bring perspective that the current designers do not yet possess. The inclusion of our perspective will benefit everybody in society. The most meaningful way for us to reduce bias and contribute to innovation is to inspire qualified blind people to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. This is why we have been leading educational programs to engage blind youth in these subjects and innovating tools to eliminate the artificial barriers that stand between blind people and our dreams. For the fourth generation of the Federation, it is not enough for us to merely carry the Federation pattern of thought; we must teach it to others in ways we have not yet imagined. We must do this so that we have the certainty of living the lives we want in the twenty-first century and to make it possible for the next generation of the Federation to raise the expectations even further. In our teaching we will get ever closer to eliminating the vision-centered approach that persists in limiting society and the exploration of human-computer interaction. Our pattern of thought explores the capacity of blind people while leveraging the advantages that technology provides. Our pattern of thought has driven the most powerful technologies used by the blind today, and that pattern will allow us to participate in the design, development, and implementation of the most powerful technologies used by everybody tomorrow. If we are to enjoy the equality and opportunity we deserve, our philosophy about blindness must be woven into the fabric of the human-biological-machine intelligence of our civilization. My brothers and my sisters, as much as I love what technology brings to us, I love what we bring to us infinitely more. It is not the technology that defines us. It is not the technology that makes us capable. It is not the technology that determines our future. It is the bond of faith that we hold with each other. It is the pattern of thought that we have established and use to test the limits. It is the unwavering determination that allows us to transform our dreams into reality. Let us go forward in sharing our pattern of thought. Let us go innovate with technology grounded in our love, hope, and determination for our future. Let us go fuel the most powerful machine for collective action ever built. Let us go build the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] Leadership in Literacy: How Do We Know What We Do Not Know? by Marc Maurer >From the Editor: One of the great blessings we have had in the National Federation of the Blind is that our leaders and particularly our presidents have been thinkers, innovators, people who have been willing and able to apply theories about the way the world works to problems affecting the blind. Marc Maurer is just such a person, and we are the beneficiaries of his reading, his thinking, his speculation, and his ability to articulate the way we get from where we are to where we want to be. He is the Immediate Past President of the National Federation of the Blind and currently serves as the executive director of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. Here are remarks he delivered on Thursday, July 13, to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida: How do we know what we know? Philosophers have had many answers to this question, but a great many thinkers believe that the basis of knowledge is the experience of our senses. However, Ren?? Descartes and Ebenezer Scrooge, along with many others, have opined that sense impression alone without contemplation and imagination is insufficient for knowledge. Consequently, they urge that we take proper steps to stimulate the imagination. John Quincy Adams wrote "To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is . . . the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence." Learning something new is a great idea. However, theorists have not always felt this way, and some cultures do not value learning, especially with respect to certain groups. It may be fair to say that all cultures (or almost all cultures) resist change, and learning implies change. If the blind are the intended audience, education has often not been a high priority. Indeed, competent, inclusive, accessible, high quality education for blind students is today sometimes very hard to get. Let us begin not with the blind but with society in general. Alexander Pope said that "a little learning is a dangerous thing." If this is so, how much is required for safety? When students finish the third grade, are they more of a threat to society than they were when they finished the second? Will they be more or less of a danger when they have completed fourth grade? What about graduate students or the professors who teach them? Current scientific research offers speculation that artificial intelligence can be built that will be able to hold more ideas than any human mind has ever possessed. Will the artificial intelligence add to the safety of our world? If so, whose safety will it protect? The debate rages with some futurists recommending that we invent new thoughts as fast as possible and others urging that limits be placed on scientific advancement. Regardless of the arguments, we in the National Federation of the Blind have a commitment to education; we believe that the blind have minds capable of learning whatever is to be known; and we intend to be in the midst of the educational process -- participating in the learning for every discipline, teaching others, and pursuing the most imaginative research. Tell us that learning is dangerous if you like, but don't try to keep us out because it can't be done. Although theorists have complained about the disadvantage of knowledge, societies have been stratified based upon the possession of it. In many places the priestly class could read, which gave this group an enormous advantage. Shakespeare said that we should kill all the lawyers. What advantage did lawyers have that caused such enmity? At least part of it is that they could read in a very specialized field. Teaching slaves to read in many parts of the United States was regarded as a criminal act. Furthermore education for women in the United States has only comparatively recently become required by law. Despite the restrictions we have placed upon its acquisition, we in the United States have adopted the policy that knowledge is valuable and that we must encourage its acquisition. We follow this policy despite vituperative arguments that the path we tread is dramatically dangerous -- that the things we learn may create events from which humanity itself will not survive. In the National Federation of the Blind we also follow this policy, and we encourage our friends to do likewise. We believe that we the blind have the ability to learn, and we honor those who demonstrate this capacity among us. Do others share our commitment for the education of blind students? Are imaginative methods of education for the blind being invented? Is there a widespread effort by agencies of government or the private sector to foster the latent potentialities of the blind? Not so much. For more than forty years federal law has declared that students with disabilities have a right to a public education. When the law was adopted, the language it employed was revolutionary. Prior to its enactment public schools had discretion about whether they would permit students with disabilities to be in class. Some disabled students were welcomed, but many were not. When the law came into effect, students with disabilities had a right to attend. Some of the judges who interpreted the law felt outrage that members of Congress could believe that children (they would call these children normal) could be required to be in class with students who possess disabilities. These judges decided that although the Congress had declared the law to be that disabled people had a right to attend class, this did not mean that the students who possessed these disabilities had the right to get anything out of the education other than presence in the room. The school districts were under no obligation (said these judges) to provide specific services, materials, or educational programs designed to assist in meeting the demands involving the disability itself. Blind students could come to class, but the school district was not required to provide training in Braille. Blind students could study geometry, but the school district had no obligation to offer a line drawing of the angles that the sighted students could observe in their books. It is almost as if some of the judges took the position "You can make the school district take you, but you won't like it when they do." In March of this year, the Supreme Court reconsidered the rights of students with disabilities in the public schools under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The court said that disabled students have a substantive right to educational programs that are likely to provide a realistic education. This decision appears to restore the promise that students with disabilities have an equal right to an education. Within the National Federation of the Blind we know that blindness is not a debilitating disability. Instead, it is a characteristic that many of us have. Many of us have wondered what the limitations of blindness are. We have speculated that this condition indicates an inability to perform certain functions. More than forty years ago some of us said that blind people could not fly a plane, drive a car, or serve as medical doctors. Since that time, we have created a way to drive a car, and some of us have come to be medical doctors. The airplane waits to be conquered, but I feel certain that it can be and that it will be. Which leaves the question, what are the limitations of blindness? How do blind people learn? How do we stimulate the mind to be the medium in which the patterns of observation are implanted? How do we expand the range of such patterns, or cause the intuitive leap that connects one seemingly unrelated thought with another to bring new comprehension? Children are instructed from the time that they are born not to touch. Blind children are instructed to listen, and often they are expected to do nothing more. Although it seems intuitively obvious that learning will be faster when sound, touch, and perhaps other senses are combined, blind children with some remaining vision, or their parents, are sometimes required to choose between Braille and print. The argument goes, demanding that a student learn in more than one way will be overburdensome and detrimental to education. Does education advance more rapidly by listening or touching? Our experience suggests that both together are better than either one separately. To learn effectively it is necessary to learn how to learn. Just as a birdsong may seem, when it is first heard, to be a jumble of unrelated notes and unmelodic racket, a polysyllabic word may appear to be incomprehensible upon first acquaintance. Visual imagery must also be learned before it has meaning, and the tactile sense must receive its own training if knowledge is to be gained through it. All methods of knowing are learned, except the innate knowledge that comes from being human. When knowledge becomes the goal, it is best for us to employ the widest range of methods for securing it that we can invent. What does color signify? One tiny piece of the answer to this question is the wavelength of reflected light. The rest must include context, imagery, history, and culture. What does light signify? Only a part of the answer is an observable medium in the electromagnetic spectrum. The rest must involve context. Moonlight may be nothing more than a presentation of waves with certain characteristics, but its meaning is much more complex. How can these concepts be presented in nontraditional forms -- auditory, tactile? How can these nontraditional patterns be implanted in the minds of the blind? We have very little experience in testing alternative methods of knowing to the ones that have become most common. We must explore this kind of knowing, and we must expand it. Enormous amounts of intellectual energy have been spent on visual representations, and the language has been created to favor this form of learning, although a substantial segment of knowledge is represented by music. Nonetheless, touch is by far the most important sense we possess. It puts us in constant contact with the world around us, and it keeps us safe. Without touch the constant danger of injury would be devastating. However, our usage favors the language of the eye. When we speak with each other, although we sometimes say "get in touch," we more often use "I'll see you." We must imagine a way to emphasize the nonvisual methods we use for learning, and we must create the language to support such alternatives. Can you hear a line? Can you touch a sound? Does the hue of a summer sky with the storm coming in from the north have an identifiable aroma? Let us begin with tactile imagery. A significant part of the task before us is to change the perception that 83 percent of all knowledge comes through the eye. This idiotic statement came from an advertisement by Thomas Edison in 1923, I am told. Thomas Edison had invented the projector, and he wanted to sell it to school systems. He created this misleading line to get the school boards to buy his product, and we have been stuck with the false advertising ever since. Some people may learn 83 percent of all they know by looking -- though I doubt this. However, there are other ways to learn, and we must demonstrate that they are as good as the visual method. We are creating a project for children to learn tactile imagery. We are offering raised-line pictures along with the tools to make more of them. The Tactile Art Kit is a box containing examples of tactile images along with the tools and supplies to perform tactile drawings. Both print and Braille instructions are included along with directions to the website of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, the inventor and sponsor of this program, where audible and visual descriptions of how to create tactile art may be found. Five hundred of these kits are available for distribution to blind children ages two through eight. Half a dozen ways of making tactile representations are included in the suggestions about how to use the supplies in the Tactile Art Kit. Lines, two dimensional solid forms, and three-dimensional images can be created. A leaf, two-dimensional; a tree, three-dimensional; and an object at a distance with the imagery to show that there is intervening space between the observer and the object being observed -- all of these can be made. What is the difference in a tactile image of a dog standing still and one racing after a rabbit? Can the images be shown in ways that illustrate the calmness of a peaceful afternoon or the uneasiness of an impending storm? All of this will be in our first effort at capturing the ideas transmitted through the tactile imagery of art. Can blind people be artists? Some of us are. Can blind people engage in the tasks of architecture? Some of us do. Can blind people convey knowledge through the tactile imagery associated with science? Some of us have invented methods for doing exactly that. Can we identify color and represent its meaning? In many respects, we have. How can we expand our knowledge in these areas? We will ask the children and the teachers of the children what works, and we will honor those who expand the range of what we know. We intend to create artistic experiences with vibrancy, fascinating shapes, and sometimes intense colors. We intend to show other people how the blind do art. At the threshold of learning is a sense of wonder. We do not know what limitations exist for us in the creation of new forms of knowledge, but we are absolutely certain that whatever these limitations might be, we have not reached them. With our sense of wonder we will explore unknown horizons, and this will bring us to new frontiers. In the meantime, as I encounter you at this convention, I do not look forward to seeing you -- I anticipate with pleasure hearing you; I anticipate with pleasure touching my hand to yours. I know I could have said touching you, but such expressions are currently easily misunderstood. The sound and the touch will help me to know your spirit and to share mine. Together we will build a better knowing. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ron Gardner] Transforming Dreams into Reality: The Fulfillment of One Blind Man's Mission by Ron Gardner From the Editor: Ron Gardner is a past president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. He was a staff member of the National Federation of the Blind who actively helped to recruit many new members through his example of love, caring, and commitment. His work strengthened many of our existing chapters and affiliates. He continues to evidence the kindness and wisdom that are demonstrated in the speech he delivered to the 2017 National Convention on July 15, 2017. With the candor for which he is known, Ron explains how bumps in one's life can shake what we think of as our foundational beliefs and that the way to once again regain the higher ground is to work for the good of one's fellow human beings and find oneself incalculably better off. Here are his remarks: Thank you, President Riccobono. You may recall that last year at our convention President Riccobono asked me to offer a prayer. I offered a prayer, and this year I'm giving a speech. So the first take away I have for you is that, if he asks you to pray, turn him down! [laughter] President Riccobono, we all felt the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind as you delivered the presidential report on Thursday afternoon. I know I did. There is a modern proverb or an adage or a saying that states, "he who cuts wood is twice warmed." That first appeared in print in 1819, and Henry David Thoreau later published it in his book Walden. I think the meaning is straightforward. He who cuts wood is twice warmed -- once when he cuts the wood and once when he burns it in the fireplace. I'd like you to keep that in mind as we go through my remarks today. I want to remind you that a few years ago David Capozzi was at this podium. David Capozzi had been invited by Dr. Maurer to come and speak at our convention. Mr. Capozzi is the executive director of the United States Access Board. He uses a wheelchair. The Access Board is a government agency with responsibility to identify and remove barriers that prevent people with disabilities from competing on terms of equality. The board attempts to ensure that there are ramps for wheelchairs and works to ensure that technology is accessible. In the meeting following Mr. Capozzi's attendance at our national convention, he reported his experience to the Access Board, on which I was serving at that time. He said, "Many of you know I visited the National Federation of the Blind, and I am of the opinion that, without a doubt, it is the best organized and most powerful organization advocating for people with disabilities in our country today." What is it that makes our organization strong? I believe it is, as we heard yesterday, that collective action that we all participate in as members of this organization. It is the work that we do when we are feeling the heartbeat as referred to by President Riccobono on Thursday. Yesterday we were told that collective action can also be called collective compassion or collective service. In other words, we are all working together. This is why so many doors were opened when I first met the National Federation of the Blind. I was a young man -- blind -- trying to go to college, being told that I couldn't. But I had blind mentors that showed me the way, and I got into college and did just fine. I was told I couldn't go to law school. Well I met some people in the National Federation of the Blind who had been to law school, so I knew it was possible, and I went to law school. During my career as an attorney, I had the responsibility to litigate tax cases before the United States Tax Court. I also served as the legal director at a legal center in Utah. I was the director at Louisiana Tech University in our master's degree program. So, can you imagine how I felt in the year 2014, not so long ago, when I realized that I did not have a job; I was afraid in my own home; I was struggling with panic and anxiety; and I kept wrestling with the question of what I was going to do. I had a life to live, and yet that life had been interrupted. You see, I was flying home from Washington DC one day in January 2011, and I sat down in my first-class seat -- not that I purchased a first-class seat, but I flew a lot, and the airline upgraded me to first class. I walked on with my briefcase, in my coat and tie, and carrying my long white cane, and I sat down in first class. Soon thereafter I was assaulted by a passenger from behind me as I tried to put my seat back. We've heard a lot recently about the airlines in the news media, but on this occasion, it was happening to me. After hassling me, the person behind me threatened the lead flight attendant. The lead flight attendant told him to back off, that the person in front of him was a first-class passenger, and that he needed to mind his business. Later the lead flight attendant told me that the passenger behind me was a federal air marshal. Can you imagine what went through my heart and my mind when I realized that the guy that's now ticked off because I turned him in for being a jerk is a federal air marshal, and he's now probably going to lose his job? Keep in mind that he has a big shiny badge and a really big gun. I'm telling you that the panic started welling up inside me, knowing that federal air marshals can determine when I fly, know when I'm away from home, and know where I live. All of this was exacerbated when, at the end of the flight, the lead flight attendant said, "Stay in your seat; I'm going to walk you off this plane." So I did stay in my seat; the lead flight attendant didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. I finally gathered my white cane and my coat and my briefcase and stood to get off the plane, only to find that the federal marshal was blocking my exit. Something happened in my mind. I can't explain it, but I know that when I was a legal director and one of my attorneys showed up and said he didn't get his brief done because he had anxiety, I thought to myself, "Suck it up." Now I was the one having that type of anxiety, and I didn't like it. What was I going to do? Well, in 2014 I had been in counseling -- therapy for three years. I had been taking anti-panic and anti-anxiety medication. Man, I was tired of all of this; I wanted to do something else, but I didn't have a job, and the job I had tried to get for sixteen months and thought was mine fell through. This happened because a person on the decision-making committee decided that a blind person would really have a difficult time doing the administrative work and checking on people's sick leave and vacation time. So, I didn't get that job because I was a blind guy, and I didn't like it much. President Riccobono, I'm sorry to tell you that at that time I was not feeling the heartbeat of the NFB; I was feeling the drumbeat that ravages us when we forget who we are! But we do know who we are, and we will never go back. The philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind has as one of its principle tenets that we give back. It's in the book Freedom for the Blind by Jim Omvig. Joanne Wilson has taught many of us at the Louisiana Center for the Blind -- and others have taught at our other two NFB centers -- that in order to be an independent and confident blind person, you do need to give back and serve others. I learned that in the Koran Allah says, "Do not forget to do good to others." It also says that Allah is with those who serve one another. The Old Testament says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and the New Testament tells us that when Jesus was talking with his disciples, he said, "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. "Then his disciples asked him, `When saw we thee an hungred and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?' And then Jesus said unto them, `Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'" So what did all that mean? It meant that it was time for me to quit feeling sorry for myself and start listening to the heartbeat of the Federation instead of the drumbeat that ravages us when we forget who we are. Jan and I put in an application to serve as missionaries. We didn't know where we would be called, but we were called to the Caribbean. It was really hard duty. We were called to serve in the Caribbean in the legal office because on my application it showed that I was an attorney. I wasn't sure I wanted to do a lot of legal work down there or sure at that moment whether I could, but I was called to help locate local attorneys to help with the legal issues that come up from time to time such as land acquisition, visas, immigration, and so forth. What was so interesting to me is that God knows us and He loves us and He puts us in that place where we need to be at that time. So, we were called to serve in the Caribbean, and within one week, people came into our office to talk with Jan and me, and they said, "In today's headlines it talks about a blind woman who is starting a foundation here in the Dominican Republic." I thought, "Well, I'm certainly not getting away from the blindness aspect of life -- here it is, right here in the Caribbean." President Riccobono, I had a little glimmer of that NFB heartbeat again. I, along with Jan, was also asked to visit the Patronato Nacional de Ciegos. In other words, the nonprofit organization that delivers rehabilitation services to blind people in the Dominican Republic. And it felt good to be there in that environment. I can tell you that I found lots of energy along with lots of low expectations. Within a few weeks after that I needed to fly to Barbados, so Jan and I went there to take care of a tax problem with the government. We scheduled three days for that trip because we didn't know how long it would take to get into the government offices, so what joy we had when, after awakening on the first day, we went to the government office, got right in, and the problem was solved within the first hour and a half of being on the island of Barbados. Now what were we to do? We have aqua blue, clear warm water, we have white sand beaches and blue skies, so, of course, we went to look for a blind person. We found a blind person. We had been told that there was a high-level politician in Barbados who is blind. Her name is Senator Kerryann Ifill. She is the president of the parliamentary senate. We called upon her and were told that she was very busy, and I thought to myself, "This is no problem! I'm in the NFB. I know what it takes to get into the offices of high-level politicians. We've been doing this for years." So I called her, and she said that yes, we could have fifteen minutes, which turned into forty-five minutes and an invitation to come back the next day. The next day it was a three-hour meeting, and the day after that we went to a nice social dinner with her. She explained to us that the country had only one orientation and mobility instructor who was seventy-two years old and wanted to retire. Could we help to identify somebody and train them to teach O&M? It was a few weeks after that, when Jan and I were serving in the temple back in Santo Domingo, and I quite by accident ran into a blind guy from Jamaica. Now I have to stop right here and say -- isn't the name Jamaica just an interesting word? What a beautiful name for a country. And, as I say to Jan, "Jamaica me crazy!" [applause] So anyway we ran into this blind person, and after our service in the temple I gave him a white cane -- the first one he had ever had. I gave him a Victor Reader Stream and taught him how to use it. I taught him how to use the little SD card that my brother Norm Gardner had prepared. Norm put on the card the Bible, the Scriptures, and other holy books, not to mention some of the speeches from our leaders in the National Federation of the Blind about positive attitudes and collective action and the heartbeat of the NFB. We met another person in Guyana who had been an artist until three years before, when he went blind. He was discouraged and depressed. Needless to say, each of these encounters helped me start feeling that heartbeat of the Federation. We went to work. We wrote some grants, decided that if they were approved we could create two or three seminars -- maybe three seminars in each of three countries. So we chose Barbados, Dominican Republic, and, you got it, Jamaica me crazy. We knew that we could call upon teams of blind people to help us -- teams from the Louisiana Tech program -- master's degree students, and others in the NFB. We called some of them, and you may recognize their names: Conchita Hernandez, Deja Powell, Adam Rushforth. We had several people who went to the Caribbean to help us complete these grants. In the first week that we had a seminar in Barbados, Deja Powell was there and was working with a man who lived within one half mile of the beach. The country is only fourteen miles wide, and it's an island, so nobody lived very far from the beach. But he lived half a mile from the beach and told us that he was too afraid to go to it. After working with Deja, he reported, on the last day of our one-week seminar, that he had been to the beach the night before and had made it home just fine, thank you very much. [Applause] We knew that we could not do in one week what is being done in our NFB centers. It was impossible, and we didn't try. But what we did do was give hope and raise the level of expectations in blind people and in the staff of the agencies that were trying to serve them. There were two young women, seventeen and eighteen years old, and Corina Trujillo Tanner worked with them in Barbados. On the first afternoon that we were there I was going out the front door and down the steps when a man passed me coming up the other way. He got to the top, met his daughter, took the cane out of her hand, put her in the car, and drove away. And I thought to myself, "Why don't you just undo everything we tried to do for your daughter today?" But Corina was undeterred. Corina said that neither one of these young women had ever cracked an egg before, at least not purposely. They had never cooked, they had never been allowed in the kitchen, so Corina promptly had them light a gas oven, mix up the dough, crack the eggs, put them in the right bowls, and on the last day of that seminar this same young woman went down the stairs by herself with her cane, met her father at the car, and handed him a batch of warm cookies. [Applause] Senator Kerryann Ifill, the blind president of the Senate in Barbados, has a chauffeur who drives her around the island when she's on official government business, and I could tell that she was nervous about using a cane. So here is one of the highest political officials on the island, who is inviting us to help in blindness, who was herself very frightened of crossing the street alone. I decided she was my project, so we took a long white cane (she is totally blind), and we went out on a little O&M session. We went to downtown Bridgetown, and it was fascinating to hear the responses from the people on the street. Madam President, Madam Senator, the Honorable Senator -- they knew who she was, and she was walking around town with a white cane. It was wonderful! She said she had never walked to the parliament building before, so, of course, I said that was exactly what we were going to do. We walked to the parliament building, we found it--we got turned around a couple of times, but we found it -- no big deal. As we walked up to the door, the chauffeur who usually drives her around spoke with a catch in his voice as he said, "Madam President!" He had never seen her walk around outside the building with a cane before, and there she was, in comfortable jeans and sneakers and a white cane -- he had never seen her that way before, and yet, once she crossed through the front door, she became that same president of the Senate. She was no different on the inside of the building than she was on the outside of the building, and it made an impression on her. I got an email from her at the end of the week. It said that she had gone to a grocery store by herself, purchased a few items, and had walked home for the first time in her life. [Applause] She also invited us to attend a session of Parliament and watch her in operation. It was fascinating; I've never been in parliament before, and none of the blind people from Barbados who went with us had ever been in parliament before. So what do you think it did to them to see one of their blind sisters sitting in the president's chair of the Barbados parliamentary Senate? It was fascinating. [Applause] In Jamaica we had a teacher who was so bored on the first day that she decided not to come the second day, so I knew we had a problem. She returned on the third day and agreed to work with me on O&M. After all, she was a teacher of blind children. As we began, I handed her a pair of sleepshades. She said, "Oh no, I'm a teacher. I don't do sleepshades." Now we've all been there. We talked a little while; she asked lots of questions; she put on the sleepshades; and off we went. At the end of that day she had her calendar out, trying to schedule an exact date and time when we would come back to Jamaica. Amber Holiday, another one of the tech graduates, taught Braille. Now how much Braille can be taught in one week? I'll tell you how much. She taught enough Braille in one week so that every student was actually reading with their fingers under sleepshades -- reading with their fingers a few letters and words, and writing with a slate and stylus a few letters and words. Were they proficient in Braille? No. But had their hopes been raised and their expectations been raised? That was our goal, and Amber accomplished that. Brook Sexton went with us (another tech graduate), and she had a pretty difficult time with O&M on that street because, you see, the people who came had been to that center. I believe Conrad Harris is here from Jamaica, and he's the director of their blindness program. Welcome Conrad Harris. But he and several of the blind people had come to the blind center many times, and they knew that street like the back of their hand. Brook didn't. What was she to do to teach them O&M? I'll tell you what she did: she took them to the nearest bus stop, they all got on the bus, and they went to a place in town that the other people didn't know. Now, on terms of equality, Brook began teaching them a few of the finer points of O&M. My older brother Norm Gardner went with us. He took some Victor Reader Streams because they wanted to read the Bible, and this is one of the things they had asked us for. Norm has the scriptures on a little card. While he's teaching them how to use the Victor Reader Stream and how to navigate the scriptures, he is also preparing them for something else. He was preparing them to be able to navigate in textbooks, along with other books and materials. In the Dominican Republic we wrote another grant that allowed us to purchase high-speed scanners, and Adam Rushforth started teaching and preparing some of the staff in the Dominican Republic to put navigation marks in a scanned copy of a textbook. That project was closed last week as Adam finished up the training with two people from the Patronato and from the Fundacion Francina (Francina Foundation) in Santo Domingo on how to scan, how to convert the scanned file into an HTML document, how to insert the navigation marks into it, and I've told you much more than I really know about the process. All I can tell you is that it works, and they are thrilled because they have dozens of blind university students who are struggling with the same things we struggle with in college, and that is inaccessibility. Adam's work has gone a long way toward solving that, at least for those who are participating with us. [Applause] I would like to tell you just a couple of stories quickly because I'm running out of time. The Dominican Republic presented an interesting challenge because, of course, they speak Spanish, and most of us don't. My brother Norm does, I do, but who else could we get? Well, of course, we called another Louisiana Tech graduate, Conchita Hernandez, who happens to speak Spanish. She went to the Dominican Republic and taught O&M. The teachers had lots of enthusiasm but were very helicopter oriented, very hands-on, very hovering, very close to their students. Conchita solved that by taking her students around the corner, stepping on a bus, and waving goodbye to the teachers who were on the sidewalk trying to catch up. In other words, those who came down to help us used the philosophy and the techniques of the National Federation of the Blind to improve the lives of others. One more, President Riccobono. Yadiel Sotomayor. We had a student come one morning who said that he had left his white cane at home because it couldn't fit in the small, makeshift taxicabs used for public transportation -- it just didn't fit. Yadiel took that problem on, and everybody was able to get their white canes home and bring them back the next day and the day after that. I'm pleased to tell you that my understanding is that Yadiel is now going to be a mobility instructor in Utah. How great is that! So, at the end of all of that, I found myself feeling the heartbeat of the Federation, the same thing that rejuvenates and motivates and keeps us going -- the collective action in which we are all engaged. I believe that when wood is cut in the Federation, it warms not twice but three times: once when we do the work by cutting the wood, once when we burn that wood, and once when we share that wood with others. [Applause] My mother taught me an important lesson using an important scripture when I was very young. She said, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Thank you very much. ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: * Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; * Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; * Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; * Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; * Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and * Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving [HYPERLINK: http://www.nfb.org/planned-giving] or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. Invest in Opportunity The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back. A donation to the National Federation of the Blind allows you to invest in a movement that removes the fear from blindness. Your investment is your vote of confidence in the value and capacity of blind people and reflects the high expectations we have for all blind Americans, combating the low expectations that create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. In 2016 the NFB: * Gave away over four thousand long white canes to blind people across the country, empowering them to travel safely and independently throughout their communities. * Produced hands-on educational programming for hundreds of blind children, allowing them to access the essential building blocks for their future. * Provided one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. * Delivered free audio newspaper and magazine services to more than one hundred thousand subscribers, providing access to the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities. Just imagine what we'll do next year, and, with your help, what can be accomplished for years to come. Below are just a few of the many diverse, tax-deductible ways you can lend your support to the National Federation of the Blind. Vehicle Donation Program The NFB now accepts donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call (855) 659-9314 toll-free, and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation -- it doesn't have to be working. We can also answer any questions you have. General Donation General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work to help blind people live the lives they want. Donate online with a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit www.nfb.org/make-gift [HYPERLINK: http://www.nfb.org/make-gift] for more information. Bequests Even if you can't afford a gift right now, including the National Federation of the Blind in your will enables you to contribute by expressing your commitment to the organization and promises support for future generations of blind people across the country. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving [HYPERLINK: http://www.nfb.org/planned-giving] or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Pre-Authorized Contribution Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring monthly donations by direct withdraw of funds from a checking account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, visit www.nfb.org/make-gift [HYPERLINK: http://www.nfb.org/make-gift], and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Fredric K. Schroeder] Transforming Hope into Action: A Report from the World Blind Union by Fredric K. Schroeder, PhD, President World Blind Union July 14, 2017 From the Editor: Dr. Fred Schroeder is a longtime leader in the National Federation of the Blind, having served for some time as the first vice president of the national organization. He now serves as the president of the World Blind Union, and he continues to be a concerned and active participant in seeing that collective action is brought to bear on the problems faced by the blind of this nation and the world. Here is what he said to the 2017 convention on Friday, July 14: Tenzin Gyatso, better known as the Dalai Lama, once said: "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." But what is compassion? The English word compassion combines an archaic form of the Latin word "com," meaning "with or together" with the word passion, derived from the Latin word "passus." Hence, compassion means with passion or to share passion but not the passion of physical desire. Instead it is passion in the sense of suffering, as in the passion of Christ. To show compassion means to suffer along with another person, to share his or her suffering, to experience it together with that person. So, what does this have to do with blind people? Does blindness make us suffer? Well, certainly not in the way society imagines. We do not suffer the inability to learn or to attain an education; we do not suffer the inability to work; we do not suffer the inability to raise a family or to contribute to the welfare of our community. But we do suffer the negative consequences of stereotypes about blindness and the presumed inability of blind people. None of us will ever forget Baby Mikaela. Mikaela's parents, Blake and Erika, are blind. While all new parents are a bit uncertain about what it will mean to bring a new life into the world, most parents have no reason to fear the state taking away their newborn child. After all, a child is only removed from the home when the parents are unfit -- when a baby has been neglected, abused, or abandoned -- right? Blake and Erika learned otherwise. Just four hours after Mikaela's birth, a social worker took Mikaela away saying: "I just can't, in good conscience, send this baby home with two people who are blind." I am certain the social worker meant well. I am sure she was genuinely concerned for Mikaela's safety. It is not surprising that a social worker would wonder whether blind parents could care for their newborn child. It is not surprising that she would need to gather information about how blind people raise their children, but that is not what she did. Based on nothing more than her assumptions about blindness -- her "good conscience" standard of care -- she concluded that since Blake and Erica were blind, they were incapable of caring for their newborn infant. Accordingly the social worker, acting with the crushing authority of the state, removed Baby Mikaela from her blind parents and petitioned the court to make the removal permanent. The right of parents to raise their children without state interference is a fundamental right under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is a serious right, yet, for fifty-seven days the state had custody of Baby Mikaela. For fifty-seven days Mikaela and her parents were separated -- fifty-seven days that can never be recovered. Did Blake and Erika suffer? They most certainly did, but they did not suffer the heartache of inability. They suffered from having their fundamental right to parent -- a constitutionally protected right -- stripped away based on nothing more than the assumptions of a social worker acting on the basis of her good conscience standard of care. Fortunately, with the help of the National Federation of the Blind, Baby Mikaela was returned home, but the underlying problem persists. Sadly, the problem is neither new nor uncommon. All too often we encounter people who assume they know better than we what we can and cannot do, what is reasonable and unreasonable, what is safe and unsafe. And far too often they seem to feel perfectly free to take charge of our lives and to decide for us what we may and may not do, according to their assumptions about us and our abilities -- the good conscience standard applied to virtually every aspect of our lives. My wife Cathy and I are blind, and as many of you know, we have two children. We are truly grateful that we did not suffer the devastation experienced by Mikaela and her blind parents. Still, like all blind people, we daily encounter others who would decide for us what we can and cannot do. When our daughter Carrie was born, Cathy wanted to keep Carrie alongside her in the hospital room. This was called rooming in and was recommended to help the mother and the baby bond. As Cathy was being taken to her hospital room, she reminded the nurse that she wanted to keep Carrie in the room with her. The nurse said it would not be safe since Cathy would not be able to see the baby in the crib and would not know if she stopped breathing. What mother lying in a hospital bed can see a baby sleeping in a bassinette? And, more to the point, what mother holds a twenty-four-hour vigil, constantly watching the newborn to make sure the baby is breathing? Fortunately, our doctor put an end to the discussion by directing that Carrie be kept with Cathy. Still, the good conscience standard loomed large when we were faced by a nurse who assumed she was better able than Cathy to judge what would be safe and unsafe for our newborn baby. Two years later, when our son Matthew was born, he was slightly jaundiced, meaning he had a yellow tinge to his coloring from too much bilirubin in his little body. The doctor, a different doctor from the one who delivered Carrie, said it was common and nothing to worry about, but just to make sure, she said she would visit our home the next day to see how Matthew was doing. I told her we would be happy to take Matthew to her office, but she said she would stop by instead. Did our doctor stop by our house just to check Matthew's skin coloring, or did she want to see for herself whether Matthew's blind parents were able to provide a fit environment for a newborn baby -- and based on what? The good conscience standard? Perhaps she had both in mind, but there is no way to know, and, again, there was that moment of dread, that moment of apprehension, wondering why she would want to come to our house rather than have us take Matthew to her office; and wondering, if something were to happen, what in the world could we do about it. Fortunately, nothing did happen. Our children were not taken away, but we experienced that chilling dread, the feeling of helplessness, knowing that, if the doctor had felt Matthew was in danger, a social worker would have given much more credence to the doctor's judgment than to ours; and that is at the heart of the problem -- the good conscience standard -- others believing they are better able than are we to judge what we can and cannot do. Another example of the problem involves cases of divorce. During divorce proceedings, far too often the sighted spouse will argue that the blind spouse is incapable of caring for the couple's children. Never mind that the blind parent has been a primary caregiver all along. The judge is told that the children will be in danger if the blind parent is given custody or even shares custody; and in far too many cases, the judge agrees. The best interests of the child, determined by applying the good conscience standard, demands that custody of the children be awarded to the only parent who can provide a safe environment, the sighted spouse. But don't worry. In most states you will still be allowed to talk with your child over the phone and attend your child's school performances. And then there is adoption. Despite a growing need for adoptive parents, blind people and others with disabilities regularly face discrimination. Often they are precluded from becoming adoptive parents based on the assumption that their disability renders them unable to care for a child -- another manifestation of the good conscience standard at work. Discrimination against blind parents and others with disabilities is real; it is not an exaggerated concern, not a rare and isolated problem. A survey, conducted by Through the Looking Glass, a National Center for Parents with Disabilities, found that 15 percent of parents with disabilities reported attempts to have their children taken away. Altogether, 42 percent of parents with disabilities reported discriminatory treatment, including being pressured to submit to sterilization and/or being pressured to have an abortion. And, this is not just a US problem. In Canada a report titled Bridging the Gaps: Violence, Poverty & Women's Shelters -- An Update on Non-Resources for Women with Disabilities revealed that, as incredible as it may sound, in child custody disputes there have been cases in which government workers have recommended to judges that, rather than awarding custody to a parent with a disability, custody be granted to the nondisabled parent, even when the nondisabled parent has a documented history of violence and abuse. So, we have a US problem and a Canadian problem, but there is more. In Turkey, the law provides that in the case of unmarried parents custody goes to the mother, that is unless the mother is dead or has a disability. In Australia a 2015 report by the Office of the Public Advocate titled Rebuilding the Village: Supporting Families where a Parent has a Disability found that children are removed from parents with disabilities at a rate many times greater than the children of nondisabled parents. Compassion, true compassion, requires us to do more than wring our hands in helpless, hopeless, impotent despair; it requires us to take action -- affirmative, collective action. That means changing the public mind, and it means consecrating our rights in law. On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD is the first UN treaty to enumerate specific rights for people with disabilities. Article 23 of the treaty, Respect for Home and the Family, prohibits discrimination against parents with disabilities. It affirms the right of people with disabilities to have children and to be free from discrimination in matters of child custody and adoption. Unfortunately, as you know, the United States Senate has not yet ratified the CRPD, and there is no indication that it will do so anytime soon, but that does not mean we can be complacent and simply wait. President Riccobono typically receives one new request each and every month from a blind parent seeking help with a child custody dispute. The problem has gone on far too long, and the time to end discrimination against blind parents is long overdue. And, it is up to us to do something about it. Because of the work of the National Federation of the Blind, today eight states have statutes protecting blind parents from discrimination in child custody matters: Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington State, but that is only a beginning. We must redouble our efforts and work until all states have adopted our model parental rights for the blind bill. No one will do it for us; we must do it for ourselves. So, do blind people suffer? Well, not in the way society imagines. We do not suffer inability or helplessness; but we do suffer the consequences of social misconceptions about blindness. When a blind mother has her newborn infant taken away, not because of neglect or abuse, but because of the misconceptions and misapprehensions of others, she suffers, and so do we -- so do you and so do I, and so do blind people everywhere. Compassion, true compassion, requires us to take action -- collective action -- here in the United States and in every country around the world. Here in the United States we must continue to press the Senate to ratify the UN CRPD, and we must continue to press the legislatures in all of the states to adopt our model parental rights for the blind bill. In the words of the Dalai Lama: "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." Or to paraphrase: If you want other blind people to live with dignity and self-respect, engage in collective action. If you want to live with dignity and self-respect, engage in collective action. Compassion is at the heart of collective action, and collective action is the foundation of change. Together we have changed the world, and together we will continue to change the world until we have freed ourselves from the tyranny of the good conscience standard -- limitations not imposed by blindness but imposed on us by the well-intended yet misguided assumptions of others. We will continue to work together until we are finally able to live the lives we want, free from low expectations and discrimination. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: The Jacob Bolotin Award] Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Presented by Jim Gashel Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, fellow Federationists. This marks the tenth year the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards have been presented by the National Federation of the Blind, the Santa Barbara Foundation, and the Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust. To date we have presented $530,000 to forty-eight award winners in honoring the memory of Dr. Jacob Bolotin. By the way, a biography entitled, The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story by Rosalind Perlman is available in print and in CD formats from Amazon, but it's also free if you qualify for the Library of Congress NLS program. This book is your must-read for the coming year. Why don't you applaud that? [applause] Read that book! Read that book! Dr. Jacob Bolotin only lived for thirty-six years. He lived from 1888 to 1924, but he still proved to everyone, blind or sighted, that you can live the life you want. He dreamed of becoming the world's first medical doctor who was blind from birth. He made it happen, and he made it happen without really much support from anyone. After he attended the Illinois School for the Blind, Bolotin sold kitchen matches, brushes, and typewriters door-to-door in Chicago and the surrounding area. He used the money to support his family and to save enough to go to medical school. There was no rehabilitation to help him at that time. The hours were long, the work was hard. But in the spirit of Jacobus tenBroek, Kenneth Jernigan, Marc Maurer, Mark Riccobono, and all of you here, Bolotin was in spirit -- if not in name -- a Federationist [applause]. In part supported with a bequest left to the Santa Barbara Foundation and the National Federation of the Blind, these awards include an amount of money to each recipient -- and I'll specify that. But they also include an engraved plaque and medallion. Here's the text that goes on the plaque: Presented to[name of the recipient]by the National Federation of the Blindand the Santa Barbara FoundationJuly 2017 The text on the obverse side of the medallion suspended above the plaque says: "The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award" and then below that the logo of the National Federation of the Blind. And immediately below the logo this text: "Celebrating Achievement, Creating Opportunity." Then on the reverse side of the medallion above Dr. Jacob Bolotin's bust it says, "Dr. Jacob Bolotin," and then immediately below that it shows his birth and his death years, and then below the bust it says "Celebrating his Life/The Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust." Now for the 2017 Jacob Bolotin Awards. American Bar Association, $5,000. Now with its headquarters in the heart of Chicago -- the home of Dr. Jacob Bolotin -- the ABA was founded ten years before Bolotin was born. And its mission is to serve equally its members, the profession, and the public by defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession. Today the ABA has over 400,000 individual members and 3,500 affiliated entities. Therefore it doesn't exaggerate the point to say that the ABA is the foremost representative of the legal profession in the United States and around the world. Beginning in 2017 the ABA will not just be the leading organization of the legal profession, but it is also leading the way in making accessible participation an imperative on behalf of blind lawyers and lawyers with other disabilities [applause]. That's worth a little applause, and it's also worth the Bolotin Award. This organizational imperative comes from the ABA director as well as the ABA president, Linda Klein. Just imagine how far ahead we would be today if the medical profession had opened up its arms to welcome Jacob Bolotin a century ago. Although the ABA came to the party a little later than we wish they had, they have come to the party big time [applause]. By meeting the equal opportunity standard set by Dr. Bolotin, the ABA is using its leadership position to stand tall with the blind on behalf of our first-class status--this in furtherance of Jacob Bolotin's mission and the compelling story of the blind doctor. We can live the life we want. Here to receive the award is Ms. Linda Klein, president of the American Bar Association. [PHOTO CAPTION: Linda Klein] Linda Klein: Thank you very much. This prestigious award from an organization that's not primarily law-related underscores an important point: many if not most of the issues our society grapples with and the challenges we resolve, in essence, are legal issues--issues that benefit from, and indeed require, the full engagement of lawyers. This is the foundation of the American Bar Association's decades-long commitment to justice and the rule of law for all, including persons with mental, physical, and sensory disabilities. And our lawyer members are equally committed to the full and equal participation in the legal profession and in society as a whole of people with disabilities. At the ABA we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to take full advantage of the benefits, services, and activities we offer, including members with disabilities. That's why we're taking steps to make sure we have a more inclusive, accessible, and sensitive workplace. The ABA could not be the advocate we are without our dedicated member-volunteers, including outstanding lawyers like my friend Scott LaBarre [applause]. Scott is a member of the ABA Board of Governors, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Disability Rights Bar Associations, and president of the National Association of Blind Lawyers. We are proud that Scott is a leader of our team at the American Bar Association [applause]. The ABA looks forward to continuing the work of lawyers to defend liberty and pursue justice with allies like the National Federation of the Blind. I thank you for the important work that you do and for this most impressive honor. Thank you [applause]. Jim Gashel: National Federation of the Blind of Illinois for its Freedom Link Project, $10,000. Now, if there was ever a project designed to further the values and the mission of Jacob Bolotin, that is the project of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois called Freedom Link. Just like when young Dr. Jacob Bolotin -- before he was a doctor -- actually acquired skills and confidence on Chicago's city streets working as a door-to-door salesman, Freedom Link uses the streets of Chicago as a classroom for teaching young blind people the ropes of navigating the city and beyond. This project was launched in 2008 and pairs blind people with experienced blind adults who are living the lives they want in the Chicago area. Participants meet one Saturday a month in downtown Chicago, and they use the streets of Chicago and the entire surrounding area as a classroom. They go to places of interest using busses and trains; they learn things like how to define or understand parallel traffic, moving on escalators, looking out for the edge of the subway platform, etc. This is the blind reaching out and teaching one another. By meeting the standard of reaching and teaching others set by Dr. Bolotin, the NFB of Illinois Freedom Link project is paving the way for the blind from this generation to the next. This is in furtherance of Dr. Jacob Bolotin's story and the compelling message: you can live the life you want. Here to receive the award on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois is Denise Avant, president of the NFB of Illinois. [PHOTO CAPTION: Denise Avant] Denise Avant: Good afternoon, Mr. President and fellow Federationists. On behalf of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois, we want to say that we are truly honored by receiving this award. We thank the Bolotin Committee for recognizing Freedom Link. As you might imagine, Freedom Link is a very important program to us in Illinois. We strive to show young teenagers what they can do when they use long white canes and nonvisual techniques to travel throughout the city of Chicago on public transportation to various field trips. We have some of our Freedom Link people with us at Convention. Emma Myer, Amy Bosko, Aneri Brahmbhatt, and Batool Arastu have all been in our Freedom Link program and are now all members of the National Federation of the Blind, and we are so proud of that [applause]. We thank our mentors like David Myer, Mary Lou Guenwald, Marco Giannotti, as well as Patti Chang for giving up their Saturday afternoon to come and show and demonstrate to young blind teenagers how to live the lives they want. We especially appreciate Charlotte Lindon, who has funded our program since the very beginning. Our desire is that young blind teenagers can live the lives they want and fulfill their dreams. Thank you [applause]. Jim Gashel: Next is the organization Rooted in Rights, a project of Disability Rights Washington, for its film Bottom Dollars, $10,000. Don't you just love that name, Rooted in Rights? You know that's just exactly what Jacob Bolotin and the National Federation of the Blind are all about. Rooted in rights, that's where we started and that's where we still are today, seventy-seven years later. For more than fifty of those seventy-seven years, we have fought on behalf of blind industrial workers for the right to be paid at least the minimum wage, putting an end to legal exploitation of the blind. Welcome to the battle Rooted in Rights with its feature-length documentary that reveals the exploitation of workers with disabilities and shows them to be successfully working on their own either in other industrial jobs where they're paid better wages or in starting their own businesses. There was no excuse for paying the subminimum wage. Through interviews with our president, Mark Riccobono, and these workers, the film Bottom Dollars takes the veil off of exploitation and shows it to be exactly what it is: wrong, and it must end now [applause]. By meeting the no-nonsense advocacy standard set by Dr. Jacob Bolotin, Rooted in Rights is advancing our cause. By exposing the myths and misconceptions about blindness and replacing them with truth and facts, this is in furtherance of Dr. Bolotin's mission and the compelling story of the blind doctor. We can live the lives we want. Here to receive the award on behalf of Rooted in Rights is Jordan Melograna, the organization's creative director [applause]. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jordan Melograna] Jordan Melograna: Thank you to everyone who's here today, and thank you very much to the National Federation of the Blind for this prestigious award and also for all of the support and help they gave us in actually making the film Bottom Dollars. I also wanted to thank specifically Marci Carpenter from the great state of Washington, to my right, for nominating us for this award. The award money is going to go right back into producing the creative and accessible content that Rooted in Rights is known for. I learned a lot about Dr. Bolotin when I heard that we were getting this award, and I realized that he was a groundbreaker because he was the first blind doctor. But when he became successful and became a doctor, he didn't stop there, because he knew his personal success was not good enough, the change he was looking for needed to be systemic. Others in the community needed to advocate for that change itself. That's why he went out into those communities and created all-new advocates who could carry on the charge. In addition to advocating for other blind people, Dr. Bolotin spoke out against the living conditions inside the tenement houses where his family grew up and where my grandfather grew up. He did that because he knew that no issue exists in a vacuum. Eliminating discrimination without alleviating poverty is not good enough. At Rooted in Rights we believe the same thing. Bottom Dollars calls for the end of the subminimum wage, but that's not good enough. When the unemployment rate for disabled workers is no longer twice that of nondisabled workers, that won't be good enough. When we finally have fully-accessible hotel rooms and accessible restaurants and accessible movie theaters, that won't be enough. And when we finally enforce the most important civil rights law of my lifetime twenty-seven years after it was passed, that still won't be enough. Ensuring equal rights is a moving target. It takes vigilance and hard work by advocates everywhere, including by all of you in this room. And that's why we created Bottom Dollars, not only as a film but as an advocacy tool. We've given it away to individuals and organizations to hold their own screenings across the country -- 270 of them as of today. And the good news is you can, too. If you go to bottomdollarsmovie.com you can find out how to host your own screening and for the first time get the film streaming and download it online. Before I go I just want to say thank you one more time to the National Federation of the Blind and all of you for being here today. This award is an enormous honor for the work. Thank you [applause]. Jim Gashel: Dr. Paul Barlett, $10,000. Now, Dr. Barlett is dean of the preclinical education and professor of anatomy in the basic sciences department at Cleveland University Kansas City. This is one of our nation's premiere schools of chiropractic medicine. It's located in Cleveland Park, Kansas. Jacqueline Ouellet is here today -- in fact she's on the stage; she's one of our members. She nominated Dr. Barlett. In nominating him she said, "You know, this guy is intuitive as far as being willing to work with a blind person so I can become a chiropractor." [applause] She said a lot of other great things about Dr. Barlett which convinced our committee that we really needed to recognize this wonderful individual. But one of the things that convinced us most is the knowledge that not too far from Overland Park, Kansas, is the Palmer Chiropractic College in Iowa who told Aaron Cannon that, because he was blind, he couldn't practice as a chiropractor. It took the Iowa Supreme Court to tell Palmer Chiropractic otherwise. They should've known Dr. Barlett [applause]. By meeting the equal access to learning standard set by Dr. Jacob Bolotin, Professor Barlett is showing that prejudicial barriers in medicine and other professions can and will be removed. This is in furtherance of Jacob Bolotin's mission and a compelling story of the blind doctor telling us all we can live the lives we want. Here to receive his award is Dr. Barlett. [PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. Paul Barlett] Paul Barlett: This is like the Academy Awards [laughter]. I want to thank the National Federation of the Blind for this award. I am truly humbled and honored. This award is not just for me, though. I work with a team of individuals to provide support and assistance to Jackie, who is Cleveland University's first visually-impaired chiropractic student. One of the first hurdles that Dr. Bolotin had to navigate in medical school was anatomy. The same is true with Jackie; however, I am happy to say that she is doing very well in her anatomical studies, as we have developed tactiles and models for her to use [applause]. Though other options were available to Jackie, she proved her dedication by choosing to participate in the cadaver dissection lab. With the support of her fellow students and myself, she dissects and is tested on the cadavers. She always is allowed to make the first cut by her dissection group. In the book The Blind Doctor, Dr. Bolotin is quoted as saying, "The major problem for us is not our affliction, but the wall of ignorance, injustices, indifferences, and misconceptions that separate us from you who can see. We must break down that wall, but we cannot do it alone. We need your help." I am priviledged to work with Jackie and provide her the support and help she needs to achieve her dream of becoming a chiropractor. Thank you once again. Jim Gashel: Abigail Fuller and Sarah Ivy, for their award-winning film Do You Dream in Color?, $15,000. Now Carina, Connor, Nick, and Sarah -- not Sarah Ivy, she's one of the producers, this is a different Sarah -- were four teenagers wanting to live the lives they want, but not able to do so because they were being held back by the misconceptions largely of the educational professionals that they had to interact with. Through watching Do You Dream in Color?, you can tell that their motivations, drives, and activities as teenagers were definitely age-appropriate, but their ability to achieve their goals was being blocked. As film students at the University of Southern California, Abby and Sarah learned about the compelling story. They wondered whether blind people did dream in color, but then they learned that we dream essentially the same way everybody else does. We dream of futures of equality and opportunity just like everybody else does [applause]. And they learned that the thing that these people had in common were not those dreams -- they had those dreams in common -- but the thing they had in common were the restrictions being imposed on them because of artificial barriers due to blindness. Do You Dream in Color? tells that story in spades. If you don't believe it, get it on iTunes, get it on Amazon, get it on Google Play, and get it on Xbox Live, too. By meeting the tell-it-like-it-is standard about blindness which was set by Dr. Jacob Bolotin, Abigail Fuller and Sarah Ivy have produced a film that is being used to kick down the walls of prejudice, ignorance, and discrimination [applause]. This is in furtherance of Jacob Bolotin's mission and the story of the blind doctor. We can live the lives we want. Here to receive their joint award are Abigail Fuller and Sarah Ivy. [PHOTO CAPTION: Abigail Fuller] Abigail Fuller: Hello. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here today, and it's really quite an honor to be recognized by the NFB in such a meaningful way as the Bolotin Award, and to be in the same category as the other award winners who we share the stage with today who are all incredible movers and shakers. I wanted to thank the extraordinary students and their families who agreed to share their very intimate and personal stories with us on film -- the highs and the lows. That's an incredibly brave thing to do, so thank you to Connor, Sarah, Carina, and Nick [applause]. Also, thank you to the NFB for all the work that they are doing to promote the film and to help put it in front of as many young blind people and educators as possible and society at large to see the documentary. They really have shown that they're embodying this incredibly powerful idea to live the life that you want to live, which I believe in, myself, and I think the film hopefully shows that as well [applause]. [PHOTO CAPTION: Sarah Ivy] Sarah Ivy: Hi, ya'll. Thanks for having us, I just made a few notes. First, I think the most important thing is -- and I know Abby already said this, but I'll say it again -- thank you so much to Carina, Nick, Connor, and Sarah and their families for sharing their stories with us. Because honestly, without amazing, inspiring, and these wonderful human beings, we're just a bunch of film nerds with cameras running around just kicking it. There wouldn't be an amazing story without them; they're the real inspiration. Sorry, I'm really nervous in front of big groups of people. Originally I want to say I didn't know how I actually felt about being a sighted person receiving this award. I was incredibly nervous about it; I was excited, but then I questioned whether or not it was something I should be receiving. Then Chris Danielsen told me something on the phone when we were having a conversation. He said, "If the NFB would have made a movie about teenagers who are blind, this is the movie we wish we would have made." I can't tell you a greater compliment I have received about this film [applause]. I know Jim mentioned that the film was about overcoming obstacles, but what Chris's comment touched on which I think -- at least for me as a filmmaker -- this film was really about how we as a community, as a people, are more alike than we are different. And we should recognize and celebrate that [applause]. I was really inspired by Dr. Bolotin's story, and his pursuit of education and knowledge really did feel in line with the goals of our film, and I hope that you guys get the chance to watch it. I'd like to really thank the NFB for coming on to support the film and getting it out for the world to see (they already made that lovely statement.) Another person I would like to thank is Michelle Bruns Miller, she was one of the first advocates who teamed up with us; she had Society for the Blind in Sacramento partner with us, and we wouldn't be here without her. Thank you so much; it's an honor. Have a great day. ---------- Passing the ADA Education and Reform Act Would be a Step Backwards for Equality and Justice by Mark Riccobono From the Editor: This article first appeared on July 26, 2017, in The Hill, a political journalism newspaper published daily when Congress is in session. Here is what President Riccobono had to say about what passage of this proposed legislation would do to one of the cornerstones of the legal foundation of disability rights: Exactly twenty-seven years ago, the United States took another in a long series of steps toward actualizing our founding principles of equality and justice for all. On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became the law of the land. With its signing by President George H.W. Bush came true progress in the fight for equality and opportunity for the nation's blind. The National Federation of the Blind, the country's oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind people, has always been determined in our efforts to break down barriers that hinder us from transforming our dreams into reality and living the lives we want. The ADA, while not the only means through which we achieve these goals, has been and continues to be indispensable. Specifically, Title III of the ADA provides legal remedies for the blind when we encounter accessibility barriers as we work, study, shop, travel, and generally avail ourselves of the things that society has to offer. Such barriers are daily occurrences in our lives, and, in the worst cases, threaten our employment, education, and ability to function in our communities. It is therefore incumbent upon us to defend against the many assaults upon the ADA. Using a tactic deployed by critics of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, opponents of the ADA falsely accuse us of wanting special privileges or treatment. But we demand only equal treatment and opportunity; no more, no less. The latest misguided attempt to undermine civil rights and equality for the blind and other Americans with disabilities is the ADA Education and Reform Act, a House bill that would purportedly mitigate the scourge of "frivolous" lawsuits brought by shady lawyers and "serial plaintiffs." The crux of the argument in favor of this bill is that people with disabilities, such as the fifty thousand members of the National Federation of the Blind, are abusing the ADA in order to make a quick buck by unfairly targeting small businesses. There are several things wrong with this thesis. First, there is no systematic evidence that large numbers of illegitimate complaints are being filed. Proponents of this legislation, which would insert 180 days of unnecessary lag time between when a violation is encountered and when redress can be expected, can only point to anecdotal and extreme cases. For example, a report that analyzed all Title III lawsuits filed in 2016 found just twelve "serial plaintiffs." Given that 6,600 suits were filed in total, claims of abuse are exaggerated. Second, this bill cannot and does not make any distinction between meritorious and frivolous complaints. Therefore, legitimate complaints would be discouraged because of a tiny number of bad actors. The blind are disgusted by any abuse of the ADA for personal enrichment, but we do not believe that the problem is pervasive enough to weaken the most critical tool that we have to protect our rights. Third, the number of violations that we encounter daily dwarfs the number of lawsuits. Lawsuits are expensive and time consuming, and we do not pursue them lightly. In most cases, we find acceptable work-arounds and move on. In short, this bill is a solution in search of a problem. While it is true that Title III complaints have risen substantially in recent years, it is also true that awareness of our rights as blind people and the mechanisms of redress available to us have risen in equal measure. It is also true that new opportunities driven by technology bring with them new accessibility challenges. Whether we are attempting to engage in e-commerce, book travel plans using digital platforms, or conduct banking activities using mobile applications, we are consistently met with roadblocks that clearly violate the ADA. The National Federation of the Blind strongly opposes this bill. On this day we commemorate a milestone in our nation's history. We acknowledge that passage of the ADA was another move toward a more perfect union. To support a bill that would undermine the ability of the blind and others with disabilities to ensure equal access and opportunity would be to repudiate that project and dishonor our shared legacy. As we use this anniversary to reflect on what the ADA means, we will also take concerted action to buttress it against those forces that would undermine it. The National Federation of the Blind calls on those who have already signed on as co-sponsors of this bill to withdraw their support and for those who may be asked to support it in the future to refuse. To do otherwise is to scale back hard-won gains and hinder our progress toward true equality. ---------- Awards Presented at the 2017 National Convention From the Editor: Recognizing the work that is accomplished on behalf of blind people is a critical part of the mission of the National Federation of the Blind. For this reason we present a number of awards. Some are presented annually; others are presented only as often as the Federation determines that a deserving candidate merits their presentation. This year the awards presented were the Distinguished Educator of Blind Students and the Jacobus tenBroek Award. The Distinguished Educator of Blind Students was presented at the annual board meeting held on July 12, 2017. Here are the remarks of the chairman of the committee, Carla McQuillan, and the winner, Amy Lund: Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Presented by Carla McQuillan Blind children are the future of the National Federation of the Blind. And while technology has made information access easier, technology in and of itself is not enough to ensure the success of our blind children. It requires the basic skills of blindness: cane travel, the skills of daily living, and most of all, Braille. Let's give a cheer for Braille, you guys [cheers]. Thank you! Every year the National Federation of the Blind recognizes a teacher of blind students who has not only embraced the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind but also incorporates it every day in teaching the students in their caseload. Before I begin with discussing this year's winner, I'd like to thank the members of the committee who helped sort through the applications and determine who was going to be the Distinguished Educator of Blind Students this year: Laura Bostick, Michelle Chacon, Kathy Jackson, Carlton Walker, and Dan Wenzel were all members of the committee this year. Let's give them applause for that [applause]. This particular individual received her bachelors of science in low vision and blindness from Illinois State University and also received her masters of science from Illinois State University. She began her teaching in 2001, and in 2009 she was a chaperone for our law program, bringing one of her blind students. So Natalie Shaheen said, "I was a little skeptical, because this is a VI teacher I don't know." But then she said, "Once I got to know her, this woman really got it." One of her student's parents who wrote a letter in support said that she was an expert in her field. She was professional, friendly, kind, and fun. She's very good at motivating her students. So I would like to announce Amy Lund from Illinois as this year's Distinguished Educator of Blind Students [applause]. For Amy we have a plaque that has the logo of the National Federation of the Blind, and it says: THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND HONORS AMY LUND DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND STUDENTSFOR YOUR SKILLS IN TEACHINGBRAILLE AND OTHER ALTERNATIVE TECHNIQUES OF BLINDNESS,FOR GRACIOUSLY DEVOTING EXTRATIME TO MEETTHE NEEDS OF YOUR STUDENTS,AND FOR EMPOWERINGYOUR STUDENTS TO PERFORMBEYOND THEIR EXPECTATIONS.YOU CHAMPION OUR MOVEMENT.YOU STRENGTHEN OUR HOPES.YOU SHARE OUR DREAMS.JULY 12, 2017 And along with that beautiful plaque, Amy receives a check for $1,000 [applause]. [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Lund] Amy Lund: Mr. President, board of directors, and members, I am so honored by this recognition. I've been so fortunate to be involved in Federation activities throughout my career. I've met the best, strongest, and most skilled mentors that my students could have. I've been lucky to be involved in the LAW Program, Youth Slam, and the BELL Academy. The NFB student programs have helped shape my teaching philosophy to facilitate my students' living the life they want. Thank you for this recognition; I am truly honored. Thank you. The Jacobus tenBroek Award Presented by Marc Maurer I serve these days as the chairperson of the Jacobus tenBroek Award Committee. I have some members of the committee who are very good people, and they give me suggestions. Pam Allen does, Jim Gashel does, and Barbara Loos does. I thank them for their suggestions and their support. We've decided that we have people tonight who should get an award in the name of our founding president and of the driving force behind the National Federation of the Blind. He was our political leader during much of the Federation's formative years and our spiritual leader during the first twenty-eight years while he was alive. He is our spiritual leader even today, based on his thoughts and his opinions and his writings. That's Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, who was our first president and who was also a professor and who was a lawyer and a constitutional scholar and a man who helped to write documents that changed the nature of the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. Dr. tenBroek could be discouraged. All of us have been discouraged, but he could never be defeated because his spirit survived, revived, and brought him the kind of courage that does not ever give up. The people that we have to consider tonight have the same kind of courage. I want to invite them -- for it is a couple -- to come to the podium so that we may remember what they've done and admire what they're planning to do and tell them how much we know the spirit they carry is the spirit of our founder. So I call upon two of our number, specifically Norma and Glenn Crosby [cheers, applause], to come forward. Now, as it happens I met Glenn Crosby -- I believe for the first time -- in the early 1970s. He may have a better memory of the meeting than I. But I knew he was part of the Federation as I came to be a part of it myself, as I came to be a member of our student division (what we now know as the National Association of Blind Students). Glenn here was from Texas [cheers]. When I got to know our Texas affiliate, Glenn was not our president. We had other presidents -- they weren't as interesting as Glenn -- but he was not our president. I came later to learn a good deal about Glenn, and I start with him because I met him first. He was helping to build our affiliate by the latter half of the 1970s. He was then our president in Texas, and he was a good president. But I learned from some of the history that he'd been our president before in Texas, but he wasn't very good at it then; he had to grow and he had to learn. But he didn't quit; he did grow, and he did learn. In those days Norma was there, but she was not Norma Crosby, and she kept telling Glenn what to do. And lo and behold, Glenn paid attention. After a while the two of them came to marry one another, and that helped both of them and helped our organization as well. Now Glenn has been not just our leader in Texas, but he was also a member of our board of directors. He's been a vendor in Texas and elsewhere. He spent time in other states; he even did some work in South Dakota and then Louisiana, and now he's back in Texas. Glenn and Norma are working together to bring leadership to our Texas affiliate, where Norma is now our president. Now she is giving direction to our affiliate, and Glenn is telling her what to do [laughter, applause]. So, what goes around comes around, as they say. The two of them together bring energy and commitment to the organization, and they have shared in that energy and commitment over the years. They are good friends to those who are strong in the Federation spirit. They are committed workers, and they are joyful people. I want to first -- I mean, Glenn, you were on the board first but Norma is now. And you were president first, but Norma is president now -- so I'm going to give this plaque to Norma, and I feel confident that she will let you hold it with her [laughter, applause]. This plaque says: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLINDJACOBUS TENBROEK AWARDPRESENTED TO NORMA CROSBY AND GLENN CROSBY FOR YOUR DEDICATION, SACRIFICE, AND COMMITMENTON BEHALF OF THE BLIND OF THIS NATION.YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS MEASURED NOT IN STEPS, BUT IN MILESNOT BY INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES BUT BY YOUR IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF THE BLIND OF THE NATION. WHENEVER WE HAVE ASKED, YOU HAVE ANSWERED. WE CALL YOU OUR COLLEAGUES WITH RESPECT. WE CALL YOU OUR FRIENDS WITH LOVE.JULY 15, 2017 [PHOTO CAPTION: Glenn stands by as Norma receives the tenBroek Award from Marc Maurer] I want to give to you the Brailled text of this plaque, and I invite you to address this gathering, you, the recipients of the highest honor based on what is meant by our founder and first president, the Jacobus tenBroek Award. Here are Norma and Glenn Crosby [applause]. Glenn Crosby: Normally it's ladies first, but my wife says I go, so . . . My first convention was in Des Moines, Iowa in 1968. My wife tells me this is my fiftieth convention [applause]. I must tell you that it is I who should be giving Dr. tenBroek, Dr. Jernigan, Dr. Maurer, and President Riccobono, my wife, and all of my Federation family an award. Thank you very much [applause]. Norma Crosby: You know, I used to wonder sometimes when people won the tenBroek Award if they knew in advance, if they had a clue. I can tell you, personally, I had not a clue. There are so many more deserving people in the audience. We don't work in the Federation to win awards; we work in the Federation out of love. I feel that strong bond and that strong connection to each and every person in the audience tonight. I know so many of you, and I love you so much. I'm truly honored by this award, and I would say one last thing: I couldn't have been honored with a better partner than Glenn Crosby. Thank you guys so much [applause]. ---------- Strengthening the Federation's Heartbeat Through Resolutions by Sharon Maneki President Riccobono began his 2017 Presidential Report to the convention as follows: During the past year, the heartbeat of our organization has grown in strength and intensity. Our heartbeat is a rhythm created from bringing the diverse stories of blind people together with a unifying belief that blindness is not the characteristic that defines our future. As more blind people hear our message and join our march, the rhythm grows stronger. The rhythm carries us through times of challenge and refuels us in times of celebration. As the tempo of society changes, we adjust to keep pace, and often our rhythm sets the standard of excellence. Steady, determined, and full of optimism for our future we contribute to the heartbeat through local chapters, state affiliates, and our national organization. Individually we seek to live the lives we want and collectively we transform our dreams into reality. We are the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. How do resolutions contribute to the heartbeat of the Federation? Since resolutions are statements of policy that reflect our priorities, they help to focus our efforts so that we can continue to raise expectations every day because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. The objective of a cardiologist is to make sure that the human heart has a steady beat. Resolutions perform a similar function for the Federation's heartbeat. Some of our resolutions are proactive and call for new solutions to problems. Others are reactive and call on government, business, and educational entities to change policies or cease destructive procedures. Through resolutions, we develop a steady course of action for the future. The convention, the supreme authority of the Federation, considered twenty-four resolutions. The convention chose to pass twenty-two of these. Let us examine these resolutions to see which ones are proactive, which ones are reactive, and how they achieve a steady heartbeat for the National Federation of the Blind. Any individual may submit a resolution for consideration by the resolutions committee. The resolutions committee is one of the largest committees in the Federation and is made up of leaders from across the country. This year the resolutions committee met on July 11 and considered and passed twenty-four resolutions. I was privileged to be the chairman of the committee and was ably assisted by a longtime member of the national staff, Marsha Dyer, and a newcomer to the national staff, Melissa Kroeger. The draft resolutions passed by the committee were placed on our website so that members could review the proposed policies before they went to the convention floor. These resolutions were considered by the convention on Friday, July 14. As I mentioned earlier, the convention chose to defeat two resolutions that dealt with technology. In Resolution 2017-13 Gary Allen, president of the NFB of Connecticut, proposed that we "call upon developers to adopt the long established keyboard interface conventions that have served the blind well for many years." The convention agreed that having to learn different interfaces for each application creates barriers for users. The resolution was defeated because these conventions are not written down in a central place such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA. Greg Aikens, president of the Georgia Affiliate, proposed in Resolution 2017-21 that we encourage the VFO Corporation to be more proactive in providing access to popular applications. Once again, the convention agreed that this was a problem, but objected to some of the language in the resolution. Since there was general agreement about the problems addressed in these resolutions, I am sure they will be restructured and resubmitted for consideration again next year. The convention passed seven resolutions that are clearly proactive responses to problems. Two of these resolutions were about air travel, two concerned congressional action, and the remaining three covered accessibility issues. Michael Hingson, a longtime leader in the Federation who currently serves as vice president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, sponsored Resolution 2017-02. Discrimination against the blind by airlines continues to be a vexing problem. Resolution 2017-02 offers a reasonable solution. The Resolution reads in part: "this organization demand that the United States Congress amend the Air Carrier Access Act to include a private right of action for violations of the law that permits compensatory and injunctive relief, as well as reasonable attorneys' fees, in order to deter future acts of discrimination." The second resolution concerning discrimination by airlines was 2017-17. The resolution listed various discriminatory behaviors such as aggression toward blind travelers' service animals from other passengers' pets or emotional support animals. The three proponents of this resolution use guide dogs. Two of the proponents, Jessica Snyder and Aleeha Dudley are members of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Guide Dog Users. Aleeha also won a national scholarship in 2011. The third sponsor, Julie McGinnity, is president of the Performing Arts Division and first vice president of the NFB of Missouri. Julie won national scholarships in 2011 and 2013. In this resolution we urge "all airlines to develop continuous and effective personnel training programs in consultation with the National Federation of the Blind and the National Association of Guide Dog Users so that the discriminatory treatment of blind passengers will come to an end." Blind people have great difficulty purchasing access technology. Since Congress plans to reform the tax code, we have suggested the excellent solution of creating a refundable tax credit for the purchase of screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, embossers, etc. In Resolution 2017-09, "this organization strongly urge the United States Congress to enact the Access Technology Affordability Act immediately." Tracy Soforenko, president of the Virginia Affiliate, proposed this resolution. Braille literacy has been a priority of the National Federation of the Blind for decades. Resolution 2017-12 promotes a new way to get more Braille into the hands of blind people. In this resolution we urge the US Congress to authorize an appropriation of five million dollars to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to purchase refreshable Braille displays. Lillie Pennington, a 2017 summer intern at the Jernigan Institute who is studying social work at Northern Kentucky University sponsored this resolution. The three proactive resolutions on accessibility contain both commendations and calls to action. David Baggett, an intern at the Jernigan Institute who is working on an MBA degree at Shenandoah University and is a member of the board of directors of the Winchester Chapter in the NFB of Virginia, sponsored Resolution 2017-08. "The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 level AA (WCAG 2.0 AA) have become the internationally recognized standard for ensuring the accessibility of web technologies." In this resolution, we commend all those who follow these standards and urge "web accessibility testing organizations, browser and access-technology manufacturers, and web developers to continue to make conformance to these standards a priority in order to further interoperability across devices and services for all users." Rachel Olivero, a longtime Federationist who is the director of organizational technology for the National Federation of the Blind, sponsored Resolution 2017-18. Drupal is a content management system for websites. In this resolution we commend the Drupal community for its commitment to accessibility. In the resolution we also call on "module and theme developers building components for Drupal to follow the guidance provided by the Drupal Accessibility Team to ensure their add-ons will be as accessible as Drupal Core." Blind people appreciate and have benefited from the increase of audio description for movies, TV broadcasts, theater productions, and other media. In Resolution 2017-23 we commend those who already provide audio description of visual content and urge those who do not provide it to make it available. We look forward to the day when presentations on such platforms as YouTube will automatically contain audio description. Vee Gaspa, an intern at the Jernigan Institute who also serves as the president of the New Jersey Association of Blind Students, sponsored this resolution. Vee is a junior at Seton Hall University who is majoring in English. Some readers may view with alarm the fact that I am calling fifteen of our resolutions reactive. Organizations that merely react to situations normally do not demonstrate leadership. The NFB and its resolutions are unique, because they represent consistent positions that we have taken for many years. Resolutions 2017-01, 2017-03, 2017-06, 2017-10, and 2017-16 are perfect examples of our leadership and consistency. The National Federation of the Blind was the first organization to sound the alarm about the dangers of quiet cars to all pedestrians, especially to those who are blind. We began our campaign to bring about change in 2003. In 2011 the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act was signed into law. This act requires hybrid and other electric vehicles to emit an alert sound at low speed to warn the pedestrians of their presence. In Resolution 2017-01, we "condemn and deplore the Department of Transportation for three and a half years of delays, extensions, and postponements to the final regulation for the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act." Maurice Peret, a longtime leader in the NFB of Maryland and chairman of the NFB's Committee on Automobile and Pedestrian Safety, sponsored this resolution. The National Federation of the Blind has been advocating for civil rights since its inception in 1940. The writings of our founder, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, were the foundation for the principles that were included in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which became law in 1990. His article "The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled in the Law of Torts" is still considered an important reference for lawyers and others in the civil rights field. The NFB has always maintained that the ADA addresses access to new technologies. This law does more than provide the right to physical access. In 2010 the US Department of Justice began the process of drafting web access regulations under Titles II and III of the ADA but never finished the process. Donald Porterfield, president of the NFB of Arizona, introduced Resolution 2017-10. In this resolution we "strongly urge the current administration to expand access for blind Americans by demanding that the United States Department of Justice immediately finalize and release web access regulations under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act that are consistent with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA." Kenia Flores, a summer intern at the Jernigan Institute who also serves as president of the North Carolina Association of Blind Students, sponsored Resolution 2017-06. This resolution demonstrates our continued commitment to enforcement of the ADA. Congressman Ted Poe introduced H.R. 620, The ADA and Education Reform Act of 2017, a bill that will seriously weaken the ability of disabled persons to use the courts to protect our rights. In this resolution we "call upon Representative Poe to withdraw this bill from consideration and instead to encourage the business interests who are pushing this legislative initiative to meet with and listen to the concerns of people with disabilities." Since the 1980s the NFB has been working to promote Braille literacy for the blind. The Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act is the latest threat to Braille literacy. Of course, we are opposing H.R. 1120 and have listed our reasons for this opposition in Resolution 2017-03. The amendments to IDEA suggested in this legislation will weaken the Braille presumption clause, making it even more difficult for students with limited vision to receive instruction in Braille reading and writing. Terri Rupp, president of the NFB of Nevada, sponsored this resolution. Terri did not receive instruction in Braille when she was a child. She wants to make sure that her blind daughter and all blind children get the instruction in Braille that they need. The Randolph-Sheppard program has been providing employment opportunities to blind people since 1936. The latest threat to this program is H.R. 1990, and of course we are voicing our opposition and speaking out for the program as we have for decades. Joe Higdon, a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Blind Merchants and president of the Indiana Association of Blind Merchants, sponsored Resolution 2017-16. In 1982, Congress gave the Randolph-Sheppard program the priority to operate vending machines at interstate rest areas. H.R. 1990 will commercialize interstate rest areas, thus jeopardizing the livelihood of 400 blind entrepreneurs. We urge Congressman Jim Banks to immediately withdraw this damaging legislation in Resolution 2017-16. Monitor readers will not be disappointed, because their expectations of reading resolutions about accessibility are met again this year. The convention passed six resolutions that are reactions to access barriers. More and more restaurants are replacing wait staff with Ziosk, a tablet-based tabletop system used to order food and pay bills. Unfortunately, the Ziosk system is not accessible to the blind. Ashley Neybert and Tom Anderson were tired of this annoyance, so they introduced Resolution 2017-05. In this resolution we "call upon all blind Americans to publicize the inaccessibility of restaurants where Ziosk is used through social media and by other means." Ashley Neybert is vice president of the Kansas Association of Blind Students and also serves as vice president of the Science and Engineering Division. Tom Anderson is president of the Communities of Faith Division, and a member of the board of directors of the NFB of Kansas. Tom was an instructor at the Colorado Center for the Blind for twenty-seven years and retired from this position in 2015. Janice Toothman and Everette Bacon proposed Resolution 2017-07. Janice is second vice president of the Deaf-Blind Division and a member of the board of directors of the Sligo Creek Chapter of the NFB of Maryland. Everette is president of the NFB of Utah. He represents the Federation on the Disability Advisory Committee of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). FCC regulations require that emergency broadcast systems be accessible to blind people and to deaf people. The regulations do not specifically extend the accessibility requirement of these systems for deaf-blind people. In this resolution we strongly urge the FCC to immediately correct this serious omission. Blind students and professionals in the STEM and social sciences fields face serious barriers because of the lack of access to research and reference management software. In Resolution 2017-11 we insist that developers of research and reference management software not only take steps to immediately make their products fully accessible, but also urge developers, "to engage knowledgeable screen reader users to provide in-depth testing so that their VPATs [Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates] will be accurate." Justin Young, a doctoral candidate in Higher Education Administration at the University of Rochester proposed this resolution. Liz Wisecarver who serves as the NFB-NEWSLINE coordinator for the Texas Affiliate introduced Resolution 2017-15. Home appliances are becoming more difficult for blind people to operate due to complex menu-driven interfaces. Traditional marking methods used by blind people no longer work because of these touchscreen-based menus. In this resolution we "call upon the United States Congress to pass legislation requiring accessibility standards for home appliances." In Resolution 2017-19 "this organization hereby condemn and deplore testing entities that have told blind test takers that computer-adaptive tests cannot be made accessible with screen access software and that have offered testers a human reader and scribe as their only accommodation option." One of the sponsors of this resolution, Tarik Williams, explained how he was required to take his math final on the computer, even though the test was inaccessible. The other sponsor, Kevin Whitley, described difficulties blind people face when they are required to take computer tests in screenings for potential employment. Tarik is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Blind Students, and Kevin is president of the NFB of Alaska. In this resolution we also "demand that testing entities design computer-adaptive tests in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA so that these tests are fully and independently accessible to the blind." Ronza Othman, chairman of the NFB's Federal Employees Committee and a leader in the NFB of Maryland, sponsored Resolution 2017-22. Federal employees have been extremely frustrated because the Microsoft Corporation broke its promises to make its SharePoint software fully accessible. The resolution reads in part: "this organization strongly urge that Microsoft Corporation make SharePoint fully accessible in all versions, including future releases and previously released versions since SharePoint 2010 of the server-based platform to its blind users." We also "demand that federal agencies stop procuring and deploying SharePoint until Microsoft incorporates accessibility solutions in all versions." The last four resolutions that I will discuss in this article are reactions to plans by the federal government and by Uber Technologies Inc. These plans will seriously hinder the ability of blind people to live the lives we want. The convention passed three resolutions concerning the proposed federal budget. In Resolution 2017-04, "this organization condemn and deplore any effort to cut funding for the Medicaid insurance program." Bre Brown, president of the Texas Association of Blind Students, who won a national scholarship in 2015, described how Medicaid was helpful to her as a blind student. Further, cuts to Medicaid will cause this segment of the population to suffer, because most students are on a fixed income and have no other means for healthcare. The second sponsor, Trudy Pickrel, second vice president of the Parents of Blind Children Division of the NFB of Maryland, is the mother of several severely disabled children. She fears that cuts to Medicaid will lead hospitals to reject treating her most fragile child, because some hospitals already reject Medicaid patients. Further cuts will increase these incidences. Steve Hastalis, who serves as president of the Chicago Chapter of the NFB of Illinois, and Jemal Powell, who serves as its second vice president, are also longtime advocates for public transportation. They were appalled by the proposed cuts to both Amtrak and the Federal Transit Administration. Consequently, they sponsored Resolution 2017-14. In this resolution "this organization strongly urge the Administration and Congress to recognize that mass transit and rail transportation are integral parts of this nation's infrastructure and should be supported by increases in federal funding." The Library Services and Technology Act is an important source of funding for state libraries for the blind throughout the country. In some cases, these federal funds are the only source of revenue for the state libraries for the blind. In Resolution 2017-20, we express our opposition to any cuts and urge the US Congress to fully fund the Library Services and Technology Act. Shelia Wright, the newly elected president of the NFB of Missouri, proposed this resolution. Resolution 2017-24 is our response to the communication from Uber Technologies entitled "New changes for better pickups." This communication outlines Uber's plan to charge a wait time fee if the ride has not started two minutes after the driver arrives. In this resolution we "call upon Uber to suspend the implementation of any wait time fees until an accessible means of locating a driver can be implemented." Kevan Worley, a longtime leader in the NFB of Colorado and in the National Association of Blind Merchants, sponsored this resolution. This article is merely an introductory discussion of the resolutions considered by the convention. The complete text of each resolution that was passed is reprinted below. Readers should analyze the text of each resolution to understand fully our policy on these subjects. These resolutions demonstrate our consistent leadership which strengthens the heartbeat of the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- National Federation of the Blind Resolutions for 2017 Resolution 2017-01 Regarding the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act WHEREAS, silent hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular on roadways across America; and WHEREAS, since 2003 the National Federation of the Blind has expressed deep concerns about the safety of the blind and other pedestrians due to the silencing of motor vehicles, particularly those hybrid and other electric vehicles that use batteries instead of combustion engines; and WHEREAS, in 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded that these vehicles were twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian collision as the internal combustion engine counterparts; and, WHEREAS, the threat is increased for blind Americans, who rely on the sound made by motor vehicles to determine when it is safe to cross streets and driveways, traverse parking lots, and otherwise be aware of moving vehicles that are present; and WHEREAS, on January 4, 2011, in recognition of the dangers posed by silent hybrid and electric vehicles, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, requiring these vehicles to emit an alert sound at low speeds, was signed into law; and WHEREAS, the initially scheduled publication date for the final regulations of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act was January 4, 2014, but the regulations were not published in the Federal Register until December 14, 2016, with an effective date of February 13, 2017; and WHEREAS, since that publication in the Federal Register, the effective date has been further delayed no less than four times, most recently to September 5, 2017: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore the Department of Transportation for three and a half years of delays, extensions, and postponements to the final regulation for the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that the current administration cease all delays of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act and put the final regulations into effect immediately. Resolution 2017-02 Regarding the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 as Amended and Air Carrier Discrimination WHEREAS, in 1986 Congress passed the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Act, clarifying that "no air carrier may discriminate against any otherwise qualified handicapped individual, by reason of such handicap, in the provision of air transportation"; and WHEREAS, in enacting the ACAA, Congress did not expressly authorize a private right to sue an air carrier that engages in discriminatory acts, but only authorized the creation of an enforcement mechanism requiring each air carrier to "implement a complaint resolution mechanism, including designating one or more complaints resolution official(s) to be available at each airport which the carrier serves;" and WHEREAS, in creating the administrative enforcement mechanism, Congress delegated authority to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to investigate all complaints alleging violations of the ACAA; and WHEREAS, although an aggrieved person may file a petition for review of a DOT determination to a United States Court of Appeals, these courts must give substantial deference to DOT's interpretation of its regulations unless the aggrieved person can demonstrate that the decision was plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation; and WHEREAS, while the DOT has expertise in air carriers and air travel, it does not have sufficient expertise in disability discrimination or civil rights issues, nor do its employees receive sufficient training to be considered experts on disability discrimination or civil rights issues; and WHEREAS, under the ACAA, Congress authorized the Department of Justice, a federal agency with substantial expertise and training in the protection of disability and civil rights, to bring civil actions to enforce the ACAA only upon request of the Secretary of Transportation; and WHEREAS, the current ACAA enforcement scheme has led to a lack of accountability among airlines and their personnel, resulting in shocking acts of discrimination against the blind and other passengers with disabilities, including the forcible or threatened removal of these passengers from aircraft merely because the passengers asserted their settled rights under the ACAA; and WHEREAS, in contrast to the current process, a private right of action would allow an aggrieved individual to seek redress in the courts with the assistance of counsel of his or her choosing, allowing for an unbiased and independent review of the alleged discriminatory acts and the law pertaining to them; and WHEREAS, an award of reasonable attorney's fees under the ACAA would motivate attorneys to assist aggrieved air travelers who otherwise could not afford to vindicate their rights: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand that the United States Congress amend the Air Carrier Access Act to include a private right of action for violations of the law that permits compensatory and injunctive relief, as well as reasonable attorneys' fees, in order to deter future acts of discrimination. Resolution 2017-03 Regarding the Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act WHEREAS, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), originally passed by the United States Congress in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, supports special education and related service programming for blind and other students with disabilities, by guaranteeing students with disabilities a "free appropriate public education" in the "least restrictive environment"; and WHEREAS, for students who are identified as having "visual impairments including blindness," (20 U.S.C. ?? 1414(d)(3)(B)(iii)) commonly referred to as the "Braille presumption," current law guarantees them instruction in "Braille and the use of Braille" unless, after an evaluation of the child's "reading and writing skills, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media (including an evaluation of the child's future needs for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille)," the IEP (individualized education program) team determines that instruction in "Braille or the use of Braille" is inappropriate for the student; and WHEREAS, according to the American Printing House for the Blind's 2015 Annual Report, 61,739 students were identified as having "visual impairments including blindness" in the United States, and of this number only 5,333 students, or 8.6 percent of all students identified, were identified as having Braille as their primary reading medium; and WHEREAS, Title II of the Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act, which seeks to amend substantially the IDEA, will, as currently written, further exacerbate the Braille literacy crisis in the United States by shifting the current narrow and specific, yet often unenforced, mandate of the "Braille presumption" to include a host of areas that fall outside Congress's original intent in drafting this provision, reducing Braille as the central focus of this provision; and WHEREAS, Title II of the Cogswell-Macy Act also introduces the term, "visual disabilities," to describe students with "visual impairments including blindness," the law's current terminology, which will further dilute the terminology already being used in the field of blindness--the term "visual disabilities" is an undefined term that is otherwise not commonly used by most professionals in the field of blindness, nor is it used consistently throughout the proposed act; and WHEREAS, Title II, Subtitle B of the Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act seeks to establish the creation of an "Anne Sullivan Macy Center on Visual Disability and Educational Excellence," funded by the United States Department of Education and composed of a consortium of nonprofit, academic, and national consumer entities in the field of blindness to provide services to blind students, as well as blindness professionals, without sufficient requisites for the entities described to ensure that the services will meet the highest academic, professional, and empirical standards for students and professionals alike: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon Representative Matt Cartwright to withdraw the Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act (H.R. 1120) from consideration in the 115th Congress and to work diligently with the National Federation of the Blind to strengthen the "Braille presumption," and the IDEA as a whole, to better meet the needs of blind students, blindness professionals, and parents of blind children; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the United States Department of Education vigorously to enforce the IDEA, specifically the "Braille presumption," to ensure that blind students are given access to the greatest key to literacy so that they may live the lives they want. Resolution 2017-04 Regarding the Protection of the Medicaid System from Proposed Cuts and Ensuring Economic Security and Stability for Blind Americans WHEREAS, pursuant to the Social Security Amendments Act of 1965, the Medicaid Social Insurance program has provided critical economic and family security for blind Americans for over fifty years, and today, there are an estimated 1.4 million blind people in the United States who rely on Medicaid for health insurance, economic stability, and family security; and WHEREAS, blind people comprise an estimated 17 percent of disabled people currently using the Medicaid program, and thus Medicaid has provided millions of blind Americans since 1965 with peace of mind in the knowledge that they will have access to vital healthcare services without incurring prohibitive expenses and decimating household budgets; and WHEREAS, the United States House of Representatives recently passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which contains $839 billion in proposed cuts to Medicaid, and the current administration recently released a budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 that contains within it an additional $610 billion in cuts to Medicaid, for a total of $1.4 trillion in cuts to the program; and WHEREAS, if the cuts to Medicaid set forth in the American Health Care Act were to be implemented, an estimated one hundred twenty-four thousand blind Americans would lose their health insurance, and such loss of health insurance represents a catastrophic strain on the resources and stability of households that rely on Medicaid for insurance: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore any effort to cut funding for the Medicaid insurance program; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon both houses of the United States Congress to oppose cuts to Medicaid and to incorporate the concerns of blind Americans in the future when considering any similar reforms. Resolution 2017-05 Regarding Ziosk Accessibility WHEREAS, since 2013 many restaurants, including but not limited to, On the Border, Outback Steakhouse, Chili's, T.G.I. Fridays, and Olive Garden have contracted with Tabletop Media LLC to install Ziosk, a tablet-based tabletop system in which food can be ordered and bills can be paid; and WHEREAS, the purpose of Ziosk is to minimize the time that is needed for wait staff to take food orders and for restaurant patrons to pay their bills; and WHEREAS, Ziosk uses an operating system that is currently inaccessible to blind users; and WHEREAS, restaurants that employ inaccessible technology and services for blind patrons not only violate Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act but also display a callous attitude toward customer service to all patrons: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand that Tabletop Media LLC make the Ziosk system accessible to blind patrons; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge all restaurants to cease using Ziosk until it is made accessible to blind patrons to ensure that they will have the same dining experiences as the general public; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon all blind Americans to publicize the inaccessibility of restaurants where Ziosk is used through social media and by other means. Resolution 2017-06 Regarding the Preservation and Protection of the Rights of People with Disabilities Under the Americans with Disabilities Act WHEREAS, beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century, Congress worked to codify the rights of people with disabilities by ensuring equal access to education, employment, and community-based opportunities; and WHEREAS, the ultimate expression of this effort was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, a comprehensive civil rights law that revolutionized the inclusion and integration of people with disabilities in the United States in all aspects of American life by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a disability; and WHEREAS, over the last twenty-six years of the ADA's existence, public and private entities have had access to substantial resources to assist them in complying with the law, but despite this Americans with disabilities still confront persistent physical and, increasingly, digital access barriers; and WHEREAS, to assist Americans with disabilities in asserting our rights under the ADA, Congress included a private right of action under this law, which has assisted Americans with disabilities to secure landmark victories that have opened doors in employment, education, commerce, and other arenas; and WHEREAS, this private right of action is now being jeopardized by a small group of attorneys and plaintiffs who are abusing this provision of the law, emboldening restaurant, commerce, and lodging special interest associations to attack this provision by backing federal legislation that will hinder the right of Americans with disabilities to file suit against businesses that are violating the ADA; and WHEREAS, in the first session of the 115th Congress, Representative Ted Poe from Texas introduced H.R. 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017," which seeks to amend the ADA to require Americans with disabilities first to send a letter to the business in question informing it of the specific title and section of the ADA it is violating; next to give the business sixty days upon receipt of the letter to acknowledge it, and subsequently another one hundred twenty days to "remedy" the violation; after which, should the business not comply, only then can a person with a disability file suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act; and WHEREAS, this approach wrongly shifts the burden of compliance with the ADA from the business sector to the people the law is intended to benefit, while creating a greater incentive for businesses engaging in new construction or renovation to ignore the requirements of the ADA since they would have to comply with the law only if and when a specific person with a disability attempts to access their facility or service: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore the introduction of H.R. 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017," by Representative Ted Poe; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon Representative Poe to withdraw this bill from consideration and instead to encourage the business interests who are pushing this legislative initiative to meet with and listen to the concerns of people with disabilities and to identify any common ground that may exist, while simultaneously eliminating the adverse consequences the bill, as currently drafted, has on the majority of disabled Americans who are not abusing the law. Resolution 2017-07 Regarding Access to Emergency Alert Broadcasts for Deaf-blind Individuals WHEREAS, emergency alert broadcasts are public announcements that provide immediate and critical information about weather, security or national crisis, or local events; and WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as state and local authorities, have implemented routine testing on the emergency broadcast system on television and radio stations; and WHEREAS, critical information about emergencies is often conveyed visually or audibly on television and radio, formats that are inaccessible to deaf-blind people; and WHEREAS, like everyone else, deaf-blind individuals need information not only about the type of emergency, but also about how to stay informed in the likelihood of being displaced, as well as procedures for how to deal with the aftermath; and WHEREAS, deaf-blind people have the capability to use adaptive technologies to independently access this time-sensitive and important information but are currently forced to depend on family members, friends, or coworkers to relay that information because it is not directly conveyed to them in accessible formats; and WHEREAS, current FCC regulations (47 C.F.R. 79.2) require that emergency broadcast systems be provided in an accessible format for blind and deaf persons, but not specifically for deaf-blind persons; and WHEREAS, in 2015 the FCC created the Disability Advisory Committee, which brings together representatives from industry and advocacy organizations to address issues such as accessibility in communications for all disabled persons, but the Committee has not yet issued recommendations concerning access to emergency alerts and broadcasts for the deaf-blind; and WHEREAS, the FCC provides eligible deaf-blind people with adaptive technology through the National Deaf-blind Equipment Distribution Program, also known as the ICanConnect program, which allows deaf-blind people to receive text messages through smart phones, Braille displays, tablets, etc.: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization strongly urge the FCC to immediately promulgate accessibility standards for the communication of emergency information to deaf-blind persons in a timely and effective manner so that these individuals have the necessary information needed to make appropriate decisions during a crisis and in the aftermath. Resolution 2017-08 Regarding the Necessity of Conformance to Well Recognized Standards to Ensure Widespread Accessibility WHEREAS, the internet is necessary to access education, commerce, recreation, and communication for blind and sighted people alike; and WHEREAS, blind users employ a variety of devices, browsers, and screen-access packages to access the internet; and WHEREAS, the wide interoperability of websites, browsers, operating systems, and assistive technologies is made possible only through robust adherence to widely recognized standards and guidelines; and WHEREAS, the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 level AA (WCAG 2.0 AA) have become the internationally recognized standard for ensuring the accessibility of web technologies; and WHEREAS, the United States Section 508 Refresh directly references WCAG 2.0 AA as its accessibility guideline for all relevant technologies; and WHEREAS, other major standards including the Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) Authoring Practices, Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines, and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines further ensure that blind users can trust that their preferred tools will allow them to use accessible content; and WHEREAS, these W3C standards are the product of collaboration among many stakeholders, including users, consumer organizations, government, and business; and, WHEREAS, the adoption of these standards by all stakeholders increases the ability of users to choose the tools that best meet their needs: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization commend all web developers, browser manufacturers, access technology producers, and others who have worked to improve the quality of web accessibility through adherence to the guidelines outlined by the W3C; and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind call upon web-accessibility testing organizations, browser and access-technology manufacturers, and web developers to continue to make conformance to these standards a priority in order to further interoperability across devices and services for all users. Resolution 2017-09 Regarding Increasing the Availability of Access Technology for Blind Americans WHEREAS, blind consumers use access technology tools such as screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, and embossers to participate in school, succeed in careers, and live independently; and WHEREAS, public and private entities responsible for providing these tools struggle to meet the current demand of blind consumers, which results in prolonged delays in the delivery of necessary technology to the blind; and WHEREAS, access technology is highly specialized technology designed and manufactured for a relatively small population, leading to the high cost of these tools; and WHEREAS, approximately 72 percent of blind Americans are unemployed or underemployed and do not have the financial resources needed to purchase these tools; and WHEREAS, on March 27, 2017, Senators Boozman and Cardin introduced S. 732, and Representatives Young and Roybal-Allard introduced H.R. 1734, the Access Technology Affordability Act; and WHEREAS, this legislation provides a simple solution that empowers blind consumers to procure these items for themselves by creating a refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,500 to be used over a three-year period: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization commend Senators Boozman and Cardin and Representatives Young and Roybal-Allard for introducing the Access Technology Affordability Act; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urge the United States Congress to enact the Access Technology Affordability Act immediately. Resolution 2017-10 Regarding the Application of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the World Wide Web WHEREAS, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) revolutionized the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of American life, opening doors to employment, education, commerce, transportation, and the like, doors previously thought to be out of reach for Americans with disabilities; and WHEREAS, since the passage of this landmark civil rights legislation, the World Wide Web has blossomed as the main vehicle by which personal, commercial, and professional transactions occur, where increasingly, academic tasks are performed, and where ideas, opinions, and information are conveyed through a broad range of internet-based outlets; and WHEREAS, the inception and passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act preceded the mainstream use of the World Wide Web; and WHEREAS, Congress made clear when enacting the ADA that it addressed more than physical access and was supposed to incorporate access to new technology; and WHEREAS, in 2010 in an attempt to bring definitive clarity to this matter, the United States Department of Justice began the process of drafting web access regulations under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a process that it was not able successfully to complete; and WHEREAS, both the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Education continue to have enforcement responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, regardless of the existence of web access regulations: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization urge that the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Education vigorously enforce Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect and preserve the rights of blind and other Americans with disabilities; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urge the current administration to expand access for blind Americans by demanding that the United States Department of Justice immediately finalize and release web access regulations under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act that are consistent with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA, enabling blind Americans to fully live the lives we want. Resolution 2017-11 Regarding Inaccessible Research and Reference Management Software WHEREAS, students and practitioners in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, (STEM) and Social Sciences fields are frequently expected to use software packages to design surveys and experiments, analyze quantitative and qualitative data, and create and share bibliographies and citations; and WHEREAS, an astounding number of software packages, such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), SAS (Statistical Analysis System), Minitab, and Mplus used to analyze quantitative data; NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, and Dedoose used to analyze qualitative data; and Endnote and Mendeley, used to manage references, are inaccessible to the blind; and WHEREAS, some software manufacturers generate Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT) that claim accessibility, but these VPATs are often inaccurate because the developers did not include in-depth testing by screen reader users who know how the software package is supposed to operate; and WHEREAS, blind people have the desire and the capacity to study and work in these fields but face discrimination due to inaccessible software; and WHEREAS, blind students cannot compete academically with their sighted peers when they cannot complete courses on time or must withdraw completely from courses because the alternatives to inaccessible software are inefficient and the universities fail to provide adequate technical support; and WHEREAS, blind people face unemployment and under-employment in these fields, even when they have successfully completed their degrees, because their productivity is compromised by inaccessible software; Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization insist that developers of research and reference management software packages immediately take steps to make their products fully accessible; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge software developers to engage knowledgeable screen reader users to provide in depth testing so that their VPATs will be accurate; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urge universities to discontinue the purchase or the deployment of inaccessible software. Resolution 2017-12 Regarding the Distribution of Refreshable Braille Displays to Patrons of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped WHEREAS, there are currently 119,487 libraries of all types operating in the United States, and of these only the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is specifically tasked with distributing Braille books across the nation; and WHEREAS, the distribution of these Braille books by the NLS and a network of cooperating regional libraries primarily occurs through the mailing of hard-copy offerings, but new, low-cost devices (known as refreshable Braille displays) can produce electronic Braille, saving money, saving paper, and using a small electronic device instead of multiple and large volumes for just one book; and WHEREAS, in April of 2016 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized the potential that refreshable Braille displays offer to increase the availability of Braille materials to NLS patrons, while simultaneously saving the NLS approximately ten million dollars annually; and WHEREAS, in July of 2016 Congress affirmed the GAO's findings by amending the Pratt-Smoot Act, (2 U.S.C ?? 135a), to allow the NLS to "provide books published either in raised characters, on sound-reproduction recordings, or in any other form," thereby opening the door for the NLS to distribute refreshable Braille displays: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon the United States Congress to authorize a one-time appropriation of five million dollars to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which will enable the NLS, through the bidding process, to purchase a minimum of ten thousand low-cost refreshable Braille displays, jumpstarting the distribution of these devices to the 11 percent of NLS patrons who are already accessing the library's electronic Braille files and increasing access to refreshable Braille. Resolution 2017-14 Regarding Federal Funding for Public Transportation WHEREAS, if blind persons are to achieve full integration into all aspects of community life, we must have access to efficient reliable public transportation; and WHEREAS, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) uses federal funds for a wide range of its operating and capital activities to provide a national system of passenger rail service, including regional service through several corridors and service to smaller communities that have no other passenger transportation; and WHEREAS, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems, including fixed route systems (buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys, and ferries) as well as on-demand systems; and WHEREAS, the president's current budget proposal includes sweeping cuts in federal subsidies for transportation services, reducing Amtrak's budget by $630 million and reducing the FTA's budget by 13 percent; and WHEREAS, these budget cuts would have a detrimental impact on the ability of the blind as well as other people with disabilities to travel to school, work, doctor's appointments, community meetings, civic events, worship services, and recreational activities: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization strongly urge the Administration and Congress to recognize that mass transit and rail transportation are integral parts of this nation's infrastructure and should be supported by increases in federal funding. Resolution 2017-15 Regarding the Accessibility of Major Home Appliances WHEREAS, many major home appliances are becoming increasingly smart and feature-packed; and WHEREAS, these features often are accessed by increasingly complex interfaces; and WHEREAS, these interfaces are commonly menu-driven and/or touchscreen-based, preventing blind consumers from using traditional marking methods to make appliances operable; and WHEREAS, manufacturers have not included on-device methods for increasing accessibility; and WHEREAS, app-connected devices can provide some benefit, but do not provide equal access: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon major appliance manufacturers to develop and promote universally accessible interfaces for their appliances; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the United States Congress to pass legislation requiring accessibility standards for home appliances. Resolution 2017-16 Regarding the Commercialization of Interstate Rest Areas WHEREAS, Congress, in 1936, enacted the Randolph-Sheppard Act to "provide blind persons with remunerative employment," to "enlarge their economic opportunities, and encourage their self-support through the operation of vending facilities in federal buildings," and subsequent amendments to the Randolph-Sheppard Act have further clarified Congress's intent and have continued to expand economic opportunities for blind entrepreneurs; and WHEREAS, in 1982 Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut recognized the opportunity that existed for blind entrepreneurs at interstate rest areas and subsequently introduced the "Kennelly Amendment" to the Surface Transportation Act, which authorized state licensing agencies designated to administer the Randolph-Sheppard Program the priority to operate vending machines at interstate rest areas; and WHEREAS, because of the passage of the "Kennelly Amendment," today, 20 percent of blind entrepreneurs who participate in the Randolph-Sheppard Program operate vending machines at interstate rest areas nationwide; and WHEREAS, the livelihood of these approximately four hundred blind entrepreneurs is now being jeopardized by Congressional efforts which seek to commercialize these interstate rest areas, most recently with the introduction of H.R. 1990 in the 115th Congress by Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana, which seeks to amend Title 23, United States Code, to allow food concessions at state-owned interstate rest areas; and WHEREAS, the result of commercialization of interstate rest areas would be directly felt by blind entrepreneurs, who would then be forced to compete with well-established and well-recognized franchises, essentially putting these blind entrepreneurs out of work almost overnight: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization urge that Congressman Jim Banks withdraw H.R. 1990 from consideration in the 115th Congress until the concerns of the blind entrepreneurs who earn their living from vending machines in our nation's interstate rest areas are adequately addressed. Resolution 2017-17 Regarding the Discriminatory Treatment of Blind Passengers by Airlines WHEREAS, air travel is the fastest and most convenient method of long-distance travel; and WHEREAS, blind passengers, like our sighted peers, use air travel for business, pleasure, visiting loved ones, and many other purposes; and WHEREAS, the Air Carrier Access Act, passed in 1986, provides for the fair and nondiscriminatory treatment of blind and other disabled passengers by airlines; and WHEREAS, airline staff, both in the airport and on the aircraft, regularly treat blind passengers poorly by asking for identification for service animals, demanding that passengers sit in wheelchairs or in certain locations on the aircraft, and taking long white canes from passengers; and WHEREAS, blind travelers' service animals increasingly experience aggression from other passengers' pets or emotional support animals; and WHEREAS, the law provides clear guidance for all issues mentioned above and the remedies for any issue that might arise during air travel, but the behavior of airline personnel demonstrates that they have little training or knowledge of what the law says with regard to these issues; Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization urge all airlines to develop continuous and effective personnel training programs in consultation with the National Federation of the Blind and the National Association of Guide Dog Users so that the discriminatory treatment of blind passengers will come to an end. Resolution 2017-18 Regarding the Accessibility of the Drupal Content Management System WHEREAS, Drupal, an open source content management system used to power thousands of digital experiences across the web, has the potential to impact the daily experience of many blind computer users; and WHEREAS, the Drupal accessibility statement declares, "As an inclusive community, we are committed to making sure that Drupal is an accessible tool for building websites that can also be accessed by people with disabilities"; and WHEREAS, the accessibility statement further indicates Drupal has committed to ensuring all features of Drupal Core conform with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 and the W3C Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) version 2.0; and WHEREAS, the Drupal Accessibility Team and other Drupal community members have provided excellent documentation for module and theme developers to make their third-party components accessible as well as a specific tag in the module and theme search systems allowing these developers to indicate that their components are accessible; and WHEREAS, the commitment to accessibility was firmly demonstrated when at its launch, Drupal 8 (the most recent major version of the platform) provided an out-of-the-box accessible experience; and WHEREAS, the availability of accessible content management platforms not only benefits end users, but additionally enables blind developers, authors, and editors greater access to a tool used in a myriad of organizations, decreasing the likelihood of barriers in certain employment opportunities; and WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind and a number of its affiliates have chosen to power their own websites with Drupal: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization commend the Drupal Association, the Drupal Core maintainers, the Drupal Accessibility Team, and the Drupal community as a whole for their demonstrated commitment to producing a content management system that is accessible to visitors, content authors, and administrators; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization commend the above listed groups for committing to an accessible product early in the development of Drupal 8, but also for making accessibility improvements in existing code for Drupal 7; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call on module and theme developers building components for Drupal to follow the guidance provided by the Drupal Accessibility Team to ensure their add-ons will be as accessible as Drupal Core. Resolution 2017-19 Regarding Equal Access for Computer-Adaptive Tests WHEREAS, computer-adaptive testing has become increasingly integrated into high-stakes tests at the K-12, higher education, and professional licensure level; and WHEREAS, computer adaptive tests adjust dynamically to a tester's ability level by providing a series of questions dependent upon whether the tester answered previous questions correctly; and WHEREAS, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits testing entities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities and stipulates that tests must be delivered in a manner that measures an individual's mastery of the subject matter, as opposed to reflecting his or her disability; and WHEREAS, technology exists to provide blind test takers with full and equal access to computer-adaptive tests using screen-access software paired with pre-embossed tactile graphics, Braille supplements, and/or Braille displays; and WHEREAS, rendering a computer-adaptive test in an accessible format does not constitute a fundamental alteration of the test: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization hereby condemn and deplore testing entities that have told blind test takers that computer-adaptive tests cannot be made accessible with screen access software and that have offered testers a human reader and scribe as their only accommodation option; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that testing entities design computer-adaptive tests in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA so that these tests are fully and independently accessible to the blind. Resolution 2017-20 Regarding the Preservation of Funding for the Library Services and Technology Act through the Institute of Museum and Library Services WHEREAS, the 119,487 libraries in the United States serve as vital centers of community engagement, literacy, learning, and access for Americans in every locality across the country; and WHEREAS, libraries in rural areas are often the only source of free internet access, thereby providing critical avenues for residents to seek out employment opportunities and engage with the broader world; and WHEREAS, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) provides funding to libraries in regions and states specifically dedicated to serving the blind and other print-disabled people; and WHEREAS, the Library Services and Technology Act is the legislative vehicle through which the IMLS receives that funding, which is the primary source of funding for libraries for the blind in some states, and partially contributes to the funding of other state libraries for the blind: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization strongly support the provision of full funding in the amount of $186.6 million for the Library Services and Technology Act as a component of the broader fiscal year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon Senator Roy Blunt and Senator Patty Murray, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as Representative Tom Cole and Representative Rosa DeLauro, Chair and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, to support the full funding amount of $186.6 million contained in the Library Services and Technology Act. Resolution 2017-22 Regarding SharePoint WHEREAS, SharePoint, a Microsoft product, unites content management, document management, and intranet management, as well as offering business intelligence and business solutions functionality; and WHEREAS, SharePoint has been widely deployed among federal government agencies enterprise-wide, and the federal government is one of Microsoft's largest clients; and WHEREAS, federal agencies are legally prohibited from procuring, deploying, and using electronic information technology (EIT) that does not comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act; and WHEREAS, Microsoft claims that SharePoint is Section 508 compliant, which is a basic accessibility standard applicable to the federal government; and WHEREAS, the primary determinant by the federal government of whether a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product is Section 508 compliant is whether or not the product seller characterizes its product as adhering to Section 508; and WHEREAS, many SharePoint features are in fact not 508 compliant or accessible, including some navigation, collaboration, dynamic, and developer features, such as checking documents in and out, editing documents, collaborating on documents, creating and managing document approval routes, adding tables and charts, creating SharePoint pages, wikis, and resources, generating dynamic content, and aspects related to back-end development of SharePoint environments, which result in individuals who are blind and otherwise use access technology being unable fully or independently to use SharePoint; and WHEREAS, Microsoft has publicly stated to members of this organization that it is not interested in improving accessibility and 508 compliance to server-based and previously released versions of SharePoint and intends only to focus on improving accessibility for cloud-based versions of SharePoint; and WHEREAS, federal government agencies are either prohibited from or very slow in being able to change from server-based to cloud-based SharePoint platforms because of national and cyber security reasons, infrastructure limitations, and funding constraints; and WHEREAS, the cost to apply a third-party accessibility module to SharePoint is prohibitive and may cost an agency upwards of $40,000 for each individual user; and WHEREAS, third-party accessibility modules must be modified each time an entity upgrades to a new version of SharePoint or makes a developer change, resulting in additional development of the third-party module, gaps between the time when SharePoint is upgraded and when the upgrade to the third-party module is deployed, rendering the third-party module inoperable and SharePoint unusable by the blind during that period and adding significant additional expenses; and WHEREAS, the wide-spread deployment of inaccessible versions of SharePoint among federal agencies has caused blind federal employees who previously performed work tasks independently prior to SharePoint to lose the ability to do so; Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization strongly urge that Microsoft Corporation make SharePoint fully accessible in all versions, including future releases and previously released versions since SharePoint 2010 of the server-based platform, to its blind users; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the federal government to demand the same of Microsoft; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that federal agencies stop procuring and deploying SharePoint until Microsoft incorporates accessibility solutions in all versions, including future releases and previously released versions since SharePoint 2010 of the server-based platform, thus ensuring that the blind and other employees using access technology have equal access to SharePoint's business functionality features as do other employees. Resolution 2017-23 Regarding the Availability of Described Video Content WHEREAS, video description can provide substantially improved access for blind viewers of many types of video content, including those used for educational, vocational, and recreational purposes; and WHEREAS, some content cannot be understood non-visually without additional description or other resources; and WHEREAS, the majority of major American theatrical releases now offer a description track; and, WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission has called for an increase in the availability of video description for over-the-air broadcasts; and WHEREAS, many DVD and Blu-Ray releases contain description tracks; and WHEREAS, blind users certainly appreciate and use these services, but like many others increasingly use digital and streaming services for viewing video content; and WHEREAS, several streaming, digital rental, and content stores offer some described content, but the selection may change based on provider, device employed, content licensing, and other factors; and WHEREAS, many of these providers offer unique content, available through only one platform: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that we commend those organizations which have worked to ensure access to described content using their digital distribution channels, including Apple's iTunes Store, Amazon, and Netflix; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call on providers that have not offered described videos to work toward providing this functionality to all blind consumers; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we ask all such providers to continue to work with blind users to ensure that video description is widespread, easy to employ, and effective, and that these entities provide content creators with an easy method to include description, including on platforms which focus on user-generated content, such as YouTube. Resolution 2017-24 Regarding Fees Incurred for Locating Uber Drivers WHEREAS, rideshare services have increased and simplified independent mobility for blind people; and WHEREAS, blind people regularly use the Uber app and service as a means of transportation; and WHEREAS, a July 5, 2017, email from Uber entitled "New changes for better pickups" outlines changes to Uber's fee structure including a "wait time fee" which is incurred if the ride has not started after two minutes of the driver's arrival as indicated by the Uber app; and WHEREAS, the Uber app and associated services do not currently include an accessible means for one to determine a driver's current location; and WHEREAS, these and other limitations can result in it taking longer than two minutes for a rider to find the vehicle to begin an Uber trip; and WHEREAS, the fee described in the above email has been verified to have taken effect and is now being charged in these instances, regardless of whether the rider is making a good faith effort to locate the driver: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon Uber to suspend the implementation of any wait time fees until an accessible means of locating a driver can be implemented. ---------- NOTICE OF PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ATTENTION: ALL LEGALLY BLIND INDIVIDUALS WHO ATTEMPTED BUT WERE UNABLE TO ACCESS OR WHO WERE DETERRED FROM ACCESSING THOSE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES AVAILABLE AT REDBOX KIOSKS IN ALL FIFTY STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA EXCEPT CALIFORNIA DURING THE PERIOD STARTING ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2014, AND CONTINUING THROUGH THE TERM OF THE AGREEMENT. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENT DESCRIBED BELOW; READ THIS NOTICE AND INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY: This notice is to inform you about the proposed settlement that would resolve the class action lawsuit Jahoda, Nguyen, and National Federation of the Blind v. Redbox Automated Retail, Case No. 2:14-cv-01278-LPL (W.D. Pa.). The lawsuit asserts that Redbox Automated Retail, LLC ("Redbox") violated federal law under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ?? 12101 et seq., by offering video and video game rental services at self-service, touchscreen kiosks that are not fully accessible to, and independently usable by, blind and visually-impaired people. Redbox believes that the kiosks are compliant with the ADA and denies all liability in the case. The settlement, which must be approved by the Court, would resolve the lawsuit. I. THE CLASS Solely for purposes of effectuating this settlement, United States Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has certified a settlement class of all legally blind individuals who attempted but were unable to access or who were deterred from accessing those products or services available at Redbox kiosks in all fifty states and the District of Columbia except California during the period starting on September 17, 2014, and continuing through the term of the agreement (the "Class"). Redbox kiosks located in California are excluded from the settlement because Redbox has already settled a separate class action lawsuit in California. Legally blind individuals include all persons with visual impairments who require the use of alternative techniques to accomplish tasks for which people without disabilities use sight. Some people who meet this definition have limited vision. Others have no vision. II. SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT The settlement results in injunctive relief that will provide accessibility solutions for Redbox kiosks in all fifty states and the District of Columbia except California (because of a separate settlement in California under California law). The settlement requires Redbox to modify kiosks in all fifty states and the District of Columbia except California so that legally blind customers will be able to browse, select, pay for, and return media (including DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and video games) without the assistance of another person. The modifications will include the addition of a standard headphone jack, a tactile keypad, and text-to-speech output that will read texts and commands aloud. Redbox will modify kiosks throughout the country so that, generally, in geographic areas where kiosks are spaced more than two miles from each other or it takes on average more than five minutes to drive from one kiosk to the next (measured by Redbox's route time software), all kiosks are modified. In contrast, generally, in geographic areas where multiple kiosks are placed within two miles of each other or it takes on average five minutes or less to drive from one kiosk to the next (measured by Redbox's route time software), a modified kiosk will be within the two-mile radius or five-minute drive time radius approximately 90 percent of the time. Redbox will ensure that any new locations have modified kiosks. These modifications will begin no later than 180 days after Final Approval, or by April 28, 2018, and be completed within 36 months of Final Approval, or by October 30, 2020. The National Federation of the Blind will monitor compliance with this settlement by testing kiosks which have been modified, and Redbox will provide quarterly reports to Class Counsel, commencing on December 13, 2018, listing the locations where the kiosks have been modified during the preceding quarter. The settlement also requires Redbox to update its website and its mobile application so that customers can identify the locations that have been modified. These changes will be made to Redbox's website and mobile application by December 31, 2017, and Redbox will update it every sixty days after this date to reflect which kiosks have been modified. Redbox will continue its remote customer service assistance program until modifications are complete. Its remote customer service assistance program allows Redbox customer service agents to remotely assist settlement class members with browsing, renting, paying for, and returning movies or other media from Redbox kiosks by remotely operating the kiosks. The settlement provides for a Plaintiff incentive payment to be made to Plaintiffs Robert Jahoda in the amount of $5,000.00 and to Plaintiff April Nguyen in the amount of $5,000.00. Class Counsel will be paid $400,000 for all attorneys' fees and allowable litigation costs and expenses. The fees would pay Class Counsel for investigating the facts, litigating the case, negotiating the settlement, and monitoring compliance. Class Counsel's Motion for Attorneys' Fees will be available at www.redboxadasettlement.com by October 16, 2017, or can be requested from Class Counsel (contact information below) after October 16, 2017. III. THE EFFECT OF THE SETTLEMENT ON THE RIGHTS OF CLASS MEMBERS All Class members will be bound by the terms of the settlement relating to the accessibility of Redbox kiosks in all fifty states and the District of Columbia except California if the settlement is approved by the Court. In other words, once the settlement is approved, all Class Members will release and forever discharge claims they may have for injunctive relief related to the accessibility of the Redbox kiosks for people who are legally blind or visually impaired. IV. OBJECTING TO THE SETTLEMENT If you are a settlement Class member, you can ask the Court to deny approval of this settlement by filing an objection with the Court. You can give reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. You must do so in writing. The Court will consider your views. If the Court denies approval of the settlement terms, there will be no settlement and the lawsuit will continue. You must object in writing and in accordance with the instructions below. To object, you must file the objection with the Clerk of the Court either in person or by first class mail at the following address: Clerk of the Court U.S. District Court 700 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Any objection must be received by October 9, 2017 for it to be considered. All written objections and supporting papers must clearly set forth: (i) the name of the litigation, Jahoda, et al. v. Redbox Automated Retail, Case No. 2:14-cv-01278-LPL; (ii) the Class member's full name, address, and telephone number; and (iii) the specific reasons for the objection, and any evidence or legal authority the Class member believes supports the objection. Class members who fail to properly or timely file objections in writing with the Court and in accordance with the procedures set forth above shall not be heard during the fairness hearing described below. Nor shall their objections be considered by the Court. V. FAIRNESS HEARING The District Court will hold a fairness hearing to decide whether to approve the settlement. The fairness hearing will be held on October 30, 2017, at 9:30 am EST at the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 700 Grant Street, Courtroom #7B, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. If there are objections or requests to be heard, the Court may consider them at the hearing. The Court may also decide the amount of attorneys' fees and costs to be paid to Class Counsel. If you file an objection, you may also appear at the fairness hearing. You may appear at the hearing either in person or through your own attorney. If you appear through your own attorney, you are responsible for paying that attorney. To be heard at the hearing, you must ask the Court for permission to speak at the same in advance of the hearing. To do so, you must file, in writing, a Notice of Intention to Appear with the Clerk of the Court. Be sure to include your name, address, telephone number and signature on the notice. Your Notice of Intention to Appear must be postmarked no later than October 9, 2017, and be sent to the Clerk of the Court: Clerk of the Court U.S. District Court 700 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 The date of the fairness hearing may change without further notice to the class. You should check the settlement website at www.redboxadasettlement.com, or the U.S. Court's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at https://ecf.pawd.uscourts.gov to get the most current information concerning the date of the hearing. VI. FURTHER INFORMATION This notice summarizes the proposed settlement. You may seek the advice and guidance of your own private attorney, at your own expense, if you desire. For the precise terms and conditions of the settlement, please see the settlement agreement available at www.redboxadasettlement.com, contact Class Counsel using the information below, access the Court docket in this case through the Court's Public Access website at PACER.gov, or visit the U.S. District Court, 700 Grant Street, Suite 3100, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Court holidays. To obtain a copy of this notice in alternate accessible formats, contact Class Counsel using the information below. VII. CONTACT INFORMATION Please do not contact the Court, the Court Clerk's office, or Redbox's Counsel with questions about this settlement. Any questions must be directed to Class Counsel at 1-800-467-5241, or the address below. Benjamin J. Sweet, Esquire bsweet at carlsonlynch.com Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter, LLP1133 Penn Avenue, 5[th] FloorPittsburgh, PA 15222 www.carlsonlynch.com [HYPERLINK: http://www.carlsonlynch.com] ---------- Convention Miniatures Report from the NFB Lions Group: On Monday evening the NFB Lions Group met with about twenty-five people in attendance. Our primary speaker was Lion Robert Littlefield, past International Director and currently a member of the board of the Lions Charitable Foundation. The Foundation is the arm of Lions that distributes much of the money outside the separate districts. Lion Littlefield had just returned from the international centennial convention in Chicago where approximately 30,000 Lions participated. The group was very attentive. We are thinking about building closer partnerships between NFB and Lions. Report from the Cash and Caring Network: The Cash and Caring Network met Friday at lunchtime. We discussed a program in which an affiliate can hold three events in a calendar year and raise $30,000 to $50,000. For example, in Idaho we have a bike-a-thon, an online auction, and a concert. This year we expect to raise about $35,000. Any of these events could be replaced with a different one, and they take planning and work. There are many benefits besides funds when events grow and the participation increases. Our second topic was how to promote the NFB and its events on social media. Stephanie Eller led this discussion. We recorded this meeting and hope to be able to share recordings with those who are interested. A Report on Rookie Roundup from Pam Allen: Rookie Roundup was a wonderful night. We loved having Oriana Riccobono there with us as well. She drew the first door prize winner. (I had a couple door prizes this year so people could practice yelling.) We had over 200 rookies -- ran out of bags, first-timer guides, and door prize tickets. I'm always so thankful to all the veterans who help out, too! I love the energy and welcoming spirit in the room! Joe Ruffalo is always a big help as are our LCB staff and students along with many other NFB members. This year I had several rookies from last year who came up after the event to say hello and to introduce me to the rookie they invited this year. That always makes me smile. We also had several international rookies, and this too is exciting. The Riccobonos all spoke, as did the Maurers. Joy Harris welcomed our Jernigan Fund winners, a loud and proud group! Alex Castillo greeted all our Spanish speakers in Spanish and gave a brief overview of the details about translation for the week. We played some of our Rhythm of the Movement music as people were coming in. I and those who attended are already looking forward to next year. Report from the Exhibitors Showcase from Chairman Mark Jones: The exhibitors showcase of the National Federation of the Blind Promotion, Evaluation, and Advancement of Technology Committee was well attended again this year, and we heard from nearly thirty exhibitors about what they were going to show in the exhibit hall. One exhibitor commented that he really liked to attend our meeting because he could find out what other exhibitors had in their booths. Of course he is always in his when the exhibit hall is open. We heard about a number of new products this year. RAZ Mobility told us about its new phone that has lots of feelable buttons. It's not a smart phone, but almost anyone can use it to make calls and receive messages. The phone, called the Endeavor, claims to have a battery life of about ten days. Next, A T Guys, LLC told us about its new E5 Smart Stereo Speaker. It also has buttons and is connected to Amazon's Alexa. It can perform many fun tasks and sounds good, too. They told us about a new simple voice recorder with tactile buttons and forty-five hours of recording time. HumanWare discussed its new Brailliant BI14, a fourteen-cell Braille display which sells for less than $1,000, and one can synchronize files from it to an iPhone. Coming soon is the Victor Trek with all the Victor Stream features plus GPS. HIMS told us about its new BrailleSense Polaris, an android-based notetaker that doesn't use a touch screen and has stereo microphones to do stellar recording. VFO is the company comprised of several names you know coming together as one: Ai Squared, Optelec, Paciello Group, and Freedom Scientific. The company talked about its new ElBraille, a Windows 10 computer disguised in notetaker clothes; the notetaker also runs the newest version of JAWS. Triumph Technologies talked about all the Handy Tech products, which include a Braille display that advances on its own so one can read a whole book and never have to push a button. The National Library Service talked about its upcoming program to put a refreshable Braille display in the hands of any patron who can use one. The American Printing House for the Blind talked about its new portable magnifying device and the new Orbit Reader, a twenty-cell refreshable Braille display selling at its booth for just $449. Kurzweil Educational System spoke about its latest version of a product that has been a standard of excellence in helping to read printed materials for years, the K1000, of course. Harbolt spoke with us about its website full of products that people love, but which are hard to get these days because they aren't made any longer. They include vibrating watches, talking caller IDs, and calculators. iFactory talked about making websites more accessible for us. Tap Systems talked about texting with ease using its new device, a wearable Bluetooth keyboard, which they claim to be two to five times faster than other methods for texting. Aira talked about smart glasses that can be tethered to a phone and connect you to a human assistant who can read you just about anything you want as long as the camera can see it. It's a subscription service that promises to provide a new independence. AT&T also spoke with us, talking about its partnership with Aira and other things it has been doing quietly to help with accessibility. If you are not interested in the full services Aira can offer, but want a little help with some of the more visual elements of life, CyberTimez can augment eyeglasses to read text in over 100 languages, identify colors, and read barcodes. OrCam is a device with a camera worn on glasses that can identify money, faces, barcodes, and printed material. There's a new version with more features coming soon. Turning to products created for blind youth and education, COBRIX wants to make computer science more accessible to the blind by creating a physical computing interface for blind students to construct physical code using LEGO bricks. The creators of this interface feel that blind students should be active participants rather than passive users in the learning process. We also heard about TAPTILO, a product from OHFA Tech, that makes learning Braille a fun game for children. Obscura Roadside Oddities is a game that anyone can play, be they blind or sighted, and it teaches one interesting facts about fascinating places throughout the country. In general health and daily living, Second Sight is the developer and manufacturer of the Argus II, the first and only approved implantable device to help those with retinitis pigmentosa. It does not fully restore vision, but some object recognition is restored. We also heard about BlindAlive, which helps keep one fit with audio tutorials that one can follow along with when working out. BAUM USA came there to talk about the VarioUltra which now can wake up a smart phone and has hardcopy Braille command summaries. It also has a new handheld magnifier. Storm Technologies told us about its keyboards that make kiosks accessible. The Company Key 2 Access has a new point-and-click system which it believes will help blind people more easily cross streets. It relies on cities to provide the infrastructure needed for the system to operate. 3DPhotoWorks, the company that helped to create the tactile talking timeline of the Federation that was displayed at the 2015 convention, is continuing to work on turning works of art into tactile graphics. Our committee and the audience learned a lot from those who presented. Our public meeting helps direct people to the exhibit booth to see what they want to see. A Report from the Community Service Division: The National Federation of the Blind Community Service Division had another eventful convention. On the morning of seminar day, ten members of the Federation, including some of our division members, participated in a service project with Green Up Orlando, a program run by the city. People on this project pulled weeds, mulched, and planted trees, among other activities. The group we brought participated in all aspects of the work to be done as a team to solve any problems we encountered. In the afternoon, members of the division assisted the three- to five-year-olds in Kids Camp in creating signs with positive messages on them. These messages were given out by the children so that they could understand the power of giving and feel the joy in performing a random act of kindness. These messages were originally supposed to be ones placed on the windshields of cars in the parking lot of the hotel, but Mother Nature forced the group to think on its feet. Undaunted, the children gave the signs to bell staff and other employees of the hotel. On July 12, the division had its annual meeting. Its theme was "Shining in Service." We heard from Patti Chang about her experience helping Asian immigrants prepare for the naturalization test to be US citizens and how what she did to help others still has a benefit today. Some of our national scholarship finalists shared the valuable lessons learned through their service. Their messages spanned the many facets of what it means to serve, from volunteer fire fighting to improving the lives of folks with disabilities to teaching latchkey kids how to cook healthy meals. We even heard from one finalist about how difficult it is to give of your talents if you have a disability and live in another country. We were the ones learning from these bright students. Chris Danielsen talked with us about the ways we can get our community service activities into the media and how to leverage our national communications team to do this. This means we will help in a direct manner and also change the perception that we are takers and not the givers in a world which too often discounts what we have to offer. On the evening of July 13, we had our trivia night. The theme was music, with energy and enjoyment filling the room. Categories included TV/Movies, Artist, and Song. A cash bar was present, and a silent auction was held. The winner took home four bottles of wine. On July 14, a brainstorming session occurred. Carol Castellano lead this session, and many great suggestions for ways to improve on the things we did this year and programs for next year came from this assembly. We can't wait for next year and the good that will come from our efforts -- good that is reflected in the communities we serve, good in the media coverage we generate, and good in the heart of each of us as we come to see ourselves as vital contributors. A Report from the National Organization of Blind Educators: The National Organization of Blind Educators met on Wednesday, July 12. We were privileged to hear some excellent presentations from the folks at Adobe and Bookshare, and had two fantastic rounds of breakout sessions. In the first, we met in small groups based on the age level of the students we teach, from early childhood all the way up to the college level. During our second session, we broke down by areas of professional practice, such as lesson planning, monitoring assessments, using technology, and creating classroom visuals, with a focus on strategies and techniques used by successful blind educators. At our business session we held elections, and we would like to congratulate Harriet Go, our new division second vice president, and Valaria Paradiso, our new division secretary. The division will meet again in November on a conference call, at which time we will continue our discussion of professional practice as blind educators. Report from the NFB Seniors Division: For the past several years the Seniors Division has sponsored a seminar before the official opening of the convention. This year was no different. On Monday, July 10, Diane McGeorge with Duncan Larsen and others spoke to about forty convention attendees. They shared techniques about living with blindness as a newly blind senior. "A Day in the Life of a Newly Blind Senior" gave tips, ideas, and demonstrations of techniques to use when transitioning from using only vision to developing skills with tactile and audible cues. For example, a white cane user establishes that he/she is blind with the public but more importantly, the sound the cane makes as the tip comes into contact with a variety of surfaces informs the user of many factors in the environment being traversed. Some technology such as the Pen Friend, a fancy recorder to make audio labels was one of the demonstrations. The audience asked questions and learned that often a variety of methods can be used. Good ideas and techniques were shared as well as discussion about social occurrence dealing with family and the public in general gave new insight to these conventioneers. On Wednesday we kicked off our annual meeting with items being auctioned from our "not-so-silent" auction. Ruth Sager and Shelley Coppel spoke about the newest initiative of the division, a senior retreat to be held at Rocky Bottom, South Carolina, October 8 through 14. This retreat is designed for seniors who are losing vision and want to hone nonvisual skills such as using a computer with screen-reading capabilities; walking confidently with a white cane; and developing daily living skills of cooking, shopping, and cleaning. Shelley described the physical surroundings of the buildings and grounds at the site. New members, Linda Melendez from New Jersey and Dan Vrata from Minnesota spoke about their interaction with fellow Federationists and how this has changed their perceptions about losing vision. Linda noted she thought her life was coming to an end, and now she is running, actively engaged with her chapter, and the head of New Jersey's sports and recreation group. She has found meaningful relationships and lost over 100 pounds by running. She feels great and encourages other seniors to find something they are passionate about and go for it! Find your dreams, she says: "You can do anything you want to, just get out there and do it!" Dan is a student in the senior program at BLIND Inc. He notes how beneficial his training has been and acknowledges several important groups. He credits the friendships he has made with fellow students; equally important in his learning has been observing how the staff interact with their students, guiding each to want the very best for him or herself. He says he is grateful for the Federation and the opportunity it has given him to learn the truth about living as a blind senior. Two gentlemen from the Helen Keller Center came to introduce their new program for seniors losing both hearing and vision, the ICanConnect program. Mr. Cory Parker, outreach coordinator of the Southeast Region described how the Center has regional offices throughout the country where consumers can address specific issues and learn about equipment. "Bapin," as he is known, is the adaptive technology trainer and spoke more specifically about seniors in Florida who can receive specialized equipment from telephones to computers to meet their telecommunication needs if they qualify for services. He had handouts for anyone interested in learning more specifically how to engage with the Center. Duncan Larsen presented the Colorado Center for the Blind's new video "Seniors in Charge," which describes CCB's senior program. Amanda Tolson from En-Vision America spoke about its audible medical reader ScripTalk and noted that September 9 through 15 is National Health Vision Awareness Week. She has flyers and special kits with information that, if seniors are willing to sponsor activities during this week to showcase using nonvisual techniques to read medical labels, she will be happy to lend a ScripTalk for this purpose. Lisa Wadors from Bookshare noted that new changes are expanding the collection which now contains books in foreign languages. She donated two Bookshare subscriptions for the auction. Finally, Carol Braithwaite from Alabama and Nancy Yeager from Virginia described how they gathered Federationists together in their states and formed new senior divisions. They both have frequent conference calls and are planning other activities for the coming year. We welcomed them into the family of state senior divisions and groups. Elections Elected: At its meeting at the NFB National Convention in 2017, the National Association of Blind Students elected its board of directors: president, Kathryn Webster; first vice president, Michael Ausbun; second vice president, Syed Rizvi; treasurer, Cody Beardslee; secretary, Chelsea Peahl; and board members Shannon Cantan, Tarik Williams, Luke Schwinck, and Bryan Duarte. Elected: The seniors division election of officers remains the same as it is a two-year term, but both of our board members were up for election and were reelected: Glenn Crosby from Texas and Jane Degenshein from New Jersey. Our officers remain in place until 2018. They are: president, Ruth Sager; first vice president, Arthur Schreiber; second vice president, Judy Sanders; secretary, Shelley Coppel; and treasurer, Diane McGeorge. Elected: At the National Association of Blind Veterans annual meeting the following officers were elected for two-year terms: president, Dwight Sayer; first vice president, Jack Rupert; second vice president, Vernon Humphrey; secretary, Patty Sayer; treasurer, Allen Bornstein; national chaplain/board member, Brother Jeff Bradshaw; and board members, Nancy Hester, Brad Loos, James Knight, Roy Stinson, and Cheryl Echevarria. Elected: We are encouraged that the division seems to be growing in such a way that more members are eager to take up leadership roles. During the community service division business meeting the division had, in lieu of a presidential report, the individuals who headed up committees take a moment to explain/recap the work that they have been undertaking over the past year. After this, the division held elections. Four of the seven positions up for election were contested elections, with the winner of these contested elections doing so by a narrow margin. This signifies, at least to us, the level of growth the community service division is experiencing. The new officers and board that resulted from the election are as follows: president, Darian Smith, California; vice president, Ronnie Bellomy, Texas; secretary, Janae Burgmeier, Iowa; treasurer, Kyra Sweeney, Colorado; and board members Chris Parsons, Colorado; Johna Wright, Georgia; and Jeanetta Price, Texas. Elected: Here are the results of the election in the Amateur Radio Division: president, Rachel Olivero, AD9O; vice president, David Chan, NC6D; secretary, Karen Anderson, KE0CDQ; and treasurer, Scott Van Gorp, K0NFB. Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Screening Opportunities for Do You Dream in Color?: Convention attendees and readers of the Braille Monitor will know that the joint winners of the top prize in this year's Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award class were Abigail Fuller and Sarah Ivy. They are the co-directors of a documentary film entitled Do You Dream in Color? This film is a beautiful and powerful chronicle of four blind young people striving to achieve their goals and live the lives they want in the face of the low expectations and misconceptions that too often erect barriers between blind people and our dreams. In particular the film accurately portrays the ways in which our public education system all too often fails blind students. Individuals can see the film by finding it on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Xbox Live, and other streaming services in the United States and Canada. The producers and distributors of this movie are also making it available to affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind to screen in their communities. Screening this film is a great opportunity to inform the public about issues faced by blind youth and what the Federation is doing to help. We are hoping to have the NFB in every state host a screening during October as part of Meet the Blind Month. It is a great way to bring people in the community together and introduce audiences to the stories of these blind individuals. For more information, including a toolkit to help organize and promote a screening and engage the audience, contact: Jenivieve White, Assistant to the Director of Community Relations, National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2236; or by email at jwhite at nfb.org [HYPERLINK: mailto:jwhite at nfb.org]. You can view the film's trailer, find links to the movie on streaming platforms, and learn more at www.doyoudreamincolor.com [HYPERLINK: http://www.doyoudreamincolor.com]. Apply to Become a National Federation of the Blind BUILD Team Member: Technologies are being developed every day that affect the way we all live, work, and play. In order for us to ensure access to the ever-evolving technologies that make it possible for blind people to live the lives we want, we need blind users to innovate and lead the design process. The NFB is establishing a database of Blind Users Innovating and Leading Design (BUILD) to evaluate websites, products, and services for accessibility. Apply to become a member of our BUILD team at: https://nfb.org/build-team. Elected: At the general membership meeting of the Timonium, Lutherville, Cockeysville (TLC) chapter of the NFB of Maryland on July 20, 2017, elections were held with the following results: president, Scott White; vice president, Jesse Hartle; secretary, Jenivieve (Jen) White; treasurer, Mary Jo Hartle; and board members Eileen Rivera-Ley, Scott Soldan, and Jim McCarthy. We look forward to the upcoming year in working on integrating blind people into society on the basis of equality and educating our community that blind people can live the lives we want; blindness is not what holds us back. Elected: On June 10, 2017, the East Central Indiana chapter of the National Federation of the Blind elected a new slate of officers. They are as follows: president, Sarah LaRose; vice president, Sarah Meyer; secretary, Kevin LaRose; treasurer, Zach Lee; board member, Daniel Lowry. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. Get Eight New Braille and Print Picture Books from Seedlings: Seedlings Braille Books for Children has eight new picture books available in print and Braille. Two are in uncontracted UEB: Animal Friends and Frozen: Anna's Best Friends. Six are in contracted UEB: Biscuit's Pet & Play Bedtime, Five Stinky Socks, My First Mother Goose, Paw Patrol: Rubble to the Rescue, Spot Loves Bedtime, and The World of Sharks. Prices range from just $4 to $8! Order today at http://www.seedlings.org/order.php [HYPERLINK: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/K2JEBlioe7Aub?domain=seedlings.org]. For more information about the books, go to http://www.seedlings.org/whatsnew.php [HYPERLINK: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/en9GBAHa3kWuV?domain=seedlings.org]. Seedlings now offers more than 150 print-and-Braille picture books for ages zero to five, all at our low, low prices. To see the complete selection, go to http://www.seedlings.org/order.php [HYPERLINK: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/K2JEBlioe7Aub?domain=seedlings.org]. Ski for Light 2018: The forty-third annual Ski for Light International Week will take place from Sunday, January 21, through Sunday, January 28, 2018, in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Participants will ski at the Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Area in Truckee, California. One of the top cross-country ski areas in North America, Tahoe Donner has a 100 km trail system with terrain for all ability levels, and an average annual snowfall of 360 inches. Participants will stay at the Nugget Casino Resort outside Reno in Sparks, Nevada. Ski for Light Inc. is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization founded in 1975. Each year Ski for Light conducts a week-long event where blind and mobility-impaired adults are taught the basics of cross-country skiing. The event attracts upwards of 250 participants and guides. During the week each disabled skier is paired for the entire week with an experienced, sighted, cross-country skier who acts as ski instructor and on-snow guide. The visually- and mobility-impaired adults who attend each Ski for Light week come from all over the US and from several foreign countries. Many come to Ski for Light with a desire to become more physically active. Through the process of learning how to cross-country ski, most discover that they can accomplish much more than others have told them, and much more than they themselves believed. Many leave Ski for Light with a sense of accomplishment and motivation that carries over to every aspect of their lives. If you have never before attended what many have called the experience of a lifetime, please consider Ski for Light's 2018 International Event. The cost for the week is $950 per person for double-occupancy. This includes room and all meals, round-trip transportation between the Nugget and Tahoe Donner, all trail fees, and all afternoon and evening programs and activities. Skis, boots, and poles will be provided free of charge to first-time visually-impaired participants. Partial stipends based on financial need are also available for first- and second-time visually-impaired participants. While there is no formal deadline for the submission of applications, please note that applications submitted after November 1 may be accepted only on a space available basis. Additional information, including the application, can be found at www.sfl.org [HYPERLINK: http://www.sfl.org] and Facebook. Additional information may also be obtained by contacting Visually Impaired Participant Recruitment Committee Chairperson Melinda Hollands by email at mlhollandstc at gmail.com [HYPERLINK: mailto:mlhollandstc at gmail.com], or by phone at (231) 590-0986. We hope you can join us in the Sierra Nevada mountains! Monitor Mart The notices in this section have been edited for clarity, but we can pass along only the information we were given. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the statements made or the quality of the products for sale. For Sale: The piano tuning kit that Joe Shaidnagle received after training, never used, is available to anyone who wants it. It is mostly intact save for a few screwdrivers. It is heavy, but can probably be mailed freight rate. I assume that $50 will probably cover the charge. I also have a copy of Floyd Matson's Walking Alone and Marching Together in two volumes on eight cassettes. Serious readers only: no collectors. Contact Barbara Shaidnagle at bshaid at gmail.com [HYPERLINK: mailto:bshaid at gmail.com], or call (832) 818-1560. For Sale: I have a HIMS Braille Sense U2 qwerty for sale. It comes with its original box, its charger, a USB cable, a carrying case, and a Braille manual. Version 8.6 most recent firmware is installed. Some Braille dots are faint, but the unit is in excellent condition. I am asking $850. Shipping within the US is free. Interested buyers may call my cell at (903) 946-1459, or email me at: johnnyrusso at windstream.net [HYPERLINK: mailto:johnnyrusso at windstream.net] or jlrusso65 at icloud.com [HYPERLINK: mailto:jlrusso65 at icloud.com]. For Sale: I have a Braille Sense U2 mini with executive case, compact disk in excellent working order. It has the latest software updates. I am interested in selling it. It does not have a maintenance agreement, but it has been recently checked out and found to be in good working order. I would be interested in selling it for a reasonable price, around $1,000. In addition, I have a Romeo RB40 with Radio Shack USB-to-parallel-print cable for sale. The device is in good working order, but I have found that I cannot use it with my Windows 10 laptop. It worked well with the Windows 8.1 operating system. I am willing to sell it for best offer. I can be reached by email at jrelton at verizon.net [HYPERLINK: mailto:jrelton at verizon.net], or by phone at (703) 971-0745. New Music App: SD Radio is the world's simplest music app for Android. It plays all of the music that is stored on your SD card inside your Android phone or tablet in a random order each time the app is loaded. Not only that, but when the app is loaded the music automatically begins playing just like you had turned on the radio. There are no complicated menu structures, no setting up to do. Just simply launch the app and let the party begin! The app is accessible and can be used with Talkback on all Android devices. It is only $2.99, and you can go here to get it: http://www.sdradioapp.com [HYPERLINK: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/VAODBeSeJvLT9?domain=sdradioapp.com]. For those who have some vision there is cover art capability, along with the song title and artist name. Using this app is as easy as turning on a radio and listening, and it will handle SD cards of any size. If you really love music, then SD Radio is exactly what you need to get the party going. It can even be launched with your voice too, making it even easier to get the party started. Affordable Electronic Magnifiers: The Bierley Vision Club makes magnification as easy as possible. Bierley electronic magnifiers have been helping people with vision loss, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and RP for more than a decade. Starting from just $14.95 per month, members can borrow any product from the Bierley range. For more information, please visit www.bierley.com [HYPERLINK: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/0JdxBeSgNXJhZ?domain=bierley.com] or call us at (800) 985-0535. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Wed Oct 4 21:50:33 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2017 21:50:33 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, October 2017 Message-ID: <201710050450.v954oX5c000683@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 9 October 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. Vol. 60, No. 9 October 2017 Contents Illustration: Tackling the Challenges-Sometimes it Gets Physical Bringing Hope to Victims of Two Natural Disasters The Sound of Success by John Par? A Worldwide Revolution: The Marrakesh Treaty, the Accessible Books Consortium, and Global Literacy for the Blind by Scott LaBarre Engineering Tools for Tactile Fluency: A Partnership with the Organized Blind Movement by Josh Coffee Celebrating a Half Century with the Oldest Division in the National Federation of the Blind by Kathryn Webster Building the Twenty-First Century American Workforce: Disability Does Not Define Your Employment by R. Alexander Acosta Tom Ley Dies, and the World Loses a Dear Soul, a Family Member, an Advocate, and a Friend by Gary Wunder When Automobiles are Obsolete by Marc Maurer John Halverson Ends an Illustrious Career by Deven McGraw The American Foundation for the Blind: New Directions for the Future by Kirk Adams The Orbit Reader 20: The Most Inexpensive Braille Display by Curtis Chong Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein Origins of the NFB Pledge by Anna Kresmer >From the Mail Basket by Gary Wunder There's a List for That! by David Andrews Cross of Blindness by Jacobus tenBroek Settlement That May Benefit Some Monitor Readers Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Instructors explain how to use aerial silks while a Federationist sits in the loop of silk. [PHOTO CAPTION: A young Federationist hangs upside down using aerial silks while an instructor coaches her. [PHOTO CAPTION: Two Federationists laugh from where they landed running through the obstacle course. [PHOTO CAPTION: Federationist fearlessly drops onto the slide in the inflatable obstacle course. Tackling the Challenges-Sometimes it Gets Physical Life presents many challenges, but far too often blind people are steered away from those involving physical activity. The results are what one would expect: poorer health, obesity, and the ailments that go along with it. Not surprisingly one of the messages we want our convention program for children to send is that physical activity is not just normal but expected. Being cautious is one thing, but overcautiousness from well- intentioned sighted people can feed the doubts of the blind person, increasing both and inhibiting the blind person for life. Monday afternoon at the convention, Federationists had an opportunity to push some of their own limits. Along with sword fighting and rhythmic drumming that were offered last year, the parents division set up aerial silks so that Federationists could experience for themselves the freedom of suspension. The short rig allowed for a few small basic maneuvers, such as hanging upside down, while instructors coached participants through them. Federationists also had the opportunity to challenge themselves on an inflatable obstacle course. Climbing, sliding, and running on the soft surface of the course was challenging, but Federationists tumbled through it, often laughing, while showing that they could conquer the cushioned barriers here with as much courage, energy, and success as the more intangible barriers they encounter when working to live the lives they want. Bringing Hope to Victims of Two Natural Disasters As we submit this issue for proofing, our country is beginning its recovery from two devastating storms: hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Please follow what we are doing to help. You may do this through watching what we post on social media, monitoring our NFB listservs, listening to our podcasts and the presidential release, and calling to talk with your chapter or affiliate president about ways in which you can get involved. Digging into our own pockets demonstrates that our commitment to one another goes far beyond words. Please help! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par?] The Sound of Success by John Par? From the Editor: No man has worked harder to make electric and other quiet cars loud enough that they can be heard by blind people who travel the streets of our nation than John Par?. His work in building key alliances, writing persuasive documents, making repeated telephone calls, getting himself invited to make difficult presentations, and continuing to send the message that the lives of blind people are valuable and deserve to be protected is unparalleled. Here is what he has to say in this ongoing saga to make the streets safer for all pedestrians: After four delays by the Department of Transportation, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act final regulation went into effect on Tuesday, September 5, 2017. The National Federation of the Blind has been working on this issue for fourteen years. We first worked for eight years to define the problem, develop key partnerships, write the legislation, and work to get the legislation passed. But our work was not over. The National Federation of the Blind then worked for six more years participating in studies, advocating with individual car companies, responding to proposed regulations, and doing our own research. In the end, our relentless attention to detail, our consistent messaging, and our unwavering passion made the difference. There are two articles from previous issues of the Braille Monitor which detail, at great length, the history of this legislation. The first is an article from the June 2011 issue of the Monitor titled "Belling the Cat: The Long Road to the Passage of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act" by Deborah Kent Stein which details the bill from its inspiration and inception to its passage. It can be found online at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm11/bm1106/bm110602.htm. The second is an article I wrote which was published in the April 2017 issue titled "Progress on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: The Regulations, the Law, and What They Will Mean for the Blind." This second article details everything that happened after the law was passed, including the long and arduous fight to get the final regulation published, and can be found online at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm17/bm1704/bm170403.htm. The key points of this regulation ensure that America's streets will be safer for all pedestrians, and in particular blind pedestrians. The final regulation prohibits a pause switch, manufacturer supplied selectable sounds, and any tampering with the device, solidifying its classification as a safety feature. Generally, the vehicle must emit a sound of at least 44 decibels when stationary or traveling in a forward speed of less than 10 kph. For vehicles with an automatic transmission, this includes all times when the vehicle is not in motion and the shifter is not in the "Park" position. For manual transmission vehicles, this includes any time the parking brake is not engaged. When traveling at a speed of greater than or equal to 10 kph, but less than 20 kph the vehicle must emit a sound of at least 51 decibels. When traveling at a speed of greater than or equal to 20 kph, but less than 30 kph the vehicle must emit a sound of at least 57 decibels. When traveling at a speed of 30 kph the vehicle must emit a sound of at least 62 decibels. At rates of speed higher than 30 kph, tire-road noise and wind resistance are considered sufficient, and the additional alert sound is no longer required. A sound of at least 48 decibels is required when the vehicle is moving in reverse. The regulation requires all four-wheeled hybrid-electric passenger vehicles under ten thousand pounds produced on or after September 1, 2019, to be compliant. Fifty percent of all hybrid-electric vehicles produced on or after September 1, 2018, must meet the above requirements. Our advocacy on this issue is a perfect example of our commitment to help blind Americans live the lives they want. Fourteen years ago we realized that silent vehicles threatened our independence and our ability to safely walk on the streets of America. We refused to accept this possibility and set in motion the mechanism that would lead to the passage of this landmark law. Now the sounds of our success will ring freely from sea to sea. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Scott LaBarre] A Worldwide Revolution: The Marrakesh Treaty, the Accessible Books Consortium, and Global Literacy for the Blind by Scott LaBarre From the Editor: We are blessed to have some very talented people who have joined in this organization to improve opportunities, not only for themselves but for other people who are blind. Scott LaBarre is one such person. His talent has certainly been recognized by the National Federation of the Blind inasmuch as it has elected him repeatedly as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. He also serves as the president of the National Association of Blind Lawyers and as the chairman of our Preauthorized Check Program. But he also distinguishes himself in the profession of law, operating his own legal practice and standing at the forefront of civil rights legislation for the blind. One of his assignments for the Federation is to work for the passage of the Marrakesh Treaty. Here is what he said to the 2017 National Convention on the progress we have made and the work that remains to be done: Thank you, Mr. President. I've just got to say that in Colorado we are so proud of Maureen Nietfeld [who spoke immediately before him]. She truly lives our philosophy. Let's hear it again for Maureen Nietfeld. [cheers]. In 1966 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the international covenant on civil and political rights. Article 19 paragraph 2 of that instrument holds that freedom of expression includes the right to information. Specifically it states that everyone shall have the right to the freedom of expression. This right shall include the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds regardless of frontiers. A critical component in exercising this right is the right to read and otherwise manipulate the written word. For the blind, this right has been difficult to achieve, and its full realization and permanency are not yet secured. In addition to the traditional barriers limiting our right to read, namely the barriers of our inability physically to read the visually-printed word and the barrier of inaccessible information technology, there is another significant barrier to our full enjoyment of the right to access information, and it is copyright law. Without an exception or limitation, international law makes it abundantly clear that reproducing a copyrighted work-any kind of copy, whether in Braille or some other format-violates the exclusive right that the copyright holder possesses to control distribution of the work. The only way around this exclusive right has been to ask permission of the right holder to copy the work in an accessible format. That permission either is denied or has taken a long, long time. That is why the National Federation of the Blind joined the Association of American Publishers in 1996 and urged and ultimately convinced Congress to amend the United States Copyright Act to include an exception permitting reproduction of published works into accessible formats such as Braille, audio, and accessible electronic texts, the so-called Chaffee Amendment. The man most responsible for the Chaffee Amendment is in this room; let's hear it for James Gashel. [cheers, applause] Our domestic exception, however, did not address the great dearth of accessible works throughout the world. It has been estimated that well over 95 percent of the world's works have not been available in accessible formats. Think about that for a moment. Unfortunately international copyright has either outright banned the practice of exchanging accessible works over international borders or has made it extremely difficult to do so. This has been a phenomenon, a phenomenon later dubbed "the book famine for the blind." That is why we engage with our partners in the World Blind Union to put forward an international agreement that would amend international copyright law proactively to permit exceptions and limitations allowing reproduction of works into accessible formats and to allow such accessible works to flow across international borders. Four years ago Dr. Fred Schroeder and I had the pleasure and deep honor to stand before you and report on the miracle that had occurred in Marrakesh, Morocco, on June 28, 2013. After several years of intense negotiations and at times stiff opposition, an international treaty had been born: a treaty holding out the promise to eradicate the book famine for the blind and signaling a global priority on the right to access information, the right to access knowledge and literacy for the world's blind and print disabled. So, what is going on with respect to implementing the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually-Impaired, or Otherwise Print-Disabled? As we join together in this convention, the treaty has become an official, binding, legal instrument for all the countries that have ratified or acceded to it. The treaty fully entered into force when our neighbors to the north-Canada-delivered its accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on June 30, 2016, becoming the twentieth so-called contracting party to the treaty. Since Canada, nine other nations have joined the Marrakesh Treaty community. The full list of countries, in chronological order of ratification or accession, is: India, El Salvador, The United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Mali, Paraguay, Singapore, Argentina, Mexico, Mongolia, The Republic of Korea, Australia, Brazil, Peru, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Israel, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Canada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, Botswana, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Panama, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, and Kenya. Now, you are all pretty sharp, and I'm sure that all of you have noticed that not present in that list of twenty-nine countries is the United States of America. How can this be? The United States has led the way in producing accessible titles, both at the governmental level with our National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and at the private level with organizations like Bookshare. We have one of the most robust exceptions to our copyright law permitting the creation of accessible formats. This Federation exercised its leadership and convinced the Obama administration to support a treaty, and the United States Government turned out to be a strong advocate for what later became the Marrakesh Treaty. The United States has, in fact, signed the treaty as of October 2, 2013, indicating its intent to ratify. And, as you know, our Constitution requires that our president send the treaty to the Senate for ratification, which requires a two-thirds vote, and President Obama did in fact submit the Marrakesh Treaty to the Senate in February of 2016. No Senator has voiced opposition to ratifying the Marrakesh Treaty, and in fact the vast majority has expressed support. Why, then, do we not find ourselves among the nations who have boarded the Marrakesh Express? It comes down to this: after President Obama forwarded the treaty to the Senate, along with proposed implementing legislation, key copyright stakeholders such as the publishers and the library community expressed reservations or insisted on amendments. For a time it felt like d?j? vu all over again. Because we started relitigating the same issues: the very same issues that we had talked about ad nauseum in Marrakesh and in Geneva, the same issues to which we had found solutions, and the US key stakeholders had agreed to such solutions. Regardless, I am now happy to report: due to the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind, we have once again brought the key stakeholders back to the table. And we have once again re-resolved the same issues that threatened to scuttle Marrakesh in 2013. With the full support of the American Council of the Blind, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Association of College and Research Libraries, Benetech (who operates Bookshare), the Association of Research Libraries, the National Federation of the Blind, and the National Music Publishers Association we have now submitted legislative language to the appropriate Senate committees. These Senate committees are conducting their due diligence, and it is our real hope and expectation that by the end of the year the United States will ratify the Marrakesh Treaty. [applause] It will do so because of us-because of the National Federation of the Blind. But we must all encourage and urge the Congress to stop waiting around, to not be late to the station, and to get on the Marrakesh Express! On the global front, we are very active in the effort to increase the ratifications and implementation of Marrakesh. We are participating with the World Blind Union to accomplish this goal. I have the honor of serving as co-chair of the WBU's ratification campaign committee. And we are training blind advocates from all over the world on how best to get Marrakesh ratified in their countries. We have created a thorough and scholarly implementation guide that advocates and legislators can use to best implement Marrakesh. I also have the privilege of serving as WBU's representative on the board of the Accessible Books Consortium. ABC, which is an entity created by WIPO, serves the purpose of implementing Marrakesh on a practical level. It is a public-private alliance representing the key stakeholders in this area. Now there are many entities that serve on ABC's board, but just to give you a flavor: The International Publisher's Association, the International Federation of Libraries and Institutions, and the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations all serve on ABC. And I want to thank the worldwide community of copyright stakeholders for their commitment to ending the book famine. I also want to thank WIPO for taking the leadership and making Marrakesh implementation a priority. WIPO administers and monitors several dozens of international agreements and treaties, yet it has made Marrakesh a priority. [applause] ABC has three main objectives: number one is to operate the ABC Global Book Service. This is a platform where authorized entities can list and share their accessible titles and get them into the hands of blind and print-disabled individuals around the world. Thus far we have acquired over 400,000 accessible titles in ABC's database. 130,000 blind people from around the world have downloaded and are using these titles. As countries ratify and accede to Marrakesh, these numbers will dramatically increase because it will no longer be required to achieve the permission of the copyright holder to exchange these titles, so literally hundreds of thousands of works can start flowing across international borders. ABC's second major objective is capacity-building. ABC has been working in six different countries to increase the amount of accessible works, and these are countries that did not have authorized entities creating works. So far over 4,000 titles have been created in accessible format-mostly in the arena of education. And in many of these cases, this is the first time that the blind of those countries have ever had access to accessible works in their native language. The third major objective of ABC is to promote inclusive publishing. This is an effort to provide techniques and guidance on how to make books and have them born accessible. ABC has several projects in this area, including the publishing of a guide for self-publishing authors on how to make accessible books, as well as a starter kit for accessible publishing. ABC promotes the international excellence award, recognizing leadership and commitment to accessible publishing. And ABC has created a charter of accessible publishing, to which several large publishers and publisher associations have signed, indicating their commitment to create works that are indeed born accessible. [applause] As you can see, there is a great deal going on in the world surrounding the adoption and implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty. When we take a moment to analyze what is really going on, it is quite simple: these activities represent a global revolution. For the first time in human history, access to information, the right to knowledge and literacy for the blind and otherwise print-disabled is indeed a worldwide priority. The origin of this revolution comes from right here, right here in the National Federation of the Blind. [applause]. It is our founder Dr. Jacobus tenBroek who eloquently said we have a right to live in the world. And indeed, we do. Part of that right, and in fact fundamental to it, is the right to access information on terms of equality. We must insist upon full participation in the world's information marketplace, through which we will transform our dreams into reality and live the lives we want. The days of restricting the blind to little or no information are gone. We have touched the flame of freedom, and it has ignited our hearts, minds, and souls. True freedom is no longer just a dream; it lies well within our grasps. My brothers, my sisters, let's now march forward to the future, shatter the information barrier, and make our dreams come true! [applause, cheers] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Josh Coffee] Engineering Tools for Tactile Fluency: A Partnership with the Organized Blind Movement by Josh Coffee >From the Editor: Drawing is one of the first things children old enough to be trusted with a pencil and paper do. Then they take those drawings to be admired. As they get older, what they draw is gently critiqued: "The dog needs a longer tail." "The camel is missing his hump." This feedback, along with what is gathered through observing other drawings, makes learning through pictures second nature, but until now this has not been so for the blind. Josh Coffee is the president of E.A.S.Y. LLC. In his presentation he explains how his company and the National Federation of the Blind are making drawing and looking at pictures part of the life experience for young people. Here is what he says: Hello, Federationists. Mark invited us here today to tell you guys our story, because I think that there are a lot of important takeaways from our story and from the work we've learned that we should be working in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind. Our story began, as Mark was alluding to, by a chance conversation between my colleague and fellow cofounder Dr. Mike Rosen at the University of Vermont and Dr. Al Maneki, a proud member of the Maryland division of the National Federation of the Blind. They got into a long conversation about what challenges blind students faced at the time, specifically in the pursuit of STEM education and opportunities in STEM career paths. What they kept coming back to was an inability to gain full access to graphical content in the STEM fields, and that was a severely limiting aspect of the pursuit of education in these areas. Dr. Rosen suggested that Dr. Maneki bring a crazy idea to the National Federation of the Blind, which was that they sponsor a senior experience in engineering design course at the University of Vermont. Dr. Rosen, in partnership with our third cofounder Dr. Mike Coleman, would mentor teams of students at the University of Vermont in mechanical and electrical engineering to think about how we can innovate new technologies to bring access to digital graphical content to the blind community. Al Maneki happened to be going to a bar-b-que at Dr. Marc Maurer's house the next day. So, in a matter of forty-eight hours, Mike Rosen got a call back, and it said, "Yes, we'll do it." I think a week later we had a check for $20,000 from the National Federation of the Blind to begin this pursuit of innovation. Fast-forward three years: I was a student on the third consecutive student team at the University of Vermont. We brought to convention a prototype for the first embosser of tactile graphics on an interactive tactile drawing medium. This was the first embosser that involved read/write graphics, not just read-only graphics. The inspiration for that was the mentorship of the National Federation of the Blind leadership throughout the course of our academic project. We were taken aback at our first convention because these tools for tactile drawing, the idea that you can draw and feel what you're drawing, that has been around for about fifty years. But as we showed off our hot new scanner and embosser for tactile graphics, we quickly realized that about seven out of ten people who came by our booth had never tried tactile drawing. They were discouraged from it in school because their sighted teachers or even their parents, out of harmless ignorance, just didn't realize that blind people could draw and communicate graphically if they were given that opportunity at a young age. If they had the capacity to draw tactilely when their sighted peers had crayons, they could pursue graphical fluency, they could succeed in STEM fields, they could use that capacity to become architects and engineers and doctors. But the fundamental problem was that very few people were being exposed to it as a learning tool and as a communication method. One year after starting our company, after graduating from academia, and after partnering with the National Federation of the Blind to incorporate and obtain seed funding and pursue this as a corporate endeavor, we realized that we had to totally change our business model and that we didn't need to release the next hot scanner/embosser for tactile graphics, but that we needed to partner with the National Federation of the Blind in advocating for tactile graphics fluency. We needed to create the most affordable and user-friendly version of a tactile drawing tool to date so that five-year-olds and six-year-olds could affordably begin scribbling next to their sighted peers [applause]. So the next year we came back to convention with a prototype for the inTACT Sketchpad. We released this product at 60 percent of the cost of the next closest competitor so that parents and teachers could afford it. We viewed this as a necessity because we knew that, not only for our brand to succeed, but in order for us to continue to innovate and to work toward the release of our high-tech digital products, we needed to get a user base of people who could show others in this community that if you had the right tools and the right experience, and if kids had the opportunity to have fun with drawing, that they could develop the capacity to compete graphically. And that's what we've done. We released the inTACT Sketchpad four years ago. Now at conventions, it's very rare that we meet someone who hasn't tried tactile drawing before. We are seeing people four years later who bought inTACT Sketchpads as a young child, and now they're using it in their math class going into middle school [applause]. This has given us the opportunity to learn from the Federation and to also curve our pursuit of new technologies. We have obtained over $1.2 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to further develop the technology we first demonstrated at this convention six years ago. We are in the process of executing a phase two STTR grant in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind, the Texas School for the Blind, the Perkins School for the Blind, Pearson Publishing, and the American Institutes for Research- all of whom are interested in integrating this interactive graphics curriculum into their programming. We are building partnerships through our connection with the National Federation of the Blind, partnerships we never could have made if we didn't listen to this great organization and its members, and if we weren't willing to learn from the perspectives of the people in this room and the people we have met over the last six years. During the scope of this grant what we have done over the last year is we have introduced the first interactive tactile graphics worksheets into curricula at the Texas School for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind. These are the first embossed STEM exercises that are made accessible to blind and low-vision students, the equivalent to exercises that sighted students have been doing for years and years with ink and pencil [applause]. We have tested over one hundred exercises with over twenty-five TVIs through these programs, and we have found that these students not only are learning from them, but they are having fun while doing it. We are hoping to continue to expand this beta testing program throughout the next year at these institutions as well as partnering with publishers and online learning management system administrators to make sure that their digital graphical content is made accessible and that blind students are able to interact with digital content through their websites so that they have equal opportunity to pursue the same degrees and the same opportunities that their sighted peers have through drawing [applause]. As I wrap up I want to offer thanks to everyone in this room and to the community as a whole. We would not be here were it not for the faith of the National Federation of the Blind in our program. My colleagues-Mike Rosen, Mike Coleman, and I-are always humbled and appreciative of the outpouring of support and love we get from this community every time we come here. You have impassioned us; you have invigorated our passion for design as engineers, and it is unbelievably humbling and exciting to come here every year and report on our progress. On that note, we want to make some commitments to you. After six years of working on this project, we are totally invested in the pursuit of equality in STEM education for blind and low-vision students. We want to commit to you that we will continue to innovate to pursue that goal. We will continue to listen to the people of this community. We will continue to take your advice and commentary and try to use that to build products that enable opportunity in the pursuit of education. We will continue to work with parents and teachers and blind students and publishers and advocates to show that drawing is not a visual skill; it is a spacial skill, and if we give people the tools and opportunities they need, they can accomplish it. So in closing, thank you, specifically to the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind for believing in us, to Dr. Marc Maurer who, at a casual picnic with Al Maneki, made the decision to believe in us as a university and as a research program, and to Mark Riccobono for continuing to be a champion of our cause and continuing to be a mentor to us every time we have the chance to meet with him. I thank you guys for your time, and that's it [applause]. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kathryn Webster] Celebrating a Half Century with the Oldest Division in the National Federation of the Blind by Kathryn Webster >From the Editor: The National Association of Blind Students is a division of the National Federation of the Blind, and 2017 marks its fiftieth anniversary. To commemorate this momentous event, President Kathryn Webster addressed the convention on opening day, and here is what she said: Fifty years ago, during the National Federation of the Blind 1967 National Convention, a small group of students in a hotel room in Los Angeles, California, built the longest standing of all the NFB's divisions, the National Association of Blind Students. The leader of that small group of students joins us today, the founder of NABS, Mr. Jim Gashel. Since then NABS has been one of the largest and most active divisions of the National Federation of the Blind. Let's recall the initial purpose behind the founding of the national student division. NABS was created to help recruit students into the larger organization, and also to help give students who might not otherwise have the opportunity the chance to experience leadership positions within our organization. Within the first two decades of NABS, I think our student division did a stellar job of recruiting talented national student division presidents, three of whom stand amongst our audience today. Thank you to Jim Gashel, Dr. Marc Maurer, and Scott LaBarre for your continued work and for paving the path for me and so many NABS presidents. In the early years of the student division we undertook three essential initiatives: first, we sought to help blind students deal with the problems caused by paternalistic disabled student service offices. Second, the division published a student handbook which functioned as both a resource guide and a how-to manual for blind students at all educational levels. And finally, some members of NABS traveled up to Canada and helped them develop an organization of Canadian blind students. A few years later the division dove into a fourth issue, that being the test administration and validation policies of those entities administering gateway tests, such as the SAT and the LSAT. Fifty years ago those common principle activities are, in many ways, representative of the focus of NABS. Today we are still fighting with higher education institutions for equal access to coursework, but we are more in number and stronger in resilience. Today, we are still providing endless resources to traditional and non-traditional students, recently blinded students, and individuals interested in returning to school via our network of members and leaders, student blogs, and monthly bulletins. Today, we are still spreading our NFB philosophy far and wide by attending thirty-two state conventions and student seminars over the past year, as well as building our student chapters alongside our affiliates each and every day. Today the SAT and the LSAT, along with several other standardized tests, are accessible to us as blind students. But today there are still barriers that stand between blind people and society's expectations of us. We are continuing to raise the bar as equal members of society. It is a momentous time for the National Association of Blind Students during this golden anniversary year. John Lord Acton cautioned, "A word of advice to people thinking about writing history-don't!" Fellow Federationists, let's ponder our history, let's reflect on our history; but instead of writing it, let's create our own history and build the National Federation of the Blind! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: R. Alexander Acosta] Building the Twenty-First Century American Workforce: Disability Does Not Define Your Employment by R. Alexander Acosta President Riccobono: This next presentation is one that is very special; it's not every day that you get a cabinet secretary, and we appreciate the leadership coming to this convention to talk with us about topics important to us.... We know that employment is one of the key factors in our full participation in society. We know that even when we get the skills, we work hard, and we show up for a job, sometimes discrimination prevents us from actively participating. We shared a number of stories of employment discrimination yesterday during the Presidential Report. I'm particularly enthusiastic about our next speaker because I think it presents an opportunity for us in this organization to offer our expertise and authentic experience as blind people to the United States Department of Labor. Our next speaker has served in three presidentially appointed senate- confirmed positions. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003, he was appointed assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Please give a warm Federation welcome to the United States secretary of labor, the Honorable Alexander Acosta. President Riccobono, thank you for the introduction and your leadership. Dr. Schroeder, I didn't have the opportunity to listen to all of your remarks, but your message at the end about the freedom from low expectations I think is a wonderful, wonderful message, and I thank you for delivering it. That is such an important message. I have to say that it is a pleasure to be back in my home state of Florida. I grew up in Miami, and it's wonderful to be back here. It's wonderful to be back here with the Federation. I had the privilege of speaking to the Federation when I served in the Department of Justice, and I really appreciated that. So when President Riccobono sent me a request to join you today, I said that I absolutely need to be here, so thank you for the invitation. The leadership and the members of this Federation understand the importance of hard work. Work provides more than merely income. Work is a source of pride. It gives men and women the ability to provide for their families and to make our local communities better places. This administration understands this and is making work a priority. Every American, regardless of disability, should have access to a good job. Here in this room are individuals who bring amazing talent to the workplace. As I said, I had the great honor of serving as assistant attorney general for civil rights working with the disability community and employers to create a work environment that was open to all. Smart employers know that workplace accessibility is not something that is done simply to comply with the law; workplace accessibility provides a business advantage. It provides access to talent that makes businesses stronger and more competitive. So today I want to share some good news. The American economy is growing, creating new job opportunities at an incredible pace. Just this week the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job openings have reached nearly 5.7 million, a record level. American job creators are eager to hire. More than ever, American job creators can utilize resources and technology to bring workers of all abilities into the workplace. These job openings occur in all professions: more than one million job openings in healthcare; more than one million job openings in professional and business services; more than 750,000 job openings in accommodations and food services; nearly 350,000 job openings in manufacturing. Every region of the country has more than a million job openings, and here in the South there are nearly two million job openings. Leaving these unfilled jobs open is costly to the American economy. The 2014 study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that the economic cost of unfilled jobs was nearly $160 billion. That was when there were only four million job openings. Today there are nearly six million. That means that American companies may be missing out on nearly $250 billion because they have unfilled jobs. So the message to those companies is that this is the time for businesses to realize the untapped potential of the more than 700,000 Americans with disabilities who are seeking jobs right now: today, here, and across the nation [applause]. The people in this room know that Americans with disabilities bring a valuable perspective and an incredible work ethic to their jobs. When I was at the Department of Justice, I hired a talented attorney by the name of Ollie. It just so happens that he was blind. Ollie performed at the highest level. He worked to enforce both the Americans with Disabilities Act and to help businesses comply with the law through the ADA business connection. By enforcing the Help America Vote Act, he also worked to ensure that Americans with disabilities had full access to the ballot. For Ollie his job at the Department of Justice was more than just a job. It enabled him to adopt triplet boys for whom he is both a father and a role model. One job-many lives impacted. That's the American story of success, and that is what can happen when jobs are open to all [applause]. I am happy to report that a few weeks ago Ollie's sons graduated from high school. They are Eagle Scouts; all three have promising careers ahead of them [applause]. We are committed to helping Americans like Ollie's boys pursue their career of choice, and I should say Ollie's boys are blind as well, and so we are committed to helping them pursue their career of choice by making workplaces more accessible and workforce education more inclusive to those with disabilities. I want to say a little bit about what we're doing at the Department of Labor. Across the Department of Labor and especially at the Office of Disability Employment Policy, we work to integrate people with disabilities fully into the labor force. We work to empower these great Americans with the resources necessary to succeed. If there's one thing that you remember from my remarks today, I hope it is this: we are committed to giving all Americans-all Americans the opportunity to gain the skills needed to fill the jobs of the twenty-first century [applause]. I would like to provide you with an update on some of our latest initiatives that help employers make their workplaces accessible and welcoming. The first step to getting a job is the application process. For most Americans that means using the internet to find job openings and apply. A 2015 survey from the Partnership on Employment and Accessibility Technology showed that 46 percent of jobseekers with disabilities found it difficult or impossible to apply for a job online. Forty-six percent! That's not acceptable. That's why the Department of Labor funds a free tool "TalentWorks" to help employers optimize their online application process for all jobseekers. It is available, it is free to employers, and it should be used. Now more than ever, companies can't afford to miss out on great applicants and great talent merely because their websites are not accessible [applause]. The department's efforts for employees with disabilities continue once they're on the job. TechCheck is an interactive benchmarking tool that helps companies and organizations evaluate their existing technology. Many employers are learning that technology they already own can be used to improve accessibility in the workplace. You know the iPhone is just ten years old, but in those ten years it's revolutionized vast sectors of the economy and helped blind Americans become so much more connected. In the last ten years technology across-the-board has revolutionized the workplace. It's not just iPhones, but it's SIRI, it's screen readers, and all of these help blind Americans be more and be better connected. So, I would say this: imagine what the world will be like ten years from now when future technologies are leveraged so that more individuals can work in their career of choice. Today many employers either contribute to or provide a smart phone that can read emails and webpages. Free or low-cost apps can do even more to help blind workers be part of a team, and it's important that employers leverage this type of technology. The department's job accommodation network helps employers open their workplaces to individuals with disabilities. A network survey found that 59 percent of accommodations cost an employer very little money, but considering the loss of productivity caused by leaving a job open, investment in a disability simply makes business sense. This has been confirmed again and again. A DePaul University study found particular benefits to hiring individuals with disabilities. The study concluded that workers stay on the job longer and had fewer unscheduled absences. The bottom line is this: the American economy and the American people both benefit when employers hire individuals with disabilities of all kinds [applause]. Another way the Department of Labor is expanding opportunities for blind workers is through the workforce recruitment program. This is a program that connects federal employers with college students and recent graduates who have disabilities. Over the years thousands of Americans with disabilities have benefited from this program. We have now opened this program to the private sector so individual companies can have access to this pool of talent as well. Let me say that blindness can strike at any time in one's life. I once heard it referred to as the case in which individuals are temporarily sighted as opposed to individuals may be blind. It's true, right? So blindness can strike at any time in one's life. Although the government can provide a helping hand, the value of keeping Americans in their job or returning them to work is immeasurable. In his budget the president proposed a demonstration program to test a promising stay at work and return to work strategy. This idea builds on a successful program that started in Washington state. I've seen the great results of this program. The model uses early intervention centers, physical training, employment training, and service coordination to enable recently disabled workers to stay in their current employment. Should Congress agree to the funding, grants for these demonstration projects will be available in 2018. This is one example of successful state-level innovation that can be replicated across the nation. Finally I want to return to my earlier discussion of open jobs in our economy and talk about one of the department's most successful substantial initiatives: the expansion of the apprenticeship model. In the months since I was sworn in as secretary, business leaders, governors, mayors, and others have told me that there is a gap between the skills workers have and the skills needed to fill these 5.7 million open jobs. By closing the skills gap we can boost the number of Americans in family sustaining positions. Now let me be clear: the American workforce is and has always been the best in the world. Americans are hard-working, Americans are dedicated, Americans deserve an education system that focuses on the skills required by the modern workplace. To overcome this skills gap, we need what I call demand-driven education. Apprenticeships are an example of demand- driven education because they directly connect students with employers. They combine paid work with an education; they represent a promising way to focus the education system on the skills that workers demand; they allow workers to earn while they learn. Now there are a number of advantages to apprenticeships. The first is high wages. The average starting salary for every graduate of an apprenticeship program is $60,000. That's higher than the average starting salary for a four-year-degree graduate. What I'd like to do is I'd like to tell you a story about an individual who participated in an internship program-an apprenticeship program-because I want to focus a little bit on the value that apprenticeship programs can bring to individuals. Her name is Joanne, and she worked for years as a firefighter. She loved the job, but after losing sight in one eye and having her sight reduced in the other, she was put on desk duty, and eventually she became a caregiver. She missed her physically demanding job. She did not want to be on desk duty. Then she learned about a construction apprenticeship program. Now some would say that she lost the sight in one eye, had reduced sight in the other, so she shouldn't be in an apprenticeship program in a construction field. But she wanted to be, and she should have access to that program. So she went on to finish a full three-year apprenticeship. Today she is an instructor in general construction. Her apprenticeship gave her the skills she needed not only to stay in the workforce but, as importantly, to find a job that she loved. That is so important. [applause] We hope to hear stories like Joanne's repeated over and over again. Apprenticeships open up opportunities for workers of all abilities. They empower workers to be great employees as well. This is a great time for job seekers-job seekers like all of you and so many other individuals who have disabilities-who are blind, who are vision impaired-job creators are ready to hire. Technology is making the workplace more accessible than ever. Demand-driven education, when implemented, will provide a great pathway to the skills needed for great jobs. The administration wants to connect job creators and jobseekers to the benefit of all Americans. This means an opportunity to increase the number of disabled individuals who work; this means an opportunity to increase the number of blind individuals who work; this means that more Americans, whether or not disabled, can enjoy the independence, the pride, and the community that accompanies a job. So I thank you for your invitation. It's great to be here. Thank you very much. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Ley] Tom Ley Dies, and the Earth Loses a Dear Soul, a Family Member, an Advocate, and a Friend by Gary Wunder On August 30, 2017, Tom Ley died after a year-long battle with cancer. A type I diabetic since his youth, Tom fought many a medical battle, always sustained by his faith in Jesus, the love of his family, and his irrepressible spirit. Just days before his death Tom took to the keyboard to write these moving words: "18,525: Being a math guy, I calculated this morning that I've lived 18,525 days as of today. That's quite a lot. The time we have each day of our lives is truly 'life.' Is there any more precious commodity we have than the time God gives us each day and hour? You cannot buy more of it; you cannot recycle it; you cannot borrow time from a friend; it is all completely yours to do with what you will." What does Tom say we should do with our time? "Love one another." Three short, powerful, all important words, but can any of us come up with any that are more important? Tom's fascination with numbers is no surprise to those who know his history as a math major and later a grade school teacher of the subject. Neither is his advice to spend one's time in love a surprise to those who knew his heart and its boundless capacity to love his creator, his savior, his family, and the causes he held dear. Tom went blind in his senior year of high school. His family was devastated: where was his future that would include a college education, a job, and a family. But Tom did not trip; he paused, evaluated his situation, went for blindness training, and started college in January rather than in August. As his siblings remarked during his service, Tom was always hopeful, and though he was the little brother, very often they looked to him for strength, wisdom, and hope. He lived what he loved in song, one poignant line from a favorite being, "The world will watch in wonder, love will make them understand." This good man's work in the National Federation of the Blind found him serving for a time as the national president of the Diabetes Action Network. He also served as the president of the Maryland affiliate's monthly call for diabetics and as a bridge between industry and advocates as he communicated the need for equipment blind people can use independently. He served as the longtime president of the board for the Louisiana Center for the Blind, the place where he got the blindness training that allowed him to so quickly return to school. After teaching, Tom took a job at UPS, not only thriving in his career as evidenced by his promotions but, more importantly, influencing those with whom he worked, bringing energy, optimism, and the out-of-the- box thinking for which he was known. The relationship between UPS and the NFB has flourished in no small part due to Tom's work, example, and his ability to motivate others to love what he loves. Tom's life and example continues in the lives of those who survive him, the closest being his immediate family: Eileen, Maria, and JonCarlos. All three of them are our family as well, and we will continue to celebrate the exceptional human being who compressed eighty years of life into the fifty years he was given. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] When Automobiles are Obsolete by Marc Maurer >From the Editor: I remember talking with Immediate Past President Maurer about favorite authors, and not surprisingly the name Isaac Asimov came up. Dr. Maurer said that the thing he liked most about Asimov was that whatever Asimov said Dr. Maurer found interesting. This speaks to a real talent in writing, and I find myself thinking that I feel much the same way when I read something that our former president writes. In this spirit I pass along to you this article, which I received shortly after the national convention: Reflecting upon the banquet address, Innovation, Blindness, and the Emerging Pattern of Thought, delivered by President Mark Riccobono at the 2017 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, I reach certain conclusions. Some of these are that we must become linguists, that we must learn to be confident and content with rapid societal and technological change, and that in the imaginable future automobiles will become obsolete except for sporting events and hobbyist activities. Our President pointed out that technology is changing at a more rapid rate than it has in the past. He reiterated a thought from Raymond Kurzweil which tells us that the quantity of intelligence will be expanded within the next few decades a billion-fold. From the context I conclude that he did not mean that a billion human beings would be born who could think. Instead, he meant that a single intelligence would be a billion times as powerful as the intellect of a very bright human being. This is a startling concept. When we do this, what will remain important within our lives? The scientific method and the interpretation of law have at least one thing in common. Both of these approaches value predictability. When one thing happens, another must follow. When the predictability ceases-or when the speed of changes occurs so rapidly that it appears to cease, we enter the realm of chaos. What does this have to do with intellect? The capacity for human thought has been changing for at least the past ten thousand years. However, the rate of development of new ideas has been reasonably slow, and assimilation of new concepts has been practical, though some of them have caused serious upheaval. One of the more noteworthy new thoughts that has challenged humanity is the idea that equality between human beings is a necessity both in law and in society. We have been fighting about this for centuries, and the battle continues to rage today. However, what will happen to the argument when the ability to think has been expanded a billion times? Certain things seem to me to be inevitable, but the great unknown is more intriguing still. Whenever we as human beings have invented something new, we have had to invent the language to explain it. A recent example is the computer. Until we had made them, we did not know how to talk about them. Put it another way, until we had invented the language to talk about them, it was hard for us to invent them. A new concept of thought or a revolutionary piece of hardware demands from us that we think of new ways to speak about the idea or the system. I am told that a human being may communicate moderately fluently with others in a language after learning about five thousand words. The last time I checked, the English language was said to contain four hundred eighty-four thousand words. However, English cannot express all thought. Sometimes alternative methods of communication are required to express a concept for which English does not have a readily available set of words. I am also told that a student who enters medical school will learn about 50 percent more in language alone by the time of graduation. The additional words are required to express the thoughts of the medical profession. If we expand our intelligence, we will inevitably think of new ideas, new products, new systems of approach for managing the matters we encounter. All of these will require the facility to add to our vocabularies. President Riccobono suggested in the banquet speech that in the future we will not only be restoring our senses but enhancing them. Can a receptor be built that will hear as well as the human ear and transmit the information to the brain as effectively as the nerve system human beings now have? Today, the answer is no. However, the systems we currently possess are much better than those of fifty years ago. If intellect expands by a billion, the likelihood is that we will find a way for sense recognition and transmission to expand a great deal also. We will be able to hear what human beings can, but we will hear other things as well. How does a dog hear what you transmit? I do not know, but I think we will find out. Can a dog hear your bones creak? Can the dog hear the sound of your blood running through your veins? Is it possible for some intelligence to hear the creation of a thought in your brain? How does the sound of one thought vary from another? Intelligence expanded a billion-fold will want to know. If we create sensory receptors in human beings with these kinds of capacities, why cannot we create them outside of human beings? Today we hear sounds that are within a short range of where we are. However, if we change the distance factor, the range will be expanded. The receptor can be on the Eiffel Tower in Paris at the same time that the human being receiving the input is in Baltimore. The only requirement is a connection. Expanded intelligence will learn how this is done. Transportation is a vital part of everyday life. We travel to meet people, to enjoy new places, to participate in events, to get (or give) items of importance to us. When our sensory impressions can come from any part of the world, much of the reason for travel will be gone. The getting (or giving) of valuable items will remain for a time an important part of the transportation system, but this will also be addressed eventually in digital terms. With an enormous expansion of intellect, the transmission of things by digital means will become practical. We will still travel, but we will do it in a digital way. The automobile which now consumes so much time and energy will cease to matter except as an interesting historical artifact. What possibly intrigues me more than any of these ideas is wondering what will happen to the law and to the structure of society. This is more challenging for me than imagining what will occur with physical space. We have built societies on the ability to fight, on hereditary titles, on possession of wealth, and on the ability to think. When we radically change one of these factors, what will happen to the others? As I have thought about the automobile, I feel certain that for a brief time intense arguments will take place about the value of putting autonomous vehicles on the road. Dropping the current requirement that each vehicle must be controlled by a human being will be regarded as dangerous to the point of foolishness. A few years after this debate another will occur demanding that only autonomous vehicles be permitted on the road. This phase of the argument will assert that hand-driven cars are so much more dangerous than the autonomous ones that they can no longer be allowed to be driven except in private spaces such as racetracks. Today we do not trust the machines, but we will come to rely upon them. A small group will insist that too great a reliance on a machine will be dangerous to the future of humanity. However the convenience that we get from automobiles that drive themselves will be great enough that these people will be ignored. These things will occur before the alteration of the pattern of society that diminishes the need for the automobile. When we can transmit thoughts, sense-impressions, and products digitally, we will no longer need to move enormous machines and masses of material from one place to another in the old way. These are thoughts that came out of the 2017 banquet speech for me. The vision-centered approach to life is sufficiently limiting that it cannot be tolerated by a truly intelligent society. We must move from this to an intelligence-centered approach with the added elements of personality and fairness. I would have used the word justice, but I have no idea what the long-term effect of massive acceleration in intelligence will be on the legal system. Such thoughts will demand invention of terms to encompass concepts we don't yet know. Perhaps we will use the grand old term the humanity-centered approach. But this thought leads to yet others which I will forgo for the moment. When all of our senses have been enhanced, are we still human? When we have the capacity to touch something a thousand or a million miles away, are we human? As I say, this speculation must be left for later. I am hoping and planning to be a part of the intellect community that helps us make the choices that are implied in the changes that are fast approaching. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John receives an award and praise at his retirement party.] [PHOTO CAPTION: John shakes hands with Secretary Tom Price.] John Halverson Ends an Illustrious Career by Deven McGraw >From the Editor: Many Braille Monitor readers know John Halverson because of his distinguished career in the organization. He has been an affiliate president in two states, a longtime member of the national scholarship committee, a member of the Rocky Mountain Center for the Blind Board of Directors, a former president of the public employees division, and an advisor to the Federation at the highest levels because of his economic background, his organizational good sense, and his institutional knowledge of the NFB. Of course, we are not the only group to appreciate John's talents, and this letter to staff announcing his retirement amply demonstrates the respect he commands, no matter the circle in which he travels. Here is what his former boss, Deven McGraw, who serves as the deputy director for health information privacy in the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services says about John: It is with mixed emotions that I share the news of John Halverson's retirement after thirty-eight (!) years in the federal government. We are so very happy for John and excited for his next chapter! At the same time, we will miss John tremendously here at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR); he is a bastion of institutional knowledge and a cornerstone of the HIP team. John has had a fascinating education and career. John graduated from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, in 1967. He attended the University of California Irvine and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1971. He was a member of the Student Senate in the tumultuous times of the Vietnam War during his junior and senior years. He was honored as co-winner of the outstanding graduating senior award. He was admitted to the University of Michigan PhD program in economics and completed his PhD in 1978 with an emphasis in public finance. His dissertation involved a comparison of the differences in net life-cycle earnings across medical specialties and other sciences. For several years, while a graduate student at the University of Michigan, he taught the introduction to economics class to undergraduates. In 1977 John began teaching at the State University of New York Geneseo where he successfully taught a series of undergraduate economics courses. He created and taught health economics when it was a relatively new discipline. Soon after, John began working at the Department of Health Education and Welfare in January 1979. He was hired as a social science analyst because of his knowledge of civil rights, health economics, and statistics. When the department of Health and Human Services was formed in the spring of 1980, he was assigned to the new department. In 1986 staff in headquarters were given the opportunity to become managers in some of OCR's regional offices. John relocated to Region VII in Kansas City as the division director. He managed the region's case load, conducted technical assistance, and worked with governmental and advocacy officials from throughout what he called the "MINK" Region; Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. In 1991 he was appointed acting Regional Manager and made permanent in the spring of 1992. He continued to manage the case load, conduct outreach activities, and planned a comprehensive civil rights enforcement program. As part of the Kansas City Federal Executive Board, he led the formation of an organization representing federal employees with disabilities in the Kansas City area. For several years he headed the Kansas City area Civil Rights Coordinating Committee. This organization consisted of leaders of federal regional civil rights offices. It experimented with conducting joint compliance reviews, analyzed whether the same complainants filed civil rights complaints across different departments, and held regional civil rights advocacy conferences. One of his most interesting activities involved the opportunity to take the two- week Organizational Leadership for Executives training at the Department of the Army Command and General School at Fort Leavenworth. After ten years he decided it was time for a change. In 2001 John returned to headquarters to become involved in Health Information Privacy (HIP). He also immediately began to participate in the development of Departmental Section 508 policy. He drafted HIP correspondence for the OCR Director for the Secretary's signature, assisted with arranging privacy speaking activities, and provided expertise to OCR and the department on internet and other access issues. More recently he has worked with regions to provide assistance to investigators in developing investigative strategies and insuring that closure letters concisely meet OCR standards. Specifically, for the past three years he worked with a series of new investigators and managers to ensure the Southeast Region was able to reduce its massive case load. Finally, for the last five years he represented OCR on the department's Privacy Incident Response Team (PIRT) which has the responsibility to evaluate privacy breaches of personally identifiable information and PHI in the Department. He has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind for many years, serving as president of its Michigan affiliate in the mid-70s and its District of Columbia organization in the 1980s. He is currently president of the Potomac Chapter in Arlington, Virginia. John is married to his wife Sandy. His stepson, Brent, and family live in Independence, Missouri. This was the letter notifying his department of John's retirement, but there is more. It turns out that John went to school with Secretary Tom Price: THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Washington, D.C. 20201 August 30, 2017 John Halverson, Ph.D. Senior Management and Program Analyst Office for Civil Rights Health Information Privacy Division Department of Health and Human Services Washington, DC 20201 Dear Dr. Halverson: On behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), I am pleased to congratulate you on your retirement and to thank you for your more than 38 years of dedicated service to HHS and to the public. Since joining the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in January 1979, you have made significant contributions in all aspects of OCR's work. Your 24 years of service in OCR's Headquarters and 14 years in leadership positions in OCR's Region VII office in Kansas City reflect your versatility and willingness to lend your talents where needed most in OCR's expanding mission over four decades in both civil rights and health information privacy. Thank you for being a team player, for giving your all to the job, and for your unselfish devotion to ensuring that others at OCR succeed as well. Your professionalism and your work ethic are admirable and served as an inspiration throughout your distinguished tenure at HHS. On a personal note, when I met you shortly after I arrived at HHS, I was delighted to find that we were in graduate school together while I was a medical student and you were pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan in the 1970's. Since then, you have truly made your mark and left a lasting legacy at OCR and HHS, and I wish you all the best during your retirement years. Sincerely, Thomas E. Price, M.D. ---------- Leave a Legacy For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults. With your help, the NFB will continue to: . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille; . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long white canes to blind people in need; . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind youth that science and math are within their reach; . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in their communities; . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain their independence; and . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Plan to Leave a Legacy Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality. Invest in Opportunity The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back. A donation to the National Federation of the Blind allows you to invest in a movement that removes the fear from blindness. Your investment is your vote of confidence in the value and capacity of blind people and reflects the high expectations we have for all blind Americans, combating the low expectations that create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. In 2016 the NFB: . Distributed over seven thousand canes to blind people across the United States, empowering them to travel safely and independently throughout their communities. . Hosted forty-five NFB BELL Academy programs, which served more than three hundred and twenty-five blind students throughout the United States. . Provided over one hundred twenty thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. . Delivered audio newspaper and magazine services to 115,491 subscribers, providing free access to over four hundred local, national, and international publications. . In the third year of the program, over three hundred fifty Braille- writing slates and styluses were given free of charge to blind users. Just imagine what we'll do next year, and, with your help, what can be accomplished for years to come. Below are just a few of the many diverse, tax-deductible ways you can lend your support to the National Federation of the Blind. Vehicle Donation Program The NFB now accepts donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call (855) 659-9314 toll-free, and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation-it doesn't have to be working. We can also answer any questions you have. General Donation General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work to help blind people live the lives they want. Donate online with a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit www.nfb.org/make-gift for more information. Bequests Even if you can't afford a gift right now, including the National Federation of the Blind in your will enables you to contribute by expressing your commitment to the organization and promises support for future generations of blind people across the country. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Pre-Authorized Contribution Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring monthly donations by direct withdraw of funds from a checking account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, visit www.nfb.org/make- gift, complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kirk Adams] The American Foundation for the Blind: New Directions for the Future by Kirk Adams >From the Editor: There was a time when the National Federation of the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind were actively at war. The foundation regarded itself as the expert on all things blindness related. What blind people themselves might say was inconsequential; after all, any real speaking done for the blind would be done by professionals, and those professionals turned to the foundation to give and get information about how they would deal with their clients. The NFB took a different view. It was that the blind, having the most to win or lose in the struggle and being competent to set the direction of the programs serving us, should be the most significant force in this work; no longer were we going to sit idly by and let others speak for us. Tensions began to lessen in the middle of the 1980s, and although the road has not been straight or without bumps, relations have gotten better as the recognition that blind people are best suited to speak to the needs of blind people is more widely embraced by the field. As President Riccobono remarked: "To start off the afternoon, we have a presentation which features an organization which has not been on our agenda in at least a decade. The American Foundation for the Blind has sometimes been at odds with the National Federation of the Blind, but there is a new direction for the American Foundation for the Blind, and here to talk with us about it is a gentleman who used to direct the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind where he demonstrated an openness and true willingness to work with the organized blind movement, and he's bringing that perspective to the work of the AFB. So here to talk to us about the future at the American Foundation for the Blind is its president, Kirk Adams:" Good afternoon, everyone. I'm un-telescoping my cane-if that's a word- it's my cane of choice, the NFB carbon fiber telescoping cane. [cheers] It's really great to be here. The acceptance speeches by your new board members-that was worth the price of admission-tremendous. It's just always a pleasure to witness strong leadership in action. Again, my name is Kirk Adams. I'm the sixth president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. I want to thank President Riccobono for reaching out to me and inviting me to speak with you. I'm here to tell you a little bit about AFB, and really also to highlight our strong desire to work more closely with the Federation to create the world of no limits for people who are blind. You know over the years AFB and NFB have worked together on many important initiatives. In the early 2000s we worked together to establish the right for all blind K-12 students to receive their accessible textbooks on the first day of school. We worked on advocating for access to instructional materials in higher ed. You know that together we fought to hold the makers of e-readers accountable for their responsibilities under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. So, we want a lot more of that in our future. As Scott [LaBarre] mentioned earlier today, we're also part of the coalition really driving toward US ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty, so we need to make that happen. [applause] We're grateful for the Federation's leadership in protecting the civil rights of blind people, and we know that a successful Federation is just vitally important for blind people in the country, so at AFB we do look forward to working with you more closely in the future, thank you. [applause] For those of you who don't know much about AFB, I invite you to visit our website afb.org. I invite you to send me a Facebook friend request (I'm a little bit of a Facebook addict, so I'm there a lot.) We're a private nonprofit; we're not a membership organization like the Federation. We were created in 1921 by the two professional associations that existed then in the blindness field. There was an American Association of Workers for the Blind, and there was an American Association of Teachers of the Blind. They met every other year, so, in their meetings in 1919 and 1920, both organizations voted to put forward leadership and resources to create a new, central nonprofit agency which was meant to identify, understand, and address the most important issues affecting the lives of people who are blind. Today, ninety-five years later, like all of you here in this room, we are working hard to create the world of no limits for people who are blind that everyone who is associated with NFB and AFB knows is possible. Maureen [Nietfeld] this morning made it just so very clear that, like all people, blind people have unlimited potential to achieve, to create, to live the lives we want. Prior to coming to AFB, as President Riccobono mentioned, I was the CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind in Seattle. I worked very closely with members of NFB of Washington, and I attended lots of state conventions. I look forward to getting to know the Federationists in my new home state of Virginia [cheers]-three weeks in, and I've also had the privilege of attending a number of national conventions. Dr. Maurer gave me an opportunity to address the general session in Atlanta when I was at the Lighthouse, and I've attended conventions in Dallas, Detroit, and here in Orlando, too. I know firsthand the amazing work that you all do. The Federationists in this room are living proof that there are no limits to blind people's talent and ambition, our creativity, our courage, our compassion; but the reality remains that limits are being placed on us in the form of barriers to inclusion in nearly every aspect of life. So we all know that blind people face barriers to equal employment opportunities, to educational and health care services, to transportation systems, to electronic information and resources. The book famine-95 percent of books are not available to us yet. At AFB we are working hard to understand why and how these limits are being imposed on blind people and what we can do about it. I know every blind person in this room has had a limit placed upon them at some point, and I've had my own experience. One very small example: when I was a senior in high school, my first day I went to my math analysis class and my physics class-I was carrying about forty pounds of Braille books-all was well. I went to my chemistry class, and my teacher told me I could not take chemistry. A blind person would not be able to conduct the required experiments. I was sent out of the classroom; I was assigned to a study hall; case closed. I was seventeen years old in a small rural town in Washington state. Now, of course, I've met successful blind chemists and chemistry professors. At the time that I was kicked out of chemistry class, I didn't have any relationships with any blind people; I didn't have any blind adult role models; I didn't have any self-advocacy skills to speak of. But this week we are all here in community together, so that's a community full of role models and expert self-advocates. [applause] And I know that we are all taking advantage of the unbelievable opportunity here in Orlando to learn from one another. Back to chemistry class: a limit was placed upon me by that teacher and that school. I did not know how to deal with it, so I was not allowed to live a life of no limits in that case. But for the good news: now we have unprecedented opportunities to create that world of no limits. Advances in technology, the power of social media to help us share knowledge and to organize-research and data analysis tools that will really allow us to dig deep and look at old problems and find new solutions-in this world which is changing each and every day, we really need to be strong and decisive as blind people right now to make sure that these changes contribute to the world of no limits for people who are blind, rather than creating even more barriers. Of course we know individual blind people can and do overcome all kinds of barriers, sometimes in really remarkable ways, like running across America. At AFB we really want to make overcoming barriers easier for all blind people. I had a really neat experience visiting the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx asking kids what they want to be when they grow up. And there was a little girl-totally blind little girl-about six years old. When we asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she said, "I can be a helicopter pilot if I want to." [cheers] When she's in high school, and she walks into her intro to aeronautical engineering class with her white cane in her hand, I don't want some ignorant so-and-so telling her she can't do it. [cheers, applause] To create a world of no limits for kids like her, AFB just went through a year-long strategic planning process. We took a step back and asked, "What can we do as an organization that will bring the greatest long- term value to people who are blind in our country." We talked to lots of people, leaders both inside and outside of the blindness field-including President Riccobono and Anil Lewis. Thank you for participating in our planning process [cheers]-and we got a really clear answer. We were told that the AFB should really identify the most challenging barriers faced by blind people and use research and data analysis to understand these barriers, to create knowledge about these most challenging issues, and then to share that knowledge to make positive changes in the lives of people who are blind. So at AFB we are going back to our roots. We're identifying evidence- based promising practices using research and data, pursuing goals that will result in direct, measurable, positive results for people who are blind. We look forward to working with partners like all of you to create solutions in the areas of employment, education, and access to technology. We want to promote understanding of the issues faced by blind people with the decision- makers and influencers across our country. We're going to focus efforts on those key decision-makers in corporate America, government, health care, education, and the nonprofit sector. So we'll be reaching out and building relationships across all of these sectors, and we'll be sharing our research, our data, and our knowledge so that better decisions can be made concerning the inclusion of people who are blind in all aspects of life. I know it's going to be hard to imagine how knowledge can break down barriers, but in the long run we think it is the best way for AFB to contribute. So just think about how we can level the playing field for blind people if we had clear, evidence-based answers to some of our tough questions: why are employers afraid to hire people who are blind? How do we change that fear to enthusiasm? What will transportation systems look like twenty-five years from now, and how can we make sure blind people have full access? Which of the new technology solutions that are popping up literally every day are going to be game changers and which are going to be a flash in the pan? But the essence is really to do our best to understand the most challenging issues facing blind people, to use research and data to identify solutions, and to drive toward these solutions, working in collaboration and partnership with people like you. So thank you Federation for everything you do. Thank you for including AFB in this year's convention; I hope it's not another fifteen years before you have us back, [laughter] and enjoy the rest of your time. Thank you. President Riccobono asked Mr. Adams to stay onstage for a moment after he finished speaking so that he could ask two questions. The questions and Mr. Adam's responses follow: Mark Riccobono: Thank you Kirk. I really appreciate you being here. As you know, this organization has staunchly been for the elimination of the provision in law that allows employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage. In the past the American Foundation for the Blind has told us that they're not prepared to support such a provision. AFB, I think, stands out really as an outlier amongst organizations. I'm wondering if you have any plans to change AFB's position on this topic? Kirk Adams: Yeah, 14(c) is an antiquated law that needs to be eliminated. [cheers] My concern is a repeal-and-replace without knowing, in an evidence-based way, what the impacts will be on individuals living with the most significant disabilities, in particular developmental disabilities. I think if blindness is your only disabling condition, there is no reason on God's green earth that you should be earning less than the minimum wage. I am concerned about blind people, in particular, who also live with significant developmental disabilities, in which that disability is really the most impactful disability. I would really welcome an opportunity to be in dialogue with NFB and understand more clearly how we make sure to protect and hear the voices of the individuals who are engaged in the community with use of this antiquated tool. Again, I welcome a chance to talk more about it. I think AFB's position has been based on the concern for blind individuals who are severely developmentally disabled. Mark Riccobono: I appreciate the answer, would point out that the law doesn't distinguish classes, and I think this crowd would urge that we figure out a way to eliminate-get on the path to elimination-and then we can work out the other details. But I have another question: we've been working now for over two years to get an accessible instructional materials bill into Congress, and AFB has also not fully endorsed our perspective. Earlier this week a higher ed bill came out that has language in it that apparently AFB does endorse. Now, we would urge and ask that the American Foundation for the Blind join with us in supporting accessible instructional materials and a true pathway to getting schools to do something about this, since so far they haven't taken it seriously. Can we get your support with that? Kirk Adams: We have-again, I've been there for a year-but I see that we have supported NFB language and bills in the past-past versions. The most recent version added the safe harbor proviso, which we feel weakens the previous bills and language. We would like a stronger bill. When we look at the Higher Ed Improvement Act language that was dropped yesterday, it looks like all the accessibility provisions are included in that bill, and it does not include the safe harbor provision, so it's back to very similar to the original language that NFB put forward in previous versions which we did support, and we're supporting the version that dropped yesterday. Mark Riccobono: Thank you, Kirk. I would point out that one problem we have is that-where are the students in the room? [cheers] A whole bunch of them-the one problem is that we have to ask ourselves what kind of bill is going to get through Congress, and what are we going to do about those students who are sitting out in those seats right now to make sure that the technology is accessible in the next year, not in the next ten years? [cheers] I think we need to be realistic about the prospects in front of us in Congress, and so far I've noticed that no other organizations are willing to put their shoulder to the wheel to help sue schools. So if we could get some support telling Congress that something has to happen today, that would be great. [applause] Thank you for being here today Kirk. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Curtis Chong] The Orbit Reader 20: The Most Inexpensive Braille Display by Curtis Chong >From the Editor: Curtis is the retired president of the NFB in Computer Science, having given up that title in the summer of 2016. He now serves as the organization's treasurer. In addition he serves as the treasurer for the NFB of New Mexico, taking on that job in January of 2014. For pay, Curtis works as the manager of assistive technology at the New Mexico Commission for the Blind, where he continues to push for nonvisual access in education, recreation, and employment. Curtis is proud to say that he joined the National Federation of the Blind in Hawaii in 1969 at the young and tender age of fifteen. His first national convention was in 1971 in Houston, Texas, where he was happy to be elected to serve as the secretary of the NFB Student Division. He later worked on the staff of the Federation, serving as the director of technology from 1997 until 2002. Here is his review of this new technology: While attending the 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida, I was among the lucky handful of individuals who was able to buy (for $449) the Orbit Reader 20. For the first time I was able to own a refreshable Braille display which cost under $500. Every other piece of refreshable Braille technology that I have ever used was paid for either by my employer or a rehabilitation agency and cost thousands of dollars. You might say that I felt as if I had scored a personal victory here. The opinions expressed in this article are mine and mine alone, and the needs I have with respect to refreshable Braille technology may or may not be reflective of the blind community as a whole. I have four specific requirements for refreshable Braille. First, I want a device that I can use to quickly write and edit long and detailed notes during a meeting and (perhaps more important) allow me to read them back while talking or presenting at that meeting. My second requirement for refreshable Braille is that, from time to time, I want to be able to connect the device to my computer so that I can proofread a document on the computer in greater detail than I can using speech alone. My third requirement is to be able to read in Braille agendas and other documents that I have copied from a computer. Lastly, I want to be able to read Braille books that I have downloaded from various sources of electronic Braille. I do not want or need a Braille device to search the web, produce professional-looking documents, edit an article, send and receive email, or read information on my iPhone. In other words, I want my refreshable Braille technology to supplement-not replace-my computer or iPhone. What Is the Orbit Reader 20? The Orbit Reader 20 is a twenty-cell, eight-dot refreshable Braille display which serves three major purposes: 1. reading books in electronic Braille, 2. taking and editing Braille notes, and 3. serving as a refreshable Braille display (by connecting via Bluetooth or USB) for a computer, smart phone, or tablet running a screen reading program. In addition to the twenty-eight-dot Braille cells, the Orbit Reader 20 also has a Braille keyboard, a cursor pad, and rocker keys to move through a document or book. The Orbit Reader 20 does not have the traditional cursor routing buttons that many people have come to expect in more expensive refreshable Braille devices. It reads from and stores information on an SD (Secure Digital) card, which can be up to thirty-two gigabytes in size. It supports USB and Bluetooth connections. The Braille cells themselves produce dots that are locked in place, meaning that the Braille feels as solid as a Braille sign-no more dots going down when you push them. If you think of the Orbit Reader 20 as an electronic slate and stylus, you will understand what I mean when I say that the Orbit Reader provides no forward or backward Braille translation. Information stored in contracted Braille is displayed in contracted Braille, and information stored as plain, readable ASCII text will be displayed in what is called Computer Braille, which is the code that drives Braille displays and embossers. Any notes you write will be stored exactly as you wrote them. Slate and stylus users (a diminishing population, I know) are familiar with the crazy Braille contractions and codes we use to jot down information in a hurry. While these codes may make no sense to other people, they certainly make sense to us. The really nice thing about the Orbit Reader 20 is that if we use these codes to speed up our writing, we can read them back. For me, this is an extremely valuable feature. If you want to copy a Word document to the Orbit Reader 20, you need to run the document through a free "Send to Braille" program, which is a shortcut that adds Braille to the Windows? Send To menu, which converts files on your computer into the unformatted BRL (Braille Ready Format). You can check out this free software using the link http://tech.aph.org/lt/. On the Plus Side The Orbit Reader 20 is by far the least expensive twenty-cell Braille display. Yes, it does lack certain functions, but in order to get those functions, you have to spend a lot more. For purposes of comparison, consider that the VarioUltra 20 (a twenty-cell display from Baum) costs $2,395, and the Braille Edge, a forty-cell display from HIMS, costs $2,795. The Orbit Reader 20 cost me $449. The Orbit Reader 20 fits easily into a briefcase. This means that when I need it, I have it. Other displays I have tried were either too large or too fragile to be safely stored in my cramped case, and I could not afford the $2,395 that I would have had to spend to acquire the VarioUltra 20. The Braille dots on the Orbit Reader 20 are locked in place when raised. They do not give when pressed. Once mastered, the Orbit Reader 20 is very easy to use, and it takes only a few seconds to turn it on from the power off state. During a long note-taking session, you can suspend the unit to conserve battery. The Orbit Reader 20 is supported by all of the current screen reading programs used by the blind: VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS for Windows, and System Access. Remember that once you connect the Orbit Reader 20 to your screen reader, any functionality you experience is provided by the screen reader- not the Orbit Reader 20. On the Not So Positive Side As of this writing, the Orbit Reader 20 is not yet ready to be sold to the general market. There simply aren't enough units to go around. However, the supply issues are being addressed, to the point where suppliers are now declaring that the Orbit Reader 20 is coming soon. And as far as I know, the price appears to be set at $449. The Orbit Reader 20 does not refresh as quickly as more expensive displays. Some people will regard this as a negative. Others, like me, will not. Also, there is a certain amount of noise when the Braille cells are refreshed, but I have not yet found this to be a problem when I use the Orbit Reader 20 in meetings. The lack of cursor routing buttons has been criticized, but learning how to move the cursor around on the twenty-cell display will mitigate this problem. Once I learned how to do this, I found that the lack of routing buttons was not significant. At least, I did not find their absence to seriously impede my work. The Orbit Reader 20, being of a rather simplistic design, does not teach itself. You can't simply press keys and hope to figure out how to make it work. This was my experience. There is no help built-in, and there is certainly no context-sensitive help available. You really do have to give some attention to the manual. When you purchase the unit, a Braille version of the manual is available to read off of the SD card, and the most current version of the manual is available online at http://www.orbitresearch.com/support/orbit-reader-20-support/orbit-reader- 20-user-guide-downloads/. Finally, a computer running Windows is required to update the Orbit Reader 20 firmware. This could be a problem for people who want to update their Orbit Reader 20 firmware but who don't have a Windows computer available to them. Conclusion It is unfortunate that the Orbit Reader 20 has been actively promoted for a year-and-a-half with no reliable supply yet available for purchase. Unless or until this major problem is solved, I fear that the initial enthusiasm with which this technology was greeted will wear off, to the point where people will simply spend more money to obtain other Braille devices. I sincerely hope that this does not happen and that we will see Orbit Reader 20's flying off the shelves. Is the Orbit Reader 20 going to be useful to every blind person who needs or wants a less expensive refreshable Braille display? There is no simple answer to this question. Refreshable Braille purists, familiar with more expensive devices, will doubtless complain about the slow refresh rate, the noise of the refreshing dots, and the lack of cursor routing buttons. Others will decry the lack of forward or reverse Braille translation, and some users who are not technology enthusiasts will not be happy about having to read the user guide. As I understand it, a great deal of money has already been spent by a number of organizations to bring a low-cost Braille display to the blind community around the world. This is an exciting time for Braille users. Let us move forward with the expectation that before the end of this year, we will be able to purchase the Orbit Reader 20 because there will be enough for those who want them. Comments from Orbit Research The Orbit Reader 20 was designed in accordance with the specifications developed by the Transforming Braille Group, a consortium of the world's prominent organizations of the blind. The overarching objective was to create a low cost, simple to use, and compact refreshable Braille display that would be affordable for students in developing countries and at the same time provide functionality and quality that are appealing to users in developed countries. To achieve the goal of affordability, careful consideration was given to the cost implications of various features; and tradeoffs were made on features such as cursor routing buttons, refresh speed, and sound during refresh. Extensive field testing was performed with users around the world, which confirmed that these tradeoffs would not affect usability. In addition to providing the key features of book-reading, note-taking, and connectivity to screen readers, the Orbit Reader 20 brings unique signage- quality Braille, which is especially helpful to beginning Braille readers. As with any groundbreaking technology, there were numerous technical challenges in getting the manufacturing streamlined, which resulted in a slower release to the market. We are pleased to note that we have worked through these challenges and are now in the process of accelerating production. We look forward to the Orbit Reader 20 and its breakthrough technology bringing affordable electronic Braille to millions of blind people around the world. ---------- Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind people. We would like to extend a big thank you to all who volunteered in the Independence Market during our 2017 National Convention in July. We would not be able to run the Independence Market at convention without the assistance of our numerous volunteers. Because of their work our many customers had the opportunity to examine all our demo products and purchase the items that caught their interest. We are frequently asked about what is new in the Independence Market, so here is a brief description of some of the items that were new at this year's convention. We now carry 8-1/2 by 11-1/2 inch medium weight Braille paper in both unpunched and three-hole punched versions. It is great to use with a slate and stylus if you need to take rapid notes. We also sell a thinner, flat, saddle-shaped stylus which easily tucks into a small pocket. This stylus is a nice accessory to our business card slate and mini Braille notepads. We now have added a smaller 5-1/2 by 8-1/2 inch dark line notepad to our low vision product offerings. It is just the right size to keep on the kitchen counter or the nightstand for some quick notes. The market has some new labeling stickers which may help those with severe vision loss or those who have just lost their sight and cannot read Braille yet. The stickers are individual letters and numbers. The three- quarter-inch high black symbols can also be identified by touch, and the corresponding Braille letter or number is below it. One sheet has 176 letters and numbers on it. When combining these stickers with our Braillable food labels, which consist of little plastic cards with an attachable elastic band, one can make practical, reusable print/Braille labels for cans, packages, and other household items. The Independence Market is repeatedly asked if we carry a talking caller ID. The model we used to sell was unfortunately discontinued quite some time ago. However, we identified a talking phone with a nice, built-in talking caller ID, the Serene CL-30 Cordless Phone. This phone is designed with the needs of users who are experiencing vision and/or hearing loss in mind. The high definition sound technology makes incoming calls sharp, clear, and intelligible. The talking caller ID feature announces incoming numbers twice in a clear voice for those users subscribed to the caller ID service through their phone company. When enabled, each keypad button audibly repeats the number pushed. The phone amplifies incoming calls up to forty decibels, and the ringer is amplified up to ninety decibels. The handset is hearing aid compatible. The phone features easy-to-see large and brightly back-lit keys; eight one-touch speed dial buttons; one-touch call- for-help button for hands-free emergency calls; audible and visual indicators for voice mail and missed calls; high performance speakerphone; bright visual ring flasher and super loud ringer on handset and base; and more. We will introduce the remaining new products in a later issue of the Braille Monitor. If you would like a detailed description of the new items, you may request a Braille or print copy of the document which lists the Independence Market products that were new at this year's national convention. Please contact us by email or phone and be sure to specify the format you would like. It's that time of year when many are starting to look for next year's calendar. Since not everyone is using digital calendars yet, the Independence Market still offers the following Braille and large print calendars for 2018. Many continue to find the free, pocket-sized American Action Fund Braille calendar very useful. Each calendar page includes the days of the month and lists major holidays. It's a great way to get a tactile overview of each month. We have carried our spiral-bound, large print appointment calendar with inside pockets for many years. Each month is displayed on two facing 8-1/2 by 11 inch pages and features two-inch blocks for each day of the month. The months are tabbed and include a section for monthly notes as well as a three-month calendar overview. More recently we have started selling the Easy2See Large Print Planner, an organizer designed with low vision professionals in mind. The spiral bound planner with plastic-coated covers, measuring 8-1/2 by 11 inches, features a page for each month as well as two-page weekly views from the end of December of the previous year through the beginning of January of the following year. Major holidays are listed on both the monthly and weekly views. The weekly pages have individual unlined writing areas measuring 3- 1/4 by 8 inches, and the font on these pages is at least forty point. Dark boarders on all the pages make it easier to see the writing area. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Anna Kresmer] Origins of the NFB Pledge by Anna Kresmer >From the Editor: Anna Kresmer is one of the most valuable resources we have in the Jacobus tenBroek Library. She understands our history, embraces our philosophy, and can answer almost any question asked of her. She can offer her opinion and then back it up with one or more documents. After almost a decade at her work, she was surprised when she had what appeared to be a simple question that sent her back to the stacks to answer. Here is what she says: After nine years working with the archives of the National Federation of the Blind, it is not often these days that a reference question about Federation history truly stumps me. But this is exactly what happened recently. I received a request from a member in our Massachusetts affiliate which asked how the pledge that Federationists recite at every chapter meeting, state convention, and national convention was originally created. Like the member, I could not find any reference to the adoption of the pledge online in our literature or publications, including our recent seventy-fifth anniversary history book. However, when I still could not find reference to the pledge in both the Jacobus tenBroek Collection and the NFB Institutional Records, I knew it was time to consult with a real expert on the subject of NFB history. I speak, of course, of none other than Dr. Marc Maurer. Needless to say, he put me on the right path immediately. The pledge that we all know and use today came about during the 1974 NFB National Convention in Chicago. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan first spoke about the idea of a formal pledge to show one's support for the organization during his Presidential Report. In those days, the report was delivered in a more off-the-cuff manner using only notes, but thankfully it was transcribed and later printed in full in the September 1974 Braille Monitor. Here is how Dr. Jernigan addressed the Convention: Ever since 1971, we've been on a sharply ascending curve organizationally-in power, in prestige, and, I think, in responsibility. We must exercise with care the very considerable power inherent in an organization as large and as broadly representative as we are. We must also, however, recognize that there are dangers any time a group makes as many waves as we have; we can expect to be subjects of vicious counter-attacks. Now, I think that it is in that context that we must view our situation. During the American Revolution, you know, the leaders said: "We pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Well, in retrospect that sounds like rhetoric. But think about it; it wasn't just rhetoric. It meant what it said... If you take us as a group, blind people in this country, we have pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor-because although they are not going to come out and kill us in the usual sense of that word, life is going to be a different kind of life, and for some blind persons, not really worth the living if this movement does not succeed. And furthermore, [applause] as to fortune, although some of us as individuals may do well financially, the blind as a class can expect very little except the same old custody and care, shelter and pity, and contempt which we have always received if we don't succeed in this movement. And as to our honors, already there are people who try to make us appear to be less than human by what they've said and done and how they felt... it is my duty not to hesitate, not to count the cost personally, it is my duty to lead where I ought to lead, stand out on the cutting edge and be willing to take the risk and not count what it may do to me as a person, even if it costs me my job, if it costs my reputation, costs whatever money I have- whatever it costs, it is for me to be prepared to give it. Otherwise I am not fit to lead the movement. But, it is up to you as members to do all you can to make that job successful. It is up to you as members of this movement to be willing to give as much as you can in the way of your time, your effort, your money, your dedication, and your commitment. If you are not willing to do that, you are not fit to be members of the movement. [Applause] In other words, those who believe that the primary purpose of this movement is a nice little game, or a social tete-a-tete, would do better to go elsewhere; they will find it more fun. But those of us who intend to see this thing through and to make lives better for blind people in this country and to improve our own status in the world will stay to the end and we will prevail. That year Dr. Jernigan also hosted a special presidential reception during the convention with a receiving line that, according to the Braille Monitor, "included not only President and Mrs. Kenneth Jernigan, but all present, incoming, and outgoing officers and their respective spouses of the whole board of directors; NFB staff members; and the top officers of the Illinois Federation of the Blind." Each member who walked through that receiving line received an official NFB membership card, which, when signed, certified that that person was a member in good standing of the National Federation of the Blind. On the back of these membership cards were the words, printed for the first time, which every Federationist today knows: I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. ---------- From the Mail Basket by Gary Wunder We all know that being a chapter or an affiliate president means more than presiding at meetings. Often it means setting the pace by showing through example one's commitment to the cause and the ambition to get things done. But what happens when activity in one area leads to the appearance of inactivity in another and when those closest to us think we aren't setting the right example? A discussion of this type came up recently on our chapter president's list, and some of the concerns and observations seemed appropriate to address here. Names and locations have been changed so that the discussion is more about concepts than individuals. Let's see what we can learn together: Dear Colleagues, I am seeking advice. I feel like my chapter presidents and many of my affiliate members are constantly seeing all the things that I do not do and not seeing the things that I actually get done. My local chapter president is upset with me because I missed the June and July chapter meetings. During the July meeting I was up in Buffalo preparing for our BELL Academy and attending the Northern Lakes chapter meeting, and during the June meeting, I was attending a family event for blind children put on by another foundation here in Kansas. I am being criticized for not supporting or showing up when the truth is that what I am doing is giving my time freely to the Federation. It just comes as a shock with this last wave of criticisms-being told that I am micromanaging by telling the chapter presidents to play the Presidential Release during their meetings. Our student division is at a halt with all of the leaders resigning from that division. I am just tired. How do you all keep on continuing on when you feel like all the work that you do is not noticed or appreciated? How do you not let the criticisms get to you? I love this organization and am willing to serve when and where I am needed. However, sometimes it is just draining to feel alone. Thank you for reading, and thank you for any advice that you might be able to share. Sincerely yours, Autumn One response was offered by Anil Lewis, the executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute: Dear Autumn: Ah yes. This brings back memories. The joy of being an affiliate president. One of the ways that I attempted to address this issue is to prepare a monthly memo to all chapter presidents (I would also copy the chapter board members) to let them know what I was doing and to guide them with suggestions on things they could be doing as well. The memo let everyone know that I was busy doing things we can all take pride in and set an expectation that they should not be criticizing but working as well. You could strengthen this by also inviting the chapter presidents to submit items for the memo as well. It would be more difficult for them to complain that you are not doing anything if they are not equally as active. Of course, this is an additional administrative burden for you, but the benefit outweighs the extra work. Anil Scott LaBarre, a veteran president in Colorado offered these observations: Autumn, you have been getting some great advice. One thing that I would add is that we follow a practice of inviting all chapter/division presidents to every board meeting whether they participate on the phone or in person. I appoint them to committees and keep them very engaged and involved. Other than having an official vote, they really are acting like board members. You should also not forget the social aspect for building camaraderie. For example, just this past Saturday, we held an in-person NFBCO Board Meeting which several chapter/division presidents attended. Afterwards, we shared some drinks and snacks and hung out for a while. All in all, it was a great afternoon. Warmly, Scott I took my turn at offering some advice as well: Dear Autumn: One of the struggles of any Federation leader is to figure out how much time to use in one's life for Federation work and how much time to live out the goals of the Federation. If one of my goals is to be an integrated member of my community, I can't spend all of my time at a writing desk putting together a magazine. I can't spend all of my time attending chapter and board meetings with the message that all of us should be out in the community if my example does not show that I too am a part of it. I can't hope to lead the Federation band without picking up an instrument, but there can be no Federation band if I am the only instrument playing. You have to do enough work in the Federation that you deserve the elected position you have campaigned for, but you have to work at a pace that will let you run a marathon and not leave our ranks because you thought you were continually required to run a sprint. Let your heart be your guide, but don't leave it exposed. It is a good heart; take care of it for all of us. You too have the right to live the life you want, and I thank you for showing us through example how that is done. Gary A real pearl was offered by Immediate Past President Maurer who said: Dear Autumn: You are not alone. I am a buddy of yours. Now, we don't talk very often, but that doesn't mean I'm not a buddy of yours. Being criticized is a badge of honor when the right people are doing it. Sometimes if your friends do it, this can be painful. However, when you carry around the notion (as I do) that you know what you want to get of this organization, things get a lot easier. I know that I want certain things. I want the subminimum wage to go away. I want employment for the blind to become practical at many different levels. I want technology to be accessible and reasonably simple to use. I want educational opportunities for the blind to exist at every level. I want blind people to be welcomed into society as valuable members of the community. I can't get these things without help. If I thought I could get them without help, I would do it. However, I know I can't. Consequently, I get a bunch of friends about me and we make plans together to change the nature of the world in which we live. For example, I need friends like you. What does this mean? Don't give up on me. I will not give up on you. Don't worry that I'm perfect because I'm not. I make lots of mistakes. You can criticize them if you want to. When you're done with the criticism, let's make a plan to change the world. If you plan with me, I will listen a lot harder to your criticisms. Affectionately, Marc Maurer ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: David Andrews] There's a List for That! by David Andrews This month we will continue our monthly column exploring Internet Mailing Lists with Ohio-related offerings. The Buckeye State has a good set of lists that offers its members a wide variety of announcements, information, advice, and support. The main list for Ohioans is the Ohio Talk list. You can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org or you can also subscribe by sending an email to ohio-talk-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line by itself. The list contains both announcements and discussions of interest to members of the NFB of Ohio and their friends. A number of local chapters have their own lists. Below are the list name and a brief description of each. To subscribe, substitute the list name in the command above for the ohio-talk phrase. CapChapOhio-Capital Chapter list, (Columbus) Cinci-NFB-Cincinnati Chapter list NFBMV-NFB of Ohio, Greater Miami Valley Chapter list In addition, quite a few of the state divisions in Ohio have their own lists. Below are the list name and a brief description of each. To subscribe, substitute the list name in the command above for the ohio-talk string originally cited. A1C-Diabetes Action Network of Ohio OABM-Talk-Ohio Association of Blind Merchants list OABS-Ohio Association of Blind Students list OADB-Ohio Association of the Deaf-Blind list OAGDU-Ohio Association of Guide Dog Users list Ohio-NAPUB-Ohio division, National Association to Promote the Use of Braille Next month we will tell you about student lists. Stay tuned since there are a bunch of them! As always, you can find all NFBNET.ORG-related lists at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Jacobus tenBroek speaking at the podium] Cross of Blindness An address delivered by Professor Jacobus tenBroek, President, National Federation of the Blind, at the banquet of the annual convention, held in New Orleans, July 6, 1957 To hear this speech in his own voice go to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/banqspeech/cross_of_blindness.mp3 >From the Editor: While serving as the national representative at the Arizona convention, I was pleased to participate in a philosophy session. The format was different from anything I've encountered before. A clip from an important event at which one of our leaders was speaking was played, a panel was to address what had been said, and then the audience was asked to chime in with questions, differing views, or their own observations which no one had mentioned. When we got to the topic of civil rights and then the speech about the day after civil rights, one member asked if we had really reached the day beyond, and another admitted that some days she fears that all of the educating she has tried to do throughout her life has been for nothing; the symptoms may be different, but the illness, the basic problem, remains the same. When it was my turn to respond, I said that I agreed with her. I told her and the group that I naively started by believing that being a member of the Federation would mean being so successful that I would work myself out of a job-not single-handedly but certainly my talented colleagues would figure it out. The problem is that too many fairytales end with "happily ever after," and too many John Wayne movies end in victory, the hero's reputation safely secured for eternity. But real life isn't like that: real life is taking a step up the hill to find that the next step, while giving a different view, still requires the same energy as the step before. For this reason we are running a speech by Dr. tenBroek so that it can be seen in the context of the challenges we face today. Are we still confronted with the issues Dr. tenBroek relates? Not often. Are we still confronted by the root of those problems, a basic misunderstanding about blind people that is painted in today's colors as we face today's issues? Yes. Here is Dr. tenBroek's speech. As you read it, think about how far we have come, and consider too how far we have to go. Finally, recommit yourself to helping all of us figure out how to get to the equality we seek, the vision of which has driven our organization since its beginnings: In the short seventeen years since our founding of the National Federation of the Blind, we have grown from a handful of men and women scattered over seven states to a federation of forty-three state affiliates. The first convention of the NFB in 1940 was attended by twelve or fifteen persons-our convention last year had a registration of seven hundred and five from every corner of the Union. That is rapid organizational growth by any yardstick. Who are these people of the National Federation of the Blind? What is the purpose that has led them to self-organization in such numbers and unites them now with such apparent dedication and enthusiasm? It is not enough, I think, to answer that the members of the NFB are drawn together by their common interest in the welfare of the blind; for many of the sighted share that too. Nor is it sufficient to say that we are united only because we are blind; many who are affiliated with agencies for the blind have that characteristic also. It is fundamental to the uniqueness of our group that we are the only nationwide organization for the blind which is also of the blind. The composition of the NFB, indeed, is living testimony to the fact-unfortunately not yet accepted by society as a whole-that the blind are capable of self-organization: which is to say, of leading themselves, of directing their own destiny. Yet this is still only half the truth, only a part of the characteristic which defines our Federation and provides its reason for being. Our real distinction from other organizations in the field of blind welfare lies in the social precept and personal conviction which are the motive source of our activity and the wellspring of our faith. The belief that we who are blind are normal human beings sets us sharply apart from other groups designed to aid the blind. We have all the typical and ordinary range of talents and techniques, attitudes and aspirations. Our underlying assumption is not-as it is with some other groups-the intrinsic helplessness and everlasting dependency of those who happen to lack sight, but rather their innate capacity to nullify and overrule this disability-to find their place in the community with the same degree of success and failure to be found among the general population. Perhaps I can best document this thesis of the normality of the blind with a random sample of the occupations represented at our national convention a year ago in San Francisco. Among the blind delegates in attendance, there were three blind physicists engaged in experimental work for the United States government. There was one blind chemist also doing experimental work for the national government. There were two university instructors of the rank of full professor, a number of other college instructors of various ranks, and several blind teachers of sighted students in primary and secondary grades in the public schools. There were thirteen lawyers, most in private practice, two employed as attorneys by the United States government, one serving as the chairman of a state public service commission, one serving as a clerk to a state chief justice. There were three chiropractors, one osteopath, ten secretaries, seventeen factory workers, one shoemaker, one cab dispatcher, one bookmender, one appliance repairman, four telephone switchboard operators, numerous businessmen in various businesses, five musicians, thirty students, many directors and workers in programs for the blind, and sixty-one housewives. At any other convention there would be nothing at all remarkable about this broad cross-section of achievement and ability; it is exactly what you would expect to find at a gathering of the American Legion or the Exalted Order of Elks, or at a town meeting in your community. Anywhere else, that is, but at a convention of the blind. It never ceases to surprise the public that a blind man may be able to hold his own in business, operate a farm successfully, argue a brief in a court of law, teach a class of sighted students, or conduct experiments in a chemistry lab. It comes as a shock to the average person to discover that the blind not only can but do perform as well as the next man in all the normal and varied callings of the community. But this shock of recognition, on the part of many people, too easily gives way to a mood of satisfaction and an attitude of complacency. After all, if the blind are so capable, so successful, and so independent, what is all the fuss about? Where is the need for all this organization and militant activity? Why can't the blind let well enough alone? These are reasonable questions, surely, and deserve a reasoned answer. I believe that the answer may best be given by reciting a list of sixteen specific events which have taken place recently in various parts of the country. The events are: 1. A blind man (incidentally a distinguished educator and citizen of his community) was denied a room in a well-known YMCA in New York City-not on the ground that his appearance betokened inability to pay, which it did not; not on the ground that he had an unsavory reputation, which he did not; not on the ground that his behavior was or was likely to be disorderly, which it was not-but on the ground that he was blind. 2. A blind man was rejected as a donor by the blood bank in his city- not on the ground that his blood was not red; not on the ground that his blood was watery, defective in corpuscles, or diseased; not on the ground that he would be physically harmed by the loss of the blood-but on the ground that he was blind. 3. A blind man (in this case a successful lawyer with an established reputation in his community) was denied the rental of a safety-deposit box by his bank-not on the ground that he was a well-known bank robber; not on the ground that he had nothing to put in it; not on the ground that he couldn't pay the rental price-but on the ground that he was blind. 4. A blind man was rejected for jury duty in a California city-not on the ground of mental incompetence; not on the ground of moral irresponsibility; not on the ground that he would not weigh the evidence impartially and come to a just verdict-but on the ground that he was blind. 5. A blind college student majoring in education was denied permission to perform practice teaching by a state university-not on the ground that her academic record was poor; not on the ground that she had not satisfied the prerequisites; not on the ground that she lacked the educational or personal qualifications--but on the ground that she was blind. 6. A blind applicant for public employment was denied consideration by a state civil service commission-not on the ground that he lacked the education or experience specifications; not on the ground that he was not of good moral character; not on the ground that he lacked the residence or citizenship requirements-but on the ground that he was blind. 7. A blind woman was refused a plane ticket by an airline-not on the ground that she couldn't pay for her ticket; not on the ground that her heart was weak and couldn't stand the excitement; not on the ground that she was a carrier of contagion-but on the ground that she was blind. 8. A blind machinist was declared ineligible for a position he had already held for five years. This declaration was the result of a routine medical examination. It came on the heels of his complete clearance and reinstatement on the job following a similar medical finding the year before. These determinations were made-not on the ground of new medical evidence showing that he was blind, for that was known all along; not on the ground that he could not do the job which he had successfully performed for five years with high ratings; not on the ground of any factor related to his employment-they were made on the ground that he was blind. 9. A blind high school student who was a duly qualified candidate for student body president was removed from the list of candidates by authority of the principal and faculty of the school-not on the ground that he was an outside infiltrator from some other school; not on the ground that he was on probation; not on the ground that he was not loyal to the principles of the United States Constitution-but on the ground that he was blind. 10. Traveler's Insurance Company, in its standard policy issued to cover trips on railroads, expressly exempts the blind from coverage-not on the ground that there is statistical or actuarial evidence that blind travelers are more prone to accident than sighted travelers are; not on the ground that suitcases or fellow passengers fall on them more often; not on the ground that trains carrying blind passengers are more likely to be wrecked unless it is the engineer who is blind-but solely on the ground of blindness. Many, if not most, other insurance companies selling other forms of insurance either will not cover the blind or increase the premium. 11. A blind man, who had been a successful justice court and police court judge in his community for eleven years, ran for the position of superior court judge in the general election of 1956. During the campaign his opponents did not argue that he was ignorant of the law and therefore incompetent; or that he had been guilty of bilking widows and orphans; or that he lacked the quality of mercy. Almost the only argument that they used against him was that he was blind. The voters, however, elected him handily. At the next session of the state legislature a bill was introduced disqualifying blind persons as judges. The organized blind of the state were able to modify this bill but not to defeat it. 12. More than sixty blind men and women-among them doctors, teachers, businessmen, and members of various professions-were recently ordered by the building and safety authority of a large city to move out of their hotel-type living quarters. This was not on the ground that they were pyromaniacs and likely to start fires; not on the ground that they were delinquent in their rent; not on the ground that they disturbed their neighbors with riotous living-but on the ground that as blind people they were subject to the code provisions regarding the "bed-ridden, ambulatory, and helpless," that anyone who is legally blind must live in an institution- type building-with all the rooms on the ground floor, with no stairs at the end of halls, with hard, fireproof furniture, with chairs and smoking- stands lined up along the wall "so they won't fall over them." 13. The education code of one of our states provides that deaf, dumb, and blind children may be sent at state expense to a school for the deaf, dumb, or blind, if they possess the following qualifications: (1) they are free from offensive or contagious diseases; (2) they have no parent, relative, guardian, or nearest friend able to pay for their education; (3) that by reason of deafness, dumbness, or blindness, they are disqualified from being taught by the ordinary process of instruction or education. 14. In a recent opinion the supreme court of one of the states held that a blind person who sought compensation for an injury due to an accident which he claimed arose out of and in the course of his employment by the state board of industries for the blind, was a ward of the state and therefore not entitled to compensation. The conception that blind shop workers are wards of the state was only overcome in another state by a recent legislative enactment. 15. A blind person, duly convicted of a felony and sentenced to a state penitentiary, was denied parole when he became eligible therefore-not on the ground that he had not served the required time; not on the ground that his prison behavior had been bad; not on the ground that he had not been rehabilitated-but on the ground that he was blind. 16. A blind man who sat down at a gambling table in Reno, where such things are legal, was denied an opportunity to play-not on the ground that he didn't know the rules of the game; not on the ground that he might cheat the dealer or the other players; not on the ground that he didn't have any money to lose-but on the ground that he was blind. These last two cases show that the blind are normal in every respect. What emerges from this set of events is the age-old stereotype of blindness as witlessness and helplessness. By virtue of this pervasive impression, a blind man is held to be incapable of weighing the evidence presented at a trial or performing the duties of a teacher. He cannot take care of himself in a room of his own and is not to be trusted on a plane. A sightless person would not know what he has put into or removed from a safety deposit box; and he has no right to employment in the public service. He must not even be permitted to continue on a job he has performed successfully for years. Even his blood cannot be given voluntarily for the common cause. Contrast these two lists-the one of the occupations represented at the NFB convention; the other of the discriminatory activities-the first is a list of accomplishments of what the blind have done and therefore can do; the second is a list of prohibitions of what the blind are thought incompetent to do and therefore are debarred from attempting. The first list refers to the physical disability of blindness. It demonstrates in graphic fashion how slight a disadvantage is the mere loss of sight to the mental capacity and vocational talent of the individual. The second list refers not to the disability but to the handicap which is imposed upon the blind by others. The origin of the disability is plainly inside the blind person. The origin and responsibility for the handicap are just as plainly outside him-in the attitudes and preconceptions of the community. Let me be very clear about this. I have no wish to minimize the character and extent of blindness as a disability. It is for all of us a constant nuisance and a serious inconvenience. To overcome it requires effort and patience and initiative and guts. It is not compensated for, despite the fairy tales to the contrary, by the spontaneous emergence of a miraculous "sixth sense" or any other magical powers. It means nothing more or less than the loss of one of the five senses and a corresponding greater reliance upon the four that remain-as well as upon the brain, the heart, and the spirit. It may be said that the discriminatory acts which I have cited, and others like them which are occurring all the time, simply do not reflect informed thought. They are occasional happenings, unpremeditated, irrational, or accidental. Surely no one would justify them; no one would say that they represent an accurate appraisal of the blind and of blindness. Well, let us see. Let us look at some pronouncements of presumably thoughtful and informed persons writing about the blind-agency heads, educators, administrators, social workers, historians, psychologists, and public officials. What do they have to say about the potentialities of the blind in terms of intellectual capacity, vocational talent, and psychological condition? What do they report concerning the prospects for social integration on the basis of normality and economic advancement on the basis of talent? First, an educator. Here are the words of a prominent authority on the education of the blind, himself for thirty years a superintendent of a school for the blind. "It is wrong to start with the school," this authority writes, "and to teach there a number of occupations that the blind can do, but to teach them out of relation to their practical and relative values. This is equivalent to attempting to create trades for the blind and then more or less angrily to demand that the world recognize the work and buy the product, whether useful or useless." More than this, it is necessary to recognize the unfitness of the blind "as a class" for any sort of competition and therefore to afford them not only protection but monopoly wherever possible. Declaring that "it must be unqualifiedly conceded that there is little in an industrial way that a blind person can do at all that cannot be done better and more expeditiously by people with sight," this expert considers that there are only two ways out: one being the extension of concessions and monopolies, and the other the designation of certain "preferred" occupations for the blind-"leaving the battle of wits only to those select few that may be considered, and determined to be, specially fit." The conclusion that employment possibilities for the blind are confined, with only negligible exceptions, to the purview of sheltered workshops is contained in this set of "facts" about the blind which the same authority asserts are "generally conceded by those who have given the subject much thought: that the handcrafts in which the blind can do first- class work are very limited in number, with basketry, weaving, knitting, broom- and brush-making, and chair caning as the most promising and most thoroughly tried out...that in these crafts the blind cannot enter into direct competition with the seeing either in the quality of product or the amount turned out in a given time...that the crafts pursued by the blind may best be carried on in special workshops under the charge of government officials or trained officers of certain benevolent associations...that among the 'higher' callings piano-tuning and massage are, under favoring conditions such as prevail for masseurs in Japan, the fields offering the greatest chance of success, while the learned professions, including teaching, are on the whole only for those of very superior talent and, more particularly, very superior courage and determination to win at all costs." Second, an historian. The basis for this assessment, and its justification, have been presented in blunt and explicit language by a well- known historian of blindness and the blind in the United States. He says, "[T]here exists in the community a body of men who, by reason of a physical defect, namely, the loss of sight, are disqualified from engaging in the regular pursuits of men and who are thus largely rendered incapable of providing for themselves independently." They are to be regarded as a "disabled and infirm fraction of the people" or, more specifically, as "sighted men in a dark room." "Rather than let them drift into absolute dependence and become a distinct burden, society is to lend an appropriate helping hand" through the creation of sheltered, publicly subsidized employment. Third, administrators. That this pessimistic appraisal of the range of talent among the blind has not been limited to the schoolmen and historians may be shown by two succinct statements from wartime pamphlets produced by the Civil Service Commission in an effort to broaden employment opportunities for the physically disabled. "The blind," it was found, "are especially proficient in manual occupations requiring a delicate sense of touch. They are well suited to jobs which are repetitious in nature." Again: "The placement of persons who are blind presents various special problems. Small groups of positions in sheltered environment, involving repetitive work, were surveyed in government establishments and were found to have placement potentialities for the blind." Such findings as these were doubtless at the base of a remark of a certain public official who wrote that: "Helping the blind has its strong appeal to the sensibilities of everyone; on the other hand, we should avoid making the public service an eleemosynary institution." Fourth, a blind agency head. The executive director of one of the largest private agencies for the blind justifies the failure of the philanthropic groups in these blunt terms: "The fact that so few workers or organizations are doing anything appreciable to [improve the condition of the blind] cannot be explained entirely on the grounds that they are not in the vanguard of social thinking. It is rather because they are realistic enough to recognize that the rank and file of blind persons have neither the exceptional urge for independence nor the personal qualifications necessary to satisfactory adjustment in the sighted world.... It is very difficult and exceptional for a blind person to be as productive as a sighted person." Fifth, a psychologist. Even plainer language-as well as more impressive jargon-has been used by another authority who is widely considered the preeminent expert in the field of blind psychology. "Until recently," he writes, "the blind and those interested in them have insisted that society revise and modify its attitude toward this specific group. Obviously, for many reasons, this is an impossibility, and effort spent on such a program is as futile as spitting into the wind.... It is extremely doubtful whether the degree of emotional maturity and social adaptability of the blind would long support and sustain any social change of attitude if it were possible to achieve it." If this is not plain enough, the writer continues: "A further confusion of attitude is found in educators and workers for the blind who try to propagandize society with the rational concept that the blind are normal individuals without vision. This desperate whistling in the dark does more damage than good. The blind perceive it as a hypocritical distortion of actual facts.... It is dodging the issue to place the responsibility on the unbelieving and nonreceptive popular attitudes.... The only true answer lies in the unfortunate circumstance that the blind share with other neurotics-the nonaggressive personality and the inability to participate fully in society.... There are two general directions for attacking such a problem, either to adjust the individual to his environment, or to rearrange the environment so that it ceases to be a difficulty to the individual. It is quite obvious that the latter program is not only inadvisable but also impossible. However, it is the attack that nearly every frustrated, maladjusted person futilely attempts." Sixth, a social worker. This sweeping negation of all attempts to modify the prejudicial attitudes of society toward the blind, however eccentric and extreme it may sound, finds strong support in the field of social casework. In areas where "such ideas remain steadfast," reads a typical report, "it is the function of the social caseworker to assist the blind person to work within these preconceived ideas. Since handicapped persons are a minority group in society, there is greater possibility of bringing about a change in an individual within a stated length of time than there is in reversing accepted concepts within the culture." The "well- adjusted blind person," it is argued, should be able to get along in this restrictive social setting, and the caseworker must concentrate on his personal adjustment since it is easier to reform the client than to reform society. Seventh, a blind philanthropist. Let me close my list of testimonials with one final citation. I think it must already be sufficiently obvious that, granting the assumptions contained in all these statements, the blind have no business organizing themselves apart from sighted supervision; that a social movement of the blind and by the blind is doomed to futility, frustration, and failure. But just in case the point is not clear enough, I offer the considered opinion of a well-known figure in the history of blind philanthropy: "It cannot, then, be through the all-blind society that the blind person finds adequate opportunity for the exercise of his leadership. The wise leader will know that the best interests of each blind person lie within the keeping of the nine hundred and ninety-nine sighted people who, with himself, make up each one thousand of any average population. He will know, further, that if he wishes to promote the interests of the blind, he must become a leader of the sighted upon whose understanding and patronage the fulfillment of these interests depends.... There is...no advantage accruing from membership in an all-blind organization which might not be acquired in greater measure through membership in a society of sighted people." What is the substance of all these damning commentaries? What are the common assumptions which underlie the attitudes of the leaders of blind philanthropy and the authorities on blind welfare? The fundamental concepts can, I think, be simply stated. First, the blind are by virtue of their defect emotionally immature if not psychologically abnormal; they are mentally inferior and narrowly circumscribed in the range of their ability- and therefore inevitably doomed to vocational monotony, economic dependence, and social isolation. Second, even if their capabilities were different, they are necessarily bound to the fixed status and subordinate role ordained by society, whose attitudes toward them are permanent and unalterable. Third, they must place their faith and trust, not in themselves and in their own organizations, but in the sighted public and most particularly in those who have appointed themselves the protectors and custodians of the blind. A few simple observations are in order. First, as to the immutability of social attitudes and discriminatory actions towards the blind, we know from intimate experience that the sighted public wishes well for the blind and that its misconceptions are rather the result of innocence and superstition than of deliberate cruelty and malice aforethought. There was a time, in the days of Rome, when blind infants were thrown to the wolves or sold into slavery. That time is no more. There was a time, in the Middle Ages, when blind beggars were the butts of amusement at country fairs, decked out in paper spectacles and donkeys' ears. That time is no more. There was a time, which still exists to a surprising extent, when the parents of a blind child regarded his disability as a divine judgment upon their own sins. But that time is now beginning to disappear, at least in the civilized world. The blind are no longer greeted by society with open hostility and frantic avoidance but with compassion and sympathy. It is true that an open heart is no guarantee of an open mind. It is true that good intentions are not enough. It is true that tolerance is a far cry from brotherhood and that protection and trusteeship are not the synonyms of equality and freedom. But the remarkable progress already made in the civilizing of brute impulses and the humanizing of social attitudes towards the blind is compelling evidence that there is nothing fixed or immutable about the social status quo for the blind and that, if the blind themselves are capable of independence and interdependence within society, society is capable of welcoming them. Our own experience as individuals and as members of the National Federation of the Blind gives support at short range to what long-range history already makes plain. We have observed and experienced the gradual breakdown of legal obstacles and prejudicial acts; we have participated in the expansion of opportunities for the blind in virtually every phase of social life and economic livelihood-in federal, state, and local civil service; in teaching and other professions; in the addition of a constructive element to public welfare. Let anyone who thinks social attitudes cannot be changed read this statement contained in a recent pamphlet of the Federal Civil Service Commission: Sometimes a mistaken notion is held that...the blind can do work only where keenness of vision is not important in the job. The truth appears to be that the blind can do work demanding different degrees of keenness of vision on the part of the sighted. If there is any difference in job proficiency related to a degree of keenness of vision required for the sighted, it is this: the blind appear to work with greater proficiency at jobs where the element is present to a noticeable extent in the sighted job than where vision is only generally useful. Second, are the blind mentally inferior, emotionally adolescent, and psychologically disturbed; or on the contrary, are they normal and capable of social and economic integration? The evidence that they are the latter can be drawn from many quarters: scientific, medical, historical, and theoretical. But the evidence which is most persuasive is that which I have already presented: it is the evidence displayed in the lives and performance of such average and ordinary blind men and women as those who attended our national convention last summer. It is the evidence of their vocational accomplishments, their personal achievements, the plain normality of their daily lives. To me their record is more than an impressive demonstration: it is a clinching rebuttal. It would, of course, be a gross exaggeration to maintain that all blind persons have surmounted their physical disability and conquered their social handicap. It is not the education of the sighted only which is needed to establish the right of the blind to equality and integration. Just as necessary is the education of the blind themselves. For the process of their rehabilitation is not ended with physical and vocational training; it is complete only when they have driven the last vestige of the public stereotype of the blind from their own minds. In this sense, and to this extent only, is it true that the blind person must "adjust" to his handicap and to society. His adjustment need not-indeed must not-mean his submission to all prevailing social norms and values. His goal is not conformity but autonomy: not acquiescence, but self-determination and self-control. From all of this it should be clear that it is a long way yet from the blind alleys of dependency and segregation to the main thoroughfares of personal independence and social integration which we have set as our goal. And I believe it is equally plain that our progress toward that goal will demand the most forceful and skillful application of all the means at our command: that is, the means of education, persuasion, demonstration, and legislation. We need the means of education to bring the public and the blind themselves to a true recognition of the nature of blindness--to tear away the fossil layers of mythology and prejudice. We need persuasion to induce employers to try us out and convince society to take us in. We need demonstration to prove our capacity and normality in every act of living and of making a living. And finally we need legislation to reform the statute books and obliterate the legal barriers which stand in the way of normal life and equal opportunity-replacing them with laws which accurately reflect the accumulated knowledge of modern science and the ethics of democratic society. This final platform in our program of equality-the platform of adequate legislation-is in many respects the most crucial and pressing of all. For until the blind are guaranteed freedom of opportunity and endeavor within the law, there can be little demonstration of their ability and little prospect of persuasion. What is needed is nothing less than a new spirit of the laws, which will uproot the discriminatory clauses and prejudicial assumptions that presently hinder the efforts of the blind toward self-advancement and self-support. The new philosophy requires that programs for the blind be founded upon the social conception of their normality and the social purpose of their reintegration into the community, with aids and services adjusted to these conceptions. These then are the objectives of the self-organized blind, goals freely chosen for them by themselves. And this is the true significance of an organization of the blind, by the blind, for the blind. For the blind the age of charity, like that of chivalry, is dead; but this is not to say that there is no place for either of these virtues. In order to achieve the equality that is their right, in order to gain the opportunity that is their due, and in order to attain the position of full membership in the community that is their goal, the blind have continuing need for the understanding and sympathy and liberality of their sighted neighbors and fellow citizens. But their overriding need is first of all for recognition- recognition of themselves as normal and of their purposes as legitimate. The greatest hope of the blind is that they may be seen as they are, not as they have been portrayed; and since they are neither wards nor children, their hope is to be not only seen but also heard-in their own accents and for whatever their cause may be worth. ---------- Settlement That May Benefit Some Monitor Readers NOTICE OF PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ATTENTION: ALL LEGALLY BLIND INDIVIDUALS WHO ATTEMPTED BUT WERE UNABLE TO ACCESS OR WHO WERE DETERRED FROM ACCESSING PRODUCTS OR SERVICES AVAILABLE AT COINSTAR KIOSKS IN ALL 50 STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA STARTING ON FEBRUARY 8, 2014, THROUGH JULY 14, 2017, EXCEPT IN CALIFORNIA WHERE THE STARTING DATE IS FEBRUARY 8, 2013. This notice is to inform you about the proposed settlement that would resolve two class action lawsuits: Nguyen v. Outerwall Inc., No. 5:16-cv- 00611-LS (E.D. Pa.) and Boyer v. Outerwall Inc., No. 2:17-cv-00853 (E.D. Pa.). The lawsuit alleges that Coinstar, LLC (fka Outerwall Inc.) violated federal law and California state law by offering services at self-service, touchscreen Coinstar kiosks that the lawsuit alleges were not independently useable by persons who are Legally Blind. Coinstar denies all liability in the case. In the proposed settlement, Coinstar will complete modification of one Coinstar Kiosk at each of its retail locations nationwide. The modifications will include ensuring a functional and tactile keypad exists on each modified Kiosk, the addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the addition of text-to-speech output via audio through the headphone jack. Further information regarding the modifications is available at www.coinstarkiosksettlement.com. If you used or attempted to use a Coinstar Kiosk in California at any point between February 8, 2013, and July 14, 2017, you may be entitled to payment of money as part of this settlement. This is because the California law allegedly violated allows for monetary payments. Depending on the number of individuals who submit a valid Claim Form, California Sub-Class Members may be eligible for up to $4,000.00 in monetary relief under the settlement. You may complete and submit a claim form on the settlement website at www.coinstarkiosksettlement.com or by requesting a Claim Form from Settlement Services Inc., the Claims Administrator, by phone, letter, fax, or email at: Nguyen v. Outerwall Inc., Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 71, Tallahassee, FL 32302-0071; Toll-Free: (855) 928-2272; Fax: (850) 385- 6008; Email: staff at settlementservicesinc.com. All claims submitted must be received by December 1, 2017. Further information regarding the California Sub-Class is available at www.coinstarkiosksettlement.com. You also have the right to object to the settlement. California Sub- Class Members also have the right to opt-out of the damages portion of the settlement only. If you do either, your documents submitted must be received by December 1, 2017. The settlement website www.coinstarkiosksettlement.com contains a more detailed notice with procedures for opting-out of the damages portion of the settlement and to objecting to the settlement, and information about other provisions of the settlement, including attorneys' fees and costs. Any questions about the settlement, including requests for documents in alternate accessible formats, should be directed to class counsel using the contact information below: Claims Administrator: Nguyen v. Outerwall Inc. Claims Administrator P.O. Box 71 Tallahassee, FL 32302 Toll-Free: (855) 928-2272 Fax: (850) 385-6008 Email: staff at settlementservicesinc.com Class Counsel: Gerald D. Wells, III Stephen E. Connolly Connolly Wells & Gray, LLP 2200 Renaissance Boulevard, Suite 275 King of Prussia, PA 19406 Telephone: (610) 822-3700 Email: gwells at cwglaw.com Email: sconnolly at cwglaw.com Class Counsel: Arkady "Eric" Rayz Kalikhman & Rayz, LLC 1051 Country Line Road, Ste. A Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Telephone: (215) 364-5030 Email: erayz at kalraylaw.com ---------- Recipes The NFB Krafters Division is an active part of the NFB. It has a very busy list (nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org) and website www.krafterskorner.org. The division holds a telephone conference chat most Monday evenings and offers several classes each month by email and telephone. Members do embroidery, knitting, crocheting, pottery, soap, latch-hook, sewing, jewelry, and more. Recently, this group exchanged recipes, and it seemed a good opportunity to share some with Monitor readers. Most are for food items, but recipes here include some items that are not for eating, as well. Large Pasta Salad by Bernice Bird This recipe is from Bernice, who lives in Rochester, New York. She stays busy with her job, crafts, and family. She says she learned basic cooking skills from a school for the blind, and her skills have evolved over the years. She enjoys sharing her recipes and dishes with friends and family. Ingredients: 1 pound spiral, corkscrew, rotini, or other pasta 8 to 12 ounces sliced pepperoni 12 to 16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese 1/2 each red, yellow, orange, and green sweet bell peppers 1/2 of a large seedless cucumber 8 ounces grape tomatoes 1 small bunch fresh broccoli 2 large carrots 1/2 Vidalia or 1 medium red onion 4 stalks celery 1 cup stuffed green or seeded black olives 1/2 cup each frozen corn and peas Dressing: 1 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 cup red wine vinegar 1 cup balsamic vinegar Juice from 1/2 lemon 2 tablespoons oregano 3 tablespoons parsley flakes 1 tablespoon rosemary 3 tablespoons basil 1 tablespoon chives 1 teaspoon black pepper 2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons onion powder 1 teaspoon savory 4 garlic cloves, crushed Method: Dressing: Make the day before. Add all ingredients together and shake or stir vigorously. Refrigerate dressing overnight and mix well before pouring over salad. Salad: Cook pasta in salted water with a little olive oil. Drain and let cool while preparing all of the other ingredients. Dice all peppers, onion, celery, and cucumber. Slice tomatoes in half. Peel carrots. After all peel is off, keep using your vegetable peeler to make thin strips of carrot. Cut broccoli florets into small pieces. Peel and dice cucumber. Make a stack of the pepperoni slices. Cut the stack into quarters; repeat until all pepperoni is cut into little wedges. Cut olives in half if desired. You can also buy a jar of already sliced green olives. If using them, drain. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, and add enough dressing to make the mixture wet with a little dressing standing. If you think you will have leftovers or if you make it a day ahead, make extra dressing because the macaroni absorbs the dressing. Of course, this only makes it more flavorful. Notes: This makes a very large bowl of salad and could be cut down a great deal. You can add any fresh or cooked vegetables to the salad you want. You could add zucchini or yellow summer squash, but I don't happen to like them. Mushrooms would be good also. Sweet pickle relish would give a slightly sweet zing to the salad. You could substitute diced chicken for the pepperoni. You could also use an Italian blend of cheeses instead of mozzarella cheese. If you don't want to make your own dressing, you could use your favorite bottled Italian dressing. ---------- Poppa Peanut's Bar-B-Q Sauce by Tanya VanHouten Tanya VanHouten lives in Lonoke, Arkansas, and is a member of the At- Large Chapter. She owns her own business and enjoys gardening, crafts, and cooking. Her family has a lot of cookouts, and her dad taught her how to make this sauce. You need to make this in a giant pot or maybe your bathtub. You could halve the recipe if you don't want such a large amount. You can also bottle it and give as gifts or make up the giant batch and grill a whole cow. Ingredients: 1 gallon Cattlemen's BBQ sauce 1 gallon ketchup 1/2 cup chili powder 1/2 cup A-1 sauce 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup dried mustard dissolved in beer 1/2 cup prepared mustard 1-1/2 cups Splenda 1/4 cup cayenne pepper 1/4 cup black pepper 1-1/2 liters Dr. Pepper 1/2 cup lemon juice Method: Combine all ingredients well. This makes a large batch, so save containers to store it. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Courtney Smith] Grape Salad by Courtney Smith Courtney Smith belongs to a chapter at large and is a Krafters Korner board member. She lives in Iuka, Mississippi, with her husband Jason and their fur baby Ranger. She enjoys cooking and crafting, with a primary focus on loom knitting. Ingredients: 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 cup sour cream 2 pounds red seedless grapes 2 pounds green seedless grapes 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 tablespoons brown sugar 3 tablespoons chopped pecans Method: Mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. Fold in grapes. Cover and refrigerate. Just before serving, sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. ---------- Fruit Compote by Courtney Smith Ingredients: 2 medium tart apples 1 teaspoon salt 12 ounces frozen or fresh cranberries 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1-1/4 cups sugar 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup golden raisins 1 teaspoon orange peel 1/4 cup orange juice 15-1/4 ounces sliced peaches, in own juice 15-1/4 ounces apricot halves, in own juice 1 cup pecans (or other nuts) Method: Peel and slice apples. Combine first nine ingredients (through orange juice) in large sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered ten minutes or until berries pop. Add peaches and apricots. Stir in pecans, heat. Serve warm or cold. Notes: I have used whole cranberry sauce, and you don't have to wait for the berries to pop. We also add one can of fruit cocktail to add more fruit. Have leftover compote? Use it to make a cobbler! Fruit Compote Cobbler by Courtney Smith Ingredients: 1 cup milk 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 stick butter 2-3 cups fruit compote Method: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in nine-by-thirteen- inch pan. Mix together milk, flour, and sugar. Add to pan over butter. Do not mix. Spoon fruit compote over milk mixture. Bake for one hour. Enjoy. ---------- Mom's Baked Beans by Pearl Thurkettle Pearl is the mother of Joyce Kane, president of the NFB Krafter's Division. Joyce has this to say about her mother and this recipe, "Mom is ninety-nine years old and turns 100 in January 2018. She has been making these baked beans for a long time. She still makes them for all our picnics and events. Although I really don't cook much, I do love her beans." Ingredients: 4 slices bacon 1/4 cup chopped onion 2 cans [16 oz. cans] Heinz vegetarian beans in tomato sauce 1/4 cup ketchup 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce dash of garlic powder Method: Saut? bacon until almost crisp; add onion, and continue to saut? until onion is tender. Drain excess fat. Mix all ingredients in baking dish. Bake uncovered in 375-degree oven for fifty to fifty-five minutes. Recipe can be doubled for a large crowd or a hungry few. ---------- Apple Cinnamon Ornaments by Terry Knox Terry Knox is a board member at Krafters Korner, and she's from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She enjoys most all crafts but specializes in designing miniatures. This craft is great to make for Christmas ornaments but also useful for Valentine's Day and other holidays. This is a craft project and not a food item. Please keep out of reach of small children, as the smell is wonderful, and children want to place them in their mouths. The glue in the ornaments makes them a non-food item. Ingredients: 1 cup applesauce 1-1/2 cups or 6 ounces of cinnamon 1/3 cup of white glue like Elmer's or craft glue Supplies: large cutting board cookie cutter of choice drinking straw rolling pin or other item to roll dough flat bowl for mixing ribbon, if using Method: Mix applesauce and cinnamon together to form a ball; use spoon or your hands. Add in your glue as you form the ball. Place in the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes. Sprinkle cutting board with some extra cinnamon and roll out the mixture. If your mixture is too dry, add more applesauce. If too wet, add more cinnamon and place in refrigerator for about five more minutes. When mixing your ball, you can add scent of lemon, vanilla, or mint to add to the smell. Roll out your mixture to one- quarter inch thick, no less as mixture will tear. Cut out ornaments using cookie cutters. Use straw to cut hole near the top; if making garland, cut two holes, one each side. Remove from cutting board and place on wire rack. Allow to dry for at least two days. While the ornaments are still damp you can write on the wet mixture by using a pointed item to inscribe letters (print or reverse Braille). You can also add things like glitter, beads, stones, and other small items of your choice to stick in the mixture. A suggestion: cut out ginger men shapes; when dry paint on eyes and buttons, and they last for years. Use the ribbon to thread through the holes so ornaments can be hung. At the end of the year, wrap in tissue paper and place in plastic bag or box; they will last until the next year. Caution: the smell might attract pests to your storage area. ---------- Relaxing Bath Salts by Nella Foster Nella Foster lives in northwest Arkansas and is a member of the At- Large Chapter. She owns and manages a small goat dairy, and in her free time she enjoys gardening, crafts, cooking, and writing. Warning: This product is only to be used on the skin and is not for human consumption. Ingredients: 1/4 cup grape seed oil 1 cup Epsom salts Note: You can add a few drops of your favorite essential oils, such as lavender, eucalyptus or peppermint. Any fragrance will work, and you can make the scent as strong or as subtle as you wish. Method: Mix all ingredients well and store in a covered container. You can put the bath salts in a pretty jar and give as gifts. ---------- Lip Fudge by Nella Foster This lip balm smells yummy and feels great on your lips too. Remember this is a cosmetic, not a food, so it should probably be kept out of the reach of small children. Ingredients: 1 ounce cocoa butter 1-1/2 tablespoons solid coconut oil 2 teaspoons grated cosmetic grade beeswax (can be purchased at drug and craft stores) 1/2 teaspoon vitamin E oil (optional) 10 chocolate chips 2 to 3 small clean containers (you can purchase containers for lip balms at craft supply stores and online.) Method: Mix all ingredients in a small glass bowl and microwave for about sixty seconds. Once everything is melted, stir to make sure the mixture is well blended, then transfer into containers. This is the hardest part because the containers are small, and the lip balm starts to firm up as it cools down. Let sit for a few hours or put into refrigerator until the lip balm is firm. You can double or triple this recipe and make as gifts. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family NFB Helps Santa Answer His Mail: Santa Claus has made the staff at the National Federation of the Blind honorary elves. He has asked us to help him send letters in Braille to very young blind boys and girls (those under the age of ten) in the United States. Between November 13 and December 15, parents can go online at www.nfb.org/santa-letters and fill out a Santa Braille Letter request form. The form can also be printed and faxed to (410) 685-2340. Beginning December 4, the Braille letters from Santa will start going out to boys and girls around the country. The Braille letter will also be accompanied by a print copy (for mom and dad to read) as well as some other fun Christmastime activities. The deadline for letter requests is December 15 to ensure that a return letter in Braille is received before Christmas. For more information, please visit our website at www.nfb.org. NFB 2018 Scholarship Program: These scholarships are for legally blind high school seniors through grad school students. The program begins November 1, 2017, and closes at midnight EST on March 31, 2018. Thirty scholarships are available ranging from $12,000 to $3,000 plus other gifts. Go to www.nfb.org/scholarships. To apply during the five-month open period: read the rules and the Submission Checklist, complete the official 2018 Scholarship Application Form (online or in print), supply all required documents, and request and complete an interview by an NFB affiliate president. Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for detailed information. Chairperson is Cayte Mendez; email scholarships at nfb.org or call (410) 659 -9314, ext. 2415, (8 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST). 2018 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards: Application materials will be available beginning November 15, 2017, and must be received electronically or postmarked by March 31, 2018. These awards (named for a pioneering blind physician who practiced in the early twentieth century and are made possible through the generosity of his late nephew and niece) recognize individuals and organizations working in the field of blindness that have demonstrated exemplary leadership and extraordinary accomplishments toward achieving the full integration of the blind into society on a basis of equality. Only individuals who are over eighteen years of age may apply for a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award. For more information, please go to https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main. National Federation of the Blind Assistive Technology Trainers Division Notes: Nancy Coffman sends us the following announcement: The National Federation of the Blind Assistive Technology Trainers Division met on Wednesday, July 12, 2017, during our annual convention. Several topics were discussed during our meeting including deciding what tasks are best suited to what devices. How can we incorporate Structured Discovery techniques into the communication technology classroom? We were pleased to hear from the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired about new video lessons available on using Voiceover on the Macintosh. We adopted a new name for the division this year since the constitution had to be reviewed and approved. It is reflected in the title of this piece. We let everyone know that by paying dues, they are invited to a members-only list. Stay tuned. Next year, we are planning to have a trainer's breakfast in addition to our meeting. Celebrate the Holiday Season with a Gift to the National Federation of the Blind: Have you received gifts from the National Federation of the Blind? Lots of us have. A mom recently thanked us for sponsoring a Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academy by sharing: Rudy and I would like to thank all that made Braille BELL Camp this Summer possible. Since Rudy does not qualify for Braille and mobility services through his school, this camp is an answer to our prayer for helping Rudy learn. There was an unfortunate conflict in planning his summer that jeopardized the chance of him attending, which caused a great deal of worry. Rudy stated, "I have to go! It helps me so much." My heart ached as I saw how much he wanted and needed the professional touch these smart teachers provided. Thankfully we were able to sort out our conflict, and he was able to attend. The relief in his eyes was enough to realize how powerfully important this week was towards supporting and educating Rudy while he learns how to read and navigate. Thank you ALL from the bottom of our hearts. Libby Houston We make dreams come true. You can help. We give people free white canes, literacy, and confidence. If you have gained from contact with the NFB or NFB members, enjoyed our publications, or participated in an academy or program, we are asking you to give back. Celebrate the holiday season by donating much needed funds. It is easy. You can mail a donation or give online. To mail your donation simply make out your check to the National Federation of the Blind. Please mail it to 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Attention: Outreach, Baltimore, MD 21230. To give online visit https://nfb.org/donate2017. Together with love, hope, and determination we will continue making dreams become reality. Webmasters Group Meets at Convention: Affiliate, division, and chapter webmasters met at the 2017 convention to discuss how to create and maintain websites that are clearly branded as part of the National Federation of the Blind. One of the issues for website developers is to use a content management system, a clever piece of software that lets someone other than the webmaster update the part of the web for which he or she is responsible. Because we know that many of our affiliates, divisions, and chapters use both Drupal and WordPress, the webmasters group is offering templates, and a training course for Drupal users was held on the last weekend in August. Our commitment is to make the same kind of quality impression when one visits our websites as we try to make when they visit our national headquarters. To be a part of the webmasters mailing list, go to www.nfbnet.org, activate the Join or Drop NFBNet Mailing Lists, and find the webmasters group. We look forward to helping you, and in turn, giving you the opportunity to help others. Elected: The Deaf-Blind Division held elections at its meeting during convention: president, Alice Eaddy (New Jersey); first vice president, Marsha Drenth (Pennsylvania); second vice president, Janice Toothman (Maryland); secretary, Danielle Burton (Kentucky); treasurer, John L. Williams (Florida); and board members Brian Norton (Florida), Mark Gasaway (Georgia), Dana Tarter (Georgia), and Robert Stigile (California). Elected: The United Blind Industrial Workers of America Division held elections at the convention with the following results: president, Sandy Halverson; first vice president, Tom Page; second vice president, Kevan Worley; recording secretary, Norma Crosby; treasurer, Kathy Tooten; one- year board members Glenn Crosby and Anitra Weber; two-year members Paul McNeal and Leonard Silkey, leaving two unfilled positions. Elected: The following members were elected to the board of the National Association of Blind Lawyers at the 2017 National Convention: president, Scott LaBarre; first vice president, Ronza Othman; second vice president, Timothy Elder; secretary, Ray Wayne; treasurer, Larry Povinelli; and board members Noel Nightingale, Denise Avant, Anthony Thomas, Randy Farber, Jackson Walker, Deepa Goraya, and Al Elia. Elected: The National Federation of the Blind Assistive Technology Trainer's Division elected the following officers and board members during the 2017 National Convention: president, Nancy Coffman; vice president, Chancey Fleet; secretary, Chip Johnson; treasurer, Jeanine Lineback; and board members Wesley Majerus, Amy Ruell, and Jim Portillo. Elected: The Human Services Division held elections, the results are as follows: president, Candice Chapman; first vice president, Jonathan Franks; second vice president, Tabea Meyer; secretary, Jessica Snyder; treasurer, Merry Schoch; and board members Dezman Jackson and Nooria Nodrat. Elected: After elections at the convention, the board of directors of the National Association of Guide Dog Users is as follows: president, Marion Gwizdala; vice president, Michael Hingson; treasurer, Linda O'Connell; secretary, Sherrill O'Brien; and board members Aleeha Dudley, Raul Gallegos, and Jessica Snyder. Elected: The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children would like to present the 2017/18 NOPBC board of directors elected during the 2017 National Convention: president, Kim Cunningham (TX); first vice president, Laura Bostick (LA); second vice president, Holly Miller (NJ); secretary, Penny Duffy (NH); treasurer, Sandra Oliver (TX); board members Carol Castellano (NJ); Pamela Gebert (AK), Jean Fultz (NY), Carol Akers (OH), Melissa Riccobono (MD), Jean Bening (MN), Kimberly Banks (FL), Corbb O'Connor (MN), Tabby Mitchell (VA), and Carlton Walker (PA). Elected: The National Organization of Professionals in Blindness Education Division election results are as follows: president, Eric Guillory; first vice president, Denise Mackenstadt; second vice president, Jackie Anderson; secretary, Emily Gibbs; treasurer, Krystal Guillory; and board members Michell Gip, Shannon Kemlo, Casey Robertson, and Carlton Walker. Elected: The following were elected during the meeting of the Science and Engineering Division on July 12, 2017: president, John Miller; vice president, Ashley Neybert; secretary, Louis Maher; treasurer, Alfred Maneki; board members Donna Posont and Kristen Johnson. Elected: The results of the election held by the Sports and Recreation Division are as follows: president, Jessica Beecham; vice president, Audrey Farnum; secretary, Lisamaria Martinez; treasurer, Danielle Fernandez- Frampton; board members Roland Allen, Mike Armstrong, Maureen Nietfeld, Amber Sherrard, and Cathy Tuton. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. New Brailler Repair Business: The Chesapeake Brailler Service run by Steve Bishop in central Maryland is open and looking forward to serving the NFB community. Our family is active with the Maryland Parents of Blind Children. We work on all models of the classic Perkins Brailler (regular, large cell, light touch, and electric). Our basic service fee is $100; this includes a thorough cleaning and any adjustments needed to return the machine to factory specs. Repairs may incur additional charges. Find us on Facebook at Chesapeake Brailler Service. You can call us at (410) 315-9664 (voice only) or email at chesapeakebrailler at gmail.com. If you have any questions, please contact me by phone or email. Thank you for helping me get the word out about my new business. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Wed Nov 22 11:54:11 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2017 11:54:11 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, November 2017 Message-ID: <201711221954.vAMJsB63018672@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 10 November 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. Vol. 60, No. 10 November 2017 Contents Illustration: Jernigan Institute Hosts South Baltimore Public Safety Forum Autonomous Vehicles and Freedom for the Blind by Mark Riccobono Let's Unlock the Untapped Potential among Millions of Disabled People by Representative Gregg Harper There is a List for That! by David Andrews Worldwide Excellence in Travel: Accessibility in Partnership with the Blind by Bhala Dalvi Teachers' Talk: What It's Really Like to Teach a Blind Student by Melissa Riccobono Celebrate the Holiday Season with a Gift to the National Federation of the Blind Braille: One of Chris Parson's Twenty-First Century Skills by Dan Burke Sharp Elbows, Sharper Thoughts by Ryan Strunk The 2018 Washington Seminar is Coming Sooner Than You Think by Diane McGeorge The Truth about Diversity in Hollywood by Precious Perez A Serious Danger for Blind Vendors by Nicky Gacos Touching Imagination: Unlocking the Creativity of Blind Artists by Ann Cunningham Always Believing by Justin Salisbury Rotary Gives Ed McDonald "Service Above Self" Award by Jean Braithwaite >From Knowledge to Power: A Report on Advocacy and Policy Programs of the National Federation of the Blind by John Par? Flash Cards Anytime, Anyplace with Math Flash by Laura Zierer Accessibly Cutting the Cord: Watching TV Without a Cable Subscription by Karl Belanger The Future of Equal Access to Technology: A Commitment to the Journey at Microsoft by Jenny Lay-Flurrie Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein Recipes..................................................................... ...................................... Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: The panel on stage. From L to R: BPD Southern District Major Steve Ward, BPD Commissioner Kevin Davis, Mayor Catherine Pugh, City Council President Jack Young, State's Attorney for Baltimore City Marilyn Mosby, and State's Attorney's Office Chief of Juvenile Division Gavin Pataschnick.] [PHOTO CAPTION: NFBJI Executive Director Anil Lewis, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and NFB President Mark Riccobono.] [PHOTO CAPTION: NFBJI Executive Director Anil Lewis and City Council President Jack Young. President Young is holding Anil's cane.] [PHOTO CAPTION: NFB President Mark Riccobono and City Council President Jack Young.] Jernigan Institute Hosts South Baltimore Public Safety Forum On Monday, September 18, the South Baltimore Public Safety Forum was held in Members Hall at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. We were honored to act as the host for this event because we know that to do so increases our visibility in the community, acknowledges that we are a part of this community and are therefore concerned about the welfare of its members, and gives us a chance to meet and develop meaningful relationships with community leaders. The panel included Mayor Catherine Pugh, City Council President Jack Young, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore Police Department (BPD) Commissioner Kevin Davis, BPD Southern District Major Steve Ward, and State's Attorney's Office Chief of Juvenile Division Gavin Pataschnick. The forum was organized by City Councilman Eric Costello, the representative for the city's eleventh district, which is home to NFB headquarters. Approximately 350 community residents were in attendance. [PHOTO CAPTION: President Riccobono stands at a podium while Secretary Chao and University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel sit off to the side.] Autonomous Vehicles and Freedom for the Blind An Address delivered by President Mark Riccobono September 12, 2017 From the Editor: On September 12, 2017, President Riccobono attended a Vision for Safety event held by the US Department of Transportation where Secretary Elaine Chao announced new guidelines for autonomous vehicles. It is amazing to see how quickly these vehicles are moving from science fiction to science laboratories to roads and highways. Below are the remarks President Riccobono made to those who will work with us in shaping the vehicles of the future so that we may use them: Madam Secretary and other distinguished guests, it is my honor to be here today to emphasize the important opportunities that automated vehicles present to all citizens of this great nation and, most specifically, about the increased independence and freedom that the seven million blind Americans will experience from this innovation. Equal access to reliable, affordable, flexible, and barrier-free transportation is one of the most significant obstacles preventing people with disabilities, representing one out of every five Americans, from fully contributing their talents and achieving full integration in our communities. The race to bring fully autonomous vehicles to America's road brings an unprecedented opportunity to ensure equal access for people with disabilities. Driving has always required vision, but only because we have not imagined and built transportation systems differently. In a society where everyone uses the power of automation to travel, we should build vehicles without the artificial barriers of the past. With this opportunity comes great responsibility to include everyone in the design of our future transportation systems. Imagine what will result from better utilizing the capacity and talent of those who are not today in the class of drivers. As President of the National Federation of the Blind, I have been invited to sit at the table with automobile manufacturers, technology developers, systems researchers, and policymakers. The increasing recognition of the important role that people with disabilities play in the automation of vehicles and the design of future transportation systems gives me confidence that our nation will lead the way in maximizing the benefits to society that these vehicles have the promise of delivering. With the development and implementation of automated vehicles, we have the opportunity and responsibility to begin with the prospect that everything is possible and then work together to make that future a reality. We appreciate that Secretary Chao and other champions for automated vehicles have made equal access for people with disabilities a top priority, and we welcome the increased freedom and independence that will come with the innovations that result. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Representative Gregg Harper] Let's Unlock the Untapped Potential among Millions of Disabled People by Representative Gregg Harper From the Editor: This article first appeared in The Hill on September 11, 2017, and can be found in the newspaper's online version at http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/labor/350125-lets-unlock-the- untapped-potential-among-millions-of-disabled. Its author is our friend Representative Gregg Harper, and we couldn't ask for a better ally to see that blind people are paid a fair wage for a fair day's work. Here is the wonderful article he penned: It seems that the more time passes, the faster time flies. It feels like just yesterday that my wife Sidney and I were bringing home our daughter Maggie from the hospital, and then a few years later, our son Livingston. Through our time as parents, Sidney and I have made it a priority to teach our children the value of hard work, and we feel strongly that time spent on hard work should be valued and appreciated. It has been our privilege to watch Livingston, now twenty-eight, learn that appreciation for hard work and persevere despite being diagnosed with an intellectual disability known as Fragile X Syndrome. Through his hard work, Livingston became one of the first graduates of Mississippi State University's Access Program for students with intellectual disabilities and now is a dedicated part-time employee at Primo's Caf? near our home in Mississippi. Livingston is loved at work for his positive attitude and appreciated for his commitment and enthusiasm. There are many Americans across the country who are dedicated contributors to the workforce despite having disabilities. Unfortunately, under current law, these hard-working men and women can be paid less than the lowest legal wage because of their disabilities. This policy is based on a Depression-era mentality embodying low expectations for people with disabilities; however, I know from personal experience that, if given the chance to contribute, many Americans with disabilities want to and will help to provide for themselves. That is why I am proud to have introduced the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act earlier this year. This bill would eliminate an antiquated provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows the Department of Labor to issue special certificates to employers so they can pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. When this program was created in 1938, it was an exercise in charity. Today it is paternalistic and costly, while failing in its goal of improving economic freedom and employment for Americans with disabilities. The TIME Act will responsibly phase out and repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act without raising the minimum wage. The original intent of this provision was to incentivize businesses to hire veterans with disabilities after World War I, but it has failed to achieve this outcome. Rather than increasing the number of workers with disabilities in integrated, community-based jobs at competitive wages, the exemption has stimulated an explosion of nonprofit entities that receive government money, preferential government contracts, and even charitable contributions. While they may have good intentions, in reality their business models hold Americans with disabilities back. Nonprofit entities with special wage certificates usually isolate people with disabilities in what are known as "sheltered workshops," where they are hidden from the rest of society and usually perform menial jobs that are not available in the competitive economy. Proponents of the sheltered workshop model often argue that these programs offer workers with disabilities the opportunity to learn valuable skills and move on to more competitive and better-paying work. However, research reveals that 95 percent of all workers who start out in sheltered workshops never leave. Additionally, people with disabilities still experience extremely low levels of employment and excessive dependency on government assistance, meaning the program is failing in its purported goals. Research shows that the sheltered workshop model costs more, despite paying disabled workers less than the minimum wage, but produces less than investments in customized or supported employment in integrated settings. Worse, people with disabilities have to break bad habits they learned in sheltered workshops. This means subminimum wage employment is more than just a step in the wrong direction-it's two steps back for people with disabilities. It's time to abandon this broken system. As a committed conservative, I believe firmly in the rule of law and in the notion that we are all equal in the eyes of the law. Section 14(c) enshrines the idea that those with disabilities are unequal under the law and dooms them to a fate of menial and unfulfilling work for the rest of their lives. The current policy also guarantees that Americans with disabilities will remain dependent on government assistance from programs such as Supplemental Security Income and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. These programs are designed to provide for those in extreme poverty; work is supposed to relieve such poverty. Furthermore, taxpayers also have to pay the costs incurred by the Department of Labor to make sure that subminimum-wage employers are complying with the complex rules that govern the special certificate program. It has been my pleasure to represent the people of the Third District of Mississippi since 2009 and to advance conservative policies and values while doing so. There is no more conservative value than to insist that all people have the opportunity to work hard, compete, and succeed in the marketplace on the same terms as everyone else. The TIME Act would not only achieve this objective; it would unlock currently untapped human potential among the millions of disabled people who want to work and compete for good jobs, reduce their reliance on government assistance, and shrink the size of the federal government. This issue goes to the heart of what it means to pursue personal and economic freedom and to achieve the American dream. Section 14(c) stands in the way of allowing many, just like Livingston, to do that and therefore should be responsibly phased out by passing the TIME Act. With a national employment rate of just 35.2 percent for the disabled, it's clear that the current model is broken. Our disabled Americans should have the opportunity to earn the same wages as their colleagues. Now is the time to act. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: David Andrews] There is a List for That! by David Andrews This month we will continue our monthly column exploring internet mailing lists with student-related offerings. All of these are meant to be helpful and to add another resource to your vast list when someone asks you, "Where can I find out more about this or that?" The main list for students is the NABS-L list. It is one of our oldest and busiest lists. It provides students of all ages with valuable information, support, and ideas. You can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org or you can also subscribe by sending an email to nabs-l-request at nfbnet.org and put the word "subscribe" on the subject line by itself. The list contains both announcements and discussions of interest to students. Quite a number of state affiliates have their own local student divisions with their own lists. Below are the state name and the list name for each. To subscribe, substitute the list name in the command above for the nabs-l phrase. For example, to subscribe to the Alabama students list you would use the URL http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/aabs- forum_nfbnet.org or send an email to aabs-forum-request at nfbnet.org and put the word subscribe by itself on the subject line. Alabama: aabs-forum Arizona: Arizona-students Arkansas: arkabs California: cabs-talk Colorado: cabs Connecticut: ctabs Florida: fabs Georgia: gabs Illinois: iabs-talk International: blind-international-students Iowa: nfb-iowa-students Kansas: kansas-blind-students Kentucky: nfbkabs Louisiana: labs Massachusetts: massabs Maryland: mdabs Michigan: mi-abs Minnesota: mn-abs Missouri: mabs North Carolina: ncabs Nebraska: nebraska-students New Hampshire: new-hampshire-students New Jersey: njabs-talk New Mexico: nmabs New York: nyabs Ohio: oabs Pennsylvania: pabs Tennessee: tabs Texas: txabs Utah: uabs Virginia: vabs Washington: nfbwa-students West Virginia: nfbwvabs Wisconsin: wabs Next month we will tell you about lists for seniors. As always, you can find all NFBNET.ORG-related lists at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Bhala Dalvi] Worldwide Excellence in Travel: Accessibility in Partnership with the Blind by Bhala Dalvi From the Editor: Bhala Dalvi is the vice president of technology and the executive sponsor of accessibility at Expedia Inc. located in Bellevue, Washington. His was one of the more moving presentations at the 2017 National Convention because it was so clearly motivated by sincerity, enthusiasm, and the pride that comes with success. Part of what made it wonderful was the humility surrounding what Expedia has done, its willingness to share it with other industry-leading companies, and its absolute commitment to emphasize the importance of working with the National Federation of the Blind to achieve accessibility-not after it is needed, but before. Here are remarks that, while they are somewhat technical, clearly indicate what can be done with commitment, a willingness to learn, and a willingness to be a great corporate citizen: Thank you for that gracious introduction, Mr. Riccobono. I'm honored to be at the NFB convention and excited to talk about Expedia's journey to accessibility. First of all, we have good news! I'm happy to share that as of June twenty-ninth, our brand-new Expedia webpages for booking a hotel, flight, cars, or other travel itineraries have been handed off to the NFB for its final feedback. We want to thank the NFB for helping Expedia be the best example of an accessible travel website. I am also proud of all the hard work and effort that our teams put in for the last four-plus years to make this happen. I will tell you how we got here. But before I do that, I want to spend a few minutes to talk about why we invested in this space. Why make our site accessible? When Travelocity became part of the Expedia family, we came to know that Travelocity had an existing contract with NFB. We were interested in understanding how Expedia stacked up, so we invited President Riccobono and Anne Taylor, director of access technology at NFB to visit our Bellevue headquarters. And, let me tell you, that first conversation was uncomfortable for us. We had completed a regular assessment of our site and found we were 50 percent compliant, and we felt good heading into the meeting. But Anne did a live demo of using our website to our leadership team. During the demo, Anne could not even get past the home page! It was clear that even if we had 90 percent compliance, if a legally blind person gets stuck somewhere in the path and cannot complete their booking, that score is of no use. We need to make the full path compliant to be truly accessible. Our leadership team felt strongly that we did not just want to follow the letter of the law. We wanted to go deeper and make our website inclusive to users with the diverse set of abilities. We want to invest in "doing the right thing." As my favorite author Simon Sinek says, "When there is clarity on 'why,' it inspires everyone to take action!" We chose to push ourselves to think outside the box and deliver an innovative, accessible experience. Now comes the part where the rubber hits the road. We operate more than 200 websites and 150-plus mobile apps in forty-plus languages worldwide. We have over 5,500 technologists working in twenty-plus major offices around the world. We needed to weave accessibility through not only our products but the people and the technologies used to build these global products. Fortunately, we have done similar broad changes across our site, and we have a playbook to make these kinds of changes. We started by hiring an experienced accessibility resource on the team. The focus was on two things: 1) Build the knowledge base. Create a library of documentation and training material that we can share with the rest of the organization. 2) Conduct an assessment of our hotel shopping and booking path for accessibility. This would give us an idea of the size of the challenge ahead of us. Throughout different phases of our accessibility journey, we built a strong partnership with NFB. We sought input, guidance, and expertise from the NFB team. Their support was invaluable and shaped our thinking throughout our journey. The first area we decided to focus on making accessible was our hotel path. Initially we thought accessibility was all about testing. We believed everything would be caught by the testers at the end of the product lifecycle, and we focused most of our energy and training on testing. We quickly learned that finding issues during testing was way too late. We were forced to slip dates due to refactoring of code or necessary design changes because too many issues surfaced. Lesson one-retrofitting code and making it accessible is hard! Accessibility must start from initial product inception and has to be top of mind throughout the entire development lifecycle with each of the product disciplines responsible for their key pieces. Along the way, as we got a better sense of the scope, we realized we needed more than a one-person team if we were to be successful. We added a talented group of subject matter experts who we formed into the Accessibility Team. These folks continue to look for ways to serve the product, user experience, and engineering teams and help them be successful. Having a small accessibility team of experts is a great start. But they won't be able to make our massive website accessible by themselves. We needed a larger organization to align with the goal and drive this massive effort. We needed to make accessibility part of our engineering culture. We formed a small grassroots effort within Expedia called Accessibility Champions Network. The champion network is a group of advocates within the engineering, product, and UX [user experience] teams. They help incorporate accessibility throughout the product cycle. They aim to implement accessibility early and eliminate costly retrofitting. The Champions owned accessibility within their team but are supported by the central accessibility team through training, tools, networking, and other resources. This group rallied for accessibility day-in and day-out. Making our entire website accessible one page at a time would be costly and time-consuming. Fortunately for us, we had been building our website using the UI component library. A dedicated team is responsible for building and maintaining this component library. This team took on the challenge of updating the library components and making them accessible. This meant that the rest of the teams were able to move quickly and to easily make their pages accessible because they were able to benefit from a library of accessible components. I can't emphasize the importance of the UI component library in our success. I want to share a quick story here. We had Amy Mason, our NFB contact, join us for GAAD [Global Accessibility Awareness Day] last year. We had her sit down and give us feedback. Our engineers were able to incorporate feedback real-time into library component(s). She loved it! She was truly impressed how quickly we were able to make changes, and we loved being able to get additional real-world feedback. Our passionate accessibility team identified and leveraged every opportunity possible to create awareness on the subject of accessibility across the organization. This was super important in developing our accessibility culture. I want to share a couple of examples here. We have an internal forum called product review. This is open to anyone in the company to attend. Everyone from our CEO Dara to the engineers working on our products attends the product review. We were lucky to have a blind employee demo the changes we made to the site. This was very powerful in creating awareness at every level in the organization-we needed both to continue improving as well as demonstrating the progress we had achieved. Here is another example of communication about this initiative. We host internal and external hackathons as part of our efforts to foster innovation. Last year we invited engineers from the Seattle-area tech community to join and had a special prize to give to a hacking team that built an accessible travel experience during the event. The special prize we supported during this hackathon was a big hit and really shed some light on users with disabilities outside of our company. Most folks didn't know Expedia had an accessibility program, but all of them were really excited about our inclusivity; many didn't understand screen readers or that people with visual impairments could even use the internet. It was really empowering for our team to represent those with disabilities as well as be on the other side of the fence after they had been fixing bugs for so long. It was a great opportunity for generating innovative accessibility ideas. There is an important lesson for others embarking on this journey. Accessibility needs to be top-down and bottom-up. We needed leadership support to ensure it was a priority, but we also needed the folks doing the day-to-day work to "get it" and be able to speak to the need among their peers. As I said earlier, when the organization "gets it," it helps shape the culture. In addition to getting a broader alignment and getting teams excited, we also invested in building an in-house accessibility testing lab. This lab included hardware, software, and documentation necessary to provide easy testing opportunities for designers, developers, and testers, including a dedicated screen reader testing machine. In my experience, cross-cutting changes of such a huge magnitude always have some side effects! Sometimes they are good and at other times, not so much. I am happy to share that the side effects of accessibility were all good. We found that making the components and pages accessible always had a positive impact on the usability for all users. We ran into serious challenges making mobile date picker accessible. This forced us to dig deeper in our design and implementation. But the end result was a date picker component that is much easier to use for all users. Another side effect of implementing accessibility was the improvement in overall quality of our code. Accessibility forced us to simplify the designs, ensure important attributes are always present, etc. and all of these lead to a better-quality product. Ask any seasoned engineer and they will tell you that simple is always easy to maintain! In summary, in my mind, three things made our journey successful. 1) A Clear "why;" 2) Making accessibility an integral part of our product development lifecycle; and 3) Creating an environment and culture to support the accessibility we were determined to bring to our product. Now that we have made our website accessible in this way, what is next? As we look to the future, we would love to share our learning and make it a little bit easier for others embarking on the journey of accessibility and inclusion. One way we are doing this is by sending our team to attend and present at relevant conferences. We are also doing presentations at some of the local code academies, just another example of how we are extending our hand in helping to proliferate accessibility throughout the industry and potentially influencing technology curriculums. In addition to making our website accessible, we are trying to integrate what we have learned to make our workplace more accessible. We want to make it easy for individuals with disabilities to join our workforce. I attended an all-day meeting earlier this week. Our president prepared a document to kick off this meeting, and he used images in this document. Our head of HR challenged him and asked him to include alt text in the slide to make sure the document was accessible. While we did not have any attendees with a disability, the point was, doing the right thing does not need to wait for it. It starts with everyone taking small steps. We know this is a long journey, but we know if we maintain our resolve and take one step at a time, we will make it happen. In closing I want to thank all of you for your valuable time. Last but not least, I want to thank the NFB for your continued partnership and support. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Elizabeth, Melissa, and Oriana Riccobono] [PHOTO CAPTION: Serena Harris] [PHOTO CAPTION: Laura Koler] Teachers' Talk: What It's Really Like to Teach a Blind Student by Melissa Riccobono From the Editor: Melissa Riccobono has one of the most demanding jobs there is in the National Federation of the Blind. She is the wife of our President, the mother of three children, a primary mover in our effort to sponsor programs for blind parents, and the cohost of our Nation's Blind Podcast. Recently she went to a teachers' meeting, one which she called, and her request was that two teachers who have worked with Oriana and Elizabeth be interviewed to determine how they found teaching a blind student. The interviews she conducted were featured in several podcasts, and Melissa has transcribed and rearranged materials so that they may be enjoyed in written form. Here is the first in what we hope will be several articles from her on the subjects of parenting and teaching: Imagine yourself as a teacher in a public school. Perhaps you are a relatively new teacher, or perhaps you are a more experienced teacher. As you prepare for the start of a new school year, you learn you will have a student who is blind in your classroom. What if you have no or limited knowledge of blindness? What are your fears? What are your questions? And what will you learn from your blind student if you take on the challenge of teaching her with an open mind, high expectations, and a positive attitude? Serena Harris and Laura Koler are teachers. They work at Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore, Maryland. Serena teaches first grade, and Laura teaches pre-K. Laura is a relatively new teacher, while Serena has been teaching for well over a decade. Besides the obvious-both being teachers and both teaching at the same school-Serena and Laura have something else in common. They both taught students who happen to be blind during the 2016-17 school year. Serena taught my daughter Oriana, and Laura taught my daughter Elizabeth. This past April, I had the opportunity to sit down with both Serena and Laura to interview them for bonus episodes of the Nation's Blind Podcast. I knew teachers often have questions when they find out they are going to teach students who are blind, and I thought both ladies would have some great information and insights to share. I was certainly correct. And, what I love best about both interviews is the fact that Serena and Laura, without being coached by me in any way, and without consulting with one another about what they were going to say, came to the same conclusions. Yes, they had questions and concerns in the beginning. Yes, having a blind student in their classroom changed some of the ways they taught all of their students. But, both Serena and Laura came to see advantages for all of their students when they changed their teaching to accommodate Oriana's and Elizabeth's needs. Below are major portions of the interviews I conducted with Serena and Laura for the Nation's Blind Podcast. I have quoted them directly whenever possible. I have put some words in brackets to add clarity to their comments, and I have paraphrased some of what they said in order to save space. If you'd like to hear both interviews in their entirety, search for bonus episode one and two of the Nation's Blind Podcast. Melissa Riccobono: Think back to the beginning of the school year when you found out you were going to have a student with a visual impairment in your class. What concerns, if any, did you have? What things did you do initially to address these concerns? Laura Koler: I remember my first thought was that I didn't know anything about Braille, and I thought, oh my goodness, how am I going to teach Elizabeth if I don't know anything about Braille. I also worried about the layout and size of my classroom. We have a tiny space for twenty- three kids, there's a lot of furniture, it's very divided, and it's a bit like a maze. So I worried that it might be difficult to navigate. I also worried that a lot of my instruction is very visual. In pre-k classrooms they say "Have a print-rich environment. Have pictures everywhere." There's a lot of emphasis on visual instruction at a young age. When I read books to the class, I have them make predictions based on the pictures they see. When we go to the park for science, I ask lots of "what do you see" questions. So I had a lot of thoughts about how I could adjust my teaching to have it not be so visually based. Serena Harris: I was very concerned because I had never had a blind student in my class before. I didn't know what accommodations or supports to give her. I was concerned with how she would fit in with the rest of the students in class. Another concern I had was what types of accommodations I would need to make for her so that she could learn and not feel singled out or different. Melissa Riccobono: What things did you do initially to address these concerns? Laura Koler: I was really lucky that I have a teammate who taught Elizabeth's older sister Oriana in the past. So I was able to go to her for some guidance about what she had done. Also, I was very lucky to meet both you and Mark at the family picnic before the school year started. It was great to be able to talk with both of you before the year began to see if there was anything I needed to change in my classroom. Serena Harris: I talked to Oriana's kindergarten teacher and asked her advice on strategies that she used in kindergarten that I could carry on to first grade. I also spoke with the two teachers [one teacher of blind students and one paraprofessional] who support Oriana in class about how we could work together to support Oriana. Melissa Riccobono: Now that you have taught a blind student for almost an entire school year, what things have been easier than you expected? Laura Koler: I realized I did not have to adjust my teaching as much as I thought I would. I was already doing things along with the visual presentations, and I just had to become more conscious of doing them all the time. For example, giving a verbal description of any visual I present. If I'm showing the front cover of a book, I discuss in detail what I see on the cover, and this kind of think aloud is great for my whole class, not just Elizabeth. The class gets to see me describe the details I see. That helps them build their vocabulary and helps them dive deeper into a book as well. At the beginning of the year, I modeled how to do this describing, but now toward the end of the year [Elizabeth's classmates] have taken over this role. It's great because sometimes they see things that I didn't even notice. They are definitely more purposeful about how they look at illustrations in a book because of how much I've modeled [described] what I see. In addition to describing visuals, I've also purposely tried to do hands-on tactile experiences. We learn a lot about what [print] letters and numbers look like, and how they are written. So this year we have done a lot of Play-Doh tracing and worked with Wikki Stix on top [of the print] so there's a tactile component along with the visual. I know this benefits Elizabeth, but it also benefits the whole class. All the different ways you can introduce information helps kids build stronger connections, and they learn more. Serena Harris: One of the things that has been easier than I expected, and I guess it's a strength of our school, is that many of the students were already familiar with Oriana. They knew she had special circumstances, and they were willing to help her. So I didn't have to worry about children teasing her or her being isolated. Oriana's teacher of blind students also helped guide me on what I could do to support Oriana in class. It was a lot easier to help Oriana integrate Braille writing and reading into her class work than I thought it would be. It was also helpful learning from her O&M teacher; this helped me understand more about Oriana's particular blindness and things that I could do such as dimming the lights [to help her eyes be more comfortable]. Speaking with her O&M teacher also helped me understand the importance of making sure Oriana always has her cane with her. Melissa Riccobono: Are there any things which are still difficult for you while teaching Oriana/Elizabeth due to their blindness only? Laura Koler: The only time when things are a little difficult is during our message time. I try to write my print as largely as I can, but sometimes it's still too small for Elizabeth, even though she sits at the front of the room. So this is an opportunity for her to come up closer [to the board] to look for letters and words that she knows. Serena Harris: It takes a lot of planning to make sure I have all of Oriana's materials she needs in Braille so she can access them. This actually makes me a better teacher because I am overly planned. But I really needed to be organized. This is not so much a difficulty, but it definitely was a challenge for me to become more organized. Melissa Riccobono: Has anything surprised you about having a student who is blind? Laura Koler: Elizabeth learns just like any other student. I just had to be more purposeful in what I was doing in the classroom. I didn't have to make any drastic changes to my instruction. I had to think, "When I'm doing this lesson, is it really going to reach all of my kids?" Also, this isn't so much a surprise, but my class really cares about one another and looks out for one another. They care about and look out for Elizabeth too. So if she leaves her cane somewhere, someone will bring it to her. Having Elizabeth has also helped me stay more organized. Needing to have Elizabeth's homework Brailled helps me prepare homework in a more timely fashion. Serena Harris: What's surprised me is that the other kids are really excited about having Oriana in class. They want to learn Braille too. I can see them identifying things in our community that are Braille as well. It's definitely been a great learning experience for the entire class, as they are more aware of how blind people navigate through our world. Melissa Riccobono: What techniques, if any, have you developed this year while teaching Oriana/Elizabeth that have enhanced your teaching in general? Or, what techniques were you using already which have worked especially well for teaching Oriana/Elizabeth? Laura Koler: I am lucky because in early childhood instruction it is very whole body. So my suggestion for other teachers who teach older grades would be to look to some of those early childhood ways of teaching, where you do things by looking, moving your body, touching things, and interacting with them. I think all of those strategies have really been useful. Serena Harris: I have realized not to just make my lessons visual. I have incorporated arts and crafts and more music and sound. I realized a lot of the things I was doing were very visually based. Making sure I can appeal to all learning modalities has been good for all of the kids. We sit in class with the lights off a lot to help with Oriana's eyes, but I realized that it's good for all of the kids because the overhead light is really bright. I've noticed that with more breaks, more types of movement in the class, that I have fewer kids who complain about having headaches or being tired. Originally I was doing these things specifically for Oriana, but they are benefiting other students as well. These are things I am definitely going to continue in my class. Melissa Riccobono: What resources, if any, have you found helpful? Laura Koler: Talking to you and Mark at the beginning of the year was a great resource. I was also fortunate to have Elizabeth's IEP meeting at the beginning of the year. Meeting with that team early gave me a lot of strategies and helped explain the accommodations in Elizabeth's IEP. Also our class got to go to the National Federation of the Blind at the beginning of the school year, and that was an amazing experience. And, before the trip, you came and amazed my class by reading Pete the Cat in Braille, and you shared your dog, which was a great learning experience for the kids. This helped Elizabeth gain confidence in the classroom because she saw that her peers liked and were interested in what she was going to be doing to learn. These experiences have helped all of the kids gain knowledge about people who are different from them, which is what we try to teach them. I would definitely recommend that other teachers visit the National Federation of the Blind either by themselves or with their students because it is a great resource. Melissa Riccobono: What information do you wish you had earlier in the year, or what information are you still seeking? Laura Koler: At the beginning of the year, I knew that Elizabeth had a visual impairment, but I didn't have the details about what her eye condition was. I wish I had asked more questions, but I don't think I knew then the questions to ask. Learning about how she adjusts to light has been really helpful and is something I wish I had known at the beginning of the year. I also wish I had known more about proper cane technique. Since the professional development [on proper cane use] I've been able to reinforce her cane use more, and I can see her becoming more confident as she uses it. Serena Harris: I wish I had known more at the beginning of the year about how to incorporate Braille reading and writing [more seamlessly into the classroom.] At the same time, I wonder if that's something I just had to learn on the job as I got to know Oriana better. I wish I had access to resources before [the first day of school.] It would have been helpful to know what resources were available to work with so I could have planned lessons with those resources in mind, instead of getting them later in the year. I wish there would have been a simple list of accommodations and supports for Oriana so I could have looked at the list and checked off all of the things I was doing to help her. This would have helped me feel that I wasn't putting together this little box of tricks on the go. For next year, I am compiling a list of things that have worked well [for Oriana] so I can give it to the second grade teachers. Melissa Riccobono: What advice do you have for a regular education teacher who will have a blind student in his or her classroom? Laura Koler: Don't be afraid to ask questions. Make sure you take the time to talk with the family and the IEP team to get as many details as you can that can help you. Using resources that are given to you can really help in the classroom. Serena Harris: It's not scary; I thought it would be scary. Speak with the parents, speak with the child, and speak with the other teachers who will also be working with the student so you are forming a team that is working together. Be aware that children need to touch things, hear things, to add to their learning experience. Melissa Riccobono: What advice do you have for parents of blind children? Are there things parents can do to help support a teacher and his or her child in school? Laura Koler: I think on the initial IEP parents should make sure to request enough consultation time between a teacher of blind students and the classroom teacher. Elizabeth's teacher of blind students and I try to meet in order to consult, but she and I have different schedules, so our free time does not always match. If consultation time is down on paper, then it has to happen. Serena Harris: Parents should establish a relationship with the teacher. Open lines of communication make everything easier. Melissa Riccobono: Is there anything else you would like to share? Serena Harris: The thing that's been most helpful for me has been forming a team with everyone who works with Oriana so that we are all speaking the same language. If I see something [Oriana is struggling with] in small reading group, and her teacher of blind students is seeing it too, we can talk about what we can do to help Oriana get past this. These conversations have only happened because we work well together. ---------- Celebrate the Holiday Season with a Gift to the National Federation of the Blind Have you received gifts from the National Federation of the Blind? Lots of us have. A mom recently thanked us for sponsoring a Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academy by sharing: Rudy and I would like to thank all that made Braille BELL Camp this summer possible. Since Rudy does not qualify for Braille and mobility services through his school, this camp is an answer to our prayer for helping Rudy learn. There was an unfortunate conflict in planning his summer that jeopardized the chance of him attending, which caused a great deal of worry. Rudy stated, "I have to go! It helps me so much." My heart ached as I saw how much he wanted and needed the professional touch these smart teachers provided. Thankfully we were able to sort out our conflict and he was able to attend. The relief in his eyes was enough to realize how powerfully important this week was toward supporting and educating Rudy while he learns how to read and navigate. Thank you ALL from the bottom of our hearts. Libby Houston We make dreams come true. You can help. We give people free white canes, literacy, and confidence. If you have gained from contact with the NFB or NFB members, enjoyed our publications, or participated in an academy or program, we are asking you to give back. Celebrate the holiday season by donating much needed funds. It is easy. You can mail a donation or give online. To mail your donation simply make out your check to the National Federation of the Blind. Please mail it to 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Attention: Outreach, Baltimore, MD 21230. To give online visit https://nfb.org/donate2017. Together with love, hope, and determination we will continue making dreams become reality. Help us all live the lives we want. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Parsons sits at her desk reading Braille] Braille: One of Chris Parsons' Twenty-First Century Skills by Dan Burke From the Editor: This article is reprinted from the June 2017 issue of The Blind Coloradan, the newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. Chris Parsons is a tremendous writer, speaker, and role model for her students and for all who are blessed to know her. Here is what her state affiliate says about her: Chris Parsons teaches technology at the Colorado Center for the Blind, so she obviously knows these essential tools and how they apply in the 21st century workplace. Braille is also without a doubt one of Chris Parsons' 21st century skills. The bedrock of her education is Braille. So much so that she was a three-time national winner of the Braille Challenge as a youth, and this weekend she will be in Los Angeles as a guest alum for the 2017 competition. With solid literacy skills based in Braille, Chris went on to earn an English degree from Webster University in her home state of Missouri, during which time she worked for two-and-a-half years as a student writing tutor. She took up playwriting while in college and says Braille was essential to the process of writing and revising. "When you're writing dialogue, you have to hear the characters' voices in your head, and you can't do that using an external (synthesized) voice," she says. After college she worked for over three years as an online writing coach, often relying on a Braille display to view the intricacies of spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. "Early on, I would just emboss the student's paper sometimes because I needed to have that Braille hard copy," she says. Later though, reviewing and making comments and suggestions on as many as twenty papers a day, she relied more heavily on her tech skills, always drawing on the fundamental literacy she gained through Braille. "No way could I have ever done that if I hadn't learned to read and write in Braille," she says now. Like many writers, Chris loves not only the sound of language, but the shape-and in her case, the feel-of words, sentences, and paragraphs. Also like many writers, she is given to conjure the written images of language in her mind. "Oh yeah," she says, "I see the dots in my head." ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ryan Strunk] Sharp Elbows, Sharper Thoughts by Ryan Strunk From the Editor: I confess that as the editor I get to pick and choose which stories we run, so it is probably no surprise when I say that I like a given piece. What I hope gets more notice is when I say I love something we are about to run, and this is just such an article. Ryan Strunk is a man who has significant accomplishments to his name, he is the lead accessibility consultant at Target, is a former national scholarship winner, serves as the Metro Chapter president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota, is the secretary for the board of directors of BLIND Incorporated, is married to a wonderfully smart and witty woman, and together they share a cat. What I particularly like about this article is that Ryan takes head-on the issue of how seriously we take ourselves as blind people and the difficult balance between being a representative of the blind community and still being ourselves. This article is particularly timely in view of the fact that I have been talking with several up-and- coming Federation leaders who fear that their doubt and insecurity will keep them from maturing into the kind of blind people they want to be and the kind of men and women we want to lead our organization. This piece should go further than I have been able to go in allaying their doubts. Here is what Ryan has to say: Anyone who knows me knows I love a good joke, and anyone who has seen me in the right circumstance knows I love a good dirty joke. I don't know as many of them as I used to, but when I was a kid, I had a stockpile, and I let them fly pretty regularly. Have you heard the one about the lady who ... nah. I can't write it here. But I was perfectly happy to tell it to my ninth-grade buddies one afternoon after school, standing around in the nearly empty junior high parking lot. I was so focused on the joke, on impressing my friends, that I was completely oblivious to the world around me. Halfway into the joke, as I was establishing the pattern, somebody kicked me in the foot. I didn't think twice about it; I just kept on chattering. A moment later, Chad started coughing. No big deal, I thought. He just had something in his throat. A sentence or two before the punchline, Jeremy straight-up elbowed me in the ribs, and still I didn't give it a second thought. Just wait till they hear how it ends. It was at that climactic moment-the one with the shock-and-awe curse word in the punchline-that the adult standing nearby decided to speak up. "Young man," he said in that purposeful voice authority figures use on unruly students; a voice which, I'm sure, is much larger in my memory than it was at the time, "We don't use that language at school." I stammered my way through the last few words of the punchline, then trailed off into silence, stunned at being caught and suddenly terrified, even as I didn't recognize the speaker. "I won't hear any more of that talk, right?" he asked. My face burning, my stomach roiling, I sheepishly mumbled that he wouldn't, and with a perfunctory "good" the man walked away. After a moment of stunned silence, I swallowed my rising horror and plucked up the courage to ask, "Who was that guy?" "Dude," said Jeremy, starting to snort laugh. "That was a cop. You just dropped an F bomb in front of a cop!" "Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded. "I tried to," he said. "Why do you think I kept hitting you?" I felt like an idiot, not only because I hadn't landed the joke, but because I felt my blindness had betrayed and embarrassed me in front of my friends. Had I not been blind, I told myself, I would have known there was a cop standing there, and I would have either landed the joke harder as a rebellious backhand to authority, or-more likely-I would have saved it for when he wasn't around and not gotten in trouble for telling it. These kinds of things can still happen to me today. I walk through the office, and my toe hits the protruding foot of a whiteboard. It clangs, and I feel like an idiot for not using my cane better. I turn down a different aisle than my shopping assistant. I realize they're suddenly not there, and I kick myself for not paying better attention. My cane slides under a sign, and I find said sign with my shoulder. I curse my luck and myself. For years I have struggled with negative self-talk, berating myself over every little slip-up that happens in my daily life. Every kicked whiteboard, wrong turn, and missed sign ends up being an incredible ordeal because of the stories I tell myself after-because of the things I tell myself about myself: "Everyone is watching you;" "everyone is judging you;" "you are setting a bad example for other blind people." I have spent a significant portion of my life carrying around a great deal of insecurity about who I am and what I'm capable of, and I have spent far too much time and energy focusing on things in my life that, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter that much. I'm finally beginning to realize just how destructive these negative thoughts are, and I'm learning just how much they've been holding me back. Instead of shaking off my occasional mishaps, I have been fixating on them. I have worried about what other people will think and how I'll be judged until I become tense and edgy. With all this negative energy, is it any wonder that I get embarrassed, angry, and self-effacing? One of the great truths about blindness is that, no matter how good someone's cane technique is, no matter how many skills a person has, they will eventually encounter a situation that might have been different had they been able to see. But one of the great truths about life is that, for a variety of reasons, these sorts of things happen to everyone-blind and sighted alike. The difference, I'm beginning to understand, is that most people don't have blindness to blame these accidents on. When mistakes happen, most people laugh them off, shrug them off, and maybe do something better next time. Many blind people I know are good at this too, and I haven't been one of them. I'm working on it, though. I told a dirty joke in front of a policeman. He called me out for using bad language, and nothing else happened. My parents weren't called, the principal wasn't summoned, and I didn't get in trouble. And even if there had been bigger consequences, so what? These things happen. They will continue to happen, and all I can do, if I want to be a happier person, is keep going and, if possible, do better next time. "Ok Jeremy, I got a good joke. Any cops around?" ---------- The 2018 Washington Seminar is Coming Sooner Than You Think by Diane McGeorge This message is to advise you that the Washington Seminar will be held January 28 through February 1, 2018, with the Great Gathering-In taking place on Monday, January 29. You can now reserve a room at the Holiday Inn Capitol (550 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024) for Washington Seminar for check-in beginning Friday, January 26, and check-out Friday, February 2. The rate is $192.00 per night; this rate does not include DC sales tax, which is currently 14.8 percent. You may begin booking reservations directly online by clicking on the weblink below: http://ichotelsgroup.com/redirect?path=rates&brandCode=HI®ionCode=1&local eCode=en&GPC=FB8&hotelCode=WASSM&_PMID=99801505. You may also make reservations by calling (877) 572-6951 and referencing booking code FB8. Credit card information is needed at time of reservation. Individual cancellation policy requires notification seventy- two hours prior to date of arrival to avoid one night's room plus tax cancellation charge on the credit card provided. If your departure date changes, you must inform the hotel seventy-two hours in advance of departure to avoid a $100 fee; call (877) 572-6951 and reference your confirmation number. Please obtain a cancellation number when cancelling a reservation. The firm deadline date to make a reservation is Tuesday, January 2, 2018. Reservation requests received after the deadline date will be subject to availability and prevailing rate. If you would like to hold a special meeting during the Washington Seminar, please email Lisa Bonderson at lbonderson at cocenter.org just as you have done in past years. She and I will work with the hotel on the assignment of those meeting rooms. To ensure that you get the space you need, please let us know of your meeting space needs by December 7, 2017. Lisa and I will always be available to help you with any problems you might experience with the booking of your hotel reservations. We have worked closely with the hotel staff, and they are looking forward to working with each affiliate or group wanting to make reservations. See you in Washington! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Precious Perez] The Truth about Diversity in Hollywood by Precious Perez From the Editor: Precious Perez is a board member of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division. In her article she discusses the barriers that blind performers encounter when they seek jobs as actors, actresses, and directors. All of us know that in these competitive fields, many try and few succeed, but she convincingly argues that breaking into the performing arts is a harder job for blind people. I particularly like her argument that as an organization we will derive tremendous benefits from breaking down the artificial barriers that keep blind people out, because for every blind actor, actress, or director, we directly affect how the public feels about us and consequently have a greater impact on reversing discrimination than we might in getting someone a job as a computer engineer or an editor. I find this concept intriguing. Here is what she has to say: I am an aspiring music educator and performer studying at Berklee College of Music, and I am currently studying abroad at Berklee's campus in Valencia, Spain. Every member serving on the performing arts division board is doing amazing things, such as performing professionally, dancing, improv, and so much more. Kelsey Nicolay, an NFB member who wrote an article about her dance experiences, struggled with misconceptions in choir and dance throughout high school with people not believing she was capable. Thankfully a precious few did, and they made a significant contribution in helping her achieve one of her dreams. She pushed through and performed with confidence, practiced self-advocacy, and showed appreciation to those who helped her, which is what blind performers do. The going is not always easy, but we do not give up, even though the industry constantly forces us to have to prove ourselves above and beyond our sighted colleagues. Lack of diversity as defined in the January 2017 Braille Monitor is a common dilemma across the board in many fields, including but not limited to employment, education, and so many other areas, especially Hollywood and the fields of film, television, and performance. Alyssa Rosenberg brought up a very good point, which is that diversity is not just about race but also includes disability. Actor Danny Woodburn once said, "If you're going to discuss diversity, it has to be completely inclusive of the groups that really define diversity, not just a select group that is popular. It's not so popular to say people with disabilities define diversity. But the reality is that disability puts the 'D' in diversity." It is evident that disability is commonly forgotten within this definition, and this continues to be a crucial issue. In his introduction to articles in the January 2017 Braille Monitor regarding diversity in Hollywood, Gary Wunder explained that when blind people are featured in television or modern pop culture, the characters do not represent life as we know it. One example comes to mind when I think about misrepresentation of blind people in the media. Daredevil is a Marvel character meant to have heightened hearing and abilities due to the genre and nature of the show and his role as a superhero. However, his superhuman powers, such as being able to hear someone's heartbeat and the path of a single raindrop, further reinforce society's misconception that blind people have supersonic powers or are in some way more able than our sighted peers. Another controversial example is the horror movie Don't Breathe, featuring a blind war veteran killer with heightened senses. This character in particular further supports the idea that blind people are not and cannot just be ordinary people. Misguided, uneducated portrayals of blind people in television stem from misconceptions and stereotypes, and the fact that blind actors seldom exist in this industry due to preconceived notions of incapability is a clear sign of discrimination. Who better to know what it is like to be blind and convey that on screen than blind people themselves? This is the question I pose as a performer and board member of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division. Hollywood has evidenced little interest in the varied stories of persons with disabilities, which in turn deems disabilities to be less common and creates limited roles we can play and the number of opportunities we have to perform. The sad truth is that the majority of disabled actors have played insignificant or supporting roles, which means that people with disabilities have not been given an outlet for their voice to be heard, whether it be in writing the scripts or authenticating the lead roles of blind and disabled characters. There are many aspects of disabilities, varying conditions, stories, and degrees of the spectrum. However, Hollywood keeps us boxed in by assigning us to superficial roles. Society's vision of life as it relates to people with disabilities is heavily based upon how they are portrayed on screen, which is almost always inaccurate or misleading. As successful performers, musicians, and artists, we in the performing arts division of the NFB subscribe to the philosophy that blindness is a characteristic that does not define us and a characteristic that cannot hold us back. We meet problems with action, which is why we are working to raise awareness and draw attention to the lack of diversity in Hollywood, not only evident in statistics, but told anecdotally through those who strive for their dreams and get shot down due to the misconceptions of Hollywood's casters. It is comfortable for people today to believe that discrimination, as deplorable as it was, is a thing of the past and that those who argue otherwise are really responsible for not having the opportunities they say they have been denied. Believing this means that society cannot only celebrate a victory but ignore any obligation it has to remove systemic denial and prejudice. But the truth for those of us who represent minorities is that discrimination is not dead. Sometimes it is cloaked in kindness by those not wishing to hurt our feelings; sometimes it is hidden by ambiguous words that can never be used to substantiate the charge. Sometimes it is cloaked in the absolute certainty that what we wish to do is impossible, and if we aren't smart enough to see it, somebody must. With all due respect to what we want America to be, we must acknowledge that she is not yet there, that discrimination still exists, and unless we are willing collectively to fight it, it will persist and expand, the result being lessened opportunities for us all. Sometimes I observe that even our own people take refuge in the belief that blind performers cry discrimination when what they are really encountering is the rough and tumble of making it in the highly competitive entertainment industry. They remind us that the odds of anyone making it big are slim and that this is likely the reason why we find ourselves in the balcony looking down rather than on the stage looking out. I am betting that they have not seen the struggles of blind actors who have been trying to achieve their dreams and have never been given a chance. To those of you who believe this has nothing to do with being blind or disabled, may I suggest that your viewpoint is based upon your exaggerated perception of our limitations, that you too fall victim to the idea that all performers must be able-bodied, and perhaps that you think we who want to reach for the brass ring should content ourselves with more traditional, more realistic jobs. When you say you have seen no qualified actors and that there is no discrimination because we just aren't good enough, is that fact or opinion? Have you met aspiring blind actors? Have you spoken to employers in Hollywood and other branches of the entertainment industry and inquired about the number of blind actors applying for roles? Until you have done so, such strong arguments against our hopes and aspirations have no solid foundation. To discredit the efforts of those who fight for these opportunities is offensive not only to would-be blind performers but to all blind people who try to expand the number of fields in which we may compete and thrive. I readily concede that yes, talent is a crucial factor, and yes, some people rise and some do not; but overall, blind and disabled people have less of a shot at the opportunity to win or lose in the industry, period. The NFB Performing Arts Division does not believe that success is being handed an acting position based solely on representing a certain percentage of the population. The assumption that society's views of us can be changed by the majority of the blind population successfully living their lives outside of the public eye is simply false. In fact, employers are unaware and blind to this small reality themselves, pun intended. They only know what they see in the media, what their parents have taught them about disabilities, and their own personal views. These views are skewed, not by the disabled people living normal lives, but by stereotypes that continue to be reinforced by the characters they see-or don't see-in books, movies, and television. It is a given that all performers who harbor the talent and passion to pursue their dreams in a world where a career in the performing arts is not always taken seriously must work hard to gain the few opportunities available. However, blind actors and performers have to work harder than most with even less gain to show for it. If the entertainment industry doesn't believe that disabled people can perform at the same level as those who are not disabled, we cannot get hired. If we cannot get hired, we will not have the chance to educate the industry and authenticate the representation of blind and disabled people on screen. This further deprives us of the benefit that will come when the entertainment industry portrays us as we actually are and opens to the sighted public the vast array of talents and aspirations we possess. Yes, Hollywood is a business. Yes, it must make an end product the user will buy. These things are obvious. However, most people are drawn to reality-stories that educate and capture truth. Audiences are drawn to authenticity, and most are willing to understand the truth and recognize it for what it is. Businesses are there to make money, but they are not allowed to discriminate. Reality is a product that is priceless and timeless. I think I speak for all blind performers and aspiring actors when I say Hollywood needs to rethink its assumptions. Hollywood needs to realize that each and every person with a disability has their own unique personality and that portraying this individuality with authenticity is the best way to increase ratings and rake in money at the box office. It is time for employers in entertainment to know and understand that blind actors/actresses are capable, talented, and bring unique traits to the table. Blind and disabled actors deserve a fair chance. This is not the end, and people with disabilities will never cease fighting for an equal role on a level playing field of diversity in Hollywood and in all other aspects of the entertainment industry. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Nicky Gacos] A Serious Danger for Blind Vendors by Nicky Gacos From the Editor: Members who were in the Federation in the 80s will remember a big push we made to see that blind vendors could operate facilities on rest areas along our nation's highways. In some states these rest areas are managed directly by our blind merchants. In others the rest areas are contracted to private purveyors who send a percentage of what they make to the blind vendor programs in their state, and the money is used to help all blind vendors who work there. The proposal by the administration to eliminate the priority for the blind in these rest areas will be devastating if it becomes law. Here is what President Nicky Gacos of the National Association of Blind Merchants has to say: Several weeks ago we circulated a link that would allow you to send letters directly to your members of Congress expressing concern over proposed legislation to allow commercialization of the interstate rest areas. Such legislation would be devastating to blind vendors who operate vending at interstate rest areas and to state licensing agencies (SLA's) that rely on funds from third party vendors at these sites to operate their program and to offer benefits to their vendors. Rest area commercialization would result in almost 400 lost jobs, the loss of fringe benefits for hundreds, and lost revenue with which to operate the programs. We've had a good response so far; however, with summer over, the kids back in school, and BLAST out of the way, it is time to ramp things up again. Please go to https://nfb.constituentvoice.net/nfbaction/us- nabm_online_letter_to_congress_commercialization and register your concerns. It will take you less than two minutes. Once you have sent your letters, please: 1. Ask friends and family to do the same; 2. Post it on your Facebook page and/or Twitter account and ask all of your social media friends to log on and send letters; 3. Forward this email to every vendor in your state and stress the importance of letting their voices be heard. Together, we can make a difference. Act now! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ann Cunningham] Touching Imagination: Unlocking the Creativity of Blind Artists by Ann Cunningham From the Editor: Ann Cunningham is an artist who works as the art instructor at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Sometimes our biggest problem is not what we do not know. It is that we do not know what we do not know and therefore never have a clue about how to inquire into or learn about it. Such has been my experience far too often when things are not verbal or don't impress themselves on me tactilely. Art falls into this category. I know that art is something I cannot see, so I immediately write it off as one of those opportunities I cannot enjoy, and I content myself by rejoicing in those I can. There's nothing wrong about being grateful for enjoying what one can or admitting that blindness means some things we cannot enjoy. The problem happens when I too quickly write off art as something that cannot be meaningful to me when the truth is that it can if only I am willing to open my mind to explore it. The speech which follows has encouraged me to rethink what art can mean for me, and the artist who is so committed to opening this possibility for blind people is as articulate as she is artistic. Here is her well-crafted and beautifully delivered presentation made on July 15, 2017, at the convention: Thank you so much, President Riccobono, for inviting me here today to talk to my Federation family about tactile art. I've been a member of the Federation since 1999, and what brought me to the Federation was my artwork. I'm a stone sculptor and tactile artist, and I'm proud to be able to say I teach art at the Colorado Center for the Blind [cheers]. Back when I was first starting, I was a typical artist making visual art, but as I sculpted the stone I realized that the feel of it under my hands as I created the form kept suggesting this touch thing seems powerful. There really is something here. Eventually I was introduced to the people who would help me start figuring out all this stuff at the Colorado center. I began teaching art classes and have been exploring what art can be with students and staff ever since. Our motto is, "If it feels right, it is right." I began attending National Federation of the Blind national conventions in 2001-anyone here remember Philadelphia? [cheers] I had an art exhibit in the exhibit hall that year. I have presented art-related activity every year since. For the last seven years Debbie Kent Stein from Illinois and I have been collaborating on programming for our drop-in art room. I know a number of you do know about it because each year we have the tables filled with artists and artists-in-the-making as they play with aromatic homemade playdough or create raised-line drawings on the Sensational BlackBoard or check out the original works of art displayed around the perimeter of the room. Many outstanding volunteers have made this experience fulfilling and fun. But I know a whole lot more of you might be wondering, "Tactile art? What's that?" because there are far more of us in this general assembly than end up in the art room. So let me give you my definition. I define tactile art as artwork that can be understood through touch. Even though it might look pretty good too, the looks are secondary instead of the focus. The focus is now placed squarely on how effectively the sculpture can communicate with others when someone places their hands on the artwork. We can also add more sense into the mix. This year we had a number of people experience our first instillation artwork called "Off the Path." This piece created an environment that included lots of full- surround tactile input as well as layered sounds and smells. Okay, so art is nice. It can be fun, maybe inspiring; it even offers a way for people to express themselves. And yet you still might not be convinced that this is where your energy needs to go. Let's take a moment and look at the flipside of this coin: tactile graphics. Images can give us a way to study and share complex ideas that would take hours to explain and multiple times to comprehend. For instance, how much different do you think a student's learning outcomes would be if as a matter of course they had an image to go along with the description of a human skeleton? If a student could feel the bones as they are described and examine the joints as they are explained and go back and study them after class on their own; do you think they might understand more concepts and retain more information? [applause] Charts of all kinds-graphs, maps, and diagrams fall under the heading of tactile graphics. No one comes into the world knowing how to interpret pictures. Sighted parents spend hours poring over baby books teaching sighted children to read pictures. I'm not sure that parents know that's actually what they're doing. Parents are drawn to these activities because they are fun, entertaining, and educational for both the child and the care provider. I have seen people of all ages quite easily begin learning how to interpret tactile images once they have the opportunity. But how much more fluent would a person be if they were using tactile pictures as tools from the time they were small? Picture books should be a part of every child's education-whether blind or sighted. [applause] Looking at pictures should just be one part of the visual literacy. Just as verbal literacy is broken into two parts, reading and writing, I see picture interpretation as one part and picture creation as the other. Think about it for a moment: there should be no reason that blind people should not be the creators of tactile images as well as the consumers. [applause] It does take skill and education to create tactile images, but it does not take sight. Tactile images need to be formatted differently from visual images, but who knows that better than a tactile picture consumer? We need to discover the best way to tactile literacy, and the American Action Fund's initiative is taking an amazing step with their tactile art kits. If you know of a blind child, I hope that you will help connect them with this program so that Mrs. Maurer and our team can learn how to best develop this important early learning activity. Thank you to the NFB. Thanks to the NFB, I know that all of this is possible. For the last two summers I have been invited to teach at the summer EQ STEAM Program in Baltimore with Natalie Shaheen. I am the drafting instructor. We gathered the tools together so that students would have what they need to accomplish the task I would instruct them in. All I needed to do was teach. I have the faith because I have had so many successes at the Colorado Center for the Blind over the years. This is because of Julie Deden's prime directive: When we ask her if we can do something, she always says, "Sure. Go figure it out." So I have come to believe that it is all possible. So we planned into the curriculum that I would teach the students first how to sketch out their ideas to build their boats out of PVC pipes, tarps, and tape. But the real kicker was that after that, one person from each of the teams needed to do an orthographic projection and isometric perspective of their final boat design to include in their deliverables. Now, if you need to look that up to understand it, don't feel alone; I did too. But what I want to share with you is that these are the vital engineering skills that a person's future could turn on. I'd never taught it before, but when the day came, we had to try. So I approached it as logically as I could. We started a cube drawing in perspective, first. I held up the cube in front of the student and said, "Look at this model. The lines will represent each corner." Step by step, this young lady, who is totally blind and at the beginning of the week was learning how to hold a pen, worked through the drawing. First a vertical line, then two thirty- degree horizontal lines-not just because I was telling her what to do, but because she could feel the cube; she knew where the corners needed to be represented, and she could understand how the principles needed to be applied. She figured out what needed to be drawn next. I have to say it was breathtaking-and we both let out our breath-but we also noticed that a number of other teachers had gathered around when they let out their collective breath as well. It is still exciting for me to see the understanding light up in someone's face when they learn these techniques. But the real test is can the students use these concepts by applying what they have learned to other projects? Well I am very happy to say that I have seen numerous students successfully use these skills to then illustrate the boats that their team had constructed. I recently received a grant from Arts in Society, an art organization in Denver. I am collaborating with a graduate of the Colorado Center for the Blind, Jenny Callahan, to see if we can develop her own tactile mapping company. I have never done anything like this before, but I am very confident that we will figure it out. [applause] This year the NFB has sponsored three tactile art and tactile graphics symposia. I have worked with Anil Lewis and Lou Ann Blake in an effort to develop a corps of people who are interested in talking through all the issues that we need to address. The first event was in Baltimore, the second was held in Colorado in collaboration with the Colorado Center, and the third is a collaborative event with the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco. At each of these small gatherings we expand our circles of friends and our understanding of the issues a bit further. Now, I am a sighted artist, but I know that my inkling of a belief that there is something powerful here is now a full-blown understanding that there is so much more to our experience of the world than visual input. I know far more is attributed to vision than it actually deserves credit for. NFB member Peter Slayton-who is also an artist-said, "We need to change the perspective on how we frame what we are doing to illuminate the assets of tactile art. What can we do beyond visual art?" Well, one thing we know is that we can feel 360 degrees at once; no one can see that. What else is possible? I am sighted, but by spending time exploring my world through my other senses, I realize that when I close my eyes, I suddenly expand my world in whole new ways that are unexpected, enlightening, and exciting. I am inspired by the moment that I had at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. I was commissioned to create an accessible work of art for their newly-renovated dorm. I met with the student council to talk about what they might like to have included in an art experience. What I experienced was a room filled with more people who were deaf than were hearing. At one point-as a hearing person-I became disabled to fluently participate in the conversation because the signers were talking much faster than the interpreters could voice for me. I want to invite you to work with us on flipping our situation in new ways, too. Wouldn't it be great to walk into a multisensory art exhibit where people who only know how to look at the world miss the crux of the entire exhibit? [applause] Thanks to creative initiatives like the tactile art box by the American Action Fund, I look forward to the day-and I hope it's soon-when I hear a young blind child saying, "What do you mean that in the old days we didn't have pictures?" We have some thoughtful vendors who are promoting innovative products, like the Graphiti at American Printing [House for the Blind]-I hope you guys got to see that, the art exhibits by Touch Graphics, digital images by Irie-AT, and school workbooks by E.A.S.Y. LLC, and many more. Like HumanWare, all vendors need to know what you need. This helps them go straight for what is needed most. Share your ideas; there is so much to do. There is plenty of space for all of us because what we are trying to do is not to duplicate but to echo the artistic and communication progress that has been made in the visual world since the Renaissance. My personal theory is that we behaved as multisensory beings before the invention of glasses, lenses, mirrors, and cameras. They introduced those innovations that emphasized the visual sense. Let's work together to reclaim and elevate our other senses. [applause] But we need you. Debbie Kent Stein and I are honored to be asked to start the NFB Tactile Art Group. We have an NFB listserv called "Artists Making Art," and we have a Facebook page called "Tactile Art and Tactile Graphics Symposium." This sounds good, but we need someone who knows how to make these useful, and it is not me. If you're sitting here and thinking you would like to get involved, please do. We need you, we need your ideas and your artwork to inspire us, and we need your help spreading the word- can you write? We need your ideas about how to move forward. Jim Jackson from Oregon had an idea to have a tactile map contest for people to make and display maps of our hotel next year. What a great idea. [cheers] We'll be able to show just how creative folks can get and how useful images can be, but we can't do this alone, nor do we want to do it alone. If you are a person who has ideas or abilities to share, or just the interest, please connect with me at ann at acunningham.com. We need your help and your ideas and your energy and enthusiasm. Next year let's make the art room a place of wonder! [applause] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Salisbury] Always Believing by Justin Salisbury From the Editor: Justin Salisbury is a leader in the National Federation of the Blind, a former scholarship winner, and a trained professional currently employed in the field of rehabilitation. He thinks a lot about the transformative role rehabilitation should play in the lives of those it serves and the role it should play in helping blind people embrace the positive philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. In what follows, Justin has written what some might call a fable in order to explore the conflicting messages sent to students and teachers in the rehabilitation field because of the relative proximity of various programs. It is told not to call out any particular agency or administrator, but to make us examine the messages and resulting conflicts that we may not be aware we are sending to students learning how to navigate in their new world of blindness. The conflict he sees is not just in rehabilitation. Sometimes we wrestle with this in deciding where to hold Federation meetings, in deciding when it is appropriate to help other groups, and in deciding whether to react to publicity that may accurately reflect the life of one blind person but suggests that a problem or an attitude about it reflects the way the blind community feels. Here's what he has to say: Imagine a place called Ziklag, where the state agency serving the blind claims it believes in the capacity and equality of blind people. The agency in Ziklag operates an orientation center with a residential program where clients of the agency can become students for adjustment to blindness training. For one dollar per year, this agency rents out two-thirds of its building to a subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. The sheltered workshop operates a "meals on wheels" program for seniors and people with disabilities, including blind people who lack the proper training and wherewithal to feed themselves. Each day the food for the meals on wheels program is produced in such large amounts that there is excess. In order to use the excess food and to increase the profit from it, the sheltered workshop operates a cafeteria where it sells very inexpensive lunches to the general public. Since the sheltered workshop does business with the general public, and since its part of the building resides on a much busier street than the rest of the state agency serving the blind, the people of Ziklag generally believe that the blind rehabilitation programs are a part of the sheltered workshop. As the employees of the state agency and the students at its orientation center approach the building every day, they walk past the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. To some students, it may serve as motivation to work harder in training so that they will be treated with more dignity than the people in the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. For other students, especially the ones who are still unfamiliar with the positive philosophy about blindness espoused by the National Federation of the Blind, it might detract from their sense of self-worth. For some staff, it may be a motivator; if they do their jobs well, their students will have an opportunity to live a life free from limitations based on blindness and will have a sufficient understanding of their own equality so as not to accept subminimum-wage work. For other staff, especially those still unfamiliar with a positive understanding of blindness, commuting past the sheltered workshop may mean nothing out of the ordinary and may be accepted as a natural reality of disability. In Ziklag the rehabilitation counselors are encouraged by their superiors to place clients in the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. After all, the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop offers employment services to people with disabilities. They offer classes, and when their students graduate from these classes, they advance to being a normal client of the sheltered workshop. Is that really a graduation at all? They may even be told to think of themselves as interns or employees. The state agency appears on paper to be separate from the subminimum- wage sheltered workshop. The workshop is a tenant of the agency's building, albeit for one dollar per year. The state agency contracts with vendors for maintenance and grounds keeping services. It just so happens that the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop provides these services, and it just so happens that they are the vendor used by the state agency. When the agency needs its floors waxed, the workshop does it. Somebody needs to remove fallen leaves from the courtyard of the agency. The employees of the sheltered workshop love running around the courtyard of the agency with leaf blowers, sometimes for five or six hours at a time. The agency employees know that it would be more efficient to pick up the leaves by hand, and there are, of course, many alternatives on a spectrum of efficiency between the leaf blower tournaments and the hand-picking of leaves. When the agency employees lose a day of productivity because of the day-long leaf blower tournaments taking place outside their offices, they often look out the window and observe the teams of disabled employees followed by able-bodied caretakers. What they are doing is obnoxiously inefficient and imposes a negative externality on the state agency with the overpowering noise. The disabled employees are functionally a burden on the state agency and are modeling a lack of productivity that perpetuates low expectations. The sheltered workshop claims that it has highly specialized employees who work with the disabled. Many of them come to work at the sheltered workshop because their able-bodiedness qualifies them for a supervisory-level position. Their primary credential, of course, is the simple fact that they are able-bodied. At the sheltered workshop, they call themselves "caretakers," but their r?sum?s and business cards call them supervisors. Because the agency serving the blind of Ziklag wants to demonstrate its belief in the Randolph-Sheppard program, it has a space in the building set aside for a blind vendor to operate a snack shop. He does good work, but he operates in a relatively low-traffic area. Thankfully, many of the clients of the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop visit him frequently to buy snacks. The caretakers at the sheltered workshop often bring the clients over to the snack shop and give them money to buy snacks. That snack money is often more than most of the disabled employees' paychecks. Sometimes the supervisors even let the clients walk to the snack shop by themselves. When it comes time for lunch, some of the rehabilitation counselors go next door to the cafeteria in the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. They praise the food and the low prices. They walk around the agency office telling everyone about the great lunch they scored for such a good price. After all, people should know about a good deal. They often invite students at the orientation center to join them in the cafeteria for lunch, and the students often oblige. Other employees at the agency occasionally visit the cafeteria for lunch as well. During work hours there is an expectation that employees of Ziklag uphold a positive philosophy about blindness. This means endorsing the concept that blind people are normal, capable people worthy of equality in society. These words are spoken during work hours. It is difficult to conceive how this understanding could be mutable. Can a single cognitive schema enable someone to, during work hours, operate according to a productive belief system about blindness and then leave that understanding at the door of their office when they set out to eat a lunch prepared by blind employees earning pennies per hour? The students at the orientation center are told during class by their instructors that blind people are normal, that they should expect to achieve normal jobs, and that they deserve to be treated normally by the general public because blindness is a normal characteristic. Since the students have a normal level of intellect, they are able to take notice of these contradictory behaviors, not all of which come from the same staff members. There are those instructors who communicate a positive philosophy about blindness and who have never even ventured inside the subminimum-wage sheltered workshop. There are those who never discuss an empowerment model of blindness rehabilitation and who visit the cafeteria enthusiastically. There are also those who do some of each; they attempt to send empowering messages during work hours and then contradict those messages outside of work hours. The students indiscriminately consider the agency employees to be blindness professionals; after all, they work for the agency providing services to the blind. Since there is no unified and consistent message about blindness demonstrated by the staff of our fictitious agency, the students struggle to navigate the muddy waters toward the promise of emotional adjustment to blindness. If the agency truly intends to empower blind people to see themselves as normal people capable of competing on terms of equality with their sighted counterparts, the employees have to believe it themselves. If they do not believe it, how can they ever create that belief in their students? We hope these students can identify with the employees who promulgate a positive philosophy about blindness with minimal contradiction. Nobody can escape the negative messages of misconceptions and low expectations in society, but increasingly more of us are joining the National Federation of the Blind in realizing the truth about blindness. Who we choose as role models has great implications for our future, and this is just as true for blind students at orientation centers as it is for anybody else. The National Federation of the Blind is helping us all imagine a world in which this story is clearly a fable, a testament to times long past. For decades, the National Federation of the Blind has been training blindness professionals and raising expectations. If we can remain diligent and vigilant, we can continue to shape the face of blindness rehabilitation, enabling us as individuals and as a movement to chart our own future. We, the organized blind movement, take the initiative and responsibility to cultivate our own belief in our own normality, and, by always believing, we can also raise the expectations of others. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ed McDonald receives his award.] Rotary Gives Ed McDonald "Service Above Self" Award by Jean Braithwaite From the Editor: Ed McDonald is a former member of the National Federation of the Blind National Board of Directors and was a long-time president of the National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia. Ed and his wife Karen bless many of us with an annual Christmas letter, and this wonderful family represents Federationism at its best. Ed has had a long- time love of radio, and as the article below will reveal, he is making his dreams come true and helping his community in the bargain. This article first appeared in the Mineral Daily News-Tribune on August 15, 2017, and it is reprinted here with their permission. Three individuals and four businesses were honored during the 2017 Business and Community Awards dinner held Friday evening at the Davis Center, Potomac State College. The names of two of the recipients to be recognized remained unannounced throughout the evening until the time their recognition was given. The first of these was the 2017 Rotary Service Above Self Award, and Ed McDonald was given this tribute. On behalf of the Rotary Club of Keyser, Dinah Courrier presented the award for the "tireless effort" that McDonald spent in bringing a radio station to the community, in addition to his work with the Mineral County Historical Society, the Federation of the Blind, and many additional endeavors. A graduate of Bethany College and Ohio University with a degree in broadcast journalism, McDonald taught communications at Bethany and worked at radio stations in Kanawha and Putnam counties, as well as in Kentucky. He has been a member of the Mineral County Historical Society for almost 25 years and was instrumental in launching WKYW, Mountain Streams Radio. Earlier in the program, he gave information on the Mountain Streams radio station, saying, "At age seven was the first time I was in a radio station," and now he proclaims to be a lifelong radio addict. He said that the process began in 2013 for the local radio station, when a construction permit was applied for, followed by a testing process, and finally in late February, "regular broadcasting began." Mentioning the station is at 102.9 on the dial, McDonald said it is licensed through the Mineral County Historical Society, with the transmitting antenna being located at Catamount Place, a residence hall at PSC. "There is a unique music format," he said, involving the sounds of West Virginia and the Appalachian area that features "old time string, bluegrass, and gospel," all presented with acoustic instruments. McDonald said in the future improvements will be made at the Keyser radio station, as adding more music and having a real studio, where now everything is produced in the basement of his home. He is also planning to expand the air time to include "all of Mineral County," develop an advisory group, and make welcome volunteers and ideas for the radio station. That was the article, and here are remarks Ed sent to his friends after it appeared: Thanks to all of you for your congratulations and kind words over the past week in response to the recognition and the subsequent newspaper story, and thanks to my dear wife for being such a good unpaid publicity agent. (Many of us who are close to such stories know that reporters do not always get every little detail correct, but for the most part it was accurate.) The whole experience has triggered a variety of observations and reflections, and so I hope you will forgive (or delete) this bit of self- indulgence: As blind people, I am sure all of us have struggled at times with being accepted and trying to find a role for ourselves in our communities. A plaque from a small-town Rotary club may seem insignificant to some, but being recognized in this small town by the people with whom I live and work every day was indeed significant to me. Perhaps it was notable that the newspaper story did not take the all-too-common approach of focusing upon how "amazing" it is that this blind guy does the things he does. The only mention of blindness per se was the passing reference to my involvement in the "Federation of the Blind." I might also note that in order to insure my presence at the awards dinner, the director of the Chamber of Commerce asked me in advance to make a ten-minute presentation concerning the radio station, without telling me about any award. When it came time for me to speak, she virtually dragged me by the arm up to the front of the room, while recounting the story of once having run me into a tree during an outdoor event some years ago. I tried to break her grip and make the ten-foot walk from my table to the podium with a bit more grace and independence, but she was determined to hold on tight. All of that suggests that even in our finest moments, we blind folks can sometimes encounter a slightly embarrassing situation. I hope, however, that I was able to rise above it. I did not consciously plan my remarks to be a teaching opportunity about blindness, but I had my cane in my hand and read my notes from a BrailleNote. There was thus a room full of people- including legislators and other community leaders-who observed those "tools of blindness" being used. Apart from the blindness aspects of the experience, however, it's no exaggeration to say that getting this radio station started is indeed the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. When I was a kid, my answer to the question, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" was always, "I want to build a radio station." I am sure there are those who would suggest that I have not yet managed to grow up. Otherwise, I would not still be pursuing such a misguided dream. Nevertheless, I am gratified that it is indeed on the air, that people in the community are listening and saying nice things about it, and that it is playing in the background as I write this. It is true-for whatever it's worth-that the dinner occurred just three days after the sixtieth anniversary of my first visit to a radio station. It was also just two days after our twenty-first wedding anniversary, and Karen has certainly played an important part in all of this. Ironically, it is also true that just this week the public radio station at Northern Kentucky University where I worked for four years left the air because the university chose to sell the station and get out of the radio business. I was part of the original staff when WNKU went on the air back in 1985, calling itself "Kentucky Folk Radio." Thus, as one station fades into history, I find myself building a similar station in the town-in fact, in the very building-where I was born. (The station is housed in a Potomac State College residence hall, which was once Potomac Valley Hospital.) So, whether it's a story about "living the lives we want" as blind people or coming "full circle" in small-town West Virginia, it's also a story about being truly blessed. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par?] From Knowledge to Power: A Report on Advocacy and Policy Programs of the National Federation of the Blind by John Par? From the Editor: In place of introducing John Par?, let us use the comments made by President Riccobono in inviting him to the stage: "I mentioned in the Presidential Report that in the 115th Congress we are monitoring and actively pursuing more legislative initiatives than at any time in our history, and the reason that is possible is because of the 50,000 advocates we have across the country. The gentleman who is supposed to be in DC-learning where all the connections are-getting the knowledge, making the relationship connections to ensure that we can present our authentic point of view is our executive director of policy and advocacy, and he does a great job at that. Here is John Par?:" Thank you, President Riccobono, and thank you to the secretary of labor. We really appreciate his remarks and look forward to working with him back in Washington. The National Federation of the Blind is off to a terrific start in the First Session of the 115th Congress. We have four bills introduced, three in the United States House of Representatives and one in the United States Senate. The Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act has thirty-one cosponsors. It is sponsored by Congressman Phil Roe of Tennessee. This bill will authorize the creation of a purpose-based commission to develop accessibility guidelines for higher education and will encourage schools to adhere to these guidelines in return for a safe harbor for certain types of litigation. The Access Technology Affordability Act has nine cosponsors and is sponsored by Congressman David Young of Iowa. Congressman Young will address our convention tomorrow afternoon, and we will want to give him a warm Federation welcome. A special thanks to the Iowa affiliate for cultivating this new relationship, especially the Omvigs. This bill will increase the availability of access technology by creating a $2,500 per person refundable tax credit for use over a three-year period. There is also a companion bill in the Senate sponsored by Senator Boozman of Arkansas. The Transitioning to Meaningful Employment Act [TIME] has eleven cosponsors and is sponsored by Representative Gregg Harper from Mississippi. Congressman Harper spoke at our 2013 convention, and he is a terrific champion for people with disabilities. The TIME Act has been changed from what was introduced in the previous Congress to include a six- year phaseout that requires a transition plan for each person being paid less than the minimum wage over the phaseout. Taken as a whole, these bills will help us live the lives we want by increasing the availability of access technology, by encouraging the use of accessible instructional material in higher education, and by eliminating the low expectations and discrimination inherent in section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The National Federation of the Blind has also been advocating for funding for the National Library Service so that it can purchase and lend refreshable Braille displays. NLS plans to institute a pilot program in fiscal 2018 and launch a much larger program in fiscal 2019. The National Federation of the Blind is committed to Braille literacy and the increased availability of refreshable Braille displays. We will not rest until the National Library Service has the funding needed to lend refreshable Braille displays to every blind American who wants one. [Applause] As you have heard from Scott LaBarre, we are also making progress on the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty and the passage of the Marrakesh implementation package. Let there be no mistake: the National Federation of the Blind will not rest until all of these bills have been passed and the treaty is ratified. We have also had to defend our civil rights and protect employment opportunities for blind Americans. H.R. 620, the ADA Education and Reform Act, would fundamentally change the Americans with Disabilities Act by requiring people with disabilities to notify companies of violations before taking legal action. Companies would then have sixty days to consider a response and another 120 days to actually fix the problem for a total delay of 180 days. Can you believe this? [The audience responds with an enthusiastic no.] On July 26 we will be celebrating twenty-seven years since the ADA was passed, and companies say they need more time to comply. We say no! Most technology encountered in places of public accommodation falls under the jurisdiction of Title III of the ADA, and this technology needs to be compliant now. Not in 180 days! Not in sixty days! Not even in one day! We have waited long enough; we will not tolerate companies that flaunt the law. We demand that technology be accessible. We demand that it be accessible now because we intend to live the lives we want now. Not in 180 days, not in ninety days, but right now. I ask you, when? [Audience responds "Now"] Another problematic bill is H.R. 1990. This bill would result in over 400 Randolph-Sheppard vendors losing their vending operations at interstate rest stops. This is absolutely unacceptable, but we do not think that the sponsor and cosponsors were aware of the affect that it would have on blind business owners. We are working to educate them on this catastrophic impact, and we have demanded that they withdraw their support for this legislation. We will keep you apprised of developments. Next, I want to update you on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act. The National Federation of the Blind identified this problem, created a partnership with car companies, got the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to study the issue, wrote the legislation, got the United States Congress to pass the legislation, and then got the president of the United States to sign it into law. The final regulation was issued nearly three years late, on December 14, 2016, with an effective date of February 13, 2017. But the story is not over. The effective date was then postponed to March 21, then to May 22, then to June 5, and now to September 5, 2017. These delays are outrageous! The issue has been thoroughly studied. The final regulation has been thoroughly vetted. The danger has been thoroughly documented, and the number of hybrid vehicles on the road keeps growing and growing. One item to note is that many but not all car companies have realized that this is a problem, and they have begun adding sound on their vehicles. [Applause] However, in many cases the sound is not compliant with the new regulations. We must be vigilant and demand that the United States Department of Transportation put this regulation into effect now. [Readers will remember that in October we announced that the regulation went into effect.] As many of you know, Parnell Diggs is now an Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration. I want to thank him for his tremendous, terrific work with the department of advocacy and policy. Your Honor, we wish you well. [Applause] Let's talk about NFB-NEWSLINE?. As many of you know, NFB-NEWSLINE is what first introduced me to the National Federation of the Blind. NFB- NEWSLINE is the largest and most effective accessible newspaper service for the blind anywhere in the world. It was conceived, designed, and implemented by the blind for the blind. NFB-NEWSLINE is available in forty- six states plus the District of Columbia. It has 115,000 subscribers, 366 domestic newspapers, seventeen international newspapers, twenty-four breaking news sources, and sixty magazines. Over the last year NFB-NEWSLINE subscribers have enjoyed over 37 million minutes of news, made over 2 million calls, received over 3 million emailed articles, logged onto our web portal over 3 million times, and accessed our mobile app 381,242 times. All publications on NFB-NEWSLINE are available in Braille-formatted downloadable files. This feature is currently in beta testing, and we welcome your comments on how we might be able to improve the formatting of these files. NFB-NEWSLINE provided holiday ads during the holiday season from Ace Hardware, Babies "R" Us, Toys "R" Us, JOANN Fabrics, Lowe's, Home Depot, Petco, Publix, Staples, Office Depot, Walgreens, and Kohl's. Soon NFB-NEWSLINE will not only be available over the phone, on your Victor Reader Stream, or through the NLS Digital Talking Book player. Soon it will be available on the Amazon Echo. [Applause] As you heard from the President yesterday, once set up, all you will have to do is say "Alexa open NFB- NEWSLINE." If you would like to be a beta tester, please send an email to echofeedback at nfb.org. Please be sure to include the email address that is associated with your Amazon Echo account, and you will of course need to be an NFB-NEWSLINE subscriber. As I've said to many of you in the past, the National Federation of the Blind has made my life immeasurably more exciting, more interesting, more rewarding than I ever dreamed it could be. I am living proof that our movement changes lives [Applause], and that we can live the lives we want. Part of the spirit that you've created, which lifts my heart, came into being because of the policies that we have promoted together through the legislation that we support. If we are to welcome others-as we must, as we will-the effort must not slacken, but I know that it will not. I am committed, and I know that you are. The work that I've been charged to do by our President has often been challenging, but you have given me the confidence to believe that failure is not an option, the confidence to know that by working together, we can accomplish anything, and the confidence to believe that we can conquer any challenges that stand in our path. In fact, it is these challenges that enliven my soul, that demand all the best that is in me. When I have asked you to work with me, you have responded. Working with you has brought me enormous joy. [He pauses, and there is genuine applause and cheering.] This is why I like to work so much with all of you. Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Laura Zierer] Flash Cards Anytime, Anyplace with Math Flash by Laura Zierer From the Editor: Laura Zierer is a product development project leader at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). As part of her role, she leads a team consisting of members from various departments who are working together to investigate the use of voice assistant devices in the classroom. Laura is currently working toward her master's degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. Here is an interesting product she and her team are marketing: While the whole concept of voice assistants is only a few years old, these devices are making their way quickly into education and life. Dominated by Google Home? smart speakers and Amazon Alexa?-enabled devices, voice assistants marry the most natural interface-voice-with deep learning to provide answers, perform services, and even control home appliances. The opportunities for providing educational content to blind and visually impaired students are abundant! In late September, APH launched a new action for Google Home devices. This action is based on the popular Math Flash software that combines math flash cards with fun audio feedback and a snarky personality. Math Flash for Google Home is available now and ready to use on any compatible device. If you have a Google Home smart speaker, say the wake-up phrase ("Ok Google"), then say, "Talk to Math Flash." Don't have a Google Home speaker? Access the Google Assistant on your smartphone or tablet by following these steps: . For Android? devices, hold down the Home button (Google assistant is preloaded on most modern Android phones and tablets). . For iOS devices, download free from the App Store online store and open the Google Assistant app, then tap the microphone within the app. . Once the assistant is activated, say, "Talk to Math Flash" to start the action. Note that if you are using VoiceOver, open the Assistant app, then temporarily disable the VO speech with a three-finger double tap. To activate the microphone, use the magic tap gesture (two-finger double tap) and say, "Talk to Math Flash." You don't need to interact with the screen again until Math Flash closes. At that time, use the three-finger double tap to re-enable speech feedback for VoiceOver. Have fun, and send feedback to technology at aph.org so we can continue to refine this and other skills and actions. This is our first step into these waters, and APH plans to create educational content for both platforms- Google and Amazon. Amazon Alexa is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Android and Google Home are trademarks of Google Inc. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. iOS is a trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries and is used under license. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Karl Belanger] Accessibly Cutting the Cord: Watching TV Without a Cable Subscription by Karl Belanger From the Editor: Karl Belanger is an access technology specialist at the Jernigan Institute. He has worked for the National Federation of the Blind for just over three years, coming to this position after working as a consultant for web accessibility and access technology training. He is a helpful and giving human being with a very congenial personality. When I am at the Jernigan Institute and have a technical problem, he is always helpful, friendly, and responsive. But what is perhaps more important to our readers is that he makes the technical understandable and interesting. Here is what he has to say about alternatives to cable TV as we have known it: With the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, online live TV services like Sling TV, and many other sources for audio and video content on the internet, ditching the cable box has never been more viable. Several devices have also been developed to get all this content from the internet to your TV. Some of the most common, which were tested for this article, are the Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku box, the NVidia Shield, and the Fire TV. All these options present both opportunities and challenges for blind users. Each device has slightly different levels of accessibility, a given app may be more or less accessible on a given device, and there may or may not be much in the way of documentation of the accessibility features. The National Federation of the Blind Access Technology Team recently tested several streaming boxes and evaluated the accessibility of each device as well as the accessibility of several common services. Most of the testing was conducted in June and July, and a live presentation of our findings was done at the 2017 NFB National Convention. Please keep in mind that, as with any technology these days, things change rapidly, and software updates will likely mean things are not exactly as I discuss in this article. While the overall experience regardless of device is positive, there are clear benefits and drawbacks to each. Some had more features but lacked app support. Others worked with more apps and channels, but had fewer accessibility options or lacked features. Some services and apps were more consistently accessible, while others varied widely between platforms. Keep reading for the full breakdown. Each device went through a battery of tests which included the accessibility during setup, the overall interface, downloading apps, and the accessibility of several common apps and services. The Devices |Device |Manufacturer |Price |Comments | |Roku Player |Roku |$39+ |Widest variety of| | | | |TV content, | | | | |inconsistent app | | | | |accessibility and| | | | |poor quality | | | | |voice. | |Fire TV |Amazon |$39+ |Best for those | | | | |using Amazon | | | | |Prime video, | | | | |solid native | | | | |accessibility, | | | | |third-party apps | | | | |lacking | |NVidia Shield |NVidia |$199 |Android TV based,| | | | |primarily focused| | | | |on gaming, but | | | | |reasonably strong| | | | |accessibility | | | | |across the board | |Apple TV |Apple |$149-$199 |Most consistent | | | | |accessibility, | | | | |may be missing a | | | | |few services | |Chromecast |Google |$35 |Simplest, no | | | | |device interface,| | | | |setup accessible | | | | |through app. | | | | |Accessibility of | | | | |desired service | | | | |depends on | | | | |accessibility of | | | | |phone or computer| | | | |interface. | |Xbox One |Microsoft |$250+ |Most advanced | | | | |device, focused | | | | |on gaming, strong| | | | |native | | | | |accessibility but| | | | |very poor on | | | | |third-party apps.| There is a vast amount of content available through the various devices and apps. From movies and TV shows with Netflix and Hulu, sports with ESPN, and live TV with Sling or DIRECTV now, to services like YouTube providing user-created content or apps for individual channels and creators, there's something for everyone. Unfortunately, due to the vast number of options, it's impossible to test everything. We have tested several of the more popular services, but, just like with a smartphone, it is necessary to download and try the apps you're interested in. The good news is that, while many services may charge for a subscription, it is usually possible to browse and even play samples before purchasing, which should give a good indication of whether the app and service will be accessible. Chromecast The Chromecast is the simplest device, while at the same time the most nuanced and varied in terms of app accessibility. There is no device interface. Setup is handled through the mobile app, and then streaming and management of content is done through whatever service's app you are wanting to stream from. Setup Setup of the Chromecast is extremely simple. Plug the device into a TV, attach the Micro USB charger, and launch the Google Home app. You will be prompted to set up the Chromecast. A four-character code will be displayed on the TV to verify that you are setting up the correct Chromecast, but unless you are setting up multiple devices at once, it is usually safe to just assume the device found is the correct one. There will then be a prompt to configure Wi-Fi followed by the prompt to sign into your Google Account. That's it. You can then open up your favorite app such as Netflix or YouTube, press the Cast button, and start watching. Watching content Whether or not you can watch the content you want is going to depend on three things. Most importantly, does the app or service support the Chromecast? Not every service does, and there are lists of supported services online. If the service you want isn't directly available, there may still be options which I will discuss later. The next factor will be which platform you're using, PC/Mac, iOS, or Android. Lastly the accessibility of the specific service on your chosen platform will need to be taken into account. For example, Netflix on either iOS or Android is quite usable, but the web player used on computers is largely inaccessible, and you are unlikely to be able to find the cast button if using a screen reader. Fortunately, most services come with free trials, so it should be relatively easy to determine if your desired combination of service and platform will work for you. Once content is playing, simply find and press the cast button, select your Chromecast, and the video will transfer from the device to the TV. You can still control the playback, pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. from the phone, but the content is now being streamed directly to the Chromecast without going through the phone or device first. If the content you want to watch isn't from a directly supported service, you may still have options. When using Google Chrome on a PC or Mac, you can cast a specific tab from the computer to the TV. This will display any content, a web page, a video, etc. from the computer onto the TV by way of the Chromecast. Similarly, if the content is on an Android phone, many phones allow you to mirror the screen to the Chromecast, which sends all system video and audio to the TV. Chromecast Accessibility As mentioned earlier, the Google Home app is used to set up the Chromecast. This app and the Chromecast setup process are completely accessible. Once the Chromecast is up and running, it is possible to manage the device's settings, screen saver, and other aspects of the Chromecast. As long as the underlying app is accessible, the process of sending video to the Chromecast is also accessible. Lastly, casting a tab in Chrome works well regardless of screen reader. Roku Devices Roku makes a number of streaming devices, from the Roku Express, a stick-like device designed for older TVs, to the Roku Ultra, a 4K-capable streaming box. Roku's software is also included on a number of televisions. While some services, called channels on the Roku, work quite well, others are completely inaccessible. The other problem is that the voice is rather low quality, such that the letters B, C, D, E, G, P, T, and V all sound very similar. Device setup The Roku is unique in that it is the only device that requires going to the Roku site to finish setup. Pressing the options button four times (the button is to the right of the directional pad) will enable the audio guide. Once the Roku is connected to Wi-Fi, it will prompt you to go to a page on the Roku site and enter a code to finish setup. The online process is accessible, though we had to do some digging to find the hidden link which allows an account to be created without a credit card for testing purposes. Once an account is created, the Roku will load the main interface. Using the Roku The Roku interface consists of a list of categories down the left and content to the right. This general theme holds true throughout many of the channels and apps. The device interface is navigated using the four-way directional buttons on the remote. It is possible to download a wide variety of channels from the channel store and apps from their own section. The Roku differentiates between channels, which are generally from content providers and have a consistent interface, and apps such as YouTube, with which I had much less success. Accessibility options The Roku has basic options for accessibility. For the audio guide, they consist of on/off, volume, and speech rate. There are also options for closed captioning. Audio Guide is only available in US English and will be disabled if another language is selected. A function to route the Roku audio through the mobile app unfortunately disables Audio Guide. There are no settings for low vision, but the font is generally large and readable, and contrast is good. The only issues for those with low vision is that in some channels such as Netflix, thumbnail images are used for content, and the name is not displayed until that item gets focus. When browsing, the name of the item, the index, and any other displayed info such as producer, runtime, etc. are announced automatically. However, there is no partial accessibility with this system; everything reads well, or the device goes completely silent. The Netflix account creation screen and the entire YouTube app are examples of this. There is no error message, no announcing of unlabeled buttons-it's as if accessibility has been switched off. When typing, the keyboard is similar to a qwerty layout, and the voice announces the letter, followed a couple seconds later by the phonetic pronunciation. This is fortunate due to the unclear nature of many letters as I discussed earlier. Browsing and playing content As I mentioned previously, the Roku has arguably the largest spread of content available, and when the service is accessible, it performs quite well provided you can understand the Roku's voice. Most channels have the categories, such as genres, featured, new releases, etc. down the left, with the relevant content accessed by pressing select and arrowing to the right. Once content is playing, pausing playback with the button in the second row below the directional buttons will allow access to the playback options including subtitles, language, and, if in Netflix or Amazon, audio description when available. Netflix, Amazon, Sling TV, and Twitch all performed solidly in testing, with YouTube and the Netflix account creation screens being the two major areas where access failed. Using the companion app Roku has a companion app for iOS and Android. After logging into your Roku account, you can see what's currently playing on the device, browse your channels and watch something, and send audio from the Roku to your phone or tablet, which is called "Private Listening" mode. While the interface wasn't the most intuitive, there were no major access issues. I was able to browse and get content playing. Once done, activating the private listening mode shuts off the Audio Guide, though the Roku remote can still control the device. Fortunately, when private listening is disabled, Audio Guide does come back automatically. Fire TV The Fire TV line of the devices, manufactured by Amazon, have solid accessibility and a much better voice than the Roku. However, many third- party apps struggle or fail completely when it comes to being accessible. A Fire TV comes integrated with Amazon's services including Amazon video and music, and it may be the best choice for someone heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem. The Fire TV comes in both a stick and box form, with the latter packing slightly more powerful internals. The remote has a search/Alexa button at the top, followed by a navigation ring with a select button at the center, and two rows of buttons below that with Back, Home, and Menu in the first row, and Rewind, Play, and Fast Forward in the second. Navigating and watching content is intuitive, with tabs across the top and the content below it. As with the Roku, a couple apps simply failed to talk, while others had some unlabeled buttons. Device setup After plugging in a Fire TV device for the first time, press and hold Home (the middle button under the navigation ring) for up to ten seconds to pair the remote. Next, press the Back and Menu buttons (which are to either side of the Home button) for two seconds to enable VoiceView, and launch the tutorial. Once the tutorial is either completed or exited, the rest of the setup proceeds. This consists of connecting to Wi-Fi, creating or logging into your Amazon account, and possibly installing a software update. After that, you land on the home screen. It initially took a few attempts to pair the remote, but once that succeeded the rest of the process was routine. Using the Fire TV Like most of the devices we reviewed, the Fire TV has a grid of options and installed apps, with a tab bar across the top. Use the four sides of the navigation ring to move around the grid, and press the center button to select something. This layout is generally consistent for both the standard interface and apps. Accessibility Under the accessibility section of settings you will find the controls for VoiceView. These consist of on/off, volume, and voice rate. Under accessibility you will also find options for captions and a high contrast mode. The voice that the Fire TV uses is from Ivona, a company bought by Amazon a few years ago. It is the same voice used on their Fire tablets and Kindle readers. VoiceView reads out items as they are focused, and there is a review mode that is accessed by holding the menu button to review onscreen text that's not normally focusable. For apps which have been made accessible, everything works beautifully. However, the Fire TV is the first of these devices where we experience graduated levels of accessibility. In some apps, such as the MLV app, most of the buttons are unlabeled, though it is possible to navigate with VoiceView. Once again, the YouTube app and the Netflix create account screen both do not talk at all with VoiceView. Browsing and playing content Playing content works much like other devices reviewed here. Select the service and content you want with the navigation ring, and press the center button. Once content is playing, using the bottom row of three buttons controls playback, with Rewind, Play, and Fast Forward from left to right. Again, pausing the playback grants access to subtitle, language, and possibly audio description content when available in Netflix or Amazon video. NVidia Shield The NVidia Shield is a streaming box running Android TV. The Shield is definitely geared more toward gaming, as it comes with an Xbox style gaming controller in the box. The Shield remote consists of a navigation ring at the top, with Back and Home buttons underneath, and a Search button underneath that. The bottom of the remote has a touch-sensitive volume bar vertically down the center. While a neat idea in concept, in practice it is imprecise and often resulted in drastic volume changes when picking up the remote or even when the palm of my hand grazed it while navigating around the interface. Because this box is running on Android TV, it uses TalkBack as its screen reader. This has both benefits and drawbacks as we will see later. Device setup Setting up the device had to be done with sighted assistance. We attempted to enable talkback on the setup screen, and while the Shield indicated TalkBack was on, there was no spoken feedback. With sighted help, we proceeded through the setup screens which were simply the usual connect to Wi-Fi, install software updates, and sign into a Google account. Once the Shield was up and running, we were finally able to launch TalkBack through settings. Unfortunately, there were many navigation and focus issues until we updated TalkBack through the Play store. Finally, we were ready for testing. Using the NVidia Shield The home screen of the NVidia Shield has a grid of your installed apps at the top, followed by all the various Google Play apps, with links to various settings below that, and finally suggested games and apps you might like. As with other devices, use the navigation ring to move through the various screens, and press the center button to select something. Unlike the Roku or Fire TV, the layout is less consistent but is still generally straightforward. They usually consist of either a tab bar across the top with content below, or a vertical list on the left and a grid of content to the right. Accessibility options Since the Shield uses Android and TalkBack, many of the same accessibility options available on Android phones are present here also, including some that don't apply such as the explore by touch setting. There is also the possibility to use alternate text-to-speech engines if desired. When using TalkBack, the first oddity that you'll notice is that its accessibility hints are for a Bluetooth keyboard, not a remote. While this doesn't break anything accessibility-wise, it could be confusing when a new user hears "Press Alt+Enter to activate." Google should probably either come up with some generic hints for remote-based controls, or just do away with the hints entirely when using a remote. It is also important to make sure TalkBack is updated after initial setup. Before updating TalkBack, it wasn't focusing some items, and I sometimes couldn't activate some buttons in different apps. These problems went away once TalkBack was updated. Browsing and playing content The way you navigate with the Shield should be quite familiar by now. Move around with the navigation ring, and press the center button to play something. The difference here is there is no dedicated 'play' button. Instead, once content starts playing, pressing the center button brings up a set of onscreen playback controls, similar to how content is handled on a phone. Navigate to and press the desired button to pause, rewind, etc. Depending on the app being used, there is also likely a control to bring up a menu with the usual subtitle, language, and audio description options. There were two main app accessibility issues encountered when doing testing. The first is, you guessed it, the inaccessible Netflix sign up screen, though this one adds in its own brand of extra fun. The Back button on the remote, which will back you out of the screen on all other devices, does nothing here. You either have to navigate to the inaccessible Back button and press it with no speech feedback, or press the Home button and go do something else until the Netflix app gets closed by the system and you can sign in properly. Once signed in, the app works beautifully as always. The second problem is not the YouTube app, which actually works quite well. Rather it is the Amazon video app. There seems to be a conflict between it and TalkBack, because there is an announcement that text-to- speech is active after signing in, but pressing any of the directional buttons does nothing, even visually. The only option from here is to press the Home button and go onto something else. The Shield also has a large variety of games available, but they are largely inaccessible and are outside the scope of this article. The Android TV Remote app During testing we located a third-party Android TV remote app for iOS. This app provides an accessible way of remotely controlling the NVidia Shield from an iPhone. The app provides two different interfaces. The first shows the various buttons on the remote. It is possible to flick through and double-tap them with VoiceOver, and they're all labeled. The second method has a touchpad which works with VoiceOver's direct touch feature, where it is possible to flick left, right, up, or down to simulate pressing the buttons, and tap to activate. There is no ability to search for shows or stream audio to the app, but the remote functions are solid and accessible. Apple TV Since VoiceOver was introduced in the Apple TV second generation, it has been the first and often only stop for blind consumers looking for an accessible streaming box. With the second and third generation Apple TV, the user experience was tightly controlled by Apple, meaning that users could generally expect a solid, accessible experience no matter what channel was added. Things have changed somewhat with the current fourth generation. The App Store has come to the Apple TV along with third-party apps. This means that app developers now control the accessibility of their app rather than Apple. The good news is that many apps are at least as usable and often more accessible than their phone counterparts. But as with every other app and operating system, not everything is perfect. The remote on the Apple TV is also rather different than the rest. It charges via lightning cable and has a touch sensitive surface at the top. Below this are a column of three buttons on the left consisting of Back, Siri, and Play/Pause from top to bottom. To the right of this is another column consisting of a Home button at the top, then a long up/down volume button. Navigating the Apple TV is done with many of the same VoiceOver gestures you would use on the iPhone. Device setup On first setup, pressing the menu button three times quickly will launch VoiceOver. You can either set up the Apple TV by giving it the same account and network settings from a nearby iPhone, or you can enter things manually. The manual setup is a straightforward lineup of language, network, Apple ID, and permission setting. The only downside in this process, which isn't necessarily related to accessibility, is that the keyboard is in one long line, and it doesn't wrap. For example, to type just the first three letters of Washington, starting from the letter A, you'd need to flick twenty-two times right to W, twenty-two times left back to A, then eighteen times right to the S, continuing in this way through the rest of the word. This gets very tedious very quickly. A Bluetooth keyboard can be configured once things are up and running, but this doesn't help during setup. Using the Apple TV The Apple TV's home screen is rather different than some of the other devices. It is a grid with five columns and as many rows as there are apps to fill them. Swiping in any direction will move the cursor in that direction and read out the item in focus. To select something, use a single click of the remote. Apple refers to it as a tap, but just tapping the remote won't do anything. You need to apply enough pressure to feel a slight click. Assuming you signed into an Apple ID, you can simply go to the App store, to the purchases tab, and download any prior purchases that have Apple TV apps. These will get added to your home screen at the end of the list of current apps, as will anything new you download. Accessibility options In the accessibility section of settings, there is a slimmed down version of the VoiceOver settings on a regular iPhone. You can adjust the speech rate, choose from several different voices, edit a pronunciation dictionary, turn on or off the triple press menu shortcut, and more. It is also possible to enable Zoom, Apple TV's magnification, from the accessibility settings menu. You can specify to always display captions and/or always play audio descriptions when available. VoiceOver and Zoom can also be turned on or off from anywhere by asking Siri. Hold in the middle button in the left column and say, "turn on VoiceOver." VoiceOver on the Apple TV retains much of the feel of VoiceOver on the iPhone, with a few notable differences. Three finger gestures aren't supported on the Apple TV, I suspect partially because there really isn't enough room on the remote. The rotor is present with many of the usual options. In the default mode, called Explore, flicking in any of the four directions functions equivalently to using the directional buttons on the other devices. Once the rotor has been changed to another setting, flicking up and down will move by the selected unit, while flicking left or right will immediately return the rotor to its default setting and navigation will resume as normal. Browsing and playing content Apple TV is tightly integrated with other Apple services. Your purchased music and videos and your Apple Music subscription are all immediately available. All your purchased or rented TV shows and movies appear in the TV app. From here you can also browse and search for shows you may want to watch. Accessibility across many of the major services is very strong. Netflix, YouTube, Sling TV, ESPN, and others all were very accessible. In the case of Sling, it worked far better than the iPhone version. When playing music, the music will keep playing while you navigate the interface, but video will stop when you leave the playback screen. Finding and playing content from Netflix or any other app works much like the other devices discussed. Once something is playing, use the Play/Pause button in the bottom left in conjunction with the touch interface to manipulate the playback and select the usual options. The Remote app There is an Apple TV remote app for iOS. Similar to the Android TV app, it allows you to manipulate the Apple TV from an iPhone. The interface uses direct touch, but it was inconsistent. Focus kept moving to one of the surrounding buttons, it would interpret the wrong gesture, and things were just generally flaky. If you want to use a different interface than the remote, I'd recommend a Bluetooth keyboard over the app. Xbox One The Xbox One, unlike the other boxes discussed, is primarily targeted at gamers. All the main interface, the Microsoft account integration, and the main apps available are games and gaming-related. The Xbox has Narrator built in. Narrator works almost identically to the Windows 10 version if you're using a keyboard. If using a controller, you can toggle between a mode controlling the Xbox and a special narrator mode for reviewing onscreen text. While the native interface works quite well, many of the apps we tried provided little or no accessibility. As such I would not recommend an Xbox for entertainment purposes at this time. Conclusion As you can see, several viable options are out there when it comes to streaming content to a TV. Whether you want the dead simple Chromecast, the very accessible Apple TV, the Alexa integration of the Fire TV, or the content availability on the Roku, the choice really comes down to personal preference. No device is perfectly accessible, but yet none are completely unusable. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Roku all have accessibility pages for the various devices where you can learn more, and I would encourage you to reach out to both device manufacturers and app developers to encourage them to continue improving the accessibility of their apps. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Jenny Lay-Flurrie] The Future of Equal Access to Technology: A Commitment to the Journey at Microsoft by Jenny Lay-Flurrie From the Editor: Here is the way President Riccobono introduced this address on Saturday morning, July 15, 2017: "This next presentation is one that I've been looking forward to. It's 'The Future of Equal Access to Technology: A Commitment to the Journey at Microsoft.' You will remember that in January of 2015 I went to meet with Satya Nadella who is the chief executive of Microsoft. We had a very open and honest conversation about accessibility, what Microsoft needed to do, and how we could be involved. It was at that meeting that for the first time I met our speaker today. It was very clear at that time that she stood out as a passionate champion for accessibility and for making things happen at Microsoft. She's also a keen listener to the hopes and dreams and concerns that we have as an organization, and for that I'm grateful. You should also know that she's clearly someone who acts in the spirit of the National Federation of the Blind. Her biography includes a quotation from her-I can't say it in her accent, but she says, "My commitment is to face brick wall moments head on and climb the bloody wall rather than trying to resign." She faces the hard questions; she faces the hard situations in her own life, and she brings that to Microsoft, where she is pushing the company internally-in the style that we would want-to make sure that Microsoft maintains a high level of commitment. Let me say this also: she has figured out a way to engineer resources to partner with the National Federation of the Blind, not just on technology, where we are having very honest conversations, but Microsoft, because of this lady's efforts, has made a commitment to KNFB Reader for Windows, which is currently on sale thanks to Microsoft. Also Microsoft has put significant resources into our Youth Slam this summer, as well as other initiatives. So here for a presentation is Jenny Lay-Flurrie:" Good morning, how are ya? I was terrified about which quote Mark was going to use. But I think he did it bloody well. What do you think? [Applause] It is a huge pleasure to be here. I'm not from these parts; I'm not Australian either. I am from a small country across the pond where the temperature is significantly lower than it is here in Florida, but here I am, still with a leather jacket on, because it is so bloody cold in this room. [The ladies applaud and yell out, "I'm with you."] It's seriously a pleasure to be here, and I've been really excited to come. To give you a bit of an introduction, I am British. I started working for Microsoft in 2005, but my background is actually as a music major. So I absolutely loved the talent show last night-my God there is some talent in this room. I came to information technology by mistake-I came to it because, while I realized I had a degree in music, I was a really bad musician, and I needed to earn money to pay my rent. So I started working at a company called The Daily Mirror; anyone heard of that? It's a really high-quality newspaper in the UK. It was edited at the time by Piers Morgan; I'm moving on. [The audience did not react, but Piers Morgan was the editor of a tabloid and was involved with a phone hacking scandal involving the use of ill-gotten voicemails.] So when I came to Microsoft, I found that I loved it. It's all about problem-solving and empowerment, and that is what grooves for me. So when I came to Microsoft I was excited because of the opportunity ahead, and also as someone with profound deafness, I thought that Microsoft would be a company where I wouldn't have to speak to people every day- because email is such a good thing. I actually found that was not the case. People like to communicate, and it's such a tragedy for me, someone who is deaf, because I actually hit many of those brick walls. That got me into the deaf community, which, because I am nosy or curious depending on your lens, meant that I then joined every disability group at Microsoft. There were six of them at the time. In fact our VIP [visually impaired persons] community dates back over twenty years. There were six communities then; now there are fifteen. We joined them up, and I have had the sheer honor of being the chair of that community for the last ten years. You know we talk about Satya Nadella; before he became CEO he was the executive sponsor of that community, and my first conversation with him involved me sitting down with technology on the table and him saying, "Okay, tell me how this works. Fill me in." We spent hours walking through what was great and what was not and looking at the opportunity that we had. We have an annual conference every year called the Ability Summit which is for our employees, and we had about eight hundred to a thousand people in the last three years at that conference, and he spoke at five of the last seven ability summits. To say that we have a level of commitment is an understatement, and when he came in as CEO, he put a phrase in the mission statement of the company which is to empower every person in every organization, and I literally cheered and self-levitated because I think that is why you want to work in tech. So when I had the insane opportunity to become chief accessibility officer in January of last year, I jumped at the chance. [applause] I'll take that applause-it's early. I've now been in Seattle eleven years, so I have an IV of coffee next to me-cheers to Washington State. Now in the twenty years from the time when Bill Gates announced our commitment to accessibility in 1997 (Curtis Chong told me that he was at Microsoft in 1993), I was not in diapers, but I was significantly younger then. Sorry, Curtis. We've had moments in accessibility in technology of sheer bloody brilliance in that time, and we've also had moments of ugliness; we are very, very aware of that. But our opportunity has been to change that and to really move it forward. So we've been focused on a few things. Because if we are going to make this long-term, durable, and sustainable in the fabric of the company, then this isn't a one-hit wonder. This is about embedding it into the culture, making people with disabilities who are the challenge, who are the strength that we need at Microsoft-if we're going to create great, accessible products, services, websites, and more, we've got to make that something where we are truly inclusive. So I've been hiring some great people into Microsoft. Anil Lewis tells me that Anne Taylor is on loan to me-she's not! She is mine! Yes, I have the microphone and Anil doesn't. What I will tell you is that Anne is doing amazing work. [Applause] I know she is listening on the radio. Anne and every other member of our blindness and low vision community are working with products like Office, like Windows, like our buildings-we now have Braille in all of our kitchens: on coffeemakers, on microwaves, on tea. We have tactile strips going into our new building. We're working on a new unparalleled level of accessibility, and the Seattle Lighthouse is helping us with our new hires. What Anne has been able to do to make us more accessible and more transparent and accountable is absolutely fantastic. We also want to be approachable, so we redid the website Microsoft.com/accessibility. If you know the old one, microsoft.com/enable, it's dead. I apologize, but it's gone. We found that we needed to put a lot more information out there, so there are thousands of hours of videos and how-to content across the spectrum of our products. We put out user forums; we want to hear what works and what doesn't because your feedback is the gold dust that will help us do better in the future. We are also out there on social media. Who's heard of Microsoft Enable? This is our Twitter handle. Oh, you need to add it. My Twitter name is Jennylayfluffy; they asked if I was going to change my Twitter handle when I came into this job. I said no. But we've also expanded other services like DAD-our disability answer desk. Has anyone used our support service? [Applause] We now take over 20,000 calls to this desk every month from customers with disabilities, and the major customer base that uses it is the blind community. [applause] So let's just talk about the products quickly, and then let's talk about the fun stuff. I think that with our products we've been working incredibly hard in the last couple of years to build a brand-new bar of accessibility that is across the span. Let me talk about Office for a minute. Who's heard of Office 365? You know, we're moving faster now. Office 365 is updated every month. In fact Matt and a few others let me know of a few issues with Skype with VoiceOver in the last couple of weeks, and we were able to ship a fix that is now in production this weekend. We are able to respond quicker, and in January of last year we actually relaunched all of those products-sixty-five different permutations of products across the Windows, Android, and iOS platforms. At Microsoft there is a brand-new bar of compliance: we put the VPATS [voluntary product accessibility templates] up for those who want VPATS. We put them all up on the website, and we updated everything. It meant that we had to rearchitect several products. We rearchitected OneNote to be far more accessible by design. Across the span of our products we again really dug down deep to make sure that we have the right level of content, whether you're using Narrator, JAWS, NVDA, or any of the other accessible technologies that are out there today. [applause] There is some fun stuff as well. Automatic alt text is something we've been working on for a while. It's now embedded into Office. You can pull your picture in using PowerPoint Designer, and with one click put your picture in, and it will create the slide for you and put alt text in it automatically. It will even tell you how good it is: high confidence, low confidence-and it will give you the ability to edit it if you don't like what it says. Windows 10 XP is dead. Can we move on? With Windows 10 we have this opportunity-and we were painfully aware of it-to really make sure that not only our first party screen reading and magnification came up to a brand- new bar, but also our partnership with third party providers. We can empower both, and that is our strategy. We've really been working on the usability of Narrator. Does anyone use Narrator? I see some waving. Waving really does help a deaf girl by the way. You can yell all you like-not hearing it. But Narrator will now read controls more accurately; it has scan mode turned on by default; there's a lot of stuff in here, and I'm probably going to blow up. But we added Braille, and Braille is something I know folks have been asking for a long time, and we put that in in the spring. You've also got twenty-seven languages now and six levels of verbosity. Coming up we've got a real big focus on magnification, on color filters, and the color filters are really cool by the way. The color filters came from a hack-who's heard of a hack? Anyone hacking? No. Hackathon! So I know that we're acronym rich at Microsoft. Hackathons are where you put a bunch of really smart people in a room with no light and a lot of pizza for two days, and you lock them in, and you go and tackle a crazy challenge that's going to empower. That's what a hack is, and some of this came from hack. Our vision and commitment to Narrator is clear and continues going forward, as does our relationship with third parties. We were also really honored to work with the NFB and KNFB to bring that to Windows 10, which launched earlier this year. [Applause] Before I close or get kicked off the stage, let me talk about a couple of the ways in which we want to invest in the future. We've got this research division at Microsoft, and we have this hacking culture-in fact, I'm going back tomorrow to get ready for our company hackathon which kicks off internally at Microsoft in just over a week. Some of the projects really ground me back to that mission. One of them is a project called Project Torino. We like to give things funky names. Project Torino came from a mom in the UK who is one of our amazing researchers at Microsoft. She is the mom of a kid who is blind, and she saw education as key and particularly in empowering kids to learn how to code. So Torinos are really these tactile pods. Imagine holding your hand out and in it you have a cylindrical pod that has tactile waves and triangles and different things on them. Think about putting those into the hands of seven- to eleven-year- olds. If you attach different wires to each of the pods, you create music. By creating music you are learning how to code. So we put an app alongside it, and this is a project that is going into a school as a pilot this fall. [applause] Across the span of Office, Windows, and innovation, we want to empower people to be independent, to collaborate, to just create content. We want to empower kids, and when we put this out, the folks that signed up- a lot of them were teenagers who hadn't had the opportunity to learn to code in between the ages of seven and eleven. We need to work to build the pipeline of talent coming into tech, and this is one small but very significant step. And let me tell you: I'm hiring. Microsoft is hiring. We see disability as a strength. We want people with disabilities in the fabric of our company, and I can't get enough talent. I need your help to build that talent. [applause] I'll share the last project, which some of you may have heard of. In fact on Wednesday there was a crew over in London, and they launched twelve projects in the area of artificial intelligence, which doesn't mean robots or scary movies. It means the ability to bring things like computer vision into the hands of people. Three out of those twelve projects were accessibility related; three of them-huge. One of those was about colorblindness, an app called Binoculars. Download it. It's in the iOS store now. The other was something that is very personal for me which is the ability to real-time caption. This is now embedded into PowerPoint. The third was a project called Seeing Ai. Who has heard of Seeing Ai? Give me a hand. That is awesome. For those who haven't, this is a brand-new research app. It's an example of how Ai can really be used to help people to achieve more. It features all the ways to bring in the cognitive services into one toolkit. What it means to you is that it is an app you can download. You can then point it at a barcode, and it will tell you what that barcode is. You can point it at a person, and it will tell you a couple of things about that person: it will tell you the color of their hair, whether they're smiling or not, and it will also tell you their age. [Amazed skepticism] It's not always accurate. I pointed it at me last night, and it said I was sixty-seven-I am not sixty-seven! We know we have work to do; that's why it's a research project. It's available in several markets, and I'd really love for folks to check it out. You can read documents with it, and it's right there on the iOS platform. Please check it out, because these technologies really help us to lead the future. We have an unemployment rate that is criminal, in my point of view, for people with disabilities. [Applause] I'm one of them. There was a time when someone told me that I would never achieve much. Boy were they wrong. I'm proud; I'm so proud of who I am. I wasn't always honest about my disability, but I firmly believe that it is because of it that I am able to do what I do within the company and in a supportive company like Microsoft. So please, help us to do more, help us to get better. We want to get the word out; we want to get these products into companies, into governments, and we want your feedback. So, whether it's by Twitter, user voice, or calling our support line and telling us what is working and what is not, we desperately want your feedback. I believe that together we have the power to change that unemployment rate, and I think we should go after that goal. Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Print/Braille measuring cups] Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the every-day independence of blind individuals. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away and Christmas, Hanukkah, and other end of the year holidays are just around the corner after that. Preparing and consuming delicious foods is part of all these holiday traditions. Many blind cooks love making delectable meals as much as their sighted peers. For some recipes it is important to measure ingredients accurately. The Independence Market sells various helpful tools. We carry two different types of measuring cups and spoons which are labeled in Braille and large print. If you need to weigh your ingredients, you can choose between two models of talking kitchen scales. Timing the cooking or baking process and checking the temperature of foods are important techniques which contribute to the successful outcome of meal preparation. The Independence Market carries both talking and tactile timers. Our all-purpose cooking thermometer can be used to check the temperature of meats and candy. And with the pot clip accessory it is easier to monitor the temperature of soups and sauces simmering on the stove. The all-purpose infrared thermometer is a useful tool for those using a flattop range. We have other kitchen gadgets you may find useful. The knife with slicing guide enables the user to slice many foods evenly. The guide is adjustable to vary the width of slices. The double-spatula/tongs make it easy to turn over items when cooking. And the nylon spatula tongs protect your non-stick cookware. The liquid level indicator makes it easier to pour hot liquids, particularly into a cup or glass. Our egg separator makes the task of splitting the yolk from the egg white easy. And if you would like to prepare southern fried cornbread, a favorite of our former President Kenneth Jernigan, we have the cornbread kit devised by him. The kit contains a cast iron muffin pan which makes twelve scallop- shape muffins and a cooking template to guide you in getting the batter into the hot muffin pan. Print and Braille copies of the cornbread recipe are also included. If you need to mark some appliances before you cook up a storm for the holidays, we have various stick-on bumps and tactile marking paint to help you to do so. Labeling foodstuffs makes it easier to stay organized in the kitchen. We carry adhesive labeling sheets, clear labeling tape, magnetic labeling tape, and Braillable food labels. We also recently started selling large-print stick-on letters with Braille characters, which allow the user to create their own print/Braille labels. If you would like to copy down a favorite family recipe, we carry Braille paper and various slates and styluses as well as dark line notepads and bold writing pens. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence-market. You may also contact us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Idaho. Taco Soup by Susan Bradley Susan Bradley is the president of the Treasure Valley Chapter in Boise, Idaho, and secretary of the Idaho affiliate. She has been a member of the NFB since 2000, when she found out she was legally blind due to retinitis pigmentosa. Susan works part-time at the Commission on Aging, and she loves working with seniors and blind people of all ages. This recipe is one that she and her sister like to share with friends. Ingredients 1-1/2 pounds ground beef 1 small can stewed tomatoes 1 can kidney beans, drained 1 15-ounce can chili beans with juice 1 can corn with juice 1 small onion 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1 envelope mild taco seasoning Method: Boil these ingredients together for fifteen minutes. Serve on top of Fritos corn chips; then add shredded cheese and sour cream on top. This is a great fall and winter dish. ---------- Green Beans with Onions and Almonds by Dana Ard Dana is the current president of the National Federation of the Blind of Idaho. She is also a member of two choirs and a thirty-five-year member of Toastmasters. She adapted this recipe and says that it is a good alternative to the traditional green bean casserole. Dana has used it as a part of Thanksgiving dinner with her family. Ingredients: 2 teaspoons olive oil 4 cups sliced onions (about 2 large onions) 1 16-ounce package frozen green beans 1/4 cup slivered almonds Salt and pepper to taste Method: Heat the oil in a nonstick fry pan. Add onions and cook, stirring often, for twenty-five to thirty minutes until tender and lightly brown. Cook green beans according to package directions or until desired tenderness. Drain and add to onions. Toast almonds if desired and add to beans and onions. ---------- Jan's Brownies by Dana Ard Jan Gawith has been in the Federation since 1960 and has attended fifty-six consecutive national conventions. Jan taught home ec at the Idaho Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and Dana remembers her time in that class and the lesson she learned from her fellow Federationist: "Jan was a wise teacher. She knew I could learn to open a can, but she also knew that I didn't have to open all the cans to be successful. She had high expectations, but she modified her curriculum to fit my abilities as a student. I am grateful for her wisdom." Ingredients: 1 stick softened butter or margarine 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 eggs 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 pound can Hershey's chocolate syrup Method: Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, then mix. Add chocolate syrup, and mix to combine. Grease a ten-by-fifteen- inch baking pan. Bake at 350 for twenty-five to thirty minutes, checking with a toothpick after twenty-five minutes. Frost with recipe listed below. Frosting: 6 tablespoons real butter, softened 6 tablespoons milk 1-1/3 cups sugar 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 teaspoon vanilla pinch of salt Method: In a medium saucepan combine butter, milk, and sugar, bring to a rolling boil and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth. Pour evenly over brownies. ---------- Grandma's Potato Rolls by Dana Ard This is an old family recipe; Dana's grandmother made these rolls every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ingredients: 1/2 cup mashed potatoes (1 small potato) 1/2 cup milk 1 egg well beaten 1/3 cup butter 1/4 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt 2-1/2 cups flour 1 package active dry yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water Method: Scald milk. Add butter, sugar, salt, egg, and potato. Combine yeast and water and add. Add 1/2 cup flour and mix well. Add more flour to make dough that you can mix with your hands. Let rise for one hour. Roll out on floured board or pastry cloth. Cut dough using a glass. Fold each circle over and pinch edges to close. Let rise twenty to thirty minutes. Bake on cookie sheet at 375 for fifteen to twenty minutes. ---------- Huckleberry Cream Cheese Squares by Mary Ellen Halverson Mary Ellen is a longtime member of the NFB and a current member of the Treasure Valley Chapter. She has attended numerous state and national conventions and is a much-loved and valuable member of the NFB of Idaho. Huckleberries are a variety of wild berry native to the northwestern United States and Canada. Ingredients: Graham cracker layer: 1 13-1/2 ounce package graham cracker crumbs 3/4 cup margarine, melted 1/2 cup sugar Huckleberry filling layer: 3 cups huckleberries 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 cup sugar Cream cheese layer: 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese 1 cup sugar 1 12-ounce carton Cool Whip, thawed 2 teaspoons vanilla Method: Bring huckleberries, cornstarch, and sugar to boil. It should be a little thick; if it's too thick to stir, add a LITTLE bit of water at the beginning. Set this aside to cool, or put it in the refrigerator. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press half of the mixture into bottom of foil-lined nine-by-twelve-inch pan. Mash cream cheese until soft, and gradually beat in sugar and vanilla. Fold in whipped topping. Layer half of the cream cheese layer on top of the graham cracker mixture in pan. Then spread all of the cooled huckleberry mixture on top of the cream cheese layer. Then layer the second half of the cream cheese mixture and top with the second half of the crumb mixture. Refrigerate before serving. ---------- Homemade Ice Cream by Sandy Streeter Sandy Streeter is a longtime member of the NFB and has served in many capacities and on many committees in several affiliates and chapters. She is the current president of the Snake River Valley Chapter and the first vice president of the NFB of Idaho. Sandy says, "This is a homemade ice cream recipe, which my daughter Erin feels she has tweaked from her dad's recipe. In our family, homemade ice cream was always a birthday tradition while my children were growing up. It didn't matter the time of the year. Enjoy!" Ingredients: 5 egg yolks 2/3 cup sugar 2 cans condensed milk 4-2/3 cups milk 1-1/3 cups heavy whipping cream 1-1/2 tablespoons vanilla Method: Beat egg yolks and heavy cream; then add sugar and mix. Add condensed milk and mix. Add remaining milk and vanilla, and mix one final time. Pour into your ice cream container, and I like to add enough milk to bring the mixture up to the mark in your container. Have fun cranking your ice cream freezer or sit back and let the electric one do the work. Makes four quarts. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Married: Eric Duffy and Shelley Johns were married at the NFB Jernigan Institute on Sunday, September 10, 2017. Eric and Shelley have known each other since elementary school at the Ohio State School for the Blind. Eric is the director of access technology at the Jernigan Institute, and Shelley is the receptionist who greets us when we come to the Institute and politely answers our calls when we telephone. Congratulations to the new couple. Elected: The 2017 board of the National Association of Blind Merchants is as follows: president, Nicky Gacos; first vice president, Harold Wilson; second vice president, Edward Birmingham; secretary, Sharon Treadway; treasurer, Pam Schnurr; and board members Gene Fleeman, Melissa Smith, Zachary Snow, Melba J. Taylor, John Fritz, Lewanda Miranda, Joe Higdon, and Debra Smith. Krafters Korner: Do you have a favorite craft? Would you like to learn a new craft? Would you like to share your favorite craft with others? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Krafters Korner is the place for you! Dues are $20 and entitle you to a host of free things throughout the year such as our email listserv where you can network with other blind crafters. We also offer craft classes over the phone and by email. Classes have included: origami, knitting, crocheting, safety pin crafts, sewing, jewelry, soap-making, and plastic canvas. Upcoming classes for November and December are listed below: Wednesday, November 1, Thanksgiving Cloth, email Thursday, November 2, Pony Bead Christmas Tree, phone Tuesday, November 7, Pony Bead Indian Corn, phone Tuesday, November 14, Pony Bead Pumpkin, phone Wednesday, November 15, Knitted Miniature Cable Sweater Ornament, email Wednesday, November 15, Pony Bead Snowman, phone Tuesday, December 5, Holiday Pony Bead, phone Thursday, December 7, Holiday Craft, phone Krafters Korner also holds Monday Chats. Join us at 8:30 PM EST for fun and information about all things crafts. We meet via phone conference and discuss issues related to the division and how others work at their craft from a blindness perspective. Call (605) 475-4000 and enter the code 966659# to join us. For more information about Krafters Korner, contact President Joyce Kane by phone at (203) 378-8928 or by email at blindhands at aol.com. Join Us! Elected: The National Association to Promote the Use of Braille elected the following officers: president, Steven Booth; first vice president, Sandy Halverson; second vice president, Linda Mentink; secretary, Deborah Brown; treasurer, Peggy Chong. A Group in the Planning Come, one and all, blind and visually impaired Federationists who have cerebral palsy, to assist in the development of an active, lively, independent, and vibrant group of blind and visually impaired Americans with cerebral palsy. The purpose of this group will be to provide techniques, networking, mentoring, problem-solving techniques, and mutual support for blind people with both of these disabilities. Our goal is to better understand the challenges these disabilities pose singularly and together. Meetings will be held by conference call (phone number (712) 831-0000 followed by pin 999999 pound) on the first Monday of each month from 8 to 10 PM EST. The first meeting will be on December 4, 2017. Exceptions in 2018 are: January's meeting will be on the 8th; July's meeting will be on the 30th; and November's meeting will be on the 26th. We hope to hold a face-to-face meeting at the July 2018 national convention in Orlando, Florida. To assist in developing this group, write to Alexander Scott Kaiser in Braille at 52 Meadowbrook Road, Brick Township, NJ 08723-7850. Also, my email address is NFBCPGroup at aol.com, and my phone number is (848) 205-0208. In Brief Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we have edited only for space and clarity. Seedlings Braille Books for Children's 2018 catalog now available: Seedlings Braille Books for Children's 2018 catalog is now available! If you have not already received a copy in the mail and would like one sent to you, contact our office at (800) 777-8552 or info at seedlings.org with your name and address. Or, view our catalog online at http://www.seedlings.org/order.php for the most up-to-date offerings. Seedlings' catalog features more than 1,300 classic and contemporary books for children ages birth to twenty-one, including more than 370 titles in UEB. Introducing the Blind Mice Swap Shop-Sell, Swap, Buy, and Promote Services and Events: The Mice receive calls every day asking if we buy or can help sell used or unwanted things in BlindMiceMegaMall.com. Unfortunately the Mice don't deal in used products, but here is the place they have built just for this purpose. The Blind Mice Swap Shop is the place for sellers, traders, and buyers to find each other! Do you have something you don't want anymore? Post it on the Blind Mice Swap Shop. Have something you just don't use? Post it on the Blind Mice Swap Shop. Got something new to sell? Post it on the Blind Mice Swap Shop. Do you provide a service that might be helpful to other blind and visually impaired folks? Post it on the Blind Mice Swap Shop. Have an announcement about an upcoming event beneficial to the blind and visually impaired community? Post it on the Blind Mice Swap Shop. Joining is easy and free! Just send a blank email to us at blindmiceswapshop+subscribe at groups.io, and you are on your way to the Blind Mice Swap Shop! Here are some tips for a successful post to the Blind Mice Swap Shop: . The subject line should be representative of your post so Swap Shop members will know what is in your post. . Be sure that the subject line reflects what you have to sell or trade. If you are looking to buy an item, it should be clearly stated. List members will decide to open or delete your post by what is in your subject line. . If selling, your successful post should include: 1. A great product description. Include all the details you can of the product you are offering for sale. This should include, but not be limited to: if it is new or used, a description of the item, its size, and any technical info you can find on it. 2. Your asking price for the item 3. Shipping Cost 4. Where you are willing to ship: i.e., US mainland only, US and Canada only, etc. 5. The carrier you will use to ship: i.e., Postal Service using Free Matter, First Class Mail or Priority Mail, UPS, or Fed Ex. 6. The methods of payment you will accept 7. Your contact information: i.e., email address, phone number. Note: If posting your phone number, it is good to also list the hours you will be available to take calls. Blind Mice Inc., its employees, and affiliates are not responsible for any transaction entered into between list members. All members are solely responsible for all decisions made when conducting business and deals on this list. ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Thu Dec 21 09:55:07 2017 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2017 09:55:07 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, December 2017 Message-ID: <201712211755.vBLHt7TT014882@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 60, No. 11 December 2017 Gary Wunder, Editor Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND Mark Riccobono, President telephone: (410) 659-9314 email address: nfb at nfb.org website address: http://www.nfb.org NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org NFB-NEWSLINE? information: (866) 504-7300 Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES. ISSN 0006-8829 ? 2017 by the National Federation of the Blind Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped. You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device. Vol. 60, No. 11 December 2017 Contents Illustration: Technological Team-Up: The Federation Sponsors Its First Hackathon Convention Bulletin 2018 The Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving by Barbara Pierce Merchants' BLAST Conference Soars to New Heights by Terry Smith Why Not Hire Yourself? by Mike Bullis The Secret to Winning a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship by Cayte Mendez Social Security, SSI, and Medicare Facts for 2018 by John Par? The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards by James Gashel National Federation of the Blind and Automakers Host Conference on the Promise of Autonomous Vehicles and the Disability Community The 2018 Blind Educator of the Year Award by Edward Bell Confrontation at the Capitol: The Fight to Stop H.R. 620 by Kyle Walls The Blind Can Participate in Worship and Bible Study by Susan Povinelli Running to Catch the Elusive Dream of Fitness and Accomplishment by Jessica Beecham The Power of the Mind: Research Exploring the Capacity of the Blind by Marina Bedny Preparing His Granddaughter for a Life Without Sight..................................................................... by Jon Tevlin Teachers Talk: Working with Parents Who Happen to be Blind by Melissa Riccobono The Story of Ele by Naomi Mills Make a Difference by Patti Chang and Anna Adler The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris The 2018 Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award by Carla McQuillan The Holman Prize Sets Sail: Who Won This Year's Prize for "Blind Ambition," and Why by Sheri Wells-Jensen Supporting Equality for Blind Americans: A New Sheriff in the United States House of Representatives by Val Demings Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Awareness Day in Cincinnati by Annie McEachirn Carson Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO/CAPTION: Team A discusses the challenges posed by translating information from Google Maps into text.] [PHOTO/CAPTION: Team B discusses methods to give feedback on pulse, speed, and other information to blind athletes.] [PHOTO/CAPTION: Two members of Team B take a moment to pose for the camera.] [PHOTO/CAPTION: Team A presents their conclusions to the group at the end of the day.] Technological Team-Up: The Federation Sponsors Its First Hackathon I have heard of hacking, but what in the world is a hackathon, and why would the National Federation of the Blind be involved in it? According to Wikipedia, a hackathon is "a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and others, often including subject-matter-experts, collaborate intensively on software projects. The goal of a hackathon is to create usable software." Sigaccess is a special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM brings together computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. Sigaccess promotes the interests of professionals working on research and development of computing and information technology to help people with disabilities. The National Federation of the Blind in partnership with Sigaccess hosted a hackathon. The theme was accessible tracking, both of one's physical location and one's physical condition. One team focused on accessible mapping, and the other focused on accessing information about heart rate and other information while exercising. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Convention Bulletin 2018 Rosen Shingle Creek Resort It is time to begin planning for the 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind. We will again meet in Orlando and will once more be staying at the beautiful Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. This will be Federationists' last opportunity for a while to enjoy the Rosen hospitality we have come to love and the myriad activities that the Orlando area has to offer. The dates for the 2018 convention are July 3 through July 8. Our hotel rates are enviably competitive for a resort hotel such as Shingle Creek. For the 2018 convention they are singles and doubles, $88; and for triples and quads, $93. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. Please note that the hotel is a no-smoking facility. For 2018 convention room reservations you can call the hotel at (866) 996-6338 after January 1. You may also write directly to the Rosen Shingle Creek, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. The hotel will want a deposit of $100 for each room and will want a credit card number or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged against your card immediately, just as would be the case with a $100 check. If a reservation is cancelled before Friday, June 1, 2018, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise refunds will not be made. All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed internet capabilities, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair dryers. Guests can enjoy four outdoor swimming pools, a full-service spa, and fifteen dining/lounging options from fine-dining and elaborate buffets to casual dining both indoors and poolside. The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be a truly exciting and memorable event, with an unparalleled program and rededication to the goals and work of our movement. Make plans now to be a part of it. Preconvention seminars for parents of blind children and other groups and set-up of the exhibit hall will take place on Tuesday, July 3, and adjournment will be Sunday, July 8, following the banquet. Convention registration and registration packet pick-up will begin on Wednesday, July 4, and both Wednesday and Thursday will be filled with meetings of divisions and committees, including the Thursday morning annual meeting, open to all, of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. General convention sessions will begin on Friday, July 6, and continue through the banquet on Sunday, July 8. To assure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, you must make reservations early. The hotel will be ready to take your call or deal with your written request by January 1. Remember that as usual we need door prizes from state affiliates, local chapters, and individuals. Once again prizes should be small in size but large in value. Cash, of course, is always appropriate and welcome. As a general rule we ask that prizes of all kinds have a value of at least $25 and not include alcohol. Drawings will occur steadily throughout the convention sessions, and you can anticipate a grand prize of truly impressive proportions to be drawn at the banquet. You may bring door prizes with you or send them ahead of time to Paul Martinez, 11902 Rose Harbor Drive, Apt. 113, Tampa, FL 33625. The best collection of exhibits featuring new technology; meetings of our special interest groups, committees, and divisions; the most stimulating and provocative program items of any meeting of the blind in the world; the chance to renew friendships in our Federation family; and the unparalleled opportunity to be where the real action is and where decisions are being made-all of these mean you will not want to miss being a part of the 2018 national convention. We'll see you in Orlando in July. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Barbara Pierce] The Wall-To-Wall Thanksgiving by Barbara Pierce >From the Editor: We have been highlighting some of the spectacular articles that are found in the thirty books we refer to as our Kernel Books. Given the time of the year, it seems appropriate to run a story about the holidays, and who better to write it than Barbara Pierce, a longtime editor of this magazine. Here is how she was introduced when her story was published in the Kernel Book named for her article, the thirteenth in the series: Barbara Pierce is no stranger to Kernel Book readers, having appeared in these pages frequently. The remarkable thing about her current story is that it records truly unremarkable events-the sort that occur regularly in any typical family. Read Barbara's heartwarming account of her young family's efforts to celebrate traditional American holidays while living in London and see if you don't come to believe that we who are blind are people-just like you in more ways than not. Here is what she has to say: Almost twenty years ago now my English-professor husband Bob; our three children (Steven, nine; Anne, six; and Margaret, just four); and I packed up and moved to London for the school year. Bob was to teach our college's London semester program during the fall semester and spend the spring doing his own scholarship during his sabbatical leave. The children, including little Margy, would all attend school, and I planned to keep house, try my hand at writing a book, and spend time getting to know the members of the National Federation of the Blind of the United Kingdom. We were lucky to find a small house to rent in one of the outlying suburbs. The elementary school was nearby, as were the shops where I would spend a good deal of time and the tube station from which Bob would leave for central London every morning. Best of all, our next-door neighbor had a niece around the corner who was willing to baby-sit for us during the evenings when Bob and I went to the theater with his students. We settled in easily, and the shopkeepers became accustomed to my long white cane, American accent, two-wheeled shopping trolley, and occasional gaggle of children. Expeditions to the butcher, greengrocer, chemist, and grocery shop were easier and faster without the youngsters, but so were cleaning the house and writing. Besides, the girls especially loved to "go to the shops" with me, so we quickly became an institution in the neighborhood. By late October the whole family had become acclimatized to life in London. The children had made friends and were developing English accents. I was resigned to washing school uniforms in the bath tub on the days when I didn't go to the laundromat. And Bob had established a warm relationship with his students. We decided that on the Saturday before Halloween we should invite the whole class to supper. They had tickets to a Saturday matinee performance of a Shakespeare play, so it would be easy for all of them to come back to the house together at the close of the afternoon. I didn't even consider attending the play that day. After all, somebody had to prepare supper for that crowd, and I didn't think that the baby-sitter and the children would get very far picking up the living room, much less setting out the food I had prepared. Steven had been somewhat disappointed at missing Halloween at home with its costumes and trick or treating, so we decided to do what we could to celebrate this important annual rite of American childhood with our party. I made a big chocolate cake and let the children tint the butter frosting a shocking shade of orange. We managed to find candy corn and witches with which to decorate our masterpiece. But the real triumph of the meal was to be the loaf of home-made bread. I had decided that, considering the small rooms of our house, I would have to settle for feeding the students sandwiches and potato chips- crisps in London. I arranged a large tray of sliced meats and cheeses and another of fresh vegetables and dip. I bought several sorts of rolls and small interesting loaves. But in the center of the table was a large loaf of potato bread in the shape of a jack-o-lantern, complete with eyes, eye brows, ears, nose, and mouth full of snaggly teeth. Anne was regretful that I would not agree to make the bread orange or allow her to frost the finished loaf with the left-over icing from the cake. But despite its shortcomings in the eyes of the children, our pumpkin was the hit of the evening. Bob and the students were late getting home from the play, and in the interim a glass of liquid got spilled by one of the children, but it hardly dampened the upholstery or the spirits of the party. The students were delighted to be in a home with children to play with. And you would have thought I had prepared a banquet for them instead of a simple supper. When I saw them at the theater during the early weeks of November, they continued to talk wistfully about the fun they had had with our family. As Thanksgiving drew closer, I began to realize that I was going to have to do something about the holiday. It isn't celebrated in England, of course, and the students were beginning to feel homesick at the prospect of being so far away from family for the holiday. But having sixteen students in for sandwiches and finger food on paper plates and doing a complete Thanksgiving dinner for them were two very different things. For one, we had six plates and about as many sets of silverware. There was almost no counter space in the kitchen, and though the stove had four burners, the oven was half the size of my oven at home. But it was clear that, problems or no, Thanksgiving was going to be celebrated in memorable style in our home that year. I asked each student to bring a plate and silverware for each person that he or she was bringing to dinner, and I invited them all to bring along some contribution of food. Meanwhile I had managed to find one of those large foil disposable roasting pans in a local department store. Much to my relief, when I got it home, it actually fit into my oven. I took it off to the butcher and asked him to get me the largest turkey that would fit into the pan. He did so, and he even agreed to keep it in his freezer for me until I was ready to cope with it. The day before the Feast, as the children began calling that Thanksgiving, I stopped to make sure that the butcher had moved the turkey from the freezer into his cooler for me. He assured me that he had and that it would be thawed for me in the morning. Relieved of that nagging worry, I went home to get on with my preparations. When I went into the kitchen to begin dinner, I discovered to my horror that the oven would not light. Here was a nightmare indeed. Luckily the Gas Board was not about to shut down for a long holiday weekend, so they promised that someone would be around first thing in the morning to see about the cooker. My dreams were filled that night with catastrophes in which I was trying to roast turkeys over matches. But in the morning we experienced a whole series of miracles. First, the Gas Board man turned up early. Second, he discovered that there was nothing seriously wrong with the stove, and he could and did fix it immediately. The third event took a little longer to resolve itself into a miracle. It began by looking remarkably like a catastrophe. While I stayed home to deal with the stove and the other preparations, Bob took the children with him to do the last-minute shopping, including picking up the turkey. I was busy finishing the stuffing when I realized that in the distance I was hearing Margy crying as the Pierce parade drew near our house. I raced to the door to see what the trouble was. I could hardly believe the news; the butcher had not in fact transferred the turkey to the cooler as he had alleged; when Bob handed it to me, it was eighteen pounds of rock-hard meat-giblets and neck firmly tucked inside the body cavity. Though Margy was the only one actually in tears, all three children were certain that Thanksgiving had just crash landed in the butcher's freezer. There are moments when a parent has no choice but to set aside anger, frustration, and anxiety and simply rally all available reserves in the emergency. I dried Margy's tears and assured everybody that the day could be saved. Then the turkey and I retired to the kitchen sink for some close communion with warm water. It was not the correct way to defrost poultry, but I told myself that, if I could just pry the giblets out and pack the stuffing in quickly, I could get the bird on to roast before anything nasty began growing in the meat. It worked. By late afternoon we were ready for the Feast, and the students began to arrive, bearing an unusual collection of dishes. Including several strays picked up by various people along the way, twenty- three happy Americans eventually sat down to Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, we sat down all over the house. The living and dining room floors were covered with bodies, and six of us sat on the steps to the second story. We had a marvelous time! The food was delicious, and the fellowship was unforgettable. I don't even remember the clean-up. Everyone had so much fun that we decided to do it again the following year when we were all back in the United States. By then many of the students had graduated, but they returned to Oberlin for Thanksgiving and a reunion of the London semester group. In some ways the two celebrations were very different. There were no crises the second time around. I managed to come up with enough dishes and silver to serve everyone without asking people to bring their own utensils. And the clean-up was a snap with an electric dishwasher on the job. But the underlying spirit from the year before was still there. The young people were delighted to be in our home and grateful to us for inviting them. My recollections of these happy and deeply satisfying events are filled with remembered warmth and gratitude. They are for me, as they would be for anyone else, the very stuff of pleasant family history. But there is one element of these celebrations which is uniquely precious to me. My blindness, which to me has become nothing more than one more of my characteristics, went virtually unregarded by the students. I don't mean that they pretended that it wasn't there. They made an effort to move out of my path when I came through carrying food or drink. But the fact of my blindness was as unimportant to them as it had become to my husband and children. I remember times like these and renew my hope that the time will come when all blind people will know the freedom for which I am so deeply grateful. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Terry Smith] Merchants' BLAST Conference Soars to New Heights by Terry Smith >From the Editor: For a very long time blind merchants focused exclusively on their state's legislation and its programs, and getting them to see the value in unified action nationally was much like the challenge Dr. tenBroek faced when trying to bring a small number of state organizations into the fledgling National Federation of the Blind. One thing that has helped blind merchants to see the value in working together nationally has been the BLAST conference, and readers of the Braille Monitor have been offered too little in these pages about the conference and the good it brings to our blind men and women who run businesses under the Randolph-Sheppard Act. Here is a report of the 2017 conference: One doesn't have to venture too far into the past to a day when blind vendors were not viewed as major players in the vending industry. Blind vendors had a tiny share of the market and were more or less tolerated by an industry that was evolving from mom and pop operations to large corporate businesses. Some in the industry even resented blind vendors because of the priority they enjoyed to operate vending facilities on government property pursuant to the Randolph-Sheppard Act. The blind vendors who operated under state Business Enterprise Programs often lacked quality training, were forced to operate with outdated equipment, had little exposure to modern advancements in the field, and suffered due to a lack of leadership in the Randolph-Sheppard community. But almost two decades ago, some visionaries in the National Federation of the Blind set out to change that. The Merchants Division had held small annual meetings for several years, but the leadership, the board of directors, and the blind vendor community wanted more. The idea was to have a national conference that would afford blind vendors the opportunity to experience the same caliber of training as others in the industry. "We wanted training that focused on business and leadership," says Don Morris, a Maryland blind vendor and president of the National Federation of the Blind's Merchant Division in the 1990's. "We didn't want to bring people together to complain. We wanted to bring them together to learn." With that, the idea of the Business Leadership and Superior Training conference, better known as BLAST, was born. Today, BLAST is one of the most recognized names in the vending industry. Kevan Worley, a blind vendor from Colorado, was part of the brain trust that created the vision for BLAST and had ascended to the presidency of the Merchants Division by the time the first BLAST was held at Circus Circus in Las Vegas in 2002. He echoes Morris' sentiments, stating that the goal was to offer training in modern business, customer service, and leadership practices. But there was another goal that was just as important. "We felt the need to strengthen the Randolph-Sheppard Program while building the National Federation of the Blind and using a national conference as the catalyst," recalls Worley. [PHOTO CAPTION: 2016 Disney Institute Representatives recognizing Nicky Gacos] [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono (left) and Nicky Gacos (right) with Navy Seal Leif Babin (center) at the 2016 Windy City BLAST Conference.] For the next dozen years, Worley and Nicky Gacos, a New Jersey blind vendor who was elected president in 2005, artfully managed the evolution and growth of the conference. A shrewd negotiator, Worley struck deals with state agencies who were anxious to bring BLAST to their states. Tennessee was the first state to offer financial incentives. Indiana and Texas followed. Worley and Gacos sought sponsorships from companies that were profiting from blind vendors and those that wanted to establish relationships. These deals with state agencies and sponsorships guaranteed numbers of attendees and provided a financial safety net that allowed them to bring in the caliber of speakers they desired. What was the recipe used by the Worley-Gacos tandem that has led to such success? "It starts with a high-quality trade show," explains Worley. He turned to his friend Gacos to lead that effort. "I couldn't have done it without Nicky," Worley says, reflecting on those early days and how far BLAST has come. Today, the trade show is the centerpiece of the annual conference. It features equipment manufacturers, product suppliers, service providers, potential teaming partners, and technology companies. The second ingredient is quality training. BLAST brings in top tier speakers in the areas of business, leadership, and motivation. Whether it be a riveting keynote speech, a workshop by industry professionals, a message from a top flight motivational speaker, or a highly informative breakout session, attendees have grown accustomed to high quality presenters. Almost as important is the opportunity to network. Blind vendors have a lot to offer, and learning from each other is a critical ingredient to the success of the conference. Next, mix in something for the state agency staff. In 2002 you could count on your fingers the number of state agency staff in attendance. "How could we honor the work the state agencies do and empower them to continue that work?" Worley asked himself at the time. "We began an exclusive state agency roundtable which was a safe place where state agency folks could go to exchange ideas without any fear of criticism," he continued. The numbers of state agency representatives attending BLAST began to slowly grow. And, for the final ingredient, stir in a splash of fun. After all, the name of the conference is BLAST, so there is an expectation of having some fun. BLAST broke from traditional models of blind vendor training conferences and infused some entertainment. Lively music and other entertainment are staples of BLAST conferences today. Business obligations led to Worley stepping away from his BLAST responsibilities after the 2014 Conference. He left, knowing that he and Gacos had created something special. But President Gacos put together a new team and was determined to continue the momentum BLAST had established. He knew there was still room to grow. Gacos didn't change the recipe. He just added greater portions of each ingredient. There are varying estimates on how many people attended the first BLAST in Las Vegas. It is safe to say that it was a fraction of the numbers attracted to BLAST conferences today. In 2016 in Chicago and 2017 in Nashville, BLAST set records with almost six hundred in attendance. The conference has averaged over eighty exhibitors in the last two years. State agency participation has doubled as the roundtable has expanded to become a full day of training, with eighty-five state staff in attendance this year in Nashville. In 2016 nationally known Navy Seal Leif Babin delivered the keynote address, and the National Association of Blind Merchants brought in the Disney Institute to provide a full day of its world-renowned training on customer service. This year the Michigan State University School of Hospitality did a half-day workshop specifically designed for those in the vending industry. And the entertainment piece has been amplified with the Blues Brothers rocking out in Chicago and country music impersonators adding a taste of Nashville tradition to the 2017 conference. There have even been comedians to make folks laugh. The recipe for success is clearly still working. BLAST has evolved into the premiere training conference in the country for all blind entrepreneurs. One vending industry insider said the Nashville BLAST was the best conference of any kind she had ever attended. The Vending Times Magazine recently featured the Music City BLAST on its cover. In the vending industry, BLAST is synonymous with quality training. "BLAST is a great event that brings together the entrepreneurial spirit of blind operators from every corner of the country to provide education and networking that strengthens their businesses and enhances their professionalism," explains Eric Dell, senior vice president of the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), which is the national trade association for the vending industry. Dell is a regular presenter at BLAST. "I am very proud of what BLAST has become," says Nicky Gacos, president of the National Association of Blind Merchants. "We are changing what it means to be a blind entrepreneur by providing a quality training and networking experience and by elevating the perception of the blind in the larger vending industry." Nothing demonstrates the changing perception better than Gacos' election to the National Automatic Merchandising Association's Board of Directors in 2014. He is the first blind owner of a vending business to ever serve in that capacity. "It's an honor for me," admits Gacos. "But I represent 2,000 blind entrepreneurs, and it's important to me to change the way the vending industry views blind people and what we have to offer." He pauses and then adds. "It's all about raising expectations." Eric Dell understands the important role blind entrepreneurs play more than anyone. "Many of the members of the National Association of Blind Merchants are NAMA members and participate in advocacy efforts at every level of government," he notes. "Their participation is valuable and has assisted in creating advocacy successes for the industry at large." BLAST has been the driving force behind these changing perceptions and a greater appreciation for the contributions of the blind. BLAST originally launched as a conference for Randolph-Sheppard blind vendors, but that is changing. "We are expanding the tent to let more people in," says Gacos. "We will never abandon our ties to vending and blind vendors, but we are designing BLAST these days for any blind entrepreneur." He encourages any current or aspiring blind business owner to attend a future BLAST conference. It isn't lost on folks that this is an NFB function. "We always want to expose attendees to the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind," adds Gacos. "The NFB changed my life, and I want people to see firsthand what we are all about." The Music City BLAST in September featured presentations by John Par? and Gabe Cazares from the national office. First Vice President Pam Allen gave the keynote at the women's breakfast. Second Vice President Ron Brown was on hand, and Fred Schroeder delivered a sterling speech at the luncheon. So, what's next for BLAST? Plans are already underway for the Lone Star BLAST November 13 to 16, 2018, in San Antonio. Having barely recovered from the Music City BLAST in September, Gacos already has his sights set on 2018. "It will be our biggest and best BLAST ever," he predicts with great confidence. In the spirit of full disclosure, he says that every year, and every year he has been right. BLAST continues to soar to new heights. For more information about BLAST and the Merchants Division, go to www.blindmerchants.org. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mike Bullis] Why Not Hire Yourself? by Mike Bullis >From the Editor: Mike Bullis loves to help people start businesses or get jobs and has been doing so for most of his professional life. He has owned a motorcycle shop, several restaurants, and now works throughout the US as a disability employment consultant. Frustrated with employers who won't hire you? Well, there's a possible answer: hire yourself. In other words, go into business. No, it's not easy, but neither is hearing no after no from employers. Yes, you have to have a service or product to sell, and you won't be able to blame the boss when things go wrong, but the upside is that when you make money, you can give yourself a raise. The other upside is that you can start out small and build your business to the level that works for you. If you need an extra four hundred dollars a month or four thousand, it's your choice. If health only allows you to work five hours a day, or different hours each day, build your business around those requirements. You'll hear lots of stories about how start-up businesses fail. That's usually because the person starting the business didn't learn the basics. I failed miserably in my first retail business because I was sure that all it took was a dream and the will to make it come true. What I learned was that it takes understanding the basics of business. Blind folks are lucky in this regard because there are two places where you can get excellent free training. My first recommendation is the Forsythe Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship training course sponsored by the Hadley Institute. They have an online series of courses that will teach you everything you need to know to start a small business, go to https://www.hadley.edu/fce.asp to check it out. For the past two years they have held a competition for new business ideas and awarded fifty thousand dollars in prizes. One more upside is that the courses are free! My second recommendation is the Business Enterprise Program in your state. These programs have been around since the 1930's to help blind people learn to operate snack bars and cafeterias. No, you may not ultimately want to operate a snack bar or cafeteria, but the training you can get from the program will help you understand the business fundamentals you need to know to be successful. These two programs are worth tens of thousands of dollars in training you don't have to pay for. It's difficult to tell how much blindness will play a part in how you operate your business. Some of it depends upon how much you intend to hire other people to do and how much you will need to do yourself. Many small business startups find that they don't have the money to hire employees, so the burden falls to you to have practical electronic access skills through screen enlargement or speech software. The nice thing about starting small and doing all the work yourself is that as you grow, you'll be able to explain the details to new people, and you won't be one of those clueless bosses who doesn't understand. The other thing that's nice about doing it yourself is that you can work any time, day or night, not having to wait for a pair of eyes to show up. Finding solutions to blindness challenges in business shouldn't have to be a lonely process. Whether you take the Forsythe courses or the Business Enterprise training, meet the people who are solutions finders. Blindness is just a problem waiting to be solved. When you meet those solutions finders, grab on to them and steal every good idea you can. You'll be happy you did. Business ownership isn't for everyone. It requires discipline, and in some ways your business can be the worst boss you ever had. It doesn't care whether you're sick or tired. It tells you what to do, and you either do it or you don't. On the other hand, your business will never tell you that you shouldn't try something because you're blind. It doesn't really care about your blindness. It will never pity you, speak in a condescending manner, or help you find stairs that you were perfectly able to find for yourself. In that sense, it's the ideal boss. I've spent twenty-five years in business. Some times were good, and some times were bad. But, through it all, being in business can teach you self-reliance and a personal pride of accomplishment when it works. So, if you're frustrated by hearing all those no's from would-be employers, just hire yourself. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Cayte Mendez] The Secret to Winning a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship by Cayte Mendez >From the Editor: Cayte Mendez is the chairperson of one of the most important committees of the National Federation of the Blind. She and her committee are charged with advertising our scholarship program and choosing thirty students who demonstrate academic success, leadership, and commitment to helping others. Here is Cayte's announcement about the 2018 scholarship program: Each July at the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind, our organization awards a broad array of scholarships to recognize achievement by blind scholars. Our thirty scholarships, of which the $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship is the largest, are all substantial and prestigious enough to inspire any student to complete a competitive application. The NFB Scholarship Program is our investment in the future of blind people who demonstrate scholastic aptitude, leadership, and service. I encourage every blind college student to apply. What exactly is the secret to winning an NFB scholarship? Over the years I have heard quite a bit of speculation regarding the answer to this question. To be sure, there are some non-negotiable eligibility requirements. All applicants for these scholarships must: . be legally blind . reside in one of our fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico . be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time postsecondary course of study in a degree program at an accredited United States institution in the 2018-2019 academic year . participate in the entire NFB national convention and in all scheduled scholarship activities if chosen as a finalist While these are the concrete requirements, what exactly is the secret to becoming an NFB scholarship winner? Many think the single key to becoming a scholarship winner is a high grade point average. While an applicant's GPA certainly has value because it demonstrates his/her ability to learn and be successful academically, this is by no means the only attribute that influences the decisions of the scholarship committee. Likewise, others believe that the secret to winning is abundant participation in extracurricular activities. Recognizing an applicant's willingness to take on commitments outside of school and/or work can help the committee develop a portrait of a well-rounded individual; however, this is also not sufficient in itself to justify a scholarship award. Still others think the magic scholarship winning ingredient is an applicant's level of commitment to the NFB. It is certainly true that the scholarship program provides our organization with a tremendous opportunity to develop future leaders of the National Federation of the Blind, but scholarship awards are by no means restricted to members of the organization. The National Federation of the Blind is dedicated to creating opportunities for all blind people. Recipients of NFB scholarships need not be members of the National Federation of the Blind. Many of our past winners were not even aware of the NFB before they applied for our scholarships. Finally, there are those who speculate that the committee looks for winners among applicants from specific fields of study or specific demographics. However, over the years, students of all ages and in widely differing fields have become finalists. The class of 2017 included students entering their freshman year, as well as older students who were nearly ready to write their PhD dissertations. Past scholarship winners are working toward credentials for employment in many diverse fields. So what exactly is the secret to becoming an NFB scholarship finalist? It is just this-you must apply! Each November the new, updated scholarship application forms are posted on the web at www.nfb.org/scholarships, along with important information about the contest, links to information on past winners, and a page of frequently asked questions. The application form for 2018 is already online. It will remain up until March 31. The process can be initiated with an online application, which we prefer, or students can ask for a print application by contacting our scholarship office at scholarships at nfb.org or by calling (410) 659-9314, ext. 2415. A complete application consists of the official application form and a student essay, plus these supporting documents: student transcripts, one letter of recommendation, and proof of legal blindness. The student must also complete an interview with the president of the applicant's state of residence or the state where he or she will be attending school. High school seniors may also include a copy of the results of their ACT, SAT, or other college entrance exams. Unfortunately, some applications are incomplete, so the committee is unable to consider them fairly. Applicants must ensure that all of the required information and supporting documentation has been received by our scholarship office either online by midnight EST, March 31, or by mail postmarked by March 31. Students should carefully consider who can do the best job of writing their letter of reference. A letter should support the application by being full of facts and observations that will help the members of the committee see the applicant as a smart, active student and citizen. Students can write their essays using word processing software. They should remember to use the spell checker (or a human proofreader) before uploading, printing, or copying and pasting it into the online application form. In an effective essay the applicant will talk about his or her life in a way that gives the committee insight into him or her. The essay should cover the ways in which one lives successfully as a blind person and describe the applicant's personal goals for the future. Information about positions of leadership is especially helpful. Committee members give the essay a great deal of attention. The NFB scholarship committee is comprised of dedicated, successful blind people who will review all applications and select the top thirty applicants who will become the scholarship class of 2018. Note that students submit just one application to the program; the scholarship committee will choose the thirty finalists from all applications received. These thirty scholarship finalists will be notified of their selection by telephone no later than June 1. Finally, during the annual convention held July 3 through July 8, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, the scholarship committee will decide which award will be presented to each winner. Attending and participating in the entire NFB national convention is one of the requirements to become an NFB scholarship winner. Of course, attending the convention is also a significant part of the prize. The National Federation of the Blind's national convention is the largest gathering of blind people to occur anywhere in the world each year, with 2,500 or more people registered. Those chosen as scholarship finalists will have the opportunity to network with other blind students, to exchange information and ideas, and to meet and talk with hundreds of blind people who are successfully functioning in many occupations and professions. Our past winners often comment that the money was quickly spent, but the contacts they made and the information they gathered at convention have continued to make their lives richer than they ever imagined. Often students apply more than one year before winning a scholarship, so applicants are encouraged to reapply. The NFB may award three or more scholarships to men and women who have already received one Federation scholarship in the past if their scholarship and leadership merit another award. Individuals receiving a second NFB national scholarship are recognized as tenBroek Fellows. So now you know the secret. The key to success for the NFB scholarship program is as straightforward as carefully reading the application on our website and then providing all of the required information and supporting documentation before the deadline of March 31. I look forward to receiving your applications! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par?] Social Security, SSI, and Medicare Facts for 2018 by John Par? About this time each year, we provide you with details regarding annual adjustments in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicare programs. In 2018 approximately 65 million Americans will see a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase of 2 percent in their benefit amounts. Thus, come January, monthly checks will be a few dollars higher. The 2018 amounts appear below along with some concepts which are always good to know about the Social Security and Medicare programs if you want to understand your rights. The COLA adjustment (if any) is based upon the consumer price index (CPI-W), which measures the inflationary rate against the wages earned by the approximately 173 million workers across the nation over the previous four quarters starting with the third quarter of the previous year. Okay, here are the numbers: Tax Rates FICA and Self-Employment Tax Rates: If you have a job, you know that you do not bring home everything you earn. For example, 7.65 percent of your pay is deducted to cover your contribution to the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Fund and the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund. Specifically, 6.20 percent covers OASDI, and 1.45 percent is contributed to the HI Trust Fund. Additionally, your employer is required to match this 7.65 percent for a total of 15.30 percent. For those who are self-employed, there is no "employer" to match the 7.65 percent. Thus, a self-employed individual pays the entire 15.30 percent of her income. These numbers will not change in 2018 whether an individual is employed or self-employed. As of January 2013, individuals with earned income of more than $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) pay an additional 0.9 percent in Medicare taxes, not including the above amounts. Maximum Taxable Earnings For the OASDI Trust Fund, there is a ceiling on taxable earnings, which was $127,200 per year in 2017 and will jump to $128,700 in 2018. Thus, for earnings above $128,700, there is no 6.20 percent deducted for OASDI. As for Medicare, there is no limit on taxable earnings for the HI Trust Fund. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Quarters of Coverage I always like to compare the OASDI Trust Fund to an insurance policy. You have to pay a premium to participate. Therefore, to qualify for Retirement, Survivors, or Disability Insurance benefits, an individual must pay a minimum amount of FICA taxes into the OASDI Trust Fund by earning a sufficient number of calendar quarters to become fully insured for Social Security benefits. In 2017 credit for one quarter of coverage was awarded for any individual who earned at least $1,300 during the year, which means that an individual would have needed to earn at least $5,200 to be credited with four quarters of coverage. In 2018 the amount increases to $1,320 for one calendar quarter or $5,280 to earn four quarters of coverage for the year. A maximum of four quarters can be awarded for any calendar year, and it makes no difference when the income is earned during that year. Basically, the taxes you pay into the OASDI and HI Trust Funds are your premiums to participate in the Social Security and Medicare programs. The total number of quarters required to be eligible for benefits depends on the individual's age. The older the individual, the more quarters are required. Furthermore, a higher average income during an individual's lifetime means a higher Social Security or SSDI check when benefits start. Remember the above quoted numbers for quarters of coverage to become fully insured are only minimum amounts. Trial Work Period (TWP) This concept is often misunderstood. The amount of earnings required to use a trial work month is based not upon the earnings limit for blind beneficiaries, but rather upon the national average wage index. In 2017, the amount required to use a TWP month was only $840, and this amount will increase to $850 in 2018. If you are self-employed, you can also use a trial work month if you work more than eighty hours in your business, and this limitation will not change unless expressly adjusted. Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) The earnings limit for a blind beneficiary in 2017 was $1,950 per month and will rise to $1,970 in 2018. Remember this is not the TWP amount. This is to say that the TWP can be exhausted even if your income is well below $1,970 per month. See the above information about the TWP. In 2018 a blind SSDI beneficiary who earns $1,971 or more in a month (before taxes but after subtracting unincurred business expenses for the self-employed, subsidized income for the employed, and impairment-related work expenses for both) will be deemed to have exceeded SGA and will likely no longer be eligible for benefits. Social Security Benefit Amounts In January of 2018, the average amount of SSDI benefits for a disabled worker is estimated to rise by about $24 to $1,197. Pursuant to the Social Security Act, a cost-of-living adjustment occurs automatically when there is an increase in inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The CPI-W indicated an inflationary rate of 2.0 percent between the third quarter of 2016 and the third quarter of 2017. Thus, there is a corresponding COLA increase in 2018 and an increase in monthly benefit amounts. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) The federal payment amount for individuals receiving SSI in 2017 was $735 and will increase to $750 in 2018, and the federal monthly payment amount of SSI received by couples will rise from $1,103 to $1,125. Student Earned Income Exclusion In 2017 the monthly amount was $1,790 and will increase to $1,820 in 2018. The annual amount was $7,200 and will be $7,350 in 2018. The asset limits under the SSI program will remain unchanged at $2,000 per individual and $3,000 per couple. ABLE Act Signed on December 19, 2014, the ABLE Act will have a significant impact on resource limits associated with the SSI and Medicaid programs for those who were blind or disabled by the age of twenty-six. Traditionally, SSI beneficiaries have been required to adhere to strict resource limits such as a maximum of $2,000 in the bank for an individual receiving SSI benefits. Under the ABLE Act, however, the amount on deposit in an ABLE Account can be much higher. ABLE Account contributions must be designated specifically for purposes such as education, housing (with a cautionary warning to follow), employment training and support, assistive technology, health, prevention and wellness, financial management, legal fees, and funeral and burial expenses. The required implementing regulations are being enacted in most states. Check with your financial institution of choice for a status of ABLE Act regulations in a specific state. As to the warning about ABLE Account contributions for housing, it is important to note that SSI beneficiaries may still face the traditional $2,000 resource limit for ABLE Account funds designated for housing. Thus, SSI beneficiaries should consider the many other purposes not subject to the traditional resource limits when making ABLE Account contributions. Because there are also tax advantages associated with ABLE accounts, both SSDI and SSI beneficiaries should consult a financial advisor about establishing an ABLE Account. Medicare At this writing, the Department of Health and Human Services has not released updated information regarding deductibles, coinsurance amounts, and premiums for 2018. Updated Medicare information will be provided in an upcoming issue of the Braille Monitor. But for illustrative purposes, here are details regarding the numbers from 2016 compared to 2017. Medicare Deductibles and Coinsurance: Medicare Part A coverage provides hospital insurance to most Social Security beneficiaries. The coinsurance amount is the hospital charge to a Medicare beneficiary for any hospital stay. Medicare then pays the hospital charges above the beneficiary's coinsurance amount. The Part A hospital inpatient deductible was $1,288 in 2016 and increased to $1,316 in 2017. The coinsurance charged for hospital services within a benefit period of no longer than sixty days was $0 in 2016. From the sixty-first day through the ninetieth day, the daily coinsurance amount was $322 per day in 2016 and rose slightly to $329 in 2017. Each Medicare beneficiary has sixty lifetime reserve days that may be used after a ninety- day benefit period has ended. Once used, these reserve days are no longer available after any benefit period. The coinsurance amount paid during each reserve day used in 2016 was $644 and in 2017 was $658. Part A of Medicare pays all covered charges for services in a skilled nursing facility for the first twenty days following a three-day in- hospital stay within a benefit period. From the twenty-first day through the one hundredth day in a benefit period, the Part A daily coinsurance amount for services received in a skilled nursing facility was $161 for 2016 and rose just slightly to $164.50 in 2017. Most Social Security beneficiaries have no monthly premium charge for Medicare Part A coverage. Those who become ineligible for SSDI can continue to receive Medicare Part A coverage premium-free for at least ninety-three months after the end of a trial work period. After that time the individual may purchase Part A coverage. The premium rate for this coverage during 2016 was $411 monthly and increased to $413 in 2017. The annual deductible amount for Medicare Part B (medical insurance) in 2016 was $166 and rose to $183 in 2017. The Medicare Part B monthly premium rate for 2016 was $121.80 per month and rose to $134 in 2017. For those receiving Social Security benefits, this premium payment is deducted from your monthly benefit check. Individuals who remain eligible for Medicare but are not receiving Social Security benefits due to work activity must directly pay the Part B premium quarterly-one payment every three months. Like the Part A premiums mentioned above, Part B is also available for at least ninety-three months following the trial work period, assuming an individual wishes to have it and, when not receiving SSDI, continues to make quarterly premium payments. Programs That Help with Medicare Deductibles and Premiums: Low-income Medicare beneficiaries may qualify for assistance through four Medicare Savings Programs. We will discuss three of them here and leave the fourth one alone because (to qualify for it each year) you must already be on it, and you know who you are. Note: the amounts below may change in 2018. We begin with the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program (QMB) and the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary program (SLMB). To qualify for the QMB program in 2017, an individual's monthly income could not exceed $1,025, and a married couple's monthly income could not exceed $1,374. To qualify for the SLMB program in 2017, an individual's monthly income could not exceed $1,226, and a married couple's monthly income could not exceed $1,644. Both the QMB and SLMB programs are administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in conjunction with the states. The rules vary from state to state, but the following can be said: As of 2017, resources (such as bank accounts or stocks) could not exceed $7,390 for one person or $11,090 per couple. Under the QMB program, states are required to pay the Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance) premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance expenses for Medicare beneficiaries who meet the program's income and resource requirements. Under the SLMB program, states pay only the full Medicare Part B monthly premium. Eligibility for the SLMB program may be retroactive for up to three calendar months. The third program, known as the Qualified Disabled and Working Individuals (QDWI) Program, pays Part A premiums only and has resource limits of $4,000 for one person and $6,000 for a married couple. As to these programs, resources are generally things you own. However, not everything is counted. Examples of things that don't count include the house you live in, one car, a burial plot (or $1,500 put aside for burial expenses), and furniture. If you qualify for assistance under the QMB program, you will not have to pay the following: Medicare's hospital deductible amount, the daily coinsurance charges for extended hospital and skilled nursing facility stays; the Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) premium, the annual Part B deductible; and the coinsurance for services covered by Medicare Part B, depending on which doctor you go to (these services include doctor services, outpatient therapy, and durable medical equipment). If you qualify for assistance under the SLMB program, you will be responsible for the payment of all of the items listed above except for the monthly Part B premium, depending on your circumstances. If you think you qualify but you have not filed for Medicare Part A, contact Social Security to find out if you need to file an application. Further information about filing for Medicare is available from your local Social Security office or Social Security's toll-free number (800) 772- 1213. Remember that only your state can decide if you are eligible for help from the QMB or SLMB program and also that the income and resource levels listed here are general guidelines, with some states choosing greater amounts. Therefore, if you are elderly or disabled, have low income and very limited assets, and are a Medicare beneficiary, contact your state or local Medicaid office (referred to in some states as the public aid office or the public assistance office) to apply. For more information about either program, call the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on its toll-free number (800) 633-4227, or visit Medicare.gov. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: James Gashel] The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards by James Gashel >From the Editor: James Gashel is secretary of the National Federation of the Blind and chairs the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee. Here is his announcement about the 2018 Bolotin Awards program: The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards. These prestigious awards, granted each year as funds permit, seek to honor initiatives, innovations, and individuals that are a positive force in the lives of blind people and advance the ultimate goal of helping them transform their dreams into reality. Award winners will be publicly recognized during the 2018 annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida. Each recipient will be given a cash award in an amount determined by the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee and will also be honored with an engraved medallion and plaque. Dr. Jacob W. Bolotin (1888-1924) was a pioneering blind physician, the first in history who achieved that goal despite the tremendous challenges faced by blind people in his time. Not only did he realize his own dream; he went on to support and inspire many others in making their own dreams a reality. The awards which bear his name are made possible through the generosity of his late nephew and niece. Their bequest, the Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust, allows the National Federation of the Blind to present the annual cash awards. As chronicled in his biography, The Blind Doctor by Rosalind Perlman, Dr. Bolotin fought ignorance and prejudice to gain entrance to medical school and the medical profession. He became one of the most respected physicians in Chicago during his career, which spanned the period from 1912 until his death in 1924. He was particularly known for his expertise in diseases of the heart and lungs. During his successful career Dr. Bolotin used his many public speaking engagements to advocate for employment of the blind and the full integration of the blind into society. Interested in young people in general and blind youth in particular, Dr. Bolotin established the first Boy Scout troop consisting entirely of blind boys and served as its leader. Jacob Bolotin's wife Helen had a sister whose husband died suddenly, leaving her to raise a son, Alfred Perlman. The Perlmans moved in with the Bolotins when Alfred was eleven, and for four years (until Jacob Bolotin's untimely death at age thirty-six), "Uncle Jake" became Alfred's surrogate father. Alfred later married Rosalind, and the couple worked on a book about Dr. Bolotin's life. After Alfred's death in 2001, Rosalind dedicated the rest of her life to completing and publishing the book. Then, upon her death and as part of her will, Rosalind left a bequest to the Santa Barbara Foundation and the National Federation of the Blind to produce Dr. Bolotin's biography and establish the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award program. Her book, The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story, has been published by and is available from Blue Point Books, www.BluePointBooks.com. Past award winners have: 1. Broken down a barrier facing blind people in an innovative way. 2. Changed negative perceptions of blindness and blind people. 3. Pushed past existing boundaries to inspire blind people to achieve new heights. Award Description In 2018 the National Federation of the Blind will again recognize individuals and organizations that have distinguished themselves in accordance with the criteria established to receive a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award. The committee will determine both the number of awards and the value of each cash award presented. The Federation determines the total amount to be distributed each year based on income received from the trust supporting the award program. The award categories for each year are blind individuals, sighted individuals, and organizations, corporations, or other entities. Individuals may apply on their own behalf or may submit a third- party nomination, or the committee may also consider other individual or organizational candidates. Who Should Apply? Individuals: Only individuals over eighteen years of age may be considered for a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award. Applicants must demonstrate that they have shown substantial initiative and leadership in improving the lives of the blind. Examples of such initiative include but are not limited to developing products, technologies, or techniques that increase the independence of the blind; directing quality programs or agencies for the blind; or mentoring other blind people. All individual applicants or third- party applicants nominating other individuals must demonstrate that the work to be recognized has been conducted within the twelve months preceding the application and/or that the work is continuing. Applications by or on behalf of individuals must include at least one letter of recommendation from a person familiar with or directly affected by the work to be recognized. Organizations: Organizations may apply for a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award in order to further programs, services, technology, or techniques of unique and outstanding merit that have assisted and will continue to assist the blind. Applications from third parties nominating an organization will also be considered. The organization category includes corporations, nonprofit organizations, or other entities, such as a specific division within an organization. Organizations or third-party applicants must demonstrate that the programs or services to be recognized include substantial participation by blind people as developers, mentors, administrators, or executives, and not merely as clients, consumers, or beneficiaries. For example, an organization operating a program for blind youth might demonstrate that a substantial number of the counselors, teachers, or mentors involved in the program are blind. The organization or third-party applicant must demonstrate that it has substantially aided blind people within the twelve months prior to application and that an award would support efforts to build on previous successes. The application must also include at least one testimonial from a blind person who has benefited substantially from the programs or services. To qualify for an award both individuals and organizations must be headquartered in the United States of America, and their work must primarily benefit the blind of the United States. Procedures More information, including an online application, can be found on the National Federation of the Blind website at https://www.nfb.org/bolotin. Online submission of nominations, letters of support, and other relevant materials is strongly encouraged, but applications sent by mail and postmarked by the deadline will also be accepted. The 2018 deadline for application submission is April 15. Recipients chosen by the committee will be individually notified of their selection no later than May 15. Receipt of all complete applications will be acknowledged; only those applicants chosen to receive an award will be contacted by May 15. All decisions of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee are final. The awards will be presented in July during the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Individuals selected to receive an award must appear in person, not send a representative. Organizations may send an individual representative, preferably their chief executive officer. Recipient candidates must confirm in writing that they will appear in person to accept the award at the National Federation of the Blind annual convention. Failure to confirm attendance for the award presentation by June 1 will result in forfeiture of the award. Ineligible Persons Those employed full-time by the National Federation of the Blind may not apply for a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award for work performed within the scope of their employment. Students may not apply for both a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award and a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship in the same year. ---------- National Federation of the Blind and Automakers Host Conference on the Promise of Autonomous Vehicles and the Disability Community >From the Editor: Transportation has always been at the top of the list when it comes to problems blind people want solved. The loss of the ability to drive is one of the problems that newly-blinded people grieve most, and it is the American rite of passage that has been denied to those who have been blind since birth. In most places in America, easily engaging in many social activities is predicated on the idea that one can come and go at will. With all of the options we have, from busses to cabs to Uber, there are times when the places we live lack these crucial services, and only when we too have control over a vehicle will we experience what drivers take for granted. Here is a press release discussing the role of the National Federation of the Blind in hosting a conference focusing on autonomous vehicles, one that involved major stakeholders, and one which will shape the self-driving vehicle we will soon see on America's streets and highways: Diverse Group of Attendees Focus on Accessibility of Autonomous Vehicles for the Disabled Baltimore, MD (October 26, 2017): Yesterday the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers ("Auto Alliance") hosted a conference titled "The Promise: Autonomous Vehicles and the Disability Community." The event was hosted at NFB's Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference brought together representatives from government, the automotive industry, and advocates for the disabled to discuss the advances, challenges, and path forward for autonomous vehicle development. "Historically, accessibility has been a costly post-purchase vehicle modification for most people with disabilities, and nonexistent for the blind," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. "The National Federation of the Blind was therefore pleased to co- host this first-of-its-kind gathering of disabled consumers, automotive industry representatives, ride-sharing providers, and policymakers, laying the groundwork for accessibility to be included in the development of promising new vehicle technologies rather than as an afterthought. Discussion between industry and disabled consumers has already had a positive impact on the Senate's AV START legislation, and our continued work together will pave the way for autonomous vehicles to become tools that will truly enhance independence and opportunity for the blind and other disabled travelers." "Automakers have been developing self-driving technologies for years. We are motivated by the tremendous potential for enhanced safety for everyone and the opportunity to provide greater mobility freedom to people with disabilities and the elderly," said Mitch Bainwol, president and CEO of the auto alliance. "Given the enormity of the social benefits, we are anxious to work with stakeholders and government leaders to develop the policy framework to realize these benefits as soon as we can." The conference was a key step in the ongoing conversation about how autonomous vehicles can be developed and deployed safely, while considering the needs of those 57 million Americans with disabilities. Autonomous vehicles offer disabled Americans opportunities for increased mobility and independence, as well as reliable transportation that could vastly increase employment opportunities. The National Federation of the Blind and Auto Alliance urge Congress, the Administration, and original equipment manufacturers alike to consider the needs of the disabled as they continue to develop the laws, regulations, and technology that will bring autonomous vehicles to the masses. The day's speakers included representatives of the disability community (including the National Association of the Deaf, National Federation of the Blind, Paralyzed Veterans of America, American Association of People with Disabilities, United Spinal Association, American Council of the Blind, and National Down Syndrome Society); the automotive industry (including General Motors, Audi of America, Daimler North America, and Volvo Car Group); government (including representatives from the office of Senator Gary Peters, D-Mich., the US Department of Labor, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and other stakeholders (including representatives from Uber and Securing America's Future Energy). ----------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Edward Bell] The 2018 Blind Educator of the Year Award by Edward Bell >From the Editor: Dr. Edward Bell is an experienced educator in his own right. He was named Blind Educator of the Year in 2008. He chairs the 2018 Blind Educator of the Year Award Selection Committee. This is what he says: A number of years ago the Blind Educator of the Year Award was established by the National Organization of Blind Educators (the educators division of the National Federation of the Blind) to pay tribute to a blind teacher whose exceptional classroom performance, notable community service, and uncommon commitment to the NFB merit national recognition. Beginning with the 1991 presentation, this award became an honor bestowed by our entire movement. The change reflects our recognition of the importance of good teaching and the affect an outstanding blind teacher has on students, faculty, community, and all blind Americans. This award is presented in the spirit of the outstanding educators who founded and have continued to nurture the National Federation of the Blind and who, by example, have imparted knowledge of our strengths to us and raised our expectations. We have learned from Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and Immediate Past President Marc Maurer that a teacher not only provides a student with information but also provides guidance, advocacy, and love. The recipient of the Blind Educator of the Year Award must exhibit all of these traits and must advance the cause of blind people in the spirit and philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. The Blind Educator of the Year Award is presented at the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Honorees must be present to receive an appropriately inscribed plaque and a check for $1,000. Nominations should be sent to Dr. Edward Bell, director, PDRIB, by email at ebell at latech.edu, or by mail to PDRIB, Louisiana Tech University, PO Box 3158, Ruston, LA 71272. Letters of nomination must be accompanied by a copy of the nominee's current r?sum? and supporting documentation of community and Federation activity. All nomination materials must be in the hands of the committee chairman by May 1, 2018, to be considered for this year's award. For further information contact Edward Bell at (318) 257- 4554, or ebell at latech.edu. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kyle Walls] Confrontation at the Capitol: The Fight to Stop H.R. 620 by Kyle Walls >From the Editor: Kyle Walls works as a program assistant for advocacy and policy at the Jernigan Institute. He is a fantastic communicator, knows how to write, and does so with passion and conviction. He is supervised by John Par?, and anyone who works for John can't help but feel the passion, conviction, and outrage he feels when the blind are placed at a disadvantage. Here is Kyle's article, and let us use it to recommit ourselves to stopping the passage of this bill: On a beautiful October afternoon in Washington, DC, members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) arrived at the western steps of the Capitol to take a group photo in celebration of their annual Fall Advocacy Conference. However, they were met by a group of about thirty National Federation of the Blind members from all across the Washington metropolitan area. With their white canes proudly displayed, the NFB members stood defiantly facing west across the National Mall in the exact spot where AAHOA typically takes its photo. Seemingly wanting to avoid a direct confrontation, the AAHOA photographer prompted the approximately one hundred association members to move to another set of stairs a little farther away, but still with the Capitol building as the backdrop. Like a field general mobilizing troops, John Par? moved our members en masse to a spot right behind them. If the photographer was going to get the Capitol dome in the picture, we would be in the photo as well. We made it clear that we were there for a reason and that we refused to be ignored. These events eventually lead to a direct engagement between John and Chirag K. Shah, AAHOA's vice president of government affairs and counsel, on the Capitol steps. It may seem unusual for the NFB to engage a group with such specific focus as the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, but as it turns out, AAHOA is one of the leading proponents of H.R. 620. As you probably already know, H.R. 620, the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017, is a bill that we have vehemently opposed since its introduction to the House floor in late January. If passed, H.R. 620 will allow alleged ADA violators sixty days to respond to a notice of violation with a proposed plan to remove the access barrier. Following this response, the business in violation will then have an additional 120 days to remove the barrier or to make "substantial progress" in the removal of the barrier. When added together and expanded to the maximum allowable time, these response and compliance periods total approximately six months. Naturally this approach creates a number of problems for people with disabilities. First and foremost, allowing for a six-month delay in the removal of an access barrier that has been in violation of federal law for nearly three decades is outrageous and more than a little insulting. Businesses that existed prior to the passage of the ADA should have remedied these violations long ago, and for those that were constructed after the passage of the ADA, there is no excuse for the inclusion of access barriers at all. Additionally, if H.R. 620 is passed into law, it will provide no incentive for business, new or old, to become ADA compliant. If there is no swift and immediate consequence for violation, what reason would a business have to become compliant? Realistically, they have no incentive to obey the law until they are found to be in violation of it. This opens the door for businesses to knowingly violate the accessibility mandates of the ADA, a standard of American law for twenty- seven years, until they receive a complaint. In no way is this an appropriate mechanism to mete out justice. Another aspect of this bill that creates severe cause for concern is the introduction of the standard of "substantial progress." The bill states that the owner or operator of a business will only face the threat of civil action if they fail to "remove the barrier or to make substantial progress in removing the barrier," but does not include a definition by which substantial progress can be measured. If a hotel were to post Braille room number labels for two of the ten floors in the building following a complaint, would the "substantial progress" standard be fulfilled? Would this hotel then be free from the threat of civil action until someone else complained that the other eight floors weren't labeled in Braille? This is an extreme example, but it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility for a statute so vague. Finally, there is no guarantee this bill will stop overly-aggressive attorneys looking for a quick payout, its intended purpose according to supporters. If an attorney sets the settlement amount at less than the cost to remedy the violation, what would stop a business owner from just paying the settlement amount? In that case, the business is still inaccessible, the business owner has still paid the settlement, and the unprincipled attorney has still received money. The fact that unscrupulous individuals have found a way to pervert and exploit the intentions of the Americans with Disabilities Act is a sad and sickening revelation. However, weakening and eroding the protections set forth in this landmark legislation will only increase the number of barriers that people with disabilities face every single day. We hear and understand the concerns of business owners and operators, and we are more than happy to work with them to find a genuine solution to the problem. But if they continue down this path in support of this dangerous bill, we will continue to show, just as we did on the steps of the Capitol, that we will not be stopped, we will not be ignored, and we are not going away. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Susan Povinelli] The Blind Can Participate in Worship and Bible Study by Susan Povinelli >From the Editor: Susan Povinelli and her husband Larry are members of Lamb of God in Madison, Alabama. Her article was originally published in the church's special ministries publication His Hands on May 5, 2017, and can be found in its online version here: https://wels.net/the-blind-can- participate-in-worship-and-bible-study/. Many blind people struggle with the way to be active in the parts of their church service that involve reading: Bible verses, hymns, and leading in readings to the congregation. Some of us have felt the discomfort that comes from being passive, but others have been more proactive and have found ways to participate fully. Here is just such an example: As a sighted child I can remember flipping through The Lutheran Hymnal during church. As my eyesight began to deteriorate during my college years, I had to find other ways to read the hymnal and devotional materials. For many years I received meditations and sermons on cassettes produced by the volunteers of our WELS Mission to the Visually Impaired (MVI). But studying the Bible using a cassette tape was extremely difficult because you could not easily jump between books, chapters, and verses. Then I began using a device called the Victor Reader Stream. This device allows me to quickly and efficiently move between Bible books, chapters, and verses. For details on the Victor Reader Stream, please visit humanware.com. Today I am able to download countless Bible applications to my iPhone. The iPhone is completely accessible to a blind person because of its VoiceOver feature, which allows a blind person to translate printed words into speech. Our own Northwestern Publishing House is e-publishing most of its books, such as the People's Bible series, and they can be bought at the Kindle store. In addition, I am able to read Forward in Christ and other periodicals through the wels.net website or using the WELS app. For the price of a subscription, I am able to enjoy daily devotions through the Meditations app. A free option is to sign up for daily email devotions at wels.net/subscribe. Most worship materials are also accessible using my iPhone. Since our worship folders and the majority of our pastor's Bible studies are available electronically, he sends me these materials via email. I can access them through my iPhone by connecting a Braille display or listen audibly through a headphone. This enables me to participate fully in worship and Bible study. Finally, there are many scanning applications that can take a picture of a printed page and convert it into different formats, such as PDF, Word, Text, etc. This software will read the converted page on your smart phone. The number one application, which was developed by the blind, for the blind, is the KNFB Reader Application. Go to knfbreader.com for more information. As the population ages and their vision decreases, congregations should accommodate all visually impaired people so that they can fully participate in worship and Bible study. For those who have some vision and don't read Braille, Northwestern Publishing House has Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal available in large print. In addition, your church secretary can print out a few worship folders in a large font (fourteen- point or greater). With modern technology, which is not difficult to learn, and pastors willing to work with visually impaired congregants, there is no reason why a blind person cannot participate fully in worship or Bible study. As technology improves, blind people will have more and more information readily available to them. To God be the glory for such advancements! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Jessica Beecham (right) teaches cardio drumming to an NFB member.] Running to Catch the Elusive Dream of Fitness and Accomplishment by Jessica Beecham >From the Editor: Jessica Beecham is a highly motivated, intelligent, and committed member of the National Federation of the Blind who is expanding the possibilities for all of us by her athletic endeavors and her willingness to share the way she has achieved what many of us have written off as impossible-significant athletic competition. Here is a speech she gave at the 2017 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. In transcribing it I was moved emotionally--not only by what she did, but by the courage and inventiveness she employed in reaching her ambitious goals. I am not likely to do the runs she highlights here, but I am uplifted by knowing that it can be done by a blind person. Here is what she says: Arthur C. Clarke said that "The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible." Although Kevin Kovacs says that "The most important Arnold Schwarzenegger quote is, 'I'll be back.' Arnold also said that "In our society, women who break down barriers are those who ignore limits." T.S. Eliot said that "Only those who are willing to go too far can possibly find out how far one can go." The National Federation of the Blind believes that with love, hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality. For seventy-eight years the National Federation of the Blind has boldly broken down barriers and defied expectations to show the world that there is no limit to the capacity of blind people. Our organization is full of leaders who have never been afraid to break down barriers. Dr. Marc Maurer often tells the story of the time that he taught Fred Schroeder to use a chainsaw. Dr. Schroeder was a little nervous at the beginning of the lesson, but he knew that Dr. Maurer was a very capable teacher. After the lesson was over Dr. Schroeder could successfully use a chainsaw, and no human limbs were lost in the process. Dr. Maurer confessed that before teaching Dr. Schroeder, he himself had never before used a chainsaw. President Mark Riccobono was hired to develop educational programs for the Jernigan Institute. Dr. Maurer tasked him with the chore of developing a science camp for blind youth. When newly hired Mark Riccobono asked, "So, what is the plan?" Dr. Maurer responded, "Well, isn't that what I hired you for?" Remember that in the early 2000's science programs for blind people were very limited. President Riccobono's willingness to blaze new trails has allowed many of the youth who've participated in those first science programs to go on and blaze trails in STEM careers-notably Jordan Caster, one of the first Youth Slam participants who is now a software developer at Apple. Just a little side note: President Riccobono also went on to become the first blind person to drive a car independently on the Daytona Speedway. Our very own Diane McGeorge saw that the rehabilitation services being offered by most state agencies just wasn't cutting it, so she founded the Colorado Center for the Blind. Thanks to Diane, Joyce Scanlan, the founder of BLIND Inc., and Joanne Wilson, founder of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, (three phenomenal women) the Federation has transformed the face of blindness rehabilitation. When we are surrounded by all of these great leaders and heroes, it is easy to see that we as blind people determine our own futures and that we also have the obligation to set a high bar for those who will follow in our footsteps. As president of the National Federation of the Blind Sports and Recreation Division, I am honored to know blind people who have completed pretty amazing adventures. Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to summit Mount Everest, a dangerous and daunting feet. Although thousands attempt it each year, only a handful of skilled climbers actually reach the summit. Jason Romero ran across the United States in less than two months. Only three hundred people have crossed the United States on foot. His speedy crossing puts him among the fastest of those to complete this epic journey. This month Erich Manser set the world visually impaired Ironman record by completing a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run in ten hours and forty-two minutes. Amy Dixon became the first blind female to complete an XTERRA triathlon, which is an open water swim followed by a very technical trail, bike, and run. Rhonda-Marie Avery is the first blind woman to compete in the Barkley Marathons, in fact the first blind person ever to compete in this marathon. The Barkley Marathons is the toughest foot race in the world, and it has only been completed by sixteen people. If you've never heard of this grueling and quirky race, check out episode thirty-seven of Find Your Fit, or watch the documentary about the Barkley Marathons on Netflix. It is truly a race like none other. Bettina Dolinsek is the first blind CrossFit instructor, and Maureen Nietfeld is the first Zumba instructor. Let's give it up for all those blind people who blaze those trails so that we can live the lives we want. Everyone in this room has the opportunity to be a trailblazer. Isn't that what the National Federation of the Blind is all about? I mean, Jim Gashel has just blown it out of the park this morning showing us how, over the past fifty years, we've done nothing but blaze trails. We've blazed trails so that blind students can have access to STEM curriculum, so that parents who are blind can raise their children without question. We blaze trails so that future generations will not have to experience the same discrimination that we have when looking for employment or getting accessible technology. Recently I have taken my running off road to try a little trailblazing. In 2016 I became the first blind person to complete the Pike's Peak Marathon, a round trip up and down Pike's Peak Mountain. My blind friend Luanne Burke was along for the journey and was the first blind person to complete the Pike's Peak Assent, a trip all the way up Pike's Peak Mountain, a race all the way up. This summer I tried my hand at my first fifty-mile race, the Pike's Peak Ultra, one of the ten toughest foot races in the United States, featuring over 11,000 feet of elevation gain and loss going up and down Pike's Peak one-and-a-half times over very technical terrain. Today I want to share a few of the lessons I have learned while trailblazing: every trailblazer needs a solid team. When I found the National Federation of the Blind, I found a group of people who believed in me more than I believed in myself. This was not because they knew me; most of them didn't. But they believed in the abilities and the dreams of all blind people. A solid team provides a sound support structure for our success. In the months leading up to the Pike's Peak Ultra, the National Federation of the Blind, Colorado Center for the Blind, and countless friends and family displayed their belief in me by supporting my WE Fit Fifty fundraising campaign to raise money for WE Fit Wellness, a cause very near and dear to my heart. Because of my team we were able to raise over $8,000 for the continued work of WE Fit Wellness. Leading up to the Pike's Peak Ultra, my travel schedule was grueling, beginning with national convention and ending the day before the race with my flight back from the 2017 Youth Slam program. My WE Fit Wellness team made sure everything was in place so that all I had to worry about when I got home was taking a nap, or so I thought. They actually had found time to come up with a really fun surprise. The guy in the video I am about to show is my dad: [Jessica's father was there to meet her at the airport, and when she entered the car to take her home, he knocked on the window and in a high-pitched voice asked, "Excuse me, ma'am. May I share this Huber with you?" The video reveals Jessica screaming with excitement, surprise, and pleasure. The convention applauded.] The video can be found at https://youtu.be/NEeC3p6vxZg8. On race day the WE Fit Wellness team and my Achilles Pike's Peak team went above and beyond to ensure they were at every aid station to make sure that I would have the nutrition and supplies I needed to finish the race. This included standing outside in the pouring rain, offloading on trails that were probably not meant for vehicles, and putting up with my emotional ups and downs that inevitably come with an ultramarathon. Without my entire team I wouldn't have been able to make it to the starting line let alone to the finish. Do things that scare you. One of the best ways to grow as a person or an advocate is to do those things that are a little scary. Think back to the first time that you crossed a busy intersection independently or the first time you sat down with a member of Congress to advocate for a cause that was important for blind people. When we do these things that are scary day after day, they become second nature, and they expand our horizons. One of my scariest runs came on Easter Sunday. I was exploring a new part of the Pike's Peak Fifty course. It started out okay; we were in this part of the trail called Seven Bridges. It was a little technical, but it was fine. And then it wasn't. I was having to scramble over big rocks; I was running over narrow trails that had slick drop-offs on either side, and the whole time I was crying very quietly behind my guide because I didn't want her to know how scared I was. I didn't know how this scary thing was ever going to become second nature, and I went home feeling like I was never going to be able to complete the race. But, after months of training, I was able to develop some alternative techniques that helped me get through the race easier. In the following video you will see some of the alternative techniques I used for trail running, and my favorite thing about this video is that it was actually taken on the same part of the Pike's Peak Ultra course as my very frightening Easter Sunday run. [The second video can be found at https://youtu.be/Lm-6crZYYhI.] Now as you could see from that video, I gained a little bit in confidence, but it ain't all flowers. Sometimes you're going to find thorns. On race day it rained on and off all day. When I got to my course nemesis, Mount Rosa, there was thunder and lightning, and the course was rerouted because of the lightning. Rosa was a big, bad, beast; she was tall, she was slick, and I never ran on her without falling three or four times. But I practiced and practiced, and every time I ran Mount Rosa, I got a little faster, and I was ready to own her on race day. I was a little heartbroken when I had to skip that part of the course, but that didn't diminish my feeling of success when I crossed the finish line, and it didn't change anything about the accomplishment I felt after running fifty- one miles. [applause] The little bumps in the road, the pitfalls, and even the defeats that we experience help us to savor our successes-being consistent and persistent. The little things that we have to do are not always as glorious as putting on the big conventions, but if we don't do the little things, then we can't have the big conventions or win the big victories. So selling the raffle tickets and making phone call after phone call to invite members to meetings oftentimes feels cumbersome, but it is the tedious and inglorious tasks that we do over and over that build our strong foundation for success. One of my toughest running weeks came at the national convention when I had to run up countless flights of stairs to get to the treadmill. My longest day was a twenty-four-mile treadmill run and an hour running up and down the stairs. [At this point Jessica shows a video of her longest training day, it can be found at https://youtu.be/7I6sl1GuhSo] It is doing those tedious things over and over again that yields the best results. Savor your success, celebrate your success, but before the celebration dies, don't forget to start planning your next big adventure. This is a lesson I have learned repeatedly from the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind, and it's one that I hold very near and dear to my heart. When I'm done with a race or achieve any other personal victory, I'll cry a few happy tears, share some war stories, raise a toast with friends, but before the celebration dies down, I'll begin planning my next big adventure. As we gain energy through sharing time, ideas, and dreams with one another this weekend, celebrate the successes of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. As Scott LaBarre just reported, they have been many, but before you leave, don't forget to start planning your next big adventure. Let's go blaze some trails! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marina Bedny] The Power of the Mind: Research Exploring the Capacity of the Blind by Marina Bedny >From the Editor: We have heard a lot of speculation about how learning takes place and how the minds of blind people adapt. Some have speculated that what is known as the visual cortex dies when it fails to be stimulated by visual information. Other studies have suggested there is nothing special about this part of the brain and that it takes on other functions. Still others have suggested that not only does it take on other functions but that these are functions similar to what it was intended to do had vision been present, namely shape recognition that is so crucial in reading. At the 2017 National Convention we were addressed by Marina Bedny. She is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University and a neuroscientist who is actively looking at the brains of blind people. Here's what she has to say: Good morning-getting to the afternoon. I am very honored to be here today to talk with you. It's quite an act to follow: I don't know what's worse-following the honorable congresswoman or Anil Lewis. But I'm going to take you down to the world of scientific nerdiness. So for all you self- proclaimed nerds out there, let me hear you; I'm going to need your support. [cheers] Thank you for that introduction. My name is Marina Bedny, and I'm a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the department of psychological and brain sciences. My time is split between two things: some of my time I spend teaching undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University and grad students; that's about a quarter of my time. The rest of my time I run a research lab. I run a lab called the Neuroplasticity and Development Lab. My lab is interested in questions about nature and nurture, where does the human mind come from, and in particular how does our experience in the world shape the way our brains work and shape the way our minds work and shape who we are? So that's the question we're interested in. It's a very, very old question. It's been of interest to philosophers and psychologists and humans for thousands of years. But we're pretty lucky to be living at a time when science and technology allow us to study this question using neuroscience and psychology. So we can use scientific methods and techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging and quantitative measures of behavior to study the mind and brain. That is what my lab does, and I'll tell you a little bit about that as we go along. My lab specifically applies these methods to study the question of how life experience shapes our minds and brains. We base these studies on the fact that we believe in order to understand who we are, we have to pay attention not to the differences among us, but that we can learn about who and what humans are by looking at the breadth of experience. There used to be this idea in science-or there used to be this idea, sometimes still is- that you can learn everything that you need to learn about people and how their minds work by studying white, ivy-league-college student males, right? Does that sound like the right idea of the way to do science? [chorus of no's] Right. So there's a problem with that. Because in reality, of course, there is no such thing as the generic person, right? Because the inherent part of being a person is the differences between us: some of us grew up on a farm, some of us grew up in the city, some of us grew up with lots of siblings, some of us grew up alone. My family immigrated to this country from Ukraine when I was eleven years old, and I believe that that's part of what shaped the kind of person I am. Some of us live with vision, some of us live without. And part of understanding what it means to be a human is understanding all the ways in which humans live: blind, sighted, immigrants, women, men: all the diversity that exists. So that is what my lab does. We work with individuals with different developmental histories and different experiences to understand how the mind and brain works. Some of the methods that we use I mentioned; one is functional magnetic resonance imaging (I'll tell you about that in a bit), and some is behavior. Today one of the things that I'd like to do is to share with you some of the discoveries that scientists have made over the past-I would say decade-about blindness and about cognition and brain function in blind individuals. I am very honored to be here and grateful to be invited. I think it's important for the scientific community to be engaged with the blind community so that science is done better and the science delivers to the blind community and the blind community has a say in how to interpret scientific findings. [applause] Thank you. Today I'm going to talk to you about three things quickly: some things that stay the same in blindness and cognition, some things that improve, and some cool things that the brain does in individuals who are blind. The first thing I'm going to start with, which might sound like it's the least exciting thing, which is what stays the same in blindness. But I actually think that this is a really important topic. Over the years psychologists and philosophers have had some very confused and extreme ideas about what the mind is like in blind individuals. And we have scientific methods to dispel these kinds of ideas and to find out what some of the things that actually stay the same are, so probably it will not come as a surprise to you that people who are blind know what the words "peek, stare, yellow, sparkle" mean. I regret to say that this comes as a surprise to some segments of the scientific community, and we've been able to use cognitive and neuroscientific methods to show that what sometimes people refer to as "visual concepts" are actually known very well by people who are born blind. Perhaps more importantly, one of the things that we've studied is numerical cognition and mathematical reasoning in individuals who are blind. There's sometimes this idea in the educational field that mathematics is particularly challenging for children who are blind. Well, one of the things that we did is we studied numerical understanding in blind individuals, both how blind people estimate number when you present them with tones and you ask them, "How many tones did you just hear?" That's a basic kind of numerical ability that actually ends up being important for mathematic learning early on. We also measured mathematical behavior, and one of the things that we find is that the cognitive building blocks and the tools of math are exactly the same in people who are blind and sighted. Unfortunately what is different is access to math education. One of the things that we found when we asked blind people is that blind children in high school get shuttled out of math courses. I'm sure that this is not news to anyone, but one of the things that this research is showing is that there is absolutely no excuse for blind children not to be achieving the same way as sighted children in math and science. [applause] Another thing that we've been studying is some things that improve, some things that get better with blindness. So scientists have been interested in this question for a long time; it often comes up in the context of "Do blind people hear better? Do blind people have better sensory perception?" And the answer to this question is, of course, very complicated. There are some things that blind people get better at with practice, and some don't change at all. One of my favorite examples of this is tactile perception. It turns out that proficient Braille readers are better at tactile perception with their fingers [applause] but this varies; the more proficient at Braille reading they are, the better they are at this skill, and it is specific to their Braille-reading hand and their Braille-reading finger. So they're no better-for example-at somatosensation on their lips, they're just better with their Braille-reading finger. It turns out that there are other things that blind people are better at that are not actually sensory. Our recent research shows that blind people are actually better at understanding sentences that have complex grammatical constructions, and I'll talk to you a little bit about why that might be in a second, but we can do a little bit of an experiment right now. I'm going to tell you a sentence, and then I'm going to ask you a question about it, and I want you to shout out yes or no, ok? Here we go: while the old cat licked the puppy with floppy ears chased after the squeaky toy. Was the cat licking the puppy? Shout it out. Yes? Okay, so this is a very hard question. The answer is actually no. Some of you probably got it; some of you didn't. It turns out that on average, it kind of leads you down the wrong path. But on average blind people are much better at answering these kinds of questions-obviously blind people are just as different from each other as sighted people are, so there's lots of variation among blind people-but on average blind people are better. Another interesting thing that turns out to be the case is that blind people are better at remembering lists of words and letters-actually almost twice as good as sighted people are-and they're particularly better at remembering the order of words in a list and the order of the letters. So it seems like being blind actually improves your memory. Why this is is not clear. One potential reason is that you just have to practice more, right? When you go to the restaurant and when there is no Braille menu available, what do you have to do? You have to remember what was on the menu, whereas the sighted person sitting next to you can just glance back at it. So here's some of the ways the mind changes and adapts in blindness. One of the interesting things that my lab does is actually study brain function. People change as their environment and their lives change, and our brain changes too. So one of the main things that my lab does is study the function of the so-called visual cortex in blind individuals. This is the part of the brain that in the sighted does vision, and about thirty years ago if you'd asked a neurologist or neuroscientist what happens to this part of the brain in a blind person, they'd say it does nothing or maybe it atrophies, right? No. What research has shown is that the visual part of the brain takes on new functions in blind individuals: it responds to sound, it responds to touch. One of the things that my lab has been working on that I think is pretty exciting is showing that the visual part of the brain in blind individuals is actually involved in higher-level cognitive functions. So one of the things we find is that blind individuals use this so-called visual part of the brain during language processing-for example, when understanding those complex sentences I told you about before-use it during memory tasks, and when solving math equations. So this part of the brain is being used like a flexible machine to do other things when it's not doing vision. Anil Lewis talked about the power of technology, well the best technology we've got is our brains, and it turns out that everybody's brains adapt to being the best for their life and can be used in flexible ways. So in conclusion, I'd like to say that I hope my being here is part of a broader dialog between the scientific community and the blind community. In particular it's important for the blind community to be aware and in charge of the scientific insights that are available and also to give back and give their insights for making science better. One of the things that I would love to see more of-it's already getting there, but I would like to see more of it-is leaders in the scientific fields who are blind. [applause] Students who are coming to work in our lab becoming the next generation of blind scientists, because the only way that science is going to reflect all the right things about people is if everyone participates in science and becomes leaders in the field. Thank you. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Lily and David House] Preparing His Granddaughter for A Life Without Sight by Jon Tevlin >From the Editor: This article first appeared in the Star Tribune on June 27, 2017, and is reprinted with its kind permission. David House is sixty years old and totally blind, having had retinitis pigmentosa his whole life. He is a retired commercial real estate broker and has been happily married for more than thirty-three years to his lovely and loving wife Theresa. The Kernel Book Like Cats and Dogs contains a story about their family by his wife titled, "A Wife's Story." David joined the NFB in 1993 and is active in his church. He has four adult children and two beautiful grandchildren. One of those grandchildren is eight-year-old Lily, who is in third grade at Valley Christian School in Missoula, Montana. Along with her general education classes, she takes Braille three times a week and uses her talking computer at school. Her afterschool activities include weekly gymnastics and piano lessons, swim team practice at the YMCA, and earning a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do. Lily was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at age five and has been learning blindness skills ever since. Here is the story of a grandfather helping his granddaughter to get a solid footing in the blindness skills she'll need because of their shared condition: David House brought his 8-year-old granddaughter, Lily, to Minnesota this month for a three-week stay. She got to visit the Mall of America and a petting zoo, and on Tuesday she even got to play softball with some new friends. It was a chance for the two to bond and, more important, a chance for David to help teach his granddaughter how to be blind. Lily is attending the Buddy Summer Program at BLIND Inc., housed in the former Pillsbury mansion in Minneapolis' Whittier neighborhood. Blind or sight-impaired kids come from all over the country to work on both the practical and emotional aspects of being blind. David, fifty-nine, learned he had retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease, when he was five years old. The disease is inherited, but the gene is recessive, so both parents have to have the gene in order for their children to have the disease. David's wife does not have the gene, and none of their four children has the disease. David and his three sisters, however, all have the disease, which is rare. "When Lily was young, I was certain she didn't have it," said David. "It was a long shot. When it was diagnosed, I was pretty shocked and depressed. Lily is at the onset stage, so I wanted to get her here as soon as possible to start to deal with being blind. [BLIND Inc.] is one of the top places in the country." The agency let Lily into the program even though she's a year younger than its youngest participants, mostly because her grandfather also came to take adult refresher courses. In an upstairs room Tuesday, Lily was learning to use a talking typewriter to craft sentences. She wore a Pok?mon T-shirt and, at times, a blindfold. Students who can still partly see wear blindfolds to get them used to not being able to see at all. Lily took commands from the computer, successfully writing out, "I ate a fish salad." It wasn't easy. "Agh, that tortured me," Lily said. "Get me away." Another student, Charles, stopped by to visit. He had just taken the "travel class," learning to get around the neighborhood with a cane. He named all the adjacent streets and their direction from the building. I asked him how he knew the difference between north and south. "You go outside and face the building," said Charles. "That's north. Never Eat Soggy Worms-north, east, south, west," he said, pointing to each direction. In the afternoons, the kids have "talk times" where they can discuss their frustrations, uncomfortable situations and strategies to overcoming life as a blind person. They also take field trips and engage in activities such as rock climbing and horseback riding. "My favorite was actually the Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America," Lily said. David was downstairs, working on his computer skills. "She's probably better at computer skills than I am," he said. "I'm better at Braille. Just wait until you see me in the fire juggling class." It's that persistence, humor, and positive outlook that he hopes to pass on to his granddaughter this week and from now on. Lily lives with her grandfather part time in Missoula, Montana. Despite losing his sight over a number of years, David graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in public administration. He got married and had children and built a very successful business, running cafeteria vending machines. "My goal is I just want her to have her skills exceed her blindness," David said. "I have to get her prepared for a life without sight. My goal is to have her take over my business someday." Back home, Lily is on a swim team, is on her way to a black belt in karate and takes piano lessons. "I don't want her to have a different life just because she's blind," David said. "Even as busy as my business is, I thought it was important to be here with her." Lily wanted her grandfather to go on the MOA field trip with her. He said if she'd let him skip the field trip, he'd take her someplace special. "She outfoxed me," said David. "After she went to the mall on Saturday, I asked her where she wanted to go that was special. She said, 'Back to the mall.'" "I want to teach her that nothing is insurmountable," David said. "With the blindness itself, if you have the right psychological and emotional attitude, you can conquer anything." ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Melissa Riccobono] Teachers Talk: Working with Parents Who Happen to Be Blind by Melissa Riccobono One of the most rewarding things I do on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind is to help in leading our Blind Parent Initiative. The National Federation of the Blind has created a website, http://www.blindparents.org which we hope will be the place all parents who are blind will go when they are looking for information on any aspect of parenting as a blind person. If you have not done so already, please check out this site. It has little content right now, but we want to build it into so much more! To do this, we need your help and feedback. Included on the blindparents.org website are bonus episodes three and four of The Nations' Blind Podcast. In these episodes, I once again interviewed Serena Harris and Laura Koler, a first grade and pre-k teacher at Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore. In these interviews we discussed the techniques Laura and Serena use in order to communicate with all parents to insure they are able to be active participants in their children's education. We also discuss what techniques these teachers use in order to meet the needs of parents who happen to be blind-President Riccobono and myself. Parents who are blind can and should be active participants in their children's education. This is absolutely possible with a little forethought, some teacher cooperation, and low and high tech solutions. I have structured this article a bit differently than my last interview article. In this article, I tried to capture some of the conversational back and forth that took place between the teachers and me in the actual interview, especially the conversations surrounding the various apps the teachers use to disseminate information. Again, I have added some words in brackets for clarification, and I have also paraphrased in some instances to save space. To listen to these interviews in their entirety, search for bonus episodes three and four of the Nations' Blind Podcast. Melissa Riccobono: What techniques do you use in order to communicate with the parents of all students in your class? Serena Harris: I use ClassDojo, http://www.classdojo.com, which is an app to send class messages and pictures. Melissa Riccobono: I was pleasantly surprised. There are some apps that are great, but not great for a blind person to use. So, when I got the note that said you were going to use ClassDojo, I thought, oh, this could be excellent, or this could be a nightmare. I think there was a little bump in the road as far as actually signing up; there was a button that wasn't labeled correctly. But once I was signed up and signed in, it's been wonderful. It's been really nice to get the messages and pictures. Serena Harris: I also use email a lot. We have a class website where we try to list current events and a copy of the homework for the week. I give out my phone number to parents as well. Melissa Riccobono: The first grade team also uses something called Permission Click, http://www.permissionclick.com. This has been really helpful. It's the first time as a blind mom that I have been able to read and sign a permission slip [in the same way as all of the other parents.] I have gotten permission slips emailed to me before, and the school has been great about letting me sign them electronically, but Permission Click has just been such a seamless process. I think it helps [you and your team] as well, right? Serena Harris: I love Permission Click because it's less paper. We give the same link out to all first grade families, so it's very easy to get accurate counts for the number of students attending each field trip. It's also an easy thing [for a parent] to complete even the day of the trip. Everything's easily accessible [even when we are on the trip], and we keep track of emergency contacts, allergies, etc. for each child. Laura Koler: In general, I send notes home in folders that are on paper. We send updates, permission slips, newsletters... Usually every day there is something that needs to be looked at or signed. I also use an app called Remind, http://www.remind.com. It's a free app that lets teachers send text messages, photos, and announcements to anyone in your class. I really love that tool because it allows me to communicate with parents without giving out a personal phone number. It lets me send updates about field trips, special dress up days, report cards, etc. So I do both paper messaging and electronic messaging. Melissa Riccobono: The remind app was actually very easy [for me as a blind parent] to set up and use. It has been wonderful to get reminders as text messages on my phone. What things have you done in order to make sure Mark and I, as parents who happen to be blind, have access to information? Serena Harris: I have definitely tried to have the office send home things, [such as progress reports and report cards] electronically to you. Melissa Riccobono: The office is still working on that, but thank you for trying! I appreciate that. Serena Harris: I send spelling words home [via email.] Melissa Riccobono: Another thing you have done is allowed me to report on what homework activities Oriana completes via email instead of insisting that I fill out the paper homework log sheet each week. This has been a very easy solution for both of us, and it proves that sometimes solutions that are not complicated are very workable for both the parent and the teacher. Laura Koler: I email you copies of all of the papers I send home in folders every day. It's really not an extra step for me because I already have the majority of the documents electronically. With email being as widespread as it is, no parent should feel as if it is a burden on a teacher to send an email [with information or documents.] And, if [a teacher] ever forgets to email something, please don't feel bad about reminding him or her that you need the information. Most teachers will not be upset about getting a reminder. Melissa Riccobono: The other thing that you do really well is to send emails letting me know what papers are coming home in Elizabeth's folder that you do not have access to electronically. This is extremely helpful because it lets me know to be on the lookout for these things so I can handle them in another way [have a person read them to me, use an app on my phone to read them, etc.] I think in some ways having this constant communication is an advantage to me as a blind parent. I feel as if I have a connection with all of the teachers my kids have had because I have had to communicate with all of them in a slightly more personal way in order to make sure Mark and I are getting all of the information we need to be as involved as we can in our children's education. What advice would you have for parents who are blind? Are there things these parents can do to help teachers communicate with them? Serena Harris: Parents should definitely let the teacher know the best way to contact them-email or phone-and the best times they can be reached [via phone.] Laura Koler: At the beginning of the year, schedule a conference and talk about the best ways to communicate. Melissa Riccobono: Are there other ways parents who are blind might be able to get involved in their children's classrooms, understanding, of course, that this will vary slightly school to school? Serena Harris: I always encourage parents to come and volunteer in their kid's classroom. Parents might sit and read with a group of students or have students read to them. I know one thing I have been excited about, both when Austin was in my class and now this year that Oriana is in my class, is the fact that you have been very open about speaking to the kids about being blind. This helped establish a relationship between you and me, but, more important, it helped increase the children's understanding of blindness. Kids are curious. They have questions. They might never have met anyone who is blind before. Explaining what being blind means and the tools you use is great to increase their understanding, but it was also great for me since I didn't know anyone who was blind before either. Your visit definitely made things more comfortable. Laura Koler: I think coming in to be a guest reader is a great way to meet the other students in the classroom. Kids love to have other people besides their teacher read to them. [My class] was fascinated watching you read Braille. I think it's a great way for them to meet new people and see another way of reading. I think most teachers are open to having parents come in to their classroom to share unique things the students would not be exposed to ordinarily. Melissa Riccobono: I think there are instances when parents who are blind are worried about creating extra work for teachers or worried about asking too much of teachers who might already be over worked. How would you respond to these types of concerns? Serena Harris: I guess I don't think of anything as being extra work because it's establishing that relationship that will help support the student. I feel that any materials that can be sent home to further explain something or give the parent a better understanding of how their child is doing in class [will only be beneficial for both the parent and child.] That's what teachers should do. I create progress reports [and other materials] for all of the kids in my class, so getting these things to you and Mark is not extra work. But even if it was, my first priority is always what's in the best interest of the child, and if a parent needs more resources or information to better support their child, then I'm just happy to do that. Laura Koler: Part of the territory of being an early childhood teacher is having constant communication with parents. The parents of all the kids I teach want to know what's going on [in the classroom] and how their children are learning. I don't think any parent should feel bad about wanting to be in communication. I love when parents want to talk back and forth because it's the teacher, the school, and the home who are working together to help each child grow and learn. None of us can do this alone; we have to be a team. I think being in constant communication only makes that relationship stronger and will only benefit the child. To be very honest, I would rather have a parent who wanted to talk with me every day than a parent who is very difficult to reach. Melissa Riccobono: Do you have any advice for other classroom teachers who are working with parents who are blind? Serena Harris: I would say, ask. Ask the parent, "What can I do to better support you? What can I do to help you better support your child? What kind of information do you need from me, and what would be the best format to give you that information?" Melissa Riccobono: It's not bad to ask. How else are you going to know? I think sometimes teachers might be worried about asking because they want to be politically correct. [So they wonder] do I ask? Do I not? I think it's always better to ask, as long as you are asking in a respectful way. I think it is definitely up to the parent as well. Parents should feel free to reach out to the teachers. I recognize however, that although I am very comfortable with this type of reaching out, other parents who are blind might not be as comfortable, so teachers need to open the lines of communication as well. Laura Koler: Always talk to the parents. I know you and I had a very long parent teacher conference, and that was great. That's when I learned the most. If we could have had that meeting more toward the beginning of the year, that would have been helpful. Melissa Riccobono: What would you say to a parent who is blind about what to do when a teacher forgets to give necessary information? Should the parent "bother" the teacher to get what he or she needs? Serena Harris: Definitely! Things happen. You set reminders and make lists, but things still happen. Teachers forget things or overlook things. Melissa Riccobono: Is there anything else about working with parents who are blind that you would like to share? Serena Harris: I think it is very important to have a conversation about how the child is doing in class and how the child feels about coming to school. A child might tell his or her parents things he or she is scared to tell the teacher-not because the teacher is mean and scary, but because the child is simply more comfortable communicating with a parent. I think it is important for teachers to make sure the child is getting all of the support needed and that things are not slipping through the cracks simply because a parent is blind and might not have seen a paper come home in a folder. Closing Thoughts Obviously these are very caring teachers who are extremely willing to provide information and support to all of the families with whom they work. Communication with teachers goes a very long way, but it only works if a teacher is reachable and willing to engage in this type of back and forth communication. Not all teachers are as willing to do this. If you have stories about how you have had success getting information from more difficult teachers, I would love to receive them. Or, if you have other techniques you use to get involved in your child's classroom, learn what is going on in the classroom, or get information from the school about your child's progress, I would love for you to share them. As parents who are blind, we all need as many tools in our toolbox as possible, and what you have to share might very well help someone else. Please email me at parenting at nfb.org with your own school experiences. Also, if you are having a difficult time communicating with your child's teacher or school, the National Federation of the Blind would be pleased to help you if we can. Please email me at the address above, or call me at (410) 659-9314, extension 2466. I will certainly not have all of the answers, but the National Federation of the Blind is a fantastic network, and I will be pleased to connect you with other parents who can help you navigate educational waters. ---------- Story of Ele by Naomi Mills >From the Editor: Naomi Mills is a nine-year-old Northern Virginia BELL student. She created and Brailled this story herself. Naomi's mother sent this story to share Naomi's creativity and enjoyment of the BELL Program, and her note to Nancy Yeager follows the story. We have refrained from editing to preserve the authenticity of the piece: Far away across the Atlantic Ocean in Africa an elephant was born. Her name was Ele. At the age of five she complained about her eyes. Her mother suggested resting for a little bit. The next day Ele's eyes hurt even more than yesterday. Finally her mother took her to the doctor. The doctor said that Ele has to go to an eye doctor. It was a couple of hours until they got there. The eye doctor said that Ele has an eye disease that could worsen. Ele was sad. Ele's birthday is January 25 and it is January 24. So Ele's birthday is tomorrow. It was Ele's birthday and one of her presents were glasses! Ele was so excited. She wore them everywhere. She even wore them in bed. Only her family knew that Ele was blind. When she showed up to school all her friends were shocked. They were all confused. Even the teacher was confused. Ele didn't care though. Description of Ele An elephant named Ele. She is blind. She uses a guide dog that is always scared of Ele's trunk. Ele has pink ears and a pointy nose, so pointy that to people it's like a knife. Ele lives in Africa with her mother, father and her brother named Jason. Ele's favorite color is yellow. Her body is plain yellow. She has blue eyes. She loves to wear just one color. Her hobbies are cooking with her mom, looking at her cell phone, and playing with Jason. Ele is thirty-five years old. Ele wishes she could see but the ophthalmologist said that there is no cure for her disease. But she kind of likes being blind. She can do many things that her friends can't do, like learn Braille and other stuff. Ele is so happy that she's a part of this world. The End Miss Nancy, I typed it the way Naomi read it. I did not add punctuation, nor change verb agreements. I really like this story. It reminds me of Naomi. She loved BELL this year, and two years ago. We would love it if Arlington can do one next year, too! We would go!!! Thank you, Nancy. You are a sweet blessing! Kathie Mills ---------- Make a Difference by Patti Chang and Anna Adler We know that the NFB changes lives. We know that we foster high expectations. Recently the mom of a blind student sent a thank you note to us which we believe tells the story of just how much impact NFB can have on an individual family. We hope that stories like hers and many others will inspire people to support our efforts to turn dreams into reality. Here is what Angela Rask said about our Illinois Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy: Dear BELL Supporters, Please allow me a moment to express my sincere gratitude as a mom for your ongoing support of the BELL program. My son, Isaac, age eleven, attended the BELL program this year for his second time. He was so excited to do it and looked forward to it from the moment he was accepted. There are many things that Isaac and I value about this program. From Isaac's perspective, it gives him a chance to hang out with peers who are blind/VI and also experiencing the same challenges/situations. This provides him with support, knowing that he is not alone as a blind young person trying to make his way in the world. He is excited to go every day. He really enjoys learning and practicing his skills that grow his independence. He loves the field trips they take where they learn valuable life skills and have fun while they do it. This year, a highlight was going kayaking. He was so excited, and it went beyond his high expectations in fun! He came home happy and proud of himself! He also likes having time with adult mentors. This encourages him with what is possible for him in his future. This year he came home and told me about an adult mentor who had a guide dog with her. Before this, he has always been adamantly against having a guide dog someday, but after interacting with this adult and her dog, he came home feeling different and like it was a possible option for him in the future. Now, whether or not he someday uses a guide dog is up to him, but what he came away with was the model of a blind adult who had found her preferred and successful ways of living independently-another great example for him. Isaac also enjoyed the wide range of ages in the other students...being around the younger students reminded him of how far he has come, and the older students gave him excitement for his future. Although our car ride to and from BELL was sometimes close to 1.5-2 hours each way, Isaac never wavered in his excitement, and in fact, told me many, many times "Thanks Mom for taking me to BELL." I am so thankful for what the BELL program gives to him. From my perspective, BELL gives Isaac a much-needed opportunity to grow in confidence and acceptance of himself as a blind person. As he has gotten older, he has really struggled with his identity as a blind person. He really does not like to feel "different" from his peers, very normal for any 5th grader, but even more complicated when there is something such as blindness. Isaac is mainstreamed into his school, so this opportunity to be around other blind kids (and adults) where blindness is normalized is priceless. It gives him a much-needed break from feeling "different." It gives him equal playing ground to make friends and have fun and learn. He never feels like he is missing out on any part of the experience when he is at BELL because it is tailored FOR the blind student. The rest of his year, he is in a sighted environment and continually faces challenges and other people underestimating, judging, or sometimes dismissing him. At BELL, he doesn't have to fight those daily battles, and it is like he can really "exhale" for a few weeks and just enjoy life instead of constantly having to prove himself. Isaac has struggled to see future possibilities for himself as a blind person-as someone who can have independence and meaningful work. He knows he is smart, but he struggles to believe that his blindness will not prevent him from having a great life. The chance for him to know older students and adults who are living full and meaningful lives is critical and something that sighted people (even the best-intentioned parents) cannot give him. He needs that real-life example with flesh on-not just a mom or dad or teacher telling him what is possible. The BELL program provides this. The BELL program is essential in showing Isaac that he CAN be independent-when they work on simple life skills such as grocery shopping and preparing food/cleaning up, to the more adventurous skills such as how to use public transportation in a big city like Chicago. They don't just talk about it-they DO it, and this shows him he is capable. As a parent, I can do my best to show him how to do these things, but the professionals and mentors at BELL know the best techniques for all these tasks and take him beyond what I as a parent can do. During the school year, Isaac receives a certain number of hours per week of specialized training on Braille and VI technology and O&M. These are wonderful and necessary; however, the immersive 2-week experience for Isaac is an important time of concentrated training and growth that cannot happen during the school year. He can solely focus on his blindness training skills, which lead to a deeper learning experience and also greater confidence. Finally, the BELL program is not only critical for the students, but also important to their families as well. As a sighted parent, I do all that I can to educate and equip myself so I can equip Isaac well. But I can never put myself fully in his shoes. At BELL, he gets this from his blind peers and mentors. This proves to him-and to me as his parent-what is possible. I can be the best mom I can be, but I am not a VI professional such as the staff at BELL...they can equip Isaac in ways that I cannot, and I cannot overstate the importance of this. It gives us insight and renewed motivation as parents to continue working hard at independence so that Isaac will someday be ready to go to college, find work he enjoys, and build a life for himself. We as parents also need BELL so we can be reminded once again of all the possibilities for our blind children. The BELL program is a very important part of Isaac's growth. It moves him beyond limitations that are placed on him by others and sometimes himself. It shows him new possibilities and opens up new dreams and goals for him. Isaac has a lot to offer the world, and the BELL program is an important part of Isaac seeing and believing that truth for himself AND learning how to make it possible! Thank you, BELL supporters and the BELL team, for investing in our kids! Sincerely, Angela & Isaac Raske Want to help families like Angela's? You can make a difference. With a $50 donation, the National Federation of the Blind can send a long white cane-free of charge-to a blind person and give back mobility. With the same amount the Federation can provide early literacy materials to families including a book with both Braille and print which empowers parents to help their blind child get an early start to Braille literacy. With a larger donation we can train our Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy teachers, show blind youngsters that they can do science too, and so much more. Be a part of this future and everything the Federation does with love, hope, and determination. We can't change lives without you. Please help by making an end-of-year gift-and it's easy to do. You can mail a donation or give online at https://nfb.org/donate. To mail your donation, simply make out your check to the National Federation of the Blind, and send it to 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Attention: Outreach, Baltimore, MD 21230. To give online visit our web page, https://nfb.org/donate2017. We all know that the Federation affects blind people's lives every day. Please be a part of our movement with an end-of-year donation. It will be sincerely appreciated. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Allen Harris] The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris >From the Editor: Allen Harris is the chairman of the Kenneth Jernigan Fund Committee and was one of the people who came up with the idea of honoring our former president and longtime leader by establishing a program to promote attendance at the national convention, where so much inspiration and learning occur. Here is Allen's announcement about the 2018 Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Program: Have you always wanted to attend an NFB annual convention but have not done so because of the lack of funds? The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund invites you to make an application for a scholarship grant. Perhaps this July you too can be in the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, enjoying the many pleasures and learning opportunities at the largest and most important yearly convention of blind people in the world. The three biggest ticket items you need to cover when attending an NFB national convention are the roundtrip transportation, the hotel room for a week, and the food (which tends to be higher priced than at home). We attempt to award additional funds to families, but, whether a family or an individual is granted a scholarship, this fund can only help; it won't pay all the costs. Last year most of the sixty grants were in the range of $400 to $500 per individual. We recommend that you find an NFB member as your personal convention mentor, someone who has been to many national conventions and is able to share money-saving tips with you and tips on navigating the extensive agenda in the big hotel. Your mentor will help you get the most out of the amazing experience that is convention week. Who is eligible? Active NFB members, blind or sighted, who have not yet attended an NFB national convention because of lack of funding are eligible to apply. How do I apply for funding assistance? 1. You write a letter giving your contact information, and your local NFB information, your specific amount requested, and then explain why this is a good investment for the NFB. The points to cover are listed below. 2. You contact your state president in person or by phone to request his or her help in obtaining funding. Be sure to tell the president when to expect your request letter by email, and mention the deadline. 3. You (or a friend) send your letter by email to your state president. He or she must add a president's recommendation and then email both letters directly to the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Committee. Your president must forward the two letters no later than April 15, 2018. Your letter to Chairperson Allen Harris must cover these points: . Your full name and all your telephone numbers-label them-cell phone, home, office, other person (if any); . Your mailing address and, if you have one, your email address; . Your state affiliate and state president; your chapter and chapter president, if you attend a chapter; . Your personal convention mentor, and provide that person's phone number; . Your specific request, and explain how much money you need from this fund to make this trip possible for you. We suggest you consult with other members to make a rough budget for yourself. The body of your letter should answer these questions: How do you currently participate in the Federation? Why do you want to attend a national convention? What would you receive; what can you share or give? You can include in your letter to the committee any special circumstances you hope they will take into consideration. When will I be notified that I am a winner? If you are chosen to receive this scholarship, you will receive a letter with convention details that should answer most of your questions. The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May 15, but you must do several things before that to be prepared to attend if you are chosen: 1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from attending, you can cancel the reservation. (Yes, you may arrange for roommates of your own to reduce the cost.) 2. Register online for the entire convention, including the banquet, by May 31. 3. Find someone in your chapter or affiliate who has been to many conventions and can answer your questions as a friend and advisor. 4. If you do not hear from the committee by May 15, then you did not win a grant this year. How will I receive my convention scholarship? At convention you will be given a debit card or credit card loaded with the amount of your award. The times and locations to pick up your card will be listed in the letter we send you. The committee is not able to provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and state affiliate to assist you by obtaining an agreement to advance funds if you win a scholarship and to pay your treasury back after you receive your debit or credit card. What if I have more questions? For additional information email the chairman, Allen Harris, at kjscholarships at nfb.org or call his Baltimore, Maryland, office at (410) 659-9314, extension 2415. Above all, please use this opportunity to attend your first convention on the national level and join several thousand active Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind in the world. We hope to see you in Orlando. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Carla McQuillan] The 2018 Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award by Carla McQuillan >From the Editor: Carla McQuillan is the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, a member of the national board of directors, and the owner and executive director of Main Street Montessori Association, operating two Montessori schools. She is the chairman of the Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award Committee, and she has written this announcement seeking applications for the 2018 award: The National Federation of the Blind will recognize an outstanding teacher of blind students at our 2018 annual convention, July 3 through July 8, in Orlando, Florida. The winner of this award will receive the following: . An expense-paid trip to attend the convention . A check for $1,000 . A commemorative plaque . A place on the agenda of the annual meeting of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children to make a presentation regarding the education of blind children, and . The opportunity to attend seminars and workshops that address the current state of education of blind students, as well as a chance to meet and network with hundreds of blind individuals, teachers, parents, and other professionals in the field. The education of blind children is one of the National Federation of the Blind's highest priorities. We are committed to offering and supporting programs that enhance educational opportunities for this group. Please help us recognize dedicated and innovative teachers who provide quality education and meaningful experiences and opportunities for their blind students. Q: Who is eligible for this award? A: Anyone who is currently a teacher, counselor, or the administrator of programs for blind students. Q: Does an applicant have to be a member of the National Federation of the Blind? A: No, but attending the national convention in Orlando is required. Q: Can I nominate someone else for this award? A: Yes. Applicants can be nominated by colleagues, parents, supervisors, or friends who have first-hand knowledge of the individual's work with blind students. Q: How would I apply? A: You can fill out the application at the end of this article or find it on our website at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/distinguished- educator-of-blind-students-award-form-fillable.pdf Q: What is the deadline to submit an application or make a nomination? A: All applications must be received no later than May 1, 2018. Please complete the application and attach the required documents specified in the application. If you have questions, contact Carla McQuillan at (541) 653-9153. National Federation of the Blind Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award 2018 Application Deadline: May 1, 2018 Name: _______________________________________________________ Home Address: _________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: _________________________________________________ Phone: (H) ____________________ (W) ____________________________ Email: ______________________________________________________ School: ______________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: _________________________________________________ Use a separate sheet of paper to answer the following: List your degrees, the institutions from which they were received, and your major area or areas of study. How long and in what programs have you worked with blind children? In what setting do you currently work? Briefly describe your current job and teaching responsibilities. Describe your current caseload (e.g., number of students, ages, multiple disabilities, number of Braille-reading students). Email is strongly encouraged for transmitting nominations; letters of support and other relevant materials should be included as attachments. Applications sent by mail and postmarked by the deadline will also be accepted. Send all material by May 1, 2018, to Carla McQuillan, chairperson, Teacher Award Committee, president at nfb-oregon.org or by mail to 5005 Main Street, Springfield, OR 97478; (541) 653-9153. ---------- The Holman Prize Sets Sail: Who Won This Year's Prize for "Blind Ambition," and Why by Sheri Wells-Jensen >From the Editor: Sheri Wells-Jensen is a linguistics professor at Bowling Green State University, a curious connoisseur of insuppressible blind living, who served on the judging committee for the inaugural Holman Prize for Blind Ambition, held in San Francisco in June 2017. Unlike our own Bolotin Award, which recognizes past accomplishments by individuals and organizations, the Holman Award is granted to those who have an idea that, if funded, will expand the possibilities for blind people. The Holman award committee was comprised of a number of people from around the nation and the world, among them Federationists Chancey Fleet, Sheri Wells-Jensen, Brian Miller, Debbie Stein, and Gary Wunder. Here is more about the man in whose name the award is presented: James Holman was not your average nineteenth-century blind explorer. Safe to say, "nineteenth-century blind explorers" is not really a reliable dataset. Traveling the world alone is not unusual for blind people today, so today we view James Holman as an outlier-a sign that we've made some progress in these couple hundred years. In the future, the strivings of today's outliers will seem similarly achievable, and we will thank them for breaking the mold. This year, we saw the launch of The Holman Prize, dedicated to pursuing and promoting the passions of blind people everywhere, and it's my pleasure to introduce you to the prize's first three winners. First, though, you need to know a bit about James Holman. James Holman was born an unremarkable middle-class baby in Exeter, England, in 1786. The second son of a local merchant, he was more or less expected to lead an unsurprising life, making himself a career in the British Navy, and like a dutiful second son of the time, he eventually set about doing just that. That was just about the last unsurprising event of his life. He first surprised himself in 1812 by becoming very ill and later going blind. Later, he surprised the rest of England (and possibly himself again) by ignoring the usual sorts of restrictive expectations placed on blind people and setting out to do marvelous things. After recovering from his illness, he wriggled out of a stultifying religious order for disabled military men (which was supposed to keep him safely at home and out of trouble) and set forth on a series of solo adventures. He began by booking passage for himself on a ship, not worrying much about where it went. From there, in a time before paved roads and reliable vehicles, he traveled alone through Europe, was run out of Russia (suspected of being an international spy), and returned to England to publish his first set of detailed books describing his adventures. He later circumnavigated the globe, noticing everything, restlessly trying to be everywhere and to do all there was to do. Holman's fame spread; eventually Charles Darwin himself referenced observations of the natural world made by the "blind traveler." You can (and should) read about him in the exquisitely detailed biography by Jason Roberts (available on both NLS and BookShare). I sincerely promise that it will reshape your assumptions about what blind people could accomplish in the early nineteenth century. So when the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco announced a competition for the first annual Holman Prize at the beginning of this year, they must have known they were setting a pretty high bar. It was a prize clearly intended to reward the doing of splendid things: audacious things that startle, delight, and challenge. As hoped, the announcement brought forth a glorious deluge of entries literally from around the globe. Asked to submit ninety-second YouTube videos describing an ambitious project on which they would like to spend $25,000, over 200 blind people responded with entries which ranged from the adorable to the impressive and from the truly beautiful to the unapologetically weird. Once you finish reading the Holman biography, I heartily recommend that you spend a long, fascinating evening streaming some of those videos. We are, it turns out, a pretty audacious group of people. But, in the end, only three could be chosen: the "Holmanest" of this year's "Holmanesque" entries, if you will. It is my delight to introduce them to you here: Let's begin with Penny Melville-Brown. You would know immediately if you were in a room with Penny, the mastermind behind the "Baking Blind" project, because you would hear her signature laugh. Gregarious and confident, Penny has no doubt about what she wants to do. Like James Holman, she is a native of Great Britain, and like James Holman, Penny went blind while serving in the British Navy. She also shares Holman's urge to travel. Penny intends to conquer the world kitchen by kitchen, exploring the cuisine from Costa Rica to China and filming cooking shows with local chefs as she goes. But this isn't only about, maybe isn't even mostly about, adaptive cooking techniques. Penny's project is about community and about the generous and welcoming spaces that open out when people share food. Penny's positive nature and her humor draw people around the dining table where she presides, and the gastronomic wonders she creates make them sit down and stay put. As people break bread together, (and such bread you have rarely tasted) barriers fall, and they talk. With her recipes in hand, (and perhaps wielding a wooden spoon if necessary) Penny will weave these communities together as she goes. The chefs will learn from the blind cook, the blind cook will learn from the chefs, and everyone at table and watching on the videos will learn to trust one another just a little bit more. Ojok Simon is a gracious, dignified man from Uganda whose gentleness and soft-spoken demeanor at first seem strangely at odds with his project. Ojok is a bee keeper: not just any keeper . . . Ojok Simon is a keeper of Africanized bees. Where many of us skitter anxiously away at the near approach of even a single honeybee, Ojok regularly sinks his hands and arms into billowing swarms of them, moving them about, adjusting their hives, and deftly making off with quantities of their honey. When I asked (admittedly in some alarm) about how this was done, another blind bee keeper from Northern California, Aerial Gilbert, helped make sense of it for me. Bee keeping, she explained, is a gentle endeavor; the keeper becomes known to his bees and learns to move deliberately and easily among them. It's not a contest; it's a dance. Ojok does wear protective gear and he does get stung, but he explains that he is not afraid of his bees because they have no desire to hurt anyone. If approached calmly, they will react calmly. This is remarkable enough, but Ojok's Holman Prize was not awarded because of how handy he himself is around an apiary. In a country where jobs are hard for blind people to find, Ojok's project is to teach other blind Ugandans what he knows. At this writing, he has thirty-eight blind students ready and willing to learn from him, and he has established a small foundation to help purchase the startup gear each will need to become his or her own boss, selling beeswax and honey. Ojok nimbly avoids the problem of convincing Ugandan employers to hire blind people by setting these blind people up as their own bosses. In what has become the Holman tradition, his method is both startling and extraordinarily clever. The third Holman prize winner, originally from Turkey but now living in San Francisco, is a special education teacher named Ahmet Ustunel. Ahmet is that high school teacher who wins the kids over with a combination of steady confidence and a touch of playfulness: the kind of teacher who's cool without making too much of it. He exudes an insuppressible, quiet joyfulness. Still, because he is actually a little bit shy, you might walk right by him at a party without knowing he's there. If you want to draw him out though, I suggest leaning over and whispering "ocean!" or "fishing boat" or better still "pirate," and you'll have his full attention. He becomes very animated quickly, and will delight you with his stories about his times on, beside, in, and (sometimes temporarily) underneath various kinds of boats. Ahmet happily tells the story that his first career choice as a child was to become a pirate. When his parents described the standard eye-patch-sporting pirate to him, he was delighted; to quote four-year-old Ahmet: "If this is a successful pirate, and he has one blind eye, I'm going to be the best pirate ever . . .because I have two blind eyes!" Ahmet's project involves a kayak, a ton of very cool high tech equipment, and the Bosphorus Strait: a narrow body of water that separates Europe (on the west) from Asia, on the east. Ahmet plans to paddle his kayak solo across the strait: no mean feat when you consider the currents, the wildlife, the traffic buoys and, not to put too fine a point on it, but also the merchant ships (which are larger than most houses) that thunder along the Bosphorus on their way to the Black Sea. Ninety percent of his project, he says, undaunted, is in the preparation: the physical training, the testing of the technology, and working out logistics. His kayak will be outfitted with all the cool gear a geek could dream of: GPS, radio, and all manner of obstacle detectors. That along with his sense of the sea, his hands in the current, and his knowledge of the wind direction will guide him safely across. And, if our own cool tech doesn't let us down, we'll get to follow along when he makes the crossing in July 2018. The thing that distinguishes this first set of Holman Prizewinners is not their jobs or mastery of blindness techniques or their eloquence in discussing philosophy of blindness. Like all the rest of us, they sometimes drop things or come up short when a stranger on the street asks them some ridiculous blindness-related question. The spark that they all share is their conscious, enduring belief in blind people and their willingness to share that belief as part of their community, offering and accepting strength along the way. They reminded me that we all have a bit of James Holman in us. Over the next few months, we'll cheer them on as they embark on their adventures. Next time, it will be someone else. So, heads up, all blind adventurers, inventors, dreamers, artists, musicians, scientists, builders, healers, troublemakers, and all the rest of you daring, merry, audacious believers: it's not too early to start thinking about next year. Applications for the 2018 Holman Prize open on January 16, 2018. Visit www.holmanprize.org to learn how to apply. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Congresswoman Val Demings] Supporting Equality for Blind Americans: A New Sheriff in the United States House of Representatives by Val Demings >From the Editor: This speech was what some in the South would call a barn burner. It brought the house down. After a long day of words, sometimes we may find our heads falling forward, catching twenty winks in the hope we don't miss anything important, but no one slept during this speech, as the audio version will make abundantly clear. Here is the speech given by Congresswoman Val Demings: Good morning everybody! [applause] I've spent the last week in Washington, DC-c'mon-good morning everybody! [louder applause and cheers] What a joy it is for me to be here with you today. And it is my honor to welcome you to the Tenth Congressional District, the district that I represent. [applause] Boy, I love the sound of that! I want to thank you, National Federation of the Blind, for this awesome opportunity. And I do congratulate you on your seventy-seventh annual convention-you've been around seventy-seven years, you gotta be doing something right! To your president, to your chairman, to my Florida connection Denise, thank you so very much. I just got home late last night, but what an amazing week that you've had. From education to keeping up with the ever-changing technology, to financial workshops to workshops for cancer survivors to blind musician support groups to surviving social media and the unforgettable Showcase of Talent, it appears that you've had a productive and a fun convention; am I right about that? [applause] I also want to take just a moment-we're here at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, and I do want to take just a moment to recognize-I know you've probably done so this week-to recognize Harris Rosen. We thank him for his amazing contributions to our community. There is a scripture that says-just work with me for a few minutes here-there is a scripture that says, "I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day: for night cometh when no man (or woman) can work." [John 9:4] Now I believe these words really have little to do with night and day as we know it, but I believe these words have more to do with time and with a sense of urgency to do good works. Another passage says, "Don't tell your neighbor to come back tomorrow if you can help him (or her) today." [Proverbs 3:28] And Dr. Martin Luther King said this, "The time is always right to do what's right." [applause] You see, these words have special meaning to me because of my own story. I never wanted someone to do the work for me, but I did need a community that created an environment for me to be able to do the work myself. For me to be able to succeed, so thank you so much National Federation of the Blind, for allowing me to share just a little bit of my story. For you see, my story provided the foundation and the motivation for what I do every day in the United States Congress. I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida; I've been in Florida all of my life and in Duval County in the House. I am the youngest of seven children. My mother cleaned houses for a living, which means yes, she was a maid. And my father was a janitor: he picked oranges, he mowed lawns-you see my dad used to go to work seven days a week to make ends meet for our family, to keep a roof over our head, and food on the table. I grew up in a two- bedroom wood-frame house that I remember being very hot in the summer and pretty cold in the winter. You see, Jacksonville, Florida, is very similar to South Georgia-gets pretty cold there. But in spite of who I was and the challenges that I faced, there were people along the way who encouraged me, pushed me, leveled the playing field for me, and worked to give me every opportunity to succeed. I was the first in my family to go to college, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to work hard to improve the quality of life for persons in my community. After college I worked as a social worker, and I want you to know I've taken three oaths in my lifetime: the first oath I took in 1984-yes that was a good while ago, I understand that-but that was my first oath I took as a young police officer with the Orlando Police Department [applause]. The second oath I took was in 2007 when I was sworn in-you've already heard it, but I'm going to say it again because I like hearing it- when I was sworn in as the thirty-sixth chief of police and the first woman to hold that position. [cheers] And the third oath I took on January 3 of this year, which just happened to be my mother's birthday, was when I was sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives. I want you to know, National Federation of the Blind, that I've taken every oath very, very seriously. And I remember every oath because they all stated that I would protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. You see, I know for a fact-I know you know it too, but I came just to remind you today-that we do live in the greatest country in the world! [cheers, applause] And I believe with all of my heart in the Constitution of the United States. I believe in the promise of America--that we are all created equal. Yes, we are created equal regardless of the color of our skin, our ethnic backgrounds, our religious belief, our sexual orientation, how much money we have in the bank, or if we can see or if we are blind! [cheers] You see I know, I know, National Federation of the Blind, that blindness does not define you! I know that you believe in the full capacity of blind people. In other words, you believe that blind people, too, can reach their full potential. The writer Myles Monroe said that, "Potential is untapped power; reserved strength is all you can be but have not yet become, all you can do but have not yet done, how high you can reach but have not yet reached." Blindness does not define you. You see, I know that you can live the life that you want. I have spent my adult life working to improve the quality of life for other persons, and, as a member of Congress, my focus has not changed. You see, I'm still in the same business. I can assure you that I will fight for equality for the blind, that I will fight for effective rehabilitation, that I will work to make technology accessible to the blind, and yes, I am a proud sponsor of H.R. 1734, the Access Technology Affordability Act. [cheers, applause] I believe in the promise of America, that all persons are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that does mean that you can live the life you want. Helen Keller said this, "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." You see, I dream in color. I dream of an America where every person, regardless of the color of their skin, their ethnic backgrounds-I'll say it again-religious beliefs, sexual orientation, how much money they have in the bank, whether they can see or blind-I believe they should have every opportunity to succeed. I believe that you should be able to live up to your full potential. I do believe that you should be able to live the life you want. That's the vision that I have for the America that I believe in. [applause] So, National Federation of the Blind, continue to take care of your business. I thank you so much for this great opportunity. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America! Thank you. [cheers, applause] ---------- Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market is the conduit through which our organization distributes our empowering literature to our members, friends, and the general public. As a service we also operate a blindness products store, which sells mostly low-tech items, designed to enhance the everyday independence of blind individuals. Here are a few items available from the Independence Market which would make great gifts for a blind person on your list. During the holidays many of us spend time with family and friends, so games make fun gifts. Our offerings range from a variety of Brailled card games like UNO, Skip-Bo, Phase 10, Quiddler, and Five Crowns to board games like Checkers, Chess, Dominoes, Backgammon, Tic-Tac-Toe and more. Perhaps our new, popular Micro- Speak Plus Talking Digital Voice Recorder, the PenFriend 2 audio labeling system, a Color Identifier, a Talking Tape Measure, the inTACT Sketchpad and Eraser, a 2018 Large Print Planner, or a Braille or talking watch might be just the thing. Of course, the Bradley Timepiece was created for both blind and sighted users alike; in fact it has won a design award. Anyone wearing this fashionable timepiece is bound to garner compliments. Perhaps you are shopping for a sighted family member or friend. We have some more items that may be of interest. The Louis Braille Silver Dollar may appeal to coin collectors. The US Mint honored Louis Braille with the release of this commemorative proof coin, which shows the word Braille in standard-sized tactile Braille among other images. Someone interested in biography, history, or travel may enjoy Crooked Paths Made Straight by Dr. Isabelle Grant, in which the author, a blind school teacher and longtime member of the NFB, describes her 1959 solo journey around the world. Someone who has a closer relationship with the NFB may enjoy The Power of Love: How Kenneth Jernigan Changed the World edited by Ramona Walhof. This collection contains essays by longtime Federationists and others whose lives were touched through Dr. Jernigan's work with the National Federation of the Blind. We have items to fit any budget, and our staff will be glad to assist with more gift ideas. If you would like to obtain a gift from the Independence Market but aren't sure what your family member or friend could use the most, you may wish to consider purchasing an Independence Market gift certificate instead. For more information about the products and literature available from the Independence Market visit us online at https://nfb.org/independence- market. Our catalog and supplement are available for download as Microsoft Word and BRF files. You may also request a catalog in Braille or in print by contacting us using email at independencemarket at nfb.org or by phone at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM eastern time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann reads Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Safety Day proclamations.] Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Awareness Day in Cincinnati by Annie McEachirn Carson What follows is the story of the Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Awareness Day event held by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio Cincinnati Chapter. I am the recreation chairperson/event coordinator and was assisted in the planning of this celebration by Sheri Albers, Ohio state vice president, member of the Cincinnati chapter; Walter Mitchell, chairman, fundraising committee; and Kim McEachirn, member, recreation and fundraising committees. The organizing of this event began in the summer of 2017. During this time, Kim McEachirn came up with the idea to produce a t- shirt consisting of a special design: a blue eye with "Meet the Blind" above the eye and "Mind to Mind" below it. With the support of the fundraising committee, Kim and I met with a designer, Tommy Rueff, director of Happen, Inc. and a local t-shirt manufacturer who transformed Kim's dream into reality, completing the order of one hundred t-shirts. These unique t-shirts would be sold as a fundraiser for the local chapter by request and during our event. In September I arranged for Sheri Albers and myself to participate in a thirty-minute interview conducted by Robert Lee Harris with Cincinnati City Cable. A summary of the National Federation of the Blind, the Cincinnati Chapter's Meet the Blind Month, and White Cane Safety Awareness Day event were discussed. You can see that interview by going to https://vimeo.com/234562206. After the success of the video on cable TV, internet and Facebook, the planning committee became more excited about our vision for the Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Safety Awareness Day event scheduled on October 2. Over the following weeks, invitations were sent to the Clovernook Center for the Blind, The Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and to the general public through a variety of social media outlets. Traditionally, the opening ceremony for the Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Awareness Day had begun at City Hall, therefore, as in previous years, we felt it important to involve a city official in reading the Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Safety Day proclamations. Vice Mayor David Mann, who took honor in reading the proclamations to a crowd of more than fifty attendees, spoke passionately about his own personal connection between family and community. As a father of a hearing- impaired daughter and as a husband whose wife Betsy volunteers her time in doing audio description for the blind at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, David Mann is well aware of the individual's need to achieve and one's willingness to serve. Leading up to the event on October 2, the planning team focused on all of the intricate details in order to bring the event to fruition. Several volunteers from organizations such as Cincinnati City Cable, Happen Inc., Cancer Justice Network Inc., Clovernook Center for the Blind, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Davis Cookie Collection, Chick-fil-A, Graeter's, and the Friends of the African Union supported the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio Cincinnati Chapter by donating their skills, talents, and resources. With the use of excellent sound systems at both City Hall and Fountain Square, the team had the ability to share their message with those near and far. Beautifully designed programs were created and handed out to sighted friends and to David Mann. Due to the tragedy in Las Vegas, I started the ceremony with a moment of silence for those killed or injured during the mass shooting. After this I officially welcomed everyone to our celebration with the purpose of sharing that blind people desire to use their skills and talents and to be independent to go and come at their convenience. NFB Cincinnati Chapter Vice President Lisa Hall read (in Braille) a brief history of Meet the Blind Month and White Cane Safety Day, David Mann read the proclamations, and Lillie Pennington, Cincinnati Chapter member, sang "Glory Federation" as the crowd enthusiastically joined in with the chorus. As I thanked David Mann on behalf of the NFB, I presented him with a t-shirt. The program finished with Sheri Albers inviting the crowd to join in the White Cane Walk to Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati. The walk to Fountain Square, led by Sheri, was pleasant and well organized. Several sighted volunteers walked alongside NFB members. Upon arrival at Fountain Square, friend and volunteer Cassy Kohs took several pictures to commemorate the special event. I then introduced the recreation committee and fundraising committee. Lisa Hall read a Braille copy of each of the proclamations. Sheri and I then led the group in the one-minute message of NFB. For the next two hours Walter Mitchell and Kim McEachirn helped share the organization's message by continuous announcements over the sound system while NFB friends/volunteers Lisa, Julie, and Cassy helped sell t-shirts. Jean Selvidge, a sighted member of the NFB, was very diligent in providing literature to the public and also assisting in the sale of the t-shirts. The Cincinnati Chapter is truly grateful for the fifty-plus attendees that participated in the event on the beautiful Monday afternoon of October 2. Some of these attendees included many of the Cincinnati Federation family: Dr. Carolyn Peters, president of Miami Valley Chapter and state board member; Gloria Robinson from the same chapter; Sam Foulkes and several blind coworkers from Clovernook Center for the Blind; the community relations team from The Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired; volunteers; and visitors. Together we did it! With love, hope, and determination, we achieved our goal! ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. Potato Salad by Patti Chang Patti says about this recipe, "We have an annual fundraiser called Oktoberfest in September in Illinois. In recent years it happens at the house of the Changs. It is a fun time which brings in some money. We have a volunteer DJ and people bring their instruments, so it is full of music and food. I make a potato salad as follows. This will serve fifty people so adjust down at need." Ingredients 10 pounds potatoes (Idaho are fine) 2 large green peppers 18 eggs 1/2 large onion or more to taste 1 cup mayo, approximate 1/2 cup mustard, approximate 1/2 cup milk, approximate 3 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons paprika Salt and pepper to taste Method: Boil potatoes until they are cooked but firm. Thoroughly boil eggs, six to eight minutes should be sufficient, let cool. Mix dressing by adding mayo, mustard, milk, and sugar together. Stir in salt and pepper until the dressing alone is both salty and peppery. You should adjust the mayo and mustard to taste. It should be a little mustardy. If you substitute soy or lactose-free milk do not add the sugar. Chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Chop onions small. Chop eggs into about 1/2-inch pieces. Chop green peppers. Combine potatoes, eggs, peppers, and onions. Add dressing. Adjust salt, pepper and onions to taste. Sprinkle paprika atop your salad. This recipe is forgiving so adjust to what you like. ---------- Honey Chicken by Deborah Kent Stein Ingredients: 3 pounds chicken, cut up (or legs and thighs) 4 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup prepared mustard 1 tsp salt (optional) 1 tsp curry powder (or substitute ground ginger) Method: Skin chicken pieces and set aside on paper towels or a clean cloth. In a large saucepan, melt butter and add remaining ingredients. Place chicken in the mixture, bony side down, to coat one side. Arrange in a baking pan, meaty side up, and pour the remaining mixture over the pieces. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour or until chicken is tender and glazed. Goes well with rice, peas, and green salad with mandarin oranges. ---------- Holiday Honey Treats by Leslie Hamric Ingredients: 1 cup honey 1-1/2 cups powdered milk 1 cup peanut butter 1-1/2 cups wheat germ 1 teaspoon nutmeg Crushed wheat flakes Method: Mix everything together except wheat flakes. Shape into small balls. Roll in crushed wheat flakes. Makes 20 balls or more. ---------- Eclair Cake by Leslie Hamric Ingredients Filling 3 3.5-ounce boxes instant vanilla pudding 3 cups milk 1 8-ounce container Cool Whip Graham crackers Topping 1/3 cup cocoa 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup milk 1 stick butter 1 teaspoon vanilla Method: Combine pudding mix and milk, beat. Stir in Cool Whip. Place a layer of graham crackers in bottom of thirteen-by-nine-inch dish. Spread half of the filling mixture on top. Repeat with another layer of graham crackers, add rest of filling, top with final layer of graham crackers. For topping: bring cocoa, milk, and butter to a rolling boil for a full minute, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, cool one minute. Add butter and vanilla; stir till butter is melted. Pour topping over graham crackers and refrigerate overnight. ---------- Crisp Sugar Cookies by Deborah Kent Stein Ingredients: 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 2-1/2 cups sifted flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg Nut halves, raisins, or sprinkles for decoration Method: Cream shortening. Add sugar, vanilla, and unbeaten eggs one at a time. Beat until light. Sift dry ingredients and mix well. Add gradually and blend thoroughly. Chill for two hours. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll thin on a floured board. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour and then sprinkle with sugar. Decorate as desired. Bake on greased cookie sheets at 400 degrees for ten minutes. Makes about five dozen. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Elected: The National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii held convention elections on October 1, 2017, and the new board is as follows: president, Nani Fife; vice president, Virgil Stinnett; secretary, Katie Keim; treasurer, Dean Georgiev; and directors Tammy Robar, Doug Moises, and Sally Hammond. The New and Improved NFB Connect App Awaits Your Download: The improved mobile app from the National Federation of the Blind is here! As you're celebrating the seventy-seventh birthday of the National Federation of the Blind, take a minute to download or update the NFB Connect app from the Apple app store. Put the power and inspiration of the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind people in your pocket. You can: . Get up to date on the latest Federation news. . Easily follow our @NFB_voice Twitter feed. . Read posts from our blog, the Voice of the Nation's Blind. . Listen to the Nation's Blind Podcast, the Presidential Release (in English or Spanish), the Braille Monitor, and Future Reflections. . Find the closest chapter meeting wherever you are. . Learn what's happening throughout your Federation family by checking out Upcoming Events and our latest tweets. If the link above didn't work, you can download the improved NFB Connect app by copying and pasting this link into Safari on your iOS device: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nfb-connect/id968434124?mt=8. Fully accessible with VoiceOver, the NFB Connect mobile app for iOS keeps you plugged into the Federation while you're out living the life you want! Enjoy, and let your Federation family and friends know about this great way to stay connected with all things NFB! ---------- NFB Pledge I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution.