From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Tue Jan 9 17:59:08 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2018 17:59:08 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, January 2018 Message-ID: <201801100159.w0A1x8Zj023495@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 1 January 2018 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 ? 2018 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. 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Vol. 61, No. 1 January 2018 Contents Illustration: A New Home for the Records Center Ending Accreditation without Authenticity: A Call to Action for the Fourth Generation of the Federation by Mark Riccobono Accreditation: The Pros and Woes of Credentialing by Edward Bell Of Little Faith: A Troubling Trend with Blindness Professionals by Lisa Ferris To Teach is to Touch a Life Forever: Jerry Whittle: Cherished Teacher, Mentor, Author, Advocate, and Leader Our Fight for Literacy by Lyn Petro Building the National Federation of the Blind Brand by Kirsten Mau Tax Deductions for the Blind: Are They Something We Deserve, and Should We Fight for Them? by Mark Riccobono Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-The New and Improved Rules of the Road by Amy Mason National Convention Reflections by Alyssa Shock Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: The old records center full before the file cabinets were moved to the new location. [PHOTO CAPTION: A group of staff wrestle with a filing cabinet to get it into its proper place. [PHOTO CAPTION: Staff members smile as they remove file boxes from a cart to be refiled in the new records center. [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono smiles as he checks in on the crew moving files and filing cabinets. Staff member, Ryan Pugh, stands in the background with a cart full of file boxes. [PHOTO CAPTION: The old records center all emptied out. [PHOTO CAPTION: The new records center full of newly filled filing cabinets and wire shelving. A New Home for the Records Center On a cold December day in Baltimore, a large group of the NFB staff came together to complete what was truly a herculean task. Their goal was to move the NFB Record Center from the 4th floor to its new home on the 2nd floor. A team of nearly thirty enthusiastic staff members moved 110 filing cabinets, containing the Federation's history spanning from the early 1940s all the way to the early 2000s. These cabinets contain almost everything about the NFB during this time period, from the files of the first user experience study with the Kurzweil Reading Machine in 1977, to the records of every single Washington Seminar ever held, and to the correspondence of every NFB affiliate stretching back in time to the early days of the Federation. However, it was not just the size and scope of the materials being moved that proved to be challenging, nor even the sheer weight of so much collected paper. But the contents of about sixty filing cabinets had to be unloaded into boxes, moved to the new location, and put back, all while carefully maintaining their order. Another challenge, this one unexpected, was the discovery that many of these cabinets had been bolted together from the inside and needed to be separated before they could be moved. Yet, undeterred, the amazing team rose to the occasion, put their backs and their brains into it, and completed this humongous job in under just 6 hours! Once again, the NFB proves that it has some of the best staff in the world. But what else would you expect from an organization as committed and inspired as the National Federation of the Blind? [PHOTO CAPTION: Federationists walk with signs protesting NAC in New York in 1986.] Ending Accreditation without Authenticity: A Call to Action for the Fourth Generation of the Federation by Mark Riccobono From the Editor: When I first came into the Federation and started receiving the Braille Monitor, I read about a battle with an agency called NAC, then the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. NAC said its goal was to bring standards to work with the blind and to improve the services the blind received, so the question I needed answered was why my newly-found Federation would object. It didn't take much reading of the correspondence between President Jernigan and officials of NAC to understand why. It was made abundantly clear that the organized blind were not a part of the process; we might be blind, but we weren't "professionals" in the field and shouldn't pretend to know the first thing about quality services. The Federation would articulate a concrete concern, and someone from NAC would respond by saying that as consumers we could not be expected to understand the work of this accrediting body, the standards it used, or the reason for those standards; nor did we have the education and experience to make a determination as to whether they had been followed. The Federation was told, sometimes gently and sometimes not, that our error was in presuming to speak to standards and to service. Indeed we were blind, indeed some of us were articulate, indeed some of us had impressive credentials in other fields, but this did not make us qualified to participate in the process of service delivery, let alone accreditation. In NAC's pronouncements it was clear that, no matter what we might write or say or do, our opinions were not needed or sought. We might parrot the language of the professionals and ape their behavior by dressing well, showing up for meetings, and addressing the press, but the fact was that being blind meant only that we suffered from the condition. We certainly could not know anything about how to serve or take care of those who were blind, let alone administer the agencies that directed their lives. With this reaction to our worthiness as full-fledged human beings whose very opportunities were being influenced by those who would not listen, many of us for the first time decided to do the unthinkable-we would take to the streets and protest. By marching and chanting outside gatherings of NAC, we earned the ire of some who would give us names that did not fit with our mission or self-concept. We were called "radical," though we did not advocate revolution or even thorough and complete social reform. Our straightforward and eminently reasonable demand was to have some influence over the agencies designed to serve us. Sometimes we were called "militant," but we were not combative, aggressive, or violent in our call to be heard and recognized. Though the rallying cry "nothing about us without us" had its origins in fifteenth-century Poland and certainly was found in our own country's revolution when angrily we denounced taxation without representation, the slogan did not gain popularity for people with disabilities until the early 1990s, two decades after the blind demonstrated our commitment to the concept on the streets of many cities in our nation. The National Accreditation Council has been offensive to blind people not just because we were left out in its construction, its standards, and its administration. NAC has let itself be used in ways which have given agencies a free pass when accused of the misuse of agency money or even the abuse of blind people, especially blind children. When the Federation brought legitimate concerns about bad behavior to agency administrators and their governing boards, these were dismissed. When we took those same concerns to the press, they were often published, but the agency's defense began and ended with the assertion that they were accredited by the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. These assertions were verified by NAC, and the charges of bad conduct and abuse were never investigated by the so-called accrediting agency. Sometimes the word accreditation was so powerful that in the press coverage, legitimate concerns of consumers finished a distant second to the idea that the people in charge of these agencies were professionals who were being watched over by other professionals. The blind who complained were portrayed as malcontents who just didn't understand the complexity of service delivery and who seized upon small incidents and tried to turn them into significant issues. Over time our persistence paid off. The American Foundation for the Blind, which had given hundreds of thousands of dollars for the creation and maintenance of NAC, withdrew its funding. The United States Department of Education, which had been persuaded that accreditation would ensure quality education, eventually withdrew its funding and its strong push to have every blindness program in the country accredited by NAC. The number of agencies accredited by NAC fell each year, the best agencies being the first to withdraw, and the worst being those who clung to NAC as their single best defense against accountability and change. For more than two decades NAC has existed in name, but has not been a significant player in the blindness field. Its annual reviews have been self-studies, and we have never known any of its member agencies to be rebuked or removed from the NAC family. Agencies wanting meaningful evaluation have turned to the organizations that represent the consumers they serve and have relied on other accrediting bodies which deal with education and rehabilitation. They have decided that nothing in the annual dues paid to NAC enhances their service and that the satisfaction of their consumers is the real test of quality service and genuine partnership. So imagine our surprise when, after twenty years of relative inactivity, we learn that NAC has been newly named the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services and is being maintained on life support by the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). Here is what president Riccobono has to say about the attempt to resurrect NAC and its continued failure to seek out the input of the organized blind: This is a call to action for the blind of America to ensure that the struggles of our past do not resurface in a manner that impedes our future. As the fourth generation of the Federation has come into leadership, we have brought with us a perspective that has been shaped by our history but has not been significantly influenced by some of the most contentious struggles of our civil rights movement. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. For the leaders of my generation, we grew up in a time when the National Federation of the Blind was emerging into the position of true leadership in the field of work with the blind. In many situations during the past thirty years, we have worked collaboratively with key professionals in the field to advance issues of significant concern to the blind. In this call to action I will not recount the well-documented history of NAC. However, for those of my generation who did not live through the NAC-tracking period of the Federation and for those who need a reminder, I offer the following excerpts and provide a few references to previous Monitor articles for background. "Through 1966 articles appeared in the Braille Monitor condemning a lack of consumer participation in the planning process and the regressive nature of many recommendations being proposed for the future NAC. The Commission was criticized for institutionalizing practices resulting in dependency. To many blind people as well as to several agency directors, a small group of professionals with similar and overlapping institutional affiliations were trying to dominate the field of rehabilitation through a new inclusive organization which was saddled with negative and regressive assumptions about blindness (Vaughan, 1993)." "In a 1971 convention address Dr. Kenneth Jernigan made clear that the NFB's quarrel with the National Accreditation Council was neither over the concept of accreditation nor because of efforts to improve services to blind people. In this same speech Jernigan explained his perception of NAC and the way it operated. Consumer participation was minimal-tokenism." "Over the next twenty years an average of seven articles per year appeared critiquing and exposing alleged and documented shortcomings of NAC-accredited agencies. Up until 1990 the annual NAC board meetings were picketed by two to three hundred blind people who traveled from all over the United States to meeting sites (Rabby, 1984). In almost every state Federation members continually tried, often with success, to persuade agencies to disassociate from NAC." Although my generation of Federationists did not live through the right to organize battles of the 1950s, the use of an accreditation system to protect agencies doing harm to blind people, and active efforts to prevent blind people from being eligible to teach travel, we should not act as though those events are not relevant to who we are today and the dreams we seek for blind people. The history matters, and we the blind are determined to shape the future. It is said that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, but I think Mark Twain's perspective might be more appropriate: History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. On the eve of the seventy-seventh anniversary of the National Federation of the Blind, I participated in conversations regarding the field of work with the blind that sounded very familiar to the stories I have read about the past-a familiar tune by a new set of performers. Specifically I am talking about the recent announcement by the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) that AER has brought the accreditation program previously managed by the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC) under the executive management of AER. In AER's own words, "This represents an extraordinary opportunity for AER and the clients who are served by agencies committed to delivering high-quality services." My personal history with NAC might give you some insight as to how I approached the conversation that appears below. In June 2000, I was appointed to serve as Director of the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (a state agency that has responsibility for providing a number of statewide services for children and adults in Wisconsin including operating a residential school). In that position I worked on the accreditations the agency was required to have as a K-12 school operating in the state. In 2002 I learned about the NAC Summit meeting that was planned for Florida in December. As a member of the Council of Schools for the Blind [COSB], I provided my concerns about the failed NAC accreditation program to the individual who would be representing NAC at the summit. As a member of the National Federation of the Blind, I wanted to be with Federation members protesting the meeting itself, but my schedule would not allow me to be away at the time of the meeting in Florida. Therefore, I settled for urging COSB to encourage NAC to close its doors and go out of business-an opinion that was shared at the summit meeting by others as you will find in the February 2003 issue of the Braille Monitor. NAC was never a topic of discussion at any of the conferences I attended related to the education of blind children, so I rarely gave it much thought. In November of 2003 I moved to Maryland to work for the National Federation of the Blind. In 2004 Lou Tutt left the presidency of the Maryland School for the Blind, and I was surprised to learn that the school was accredited by NAC. When a new president was appointed to lead the Maryland School for the Blind (a woman I knew from my time participating in the Council of Schools for the Blind), I approached her about dropping NAC accreditation. I thought I might be able to convince her that the students at the school were not better off because of the NAC accreditation. She decided that the matter required more study even though the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland urged her to drop the useless accreditation. Eventually the Board of Trustees for the Maryland School for the Blind dropped the accreditation and found a new president to administer the programs of the Maryland school. Since that time the Federation and the Maryland School for the Blind have found opportunities to work collaboratively on a number of projects, including a Braille conference in October 2017. NAC was not providing Maryland with any value, and eliminating it saved the school dollars that could be put into programming and improved its ability to partner with blind consumers. Based on my experience, I have always believed that NAC would eventually close its doors when the small number of agencies still paying NAC for the privilege of doing a self-assessment of their services got tired of receiving no value for their dollars. In September a Federation leader forwarded the announcement below from AER: From: AERBVI Member Services [mailto:aer at aerbvi.mmsend.com] On Behalf of AERBVI Member Services Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2017 3:28 PM Subject: Update to Members A message from AER's Board President Joe Catavero & Executive Director Lou Tutt... A few short weeks ago we wrapped up an extraordinary AER conference. A conference that served as a valuable educational event for Orientation & Mobility specialists and other professionals in the field; and one that reflected our strong commitment to you as members. Over the last months, we have listened carefully to our members. In addition, we have studied the last few years-examining our operations, member services, and the professional environment in which we work. As a result, the AER Board President appointed a Strategic Planning Team. An analysis was conducted that pinpointed AER's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This data served as the framework that drove a process that spanned several weeks and led to the creation of an operational plan to move AER towards elevated excellence by 2020-The AER Strategic Plan 2017-2020. We adopted a new mission: The mission of AER is to serve and empower professionals to deliver standards-based practices that lead to improved educational and rehabilitative outcomes for individuals with visual impairment and blindness. This mission embodies what we do and the importance of our work and will serve as a guiding light for the services and support that we will provide to you. We have a set of new operational goals that will better position AER to realize our bold new vision, which is to be a dynamic and thriving professional membership community with innovative practices and standards that result in responsiveness, recognized leadership, and improved outcomes for individuals who are blind and visually impaired. And, we will at all times hold true in all that we do to our four core values: COMPASSION AER deeply and actively cares about the success of its members and those who are served; and provides resources and support to help them exceed their own expectations. DIVERSITY AER respects the worth and uniqueness of each individual and embodies a culture where diverse backgrounds, experiences, approaches, and ideas are revered. INDEPENDENCE AER is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of circumstances will achieve the greatest level of independence and success. INTEGRITY AER adheres to the highest ethical standards and promotes an environment complete with honesty and transparency. In addition, we are pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2017, the accreditation program previously managed by the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services is under the executive management of AER. This represents an extraordinary opportunity for AER and the clients who are served by agencies committed to delivering high-quality services. We are working steadfastly to ensure that this change will reflect an even stronger focus on quality and service delivery. Over the next few weeks, we will complete our assessment and make adjustments as necessary to strengthen the overall program. There is a new Accreditation Council that has chief [responsibility] for setting and enforcing the standards. This body will be tactically examining the current program and will make strategic modifications that will result in a guarantee of high merit and excellence in service delivery. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email: nac at aerbvi.org Our commitment to you is immediate; and we cannot emphasize strongly enough your value to the field. Our promise is to listen, build on our strengths, make improvements, and work to provide the services and resources that you need. These are extraordinary times at AER; and we sincerely thank you for the life-changing work that you do and for being a part of AER. Sincerely, Lou Tutt Executive Director Joe Catavero AER Board President In October 2017, I attended the meeting of the North American Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union, which was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). Lou Tutt was in attendance for some of the meeting and never mentioned AER's plans for the NAC accreditation program. Since it did not get mentioned, I wondered if AER had decided to let the accreditation fade away. However, in other meetings during the APH conference, Mr. Tutt mentioned AER's great excitement about the NAC accreditation. This raised concerns among other members of the Federation, who asked me what I knew about AER's plans and whether or not we were asked to be involved in the accreditation council that was mentioned in Mr. Tutt's presentations. I advised these Federation members that we were not invited to participate, that it had not even been mentioned to us directly as an organization, and that I would follow-up with AER. I sent the letter that appears below to the executive leadership of AER: October 30, 2017 Joe Catavero, Board President Lou Tutt, Executive Director Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired 1703 N. Beauregard Street Suite 440 Alexandria, VA 22311 jcatavero at nyise.org lou at aerbvi.org Dear Mr. Catavero & Mr. Tutt: I am writing to you regarding the announcement that the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) is taking responsibility for the programs previously offered by the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). I am requesting a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss the concerns of the organized blind movement regarding this unfortunate action. From my previous work with Mr. Tutt, I know that he is personally aware of the history of the problems that this accrediting entity has caused in the field. One of the early announcements from AER regarding this matter (from late August) states, "This represents an extraordinary opportunity for AER and the clients who are served by agencies committed to delivering high-quality services." The fact that the National Federation of the Blind has not been invited to discuss this matter raises questions about the commitment to quality for the clients of agencies serving the blind under AER. For decades the National Federation of the Blind has raised concerns about the philosophy, work, and direction of NAC. This is well documented in the Braille Monitor, and I would be pleased to send you direct links if you are not yet aware of this information. A great number of organizations have come to recognize the problems with NAC and stopped their support. Even the American Foundation for the Blind, which originally sponsored NAC, pulled its support. In 2002 the president of AFB said, "This board needs to face the reality that, no matter how good NAC is or could be, it's not going to be effective, and I strongly urge its board of directors to dissolve the organization." That AER has decided to recover this brand and its practices sends a very disturbing message. More significantly, to bring the NAC brand of operation into the AER program priorities without even openly dialoguing with the organized blind movement tells blind people that their concerns are second class to the professionals. I am prepared to meet with you regarding this matter at your earliest convenience. I expect that this letter is not a surprise to you. However, I approach the conversation as if this was a genuine oversight-although a rather significant one. Although I am very interested in a meeting, I am also aware that our concerns are well known by the AER leadership. Therefore, I will assume that lack of a prompt reply suggests that AER has no time or interest in a meeting. Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind I was pleasantly surprised to receive a prompt reply from Mr. Tutt even if the reply avoided the question of why the Federation had not been contacted about the accreditation program sooner. Here is the response: From: Lou Tutt Sent: Monday, October 30, 2017 5:54 PM To: President, National Federation of the Blind Cc: Joe Catavero ; Lou Tutt Subject: RE: From Mark Riccobono: Meeting Request Regarding Accreditation Dear President Riccobono: On behalf of AER, I would like to thank you for your candid comments about NAC, and for contacting AER. It was with great consideration that AER accepted the opportunity to manage the accreditation program. We accepted with a commitment to individuals who have vision loss. Our commitment is holistic, and we are committed to ensuring that services are provided under the most appropriate conditions and generate the best results for those who are served. We recognize that there have been concerns in the past. However, we fully recognize the value of having a system in place that evaluates both operations and services. AER wants to hear from you. We want to speak with you via conference call and will schedule at a time that is convenient for you. In advance of the call, please send me your specific concerns. I would like to have a list of specific problems that you believe exist with the accreditation program. Our goal is singular, and that is to operate in solution mode. We are dedicated to having a high quality accreditation program and would value your input. We would like to schedule the conference call this week. Next week, President Catavero and I will be attending an annual conference away from both our central offices. Sincerely, Louis M. Tutt Executive Director Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) It is worth noting that Mr. Tutt's response suggests that AER needed me to explain to them the "specific problems" with the NAC accreditation program. This is despite the fact that our history with NAC has been well documented in the Braille Monitor. This question also presumes that the NAC accreditation program has operated with transparency-it has been impossible to find a list of accredited agencies for many years. Even more surprising is that Mr. Tutt is asking this question. He served as president of the Maryland School for the Blind for fourteen years (departing in 2004), and during that time leaders of the Federation explained to him on many occasions the problems with the NAC accreditation program. Nevertheless, I responded to Mr. Tutt via email on October 31 as follows: Dear Mr. Tutt: I appreciate your prompt response. I am asking Beth Braun in my office to work with you on finding a time that we can meet by telephone as you suggest. You have asked me for "a list of specific problems that you believe exist with the accreditation program." This presumes that the plan of AER is to continue the program as it has run for decades. If this is the case, laying out concerns is a fairly easy thing to do. It strikes me that AER cannot really be considering continuing the same failing process that has existed since the 1960s, but I should not make assumptions. In other words, we cannot raise concerns until we know the details of what is being planned. The goal here was to have a dynamic conversation rather than a static response based on little to no information. My hope was that we would begin a discussion that is likely many months overdue. In the spirit of offering questions, here are a dozen that come to mind (with a 13th in honor of Halloween): . What are the plans for the new accreditation? . Will existing agencies be permitted to roll into the new accreditation? . Will the formerly published NAC standards be used, or will new ones be created? . If new standards are being developed, what role will the National Federation of the Blind be invited to play in the development? . Will the decision about accreditation be based on self-study or an on-site review? . What role will the National Federation of the Blind have as a consumer advocate in the accreditation process? . Given the history of NAC, what assurance do we have that this process will not be used in an attempt to invalidate the expressed concerns of consumers, and how does AER plan to alleviate the problems discovered in the past? (We are all for solutions, but ignoring the history suggests that the concerns of the past have no place in shaping the future-that is not acceptable.) . How does this accrediting body plan to fund itself? . What pressure will it bring to bear on other agencies to become involved? And will it try to paint agencies negatively if they choose to be accredited by some other entity such as CARF? . Will accreditation cover services for adults, services for children, guide dog schools, medically oriented programs, all of these, or a subset? . Will accreditation require membership in AER or is it distinctly separate? . Who is leading the accreditation process, and what partners are currently at the table? . Will AER be promoting or supporting legislation to make state or federal funding contingent on its accreditation? I look forward to our meeting and to learning the answers to some, if not all, of these questions. Please let me know if the above is not sufficient to understand the concerns we have about AER's recent announcement. Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind On November 9, 2017, I had a call with Mr. Tutt and the AER staff member responsible for managing the accreditation process. Participating in the call with me were Anil Lewis, executive director for the Federation's research and training programs, and Everette Bacon, a member of the Federation's board of directors. For more than an hour, we attempted to get AER to explain to us what value they found in the NAC accreditation and what plans they had for the accreditation going forward. We received no clear answers on why AER made the decision to take over the accreditation, except that a logic model was used by the AER board to determine that the NAC accreditation program had value. We were told that they were well read on the history related to the Federation's concerns about NAC, yet we were asked on many occasions to articulate our concerns- which are well documented in the history. We explained that the entire NAC accreditation program is flawed and should be shut down. I urged that AER explain what value they find in specifically reviving NAC rather than simply building something new from the ground up. Although it was suggested a number of times that AER is starting over, no justification was given for why they are building on the previous NAC program, and no specifics were articulated for what role the National Federation of the Blind might play in the accreditation process. We were told that it was still early in the process, and they had fully intended to reach out to us. Keep in mind that we reached out to AER on October 30, a full two months after the August 31 correspondence to the AER membership which stated, "Over the next few weeks, we will complete our assessment and make adjustments as necessary to strengthen the overall program." At many points in the conversation, it was stated that they want to move forward and wish not to dwell on the past. I explained to them that they chose to embrace the past by making a decision to carry on the NAC accreditation program and that ignoring the history was offensive to the blind of America. To his credit, Mr. Tutt began the meeting by attempting to address some of the thirteen questions I shared with him in advance. The most important question-why continue a failing accreditation program-remains unanswered, and certain questions were left open for the future such as the possibility that AER may seek to incorporate the requirement of NAC accreditation into state or federal law. After our meeting I wrote to Mr. Tutt as follows: Dear Lou: Thank you for the call today with you and Angela regarding AER's administration of the NAC accreditation program. I appreciate your attempt to address the questions we posed in our email of Tuesday, October 31. During our call you explained that all existing NAC accredited agencies will retain their accreditation under AER. You explained that the NAC standards were being revised and that they will be vetted by a committee of experts. You further explained that the accreditation process will be voluntary, will not be tied to membership in AER, and undue pressure will not be placed on agencies that choose not to seek accreditation. You left open the possibility for future legislative action which may or may not tie funding at the state or federal level to successful NAC accreditation under AER. We advised you that AER is making a mistake by attempting to refresh the NAC accreditation program. We explained that the NAC accreditation is flawed in a number of ways, but especially in its lack of substantive engagement and direction by leaders of the National Federation of the Blind. We further emphasized that a better approach would be to start with a blank slate, building an accreditation program with clear ties to elected leaders of the blind. On a number of occasions, we asked what value the AER board found in NAC beyond what is provided by other accreditation programs. We never received a clear answer to the question except to learn that AER found value in the NAC accreditation program. A logic model was referenced, and it was suggested that an opportunity might emerge for us to learn more about the model that was used to make this decision. I have agreed that we would be willing to host a meeting in January to further discuss accreditation, assuming that AER comes prepared to explain how the organized blind movement will play a substantive role in the process and outcomes. We are prepared to engage in substantive conversations regarding accreditation in the blindness field, where it is needed, and what the measures of high performance might include. We are not prepared to talk about ways that the previous NAC accreditation can be improved. If the goal is to build something completely new or, in your terms, build the airplane while it is still on the ground, then we have the potential to make progress together, especially if you are prepared to detail the significant ways blind people will have influence in the process. If the goal is simply to remodel the plane that we have kept grounded for decades because of its inability to take blind people to new heights, I do not expect us to find more common ground in our next meeting. If you are prepared to meet in January based on my summary of the understandings of the meeting, please follow-up with Beth Braun in my office. I again wish you the happiest of holiday seasons and a happy 2018. Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind Mr. Tutt responded saying that AER looks forward to meeting with the National Federation of the Blind in 2018. It is worth our speculating about what decisions will have already been made without us. AER began managing the NAC accreditation on July 1, 2017. They tell us they want us to be involved, but they made no effort to reach out to the Federation, and even after the first six months of AER's administration, we will have hardly any information about their plans. History may not repeat itself, but we are smart enough to recognize a familiar rhythm. The NAC accreditation has been harmful to blind people, has not improved agencies for the blind, and has perpetuated the myth that there are two classes in the blindness field-the first-class professionals and the second-class blind. The previous generations of the Federation were effective at putting this harmful accreditation system in its place. It is now up to the fourth generation to end it once and for all. Now is the time for us to put an end to this failed idea. Let AER know that it is not acceptable to create systems for agencies for the blind without the blind. Let AER know that the consumers matter and that we urge them to close down the NAC accreditation program once and for all. Let AER know that the blind are not opposed to accreditation itself, but we are opposed to repeating all of the sad songs of the past. Send an email to nac at aerbvi.org to voice your disappointment with AER. Respectfully let them know that we share the principle "nothing about us without us" and that it is time for NAC to go. You should also make your voice heard in social media by sending a Tweet naming @AERBVI and using the hashtag #GoodbyeNAC. Make your voice heard on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AERBVI/. I do not know when another meeting with AER will take place. I do know that we will continue to seek ways to improve agencies for the blind by bringing an authentic consumer perspective to the leadership of those agencies. Today the National Federation of the Blind works in partnership with many outstanding professionals and agency leaders. We are successful in raising expectations, and we have worked together to create the most dynamic programs for the blind ever imagined. We will continue to seek those partnerships and to raise expectations. The existence of NAC has never stopped us, and AER's attempt to recover a failing program will not stop us in the future. References: Why Accreditation Failed Agencies https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm98/bm980603.htm February 2003 Braille Monitor https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm03/bm0302/bm0302tc.htm ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Edward Bell] Accreditation: The Pros and Woes of Credentialing by Edward Bell From the Editor: In 1995 Eddie Bell received a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind. With his innate intelligence, persistence, and passion to help blind people, he has given back in ways that are exemplary. Dr. Bell is the director of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University. He has extensive experience in rehabilitation for the blind and visually impaired and has presented widely throughout the United States and Europe. He has degrees in rehabilitation education and research, educational psychology, and human development. In addition, he possesses certification in educational statistics and research methods, rehabilitation counseling, and orientation and mobility. What distinguishes him, however, is the work he does to tie together teacher training, certification, and the evaluation of programs with the needs of consumers in search of quality programs leading to lives of success and independence. Here is what he has to say about training, certification, licensure, and accreditation and the way all of these should relate to services that lead to positive outcomes: In the field of blindness education and rehabilitation, the terms accreditation, certification, licensure, competency, and evaluation are used both to describe good and bad practices. While most recognize the value of having an accredited college or university, a certified teacher, or a licensed physician, blind people have also found that these terms have brought with them negative consequences. So what are these concepts, and are they something to be embraced or fought? The answer is that it depends on what value these processes serve in helping people who are blind to live the lives they want, free from custodial practices and discriminatory policies. At their core, all of these concepts have largely to do with ensuring that individuals receive quality training and education and are protected from negligence and incompetence. These are principles that I believe all members of the National Federation of the Blind would embrace and hold true. But where the departure begins is in how concepts like quality, training, competence, negligence, and incompetence are defined, which at a deeper level comes down to the values and expectations that one holds for the services provided. Accreditation is the process of one agency or organization certifying that other organizations that are in the business of certifying professionals are doing that job in an ethical, systematic, and objective manner. Think of accreditation as the people who certify the certifiers. The certifiers, on the other hand, are the organizations that provide assurance that professionals are performing their duties in a competent, ethical, and professional manner. Many people need to be certified in order to do their jobs, including teachers, lawyers, doctors, special education personnel, and rehabilitation teachers-not to mention plumbers, electricians, contractors, and school bus drivers. While we are on the subject, the terms "certification" and "licensure" are used interchangeably but often confuse the layperson in their meaning. For the purpose of this conversation there is little difference between these concepts, but for clarity's sake here is the distinction. Licensure is handled state by state and contains legal ramifications for violations. Typical professions that are licensed by the state might include general contractors, licensed professional counselors, plumbers, electricians, physical therapists, real estate brokers, nutritionists, teachers, and medical practitioners. Certification, on the other hand, is governed by professional organizations that define the scope of practice for professionals, set the minimal criteria for demonstrating competence, and can revoke that certification if violations to the code of ethics or practice are violated. Certification does not have the same legal ramifications as licensure; however, it should be noted that many state licenses are based on professional certification and/or hold professional certification as a prerequisite to licensure. In both cases the purpose of certification or licensure is to set a minimal standard for acceptable practice, determine the appropriate fee structure, and bar entrance to the profession for those who do not meet the agreed-upon professional standard- in other words, to be the gatekeepers over that particular professional practice. Certification, then, is the systematic process by which an organization establishes standards of practice, rigorous evaluation criteria, and methods of measuring performance in an objective manner. The certifying body will then set a minimum criterion for competence, and all applicants must meet at least this minimal standard in order to be deemed competent in that skill or profession. Today, most certifying organizations also establish some sort of ongoing professional development, continuing education, and/or a requirement to renew certification on a periodic basis. As a process then, certification seeks to establish reasonable standards, the means to measure whether individuals can live up to those standards, the roles and responsibilities for those who are deemed eligible under those criteria, and the mechanisms by which individuals who cannot meet the standards are barred from practicing in that profession. As a principle, these certification practices have worked well across many professions. However, in the blindness field they have not always worked to serve consumers. Take, for example, the profession of orientation and mobility. The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) created the Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) credential back in the 1960s as a means of certifying that those interested in teaching cane travel were competent in teaching the skills to blind people. However, several of the organization's criteria for certification were based on visual acuity. Arguably, visual acuity is an objective measure and one that can be evaluated for each applicant. However, visual acuity is not a valid requirement for teaching mobility skills at all. One case in point: Dr. Fred Schroeder graduated from the O&M program at San Francisco State University with high marks but was subsequently denied certification as a COMS by AER based on his blindness. While the COMS certification has now been transferred to the ACVREP [Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals] organization, many of the certification principles continue to be based on visual efficiency and visual reference and are therefore not viewed by everyone as the most appropriate means of certifying competence in teaching orientation and mobility. In 1999 the National Orientation and Mobility Certification (NOMC) was created specifically to (1) serve as a non-discriminatory certification avenue for blind and sighted people; and (2) to be based on the Structured Discovery method of cane travel, which is a nonvisual approach to teaching which capitalizes on the individual's self-efficacy and self-awareness. The NOMC certification, being based on Structured Discovery, set as its criteria for competence the ability to teach individuals nonvisual mobility skills, increase their confidence, and promote the personal attitudes and public awareness of expectations surrounding blindness. Those who were not able to demonstrate these skills were not deemed competent using the NOMC certification framework. In 2001 the National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB) was incorporated to govern the NOMC credential and its recipients. In its articles of incorporation the NBPCB purpose was established as: "To promote services of the highest quality for individuals who are blind or visually impaired through standards and certification to assure that professionals who serve such individuals are qualified; To establish, publish, and administer standards used to determine the qualifications of such professionals; To implement a process of certification and re- certification of professionals, based on the published standards; To continue, revoke, or suspend certification, based on findings relating to adherence to the standards; and To undertake other projects, programs, and activities." The first class of NOMC applicants was officially credentialed in July of 2001. Most of these have obtained and maintained employment for more than two decades, lending credibility to the methods and principles undergirding this certification practice. NOMC men and women maintain that certification for five years and then have to undergo recertification either through retesting or continuing education. Through continuing education, NOMC certificants are put in the position of continuing to work together, to learn together, to uphold a common standard of excellence, and to ensure that certificants remain true to their code of ethics. In 2006, after more than twenty years of work by the National Federation of the Blind and the National Library Service and other constituents, a national standard for Braille competence was established, and a test of teacher proficiency was created. This exam was then pilot tested and validated by the National Federation of the Blind through rigorous field testing. However, other certifying organizations were not sufficiently interested in Braille proficiency to take on this responsibility. Consequently, in 2007 the NBPCB took on the literary Braille test and created the National Certification in Literary Braille (NCLB). As with other certification processes, those seeking NCLB credential had to apply to the NBPCB and complete a test of their ability to produce Braille using a Braillewriter and slate, proofread a passage, and know the rules of Braille. If minimal competence was demonstrated, those women and men were endorsed with the NCLB credential for a period of five years, after which time they would again need to retest in order to maintain their certification. This practice was in keeping with mainstream certification principles and was the only means by which any organization could attest to the Braille proficiency of its certificants. The need for this test in the first place was due to the fact that no national standard ever existed for teachers to demonstrate that they in fact knew Braille. Having no national standard, the all-too-frequent result was that teachers would pass a Braille test at their university, with some tests being appropriately rigorous while others would be woefully inadequate. This single exit exam would then serve as the only assurance that the teacher knew Braille, with no need to again demonstrate this skill throughout their career. In fact there have been court cases and due process hearings because students were not being taught Braille even though they had a certified teacher of the visually impaired. In these cases, schools could state that their teacher of the visually impaired knew Braille because he or she passed a Braille test prior to starting their job, even if that was decades ago and the teacher did not remember any Braille. Today, as Braille competency tests are gaining steam, significant push-back has been observed in a number of states by TVIs who have held their jobs for many years and who know they do not have enough remaining Braille knowledge to be deemed proficient. Yet, these TVIs still work with children who are blind, many of whom should be taught Braille. Certification, then, is the most promising protection against these types of injustices, so long as the certification practices are valid and consistent with the purpose for which they were created: (i.e., Braille proficiency) and that procedures ensure that professionals maintain some level of proficiency throughout their years of practice. How many of us would go to a surgeon who graduated medical school thirty years ago but who hasn't performed a single surgery in twenty-five years? In 2012 the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) announced that Unified English Braille (UEB) would become the standard in the United States, which meant that every aspect of Braille would change. This change would involve everyone from the Braille reader to the publisher. While panic overtook many in the field, the NBPCB took on the task of writing professional competency standards, and by 2014 the National Certification in Unified English Braille (NCUEB) had been created. Between January and July of 2015, more than eighty-five people across eleven unique testing venues nationwide participated in a pilot test of the NCUEB. Individuals were eligible for the pilot test if they had participated in a UEB workshop and had made a commitment to learn the UEB code. Those data were analyzed, and strong evidence demonstrated that the NCUEB exam was equally as valid as its NCLB predecessor, that it appropriately identified those who were proficient in UEB versus those who were not, and thereby set the stage for the standard that should be followed for teachers and others who wish to demonstrate their proficiency in the UEB code. The full validation report was published in the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, and those wishing to obtain more information about the procedures that were followed should refer to that publication. The valid NCUEB exam, coupled with the five-year recertification period, made the NCUEB the first valid proficiency test of the new Braille code, and it was in place and ready for operation in advance of the January 2016 date set by BANA as the official UEB adoption date. Meanwhile, other organizations have worked to catch up in testing competence in UEB. Instead of working with the organized blind, some professionals in the field of education of the blind sought out Educational Testing Services (ETS) in order to create a Braille proficiency test for teachers. Since ETS is a long-established testing company and since ETS provides the PRAXIS and GRE exams (which are required by most university programs), it was somewhat logical to seek them out for this task. However, by the admission of officials at ETS, they do not know much about Braille itself, have no vested interest in Braille, don't know the distinction between EBAE [English Braille American Edition] and UEB, and do not have qualified people on staff who are proficient in Braille. As a consequence, the resulting Braille proficiency test that was created by outside consultants looks rigorous and comprehensive on the surface, but it is not all that it promises. Two fundamental problems exist with the ETS Braille test. First, while ETS maintains responsibility for the grading of the Braille exams, they leave it to each state to establish the minimal passing score for teachers. So, regardless of how rigorous the exam itself is, a state department of education can determine that getting 60 percent of the answers correct is sufficient to declare a teacher competent, while another state could set the standard higher or lower. Why would any state set such a low standard? They might because there is a significant teacher shortage in this country, the vast majority of personnel preparation programs are not holding students to high levels of Braille proficiency, and failing a high-stakes test would make the teacher ineligible for employment. And, to prevent lawsuits and unhappy parents, most state departments of education would rather dumb down the minimal competency standard for Braille proficiency than to tell parents they don't have a teacher to serve their children. So the vicious circle continues, with no single organization holding individuals accountable for being competent in the skill that they are hired to teach and no consistent metric for what constitutes reasonable competence. That is, except for the NCUEB, which to date is the only nationally representative measure of Braille proficiency that has been developed to serve this purpose. Perhaps of greater concern is ETS's track record of providing accommodations to blind people. Any blind college student who has had to take the PRAXIS, GRE, or other ETS test and who has had to obtain accommodations can attest to the nightmare of qualifying for and obtaining reasonable accommodations through ETS. While it is true that most teachers of the blind are sighted, an increasing number of professionals entering the field are blind. Now, some of you may be thinking, "But why would a blind person who is a Braille reader need accommodations on a test of Braille proficiency?" And, this is perhaps the best question that you could ask and one that should be asked of the officials at ETS. Yes, it should sound ludicrous to you that a blind person would need to seek accommodations such as a sighted reader in order to take a test of his or her Braille proficiency. But that is exactly what you must do if you are a blind person and wish to take the ETS Braille proficiency test. If you are a blind person, you cannot take the ETS Braille competency test without a sighted reader as an accommodation. In keeping with ETS tradition, a sighted applicant can walk in off the street and take their Braille exam, receive a passing grade by some state department of education employee who likely doesn't know Braille, and maintain this endorsement for the rest of her/his career, even if he/she never touches Braille again. On the other hand, a blind person who may have been a proficient Braille reader from childhood must undergo rounds of red tape in order to get the accommodation of a sighted person in order to take a Braille test. And this is the credentialing world in which we live. So, whose responsibility is it to ensure that testing companies and certification organizations are creating standards and tests that are valid and appropriate for the consumers it serves? This is where accreditation comes into play. Accreditation ensures that a certifying organization's practices are acceptable, meaning that they are competent to test and certify third parties, behave ethically, and employ suitable quality assurance. In practice, however, this all-too-frequently means that the organization in question is following the basic principles of establishing some standard, creating an evaluation around that standard, and ensuring that individuals can meet the standard. However, accreditation does not account for what is actually being certified or whether that certification has meaningful outcomes for the consumers who are affected. ETS, for example, could be said to be following all recommended standards for certification and would thereby be eligible for accreditation. But any third grader understands that a blind person should be able to take a Braille test without having a sighted person to serve as the reader. When will those who wield authority in agencies and organizations that serve the blind finally determine that involving the consumer perspective is a key factor in any certification practice that will ultimately affect blind consumers? Not soon enough. Readers of the Braille Monitor know well the controversial history of the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). Many pages of the Braille Monitor have been dedicated to protesting the reckless practices of NAC and the detrimental impact that NAC-accredited agencies have had on people who are blind, yet the input of the blind is still not a priority for these organizations. The proof is in the pudding. And, when consumers find that the pudding leaves a bad taste in their mouth, they will quickly discard that pudding in favor of something more satisfying. The National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB) was incorporated in 2001 to govern the NOMC certification. In 2007 the NCLB Braille certification test was created and was successfully implemented until it was replaced by the NCUEB test of Unified English Braille in 2015. In 2015 the National Certification in Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind (NCRTB) was created to certify rehabilitation teachers for the blind. In 2009 the NBPCB created the agency certification process for training centers operating under the Structured Discovery approach. Using this process, a training center can be evaluated in six areas, and, if deemed competent, that center can be certified as a Structured Discovery center for immersion and training. While this process is not accreditation in the strictest sense of the word, it does operate under established criteria for demonstrating a minimal level of competence, using objective measures for evaluation, setting a criterion for acceptable practice, and providing strengths and weaknesses in a written report. Such agencies must undergo this evaluation every three years in order to maintain this designation and are provided reports of continuous improvement. Evaluations are conducted on-site by members of the NBPCB, who assess all areas of the curriculum, including the administration, instructional staff, student body, core curriculum, facilities, and involvement with consumer organizations. Currently, the centers who are recognized by NBPCB as meeting Structured Discovery standards include BLIND Inc, Colorado Center for the Blind, Louisiana Center for the Blind, Hawaii's Ho`opono New Visions Program, Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. The NBPCB has continued to work to meet the needs of the constituents who are the ultimate beneficiaries of its service-people who are blind. The NBPCB was recognized by the National Federation of the Blind in 2014 with a Dr. Jacob Bolotin award for excellence. This honor was bestowed on the NBPCB for its focus on high-quality training and certification-training and certification that is based on rigorous evaluation criteria and one which shares the values of its consumers. How can an organization whose job it is to accredit the certification programs for professionals who serve the blind do this job effectively without consistent and comprehensive work with the organized consumer organizations? The answer is they cannot. For this reason, the NBPCB proudly has members of a consumer organization on its board of directors, NBPCB leadership attend the annual convention of the NFB, and its leadership has consistent and ongoing communication related to certification standards. But there is also a cautionary tale here. As we know from history, members of the AER and AFB were also closely aligned with the members of NAC, served on each other's boards, and worked behind closed doors to agree on common practices-all of which had detrimental consequences for blind people. The NBPCB, however, guards against this threat by working not only with the consumers it serves, but also by conducting evaluations of its certificants and by obtaining professional feedback from the employers of those individuals. It is a fact that the current demand for NBPCB-certified professionals continues to outstrip the available supply. This does not happen unless an organization has rigorous standards, valid measures for assessing applicant competence, procedures for continuing to strengthen its training, consistent and productive communication with its consumers, and a world view that is based on a simple principle-to create highly qualified professionals whose mission is to help blind people live the lives they want. ---------- Of Little Faith: A Troubling Trend with Blindness Professionals by Lisa Ferris From the Editor: Lisa Ferris was first introduced to the NFB when she was a student at the Nebraska Commission for the Blind Training Center. The philosophy she learned there has informed her life ever since. She went on to get a Master's in Education, with a concentration in multiple disabilities and deafblindness. She is deafblind herself and works alongside her husband at Miles Access Skills Training, their assistive technology consulting and training business. She is a member of the Portland Central Chapter of the Oregon affiliate of the NFB as well as the Oregon Parents Division. Here is her story about traveling through an education system that often offered messages that made her bite her tongue to get through. It is also a story of taking the best that the system had to offer, enhancing and correcting its message when it wasn't consistent with her life and her experience with other blind people, and creating a business that provides the kind of service that enriches the lives of blind people and helps them raise the bar for us all: Attending college courses in my special education major as a deafblind person was a bit of a trip. I was always the only one who was disabled in my classes. I would sit there and listen to third-person descriptions of people like me, deafblind or otherwise disabled people, as my face turned flush and the hairs on my neck stood on end. I could feel people averting their gaze. The class grew silent and uncomfortable if I disagreed too vocally. At the same time, I had to fight for a semblance of professional belonging. I had to carefully balance my strong urge to speak up on behalf of my disabled peers while trying to maintain a professional distance in order to fit in and not be "the gimp with a chip on her shoulder." So I listened as I was told that blind and deaf people could only hope to be as literate as a third-grade reader and that it was certain that we would face isolation, depression, anxiety, and a low quality of life. Most of us-or "them" in the vernacular of my classes, "those people"-would live a life below poverty level, be un- or underemployed, and only be able to live independently with lifelong services and supports from professionals. It was very bleak for "them," but how wonderful it was that there were saviors like us! We were the special people who were going to come in and intervene and improve the lives of this poor lot. They were to be pitied, and we were to save them. Once I sat through a guest lecture from one of these saviors. She was a teacher of the vision impaired (TVI) who was hailed as a wonderful, special person who was helping the blind in her district so much. At the time I was a volunteer in a mainstream organization that focused on adult literacy. I was asked by the organization to work with one of her former students. He was eighteen years old, couldn't read, spell, dish up a plate, or tie his shoes. He was not cognitively disabled; he was very intelligent and well-read, using talking books. I taught him how to read and write Braille in six months and how to tie his shoes in fifteen minutes. No one had ever taught him before, he said. This was when I learned to be cautiously critical of every single thing I learned in college. The content of the courses that earned me a bachelor's and master's degree in special education were not totally without merit. I did learn some things. I learned about statistics, standard deviations, and assessment basal and ceiling scores. I learned about laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and how to comply with its required tedious IEPs. I learned some useful skills like how to break down a task into its smallest components and how to make a multimodal communication system for nonsymbolic or nonverbal communicators. I learned about methods of functional assessment and positive behavior supports for students with violent and difficult behaviors. Some of this has been worthwhile and useful over the years. What I didn't learn, at least from my college courses, was anything useful about actual kids and adults with disabilities. All the descriptions of third-grade reading levels and poverty rates and the prevalence of depression may have been statistically true, but the implication was that this was just inherent to the disability itself. The pathology of disability was that it was bad, a deficit that could be mitigated somewhat but never completely overcome. There was only so much anyone could do to really help a blind person. Those few really successful disabled people we knew about were the outliers-supercrips who had, through sheer grit and incredible talent, achieved amazing things such as having a career, a family, an independent lifestyle. Basically, what is considered average for everyone else was considered outstanding for the disabled. A Disturbing Trend Even now, in my career as a skills trainer/consultant for people with vision loss, I see this attitude. The talk has gotten more upbeat and less bleak. Now when I go speak at conferences for TVI teachers, I hear words like independence, exemplary outcomes, and high expectations. It all sounds wonderful. How things have changed! But then, during the lunch breaks and hall discussions, I hear it. You do not have to scratch too far below the surface to find that these high expectations have a definite limit in the minds of many TVIs. "Oh, you know never to go out in the dark without a person to help you!" I hear a teacher telling a college student who has night blindness. "We can't teach these blind people anything! They won't learn," says a tech teacher to another group of teachers as they nod their heads in frustration. "I had to do my two hours of CEUs [continuing education units] under blindfold," says an orientation and mobility instructor. "I hated every minute of it and was scared to death to cross a busy street. Thank goodness I only have to know how to teach it and not do it," she continues to the nods and empathetic laughter of her colleagues. It is hard for me to sit and silently observe that we have changed the public talk but not the deeply-held feelings about the people we teachers and rehabilitators are educated and paid to serve. My partner and I teach adults with vision loss and sometimes other disabilities to use assistive technology. Many of our clients are older, private-pay clients who do not qualify for state services because they are retired. Newly blinded, they wish to stay independent and maintain their homes and relationships. Some of them are not tech savvy, but they tend to learn quickly. We also have contracts with many different organizations to teach working-age blind people the assistive technology that will help them become employable again. Some of these clients are newly blind due to accident or disease. Others have grown up with vision impairment and came out of the special education system. We started to notice a pattern: the ones who came out of the school system and grew up blind were more likely to lack a fundamental level of proactivity and-I'll call it "wherewithal" with their skill building. Now, some will say learning is easier for those who used to be able to see-and there is truth to that. Having some visual references, even if fuzzy and long ago, does help when communicating learning material in a visual world. It can take more effort, more descriptive language, more tactile interventions, and other strategies to teach a visual concept to someone with no visual experience. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a lack of initiative, a dependence on task-analyzed lists and steps, and the teacher to turn to at every instance of frustration. Of course, this is a generalized observation, a trend. There are people who have been blind since birth who don't display these traits. At first I thought this was a mistake in teaching method-an overemphasis on task analysis and an under-emphasis on problem-solving. Task analysis is the method of breaking down a task into very specific subtasks and providing step-by-step instructions to each one in a routine. This can be a very effective method to teach some students with developmental disabilities who need really concrete and consistent instruction. It can also help in the initial learning of brand new, unfamiliar material to get started up the learning curve. Learning how to create task-analyzed learning programs is big in special education. Maybe, I thought, the use of task analysis has been overgeneralized to the extreme with students who have vision impairments. But then, when I started working with and watching TVIs more closely, I started to realize that they weren't overusing task analysis as a learning strategy. Instead, they were task-analyzing skill sets because they themselves knew the skill only on a very basic, step-by-step, look-at- the-user-manual level. Most TVIs and orientation and mobility instructors seem to have only a cursory or very basic knowledge of the skills they are teaching. Because they are only at a sort of beginner's step-by-step level with blindness skills, that is how they teach them. There is no teaching to full expert mastery at a problem-solving, synergistic level because they never got there themselves. Now again, this is a trend I see. I also know both blind and sighted TVIs who are highly skilled at what they teach and have achieved mastery and automaticity with blindness skills. Blindness Skills: The Building Blocks to Success Blindness skills-or alternative techniques of blindness-are nonvisual methods to accomplish the same things others commonly do with vision. With a few exceptions, there is a way for the average blind or low-vision person to accomplish pretty much everything a sighted person can. These skills range from Braille to using screen readers on computers, cooking and sewing, home maintenance, traveling and transportation, managing health, and advocating for accommodations and fair treatment for oneself. All are good, solid, dependable skills that do take practice to learn. And most are completely mistrusted and misunderstood by the general public and by many blindness professionals. When you are blind, not a day goes by when you don't get told that what you do is amazing, and no one knows how you do it. There is no way they could ever do what you do. The flip side is that not a day goes by when you've done something normal, like gone to the store, cooked dinner, gotten dressed, whatever, and you get told that you couldn't have done that by yourself. Where is your sighted helpmate who helped you? You need a sighted person. The skills of blindness are not truly trusted or believed in by most sighted people. Many sighted people have only had just seconds or minutes of experience under nonvisual conditions and have had no instruction in blindness skills. TVIs and O&M instructors often have had only a few hours or days. It's not surprising that the skills are not well understood. But it is difficult that, unlike other unique skills, people often refuse to take your word for your competence in them and how effective they are. Think of a skill that is a little unusual to have. Maybe being able to figure skate well enough to do some jumps and spins, or playing a harp or piano, or running a marathon. Most people realize that these skills take years of practice, but if you put in the time, they are not impossible. Sure, only an elite few will get to the Olympics in figure skating, but at any local public rink you will find figure skaters who can skate impressively and do jumps and spins. The same goes for playing the harp or running a marathon. These skills take time, dedication, good instruction, and commitment. But if you put the time in and have a good coach, it is not surprising that you will become very good at them. The same is true for blindness skills. People with good blindness skills have put in lots of time and practice and have often had very good coaches and mentors in other blind individuals. It's a skill set that not a lot of people have, but anyone can acquire blindness skills with practice, practice, practice. Traveling around town without sight is not especially amazing and superhuman. It is not foolhardy and scary, either. It's just a skill you learn with some work and dedication. Give yourself six to twelve months without sight, and with lots of good practice and instruction, you are going to be a decent traveler. Keep working on it a few more years, and you will be an expert. It will become so second nature that you will not think about it. Those Who Can't, Can't Teach Well Good mentorship and coaching always helps. And herein lies the problem. TVIs and O&M instructors get so little practice under blindfold in blindness skills that they never truly believe in the skills as a real, viable alternative to sight. They often see the techniques as a poor substitute that only provides barely adequate functioning for a blind person. They don't really believe in what they teach. It would be like learning figure skating from a coach who still has to hold on to the sides of the rink, or a piano instructor that only knows how to play "Chopsticks," or a running coach who's maybe jogged a couple of times but has never run a 5K, much less a marathon. Part of teaching is imparting the skills, and the other part is helping someone believe they can do it. This is very hard to do if you've never learned the skills beyond the basics yourself. Here is an example: Braille is probably one of the best skills for literacy, employability, and learning that is available for blind people. There are two basic parts to learning Braille-there is memorizing the code, and there is building up tactile awareness and speed. And for prereaders, there is also learning phonetics and reading comprehension to go along with that. In many TVI programs, teachers learn to read visual Braille. This is a print version of Braille that completely ignores the part in which you have to feel the code, keep track of where you are, develop a flow, understand Braille syntax, etc. Maybe they have a class where they try their hand at tactile Braille, maybe they read a chapter about how to teach it, but they never master this skill. (To their credit, some TVIs have gone on to master Braille on their own, but most cannot read Braille much past visually looking at the code.) It is very discouraging to be a student and to be the only one you know who reads Braille, including your teacher! It would be a powerful mentorship moment to be able to ask your Braille teacher to read Braille and have her just sail away on it. But when asked, most TVIs cannot read Braille with their fingers with any speed. This matters. Independent travel, too, is one of the most powerful equalizers for blind people to work and be included in their communities. But many orientation and mobility instructors have limited experience traveling on their own. The most dangerous thing I have noticed that travel instructors sometimes do (unintentionally, I'm sure) is to instill such a level of anxiety in their students about travel that the students literally develop what appears to be not unlike an anxiety disorder or phobia in regard to travel. Blind kids don't usually start this way. They learn it from everyone constantly telling them how unsafe it is for them to go anywhere without lots of tedious instruction. If you don't know-really know-that these travel skills can and are trustworthy and effective, you cannot instill that confidence in your students. Travel skills are almost entirely in your head. Both as a problem-solving exercise (Which direction am I going? What are the clues around me to give me information about my surroundings? Where do I need to go next?) and, more importantly, having confidence in the ability to travel safely without sight. No one will ever say that traveling without sight is as easy as having sight. It takes more thought, attention, and ability. But it is not unsafe or unreliable. Many O&M instructors task analyze travel so much that blind students get afraid to go anywhere that hasn't been approved and routed out with explicit directions and deemed safe by their sighted instructor. This makes for a very limiting existence. Assistive technology is another area where I see this. A low vision specialist told my partner a "funny story" about how she was teaching a student about using Blind Square, an app that assists with mobility and mapping using GPS. When with a student, she got lost in a downtown area. What a great opportunity to model problem solving to get re-oriented! But instead, she panicked and called her husband (this was after hours during a night walk lesson). And her husband was able to find her using his phone's tracking technology and came and rescued them. My partner said to her, "You know if you just shake your phone, Blind Square will tell you where you are, right?" No, she had no idea. She did not know the app well enough. Not only does this show a lack of tech knowledge, but it also demonstrates a lack of faith in the ability to use real, solid skills (both high and low tech) to get yourself out of a fix. This is one of the most important skills a blind person needs for independent travel. And this is also where I see a dependence on task-analyzed steps instead of thinking through problems and using a variety of different skills to solve them. Many adaptive tech instructors we see have only a basic understanding of the tech they teach and thus can only teach using very scripted steps in a sequence. It's okay to start here, but to really get comfortable and competent with tech, you need a teacher who is really comfortable and competent with tech and believes in it instead of seeing it as a frustrating substitute to sighted methods. Tech is ever changing and quirky. And there are always five ways to do things. Knowing these five ways gets you out of messes. If you only know how to use a limited set of scripted steps, tech is going to be so frustrating that it's almost useless. Those Who Can Have Faith and Believe Their Students Can Too Because TVIs and O&M instructors only get a limited amount of instruction in blindness skills, they tend to deprioritize them. They often overly rely on vision maximization strategies (magnification, lighting, etc.) because they are easier to teach and they are more comfortable with them. Although sometimes vision enhancement strategies are appropriate to have in the tool belt, many students miss out on blindness skills and are never able to achieve their full potential with magnification alone. Overall, without real ability in blindness techniques, it is almost impossible to believe in the skills and model and teach them effectively to students. This translates into generalized low expectations and poor outcomes for many students. It reinforces the idea that the poor quality of life issues mentioned in my special ed classes are inherent to blindness, not inherent to poor educational opportunities and attitudes. It offers a nice excuse for not doing better. The TVI and O&M professions would be richly enhanced by including more competent blind instructors in their ranks. Historically, blind professionals have been excluded from the profession. Just a couple of decades ago, official policies of professional and licensing organizations excluded professionals with vision impairments. It was a powerful statement on the outlook and expectations of the profession responsible for the education of our blind youth that they did not believe any blind person was competent enough to teach blind people. Though laws and lawsuits made explicit policies illegal, it is still extremely difficult for blind people in some blindness professional programs today. I recently heard of a program that could not accommodate a blind student in its Braille class because all of its Braille instructional materials were in printed Braille, and they did not know how to translate all of those graphic representations of Braille to Braille dots. I'm not making that up. In another instance, blind students complained to a university office for students with disabilities about poor blindness accommodations in TVI programs with testing and written material. The office, as well as the state agency for the blind, offered to assist the TVI program to step up their accessibility level, but their energy and expertise were declined, and the students continued to struggle through the program-a program that was to teach them how to accommodate blind students but couldn't accommodate them. If they saw the irony, they did not admit to it. There has been a level of tension through the years between blind and sighted professionals in the field to the point where a conspiracy theorist might wonder if these programs weren't intentionally making it difficult for blind professionals to get through the program. But I don't discount that sighted teachers can have the ability to become highly competent teachers of the blind with high expectations and outcomes for their students and strong faith in the skills they teach. I have met many such TVIs and O&M instructors over the years. These instructors have often taken it upon themselves to go the extra mile to really learn and understand blindness skills. They spent hours under blindfold learning skills on their own, often with the help of the blind community. They brush up on their blindness skills on a regular basis and keep up with technology trends. They spend time with blind leaders and professionals, go to self-advocate conferences, and come to understand the issues in the community. These teachers have gotten past the learning curve and have knowledge and faith in the skills and students they teach. A large part of the resistance to learning blindness skills under blindfold for an adequate period of time seems to be, at its base, that doing so is hard and scary. Well, sure, at first. But if a professional can't get past this, maybe it's time for them to ask themselves whether it will be fair and effective for them to expect their students to or whether their fear and trepidation might rub off on their students in a negative way. Maybe another profession might be a better fit for their skills. There is no substitute for really knowing and experiencing what you teach. University programs and also employers could help to facilitate this by providing opportunities for long-term blindness skills training at immersion centers or by creating their own semester or year-long full-day immersion experience. Employers could support sabbaticals to these centers and provide funding or at least time off and CEU credits for self-advocate conferences and opportunities. There is no real reason why sighted instructors should be teaching chopsticks to a pianist who dreams of playing Rachmaninov. It is not too much to expect that teachers know how to play Rachmaninov as well. With work, mentorship, and time, anyone-blind or sighted-can become highly competent at navigating the world without sight. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Merilynn and Jerry Whittle] To Teach Is to Touch a Life Forever: Jerry Whittle: Cherished Teacher, Mentor, Author, Advocate, and Leader From the Editor: Unlike most articles that appear in the Braille Monitor, this one does not begin with a byline. The person who helped put it together chose to express her love for Jerry Whittle by organizing the heartfelt tributes that follow, and Rosie Carranza should know that we see her handiwork in this article and the love it represents. One other person has worked to coordinate this collection of the tributes that spring from love, and you will not be surprised to learn that this silent contributor is none other than Pam Allen. I am taking the liberty of including the remarks she sent in forwarding this article in the tributes that follow this introduction. What is abundantly clear is that many of Jerry's starfish have returned to the sea. They have not taken their new lease on life for granted; they have taken the time to say thank you. They have recognized the blessings received and have made a conscious choice to pass on and add to those blessings with their own commitment of energy, love, dedication, and passion. Jerry and I shared one thing in common; we both enjoy reading and writing. Debbie and I had the joy of vacationing once with Merilynn and Jerry, and both of us spent a lot of time on benches while our wives searched the stores of North Carolina looking for treasures that begged for a new home. I hope you enjoy reading this tribute to Jerry Whittle as much as I have enjoyed editing it. Thank God for this man, and thank God for the people who cared enough to stop and say thank you. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jerry Whittle and others stand in the courtyard of the Louisiana Center for the Blind next to the Freedom Bell.] Joanne Wilson In 1985 the Louisiana state legislature gave funding to the NFB of Louisiana to establish the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Inspired by my own life-changing rehabilitation experience, I wanted to replicate the ground-breaking training model that Dr. Jernigan used to teach me and countless other blind people in Iowa. My search for Center staff led me to Jerry and Merilynn Whittle, whom I heard about through the "blind grapevine." I called them up, explaining that we were only awarded one year of funding and that we had no building, no equipment, and no students. Essentially our empowering NFB philosophy and our nonvisual training methods were the two forces pushing our dream forward. Jerry and Merilynn did not hesitate; they immediately agreed to become part of our pioneering team of instructors. Jerry came first, and when her job concluded, Merilynn arrived in Louisiana. They brought with them an unwavering belief in blind people, a deep loyalty to the Federation, a joyous energy, and a willingness to sacrifice and give to others. They were dependable and so hardworking; they worked day and night to launch the Center. Soon we had our inaugural group of students. Our first training center operated out of a four-room house. Mismatched donated furniture and lively chatter filled the space. The Braille classroom that Jerry and his students occupied had a large table that was made by attaching legs to an old door. Even in the early years of his teaching career, Jerry recognized that his job as Braille instructor was just the beginning. He fulfilled the roles of counselor and mentor. He spoke with students about their futures, what jobs they could do, and what they could become as blind people. With great enjoyment, Jerry also dispensed love advice to those seeking a partner. For instance, he warned, "You should never marry someone unless you have traveled with them on a trip. You learn a lot on these trips that might influence your decision." More broadly, he told students "If you want to succeed in life, you must look at your fatal flaws and change them. We all have them." Jerry had such a tremendous sense of humor. When crossing a street, you could hear Jerry shouting, "Oh, feet, don't fail me now!" And, oh my, did Jerry get after students if they were slacking or not fulfilling their potential. These are just some of the phrases and techniques that I witnessed Jerry using as tools to create bridges to the lives of his students. The most significant thing that Jerry gave us was the "minor ingredients," the invaluable elements that made our dream of creating a fun and productive training center come true. Jerry developed many traditions and pursued projects that engaged the varied interests of Center students. He started a garden, devised creative fundraising activities, and organized many trips to festivals, movies, concerts, flea markets, and sporting events. He formed a blind football team and wrote many plays. He started a Toastmasters group to provide students the opportunity to enhance their public speaking skills. He planted trees with the students to beautify the city and to memorialize students or staff who had passed away. Jerry also awarded "Whittle sticks" to recognize the Braille achievements of his students. He carefully selected tree branches that he lovingly made into beautiful walking sticks that his students eagerly worked to earn. Jerry started our freedom bell tradition. He began ringing the bell whenever a student conquered a challenge or met an important milestone- crossing a busy street, reading at a certain speed in Braille, getting married, or becoming employed. He would say, "When the bell sounds, all blind people have gained new ground." Yes, Jerry, you have and will continue to help the blind gain new ground. Your life is a real tribute to our dream. Suzanne Mitchell Jerry Whittle's life was changed when he found the National Federation of the Blind, and the lives of thousands of blind people were changed as well. I first met Jerry while organizing a chapter of the NFB of South Carolina near Jerry's hometown of Central located in the northwest corner of the state. Jerry served in numerous leadership roles both nationally and in the NFB of South Carolina and was integral in the development of programs at the Federation Center of the Blind (the NFB of South Carolina headquarters) and Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center of the Blind. His penultimate (Jerry's favorite word) achievement, however, was his over thirty years of service as the Braille instructor at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. As a young man, Jerry played his beloved sport of baseball. He discovered his blindness while playing one night in a lighted stadium and finding that he could not see the ball as it sailed to him at second base. This was a whole new world to Jerry and one in which he struggled to adapt. Early on, he found little encouragement about his future from his vocational rehabilitation counselor who, as Jerry once told me, suggested that he go into a workshop or janitorial work. But Jerry knew intuitively that he could do more with his life. He responded to a public service announcement by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and thus began the journey to realizing his dreams for a literary career. He graduated from Clemson University, and his academic success led to graduate school at the University of Tennessee where he earned a masters in creative writing. Jerry and I shared so many memorable times as friends and colleagues. I remember most vividly our NFB work and the adventures around our pioneering establishment of the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston under the leadership of Joanne Wilson. Always at his side, Merilynn shared in all of our triumphs as we celebrated the accomplishments of our students and the growth of the Center. From the acorn grew the strong oak of Jerry Whittle. He brought the gift of Braille literacy to thousands of blind people, sprinkling his lessons with philosophy and high expectations. Throughout his tenure as a teacher and beyond, Jerry continued to pursue his love of writing, producing plays to inspire and engage blind actors and publishing a number of fictional and autobiographical works. Jerry was Godfather to my oldest son, Nicholas, and we are blessed to have many of his original manuscripts of his plays. How grateful we all are that Jerry did not succumb to the low expectations of the early guidance about his career choices. How fortuitous that he found the NFB, and how truly fortunate that the world and thousands of blind people found him. By knowing Jerry and loving him, our lives have been enriched beyond measure, and he will always reside in our hearts and minds. Roland Allen (LCB alumnus, 1987) It is so hard to describe adequately the impact Jerry Whittle had on me. When I enrolled at the Louisiana Center for the Blind shortly after my high school graduation, I did not consider myself to be blind, and I was not sure what to think about the idea of blind instructors. Jerry had a unique way of meeting people where they were and helping them to discover themselves, conquer their fears, and build self-confidence-to realize that it was respectable to be blind. Regardless of a person's life experiences, he would find a way to connect. I knew early on in my training how important the National Federation of the Blind was to him, how it had changed his life in ways he shared with us. Though we certainly worked on Braille, and I learned to read and write with confidence, we also tackled other philosophical topics in Braille and outside of class. Jerry and Merilynn were always ready for an adventure and encouraged all of us to join in, even if it was something we might never have experienced before. They showed us how to seek and find beauty in the small miracles of life and how to live each day to the fullest. Jerry was always honest and genuine. He listened and gave advice and was not afraid to challenge me and my fellow students to push the boundaries imposed by society and the low expectations about blindness we faced. Like Jerry, I have retinitis pigmentosa, and I was reluctant to travel in unfamiliar places, especially at night or in dimly lit venues like movie theaters. Jerry and I had discussed this at length, and he knew that I would always go to the movies with a friend or sibling. He invited me and some other students to the movies one evening. Before the movie began, he showed me how to use my cane to navigate around the theater and find my seat. Because of his encouragement and belief in me, I applied what he taught and independently found my own seat. I can remember the pride I felt as I turned to yell to him from several rows ahead "I did it!" Jerry knew that accomplishing this "little thing" in life would be one of the many building blocks that allowed me to grow and achieve those "big milestones" later in life. I had no idea then that I would ultimately become a cane travel instructor helping people overcome their fears and replace self-doubt with hope as he did for me. Jerry was, and still is, an amazing role model for me in the ways he gave above and beyond the call of duty. He always took time to listen, to give without counting the costs, to share his love of the Federation, and to find ways to cultivate talents in others. Later, when I began to work at the Center, I continued to learn from him as a colleague and peer. He kept dispensing advice and wisdom and even gave a toast at my wedding. Most importantly, Jerry was my beloved friend! I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could count on him. And I know today that he knows he can count on me to continue to challenge myself and push myself and my students beyond what we thought was possible, to share the lessons he taught me and so many, and to continue his legacy through my work at LCB and in the National Federation of the Blind. Every time Pam and I see a movie, one of our favorite pastimes, we will smile and think of him. I will forever be indebted. [PHOTO CAPTION: The Hartle family] Jesse Hartle (LCB alumnus, 1997) While attending my church service tonight, my priest said that we know God loves his children because he always provides for them. If that is true, then I can only assume that it is also true that Jerry Whittle loved his students, because he always gave to them. When we had concerns, he gave us his counsel. If we were having a rough day, he gave us his humor. When we thought we would never improve our reading or writing skills, he gave us encouragement. When we accomplished a goal, he gave us a pat on the back for a job well done. If we were slacking off, he gave us a swift kick in the pants. He gave us knowledge through Braille. He gave us Austen, Bront?, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Faulkner, Tolstoy, Steinbeck, and many more. Jerry Whittle was never just an eight-to-five instructor. He gave us his time. Students were always welcome to join the Whittles for a Friday night trip to the movies, a Louisiana Tech football game, a night at the theater, an afternoon at the flea markets, or a myriad of activities outside of normal class time at the LCB. He gave us challenges that would make us better the next day than we were before, whether that meant stepping out on stage or stepping on to the football field. He gave us a view of his faith, and he certainly showed us his love for Ms. Merilynn. Every single day, Jerry Whittle gave us his all so that we might succeed. When I was twelve years old, I was a quitter. I was accepted into the Louisiana Center for the Blind's Buddy Program, but after three weeks I decided to quit. Frankly, it was just too hard to learn the nonvisual skills my counselors were trying to teach. This decision of course was a mistake, but from mistakes come opportunities to learn. While waiting on my parents to come and take me home, I was invited to go to lunch with Mr. Whittle. Knowing what I now know about Jerry Whittle, this was not just a kind gesture. It was another opportunity to do what he loved-to do his best to teach blind people that blindness did not have to dictate the terms of their life. That day I heard the story of someone who had experienced all that I was experiencing at that moment. Mr. Whittle had been told by sighted people about the limited jobs available to a blind person. Only he had a different plan which did not include settling for such low expectations. He discussed the important role that the training he received played in accomplishing his goals. I remember admitting to him at some point in the conversation that I could understand how the cane could be useful for me, but I could not see the point in learning Braille. He explained that a blind person had to develop a well-rounded set of skills to maximize chances for success. For example, if you were the best traveler in the world, but you could not read, you would probably not be able to get a job. Likewise, if you had great technology skills, but you did not have the ability to match your own clothes, you probably were not going to keep a job. While I now understand this thought process, to a stubborn twelve- year-old boy, this man clearly did not realize that he was talking to me, the exception to the rule. However, during the next year his words would come back to me. I began to question myself when certain situations came up. Was I choosing not to go to the movies like other people my age because I really didn't like movies or because I did not have the travel skills to maneuver in dark places? Was reading just stupid, or did I not like it because I could only read around twelve words per minute on a CCTV? An honest self-evaluation told me that in most cases I was letting blindness dictate the terms of my life. I knew that the annual NFB of Louisiana student seminar in Ruston was approaching, so I began to put a mental list of questions together about how blind people could accomplish certain tasks. I remember getting off the bus and walking into the activity center, where dinner was already underway. And there at the front of the line, waiting to show those of us who did not know how to serve our own plate, was Jerry Whittle, once again leading by example. If you have been privileged to know Jerry Whittle, you know that my story is not unique. All I had to do was scroll through my Facebook feed on the days around his passing to see the affect that this man had in the lives of blind people. We may not have cleared every bar that he set for us, but it was not because he did not expect us to! What a world it would be if we all lived like Jerry Whittle taught us, by striving to be better tomorrow than we are today. I will miss you Dr. Dots, but I will never forget our lunch on that Monday afternoon in July 1991. The food the waiter brought was generally forgetful, but the food for thought you served was life changing. Zach Shore (LCB alumnus, 1988) I first met Jerry Whittle in June of 1988 when I arrived as a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. I last spoke with him at length by phone in April of 2017. In those three decades I never stopped marveling at what he had to teach me. It was so much more than Braille. The greatest teachers are not great because of what they teach. They are great because of what they give. Jerry Whittle gave so much to so many. He gave us his words through the books, plays, and stories he wrote about the blind and our struggles for dignity. He gave us his wit through his corny humor, puns, and word plays. He once quipped that old Braille teachers never die; they just get de-pressed. He gave us his wisdom; that nothing is ever granted freely to the blind. If we want equality, we have to earn it. We have to help our blind brothers and sisters as well; he showed that through his work in the NFB. Sometimes, it's not fair, but gritty determination sure beats self-pity and sloth. Above all he gave us his warmth through the love he ceaselessly showed to those around him. He would stay late at work to help a student finish reading his first Braille book or write her first Braille sentence with a slate and stylus. He would organize a literary night at his home with his wife Merilynn to instill in us a love of reading. It seemed to me that he knew no off-hours. Quietly, reliably, selflessly, he simply offered what he had. I hope he knew how much we profited from all the gifts he gave. Thank you, Mr. Whittle. We miss you beyond words. [PHOTO CAPTION: Mandi Bundren] Mandi Bundren I was introduced to Mr. Whittle through a dear college friend. I needed some extra cash, and Mr. Whittle needed a reader. The friend who introduced us said Mr. Whittle and I would become fast friends; however, little did I realize that my part-time gig would grow into a genuine friendship that would have a lasting impact on my future. Anyone who knew Mr. Whittle knew about his aversion to technology. Part of my job was to bridge the gap between the world of computers and the world of Jerry Whittle. My first project was to help him type and edit a manuscript for one of his plays. I quickly came to realize that our business relationship was atypical, because our work tasks often veered into witty conversations about Mr. Whittle's life. He certainly didn't mind that our paid hours of reading time usually descended (or ascended) into colorful stories of his past and present. On occasion Mr. Whittle would have me read through Braille book catalogs, from which he selected literature for the Louisiana Center for the Blind library. When I became curious about Braille, Mr. Whittle eagerly put a Braille block in my hand and began to teach me. This was, as well, on his time. He didn't mind. I also assisted him by going through his numerous emails. Mr. Whittle had a social network before social networking was cool. He received countless emails every day from friends, family, colleagues, coworkers, and strangers. He answered every single one. I learned a lot about a lot of people I didn't know-the NFB, Federationists, the LCB, the Braille Authority of North America, former students, and many more. Mr. Whittle and I spent hours engaged over the content of all those emails. I asked Mr. Whittle one time if he knew he was paying me to hang out with him. And he said, "I know that Mandi...don't you?" During my time spent as Mr. Whittle's reader, all of the misconceptions I had about blindness and Braille vanished. After graduation I went home for a while and tried to begin my life as a college graduate. But in the back of my mind I knew what I wanted; I wanted to teach blind kids. I didn't realize it at the time, but Mr. Whittle had been molding me with his stories and with his passion for Braille. I applied for the O&M and TBS programs at Louisiana Tech University and went back to Ruston. And in the year and a half that followed I gained invaluable experience, achieved my master's, met my husband, and received multitudes of opportunities that got me to where I am now. Today I am teaching Braille and encouraging my students to live the lives they want. My job as Mr. Whittle's reader became secondary to what I gained from knowing him. Much of who I am now I attribute to the influence that he had on my life. I can say with all honesty that if not for Mr. Whittle, I would not have the fulfilling life that I have today. Karl Smith (LCB alumnus and Chairman of the LCB Board of Directors, 1989) I first met Jerry Whittle in 1988. I was on a tour of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, where I became a student in 1989. I was immediately impressed with his commitment and passion for the importance of Braille and also with his encouragement that I set goals that push me outside my comfort zone in all aspects of life. It was during this tour that I first heard Jerry say, "If you want to kill time, you have to work it to death." And "We're not running a happy home for the blind here." During my training, Jerry helped me build my Braille reading speed and taught me to make the slate and stylus a working tool. As valuable as these lessons were, I found that I learned some of the most important things about myself, my blindness, and what it meant to live the life I wanted to live outside Braille class. These informal life lessons occurred during many conversations that we had after hours, over a burger, or over a glass of muscadine juice. It was during these discussions that Jerry suggested that a few of us get together and produce and act in a play. Two fellow students, Jamie Lejeune and Jennifer Dunnam, and I along with Jerry, produced and performed John Brown's Body, a play based on the epic poem by Steven Vincent Ben?t. We performed this play for the Ruston community at the Louisiana Tech University Theater. This experience served as the foundation for the subsequent plays that Jerry Whittle would write and direct, casting Center students like myself to perform at national conventions for more than twenty-five years, with the proceeds going to support the Buddy Program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. He believed so strongly in giving our blind children the skills for success and immersion in the positive philosophy and mentoring of the National Federation of the Blind. Because of these experiences, I auditioned for and was selected as a lead player in a musical presented at the Promise Valley Playhouse in Salt Lake City in 1993 and 1994. I would never have had the courage to attempt such a thing without Jerry's encouragement. Needless to say, I learned my lines for all these plays with a Braille script. Jerry continued to be a good friend and mentor in the years since I graduated from the Center. I value all the times we had together talking, joking, playing poker, and solving the world's problems. I will miss him greatly, but I will always value his wisdom and strong values. Angela Frederick (LCB alumna, 1995) How does one begin writing about a man who was such a powerful influence on the lives of his students? Of course, I immediately think of the gift of Braille literacy and the love for reading and writing Jerry Whittle gave to his students. But it was the special way he offered this gift that made Mr. Whittle such a force for change in his students' lives. Mr. Whittle had a unique way of recognizing the core of his students and offering them a version of literacy which spoke to that core. "Oh, you're interested in presidential history" he would say. "I have an amazing book about Abraham Lincoln for you." I am a sociologist now. My life's work is teaching, researching, and writing in the academy. I can trace much of my love for reading and learning to Jerry Whittle. The beautiful Braille library he built at the Louisiana center was the first library I entered that felt like it was built for me. During my summers I spent at LCB as a teenager and young adult, I would spend hours looking through his vast collection of books. I would have to stand on chairs to reach the top of the mountains of pages he created along the walls of the Braille Room and the center library. As a young person growing up in Louisiana, I was desperate for information about the larger world. One of the most well-read people I had met, Mr. Whittle's presence felt like a gateway to something bigger for me. I always tried to finagle my way to sit next to him to soak up all of his wisdom. And I would always find myself gravitating to the Braille room, where I knew some kind of lively conversation would be happening between Mr. Whittle and his students. Jerry Whittle had a unique capacity to love you dearly and scold you, all in the same breath. He didn't hesitate to give you the world's greatest compliment or take you down a notch, depending on his assessment of what you needed to hear that day. In between explaining how to remember the Braille letter E and telling his infamous jokes to keep us on our toes, Mr. Whittle would offer his students little nuggets of life wisdom in the LCB Braille Room. And one nugget of wisdom he offered me as a young adult has stayed with me for decades, "Truly smart people can create the world they want to live in." We love you, Mr. Whittle. [PHOTO CAPTION: Louise and two of her girls, Miriam and Caitlin, are shown on their favorite hike at the top of Pilot Mountain in North Carolina.] Louise Walch (LCB alumna, 2006) First there was Louis Braille, and then there was Jerry Whittle. Doubtless there were some in between, but that was the sequence for me. If there were a Braille hall of fame, Mr. Whittle's face, complete with grey beard, would be up on the wall, larger than life. Between Braille lessons he would tell stories of his college escapades and more about his early days "beating the bushes" to find blind people and organize NFB chapters. During one of my Braille lessons, he mentioned he had been thinking a lot about how blind people don't tend to play much football, and it wasn't many weeks after that we all found ourselves measuring up for uniforms. That's how the first blind football team was formed. We were a motley crew, but you better believe none of us were sitting on the sidelines. We were in the game. Mr. Whittle was coach on the blind football field and coach in the classroom. We were always strategizing on how to get better and faster at reading Braille. He would regularly time all his students, and on those days when you were really zipping along, he might praise you with one of his signature Whittle phrases like "Wow, you are really tearing up the pea patch." That was when you knew you could be proud. Or if you were really lucky, he might hand you a can of his favorite Buffalo Rock ginger ale. Or on one of your not-so-hot days he might say, "You sound as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs." Then you could have a laugh and get back on the job. I remember him telling me once about how as a young blind adult he would give himself daily travel assignments. Although he had no orientation and mobility instructor at the time, he would hone his cane skills just by getting out there with a stick and doing it. I'm sure there were many setbacks and a lot of discovery, but in the end, it was his decision to act rather than to be acted upon, that set the upward trajectory for his life. He encouraged all his students not to be afraid of a little dot five W. That's Braille shorthand for work. I was just one of the thousand or more students who sat across the table from him during one of his thirty years of teaching Braille, but any one of those students would tell you that it wasn't just Braille that he taught; he taught us to believe in blind people, to believe in ourselves. This brand of belief had little to do with platitudes, the kind of empty words you might read on some website. No, his belief was soul deep. Whether you were there sitting across the table from him surrounded by those floor- to-ceiling bookshelves of Braille that he was so proud of or in a raft shooting down whitewater in Tennessee or rehearsing one of the many plays he wrote and directed or donning the helmet for a game of Coach Whittle's no-kidding-around blind football or just sitting with him in a diner chatting over a bowl of grits, you would know that you were somebody, and here was a man who believed in God and believed that whatever might knock you down, you could get right up again. It might be inconvenient, but it's okay to be blind. You learned that you had blind brothers and sisters around the country in the NFB who were there for you. Get yourself a good mentor like Mr. Whittle if you can, but just get yourself out the door. Bre Brown (LCB alumna, 2012) When I met Mr. Whittle in 2011 as a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, he was incredibly welcoming. He made class challenging and entertaining. Yes, we did Braille, but we learned so much about life. He was always sharing stories and educating us about various things, such as how to live on your own as a blind person or how to navigate at a football game or Mardi Gras. He strongly believed every person should go and live independently at least once, in order to set in stone the fact that a person was truly able to be successful and trust themselves. He often shared his passion for nature, flowers, trees, and plants. His love for students was palpable. He always found ways for people to be involved in activities such as plays and cultural events. He also spent time with students to discover what motivated them. For example, Mr. Whittle gave me opportunities to try new things, such as directing one of his plays. Earlier this year, he asked me to help direct his play, All Shot, performed at this year's national convention. I never could have imagined it would be his last one. In October he asked me to direct Santa Rides Again, the play he wrote about Santa Claus losing his vision and receiving training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Directing the play also involves supervising the choir. I love to sing, and this is a fun and challenging way of using my skills. I really love how he showed everyone, including me, that you can do whatever you desired, including loving life despite blindness. I am thankful for all of his thought-provoking questions he had for me, his encouragement even when I doubted myself, and his way of living life as a pure example-open and honest, loving and caring, with every imperfection acting as a learning opportunity, not a downfall. Six years ago I had no idea that I would be a Braille teacher. I have always loved Braille, and the National Federation of the Blind showed me that I could be a teacher. As a student I learned so much about teaching Braille from Mr. Whittle through observation. He showed me that just because you know Braille, there are still things you can learn or upon which you can improve. Over the years, he answered any question I had about teaching Braille as I was working in the LCB summer programs. He also instilled in me a belief that Braille class is not just about Braille; there are many important life lessons to learn. Some of it is life skills like budgeting and list creations, discussing student perspectives on blindness, motivating people to continue no matter their circumstance, and truly listening and empathizing with students. I saw from his example that the learning did not stop, even after five. As we all know, Mr. Whittle was not a fan of technology, but he enjoyed learning about his iPhone. He did learn how to text with dictation. A few years ago, we started texting with each other almost every day. Some days it was just simply saying hello. It was sharing stories, him encouraging me as I continued through college and started my career, talking about vacations, just anything. He often said, "Go get 'em," even if it was just going to class, teaching Braille, or doing something totally new. These exchanges and life lessons meant the world to me as a student and are just pieces of what Mr. Whittle gifted me. He taught me so much that it is difficult to narrow it down. Today, I have the incredible honor of continuing the legacy that Mr. Whittle has built. I am so thankful to keep giving the gift of literacy, the gift of Braille, and to find ways to keep students involved in the National Federation of the Blind to which he gave so much, their communities, and their own lives. "Read until you bleed!" Pamela Allen It is so hard for all of us to capture what Jerry meant to each of us. Words just don't seem sufficient. I think the suddenness of his passing has made it even more emotional for all of us to absorb. You will see the common thread in these words. The hard thing is there are thousands more where these came from. Jerry was humble and hardworking, loyal and loving, humorous and creative, steady and trustworthy, and not afraid to admit when he was wrong and make amends as needed. He and Merilynn set such a wonderful example as a blind and a sighted role model. The ripples they made will be felt forever! So many whom Jerry taught are now teachers and leaders in the field of blindness. So many are using Braille and his life wisdom to propel themselves forward in other careers outside of blindness. So many are part of our Federation family because of his love and encouragement! He never had biological children but raised many children throughout his time with us. Jerry always said, "Time is not eternal." This is just another reminder of how we can never take the time we have for granted nor fail to share our love and appreciation for the people we have in our lives. Jerry always did this! Dr. Marc Maurer Jerry Whittle was not only quite knowledgeable about literature, history, philosophy, and education; but he was also a quiet, understated, and most jolly human being. He could find humor in most things, and he was friendly in showing you where it was. I met Jerry Whittle first in South Carolina, where he was working to bring blind people into our movement. I came to know him even better in Louisiana, when he was teaching Braille. I visited the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and I sat in his classroom with him and students. He asked me if I could read poetry, and I admitted that I could. He said he wanted to record me doing so. I agreed. He turned on the recorder and handed me a copy of "Jabberwocky." I had never before read "Jabberwocky." It is a poem that contains many words that do not appear anywhere else in the English language. One of the simpler lines is, "The vorpal blade went snicker- snack!" I did my best. I have no idea what the recording sounded like, but I read the "Jabberwocky." Jerry Whittle talked me into doing many things I did not expect to do. He called me to say that football was needed by the blind, and he asked me for money to get the equipment together. I wanted to know what he meant. He said that blind people were going to play football with some rules that he had devised for the game. He said that when you run onto the field and smack into a guy on the other team and knock him flat, this is fun. I, who am smaller than he was, wondered if he could really mean it. I wasn't as sure that I would enjoy it as he was. Jerry always believed that he could do something to bring joy to people's lives, and he was prepared to go the extra mile to do it. He thought that there was not enough literature depicting the reality of blindness. He was helping to solve this problem by writing plays that brought the daily experiences of the blind to life. He worked with his mind, but he also worked with his hands. He made me a walking stick from a piece of blackthorn that I carry still. I love the feel of my Whittle Stick. My life is richer because I knew Jerry Whittle. ---------- Our Fight for Literacy by Lyn Petro From the Editor: This article is taken from a presentation given at the 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. It describes the struggle two parents must endure to see that their daughter gets to learn to read and write. It is moving for what it has to say about the commitment of two fine people to help their child be successful; it is disgusting in what it reveals about some school districts and their total disregard for helping their students become happy, productive, and contributing citizens. This story is about the fight to get a child Braille, but it is also about what our system does to force a parent to become an advocate and sometimes at significant financial cost. As Lyn says, "My biggest passion in life is my children, but Braille literacy is a close second. Most people really don't understand how little instruction and materials blind and visually impaired students receive. It's my choice to educate others. I will not let others make the choice about whether or not my child will be able to read, learn, or succeed in life. It will happen for Brooke!" Here is the article: Thank you for asking me to share our family's journey with you. Our daughter Brooke is a bright and beautiful eleven-year-old who also happens to be legally blind. She is a Braille reader, but does utilize her limited vision. My husband and I feel blessed to have been chosen to be her parents. While our family has been fortunate to be able to provide for and fight for Brooke's educational rights, other families are not as fortunate. This is why we have made our fight for Braille literacy as public as possible. This is not just about Brooke. There truly is a Braille crisis in Kansas. We know of six students across three different Kansas school districts who have stopped receiving Braille in the last two years. Four of the six kids receive services in the school district that we pay taxes in. We are familiar with two other students across the state line in Missouri that the same thing happened to. For some of these students, this was temporary until the parents threatened legal action. For others, Braille was taken away permanently. Less than 10 percent of visually impaired people are Braille readers. Sometimes it's because individuals lose their sight at an older age. More likely, it's because they aren't offered proper time with a trained teacher of the visually impaired to learn Braille. Or maybe the school district refuses to pay for Braille materials. While some educators say that audio books or paraprofessionals can make up the difference in not having Braille materials, it's not true. You can't learn how to spell or use punctuation properly from audio books. Audio books are great for pleasure reading, but not as an educational tool. You can't complete your schoolwork if you don't learn how to use technology. If your aide fills in the answers to your work after you verbalize the answer, you become dependent on someone else. In short, you are illiterate. You will not be independent in school or in life. When we went to enroll Brooke in preschool, we were told by the Blue Valley School District that she did not need Braille instruction. Brooke has a degenerative eye condition. We knew her prognosis would not allow her to be a print reader for long. Blue Valley refused to help pay for any specialized instruction, so we paid privately for Brooke to go to the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired so that she could start learning Braille at age three. My background as an occupational therapist made me realize that the best time to have the sensory and touch fibers in her hands expand their abilities was at a young age. The brain is plastic. You can mold and change your neurologic abilities much more easily when you are younger. This includes learning another language, including a written tactile language such as Braille. We met with the school district multiple times before deciding where to send Brooke to elementary school. At Blue Valley Brooke was offered minimal time with a TVI [teacher of the visually impaired], but we were assured that she would get paraprofessional support-a paraprofessional who does not know Braille, that is. As is quoted on the TSBVI [Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired] website, "When simply assigned to a student without proper preparation, paraeducators may act as a barrier between the student and peer involvement, improperly direct instruction away from the teachers, or reduce independent skill acquisition. Over- reliance on a paraeducator over time can lead students to develop passivity and dependence on prompts from others." Dependence on others is not at all what we wanted for Brooke. Because Brooke was not offered a free and appropriate public education, we chose to compromise with the school district. They agreed to pay for her Braille materials at a private school as well as offering her Braille instruction, assistive technology instruction, and occupational therapy for a total of four hours per week in the public setting. In turn we paid for her weekly orientation and mobility training because they refused to take her off the public school campus. We also provided her with three to five extra hours of TVI instruction at the private school each week. Trust me, it has been expensive to say the least. But, we have said from the beginning that Brooke deserved a chance to be independent in life. Illiteracy does not lead to independence. This was the arrangement until January 7, 2016, when we were told by Blue Valley officials that they would no longer provide her with Braille materials for the next school year. The special education director told us, "I'm sure it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under you." Kind of an understatement, don't you think? They had been advised by an attorney at the Kansas Department of Education that they could change Brooke's Individual Education Plan (IEP) without our consent. Brooke's IEP was changed by a prior written notice. In Kansas, a material change of 25 percent in an IEP requires parental consent. Blue Valley states that because they offered Brooke Braille materials of the Blue Valley curriculum, they did not change her services. They call it a "site change." The only site change that occurred was when they moved Brooke from one elementary school to another to receive services. The new school had numerous ADA violations specific to visually impaired students according to federal regulations. Brooke was also not offered any O&M training prior to starting at this new building. To get that, we had to refuse to send her to the new school without safety training for emergency evacuation routes and sue the school district to be able to get that done. We also had to file due process again due to the fact that the school district changed our child's IEP without our consent. While the Blue Valley School District states that we have no reason to sue them since they don't have to provide our child with Braille materials because she goes to a private school, that's not even part of our lawsuit. We didn't sue them to provide Braille for Brooke. That's another matter entirely. But, what cannot continue to happen is that school districts are allowed to sidestep the laws in Kansas. Just last week we found out that Blue Valley had removed the screen reader, screen magnification, and Braille translation software from the computer that our daughter uses at her school, despite the fact that they are legally obligated to provide those according to her education plan. Brooke could not complete her work until this was reinstalled on the computer. Families should not have to be constant watchdogs over school officials that we pay taxes to support. Blue Valley told us that they spent $72,000 producing Brooke's Braille materials in third grade. Last year we were able to provide her with Braille materials for about $24,000. That includes the cost of purchasing a new computer, an embosser, updating Duxbury software, and buying paper and office supplies to produce the needed classroom materials. We borrow some textbooks from the Kansas Instructional Resource Center or other libraries for the blind. I type the rest of her required materials. I adapt a math workbook for her to use with her CCTV. Her private TVI produces her tactile graphics. Last year we spent almost $4,000 for a Braille prison program to produce her math materials because we aren't able to do that. We also outsource most of her maps since those can be difficult for us to produce. That's a lot of materials to cover with $24,000, but I know it can be done. Instead of spending taxpayer's money providing children with Braille materials that statistics say make them much more probable of finding employment, the Blue Valley School District claims to have spent $130,000 of taxpayer's money to avoid paying for our daughter's books. $130,000 is only what they say they've spent on legal costs. Others claim that is not even close to what has actually been spent. Is it a struggle for us to be able to provide Brooke with what she needs for the classroom? Yes. I cannot work outside of the home because I have to type materials for Brooke. It's financially draining. Is it cheating on the part of the school district? Yes. Is all of this worth it? Absolutely! Brooke is a straight-A student whose dream is to work at NASA. She is also a three-time defending champion of the National Braille Challenge. Since first grade, Brooke has won the highest score in reading comprehension once and twice has had the highest score in the spelling portion of the National Braille Challenge tests. People can say this is because Brooke is bright, but the only way it's possible is because of intense instruction with a teacher of the visually impaired. School districts choose to persecute the most vulnerable students. If textbooks weren't offered to a child who reads print, there would be a public outcry. Teachers who aren't certified aren't allowed to teach mainstream students. Laws protect those kids. But the blind kids can do without books and materials as well as having teachers that aren't certified. I know because that's what my daughter deals with every day. These kids are already blind; why rob them blind when it comes to an education on top of their disability? When I checked the Kansas legal statutes on Braille instruction, there were seven sentences in total. The TSBVI website has a document that is thirty-two pages long. Something has to change in our state. Braille instruction is critical. The unemployment rate for visually impaired people is 74 percent. School districts and colleges in Kansas are directly contributing to this high rate of unemployment when kids are shuffled through their system without proper support, materials, and instruction. Let me share with you some sobering statistics about blind or visually impaired people in the United States from nfb.org: . 23.7 percent have less than a high school education . 31 percent have a high school diploma or GED . 30 percent have some college education or associate degree . Only 13 percent have a Bachelor's degree or higher With statistics such as these, you can guarantee that visually impaired kids are destined to require public assistance. Why not promote Braille and ensure that these kids can be productive citizens who are able to be employed? School districts in Kansas hide behind loopholes and cheap legal tactics in an effort to justify their failure to educate these children. As a family, we have proven that it can be done. With the help of a tremendous TVI and a school that allows us to provide Brooke with what every blind child should receive, it can be done. I just want to reiterate that the Blue Valley School District has chosen to spend $130,000 of taxpayer's money instead of the $24,000 that it would take to provide Brooke with Braille. At the very least, it's the definition of incompetence; it's certainly negligence, and it's evidence that there truly is a Braille crisis in Kansas. We will continue our fight not only for Brooke, but also for all visually impaired students in Kansas. It's not an exaggeration to say that we are changing the world one dot at a time. ---------- 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 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kirsten Mau] Building the National Federation of the Blind Brand by Kirsten Mau From the Editor: Kirsten Mau is the director of marketing and communications for the National Federation of the Blind. She started her work with us when we developed the messages that would better explain and put more focus on our brand. This is the first in a series of articles to explain how best to use the tools we have to explain who we are, what we stand for, and the kind of culture we live in the NFB. Here is what she says: What is a brand? What do I have to do with building the National Federation of the Blind brand? There are many ways to define a brand. One of my favorite ways to think about a brand is that it is the sum of many parts. These parts include all the beliefs, experiences, perceptions, and interactions one has with a product or an organization. Take Nike for instance. For me, the Nike brand represents the first blue Nike tennis shoes with a yellow swish I owned as a kid, elite sports figures sponsored by Nike, years of ads featuring the "Just Do It" motivator, and athletic gear that helps me get out the door. But certainly the Nike brand means more than that. Ultimately, Nike is about an individual's "authentic athletic performance." Its goal is to inspire me to be my best physical self. With nonprofits it helps to think of an organization's brand as its reputation. Does it make good on its mission, and do I trust it to do the work it promises in an ethical and reliable way? While products and organizations strive to present a unified brand to the outside world, every individual has their own perception of those brands based on many factors, including personal experience. Having worked in advertising and communications for the duration of my career, I have had both personal and professional experience with lots of different brands. Most I respected; some not quite as much. Quaker Oats is one of my favorites. When I was a kid, Quaker Oatmeal meant a cozy, warm breakfast made by my mom as I headed out to school on a cold morning or a nourishing meal with lots of butter and brown sugar when I was home sick. The cylindrical red and blue packages became doll beds or fodder for other crafts. The "Quaker man" has been a familiar face in my cupboard all of my life. When I started to work with Quaker Oats as a client, I learned lots of new things about the brand. For instance, that the "Quaker man" is actually named Larry, about the real health benefits of oatmeal, how the organization is committed to finding ways to grow organic oats (and lots of their trade secrets I can't share here!) Over time my perception of the Quaker brand shifted and grew. As I became a parent, I shared my experiences with my daughters. Now the round Quaker box is a fixture for them as well. I won't buy the cheaper store brand of oats because I believe in this brand. Even though the instant versions aren't any healthier than most cold cereals, I have bought into the idea that a warm breakfast is better. I am certain my perception of the Quaker brand shares similarities and differences with yours. What does Quaker Oats have to do with the National Federation of the Blind? In understanding the importance of a brand, it is critical to accept that we can only control a portion of it. People make their own decisions about the brands they trust and support based on all the information available to them. That is why it is so important for everyone who represents our NFB brand to bring it to life in a consistent way. Every member, every leader, and every staff person is a critical building block in the National Federation of the Blind brand. The National Federation of the Blind brand is defined by our brand architecture. The brand architecture is the internal framework that explains the components of our brand: our values, our personality, our positioning, our value proposition, and our brand promise. It is important that each of us understands and embraces these components so those outside the organization will know who we are, what we value, why we exist, and what we intend to achieve. Over the next several months we will feature several articles in the Braille Monitor with the goal of defining our brand and bringing it to life. If we all understand the important elements of our brand and live by them, those who identify with our brand will support us in transforming our dreams into reality. 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. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] Tax Deductions for the Blind: Are They Something We Deserve, and Should We Fight for Them? by Mark Riccobono From the Editor: We live in a time of significant political change, and each issue we examine confronts us with two questions: Does this affect blind people, and will our advocacy to see that the blind do not lose hard- won victories be perceived as a partisan stance by the organization? President Riccobono gets a number of letters asking these questions, and here he shares a recent one regarding legislation to change our nation's tax system. Here is the letter he received and his response: Dear President Riccobono: Over the past few days I've noticed that the National Federation of the Blind has really been pushing for the legislature to keep the tax deduction that is granted to all blind individuals, and I'm curious as to why this is. It seems to me that allowing us to pay fewer taxes just because we cannot see goes against NFB philosophy, just as cutting in line at amusement parks and pre-boarding airplanes goes against our values. Giving blind people a tax deduction seems to imply that we are not as capable of working as our sighted peers and thus require special treatment. We don't want to be seen as entitled just because of our disability, and this tax deduction seems to do just that. I understand that blind people can incur expenses that our sighted peers do not, such as screen readers and other assistive technology. But I can't help feeling that when blind people purchase these types of items, they should receive a tax credit, just as people do when they buy an extremely expensive vehicle. I feel that if we manage to pass the law granting tax credits for the purchase of assistive technology, this blanket tax deduction would be rendered obsolete. All that said, I don't know much about how and why this tax deduction for blind people was implemented. There could very well be information I don't currently have that completely justifies this. I thought it would be prudent to email an expert before deciding whether or not to start lobbying my legislators. Thank you for your time and consideration in reading this message. Dear ---- Thank you very much for your thoughtful message. You have made a very reasonable observation: "It seems to me that allowing us to pay fewer taxes just because we cannot see goes against NFB philosophy, just as cutting in line at amusement parks and pre-boarding airplanes goes against our values. Giving blind people a tax deduction seems to imply that we are not as capable of working as our sighted peers and thus require special treatment. We don't want to be seen as entitled just because of our disability, and this tax deduction seems to do just that." I agree with you completely about our own sense of entitlement and being viewed as less capable especially in the work context. We also have to balance that against whether we have equality of opportunity in society and whether we need certain supports to compete on terms of equality. You compare the increased standard deduction to cutting a line or pre-boarding an airplane, and I think this is not a fair comparison. Blindness does not prevent a blind person from following a crowded line or walking effectively down a jetway and boarding a plane. Yet, when I go to a store to buy products, I do not have equal access to the labels on the food boxes or the tags on the clothing. When I go to inquire about a job, I often do not have equal access to the application, and I rarely have equal access to the job listings themselves. My examples are instances where society is built in a way that it prevents equal access by those who do not use vision as a primary method of gathering information. Weighing whether we need some additional advantage to compensate for those inequalities is a question worth examining regularly. I believe that there are still enough artificial barriers that we need to give blind people methods of overcoming those obstacles in order to compete on terms of equality. If that argument is not enough, let us examine the current politics. Even if you believe that we have enough advantage, that we have all the equality we need, Congress decided to eliminate the increased standardized deduction, and blind people were not consulted. Since when does Congress get to speak for us without us? As you know we offered the Access Technology Affordability Act earlier this year knowing that Congress would be discussing taxes. The ATAA was built on the idea that the increased standardized deduction was in place. These are different means of providing a basic level of support to overcome the artificial barriers so blind people have a fair shot at competing in the marketplace. The ATAA is a limited measure that will benefit blind people making little or no money when they spend their own dollars to purchase technologies. The increased standard deduction that the U.S. House of Representatives proposes eliminating helps blind tax payers get a little bit of benefit to overcome all of the other inequalities we face. Most importantly, both of these tax provisions, even added together, are a very small slice of the overall tax picture in the United States. We should not support throwing something out until we absolutely need to do so. It is much harder to get something new than it is to keep something we have. Since the ATAA has not yet passed, we also do not know how effective it will be in helping blind people move to a stronger position in society. We also must think of this not as a specific element in isolation. We should think of the proposal to eliminate this benefit in the context of other proposals being considered in Congress. Most significantly, proposals to water down the Americans with Disabilities Act and weaken the civil rights protections we have gained. Should we accept elimination of a benefit meant to compensate for the lack of equal access in society at the same time that some are saying we have pushed too far with our movement for equality? One proposal feeds into the other. If we make the argument that, in fact, society has advanced enough that we do not require some additional support to overcome those artificial barriers, we may actually find ourselves in a worse place once the entire wave of disability elimination proposals washes away. My friend, you have raised a very important question and, in principle, I agree with you about the disconnect with our philosophy. We must always keep in mind that our philosophy has to operate in the world where we are today and with a diversity of people. Many blind people do not need the increased standard deduction because they have achieved a level of success that overcomes the benefit that the deduction provides. However, many blind people are not even close. Our challenge is to continue to raise expectations every day but not be so idealistic that we hold ourselves back in the process. That is the challenge that you and I must continue to meet together in the coming decades of the Federation. I appreciate that we have you to ask these thoughtful questions. I hope that my response has provided some better context for the conversation. If not, I anticipate more questions from you. In closing, let me say that the National Federation of the Blind is always free to make up its mind. If you think our policy is wrong, you can work with your Federation colleagues to get the organization to adopt a different position. Thank you for all you do. Sincerely, Mark ---------- [PHOTO CAPTOIN: Amy Mason] Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-The New and Improved Rules of the Road by Amy Mason From the Editor: Amy Mason hails from Nebraska and brings her considerable intellect and people skills to the Jernigan Institute International Braille and Technology Center. For a blind person there is a lot to know about the World Wide Web before he or she can use it effectively. Things that are intuitive visually are not obvious when using the web with a screen reader, and what are simple mouse clicks for the sighted person must be done with keystrokes that the blind person must learn so well that they become second nature. The evolution of the web requires screen readers to evolve, and this means ongoing learning for blind people. The task is doable, but it requires more explanation than we can get in one article. Here is the first of several in which we try to take some of the mystery out of surfing the web, make it as fun to use for people who are blind as for people who have sight, and to do it as comfortably and efficiently as our friends and neighbors. Here is Amy's advice: Back in the dark ages of computing (the 90's) the world was fascinated and confused by Sir Tim Berners-Lee's 1989 invention: the World Wide Web. We didn't really know what to do with it, why or how to use it, or even what to call it. Before settling on the more commonly known terms of "the web" or "the internet," we tried out some very unusual and unique terms. One of my personal favorites has always been "The Information Superhighway." The idea of a road trip, with its breathtaking opportunities for discovery, silly sing-alongs, car games, and yes, real dangers and risks, has always seemed an apt metaphor for what the internet makes possible. According to Berners-Lee, "The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." Sadly, on our more frustrating days, a more overused and untrue phrase has seldom been uttered. When viewing the web and its history with a cynical eye, a blind person may conclude that we have always and will always trail behind in access to technology, and, by extension, the internet. For instance, in 1995 JAWS for Windows 3.1 was released, while at the same time sighted users were humming "Start Me Up," and exploring Windows 95 with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning or an Apple fan on iPhone launch day. We gained access a year later. We have seen many products fall into this mold. By the time many notetakers make their way through development, they seem comically behind mainstream devices, and somehow, more than twenty-five years on, we still have to educate developers on the importance of labeling graphics, buttons, and form fields. Even so, the internet has changed the lives of millions of blind people for the better. Tools like Bookshare have unlocked more books than ever before. As we deal with correspondence and other business using print- reading technology and online applications, many of us have cut our time with human readers from an hour or two a day or perhaps two to four hours per week to an inconceivable hour or two each week. Even shopping and transportation have been transformed. When the web was new, it was like we had set out in a Model-T. We couldn't go far or fast, but everything was new and exciting. Today we are driving on an eight-lane interstate highway. In many ways, using the web, like driving the interstate, has lost some of its thrill of adventure. To others it's still marvelous and exciting in all new ways. The road is flatter, smoother, and generally in better repair. The speeds are faster. The perils have changed. New road side attractions, amenities, and pitfalls exist. On-ramps, off-ramps, seedy motels, gas stations, and restaurants have transformed our expectations while travelling. Even the cars we drive are unrecognizable when we compare them to those we used twenty years ago. To get the most out of this faster, busier, more complex internet, we need to learn what the signs mean, understand the strengths and weaknesses of our browsers and other tools, and have a proper understanding of what accessibility and access to the web means. Therefore, today, I'm going to start by taking you to school-driving school, to be exact. Welcome to Driving School Definitions and Concepts Greetings, class. In today's lesson we are going to discuss what you need to know before you get behind the wheel of your shiny new car- I mean browser. If you've been using the web for a while, you may be rolling your eyes at the idea of learning anything new in a definitions and concepts course, but I'm going to ask that you play along, just so we have a shared vocabulary going forward. For the First Timers If you are very new to the idea of browsing the web, you will probably want to spend some time with a one-on-one coach or, barring that, some very good tutorials on how this whole web browsing thing works. But I want to at least lay out the general terms you will hear throughout the rest of these articles. If you are more experienced, please feel free to skim past this section, but do so at your own risk. Now for the definitions: The internet: The network made up of all computers and other devices that are connected in order to allow them to communicate. Everything you do that involves your computer talking with another computer outside of your home network involves information traveling across this network in one form or another. This includes email, the bank statement you downloaded yesterday, and videos of kittens purring on YouTube. The World Wide Web: This is often what people mean when they say they were on the internet. It is made up of many unique locations, known as web pages or websites, that are put up by government entities, companies, organizations, and individuals. Web pages/websites: These are individual locations on the worldwide web or web for short. Some websites you may know about include www.nfb.org, the National Federation of the Blind's website; www.google.com, the world's most heavily used search engine (a site to search for information from the web); www.facebook.com, a large website where people can communicate; and www.amazon.com, a big online store. Web browser/browser: The software you use to view and interact with web pages. Common examples include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Links: These are the connections from one website to another or from one piece of information to another. When you activate a link, you will be taken to the information it connects to. Buttons: These perform actions, such as submitting a form or rearranging information when you activate them. Headings: Information on websites is laid out so that people can skim for the information most relevant to them. In print, headings are bigger, bolder, or otherwise more noticeable than other text on the page. Blind users can use a screen reader to jump among headings in order to find information more quickly as well. Landmarks: A new way to organize websites, you can think of Landmarks as big buckets that separate large parts of a website from one another, like the links at the top (sometimes called navigation) from the article in the middle. Text Fields: This is where you can type a piece of information onto the web; some screen readers announce these as "text area" for large ones and "text field" for small ones. Radio Buttons: Like the buttons on an older car radio, only one of these can be selected from a group at a time. Checkboxes: Like radio buttons, they allow one to answer a question, but more than one can be chosen for any given question. So what makes an accessible website anyway? I'm so glad you asked. Accessible is a difficult term to define, so we are going to break it down for this series in a few different ways. In its most basic form, a website, piece of software, book, home appliance, or other device can be called "accessible" for any given user if he or she can gain access to its features and operate or use it without assistance. Unfortunately, everyone has different criteria for determining if something works for them; so this definition, while clear, does not actually help us to define the term in a way that we can all agree on. Therefore, I am going to propose a few definitions we will use in these articles to better describe how blind people interact with lots of everyday objects, including the web. Inaccessible: The device or product has one or more essential features that someone cannot use independently and are not likely to find a workaround, adaptation, or alternative that will allow them equivalent access. Usable: A state in which the item or device can be used by someone, but is not as blind friendly-it may not be as efficient or straightforward as it is for others or as a blind user would wish it to be. Many websites fall into this category for a large number of blind users, even though they will present accessibility challenges that would make them inaccessible for others. The usability of a device or website will depend on both the nature of that item and the user's flexibility, knowledge, or resources. Functional Accessibility: This is the gold standard. If something is functionally accessible, it is easy and straightforward to use. A person can get done what he or she needs to without undue hardship. Once again, this is a subjective measure. Technical Accessibility: Accessibility based on agreed-upon standards. Websites that meet these standards will usually be usable and functionally accessible for many more people than those that do not. Technical Accessibility is not a perfect guarantee that something will be usable for everyone, but it is a pretty good indicator that it is more likely to be. At the end of the day, usability, functional accessibility, and inaccessibility are states that are only partially based on the technical accessibility of a site. Instead, these states are made up of that site's technical accessibility, the browser and screen reader (or other access technology) conveying enough information about the site, and the user's training and experience. So, you see, we actually have quite a bit of control over the experiences we have on the web. Rules for Road Builders: WCAG and the Technical Standards The web community has spent a lot of time in the past debating what technical accessibility really looks like. Today, however, they are largely reaching an agreement. The technical standard that is far more popular than any other is the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 at the AA Level (WCAG 2.0 AA, for short). These standards are referenced directly and indirectly by many governments crafting their own accessibility guidelines. This will officially include the United States beginning in the first few months of 2018. The US has had an accessibility standard called Section 508 since 1998, but these rules were difficult to test, and therefore they were difficult to enforce. Consequently the federal government has recently completed a refresh process for Section 508 which directly references the WCAG Guidelines going forward. This is good news for the accessibility of the web since these guidelines are easier to test for, and because it means that government and public websites are going to be held to the same standard. There are four overarching principles which WCAG calls on websites to meet. Each of them contains a number of guidelines that expand upon that main idea. The four principles are: Perceivable: a user needs to be able to tell that there is something there and make out what it is. Examples of this include graphics having descriptions that can be read with a screen reader, videos offering captions and audio descriptions, and websites having enough contrast that they can be read. Operable: An operable site can be navigated and interacted with. Items in this section include ensuring that the site can be navigated using only a keyboard, making sure that there is nothing flashing that might cause a user to have a seizure, and ensuring that the purpose of a link is easy for users to understand. Understandable: Success criteria and guidelines under this major point include ensuring that the webpage tells the user's computer what language it is written in (so that screen readers can use an appropriate voice or accent and computers can load the correct characters and fonts on screen), a user's focus won't be moved without warning, and that when filling in forms, the user is provided with all the information they need to finish the form successfully. Robust: This is the hardest to understand. Criteria under this heading essentially boil down to the idea that a website is going to work across a wide number of devices and in a lot of different environments. This includes telling screen readers and browsers what different controls are and how to expect them to behave so that information can be provided to the user. The discussion of web standards is a much bigger and broader topic than we can cover in detail here, but it's helpful to understand the idea of what constitutes "technical accessibility" so that you can determine what you should expect to know to use the web effectively and what you should be able to expect from web developers (whether or not they meet those expectations). Evaluating Road Conditions: The State of the Web Today Let's take a moment here and be very blunt. The state of the web is really mixed. That's why we are having these lessons. It's sometimes hard to figure out when a problem you are having is because you don't understand something that should work, or when the problem isn't you but that the website was created badly. The bad news is that this is the case for all of us-sighted people too have this question as they surf the web. However, there is plenty of good news. More web developers are coming to recognize the value of accessible and intuitive design and are trying to implement it in their products. We are seeing some very powerful and very functional sites. Increasingly because of work done by the National Federation of the Blind and many others, through legislation, education, and (when nothing else works) litigation, more sites than ever before are working with varying levels of success to reach proper technical accessibility as described in WCAG. Even better, there are some true leaders in the field who are moving beyond concern for "technical accessibility," and are working on ways to create truly functional accessibility for as many users as possible. These organizations are testing with blind and other disabled users, hiring specialists, and working hard to innovate in the field. They want to build the best web they can for everyone. Many developers are pushing the envelope of what is possible in designing accessibly for the web, which means that we users will find lots of new information being presented by our screen readers. Think of it almost like road signs. Initially we only had a few: links, buttons, edit fields, etc. Now there are some really wild bits of work like calendars that allow you to choose the date from a grid or autocomplete programs that will offer suggestions for what's next even before you hit enter. Therefore, we users must realize that we can no longer pull our Model A out of the garage and tootle down the road, expecting gravel lanes and a twenty- miles-per-hour speed limit. To make the most of the highway on which we find ourselves, we need to learn how to read the signs and make sure we know what to do to get the most out of our car/browser. If we don't, we're going to be left in the dust. Final Thoughts Initially I was intending this project to be a single article discussing how to improve one's web browsing experience as a blind user, but as I outlined it, I realized that this is far too much information for a single piece. Instead, over the next several months new installments will be published here in the Braille Monitor. Topics in this series will include: Browsers: Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey Screen Readers: Efficient Driving Requires the Right Sensors Basic Navigation: Hitting the Road and Finding Your Way Defensive Driving: Strategies for More Complex or Less Accessible Journeys Browser Tune-Up: Customizations that Can Increase the Pleasures of the Journey Social Media: Making the Most of Some of the Web's Finest Roadside Attractions So, class dismissed-for now. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Alyssa Shock] National Convention Reflections by Alyssa Shock From the Editor: This article originally appeared in the fall 2017 issue of The Sounding Board, the official publication of the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey. Here is the way it was introduced: As a psychology major I've been asked: Isn't psychology just common sense? The fact is, no, psychology is not just common sense. One thing a psychology major quickly learns is that he or she will be looking at a lot of scientific research in the course of his or her education. Psychology majors also learn basic skills to design and answer research questions. I applied for the NFB scholarship because I had a sort of "research question" of my own: Can someone with my qualifications and experience win a scholarship and a great opportunity to attend a convention from the biggest scholarship program for the blind in the United States? I proceeded to submit my application. I was out to dinner on a Sunday when I got a call from an unknown number. I usually don't pick up calls from unknown numbers because of all the sales and scam calls promising things such as discounts on my electric bill. If it was important, I thought, the caller would leave a voicemail, and this caller did. Because I volunteer for a sexual violence resource center, I was worried that an emergency had come up, and someone from there was trying to contact me. So, in the middle of dinner, I proceeded to listen to my message. When I discovered the call was from a member of the NFB Scholarship Committee, I couldn't help but call back immediately. I spent the rest of that meal celebrating the fact that I had won an NFB scholarship-and wondering how in the world I would manage to make it through the convention by myself. I had been to convention once before with my mother and an aunt, but I knew this time I would be on my own. The thought of that was a bit scary. Before I knew it, I was inside the hotel on the first day of convention. Since I am easily overstimulated, I did find it overwhelming. One of the first things I learned was that to keep calm I was going to have to break everything down into small steps and focus on the action I was taking at the moment. For example: if I wanted to get to a meeting from my room, first I would have to get to the first floor, then find my way around the rotunda, and so on. I would need to focus on each step and try to keep everything else out of my mind. Once I figured out how to cope with the environment, I was able to gain a lot of information from the meetings. I learned about forms of discrimination and access barriers that blind people have faced and how the NFB helps overcome these issues. For example, I learned that the NFB has fought for blind people who have faced low expectations from teachers and how these students lacked necessary accommodations to gain the same knowledge as their sighted counterparts. To be honest, I have personally faced little discrimination and few access barriers thus far in my life. I was shocked to hear about the terrible ways in which blind people have been slighted and times when they have been cheated out of opportunities and experiences. I believe that continuing the fight to overcome discrimination and access barriers is extremely important. With all of this in mind, I want to take a moment to thank those who have been extremely accommodating and given me wonderful experiences throughout my life, including, especially, my family, the Dumont (NJ) School District, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the YWCA of Bergen County. At convention I also learned about technologies intended to help overcome access barriers, such as the awesome development of a Braille display that makes images tactile. I also learned about Aira, a new technology that helps blind people have easier access to information. I would be lying if I said that I have come home from convention without the desire to invest in some new technologies for myself. Probably the most important thing I learned is that blind people all over the nation and the world are overcoming barriers and getting the degrees, finding the jobs, and having the experiences they want. In other words, they are living the lives they want. My mentors during convention were people I will never forget. They affirmed my belief that I can obtain my career goal of becoming a mental health counselor. Even more significantly, they affirmed that I can do anything I put my mind to and truly want, even if doing so does require me to overcome discrimination and access barriers. Speaking of that, I learned that the NFB will do everything they can to help blind people with these kinds of struggles. Of course, I did not spend all of my time in convention activities. I used my spare time meeting new friends and visiting with old ones. When things became too overwhelming, my friends helped me relax and find some peace. Learning did not stop when I was outside the convention. I learned and shared perspectives even in my spare time. All of this learning was fun and certainly did not feel like work. With all of this in mind, I would definitely recommend that everyone who is blind or visually impaired try to go to an NFB convention. There is so much to experience and so many great people to meet. However, I do have one word of caution regarding convention: sleep may be hard to come by. There is so much to do that getting the normal six to eight hours per night may not be possible. Looking back from home, I cannot believe that one small "research question" could lead to such awesome results. A final thanks is due to the NFB Scholarship Committee for making possible the awesome experience I had at convention. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month are provided by the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana. Buffalo Chicken Dip by Cori Wills Cori is an up-and-coming leader in the Federation in Indiana. He also works for Bosma Enterprise for the Blind and does a lot of work in our local Lions Club. Ingredients: 1 pound chicken breast, shredded 1 8-ounce brick of cream cheese 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 2/3 cup buffalo sauce 1/4 cup bacon bits 1 cup ranch dip Method: Mix all ingredients in sauce pan and heat through. This can also be microwaved. Do not overcook. Enjoy with corn scoops or tortilla scoops. ---------- Cream Cheese Ball by Cori Wills Ingredients: 1 8-ounce block of cream cheese garlic salt (to taste) 8 green olives 1/3 cup of shredded cheese 4 slices of chipped beef, chipped honey ham or combination (sometimes I add 4 or 5 pieces of pepperoni) 1 onion (if desired) Method: Take your cream cheese and set it out for about one hour to get room temperature. Take your meat, olives, cheese, and onion (if using one) and chop it in the food processor or small pieces by hand. Open cream cheese and put it on a plate and flatten it with a fork. Sprinkle garlic salt on cream cheese. Add your chopped meat, cheese, olive, and onion. Mix together (you can use a fork or your fingers). I like to add a little bit of the olive juice for flavor, but that's up to you. Refrigerate. This will keep for five to seven days if you don't eat it all the first day. ---------- BBQ Pork by Cori Wills Ingredients: 1/2 yellow onion, sliced 2 to 3 pounds pork butt 1/2 cup chicken broth 1 cup BBQ sauce Salt and pepper Method: Place onion on bottom of crockpot. Rub the pork with salt and pepper; place pork on top of onion. Pour chicken broth over pork. Pour BBQ sauce over pork. Cook on low for eight hours. Pull apart with forks, then serve. ---------- Single-Serve Apple Pies by Cori Wills These are really good; however only make what you are going to eat right away, because they are not good reheated. The instructions have been broken down so that you can make only one at a time if you wish. Ingredients: crescent rolls 1/3 teaspoon brown sugar 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon apples (I bought apple slices in a package, and they come with either peanut butter or caramel; that way if I only want to make three, I could eat the rest and have dip.) Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take one crescent roll, which is going to be triangular in shape. Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar together. Take the crescent roll with the wide end toward you. Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture on the crescent roll, leaving a pinch to dust the top. Take one slice of an apple (if it is really thin you can use two slices). Put the apple slice on the wide end and roll it, then sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon and brown sugar on top. Bake this for eleven to thirteen minutes. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Jean Brown] Hamburger Pie by Jean Brown Jean Brown is the first lady of the Indiana Affiliate. She has been the state fundraising chair for over thirty years, and she is known in the affiliate for her famous fried chicken. Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1 8-ounce can of Campbell's tomato soup 1 8-ounce can cut green beans 3/4 cup of grated cheese (more if desired) Salt and pepper to taste 1 box of potatoes (follow box instructions or use your favorite mashed potato recipe, using 4-5 potatoes) Method: Preheat oven to 360 degrees while the ground beef is cooking over medium high heat. Use a fork or spatula to break up the pound of beef. When the beef is cooked, drain the fat from the meat and transfer the meat to a glass baking dish or pan. Stir in the tomato soup and seasonings. Drain the green beans and add to the dish; make sure all ingredients are covered with the soup. Use a large cooking spoon to put four or five heaping spoons of potato on top of the pie. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the potato mounds. Bake about twenty-five minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. Serve with a side salad, garlic bread or rolls; makes four to five servings. Enjoy! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Susan Jones] Mexican Casserole by Susan Jones Susan is a longtime member of the NFB of Indiana. She is retired from the Social Security Administration. She also is one of their BELL project teachers and does a lot of volunteer work in the community. Ingredients: 1 pound lean ground beef or turkey 1 medium onion, chopped 1 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes 1 15-ounce can kidney beans 4 teaspoons chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup grated cheddar cheese Cornbread topping: 1/2 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, sifted 1 tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons shortening 1 egg, beaten 1/2 cup milk Method: Brown meat and onion, add tomatoes, beans, and seasonings, and simmer on low ten minutes. Grate cheese and set aside. Lightly grease a four-quart casserole dish and pour the meat mixture into it. Top with the grated cheese. Mix up the cornbread, and spread evenly over the top. Bake at 425 degrees for twenty minutes. Cut into wedges, and serve upside down on plates. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Eligible Sprint Customers Can Get a KNFB Reader Enterprise License for Free: Starting November 20, 2017, Sprint customers who purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade through Sprint Accessibility will receive a free license to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app on up to two mobile devices. If you are a new or upgrading Sprint customer, you may be able to get the power to convert printed documents into speech or Braille instantly and accurately at no extra cost! All you need to do is: 1. Visit sprint.com/vision or a Sprint store to purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade. 2. Call (855) 885-7568 and ask a Sprint Accessibility Care representative for the KNFB Reader Enterprise app. 3. Sprint will provide you with the information you need to create a username and password that will activate your new KNFB Reader Enterprise license. 4. Download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Windows 10 Store. 5. When you launch the app, enter the username and password from step 3 above, and you're all set! Please be sure to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app, not KNFB Reader for $99.99. The KNFB Reader Enterprise app is listed free in the app stores and can be activated with your free KNFB Reader Enterprise License from Sprint. KNFB Reader Enterprise allows users to enjoy the power of KNFB Reader on multiple devices. Make sure that KNFB Reader Enterprise is the app that you download onto your devices to take advantage of this offer. KNFB Reader Enterprise works on Apple, Android, Windows 10 devices, and Windows 10 laptops and PCs. You'll be able to use KNFB Reader Enterprise on up to two devices with the KNFB Reader Enterprise license that Sprint provides. Just download KNFB Reader Enterprise on both devices and use the same username and password. For example, you can download KNFB Reader Enterprise onto your Sprint phone and also to your Windows 10 laptop. Alternatively, you can use the product on both your Android phone and Android tablet. To learn more about what the KNFB Reader Enterprise can do, visit www.knfbreader.com. Happy reading from the National Federation of the Blind and Sprint Accessibility! Elected: At the Sixty-first Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of New York the following officers were elected: president, Mike Robinson; vice president, Chancey Fleet; second vice president, Catherine Mendez; secretary, Lucy Marr; treasurer, Kate Carroll. The 2017 White Cane Banquet-A White Cane Day Celebration: The atmosphere was tinged with enthusiasm as Federationists filled a private room at the El Patron restaurant. This event was planned and hosted by the West Mesa Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico. The occasion was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the White Cane Law. New Mexico played a high-profile role in this historical event as then Governor David Cargo signed the law into effect in 1967. West Mesa Chapter President Don Burns shared the fact that he had obtained White Cane proclamations from the mayors of Rio Rancho and Albuquerque as well as from Governor Martinez. The highlight of the event was the guest speaker, Stephanie Kean, field representative for Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham. She brought regards from the Congresswoman and commended the NFB for our positive work in protecting the rights of the blind population who use a white cane or guide dog. Her comments were well received. Caroline Benavidez, first vice president of the NFBNM and retired school teacher, shared her thoughts on the importance of her white cane as a professional woman. Tara Chavez, a mom, working woman, and president of the Albuquerque Chapter told about the importance of her guide dog. Arthur Schreiber, president emeritus, recounted the difficulty in obtaining this important law. Curtis Chong, treasurer of the NFBNM, read the proclamation from his Braille copy. All of these presentations were given before Ms. Kean had to leave for another event. We thanked her for attending and expressed our appreciation for bringing comments from Congresswoman Lujan Grisham. West Mesa Chapter members had decorated the tables with miniature white canes and provided two door prizes. This event highlighted the history and importance of the White Cane Law and the important role played by the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico. The White Cane Law plays a key role in allowing us to live the lives we want. 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: I have one never-used HP netbook which includes Window-Eyes, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and a wireless headset. I will provide free shipping. I am asking $499. Please call Steve at (517) 347-7046. ---------- 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 Sat Jan 27 11:10:51 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2018 11:10:51 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2018 Message-ID: <201801271910.w0RJAqjV025596@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 2 February 2018 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 ? 2018 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: The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2018 NFB Convention The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 3 to July 8, 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 2018 room rates 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. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $100-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, 2018. 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, 2018, 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 Shingle Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high- speed internet service, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hairdryers. 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 2018 convention is: Tuesday, July 3 Seminar Day Wednesday, July 4 Registration and Resolutions Day Thursday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day Friday, July 6 Opening Session Saturday, July 7 Business Session Sunday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 61, No. 2 February 2018 Contents Illustration: A Day for Unity and Growth The Superhero Hangs Up Her Cape by Sophie Trist Ecorched by Justin Salisbury A Really Sharp Knife by Chris Kuell Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway: Browsers-Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey by Amy Mason Why Human Readers are No Substitute for Accessible Software by Sabra Ewing Lessons in Blindness Inspire Insight by Scott McKinney The Library Leadership Forum: An Introduction to Open Libraries by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer Priscilla Ferris Dies by Gary Wunder Disney Research Creates Tactile Fireworks Display by Grace Warn OrCam: Pointing Toward the Future by Joel Zimba Independence Market Corner Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Shining Example of the Value of Diversity in Employment by Dick Davis Constitution of the National Federation of the Blind as Amended 2014 Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Left to right: Joe Miller, Bob Watson, Tammy Albee, Shelley Duffy, and Susan Skaarer work on assembling words into the one-minute message.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Left side of the table: Seth Lamkin, Danielle Harten, and Karla Bingman. Right side of the table: Paul Ficarro, Valerie Yingling, and Ellen Ringlein sit working on the math problem challenge.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Left to right: Kimie Beverly, Anna Adler, Mary Ellen Jernigan, Anil Lewis, Kathy Douglas (her face is covered by an arm; you can only see her arm up in a peace sign), Bill Jacobs, and Will Schwatka smile together and a few of them hold up the peace sign.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason wears sleep shades and carries a fake egg on a spoon while using her cane to find her way to the other end of the challenge. Steve Booth does the same in a lane parallel to her.] A Day for Unity and Growth The National Federation of the Blind is an organization on the move, and it demands a lot not only from its members but from its staff. Each year we try to recognize the hard work of the men and women whose paid employment is directed to helping us achieve our goals. In 2017 our staff team building day was on Monday, November 15, and what an opportunity it was to team up with people who work in other programs and to learn more about them than their name and their job. After President Riccobono outlined the activities for the day, we moved to our team tables and started the friendly competition that would continue throughout the day. One of our simpler tasks was to take words we were given and to figure out the Federation message they comprised. We played a Federation trivia game that included important facts from history and humorous facts from the present - how many people attended the first meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and how many toilets are there in the Jernigan Institute? Some of the tasks were physical, and some of them were mental. We were given a solo cup, a balloon, and the instruction that we knock the cup off the table without touching it. The most difficult challenge of the day involved solving complicated word clues that led us to even harder word clues and objects, all of which would guide us to the successful conclusion of the game. Of course, what would any teambuilding day be without the sheer physical challenge of a team relay race in which the challenge is to be the first to carry your egg on a spoon across the finish line. The day concluded with a wonderful meal and the many stories that were shared during it. As the pictures make clear, all of us had a wonderful time and are anxiously planning for the celebration that will come in 2018. It is a distinct honor to work for the National Federation of the Blind alongside such dedicated and inspired men and women. [PHOTO CAPTION: Sophie Trist] The Superhero Hangs Up Her Cape by Sophie Trist From the Editor: Sophie Trist is the winner of a 2017 national scholarship. She is intelligent, energetic, introspective, and articulate. In this piece she contrasts the experience of winning two different awards during her lifetime: The Inclusion Alliance's Adult Spirit Award when she was nineteen, and the National Braille Challenge when she was eight. Her narration of the events alternates between the two awards, really letting her reader see what a difference the criteria to win the award makes to the value of winning it. Here is what she says: I've always loved the limelight. The sound of applause is music to my ears. That's why I answered the email I got from Mrs. Sarah Cordet in August of 2016. "Dear Miss Trist," it read, "The special education coordinator for St. Tammany Parish has nominated you for Inclusion Alliance's Adult Spirit Award. After much consideration, we have chosen you as a finalist. The ceremony will take place on Thursday, September 28, 2016, at 7:00 PM in the Long River Hall." I'd never heard of Inclusion Alliance in my life; a quick Google search told me it was a local organization that helped special needs people become involved in the community. I had no idea what an Adult Spirit Award was, but I told Mrs. Cordet that I would be delighted to attend her ceremony. The National Braille Challenge I sat in a classroom with eleven other eight-year-olds at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. I forced myself to stay still, remembering all of Mom's prohibitions against fidgeting. I was one of twelve finalists in the Apprentice division (ages eight to ten) for the National Braille Challenge. We would now take a test, and the first, second, and third place winners would win trophies and money. Nervous, excited sweat broke out all over my palms as a grown-up called for quiet. "We will now begin the test," she said. "I'll be passing out the booklets, but no one is to open them until I say so. As you all should know, you'll be competing in the categories of Braille reading, spelling, and proofreading. Good luck!" The Inclusion Alliance Award All of the Inclusion Alliance award finalists, including nineteen- year-old yours truly, had companions (read, chaperones) assigned to them for the evening. My companion was an older, extremely nice lady named Ms. Linda. I actually knew Ms. Linda's family pretty well; her younger daughter Alyssa had been in Advanced Placement classes with me in high school, and her older daughter shared my name, Sophie. At the reception that took place before the ceremony, Ms. Linda and I stood beside a poster containing numerous pictures of me that Mom had emailed to Mrs. Cordet. I was skiing, I was playing the piano, I was reading Braille, I was meeting Taylor Swift. I was the belle of the ball. Tons of people, most of whom I knew at least vaguely, came to talk to me. I was a fountain of laughter and smiles. Everyone from my hometown's special needs community was dying to know how my freshman year of college was going. The fact that I had pledged Delta Gamma the week before was especially interesting in a town where Greek affiliations are almost as important as church and football. The National Braille Challenge "How do you think you did?" Mom asked the second I walked out of the classroom. All around us, other parents were asking their kids the same question. I told them that I thought I did pretty well. That was an understatement. I felt like Santa Claus had just told me it would be my birthday every single day for the next year. All I could think about was the adrenaline that shot through my veins as my fingers flew across the keys of my Braillewriter. I had been fast, and the questions had been easy. I thought about the judges who were even now scoring everyone's tests. Let me win, I prayed silently. Let me be one of the winners. I thought about what everyone at school would say when they found out I was one of the top three Braille readers in America. I was quivering with excitement as we walked back toward our hotel to get ready for the awards banquet. The Inclusion Alliance Award The Inclusion Alliance ceremony started out with the pledge and the national anthem. The first award presented was to a business that hired special needs people. As the three finalists for the Student Spirit award were presented, each walking onstage with his or her companion, an image of a superhero, standing tall and glorious in a flowing cape popped into my mind. Everyone always said it must be great to be a superhero, but I thought it must be a lonely life, living with extraordinary powers. Sure, superheroes have sidekicks, but the reason we make movies about them and plaster their pictures on t-shirts, posters, and everything else we can think of is because they're exceptional. They stick out from the crowd. These people think I'm some kind of superhero, I realized as a troop of girls went through a dance routine onstage. But they're wrong. I'm just a normal nineteen-year-old girl. I took AP classes in high school, I got a full ride to college, I advocate on social justice issues that are important to me, and I'm proud of all those accomplishments. But they don't make me a superhero. When sighted kids achieve those same things, they get some praise and a pat on the back, but no one would ever dream of giving them an Adult Spirit Award. Disabled people are often crowned with laurels for doing things that don't get noticed when done by "normal" people, such as excelling in school, getting a college scholarship, or using a fork. (Seriously, one of my blind friends was once lavishly praised for using a fork properly.) I could invent a new superhero, I thought, struggling not to laugh out loud. Forkman would be right at home in the Justice League, swinging his Terrible and Awesome Silverware of Justice to save America! But my mirth didn't last long as I started to think about why disabled people who live full and productive lives and refuse to let our disabilities stop us are treated like superheroes. I think non-disabled people do this to feel better about themselves. While the brokers of the disability superhero mentality mean well for the most part, they can't see how their actions are demeaning to disabled people. Congratulating someone for the ability to eat without making the table look like the scene of a Civil War battle implies that you don't believe that person capable of truly great things. It perpetuates the low expectations that hold disabled people back much more than blindness, deafness, or any other physical or mental handicap. Treating disabled people like superheroes allows organizations like Inclusion Alliance to ignore the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, such as the payment of subminimum wages to disabled workers and the inability of many blind college students to gain accessible materials for their education. The superhero mentality surrounding independent disabled people is holding back true and meaningful change. The National Braille Challenge Of course, the winners from the Apprentice division were the last to be announced. My friend Tiffany, who was twelve, had won second place in the Sophomore division. "For the Apprentice division, we have Emily Necker from Paradise, Ohio in third place!" The lady with the microphone announced. I clapped with everyone else; Emily had struck me as nice and smart. Once she received her trophy, the woman called, "In second place, we have Sophie Trist from Louisiana!" The cheering in that hall sounded like the best kind of thunder. For the first couple of seconds I was too shocked to move. I'd imagined myself winning, but I couldn't believe it was actually happening! A dreamlike calm stole over me as Dad took my hand and led me to the stage. Someone thrust a trophy into my hands; the thing felt almost as big as me. "Congratulations!" someone gushed. I tried to say thank you, but I couldn't speak. My smile was too big. As cameras flashed, I basked in the applause like a cat basking in the sun. I'd never been happier in my life. Being recognized as the second-best Braille reader in America was a huge accomplishment. The Inclusion Alliance Award The three Adult Spirit Award finalists were called up in alphabetical order. Owen Hart, whom I'd known since childhood, had Downs syndrome, loved riding horses, and worked two jobs, one as a janitor at Clear Lake Middle School, and another as an assistant at the weekly farmer's market in the next town over. Mary Katherine Church was a schoolteacher who was mostly deaf. And then the MC announced, "Sophie Trist graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA. Several years ago she started her own business Brailling menus for local restaurants. Sophie's hobbies include reading, writing, and singing. She is a freshman at Loyola University New Orleans and recently pledged Delta Gamma sorority." Once we were all introduced, the MC presented Mary Katherine with the third-place award. Owen won second place. My heart rate sped up; I knew what was coming next. "For the winner of the 2016 Adult Spirit Award, Miss Sophie Trist," the MC exclaimed. Applause thundered through the Long River Hall. I beamed as Mrs. Cordet handed me a plaque and a certificate. The Gnawing Persistence of Introspection As cameras snapped pictures that would appear on Facebook by the next day, I thought about the other times I'd stood on stages to receive awards. Many of them had been earned. But this wasn't my first night as a superhero. In sixth grade I'd received the Principal's Award, and just last year, a few days before graduation, I received the Dare Award at the seniors' assembly. This award was for a student who "showed tremendous courage in the face of adversity." I'm a white, middle-class girl from the suburb; the only adversity I've encountered is blindness. And while I have to do some things differently from my sighted peers, my life isn't hard by any definition of the word. I have always been encouraged to pursue my dreams and been given every tool and opportunity necessary to do so. I felt like a China doll someone had placed on a high shelf, something to be admired but not necessarily understood, something designed to make others feel better about their supposedly perfect lives. I felt more pride when I won second place at the National Braille Challenge than when I won first place at this empty ceremony. On the way home that night and for many nights after, I tried to push thoughts of the ceremony out of my head. But I couldn't forget the revelation I'd had while sitting in that auditorium. I've always been a writer, and a few months after that evening in November, I decided to write about it in the hope that it would help me process my thoughts and feelings. The result is the piece you've just read. I've hung up my cape. I won't-no, I can't-accept any more awards for simply being myself and fulfilling my own high expectations. I won't take part in this superhero culture any longer. I want to be acknowledged for true accomplishments such as starting my own business or writing a novel that makes the New York Times bestseller list, a lifelong dream of mine. I bear no ill will toward Inclusion Alliance or my school principals or anyone else who gives disabled people awards for doing mundane things. They do this out of ignorance and misunderstanding, not out of any malice toward the disabled community. They have big hearts, but they do not understand our struggles. I do hope to educate people, blind and sighted alike, on the harmful nature of these low expectations and misconceptions. I want to change the laws and our culture so that disabled people can truly shine, with no barriers in their way. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Salisbury] Ecorched by Justin Salisbury From the Editor: Justin Salisbury is a frequent contributor to these pages, and we are the better for his thoughts. He is committed to helping blind people receive good rehabilitation and challenging his students to go beyond what is comfortable. Here is an article in which he shares with us a new word that was added to his vocabulary while on a travel lesson and how the word describes something he thinks important for those who work in or receive services from our nation's rehabilitation service: When I meet my new students, I take the time to talk with them to get to know them a little bit. I like to learn their story, family structure, hobbies, career goals, motivations, and things like that. I enjoy getting to know people anyway, but it tends to improve the quality of instructional time, too. Here in Hawaii we have a very high immigrant population. When I meet immigrant students, I often ask them what has brought them to the United States. Frequently I get answers about leaving areas of civil unrest or pursuing greater educational or economic opportunity. One student told me that he came to the United States to get better at speaking English. It turned out that he spoke many languages, and he had worked as a private language tutor for many years. When working with him, I always had to be on my toes to hear when he would drop a new word which I needed to add to my vocabulary. At the end of such lessons, when we would debrief in my office I would write down these new words and their definitions. For the sake of this story I will refer to this student as Jim. One day on a group travel lesson, he coined a new word which captured an important concept. I took Jim and another student to find the post office in downtown Honolulu. I gave them the directions myself and wanted to see how well they could follow them. When we got on the number 4 bus, Jim sat somewhere down on the bottom level but behind the disability seats- we don't use those during training. The other student and I went to sit near the very back of the bus. When we got to King and Punchbowl, the stop where we had agreed to get off the bus, only Jim and I did so. The other student, it appeared, had lost his focus and had inadvertently given himself an entirely different kind of travel assignment. Upon exiting, Jim began calling the name of his classmate to regroup with him on the sidewalk. We both realized that his classmate was not there. Jim became noticeably upset and passionately declared that his classmate had been ecorched. For pronunciation, this word begins like "ecosystem" and rhymes with "scorched." I had to slow him down to help him relax and focus, but I also wanted to know what this word meant. He explained that a sapling tree which has been ecorched has had all of the bark stripped off from it so that the tree is still alive but will inevitably dry out and die. Such a sapling tree would never survive to reach its potential. I could not help but laugh at the imagery. Jim asked if I was going to call the bus company to see what they could do. I told him that I was sure his classmate would figure something out, and I suggested that we proceed to find the post office without him. Sure enough, after we had walked about fifty yards down the sidewalk, I received a call from his classmate. He sounded a little stressed out. He told me that he had realized that he had missed our stop and then gotten off the bus. He was at the Alapai Transit Center, a major transit center which was also completely unfamiliar to him. Someone had given him directions to the post office from there, but I told him not to worry about finding the post office and just hop on a number 13 bus to go back to the training center. I figured this would fall within his optimal level of challenge. During our trip back to the training center, Jim and I had some time to debrief. I asked him how he spelled the word "ecorched," which he explained to me. Since he spoke so many languages, I asked him about the etymology of the word. He explained that it was derived from a French verb, ?corcer, and he was making an English word out of it. He told me that another use of the word was to describe a military strategic move where a commanding officer would assign a disliked subordinate to a maneuver that was sure to get him killed. In other words, a commanding officer could ecorch a subordinate by sending him into a battle ill-equipped against much stronger forces. Jim told me it was almost a form of human sacrifice. He said that he coined the word out of his strong emotion. I was so excited to finally have a word for an instructional transgression of which we are so often accused. This experience and newly-coined word encapsulate many important themes in blindness rehabilitation, especially some misperceptions about Structured Discovery, a model developed by members of the National Federation of the Blind. The National Federation of the Blind operates three training centers on this philosophy, and there are three state-run training centers which are accredited on this model as well. I am proud to work at one of them. Structured Discovery is based on a belief that blind people are normal and that we must do more than simply learn alternative techniques. We must take the time to achieve an emotional adjustment to blindness so that we truly come to think of ourselves as normal. We must develop confidence in our own ability to function and compete. We must learn how to blend into sighted society. Good practitioners take an active role in the organized blind movement to help us move toward full equality and inclusion. Sometimes we use teaching methods which demonstrate that we expect much more of students than they expect of themselves and more than those around them have expected. Why did I leave that student on the bus instead of making him get off at King and Punchbowl? He had struggled with paying attention to stop announcements on buses many times before. He was advanced enough in training that he would be able to problem-solve to make it back to the training center. After all, it was easier than a drop route. If I had told him that we were at our stop, it would have taught him that it was not necessary for him to pay attention for stop announcements because somebody else would do it for him. I am writing this article about two months after this experience, and I am pleased to report that he has been on his game with stop announcements ever since and shows no nervousness about going to unfamiliar transit centers. He had a valuable problem-solving experience that day when he arrived in a completely unfamiliar transit center and had to find his way back. I told him what bus to take in order to help him have some direction and keep him from stressing out too badly, but, if it had happened today, I would probably just tell him to figure it out. As a student progresses in training, the challenges get harder. We do not set people up to fail or be overwhelmed, but we always push them to that next level. We need them to understand in their hearts, based on experience, that they can function on their own and that blindness does not necessitate an instructor to help them travel. There are some professionals in the blindness field who might contend that it is unsafe or mean to allow a student to have those kinds of experiences. There are some who would say that I did ecorch him that day. I am proud to be a part of a training center whose staff and students have cracked jokes about that word ever since that day because we understand that students can and should be allowed to make mistakes. There are some blindness professionals who are afraid to let their students make mistakes and who contend that mistakes break a student's confidence. On the contrary, we demonstrate every day that the process of learning to overcome mistakes can build a student's confidence. I do not allow the risk of getting lost or students being challenged to prevent me from pushing them to their limits. This is a necessary part of finding the frontier and then advancing it further. Some days my students do fail, but we talk about the problems and conquer them another time. I would never be able to teach the way that I do if not for my training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and I feel bad for those blindness professionals who are attempting to teach alternative techniques and understandings of blindness which they do not possess themselves. It is not necessary that I be a blind person to do this; I know some sighted cane travel instructors who are proficient travelers under sleepshades and can hold a great philosophical discussion. I have no problem letting students make mistakes because I know from experience that correction is possible. When we let students make mistakes, they learn not to be afraid of making mistakes on their own. This opens the door for experimentation and innovation. Yes, blind people are capable of these things, too, and these abilities make us better contributors on the job and in society in general. I am glad that I now have a word for the thing that I never do to my students: ecorch. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Kuell slices a vegetable.] A Really Sharp Knife by Chris Kuell From the Editor: Chris Kuell is an articulate, reflective man who manages to capture what he feels, grows from integrating what comes from his head and his heart, and shares that through his writing. Here is his most recent offering: Earlier this week I took a cab to a doctor's appointment. We passed The Sesame Seed, a Middle Eastern restaurant around the corner from where I live, and the driver commented on how fat he'd be if he lived that close. We chatted about the great hummus, baba ganoush, kibbe, and wonderful fish dishes served at the restaurant. This led us to talk about our favorite local restaurants, how his son was a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduate, and some of our favorite dishes. When he told me his girlfriend wasn't a vegetarian but would only eat seafood and chicken for protein, I described my original seafood chowder and lettuce-wrapped chicken recipes. He told me about a pork dish he makes when his girlfriend isn't around, and then I described how, after many attempts, I'd finally figured out how to make an authentic shrimp pad Thai. Around this time we arrived at my appointment, and I wished him a good day. All went well at the doctor, and when the cab I'd requested to go home arrived, it was the same driver who brought me there. We drove in silence for a few minutes. Then he said, somewhat uncomfortably, that he hoped I didn't mind, but how, uh, could a guy with my-ummmm-handicap, cook sophisticated dishes? I assured him that I didn't mind his question, then answered that I believed I could cook anything, I'm experienced in the kitchen, and I have a really sharp knife. I'm totally blind, but I'm fairly certain his jaw dropped at that last one. I told him that a few years ago I invested in a couple of really nice chef's knives and a sharpening stone, and I keep the knives sharp enough to shave the hair off my arm. This is a trick an old lobsterman taught me when I was a kid. While your average sighted person would probably feel very uncomfortable with the thought of a blind guy wielding something that could easily lop off a finger or two, a sharp knife makes slicing everything so much easier and faster. I love when the blade easily glides through a tomato rather than hacking and mashing it. And really-it's no more dangerous than the various saws and power tools or deep fryer that I use regularly. I'm extremely fond of my fingertips, so I am always careful when doing anything that could endanger them. Yes, I've received the occasional burn when a pan wasn't on the stove exactly where I thought it was or when flipping something in hot oil and a little splatters, but those are the marks of a cook-reminders to always be aware of your surroundings and what you are doing. Belief that I can do anything comes relatively easy to me. Call it confidence or arrogance or good parenting-whatever. All I know is that it is a key to successful endeavors. When I first lost my sight at thirty- five, I fell into a short-lived despondency. Then my wife convinced me to attend an NFB national convention. There I was with thousands of blind people who did whatever they wanted, and I knew that if they could do it, I could as well. You need to either be shown how to do something or figure it out yourself, then practice. The experience you gain will not only improve your skills but your confidence in tackling other tasks. Nobody is good at cane travel right away. It takes a lot of practice, some getting lost, some figuring out what to do next, and some sighs of relief when you make it to your destination. Learning Braille takes practice. Learning how to navigate a computer with screen reading software takes practice, confronts you with some stressful moments when your computer freezes up, and requires the assistance of friends who can help you figure things out when you are at your wits end. Cooking, or whatever you want to undertake, is similar. I'm always asking my friends who are good cooks how they do this or that. I pay attention to the details, to what herbs and spices they use, and what helpful tricks or techniques they know. Of course, the internet is an invaluable resource. Although I can't see what people are doing in the millions of YouTube cooking videos out there, I can get enough information to make a go of it in my own kitchen. And while some of my meals don't come out the way I wanted, I can usually figure out what I did wrong and make it better the next time. I've won a local chili cook-off the last three years in a row, and the entries are anonymous, so I know people aren't just voting for the blind guy. I've made great Italian food, Greek food, Asian food, Spanish food-anything I can think of. Last spring a woman at church asked me to cook Korean pork rolls (a dish I invented) for a special event, which I was happy to do. When I was a teenager, I used to help my Dad work on his old '56 Ford. He had a special wrench that was bent at a certain angle for adjusting the carburetor. He told me that having the right tool makes every job easier. You can bang in a nail with a rock or a brick, but a hammer is the right tool for the job, which is why I like a really sharp knife for my cooking. When it comes to blindness, Braille, a long white cane, screen reading software, an accessible smart phone, and blind friends you can call on when you have questions-these are essential. With these tools, there isn't anything you can't accomplish. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason] Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway Browsers-Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey by Amy Mason From the Editor: This is the second article in a series intended to help users of assistive technology learn to use and get the most out of the World Wide Web. Navigating the web is possible, productive, and enjoyable, but there are many parts to the puzzle, and this series of articles is intended to let readers examine each piece and decide how they will put together the system that gives them the access they desire to the vast resources of the internet. With her analytic mind, her vast knowledge of resources, and her command of language, here is what Amy Mason has to say: Welcome back! It's great to see you all again. In our last class we touched on the history of using the web, the terminology of web browsing today, and defined "accessibility" at least for the purposes of this series. If you missed our first session, it can be reviewed in the January 2018 Braille Monitor. Browsers-The Basics When people talk about using the internet, they are usually referring to accessing websites or web applications (programs that mimic software usually found on a local computer, but built to run remotely using the programming languages used on the internet). Each computer is built to understand several different programming languages, but each type of computer system (Mac, Windows, Android, iOS) is pretty exclusive about what they understand. Because the internet is built to allow all sorts of devices to share all the same information, it has been built with several languages of its own that are made to allow lots of machines to communicate freely. Our computers don't understand these languages by default, so we need programs that can translate the shared languages of the web into information our computers can natively understand. That is the purpose of the browser. In its role as a translator, the browser will read the information coded onto web pages and other internet resources and rephrase that information so our computers can understand and present it to us as readable text, images, videos, and controls. The W3C (the folks who built the technical accessibility standards we discussed last month) and other governing bodies have created guidelines for the language of the web. They have created rules for how things should be written and what the browser should do to appropriately translate that information. However, browsers do not all follow the guidelines perfectly, and even when they do, they tend to do so in their own way with their own unique voice, (think of it as an accent, or a regional dialect). They make sure that we can all basically understand the language of the web, but each browser does so in its own way. Returning this to our driving analogy, each browser is like a vehicle. They can all be used on the road, but each one will take curves differently, handle differently, and provide a slightly different driving experience. Once you've learned one, they all work similarly, but each has its own quirks you must understand to get the most out of them and even to "drive safely." As blind computer users it's important to think through our browser options and be open to using more than one. There are three major reasons for this. First, we are adding an extra layer of "translation" in the form of screen readers, to access information that the computer is representing. We will discuss this layer in more detail later, but suffice to say that each layer plays its part in our ability to understand and access information. The web page is the road, the browser is the car, and the screen reader is the blind driver interface. For the best driving experience, the road must be smooth and well maintained, the car needs to be in good working order, and our blind driving interface needs to be receiving and passing on all the information provided by both the road and our vehicle. Therefore, we want to find the car that will handle best for the type of road we are driving on and will speak most clearly with our information gathering tools. Sometimes the ways these vehicles/browsers handle will affect our ability to access different sites so greatly that they can make the difference between a usable and functionally accessible page or even determine whether we can access some pages at all. Furthermore, as we also discussed earlier, there are dangers to be found on the road. Not all roadside attractions are what they seem. Some are fun and diverting, others a little seedy, but if you are careful you'll be ok, while still others... ideally your car is fast, and has good automatic locks. Otherwise, you may find that it, and your luggage (personal information, computer files, etc....) could be hijacked. For these reasons it is important to use an up-to-date and modern browser. They contain fixes for known security flaws and provide you with an additional layer of safety over older models. Finally, Henry Ford once said of his Model T, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." Despite this early pronouncement, today we can customize our vehicles in nearly endless ways. Browsers are the same. Early browsers didn't offer much in the way of personalization, but today most offer the user a great scope for customization, which we can use to make our lives easier on the net. As a more advanced topic we will cover customizations later, but it's useful to know that some options are tailored to the tinkerer, and that even modest customization can improve your experience immensely. Test Driving the Browsers As we discussed above, browsers all do approximately the same job but offer different advantages and disadvantages for the intrepid internet traveler. Therefore, the rest of this article will focus on comparing the different options available and providing some context on which of the browsers are likely to provide you with the best experience. Internet Explorer (IE)-'57 Chevy Half-Ton Pickup Operating Systems Supported: Windows Only Screen Readers Supported: JAWS/NVDA/Narrator Obtained from: Included with Windows Installation. Default browser on all versions prior to Windows 10 In the song, "Classified," C.W. McCall tells an (amusing) story of his purchase of an unforgettable vehicle. Here's how he describes it: And settin' right there in a pool of grease was a half-ton Chevy pickup truck with a 1960 license plate, a bumper sticker says, "Vote for Dick" and Brillo box full of rusty parts, ... Well, I kicked the tires and I got in the seat and set on a petrified apple core and found a bunch of field mice livin' in the glove compartment. He says, 'Her shaft is bent and her rear end leaks, you can fix her quick with an oily rag. Use a nail as a starter; I lost the key. Don't pay no mind to that whirrin' sound. She use a little oil, but outside a' that, she's cherry.' As the song concludes we see our intrepid hero taking life and limb into his own hands to get this relic out of the farmyard and down the road. Sadly, our reliable old friend, Internet Explorer, has come to resemble this pickup truck. Once upon a time it did most of our heavy lifting on the net. It was never fast, but by brute force and persistence we were able to use it to get an awful lot of work done. At the time, we didn't have a lot of other accessible options, so we put a lot of miles in on IE. For this reason, many blind people continue to use Internet Explorer as their primary, or even only browser. It's comfortable and familiar. We know all the quirks and lots of little secrets to keep it rolling another couple of miles, but it's just not fit for the road any longer, and we really need to be looking to retire it. Microsoft has stopped active development of Internet Explorer. So new features of websites aren't well supported (when they are supported at all). This includes accessibility features. New websites increasingly rely on behavior that we can't get out of IE, so our screen readers aren't provided with the information we need to review them. Beyond this, it's just not very stable on Windows 10 and tends to hang with alarming frequency. Long story short, the only features of IE that Microsoft is putting any energy into at all are security patches, and even that will come to an end in the next five years or so. You don't want to still be reliant on it when that day comes. As such, it is my strong recommendation that you consider one or more of the other browsers on this list as your primary, and only use IE as a last resort. Firefox-Tinker's Toy Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Android/iOS Mac OSX support is available, but very poor for VoiceOver users. Best to find a different option on the Mac. Screen Readers Supported: JAWS/NVDA/Narrator/TalkBack/VoiceOver (iOS) At the time of this writing, recent updates to the underlying engine in Firefox have temporarily degraded support for Windows screen reader users. If Firefox is your preferred browser, you may wish to use the extended support version of the software for best results. This version will not be updated with new features as regularly as the primary version of Firefox, but it will receive security updates. The download page notes that it is intended for large organizations; however, individuals are also able to download and use the software for their own purposes. Obtained from: Current https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Extended Support: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/ Honestly, I don't know that much about cars, so I can't say what exactly we should be comparing Firefox to, but it exists. There are some cars that are known for not what they are, but what they can be. Firefox is the browser equivalent. A fresh install is... fine. It will competently get you where you are going. It is engineered to be reliable, if not overly fast, secure, and very good at following web standards. As it has offered real, robust accessibility support for quite some time, many blind folks have chosen to make it their primary or secondary browser. Firefox is an open source project from the Mozilla Foundation. Its goals are largely to play nice with standards bodies and other open source projects. As such, it works especially well when paired with NVDA (Non- Visual Desktop Access), and Mozilla has even provided direct support to NV Access to continue active development. Furthermore, it is widely supported across different operating systems, and it is possible to sync bookmarks, autofill, and tabs across Firefox installs on multiple devices. If you use several machines, these features may be of interest. If this is where your interest ends, Firefox will serve you perfectly well, but you can take it quite a bit further. Many users choose to install extensions and custom elements which will extend the Firefox experience far beyond that which is available in a fresh download. We will come back to these customizations in a later article, but for now, know that it is possible to make some extreme changes to the way this browser works. In fact, more than a thousand of the supported extensions mention "accessibility." I can't promise the quality of any of those extensions, but at least a few are bound to be helpful. As such, if you like to play, it may be the right choice for you. Even if you don't like to play, Firefox may be a solid choice since it is overall well supported across multiple screen readers, websites and devices. Unless you are running a Mac, Firefox would be one of my top picks for a safe and reliable primary browser. Chrome-The Toyota Prius Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Android/iOS/Mac Screen Readers Supported: JAWS/NVDA/Narrator/TalkBack/VoiceOver (both iOS and OSX) Obtained from: Included as default browser on Android. Otherwise can be downloaded from https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html Chrome is that browser that everybody seems to have and use. It's reliable, easy to come by, and can provide a very nice experience. It's relatively fast, secure, and available on just about every computing device out there. The Toyota Prius is that car that tons of people have for pretty much all the same reasons... except for its cross-platform compatibility. (Strangely enough, most people don't care if their Prius works with Windows.) Tons of people have it just because it's better than the default browser their system came with, and that's good enough for them. Many others have it because it is created by Google, and that's a name they have come to know and trust. Its support for screen readers (particularly on Windows) is a more recent development than with Firefox, so there may be occasional hiccups you will notice if using this browser that you won't find in others. But on the flip side, there are times things work better here as well. Like the Prius and Firefox, there are lots of ways to take your browsing experience with Chrome a bit further, though the out-of-the-box experience is perfectly adequate for many users, so you can decide just how much customization is right for you. Extensions are available to add all sorts of features to the browser, including some which promise accessibility enhancements. Furthermore, as a truly cross-platform option, with very tight integration into Google's ecosystem, it can make traveling from one computer to another very easy. Like Firefox, Chrome allows for syncing of bookmarks and autofill information. In addition, many extensions will carry across when you are signed into the browser, so when you get things just the way you like them, you can carry the experience across to all your other machines. Chrome even allows you to set up your own custom keyboard commands, so if you want to take the time, you can get it feeling just right. Even if you don't, you should find it will adequately meet many of your needs. I want to point out a couple of technical notes which may be helpful as you consider your browsing strategy. First, Chrome can be a bit of a resource hog because of how it keeps track of the different tabs you keep open. Each one is given its own separate chunk of memory to run in. Sadly, this means some resources end up being wasted because each tab needs things that on other browsers might be shared. But on the up side, it also means that if things go sideways in one tab, you can just close it and not affect the others you have open in the browser. Second, Chrome is the only viable third-party browser for the Mac. As we've discussed, it's always good practice as a blind user to have a couple of options available, so you will probably want this if you use OSX. Overall, like Firefox, I would argue that Chrome is a keeper. Most people will find that one or the other suits them a bit better, and either can be a solid choice, so give them both a test drive and see what you think. Safari-BMW Mini Cooper Operating Systems Supported: iOS/Mac Screen Readers Supported: VoiceOver (both iOS and OSX) Obtained from: Default browser on Apple products. Installed by default on both iOS and OSX (Mac) devices. Safari, like Internet Explorer, is an exclusive. Unlike Internet Explorer, it is still being actively maintained and improved. If you are a heavy Mac or iOS user, you are probably already familiar with this browser. It's what your device comes with out of the box, and for the most part, so long as you play by Apple's rules, it works fairly well. That's really the main point when it comes to Safari. Apple devices, like BMWs, are something of a "lifestyle" product. An iOS device, or a Mac, are meant to be as much a fashion statement as a computing device, and as such, there is a certain expected way that things will behave. The consistency born of this tight design control is part of why so many blind people love their iPhones, and more than a few would fight anyone who tried to pry their Macs out of their hands. The predictability born of this high level of control has made for an environment where accessible software can be tightly integrated with a screen reader (VoiceOver) to very powerful effect. The BMW Mini feels very similar. It has some unique advantages and is pretty iconic, but the moment you want to start doing things in a way the creator didn't intend, things get much trickier. For example, the Mini Cooper is known for its handling; in part, this is because the company requires special nitrogen filled tires. Mac and iOS are known for extremely tight integration, but you must use their browser and follow lots of other rules to get the best effect. There are a few extensions available for Safari, though the list is much shorter than for Chrome or Firefox. Like those browsers, it is possible to sync autofill data and bookmarks between Apple devices, but Apple takes this one step further. When using Safari on an iOS or Mac system, you can send the page you are reviewing to another device. Therefore, you can start an article on your Mac, realize that you need to leave, and send that page to your phone to continue reading on the bus. The other unique Safari feature is the inclusion of a native "reader" mode. In this mode, the page is simplified and restructured so that only the article is present on a page, while all the noisy "clutter" of ads, comment sections, and navigation are removed. One technical note to keep in mind for Safari is that, for best results as a VoiceOver user on the Mac, you might find it beneficial to enable full keyboard accessibility. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, some items that should normally receive keyboard focus when tabbing do not in a default installation; as heavy keyboard users, we probably are going to want to rectify that issue. Otherwise, if you are already invested in Apple's ecosystem on Mac or iOS, Safari will do most of what you need on the web and can even provide some useful additional features so long as you like the way that Apple does things. Edge-Tesla Operating Systems Supported: Windows 10 only Screen Readers Supported: Best support with Narrator. Partial support with very recent versions of JAWS and NVDA Obtained from: Default browser on Windows 10 This brings us to the final browser in our lineup today. Microsoft is not simply retiring Internet Explorer. Instead, they are working to replace it with a new browser: Edge. Edge is... interesting. It's built to be fast, light, and clean, but nobody really cares. Very few people use it, and for our purposes, there are still some real disadvantages when compared to other browsers. In many ways, it is like the Tesla. It is intended to be the "future," and there has been quite a lot of work put into its appearance and performance. But something is still not quite right for mass appeal. Tesla and other electric cars just haven't been perfected yet. They take a long time to recharge, so unlike fueling up, a pit stop on the highway is going to require an actual time investment. This will affect what you are able to do with the car. Much in the same way, Edge is on an experimental platform. This means that things don't work the same, and we face real tradeoffs in the way that features behave. There are even problems in speed and responsiveness given the current interaction with screen-reading software. It's only available for Windows 10, which further shrinks market share. With Firefox and Chrome readily available on the same platform, it's hard to imagine that it will ever claim the dominance once held by Internet Explorer over the browsing experience on Windows. Edge is likely to improve. Microsoft is dedicated to improving the compatibility between it and screen readers. They want it to be adopted, but even they know there is still more to do. We don't have a great deal of knowledge about the future of browsing with this application, so it's out there and available to try if you are feeling adventurous, though I wouldn't expect to count on it for now. NVDA and JAWS support are both improving, but neither are as robust as they are on other browsers, (including IE) which makes it an awfully hard sell right now. In short, play with it if you like; the experimental nature of the browser may provide you with access to things you couldn't use in the past, but I'd keep something more reliable in the garage just in case. Homework Assignment I mentioned at the beginning of this series that we were going to driving school, didn't I? Well, you know how school is... you can almost never escape a bit of homework. In that spirit, I invite you to pick a different browser than you've been using from the list, and give it a spin for a couple of days. If you already are using these browsers... what are you doing throwing spitballs in the back of the classroom? Get up here and help me teach this stuff! We blind users who are comfortable with technology are in the best position to educate developers and other blind people on what good access looks like for blind people and how to make the most of these tools. If you want to learn more about which browser may best suit you or you have other general access technology questions, feel free to contact the Access Technology Answer Line at (410) 659-9314, option 5, or email us at access at nfb.org. We want to help empower you to live the life you want by helping you understand the accessible technology available now. Class dismissed! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Sabra Ewing] Why Human Readers are No Substitute for Accessible Software by Sabra Ewing From the Editor: Sabra Ewing is a newly graduated college student looking for a job. She is a person who has many interests, among them universal design, inclusive education, canine nutrition, and the Tutor monarchy. On a number of our lists, especially those frequented by students and computer enthusiasts, there is a long-running discussion about the way inaccessible software can keep a blind person from achieving his or her goals. In these discussions the use of a human reader has been suggested, and a surprising number of respondents have rejected the idea. Some say that a human reader is too expensive, too limiting, and too inconvenient. Some go further and suggest that using a human reader is actually selling out by failing to press immediately for accessibility, which is our right as blind people. Many of us have suggested that the human reader is a far better solution than not taking a class or the abandonment of a career goal. While the human reader is no long-term substitute, we should consider using one rather than being thwarted by technology. Some of us who have used human readers for decades even assert there are times when using the eyes and the brains of human beings is superior to technology, though all of us hope that one day technology will be good enough that we will no longer need to rely on someone else in working efficiently with print. At a minimum, those who consider using a human reader believe it should be another tool in our toolbox. Sabra believes this is bad advice, and she asked me whether there was a place in the Braille Monitor for dissenting opinions. I assured her that there was, so here is what she has to say about the inadequacy of using a human reader to deal with inaccessible technology: The Accessible Instructional Materials Act creates guidelines for the use of accessible, education-based electronic content. The act also has a provision for alternate equal access that allows schools to provide access through other means when the current materials are not sufficient. Both school officials and blind people believe that a human reader can serve as alternative access. They fail to realize that use of a human reader creates diminished access by distorting cause and affect relationships in virtual environments, demanding impractical knowledge of a visual interface, and promoting dependence and distortion throughout the data analysis process. Let us imagine that a district serving a blind student is short of mobility instructors. They cannot provide one for this student, but they have the perfect solution. An instructor working with someone else will call the student, who will listen as she describes pertinent features of the lesson like intersections, safe street crossings, and proper cane technique. As the student listens, he will mentally participate in the lesson. Okay, so maybe it isn't the perfect solution, but schools do a similar thing to blind students by providing a reader in place of accessible software. A virtual environment has cause and effect relationships just like a physical one. When you press a button or move to another area on the screen, the environment changes. When you enter data, the environment will respond. Because the process is very interactive, allowing a human reader to control software for a blind student will hinder that person's learning, similar to incomplete participation in a physical environment. Some might argue that schools could minimize this effect by having the reader serve as a proxy, following the student's exact instructions from the beginning of software activation down to the last mouse click. The problem is that a blind student interfaces with the computer nonvisually. The student would have difficulty telling a reader how to locate and click on an envelope or green arrow for example. Many blind students process information in such a way that they could not direct a reader to such icons on a constantly changing screen. Then there is the meaning. You can explain to a blind student that an envelope is what you click on to check your email and that a green arrow means next or forward like a green light, but this process could potentially apply to every icon. For someone who has always used a screen reader, it is not very intuitive or practical. The school should encourage the student to focus on blindness skills that take less effort and allow more independence instead of asking them to master a skill that would take years of study and leave them dependent on a reader. One more problem exists with using a reader instead of accessible software, which is that information will become distorted and less available. A reader, even a trained one, becomes a control and a filter for how to present information and what is important. This becomes especially true with software simulations because it will take too long for a reader to describe every changing screen, but the principle applies to all instructional media including textbooks. Blind people have learned through experience and training what information they can get with a screen reader and how to ask for it. Further, the information is available when they need it the way it is for sighted students. Blind students are not receiving equal access when they have to learn at a slower pace, wait for recordings or work around a reader's schedule, and create notes from scratch from what a reader tells them when the school can provide alternative software and file formats. In short, forced use of a reader in place of accessible instructional materials will severely stunt a student's learning and success. They must use software themselves to fully understand concepts. Additionally, schools should expect them to perform from a blindness skill set rather than mastering the counterintuitive skill of operating a visual interface. Equal access also means that both blind and sighted students should have the same independence and ease of use. We must therefore demand that where a school cannot reasonably switch to accessible software, it must provide alternative instructional materials to blind students that do not require the use of a human reader. ---------- Lessons in Blindness Inspire Insight by Scott McKinney From the Editor: This article first appeared on October 4, 2017, in the Kanabec County Times. It reminds those of us who have been blind a long time that getting to where we are wasn't easy, and it tells those who are on the journey that they are not alone in their experiences and that there is hope. Here is the article: I'm in a narrow winding stairwell, and I can't see a thing. The stairs are steep and make ninety-degree turns. Sometimes it seems like there are two steps to a landing, sometimes eight, and sometimes a dozen. There's no way to tell. I can't see anything, and the sounds I hear echo in the empty stairwell, so I can't rely on them for direction. I edge cautiously toward what I think is a stair-but instead, I step into thin air and tumble, landing flat on my butt. No one is near, so I pick myself up, say a few choice words, and start edging cautiously forward again. Excluding the choice words (maybe), in these fifteen minutes, I experience what many people who are newly blind and learning nonvisual techniques deal with in the early stages. You see, I'm wearing a blindfold, using a cane, and learning what it's like to suddenly be blind. My new day job is at Minnesota State Services for the Blind (SSB), supervising its Radio Talking Book (RTB) network. RTB broadcasts current newspapers, magazines, and best-selling books to thousands of visually impaired listeners throughout Minnesota and across the country. As part of my orientation, I'm attending a six-week "Adjustment to Blindness" training. SSB is Minnesota's only public statewide organization providing services to those with visual impairments and thus has an obligation to train staff on the essential aspects and experience of blindness. People with blindness have access to education, vocational training, and recreational opportunities in their move toward first-class citizenship. They not only participate but thrive in almost every imaginable vocational field. Surprisingly, their biggest challenge is overcoming the perception of blindness held by the sighted community. BLIND Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides training for adults, children, teenagers, and seniors with various visual impairments. Located in the historic Charles S. Pillsbury mansion in south Minneapolis, BLIND Inc. teaches the skills blind people need to live independently and secure employment. Just as important, the organization builds the confidence students need to put these skills into practice. BLIND Inc. also offers a six-week "Adjustment to Blindness" course for professionals working with the visually impaired. This allows me a unique opportunity to meet and talk with potential RTB listeners, our "target market." I'm halfway through my six-week training, and there are two things I know for sure: One, I will never again take any of my senses for granted. Two, I will never again think of people with visual impairment as helpless, powerless victims of their disability. Most of the students at BLIND Inc. are young adults in their mid- twenties to early thirties. Many of them are University of Minnesota students residing in an on-campus apartment building. They deal with the same issues as other students: weighing career paths, exploring interests, and developing independence from families who sometimes "care take" too much. On my first day of training, I was fitted with a mask and a white cane which I must use during and between all my classes. The mask is the more daunting of the two, as it eliminates all sight. In fact, all students at the center must also wear the same mask, regardless their level of visual impairment. This way, skills taught in classes are learned similarly by all participants. Though I'm sightless with the mask on, it was tempting to "cheat" when it occasionally slid up, uncovering part of my eyes. I'm embarrassed to admit that my sudden loss of vision so disoriented me that I was compelled to peek outside the mask a couple of times for a brief glimpse of sight. But I'm no cheater-I haven't peeked since, despite hitting walls and tumbling on steps. I'm told that relying on one's other senses, especially hearing, is a normal adaptation when wearing the mask. But when students are milling around between classes like in any other school, I become disoriented by the wall of sound. When things get quieter, I'm better able to find my way. The white cane is much taller than the ones seen on TV and in movies. Everyone uses one. Mark, the instructor of mobility who is also blind, teaches his new recruits proper cane use-a light "pencil grip" for indoors, and a more secure "open palm" grip for outside. "Your cane will help you," Mark says. "If you use it right and have no fear, it will tell you what you need to know." While most other students glide effortlessly throughout the ornate four-story mansion, I plod along, losing my way. Sometimes I stand for at least fifteen minutes trying to locate a stairway that is literally right behind me. "I'm frustrated," I tell Mark one afternoon. "I'll never get this. I know this is just a sliver of what people with visual impairments go through, but I'm terrible at this." Mark nods. "You're having the true blindness experience," he replies. BLIND Inc. students are extraordinarily understanding toward us newbies and willing to help. Although dealing with visual impairments themselves and wearing the same mask that I wear, they offer directions and guidance. After one precarious misstep I quipped to a student, "Stairways are my downfall." She didn't get it. "By the end of six weeks many of these challenges won't be so 'challenging'," says Dan, who is BLIND Inc.'s executive director. "The stairs get easier, the sounds get easier. Veterans don't struggle as much as rookies." School begins at 8:00 a.m. with a daily meeting, followed by a session of light calisthenics. Then, classes are held throughout the building: Braille, Technology Training, Home Management, Career Building, Travel (mobility), and Industrial Arts. BLIND Inc. also provides a language learning lab to those for whom English is not a primary language, where currently a number of blind Somali students are learning English. The day wraps up with a discussion session called "Seminar" that addresses current events and day-to-day issues. Classes are a challenge. Expectations are high, and students are given opportunities to try, fail, and try again. Most students complete the program in six to nine months. During my first three weeks, I sat in on graduation ceremonies for four students. The ceremonies are filled with laughter and some tears. Classmates and instructors share stories and encouragement, and each graduate receives a "Freedom Bell," symbolizing the freedom and independence each has achieved. Each class has a requirement for graduation. In home management, students must plan, prepare, and serve a meal for fifty guests. In Braille class, students must organize an activity or adapt a board game for the visually impaired. In Industrial Arts, students must design and complete a woodworking project using traditional shop tools, with some adaptations. Even the most routine daily activities require some adaptation. "You know what's really challenging about being newly blind?" I say to Mark. "Going to the bathroom." Mark nods. "Ah, just sit down," he says. "No one's gonna see you." It's interesting how we "Minnesota Nice" people try to "help" those with visual impairments. "I'm passing on your left," we say, or "I'm holding the door for you," or "You're going to run into a bench," or "There's a car coming down the street." One BLIND Inc. student says, "If I seem to need help, introduce yourself to me, and ask me if I need it. If I don't, I'll say 'No thanks,' and go on my way. Don't feel hurt if I reject your offer of help, and don't insist that I accept it. I appreciate your offer. Just say something like, 'Okay, have a nice day,' and go on your way." I learned my own lasting lesson one afternoon. Mark and I embarked from the center to practice outdoor cane use. The day was rainy, windy, and chilly, and I stumbled back and forth to find the elusive door and return inside to comfort. Finally I'd had enough. "That's it," I say. "I give up." Mark whirls around. "Never say that," he replies. "Never give up. That's not an option. I can't give up, and neither can you. Never give up. No fear." I've stricken "I give up" from my vocabulary. I don't say it anymore. I'm not blind, but I'm less afraid of blindness than I was before. Blindness changes how we do things, but doesn't stop us from doing them. As Helen Keller famously said, "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision." Halfway through my training, I'm beginning to "see" that. To learn more about BLIND Inc. and its mission, visit them online at www.blindinc.org. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a stairwell to tackle. ---------- 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 2017 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 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Anna Kresmer] The Library Leadership Forum: An Introduction to Open Libraries by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer From the Editor: Readers will know this dynamic duo from other articles, the longest and most recent being a fictional visit from the future by a ship of curious aliens happening upon the Jernigan Institute. Their work is stellar, and so too is this article: The National Federation of the Blind was recently invited to participate in the Library Leaders Forum of 2017, a two-day conference bringing together librarians, lawyers, educators, technical experts in accessibility, and representatives of the print-disabled community, which was hosted by the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is a San Francisco nonprofit with lofty goals. It is working to create a comprehensive digital library. According to its website, "Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge."[i] It pursues this ambitious goal by working to preserve the artifacts of multiple spheres of culture in digital form, including software, audio and visual news clips, music, video games, and even the internet itself through the Wayback Machine. In addition to all of this, the Internet Archive has now turned its sights toward the humble print book. The Internet Archive has a dream. It wishes to ensure that everyone in the United States and the world can access all the paper books in libraries, many of which are out of print. Unfortunately, the vagaries of US copyright law have left a gaping void in the availability of books in digital format which extends through most of the twentieth century. Due to public domain laws, a large portion of the surviving materials published before 1923 have already been digitized, and the majority of books published since the late 1990s have been "born digital," meaning that they were initially created in an electronic format. However, those books published in the span of years between 1923 and about 1995 are largely unavailable due to copyright concerns, low commercial interest for republication, and outright confusion. Effectively this locks the knowledge they contain between their covers. Many of these books now reside only on the shelves of libraries, and in the current digital-minded world, if something isn't available online, it is effectively invisible. This is the enormous problem that the Internet Archive wants to solve and the reason for hosting the Library Leaders Forum. Of course, gaining access to print books has always been of interest to blind people, and the NFB has long been a leader in tackling this challenge. Over the years, the Federation has been instrumental in the work of ensuring access to information in both print and electronic form. Projects in this space have included: . Urging the NLS to diversify the materials it makes available to blind patrons; . Creating the NFB-NEWSLINE?, which provides access to over 400 publications over the phone or computer; . Advocating for quality, accessible electronic books and book readers as digital books came to be embraced by the mainstream; . Promoting the development of digital formats with accessibility built in at the ground level, like DAISY in the late 1990s and its direct descendent ePub; . And finally, working with Ray Kurzweil to develop print-reading machines, a project started in the late 1970s that has developed into the KNFB Reader app and the very technology required to make the Internet Archive's digitizing work possible today. Therefore, it is clear that although the project championed by the Internet Archive may be a new way of looking at the problem, its efforts are an obvious extension of the work the NFB has been doing for decades. In addition to the Federation's already lengthy history of work in this area, the NFB has also collaborated with the Internet Archive through our Jacobus tenBroek Library. From 2010 to 2012, the tenBroek Library worked with the Internet Archive to digitize all issues of NFB publications that had previously been unavailable online, as well as a significant portion of our main research library collection. Titles digitized during this project, which were either published by the NFB or were already in the public domain, were made available to all users immediately and can still be accessed in multiple formats including plain text and DAISY. However, about five hundred digitized titles still subject to copyright (or with unclear statuses) were largely kept hidden and only made available to patrons who could prove that they were eligible for an accessible copy through the Chafee Amendment. At the time, the Internet Archive had no system for making copyrighted titles available to patrons. In fact, the mainstream library profession is still working out how best to make digitized library materials available to all users. But today, the work of the Internet Archive has progressed, and solutions that were previously unclear or unattainable are coming to fruition. The Internet Archive has always been at the forefront of dealing with the issues of digitization, preservation, and information sharing. And the Open Libraries project is both the result of its work so far and the roadmap for the work that still lies ahead. The best description of this potentially world-changing venture comes directly from the Open Libraries website: "At the Internet Archive, we believe passionately that access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. Knowledge makes us stronger and more resilient; it provides pathways to education and the means to secure a job. But for many learners, distance, time, cost, or disability pose daunting barriers to the information in physical books. By digitizing books, we unlock them for communities with limited or no access, creating a lifeline to trusted information. The Internet Archive's Open Libraries project will bring four million books online, through purchase or digitization, while honoring the rights of creators and expanding their online reach. Working with US libraries and organizations serving people with print disabilities, Open Libraries can build the online equivalent of a great, modern public library, providing millions of free digital books to billions of people."[ii] To date, Open Libraries has digitized and made available approximately 2.7 million books through its online lending platform. It has seen over 3 million downloads in 2017 alone and has partnered with over 270 libraries around the globe. Even without results like this, no stretch of the imagination is required to understand why the NFB has chosen to participate. President Riccobono himself explains that, "The Internet Archive's proposal to digitize four million books would constitute the greatest single increase in accessible materials for the blind since the passage of the Pratt-Smoot Act, which created what is now the NLS, in 1931. It would benefit millions of blind people, both in the United States and around the world."[iii] The purpose of the Library Leaders Forum was to gather together the groups who could benefit the most from this endeavor, as well as provide the most support for it. This included early adopters, partners, and stakeholders as diverse as educators, legal and copyright experts, the print disability community, and librarians of all stripes who were tasked with helping to lay the groundwork for the next phase of Open Libraries. Attendees participated in working groups which focused on curation and collection development, legal topics, service plan and sustainability, and, of course, accessibility. The two-day conference stimulated much discussion and enthusiasm among those present, and many, including the NFB, pledged to continue contributing to the working groups going forward. After all, just as the library in Alexandria was not built in a day, Open Libraries will require time to grow into the accessible, comprehensive information resource that we know it can become. Even so, there are benefits to be enjoyed today. Most excitingly, the tenBroek Library is now a full partner in the Open Libraries lending platform with over 1,000 digitized titles (regardless of copyright status) available for circulation freely to any user who signs up for an Internet Archive account. Further, a large portion of the materials available from Open Libraries, including those pulled from the NFB's own collection, are available in text DAISY format for use by those with print disabilities. Unfortunately, at present there are some limitations in how these files can be accessed. Titles which are still subject to copyright have been encrypted with the same key used by the NLS. Therefore, users must have a compatible hardware player which is capable of displaying text DAISY content which has been unlocked for use with NLS materials. This has obvious drawbacks, and the NFB is currently working with the Internet Archive to find a solution that protects copyright holders and provides meaningful access to all members of the print-disabled community, not just those with access to the appropriate hardware. We will keep the members of the Federation apprised as this work develops. In the end, the Library Leaders Forum of 2017 was only one of many milestones in the shared journey of those organizations devoted to ensuring equal access to information. However, we believe we will reach this destination, and the NFB is proud to make this journey together with our partners and friends from the Internet Archive. We look forward to the adventures ahead. For more information on the NFB titles now available for digital lending, please visit https://archive.org/details/NationalFederationoftheBlind. Titles can also be found by searching in the tenBroek Library's Blind Cat database at www.nfb.org/theblindcat. If you have any questions or need assistance accessing these books, please send an email to jtblibrary at nfb.org. ----------------------- [i] "About the Internet Archive," accessed December 6, 2017, https://archive.org/about/. [ii] "Open Libraries: Everyone deserves to learn," accessed December 6, 2017, http://openlibraries.online/. [iii] "Open Libraries: Accessibility for all," accessed December 6, 2017, http://openlibraries.online/accessibility/. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Priscilla Ferris] Priscilla Ferris Dies by Gary Wunder On December 1, 2017, a longtime leader in the National Federation of the Blind died. Priscilla was a woman who spoke with an accent that left no doubt that she was from Massachusetts, and her bearing and manner of speaking left no doubt that she was a gracious, hard-working, and intelligent human being. Priscilla joined the National Federation of the Blind in 1973, and ten years later she would become the affiliate president, serving in that role for almost a quarter of a century. She joined the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors in 1987 and served until 2005. She was also the winner of the highest award we have to offer, the Dr. Jacobus tenBroek award, which was presented to her in 2004. Priscilla served for a number of years on the National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Committee. I remember that she would tell scholarship finalists that as a Girl Scout leader she could cut wood, build a fire, and dig a latrine without breaking a sweat, and she expected no less from any of them. That line always got her a laugh, but there was something serious in it that was communicated to all of us: don't whine, come up to the line, and live the life of a good scout. I had many conversations with Priscilla, but one stands out for me. One day, after a lively discussion during a board meeting, she pulled me aside and asked if I was easily offended. I had been active in that board discussion, and I wondered if my youthful exuberance was going to get me a well-deserved reprimand. I said that it wasn't my nature to take offense and that I was able to take constructive criticism. "Oh no, sweetie. Nothing like that. I have a funny joke that I thought you would appreciate, but it's one you have to be careful about telling." I was relieved, thoroughly enjoyed the joke, remember it to this day, but what I really treasure is the memory of this prim and proper lady telling me a joke I would never have ventured to tell her. Priscilla Ferris was as fine a Federationist as I have ever known, and after allowing a few seconds to grieve for her passing, I think she would want all of us to cut some wood, build a fire, dig a latrine, and see that each of our brothers and sisters get to live the lives we want. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Fireworks light up the night sky over Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World] Disney Research Creates Tactile Fireworks Display by Grace Warn From the Editor: I am blessed to have an assistant who looks over my work and catches my errors before they make it to our proofreaders-yes, they still find some mistakes. Grace not only checks formatting, works hard on miniatures, and is almost exclusively responsible for initially formatting recipes. She occasionally writes an article, and it is with pleasure that we publish what she has written about her favorite enterprise: Disney. Here is what she says: It's been mentioned before that I'm a big Disney person, and part of that includes following several unofficial Disney blogs and Facebook pages. Lately a lot of the stories they've had have revolved around the new Pandora attractions in Animal Kingdom or the upcoming Star Wars attractions in Disney Hollywood Studios. But in the middle of October I saw one that made me stop scrolling and immediately click to read it: a Disney Research lab in Zurich had developed the technology to create a tactile fireworks display. My first thought was, "Of course Disney came up with something like this." For those who aren't the fan I am, Disney is one of the world leaders in pyrotechnics. One of the better-known examples of this came out of Disneyland Paris. France had strict noise level limits, and Disney had to create an air-launch system in order to hold their signature nightly fireworks shows. This time, though, there was no legal pressure on Disney. They simply acknowledged that fireworks shows are primarily a visual experience, and they decided to find a way for the blind and visually impaired to better share in the experience. Disney Research put out an announcement about the new interface on October 22, 2017, and the online version also has a link to the full paper. Check it out at https://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/feeling-fireworks/. How it works is fairly simple: different nozzles and directable water jets on pan-tilt heads spray water onto the backside of a flexible latex screen. The variations in the water's impact create different shapes on the front, simulating the various visual effects created by the fireworks. The mechanism is modular and designed for easy transport and set up. It rolls on caster wheels and is powered off a standard power cord for ease of use. It sits in a plastic tray to prevent water leakage. The system uses a near- silent, medical-grade controllable pump, while the water hitting the screen makes a quiet drumming sound. The back-projected visual fireworks are visible outdoors at night or in standard light conditions indoors, so sighted family members can enjoy the fireworks display as well. And while it was designed with the blind and visually-impaired in mind, I could see how families with someone who has autism or other sensory processing disorders would also find this a better way to experience a fireworks display. The paper from Disney Research makes the point that most assistive technology is designed for a functional purpose. That is, these technologies are designed for performing tasks or being practical. The tactile fireworks display is for aesthetic purpose, envisioned to bring all crowd members together to enjoy the experience of feeling fireworks. Disney did testing with focus groups of blind people to discuss the experience and also did testing with sighted subjects to measure the correspondence between the visual firework effect and the tactile analog. That testing "indicates good correspondence between the tactile fireworks and the visual fireworks they represent. For sighted users the results suggest that sampling the tactile firework show while viewing the physical show in the sky is meaningfully multi-modal. For blind or visually impaired users, the tactile firework show is an analogous and shared experience with sighted users, in accordance with our goal of inclusivity." To the best of my knowledge and belief, no one asked Disney to do this. Disney imagineers simply looked at their signature fireworks shows, acknowledged that they were an almost-entirely visual experience, and said, "How do we change that?" And, while it's not something available in all the parks yet, I'm sure in the relatively near future a child who only knew fireworks as loud bangs and booms that weren't really entertaining will have the opportunity to be dazzled by the spectacular extravaganzas that nightly light up the skies above Disney parks. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Joel Zimba] OrCam: Pointing Toward the Future by Joel Zimba From the Editor: Joel is best-known to many Monitor readers and Federationists as the man who supports the KNFB Reader. Of course his technical talent and his ability to evaluate technology and write about it isn't limited to one product or even one subset of the field. Here is what he has to say about a new technology meant to bring some of the benefits of vision to those of us who are blind: We all have expectations of technology. If Apple's newest smartphone were to arrive on your doorstep requiring a couple of hours of assembly after reading a six-inch-thick manual, the backlash would be enormous. Especially in the last decade, the trend has been toward the actual working of a device giving way to the information or service provided by the gadget in question. Wearable technology promises to become a part of your daily life; the actual operation will be barely noticeable. The interface of the technology itself will get out of the way and give you what you want when you want it. We are certainly not there yet, but it is coming. My recent experience with a product from OrCam hints of this. For the last month, I have been using the MyEye 2.0 product from OrCam. This is a wearable device which will perform several services whether on command or automatically. It is a clich? to refer to convenience and ease-of-use as being "at the push of a button." With MyEye 2.0, the button pushing is no more. Most of the services activate with the wave of a hand or by simply placing an object in view of the MyEye camera. The simple, real world gesture interface of MyEye makes it fun and easy to use. For example, the feature I use most often is to check the time by raising the back of my hand into view of the camera, as though checking a watch. The OrCam MyEye 2.0 device has a couple of major components. The small head-mounted camera attaches magnetically to a mount which can be attached to your existing pair of glasses or to the glasses which ship with MyEye. A long cord connects the camera module, which also provides speech output to the control unit. This is a box which can clip to a belt or be carried in a bag. The control unit has a few controls including the on/off button and is where the rechargeable batteries are housed. While the camera mounts to the left or right side of your glasses, it is designed with an offset which lets it look directly ahead. If this setup sounds unwieldy, I would have to agree. After having spent considerable time wearing the MyEye, I just could not get used to having a cable hanging down or tucked behind my ear. Fortunately, if the cord becomes tangled, the camera easily separates from the glasses. It clicks back in place magnetically with a satisfying thunk. Anticipating my dissatisfaction with the form factor of MyEye, the excellent OrCam representatives were eager to show me the newest version of their technology which eliminates the need for the control unit and cable. The next version of MyEye is no more than the camera unit itself and became available in mid-December. By far, the most useful feature of MyEye has been text reading. Rather than taking a picture of text with a smartphone, you can simply hold a document in front of you and MyEye will begin reading after taking a picture. If edges are not found, Reading can be invoked by pointing toward the text to be read or by pressing a button on the control unit. While it is possible to navigate the text, the results are ephemeral. Re-reading a page is as easy or time-consuming as recognizing the same page again. I was pleased with the things OrCam would read which were not printed documents. Room numbers worked often. Street signs proved to be surprisingly easy to read as long as there was proper light and the sign could be found in the first place. MyEye did not perform quite so well with text on rounded objects like cans. This shortcoming is made up for by the barcode recognition feature. A vast product database comes with MyEye. While some barcodes are unknown, the names of many common products are announced. Because MyEye is a stand-alone device, meaning it has no network connectivity (more on this later), only the names of products are announced. Preparation instructions or nutrition information cannot be cross-referenced. For those times when barcodes or text will not suffice, MyEye can be trained to recognize objects. I did this successfully with compact disc cases-yes, I still have some. Spice containers also proved successful. The training process involves taking three pictures of the object at varying distances and with a changed background. While I typically identify such things with alternative methods, the use of MyEye is a plausible approach. One of the challenges of this emerging technology is finding uses for new functionality. The ability to identify people is just such a case. After training MyEye to identify a few coworkers, I could have their names spoken to me when I looked toward them at a distance of around six feet. While interesting and fun, understanding how such a service would fit into my life is difficult. Perhaps in the future the next generation of facial identification would report the bearing and distance of a desired person in a crowd. With a data connection, I would like to see this be able to identify people without first adding them to MyEye by hand. Knowing if the mayor is still at the far end of the bar seems like a trivial request, but it is nearly impossible to determine independently using current artificial intelligence technology. Interestingly, MyEye will guess a few details about unidentified people, like gender. While frequently correct, this extrapolation is allegedly made through identifying characteristics such as facial hair. If these details were reported rather than culturally-based stereotypes boiling down to a binary gender model, MyEye might be on to something. OrCam provides a couple of other services. Currency identification works quite well with MyEye. I found it to be slower than popular smartphone apps but faster and easier than using the bill identifier devices. Color identification, which no device or app does well is just as questionable with MyEye. This is not intended to be a thorough review of the OrCam product. Rather, I want to discuss the features which make OrCam unique. Many of the services provided by MyEye are available with other devices. OrCam has brought these services together in one package and made a user interface which is unlike any other. I believe the gestures such as pointing to text or holding up one hand to stop reading are groundbreaking and will set the stage for the wearable products of the future. Note that even with both hands occupied, it is possible to read text. Imagine carrying a package and wanting to place it in the proper bin. MyEye could make completing such a simple task much faster. Where MyEye goes from here depends on who it believes its customer base to be. Unlike previous software releases, version 8, which became available in September of 2017, can be used by the blind. Still, it seems to be geared toward those with low vision or the newly blind. Given the aging population of the Western world, this is a sound marketing choice. As mentioned previously, the newest incarnation of MyEye is a fraction of the size and weight of MyEye 2.0. It contains basic Wi-Fi connectivity, which I hope to see augment its services in the future. To learn more about MyEye 2.0 and other products from OrCam, go to www.orcam.com. ---------- 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 every-day independence of blind individuals. We introduced some of the products which were newly available from the NFB Independence Market at the 2017 convention and in an earlier Braille Monitor issue. Below we have described the remaining items. Some folks still appreciate having a separate source for telling the time apart from their smart phone, which may not always be at hand. A Braille watch is especially discrete for checking the time unobtrusively. We have added the Ladies' Two Tone Montiel Braille Watch to our product offerings. This elegant Swiss-made watch features a gold tone, 3/4 inch face with a chrome bezel and case and a two-tone (silver and gold tone) expansion band. Simply lift the watch crystal, which opens at six o'clock, and touch the hands to tell the time. We now also carry two more atomic talking watches, which will automatically set the time once the specific time zone has been selected. The time can also be set manually, should the user have trouble receiving the signal. Both watches are black and feature a male voice, in addition to announcing the time and complete date and having an alarm. The Digital Atomic Talking Watch with Top Button and Buckle Band has a digital display and a plastic buckle band. Press the green button on the watch face to hear the time and date announced. The Atomic Talking Watch with Black Face and Expansion Band has a 1-1/8 inch diameter, black face with white hands and numbers and a black case and expansion band. The display on the analog watch face synchronizes to the spoken time announcement when the watch is set. This watch also features an optional hourly announcement. The two setting buttons are recessed, which makes it easy to correctly orient the watch nonvisually. We also added a couple of talking clocks to our product lineup. The Talking Keychain Clock with Date and Alarm attaches easily to your keyring, belt loop, or handbag with its clip. It announces the time and the date in a male voice and features an alarm. The Loud Talking Desk Clock announces the time in a clear, female voice. The time is also shown on an LCD display with the numbers a little over 1/2-inch tall. Other features include an alarm with snooze option, an hourly announcement, a twelve- or twenty-four- hour cycle, and a high/low volume control. The Object Locator which includes one pager and three receivers proved rather popular; we sold out at convention. When one of the three buttons on the pager is pressed, the corresponding receiver unit will beep. The pager remote can locate items up to approximately thirty feet away. The three receivers can be turned off to conserve battery life. The pager features a metal keyring, and the receivers can be attached to easily- misplaced items with included loops, lanyards, or double-sided tape. We also featured a new game called Rummikub. This Rummy-like game uses tiles rather than cards; the tiles are labeled in print and Braille, and we are including the instructions in Braille. The game comes with 106 tiles (two sets of four colors: black, blue, orange, and red, numbered 1 to 13 plus two jokers) and four sturdy racks. Be the first player to eliminate all the tiles from your rack by forming them into sets of runs of sequential numbers of the same color and groups of numbers of the same value. For two to four players, ages eight to adult. We also started selling a Beeper Box, the replacement unit for the sound source in the beeping Frisbee, as a standalone audible beacon. If you are looking for a continuous sound source, this lightweight, portable beeper box may meet your needs. When turned on, the unit emits three beeps followed by a brief pause before beeping again. The device has many creative uses. Employ it for some mobility training situations, as an accessory for sports and games, or even when bike-riding; your imagination is the limit. You can tuck it into your pocket; attach it to virtually any object with tape, a rubber band, or piece of Velcro. 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 MSWord 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 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Our staff will be glad to assist. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Dick Davis] Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Shining Example of the Value of Diversity in Employment by Dick Davis From the Editor: Dick Davis is the chairperson of the National Federation of the Blind Employment Committee. He has had a long and distinguished career in rehabilitation of the blind and has been a friend, colleague, and partner. Words cannot overstate his optimism about what blind people can do or the active way he has made his beliefs tangible. Here is a wonderful contribution that was written during the Christmas season and can encourage all of us as we work to make 2018 all that it can be: Over the holidays, as I was reading the Little Golden Book Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to my grandson Lucas, it struck me that I could use Rudolph's story in my talks because it has everything to do with discrimination and the value of diversity in employment. So here it is, slightly rewritten to serve that purpose: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was a differently-abled animal who faced discrimination and social ostracism because of his red nose. As we all know, deer have beautiful shiny black noses. Rudolph's was shiny too, but it was red-so red that it actually glowed! While this characteristic might have been regarded as beautiful in some societies, it was a visible, ugly deformity in reindeer society. Because of it, Rudolph was mocked, humiliated, and disqualified from participating in reindeer games. To make things worse, Rudolph fell prey to this discrimination, internalized it, and took responsibility for his misfortune instead of realizing it was a problem of the larger society. Since he was isolated at the North Pole Manufacturing Zone, there was no organization of disabled reindeer to explain this to him. So, when Santa sought applications from reindeer to pull his sleigh, Rudolph hid himself in shame until all the candidates for the job had been selected. On Christmas Eve a sudden fog arose, no doubt caused by global warming, impeding the progress of Santa and his team. But when Rudolph came out of hiding, Santa immediately realized the practical value of his "disability" and hired him as lead worker for the sleigh team. The other reindeer, realizing that they had foolishly overlooked an individual with the exact skill set to enable them to achieve their mission, welcomed him to the team. Were it not for Rudolph, the team would have failed to achieve their all-important Christmas objective, resulting in global disappointment to all the good little girls and boys. But because of Santa's wisdom in understanding that Rudolph's difference could be an asset rather than a limitation, they succeeded. And they memorialized this organizational achievement by creating a song which continues to be sung by children today. ---------- Constitution of the National Federation of the Blind as Amended 2014 From the Editor: Because the constitution of this organization describes its purpose and outlines the policies and procedures that control this democratically elected organization of the blind, the Braille Monitor periodically reprints this document. Here it is as last amended in 2014: ARTICLE I. NAME The name of this organization is the National Federation of the Blind. ARTICLE II. PURPOSE The purpose of the National Federation of the Blind is to serve as a vehicle for collective action by the blind of the nation; to function as a mechanism through which the blind and interested sighted persons can come together in local, state, and national meetings to plan and carry out programs to improve the quality of life for the blind; to provide a means of collective action for parents of blind children; to promote the vocational, cultural, and social advancement of the blind; to achieve the integration of the blind into society on a basis of equality with the sighted; and to take any other action which will improve the overall condition and standard of living of the blind. ARTICLE III. MEMBERSHIP Section A. The membership of the National Federation of the Blind shall consist of the members of the state affiliates, the members of divisions, and members at large. Members of divisions and members at large shall have the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities in the National Federation of the Blind as members of state affiliates. The board of directors shall establish procedures for admission of divisions and shall determine the structure of divisions. The divisions shall, with the approval of the board, adopt constitutions and determine their membership policies. Membership in divisions shall not be conditioned upon membership in state affiliates. The board of directors shall establish procedures for admission of members at large, determine how many classes of such members shall be established, and determine the annual dues to be paid by members of each class. Section B. Each state or territorial possession of the United States, including the District of Columbia, having an affiliate shall have one vote at the national convention. These organizations shall be referred to as state affiliates. Section C. State affiliates shall be organizations of the blind controlled by the blind. No organization shall be recognized as an "organization of the blind controlled by the blind" unless at least a majority of its voting members and a majority of the voting members of each of its local chapters are blind. Section D. The board of directors shall establish procedures for the admission of state affiliates. There shall be only one state affiliate in each state. Section E. Any member, local chapter, state affiliate, or division of this organization may be suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined for misconduct or for activity unbecoming to a member or affiliate of this organization by a two-thirds vote of the board of directors or by a simple majority of the states present and voting at a national convention. If the action is to be taken by the board, there must be good cause, and a good faith effort must have been made to try to resolve the problem by discussion and negotiation. If the action is to be taken by the convention, notice must be given on the preceding day at an open board meeting or a session of the convention. If a dispute arises as to whether there was "good cause," or whether the board made a "good faith effort," the national convention (acting in its capacity as the supreme authority of the Federation) shall have the power to make final disposition of the matter; but until or unless the board's action is reversed by the national convention, the ruling of the board shall continue in effect. ARTICLE IV. OFFICERS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AND NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Section A. The officers of the National Federation of the Blind shall be: (1) president, (2) first vice president, (3) second vice president, (4) secretary, and (5) treasurer. They shall be elected biennially. Section B. The officers shall be elected by majority vote of the state affiliates present and voting at a national convention. Section C. The National Federation of the Blind shall have a board of directors, which shall be composed of the five officers and twelve additional members, six of whom shall be elected at the annual convention during even-numbered years and six of whom shall be elected at the annual convention during odd-numbered years. The members of the board of directors shall serve for two-year terms. Biennially, during even-numbered years, at the first meeting of the board of directors following the convention at which officers and board members are elected, the board of directors shall select a chairperson from among its members who shall not be the same person as the President and who shall serve without compensation. Section D. The board of directors may, in its discretion, create a national advisory board and determine the duties and qualifications of the members of the national advisory board. ARTICLE V. POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE CONVENTION, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AND THE PRESIDENT Section A. Powers and Duties of the Convention. The convention is the supreme authority of the Federation. It is the legislature of the Federation. As such, it has final authority with respect to all issues of policy. Its decisions shall be made after opportunity has been afforded for full and fair discussion. Delegates and members in attendance may participate in all convention discussions as a matter of right. Any member of the Federation may make or second motions, propose nominations, serve on committees, and is eligible for election to office, except that only blind members may be elected to the national board. Voting and making motions by proxy are prohibited. Consistent with the democratic character of the Federation, convention meetings shall be so conducted as to prevent parliamentary maneuvers which would have the effect of interfering with the expression of the will of the majority on any question, or with the rights of the minority to full and fair presentation of their views. The convention is not merely a gathering of representatives of separate state organizations. It is a meeting of the Federation at the national level in its character as a national organization. Committees of the Federation are committees of the national organization. The nominating committee shall consist of one member from each state affiliate represented at the convention, and each state affiliate shall appoint its member to the committee. From among the members of the committee, the president shall appoint a chairperson. Section B. Powers and Duties of the Board of Directors. The function of the board of directors as the governing body of the Federation between conventions is to make policies when necessary and not in conflict with the policies adopted by the convention. Policy decisions which can reasonably be postponed until the next meeting of the national convention shall not be made by the board of directors. The board of directors shall serve as a credentials committee. It shall have the power to deal with organizational problems presented to it by any member, local chapter, state affiliate, or division; shall decide appeals regarding the validity of elections in local chapters, state affiliates, or divisions; and shall certify the credentials of delegates when questions regarding the validity of such credentials arise. By a two-thirds vote the board may suspend one of its members for violation of a policy of the organization or for other action unbecoming to a member of the Federation. By a two-thirds vote the board may reorganize any local chapter, state affiliate, or division. The board may not suspend one of its own members or reorganize a local chapter, state affiliate, or division except for good cause and after a good-faith effort has been made to try to resolve the problem by discussion and negotiation. If a dispute arises as to whether there was "good cause" or whether the board made a "good-faith effort," the national convention (acting in its capacity as the supreme authority of the Federation) shall have the power to make final disposition of the matter; but until or unless the board's action is reversed by the national convention, the ruling of the board shall continue in effect. There shall be a standing subcommittee of the board of directors which shall consist of three members. The committee shall be known as the subcommittee on budget and finance. It shall, whenever it deems necessary, recommend to the board of directors principles of budgeting, accounting procedures, and methods of financing the Federation program; and shall consult with the president on major expenditures. The board of directors shall meet at the time of each national convention. It shall hold other meetings on the call of the president or on the written request of any five members. Section C. Powers and Duties of the President. The president is the principal administrative officer of the Federation. In this capacity his or her duties consist of carrying out the policies adopted by the convention; conducting the day-to-day management of the affairs of the Federation; authorizing expenditures from the Federation treasury in accordance with and in implementation of the policies established by the convention; appointing all committees of the Federation except the nominating committee; coordinating all activities of the Federation, including the work of other officers and of committees; hiring, supervising, and dismissing staff members and other employees of the Federation, and determining their numbers and compensation; taking all administrative actions necessary and proper to put into effect the programs and accomplish the purposes of the Federation. The implementation and administration of the interim policies adopted by the board of directors are the responsibility of the president as principal administrative officer of the Federation. ARTICLE VI. STATE AFFILIATES Any organized group desiring to become a state affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind shall apply for affiliation by submitting to the president of the National Federation of the Blind a copy of its constitution and a list of the names and addresses of its elected officers. Under procedures to be established by the board of directors, action shall be taken on the application. If the action is affirmative, the National Federation of the Blind shall issue to the organization a charter of affiliation. Upon request of the national president the state affiliate shall provide to the national president the names and addresses of its members. Copies of all amendments to the constitution and/or bylaws of an affiliate shall be sent without delay to the national president. No organization shall be accepted as an affiliate and no organization shall remain an affiliate unless at least a majority of its voting members are blind. The president, vice president (or vice presidents), and at least a majority of the executive committee or board of directors of the state affiliate and of all of its local chapters must be blind. Affiliates must not merely be social organizations but must formulate programs and actively work to promote the economic and social betterment of the blind. Affiliates and their local chapters must comply with the provisions of the constitution of the Federation. Policy decisions of the Federation are binding upon all affiliates and local chapters, and the affiliate and its local chapters must participate affirmatively in carrying out such policy decisions. The name National Federation of the Blind, Federation of the Blind, or any variant thereof is the property of the National Federation of the Blind; and any affiliate or local chapter of an affiliate which ceases to be part of the National Federation of the Blind (for whatever reason) shall forthwith forfeit the right to use the name National Federation of the Blind, Federation of the Blind, or any variant thereof. A general convention of the membership of an affiliate or of the elected delegates of the membership must be held and its principal executive officers must be elected at least once every two years. There can be no closed membership. Proxy voting is prohibited in state affiliates and local chapters. Each affiliate must have a written constitution or bylaws setting forth its structure, the authority of its officers, and the basic procedures which it will follow. No publicly contributed funds may be divided among the membership of an affiliate or local chapter on the basis of membership, and (upon request from the national office) an affiliate or local chapter must present an accounting of all of its receipts and expenditures. An affiliate or local chapter must not indulge in attacks upon the officers, board members, leaders, or members of the Federation or upon the organization itself outside of the organization, and must not allow its officers or members to indulge in such attacks. This requirement shall not be interpreted to interfere with the right of an affiliate or local chapter, or its officers or members, to carry on a political campaign inside the Federation for election to office or to achieve policy changes. However, the organization will not sanction or permit deliberate, sustained campaigns of internal organizational destruction by state affiliates, local chapters, or members. No affiliate or local chapter may join or support, or allow its officers or members to join or support, any temporary or permanent organization inside the Federation which has not received the sanction and approval of the Federation. ARTICLE VII. DISSOLUTION In the event of dissolution, all assets of the organization shall be given to an organization with similar purposes which has received a 501(c)(3) certification by the Internal Revenue Service. ARTICLE VIII. AMENDMENTS This constitution may be amended at any regular annual convention of the Federation by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the state affiliates registered, present, and voting; provided that the proposed amendment shall have been signed by five state affiliates in good standing and that it shall have been presented to the president the day before final action by the convention. ---------- Recipes February is the shortest month of the year, but it is marked with a holiday for romance. In honor of Valentine's Day we're taking a tour in the archives for some recipes to make for your sweetheart. Frozen Cranberry Salad by Mary Jane Fry A cool and slightly tart start or side for your romantic meal, this recipe first appeared in February 2004. At that time, Mary Jane Fry was secretary of the NFB of Rhode Island. Ingredients: 1 bag or 3 cups fresh cranberries 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar 2/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained 8 ounces cream cheese 1 cup nuts (personal preference) 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 8-ounce tub Cool Whip Method: Chop cranberries and nuts. Add the sugar and salt to the cranberry nut mixture and mix together. Thoroughly drain the crushed pineapple and add to berry mixture. Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature, and then work the Cool Whip into it until smooth and creamy; then fold into first mixture. Place salad in a mold or freezer container and freeze. When ready to serve, unmold and slice in serving sizes. May be kept in freezer for months. Serve frozen. It will thaw during the meal and is very festive when served on a lettuce leaf. ---------- Spicy Winter Squash Soup by Katie Keim As a light first or main course, this soup will warm your Valentine as much as a hug. It first appeared in February 2006, and was introduced like this: Katie Keim is secretary of the NFB of Hawaii and a member of the Honolulu Chapter. She enjoys cooking and baking for friends and family. She reports that this recipe is a tradition at Christmas or any cold winter night. Depending on guests' preferences, this soup can be made very spicy or just very flavorful. Ingredients: 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 large yellow or white onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 carrots, chunked 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped 1 2- to 4-inch piece fresh ginger, chunked 1 stalk dried or fresh lemon grass 1 medium winter squash such as butternut, kabocha, acorn, or pumpkin, peeled and deseeded 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste) 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste) 2 cups water or vegetable or chicken broth 1 or 2 cans coconut milk, depending on how thick you like your soup 4 kaffir lime leaves, found in Asian markets (extra lemon grass and lime juice can be substituted.) 4 limes cut in wedges Method: In a heavy saucepan or double boiler, saut? all ingredients except liquids, salt, cayenne pepper, and kaffir lime leaves, and lime wedges for about twenty minutes or until vegetables are hot. Then add two cups liquid, salt, and cayenne pepper. Let simmer until all vegetables are tender. Remove chunks of ginger and the stalk of lemon grass. Blend in food processor or blender or beat with an egg beater until smooth. Add coconut milk and keefer lime leaves. Reheat on low until soup is warm. Serve with fresh lime wedges for guests to squeeze into soup to taste. ---------- Cereal-Crusted Chicken with Curry Cream by Jack Mendez Keeping with the theme of spicing up the romantic meal, this recipe first appeared in February 2013 and was introduced this way: Jack Mendez joined the LCB staff in November 2012 as director of technology. He is a committed Federationist who is eager to share his positive philosophy about blindness with others. Jack loves to cook and experiment with all types of cuisine. He and his fianc?e, Maryann Topolewski, will be married in April. Jack made this recipe as part of his meal for eight at LCB when he was a student, and it received rave reviews. Jack says, "Take this breakfast treat to a new level. You can use any unsweetened cereal, granola, or oats when you want to explore new flavors. (For best results place the cereal in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin until coarsely crushed, or give it a quick spin in the food processor.)" Ingredients: Cooking spray 2 cups crushed unsweetened cornflakes cereal 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/4 cup orange marmalade Ingredients for Curry Cream: 1/2 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon curry powder Pinch of paprika Method: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the crushed cereal in a shallow dish and set aside. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and brush marmalade over both sides. Add the chicken to the cereal and turn to coat completely. Arrange the chicken pieces on the sprayed cookie sheet and spray the surface of each with cooking spray. Bake until the crust is golden brown and chicken is cooked through, about twenty-five minutes. Meantime in a small bowl whisk together the sour cream, curry powder, and paprika. Serve the chicken with the curry cream spooned over the top or on the side. ---------- Eggplant Casserole by Shirley Barksdale For a lighter or vegetarian-friendly dish during a romantic evening, check out this recipe from January 2006, with the original introduction: Shirley Barksdale is the treasurer of the NFB of Georgia. She takes medication for her diabetes and high blood pressure. She is a strict vegetarian and is working to manage her health more effectively. Ingredients: 1 eggplant, peeled and diced 1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 cup dry bread stuffing mix 1 clove garlic, crushed 2 tablespoons diced onion 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning Salt and pepper to taste Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the eggplant in a medium microwave-safe dish and cook on high (stirring once) in the microwave for five minutes or until tender. Transfer to a nine-by-nine-inch baking dish. Mix in 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, stuffing mix, garlic, onion, and egg. Add Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Bake fifteen minutes in the preheated oven. Top with remaining cheese, and continue baking for fifteen minutes until cheese is bubbly and mixture is lightly browned. ---------- Lemon Curd by Barbara Pierce This recipe first appeared in February of 2010. A lighter dessert, and one that will appeal to those less chocolate-oriented, this is how it was originally introduced: Though it is now sometimes possible to find lemon curd in American supermarkets, most Americans have never experienced this delightfully tart and sweet treat. The English spread it on scones, but it is also delicious over fresh fruit or as a filling for cream puffs or cakes. Ingredients: 3/4 cup sugar or half Splenda 1 tablespoon lemon rind, grated 2 large eggs 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons) 2 tablespoons butter or margarine Method: Combine the first three ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Cook until sugar dissolves and mixture is light in color (about three minutes). Stir in lemon juice and butter; cook for five minutes or until mixture thinly coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cool. Cover and chill; the mixture will thicken as it cools. Yield: 1-1/3 cups. Note: lemon curd can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can easily double the recipe and freeze half of it in a heavy-duty ziplock plastic bag. Thaw in the refrigerator and use within one week of thawing. ---------- Chocolate Pie by Kathy Jones Of course, chocolate is something of a traditional treat for Valentine's Day. This light dessert first appeared in June 2003 and was introduced like this: Kathy Jones is the wife of Tim Jones, the newly elected president of the NFB of North Carolina. Ingredients: 4 cups sugar 1 cup cocoa powder 1/2 cup flour 1 can evaporated milk 2 cups water 2 baked pie shells, not deep-dish Method: Combine sugar, cocoa, flour, milk, and water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Pour mixture into prepared crusts and set aside. Meringue for Pies: Beat four egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add two teaspoons cream of tartar, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt as you beat whites into stiff peaks. Spread meringue on cooled pies and bake at 375 degrees just until meringue is as brown as you like it; begin checking after fifteen minutes. Cool on wire rack and then chill in refrigerator until time to serve, or eat warm. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Eligible Sprint customers can get a KNFB Reader Enterprise license for free: Starting November 20, 2017, Sprint customers who purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade through Sprint Accessibility will receive a free license to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app on up to two mobile devices. If you are a new or upgrading Sprint customer, you may be able to get the power to convert printed documents into speech or Braille instantly and accurately at no extra cost! All you need to do is: 1. Visit sprint.com/vision or a Sprint store to purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade. 2. Call 855-885-7568 and ask a Sprint Accessibility Care representative for the KNFB Reader Enterprise app. 3. Sprint will provide you with the information you need to create a username and password that will activate your new KNFB Reader Enterprise license. 4. Download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Windows 10 Store. 5. When you launch the app, enter the username and password from step 3 above, and you're all set! Please be sure to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app, not KNFB Reader for $99.99. The KNFB Reader Enterprise app is listed free in the app stores and can be activated with your free KNFB Reader Enterprise License from Sprint. KNFB Reader Enterprise allows users to enjoy the power of KNFB Reader on multiple devices. Make sure that KNFB Reader Enterprise is the app that you download onto your devices to take advantage of this offer. KNFB Reader Enterprise works on Apple, Android, Windows 10 devices, and Windows 10 laptops and PCs. You'll be able to use KNFB Reader Enterprise provided by Sprint. Just download KNFB Reader Enterprise on both devices and use the same username and password. For example, you can download KNFB Reader Enterprise onto your Sprint phone, and also to your Windows 10 laptop. Or onto both your Android phone and Android tablet. To learn more about the KNFB Reader Enterprise, visit www.knfbreader.com. Happy reading from the National Federation of the Blind and Sprint Accessibility! Elected in Maine: The 2018 officers for the National Federation of the Blind Greater Portland Chapter are: Leslie Landry, president; Gerard Landry, vice president; Mark Hodgdon, secretary; Randy Bellavance, secretary; John Lee, trustee; Sarah Bellavance, trustee. Newly Re-Established Prince William County Chapter of the NFB Of Virginia: On November 18, 2017, after a number of years in hiatus, we re- established the Prince William County Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia. A constitution was adopted and officers elected. The board is as follows: president, Marc Canamaso; vice president, Oscar Montiel; secretary, Alysha Hiller; treasurer, Mark Ross; and board members, John Dubois and Andrew Hiller. Letter-Writing Campaign to Request Accessibility from SiriusXM Radio: My name is Alexander Kaiser, and I am trying to start a letter- writing campaign to SiriusXM Satellite Radio to convince them to create fully accessible home kit units. Among the features that Sirius does not currently have that I believe they should make available are: audible menus for setup configuration, wi-fi settings, music genre, channel number, and audible voice-driven remote control, and the channel guide and user manual available in Braille for those who would prefer hard copy to electronic. I would also like to encourage SiriusXM Radio to address the inaccessibility of the current tabletop wi-fi and home kit units. The address to write to the company directly is: SiriusXM Radio Inc, Corporate Customer Relations, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020. If you have any questions about SiriusXM, its current inaccessibility, or my suggestions for how the company could make its units more accessible, you can contact me by email at ASKaiser99 at outlook.com, or by phone at (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 Adds Five New Books to UEB Collection for Older Kids: Seedlings Braille Books for Children just added five more books to its UEB collection for independent readers. Three are new titles, A to Z Mysteries: The Lucky Lottery, Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery, and Nancy Drew #15: The Haunted Bridge. Two are popular titles converted from the old Braille code: Superfudge and A to Z Mysteries: Detective Camp. This brings to seventy-two the number of books Seedlings offers in contracted UEB for older children. 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. Learn to Play: Come check out our new website where we have beginner courses for piano, guitar, ukulele, banjo, bass guitar and more! Our courses and song lessons are taught completely "by ear" so there is no print, video, or Braille to mess with. The lessons and songs can be purchased in either CD or MP3 format which makes them easy to use and travel with. Come see what we have at www.MusicForTheBlind.com. 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. Looking to Buy: My name is Melody Edwards. If anyone has one of these items and no longer has a use for it, please contact me. I want: The Handy Cassette One from APH, books or music on cassette, a double cassette radio, a Sharp talking calculator clock, or a Franklin Language Master Dictionary. Contact Melody Edwards by phone at (336) 893-6295 or by email at infoprincess2013 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 Thu Mar 1 09:40:43 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2018 09:40:43 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, March 2018 Message-ID: <201803011740.w21Heh8d014561@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 3 March 2018 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 ? 2018 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. Orlando Site of 2018 NFB Convention The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 3 to July 8, 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 2018 room rates 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. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $100-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, 2018. 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, 2018, 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 2018 convention is: Tuesday, July 3 Seminar Day Wednesday, July 4 Registration and Resolutions Day Thursday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day Friday, July 6 Opening Session Saturday, July 7 Business Session Sunday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 61, No. 3 March 2018 Contents Illustration: Taking on the Big Challenges of Blindness is What We are All About The Washington Seminar in Review by Gary Wunder Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans: Priorities for the 115th Congress, Second Session Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act (S. 2138/H.R. 1772) Access Technology Affordability Act (S. 732/H.R. 1734) Oppose the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620) The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print-Disabled (Marrakesh Treaty) A Report from the Blind Merchants Division by Terry Smith A Report from the National Association of Blind Students by Kathryn Webster Building the Federation Brand Part 2: The Brand Personality by Chris Danielsen The Dentist and the Eye Doctor by Jim Marks Well Digger's Wisdom by Ryan Strunk The 2017 National Convention from Afar by Adrijana Prokopenko A Twisted Tail Dog by Toni and Ed Eames The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Definitely the Cat's Meow Lauren Merryfield.................................................................. ............................. Eligible Sprint Customers Can Get a KNFB Reader Enterprise License Free Recipes..................................................................... ..................................... Monitor Miniatures.................................................................. .......................... [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono poses with the award. [PHOTO CAPTION: Alex Roy, editor-at-large, The Drive (the emcee of the banquet); Mark Riccobono; Bryan Reimer, research scientist at MIT's AgeLab and associate director of the New England University Transportation Center; Huei Peng, director of the Mobility Transportation Center (MTC) of the University of Michigan; Dan Galves, senior vice president and chief communications officer, Mobileye, an Intel Company [PHOTO CAPTION: Alex Roy, editor-at-large for The Drive, poses with Mark Riccobono. Taking on the Big Challenges of Blindness is What We are all About In a land where the automobile is the most prevalent way to get around, the inability to drive poses one of the biggest problems to blind people. Naturally the nation's most active organization engaged in problem- solving is addressing the issue. As we come ever closer to putting cars that drive themselves on the road, the challenge for blind people is to ensure we can operate them and that the law of the land permits us to do so. Recognizing our work, the Auto Alliance and the Alliance for Transportation Innovation presented President Riccobono with an award on January 24, 2018. Others recognized included members of Congress, a governor, and a state senator. Also noted for their work were individuals from a safety research consortium, a startup tech firm, a proving grounds pioneer, and a major automotive supplier. "It is important to spotlight the innovators and pioneers who are making future advancements a reality today. Their efforts and technologies have the potential to bring tremendous societal benefits-first and foremost greater motor vehicle safety, as well as greater mobility and reduced emissions," said Mitch Bainwol, president and CEO, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. In additional remarks, the organizations went on to say, "Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, has served as a strong advocate for autonomous vehicles for the disability community. In October 2017, the National Federation of the Blind hosted a first-of-its- kind gathering of consumers with disabilities, auto representatives, ride- sharing providers, and policymakers to lay the groundwork for including accessibility in the development of promising new vehicle technologies in the early stages. The conference launched an ongoing conversation about how autonomous vehicles can be developed and deployed safely, while considering the needs of those 57 million Americans with disabilities." The Washington Seminar in Review by Gary Wunder Focus is defined as the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition, e.g., his face is out of focus; the point at which an object must be situated with respect to a lens in order for an image of it to be well defined; a device on a lens that can be adjusted to produce a clear image; to focus a telescope; a person or their eyes; adapt to the prevailing level of light and become able to see clearly. But for all the references on focus that relate to vision, focus was the heart and soul of the 2018 Washington Seminar, and it had nothing to do with sight or cameras or telescopes. It had everything to do with a laser-like focus or concentration on improving the lives of blind people. It had everything to do with not being distracted by the divisive issues that seem to divide the country and everything to do with finding common ground, being bipartisan, and dealing head-on with the issues that affect all of us regardless of our political ideologies and the labels that might be attached to us. The most important label we displayed with pride-the one that identified us as members of the National Federation of the Blind. The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children started early by hosting its own two-day seminar, and as a parent I met at the elevator said, "This seminar was wonderful for us. It came at just the right time, gave us lots of information, and has convinced us that there are opportunities for our child we didn't dare to dream possible. We are so grateful." What more could an organization ask of a division responsible for creating a magazine called Future Reflections which is dedicated to bringing such hope and comfort to parents of blind children and such opportunity to blind people themselves. But we had more than parents who wanted to meet to discuss issues in- depth. One was the National Federation of the Blind Merchants Division, and there was much for them to discuss. What once was a program that offered a small corner in a federal or state building was transformed in 1974, and blind merchants today have business locations that private vendors would love to occupy. When big corporations come to Washington to tell Congress that these facilities should be assigned to them rather than the blind, the blind have something to say about that. We demand our right to be a part of the free enterprise system, not just as women and men employed by someone else but as managers who oversee lucrative businesses who are the job creators of our nation and who provide a quality service that is as fine as any big business can supply. A more detailed report of the division's meeting can be found later in this issue. Our meeting in Washington has for a long time been the midwinter meeting of our National Association of Blind Students, and the room for that meeting was jam-packed. A report of this meeting is found elsewhere in this issue. [PHOTO CAPTION: The crowd at the Great Gathering-In stands and claps. On Monday afternoon many who planned to go to Capitol Hill met with members of our legislative team to become familiar with the intricacies of the legislation we would discuss with those on Capitol Hill and to hear some dos and don'ts when dealing with the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. The issues we were briefed on are covered in the fact sheets that appear elsewhere in this issue, but what is so special about the early afternoon meeting is the tips we are given: Start by defining the problem. If this is an issue we have covered several times and the member or his staff already know about it, go lighter on the problem, stress the need for its resolution, and reserve more time for new issues. Don't forget to say thank you for past support. At the end of the presentation, don't forget to make the ultimate ask-will you cosponsor this legislation? If the answer is clearly no, move on. If the answer is clearly yes, move on. If more information is likely to determine the outcome, make sure you understand what is needed, find the answers, and do the follow-up to ensure that this information gets back to the Congressman's office. When the gavel fell at 5 PM to signal the beginning of the Great Gathering-In Meeting, President Riccobono inspired the group with these remarks which set not only the tone of the evening but the tone of the four- day event: "Some have been wondering what that sound is in Washington, DC. No, it's not the sound of the government gearing back up after a shutdown. No, it's not the sound of social media being blown up with fake news. And it is certainly not the sound of uncertainty, confusion, doubt, or despair. Those who are in the know recognize that what they hear in Washington is the heartbeat of the blind of the nation. We have come with hope and confidence to speak for ourselves, to lead the way with authenticity, to call upon our elected leaders in Congress and urge them to join us in achieving security, equality, and opportunity and to answer the question, who are we?" The crowd responds with "NFB." "But really, who are we? We are the National Federation of the Blind." The crowd now responds with "National Federation of the Blind, National Federation of the Blind, National Federation of the Blind," and it does so each time the President and later presenters pause and prepare to say the name of our organization. President Riccobono continues: We are the only organization that believes in the full capacity of blind people. We are the National Federation of the Blind. We have the power, influence, diversity, and determination. We are the National Federation of the Blind. We value collective action, democracy, respectful participation, courage, and love. We are the National Federation of the Blind. We are filled with hope, energy, and love by participating in our movement because our expectations are raised, and our contributions make a difference to us and to others. We are the members of the National Federation of the Blind. It is up to us to make sure that the government does not create artificial barriers between blind people and our dreams. The Social Security Administration provides benefits to blind people that are a critical safety net while receiving rehabilitation training and while seeking and securing employment. We are invited to come to local SSA offices to meet with personnel of the agency about our benefits, but we are required to check in using touchscreen kiosks. We value full participation, but the Social Security Administration has implemented inaccessible visitor intake processing using touchscreen kiosks that require blind people to provide private information, including their Social Security number, to the sighted person who just happens to be nearby. We are not willing to be second-class citizens. We have asked the government for equal access, and they have dragged their feet. We have dragged them into court because we are the National Federation of the Blind. We seek to enjoy opportunities like all other Americans. In addition to work and school, we like to grab a meal out and maybe a movie now and then. Apparently it is not just the government that is fascinated with the use of kiosks. They also appear on our restaurant tables and in our grocery stores. Late last year we settled with E la Carte and Applebee's to incorporate text-to-speech capabilities into all current and future PrestoPrime touch tablets across the nation. In November we resolved a class-action suit with Redbox which will result in Redbox outfitting its kiosks with tactile keyboards, headphone jacks, and text-to-speech capabilities. When Redbox is done, blind people who live in areas that are served by Redbox should never be more than a five-minute-drive from an accessible Redbox kiosk where you can pick up the latest movies offered by the company. We will monitor Redbox to make sure they get it right because we are the National Federation of the Blind. We want to work, but we are often denied equal access to information about available jobs. Working with us, Monster has renewed its commitment to accessibility and has agreed to make all of its employment job ads available through monster.com and monster-branded applications fully and equally accessible by next December. Monster will also collaborate with us on ways that it can educate employers and promote the benefits of employees who are blind in real jobs. We want to work in integrated, competitive employment. We are the National Federation of the Blind. We want our blind children to get the best education they can. Some school districts hold our blind students down. In Iowa a local school district had failed to educate a blind student to such a degree that he was poised to transition out of high school without the ability to read Braille or use screen-access software. We will not allow educators to fail another generation of blind students. If they will not teach them, we will advocate for them and teach them ourselves. That is what we did in this case, and today this high school student is receiving training to make up for the years of insufficient services he received in Iowa. The training is being conducted by BLIND, Inc in Minnesota. BLIND, Inc is a training center operated under the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. We come to Washington, DC, to let our elected officials know that we intend to give them advice and vote to determine whether they will return next year. Some states believe that we need not enjoy the full range of voting opportunities afforded to sighted Americans. We know what equality means, and we have the power and determination to get it when it is not granted. Earlier this month the office of Ohio's Secretary of State changed its mind about access to voting for the blind. All Ohio counties were ordered to implement an accessible absentee ballot-marking tool in time for the November 2018 election. We helped them change their mind, and we are the National Federation of the Blind. If you have not yet met us, you can be certain you will. Whether you are a museum creating a significant historical exhibit of our time, a manufacturer of vehicles that require no driver, an airline that insists on burdensome notifications before we can board, or an antiquated professional organization trying to ride a dead horse to accreditation, you will soon know that we are the National Federation of the Blind-we are the National Federation of the Blind-we are the National Federation of the Blind. We come with our dreams and our legislative proposals. We have not asked that the proposals be written for us. We have crafted the solutions and have come to get them enacted. We speak with a unified voice built on the authentic individual experience of thousands. We have gathered together to transform our dreams into reality. We have come to live the lives we want. [PHOTO CAPTION: Diane McGeorge Diane McGeorge was introduced and said that this was her thirty- fourth year as the coordinator of logistics for our Washington Seminar. She gave the logistical information we have been accustomed to getting, and the applause that she received reflected the tremendous admiration we have for her and all that she continues to do. This year's Great Gathering-In Meeting was broadcast on Facebook live, and both President Riccobono and Kirsten Mau, director of marketing and communications, welcomed our remote visitors. Although there is nothing quite like being in the Capitol Ballroom where people are packed from wall to wall or in the overflow room which is also well-populated, it is wonderful that we can extend the spirit of the Great Gathering-In to Federationists throughout the country and around the world. Kirsten urged everyone who has a smartphone to download our NFB Connect app that provides access in one place to the Braille Monitor, the Voice of the Nation's Blind blog, current announcements, our Twitter feed, the location and meeting time of the chapter nearest you, and so much more. Immediate Past President Maurer has recently focused a lot of attention on different ways that blind people can learn, and one of those ways involves pictures. This way of displaying information has long been considered off-limits to blind people, and although the pictures are still somewhat costly to produce and difficult for those of us not acquainted with them to understand, the potential they offer to enrich the learning of blind people is enormous. The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults has developed the drawing kit and is selectively distributing it to people interested in increasing the ways in which blind people learn and in expanding the possibilities that come through an understanding of pictures, drawings, graphs, and other material. People interested in helping with this project should contact Patricia Maurer at the Jernigan Institute by writing to her at pmaurer at nfb.org. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman Gus M. Bilirakis, representative of the Twelfth District of Florida, speaks to the crowd. [PHOTO CAPTION: Congressman Gus M. Bilirakis and Mark Riccobono The Great Gathering-In was next addressed by the congressman representing the Twelfth District of Florida, the Honorable Gus Bilirakis. He is the vice chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, and he is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He has sponsored H.R. 936, the Space Available Act; is a cosponsor of H.R. 1734, the Access Technology Affordability Act; and he is an early supporter of H.R. 3388, the SELF DRIVE Act which foreshadows the appearance on our nation's streets and highways of self-driving vehicles. The congressman wrote an amendment to this bill establishing a committee to ensure that these vehicles will be ones that senior citizens and blind people can operate. The congressman has a dog in the fight since he has significant vision loss as well as a loss of hearing. He reviewed all of the other bills which he is involved with as a result of the Federation, wished us luck as we went to The Hill, and encouraged us to keep on bringing our message year after year to the Congress of the United States. When our blind brothers and sisters are in need, we are there. This was never more evident than when hurricane Harvey visited Texas and Louisiana and when blind people found themselves confronting devastating destruction in Puerto Rico. In Texas more than seventy inches of rain fell over one week. More than 105,000 people had their homes destroyed. The National Federation of the Blind set up a fund which was administered by state president and national board member Norma Crosby. She addressed the Great Gathering-In, talked briefly about the assistance we provided, said that we have now met all the requests received from Texas, and that since we promised that all money sent for hurricane relief would be spent on hurricane relief, the balance in the fund would go to Puerto Rico. The audience greeted Norma's presentation with enthusiastic response, representing our pride in being able to help, our pride in having leaders such as President Riccobono and President Crosby, and our determination to see that those in Puerto Rico receive all the help we are capable of giving. [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis Anil Lewis is the executive director of the Jernigan Institute, and he began his presentation by saying that one of his first national events was participating in NAC Tracking, the name we used to symbolize the protests against a bogus accreditation body that cared little about what the blind said or thought. Anil related that it was a rainy day, that Immediate Past President Maurer had put him in charge of the poncho crew, and he hadn't a clue how we would actually organize a protest. When Diane McGeorge saw his hesitation, she grabbed up a picket sign, moved to a corner, raised the sign, and began shouting, "Come to my voice and turn left." It was then that Anil knew that blind people were quite capable of organizing and participating in protests, and he has been sounding his voice on behalf of blind people ever since. So we protest when we must, but our preference is to build relationships and programs. One of the finest we have built is the Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy, and it is now taking applications to serve young people ages four to twelve. Parents who have children who can benefit from our program should go to https://nfb.org/bell- academy. As wonderful as our program is, it is exceedingly frustrating to deal with a school system that fails to recognize the role of Braille and the importance of dual-media learning for our blind children. We have created instructional materials. We have created the National Reading Media Assessment, we certify Braille transcribers, and, as a last resort, we take on school districts that refuse to live up to their responsibility to the students they are charged with serving. Science, technology, engineering, and math provide one of the most exciting industries for lucrative employment, but blind people are underrepresented in these fields because instead of being trained using the alternative techniques of blindness, we are educated in schools which see us as broken sighted people, and our students are encouraged to do things the way sighted people do them. But we are not broken sighted people who are forever put at a disadvantage. We are blind people with educational tools and techniques that will let us be as productive as our sighted neighbors. As noted elsewhere in the program, access technology gives us education; access technology gives us jobs; access technology gives us independence. As a follow-up to our first grant from the National Science Foundation, we have been given a second. It is a five-year grant to conduct a program called Spatial Ability Blindness Engineering Research. Spatial ability is linked to performance in STEM, and the ability of blind people to do mental mapping actually means that we have the potential to be great engineers. This means that we will continue to build on the research that illustrates that our natural abilities to live in this world promote opportunities for us to engage in STEM areas. For more information, go to blindscience.org. Lastly, Anil reminded us that very soon we will be launching a national mentoring program. We are built on mentoring, survive on mentoring, and are best known for our each-one-teach-five philosophy. All of us have something to offer to young blind students, so everyone should go to www.nfb.org/mentorapplication and become a mentor. Anil said, "Won't it be fantastic when someday soon we call on our self-driving car to go pick up our mentee for a visit and a meal out?" Following upon Anil's desire for us to form new relationships, President Riccobono noted that Kirk Adams, the president of the American Foundation for the Blind, was in the audience, and when he was asked about NAC, he said that there was no way that the foundation would be supporting it. So, if we are called upon to take up our picket signs, it may be that we form some new relationships on the picket line as we work to see that blind people chart our own destiny, demand quality service, and are the customers who will determine whether an agency is providing quality service or not. None of the initiatives we undertake is more important to the maintenance of our families than ensuring that we have the right to be blind parents. Melissa Riccobono is heading up our blind parents initiative, and we all know that she can't mentor all of the blind parents who need mentoring by herself. If you know something about being a blind parent and wish to help others, please go to blindparents.org and fill out the form to become a mentor. President Riccobono reminded the assembled that we are looking for innovative agencies and individuals to recognize them with our Dr. Jacob Bolotin awards. Jim Gashel chairs this effort, and more information about the program and the process for making nominations is found at www.nfb.org/bolotin/. The President also encouraged us to remember that we are actively engaged with Uber and Lyft to monitor their compliance with agreements to transport people using guide dogs. Please log every ride you take with your guide dog by going to www.nfb.org/rideshare. This year the national convention will be sponsored by our affiliates in Iowa, Florida, and Virginia. The convention will be from July 3 through July 8 and will be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek. More detailed information can be found at the front of this issue. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am the biggest proponent of our Preauthorized Contribution Program (PAC). I am because, like so many of you, it has helped me transform my dreams into reality and to live the life I want. But it's even more basic than that. It has allowed me to know that I have the right to have dreams. It is this Federation who in 1986 took a scared high school graduate and helped turn him into a confident young man largely thanks to the introduction I got to the Federation through our scholarship program. Guess what funds the scholarship program? The PAC Plan. It was during my first Washington Seminar in 1987 that I realized I might want to go to law school because I wanted to make a difference through the law. ... This is our single most successful internal fundraising program, and everyone who can should be a part of it." So said our intrepid PAC Chairman, Scott LaBarre. Contact your chapter or affiliate president for more information or go to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/pac-form-fillout-accessible.pdf to sign up or to increase your contribution. President Riccobono announced that on the following evening the National Federation of the Blind would be sponsoring the first fully tactile art exhibit in the United States at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Street in Washington, DC. The Newseum was opened for the exclusive use of Federationists and our guests between 6 and 8:30 PM, and we will cover this first-of-its-kind exhibit in the April issue of the Braille Monitor. [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par? The executive director for strategic initiatives of the National Federation of the Blind, John Par?, took the stage to introduce the legislative team who would join the rest of us on Capitol Hill throughout the week. In addition to the four issues which appear on our fact sheets and follow this article, John reminded us that we are also supporting other pieces of legislation including the TIME Act, the Space Available Act, and the SELF DRIVE Act. We are also working hard to see that blind vendors retain privileges to work the roadside rest areas that are now run by blind merchants by opposing H.R. 1990. We are working on language to reform the AbilityOne Act, and the accessibility of medical devices is also a high priority with us, especially those devices used by blind diabetics. We will, of course, see that blind people continue to have the right to be accompanied by their guide dogs when flying, and we totally reject the idea that anyone must give forty-eight-hours' notice before bringing their guide dog onboard. Whether we support or oppose a piece of legislation, regulation, or a comment made by a public official, we always stand out in the way that we conduct ourselves because we are polite, professional, persistent, and persuasive. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Patti Chang After a brief review of each issue we would address on Capitol Hill, Patti Chang was introduced to talk about the Dream Maker's Circle, a program that will help continue to fund the National Federation of the Blind when those of us who now do it are no longer alive. Kevan Worley mentioned a program negotiated by President Riccobono and the Aira Corporation to provide special discounts for members of the National Federation of the Blind. The specific offer made to Federationists can be found at http://go.aira.io/nfb. In addition to special discounts for members, all state affiliate conventions and the national convention will be Aira sites, and subscribers will not use minutes when taking advantage of Aira services. When the meeting concluded, many of us went off to find some food and then a quiet place where we could do the role-playing that would get us ready for the next three days on Capitol Hill. Nothing builds confidence in quite the same way as fielding questions, giving answers, and getting gentle direction and constructive criticism from those who've done it before. The thing that really cements confidence in one's ability comes when a legislative aide or a congressman says that they get it, that they appreciate our communication, and that they are proud to join us in supporting or opposing a bill. People who attend the Washington Seminar annually love the experience and regard it as a significant part of their year. But to gauge the impact of the seminar, it is important to talk with those who are attending for the first time.: "The Washington Seminar was more exciting than I ever dreamed it could be. I met a lot of people I've read about, and when I would tell them I had read their articles in the Braille Monitor it was wonderful when they would say, 'Yes, I wrote that article.' And then say that it was a pleasure for them to meet me as well." Another first-timer said: "I come away feeling inspired. It is amazing to think that I really have a say in the important policies of our nation. It makes me proud to be a part of an organization that is so empowering." Indications are that this year will garner us a number of new cosponsors for the legislation we support and will do much to eliminate the possibility that a law to dismantle the ADA will not pass the House of Representatives or be seriously considered in the Senate. These are victories by any standard, and they are made possible because, through the National Federation of the Blind, we turn intentions into action and action into positive results. ---------- Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans Priorities for the 115th Congress, Second 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 High) 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. The Aim High Act creates voluntary accessibility guidelines for educational technology to stimulate the market, improve blind students' access to course materials, and reduce litigation for schools. . The Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA) 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 will stimulate individual procurement of access technology and promote affordability of these tools for blind Americans. . Opposition to the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017" (H.R. 620) The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 would undermine the ADA by significantly eroding equal access protections and progress made over nearly three decades. . 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 will enable the cross-border exchange of accessible format copies, thereby vastly expanding the availability of accessible foreign language literature to blind and otherwise print-disabled Americans. These priorities will remove obstacles to education, employment, and access to published works. We urge Congress to support our legislative initiatives. Find us on social media: National Federation of the Blind | @NFB_Voice | @nfb_voice ---------- Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act (S. 2138/H.R. 1772) 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 6.6 million students with disabilities in grades K-12, the number who go on to pursue postsecondary education is growing. 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, solely because, in the absence of clear accessibility guidelines, colleges and universities are sticking with the ad-hoc accommodations model. 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 a 17.9 percent employment rate, compared to 65.3 percent among people without disabilities, students with disabilities should not be denied access by the innovations that can ensure 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. The 2011 AIM Commission recommended to Congress that accessibility guidelines be developed for postsecondary instructional materials. In the seven years since, over a dozen institutions have faced legal action for using inaccessible technology, 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. 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 and the higher education, publishing, 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, 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 a digital accessibility roadmap for institutions of higher education. The guidelines developed by the commission will contain specific technical and functional criteria that will clearly illustrate how to make educational technologies usable by the blind and other students with print disabilities. Such criteria will prove to be beneficial to procurement officers, informational technology staff, chief technology officers, and other key personnel at institutions of higher education. 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 High guidelines is only one path to compliance; schools can pursue a different path but in doing so will forfeit the combined expertise of the relevant stakeholder communities involved in the development of the Aim High guidelines. REMOVE BARRIERS TO EQUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM. Cosponsor Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act. To cosponsor S. 2138, contact: Samuel Weinstock, legislative correspondent, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D- MA) Phone: (202) 224-4543, Email: samuel_weinstock at warren.senate.gov To cosponsor H.R. 1772, contact: Jennifer Wise, legislative fellow, Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN) Phone: (202) 225-6356, Email: jennifer.wise 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_high ---------- Access Technology Affordability Act (S. 732/H.R. 1734) 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. Although blindness is easily measurable, it affects each person differently and at different ages. Despite these differences, manufacturers have designed various tools that enable each blind American 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. Access technology equips blind Americans to seek employment and stay employed. For the 58 percent of blind Americans who are not in the labor market, it is a vehicle that makes possible and increases the chances of engaging in and securing employment. However, despite this critical need, public and private entities struggle to meet consumer demand. This leads to untimely delays in the delivery of crucial technology and ultimately harms the blind consumer. The high cost of access technology creates a difficult economic reality. According to the United States Census Bureau, 72 percent of blind Americans are either unemployed or underemployed, yet most access technology continues to range 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. 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 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. Many states' Medicaid programs and individual health insurance plans have adopted similar definitions and likewise will not cover the cost of access technology. 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 refundable tax credit for blind Americans in the amount of $2,500 to be used over a three- year period to offset the cost of access technology. 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. Even though Congress created these tax incentives to increase accessibility in the community, these incentives are underutilized. Meanwhile, 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 needs. 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. To cosponsor S. 732 in the Senate, contact: Ryan Losak, legislative correspondent, Office of Senator John Boozman (R- AR) Phone: (202) 224-4843, Email: ryan_losak at boozman.senate.gov To cosponsor H.R. 1734 in the House of Representatives, contact: Jacob Olson, legislative director, Office of Congressman David Young (R-IA) Phone: (202) 225-5476, Email: jacob.olson at mail.house.gov 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 For more information visit www.nfb.org ---------- Oppose the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620) The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 would undermine the ADA by significantly eroding equal access protections and progress made over nearly three decades. In 1990 the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed with broad bipartisan support. After years of advocacy by people with disabilities and extensive negotiations with the business community, a compromise was reached which balanced the cost to businesses of accommodating people with disabilities with the desperate need to eliminate the physical and systemic barriers that were isolating them from the rest of society and denying them educational, economic, and employment opportunities. Over twenty-seven years later, while much still needs to be done, the ADA has tremendously benefited the blind and others, with and without disabilities. The blind have more access and more ability to participate in economic and community life than we have ever had, while businesses have an expanded customer base, and many accommodations that benefit people with disabilities also benefit others. Now, H.R. 620 (and other proposed ADA "notification" or "reform" bills) threaten to bankrupt the promise of the ADA. H.R. 620 would eliminate the right to equal access that is guaranteed by the ADA. Instead, the bill would require only that a public accommodation show "substantial progress" toward fixing an access barrier, a standard which has no clear legal definition. The introduction of this vague standard disregards the right of people with disabilities to demand an immediate remedy to an access barrier. Given that this standard is not clearly defined, a business may be able to create a quick partial remedy to an access barrier, not a real solution. For the blind, this could mean continued inaccessibility in online shopping or digital banking platforms, as well as the inability to maintain the privacy of medical information that other people have during visits to the doctor's office, or to independently peruse the menu choices at a restaurant. H.R. 620 would undermine the ADA by eroding the threat of litigation, and thereby eliminate a major incentive for compliance. Under the bill, a covered business need not comply with its existing obligations under the ADA at all until receiving a detailed letter from a person with a disability who experienced an access barrier. The business will then be required only to achieve "substantial progress" in remedying the barrier to avoid a lawsuit. The result will be that many businesses will never need to fully comply with the ADA, despite being notified of access barriers that have been experienced by their potential patrons. This bill is founded on inaccuracies and misunderstandings. Proponents of H.R. 620 argue that the bill is necessary because of the existence of "drive-by lawsuits" designed to exploit Title III of the ADA. This argument has no researched data behind it and rests entirely on anecdotes and sensationalized media stories. There is also confusion as to whether the ADA permits litigants to seek monetary damages under Title III lawsuits, which it does not. The Americans with Disabilities Act: The ADA is already a compromise that is designed to acknowledge the concerns of the business community. It explicitly states that any remedy must be "readily achievable" if the access barrier exists in an establishment that predates passage of the bill (1990). The "readily achievable" standard considers the difficulty of the remedy as well as the expense and relationship to the structure of the establishment in question. In addition to this standard, there are provisions within Title III that require certain factors to be considered when determining obligations to undertake Title III remedies, such as the size of the business and the financial resources available to the business. The federal government already provides extensive educational and technical assistance resources to aid businesses with their ADA compliance obligations. The following resources make Section 2 of H.R. 620 redundant: . ten regional ADA centers, funded by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, that provide technical assistance, trainings, and other resources for businesses; . an ADA hotline for businesses to call, operated by the Department of Justice; and . an ADA website, containing numerous resources, tools, and information for businesses. The Department of Justice already facilitates mediation and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. When the ADA was enacted nearly thirty years ago, Congress encouraged the use of mediation as a way to resolve disputes. To that end, the Department of Justice refers ADA disputes to professional mediators specifically trained in the requirements of the ADA. This mediation is provided at no charge, making Section 5 of H.R. 620 unnecessary. CONTINUE SUPPORTING EQUAL ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR BLIND AMERICANS WHILE ALSO AVOIDING WASTEFUL AND DUPLICATIVE PROGRAMS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE. Oppose H.R. 620. For more information, contact: Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2210, Email: dhedtler-gaudette at nfb.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 around 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 published works on terms of equality. A blind student seeking to learn Spanish will likely struggle to find an accessible format in that language;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 roughly 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 United States on October 2, 2013, currently has eighty-eight signatories, has been ratified by thirty-three 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 the Senate must act swiftly to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty and why Congress must pass its associated implementing legislation immediately. 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 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 Footnotes: 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/edocs/mdocs/diplconf/en/vip_dc/vip_dc_8_rev.pdf. 2. World Health Organization, Fact Sheet, Visual impairment and blindness, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ last modified October 2017. 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 August 2017. 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/bm130811.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 reviewed January 2, 2018. 7. World Intellectual Property Organization, Marrakesh Notification No. 21 Entry into Force http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/notifications/marrakesh/treaty_marrakes h_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. https://www.internationalpublishers.org/component/content/article?id=16 6:publishers-welcome-wipo-marrakesh-treaty. 10. American Bar Association, Resolution 100, August 11, 2014. http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/mental_physic al_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. ---------- A Report from the Blind Merchants Division by Terry Smith From the Editor: One of the most successful employment programs ever constructed for blind people was begun in 1934, has been expanded several times, and is now known as the Randolph-Sheppard Program. It provides facilities for blind people to manage, but with the increased success of the program we have seen a number of challenges from those who would like to have the opportunities blind people enjoy. One of our more active divisions is the National Association of Blind Merchants, and here is a report of its meeting at the Washington Seminar: The National Association of Blind Merchants is one of the largest divisions of the National Federation of the Blind and was high profile at this year's Washington Seminar. NABM President Nicky Gacos has taken the opportunity to turn the gathering into a training opportunity for blind entrepreneurs. He brought in several experts to speak to the group. One of the most interesting presentations was by representatives from 7-Eleven, which is one of the largest convenience store chains in America. 7-Eleven is interested in exploring ways that its national brand can be used to enhance blind entrepreneurs' operations in government buildings. Two concepts are being explored: One is what is called a micromarket or small store. These are self-service operations where customers make their selections from shelves and displays in the store and pay at a self-pay kiosk. These are becoming increasingly popular in today's retail marketplace. The second option is an operation that is manned by the blind entrepreneur and/or his employees. The branded concept has the potential to greatly increase profits for blind entrepreneurs and President Gacos is committed to developing a partnership that works for both parties. David Fialkov, who is with the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO), attended and talked about efforts to commercialize the interstate rest areas. Such legislation would adversely impact blind entrepreneurs who operate vending at the interstate rest areas. President Trump supports rest area commercialization, and it is expected to be part of his much-anticipated infrastructure plan. NATSO and NABM are part of a coalition working against the initiative. Jason Eberstein with the National Automated Merchandising Association (NAMA) spoke about issues blind entrepreneurs have in common with the vending industry at large. NAMA is also a member of the coalition opposing rest area commercialization. In keeping with the DC advocacy theme, John Par? and Gabe Cazares with the NFB Office of Advocacy and Policy stopped by to talk about joint advocacy efforts underway with the Merchants Division. Jesse Hartle, Randolph-Sheppard specialist with the Rehabilitation Services Administration, gave some statistics from the 2016 annual reports filed by the state agencies. Hartle reported that the number of blind vendors nationwide was down by sixteen to only 1,981, with one-third of those being on federal property. Average income rose to an all-time high of $63,505. The most interesting stat was that more than 50 percent of all money spent by the states on Randolph-Sheppard was for management services, most of which went toward paying agency staff. Other speakers included Andy Freeman of Brown, Goldstein & Levy who spoke on a number of recent cases in which blind vendors were awarded damages by arbitration panels and federal courts. This is a significant development and offers hope for blind vendors who have their rights trampled on by state agencies. Catriona Macdonald with the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind spoke about a recent policy interpretation by the Rehabilitation Services Administration that now requires state agencies to get prior approval from RSA for any purchase that exceeds $5,000. This has the potential of adversely impacting blind entrepreneurs who have to operate without needed equipment while the purchase goes through the lengthy approval process. Terry Smith, who heads up the National Federation of the Blind's Entrepreneurs Initiative, spoke about NABM's planned DC Fly-In May 22 and the Emerging Leaders Training that will take place May 21-23. NABM is committed to a strong advocacy effort in DC. President Gacos is also committed to developing tomorrow's leaders; thus, the third Emerging Leaders class. Jim Chico with USI, a vending machine manufacturer, talked about new and improved vending equipment hitting the market and opportunities for blind entrepreneurs. John Murn with the RSA Management Group also spoke. His buying group gave out almost $2 million in rebates to blind entrepreneurs over the last twelve months. It was a jam-packed agenda and represented another example of how the blind merchants are bringing quality training to blind entrepreneurs. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kathryn Webster] A Report from the National Association of Blind Students by Kathryn Webster From the Editor: Kathryn Webster is the president of the National Association of Blind Students and you will easily observe that some of the outstanding characteristics that got her elected are her ability to inspire, organize, and articulate the hopes and dreams of blind students. Here is what she says: The National Association of Blind Students (NABS) commenced the 2018 Washington Seminar with vibrancy, energy, and passion. Though many students are left with no other choice but to attend academic classes, thus unable to partake in the advocacy done in-person during Washington Seminar, we had groundbreaking attendance this year! With over ninety-five students at our annual Winter Seminar, NABS was full of excitement as we kicked off another year of hard work, engagement, and most significantly, building the National Federation of the Blind. Perhaps this year was exceedingly special as we fought for equal access to education in the classroom through our efforts with AIM HIGH (H.R. 1772), something our sighted peers may take for granted, but our fellow blind students recognize as a sought-after right in higher education institutions. Still, we are fighting and we are pushing forward as we break down the misconceptions of society and bridge the gap between potential and success. Our 2018 Winter Seminar was transformative, yet interactive, something NABS is now incorporating into our national events. Our membership spoke, and our leaders listened. No more are we tied solely to lecture-style presentations. Instead, we incorporated a legislative seminar coordinated by our NABS Legislative Advocacy Committee into our festivities. This got students out of their seats, engaging in groups, and fine-tuning their public speaking abilities. Students are the voice of our future, and there's no better place to refine one's leadership skills than alongside one of the proudest and most active divisions in the NFB. In addition to students practicing professionalism and self-advocacy through mock meetings, our leaders incorporated a friendly competition component, awarding the most polished mock meeting participants with prizes. Beyond the legislative seminar during the winter NABS meeting, we heard from the executive directors from our NFB training centers, advice from a member of the national Scholarship Committee, a pep talk from our national government affairs team, and more. The highlight of our Winter Seminar was hearing from our national president, Mr. Riccobono, as he kicked off the week with encouraging and enlightening words. President Riccobono shared that students have the strongest voices in regards to AIM HIGH, so it's up to us to get this bill passed! It cannot go without mentioning how grateful the National Association of Blind Students is for the generous support provided by President Riccobono and our national treasury, as we financially assisted over thirty-five students in attendance. Washington Seminar was the ideal spark to ignite what will be an incredible year for our national student division. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Danielsen] Building the National Federation of the Blind Brand Part 2: The Brand Personality by Chris Danielsen From the Editor: One of the people who has been very involved in helping us to evolve our brand and to make it better known is our own Chris Danielsen, a talented and energetic Federationist who works as our director of public relations at the Jernigan Institute. Here is what Chris says: In the January issue of the Braille Monitor, my colleague Kirsten Mau talked about what it means for the National Federation of the Blind to have a brand and for all of us to live that brand in the work we do for the organization. She closed her article by talking about the elements that help us define the brand. These elements, taken together, are known as the brand architecture. We can think of them as the pillars that support the house that is our brand. As Kirsten said, the brand architecture is "the internal framework that explains the components of our brand: our values, our personality, our positioning, our value proposition, and our brand promise. It is important that each of us understands and embraces these components so that those outside the organization will know who we are, what we value, why we exist, and what we intend to achieve." Wait a second. Personality? Yes, you read that right. On the face of it, the idea of a brand having a personality seems unusual. We often think of personalities as being associated with people. After all, the word "personality" contains the word "person." But we all know from our own experience that personality isn't limited to people. Any pet owner will tell you that her dog, cat, or parakeet has its own personality; those with multiple pets can tell them apart by their behavior. Brands have personalities too. If you think about it, most of the brands we're familiar with expend a great deal of effort to convince us that we should like them, not just because of what they make or sell, but because of what it supposedly represents. Insurance companies want to convince us that they are on our side and that they will help us out when we need them. State Farm had an ad campaign in which individuals singing the "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" jingle magically summoned a knowledgeable, helpful representative. Of course, this doesn't really happen; the filing of insurance claims takes phone calls and paperwork, no matter who you're dealing with. But State Farm was sending the message that it would solve its customers' problems as soon as it was called upon. Speaking of insurance companies, we don't normally think of dealing with them as being fun. Yet GEICO, with its cute spokes-gecko and humorous ads, wants to project a whimsical, fun image. The fact that the National Federation of the Blind has a personality makes even more sense; we are, after all, a membership organization. By definition, we are the sum of the people who are part of our movement and who work together to accomplish our goals. The way that we interact with each other, with potential members, and with the public puts the "person" in our personality. With that in mind, let's examine the personality traits that make us who we are. Innovative The National Federation of the Blind isn't a bunch of blind people complaining about our problems; we're an organization of problem solvers. We created NFB-NEWSLINE? so that blind people can read the daily newspaper. We developed KNFB Reader so that the blind can have instant access to printed documents. We developed our BELL Academies so that blind children who are not receiving enough Braille instruction in school can get the extra Braille and nonvisual skill training they need. We created STEM programs to pioneer ways that blind students can fully and accessibly experience science, technology, engineering, and math courses. We designed our own white canes and pioneered the Structured Discovery Method of teaching cane travel and other blindness skills. When there are changes that need to be made to laws or policies, we draft proposed legislation and work with our elected representatives to get it passed into law. In these and many other ways, we innovate to make the lives of blind people better. There's more to innovation than our national programs, of course. In my local chapter, our president asks a chapter member to share a tip for accomplishing some task as a blind person at each of our meetings. We talk about things like cooking techniques, how to organize and/or label our clothes, and how to get around safely when there's a lot of snow on the ground. From these discussions, I know that we as blind people are innovating in small ways every day. Inspirational One of our missions as an organization is to raise expectations for blind people; in other words, to inspire. Of course, the speeches we hear from our leaders are inspiring, but there's more. Our positive philosophy, and the examples our members set for each other, make blind people and the public aware that more is possible for the blind than is generally believed. In 2001, the National Federation of the Blind sponsored an expedition in which a blind man, Erik Weihenmayer, climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. Mr. Weihenmayer, an experienced climber, had set himself this challenge. The point of our sponsoring his expedition wasn't that every blind person could or should climb Mount Everest, but that blind people can achieve whatever dream or goal is personally important to us. While projects like the Everest expedition are important, there are thousands of examples of blind people inspiring each other taking place throughout our organization every day. We inspire each other to pursue new careers, to try new hobbies, to start a fitness regimen, or just to go to a new restaurant in an unfamiliar part of town. This is how we lift each other individually and blind people as a group. Inviting So many stories of how and why people became Federationists start with an invitation. In fact, my own story starts that way. I had never thought about joining an organization of blind people, but while I was participating in a summer program at the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, one of my friends convinced me to stay in town one weekend and attend the state NFB convention. This was nearly thirty years ago, and while I don't remember all of the speeches that were made or the issues that were discussed in great detail, I remember how people at the convention made me feel. They were welcoming. They were eager to tell their stories and to hear mine. We listened in the convention sessions and talked about what we learned. We also caroused and "carried on" late into the night. By the end of that weekend, I had learned a great deal, but I'd also made some new friends and had a good time. The same thing happened, on a larger scale, when I attended my first national convention two years later. I hear similar stories from other Federationists all the time, and I'll bet you do too. For some, the first invitation was to a chapter meeting, or to a social event, or just to visit another blind person who happened to be a member. People have joined our organization because of a dinner, or a drink, or a holiday party, or a conversation on a train or airplane. They join because someone invited them to do so, or at least invited them to learn more about us. Powerful The last of our personality traits is unique in a couple of ways: it's the only one that doesn't begin with the letter I, and it flows from the others. If you forget it, though, you might think about another I-word: influential. The National Federation of the Blind is powerful in a lot of ways, but for this article I'll just point out that a lot of our power comes from our other personality traits. Because we are innovators in the blindness field, we are increasingly respected and listened to. Because we invite people into our movement, our movement continues to grow. Because we are an innovative, inspired movement of tens of thousands of blind people, we have the power to make things happen. So, there you have it: our brand personality. Each of us amplifies this personality by exercising its traits in our own lives and actions: by inviting friends and potential supporters to learn more about us; by innovating in our own small ways to lessen the inconvenience of blindness; and by inspiring our blind brothers and sisters to believe in themselves and to achieve more than they thought possible. Keeping these traits in mind, and displaying them for others, is one of the many ways in which we can "live" our brand. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Marks] The Dentist and the Eye Doctor by Jim Marks From the Editor: Jim Marks is known to many Federationists for his work in the Montana affiliate, having served for several terms on its board of directors and as the affiliate's vice president. For a number of years he was a wise voice on the National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Committee. For his paid work, Jim served as the director of disability services for students at the University of Montana flagship campus in Missoula and has long been an advocate for helping young people become independent. He has been the treasurer of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and has been the chairman of the organization's special interest group on blindness and visual impairments. In this article Jim discusses two trips: one to his eye doctor and the other to his dentist. It turns out that his blood pressure was higher when visiting the former than the latter, and many who have gone blind under the care of a doctor will have a clue as to why. Few blind people harbor long-term anger at their doctor because the medical community could not preserve their sight, but many are angry because that community had nothing to offer but the door when blindness was assured. Here is what Jim has to say: They say the blood pressure cuff reveals a lot more than the numbers. Sure proved true for me. In the last few weeks, I've visited both the eye doctor and a dentist. Both took my blood pressure. At the eye doctor's, my numbers were very high. At the dentist's, my numbers were very good. You wouldn't expect this because there is little to fear at the eye doc's, while the dentist often includes some uncomfortable procedures. So, here's the deal. The last time I visited the eye doctor was in 1985. I am blind, and the eye doctor could provide no treatment that would improve my vision. My experiences with vision treatment were pretty good except that the medical world knows nothing about how to function with blindness and does nothing to educate itself or its patients. Sometimes, eye doctors provide low vision aids, but these still focus on vision, not blindness. When the treatments to preserve or improve vision fall short, the eye doc has no rabbits to pull from the medical hat. When I first became aware I was losing my vision due to an eye disease, I remember placing a huge amount of faith in the abilities of the medical world to keep me from going blind. At the time I internalized all the negative prejudices and stereotypes about blindness. For me it was all about the cure... at least hope for the cure. When my eye doc booted me to the curb, that quest for the cure evaporated. I turned to the alternative techniques of the blind and positive attitudes about blindness in order to live the life I want. That approach was cemented deeply in my being, and the medical world insofar as vision goes faded into my past. That is, it did until I recently needed to verify my blindness as part of my application for Social Security Disability Insurance. My blindness documentation dated back to 1982 when my eye doc declared me legally blind and referred me to blindness vocational rehabilitation services. My blood pressure numbers at the eye doc's revealed that I harbor a great deal of emotion about the puny overlap between medical vision treatments and blindness. For example, a technician at the eye doc's administered a field test. I cannot see any of the flashing lights, so I sat through two cycles of the test just waiting for the conclusion. Frankly, it pissed me off. My anger came from those long dormant emotions and was not directed at the staff. All were very kind and professional. But I am blind, and the way I define my life really has very little to do with the medical world. So, my blood pressure told the story, and I am still marveling at just how difficult a simple visit to the eye doc was for me. I was my usual cheerful self on the outside, but I was boiling on the inside. Now that the moment is behind me, I can reflect on it and understand better who I am and where I am going. I won't be going back to the eye doc anytime soon. Some blind people must do this to prevent abnormal eye pressures and other health issues. I have cataracts on top of the retinitis pigmentosa that causes my blindness, but I will not get them removed unless a health issue crops up. Right now, I have light perception, but I am so good at being blind that I own it, control it, and direct it. Being able to see has very little to do with most of life's important endeavors. I choose to be so positive that I forget I am blind. Anyhow, thanks for reading through this wandering reflection. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ryan Strunk] Well Digger's Wisdom by Ryan Strunk From the Editor: Ryan Strunk is the newly-elected president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. He is bright, energetic, and insightful. He is also painfully honest, especially when it comes to self- reflection. What follows is a speech he gave to the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota before he was elected: I attended my first NFB convention in 1990, my second in 1991. And I was really proud of this fact. Never mind that my third was in 2001. It was a real badge of honor for me. So in 2002, when I was introducing myself at the secret scholarship meeting, I took that badge and pinned it right up on my chest to score points with the committee. "I've been a member of the Federation for a long time," I told that committee-and just as important-my fellow scholarship winners. "I drank Federation juice and ate Federation crunch for breakfast." I look back on that now, and I hate how arrogant and hollow and, well, silly that sounded. Because first, let's be real. It's not a good joke. And Federation Crunch would not be a good cereal. I mean, I could handle the white cane marshmallows, and I could even eat Whozit, but I draw the line at biting into a guide dog corn puff. Second, though, and way more important, who did I think I was? I was born in 1983. Do the math. In 1990, while Dr. Jernigan was delivering "The Federation at Fifty," I was in child care. In 1991, while Dr. Maurer was "Reflecting the Flame," I was eating crab corn chowder at the chocoholic bar at the top of the Hyatt Regency. I was listening to an interview with Cory Booker recently. You might have heard of him. He's a senator from New Jersey. And in it he talked about how he grew up a solidly middle-class black kid in the 1960s. He said he had all these privileges that others at the time didn't, and it kind of went to his head. So he's walking around one day all puffed up, and his dad said something to him that struck a chord with me-this Chinese proverb that's been rattling around in my head ever since I heard it. He said to Cory, "Son, never forget. You are drinking from a well your ancestors dug." My parents figured out I was blind when I was six months old, and since they didn't really have any idea of what to do, they threw themselves on the mercy of Kim Bosshart, this pretty new teacher of blind students with some pretty revolutionary ideas about how to teach blind kids: things like put a cane in their hand when they're old enough to walk, teach them slate and stylus before the Braille writer, teach them Braille even if they have some residual vision. Incidentally, at the same time, the eye doctor I had as a kid was telling my parents I could read two-inch tall print ... with a magnifying glass. Kim, thankfully, knew better. She had me baking cookies at six years old, walking around the block under sleepshades at seven, finding random addresses by knocking on complete strangers' doors and asking for directions at eight. By junior high I was ordering my own books and introducing myself to my teachers as "blind." By the way, it was Kim who made me say "blind," even though I wanted to use "visually impaired." We gave Kim Bosshart, now Kim Adams, the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award in 1989, and for good reason. She was, and still is, an amazing person. And I never really got that back then. I took for granted how hard she worked, how all those evenings and weekends that I complained about having to give up were evenings and weekends she voluntarily gave up. I figured that my success was because of my hard work and my amazing brain. But they wouldn't have meant a thing without someone to push me to work and to fill up that brain with radical new ideas. You are drinking from a well your ancestors dug. Summers, when Kim wasn't around, I went to lots of summer camps. There was SKIP, the Summer Kids Independence Program; there was PI, Project Independence; and when I got older, there was Winner Fest, which was a perfect time to hang out with girlfriends-I mean do awesome seminars on blindness. All these programs were put on by the Nebraska Commission for the Blind, but a whole bunch of the staff there were NFB members, blind role models who reinforced all those same ideas I was learning from Kim. When we took a walk down the gravel lane at 5:00 in the morning to experience the sunrise in the middle of the forest, it was blind people who led the way. When we made foil pack dinners around the campfire, blind people built and tended that campfire. When I got caught sneaking out to spend time with my girlfriend, it was-no that didn't happen. No really. It didn't. Anyway. I imagine Amy Buresh can tell you some stories. But that's the point. Right? She was there, along with so many others, sharing her time and her experience with me to shape me into a more confident, independent blind person. Thanks, Amy, and please give my love to Shane, too. You are drinking from a well your ancestors dug. Mom. Of course mom did her part too. She was an active member of the Nebraska Parents of Blind Children and the Lioness Club. She helped put on golf tournaments and craft shows to raise money so that Nebraska blind kids could have scholarships and get good technology. She drove me to those summer camps, to the white cane banquets, and she held me accountable to those same high standards that Kim and my blind role models had for me. And in 2002, when I won that scholarship, she called me in my room at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville to tell me that she was downstairs in the lobby, that she had come all the way to Kentucky because she was proud of me and she wanted to support me. You are drinking from a well your ancestors dug. There comes a point, and it's one of my favorite things about our organization, that someone comes up to you and hands you a shovel, and they suggest that maybe you'd like to dig for a little while. For me, that first opportunity came from Carlos Serv?n, he was the Nebraska affiliate president at the time, and he suggested that I should run for president of the Nebraska Association of Blind Students, even though I had no leadership experience. And then it was Jason Ewell, calling me in 2002 to invite me to take part in NFB Corps, where they dropped me in the middle of Seattle and Knoxville and Burlington and Pensacola to build new chapters of the NFB. It was Angela Wolf, inviting me in 2003 to serve as treasurer of the National Association of Blind Students, and then calling me again in 2005 to tell me I should run for president. It was Fred Schroeder in 2006, suggesting that he could get me a sweet gig teaching Braille. All I had to do was pick up everything I owned and move to Hawaii. No big deal, right? And all that time I was learning and growing, starting to find my feet, those leaders were right there. Encouraging me and offering me their wisdom. You are drinking from a well your ancestors dug. I learned something, in NFB Corps, in NABS, in Hawaii and Texas and Minnesota. I learned just how incredibly lucky I had been. Because I met people who didn't have the same opportunities I had. There was the forty-three-year-old woman in Hawaii who still lived at home with her parents because they didn't believe she could ever live on her own. She worked hard and she learned Braille, and after she graduated, she worked in a sheltered shop. There was the senior support group in Florida, some twenty-odd people who sat in a conference room every month and listened to magazine articles on tape telling them that a cure was just around the corner. When Rachel Olivero and I went to one of their meetings, we had the privilege of hearing their president dole out this sage advice: "Men, let me tell you. When you go over to somebody else's house, and you have to pee, sit down!" And being green and wet behind the ears and drunk on independence, I actually argued with the guy. There was the dad who lost his sight a year ago and wondered if he could ever provide for his family again. There was the guy who went blind when he was hit by a drunk driver who just wanted a job, the kid who graduated valedictorian and never learned to tie his shoes or sign his name, the college student full of promise who was too afraid to walk to class-you know these stories! Maybe you even are one. And if you are, God am I glad you're here. Stephen Jay Gould once wrote, "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." I don't want to lose any more Einsteins. I don't want to lose any more tenBroeks or Jernigans or Maurers or Riccobonos or Scanlans or Dunnams or Jacobsens or Sanders or Baileys or Wenzels or Aunes or Heberts or anyone else in this room because we weren't there. So here I am, and here is my promise to you. When you need my time or my energy, you will have it. When you need my nights and my weekends, I will give them and gladly, and if we ever have to fight because someone wants to hold us back, bring it on. I have drunk from the well my ancestors dug, and I will never forget that. I stand here with you now, shoulder to shoulder, digging the well that blind children and blind seniors and all those who come after us will drink from. My brothers, my sisters, let's work together to create a better tomorrow. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- 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 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- The 2017 National Convention from Afar by Adrijana Prokopenko From the Editor: The National Convention of the Federation is the largest annual gathering of blind people in the world, and participating in it is a major highlight for Federationists and others as we come together to discuss issues and shape the policy for the organization. Fortunately we broadcast much of our convention, and people from around the world join us in spirit. Adrijana Prokopenko is a teacher in Macedonia. English is not her native language, but she does a wonderful job of communicating her excitement and her suggestions for how she thinks things should be. Like her Federation brothers and sisters in the United States, she clearly has her own opinions and is anxious to express them. Here, with slight editing, are parts of the diary she kept describing her participation in our 2017 National Convention: NFB Diary July 10 Excitement is in the air for many people going to convention and lots more that can't go including me. Looking forward to finding out what is in store. Making a list to make sure I have everything at hand while convention is streaming so that I don't have to go out of the room looking for things: water, ice coffee, snacks, mouthwash, cups, spoon, tissues and wet wipes on the shelf, Brailler and Braille paper for taking notes next to me, the phone near the computer on silent mode, doors closed to prevent outside noise, Skype and Facebook opened for immediate communication with members who are there on the spot. July 11 Some great presentations regarding technology equipment like OrCam and Braille devices that have been improved over the years. The thought of being able to access information as do the sighted with not much hassle is great enough; just hope the price is right for everyone; otherwise, some people may miss out on it again. July 12 Job fair seems to have brought some cool things, as someone recommended my Facebook group to people from employment divisions, like Lighthouse and different companies. I was even chatting live to someone like that getting contact info of one of them to be able to email her with more! July 13 Also lots of work today; trying to hunt down exactly the names of companies that are out there so people can meet them live and get their job ads and include them into my job group. Also following the progress of convention from the stream and members who are already there posting on the groups and to me privately. Lesson number one: Learning starts way back from the past in the NFB history, and going deeper into this allows me to understand the organization's philosophy and ideas better. Then there is lesson number two: Real communication and connections with people can always help, no matter if the information comes from an email list, a magazine, or a conversation with an actual person. This would make the learning complete! Everyone seems to be enjoying convention, including Ciera, the fearful high school girl who thought that the NFB wasn't for her. NFB-related messages spread on the groups big time! It is great they are opening the stream thirty minutes early so we can feel the atmosphere and hear some informal chat there! As Oriana enjoys exploring her dad's watch and feeling overjoyed that she will have to announce the National Federation of the Blind name to mark the start of the meeting, I could see how kids could grow into the Federation and have fond memories of it. Practice from the performing arts division in front of the veterans and more recognition for their work from others and probably way more that happened during other events that aren't streamed. And me being the student that I am, I keep learning the NFB lessons as before, so lesson number three goes: stick to being a Federationist in the true sense of the word, no matter how close or far you live. And lesson number four goes: the NFB site always has surprises, so keep checking and scrolling to find them. Even though advertisements about the Nation's Blind podcast didn't appear anywhere before, I could find it from the audio link and start listening to it to keep up with what is going on! Dick Davis had an interview on 1520wbzw, so I had to spread the info far and wide beforehand so people could listen in. Seems like the KNFB Reader is also expanding its features to become even more accurate, and the brother of Victor Stream was just born to help those who want to get it with mobility at the same time. Feels very rewarding to be able to do all this work even from afar! July 14 Already getting replies from companies that they are joining my group and supporting the idea, praying this would bring some cool things for many. Lots of money talk at convention today, which made me feel inadequate for not being able to provide any, but promising I will fix this next year. If nothing else, I can send a door prize and surprise someone! As board members got reelected and kept sharing their enthusiasm, others shared experiences of growing up with blindness and lack of opportunities and how they became the way they are to help others, which shows that if you really want to do something, you can probably find a way to do it! Hopefully all of this talk about discrimination will lead to less of it as we fight to show we will stand up for ourselves and people come to understand that we can do the things they do-especially being parents, students, and workers. So many wrong email addresses people gave at convention: glad I wrote to them first to test before I spread the info out about the NFB-NEWSLINE Echo testing, radio station interview, and job-related email address information. So lesson number five may be: When people get excited, some addresses can go wrong! Smile. Also glad that I subscribed to the press release email list and presidential reports link; wish someone had told me about these things way back when I became a member! Don't think any of this was mentioned in the new member packet, and I think it would be useful for any new member and anyone else who is truly interested in helping the NFB. July 15 An exciting day today-don't want to miss the banquet or anything else by falling asleep, so dividing my sleep hours so I can stay up and listen. What a great thing to hear that companies and organizations can work together to achieve things, even if change is slower than we want and things take time. Was impressed: no one said no at convention so far to the president's words, which made me gain whole new respect for conventions like this one because of this. If it was a roundtable in Macedonia, the discussions would have probably gone nowhere, and everyone would have blamed the other for all our problems. Prizes and awards going to deserving professionals once more, which will probably bring many great things for them and the rest they are connected to, to keep achieving greater things together and stay together in the fight! What can be better than that? As the banquet gets going and prizes get drawn, finding out who gets recognized for drawing in the largest number of people and raising the most money, people cheering for certain individuals in their own state, loud enough to hear even with the sound trouble! As Dr. Maurer gives little NFB facts and stories from the past and lets people get ready for the main thing, excitement builds about what is to follow. As singers start introducing each other and invite everyone to join in, I can't help but sing with them and pull the headset out of the computer for the whole house to hear, not minding that it is 1 AM where I am! As songs go in a faster mood, people get to clap and dance around in their limited space in the crowd. As the video for the students' scholarship and sponsors starts, we have a chance to learn more about everyone who is involved in the deal, hoping that they will continue to support the organization as greatly in the future. As students recite their little songs especially created for the occasion and prizes get drawn, I can't help but suggest that it may serve a great purpose if some of the money prizes are given in products and not money, because this would benefit both the organization selling them and the people who receive and need the products. With the banquet address starting and the room getting quieter, the serious business starts that will hopefully give us the great address for a greater tomorrow. As science and technology advance and take a great part in blind peoples' lives if they are able to afford it, our power to change things for a better tomorrow for us and our children is even greater than ever if we possess all the skills and knowledge to be able to do this nonvisually. As we stick together and share what we have and can do, it is the only way that will bring us and many others forward. As this year's scholarship students come to shake hands with the former and current president and the owner of Kurzweil and are further greeted by all, let's hope that they will be the ones who will be the great movers and shakers of the organization in the future. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ed and Toni Eames] A Twisted Tail Dog by Toni and Ed Eames From the Editor: Toni and Ed are well-known to members of the National Federation of the Blind for their significant activism on behalf of the rights of guide dog users. Ed died in 2009, and Toni continues her strong activism on behalf of guide dog users everywhere. Recently she sent us a note about the proper term for referring to the wonderful dogs that help us move freely in the world. As a former guide dog user myself, I have generously contributed to the problem that Toni addresses, but from now on I will be on the straight and narrow. Here is the article she sends from her and Ed: When The Seeing Eye was founded in 1929, trained dogs partnered with blind people were referred to as guide dogs. Ten years later, when Leader Dogs for the Blind was founded, guide dog was still used as the generic term. When in 1942 Guide Dogs for the Blind was established, Leader and Seeing Eye were concerned the generic term guide dog would be mistakenly associated with this California-based school. Thus, the birth of the use of the twisted term dog guide. In the intervening years, eleven more training programs have been established, with six using the term guide dog in their registered titles. Both major consumer groups, Guide Dog Users Incorporated and the National Association of Guide Dog Users, have opted for the use of guide dog. Even so, the term dog guide persists in some segments of the industry. In interacting with other disabled people, it stands out like a sore thumb to hear about hearing dogs, service dogs, and then dog guides. If we don't put checks on this archaic usage, we could end up with the following: Once upon a time, a small dog lap came to live with the family Brown. The Browns could not decide if he should be a dog house or a dog yard. While mom and dad went to their office law and sister and brother were at care child, the puppy entertained himself by chewing on the leg chair and shoes leather. An even greater violation of etiquette dog was his chasing the cat Siamese and getting into the litter kitty. After many transgressions canine, mom and dad came home one day and threatened to convert their mischievous dog lap from a dog house to a dog yard unless he mended his ways. One day a neighbor visited the Browns with her Retriever Labrador dog guide. This coach canine became the puppy's mentor. Following the advice of this mannered-well dog guide, the small dog lap lived happily after ever as a dog house. ---------- [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: . 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: Lauren Merryfield] Definitely the Cat's Meow by Lauren Merryfield From the Editor: It is frustrating to realize that the sighted public has real reservations about the ability of blind people to parent, but it is also interesting to see that they have questions about how we take care of our pets. Lauren Merryfield has no reservations about getting down and dirty when it comes to talking about the care of her pets. It is obvious that she is a cat lover, and it is also obvious that there is truth in the saying that "Dogs treat you like royalty; cats treat you like staff." Here's what Lauren has to say: I received my first kitten, a yellow-and-white kitty I named Fuzzy, when I was around seven years of age. Back then, our cats were mostly outdoor, so they came and went through the years, some of them not lasting all that long. Eventually, a select few would find their way into our home and be allowed there. After my first husband and I moved to our home, we received a kitty as a housewarming gift. We had her for fourteen years. She eventually went blind and needed insulin due to diabetes. No one commented all that much back then about how I managed with cats, because there was almost always someone around. But now that I am widowed and living alone, the questions come: "How do you know where your cats are?" Most of the time, if they're quiet and/or sleeping, I might not know where they are, but this does not bother me. Cats do not always want their humans to know where they are. When they want attention or food, they'll show up. "How do you get them in their carriers when you take them to the vet?" I know my cats so I can often guess where they are. I pick them up, and as they squiggle, I put them into the carrier. No, you do not have to see to get your cat into its carrier. They may protest, but how does a sighted person put their cat into the carrier when it is protesting? "How do you know when your cat is sick?" If the urine has a pungent odor, I know one has a urinary tract infection. If they leave evidence of an upset tummy, I know. If they are too warm, I know. When my Maryah was panting due to difficulty breathing with fluid in her lungs, I knew. If Toby isn't pestering me and is not sleeping, but hiding, then I know. Cats hide when they are ill so that is the number one means I have of knowing when they are ill and need help. I discover when they do not need help also. When I took Laynie in to be spayed, resulting in an overnight stay, I put a soft kitty bed on the floor where she could get to it easily. I even put a few treats there so she could find them easily. After showing obvious happiness in being back home after her overnight stay, I suddenly observed her climbing the patio screen. As she was hanging there playfully, I realized that she would be dictating how much pampering she would or would not receive from me. "What do you do if your cat has a fur ball?" Almost always, my cats through the years have made it a practice to let their fur balls fly in my pathway so that I will find them. I just clean them up. I usually go barefoot at home so that I have a better chance of finding something on the floor that needs attention. "How do you keep from tripping and falling on your cats' toys?" I walk gingerly. I probably shuffle some of the time. Going barefoot once again comes to my benefit in locating cat toys on the floor. When they are playing with them, I can hear where the cat and the toy are. "What if another cat comes in from the outside?" Yes, that has happened. One day my kitty at the time started growling and hissing. I couldn't figure out what was going on at first until I heard similar sounds coming from under the dining room table. A neighbor's cat had climbed up to our balcony and when I opened the door, he/she sneaked in. Sneaking did not last long. "How do you clean the cat box?" This may seem gross, but not only do I use a pooper scooper, but also, I often use my hands covered with a glove or a sandwich-sized bag to make sure the cat box is clean. This is not any worse than changing a baby's diaper. The question I am asked most often is: "How can you tell your cats apart?" This is an easy one for me. I am sometimes surprised that someone would even ask. I know them by their tails, by their body shape, by their meows, by the bell on their collar if they are wearing one, which toy(s) they are playing with, because they have favorites, and by what they are doing. If I hear one slamming the kitchen cupboard doors under the sink, I know it's Toby. When something was knocked down, it was Maryah. When a cat sneaked out and was gone for two or three days, it was Maryah. I remember the times when I would leave a Braille note on the table and later find it on the floor, with "kitty Braille" added to it, and I knew it was Kitten Kabootle, our Himalayan. When one meowed in such a way that it went up at the end like a question, I knew it was Laynie. When I could hear a cat meowing frantically from the window when I'd come home, I knew it was Jaspur. I similarly knew it was him when he got out one Halloween night and he was a totally black cat-not a good combination, Halloween and black cats. One meowing in a high- pitched tone, getting louder if I do not respond immediately is Toby. He is so gifted with his meows that I sometimes find myself responding to scolding or whining. He is the only cat I've ever had who does this. If I hear unwanted chewing, it is Toby. If I hear excessive scratching in the wrong place, it is Laynie. One who often spoke in two meows, "meow meow," was Melissa. When I hear a crash from the trash can being tipped over it is Toby. Some people, including some blind people, would say that a blind person cannot be owned by a cat, however, I totally disagree. Cats always figure out that I cannot see, however, they do not go into fear-mongering as some humans do; they just work around it. Two of my cats would stand with a small object I dropped, holding it between their front paws until I located the cat, and then the item. They know that I touch the seat of my chair before I sit down to prevent having a flat cat. They trust me to take care of them, and how much I can or cannot see is not part of the equation. They show the same unconditional love toward me whether I can see or not. At times, when I am asked questions that are born of doubt, I feel like it is definitely not the cat's meow. However I also realize that these are opportunities to stop and educate someone. For them to go uneducated about what a blind person can do would definitely not be the cat's meow. But when they discover how I live the life I want with my cats, then it is- yes-the cat's meow! ---------- Eligible Sprint Customers Can Get a KNFB Reader Enterprise License Free! Sprint customers who purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade through Sprint Accessibility will receive a free license to download KNFB reader Enterprise on up to two mobile devices. If you are a new or upgrading Sprint customer, you may be able to get the power to convert printed documents into speech or Braille instantly and accurately at no extra cost! All you need to do is: 1. Visit sprint.com/vision or a Sprint store to purchase a new line of service or eligible upgrade. 2. Call (855) 885-7568 and ask a Sprint representative for KNFB Reader Enterprise. 3. Sprint will provide you with the information you need to create a username and password that will activate your new KNFB Reader Enterprise license. 4. Download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Windows 10 Store. 5. When you launch the app, enter the username and password from step 3 above, and you're all set! Please be sure to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app, not KNFB Reader for $99.99. The KNFB Reader Enterprise app is listed free in the app stores and can be activated with your free KNFB Reader Enterprise License from Sprint. KNFB Reader Enterprise allows users to enjoy the power of KNFB Reader on multiple devices. Make sure that KNFB Reader Enterprise is the app that you download onto your devices to take advantage of this offer. KNFB Reader Enterprise works on Apple, Android, Windows 10 devices, and Windows 10 laptops and PCs. You'll be able to use KNFB Reader on up to two devices with the KNFB Reader Enterprise license that Sprint provides. Just download KNFB Reader Enterprise on both devices and use the same username and password. For example, you can download KNFB Reader Enterprise onto your Sprint phone, and also to your Windows 10 laptop. Or onto both your Android phone and Android tablet. To learn more about what KNFB Reader Enterprise can do, visit www.knfbreader.com. Happy reading from the National Federation of the Blind and Sprint! ---------- Recipes The At-Large Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. One of the things we've done to raise money for our chapter is compile a cookbook of some of our favorite recipes. Here is a sampling of recipes from Food at Your Fingertips. If these recipes whet your appetite, we still have a few Braille cookbooks available for ten dollars per copy. For more info, contact April Enderton, alenderton at gmail.com. Blueberry Coffee Cake by Nancy Finnestad Nancy lives in northwest Iowa. She works as a web accessibility auditor. She likes to read and hike with her husband and little dog. Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature 1-1/4 cups sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/3 cup milk 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries Topping: 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup flour 3 tablespoons butter Method: Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, milk, flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and berries. Mix and spread in a nine-by-thirteen-inch pan. Mix topping and sprinkle on coffee cake. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty to thirty-five minutes. Serves eighteen. ---------- Hot Fudge Pie by Loren Wakefield Loren has been active in the Federation for over twenty-five years. He serves on our chapter board. Loren and his wife Teresa are homeschooling their grandchildren. Here is what Loren says about this recipe, "If you love chocolate, this is for you. It is so gooey and delicious." Ingredients: 1 stick butter, softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup all-purpose flour Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add cocoa powder, salt, and flour. Stir until well combined. Grease eight-inch pie pan with butter or cooking spray. Pour mixture into pie pan. Bake thirty to thirty-five minutes or until center is set. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: April Lynn Enderton] Pin Wheels by April Lynn Enderton April is the president of the At-Large Chapter. She owns and operates Beulah Reimer Legacy, (BRL) and works at United Way. She enjoys reading, writing, camping, playing Scrabble, and listening to music. Ingredients: 1 package large flour tortilla shells 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese 1 can green chilies, drained 4 slices ham or turkey lunch meat Method: Soften cream cheese in microwave. Dice lunch meat. Pour green chilies and diced meat into cream cheese. Mix and spread thin layer over tortilla shells. Roll and place in fridge until firm. Slice into one-inch pieces. Variation: Mix one envelope ranch dressing mix into cream cheese. You can use black olives or thinly-chopped green onions instead of chilies. ---------- Salmon Loaf by April Lynn Enderton Ingredients: 1 16-ounce can salmon 1/2 cup milk 3 cups soft bread crumbs (I use 1 sleeve Club crackers) 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted 3 eggs, beaten 2 tablespoons finely chopped green pepper 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion 1/8 teaspoon pepper Method: Drain salmon, saving the liquid, flake the fish. Heat milk. Add bread crumbs (crackers) and butter, let stand five minutes. Add salmon liquid; beat until smooth. Add eggs, green pepper, onion, pepper, and salmon; mix well. Pour into well-greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for forty to fifty minutes, until firm in center. Remove from oven, let stand five minutes. Loosen from sides of pan with spatula, invert onto serving platter. Makes six servings. ---------- Scotcheroos by Scott Van Gorp Scott is the secretary-treasurer of the At-Large Chapter, the secretary of the state affiliate, vice president of the Des Moines Chapter, and treasurer of the Amateur Radio Division of the National Federation of the Blind. He enjoys reading, amateur radio, music, technology, and spending time with friends and family. "The scotcheroos have been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember," Scott says. "I got the recipe from my mother, and it quickly became one of the special things my late wife, Heidi, and I enjoyed making together. It's been a great joy to share these with people over the years, and now I'm proud to share this recipe with my Federation family." Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1 cup white syrup 1 cup peanut butter 6 cups rice krispies cereal 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 cup butterscotch chips Method: Spray a nine-by-thirteen-inch pan with Pam. Place sugar, white syrup, and peanut butter in a glass bowl. Microwave 3-1/2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Add rice krispies. Spread in bottom of pan. Put chocolate and butterscotch chips in a bowl. Microwave 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Stir after a minute. Spread over top of rice krispies. Let set until firm. ---------- Taco Pie by Pam Quinn Pam enjoys reading, traveling, and anything technology-related. Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1 16-ounce can refried beans 1 16-ounce jar salsa 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 bag corn chips Method: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In skillet, brown beef; drain. Add beans and salsa; mix well. Spoon half of mixture into baking dish. Place thin layer of corn chips over mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Repeat layers. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes. ---------- Turkey Rice Casserole by Tom Davis Tom serves on our chapter board. He enjoys reading, playing on his computer, listening to his Victor Reader Stream, hunting, and grilling. Ingredients: 2 cups instant rice Any amount of leftover turkey you wish 1 onion, chopped Whatever cheese you'd like to use and any amount you'd like 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can green beans, not drained Salt and pepper to taste Method: Mix well until rice is no longer dry. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Dolores Reisinger] Zucchini Snack by Dolores Reisinger For many years Dolores taught blind clients as a rehabilitation teacher for the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the years Dr. Kenneth Jernigan was its director. She lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she is active in her church and organizes lots of Meet the Blind events in her community. Ingredients: 4 eggs, well beaten 1 cup Bisquick 2-1/3 cups parmesan cheese 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1 stick margarine, melted 3 cups thinly sliced zucchini Method: Mix all ingredients together and pour in a well-greased nine- by-thirteen-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. Let cool and cut into squares. ----------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Anil Lewis Recognized: I am truly humbled and honored that the Baltimore Teachers Union, Civil, Human, and Women's Rights Committee has chosen me to be the recipient of the Barbara Van Blake Civil and Human Rights Award. My work with the National Federation of the Blind has afforded me the opportunity to actively engage in the educational, civic, social, and human rights arenas, working to create opportunities for blind people to live, work, and play as fully participating members of our communities. The Baltimore Teachers Union, Civil, Human, and Women's Rights Committee will pay tribute to the legacy of Dr. King at its fourteenth Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. The breakfast will be held Saturday, February 3, 2018, at the Forum Caterers, 4210 Primrose Avenue at 8:30 AM. The theme for this year's breakfast is "The Dream is Still Possible." I share this recognition with the 50,000 members of the National Federation of the Blind. Gain work experience, challenge yourself, and build relationships that will last a lifetime: The Colorado Center for the Blind is now accepting applications from positive blind role models to be residential counselors and classroom instructors in our 2018 summer programs. We offer three programs for students: Summer for Success College Prep Program, Earn and Learn High School Program, and the Initiation to Independence Middle School Program. Staff must be available May 29 through August 10, 2018. Applicants must be good role models, competent in the skills of blindness, well- rounded, flexible, must possess excellent communication skills, and be willing to lead by example. Must be excited to work with blind students ages eleven through twenty. Challenge recreation is an exciting component of the job. Staff will go rock climbing, hiking, canoeing, whitewater rafting, attend martial arts classes, and much more. All staff and students will attend the week-long national convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida. To learn more about our summer programs, please click the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=6yBomtj12KU&x-yt- ts=1421914688&feature=player_embedded#t=0 If interested, please contact Martin Becerra-Miranda at (303) 778- 1130 extension 223 or via email at mbecerra at cocenter.org David Andrews Receives Minnesota's 2018 MLK Commitment to Service Award: David Andrews, chief technology officer at State Services for the Blind, is a recipient of Minnesota's 2018 MLK Commitment to Service award. Andrews was recognized for his contribution to diversity and inclusion through his advocacy for assistive technology, accessible web design, and access to information. Among his many other accomplishments, Andrews was a part of a working group whose efforts contributed to the adoption of accessibility standards as passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2009. Dave has been on staff at SSB for twenty-three years, and has worked in the field of accessibility for nearly four decades. "This award not only honors Dave's dedication and tireless advocacy," said SSB Director, Carol Pankow, "but it also reflects the importance of accessibility and access to information in building a strong and diverse Minnesota. Along with the rest of the staff here at SSB, I congratulate Dave on this important award." James Burroughs, chief inclusion officer for the Governor's Office, presented Andrews with the award at the Ordway Center in St. Paul at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday, January 15, 2018. NFB BELL Academy Adds New Skills to Curriculum: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academy helps blind and low-vision children ages four through twelve develop the literacy skills that will empower them to be successful in their academic and life goals. This year, with the assistance of our Wells Fargo partners, we will be focusing on the development of financial literacy skills as well. In addition to Braille instruction, the program provides instruction in other nonvisual blindness skills through fun, hands-on learning in a day program or residential setting. In addition to Braille crafts, games, and other engaging projects, children learn vital independent living skills, interact with blind adults who serve as mentors, and enjoy field trips to sites related to the NFB BELL Academy curriculum. Through these activities and interactions, the children learn that by "Banking on Blindness Skills," they can live the lives they want. To learn more about NFB BELL Academy and to apply please visit https://nfb.org/bell-academy. National Association of Blind Merchants Day on The Hill: The National Association of Blind Merchants (NABM) and the National Federation of the Blind Entrepreneurs Initiative (NFBEI) will be holding a Day on The Hill on May 20-21, 2018. Please make arrangements to join us in Washington, DC, so we can let our voices be heard and collectively protect the priority. A bill has been introduced that will allow commercialization of interstate rest areas and the President is promoting an infrastructure plan that has been leaked, and we know for certain it includes the option for states to commercialize their rest areas through public-private partnerships. If this becomes the law of the land, almost 400 blind entrepreneurs who operate vending at these rest areas could be displaced almost instantly. Add to that the fact that several programs that rely on funding from third party vendors would face financial ruin. We have to continue our fight to prevent DOD from promulgating the proposed troop dining rules and educate the Armed Services Committee in an effort to thwart any attempt by AbilityOne to get language added to the National Defense Authorization Act this year that would further weaken our priority for troop dining. We must continue to put political pressure on the VA to comply with the law. Now, burdensome OMB regulations are being imposed on states that require federal approval of all purchases of over $5,000. This will slow down purchasing to a crawl and dramatically impact vendors' ability to make a living. We continue to get threats from the American Heart Association that wants to mandate only healthier options to be sold in our vending machines. This year, we will kick things off with some extensive training on Monday afternoon, May 20th. John Par? and Gabe Cazares from the National Federation of the Blind's Baltimore office will lead the training, and it will focus on how to be an effective advocate on The Hill and in your everyday lives. That training will begin at 3:00 and conclude by 6:00. To register to attend the Fly-In, go to www.blindmerchants.org. Complete the registration form and submit. We will make appointments for you with your members of Congress on Tuesday, May 21st. The host hotel will be the Marriott Key Bridge Hotel, 1401 Lee Highway, Arlington, Virginia, 22209. You can see the agenda and book your room at https://blindmerchants.org/day-hill-may-21-22-2018/. You may also call 703-524-6400 and ask for the NABM Fly-In rate which is $199.00. We have a block of rooms for the nights of May 19, 20, and 21. The Randolph-Sheppard Program is under attack. Help us defend it. Register now! 2018 Summer Training and Employment Project (STEP) Program Striving for Success: Since 1985 the Louisiana Center for the Blind has been changing what it means to be blind for adults from across America. In 1990, a program was created to address the needs of blind high school students. The Summer Training and Employment Project (STEP) Program is designed to introduce blind teenagers to positive blind role models and to provide participants with summer work experience. The eight-week summer program will consist of two components. During the first part of the program, competent blind counselors will instruct the students in the alternative techniques of blindness. Classes in Braille, cane travel, computer literacy, and daily living skills will be taught by qualified blind instructors. In addition, seminars will be conducted in the areas of job readiness, job interviewing skills, resum? writing, and job responsibilities. The second part of the program will continue all aspects of training and expand to include an employment dimension. Students will have the opportunity to participate in 40 hours of internship experience- for which they will receive the Federal minimum wage. Students will be introduced to a broad spectrum of career possibilities as they explore postsecondary options. The combination of work experience and blindness-related skills-along with fun-filled activities such as cookouts, swimming, mall excursions, and various other outings-will foster self-confidence and independence in blind teens. From July 3 through 8, students will attend the National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida. This exciting conference will allow them to meet thousands of competent blind people from across the country. The students will also have the chance to participate in a wide variety of informative seminars and youth-oriented social and other activities. At the close of the program, parents will be required to attend a Parents' Weekend which will enable them to discover how much their children have learned throughout the summer. The STEP program is designed to provide invaluable work experience, friendships, opportunities for personal growth, and cherished memories. Training will begin June 10 and conclude August 4. We recognize that there may be some overlap between the start and/or conclusion of our program and school district dates. If accepted, we are happy to coordinate with a student's school district in this regard. Please visit www.louisianacenter.org to learn about more program specifics and to complete an application. Due to limited space, we cannot guarantee that every applicant will be granted enrollment, and applicants must have an open case with their state's vocational rehabilitation agency or other funding entity to cover program costs. Questions? Please call our director of youth services, Eric Guillory at (800) 234-4166 or email him at eguillory at louisianacenter.org. "Together, we are changing what it means to be blind." Check out STEP and find out how. BUDDY PROGRAM 2018: Putting the Pieces Together Come and join us for a summer of fun and learning! Since 1989, the Louisiana Center for the Blind has offered an innovative summer program for blind children in grades four through eight. This summer, the Buddy Program promises to be full of learning opportunities, new friendships, and fun- filled activities. Many blind children have misconceptions about their blindness due to the lack of positive role models and to the negative stereotypes about blindness in society. Unlike other summer programs for blind children, the Buddy Program is directed and staffed by competent blind adults. Classes in cane travel are taught to instill independence and self-confidence. The knowledge of Braille enables the blind child to compete on terms of equality with sighted peers in the classroom and provides a solid background in spelling and other grammatical skills. Classes in access technology expose students to available mainstream and adaptive solutions. Daily living skills instruction promotes equal participation in household duties such as cooking, shopping, and cleaning. In addition to learning valuable alternative techniques of blindness, children will enjoy participating in a wide variety of exciting activities such as swimming, camping, bowling, rollerskating, and field trips. The combination of hard work and fun activities will provide a rewarding experience that children will cherish. Involvement in the Buddy Program helps them realize that it is not blindness that holds them back. Rather, it is the negative attitudes and misconceptions about blindness that may prevent them from reaching their potential. At the close of the program, parents are REQUIRED to attend a Parents' Weekend. This weekend will allow them to interact with other parents of blind children and to learn what their children have discovered about their blindness and themselves. Friendship, training, fun, growth, and interaction between blind children and positive blind role models is how the Louisiana Center for the Blind is "changing what it means to be blind." The Louisiana Center for the Blind will sponsor one session of the Buddy Program in 2018. Program dates are July 15 through August 4. We recognize that there may be some overlap between the conclusion of our program and school district dates. If accepted, we are happy to coordinate with a student's school district in this regard. Perhaps we will have the opportunity to work with your child this summer. We know it will be a memorable experience for both you and them. All interested families should visit www.louisianacenter.org for more details and to apply. Please also feel free to contact our director of youth services, Eric Guillory before April 20. Please email Eric at eguillory at louisianacenter.org or call (800) 234-4166. Due to limited space, we cannot guarantee that every applicant will be granted enrollment. Please note that the fee for students not from Louisiana is $1,000-which is all-inclusive save for transportation to and from the program. The fee for Louisiana students is $500. NFB EQ: The National Federation of the Blind Engineering Quotient (EQ) program is a weeklong summer engineering program for blind and low-vision teens from around the country that will run July 29 through August 4. Throughout the week participants will forge new friendships while increasing their engineering knowledge, problem-solving abilities, self- confidence, and independence. Blind and low-vision teens who are ready to learn new things, meet new people, and have an adventure this summer are encouraged to apply to attend the NFB EQ program. To learn more visit: http://www.blindscience.org/nfbeq. Session Dates for 2018 Summer Programs at BLIND, Inc: Dates for summer programs at BLIND, Inc are as follows: . Post-secondary Readiness Empowerment Program (PREP) June 16 through August 11 . Buddy Program July 22 through August 11 . Summer Transition Youth Learning Experience (STYLE)-Students can choose to participate in one, two, or all three of these sessions! o Week 1: July 23 through 27 o Week 2: July 23 through August 3 o Week 3: July 6 through August 10 Please contact Michell Gip, youth services coordinator at (612) 872- 0100 ext. 231 or mgip at blindinc.org if you have any questions or would like an application. Summer Programs at the Colorado Center for the Blind: CCB offers three summer residential programs for students in middle school, high school, and college prep. The students live with counselors in two-bedroom, 1? bath apartments located near the Center and will work on all aspects of managing an apartment. Students will also use public transportation to travel to and from the Center each day. We place a big emphasis on challenge recreation activities such as whitewater rafting, rock climbing, canoeing, martial arts, science, and a variety of other events. All programs share the core classes of Braille, cane travel, daily living skills, technology, and philosophy of blindness. Summer for Success College Prep Program The College Prep class seeks to instill a sense in each student that they can and should take charge of their education in college and beyond. The program introduces students to the student-initiated world of the college Disability Services office and "reasonable accommodations," as well as the increasingly digital learning environment. We impart concepts and develop skills to assist the student in finding success in their studies. They will learn about their civil rights in college, as well as multi-tool strategies for obtaining their own accessible formats of textbooks and other instructional materials. Here, the emphasis will be on assistive technologies and textbook resources. We'll also cover access to science and math, research databases, and use travel skills to visit several campuses in the Denver Metro area. Earn and Learn High School Program This eight-week residential program serves students age fourteen and older. Not only do these students take the core classes, but they have the opportunity to participate in exciting, paid work experiences. We work to match students with jobs they find both interesting and challenging, and they travel to and from their jobs with an assigned summer counselor. It is exhilarating for the students to get their first paycheck. Initiation to Independence Middle School Program This is a three-week residential program for students age eleven to fourteen. In addition to participating in the core curriculum, students will meet successful working adults in order to learn about various professions. These students are excited to have so many new experiences in just three short weeks! For more information and applications please contact Brent Batron, director of youth programs at bbatron at cocenter.org. Post-secondary Readiness Empowerment Program (PREP) 2018 applications are due: Apply today to PREP 2018, a summer program for all blind/low vision high school students! This 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 develop the self-confidence needed to become successful adults! The core classes include Braille reading and writing, independent cane travel, adaptive technology, career exploration, and home management. This program includes a three-week paid internship experience. Students will utilize the skills they have developed while earning minimum wage, working approximately twenty hours per week in local businesses and agencies. The program will run June 16 through August 11. Contact Michell Gip, youth services coordinator, at (612) 872-0100, ext. 231, or mgip at blindinc.org for more information or an application. Krafters Division Craft Extravaganza: The Krafters Division is sponsoring a Craft Extravaganza on Sunday, March 18, 2018, between 2 and 5 PM central time. We will host a variety of crafts. Each class will last no more than forty-five minutes. Classes offered are: origami box, dipped cherries, duct tape project, bath bombs, and flowers. Come and join us! Log on to www.kraftersKorner.org for more information. 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. Summer Employment at BISM: Have you thought about how you will spend your summer? Are you looking for a fulfilling job working with students to improve their skills and confidence? If so, Blind Industries and Services of Maryland (BISM) wants to hear from you! BISM is currently looking for independent, confident role models ready to teach and mentor high school and middle school students from across the nation. When: Staff training: Thursday, June 7 to Friday, June 15, 2018 Work to Independence Program: Saturday, June 16 to Saturday, August 4 Independence 101 Program: Friday, July 20 to Saturday, August 4 Staff Departure Date: Sunday, August 5 Where: Apartments on a college campus in Baltimore County, and classrooms at the Blind Industries and Services of Maryland Baltimore headquarters Who should apply? Anyone with: . Knowledge of the alternative techniques of blindness (Braille, assistive technology, cane travel, and independent living) . Basic knowledge of structured discovery teaching methods . Effective verbal and written communication skills . High school diploma or equivalent . A positive attitude about blindness and a desire to mentor and motivate youth . Energy and enthusiasm What will you get for your work? . The opportunity to make a difference in the lives of youth nationwide . A summer jam-packed with fun activities and new experiences . CPR and First Aid certification . Compensation in the amount of $4,000.00 All the information you need can be found on our website: www.bism.org/youth. Please read through our 2018 Youth Services brochure and download a staff application. Application submissions must also include a current resum?. For questions, or to apply, please contact Melissa Lomax at MLomax at bism.org, or (410) 737-2642. The DAISY Consortium Continues to Innovate for the Blind: The DAISY Consortium is delighted to announce the launch of Ace by DAISY, the groundbreaking free and open source accessibility checking tool for ebooks created in the widely adopted EPUB format. Ace by DAISY equips the publishing industry with a tool which can test their ebooks against internationally recognized standards for accessibility. Designed to assist content providers at any stage in their workflow, Ace by DAISY will make it easier to produce higher quality, more accessible EPUB content files. The full press release can be accessed at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/01/prweb15141305.htm. For further information on Ace and how to get started, see https://inclusivepublishing.org/toolbox/accessibility-checker/. Please help us to promote this major step forward in accessible publishing! Leader Dog's Summer Experience Camp-Making Teens Unstoppable! Summer Experience Camp is a week of outdoor fun, friendship, and skill building. The program combines activities like rock wall climbing and tandem biking with leadership building exercises and things exclusively Leader Dog-GPS training and spending time with Leader Dogs in training. The combination helps increase independent travel skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills. The free program is for boys and girls ages sixteen and seventeen who are legally blind. Leader Dog covers all costs including airfare to Michigan-and everyone receives a free HumanWare Trekker Breeze+ GPS device. The 2018 camp dates are June 23 through June 30. Applications are due by March 31, 2018. For more information and to download an application, go to www.leaderdog.org/clients/programs/summer-experience-camp or call the Leader Dogs for the Blind client services department at (888) 777-5332. ---------- 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. Wanted: I am interested in purchasing a Voice Mate. Call Ray at (863) 993- 2997. I will pay a good price. ---------- 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 Apr 3 11:17:41 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2018 11:17:41 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, April 2018 Message-ID: <201804031817.w33IHf27023726@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 4 April 2018 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 ? 2018 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: The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2018 NFB Convention The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 3 to July 8, 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 2018 room rates 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. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $100-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, 2018. 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, 2018, 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 2018 convention is: Tuesday, July 3 Seminar Day Wednesday, July 4 Registration and Resolutions Day Thursday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day Friday, July 6 Opening Session Saturday, July 7 Business Session Sunday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 61, No. 4 April 2018 Contents Illustration: So Much Can Happen in a Day A Giant Step on the Road to Accessible Art by Gary Wunder A Night at the Newseum by Mark Riccobono, Glen Walters, and John Olson NFB Philosophy: What It Is and What It Is Not by Gary Wunder, Mark Riccobono, and Marc Maurer Fearless: Remembering a Teacher Who Made the Difference by Melody Lindsey Roane National Science Foundation Awards New Grant to National Federation of the Blind by Seth Lamkin The Power of Twitter by Karen Anderson A Professional in the Field Responds to AER by Dick Davis Others Share Their Response to AER and NAC An Open Letter to Federation Chapters Regarding the Presidential Release by Mark Riccobono NOPBC 2018 Conference-President's Welcome by Kim Cunningham Minimum Wage Exemption for Persons with Disabilities Eliminated Our Public Commitment to One Another as Represented in our Official Code of Conduct Statement by Mark Riccobono Changing Attitudes Regarding Education, Employment, and Rehabilitation through the National Federation of the Blind CAREER Mentoring Program by Maurice Peret The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Screen Readers: The Interface between Us and the Road by Amy Mason Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO/CAPTION: Carla McQuillan plays her guitar and sings into the microphone in front of a group of people who sit listening. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Melissa Riccobono stands and sings into a microphone. Mark Riccobono sits behind her playing the guitar. Melissa's guide dog sniffs at Mark's guitar. So Much Can Happen in a Day On March 17 the Jernigan Institute conducted simultaneous meetings of BELL Academy coordinators and the Research and Development Committee. Though we met in separate rooms and on separate floors, we were all going about the business of creating greater opportunities for blind people. But when the evening came around, it was time to acknowledge what was going on in the wider world, and that was the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Our dinner offerings were Irish stew or corn beef and cabbage, a healthy serving of potatoes, a healthy salad, three varieties of cheese, and a wide selection of fruit. I don't know that I can put the word healthy before the brownies, so how about yummy as a substitute for that oh so necessary adjective. But the meal was just the beginning of the evening. Carla McQuillan loves to sing Irish ballads, and all of us had song sheets either in Braille or print so we could join her in singing and clapping during the bridge. Like every great performer, Carla took an intermission, and in her absence from the stage we were entertained by Melissa Riccobono and her accompanist on the guitar, Mark. Melissa has started a project to bring the community together through music and to help raise money for deserving charities. She and Mark gave us a sneak preview of what will be in her first show, and clearly it is going to be a good one. I don't think there could have been a better way to end a weekend of work then through this celebration. We enjoy working hard, but we also enjoy letting our hair down and playing together. Thanks to the great musicianship on the stage and the audience who made up the chorus, we made a joyful noise that must have made happy the leprechauns that were certainly among us. A Giant Step on the Road to Accessible Art by Gary Wunder One day my mother and I were discussing sight and what I would look at first if I got it back for a limited time. My answer was quick and firm. I'd look at the moon, the stars, at famous paintings, at pictures in magazines and books I always heard so much about. My mom started to cry. The answer was supposed to be that I would look at her, at my father, at my brothers and sisters, at all the people I loved and whose faces I couldn't see. I was truly sorry I had hurt her, and at the same time I was perplexed. I knew what my mother and father and brothers and sister looked like. I knew how tall they were, how big or small, the feel of their skin, and the length and texture of their hair, what they sounded like, what they enjoyed for breakfast, and their favorite hobbies and pastimes. Why wasn't it obvious that I would want to learn about things I had almost no knowledge about and to engage in an experience that eluded me? Pictures have always seemed magical. How could someone with paint and a brush capture a smile that has captivated the world? How can people looking at a statue see the weight of the world on President Lincoln's shoulders? What did the astronauts see from space that made them realize how fragile is the planet on which we live? How can light on paper preserve my grandfather's strong and sturdy body when he was thirty when the man I knew was stooped and found it hard to walk? [PHOTO CAPTION: Gen. Glenn Walters and John Par? examine the 3D rendition of "The Tank."] A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that doesn't mean a thousand words can fully capture a picture. My guess is that words can no more describe a picture than they can describe the sound of an orchestra or the beauty of a human voice singing on-key and with emotion that can almost break a heart. So when pioneers say they want to join with the blind in putting pictures in our hands, we are excited, anxious to join with them, and committed to expanding our experiences into all of the areas that understanding pictures might open: easier ways to comprehend science, to observe technology, to participate more fully in the appreciation of art that has been closed to the blind. John Olson is a photographer who became known as a result of his work taking photographs during the Vietnam War working first for Stars and Stripes and later for LIFE magazine. His pictures transformed an abstract battle in what too many of us thought of as a battle way over there in Asia into a life-and-death conflict between human beings who were as close as our kitchen table. John's success in pictures made him wonder how the blind experienced life and whether it could be enhanced by having access to something that had meant so much to him. So it was that in 2008 he created 3DPhotoWorks, a company with the mission of converting pictures into tactile representations blind people could feel and enjoy. [PHOTO CAPTION: NFB of Minnesota affiliate member examines "We're Marines, Let's Go!"] On January 30, 2018, a first-of-its-kind exhibit was held at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Pictures that started Mr. Olson's career by capturing dramatic scenes at the Battle of Hu? City during the Tet Offensive in 1968 were shown to the blind using tactile representations and audio descriptions. These exhibits showed a Marine in battle fatigues with a belt of ammunition for an automatic rifle slung across his chest, a body covered in blankets on a stretcher, a Marine in dress uniform-different facets of the military life and experience that Mr. Olson shared as a war photographer. When touching a part of a picture, what is being touched is described, and several pictures and audio descriptions make up each display. On the night of the Newseum exhibit held exclusively for the NFB, lots of excited people were touching and listening. Multiple people examining one exhibit was a problem since touching a different picture immediately halts the description of the previous picture and begins narration of the one just pressed. Dr. Maurer went back to see the exhibit for a more personalized tour. His request was that he be allowed to examine a series of pictures without the audio to see what he could determine for himself. He was able to detect a man who appeared to be wearing a belt. The man was a Marine in dress uniform with a saber in his hand, ribbons on his chest, and decorations on his collar. In another case he examined a picture of a tank. He could tell it was a tank and could find the tread on which it rolled, but because the door of the tank was on the same plane, he could not identify it. Clearly what we are seeing in these works is experimental and raises some good questions. What can we do to make drawings that convey more through the sense of touch? What can we learn to detect through touch that we have not stimulated because trying to interpret pictures is not a normal part of our experience? Since understanding photographs seems intuitive for people who can see, is this something learned through repeated exposure, or is it something reserved primarily to those with vision? Perhaps the most important question is this: if blind people are exposed to tactile art repeatedly at an early age, is it something they can appreciate as much as people who can see? We are forging something wonderful as we explore the new frontiers of experience, learning, and making museums acknowledge our interest in things that are too often behind glass, too often elevated above where we can reach, and too often separated by a rope or other barrier, the message being "do not touch." We are working to learn the boundaries of touch, expand our knowledge about how to construct tactile art to make the most of touch, and convince museums and other places that display interesting and historic information that the blind want and can benefit from it. Through our partnership with John Olson and 3DPhotoWorks, we will make substantial progress in enriching the lives of blind people who want to know more than what is delivered through the spoken word. Together with the work we are doing with science, technology, engineering, and math, we will increase the ease with which blind students learn, increase the ability of blind workers to use drawings like their sighted colleagues, and open up fields of study which for too long have been thought off-limits to the blind. In this investment of our time and treasure, the Federation will most certainly win because anything we do will bring more information into the hungry and curious minds of blind people. --------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] A Night at the Newseum by Mark Riccobono, Glenn Walters, and John Olson From the Editor: A number of moving remarks were made on the evening of January 30, 2018, as the Newseum opened its doors to members of the National Federation of the Blind. Our purpose was to celebrate the first of its kind exhibit featuring a tactile and audio exhibit commemorating the Battle of Hu?. The evening's festivities began with a presentation by President Riccobono. Here are his remarks, followed by those of Glenn Walters and John Olson: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] Welcome to the 2018 Congressional reception of the National Federation of the Blind and welcome to the Newseum. [applause] Most importantly, thank you for being here for this historic event, a time when the blind of the nation join with a camera company and an innovative photographer to change access to information and celebrate the Marines who made it possible for us to live the lives we want. [applause] In January 1968 the members of the National Federation of the Blind were not in the war. Blindness was thought to be a barrier to providing service for the nation, although the war was at the front of our minds. In the February 1968 issue of the Braille Monitor, our flagship publication, the very first sentence of the report regarding our legislative priorities read as follows: Although the Vietnam War, fiscal and big city problems, and civil rights are expected to dominate the attention of the members of the Second Session of the 90th Congress, efforts will be made legislatively to resolve longstanding difficulties confronting physically disabled men and women and other socially and economically disadvantaged people." Those words were published at the same time that the men honored in the exhibit we celebrate tonight were courageously battling in Hu? City. When those veterans returned from battle in 1968, they did not always receive a welcome consistent with their service to our country. In that same timeframe we, the blind, were not viewed as first-class citizens who had the ability to participate fully in society. Today, those veterans are rightfully celebrated for their service in defense of the values of our great nation. Similarly, the blind are increasingly recognized as contributors and innovators in our communities. One indicator of our progress as a nation is that we the blind are here tonight to help bring an exhibit to the sighted, an exhibit that is long overdue. [applause] Never before has an exhibit of this depth, power, and honor been presented to remember the Marines who fought in the Battle of Hu? in February 1968, and never before in history has an extensive exhibit of photographs been brought to life with tactile and auditory complements in a major museum in the United States, enhancing its access and meaning to all who come to experience it, blind or sighted. [applause] It is my true honor to be here this evening to offer the opening of this exhibit and this program on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind. As a son of a Vietnam Navy veteran, this evening is special to me, particularly because of its celebration of our military personnel who have given so much for our freedom. We would like to begin this evening by first inviting our Vietnam veterans who are here this evening to stand and say hello so we know who you are. Thank you for your service. [prolonged applause] And now we would like to invite all active military personnel and veterans to stand and say hello so we know where you are. Thank you for your service. In 1968 the National Federation of the Blind lost a general in the civil rights movement for the blind. Dr. Jacobus tenBroek died in the spring of that year. He served as founder and first President of the National Federation of the Blind. A few years before his death he described the common bond that brings us together in our organization, and although it is sometimes harder to find in America today, I would argue that it is the same bond we strive to protect in our great nation. He said that we have a faith in each other that can move mountains and mount movements. Today, we add strength and speed to that movement. There are many who helped us get here this evening. Our reception this evening is made possible through the generous support of our friends at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. I think some of them are here this evening [applause], the Lockheed Martin Corporation, FedEx, and we also should acknowledge the leadership of the Newseum for hosting this event, and, of course, the great folks at 3DPhotoWorks who did the heavy lifting and put this together. We have a number of special dignitaries who are here this evening, along with the members of the National Federation of the Blind, and friends, and donors to our organization. We'd like to acknowledge the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. We also have with us Dr. Marc Maurer, executive director of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults and his wife, Mrs. Maurer. We have Dr. Fred Schroeder, president of the World Blind Union. [applause] We're really honored to have with us this evening Lieutenant General Ron Christmas, and also joining him is his wife, Mrs. Christmas. General Christmas was a veteran of Vietnam and fought in the Battle of Hu?. Thank you. [applause] I know we have many other distinguished guests here, and I thank you for being with the blind of America this evening. I am proud to introduce our first speaker this evening. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 12 May 1979 after graduating from The Citadel with a degree in electrical engineering. He has served in a variety of positions during the past forty years, building extensive experience in the military. It is my honor to present to you the Assistant Commandant of the United States Marines, General Glenn Walters. [applause] [PHOTO CAPTION: General Glenn Walters] General Walters: Oorah! Thank you so much. It is Gail and my distinct honor and pleasure to be with you here tonight. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dunford also wanted to be here tonight. As it turns out there's another event just up the street [laughter]; The State of the Union requires his presence. So General Dunford asked if I could attend in his place and represent all of us who are in uniform today to acknowledge and honor all of those who served in Vietnam. [applause] And as my staff, some of whom are here tonight, will tell you, I rarely stick to script, and I'd rather be here than there this evening. [applause]. I would like to offer my thanks to Mark and the staff and members of the National Federation of the Blind. Without your support and efforts, this evening would not be possible. Most importantly, without your dedication this great exhibit that I had a chance to view today would not be on display. Fifty years ago tonight, the North Vietnamese began an audacious offensive. Their attacks occurred during what was supposed to be a ceasefire. General Christmas, I'm sorry; you've probably heard all of this before. That ceasefire was in honor of the Tet holiday. Instead the communist forces used this perceived temporary peace as an opportunity to strike and catch our forces and those of our allies off-guard. The North Vietnamese struck more than one hundred villages and cities across South Vietnam in places like Khe Sahn and the US Embassy compound in Saigon. Hu? City was another target. It was the intellectual and cultural heart of Vietnam; it was almost neutral, with very little US or North Vietnamese conventional forces present. However, in the days and the weeks and the months leading up to that offensive, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong quietly infiltrated Hu? City, awaiting to attack. Soldiers and Marines responded to that attack across South Vietnam. The character of many of our heroes we know today was shown on those days and weeks in 1968. Brave Americans like John Canley, then a Gunnery Sergeant in Alpha Company, First Battalion, First Marine Regiment. When his company commander fell, seriously wounded, Gunny Canley assumed command of Alpha Company and on numerous occasions exposed himself to intense enemy fire to rescue fellow Marines wounded by the enemy. Although wounded himself Gunny Canley reorganized and scattered his Marines and inspired them to drive the enemy from its fortified positions. For his actions in that first week of fighting in Hu?, Gunnery Sergeant Canley earned the Navy Cross. [applause] That's our nation's second-highest award, and he would continue to serve until he retired as a Sergeant Major Marines. This is another ad-lib point for me as I share with you that we have gotten word that Gunnery Sergeant, now Sergeant Major, Canley's award has been upgraded to the Medal of Honor. [applause] I think that this is the first public announcement of that event, and I'm proud to share it with you. Another of the many heroes that emerged from that intense urban combat in the Battle of Hu? was a young Marine Captain by the name of Ron Christmas. He commanded Hotel Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment. Multiple times Captain Christmas moved across exposed areas under intense enemy fire, both to assess the situation and lead his Marines in the assault on the enemy's positions. He ignored his own safety to direct accurate fire from atop a tank that in my notes said he requested, but I believe was probably more like requisitioned. [laughter] He personally led his men in house-to-house fighting until the enemy building complex was secured. For his actions in Hu? in 1968, Ron Christmas would also receive the Navy Cross. [applause] And to complete the story, we are honored to have Lieutenant General Ron Christmas and his wife Sherry with us here this evening. [applause] He remains a servant to all Marines today and a staunch advocate for our Marine Corps heritage and our history. Thank you, sir, for being here tonight, and thank you for your decades of service. [applause] There is one more individual hero I would like to recognize tonight, John Olson. He told me this evening he was a soldier, but I'm not going to alter my remarks. In Hu?, John stood side to side with our Marines, and he captured with his camera their story. His brave work allowed our citizens then and now to understand the story of the brave servicemembers who served in Vietnam. [applause] This courage will preserve their story for generations to come. Now, through the efforts of John, this great organization, the National Federation of the Blind, and this spectacular venue and exhibit, more of our great people can more richly understand and appreciate the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women. [applause] Access to our nation's story is essential and should be realized by all of us. Many great people in this room have made that more possible. Thank you, and I commend you. [applause] You have improved access to a courageous group of American heroes-fellow Americans who remain undeterred by blindness. Accomplishments realized despite challenges inspire us all; perseverance in the face of adversity is a core component of the American spirit. You encourage us when you break through barriers and overcome obstacles. These traits define our character and thank you for inspiring all of us. [applause] It is a true pleasure for Gail and I to be a small part of this evening's event. We are honored to be here to celebrate the determination and esteemed contributions of those who persevere through blindness to participate in honoring in the service of our men and women who wore the cloth of our nation in Vietnam. For all of this, thank you for including us, God bless you all, and semper fidelis. Mark Riccobono: Thank you General. It was a pleasure to have you and your wife here, and God bless you as well. In 1968, Robert Kennedy was traveling the nation campaigning for president and attempting to bring people together during a time of great unrest. He said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." Although he was not speaking of our next presenter, this quote could be appropriately placed as a caption to the creator of tonight's exhibit or his photos that appear in it. John Olson received his first camera at age twelve. Early on he knew he wanted to be a war photographer. As fate would have it, in 1966 he was drafted and sent to Vietnam at the age of nineteen. There Olson was assigned to the daily military newspaper Stars and Stripes; if you're not familiar with it, you can read it on the NFB-NEWSLINE service. Amongst his many activities he spent five days photographing the Battle of Hu? City in February 1968, where he captured the images that helped unlock the truth about what was happening in the war for the American public. His photos were published in LIFE magazine, and shortly thereafter at age twenty-one, John became the youngest staff photographer ever hired by LIFE magazine. After spending forty years in photography, including starting his own business and using his business talents to advance technologies and digital photography, he dared to do something few would have even believed was possible: make photographs in a form that blind people could have the freedom to explore on their own terms. [applause] Fate put John and I together at a convention of the National Federation of the Blind in New York, and John began to tap into the authentic experience of blind people, and together we are now making history. [applause] There are many things I could tell you about John and my experience with him. The most important thing for you to know is that he is a man with a big heart, a broad imagination, and a faith that can move mountains and mount movements. He is a visionary photographer who is blind at heart. [applause] I present to you the principal owner of 3DPhotoWorks, a celebrated war photographer, the passion behind the exhibit that we celebrate tonight, and a partner with the National Federation of the Blind: here is John Olson. [PHOTO/CAPTION: John Olson] John Olson: You know Federation members, I know many of you. I don't know all of you, but for a few moments here I wondered if in fact they'd switched out some extras because the Federation members I know-when they get a group-aren't just kind of laid back and quiet as this group is, you know. So is this the Federation or not? [loud cheering] That's the people I recognize. Thank you for passing the security test. You know, today is a historic date, and today is a historic day. It's a historic day as General Walters has explained to us, because fifty years ago the Battle of Hu? and the Tet Offensive occurred. I was a twenty-year- old, highly motivated US Army draftee. I was highly motivated to pursue my profession: it was to be a world-class photojournalist and a world-class war photographer. And I had an incredible job in the army. I was the only combat photographer assigned to Stars and Stripes newspaper in Vietnam. Now Stars and Stripes is one of our partners in this project, and they've been an incredible partner, just like the Newseum. Now I want to hear just one more time to prove to the Newseum that this is the Federation. Now what do you think of that? [very loud cheering] You know, it turns out that if you're a combat photographer, you can't fake it. You've got to be out in the middle of things; the more dangerous the better. And one way to guarantee you're going to be in the middle of things-you go where the Marines are. [applause] So shortly after Tet broke out I heard that fighting in Hu? was vicious. It was house-to-house, something that I'd never seen, and if I'm correct, many of the Marines had never seen. So I went to Hu?. I was met by a number of eighteen-, nineteen-, and twenty-year-old Marines. They were dirty, unshaven, hungry, and angry. And if you're a combat photographer who probably doesn't carry a weapon, there's nothing better than that combination to keep you safe. And they kept me alive for my time in Hu?, and they allowed me the opportunity to make a series of photographs that ran in Stars and Stripes and LIFE magazine. And that launched my career, and it gave me access to people and places for decades that I never would have had had I not made that series of photographs. At a point in my career, I began to realize how critical access to images had been to my life. Now I never met a blind person, but I began to wonder what it was like for people of the blind community who don't have access to visual information. Now I have no engineering experience, no neuroscience experience, but that day nearly ten years ago I set out to develop a means by which the blind community could share in art, in photographs, and to acquire visual information for learning and enjoying life. [applause] Now I was very fortunate. I hired some really talented people who were able to devise a means by which we could convert two-dimensional images to three-dimensional data, we could sculpt them to be tactile, and then we could print the image and data on top of the relief. In an early meeting with my partners from the National Federation of the Blind [cheers] it was explained to me by director of assistive technology Anne Taylor- and for those of you who know Anne, you know there's no middle ground with Anne; she tells it the way it is. She explained to me the need to convey as much information as possible to the blind community. On the way out the door she stopped us and said, "And this will be our gift to the sighted." [applause] So tonight, as you experience the ten tactile images there, keep in mind that this is a gift that we're learning is as compelling to the sighted community as it is to the Federation members and the blind community. Now I did not develop this on my own. I developed it in partnership with Federation members and the leadership of the Federation. Had it not been for you and your leadership, we wouldn't have a product today. Early on, in one of our first meetings with a large number of Federation members, we invited in ten of you and asked for your input, and it went from there. When we proposed this exhibition to the Newseum and they understood the historic nature of the exhibit and the opportunity to be the first major museum in the United States to serve the blind community, they seized the opportunity. [applause] Our goal at 3DPhotoWorks is to create a worldwide network of museums, now that the technology exists, that's willing to serve the blind community. Prior to this evening, the Federation invited leaders from the museum community from different parts of the country. When, as Federation members, you experience this exhibit tonight and you have the opportunity to convey to one of those industry leaders the importance of visual information, make sure you tell them how you feel and tell them from your heart. Because I've learned that the number one thing about Federation members is that you tell it like it is, and this is your opportunity to convey the importance of what we've achieved. Thank you very much. [applause] Mark Riccobono: Thank you John. Nancy's here, right-part of the dynamic duo. Thank you both for being here. Tonight we celebrate our veterans and the progress we have made as a country and as a blindness civil rights movement. Tonight we help to give back to our veterans, and we set a new standard for photographic experiences in cultural institutions across this great nation. Let tonight be the spark that ignites passion for new dimensions in photography where the visual and the nonvisual combine to create an experience that is beyond our current understanding of presentation and perception. Let this moment strengthen our faith and encourage us to welcome others into our movement so that we can revolutionize how history is displayed and commemorated in our nation. Maybe we'll even change the participation of blind people in military service. [applause] In 1968, Robert Kennedy said these words that speak to our purpose here tonight and our mission in the National Federation of the Blind: "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." [applause] Or, as we say in the National Federation of the Blind [crowd chanting the name of the organization along with him], "together with love, hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality." That's what we've done here today, and that's what we will do in the future. Congratulations to us, and thank you for being here. [applause] ---------- NFB Philosophy: What It Is and What It Is Not by Gary Wunder, Mark Riccobono, and Marc Maurer From the Editor: In response to the article "Tax Deductions for the Blind: Are They Something We Deserve, and Should We Fight for Them?" published in the January 2018 issue, I received a most interesting question. Boiled down it is what is NFB Philosophy and are there things one must and must not do to follow it. What prompted the question was the letter that talked about a tax deduction for being blind and whether asking for this wasn't as contradictory as asking to preboard an airplane. The writer who inquired wanted to know if it is an article of faith in the NFB philosophy that we will not preboard and wonders exactly what the NFB philosophy is. My initial email to her said that I consider the NFB philosophy less a set of commandments and more like the application of the Golden Rule. My understanding of what we believe is that there is no list of thou shall and thou shalt not's but instead a mindset that asks, "Is this something I need based on blindness? If it is, I will take it and advocate for it. If it is not, I will not borrow against the goodwill and public support that people feel about blind people. Instead, I will try to educate and will hope that I can bank some of those good intentions for things I really need." Not content with my own understanding and thinking that the thoughts of others might make an article worth publishing here, I wrote to four people asking if they wished to try defining the NFB philosophy. Two of them responded. It is no surprise that one of them was President Riccobono. As one might expect, the other was Immediate Past President Maurer. Here is what they said in response to my letter asking if they had thoughts to share. Neither believes that he has written the definitive word on our philosophy, and the door remains open for other thought-provoking articles on the subject: >From President Riccobono: Dear Gary, As you know from our telephone conversation, I wrote an extensive reply to you which I lost to a Microsoft gremlin. I have been eager to get back to this, so I took a few minutes at the question yesterday. There is definitely more that can be said on this topic, and I think there is at least one idea that did not come to mind in my rewrite today. Exploring the question of what is the NFB philosophy and what elements of it are articles of faith is a good idea. I know that my friend Marc Maurer, who has taught me the nature and art of philosophy over the years, will have ideas about this topic. Let me give you the thinking of where my mind went since it strikes me that philosophy is the art of thinking about thinking. The word philosophy comes from Latin and from the Greek word philosophia "love of wisdom." Today it is often defined as "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline." Philosophy is about creating understanding (wisdom) and then turning that understanding over to determine if it holds together. Sometimes it does not hold together because it is inconsistent (logic), and sometimes it does not hold together when tested in the real world. This summer I described philosophy as a "pattern of thought," as that is how I have come to think about it, especially in the art of attempting to contribute to it in the form of banquet speeches. In contrast, an article of faith is a "firmly held belief." One can take something as an article of faith without having any philosophy of any type. In fact, I am certain we all know people who have firmly held beliefs based on some experience and not truly because they have reasoned through it systematically. I think I take certain things as articles of faith because of my experience with NFB philosophy. One is the idea that we, as blind people, are best suited to determine what is best for the blind. This comes from NFB philosophy, but I think I consider it an article of faith because I have observed it tested out in the world, and I know how it works better than the alternatives-both in my own life and for us as a movement. I think Dr. tenBroek held this belief, and he did so before we had a shared philosophy. Maybe he held this belief because he thought critically about blindness-which we now think of as NFB philosophy-or maybe he did because Dr. Perry instilled it in him. This leads me to wonder where the individual comes into NFB philosophy. The Federation provides a pattern of thought, but it is up to us to think about it and apply it. I know that we have an extensive body of literature about blindness. On our website we define some of it as "philosophy." That page can be found at https://nfb.org/literature- philosophy. This section incorporates by reference all of the banquet speeches. Does that body of literature constitute NFB philosophy? Most certainly there are pieces that are not mentioned. My friend Bill Meeker wrote an article that appeared in the Braille Monitor in December 1994 entitled "The Blind Table." This article makes certain observations about where the blind get seated in restaurants. I consider it part of understanding our NFB philosophy in as much as it is an expression of how our pattern of thought teaches us to evaluate the world around us. I doubt many people remember or even notice the ideas Bill shares in that article, but I think it could be considered part of our pattern of thought. This raises the idea for me that our NFB philosophy gains strength as more people are learning about it and testing it. Many times people simplify the critical thinking that the NFB philosophy challenges us to do by boiling it down into bite-sized rules. "Federationists never take preferential treatment because it is against our philosophy," is one example. Another is "Real Federationists use rigid canes because they are proud to be blind." The rules always cause trouble because they demonstrate more black and white than the NFB philosophy offers. When I was a student at the Colorado Center for the Blind, I found use of the rigid cane helped me focus on the skills I needed to learn, while enforcing the pattern of thought that I could direct my own movements and manage my own affairs. When I choose to use a telescoping cane today-I have both types in the corner of my office-I know it comes with the disadvantage that it might collapse. If I am running out of the office to meet a business associate who is picking me up to go to lunch, I will likely grab my telescoping cane as I am not sure what type of car they might have or what the arrangements will be at the restaurant. I have no trouble dealing with a straight cane, but I can make a choice. NFB philosophy tells me I should make the choice that makes sense for my independence and blending in. Other Federation members might make a different choice for a different reason, and it will be completely consistent with our philosophy. In other words, I think the pattern of thought often gets confused with the actions we take. In any philosophy, humans always struggle with the gaps between the idea and the action we take. Our philosophy urges us to continue examining ourselves just as many religious philosophies invite people to regularly ground themselves in being God-like-an extremely high standard by any measure. Your email asks whether avoiding preboarding is an article of faith in the NFB philosophy. This is an interesting question. For me, NFB philosophy guides me to consider whether there are any artificial barriers in the boarding process that require me to be treated differently-I say no. NFB philosophy asks me to consider whether it is necessary for me to stand out as needing special treatment by preboarding-I again find myself saying no. NFB philosophy does not tell me what to do but leads me to a place that informs my decision. Recently I had the A1 boarding position on a Southwest flight. The only people that got on the plane before me were preboarders. Since I was at the front of the A line and very visible to the boarding attendant, he wanted me to preboard. Functionally there should have been no difference to him whether I preboarded or not as I was effectively boarding ahead of everyone else. He insisted that I preboard even after I told him "no thank you." I wondered if having the back and forth with him was helpful. Once I successfully convinced him to drop it, a nearby passenger remarked to me that the gentlemen really did not trust that I knew my own capacity. I choose to board with the rest of the group because NFB philosophy generally leads my mind to a place where I think it is the best for me and for other blind people. It was not until I had the experience of being the first regular boarder on the plane that I truly realized how powerful that perception line is to others. If the idea of boarding with everyone else was not a firmly held belief before, it is now. Having said that, I think the NFB philosophy challenges me to consider preboarding and if there truly is a reason that I need it. I sometimes take this option when I have to walk out onto a noisy tarmac. The only times I do not are when I am with someone or when I have gotten to know someone in the boarding area that I feel comfortable asking to walk near me. I find it more consistent with NFB philosophy to ask to preboard or walk with someone than to boldly walk out into the noise and hope that someone grabs me and steers me in the right direction or yells loudly enough that I can hear them. I do not ask the person next to me unless we have already been engaged in conversation, because I think it might reinforce whatever misconceptions they already carry. That level of complexity in thinking has come with years of living the NFB philosophy every day. When I was a college student on my way to my first national convention, I would not have had that level of sophistication in my thinking. On my way back from my first national convention, I probably knew that many Federation members did not choose to preboard, but I did not understand why. When the airline put me in a room with twelve-year-old children, I began to understand it better. The pattern of thought is important, but the actual practice of it helps to make it real. The two build on each other. This developmental process is much of what Dr. Jernigan discusses in "The Nature of Independence." This is also why our training centers are powerful and effective. They do not simply teach the skills, but they reinforce the pattern of thought, and they teach blind people how to evaluate the thought process. The NFB philosophy also gets a bad reputation when individuals project it onto others. I think the NFB philosophy encourages me to share it with others, and I very badly want other blind people to know the freedom I know I get from this pattern of thought. Leaders of the Federation-this is definitely reflected in "The Nature of Independence"- challenge us to raise our expectations but also to be careful about how we challenge others to raise theirs. We all know of blind people who have pushed potential members of the Federation away because we presented NFB philosophy as a "thou shalt or you are not fit" sort of environment. I do not think that is inherent in NFB philosophy, but rather a problem with humans making a pattern of thought actionable. I think this is also the conflict that comes up related to our philosophy and use of a guide dog. We all know people who talk about the dog as the thinking entity. Yet our philosophy tells us that no matter the tool, the blind person should maintain the locus of control. Thus, the best handlers of guide dogs, in my opinion, are those who understand that the dog follows the person's directions even if the dog is doing the physical leading. We know that this becomes controversial since some blind people understand this to be that NFB philosophy devalues dogs. In my mind, the NFB philosophy establishes a pattern of thought that gives you guidance on how to use the tools effectively. The NFB philosophy is a pattern of thought that encourages us to explore the boundaries of what is possible. The NFB philosophy is the belief that we are the ones best suited to decide what works for us. The NFB philosophy is a living way of thinking and acting upon the world as blind people, and it evolves as more of us come to practice the patterns. If there are any articles of faith, they probably consist of blind people know what is best for blind people, blindness is not the characteristic that exclusively defines us, and we should strive every day to raise expectations for ourselves. Then again, we once took it as somewhat an article of faith that blind people could do anything except for drive and fly an airplane. Then we shattered the idea that driving was on the list. This might suggest that the only article of faith is the faith that we have in one another to continue testing the limits of our own future. I am eager to hear what others have to share on this topic. There you have President Riccobono's thoughts on the subject. Here is what Dr. Maurer said in response to a similar request of him and the suggestion by President Riccobono that he might want to chime in: Dear Gary: Thanks for your email asking, "What is NFB philosophy?" I gather that this is the important piece of what you have written. I know that you are capable of answering the question, "Does NFB philosophy prohibit preboarding an airline?" The answer is that of course it does not. I have preboarded them myself, and I have boarded with everybody else. The important part of NFB philosophy is that I should decide when to do which. Some of my friends have attempted to synthesize NFB philosophy in a list of principles. I remember reading one of these once and being asked by its author if any items had been omitted. I was busy at the time. Consequently, I only thought about the question very briefly. However, one item which had been omitted was that blind people working together can and should run an organization that synthesizes thought about blindness and assists in creating the kind of culture that welcomes blind people. I added this thought to the list, but I felt unsatisfied. The philosophy of the NFB says that blind people have value and that we should act in such a way that we enhance that value and bring sighted people to recognize it. It also says that blind people can lead independent, joyous lives. It recommends that we behave in such a way that we increase the possibility that this is the experience of the blind. NFB philosophy says that in every meaningful way blind people are equal to sighted people. The implications of these statements suggest that blind people should be trained to pursue their own lives in ways that they find beneficial. It also urges that blind people take advantage of the training. It does not require blind people to take any certain training as an article of faith. Hazel tenBroek was the wife of our founding President, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek. She told me one time that the method for blind people to follow in ordering a steak in a restaurant in the 1940s and the 1950s was that those ordering the meat would routinely request that it be cut into bite- sized pieces in the kitchen before being served. At one point in my Federation experience I encountered a heated debate among Federation members about whether it was proper to have somebody else cut your meat for you. My own opinion is that if a blind person wants it done and can get it accomplished with a minimum of inconvenience, it is quite proper. I was recently on a dinner cruise boat. Part of the festivity involved being served a lobster. I asked the waiter to manage getting the flesh from the claws and the tail for me. I was not alone. My sighted buddies were doing exactly the same thing. Neither they nor I felt diminished by the request. It was also evident that the waiter was quite familiar with the process. He must have done it hundreds if not thousands of times for diners on the boat. How I live my life is my business. I reject being ordered to perform certain actions or be certain places because of my blindness. I also reject such orders for other nonimportant reasons. This is part of my NFB philosophy. If I am told to keep my hands out of a place because the electricity in it could shock or kill me, this seems sensible. If I am told to keep my hands out of a place because it is not suitable for blind people, this seems idiotic to me. How these principles are applied in life is a matter of judgment. I insist on my right to use my own judgment. This also is part of my NFB philosophy. When I suggest that blind people learn Braille, I do so because I think it's beneficial. When I suggest that blind people use long white canes, I do so because it's beneficial. I have tried using a dog, but I've never given it enough time to evaluate it properly. I don't have a strong opinion about the benefits of using dogs. However, I have a very strong opinion about the right of those who want to use them to be protected in this choice. Many of my colleagues have told me that using a dog is liberating for them. I want them to have the liberation, and I trust their judgment. Trusting the judgment and experience of other blind people who know enough to give me effective information is also a part of my NFB philosophy. On the subject of the exemption in the tax code for the blind, it can be argued either way. As the world is built for the sighted (at least a lot of it), there are costs involved in managing as a blind person. It is possible that the tax code should recognize these and compensate. However, it is also possible to argue that although there are some costs for the blind that the sighted do not have to meet, the difference is not so great that it should be printed in every tax form in the land. I do not remember this argument being pursued on the convention floor. It has been discussed extensively off the convention floor from time to time, and the arguments are fierce. If the debate comes to the convention, I shall be interested in how it develops. The NFB philosophy is quite clearly not a fixed set of principles that can never be modified. In one sense the National Federation of the Blind is the same today as it was in 1940 when it came into being. The idea at the time was that programs and policies about blindness must incorporate the view of blind people and that the Federation was the appropriate organization to represent the blind. Such remains as valid now as it was then. However, how we interpret and carry into effect the philosophy that is ours has changed. There was a time in the Federation during which a fierce argument occurred about whether modifications to programs, buildings, and activities of living should not be made on behalf of the blind. This principle remains largely one in which we believe. However, with the digitization of virtually all methods of communication, access to information for the blind becomes as practical as it is for the sighted. We now believe that it is our right to have access to all information put into digital form. Although this is not a change in our fundamental beliefs, it does represent a change in emphasis. At one time we thought and we said that print was not inherently available to us. The way to get at it was recorded matter, Braille, or a reader. Today we believe that we should have methods of getting such information that are not separate and distinct from the way sighted people get it. We have spent the last twenty years working to incorporate this thought into the minds of the developers of technology. We have not yet been universally successful, but our equality of access to information is greater today than it once was. Undoubtedly there will be other changes in the emphasis that we give to the implementation of NFB philosophy. The fundamental element of our philosophy that will not change is that we in convention assembled will decide what we want our policies to be. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Arlene Hill, March 25, 1943 - November 13, 2017] Fearless: Remembering a Teacher Who Made the Difference by Melody Lindsey Roane From the Editor: Melody Lindsey Roane is the director of the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired in Richmond, Virginia. During the past twenty-three years she has directed training programs for the blind in Virginia, Michigan, and Alaska and worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor in New Mexico. Melody learned about the NFB through the national scholarship program when she was a senior in high school in Florida. Over the ensuing years, she served as a board member in the Florida and Michigan affiliates and as the affiliate president in Alaska. She currently serves as the president of the National Association of Blind Rehabilitation Professionals, and she and her husband, Mark, participate actively in the NFB's Virginia affiliate. I first met Melody when she was a bubbly young student, and she took the time to compliment me on a speech I had given at a state convention she attended. That gave me good reason to remember her name, but her energy and enthusiasm have come to cement her in my mind more than any kind words about a speech that even I don't remember now. Melody has been a leader in every place she has lived, always letting her Federationism shine for those who know her to see. This tribute is her way of saying thank you to one of the people who figured prominently in allowing that light to shine through her, and what a wonderful tribute it is. Here is what Melody says about her friend and mentor, Arlene. The following post about Arlene Hill written by Louana Abney Sterling appeared on the Louisiana Center for the Blind's Facebook page: "I thank you for all you taught me about facing fears. When I first came to the Center, I was a very fearful person. I did not want to go out on my own, but you showed me it was nothing to be afraid of. If it were not for you, the last few years of my life would have been terrible. My husband has been in and out of the hospital, and because of you and your love, I was able to be there and do what I needed for him without fear." How do you honor a woman who taught her students so enthusiastically, believed so strongly in their potential, and gave so freely so that others may catch the spark that would fuel a dream and inspire a life? This is the question I ponder as I write this article about Arlene Hill, a gifted, talented and well-loved teacher at the Louisiana Center for the Blind who passed away on Monday, November 13, 2017. How do you do justice to someone who lived the lessons she taught? It was December 1990 when I entered the Louisiana Center for the Blind as a twenty-one-year-old college graduate who struggled with a lot of insecurities, trying to find my place in this world. Arlene was my cane travel instructor, and soon I discovered that she had a great sense of adventure and fun which matched my own. I was going to learn so much, and I couldn't wait to get started. Every lesson became a great adventure, adding new addresses to her repertoire and helping me develop problem-solving skills and endurance. Insecurities quickly disappeared, replaced by a sense of freedom and confidence. As I gained a firm belief in my cane travel abilities, Arlene threw challenges at me during each lesson, which I embraced eagerly. They weren't always easy, and sometimes they were downright bizarre. One day I went into Arlene's office, and she told me that today's lesson was to locate Sarah's Kitchen, a wonderful restaurant in Ruston back in the old days that was operated out of Sarah's house. The directions went something like this: After you pass the cemetery, take the first right, go down to the third street and turn left; when you hear the second dog bark, turn right. You cross over the second hill, then take the gravel driveway to the right, and you SHOULD be there." It was always an awesome feeling when you actually arrived there without too many complications like one of the dogs not barking. I loved it! Ruston has grown a great deal since I was a student. Because of my training and role models like Arlene who shared the NFB philosophy with me, I am convinced that blind people can learn excellent travel skills and apply them in towns, cities, the heartland of the USA, and in other countries. Over the years, I have lived in Alaska, New Mexico, Michigan, and now Virginia, and no matter where I was living, the problem- solving and analytical skills I learned from Arlene prepared me to travel successfully and confidently in all environments. Arlene demonstrated the unique ability to serve as a mentor and teacher to her students, as well as a colleague and friend, and there was no conflict. This characteristic is best illustrated by the following reflections from Pam Allen, executive director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind: "Arlene was my instructor, then my coworker, and then my employee, and in those roles we were always friends. There was never any awkwardness in the transitions. I am forever grateful. She taught me so much." She lived what she taught, and when people ask me about the differences in training center philosophies, this ability to put into practice what you teach is one of them. Arlene also contributed to the writing of the book, Techniques Used by Blind Cane Travel Instructors: A practical approach: Learning, Teaching, Believing which demystifies the strategies blind cane travel instructors use to teach travel skills to blind students. When the Center closed for short holidays, Arlene invited me to stay with her family which I appreciated greatly since my home was in Florida. Rather than spending my time as a passive guest, Arlene invited me to help out with various jobs in the kitchen. I felt like I was a part of the family. She shared her tips and strategies for cooking and baking which I still use today. In her unassuming way, she taught me that respect and belief don't have to be demonstrated just in the classroom. She was a great role model and was always willing to give more so that others could find their dreams. It was not just an eight-to-five job for her; it was a lifestyle. It is rare to find that personal quality. This is not just my story. There are countless stories of successful blind women and men who say they learned from Arlene. My husband, Mark, told me the story about when he was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and Arlene allowed him and another student to build a deck on the back of her house and teach her daughter, Valerie, and Valerie's husband, Sam, how to build a deck. "There aren't too many people who would have that much belief in you to invest that much money in the project so that we could know that blindness had not diminished our skills; it just challenges us to develop alternative techniques to do the same things we would do if we were still sighted." Arlene lived her belief in the abilities of blind people, and because of it, countless blind people are living the lives they want. The heartbeat of her life was the Federation philosophy, which gave hope and confidence to her students. Another former student, Karl Smith, shared the following thoughts about Arlene which have been echoed by many others who had the privilege of learning from and working with her: Although I was familiar with Arlene from meeting her in various capacities at national conventions, I really got to know her when I became a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in 1989. She was an enthusiastic and capable teacher, giving me my first experience with a totally blind travel instructor. She was fearless and very creative when necessary. She taught me that it was OK in an emergency to flag down a car and ask where I was. She taught me to stop, listen, and think to work my way out of difficult travel situations. In cooking class Arlene taught me how to make a delicious strawberry pie from a recipe she got from a favorite bakery from her days in Baltimore. She once spent an afternoon with me trying to rescue a large batch of fudge I was making in which I accidently put far too much salt. We tried many remedies including boiling a potato in it to take the salt taste away, but none worked. Arlene was a very good singer, and we found time to sing together with some of the students on weekends at the apartments with me and others accompanying on guitars. She also found time to sing in her church choir on Sundays. One of my favorite memories of Arlene involved my final student project for home management. After completing all the cooking assignments, I decided that rather than just sew on a button which I already knew how to do, I wanted to make my wife a jumper as a surprise on returning home after my training. Arlene spent many hours after classes working with me to finish this project. For her efforts I taught her how to use the computer. I finished the jumper just before leaving Ruston, and my wife actually wore it a few times. When visiting LCB over the years I always found time to visit with Arlene. Another favorite memory was watching Arlene's over the top excitement when the New Orleans Saints won the final playoff game opening the way for their Super Bowl win. Arlene's great legacy will continue through all of us fortunate enough to have been taught and lifted by her. And I would be remiss if I did not mention Arlene's three children, Andrea, Eric, and Valerie, whom she loved dearly and was committed to completely. She was a single mom who faced that daunting task without fear and with love, hope, and determination. Joanne Wilson, the founder of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, remembers, "Her kids were in sports, and Eric played baseball. You could always count on Arlene being at his games and cheering him on no matter what happened. She was a great mother, and my son Joel said that she was like another mother to him growing up with her kids." Arlene was also very proud of the activities and accomplishments of her nine grandchildren who brought so much joy to her life. In 1991 the Louisiana Center for the Blind presented the first of Jerry Whittle's plays to raise money for the summer youth programs. The title of the play was "Passing the Torch," and Arlene played the role of the Center director, Mrs. Page. In the play, Mrs. Page challenged blind students who were coming to the end of their training to take the torch of freedom that they have been given by the National Federation of the Blind and pass it on to those who come behind them. And I am struck with the realization that, as we stand at this point in our lives, having benefited from Arlene's life and her teaching, we hold that torch of freedom that she has passed to us. I am reminded of the responsibility that we have to pass that torch to blind people who come behind us. When a young blind mother of three children calls me, desperate to get her children out of an abusive situation, and others tell her that no judge would give her custody of her kids because she is blind, we must show her that it is possible for her to take care of her children. Hmm, I know that very well because of Arlene who provided a safe home for her three children and because of countless other blind parents we know through the National Federation of the Blind who are successfully caring for their children every day. So, how do you honor a woman who taught her students so enthusiastically, believed so strongly in their potential, and gave so freely so that others may catch the spark that would fuel a dream and inspire a life? This is the question I ponder as I write this article about Arlene Hill, a gifted, talented and well-loved teacher at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. How do you do justice to someone who lived the lessons she taught? We can honor Arlene by going to chapter meetings at the end of a long day and encouraging a chapter member to locate her chair independently and participate in the meeting actively when we would rather be at home curled up on the couch reading a good book. We can honor her by doing what may be inconvenient for us at the time but what may have the potential of making a huge difference in someone else's life. We can honor her by changing our plans so that we can be there to provide hope and encouragement to someone we may have just met who is frustrated, scared, and uncertain about the future. We can honor her by recognizing when someone needs our strength to get them through the rough times of life. Arlene practiced excellence in everything she did, and we can honor her by adopting the exhortation of this quote from Ronnie Oldham: "Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible." Arlene's passing and the passing of others is not the end of an era. It is an opportunity for those of us who remain to pass on their spirit of love, hope, and determination. We can continue the difference Arlene made in our lives by making a difference in the lives of the blind people God places in our paths. And, when we come to the end of our lives, may others say of us what we say today about Arlene, which is stated so beautifully in this Scripture: "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." Proverbs 22-1 New International Version. Thank you, Arlene, for teaching me and countless others to live fearlessly. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: A drawing of a cube bisected at a forty-five-degree angle by a flat plane.] National Science Foundation Awards New Grant to National Federation of the Blind by Seth Lamkin From the Editor: Seth is the grant program officer for the National Federation of the Blind. This means that he helps brainstorm about projects, finds organizations that might look favorably on them, writes the grant proposals, and has the thankless job of putting together all of the material required to show that we are spending the money given from the grants in the ways the grantor intends. Seth is also one of our best proofreaders and has made important amendments-okay, corrections-to my work from time to time. Here is what he has to say about a recent grant we have received: In 2013 the National Federation of the Blind was the recipient of a three-year grant award from the National Science Foundation to expand informal science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities for blind youth, a project that saw the NFB partner with six science centers across the country as well as with other educators and STEM professionals. As part of that work, we introduced our student participants to tactile technical drawing (or drafting) as a component of an engineering design project. Together with our partners we noticed a trend among our students and realized there was an opportunity for an exciting new project focused on a set of skills commonly referred to as spatial abilities. Fast forward to 2017, and we were fortunate that the National Science Foundation recognized the merits of this idea and awarded the National Federation of the Blind a new five-year grant focused on spatial ability and engineering education for blind high school students. Think of spatial ability as the way in which you imagine an object, its various characteristics, and then mentally manipulate that object to consider how it might change under certain conditions or as the result of certain actions. An example of this is if you consider a cube, and then you think of how its two halves would appear if it were cut in half at a forty- five-degree angle, and how those halves would appear based on the angle of perspective. You can imagine how valuable this ability is within engineering specifically, but also its broad application in a variety of fields and in daily life. Consider how helpful it can be to picture how your various belongings-with their varying shapes and sizes-will fit in your luggage before you pack, unpack, and inevitably repack just about everything you own. Another application of spatial ability is an individual's concept of place within his or her environment. Again, this is an important skill for anyone, regardless of vision or occupation, but even more so when you consider the importance of mental mapping in orientation and mobility training for blind children and adults. For anyone, blind or sighted, who has become turned around in a busy mall or convention center, recalling the layout in your mind is a useful and comforting ability. The impetus for our project is our understanding, based on some existing literature but also informed by the collective experience of the National Federation of the Blind, that blind youth are denied many of the opportunities to develop spatial abilities to the same degree and at the same time as their sighted peers. Active play, independent travel, and other age-appropriate milestones can influence the development of spatial abilities. We are all too familiar with the obstacles blind youth face due to low expectations. Our work will include research, led by our partners at Utah State University, to determine how spatial skills can be measured and improved for blind people. The programs themselves may sound familiar to you. We will be holding multiple iterations of NFB Engineering Quotient (EQ), a week-long program for blind high school students to experience hands-on engineering activities alongside blind adult mentors. Our colleagues at Utah State University are experts in engineering education and have worked with us in the past to develop programming for blind youth. Similarly we will once again be working with our friends at the Science Museum of Minnesota who will lend their expertise in informal programming. Ann Cunningham will be leading lessons on tactile drawing. In collaboration with our other partners, she will showcase how integral this skill is for engineering specifically and how useful it can be in any class or profession. All of this will of course take place within the context of the National Federation of the Blind and its fundamental knowledge that you can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back. With this basic principle the organization has affected thousands of lives, primarily through a system of mentorship that has become second nature to us. In academia there's a name for what we've been doing, and it has been shown to be effective in trials and investigations with a variety of populations. Known as "communities of practice," a lot has been written about them, but the basic idea is that a group of people who share a concern or passion come together to address their common issues collectively-as a community. The expertise of this group comes from practice, from the lived experiences of the members of the community. Sound familiar? As new members enter the community, they are mentored by those more experienced members who came before them, in time becoming those who will mentor the members to come. Our partners at Lifelong Learning Group, evaluators on our previous grant from the National Science Foundation, have joined us once again and will be producing research on the impact of the National Federation of the Blind as a community of practice on the blind youth participating in the coming years of programming. It is an exciting opportunity to document the mechanisms and processes by which the National Federation of the Blind truly changes what it means to be blind and does so in a way that speaks the language of academia-an important audience if we are to reach those who so intimately influence educators before they come into the classroom. We are excited to announce this new exploration into a STEM field and into what makes the National Federation of the Blind so effective. You will hear much more about our work over the coming years in this publication and in others, as well as at upcoming conventions (both our own and in the wider world). For now, if you'd like to learn more about the program, be sure to visit www.blindscience.org. Over the years more information will be added, and we will provide links to other resources including publications resulting from our research. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Karen Anderson] The Power of Twitter by Karen Anderson From the Editor: Karen Anderson, formerly of Nebraska, now lives in Maryland and is working for a time as our interim head of social media. She enjoys writing, and what a treat it is to have something from her for the Braille Monitor. Karen's story of migrating a relationship from exchanged tweets between strangers to in-person friendship and membership in the NFB is a reminder of the new landscapes of modern social interaction and mentorship. And sometimes, when all you have to start with is a user name and the typed words on the screen, you have no way of knowing exactly who you are speaking with. The reasons to use gender-neutral pronouns when talking about a friend you have made on a message board or Twitter can be as simple as that there has been nothing that explicitly states their gender to as complex as the exact nature of that new friend's actual gender identity and preferred pronouns. Here is what she has to say: As members of the National Federation of the Blind, we know how powerful mentoring can be. Connecting with someone else, particularly another blind person, has the potential to change someone's life. There are many tools we can use in combination to help these relationships grow, even if the person you want to communicate with doesn't happen to live in the same city. Often connections are made at events, and people keep in touch via phone, email, or good old-fashioned snail mail letters. A couple of years ago I realized that there is a new implement we can add to our toolbox. In May of 2013, the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska Omaha Chapter decided to participate in Omaha Gives, the city's local giving day. A giving day is a chance for everyone in a community to focus on donating to local nonprofits. The organization sponsoring the giving day frequently allocates funds to be given out to each of the participating organizations based on the percentage of funds they raise, which means a donor's money goes even farther. The Lincoln Chapter had participated in a giving day the year before, during which we raised more than $2,000 by reaching out to donors on Twitter and Facebook. Consequently, I knew that social media could be an incredibly powerful way of reaching out to potential donors, and when the chapter president asked me if I would be willing to help boost the organization's profile on and leading up to the day, I enthusiastically agreed. Early on the morning of the event I saw a donation come in from someone named Jess, a donor whose name I didn't recognize, followed by a tweet mentioning us and the importance of Braille literacy for blind children. Thrilled with our increased visibility, I messaged them on Twitter asking who they were and how they found out about us. To my delight, they had found us by following the hashtag for the giving day, and our mission spoke to them because they were losing their vision. I wrote back, thanking them for their donation, telling them a little about myself and the National Federation of the Blind, and asking about them as a person. As I would have in a traditional face-to-face conversation, I didn't only ask about their blindness, in fact at first I rarely mentioned blindness. Instead, I asked about their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, and other typical getting-to-know-you questions. I replied to tweets they posted about the books they were reading or the vacation they were planning. Over the next year Jess and I continued to correspond via Twitter, and Jess began to talk about their feelings about blindness. I came to realize that they were more comfortable talking about their struggle online. I was safe because I was anonymous and didn't judge them or their feelings. I discovered that my new friend was something of a weather enthusiast and connected them with my blind partner who participated in storm-spotting events using ham radio. I listened as they lamented the loss of their vision and the perceived loss of so many hobbies that they cared about. Sometimes I offered an alternative technique that would allow them to continue participating in a hobby, like art. Sometimes we talked about hobbies we had in common; it turned out we both enjoy knitting. Sometimes I simply provided a listening ear, someone on the other side of the keyboard who understood blindness and who was still living the life I wanted. During this time, Jess connected with the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired and began taking travel classes. I cheered them on, continuing to use Twitter to celebrate as they began realizing that blindness didn't have to be the end of their independence, commiserating on the days when they weren't sure they could accomplish the tasks they had been set, and celebrating when, ultimately, they mastered the skill and continued to build their self-confidence. About a year and a half after we started talking, my partner and I were headed to Omaha for a family event. Realizing we had some extra time to kill, I reached out to Jess and asked if they were interested in getting together for coffee or a bite to eat. As someone who isn't always the most socially confident, this was something that made me incredibly nervous, but I was at least ready to have a conversation in person. We agreed to meet at a local pizza shop we both liked. Though we were both nervous, we spent an enjoyable hour and a half eating and talking. After that our conversations on Twitter became deeper and more frequent. Later that fall the Omaha chapter decided to host a chapter building event in conjunction with the state convention. I knew Jess was nervous in groups of people, but I decided it was worth inviting them again. I thought that since we had already met in person, the fact that I would be attending the event might make it easier. Though they were hesitant, they agreed to go, and we set a time and place to meet up beforehand. We also exchanged phone numbers for the first time. The night of the event, I introduced Jess and their partner to as many members of the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska as I could. I was thrilled to see them connecting with other blind people who shared a positive philosophy about blindness. I watched as they talked to blind parents, blind students, and blind professionals. They ended up staying at the event longer than I anticipated and kept talking with others long after I was called away. Over the next few months my Federation family also began to reach out to Jess. Eventually they attended their first chapter meeting and took on leadership responsibilities, including being a chapter board member. The following year Jess was the one planning the social media strategy for the giving day, the event that had gotten them involved in the first place. Twitter is not the only reason Jess got involved in the National Federation of the Blind. However, in this case, it was the right tool to use to reach out to them and connect with them where they were at the time. Jess is someone who generally talks more freely online than in person, and the anonymity allowed them to feel comfortable talking about something they hadn't yet come to terms with. It also allowed me, someone they may never have met in person, to show them that blindness did not have to hold them back. Getting started with Twitter does not have to be overwhelming. All you need to begin is a user name, a password, and a couple of people to follow. My username is kea_anderson. You can also connect with President Riccobono, @riccobono, and the National Federation of the Blind, @NFB_voice. In today's digital age, our social interactions seem to happen more and more online. This is either a blessing or a curse, depending on who you talk to. Social media does have the potential to be a powerful recruiting tool for us as Federationists, provided we use it as one of many instruments in our toolbox. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Dick Davis] A Professional in the Field Responds to AER by Dick Davis From the Editor: In the January 2018 issue President Riccobono called on all of us to express our feelings about the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired's (AER) decision to join forces with the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). A number of us have written using email, Twitter, and Facebook. One of those is himself a member of AER, and makes clear his irritation at the direction the organization has taken and its association with a body which he believes harmful to the blind and harmful to AER. Here is what Dick Davis, a person who has made his forty-seven-year career in working with the blind of America, has to say to his colleagues in AER: Dear Members of the AER: I was disappointed to hear that the AER has chosen to breathe life back into NAC. My history with that organization began in 1971 after Dr. Kenneth Jernigan resigned from its board and decided to take our issues to the government, press, and general public. I have picketed NAC through the years, the last time being in 2002. I was an NFB official observer in that meeting, along with Dr. Harold Snider, a blind person. As a sighted person, I was introduced by the NAC president as "Dr. Snider's attendant." Not "assistant" or "co-observer," but "attendant." And all because I was sighted and he was blind. After thirty years of being picketed, they still hadn't learned anything. Carl Augusto, head of the American Foundation for the Blind, attended the 2002 NAC meeting as an invited guest. For a number of years, Carl was associate director of NAC. By 2002, he knew it and its history better than anyone. Our members were picketing the NAC meeting at the time. When the members asked Carl what the organization could do to bring the NFB around, Carl said something like this: "They don't want to work with you. They want you to go out of business. That's what they have been telling you for years." The NAC members, of course, ignored Carl. They went on to elect as NAC president the superintendent of a school for the blind that had come under investigation for student deaths on campus. That is the way NAC does business. Its reputation has been destroyed, mostly by its own craven lack of ethics. You should know better than to resurrect it. The NFB has, for many years, worked cooperatively with the AER and other organizations and agencies serving the blind. But it doesn't have to. You are heading down the wrong road and might want to reconsider tying yourselves to NAC. If not, I guess we will have to introduce the new generation to picketing. Sincerely, Richard C. (Dick) Davis ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Anti-NAC Protesters in 2002 in Tampa, Florida] Others Share Their Response to AER and NAC From the Editor: Other Federationists have not remained silent on their opinion about the AER bringing NAC into its fold. Here are just a couple of representative samples we have received: To: nac at aerbvi.org Subject: moving backward To whom it may concern: I am deeply disappointed to hear that AERBVI is attempting to revive NAC, a name synonymous with the most regressive tendencies in work with the blind. There is little point in detailing why I find this decision so repugnant. If you have not read the history, please do so. The field of work with the blind seems to have moved toward a respectful incorporation of customer-centered thinking in policy and program development over the past few decades. Revival of NAC is the clearest way imaginable to reject blind customers, both individually and collectively. If you believe a blindness-specific accreditation process has merit, I recommend that you begin at the beginning and work with the National Federation of the Blind to create a mutually respectful dialogue on best practices. I would rather not stand in the sun and the rain demonstrating against NAC-accredited agencies, but I will not allow a desire for the appearance of peace and harmony to permit the clock to be turned back. Our signs in the last round said, "No Accreditation without Representation." This time they may read "Nothing About Us Without Us." It's the same message. How unfortunate that AERBVI never read the memo. Sincerely, Mary Ellen Gabias Then the editor had to get in his two cents: 1/25/2018 Sent using email to nac at aerbvi.org Dear Sir or Madam: Some organizations are associated with honor, credibility, and trust. Others are not. Sometimes an organization's reputation is so tarnished that it is better to let it pass into history and start afresh. Does the need still exist or is it being filled by other organizations? When I think of NAC, I think of a history that will be difficult or impossible to live down. But with NAC it is more than just a failed organization that played fast and loose with the concept of accreditation. It is an orientation, a view of the place blind people occupy in society, and in particular our place in work with the blind. NAC was a part of the professional establishment that told us that being blind had little or nothing to do with understanding the services blind people needed or how they should be delivered. Rather than seeing us as the most reliable barometer of an agency's services, its integrity, its willingness to innovate, and its dedication to work with the blind, NAC has too often turned a blind eye to abuse in schools it has accredited. Likewise NAC has turned a deaf ear to meaningful input from blind people who have a significant interest in schools and agencies where we get service. AER has had its own conflicts with blind people, but bettering the relationship between it and the organized blind of America has been decades in the making. AER's association with NAC is a step in the wrong direction, harkening back to the days when blind people were to be seen but not heard, placed on lists as clients but excluded from critical influence. I would rather talk than walk, but when talk is not enough and protest is my only choice, there are things I believe worthy of my public demonstration alongside my friends and colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind. Of course we have an alternative. Identify what needs standards that should be addressed by accreditation, use the systems already doing accreditation, and if there is still a need, build a system from the ground up that includes blind people. Let a core value of that system be that there will be nothing about us without us, and do all of this in a way that is so fair and transparent that no reasonable person will question what is being built. Let there be no tokenism when it comes to representation, no votes in which a decision is decided twenty-seven to one, and the one dissenting vote came from a representative of the largest organization of the blind in the world. It is often observed that we should not reinvent the wheel. The clear meaning is that we should keep the good and go forward. The corollary is that we quit using those things which do not work. Einstein is sometimes quoted as saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results. Whether the quotation comes from Einstein, Twain, or some other author, it doesn't take the brains of Einstein to know that the blind deserve better. Those committed to working with the blind deserve better. Those who are paid through charitable or governmental funds to work with the blind deserve better. Let NAC go its way, and if there is a demonstrated need for accreditation that is not already met, build it with the blind. Let us build for the future and not try to escape from or explain away the past. Real lives demand real solutions, and NAC is not a part of any solution. Gary Wunder ---------- An Open Letter to Federation Chapters Regarding the Presidential Release by Mark Riccobono Dear Federationists: In my role as President of the National Federation of the Blind, I love attending local chapter meetings since that is the place where the heartbeat of the organization begins. The chapter meeting is my monthly grounding in what is central to our organization-connecting with our Federation family, hearing about the ups and downs members experience, sharing my own ups and downs, explaining what we are doing as a movement, and engaging in conversations about where we have been and where we wish to go together at all levels of our organization. Unfortunately, I cannot physically be at every local chapter meeting across the country. Yet some of the engagement and dialogue that I would have in person is facilitated through the Presidential Release. Playing the Presidential Release at your local monthly chapter meeting fuels progress toward our organizational objectives by allowing me to: . Speak directly to our membership in an environment where questions can be raised, issues can be discussed, and we can spark meaningful conversation . Share what we are doing at a national level and strengthen the common bond we hold in our movement . Cultivate the understanding and feeling that we are an authentic national network and that our local work has value that stretches beyond our community . Inspire people to act to advance our collective interests . Share happenings in the Federation family to connect our members with Federationists they may have met outside the local community . Build a direct connection between the leadership and the membership These are all important to our movement, and I hope this letter helps you to have a deeper understanding of why they should be important to your chapter. Careful attention goes into the Presidential Release to ensure that it contains important information, builds relationships, and includes some humor-known as "customary endings." Good chapter meetings are busy and packed with program-which should include the Presidential Release. If your chapter is not consistently playing the Presidential Release every month, this letter is to ask you to work closely with your chapter president to make sure it is part of the monthly program. The very first Presidential Release was made on November 12, 1973, and I first heard a Presidential Release in the fall of 1996 after I became president of the student division for the Wisconsin affiliate. The question of why chapters of the National Federation of the Blind should offer the Presidential Release at the monthly chapter meeting has been around as long as I have been in the organization, and I suspect it came up before that time. As we come to the forty-fifth anniversary of this organizational asset, it seemed appropriate that the question get attention directly from the horse's mouth-or maybe it is the horse's hooves since this is being composed on a computer. What is the Presidential Release? The Presidential Release is a monthly communication that is planned and presented by the President of the National Federation of the Blind. It is a direct message from the President of the national organization to the members at the local level, and it is intended to be shared within a local chapter meeting. The Presidential Release was originally distributed on cassette tape to chapter presidents and other Federation leaders. In 2012 it began being distributed on a flash drive which dramatically cut the time for duplicating and distributing the release. Not too long after that we began posting the audio file to nfb.org, and starting with the August 2015 release, #441, we added an RSS feed allowing it to be podcast. Shortly after that we added a new version of the Presidential Release which is intended to reach out to members who primarily speak Spanish-the first Spanish release was November 2015, #444. In the same timeframe that we moved away from cassette tape distribution, we established a telephone number that could be called to listen to the release, and that capability was later moved to NFB-NEWSLINE where you can now find the release on the National Federation of the Blind channel. In January of 2018 we began posting the English and Spanish transcripts of the Presidential Release at nfb.org to provide access to members who are deafblind. To make sure our list is comprehensive, I should mention that the Presidential Release can also be accessed on devices like the Amazon Echo or by pulling up the NFB Connect mobile application on iOS or Android. To get the release with Amazon Alexa say, "Play the Presidential Release podcast." In general the Presidential Release is made eleven times a year, and it is available prior to the first Saturday of the month on the website and via the podcast feed. We generally have the Presidential Release posted within twenty-four hours of recording it, and the Spanish and text versions follow later in the month. I am not aware of any Federation chapters that meet earlier than the first Saturday. Therefore every chapter should plan to have the Presidential Release at their chapter meeting as long as a new one has been produced for that month What is the purpose of the release? The Presidential Release is intended to be a common bond shared among all of the chapters of the Federation. Our organization is strong because it is a wide, diverse network of chapters working on common issues. The release is also an opportunity to make the President of the Federation more personally known by the members. Obviously I cannot be at every chapter meeting, but the release allows me to share some personal reflections, information about what is happening, and some personal notes that might not otherwise be widely distributed. The release is also a reminder for members of the Federation that they can reach out directly to me to share ideas, information, and feedback. I am always surprised when a member asks if they can have my email address since it is on the Presidential Release every month. The release is also a tool that chapters can use to spark discussion about the topics that are raised. For example, discussion of organizational priorities, the national convention, pressing legislative concerns, or new Federation projects are an opportunity for chapters to discuss how those national themes fit into the priorities of the chapter and how the chapter can contribute. The goal is to have a united organization where we coordinate work at all levels-local, state, and national-and we find ways to maximize opportunities for blind people. When should the Presidential Release be played at chapter meetings? The most important thing to know is that presenting the audio version of the Presidential Release should be a regular part of every chapter meeting agenda. At what point in the meeting it should be played and how it should be discussed is up to the chapter president as the individual running the meeting. Some chapters use it as the first major item of content at the meeting. Others work it in immediately before a report from the affiliate president. Still others take it in chunks so that discussion can happen after a particularly important item has been raised on the release. I caution against the release being the final item on the agenda if it has the effect of encouraging some members to beat the crowd and leave before the meeting is over. I also urge that it not be used as background noise for a break in the meeting. Both of those approaches diminish the intent and importance of the release to the Federation. The Presidential Release should be introduced with some context for new members. chapter presidents have an opportunity to remind existing members and educate new members before every release is played about its value in bringing the chapter together with every other chapter in the nation. The preamble to the release need not be long, but it is important to remind each other why we do what we do. Although many members think I do not know, I am well aware that the release is sometimes played at a faster speed at some chapter meetings. I do not strongly object to this practice, but I do urge that chapter presidents be sure that the faster speed works for everyone in the room. Some people have hearing difficulties, and many newly-blind people may not be comfortable with listening to things at a higher rate of speed. Thus, my preference is that the Presidential Release be presented at the speed it was intended to make sure that it is as accessible to as many people in the room as possible. The playing of the release should be thoughtfully placed in the meeting, offered in its entirety, and its presentation should be managed by the chapter president. How does the Presidential Release fit into today's fast-paced communication culture? In 1973 when the first release was made by Dr. Jernigan, or even in July 1986 when Dr. Maurer recorded his first Presidential Release (#117), we did not have the diverse and speedy communication tools we have today. It can be argued that email, Twitter, Facebook, podcasting, and other methods of sharing information mean that the information on the release is outdated as soon as it arrives. I believe this is not the case. In fact, if you go back and listen to the release over the years you can hear some of the commonality and some of the evolution. The release is presented in my voice, and much of our other organizational communication is heard through other voices. We provide less detail about specifics of Federation activities than we once did because we can now refer people to the website. Thus, rather than giving all of the details about the program for the law symposium or our next youth STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math] program, I can discuss the overall program and refer people to other sources for the details. Additionally, the release shares information that we do not share through other organizational channels such as celebrations of new Federationists (babies and grandbabies) and new Federation marriages as well as local Federationists who have passed away. This section of the release, which I refer to as the Federation Family notes, reminds us that we are a diverse, grassroots organization where most of our contributors are not high-profile names known to all across the nation. However, many of the names are widely known because of meetings at national conventions, service on a Federation committee, or information sharing through the Federation network. More than any other tool of communication we have, the release brings the personal element of shared understanding between our leaders and our members. When I first heard the Presidential Release in 1996, I came to know that our President was a blind man who faced the same barriers and misconceptions that I did as a struggling student at the University of Wisconsin. The national President was better at dealing with the barriers than I was, and the release helped contribute to my development of methods and skills to cope with obstacles I encountered. When I finally met Marc Maurer in person, I felt like I already knew him from the release, and it eased my nervousness about approaching the President. Similarly, it is my hope that the Presidential Release brings members of the Federation to a place where they know me and can work with me. I could write something to the members every week or send out a Tweet of the day, but it will not be as personal or as comprehensive as the Presidential Release is today. I also believe that the release is an important part of cataloguing our progress as a movement. It gives us a running understanding of the Federation's concerns and priorities over time, and it allows us to understand those concerns through the perspective of the principal leader of the movement. The release itself has given us a mechanism for continuing to evaluate what we do and how we might do it better-hence the evolution of the ways of distributing the release and the change from a communication that went primarily to leaders to one that is easily accessed by anybody (member or not). I hasten to add that I've seen this availability to everyone used as a reason not to take chapter time for the release, but, as I've already made clear, the release is meant to stimulate discussion in the meeting and not just as another source of information. It is also worth noting that research demonstrates that people have to be exposed to things multiple times-seven is the number used in marketing circles-before it sticks with them. Even if the Presidential Release emphasizes content that is promoted in other places, the fact that it is on the release is helping it gain importance and building understanding within the membership. A good example is that someone once said to me that they were not invited to visit the Presidential Suite at the national convention. Besides the fact that it is in the convention agenda every year and we mention it throughout the convention, I have specifically invited people to come to the suite and thanked them for coming on Presidential Releases. Why did this individual think they were not invited? I suspect because the Presidential Release may not have been played at their chapter meeting. How can you contribute to the release? I have tried to make the Presidential Release authentic to my style as a leader of the Federation. I have also tried to encourage people to share ideas, topics, and customary endings that might help shape the content of the release in ways that are helpful to the Federation. While I wish to have feedback and ideas, you should know that I have avoided certain things. I frequently get requests to announce a chapter fundraiser on the release, and I have consciously decided not to open up those floodgates. I may share interesting fundraising ideas that chapters are implementing, but I do not think the Presidential Release is the correct forum for pitching candy bars and umbrellas. I invite customary endings, and I have tried to encourage people to send audio clips of young Federationists sharing those treasures. Sometimes I receive jokes which are not appropriate for the family atmosphere we want at our chapter meetings. Other times I receive cute recordings, but they are hard enough to understand that I decide not to include them. In other words, just because you send a contribution does not mean it will be included for a variety of reasons. On the whole, I never get enough feedback on things you would like to hear discussed on the release. And now for the real customary endings: This was the only ending on the very first Presidential Release offered by Kenneth Jernigan: What do you call a sleeping bull? A bulldozer. On Marc Maurer's first release in July 1986 he offered a number of one liners but this one seems most appropriate for a customary ending: What goes ha, ha, ha bam? A man laughing his head off. My favorite ending from the first forty Presidential Releases I have recorded appears at the very end of #458 (February 3, 2017). This ending is delivered by me to Oriana Riccobono. I think the ending is a good one, but Oriana's reaction is the real Presidential Release gem-you will have to pull up the episode online to hear what happens. Here is my ending: What did the coffee say to the cream? I do not always know how to espresso my feelings, but I love-a you a latte! As we come to the close of this Presidential Release letter, I wish to offer a few items that might be of interest. Dr. Jernigan wrote an article upon the occasion of the 100th release in 1984. That article notes that he tried to keep the release to about twenty minutes. I had not known that fact until putting this letter together. I also try to keep it to about twenty minutes, but frequently it runs longer because of the number of important topics that I want to cover. With today's digital delivery of the release, chapter presidents can easily note the run time of the release and work that into the planning of the chapter agenda. You can read the other nuggets from the first one hundred releases in the February 1985 issue of the Braille Monitor in the article entitled "Presidential Releases" (available at https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm85/bm8502/bm850203.htm). We only have eleven releases a year-how come? Because we do not have twelve of course. Actually the reason is that traditionally one is not made very close to the national convention because the organization is focused on the activities of the national convention. The President does not want to scoop any of the happenings of the convention on the release, and chapters should be discussing the national convention during that month. I did not examine the archive to determine if there was ever a year when we had a release very close to the convention because there was something urgent. However, I can remember years when we have had more than eleven releases. Typically this means we do not have a release in June, but can you think of a year when we had a June Presidential Release? It happened in 2017 because the convention was late enough in July that the July release would have come out immediately before the convention. We have mentioned the first release by other Federation Presidents. What was my first release you might ask? It was July 2014, #429. I have tried to do some different things on the Presidential Release in the time I have been putting it together. Including my family in the release has been fun-my son Austin even tries to create his own customary endings now. I also once invited the Amazon Alexa to offer customary endings-probably the first time they were offered via the cloud. If the pattern for releases holds, the five hundredth Presidential Release will be December of 2020- seems like that presents an interesting opportunity to do something fun. There are a lot of fun and interesting jobs related to serving as President of the National Federation of the Blind. The Presidential Release is one of the fun tasks to tackle. It is not always that the news to be delivered is joyful, but the release itself-what it represents and the bond that it allows me to strengthen with members of the Federation-is really important to me and valuable to our organization. I hope that you will join me in that bond by making the Presidential Release a priority at Federation chapter meetings. Equally as important, I urge you to continue contributing to that bond by giving me feedback and sending customary endings-I would love to put more young Federationists on the release. If you have great customary endings but no young Federationists to deliver them, send them anyway-I have three members that I go to when a recording is needed. It is my honor to be a part of every chapter meeting within the National Federation of the Blind. I hope to get to your chapter in person very soon. Even if I cannot be there in person, I appreciate that I have the opportunity to offer my perspectives at the meeting. In many large organizations the primary leader serves at a distance to the members. That is not the Federation way, and I am glad to continue the tradition of direct engagement with members at all levels. Remember that together with love, hope, and determination we transform dreams into reality. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kim Cunningham] NOPBC 2018 Conference-President's Welcome by Kim Cunningham From the Editor: Kim is the president of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, one of the most active divisions we have in the organization and certainly a highly-visible presence at our national conventions. The 2018 National Convention will certainly uphold the standard that has been established, and here is Kim Cunningham and her capable board of directors to tell us about it: The NOPBC board would like to invite you to attend our 2018 national conference this summer. Our conference is held in conjunction with the convention of the National Federation of the Blind, which takes place July 3 to July 8, 2018, in Orlando, Florida. If you are a family member of a blind or low vision child, teacher, or professional, you will not want to miss spending this week with other families across the US along with 2,500 blind and low vision adults. It is our goal to teach you and your family what it means (and does not mean) to be blind by providing numerous workshops, activities, and opportunities for mentoring. Our theme this year is "Tools in My Toolbox." Just as a carpenter has many tools, so does the blind and low vision person. We want to share how blind and low vision students are successful both in their personal lives and in the classroom and how each person uses their tools in different ways, at different times. The National Federation of the Blind and the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children know that blindness is not the characteristic that defines your child's future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. Blind children can live the lives they want; blindness is not what holds them back. Most toolboxes include basic tools such as a hammer, pliers, wrench, screwdriver, and saw. Imagine trying to put something together without a screwdriver or cutting a piece of lumber without a saw. Without the right tools, your work will be slow and laborious. We want to help you build your child's toolbox and build his/her confidence. Blindness skills such as: Braille, a long white cane, Nemeth code for math, Braille music, magnification, and technology (along with many others) are critical skills for independence. If your child qualifies for services as a legally blind student, then your child's weakest sense is going to be his/her vision. Vision will be the weakest tool in your child's toolbox. Yet there are those who believe your child should use his or her vision in order to complete most daily tasks, even if other alternatives might be more efficient. This is similar to someone believing that a screwdriver is the best tool to cut a piece of wood. In the NOPBC we believe learning all the tools will enable students to grow into successful adults with options for how to live the lives they want. My own daughter's toolbox is full of tools for her to pick from. She may not use each tool in the same way as another blind or low vision person, but she has the ability to choose which is best for whatever task she is doing. She no longer relies on unreliable vision. My husband and I both use a hammer for different reasons and in different ways, but we still know how to use a hammer. Braille is like a hammer. Some students will use it for everything, and some dual media students will use it along with large or magnified print. If your child's toolbox doesn't include Braille (or a hammer), he or she might find it difficult to keep up with work in the classroom. The other students might be hammering away while the blind and low vision student is hammering with a screwdriver. If your child's toolbox doesn't include a long white cane, he or she won't enjoy the freedom of independently traveling where and when he or she wants. By building your child's toolbox, you will build a better future for your child. We are excited to share our workshops with you and your family and hope to encourage you all to learn about the tools for independence. Our Youth Track program will give our students ages eleven to eighteen the opportunity to socialize and learn about independence from other students. Our NFB Kid Camp will also be hosting a National Federation of the Blind Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (NFB BELL) Academy for children ages three to ten to introduce them to the skills of blindness from blind and low vision adults. Last year our young blind and low vision students sold "Megan Bening" angel pins in memory of NOPBC Board Member Jean (and husband Al) Bening's daughter Megan. Over $5,000 was raised. Technology was a big part of Megan's life, and we hope to keep Megan's spirit alive by giving what she loved. We will be holding drawings for various pieces of blindness technology purchased from money raised through our NOPBC Megan Bening Memorial Fund. This drawing will be held during our Family Hospitality evening, July 3. We are also gearing up to provide even more Braille and Twin Vision books for our annual NOPBC Braille Book Fair. During the book fair on the evening of July 5, families are given the opportunity to choose books free of charge and have them shipped home courtesy of our UPS and Wells Fargo volunteers. We are thankful for the numerous Braille books already donated by families and professionals across the US. We are also thankful for the monetary donations made which enable us to purchase even more Twin Vision books. Braille rocks! The NOPBC board and I look forward to meeting everyone in beautiful Orlando, Florida, this summer. Please visit our website to register: http://nopbc.org/2018nopbc or https://nfb.org/convention. ---------- Minimum Wage Exemption for Persons with Disabilities Eliminated From the Editor: The State of Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development posted this announcement on its website on February 16, 2018, and the original post can be found here: http://labor.alaska.gov/news/2018/news18-04.pdf. Following a regulatory change that goes into effect today, Alaska employers are no longer allowed to pay less than minimum wage to workers who experience disabilities. In repealing 8 AAC 15.120, Alaska joins New Hampshire and Maryland as the first states in the nation to eliminate payment of subminimum wages for persons with disabilities. An exemption from paying minimum wage to persons with disabilities has existed for many years, beginning at the federal level with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and in Alaska regulations since 1978. Historically, minimum wage exemptions were considered necessary to help people with disabilities gain employment. Experience over the past two decades has shown that workers with disabilities can succeed in jobs earning minimum wage or more. "Workers who experience disabilities are valued members of Alaska's workforce," said Department of Labor and Workforce Development Acting Commissioner Greg Cashen. "They deserve minimum wage protections as much as any other Alaskan worker." The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development received written comments expressing support for repealing the regulation that allowed the minimum wage exemption from the Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special Education, the State Vocational Rehabilitation Committee, the Statewide Independent Living Council, and the Alaska Workforce Investment Board. The elimination of the minimum wage exemption brings employment practices into alignment with Alaska Employment First Act of 2014, which requires vocational services help people with disabilities to become gainfully employed at or above the minimum wage. ---------- Leave a Legacy by Joining our Dream Makers Circle For more than seventy-five years, the National Federation of the Blind has worked to help blind people live the lives they want and, with your support, we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will join our enduring movement by including the National Federation of the Blind in your planned giving. Our legacy society is called Dream Makers Circle because those who join it turn dreams into reality. You can add the National Federation of the Blind to your will. You can name the National Federation of the Blind as a beneficiary or partial beneficiary of a retirement vehicle, life insurance policy, pension, 401(k), or other asset. You can even gift a bank account. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is an easy way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want and leave 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 education . 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 careers 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 . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their dreams. Please consider the National Federation of the Blind in your estate planning. 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 2017 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 thirty-nine NFB BELL Academy programs in twenty-five states . Provided over one hundred 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 . Hosted the tenth anniversary Youth Slam-a week-long science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) camp for blind high school students Just imagine what we will 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 tollfree, 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 and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- Our Public Commitment to One Another as Represented in our Official Code of Conduct Statement by Mark Riccobono Having the opportunity to serve as an elected representative in the National Federation of the Blind is an extreme honor and one that brings with it the expectation that we will do our best to represent all blind people and make them proud. In an effort to formalize standards that have long been a part of the expectations we have for leaders and members at all levels in the Federation, the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind has written a document embodying the principles we will uphold as national, affiliate, and chapter leaders. Federationists will recognize that this document formalizes and presents in some detail the long-held conduct expected of our leaders and makes clear our promise to be the kind of diverse and welcoming organization represented by our brand. The standard we expect from our leaders mirrors those we expect of members and embodies promises we make to one another as we interact at our chapter meetings and at conventions of the National Federation of the Blind. A primary one is to provide a safe and friendly environment for everyone who attends. Our meetings welcome those from diverse backgrounds who have made advancing the good of the blind a goal that is so important in their lives that they commit their time and treasure to securing it. Everyone who attends our events can expect to be safe, to be treated with courtesy and respect, and to be appreciated for who they are. We make no distinction based on age, race, gender, religion, educational level, sexual orientation, or one's affiliation or lack thereof with a political party or ideology. Here is the formal pledge that we make to one another to ensure that the Federation is representative, welcoming, and open to all who are engaged in our cause. NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND CODE OF CONDUCT I. Introduction 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. The Federation 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. To help carry out the Federation's vital mission, this Code of Conduct sets forth policies and standards that all members, especially Federation leaders, are expected to adopt and follow. II. Diversity Policy The National Federation of the Blind embraces diversity and full participation as core values in its mission to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind. We are committed to building and maintaining a nationwide organization with state affiliates and local chapters that is unified in its priorities and programs and is directed by the membership. We respect differences of opinion, beliefs, identities, and other characteristics that demonstrate that blind people are a diverse cross section of society. Furthermore, the organization is dedicated to continuing to establish new methods of membership and leadership development that reflect the diversity of the entire blind community. In promoting a diverse and growing organization, we expect integrity and honesty in our relationships with each other and openness to learning about and experiencing cultural diversity. We believe that these qualities are crucial to fostering social and intellectual maturity. Intellectual maturity also requires individual struggle with unfamiliar ideas. We recognize that our views and convictions will be challenged, and we expect this challenge to take place in a climate of tolerance and mutual respect in order to maintain a united organization. While we encourage the exchange of differing ideas and experiences, we do not condone the use of demeaning, derogatory, or discriminatory language, action, or any other form of expression intended to marginalize an individual or group. The National Federation of the Blind does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, genetic information, disability, or any other characteristic or intersectionality of characteristics. III. Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy The National Federation of the Blind will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, genetic information, disability, or any other characteristic or intersectionality of characteristics. Harassment on the basis of any of these characteristics similarly will not be tolerated. Although this Code of Conduct establishes a minimum standard prohibiting discrimination and harassment, nothing in this Code should be interpreted to limit in any way a person's right to report abuse or harassment to law enforcement when appropriate. Sexual harassment is prohibited by state and federal law and also will not be tolerated by the National Federation of the Blind. Complaints of harassment may be lodged by a female against a male, by a female against a female, by a male against a male, or by a male against a female. Sexual harassment is defined as "unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, sexually motivated physical contact, or other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature." The following conduct is either considered conduct that by itself is sexual harassment, or that has the potential risk of causing sexual harassment to occur, and this conduct is therefore prohibited: . unwelcome inappropriate physical contact or touching; . repeating of sexually suggestive jokes/references/innuendoes and comments about an individual's body/sexual prowess/physical attributes/dress; . the use of sexually derogatory language/pictures/videos toward/about another person; . the use of inappropriate sexual gestures; . sexually suggestive propositions; and . explicit or implicit threats that failure to submit will have negative consequences. Under this policy, harassment can be verbal, written, or physical conduct that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual because of his or her race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law; or that of his or her relatives, friends, or associates, and that a) has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment; b) has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's performance or involvement in the organization; or c) otherwise adversely affects an individual's opportunities for participation/advancement in the organization. Harassing conduct includes epithets, slurs, or negative stereotyping; threatening, intimidating or hostile acts including bullying; denigrating jokes; and written or graphic material that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group that is placed on walls or elsewhere on the organization's premises or circulated by email, phone (including voice messages), text messages, social networking sites, or other means. IV. Social Media and Web Policy All members of the Federation, but especially officers of the Federation as well as those in leadership positions such as state affiliate presidents, should follow these recommended guidelines when making comments online, posting to a blog, using Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/YouTube/Pinterest/Instagram/similar tools, and/or using other platforms that fall under the definition of social media: . Promote the mission and branding message of the organization in comments/posts. . Recognize that you are morally and legally responsible for comments/pictures posted online. . Be aware that the audience includes members and nonmembers of the NFB, both youth and adults, representing diverse cultures and backgrounds. . Refrain from using profanity/derogatory language. . Post/respond with integrity. Though you may disagree with a post, be respectful and factual. Do not fight or air personal grievances online. . Do not post materials that are inappropriate for children/minors to view/share/read. V. Conflict of Interest Policy Each NFB officer, national board member, or state affiliate president (hereafter Federation leader) is expected to take appropriate responsibility to protect the Federation from misappropriation or mismanagement of Federation funds (including funds of an affiliate, chapter, or division in which the Federation leader assumes a leadership role). Each Federation leader is expected to disclose the existence of any potentially conflicting personal financial interest or relationship to the full National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors and seek its review and approval, as specified below. For example: . A Federation leader must seek board review and approval of his or her receipt of salary or compensation of any kind from the Federation (including an affiliate, chapter, or division). . A Federation leader must seek board review and approval of receipt by his or her spouse, parent, child, sibling, or other close relative of salary or compensation of any kind from the Federation (including an affiliate, chapter, or division). . A Federation leader must seek board review and approval of any ownership interest exceeding 5 percent in or of any salary, compensation, commission, or significant tangible gift from any commercial venture doing business or seeking to do business with the Federation (including an affiliate, chapter, or division). This process will also apply to the review of such interests involving spouses, parents, children, siblings, or other close relatives. . In reviewing matters brought pursuant to this section, the officer or national board member seeking national board review and approval will refrain from voting. . Each Federation leader shall take appropriate steps to avoid unauthorized or inaccurate appearances or official endorsement by the Federation (including an affiliate, chapter, or division) of any product, service, or activity that has not been so endorsed. For example, because the Federation never endorses political parties or candidates for elected office, any Federation leader participating in the political process must take care to avoid creating an appearance of official Federation endorsement. VI. Policy While Interacting with Minors For purposes of this Code of Conduct and consistent with most legal standards, a minor is any individual under the age of eighteen. While interacting with any minor, a national officer, national board member, or state affiliate president (hereafter Federation leader) shall recognize that a minor cannot legally give consent for any purpose even if said minor is verbally or otherwise expressing consent. For example, a minor may say that he/ or she consents to physical interaction. However, such consent is not valid or legal and should not be accepted. A parent or guardian must be informed and consulted about any action requiring consent from the minor. A Federation leader shall report any inappropriate interactions between adults and minors to the minor's parents and law enforcement when appropriate. VII. Alcohol and Drug Policy Although alcoholic beverages are served at some Federation social functions, members and Federation leaders may not participate in any such functions in a condition that prevents them from participating safely and from conducting Federation business effectively or that might cause embarrassment to or damage the reputation of the Federation. The Federation prohibits the possession, sale, purchase, delivery, dispensing, use, or transfer of illegal substances on Federation property or at Federation functions. VIII. Other General Principles In addition to the other policies and standards set-forth herein, national officers, national board members, and state affiliate presidents (hereafter Federation leaders) shall adhere to the following standards: . Federation leaders shall practice accountability and transparency in all activities and transactions. . Federation leaders shall foster a welcoming environment at NFB meetings, events, and conferences that is a cooperative and productive atmosphere for all members and nonmembers. . Federation leaders shall interact with NFB staff in a professional manner and follow proper channels of authority and communication. . Federation leaders shall positively promote the NFB through verbal and written communication. . Whenever possible, Federation leaders and members are strongly encouraged to handle conflicts or complaints involving other members privately, directly, and respectfully. Nothing in this standard is intended to limit a Federation leader's or member's right to pursue organizational change through appropriate methods or to limit anyone's right to file a complaint for violation of this Code when necessary. IX. Violations and Complaint Procedure Violations of this Code of Conduct, after first being established through the process set-forth below, are subject to disciplinary action by the Federation. Such disciplinary actions may include but are not limited to counselling, verbal and/or written reprimand, probation, suspension or termination of officer/leadership duties, and/or suspension or expulsion from the Federation. . Any complaint for a violation of this Code of Conduct shall be filed with the Office of the President for the Federation. The President shall appoint a committee of no more than four persons to investigate the complaint and provide a recommendation for action or lack thereof. The committee shall be comprised of persons not directly involved in the matters being raised and who can be completely unbiased about the individuals and issues addressed in the complaint. Every effort shall be made to appoint a committee reflecting the broad diversity of individuals in the Federation. . Complaints shall be treated as confidential in order to protect the identity and reputation of the person about whom the complaint is filed and the person filing the complaint. . All complaints shall be filed as promptly as possible. Except under extreme circumstances, no complaint shall be accepted or investigated after a year from the time of the alleged violation of this Code. . Complaints that turn out to be false and used for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, or retaliating against someone will be subject to the same kind of disciplinary action enumerated above. . Any person dissatisfied with the resolution of a complaint may file an appeal with the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors, which may, in its discretion, take such action as it deems necessary. No national board member shall participate in the consideration of an appeal under this Code if such board member is the subject of the complaint or if such board member cannot be completely unbiased, impartial, and fair while considering the matter. X. Minimum Standard This Code of Conduct is intended to recite a minimum set of standards expected of Federation members. It sets forth the spirit that the Federation expects of all of its participants toward each other and toward those who work with the Federation at all of its levels. It is intended to be interpreted broadly to instill a respectful, cooperative, and welcoming spirit in members and in the activities of the Federation. XI. Federation Pledge and Acknowledgement of Code of Conduct I, (Federation leader), 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. I further acknowledge that I have read this Code of Conduct and that I will follow its policies, standards, and principles. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Maurice Peret] Changing Attitudes Regarding Education, Employment, and Rehabilitation through the National Federation of the Blind CAREER Mentoring Program by Maurice Peret From the Editor: Maurice Peret began working as coordinator of career mentoring programs for the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute in January of 2018. Having gone through the public school system in suburban Washington, DC, the term "partially sighted" was most often used to describe his status because of his very limited vision that would decline completely by the time he was in his early twenties. Although there was a chapter of the NFB in his area, he knew no blind adults after whom to model blindness skills or positive attitudes. He finally became a member of the Federation in 1991 through the mentorship of Ed McDonald who was then the president of the NFB of West Virginia where Maurice lived at the time. He has worked in the blindness rehabilitation field since 1999 and earned the National Orientation & Mobility Certification in 2002. He has served continuously on the NOMC Training Committee which develops and upholds the rigorous performance-based standards of the Structured Discovery Cane Travel (SDCT) training model under the direction of the National Blindness Professional Certification Board. Maurice is grateful and excited by the opportunity to provide pre-employment transition-focused career mentoring programs that he might have benefited from when he was growing up. Here is what he says: For seventy-eight years now the nation's largest and most influential representative organization of the blind, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), has developed and nurtured its single most valued and effective asset: its membership. The collective experience of tens of thousands of blind men and women, passed down through the generations from one to another, has contributed to the ultimate success and independence of countless blind young people to carry the torch of leadership and to live the lives they want. The cause of the Federation's successful and long-standing reliance on and promotion of mentorship as a leadership development tool can be traced back to before the organization's formation, to the unique and exemplary relationship between Dr. Newel Perry, an instructor at the California School for the Blind, and his prot?g?, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek. Dr. Perry earned a prestigious doctor of philosophy in mathematics degree with highest honors in 1901 before returning to his alma mater. He was a supreme teacher, scholar, mentor, friend, and colleague in his own right. Obviously Dr. Perry acquired life skills that allowed him to successfully overcome the myths and misconceptions that prevented other blind people from achieving similar success. More than a teacher, as a mentor Dr. Perry openly shared his experiences and strategies with Dr. tenBroek in a manner that allowed Dr. tenBroek to leverage those strategies to define his own future. Despite the capability their brilliant academic achievements demonstrated, both of these great, accomplished men had to struggle to overcome multiple brick walls to opportunities that society deemed insurmountable by them on the basis of their blindness. This struggle served to strengthen their determination to build the kind of national civil rights organization that would systematically chip away, brick by brick, at the social barriers that would confront future generations. In 1940 Dr. tenBroek founded the National Federation of the Blind, a nationwide organization of blind people that believes in the true capacity of blind people. Dr. tenBroek explained that the key to Dr. Perry's "great influence with blind students was first the fact that he was blind and therefore understood their problems; and second, that he believed in them and made his faith manifest. He provided the only sure foundation of true rapport: knowledge on our part that he was genuinely interested in our welfare." In other words, because he'd fought the same battles and faced the same barriers, his students believed his interest in their progress as students and developing humans was genuine and untainted by pity or charity. In the decades since Dr. Perry taught, research studies have empirically demonstrated that matching blind youth with successful mentors in this way increases their effectiveness in making decisions about their futures and increases their positive attitudes about blindness. In October of 2004 the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute received a five-year model demonstration grant from the US Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to develop a mentoring excellence program for blind youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. With this grant, the Federation established a National Center for Mentoring Excellence to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive national mentoring program to connect young blind people with successful blind adults. Today we are building on the quantitative and qualitative data collected from that experience to establish NFB CAREER Mentoring Programs across the country for blind youth with a stronger emphasis upon pre-employment transition services as outlined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA). The NFB CAREER Mentoring Program combines best practices in mentoring with the philosophy of the NFB-a philosophy that combines high expectations, a positive attitude, the value of alternative techniques of blindness, and the belief that it is okay to be blind. In the end, we hope to instill a conviction in the blind women and men we serve that they can live the lives they want and that blindness is not what holds them back. The empowering role that mentors play in encouraging and modeling proven strategies and winning behaviors to young mentees can hardly be overstated. From the time they are very young, boys and girls begin to think about what they want to become when they grow up. Unfortunately, this is also the time that society begins to tell blind and visually-impaired children and their families that not only are they different from other children, but that this difference means that there will be less expected of them because they could never measure up to the expectations held for sighted children. Combined with the tendency for blind and low-vision youth to be underexposed to blind adult role models who are successful in a variety of technical, professional, and academic pursuits within the mainstream workplace, these societal misperceptions of the capabilities of the blind discourage blind children from using their imagination to combine their personal interests, aptitudes, and innate talents to dream big about what they want to be when they grow up. In the words of Frederick Douglass, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Mentoring has become an effective strategy used by millions of men and women and thousands of organizations to offer the necessary guidance and support to combat low expectations and cultivate success in groups of people who have not traditionally succeeded in their field. The NFB CAREER Mentoring Program highlights the power of combining best practices in mentoring with the philosophy of the NFB-a philosophy that combines high expectations, a positive attitude, the value of the alternative techniques of blindness, and the solid belief that it is okay to be blind. Mentors can share personal experience of successful and unsuccessful strategies for challenging situations including confronting public and employer attitudes; navigating through programs such as Social Security and Vocational Rehabilitation; managing accessibility in education; and learning about access technology and employment opportunities. Young blind people who are not connected to a network of blind mentors must continually reinvent the wheel by working through these challenges on their own. Our NFB CAREER Mentoring Program effectively uses the resources of thousands of blind Americans who have successfully navigated the path from education to career success and are willing to share their experiences and insight with young people. The NFB CAREER Mentoring Program matches transition-age blind and visually-impaired youth and young adults with successful blind mentors in order to: increase knowledge of and participation in the vocational rehabilitation process, increase postsecondary academic success, and increase high-quality employment and community integration. But unlike some mentorship programs where each mentee is matched with a single mentor, the NFB CAREER Mentoring Program is strengthened by matching each mentee with two to three. Information is gathered from the mentees about academic and career goals, hobbies, and extracurricular activities and used to match them with mentors who share interests or are successful in a career that matches with the mentee's interests. This method has several benefits, including an increased exposure to educational, training, and career opportunities; a diversity of educational and work experiences for a student to learn from; an extended network of contacts for mentees to benefit from; increased community involvement and sense of belonging; and a more robust ongoing support system for the student as he/she tackles the early years of adulthood. Blind youth need exposure to positive blind role models who demonstrate a solid belief in the abilities of blind people and can, through guidance and example, raise expectations and offer practical tips and tricks for accessing resources and acquiring skills for success. When successful blind role models take a concerted interest in the lives of young blind people, expectations are raised about what can be accomplished. As dreams become reality, practical lessons are absorbed, often without even knowing that the learning is taking place. With an intolerably high rate of unemployment and under employment of working-age blind people in our nation, knowing what it takes to succeed in the vocation of one's choosing is critical. Navigating the labyrinth of the special education, vocational rehabilitation, and other social systems while juggling the dissidence and mixed messaging of expectation imbalances can become perplexing and wearisome. The personal knowledge and experience of successful blind adults helps ground blind youth to internalize the philosophy that blindness is not the characteristic that defines them or their future. Every day successful blind mentors help raise the expectations of blind young people because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and their dreams. They come to know that they can live the lives they want; blindness is not what holds them back. As participants in the NFB CAREER Mentoring Program, blind mentees travel with mentors in direct learning experiences. This is done using alternative travel techniques such as the long white cane or guide dog and by demonstrating how to use public transit systems. Working with one or more mentors is the perfect environment for observing and practicing effective self-advocacy skills, all while learning to confront public misperceptions about blindness with grace, integrity, and respect. Blind employees as well as blind job seekers must be proficient in the use of access technology including text-to-speech software, screen enlargement software, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs, and refreshable Braille displays. Aspiring blind professionals must be prepared to address how adaptive software and equipment can be used to perform the essential elements of the job and be able to effectively educate the employer about how this reasonable accommodation would allow the blind applicant to be a productive employee. Blind mentors who have successfully navigated these situations are able to share their strategies with their mentees. The confidence derived from participation in a mentoring program equips blind youth with the ability to own the job interview. Roleplaying and role reversal exercises are useful activities in anticipating questions that may arise ahead of time and addressing them knowledgeably and confidently. Roleplaying between mentor and mentee is also an effective exercise that addresses social and professional morays such as appropriate attire, eye contact, hand shaking (e.g. when to and when not to), and being proactive and articulate in responding to interview questions. Financial literacy skills are also learned through practice in joint mentoring activities as blind youth are encouraged to engage in financial transactions such as paying for lunch or purchasing movie, paintball, or laser tag tickets. Mentees learn social protocol for calculating gratuity percentages and guide waitstaff in providing assistance in signing credit or debit card receipts. They explore banking options, learn to open a checking or savings account, learn how to balance their checkbook, and use web-based and mobile apps to track income and expenditures. Blind mentors provide guidance and empower mentees to effectively self-advocate and consider options that might otherwise have been dismissed. Introduction to successful blind college students, tours of local colleges and universities, and interest surveys inspire blind mentees to consider or reconsider higher education. There is no substitute for spending a day or more with a successful blind student or students to observe how challenges are managed. The National Association of Blind Students and its affiliated state organizations provide an abundant source of peer mentors. These experiences also prove valuable in integrating with other students and faculty, relationships that prove helpful in ways that are not always immediately recognizable. Because academic readiness does not always equate to graceful fluidity in public and social interactions, mock interviews assist blind students with guidance on how to engage effectively in an interview. Blind mentors provide useful tips on how to independently negotiate new environments, how to address the issue of disability prior to or during the interview, interact with Office of Disability Service staff, and strategize about the management of appropriate accommodations. It is widely accepted that job opportunities are generated most effectively through personal connections. Likewise, successfully employed or scholastically enrolled blind mentors share with mentees their accumulated networking experience in professional and academic associations, service organizations, fraternities and sororities, and especially through membership in organizations like the National Federation of the Blind. Many Federationists have stories of how mentorship by an older or more experienced Federationist changed their life. For some it was someone in their local or state chapter; for some it was someone like past Presidents Dr. tenBroek, Dr. Jernigan, or Dr. Maurer. And most of those Federationists talk about their determination to pay the time, faith, and confidence spent on them forward with new and younger Federationists. If you would like to know more about mentorship opportunities with the NFB CAREER Mentoring Program, go to www.nfb.org/mentorapplication and submit an application. If you are that young Federationist who would like to benefit from the advice and support of a mentor, go to www.nfb.org/menteeapplication to submit an application to become a mentee. This is how the Federation helps build a strong new generation of blind youth to continue changing the world until all of society believes that blindness is no true barrier to living the life you want. ---------- [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: 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 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: Amy Mason] Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Screen Readers: The Interface between Us and the Road by Amy Mason From the Editor: This is the third article in a series intended to help users of assistive technology learn to use and get the most out of the World Wide Web. Navigating the web is possible, productive, and enjoyable, but there are many parts to the puzzle, and this series of articles is intended to let readers examine each piece and decide how they will put together the system that gives them the access they desire to the vast resources of the internet. With her analytic mind, her vast knowledge of resources, and her command of language, here is what Amy Mason has to say, this time about screen readers: Howdy class. I hope your homework went well. I'm looking forward to hearing reports on how things have gone for you in your test driving of alternative browsers. Since our last class, I've been spending a lot more time with Chrome. I've been pretty happy with Mozilla Firefox for the last several years, but it never hurts to test drive something different, especially when your regular car is in the shop (see our blog post on Firefox Quantum for further details https://nfb.org/firefox-57-and-screen- reader-compatibility. If you have missed either of the previous "classes" you can find them in the January and February issues of the Monitor and catch up. Screen Readers-Our Dashboard on the Road The final level of equipment we need to discuss before we can really start exploring the open road is your blind driver interface: the screen reader. Like browsers, you have many options available, and they offer different paths to the same basic information. Also, like browsers, each screen reader has unique advantages and disadvantages, so once again it is wise for users to learn more than one when they have the opportunity. Sadly, unlike browsers, there are many scenarios where you may be tied to a single screen reader, and you will need to consider carefully your browser choice based upon what is most compatible with it. At its most basic, a screen reader is a software package that gathers information from the operating system and programs on your computer, tablet, or smart phone, (read "pocket computer") and offers that information to you in the form of speech and/or refreshable Braille. Dashboards can vary wildly, from a minimal number of indicators to a mess of flashing lights and gauges. Choosing the right interface is essential for making sure you can get where you want to go. To understand the screen reader's role in working on the web, it is important to remember a few things about screen readers in general: 1. A screen reader can only relay information that is programmatically determinable. This is a fancy way of saying that it can only tell you what it has first been told. For instance, unless a website has been coded correctly, the screen reader will not be able to understand that a link is intended to be interactive. It is just like a faulty fuel sensor; it won't be able to guess and can leave you stranded and hoping to hitch a ride to the nearest town. Furthermore, it will also be unable to do anything with that link if the browser doesn't properly recognize the link and tell the screen reader what it is supposed to be. This is why we continue to have to work with operating system creators, browser manufacturers, and web designers to ensure that each of them is passing important information on so that screen readers can convey it to us. 2. Even though I just said screen readers cannot guess, some vehicles are starting to get good at diagnostics and may suggest a fix for that 'check engine light,' telling you to replace the spark plugs even when the problem is a loose gas cap. We users have to be savvy enough to understand when the screen reader may be attempting to guess and that we may know better than it does. The way you do this is a combination of knowledge of your specific screen reader, the tool you are using, (website, application, or otherwise) and clues we are able to gather from the information the screen reader will give us. For instance, if you come across the word "submit" all by itself at the end of a form, you may safely assume that this is meant to be interactive even if it is not read as such and try pressing the button. Keeping with our driving analogy, an experienced driver knows that sometimes your gas gauge will complain you are running on fumes because it doesn't realize you are on a steep hill. 3. When we have this many layers of interaction, more frequently than we would like something will "go sideways" (Yes that is definitely the technical term). As such, it is worth learning how to restart different layers of the chain and to work backwards from the last to the first to see if you can gracefully recover from trouble. Your screen reader is at the end of the chain, so it is usually the first program that it is worth learning how to restart. Therefore, with each of the screen readers we are covering below, I will include a method for shutting down and restarting which you can use in a pinch to see about getting back on the road faster than if you need to perform a complete system shutdown. The browser and computer are generally easier to shut down since you have the benefit of the screen reader to provide you information about those processes, but of course restarting the screen reader is done without benefit of its assistance, so learning the commands or setting up shortcuts that will allow you to do so will be a worthwhile investment of your time. 4. When all else fails, it is important to remember that none of this is perfect, and it's going to be the case that you will need to reboot occasionally. Sometimes you just have to get the gremlins out of your engine, or it's going to keep crashing. Don't blame yourself, and don't be too nervous about the outcomes. Computers and screen readers are generally pretty forgiving. Save often, develop your sense of adventure and humor, and don't experiment with deleting files you don't understand. By following this advice, you will be just fine when computing, whether you are cruising the information superhighway or rocking a spreadsheet. Just a heads-up here: there are several screen readers you may be familiar with that I am not going to cover in this article. They fall into two categories. The first are our mobile and platform specific screen readers; these will be addressed in a future article since your dirt bike or smartphone requires a very different dashboard from a Ferrari. The second are those that hold just a small market share. Some have a very passionate fan base, but it is not practical to talk about every variant with its own collector's club. The Back to the Future Delorean dashboard is iconic, but my wonderful editor might kill me if I submit a three-hundred- page article nine months late. If you wish to read up on ChromeVox, I would recommend reviewing my article "Google in the Classroom: Chromebooks and G-Suite" in Future Reflections, Vol. 36 No. 3 (Summer 2017). In the case of ZoomText, I would point to its primary purpose as a magnification tool and not a screen reader, unless it is paired with JAWS in Fusion. In this case the references and resources covering JAWS that appear below should be sufficient to get you started. For those of you who are curious about the distribution of screen reader users here and elsewhere, you may wish to look at the WebAIM Screen Reader Survey #7 at https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey7/. And with those bits of advice behind us, let us look at the screen readers themselves: JAWS (Job Access with Speech)-Space-age smart cars are here Operating System Supported: Windows Compatible Browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Edge (sort of) Obtained from: Freedom Scientific, a division of VFO group. www.freedomscientific.com Cost: Widely variable-if purchased outright it will cost $970 for home use and more for business; however, some organizations (employers, educators, etc.) have deals with Freedom to provide the software to their users at drastically reduced prices. JAWS is the last remaining early Windows screen reader. As such, it has had years and years of work behind it. This means that it offers a lot of customization-you can spend hours or even days setting this beast up to work exactly as you like it. Whether you want to use different voices for different elements, or sound effects to convey information, or even change how you interact with web forms, you can and likely will need to spend some serious time customizing JAWS to get the most out of it. It is well understood by the community. There are more training materials, both free and paid, for this software than for any other screen reader on the market. For this reason, it is still often the de facto option in many workplaces, colleges, and other institutions. Likewise, there are many (mostly legacy) software packages and some websites that have been specifically coded to work well with JAWS instead of to the standards, and, as such, are more likely to misbehave when used with other screen readers. Hopefully in the coming years this will continue to change and evolve, but it's a factor that we need to be aware of now. If there is a screen reader that tries to guess at what's going on in a misbehaving system, it is JAWS. It will often get things right, though it is important to be aware of this tendency because, when JAWS gets something wrong while guessing, it is more likely to really confuse the situation; it doesn't tend to warn you when it is just a guess. It's built on a very large existing code base, so you need a more powerful computer than you might for other screen readers in order to have it run well. When bugs emerge, it can take more time for VFO to find and repair them than some of the lighter, more nimble screen readers. In a nutshell, JAWS is a powerful large software package with a lot of development hours behind it. This means it will let you set everything up just the way you like it-everything from variable density in the car seats and automatic heated seat to the trip movie selections on the built- in TV-but when things go wrong, you probably need to send it to a specialist. Your friend who's good with cars probably can't fix this one in his driveway. Sometimes that complexity can get in your way; automatic sensors and cameras to keep you in the middle of the lane are great, except when you need to go around roadworks. In this vein, JAWS offers pretty comprehensive (if challenging to initially set up) Braille support and such extreme customizations as allowing for scripting even of individual webpages and applications. On the web it attempts to guess at relationships between elements and labels when they are not explicitly and correctly coded. This is why you may find that JAWS will read labels on webpages where other screen readers will not. If you find that the first edit field in a set is unlabeled, but subsequent ones are, you can bet that JAWS is guessing, and one off. For instance, if you hear something like "edit, First name edit, last name edit..." you are fairly safe to assume that the first edit field is where your first name goes, not the second. Further Resources for JAWS The help topics and manuals for JAWS are extraordinarily comprehensive. You will also find links to a wealth of free and paid webinar information from the manufacturer. You can explore all of these materials from the Help menu in JAWS itself. If you are looking for a specific command in the application, press JAWS-Space followed by the letter J to open up a context sensitive search box where you can search for commands relevant to your location on the computer. You can also press JAWS- 1 (on the number row) to enable Keyboard learn mode. Pressing this combination a second time will return the keyboard to its normal state. One training reference which is especially relevant to your experiences on the internet is "Surf's Up! Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic" It is a very powerful and interactive tutorial, even if they have the metaphor wrong. Although it is JAWS specific, much of the information in it can be generalized to use with other screen readers as well, and it may be worth exploring regardless of the tool you choose to employ. It can be found at: http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Surfs- Up/_Surfs_Up_Start_Here.htm Restarting JAWS When you need to quit and restart JAWS and do not have a dedicated keyboard shortcut created, the most sure-fire method is to exit the program then open the run dialog by holding down the Windows key and pressing R, henceforth referred to as Win-R. Then type JAWS followed directly by the version number of the software you are running. So if you are running JAWS 2018 you would type "jaws2018," and for v. 17 you would type "jaws17" followed by Enter without spaces. NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access)-The best vehicle for non-drivers Operating System Supported: Windows Compatible Browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Edge (sort of) Obtained from: NV Access www.nvaccess.org Cost: NVDA is free to download, but its development is supported through donations, so when you first download or when you update, you will be asked to consider donating to this most worthy application's further development. You may also choose to purchase higher quality voice packs from several different sellers, which usually run between $50-$100 for a one-time purchase. NVDA is sort of the "anti-JAWS." It is a competent screen reader that is focused on simplicity and speed, so when using it remember the following: . It is highly standards compliant. If the webpage you are reviewing doesn't offer a label for an edit field and you hit that field with NVDA, it will not guess what the label should be. Instead, it will cheerily read back that it is "blank" and leave you to do the sleuthing to find out what's nearby and likely to be the label for that item. . It is extraordinarily nimble-It is updated on average three to four times a year and often contains significant improvements from one version to the next. . It is also quite small and light. NVDA seems like it would probably run on a toaster, as long as it was running Windows (I'm still waiting Amazon). . Although it doesn't offer the same depth of customization out-of-the- box, much about this screen reader can still be set to suit. Basic customization is available and very simple to set up. For more complex or experimental features, a plethora of add-ons can be included to make it work the way you like it. Free and paid training resources certainly exist for NVDA and continue to be actively developed, but they are not nearly as comprehensive as those for JAWS. They also tend to be of mixed quality when it comes to the quality of production because they come from volunteers who bring various levels of knowledge when it comes to content creation. Even so, these materials are very useful and have the distinct advantage of being very affordable-when they cost anything at all. In my opinion the most exciting thing about NVDA is that it is a screen reader that we as the community have the power to affect more directly than any other. It is open source, which means that it can be taken apart and studied, viewed, and improved by anyone with the know-how and desire. This is much like fixing up a car with your dad-adding pieces and making it your own with enough time and elbow grease. NVDA is the screen reader written by blind folks for blind folks, and it shows. It's not as polished around the edges, and the doors are not necessarily the same color as the bonnet, especially when it comes to documentation and training. But it has now been around long enough that people have started to create pretty comprehensive materials about its use. Furthermore, due to its free and open source nature, many web developers are using it to test their work, guaranteeing the best result for everyone. Further Resources for NVDA As I mentioned previously, NVDA is a program that has a lot of support from the community. As such, one of the best resources I've seen for this software is actually a community resource. Located at http://accessibilitycentral.net/nvda%20audio%20tutorials.html it provides several audio tutorials, links to other resources, including the official help page from NVAccess (https://www.nvaccess.org/help/) and several different and very comprehensive instructions for downloading and installing NVDA on your own computer. NVAccess itself has created a couple low-cost tutorial books which can be accessed from its official help page along with information for email listservs and paid technical support options. In the software itself, the user's guide can be accessed from the Help menu. Finally, like JAWS, it is possible to enter Input Learn Mode by pressing NVDA-1. Restarting NVDA There are a plethora of ways to restart NVDA when it is misbehaving. They include the following: . Activate the desktop icon or executable for NVDA while it is running. The application will shut itself down and restart. . Press NVDA-Q (Quits NVDA) and choose "Restart" or "Restart with Add- on's Disabled" to unload and re-load the program. . Type "nvda" into the Run dialog box in Windows (activated with Win-R) and press Enter . When initially installed, by default, NVDA creates a keyboard shortcut, Alt-Ctrl-N, and pressing this at any time will launch or relaunch the program. Unfortunately, this conflicts with several commands available for the Google G Suite of applications. So I would recommend changing the default shortcut or disabling it if you are a user of those tools. Personally, I have found that Alt-Ctrl-` (grave accent, located to the left of "1" on most keyboards) is an excellent substitute since I am unaware of any keyboard commands that directly conflict. VoiceOver-Driving on the Other Side of the Road Operating System Supported: Mac OSX Compatible Browsers: Safari, Chrome, Firefox (sort of) Obtained from: Installed on any Apple Mac Computer built in the last decade. Cost: none Voiceover is the name for all of the built-in screen readers available on Apple products. However, in this article we are going to limit our discussion to the Mac because mobile Apple products offer a very different browsing experience from that offered on the full desktop. With that in mind, here are the relevant details to keep in mind when you choose to use VoiceOver as you browse. You are not behind the wheel of a Windows PC. The paradigms are very different. Modes of interaction, commands, and controls are all in different places and work differently from those you may be familiar with if coming from this environment. In my opinion, using a Mac with VoiceOver is very similar to driving in the UK, Australia, or other countries where drivers travel along the left side of the road, not the right. You can be just as safe, effective, and competent using a machine built for this environment, but if you are coming from Windows, (or the US and Canada as drivers) you are going to have to take some extra time to learn how things have changed, and you may find yourself reaching down to shift gears with the wrong hand until you grow accustomed. VoiceOver receives updates at the same time as the operating system, so it's important to decide just how comfortable you are with change and possible instability when choosing to update your OS. VoiceOver is the only choice you have on a Mac when it comes to screen reading, so if a bug hits which you cannot work around, you will be stuck until Apple offers a patch, unless you choose to reload an earlier system image to get back on your feet. VoiceOver and OSX have a very dedicated fanbase. The number of VoiceOver users may not be as high as for Windows screen readers, but many of these folks are very active in sharing their knowledge, so training materials are readily available. VoiceOver, although it certainly has its own way of doing things, has a fascinating combination of traits when it comes to how it's been built to behave. In standards compliance for local computer programs, it's going to largely demand standard controls or changes to the desktop software it is reviewing in order to ensure accessibility. But on the web, it has the tendency to play guessing games similar to those played by JAWS. As with JAWS, this is both a blessing and a curse. Further, like JAWS, it is highly customizable, and getting down deep into the tweaks you can make with the package is going to be an important part of getting the most out of it. Like other desktop screen readers, VoiceOver can be relied upon to offer fairly good access to software and content that is built to be accessible. This includes websites and browsers. Unlike screen readers for Windows, though, everything will feel very different until you have learned how to work with it. I will admit that even after several years of use I just don't feel quite as comfortable with this tool. I know many users who swear by it, and I am pleased that it suits them. That said, I continually seem to muddle my hands and controls when I use it. All I can say is that in the truest sense of these words, your mileage may vary. The best way to know is to find a way to try it for yourself, whether you ask someone to let you try it out on their machine or take the leap and get your own. Even as someone who is not quite comfortable driving on the left side of the road, I can admit there are some really delightful and unique benefits. For example, on the Mac the Track Pad enables VoiceOver users to operate the computer in much the same way one operates the iPhone, with gestures. In my opinion, this is one of the coolest tricks that VoiceOver has to offer. Browsing the web with just a flick of the finger is really quite a satisfying experience Further Resources for VoiceOver There are a lot of Apple fans in the blindness community. I am not going to even try to name all the podcasts, articles, and groups available to get you connected with other Apple users. I will, however, point you to the group that I find has been of most assistance to me when I've been looking for tutorials, software reviews, and general information: www.applevis.com. If these folks don't have what you need, they can probably point you to the resources that do. It's a whole community of blind people who are passionate about all things Apple and accessibility, and I would recommend looking them up no matter what your skill level or Apple device of choice. As for VoiceOver internal help, pressing VO-H will provide you with a large number of resources in the software itself which you can use to learn how to make the most of this powerful tool. In the Help menu you can find Command Lists, the User Documentation, and even the simple interactive tutorial that is offered the first time you turn it on. Restarting VoiceOver You can toggle VoiceOver on and off by pressing Cmd+F5 on Macs with physical Function keys, or by quickly triple tapping the fingerprint sensor at the top right corner of Macs with the touch bar. If using the touch bar, a self-voicing menu appears and allows you to toggle VoiceOver on or off. Conclusions For those just starting out with a screen reader, your choice to use Mac or Windows should be guided by what you plan to use the computer for and your budget. Any of these three can be great options, depending on what you want to do. When choosing the proper screen reader for browsing, it honestly comes down to choosing the proper screen reader for you and then following up with the browsers that work best. Each screen reading interface is going to handle pages and browsers somewhat differently, but, like getting behind the wheel of any car for the first time, if you learn where the controls are and how to use them, you will find that with some practice you can become an excellent driver with any of these dashboard setups. Even so, like with driving, if you have the opportunity and inclination, you will benefit from getting comfortable with more than one model of car... I mean screen reader. The more time you spend moving between the different options, the more resilient you will be when you come across problems, not only because you will have different tools to choose from, but also because your mind and reactions will be sharper. Race car drivers practice in different conditions with all sorts of obstacles and track layouts so that they can hone their reactions. Your growing accustomed to unfamiliar screen readers, applications, browsers, and even OS's will help to improve your reactions, intuition, and skill in the same way. As such, I am assigning homework again. This time you have a choice: In your primary screen reader, endeavor to learn something new. Perhaps you can find a new plugin for NVDA or discover the shortcuts you can use on the web to jump between different elements in JAWS. You might even try the Track Pad for the first time with your shiny Mac. For extra enjoyment, if you are fortunate enough to have a Braille notetaker, look at trying to connect it to your screen reader and enjoy the power of browsing with all the power of both your preferred screen reader and Braille. Try something else. Borrow a Mac, visit an Apple store if you are a Windows user, or try one of the screen readers you don't know as well. Even JAWS can be downloaded and used in forty-minute mode. You can learn a lot using it even forty minutes at a time. One final option: teach someone else. You may feel very comfortable with the screen reader and computer you use every day. That's great! Share that knowledge. Some of the greatest gifts I've received from my Federation friends and family are the gifts of time, teaching, and mentoring. Each of us is an expert in something; let's share our expertise and make this world a little brighter for us all. Class Dismissed! ----------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. Chicken Enchilada Soup by Donna Wood Donna is a retired human rights investigator who lives in Wichita. She is a past president of our affiliate and currently serves as second vice president. Here is what she says about this recipe: "This is my go-to soup that is super-fast and easy. It's so rich and creamy and guilt-free! It's packed with fiber and flavor. Pumpkin is the secret ingredient that makes the soup rich and creamy and adds fiber and vitamins." Ingredients: 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1-1/2 cups chopped celery 1 medium chopped onion 1 large red pepper diced 3 cups fat-free chicken broth 3-1/2 cups (28 ounces) mild green enchilada sauce (use medium if you prefer more heat) 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin 1 small deli-roast chicken, deboned, skinned, and torn into bite-sized pieces 1 7-ounce can mild green chilies 1-1/2 cups frozen white corn 1 package ranch-style salad dressing mix Optional toppings: crumbled queso fresco cheese shredded cheddar cheese crushed tortilla chips cilantro chopped avocado sour cream Method: In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Saut? the celery, onion, and red pepper until slightly tender. Add the chicken broth, enchilada sauce, pumpkin, chicken, green chilies, corn, and dressing mix. Simmer for ten to fifteen minutes or longer. Serve with your choice of toppings. ---------- Shrimp Pasta Salad by Susan Tabor Susan is a member who lives in Lawrence and is the wife of our first vice president Rob Tabor. She has hosted several cooking-related demos at recent Kansas conventions. She says this is so good that she loves to double the recipe when she makes it. Ingredients: 8 ounces elbow macaroni, uncooked 1 pound shrimp, cooked, drained, and chopped into chunks 1 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup diced green onions 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 2/3 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon celery seeds 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup diced red pepper, for sprinkling over top to add some color Method: Cook elbow macaroni according to package directions. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour so flavors can blend. ---------- Crockpot Sloppy Joes by Tom Page Tom Page is the current president of the Kansas affiliate and is employed as a professional musician who lives in Wichita. He admits that the recipe is a little loose, "I'm not sure how to translate from number of "shakes" to actual measurements, so feel free to play with it." Ingredients: 1/2 white onion, finely chopped 3/4 pound ground beef or turkey 1 small can tomato sauce five shakes of salt six to ten shakes of pepper six to ten shakes of garlic powder (to taste) three or four shakes of Italian seasoning Method: Combine ground beef, tomato sauce, and onions in the crockpot. Add salt, pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning; mix together. Cook on low for at least four hours. Spoon onto buns. Makes 4 to 6 sandwiches. ---------- Pumpkin Bread by Sharon Luka This one is a real favorite of Kansas Federationists. Anyone who has attended our state conventions has probably enjoyed a loaf of Sharon Luka's famous pumpkin bread. Sharon lives and works in Salina and serves as our affiliate secretary. Sharon modestly says, "This recipe was originally taken from a former NFB Braille paperback cookbook. I have made a few simple modifications." Ingredients: 3-1/2 cups flour 3 cups sugar 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 4 eggs 1 15- or 16-ounce can of pumpkin 3/4 cup water 1 cup oil Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly. Make a well in the mixture. In a separate bowl, beat four eggs. Add eggs, pumpkin, water, oil, and soda to dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased and floured medium-sized loaf pans. Place loaves on a cookie sheet (the cookie sheet is not required). Bake for approximately fifty minutes. ---------- Frosted Cappuccino Brownies by Susan Tabor These are wonderful, creamy, coffee-flavored, milk chocolate brownies. They freeze well too, according to Susan. Ingredients: 2 pounds milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup instant coffee granules or espresso powder 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 8 eggs 3 tablespoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups all-purpose flour Method: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour four eight-by-eight-inch baking pans. Place the chocolate chips and the coffee granules in a double boiler over simmering water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs two at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon, and salt, then mix in the melted chocolate. Mix in flour until just blended. Divide the batter equally into the prepared pans, and spread smooth. Bake for thirty-five minutes in preheated oven, or until the edges pull from the sides of the pans. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for eight hours. Cut the cold brownies into bars to serve. Frosting Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, unsalted 4 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon 2 to 3 tablespoons strong-brewed coffee or espresso, cooled 1 to 2 tbsp milk or cream, optional, if needed for correct consistency 1/4 to 1/2 cup cream (if you want to make cappuccino buttercream) Method: Cream together butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and cream (if making buttercream instead of regular frosting) using a handheld mixer or stand mixer. If icing is too stiff, beat in either more coffee or some milk or cream to make a smooth, spreadable consistency. After frosting these brownies, the more they set, the better they taste as the flavors have more time to blend. Twenty-four hours is about ideal, but it's hard to wait that long! Enjoy! You can also experiment with the chocolates; use half milk chocolate chips and half dark chocolate ones, or all dark chocolate, or milk and bittersweet chips, or all bittersweet chips. Different varieties/strengths of the chocolate will play with the other flavors in their own ways, so you may want to adjust the flavors like cinnamon and coffee and vanilla according to your taste. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Blindness Summer Transition Youth Learning Experience Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions (BLIND) Inc. presents Summer Transition Youth Learning Experience (STYLE) 2018. Spend part of your summer in STYLE! The STYLE program offers three separate, five-day, theme-based educational/recreational programs. All of our programs are delivered by blind role models. STYLE students will learn skills, gain confidence, and have fun! Attend one, two, or all three sessions! Day programming and residential options are available. Session 1: July 23 to 27: Fitness, Fun, and Friends: Get fit, have fun, compete! Students will participate in individual and group recreational activities. Learn about proper nutrition while preparing healthy meals. Activities may include rock climbing, goalball, water sports, self-defense, etc.! Have fun while being active and hanging out with new and old friends. Session 2: July 30 to August 3: Tech Trek: Students will explore the world of assistive technology. Computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. are the tools which will help students achieve success. Learn to effectively and efficiently use assistive technology in school, at work, and at home. Sign up for your Tech Trek adventure today! Session 3: August 6 to August 10: Career Quest: What jobs can blind people do? Where do you want to work? Students will explore jobs held by blind people and learn what those jobs truly entail. Learn what skills are needed to reach your vocational goals. Topics include r?sum? building, interview skills, soft skills, finding jobs, qualifications/experience, and more! Contact Michell Gip, youth services coordinator, at (612) 872-0100, Ext. 231, or 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. The first review of applications will occur on April 30, 2018. Apply today to ensure your space in this program! Attention Blind and Low-Vision Students! Are you or do you know a blind or low-vision teen who wants to spend their summer learning, meeting new people, and having a great adventure? Join the National Federation of the Blind at our NFB EQ program. NFB EQ is a jam-packed week of fun and learning. Participants spend each day engaged in activities designed to strengthen their knowledge of engineering as well as their problem-solving abilities. In the evenings, participants hang out with the twenty-nine other teen participants while exploring the local community and participating in various recreational activities. Throughout the week, participants will forge new friendships while increasing their engineering knowledge, problem-solving abilities, self-confidence, and independence. To learn more and to apply, visit http://www.blindscience.org/nfbeq. The Specs: Who: Thirty blind and low vision teens currently enrolled in grades 9-12 in the United States. What: A weeklong summer engineering program for blind and low vision teens. When: Participants will travel to Baltimore on July 29 and travel back home on August 4. Where: The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Why: To meet new people, learn new things, and have an exciting adventure! How: Apply Now! Applications are due May 1, 2018. How Much: There is no registration fee for this program. Visit our frequently asked questions web page for more details: http://www.blindscience.org/nfb-eq-faq. Additional Information: . To be eligible to apply students must: be enrolled in grades 9-12 during the 2017-2018 school year in a school (public, private, charter, residential, or home school) in the United States, be blind or have low vision, and be available to attend the entire program. . Participant's transportation to and from the program will be arranged by the National Federation of the Blind. Students will travel to Baltimore on Sunday and will travel home on the following Saturday. . This is a residential program; students will stay in dormitories at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute and all meals will be provided. . In the evenings, after the conclusion of the instructional day, students will be engaged in various social and recreational activities. What are people saying about EQ? "NFB EQ gave me more confidence to keep doing what I want-no one can stop me! The program opened my eyes to even more options in the field [of engineering], and it gave me some confidence that I can do some mechanical stuff that I didn't think I could do before." - Michael, Texas "At the program, I learned that there is accessible equipment-I can use equipment that is close to what sighted people use, like Braille rulers and click rules. At school, the tools for measuring in science aren't always accessible to me." - Lilly, Alaska "I increased my drawing skills at NFB EQ. The tactile drawing board helped me because I could feel what I drew. Visualizations also have gotten easier [going from drawing to model to prototype]. In engineering, you have to picture an idea in your mind and then draw it before you can build it. When you draw it, you can really see how it's going to come together." - Trey, Kentucky "I am amazed at how the people involved in organizing this program made everything so easy for us. From organizing logistics to making sure the schedule was running smoothly for the students-the whole event was very successful. The staff's warmth and attention to detail really eased my mind and made me feel good about leaving my son at the program for the week." - Mark (father), North Carolina "I was looking for a rigorous, highly academic science program that promoted and modeled independence, and the National Federation of the Blind was offering everything I was looking for. Still, I was hesitant. What if it wasn't a good use of my students' resources, or what if they weren't safe? My fears were unwarranted, from start to finish. NFB made the health, safety, academic rigor, social experiences, and general well-being of our students paramount. Every detail was professionally planned and handled, ensuring that every moment, for every student, was as meaningful as it could possibly be." - Laura (teacher of the visually impaired), Kentucky Questions? Send them to: STEM at nfb.org; call (410) 659-9314, extension 2418; or mail to National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1712887. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 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. Amazon Prime Discount Available: Amazon is extending an Amazon Prime discount to Medicaid and EBT recipients. The cost is $5.99/month or $40/year, normally $12.99/month or $99/year. Applicants must upload a scan of their Medicaid card. This offer has all the benefits except the ability to extend the Prime membership to Household Members. Benefits include Prime Video (a service similar to Netflix); two-day free shipping; and Amazon Now, a service available in places where Amazon has a warehouse and can fill an order within two hours. To learn more about the service and to apply go to http://www.amazon.com/qualify. Share Your Story: The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) in Louisville, Kentucky, kicked off its 160th Anniversary Celebration with an open house on their founding day, January 23. As part of this celebration, APH announced a National Writing Contest. Students and adults who are blind or visually impaired as well as professionals in the field are invited to share their stories about the impact of APH products on their lives, as well as celebrating their personal success stories. Categories, word count, and topics are as follows: Grades 3 through 5 (Maximum 250 words) Official Topic: The American Printing House for the Blind provides specialized tools and materials for people who are blind and visually impaired to learn and to live independently. Write a letter to APH telling us about either . your favorite APH product: how you use it, and why you love it, or . a product you would like to invent for APH: what the product would be called; how it would be used; and who would benefit from it. Grades 6 through 8 (Maximum 500 words) Official Topic: Louis Braille, a Frenchman, invented the Braille code of tactile reading and writing in 1821. He died in 1852-six years before APH was founded in 1858. Write a letter to Louis and tell him either . how Braille changed the lives of people who are blind or . how APH has changed the lives of people with vision loss since it was founded in 1858. Grades 9 through 12 (Maximum 750 words) Official Topic: Think about the career or vocation you would like to pursue as an adult. Write an essay about how your strengths and interests will help you in this work. What person (or people) have empowered you to succeed? What APH product(s) has best prepared you for work in this area, and what product(s) will you use to become successful in this career or vocation? Adult Consumers (Maximum 1,000 words) Official Topic: APH has celebrated many milestones since it was founded in 1858. For example: in 1883 a new building was constructed; in 1932 Standard English Braille became the only tactile reading and writing system produced by APH; in 1974 cassette tapes were introduced in the Talking Book program; and in 2003 Book Port was offered for sale. Write an essay about significant milestones in your life. What factors helped you to accomplish remarkable things and to overcome challenges? What APH product(s) have empowered you along the way? Professionals (Maximum 1,000 words) Official Topic: Write an essay about the most creative, unique way you have used an APH product (or products). What is the product and what did it help you (or a student or adult you worked with) accomplish? Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second, and third places in each category. The deadline for all entries is June 1, 2018. For additional information about rules, eligibility, and evaluation criteria, as well as official entry forms, please visit the contest website at www.aph.org/contest/160th-anniversary-essay. Questions? Contact Nancy Lacewell at nlacewell at aph.org or (502) 899-2339, or Lauren Hicks at lhicks at aph.org or (502) 895-2405. For the purposes of this contest, visual impairment is defined as corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, or a visual field limited to twenty degrees or less. This includes those who function at the federal definition of blindness (FDB), described above, due to brain injury or dysfunction. Braille Calendars Available: I am selling handmade Braille calendars. They are Brailled on larger Braille pages, and there is space on each page to make your own notes and mark events, just like sighted people do on print calendars. These are also good practice for children and adults learning to read and write Braille or use a calendar and allow teachers and parents to create activities using tactile markings. I'm creating these calendars using a Brailler, so there is no set price. I will discuss with each individual to determine price based on what they can afford. I will also Braille recipes, words of songs, poems, stories, and other things that are not under copyright, except computer and music Braille. Whatever money I get will be used to help me attend the NFB convention and help others as well. If you are interested, please email me at adrijana.prokopenko at gmail.com. State Resource Handbooks Available for Purchase: I have created thirty-four 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, Illinois, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Oregon, Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, North Dakota, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin. These state resource handbooks are not available in the following formats: Braille hard copy, audio, CD, and National Library Service cartridge. The handbooks include contact information on the local, regional, and national level. For more information on pricing, formats, and order form please contact Insightful Publications by email at insightfulpub at gmail.com, by phone at (808) 747-1006, or by visiting http://www.in- sightful.com/orderpage.html. 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. Braille Watch Wanted: I am looking for a Braille watch that has a spring and must be wound. If someone has one for sale, please call Eftyhios Scordas at (331) 245- 8037. ---------- 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 May 2 09:58:21 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 2 May 2018 09:58:21 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, may 2018 Message-ID: <201805021658.w42GwLwQ024148@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 5 May 2018 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 ? 2018 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. Orlando Site of 2018 NFB Convention The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 3 to July 8, 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 2018 room rates 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. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $100-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, 2018. 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, 2018, 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 2018 convention is: Tuesday, July 3 Seminar Day Wednesday, July 4 Registration and Resolutions Day Thursday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day Friday, July 6 Opening Session Saturday, July 7 Business Session Sunday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 61, No. 5 May 2018 Contents Illustration: Shaping the Technology of the Future Retraction: The Editor Makes a Mistake Saying Yes by Ryan Strunk Building the Federation Brand Part 3: Unpacking Our Brand Values by Chris Danielsen The Daily Accidents of Life: Consequence of Blindness or Being Human? by Sheri Wells-Jensen Leadership in Fitness: A CrossFit Trainer Living the Life She Wants by Bettina Dolinsek Why We Have the Right by Peggy Chong What's That? The Art of Bird Listening by Allan R. Schneider Report on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 2017 NFB National Convention Tutorial by Louis Maher An Open Letter to Parents by Barbara Pierce The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway: Basic Navigation-Hitting the Road, and Finding Your Way by Amy Mason Blind Students Win Braille Reading Contest: Seventeen Students Awarded Cash Prizes by National Federation of the Blind Consider Us Contributors by Justin Salisbury How I Spent My Birthday by Ed McDonald Independence Market Corner by Ellen Ringlein Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Brian Buhrow] [PHOTO CAPTION: Curtis Willoughby] [PHOTO CAPTION: Lloyd Rasmussen] [PHOTO CAPTION: Lindsay Yazzolino] [PHOTO CAPTION: Hai Nguyen Ly] Shaping the Technology of the Future Keeping up with technology is a big challenge, but one of our most important tasks is to guide its development. What do blind people need, and what is the current state of technology that may bring it? What must we do as blind people to make our needs known and then connect with the resources required to meet them? This is the task of the Research and Development Committee, chaired by Brian Buhrow, a former scholarship winner who works in digital communications in California. Other members include Curtis Willoughby, an electrical engineer who spent decades proving that a blind person could work in this field and make substantial contributions to it. The same is true of Lloyd Rasmussen, and then there are the younger people who are building careers and reputations in companies long thought off- limits to the blind. Together this group will do its best to shape the technology of the future and expand possibilities for all of us. Retraction: The Editor Makes a Mistake In the April 2018 issue I wrote that Dick Davis was a member of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind (AER). I do not know where I came up with that, but I am wrong and apologize for the error. Dick has been a member of the National Rehabilitation Association but was not associated with AER in his professional life. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ryan Strunk] Saying Yes by Ryan Strunk From the Editor: Ryan Strunk works at Target, his job being to make the online shopping experience for blind people as good as it is for the sighted. In this work he not only helps a retail store, but the efforts of him and his team sets the bar for accessibility for the retail industry. What Ryan reveals in this article is a personal story that contains a tremendous message, a tremendous epiphany, and a tremendous acceptance of the responsibility to be all that one can be while accepting that what we are is plenty good. How many times have we labored under the commonly held belief that what we do will reflect on all blind people whether that be negative or positive? Is there some truth in it? Probably so. Does it sell the public short in their ability to differentiate between one of us and other people who share our characteristics? It most certainly does. As a challenge, being all we can be is worthy. But the idea that we are constantly being judged and that the impression we make will harm all blind people is what people who work a twelve-step program would call stinking thinking. If it takes being perfect for us to be happy with ourselves, we will always be unhappy with the person to whom we have the greatest responsibility. The Braille Monitor is delighted to add Ryan's thoughts to the real-life stories that will chronicle the history of blind people as we have moved from a lack of acceptance to a grudging acceptance to true acceptance, and, more important than any of these, to self-acceptance. Here is Ryan's story: Improvisational theater-or improv-is the art of stepping on stage armed with, at most, an audience suggestion and creating a full-length narrative or series of connected scenes out of whole cloth. There are no scripts, no props, and no stage directions. The scenes we create have never been seen before, and they will never be seen again. In the midst of that creative space, with limitless possibilities in front of the actors, it can be easy to get lost. To help with this, over the years improvisers have developed a series of suggested rules to keep scenes on track and audiences entertained. These rules make improv fun and engaging, but after exploring them outside of the theater, I have found they have amazing use in our daily lives as well. The first lesson in improvisational theater: Say "yes." This is important because, as great improvisers will tell you, most people are far too good at saying "no." We find ourselves in life situations that stretch the bounds of our comfort, and "no" quickly becomes a wall to hide behind, keeping us out of risky situations. Say "no" too much on stage, and a great scene can come to a screeching halt. "No" eliminates direction; it puts up roadblocks that only the most talented improvisers can get around. Brian, my first improv teacher, was quick to point out that there is a time and a place for "no" in life-particularly in situations that are dangerous-but in general we tend to say "yes" far less often than we should. Even after over four years of improv, I'm still learning this lesson. A few months ago a coworker invited me to lunch with him and the rest of his team. I told him I had eaten a late breakfast that day, and I probably wouldn't eat much for lunch. I thanked him for the invitation, politely declined, and immediately regretted saying no. The people of Minnesota, contrary to what we might want you to think, don't like cold much more than the average American. To deal with this, some enterprising architects built an impressive eight-mile-labyrinth of heated skyways in downtown Minneapolis, operating on the premise that staying warm in winter is awesome. Downtown Minneapolis is also home to tens of thousands of office workers, and even in the summer month-months if we're lucky-the halls are jammed with people at lunchtime. In winter, it is a chaotic mass of humanity, rushing bodies juggling takeout containers, coffee cups, and cell phones, all bent on getting somewhere-often loudly and usually in a hurry. I try to avoid the lunch rush when I go out, taking my lunch a few minutes early so I don't have to deal with long lines and throngs of people. One reason for this is that I'm an introvert who doesn't like crowds, but that wasn't why I said no that day. A second rule from the improv world: When exploring your character, get to the deepest why. If your character on stage wants something, why is that want important? Let's pretend, for example, your character is raiding the communal candy dish and taking socially irresponsible fistfuls of chocolate. Why is he doing that? Because he's hungry. Why is he hungry? Because he skipped lunch. Why? Because he feels incredibly pressured to finish a project at work, one that could make or break his career, and taking twenty minutes to get a sandwich could be the difference between a promotion and financial ruin. At that point, the desire for candy is much more compelling, leading to a much deeper scene. It's not just that your character is hungry, but that your character wants candy to avoid losing everything. Knowing your character can make for more interesting scenes, and knowing yourself can make for a more interesting life. The deepest why behind my saying no that day wasn't that I was feeling introverted. The bigger truth was that I was afraid of screwing up in front of my coworkers and embarrassing myself. I worried that I might trip someone with my cane, get lost in the noise and chaos, or make a wrong turn somewhere, and I feared that whatever mistake I made would have far- reaching consequences. Part of eating lunch with colleagues, I tried to tell myself, is building relationships. But making silly mistakes in front of them, I thought, would damage those relationships. Better to eat alone at my desk than take a chance and screw up. That regret, though, nagged at me after I said no. I like my coworkers, and I wanted to spend time with them. What's more, a slice of New York-style pizza from Andr?a-where they were going-is always awesome, and despite my reservations, I wanted one. Tip number three: Never be afraid to jump into a scene. Even if you don't have anything in your head, even if your mind is blank, jump. Something will almost always come to you, and even if it doesn't, your scene partners will be there to support you. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment and quietly planning something out, which is contrary to improv in the first place, step off the back line, take a leap of faith, and trust that it will work out. You will never get the chance to act if you never step on stage. I have, as a general rule, been risk-averse for most of my life, and while I am still cautious, improv has helped me to realize that often the rewards of jumping outweigh the costs of not doing so. I wanted to spend time with my coworkers, and I wanted pizza. I had the benefit of good cane travel training, and if I was worried I was going to lose the group in the crowd, I could always ask for someone's elbow. With some trepidation, I told them I had changed my mind, and I said "yes." A fourth lesson from improv: Accept mistakes and move on. In a world of unlimited creative possibility, where information is constantly flowing, where actors have to pay attention to their own characters while listening to everyone around them, mistakes will happen. I might forget that my scene partner's name is Nancy and call her Norma instead. My scene partner might forget that I built an imaginary bonfire in front of myself and accidentally walk right through the middle of it. Sometimes we draw attention to these mistakes in the interest of comedy-"Look out! You're on fire!"-but more often, we just accept that they happen. If we stop the show to obsess over mistakes, we not only make it awkward for the audience, but more importantly, we make life harder on one another. The trip to Andr?a was uneventful. I navigated the crowd with no difficulties. The pizza was delicious-a huge, foldable slice of chicken, bacon, and ranch. We chatted about work gossip and current events, and everything went perfectly. Then, as we were leaving, I tapped a person standing in front of me with my cane, and in trying to move around them, ended up walking behind the restaurant counter. I instantly felt mortified, especially when one of my coworkers asked, "Are you trying to get a free slice?" All my fears from earlier started to bubble up, and I felt like an idiot. I stepped out from behind the counter, took a deep breath, embraced my mistake, and responded, "Yeah. It was going to be your birthday present, but you ruined the surprise." He laughed, and that was the end of it. My accidental wrong turn was no big deal. Since then, I've gone out to more lunches and happy hours with that group, and even though many of us have since moved on to new projects and teams, we still meet up from time to time for lunch or coffee. We've gone from being colleagues to being friends. If I hadn't overcome my fear that day, that might never have happened. Life, like improvisational theater, can be a vast, creative space full of possibilities. I will never get the chance to explore that space, though, if I don't embrace the lessons I have learned. I need to say yes to new opportunities and jump even when I'm uncomfortable. I need to understand the why behind my gut reactions to figure out if the fear I'm feeling is justified. I need to accept that mistakes will happen, embrace them, and move on. Most importantly, I just need to relax and have a good time. ---------- Building the Federation Brand Part 3: Unpacking Our Brand Values by Chris Danielsen From the Editor: Chris Danielson is the director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind. He was a part of our original branding team and knows both the spirit and the language that so eloquently communicates who we are and what we do. Here is what he says: There are several aspects to our brand; one critical component is our brand values. Just as with personal values, brand values make up the code by which the organization lives. Our brand values define the principles upon which our staff, leadership, and members act and make decisions. They are the heart and soul of the organization and do not change very much over time. We live by six carefully considered brand values: courage, respect, love, full participation, democracy, and collective action. Wow! That's a lot of values. The next two articles in our branding series will unpack what each of these values mean and describe how we live them each day. In this article we'll start with the values of courage, respect, and love. COURAGE Fighting for freedom takes perseverance and unwavering determination in the face of challenges, setbacks, and difficulties. For over seventy- five years the National Federation of the Blind has led this fight and made significant progress on the road to complete freedom and equality for the blind. As Marc Maurer has reminded us, it will take our continued courage to "break down the remaining barriers on the last miles of the road to freedom" and we are up to the task. We demonstrate courage at both the organizational and individual level. It takes concerted, courageous advocacy to make change, but it also sometimes takes individual effort backed up by support from the Federation family. For example, both Jamie Ann Principato and Aleeha Dudley experienced discrimination at their chosen higher education institutions. This included not only the usual systemic barriers that blind students encounter, but active resistance from faculty and staff who believed that Jamie and Aleeha couldn't succeed in their respective courses of study (physics and veterinary medicine.) Both courageous women had to take their battles to court. Although the NFB supported their legal cases, each of them endured the personal consequences of their decision to fight. They persevered not only to achieve their own goals but so that blind people attending their universities in the future would not experience the same barriers. Their courage resulted in systemic change at their schools. RESPECT Our faith in the capacity and dignity of blind people is at the heart of our work. We assert the right to be treated fairly and equally. We reject society's low expectations that come from the ingrained belief that blindness is the characteristic that defines us. We deserve respect and show it to one another. We talk a lot about the respect that we demand from society, but it is important to remember that our large, diverse organization demands that we respect one another to function properly. We are a cross-section of society bound together by blindness and the problems associated with it, but naturally we come from different backgrounds, have a wide range of characteristics other than blindness, and adhere to different sets of beliefs. We don't even all make the same choices about how to deal with our blindness, but we respect different choices. We also recognize that not everyone is at the same point on the journey to accepting blindness or vision loss or learning the skills to cope with it effectively. One of the best examples of a different blindness choice is the decision to use a guide dog instead of a long white cane. While we believe strongly in the long white cane, we know that many of our blind brothers and sisters find real benefit in a guide dog. We not only respect that choice but actively defend it. Recently, we met with Delta Air Lines to get that carrier to back off a new policy that would have adversely affected guide dog users. One of the leaders in that meeting was Marion Gwizdala, the president of our division of guide dog users. The other was Anil Lewis, who uses a cane. Marion and Anil worked together to convince Delta that requiring guide dog users to give forty-eight hours' notice when they intended to fly with their animals was unreasonable and unnecessary. They succeeded, and this onerous requirement no longer exists. Like any large group of people, we have differences and disagreements, even sometimes about the priorities of our local chapter, state affiliate, or the national organization. That is fine if we share those differences in a civil and respectful manner and abide by the solution at which the organization, at whatever level, arrives through our democratic processes. Our new code of conduct, discussed by President Riccobono in the April Braille Monitor, reminds us of our critical obligation to respect one another and those with whom we interact on behalf of our movement. LOVE The NFB provides a loving, supportive and encouraging family that shares in the challenges and triumphs of our blind brothers and sisters. This deeply held faith in one another sustains members during times of challenge and cheers on individual and collective successes. Love is the feeling that permeates our organization and pushes us to expect the best from each other. Recently Federationists in Texas experienced monumental challenges because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. The National Federation of the Blind set up a fund to help blind people who were coping with this devastation. Norma Crosby, president of the NFB of Texas and a member of our national board of directors, administered this fund, selflessly leading efforts to collect donations, both monetary and tangible, and distribute aid to Federation families affected by the storm. Norma did this work even though she and her husband Glenn were personally struggling because their own home was severely damaged. Norma and other Federation leaders knew that blind people helping other blind people was critical, because while blind people had many of the same struggles that faced everyone else affected by the hurricane, there were also blindness- specific challenges. Blind Texans had lost everything from expensive assistive technology to white canes, things they could not pick up at the local Wal-Mart or Target. At Washington Seminar, Norma announced that all requests for assistance from Texas had been met; furthermore, she announced that the remaining funds would go to help Federationists in Puerto Rico, which was subsequently hit even harder by Hurricane Maria. This is an example of how the love we have for each other not only helps us push each other to succeed as blind people but sustains us through life's difficulties. What other examples come to mind when you think about these values, or any other aspects of the brand that we have discussed? Share them with us by sending an email to communicationsteam at nfb.org. It's important that our discussion of the brand be interactive so that we can all share how we live the brand and can help to make it stronger. We look forward to hearing from you. ---------- The Daily Accidents of Life: Consequence of Blindness or Being Human? by Sheri Wells-Jensen From the Editor: Sheri Wells-Jensen is a professor at Bowling Green State University. She focuses on linguistics, teaching English as a second language, Braille, and perceptions of blind people. What she discusses in this article is one that perplexes all of us from time to time: when I make a mistake, is it because I am blind, is blindness a contributing factor, and do I make these mistakes more because I am blind? Here is what she says: I was standing at the counter in the world's most perfect coffee shop (which just happens to be in my hometown), engaged in the pleasant task of selecting the exact right combination of sugar and liquid caffeine. I was there to meet with some friends, and while I waited my turn, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, planning to send along a smug little text about how they were all late for once, and I was on time. My phone came out easily enough but brought with it a shower of sundries: a set of ear buds, my keys, a guitar pick, some change, and a couple of folded-up dollar bills. All this rained down around my feet like an unwelcome summer shower. Embarrassed, I made a dive to collect things, fishing around among other people's shoes on the muddy floor, and heard that unmistakable noise that a white cane makes when it hits tile and bounces out of reach. At least, I thought from my position half under the cash register, I hadn't completed the humiliation by cracking my head on the counter on my way down. People stepped back to clear a little space, and somebody squatted down to help me corral everything. We all laughed and made little jokes about needing coffee and the dangers of overstuffed pockets. "Thank yous" and "no problems" were exchanged, and I got my cane back and ordered my coffee without further incident. The whole business couldn't have taken more than twenty seconds, and by the time my friends arrived, I had removed myself from the scene to a nearby table. No harm done. I don't expect myself to be perfect. This sort of thing happens. To everybody. And it's no big deal, right? But the little incident stayed with me, and questions began bumping around in my head. Sure, everybody theoretically makes mistakes, but how often really does this sort of thing happen? How often is it a blind-person thing? Am I clumsier than the people around me? Or, rather, I thought, flipping the question, are the people around me more dexterous and graceful than I? Very much despite myself, I had to admit that, at least sometimes, I sort of feel uneasily that maybe they are. I'm a college professor, and one of my areas of research actually is the study of human error, and I often joke to my students that I'm my own best subject. I notice when I drop something or miscalculate and brush the side of a doorway while passing through or fumble with my change. I notice when I accidentally kick a student's backpack that I knew was in the aisle, lose momentary track of my direction of travel, or put the wrong key in my office door. But, since they mostly happen quickly and almost silently, I rarely detect these kinds of errors when other people make them. I only notice mine. It's worth noting that my understanding of how other people move about and physically interact with each other is to some extent shaped by scripted narrations like those in books or audio description of movies, where the action is tidied up. Unless they are central to some upcoming plot twist, there's no reason to include little mistakes or incidental miscalculations when creating a scene. So, as I read or listen to narration, I absorb the idea that the people around me just do not make these kinds of mistakes very often. Logically, of course, I know they do, but I don't hear about it. So how often do sighted people spill their pockets or drop things or take a misstep off a curb? It occurred to me that I could find out. My job, after all, is not to sit in coffee shops musing darkly about the state of the world. My actual job as a college professor is to gather data and answer questions. I asked my sighted spouse to do a little covert observation; my expectation was that he might find one or two errors if he watched carefully. Here is what he said: I sat in an inconspicuous corner of the student union where I had a clear view of a busy open area near a food court. It was around lunch time, and the place was full of students. The hardest thing about the task (besides trying not to look creepy as I stared into the crowd) was that I couldn't look everywhere at once, and when I did see something, I usually had to look away for a moment to write it down, which meant I wasn't watching the crowd at all for at least a few seconds. So I'm sure I didn't see everything that happened, but here's what I did see in thirty minutes of observation: . Twenty-four notable events in total, including ... . Four dropped objects (two of which involved considerable difficulty in picking the object up again) . Four people suddenly changing plans or reversing their direction of travel, including one poor guy who tripped over his backpack and a chair, making a loud noise . Eleven instances of fumbling with objects, including one person having some extended trouble opening her own backpack . Five people bumping into or brushing unexpectedly against something, including one person inadvertently whacking another with a large book bag Do the math; that's a sighted person making a notable error every seventy-five seconds. I remember a story Kenneth Jernigan told about moving through a cafeteria with a friend. When a glass of water fell from a tray, he made two assumptions. First, he assumed the glass had come from his tray. There's something I have in common with Kenneth Jernigan: despite my convictions and my training, stereotypical ideas about blind people have a way of sliding themselves into my mind. If something is bumped, dropped, or knocked over, I reflexively blame any available blind person. What, then, do I make of all this bumping, dropping, and knocking going on in a space where there were exactly zero blind people present? The second assumption Dr. Jernigan made was that, if the glass had come from his tray, people around him would attribute the accident to blindness. This is almost certainly the case. It's clear to me that, if anybody tells a friend about my little coffee shop misadventure, the fact that I'm blind will almost certainly feature in the story as if it were pretty important. This, despite the self-evident fact that pulling a phone out of a pocket has precisely nothing to do with being able to see. The answers to my questions, then, are: yes, this sort of thing does happen all the time, and no, it's not a blind-person thing; it's a person thing. The little physical intricacies involved in getting through the day go wrong for everybody, and for me, it's good to understand myself as an unremarkable part of the crowd. And although I can't say if sighted people are generally more graceful than I am, I can say that whatever grace they do possess does not seem to prevent them from occasionally scrabbling on the floor to pick things up or whacking each other with book bags. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Bettina Dolinsek] Leadership in Fitness: A CrossFit Trainer Living the Life She Wants by Bettina Dolinsek From the Editor: A good deal of our 2017 National Convention agenda dealt with raising expectations through physical fitness, going beyond the comfortable, and asserting that physical activity is as normal and necessary for blind people as it is for any other segment of the population. One of the more inspirational presentations was delivered by Bettina Dolinsek. Here is what she said to the crowd: Good morning everybody. Are you guys as excited to be here as I am? [cheers] Let's hear it. [cheers] Fantastic. First of all I want to begin by thanking President Mark Riccobono for inviting me to speak to you guys today. This is incredible. This week has been just one of the amazing weeks. Usually on a Friday at work I'll wish everybody a happy Friday because we've reached the end of the week; that doesn't seem necessary today. I want to start off by telling you guys what we're not going to talk about: a lot of people-when they hear somebody coming up to speak to them about fitness, wellness, nutrition-the first thing they think about is, "Oh, great. They're going to tell me to go to the gym. I'm not going to do that." [laughter] Another thing they would say is, "Oh, no, they're going to tell me what I should not eat. I'm not going to do that." [cheers] The other thing I'm not going to do is tell you that CrossFit is the best exercise out there. I think that, but you may not, and that's okay because you have to do what you want to do. I want to ask you guys a question: when you were growing up, or if you're currently in school, were you ever excused from PE class because you were blind. If you answered yes, I can also say yes, I was too. If you answered no, I'm so excited, I'm glad that you're not. I've got a follow-up question-I love this audience participation thing, this is great. So here's my second question for you guys: if you said yes to question number one, when you were excused from that class, were you happy about that? [chorus of negative responses] I was. I was very excited about that. I was in junior high school, I was in high school, and I was told that I didn't have to go out with my peers and I didn't have to try to play a sport I didn't know anything about and look like a fool in front of everybody. I was happy about that. But I'm glad you're not. And we're going to get back to that piece of what I'm talking about in just a little bit. So now what I want to do is I want to kind of tell you my story and how I got to where I am. When I was a kid growing up in school, I did like sports. I love sports. I love baseball-do I have any Cubs fans in the house? [cheers] When I was a child at home after the summer holiday, every Cubs game, never missed a one of them, it was fantastic. I love football, basketball, running. But you know what happened? When I was going to school what was told to me? "You can't play, you're going to get hurt." Have you guys heard that one? Absolutely. Another thing was, if you were playing on the team, who was picked last? That made you feel good about yourself, didn't it? And the other thing was, you were told that you would slow down the team, and they didn't want to do that, either. So unfortunately at a young age I thought sports were not for blind people. We could listen to them on the radio, we could watch them on TV, we could sit in the audience, but we could not play. And honestly, at that point, I was okay with it, I didn't know how to do many of those things. So let's fast-forward just a little bit. I'm out of high school, I'm starting to work a job, and I've never looked back at that time and thought that what happened was wrong. After working for a while, I started a new position. I worked at the Iowa Department for the Blind, and at that agency we started a wellness committee. I was so excited about that because-like I said earlier-I did like sports, and I liked fitness; I just didn't know how to get involved. So we started this wellness committee, and we would come up with activities for the staff to do. We would meet during a break time and start in the basement, walk all the way up the stairs, all the way up to the sixth floor, and walk back down again. And I thought, "Hey, stair climbing, this is excellent, I can do that." By the third floor I wanted to take the elevator [laughter]. But again, we would keep going. We had yoga classes over the lunch hour; we were introducing things like that. I started to walk on the treadmill, maybe walk on the elliptical for a little bit. But after two weeks of that I was bored, so that went by the wayside. The chairperson of our committee at that time then received another position and left the agency. They were looking for someone to fill that spot, and I was eager to do so. So I said, "Hey, I volunteer. I would love to do that." And they said, "That's great. You can go ahead and join, and we'll have another person, and you'll be co-chairs." I was excited about that, but there was one problem: I was not fit. I was overweight. I wasn't the example that I felt was necessary for them to have. I truly believe if I'm going to give advice, I need to lead by example. So we got together in our committee and we started putting our heads together and thinking of different things we could offer, things that would get people excited. My co-chair said to me, "You know what, I do a CrossFit class over the noon hour in the gym. You're welcome to come, and let's get some other people to do that." I had no idea what I was in for. Do you guys know anything about CrossFit? Has anyone heard of it? [affirmative responses]. If you haven't, I want to give you a quick definition: it is high- intensity, functional movements. So what that means is if we're going to work out for twenty minutes, fifteen minutes at a time, you're going to have your heartrate up that whole time. We also incorporate weight training, so different types of lifts using weights. But I didn't know that's what it involved. All I knew was that we were going to be doing a class that involved different types of exercises every day. So I show up on day one; it took me probably the whole class time to do the warmup. That right there should've been my first sign that this was going to be a difficult class. After about a week of being involved in this class, I thought to myself, "This is hard. I don't know if I want to continue doing this. I can get my fitness walking on the treadmill; I can do it walking on the elliptical." But then I remembered, "You tried that, and it lasted for two weeks. Keep going, keep pushing forward." So I said to myself-talked to myself a lot back then-I said, "Alright, keep coming to the classes, keep participating." And I did. And I started seeing things I never thought possible. We started an exercise there called box jumps. And that's just exactly what it sounds like: you start out on the floor, and you jump up on a box. We started with lower inches, maybe two or three inches off the ground at first. I thought to myself, "When we get up to the boxes that are made of wood that would hurt if you missed." I've done it, I could tell you, "I don't have to do it." I could tell my coach, "I don't want to do this part of it; I think it's too dangerous." And he said to me, "Bettina, if you're going to be in this class, everything I expect out of everybody else I'm going to expect out of you." [applause] I'm so glad he said that to me. And I started jumping on boxes- twelve inches, eighteen inches, twenty inches, twenty-four inches. My highest jump to date is 31 1/2 inches. [applause] But without that encouragement I would have never done that. We used to do a day a week or a day every other week where we would come up with something that was scary, and we would then practice that. So as we continued to go through these classes I could stand on my hands-I thought I could barely walk a straight line or even hold the balance on my feet, now I'm walking on my hands, this is amazing! I'm doing pull ups-only guys do pull ups. I'm lifting heavy weights. I'm seeing all these things, and something clicks. And in CrossFit I did what a lot of other people have done before me-I drank the Kool-Aid. [laughter] I went to my coach after we had worked so long and I said, "I want to become a coach." And he said, "That's fantastic." I said, "Do you think that we could do this?" And he said yes. It was important to me; I was so excited about it. I wanted to go where it all began, and that was in California. [cheers] I thought I could hear from you guys over there. I went to San Francisco Bay area, and I visited some of the first CrossFit gyms. I went there, and I received my level one certification. Since then I have also received a certification in gymnastics. [applause] I can't flip around; don't get excited. So after I got back from that I wondered, what can I do with this? Because another thing that was important to me was not just to have a piece of paper telling me that I could do something. I wanted to put that to use. Do you remember earlier when I talked to you guys about being excused from PE class? What I did was I started contacting TVIs in our area, schools, and saying, "What can I do to help integrate the blind kids back into this class? [applause] We want them to be involved." Unfortunately, when you visit a public school, and you see blind children being excluded from certain classes like PE, or then you see them at another time being taken out a class to do something else, it sends a message, that separatism message. And that's not a good thing. We all want to be involved. So I would go to the schools and I would show the PE teachers, "Here's how you can teach the blind students to be a part of your class." And then after a while I moved to Texas and lived in the Fort Worth area-we've got a few Texans over here. [cheers] I worked at the Lighthouse for the Blind Fort Worth, and I was their wellness specialist, and I did the same. I worked with clients there, and I also went into the school systems. There was a school that contacted me that said, "We have a young kid that wants to run and wants to be on our track team. What can you do to help him?" And we figured it out, and that was amazing. So at the beginning I told you that my message to you was not going to be about what gym you join or what you should eat, and it's not. What it's about is finding your passion-what it is that you want to do in life and then figure out how to do it. There are many people in this room who have gone before us. If you were to contact the different people sitting next to you, they could be mentors to you. They could be the ones you look up to and say, "How can I achieve what I want? How can I make my dream come true?" And they'd be happy to help you. I've had mentors. And I want to thank the people who've gone before us, the people who have walked the road so it's easier for the next generation. I can think of a few, especially my husband who supports me every day when I want to be in the gym for hours on end. So please, connect with the people around you, connect with those who can help you. Make your own dreams come true. Live the life that you want to. Thank you very much. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Peggy Chong] Why We Have the Right by Peggy Chong From the Editor: Sometimes we are asked why the National Federation of the Blind presumes to speak for blind people and why what we say should carry any more weight than what other people have to say. The answer is that we are not just blind people presuming to speak for blind people; we are blind people elected to speak for blind people and to coordinate action based on agreed-upon policies. In this article Peggy tries to explain to those who are not members of the Federation why they do not have the right to be a part of meetings which the Federation has set up to discuss strategy and eventually propose policy to elected leaders. Here is what she says: Recently here in Albuquerque we had some discussion at our chapter level as to why our elected officers carry more weight than an individual blind person appointed to city or state boards, committees, and councils. Questions came up as to why we do not have to include the so-called non- represented blind people at any meeting we have with government officials. Sometimes I forget that I know background information and philosophy that some of our new Federationists don't, and how important it is to revisit our policies. Our city is making major changes to our bus system along a central corridor. We call it ART [Albuquerque Rapid Transit]. Many constituents of our city have widely differing opinions as to whether or not this will be a viable service. Accommodations for the disabled have been a topic from the beginning because ABQ RIDE's history has not been strong in this area. With all the discussion surrounding ART at our local chapter meetings, questions have come up about what should be included to make it accessible, or what does accessible mean. Are my personal concerns blindness-related? If not, then they should not be included in the NFB's statements. The comments that I have privately about the system should not be considered when we as a Federation chapter list our concerns as blind people to bring up when meeting with the city while representing the Federation. Why is that? Our NFB philosophy from the very beginning has been based on informed evaluation, discussions, and voted-on agreements. Our local chapter wrote a "Statement of Concern" that after discussion we distributed to the press, city council, our newly-elected mayor's office, other city committees, and anyone else who expressed an interest. Previously, we had short meetings with transit officials and nothing happened. We would follow up and nothing happened. After the new mayoral administration came onboard and the NFB of Albuquerque chapter's "Statement of Concerns" was widely circulated, progress was made. We had a meeting with many of the top officials with the transit company with promises to meet again. As of this writing, we have had an opportunity to have input in the "almost ready-to-go" software that will be installed into the fare machines at the new transit platform stations. It is not quite ready to go, and our concerns may cause modification of other parts of the software. We have had a meeting with the mayor's office. This is a start but has a long way to go in addressing our policy and communication concerns about the transit program. After we had made the news with a focus on our concerns, others wanted to get in the act. There are some blind people here in our city who say they represent the unrepresented. The Federation does not speak for them, and they should be heard. They say they should be at our meetings with the transit authorities and at the mayor's office. When we said no, they could not be present, these nonmembers went to the city to complain. Some of our members felt challenged and thought that they had to cave into these blind people who had not put any time into developing our policy nor cared why we came to our conclusions. We have said no to them attending our private transit meetings. Yet, some of us long-time members had to explain why. We do not need numbers at these meetings. The unrepresented have chosen to be unrepresented. They have been asked to join the NFB but have chosen not to. Our chapter spent hundreds of hours researching, gathering data, and organizing input from our members and others. We spent many meetings discussing and honing our responses to be sure we were realistic in our expectations and goals for a positive outcome. Literally hundreds of public meetings surrounding ART have been held in our city over the past three years. Did they attend these meetings? No. The vast majority of the blind in our city, including many of our members, did not until our chapter leadership strongly encouraged each and every one to show up to at least one public meeting and state their concerns. Do these unrepresented have an independent view that needs to be heard? If they are the only ones who have this view and they did not take the time to come to a meeting, should their ideas be given equal weight with the other thousands of Albuquerqueans' who were united in voice at the city meetings? As a Federation we know too well that the voices of the many can drown out the voices of the minority unless the minority is willing to work very hard and can show reason why the many should listen and join in with the voices of the few. Do these unrepresented have unique concerns related to blindness? They say that the Federation brainwashes its members. They say that not everyone can benefit from blindness training. They say that because they did not have blindness training, the city should provide more and more services to them. They say that the Federation expects too much of the average blind person. We, a united group of blind people from all walks of life, have made a commitment to better the lives of the blind, not being content with staying in one place or going backwards. A political party of the US would not allow other parties, let alone an individual with competing opinions, share center stage when holding a press conference to lay out its agenda. All would agree that doing so would be a distraction, confusing and watering down the message. Why should we allow others to share our center stage? When we as a chapter, state affiliate, or national body make a decision through our resolution process, it has been discussed many ways. Many views have been taken into consideration, evaluated, prioritized, and agreed upon. Often we bring to the table possible solutions, sometimes multiple ones for the same issue. Our reputation is important, as is the time we spend in the meetings with policy makers. To bring along a nonmember who would rather talk about how their dog guide is confused when crossing the new platform access or that the color of the edging does not make it easy for them to find the edge takes away from our credibility, wastes time, and accomplishes little to nothing. We have all heard the line, "Why can't all of you blind guys get together?" Those of us who care have gotten together and need to stick together to provide the strength of our convictions and recommendations to those who can act on them. A united front is what is required to get us the second meeting or the opportunity to examine the proposed software before it is installed and unusable by the blind. If the unaligned or "independent" blind want to join the Federation and work on these projects, we encourage them to join us in going out and gathering first-hand experiences, writing letters, and attending public meetings; we welcome them. If they choose to be off by themselves, we wish them the best. Our NFB philosophy was not new when our founders met in Wilkes-Barre that November day in 1940. Blind men and women across the country had been saying it in newspapers and letters where they lived. We are not any more intelligent than the almost-forgotten T. J. Nichols was in 1904 when he articulated our NFB philosophy to young blind men and women in the state of Maryland. But we are wiser and more well-informed because we joined together in 1940 to effect change. We have taken our combined knowledge and have built and are still building an even stronger philosophy that cannot be dismissed. We are no longer just the one blind woman who came to the state legislature asking for fair housing laws. She is now the representative of the many blind members from their home districts who also came along and gave weight to her demands. The quiet voice on a farm in the wilderness of Nebraska now held the same weight as the professors in New York City when our representatives such as Raymond Henderson of California went to Washington DC to lobby for legislation to better the lives of the blind of the country. I make no apology for our philosophy, our methods of determining policy, or how we carry out our resolutions. The NFB does so openly and encourages the participation of any and all who want to be an effective part of change that betters the lives of all blind people. I am proud and honored to take part in our activities resulting in actions that better the lives of so many more than just our chapter members. To those who wish to jump on our backs and derail the progress we have made, even if they say that is not their intention, I say: cease your disruptive activity and come join us. Be a part of the solution. If not, then get out of our way so we can affect the change that will allow you to live the life you want. This is why we have a National Federation of the Blind and why we have the right to represent ourselves with local, state, and national leaders to effect change. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Allan Schneider] What's That? The Art of Bird Listening by Allan R. Schneider From the Editor: Allan Schneider is an active Federationist: treasurer of his local chapter, editor of the Idaho state newsletter, and director of Cycle for Independence (a major fundraiser for the Treasure Valley Chapter, more information available at www.cycleforindependence.org). He is on the board of the Idaho Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well. Between all that, a loving wife, and a pair of granddaughters, this retired teacher still has a bit of free time to devote to hobbies. In this article Allan discusses one of these hobbies-birding by ear. Here is what he has to say about this accessible outdoor activity: We stop short, folks whisper, "What's that?" It's the unmistakable rattle of the beloved kingfisher, the rascal of the water birds, zooming along the river. It went by too fast; my restricted peripheral vision couldn't locate it, but it caused me to smile. As a beginner two years ago, it was the first species I identified by sound. Shortly before that, at a meeting of the Treasure Valley Chapter of the NFB of Idaho, Steve Bouffard, a local ornithologist with the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History at The College of Idaho, introduced the idea of taking blind people birding by ear. Although never interested before, I was intrigued. I became the liaison, and since then a real-life, visually-impaired birder! And why not? Even when sighted birders do official bird counts, 90 percent of the birds are identified by sound because foliage naturally camouflages birds. Today we are guiding a group of blind and visually-impaired people along a path on the north shore of Veterans' Pond near the Boise River in Boise, Idaho. Minutes before the kingfisher, we were startled by the primordial grunting of a cormorant on a low perch over the pond. Some were startled; it was more the sound of a dinosaur than a bird. Two birds, neither one "tweeted," and we moved on. Suddenly Steve hushes us and we listen: it's a western tanager, it sounds like a robin's spring "cheer-up cheerily, cheer-up cheerily," only hoarser. It won't be here long; it's on its spring migration to the mountains just north of us. Identifying birds by their calls and songs sounds daunting, but it's really not. At a bird feeder, there'll be house finches, chickadees, and sparrows for sure. Start small; first learn their calls and songs. Then choose two more common birds in your area, learn their songs and calls, listen for them, and . . . well, you're hooked! Once again, the rhythmic sound of canes on the path checks, there's another sound, and several people roll their eyes and giggle. It's the harsh, incessant "oka-wee-wee, oka-wee-wee, oka-wee-wee" of the yellow-headed blackbirds that one of our members already declared, "Isn't at all pretty like I came here to hear!" But another blind participant said that if he wasn't here today, he'd probably just be sitting in his chair. The insistent, subdued stumbling "kar-r-r-r-o-o-o, kar-r-r-r-o-o-o, kar-r-r-r-o-o-o" of sandhill cranes flying overhead hushes us without Steve's urging. Maybe that haunting, caressing loveliness is closer to what she "came here to hear." Steve grins at our immersion; he is enjoying the walk as much as we are. He is not atypical among birders. There are Audubon societies and other avid birding groups that love to share their passion. In our case, Steve came to us, but we could have contacted birders in our area on our own. And since we've started, a local group gave us a grant for bird skull replicas for blind people to feel a bird's shape, and another invited us to bird banding and measuring activities. A rascal again rattles downstream, and no one needs to ask, "What's that?" Once you know, you know. Our group will likely never forget the enchanting call of the cranes, the grunt of the cormorant, the rattle of the kingfisher, and for sure not the incessantly harsh cackle of the yellow- headed blackbird. And later, as we near the vehicles, there is yet another rattle, and I again smile, remembering hearing that and two years ago asking, "What's that?" for the only time. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Louis Maher] Report on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 2017 NFB National Convention Tutorial by Louis Maher From the Editor: How many of us have been steered away from careers that we were told were impractical or impossible for blind people? I was steered away from electronics, computers, and anything that had to do with science, technology, engineering, or math. What I needed were resources to tell me what existed and where I could find them. In this article Louis Maher takes note of the work of John Gardner to bring us just this kind of information. For some of us it will go way beyond what we want to know because these fields are not our fields, but for others it will be a breath of fresh air and the oxygen that will fill their lungs and give them energy to pursue their hopes and dreams. Here is Louis' report: In school a blind student must make up his/her unique accessibility solutions to access the various information sources used in each class. Because there are no standards for systems and classroom materials to be accessible, schools seldom offer the blind student a portfolio of accessible educational solutions to meet each semester's needs. The proposed Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM HIGH) Act (S. 2138 / H.R. 1772) would develop accessibility standards for schools and content providers. Until a market-driven solution for accessible instructional materials is achieved, blind students must develop their own accessibility solutions. To do this effectively, students must have knowledge about current best practices on a wide variety of information systems. Organized by John Gardner, many companies, agencies, and individuals got together during the 2017 NFB National Convention to provide tutorials on innovative new STEM products. STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, topics that seem to be particularly difficult for the blind. On July 10, 2017, John Gardner had arranged an all-day tutorial on how blind professionals and blind students are succeeding in STEM careers. Also, throughout the convention week, he arranged hands-on tutorials for anyone who wished one-on-one training in these methods. The speakers presented talks and demonstrations showing proficiencies in math, data analysis, efficient graphics production, and how to perform chemistry experiments as a blind person. Many of the speakers provided information related to their presentations. This information can be found at http://access2science.com/indexAccessibility.html. Podcasts of the Monday symposium were recorded by Ben Dahle of ViewPlus, and they are also available at this website. A summary of these presentations follows. Please note that we have shamelessly copied words, phrases, and entire sentences from the audio recordings and writings of the presenters, from manuals, and from Wikipedia. In the academic publishing world, each citation is followed by a reference; however, this is not the Braille Monitor format. After a welcome from John Gardner, Ashley Neybert, representing Independence Science, discussed Making Science Laboratories More Accessible to the Blind. Independence Science works to provide information to educators who are teaching science to students who are blind or visually impaired. Most notable among Independence Science's products is the Talking LabQuest, an adapted version of the commonly used Vernier LabQuest, which is equipped with speech capability and usable with approximately seventy- five probes. Talking LabQuest allows blind students to perform laboratory experiments. Ms. Neybert demonstrated the Talking LabQuest. Steve Jacobs, president IDEAL Group Inc. discussed the InftyReader (Math OCR) and the ChattyInfty (talking accessible math editor). Many images of mathematical equations appearing on webpages, ebooks, and PDF documents are not accessible by students using access technology, do not provide for alternative output modalities such as Braille or synthetic speech, cannot be easily altered to accommodate the learning needs of students with low vision (color and contrast changes), and require authors to redraw images when even small changes are made. InftyReader is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) application that automatically recognizes and converts image-based STEM content into LaTeX, MathML, and Word XML. ChattyInfty is a talking math editor used to edit the files generated by InftyReader. These two tools can give the blind access to mathematics published as images. Next, John Gardner (retired professor of physics, Oregon State University and president, ViewPlus Technologies Inc.) described how ViewPlus's IVEO system can provide audio-tactile access to graphics. The requirements for audio-tactile access are a tactile copy of the figure, a computer file with information keyed to location on the figure, some type of hardware device that communicates position on the figure to the computer, and a computer application that provides speech and/or Braille information to the user. In the past the hardware device has always been a touch-sensitive tablet. A modification allowing the user to attach the graphic to a touch screen is under development. Essentially, the tactile graphic is produced with a ViewPlus Braille printer and a file providing speech to describe the graphic. The user touches the graphic, and the computer reads the underlying description. The audio description file can be automatically generated for some circuit and molecule diagrams. Mike Coleman, representing E.A.S.Y. LLC. discussed its interactive tactile graphic drawing tools. The inTACT Sketchpad is an affordable and easy-to-use tool for creating tactile drawings by hand. As you draw on the sketchpad, raised lines appear on the plastic drawing sheet, making it possible for you to feel your drawings as you go. The inTACT Eraser is the first-ever eraser for tactile drawing. Working like a miniature iron, the inTACT Eraser flattens tactile drawing quickly, erasing your drawing to the touch. Next, we heard from Jonathan Godfrey, (senior lecturer in statistics, Massey University, New Zealand and national president, Blind Citizens NZ), on statistics with graphics in R. Jonathan is the first totally blind person to gain employment as a lecturer in statistics, and to date only one other person has done so. Jonathan said that there are two statistics packages accessible to the blind. They are R and SAS. SPSS is another statistical software package that is somewhat accessible to the blind. Jonathan recommends that the blind use R for their statistical needs. R is a free system for statistical computation and graphics. It consists of a language plus a run-time environment with graphics, a debugger, access to certain system functions, and the ability to run programs stored in script files. Jonathan reported that R can generate accessible tables, graphs, and models. Graphs can be embossed using Braille printers such as those available from ViewPlus. Jonathan has developed a method of taking a Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) plot output from R, generating an automatic description file, and making it available to the user. The description file contains a tree which describes the properties of the graph. The top node of the tree contains the title, other branches describe the X-axis, the Y-axis, and a description of the data in the plot. The computer describes the graphic as the user arrows through the description file. His program has an expert mode which can give summaries of the data in the plot. His tools make histograms and time series plots accessible. He is working on making scatter plots readable. His tools provide real-time operating-system and screen-reader independent methods for reading the graphical output of R. He spent most of his lecture showing how his tools can describe a histogram. Jonathan says that it is essential for a blind user to be able to not only read graphs but also to generate them. R fulfills this need. Lloyd Rasmussen (senior staff engineer, Library of Congress), and Louis Maher (retired software engineer), discussed reading math from electronic documents. Lloyd said that an accessibility certification standard is being developed for the EPUB electronic book publishing format. He also said that publishers are beginning to require authors to write the descriptions for figures since the authors understand the reasons for having those figures more than the publisher does. MathJax is a JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all browsers. Lloyd mentioned that MathJax may be more popular than MathML to publish mathematics. He also mentioned that some education entities don't want scripts running in their environments due to the possible cheating issues that scripts might bring. Lloyd concluded that STEM electronic publishing standards are in flux. Louis Maher described how to read math in Windows with JAWS and NVDA. He also showed how to do it with iOS using Voiceover. Recently JAWS has introduced a method to display, in voice and Braille, mathematics on the web. When you encounter MathML on a webpage, JAWS describes the expression, followed by the message "math content." Pressing Enter while focused on the math content opens the Math Viewer where you can explore the expression in greater detail in both speech and Braille. Using Windows 10, Word 365, Firefox, MathPlayer, and MathType, NVDA has a rich set of features which speaks, navigates, and provides Braille output math from the web, in Word, and PowerPoint. These capabilities were summarized. John Gardner introduced his LEAN Math editor (aka LEAN) program for reading and writing math in MS Word using the Design Science MathType plugin. LEAN is an interface to applications that can exchange MathML with LEAN. This first version is used only as an interface to MS Word plus MathType, which is (according to the MathType manufacturer), the most-used authoring environment in the world by a substantial margin. For the web, LEAN can insert alt tags into MathType equations which allow the blind user to have descriptions of the equations independent of a screen reader's ability to read math on the web. Recently it has become possible to read these equations directly with screen readers, so the need for such alt text is not as important as it once was. LEAN is meant to write math, not just to read it. LEAN provides excellent speech access to editing MathType equations or authoring new MathType equations. LEAN has many features that help in the manipulation of equations to solve algebraic equations. One can also view equations in Braille while in the LEAN application. LEAN is intended for blind people who must read and write math and need to solve equations. Sam Dooley (Pearson), Susan Osterhaus (Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired), Sara Larkin (Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired), and Tina Herzberg (University of South Carolina Upstate) described how to do real-time Nemeth Braille input/output by using the Pearson "Accessible Equation Editor." The Accessible Equation Editor is a program that allows a user to create math expressions within a webpage. The Equation Editor is used in many Pearson products, most notably the TestNav assessment delivery system used for high-stakes testing. The Equation Editor is accessible to blind and visually-impaired users because it translates printed math notation into Nemeth Braille, which can be displayed on a Braille terminal. It accepts Nemeth Braille input, which it translates into printed math notation that it displays for a sighted user. A blind user can create math expressions that can be immediately read by a sighted user and vice versa. Mathematics can be entered either from a QWERTY or Braille keyboard. Pearson is developing an online curriculum to teach the Nemeth code in conjunction with mathematics using the Equation Editor. There is a test at the end of each module to check the student's progress. Students, parents, and teachers should all be able to use this tool. Current pre- kindergarten and kindergarten modules have been completed. Pearson is also working on an online glossary of mathematical terms in a searchable database. A user would enter a mathematical term, and the database would demonstrate how to write that term in the Nemeth code. At the time of the presentation, it was not possible to generate the mathematical output of the Equation Editor as a separate stand-alone file. This capability would be an invaluable tool for doing math homework. The Equation Editor is currently used as an interface to other online applications. Jonathan Godfrey introduced LaTeX and Markdown. LaTeX is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents, but it can be used for almost any form of publishing. Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. It's designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. Any text editor can be used to prepare input files for both LaTeX and Markdown. The difference is that Markdown uses a much simpler syntax than does LaTeX. It should be noted that the mathematics in Markdown is done using a version of LaTeX. LaTeX has a steeper learning curve than does Markdown. Both LaTeX and Markdown can produce PDF documents; however, PDF documents are usually difficult for the blind to read. The preferred output for both languages is HTML. PDF documents are page oriented whereas HTML has one continuous flow. HTML files are much easier to search than a page- oriented PDF. Markdown also forces you to put in Alt text descriptions for URLs; that is, Markdown forces the author to provide accessible descriptions for his/her web links and graphics. LaTeX has a lot of structure to make it work. Markdown has defaults which work. You can have Markdown output LaTeX if necessary. Jonathan recommends using Markdown for most files, only using LaTeX for longer documents such as research dissertations, theses, and books. Jonathan pointed out that a blind person must be able to read and write scientific material without sighted assistance. Markdown is a powerful tool that can help achieve this goal. Finally, William Freeman (American Printing House for the Blind) discussed using BrailleBlasterTM for scientific braille translation. BrailleBlaster is a Braille transcription program developed by the American Printing House for the Blind to help transcribers provide blind students with Braille textbooks on the first day of class. BrailleBlaster takes advantage of the rich markup contained in NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) files to automate basic formatting and provides tools to make advanced tasks quicker and easier. Designed primarily for editing textbooks that meet the specifications published by the Braille Authority of North America, the purpose of BrailleBlaster is to help Braille producers ensure that blind students receive their books on- time. BrailleBlaster relies on Liblouis, a well-known open-source Braille translator, for translating text and mathematics to Braille. BrailleBlaster can be used by an instructor to prepare Braille documents for his or her blind students. It is fully accessible. It can accept math in MathML. It can convert MathML into AsciiMath, which is a simplified LaTeX. This allows users to edit their math directly before the final Braille output. BrailleBlaster now runs on PCs. There are plans to make it work on the MAC and on Linux. It works with JAWS and NVDA. It can output Nemeth or UEB. BrailleBlaster was started by John Gardner. Individual tutorials on using these new tools were offered at available times during the week of the convention. This was an experiment in bringing tutorials to the students, because it is much less expensive to take them to where the students are already congregated than having special events to which students come. But the convention seems not to be the best place to do this. Although many students told us how much they needed and wanted to learn more about how to do STEM, their schedules were simply too full for very many to find time to participate. The need for knowledge about methods of accessing STEM material is essential for having a career in science. The methods discussed in this tutorial will provide an invaluable resource. I am grateful to John Gardner who originated this tutorial and reviewed this paper, to the National Federation of the Blind for making space available for these tutorials, to the many people who donated their time and paid their own expenses to speak or tutor during the project, and to my wife Helen Maher who edited this paper. ---------- 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 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: Barbara Pierce] An Open Letter to Parents by Barbara Pierce From the Editor: A major effort of the Federation is working in the statehouses throughout the country to have Braille recognized in state law as the most efficient reading and writing method for blind people and to see that a research-based test is used in determining whether a child should learn to read Braille, print, or both. I can't think of anything more frustrating than going into a school and finding that at sixth or seventh grade we are still arguing about whether Braille is appropriate for a blind child. That precious window when the brain is so open to learning to read and write efficiently is starting to close, and when it does, for many people the dream of being able to read a book cover to cover or to read to one's children or grandchildren slams closed with it. The whole notion that in grades one through three we learn to read and from then on we read to learn is turned on its head, and blind students are the casualties. In my frustration after attending an IEP meeting, I thought about writing an article, but then I saw one that is better than anything I could write on the subject. This is an article written back in 1996 for Future Reflections by Barbara Pierce. Here is what she says: Can you remember the intoxication of learning to read? I can. When I began first grade, the Scott-Foresman primers about the adventures of Dick, Jane, and Sally were in use, and I still remember the picture of Dick standing on his shoulders in a pile of leaves, feet kicking in the air, while one of his sisters intoned the page's text, "Look at Dick! Funny, funny Dick!" Had I but known it, those early weeks of first grade were the high point of my reading career. We gathered around the teacher in reading groups to sound out the words and falter our way through each page. I was good at it. I understood the principles of picking out the sound of each letter and shoving them together rapidly enough to guess at the meaning. The result was that I was in the first reading group. My success didn't last long. By second semester each page bore many more lines of print, and my mother was forced to work with me at home after school or before bed to help me keep up. For I was what they called a low- vision child. I could see the print with only one eye, and I am certain that I was legally blind, though no one ever used that word in my hearing. Mother placed a little lamp close to the page so that I could see as well as possible, but the letters were still blurred, and I could never get the hang of reading an entire word at once. By second grade I was in the second reading group, and by third grade I had slipped to the third group, despite the lamp now clipped to the side of my desk. I had to face the truth: I was dumb. I lay awake at night worrying about the increasing number of spelling workbook exercises left undone because my reading and writing were too slow to complete them in class. I still maintained an unbroken string of perfect spelling tests because my parents drilled me on the spelling lists every week. The tests were nothing, but the workbook! I fantasized about what it would be like to go to bed at night and not stare open-eyed into the black prospect of mortification when the truth about me and my incomplete work eventually came to my parents' notice. It happened at the close of the third marking period, and it came, as such things do, like a bolt from the blue. I had actually brought home what I thought was a good report card-all A's and B's-except for art, penmanship, and gym, in which I always got C's. Everybody knew that I was terrible at those things because "Barbara's blind as a bat." But the dreaded unmasking of my shameful secret in the spelling workbook seemed to me to have remained hidden beneath an A for yet one more grading period. I handed my mother my report card and ran out to play. But when my brother and I were called in for dinner (Dad was out of town at the time), I knew that something was wrong; Mother had been crying, and she did not sit down to dinner with us. She said that she had a headache. It soon became apparent that I was the headache. My report card had betrayed me after all. In all that hard-to-read small print at the bottom the teacher had given me a U (unsatisfactory) in the puts-forth-best-effort category, where I was used to getting E's (Excellent) or at least S's (satisfactory). Mother went to school the next day and learned the horrible truth about me. I was astonished to learn afterward that the relief of having my shameful secret out in the open actually reduced my burden. True, I had to make up all the work I had been avoiding because the reading had become too difficult. Play time was much reduced, and I had to learn all over again how to go to sleep without worrying, but things were never again as bad. In the following years we tried magnifying glasses for my good right eye, and the summer after fourth grade I had to be tutored in an effort to learn to read with high magnification. In September of fifth grade my new teacher called on me to read a paragraph in the geography book during the class lesson. I read like a second grader, and I was mortified. The teacher never called on me again. By sixth grade I was hardly using the glasses at all. I was quick to learn as long as I didn't have to struggle to make sense of the print, and it was easier on everyone for the teacher to assign a rapid reader to work with me on in-class reading projects. Finally, at the close of seventh grade, my parents faced the painful truth: if I were to have any hope of literacy, I would have to learn Braille. Print was no longer an option. I mastered the Braille code in a summer of weekly lessons taught by a woman who used Braille herself, though she admitted that she was not a good Braille reader. She assured me that her husband could read Braille rapidly, but I never heard him or anyone else use the code efficiently. People told me it was important to use my Braille and that practice would increase my speed. But by that point in my education I had already worked out alternative ways of getting my reading and writing done, and I was no longer eager to crawl down a page of text as we had done in early elementary school. I practiced writing Braille with my slate and stylus because I knew that in college I would need a good way of taking notes in lectures, but I never made time to learn to read Braille properly. Now that I am a member of the National Federation of the Blind, I know hundreds of people who read Braille easily and well. Some of them could not see print when they were beginning school, so Braille was the only option for them. But many more could make out print when they were learning to read, even though as adults they cannot see it. They were lucky enough to be taught Braille along with print, and they simply and naturally learned to decide which method would be most useful for each reading task. As a result they now read Braille at several hundred words a minute. I have never regretted learning to read print. Everyone should know the shapes of print letters, but I will always bitterly regret that I was not taught Braille as a small child. Today I am struggling to gain the speed and accuracy in reading Braille that I should have had by the time I was ten. I have now been working at it for six years, and my reading speed has tripled, but I must face the fact that I will probably never read as well as a bright ten-year-old. Setting aside the fact that the adult brain does not master new skills as rapidly as does a child's, I cannot bring myself to practice reading aloud to my long-suffering family. The time for taking advantage of such an opportunity is childhood, and I cannot inflict my stumbling reading on my husband. If my mother could speak to you who are facing the dilemma of whether or not to demand that your children learn Braille, she would urge you to decide in favor of Braille. No matter how clearly a youngster can see print at the moment, if the vision is fragile or problematic in any way, Braille will often become invaluable in the future, even if print too continues to be useful. I urge you to keep your child's options open and your expectations high. All young things need space to stretch and grow within their God-given abilities. Please insist that your child be given a chance. ---------- [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: . 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: Amy Mason] Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway: Basic Navigation-Hitting the Road, and Finding Your Way by Amy Mason From the Editor: This is the fourth article in a series intended to help users of assistive technology learn to use and get the most out of the World Wide Web. Navigating the web is possible, productive, and enjoyable, but there are many parts to the puzzle, and this series of articles is intended to let readers examine each piece and decide how they will put together the system that gives them the access they desire to the vast resources of the internet. With her analytic mind, her vast knowledge of resources, and her command of language, here is what Amy Mason has to say: (Music fills the hall as you open the classroom door... "Get your motor runnin'/head out on the highway/lookin' for adventure/and whatever comes our way." -Steppenwolf) Welcome back to web driving school! Today's class is an especially exciting one. We are pulling our cars... er... I mean browsers, out of the garage, and we are going to hit the open road. Today we begin to seek adventure, profit, and entertainment on the information superhighway. Please Consult Your Owner's Manual for Proper Operating Instructions. Just a quick aside before we begin: from this point forward in the series, I am going to be sharing broad techniques you can employ when browsing the web and not specific solutions. If you were counting, you know that so far in the previous articles, we have discussed nineteen different possible combinations of screen readers and browsers (more than that if we include those with poor support or low adoption). Shockingly enough, I cannot keep up with all the quirks of these combinations to give you a comprehensive tutorial on how to do everything precisely with your tools of choice. Driving instructors are unable to teach each student how to use his or her own car but must instead explain the overarching skills a student can employ in their own vehicle. Therefore, from this point forward, I am going to be primarily providing examples using my tools of choice, NVDA and Chrome. If you are unfamiliar with how to perform these types of commands with your screen reader, you may want to look back at the previous article in this series. I included directions for accessing several helpful resources for each screen reader we discussed in that piece. Wherever You Go, There You Are Of course, this leads to the question, "Where do you want to go?" And its companion, "How do you plan to get there?" There are many different ways to reach a given destination on the internet and several different options for how you can find what you are looking for. Some of the most common options include: The Direct Route If you know the address of your destination, you can drive right there. This is the most straightforward way to reach any given site on the web. If you have a particular website in mind, you can directly enter its address in the address bar of your browser. On Windows you can reach the address bar in any of the browsers we discussed by pressing Control-L. On Mac you can reach it by pressing Command-L. Once you have entered the address bar, you can type the address of the site you wish to visit, followed by pressing Enter then, almost like magic, your browser will take you directly to the site in question. Map Out a Route Honestly, this is probably the most popular method for finding destinations on the internet today. Whether you have a topic you wish to research, a question you wish to have answered, or a particular site in mind, you can use a search engine to start you on your journey. Much like a map, the search engine can point you to where you want to go. It can also act as a guidebook by offering suggestions when you are seeking something specific or a compass by pointing you in the right direction when you aren't entirely sure where to start. Several search engines exist, but by far the most popular in the United States, if not the world, is Google, located at www.google.com. If Google doesn't suit you, you might prefer Bing at www.bing.com. To use this method begin by visiting one of these or any other search engine you prefer by typing its address into the address bar. We will be using Google as our example so that we can all begin, both literally and metaphorically, on the same page. When you open the search site, you are likely to be placed in the "Search" edit field (which may also be called a "combo box" or "editable combo box" depending on the screen reader and browser you are using). If your focus is not in this edit field, use your arrow keys or tab and shift tab until you are in this box. Here is where things get both a bit more complicated and a bit more fun. Enter your search term or terms and press Enter. The browser will load a new page containing a list of results based on what you typed. For our example today, I chose "NFB." So, I just mentioned that things can get more complicated. Well, "NFB" is actually a pretty great example of how that can happen. Although all of us here would think of the "National Federation of the Blind" first when we hear the acronym "NFB" this is, in fact, not the only organization represented by these letters. When I searched for "NFB" the first search result I received was for the "National Film Board of Canada," and although the National Federation of the Blind was included in the list of results, there were several other National Film Board results as well. Not precisely what I had in mind. Well, let's try again... "National Federation of the Blind." Follow that by Enter, and yes, there we are. The first page in this batch of web results was in fact for our "NFB." The lesson from this searching snafu is simple. Be prepared to reframe your search attempts. Using a search engine to find what you are looking for is very similar to using maps and compasses when travelling in the car. You will not get where you want to be unless you understand how to at least minimally use the tools on offer and know what you are looking for. I have been assured that there are eighty-eight locations in the United States that share the name of "Washington" (discounting roads, streets, and the like). Therefore, if you decide you want to go to Washington, you need to know which one you want in order to use your map and compass to get you there. Admittedly, when you don't know quite what you are after, you can take advantage of the search engine's guidebook-like features and try out search suggestions. The way that you would do this is to start typing your search term in the "editable combo box" from earlier. After you have typed a few letters, you can press down arrow to browse the options offered, again choosing one with the Enter key. We will talk more about "combo boxes" in the next article, but since they are important to making the most out of your search engine experience, I want to at least briefly discuss them here. Incidentally, there are times that the box will not open with just the arrow key or will automatically go to the first thing on the list when you press the down arrow. If this happens, return to the box, (when necessary) and try opening it up with the key combination Alt-down arrow. Journey Wherever the Road or Link Will Take You Our third option for finding things on the web is the equivalent to just jumping in the car, picking a direction, and driving. It's a road trip. It's an adventure, and more often than not, it's going to take you to places you would have never seen before. (Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on how you are feeling, how long you have to spend in this endeavor, and just which links you decide to activate.) Large portions of the internet are built to encourage random exploration. Shopping sites, news sites, social media, and everyone in between want to keep you on their websites for as long as possible. Whether they are hoping to get you to look at advertisements, buy something, or just learn why their organization/product/conspiracy theory/resource is the most interesting or relevant, the majority of sites are built with a large number of links to similar or related content in order to keep you clicking. Most web denizens have taken this bait, at least occasionally-I certainly have. In fact, I have found myself, more times than I would like to admit, shaking my head as I ask myself questions like: "How is it already 3 AM?" "What was I supposed to be doing again?" and "How did I find myself watching a YouTube video about the depiction of medieval farming practices in video games?" (I never did come up with an answer to that last question, by the way.) Browsing the web for leisure can be a great way to become more comfortable with using your screen reader and browser together. Spending some time this way may also provide you with new interests, hobbies, and opportunities you never considered before. There are websites for just about any hobby, profession, or interest I can think of, so explore a little, and see what you can find. If you need a push in the right direction, you might try a few of the following resources: . Obviously if you want content on blindness and the activities of our organization, you can start with www.nfb.org. It's a great site to start with because it's quite accessible and relatively straightforward to navigate, while still offering interesting and useful material instead of just practice content like a tutorial site might contain. . Wikipedia-The world's online encyclopedia, written and curated by its own users. You can learn a lot of interesting things here about just about everything, but be aware that because it is edited by the community, it will be important to fact-check before acting on any of the information it contains. www.wikipedia.org . News sites-CNN, BBC, Fox, your local newspaper, and everyone in between offers a website where you can keep up on all the news that is fit to print and some that probably isn't. Sadly, since much of this content is heavily subsidized by advertising, these can be some of the most cluttered and distracting sites to peruse. Even so, the news isn't all bad. The BBC's news page is much cleaner than others I've seen in the mainstream, and of course, if you are a subscriber to NFB- NEWSLINE and know your login credentials, you can also read all the news your heart desires in a clean, non-cluttered interface at www.nfbnewslineonline.org. . If online video is more of an interest, you may want to try www.youtube.com. You may also be interested in www.youdescribe.org. YouTube allows users to upload content of their own, so you can find everything from instructional videos to critical reviews, product descriptions, and quite a lot of music. YouDescribe, on the other hand, is a service where volunteer describers have overlaid, or interlaced description with a subset of YouTube content. If you need something described, you can request it as well. A large number of television shows and movies are also made available through services like Netflix, Hulu, and the provider's own websites. Accessibility of the video sites and players may vary, but there are often multiple ways to get at this content. . Online Shopping-Whether you want to book airfare, buy a new book, or browse for a new look, online stores can be powerful tools in the battle to save a few dollars, a few hours, or a few ounces of sanity. We will cover some of these in greater detail in a future article since these sites require the use of interactive controls for checkout, but if you want to explore in the meantime, www.target.com can be complex, but it offers a wide array of products and has a real commitment to accessibility. Likewise, www.expedia.com, which focuses on travel, has made a real commitment to ensuring you can make the most of the site as a screen reader user. These two just barely scratch the surface of what is available, but they can be nice places to begin as they do care about your user experience. . Social Media-Your friends and family on the internet. Do you want to hear about your aunt's new recipe for pork ribs? How about that terrible list of puns that your buddy from the office shares constantly? How about your favorite artist's birthday or when they are coming into town for a concert? Find all of this and more on services like Twitter (www.twitter.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com). We will go into more detail later, but suffice to say that social media is the place to see all the wonder and terror of humanity on full display, all the time. It seems important to point out at this juncture that like television- and every other medium-you can't trust everything you see or hear. Social media campaigns, advertising, hoaxes, and "fake news" all exist on the internet, so it is important to be savvy about what you accept as fact. I recently was involved in a conversation with a friend who announced, "Silvester Stallone just died." A second friend asked, "Are you sure?" and the first person replied, "No, I just read it on the internet." In this case, my friend was right to be skeptical, as apparently Sylvester and his family have been very vocal about the fact that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. Essentially the point of this section is to simply remind you to check your sources and that like with everything else in life, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Ok, We've Arrived, Now What? Websites can be... complicated. There is a lot on most pages, and finding the information you want, instead of the random bits of fluff you don't, can be time consuming and occasionally frustrating, but there are lots of strategies you can employ to help you find what you are looking for more quickly and easily. Learning these basic techniques will greatly improve your experiences on the web. Although these tips will work best for well-maintained and accessible sites, they are often enough to make browsing the average so-so site relatively painless, and sometimes even the fairly inaccessible site possible, if not exactly... enjoyable. Today we are going to cover just the basic tools in your glove box, but once you have these tools down, you will find browsing can be much faster, easier, and more pleasant than if you feel you have to read every word on a page or tab through every link. Signs Along the Highway Nearly every road includes some signs you can use to find your way. Location information, navigational guideposts, mile markers, and even billboards provide drivers with useful and sometimes crucial information for safely and effectively reaching their destination. In the same way, different elements on a webpage can be used to help you quickly and efficiently cruise to the portion of a webpage you want to read and interact with. Although the commands differ, each of the major screen readers we have discussed so far in these articles offer keystrokes for moving by most of these different element types, so let's discuss a few and see how you can make the most of them. Note: NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver each allow for single key navigation to the next and previous instance of most of the common elements outlined below. In order for this to work, VoiceOver needs to have "Quick Access" enabled, NVDA needs to be in "browse mode," and JAWS needs to be using the "Virtual Cursor." To move forward by each element type in all three screen readers, you would just press the required keystroke. To go back by the same element, use Shift in combination with that letter. As we discussed earlier, I am unable to outline each keystroke for each screen reader, so I will demonstrate with NVDA. If you are using VoiceOver or JAWS, please consult your documentation. If you wish to follow along, I'll be using a few different websites to demonstrate how each of these browsing tricks work. Some content may change, but I expect the general structure of the sites are going to be fairly consistent. Landmarks and Regions Let's start with a relatively new item you will find on websites. Landmarks or Regions (terminology on these is determined by your screen reader and browser combination) are large overarching buckets of content on a page. If the page is coded well, the number of these will be relatively limited-usually no more than five or six to a page. If it is not, sometimes you will find considerably more, but either way, it helps to divide up the space. If your webpage were an apartment, think of landmarks as being each of the different rooms. "Top Navigation" might be like your entryway, "Main content" might be the living room, and "footer" might be like the back bedroom where you store all the extra junk you don't know what to do with. Landmarks are generally meant for screen-reader users and others using access technology only. They are almost always invisible to sighted visitors to a site, so asking a visual user what is under the "Main content" landmark is going to be an unproductive and confusing exercise for you both. Landmarks/regions are intended to help you quickly move past the parts of the page you aren't interested in and straight to the parts you do care about. They perform a similar function as "headings" which we will discuss shortly, except at a higher level of organization. Practical Example: Landmarks on Wikipedia.org Remember, unless otherwise stated, all practical examples are provided using the base of NVDA and Chrome. Please consult documentation for your preferred tools if necessary. 1. Open your browser, and enter the address bar with Ctrl-L. 2. Type www.wikipedia.org and press Enter. 3. Ensure you are at top of page by pressing CTRL-Home. 4. Tab to the "English Link" and activate it by pressing Enter. 5. Explore the landmarks on the page by pressing the D key to move forward and Shift-D to go backward. 6. When I visited this page, the first landmark I found was "Main Content." It was followed by "Personal Tools," and "Namespaces." When I pressed Shift-D I moved back through this list in reverse order. JAWS users looking for information on how to complete this exercise will want to be aware that most JAWS documentation refers to landmarks as "regions" so you will want to search out "region" in the help system instead of "Landmark." Headings Heading elements act just like the headings in a book or article. Visually, they are usually bigger and bolder than other text with the intent that they will attract attention and aid the user in skimming the content on the page for what most interests them. They perform the same function for screen-reader users, but they perform it a bit differently. Headings are coded with a special tag which tells our system "Hey, this text is a heading! It's important!" When these tags exist, our screen reader can jump directly to them. Headings on the web are available from levels one through six, and ideally they will be in a hierarchical structure. To illustrate: . Heading 1-The Lord of the Rings (This is the major point of the whole page, and it might be an article or an item on a shopping page. Ideally, only one of these will be on any given page, like the title of a book.) o Heading 2-Fellowship of the Ring (This is the first major subordinate point on the page. There can be many or few of these, but they belong in the structure under the heading level 1) . Heading 3 Chapter 1 (A subpoint to heading level 2) o Heading 2-The Two Towers o Heading 2-The Return of the King . Heading 3 Chapter 1 . Heading 3 Chapter 2 Occasionally a site will be coded so text will look like headings, without the special tag in the background which tells the screen reader that it is a heading, but this is fairly uncommon. Many sites don't follow the hierarchical structure outlined above, but even so, you can usually get a good overview of what's available by perusing the headings on any given page. Practical Example: Browsing Search Results on Google by Heading 1. Navigate to www.google.com 2. Enter "Driving Blind on The Information Superhighway" in the edit box and press Enter. 3. You should now be on the page of search results provided by Google, and now you must make a choice. It is possible to visit the next heading of any level with a press of the letter H, or you can visit the next heading at any level one through six by pressing the corresponding number at the top of your keyboard. If you are unfamiliar with the site in question, I would recommend starting out with just the general heading keystroke. This will allow you to see the major points on the page, whether they are in order or not. Trying that here, I discovered "Go to Google Home" Heading level 1, "Search Results" Heading Level 2, "Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway: the New and improved" Heading level 3, and "Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway- Browsers: Choosing" Heading Level 3. 4. Often the site you are browsing has a specific pattern for how it uses headings. For instance, each search result on a Google search results page is Heading level 3. So when I am on Google, I often just switch to reviewing at heading level 3. Likewise, some shopping sites make each item in the catalog a certain Heading level, and I would use that heading level to quickly skim through the options until I found one I wanted to know more about. During this exercise, you may have noticed something interesting. Each heading was also another element. For instance, "Search Results" was a landmark, and each search result heading was also a link. Many elements will do some form of double duty, and it can be useful to keep track of these methods of structuring a page. To illustrate, you may be able to use the fact that every search result is both a link and a heading, but not every link on the page is a heading. So you can choose to move by headings even if you are looking for links if there are less of them on the page. Links As mentioned above, links are the interconnecting elements on the internet that move you from one page to another. A page may contain just one or two, or literally hundreds. They can be named something descriptive like "Expedia's commitment to accessibility" or something less useful, like "click here," or "read more." In a very real sense, links are the glue that hold the web together. Without links, we wouldn't have the "web" we know today. They are the threads that connect one page to the next, or the interconnecting roads that make it possible for us to "drive" from Google to the NFB homepage, to the booking site for the convention hotel. In fact, links have become such a part of modern computing that you will find them everywhere. They exist in electronic books, emails, Word documents, and a number of other file types I'm probably forgetting right now. Although they may take you to other resources on your computer, the vast majority of links you find anywhere will bring you back to the browser and a page on the internet. Links can move you to different places on the same page or can take you to different pages. Usually, though not always, a link that moves you on the same page will be announced as a "same page link" or something similar. Links can also be "visited," meaning you have used that link in the past, or "unvisited" meaning that you haven't used that link before, (or occasionally that your computer forgot that you used it). This can be useful because you can choose to quickly retrace your steps to an especially helpful page by moving directly to visited links, or you can skip to only those you have not used before. Practical Example: Links on www.nfb.org 1. Navigate to www.nfb.org. 2. Since this is a page you may have visited before, there may be links here you've visited in the past. See if you can locate one by pressing V for visited link. I found several, the first of which was the graphic link that points back to the homepage. 3. Perhaps you are not interested in looking at things you've already viewed. That's easy enough. Try pressing U for unvisited links. My first was "Contact Us." 4. Finally, if you don't care whether a link has been visited before or not, you can simply hit every link on the page sequentially by pressing K. Again, with any of these commands you can use Shift to move to the previous element. Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs... We have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the different signposts or elements you can use when browsing the web. There are many more yet to explore: graphics, edit fields, checkboxes, buttons, lists, tables, and even plain non-interactive text. Your screen reader has commands for moving to most if not all of these item types. Experiment a bit with jumping by different item types on different pages, and see which ones give you the best results. Those we covered above are usually the ones that I try when first looking over a page because they are often used to convey structure, but if you are looking for the search box on a website or the first field in a form, you might find that using E for edit field or F for form element will produce better results. In future articles we will discuss several of these element types in more detail, so stay tuned. Still Too Much Information? Sometimes you just don't care about everything on a webpage. In fact, as you continue to practice browsing, you will likely find that you don't care about the majority of information on some pages. The techniques above will certainly help with cutting down on the clutter, but sometimes you need just a bit more when you are in a hurry or on a mission. Just Give Me a List Sometimes it is helpful to get an overview of a site that is just a little more comprehensive than what you can collect by using your hotkeys for jumping from element to element. Sometimes you find yourself on a webpage with 400+ links, and about 200 of them are "read more." Sometimes you are on a site you've visited dozens of times, and you know that the link you are looking for, "Candied Ginger" (don't judge, I'm hungry,) is most of the way down the page. Are there any tools you can employ to shift into the fast lane and just get your project done? Of course there are. I wouldn't tease you like that if they didn't exist. In each of our primary screen readers, you can find a command that will bring up lists of elements by type, which you can quickly navigate by first letter. In NVDA, the list is called the "Elements List" and it can be accessed with NVDA-F6. In the dialog that opens, you can switch between three tabs. One of these contains links, one contains headings, and the third contains landmarks. Navigate to the item you want in the list and you can then choose to activate it if it is a link, or navigate to that item on the page. JAWS users get the same sort of functionality in the "Links List" and "Headings List" (JAWS-F7 and JAWS-F6 respectively). VoiceOver handles its element lists a little differently and calls its function the "Item Chooser." This can be enabled with VO-U, and you are able to arrow between different element types with the left and right arrow keys and to navigate any given list with up or down arrow. Pressing Enter will place you in that item's location on the page. No matter what you call it, these lists can be powerful tools for moving quickly on busy webpages. I will note, however, that due to some changes in the way that new pages are being created and other factors these lists are not quite as reliable as they used to be, so you may still need to fall back to another method for browsing if this does not yield the results you seek. I Just Skimmed It Sometimes you come across an article or a long document that is in large part just not that relevant, but you suspect that there are a few nuggets of gold buried in that muddy morass of prose. (Yes, I am fully aware of the irony. Word has in fact informed me that I am on page eight of this article.) Well, I have some good news for you-skim reading is powerful and easy. You can do this two different ways: 1. You can crank up the speed of your screen reader to the point where you are hearing about one word in three. This will often be enough to give you a good idea of what's happening in the document without having to listen to it in excruciating detail. This trick also comes with an added bonus. As you use it, you become more attuned to listening to your screen reader at an accelerated rate of speed. This makes it possible for you to read faster all the time and not just when skimming. 2. Instead of reading line by line or simply invoking continuous read mode, use cursor movement commands to your advantage. On Windows, Ctrl- Up arrow will move you up to the beginning of the current paragraph, then if pressed again, will move up to the start of the previous paragraph. Ctrl-Down will move you forward in the document, once again by paragraph. (For my Apple-loving students, replace Control with Option.) When using these commands, your screen reader will begin reading the paragraph you land on from the beginning. As soon as you know it isn't something you want to pursue, just use your command of choice again to move to the next paragraph. Rinse and repeat. This little trick also comes with a few bonuses. First, it is universal- Mac, Windows, sighted, blind, Word, email, web-these commands are everywhere you want to be, and very powerful to boot. If you want to read about many, many more text editing keyboard shortcuts like this one, allow me to recommend the article "42+ Text-Editing Keyboard Shortcuts That Work Almost Anywhere," from How-To Geek. You can find it on the web at https://www.howtogeek.com/115664/42-text-editing- keyboard-shortcuts-that-work-almost-everywhere/. Where Is That Thing? Sometimes even skimming is going to be a waste of your time. All you need is to find the contact phone number for the plumber... and you do not want to browse any longer than you have to. Or perhaps you are shopping, and the site is very cluttered. All you need to find is "Tide." But there are over 300 links, and you just don't care any longer. These are the times to invoke the "Find on Page" command. Each screen reader calls it something different and has a different way to invoke it, but the idea is the same across them all. Press your key command, (in my case, NVDA-Ctrl-F) type the word you are searching for, and press Enter. If the string of letters you searched for exists on the page, your screen reader will move to its location and read it out to you. Once you have been relocated, you can use any other browsing technique you like to gather the information you need surrounding that text. Homework Great to see you all again. I've signed the waiver for all of your learner's permits. You are officially fledgling drivers on the information superhighway. Your homework is simple-go put some miles on your vehicle of choice. Find something new and interesting. Just try to avoid any drag racing please. I'm not bailing you out. Next time we will focus on working with interactive elements and making our way through tables and forms. Class Dismissed! (Students rush out of the room, and engines begin to roar!) ---------- Blind Students Win Braille Reading Contest: Seventeen Students Awarded Cash Prizes by National Federation of the Blind >From the Editor: This press release from March 19, 2018, demonstrates our firm commitment to helping and encouraging blind people to learn Braille and to become proficient in its use. We offer our congratulations to all of the winners and encouragement to all who will again participate in the contest: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's leading advocate for Braille literacy, has announced the winners of its 2017-2018 Nationwide Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest. The competition was sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois in partnership with the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB), which is also an NFB division. Eighty-one students from twelve states took part in the contest. The participating states were Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Virginia. Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "I am delighted that the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille and our Illinois affiliate have brought back this beloved contest. This year's participation shows that Braille Readers Are Leaders is once again in full swing. The ability to read and write Braille competently and efficiently is the key to education, employment, and success for the blind. Through this contest, we encourage blind children to enhance their love of reading and their Braille skills so that they will be prepared to live the lives they want. Congratulations to all of the winners of this year's contest and to all of the students who took part." To compete in the contest, students submitted reading logs, counting the number of Braille pages they read between December 15, 2017 and February 1, 2018. The contestants with the top three page counts in each of five grade categories were awarded cash prizes: $25 for first place, $15 for second place, and $10 for third place and honorable mention. Every student who submitted a reading log received a package of Braille-related gifts. Here is the complete list of the 2017-2018 Nationwide Braille Readers Are Leaders winners: Grades K-1 First Place: Cameron Gooden, Carterville, IL Second Place: Ander Mielke, Havre, MT Third Place: Kenji Torihara, Chicago, IL Honorable Mention: Anastasia Marinos, Burr Ridge, IL Grades 2-3 First Place, Aisha Safi, Chevy Chase, MD Second Place: Preston Rose, Eagan, MN Third Place: Anna Sayles, Peoria, IL Honorable Mention: Ely Giraldo, Staunton, VA Grades 4-5 First Place: Jonah Rao, Columbia, MD Second Place: Isaiah Rao, Columbia, MD Third Place: Karli Copes, Oak Grove, LA Grades 6-8 First Place: Holly Connor, St. Louis, MO Second Place: Nicholas Tarver, Many, LA Third Place: Anthony Spears, Mattoon, IL Grades 9-12 First Place: Maria-Luisa Montero-Olivero, Marietta, GA Second Place: Marie Presume, Staunton, VA Third Place: Kaelyn Kinlaw, Staunton, VA Kelly Doty Awards The Kelly Doty Awards of $25 are given to students who overcome special challenges to achieve fluency in Braille reading. Such challenges include, but are not limited to, having disabilities in addition to blindness or being an English-language learner. The following students received 2018 Kelly Doty Awards: Alan Bunay, Spring Valley, NY Miracle Douglas, Peoria, IL Isaiah Rao, Columbia, MD Jonah Rao, Columbia, MD Aisha Safi, Chevy Chase, MD Nicholas Tarver, Many, LA ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Salisbury] Consider Us Contributors by Justin Salisbury >From the Editor: Justin Salisbury is a strong Federationist who lives in Hawaii. He spends a lot of time thinking about blindness and how to make the most of his life. His work also leads him to think about how to help others do the same. In this article he wrestles with how we get others to see that we are contributors and how to convince ourselves that indeed we have something to offer. Here is what he says: I am not sure how I learned it, but I remember entering the college application process with a clear understanding that minority status was a positive indicator of application success. Diversity is a popular thing today, and I was once happy to ride any ticket that could take me where I wanted to go. Perhaps it was a matter of my own uncertainty about how and where I would gain opportunities; perhaps I felt as if I needed to be able to depend on some kind of credential that would not change, be taken away from me, nor be invalidated. At that point in my life I had met many blind people, but not a single one of them were, at the time, what I would call a good blind role model. If I had found the National Federation of the Blind before my college search process, I would have done many things differently. Since I did not, I did not consider myself to be much of a contributor besides by showing up places and being blind. How often is a decision made in the public name of diversity but the unspoken spirit of charity? I still had enough dignity that I did not want to show up at a university where my only real business in being there came from a diversity ticket. As time went on and I met the National Federation of the Blind through affiliate-level scholarship programs, student divisions, and eventually national events, my confidence grew, and I began to strive for the things which were previously beyond illusionary limits. I began to realize that I really did have something to contribute, a process which has only accelerated as I have ventured further into my participation in the organization. A person's college years are usually a period of intensive exploration and identity development, as I think they should be. This was true for me, too, both through the organized blind movement and through the other cultural communities to which I belong. By the time I was deciding what to study in graduate school, my cultural identity and resulting worldview was very much informing the type of work I sought to do. This is probably true for anyone at any point in life, but I know that mine had recently undergone substantial development at this point. I was more aware of it, and the impact was something I have come more and more to understand. After college I applied for a few international scholarship programs that would have given me the opportunity to study abroad in Europe, broadening my horizons and preparing me for doctoral study. As part of the selection process for one of these prestigious international scholarship programs, a candidate may participate in a panel interview. In my essay I had attempted to outline the experiences that had influenced my desire to attend my proposed academic programs and what I expected to do afterward to contribute to the world with my new skill sets and expanded worldview. One of my interviewers, rather than asking a question, told me that in my essay it appeared that I was just talking about blindness to show them that I had a diversity card to play. She said that I didn't make it meaningful and probably should have left it out. I was genuinely hurt. I was quite sure that she made no effort to read my essay because I had spent hundreds of words explaining it. She may have only skimmed my essay and then allowed her own attitudes about blindness and minorities to preempt her opportunity to absorb any of what I had written. I tried to explain how my experience as a blind person guided my active participation in government affairs and experiences as a native person of North America nurtured my passion for environmental preservation, but I was talking to a wall. I didn't get that scholarship, but I think I learned a few things from the experience. People do filter us, often with a default expectation that we are attempting to use our diversity qualifiers to gain an extra leg up with the generosity shown to underprivileged populations. Maybe we are attempting to appear more valiant for overcoming something difficult. If we do embrace society's rhetoric about how blindness is inherently difficult, it contradicts the message communicating our capacity to contribute for as long as we are blind. If our goal is to selfishly shut the door behind us as we secure an opportunity for ourselves, by all means we should take every opportunity to encourage the public to think of us as unique for functioning competently while blind. We have the opportunity to make ourselves look good while reinforcing negative stereotypes. On the other hand, if we want to prop that door open behind us as we pass through, we must spend the time and energy to change the rhetoric. We must help society see the blind experience as normal so that our accomplishments are appreciated for their true worth, rather than artificially elevated due to the circumstance of blindness. This increases initial expectations but ultimately provides more opportunities than that diversity ticket would. Often when I hear someone say that they are giving someone an opportunity, it is sold as an act of generosity rather than an expectation to get something from them. If people lower the bar to give us an opportunity as a matter of charity, then they are failing to put proper focus on our ability to contribute meaningfully. We want employers and other groups to take us with the intention of milking us for all we are worth. This is how we advance. This is how we develop and grow. If people have low expectations for our growth and development, then they are limiting us. If they expect us to show up and add our blindness as a diversity component to their group or organization, then we are not compelled to become any greater than we already are. There certainly have been blind people who have taken jobs where expectations were low, who worked hard and excelled, and who raised the expectations for themselves and other blind people. In the world we hope to shape, though, we who are blind will not have to do this anymore because of our work to raise expectations. Since blind people are a true cross-section of society, there are inevitably going to be some blind people out there who will be perfectly happy to stagnate; however, most of us do not just want to float like an amoeba; we want to make change in the world. Some blind people will be happy just to have any job; they might have been the same were they sighted, but they also could be doing it because it is all that they have learned to expect of themselves. If society teaches blind people to relegate themselves to a position of mediocrity, then that person has untapped potential. Stephen Jay Gould is famous for saying, "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." Leaders in an organization sometimes try to convince people that their contributions are meaningful in order to keep them happy and keep them around, but this can be harmful if we are not really capturing the full benefit of their capacity to contribute. I have many times heard the lines about how my contributions were meaningful when I was hardly doing anything at all. In those situations, I have understood full well that these leaders were not interested at all in the actual contributions that I wanted to make. Sometimes I believe this has been related to my blindness and their low expectations of me. Sometimes it has been a result of a desire to keep relative newcomers at arm's length. In either case, it is not a welcoming feeling, and it does not help any of us grow. One day in the spring of 2017 as the end of the workday was approaching, Shannon Cantan, a friend, coworker, and fellow Federationist stopped by my office. He told me that after work he was going to a get- together for young people involved in politics, and he invited me to join him. I had never thought about myself as someone involved in politics, but I knew that I loved working on advocacy and policy issues through the National Federation of the Blind. I had already dabbled in other advocacy and policy arenas outside the Federation, so I figured I might fit in just enough to belong in a setting like that. I decided to give it a shot and maybe make a new friend or two. The way the bus schedules worked, we got there about an hour before the event. Since it was at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, we spent some time exploring the campus, but then we sat down in the meeting room to be the first ones to greet everybody else. A guy came into the room and introduced himself, and we could tell that he was planning to set up the food. He started to ask, "Can you guys . . ." and then he trailed off, noticing that we were blind, saying, "Oh," with the sound of recognition that we would not be able to help. Shannon and I were of the same mind, and we knew exactly what cue he had given us. We both jumped up and told him we could do whatever he needed. We followed him around a few corners, up and down a few staircases, and out to his car, which was about a quarter-mile away. We started to figure out who would carry which food item back into the meeting room. One of the items that needed carrying was one of those giant cylindrical Gatorade coolers with a drink dispenser valve, like what football players dump on a winning Super Bowl coach. I wondered what this guy's plan had been because I really couldn't picture him carrying it all that way, but thankfully Shannon is a big guy and was able to carry the dispenser back to the meeting room with one arm while using his cane in the other. It was obvious to all observers that the ability to carry it had nothing to do with eyesight. We set up for the event, and we showed that we could contribute. Since that day, he and I both have been making tons of friends in that network, and people react to us like we really have something to contribute. Today, when I go into the state capitol, the legislators and their staff often greet me by name, and I am often called upon to contribute on topics reaching beyond disability. Maybe one day we will come upon a scientific discovery that all intelligence and potential to make meaningful contributions is housed in the visual cortex. Until that unlikely day arrives, I hope that blind people will continue to contribute everywhere that we go. The National Federation of the Blind works to ensure that society does not miss out on the meaningful contributions that blind people can make. Our approach frequently includes raising the expectations of blind people because low expectations create obstacles which make it more difficult for the broader society to benefit from our contributions. If we have full and equal access to the mainstream channels of society, then mainstream society has full and equal access to our contributions. Like anybody else, we want our communities to consider us contributors. ---------- How I Spent My Birthday by Ed McDonald From the Editor: Ed McDonald is a long-time member of the Federation whose active service has included time as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia. Ed and his wife Karen both love radio, celebrating, and taking stock of the good things that have come into their lives. They believe in the true integration of blind people, and what Ed did on his birthday shows how he makes it real in his life. Here's what he has to say about how he celebrated another year of living: Turning sixty-eight is not one of those landmark birthdays like forty or fifty, sixty-five or seventy-five, so it really doesn't lend itself to a big party or other special celebration. On the other hand, this birthday has turned out to be an interesting snapshot of the life of a blind guy growing older and "living the life he wants" in a small town. The day began with a reminder that birthdays are indeed about growing older. Karen and I rode the local senior citizens' van to the doctor's office for the semiannual bloodletting which precedes next week's fall physical check-ups. Since the blood work required overnight fasting, the driver agreed on the way home to drop us at Denny's for a leisurely birthday breakfast. When the server brought the first plate to the "lady," Karen declared that she should have served me first because it was my birthday. The server, in turn, asked to look at my ID card which determined me to be eligible for a free birthday meal. This was not what we had in mind when we decided to go out for breakfast, but it was an unexpected nice touch. Back home safely, we caught up on the morning's mail, messages, and phone calls. Then it was off to downtown Keyser for a visit to the bank-one of the few remaining businesses that I can still walk to. I deposited checks, withdrew cash, ordered new checks, and signed some financial paperwork for our local historical society. On the way home, I stopped at the Main Street Bakery to pick up some doughnuts. I knew that would make my wife happy, so it seemed like an appropriate thing to do for a happy birthday. Unfortunately, the bewitching hour of 2:00 PM had arrived while I was dealing in high finance, and the bakery doors were locked up tight. However, as I turned to walk home with an empty backpack, the door opened and Marla-the baker and sole proprietor- invited me to come in. She was happy to sell me her last two doughnuts, a dozen cookies, two homemade pop tarts, and a pair of pepperoni rolls. On top of all that-since I am a "nice guy" and it was my birthday-she gave me a fresh cupcake with caramel icing and maple drizzles on top. Earlier in the day I had decided to make a bold public statement on the condition of society by wearing an old, old sweatshirt which displays the question across my chest, "If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?" Well, the only person who noticed was the waitress at Denny's, and by the time I walked home from the bakery, the shirt was a little too warm for a seventy-degree October day. Back home once again, we enjoyed lunch of pepperoni rolls and pastries. Then came an afternoon of domestic chores and a little studio work. A week or so ago we decided to try stocking up on wintertime provisions by ordering from Amazon, rather than dragging home soap, shampoo, toothpaste, napkins, and chicken broth from the local Wal-Mart. Well, several of those items arrived that day, so I actually had birthday packages to open. I also had to look for space in the basement to store the stuff. Speaking of the basement, I took the little vacuum cleaner in hand and swept up the path from the back door to the studio. Over the next few days we have a few people scheduled to come to the studio to record spots for the radio station, and I wanted the place to be reasonably presentable. The studio work involved taking an old LP (remember those big records with the little holes?) by West Virginia musician Billy Edd Wheeler and converting it to digital files to play on the radio. That called for using some recently-acquired production and editing skills. By then it was supper time. Often we walk to the nearby Candlewyck for birthday dinners, but this time we decided to stay home and enjoy a wholesome meal of black-eyed peas which Karen prepared in the crockpot. While we were away earlier in the day, a friend left at our front door a bag full of homegrown turnips and homemade rolls. I cut up the turnips and roasted them with a little olive oil, sea salt, and ground pepper. Needless to say, it was a hardy and enjoyable dinner. Along with all of the other activity, I was grateful for so many kind and thoughtful wishes by phone and by email. So as the day draws to a close, I sit there in my favorite rocking chair with Mountain Streams Radio playing in the background. Across the room sits my wife in her favorite chair, each of us has a lapful of BrailleNote, and I was wrapping up this little summary of the day's events. You ask how I spent my birthday-well, there you have it! What more could I ask for, and it even left me with these few thoughts to share with my "Federation Family." Thanks again for the good wishes. Number sixty-eight has indeed been a fine birthday. ---------- 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. This month we want to highlight some publications we had been selling, but which now are available free of charge while supplies last. The items below will be of particular interest to those who want to learn more about the history of the National Federation of the Blind. Jacobus tenBroek: The Man and the Movement edited by Kenneth Jernigan Jacobus tenBroek was our organization's founder and first leader who played an instrumental role in shaping the NFB's philosophy on blindness. Upon his death in 1968, then- President Kenneth Jernigan compiled the collection of recordings of some of the memorable addresses and occasions in the life of Dr. tenBroek and the National Federation of the Blind which tell the story of the establishment and growth of the organized blind movement. Dr. Jernigan's introductory remarks give historical context to the speeches and other materials chosen. The Man and the Movement was reissued in 1990 in print and Braille for the NFB's fiftieth anniversary. Available in Braille (one volume) and print. Walking Alone and Marching Together: A History of the Organized Blind Movement in the United States, 1940-1990 by Floyd Matson This comprehensive volume, published upon the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the NFB, focuses upon the actions and aspirations of the organized blind themselves. We follow the progress of the movement from its historical origins, through the early years and "civil war," renewed harmony, and then explosive growth. In the process the reader is introduced to a remarkable group of leaders at the national, state, and chapter levels who contributed mightily to the evolution of the NFB, making it into a genuine people's movement. The book includes many key speeches, which have shaped the NFB's philosophy on blindness. Available in Braille (eleven volumes) and print. Kenneth Jernigan: The Master, the Mission, the Movement edited by Marc Maurer Kenneth Jernigan was our second great leader who played a key role in shaping our movement as well as redefining what successful rehabilitation looks like for blind people. After his death in 1998, this compilation of some of his writings with an editorial introduction and notes on the text was published the following year. It includes speeches such as "Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic" and "The Nature of Independence," which we still consider to be fundamental expressions of NFB philosophy. Other speeches and articles address the changing role of the NFB and the blindness field. The book also includes excerpts from many Kernel Books, a series Dr. Jernigan created and initially edited, in which individual blind people write about their experiences of living with blindness without sentimentality, breaking down the misconceptions surrounding blindness. Available in Braille (two volumes) and print. NFB Songbook (1991 Edition) One of the more unique organizational traits of the National Federation of the Blind is the central role that songs have played in the community that is the Federation. Since 1969 members of the NFB have used the power and emotion of song for a variety of situations and for many reasons, but the three main sources for inspiration have been to protest against people and organizations believed to be acting against the interests of blind people, to define and vocalize Federation philosophy, and to celebrate what became known as "the organized blind movement." Song topics have included ineffective, inept, and custodial rehabilitation; mismanagement of services for the blind by the government and various agencies; the battle with airlines to hold onto canes and sit in exit-rows; and the struggle against the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). Reviewing our songs is another way to look at NFB history. The booklet of lyrics is available in Braille (one small volume) and print. To request free Braille or print copies of the above books, please contact the Independence Market. Please note that you will be asked to cover the cost of shipping the print versions of these titles; they are not eligible for free matter shipping because the font is smaller than fourteen- point. 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 MSWord 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. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Lora Felty Stephens] FRESH FRUIT SALAD by Lora Felty Stephens Lora Felty Stephens became a part of the Federation family when she was a national scholarship winner in Charlotte, NC in 1992. Several years prior, she was one of the winners in the first Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children and the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille, although she did not really know about the Federation at that time. Since finding the Federation again, Lora has served the Kentucky affiliate in various ways over the years. Currently Lora is secretary of the NFB of Kentucky. She has served as chairperson of the Kentucky scholarship committee since Kentucky began its scholarship program in 1997. Lora is president of the Ashland Chapter of the Kentucky affiliate, and she and her husband, Todd, co-edit the Kentucky Cardinal; the newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky. Lora has worked for twenty-three years as the teacher of the blind and visually impaired for the Ashland Independent Schools in Ashland, Kentucky. Ingredients: strawberries blackberries blueberries raspberries cherries (pitted) grapes kiwi plums fresh peaches fresh pineapple Method: Use any fresh fruits you desire. Cut them into small pieces and put into a large bowl. Mix well. I recommend the above fruits for a delicious taste combination. I have added melons and mango, but these fruits don't seem to add as much to the overall flavor of the salad combination. You can choose how much of each fruit to put in according to your preferences. Salad Dressing: Ingredients: 1/4 cup lime juice 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup sugar or Splenda Method: Combine lime juice, water and sugar. Pour dressing over cut fruit and stir together. Refrigerate salad until ready to serve. The lime juice helps preserve the fruit and adds a delicious flavor. This salad keeps well in the refrigerator for several days. This salad pairs well with the Mountain Dew Cake for a light and tasty dessert. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Cathy Jackson] GERMAN POTATO SALAD by Cathy Jackson Cathy Jackson has been president of the Kentucky affiliate for eighteen years and is also a member of the board of directors of the NFB. Cathy loves family gatherings, and she has provided two recipes she enjoys preparing and serving at these gatherings. Ingredients: 6 potatoes 6 strips bacon 3/4 cup onions 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 cup dark vinegar 3/4 cup water 1/3 cup bacon grease 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon celery seed dash of pepper Method: Boil potatoes until tender when stuck with a fork. Fry bacon until crisp (save grease). To make sauce, add diced onions to 1/3 cup hot grease. When onions begin to cook, add all dry ingredients, stirring thoroughly. Add water and vinegar. Bring to a full boil. Let boil about three minutes or so. Pour hot sauce over pealed diced potatoes. Crumble bacon into potatoes and stir. Leave some crumbled bacon to garnish top of salad. Notes: German Potato Salad is to be served warm; using frozen diced onions saves time. Thick-sliced bacon yields more grease. ---------- STUFFED GREEN PEPPER SOUP by Hellena Emery Hellena says about herself, "I have been a Federationist for over twenty years. These are a couple of my favorite recipes to make for myself, my family, and friends. Please enjoy!" Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1 package dry onion soup mix 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with garlic 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce 3 large green bell peppers, chopped into 1-inch pieces 1/2 large onion, chopped 3 cloves of garlic, minced 2 beef bouillon cubes 3 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons vinegar 2 teaspoons oregano 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper 4 cups water 1 cup cooked white or brown rice Mozzarella cheese to garnish soup (optional) Method: Brown ground beef and place in a six-quart crockpot. Combine diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and dry onion soup mix in crockpot. Add the peppers, onions, garlic, beef bouillon cubes, brown sugar and water. Then stir well. Sprinkle with oregano, black pepper and vinegar. Then stir. Cook on high four hours. Add cooked rice and cook for one additional hour. Serve topped with mozzarella cheese. Yield: 8 servings ---------- CHICKEN SALAD by Hellena Emery Ingredients: 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast 2 ribs of celery 1 onion 1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise salt and pepper to taste 1 clove of garlic 1 cup grapes 1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and diced 1/2 cup pecans 1 ounce fresh grated parmesan cheese Method: Cube chicken breast(s). Season with garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook until done, about twenty minutes. Drain and chop into smaller pieces. Chop celery, onion, pecans, apple, and grapes, and add to bowl. Add parmesan cheese. Stir in mayonnaise. Serve and enjoy! ---------- ROTINI SKILLET CASSEROLE by Cathy Jackson Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1/2 cup diced onions garlic to taste 1 tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon mace (this is a spice similar to nutmeg) 1 8-ounce jar Ragu spaghetti sauce 1/2 cup red wine 1 bay leaf 8 ounce bag rotini pasta 4 to 6 slices swiss cheese Method: Cook Rotini pasta according to package directions. Brown ground beef and chopped onions in a large skillet. Drain excess grease. Add remaining ingredients to the meat and onions in the skillet. Stir and let simmer for thirty minutes. Then add the cooked rotini pasta. Top with Swiss cheese. Cover the skillet to let the cheese melt. Serve this dish with a salad and garlic bread for a delicious meal Enjoy! ---------- MOUNTAIN DEW CAKE by Lora Felty Stephens Ingredients: 1 yellow cake mix 1 small package vanilla instant pudding mix 1 cup Mountain Dew 1/2 cup oil 4 eggs Method: In a large bowl combine the dry cake mix and dry pudding mix. Add the Mountain Dew and oil. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to mix well. Spray a bunt cake pan or a nine-by-thirteen-inch pan with cooking spray. Pour batter in cake pan. Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for approximately forty-five minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. This recipe is a favorite of mine. It has a heavy texture, similar to a pound cake. It is very versatile. You can mix the flavor combinations and come up with a whole new dessert. Use a chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding, and Coke to make a delicious chocolate cake, or try a strawberry cake, banana pudding and Sprite for a new flavor twist. Adding chocolate chips, nuts, or fruits to various combinations is great, too. Have fun with your experiments! ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Elected: The Southeast Iowa Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa held elections at our regular chapter meeting in December 2017. The following were elected: president, Christie Steele; vice president, Jerry Jackson; secretary, Richard Webb; treasurer, Mark Schowalter; and board members Jim McElderry and Kim Brown. New List for Small Appliances: I am pleased to announce a new list on nfbnet.org. It is called "Small-Appliance-Cooking" and deals with blind people using small appliances for food preparation. Here is the official description of the list and instructions on how to join: This list is sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind and the Krafters' Division of the NFB. It is for the discussion and sharing of ideas by blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind people in using small appliances for food preparation. Many people choose to use small appliances because of blindness- related issues, convenience, space savings, economics, and many other reasons. Small appliances include but are not limited to crockpots (slow cookers), the Instant Pot? and other pressure cookers, microwave ovens, toaster ovens, air fryers, and other devices. Discussion can include ideas, accessibility tips and questions, recipes, and anything related to the use of small appliances by blind and other disabled people. The moderator of the list is David Andrews. You can reach him at david.andrews at nfbnet.org. You should also contact him if you are having any technical problems with the list. To subscribe to the list, either go to www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/small-appliance-cooking_nfbnet.org or send an email to small-appliance-cooking-request at nfbnet.org and put the word Subscribe on the subject line by itself. Elected: The At-Large Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois is pleased to announce the results of its recent election: president, Marilyn Green; vice president, Danny Mandrell; secretary/treasurer, Charlene Elder; and board members Linda Hendel and Debbie Pittman. NFB Employment Committee Tools for Getting a Job: Many people have been asking about how to write resumes and other topics that are covered with materials on our NFB Employment Committee website. The following things may be helpful if you are looking for a job. The first is the link to our NFB Employment Committee webpage, which is https://employment.nfb.org/. It has links to a number of resources: the signup for the NFB Jobs listserv, contact information for employers who have attended our past Job Fairs, and resources for job seekers. Here is the link to the complete recording of our 2018 Job Seeker Seminar and some of the other things mentioned above. You can listen to the seminar in its entirety or choose what parts of it are of interest to you: https://employment.nfb.org/Convention%20Page.html. Also available on this page is a link to read or download the 2017 NFB Job Seeker Resume Writing and Interviewing Presentation. This is a great resource from Wells Fargo on how to write a resume. You can also listen to the recording of the presentation. You can find a lot of job seeking, resume writing, and cover letter writing tips at the following link: https://employment.nfb.org/Job%20Seeking%20Tips%20Page.html. Where the Blind Work had 2,500 contacts last year. It is a list of blind people who are working in a wide range of jobs. There is detailed information about what they do and how they do it. https://employment.nfb.org/Where%20The%20Blind%20Work.html. I hope this helps a number of you. We are currently working on making our website more user friendly and will be adding more information to it in the future. Check it out to learn more about what we are doing at this year's national convention. 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. Braille Display for Sale: My name is Francisco Salvador Crespo, and I'm trying to sell my Varioultra 40. It has a year of use but is intact. I'm providing it with the leather case and original charger. I'm from Argentina, but I can ship it abroad with the firmware in the language of your choice. I will also be in Orlando for the NFB convention from June 30 through July 10. I could deliver it at convention or ship from there to a US address. I'm asking $2,500. We can negotiate the price, and I can accept payment in cash or Paypal. If interested, please email me privately at crespofranciscosalvador 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 Sun Jun 3 10:08:22 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 10:08:22 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, June 2018 Message-ID: <201806031708.w53H8Mcw001507@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 6 June 2018 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 ? 2018 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: The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort] Orlando Site of 2018 NFB Convention The 2018 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 3 to July 8, 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 2018 room rates 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. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $100-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, 2018. 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, 2018, 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 2018 convention is: Tuesday, July 3 Seminar Day Wednesday, July 4 Registration and Resolutions Day Thursday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day Friday, July 6 Opening Session Saturday, July 7 Business Session Sunday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment Vol. 61, No. 6 June 2018 Contents Illustration: Chopped Challenge at the Colorado Center for the Blind It's the Economics, Stupid by Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette Convention 101: Answers to the Questions about the National Federation of the Blind National Convention by Candice Chapman Blind New Mexicans Can Now Vote with Accessible Absentee Ballots by Curtis Chong My First Day at the State Capitol by Rocky Hart If Only I Had Braille When . . . by Terri Rupp What Does Helen Keller's Legacy Mean to the Organized Blind Movement and the World Beyond? by Kane Brolin KNFB Reader V3.0 Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks by Joel Zimba Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Basic Interactions: The Fast Lane to Getting Stuff Done on the Web by Amy Mason Echo Cue by Kevan Worley Living the Movement: Ferret Federationists by Priscilla McKinley Seeing by Lauren McKinley Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO/CAPTION: His team under the pressure of the clock, Loren McDaniel focuses on coring and slicing apples [PHOTO/CAPTION: Left to right Tyler Cannon, Nick Isenberg, and Annette Wilson present their dish entitled Shipwreck, featuring a life raft of Cheeto-encrusted Texas toast manned by a fig floating above shoals of a stir-fry. Abdi Mumi on the opposing team is working behind them. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Presentation counts for a lot, so Tyler Cannon takes care as he fills bowls for the judges [PHOTO/CAPTION: Tad Stuckey runs beets, cauliflower and carrots through the food processor for a slaw. [PHOTO/CAPTION: Teammates Rebecca Jackson (left) and Ravi Hudson (right) empty a can into a bowl as they prepare their team's sweet potato waffles [PHOTO/CAPTION: The panel of judges Delfina Rodriguez (left) and Dishon Spears (right) lean in for private consultation with Maureen Nietfeld (center) on one class's creations Chopped Challenge at the Colorado Center for the Blind At our NFB training centers we push our blind students to go beyond what they imagined they could do. In a world where expectations of blind people are often low, the willingness to push beyond the known is what makes the difference between living the lives we want and just dreaming about them. Many new students come to training never having used a sharp kitchen knife or cooked on a hot stove, or maybe they have recently become blind and lack the technique and the confidence to do these common things nonvisually. Soon they're chopping and slicing, using a hot oven, and in fact "cooking with gas." As they graduate, having faced and completed the big requirements, cooking a well-planned meal for dozens, and finding their way back to the center after a drop in an unknown part of the city, they admit that they didn't think they'd ever be able to do these things. And yet they have. The not-so-secret formula is now part of them-they know how to push themselves beyond simply what they know to what they want to know and need to do. Our NFB training center graduates have succeeded in pushing themselves beyond their fears and low expectations, so their blindness can no longer hold them back. In April the Colorado Center for the Blind Home Management staff put a twist on challenge in the kitchen by staging a "Chopped" contest. Inspired by the popular TV show, four classes over two days were divided into two teams each and given a cart full of sometimes strange ingredients and two hours, forty-five minutes to brainstorm, prepare, and present their meal to the panel of expert judges-namely, their teachers. One competition, for example, had to create a meal out of figs, stew meat, hoisin sauce, Cheetos, Smarties, dill pickles, and Texas toast. While much of what is taught in the kitchen is about planning and preparing, this exercise is about dealing with the unexpected under extreme conditions and working with your teammates toward a positive-if not always spectacular-outcome. And what happens when the stew meat burns? We won't give away any secrets, but the broader answer is to problem-solve and press on to the end, because in order to live the lives we want, sometimes that's what it's going to take. [PHOTO SHOWCASE: Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette] It's the Economics, Stupid by Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette From the Editor: Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette was born and raised in Maine and now lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his partner and two cats. He has a background in the mission-driven nonprofit sector and has been a member of the Government Affairs team of the National Federation of the Blind since May of 2017. Dylan is an avid fitness enthusiast, a political junkie, and loves following his favorite Boston sports team, especially the Red Sox and Celtics. He says he loves to write and would like to contribute more to the Braille Monitor. After reading his article I hope you will be as excited about this prospect as I am. Here is what he says: There are few things more infuriating than inconsistency in a logical argument. It is maddening when your opponent in a debate, especially an existentially important one, appears to be making an argument that you know to be false or, to be more charitable, that is confusing when considered alongside other things you know to be true. This state of confusion and irritation is where I have found myself ever since I joined the government affairs team here at the Jernigan Institute and began actively working on our opposition to H.R. 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017." This bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in February, represents an example of a broader push for a "notice and cure" provision within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For the purposes of this writing, I will refer to the broad "notice and cure" construct and not so much to H.R. 620 specifically. Though everything said about notice and cure applies equally to H.R. 620. As a quick primer on notice and cure, it is first vital to know that it would fundamentally alter the way people with disabilities enforce their rights under the ADA. It requires that a person who has encountered an access barrier that violates his or her rights, typically his or her rights to equal access to places of public accommodation under Title III of the ADA, first provide written notice to the proprietor of the place of public accommodation in question and then permit that proprietor some specifically- defined amount of time to cure the problem. Hence, we have "notice and cure." As the ADA currently stands, a person who has encountered an access barrier that violates his or her rights under Title III of the ADA may pursue one of three immediate options: 1) They can seek a private resolution by negotiating directly with the proprietor; 2) They may file a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the issue will be investigated; or 3) They may file a private lawsuit in order to seek redress of the violation. It is essential to point out that under the federal ADA a plaintiff may not seek money as a part of the lawsuit, only redress of the access barrier. There are, however, some states that have passed their own state-level versions of the ADA that do permit a person filing a lawsuit alleging a violation of the ADA to seek money as a part of the dispute. While there are many problems with a notice and cure framework, one of the most glaring ones is the negative effect it would have on proactive compliance with the ADA. It is often said by those of us who oppose notice and cure that it would produce a wait and see approach to compliance with the ADA, which is a slap in the face to the original intent of the law. Think of it this way-why would a business proactively comply with accessibility requirements under the ADA if they are not legally obligated to do so until they receive a notice from a person who has encountered an access barrier and thus have had her or his rights violated? And here is where the frustrating part of the argument comes into play. The groups actively promoting notice and cure and those who were largely responsible for H.R. 620 do not acknowledge the new reality that notice and cure will produce. They represent large and powerful sectors of the business community and were the key to successfully passing H.R. 620 in the House of Representatives. They lament the existence of "drive-by" and "serial" lawsuits as being prohibitively onerous on the business community. These types of unscrupulous legal activities do exist, though on a much smaller scale than the business community would have us believe. But supporters of H.R. 620 simply will not accept or affirm the undermining effect on the rights of people with disabilities that notice and cure would have. They often stress how much they admire the ADA and how most businesses genuinely want to comply and welcome customers with disabilities. But, according to these groups, it is just too difficult to know how to comply with the ADA, and it is only reasonable that all of the burden of education and enforcement should be placed on the backs of people with disabilities. The National Federation of the Blind, as readers will know, rejects the premise of notice and cure and the arguments that undergird it. Notice and cure unacceptably diminishes the civil rights of people with disabilities, and we stand ready to fight these efforts, armed with both moral and legal counter-arguments. One category of counter-argument that does not receive enough attention lies in the realm of economics. More specifically, microeconomics. A bit of personal background on me. I am an economics enthusiast and as such I studied and obtained a degree in economics during my undergraduate studies, and then I continued that focus on the study of economics in graduate school. As a result of this interest and this training, I tend to analyze problems and assess issues through the lens of economics and the principles associated with the discipline. There are two bedrock principles of microeconomics that can tell us a lot about why notice and cure will lead to an exacerbation of the problem of noncompliance with the ADA. Those two principles are rational choice theory and profit-maximization. I will briefly describe both ideas below and then demonstrate why they should deliver the finishing blow to any argument favoring a notice and cure provision that posits that it would not have a negative effect on ADA compliance. Rational Choice Theory: This is a key principle that lies at the core of much of the economics discipline. In short, rational choice theory asserts that people and firms are rational actors and as such, will pursue the rational economic decision in most instances. The "rational" thing to do is to make the decision that produces the most pleasure and the least displeasure. The term often used in this case is "utility," which is another way of capturing pleasure or satisfaction. So maximizing the utility we gain from any given decision is the goal of a rational actor, and that actor will therefore make the decision most likely to result in the highest level of utility for that individual. The theory further posits that if everyone pursues this rational course of action, the overall level of utility across a given society or economy will increase. Efficiency will also increase, according to this theory, as rational choices will produce the most efficient allocation of resources, and this will also produce a positive aggregate outcome. Profit-maximization: This is a concept connected to rational choice, but it relates more to decisions made by businesses. The basic idea here is that businesses will always seek to generate the highest possible level of income while simultaneously striving to minimize the costs of production. The cost of production is comprised of a variety of factors, called "inputs," that range from labor costs to the cost of raw materials to compliance costs, among others. The ultimate goal of the firm at the most basic level is to maximize profit, which is income minus costs. The merging of rational choice theory and profit-maximization means that in order to be the most efficient and successful business, rational choices about income and costs must be made in order to keep profits as high as possible. This is especially true if the business in question is a publicly traded company, answerable to shareholders. In this instance, businesses actually have a legal obligation (called the "fiduciary" obligation) to generate the highest possible profits and, in turn, the most shareholder value through higher share prices. We can now take these fundamental principles of microeconomics and apply them to our arguments against notice and cure. It is also important to note that businesses would likely agree with everything laid out above about rational choices and profit-maximization; we are not making wild or erroneous assumptions about the views and actions of the business community. These are widely held and generally agreed upon pillars of economics and business management practice. So here is the point: if businesses are rational, profit-maximizing actors with a responsibility to act in this way (especially if they are publicly traded companies), what possible incentive would any of them have to proactively and consistently comply with their obligations under the ADA? Remember that rational choice theory lays out the virtues of making self-interested decisions that produce the most personal gain possible. Remember that the profit-maximizing imperative of businesses shapes their production strategies and budget objectives. Businesses will always avoid expenses they do not have to incur in order to keep the margin between income and costs as large as possible. Or, in other words, in order to maximize profits. If it will cost a business x to install a wheelchair ramp or y to purchase an accessible point-of-sale (POS) machine, they will not do it unless they have to. If notice and cure becomes an enshrined part of the ADA and creates a wait and see environment, what reason would a rational, profit-maximizing firm have to ever install that ramp or buy that POS machine before receiving a notice letter from a person with a disability? The implications here are straightforward and alarming. Businesses exist to generate profits and complying with the ADA will, by definition, reduce by some degree the profit margin. If businesses are not required to comply with the ADA proactively, and if they do not have the incentive to do so out of a desire to avoid legal action, they never will comply proactively. It would be, in strictly economic terms, irrational for them to do so. And this is a key argument against notice and cure and one that we should be making more forcefully. If we can speak in their language and demonstrate that we know how business works and how economics work, we can better isolate and knock down their arguments in favor of notice and cure. In doing so, we can deliver the death blow to this effort and safeguard the civil rights of people with disabilities for the foreseeable future. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Candice Chapman] Convention 101: Answers to the Questions about the National Federation of the Blind National Convention by Candice Chapman From the Editor: Candice Chapman is a leader in the National Federation of the Blind of Mississippi. She is also a leader in our student division, a member of the scholarship committee, and an absolute joy to be around. Here is what she says for our first-timers: There are many ways to describe a National Federation of the Blind national convention. Convention is exciting, fun, and enlightening. It's an opportunity to reconnect with friends, meet new people, and network with a diverse group of professionals in a variety of fields. The things that convention can be in the midst of all the connection points and interesting meetings is stressful and overwhelming. I recall feeling the excitement and the stress during my first national convention. After attending nine conventions I've learned a few things that make the experience a pleasant one time and time again. It's my hope that by sharing a few tidbits with you, that you can plan well and have an altogether fun, exciting, and stress-free NFB national convention! Packing for Convention I've often been told that the best place to start is the beginning, so the beginning it is. Before you can come to national convention, you have to pack. The right clothes are an absolutely essential part of a stress-free convention. When considering what to fill your suitcase with, keep a couple of things in mind. First things first: our national convention is held in Orlando, Florida, this year. It's very hot and often rainy in Orlando, so you want to pack clothing that will ensure your comfort in hot and rainy weather. Keep that in mind. The second point here is that our national convention is a professional conference. I'd recommend finding a balance between business and business casual for most days. The exception to this will be on our banquet night. This is a formal banquet which means formal attire is most appropriate. Let's be clear, I'm not saying it's a requirement to go out and buy a fancy ball gown or rent a tuxedo. I would, however, recommend wearing whatever you consider to be a level above your business casual wear. Just to summarize, for the week of convention, save your flip-flops and tank tops for your down time, and plan for your slacks and button downs during meeting times. One last thing to mention on your convention wardrobe planning: the hotel is very large, and you'll be doing quite a bit of walking. Make sure your footwear is good for keeping your feet comfortable Clothing aside, you'll also want to pay attention to a few details regarding your belongings. You'll want to make sure that you've marked your luggage in such a way that you are able to locate it at baggage claim. Feel free to use whatever method works for you. Whether it be some sort of ribbon, bandana, colorful tape, or a keychain, the important thing is that you can identify your belongings when the time comes. In the same vein, you'll want to have some sort of identifying features you can use to identify any technology or other accessories that belong to you. Arrival at the Convention You've crossed the hurdle of packing for convention; congratulations. Now you need to get there. Once you make it to the hotel, you'll want to do a few things. If you're a guide dog user, you'll want to locate the relief areas. In the next section of this article, you will find good sources of information. Relief area information can be found there. While we're talking about guide dogs, it's probably a good idea to direct you to the National Association of Guide Dog Users. They will have all sorts of good information that will help to make sure that your guide dog has a stress- free convention as well. Another thing that you will need to do after you settle in at the hotel will be to register. You will be able to find registration details in your convention agenda. One of the things you'll receive when you register is a banquet ticket. Make sure to hang onto this ticket because you will need to exchange it for the ticket you will use on banquet night. The banquet exchange will open after general session begins. Be sure to listen for the announcement during the sessions so you won't miss it. When they make the announcement, the entire process will be explained. Good sources of information Now that you're all packed and on your way to convention, you'll want to know where to get good information. One of the first places to find it is the information table. On the days prior to general session, you can find the information table in the hotel lobby. Once general session begins, the information table will migrate to the designated registration area (you'll be able to find details for registration in your convention agenda). It's been my experience that there's not a whole lot they don't know at the information table, and if they don't know, they can certainly tell you how to find out. No matter its location, the information table is one of the best sources you will have. Another place for good information is the presidential suite. The presidential suite will have all sorts of information that you might need for convention such as the location of your state caucus. Aside from useful information, the presidential suite is also a good place to meet Federation leaders, grab a snack, or just take a breather. Keep in mind that even though the presidential suite is home to the President, he is not always there. You can schedule a meeting with him by calling the Presidential Suite or stopping by and doing so in person. Expect that the meeting will likely last only a few minutes. The President is very busy during the convention, so please be understanding if you don't get a chance to have a one-on-one meeting with him. Other locations to get good information are the hospitality suite, which is sponsored by the host committee for the convention and the convention arrangements suite. The locations of all three of these will be found in the preface information in the convention agenda. A final source for good information is your state affiliate. If by chance you don't come to convention knowing how to get in touch with yours, there's a few ways to do so. You can find affiliate contact information in the presidential suite. Additionally, once general sessions begin, you can find your affiliate designated by a large sign. The sign is labeled in both print and Braille. Managing Convention Agenda, Exhibit Hall and Independence Market Alright, you've packed well, know where to get good information, so now what's next? In the early days of the convention you'll have a chance to register, explore the exhibit hall, and the independence market. When you register, you'll get a hard copy of the convention agenda. The agenda can be overwhelming because there are a lot of things going on all at once. Here's where things can get overwhelming; here is also where I'll tell you a few things that I hope will help you not feel overwhelmed by this big document. Remember that the agenda will be available online prior to convention. Having it before arriving is hugely helpful because it allows you to familiarize yourself with what will be going on all week. Going through the agenda beforehand also gives you a chance to decide what you're interested in doing and prioritize. There's absolutely no way that you'll be able to do and go to everything. Making priorities before arriving will help to minimize stress. Tackling the exhibit hall and independence market can also be a stressful experience. I would suggest handling it the same way you would handle the agenda: check out what's available online before convention and then prioritize. One note about the independence market: Don't make the mistake of waiting until the market is about to close; the last day it is open can be very busy, so go as early as you can. Tips on Avoiding the Crowds You can expect to have to deal with crowds at our national convention; everyone's excited to be there, so be prepared for some shout outs from old friends meeting up. Here's a few ways that you can avoid the crowds if bumping shoulders with fellow Federationists isn't your cup of tea. Two places that you'll find lots of crowding are in the hallways between events and in the elevators and their waiting areas. One way to avoid the crowding in both places is to leave more than ten minutes before the event you're attending begins. Most people will be heading out around this time. Leaving early also affords you the opportunity to take alternate routes to the meeting area. One of those alternate routes could be the stairs or perhaps following the same route to the meeting area except taking an outdoor path instead of inside. As you can imagine, this option is not always a popular one in the heat, so you are guaranteed a far less crowded commute. Similarly, the stairs are a less popular option than the elevators. Meeting Room Etiquette Let's talk just for a minute about etiquette in meetings. I'll reiterate that the national convention is a professional conference. Remember when in a meeting to silence your cell phones, and if you have to take or make a call, step out of the room until it is concluded. Another thing to note about the hotel is that smoking is not allowed. This includes e-cigarettes. A good rule of thumb for meetings is to give the respect to the speakers and fellow audience members that you would like to have in their place. Social Interactions You're likely to meet lots of friendly people who may invite you to hang out in a variety of settings. No matter what the setting, it's important to exercise caution. Don't leave beverages that you may have unattended, and if you find yourself in a setting where there is perhaps an "unofficial bartender," it is probably a good idea to express even more caution and even consider obtaining your own beverage that you can verify is safe. It's important that we all are responsible for our beverages and behavior. The expectation at our convention is that we will treat each other with civility, kindness, and respect. One other note about etiquette in the bar, outside of not leaving your drink unattended, is to remember to tip your server. Keep in mind that standard manners and conventions dictate 20 percent. Tips often are the major source of income for wait staff whether in a bar or restaurant. Bits and Pieces Here are a few final thoughts that will help to prepare you for your national convention experience. Be sure to practice self-care. Taking care of yourself during this busy week will go a long way in helping reduce stress. If you're feeling overwhelmed, take a break. Be sure to eat. I know that seems like a no-brainer, but neglecting to have a decent meal is something that happens to the best of us. Wait times can be rather lengthy, so make sure to have snacks just in case you can't get a meal right away. It's also very important to stay hydrated. Like I said earlier, it's hot in Orlando. Be sure to drink plenty of water around the clock. It is my sincere hope that the information offered in this article is helpful to you. Pack well, travel safe, and we'll see you in Orlando! ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Curtis Chong uses his computer to access the website for voting in New Mexico.] Blind New Mexicans Can Now Vote with Accessible Absentee Ballots by Curtis Chong From the Editor: Curtis Chong has been a strong advocate in the many states in which he has lived. He is best known for his work with technical issues, having for a long time served as the president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science. He now works in the state of New Mexico 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. Here is what he has to say about the march of the blind to gain a completely secret voting experience, in this case using an absentee ballot: Whenever blind Americans participate in a local, state, or federal election, we have been able to use voting machines at the polls which (if not as helpful as we might like) afford us the opportunity to mark our ballots in secret without anyone having to know whom we have voted for. But if we want to vote using a printed absentee ballot, those of us who do not see well enough to fill out a printed form must necessarily rely on the help of someone else to mark the ballot, meaning that our ballot is no longer truly secret. In the fall of 2014, blind voters in the state of Maryland, for the first time in history, were able to cast a truly secret absentee ballot through the use of a fully-accessible online ballot marking system. They logged on to a secure website using the access technology of their choice, marked the ballot using an accessible web form, downloaded the appropriately marked ballot to their computers, printed the ballot, and mailed it in. This significant achievement, which would not have occurred without the hard work of the National Federation of the Blind, clearly proved that technology could be used to make the absentee ballot fully accessible to blind voters. Members of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico were inspired by this exciting development in Maryland, and so, at the organization's 2015 convention, the membership unanimously adopted a resolution which declared that the time had come for the printed absentee ballot to be accessible to the blind of New Mexico and for the state of New Mexico to have an accessible online ballot marking tool of its own. This was only the beginning of a long, three-year process-a process which has resulted in an accessible online ballot marking system which is having its debut for the June 2018 primary election. Three things happened to make all of this possible: First, the state of Maryland was willing to give its source code away for free, meaning that software could be deployed in New Mexico without the costly effort of writing an entirely new system. Secondly, the blind of New Mexico had two champions in the state legislature. They were Representative Tom?s Salazar and Senator Daniel Ivey- Soto, both of whom cosponsored the necessary enabling legislation and worked energetically on our behalf. Last but not least, we found an incredible ally in the person of Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico's Secretary of State, who testified publicly and enthusiastically in support of the legislation that would give us the accessible online ballot marking system and who inspired her office to work closely with the organized blind to ensure a smooth implementation. Here is how the voting process works. Voters visit a Voter Information Portal website and request an absentee ballot. Three pieces of information are requested: the voter's state identification number, Social Security number, and date of birth. If the voter is already registered and has verified that the correct mailing address is stored in the system, an absentee ballot can then be requested. Blind voters request the ballot that is accessible to the blind and check the box which certifies the following: "I hereby state under penalty of perjury that the following is true and correct: "I am an individual who is blind or visually impaired, and my blindness or visual impairment prevents me from being able to independently complete a standard absentee ballot; "I understand and agree that this statement is made under penalty of perjury pursuant to federal law. I further understand and agree that this statement is also covered by New Mexico law which makes perjury a fourth degree felony." Once the application has been verified and approved, the county clerk mails a packet of two envelopes to the blind voter. A smaller envelope is meant to hold the ballot, and the larger envelope contains the smaller ballot envelope and a signed and dated voter certificate. While the blind voter might need some help to sign and date the voter certificate, there is no need for anyone to see the printed ballot before it is inserted into its own envelope. Once the envelopes reach the county clerk's office, the ballot (in its sealed envelope) is immediately separated from the voter certificate. Thus, no one thereafter will know who marked the ballot in the first place. All of this does require the blind voter to have a working email address, a computer, and a printer. Moreover, the blind voter must be reasonably proficient with navigating through web pages and filling out online forms. While there are those who might complain about this, the reality is that in today's technologically-oriented world, these are the basic essentials for any online activity. The important thing to keep in mind here is that through our own organization, the National Federation of the Blind, we have proven that the printed absentee ballot can be made nonvisually accessible and our right to a secret ballot thus maintained. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Rocky Hart] My First Day at the Capitol by Rocky Hart From the Editor: Rocky Hart is a freshman at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind. He is also a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. Rocky is a reflective and articulate young man who writes with excitement, wisdom, and conciseness beyond his years. Here is what he has to say about his first visit to the Minnesota state capitol: Earlier this year I had the great honor and privilege of attending the National Federation of the Blind Washington Seminar in Washington, DC, where I had the opportunity to advocate for every blind person in America. I met with four members of Congress to discuss issues affecting blind people and had a wonderful time. Nearly a month later, I was invited to our affiliate's "Day at the Capitol." When I received this invitation, the big day was only a week away, and as much as I wanted to attend, I was concerned that I could not arrange for transportation and supervision in a timely manner. Fortunately, just the opposite happened. One of the staff from MSAB (Minnesota State Academy for the Blind) agreed to transport me, and all I needed to do was read our fact sheets, make appointments with my state legislators, and get prepared for the adventure I was about to have. When I arrived at the capitol, I was pared up with Steve Jacobson, the vice president of our affiliate, who was also one of my team members in Washington, and we would attend our appointments together. We had four scheduled appointments, all with members of the Minnesota House of Representatives. The priorities we were focused on were the protection of the rights of blind parents, funding a study to establish a program at the University of Minnesota to license teachers of the blind/visually impaired, and maintaining and creating accessible voting machines to insure blind/visually-impaired people could cast a secret ballot. Our first appointment of the day was with one of the representatives from the Twin Cities area, though I cannot remember how to pronounce his name. He seemed very interested in what we were proposing. In regard to the issue of teachers of the blind/visually impaired, he said he was willing to write a bill if we could not find any other author. In my opinion our second appointment ended up being by far the best appointment of the day. We met with Republican Representative Ron Kresha, who represents the Ninth Congressional District in Minnesota, located geographically very close to the district in which I reside. He also serves on the educational finance committee, the same group I testified before when advocating for budgetary requests for MSAB. For that reason we began our meeting by discussing the TVI issue. He not only pledged to support us; he offered to draft a bill for us once we provided him with the appropriate language. Of course we said yes. He asked me specifically to testify before the committee once the bill was drafted, and I said I would. He also agreed to support us on our other legislative priorities. Our third appointment was with Rita Moran, a Democrat from the educational finance committee, who is also supporting us in our work. Our fourth and final appointment of the day was with one of my own local representatives: John Poston, a Republican who also coincidently serves on the educational finance committee. He agreed to support and co-sponsor any bill we wish to draft regarding the issue of teachers of the blind/visually impaired, as well as the issues concerning the rights of blind parents and accessible voting machines. I took photos with both Ron Kresha and John Poston. I left the capitol knowing my effectiveness in advocating for the blind of Minnesota payed off and generated huge success, and I was more assured than ever that our state legislators are behind us. Over the course of four months I have attended the NFB of Minnesota state convention resolutions meeting, the 2018 Washington Seminar, and now the Day at the Capitol. I do not take these opportunities for granted, nor do I take credit for them. I thank God for all of these privileges. Though what we are advocating for are our rights to live up to our fullest potential, I view advocating in and of itself as both a great honor, privilege, and an obligation. We are privileged with the opportunity to go to our local, state, and national legislators to advocate for our rights, yet we must do this if we are to live up to our fullest potential. As members of the National Federation of the Blind know better than anyone, there are still many misconceptions and superstitions among the sighted population about how we simply go about our daily lives. After all, we can't...right? We in the NFB know the truth: we can live the lives we want. That is what we need to demonstrate to our sighted counterparts and elected officials. I have done just that through my advocacy at the legislature. In addition to education, advocacy, and optimism, one of the most important attributes we must have as blind people is faith. Once we advocate, we should then be optimistic and faithful that we will get what we so rightfully deserve. This is what I have done through all of my legislative work, and it is what I will continue to do for many more years to come! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Terri and Marley Rupp] If Only I Had Braille When... by Terri Rupp From the Editor: Terri Rupp is the mother of two children, one of whom is blind. She serves as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Nevada, and this article is taken from a blog she composed several years ago. It is as relevant now as it was when it was written: If only I had Braille when...I was a child learning how to read. If only I had Braille when...my classes took turns reading out loud, and I was skipped over because I couldn't even read the large print books that the schools provided me. If only I had Braille when...the waiter handed me the menu when I sat down with my friends at a restaurant. If only I had Braille when...my kids asked me to read the signs on the trails where we were hiking. If only I had Braille when...my son had a 102-degree fever, and I had a brand-new box of medicine and didn't know the correct dosage to give him. If only I had Braille when...I was reading the directions on the box of blueberry muffin mix. If only I had Braille when...I wanted to read a nutrition label on a granola bar wrapper. If only I had Braille when...my kids find a new book and want me to read it to them. If only I had been offered Braille as a child instead of fighting to learn it as an adult. If only Braille was as common as print. If only all blind or visually impaired children were taught Braille so they wouldn't have to struggle to read as adults. Braille is something that I am very passionate about. Tonight as I was reading my children their bedtime stories, I started thinking, "If only I had Braille when..." Did you know that only 10 percent of blind or visually impaired children are taught Braille? Did you know that as a child I struggled to read large print, fell behind in school, and worked twice as hard as my peers to keep up? Did you know that I didn't fully become literate until the age of twenty-three when I finally learned Braille? What if only 10 percent of sighted children were taught how to read? I have to admit that I haven't thought about these things quite as much in the last few years. However, now I am teaching my own daughter how to read and write, and now I am personally transcribing many of the books that are on their bookshelves into Braille so that I can read to them because it is faster than waiting for new Braille/print books. As a child I used to wish that I could be either completely sighted or completely blind so that I wouldn't have to be stuck in the middle, always having to explain my so-called disability. Now all I wish for is for more Braille: More Braille for blind children learning how to read; More Braille for blind adults all over the world; More Braille. More Braille. More Braille. ---------- What Does Helen Keller's Legacy Mean to the Organized Blind Movement and the World Beyond? by Kane Brolin From the Editor: It is almost a sure bet that everyone who reads this will know the name Helen Keller. I was so fascinated with the book The Miracle Worker that I actually stayed up most of the night reading it in Braille. Regardless what we may say about blindness, most of us found Helen Keller's story inspirational, and those of us who saw the movie marveled at the way Patty Duke played the role. For all the prominence that Helen Keller has had, we really know little about her life after becoming a civilized human being. We know that she traveled and met some famous people, but how did she feel about family, who were her friends, and what were her political views as she lived through World War I, World War II, and observed not only America but other countries? Kane Brolin begins to open the door for us by showing that there was more to Helen Keller than the miracle girl who was transformed from wild child to civilized dinner guest and speaker. He also hints at the box we can be put into when people believe they know us and demand that we act as expected. Here is what he says: "Read the dictionary and you will find that a miracle is defined as some great and wonderful quality that can be brought to pass. ... How then, can one go about expecting miracles and causing miracles to happen? The number 1 thing is to have a tremendous faith, a deep faith, a faith that is so positively strong that it rises above doubt. ... if you train yourself to have faith in depth, it will release an astonishing power in your life to produce miracles. ... The great people of the world are miracle makers." These quotations, reproduced in Guideposts Magazine, are attributed to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. For more than fifty years, Peale served as pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City and was legendary in his promotion of "the power of positive thinking" to a worldwide audience. Given Dr. Peale's lifelong fascination with what it takes to produce miracles, it is perhaps not surprising that he openly counted himself a champion of another American dignitary whom many people think of as a walking miracle: Helen Adams Keller. In the foreword to Ms. Keller's book My Religion, Norman Vincent Peale wrote: "If a worldwide poll were to be taken to determine the most outstanding woman of our generation, note that the top selection would be Helen Keller. The work she has done for the blind and other handicapped people throughout the world is enormous, and many a person with or without handicaps has been inspired by Helen Keller's books." Growing up totally blind but having been educated in an integrated public school system, I knew virtually nothing about the impact of the organized blind movement. Even though I grew up in Iowa at a time when Dr. Kenneth Jernigan was at the height of his influence in that state, I was blissfully unaware of how much struggle the National Federation of the Blind was engaged in right then to further the equality, opportunity, and security of the blind. But I had heard of Helen Keller. Pretty much everybody among my sighted classmates had, too. But the Helen Keller we thought we knew was at best a cartoon character. There was the image of the "wild animal" that no one could control at age six, who had no idea how to communicate or eat with utensils. A terrifying image of this primal child is reproduced in the preface to Helen Keller's famous autobiography My Life, written when she was just twenty-three years of age: "Once, in a likely fit of jealous rage, Helen overturned the cradle of her younger sister Mildred. Had Kate Keller not caught the baby before she crashed to the floor, one can only imagine what might have happened to the child. There was nothing anyone could do to reach Helen. She tyrannized the household, but no one had the stomach to discipline her even when she smashed dishes and lamps. People observing Helen thought her a 'monster,' not least when she plunged her hands into their dinner plates."[1] Then a "miracle" transpired. But Helen Keller never was viewed as the producer of that life-changing miracle; instead, the "miracle worker" was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan, better known as Anne: a young woman from the Boston area whom Helen's mother Katherine brought down to the Keller estate in Alabama to tame her blind-deaf-mute "wild beast." Through painstaking, patient work and seemingly endless creativity and faith, it worked. Through the process of finger-spelling, then Braille, the young Helen finally learned to communicate using the written word. Eventually, she learned to speak. And the rest is history-except that most of that history has never become known in the mainstream. Helen Keller became one of the most well-known American celebrities of the twentieth century. She even learned how to speak in public, though she had no memory of ever hearing speech. Yet as we grew up, I and my schoolmates tended to have in our minds a limited picture of this woman. She had become a pin-up poster representing the deafblind as a whole-a remarkable freak, but a freak nonetheless. Sometimes in that era before the onset of political correctness, she was even reduced to a category of jokes. Q: How did Helen Keller burn her left ear? A: She answered the iron. Q: How did Helen Keller burn her right ear? A: They called back. Q: Did you hear about the new Helen Keller doll? A: You wind her up and she bumps into the furniture. In hindsight, this display of so-called humor at the expense of a disabled person seems shocking. But what about the more benign representations of Helen Keller that were meant to seem so inspiring? Some of her more famous quotations are found online. They feel all the more inspiring, because many rely on visual imagery, even though Helen Keller did not have eyesight: "I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light." "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow."[2] But to dismiss Keller as a type of long-suffering saint held prisoner by multiple disabilities, who rose above the world because she could not fully take part in it does perhaps as much to marginalize and to stereotype Helen Keller as the cruel jokes her legend inspired. The result is that most of us go through our lives recognizing Helen Keller's name but knowing very little about the complex, politically aware, and quite unsubmissive human being she truly was-the human being that most of her own colleagues seem never to have acknowledged. Helen Keller was never a member of the National Federation of the Blind. Whether she ever corresponded with or met Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, or any other prominent Federationists of the 1940s and 1950s is not something I have ever been able to determine. Yet June 27, 2018, marked the 138th anniversary of Helen Keller's birth, and June 1, 2018, marked the fiftieth anniversary of her death. I believe it is only fitting that we, who prove over and over again that it is respectable to be blind, should explore the legacy of this larger-than-life deafblind American to figure out what affect she truly had on twentieth-century American culture. In the induction ceremony one goes through when officially becoming an active member of a Lions Club, it is not uncommon to hear the inductee's sponsor read a passage about Helen Keller. While attending the Lions Clubs International Convention of 1925, she challenged the world's Lions "to become knights for the blind in the crusade against darkness."[3] But what kind of darkness was she crusading against, anyway? Did Keller simply wish for Lions around the world to raise enough money to produce the medical miracle of "curing blindness"? I propose she was talking about something much more subtle but much more expansive. The America in which Helen Keller grew up was very different from the America of 2018. Occupational safety, environmental protection, and even the non-toxicity of foods and medicines that we put into our bodies were thought by many not to be worthy of guarantee or protection. In the United Kingdom and the United States alike, it was not uncommon for children as young as seven years old to work more than twelve hours a day in factories and even in mines.[4] The landmark seventy-fifth anniversary e-book commemorating the National Federation of the Blind, Building The Lives We Want, makes it clear how oppressive many of the institutions were which housed and employed the blind during the late 1800s and early 1900s. But Helen Keller during this time identified and spoke out against much more than the deplorable conditions faced by people with disabilities or by the poor in general. She dared to blame the leading men who designed and bankrolled our capitalistic system for promoting conditions that led to people becoming blind in the first place. She noticed that the leading causes of disability in the United States were largely attributable to industrial and workplace accidents and diseases, frequently caused by an employer's greed and reluctance to prioritize workers' safety lest it diminish profits. She found that other social factors contributed, too, such as the prevalence of poverty, unequal access to medicine, overcrowded and unsanitary slums, and an officially imposed societal ignorance regarding matters of reproductive and sexual health. She discovered that, once disabled, such individuals constituted a class who "as a rule are poor," cast aside and forgotten. They were thrown into institutions, mired in poverty and unemployment, cut off from educational opportunities, and segregated and marginalized at every turn. There was not a single census in any state or city of the country that even kept track of the numbers and needs of the disabled population. They simply did not exist as far as the powers-that-be were concerned. "Step by step," Keller recounted in 1912, "my investigation of blindness led me into the industrial world."[5] Keller's heart for the oppressed extended far beyond the disabled population. Although Caucasian, she donated money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)-then a young and controversial civil rights organization that focused on opposition to lynching and job and housing discrimination against African Americans-and wrote for its magazine. At an antiwar rally in January 1916 (prior to the United States' entrance into World War I) sponsored by the Women's Peace Party at New York's Carnegie Hall, Keller said, "Congress is not preparing to defend the people of the United States. It is planning to protect the capital of American speculators and investors. Incidentally this preparation will benefit the manufacturers of munitions and war machines. Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!"[6] Bothered by what she was repeatedly reading about the conditions underlying oppressed subpopulations and the mass poverty that surrounded them, Keller increasingly turned for answers to the work of such influential Leftist political and economic philosophers as Karl Marx, H.G. Wells, William Morris, and Eugene Debs. As a result, she joined the American Socialist Party in 1908. Later, as she became dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of the Socialists to affect the kind of change she thought necessary, Helen Keller "became a steadfast proponent of the efforts of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which advocated for the organization of an explicitly revolutionary labor movement. ... Before long, Keller was counting among her closest friends, colleagues, and acquaintances nearly every major figure in the radical, socialist, and anarchist movements. This included such diverse personalities as John Reed, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Langston Hughes, Upton Sinclair, Clarence Darrow, Anna Strunsky, William "Big Bill" Haywood, Robert La Follette, Ella Reeve Bloor, James Weldon Johnson, Fred Warren, and countless others of lesser fame."[7] In 1913, Keller published the book Out of the Dark: Essays, Letters, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision, which synthesized her political ideals. And she never gave up her vision. It is said that for decades afterward, Helen Keller continued recommending that book to people who were asking her about her political inclinations. As of this writing, oddly enough, Out of the Dark was not available from Bookshare, Learning Ally, or NLS BARD, nor as an accessible e-book. A classic reprint was issued in 2017, however, and it is visible in a search of Google Books.[8] Helen Keller was a woman who refused to let others place her into a neat ideological box. She railed against industrial abuses and war machines, yet the famous people with whom she corresponded included steel magnate Andrew Carnegie; automotive giant Henry Ford; AT&T founder Alexander Graham Bell; and Woodrow Wilson, the US president who entered the United States into World War I.[9] Some of the risks Keller took, when proclaiming her personal beliefs on various matters, placed her at odds with those who normally were her brothers and sisters in arms. While not true across the board, it is appropriate to say that Karl Marx and many who followed his lead during the Progressive Era in which Helen Keller lived rejected religion out of principle. Marx had written: "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. ... The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself."[10] Yet Helen Keller insisted on not only sticking to her religious faith but on sharing that faith with others very publicly. Out of all the Braille volumes Helen Keller possessed, she said the Bible was the most frequently read: "I have read and reread it until in many parts the pages have faded out-I mean, my fingers have rubbed off the dots, and I must supply whole verses from memory, especially the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Gospels."[11] But her publisher Doubleday mostly wanted a steady stream of books similar to My Life, focusing on Helen's blindness and deafness-those elements of her life that fascinated the commercial reading public. My Religion, written around 1927 and long after she had self-identified as a political Leftist, was not a commercial success for Keller, and she could not find anyone to help her compile her many thoughts on this subject into an orderly work that felt natural to read. "A project so religious in nature had little appeal for Keller's editorial assistant at Doubleday, and even less for Anne Sullivan Macy."[12] Yet Helen Keller was a passionate follower of the teachings of the eighteenth-century Swedish Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, also known as an inventor and a scientist. Swedenborg was a type of charismatic believer who claimed he had received personal scientific and spiritual revelations from Scripture but also from angels through various dreams and out-of-body experiences. Inspired by him, Helen Keller came to believe in the universal salvation of all souls and to identify herself with Humanism and with Christianity at the same time, decades before such mixing of New Thought and Bible-centered theology was considered acceptable in the Church at large.[13] Keller's diverse collection of professed beliefs likely tended to alienate her from both some of her friends on the political Left and from more conservative adherents to established or orthodox Christianity as well. Having said all this, a huge question remains to be answered: What is the greatest miracle manifested through Helen Keller's life? Is it that Helen, the daughter of a proud Confederate officer who had owned slaves and who clearly believed black people to be subhuman,[14] evolved to become a champion of the oppressed and a supporter of the NAACP? Perhaps it is that even in early adolescence, she had compassion for those worse off than she, even though she could not hear, see, or speak. Maybe it is because those closest to Helen, even when she was a little girl, insisted on showing her the whole of the world as much as possible. In a letter written when she was not quite fifteen years old, from New York City, Helen wrote to her mother Kate: "We went to the 'Five Points,' a place in this city which was once dreadfully dirty and poor; but which has been greatly improved, and to the 'Tombs,' the New York prison. We went into the court-house which was ... very gloomy; with tremendous stone pillars. I was never so near a prison before, and I felt strangely and sad in the silent court-room."[15] One year before that, when she had to spend the Christmas season in the North at her school instead of with her family in Alabama, she had written to an adult friend: "Sometimes it seems almost as if it is wrong to feel so glad and happy when one knows there are so many of God's little ones friendless, and even cold and hungry, but if we are to let their misfortunes banish the gladness from our heart they would not be any happier, so I am sure it is right to be as happy as we can, and do whatever we may ... to make those around us happy and look forward hopefully to the beautiful time when Christmas shall bring to everyone joy untouched with sorrow."[16] Maybe the greatest miracle displayed through Helen Keller's life is her extreme empathy: that she so freely, and apparently without bitterness, referred to life using descriptors laced with visual and aural references, even though she could neither see nor hear. Shortly after her seventeenth birthday, she wrote to her mother: "What is so beautiful as the gleam of a golden moon the bosom of a quiet lake? It draws one irresistibly into the Land of Dreams, and the spirit in ecstasy drinks 'repose from cool cisterns of the night.'"[17] Even more remarkable is an open letter, written many years later, in which Keller talks about the joy she experienced after having "heard" a symphony orchestra broadcast on the radio: "I do not mean to say that I 'heard' the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. ... Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony[18] someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm. What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and interwingling [sic.] vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deeptoned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices. I felt the chorus grow more exultant, more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flamelike, until my heart almost stood still. The women's voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorous [sic.] throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth-an ocean of heavenly vibration-and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes."[19] But this passage, beautifully written though it is and sincerely inspired as it might be, brings to my mind a more troubling question: How did Helen Keller really feel about the dignity and empowerment of the blind or deaf, or about the characteristics of blindness and deafness themselves? Would she have been in accord with the National Federation of the Blind if she were alive today? Or was she more about smothering her disabilities under a cascade of normal-sounding visual and aural imagery? A little-known fact about Helen's life is that Anne Sullivan, her beloved teacher and lifelong companion, was functionally blind in her own right; but Keller did all she could to hide this fact from the world-perhaps to help Ms. Sullivan maintain her position and income. In a private correspondence, she admitted: "I need not tell you that my dear teacher is ever at my side, ready to encourage and help me in my work. The only drawback to our complete happiness is her eyes. They trouble her constantly, and I cannot help worrying about them."[20] It is easy to find on the internet these days many citations of praise for Helen Keller as a humanitarian, an agent of social change, a tireless advocate for the rights of women and African-Americans, a voice for the downtrodden. But how would she feel about self-advocacy? For more than four decades of her life, Helen Keller represented the American Foundation for the Blind, an organization consisting mostly of sighted professionals dedicated to working for the blind but whose agenda historically has not been directed by blind people and whose leadership historically did not include blind people. The AFB and the connections she made through the world of blindness and deafness professionals certainly gave Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy a lot of resources to work with. It gave them the means to travel to several continents, to rub shoulders with dignitaries, to enjoy an audience with presidents, prime ministers, and religious leaders. What impact did the limiting philosophy of the Foundation leave on Helen Keller the activist? It is hard to believe that a deafblind-mute young woman so empathic as to grieve for the plight of prisoners at age thirteen would not ever envision the blind or the deaf reaching a point where we could control our own destiny. How much did she know, and what did she really think about the National Federation of the Blind? As I try to answer this question for myself, I find no ready answers. And I am not the only one expressing reservations about what Helen Keller's legacy means for disabled Americans of 2018. Haben Girma, an African-American deafblind woman honored as a Champion of Change at President Barack Obama's White House in 2013 said: "Helen Keller, while inspirational, offers very little guidance for a DeafBlind woman in the twenty-first century."[21] Bottom line: For me, the legacy of Helen Adams Keller, as with many other things, is up to interpretation. I can read the writings she left behind, but I cannot place words in her mouth. Can I judge her statements or her affiliations of eighty years ago by the yardstick of today? Of course, I can; but it's doubtful that this would be a productive use of my energy or a meaningful testimony to the world. What I choose to take from her legacy is that Helen Keller probably gives the most inspiration to seeing and hearing people, who might not ever have known an educated, capable, well-traveled blind or deafblind person before they read or heard about Helen. She might not be a champion of the organized blind as we stand today, but she is a great conversation starter. While she was never a member of the National Federation of the Blind, there is no question that I and others in our movement can build on what she did, taking self- empowerment to a new level. It is worth remembering that in a speech delivered in 1973, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, a titan in the Federation, expressed a word of praise for Helen Keller: I have said nothing at all about the best known of history's blind celebrities-Homer, Milton, and Helen Keller. There is good reason for that omission. Not only are those resounding names well enough known already but they have come to represent-each in its own sentimentalized, storybook form-not the abilities and possibilities of people who are blind but the exact opposite. Supposedly these giants are the exceptions that prove the rule-the rule, that is, that the blind are incompetent. Each celebrated case is explained away to keep the stereotype intact... Helen Keller, they say, was the peculiarly gifted and just plain lucky beneficiary of a lot of money and a "miracle worker" (her tutor and companion, Anne Sullivan). ... Don't you believe it! These justly famous cases of accomplishment are not mysterious, unexplainable exceptions-they are only remarkable. ... As for Helen Keller, her life demonstrates dramatically what great resources of character and will and intellect may live in a human being beyond the faculties of sight and sound.[22] Ms. Keller, you did not live to enter into the Promised Land of full equality or opportunity for the blind, for the deaf, or even for women. But your struggle, which the world witnessed and wondered at nearly forty years before the formation of the National Federation of the Blind, was a hopeful and perhaps a necessary step on the journey toward the hope of that promise- a flame that burns brightly in our own day. Thank you. May you rest in peace. ---------- 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. 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 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 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 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 , and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Joel Zimba] KNFB Reader V3.0 Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks by Joel Zimba From the Editor: Joel Zimba has been the person primarily responsible for providing answers to callers about the KNFB Reader, and his work has also allowed him to be very involved in the direction of the product and its testing. A new version is in the offing, and here is what Joel has to say about it: My favorite iPhone model was the iPhone 5. I sold mine quite some time ago for a respectable sum, which I used for an upgrade. I recall it feeling great in my hand. Now clothing is changing to meet the demands of our larger devices, and there is not a beveled edge to be seen. My iPhone 5 was the first device on which I ran KNFB Reader, when it was first released in 2014. I bought the app the day it landed in the App Store and spent hours that evening learning how to take a decent picture. I remember sorting out piles of Christmas packages left by UPS in the main entry to my Charles Village row home, which has been converted into six flats. I had very little furniture at the time, so I got lots of practice kneeling on my floor to recognize pictures. It is still my preferred method; I don't show that trick during demonstrations. KNFB Reader ran quite well on an iPhone 5. It worked even better on an iPhone 6S and then an 8. All this time, the app itself changed very little. The operating system on which it was first designed did. In fact, it changed dramatically, so much so that some of the fundamental technology used to keep the app running has gone away. We saw this eventuality coming back in 2016 and started planning. Software design is not really like building a bridge or baking a cake or playing music or making love or gardening. It is building something far more imaginary. It is unfortunately like using cobwebs to hold soap bubbles against their will in a thunderstorm orchestrated by demented imps. Keep in mind that everyone helping in the process is using semaphore and smoke signals to communicate. If it were easy, it wouldn't be fun. The above description does not make any of the actual challenges in bringing about the latest iteration of KNFB Reader obvious. The messy details would ruin your breakfast, but suffice it to say that no part could be easily changed without a profound and unforeseen catastrophe appearing where least expected. In that sense, it is much like all of the aforementioned analogous activities from which I strive to distance myself. There was nothing to do but write down the lessons learned and start over. That, gentle reader, is what we have done. If you already have the update, as I am sure many of you do, you will see that KNFB Reader has departed from the familiar linear or path-based method of taking a picture and recognizing text. We have transitioned to a more discrete appearance which reflects the modular design hidden within. The separate tabs of the interface group similar features together-the thinking, of course, being that camera functions really are not anything like document management. Hence each aspect of KNFB Reader can grow and change well into the future. Once a less interdependent framework exists, any number of more powerful features and improvements can be added. This is where an engineer might forget to keep the actual working of things dead simple. Complexity is the hobgoblin when software evolves. You will also note that, while the look may have changed, the core functionality of KNFB Reader remains the same. Taking a picture will still quickly and accurately read a document. In many significant ways, this product remains unmatched. Remember that an app is one size fits all. This is the lesson of three years of tech support phone calls and email messages. It is no exaggeration to say that KNFB Reader is used by those from ages seven to ninety-seven. I have worked with students, from those who need a multisensory model of reading books to those wanting to read printed books in Braille. We make this possible through a rich and highly customizable feature set. If I were to turn off all of the nonvisual accessibility features of KNFB Reader, like the Field of View Report option and the Tilt Guidance tool, and then activate a cropping and aligning tool which helps to create an excellent rendering of the original document on which a highlight can move along with the text being read aloud, you might think it was an entirely new app, especially when the recognized document goes into full-screen mode, making all of the controls slip out of sight for a more focused reading experience. Those of us in the National Federation of the Blind were determined to expand the power of KNFB Reader beyond our long-standing user base of the blind. Our vision is of a tool which meets the needs of those with reading needs not necessarily determined by level of vision. Still, our app would have to be fully accessible, reflecting our belief that universal design benefits everyone. And that is the challenge we presented to our development partners, Sensotec NV. Sensotec has considerable experience developing products for those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. They understand this similar, not-quite-parallel group. Our needs often intersect in that text converted into machine readable form can be represented in ways which benefit both groups. Yet, the actual requirements at times seemed antagonistic to our goal of a more universally usable app. And so the horse- trading, the gnashing of teeth, and late nights began. At times it seemed as though we were moving further from our goal. There was even bloodshed: a paper cut from a testing document. And in the end, we had an app. This is not to say that KNFB Reader has moved on from its roots. If anything, we have worked to make sure that all that you could do before is now even easier. Reading documents from the cloud for instance is now as simple as moving to the Files tab and browsing the entire structure of your GoogleDrive, OneDrive, or DropBox account. This is largely possible because this technology has matured since KNFB Reader was launched. Even the way documents are stored in your device has changed. As mobile devices have moved closer to their desktop cousins, the features we expect, like nested folders and endless combinations of file types, have become possible. You will see this reflected in KNFB Reader. Now is not the time for lengthy descriptions of how to use every changed or added feature of KNFB Reader. There will be articles, podcasts, hate mail, and even YouTube videos comparing and contrasting every change. All the above contributed to my current understanding of what our customers wanted. Please do not think all your needs will be met. The second most famous quote of P. T. Barnum, "Always leave them wanting more," applies to software design as much as it does to Braille Monitor articles. I close by saying I am proud of KNFB Reader 3.0. Everyone who contributed to the project is proud. All of you should be proud of your participation as well, whether through using the app or through building the movement that sparked an idea over forty years ago culminating in this powerful tool for independence we know today. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason] Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Basic Interactions: The Fast Lane to Getting Stuff Done on the Web by Amy Mason From the Editor: This is the fifth in an ongoing series to help blind people learn to use the web or to increase their proficiency and ease of use. We regret that a keystroke listed in the last article is incorrect. To display the elements list using NVDA, the keystroke is NVDA+F7. That correction being noted, Amy presents to us another in this fantastic series to take the mystery out of browsing the web and getting us to the place where it is not burdensome but enjoyable. Here is what she says: Greetings once again. How were your first cruising experiences? It's been a lovely few days for driving, so I hope you've been getting out and exploring the open road. Today we are going to add another layer of skills to those you have already learned, and we will be focusing on using interactive elements. These are the items on a webpage that allow you to actually do things on a website instead of just read and navigate around. They are useful for changing settings and options, filling out forms, and providing information. Your ability to use these tools will be crucial to your success on the web, whether you are ordering groceries on Peapod, commenting on the latest scandal in Washington, DC, or turning in an assignment to your professor on Blackboard. Browsing with the Screen Reader: A Couple of Quick Reminders Screen readers are an interface that sit between the user and the operating system/applications they are using. Remember from our earlier lesson that the screen reader is like your dashboard, and you interact with it to work with the webpages and applications you are using. This we compared to the road. You aren't touching the road directly when you are driving a car, but instead your car is interacting with it because of the commands you give it. However, not all of the commands and informational panels you have on your car's dashboard affect your involvement with the road directly. Sure, when you use a steering wheel, you move the wheels of the vehicle on the pavement, and you control your speed with the brake and accelerator. But there are many controls that give you information and don't change things. Your speedometer tells you how fast you are going, but it does not actually allow you to interact with the road. Instead, it gives you information about your interaction passively. Your car may tell you what direction you are travelling, the temperature outside, and the state of its engine. All of this information is useful and often necessary to be able to operate a vehicle on the highway but is not actually affecting your interaction directly. Likewise, your screen reader also contains controls that allow you to interact directly with the web or applications and others that provide information only. On the internet, non-interactive controls are usually not able to be touched by a user, so text, headings, graphics, and other static information would be out of reach if the screen reader didn't have commands for allowing you to review and move among them. When you use these commands, you are not able to change anything. Instead, you are just reading and moving through elements visible on the screen. The internet is a bit of a tricky place because it contains many elements that are static and cannot be changed. But many others that must be interacted with directly are there, so screen readers have been designed to run in a few different modes: read-only, read-and-interact, and heavy- interaction. Each screen reader has its own terminology for the different modes, so they are described below: Read-Only In JAWS this is known as the Virtual PC Cursor, VoiceOver calls it Quick Nav Mode, and NVDA calls it Browse Mode. No matter what you call it, these are the modes in which you are able to use the different letters on the keyboard to jump between elements like headings, links, graphics, and others. This is the mode in which you can read text without changing things and can review the info on a page with your arrow keys. In older browsing and screen-reading situations, these modes were pretty solidly separated from those in which the user could interact with items on the page, going so far as requiring the user to activate any interactive controls before they could use them. The traditional behavior of JAWS with Forms Mode prior to the introduction of automatic and semi-automatic forms mode falls into this category. Quick Nav is not the default behavior for VoiceOver and therefore is pretty strict about its use of this read-only review mode. But today JAWS and NVDA are a little more fluid about moving between this virtual mode and the one in which the user can interact most directly, usually when you arrow onto an interactive control. Read and Interact By default, this hybrid situation is one in which a user is able to tab between elements and have the screen reader activate them or arrow between them and only interact when they are focused explicitly. It is in many ways the actual default behavior for JAWS and VoiceOver today. NVDA's "browse mode" pretty fluidly switches into focus mode when an interactive element is encountered but seems to stay slightly more purely separated than either the JAWS or VoiceOver behaviors since it is still necessary to tab to any links the user wishes to reach. Interaction-Only Mode This is traditionally called "forms mode" in JAWS and "focus mode" in NVDA, and it's where you do things to interactive elements. You are using the website pretty directly, and the screen reader, other than reading you the information it programmatically gathers from the site, sits back and lets you interact in a manner very similar to that which a sighted keyboard user would employ. Tab, arrows, keypresses, and the use of Space, Enter, and Escape are directly (or nearly directly) handled by the browser. There is another interactive mode known as "applications mode" which is being used on complex websites more each day. Normally you choose when to switch between reading and interacting, but in applications mode this is chosen for you by the website. To initiate this mode, a developer includes a special signal for your screen reader using ARIA to say that this section of the website should be treated more like an application (like MS Word, or iTunes) and less like a document. In this mode the section of the website that is seen as an application is interacted with directly, just like when you are using forms or focus mode to move between smaller elements. We won't see much of that in our explorations today, but it's important to be aware of applications mode because it changes everything about the way you use the web, and frankly your chances that a developer used it correctly and on the right elements are not great today. Knowing it exists and that you have a way to force your screen reader to try switching cursors or modes (JAWS key + Z for JAWS, NVDA Key + Space for NVDA, and toggle Quick Nav on and off for VoiceOver) will be important in our future lessons where we discuss how things sometimes go wrong on the web. A Note about My Teaching Philosophy and How It Affects You While we are discussing things that can go wrong on the web, I feel it is important to point out that today's lesson is based around proper, accessible, accepted patterns of behavior for interactive elements. I've chosen the examples I'm using today for the overall consistency of what you will experience. These websites are designed to work the way these elements should work with screen readers, and where they do not, I do my best to lay out how the interaction normally should go. Not every website is so well behaved, and we will be covering what to do when things break in future articles. For now, just keep in mind that for every rule I give you, there may be an exception. That's the bad news, but please don't let it scare you off. Think of our lessons here like when you first learned cane travel, cooking, or any other skill. I've always likened these lessons in my mind to when I learned cane travel. I first learned to hold the cane, then how to swing it properly. I learned in flat, simple environments. Once I mastered the techniques, my travel instructor took me out to face weird street crossings, construction, and drops. Soon I was planning my own routes. Early cane users would be very lost, scared, and frustrated if they were confronted with a major construction site on their first day, but veterans will usually be fine. Well-skilled travelers probably won't enjoy dealing with messes, but they have a lot of experience and tools to help them confront those challenges successfully. It is my goal to build up your web skills so that you have that same ability to problem-solve in your virtual travels as effectively as you can in the physical world. Traveling Through a Real-World Web Workflow As I am writing this, spring is in the air, and preparations are ramping up for national convention. When this article is released, it will likely be June, and many of us will be making our travel plans to attend. This got me thinking: cruising is fun, but when people get in their cars to drive, they are usually driving for a purpose. In keeping with the theme of going places and traveling, I came up with the theme for this month's article and hatched what I believe is a truly delightful plan. Even if you read this article months or years after its printing, I believe that this plan will be of benefit to you, my loyal readers. Today's topic involves taking a tour of interactive elements with the screen reader. The mastery of these skills will allow you to put your hard-earned internet driving education to work. In fact, if you will forgive the pun, I believe that with the skills we will practice today, your internet usage will really "take off." So, with no further air-headed jokes, I shall now reveal today's itinerary: we are going to go through the process of booking a flight on the Expedia (www.expedia.com) website and stop just after we've discussed each of the major interactive element types. Here's my reasoning: I know that the page is full of the most common interactive elements you are going to see on the internet, so we will spend less time wandering between examples and more on a coherent process than in last month's article. Expedia sports quite an accessible page. I will not promise that each step is simple, but it is very accessible, so it will give you a nice overview without having to teach or muddle through a lot of exceptions to the rules of expected behavior on the road. You've done a lot of work to get this far, and I know that the first time that I booked my own travel online, it felt like a real accomplishment. I hope that for some of you this will provide that same boost I experienced. I've had the privilege to partner with several of the developers from Expedia as they have worked to improve its accessibility, and I want to show off how well they've done. So grab your keys-um... keyboards-and let's cruise on over to www.expedia.com. Remember that from here on, I am using and describing my experiences with NVDA and Chrome. I'll let you know of any oddities I am aware of for other browser and screen reader combos, but, as in the last article, my ability to explain everything is greatly outstripped by the options available. I would recommend consulting your documentation to find how to accomplish the same goals with your vehicle of choice. The Expedia Landing Page or Home Page Every site has a home page or landing page. It acts as the reception area or lobby of the site. Like a hotel lobby, it gives you paths to access other parts of the property and usually includes advertisements, assistance, and major services of that site. You may hear the terms home, homepage, or landing page used interchangeably. You may occasionally find any of these terms being offered as links on websites you are browsing, and if you activate them, they will return you to the entry point for the site. Upon first opening the Expedia site, you are greeted with the page title, "Expedia Travel: Search hotels, cheap flights, car rentals, and vacations." A well-built page will provide a similar title when it first loads. After all, how do you know what business you are visiting if there isn't a clear sign above the door? Feel free to take a few minutes to explore the page that comes up. Use the skills you have learned so far to see what information is provided and what you can do here. When you are finished exploring, meet me back at the "Skip to Main Content" link on the top of the page. Remember that you can quickly move to the top of a page with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Home on Windows, and Command+Up Arrow on the Mac. Skip Navigation Links From here we are going to activate the "Skip to Main Content" link to save ourselves from having to navigate the rest of the stuff above the portion of the page we want. Skip links don't always work, but this one is handled well, and it never hurts to try them if you know there is content you want to bypass. I'd guess they work about 50 to 60 percent of the time, so it doesn't hurt to give them a shot, but unless you know the page is well coded, I wouldn't plan to rely on them. To continue our hotel metaphor, the skip link is a lot like the bellhop. A good one will save you a lot of time; one that is not so good might just muddle things for you when you don't really need or want the help. In this case the Skip to Main link moves us to a location labeled as "Beginning of Main Content," which is precisely where we want to be. If you arrow down, you will probably find an advertising link followed by a list with our first interactive elements-eight buttons. Buttons Good news! You already know how to use buttons. Buttons are used just like links. You can tab to them and press either Space or Enter to activate them. So why, you might be asking, are there both buttons and links if they both behave the same? The answer is they aren't really meant to behave the same. It just sort of happens sometimes because of the way some pages are designed. In very broad and general strokes, links take you somewhere, and buttons are supposed to do something. A button might be placed at the end of a form to allow you to submit it. Alternatively, you might find one to clear your answers and let you begin again. By contrast a link would take you to a different page. In our hotel, you will be taking the hallways (links) to go from the lobby (homepage) to your room. On the way, you will call the elevator with a button. The buttons here are doing things, while the links take you places. Even when you press the elevator button to go somewhere, you are doing so by making something happen first. Sometimes buttons won't change where you are at all; they will just set a process in motion, like if you call the front desk to ask for extra towels. You will likely find situations in which links and buttons have been interchanged without much thought for the way each of them is meant to be used because a designer feels that the button or link would provide a better visual appearance to the website. The important thing to remember overall though is that you can interact with both elements in more or less the same way. If you are expecting a button or link and don't find one, it's worth looking for the alternate option instead. Keeping with our analogy, if you can't call the elevator, there's always the stairs. The other thing to know about buttons that makes them different from links is that they have different states than links do. A link as you remember may be a "same-page link," "visited," or "unvisited." A button, on the other hand, will let you know if it is "pressed," "selected," "disabled," or may not have a specific state at all. Disabled buttons can't be pressed right now, possibly because the form they are tied to is not filled out properly or for other reasons you may need to investigate on the page. A selected button on the other hand is often found when you have a group of buttons you can choose from, and only one of those buttons can be activated at a time, sharing some similarities with "radio buttons," which we will look at later in this article. In the case of this Expedia page, however, the list of eight buttons lets us choose which type of travel product we are looking for. They include the flights tab, hotel tab, and bundles tab buttons. When I loaded the page, it reported that the "bundles" were selected. Since we are searching for flights today, tab to the flights button and activate it. Now if you tab and shift tab through the group of buttons, you will see that the bundles tab no longer reads as selected but that the flights button does. Simple as it sounds, we've now completed the button tutorial for today's class, so tab or arrow to the next place where we get a new element type. Radio Buttons-There Can Be Only One! Excuse me, I appear to have been channeling Highlander for a moment there, though the heading of this section is, in fact, accurate. Radio buttons are a group of elements which require you to make a choice. As soon as you have chosen one, any other you may have selected is automatically unselected. They get their name from the buttons you used to find on car and home stereos which would pop back out as soon as a different button was chosen. You may have seen this behavior in the old National Library Service tape player controls. If you would prefer to follow our theme of travel today, you can imagine the radio buttons as a strip mall containing multiple sit-down restaurants, sushi next to Mexican next to a steak house. When you drive to the strip mall, you are going to one location, but you have to choose which cuisine you actually want. As soon as you have chosen one, you have chosen against the others. In the same way, when you enter a properly built group of radio buttons, you will find it is preceded by a question (the mini- mall) and that each button is connected to an answer for that question (the three restaurants). In our example today on the Expedia site, our question is "Flight type?" It also advises us that the option you choose will change the rest of the page below the set of radio buttons. The answers you can choose are "Roundtrip," "Oneway," or "Multi- city." Today, we are going to choose Roundtrip. If you are using JAWS or NVDA, you can tab into the group of radio buttons from the buttons above it, and you ought to hear the question and the first answer, Roundtrip. Pretend for just a minute that you want to select a multi-city flight. If this is what you wished to do, you would not tab at this juncture. The buttons above are each completely separate items. Other than changing the selection the user wishes to make, they have nothing to do with one another. This is not how the radio buttons work. Instead, they function as individual parts of a whole. This means that when you tab from the first radio button in a group, the computer thinks you are done with the whole group and skips your other options. It is for this reason that when you encounter a group of radio buttons, you will enter and exit the group with the Tab key but actually make your selection with the Up and Down Arrow keys. It may be necessary to select one with the space bar. This will depend on the group of radio buttons and what they are coded to do when you first give them focus. Feel free to practice selecting different radio buttons, then tabbing below them to see how the form below changes. When you are comfortable with the way this works, choose "Roundtrip" and tab into our next element. Edit Fields, Text Boxes, and Editable Combo Boxes Here we come upon one of the easier element classes to use but one of the hardest to describe. These are difficult because they all have approximately the same purpose, but each one is slightly different. It's a bit like clothes shopping at the mall. All the stores sell clothes, but you will find different sizes, different purposes, different rules, and all of them come with their own unique names (The Gap, Kohl's, Victoria's Secret, and Nordstrom all sell clothes.) That being said, at the end of the day in their myriad uniqueness, all of these elements share the majority of these basic traits. A text field, no matter how your screen reader identifies it, still contains text, or at least it will when you are done entering it. Basic interactions should be fairly straightforward. Tab or arrow into the field, listen for any formatting requirements, enter the text that is expected, and tab out again at the end. Your cursor should move at this point into the next element in the tab order. And that's it. Everything else is just a little up to chance. Here's a list of some of the things you are likely to come across when you are moving through edit/text boxes/fields/areas/combo boxes. Required: This box must be filled in to the satisfaction of the site, or you are not going to be able to move forward in the process. Protected: Usually these are password fields, and you may hear synonyms for "protected," but it will come to the same thing. The text you enter in this box is almost immediately obscured to both sighted and blind users. If you attempt to review the text in this box, you will hear bullets, stars, asterisk, or dots instead of the characters you originally typed. Editable combo box or has autocomplete: These boxes will offer suggestions in a list below the box which you can choose from based upon what you have already typed. This is the same type of box you encountered during the Google Search exercise in the last article. Email/phone/date boxes: The newest forms of web design allow a developer to tell the browser what types of information they are expecting in an edit box so that smart phones and other devices with software keyboards can pull up keyboards which include necessary symbols for filling out these boxes. Other than changing your keyboard, these will work more or less like any other box. Text areas or multi-line areas: These are big text fields, which are intended for holding more than a single value. They might be used for social media postings, essay answers, comment sections, product reviews, or anywhere else that the user is expected to write more than a couple of words. These boxes may be a little harder to extract your cursor from since the Tab key and Enter may be keys you would use when entering text in them. In these cases, you should be able to "escape" with the use of the Escape key (clever, isn't it?). With that basic overview out of the way, let's turn our attention back to the project at hand and look at the edit fields for where you are flying from and where you are flying to. Both of them read exactly the same except for how they are labeled, so let's unpack what's here: As we have discussed before, your screen reader may use slightly different terminology with some of these items, but the meanings will be the same: "Flying From/Flying to: edit, has autocomplete, required, city or airport." (Well, that is quite the mouthful.) Flying from (or flying to): This is the label of the form; essentially, this is the information they want you to put in the field. Edit: This is the type of element we are dealing with. In this case "edit" means "please type in me." Has autocomplete: This means that once you have started typing you can switch to arrowing up and down a list of suggestions provided by the site and choose one of those. This can be extremely helpful when you are trying to fly to Albuquerque, for example, and have no idea how to spell it. Incidentally, I had no idea how to spell it. If it were not for Word's spell checker, I'd have had a very embarrassing example on my hands. Required: Exactly what it says on the package. This information is required in order to complete this form and start the process of looking for a flight. If you don't fill this out, you will not be able to go on, and the website will throw errors your way. City or airport: This is a hint the developers added to this field to tell you what sorts of information the field will accept. You will regularly hear other hints on edit fields which might tell you what format a field expects an answer in or what types of info are accepted. Common ones include: Format mm/dd/yyyy: when entering a date, use digits for the month, day, year, with slashes in between (example 01/01/2019). Must include a letter, a number, and a special character: usually found when creating a password and occasionally a username for websites. This info tells you that your entry has to have letters (sometimes mixed between upper and lower case), numbers, and punctuation or other special symbols. We will talk about good password hygiene in another lesson. Digits only: simple, they want the answer without spaces or other punctuation. You will find this most often with phone numbers or credit card numbers. Now that we know what everything means, give filling out these boxes a try. Enter the nearest city to you with an airport in the first box, and when you get partway through, you should hear something like "five options are available use your arrow keys to select from the list." It may not be precisely this, but something similar will likely be read. Because of the complex wizardry being done by the website and your screen reader, it is possible that you will not hear this message. I did not while preparing this example. But you were given a heads up when the page mentioned an "autocomplete," so feel free to arrow down and see what options are available. When you have finished choosing or typing (both options work), tab and you will be placed in the "clear field" button that appeared upon your completion of this edit box. Tab once more and you will be in the "flying to" field. Rinse and Repeat. Note: the clear field buttons are a nice addition created by Expedia that are not on most edit fields. If you need to clear other edit boxes, make sure your cursor is in them and that you are in your screen reader's interaction mode. Press Control-A for Windows or Command-A for Mac to select all, and then press Delete or just start typing. Your system should overwrite whatever was in the field with the new information you are entering. Tables... and more! Now we reach the most complicated element on the whole page, possibly in the whole process. Don't worry, you can handle it. It is in fact quite accessible, just involved. In fact we are going to deal with it in a few parts because it includes both an edit box and a table. Yup, you heard that right-edit boxes and tables-in the same element. Not to worry, Expedia has provided some nice explanations of how to handle this complex element, and it gives us a chance to talk about tables today as well. We will walk through it together now. Departing Expanded: Enter a date or choose one from the table below This is the section of the element that is an edit field again. It doesn't quite tell you that by calling itself an edit field, but it gives you the instructions to "enter the date" you want. Expanded tells us that this element has more going on and that it is open right now for you to explore. This element tells us that there is a table below, so we can infer this is the other piece of this element that is "expanded." If you still want to practice edit fields, go ahead and type the date you want to fly out in your imaginary trip planning and press Tab. Either way, do me a favor and press Tab. Close the date picker or proceed to select a date button Once again, it's a button. You know how to use buttons, but let's look at your options in a little more detail. "Activate this button to close the date picker." If you do this, when you next tab, you will enter the "returning calendar/edit box combo element." If you don't activate this button you can tab to continue into the picker itself. Finally, because the picker is governed by being open or closed (expanded or collapsed), you can choose to press Escape to close it. Escape in this scenario has the same function as the "close" button above so that when you tab, you will move to the next field and not into the calendar. When you encounter expanded elements, or open lists, or generally want to leave an interactive element, the Escape key will be your friend. It will perform this function for most interactive elements and tends to do so without erasing your work. So, remember it is always a tool you can use when you need to step out of something gracefully or if you feel stuck. Since we have looked at edit fields before and you are already old pros at buttons, let's take the opportunity presented by the date picker/calendar widget and learn a little more about tables. Don't close the date picker. Instead, tab from that button into the next element available. It should read "next month button." If you were to activate it, the date picker would move the visually available calendars ahead by a month and should announce what months are shown. You can safely tab from this button as well and will find yourself in the first date button that is available. For instance, as I am writing this portion of the article, it's May 2, 2018. When I tabbed onto the calendar, I reached the button for today, May 2nd. Once again, there is a load of material here to unpack, so let's break down the information we are getting from the website: "May 2018 table with 6 rows and 7 columns, row 2 Wednesday column 4, 2 button." We have another compound element here. This is both a table and a button as you can see from the text above. We understand its function as a button, so for now we will just set that aside. Suffice it to say, you could tab to each button on this calendar until you reach the one you want, but that is not the fastest or most efficient way for you to use this control. Tables sometimes get read oddly. This table is no exception. Since I jumped into the table already in progress as it were, I was given my cell coordinates, the name of the table, the cell contents, and what context could be gleaned all at once. Normally, when you enter a non-interactive table, you will get similar information upon first entering, but you will likely start at the cell at row 1 and column 1. This table breaks down in the following ways: . May 2018 table-this is the name of the table in question; it tells you what the table is about. . Table with 6 rows and 8 columns-these are the dimensions of the table; it is a grid that is six rows tall and seven columns across. . Row 2 Wednesday column 4-these are your cell coordinates. Since this is the first point at which you entered the table, it contains appropriate labels for the headers of the table (the overarching label for the column "Wednesday" was also read to give you context). . 2 button-this is the value of the actual table cell you are reading. With JAWS and NVDA, you can move through this table by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Arrows in the direction you wish to move on the table. If you want to move to May 10 for example (using my calendar, obviously your results will differ), you would hold the Alt and Ctrl keys and press down once and right once. When you reach the button you want to activate, you then could activate it the normal way. Tables, in their most basic form, are just grids; you can navigate them very effectively with your screen reader's table reading commands. Each option has many more ways to navigate tables, so I am going to refer you back to your documentation for a more complete discussion of this subject. (If it helps, you can think of tables as very large parking lots. You can use lots of different methods for finding your car, including just walking up and down the aisles, but it will be a lot faster if you know you are in the fifth row from the front of the store and in the second column of cars. Fast Forward After the two calendar widgets, we find another fancy compound element. This item calls itself a list with one item and a button and asks about the number of travelers. It is currently collapsed. If you hit enter, it is expanded, and you will find buttons for setting the number of adults, children, and infants who will be flying. Everything in this element is familiar, as it is meaningfully a bunch of buttons, so I will leave it to you to play with. Let me know if you have questions. Next we find a button for advanced options. It is also collapsed. Please activate it, since we will look at our last two element types in the advanced options below this button. Checkboxes-For when you just can't decide and you want to have it all Well, with all the traveling we've done, I'm hungry again. It's been a while since our radio button lunch. I have good news though. We've just arrived at a checkbox food court in the mall. Checkboxes behave the same way as radio buttons with one major difference: you can choose more than one. When they are grouped under a single question (food court), you can choose multiple items under that question (McDonald's fries, a shake from Dairy Queen, and a burger from Wendy's). Sadly, this is not how our checkboxes are set up on this page on Expedia. Instead, each is under its own question and only offers a single option. "Non-Stop" and "Refundable Flight" followed by the checkbox and label associated with each. This is slightly disappointing as an example, but remember that essentially you can treat these the same as radio buttons when they are grouped together. Select all the ones you want by activating them with the spacebar. When multiple checkboxes are under a single question, once again you can arrow among them, choosing as many as you like. List boxes/spinners/combo boxes Our final stop on the tour today is at boxes that can be expanded or collapsed and used to select a value from a list of options. They are pre- populated with values, and you can arrow through the choices until you find the one you want. Depending on how they are coded, it may be necessary to open them first by pressing Alt+Down Arrow, or you may be able to just press Up and Down Arrows without opening them first. The best practice is to try opening them, but the way they are coded varies, and unfortunately this makes them some of the least reliable elements for keyboard users. On Expedia you can use them expanded or collapsed. Try both ways. Following these elements (which let you choose the class of your flight and any preferred airlines), all that is left are a few extra checkboxes and the submit button. Congratulations, you have now searched for a flight on Expedia! Homework With that, we've completed our tour of interactive elements for now. Of course, you will benefit from spending a bit more time, so... you knew this was coming. Your homework is to finish your flight booking up to the point where you would actually activate the purchase button. (I would recommend not activating that button unless you really want to go on the trip you created, though if you have somewhere to be... go for it!) This assignment will give you ample opportunity to practice everything you've learned so far in what is a friendly environment. As you are working, remember a few things we learned today and through the course thus far: You can use the Escape key to back out of fields and move back into the more "read only" screen reader interactions you may be used to on the web right now. Escape will also collapse elements that are opened and that you wish to get out of the way. As you have seen throughout this article, there are often multiple ways to complete any task. Be flexible, and try multiple options when your first choice doesn't work. You will find that with practice, you will build a toolbox of your preferred interaction models, but you will also grow more accustomed to your backup strategies and make great strides just because you are flexible. Pay attention to the clues being provided by the website. "Required" notifications, information on what should be in an edit box, instructions on how to complete a task, and the type of element you are interacting with can all give you massively important information on how to interact with the page in the most efficient way. Remember to use headings and other navigational elements to your advantage as well. You don't need to read everything on a page, just the stuff that is relevant to you. Be patient with yourself. If this is new, it can be frustrating, but if you come at it with a sense of curiosity and pay attention to the clues provided, you should have the tools you need to complete this task, no problem. Of course, as usual, please direct any feedback on this article or any questions you have on further training resources or technology tools to access at nfb.org, or feel free to get in touch with me directly and let me know how I can assist you further in increasing your driving skills. For Further Practice My dear students, I know that you are champing at the bit to continue your journey on the information superhighway, and I wouldn't dare leave you without more places to practice your skill with forms and interactive controls. As such, allow me to recommend spending time with some of the following: . www.target.com-shopping in your pajamas can be such a liberating feeling. . www.bookshare.org or https://nlsbard.loc.gov/login//NLS-because knowledge is power, and between these sites you have many books available to bring you that knowledge. All you have to do is search for them. . If a convention or another major NFB event is upcoming, try completing your registration online, or maybe order a free white cane. The options are endless. Sadly, not all of them are as accessible as those recommended above... but that is a topic for our next meeting. Good work on today's assignment. I'll see you next month. Class dismissed! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kevan Worley reads Braille on a display.] Echo Cue by Kevan Worley >From the Editor: This article is reprinted with permission from The Extra Mile Newsletter from Achilles Pikes Peak. Educating others is a part of our job, and in this article Kevan attempts to describe the benefits of echo location to some who have never heard of it or are either skeptical or oversold on what it can do. Here is what he says: Hello, hello, ooo, ooo. Achilles, Achilles, eeesss, eeesss. Well, there is the echo; "echo: noun 1. a repetition of sound produced by the reflection of sound waves from wall, mountain, or other obstructing surface." That is from Dictionary.com. And, here is what it says about cue: "cue: noun... 2. anything that excites to action; stimulus. 3. a hint; intimation; guiding suggestion. ... 5. a sensory signal used to identify experiences, facilitate memory, organize responses. verb (used with object), cued, cuing... 7. to provide with a cue or indication; give a cue to; prompt." Since I was a child, I have relied on echo cueing as a significant tool for independent travel. But I have sometimes been amazed at how often the newly blind or folks who can see ask me how it is that I can discern that we are passing a tree or a wall or a fence or a building. When space is filled with an object of sufficient size and density, the object will reflect ambient sounds which can then be heard if one is paying attention. By the same token, if there is no object to fill that space you will hear openness, the lack of an echo coming back. If I am walking down a narrow hallway, I will hear walls on both sides. These walls might reflect the sounds of my shoes walking, cane tapping, guide dog harness jingling, or whistling the Achilles theme song. Do we have a theme song? Good! I was afraid that we did. If I walk out of the narrow hallway into a large cavernous room, the echo will be vastly changed. This will give me a cue about where I am and which way I might wish to go. There have been some very fanciful news clips and articles about blind kids who could ride bikes at considerable speeds drawing much of their information and directing actions from echo cues. There have also been stories about blind kids who can actually hear an echo from a ball lying in the middle of a field. I have no reason to believe that these incidents are not true. Although I do not remember having that kind of specificity when I was a kid, before fifty years of rock-n-roll took a toll on my hearing. When I was a kid, my hearing was better; I was shorter, closer to the ground, and I could actually hear curbs and bushes. Echoes are extraordinarily helpful in providing information in order to cue the blind person. But I recently talked to a professional who teaches orientation and mobility. She told me she had never heard of echo cueing. Echo cueing has as much value as the long white cane, mapping skills, a willingness to explore one's environment without trepidation, the guide dog, and the acceptance from your fellow human beings as you meander forth on the trail. Forward, always forward 'til next time. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Priscilla McKinley] Living the Movement: Ferret Federationists by Priscilla McKinley From the Editor: This article first appeared in the March 2000 issue of the Braille Monitor. We are reprinting it here because it clearly illuminates the power of one person to change her perspective on life and the importance to those of us who are Federationists to live an example that makes this positive change seem possible and infinitely worthwhile. Here is how it was introduced when it first appeared eighteen years ago: At this year's Mid-Winter Conference of the National Association of Blind Students, two students were invited to speak about their notions of what it means to live the movement. The first to address the audience was Priscilla McKinley, President of the Old Capitol Chapter of the NFB of Iowa, a member of the affiliate's board of directors, and a graduate student at the University of Iowa. Priscilla has also twice won NFB scholarships. This is what she said: Good morning, Federationists, or perhaps I should say, "ferret-like Federationists." Yes, you heard me right: ferret-like Federationists. The other day, while sitting in my office thinking about my life as a blind person, I was continually reminded that my ferret was in the room asleep in her hammock hanging from the ceiling of her cage-the sound of her breathing very soft but noticeable. And then I thought of it, the perfect metaphor for this speech, my pet ferret Chloe. A few months ago I had a dream in which I had a mink, a ferret, a mongoose, and a goat. When I woke the next day and asked my husband Brian if I could get one of those, he rejected the mink, mongoose, and goat, but finally agreed on the ferret. Two days later I had a pet ferret, and my obsession began. Do any of you in this room have a ferret? Well I can tell you a few things about them. Ferrets are adorable little animals with long bodies that seem to change form with each movement. They have triangular heads with pointy little noses. They're related to weasels, badgers, otters, minks, and even skunks. But unlike those animals, ferrets have been domesticated for centuries because they were originally used to ferret out rabbits for hunters in England and later rats on farms in this country. Spending most of their time in dark tunnels, most ferrets have very poor eyesight. They don't see well in the bright light, and they don't see color at all. Many are totally blind. Yet according to my ferret book, blind ferrets get around better than their sighted counterparts. Studies show that the blind ferrets use their other senses and are actually more aware of their surroundings. In fact, with their keen sense of direction, ferrets have often been used to wire planes and other equipment. So what does this have to do with my life as a blind person, with your lives as blind people? Well, since spending about ten hours a day with Chloe, whose cage is in my office, I know that ferrets have two modes of operating: lethargic and lively, off and on. First there is mode one, in which the ferret sleeps between fourteen and sixteen hours a day, often climbing out of her hammock only to get a drink or piece of food. Sometimes too lazy to get out of her hammock, she will hang over the edge, stretching her long body to snatch up a raisin or a fruit treat. When I lost my sight due to complications of diabetes, I was much like a ferret in the off-mode, extremely passive. I was content in my situation, letting others take care of me, letting others determine my fate. At first, suffering from depression, I wanted to sleep sixteen to eighteen hours a day. When my mother compared my blindness to the deaths of my sister and father, I thought she was right. I believed that my blindness was a tragedy, a death. When I decided to go back to school, my rehab counselor told me that maybe I could get a job at Goodwill-a good job in the office, not a job sorting clothes. I actually considered this for a while, but then I told my rehab counselor that instead I wanted to go back to school. When I thought classes like science and foreign language might be too hard for me, a blind person, I requested waivers for those classes. When I was accepted into grad school and decided to apply for a job as a graduate instructor, one professor told me that perhaps I should teach a correspondence course, where I wouldn't have to deal with students. Another professor told me that I should apply for a job in the writing lab, where I wouldn't have to worry about an entire class, but would be working one-on- one. When I registered for a practicum in that writing lab and asked the instructor when we'd be working with our students, she said, "We won't have to worry about students. I don't know how they would react to having a blind teacher." So, what did I do? I went home and cried. I snuggled up under my blankets on my bed, just as my little ferret snuggles up under her blankets in her hammock. Even though I eventually had my own writing lab students and secured a position as a graduate instructor, I lacked self-confidence and a positive attitude about blindness. I remained in mode one-the off-mode. Then in 1996 I attended my first convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Anaheim, California. For the first time in my life as a blind person I wasn't the minority, and I started scratching at the door of my cage, anxious to move into mode two-the on-mode. Just as my little ferret does the weasel joy dance, hopping and skipping and jumping, moving independently across my office floor, I observed Barbara Pierce, one of my mentors, flying across the floors of the Hilton, hurrying to get to her public relations meetings. Just as my little ferret extends her pointy nose to ferret out every nook and cranny of my house, I observed Peggy Elliott extending her seven- or eight-foot-long cane, eager to explore uncharted territory. Just as my little ferret takes on my two sighted spaniels, chasing them through the house, often tugging on their tails, I observed Dr. Jernigan, Dr. Maurer, and the other leaders in the NFB taking on the big dogs in the world, not at all intimidated by their size. When I returned home after the convention, I knew that I could never go back to my cage. I had tasted the freedom and the positive attitude about blindness the NFB offers blind individuals. Unlike ferrets, which spend their lives in those two modes, we as blind people can choose the mode in which we want to live our lives. We can choose to live in mode one, content to be locked in our cages, letting others determine what we can and cannot do. Or with the love and support of the National Federation of the Blind, we can live our lives in mode two, taking on the big dogs, exploring new ground, doing the weasel joy dance for all of the world to see. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Lauren Merryfield] Seeing by Lauren L. Merryfield From the Editor: Lauren Merryfield lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her two cats, Toby and Laynie. She is a frequent contributor to our Federation literature, and in this article she shares her concern that people frequently fail to tell us about things because they find them boring and hastily conclude we will as well. Here is what she says: The dictionary, thesaurus, and our culture define "seeing" as: 1. to perceive with the eyes; look at-the sense or power of sight; vision. 2: considering. 3: going out with someone. 4: meaning/vision. 5: the clarity of focus. 6: be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something. 7: to follow with the eyes. To follow. 8: discern, perceive, glimpse. 9: note, spot, notice, mark. 10: (I would add) to regard, feel/touch, watch, to get to know/become familiar with, to spend time with, and so on. Though the books filled with definitions focus on eyesight and the "power" of physical sight, remember that those books were written by sighted, light-dependent people. One day when a man brought a de-scented skunk to our school, I immediately said "I want to see it," as sighted staff were ooohing and aaahing over the cute little animal. I meant that I wanted to touch it, to become familiar with what a skunk is shaped like and its size. I had heard skunks referred to as polecats and, cat person that I am, I wanted to know if the "cat" part of that term meant there was some resemblance to felines. In third grade, some of us from the school for the blind were taken to a museum. We were allowed to touch some pottery and statues. I enjoyed it so much that several years later I was eager to attend a museum again. Imagine my disappointment when I was not allowed past ropes and told that I could not touch anything due to oil in my fingers. Subsequently, I learned that this was the norm at museums, so I stopped going. I felt cut off when I wasn't allowed to "see" the items there. In some cases I had pieces described to me very well; however, it still was not the same as seeing for myself. One day, when my mother and I were going home after she had picked me up from the university, I asked her what a particular house we always passed every day looked like. She became frustrated with me, stating that she hadn't ever really noticed. When my daughter was young, two people chased her and her dad and me out of a grocery store, yelling for us to stop. According to them, our daughter had shoplifted. I said I did not think she had; that we were examining items in the store, and she was showing her dad and me some items, which meant that the three of us were picking up items off the shelves and feeling them. This did not mean that anyone had shoplifted. Before I could object, they rammed their hands into her coat pockets gruffly saying, "Let me see what you have in your pockets." They not only assumed that she had shoplifted, they further assumed that because her father and I were both blind, that we did not see it happen. I felt like they were invading our daughter's privacy and ours. People were standing around, you guessed it, looking to see what was going on and what would happen. Since our daughter only had tissues and the candy we had just bought her in her pockets, we were allowed to leave-and leave we did. We never went back to that store, even though they had the best doughnuts in town. When I visited my first cat show, out of both curiosity and chagrin, I sat in the audience hearing meows and listening to the presentations. No one would allow me to "see" the kitties, as in touch them. They were afraid of germs. They feared that the cats would be distracted. I left the show disappointed and even more concerned that showing cats might be more cruel than not. And I never even heard anyone talking to their trained cats or referring to them as "kitties." I felt sad and cut off from the cats I had so wanted to "see." It was not that blindness itself was causing me to be cut off. It was the behavior of the people there who were refusing to allow me to "see" the cats that brought about the disconnect. After joining the Cat Writers' Association (yes, there really is such a thing), we were given press passes to attend the cat show near our convention site. So my husband and I attended. At first I heard the meows and the occasional "cat out!" over the sound system. But before I knew it, people began to bring their kitties to me or invite me over to the table where their cat was resting. They, contrary to my first experience, felt that my "seeing" their cats would help socialize them. They also seemed to realize that if I didn't get to touch the cats, I would be unnecessarily detached from them and lacking information about them beyond their meows. I got to see cats with full coats, cats with short or long fur, cats with slinky or stout bodies, cats with long, thin, thick, short or no tails-this is beginning to sound like Dr. Seuss-a Bengal cat, a Devon Rex cat with almost no hair, a Russian blue, a Scottish fold with differently-placed ears, kittens, "cattens," and cats. And, yes, I heard some of the people owned by these cats refer to them as "kitty." Quite often at Christmas gatherings, wedding and baby showers, and other events, people quickly rip open their gifts, exclaiming over them, and I have no idea what they unwrapped. I usually ask, which annoys some people, as if they are saying "It's none of your business." I think it is. If everyone else in the room sees what so-and-so got, why is it their business but not mine? I have even suggested that we pass items around, like my family used to do, with someone always saying that would take too long. Someone I know becomes impatient with me, like she wants to say "Why do you need to feel it anyway? Why is it so important that you see it?" She has stated that I am too curious and snoopy, especially when I am in other peoples' homes or out in the public. When I visited her recently, she became quite annoyed when I started touching items on the small table next to where I was sitting. One of the items was a personal piece of paper that I could not even read, so why the fuss? For one thing, I wanted to figure out where to put my drink, and, for another, I was, yes, I was curious about what all was on the table. She did not understand that she could see everything on that table just by looking over in that direction taking it all in with her eyes, but that was not considered "too curious" or "snoopy," or other negative terms or connotations. In other words, it is all right for sighted people to look around, notice something, take in what is there, but when a blind person wants to touch things, that is somehow not okay. Too often it is assumed by some sighted and even some blind people that not physically seeing something means that we cannot function on our own. Some people will not understand that my long white cane is a tool to help me find out what is in my environment. They assume I cannot cook because you have to see to cook, which is not true. The senses of touch, smell, and especially taste can make a blind person a very good cook, even if that person is not me. If I cannot see, how did I raise my daughter? How do I get to the store? How do I get my groceries? How do I ..., how do I ..., how do I ..., all assuming that one has to use physical sight to perform these life tasks. When the Broadway version of Cats the musical came to town, my husband and I attended. Because we were not familiar with the T. S. Elliott poetry, the song lyrics, or the actions onstage, we were really at a loss to what was going on during the show. All I really remember was that the lady sitting in front of me had a fur coat draped over the back of her seat, and I was relieved to know that it was not made of cats. The other day a friend and I spent some time at a cat shelter because I had recently lost my Maryah of fourteen years, and I was considering an adoption. On our way home I asked her what color the last two kitties were- the two I was most interested in. She said she could not remember, that they just looked like regular everyday cats. Now that it is commonplace to use PowerPoint slides, display song lyrics on the screen at churches, and other projections, once again I often feel unnecessarily cut off. The other day, I asked someone at church what the words were to a given song. She said she did not know unless she saw them on the screen. I thought about all of the songs and hymns I had memorized over my lifetime, and I decided that for me that was preferable to depending on a screen. I wondered how many times people reading from a screen really understood what they were singing about and whether the hymn really became a part of them. Quite often when I go to the movies, I am the only one laughing. Some people are so immersed in watching that they miss the conversational aspect of the movie. They, of course, upon seeing me, assume that I am going to miss out on the whole movie, like, why am I even there? They have a point, to a point. However, with Descriptive Narration, when the devices are available and in working condition, I am able to "see" the movie as well as the next person. Not long ago one of my friends here where I now live visited my apartment. I asked him what was on the screen of my laptop. I was curious about the background picture that was presented behind a sales pitch. I assumed it was probably the beach, a beautiful building, flowers, or something exotic. He just said "Oh, it doesn't matter. It's boring." I said "Wait a minute! You think it is boring, but I want to know what it is. I might not think it is boring, or I might, but I want to decide for myself." He informed me that it was just a picture of men and women in suits carrying briefcases and one guy holding up a bright, shiny brochure. He apparently decided that I wasn't missing anything. To conclude, sighted people do not always see what is there. Blind people are not cut off due to blindness, but sometimes are unnecessarily cut off by the attitudes around them to what is available to be seen. Now let me finish with what our physical education coach used to say: "I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw." ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Louisiana. [PHOTO CAPTION: Jewel Ardoin] Peach-Glazed Pork Tenderloin by Jewel Ardoin Jewel Ardoin serves as vice president for the North Central Chapter of the NFBL. She is also a technology specialist at the Louisiana Center for the Blind where she loves working with students. Ruston is known for its delicious peaches. Jewel won first place in the 2015 Peach Festival cooking contest with the recipes below. Enjoy! Ingredients: Two 1.5-pound pork tenderloins Seasoning rub Peach glaze Ingredients for seasoning rub: 1/2 teaspoon thyme 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon garlic powder 3 similar-sized bay leaves, ground to powder (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Method: Place pork tenderloins in thirteen-by-nine-inch baking dish. Combine all ingredients for seasoning rub in a bowl. Rub seasoning on pork tenderloins. Cover and place in refrigerator for two hours or overnight. Uncover and bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for one hour or until the internal temperature reads 150 degrees. Pour peach glaze (see recipe below) over tenderloins and bake for another twenty to thirty minutes. The final temperature should be no less than 160 degrees. Peach Glaze: Ingredients: 8 to 10 ripe peaches, peeled and chopped 1/4 cup peach brandy 1/4 cup butter, melted 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar Method: Put peaches and brandy in a blender. Melt butter in a bowl, add brown sugar, and mix. Pour butter mixture into blender with peaches and brandy; blend until liquid forms. Pour peach liquid into sauce pan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring often, until liquid turns into a glaze that will stick to the spoon. Fresh Peach Salsa by Jewel Ardoin Ingredients: 10 peaches 1 sweet mini red pepper, 1 sweet mini yellow pepper 1 sweet mini orange pepper 1 large fresh jalape?o pepper 1/2 small red onion, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped fine 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon cumin Method: Peel and chop peaches. Remove seeds from all peppers and chop into small pieces. For a spicier salsa, leave some or all seeds from jalape?o pepper. Combine peaches, peppers, and remaining ingredients in a bowl. Place in an air-tight container in refrigerator for up to three days. ---------- Pecan Rice by Jewel Ardoin Ingredients: 4 tablespoons butter, divided 1 cup pecans, broken into small pieces 1 onion, chopped 3 cups cooked jasmin rice (cooked in chicken broth, butter, and salt) Salt and pepper to taste Method: In a skillet, roast pecans in two tablespoons butter. Remove and set aside. Add remaining butter to the skillet and saut? onions. When onions are done, saut? rice in skillet with onions, and then stir in roasted pecans. Note: fresh garlic is also good in this recipe. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: The Guillory family] Shrimp and Grits by Krystal Guillory Eric and Krystal Guillory, along with their beautiful children, Austin and Brilyn, are an integral part of our NFB of Louisiana family and are always ready to serve wherever needed. Eric is director of youth services at Louisiana Center for the Blind, first vice president of the affiliate, and president of the Professionals in Blindness Education Division. Krystal is our BELL Academy coordinator extraordinaire and treasurer for the affiliate. She is a teacher of blind students in Lincoln Parish. She is also known for her wonderful cooking! Ingredients: Note: Fresh ingredients produce the best flavor, but you can supplement as you see fit. 4 cups water Salt and pepper (or we love Cajun spices, but that's optional). 1 cup stone-ground grits 3 tablespoons butter 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1 pound shrimp, peeled and de-veined 6 slices bacon, chopped 4 teaspoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1 cup thinly sliced scallions 1 large clove garlic, minced Method: Bring water to a boil. Add salt and pepper (optional Cajun seasoning). Add grits and cook until water is absorbed, about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and cheese. Rinse shrimp and pat dry. Fry the bacon in a large skillet until browned; drain well. In reserved grease, add shrimp. Cook until they turn pink (four to five minutes)-turning (or stirring) occasionally. Add lemon juice, chopped bacon, parsley, scallions and garlic. Saut? for three minutes. Spoon grits into a serving bowl. Add shrimp mixture and mix well. Serve immediately. ---------- Easy Guacamole by Krystal Guillory Ingredients: 3 avocados Salt to taste Pico de gallo (Recipe follows. You can make this or buy pre-made. We usually buy pre-made.) Lime juice * Cajun or spicy seasoning if you want to add an extra kick (optional) * Guacamole mix packet (Optional-some people like to add for some extra flavors. You can usually find this with the dry salad mix packets in the grocery store.) Tortilla chips, for serving Method: Halve the avocados lengthwise and remove the pits. Use a spoon to scrape the "meat" out onto a large plate. Next, sprinkle on some salt and other seasonings to taste (optional Cajun or guacamole seasoning mix). Mash away with a fork until you get the avocado to the consistency you want. Next, add a generous helping of Pico de gallo. Fold together. Lastly, squeeze the juice of half of a lime over the top. Give it one last stir. (Always test the guacamole with tortilla chips so you'll get a more accurate gauge of the salt content.) Pico de Gallo Ingredients: 3 yellow or red onions 12 roma tomatoes (slightly underripe is fine) 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves 2 to 3 jalape?os 1 lime Salt Method: Dice up equal quantities of onion and tomato. Roughly chop the cilantro. Now, slice one or two jalape?os in half. With a spoon, scrape out the seeds. (If you like things spicy, leave in some of the white membranes.) Dice the jalape?os very finely; you want a hint of heat and jalape?o flavor, but you don't want to cause any fires. Now dump the four ingredients into a bowl. Slice the lime in half and squeeze the juice from half a lime into the bowl. Sprinkle with salt, and stir together until combined. Be sure to taste the Pico de Gallo and adjust the seasonings, adding salt or more diced jalape?o if needed. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Kristen Sims] Plum Jam by Kristen Sims A dedicated teacher, Kristen Sims always finds ways to empower her students by sharing the tools and positive philosophy of blindness needed for success. She is the treasurer for the Greater Ouachita Chapter of the NFB of Louisiana as well as our state secretary. Ingredients: 4 pounds of plums (I use over-ripe black and red plums) diced should be about 6 cups 1/2 cup water 1/2 teaspoon butter (to reduce foaming) 8 cups sugar (1/2 this amount if using reduced sugar pectin) Method: Clean and sterilize jars, bands, and lids. Leave lids in hot water until ready to use. Put a cup of ice water with a metal spoon in it nearby. Bring diced fruit and water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer five minutes to break down fruit. Then add pectin, butter, and sugar and bring back to a boil. Boil at least one minute then check for setting by quickly scooping a small amount with your cold spoon. If it sticks to the spoon without running off, it will set. The amount of set you want depends on you! Quickly ladle into prepared jars wiping the edges carefully. Then finger-tighten lids and bands. Place in a canner or large pot with water covering lids by one to two inches to process in boiling water for ten minutes. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Alison and Nicholas Tarver] Oregano Rice by Alison Tarver Alison Tarver is the president of the Louisiana Parents of Blind Children who believes passionately in our mission. She works diligently to reach families around our state. Her son, Nicholas, has been an important part of our BELL Academy for the past several summers and was also a finalist in the recent nationwide Braille reading contest sponsored by the NFB of Illinois. Ingredients: 1/2 stick of butter/margarine 1 onion 1 cup raw rice (uncooked) 1 can beef broth 3/4 cup water 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon oregano powder 1/2 teaspoon red pepper 1 pound ground beef (optional) Method: Cook onion, rice, and butter on medium flame for five minutes, stirring constantly. Do not brown. Add all other ingredients and put into a casserole dish. Cover tightly and bake for forty-five minutes to one hour at 350 degrees (until rice is done). ---------- Tea Cakes by Alison Tarver Ingredients: 1 cup margarine, softened 1-1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda Method: Using an electric mixer, cream margarine, sugar, and eggs together until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda, blending well. Drop dough by teaspoonful on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for ten to twelve minutes. Makes thirty-six. ---------- Taco Soup by Alison Tarver Ingredients: 2 cans whole corn 2 cans tomato sauce (this adjusts thickness) 2 cans hominy 2 cans ranch-style beans (with jalape?o peppers if you desire or use 1 can of each to regulate heat) 1 package taco seasoning (add more to suit your taste) 1 pound ground beef Method: May be cut in half for smaller amount. Brown the ground beef; mix everything together; cook for twenty to thirty minutes in a covered container (remove cover several times, sniff aroma, this gets your taste buds excited.) When you just can't wait any longer, serve over chips/crackers (crumble if you like.) For atmosphere, play soft Tijuana Brass music, lower lights. (If just for two, wear low-cut blouse with swirly skirt. If for the whole gang, wear regular attire.) Enjoy! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Sophie Trist] Coco's Cornbread Dressing by Sophie Trist Sophie Trist was a 2017 recipient of a national NFB scholarship as well as the 2018 winner of the Jerry Whittle Memorial Scholarship from our affiliate. She serves as the president of the Louisiana Association of Blind Students and is a proud graduate of the Louisiana Center for the Blind. She has also served as a junior mentor for our BELL Academy. She is currently attending Loyola University where she is involved in a wide variety of activities. This is what she says about this recipe, "If heaven had a taste, it would taste like my grandmother's cornbread dressing, the staple of every Thanksgiving meal I can remember. You so much as mention this cornbread dressing in front of me, and I will start drooling like an overexcited puppy. With its rich blend of flavors, this is the ultimate crowd-pleaser." Ingredients for cornbread: 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal 3/4 cup flour 1-1/2 tsp salt 3 tablespoons baking powder 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons oil 3 eggs 3 cups milk Method: Mix all ingredients together. Pour into greased eleven-inch ovenproof dish. Bake at 425 for thirty minutes. Ingredients for meat mixture: 2 pounds lean ground beef 2 onions, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 cup chopped celery Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper 1 14-1/2 ounce can beef broth 2 10-3/4 ounce cans cream of mushroom soup 1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet (in the spice aisle) 1/4 cup chopped parsley 1/4 cup chopped green onion 3 eggs, lightly beaten Method: In a large skillet, brown beef. Drain off fat. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, and celery. Season to taste with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. This should be relatively spicy because you will be mixing it with cornbread. Add beef broth and cook slowly, about forty-five minutes, covered. Add cream of mushroom soup, Kitchen Bouquet, parsley, and green onions. Crumble cornbread and add it to the meat mixture. Check seasoning. Stir in the lightly beaten eggs. Spoon into baking dish coated with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 for thirty to forty-five minutes or until bubbly. Serves twelve to fourteen. Warning: Do not prepare this recipe unless you are prepared to set aside several hours after its consumption for a food coma. I promise it will be worth it. ---------- Miss Neita's Peanut Butter Balls by Neita Ghrigsby This recipe was submitted by Neita Ghrigsby, office manager at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Known by everyone as "Miss Neita," she began working at the center on December 2, 1985, and has thoroughly enjoyed her time at the center watching the students learn new skills and become independent. "Couldn't think of any other place I'd rather be other than right here at the center these past thirty-two years making lifelong friends along the way whom I see at national conventions and being involved with our students each day as they push themselves and gain new skills to help them live a more productive life. What an absolutely wonderful journey this has been, and I look forward to having even more time doing what I love to do." Ingredients: 1-1/4 cups Karo syrup 1-1/4 cups sugar 1 12-ounce jar crunchy peanut butter (If the 12-ounce size is not available, go up to the next size and use almost all of that size.) 1 teaspoon vanilla 5 cups Rice Krispies cereal Method: Heat sugar and Karo syrup until sugar dissolves, about two to three minutes. Don't cook much longer because the peanut butter balls will be hard after they are made up. Remove from stove and add peanut butter, stirring well. Add vanilla and stir a couple of more times. Pour this mixture over the Rice Krispies (I usually put these in a large bowl to give you plenty of room to stir). You will need to quickly stir this all together-mixture will become very thick and hard to stir. Take a stick of margarine/butter and butter both hands well and begin making balls from this mixture. You will probably need to butter your hands several times until you get it all made up into balls. Lay on flat surface, not touching, until dry and set, and then store in an airtight container. Depending on how many you eat while you are making them, this recipe should make around sixty peanut butter balls. ---------- 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 2018 National Convention the resolutions committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 4. 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 19, 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. Braille Book Fair Needs Volunteers: 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. You do not need to work the entire afternoon or evening, but I do ask that you try to work an entire 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! In your email to volunteer, please provide the following information: YES...I can work the following shift(s): 8:00-10:00; 10:00-12:00; 1:00- 3:00; 3:00-5:00; 5:00-7:00; 7:00-9:00 _________________________________________. My cell phone number that I will have at convention is _______________. I live in (state) __________. 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 18 (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. If you can help, please contact Sandra Oliver, NOPBC Board Member at (713) 825-4573 or Sandra.Oliver at ey.com Braille Book Fair 2018: 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 2018 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. Needed items: print/Braille story books (aka Twin Vision), books in good condition, and 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: 2018 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. Happy Birthday NFB Krafters Division: Join the Krafters Division and enjoy unlimited access to classes and chats throughout the year. Membership is $20 and runs now through July 2019. One full year of fun crafts to learn. See our website at www.krafterskorner.org for information on signing up. We are ten years strong. We are looking forward to meeting everyone at national convention this year. We are still trying to finalize our Craft Sale. Stay tuned for the date(s) and times. New at Convention-NFB Krafters Division Marketplace: Are you a crafter, artist, or designer? We are looking for you! The NFB Krafters Division is proud to announce the opening of the NFB Krafters Division Marketplace. The Krafters Division Marketplace will offer you a great opportunity to showcase and sell your one-of-a-kind, handmade items to your Federation family. We anticipate this year's marketplace to be especially exciting. The marketplace will take place July 3 between noon and 6:00 p.m. Table space is limited, so please contact Joyce Kane for availability and reservations either by phone at (203) 378-8928 or by email at blindhands at aol.com. For more information about our division, please visit our website at www.krafterskorner.org Join the Community Service Division Annual Community Service Project: READY! SET! SERVE! Recipe for Love Ingredients 2 Hearts Full of Love 2 Heaping Cups of Kindness 2 Armfuls of Gentleness 2 Cups of Friendship 2 Cups of Joy 2 Big Hearts Full of Forgiveness 1 Lifetime of Togetherness 2 Minds Full of Tenderness Method Stir daily with Happiness, Humor, and Patience. Serve with Warmth and Compassion, Respect and Loyalty. The shocking truth about community service, you'll love it! Please come join the Community Service Division in our annual Community Service Project on July 3, 2018. We will provide meals for approximately 150 homeless individuals at the Coalition for the Homeless in Orlando, Florida, 639 W. Central Blvd. We will leave the hotel at 9:00 a.m. and return at 2:00 p.m. The Coalition gives people hope, just as we do in the Federation. It's a family affair, so gather your chapters, divisions, and/or friends to step up to the plate. We are the home team of the Federation. and we will knock this service project out of the park! Teamwork makes the dream work, and we as members of the Federation transform dreams into reality. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. Much love, Jeanetta Price Email: jmaprice at yahoo.com Cell: 409-344-1005 The National Association of Guide Dog Users Meets at the 2018 National Convention: The National Association of Guide Dog Users (NAGDU), a strong and proud division of the National Federation of the Blind, is excited to offer the most dynamic, informative events in the nation for guide dog users at our national convention in Orlando. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors: Accessible360, On the Go by Julie Johnson, Ruffwear, Texas Association of Guide Dog Users, and Veterinarian Emergency Clinics of Central Florida, NAGDU is offering some incredible programs for our members. Tuesday, July 3, 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.: Seminar 1:00 to 1:45 p.m. - Registration. Registration is free and required to be eligible for door prizes! 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. - Is My Dog in Crisis? Lori Tilley, DVM, Veterinary Emergency Clinic of Central Florida, a board certified emergency veterinarian, will share how to assess if your dog's health issue is an emergency needing immediate attention. She will also give us tips on how to avoid a trip to the emergency clinic, as well as maintaining wellness, preventive care, grooming tips, and first aid. 3:45 to 5:00 p.m. - Advocacy and Access: Everyone has a Part to Play Calling Out Counterfeit Service Animals: The myth, the image, and the law Facilitator: Marion Gwizdala, president, National Association of Guide Dog Users. With the growing challenge of untrained dogs in public and the problems they create for legitimate guide and service dogs, we must be the voice of reason. Join us as we mobilize our division to solve the problem. This interactive program is a must for all guide dog users, those wishing to become better advocates for guide dog users and other disabled individuals, and public and private entities wanting to know their rights. 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. - Dinner break 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. - Registration. Registration is free and required to be eligible for door prizes! 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. - Living the Guide Dog User Life you want! Part 1: Is It Time? The struggle of letting go. Facilitator: Merry C. Schoch, LCSW. The retirement or passing of our guide dogs is a very challenging time and one we will all eventually experience. A licensed clinical social worker and guide dog user helps us through the process of retirement and loss. Part 2: Harness Up: The process of getting a guide dog and beyond: Various guide dog training programs and consumers. If you are interested in getting a guide dog, want to find out how they really work, get to know what is involved in the application and training process, and learn about the Guide Dog User Lifestyle, this session is for you! Guide dog training programs will share information about their programs, and guide dog users will help you understand what is required when you come home. Part 3: Guide Dog Show and Tail: Guide dog users share their favorite gear, grooming tools, and toys. If you have a favorite item to share, bring it with you for others to learn about! Some of them will be yours to take home for you and your dog to enjoy! Thursday, July 5, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.: Annual Meeting 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. - Registration. Registration is free and required to be eligible for door prizes. Membership dues of $5.00 are required for those who are not members of an affiliate division to be eligible to speak on the floor, make and vote on motions, and hold office. 7:00 p.m. - Call to Order. Join NAGDU for the most exciting and important meeting of guide dog users in the United States. Here are some of the highlights you will experience: "Supporting the NFB's national ridesharing testing initiative" presented by Valerie Yingling; "Learn about our advocacy with Delta Airlines" presented by Christine Bouchard, Delta Airlines; "Learn how to comment on new regulations for the Air Carrier Access Act" presented by John Par?, executive director for advocacy & policy; "Download and tour the newest version of the NAGDU Mobile App for iOS & Android" presented by Raul Gallegos; Elect our 2018 to 2020 leadership; and energizing reports from our affiliate divisions. As you see, the NAGDU events are filled with substance-the place to be if you are an active guide dog user and advocate. Plan to join us and enhance your knowledge and understanding. The NAGDU seminar and annual meeting are held in conjunction with the convention of the National Federation of the Blind. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by email to info at nagdu.org. We will see you in Orlando! 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. Register Now for Contemporary Issues in Rehabilitation and Education for the Blind Seventeenth Annual Rehabilitation and Orientation and Mobility Conference: Come and join us! Once again, this year's conference will be action- packed with a variety of new speakers, topics, and hands-on events. It will be held on Tuesday, July 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Schedule: 7:30 - 8:30 AM-Registration 8:30 AM-Conference Begins 2:00 - 5:00 PM-Interactive Breakout Sessions 5:00 - 7:00 PM-NBPCB Awards Reception To register go to: https://nbpcb.org/members/login.php?r=/members/er.php?eid=355. The registration fee includes the NBPCB Awards Reception. Before June 15 the registration fee is $85 for professionals, $75 for students. After June 15 the fee is $100 for both students and professionals. Those certified through the NBPCB may register using their username and password. All other participants should register as a guest. For questions or special arrangements, contact Edward Bell at (318) 257-4554, or ebell at latech.edu. Sponsors: National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB), Professional Development & Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB), Louisiana Tech University, and the National Organization of Professionals in Blindness Education. Medicare Information to Become Accessible to Blind Beneficiaries: In a release dated April 25, 2018, a settlement between the National Federation of the Blind and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was announced. The Monitor is reprinting that release here: The National Federation of the Blind and three blind individuals have reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The settlement resolves the allegation brought forth in a 2016 lawsuit that CMS discriminated against blind and low-vision beneficiaries by failing to provide meaningful and equal access to Medicare information. The agreement requires that CMS set up processes so that beneficiaries can make a single request to receive all communications and notices from Medicare in an accessible format, such as large print, Braille, audio, or electronic data. Additional terms include that CMS will: . Provide accessible, fillable forms for beneficiaries on Medicare.gov. . Issue accessibility best practices to Medicare Health and Drug Plans. . Implement a policy that extends the time in which a beneficiary must answer time-sensitive communications by the number of days it takes CMS to process the beneficiary's accessible format request. . Develop a plan to promote the availability of accessible materials to Medicare beneficiaries. CMS has already begun implementing critical procedural changes that include training employees on compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, implementing testing requirements to ensure that information posted on Medicare.gov is accessible, providing CMS's most popular publications in accessible e-book formats at Medicare.gov, and establishing a Customer Accessibility Resource Staff to coordinate and support CMS's accessible Medicare communications. The agreement prohibits CMS from changing any of these new practices in ways that would result in less effective access to Medicare information for blind individuals. "Thousands of blind and low-vision people depend on Medicare benefits and must be able to apply for, understand, and manage those benefits independently," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. "This agreement will ensure that blind Medicare beneficiaries have equal access to critical and often time-sensitive information about their individual benefits and this vital program." "The Medicare benefits a person receives are only as good as the access they have to them," said Silvia Yee, senior staff attorney for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. "Without equal access to vital Medicare information, blind people not only face greater difficulty getting their health care needs met, they also run a higher risk of losing services and supports altogether when they can't properly access details about Medicare plan benefits, review services provided, or confirm how much those services will cost. DREDF applauds this necessary step forward by CMS in providing Americans who are blind --including thousands of aging low-vision Medicare beneficiaries--access to necessary information that non-disabled people get to take for granted." The plaintiffs were represented by Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF). Unified English Braille Pocket Reference Books Now Available: Now available for sale: pocket reference books of the Unified English Braille literary code. This book is three inches by five inches and easily fits in a pocket, purse, or backpack. We have an interpoint Braille version for those who read Braille tactually. The small size makes it manageable for both adults and little ones. We also have an ink version that consists of print and simulated Braille, perfect for parents, friends, and teachers. These books are great for those just learning the Braille code for the first time or for those refreshing their Braille knowledge. Each copy is $10, with all profits benefiting blind children's literacy programs. To order either version of our Whittle books, please visit www.nbpcb.org. Seedlings offers 100 titles in UEB for older kids: Seedlings Braille Books for Children, which offers one of the largest selections available of books in Unified English Braille, now offers 100 titles in contracted UEB for older kids. Thirteen titles were added in February and March, bringing the total to 100. They are: . A Gift of Magic . A to Z Mysteries: The Bald Bandit . Bailey School Kids 1: Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots . Bailey School Kids 20: Wizards Don't Need Computers (a new title not previously available from Seedlings!) . Bunnicula . Dog to the Rescue II . Give Me a Sign, Helen Keller . Goosebumps 13: Piano Lessons Can Be Murder . Julie of the Wolves . Little House Friends, a Little House Chapter Book . Pioneer Sisters, a Little House Chapter Book . The Blind Outlaw . The War I Finally Won (a new title not previously available from Seedlings!) See all 100 titles at http://www.seedlings.org/browse.php?cat=12. Seedlings continues to add new titles regularly, so check back often. Seedlings' nearly 300 print-and-Braille board books for babies and toddlers and beginning readers are already in UEB. Order at http://www.seedlings.org/order.php. ---------- 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] See the relevant excerpt of this work, republished online at https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/CHILD-OF-THE-SILENT-NIGHT-Helen- Keller [2] Taken from Fifty Famous Helen Keller Quotes: http://www.quoteambition.com/famous-helen-keller-quotes/ [3] See http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/who-we-are/mission-and-history/helen- keller.php [4] See A History Of Child Labor, an article found online at https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/history-child- labor/ [5] Taken from "The Politics of Helen Keller," International Socialist Review: https://isreview.org/issue/96/politics-helen-keller [6] Quote republished in Helen Keller, feminist, radical socialist, anti- racist activist and civil libertarian: https://boingboing.net/2015/04/20/helen-keller-feminist-radica.html [7] "The Politics of Helen Keller," International Socialist Review, as cited above. [8] https://books.google.com/books?id=eizDswEACAAJ&dq=out+of+the+dark+keller&hl= en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5t6q-wdHaAhUL0lMKHUyjBugQ6AEIKTAA [9] Helen Keller: Selected Writings, edited by Kim E. Nielsen p. 3 [10] Karl Marx, quoted from "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right." [11] "Helen Keller's Love Of Reading," republished in AFB Blog, American Foundation for the Blind: https://www.afb.org/blog/afb-blog/helen-kellers- love-of-reading/12 [12] Taken from the preface to Light In My Darkness, a revision of the earlier work My Religion, edited by Ray Silverman and published in 1994. [13] "Helen Keller, Emanuel Swedenborg, And Universalism": a blog entry found at https://etb-history-theology.blogspot.com/2012/03/helen-keller- emanuel-swedenborg-and.html [14] Taken from a synopsis of Helen Keller, A Life by Dorothy Herrmann, and published online by The New York Times: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/herrmann- keller.html?scp=67&sq=hair%2520color&st=cse [15] "Letter from Helen Keller, New York, Wright-Humason School, to Kate Keller," republished in Selected Writings, pp. 12-13. [16] "Letter from Helen Keller to John Hitz," [presumably] written December 21, 1893, reprinted in Selected Writings, p. 11. [17] "Letter From Helen Keller, Wrentham, Massachusetts, To Kate Keller July 9, 1997" republished in Selected Writings, p. 15. [18] Possibly Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig von Beethoven. [19] "Transcription For A Letter Written By Helen Keller To The New York Symphony Orchestra, Printed In 'The Oracle,'" March 2, 1924. Republished online at https://helenkeller.localarchives.net/HelenKellerArchive?a=p&p=helenkellerdo cumentdisplay&d=A-HK02-B223-F08-004.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt- txIN%7ctxTA%7ctxCO%7ctxTY%7ctxSE%7ctxSS%7ctxBO%7ctxFO%7ctxIT%7ctxLA%7ctxBR%7 ctxPF%7ctxPT%7ctxPR%7ctxPO%7ctxSU%7ctxDS%7ctxSI%7ctxRA%7ctxSP%7ctxAN%7ctxPV% 7ctxTR%7ctxFI-instruments+and+voices------3-7-6-5-3--------------0-1And. [20] "Letter From Helen Keller To Alexander Graham Bell," dated March 9, 1900, and republished in Select Writings, p. 22. [21] "After Helen Keller: Empowering Students with Disabilities," published online at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/02/27/after-helen- keller-empowering-students-disabilities. [22] Taken from the Banquet Address at the Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind in New York City, in July, 1973. https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/banque73.htm From buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org Wed Sep 12 11:28:43 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 11:28:43 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, August/September 202018 Message-ID: <201809121828.w8CISh9o023062@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 8 August/September 2018 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 ? 2018 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. 61, No. 8 August/September 2018 Contents Illustration: Start Them Young, Train Them Right The 2018 Convention Roundup by Gary Wunder Presidential Report 2018 by Mark Riccobono Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards presented by James Gashel Authenticity, Diversity, and the Synergy of the Organized Blind by Mark Riccobono Awards Presented at the 2018 National Convention Introducing Chloe: Guided by the Blind by Suman Kanuganti Aviation, Technology, and Law by Dr. Marc Maurer A Summary of Recent Legal Activity by Eve Hill Meet the 2018 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Class Directing Big Data and Technological Innovation: Perspectives on the Importance of Leadership by the Blind by Chancey Fleet What Does "Blind" Have to Do with It? The Right to Parent from a Sighted Daughter's Perspective by Joanne Gabias What Does Democracy Look Like? The 2018 Convention Resolutions by Sharon Maneki National Federation of the Blind 2018 Resolutions Convention Miniatures.................................................................. ...................... Monitor Miniatures.................................................................. .......................... [PHOTO CAPTION: President Mark Riccobono sits on the floor to talk with the kids at the beginning of the many parent sessions that made up the 2018 National Convention.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Katey Jackson from Florida jumps sky-high (as much as hotel ceilings allow) on the trampoline] [PHOTO CAPTION: Four-year-old Theo Thevo of Michigan tumbles with his older sister in the bounce house] Start Them Young, Train Them Right The National Federation of the Blind National Convention is a time for business, for meeting up with people, and learning about companies that are harder to talk with the rest of the year. And these opportunities aren't just for the adults of the Federation. The convention has activities for children, not just because there are adult Federationists who wouldn't be able to attend without bringing their children, but because this is a perfect opportunity to teach these future Federation leaders valuable lessons. They are taught that they can be heard by adults around them, even those with important jobs. Each year the Federation President sits down- literally down on the floor-with children attending the convention. They may exchange a few presidential release-worthy jokes, but they also talk about more serious topics. Away from the presentations and the seminars, there are important lessons learned during the purely fun activities as well. Among fellow Federationists, who know exactly how capable these kids can be, they get to run around and take part in physical activities that well-meaning sighted adults back home might shelter them from in a misguided attempt to protect them. But here at convention they can strap into a safety harness to jump on a giant trampoline or ricochet around in a bounce house. They get a chance to explore their own boundaries and abilities with people who will say, "Give it a try; just be careful," rather than, "You can't do that; you'll hurt yourself." The 2018 Convention Roundup by Gary Wunder Some of you will recall a man named Garrison Keillor who did a radio show for more than forty years called "A Prairie Home Companion." In that weekly show he did a twenty-minute monologue about characters he developed in the small town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. When asked how he was able to do it every week year in and year out, Mr. Keillor credited his success to always having an opening line: "Well it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown." His reasoning was that having captured the opening line, everything after that began to flow more easily. So it is each year that I wrestle with how to begin this roundup. Sometimes the themes are obvious: we're approaching three-quarters of a century in service to blind people. Once our seventy-fifth anniversary was gone, we reached our seventy-sixth; the seventy-sixth and seventy-seventh are history. Now that it is our seventy-eighth, it seems all too soon to start counting up to eighty. So was there a theme this year, something for which the 2018 National Convention will be remembered? I submit that there was, and that theme was raising expectations. The agenda loudly proclaimed it; the presentations consistently confirmed it, and the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind boldly promised it again and again through the actions reported and the promises made. Though the vast majority of us who do the work of the Federation are volunteers, we take the work seriously, for we know this is no game we play with the lives of blind people. As you read through this report, witness again and again what it means to raise expectations and how blind people working with blind people and those who are blind at heart are truly making a difference. When you see an agenda that is sixty-two pages in print and 102 pages in Braille, you can be certain that blind people are involved in everything under the sun and are prepared to talk about how blindness plays a factor in it. If there is one document that speaks to the diverse interests of blind people, it is the convention agenda, and between its covers one could find more than 130 meetings before the gavel fell on the first day of session and another twenty-five held between the general sessions. Our commitment to blind children is always evidenced through a large number of seminars and workshops aimed at helping parents see that their children have every chance to succeed. Both our convention agenda and the agenda of our National Organization of Parents of Blind Children show how active we are on so many fronts and how committed we are to seeing that our "future reflections" inherit a world even better than the one we occupy. When the board meeting began on July 5, the room was filled with enthusiastic people who responded with a loud cheer to the falling of the gavel. All members of the board were present and answered enthusiastically to the roll call. President Riccobono began by asking for a moment of silence in memory of those who died during the past year. He recognized thirty-six of our departed colleagues, and together we honored them and others who may not have been on the list with a reverent pause. To help every member get the most out of the convention sessions, we offered Spanish translation and listening devices that can receive Spanish or English for those who need them. Conchita Hernandez announced these services in Spanish, and President Riccobono did the same in English. The listening devices were provided courtesy of the National Federation of the Blind Amateur Radio Division. We stood to pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and then to our Federation flag. Both of these pledges resounded throughout the hall and were recited with pride and reverence. President Riccobono reviewed the current board of directors with those assembled. Members whose terms expire at the end of the 2018 Convention were President Mark Riccobono from Maryland; first vice president Pam Allen from Louisiana; second vice president Ron Brown from Indiana; secretary James Gashel from Hawaii; treasurer Jeannie Massay from Oklahoma; and board members Amy Buresh from Nebraska, Shawn Callaway from the District of Columbia, John Fritz from Wisconsin, Carla McQuillan from Oregon, Amy Ruell from Massachusetts, and Adelmo Vigil from New Mexico. Board members not up for reelection in 2018 are Denise Avant from Illinois, Everette Bacon from Utah, Norma Crosby from Texas, Ever Lee Hairston from California, Cathy Jackson from Kentucky, and Joe Ruffalo from New Jersey. In addition to our distinguished board members and more than 1,500 people in the audience, we had the honor of being with Sarah Mosley, a woman attending her first national convention at age 101. The convention greeted her with warm applause. [PHOTO CAPTION: Apl.de.Ap performs for the convention] The host affiliates for the 2018 Convention were Iowa, Florida, and Virginia. We were welcomed by each affiliate president, starting with the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia, Tracy Soforenko. He urged that all of us be early for the next morning's session because in the first thirty minutes the host affiliates had arranged for a first-rate welcome. He next introduced Denise Valkema, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Florida, who welcomed all of us to the host affiliates' suite. She reminded us that there is no better way to mingle with old friends and make new ones. President Jerad Nylin from the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa invited all of us to a concert by the performer Apl.de.Ap, formerly of The Black Eyed Peas. Performers also included our own James Brown and Marion Gwizdala. For some time now we have had an ongoing conflict with the Greyhound bus company because its website and smart phone apps have not been accessible. Given the extent to which blind people rely on Greyhound to get from city to city, this is no small inconvenience. After repeated attempts to talk with the company, we filed a lawsuit. But much to the relief of all parties, once we sat down together at a table, we found that we had more in common than we had separating us. Greyhound now understands the accessibility problems posed by its website and its smart phone apps. Thanks to the efforts of James Gashel and Timothy Elder, we now have a working relationship with Greyhound. Mr. Elder, an attorney with TRE Legal Practice, introduced Tricia Martinez, the senior vice president of legal affairs at Greyhound. She said that it is important for people to listen to the concerns of other people, and that Greyhound gets it: "Blind people deserve access to our services, and that includes our technology. [applause] You know, I'm going to be a little frank here: we are selfish; we want your business. We want to be the provider that gets you where you need to go, and we hope to do that in a way that helps you live the lives you want to live, including your independence. We are committed to partnering with the NFB to make sure you have equal access to our services, and that includes our website and our mobile app." President Riccobono observed that some partnerships are new while others are long-standing. An example of the latter is our working relationship with the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, and Immediate Past President Maurer was introduced to make some comments. He said that the Action Fund has long operated a library from California but that the library's list of patrons does not justify keeping it open. Instead of operating a lending library, the Action Fund will give away its books to those who ask for them, and if they choose to pass them along to others when they no longer have need of them, the ShareBraille.org service will provide a mechanism for seeing that the books find a new home. This service can also be used for next year's flea market of Braille books, so stay tuned for additional information. We next turned our attention to the code of conduct passed by the board of directors, recently published in the Braille Monitor, and found in the convention agenda. The reason for the code of conduct is to put in writing the expectations we have long shared for the behavior of our members, our volunteers, and our guests when we work together on Federation business. As President Riccobono said, "The code of conduct confirms in writing what we have had as an expectation amongst our membership in terms of how we treat each other, how we view equality and equal treatment among the members, how we value diversity within our organization, and it sets out in writing how we will hold each other accountable to that conduct." Jeannie Massay followed up this announcement by saying that any infraction of the code of conduct could be reported at any time during the convention, and she provided a phone number that would be continuously monitored for this purpose. She also said that we know that for a number of people the national convention of the Federation is the largest gathering of men and women they will be a part of during the year, and sometimes this experience of being among so many people can become overwhelming. For the first time we have implemented a quiet room where a person can step away for a minute. Someone will be in the room at all times, but it is a place where one can relax, get reoriented, and make plans to go out and interact with the crowd. John Berggren was introduced as our convention coordinator, and he took the opportunity to remind people about the banquet exchange program. Buying a banquet ticket gets you a ticket to get into the ballroom, but you do not yet have a seat. In addition to the traditional meal, we offer a kosher meal or a vegetarian meal. He said that our convention agenda was available in Braille, print, and in three different electronic forms depending on the way you prefer to view it. He also announced our partnering with internet radio station 195 The Globe, and not only will it be streaming the convention, but it will be providing interviews and other information between convention sessions. Everyone who came to the board meeting had a shared purpose, and that was to find out where the 2019 Convention would be held. Each time the upcoming convention was mentioned, people thought we had arrived at the great reveal, but, to the glee of President Riccobono and the groans of most of the audience, that announcement was held and was one of the concluding items of the board meeting. President Riccobono observed that our agenda would bring Democratic members of Congress and Republican members of the administration to the dais, and he reminded us that we are known for the courtesy and respect that we give to all who come to visit with us. Sometimes our questions may be pointed and our message is often direct, but in all of our conduct we are unerringly polite, and this is a tradition we want and will preserve. All throughout the convention we were active on social media with the hashtag #NFB18. A review of the tweets sent will reveal both the anticipation felt during the convention and reactions to the presentations made. Sometimes the very conciseness demanded by the character limitations of a tweet make a point more clearly than many words on the subject, and a review of this year's hashtag will prove to be quite worthwhile. President Riccobono encouraged everyone to review the Braille Monitor, the Nation's Blind podcast, and our app for smart phones called NFB Connect. Although he likes all the ways in which we communicate, he has a particular fondness for the female host of the podcast. Be sure to check it out if you don't already know why. To offer a favorite convention memory that may well make the podcast, call 410-659-9314, extension 2444. Public service announcements will be available soon after the convention for download, and some will be sent directly to radio stations. Two were previewed and excitedly received by the convention. Although there are some parts of the country in which we enjoy a good relationship with the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), its attempts to revive NAC (National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services) and its opposition to our implementing the National Reading Media Assessment to determine whether blind people should read Braille, print, or both has put a significant strain on our relationship. For this reason we are planning an AER strike, and Everette Bacon came to the microphone to address this. Because we want members of AER to really come to know and understand us, we will attend the conference they are holding late in July and will tell them who we are and our desire to engage in programs of collaboration rather than confrontation. Carla McQuillan is the chairperson of the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award Committee. Carla and her committee presented an award to a teacher who has been in the field for thirty-three years, and more about this award will be found elsewhere in this issue. Given the tremendous progress we have made in making more Braille available and in increasing its instruction in schools and rehabilitation centers, the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille, a division of the National Federation of the Blind, has asked the board of directors to dissolve the division and reconstitute it as a committee. The request of the division was approved unanimously, and a committee will be appointed by the President. All divisions of the Federation will continue to support and use Braille, and our advocacy for the code and the people who need it will continue with vigor. Much of the work of the Federation is done through committees, and anyone wishing to be on one should contact President Riccobono by sending an email to officeofthepresident at nfb.org or by calling him at 410-659-9314. In the Federation we have a number of skilled and committed carpenters, but carpenters cannot work without tools. One of the most important tools we have is money. The SUN Fund (Shares Unlimited in the NFB) is a savings account which is to be used as a rainy day or emergency fund should financial circumstances require its use. Sandy Halverson coordinates raising money for this fund, and the state of Arizona is number one in giving to our savings program. Any gift we receive for this fund is an investment in a financially stable future for the National Federation of the Blind. Scott LaBarre addressed the board meeting on the subject of the Preauthorized Contribution Program, PAC. He explained that the program is not for political fundraising but is the way we make predictable monthly contributions to our movement. It has long been our goal to hit a giving level of half a million dollars a year, and although we have sometimes reached monthly giving amounts that suggest we will do it, never have we been able to sustain it for a year. He hopes that this year will be the exception. At the board meeting we had annualized giving of $477,117.24. Patti Chang talked with the board and the audience about our Vehicle Donation Program, which allows us to turn unwanted vehicles into cash for our programs. She said that we no longer take airplanes, but we do take cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, and almost anything that has wheels. To donate a vehicle people should call 855-659-9314. This is a good program, and we should work hard to promote it. One car donated last month from New Jersey helped us raise over $5,000. GreenDrop is a program which takes gently used clothing, resells it, and generates money for the organization. For more information about this program and the states in which it operates, go to www.gogreendrop.com. The Dream Makers Circle is a relatively new program that will allow us to make donations to the Federation upon our death. While no one is looking for your donation soon, all of us will die, and all of us have an interest in helping those who live on after us to live the lives they want. For more information about this program call Patti Chang at 410-659-9314, extension 2422. At this convention the Kenneth Jernigan Fund celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Its purpose is to bring new people to the convention who have never attended before, and this year we gave more than sixty grants to help people experience the magic of our national convention. The Blind Educator of the Year award was presented by Dr. Edward Bell, the chairman of the committee. His presentation and comments by the winner can be found elsewhere in this issue. One of our longtime sponsors and a platinum sponsor for this year was HumanWare. For brief remarks the president of the company, Bruce Miles, was introduced. This is the thirtieth year in which HumanWare has been in business, and the company believes that an important ingredient in being able to serve blind people year after year is the long and productive relationship with the National Federation of the Blind. Although one organization is a nonprofit and the other a business, our missions are complementary: empowering people with vision loss to participate fully in society, to transform dreams into reality, and to help people live the lives they want. Another mission we share is to see that blind people have access to a quality education. The 30 percent employment rate or the 70 percent unemployment rate runs afoul of all the missions we share. For a few remarks, Mr. Miles introduced Mr. Peter Tucic, a man who has worked for HumanWare for three years and has been promoted to ambassador for blindness products at the company. He believes there are two problems we must address. The first one we are all familiar with: the lack of equal access to many cloud-based products that will allow us to get instant information in real-time and in Braille. The second issue is just as significant. It is convincing blind people that we must start at the bottom, take jobs we don't really want, learn in those jobs how to be productive and how to be good self-advocates, and eventually move to the place where we are doing what we would call our dream job. What many of us lack are introductory workplace skills, and it is only through focusing on these that we will narrow the gap between our education and gainful employment. To provide these introductory work skills, integrated with an understanding of how to use twenty-first century products in Braille, HumanWare has offered an internship to Christina Laddie, an eighteen-year-old from Colorado. She expressed her thanks for the award and for the opportunity to be at the convention. For many of us the highlight of the board meeting is the introduction of our scholarship winners. Cayte Mendez is the chair of the National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Committee, and she came to introduce the class of thirty 2018 finalists. Her introductory remarks and the finalists' remarks to the board of directors can be found elsewhere in this issue. So impressed was the board by the 2018 scholarship class that Jeannie Massay made a motion to continue the program for another year. It was seconded and passed unanimously. The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division is chaired by Julie McGinnity, and as a service to convention goers, it offered to send a singing telegram to anyone at the convention. As an example, one was delivered to our President. It consisted simultaneously of the PAC song and "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. Tracy Soforenko again took the stage, this time in his capacity as the chairman of the Jacobus tenBroek Memorial Fund. The tenBroek fund owns the building in which the National Federation of the Blind has space. It will be doing some significant renovations to the space the Federation occupies, including the creation of new sleeping rooms. The ones now used were created in 1981, and this upgrade will change the location and add other amenities that will make people even more comfortable at our facility. Chairman Soforenko asked that we help figure out ways to raise money for the fund and this renovation, and he asked that we give generously when donations are solicited during the convention. Laura James, the eastern regional community relations manager for UPS, has been very involved in helping us during the years we have been in Orlando. She thanked the board for giving her time to make a presentation, and she said that while she is the regional community relations manager in most weeks, for this week she is simply one more UPS volunteer. UPS has been helping the Federation since 1992. She observed that most of the training that UPS members have gotten in how to work with blind people has come from three Federationists who themselves have worked for UPS. In addition to the generous and kind volunteer support UPS has provided over the years, it has also donated $115,000 to support the organization. In addition to Laura, about two dozen UPS volunteers appeared with her. Elainna Moore has led the UPS effort to help the NFB for five of the last six years; she has worked for UPS for twenty-nine years, is an HR professional, and sometimes works twelve-hour days for the convention while at the same time continuing to perform her duties for the company. Elainna was presented with a crystal vase that says, "In grateful appreciation of five years to the NFB Community." President Riccobono said, "Thank you, Laura, congratulations to Elainna, and thank you to all of our UPS volunteers." Eve Hill is a person well known to the Federation because of her work with the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and her extensive legal work for us at Brown, Goldstein & Levy. She was the next to come to the stage. Because of the importance of her comments, they will be found elsewhere as an article in this issue. As the board meeting moved ever closer to conclusion, every member of the audience could feel the tension, but the calmest among us about reached the breaking point when the time for the great reveal found President Riccobono saying, "I am not prepared to announce today." As the audience began to growl and roar, the President started over, "I am not prepared to announce today, but someone is prepared to make an announcement, so let's have the announcement." [PHOTO CAPTION: The audience standing and clapping after the announcement of the 2019 National Convention location] What followed was a taped presentation from Brad Garrett, the actor who starred as the brother in Everybody Loves Raymond and who also was the voice of the blowfish Bloat in Finding Nemo. After some discussion of his career, of the National Federation of the Blind, and of the conventions we hold, the great reveal came at last: our 2019 Convention will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Mandalay Bay Resort. The convention will run from July 7 to July 12, and rates will be ninety-nine dollars for singles, doubles, triples, and quads. Some of us had to get this information secondhand, because the cheering proved to be louder than the name of the hotel. People were ecstatic, and the wait was over at last. Pam Allen took the microphone in her capacity as chairman of the board. She said that people are excited about the 2019 Convention, but the 2018 Convention is still ahead and one which will live long in our memories. We had so many new convention attendees this year that we did not have enough ribbons for those who attended the Rookie Roundup. On that happy note and with an inspirational quotation from John Lennon, Pam concluded her report. The beautiful quotation she ended with was: A dream we dream alone is only a dream, but a dream we dream together becomes reality. Immediately following the board meeting and the lively discussion about Mandalay Bay and Las Vegas, members gathered for a meeting of the sports and recreation division, the NFB deaf-blind division held a business meeting, the seniors division met to discuss an upcoming retreat, and the Diabetes Action Network held a seminar to learn about new accessible diabetes equipment coming to market and strategies for living well with diabetes. The National Association of Blind Lawyers met to discuss strategies for getting more people involved in the field and the work that must be done to advance our cause in the courts of our nation. The National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science met to discuss the ever- changing technology that so many of us rely on for work, at home, and more and more in our recreational pursuits. The performing arts division met to discuss how to break into the field of acting, the National Association of Blind Veterans held a welcoming reception with food and a cash bar for its members, the National Organization of Blind Educators discussed the techniques teachers use in their classrooms, and the National Association of Blind Merchants met to discuss defending the Randolph-Sheppard Program against ongoing attacks and new initiatives of the division including a women's entrepreneur initiative. These and many more divisions will no doubt take advantage of the opportunity to discuss their meetings at greater length in this and future issues of the magazine throughout the fall. Whether you wanted to participate in sword fighting or work on meditation and mindfulness, there was something for you that happened on the afternoon and evening of July 5. [PHOTO CAPTION: The Ladies from Sweet Adeline's] [PHOTO CAPTION: Singers from Vintage Mix performing] When the gavel fell on the morning of July 6, the 2018 National Convention was officially in order. After an invocation from Tom Anderson, who heads our communities of faith division, and a $100 door prize to recognize one lucky person who made it to convention on time, the welcoming ceremonies began. Chairman Tracy Soforenko welcomed to the stage a group from Sweet Adeline's called "The Ladies." This group was so good that it not only received applause at the end of each song but drew applause several times in the middle of particularly complicated arrangements superbly executed. This group was followed to the stage by quadruplets who formed the group called "Vintage Mix." They concluded their three-song set with a tribute to veterans by singing "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy." The welcome ceremony ended with three moving presentations, each made by the presidents of our host affiliates of Florida, Iowa, and Virginia. These remarks can be heard by going to the convention highlights page found at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_6/am/01_wel coming_ceremonies.mp3. [PHOTO CAPTION: Impact of Orlando drummers marching down the aisle] [PHOTO CAPTION: Impact of Orlando buglers marching in the aisle] Dwight Sayer is the president of the National Association of Blind Veterans. He took the stage to honor the brave men and women who had risked their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. He led the traditional ceremony in which veterans came across the stage, introduced themselves, and were given a special ribbon. We were honored to have in attendance a seven-member color guard and the incredible Impact of Orlando Drum and Bugle Corps. They marched through every aisle, serenading us with the rhythmic beat of drums that found the audience constantly applauding. We then recited the Pledge of Allegiance, immediately followed by the singing of the national anthem performed by Julie McGinnity of the performing arts division and Impact of Orlando. The convention next moved to the roll call of states. Alaska received a cheer when its rejection of the payment of subminimum wages was announced. Arizona passed a blind parents bill of rights, and it was approved unanimously by the legislature. Colorado also passed a parental rights bill of which they are rightly proud. The Idaho affiliate was proud to have the director of the Idaho Commission for the Blind, and Illinois announced that at its next convention there will be a celebration of the affiliate's fiftieth anniversary. In addition to its always impressive list of leaders in the Federation and throughout the field of blindness, Maryland was proud to announce that it is the first state in the nation to provide for civil penalties against those who sell inaccessible products to the state. Nebraska proudly reported that it too has had a parental rights bill signed into law, and so enthusiastic was the response by Federationists and others with disabilities that we overflowed the governor's hearing room during the bill signing. New Mexico proudly announced that it has a totally accessible voting system, and the Virginia affiliate joyfully announced that it would next be holding its sixtieth annual convention. Washington state enthusiastically proclaimed that in Seattle the subminimum wage is no more. With all fifty-two affiliates having reported, the morning session adjourned. Most people would say that two predictable highlights of every convention are the presidential report and the banquet speech. One starts the convention, the other ends it. When the afternoon session was called to order, the presidential report was the first order of business, and it did not disappoint. In the last year we have dreamed and planned for the future while tackling the problems of today. Whether it is conducting public education, raising the expectations of blind people, enforcing our civil rights through legal action, creating better public policy through service on boards and commissions, or working with companies to pioneer new technology or enhance that which exists, the National Federation of the Blind stands on the frontlines. We expect our President to guide and direct all of these efforts, and he does. He expects that in return we give our time, talent, treasure, and tremendous imagination to work with him, and we do. As he says, "Without you, there is no us." All of this is found in the "2018 Presidential Report," which is presented immediately following this roundup. Currently we have ninety-five people who make up the Dream Maker's Circle, not including those who have asked to remain anonymous. Their names were read aloud to the convention, and it expressed its appreciation through cheers and applause. 3DPhotoWorks is a company most readers have heard about frequently in these pages, and the exhibit at the Newseum in Washington DC, gave many of us who attended the Washington Seminar a tremendous opportunity to feel the pictures that were featured in LIFE magazine and propelled its photographer, John Olson, into the public spotlight. He was the next person to come to the stage, and in his presentation he told the story of how 3DPhotoWorks came to be, about the role of the National Federation of the Blind in believing in his project and in helping him fund it, and about the importance of protecting one's lunch when attending a state convention. You can look for Mr. Olson's remarks to be printed in full in an upcoming issue. One significant philosophical challenge we face today is determining how we will incorporate new technology into our lives and the lives of other blind people without compromising on the need to teach and to retain what we have long considered to be basic skills of blindness. In the presentation "Directing Big Data and Technological Innovation: Perspectives on the Importance of Leadership by the Blind," Chancey Fleet brings both tremendous perspective and wise counsel. As we consider how to integrate the information we can acquire with our senses using low-tech techniques, while incorporating visual information that new technology brings through the use of artificial intelligence and visual interpreters, she offers that wonderful mix of philosophical integrity and a rich sense of technology for which she is so well known. As she says, "We can improvise with technology, perform our own access when we need to, and teach our fellows how that's done, but let's keep the beat of the drums of freedom, the careful cultivation of embodied skills that don't rely on technology but rely on our self-trust and self-respect." Her remarks will appear in full elsewhere in this issue. President Riccobono introduced what was to come next in this way: "Our next speaker describes his passions as 'innovation, personal development, changing paradigms, people, and the adventures of life.' Well, that sounds a lot like the National Federation of the Blind. His company has never presented at this convention before, but I suspect his company's product has been in many people's pockets: does anybody use Be My Eyes? [applause] Their work is authentically driven by the perspective of blind people, and here to talk with us about the blind and a new worldwide crowd for access to information is the CEO and cofounder of Be My Eyes. Here's Christian Erfurt." Mr. Erfurt described Be My Eyes and the collaboration that brought it about. He said that the service links blind people who need assistance with sighted volunteers. There are currently 86,000 blind users, 1.4 million sighted volunteers, that the service is available in 150 countries, and that assistance is offered in 180 languages. The service is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. "Our efforts were recently recognized by Google as we were given the best accessibility award by Google. [applause] But that means nothing compared to being here in front of you and having an opportunity for your feedback and to hear your applause. Thank you for that." But Be My Eyes is more than a service for people helping people; it has greater ambitions. "One thing that I am very, very proud of with Be My Eyes is that the willingness to help one another is not only in some of us; it is in all of us, no matter your cultural background, your nationality, your religion-people are connecting globally every day and minimizing the gaps between us and them in terms of borders and religions, and realizing that we have one big global citizenship and that we should care more about each other." [applause] Mr. Erfurt's remarks will appear in an upcoming issue. Undoubtedly the most significant force in social media is Facebook, and the director of global public policy for the company, Monica Desai, was our next presenter. In her remarks she said, "With respect to our ethos, our mission is to bring the world closer together, and that means everyone. Accessibility is a core part of that mission. Consider, for example, that on Facebook one in ten people use the zoom feature on the desktop browser, 20 percent of people increase the font size on iOS, and over 100,000 people use screen readers on desktop and mobile devices to use Facebook. We want to make it possible for anyone, regardless of ability, to access the information and connections that happen on Facebook." One of the projects Ms. Desai is most excited about is Facebook's automatic alternative text feature. It uses artificial intelligence to identify pictures and write captions, relying less on sighted users to do something that is unnatural (picture description), and making the process automated. The goal is not just to identify how many people there are in a photo and who they are but to say something significant about what is happening in the photo. The company is also excited about the navigation assistant that it designed specifically for screen readers using both the desktop and mobile devices. Facebook recognizes that one of the obstacles to accessibility is that few people know how to implement it because it is seldom part of the curriculum in computer science programs. Therefore the company is part of an industrywide initiative to change this and recently received an award for their work. Facebook also realizes that understanding accessibility requires hiring people with disabilities who rely on that accessibility. The remarks made by Ms. Desai will appear later in the fall. President Riccobono introduced the next item on the agenda in this way: "Our next presentation comes from someone who is not a first-timer to the stage. This is the second time, and he also represents a technology that many in the room have dealt with, Aira. [applause] The Aira corporation has been very disruptive to the technology companies in the blindness field, and I think that's what the CEO intended-to be disruptive. They are very aggressively working on developing new services and a platform that is driven and directed by the hopes and dreams of blind people. By moving aggressively that sometimes means that they try some things; sometimes those things work, and sometimes they don't. As part of their commitment, they have done certain things like making this convention a place where you can try Aira out for free. ... I believe there is great value in our working with technology startups and bringing our authentic experience to technology companies, and it is so much easier to do when they have a real, genuine interest in learning from us and incorporating our point of view into their products. I think the CEO of Aira has exhibited this. Last year he was in and around this convention under blindfold, traveling with a cane, not to show solidarity but to learn something. He has listened to many, many people at this convention and throughout the year, both the good and the bad, but he is prepared to innovate on behalf of blind people and to innovate with us. So here is the cofounder and CEO of Aira, a good friend of the National Federation of the Blind, Suman Kanuganti." Suman began his remarks by saying, "I am delighted to be attending my fourth NFB convention [applause], an early July tradition that I plan to celebrate with all of you for years to come. ... Aira is proud to be a part of the NFB family. Many of you have played a vital role in molding our company. I am grateful to President Mark Riccobono and all of you for being vital stakeholders, creating a platform to augment the ability of every human being on the planet by providing instant access to information anywhere at any time." This highly energetic and moving presentation will appear elsewhere in this issue. At the conclusion of Mr. Kanuganti's remarks, President Riccobono offered one more announcement prior to the close of the session. He said that the NFB is all about developing partnerships, and our latest partnership is with the Kellogg Corporation. Jessica Waller, the senior vice president of sales, said that more information about our partnership and the initiatives that are planned will be forthcoming in August. Like the NFB, the Kellogg Corporation believes strongly in education and will be working with us in this arena in the near future. The last matter of the day was the announcement that the NFB and our National Organization of Parents of Blind Children gave away $10,000 of technology to blind children in memory of the late Megan Bening. Our hope is to do this again next year, and this can happen if we purchase a five- dollar angel pin from one of our blind children. For every five dollars in sold pins, a technology company in Virginia will make a matching donation. The Rev. Dr. Carolyn Peters began the Saturday morning session with an invocation, and we then moved to the financial report read by President Riccobono. A review of our financials for 2017 shows that we had income that exceeded expenses by about $1 million. Given that we do not borrow money, this is a good figure. The more troubling figures are found in the first five months of 2018 in which we find ourselves with expenses exceeding income by about the same amount, $1 million. What this means is that we are active and successful in getting public support, but the need is ever present, and we must always regard seeking funding for our programs as a major priority in the work we do. After a motivational PAC report from Scott LaBarre and the spirited roll call from our state affiliates and divisions to raise money for the tenBroek and general fund, we next moved to elections. Pam Allen was the chairman of the nominating committee, and she read the slate that the committee proposed. We then moved to the election, and the name of Mark Riccobono was placed in nomination for President. He was elected by acclamation and said, "Thank you very much, my Federation family. It is truly the deepest honor to serve in the office of the President for this tremendous organization. I have to credit each and every one of you for the work that you do to make what we do look easy. Each and every one of us knows that it's not easy, but what you do in supporting the leadership of this organization makes it practical for any of us to serve. So I'm humbled, honored, and inspired by the work that happens every day by people with big hearts in this organization. It wouldn't be possible to serve in the office of the President, I don't think, without the awesome support and leadership that Melissa Riccobono provides to this organization. [applause] I continue to pledge to do all that I can to build this organization in the good times and in the face of challenges. We are making tremendous progress, but there is so much more we can do. The beautiful thing is that it gets more fun every day-more fun every day. So thank you for the honor of serving; I will always do everything I can for this organization, and I love each and every one of you. Thank you." Pam Allen of Louisiana was nominated to fill the position of first vice president. She was enthusiastically reelected unanimously. She began her acceptance speech by saying: "Thank you, my Federation family, for this truly humbling honor. Mark Caine said that, 'The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.' In the National Federation of the Blind we refuse to be captives of low expectations, stereotypes about blindness, and unfulfilled dreams. We know that by coming together at our local chapters, in our affiliates and divisions, and here at this convention, we will be challenged to stretch ourselves and to accomplish more than we ever thought possible. In the National Federation of the Blind we know firsthand about the power of working together, the strength and the energy that we draw from the bonds of love and commitment that unite us. We know that our collective efforts bring about individual and systemic change and that change is life-giving and allows us to grow into someone and collectively something greater than we would ever have believed possible. Think about how different our lives would be today if those Federationists who met in 1940 had not taken a stand and joined together to organize, and imagine how different the lives of all blind people are and will continue to be because of the commitment we demonstrate. The work we do each day, whether it is talking with a new member, answering questions from a parent of a blind child or a senior losing vision, working to end discrimination, getting legislation passed to protect the rights of blind parents, the risks we take and the possibilities we imagine make our hopes and dreams a reality. We have been nurtured and mentored by our leaders: Dr. tenBroek, Dr. Jernigan, and Dr. Maurer, and now by President Riccobono, who shows us each day through his example and words what it truly means to be a leader. His love for us and unwavering dedication to this organization are unparalleled, and also the commitment of our First Lady Melissa, whose passion, wisdom, and never-ending commitment inspire us. Thank you to each of you and to the thousands of members listening online who live the lives they want each day and share our message of hope and empowerment, the heartbeat of our organization. "Serving as your first vice president is truly a blessing, and I continue to learn from all of you every day. I'm inspired and motivated as I stand before you, and I pledge to all of you to keep fighting, keep pushing the envelope, keep serving and leading with love. Thank you, my Federation family, and especially my husband Roland, for your love, trust, and support. Together we stand, united we will not be defeated. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you." The name of Ron Brown from Indiana was recommended by the committee for election to the office of second vice president, his nomination was seconded, and he was voted into the office unanimously. Ron told the convention it was an honor and a privilege to serve on the board, and he said that the other day someone asked him if he had lived his best destiny. In reflecting on the question, Ron has concluded that he is living it right now, and the reason is that the Federation gave him the tools to be successful and is now giving him the opportunity to give back. The name of James Gashel from Hawaii was placed before the convention by the committee. He was elected to the office of secretary unanimously. Mr. Gashel said that he joined this movement in 1965 and the 2018 National Convention is his fifty-second. He said that though he is getting older, the vibrancy, the excitement, the energy, and the innovation of the National Federation of the Blind never gets old. He concluded by saying, "In rising to meet the challenge, I'm awfully impressed by the responsibility you think I can fulfill as one of the leaders of this organization, and the one thing I can definitely tell you is that in rising to meet this challenge, I will do everything in my power never to let you down." For the position of treasurer, the name of Jeannie Massay of Oklahoma was placed in nomination. She was elected unanimously, and she began by thanking the convention for the trust placed in her to lead in the organization. "All of this is very emotional. You know, we talk about changing lives, and I can tell you that the Federation changed the trajectory of my life. It is so important for us to find people where they are and help them get to where they want to be. That's what we're all about." The name of Amy Buresh from Nebraska was submitted for board position number one. She was elected by acclamation. Amy said: "My Federation brothers and sisters, it is a blessing and a privilege to stand here before you today. I recently read a quote that said that everything you do in your life to others comes back into your own. That is so true with the work we do here in the National Federation of the Blind. We come in lost, lonely, afraid, maybe frustrated, maybe held back, and tired of waiting for action from other people, and here we find friends, family, shoulders to cry on, to lean on, to stand upon as we strengthen ourselves and our movement. As John Holmes said, 'There is no exercise better for the heart then reaching down and lifting people up.' That is exactly what we do here each and every day." Shawn Callaway from Washington, DC was nominated to fill board position two. The convention agreed with the committee, and Shawn was elected by acclamation. Shawn began by thanking his wife and his daughter and by thanking God for their being in his life. He then offered a quote by Martin Luther King stressing the importance of equality for all men and women. He said that while our country has been slow to address some of the major civil rights issues that confront us, he believes that his work in the Federation has provided a model demonstrating that people of all races, religions, sexual orientations, and other diverse beliefs cannot only get along but can become trusted friends and mentors. John Fritz from Wisconsin was nominated to fill board position three. John was elected by acclamation. John said that he came to the Federation as a scholarship winner and that this might give current finalists some idea of the future in store for them if they so choose. John thanked his wife Heather and all of his children for their support in doing the work that takes so much time, energy, and commitment from all of them. For board position four the committee placed in nomination the name of Carla McQuillan from Oregon. She was elected by acclamation. Carla said that when she was first elected to the board in 1998, she was told by Dr. Jernigan that she was the youngest serving member of the board and the second youngest ever to have served. Though she is no longer the youngest member, she still brings tremendous energy to the work of the Federation because of the people in the organization who, through their example, continue to encourage and inspire her. Though she did not mention it, she is the inspiration for many of these people as well. She thanked her husband Lucas: "I am so blessed that I have someone who puts up with the likes of me every day, and he says he loves it. Thank you for your support, Lucas." [applause] The name of Amy Ruell of Massachusetts was submitted for board position number five. She was elected by acclamation. In thanking the convention for her reelection she said, "I want to thank all of you for your support, your mentorship, your kindness, and your forbearance because, as any of you who know me is aware, I speak my mind. It is good to be in an organization that allows for different opinions to be spoken and respected. I also want to say that from the first time I joined the Federation and was given the opportunity for leadership and the first gavel I received from the students, I have taken this on as a tremendous responsibility and commitment. Although the initial draw of the Federation was the work that we do in advocacy, what keeps me going when I'm tired and when I wonder whether I have enough energy is the knowledge that I, along with all of you, have the opportunity to help other people to achieve their goals, realize their dreams, and live the life they want. Thank you all, and let's continue to build the National Federation of the Blind." For board position six, the final position to be filled this year, the nominating committee submitted the name of Adelmo Vigil of New Mexico. Margot Downey from New York was also nominated to fill this position. Both candidates made brief presentations as to why they believe they should be elected to the board, and after their speeches the vote was to seat Adelmo Vigil. After thanking the convention for his election, Adelmo said: "I can tell you that when I joined the Federation back in 1983, I was mentored by many of you. I felt very alone before I joined the National Federation of the Blind, but when I went to that first convention, I felt like all of us were family. Today I can tell you that the family continues to grow. I want to thank my wife Soledad for all the support that she has given to me throughout the years. [applause] I want to thank all of you because if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here. I pledge to you that I will do everything that I can to continue to help all of us live the life we want. Thank you." At the conclusion of the election, President Riccobono said, "Thank you very much to all of the leaders serving on the national board of directors. It's an honor to serve with you, and I look forward to the next year ahead. How about a door prize for our elected leadership?" One of the most inspiring speeches of the convention was presented by Joanne Gabias, and it was entitled "What Does Blind Have to Do with It? The Right to Parent from a Sighted Daughter's Perspective." In making the introduction for this presentation, President Riccobono noted that some people will say, "Well, I hear what you're saying, but how do the sighted children of blind parents feel about it?" Though we think we know how our children feel, we wonder what they would say if asked by someone other than us. Joanne Gabias gave a most moving presentation about what it was like for her and her brothers to be the children of blind parents, and it will appear elsewhere in this issue. Jos? Viera is the new executive director for the World Blind Union. He has extensive work in civil rights and comes well prepared for his new job. He began his presentation by talking about his first significant contact with the National Federation of the Blind, that being in 2016. He said that he and some of his friends were at first amazed and a bit put off by the talking human signs they found at the general assembly; they laughed among themselves. But after a time what they thought silly turned out to be something they found inspirational. These are the blind helping the blind, they said. We do not have to wait for other people to help us; we can help ourselves. He said that this is one of the most significant things they took away from the conference. Mr. Viera said that if people with disabilities all came together to form a country, it would be the third largest in the world. What unites people with disabilities is that most of us live in poverty, that we have tremendous needs, and that we all share the desire to be productive and competitive. He believes that the World Blind Union, following the example of the National Federation of the Blind, can begin to change the world for blind people, and he pledged that the World Blind Union and the National Federation of the Blind would continue to work together to see that this is done. His remarks can be heard in full at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_7/am/02_com mon_bonds_of_blindness_around_the_world.mp3. The afternoon session began with a presentation entitled "Leading with Conviction: Making Equality for People with Disabilities the Priority for the United States of America." It was presented by Neil Romano who is the chairperson of the National Council on Disability. He has previously served as an assistant secretary in the United States Department of Labor under the George W. Bush administration, and he was appointed by Congress to serve in this capacity in 2015. He is now serving in his second term, and it is clear that we could not have a stronger advocate in support of abolishing section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act which permits the payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities, including those who are blind. A copy of his remarks will appear in this magazine later in the fall. [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono and Congressman Darren Soto] The Honorable Darren Soto, who serves in the United States House of Representatives for the Ninth Congressional District of Florida came to the podium to speak on the topic "Raising Expectations for the Nation from Florida's Ninth Congressional District." Congressman Soto supports all of the issues that we support and have caused to be introduced in this legislative session, and his presentation is a testament to how committed he is to each of these. His remarks can be heard by going to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_7/pm/02_rai sing_expectations_for_the_nation.mp3. Passion is something we have in abundance in the Federation, but it is hard to think of anyone more visibly passionate than our executive director for advocacy and policy, John Par?. "A Record Year of Advocacy for the Blind of America: a Report from the Advocacy and Policy Department" was the topic on which he spoke, and indeed we have had a record year in terms of our accomplishments. His remarks will appear in an upcoming issue, as will a summary of those made by Scott LaBarre on the subject of the Marrakesh treaty and its ratification. At the end of the advocacy and policy report, President Riccobono said, "Thank you, John for going all the way for the blind of America, and thank you to our entire advocacy and policy team, both paid and unpaid. Without you we couldn't get it done, so congratulations to all of us." Before moving to the next agenda item, President Riccobono took time to introduce our convention sponsors. Here is what he said: "I want to take a moment to acknowledge our sponsors here at this convention. First let me make a few comments. We have a record number of sponsors at this convention [applause], and I've been surprised that a few folks have said during the course of this convention 'Well, I know you have to give so-and-so time; they are a sponsor.' I encourage you to read our sponsorship material. We don't sell time on the stage. You can't get up here by paying; it doesn't happen. [applause] We invite folks we think have something important to say, or who we want to say something important to, or both. Some of them happen to be sponsors, and even when they are sponsors we still tell them how it is if you're a blind person. You can't pay to speak at the National Federation of the Blind. "I think the fact that we invite many of our sponsors to speak and/or the fact that we push on a number of our sponsors to get the work done that's needed for blind people speaks to who we are. Some of the folks on this list of sponsors did not start out as our friends. In fact it took a long time for some of them to be our friends, but now they are our best friends because they know that we will work with them honestly and that we will not sell out blind people. Working together we are making a difference. We appreciate our sponsors. I know that they appreciate it when our members stop and thank them for sponsoring. "This year we have seven Platinum sponsors. They are: Aira Tech Corp, Enhanced Vision/Freedom Scientific/Optelec, Google Inc., HumanWare, Microsoft Corporation, UPS, and Vanda Pharmaceuticals. "Our Gold sponsors: Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP, HIMS Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Market Development Group Inc., Oracle, Target, and Uber. "Our Silver sponsors: are Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Automattic (WordPress.com), Facebook, Pearson, and Sprint. "Bronze: Charter Communications, Delta, Educational Testing Service (ETS), Lyft, Monster Worldwide Inc., National Industries for the Blind, NReach, VitalSource Technologies, Waymo, and Wells Fargo. "White cane: C&P - Chris Park Design, Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind, Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, Duxbury Systems Inc., En-Vision America, Envision Inc., Federal Bureau of Investigation, LC Industries, McGraw-Hill, OrCam Technologies, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Scribd, and last but not least our good friend, TRE Legal Practice." Twenty resolutions were submitted for consideration by the convention. All of them were available for review on the website when they were passed by committee and then adopted or rejected by the convention. A full report of the resolutions and the text of those that passed can be found elsewhere in this issue. After acting on the resolutions the afternoon session was adjourned. In the evening Amazon presented a showcase of the products it offers that are accessible. It also held what it called a Night at the Movies, which included popcorn and snacks. A workshop was held for members whose states are becoming vote-by-mail states, the goal being to provide members with the tools to advocate for accessibility. A seminar on Social Security and SSI was held to help people better understand eligibility criteria, the application process, reporting obligations, and situations in which people can work while receiving Social Security benefits. A seminar was held for Braille proofreaders, the need for Braille proofreading increasing as more Braille is made available. The annual NFB job fair was held to link employers who want to find blind people with blind job applicants. This session not only included meeting and greeting employers and job seekers but also it included a session on polishing a resum?, how to dress for success, and how to prepare oneself to talk with an employer. Of course there was the traditional showcase of talent presented by the performing arts division as well as a friends of recovery meeting, not that the two are in any way related. This is the point where the reviewer, especially the president, probably questions the wisdom of the foregoing. On what is sometimes called the longest day of the convention, President Riccobono brought the session to order and asked that David Stayer deliver the invocation. The first program item of the morning was delivered by Nicky Gacos, the president of the National Association of Blind Merchants. He said that some businesses which once dominated corporate America no longer exist; some are traceable to other businesses that have replaced them, but some are also traceable to the fact that there are fewer people who want to buy in our country. We have systemic problems we must address. When he entered the program, there were 4,000 blind merchants. Now there are 1,839 of them. The average age of blind merchants is around sixty. We need young people. Some of the sites we have are attractive to other businesses, and either we mount a defense of the program or we lose out. But we have no intention of losing out, and as our National Association of Blind Merchants president makes clear, we have no intention of losing. To hear his delightfully humorous and moving remarks, go to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_8/am/01_the _untapped_potential_of_blind_entrepreneurs.mp3. Our much beloved Anil Lewis came to the podium to address the topic "A Movement of Excellence Built upon Blind Experience: A Report from Our Jernigan Institute." He began by explaining that we operate so many programs that it is impossible to cover them all in one presentation. He also modestly observed that he serves with people who are the real experts in many of these, and he has the wonderful job of coordinating their energy and talent. Some of the most interesting work we do is with young people, and dramatic differences in attitudes and skills can be observed in the challenging environments we present. Anil notes that we give people opportunities that they don't normally have in their day-to-day lives or opportunities they are denied when their classmates have them. When we show them that something can be done and they next encounter a similar barrier, their response is "Slam that!" But as important as opportunity is, we also give students the chance to fail and to regard that failure as a learning opportunity and not an insurmountable barrier. For the student who got lost we teach proper problem-solving skills that will allow him or her to be successful and have a brighter future. This is us: building our movement of excellence on the successes of blind people. We have recently completed a grant to make six science museums around the country nonvisually accessible. Based in part on our success, we have been awarded a second grant for the Spatial Ability and Blind Engineering Research (SABER) project. This project will focus on the complex mental manipulation of shapes and will involve engineering design from concept to tactile drafting to model construction. Then there is our Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Access and the work we have done at the request of the New York City school system to help it make its systems accessible. The Jernigan Institute now has a research advisory council, and its job is to make sure that we are an active and vital part of all research that's going forward that may affect people who are blind. Our executive director posed an interesting question to the audience. If we are asked to help with a project to develop a haptic windshield that will be placed in the back of a car and will let us see where we have been, should we become involved? When put to a vote, the audience was timid, and he thought this was good because there is no clear yes or no. Having a display of where we've been may not be a good idea, but being involved in the creation of a device that can give us a tactile representation of something we otherwise would not see is a good idea. Maybe it won't be the back windshield of a vehicle; maybe it will be something we can place on our lap, and perhaps we will be able to control the focus of the thing it is that we want to touch. So the answer is that we work with the developers, encourage them, and direct them in ways that will be helpful to us. In his last major item Anil discussed the career mentoring program we are now rolling out. In this program we go beyond connecting one mentor and one mentee. Our goal is to connect one mentee with many mentors, thereby increasing the richness of the mentee's experience and helping to ensure that no one mentor feels overloaded by the responsibility he or she has undertaken. Anil concluded by saying, "We must share our philosophy everywhere we go, and in everything we do we must be real to ourselves. In every place that we go and in every program that we operate, our philosophy must be the same. We must travel and wear different hats in so many different places, but in every place, regardless the hat, we are wearing it on our Federation head." Carlton Anne Cook Walker is a familiar name to most Federationists. Most of us know her daughter Anna Catherine, but few of us know the story of Steve, Carlton, and Anna Catherine coming to the National Federation of the Blind and why. In a moving presentation Carlton explained how job one was saving her daughter's life, that job two was learning that Anna Catherine is blind and figuring out that what she needed would not easily be gotten from the educational professionals who were to help her, and that job three was getting the training and associating with the right people to see that her daughter would have a chance at living the life she wants. Carlton's presentation will be found in an upcoming issue of this magazine. "Raising Expectations for Education and Rehabilitation: Creating Opportunities for the Blind through the United States Department of Education" was presented by the assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Johnny Collett. The secretary said that many of the conclusions he has arrived at about special education have come from his years of experience in many different capacities within education and human services. One of the things he has learned is that a number of agencies end up serving the same people even though they may have different relationships with them: one might call a person a student, one a client, one a patient, one a juvenile offender. The take away for him was that the agencies with which he has worked needed to coordinate so that they treated a person and not a symptom. They needed to focus not only on getting better separately as individual service providers but to consider how much better for the individual if they got better collaboratively. The result would most certainly be that collectively they would have an outcome greater than the sum of its parts. He said that service providers have to see the difficulties encountered by children not as problems with kids and families but as problems for our agencies to solve for our children. He believes that the problem is not that people don't work hard. If solving the problem for our children was just about working hard, we would already have solved it. He believes the answer is to be found in working differently and working collaboratively. Our work should be about preparing individuals, not protecting turf. At the conclusion of his remarks, three questions were directed to Assistant Secretary Collett. A charitable characterization of his answers would be that they were a bit vague and general. A more straightforward characterization would be that they were a polite refusal to answer. It is not at all clear that the assistant secretary is prepared to be an advocate for integrated employment or that he is prepared to put pressure on the states to follow the law in making Braille the default reading medium for blind people and seeing that students get quality instruction in it. Courtesy and respect are absolutely essential in discussing contentious issues, but neither will serve as a real justification for evasion. Listening is essential, but it is not the same as engaging in real dialogue. In a wonderful change of pace and mood, we were next treated to the item entitled "Playing Your Hand: A Blind Songwriter Doing What It Takes to Live the Life He Wants." The presenter was JP Williams, a performer, songwriter, and accessibility technology professional who lives in Nashville. Fortunately Indiana, the state in which he was born, started him on the path to learning Braille at age four. When he was six, he and his parents moved to Texas. Even with all the talent this man brings to life, the educational system in Dallas said that because he was blind he was not teachable, and the agreement was that he would go through school and be given an attendance certificate. He and his parents did not know that this was unnecessarily limiting, and it wasn't until his junior year of high school that he realized he was not accumulating the credits necessary to go to college. He transferred to the Tennessee School for the Blind, got his high school credits, went on to college, and graduated. Putting aside all of the misconceptions about compensatory senses and the blind having greater musical talent, the truth is that to make it in Nashville is tough, and blindness doesn't make it one bit easier. But JP Williams has dared to follow his dreams, and the presentation that outlines how his life has gone so far will appear in an upcoming issue of this magazine. We need more blind people on stage and on the big screen. Given that blind people represent a cross section of our society, it stands to reason that some of us want to be actors and that some of us have the talent to fulfill that dream. Marilee Talkington is a blind actor, writer, director, and activist. The presentation she gave was entitled "Authentically Blind on Stage and Screen: One Blind Actress Transforms Obstacles into Stepping Stones." In her moving narrative she talked about how risky it is to dream, how difficult it is when those dreams don't initially pan out, how much pressure there is to perform when one truly gets the opportunity, and the satisfaction that comes when one is successful and is challenged to do even more. Ms. Talkington's spectacular performance that moved every person in the room at our 2018 National Convention will appear later in the fall. Our morning session concluded with the presentation that was well worth delaying our lunch. It was entitled "Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities: A Blind Entrepreneur Breaks through Barriers Everywhere He Builds." Its presenter started out as a childhood actor, graduated from Harvard at the age of nineteen with two degrees (one in mathematics and the other in computer science), became a lawyer, went on to work as a clerk for two Supreme Court justices, cofounded an internet startup, and now is an entrepreneur in central Florida running a company that does $150 million of business every year. Our presenter was Isaac Lidsky. He began by describing his career as a childhood actor and what it felt like at age thirteen to learn that he was going blind. He thought that he knew about blindness, and he harbored all of the fears and misconceptions that most people do. He described his transformation in thinking and explained that every day when he encounters people who have misconceptions about blindness, he makes himself remember how he felt and takes the opportunity to teach them the new reality that he understands and lives. His moving words will appear in full later this year. To begin the final convention session before the annual banquet, President Riccobono introduced our next guest by saying: "Our first agenda item is 'From Raising Wages to Defending the Right to Live in the World: A Champion for Disability Rights and Friend of the Blind.' We have a gentleman who was born in Pennsylvania. He has distinguished himself through strong service both to our nation and as a champion for equality of opportunity. After a year of law school he was drafted into the United States Army in 1968, where he won several medals. He began his legal career in private practice in 1972 and eventually became the assistant district attorney in Erie County Pennsylvania in 1980. In 1982 he was first elected to the United States House of Representatives, and he won reelection six times. He was elected governor of the state of Pennsylvania in 1994, and he was reelected in 1998 with 50 percent of the vote. I told him that this crowd might rival his best campaign crowd. He has done many things, but after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush called upon him to manage the creation of the office of Homeland Security, and later he became the first department secretary. He has gone on to create advisory and consulting businesses, but probably if he wants you to know anything it is that in and amongst all the work he has done in public service, he's most proud of being a family man. He comes to us as chairman of the National Organization on Disability, a position that he uses to champion equality of opportunity for all people with disabilities. Please welcome the Honorable Tom Ridge." Gov. Ridge spoke about the National Organization on Disability and its close working relationship with the National Federation of the Blind. He talked about the frustration of working with a population that experiences such a high rate of unemployment and how fatiguing it can be to keep up the good fight in the midst of all the bad news. He hastens to add that not all of the news is bad, and that an expanding economy finds employers looking for talent in places they have not traditionally looked. This is a sign of hope for people with disabilities. Governor Ridge's remarks will appear in an upcoming issue. "Aviation, Technology, and Law" was the next presentation presented by Immediate Past President Maurer, and it was enthusiastically received by the convention. In his remarks our director of legal policy discussed the law and its treatment of blind people. Too often we are viewed as the recipients of charity and government largess, people who should be grateful for any scraps we are thrown or any participation we are allowed to have. But we have moved beyond this place, and we have the right to make reasonable demands for access to information and the technology that delivers it. The aviation industry has been slow to acknowledge our needs in every aspect of travel from how we are treated before embarking, the way we are treated on flights, and even the way we are treated after disembarking. Dr. Maurer's comments can be found later in this issue. Following Immediate Past President Maurer to the stage was Blane Workie, the assistant general counsel in the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings for the United States Department of Transportation. Her remarks were entitled "Equal Access in Air Travel for the Blind: Raising Expectations from the United States Department of Transportation." She said that while there are still a number of problems in the enforcement of the Air Carrier Access Act passed in 1986, the United States Department of Transportation is aggressively pursuing solutions to many of these that have been identified by blind and disabled passengers. Everything from kiosks to guide dogs was covered in her remarks, and they will be found in an upcoming issue. James Gashel is the chairperson of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee. This is the tenth year in which the National Federation of the Blind has made time on its agenda to present these awards, and we are proud to work with the Santa Barbara Foundation to see that deserving individuals and organizations are recognized. A report of the Bolotin presentation will be found elsewhere in this issue. "Shaping Automotive Innovation for the Future: An Alliance with the Blind of America" was the next item on the agenda, and it was presented by Mitch Bainwol, the president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Mr. Bainwol commended the National Federation of the Blind for its pioneering work on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act and said that no other organization has demonstrated the leadership and initiative that the Federation has demonstrated. This puts us in a good position to have influence as automakers, legislators, and regulators make the changes necessary to move from human driven vehicles to self-driving vehicles. Mr. Bainwol's remarks will appear in an upcoming issue. Mrs. Jernigan was invited to the stage to present the Kenneth Jernigan Award to Mitch Bainwol, and this presentation can be found elsewhere in this issue. [PHOTO CAPTION: Scott LaBarre] Scott LaBarre was invited to introduce our next guest, who has been very helpful in advancing the rights of blind people to information through his work with the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Our presenter was Francis Gurry, and his remarks were entitled "No Borders to the World's Knowledge: A Commitment to Accessibility for the Blind." He began his address with these remarks: "Thank you very much, Scott. Dear friends: it really is a privilege to be with you. It's a thrill to be at the national convention of the National Federation of the Blind, and I would say that it is one of the highlights of my career to be with you to jointly celebrate the conclusion of the Marrakesh treaty and the pending ratification of the Marrakesh treaty by the United States of America. [applause] I'd like to thank Mark Riccobono, the President of the NFB; Fred Schroeder, president of the World Blind Union; Scott LaBarre, your indomitable negotiator, who has really led the process of negotiation and compromise that resulted in the Marrakesh treaty." Mr. Gurry went on to describe what the Marrakesh treaty would do for rich and poor countries alike, discussed the time required to get a treaty passed, and explained what a remarkable process it was that we were able to do this in four years. His remarks will appear in full later in the fall. In every convention we always look forward to new people who take the stage, but we also rejoice when old friends come to celebrate with us. Such is the case when Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google Inc. takes the stage. This year his topic was "Artificial Intelligence and Authentic Experience: Remarks from an Innovation Partner of the Blind." Having come to his first convention in 1975, the 2018 National Convention makes the forty-fourth he has attended. He began by talking about his love for the promotion of civil rights and that it began in his family long before when his grandmother started a school for girls in the 1880s. Ray was present for some of Dr. Martin Luther King's marches, and one of the things that drew him to the National Federation of the Blind was our insistence on confronting many of the issues that face us as civil rights concerns rather than medical ones. He said that when he was shopping his idea for a reading machine to help the blind, he visited a number of organizations. They commended him on his effort, wished him well, and sent him on his way. It was only when he came to visit James Gashel in our Washington office that he was connected with people who not only wished him well but did something to make that wish come true in the way of funding, contacts, and expert blind engineers who could help in the design of the product. He said that this experience in his young life gave him a real appreciation for how products should be developed. Since then he has gone on to make major contributions in the fields of synthetic electronic music, speech recognition, and overall pattern recognition, the latter bringing significant advancements in the field of artificial intelligence since much of intelligence is pattern recognition. To listen to his remarks in full, go to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_8/pm/07_art ificial_intelligence_and_authentic_experience.mp3. When the banquet convened at 7 p.m., we had a beautiful invocation by Ever Lee Hairston who was joined in an initial song of praise by Arietta Woods. Dr. Maurer was the master of ceremonies, and he had great fun giving away door prizes and made a friend every time a winner was found. After drawing the winners who participated in building the Kenneth Jernigan Fund, we next heard from our PAC chairman Scott LaBarre. He said that we fell somewhat short of his goal of reaching half a million dollars in pledges, but that we were successful in raising our PAC pledges by $21,000, so we now have giving that totals $498,055. Certainly all of us hope that we can reach and exceed the half-million dollar mark through the generosity of those who will be attending our fall conventions. After conducting some drawings from Federation divisions, sponsors, and exhibitors, Dr. Maurer introduced the head table and then introduced the President of the National Federation of the Blind, Mark Riccobono, to deliver the banquet address entitled "Authenticity, Diversity, and the Synergy of the Organized Blind." In his address he focused on the tremendous role women have played in the creation and advancement of our movement despite the fact that blind women have traditionally had less opportunity to participate in and have a meaningful impact on the societies in which they have lived. President Riccobono's address will appear elsewhere in this issue, and what a tribute it is to the women and the men who have given of their time, talent, and treasure to create the movement we have today. In keeping with long-standing tradition, Ray Kurzweil was invited to the podium to make some remarks. He wondered aloud just what it was that he did wrong to have been assigned the role of making comments after the banquet speeches given to the National Federation of the Blind. He said that he particularly appreciated the highlighting of women in the history of the Federation given his own family's commitment to the education of girls and women. Mr. Kurzweil was followed to the microphone by First Vice President Pam Allen. Her purpose in taking the microphone was to present the global literacy award to Francis Gurry. Her remarks and those of the recipient will be found elsewhere in this issue. Dr. Maurer took back the microphone, shifting for a moment from his service as master of ceremonies to the chairman of the Jacobus tenBroek Award Committee. He observed that when Dr. tenBroek started the work of founding the National Federation of the Blind, many people were of the opinion that blind people had no future. Creating an organization would not alter that, for adding zero to zero, no matter how many zeros you had, would still result in zero. But Dr. tenBroek knew differently, his own life and those of his intimates proclaiming that blind people did have a future, and more of them would have if they put their hearts and minds into the collective effort that could be marshaled by the creation of the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. Maurer's presentation of the Jacobus tenBroek Award can be found elsewhere in this issue. No banquet would be complete without the presentation of our thirty scholarship winners, and Cayte Mendez came to the stage to introduce all of them and then to reveal which awards they would each receive. Cayte's presentation and the remarks made by the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship winner will be found elsewhere in this issue. After drawing several fantastic door prizes, the last of which being for $1,000, the 2018 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind was adjourned. Even after a long week of meetings and little sleep, we Federationists did not quietly sneak back to our rooms but instead took up the challenge of making the most of the next few hours that would let us wrap up our annual family reunion. The 2018 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind became history when the gavel fell on the evening of July 8, but to consign it to the pages of history would be a mistake. Though the travelers are back home, the hotel space is being used by another group, and the luggage is most certainly unpacked, the real work of the convention has just begun. Now we internalize what was said, begin implementing the policies, and start the work of carrying out the many pledges and promises made to each other as we said goodbye for a time to the City of Orlando and the name Rosen, which has for almost a decade represented quality rooms and meeting space for the largest meeting of the blind in the world. When next July rolls around, even more of us will be found in Las Vegas, Nevada, but between now and then there is work to be done, members to be recruited, funds to be gathered, expectations to be raised, and lives to be changed for the better. This is our commitment, and this is our promise. We will make it come true because we are the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono delivers the 2018 Presidential Report] Presidential Report 2018 An Address Delivered by Mark A. Riccobono National Federation of the Blind Orlando, Florida July 6, 2018 During the past year, the blind of this nation have enjoyed continued success, expanding our participation in all aspects of society. Blindness does not define us or our future, but we are often limited by the low expectations and artificial barriers others put in our way. Despite these barriers, we seek equality of opportunity, and we strive to have full access to the rights and responsibilities afforded to all other Americans. Since 1940 we have found that the most effective means for us to reach full participation in society is for us to work together. When individual blind people come together in local communities, through state organizations, and as a whole in our national movement, we represent an authentic and powerful force for innovation, influence, and inspiration that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Together, we are the National Federation of the Blind. Education is fundamental to full participation in society, and we have pioneered programs to demonstrate the high-quality educational services blind students deserve. In the twenty-first century, skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are critical to competing in the fastest growing sectors of the economy, and we continue to innovate programming in these subjects. In July 2017, we held a week-long STEM academy at Towson University in Maryland-the National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam. Fifty-nine blind high school students from twenty-six states received instruction and mentoring from blind scientists, engineers, university professors, and other professionals. Nine instructional tracks combined with fourteen enrichment courses offered participants hands-on experiences in chemistry, computer science, cognitive neuroscience, ecology, engineering, genetics, marine biology, nanoscience, archaeology, and art. Full participation requires being well-rounded, so we provided opportunities for these youth to try salsa dancing, goalball, yoga, beep baseball, cardio drumming, karaoke, and dozens of other fun activities. Significantly, many of the mentors and instructors in this program were students during our very first NFB Youth Slam in 2007. Throughout the country, when faced with a barrier, blind students now say, "Slam that!" Last fall, the National Federation of the Blind was awarded a five- year grant from the National Science Foundation, providing more than $2 million for a project we call Spatial Ability and Blind Engineering Research (SABER). In partnership with Utah State University, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and evaluators from the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, we will lead annual engineering programs that we call NFB Engineering Quotient (or NFB EQ for short). The first of these programs is scheduled to take place later this month in Baltimore, where thirty blind high school students will join with blind mentors to explore the process of engineering design, from concept to tactile drafting to model construction. In future years the program will take place at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and we will all have the opportunity to meet some of these young blind engineers as project activities will be a part of our national convention starting in 2019. We expect research generated from these programs to transform how we understand spatial ability, with impacts reaching far beyond our accessible engineering curricula. We also expect public schools to provide quality training based upon high expectations. However, many schools fail to provide even the minimum educational support to blind students, requiring us to use more powerful tools to secure their full participation. Cody Davis is a high school student from a small town in northern Iowa. Despite his family's urging that he be given stronger training in the skills of blindness as his vision deteriorated, the school district settled for low expectations and failed to prepare him for the future. By the time Cody reached eleventh grade he could not compete with his sighted peers and the overreliance on failing eyesight was holding him back. After meeting the family, we sent legal counsel to work with our affiliate and a local disability rights attorney, Tai Tomasi, who is also a member of the Federation. Despite the significant failure of the school system, our team fought hard to secure a settlement that avoided this near tragedy. As a result, earlier this year, Cody spent three months receiving intensive blindness skills training at BLIND Incorporated-an NFB training center in Minnesota-where he began to flourish. He is now back with his sighted peers in Iowa, and he will head into the next school year with an appropriate educational plan that will facilitate his full participation. Cody and his family are here at this convention. We wish that Cody's story was an extreme exception, but we receive hundreds of requests to support parents of blind children who are receiving inadequate services. When we put a skilled blind adult from our nationwide network in the room with the school district staff, the chances of getting a strong result increases dramatically. We must find new ways to increase our ability to advocate with these parents, for if we do not, we are in danger of losing a generation to low expectations. Through our partnership with the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, we help to get thousands of blind youth access to free Braille materials including the National Geographic Kids magazine. Last summer we announced the next phase of this partnership, bringing tactile exploration and creativity to blind youth through art. We assisted in distributing more than five hundred tactile art kits to families with blind children ages two through eight across the country. These kits included a variety of tactile art-making supplies with the aim of stimulating the imagination. YouTube videos were created to share with all families how tactile materials could be used at home. A second phase of this project has focused on tactile drawings. We anticipate further efforts to stimulate creativity through tactile fluency in the future. The National Federation of the Blind continues to aggressively work to improve literacy through direct instruction in Braille. In the summer of 2017, we offered forty-eight NFB Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academies in thirty-one of our state affiliates, serving more than three hundred and fifty blind students. In these programs blind children receive instruction in Braille as well as real experience with the techniques that blind people use to be successful in all aspects of life. Through our partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation, we continue to expand both the depth and the reach of our program, and we are raising expectations among the sighted members of the community who interact with the academy. One example from earlier this summer was a coin-sorting contest matching our Arizona NFB BELL Academy students against the sighted bank executives during a visit to a Wells Fargo branch. While the aim is for our youth to learn financial literacy skills, we can be sure that the bank executives are having their own misconceptions about blindness shattered to the benefit of future blind customers of the bank. We also seek to achieve equal participation in higher education. We create opportunities by offering the most dynamic scholarship program for blind people in the nation, and we actively eliminate artificial barriers that bar us from equality of opportunity. During the past year we have worked collaboratively on accessibility with universities from Harvard to Southern Oregon, where we have shared the best practice resources we have collected. We continue to pursue legislative solutions to accelerate equal treatment by advancing our Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education legislation, which has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. Yet some colleges refuse to treat blind students as first-class citizens although they continue to collect an equal amount of tuition. In those cases, we are prepared to hold schools accountable in the courts for their unequal treatment. The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) is the largest community college district in the United States and is reported to be one of the largest in the world. Blind students have faced systemic unequal treatment by the college, including being shut out of courses due to inaccessible educational technology and being coerced into attending one specific campus even if it was not the location they preferred to attend. The National Federation of the Blind, the NFB of California, and two blind students have sued LACCD for failing to meet its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Earlier this year, the court affirmed our standing in the case and granted summary judgment on finding that LACCD violated the law. We are now awaiting a trial date to determine damages and remedy. When our equal participation is at stake, it does not matter how big the fight; we are prepared to use the tools necessary to teach a lesson about our rights. While we take responsibility for advocating for ourselves, we expect, as should other Americans, the government to uphold its responsibility to protect our rights when the system fails. The United States Department of Education has a significant responsibility for ensuring that the right to equal education by the blind is secure. However, the US Department of Education has abdicated this responsibility. Without notice or comment, and in violation of its own regulations, the US Department of Education changed the Office for Civil Rights' Case Processing Manual in March of this year. The Office for Civil Rights will now dismiss discrimination complaints without investigating them whenever a complainant has a pattern of prior complaints or files a single complaint against multiple discriminators. Furthermore, the right to appeal the closure of a complaint has been eliminated. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Department of Education was required to provide notice and seek public comment before issuing such a substantive rule, and the ban on multiple complaints violates the Section 504 regulations and is arbitrary and capricious. The Department has already begun dismissing cases, but the National Federation of the Blind, along with the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and the NAACP, has filed suit to reverse this limitation on our rights. We seek equal education, and we will not permit the government to use taxpayer dollars to treat us as second-class citizens. Education and training is not enough to achieve full participation in society-we want to work. Despite our progress, there are many employers who falsely believe blind people are a liability and that providing equal access is too hard or expensive. Mary Flood is a blind person who lives in Washington, DC. Based on her qualifications, she was hired by the US Navy as an educational technician, which involved responsibilities similar to a teaching assistant including working with children during indoor and outdoor playtime. Before her first day, she reported for a physical exam where a nurse and a doctor asked her several questions about her blindness and expressed their concern that she could not effectively keep the children safe without being able to see them. When she reported to the job site, she worked for about a day and a half before being called to human resources, where Mary was informed that the doctor had instructed that she should be fired because of her blindness. Ms. Flood had explained all of the alternative techniques she has employed while working with children in the past and how she lived independently as a blind woman, but the only thing that mattered to the Navy was how little she could see. She was fired from her position with the Navy, but in April we fired back by filing a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to guard against the Navy's discrimination based on blindness. We have the deepest respect and appreciation for our country's military personnel, but we also deeply value the full participation of the blind in society. In this case, we believe that Flood will prevail over Navy. Dr. Jan Bartleson is a school psychologist who happens to be blind. She has a distinguished record of service over many decades in the Miami- Dade County Public Schools in Florida. Despite her expertise and her capacity to work independently in her job, she is forced to rely on her sighted colleagues to access most of the software that the district uses to manage data. Dr. Bartleson has been denied promotional opportunities as a direct result of the discriminatory practices and inaccessible systems she has had to endure. The National Federation of the Blind filed suit on behalf of Dr. Bartleson against the school district for its systemic discrimination through use of inaccessible software. In this groundbreaking case, we take the position that an employer cannot rely on less effective, after-the-fact accommodations to make up for having chosen to implement new, inaccessible employment technology. Taking a stand for full participation is hard when you have given a substantial portion of your life to an employer. We salute Dr. Bartleson, who is here at this convention, and we recommit to working together to achieve equality of opportunity. We continue to raise the expectations for the minimum employment rights afforded to the blind of our nation. The United States recently celebrated the eightieth anniversary of the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act-a law that assured a basic standard of workers' rights to everyone except the disabled. Most significantly that law includes an exception in Section 14(c) that permits employers to receive a certificate to pay people with disabilities pennies per hour while using those employees to get preference for government contracts. However, due to the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind the movement to eliminate this discriminatory exception is gaining considerable momentum. The number of people with disabilities paid under Section 14(c) has been cut nearly in half over the past six years. An increasing number of employers are voluntarily giving up use of this exception and successfully transitioning to respectful employment models. An increasing number of chief executives leading 14(c) employers are finding themselves out of a job. And an increasing number of public officials are joining with more than seventy-five supporting organizations to call for a higher standard of workers' rights for the disabled. Where the United States Congress has not yet acted, states and cities are providing leadership. The most recent example came on April 2, 2018, when the city council and mayor of Seattle, Washington, repealed the exemption under the municipal code that authorized the payment of subminimum wages. The action in Seattle was no accident; it came through the persistent work of members of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington. We will continue to seek more places to join the city of Seattle and the states of Alaska, Maryland, Vermont, and New Hampshire in making fair wages the standard for all. In recent years we have celebrated our growing relationship with the Amazon corporation, but it was not always that way. For many years we attempted to get the company's attention regarding the inaccessibility of its website and their rapidly growing catalog of Kindle books. We tried all of the tools we had available-we wrote letters, sought meetings, offered our technical expertise, attempted to find pressure points, worked our relationships, filed lawsuits, protested at their headquarters, and blocked them from getting contracts with public entities. Despite the historical frustrations, we have developed a partnership during the past few years as evidenced by their presentations at this convention and the increased accessibility of their products. However, William O'Donnell is a blind person who was offered a contract job with Amazon in Massachusetts, but when he showed up for training, the contractor sent him home because the technology he had to use in his job was inaccessible. He had to wait four months for Amazon to make its inaccessible employment technology compatible with screen-reader software, and even then, he would not have had a job except for the support of the National Federation of the Blind. We negotiated a settlement requiring Amazon to place him back in the position once the software was accessible and to pay Mr. O'Donnell the wages he would have earned during the wait. Then there is Maryann Murad who attempted to apply online to Amazon for a work-at-home customer service position, but she discovered that the online skills assessment would not work with a screen reader. Our investigation found that not only was the skills assessment inaccessible, but the software that work-at-home customer service agents use in their jobs is also inaccessible to those using nonvisual access tools. These are technologies built by Amazon. We have assisted Miss Murad in filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is currently investigating the matter, and we are prepared to go to Federal court if necessary. Amazon employs more than five hundred thousand individuals in a variety of jobs around the world, and we want blind people to participate in those opportunities. The stories of Maryann and William are representative of the problems many blind people have experienced with jobs at Amazon. When we first raised our concerns about their employment practices, Amazon expressed surprise and pointed to the praise from blind people for their voice-enabled products-which you may not be able to afford if you do not have a job. To cut to the point, it has not been easy to communicate to Amazon what we expect when we call for equality of opportunity for the blind in employment. To Amazon's credit, they are here at this convention, they are seeking more blind employees, and they are prepared to work with us to improve full participation by the blind; and we are prepared to push as hard as we need to in order to hold Amazon accountable. We share these examples to put all companies on notice. We wish to participate fully in the community, and in the United States of America meaningful work has a big influence on meaningful participation. We seek to contribute, to develop our talents, to carry the responsibility of working on a team, and to compete in all aspects of the workforce. We do not seek greater opportunities than others, but we do expect equality of opportunity. We are prepared to work with you to innovate employment opportunities. But even if you are a partner of the organized blind movement, we will not accept second-class treatment in employment. From the stockroom to the boardroom, the National Federation of the Blind is committed to equal participation in employment, and we invite others to partner with us in that commitment. Independent movement around our communities is an essential aspect of full participation. Ridesharing services have improved transportation options in many communities, and we have secured agreements with the largest providers, Uber and Lyft, to protect equal access by blind people using service animals. Only the National Federation of the Blind has the nationwide network needed to hold companies like these accountable to their commitments to blind customers. During the past year, blind travelers with service animals filed over two thousand Uber and Lyft reports as a part of NFB's rideshare testing program. Progress in eliminating discrimination is mixed-many blind individuals continue to be denied rides-but we will not stop the monitoring until these companies adequately protect our equal participation. In January Delta Air Lines publicly announced a new policy related to treatment of individuals with service animals with a plan for it to be in effect beginning March 1. The airline did not engage with the organized blind movement before releasing the policy that violated the principle of equal access and stood in conflict with the Air Carrier Access Act. Among other problems, the policy required guide dog users to submit paperwork to Delta forty-eight hours before flying. Our swift and forceful call for Delta to meet with us was covered by NBC News online, the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, and numerous travel publications. Delta responded quickly, and after a series of meetings, Delta revised its policy to be consistent with the National Federation of the Blind's understanding of equal access. We have continued to discuss matters of importance to the blind with Delta, and you will observe that they are participating in this convention. We have successfully protected our ability to walk safely in our communities and hear the pattern of traffic. After more than a decade of advocacy, partnership building, negotiation, and follow up, the final regulation for the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2011 went into effect on September 5, 2017. The result of our unstoppable commitment is that all hybrid-electric vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2020, must comply with this regulation, making the streets safer for all pedestrians. We have brought leadership and an authentic perspective to the emerging autonomous vehicle industry. On September 12, 2017, the US Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, released version 2.0 of the department's guidance on autonomous vehicles at an event at the University of Michigan. Among an impressive list of industry representatives and policymakers, only the President of the National Federation of the Blind was invited to discuss equal access for the disabled during the secretary's press conference. In October 2017, the National Federation of the Blind and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers jointly hosted "The Promise: Autonomous Vehicles and the Disability Community" at our headquarters in Baltimore. This conference was the first convening of representatives from government, the automotive industry, and advocates for the disabled to discuss the advances, challenges, and the path forward for autonomous vehicle development. Our leadership resulted in the inclusion of provisions to legislation being considered in the United States Senate (S. 1885) that prohibits states from establishing discriminatory licensing practices based on disability and which creates a disability-access working group to promote best practices for nonvisual interfaces. In January our leadership was recognized with one of the inaugural Autos2050 Awards presented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Alliance for Transportation Innovation. There is no doubt that we intend to participate fully in the future of transportation systems. Increasing equal access to the American democracy continues to drive one of our priorities. Through our Help America Vote Act project, we provide feedback on the accessibility of electronic ballot-delivery systems, train protection and advocacy personnel and elections officials, and distribute resources to blind voters on emerging topics in election accessibility. Where our rights as voters are second-class, we seek justice from the courts. One example is Ohio, where we won an appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing a district court's dismissal of our case that challenged inaccessible absentee voting. Following that reversal, Ohio issued a directive requiring all counties to implement accessible absentee voting in time for the November 2018 election. Through our dynamic network of affiliates across the country, we will continue to protect equal access to voting. Let all elected officials know that the blind expect to be a factor in deciding who represents us in the halls of power. It is difficult to achieve full participation if you are prevented from having equal access to health insurance information and medical devices. In 2016 we filed suit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for failing to provide meaningful and equal access to Medicare information to blind people. After extensive negotiations, we finalized a settlement agreement that requires that CMS set up processes so that beneficiaries can make a single request to receive all communications and notices from Medicare in an accessible format. Additional terms require accessible, fillable forms for beneficiaries on Medicare.gov and the issuance of accessibility best practices to Medicare Health and Drug Plans. Unrelated to our agreement, we have been working to reverse a 2017 CMS coverage policy decision that prohibited Medicare beneficiaries from using continuous glucose monitors in conjunction with mobile applications-a decision that had the effect of making blind diabetics choose between accessibility and reimbursement for the cost of this innovative device. With the expertise of the Federation's Diabetes Action Network, we were successful in getting the Medicare policy changed. Effective June 7, 2018, blind diabetics can use continuous glucose monitors with accessible mobile applications, and the devices will be covered by Medicare. We also require equal participation in our financial transactions. Marci Carpenter is president of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington and a customer of Boeing Employees' Credit Union (BECU). She became increasingly frustrated as the credit union implemented new mobile and web-banking services that were inaccessible-preventing a blind person from even logging in. She soon discovered a number of other blind people faced the same barriers. As a result, the NFB, the NFB of Washington, and three blind individuals complained to BECU about the inaccessibility of their mobile banking services. Working with the Washington Attorney General, we negotiated a settlement with BECU under which they will make their mobile app and website fully accessible. BECU will also adopt internal policies and procedures, train employees and contractors, and only purchase accessible technology in the future. While many credit unions are fighting against making their websites accessible, BECU has worked cooperatively with us to reach a result that sets the industry standard for equal participation by the blind. The most important aspect of our work to achieve full participation has to do with our right to share our love with our family-our blind parents initiative. Over the past year we have continued to build our community of blind parents through our blindparents.org website and engagement on Facebook, by matching new blind parents with blind mentors, and through individual outreach via telephone. In the coming months we plan to expand our information sharing by launching an NFB podcast for blind parents and developing stronger training for social workers and others to understand the techniques that we use to raise families effectively. Our primary goal is to get blind parents connected to us as we know this connection is the strongest resource we can give to them. However, at the same time we seek to strengthen state laws to ensure that blindness is not used against parents in the family courts. We can proudly celebrate that we now have ten states that have passed a form of our model right-to-parent legislation. Congratulations to Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska for enacting laws this year, joining the states of Missouri, Tennessee, Connecticut, Maryland, Utah, South Carolina, and Illinois in protecting the rights of blind parents. The time is now for us to bring these equal rights to every state in the nation. We continue to assist a number of individual blind parents who face discrimination that threatens the bond they have with their child. Last year I told you about our determined fight to assist a blind mother from Nevada named Kayla Dunfield. When Kayla's daughter was about a month old, Nevada's Child Protective Services removed her from Kayla's care based on the claim of health and safety concerns. When we learned about Kayla and investigated, it became evident that blindness was the rationale for separating mother and daughter. More than just legal counsel, it took a village to support this mother through a series of actions by the CPS personnel that can only be described as setting the mother up to fail-CPS wanted to make the custody separation permanent. Coordinated by our affiliate in Nevada, which dedicated considerable financial and human resources to this case, NFB members in California, Oregon, and Colorado supported this parent as she fought for custody of her daughter and pursued the training and mentoring activities required by the court. The daughter is now three years old, but the bonds of love have not been broken. On May 25 the court permanently reunified mother and daughter, the case is now dismissed, and future birthdays will be celebrated with family. On Capitol Hill we continue to carry an unmatched reputation for being consistent, clear in purpose, well-reasoned, and doggedly determined. When blindness comes up in the United States Congress, our organization has either introduced the conversation or is the first to be called and consulted. This year we have pursued a staggering number of regulatory and legislative issues. While the progress of our entire advocacy and policy agenda will be presented later in this convention, we must celebrate the significant milestones we passed one week ago. We should first recall that on June 28, 2013, many years of collaboration by blind leaders around the world culminated in the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually-Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. Countries that implement the treaty will be able to exchange accessible books across borders, creating a dramatic increase in materials available to the blind. For the Treaty to be enacted in the United States, a series of actions needs to be taken including advice and consent by the Senate, passage of implementing legislation by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and finally signature by the president of the United States. Over the past five years there has been a gauntlet of personalities and organizations that have all wished to influence or block the adoption of this historic treaty in the United States. There have been many who have told us that it will simply be too hard to get it done in our country, but they do not know the determination and commitment of the National Federation of the Blind. Our Marrakesh implementation team has been tirelessly led by Scott LaBarre, a blind attorney from Colorado, who has used diplomacy, technical skill, and an unshakeable commitment to equal access by the blind to knock down the obstacles, make friends, and get a consensus agreement into the hands of the decision makers in Congress. Meanwhile, Gabe Cazares from our advocacy team has been the glue behind the scenes, tracking thousands of details and bringing together our grassroots membership, making sure we were all well prepared and in the right place when a member of the Senate needed to hear from a blind person that the Marrakesh Treaty should be a priority. We have been heard, and the treaty is more than halfway to the finish line. On June 28, 2018, the United States Senate passed its advice and consent for the treaty and the implementing legislation on the same evening. These actions were taken with the unanimous consent of the Senate, demonstrating the power of our work together in the National Federation of the Blind. We will not stop until we have gone the rest of the way to making Marrakesh a reality. Let there be no doubt that when the full participation of the blind is on the line, we will deliver the promise of equal access. Through our National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute we concentrate our authentic expertise as blind people and explore new programs that can help us transform our dreams into reality. From the collaborations generated at our Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium to the expert evaluations of research proposals conducted by our newly established Research Advisory Council, our activities are driven by the hopes, dreams, and actions of blind people. With our Jacobus tenBroek Research Library on Blindness we are maintaining the strongest collection of materials that demonstrate the progress of blind people, and we are able to provide expertise to NFB members as well as scholars, researchers, and policymakers. Our library also gives us the opportunity to put the work of blind people in front of conferences like the Library Leaders Forum at the Internet Archive in San Francisco, where the Federation provided expertise on making digital collections accessible to all. Through our Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Access to Education, Public Information, and Commerce we have provided training on everything from Braille notetakers to an introduction to web testing. A member of our team even taught a senior- level course titled, Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Blind Users, for the Human Computer Interactions Program at Towson University during the spring semester. Our team fields hundreds of general information questions about technology for the blind. From working with Microsoft and Google to testing the latest idea from a tech startup, our concentrated expertise in technology gives us the ability to help shape the direction of the technologies of the future. A full report on the NFB Jernigan Institute will be presented later in this convention. Much of this work happens in our offices in Baltimore, where we have been for forty years. Our facility is known for its excellence by blind people from around the world. If we intend to maintain our leadership position, we should imagine and build what we need for the next phase of our work: classrooms, a maker space, fitness facilities, a museum, or even spaces for self- driving cars. The future is up to us, and we need to plan for the next forty years of our movement. Full participation cannot happen without equal access to information, and we continue to explore new ways of gaining and interpreting information. In January we made history by making available the first tactile photographic exhibit in a major museum in this country through a partnership with 3DPhotoWorks and the Newseum in Washington, DC. This exhibit pays tribute to the brave marines who fought in the Battle of Hu? City in 1968. Our aim is to explore what more can be learned from transforming visual images into tactile renderings-both what we can learn as blind people and what the sighted might learn from utilizing touch. By bringing tactile experiences into more public exhibits, we also have new opportunities to share our insights with the sighted and to create understanding about blindness. The two most successful access-to-information tools available to blind people have been built by us-NFB-NEWSLINE and the KNFB Reader. NFB- NEWSLINE is now available in forty-five states and the District of Columbia, serving 118,900 subscribers with free access to over five hundred publications. The service also provides access to other information such as weather alerts, television listings, and shopping ads. The KNFB Reader has brought the power of fast and accurate text recognition to blind people around the world through a patented approach developed by the National Federation of the Blind in collaboration with Ray Kurzweil. We recently introduced KNFB Reader 3.0, which revamps the interface and provides a framework that will allow for additional improvements in the future. NFB- NEWSLINE and KNFB Reader were built by us, they reflect our priorities and our authentic experience, and we demand that these products meet our expectations for participation. We believe we can do even better with these tools we have built. Today, we are announcing our intent to innovate a new feature for users of the mobile application for NFB-NEWSLINE. Think of it as NFB-NEWSLINE Reader. Later this year, we will launch a new version of the NFB-NEWSLINE mobile application that incorporates the core functionality of the KNFB Reader mobile-point, shoot, and read. This means that every qualified subscriber to NFB-NEWSLINE will be able to download the new NFB-NEWSLINE app and flip from your morning paper to reading the letter that was just dropped on your desk. While the NFB-NEWSLINE Reader will not have all of the functionality that power users of KNFB Reader enjoy, it will be free, and a user can purchase the full KNFB Reader any time they want. You might ask why we are doing this, and there is only one reason, we seek full participation for the blind, and access to information is critical in that pursuit. The depth and breadth of our accomplishments in one year cannot be adequately covered in one report. It is best observed in the lives blind people are living with confidence and determination in every community in our nation. It is felt in the spirit of love and hope that we share in our work together. From the seventy-two families of blind people that we assisted when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas to the countless number of blind people who have been helped by the small and great acts of kindness that each of our members extends to blind people every day, we are making a bigger difference in this nation and across the world than we will ever realize. I feel the impact of those contributions every day, and it is my deepest honor to serve as your President. I continue to be humbled by what each of you does to power this organization, and I continue to be inspired by the heartbeat that we share. We are making great progress, but there is so much potential for us still to achieve. As long as you should call me to serve, I am prepared to give my unwavering determination, tireless effort, and open heart to this movement. I pledge never to ask of you what I am not willing to commit to myself, and I will take all care to guard against those things that will slow our growth and diminish the progress we have gained. Without you there would be no us. It takes all of us to make these accomplishments, and it will take all of us to meet the future with love, hope, and determination. That is my commitment to you, that is my report of our progress, and that is our charge for the future. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards presented by James Gashel Thank you, Mr. President and my Federation family. You know, I was arrested at least twice on the airlines. I'm proud of that. I joined the club with John Par? [laughter]. Well as the President has noted and the agenda has noted, this is the eleventh time that we have presented the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards on the final day of the National Federation of the Blind convention. Aside from the NFB's support-financial and otherwise-these awards are made possible with help from the Santa Barbara Foundation and the Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust. To date we have presented $580,000-[applause] yeah, go ahead and clap, that's a good one-to fifty-three recipients, and we're going to add six new recipients this year. A biography entitled The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story has been written by Rosalind Perlman and is available in print and audio CD format from Amazon, or you can get it free from the NLS program from the Library of Congress. Before you read any other book this year, if you have not read this story, you must do it. That is your required reading for the year. Jacob Bolotin's story defines what it means to live the life you want. He was born in 1888, and he only lived thirty-six years. But in that thirty-six years he accomplished a whole lot more than most of us are able to accomplish in twice as many years, and he did it with precious little support to fulfill his dream-which he did fulfill-of becoming the first medical doctor blind from birth. [applause] After attending the Illinois School for the Blind, he worked to support himself and his family in Chicago by selling matches, brushes, and typewriters door-to-door. But not only did he support himself and his family; he also saved up enough money to go to medical school. People in the student division, I used to be your president-take note [laughter, cheers]. Bolotin had no rehabilitation-you may say that's an advantage-he had no ADA or Section 504, and more particularly he had no NFB to back him up. In the spirit of Newel Perry, Jacobus tenBroek, Kenneth Jernigan, Marc Maurer, and Mark Riccobono, Jacob Bolotin broke down barriers and blazed new trails for us to follow. And in every way that really counts, he was part of our Federation family before we organized the family. The annual awards program we conduct helps to keep Dr. Bolotin's memory alive. It does so by recognizing exemplary people and projects at work on behalf of the blind. The awards include an amount of money that each recipient gets, but they also include an engraved plaque and medallion especially inscribed for the significance of the event. Here's the text on the plaque: Presented to [name of the recipient] by the National Federation of the Blind and the Santa Barbara Foundation July 2018 The medallion, which is suspended above the plaque, has the NFB logo appearing on the obverse side of the medallion and says, "The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award/Celebrating Achievement, Creating Opportunity." Then on the reverse side there's Dr. Jacob Bolotin's engraved bust appearing with this inscription: "Dr. Jacob Bolotin/1888-1924/Celebrating his Life/The Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust." And now, for the 2018 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards: Video Introduction: Ladies and gentlemen, the National Federation of the Blind is proud to introduce the 2018 recipients of our Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards. These six innovators have broken down barriers faced by blind people in innovative ways, changed negative perceptions of blindness and blind people, and pushed past existing boundaries to inspire blind people to achieve new heights. Our two individual winners-who are both blind-are: Carol Begay Green, creator of the Navajo language Braille Code: [applause] [PHOTO CAPTION: Carol Begay Green accepting the Bolotin Award] Carol Begay Green: "I developed a Navajo Braille code back in 2015. I developed a plan to teach the Navajo Braille code across the Navajo nation." Video Narration: Peggy Chong, also known as the "Blind History Lady": [PHOTO CAPTION: Peggy Chong accepting the Bolotin Award] Peggy Chong: "Several years ago somebody kind of gave me that little tag because I had been just finding all these little bits of odds and ends information and liked to share it about blind people. I had been doing a genealogy project on my family since about 2003, and then every once in a while on the same page as an article about my great-grandpa would be this article about a blind person. And I would copy it and paste it into another document and save it for researching later. About three years ago, I decided it was time to bring it forward-actually it was about four years ago now-and I began a project called "The Blind History Lady," taking a lot of the stories that I'd been collecting over about thirty-five years and putting them into a format that other people can gain access to. I consider the people that I research my ancestors. I have been collecting their data for a long time. Over the years I have gotten some of my articles in The Minnesota Bulletin or The Iowa History Journal, but to get this acknowledgment from my peers that this is important is, to me, very special. As a genealogist we often talk about how our families are the last to recognize us, so being recognized by my family just a few years after starting this project is very, very special." Video Narration: The four initiatives and organizations receiving Bolotin Awards are: Be My Eyes, a free service connecting blind people with sighted volunteers around the world. Cofounder and CEO Christian Erfurt: Christian Erfurt: "Be My Eyes is a very simple but powerful app enabling blind and visually-impaired users to ask for visual assistance via their smartphone without having to decide who to call with the actual task at hand. What we do is that we match on time zone and language, and establish a video connection to a sighted volunteer somewhere in the world who speaks the same language you do. And since the call is forwarded until answered and we send out the requests in batches, the one who does take the call is someone who has time and resources to take the call and solve whatever challenge you have in front of you. My cofounder and the inventor, Hans J?rgen Wiberg, is visually impaired himself. Early on he came up with the idea of taking the part of calling someone out of the equation and setting up this community of sighted volunteers. One thing is media attention from a concept level, because they identify and understand the concept, but to actually be honored and recognized by the industry and the users is something that means everything to us." Video Narration: iBUG Today, blind people training other blind people to use technology. President and CEO Michael McCulloch: [PHOTO CAPTION: Michael McCulloch accepting the Bolotin Award] Michael McCulloch: "We are a nonprofit organization, and our mission is to promote individual independence, social integration, and educational development. We've had a few people use their skills that they've picked up to gain some employment. We had one member about a year ago who got employed by one of our local Apple stores here in Houston. To see somebody who came in, maybe not even on their own, maybe wanted a smartphone, and we helped him go out and purchase one, select one that would be useful to him, and gain the training on it. There've been several that continued to gain the training so that they themselves could become our mentors and trainers and facilitators. To hear how they became successful and credit us for doing that is a real blessing. We couldn't do it without our volunteers; they're the best part of our organization." Video Narration: Ski for Light, connecting blind and sighted in the joy of cross-country skiing. President Marion Elmquist: [PHOTO CAPTION: Judy Dixon accepts the Bolotin Award on behalf of Ski for Light] Marion Elmquist: "Ski for Light was started in the US in 1975 and was brought to the US by a Norwegian immigrant who had been very involved in a similar program in Norway that was started in 1964 by a blind Norwegian entertainer. The whole idea is to share the love of outdoor activities and the sport of cross-country skiing with blind and mobility impaired adults. We have an annual event; each year it moves around the United States, 250- 300 people total are there, and that includes blind, visually impaired, mobility impaired cross-country skiers, and volunteer guides. From what I've read of Dr. Bolotin, it sounds like Ski for Light has been successful in continuing his philosophy and his thought that being blind is not a barrier to living a successful and healthy lifestyle. I think it really reinforces that we're doing the right thing." Video Narration: The Tactile Map Automated Production, TMAP, of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired San Francisco. Scott Blanks, senior director of programs: [PHOTO CAPTION: Scott Blanks accepts the Bolotin Award] Scott Blanks: "Within minutes of making a phone call and providing an address, a tactile map can be embossed and either picked up at our San Francisco location (if you're in the local area) or mailed to you within a couple business days. What the TMAPs allow you to do is get your hands literally on a top-down view of a particular neighborhood or section of a city, and it is one of the things that comes closest to giving folks who are able to see sort of that similar experience to a street view. The recognition is wonderful. What I'm really excited about, though, is that we're going to be able to connect so deeply with so many blind people and give them a tool that is simple, it's elegant, it's inexpensive, and it's going to unlock the world for them. This is innovation, and that's what Dr. Bolotin was all about, so carrying on that tradition is something that-I don't think I really have the words to express it, but it is a wonderful honor to be able to receive this award." Video Narration: Ladies and gentlemen, please give each of these outstanding innovators a warm welcome as the National Federation of the Blind now proudly presents them with their 2018 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards. [At this point in the presentation, the video ends, and the chairman resumes speaking.] James Gashel: We have six award winners this year, and you've heard from all of them. Isn't this an outstanding class? [applause] Just a word to the winners: we're going to distribute the awards, and we're going to tell you how much money you get. If you'll come up as I call you by name, we'll get that done. Carol Begay Green, creator of the Navajo Braille code. Here you go, Carol. Here's your Bolotin Award, and congratulations on the $5,000. Peggy Chong, the Blind History Lady, $5,000. iBUG, also known as iBUG Today, connecting blind people with iOS and Android technology and teaching them how to use it. Congratulations to Michael McCulloch, president and CEO, who is here to receive the award in the amount of $5,000 on behalf of iBUG Today. Ski for Light, sharing the love of cross-country skiing, blind and sighted people working together in an atmosphere of equal opportunity and just plain fun. When it comes to skiing, I always like to put in "fun." Congratulations to Judy Dixon, who is here today to receive the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award in the amount of $5,000 on behalf of Ski for Light. For the next $5,000, the TMAP's project of the LightHouse for the Blind of San Francisco. Congratulations to Scott Blanks, who is senior director of programs at the LightHouse who is here to accept the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award on behalf of the LightHouse for the Blind of San Francisco. Now for the final and the highest cash prize award this year: it also comes with the chance to say a few words to the group, and this is being given to Be My Eyes. [applause] If you have an iOS or an Android device and that device has a camera, then you can have a pair of eyes that work: twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, wherever you happen to be in the United States or in 150 foreign countries where over 180 different languages are spoken on the Earth. This is a free service, connecting blind people with sighted volunteers around the world. Congratulations to Hans J?rgen Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, who is here to accept [applause] the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award in the amount of $25, 000. [PHOTO CAPTION: Be My Eyes cofounder Hans J?rgen Wiberg accepts the Bolotin Award on behalf of the company] Hans J?rgen Wiberg: "I'm starting to like this better and better. [laughter] Thank you so much for this award. And with the honor-and also the money-it does make a big difference when you are a small startup, so this is super, super important. I am, myself, a member of the Danish Blind Association [applause], so I think you can understand that receiving this award is something super, super special when you are a blind guy from Denmark coming all the way over here and getting this. Thank you so much. I know firsthand how important it is to get a little bit of help sometimes. I also know that I don't want to have this help around all the time because they would drink all my coffee. So with Be My Eyes you can get those twenty seconds of help and then get rid of the helper in a nice way. And we have managed to get 1.5 million people to sign up to be your eyes. If you want to speak to all of them for one minute, it would take you three years, day and night-then you should take a break. But this will give you an understanding of how many good people there are in this world- and they are really willing to help in all those languages. Thank you to President Riccobono for inviting us over here and giving Christian the chance to speak yesterday. It has been a wonderful experience, and I'll be glad to come back next year. Thank you." Jim Gashel: Here's your award, Hans. Here's your hat; what's your hurry? [laughter] All of the members of the class of 2018 are now assembled right here around the podium behind me, Mr. President and members of the National Federation of the Blind. This is the distinguished and very deserving class for the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award 2018. Please give them a round of applause. [applause, cheers] Please visit our Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award webpage at nfb.org for more details about all of these projects, including the full length of their audio interviews. Thank you to Ron Brown and Mary Ellen Jernigan for providing their enlightened experience and wise guidance in selecting our award winners this year. Mr. President, this completes the report of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee and the presentation of our 2018 awards. Thank you very much. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Mark Riccobono gives the banquet speech.] Authenticity, Diversity, and the Synergy of the Organized Blind 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 8, 2018 Any single moment in time can be an opportunity for reflection, for commitment, or for action. That we share this moment together means that we combine our unique perspectives, backgrounds, and talents into one unified experience. Publisher Malcolm Forbes noted that diversity is "the art of thinking independently together." Artist Vincent van Gogh explained that "great things are done by a series of small things brought together." And Aristotle is credited with observing that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." This philosophical musing has now been applied in almost every aspect of life-from the Gestalt psychological theory that, "the whole is something else than the sum of its parts," to applications in physiology, economics, and theology. This concept is now better known as synergy, from the Latin word synergia meaning working together. Synergy is broadly understood to be a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct participants or elements. Leadership coach Stephen Covey describes it this way: "Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge." In this construction, synergy can be understood as the product of successful organizing. One of the best examples of synergy that I have experienced in my life is the organized blind movement. What are the distinct characteristics that have allowed us to achieve synergy, and how can we continue to grow the exponential impact of our combined effort? Blindness has almost always been understood to be a characteristic that distinguishes one as lacking ability. Throughout the centuries the fear of darkness shaped the myths about blindness that were shared through oral storytelling and later retold in written works. On many occasions, the blind attempted to come together to move beyond the myths, but they were always marginalized or overtaken by people having the distinct trait of keen eyesight. The dominance of the vision-centered approach resulted in deeply rooted misconceptions about blindness and pushed blind people to the fringe of society-we did not belong. By the twentieth century it seemed as though the great misunderstanding of blindness was unstoppable. That was until blind women and men in the United States gained enough momentum to begin to organize and share their authentic insights. In the fall of 1940, representatives of seven state organizations of the blind came together to form a unified national organization of blind people led by elected blind leaders-the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, a blind scholar of constitutional law, was elected as our first President, and his leadership was critical to keeping the new organization together. For nearly eight decades we have distinguished our movement by continuing to build on the authentic organizational principles that brought us together. The hopes, dreams, and actions of a diverse and committed corps of individual blind people, unified in purpose, and led by elected blind representatives have resulted in synergy. When others who are not elected by the blind have attempted to knock us off course, we have held the line. When those who choose not to join together with us have tried to divide us, we have held more tightly to the bonds that connect us. When others have said the blind cannot, we have followed our dreams and made them come true. With synergy, we are the blind-the National Federation of the Blind. Blindness is merely one of a thousand characteristics we individually bring to this movement. Yet, for our organization blindness is preeminent to our mission and our governance structure. In everything we have done, we have kept a strong and singular focus on blind people. Although we welcome those who do not possess the characteristic of blindness as members, collectively they may not constitute a majority of our membership, and they cannot run our governing boards. Kenneth Jernigan, the second great President of the National Federation of the Blind, articulated our philosophy regarding the definition of blindness this way: "One is blind to the extent that the individual must devise alternative techniques to do efficiently those things which he would do if he had normal vision. An individual may properly be said to be "blind" or a "blind person" when he has to devise so many alternative techniques-that is, if he is to function efficiently-that his pattern of daily living is substantially altered." Under this functional definition of blindness, we reflect one class of people-blind people-a class that deserves equal treatment. There are those who attempt to divide us based upon how much remaining eyesight we have-carving us into categories such as low vision, visually impaired, hard of seeing, partially sighted, visually challenged, and that most feared group, the totals. We reject this hierarchical vision-centered approach which threatens our common bond and our unified interests. While some of us may use visual techniques now and then, as blind people we recognize that vision is not a requirement for success in the world. Blindness is our primary distinction, and it gives us authenticity and power, but when we choose to determine our own direction and speak for ourselves, it transforms into synergy. An important second distinction fuels the synergy of our movement- equality. Since our founding, we have taken responsibility for setting the standard of equality for the participation of the blind in society. We have rejected society's second-class accommodations. We have never sought greater advantages than our sighted peers, but we have insisted upon equality of opportunity and freedom from artificial barriers. Over time, we have raised the expectations for equal treatment. One example is our participation in voting for public officials. Blind people were once forced to have their paper ballot filled out by whomever the polling place assigned as a scribe-the blind did not have a choice. We fought for the right of blind people to vote independently by bringing a person of their own choosing into the voting booth. Today, we favor a new standard of equality where the blind use the same voting systems as every other voter with the expectation that the electronic machines will be fully accessible, and our ballots will look the same, allowing us to cast a vote independently and privately. We must continue to explore the limits and evaluate equality within our movement and throughout the broader society. Equality contributes to our synergy in another important way-it strengthens our diversity. Blindness is not constrained by race, gender, economic status, or any of a thousand other characteristics. Therefore, if we are going to be a movement of blind people who synergize around equality, we must reflect a diverse range of blind people with a large variation in characteristics beyond blindness. We must continue to value and cultivate diversity as we have in the past, and we should guard against our diversity becoming a fracture that divides us as blind people. I have been reflecting upon what we know about blind people throughout history and during the time of the National Federation of the Blind. A pattern of leadership is evident that I believe exemplifies the value we place on equality within our movement. In the stories of blind people prior to our founding, most of the prominent figures are men, not women. Consider the nineteenth century essays of James Wilson that profiled blind people in a series of volumes entitled Biography of the Blind. Wilson profiles sixty-three blind individuals, but only seven are women. While a handful of other stories of blind women have surfaced since Wilson published his sketches in the 1800s, the record is still thin. Women have faced social, economic, and political barriers that have created inequality compared to men, and their stories have been under- recorded in history. Blind women, faced with the twin low expectations of being female and having the most feared disability, blindness, have been limited in opportunities to pursue their dreams. The lack of adequate training for blind people before the organized blind movement contributed to blind women being considered inadequate for even stereotypical roles in society. The full participation of blind women has been further complicated by efforts like the eugenics movement that reached its height in the early part of the twentieth century. Proponents of eugenics believed in selective breeding, which led to a movement to pass state laws requiring forced sterilization of the poor and disabled. These forced sterilization programs largely impacted women with disabilities and contributed to misconceptions about the capacity of the blind to be effective parents-a painful history we are still trying to overcome. In contrast, the role of blind women within the National Federation of the Blind is clear and powerful. This evening I seek to highlight a sampling of the hundreds of female leaders of our movement whose stories illuminate the characteristics that have allowed us, as diverse individuals who happen to be blind, to synergize a movement that cannot be divided. At our organizing on November 16, 1940, there were sixteen blind people from seven states in attendance, and two of them were women who both served on the board of directors. The first was Mary McCann of Illinois, who was elected as secretary of our organization at that first meeting but only served for a short time. The other blind woman was Evelyn Burlingame of Pennsylvania, who was not elected to the board in 1940 but was elected as first vice president of the organization in 1942. Let me pause briefly to note that Hazel tenBroek was also in attendance at the organizing, and her notes are the most substantive record we have of the proceedings. Although she was not blind, she was a significant force in the early development of the Federation. Mrs. tenBroek set the standard for what has been a proud line of deeply loved and admired sighted marchers in our movement. Let us return to Evelyn, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1906. After graduating from the Overbrook School for the Blind, she worked as the lead stenographer in the legal department for an insurance company; later she managed a small business among other jobs. In her free time she worked to bring together many small community-based organizations of the blind into a statewide organization called the Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind (which officially came into existence in 1934). It was the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Federation that served as the backdrop for the constitutional meeting establishing the National Federation of the Blind. While early Federation leaders had to expend considerable time and energy convincing blind people that we could gain synergy by directing the future through building our own organization, Evelyn already knew the value of organizing, and she was prepared to make personal sacrifices for the movement. Evelyn's hard work, information sharing, and wise counsel to the Federation's President were likely factors contributing to her election to the national board. In the National Federation of the Blind we elect leaders to speak for us, but those leaders must be able to synthesize the hopes, dreams, and innovative approaches that the members bring forward. In that regard, Evelyn may get credit for the Federation's first major outreach and fundraising strategy. On November 9, 1941, she wrote to Dr. tenBroek to propose that we approach state and national unions to enlist their support in the Federation's cause and to give specific examples of the circumstances in her state. This idea was developed into a significant program for making connections and gathering financial resources for the young organization. Evelyn's early and active participation in our movement gave credibility to the notion that the blind can and should speak for themselves. For Evelyn the characteristic of blindness did not hold her back, and for the Federation the characteristic of blindness was most important to Evelyn's leadership in our movement. Francis Lorraine Goranson was born in 1918 to farmers near Huron, South Dakota. She was the youngest daughter of the family and, like her older sister, she was blind and received an education from the South Dakota School for the Blind. In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the groundbreaking Randolph-Sheppard Act, giving blind individuals opportunities to operate vending facilities on federal property. By the time Lorraine graduated from the school in 1938, she was aware of the new program and prepared to build her own future. By the early months of 1940, South Dakota had two vending locations run by blind people and, determined not to be restricted to a life of low expectations, Lorraine took the initiative to secure the resources needed to open the third. She began by convincing the officials at the Huron post office to provide her with space for a stand. She then used her previous contacts at the local Kiwanis Club to make a skillful presentation that resulted in the club building out Lorraine's location and providing the early inventory of newspapers, magazines, candy, and cigars she needed to open the doors in April 1940. Lorraine is the first known woman to operate a facility under the Randolph-Sheppard program anywhere in the country. Her early success did not leave her satisfied. She learned about the newly formed National Federation of the Blind through an editorial in the All Story magazine authored by Dr. tenBroek's mentor, Dr. Newel Perry. On February 7, 1941, she wrote to Dr. tenBroek expressing excitement about a movement for the blind to speak for themselves. In her opening paragraph she notes, "I find that it is more difficult convincing my sighted friends of my capabilities, than the duty to be actually performed." She later shares her ambition and commitment, "I am writing you because I am interested in what can be done for the blind, and am ready and willing to do whatever I can at any time. To be frank, as I feel I may be, I am so very anxious to get out and make a place in the world." Lorraine possessed another important characteristic that distinguishes members of the Federation-hope for the future. In 1942 the characteristics of blindness, a drive for equality, and a hope for the future combined with a readiness to work led her to be elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. Her self-directed efforts to build opportunities out of the Randolph-Sheppard priority laid the foundation for the leadership we have provided to that program. Another woman from the Midwest was effective in teaching the synergy of local organizations connecting into a national movement. Ada Bates- Tiernan was born in Coon Rapids, Iowa, in 1889. She was blinded in an accident at age five, and her parents sent her to Iowa's school for the blind, where she stayed until her graduation. In the early part of the twentieth century, Iowa had no adult rehabilitation program, and Ada recognized that bonding together with other blind people was critical in creating opportunities for herself. She started by regularly attending the annual gatherings of the school's alumni group known as the Iowa Association of the Blind. By 1941 Ada had moved to Des Moines where she was president of the local association. She met the tenBroeks while in Chicago, and a stream of information sharing began between them. Ada joined the Federation as an individual member since the Iowa association was interested only in the school for the blind locally. She understood that the new National Federation of the Blind was essential to bringing inspiration and innovative training practices to Iowa. The hope and determination that came from a national movement fueled Ada's leadership of other blind advocates in Iowa. The Federation's National Convention was held in Des Moines in 1942, and Ada was critical in managing local details, including securing speakers. During that time the relationship between Ada and the tenBroeks developed into something more personal-what we would today describe as the Federation family. At the 1944 National Convention in Cleveland, Ada was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. In later correspondence Ada demonstrates a deep commitment to supporting Dr. tenBroek and advises him on many matters. At the same time, she expresses her own doubts about whether she has the right talents to support the leadership where she has been asked to serve. During a series of correspondence from February 1946, Dr. tenBroek expresses a deep belief in the talents Ada brings to the organization, a personal commitment to their friendship, and a faith in her capacity to provide leadership among the board members. Ada served on the national board until 1948, and her story helps to illuminate another important characteristic of Federationists-leadership. She wondered if she was really the right person for the job, whether she had the qualities needed to serve, and whether she was adequate to work closely with such a dynamic force for equality as Dr. tenBroek. These are doubts many of us have experienced when considering the work of this great organization compared to the individual contributions we make-doubts that are often a result of our internalizing society's low expectations. When she did not believe in herself, the Federation believed in her. That is the bond of faith we pass from generation to generation in this movement. We believe in each other, and it is that element that brings out the potential for leadership in each of us. For Ada Tiernan her leadership was inspired by her participation in the organized blind movement, where the most important characteristics were that she was a blind person seeking equality, with hope for the future, and a willingness to lead when called. A woman who was not born in the United States and who was not blind at the time of our founding came to be a force for sharing our message around the world. Isabelle Lyon Dean was born in 1896 in a fishing village on the northern coast of Scotland. At the age of twenty-eight, Isabelle and her husband, Dr. Alexander Grant, left Scotland to build their life together in the United States. In 1927 Isabelle began teaching in the Los Angeles County schools where, aided by her fluency in Spanish, she became a vocal advocate for the sizable population of Mexican American students. In 1940 she further enhanced her teaching credentials by earning a PhD in comparative literature. Her career took a turn when she developed glaucoma and, by the fall of 1948, Dr. Grant was totally blind. She found no hope among the agencies for the blind she visited, and her uncertainty grew regarding how to manage her job as vice principal at Belvedere Junior High School. Hope and opportunity returned to her when a friend introduced her to a blind man who was a member of the National Federation of the Blind-an encounter that put her on the road to mastering the skills of blindness, to internalizing our shared philosophy, and to becoming an active member in our California affiliate. Dr. Grant's own determination, the unwavering support of her professional colleagues in the school, and the shared bond with her sisters and brothers in the Federation assisted in rejecting the school district's attempt to force her to retire based on her disability. Yet, Dr. Grant would endure more than a decade of maneuvers by the district to sabotage her work by regularly shifting her assigned school and the students on her caseload. The discrimination she faced caused her real pain. One example is that the district assigned her a sighted teaching assistant to be with her at all times. When the sighted person left the classroom, the door was required to be locked as a safety precaution-a circumstance she described as "the blind teacher in a glass cage." As the first blind teacher in the California public school system, Dr. Grant worked tirelessly so that future generations of blind educators would not face similar barriers. She advocated for new state laws, organized conferences for blind educators, and innovated quality educational services for blind children based on the authentic experience of blind people. A trip to an international conference in 1957 sparked a passion for working on issues of education and self-organization of the blind outside of the United States, which would drive the final twenty years of her life. During the 1959-60 school year, she took a sabbatical from teaching to make a remarkable journey through twenty-three countries, traveling alone, with the aim to learn from the educational and living conditions of other blind people, and to raise expectations through self-organization. She chronicled her adventures in a manuscript entitled, "Crooked Paths Made Straight," which went unpublished until 2016. She would make many more international trips and correspond regularly with hundreds of blind people around the world. Significantly, 1960 also marked Dr. Grant's election to the Board of the National Federation of the Blind on which she served until her death in 1977. In everything she did, no matter the continent, she was a constant promoter and information gatherer for the Federation. Blindness was what brought Dr. Grant to the Federation family, but it was only one of many dynamic characteristics that added synergy to our movement. Isabel Grant was most certainly influenced by a blind educator from New Mexico named Pauline Gomez. Blind from birth, Pauline was educated at the New Mexico School for the Blind, where she graduated in 1940. A scholarship from the Perkins Institute for the Blind gave her an opportunity to meet blind people from around the country and set her on the path to be a teacher. In the fall of 1941, Pauline became the first blind student to enroll at the University of New Mexico, where she had to pioneer methods for gaining access to instructional materials and navigating the campus independently. Upon successful graduation from the university, Pauline returned home to Santa Fe, where she planned to teach in the public schools. Despite her qualifications, the public-school administrators could not imagine a blind teacher working with children, but Pauline was determined to build her own opportunity to share her talents with the children of Santa Fe. On October 1, 1946, Los Ni?os Kindergarten School opened in the back room of Pauline's home. There were eight children in her first class, and Pauline served as the only teacher, in addition to managing the administrative details of the school. From that modest beginning, Pauline expanded her school over the following decades, serving the children of all of the most prominent families in Santa Fe. Pauline's school had been open almost a decade when she assisted in organizing the New Mexico affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind in 1956. When Pauline became president of the affiliate in 1960, she began aggressively working on legislative proposals to improve opportunities for the blind. A keen educator, Pauline recognized the efficacy of Kenneth Jernigan's Iowa training program using the Federation's philosophy. She wanted that level of training in New Mexico. In 1963 she persuaded the state legislature to study the value of establishing an adult rehabilitation training center in the state, which threatened the monopoly that the workshops for the blind had on the employment pipeline. Workshop supervisors attended the 1963 Convention of the NFB of New Mexico where they were able to coerce their blind employees into electing four agency supporters to the affiliate's board of directors. Pauline took swift action to guard against the hostile takeover of the organized blind movement by sending affiliate documents to the President of the Federation, securing the treasury, and reorganizing the affiliate, all of this while running her own growing school in Santa Fe. Whether it was in the president's chair or another position within the Federation, Pauline had a hand in more victories than we can do justice to this evening. From leading New Mexico to be the first state in the nation to pass the Federation's model White Cane Law in 1967, to developing the teachers division of the National Federation of the Blind in 1970, for Pauline the Federation was personal. Her community contributions outside of the Federation were extraordinary and widely celebrated. Her school was admired for its quality and innovative practices. It would have been easy for her to decide that the organized blind movement did not matter. Except for her it did matter. She was a blind person, she felt the pain of discrimination, and she understood the synergy of equality. The National Federation of the Blind fueled Pauline's hope for the future, and we helped her to know she could do something to shape that future. She brought perspective, diversity, knowledge, and determination to us, and we gave to her the place where her blindness was a most important factor in her leadership, but the least important factor in her success. There may be no better example of the role blind women have played in the National Federation of the Blind, than the pioneering, tough, persistent, dedicated, and generous women who founded the three training programs that proudly call themselves Federation training centers. While these women, Joanne Wilson (Louisiana), Diane McGeorge (Colorado), and Joyce Scanlan (Minnesota) built upon the philosophy and methodology tested by Kenneth Jernigan, they made significant personal sacrifices and took risks that few would even dream to pursue. While each of these women has an extraordinary personal story, they share a common bond. They are all blind people who, until they came to know the heartbeat of our movement, had internalized some of the misconceptions about blindness that threaten to hold each of us back. It was their coming to be part of our movement which allowed the rest of us to benefit from their leadership. Did the Federation believe in them more, or did they believe in the Federation more? The answer most certainly is yes. Each of these women has brought their talent and energy to our cause, and their lives have been enriched by being part of us. From the perspective of history-now having thirty years or more of graduates from these centers-we can be certain that all of us are stronger because these women invested in equality for the blind. In case anyone doubts the impact these three women have had on our movement, how about a cheer from anyone who has been impacted by the programs and graduates of our NFB training centers? There are thousands of other examples of contributions small and great from blind people who happen to be women. From managing our scholarship program over the past fifty years, editing our publications, leading pickets and writing protest songs, directing our research and training institute, answering general information calls, testifying in Congress, building affiliates while raising families, commanding local legislatures, pioneering new teaching techniques, managing the operations of our Washington Seminar, directing fundraisers, to leading or serving wherever this movement has needed them, blind women have added synergy to our organization. That they were women was not nearly as important as the fact that they were blind people who believed in equality, had a hope for the future, and were willing to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. From Arlene Hill practicing the techniques that blind people use to teach blind people to travel, to Ever Lee Hairston delivering a powerful address to the next generation of blind leaders from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, we have overcome because of the everyday and extraordinary blind people that have given synergy to our movement. Tonight I call on us to celebrate these individuals and the thousands of others I have not named by committing ourselves to carrying the march forward. Tonight we celebrate the diversity of our organized blind movement, a movement that brings together blind people for a common purpose. We are blind people who come with varying characteristics- different races, sexual orientations, religions, political points of view, gender identities, disabilities, economic circumstances, languages, talents, interests, and priorities. Yet, in everything that matters we are one as blind people. We cannot be divided. We share a quest for equality and hope for the future. It is our diversity that gives us depth. It is our long-standing commitment to work together that gives us strength. It is our synergy that makes us unstoppable. Tomorrow we must again pick up the tools of progress. There are those that seek to divide us and slow us down. There are those who say we do not represent those blind people who have some usable vision. There are those who claim that for us equality means only for blind people who do not have other disabilities. There are those who tell the story that in order to be one of us you must fit a certain type. To those who share these false claims about us we say, we, the blind, speak for ourselves. Our movement is for blind people, all blind people, and we will not let others who are not committed to equality and hope for the future stand in our way. We will set the direction and the pace, and we invite all blind people to contribute to our synergy. We will not go back to a time when we must fight the agencies for the blind for recognition. We reject, as we have before, accreditation without authenticity in an effort to validate mediocracy. We leave behind the days when technologies were built and later made usable by the blind. We move past, but do not forget, the employment shackles of the sheltered workshops that pay pennies per hour. In doing so we recognize that there are those who wish to return to the good old days when the blind received what little charity was offered, and the experts in the field were qualified by the amount of eyesight not insight. To the extent that the past belongs to others, we declare once again this evening that the future is ours. Our future is filled with love, hope, and determination. Our future is distinguished by leadership, collaboration, and authenticity. And our future, as has been our pattern since 1940, is unified in the common bond of faith that we hold with each other as blind people. My sisters and my brothers, blindness does not define us or our future. It does serve the most important role of bringing us together in this movement, a movement that is built on equality, a movement that feeds our hope for the future, a movement that empowers us to lead in all aspects of life, a movement where we come seeking a place to belong and where we stay because of those we befriend. Let us recommit to our march toward equality. Let us welcome new members into the diverse family that we share. Let us direct our own future and reach for unimagined possibilities. With synergy, let us go build the National Federation of the Blind. ---------- Awards Presented at the 2018 National Convention From the Editor: One of the highlights of convention is the presentation of various awards. Some are presented annually; others are presented only as often as the Federation determines that a truly deserving candidate exists. The Federation recognizes that a critical part of our mission is recognizing the work that is accomplished by and on behalf of the blind, and the audience takes as much satisfaction and joy in presenting these awards as the committees who bestow them take in finding worthy recipients. [PHOTO CAPTION: Carolyn Mason proudly displays her plaque] Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award presented by Carla McQuillan Good morning. How is everybody this morning? Every year the National Federation of the Blind recognizes a teacher of blind students who has demonstrated performance above and beyond those of his or her colleagues. This year our distinguished educator has thirty-three years in the field. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas Austin. She has a national board certification in exceptional needs specialist for early childhood through adults. She has a certification in music, and here is what her colleagues say about Carolyn Mason: [applause] She never complains about her students or her workload. If she needs to learn a new skill to support her students, she will gladly learn it. If she has to put in extra hours, she will do so without complaint. She is calm and gracious under fire. In a few words, she is the ultimate professional. But the thing that really endears Carolyn Mason to the National Federation of the Blind is that she served as Harley Fetterman's teacher from the time that he was three years old and first lost his vision until cancer took him in his senior year of high school. She encouraged Harley to learn Braille and taught him Nemeth Code for his advanced math classes. She encouraged him to compete in the National Braille Challenge and then decided that, "Why can't we just start a regional National Braille Challenge here in Texas so that more of the local students could participate?" And though it took a number of hours and effort on her part, without any compensation financially, she gladly did it for the cause. We have here for her a plaque that has the National Federation of the Blind logo on it, and this is how it reads: THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND HONORS Carolyn Mason DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND STUDENTS For your skills in teaching Braille and other alternative techniques of blindness; For graciously devoting extra time to meet the needs of your students, and for empowering your students to perform beyond their expectations. YOU CHAMPION OUR MOVEMENT. YOU STRENGTHEN OUR HOPES. YOU SHARE OUR DREAMS. JULY 5, 2018 Please give a warm welcome to this year's distinguished educator, Carolyn Mason. Carolyn Mason: Thank you so much. I'm very honored to be here. I'd like to thank the National Federation of the Blind for choosing me for this award. I'd like to thank Jan McSorley for submitting my name, and of course Beth Fetterman, who provided information and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders throughout our time together with Harley. Just, thank you so much; it's very amazing to be awarded for something you love to do. [applause] [PHOTO CAPTION: Robin L. House poses with her white cane and plaque] Blind Educator of the Year Award presented by Dr. Eddie Bell Good morning, Mr. President and fellow Federationists. It is my honor to again chair this committee. When I think of some of the most noble professions in the world, I'm hard-pressed to find one better than being a teacher. Giving the skills of literacy to children is one of the most important things that we have to do. The Blind Educator Award is designed to be given to individuals who are blind who have been able to get into the teaching profession. As noble as the profession is, it has too often barred entrance to blind people from participating in that. Through the work of the National Federation of the Blind, many pioneers have been able to be successful in that career, and the rewards just have continued to grow exponentially. The recipient for this year, when I told the President whom we had selected, was very thrilled and reminded me that she was involved in 2004 at the very beginning of some of our STEM initiatives (science, technology, engineering, and math) in the creation of those programs and has worked with them ever since. She's been a leader in her state in working in the Braille enrichment programs. And in reading the nomination letter, it was pointed out that she is admired and revered amongst her colleagues at school, fellow teachers respect her, and parents love her. But what's most important is when you watch her interact with children, and the way they are engaged and the rapport they have is just phenomenal, and for many years now she has participated in this organization. Please help me in congratulating the 2018 Blind Educator, Robin L. House. [applause] I'm going to ask Beth to read the language of the plaque as I present it to the recipient here. And I want to say in addition to my congratulations, you will be receiving this plaque; a check for $1,000; and most importantly the love, hope, and determination of all the members of your Federation family. Congratulations. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND BLIND EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR Presented to Robin L. House In recognition of outstanding accomplishments in the teaching profession. YOU ENHANCE THE PRESENT, YOU INSPIRE YOUR COLLEAGUES, YOU BUILD THE FUTURE. JULY 5, 2018 Robin House: Thank you very much. I am really honored to receive this award. Thank you for being nominated, thank you to the committee and the National Federation of the Blind. I've been a part of this organization for eighteen years, and I've had some amazing opportunities to work with blind youth, and I really appreciate all those experiences. I currently am a school counselor, and I work in the St. Louis public schools. The work is hard, it is demanding, but my passion is in educating the whole child, the whole person: their social, their emotional, their psychological, their academic, and their career interests. So I appreciate all of the support that I've received from the National Federation of the Blind, all my friends that help me keep my passion alive and keep growing throughout the years. I love being part of this organization. Thank you very much. [applause] [PHOTO CAPTION: Mary Ellen Jernigan laughs as Mitch Bainwol accepts the Kenneth Jernigan Award] The Kenneth Jernigan Award presented by Mary Ellen Jernigan The Kenneth Jernigan Award is being presented this afternoon for only the third time since its establishment. Like the previous recipients, Daniel Goldstein in 2016 and Frank Kurt Cylke in 2011, this presentation recognizes significant contributions to the well-being of blind individuals that will endure well beyond our own lifetimes. The other common thread running through the accomplishments of these individuals is that their work has been done in solid and ongoing relationship with the National Federation of the Blind. Through those relationships and the cooperative work inherent in them, we each reach our common goals more quickly, and the results of each of our efforts are immeasurably magnified. Indeed, Mitch Bainwol and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers he leads have a commitment to pedestrian safety that matches our own. The advent of quiet cars endangered the safety of all pedestrians, but it also did something profoundly and insidiously damaging to the blind: it threatened the proven tenants upon which the entire system of safe and independent mobility for blind individuals is based. But together with the alliance we have faced that challenge and removed that threat. [applause] With the issuance of the regulation implementing the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, the techniques used by blind individuals to engage in safe and independent travel have been recognized and are now protected in the law. [applause, cheers] The three key provisions of this regulation that mattered to blind people: 1) that cars emit enough sound to be heard at all speeds; 2) that this level of sound be emitted at all times the engine is turned on, whether the car is moving or not moving; and 3) that the sound-generating system cannot be turned off at any time by the driver. [applause] These provisions would not have survived the long years of study and negotiation without the staunch support of the alliance. Over and over Mitch Bainwol and the organization he leads joined us in insisting that the capacity of the blind to engage in safe and independent pedestrian travel be protected. And they backed up that commitment by taking concrete and public actions aimed toward achieving that end by endorsing the Quiet Car Amendment to the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and later by issuing a joint letter to recommend implementation of what became known as the quiet car rule, which established minimum sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles. The opening text of that joint communication reads as follows: "The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Association of Global Automakers, and the tens of thousands of members of the National Federation of the Blind have a long history of working together to help identify and implement ways to help all Americans, including blind Americans, navigate safely around motor vehicles." Here I am moved to express the gratitude of the National Federation of the Blind to the alliance for working with us in what we have come to view as the ideal model for working in collaborative rather than adversarial ways to solve problems that might initially seem to have competing interests. I also note with gratitude that neither we nor the alliance regard our work together as finished. We are already working collaboratively to address the promises and perils looming ahead when, like the horse, the human driver is replaced by something incredibly more efficient. With autonomous vehicles now approaching on an increasingly shortening horizon, the Alliance cohosted an autonomous vehicle summit at the Jernigan Institute. At this conference, attended by disabled consumers, automotive industry representatives, ride-sharing providers, staff of elected officials, and policymakers at multiple levels of government, Mitch Bainwol made the following statement on behalf of the Alliance: "We are motivated by the tremendous potential for enhanced safety for everyone and the opportunity to provide greater mobility and freedom to people with disabilities. We are anxious to work with stakeholders and government leaders to develop the policy framework to realize these benefits as soon as we can." Well, Mr. Bainwol and members of the alliance, we are anxious, too. [applause] And we can think of no better partners to work with to make sure that when the fully-autonomous vehicles arrive, they will be fully accessible through fully nonvisual systems. [applause] We can think of no better way to express our gratitude, our trust, and our excitement for the future than to bestow upon you and your organization the award that bears the name of Kenneth Jernigan, who had unbounded faith in the unlimited future that could be created through the joint effort of individuals and organizations working together in love and trust to create that future. So it is with enormous pleasure that I make this presentation which reads as follows: KENNETH JERNIGAN AWARD THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND For your dedication to the highest ideals; For your commitment to extraordinary partnership; For your leadership in expanding access to transportation and ensuring safety for pedestrians; We, the organized blind movement, confer upon Mitch Bainwol and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers The Kenneth Jernigan Award YOU HAVE MET EVERY CHALLENGE; YOUR COMMITMENT TO SAFETY IS UNMATCHED; YOU ARE A TRUSTED PARTNER AND A VALUED FRIEND. July 8, 2018 [NFB logo on the left] Mitch Bainwol: I just want to say thank you very much. I'm really touched. This is also very heavy [laughter]. I just want to say that we have a great journey into the future, and I'm so pleased we are on this journey together. Thank you very much. [PHOTO CAPTION: Pam Allen hands Francis Gurry the Global Literacy Award] The Global Literacy Award presented by Pam Allen Thank you so much, Dr. Maurer. What an incredible and inspiring banquet address from our President this evening. [applause] I'm so proud to serve and to be a part of that legacy in our Federation family. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." We in the National Federation of the Blind have worked diligently to turn the dream of global access to information into a reality. We have believed in this future and tirelessly worked together to achieve this fundamental right and to open new doors of opportunity in learning and literacy for the blind. Fortunately, our dream of global access has been shared. We found a partner and true champion; someone who is willing to listen, to advocate, to educate, and to fight until the goal of literacy for all is achieved. Earlier today we heard about the many accomplishments of this most deserving individual, whose commitment to excellence has resulted in far- reaching changes and allowed access to thousands of published materials previously unavailable. Under Dr. Francis Gurry's dynamic leadership and expert guidance as director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, access to information across borders was transformed from a distant dream first articulated in 2009 when the concept was proposed to the reality of the Marrakesh Treaty adopted only four years later and soon to be ratified here in the United States. [applause] Dr. Gurry has demonstrated a steadfast and proactive commitment by promoting the Marrakesh Treaty at all levels: sponsoring informative seminars, forming partnerships, and working with governments around the world. There are numerous examples of the important work Dr. Gurry has done to further the Marrakesh Treaty and access for all. To highlight one initiative, he established and secured funding for the Accessible Book Consortium. We cherish the true friend we have found, and we are energized by the possibilities our continued collaboration will create together. In recognition and appreciation of his exemplary leadership and unwavering commitment to achieving access to information for all, it is my sincere pleasure to present Dr. Francis Gurry with the Global Literacy Award. [applause] This beautiful crystal plaque has our logo on one side and includes the following text on the other: GLOBAL LITERACY AWARD NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND For your commitment to making the world's literature available to all; For your dedication to accessibility for the blind; For your imaginative leadership in eliminating the barriers to sharing equal access across borders; We, the organized blind movement, confer upon Francis Gurry THIS GLOBAL LITERACY AWARD. In recognition of the significant leadership of the World Intellectual Property Organization in making a worldwide book treaty for the blind possible. You have facilitated effective sharing of accessible, published works around the world. You are a true friend of the blind and a champion for literacy. July 8, 2018 [NFB logo on the left] Congratulations and thank you. Dr. Francis Gurry: Dear friends, I am truly humbled by this award, and Pam, thank you so much. You have given an overly-generous assessment of the very modest contribution that I personally have made. It's you who did the Marrakesh Treaty. You were the origin of it, the National Federation of the Blind was the origin with the World Blind Union of the idea of the Marrakesh Treaty. You have driven us, you have had wonderful, wonderful negotiators. It was your time, Dr. Maurer, during which the treaty was concluded. It is President Riccobono's time during which the treaty will be ratified by the United States of America, and that is an event that the whole world is waiting for. I thank you all for your inspiration, and I thank you all for all that you have done in giving birth to this great treaty, which I hope will make a really worthwhile contribution to global access. Thank you so much. [applause] [PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. Marc Maurer stands with Joy Harris as she displays her Jacobus tenBroek Award] The Jacobus tenBroek Award presented by Dr. Marc Maurer Each year we have a committee that comes together to discuss the work that is being done by our own members. We think about our first President when we begin to plan this, because the award that we give for the internal work that is being conducted in our organization by our own members is reflective of the commitment of our first President, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, and we name our award after him. Dr. tenBroek began by having an idea. When he invited people to join him to create an organization, he did not have substantial financial resources to support it. He did not have a family connection that would build for him access to the people who might help to change the nature of the society in which we live based upon an idea. What he had was a thought that if he brought blind people together, that something might be done to change the society in which we live. Now many people at the time thought that blind people represented a number of folks without a future, and if you take zero and add it to zero, what you get is zero. It doesn't matter whether you add a hundred or a thousand zeros; it still comes out to zero. Dr. tenBroek knew that that wasn't the case. He knew that in his own life things had been achieved that many thought could not be. He had written law journal articles. He had been in college and got diplomas. He had found a way to do some teaching, mostly of sighted people, but now and then of blind people too. He had inspired other people to go to college other than himself. He had dreamed that there could be something bigger than he was, and he created the National Federation of the Blind along with the help of many others. So tonight we have a presentation to make to a person who has much the same sort of spirit, a person who's been long in the National Federation of the Blind, has taken some leadership positions (especially lately), but has mostly supported others in leadership rolls. And while we're on the subject, tonight we make our presentation of the tenBroek Award to a woman of the movement. I want to invite Joy Harris [applause, cheers] to the podium. Joy has recently been president of our Alabama affiliate. [applause] She is no longer, that position now being held by Barbara Manuel, who was elected this spring. Joy and Allen Harris moved to Alabama after Allen had come to be unwell, and they wanted to be closer to family. Joy and Allen got there, and Joy thought, 'We have a noticeable lack of leadership and unity in Alabama, and I am going to do something about it!' [applause] So after a time she became the president of our Alabama affiliate, which had been off and on a troubled affiliate. And it came to be unified with her in the principal office. And it came to represent people of different races. There had been those who wanted it to be all one color or all the other, and Joy said, 'I'm not having it. [applause] Everybody's welcome, and I mean everybody's welcome. You just come, and if you want to be a part of this organization, here you are. You can join it; you can participate fully.' Now prior to her being a leader in Alabama, Joy was mostly a supporter of Allen Harris, who has been a leader of ours for many decades. He has served on the board, he's been president in Michigan, he has been treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind, and one of the people who would always be there to help him and to make sure that things were done as they ought to be done was Joy Harris. So you represent a human being with two leadership characteristics that do not often go together. One of them is that you know thoroughly how to support somebody else in a major leadership role, and the second is if that's not going to happen, you know how to do it yourself. [applause] Consequently, tonight I have this plaque, which says: JACOBUS tenBROEK AWARD PRESENTED TO Joy Harris FOR YOUR DEDICATION, SACRIFICE, AND COMMITMENT ON BEHALF OF THE BLIND OF THIS NATION. YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS MEASURED NOT IN STEPS, BUT IN MILES, NOT 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 COLLEAGUE WITH RESPECT. WE CALL YOU OUR FRIEND WITH LOVE. JULY 8, 2018 Joy Harris: [near tears] Thank you. I hardly know what to say, seriously. This is such an honor for me, just totally unexpected. I joined the Federation about forty-six years ago. Somebody told me to come to a meeting. I said, "I don't know; I'm busy..." They said, "No, Joy, you've got to come to this meeting." I went to this meeting, and I heard people talking about blind people being equal and being first-class citizens-all the things-you could be what you wanted to be. I thought, Wow, I really kind of like this. People were getting a little rowdy; of course I'm a rowdy person, so I fit right in. I was elected ombudsman. I had no idea what that was at that point, but I was elected anyway, and I haven't left since. I'm just so proud of this organization. When Dr. Maurer handed me this award though, I kind of laughed because Allen did receive the tenBroek Award, and he was holding it way up there, very proud. Well somehow the award got left, and he was holding up a plaque with a pineapple on it. [laughter] So anyway, I truly, dearly love the Federation. When I am called, I will definitely be there. It's been a major, major part of my life, and as long as I'm here, I will be with my Federation family, and I hope this will continue on for many years. Again, thank you so much. [applause, cheers] ----------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Suman Kanuganti] Introducing Chloe: Guided by the Blind by Suman Kanuganti From the Editor: Suman Kanuganti is the cofounder and chief executive officer of Aira Tech. Aira was a proud convention sponsor of the National Federation of the Blind 2018 Convention, and its services were made available to Aira Explorers and to Aira Guests. Those who had not yet tried Aira were invited to download the app and try the service while at the convention, the airport, and other sites around Orlando. Here are the remarks that Mr. Kanuganti made to the convention on the afternoon of July 6: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Suman Kanuganti, founder and CEO of Aira. I'm delighted to be attending my fourth NFB convention, an early-July tradition that I plan to celebrate with you all for years to come. As usual, joining me this year are another large group of Aira employees, engineers, Aira agents, and many, many Aira Explorers. I'd like to ask all of the Explorers in the crowd to say "I." Aira is proud to be a part of the NFB family. Many of you have played a vital role in molding our company. I'm grateful to President Mark Riccobono and all of you for being vital stakeholders, creating a platform to augment the ability of every human being on the planet by providing instant access to information anywhere and anytime. My involvement with the NFB has taught me much about blindness. The NFB's core philosophy informs how we at Aira understand our role and aim to enhance access to information: always on your terms, whenever you need it, and however you want it. If you had a great experience with an Aira Agent, make some noise. Aira's human agents and Chloe-our evolving AI assistant- exist to objectively enhance access to both the physical and digital world, enabling you to achieve peak efficiency no matter what you're doing, the mundane and the marvelous. Because of my relationship with the NFB and through my study of our home-grown philosophy of self-determination as it relates to blindness, I want to reassure you that Aira trains its agents to believe fundamentally in the capacity of those who are blind. [applause] We train our staff to respect the alternative, nonvisual techniques of blindness. We teach our staff to convey useful visual detail in an objective manner. And we encourage our agents to defer to the on-the-ground judgment of Explorers, exactly as Chancey Fleet said in her earlier remarks. We also candidly set those expectations with every new Explorer. In short, Aira is one of many effective tools or skills, such as the cane or Braille, that anyone may choose to use to manage their lives in the way they want. And, it's really, really important to understand that the comprehensive Aira service will organically improve through the growing community of Explorer usage, as analyzing usage patterns is an important way to teach both humans and Chloe what the community most desires. This is how Chloe will be guided by the blind. [applause] If I may change the topic for a moment: recently, some of my NFB friends asked me about my background, and what influences my thinking. Well, I grew up in a small university town back in India, where I earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Then I attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where I earned my master's in robotics and computer engineering. Following school, I served in different roles, mostly in corporate America, including as an engineer programming robots at Caterpillar; as a hacker, integrating computers and machines at Qualcomm; and as a manager of several teams creating solutions in the connected world at Intuit. As a lifelong student, I took my second master's earning an MBA at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on entrepreneurship and economics. With this background, I started Aira. Before I continue, please remember that I love math, data, inflecting ideas, and economic models. So, with that in mind, I would like to share some key metrics at Aira. Aira, in the last twelve months, went from amassing 60,000 minutes to 1.4 million minutes of live-description session time between our Explorers and agents. Put that in context, and that translates to 20,000 hours or nearly three calendar-years of conversations over 125,000 sessions across five-hundred unique tasks, falling into eight general categories at home, at work, and in the outside world. In 99.9 percent of cases, calls are answered in under ten seconds, precisely 8.64 seconds. Why am I telling you about these numbers (other than because I love metrics)? Well the data speaks for itself. It tells us the story of how our technology and services are impacting Explorers on a massive scale. We also gained some insightful surprises. One year ago, most people in the community thought that Aira would be a tool primarily for navigation; now as it developed, only 23 percent of our sessions have related to navigation. And who would have anticipated that 28 percent of our sessions would have primarily involved reading-and now we're using the contexts from these sessions to help Chloe learn and review relevant material for you. This is a beautiful example of how the community is shaping Chloe's maturation. Now, superficially, Aira's technology may seem simple: a camera on a pair of glasses connecting Explorers to a trained agent who describes the environment. But the platform the Aira service is built on is not just based on video streaming from a phone-to-phone, Facetime-type application. Instead, our platform re-creates a composite, virtual environment of where you are, in a digital space, relying on our proprietary dashboard technology that our agents run on their computers. The dashboard is an intelligent, context-aware data integrator with video streams, GPS, sensors, mobile network data, satellite images, street view maps, and indoor views-I can go on- but also a number of online applications including Lyft, Uber, Yelp, Amazon, and even AirBnB. Our dashboard also runs Chloe, who uses each session's interactions to become a smarter AI agent. For the last year we have been working on the fundamentals of Chloe, who has come to life at the convention with our new Horizon Smart Glasses. [applause] Inspired by the feedback from our Explorers, and meticulously designed by Aira engineers, Horizon is equipped with computational power, improved camera specifications, network stability, and the simplicity of Chloe dialogue. This provides not just a stable platform for Explorers, but it is also purpose-built for making the most of the Aira service. One of Chloe's principal advantages is her ability to learn from you and others with whom you interact. Chloe is now able to listen and respond to you through our Horizon Glasses. Another key skill of Chloe's is the ability to spot read, which is currently in beta testing. Here's a fun fact- some of the technical components used in Chloe's system are powered by the NFB's own KNFB Reader. But, given the fact that reading a document and reading an overhead sign require different skills, our human agents are available to help Chloe when she needs it. This means that Chloe will be able to master reading in the widest array of areas. Chloe's capacity for situational awareness is growing gradually with each Explorer interaction- and we're incredibly excited to see what she'll do next. If you know about our Back to School program, say I. Awesome! Did you know that Aira has recorded over 32,000 minutes over 4,500 sessions of student Explorer use on college campuses around the nation? Students are putting Aira into action in a number of ways, including finding and selecting books from a library; getting descriptions of images in those books; reading handwritten text on the blackboard; submitting assignments online that present tricky forms; experiencing campus events; and even working on their online job profiles and formats, along with applying for jobs on company websites that may be inaccessible with screen readers. Recognizing our partnership with the NFB, I am now proud to announce that Aira will offer each recipient of the 2018 NFB scholarship class access to our Back to School program. [applause] These students are guaranteed nine months of free Aira services, with all the advantages that Aira Explorers enjoy every day. At this point, I would like to thank our partner AT&T for its support with this program. [applause] But these students are not the only ones we want to share the Aira experience with this week. If you haven't already, please, and I say please, download the free Aira app by visiting aira.io/app on your mobile phone, and sign up as a Guest. Most of you may already know this, but I would like to formally announce that the NFB convention and a number of locations in Orlando are free Aira Access locations for every one of you including Orlando International Airport and all Rosen Hotels. This is made possible through the creation of an exclusive NFB plan for Explorers, and we also have a special starter plan created available during the convention days. Not only do I want you to try Aira, but I would like to make your experience at the convention as efficient and enjoyable as possible. Thanks to our partnership with Lyft, all Aira Explorer and Guest calls for organizing Lyft rides during the convention are free. So Lyft, thank you. [applause] For more information visit aira.io/nfb. We are continuously expanding our Aira Access around the country for our Guests and Explorers to access the Aira service free. I want you to know that this is not just about Aira providing greater access to the blind community. It is in fact the blind community that is paving the way for greater access in our time for all. Did you know NFB HQ in Baltimore is also part of the Aira Access Network? Yep. Let's talk about Aira at work. A fun fact: Over 25,000 work-related tasks were captured last year leading to a productive workplace. Earlier this year on Feb 21, Aira launched its Aira Employment Program, joined by President Mark Riccobono, which allows all career-seeking Explorers to use the Aira service for all career-search related activities at no cost. Explorers have used the program to create and review resum?s, fill out job applications, get rides to the interview, access previously inaccessible content, and perform independent navigation to and from the interview. And employers have used the program to increase employee efficiency by providing access to the tools and technologies that can enhance productivity, self-sufficiency, and motivation. A fun fact which is not in my script is that we have four-hundred people in the last five months who used our career-seeking platform. [applause] This is why I am inviting every employer in the United States to become part of the Aira Employer Network. I am proud to share that the American Foundation for the Blind is the latest employer joining this network. There is a great workforce available for hire right now, just waiting for an opportunity to shine. For example, the Aira Employment Program just got stronger, and the Aira Access Network just got better. Let's see. How many of you are self- employed? Well that's reasonable. Many of our sessions involve sorting customer receipts, confirming inventory, and providing online assistance to send invoices. So, it's my pleasure to announce a brand new partnership with Intuit targeted to those who are self-employed or who are business owners. Intuit's mission is to power prosperity. So, to power your prosperity, starting this September Intuit will enable free use of Aira's service whenever any Explorer or Guest needs visual access to all matters pertaining to running your business. Here is the best part: it doesn't matter if you are an Intuit customer. We are literally talking about all tasks related to operating or managing your business. This includes reading receipts, invoices, filing taxes, selecting paint for a new office, and, of course, using the market-leading products from Intuit such as QuickBooks. Ted Drake, please stand up if you are in the room. I want to thank Ted Drake, chief accessibility officer at Intuit, for making this partnership happen. So Ted, thank you. [applause] So far we have touched on four topics. By expanding access to Aira for students, jobseekers, employees, and employers, we have the potential to transform lives to take 70 percent to 7 percent together. A quick note: Aira occasionally faces the challenge of how the media portrays an Explorer's authentic experience with our service. So, to address any doubt about what Aira as a company fervently believes, I am pleased to release our brand guidelines. To view these, please visit Aira.io/branding. I want to thank the Aira NFB Advisory Committee for its feedback in our development and articulation of these fundamental principles. There are always new value-added features and updates being added to the Aira service. So far, most sessions between Explorers and agents have been conducted through voice. Recently, we incorporated a new feature into our system, designed for accommodating the needs of our deaf-blind Explorers and for Explorers who want to communicate discreetly with our agents. I'm glad the Aira Messages feature is available now for all Explorers. How many of you here use the JAWS screen reader? In yet another example of how Chloe's intelligence is derived from conversations between Explorers and agents, Aira announced a new collaboration with VFO. The new collaboration will equip all VFO customers with free use of the Aira service should they require visual access to a screen while using one of VFO's products, such as the JAWS screen reader. This will help to increase the user's efficiency while simultaneously prioritizing the development of features suggested by the data sought. This integration will also help Chloe to learn patterns of the software. I want to thank Tom Tiernan, CEO of the VFO Group, for his partnership. [applause] Let me talk about our latest and greatest features that I saved for this moment, for all of you. First though, how do you like our Aira agents' live and vivid descriptions of events such as the Super Bowl and the royal wedding? The royal wedding was in fact suggested by the NFB, so we made it happen just two nights before. Also, how many Explorers have gone to a concert, watched a movie, or been to a museum with Aira? Now, what if Explorers could choose to share those experiences with others live? Yep, for the first time ever, at this 2018 Convention, I would like to announce a new feature called "Aira Live." Aira Live gives Explorers the ability to go live during a session with an Aira agent, allowing fellow Explorers and Guests to listen to a live audio stream of their session. Aira Live is perfect for Explorers who want to share their experiences at events, shows, movies, or for exploring as a group-publicly or privately. Every feature I've shared today is available to you now, and yes, Aira Live is in queue for the app store release anytime today. To learn more, talk to any of our staff; they will be waiting on the left when you exit the ballroom. Aira Live is another innovative way to engage our community and to further help Chloe to understand the context of people's emotions. The more she learns, the better she can serve the community. And although Chloe's main role is to serve the community, she can't do it without first learning from it. That's why we say that it's Chloe being guided by the blind. So, to express my appreciation, I would like to ask all the Explorers and Guests in the audience to please stand. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big round of applause. [applause] Thank you. So far, we've talked about education, employment, and access. But for me, our work at Aira is about restructuring the economy and the industry and community and its market serving blind people. To express my appreciation and commitment to all of you, and to celebrate this convention with you, I am super pumped to remind you to join us for an exclusive Aira and NFB event, the concert tonight with Apl.de.Ap from the Black Eyed Peas. Aira has been around for a little over three years now, and I hope you all see the progress, the impact, and the vision of this company. This company is about the community, and it is about restructuring the economy in the industry-an industry that requires behavior change and that requires everyone to come together. It invites and engages the blind and low-vision community to benefit from the profound advantages of our system together. In fact, today's screen readers are built for reading and interpreting screens designed for visual experiences, which is a great solution. However, there is a need for a solution which is entrenched in every aspect of a blind or low-vision person's life that can cut time-tasks, regardless of whether it requires humans or computer algorithms or AI to work. Aira will save time for everyone, thus saving money for everyone. Incremental investments today will yield larger positive developments for tomorrow. Potential developments include efficiency, higher education, more jobs, and more fun. I would like to close by saying that Aira is just warming up, and we will not stop until the idea of inaccessibility becomes a thing of the past. [applause] Let's welcome the generation of new accessibility together. Please visit NewAccessibility.io to let me know your thoughts and ideas. Thank you for this opportunity. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] Aviation, Technology, and Law An Address Delivered by Marc Maurer, Director of Legal Policy National Federation of the Blind July 8, 2018 In 1917, Calvin Coolidge, who would later become president of the United States, declared that four behaviors are responsible for making New England great. He said: "'Eat it up.' 'Wear it out.' 'Make it do.' 'Do without.'" Frugality is the theme. The author Jim Collins said in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't that "Good is the enemy of great." He believes that if the performance of a company is good-especially very good-that company is unlikely to achieve greatness because the people involved in it will think that there is no point in changing what is working well. In his play King Lear, Shakespeare has one of his characters remark: "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well." In 1772 Voltaire wrote: "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." (The better is the enemy of the good.) The recommendation is to embrace frugality and to be satisfied whenever it seems that matters are good enough. However, greatness remains the elusive objective. Change at the basic level demands extravagant exertion, extravagant expenditure, extravagant imagination, and extravagant leaps of faith. If the systems we encounter are really adequate to meet whatever needs we have, extravagance is not required. But if something new is expected in the creative process, we must find a way to gather the resources and to apply them with the intense concentration necessary to shift the balance for progress. Such matters come to mind when I contemplate the work of the National Federation of the Blind. When is the wise choice to accept what is good enough, and when is an absolute demand for excellence the only reasonable approach? We are asked, indeed expected, to accept what other people regard as good enough-not just occasionally but on a continuing basis. Sometimes we are not asked to accept the judgments of others but ordered to do so. However, something within us rejects this demand. Something within us speaks to the souls we have, telling us that good enough will never do. Something within us demands the best that we know. In 1949 Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder and first President of the National Federation of the Blind, published an article in which he said that equality as reflected in the Constitution of the United States must be interpreted so that characteristics of different groups of people would be employed to make legal distinctions only when those characteristics are relevant. At the time he wrote, he had observed that two classes of human beings, prisoners and people with disabilities, had been misclassified by the Supreme Court in ways that are not legally defensible. In 1955 Dr. tenBroek wrote that rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States are as applicable to disabled people as they are to anybody else. He thought that special legislation to address rights of disabled people should not perhaps be a part of the law because this would indicate that other legal protections available to people without disabilities might not apply to disabled human beings. By 1966 he had concluded that a criminal statute, the White Cane Law, should be adopted to assure disabled human beings the right to live in the world. As members of the National Federation of the Blind know, the notion of disability rights, which was new during the period that Dr. tenBroek wrote, has come a long way since the drafting of the White Cane Law. However, my own review of Supreme Court decisions addressing the topic of disability rights indicates that the breadth of the scope of protection is much more limited for people with disabilities than is true for other classes. Some groups of business leaders in the United States are attempting to cause members of Congress to add yet more restrictions to the protections offered in the law for people with disabilities. What these business leaders are saying, in effect, is, "Surely we didn't mean to include you in the businesses we operate. Surely we shouldn't be required to hire you. We run businesses for regular people; surely the law doesn't say we are required to welcome you." However, these business leaders are in favor of equal treatment for disabled people as long as the equal treatment must be provided by somebody else. When disabled people ask if their money isn't just as good as the money offered by others, the honest response is, "No, not really, because it comes connected with you, and we don't like your kind. Besides, aren't there special places for you to live and to work, and didn't our tax money pay for them already?" Most technologies have not been intended for the use of the blind. Two products that have been proclaimed as essential in settling the American continent are the rifle and the axe. Most people believe these two products cannot be used effectively by the blind. In my own case, in the past I have agreed with this assessment. In a liberating and instructional sequence of events, I myself have learned, at least in a rudimentary way, how to use an axe. After I had learned to do this, and after I had been bragging about how courageous and gifted I was for acquiring such skill, I came upon a fellow member of the National Federation of the Blind who had been chopping wood for more than twenty years. He took the ability of blind people to chop wood for granted, and he could not imagine that knowledgeable people would doubt that the blind can perform this task. This experience helped to change my mind about the application of technology to the lives of the blind. Technology is a fancy word for a tool. Generally, a piece of technology is a complicated tool, although the basic machines are not. Our experience has also changed the approach of the National Federation of the Blind to technology. We believe that it must be built so that all of us can use it whether we have the ability to see or not. Using technology with vision is valuable, but using it with touch or sound is equally valuable. This thought helped in the development of the blind-drivable car, and it is an element of the basis for our program to ensure that autonomous vehicles have an interface that is equally usable by sighted or blind drivers. The alteration of the approach is less in the technology itself than in the expectations that blind and sighted people will use it to the same degree. In 1738 Daniel Bernoulli published scholarly material in which he observed that increasing the speed of a fluid over a surface decreases the pressure. The Bernoulli principle has application in aviation because the top surface of an airplane wing is curved, which means that the air flowing over it travels faster than the air flowing under it, which decreases the pressure and creates lift. Almost from its very beginnings blind people have participated in aviation as passengers, but we have also had other roles. Some of us have been aviation mechanics, and some of us have supplied food or other materials to the aviation industry. Several years ago one blind man declared that he had become a pilot, and he spoke to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind. However, despite significant efforts on my part to observe this blind person flying a plane, I was unable independently to verify the claims he made. If we have learned anything during the decades of our history, we have come to know that changes in society that welcome our talent come only when we participate. Ordinarily the leaders of society do not think of the blind when they plan a design for the future. Consequently, we must find a way to get the attention of the people with whom we interact. It is said of the Army mule that it is a useful animal if you can get its attention. Frequently a two-by-four beside the head is the easiest way to accomplish this. Sometimes our own form of two-by-four is the only practical approach. If we intend, as indeed we do, to be recognized as the valuable people we are, we must plan strategies for participation in all elements of the society in which we live. Consequently, it is incumbent upon us to begin with imaginative dreams and to plan for those dreams to become real. When I met the man who said he was a blind pilot, I was not convinced that he was telling me the whole story. However, I was convinced that methods could be devised for us to become nothing less than the people responsible for flying the planes. Indeed, I have tried it myself, sitting at the controls of a plane owned by a friend of mine. However, I did not think that I had sufficient information, or the tools to gather it, to permit me to land the plane independently. Such products must be invented. In the aviation industry we are mostly unwelcomed-not just as workers but also sometimes as passengers on commercial planes. The list of complaints from blind people attempting to fly independently and peaceably on the airlines of the nation and the world is extensive. We decided in the 1980s that something should be done, and we persuaded our government to adopt the Air Carrier Access Act. This law was originally interpreted to mean that those of us denied the opportunity to fly on a commercial airline because of our disabilities could bring suit in federal court to challenge the discrimination. However, the Supreme Court decided to change the nature of the interpretation of law such that a right to sue the airlines would be withdrawn. We have proposed to the American Bar Association that it adopt a resolution recognizing the urgent need for disabled passengers not to encounter discrimination in air travel and to be able to challenge the discrimination in court. The most recent statistics available indicate that in 2016, 32,445 complaints regarding disability-related incidents were filed against the airlines with the Department of Transportation. Some statisticians believe that at least ten incidents occur for each one for which a complaint is filed. The Department of Transportation does have some administrative authority over the airlines, but it almost never takes any action on behalf of disabled passengers except to send a note to the airlines telling them that discrimination is forbidden. As one commentator put it, this is like telling the airlines, "Bad dogs, no, no!" The Industrial Revolution altered the mechanisms of production and as a result the nature of society. Some authors believe that we are now in the 4th industrial revolution. In this revolution biological systems will become digital, nanotechnology will permit manipulation of tissue at the cellular level, pyramidal governance systems will give way to much more widely distributed knowledge and power, and alterations will take place in the classification of human beings and the methods for acquiring wealth. Already blockchain technology has created the cryptocurrencies that have brought wealth to some and heartache to others. These currencies have not been issued by government but arise from the nature of the technology that created them. They represent a previously unknown form of wealth. Predictions for blockchain technology suggest that this particular method of sharing information will change much more than the investment options represented by bitcoin. These alterations will inevitably modify political systems and the law. Within the 4th industrial revolution some people will invent new machines; some will write books, although they will not be distributed on paper; some will imagine new forms of entertainment; and some will concentrate on new concepts. Those who create the machines will undoubtedly change the nature of the ways we interact with one another. However, the organizations and individuals to address the future in the most effective manner will be those who concentrate on ideas. In the National Federation of the Blind we have invented technologies. We created NFB-NEWSLINE? for the blind, and we built the blind-drivable car. Our work was also quite influential in bringing Braille notetakers into the marketplace. However, we have done most of our work by inventing new methods of thought, and this has been the most influential contribution we could make. Ours is a philosophical comprehension of disability which declares that all human beings have contributions to make- that all have value. Our job is to find that value and to employ methods that will put it to work. We will not just survive the 4th industrial revolution; we will help to bring to it the kind of basic thought and the kind of uplifted spirit that make our contributions welcomed. However, none of this will happen until we have made our determination perfectly clear. We will be grateful for an invitation to help with the planning no more. We expect to be in meetings when the decisions are made. We will apologize for the changes that we demand no more. We require that universal acceptance of the value that we have be understood. Our place on the fringe is no longer enough. Not only will we walk the corridors of power; we will help to shape them. The form they take will be better than it might otherwise have been because of the ideas we bring. We have value, and we cannot be written off. When I was a small boy, I told my mother that I could help. I did not want to be left out of the projects we undertook as a family. She gave me a job. Since that time I have had many, many jobs, but in most cases I have had to invent them myself. I have contributions to make and a burning desire to make them. My experience with members of the National Federation of the Blind informs me that I am not alone. You share this goal. You too have contributions to make. As I was considering these thoughts for our national convention, my friend and colleague Pat Miller urged me to tell you of a saying of Confucius which is, "Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without." I feel certain she had in mind that organizations and human beings are not perfect but that they possess qualities of genuine value without achieving perfection. If you put your mind and your heart to the effort, a diamond you can become. Unique contributions can be made by your energy and your commitment. Reflecting upon the comments of our President at the 75th anniversary of the National Federation of the Blind, I know for a certainty that working with each other we have the power to build a society that includes us all. I know for a certainty that we can create a welcoming personality for each of us within our nation. Properly polished we will have the hardness and the force that comes to the tool that carries the diamond as its cutting edge. The value we possess has the beauty of the facets cut from this most enduring gem. The dream of equality we share is extravagant-and the only reasonable approach. Let us gather the force to make it real. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Eve Hill] A Summary of Recent Legal Activity by Eve Hill From the Editor: Here are comments made during the meeting of the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors that were too long to be captured in the 2018 Convention Roundup but simply must not be left out of this issue. Eve Hill now works for Brown, Goldstein & Levy and has a long history of involvement with the Federation as a result of her legal work at this firm and in a number of other government jobs. Here is what she said to the board and its substantial audience: President Riccobono asked me to make it snappy so we can get on to the reveal, maybe. So I'm not going to thank everyone, and I'm not going to say how honored we are at Brown, Goldstein & Levy to be working for the NFB, but I do want to take this moment to talk about the cases and how we and NFB's other lawyers do fit into a bigger framework. When NFB sends a demand letter to the Boeing Employees Credit Union [BECU], we're not just trying to get access for the three individuals who complained about their mobile app not being accessible. We're not even just getting the app fixed for all the blind people in Washington who want to bank with the same convenience as everyone else. We are working to change how credit unions think about mobile access. Right now the credit union industry is pushing back hard on having to make their websites and mobile apps accessible, but BECU is showing them that they have to, and they can, and it's the right thing to do if you want to be in business. And when we work with the NFB of Maryland to challenge inaccessible checkouts at one of the biggest retailers in the world, we are teaching that retailer that it can't achieve staff savings by switching everyone else to self-service checkout but leaving blind people to rely on the fewer and fewer staff they'll keep. When we tell Blue Cross Blue Shield's federal employee program they can't have an inaccessible website, we're not just saying that blind people want equal access to healthcare; we're saying that even if the federal government neglects to enforce its rights to accessible technology, we, the blind people will. When we sue the Department of Education for abdicating its responsibility to enforce our rights, we're not just saying we have rights to education; we are saying the blind are full taxpaying citizens, and the government can't use our tax money to fund discrimination. [applause] Don't applaud; I'm going too slow. When we sue employers in Maryland and Florida and Michigan for excluding blind people from employment and advancement by employing inaccessible job technology, we're not just saying we want accommodations. We are saying that when you build new things and new technology, you have to build it accessibly. When we tell online web design sites like GoDaddy that it has to make its own websites accessible, and it has to help its customers make its websites accessible, we're not just making a website accessible; we're saying stop the flow of inaccessible websites into the world at its source. So there are a number of surveys out. This is where you come in. Asking you about your experiences, filing Department of Education complaints, using GoDaddy, encountering inaccessible educational technology, using mobile banking apps, getting accessible bills from your doctors or health insurance, and experiencing employment technology barriers. Your answer is not just about solving the problem you face for you; it's about getting rid of that barrier for everyone and stopping new barriers for everyone. So thank you for your responses and your advocacy and for making the world a better place. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: The 2018 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Class. Back row, left to right: Matthew Turner, Tasnim Abdulsalam Alshuli, Elizabeth Rouse, John E. Harrison, Tyron Bratcher, Chrys Buckley, Paige Young, Shane Lowe, Eric J. Harvey, Sarah Beth Patnaude. Middle row, left to right: Harry Staley Jr., Sara LaVel Mornis, Yasmine Marie Sarraf, Trisha Kulkarni, Justin Heard, Seth Lowman, Jeff Humphrey, Cathy Tuton, Olivia Charland, Naim Muawia Abu-El Hawa. Front row, left to right: Alexandra Florencia Alfonso, Connor James Mullin, Purvi Contractor, Amanda L. Lannan, Caitlin Sarubbi, Kenia Flores, Ozgul Calicioglu, Rilee Sloan, Menuka (Jyoti) Rai, Millad Bokhouri] Meet the 2018 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Class The head of the scholarship committee, Cayte Mendez, introduced the 2018 scholarship class with these remarks: Good morning, Mr. President and members of the board. It's been my privilege to serve as chair of this committee for the past year. Before I go any further, I just want to take a quick opportunity to thank my predecessor, Patti Chang, for all of her hard work with the committee. [applause] With her mentorship and the support of the committee members, it's made my learning curve as smooth as it could possibly have been, so thanks. This scholarship program is an opportunity for the National Federation of the Blind to emphasize our commitment to academic excellence and leadership among blind students. The folks I'm going to introduce to you this morning exemplify these qualities in spades. I'm going to introduce each scholarship finalist in this fashion: first name, last name, and then two states. The first state is their home state; the second state is the state where they will be attending school. Now, last night at the NABS board meeting the students did a really wonderful job of following these directions, so today I hope the folks in the audience can follow them as well. [laughter] Please reserve your applause until the end. There are thirty scholarship finalists, and if we clap for all of them, we're going to be here until next Tuesday. They're all wonderful and deserve our attention, so let's please clap for them at the end. Now the students could follow these directions-so the audience at the board meeting, I hope you can as well. Our first scholarship finalist this year, alphabetically, is one of only thirteen men in this class. Once again the numbers are skewed toward the ladies. Naim Abu-El Hawa, Virginia, Virginia: Good morning, Federation family. It is my most sincere pleasure to be here this morning with ya'll and to be honored with the value of being a scholarship finalist. Little bit about me: I am studying international relations with a Middle East politics concentration. A fun fact about me: I am proud to identify with my activist status, no political implications within-actually, lots of political implications within. I cannot reiterate enough the honor that has been placed in my hands being a scholarship finalist, and I hope to live up to the expectations that the National Federation of the Blind has placed in my trust and care. Thank you fellow Federationists. Alexandra Alfonso, District of Columbia, District of Columbia: In the fall I plan on attending Catholic University, where I will major in music education and pre-law. One day I hope to be a teacher of the visually impaired and a practicing lawyer in juvenile courts. I went to a school for the arts for three years, where I majored in vocal music, which motivated me to do music education. Thank you. Tasnim Alshuli, Arizona, Arizona: Hello, everyone. Thank you. I'm so honored, first of all, to be here and to be one of the finalists in the 2018 scholarship class. I am a doctoral student in education. My focus is mathematics and visual impairment. I have faced a lot of exclusiveness and inaccessibility as well as discrimination in my education career. I have met a lot of you that have also faced the same in either K12 or higher education. I am devoting myself to research how blind students learn mathematics, and with your help my NFB family-brothers and sisters-we will do it together. Thank you. Millad Bokhouri, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania: Hello NFB. I'm getting my master's in health care administration, specializing in disability services in medicine. The projected stats for the blind population in the United States are that it will grow by 30 percent. Seventy-five percent of that will be ages fifty-five and older, and I personally believe that they have a more difficult time adjusting to their vision loss and blindness than our citizens starting at a younger age. My motivation is that the blind people in this country need to break into health care and make an active change there. I'm hoping that by implementing and learning about administrative services, I can be a better advocate for not only the blind but also the sick and the ill. I'm also hoping that by next year when I come back to the 2019 convention-wherever it is-that I would also be able to potentially develop a health care committee to create transparency for not only health care individuals in medicine who are blind, but also within the immediate community. Tyron Bratcher, Maryland, Maryland: Good morning, Federation family. This coming fall I will be completing my final year of undergraduate studies at Coppin State University in Baltimore. I am studying social work, and I have a rehabilitation services minor. After I am finished at Coppin, I am planning on pursuing my master's degree in social work, doing work that helps people who are not only blind but people with all types of disabilities realize what most of us here already do, which is that no matter what's going on, what type of disability you have, whatever the case is, it doesn't have to automatically stop you from living the life that you want. I am truly honored to be here. I have attended many conventions, but it is an honor to be here this year as one of the national scholarship finalists. I'm not only involved in things in the Federation but also in my school. And one of them that I am looking forward to this year is I may possibly have an opportunity to join my school's executive board of student government association this coming year as a representative to the University System of Maryland's student council, which has the opportunity to make recommendations to our chancellor and our board of regents on different issues including appointments of student regents and different things like that. I'm looking forward to that, and even if I don't get that position, I may have the opportunity to join in a different executive board position. I truly enjoy being part of the Federation, and I definitely use what I've learned here to help me with other things that I'm involved in at school as well as in my community. I thank you for all the support that everyone has given me over the years, and I look forward to continuing to be active in helping to build the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you. Our next finalist is also a tenBroek Fellow. That means that she has previously won a National Federation of the Blind scholarship, and this honor is named after Jacobus tenBroek, a renowned leader in our organization's past. So, without further delay I'm going to introduce all of you to Chrys Buckley, Oregon, Oregon: Good morning, NFB. In a month from tomorrow I will be starting medical school, and it was a long journey to get to this point. I earned degrees in micromolecular biology, biochemistry, and arts and letters, and worked as a chemistry tutor and tutor coordinator. When it was time for me to take the MCAT, the NFB intervened to make sure that I got testing accommodations. I love science, and I love working with people, so I'm really excited for this new journey and also really excited and so grateful to be here today. Ozgul Calicioglu, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania: Good morning, NFB. Thank you for welcoming me here. I obtained my bachelor's and master's degrees in environmental engineering in Turkey and another bachelor's in business management in Russia. Currently my PhD studies at Penn State involve converting waste into valuable products and biofuels. I conducted some part of this research in Switzerland last summer, and this summer I am interning in the UN in the food and agricultural organization headquartered in Rome, Italy. My work there is about assisting countries to attain the global sustainable development goals of the UN. I'm very passionate about sustainability as much as disability advocacy, and I aspire to a career in academia to raise environmentally-conscious and socially-aware citizens. Olivia Charland, Massachusetts, Vermont: Hi. So this is my first time attending an NFB convention. This week was my first time traveling alone, and this was sort of my first time being independent. I'm not a naturally outspoken person; I'm not that outgoing. I've never been very open about being visually impaired, so this convention was a really critical first step in breaking some of those restraints I had been unwittingly putting on myself because I am blind. I'm going into a STEM field, and I'm hoping to do research in biology and biotech. I know it's going to be a challenge, but I know that the NFB is going to be behind me and that I'm going to have support from this community and that with that help I'm going to be able to achieve my dreams. Thank you for having me. Purvi Contractor, Texas, Texas: Good morning, President Riccobono, members of the board of directors, and fellow Federationists. This fall I will be attending the University of Texas at Dallas and pursuing a bachelor's of science in physics. My goal is to be a scientist at NASA or conduct research at the university. Last year I completed a quantitative case study analyzing bird strikes with airplanes for the Dallas-Fort Worth and the Dallas Love Field airports. During my high school career I had advocated for the rights of the blind. When I was in ninth grade I presented a prototype of a Braille label on Pepsi products. I would like to thank you for this opportunity. For parents and teachers, I would like to encourage you to encourage your child or student to apply for this scholarship. Thank you. Kenia Flores, North Carolina, South Carolina: Good morning, fellow Federationists. It is truly an honor to be recognized as a scholarship finalist. I am a rising junior at Furman University, majoring in politics and international affairs. I recognize that my rights as a woman who is Hispanic and blind would not be possible without individuals who came before me. After graduating from Furman I plan to attend law school so that I can become a civil rights attorney and protect the rights of individuals who fall within protected classes. I look forward to continuing to build the National Federation of the Blind alongside you and continuing our efforts to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind. Thank you. John Harrison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin: Good morning, y'all. It's good to be back to my second convention. I'm having a great time; I hope you are too. Next year I'll be a sophomore majoring in English, creative writing, and psychology. I love reading and writing, so if you have any good book recommendations, hit me up. I am just fascinated by psychology. Next year I will get the opportunity to be my campus LGBTQ peer educator, and I'll be able to go into classrooms and help people through education, sitting on panels, and just being an advocate for them. I think that's great practice, because the life I want to live is helping others live the lives they want through education and advocacy. I'd like to thank you all for helping me live the life I want, and I look forward to talking to you all. Have a good day. Now these next two finalists (I just have to share this with you) have the same birthday-not the same year, but they were both born January 15. So the first of them is Eric Harvey, California, Massachusetts: Good morning, and thank you for this phenomenal honor. I am in the final year of my PhD, finishing up my dissertation in Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University. In my research I study the history, religion, and literature of the ancient Middle East. This means everything from the epic of Gilgamesh in Babylonian to funerary inscriptions in Phoenician to the Dead Sea Scrolls in Hebrew and Aramaic. And let me tell you, if you think information accessibility is a problem today, phew. [laughter] I study the religious past, but I don't want to keep it in the past. My goal is to become a professor because I think right now that religious literacy is one of the most important skills for the world we live in to understand the history and traditions of our own religion and to understand the religions of our neighbors and friends, both locally and across the globe. Thank you so much for supporting my last year of studies, and hopefully I will never need to apply for this scholarship again. Justin Heard, Georgia, Georgia: Hello. I just want to say, the Federation love for students is both awesome and terrifying, so thank you. I'm literally controlling my breathing right now. I'm attending Georgia College and State University seeking a bachelor's degree in psychology, and then afterward I will either attend Louisiana Tech to get a master's in teaching blind students, or I will attend Orthodox Christian Seminary-so, Lord knows what's happening. [laugher] I have been president of the Georgia Association of Blind Students for the past four years, and I have been a board member of the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia for almost a year. I am a graduate of BLIND, Incorporated [cheers] from Minnesota, both the prep program and the adult program, and I'm also working at the Colorado Center for the Blind [cheers] this summer as a technology instructor and residential counselor. I believe that is all about me. Jeff Humphrey, Michigan, Michigan: Ladies and gentlemen of the National Federation of the Blind: Next year I shall finish my bachelor's degree at Olivet College in sociology/anthropology, and also my double minors in political science and religious studies. After that I shall go on to Case Western Reserve University in Ohio [cheers], and I shall complete my master's degree in ethnomedicine and global health. My goals are to ensure that people are cared for and that I can become a holistic healer and help bridge the gap in our medical system and treating our people with compassion. I also wish to start a global educational exchange where cultures can share with one another all the different histories that they have so that we can learn from one another, respect one another, enjoy each other for who we are, and stop fighting so many wars. My other goal is to ensure that the advancement of Braille literacy continues, so after this I shall go and submit my name for the Braille committee. In high school I was always a member of SGA [Student Government Association]. I was even a member of the National Honor Society. In college I served on our Student Government Association for three years, two years as our activities liaison. I am the community service representative for Elite, or the Alpha Xi Omega social fraternity at Olivet College. I was also a founding member of this group called the Disability Rights Council, which is a group that advocates for all disabled students on campus for accommodations and to ensure that they can do the jobs that they wish to do. Thank you for giving me this opportunity as a first-time conventioneer and even as a newly-made NFB member. I did not expect to receive this honor. We must remember: we must educate to liberate. Trisha Kulkarni, Ohio, California: In addition to yesterday being the national celebration of our country's independence, this first week in July has also come to have significant personal meaning to me. Last year at this time my family and I worked tirelessly to organize a fundraiser that raised over $70,000 for retinal research to help others with unstable eye conditions live the lives they want. Today I am also celebrating my one- year anniversary with my guide dog Liberty, my first national convention, and my newfound membership as a student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. [cheers] I will be attending Stanford University in the fall and majoring in symbolic systems with the hope of becoming a software engineer. Thank you so much for welcoming me to the NFB family. Amanda Lannan, Florida, Florida: Good morning. I believe that education is the foundation for our future. Therefore my journey started long ago when I was diagnosed as being blind, but my parents really pushed me. I tried anything and everything, and because of their efforts, I have journeyed, and I find myself now at the University of Central Florida pursuing a PhD in exceptional student education. My focus though is on new teacher preparation. My goal is to help those teachers to understand that high expectations will lead to success. My purpose in life is to educate all children with hope, equality, and resourcefulness. I wanted to also share that I am a huge advocate. I will be leaving early Monday morning right after this amazing convention to go for the Student Exceptional Leadership Summit. I will be in Washington; I'll be on the Hill. I have been doing a lot of research, but I will be advocating for many of our efforts here in the NFB: the AIM High and all of those initiatives. Additionally, I will be in Washington again for another summit at the end of July, and then I am really looking forward to going to Maryland and volunteering with the STEM EQ because I love to hang out with students, and I cannot wait to empower them with some STEM learning. Finally, my research involves augmentative and virtual realities, and we're working on how those technologies can benefit the accessibility of STEM for students who are blind. I really appreciate the honor, and let's go continue to build this amazing Federation. Shane Lowe, Kentucky, Kentucky: Amanda, that's great. I'm here for the check. [laughter] No, not that check, the reality check, because there are so many misconceptions around the NFB. And in case you guys didn't know, as a member of the NFB you are allowed to ask other people for directions. When I'm not here, I'm an incoming freshman at a university you've never heard of, majoring in business administration and cyber security to reform the way that blind people analyze cyber threats so that we may live the lives we want and not the lives the guy who nicked our social security numbers want. I also want to combat these in the corporate world. I am a software engineer for Pearson, I'm a published author, and I've had the privilege of working with Kentucky's commissioner of education to enhance both my geographic and demographic community. On a more exciting note for some of you, tomorrow you will get to see me in a different light. Tomorrow evening I will have the honor of performing with Precious Perez at the welcoming concert, and I still suspect that they will make me buy a ticket. See you there; thank you so much. Seth Lowman, Idaho, Montana: Okay, I want to begin by asking you how many of you are tech-savvy musicians? [scattered cheers and applause] All right, well, you're in luck. I'm studying music technology over at Montana State University and am paving the way for future music tech students in that field. My goal to help the NFB is to eventually advocate for better accessibility in the music tech world. So in the future we will have no more synthesizer inaccessibility, no more Soft Sense inaccessibility, etc., etc. You guys know the field; you know what I'm talking about. And I also want to be able to bring resources that already are accessible to the blind. Thank you. Sara Mornis, Vermont, Vermont: Good morning. I am truly honored to be recognized as a scholarship finalist. And as a first-time conventionist I want to thank you all for being welcoming. I am attending Johnson State College as a senior this fall, studying English and psychology. I plan on pursuing a master's in counseling after that. I have passion for reading, writing, and helping others. So thank you. Connor Mullin, New Jersey, Louisiana: Thank you, everyone. Joe Ruffalo, as a fellow New Jerseyan, I was wondering if someone could go pick up my vehicle donation; it's currently sitting over the Hudson River. [laughter] Famous O&M thinker and teacher Joe Cutter and others talk about how independent travel and learning independent travel skills are some of the most important things to encouraging blind people to go out into their world, literally and in an abstract sense to explore and achieve. Having the privilege of learning from Joe Cutter at a young age helped me when in my college years I began to build my independence. Getting involved with the Federation helped me to conduct an original research project of all state justices of supreme courts throughout the country, and it also helped when working with blind students in the Employment Development Guidance and Engagement Program run by Dan Frye, and now in my current endeavor as a graduate student in the cane travel instruction program at Louisiana Tech. I look forward to continuing to benefit from these insights with my connections with the Federation to give students the gift of independence. Thank you. Our next finalist is also a tenBroek Fellow. This is Sarah Patnaude, Virginia, Virginia: Good morning, Federation. As a cosplayer [a contraction of the words costume play], I know the importance of a good sewing machine, the ability to create patterns, and the importance of a good attitude in creating and embodying a character. The Federation has given me the necessary tools, skills, and confidence to become the individual, leader, and advocate I aspire to be. With my master's in social work I hope to become an advocate for those who so often do not have a voice and to empower others to awaken their inner hero or villain, just as you have done with me. Menuka Rai, North Dakota, North Dakota: Good morning to you all. I have always dreamt of working in the medical field, so I'm studying physical therapy at the University of North Dakota. I have realized now that it is not always easy to turn our dreams into reality. Sometimes I get frustrated, and I feel like giving up. But then I think of the potential that I have and all the people who I will be able to help in the future by facing and overcoming all of the challenges. So that's what keeps me going. I would like to thank the NFB for encouraging me to move forward, and thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Elizabeth Rouse, Iowa, Iowa: Hello everyone whose names I haven't learned yet. To add on to what Cayte has told you about me already, I am going to be a junior this fall at Central College. We are the Dutch. (I don't understand the mascot, either.) I have a lot of various campus activities in and outside the classroom. I'm an English/theater double major with a religion minor, and on any given Thursday night you can find me in Kuyper Athletic Center with my forty-five pseudo-big brothers also known as the Dutch wrestling team. Keeping forty-five college-age boys under control is a lot harder than you think. I also enjoy my job as a writing tutor; they're a lot quieter over there. Anything else you want to know, please ask; I'm here all week. Yasmine Sarraf, Arizona, Arizona, and before she speaks I have to tell you that she is the last of eight finalists whose birthdays are in February. That's almost a third of the class. I don't know what's going on in February, but that's a good month. Go ahead, Yasmine: Good morning, everyone. This is my first convention, and I'm honored to be here. This year I will be majoring in forensic science in the Barrett Honors Program of Arizona State University. What really attracted me about this major was the variety of fields that it encompasses that I'm interested in, such as criminal justice, psychology, and the sciences-especially biology. I've known that I wanted to do forensics ever since I was eight years old and first heard about it. And I knew I wanted to do biology even before that, when I saw my first microscope in sixth grade. But the thing I really love about forensics is that I will be able to help people in so many ways, more than what I've been able to do in my community service projects in high school, because I will have learned all of what I need. What I've done before is the Welcome to America Project, so I've helped refugees, and I've worked at the Foothills Animal Rescue Shelter, where I helped care for abandoned and neglected animals. I've really loved being at this convention and seeing how my legal blindness can be used as a way to connect with people instead of isolating me from them, and being able to meet other blind people as hard-working and dedicated as I am and want to continue to be. So thank you. Caitlin Sarubbi, New York, New York: Good morning, everyone. It's an incredible honor to be here with you today. I was born with a rare syndrome which left me legally blind, hearing impaired, and having undergone over sixty-five surgeries. This is what initially sparked my passion for medicine. I graduated from Harvard in 2015 with a degree in social and cognitive neuroscience, and I'm currently earning a master's degree and applying to medical school this summer. I am also a United States Paralympian and competed in alpine ski racing at the 2010 games in Vancouver. I love to volunteer, teaching other children and veterans with disabilities how to live the lives that they want through sports. Thank you guys so much. Rilee Sloan, Oklahoma, Oklahoma: In the fall I will begin university as a history and political science major. I intend on becoming a lawyer specializing in disability advocacy, though I am also very passionate about other forms of advocacy. For example, LGBTQ+ advocacy and mental health awareness is also something I'm passionate about. I also work for the ACLU Smart Justice Campaign which is a national initiative to promote criminal justice reform and reduce the prison population by 50 percent. While attending university I hope to use those experiences to strengthen my leadership skills. I hope that by developing these skills I can serve my community more effectively. Harry Staley, Texas, Texas: [cheers] Thank you my Texas family. I am currently attending Texas A&M San Antonio, majoring in computer science. My vocational goal is to become an autonomous vehicle engineer. I currently serve this country as a systems analyst for the United States Army. And in that role the biggest thing that I have learned is that accessibility needs to be baked in, not bolted on. [cheers] Matthew Turner, Idaho, Massachusetts: Good morning, members of the board, Federationists. I'm Matt. I'm a rising sophomore at MIT, studying computer science and economics with a 4.9 GPA. My underlying mission in life is to inspire others to learn, dream, grow, and achieve. I have done this through leadership in my student council, where I helped us overcome an $18,000 budget loss, as well as through service in Mamelodi, South Africa, where I traveled with a team to educate high school students so that they could go on and pass college entrance exams. This summer I am currently interning at HP, and I am excited to begin research on a virtual assistant that will function similarly to Aira this fall at the MIT computer science and artificial intelligence lab. This is my first NFB convention, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and I am excited to get to know all of you more. Thank you. This class ranges from eighteen to fifty, and this next finalist (and I won't tell you where on the continuum she falls), but she celebrated her birthday here with us on the third. This is Cathy Tuton, Oklahoma, Oklahoma: Hi fellow Federationists. I am a graduate of the Louisiana Center for the Blind. I am currently attending the Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City campus, working on my associate's degree. Then I will be going to the OU Health Sciences Center to get my bachelor's and master's in dietetics to be a registered dietician. As a small child all I wanted to do was to be in the medical field, but I was always told that because I'm blind I can't. I am very proud to say that I am fifty, I am the oldest one here, but I will tell you that with all of the obstacles that I've had to climb over, go around, and figure out a way to get through, I want to help other people, blind, sighted, and otherwise, to learn how to be healthy, to live a healthy life, not to be sick and die young because of their illnesses that can be prevented by healthy eating and exercise. I already have an associate's degree in personal fitness training that will go great with my degree that I'm working on now. Thank you very much. Paige Young, Maine, Maine: Hi. I'll be a junior at Husson University this fall. I'm studying to receive my master's in business administration through accounting. As well as being blind, I'm also a type 1 diabetic, and over the last eight years I've coordinated the annual walk-a-thon in my county. It's fun to do that as well. [PHOTO CAPTION: Harry Staley speaking at banquet] At the banquet Harry Staley won the $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. Here is what he had to say: Fellow Federationists, I had some words prepared, but I honestly did not think I would be standing up here. But one thing I can tell you is that I am surrounded by leaders who poured their lives into us as students. I'm constantly surrounded by people like Norma Crosby [cheers] and Glenn Crosby, some of the first folks that I met in coming back to the Federation two years ago. I thought I was a big dreamer before, but every day that I'm in the Federation, my dreams get pushed. I have a wonderful wife; I thought I was living my dream until I came and got involved in the National Federation of the Blind. And it's so true: my dreams are becoming a reality because I am involved in this organization, and I am pushed to dream bigger every single day. [applause] Following is a complete list of 2018 scholarship finalists and the awards they received. In addition to the awards listed below, each finalist also received: $1,000 and additional prizes donated by Dr. Ray Kurzweil and the Kurzweil Foundation; $1,000 from Google and the newest Chromebook; a generous certificate from Cary Supalo and Independence Science toward the purchase of a Sci-Voice Talking LabQuest; a complimentary nine-month subscription to Aira; and a KNFB Reader courtesy of the NFB. $3,000 NFB Scholarships (17): Naim Abu-El Hawa, Alexandra Alfonso, Millad Bokhouri, Tyron Bratcher, Olivia Charland, Purvi Contractor, John Harrison, Justin Heard, Jeff Humphrey, Amanda Lannan, Seth Lowman, Sara Mornis, Connor Mullin, Menuka Rai, Yasmine Sarraf, Rilee Sloan, and Paige Young $3,000 Expedia Scholarships (2): Tasnim Alshuli and Caitlin Sarubbi $3,000 Adrienne Asch Memorial Scholarship: Eric Harvey $3,000 E. U. and Gene Parker Scholarship: Sarah Patnaude $3,000 Charles and Betty Allen Scholarship: Matthew Turner $5,000 NFB STEM Scholarship: Cathy Tuton $5,000 Mimi and Marvin Sandler Scholarship: Elizabeth Rouse $5,000 Pearson Scholarship: Shane Lowe $5,000 JAWS for Windows Scholarship: Kenia Flores $8,000 Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in a STEM Field: Ozgul Calicioglu $8,000 Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in Computer Science: Trisha Kulkarni $10,000 Charles and Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship: Chrys Buckley $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship: Harry Staley, Jr. ----------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Chancey Fleet] Directing Big Data and Technological Innovation: Perspectives on the Importance of Leadership by the Blind by Chancey Fleet From the Editor: Our history dictates much of what we believe, is the glue that holds us together, and represents a significant force guiding our policies and priorities: the shared experiences that come to make up the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. But the future isn't just history repeating itself. We are challenged to supplement our history with the changing demands and opportunities of today and to have those policies influenced for as far into the future as we can meaningfully speculate. In this address, delivered on July 6, 2018, Chancey speaks to the proven techniques that have been a part of our independence, to the new technology that can either expand or limit it, and to the necessity of us seeing that it does the former rather than the latter. With her firm philosophical understanding, her impressive grasp of current technology, and the gift she has for blending all of this into something that speaks to us all, here is what she said: We come to convention every year to gather the wisdom we'll need to direct the course of the year to come: in our own lives, in the support we give to each other, and in the guidance and mentorship we offer to those who would like to be trusted as our allies. That's a big job to fit into a week. Twenty-five years ago today, I believe, in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan spoke to our convention about "The Nature of Independence." Some students had written to him asking why, as a leader in the Federation and a proponent of cane travel skills, he had been noticed moving through the hotel with a guide. Dr. Jernigan explained that, while skills like cane travel and fluency in Braille are key, the core meaning of independence is the ability to go where you want when you want without inconvenience to yourself or others and to get the information you need with the minimum of inconvenience or expense. Our independence comes from within, he said, and it depends on our self-respect, confidence, our will, and our ability to make choices. As we consider how technologies shape our lives and how we might shape technology through research, training, and advocacy, Dr. Jernigan's conception of the nature of independence gives us points of reference that are useful whether we're talking about canes, guides, or artificial intelligence. As a technology educator I know it's not enough to teach someone how a particular tool works: you can understand the layout of a screen or all the features of a recorder, but unless you have a sense of how and when to use each tool and how it's valuable, that knowledge isn't worth much. Dieter Bohn, who writes for an online tech publication called The Verge, suggests that we think of new tech as instruments. "When you use an instrument," he explains, "you have an expectation that it is going to take effort to use it well. It takes practice. You form a relationship with it. It becomes part of your identity when you make something with it. You tune it." I would like to venture to add that, no matter how familiar and comfortable an instrument becomes, you can't depend on it completely. You have to know that, if your favorite instruments break or you have to travel without them, you can still make your own music. Mainstream media and the technology sector often talk about consumer technologies as though the instrument does all the work. But our successes and mistakes, no matter how dramatic, are made in the interplay among our instruments, skills, choices, and thoughts. Right now our community is grappling with the rise of visual interpreters: apps and hardware that supply visual information to blind people using computer vision, verbal description from a human being, or some combination of the two. Sighted assistance on demand is, potentially, a distraction from the cultivation of skills: having an interpreter on hand might make us less likely to check for Braille signage, label stuff, or notice landmarks as we travel. Even people who are comfortable with nonvisual techniques can be distracted by high-tech solutions because our attention is a finite commodity. I spent a couple of minutes my first day here using an app that shall remain nameless to sort shampoo and lotion bottles in my hotel room, only to discover in the middle of my shower that there were Braille characters marching around the cap on each one. I've noticed that sometimes, when a person is using an app to navigate, he or she (or okay, I) might start to have a cane arc that's not so even and wide anymore. My husband says it looks like you're plowing the fields, and we might attend less to the information that comes from the textures, patterns, and sounds around us. There's something else competing for our attention. That doesn't mean that we shame people any more than we shame people for bad typing technique. We give people options, and we give people tools. It's hard to play more than one instrument at the same time. It's not impossible, but blindness training must include strategies for using tech with mindfulness and self-awareness so that technology enriches rather than flattens our perceptions. [applause] Technology meant to make our lives more convenient (or to borrow a buzzword that I hate-frictionless) is a buffet of unlimited enablement's for anyone blind or sighted who can afford to partake. If you don't want to walk five blocks, take a Lyft. Are you hungry, are you out of groceries and you can't bother to talk to a human? Try GrubHub. Choosing between the convenience of a few taps and a less predictable adventure in the real world can be a struggle, and it's an easy slide from some occasional use of an app to conjure up a pizza party or a late-night ride to a bleak procession of lunches ordered to your desk and long expensive rides that save twenty minutes on the train. Maybe developers have a responsibility to build in tools that help us notice and alter new patterns as they emerge. Maybe self-discipline is best managed within the self. Either way, your daily decisions add up to the lives we choose to live: when you walk in your city, are you always waiting for the next piece of advice, turn after turn, or do you sometimes pick a direction and just go? Do you ever get lost and take joy in the confusion, the clues along the way, and that feeling that you get when you're not lost anymore? Supporting and sometimes challenging each person's ability to develop and his or her approach to independence is sometimes difficult and always worthwhile. Because of this Structured Discovery I received, informally through my mentors and formally through the Colorado Center for the Blind, I use technology to enhance and not replace the skills that I carry with me in my brain and my body. I love that I can discover a new coffee shop or get walking directions, but I know that if my phone dies, I'll live. And I can always problem-solve, use what I know about urban and rural geography, and check out ambient clues in my environment to get where I am going. Two years ago I went sea kayaking on Tomales Bay with the San Francisco LightHouse. [applause from the California delegation] I can easily use some ambient clues in my environment to know where the California delegation is sitting in the session. So we camped on Tomales Bay. There are no roads, no bars on my phone, no digital guides of any kind, but because of my fundamental trust in my nonvisual skills, that was a peaceful respite and not a scary time. I grew up using Braille and a screen reader both since kindergarten, and my Braille teacher was petrified that if I learned to use a computer too early, I would abandon Braille. She was not wrong to worry, but instead of fearing the computer, she ultimately supported me using both and became the advocate in my life who would ensure that one day I would switch back and forth between Braille and speech and sometimes both all the time. [applause] As we explore technologies for visual interpretation, we've got to practice mindfulness, and we've got to practice art. There is an art to effectively using a cane, taking notes with the slate, communicating efficiently when you're working with a reader or a shopping assistant. The prevailing narrative in marketing materials and mainstream media sometimes is so reductive as to suggest that these technologies for the blind are mostly powered by magic, bouncy music, and positive thinking, but using machine vision and visual interpretation is an art that you learn. I love learning new origami models. There is something really cool about following lots of little steps to transform a plain square paper into a flower or a fish, but most instructions online are chock full of pictures and diagrams and videos featuring several minutes of totally silent moving hands. I access this content using a visual interpreter, specifically sometimes Aira. But I am not a passive recipient of description. Here are a few things I had to learn first before I could actually learn how to fold a Koi fish with the help of an Aira agent: I learned that I needed a well- lighted workspace, and my phone camera works best [instead of the glasses provided]. I learned that the instructions that I think are good online because they have the most text are the most ad ridden and cluttered from a visual perspective, so believe it or not, the silent YouTube videos sometimes work the best. I learned that vocabulary is important. "Fold in half" can mean six different things, so it is better to say "bring the top right corner to the lower left corner and then crease." Not every interpreter will be familiar with the vocabulary I prefer for this or any task, so I need to learn how to make suggestions that are clear, kind, and consistent. I've got to choose a time for skill building where I'm not feeling rushed so that I can give myself time to negotiate communication, work through mistakes, and not get frustrated. Last but not least, I have to write those steps down so I won't need an interpreter next time, and at the end of the session I have not one fish but fish for a lifetime. [applause] Directing technological innovation begins with the way we direct ourselves and one another. I believe that we best serve our community when we actively engage with the full range of instruments available. When we teach nonvisual skills, we introduce sleep shades as a tool to limit the distractions of visual information and help learners develop proficiency and trust in nonvisual techniques. We take other tools out of play to achieve instructional goals: sighted assistants, Perkins Braillers, GPS-you name it, you're not getting it during training. Constraint is a powerful tool for focusing attention, directing effort, and building confidence. But I would encourage our mentors and professionals to practice the fine art of pursuing excellence through constraint while still supporting at appropriate times the exploration of high-tech tools as part of blindness training. Our professionals around the country and informal mentors offer an approach that's free from sales and marketing hype and grounded in the belief that any blind person can achieve the goal given the right skills and opportunities. We need a framework for exploring Structured Discovery and technology together to build confidence across unfamiliar situations, active goalsetting, problem-solving, task analysis, self-awareness, self- confidence-like structure discovery always does. High-tech tools work better when you've got solid Structured Discovery training, so let's spark conversations and learning opportunities to use both, and let's invite developers to design ways for users to experience and explore the structure discovery mindset. [applause] We must ensure with the full power of collective advocacy that technology does not create collective harm. When I bought the first version of KNFB, it didn't connect to the internet, so we didn't update it much, and it was harder to share documents. But you know what-my software didn't change unless I told it to. We're living in an era of accessibility as a service. If you've ever updated to a newer operating system or an app and lost some abilities to read controls and screens, if you've felt like an unwilling test dummy when you've told a developer that you can't do something anymore and gotten a form letter that thanks you for your feedback, you know why this is bad. We live under the constant shadow of digital precarity: software can change at any time in ways that make our instruments more frustrating and less useful. Not only must we insist that new technologies be born accessible, but we must pursue with equal vigor acceptance of the proposition that accessibility should not be breached, that software testing includes performance with accessibility features to the degree that unusable features are not shipped and developers who, through errors or inaction, distribute software with accessibility breaches in it provide explanations and concrete action plans as they would when a security breach or service downtime affects the general population. [applause] Algorithms are pieces of code that make decisions based on information they receive. They may check to see that you are running a screen reader and without your explicit consent send you to a special subprime version of a webpage. Algorithms can parse images and texts like the ones you might find in a social media context and decide what information gets exposed to your screen reader. If I take the liberty of defining algorithm broadly as anything that digitally mediates information and decision, an algorithm decides whether people uploading images to Twitter are prompted to describe them by default or are expected to find that accessibility tool buried in a secondary setting screen. Algorithms create the ads you see, the music you hear, your transit directions. They automate the information that cloud- based services collect about you, how long it's kept, who can access it, and how your identity is protected or not protected. Algorithms surface what you find when you look for information about yourself. If you've ever done a search for the word "blind" and were disappointed by links for window shades and medical cures, you know what it's like to work with an algorithm that was not designed with you in mind. Algorithmic accountability is the process of assigning responsibility for harm when algorithmic decision-making results in discriminatory and inequitable outcomes. In the era of accessibility as a service, it's time we hold developers accountable. When code denies assistive technology users access to cloud-based platforms or directs us to separate and subprime user experiences, the outcomes are discriminatory and inequitable. Holding developers accountable for creating platforms that support consistent, well tested, integrated accessibility is just the beginning. Design decisions matter. Developers can and should place image description and tools prominently enough to convey the expectation that users should employ them, not just on special occasions but always. Machine vision and interpretation apps should be designed with more than one path to communication. Audio works well for some of us some of the time, but whether we are deafblind or simply unable to talk or listen in a business environment or a loud concert, we need the option to use other methods. Transparency matters. Developers should craft privacy policies that use plain language to explain how our data is used. We expose our personal documents, environments, colleagues, and daily lives to machine vision and interpretation, so it is critical that we know what data that we're handing over. In many cases apps keep our voices, camera feeds, and location data long after we're done using them, and we deserve to know how this information is stored, for how long, who can access it, how it's being used, and how we can opt out. If a company gets acquired, we need to know whether a buyer we may or may not know or trust can inherit our legacy data without our explicit consent. Ownership and access matter. We should be able to examine the data we contributed to a developer's cloud at any time, collected for our own records, and deleted at will directly rather than through a process of faith. If the practice of locking a user out of his or her own data and history seems somehow more justifiable in the case of cloud-based vision apps than those we already use for cloud collaborations and social media, we need to have a lively and public discussion about why that is. Even when developers make design decisions informed by the community and manage data in ways that are consensual and transparent, collective harm can still happen. Some of us are on the greener side of the digital divide, equipped with the training, infrastructure, and money it takes to use the latest technologies. Many of us don't have the training or the funding, and any of us can find ourselves in a part of the city or the world without infrastructure that supports cloud services. We should approach this problem by pursuing partnerships and models that will bring more people into contact with high-quality training, reliable infrastructure, and sometimes direct funding. This is in line with our existing efforts to bridge the digital chasm that blind people must cross to participate fully in education, employment, and civil society. When we encounter an inaccessible place, product, or service though, and we solve it using technology, we must be careful not to let our possession of a personal bridge to access distract us from the important labor of building a more accessible world for everyone. [applause] Last year I presented at an online conference that had a thoroughly inaccessible web platform, ON24. With the help of an Aira agent who remoted into my computer, I controlled my slide deck, read questions from the audience, and avoided having to ask the event organizers to solve the access problem for me. Although I documented the inaccessible nature of the platform and followed up by email with the conference organizers, part of me wonders whether I was as persistent as I would've been if persistence were my only option, and whether the presence of a competent interpreter made my access request seem a little less pressing. It's wonderful that we can use all of these apps to accessify everything from vacation photographs to museum exhibits to flat screen appliances, but it would be better still if we could touch the composition of every photo, rely on museum exhibits to engage all of our senses, and to expect every flat screen to come with accessibility options. It's hard to play more than one instrument at the same time, but it's not impossible. We can improvise with technology, perform our own access when we need to, and teach our fellows how that's done. But let's keep the beat of the drums of freedom: careful cultivation of embodied skills that don't rely on technology but rely on our self-trust and self-respect, collective action that shapes a more accessible world from the status box to the ballot box- from those tiny Braille labels to the vivid tactile footprints of an astronaut's indelible first steps on the moon-and tireless advocacy to help each blind person discover the tools, methods, and self-belief that he or she needs to find and live the life that he or she wants. Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Joanne Gabias] What Does "Blind" Have to Do with It? The Right to Parent from a Sighted Daughter's Perspective by Joanne Gabias From the Editor: As we struggle for the right to raise the children we have brought into the world or have chosen to adopt, many of us rely on our own experience to provide encouragement, counsel, and the assurance that there are time-tested techniques that blind people use in raising our children to be normal, happy adults. We think we see this in our children and in the children raised by other blind people, but many of us long for a verbal affirmation that what we think we have provided is really so and that our children don't feel that they have received a second-rate upbringing. If ever there was an affirmation that one sighted daughter believes that she got what she needed to become a self-sufficient, well- balanced adult, Joanne Gabias provided that testimonial to the convention. Here is what the daughter of Paul and Mary Ellen Gabias said on the morning of July 7, 2018: Hello, everyone. My name is Joanne Gabias, and I am honored to speak to you all today. I was four months old when I attended my first convention. Although I've missed some throughout the years, this is my twenty-first. [applause] I have come to convention by plane, by train, by bus, and by car. I was hoping to go by boat next year, but it would be hard to accomplish going from Arizona to Vegas. Maybe 2020 will be in Hawaii or Puerto Rico. My convention experience has changed over the years. I used to be at NFB Camp or what is now called NFB Child Care with my brothers Jeffrey, Philip, and Elliott. I remember at the Atlanta convention all of the kids went to the Coca-Cola factory. I got really sick because I pigged out on all the free soda from all over the world. My parents wouldn't normally let me drink soda. That was an early lesson on how parental advice is worth considering even when they're not there to make you do what they say. When I was too old to be babysat, I started working for NFB Camp, and now I am a blindness professional. [applause] Before you all think that my childhood is what got me into this field, I would like to point out that I never even knew that the field of orientation and mobility existed until I was finishing my undergraduate degree and didn't know what to do with my life. I love my degree in linguistic anthropology, and I wouldn't change it for the world. But I couldn't make a living wage as an anthropologist unless I became a university professor, something I definitely didn't want to do. In fact I always said I would never become a teacher or go into psychology because that is what my dad does, and everyone assumed I would follow in his footsteps. Well, now I know never say never, because I obtained my masters in guidance and counseling, and I am currently an orientation and mobility instructor at SAAVI Services for the Blind in Tucson, Arizona. I am here today for you, for your kids, and for the future children of blind parents. I hope that my story will help you convince doubters that children of blind parents can and do live wonderful lives. [applause] People made a lot of assumptions about my life growing up-some true and some not so true. Both of my parents are totally blind due to retinopathy of prematurity. When people learn that, I get comments like, "Oh, I'm so sorry;" or "Wow, how is life growing up with blind parents?;" or "Oh, you must've been a big help around the house." Most children of blind parents can probably list off a bunch of other na?ve comments that we get all the time. My answer is always, "Well, I didn't know any different, so it was normal to me." And, quite frankly, my childhood was a pretty typical one. During my schooling at Louisiana Tech University, I attended immersion at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Even after my immersion ended, I attended a seminar at least once a week throughout my entire program. One time the seminar question was "Who is the first blind person you met, and how old were you?" Pam Allen called upon me to speak. I told the group that I was in kindergarten when I met my first blind person. Clearly that's an odd answer coming from a child whose parents are blind. It was in kindergarten that I first realized what people meant when they use the word. Before then, my parents were just my parents. My parents fed me, dressed me, and took me to school. My experience wasn't any different from anyone else's. I also thought it was weird at the age of four that everyone would say to me, "Oh, you must be a big help around the house." Like what the heck was that supposed to mean; I'm four! I'm pretty sure that those comments ingrained in me and my brothers the determination to do the least amount possible around the house outside of our chores. Even getting us to do those were hard; so Mom, next time you need to yell at Elliott to take out the trash, blame it on the world for making us want to prove that the stereotype of saintly children helping their poor blind parents wrong. [applause] I was spoiled. My mom made my breakfast and lunch every day until I graduated from high school. Even in university, if I asked or if she saw I was stressed with work or school, she would make me food. When I go home to visit, I have a list of favorite foods that I ask my mom to make. As everyone knows, there are just some things that taste better when mom makes them. There were expectations, too. On each of our thirteenth birthdays, my mom taught us how to use the washer and dryer. She said, "You are a teenager now. I'm no longer doing your laundry. If you want clean clothes, you'll have to do them yourself. [applause] My family has always been very health-focused. My dad runs the Gabias Wellness Center out of our family home. Some of you might have met him in the exhibit hall talking about all the Nikken wellness products they offer. When I was younger, my dad was very strict about what we ate. My brothers are so lucky that he let up as we got older, but, as you know, parents are always the hardest and the most cautious with the first born. I even have proof. All the pictures from my first birthday party show my dad following me around making sure I was okay. I was running away with an annoyed look on my face. I already wanted to be my own person. By the time they had their fourth child, my parents were just satisfied that the youngest was wearing clean underwear. When I was in kindergarten, my mom made a cake to bring to my class for my birthday. My parents had chosen not to have chocolate in our house, so my mom tried to make a cake using carob. If you have never worked with carob, it frankly tastes like dirt. My mom made carob frosting as well, a double dose of yuck. Carob doesn't spread well. The frosting started clumping and breaking the cake. It was just a mess. I think Apple must've seen a picture of this cake because they made an emoji that looks exactly like it. [laughter] I think voiceover calls it the smiling pile of poo. I remember that day so vividly. The teachers tried to shush the kids when they asked why the cake looked so weird. The teacher assumed that it was because my mom was blind. I was annoyed, because I knew it wasn't my mom's blindness or her cooking skills. It was because of that stupid carob. Mom can bake good stuff. I planned a surprise sweet sixteen party for my best friend, and my mom made a giant chocolate (real chocolate) heart- shaped cake with raspberry filling. Everyone loved it so much that all of my friends asked her to make one for their birthdays as well. Misconceptions and confusing problems caused by other factors with problems caused by blindness happen all the time. My family lives in the beautiful Okanagan Valley in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, minutes away from a spectacular lake. When I was ten, my family bought a speedboat. Growing up we spent most of our summer on the lake waterskiing, tubing, wakeboarding, and swimming. Our family knew a man who drove for us. It was only natural that he would also drive our boat. When I was twelve our driver had a stroke and was in the hospital for most of the summer. My dad tried to hire random people to drive the boat. The cab driver he chose bent the propeller when he ran aground. The twenty-one-year-old son of a friend gouged the side of the boat while docking at a cost of $250. Dad was so annoyed with incompetent boat drivers that he started looking into the boat licensing process. He found out that twelve-year-olds can get a boat license in Canada. Conveniently I had just turned twelve, so I was volunteered. He paid for me and two of my friends to get our boat license. Dad sat in the class as we learned nautical rules and took the licensing exam, which we all passed. The only problem was that we completed the class without ever coming near a boat. The next day my dad took me out on the boat at 6 a.m. when there weren't many boats on the lake and showed me what all the controls did. His family owned a boat when he was growing up, so he had been around them all his life. Whenever my dad gets a new gadget of any kind, he figures out every button, lever, and widget. So he knew exactly what to do with his boat. I remember being extremely nervous because of my dad's high expectations. I remember my dad telling me, "Put it in full throttle and turn the wheel." That scared me. I said, "We're going to flip." Firmly he said, "If you don't do it, I will. You need to know how the boat will react to whatever you are doing." Everything I learned about boating, towing a waterskier, docking, and just cruising along I learned from my dad. I would like to point out that I have never put a scratch on our boat, and neither have my three brothers who were also taught by my dad. [applause] When we all started to learn how to drive cars, my dad insisted that we take formal lessons. Dad went to every lesson with us. My dad went through the program four times to be exact. If he couldn't make it to a lesson, he would have to reschedule because he wanted to make sure that he knew what we were being taught and that we were doing what we were supposed to do when we were driving alone. Even though he wasn't the one directly teaching us this time, my dad was very much at the center of our driving experience. As I grew older, I became more and more independent. I traveled all over Canada and the US. I even went to France, Guatemala, New Mexico, and Belize in high school and in college. Even when you're legally an adult, sometimes you still need help from your parents. When I came back from Guatemala, my cell phone stopped working. I had insurance, so I brought it in to get it fixed. I spent three months contending with loaner phones that didn't work and my original phone coming back to me more broken than before. I was complaining to my mom that they kept giving me the runaround, so she came to the store with me. But my mom is a very calm person. She doesn't really raise her voice, but when she's mad, you know it. My mother calmly but powerfully explained that this was unacceptable, and they needed to figure things out. Just like that I got a new upgraded phone at zero cost to me. If I had known that this would've been the outcome, I would've brought her in the first place. This skill is something I still don't possess. I think my brother Jeffrey inherited this skill. Luckily for me I can still call on my mom when I'm in need. Some kids are denied the chance to grow up learning from their parents, especially children of blind parents. When I was in the fifth grade, my life could've changed drastically. Some random lady came to school and separately pulled my brother and me out of class. She started asking me questions about my parents: whether my father hit my brother or if I was safe at home. I thought they were the weirdest questions ever. I was sure that they took the wrong kid out of class. These questions didn't even remotely make sense in my life. When I came home, my mom was very upset. The random lady had been to our home too. I told her about my experience. My mom became livid. She had not been given the courtesy of being told that they would be interviewing us at school. The weird lady was from social services. Someone made an anonymous call about my parents. The complaint was that my dad might-just might-have hit or spanked my brother, our house was messy, and that my brother went to school with a dirty shirt. Can anyone in the audience tell me that your house is never messy and that your kids or you have never dirtied a shirt? I sure can't. After talking to us kids and visiting our parents at home, they realized that the complaint was unjustified. Luckily they never bothered us again. [applause] But that one incident has lingered with my mother to this day. All of her children are legal adults, yet she still wonders who called social services. We all know that social services didn't show up because my dad might've spanked my brother or because of a messy house or because of a dirty shirt. They came because the caller said that both parents were totally blind. That was the real issue. It didn't matter that my mother was a stay-at-home mom or that my dad was a university professor. Even though we had a parent at home to take care of us and a parent making sure we had the money to live a happy and prosperous life, the thing that mattered to the social workers was that my parents were blind. I know that many other parents have either experienced this visit or live in fear of this visit. I recently testified at the Arizona House of Representatives in favor of the right to parent bill which was passed and signed into state law this spring. [applause] One of the committee members was asking a lot of na?ve questions about how my parents knew when we were doing something wrong. He seemed convinced that I probably got away with a lot of things because my parents couldn't see. I told him that when my brother Philip was still in preschool, my mother took him to the store with her. While she was busy in the checkout line my brother quickly grabbed a pack of gum. On the way out mom noticed that he was being very quiet. She heard him fiddling with something. She did a quick search of his pockets and marched him right back into the store and asked for the store manager. She made my five-year-old brother confess what he had done and apologize. [applause] Then she paid for the gum. The store manager said, "Well, you've paid for it now, so you can have it back." My mom said, "Absolutely not! I'm not rewarding this behavior; throw it out." My brother was so embarrassed that he never stole from a store again. [applause] The committee member seemed unconvinced. He said, "Well, he was young. I have teenagers. It's really hard to keep track of them." The ways that my brothers and I got caught may be unconventional, but no matter what, we always got caught. In middle school the fad was to have your midriff showing, a fad that happens to be coming back recently. It's funny how many things have come back from the 90s. Shout out to the 90s babies out there! [cheers] Well, I wasn't allowed to show off my belly, but I wanted to be fashionable. Besides, it was hard for me to find shirts that fit because I've always been tall. I've been five-foot-nine since the seventh grade. Before I left for school, my parents would ask for a hug. This is how they would sneakily check to see that my shirt was long enough. My dad would ask for a hug from my brothers to check their breath to see if they had brushed their teeth. I could go on and on about all the ways we got caught, so when someone says "Oh, you must've gotten away with a lot of things," I just laugh because they are so, so wrong. When I was in high school, I did an exchange program. Sara, a girl from Qu?bec, was to spend six weeks in my home, and I would spend six weeks in hers. We had to fill out a profile about our life, interests, parents, what they did for work, etc. There was no line asking if my parents were blind, so I didn't write anything. It wasn't important. We got each other's paperwork in June, but Sara didn't come until the end of January. On her way to our home, she met the program coordinator who remarked on how brave Sara was to come to a home run by two blind parents. Sara started freaking out. She even called her mom. Her mom told her that she should just see what it was like before she panicked and came home. When Sara arrived at the Kelowna airport, my dad and I were waiting for her with a big sign saying, "Bienvenue Sara," meaning "Welcome Sara" in French. We picked up her luggage, which my dad carried. When we got home, mom made her a snack, and we talked with my parents for an hour before my new friend and I went to my room. She finally told me about her conversation with the coordinator and said, "I realized once I got here that your parents are supernormal, but why didn't you tell me before?" I told her it wasn't important to me, so I didn't really think it was necessary to say anything. As things developed, I was happy I hadn't told her. When I asked her what she would've done if she had gotten this information in advance, she admitted that she wasn't sure she would've even come. Sara had a great time. It became so much more than a nice trip. We call each other sisters to this day. [applause] When she had a semester off a few years later, Sara decided to come back to Kelowna and live with us for three months. Not only do their flesh and blood love my parents, but so do my friends. Sara was not the only one who lived with us either. I had four different friends live with my parents over the years. My house was the place to be. I wish my grandparents could see our family now. My grandmother was very upset when my dad married a blind person. She didn't have a problem with him being blind, but she was scared that if he married another blind person, their children would grow up socially awkward because they wouldn't learn any visual social cues. My grandmother died when I was one, so she didn't get to see any of us grow up. I know my grandmother is biting her tongue up in heaven right now. My mother, Mary Ellen Gabias, used to work at the national office in the 80s. She was in charge of the Job Opportunities for the Blind. My father, Paul Gabias, met my mother through that program briefly and then again while attending a leadership seminar. My mom happened to be one of the ones giving a tour for the seminar group. If you have ever been to the national office, you know that everyone helps out where they are needed no matter what their position may be. Well, my mom says that that was the worst tour she ever gave. Anything that could go wrong did. The ancient freight elevator got stuck with everybody onboard, among other minor disasters. My father, however, knew he had found his future wife even if she didn't know it yet. So I would like to thank the National Federation of the Blind. Because if it wasn't for this community, I would not exist. [applause] Although I may not be blind, this is my family, I am a Federation baby, and this is my family reunion. [applause] I am part of the next generation of Federationists. The next generation may not all be blind, but we know that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you, me, or your child's future. Every day we live with high expectations of blind people. We don't understand why there are low expectations. We are the result of the dreams of blind people. We live the lives you fought for. We know that blindness doesn't hold you back because you have taught us. Thank you. ----------- 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 2017 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-eight NFB BELL Academy programs, which served more than three hundred fifty blind students throughout the United States. . Provided over one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. . Delivered audio newspaper and magazine services to 118,900 subscribers, providing free access to over five 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Sharon Maneki] What Does Democracy Look Like? The 2018 Convention Resolutions by Sharon Maneki "What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like." This is a popular protest chant used to express dissatisfaction with everything from economic inequality to the failure to control gun violence. The origin of this chant is believed to be at the World Trade protests in Seattle in 1999. This chant has become more popular recently. This slogan was prominent during the Women's March of January 2017 and most recently at the March for Our Lives protest in March 2018. What does democracy look like in the National Federation of the Blind? There are many answers to this question, but one of the best answers is the resolutions process at National Convention. In his November 19, 1863, Gettysburg address, President Abraham Lincoln gave one of the best definitions of democracy. He said: "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The resolutions process meets Lincoln's definition of democracy. This process is both by and of the people. Anyone can present a resolution to the committee provided that he or she abides by the rules. The chairman of the committee must receive the resolution two weeks before the committee meeting. If the individual misses that deadline, he can present the resolution to the chairman up to an hour before the meeting if three committee members agree that the resolution should come forward. The committee does not consider a resolution if there is no spokesman for it at the meeting. The hallmark of democracy is participation by the people. The thirty- member resolutions committee always consists of a cross section of leaders from throughout the country. I was appointed chairman of the committee by President Riccobono and was ably assisted by Marsha Dyer, a member of the national staff for twenty-eight years. The committee's job is to consider, debate, and then vote each resolution up or down. If the committee kills a resolution, it can still be brought to the Convention if the delegates from five states sponsor it. The Convention is the supreme authority of the Federation and has the final say on each resolution. If the Convention approves the resolution, that resolution becomes part of our policies. As you can see, the membership fully participates in the resolutions process. This year the committee sent twenty resolutions to the Convention for its consideration on July 7, 2018. After some spirited discussion, the Convention passed all twenty of them. An examination of the subject of each resolution will demonstrate that they conform to the last criteria of Lincoln's definition of democracy as they are for the people with blindness. The resolutions fall into two broad categories, expressing our views to various types of entities and resolutions dealing with information technology. It is interesting to note that five resolutions condemn and deplore the actions of various entities, a higher number than in most years. The most unusual resolution that the Convention passed this year was Resolution 2018-20. It was unusual because of its subject matter. In this resolution, we commend CBS television for its portrayal of blindness on the NCIS show. CBS not only cast a blind actor as a blind character but also consulted with the National Federation of the Blind about the most authentic way to present Annie Barth, the blind character. We hope that the entertainment industry will follow CBS's lead. Deepa Goraya, who won a national scholarship in 2010 and is second vice president of the Potomac Chapter of the NFB of Virginia and also serves as one of the legislative directors for the affiliate, proposed this resolution. Lynn Heitz, president of the NFB of Pennsylvania, sponsored Resolution 2018-02. Accreditation, the subject of this resolution, was familiar to longtime Federationists because we have been passing resolutions about this subject since 1971. We needed another resolution this year because the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) "...transferred all of its remaining assets, $85,554, to AER, on June 30, 2018." AER is now trying to follow the exclusionary practices of NAC. In this resolution we "...condemn and deplore the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired for its insulting gesture of tokenism toward the blind in the formation of its National Accreditation Council." This resolution also states: "...we do not oppose proper accreditation properly done." It is customary to have resolutions about the US Congress at every National Convention. The Convention passed three resolutions that urge the US Congress to take action this year. In Resolution 2018-01, "...this organization condemn and deplore the action of 103 members of Congress who have asked the Department of Justice to exempt public accommodations from their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. We also call upon these members of Congress to withdraw their signatures from the letter immediately." Greg Aikens, president of the NFB of Georgia, sponsored this resolution. Ellana Crew, president of the Maryland Association of Blind Students and a summer intern at the Jernigan Institute, introduced Resolution 2018- 06. In this resolution "...this organization condemn and deplore the passage of H.R. 620 by the United States House of Representatives." H.R. 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017" would severely weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act through its Notice and Cure provisions. Businesses would no longer have to comply fully with the ADA. They would be required to show only "substantial progress," a term never defined in the bill. In this resolution we also urge the United States Senate to oppose H.R. 620 or any similar legislation. In Resolution 2018-12, we urge the United States Senate to act quickly to pass the A/V Start Act, S.1885, that "...would prohibit states from imposing discriminatory licensing requirements, require manufacturers to provide information on their human-machine interface technology in their safety reports, and create a working group specifically tasked with promulgating recommendations on accessibility issues for people with disabilities." When Gary Allen, president of the NFB of Connecticut, introduced this resolution, he reminded us of the dearth of public transportation and the opportunities that self-driving vehicles could provide to the blind. The Convention passed five resolutions concerning entities in the executive branch of the US government. These resolutions are either reactions to proposed rules or reactions to problems in administration. Marion Gwizdala, president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, proposed Resolution 2018-10. The US Department of Transportation recently released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on the Air Carrier Access Act concerning the carriage of trained service animals and untrained emotional support animals. These proposed rules are vague and could lead to discriminatory practices. In Resolution 2018-10, "...this organization urge the United States Department of Transportation to promulgate regulations that are harmonized with the Americans with Disabilities Act and are sufficiently detailed so that they are not open to subjective interpretation." The Convention passed two resolutions regarding the US Department of Education. On March 5, 2018, the US Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, issued a new case processing manual for its investigators. These new procedures severely restrict the rights of complainants who are seeking assistance in eliminating discriminatory practices by all levels of educational institutions. In Resolution 2018-08, we not only condemn and deplore the actions of the US Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights but also demand that the Department immediately halt the implementation of the changes outlined in this new manual. Matt Langland, second vice president of the Metro Chapter of the NFB of Minnesota and a summer intern at the Jernigan Institute, introduced this resolution. Terry Smith, first vice president of the NFB of Tennessee, proposed Resolution 2018-16. It was most appropriate for Terry to bring this resolution to the committee because of his experience working for the Entrepreneurs Program of the National Association of Blind Merchants. The US Department of Education through the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) has oversight responsibilities for the Randolph- Sheppard program. This resolution describes the delays and backlogs in approving state rules and policies and in handling arbitration cases caused by RSA. In this resolution we also demand that the Department immediately remedy these problems and prevent future occurrences. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the subject of two resolutions passed by the Convention this year. Joel Zimba, who was an access technology specialist at the Jernigan Institute but now works for HumanWare, proposed Resolution 2018-03. The FCC created the Lifeline program, which provides a free cell phone to seniors and other low-income individuals, including persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, the eligibility process is complex and time-consuming. Most of the free cell phones are inaccessible to the blind. In this resolution we call upon the FCC to create guidelines that ensure that Lifeline consumers receive accessible devices and the necessary training to use these devices. In Resolution 2018-17, "...this organization demand that the FCC require audio description on live programming of all types." This resolution came about in part because Comcast and NBC-Universal recently set a precedent of providing live audio description of the Olympics and Paralympics. Grace Anderson, vice president of the Alabama Association of Blind Students and a summer intern at the Jernigan Institute, introduced this resolution. The remaining ten resolutions deal with accessibility. The Convention passed three resolutions concerning accessibility to voting. Lou Ann Blake, deputy director of the Jernigan Institute, proposed two of these voting resolutions. Too many voters with disabilities face discrimination and are deprived of their right to a secret ballot. Ballots that are marked using an electronic ballot marking device (BMD) are identifiable because they are different in size and content from hand-marked ballots. In Resolution 2018- 05, "...this organization demand that election technology developers design and manufacture BMDs that produce ballots which are the same size and have the same content as hand-marked ballots. We also demand that state and local boards of elections that have procured BMDs which produce ballots that are different in size and content from hand-marked ballots, implement procedures that will ensure voters with disabilities have the same opportunity to cast a secret ballot as voters without disabilities." More and more state and local governments are adopting vote by mail systems. In Resolution 2018-13, we reminded these jurisdictions that they should ensure accessibility for voters with disabilities when implementing a vote by mail system. Lou Ann Blake also introduced this resolution. Stephen Handschu, a long-time leader in the Michigan affiliate, proposed Resolution 2018-09. In this resolution we commend VOTEC Corporation for its leadership in developing an accessible pollbook system and urge other manufacturers of voting technology to implement nonvisually accessible pollbooks. A pollbook, which contains a voter's name and address, is used to verify whether an individual is eligible to vote. In this resolution we also demand, "that all election jurisdictions that plan to use or are already using electronic pollbooks to purchase accessible election pollbooks as soon as they become available." The next three resolutions contain instructions to federal and state governments concerning accessibility. For many years blind citizens have been unable to obtain most forms and documents from federal agencies because the agencies used inaccessible PDF formats. The accessibility problems would be solved if agencies used the HTML5-based format. In Resolution 2018-07, we call upon all federal agencies to adopt policies requiring that all documents and forms be produced in HTML5-based formats by December 31, 2020. We also call upon these agencies to replace currently used forms and documents by converting them to the HTML5-based format. Janae Burgmeier, a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Blind Students and vice president of the Iowa Association of Blind Students, sponsored this resolution. Rocky Hart, a high school student at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, who was attending his first national convention sponsored Resolution 2018-15. Blind students at all levels struggle because the eLearning tools used in their classrooms are frequently inaccessible. In this resolution, "...this organization demand that schools and local education agencies require educational technology vendors to confirm the accessibility of their products prior to purchase and to assume cost and liability for any technology found to be inaccessible after purchase." The US Postal Service recently initiated the Informed Delivery Service Program to help residential consumers keep track of incoming mail and packages. Unfortunately, this program is inaccessible to the blind because it uses an image to display the status of mail. In Resolution 2018- 19, we strongly urge the US Postal Service to make the Informed Delivery Service Program accessible quickly and to institute procedures to prevent the deployment of inaccessible services in the future. This resolution had two sponsors, Latonya Phipps and Ronza Othman. Latonya is a leader in the NFB of Maryland who won a national scholarship in 1994. Ronza Othman is chairman of the Blind Federal Employees Committee, a member of the board of directors of the Maryland affiliate, and she won a national scholarship in 2006. The remaining four resolutions contain instructions to various software developers regarding accessibility. Epic Systems Corporation is a leader in the electronic health records industry. In Resolution 2018-04, "...this organization condemn and deplore Epic for incorporating gratuitous accessibility barriers in its health information software, for failing to commit to resolving these access barriers, and for perpetuating discrimination against blind health care employees." We also demand that Epic immediately remove all accessibility barriers to employment for the blind. Syed Rizvi, first vice president of the National Association of Blind Students and winner of a national scholarship in 2016, introduced this resolution. The remaining three resolutions address specific concerns with various software developers. Melissa Carney, secretary of the National Association of Blind Students, president of the Connecticut Association of Blind Students, and the winner of a national scholarship in 2017 introduced Resolution 2018-11. Apple, Google and Microsoft have Braille display support built into their operating systems. While we appreciate this action, these companies should do more. The resolution states: "...we strongly urge these companies to increase the priority given to developments in Braille access and to ensure that updates to their operating systems do not result in regression for Braille users." Since Braille support in Android has been stagnant for more than two years, "...we call upon Google to demonstrate measurable and significant progress in the implementation of Braille in the Android platform by July 1, 2019." Resolution 2018-14 promotes the use of EPUB3 over the PDF format because of its accessibility features: "...this organization commend Apple for its robust implementation of 'Save as EPUB' in Pages." We also "...call upon other major authoring tool developers to include, improve, or simplify the creation of EPUB3 documents in current and future updates." Mausam Mehta, who was attending her second convention and will be a freshman at the University of Virginia, sponsored this resolution. In the past we have enacted resolutions about inaccessible web browsers. We needed another resolution on this subject this year because Mozilla recently released an inaccessible version of Firefox. Michael Powell, president of the NFB of Michigan, sponsored Resolution 2018-18. In this resolution we call upon all web browser manufacturers to work closely with screen reader producers to ensure that new browsers or updates to browsers are not released unless they are fully accessible. What does democracy look like? In the National Federation of the Blind, democracy looks like the resolutions process. The process is definitely of and by the people. This article is merely an introductory discussion of the resolutions considered by the 2018 Convention. The complete text of each resolution is reprinted below. Readers should analyze the text of each resolution to understand fully our policy on these subjects. These resolutions are definitely for the people with blindness. ---------- National Federation of the Blind 2018 Resolutions These resolutions were passed by the Convention on July 7, 2018, in Orlando: Resolution 2018-01 Regarding a Recent Letter from 103 Members of Congress to the US Department of Justice Addressing Website Accessibility WHEREAS, for nearly twenty-eight years the Americans with Disabilities Act has required that public accommodations make their communications with the public accessible; and WHEREAS, the ADA standard for accessible communication requires that all communications be equally effective for persons with and without disabilities; and WHEREAS, communicating through websites is now the most commonly used method employed by public accommodations to interact with the public, a form of communication which must meet the ADA's effective communication requirement; and WHEREAS, the United States Department of Justice has not issued regulations setting out a specific accessibility standard for websites or for any particular type of communication, thus allowing public accommodations to use any available standard as long as that standard achieves effective communication for people with disabilities; and WHEREAS, for years many public accommodations have advocated against the Department of Justice issuing website accessibility standards; and WHEREAS, in spite of the fact that the ADA provides an effective communication standard that offers businesses flexibility in how they make their websites accessible, some public accommodations have argued in court that requiring them to make their websites accessible at all violates their due process rights; and WHEREAS, every court to consider the issue has rejected these public accommodations' due process arguments except one, and that opinion is currently on appeal; and WHEREAS, on June 20, 2018, 103 Members of Congress wrote a letter asking the Department of Justice to issue guidance indicating that courts cannot require public accommodations to make their websites accessible because, they argued, such requirements violate due process rights: Now, therefore BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore the action of 103 members of Congress who have asked the Department of Justice to exempt public accommodations from their obligations under the ADA; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon these members of Congress to withdraw their signatures from the letter immediately; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization request that the Department of Justice confirm, as it has consistently made clear in briefs, technical assistance, and its own enforcement, that websites of public accommodations must comply with the effective communication requirement of Title III of the ADA and that due process does not restrict enforcement of that requirement. Resolution 2018-02 Regarding the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired and the AER Accreditation Council WHEREAS, beginning in 1967 and for approximately thirty-five years thereafter, an organization known as the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) sought to control education and rehabilitation services provided to the blind by means of so- called standards leading to so-called accreditation; and WHEREAS, NAC was the offspring of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), created by AFB in direct response to the growing effectiveness of the organized blind movement; and WHEREAS, as opposition to NAC by the National Federation of the Blind and others gained strength, the federal government, state agencies, schools for the blind, and even the AFB itself withdrew their former support, financial and otherwise, leading the AFB executive director to exclaim in speaking to the NAC board in 2002 "What part of no more NAC don't you understand?"; and WHEREAS, although the dreams of NAC to hold dominance over the blind have lived on into the present decade, the independent voice of the blind has been heard and respected and has prevailed; and WHEREAS, NAC died, and on June 30, 2017, transferred all of its remaining assets-$85,554-to AER; and WHEREAS, AER has recently offered NFB a single seat on its National Accreditation Council, only after repeated attempts by NFB to communicate with AER about NAC; and WHEREAS, this half-hearted offer of a single seat is the kind of tokenism that doomed the original NAC to utter and complete failure and which, unless altered, will eventually threaten the viability and very existence of AER itself: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore AER'S insulting gesture of tokenism toward the blind in the formation of its National Accreditation Council; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as stated in our convention resolution 71-03 and repeated on many occasions since, it be made clear that: we do not oppose proper accreditation properly done; we will be happy to participate in and cooperate with any appropriately organized and democratically constituted accrediting activity; and if the time should come that a genuine accreditation system is created along democratic lines and blind people have more than token representation in the governance of the accreditation system and throughout the accreditation process, the National Federation of the Blind pledges its willingness to work with AER and other organizations truly to make services for the blind more relevant and responsive to the needs of the blind than ever before. Resolution 2018-03 Regarding the Lifeline Program and the Free Cellphone Service for Seniors and Those with Low Income WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has created the Lifeline program for low-vision seniors and others with low income to provide a free cellphone with free calling, texting, and some data services; and WHEREAS, this service is funded through the universal access fee paid by all phone subscribers; and WHEREAS, the service providers are typically mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), smaller third-party mobile phone service providers who resell access to the networks of the major carriers; and WHEREAS, proof of residence and proof of disability or eligibility for other assistance (e.g., Medicaid, SSI, etc.) are required to participate in this program; and WHEREAS, the phones provided by the MVNOs vary widely from a basic flip phone with tactile buttons which provides only calling services and possibly some limited text-to-speech functionality to a low-end Android smartphone with touchscreen that would require basic technology training for the newly blind or seniors, regardless of their level of vision; and WHEREAS, many MVNOs require navigation of a complex list of menu options on the phone and long wait times to speak with a representative about specific needs and company options; and WHEREAS, all companies surveyed by the National Federation of the Blind were modest operations with varying procedures, making the process of obtaining the free service complex and time-consuming: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon the FCC to establish guidelines for the MVNOs that provide the Lifeline service to make available accessible devices and documentation and to establish a minimum standard for support to low-income citizens and seniors with vision loss. Resolution 2018-04 Regarding the Inaccessibility of Epic Corporation Systems Software WHEREAS, Epic Systems Corporation (Epic) is a leader in the electronic health records (EHR) industry and has developed a suite of health information software used nationwide by more than three hundred hospital and health clinic customers; and WHEREAS, Epic has failed to conform the employee-facing side of its software to industry standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA, despite Epic's proven ability to incorporate accessibility features in its patient-facing software; and WHEREAS, blind professionals working in the healthcare field who are otherwise qualified for the work they have been hired to perform are unable to engage in basic functions of their jobs because of Epic's inaccessible software design and have suffered from this lack of access, including the likelihood of being overlooked for promotions and raises or terminated from their positions entirely; and WHEREAS, blind healthcare professionals are now forced to advocate for their protections under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and must engage in interactive dialogue with their employers to request accommodations that will give them access to Epic's software; and WHEREAS, Epic's practice of selling software that it knows to be inaccessible has put its customer base at risk of violating federal law and has forced healthcare employers to rely on code scripting solutions that work only until a platform is updated, at which point the scripts break and must be rewritten; and WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind has insisted that Epic remediate its employee-facing software and legal action has been filed against Epic demanding that it do so; and WHEREAS, despite these actions, Epic has failed to commit publicly to including accessibility features in all facets of its healthcare software: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore Epic for incorporating gratuitous accessibility barriers in its health information software, for failing to commit to resolving these access barriers, and for perpetuating discrimination against blind healthcare employees; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that Epic take immediate action to remediate access barriers within its health information software so that it conforms with WCAG 2.1 AA and is fully and equally accessible to blind healthcare employees, removing this fundamental barrier to employment for the blind in the healthcare field. Resolution 2018-05 Regarding Accessible Ballot-Marking Devices and the Ability to Cast a Secret Ballot WHEREAS, the ability to cast a secret and anonymous ballot is a cornerstone of our democracy that enables citizens to vote their conscience without fear; and WHEREAS, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that voters with disabilities be afforded an opportunity to exercise their right to vote equivalent to the opportunity afforded to voters without disabilities; and WHEREAS, election technology developers, such as Elections Systems and Software (ES&S), Dominion Voting Systems, and Unisyn Voting Solutions have designed accessible ballot-marking devices (BMDs) that produce ballots that are different in size and/or content from the ballot that is hand-marked by the majority of voters; and WHEREAS, because the BMD ballots cast by voters with disabilities are different in size and/or content from the hand-marked ballots cast by the majority of voters, the BMD ballots can be identified as having been cast by a voter with a disability and are, as a result, not secret ballots; and WHEREAS, a state or local board of elections is in violation of Title II of the ADA when it does not provide voters with disabilities the same opportunity to cast a secret ballot that it provides voters without disabilities: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand that election technology developers design and manufacture BMDs that produce ballots which are the same size and have the same content as hand-marked ballots; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that state and local boards of elections that have procured BMDs which produce ballots that are different in size and content from hand-marked ballots implement procedures that will ensure voters with disabilities have the same opportunity to cast a secret ballot as voters without disabilities. Resolution 2018-06 Regarding the Consideration of H.R. 620 or Similar Legislation by the United States Senate WHEREAS, H.R. 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017," would fundamentally weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act by shifting the burden of compliance onto the backs of people with disabilities through the imposition of an oppressive "notice and cure" provision; and WHEREAS, despite strong opposition from the National Federation of the Blind and the rest of the disability and civil rights communities, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 620 on February 15, 2018, by a vote of 225 to 192; and WHEREAS, the proponents of H.R. 620 continue to advocate for its adoption in the United States Senate by flooding members of the Senate with letters and phone calls; and WHEREAS, if opponents of H.R. 620 and similar legislation do not continue to fight this effort in the Senate, the prospects for its ultimate passage will increase: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore the passage of H.R. 620 by the United States House of Representatives; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the United States Senate to oppose H.R. 620 or any similar legislation. Resolution 2018-07 Regarding the Creation of Government Documents and Forms in HTML5 WHEREAS, for many years blind citizens have been unable to obtain most forms and other government documents in an accessible format; and WHEREAS, many documents sent to blind people from federal agencies are time- sensitive and have severe consequences attached to a missed deadline; and WHEREAS, PDF documents are often inaccessible to the blind, and the remediation of these documents is both costly and time-consuming; and WHEREAS, PDF documents cannot be completed on mobile devices using screen- access software nor be made compliant with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA; and WHEREAS, HTML5-based formats render all documents accessible regardless of device; and WHEREAS, all citizens benefit from documents that are properly formatted and easy to read on any device: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that we call upon all federal agencies to adopt policies requiring that all documents and forms be produced in HTML5-based formats by December 31, 2019; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon these agencies to replace or convert all currently used forms or documents to the HTML5-based format and that this replacement or conversion process commence on or before January 1, 2020. Resolution 2018-08 Regarding Recent Updates to the Case Processing Manual in the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education WHEREAS, the mission of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the United States Department of Education is to "ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence through vigorous enforcement of civil rights in our nation's schools"; and WHEREAS, for many blind people filing complaints with the Office for Civil Rights has been the only way to rectify instances of discrimination experienced at public schools, institutions of higher education, and other recipients of federal financial assistance through the US Department of Education; and WHEREAS, the United States Department of Justice intervened in several cases and reached significant settlement agreements with institutions of higher education as a result of OCR complaints filed by NFB members; and WHEREAS, on March 5, 2018, without any public notice and without affording interested stakeholders the opportunity to provide comments, the department issued a new "U. S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Case Processing Manual," which replaced the 2015 Case Processing Manual and made substantial changes to the processes investigators must follow when attempting to evaluate, resolve, and dismiss complaints; and WHEREAS, some of these changes include the automatic dismissal of an allegation or a complaint entirely if a complaint is a continuation of a pattern of complaints previously filed with OCR by an individual or group against multiple recipients or if a complaint is filed for the first time against multiple recipients that, viewed as a whole, places an unreasonable burden on OCR's resources; and WHEREAS, in addition to setting out broad criteria by which complaints can be automatically dismissed, the 2018 "U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Case Processing Manual" eliminated complainants' right to appeal OCR findings of insufficient evidence; and WHEREAS, these three changes substantially restrict the ability of blind Americans to exert our rights under existing disability law and will serve only to exacerbate the discrimination blind students, blind parents, parents of blind children, and advocates confront in K-12 and higher education settings nationwide; and WHEREAS, on May 31, 2018, in response to these actions, the National Federation of the Blind, along with the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed suit against the US Department of Education seeking declaratory and injunctive relief: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore the actions of the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Ken Marcus immediately halt the implementation of the changes to the "U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Case Processing Manual," and strongly urge them to consult with the blind and other stakeholders before making drastic changes in the enforcement of civil rights laws. Resolution 2018-09 Regarding the Accessibility of Pollbooks WHEREAS, universal suffrage, the hard-won right of every citizen to vote freely and secretly, is the bedrock upon which our democracy functions; and WHEREAS, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that voters with disabilities be provided the opportunity to exercise the right to vote that is equal to the opportunity provided voters without disabilities; and WHEREAS, great progress has been made in the development and use of accessible voting machines that allow blind voters to cast their ballots; and WHEREAS, the voter pollbooks, the official registers of voters deemed eligible to vote, remain inaccessible to us, a clear violation of the spirit of the ADA; and WHEREAS, to confirm or verify an individual's voting status, he or she must have access to the pollbook for his or her voting area; and WHEREAS, the VOTEC Corporation is leading the industry in developing the first fully accessible election pollbook; and WHEREAS, if state and local boards of elections have electronic pollbooks, they should install accessible pollbooks as required under the ADA: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand all election jurisdictions that plan to use or are already using electronic pollbooks to purchase accessible election pollbooks as soon as they become available; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization commend the VOTEC Corporation for its leadership in developing an accessible pollbook system; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge other manufacturers of voting technology to follow the leadership of the VOTEC Corporation in implementing nonvisually accessible pollbooks. Resolution 2018-10 Regarding Guide Dogs in Air Travel WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest consumer organization of blind people in the United States, and the National Association of Guide Dog Users is its special interest division consisting of guide dog users and those interested in issues related to the use of guide dogs; and WHEREAS, this organization has been working with the airline industry and the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop sound, specific, and objective policies, practices, procedures, and regulations that effectively support the civil rights of airline passengers who use trained service animals; and WHEREAS, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has recently released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) concerning the carriage of trained service animals and untrained emotional support animals; and WHEREAS, some of the proposed rules concerning service animals are vague and open to interpretation that could lead to discriminatory actions, such as referring to the safety concerns posed by a large animal; and WHEREAS, the current implementing regulations of the ADA provide effective regulations and guidance concerning service animals which, if adopted by the DOT, would adequately secure the civil rights of disabled passengers accompanied by service animals while ensuring safety to all passengers and airline staff; and WHEREAS, the ACAA does not currently provide for a private right of action, thus limiting the remedies available to disabled passengers when facing discrimination: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization urge all airlines to work with the National Federation of the Blind to adopt policies concerning the carriage of service animals that respect the dignity of the individual and protect our civil rights while ensuring safety for all passengers; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the United States Department of Transportation to promulgate regulations that are harmonized with the Americans with Disabilities Act and are sufficiently detailed so that they are not open to subjective interpretation; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the United States Congress to amend the Air Carrier Access Act to include a private right of action for violation of this law. Resolution 2018-11 Regarding First-Party Braille Support WHEREAS, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have Braille display support built in to their operating systems; and WHEREAS, this support is a central component of access for blind and deaf- blind users alike; and WHEREAS, each implementation still has room for improvement in both features and stability; and WHEREAS, Braille support in Android has been stagnant for more than two years, severely limiting its usability for Braille users: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization recognize that Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all made efforts to create a robust user experience for Braille readers without the need for third-party screen readers; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we strongly urge these companies to increase the priority given to developments in Braille access, and to ensure that updates to their operating systems do not result in regression for Braille users; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon Google to demonstrate measurable and significant progress in the implementation of Braille in the Android platform by July 1, 2019. Resolution 2018-12 Regarding the Consideration of the American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act (AV START Act, S. 1885) by the United States Senate WHEREAS, blind people face challenges related to inadequate public transportation systems, insufficient paratransit networks, and inaccessible rural and suburban transportation options; and WHEREAS, innovations in autonomous vehicle technology represent a potentially valuable new resource that will help blind people grapple with transportation challenges and gain greater independence; and WHEREAS, private industry stakeholders are already designing, developing, and deploying autonomous vehicles on roads and highways across the country; and WHEREAS, twenty-nine states have already enacted autonomous vehicle legislation, with more states introducing such legislation every year; and WHEREAS, on September 6, 2017, the United States House of Representatives passed the SELF DRIVE Act (H.R. 3388), a bill to create a federal regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles; and WHEREAS, on September 28, 2017, Senator John Thune (Republican, South Dakota) and Senator Gary Peters (Democrat, Michigan) introduced the AV START Act (S. 1885) in the United States Senate; and WHEREAS, the AV START Act would prohibit states from imposing discriminatory licensing requirements, require manufacturers to provide information on their human-machine interface technology in their safety reports, and create a working group specifically tasked with promulgating recommendations on accessibility issues for people with disabilities: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that we urge the United States Senate to act expeditiously to pass the AV START Act; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon automobile manufacturers, technology companies, and all other stakeholders involved in designing, developing, and deploying autonomous vehicles to make their vehicles fully accessible to the blind. Resolution 2018-13 Regarding Accessible Vote by Mail WHEREAS, vote by mail is a voting system in which local boards of elections mail a paper ballot to every registered voter and consolidate local polling places into remote voting centers; and WHEREAS, the trend of states converting from the traditional system of voting at a local polling place to all vote by mail has continued in 2018 with Hawaii joining Oregon, Washington, and Colorado as an all vote-by-mail state starting in 2020; and WHEREAS, local jurisdictions that use vote by mail include twenty-seven of twenty-nine counties in Utah, thirty-one of fifty-three counties in North Dakota, five counties in California, and the city of Anchorage, Alaska; and WHEREAS, the reduced costs to local boards of elections, increased convenience to voters, and increased voter turnout that result when a state or local jurisdiction changes its voting system to all vote by mail will likely mean that the trend of states converting to all vote by mail will continue; and WHEREAS, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that jurisdictions that implement vote by mail must provide voters with print disabilities an opportunity to mark their ballot privately and independently at home that is equal to the opportunity provided voters without disabilities; and WHEREAS, accessible electronic ballot delivery systems that comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA would enable blind, low vision, deaf-blind, or other print-disabled voters to mark their ballot privately and independently at home or work using a computer and their own access technology: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand that states and local jurisdictions include an accessible electronic ballot delivery system that conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA) when they convert to all vote by mail so that voters with print disabilities can mark their ballot privately and independently at home with the same convenience afforded voters without disabilities. Resolution 2018-14 Regarding the Absence of EPUB Creation Options in Common Document Creation Tools WHEREAS, PDF documents are ubiquitous because most major authoring tools including Word, Pages, and Google Docs will save or print to PDF; and WHEREAS, PDF documents do not reflow, making them difficult to use on some platforms with screen-access software and difficult to read on phones, tablets, or with magnification; and WHEREAS, EPUB 3 documents are reflowable, making them easier to use on small screens with or without magnification; and WHEREAS, EPUB 3 is a superior format for content written or edited on the computer, having many well documented and implemented open standards, including HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript; and WHEREAS, the specification itself was planned with accessibility in its core structure so that making it accessible is easier than PDF; and WHEREAS, accessible EPUB is being adopted as the preferred standard in digital publishing by professional publishers; and WHEREAS, end-user tools do not provide a mechanism for direct conversion as simple as the "Save as PDF" mechanism in Word, preventing its widespread adoption by individual content creators; and WHEREAS, many end-user tools that do create EPUB documents do not create well-formed accessible EPUB documents, even when the original content is built with accessibility in mind: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization commend Apple for its robust implementation of "Save as EPUB" in Pages; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon Microsoft to provide a robust "Save as EPUB" tool for the Microsoft Office Suite; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon Google to develop further the "Save as EPUB" option for GSuite; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon other major authoring tool developers to include, improve, or simplify the creation of EPUB 3 documents in current and future updates. Resolution 2018-15 Regarding Inaccessible eLearning Opportunities WHEREAS, success in K-12 and higher education is a critical indicator of career readiness, and traditional K-12 and higher education classrooms are being replaced in part by eLearning opportunities; and WHEREAS, eLearning offers options for flexible learning schedules, the ability to complete coursework at home or other remote locations, and opportunities for taking coursework not available within a student's physical school; and WHEREAS, Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit schools from discriminating against individuals with disabilities and ultimately require that schools provide effective communication and equal and integrated access to programs and activities; and WHEREAS, technology exists to render electronic text nonvisually and thereby provide blind students with access to eLearning opportunities using screen-access software; and WHEREAS, blind students nationwide have encountered eLearning technologies that fail to conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA and are incompatible with screen access software; and WHEREAS, education technology vendors continue to sell eLearning platforms, ebooks, and online tools that are knowingly inaccessible to blind students, and K-12 schools, colleges, and universities continue to purchase such inaccessible eLearning technology; and WHEREAS, blind students in K-12 and higher education have been discouraged from enrolling in courses and activities that rely on eLearning materials, have been urged to alter their preferred subject track or major, or have been advised to withdraw as online students entirely because of perceived or actual accessibility barriers with eLearning software: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand eLearning technology vendors take immediate action to incorporate accessibility into their products and development roadmaps; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that schools and local education agencies put in place procurement policies that will prohibit acquisition of eLearning technology that does not conform with WCAG 2.1 AA; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that these schools and local education agencies require educational technology vendors to confirm the accessibility of their products prior to purchase and to assume cost and liability for any technology found to be inaccessible after purchase. Resolution 2018-16 Regarding the US Department of Education's Responsibility to Support the Randolph-Sheppard Program WHEREAS, the Randolph-Sheppard Act is the only federal legislation that solely focuses on promoting entrepreneurship for blind people in the United States, with the goals of "providing blind persons with remunerative employment, enlarging the economic opportunities of the blind, and stimulating the blind to greater efforts in striving to make themselves self-supporting"; and WHEREAS, to assist in achieving these goals, Congress tasked the United States Department of Education with oversight responsibility of this program through the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), which is required to review and approve rules, regulations, policies, or procedures to be used in the administration of the program at the local level by state agencies for the blind, but to date, approximately eight states are currently awaiting approval from RSA, and some approvals have been pending for as long as eighteen months; and WHEREAS, The Randolph-Sheppard Act also requires the Department of Education to convene arbitration panels to resolve disputes between blind entrepreneurs and state licensing agencies, as well as between state licensing agencies and federal entities that are alleged to be out of compliance with the Randolph-Sheppard Act; and WHEREAS, at least a dozen pending arbitration cases are currently awaiting action by the Department of Education, when a simple convening letter is all that is required; however, despite pleas from the National Association of Blind Merchants, individual blind entrepreneurs, and individual states, the convening letters remain stuck in an unwieldy bureaucracy; and WHEREAS, multiple arbitration panels hear the same complaint, and many of the issues being disputed are exactly the same, so the vast majority of such arbitration cases could be avoided if the US Department of Education would fulfill its responsibility to interpret the Randolph-Sheppard Act and issue policy guidance on these recurring issues: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon the US Department of Education to complete the review and approval process for all pending rules, regulations, policies, or procedures pertaining to the administration of the Randolph- Sheppard Program without further delay, as well as immediately to issue convening letters for all pending arbitration cases; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that the US Department of Education promptly issue policy guidance regarding recurring issues confronting the Randolph-Shepard Program in order to prevent similar backlogs and delays from occurring in the future. Resolution 2018-17 Regarding Audio Description of Live Television Programming WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently required a substantial increase in the amount of audio-described programming; and WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind, in collaboration with NBC- Universal, worked to create a potential waiver for broadcasters that would establish alternative measures, satisfactory to all parties, that could be used to satisfy the requirements of the FCC's new rule; and WHEREAS, neither the FCC rule nor the waiver requires live television programming to be audio-described because it would create a conflict on the single secondary audio programming (SAP) channel used to broadcast live events in other languages; and WHEREAS, other accessible technology exists in the live broadcast arena, such as the Gala Pro Application for smartphone devices; and WHEREAS, Comcast and NBC-Universal have set a precedent by providing audio description for the Olympics, Paralympics, and musical productions: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization demand that the FCC and the broadcasters work together to create additional SAP channels so that both foreign language speakers and the blind are able to enjoy the same programming; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that the FCC require audio description on live programming of all types. Resolution 2018-18 Regarding Web Browser Accessibility WHEREAS, web browser manufacturers have historically introduced new browsers or updates to existing browsers to the market without ensuring accessibility prior to release; and WHEREAS, prior to the release of Firefox Quantum, Mozilla Firefox was the most used browser by the blind because of its focus on accessibility; and WHEREAS, users of screen readers other than JAWS 2018 have been advised to change or update their screen readers to JAWS 2018, change browsers, or avoid the latest versions of Firefox; and WHEREAS, JAWS is used by less than half of screen reader users, many of whom are not using the latest version; and WHEREAS, controls and functions can vary widely between screen readers, and changing to JAWS 2018 may require extensive retraining; and WHEREAS, upgrading or switching to JAWS 2018 is often prohibitive in both cost and time; and WHEREAS, accessibility features and screen-reader compatibility do not function uniformly across browsers, making a sudden browser change problematic; and WHEREAS, blind people must have equal access to the web in order to be productive citizens and responsible members of the community; and WHEREAS, the failure of web browsers to work efficiently with third-party screen readers can cost the blind money and time and significantly affect productivity; and WHEREAS, browser developers should give as much priority to accessibility as they give to usability for non-disabled users: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon Mozilla to make future versions of Firefox compatible with all widely used screen readers; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon all web browser manufacturers to work closely with screen reader producers such as Freedom Scientific and NVAccess to ensure that new browsers or updates to browsers are not released unless they are fully accessible. Resolution 2018-19 Regarding the Inaccessibility of the Informed Delivery Service Operated by the United States Postal Service WHEREAS, the United States Postal Service's (USPS) Informed Delivery service is a free and convenient notification tool that gives residential consumers the ability to preview incoming letter-sized mail and manage packages digitally; and WHEREAS, Informed Delivery service has replaced My USPS as the avenue for tracking and managing incoming mail; and WHEREAS, at present the service displays the status of mail only en route by an image, which is totally inaccessible to the blind; and WHEREAS, the technology exists to make the service accessible to those who are blind; and WHEREAS, the USPS, as an independent agency of the executive branch, is subject to accessibility laws, including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act; and WHEREAS, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) used or procured by the USPS be accessible to individuals with disabilities, including the blind; and WHEREAS, the USPS not only operates its Informed Delivery service without regard to accessibility in violation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, but also discriminates against the blind by depriving us of a service offered to the rest of the public: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization strongly urge the United States Postal Service quickly to make the Informed Delivery service accessible to those who are blind; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the USPS to work with the National Federation of the Blind to implement protocols that prevent deployment of inaccessible services in the future. Resolution 2018-20 Regarding Commending CBS for its Portrayal of Blindness on NCIS WHEREAS, the mainstream media rarely portrays people with disabilities in movies and television shows, and when it does, the portrayal is frequently negative and/or inaccurate; and WHEREAS, one reason for the stereotypical portrayals of blind people in the media is that blind characters are hardly ever played by blind actors; and WHEREAS, CBS produces a television series called Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which is an American action procedural series revolving around a team of special agents who investigate crimes involving the US Navy and Marine Corps; and WHEREAS, NCIS episode number 350, entitled "Sight Unseen," which aired on April 17, 2018, featured acclaimed blind stage actress Marilee Talkington as a key witness to a crime; and WHEREAS, CBS consulted the National Federation of the Blind prior to casting Marilee Talkington in this episode and solicited feedback on portions of the script; and WHEREAS, according to the Sacramento Bee, Marilee's character, Annie Barth, was "written as emotionally complex, humorous, and powerful"; and WHEREAS, Marilee also joined the CBS cast on a new television pilot, In the Dark, in a recurring guest role as a blind character; Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization commend CBS for promoting diversity among its characters, plots, and actors by casting blind actors as blind characters; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization commend CBS for consulting with the organized blind about the most authentic way to portray the character of Annie Barth on its episode of NCIS; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the entertainment industry to promote the inclusion of blind actors and characters in its television shows and movies, to portray blind characters in a positive and accurate light, and to consult the National Federation of the Blind when doing so. ---------- Convention Miniatures Krafters Division: 2018 is a year of celebration and a changing of the guard. This year, Krafters celebrate our tenth birthday! Isn't that great? As we look back, we appreciate the effort put forth to grow an idea into a working division of the NFB. We applaud Joyce Kane for her initiative to partner with many others to create what we now lovingly call "Krafters Korner." We are crafters who happen to be blind. We share alternative techniques which enable us to continue growing in our crafts. During our time at convention, we shared our division with many others in the Exhibit Hall. We provided the opportunity for members to demonstrate our skills by bringing items to our Market Place. Many NFB members came, visited, and even did some shopping. We appreciate all of you who spent time with us and recognized our efforts by purchasing our items. We left this event with excitement for what we could do for the next convention. We wrapped up our division activities with our business meeting, where elections were held. We now have Tammy Freitag serving as president. We have brought enthusiasm and new motivation into our new decade. We have a great group of women and men excited about the ability to make fun and beautiful things with our hands and imagination. We extend an invitation to anybody else that would like to come join the fun. We welcome those that know a craft and don't mind teaching the rest of us. We also welcome those that have either the desire to learn or the curiosity about how we do our crafts. Our Korner has room for all who are interested; come join us! If you have questions, please contact President Tammy Freitag: 402-904-5105 or email: krafters.division.president at gmail.com. We hope you will join the fun! Report from Communities of Faith: The NFB in Communities of Faith held its annual meeting on Thursday, July 5, at 1 p.m. We first heard from publishers of Christian and Jewish literature. Craig Leeds, director of Braille Bibles International and also representing MegaVoice, spoke about these respective organizations as well as Aurora Ministries. Braille Bibles International sends out translations of the Bible in Braille as well as solar case speaker Bibles from MegaVoice. Aurora Ministries has several versions of the Bible and other Christian literature available on cartridges. Jeri Lyn Rogge, director of The Christian Record Braille Foundation, spoke about the many and varied activities of this organization. They have a lending library, produce magazines, and conduct camps for various age groups. Antonio Guimaraes, from the Jewish Braille Institute also spoke to us about the valuable work of this organization. JBI has produced this important literature for many years. Michael Smith, director of the International Christian Braille Mission, spoke about its move to Grayson, Kentucky, from West Virginia. Mike, a veteran of our movement, is training others to further the work of this ministry. Anil Lewis, executive director of the Jernigan Institute, shared about his faith from childhood. Tom Anderson and Rehnee Aikens spoke about the importance of encouraging others to become people of faith. We had several new members join the division. Tom and Rehnee had a Bible quiz as part of the NABS Olympics. The speakers for devotions this year were: Ron Brown, president of the NFB of Indiana; Tom Anderson, Overland Park, Kansas; and Reverend Carolyn Peters from Dayton, Ohio. The officers of this division are: president, Tom Anderson, Kansas; vice president Rehnee Aikens, Texas; secretary, Linda Mentink, Nebraska; and treasurer, Sam Gleese, Mississippi. Elected: On July 5, the Science and Engineering Division of the NFB elected the following officers for two-year terms: president, John Miller, johnmillerphd at hotmail.com, 858-774-9286; vice president, Ashley Neybert, crazy4chemistry at att.net; secretary, Louis Maher, ljmaher03 at outlook.com; treasurer, Alfred Maneki, apmaneki at earthlink.net; and board members Purvi Contractor, purvidc2 at gmail.com; and David Hertweck, david.hertweck at sbcglobal.net. Report from the Seniors Division: On July 3, the seniors division hosted a seminar, "Emergency Preparedness-How to Prepare to Remain in Place or Evacuate when Necessary." Ms. Georgianna Cherry, Health Emergency Operations Manager for Florida, North Central Area, was our presenter. She focused on knowing your surroundings and thinking about what you need to do to evacuate from wherever you are-the hotel, your home, visiting friends, wherever you happen to be. She advised having a "go bag" with items you think you will need plus comfort items that will get you through about three or four days in an unfamiliar environment. If you have special needs such as a pet or you use a guide dog, or if you take medicine that must be kept chilled, learn from your local area disaster relief officials where you should go, and plan a strategy to get there. What services will you need to get to the best designated shelter that can meet your specific needs? Next, have a chain of people that you contact, and they in turn will let others know where you are and what needs you may have. She emphasized getting as much information about local resources and where and how to access them, and then plan, plan, and plan still further. The more prepared you are, the more control you have over where you go and what happens to you when you get there. Do not assume that services you believe you are entitled to will be available. Bring water, food, medicines, and change these in your go bag at least twice a year. Bring any important documentation such as bank and financial records, medical history, insurance policy, etc. Finally, if you have others in your household that you are responsible for, make certain they know the plans you have made and know whom to contact and where to go. Ms. Cherry distributed little emergency first-aid kits that can be packed in the go bag and added to with other items if need be. In our annual business meeting of the seniors division, officers were elected as follows: president, Ruth Sager; first vice president, Judy Sanders; second vice president, Robert Leslie Newman; secretary, Shelley Coppel; and treasurer, Diane McGeorge assisted by Duncan Larsen. Phyllis Chavez spoke about her first Washington Seminar experience and how she was able to put the training she has received from the Colorado Center into practice. She felt frightened and scared, but she learned that she could ask for help from others in her group or strangers as well. She enjoyed the meeting with legislators and the museum event held Tuesday evening of this four-day seminar. She stressed how important our legislative efforts are for all blind people across the country whether they are members of the NFB or not. She felt empowered and will be back again for many more Washington Seminars. Ruth and Shelley spoke about the retreat, what its purpose is, and gave some details about the physical location of Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center in South Carolina. NFB members Nancy Yeager from Virginia and Carol Braithwaite from Alabama next informed everyone of upcoming events their senior divisions are in the process of exploring and noted what they have done this past year. These are newly formed divisions, and they are working on growing their memberships and fundraising activities as well as planning events for seniors in their states. Theresa Gfroerer from Minnesota spoke about her experience losing vision and finding BLIND Inc. and their senior program. She also became an active member of the affiliate. She was proud of her accomplishments but wanted to also strongly encourage anyone who has the ability to get good training to take the opportunity and learn as much as you can. It will change your life for the better. Theresa is a tenBroek Scholar, and she was having a fabulous convention experience. Michael Hingson gave a presentation on Aira, what it is, what it can do, and basic instructions on how to use it. And, as always, we had our "not so silent" auction. Come next year. We need you, and you need us. Elected: At our business meeting on July 5, the Community Service Division elected a new board to serve for the 2018-2019 year. Board members are as follows: president, Jeanetta Price; vice president, Johna Wright; secretary, Kyra Sweeney; treasurer, Janae Burgmeier; and board members Chris Parsons, Jonathan Franks, and Sam Gates. Elected: The NFB in Computer Science held its bi-annual board elections at its annual meeting on July 5. The results of the election are as follows: president, Brian Buhrow, buhrow at nfbcal.org; vice president, Steve Jacobson, steve.jacobson at visi.com; secretary, Louis Maher, ljmaher03 at outlook.com; treasurer, Curtis Chong, chong.curtis at gmail.com; board members: Jeanine Lineback, jeanine.lineback at gmail.com; Harry Staley, staleyh at gmail.com; and Jim Barbour, jbar at barcore.com. Report from NAGDU: On Tuesday, July 3, during the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind, the National Association of Guide Dog Users held its second annual seminar. This dynamic seminar featured workshops on how to identify veterinary emergencies and creating wellness for our dogs, tips for solving the problem of counterfeit service animals, coping with the grief associated with the retirement or passing of our dogs, the process of applying for and training with a guide dog, and the ever-popular "Show & Tail." The workshops were very well attended, and participants shared how much valuable information they received. On Thursday, July 5, we held our annual meeting. We heard from our legal department about our rideshare testing program and from the Jernigan Institute's Advocacy and Policy Department about our work with the Department of Transportation and the airline industry. We also elected our leadership with the following results: president, Marion Gwizdala (Florida); vice president, Michael Hingson (California); secretary, Sherrill O'Brien (Florida); treasurer, Linda O'Connell (Arkansas); board members, Aleeha Dudley (Louisiana), Raul Gallegos (Texas), and Jessica Snyder (Ohio). Congratulations to our newly-elected board of directors and thanks to our membership for helping to make the National Association of Guide Dog Users the leading advocacy organization on the affairs of guide and service dog users in the United States. Report from the Promotion, Evaluation, and Advancement of Technology Committee: The exhibitors showcase was held the first night of convention, July 3, with over twenty companies presenting brief information about their products and services that they would show in the exhibit hall in the coming days. Tap technology spoke about its wearable keyboard that lets your fingers send letters or commands to a connected Bluetooth device. It has a unique alphabet, but their fastest typist types sixty-two words per minute. It also has a set of VoiceOver commands to make it more efficient. Universal Low Vision Aids Inc. (ULVA) talked about its OCR and magnifying devices. WayAround spoke about its non-camera device that gives information about the world around you. It can identify colors, appliance information, and even the date your milk expires. It uses tags for your personal information that is stored in the cloud, and the app is free. A.T. Guys has a new, more powerful battery pack, new AfterShokz headphones that weigh just over an ounce, an updated audio recorder that can store ninety-six hours of recordings, and a new wireless speaker that will do Alexa through WiFi and Bluetooth. NReach has an app that helps one understand the world around you through Bluetooth beacon technology. When in range of its transmitter that a business can obtain, you can get details about the location of a store, such as the stores in a mall, and, for as little as $100 a year, they say they can put a unit at the business location. Envision America has improved ScriptTalk with a new app for iPhone 7 or higher that will read your prescriptions for you. Also, it says its ID Mate Galaxy barcode scanner will prove that apps just don't cut it for barcode information. OrCam has a new wearable device that weighs about an ounce and is about the size of one's finger that will read currency, identify colors, and even allow facial recognition. Sprint talked about its desire to work with the blind, just as it has done with the deaf. It says it now has a fully accessible website and a toll-free help line. Bookshare spoke about its 625,000-book collection that is available the same day as you can get them from Amazon or a bookstore. You can download books in Braille, in audio, or as a Word file. It's only $50 a year, and for many a membership is free. Amazon talked about its new totally accessible TV and about its accessible Echo device. VOTEC asks for help from the NFB in creating a new fully accessible pollbook. This will enable a blind person to sign in to the voting location completely on their own to assure voter verification. VFO and Freedom Scientific spoke about its new magnifier and notetaker. The company talked to us about Fusion, which fuses JAWS and ZoomText together for the best of both worlds. Project RAY has a new eyes-free user interface for Android that it says can be learned in fifteen minutes and makes operating touchscreen phones easier for Android 4.0 or higher. HIMS discussed with us its new QBraille, a Braille display with all the modifier keys that are on a normal QWERTY keyboard, so there will be no need to learn workaround Braille entry keys. The new QBraille will also have a few built-in notetaking applications and is due out this fall. The company also has a new low-vision device with better full-page OCR called the GoVision PRO. Zoomax is a new company specializing in low-vision magnifiers including the Snow 10 which is a ten-inch magnifier with OCR and speech in ten different languages. Open Access has a core focus of document accessibility. It helps clients find and make accessible the documents that are on websites that are not currently accessible. It says it can make PowerPoints, Word documents, and PDFs accessible. Duxbury Systems now has version 12.3 out for MAC systems. There are improvements for its translator for Nemeth and Perky Duck. Also, there are new improvements to JAWS scripts, and you can download tactile graphics from the company's website. Bristol Braille Technology is an English company that is introducing a new multiline Braille display. It's called the Canute, and many got to see it first at the end of our program. The company says this display will cost less than a forty-cell display when it comes out. Sunu has a wearable band to detect objects around you using radar and augmented reality to reflect objects above the waist and overhead like tree branches. It also has a built-in compass and a GPS app. It's an all-in-one multitool to augment the cane and dog. American Printing House for the Blind said that now Nearby Explorer, its GPS app, can do some indoor navigation. It now has a forty-by-sixty grid tactile graphics display and are again taking orders for the Orbit Reader, the $450 twenty-cell Braille display. Microsoft came to talk about improvements to its Windows 10 screen reader called Narrator. The company also discussed a new magnifier that will have new features this fall. Tactile street maps of your neighborhood are available now from LightHouse for the Blind of San Francisco. So anywhere in North America, you can get a map of the street around you that's tactile with Braille Identifiers with a key. There were well over a hundred people in the audience who came to learn about what they could see in the exhibit hall and particularly where to find it once there. The showcase continues to be a popular item that helps the committee promote and advance technology that can be of help for the blind. Whether a sponsor or a consumer, join us next year. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Join The Blind History Lady Mailing List: One of the 2018 Bolotin Award winners, Peggy Chong, The Blind History Lady, invites all of you to sign up for her monthly emails celebrating our blind American ancestors. Just send an email to theblindhistorylady at gmail.com asking to be added to her list. Then look for her emails at the beginning of each month, and enjoy the stories of those who paved the way before us. Also visit her website at www.theblindhistorylady.com to learn about The Blind History Lady's activities and other published works. Large Print Calendars Available: The 2019 EZ2See? Weekly Calendar is now available. This is the most low-vision-friendly weekly calendar available on the market. It is designed specifically for those with low vision or who need the space to write big. Many of its helpful design features are found nowhere else. That's because it is designed by a low-vision person. Federationist Edward Cohen started making and selling the EZ2See? Weekly Calendar in 2015 after being frustrated by the absence of a weekly calendar that met his needs. Unique features include: . Printed on 8.5-inch-by-eleven-inch heavy-weight paper . All bold black lines, numbers, and words . Letters and numbers ten times the size of newsprint-no tiny print . Black page borders-no more writing off the edge of the paper . Daily cells nearly as large as two three-inch-by-five-inch cards-the largest available space The product sells for $21.95 on the EZ2SeeProducts.com website. Visit the website to see it and place your order. Shipping is by Free Matter. Don't buy online? No problem, email Info at EZ2SeeProducts.com to learn how to buy with a check. National Federation of the Blind CAREER Mentoring program: Blind and low-vision youth need exposure to positive blind role models who demonstrate a genuine belief in them and in their natural abilities. Here is a wonderful opportunity for you to give back to the next generation and to help them achieve their full potential. We are actively recruiting successful independent blind or low-vision adults. Go to https://nfb.org/mentorapplication, and sign up to become a mentor. Through guidance and example, you can help raise expectations and teach blind youth the practical strategies of how to access resources and to acquire skills for success. If you are willing to share your life experiences, to teach tips and tools for living independently, and to assist blind youth to become better self-advocates, the National Federation of the Blind CAREER Mentoring Program offers you a golden opportunity to give back. Our NFB CAREER Mentoring Program provides a framework of training and support that will empower you to be a successful mentor to an aspiring blind or low-vision youth. We will host several fun educational activities that allow the mentor/mentee relationships to grow. If you do not feel you have the time, remember that in many instances a phone call, an email, or a text may be a life-changing interaction. In addition to having the opportunity to positively affect the life of a young blind person, you will also be able to improve your own skills and to expand your personal/professional networks. For more information, check out the article in the April issue of the Braille Monitor, entitled "Changing Attitudes Regarding Education, Employment, and Rehabilitation through the National Federation of the Blind CAREER Mentoring Program:" https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1804/bm180414.htm. NABM Announces Nationally Acclaimed Mark Gungor Will be Featured at BLAST: The National Association of Blind Merchants is excited to announce that Mark Gungor, one of the nation's most sought after experts on communication and relationships, will be one of the keynote speakers at BLAST (Business Leadership and Superior Training). Do men and women really see the world through different eyes? Do they communicate differently? Are men really able to retreat into their "nothing box" and think about absolutely nothing? For answers to these and other burning questions, you will want to be at this year's BLAST Conference. Prepare yourself to learn a little and laugh a lot when nationally acclaimed speaker and author Mark Gungor presents "The Tale of Two Brains" at BLAST. Mark is a sought-after keynote speaker on the corporate circuit and thousands attend his workshops and seminars each year. His candid and comedic approach uses unforgettable illustrations to teach proven principles that are guaranteed to strengthen and enhance communication and relationships. Mark's speaking is refreshing and free of textbook psychological lingo. His goal is to help people get it right and to get along. Register now to attend BLAST November 13 through 16 at the fabulous Hyatt Regency Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas. It is shaping up to be a spectacular event that you won't want to miss. It starts with a full day of staff training which is being cosponsored by the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind on Tuesday, November 13. SLA [State Licensing Agency] staff will want to arrive on Monday. The conference will also feature our all-encompassing trade show on Thursday afternoon, and there will be an old fashioned Texas BBQ Thursday evening. We conclude on Friday morning with some relevant Randolph-Sheppard programming. So don't miss out on this Texas-size blowout of an event. Go to https://blindmerchants.org/blast-2018-information/ and register today. 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. Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Did you know that the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults produces over 12,000 Braille calendars each year? These pocket-sized calendars are given free to any blind or deaf-blind person in the United States. Each calendar is embossed with the days of the week, the date, and all of the major national and religious holidays. You will love how quick and easy it is to use, not to mention the convenient size of the calendar. If you or someone you know needs a 2019 Braille calendar, please feel free to complete the short online application at https://actionfund.org/braillecalendar. If you do not have access to the online form, you can send an email to calendars at actionfund.org or call 410- 659-9315 to request the calendars as well. Eight Popular Kids' Books are Now in UEB from Seedlings: Seedlings Braille Books for Children has added eight more titles to its collection of books in Unified English Braille. Four titles are brand- new: They are Wishtree, for independent readers ages eight to twelve; Just Critters Who Care and Finding Dory: Big Fish, Little Fish, for beginning readers; and Grumpy Bird for babies and preschoolers. The other four are titles for independent readers that have been converted from the old code: Where the Sidewalk Ends, Indian in the Cupboard, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens, and Where the Red Fern Grows. This brings to 428 the number of low-cost books in UEB Seedlings offers. Order at http://www.seedlings.org/order.php. Keep watching our website as we are adding more UEB every month! The Experience of a Lifetime Awaits You at Ski for Light International Week 2019: The forty-fourth annual Ski for Light International Week will take place from Sunday, January 27 through Sunday, February 3, 2019, in Granby, Colorado. Ski for Light, an all-volunteer nonprofit, organizes an annual, week-long event where blind and mobility-impaired adults are taught the basics of cross-country skiing. The event attracts more than 250 skiers, guides, and volunteers from throughout the United States, as well as international participants. During the Ski for Light week, each skier with a disability is paired with an experienced sighted cross-country skier who acts as ski instructor and on-snow guide. Participants in the forty-fourth annual Ski for Light International Week will ski and stay at Snow Mountain Ranch, part of the YMCA of the Rockies, located near Winter Park. Single rooms, doubles, triples, and quads are available. In addition to skiing on one hundred kilometers of wide and wonderfully groomed Nordic trails, participants will have the opportunity to hone their auditory laser rifle skills in a biathlon experience facilitated by the United States Association of Blind Athletes, compete in the Olav Pedersen Race/Rally, and enjoy many off-snow activities. "I discovered Ski for Light at the 2012 event, and my life changed. Through skiing and the opportunities to work with other Ski for Light enthusiasts, I began to imagine what was possible and spent less time and energy dwelling on what I could no longer do after experiencing vision loss," wrote skier Tim McCorcle. If you have never before attended what many have called "the experience of a lifetime," please consider participating in the Ski for Light 2019 International Week. Registration forms and pricing for skiers, guides, and volunteers are now available at www.sfl.org. You can also visit www.sfl.org to view a brief, narrated video introduction to Ski for Light. For other questions regarding the program, contact Visually Impaired Participant Recruitment Coordinator Melinda Hollands at mlhollandstc at gmail.com or call her at 231- 590-0986. Hope to ski with you in Colorado! Braille Calendars Available: I am starting to make Braille calendars for 2019. Each calendar is six dollars. One third of the profit from each will go toward helping me attend the NFB convention next year, one third will go toward the NFB, and one third will go to help the hungry around the world. If you are interested, feel free to email me at: adrijana.prokopenko 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 Wed Oct 3 01:18:02 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2018 01:18:02 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] Braille Monitor, October 2018 Message-ID: <201810030818.w938I2PU012713@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 9 October 2018 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 ? 2018 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. 61, No. 9 October 2018 Contents Illustration: Strengthening the Team Who Works for You: Comradery and Challenge for our NFB Staff Blending Assertiveness, Principle, Confrontation, and Collaboration: The NFB Carries out an AER Strike by Everette Bacon Honesty and Telling It Like It Is by Gary Wunder >From My Blind Child to Our Blind Children-Why the National Federation of the Blind Is the Answer by Carlton Walker Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities: A Blind Entrepreneur Breaks through Barriers Everywhere He Builds by Isaac Lidsky The Senate Must Act on Legislation So Americans can Reap the Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles by Mark Riccobono No Borders to the World's Knowledge: A Commitment to Accessibility for the Blind by Francis Gurry Equal Access in Air Travel for the Blind: Raising Expectations from the United States Department of Transportation by Blane Workie Networking that Empowers Innovation: Accessibility for the Blind through Facebook by Monica Desai Tommy Craig Dies........................................................................ ...................... by Zena Pearcy Announcing New Accessibility Resources for Consumers and Industry by Anil Lewis Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Team spirit and cooperation got a boost from a friendly game of cards. Patti Chang and Kimie Eacobacci can be seen in the foreground.] [PHOTO CAPTION: (Left to right) Karen Anderson, Rachel Olivero, Sophia Connell (behind Rachel), and Amy Mason enjoy the water at Sandy Point State Park.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares climbs the rope ladder to the tower as Sonia Little watches] [PHOTO CAPTION: A group of NFB staff stands on the platform preparing to cross the stepping stones portion of the Aerial Teams Course.] [PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares, Jimmy McCurley, and Candiss Kiah stand on the platform of the Aerial Teams Course.] [PHOTO CAPTION: (Almost) the entire staff of the National Center pose together after a great day of teambuilding at Outward Bound.] Strengthening the Team Who Works for You: Comradery and Challenge for our NFB Staff Interacting as Federationists we often find ourselves giving and receiving praise, suggestions, and sometimes tough love. Never do we want to push people beyond where they can go, but neither do we want to encourage them to shy away from going beyond their comfort zone and pushing themselves just a bit beyond where they think they can. As it is for our members, so it is for our staff-a real-life demonstration for those who work for us a bit of what it is like to be one of us, to encounter an obstacle and then to work around it. On September 6 and 7, 2018, the NFB Jernigan Institute was closed for two days of staff development and appreciation. One day was for celebrating and saying thank you for a year of hard work. The second day was for team building in which the staff experienced the kind of adventure activities that our students and members get through many of our programs. Some of the activities took place on the ground: stand in a circle, hold the hands of people on your left and right, but not the people next to you. Then untangle the crisscross of hands and still remain in a circle. In a different circle pass a hula hoop from one person to the next without ever breaking contact. One staff member said, "I really liked the five-finger bio activity and think chapters might find it fun and useful. We had to pair up and interview each other, getting the answers to five questions; the questions were represented by the fingers of one hand, which I guess is a memory aid. They were: Thumb: Name something you are good at; Index: A goal that you have; Middle: Something that frustrates you; Ring: Something you're committed to (e.g. religion, family, Federation); and Pinky: Something few people know about you." Another said, "We had an activity where our group was divided into twos; a kind of obstacle course was set up with various shaped objects on the ground in a square-roped box. One teammate was blindfolded, and the other teammate had to direct them through the obstacle course without stepping on any of the objects. If you stepped on one, you would pretend there was an explosion, sound effects included. The first attempt we could say left, right, etc. The next time we were told to direct without saying left or right. Our teams came up with other directions. My partner and I used vegetables: radish-right; lettuce-left; spinach-straight. At the same time, our group leader would loudly drop objects within our path; you could hear them as they hit the ground. This would force you to stop, hesitate, then alter your route, but we were successful in making it through the activity. It was a lot of fun." "We were asked to do an activity where we had to line up by certain criteria, but we were not permitted to talk. We did fairly well with lining up by height-easily measured by touch-and by birth month, although we had a couple of issues with dates within the same month. Then we were asked to think of an animal, and then line up by size of animal from smallest to largest. Two in our group of seven were blind, and I started thinking about how I was going to communicate what I had in mind. One of my colleagues took my arms and began to demonstrate relative dimensions to me which I took to be the size of his/her animal. I then turned to the other blind person who was next to me and used the same technique. I had been spending all of my energy thinking about how I was going to communicate my animal to the sighted that I had given no consideration to how I was going to receive information-conditioning from society? I do not consider myself a sit and wait sort of person, but the experience surprised me because of my own thought process and, pleasantly, because my colleagues quickly created a nonvisual means of communication." My favorite quotation is taken from a person who is normally very quiet, but it is clear that when he speaks, he has much to say: "The course activities were a great learning experience for me, and I will share it with others. The high wire proved that any person or people, when confronted with adversity at the same time, can overcome the odds if they pull and stick together. The most outstanding thing for me was the two trees; it proved to me, as God said, He would use the foolish thing to shame the wise. He used the very nature that He created. The trees were different in shape and size. They were different in name, but could compromise their shape in order to grow together. In our group there were people of four or five different races, so what I am trying to say is: for me, God showed that no matter what else, just like the trees are all trees, there is one race, the human race. Just do it." In this paragraph, our quiet friend has said a mouthfull, and we are all blessed by his words. Activities like this are designed to test a group's physical abilities, communication skills, and most of all its trust and cohesiveness as a group. While climbing the rope ladder or strapping into a harness to walk across a single-strand rope bridge high above the ground are more blatantly physical and difficult, the challenge of maneuvering adult bodies through the gaps created in the space of clasped hands carries its own difficulties and risks for participants. But no matter which activities our staff members chose to participate in or sit out of during this day, they put their whole heart and effort into that, just as they do daily in their work to help the blind of America live the lives they want. [PHOTO CAPTION: Everette Bacon] Blending Assertiveness, Principle, Confrontation, and Collaboration: The NFB Carries out an AER Strike by Everette Bacon From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind was created because a few blind people believed that only if they spoke for themselves could they create and shape the programs that would best serve them. We believe this as much today as we did in 1940. Unfortunately too many people still take literally the parable that says when the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch. In 1940 our hope said that a literal interpretation was wrong, and our experience now confirms it day after day, year after year, decade after decade. But parables, stereotypes, and legal beliefs do not easily give way even in the face of evidence refuting them. Many professionals once built their identity not only on helping the blind but in speaking for us, making all important decisions for us, and being the interpreters through which America would hear from its blind unfortunates. Thanks to innate ability and a country that encourages us to reach for our day in the sun as we pursue the American dream, the blind now speak for ourselves, direct the programs that serve us, and tell our communities what we need and which service providers are delivering it. We still need professionals who learn to teach the alternative skills we need and to develop ever-more-helpful equipment, but we do not need these men and women to speak for us but with us, sharing in the collaboration that creates, maintains, and evaluates quality services. In the article that follows, Everette describes the ongoing struggle between blind people who will speak through their elected leaders and a group of professionals who believe that because of their education and experience they are entitled to speak for us and to set the standards that will be used in evaluating the programs created to serve us. Here is what he says: Some organizations are associated with honor, credibility, and trust. Others are not. Sometimes an organization's reputation is so tarnished or even toxic that it is better to let it pass into history and have another organization do the work the previous one was unable or unwilling to do. This article is to update and continue the narrative begun in the January 2018 Braille Monitor by our President, Mark Riccobono. That article can be found at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1801/bm180102.htm. In President Riccobono's call to action, members were asked to blanket the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) with social media and emails calling for AER to hear the widely accepted message "nothing about us without us" and to once and for all end the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) program. President Riccobono had also invited the outgoing AER executive director, Louis Tutt, to come to our national headquarters for a meeting to further the discussion that had started back in October 2017. AER had promised to follow up in January 2018 to schedule the in-person meeting. In March our President called Lou Tutt to inquire about the status, and he was told that the AER Accreditation Council (AER's new designation for what was previously the National Accreditation Council) would be meeting in late March to discuss the National Federation of the Blind. March came in like a lamb and went out the same way. So too did April with no word from AER. On May 14, 2018, President Riccobono received a phone call from Lou Tutt asking if a letter had been received on April 4, 2018. Our President informed Mr. Tutt that no letter had been received, and this was verified after another check of the Federation's email server. Keep in mind that by this time it is the middle of May, and AER promised a follow-up meeting in January. If a letter was sent on April 4, why was there no follow-up until May 14? As you will find below, there was an expectation by AER that the Federation would participate in a meeting on April 26, so why did it take better than two weeks to follow-up from that meeting to inquire about the Federation's response to a letter supposedly sent on April 4? AER went forward with its plans to revamp the NAC program, and in a letter dated either April 4 or May 14 (we are unsure because the letter was not received by the office of the President until May 14), Dr. Tutt notified President Riccobono that an accreditation council was being formed by AER and that President Riccobono could assign a member of the NFB to it. Dr. Tutt's letter read as follows: Dear President Riccobono: Thanks for taking my call this morning, Monday, May 14, 2018; I am forwarding you the email I sent to the Office Of The President (OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org) on April 4, 2018 (reprinted below), along with the attached letter (which has the same content as the email below). Since I had not heard from you, I called to ascertain if you had received the email and letter to which you said you had not. Therefore, I am resending the email to you and Ms. Beth Braun at the email addresses you gave me this morning. Sincerely, Lou Louis M. Tutt Executive Director Here was the letter Dr. Tutt said had been sent earlier: Dear Mark Riccobono, On behalf of the AER Accreditation Council, I am extending a formal invitation to NFB to appoint an individual to represent NFB on the AER Accreditation Council. Since our inception, we have been dedicated to giving voice to our members and those who are served by our members by having our work reflect a representation of the field and the needs of the field. To this end, we hope that you will accept this opportunity. The new AER Accreditation Program is outcomes-based; and seeks to ensure continuous improvements and optimal gains. We believe that accreditation is instrumental in helping entities to deliver quality services, under the best conditions that lead to consumers gaining what is needed to live more independently. Our approach is progressive, embodies the collection of qualitative and quantitative data; and culminates with a strict evaluation. Only entities that meet or exceed the standards will be granted accreditation. The Council will convene April 26, 2018 via conference call. Let me know prior to that date the name of the individual that you would like to have seated on the Council. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. This new Accreditation Program has tremendous merit; it offers a systemic and consistent approach to ensuring quality, safety, and sound outcomes. We hope that you will join our efforts. Sincerely, Louis M. Tutt, AER Accreditation Council Chair It is impossible to convey just how underwhelming was Dr. Tutt's letter. He tells us nothing about the Council. We have had no opportunity to participate in evaluating the need it would meet or to be a part of its conception and planning. Nothing is clear about its criteria for accreditation, what standards if any it has, how those standards will be administered, or on what kind of board we are being invited to participate. All of this together makes the letter of invitation insulting and condescending. The fundamental concept of nothing about us without us is clearly lacking in all that has been done, and no offer of one seat on an undefined board with an undefined purpose and an undefined set of standards will change this irrevocable fact. AER cannot make the rules, make the game, and only after all of this invite us to be a player; the blind will not settle for such an insubstantial role. After consulting with the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors, President Riccobono responded to Dr. Tutt with the following letter: May 17, 2018 Dear Mr. Tutt: I am in receipt of your letter dated April 4, 2018, which first arrived in my office after a phone call from you on May 14, 2018. When we began this dialogue six months ago, a dialogue that I initiated, I was optimistic that history really could not repeat itself and that particularly you-a professional with many decades in the field-would not be interested in tearing down the gains that have been made in the collaborative work between blind consumers and blindness professionals. I regret that I was wrong. Of the many sayings about the lessons of history, the one that best applies to your letter of April 4 (or May 14) is from Karl Marx: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." Your letter is offensive to the blind of this nation, and it is not an accurate reflection of the tremendous professionals I know in the blindness field who honor, through their words and actions, the value of consumer-driven services. This letter makes a final attempt to create understanding with you and invites you to bring your perspective to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind. As we discussed on November 9, 2017, this conversation is not about the relative value of accreditation, and we will not accept your efforts to ignore our concerns about real consumer-driven approaches by hiding behind the generic value of accreditation. This conversation is about the desire of blind people to be the authentic authority for determining quality services for the blind. Under your leadership and direction, the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired has made a conscious decision to revive a failed accreditation system that had the token inclusion of blind consumers as a core value. We are told that among AER's values is integrity, described as "AER adheres to the highest ethical standards and promotes an environment complete with honesty and transparency." Yet the transparency has not existed for blind consumers. We were told- four months after you publicly announced the plans to revive a controversial and divisive accreditation body-that it was your intention to reach out to the National Federation of the Blind. Then it took an additional five months-with a sixth thrown in because of a follow-up phone call that took six weeks to arrange and conduct-to make a formal invitation to have one seat on this mysterious accreditation body without any other details. We are expected to believe that this is "progressive," but the most successful professionals in the field know that transparency means including consumers from the beginning, not as an afterthought. As I think about it, your intention is fairly transparent, but I do not think it is an accurate reflection of the average committed professional in the field. Fortunately, many blindness professionals, even members of AER, have found the value of associating with the National Federation of the Blind and actively participating in the organized blind movement. If only you would follow their example. Let us cut right to the point. Great services for the blind have thrived without an accreditation process driven solely by the professionals. This has happened, in part, because they have had substantive, consistent, and respectful engagement from blind consumers and individuals elected by the organized blind movement. On the flip side, agencies for the blind that have done real harm to blind people were permitted to parade under a banner of accreditation because that accreditation did not have significant influence by the elected leaders of the blind. You have made a choice to return to the past, and we have urged you not to do so. Your five-month silence, as much as your choice to repeat history, demonstrates your intentions. I am deeply disappointed that you wish to create disruption in the field of blindness where so much collaboration has been built. Your letter of April 4 states, "On behalf of the AER Accreditation Council, I am extending a formal invitation to NFB to appoint an individual to represent NFB on the AER Accreditation Council. Since our inception, we have been dedicated to giving voice to our members and those who are served by our members by having our work reflect a representation of the field and the needs of the field." Let the record show that the National Federation of the Blind declines your token offer because it represents neither the field of blindness nor the needs of the field. Your offer represents a return to a time when consumers and professionals stand on opposite sides of a line, when authenticity is argued to be about how much a person can see rather than their effectiveness in teaching, and when the measure of quality is deemed to be a professional duty rather than a collaborative process with equal participation from consumers. We refuse to go back in time because blind people have worked too hard to achieve our status in society, and so many great professionals have committed themselves to the value of partnership with us. The time has come for a new approach in the blindness field, and I invite you to come be part of that conversation. In your letter you end with, "We hope that you will join our efforts." We say that your efforts are the wrong ones to be taken. Thus, we, the blind, invite you to join us in moving real collaboration between consumers and professionals forward. Come to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Although the agenda is nearly finalized, I will make time for you on July 7 to talk with the blind of America about AER's direction and future. We will want to hear about AER's commitment to an equal voice from the organized blind movement. This will also be an opportunity for you to present a new forward-looking proposal-one that does not include a previously contentious battleground. I will offer an opportunity for members of the Federation to ask you questions about the future direction of AER and the role of blind people in that future. If you truly want the National Federation of the Blind to be a significant part of the "new" efforts you are undertaking, then come tell us about it and address the questions that the blind have about AER's direction. Our invitation is open, and it is up to you to accept or reject it. I hope to hear from you within a week regarding this offer. I regret that you continue to choose the past over the future and that you wish to pit professional against consumer. That is not the future we seek, and my experience in the field tells me it is not the future that our best professionals want. The commitment of the blind of this nation to raising expectations in service delivery is unwavering. Our work to build understanding with professionals will not be undermined. Continued attacks on the blind of America and our priorities veiled in the generic language of accreditation and professional standards will not alter the course of the field. We will not return to a time when the leaders of professional organizations force us to fight for equality in the field. We, the blind and those professionals committed to equality, will continue to set the standards. The only question that remains is whether you will lead AER into that future with us or against us. Our convention's agenda is going to press shortly. The delays in your letter mean that we must have your response within a week, or we will conclude that you have declined the invitation. Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind Dr. Tutt rejected the invitation and offered no alternative meeting or time for collaboration. Here is what he said: May 23, 2018 Dear President Riccobono: Thank you for letting me know that the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is unable to be a part of AER's accreditation program. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to work together in the future. On another note, I want to let you know that I am unable to attend your upcoming July 2018 NFB Convention. I have plans that were confirmed over a year ago, and I am unable to reschedule. Sincerely, Louis M. Tutt, Executive Director It is worth noting that the correspondence between President Riccobono and Dr. Tutt was copied to members of the Board of Directors of AER, including the current and incoming presidents, but none of them accepted the Federation's invitation to the convention. Upon receiving the letter on May 14, President Riccobono continued to talk with the NFB National Board of Directors in a dialogue about how the organized blind wished to respond and which of the options available would help advance the conversation on behalf of blind consumers. As a result, an AER Strike committee was formed, and I was assigned by our President to chair it. Members were appointed from diverse backgrounds. Some came from members of the national board, some were professionals in the field, some came from within AER, and some were rank and file members whose knowledge of service has come from their authentic experience as recipients of good and bad services. We were also helped by members of our exceptional staff. Together the committee and our leaders arrived at a plan to visit AER's international conference held in Reno, Nevada, from July 25 to 28, 2018. Unlike the meetings we came to have with the previous National Accreditation Council, we did not come with picket signs and chants as I am sure members of AER expected. Instead we approached the AER conference demonstrating our willingness to engage in collaboration, our goal being to say to members of AER that authentic accreditation must begin on an equal playing field shared by the professionals and the consumers represented by the elected members of the blind. Much planning went into attending the AER International Conference. It has been almost twenty years since the NFB last held a protest against the practices of NAC. Many professionals from that time have moved on to other careers or have retired. The Federation's leadership realizes that there are many new faces in the teaching and rehabilitation field and that many of them have not had an opportunity to be exposed to the NFB and the organized blind's perspective on accreditation. We decided to pay AER's fee and become an exhibitor during the conference. Members of the NFB would manage the table in AER's exhibit hall, reach out to AER members, and try to establish relationships. It was exciting to see NFB members like Carla McQuillan, Terri Rupp, Jennifer Kennedy, and so many more cover the tables, greeting and then meeting with many educators of the blind. Our NFB contingent commented on how well we were being received by conference participants. The AER Strike Committee and the national board of directors also thought it would be a demonstration of Federation spirit and pride to host a reception and invite as many attendees and members of AER as possible. We planned this reception in the evening, and we were promised by AER that our reception would not conflict with other conference activities. This turned out not to be true-whether on purpose or by poor management we do not know. The NFB reception overlapped with a reception hosted by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). Holding a meeting at the same time as APH was certainly not our preference; we have a strong and friendly relationship with the leadership of APH and would not have chosen to interfere with its outreach to AER. Despite the conflict, we had over 150 people attend our reception, including the president of the American Printing House for the Blind, Craig Meador, who enjoyed our reception once his had concluded. There were about thirty leaders of the NFB who came from all over to participate in the reception. These included national board members like Denise Avant, some of the directors of our NFB training centers like Julie Deden and Dan Wenzel, and our members who are also active in AER like Eric Guillory and Brent Batron who were able to mingle with the many AER attendees and talk about what accreditation should really look like and why it is imperative that the consumers and the professionals collaborate together. During the reception, a short program was held. President Riccobono set the tone by sharing his lifelong experience with blind educators: first as a client, then as a professional, and now as a father of two blind children. He spoke about the imperative for AER members to reach out to the leadership and implore them to collaborate with blind consumers. Brent Batron, immediate past president of the Colorado chapter of AER, spoke about the positive outcomes for students when consumers and professionals are working together. He emphasized that accreditation needs to involve all players in the blindness field. Dr. Schroeder spoke about his own history with the NFB, AER, and NAC. He reiterated the fundamental principle "nothing about us without us," and the way accreditation can have value, but only if consumers are included. Dr. Edward Bell closed with more personal experiences in working closely with AER members, but he cautioned that the organized blind's opposition to an accreditation process that does not include us would continue with a loud voice and collective action. During the AER conference President Riccobono and Eric Guillory (AER member and director of youth services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind) met with AER's outgoing president, Joseph Catavero, and AER's incoming president, Janie Blome, to discuss the issues surrounding authentic accreditation. The meeting was cordial and honest. It was clear that the AER leadership was somewhat disconnected from the concerns being brought forward by the Federation. In our organization the elected leaders- not the paid staff-run the organization and control the policy discussions. Apparently in AER that is not the case. At the meeting we expressed real concerns about the hostility being directed at the NFB for raising the issue of continuing to perpetuate an outdated accreditation process. Of the meeting, President Riccobono says, "We conveyed the message that accreditation is not the most pressing issue in the blindness field and that building accreditation without substantive involvement by the blind from the beginning will never be a priority in the field." The meeting did not provide any clarity on what AER's goals are with respect to taking over the National Accreditation Council or how they intend to engage elected leaders of the organized blind movement going forward. All participants left the meeting with a hope that follow-up meetings between the leadership of the respective organizations would, however, create opportunities for the Federation's perspective to be understood. An important priority that came out of the AER Strike Committee was to have a resolution passed at the NFB annual convention and a companion resolution introduced by an NFB/AER member at the AER conference. The NFB resolution was passed unanimously, and here is what it says: Resolution 2018-02 Regarding the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired and the AER Accreditation Council WHEREAS, beginning in 1967 and for approximately thirty-five years thereafter, an organization known as the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) sought to control education and rehabilitation services provided to the blind by means of so- called standards leading to so-called accreditation; and WHEREAS, NAC was the offspring of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), created by AFB in direct response to the growing effectiveness of the organized blind movement; and WHEREAS, as opposition to NAC by the National Federation of the Blind and others gained strength, the federal government, state agencies, schools for the blind, and even the AFB itself withdrew their former support, financial and otherwise, leading the AFB executive director to exclaim in speaking to the NAC board in 2002 "What part of no more NAC don't you understand?"; and WHEREAS, although the dreams of NAC to hold dominance over the blind have lived on into the present decade, the independent voice of the blind has been heard and respected and has prevailed; and WHEREAS, NAC died, and on June 30, 2017, transferred all of its remaining assets-$85,554-to AER; and WHEREAS, AER has recently offered NFB a single seat on its National Accreditation Council, only after repeated attempts by NFB to communicate with AER about NAC; and WHEREAS, this half-hearted offer of a single seat is the kind of tokenism that doomed the original NAC to utter and complete failure and which, unless altered, will eventually threaten the viability and very existence of AER itself: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2018, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization condemn and deplore AER'S insulting gesture of tokenism toward the blind in the formation of its National Accreditation Council; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as stated in our convention resolution 71-03 and repeated on many occasions since, it be made clear that: we do not oppose proper accreditation properly done; we will be happy to participate in and cooperate with any appropriately organized and democratically constituted accrediting activity; and if the time should come that a genuine accreditation system is created along democratic lines and blind people have more than token representation in the governance of the accreditation system and throughout the accreditation process, the National Federation of the Blind pledges its willingness to work with AER and other organizations truly to make services for the blind more relevant and responsive to the needs of the blind than ever before. The resolution submitted to AER was authored by Brent Batron of Colorado and Michelle Chacon of New Mexico. The resolution was submitted to the AER resolutions committee on time and in proper form. Here is what it says: Resolution of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, July 2018 Accreditation of Blind and Low-vision Services Resolution Number 2018 - XX Authors: Brent Batron and Michelle Chacon Whereas, the AER board of directors adopted the accreditation program of the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC), now under the executive management of AER, effective July 1, 2017; Whereas, an announcement of this action was distributed to AER members and others by AERBVI Member Services on August 31, 2017, noting AER'S new mission statement: "The mission of AER is to serve and empower professionals to deliver standards-based practices that lead to improved educational and rehabilitative outcomes for individuals with visual impairment and blindness; Whereas, during its entire history as a free-standing organization devoted to standards and accreditation of blind and low vision services, NAC was unable to achieve widespread acceptance by agencies and schools in the field of blindness and visual impairment, due largely to organized and persistent opposition of blind consumers, especially opposition of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); Whereas, for many years, as the battle between NFB and NAC intensified, the conflict between these organizations came to symbolize a broader struggle for control between agencies and professionals on the one hand and organized blind consumers on the other; Whereas, according to its official statements, NFB's opposition to NAC is based on disagreements over the founding and structure of NAC as an organization and does not reflect opposition by NFB to accreditation, provided the accreditation is conducted in a fair and open manner with equal opportunity for consumers and providers to engage with one another and collaborate in meaningful ways throughout the accreditation process; Whereas, in adopting executive management of the NAC accreditation program it is the policy of AER to respect the independent voice of blind consumers, the right of the blind to organize for self-expression, collective action, and the right of the blind to meaningful participation in design and implementation of accreditation of programs affecting their lives; now, therefore, be it Resolved, by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), on this twenty-eighth day of July, 2018, in the city of Reno, Nevada, that: this organization, through its President and Executive Director, shall invite the NFB to establish and carry out a joint project to be known as "Vision 2020: A New Accreditation Program for Blind and Low Vision Services"; that this project so created shall consist of a joint consumer/provider Committee on Accreditation of Blind and Low Vision Services, with the goal of balanced (equal) opportunities for consumer and provider representation on the Committee; and the charge of the Committee so created shall be: 1) to identify goals and objectives of mutual interest which could be met by means of a joint consumer/provider accreditation process; 2) to develop a conceptual outline describing how a proposed joint consumer/provider accreditation process would work, including organization, membership, governance, structure, duties, and funding; and 3) to report its findings and recommendations to the governing boards of both AER and NFB on or before January 1, 2020 in order for each organization to plan and take appropriate action in response to the report at its next regularly scheduled national conference to be held during that year; Nothing in this resolution shall affect current implementation plans of the AER Accreditation Program as announced on August 31, 2017, unless otherwise determined by further action of the AER Board of Directors. This was the resolution submitted to AER under its rules. Brent Batron and Eric Guillory attended the business meeting at the AER International Conference; only AER members were allowed in the room. This was because the AER leadership feared, without cause, that the NFB was planning on a hostile takeover of its meeting. Of course this was never the case. The NFB members who attended the AER Conference conducted themselves as the professionals they are. When the Batron/Chacon resolution was introduced, Kathryn Botsford called for the floor to offer a substitute resolution. The substitute resolution took most of what was offered in the original except it inserted the term visually impaired in a number of places and it changed the intent of the resolution, watering down the specific olive branch from AER to NFB which was the call to action of the original resolution. Even though this was a resolution that specifically involved AER, NFB, and the accreditation process, some mysterious faction wanted other organizations to be the focus not the National Federation of the Blind. The opposition to NAC and its fraudulent practices were led by members of the NFB. Other groups may have agreed with us, but none stepped up to speak or rally their forces against NAC. When the substitute resolution was offered, it was done as a so-called "friendly amendment" to the original resolution. Brent Batron explained that the friendly amendment was not accepted because it changed the intent of the resolution in building a bridge between AER and the powerful consumer voice represented through the National Federation of the Blind. Chaos ensued as the meeting became a discussion about the proper procedure for dealing with the situation. During the period of uncertainty it became clear that the Batron/Chacon resolution and the spirit with which it was offered was favored by a number of long-time AER members in the room. Rather than taking a straight up or down vote on the Batron/Chacon resolution, the AER membership had no direction until out of nowhere came Mark Richert, director, public policy for the American Foundation for the Blind and former executive director of AER, who moved adoption of the substitute resolution and, in effect proposed to burn the bridge that was being offered between the organizations. It is my understanding that AER has specific policies regarding when a resolution must be submitted, and nowhere is there any provision for inserting a substitute resolution or denying a straight up-and-down vote on one that has been submitted according to AER rules. Bypassing protocol, fairness, and openness in favor of control, the AER leadership presented and voted on a substitute resolution without addressing the real concerns of its members as offered in the original Batron/Chacon resolution. While the substitute resolution passed, it had the lowest support of any of the resolutions considered during the meeting. Thus, AER has once again made a positive decision not to strengthen the relationship with the organized blind movement. Here is the resolution that was placed on the floor in violation of AER policy and considered instead of the Batron/Chacon resolution: Proposed Resolution of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired: July 2018 Accreditation of Blind and Low-vision Services Resolution Number 2018 - 4 Authors: Brent Batron and Michelle Chacon Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute Whereas the AER board of directors adopted the accreditation program of the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC), now under the executive management of AER, effective July 1, 2017; Whereas an announcement of this action was distributed to AER members and others by AERBVI Member Services on August 31, 2017, noting AER'S new mission statement: "The mission of AER is to serve and empower professionals to deliver standards-based practices that lead to improved educational and rehabilitative outcomes for individuals with visual impairment and blindness; Whereas during its entire history as a free-standing organization devoted to standards and accreditation of services for people with blindness and low vision, NAC was unable to achieve widespread acceptance by agencies and schools in the field of blindness and visual impairment, due largely to organized and persistent opposition of consumers with visual impairments, especially opposition of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); Whereas according to its official statements, NFB's opposition to NAC is based on disagreements over the founding and structure of NAC as an organization and does not reflect opposition by NFB to accreditation, provided the accreditation is conducted in a fair and open manner with equal opportunity for consumers and providers to engage with one another and collaborate in meaningful ways throughout the accreditation process; and Whereas, in adopting executive management of the NAC accreditation program it is the policy of AER to respect the independent voice of consumers who are blind or visually impaired, the right of people who are blind or visually impaired to organize for self-expression, collective action, and the right of people who are blind or visually impaired to meaningful participation in design and implementation of accreditation of programs affecting their lives; now, therefore, Be It Resolved, by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), on this twenty-eighth day of July 2018, in the city of Reno, Nevada, that this organization, through its Board of Directors: 1. shall invite the NFB, the American Council of the Blind (ACB), and other such national organizations of consumers who are blind or visually impaired and their families as the board may identify to establish and carry out a collaborative project to be known as "Vision 2020: A New Accreditation Program for Blind and Low Vision Services"; this project so created shall consist of a consumer/provider Committee on Accreditation of Blind and Low Vision Services, with the goal of balanced (equal) opportunities for consumer and provider representation on the Committee; and 2. shall give the following charge to the Committee, so created: a) to identify goals and objectives of mutual interest which could be met by means of a consumer/provider accreditation process; b) to develop a conceptual outline describing how a proposed consumer/provider accreditation process would work, including organization, membership, governance, structure, duties, and funding; and c) to report its findings and recommendations to the AER Board of Directors which shall communicate such findings to the governing boards of collaborating organizations and to the AER membership on or before January 1, 2020, in order for each organization to plan and take appropriate action in response to the report at its next regularly scheduled national conference to be held during that year; and 3. affirms that nothing in this resolution shall affect current implementation plans of the AER Accreditation Program as announced on August 31, 2017, unless otherwise determined by further action of the AER Board of Directors. There you have the resolution that was submitted, denying an up or down vote on the Batron/Chacon resolution. Throughout sessions held during the conference, Dr. Tutt kept proclaiming that NAC is dead. With this sentiment we most readily agree, but so too is the newly named effort if it fails to deal with the foundational problems that haunted NAC from its very beginnings. Cooperation and collaboration should be the spirit of the day, but nothing to this point suggests that AER wishes to make a clean break with the past and embrace the voice of consumers. Because we have the most to gain, the most to lose, and are the direct recipients of services funded by governmental and private entities, we intend to have a voice in which agencies get the stamp of approval by the blind and which do not. The days of accreditation without meaningful standards are dead; the days of accreditation based on the mere payment of dues are over; the days of accreditation without meaningful representation by elected blind leaders of the blind are over. The only question is whether major players in the field can come together to work out a process or whether this conflict will have a more public face because the public, the state legislatures, the federal regulators, and even the United States Congress will become involved if blind people are not meaningfully included. Overall, the work of the AER Strike Committee and the NFB members who attended the AER Conference was effective. It truly feels like progress has been made toward bridging what gaps exist between educators of the blind and the consumers they serve. This progress is being made because of the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind and despite the lack of real action by leaders of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. Let no one be deceived: There is still much work to be done. On a positive note, AER has a new president and will soon have a new executive director. On the other hand, the AER Accreditation Council goes on, and the word at the AER Conference was that none other than Lou Tutt will manage that work once he leaves his post as executive director of AER. How will this new leadership respond to the call for collaboration by many of its members at the AER Conference? We already know what Lou Tutt will do at the helm of the AER Accreditation Council. According to AER's website, https://aerbvi.org/the-national-accreditation-council/ "The standards for accreditation are set by a peer Council whose members include professionals who are skilled and experienced with program administration, systems, educational and rehabilitation protocols and service delivery." Where are consumers and the elected representatives of consumers in this process? They are not reflected in this mission statement. This does not appear to be a collaborative process AER is embarking on, but where there is change, there is hope! Where once blind people were only the recipients of service, today we are also the providers. We have agency administrators who are blind, and they oversee some of the most well-run programs that provide the best services in the country. To new people in the field, this kind of consumer involvement in the provision of service and staff will seem normal, nothing about us without us being the creed they've adopted in their careers. But the history of work with the blind shows that the concept is relatively new and not beyond the traditional powers to test, to question, and to work against. We will meet that test; we will not let NAC or its successor organization run our lives or the agencies that exist to help us make our lives better. We have the most to win or lose, we hold the power, and we intend to exercise it on behalf of blind people! As President Riccobono says, "The AER Strike revealed that accreditation of programs in the blindness field is not the most pressing concern of the professionals in the trenches. We have successfully guarded the field from takeover by a problematic accreditation system which is now dead, but we must not get so comfortable that we fail to guard against future threats. More importantly, we need to build for the future. We intend to link arms with those highly committed and open-minded professionals that we encountered in Reno, and together we will set the standard of excellence in services for the blind. ---------- Honesty and Telling It Like It Is by Gary Wunder In the Braille Monitor for June 2018, we ran an article by Rocky Hart. It was entitled "My First Day at the State Capitol." On reflection, Rocky remembers that this was his first day at the capitol on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind but that in fact he had been to the capitol on several occasions. Here is what he says to clarify: Hello Mr. Wunder: This past June, the Monitor ran an article about my most recent trip to the Minnesota state capitol. The article and the introduction which accompanied it stated that this was my first visit to the capitol. I would like to clarify that this was not, in fact, my first visit, but the first day I participated in any direct educating on behalf of the NFB of Minnesota. I had visited the capitol twice prior to this, once for lobbying for budgetary requests for the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, and second in observance of White Cane Safety Awareness Day in October of last year. In the first draft of the article, the phrase "Day at the Capitol" was listed in quotations. I would like to offer my sincere apology to the readers of the Monitor for misleading them in believing that this was my first visit. I would appreciate having this published if at all possible since I highly value honesty and accuracy. Thank you, once again, for publishing the article, and I look forward to hearing from you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Carlton Walker] From My Blind Child to Our Blind Children- Why the National Federation of the Blind Is the Answer by Carlton Walker From the Editor: Carlton Walker is one of the most interesting people you are likely to meet. When it comes to brains, she has an abundance of them. When it comes to motivation, she has more than her share. When it comes to education, she absorbs knowledge like a sponge, and she is not intimidated by the need to get more of it. When it comes to passion and love for her blind child, there is no calibrated scale that can measure that which is infinite. We work hard to get our children the education they deserve, and we know that environmental integration is not the same as educational integration. When Carlton learned this, she threw herself into doing something about it. Here is the speech she gave at the 2018 NFB National Convention on Sunday, July 8: Good morning, my friends. I thank the National Federation of the Blind and our President, Mark Riccobono, for inviting me to speak with you today. I also thank you for being here. Each of us has the power to change the world every day; today, you are taking the opportunity to do so. Since I was in eighth grade, I have wanted to be an attorney. I started my own law firm in 1997, and I still continue to serve clients in my solo practice. In 2008, I returned to school and earned a master's degree in education and Pennsylvania certification in teaching students with visual and multiple impairments. I taught students in South Central Pennsylvania for more than six years, and I then moved to the National Federation of the Blind, where I served as the manager of Braille education programs for almost two years. Like many parents of blind children, blindness and blindness education became part of my life because of my child, Anna Catherine. Early on, blindness was not a factor in her life or in ours. Soon after she was born, she had many health issues, underwent many tests and surgeries, and spent way too much of the first year of her life in hospital beds. In mid-December 2001, Anna Catherine was not yet nine months old, but she was hospitalized again. When we took her home, she was on twenty-four- hour oxygen, on continuous feeds with a feeding tube, and on a heart-lung monitor at night. Before we left the hospital, the doctors told us that the upcoming Christmas would likely be our last with her. We were devastated. In the spring of 2002, after a change in hospitals and doctors, Anna Catherine gradually began to improve. Anna Catherine was still very delayed physically, and she received services under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (which refers to services for children who are not yet school age). She also had privately-provided weekly physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, oral-motor therapy, and aquatherapy; we were on the road a lot and were very, very busy. In her second year of life, with all these supports, Anna Catherine started to make those first-year milestones. Things were looking up. In June of 2003 (after we had celebrated TWO Christmases with her), Anna Catherine finally began to eat and drink by mouth as a result of a month of an in-patient feeding therapy program, and we got rid of the feeding tube. We believed that her struggles would soon be over. I knew that lazy eye (amblyopia) runs in my family, and Anna Catherine's eyes never acted like most children's, so I took her to a pediatric ophthalmologist-to wrap up that loose end. After testing, the doctor came into the examining room ashen-faced. He was unable to make eye contact or even speak. I was terrified. After about a minute of silence, I asked fearfully, "Is she going to die?" He quickly said, "No" and launched into a bunch of medical jargon. I was still reeling from his earlier behavior, so I didn't exactly catch what he was saying. From my point of view, Anna Catherine was doing well and starting to eat and drink by mouth-for the first time in two years. Though her vision did not seem to be affecting her life, her father and I delved into the world of pediatric ophthalmology. As months passed, we had more visits and tests with ophthalmologists, including the wonderful ERG (electroretinogram). My little girl had no central vision, only spotty peripheral vision, and her visual acuity was 20/400. My sweet toddler was legally blind. In the ensuing years, my husband, Anna Catherine, and I learned A LOT about visual impairment and blindness. Anna Catherine already had been receiving terrific services from physical, occupational, and speech therapists. We assumed that services related to her blindness would be similar. Well, you know what they say about assuming ... Even though I asked, the school would not assess for services related to her blindness. I was told that those services are really more school- oriented and that I should wait for her transition to an IEP-in six months. I didn't know better, so I accepted what they said. When Anna Catherine was finally assessed, I was told that she would be a large print reader. After all, she could read seventy-two-point font text at four to six inches. This didn't sound right, but what did I know? I was a mother, an attorney-not an "educational professional." I did do some research of my own into non-school services. Through a series of fortunate accidents, I learned about an upcoming conference in Baltimore, Maryland, the "Beginnings and Blueprints" Early Childhood Conference sponsored by a group called the National Federation of the Blind. At the time, I wasn't sure how much help it would provide-after all, Anna Catherine could see things. Nevertheless, my husband, Stephen, Anna Catherine, and I left home on the evening of May 5 in 2005 headed toward Baltimore. Little did we know how much our lives would change-for the better-as a result of that weekend. At the NFB Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, we learned about the importance of Braille, cane travel, and nonvisual skills-even for our daughter, who could still see some. We learned that our daughter's future success would not be measured by her remaining vision; it would be measured by her facility with blindness skills. But, most importantly, we met competent, confident blind adults-and these blind adults cared about all of us and wanted to provide us the knowledge, skills, tools, support, and love needed to help Anna Catherine grow into the independent, confident young woman she has the right to be. Truly, it was a transformative weekend. However, when we returned home, nothing at school had changed. We understood that Anna Catherine needed blindness skills, but her "teacher of the visually impaired" disagreed. So began the IEP Wars. Like the Clone Wars from Star Wars, the IEP Wars involved multiple battles against powerful antagonists. There were the Braille battles. It took months of emails, telephone calls, meetings, and an Independent Educational Evaluation to get Braille instruction started. Once instruction started, it was slow. The teacher told Anna Catherine that Braille was hard-not a particularly successful educational strategy. She told me that Anna Catherine was "too tactually defensive" to learn Braille-not a particularly effective means of encouraging parental involvement. During those months, I was on the phone with the mentors I had met at NFB. They were my Yoda-highly intelligent voices of calm and reason to guide me through these battles. Later we engaged in the O&M (orientation and mobility) battles. Ridiculous "assessments" supposedly indicated that Anna Catherine did not need orientation and mobility instruction. I challenged them with the knowledge my NFB mentors taught me. We lost the O&M Battle, but guess what? We didn't really lose. NFB resources taught us how to be our child's first O&M instructors and to teach her to use the NFB long white cane. In elementary school, there were the Cane Battles. When we demanded that Anna Catherine be allowed to bring her NFB-provided long white cane to school, the teacher told the IEP team that long canes are dangerous-because little boys running in the hall could trip over them. Thanks to my NFB mentors, I was prepared for this foolish statement: I asked the principal if little boys were allowed to run in the halls of her school. We won this battle, but there were others-about cane storage, cane technique, canes on the playground, forced sighted guide during emergency drills, etc. Truly, a show entitled "IEP Wars" could yield many seasons of episodes for the viewer. Unlike the Clone Wars, however, IEP Wars are not science fiction; they are the reality for thousands of blind children, and IEP Wars continue to be fought every day across this nation. None of these fights are necessary. Students, families, teachers, schools, communities, and future employers would be far better off if we could end IEP Wars and provide blind children the educational services and tools which will provide the free appropriate public education to which they are legally entitled. So why was there so much fighting? The simple and sad reason is this: school officials did not treat Anna Catherine as a full-fledged student who belonged in their school. I am sad to report that Anna Catherine is not the only blind student who has lived through these battles. After years of needless conflict, I have determined that these battles result from schools taking three unfortunate stances in relation to our children's and student's education: First, many teachers and administrators treat our students as "special" cases and throw out the educational principles they apply to every other student in the school. Too many teachers' expectations of our students plummet the moment they learn that the child is blind/visually- impaired/has low vision. Instead of providing students the instruction and tools they need to engage as full-fledged students, these kindly teachers and administrators try to remove the need in various ways: . They offer to provide audio books and human scribes instead of teaching students to read and write Braille. . They offer to provide human guides or allow students to leave class early to get through empty halls instead of teaching independent cane travel. . They offer to "excuse" students from "visual" assignments instead of making the assignment accessible and meaningful. Their motives may be pure, but they are killing our students with their "kindness." Second, many teachers assume that, if a student can see some things, the student is not really blind. Sadly, this is especially a problem among teachers of students with blindness/visual impairment and orientation and mobility specialists- educators of blind students, the very educators who should know better. Even today, a great number of "professional educators" strive to "maximize" the student's vision, despite the fact that vision is not effective, efficient, or reliable for many, or most, academic and functional tasks. . Far too many educators of blind students encourage the use of digital video magnifiers (CCTVs) even in early grades-when print is already very enlarged. This is very inefficient in terms of mechanically moving through print which shows only a few words at a time AND in terms of sustainability: eye strain, headaches, and spine curvature are so common that they are considered by some to be acceptable "side effects," but Braille instruction is considered unnecessary. . Far too many educators of blind students bend over backward to avoid long white canes. They put reflective tape on floors and stairs and paint on curbs throughout the school and home. Some will even lobby local businesses to do the same-so that students can get out into the community. They make certain that there is a human guide on any school field trip. But they continue to report that the student "is not in need of" cane travel instruction. . Far too many educators of blind students encourage the use of magnification software, computer mice, enlarged-letter keyboards, and other vision-dependent technologies and withhold instruction in touch-typing and accessible software. This is despite years of research which show that touch-typing is much, much more efficient for all individuals-regardless of vision. In other words, in all areas of a blind student's educational life, far too many educators of blind students focus on maximizing vision use- instead of maximizing the student and student's capabilities. Third, many people believe that "technology has made Braille obsolete," and there is an unfortunately high number of educators in the blindness field who perpetuate this fallacy. . Can any of us imagine a regular education teacher refusing to teach reading and writing because, "technology has made print obsolete?" . How quickly do you think that such a teacher would be fired or at least put on administrative leave on the way out the door? . And yet, these lies, and yes: they are lies, are being spread about Braille-and our students are left illiterate. So why is this the case, and what can we do about it? Well, after just a few years of IEP Wars in Anna Catherine's early elementary education, Stephen and I realized that we could not rely on her teachers to provide the education our daughter needed. Though my law practice was now growing, I cut back on work and started taking classes to become a teacher in the blindness field. At that time the excellent program at Louisiana Tech did not offer online options (it does now), and I lived in very rural South-Central Pennsylvania. A Pennsylvania institution offered online classes, so I chose to get my certification there. What an experience. My program required six semesters of learning about "visual efficiency" and "low vision" devices, but there was only one class for learning Braille. We also had three whole days of summer instruction in Nemeth Code and abacus. That's right, the entire class lasted only three days. And guess what? The program I went through had more Braille than many other programs which purport to train teachers to teach blind students. Is it any wonder that so many graduates of these programs gravitate toward vision and away from the Braille and Nemeth Code their students need for success? In my orientation and mobility class, we met in-person on six separate evenings. We were exposed to and got to touch and use canes on only one of those evenings, and, out of the two dozen canes we could use for "practice," only two were long white canes. Is it any wonder that so many graduates of these programs gravitate toward protection and guide techniques, "pre-canes" and "identification canes" and away from the long white canes that can allow their students to achieve independent travel skills? Our Independent Living Skills course consisted of online coursework and one day of on-campus activity. We used sleep shades during those on- campus activities (such as spreading peanut butter on bread and folding money for identification), and we spent the afternoon eating a meal under sleep shades. While these were good activities, they were rushed, and we did not have time to practice them and become comfortable with them. Is it any wonder that so many graduates of these programs remain uncomfortable with nonvisual techniques-even when those techniques would allow their students to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively? As you can see, many programs which prepare men and women to teach blind students focus on vision and give short shrift to nonvisual tools and techniques. However, this is not the greatest weakness of those programs. The greatest weakness, by far, is the lack of interaction with competent blind adults. Truly, it is startling. Every one of my professors was typically-sighted, like I am. While we sighted people are nice enough, we are not experts on blindness. How can any teacher prepare students to be competent blind adults when that instructor has little to no interaction with competent blind adults, much less authentic and meaningful relationships with the blind adults who daily use the skills our students need to succeed? Obviously, traditional programs are not adequately preparing teachers of blind students, so now we know the answer to why so many school officials resist and even fight teaching our students blindness skills. Now, what can we do about it? The title of this presentation tells us: the National Federation of the Blind is the answer. The National Federation of the Blind provides the knowledge, resources, and, most importantly, the blind adults who can change the trajectory of the lives of blind children. The NFB offers 24/7/365 mentorship for blind individuals and their families, tools (like free white canes, and free slates and styluses, and free Braille books from the American Action Fund), and resources (like Future Reflections magazine, the Braille Monitor, the NFB BELL Academy, and our STEM programs). Why does NFB offer mentorship, tools, and resources? We offer mentorship, tools, and resources because 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. My fellow Federationists, we can and we must share the truth: blind children can have the lives they want, and we will not allow any low expectations of "professionals" to hold them back. We will share with them everything the National Federation of the Blind and our members have to offer, and we will do this through another N-F-B: Nurture, Formulate, and Believe. N-Nurture: We will Nurture our blind children and their families. We will get to know them and invite them to know us. We will share meals, events, laughter, and tears. We will foster meaningful, long-lasting relationships with them, and they will become members of our Federation Family. F-Formulate: We will Formulate plans to help our blind children gain the skills they need in school, in their communities, and in life. We will help them bring these formulations to schools, and we will demand that the schools teach our children. Teach our children Braille (including Nemeth Code and Music Braille). Teach our children cane travel and orientation skills. Teach our children nonvisual skills, both high-tech and low-tech. In other words, provide our children the free appropriate public education to which they are entitled and which has been the law of our land for more than four decades. B-Believe: We will Believe in our blind children, no matter what obstacles come up. We will remind them to Believe in themselves. We will model Believing in them for all the world to see. We will show them that they are not impaired, no matter what their vision is or is not. Visual function does not define a person any more than does height, race, or a multitude of other characteristics. Do these characteristics affect how the child develops? Probably, but they do not define the child. We will make certain that they know that our children are far, far more important than what they can or cannot see. My Federation family, please join me. Join me in proclaiming to blind children and adults across this great nation-the National Federation of the Blind is the answer, and we are with you every step of the way. ---------- 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 2017 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-eight NFB BELL Academy programs, which served more than three hundred and fifty blind students throughout the United States. . Provided over one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. . Delivered audio newspaper and magazine services to 118,900 subscribers, providing free access to over five 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Isaac Lidsky] Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities: A Blind Entrepreneur Breaks through Barriers Everywhere He Builds by Isaac Lidsky From the Editor: This presentation was made late on the morning of July 7, 2018, and, as President Riccobono noted, it stood between us and lunch but was well worth staying to hear. In his introduction he related the long list of accomplishments by Mr. Lidsky, including his start out as a childhood actor, graduating from Harvard at the age of nineteen with two degrees (one in mathematics and the other in computer science), becoming a lawyer, working as a clerk for two Supreme Court justices, cofounding an internet startup, and now working as an entrepreneur in central Florida running a company that does $250 million in business every year. In this article we find not only the celebration of accomplishment but the misunderstandings about blindness that can come between us and our dreams. What Mr. Lidsky has been able to do is remember his own misconceptions about blindness and treat others with gentleness and compassion when they manifest the same. He makes a case both for empathy and education, and his strategies for breaking through obstacles and converting them into opportunities are well worth noting and incorporating into our own lives. Here is what he said: When Dorothy was a little girl, she was fascinated by her pet goldfish. Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails to propel themselves through the water. Well, without any hesitation or doubt, little Dorothy responded: "Yes, daddy, and fish swim backward by wagging their heads." Now in her young mind this was a fact as true as any other fact. Fish swim backward by wagging their heads. She believed it. Our lives are full of fish swimming backward. We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic. We harbor biases; we know that we're right and they're wrong; we fear the worst, we strive for unattainable perfection, we perpetuate our insecurities and vanities, we struggle to listen to each other and to our own hearts, we tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. In our minds fish swim by in reverse, frantically wagging their heads, and we don't notice them. Now these pesky, unnoticed fish can be particularly problematic when it comes to so-called disabilities. People make all sorts of assumptions about disabilities. That's not news to anyone here, right? We are all pretty familiar with that idea. The thing is, we are wired to do it. Our brains build up a vast database of experiences, and we reason from those experiences. We are wired in our brains to predict, to infer, to assume. We take that which we understand, that which is familiar to us, and we try to apply or extend it to the new circumstances we confront. So what happens when we confront that which is entirely unfamiliar? What happens when our mental database has no relevant or useful information? What happens when we have no basis to understand what we're confronting? Well, often, fear happens, and anxiety, and self-doubt, and awfulizing. My childhood was a Hollywood fairytale. I was born into a middle- class family in America to parents who loved me and nurtured me. I never had to worry about food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare. Blessed with a powerful intellect, school came easy to me, and I really enjoyed it. As you heard earlier, the Hollywood part-I mean literally. I grew up acting: I did somewhere between 100 and 150 commercials, got some small parts in some big things, some big parts in some small things, and then I got that lucky break: Weasel Wyzell on NBC's Saved by the Bell-that dorky, nerdy character. I'll tell you that as a young boy, it was really an acting challenge for me to get inside the mind of a young dorky boy-it took a lot of acting. So I grew up with the world in my hands, and then, at age thirteen, I'm diagnosed with this rare disease called retinitis pigmentosa or RP. Now I was unaware of any symptoms at the time. In fact, I would've sworn that my eyes were perfectly healthy. Still, the expert told me that I had this disease, and it would cause my sight to fade to blindness. I was thirteen and going blind. Now I didn't know the first thing about blindness, right? So what happens? Well, fear, and anxiety, and self-doubt, and awfulizing-that's what happened. They did their work, and with a bunch of lies they made blindness familiar to me. They told me "You understand blindness just fine enough-thank you very much." I believed them, and so I adopted their story about blindness. Here's what I thought I knew about blindness when I was thirteen, having just been diagnosed. Blindness will ruin my life. Blindness is a death sentence for my independence. Blindness is the end of achievement for me. Blindness means that I'm going to live a wholly unremarkable life, likely alone. No one is going to love or respect me; I'm not going to love or respect myself. I'll probably never be a father, which is probably for the better. On and on and on it went, and that's what I knew about blindness when I was thirteen years old and diagnosed. Now, of course, none of that happened. Of course, that awful reality was a lie; it was fiction [applause]. I was eventually able to see that, to move through it, to choose who I wanted to be and how I wanted to live my life. I broke fear's spell, and I built a very blessed life for myself-with plenty of children by the way. I have three children who will turn eight in September-that's a phenomenon doctors call triplets, incidentally-so the tripskies, Lily Louise, Phineas, and Thaddeus will be eight in September, and sweet baby Clementine is two-and-a-half. I am immensely grateful. So why am I prattling on and telling you all of this? Well I'd like to leave you with two points, if I may. First point: If I had not learned to see through the reality of my fears, eyes wide open, the awful life those fears foretold could have become my reality. I would've lived that life. I'm absolutely certain of that fact, and it's such an important point that I want to say it again. If I hadn't figured out for myself how to discover my own truth about blindness, I would've lived the truth of my fears. I'll ask you what you fear and how your fears might shape the reality you're creating for yourself? Second point: Whether we like it or not, when it comes to blindness, many sighted people and others-many people-live in that world of fear. They don't understand it, they're afraid of it, and they assume that blindness essentially ruins your life. They think a blind life is a sad life, a partial life, a pity. Now that is an extremely painful fact, and I wish it weren't true. I deeply, deeply wish it weren't true. But I know it's true because I grew up as such a person. I can remember what I first thought about blindness when I was first diagnosed. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I cringe when I remember it. I'm embarrassed, I feel guilty. How could I, of all people, have harbored such awful and erroneous thoughts about blindness? How could I have been so biased? The answer is simple: I was wired that way. Until I was forced to learn more about it, forced to really understand it, forced to confront it, my default assumption was that blindness was pure terror for me. If I'm honest, it wasn't just blindness. I made all sorts of baseless assumptions about other people and their lives and their abilities. I still do, though now I'm far more aware of it. So, was I a bad person as a kid? Did I knowingly discriminate? Did I intentionally behave in ways that excluded some and stacked the deck against others? No. I was human, still am. Looking back at my young self, I'm not angry; I'm sad. I'm sad at how little I understood; I'm sad that I wasted so much time and energy and thought tormenting myself with dark imaginings. I'm sad that my unenlightened perspectives about life and disability may have disadvantaged others and certainly disadvantaged me. I want to go back and hug that young boy, I want to reassure him that he's going to live a beautiful life, I want to teach him the true meaning of ability and disability. [applause] I want to teach him the true meaning of success and value and joy. As a blind man I confront other people's incorrect assumptions about my life and my ability every day. Are those assumptions frustrating? Almost always. Do they feel demeaning to me? Often. Do they make me angry? Sometimes. But then I remember that young boy who knew about blindness and how it would destroy his life. I remind myself that, like that young boy, those who make assumptions about me and my blindness-they have their own fears and their own anxieties and their own self-doubts. I remind myself that what I really want is for them to understand. If we want to be understood, we must aim to help others understand. [applause] We must teach not with anger or hate or bitterness or resentment. We must teach with humanity. We are wired to do that too if we so choose. I think that's the right choice. Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] The Senate Must Act on Legislation So Americans can Reap the Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles by Mark Riccobono From the Editor: This editorial is reprinted with permission of The Hill. It originally appeared on July 31, 2018: The myriad benefits of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are remarkable. Beginning with greater independence and enhanced mobility options for those who cannot or do not drive, to dramatically reduced road fatalities and declines in traffic congestion, the autonomous vehicle revolution promises many positive changes across the country and around the world. The National Federation of the Blind, the country's largest organization of blind people, has been especially enthusiastic about this exciting innovation. While blind Americans are already mobile and regularly use available transportation, we face challenges related to insufficient public transportation networks, inadequate paratransit systems, and issues of disconnectedness for those of us who may prefer to live in small towns and rural areas. These challenges play a role in driving suboptimal employment outcomes, a poverty rate that is double the national average, and community disengagement among people with disabilities. The AV START Act of 2017 (S. 1885) is a bipartisan bill that would lay the groundwork for the safe and rapid deployment of AVs. This bill will ensure a coherent federal framework for the proliferation of this life- changing technology while also clarifying the vital role that states and localities will play in their traditional jurisdictions. Most importantly from our perspective, the bill would require that accessibility be a key element of safety reporting and prohibit discriminatory licensing practices that could exclude blind Americans from full and equal access to AVs. The bill would also create a working group specifically dedicated to helping craft recommendations on accessibility and other issues related to people with disabilities. In short, the AV START Act is an inclusive and pro-innovation approach to the safe and expeditious rollout of autonomous vehicles, and we support it wholeheartedly. Skeptics of the AV START Act often cite the safety risks associated with this new and disruptive technology. This critique is confusing given that AVs have the potential to radically reduce road fatalities by removing some of the dangerous human element from driving. To underscore this point, note that 94 percent of the roughly 37,000 deaths on our roads and highways last year were attributable to human error, which comes in the form of drunk or impaired driving, distracted driving, and fatigued driving. An autonomous vehicle will never be drunk, and it will never be fatigued. The safety gains that could be brought about by the advent of AVs could quite literally save thousands of lives every year. Beyond the paradox of opposition based on safety concerns, it is also confounding to observe this opposition from a historical perspective. Critics also feared the automobile and thought that replacing the horse and buggy would be far too dangerous and disruptive for America to handle. Innovation skeptics also thought that airplanes represented too much of a risk to public safety. Skepticism of autonomous vehicles can be placed in a similar category-exaggerated fear of an exciting transportation innovation that will bring innumerable societal benefits, not the least of which being greater transportation independence for the blind and other people with disabilities. AVs, while not a silver bullet for any of the transportation-related challenges we face, do represent a powerful new addition to the toolbox that can help us live the lives we want. However, these benefits are in jeopardy if the United States Senate does not act swiftly and concertedly. Now is the time to guarantee that the United States will lead the world in yet another technological paradigm shift. We cannot afford to wait any longer-the rest of the world isn't waiting. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Francis Gurry] No Borders to the World's Knowledge: A Commitment to Accessibility for the Blind by Francis Gurry From the Editor: Scott LaBarre introduced the next speaker with these words: "This next gentleman is somebody who has been critical in bringing greater access to information to the blind and print-disabled of the world, someone who was critical and key in helping us get the Marrakesh Treaty first adopted and now further implemented throughout the world. He is a high-level United Nations official, and for him to be with us here, not only this afternoon but at our banquet, is indeed a privilege and a distinction for our organization. He holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. I also note that he has served as secretary general of the International Union to Preserve New Species of Plants. He served as deputy director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO] starting in 2003, and in 2008 assumed the title of director general. WIPO- the United Nations agency that deals with intellectual property rights- played a critical role in getting Marrakesh adopted, and it would not have done that without this gentleman's leadership. Second, since the adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty in 2013 he has established programs for WIPO to lead implementation efforts all over the world. And thirdly, through his leadership WIPO established the Accessible Books Consortium, which is another vehicle to help implement the Marrakesh Treaty. And more important, he's become a true friend of the National Federation of the Blind. Join me in welcoming and giving a loud and warm National Federation of the Blind welcome to Dr. Francis Gurry! [applause, cheers] Thank you very much, Scott. Dear friends, it really is a privilege to be with you. It's a thrill to be at this national convention of the National Federation of the Blind, and I'd say it's one of the highlights of my career to be with you to jointly celebrate the conclusion of the Marrakesh Treaty and the pending ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty by the United States of America. [applause] I'd like to thank Mark Riccobono, the President of the NFB; Fred Schroeder, vice president and president of the World Blind Union; Scott LaBarre, your (I would say) indominable negotiator who has-and I'll say a little more about this-really lead the process of negotiation and compromise that resulted in the Marrakesh Treaty. Let me just start by saying a few brief words about the World Intellectual Property Organization: we're a United Nation's agency, as Scott has mentioned. We have 193 member-states, so it's the whole world, really. We deliver a variety of services in the field of intellectual property, and we are custodians of about twenty-six multilateral treaties that establish rules worldwide in the field of intellectual property, of which the Marrakesh Treaty is one. Intellectual property-it's a bit of a special field, but really it is about the creation of new knowledge: providing incentives to ensure that we do get innovation, technology, literature, publications, music, all forms of new knowledge. And as Francis Bacon said a little over 400 years ago, "Knowledge is power." Knowledge is power collectively for countries, for companies, and individually for individuals. At World Intellectual Property Organization we are committed to an effective and a balanced intellectual property system, one that ensures the creation of new knowledge but also the sharing of the social benefit of the new knowledge. And that balance and fairness and justice and human rights were at the heart of the "Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled." I would say that the conclusion of the Marrakesh Treaty in 2013 is one of the greatest achievements of the World Intellectual Property Organization in its 130-year history. [applause] What does it do? Very briefly, it creates a mandatory exception worldwide to enable the copyright of a published work not to interfere with, if you'd like, or to be broken, if you'd like, in order to create an accessible format of the work for persons who are blind or visually impaired. And most importantly it allows the cross-border exchange of any work so created. So it creates a truly international forum for the exchange of publications in accessible formats. It was remarkable that this treaty was concluded for several reasons. First of all, of course, unfortunately, as we all know, we live in a very divided world, and the Marrakesh Treaty represented one of the few occasions in the last several years in which the world has been able to come together with a unity of purpose, that unity of purpose being to end the book famine and to create the conditions for access worldwide to publications and thus to knowledge for persons who are blind. A second remarkable thing about the Marrakesh Treaty is that it was driven by civil society and non-governmental organizations, and premier amongst those was the National Federation of the Blind. [applause] I would like to congratulate the NFB for this fantastic achievement. It was in 2009 that the World Blind Union presented through the delegations of Brazil, Ecuador, and Paraguay at the World Intellectual Property Organization a proposal for the Marrakesh Treaty. It took four years to conclude-you might think that's a long time, I can tell you it's a short time internationally. We've got negotiations going on at the moment for a new treaty in the area of broadcasting. They have been going on for twenty years, and we still don't have agreement. You know we have negotiations for an international instrument to protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and they, too, have been going on for twenty years. So the four years that it took from the start to the end of the Marrakesh Treaty really was, in international terms, given that you have to establish a comfort level for 193 states, was really quite rapid, and it shows the expression of the solidarity of the whole world for the rights-the human rights-of blind persons. That was 2013, and for the conclusion of the proceedings let me say for those who don't know that we had Stevie Wonder who came specially to Marrakesh to urge the delegates to really do the deal, to conclude the deal, and then to present a concert with his friends at the end to celebrate the conclusion of the Marrakesh Treaty. We are now at forty countries that have ratified the Marrakesh Treaty. [applause] We will not rest until the whole world has ratified the Marrakesh Treaty. Where do we go from here? The first thing is universality. Because of this facility to exchange books that is established across borders, that is established by the Marrakesh Treaty, this facility is a facility for dealing with the enormous differences that exist in this world between capacity and economic power of different countries. It creates the possibility for rich countries like the United States of America or the European Union to share the books that they have been able to establish in accessible formats with the poorest countries of the world, and this is a wonderful, wonderful thing. [applause] As you know, thanks to your efforts, we are hoping that the United States of America will ratify very soon the Marrakesh Treaty. We have a commitment from the European Union that it will ratify it in October of this year. That'll bring us up to sixty-nine countries, and we have a target of 100 countries by the end of 2019. [applause] Scott has mentioned the Accessible Books Consortium. Let me just say a few brief words-because I know we're running out of time-about the Accessible Books Consortium. It's a vehicle for really implementing the Marrakesh Treaty, because what the Marrakesh Treaty does is it creates the possibility of the exchange of books in accessible formats. The Accessible Books Consortium actually does the exchanges. So we have a global book service with an online catalog that now makes over 200,000 works in accessible formats available. That collection exists in seventy-six languages in Braille, DAISY text, MP3, humanly-created audio tapes, and soon EPUB3. It also does capacity building, so 90 percent of the population of blind persons in the world is to be found in the developing and least- developed countries. We have projects in twelve developing and least- developed countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, and Vietnam. In those twelve countries we are helping with the establishment of libraries for the blind so that they can benefit from the Marrakesh Treaty. And through donations from the Australian government we have created 4,500 texts and books and materials of an educational type for primary students, secondary students, and tertiary students in developing countries in local languages, and by the end of this year we'll get to 8,000. Finally, what it does is it represents a commitment and an encouragement to accessible publishing. Born accessible is what we want from publishing. We have an international excellence award and a charter for accessible publishing which is getting more and more adherences from the publishing community. So finally, let me say about the Marrakesh Treaty you can be sure that WIPO will renew and strengthen as much as possible its commitment to the universality of this treaty and to the objectives of this treaty and to ensuring practical ways of its implementation. We will also, since we are an organization which deals with rights in relation to technology, be starting a major focus next year on assistive technologies and how we can ensure that assistive technologies are more evenly shared across the world in the spirit of solidarity amongst the whole world. So, dear friends, it really is a pleasure and a great privilege to have been with you this afternoon. Thank you very much Mark. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Blane Workie] Equal Access in Air Travel for the Blind: Raising Expectations from the United States Department of Transportation by Blane Workie From the Editor: Air travel and the treatment of blind passengers by the airlines are not new topics for the NFB and in the Braille Monitor. But recent events have the topics squarely on the NFB Agenda as you will read in this article covering the speech given on July 8. President Riccobono introduced the following presentation like this: "We have with us the assistant general counsel for the office of aviation enforcement and proceedings. You know, treatment of passengers on airlines has been on the news a lot lately, except for blind people this is not news; we've known about this treatment for decades. Whether it's being treated like an unaccompanied minor, or having our canes taken away, or trying to fight with the in-flight entertainment system to get on the WiFi, or knocking up against an inaccessible kiosk or website, we know about the treatment from the airlines. We are very happy to have this next presenter here to talk to us about the consumer protections and civil rights enforcement efforts at the Department of Transportation. Here is Blane Workie:" Thank you for that introduction and good afternoon everybody. I am very honored and delighted to be here with all of you today at this very impressive gathering. Improving transportation for people with disabilities is a high priority at the US Department of Transportation, and I am personally committed to the goal of making accessible air transportation a reality for all. [cheers] I appreciate your president, Mr. Mark Riccobono, inviting me to the National Federation of the Blind's 2018 National Convention. I have a great admiration for Mr. Riccobono's leadership and the work that is done by the National Federation of the Blind to ensure that blind people have access to goods and services. The NFB has been and continues to be a champion for the rights of the blind and visually impaired. The NFB actively engages with the US Department of Transportation and in its advocacy makes clear NFB's philosophy that the blind are the best qualified to lead the way in solving problems facing the blind. [applause] As the assistant general counsel in the US Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, I have had the great pleasure of working with NFB on a variety of issues affecting blind air travelers such as the accessibility of airline websites and airport kiosks, traveling by air with service animals, and in-flight entertainment. I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity today to recognize your colleagues in Washington DC: John Par?, who is the NFB's executive director for advocacy and policy, [applause] and Parnell Diggs, who was NFB's former director of government affairs. [applause] This is for the work that they have done to raise awareness of and advocate for accessible air transportation for blind and low vision Americans. Like them, and all of you, we at DOT believe it is important that the transportation system is accessible, as accessible transportation is vital in maintaining independence. Looking out at the crowd in front of me, the strength of the NFB and the unity of purpose this convention brings to blind people is very clear. I understand that there are approximately 3,000 delegates here [applause] from every state in the country as well as some foreign countries. I know that you have had a full day, actually a full schedule the last few days, and I appreciate being given the opportunity to present on the Department of Transportation's work to ensure equal access in air travel for the blind. Let me begin by briefly explaining to you the function of my office and our involvement in aviation civil rights matters. My office, the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, is part of the US Department of Transportation's Office of General Counsel. Among other things we are responsible for enforcement and rule-making activities related to the Air Carrier Access Act. The Air Carrier Access Act was passed by Congress with bipartisan support, and President Reagan signed it into law on October 2, 1986. It initially applied only to US airlines, but was later amended so that it also applies to foreign airlines. The act makes it unlawful for US and foreign air carriers to discriminate against passengers with disabilities in commercial air transportation. It struck a powerful blow for equality. Before the Air Carrier Access Act was enacted, the airlines' treatment of blind passengers varied greatly as different airlines had different procedures, and even a single airline might have its procedures interpreted in different ways by its employees. This made travel unpredictable for people with disabilities. Further, there were reports of airline personnel making erroneous assumptions about the condition of people with disabilities, some of which led to demeaning treatment. For example, there was a time when blind persons and other people with disabilities were required to sit on blankets. At that time, there were few specific regulations regarding the treatment of air travelers with disabilities that applied to commercial airlines. We have made significant progress since then. Thanks to the Air Carrier Access Act, we have established regulations that require commercial airlines to provide guide assistance to blind persons at airports. It also requires airlines to allow passengers with disabilities to transport canes and other assistive devices in the passenger cabin close to their seat, consistent with safety requirements. Airlines must also provide blind passengers timely access to the same information given to other passengers at the airport or the airline, such as flight delays or gate assignments. Airlines may not charge for providing accommodations required by the Air Carrier Access Act regulation such as both services I mentioned. Airlines cannot count an assistive device against carry-on baggage totals allowed for individuals. In addition, the regulations require training on the Air Carrier Access Act for all public contact employees and contractors. And carriers must make available what is called a complaint resolution official or a CRO to respond to complaints from passengers with disabilities. Further, today airlines' websites and airport kiosks must be accessible to people with disabilities. [applause] Now, these are good regulations. They make a difference. Still, airlines receive thousands of disability-related air travel complaints each year. In calendar year 2004, the first year for this required report, US airlines reported receiving 10,193 disability-related air travel complaints. The number of disability complaints that airlines receive each year continues to increase. In calendar year 2016, the most recent year of data that is publicly available, US airlines reported receiving 27,842 such complaints. Now, if you're going to include foreign air carriers with that, that would be over 32,000 complaints. The top disability complaint areas in 2016 were: 1) wheelchair and guide assistance issues; 2) stowage, loss, damage, and delay of assistive devices; 3) seating accommodations; and 4) service animal issues. This is consistent with what we have seen in prior years. Now the fact that airlines receive thousands of complaints each year, or the increase in complaints year after year, may lead some to think that the experience of air travelers with disabilities, including blind persons, is as bad or worse than it was in the past. I don't believe that to be the case. There are more individuals with disabilities flying today than ever before. Also, individuals with disabilities have a better understanding of their rights, which makes it more likely that complaints will be filed against airlines when airlines fail to provide accessible air transportation as required. At DOT we place great emphasis on public education as a means of ensuring passengers and carriers know their rights and responsibilities. For example, we recently redesigned our website to allow air travelers to quickly and easily access information about their rights as passengers. The redesigned website highlights content on topics of greatest concern to consumers, including flying with a disability. It also makes it easier to file a complaint. In addition, in 2017 we were able to release a series of informative training materials that target the top four disability complaint areas. We worked with stakeholders from the disability community, including the National Federation of the Blind, and the aviation industry to develop interactive and informative training materials that target the top four disability complaint areas. The informational materials that were developed include videos, interactive guides, and downloadable brochures that can be printed or viewed on a mobile device. These materials are also available on our website and can be used to assist individuals with disabilities and to supplement the training and education of airline employees and contractors. Although the increased complaints may not be indicative of a worsening situation for air travelers with disabilities, the complaints do tell us that our work is not yet done. There is more that needs to be done to achieve our goal of accessible air transportation. This includes, when appropriate, taking enforcement action against airlines. Generally speaking, my office pursues enforcement action against airlines on the basis of a number of complaints on which we may infer a pattern or practice of discrimination, or where we find evidence of a particularly egregious violation of the law. For instance, in 2017 we issued an order against a US airline for a series of errors in the handling of seating arrangement for a military veteran who attempted to travel on a flight with his service animal. We found this series of errors reflected lapses in training and led to significant travel complications and frustration for the passenger. We directed the airline to provide supplemental training to its reservation agents and gate agents about the proper handling of service animal requests. Over the past ten years DOT has issued more than thirty orders, wholly or partially involving violations of the Air Carrier Access Act and its implementing regulations and assessed over nine million dollars in civil penalties against airlines for those violations. Because fines that are assessed against airlines for consent orders are payable to the federal government and not to consumers directly, when appropriate, we build into the orders that we negotiate credits for compensation that the airline pays directly to consumers who filed complaints. For example, in another case in 2017 where we assessed an airline $400,000 in civil penalties, the department provided a $36,000 credit for compensation that the airline agreed to provide to consumers who filed disability complaints with the airline during the time period that was covered by the order. We also sometimes include offsets for programs or technologies that airlines implement to improve the air travel experience for passengers with disabilities that go above and beyond the legal requirements. In addition, as part of our enforcement approach, we look for other innovative ways to increase accessibility for passengers with disabilities. For example, we've recently entered into landmark voluntary agreements with various airlines that self-disclosed to us their difficulties in complying with the department's accessible kiosk rule. The department reached agreement with these airlines to not take enforcement action against them for their temporary non-compliance with the department's rule that any airport kiosk that is installed be an accessible model until at least 25 percent of kiosks are accessible. In return, the airlines agreed to undertake measures to make air travel more accessible for persons with disabilities. This includes agreements that the airline will only install accessible kiosks in the future so that ultimately 100 percent of the airline's kiosks will be accessible to passengers with disabilities. [applause] We have also entered into an agreement with an airline that self-reported its temporary non- compliance with the department's website accessibility rule to not take action in return for the airline ensuring that its mobile website is also accessible, which is not required by law. But we still have some other big challenges to tackle in the future. This includes addressing the inaccessibility of in-flight entertainment systems and the use of service animals onboard aircraft. In 2016 an access advisory committee was established to negotiate a proposed rule on several issues, including these two issues. The committee included representatives of airlines, persons with disabilities, and other interested parties. The NFB's own Parnell Diggs was a very valuable member of that committee. [applause] The good news is that after seven months of negotiations the access advisory committee was able to reach consensus on accessibility of in-flight entertainment, an issue that has been unresolved for decades. As you know, airlines today generally do not provide in-flight entertainment with captioning or audio descriptions. Under this agreement, movies produced after a certain date and displayed on aircraft would be captioned to provide access to deaf and hard-of-hearing passengers and audio described to enable people who are blind to listen to a visual narration of movies and shows. [applause] Airlines would be permitted to display content that is not closed captioned or audio described only if uncaptioned or described versions are not available from the airline's content provider. The access committee also established deadlines for airlines to ensure that any new seatback in-flight entertainment installed in new or existing aircraft are accessible and reached agreement on addressing aircraft that have inaccessible seatback IFE systems as well as installing software upgrades needed to ensure that the user interface to connect to the internet on aircraft is accessible. [applause] The IFE agreement reached by the access advisory committee would need to be incorporated into a future DOT rule for it to be law. The department's 2018 Spring Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions identifies a notice of proposed rulemaking on in-flight entertainment as a long-term action to be taken. DOT's significant rulemaking report explains that the reason for the delay is related to the need for regulatory evaluation. With regard to service animals, another issue that the access committee had been charged with negotiating, the committee was not able to reach agreement. DOT had charged the access advisory committee with determining the appropriate definition of a service animal and establishing safeguards to reduce the likelihood that passengers wishing to travel with their pets would be able to falsely claim that their pets are service animals. Although the access committee was unable to reach agreement, the committee has furnished helpful information to the department. After the termination of the access committee the department continued to hear from the transportation industry as well as individuals with disabilities that the current air carrier access regulation could be improved to ensure undiscriminatory access for individuals with disabilities while simultaneously preventing instances of fraud and ensuring consistency with other federal regulations. In May 2018 the department issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking [ANPRM] seeking comment on amending its Air Carrier Access Act regulation on transportation of service animals. In the ANPRM the department solicits comments on numerous issues including: should the department continue to require the transport of emotional support animals, should there be limitations on species that airlines are required to transport, should there be limits on the number of service animals that passengers can carry, should passengers be required to provide documentation providing proof of vaccinations and/or attesting that the animal is properly trained? The comment period on the ANPRM closes tomorrow, Monday, July 9. I understand that the NFB has already submitted comments. Given that the service animal issue is currently the subject of an open rulemaking, we had also issued an interim statement of enforcement priorities to inform airlines and the public of our intended enforcement focus with respect to the transportation of service animals in the cabin. We explained that our focus will be on clear violations of the current rule that have the potential to adversely impact the greatest number of persons. The comment period on the interim statement of priorities has closed, and a final statement of enforcement priorities will be issued in the near future. In conclusion, I'm proud of the progress that we have made, and I am confident by continuing to work together with all of you that we can accomplish even more. [applause] ---------- [PHOtO CAPTION: Monica Desai] Networking that Empowers Innovation: Accessibility for the Blind through Facebook by Monica Desai >From the Editor: President Riccobono introduced this presentation with these words: "This next speaker represents an organization that has also never appeared on this stage: Facebook. [cheers] Yeah, thumbs up to that. Facebook has become more than just a platform for connecting people. It also provides information of various sorts, businesses use it for innovative approaches, people now stream everything from television to Federation conventions on Facebook. And as blind people we have a deep interest in working to make sure that when new features come out on the Facebook platform that they're accessible. They've never appeared here before, and we hope that by being here today it's the beginning of a long relationship to make accessibility a priority and to bake it in to everything that Facebook does. Here with us today we're happy to have the director of public policy from Facebook, Monica Desai." Thank you so much, President Riccobono, and to the National Federation of the Blind for inviting me here to speak today. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about accessibility on Facebook, particularly with respect to people who are blind or have low vision. My name is Monica Desai, and as President Riccobono mentioned, I'm director of global public policy at Facebook, where I focus on issues involving online communication services-our video products and accessibility in particular. Prior to joining Facebook I spent over a decade in senior positions at the Federal Communications Commission, including service as the chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau which develops all policies and rules in connection with accessibility issues, and as chief of the FCC's Media Bureau which has oversight over broadcasters and cable companies and which oversees captioning policies. I was previously a partner at the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs, where my practice included counseling clients on accessibility issues. Though I became acquainted with the National Federation of the Blind while I was at the FCC, I learned to really appreciate the National Federation of the Blind when I began counseling clients on accessibility issues. In particular, we did work with the National Federation of the Blind when we did a consultation on a new product for a manufacturing client who came from China, who sent engineers from China to work with the NFB and others who worked with a prototype product. It was amazing to see the impact of the input that was given by this organization in terms of the comments and how they were reflected in the product. We really appreciated that. Today I want to speak with you about Facebook and about our accessibility ethos, how we're using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the platform more accessible, about our navigation assistant tool, our Teach Access Partnership to promote teaching accessibility and best practices in higher education design and computer science programs, and some of our initiatives to promote an inclusive workforce. With respect to our ethos, our mission is to bring the world closer together, and that means everyone. Accessibility is a core part of that mission. Consider, for example, that on Facebook one in ten people use the zoom feature on the desktop browser, 20 percent of people increase the font size on iOS, and over 100,000 use screen readers on mobile devices to view Facebook. We want to make it possible for anyone, regardless of ability, to access the information and connections that happen on Facebook. One of the key ways we are promoting accessibility on the platform is by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning services to power accessibility technology for people who are blind or have low vision. In 2016 we launched automatic alt text or AAT [cheers], a feature that uses object recognition to describe photos to people who use screen readers. Thank you for the cheers; people worked really hard on that, so thank you. [cheers, applause] In December of 2017 we launched a face recognition tool that can tell people using screen readers who appears in their photos in their newsfeed, even if they aren't tagged. Every day people share over one billion photos on Facebook, and through research we have done with the vision loss community, we knew that users of screen readers engage with photo content and that they desired more context for a photo's content. But the traditional mechanism for describing photographs to people with vision loss was the use of alt text, which typically requires that the content creator supply a secondary description on a per-photo basis. This is both time consuming as well as an uncommon user activity. To address this challenge we built the AAT and face recognition accessibility tools. Our goal was to greatly improve the experience that people with vision loss have with this commonly shared media. AAT can currently detect more than 100 concepts, such as the number of people in a photo; whether people are smiling; physical objects like a car, a tree, a mountain, and other objects; and today about 75 percent of photos on Facebook now have at least one image identified by AAT. We're honored that AAT was awarded the Federal Communications Commission Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility in 2017 and the American Foundation for the Blind's Achievement Award for 2018. [applause] Using this technology people who use screen readers will know who appears in their photos and their newsfeed. As Facebook continues to improve its object and face recognition services AAT and face recognition will continue to provide more descriptive narratives for visual content. I also want to call out how important feedback from our users was in developing AAT. When building AAT, we ran multiple rounds of user research to refine the experience. This included one-on-one interviews with users of screen readers to test out early prototypes and a two-week experiment on Facebook with follow-up surveys to users asking for feedback and sentiment. We learned from survey results that people want to understand more about what people are doing in photos, so we updated AAT to understand more about people's action in photos. It's our hope that this deployed product experience demonstrates the importance of AI for enabling better access to content across the web for persons with disabilities. We strongly believe that AI is the future of improving additional interaction experiences at scale, whether they are visual in nature or otherwise. As AI systems get better at understanding images-video, audio, and other media- Facebook believes that more novel and robust innovations in accessibility will follow. I also want to spend a minute touching on Navigation Assistant. In October of last year we introduced Navigation Assistant, a feature designed to improve navigation for people who use a screen reader or keyboard shortcuts on Facebook or on desktop web. When activated, the Navigation Assistant can be used to jump to different sections of the current page, jump to other pages, or jump to accessibility resources. For example, the sections of the page in Navigation Assistant list the landmark regions that are on the current page, and the screen reader user can move the keyboard focus between the sections in the menu by pressing Enter or Return. The Navigation Assistant can be activated from any page on Facebook. It's our hope that Navigation Assistant will make navigating Facebook on the desktop simpler and more predictable. Next I want to touch on our participation in Teach Access. We want to also try to drive innovation in accessibility that extends beyond Facebook. That's why we are proud to be part of the Teach Access Initiative. Announced on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July of 2015, Teach Access brings industry, academia, and advocacy together to create models for teaching and training students of technology to create accessible experiences. This initiative includes (among others) Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Stanford, MIT, and Georgia Tech. The challenge we identified is that accessibility is not often taught in computer science, design, and user experience degree programs. So Teach Access launched an online tutorial covering best practices for accessible software design in order to advance accessibility training in higher education. And we're honored that Teach Access has won a Heroes of Accessibility award from Knowbility and received an honorable mention for the FCC Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility. [applause] Finally I want to touch on our workforce and initiatives through our workforce initiatives. Disability inclusion is critical to our mission. Hiring a workforce that is diverse and inclusive is important in order to build products that are diverse and inclusive. That's why we have a dedicated program manager focused entirely on driving awareness and engagement for our current and future employees with disabilities. We have a dedicated recruiting team and a unique alias for receiving resum?s via our outreach efforts to resources and organizations that represent candidates with disabilities. We have a robust accommodation process for candidates and provide training to all recruiters in this process, and Facebook has a formal accommodation program for employees who need any accommodation of some type. We also have a dedicated group that is focused on diversity programs, one of which is dedicated to disabilities. So for people who have disabilities, who have family members with disabilities, or are interested in the space of disability, this is a place for them to collaborate and talk about their experiences. So let me conclude by thanking you for inviting me here again to speak, and I look forward to collaborating with you in the future. [applause] ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Tommy Craig] Tommy Craig Dies by Zena Pearcy From the Editor: It is always hard when we lose a beloved Federationist but even harder when the loss is unexpected. Tommy Craig was a two-time state president in Texas. He was hit by a car, and although his injuries were significant, they were not thought to be life-threatening. Here is what Zena Pearcy has to say about the life of our former brother and Federationist: Thomas Edward Craig was born in Arkansas on January 12, 1955, but as he would tell anyone who would listen, "There are two kinds of people...Texans and people who want to be Texans." Tommy got to Texas as soon as he could and never left. He had a passion for life and fierce loyalty to people, animals, places, music, and technological products. His father was a deputy sheriff in Ashdown, Arkansas. Tommy had fond memories of riding in the patrol car and turning the siren on and off. His dad died of brain cancer when Tommy was eight years old. His mother died from a fall on a staircase when Tommy was eleven. He then moved to Houston to live with an aunt, uncle, and cousin. Tommy attended the Arkansas School for the Blind, the Texas School for the Blind, and graduated high school in Houston at a public school. He attended college classes at Stephen F. Austin and UT Austin. Forever curious and always learning something new, Tommy enjoyed the Boy Scout program for many years. He became an Advance Amateur Radio operator and assisted many young people in getting licensed as HAM radio operators. Tommy met his wife-to-be, Margaret "Cokie" Dennison, at a convention of the National Federation of the Blind in the late 1970s. They married in 1986. Together Tommy and Cokie raised Siberian Huskies and adopted rescued Greyhounds. They have been active delegates several times to the Democratic conventions in Texas. Both have been leaders in the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Fascinated by technology from the beginning, he recognized the importance of home computers shortly after Apple invented its first computer. Through the years he was fiercely loyal to the Apple brand. He had almost every product they made and made sure friends had them, too. He served on the board of the Austin Capitol Macintosh Users Group for several years. Tommy worked in the field of adaptive equipment for blind people. He traveled the United States selling adaptive devices such as Braille displays, speech-enabled computers, and Braille embossers. He trained many people to use this equipment. Among his clients were people like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. His involvement with the National Federation of the Blind began in the mid-1970s, when he joined the Austin Chapter. He soon became a leader in both his local chapter and within the state affiliate. He served as a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas Board of Directors beginning in the late 1970s, and he became president of the affiliate in 1992. He served in that position until 2000, and he served again from 2002 to 2011. During his tenure as a member of the board, he and Jeff Pearcy served as the leaders of our legislative committee, and under his direction we were able to pass powerful legislation regarding Braille, fair insurance rates, and more. He was probably most proud of his efforts to pass our landmark Braille bill, which was the first in the nation to require on-time delivery of Braille textbooks for blind students, and his effort to secure adequate funding for NFB-NEWSLINE? still makes it possible for us to carry out programs for blind youth, blind seniors, and any Texan who loves to access information. Those of us left behind mourn the loss of our friend. His passing was sudden and unexpected on August 24. He was planning his rehabilitation from his many injuries from being struck by a car. In his usual "take charge" attitude, Tommy was already setting goals for himself to beat the time limits his doctors reported for normal recovery. He chose his rehabilitation placement based on reports that he could have his dogs visit him there at the facility and that there would be plenty of visits from therapy dogs and horses! His zeal for life held out through his very last moments! We might say "Rest in Peace," but Tommy probably has other ideas for his future. He is probably romping with all his beloved animals and visiting friends and family who went on before him! Our dear friend truly lived the Federation philosophy. He was independent, he worked hard, and he lived the life he wanted to live every day. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis] Announcing New Accessibility Resources for Consumers and Industry by Anil Lewis From the Editor: When we see problems, we do more than talk and write about them. When we can, we create programs to address them. Here is what Anil Lewis, the executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute, has to say about one of our newest programs: You may remember that in 2016, with support from the Maryland Department of Disabilities, the National Federation of the Blind launched an important initiative aimed at generating new resources for accessibility. We named it the Accessibility Switchboard. At its core, it is a dynamic online portal at AccessibilitySwitchboard.org that houses guides, articles, and other resources that consumers, government, corporate entities, and educational institutions can use to effectively address various aspects of accessibility-from developing accessible websites to procuring accessible technologies. All of our resources are designed to be action-oriented and are grounded in proven success stories and existing best practices graciously shared with us by our Community of Practice members and member organizations. We are continually updating and adding content to the portal as we work to respond to current needs for specific information related to accessibility. Today, I'm excited to announce the addition of seven new QA articles and six new guides. As a preview, these will include answers to critical questions like, "How do I advocate for myself when my school has digital accessibility problems?" and "How can I overcome resistance to change in an organization-wide accessibility project?" We will be rolling out this new content throughout the coming weeks, and I invite you to actively join in on the discussion by following and using the hashtag #A11ySwitchboard. The key to creating a more accessible world is to ensure meaningful participation and active communication between consumers and industry. The Accessibility Switchboard brings consumers and industry together, providing up-to-date information about accessible websites, emerging technology, as well as frequently encountered accessibility problems and relevant solutions. It also serves as a centralized point of contact for consumers to voice concerns about barriers to nonvisual access. By creating this dynamic accessibility information portal, highlighting the organizations that are doing it correctly, and creating a place where consumers can give real input, the Accessibility Switchboard can shift organizational implementation of accessibility from second hand to second nature. I'm excited for you to be a part of and have the opportunity to help shape this effort as we announce our latest content. Be sure to check #A11ySwitchboard this week and beyond. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. [PHOTO CAPTION: Debbie Brown] Apricot Orange Jell-O Salad by Debbie Brown Debbie serves as first vice president of the NFB of Maryland. She is also the president of the Sligo Creek chapter. She says, "This is a recipe that is refreshing in summer and festive in winter." Ingredients: 1 15-ounce can apricot halves, drained 1 15-ounce can mandarin orange segments, drained 1 15-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained 1 3-ounce package apricot or orange Jell-O 1 cup water 8 ounces sour cream Method: Combine apricots, oranges, and pineapple in a large bowl. Mix Jell-O with one cup boiling water and add to bowl. Mix in the sour cream. Chill for several hours. ---------- Maryland Crab Cakes by Darlene Barrett Darlene Barrett is a member of the board of directors of the NFBMD. She also serves as president of the Central Maryland chapter. No list of Maryland recipes would be complete without crab cakes. Ingredients 1 pound backfin crabmeat or any lump crabmeat 8 saltine crackers 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon mustard 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning Salt to taste 2 tablespoons vegetable oil Method: Place crabmeat in bowl and check for shells. In another bowl, finely crush crackers and add remaining ingredients. Gently fold in crabmeat, just enough to combine all ingredients. Shape into six crab cakes and refrigerate for one hour. Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in nonstick frying pan. Saut? crab cakes until golden brown. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ellen Ringlein] Curried Sweet Potato Soup by Ellen Ringlein Ellen Ringlein is president of the Greater Baltimore Chapter. Ellen also runs the NFB Independence Market. Ingredients 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 medium onion, diced 1 medium or 2 small sweet potatoes, thinly sliced (2 to 3 cups) 1 or 2 carrots, thinly sliced 1 zucchini or yellow squash, thinly sliced 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon curry powder 1/4 cup Marsala cooking wine Method: In a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat; add onion and saut? until soft. Add sweet potato, carrots, zucchini, broth, and curry powder. Cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally. Add Marsala wine before vegetables are fully tender. Transfer soup to blender and puree in batches. Gently reheat soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ronza Othman] Upside-Down-Makluba by Ronza Othman Ronza is a member of the board of directors of the NFBMD. She also serves as first vice president of the Greater Baltimore Chapter. This is a traditional Palestinian dish-perhaps the most commonly served meal. Serve it with a side of plain yogurt or a thinly sliced salad of tomatoes, cucumber, lemon, and olive oil. It serves approximately six people. Ingredients: 4 cups white rice chicken (cut up whole chicken or chicken pieces depending on preference) 2 cauliflowers 4 potatoes 2 onions oil 1 cup water garlic powder salt pepper cinnamon cardamom other preferred seasonings Method: Peel the onions, cut them, and layer them at the bottom of a large pot. Onions should be in strips or rounds and should fully cover the bottom of the pot. Layer the chicken pieces over the onions. Add cinnamon, cardamom, garlic powder, pepper, salt, and other preferred seasoning. Tip: Seasoning blends work well, but there is no right or wrong seasoning. Add one cup of water and turn the heat on under the pot with the chicken and onions. Allow to cook for about twenty minutes until the onions are soft. The chicken will not be fully cooked. Soak four cups of rice in very hot water with salt. This will make the rice absorb other flavors. After twenty minutes of soaking, drain and rinse the rice. Cut up the cauliflower and potatoes so that they are small enough to deep fry. The potatoes should be half an inch thick or thinner. Deep fry the cauliflower and potatoes and set aside to drain. Cauliflower is done when golden brown and crispy, and potatoes are done when golden brown and soft inside. Tip: Vegetables can be baked instead of deep-fried if going for a lower calorie option, but this takes longer-just spray them with cooking spray prior to baking. Once onions are soft, layer the cauliflower and potatoes over the chicken with the cauliflower on one side and the potatoes on the other. Layer the rice over the cauliflower and potatoes. Add hot water so that it comes up just over the level of the rice and cover the pot. Turn on the heat under the pot on medium for about thirty minutes or until the water evaporates and the rice is tender. You can test to see if the water has evaporated by inserting a wooden spoon into the pot all the way to the bottom. If it comes out wet, then there is still water that needs to evaporate. As the water gets closer to fully evaporating, reduce the heat to low. Once the water has evaporated, turn off the heat. Remove the pot's lid. Use a large pan-it must be significantly larger in width than the pot. With both hands (and oven mitts), flip the pot over so it is upside-down onto the pan, now with the onions and chicken on the bottom and the rice on top. This lets the flavors reabsorb into the elements of the meal a second time. Serve. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Melissa Riccobono] Chocolate Chip Cookies by Melissa Riccobono In addition to being the First Lady of the Federation, Melissa is a member of the board of directors of the NFBMD, and she is president of the Maryland Parents of Blind Children Division. She says, "These cookies are a bit famous around our kids' school; we have made them several times for various teachers, and everyone who tries them loves them!" Ingredients: 1 cup soft butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup boiling water 1 teaspoon vanilla 1-1/4 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups quick oats 1 12-ounce package chocolate chips Method: Cream butter and sugar. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and stir into mixture. Add vanilla, then dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Drop onto cookie sheet. (The recipe says ungreased, but I usually grease just to be safe.) Bake at 350 degrees for ten to twelve minutes. ---------- No-Bake Pineapple Cheese Pie by Ellen Ringlein Ingredients: 1/2 cup boiling water 1 envelope unflavored Knox gelatin One small can crushed pineapple, drained, reserve liquid One small can of pineapple rings (8 rings), drained, reserve liquid 1/2 pineapple juice from reserve liquid 2 8-ounce bars cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup sugar 1 9-inch graham cracker pie crust Method: Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Add pineapple juice and stir well. Combine this mixture with cream cheese and sugar. Blend with hand mixer until smooth. Spoon half cream cheese mixture into pie crust. Layer the crushed pineapple on top. Cover with remaining cheese mixture. Garnish with pineapple rings. Cover with inverted plastic pie cover, crimping the aluminum edges of the pie plate to hold the top securely. Chill for several hours before serving. ---------- Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies by Janice Toothman Janice Toothman is a member of the board of directors of the Sligo Creek Chapter of the NFBMD. She also chairs the NFBMD Deaf-Blind Committee. Janice is a prolific baker at various auction fundraisers. Everyone wants to buy her items, so she makes our events very successful. Ingredients 1/2 cup softened butter 1 cup sugar 2 ounces unsweetened baker's chocolate 1 egg, beaten 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup flour 1 1/2 cups oatmeal Method: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Place chocolate in microwavable bowl, and microwave on high for one minute. Stir. If chocolate is not all melted, microwave an additional minute. Add creamed mixture to melted chocolate. Add beaten egg to bowl after bowl is cool to the touch. Add baking powder and salt. Mix well. Add flour and oatmeal. Stir well. Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking sheet, twelve cookies to a sheet. Bake for twelve minutes. Yields approximately three dozen cookies. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Message from Diane McGeorge regarding 2019 Washington Seminar Reservations: This message is to advise you that Washington Seminar will be held January 27 to January 31, with the Great Gathering-In taking place on Monday, January 28. 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 25, and check-out Friday, February 1. The rate is $196.00 per night. This rate does not include DC sales tax, currently 14.95 percent. You may begin booking reservations directly online by clicking on the weblink below. You may also make reservations by calling 877-572-6951 and referencing booking code NB8. Credit card information is needed at time of reservation. Individual cancellation policy is seventy-two hours prior to date of arrival to avoid one night's room plus tax cancellation charge on 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. Please 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 Friday, December 28, 2018. Reservation requests received after the deadline date will be subject to availability and prevailing rate. Following is the link to reserve your room: http://ichotelsgroup.com/redirect?path=rates&brandCode=HI®ionCode=1&local eCode=en&GPC=NB8&hotelCode=WASSM&_PMID=99801505 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, 2018. 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! The Ride to Vote: Use Lyft to Exercise Your Rights: At Lyft we're working to improve lives by connecting people and their communities through the world's best transportation. This election day (Tuesday, November 6), we want to help people across America exercise their right to vote. It is estimated that over 15 million people were registered but didn't vote in 2016 because of transportation issues. That's why we're committed to providing 50 percent off rides across the country and free rides to underserved communities that face significant obstacles to transportation. More details on our plan: Across the country, we'll give away 50 percent off promo codes with our partners that encourage voter turnout. We're thrilled to be working with Vote.org, Nonprofit VOTE, TurboVote, and more to help distribute codes to those who need them. We'll also have a product integration to help passengers find their polling location. For underserved communities, we'll provide rides free of cost through nonpartisan, nonprofit partners, including Voto Latino, local Urban League affiliates, and the National Federation of the Blind. We know that getting to the polls is only one part of the voting process. We're also committed to making it easier to register to vote and learn about important ballot initiatives. We're partnering with When We All Vote and National Voter Registration Day to ensure Lyft's passengers, drivers, and broader community are prepared for election day. We will: . Remind Lyft passengers about voter registration deadlines using various social media and platform tools (e.g. push notifications) . Give drivers voter registration handouts and key voter information at Hub locations . Offer in-office voter registration for employees at our offices . Offer comprehensive, online voter information through our partner organizations . Encourage our community to make a plan in advance for Election Day, which has a proven impact on voter turnout rates Your voice is important! We're excited to help make it heard in this year's elections. ---------- 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 31 08:46:39 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2018 08:46:39 -0700 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, November 2018 Message-ID: <201810311546.w9VFket9012157@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 10 November 2018 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 ? 2018 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. 61, No. 10 November 2018 Contents Illustration: Take Braille Out to the Ball Game Respecting Blind Workers and the Laws that Protect Them by Gary Wunder Effectively Reporting Accessibility Issues to Developers by Karl Belanger Sharon Gold Dies by Barbara Pierce The Unexplored Dimensions of Photography: The Blind and the Freedom of Tactile Understanding by John Olson The 2019 Blind Educator of the Year Award by Edward Bell Getting There by Lauren Merryfield National Federation of the Blind 2019 Scholarship Program Living Beyond Adversity by Brock Brown The 2019 Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award by Carla McQuillan The 2019 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards by James Gashel Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO/CAPTION: Orioles jersey number 18 with the Oriole's name in Braille. Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles [PHOTO/CAPTION: Mark Riccobono stands on the mound having wound up and ready to throw his strike. Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles] Take Braille Out to the Ball Game It is hard to believe that the National Federation of the Blind has been headquartered for more than half its life in Baltimore. For some of us the Federation's headquarters was at 2652 Shasta Road in Berkeley, California. For many the address 218 Randolph Hotel Building in Des Moines, Iowa, will be a familiar address. But being the home of the National Federation of the Blind's headquarters for four decades brings with it publicity, awareness, and recognition. In recognition of the fortieth anniversary of the National Federation of the Blind moving its national headquarters to Baltimore, on Tuesday, September 18, the Baltimore Orioles became the first team in American professional sports history to incorporate Braille lettering into their gameday uniforms. Wearing specially-designed jerseys with Braille lettering of both "Orioles" and player last names, they took the field to play the Toronto Blue Jays. Afterwards the jerseys were autographed, authenticated, and auctioned on the Oriole's website to benefit the National Federation of the Blind. It wasn't just about special jerseys or the accessibility features at Oriole Park, either. On this historic night National Federation of the Blind President Mark Riccobono threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game. The National Federation of the Blind YouTube channel has video of this with commentary by the park announcers, watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6fHfK0E5M. The first 15,000 fans in attendance received a co-branded NFB/Orioles Braille alphabet card, distributed by volunteers from the NFB. Additionally, members of the NFB were at the OriolesREACH Community Booth near Gate D during the game. [PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Wunder] Respecting Blind Workers and the Laws that Protect Them by Gary Wunder With the completion of the October issue of the Braille Monitor, the Monitor staff started to work on a lead article for November. Our goal was to briefly explain the history of how and why sheltered workshops came to be. Then we would explain the federal government's involvement in creating a system to give these shops advantages in procuring federal contracts. We would then give the names and roles of the agencies that have, for eighty years, made up the system that has provided work for many blind people. Lastly we would reveal the changes AbilityOne has made in the area of contracting for the blind, how it violates several federal laws, and what we in the Federation plan to do about it. It turns out that our lawsuit against the AbilityOne Commission and the press release announcing it came before the would-be article took shape, and the result is something better. That something is the very filing we made in federal court on September 26, 2018. It meets all of my objectives, gives our readers first-hand source material, and the only thing missing will be the gentle transitions from one point of fact to the next, from one allegation to the next, and from one prayer to the court to the next-easier for the staff of your magazine, and faster for our readers. First you will read our press release-an introduction to what is to come. Then comes what the court is being given: the history, the current issues, and what we are asking the court to do based on them. I hope you will enjoy, as I did, the brilliant writing of the talented staff and lawyers who have crafted our complaint. As a Federationist I feel proud to be associated with them, with these documents, and with an organization that can so effectively bring such injustice to the attention of a system with the ability to set it right. Here is our press release and our complaint: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE National Federation of the Blind Sues US AbilityOne Commission Alleges Violation of Federal Transparency Laws and Regulations Baltimore, Maryland (September 26, 2018): The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind Americans, filed suit today against the US AbilityOne Commission, which oversees a federal program that is supposed to advance work opportunities for the blind and other Americans with disabilities. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, alleges that AbilityOne violated the Administrative Procedure Act and federal grantmaking and contracting laws when it designated the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) as a "central nonprofit agency" (CNA) in the AbilityOne program and signed a long-term agreement with AFB. The Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies to give public notice and an opportunity for public comment before making changes to their programs and the requirements for federal grants and contracts require competitive procedures to ensure the most qualified bidders are able to apply. The AbilityOne program was created in 1938 specifically to increase employment opportunities for the blind. It requires federal contracts to be preferentially awarded to contractors that primarily employ workers with disabilities. Currently, over $3 billion in goods and services are purchased from over five hundred AbilityOne contractors each year, with more than half from the Department of Defense. The AbilityOne Commission oversees the awards of these contracts and compliance by the contractors. It does so through two CNAs: National Industries for the Blind (NIB) and SourceAmerica. Without notice and comment or any opportunity for other bidders to apply, AbilityOne made AFB a third CNA as of July 26, 2018. The National Federation of the Blind is challenging this action and asking the federal court to reverse it. If it had been apprised of the opportunity, the NFB would have bid on the contract to become a CNA with the goal of leveraging the power of its fifty thousand members, its nearly eight decades of experience representing the interests of blind workers, and its three affiliated rehabilitation training centers, to move the AbilityOne program toward the full participation of blind people in competitive integrated employment, including new and emerging industries that pay prevailing wages, offer opportunities for advancement, and provide required accommodations and new technologies. The National Federation of the Blind and other disability groups have criticized the AbilityOne program and repeatedly called for its reform because it is based on outdated beliefs about the capabilities of people with disabilities. Many of the contractors given preferential treatment under the program segregate workers with disabilities from workers who do not have disabilities and require the disabled workers to perform menial jobs that do not prepare them for mainstream work. In addition, fifty of the AbilityOne contractors pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage-pennies per hour, in the worst cases. Furthermore, both the Government Accountability Office and Department of Defense have issued reports highlighting a lack of transparency and oversight of the activities of the CNAs and calling for significant changes to the AbilityOne program to increase integration and reduce the risk of fraud. The AbilityOne Commission's selection of a new CNA seeks to "provide a framework for a new CNA model in the AbilityOne program that places the focus on increasing job placement and career advancement opportunities in knowledge-based positions" and identify "innovative employment opportunities, careers and lines of business for people who are blind" over five years. "We appreciate that AbilityOne is pursuing a new CNA to support innovative jobs and careers for people who are blind. The move toward integrated real-world employment for people with disabilities is long overdue. Thanks to federal laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, blind people have proven we can do real jobs and do not need to be segregated or relegated to menial work," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. "However, AbilityOne's decision to authorize a new CNA with no input from the public or from blind individuals is an example of the inside dealing and lack of transparency that have long pervaded the program. As the nation's leading membership organization of blind Americans, the National Federation of the Blind is taking this action in solidarity with the blind employees who work on AbilityOne contracts. Blind workers deserve to have input into the future of the AbilityOne program. In addition, as an organization with seventy-eight years of experience helping blind workers find and succeed in competitive, integrated employment, the NFB has expertise and insight about innovations to support blind individuals to pursue the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow. We stand ready, willing, and able to help AbilityOne build the future. But we will not tolerate the AbilityOne Commission flouting the law and ignoring the voices of the blind Americans who will be affected by its decisions." There you have the release. Here is what we have said to the court. In some cases citations have been removed for readability, but a link to the full filing is included here https://www.browngold.com/wbcntntprd1/wp-content/uploads/AbilityOne- Complaint.pdf. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND (Northern Division) THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, MD 21230, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 18-cv-2965 U.S. ABILITYONE COMMISSION 1401 S. Clark Street, Suite 715 Arlington, VA 22202-3259 And THOMAS D. ROBINSON Chairperson In His Official Capacity U.S. AbilityOne Commission 1401 S. Clark Street, Suite 715 Arlington, VA 22202-3259 And TINA BALLARD Executive Director In Her Official Capacity U.S. AbilityOne Commission, 1401 S. Clark Street, Suite 715 Arlington, VA 22202-3259 Defendants. COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTIVE AND DECLARATORY RELIEF COMES NOW, Plaintiff, The National Federation of the Blind, Inc., by and through its undersigned counsel, and hereby brings this action against Defendants, U.S. AbilityOne Commission ("Commission") (formerly the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled), Commission Chairperson Thomas Robinson, in his official capacity, and Executive Director Tina Ballard, in her official capacity, and in support thereof state as follows: INTRODUCTION 1. The AbilityOne program is a federal procurement preference program that requires all participating contractors to ensure that 75% of all direct labor hours by the contractor are performed by people who are blind or have severe disabilities. The term "direct labor" includes all work required for preparation, processing, and packing of a product, or work directly relating to the performance of a service; but does not include supervision, administration, inspection, or shipping. 41 U.S.C. ? 8501(3). Federal agencies in need of the products or services available from an AbilityOne contractor are required to purchase from the AbilityOne contractor without competition. 2. Approximately 46,630 workers engage in contract work under AbilityOne. While hourly wages vary from less than $5.00 to about $15.00 an hour, nearly ten percent of these workers are paid less than minimum wage. 3. Currently, over 550 contractors participate in the AbilityOne program, and every year, the Commission awards them approximately $3.3 billion in federal contracts for the sale of goods and services to the federal government. 4. The AbilityOne program was created by the Wagner-O'Day Act in 1938. The AbilityOne Commission (formerly known as the "Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled") is a federal agency, created by the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act ("JWOD Act") in 1971, to oversee the AbilityOne program. 41 U.S.C. ? 8501, et seq. 5. The JWOD Act authorizes the AbilityOne Commission to designate Central Nonprofit Agencies ("CNAs") to "facilitate the distribution, by direct allocation, subcontract, or any other means, of orders of the Federal Government for products and services on the procurement list among" qualified contractors. 41 U.S.C. ? 8503(c). 6. Since 1938 and 1974, respectively, the contractors participating in the AbilityOne program have been managed by two CNAs-National Industries for the Blind ("NIB") and SourceAmerica (formerly a consortium of organizations that developed into the "National Industries for the Severely Handicapped" or "NISH"). 41 C.F.R. ? 51-3.1. NIB manages the relationships between and among the AbilityOne Commission and the contractors whose employees are blind. SourceAmerica does the same for contractors whose employees have other severe disabilities. 7. Each CNA is responsible for, inter alia, representing AbilityOne contractors before the Commission, evaluating their qualifications and capabilities, making recommendations to the Commission regarding products and services to be included on the Procurement List, distributing contracts among its contractors, and ensuring contract compliance. 41 C.F.R. ? 51-3.2 et. seq. Thus, CNAs are responsible for recommending to the Commission products and services to be included in the program and determining which contractors should receive the contracts. 8. The actions, or inactions, of CNAs have significant effects on how, when, and where the sizable contract revenues in the AbilityOne program are distributed. In addition, CNAs are required to assist the more than 500 contractors of the program "to meet the statutory and regulatory requirements" of participation in the program. Therefore, CNAs play a critical role in oversight and administration of the AbilityOne program. Id. at ? 51-3.2(j). 9. CNAs perform responsibilities delegated to them by the AbilityOne Commission, but they are independent of the Commission and, until recently, did not have contractual agreements with the Commission. The Commission only has 27 full-time staff, and relies heavily on the CNAs to plan, coordinate, and administer contracting and oversight functions, as specified in the program's implementing regulations. 41 C.F.R. ? 51-3.2 et. seq. In this regard, CNAs bear the full delegated responsibility of facilitating by direct allocation, subcontract, or any other means, distribution of the government's orders for products or services among the program's many contractors. Id. 10. NIB takes a fee of 3.9% of each contract awarded to one of its contractors, and SourceAmerica takes a fee of 3.85%. These fees provide approximately $100 million annually in combined revenue to the CNAs. 11. NIB manages approximately 84 contractors eligible to receive contracts through AbilityOne, and SourceAmerica manages approximately 500 contractors. Together, NIB and SourceAmerica have more than $100 million in reserves and assets. 12. In addition to their administrative duties, the CNAs may also act as prime contractors to federal agencies for products and services on the Procurement list, thus allocating federal contracts to themselves, for which they then choose subcontractors. 13. The AbilityOne program continues to be based on the assumptions about people with disabilities and about the nature of work existent at a time before the modern understanding of disability, before the enactment of modern disability rights laws, before the development of federal and state vocational rehabilitation programs and effective employment supports for people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment, and before the emergence of the information and technology-based economy of today. 14. AbilityOne contractors are out of step with current disability law and policy because they often do not provide reasonable accommodations to their workers with disabilities to allow them to increase their productivity, they often do not employ the tools of supported and customized employment to assist their workers with disabilities to be more productive, and they often do not support their workers with disabilities to move into mainstream competitive integrated employment. 15. AbilityOne contractors require many workers with disabilities to work in segregated facilities where the vast majority of workers are people with disabilities, and in segregated groups of people with disabilities within otherwise integrated facilities. 16. Although AbilityOne contractors are paid the fair market price for their products and services, many hold certificates under the Fair Labor Standards Act allowing them to pay below the prevailing wage, and 50 contractors pay below the minimum wage to their workers with disabilities. 17. Leading national organizations representing people with disabilities have called for reform of the AbilityOne program to increase integration of workers with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. ? 12101 et seq., and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. ? 794 ("Section 504"), to use supported and customized employment techniques, to require payment of minimum and prevailing wages, to include contractors that are owned by people with disabilities in the program, and to increase oversight and transparency and eliminate conflicts of interest in the program. See https://nfb.org/leading- organizations-americans-disabilities-call-reform-abilityone-program. 18. The Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities also recommended to the Department of Labor and Congress to reform the AbilityOne program to align its outcomes with federal disability rights law and employment services best practices. See Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities, Final Report (September 15, 2016), available at https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/pdf/ACICIEID_Final_Report_9-8-16.pdf. 19. The Government Accountability Office has found significant problems with oversight and transparency of the roles of the CNAs, which have only recently begun to be addressed. See Government Accountability Office, Report to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, "Employing People with Blindness or Severe Disabilities: Enhanced Oversight of the AbilityOne Program Needed" (May 2013), available at https://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654946.pdf. 20. In December 2015, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113), required that the Commission enter into written agreements with the CNAs to increase transparency and oversight over the program, and specified that the AbilityOne Commission create an Office of Inspector General. As a result, in 2016 the Commission entered into Cooperative Agreements with National Industries for the Blind and SourceAmerica. Since 2016, the Commission has entered several modifications to the Cooperative Agreements with NIB and SourceAmerica. 21. In June 2016, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General ("DoDIG") issued an audit report about the AbilityOne program, OIG Audit Report, DODIG-2016-097, "DoD Generally Provided Effective Oversight of AbilityOne Contracts," that identified problems with oversight and specifically documented the need to make the CNAs more accountable and transparent. 22. In 2017, Section 898 of the National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA") called for the Secretary of Defense to appoint a panel of senior level representatives from DoD ("Section 898 Panel"), the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, and other agencies and representatives, to address, inter alia, the problems identified in the DoD audit report including the effectiveness and internal controls of the AbilityOne Program related to DoD contracts (which comprise $2.1 billion in prime contracts out of the program's $3.3 billion in contracts). 23. In June 2018, the DoD Section 898 Panel submitted its first report to Congress, recommending, inter alia: (1) "[m]ore oversight is needed of the CNAs"; (2) "[m]ore safeguards need to be in place to assure that CNAs do not show favoritism;" (3) "[i]ncrease transparency" in CNAs' contractor recommendation process, (4) and significant program changes, including to the JWOD definition of "Qualified nonprofit agency for the blind," were necessary to "create an integrated employment environment." Section 898 Panel, First Annual Report to Congress, available at https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/cp/docs/First_Annual_RTC_on_the_Panel_on_D oD_and_AbilityOne_Signed_18_July_18.pdf. PARTIES & JURISDICTION 24. The National Federation of the Blind, Inc. ("NFB") is the oldest and largest national organization of blind persons. It is a 501(c)(3) non- profit corporation duly organized under the laws of the District of Columbia and headquartered at 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, Maryland. It has approximately 50,000 members and affiliates in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The NFB and its affiliates are widely recognized by the public, Congress, executive agencies of state and federal governments, and courts as a collective and representative voice on behalf of blind Americans and their families. The organization promotes the general welfare of the blind by assisting the blind in their efforts to integrate themselves into society on terms of equality and by removing barriers that result in the denial of opportunity to blind persons in virtually every sphere of life, including education, employment, family and community life, transportation, and recreation. 25. The ultimate purpose of the NFB is the complete integration of blind individuals into society on a basis of equality. This objective includes the removal of legal, economic, and social discrimination. One of the NFB's primary initiatives is its Employment and Rehabilitation Program, with the goal of increasing the employment rate of working-age, legally blind adults and to develop innovative employment interventions and model rehabilitation programs that allow blind Americans to work and succeed in typical places of employment otherwise known as competitive integrated employment. 26. To further its mission and achieve these goals, the NFB operates three training centers: BLIND, Incorporated in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Colorado Center for the Blind, in Littleton, Colorado; and the Louisiana Center for the Blind, in Ruston, Louisiana. Each offers independence training programs, vocational rehabilitation programs, and training and employment programs for the blind, as well as public education programs about blindness. Like the NFB Itself, they are guided by the philosophy that blind people are like everyone else and can be expected to perform on a par with everyone else when provided effective training, and to be employed by mainstream employers in the community. Graduates of these centers work in every conceivable form of employment. 27. Defendants are the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, also known as the U.S. AbilityOne Commission ("Commission"), current AbilityOne Chairperson Thomas Robinson, and Executive Director Tina Ballard. Mr. Robinson and Ms. Ballard are sued in their official capacities. 28. The Commission is an independent federal agency that oversees the AbilityOne Program ("AbilityOne"). AbilityOne was established by the JWOD Act to create employment opportunities for people who are blind or have severe disabilities. 29. As the Chairperson for the Commission, Mr. Robinson is responsible for its administration in accordance with law, including adoption of rules and regulations pursuant to the procedures set out in the federal Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq. 30. As the Executive Director for the Commission, Ms. Ballard is responsible for its administration in accordance with law, including adoption of rules and regulations pursuant to the procedures set out in the federal Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq. 31. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 5 U.S.C. ?702 and 28 U.S.C. ?? 1331 and 2201. 32. This Court has authority to issue declaratory relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 2201. 33. Venue is properly in this Court under 28 U.S.C. ?1391(e)(1)(C), because the United States, its agencies, and its officials acting in their official capacity may be sued in the federal judicial jurisdiction in which the plaintiffs reside, so long as no real property is involved in the suit. For purposes of venue, an association is deemed to reside in the judicial district in which it maintains its principle place of business. 28 U.S.C. ?1391(c)(2). Plaintiff NFB's principal place of business is in Baltimore, Maryland. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 34. Upon the signing of the Wagner-O'Day Act in 1938, NIB was incorporated as the designated CNA to represent contractors employing the blind and, until now, has been the exclusive CNA to act in this capacity for eight decades. 35. In 1973, the AbilityOne Commission issued regulations, after notice and public comment, re-designating NIB as the CNA to represent contractors employing the blind, and six organizations (Goodwill Industries of America, International Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Jewish Occupational Council, National Association for Retarded Children, National Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults, and United Cerebral Palsy Association) as CNAs to represent the contractors employing people with other severe disabilities. 41 C.F.R. ? 51-3.1 (1974); 38 Fed. Reg. 16318 (June 21, 1973); see also Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 38 Fed. Reg. 6076, 6078 (March 6, 1973) (providing notice of and soliciting written comment on the proposed regulation that would designate these six agencies as CNAs). 36. In 1976, the AbilityOne Commission issued regulations, after notice and public comment, withdrawing the designation of the six organizations mentioned above and designating SourceAmerica (formerly NISH) as the sole CNA to represent contractors employing people with other severe disabilities. 41 C.F.R. ? 51-3.1 (1977); 41 Fed. Reg. 26905-6 (June 30, 1976); see also 41 Fed. Reg. 21359-60 (May 25, 1976) (providing notice of and soliciting written comment on the proposed regulation). During the same year, NIB continued as the designated CNA for the blind. Id. 37. After approximately 80 years of operating with a single exclusive CNA designated in regulations to represent blind Americans in the AbilityOne program-NIB-on July 26, 2018, the AbilityOne Commission announced that, without commencing a rulemaking process, it had designated the American Foundation for the Blind ("AFB") as a new AbilityOne CNA and entered into a Cooperative Agreement ("Agreement") with AFB, effective the same day. See "U.S. AbilityOne Commission Designates American Foundation for the Blind as a New AbilityOne Authorized Central Nonprofit Agency" (July 26, 2018), available at https://www.abilityone.gov/media_room/documents/U.S.%20AbilityOne%20Commissi on%20News%20Release%20-%20New%20AbilityOne%20CNA%2020180726.pdf. 38. The Agreement dictates that AFB will move through three phases over the course of the next five years: Research and Studies (18 months), CNA Capability Development (30 months), and then finally Phase III, Transition to Full CNA Functionality (12 months). 39. The AbilityOne Commission designated AFB as a new CNA, and consequently entered into a contract with AFB, without public notice and opportunity for comment, and without following the federal statutes and regulations for entering into cooperative agreements or contracts. 40. Although the Agreement claims that it "provides a framework for a new CNA model in the AbilityOne Program that places the focus on increasing job placement and career advancement opportunities in knowledge-based positions," the public has seen no proposal or other evidence that AFB is the organization best equipped to implement a new CNA model focused on propelling the blind into knowledge-based positions in competitive integrated employment. 41. The Agreement stipulates that AFB will require an 18-month "Research and Studies" phase to determine how to develop a new CNA model, before it can even enter Phase II to begin to execute some of the full functions of a CNA, as set forth in JWOD's implementing regulations. During this Research and Studies phase, AFB is charged with identifying "innovative employment opportunities, careers and lines of business for people who are blind" and "identify[ing] multiple ways to identify blind veterans seeking employment, identify the type of employment they desire, and provide them employment." The need for this "Research and Studies" phase indicates that AFB is not, in fact, currently qualified to operate as a CNA. 42. Despite AFB's lack of qualification for the role of CNA, the Commission, through the designation and the Cooperative Agreement, has automatically granted AFB the role of a CNA in 18 months, without competition or exploration of whether more qualified CNAs are available. 43. Through the Agreement, the Commission took the extraordinary step of exempting AFB from meeting the full regulatory requirements of CNAs for five years during initial phases of program development, even though the Agreement promises AFB that at the final phase it will be assured the full and active role of furnishing CNA services, including by working with contractors to place products or services on the procurement list and to collect fees for doing so. 44. If the Commission had provided adequate notice to the public of this opportunity, the National Federation of the Blind ("NFB") would have submitted a proposal requesting that it be considered for designation as a CNA. Moreover, given its ample knowledge of innovative employment opportunities, careers and lines of business for people who are blind, and the interests and needs of blind veterans, NFB would not have required five years before it was qualified to meet JWOD's regulatory requirements. The NFB is uniquely situated to implement a new CNA model with a focus on increasing job placement and career advancement opportunities for blind people in knowledge-based positions in competitive integrated employment. 45. Designating AFB as a CNA without notice and comment, effectively deprived the NFB and its members, the public, and other federal agencies, of the opportunity to provide comment about an important policy issue with corresponding and significant economic effects. In particular, interested and expert stakeholders were not permitted to comment about whether AFB is qualified to effectively identify knowledge-based jobs. Nor were public stakeholders and experts in the field given the opportunity to assess and advise the AbilityOne Commission about whether the selection of AFB would respond to the problems identified by the DOD Section 898 Panel with CNA transparency and accountability, and the need to ensure that employment opportunities are identified in "integrated employment environments." 46. In addition, as CNAs maintain authority to provide oversight over AbilityOne contractors, the public was deprived of the opportunity to comment about whether AFB has sufficient arms-length relationships with current contractors to provide reasonably effective oversight. In fact, the Agreement assigns the AFB the task of conducting research to identify, inter alia, "incorporat[ion] [of] accountability, oversight, and integrity into the government business model," and asks AFB to report about internal controls and business ethics programs it has in place to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse by June 1, 2019. The Agreement does not indicate that AFB already has these structures in place. Nevertheless, without comment or public examination of these and other issues, AFB was designated as the agency that will receive CNA fees during Phase III. 47. While the Commission has the authority to "conduct continuing study and evaluation of its activities . . . to ensure effective administration" of the program, under 41 U.S.C. ? 8503(e), this authority is statutorily distinct from its obligation "to designate a central nonprofit agency or agencies," under 41 U.S.C. ? 8503(c). Without recognizing this distinction, the Commission granted the AFB a non-competitively bid contract to study the program and, in turn, it at once converted that promise into a contract to eventually run the program, without notice and comment or compliance with the applicable grantmaking and contracting laws. 48. Because the CNA designation violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq., the federal Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, 2 C.F.R. ? 1.100, et seq. ("UAR"), or, alternatively, Federal Procurement Policy, 41 U.S.C. ? 1708, and the Federal Acquisition Regulations, 48 C.F.R. ? 1.101, et seq. ("FAR"), Plaintiff, on its own behalf and on behalf of its members who are or may benefit from the designation of a new CNA by the Commission, ask the Court: (1) to declare the designation of AFB as a CNA in violation of the law, (2) to enjoin Defendants from implementing the Agreement between the Commission and AFB, and (3) to enjoin Defendants to engage in notice and comment and in proper federal contracting and grant procedures to designate any new CNA. LEGAL BACKGROUND 49. The Commission may adopt rules, regulations, and policies to assure effective implementation of the JWOD Act. 41 C.F.R. ? 51-2.2(a). 50. The Commission is directed by statute to "designate a central nonprofit agency or agencies to facilitate the distribution, by direct allocation, subcontract, or any other means, of orders of the Federal Government for products and services on the procurement list among qualified nonprofit agencies for the blind or qualified nonprofit agencies for other severely disabled." 41 U.S.C. ? 8503(c). 51. Federal agencies must comply with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA") when adopting "an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency . . . ." 5 U.S.C. ?551, et seq., 52. The designation of a Central Nonprofit Agency is subject to the APA's requirements. 53. The APA requires that courts "shall ... hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be ... arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law...[or] without observance of procedure required by law..." 5 U.S.C. ? 706(2)(A), (B), (D). 54. The APA requires that covered actions proposed by a federal agency must first be published in the Federal Register, with the terms or substance of the proposal, the legal authority for the proposal, and specific information regarding when a public hearing on the proposal will take place. 5 U.S.C. ? 553(b), (d). 55. Under the APA, the proposing agency must give interested persons an opportunity to submit data, views, or arguments and must consider, prior to adoption of the proposal, the relevant information submitted by interested persons regarding the proposal. In adopting the proposal, the agency must provide a concise statement of its basis and purpose. 5 U.S.C. ? 553(c), (d). This set of APA provisions for publication and consideration of comments is referred to as the "notice-and-comment requirement." 56. The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, 2 C.F.R. ? 1.100, et seq. ("UAR"), govern grant awards and cooperative agreements by federal agencies. The UAR requires, inter alia, that, prior to entering into a cooperative agreement or competitive grant award, the agency publish notice of the opportunity, 2 C.F.R. ? 200.203, establish and apply a merit review process, 2 C.F.R. ? 200.204, and evaluate the risks posed by potential awardees, including their financial stability, quality of management systems, history of performance, audit reports, and ability to effectively meet legal requirements, 2 C.F.R. ? 200.205(b). 57. In designating AFB as a CNA and entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB, the Commission did not follow the pre-award procedures of the UAR. 58. Federal Procurement law requires any federal agency intending to enter into a contract exceeding $25,000 to publish a notice of solicitation. 41 U.S.C.? 1708. The Federal Procurement statute also requires federal agencies conducting procurement for property or services to "obtain full and open competition through the use of competitive procedures in accordance with ... the Federal Acquisition Regulation." 41 U.S.C. ? 3301. The statute requires an agency preparing for procurement to "specify its needs and solicit bids or proposals in a manner designed to achieve full and open competition for the procurement" and designate its specifications for the procurement. 41 U.S.C. ? 3306. The statute further requires solicitations to provide a method for submitting proposals. Id. at ? 3306(b)(2)(B). 59. The Federal Acquisition Regulations ("FAR"), 48 C.F.R. ?1.101, et seq., implement the Federal Procurement statute and apply to all federal acquisitions of property or services. 48 C.F.R. ?1.104; ? 2.101. For federal acquisitions expected to exceed $25,000, the FAR requires, inter alia, that the federal agency publish notice in the Governmentwide Point of Entry ("GPE") website. (Currently, the GPE is the Federal Business Opportunities ("FedBizOpps") website, available at https://www.fbo.gov/.) 48 C.F.R. ? 5.201. The notice must be published at least 15 days prior to soliciting or proposing the contract action. 48 C.F.R. ? 5.203(a). A federal contract solicitation must provide a response time sufficient to "afford potential offerors a reasonable opportunity to respond to each proposed contract action" but at least 30 days. 48 C.F.R. ? 5.203(b), (c). 60. The FAR also requires, with limited exceptions not applicable here, that federal agencies "provide for full and open competition in soliciting offers and awarding Government contracts," 48 C.F.R. ? 6.101, and provides competitive procedural requirements. 48 C.F.R. ?? 6.100-6.102. 61. A non-competitive, or "sole source" contract may not be commenced unless the agency justifies its action in writing, certifies the accuracy and completeness of the justification, and gets approval. 48 C.F.R. ? 6.303- 1. Such a justification must be made public. 48 C.F.R. ? 6.305. 62. The FAR provides for special acquisition requirements for contracts for services "which require the contractor to provide advice, opinions, recommendations, ideas, reports, analyses, or other work products [that] have the potential for influencing the authority, accountability, and responsibilities of Government officials. These contracts require special management attention to ensure that they do not result in performance of inherently governmental functions by the contractor and that Government officials properly exercise their authority." 48 C.F.R. ? 37.114. 63. If this Court finds that the cooperative agreement between the Commission and AFB is a federal contract, rather than an award covered by the UAR, the Commission did not follow the pre-contract publication requirements of the FAR, did not permit competitive bids, and did not properly justify a sole source agreement with AFB. 64. The Commission did not follow the requirements of the UAR, Federal Procurement statute, or FAR, as applicable, in its designation of and cooperative agreement with AFB. 65. 5 U.S.C. ?702 creates a cause of action in federal court for any person who has suffered legal wrong because of, or been adversely affected or aggrieved by, an agency action or failure to act as required by the APA, the UAR, the Federal Procurement law, and the FAR. The statute waives the sovereign immunity of the federal government for such a lawsuit, so long as the lawsuit is against a federal agency or a federal employee who acted or failed to act in her official capacity or under color of legal authority, and the suit does not request monetary damages. 66. 28 U.S.C. ? 2201 permits this Court to issue a declaratory judgment that the Defendants have violated 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, the UAR, the Federal Procurement law, and the FAR in naming AFB as a CNA, as identified below. FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION Violation of 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq.: (Failure to comply with notice and comment requirements) (for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief) 67. Plaintiff repeats and incorporates by reference each and every allegation contained in the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein. 68. This Court is empowered by 5 U.S.C. ?? 702 and 706 to hold unlawful and set aside final agency action that the Court finds to have been adopted without observance of procedure required by law. 69. This Court is empowered by 28 U.S.C. ? 2201 to declare the rights of Plaintiff and other interested parties regarding the issues presented in this Complaint. 70. The AbilityOne Commission is an "agency," as defined under 5 U.S.C. ? 551(1). 71. The designation of AFB as a CNA, resulting in the Cooperative Agreement between AFB and the AbilityOne Commission, is covered by the APA. 72. The Commission has violated the APA, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq., by designating the AFB as a CNA without complying with the notice and comment requirements of the APA. 73. The adoption of AFB as a CNA is not merely an interpretation, a general statement of policy, or a statement of agency organization, procedure, or practice. 74. No public notice of designation of AFB as a CNA was provided to interested persons, and interested persons were given no opportunity to provide comment on it before it was adopted. No explanation, reason or rationale was provided for the unilateral designation. 75. Plaintiff has been injured in that the Commission designated a new CNA without Plaintiff having an opportunity to submit a proposal for CNA designation, as well as without Plaintiff, Plaintiff's members, or other members of the public having an opportunity to provide the Commission with their considered and experienced views on the proposed action. 76. Plaintiff is entitled to a declaratory judgment that the designation of AFB as a CNA as described in this Complaint was adopted without compliance with Chapter 5 of the APA, and is, therefore, illegal. 77. Plaintiff is entitled to an order vacating the designation of AFB as a CNA, enjoining Defendants from implementing that designation, and, requiring them, before attempting to adopt any similar provisions, to comply with the notice and comment requirements of the APA, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 5, ?? 551, et seq. SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION Violation of 5 U.S.C. Chapter 7, ?? 701, et seq.: (CNA designation is arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise not in accordance with law) (for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief) 78. Plaintiff repeats and incorporates by reference each and every allegation contained in the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein. 79. This Court is empowered by 5 U.S.C. ?? 702 and 706 to hold unlawful and set aside final agency action that the Court finds to be arbitrary, capricious, or not in accordance with law. 80. As discussed below, by designating AFB as a CNA and entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without publishing its intent to do so or inviting other bids or applications, the Commission violated the requirements of the UAR, 2 C.F.R. ? 200.205(b). 81. Alternatively, as discussed below, by designating AFB as a CNA and entering into an agreement with AFB without publishing a notice of its proposal to do so, without soliciting bids or providing a reasonable period in which to respond, without justifying a sole source contract, the Commission violated the Federal Procurement statute, 41 U.S.C. ? 1708, and the FAR, 48 C.F.R. ? 5.201. 82. Because it violates the UAR, or the Federal Procurement law and the FAR, the Commission's designation of AFB and Cooperative Agreement with AFB are not in accordance with law and, therefore, violate the APA. 83. The Commission's designation of AFB as a CNA is also arbitrary and capricious because the Commission has provided no rationale for its selection of AFB and no rationale for its selection of AFB without soliciting or considering other bids by more qualified applicants. THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION Violation of 2 C.F.R. ?? 1.100 et seq. (Failure to Comply with the Requirements of the UAR) (for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief) 84. The Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977 provides that a federal agency must follow the rules for cooperative agreements when "(1) the principal purpose of the relationship is the transfer of money, property, services, or anything of value to the ... recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States... and (2) substantial involvement is not expected between the executive agency ... and the ... recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated in the agreement." 31 U.S.C. ? 6304. 85. The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards ("UAR"), 2 C.F.R. ? 1.100, et seq., governs all federal awards, including federal agencies' adoption of cooperative agreements such as the one between the AbilityOne Commission and AFB. 2 C.F.R. ? 200.100(b); ? 200.101. 86. The Commission has violated the UAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without first announcing the funding opportunity in a public notice, as required by 2 C.F.R. ? 200.203. 87. The Commission has violated the UAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without first designing and executing a merit review process for applications, as required by 2 C.F.R. ? 200.204. 88. The Commission has violated the UAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without first establishing a framework for evaluating the risk posed by AFB, including its financial stability, quality of management systems, history of performance, reports and findings from audits, and ability to effectively implement legal requirements, as required by 2 C.F.R. ? 200.205(b). 89. The Commission has violated the UAR by failing to publish the required information regarding the Cooperative Agreement with AFB on www.USAspending.gov, as required by 2 C.F.R. ? 200.211(a). FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION Violation of 41 U.S.C. ?? 1708, 3301, 3306 and 48 C.F.R. ? 1.101 et seq. (Failure to Comply with the Requirements of the FAR) (for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief) 90. The Federal Acquisition Regulations ("FAR"), codified at 48 C.F.R. Chapter 1, govern acquisitions for all executive agencies. 48 C.F.R. ? 1.104. Agencies can also adopt agency-specific acquisition regulations that implement or supplement the FAR. 48 C.F.R. ? 1.101; ? 1.301. The FAR are intended, inter alia, to ensure federal agencies "[c]onduct business with integrity, fairness, and openness." 48 C.F.R. ? 1.102(b)(3). 91. An "acquisition" subject to the FAR is defined as "the process of acquiring, with appropriated amounts, by contract for purchase or lease, property or services (including construction) that support the missions and goals of an executive agency...." 41 U.S.C. ? 131. 92. The Commission has violated the Federal Procurement law and the FAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without first publishing a presolicitation notice or notice of solicitation for proposals, or soliciting bids, as required by 41 U.S.C. ? 1708(a)(2) and 48 C.F.R. ?? 5.201 and 5.204, or otherwise disseminating information by synopsizing in the Governmentwide Point of Entry ("GPE"), as required by 48 C.F.R. ?? 5.101(a)(1) and 5.301(a). 93. The Commission has violated the FAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without providing a reasonable period to respond to the notice of solicitation, as required by 41 U.S.C. ? 1708(e) and 48 C.F.R. ? 5.203(b), (c). 94. The Commission has violated the Federal Procurement law by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB before first considering other responsive and timely offers received in response to a notice of solicitation, as required by 41 U.S.C. ? 1708(f). 95. The Commission has violated the FAR by entering into a cooperative agreement with AFB without first providing for full and open competition in soliciting offers and awarding the contract through the use of competitive procedures, as required by 48 C.F.R. ? 6.101. See also 48 C.F.R. ?? 6.100- 6.102. PRAYER FOR RELIEF WHEREFORE, Plaintiff the National Federation of the Blind respectfully requests that this Court enter a judgment in its favor, and against Defendants, and: a) Declare that Defendants' designation of AFB as a CNA and Cooperative Agreement with AFB violated the UAR or the FAR; b) Declare that Defendants' designation of AFB as a CNA and Cooperative Agreement with AFB were not in accordance with law and beyond statutory and regulatory authority, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act; c) Declare that Defendants' designation of AFB as a CNA and Cooperative Agreement with AFB without complying with notice and comment requirements violated the Administrative Procedure Act; d) Vacate and set aside the designation of AFB as a CNA and set aside the Cooperative Agreement Between the AbilityOne Commission and AFB, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. ? 702; e) Preliminarily and permanently enjoin Defendants, their agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with them, from implementing AFB as a CNA; f) Preliminarily and permanently enjoin Defendants to comply with the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and the UAR or FAR, as applicable, in the designation of any CNA; g) Appoint a Special Master to review and ensure implementation of the Court order, specifically compliance with the notice and comment requirement of the Administrative Procedure Act and the requirements of the UAR or FAR, as applicable, in the designation of any CNA, so as to protect the rights of Plaintiff during the pendency of this action; h) Retain jurisdiction over this action until implementation of this Court's order has been completed; i) Award Plaintiff reasonable fees, costs, and expenses, including attorneys' fees, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 2412; and j) Order such other and further relief that this Court may deem just and proper. Respectfully submitted, Dated: September 26, 2018 Eve L. Hill (Fed. Bar No.: 19938) Emily L. Levenson (Fed. Bar No. 28670) BROWN GOLDSTEIN & LEVY, LLP 120 East Baltimore Street, Suite 1700 Baltimore, Maryland 21202 T: (410) 962-1030 F: (410) 385-0869 ehill at browngold.com elevenson at browngold.com Attorneys for Plaintiff ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Karl Belanger] Effectively Reporting Accessibility Issues to Developers by Karl Belanger From the Editor: Karl Belanger is a talented member of our access technology staff. I am delighted every time I get an article from him. I think this one is particularly timely. In addition to articles and suggestions for articles, the Braille Monitor gets many letters asking why this or that device is not accessible and what we plan to do about it. In these letters the frustration is clear: "Why don't companies care?" "How can they be so callous?" "Why can people be so mean?" Sometimes inaccessibility may be deliberate as when companies simply make a decision not to include it, but, more often than not, developers don't think that blind people will be using their software, have no idea how we could if we wanted to, and know even less about screen readers, Braille displays, and the need to include in one's design a way to do all of the functions one does with the mouse using a keyboard. The way we deal with a company that is obstinate is different from the way we deal with a company that is ignorant. One requires confrontation, the other requires education. Here is what Karl has to say about doing something positive when encountering an accessibility barrier: Whether browsing the web or using an app on our phones, we often come across accessibility problems that make the site or app less useful. Reporting these issues to the developers helps companies become aware of issues faster and may even be the first time a company has heard about blind users using their product. When describing an issue, it is important to describe what is going on in as much detail as possible, along with what operating system, browser, and access technology you are using. The more you give the company, the easier it will be for it to locate and fix the issue. However, before we can send a report, we need someone to send it to. Where to send an accessibility report If you can find an accessibility contact at a company, that is always going to be the best place to report any problems you're having. However many, probably most, companies do not have dedicated accessibility support. When this is the case, look through any "support" or "contact us" pages for anything related to reporting problems with the site. If the company has a staff directory, look for someone who deals with the site such as webmaster to reach out to directly. General technical support or inquiry emails are better than nothing but are less likely to directly reach someone who can take action. You might also consider using phone or chat support to inquire if you can get the email address of the person in charge of the website to report a problem that you're having. Jumping right in Below you will find extensive information on how to gather the information you will need, letter writing tips, accessibility resources, and more. If you'd rather start writing right away, here are the main parts of an accessibility report: . Introduce yourself and what type of access technology you use. . Give the operating system, browser, and access technology and their versions. . Describe what you are trying to do on the site and provide the direct link to the relevant page. . Describe the problem you're having. . Optionally, offer potential solutions to fix the problem. . Optionally, provide links to relevant accessibility resources, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the iOS or Android accessibility documentation, etc. . Conclude the letter. Gathering information As stated earlier, it is important to give the company as much information as possible to help it fix the issue quickly. This information should include: . Which operating system and version you're using, such as Windows 10, Windows 7, Mac OSX 10.13, etc. . Which browser and version, Firefox 58, Chrome 63, etc. . Which access technology and version (if applicable), JAWS 2018, VoiceOver, NVDA 2017.4, etc. . The exact page on the site where you are experiencing problems. . The task you are attempting to complete or the information you're trying to access. . What you are experiencing that is preventing you from completing the task or accessing the information. Gathering the information . For Windows, just knowing the major version, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 is usually enough since both the browser and screen reader are updated independently. For other operating systems, and especially Mac and iOS, having the exact version number is more important, as both the browser and screen reader are updated with the operating system. In macOS, open the "Apple menu," choose "About This Mac," and review that window to find the version of macOS you're running. For iOS, go to "Settings," "General," "About," and the version will be listed near the top of the screen. For most Android devices, open "Settings" and scroll down to the bottom of the list and choose "About Phone" to get the Android version. . For browsers on Windows and macOS, open the "help" menu and choose "About" to get the version number. For Safari on iOS a version number is not necessary as it is updated with the operating system. For other mobile browsers the simplest place to check is its app store page for the version number. . How to get the version of your access technology will differ depending on the program and the system it is running on. Most Windows-based access technology should have a help menu with an "about" option. Some, like Narrator on Windows or VoiceOver on iOS, do not need a version number as they are updated with the operating system. For other access technology, look through the program or app's settings and help pages to find the installed version. . To get the URL, make sure you are on the page where the issue is, then: o On Windows, for all browsers, press CTRL+L to focus the address bar. Press CTRL+A to make sure the address is selected, and then CTRL+C to copy it. o For all Mac browsers the process is the same, just substitute the Command key for control. o On iOS with VoiceOver running, double-tap on the address bar at the top of the screen, then use the rotor to choose the "edit" option. Choose and double-tap on "select all," then choose "copy." o For Android devices with TalkBack running, double-tap on the address, then use the local context menu to select "cursor control" and choose "Select All," then go back to "cursor control" and select "copy." Writing up your accessibility issue Once you know where to send the report and have all your information together, it's time to start writing. How you formulate your letter is certainly up to you, but here are some pointers to help get you started. Start with introducing yourself and follow by briefly describing the access technology you use, especially if you are writing to a company that does not have an accessibility contact. Here is an example of how your letter might begin: "Hello, My name is Karl Belanger. I use a screen reader to access the computer, which is software that allows me as a blind user to access computers by reading out the content of websites and applications as I navigate them. I'm writing to you because I'm encountering some issues accessing your site." Follow this by describing the issue in as much detail as you can, including what you're trying to accomplish, how your access technology reacts, such as "my screen reader does not read the form labels" or "when the calendar is magnified it overlaps with other content on the page," and describe the impact this has on your use of the site: "While attempting to submit the checkout form on your site, nothing appears to happen after pressing the submit button. After I explored the page, I noticed a message at the top of the form reading 'Please correct the fields in red below.' My screen reader does not announce colors, plus as far as I can tell everything seems to be filled in correctly, which means it is impossible for me to complete the form." It is often helpful to suggest what changes will make the site more accessible. If you are not sure what can be done, go ahead and skip this section: "Several steps can be taken to make the form more usable. First, when the form is submitted with errors, the focus should be moved to the error message. Next, the error message should list which fields have errors and possibly provide a link to the fields. Finally, any fields which have a required format, such as MM/DD/YYYY for a date field, should have this format provided to help users avoid errors in the first place." Optionally, you can include some resources on web accessibility that the company may find useful, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or the Apple accessibility guide if you're writing about an iOS app. See the accessibility resources section of this article for a list of resources I recommend. Finally, end the letter. Offer to provide any additional information that they may need and ask to be informed of progress on fixing the issue. Please remember that, while not being able to complete a task can be frustrating, it is important to keep the letter professional. Companies will respond much better to a clear, well-written letter than an emotionally charged one. Reporting issues over social media An increasing number of companies are handling customer support issues over Twitter and Facebook. These channels are often some of the fastest ways to get a response to your issue, and they can also be a great way to report accessibility issues. Check the company's social media pages and see if it responds to customer issues or directs you to a support account. If you find it does technical support through social media, whether with the main or a support account, use some of the same tips from the letter section when engaging the company. If on Twitter, start with a mention describing briefly that you use access technology, what kind you use, and briefly describe your issue. It's okay to use a few tweets to do this. If the company responds, try to either get into a direct message conversation or request the best email to send something to, so you're not limited by the two-hundred-and-eighty-character limit. On Facebook, follow a similar process, engage the company first, and give all the details once you confirm you're working with the right account. Accessibility resources There are many accessibility resources that you may want to give the company. The first and most important is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG. WCAG is a list of guidelines that apply to any website or app; they are the generally accepted web standard and have been incorporated into the recent refresh of the Section 508 guidelines for federal sites. Here is the WCAG overview page from the World Wide Web Consortium site: https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag. Also from the W3C are a series of videos, called Web Accessibility Perspectives, discussing how web accessibility benefits everyone, not just those with disabilities. https://www.w3.org/WAI/perspectives/ Another quality resource is Web Accessibility in Mind or WebAIM, which provides a number of articles and checklists relating to web accessibility as well as a tool for helping to determine some of a site's accessibility problems. https://webaim.org/ Both Apple and Google have documentation and guidelines for developers to ensure that their apps are accessible. If you're reporting an issue with an iOS app, you might consider including the Accessibility for Developers page on Apple's site, https://developer.apple.com/accessibility/ or the similar accessibility page on the Android developers site, https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/accessibility/index.html. Following up When reporting an accessibility issue, it's common to get either a basic acknowledgement of the problem, or possibly no response at all. If the company was unaware of the need to make its site accessible, it's possible you may get a canned response with unhelpful suggestions like resetting your browser, trying another one, etc. If you get a response like this, just reply and politely inform the company that these suggestions will not work and it needs to fix its site. If you get an acknowledgement or no response, it's fine to follow up in a week or two to inquire about the status of the issue. Polite persistence can sometimes yield better results than just one email. Either way patience will likely be required, and your best efforts may unfortunately not lead to any better accessibility. That does not mean that you shouldn't try, as many companies are simply unaware and want to make things right. Conclusion The volume of information that you should include in an accessibility report may seem overwhelming, but the whole process boils down to a few simple steps. Report the software and access technology you're using, what you're trying to do, and what problem you're experiencing in sufficient detail for the company to be able to act upon it. Adding in possible solutions, suggestions, and accessibility resources are optional extras, but they may help the company better understand what it needs to do and generally learn more about accessibility. Sample letter Here is the sample letter, as started in the section above, on writing your issue: "Hello, My name is Karl Belanger. I use a screen reader to access the computer, which is software that allows me as a blind user to access computers by reading out the content of websites and applications as I navigate them. I'm writing to you because I'm encountering some issues accessing your site. While attempting to submit the checkout form on your site, at https://www.myshop.com/cart/checkout.html, nothing appears to happen after pressing the submit button. After I explored the page, I noticed a message at the top of the form reading 'Please correct the fields in red below.' My screen reader cannot announce colors, plus as far as I can tell everything seems to be filled in correctly, which means it is impossible for me to complete the form. Several steps can be taken to make this form more usable. First, when the form is submitted with errors, the focus should be moved to the error message. Next, the error message should list which fields have errors, and possibly provide a link to the fields. Finally, any fields which have a required format, such as MM/DD/YYYY for a date field, should have this format provided to help users avoid errors in the first place. There are many resources available for you to help make your site more accessible and usable to everyone. I would recommend starting with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These guidelines are the commonly accepted standards for web accessibility and have been incorporated into Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for federal websites. They provide a technology independent way of measuring and testing the accessibility of your site. A great site for articles and guides on web accessibility is WebAIM, which stands for Web Accessibility in Mind. They have checklists for the accessibility guidelines, articles on handling forms, graphics, tables, and more, as well as a tool to scan a page of your site and have it report some, though probably not all, accessibility issues. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if there is any more information I can provide. I look forward to hearing from you soon and working with you to get this issue resolved promptly. Karl Belanger" ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Sharon Gold: November 5, 1940 to September 10, 2018] Sharon Gold Dies by Barbara Pierce Sharon Gold liked to say that she was eleven days older than the Federation. She died quietly after a long fight with cancer on the morning of September 10, 2018, following a stroke on March 29, 2018. Her devoted friend Sheryl Pickering was with her for sixty years to the end, advocating for and supporting Sharon and steadily educating medical personnel in the last days on the sensible and tactful way to deal with blind people. Sharon served as president of the NFB of California from 1978 to 1995. For the first five years of this service the organization was called the NFB Western Division because of a nasty battle over who had the right to the name of the organization. The affiliate was under siege during these years, but Sharon led the affiliate with energy, imagination, and unswerving dedication to the principles for which the NFB stands. She received the Jacobus tenBroek Award in 1983 in recognition of her extraordinary work rebuilding the California affiliate. In the presentation Diane McGeorge said, "We all know that, as president of the National Federation of the Blind Western Division, Sharon was faced with the monumental task of re-establishing a viable affiliate in California. Sharon has spent countless hours, not only holding the affiliate together, but also giving the kind of leadership which provided strength and encouragement for other California members so that this affiliate has grown into one of our strongest." Sharon served on the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors from 1993 to 1995. When she was elected she said: When I was born, there was no National Federation of the Blind. It was born eleven days later, so you'll always know how old I am. But, if it weren't for the National Federation of the Blind... It has led the way for me throughout my life-it has changed my life. But most of the time I didn't know that, not until I was thirty-five years old. That's very sad. When I did learn about the National Federation of the Blind, I had been teaching school for almost fifteen years, a job that I would never have gotten but for this organization, because it was this organization that got the laws changed so that blind people could get a teaching credential. So I wouldn't have been a tax-paying citizen had it not been for the National Federation of the Blind and for all of you people in this room. It is our collective work and our collective strength that bring the changes that make it possible to change the lives of all blind people, whether they are part of this organization or not, whether or not they even know about the organization. I'm a prime example, and I will never ever be able to repay the debt that I feel to my fellow Federationists. It is a privilege to belong to this organization. It is an honor to be asked to serve on our national board. I appreciate the honor, I accept the responsibility, and I thank you very much." Sharon served on the expanded Scholarship Committee from its beginning in 1984 to 1999, and she funded a scholarship in memory of her parents for several years. For twenty years Sharon taught sighted students in elementary school and was a reading specialist at Edwards Air Force Base. She was clearly an effective teacher judging from the Facebook tributes from former students and teaching colleagues that appeared upon the announcement of her death. One Christmastime she prepared a game with fill-in-the-blank Christmas questions for her class. In a sentence that read, "Santa Claus wears a red suit and has a long, white ______," many children unhesitatingly filled in the word "cane," proving how well they had acclimated themselves to a blind teacher. After her retirement from teaching, Sharon attended law school long enough to acquire the advocacy skills she believed she needed to do her Federation work. She was tireless in providing advice and representing blind people who needed advocacy all over the state. Generosity and hospitality were hallmarks of Sharon and Sheryl's home. In Hazel tenBroek's declining years they spent countless hours visiting and assisting her. Their home was always open to Federationists passing through Sacramento or in need of a place to celebrate holidays. Sharon mentored and trained a number of young Federationists through the years. She was active in the posthumous efforts of the tenBroek Society to organize dinners paying tribute to Dr. tenBroek's leadership in the fields of law and teaching. Sharon and Sheryl relocated to the San Antonio area of Texas in late 2001. Sharon was very interested in business from her early days of teaching and became active and successful in several companies. She made live presentations and presented on telephone conference call training sessions. She won a number of trips and six BMW bonus cars. After an illness and subsequent surgery in 2010 Sharon semiretired, but she continued teaching and training and assisting others in business. Sharon was a member of First Protestant Church in New Braunfels, Texas, and an active member of the choir for fifteen years. The group toured extensively, performing in England, Wales, Scotland, and later in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. In lieu of flowers those wishing to honor Sharon's memory may donate to an organization of their choice or to one of three organizations that were dear to Sharon: First Protestant Church, 172 West Coll Street, New Braunfels, TX 78130; Hope Hospice, 611 North Walnut Avenue, New Braunfels, TX 78130; or the National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230. Sharon Gold was smart, loyal, and generous with her time and talent. She believed in justice and the right of blind people to live out their dreams and contribute to their communities on terms of absolute equality. We were extraordinarily fortunate to have her as a colleague in the movement from 1975 until her death. Those of us who were lucky enough to know and love her will miss her deeply. We extend our deepest sympathy to Sheryl Pickering and Sharon's family and friends in Texas and across the country. May she rest in peace. ---------- 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 2017 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-eight NFB BELL Academy programs, which served more than three hundred and fifty blind students throughout the United States. . Provided over one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable. . Delivered audio newspaper and magazine services to 118,900 subscribers, providing free access to over five 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, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Olson] The Unexplored Dimensions of Photography: The Blind and the Freedom of Tactile Understanding by John Olson From the Editor: Most readers of the Braille Monitor will recognize John Olson as the pioneering developer behind 3DPhotoWorks. Although he has appeared several times in this publication, he was most prominently featured in our discussion of the Newseum exhibit which many Federationists attended during the Washington Seminar. On the afternoon of July 6, John was able to share with us his enthusiasm for opening the world of art and pictures to the blind and for his association with the National Federation of the Blind. Here is what he said: You know, some months ago President Riccobono asked me if I would speak to this assembly. I seized the opportunity; I said yes immediately. He didn't say I had to follow his address. [laughter] I would like to move that this be disallowed. Fabulous! Federation members: what a convention. [applause] What a turnout; what enthusiasm. I've never seen one like this before. I'm here today to update you on the development of 3DPhotoWorks fine art printing. This, as many of you know, is a technology that is currently delivering art, photographs, maps, and diagrams to members of the blind communities at six museums in the US and in Canada. As many of you know, it has been my goal from the very beginning to create a worldwide network of museums, science centers, libraries, and institutions willing to provide the world's blind population with visual information using this tactile medium. Today I will also report to you on how successful a partnership can be when you have a joint unified vision, great leadership, and a highly motivated membership like the members of the National Federation of the Blind who are in this room today. So what does this mean? It means that the goal 3DPhotoWorks set out to achieve ten years ago could not have been accomplished without the leaders in this room, without President Riccobono, without Dr. Maurer, and most importantly without the membership of the National Federation of the Blind. So let me start by taking you back in time more than fifty years. Back then I was a highly motivated young man with a goal to become a world- class photojournalist and a war photographer. As a twenty-year-old US Army draftee, I made a series of photographs during an historic battle in Vietnam. They were published by the newspaper Stars and Stripes and in LIFE. This series launched my career, and it allowed me to travel the world for decades. Photography gave me access to people and places that only a few people can ever have. Toward the end of my career, about ten years ago, I realized how critical images have been in my life. That caused me to wonder what it was like for those who didn't have access to art, to photography. I wondered what it was like for the blind community, who couldn't access visual information. It was at that moment, on a Labor Day weekend of 2008, that I set out to develop a means by which blind people could see art, could see photographs, and could acquire visual information. There were just three little issues I had to overcome: 1) I had no neuroscience training; 2) I had no engineering experience; and 3) I had never met a blind person. Now I began my research by opening the Yellow Pages, where I looked under the category blind. There I found a number of organizations all located in New York City. I visited four of them in the same day. They were all very encouraging but said, "You really need to meet some blind people." They said that I needed to show them [the blind people] some prototypes and ask for their input. So I learned of this event, a state convention to be held in Albany, New York, by a group called the National Federation of the Blind. I took an exhibitor's table and showed them prototypes of our tactile printing, and I listened. I learned many things that day: 1) It's okay to use the B word-Federation members got me over that hurdle very quickly; 2) Don't leave your box lunch under your table with guide dogs nearby. A dog that will remain nameless ate my sandwich, my potato chips, my chocolate chip cookie-but he left me my apple. So, if Mike Robinson of New York is in this audience, we need to discuss this after the meeting. But the third and most important event of the day came when a man introduced himself saying, "My name is Mark Riccobono. I'm with the National Federation of the Blind. I'd like to invite you to meet with me and my team in Baltimore." That meeting began an incredible journey of friendship and collaboration. Many years ago I came to my first convention to conduct focus groups and testing. I asked you to tell me about your blindness, your interest in art, and in photography. You told me about your museum experience, and you helped me to evolve 3D tactile fine art printing. By 2016 we had our international debut at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It was a success, one that brought inquiries from a dozen museums: museums in Austria, Dubai, Mexico, the Philippines, and Germany. But not one inquiry did we get from the United States. But, like the NFB, we persevered. Late in 2016 a small museum in Texas contacted me. They said they wanted to serve their blind community but needed to raise the money before they could proceed. I suggested that they get their donor base together in one room. I'd fly to Texas, and I'd speak to them. If they raised the money, they could pay my travel expense, and we'd do one tactile piece to start. If they weren't successful in raising the money, no worries: I'd take the gamble, and I'd cover the expense on my own. They had 120 people in the room when I arrived. I spoke for seven minutes telling your story. Then I came off the stage. Ten minutes later my contact came over to me and said, "We've just raised half of the $25,000 we need." Within a few weeks they had raised the balance. Earlier this year the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum of Canyon, Texas, installed their first tactile piece, the artwork of Georgia O'Keefe called "Red Landscape." They are now planning for their second tactile installation early next year. In 2017 we had our second exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It was another success, but still very few US inquiries. Later in 2017 we broke some ice and completed an installation at Endicott College near Boston and an installation at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. In fact we did this installation for an exhibit builder and not directly for the museum. So I had no direct contact with the leadership there. Later that year, at the American Alliance of Museums meeting in St. Louis, the exhibit builder pulled me aside. He said, "We have a problem. Our client is very upset. He is very worried that the tactile piece we installed will fail." I said I needed more information. He said, "It's so popular, there are so many hands on it all the time, that he wants to put it behind glass!" I said, "No, no, no, no. Now I understand. I've got a better solution. Tell your client to take the art down, find a closet, lock it in the closet, turn the lights off, throw the key away, and it will never fail." He understood. That piece is still standing in the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia today. I was there a few weeks ago, and they are discussing adding four more tactile pieces. Earlier this year we had a break. As I mentioned, I started my career as a war photographer. The battle I photographed in 1968 turned out to be historic. Many historians say it was the turning point for US involvement in the war in Vietnam. Like many veterans I came back and spent nearly fifty years not talking about Vietnam. But as the fiftieth anniversary approached, I began to wonder what had happened to the eighteen-, nineteen- , twenty-year-old men that I had photographed in 1968. Now I didn't know any of these men, but by chance I learned one of their names, and, over time, I located and completed audio interviews with eleven of them. The interviews were highly emotional as the fighting in Hu? was violent, it was up close, and it was personal. I realized I had a powerful potential exhibit if only I could find a major museum to showcase it. Over the course of the year, every major museum in New York and Washington turned me down! In late September 2017 I visited the Newseum in Washington regarding a small, tactile project. I took the opportunity to pitch the Vietnam exhibit and show them a PowerPoint presentation and let them listen to some of the audio. They were overwhelmed. Within three days we had a handshake agreement to produce both a conventional and a tactile exhibition. Now usually an exhibit like this would take eighteen months to two years to produce. We were given less than 120 days to make this happen. So my first call was to President Riccobono. I knew that the Federation met every January in DC with members from all fifty states present, and I thought that possibly we could get a small bus to bring a few members to the opening. President Riccobono was thinking light years beyond me. I pulled off the road next to a Walmart on a drive between Georgia and Texas to have this conversation, and he was light years beyond my thinking. It was early on in that conversation that he proposed the possibility of the Federation being interested in sponsoring the event. Now many of you know how the story ends. The National Federation of the Blind and Nikon cameras agreed to cosponsor this historic event. On January 30, 2018, 350 Federation members attended an opening at the Newseum where President Riccobono, four-star Marine General Walters, and I were there to say "Welcome." [applause] The exhibit, with twenty conventional photograph prints and ten tactile prints, has been so successful that it has been extended six months. The museum vice president in charge has said "From opening on January 6, 2018, to May 31, a little over 85,000 visitors were exposed to this incredible exhibit. We see a definite uptick in visitors among our blind guests. With the advent of this exhibit it is a wonderful thing to watch people who have not been embraced by the museum community be in an exhibit space where they can experience the content as fully as any other exhibitor." I believe this is my fifth convention. Today when I walked through these halls, I don't see Federation members; I see friends, I see collaborators, I see technical advisors, and I see changemakers. We have just begun to scratch the surface in conjunction with the Federation. There is the possibility of developing an incredible technology, and with your help we'll be there. Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Edward Bell] The 2019 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 2019 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. This 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, Dr. Marc Maurer, and our current President Mark Riccobono 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, 2019, 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: Lauren Merryfield] Getting There by Lauren Merryfield From the Editor: Lauren Merryfield is a longtime member of the National Federation of the Blind, a contributor to the Kernel Books we have published in the past, and a person who often reminds us that what is important about the way we function is not whether it is perfect but whether it is real, sustainable, and effective. What I like about Lauren's perspective is her rejection of the idea that we need to learn route travel and that it is only through being shown that we can figure out how to move safely in the places we live, work, and play. I had been traveling for five years before someone convinced me that I could learn new travel routes on my own and that if I needed help it could come from someone other than a specially trained mobility instructor. It could even come from a blind person! I learned that it was okay to be lost and that being lost did not mean that I was in the jungle where I would soon be eaten. I learned about stopping to take stock of where I was, about attempting to reverse my route, and about asking other people to tell me the street that I was on and the street I would come to if I kept walking. Mostly what I learned was not to be overly anxious or afraid and that being lost was a part of the normal travel experience that blind and sighted people encounter all the time. This is the message that Lauren brings, and I love the way she does it. Here is what she has written: Quite often when I am using my long white cane and now a walker, some people become perfectionistic about my getting from one place to another. I know there are blind people who make it from point A to point B without making any errors. However, I know of some blind people who do not even try to get around by themselves because they fear they will not do it perfectly. My feet don't work right, so I generally do not walk a straight line, but I go anyway. In getting somewhere, I am sometimes likely to bump something with my cane or walker. This is what the cane is for-to tell me about things in my path. Some people will say that I am running into things, but if my cane strikes them and I do not, I am not running into them; I am simply detecting them. Sometimes when someone is directing me, they are concerned when I don't make a straight shot without coming in contact with something. While using a ramp, they correct me so that I don't come in contact with the rail, but it is okay with me if I do this. I can always correct myself-this is just the way I travel. I figure that as long as I get from point A to point B, that is the main thing. It would be nice if I could do it perfectly as some people do, but to me, it is not a requirement. I don't stay home, refusing to get out for fear that I will hit something and someone will see it. I have long since given up the worry that someone will see me hit something and assume that I and all blind people are clumsy. I consider myself to be an investigatory blind person, for often when I come in contact with something, I want to check it out. At times, when I am in the process of checking something out, a worried person will tell me what the object is or where I am or assume that I am lost or about to get hurt or perhaps fall. I appreciate their interest but wish I could spare them the worry. This is the way I learn; this is part of my life with which I am very comfortable. Last year I moved to a new apartment house. I learned the route, but occasionally I drift off. Sometimes people watching will become concerned, not knowing that part of my skillset is to learn by and from my mistakes. I tell them I am not as much lost as I am correcting myself. I explain that sometimes when I accidentally get off course, I actually learn more about my surroundings than if I go perfectly on my path. I am surprised when some people get concerned about me going into a restroom-like, how far off course can one get in a restroom? Really! The concern is as misplaced as wondering whether or not I can travel up and down the aisle of an airplane-how can one go wrong? Once a blind person told me he never got lost. I was skeptical. He considered it a compliment to himself when I thought he was being dishonest. My reasoning in rejecting his claim is simple: sighted people get lost, so why wouldn't blind people also get lost? Sighted people go from point A to point B with occasional errors, so why wouldn't blind people be likely to do the same on occasion? When my second husband was driving, he occasionally became quite lost. We sometimes drove around for quite a while before getting our bearings. Sometimes we stopped to ask someone for directions. Sometimes he had a map that he consulted. Sometimes I was the one who told him where to go. But we always made it back home. He didn't decide that we couldn't go somewhere for fear he would become lost, like some blind people I have met. I remember one time when I was walking along a strip mall looking for a certain store. On the way I made the wrong turn, finding myself at the door of an ice cream parlor. I could have panicked or anxiously asked the people inside for directions; but no, I stopped in for a treat before going on my way. I did not consider that I had made a mistake as much as adding something interesting to my day. Sometimes blind people I know will confuse the reasons for my difficulty. They will assume that I lack good skills of blindness, when the truth is that there are other problems I have acquired as I have gotten older that play into my mobility challenges. What they also need to understand is that my goal is to be an exploratory traveler and not a perfect traveler. Most of the time I am comfortable if traveling from place X to place Y involves a detour. Often I can find value in this, and even when it is an inconvenience, it certainly doesn't justify staying home and being isolated. Though my determination to get somewhere by myself is my norm, due to chronic illness and pain I will occasionally ask for directions, refuse to go somewhere with someone unless they know their way, or resort to being taken somewhere by someone who knows the way. Some blind people may think this is the easy way out, even the lazy way out. I consider it simply an alternative. I don't want my having health issues to keep me from going somewhere and getting back home. So, yes, sometimes I have help getting from point A to point B. But I do not do this because I do not believe I could get there myself; I do it out of convenience or necessity if I am not feeling well. If I have a time constraint, I may likewise accept help from someone. If I am feeling bad, I may take more help than if I am feeling well. I think this has nothing to do with blindness and everything to do with realizing that each of us has options and that there is an appropriate time and place to exercise them. Sometimes my travel leads to humorous experiences and exchanges. I am reminded of the time when I walked into the hotel in New Orleans for our National Convention, asking "Which direction am I going?" What I wanted to know was whether I was facing north, south, east, or west. The guy at the front desk said "Straight ahead." That made me laugh. It also made me realize that sometimes it is just better for me to figure out things myself. Often my traveling from point A to point B is more like a story. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end; however, there are plots, subplots, and surprises along the way. To me the main thing is that when I embark on foot, the issue isn't how straight or quickly I get somewhere, but getting there and being proud of the fact that I have the skills, the courage, and the mindset to go. This is what it means to be free; this is what it means to be independent. ---------- National Federation of the Blind 2019 Scholarship Program The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to announce our 2019 scholarship program! We offer thirty scholarships to blind students from across the United States and Puerto Rico who will be enrolled in full-time post-secondary degree programs during the 2019-2020 school year. These scholarships range in value from $3,000 to $12,000 and will be awarded at our 2019 national convention in Las Vegas, NV. The application period begins November 1, 2018, and closes at midnight EST on March 31, 2019. Go to https://nfb.org/scholarships. To apply during the five-month open period, read the rules and the Submissions Checklist, complete the official 2019 Scholarship Application Form (online or in print), supply all required documents, and request and complete an interview by an NFB affiliate president. Remember, the only way to win is to apply! ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Lee Martin] Living Beyond Adversity by Brock Brown From the Editor: In a physical sense most of our readers have a good understanding of blindness. But beyond the physical, what is it? Throughout history and in different civilizations, blindness has been viewed as a curse from God, a tragic condition that can never be more than partially mitigated by the charity of others. Some of us have been so bold as to say it is mostly a nuisance and an inconvenience, one characteristic among many that makes us who we are. But never until this article have I heard someone refer to the inability to see or see well as "the gift of blindness." Lee Martin lives in Indiana and is an active member of his chapter, affiliate, and our national body. What follows is part one of a two-part article that appeared in the September issue of the Speedway Talk newspaper. Brock Brown writes for Speedway Talk newspaper, which has enthusiastically given us its permission to reprint this article. As I sat waiting for a friend, I watched a blind man with a white walking cane come down the main corridor at the Healthplex. It appeared he was exploring. He was not in a hurry, and he didn't ask for help. I suppose he knew he would be back. He now comes regularly and has his exercise routine on various pieces of equipment both upstairs and downstairs. (He does not use the elevator.) He sets his exercise machine on slow (steep uphills) and pushes and pulls hard, building strength. When I saw him in the locker room shining his shoes, I introduced myself and mentioned I had never seen a blind man shining his shoes. He said in a patient way, "Well, I do want to look nice." I think you'll find Lee Martin's story inspiring. Lee Martin-Living Beyond Adversity I met Lee at his office-where he runs a radio program and holds meetings with the Circle City Chapter of the NFB. Lee: It took me a few years, but I learned how to be blind. You can live a full life, but the main challenge is the discrimination that's involved with the conditions of blindness. Everyone doesn't have the same capacities, but our society thinks that the blind are generally not capable at all. Brock: We each have limitations, and we each have different abilities, and knowing what they are and figuring out how to work around the limits is a challenge. Lee: Yes, but knowing how to work around them is the key. Brock: It's how we become stronger. Lee: That's right, and that's one of the gifts God gave us. I now believe He gave me the gift of blindness. When I first came up with that little philosophy, I was talking to our chapter members. I was philosophizing one day and mentioned "the gift of blindness." One of our members said, "I don't know what you're talking about, this ain't no damn gift." And most are taught that. However, when you work with what you've been given to work with, things happen. I heard a lady say one day, "God didn't choose you to be a blind, weak saint." Brock: He chose you to live fully in this wonderful world. Lee: Right. And for me, it's to direct and show others. It's the work we do with the National Federation of the Blind Newsline. I'll set this out for you. The National Federation of the Blind Newsline provides the opportunity for blind, visually impaired, and print-challenged citizens to read newspapers and magazines independently, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for free. We provide access to over 460 national and fifteen international newspapers. We have "breaking news" with ABC, CNN, Fox News, Huffington Post, and others. A patron can pick up their landline phone or an app for their cell phones. We also have a small device that's called the Victor Reader Stream. I can read any newspaper with that. The Victor Reader Stream is a device that has multiple features on it. I can do podcasts; I can download books from the Talking Book and Braille Library. I download a lot of books, and there's a lot of podcasts dealing with what's going on in the blind community. There's a lot of entities working within the blind community, and they have been doing so for long before I lost my sight. Brock: How did you lose your sight? Lee: They found an inflammation, scleritis, and it deteriorated my retinas. It turned them into wet tissue paper. So, there went my sight. It took a while for it to totally go, but when it did, I was forty-eight years old. Brock: You must have realized something was going wrong with your eyes; you went to find out what it was, and they probably told you, "Well, there's no fixing this," or, "We'll try our best to-" Lee: Yes, it took time. But finally I was told there's no point of return to normalcy as I would know it. My mother-my wonderful adopted mother-I called her up. She was in her nineties at the time. I finally called her up to let her know why she hadn't heard from me too much because I had lost my sight. And her words were, "Well, that's God's plan. God knew this long before you did, and I expect for you to not be a weakling and be strong. Let Him guide you through this." That's what I basically did. So, I would say after losing my sight, I lost a lot of friends and lost my job at Chrysler. That impacted my life because my family was ready to say, "Okay, so you're losing your sight. None of us know about blindness, but you're gonna have to come home, and we're gonna have to take care of you." And I wasn't ready for that. I was recovering from the medicine. I was on a cancer-type treatment. I did all that chemo to try to bring back my sight. I was a single man, and it was hard on me. I knew nothing about blindness. Where am I gonna go; am I gonna have to be taken care of the rest of my life? I'm a Vietnam veteran, and I found there's a rehabilitation service for blinded veterans at Hines Hospital in Chicago and here in Indianapolis at Roudebush, the veterans' hospital. When I did go to the Indianapolis VA, my initial visit as a blinded vet, they had a volunteer come out to my apartment. I was having all kinds of anxieties about this guy coming to my door. I don't know who he is, but he's in the system, and at that time we had high crime. You worry about all that you hear on the news. So, this gentleman came to my door; he identified himself, and I went with him to the VA hospital. Nothing bad happened. I got there, and I'm sitting, waiting on the doctor, and I hear a guy coming with tapping, I hear this tapping. He had an eye appointment, and the receptionist said, "Well, there's another blind guy right over here," and the guy turned around and introduced himself to me. We talked, and I told him I was new to the whole process. He started informing me. Mr. Fred Edwards, I'll never forget him. He started informing me about the rehab that was going to be necessary for me and that there was a rehab facility in Chicago. He described the visual impairment service team at the Indy VA. He said, "I'm gonna introduce you to the coordinator, Tom." So, I got introduced. I just took all that with a grain of salt. But, the following Wednesday, I got a call from the director, Tom, and he had gotten me all set up to go to Chicago. I had to be there Friday. That means I would have to find someone to take care of my apartment, take care of my mail, take care of all my business. Then I would have to find someone to help me pack, get my clothes together, 'cause being blind you just don't have that. I didn't have all that. A friend helped me get all that together in that short period of time. I had to trust her with everything I had, and that's hard to do at a moment's notice. Just think about it. If you were single and, all of a sudden, you would give your keys to your life, to your privacy, to your everything, to someone else. I did it and got to the airport. The airline took care of me at the airport, and I got to O'Hare. A team member was waiting for me. And he got me to the Hines Rehab Center and got me all checked in with the medical staff. You have your own room, and they got me oriented with the center, relieving a lot of my anxieties. I was forty-eight and that was a big start. I was there for a year. Brock: Is that the usual time? Lee: The usual length of time was about six months for the first part of the program and then about four/six months for additional computer training. I learned the orientation and mobility cane. They put me into an industrial class where they have power saws, drills, power drills, lathes; they would assign you a project to complete; you have to learn the machines and learn how to make all that kinda stuff. These were machines I didn't touch when I could see, so I had a lot of issues going into it. Brock: A whole new world. Lee: Yes! A whole new world. I'm saying, "Power saws? I don't use no saw! A band saw? Why am I messing with them? They are dangerous! Especially for a blind guy!" Brock: Yeah, one slip and you could lose your finger. Lee: Yeah, and I still have all of them. Once I made it through that, it gave me the encouragement that I could return to my job at Chrysler. That was a big thing. Then, with the mobility training and learning how to be out in the public again, I was really encouraged. I stayed and got computer training; that's what took longer for me. But you had to qualify for it. The qualifications were you had to type thirty words a minute. One of the counselors came down, and he spoke to me in my room. I said, "Man, I haven't typed in years," and he said, "Well it's just like riding a bike, once you get on it." He took me to his office, and he set me up in front of this typewriter. I tried to find the home row, and I hit a key. It dinged, and I jumped back. He said, "What's going on?" I said, "I heard the ding from the carriage return, but I didn't hit the carriage return. I'm reaching for the carriage return bar." He asked, "What are you reaching for?" I said, "I'm trying to find the return bar." And he said, "Oh my God, it has been a long time." It took me a good week to get use to all of that. I managed to pass the test for the class. I was trained by a blinded veteran every day for about six hours a day. Nothing but computer training. I learned an enormous amount of information about how to navigate a computer. That's what I do now. Lee was trained well and immediately returned to apply for a job with his previous employer, Chrysler. It became national news. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Carla McQuillan] The 2019 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 2019 award: The National Federation of the Blind will recognize an outstanding teacher of blind students at our 2019 annual convention, July 7 through July 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 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 Las Vegas 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, 2019. Please complete the application and attach the required documents specified in the application. If you are submitting a nomination for someone other than yourself, please answer the questions to the best of your ability. Your experience and observations of the nominee will assist the selection committee in their decision. Questions? Contact Carla McQuillan at 541-653-9153, or by email at: president at nfb-oregon.org. National Federation of the Blind Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award 2019 Application Deadline: May 1, 2019 Name: _______________________________________________________ Home Address: _________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: _________________________________________________ Phone: (H) ____________________ (W) ____________________________ Email: ______________________________________________________ School: ______________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: _________________________________________________ Please list any awards or commendations you have received. 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. How would you describe your philosophy of blindness as it relates to the education of blind students? What are your thoughts on teaching Braille and cane travel? When and at what age would you begin? How do you determine whether to teach print or Braille? What was your most memorable experience working with blind students? Why should you be selected to receive this award? 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, 2019, to Carla McQuillan, chairperson, Teacher Award Committee, president at nfb-oregon.org or by mail to 522 65th Street, Springfield, OR 97478; 541-653-9153. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: James Gashel] The 2019 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 2019 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 2019 annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Las Vegas, Nevada. 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 2019 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://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 2019 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. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month come from the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts. Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies by Heather Doray Heather Doray is secretary of the Greater Springfield chapter of the NFB of Massachusetts. These are always a hit and bring in good money at our state convention auction. Ingredients: 2-1/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 sticks butter, room temperature 1/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 package Jell-O instant vanilla pudding (4-serving size) 2 eggs 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips Method: Mix flour and baking soda, set aside. Cream together butter, sugars, and pudding mix. Add eggs, mix until creamy. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoon onto greased cookie sheets. Preheat oven. Bake at 350 for ten minutes. Let sit in pans for two minutes before removing to wire racks. ---------- Apple Cake by Lori Feltberg, friend of NFBMA Ingredients: 3 medium apples (Macintosh or Cortland) peeled and cored 1 cup vegetable oil 3 eggs 2 cups flour (1/4 cup at a time) 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon cinnamon Method: Combine all ingredients with mixer or processor. Cut apples into thin slices and stir into batter. Pour batter into a greased Bundt cake pan and bake at 375 degrees in preheated oven for fifty minutes. Cool on a wire rack completely and then invert cake pan to a cake plate. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Shara Winton] Black Bean and Rice Skillet by Shara Winton Shara Winton is president of the Cambridge Chapter and first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts Ingredients: 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 medium-sized zucchini, diced 1/2 cup green pepper, diced 1/2 cup red pepper, diced 1 small onion, diced 1 can (15-ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (14.5-ounce) fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained 1 cup frozen corn, defrosted 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup white or brown rice 1-3/4 cups water 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese 1/2 cup sliced green onions 1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes salt and pepper to taste Method: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and saut? for about three minutes, until it begins to turn translucent. Add the diced red and green peppers, and zucchini. Saut? for about three more minutes. Add the corn, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt. Stir in the can of tomatoes, rice, and water. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for about twenty minutes, until the rice is tender. (Brown rice will take about thirty to thirty-five minutes.) Stir in the beans and turn off the heat. Let stand for seven minutes. Top with cheese and serve. Enjoy. Note: If you don't have zucchini, corn, or cheese, it is still fantastic without these ingredients. ---------- Sweet Onion Cornbread by Shara Winton Ingredients: 2 cups corn meal 1/2 cup self-rising flour 2 large eggs 1/2 cup sugar 2/3 cup half-and-half 1 Vidalia onion, chopped Method: Mix all ingredients in bowl and place into buttered cast iron skillet. Bake at 400 degrees for twenty-eight minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy! ---------- Mojo Pork Chops by Shara Winton Shara says about this recipe, "My family loves these pork chops. I like to serve them with black beans and rice on the side." Ingredients: 1 cup plus 1/4 cup orange juice, divided 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, divided 1/4 cup vinegar 4 (1-inch-thick) bone-in pork chops 1 tablespoon black pepper 2 tablespoons kosher salt 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon dried oregano 3 tablespoons canola oil 1/4 cup chopped red onion 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1/4 cup white wine 1 tomato, chopped, for garnish 1/2 avocado, sliced, for garnish Method: In a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag, combine 1 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup lime juice, and vinegar. Add pork and let it sit and marinate for about 1 hour in refrigerator. In a small mixing bowl, combine all dried spices. Pat the pork chops dry with a paper towel and rub with the dry spice mixture. Heat oil in a large saut? pan over high heat. Place the pork chops in the pan and sear on one side until brown. Flip over and turn the heat down to medium-low. Add onion and saut? for two minutes. Then add the garlic and continue to cook until garlic begins to brown. Pour in the remaining 1/4 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup lime juice, and white wine. Simmer until the liquid is slightly reduced and begins to thicken. The chops should be cooked through. Remove the chops from pan and put on a warm plate. Continue to reduce juices in pan by half. Pour over the chops and serve immediately. Enjoy! ---------- Hamburger and Beans in the Crock Pot by Shara Winton Shara has this to say, "This recipe makes a lot and is great to serve if you have people over to just hang out, watch ball games and entertain family. You can serve it with a salad for a meal. My son loves to top it with tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and sour cream." Ingredients: 1-1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef 1 large onion, chopped 1 small green pepper, chopped 1 clove of garlic, chopped 1 16-ounce can pork and beans, drained 1 15.5-ounce can kidney beans, drained 1 15.5-ounce can red beans, drained 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained 1 10-3/4 ounce can tomato soup, undiluted 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Pinch cayenne or several drops hot sauce (optional) 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 4-ounce can mushroom pieces, drained 1 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional) Method: Brown ground beef, onion, green pepper, and garlic in skillet on top of the stove. Drain. Add to crock pot along with remaining ingredients. Cook on low for about four hours until flavors have blended. Makes a three-quart crock pot about 3/4 full. Serve with toppings of your choice or with cornbread for a great meal. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: David Ticchi] Andrea's Carrot Cake by David Ticchi David Ticchi is a former president of the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts and an experienced educator. He was recognized as Blind Educator of the Year in 1998, and would later chair the prestigious committee that had previously selected him for recognition. Ingredients: 2 cups sugar 1-1/2 cups oil 4 eggs 2-1/4 cups flour 2 teaspoons salt, sift together 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons cinnamon 3 cups grated raw carrots (use 1-pound pkg. baby carrots; grate in food processor) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or 1/2 cup wheat germ) 1/2 cup raisins (or 1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple) Method: Blend all ingredients together in electric mixer Pour batter in greased and floured nine-by-thirteen-inch pan. Preheat oven. Bake at 350 degrees for fifty to sixty minutes. If using glass pan, bake less than one hour. Test for doneness using toothpick inserted in center. It should be dry. Cool on rack. When done and completely cool, frost with cream cheese frosting. Cream Cheese Frosting: Ingredients: 1 8-ounce package cream cheese 1/4 cup butter 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 16-ounce package confectioner's sugar Method: Put all ingredients into mixing bowl. Beat until smooth with electric mixer. ---------- Godmother's Chicken by David Ticchi Ingredients: 3 pounds boneless chicken breast (about five whole breasts, split in halves or use boneless chicken thighs) 1/2 cup of olive oil 4 tablespoons butter (not margarine) 4-5 slices provolone cheese Mix in baggie: 2 cups flour 2 tablespoons parsley flakes or fresh parsley 1 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon salt 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely 1 12-ounce package fresh mushrooms, sliced in half or 1 8-ounce canned mushrooms, sliced and drained 2 28-ounce cans Hunt's whole tomatoes, peeled with liquid (slice tomatoes in half) 1 cup or more good white wine (Carlo Rossi Rose) Method: Coat chicken breasts in flour mixture, discarding extra flour. In a large frying pan melt butter and olive oil. Fry chicken in oil on both sides lightly, but do not brown. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, and wine. Cover and cook slowly until chicken is done, about an hour. This may also be done in oven, after chicken is lightly fried, adding other ingredients on top of chicken and baking at 350 degrees for about thirty to forty-five minutes. At the end, just before serving, add slices of Provolone cheese on top of chicken and cook one minute until cheese is melted. Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family NFB Jernigan Institute Helps Santa Answer His Mail: Santa Claus has made the staff at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute 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 12 and December 14, parents can go online at https://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 3, 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 14 to ensure that a return letter in Braille is received before Christmas. For more information, please visit our website at https://nfb.org. Nationwide BRAL Contest: The Second Annual Nationwide BRAL Contest is here! The National Federation of the Blind of Illinois (NFBI), in partnership with the NFB Jernigan Institute and the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, announces the second annual Nationwide Braille Readers Are Leaders (BRAL) Contest for kids. Students must be K-12 and must reside in a state registered for the contest. Entrants compete to read the most Braille pages, going against other students in similar grades across all participating states. The contest runs for seven weeks, encouraging students to be proud of their Braille-reading ability and to work to improve their Braille skills- while possibly winning prizes in the process. All blind or visually impaired children in a participating state are eligible to enter the contest. However, an NFB affiliate in a state needs to submit an entrance fee to the NFBI to become a participating state. Those desiring to register their child for the Nationwide BRAL Contest need to be sure their state is a participating state. Contact your state affiliate president or the contest administrator as described below if you have questions. . For each student who enters, a certifying official (parent, teacher, etc.) must fill out and submit a registration form. This can be done as early as November 1, 2018, and as late as January 19, 2019. . Kids enter in one of five grade categories: K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9- 12. . Participants record Braille pages read between December 1, 2018, and January 19, 2019, on a reading log. . The certifying official must submit the completed reading log form by February 2, 2019. . Prizes in each grade category are: first, $25; second, $15; third, $10. . Every contestant, whether a winner or not, will receive a gift bag of Braille-related items at the end of the contest. . See below to get the complete contest rules, registration form, and the reading log form. . Both the registration form and the reading log form can be submitted by email as attachments to Deborah Stein at dkent5817 at att.net. Please put Nationwide BRAL plus the contestant's name in the subject line. Alternatively, you can mail to: Deborah Stein, 5817 N. Nina Ave., Chicago, IL 60631. In addition to awards in the five grade categories, the Kelly Doty Award is given to a student who has met unusual challenges in order to learn and read Braille. Such challenges include, but are not limited to, having other disabilities in addition to blindness or being an English language learner. If you have questions, email the contest administrator, Deborah Stein, at dkent5817 at att.net (please put "Nationwide BRAL Question" in the subject line) or by phone at 773-203-1394. Elected: The NFB of North Dakota held its 2018 convention in Fargo, North Dakota, at the Holiday Inn Fargo during the weekend of September 7 to 8 with National Representative Joe Ruffalo. The following members were elected to serve the affiliate: president, Milton Ota; vice president/treasurer, Jesse Shirek; secretary, Sherry Shirek. Two board positions were filled: for a two-year term, Josh Biddle was elected; and for a one-year term the convention elected Richard Early. Congratulations to all who have assumed these positions, and thank you for carrying forward the positive work of the National Federation of the Blind. 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. eCarroll Technology Instruction: The Carroll Center for the Blind is now providing computer instruction to individuals who cannot physically travel to a training center. eCarroll Technology Instruction brings technology training directly to blind and visually impaired individuals in the comfort of their own homes. Using Zoom meetings, an easy-to-use and accessible video and web- conferencing software, expert instructors offer individualized instruction in a wide range of areas: from the nuances of different web browsers to using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel. For a limited time, sign up now for a free thirty-minute lesson. To learn more about eCarroll Technology Instruction, view course details here: http://carroll.org/technology- services/ecarroll/. Jim Debus of the Paralympic Sports Club of Columbus sent us this news: Blind Soccer is coming to the United States, and we are particularly in search of totally blind athletes interested in starting up teams in their local communities. Although all visual classifications are encouraged to participate, Five Aside Football/Blind Soccer is played only at its highest level, the Paralympic Games, by athletes meeting the B1 visual requirement. We recently conducted a demonstration for over one hundred students at ten state schools as part of an athletic conference meet with the goal of planting a seed of interest in the young men and women in attendance. At present the only school for the blind offering the sport is Maryland School for the Blind with the only adult team practicing out of Columbus, Ohio. We would like to find participants willing to travel to Columbus in November for a development camp where they will train for a competition in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, on December 2nd through 10th. This will be the first representation of a United States team taking part in international competition. We are currently in need of between four and six totally blind B1 classification players and one sighted or partially sighted goalkeeper. Anyone interested in attending the November camp should contact Jim Debus at 586-876-7359. or via email at blindrecoutreach at gmail.com. We would encourage the members of the National Federation of the Blind to show their pride by Like/Following and Sharing our social media pages on Facebook, Ohio Blind Soccer-Five Aside Football; Twitter at Ohio Blind Soccer, #ohioBlind; and our website www.ohioblindsoccer.weebly.com. Let's make a difference and put blind soccer on the map here in the United States! ---------- 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 Sun Dec 2 21:40:14 2018 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow) Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2018 21:40:14 -0800 Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, December 2018 Message-ID: <201812030540.wB35eEXK010708@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 61, No. 11 December 2018 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 ? 2018 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. 61, No. 11 December 2018 Contents Illustration: Art of Leadership 2018 Convention Bulletin 2019 Authentically Blind on Stage and Screen: One Blind Actress Transforms Obstacles into Stepping Stones by Marilee Talkington You Help Make Dreams Come True by Patti Chang The Federation Center by Marc Maurer A Heartfelt Thank You by a BELL Parent Jury Duty as a Blind Student by Vejas Vasiliauskas Playing Your Hand: A Blind Songwriter Doing What It Takes to Live the Life He Wants by JP Williams Accessible Cardtronics ATMs by Valerie Yingling Social Security, SSI, and Medicare Facts for 2019 by John Par? Helen Keller No More in Texas by Norma Crosby My History and My Desire to Serve by Sheri Koch Southwest Airlines Works Toward Inclusion for All by Peggy Chong When Readers Are Good by Ed Vaughan Advancing Opportunities for the World's 253 Million Blind and Partially Sighted People by Fredric Schroeder Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Review and Congratulations! by Amy Mason Mark Noble Dies by Daniel Frye The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund by Allen Harris Recipes Monitor Miniatures [PHOTO CAPTION: Five Art of Leadership students from Baltimore cut fruit while wearing sleepshades. [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Danielsen coaxes students and a teacher with Art of Leadership up-stairs while using canes and wearing sleepshades. [PHOTO CAPTION: A big thumbs up from Art of Leadership students who have received tutorials on the Braillewriter from Ellen Ringlein. Art of Leadership 2018 On October 21, 2018, nineteen tenth- and eleventh-grade students participating in the Art of Leadership program sponsored by Art with a Heart, a Baltimore nonprofit, visited the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute to gain an understanding of the capacities of blind people to live the life they want and to learn about leadership in the process. Through the Art of Leadership program, students in the Baltimore area with diverse backgrounds develop leadership skills and engage in conversations across socioeconomic and cultural barriers. During their visit to the Jernigan Institute, the Art of Leadership students participated in four activities led by Jernigan Institute staff to introduce them to the skills used by blind people to complete daily living tasks. While under blindfolds, the students completed a short cane travel route on the fourth floor of the Jernigan Institute that included going up and down stairs. The students also learned about Braille and the way blind people use a computer and access current news through NFB-NEWSLINE?. The students also prepared a salad and baked cookies under blindfolds for the dinner that followed. During dinner, the students discussed the activities they had participated in and asked questions. In response to the question "What did you learn from this experience?" answers from the students included: "I shouldn't assume what a person is capable of"; "To accept myself and put myself in other peoples' shoes"; and "You don't have to be 'perfect' to be a leader." Clearly, the positive philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind has a powerful influence! Convention Bulletin 2019 by John Berggren We are now in the season for office parties, Christmas shopping, and holiday cheer. While dreams of sugar plums may be dancing in your head, however, it's not too early to begin thinking about the warmer weather and the summer months. While July may seem on the distant horizon, it's time to plan for one of our most exciting events of the year. I'm talking, of course, about our 2019 National Convention. For the first time in our history, the largest annual gathering of the organized blind will be in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are excited to be hosting our convention at the beautiful Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (3950 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119). As is the case every year, we have once again arranged for exceptional room rates. Unlike in years past, the same enviable rate of $99 per night applies to singles and doubles as well as triples and quads. Hotel and sales taxes are 13.38 percent and 8.25 percent, respectively. The resort fee (normally $37 a night) will be waived for NFB convention attendees. However, fees for internet access, local and toll-free calls, and fitness center access may apply. To make reservations for the 2019 convention, you can call the hotel at 877-632-7800 after January 1. The hotel will take a deposit of the first night's room rate for each room and will require a credit card or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged against your card immediately. If a reservation is cancelled before Friday, June 1, 2019, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise refunds will not be made. Situated at the beginning of the world-famous Las Vegas strip, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is a short trip from Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport. The hotel has more than two dozen restaurants for guests to enjoy. Among its features is an aquatic playground called Mandalay Bay Beach which has real sand, a wave pool, and a lazy river. The hotel is also home to an aquarium with more than 2,000 animals including sharks, green sea turtles, and a Komodo dragon. Plus, it offers top-notch entertainment including Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil. The 2019 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 Sunday, July 7, and adjournment will be Friday, July 12, following the banquet. Convention registration and registration packet pick-up will begin on Monday, July 8, and both Monday and Tuesday will be filled with meetings of divisions and committees, including the Tuesday morning's annual meeting, open to all, of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. General convention sessions will begin on Wednesday, July 10, and continue through the banquet on Friday, July 12. 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 Terri Rupp, 10587 Santerno Street, Las Vegas, Nevada 89141. 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 2019 National Convention. To assure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, make your reservations early. We plan to see you in Las Vegas in July. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marilee Talkington] Authentically Blind on Stage and Screen: One Blind Actress Transforms Obstacles into Stepping Stones by Marilee Talkington From the Editor: The last speaker of the morning on Sunday, July 8, continued the performance theme. The presentation was as moving as anything I've witnessed, but the transcription is similarly the hardest I've ever participated in. We have tried to capture the spirit, enthusiasm, and poise of Marilee, but what she said and the way she said it isn't easily framed using the rules of written grammar. It is best experienced through audio, so let this presentation serve to push those who are reading this in Braille and in print to listen to these remarks as delivered. They can be heard at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_8/am/06_aut hentcally_blind_on_stage_and_screen.mp3. Here is what Marilee Talkington said: [Alicia Key's "Girl on Fire" plays as she takes the stage] I love that; I get a theme song. Now, who decided to put me after JP Williams? Come on, that's the hardest act to follow; he's amazing! [cheers] My name is Marilee Talkington; I am a professional actor. I am so, so excited to be here because the ferocity in this room is stellar. When I walked in on July fourth, and the number of young people-[in a faux-old- person voice] the number of you young people, all you young people with canes-[in her normal voice] I was stunned by how many young people there are, and it inspired me so deeply because I don't remember having that kind of community when I was younger. I'm just so deeply honored to be here and privileged. Let's dive in. I think one of the things I wanted to talk about was transformation, this thing that I hear a lot of people talking about is how to turn obstacles into stepping stones. Just to give a little history: I was born with rod-cone dystrophy; I'm totally blind centrally. My mom has it-it's genetic. I have peripheral vision, and it's been degenerating over time. I'm light blind, which, lovely-these lights are shining right in my eyes- and I'm photophobic. So I'm light blind, and light causes me pain. For those of you who have rod-cone or cone-rod and don't have central vision, you know-you understand-that to see people, you look away from them. In fifth grade I got what I like to call "The Talk" from my mom. I have the same thing she does. I want to preface this by saying that I don't judge her for saying this, she was working with the strategies she had at the time and with the experience she had at the time. She said, "Now you have a couple choices-maybe one choice and a couple options. To see people, you need to look away from their face." Ok. "Or you can look at them and not see them. If you look away from their face to see what you need to see, the world that we live in will treat you differently." I was in fifth grade. "Or you can teach yourself to look people in the face, not see what you need to see, and move through the world." As a fifth grader I wanted to move through the world with as much ease as possible, so I chose option number two, and I trained myself to look people in the eyes; I still do. [applause] This can be confusing for many, many people. When they meet me, they assume that I am fully sighted, which is not the case. But what it has opened up for me is that I play mostly sighted characters on stage. Ninety- five percent of the characters that I play are sighted. [applause] Let's just jump forward. First, acting class: I took my first acting class at UC San Diego. I was studying psychology and mathematics at the time. My grade point average was so-so. I needed to raise it, and I was looking for classes that I could take to raise my grade point average. My friend said take an acting class, and I was like, "No way, no, not even close." I couldn't get in any other class, and I was like, "Fine, I'll take acting." So I took acting, and something happened. I started telling stories about other people, stepping into who they were, and it was the most incredible experience of my life, those first days in acting class. All of a sudden this enormous imagination of mine had a platform to play on. I'd always been good at voices and characters, but I'd never really had an avenue to walk down and express those things. All of a sudden I'm getting to live other people's lives. All of a sudden my life felt limitless. [her voice goes slightly higher, a bit more childish] And I started working with all these different characters, you know, and just like playing, [her voice goes deeper, sounding more masculine with a New York accent] and then just like doing something else, right? And we'd talk, and every single character- it's not just about voices. [Her voice stays deeper, but the accent shifts to more Russian] But then you take on these completely different experiences of life. [back to her normal voice] Right? So I realized that this is what I want to do, and I never thought in a million years that I couldn't do it because of my eyesight-never-never crossed my mind. I graduate UC San Diego, my grade point average lifted because of that acting class. I stop off in LA-that's a whole 'nother story; we won't go there right now-but I end up in San Francisco. I go to my first theater audition, and they had what's called cold sides there; it's a cold read. A cold read is when they have the script there, and you're supposed to read it-look it over in fifteen minutes-then you go up. Well, of course I can't read the script. I ask the director if there is a photocopy machine. This is back in the day; this was twenty years ago. There's no technology around, right? I'm like, is there a photocopy machine? He has no idea. So I go out searching for a photocopy machine, and it takes me two hours. I find a photocopy machine at a local business (I think it was a real estate place), and I said, "Can I use it?" They were kind enough to let me. I enlarged it as much as I could, and I eventually found my way back to the theater after two hours. The director was still there. I went in. The script still wasn't large enough, so it was pretty darn close to my face. I started reading, and the director said, "If you can't read this script, you don't belong on stage." He excused me from the audition. This is twenty years ago. I had no mentors. I had no one to talk to about this. There were no blind actors that I had ever seen or knew of. I know that a lot of you can relate to this feeling of isolation. This is one of those pivotal moments where I went home, and I was devastated. The question I asked myself: "Do you believe him? Do you believe that you do not belong on stage because you cannot read this?" And the answer that came back was a resounding, "No I do not believe him!" [applause] But what I did believe at that point was that I needed training. Everything is about training: training, training, training. Because in this business, the acting business, you have to be well-trained. You can dream to be an actor, but if you don't actually do the work, it's not going to happen. I went to school, and this is where I began to advocate for myself. I had to advocate for myself because I was the first blind, low-vision, disabled person to walk in to those acting classes. My first movement acting class was at a studio. It was an Alexander technique class, which is a movement class that is all about alignment. The teacher said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think this is going to be the right class for you. You really need to be able to see what I'm doing." And I said, "No, that's not right. I'm going to be in the class, and we're going to figure this out." I had to battle my way into these classes. I got into the class, and I ended up being the top student. I say to myself, "What is going on here, people? I have the drive. I have the willingness to go into the room, so you need to match that." But this happened over and over and over again. But it developed my muscle to self-advocate. I auditioned for grad school, because at this point I've taken probably ten or twelve studio classes-night classes-Shakespeare, voice, whatever-but I want to take it to the next level. I want to audition for grad school. I do that, and I don't get it-not because of my vision-I just don't get in. Grad school-the one I auditioned for-is one of the top in the country. It's extremely competitive. But I didn't give up. I trained more that next year, prepared myself even more, and I auditioned the next year, and I got in. I got in to ACT [American Conservatory Theater], and I was the first person with a disability to ever get in to that school. I believe I'm still the only person with a disability to go to that school, and at this point there are only two legally-blind actresses in the country with an MFA in acting. I'm one of them. I'm sure all of you have heard this before-I remember being taught at a very young age that you have to work twice as hard just to get to the baseline as everybody else, all the sighted people. I said, "I don't want to be at the baseline. I want to be great at what I am doing." So I'm working three times as hard, four times as hard, and I never took for granted for one moment when I was in grad school, not one moment. [applause] I had this experience I want to share. It's less about my vision physically and more about the vision for myself. We were doing this show called Master and Margarita, and it was directed by this wonderful [with accent] Eastern European director named Adria Guirgia. [back to her normal voice] The role that I was cast in was Abaddon, the Angel of Death, and the director said, "Okay, I want your big, red, curly hair everywhere." I said, "No, actually, if I'm the Angel of Death, I think I should be gender neutral. People shouldn't know if I'm male or female. I should be everything at all times." I had no language. I had no lines in the script. I wasn't actually written into the script. He said, "Okay, fine, you can be gender neutral whatever that means," because that was fifteen years ago; we didn't even know what that meant. I realized that he wasn't calling me to rehearsal. So I thought to myself, "If I'm the Angel of Death, where would I be?" I said, "I'd be everywhere!" So I started putting myself into all the scenes. I showed up to every rehearsal and put myself in every single scene. The director was like, [in accent] "This is brilliant! I had a brilliant idea. She's in every scene. I love it." We go to opening night, and the irony is that, if you ask anybody who saw the show, "Who's the character you remember?" The answer would be the Angel of Death. The director comes up to me afterwards and says, [in accent] "Just to let you know, I am taking credit for this." [laughter] I said, "Okay, that's fine, that's fine." But this whole thing really solidified for me-that moment, that particular moment-this nugget of wisdom: when the world doesn't have a vision for you, you must create a vision for yourself. [applause] That is something that I hold in my heart very deeply. Long story short: I moved to New York after grad school, and I don't get that fancy agent. I don't get all those auditions because acting is really, really competitive. It's so competitive. I go there thinking, "I've got this great degree; I'm going to do it." And it didn't happen. So what I did is I took my career in my own hands, and I started creating my own work, or I should say continued to create my own work because I was already creating my own work, much to the chagrin of my professors. I created my solo show Truce. I play twenty-two characters in that, half of which are blind. And I started creating other work, too- experiential work-that's what I like to call it-experiential work where I was writing and directing and acting using site-specific scripts-not just theaters but sites you walk through and experience. Because even me, an actor, when I'm an audience member in a theater, loses a lot of it. I can't see a lot of it. So I was creating theater that you could experience, that people could walk through, and really getting my confidence that way. I was not waiting for somebody to choose me; I was choosing myself. [applause] I was creating work, but I'll tell you moving to New York was tough, and I actually ended up having a nervous breakdown. I moved back to San Francisco to heal. I thought, "Oh my God, I failed. I went to New York, and I failed. I couldn't do it; I couldn't hack it. I'm not strong enough." I went back to San Francisco, and there was this little whisper of a voice that said, "No, no, this is exactly as it should be. You're on the right path. Have faith, have faith, have faith. Take time to heal." So I stayed with my grandmother, who gave me unconditional love, and I kept writing. I wrote a play, and I directed that. I started slowly building a community in the Bay area, and I was healed. I found this new strength after going through something really, really traumatic. Failing-failing- moving back, going through something really traumatic, taking the time to take care of myself, and then picking myself up and taking that next step forward because I knew-I knew-that I am an artist, that I am supposed to be an artist. I know that I'm preaching to the choir here: this game ain't easy. It's not easy, right? There's pain involved. There's failure involved. The mark of who we are is what happens after we fail. What do we do? We pick ourselves up and keep going. So I'm in the Bay area, and this is where the next level of advocacy started happening. I had to teach the Bay area community how to work with me and how to open their doors to more persons with disabilities. I made the agreement with myself: that "Marilee, you're going to go out and you're going to stay open and curious and engage in any and all conversations that come toward you. Because half your job is artist and half your job is advocate." I walk into that, and I walk into every room carrying both those banners. Sometimes I don't want to. Sometimes I just want to be an artist. I do, I really do. But I know that because I'm the first, I have to be an advocate. It's my responsibility to, because if I don't, no one will. So I'm getting into those rooms, and I'm getting cast, and my craft as an actor is getting more and more developed, and my craft as an advocate is getting more and more developed. I'm figuring out what I need and how to ask for it. That's a hard thing to do, because things can change, especially in my business. Not all theaters are the same. Not all directors are the same. I get new bosses every three months. I have to go into a new space, assess, and then communicate, and then negotiate. This is kind of a fun thing: I was in a show, and this was me accommodating for myself, because most of the time I'm figuring out for myself how to do things. I was in a show called Salomania, and it was about Salome. I played five different characters, one of which was a soldier boy. [speaking in a Cockney accent] A Cockney soldier boy who's a lovely little boy. [in her normal voice] The opening scene was five of us soldiers-I was the only woman, by the way-launched ourselves over a ten-foot ledge, with a rifle and a bayonet attached to it. The first time we rehearsed it the director said, "Everybody run, jump over this thing, and land on the ground safely." I'm like, okay, this is-um, all right. Because I'm that person that's like, "I will figure it out." You tell me I can't, I'll go off and figure out how to do it and come back, like, "Here you go." Because they're not going to know, God bless those sighted people, they're not going to know. So he throws all of us this blocking (blocking is staging)-I forgot to say, we're in full battle gear and gas masks. He says, "Okay, let's do it." And I couldn't do it. And he said, "Do we need to change the blocking?" And I said, "Just give me a sec, Mark." When I can't do things, the first thing that happens is I feel pain; I feel frustrated, I feel pain. I often shed a few tears to myself. Then I grit up. I turned around to him, and I said, "Do what you need to do; I'm going to talk to the stage manager, and I'm going to rehearse this after rehearsal is over." And that's what I did. I got the stage manager, and I went through and marked every single spot where my foot and my hand needed to go. I did it over and over and over and over. I did it dozens and dozens and dozens of times until it was complete muscle memory. I didn't need any eyesight at all-at all-at all. On opening night we're all running from backstage up on this ledge. And the guys come over, and I fly over, and my body is doing what I just trained it to do because I'd been rehearsing it literally hundreds of times after rehearsal, over and over again. I fly over. I land on the ground, bayonet in hand, and I realize: I did it. I just did this. And I didn't kill anybody! This is awesome! So that's just one little story-I realize I'm going over time. Two minutes Mark? Thank you. I want to jump fast fast-fast-fast-forward to this NCIS experience. [cheers] It was awesome, y'alls. It was awesome. Let me tell you this: going into the room, I took this job very seriously, not only as an actor but as an advocate, because I knew this was a big deal. I knew this was a huge deal for NCIS, for CBS, for me personally, and for the community. In the audition room, usually casting directors ask, "Do you have any questions?" I said, "No, do you?" I just opened up the conversation. After I got cast the executive director and the director called me and said, "This is so wonderful-you're going to be with us, wonderful-we-how do we-so we're going to be working-you're blind, so how- what, um? All right." This is what I said to them: "Don't worry, it's going to be great. You're going to love it." THEY wanted to know, though. They were scared. I wasn't; they were. That night I wrote a cheat sheet on how to work with me. A cheat sheet! I'd never done that before. I wrote down "This is my disability; this is how I see; this is how it manifests; these are the identifiers I like; you can call me blind, legally blind, partially-sighted, partially- blind; you cannot call me handicapped. I don't go by that. I was just laying it out: boom, boom, boom, boom. "Director: If you're giving me direction, I may not look at you, but I am listening. Also, if you could wear feathers, that would be great." So I'm throwing out a few jokes here and there. Well, it turns out that this little cheat sheet I sent them is circulated through the entire NCIS production team, through CBS-I booked another show while I was on CBS, flew to Toronto, that cheat sheet had made it all the way over to Toronto. "We love your cheat sheet; it's really great; we get you now." All this to say, and I know that you all understand this, that self- advocacy is so huge, especially when you are the first, second, third, and any number through the door. We have to speak up for ourselves. We have to carry a large vision for ourselves when the world doesn't have that vision for us. I want to leave you with one thing. This is a quote that I read and that I still read over and over and over again. It is by Marianne Williamson. Perhaps you have heard of this quote; I'm sure you have: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us." We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? The intention I want to leave with you, the intention that I have for myself, and the intention that I have for all of you is: own your fabulousness. Own it. Own your absolute uniqueness, and own your power to be the magnificent creators of your destiny and dreams! Thank you. ---------- [PHOTO/CAPTION: Peggy Chang] You Help Make Dreams Come True by Patti Chang From the Editor: What we do takes teamwork, spirit, commitment, and money. Of the four ingredients necessary for success, money is often the most overlooked, but without money, we simply don't have the tools to do what needs doing for blind people. In this article, Patti Chang explains how you can help. Here is what she says: Thanks to you, the National Federation of the Blind has a tremendous impact on the lives of blind people of all ages. We foster high expectations and mentor each other, teach children to read Braille, and provide crucial resources to parents of blind children. Nearly every day we receive notes from long-time Federationists and people new to our organization to share the impact that the NFB has had on their lives and their family. We hope that these stories-and your own experience-motivate you to give back to help us continue to share the gifts of confidence, literacy, education, independence, and so much more. We recently received this note from a mother whose daughter attends the NFB BELL Academy in Indiana: I am writing to you to express my thanks for what the NFB BELL Academy has done for my daughter, who became blind from retinoblastoma when she was just three years old. Having no previous experience with blindness, my husband and I had no clue on how to raise a blind child. We saw the potential in our daughter to be a happy and productive human being even without her eyesight, but would others see the same? Through the grace of God, we came in contact with the NFB and other blind adults who have become wonderful mentors and role models. These people have come alongside her and shown her that anything is possible if she only believes in herself. This past summer was her third year at the Indiana BELL Academy, something that she has grown to look forward to each year. Whether it be reading or writing Braille, beep ball, field trips, or crafts, she has enjoyed it all. The NFB Indiana BELL Academy has given our daughter the confidence to live as a blind child in a sighted world. It has given her the ability to attend school with her sighted peers, being the first blind child to do so in our school district. And, in my opinion, she has been a wonderful example of showing her friends and teachers exactly what a blind child is capable of. She is not afraid to try anything, and currently has straight A's in all of her school subjects. I truly believe that the NFB BELL Academy, along with her teachers and role models, has had a direct effect on her confidence and ability to succeed, not only in the classroom, but throughout life. As a parent, I can't wait to see what the future holds for her! Thank you again for the NFB BELL Academy and what it does for our blind children! Want to help more families like this one? 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 help parents and blind children start learning Braille together. With a larger donation we can train our BELL Academy teachers, show blind students that they can participate in science and engineering lessons, 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. It's easy to do. . You can give online at nfb.org/donate2018. . 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. . Set up a Facebook fundraiser for the NFB. It's an easy way to share our message and expand our network of supports. 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. Please feel free to reach out to Patti Chang at 410-659-9314, extension 2422 or pchang at nfb.org if you have any questions. Thank you so much in advance for again helping blind people live the lives we want. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer] The Federation Center by Marc Maurer From the Editor: When the Federation began writing and speaking about the capability of blind people to work and to live as responsible members in society, members of the rehabilitation community were skeptical. The professionals rather publicly said, "Let these Federation people try working in the field, and they'll soon see that their theories will inevitably collide with reality." So Dr. Kenneth Jernigan was sent to Iowa, one of the lowest ranked agencies then in the field of rehabilitation, and his job was to create a model agency for the blind based on the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. This he did, and when after two decades in Iowa he left what was then the Iowa Commission for the Blind, the Federation had to wrestle with the question of what role we would continue to play in rehabilitation. The reality of Iowa was there for all to see, but it wasn't enough to have reshaped one or two agencies. In order to remain real to the public and to the blind people who needed services, the Federation had to maintain a positive presence in the field. How we would do that began a debate that would last almost a decade. We would have to provide service while at the same time not being so tied to service that we ceased to be a consumer organization and the primary voice for blind people. In this article, Immediate Past President Maurer discusses the establishment of our NFB centers, their accomplishments, and what is required to be a Federation center. Here's what he says: A persistent question is what is required to constitute an NFB center. We have created three of these that are now about thirty years old. The first was in Ruston, Louisiana, where it continues to do business. Joanne Wilson, who was a student of Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, had urgently wanted the National Federation of the Blind to start one, and she hoped she could be a part of the inspiration for it and perhaps one of the teachers. In 1984 at the national convention an extensive discussion occurred regarding a proposal that we establish a school for the blind. Nobody was conducting educational programs of high quality for blind children, and the shift from schools for the blind to the public school educational setting had put blind students into places in which adequate materials and trained teachers were mostly not available. We could run a school, and the quality would be better than any other system could produce. However, the counter argument asserted that the special role of the Federation was that of serving as a check and balance to programs for the blind not the entity that runs them. We could not adequately challenge our own blunders. Thus, we should advise and supervise programs for the blind, not be programs for the blind. The final decision was that we would not create a school for the blind. This thought process prevailed as we approached the 1985 convention. We did not establish a national training center although Dr. Jernigan was sorely tempted by the idea. Consequently, Joanne Wilson created the Louisiana Center for the Blind. The creation of this center generated thoughts by members of the Federation in many other states that centers for the blind could be established in other places. Diane McGeorge decided to start the Colorado Center for the Blind. Colorado had a building which could house the training center. The building had previously been used for a program that collected discarded Braille books and sent them to programs for the blind in other parts of the world. However, a training center was urgently needed, and the imperative would put the building to a better use. Joyce Scanlan also decided that a training center was needed in Minnesota. She thought that the center would be regarded as the blind center, so she decided to name it, Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions, BLIND Inc. These then became the NFB training centers. They had been created under the banner of the Federation and with the energy and commitment of Federation leaders-all of them women. Discussion at the national level of the Federation determined that for these centers to be approved by the Federation and to receive support from the Federation, they must have a formal relationship with the Federation as a whole. Thus, each of the centers signed agreements with the Federation in which they acknowledged that they are subordinate corporations to the Federation and that policy decisions of the Federation are binding upon them. All of this happened a long time ago, but the system of management remains in place. Further, the leadership of the Federation has been and continues to be a major factor in all of these centers. Beyond these observations, one more must be made. A director of state programs for the blind asked me once how we get the results that we do. I responded that I could explain but the director could not do it. I said, "Do you observe these people around you here this evening working the tasks for the gathering this weekend? (It was about six p.m.) The director responded, "Yes, but how do you get them to do it? I cannot get my staff to work after five o'clock." We do the work because we want to get it done, not because it is a job. We love the challenge and the people we serve. We are responsible to the people who make up the Federation. I who have served as President know that if I do not do the work that has been given to me, somebody else will take the position I have once had. However, the thought of being replaced is not worrisome as much as the thought of disappointing my colleagues and friends. The Federation centers thrive because we care about our colleagues, and we have great faith in them. The love we have for each other and for the challenge of the work keeps us sharp and focused. Part of the reason for our success is that we not only have tested methods of teaching, but we also accept the need to experiment with new techniques. Furthermore, we have a national and an international network of friends who have connections that give us opportunities that are not bound by state or national boundaries. Our village is bigger than any state government program can achieve without the national and international network that we have built. A good many programs have claimed to be Federation centers. Are they? These elements are required for becoming a Federation center. First, it is necessary to acknowledge that the governing body of the center is the convention of the National Federation of the Blind and that policy decisions of the Federation are binding upon such centers. It is necessary to acknowledge that the corporation running the center is a subordinate corporation to the Federation. It is necessary that Federation leaders are a part of the governing daily activities of the center. It is necessary that the spirit of adventure of the Federation be an integrated element of the center. It is necessary that love for the participants and love for the challenges of integrating the blind into society be a vital element of the centers. That a center adheres to the practices pioneered by the Federation is not sufficient for membership in this exclusive group. Structured Discovery is a good thing, but using this method of approach does not a Federation center make. More commentary could be made, but I believe this is adequate for determining whether a center is a Federation entity. Does the center accept that it is governed by the Federation? Can the Federation change its practices when it believes that they are not adequate? Can the Federation reorganize the center if it fails in the purpose the Federation believes it should follow? If the answer to any of these questions is no, the center is not a Federation center. Does this mean that the center in question is bad? No, of course not. The center must be judged on its merits. However, it is not a Federation center. ---------- A Heartfelt Thank You by a BELL Parent From the Editor: What greater gift can we give someone than the ability to read and to write, those beautifully complimentary skills that allow people to learn and then to contribute to that learning through sharing. This is what we do with the BELL Program, and sometimes we are blessed to receive a note of thanks. In this issue you will find two, both deeply rooted in the heart and shared with passion and conviction. Enjoy this thank you from a parent in Maryland: My son attended the Baltimore BELL Academy this summer. It was his second experience with BELL Academy, having attended in Arlington last summer. We are so thankful for this opportunity, and we appreciate everything that the NFB has done for our son and for our family. Our relationship with the NFB began four years ago when our spunky now-kindergartener was still a baby. We lucked into attending the parents' day of the NFB national conference in Orlando, which was within close driving distance of our home at the time. Before he had learned to walk, we met teachers, lawyers, doctors, artists, all of whom were professional, successful, and blind. At one session, a fellow parent leaned forward and whispered to me, "Have you considered Braille?" When I shrugged (we had barely considered potty training at that age), she persisted, "How will he read his valedictorian speech if the spotlights are in his eyes?" We left the conference with a sense of peace about the future and a new understanding of what it means to be blind or visually impaired. When we got home, we told our son's TVI about our experience, and she was skeptical. We were told that the NFB was "radical." My family and I are not the radical type, so we watched closely, ready to bail at the first mention of anything over the top. Four years later, and I can say with conviction that we have yet to hear anything "radical" from the National Federation of the Blind. Indeed, the only thing controversial about them seems to be their unwavering confidence in the abilities of the blind and the commitment to high expectations. This confidence is backed by achievement and success, and we are so grateful that our family has had the opportunity to immerse our son in this confidence, firsthand. When our son began preschool, we started to better understand eye fatigue and other factors that make dual-media the most appropriate learning media for him. Unfortunately, our local public school district, which was failing and in the process of being taken over by the state, did not agree. Without assessments or data, the TVI in Montgomery, Alabama, told us that he would not teach our son Braille, that he "did not even like to teach Braille to anyone before the third grade," and that he "could not believe we would even ask for that when our son has so much vision." They would not listen to our experiences with eye fatigue and insisted that no child with low vision should be taught Braille. Unsure of where to turn, we contacted the NFB. They listened. Our NFB rep attended our next IEP meeting, advocated for our son, and advised us to request a functional vision assessment and learning media assessment. The TVI immediately contracted this assessment out to the state school for the blind (Which makes us wonder if he knew how to do this basic assessment himself, and if not, how much Braille did he know himself?). A professional came to our son's school, conducted a thorough evaluation, and when the report came back, it recommended dual media instruction in both print and Braille. Armed with real data, we were able to get Braille instruction written into our son's IEP, and though we have since moved from that district, he continues to get Braille instruction that will help him in the future. NFB reps have been there for us in our new district too, attending IEP meetings in person and via cross-country phone call in order to ensure that he gets the equal education that he deserves. Dual media is not an easy road though, and our son is beginning to learn that Braille is hard work. Luckily, he has been able to start his school career with two summers of BELL Academy. At school, he is the only kid in his grade who is learning Braille. BELL Academy immersed him in an environment where Braille is normal, and it has taught him that he should be proud of himself and his abilities. At BELL, he has been surrounded by blind professionals who are confident and capable. This confidence is contagious. We have seen our son's confidence soar as a result of BELL. This happens through planned activities like rock climbing at Arlington BELL or nonvisual challenges at Baltimore BELL, but more than that, it happens through all of the intangible little moments that are infused throughout the camp. I had a chance to overhear a few conversations that my son never told me about, conversations like "What do you say when someone asks you about your vision" or "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and the impact is inspiring. BELL gives our son something that we as fully sighted parents cannot give him: the opportunity to be led by and surrounded by blind individuals who are confident, capable role models. Achievement is not wished for at BELL; it is expected, and we have seen him rise to the occasion. Following BELL Academy, my son now orders his own food at restaurants, speaking in a loud, clear, confident voice. While many parents spent the night before kindergarten worrying about the future, we spent the evening at a ropes course challenge, watching our son take reasonable risks at an activity we once imagined might be impossible for him. To get to BELL Academy this year, we put our preschooler and toddler in the car in their pajamas at 6:00 AM. We drove from Virginia to Baltimore, a cross-DC trek that several times took three hours one way in the rain. "That's nuts," our family said. "That's necessary," we said, because we knew it was well worth it, and it was. Nowhere else can our son get this lifelong gift of confidence and skills. During his first two weeks at BELL last year, he blew through three of his annual IEP goals, and we had to have a new IEP meeting to raise expectations for the year. Before BELL, he got frustrated when pouring water. Now he does it with ease using the nonvisual skills he learned at BELL. Before BELL, he wasn't sure what to say when someone asked him about his vision. Last week, his swim coach told me that he had confidently and nonchalantly given the class a mini lesson about his diagnosis. This kind of confidence comes straight from the NFB. We have always tried to instill confidence in our son, but as fully sighted parents, we lack both the words and the experience necessary to really teach him the strategies he needs to be independent. Thank you for giving our family this gift. Thank you for the passion, hard work, and professionalism that goes into all of your efforts. We may not be the best at timely thank yous, but we appreciate all of you at the National Federation of the Blind on a daily basis. We are so grateful for your help and look forward to working with you for many years to come. ---------- Jury Duty as a Blind Student by Vejas Vasiliauskas From the Editor: The name "Vejas Vasiliauskas" may be familiar to Monitor readers because Dr. Eric Vasiliauskas has worked closely with the National Federation of the Blind in getting tips and tricks for raising his two blind children and for giving back to the Federation by offering what he has experienced and learned through his own keen insights as a person with significant motivation, intellectual ability, and outstanding commitment. It is clear that he has imparted these stellar qualities to his children, and in this article Vejas offers some very mature, conscientious, and patriotic opinions about what it means to be an American citizen. Here is what he says: Every year, adults over eighteen who are registered to vote and have IDs are potential candidates for jury duty. When US citizens are chosen for this civic duty, the court system has no prior knowledge of an individual's disability. Therefore, when I received a jury duty summons at the end of April this year, I was both intrigued and enthusiastic to learn not only about the process of being a juror but also the accessibility of serving as a blind person. First there was the initial paperwork. Everything I needed to know- the week I was serving, my juror ID, and my PIN-were only available in print. I was fortunate that my parents were able to read me the information, but it is important to be aware of the fact that without a careful mail organization system, jury duty summonses can easily fall to the wayside along with other print envelopes. After registering, I began to investigate. I was rather surprised to find that in a day and age where we are fighting for equal expectations, there was very little information about being a blind juror. Few people on the National Association of Blind Students listserv had any serving experience, with one actually being sent home by the court due to the inability to analyze video evidence. I then called the assembly room at my courthouse to inform them that I was blind but still wanted to serve. Was there any disability support, and could anyone who worked there guide me to the various locations throughout the day? I was told no to both questions and was highly encouraged to have my physician sign me off for an excuse. To me, this was not an option; I wanted to experience jury service just like everyone else, at a time when I was off of school for the summer. Therefore, when I was told by the automated system to report in on Thursday, I was prepared. As an aside, I found the automated phone system to be very accessible. The instructions for how to confirm and report for service were very clearly stated. There is also an online portal that can be used instead. Unfortunately, I was unable to check its accessibility; by the time I signed in shortly after reporting, I was told I no longer had the ability to look through the portal's information. To prepare for my service, I imagined various scenarios in my mind and how I would work through them. For example, had I been told that a case required me to see video evidence, I would have asked if I could be switched to a case where the evidence was spoken. The fact that there would be nobody to guide me would not be a problem; I could simply initiate and ask to walk with the fellow jurors around me. After a security scan similar to the airport, we were told to go into the assembly room for our orientation. The orientation was not, as I had previously thought, a tour of the courthouse, but was an in-depth introduction of our responsibilities as jurors. We watched a video of segments of a case in a courtroom, which was described very well. The video also informed us that there are two types of cases: criminal, in which a defendant is accused of committing a crime, and civil, in which it is necessary to settle a dispute between two sides. In a criminal case, jurors are called by the last digits of their juror ID number, whereas in civil cases peoples' actual names are used. While every state's policy is likely to be somewhat different, California's jury service was for a one-day or one-trial period. This means that if jurors are never called in for the day, they can leave. However, if they get called in to a trial and do not get selected, they still have to go back to the assembly room in case they are called for another trial that day. On my day of service, we were told that there was only one case that day, but that it was still questionable whether it would go to trial. For the next three hours, the jurors were instructed to wait. The woman who gave our orientation told us that some romantic couples had actually met in jury duty. There were no couples to be had that day, though, and everyone kept themselves to themselves. However, I was able to see my history teacher from my previous semester in school, which was a huge coincidence. After a rather long lunch break, and just when we thought we could go home, it was decided that the case would go to trial after all. A list of randomly selected names, in no particular order, was read out, and mine was among one of the many names chosen. Once we were allowed to enter the courtroom, the judge explained that the jury selection period is about four hours, and because we started much later during the day we would probably have to return the following day. He informed us that the case was of a woman who threatened to assault some people with a knife. At that point, eighteen juror ID numbers were called to go up to the juror box to answer some basic questions, including where they were from, their families' careers, and whether or not people believed they could serve. After all eighteen answered, the judge spoke with the lawyers to determine who might be able to stay on the case. Those who were eliminated could go home, and a few more names were called for the same questioning. Because we ran out of time, the rest of the jurors, including myself and my history teacher, had to come back the next day. On Friday, rather than go to the assembly room again, we could go straight back for the case. At this point, both the prosecution and defense lawyers began to question the jurors even more intensely. The jurors were given hypothetical situations and asked how they would decide who was innocent and who was guilty. One example involved a custodian and a fifth- grade student. If the custodian attacked a student and the student hit him back as a direct result, this would be considered self-defense, but if the student's retaliation happened later, then that student would also be considered guilty. More names were eliminated. Five more juror IDs were chosen, and mine was one of them. The judge and lawyers explained that they had already chosen the original twelve jurors, and our numbers were being called so that we could potentially become alternates. Since I was called to the sixteenth seat in the juror box, I was referred to as "Juror Sixteen" from there on out. Coincidentally, my history teacher from the previous semester at school was juror seventeen. During my first questioning by the judge, I explained that I knew her because she taught me last semester, to which many people laughed. We both felt that the fact that we knew one another would not be a problem, and that neither of us would influence one another in the decision. The lawyers then asked more hypothetical situational questions. When it came time for the lawyers to select their alternates, I was not among one of the names chosen. Despite the fact that I could not serve on the case, I was very happy with my experience. After all, many potential jurors never get to experience being called for a case, with some never having to report at all. My fellow jurors were all very accommodating as long as I was able to articulate what I needed. I feel that I can quite confidently say that my reason for not being chosen had nothing to do with my blindness, as there were many, many other sighted people in the same situation. So, is jury duty for a blind person possible? Yes! By coming together and sharing our jury duty experiences, both past and future, we Federationists can work together to give each other guidance and discuss accommodation issues. However, as long as you have some method of being able to read your juror information, follow instructions, and can advocate for yourself, there should be few if any problems. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: JP Williams plays the guitar.] Playing Your Hand: A Blind Songwriter Doing What It Takes to Live the Life He Wants by JP Williams From the Editor: JP Williams is a singer songwriter and accessibility technology professional who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Many of us know of JP's work in helping to craft "Live the Life You Want" and other Federation songs. Here is the presentation that JP made on the morning of July 8, 2018: So, what's going on, people? How are you feeling? So if you believe you can live the life you want, let me hear from you. [applause] What an honor it is to speak this morning. President Riccobono, thank you for the invitation. I've been excited about this for a long time and preparing for it, and I'm going to talk about two things this morning that a lot of people have already touched on, but I'm gonna tell you my take on it due to my experience and the path that I've taken. That's expectation and collaboration, and to do that I'm going to back up and start from the beginning. I was born with limited vision-only in my left eye, none in my right- in Clarksville, Indiana. [cheers from Indiana] At the age of four, fortunately I was introduced to Braille. They knew my vision was fading, and I would become completely blind. So they introduced me to Braille, and at the age of six, myself and my family moved to Dallas, Texas. Around that time, after my second grade year, I was placed into resource classes because of my blindness. It was determined that I would just go on to receive a certificate of attendance. I have to show my age. I'm forty-two. This was the early 80s, and at that time that's where I landed. I had a single mom, and we didn't know at that time that you could live the life you want. We didn't know about the National Federation of the Blind. We didn't know all of those things. I'm fast forwarding. By the end of my junior year, I was sitting with my parents and talking about options and realizing, of course, that I didn't have the credits to go to college. We got together and developed a plan that I would attend the Tennessee School for the Blind for two years. There I got four years of credits, and went to college and graduated. [applause] So I have to say that I have empathy for the blind students, and I have empathy for the blind parents. I have to say thank God you are here, because now you have knowledge, and now you know the truth. [applause] After college I moved to Atlanta, Georgia (I moved around a lot). There I was teaching music and playing a lot of different types of corporate gigs and going on the road as an independent artist. In the midst of all that, Nashville, Tennessee, would not leave me alone. So I started taking a Greyhound bus to Nashville-from Atlanta to Nashville once a month. I call what I did intelligent ignorance because I had no idea what I was up against. But I did it anyway because I wanted to go and place myself in an environment where I could succeed or fail, and that's basically how you define an opportunity-if there is a chance of success, if there's a chance of failure. The bar is set very high in Nashville; it's the NFL for songwriters. I started taking that Greyhound bus and calling publishers, trying to set up co-writes, getting hotel rooms, and in the year 2006 I took the plunge. I said I've got to go because I would rather go and get my answer then spend the rest of my life wondering what if. I moved in, started a life, met my wife who's with me here today [applause], and she said a cool thing: she said, "This is a cane-vention." This is her first time here with me, so this is a cane-vention, baby. [applause] I met my wife and just began the messy road of the music business. Eventually I landed a publishing deal, so for the past seven years I've been paid to write songs. It's been amazing. When you get into expectations, through my experience in placing myself in an environment where the bar is set high, after that you start collaborating. I have to say that the National Federation of the Blind is one of the best places to collaborate. [applause] Think about how in 1940 if sixteen people hadn't gotten together to collaborate, to develop a constitution, to help blind people, we would not all be here today. They got together, and we are all here, and it's an amazing thing, and the collaboration continues. Figuratively this is a beautiful song that has been written and continues to be written. People ask me all the time, "What's it like as a blind person being a songwriter, a professional songwriter." People show up in the room (I call it creative dating). My publisher will set up co-writes with other songwriters at other publishing companies. They'll show up in the room, and a lot of times it's the first time you've ever met. Sometimes it goes well and you connect, and sometimes it's just, "Let's go to lunch." But one of the things that I have found, being the only blind person in the room, is that humor always goes a long way, not taking myself too seriously, but taking what I do seriously-that goes a long way. The idea is king. If it's a great idea, it doesn't matter who's blind or sighted in the room. You're all working toward a common goal: to write the best song, to create the best product. This is what happens at the NFB every day. As an example of collaboration, my wife is going to bring me my guitar [applause], and I'm going to play you a little ditty. I got together one day with a songwriter by the name of Bobby Cumberland, and Bobby's been in town a long time and is a very successful songwriter. We started talking about the roots of country music and how much it means to us. [JP begins to strum his guitar and play] So we got to talking about the roots of the music. We love the new stuff, but we hope that the roots of the genre are never forgotten. And that led us to start talking about the Grand Ole Opry. In the midst of that, we started thinking, what if the Grand Ole Opry was a person just sitting in a rocking chair telling you about his/her life? What would he/she say? This is what we came out with, and I was fortunate enough actually (this was another dream come true) to sing this on the Grand Ole Opry last year. [There is no way to replicate this performance in writing, so those wishing to hear the song should go to https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/2018_convention_highlights/july_8/am/05_pla ying_your_hand.mp3.] Another dream has come true recently. There are three things you always pray for when you land in Nashville: that you get a publishing deal, you get to sing on the Grand Ole Opry, and you hear a song that you've written or co-written on the radio. Well this song is number thirty-eight on the country charts right now. It was released by an artist named Jimmy Allen, it's climbing the charts right now, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I got together with Jimmy and another buddy of ours, Josh London, and we wrote this song. Fortunately he went and recorded it. It's called "Best Shot." [He plays the song] As I'm closing today, I'd like to leave you with a quote I heard recently that really spoke to me. That is, "Diversity is being invited to the party, and inclusion is being asked to dance." [applause] So let's all keep dancing. God bless you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Valerie Yingling] Accessible Cardtronics ATMs by Valerie Yingling From the Editor: Valerie Yingling is our legal program coordinator, and she has been at this job for six years. No one can come away from the national convention without remembering the extension 2440 since this dedicated and highly effective staff member solicits lots of input on a variety of topics. It is always a pleasure to talk with her, and it is also a pleasure to read what she writes. Here it is: This past September, Cardtronics received certification confirming that its ATM fleet was in compliance with the strict accessibility standards of the 2014 settlement agreement between the National Federation of the Blind, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Cardtronics. This is a noteworthy milestone, and one that nearly concludes years of legal action and the NFB demanding that Cardtronics ATMs be fully accessible to the blind. A Complex History It was in 2005 that NFB and the Commonwealth first brought action against Cardtronics, and in 2007 Cardtronics entered into a class-action settlement, agreeing to make nearly 30,000 ATMs accessible to the blind via voice guidance. This was a landmark agreement and one that helped set the standard for ATM accessibility nationwide. Unfortunately, Cardtronics was unsuccessful in implementing the agreement terms, a subsequent court- approved remediation plan, and an extension of terms to March 15, 2012, that included the court providing a Shakespearean warning to Cardtronics to beware the Ides of March. In August 2012, after further nonconformance, NFB and the Commonwealth requested court-supervised monitoring and enforcement. The court appointed a special master, and Cardtronics established a Center of Excellence to steer its accessibility efforts and provide industry-leading voice-guided user experience for Cardtronics-supported ATMs. At long last, these interventions proved successful. ATM voice-guidance scripts were developed with the assistance of NFB member and accessibility expert Ron Gardner, and Cardtronics installed the accessible software and scripts across its ATM fleet, numbering then close to 100,000 ATMs. Many of you were instrumental in the NFB's 2017-2018 Cardtronics ATM testing program. Members tested six hundred ATMs nationwide to assess that each included Braille instructions and labels, that voice guidance began when a customer inserted a headset into the headphone jack, that the user could complete a balance inquiry and cash withdrawal and receive a transaction summary via voice guidance, and other critical features. This was not an easy testing program, and its success relied on the commitment of over two hundred testers. The test results weren't perfect. Cardtronics took reports of inaccessibility seriously and investigated all failed tests. Missing Braille and inoperable machines were addressed swiftly. Substantiated issues were not related to the voice-guidance scripts themselves. One recurring problem involved testers' inability to sufficiently hear the voice guidance. We identified that if testers were using Apple headphones, they would likely need to insert the headphones only halfway into the headphone jack for best sound quality. Moving Forward We are currently in Phase II of our settlement agreement with Cardtronics. Over the next seven quarters, Cardtronics is required to complete one full accessibility inspection cycle of its ATM fleet and provide quarterly reports to NFB and the Commonwealth. Now that NFB has completed its ATM testing program and Cardtronics has received its certificate of conformance, there are specific troubleshooting and reporting actions that NFB members can take if they encounter an inaccessible ATM. We recommend the following for Cardtronics or otherwise-owned ATMs: If you cannot hear the voice guidance, first remove and reinsert your headphones. Basic headphones will work best; headphones with microphones may not work. If you are using Apple headphones, they may need to be inserted only halfway for best sound quality. If you experience difficulties with your PIN, card, or incorrect cash dispenses, you should contact your bank for resolution. All other barriers can be directed to the ATM's owner/servicer. All ATMs should have a number on them to call for mechanical difficulties, access, or suspicious activities. Unfortunately, the phone number might not be provided on the machine in Braille, and you may need to ask store personnel to identify the number. Cardtronics ATM complaints can be directed to 800-786-9666; please keep in mind that not all ATMs are owned or serviced by Cardtronics. As President Riccobono has stated, "We appreciate that the leadership team at Cardtronics recognizes that the blind deserve the same convenient access to cash and banking services that sighted people enjoy." Indeed, full and equal access to financial information and resources is critical to our members living the lives they want. Accessible ATMs remain a matter of priority for the NFB. We are pleased that it is a priority for Cardtronics as well. For additional information, or for copies of the settlement agreements and press releases, visit www.nfb.org/legal or contact Valerie Yingling, legal program coordinator, at vyingling at nfb.org or 410-659-9314, extension 2440. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: John Par?] Social Security, SSI, and Medicare Facts for 2019 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 2019 approximately 67 million Americans will see a slight cost-of-living (COLA) increase (2.8 percent) in their benefit amounts. Thus, come January, monthly checks will be a few dollars higher. The 2019 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. 7.65 percent of your pay, for example, 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 $128,400 per year in 2018 and will jump to $132,900 in 2019. Thus, for earnings above $132,900, 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 2018 credit for one quarter of coverage was awarded for any individual who earned at least $1,320 during the year, which means that an individual would have needed to earn at least $5,280 to be credited with four quarters of coverage. In 2019 the amount increases to $1,360 for one calendar quarter or $5,440 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 2018 the amount required to use a TWP month was only $850, and this amount will increase to $880 in 2019. 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 2018 was $1,970 per month and will rise to $2,040 in 2019. Remember this is not the TWP amount. This is to say that the TWP can be exhausted even if your income is well below $2,040 per month. See the above information about the TWP. In 2019 a blind SSDI beneficiary who earns $2,041 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) will be deemed to have exceeded SGA and will likely no longer be eligible for benefits. Social Security Benefit Amounts In January of 2019 the average amount of SSDI benefits for a disabled worker is estimated to rise by about $34 to $1,234. 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 2.8 percent between the third quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018. Thus, there is a corresponding COLA increase in 2019 and an increase in monthly benefit amounts. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) The federal payment amount for individuals receiving SSI in 2018 was $750 and will increase to $771 in 2019, and the federal monthly payment amount of SSI received by couples will rise from $1,125 to $1,157. Student Earned Income Exclusion In 2018, the monthly amount was $1,820 and will increase to $1,870 in 2019. The annual amount was $7,350 and will be $7,550 in 2019. 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 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 $1,340 in 2018 and increases to $1,364 in 2019. The coinsurance charged for hospital services within a benefit period of no longer than sixty days will remain at $0, as it has for the past several years. From the sixty-first day through the ninetieth day, the daily coinsurance amount was $335 per day in 2018 and will rise slightly to $341 in 2019. 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 2018 was $670 and in 2019 will be $682. 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 $167.50 for 2018 and will rise just slightly to $170.50 in 2019. 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 2018 was $422 monthly and increases to $437 in 2019. The annual deductible amount for Medicare Part B (medical insurance) in 2018 was $183 and will rise to $185 in 2019. The Medicare Part B monthly premium rate for 2018 was $134 per month and will rise to $135.50 in 2019. 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 2019. 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 2018, an individual's monthly income could not exceed $1,032, and a married couple's monthly income could not exceed $1,392. To qualify for the SLMB program in 2018, an individual's monthly income could not exceed $1,234, and a married couple's monthly income could not exceed $1,666. 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 2018, resources (such as bank accounts or stocks) could not exceed $7,560 for one person or $11,340 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: Norma Crosby] [PHOTO CAPTION: Helen Keller] Helen Keller No More in Texas by Norma Crosby From the Editor: Norma Crosby is the dynamic president of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Her long and distinguished career in helping blind people was most recently exemplified in her work after hurricane Harvey, and many will remember that she was recognized, along with husband Glenn, with the Jacobus tenBroek Award in 2017. In response to a proposal being considered by the state of Texas to remove Helen Keller from the curriculum, Norma and a number of people from her state and throughout the nation have expressed their concern. In response, the board has delayed its decision until November, and there is some reason to believe the proposal will be amended. Here is what Norma said in an email which contains her letter to the head of the Texas Board of Education: Hello everyone. This morning I have sent a note to the chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education regarding the board's recent decision to omit Helen Keller from the state's required curriculum for elementary school students. I wanted to share it with you. If others wish to contact the agency, I will share the appropriate contact information here. Donna Bahorich, Chairwoman Texas State Board of Education donna.bahorich at tea.texas.gov Here is the text of my letter. Dear Chairwoman Bahorich: I understand that the Texas SBOE is currently considering a final vote regarding the removal of Helen Keller from our state's mandated curriculum. As the president of an organization that works to ensure that blind Texans can live the lives we want, I believe it is critical for both disabled children and those who do not have a disability to learn that blind and deaf-blind people have the capacity to participate actively in society and to make a difference in everyday life. Helen Keller was such a person, and since disabled children have few role models to learn about in school, I believe it is critical that Helen Keller remain a part of what children are taught. In fact, I believe there is room to add other historically important figures who are blind to our curriculum. For example, Kenneth Jernigan led the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the world for many years, and he was a critical thinker regarding blindness. He understood intuitively that it was necessary for blind people to learn the nonvisual skills necessary to compete on terms of equality with their sighted peers. He believed that with proper training and opportunity, blind people can work and be contributing members of society. I agree with his assessment, and I believe Helen Keller did as well. We want blind and other disabled children to grow up with the attitude that they can and should work, own a home, raise children, and do all the other things their sighted peers do. We want sighted children to understand that blind people can do these things as well, and the inclusion of Helen Keller as a role model allows for a discussion of how blind and other disabled people can utilize the important skills necessary to accomplish our goals in life. I urge you to consider what I have said here as you make a final decision regarding this matter, and I hope you will work with our organization to make sure the curriculum you adopt includes an opportunity for all children to learn about the important accomplishments of people with disabilities. I look forward to a respectful dialogue regarding this issue, and I welcome your response at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Norma Crosby, President National Federation of the Blind of Texas ---------- My History and My Desire to Serve by Sheri Koch From the Editor: one of the blessings of being involved in a growing and diverse organization is watching the change in leadership that occurs. Over the last few years we have had a record number of newly elected state presidents. They have a listserv that makes it easy for them to communicate, strategize, and get to know one another. Here is a recent post from that list that is particularly moving and instructive: Hello NFB Family, I see from watching the list that new affiliate presidents have been introducing themselves, so I will follow suit. I'm a wee bit late with this, having been elected back in September. I am a native West Virginian, and with the exception of a brief stint in western Florida, I've made my life here in the Mountain State. With a brief interruption for my senior year, I was educated at the West Virginia School for the Blind. I graduated from a large public high school in preparation for transitioning to college life. My undergraduate work was done in social work, and my master's degree is in rehabilitation counseling. For almost thirty years I worked for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services in their blindness programs, starting as a teacher of adult blind, moving on to being a specialty rehabilitation counselor for the blind, and finally serving as a program specialist of blind services. Happily, I've been retired for almost six years. My husband of thirty years and I live with our two lovely Feline- Americans here in the capitol city of Charleston. We spend time reading, keeping up with the news, traveling to far-away places such as Ireland, doing volunteer work with our local Lions Club, and of course, working for the National Federation of the Blind, an organization that I love dearly and which has changed my life. Until age fifty I refused to put a cane in my hand. Somehow, and this is still a mystery to me, I thought it much cooler to bumble around in my world rather than taking on the perceived indignity of the long white cane. I continue to marvel to this day about my crazy perceptions and just how wrong I was. As part of my professional duties, I was asked to attend NCSAB [National Council of State Agencies for the Blind], IL-OB [Independent Living Older Blind], and NFB meetings. It was at these meetings that I met wonderful blind people who used the long white cane with confidence and dignity. It wasn't long before I internalized the value and freedom of the cane. NFB changed my life, and I now live in my world with greater ease, confidence, and peace. Thank you NFB!!! I am forever grateful, and I will spend as many years that are left to me giving back to you! I eagerly await the time when I have the opportunity to meet each and every one of you. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Peggy Chong] Southwest Airlines Works Toward Inclusion for All by Peggy Chong From the Editor: Peggy Chong is probably best known for her series of articles that gained her the name, The Blind History Lady. Many of her beginning articles were first featured in these pages, and now she has a website which is https://theblindhistorylady.com. In addition to all of the work she does on history, she also is very involved in her local chapter and state affiliate. In this article she tells us about the outreach her chapter has done to Southwest Airlines and the positive response it has received. Here is what she says: The Braille Monitor for many years has printed articles regarding air travel and the blind. Most of them have expounded on our frustrations with the airlines and their staff. Last summer at our national convention we heard from Blane Workie from the office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings (see the October Braille Monitor, https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1809/bm180908.htm). She told us that things are changing for the better for passengers with disabilities. Recently, the Albuquerque Chapter of the NFB of New Mexico hosted its annual White Cane Banquet as part of our Meet the Blind Month activities. Our speaker was Southwest Airlines Representative Dallas Thomas who spoke on the policies and practices of Southwest Airlines in regard to its blind customers. The presentation was received enthusiastically by the crowd. But there is much more to the story than just a speaker for our White Cane Banquet. In early June of 2018, Curtis and I were rushing to catch our Southwest flight at the Albuquerque airport. We approached the service counter and got checked in. We said we could not work the kiosks as they were not accessible. The ticket agent told us that yes, they were accessible, but she was not sure how they worked. The three of us went to one of the new kiosks and found the headphone jack. Curtis plugged in his headphones and started to explore. Unfortunately, as we had already checked in, we did not want to mess up our reservation by experimenting. Besides, we had to get to our gate. Before leaving the ticketing area we asked if there was someone we could call when we got back, who could tell us more. She gave us a name and phone number, and we were off. When we returned from our trip, I called the Southwest phone number and left a message that I would like to know more about the accessible kiosks and can we come and test one out. The message was passed on to John Johnston, ABQ Assistant Station Leader, Ground Operations. Mr. Johnston told me later that his first question to the staff member who gave him the message was, "Do we have one of those?" When his team member said that they did, but no one knows how it works, Mr. Johnston said that maybe they better figure out how it works! Next, he gave me a call to talk about the kiosks. Not long after our first contact, I asked if he would like to address our White Cane Banquet in the fall and promote the new kiosks. He said he would get back to me about speaking and when our members can come out and test the kiosks. I thought this would be the end of our communication. Nope, each Friday he called and gave me an update. Mr. Johnston took our request seriously and contacted the national Southwest Airlines headquarters in Texas to learn how the kiosks worked, if there were instructions on those things, and who would be the best speaker. Dallas Thomas was assigned to come to Albuquerque and present to our group. Dallas Thomas did know about the accessibility initiatives of Southwest, but not the specifics. He too did not know exactly how the kiosks worked, but he would get back to me. I asked if we could get from him step-by-step instructions for operating the kiosks at the airport. He said he would get them to us when he had them. Mr. Thomas participated in many meetings at the Department of Transportation on accessibility including the DOT's Access Advisory Committee where he represented Southwest Airlines. At several of those meetings, he had a chance to discuss accessibility issues with our own Parnell Diggs to better understand what blind passengers experienced when traveling and what we wanted. Thomas said that Southwest wants to not just meet the standards set by the Department of Transportation, rather it wants to reach for a goal of total inclusion and take the necessary time to actively work toward that goal. My reasons for asking for the step-by-step guide were of course to understand how the kiosks worked, but more importantly, to find out if Southwest understood how they worked. Did a blind person have input on the design of the kiosks? Had a blind person even test driven one of them before implementation? The next ten weeks proved to be most enlightening for me. Dallas Thomas not only got me the step-by-step instructions, but he also made sure they worked. When Mr. Thomas went to get the instructions, there were none. When instructions were created and he got a copy, he went to the testing center where they put up three test kiosks and walked through the instructions himself. I bet he never spent so much time preparing for a speaking engagement before. His presentation on October 20 before seventy-two registrants for our White Cane Banquet shed further light on why Dallas was willing to find out how the accessibility functions worked before our event. He told us that in testing the nonvisual access, the techies turn off the screen. When they test, they are truly using nonvisual access that you and I would use. What a concept! It is so simple and common sense, yet very few designers today think of doing such a simple and time-saving step before implementation. Dallas explained that Southwest wants inclusion for all, no matter if one is a customer or employee. No matter if we are blind, deaf, or just an infrequent flyer. When Southwest began to replace outdated equipment and software, it knew it had a big job ahead. But Southwest wanted to do it right the first time and not add on to an old and outdated product. This meant that the kiosks that had to be accessible had to communicate with the reservations information that blind customer service reservations operators would use as well as the software for the rest of the company. Dallas said that they took longer than they had hoped, but, as they roll out each new component of their new systems, they have been coming on with very minor hiccups and with no or little disruption to operations and customer contacts. Dallas also told us that from this point on, all new kiosks at Southwest will be accessible and that all kiosks operated by Southwest will operate the same. We will not have to know if this model has this feature or not. Everything will be standard. He received much applause for these comments. The in-flight entertainment component was also discussed. Many of us know that on Southwest there are no seatback entertainment options. But, did you know that Southwest has an accessible entertainment option? Yes, on the device of your choice-I used my iPhone, but you can use your android device as well. After turning on airplane mode, I went to settings, Wi-Fi, and looked for the Southwest network. Not being a big techie expert, it took a couple of tries to figure it out, but I did. The in-flight entertainment killed time, but I think I will still bring my Victor Reader Stream. Dallas explained that it is much easier for every passenger to access entertainment on the device they are most familiar with rather than spending too much of your trip fighting with a new device. Designing a seatback system that would need to be updated (both hardware and software) each time new devices become popular could prove to be more expensive. The audience agreed with his comments. I guess many of us had experienced the frustration of trying to relax with in-flight entertainment options on an unfamiliar seatback device. Another revealing comment on the philosophy of Southwest as a company came from Mr. Thomas during his presentation when he discussed a Southwest senior reservations manager who lost his vision a few years ago. Nothing in Mr. Thomas's comments indicated that Southwest thought the man should retire early. On the contrary, he spoke about it as if it was natural that the blinded employee would have to make a few changes in how he carried out his duties and continue on with the company in the same position. As head of reservations, the now-blinded Southwest manager is in charge of the reservations call centers where several blind people are employed and using speech and Braille output equipment that is compatible with Southwest's new software. Since the rollout of its new software, according to Mr. Thomas, more blind reservations agents have been hired by Southwest. Although not everything is perfect, Southwest has been open and willing to talk to us about its kiosks and how they work, as well as open to suggestions. Members and guests attending the White Cane Banquet left with a warm feeling toward Southwest and an eagerness to try the new kiosks. Does that mean that we will never have a bad trip? Probably not, but at least many of us now feel that if it happens on Southwest, our troubles will not be a result of inaccessibility or indifference on the part of the company. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Ed Vaughan] When Readers Are Good by Ed Vaughan From the Editor: Dr. C. Edwin Vaughan is professor emeritus at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He lives in California with his wife Joanne, but he still manages to write from time to time when he feels that an issue can benefit from his insight and observations. Here is what he has to say in the ongoing debate about the value of human readers and technology: In the February 2018 Braille Monitor Sabre Ewing writes about the inadequacies of using human readers for accessible technology. From Ms. Ewing's perspective when blind people use readers they create diminished access by "distorting cause and effect relationships in virtual environments." Using readers also promotes "dependence and distortion throughout the data analysis process." "Allowing a human reader to control software for a blind student will hinder that person's learning... Equal access also means both blind and sighted students should have the same independence and ease of use. We must therefore demand that, when a school cannot reasonably switch to accessible software, it must provide alternative instructional materials to blind students that do not require the use of a human reader." Admittedly Ms. Ewing is focused on a fairly narrow range of blind people using screen reader technology. However, I am writing this to remind us all that there are many different reasons for accessing different material in various ways. For at least eighty years many blind people have pursued careers in higher education, which frequently involves working in research universities. This means a lighter teaching load to provide time for creating new knowledge that can be shared with others through peer- reviewed publications. To be competitive in this environment, a blind person must be efficient in finding ways to access many different sources of information. For example, on several occasions I have conducted research in archival sources. There is almost no way this could be done without a reader. However with a well-trained, experienced reader, one can scan through much material without bogging down in unimportant details. As another example I sometimes encounter an article citing twenty or more sources, listed in support of the author's argument. At times I have wondered if the author was correctly using the many citations. In one case I reviewed seventeen articles in old and obscure printed journals and found that most of them had been misquoted and did not support the author's argument. A well-trained reader can facilitate what might otherwise be in this instance a very lengthy process (Vaughan & Schroeder 2019). In a research setting, speed is important. A good reader is more effective than five less able readers. This is the case in many fields such as history, political science, anthropology, and literature-to mention only a few. Any strategy that you find effective should be used until you find a better one. Ms. Ewing mentions the cost of using readers. At my research university I could employ readers using research grants and other departmental resources such as work-study students. I also paid readers myself. Was this costly? My work probably cost no more than other colleagues who required various kinds of specialized equipment for their research. Also I have used volunteer readers for many decades. For example, I have had the same volunteer for fourteen years. Not only is he good, but we have become good friends. I am a great fan of various new technologies. My only concern is that, in our zeal to master one approach, we may overlook many different ways to live the life we want to live. ---------- [PHOTO CAPTION: Fredric Schroeder] Advancing Opportunities for the World's 253 Million Blind and Partially Sighted People by Fredric Schroeder August 15, 2018 From the Editor: Fredric Schroeder is a person who continues to astound me with the things he thinks and writes. When he speaks at one of our conventions, you can hear a pin drop. He always manages to incorporate interesting pieces from literature, science, or history and make it relevant to today's experiences for people who are blind. He has long done this for the National Federation of the Blind, but now he is prominent on the world stage as the president of the World Blind Union. Here is an address he delivered on August 15, 2018: The introduction to a 1902 translation of The Iliad contains the following words by Theodore Alois Buckley: "... we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labor and anxiety to acquire." (Theodore Alois Buckley, introduction to The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (New York: A. L. Burt, 1902)). These poignant words remind us that the struggle for progress is a struggle against our own human nature-the struggle to abandon the security and comfort of the familiar and step with hope and faith into the unknown. While nearly everything commonly believed about Homer has been drawn from his poems, little is truly known about him or even whether he existed at all. Homer is assumed to have been blind, based on Demodokos, a blind poet found in The Odyssey. While blind poets were common in the ancient world, concluding that Homer was himself blind based on a reference to a blind poet in one of his works is at best tenuous. Yet, Homer remains an enduring testament to the ability of blind people to find a place in society-a testament to the ability of blind people, for all of recorded time, to work and contribute to the welfare of their communities, however difficult and limited the opportunities were then and however difficult and limited they remain nearly three millennia later. Was Homer blind? Who knows? But what is known is that there were blind poets in Homer's day, and the idea of a blind poet authoring one of the world's most poignant and enduring works would not have been surprising in Homer's time, and it is not surprising now. We know that blind people are a cross-section of society-some exceptional and others less so. Some ambitious while others not. Some are determined and others are timid. Yet opportunities then and opportunities now remain the exception for the blind, and that is why we have the World Blind Union. The World Blind Union (WBU) advocates on behalf of the world's estimated 253 million blind and partially sighted children and adults, but what do we advocate for? Blind people want what everyone wants: we want to live a productive life; we want to work and marry and raise a family. We want to live life in all its richness, with all its joys and opportunities, and we want to live with dignity. So, what stops us? For the most part, opportunities for blind people are limited by low expectations, that is, by socially constructed barriers to full inclusion. For all of recorded time, blind people have been presumed to be helpless, in need of care. Nevertheless, blind people have shown over and over again that, given the chance, they can live productive, fulfilling lives. Can blind children learn? Of course, but they need access to school books in Braille, and they need teachers who can teach them and who believe in their ability. Most of all, blind children need society to put aside its preconceptions and recognize that the age-old beliefs about blind people are false and must be replaced. In the area of education, the WBU led the effort to establish an international treaty that would allow books and other materials produced in special formats for the blind to be shared between and among participating countries. The treaty, known as the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/marrakesh/), has now been ratified by forty countries, greatly expanding the availability of accessible materials for blind people living in those countries. In our modern age, it is anticipated that the majority of accessible materials will be shared electronically. Accordingly, the WBU led an effort to develop a powerful new technology that makes Braille compact, portable, and affordable. At one time books for the blind were limited to specially- produced Braille and large print and later, audio recordings. Today, more and more materials are downloaded electronically and are read by means of what is known as refreshable Braille. Refreshable Braille devices display Braille characters with pins that rise and fall, but until recently, refreshable Braille devices were prohibitively expensive-typically over $5,000. In response, the WBU led an effort to develop the Orbit Reader, a refreshable Braille device costing under $500, one tenth the cost of previous devices. Can blind adults work? Of course, but they need access to training and special technology that enables them to read computer screens and perform other work-related tasks. Most of all, blind adults need society to put aside its preconceptions and recognize that the age-old beliefs about blind people are false and must be replaced. In the area of employment, the WBU helped develop and is now advocating the ratification of an international treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, that calls on countries to adopt a wide range of civil rights protections banning discrimination against blind people in employment. In addition to advocating for legal protections, the WBU has developed online resources (Project Aspiro) that provide information about the types of work blind people are doing and the training and tools that make high quality employment possible. Can blind people travel safely and independently? Of course, but they face barriers brought about by changes to the environment that were made without considering the impact on blind people. Most of all, blind people need society to put aside its preconceptions and recognize that the age-old beliefs about blind people are false and must be replaced. For example, new electric and hybrid cars are increasingly common. Cars traveling on electric power are essentially silent, meaning they present a danger to pedestrians, especially blind pedestrians who rely on sound to judge when it is safe to cross a road. As a result, the WBU is working with the UN to develop a worldwide standard that would require manufacturers to equip electric and hybrid cars with a sound device that will alert pedestrians, including blind pedestrians, to the presence of very quiet cars. Whether it is education, employment, or community life, blind people have the ability to live as do others. Sometimes what is needed is new technology or special training, but what is always needed is an understanding that blind people can participate in the full range of activities others enjoy. In Buckley's introductory words to The Iliad, "To be content with what we at present know, is, for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired." (Theodore Alois Buckley, introduction to The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (New York: A. L. Burt, 1902)). Blindness need not isolate blind people, but low expectations can and often do. We ask only the opportunity, the fair opportunity, to live as you live; to learn and to work; to dream and plan; to hope and aspire; to live normal lives free from the assumptions of the past. Said another way, we ask your understanding; we ask your friendship. For, as Homer, in his epic poem The Odyssey, reminds us, "...a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother." (Homer. The Odyssey of Homer (VIII. 585- 586), trans. George Herbert Palmer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1894)). ---------- Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Review and Congratulations! by Amy Mason From the Editor: It is fitting in this end-of-year issue that we close the first session of our class about using the internet with various screen readers and web browsers. Amy Mason has put a lot of work into this class, and this will wrap things up until next year. Amy now works at San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind, but she promises to keep on writing and teaching in these pages. Here is her summary of what all of us have learned so far: Hey Class, I should have gotten this message to you before the summer break, but you did it. You have completed the first module of Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway. Congratulations are in order. You have already learned the fundamentals of web-browsing and gotten your hands on many of the tools you are going to need to explore on your own. So today's class is a celebration of where we have been, what we have learned, and what we are looking forward to in the coming months. Where We Have Been I want to focus on this first, because I believe firmly in the saying, "practice makes perfect." I also believe that practice is a lot less painful if we have our resources and tools at our elbow where we can reference them again in case we need a booster in either confidence or command structure. I know I can't keep all this nonsense in my head. I can't think of a single day I use a computer that I don't reference a keyboard help document at least once. Therefore, we'll use this as a guide to where you can find further information in the rest of the series. Especially relevant links from each piece will also be noted in a resources section at the end of this article so that you can get at them easily. It's been a wild ride so far. Our first lesson together "The New and Improved Rules of the Road" in the January 2018 Braille Monitor was our foundational lesson. In it we discussed a brief history of the internet and our access to it. We also looked at common terms we were going to learn about in future articles and the true meaning of accessibility. We also learned that we have the power to help ourselves increase the odds that we will be able to use the web simply by learning to be flexible in the tools we employ and the strategies we use. In February we began discussing some of those tools, "Browsers- Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey." We compared and contrasted the strengths and weaknesses of different options and discussed which would work best for different users depending on the combination of screen reader and operating system they were using. This article may or may not have included a sing-a-long. I believe that it is important to note that there is an update that should be made to the information found in the browser article. In the original piece, I mentioned that there had been a change to how Firefox was rendering information it passed to a screen reader, and at the time I recommended that most users should stick with the Extended Release version of the software. As of the time of this writing, many, many months later, that advice has changed. Of course, it couldn't be a change to make things simpler; it had to get more complicated (sigh). So here's the story with Firefox: If you are using JAWS 2018 and updated in June or later, you should now use the standard version of Firefox. (Sadly, this is going to require you to uninstall the Extended version.) If you are using NVDA 18.1 or newer, you can also try the new version of Firefox, though it may or may not work quite as well as the most recent versions of JAWS. If you are running an older version of either screen reader, switch to Chrome as your primary browser until further notice. The changes in Firefox are fundamental and require major upgrade work for the screen readers, so older versions will not be supported on the recent release. Unfortunately, the Extended version is also now updating into problematic territory for older screen readers, so we really are stuck in this upgrade or leave scenario. It's a pity, but there is little we can do about it. Unfortunately, sometimes we get a lemon of a car, and we can only put so much work in before we have to move on. Although Firefox itself isn't a lemon, it is wholly incompatible with older screen readers, so those combinations become lemon-like very quickly. Long story short-if Firefox has stopped working for you, switch to Chrome for now. You will be much happier. Our third article, "Screen Readers: The Interface Between Us and the Road," published in the April Braille Monitor compares and contrasts the major desktop screen readers and provides a wealth of information on their quirks, foibles, and further learning resources. Nothing new and notable to report here, so we will let the original article speak for itself, and you can peruse the resources below if you want to be reminded of any of the items that were linked in the original. In May we finally got our motors running and headed on the highway. In "Hitting the Road, and Finding Your Way" we discussed the basics of finding your way around the web by typing the web address of the site you want to visit, using a search engine, or browsing from one link to the next. We also covered the basic reading and navigating of web pages. We discussed the ability to move by element (heading, link, graphic, etc.), the art of skimming, reading it all, and using the Find command. In this article I encouraged you to start exploring sites that are primarily geared toward reading and gathering information as an opportunity to practice these different techniques and to decide which works best for you. It was a lovely day for a drive, and from what I have heard, some of you are still out there exploring. I'm thrilled to hear it and just want to caution you to stop for gas, food, and rest at least once in a while. The fifth article in the series, and the final one offered in the first semester of class is "Basic Interactions: The Fast Lane to Getting Stuff Done on the Web" which you can read in the June 2018 Braille Monitor. In this lesson we discussed all the exciting elements that allow you to do things and enter information on webpages. We covered forms, tables, buttons, checkboxes, and radio buttons. We made a literal trip to the Expedia website to practice booking flights, and a metaphorical trip to both a hotel and the mall. Finally, at the end of our whirlwind tour, I offered you a few more websites that we can expect to work in mostly predictable ways so you could keep practicing. What Now? Now, keep practicing. Keep pushing yourself, and keep exploring. You have your license, and in a very real way that is enough to get started. Everything we discussed in the past is still true. You will still encounter problems, but the more you practice, the more you will find your own ways around them and the more confident you will be when you sign up for the second semester of Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway. You still have all of the class notes from the first semester at your disposal, so take the time to review anything that you aren't quite comfortable with yet, and keep spreading your wings. Help each other along with homework and extracurricular activities. You'll be back in the classroom sooner than you think. Sneak Preview Second Verse, Same as the First, a Little Bit Louder, and a Little Bit Worse In the upcoming semester, we are going to cover more advanced web- browsing topics. These will include: Detours and Mechanics 101: We are going to discuss what you might do when the highway doesn't quite provide you with the smooth and enjoyable ride you expect. Common strategies for working around inaccessible components and some of the most common errors in web design that cause blind drivers the biggest headaches will be discussed. Defensive Driving-Protecting Your Car and Yourself: This lesson will cover some of the scummier and scammier things you'll find on the internet and give you some good general strategies for protecting your computer, your personal data, and yourself from the car-jacking hooligans you may encounter while browsing. It's Dangerous to Go Alone (or at Least Really Annoying), Take This!: Remember how we talked about the ways you can customize your browser? Good. In this article we are going to discuss some browser extensions you might wish to employ, their advantages, disadvantages, and how you can install them if you so desire. A Day at the Carnival-Everyone Deserves a Treat Now and Again: My co- instructor Karen Anderson and I are going to take you out to enjoy a day at the social media carnival. Learn about the short but intense Twitter-Go- Round, or perhaps you are more interested in the Facebook Funhouse. If you prefer, we can also take a tour of the contests and educational content on offer in LinkedIn Pavillion. (Please Note-your professor is a member of the internet generation. All class names, structure, and order are subject to change without notice. We will cover the above topics, but as you may have caught from reviewing the first semester's material, this series has morphed a number of times from the humble single article it was intended to be more than a year ago, and I cannot promise that the syllabus for next semester is going to resemble the above list in any meaningful way except that we are going to continue talking about web-browsing as a screen reader user using questionable humor and lots of car and driving metaphors.) *Pomp and Circumstance begins to play. Students throw mortar boards in the air. Suddenly, the music changes, and we climb in our cars and rev our engines with Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway" blaring in the background.* Class Dismissed! See you next semester! Resources Abandon hope all ye who enter here in the audio edition of the publication. Also, to the narrator, I am truly sorry. This section contains a lot of links in order to keep them together for ease of reference, and sadly, that is probably not going to be particularly enjoyable for the folks who are reading or narrating the human-read edition of the Braille Monitor. Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-The New and Improved Rules of the Road Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1801/bm180109.htm Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway Browsers-Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1802/bm180205.htm Download the latest Firefox: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Download the latest Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/ Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Screen Readers: The Interface between Us and the Road Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1804/bm180416.htm Chrome Vox Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr36/3/fr360308.htm WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey: https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey7/ JAWS developer: www.freedomscientific.com Surf's UP! Surfing the Web with JAWS and MAGic: http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Surfs-Up/_Surfs_Up_Start_Here.htm NVDA developer: www.nvaccess.org NVDA Audio Tutorials: http://accessibilitycentral.net/nvda%20audio%20tutorials.html NVAcess Official Help Site: https://nvaccess.org/get-help/ AppleVis: www.applevis.com. Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway: Basic Navigation-Hitting the Road, and Finding Your Way Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1805/bm180512.htm Google Search Engine: www.google.com Bing Search Engine: www.Bing.com National Federation of the Blind Homepage: https://nfb.org Wikipedia, The World's Online Encyclopedia: www.wikipedia.org NFB-NEWSLINE Online: www.nfbnewslineonline.org. YouTube: www.youtube.com YouDescribe: www.youdescribe.org Target: www.target.com Expedia: www.expedia.com Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: www.twitter.com "42+ Text-Editing Keyboard Shortcuts That Work Almost Anywhere- " How-To Geek: https://www.howtogeek.com/ 115664/42-text-editing-keyboard-shortcuts- that-work-almost-everywhere/ Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-Basic Interactions: The Fast Lane to Getting Stuff Done on the Web Article: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm18/bm1806/bm180609.htm Bookshare: www.bookshare.org NLS Bard: https://nlsbard.loc.gov/login//NLS- Free White Cane Form: https://nfb.org/free-cane-program ---------- Mark Noble Dies by Daniel Frye From the Editor: Mark Noble was the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Oklahoma from 1983 to 1985. I remember him as a fun-loving and humorous fellow but with a very warm and serious side. I also remember that he assumed affiliate leadership when Oklahoma really needed him, and the fact that we have a thriving affiliate there is in no small part due to his work. Here are the memories of a dear friend who is no stranger to these pages. Thank you to Dan for these remembrances: A world without Mark Noble feels impossible and absurd today. Our dear friend, partner, mentor, colleague, and activist is no longer among us, and we're all keenly aware of the void created by his absence. It will be our obligation to comfort and care for one another as we remember, mourn, and celebrate the fact that Mark Noble made an impression on all of us and the world. When I was ten years old, living in Georgetown, Texas, my mother was killed in an automobile accident. Through networks and contacts that remain vague to me, Mark was found while working on his graduate studies in social work, and he agreed to act as my "big brother." Both of us blind, and Mark with newly acquired counseling skills, my father and others rightly concluded that Mark could intervene and play a part in my life that would make the transition for our entire family easier to handle. As a result of his generous gesture of time and talent, I managed to navigate the grieving process, come to understand my potential as a blind person, and more effectively integrate into the world. This initial mentorship developed into the foundation for a flourishing friendship that has spanned our lifetime. Mostly, Mark would simply visit our family home, and we'd talk about school, what I wanted to become as I grew up, and how I felt about living without my mother. Mark managed to offer comfort and care without overtly seeming to do anything other than being an older influence. In these early years, I took my first Greyhound visit alone from Georgetown to Austin, confident that I'd be fine because Mark would be at the station to meet me. But this brief journey was what gave me the understanding that I could travel alone. While he lived in Oklahoma, he invited me to visit him for a week or so in the summer, and he treated me to a week of humor and hospitality. As I matured and prepared to enter law school after college, we found ourselves sharing a more adult relationship in the same city, Seattle. As adults, I was then able to reciprocate and offer to Mark guidance and counsel in his life. We shared evenings discussing politics, history, and public policy. We worked together in the civil rights movement of the blind as members and leaders alike in the National Federation of the Blind. In time, we became colleagues for a while at the Social Security Administration. When I was lonely, Mark was there; when he needed an ear, mine was open. In the absence of biological family on my part, Mark became my beloved and valued older brother, and I hope that I was able to offer him similar solace once I reached maturity. In addition to our consequential relationship, Mark was a man of animated principle. He participated in local, state, and national civic life. He contributed as a leader to the deliberations of the National Federation of the Blind, serving as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Oklahoma and as a member of the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington. His efforts, generally and on behalf of the blind community, resulted in true reform. Mark was loyal-to his spouses, his son, his friends, and his family. Mark was funny, witty, and generally optimistic. Mark was a voracious reader. Mark was a man who drew comfort and wisdom from his Jewish faith. Mark lit up a room with his potent personality. Mark was an astute follower of the news and the events of the world; he did what he was able to do to make his part of the world a better place. Mark loved and encouraged us all. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Mark always told me to "send money." Here's my metaphorical checkbook, my friend. I am but one person in the world to whom you gave yourself, and I'm so incredibly grateful and fortunate to have known and loved you. Mark, as you know, I'm a Unitarian, and I don't really know what happens after we die. But here's hoping that you're happy, healthy, and surrounded by all the things in life that brought you comfort and joy. And if you simply cease to exist, know that you made a dynamic difference for me, your friends, family, and the world. ---------- [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 2019 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 Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, 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, the specific amount you are requesting, 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, 2019. 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 numbers; . 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 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 Las Vegas. ---------- Recipes Recipes this month came from the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan. [PHOTO CAPTION: Paulette Powell] Dill Pickle Soup by Paulette Powell Paulette Powell is the wife of NFB of Michigan President Michael Powell. Ingredients: 5-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (low sodium) 1-3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut in medium cubes 2 cups shredded carrots 1 cup shredded dill pickles (Vlasic Kosher Dills work great) 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one whole stick) 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup sour cream 1/4 cup water 2 cups dill pickle juice* 1-1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon fresh dill weed Method: In large pot, combine broth, potatoes, carrots and butter. Bring to boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add pickles and continue to boil. In medium bowl, stir together flour, sour cream and one cup of broth, use a mixer and mix until completely smooth. Vigorously whisk sour cream mixture (one cup at a time) into soup. (This will also break up some of your potatoes which is okay. You might see some initial little balls of flour form, but between the whisking and boiling all will disappear. Don't panic.) Add pickle juice, Old Bay, salt (*see below) pepper and cayenne. Cook five more minutes and remove from heat. Serve immediately *All pickle juice is not created equal. Some are saltier than others. Taste the soup after adding the pickle juice and add salt then. Enjoy. ---------- Pulled Pork, Chicken, or Beef by Paulette Powell Ingredients: 1 2-pound pork loin roast (cut the string off), or 2 double boneless chicken breasts (3 pounds), or 1 2-pound beef roast, any kind 1 medium white onion chopped 2 cloves garlic chopped 1 small can of diced green chilies (how much heat is up to you) Chef Paul Prudhomme MAGIC Barbecue Seasoning Salt and pepper to taste Your favorite BBQ Sauce (optional) Method: Coat meat with barbeque seasoning and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put meat in bottom of Crock-Pot, set on low. Cover with chopped onion, garlic and green chilies. Do not add any liquid. Cook in Crock-Pot for eight hours on low, do not peek. After eight hours, take meat out of pot, place on cookie sheet, pull meat apart with two forks, drain liquid from pot into strainer (discard liquid), return onions and chilies to pot. Mix meat and everything together with your favorite BBQ sauce. Use your favorite bread or buns, or this is also good in a soft corn tortilla. Top with your favorite coleslaw, optional. Enjoy! ---------- Texas Caviar by Paulette Powell Dressing Ingredients: 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon water 3/4 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola) 1 cup sugar 1 can pinto beans and/or black beans 1 can black eyed peas 1 can white corn (can use a can of mixed yellow and white corn) 1 cup celery, chopped 1 small jar pimentos (will find where condiments are) 1 cup green pepper, chopped 1 small red onion, chopped. Method: Bring salt, pepper, water, vinegar, oil, and sugar to a boil, then let cool. Drain (I also rinse) the beans and mix with rest of solid ingredients. Pour cooled dressing over the veggies. Marinate for twenty- four hours. Put into serving bowl using a slotted spoon to drain off extra dressing. Serve with Frito Scoops. The recipe says to make it up twenty- four hours in advance. This recipe makes a lot, so be prepared for leftovers. ---------- Quinoa Lasagna by Sabrina Simmons Sabrina Simmons is a mother of one and an assistive technology trainer. Currently she is serving as the Detroit Chapter president and as a member of the state board of the NFB of Michigan affiliate. Ingredients: 2 cups water 1 cup quinoa (pronounced keen wah) 2 tablespoons canola or olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup sliced mushrooms 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups tomato sauce or prepared pasta sauce 2 cups no-salt-added, low-fat cottage cheese 1 large egg, beaten 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated 1 tablespoon fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 cups sliced zucchini squash 2 cups fresh spinach with stems removed or use baby spinach 1-1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a nine-by-thirteen-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine quinoa and water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer, cover and cook for fifteen minutes or until quinoa is tender. Fluff with a fork and place quinoa in the bottom of prepared pan or dish. In a saucepan over medium heat cook onion, garlic, and mushrooms until tender. Add garlic and sauce and mix until well blended. In separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, egg, parmesan cheese, oregano and basil. Spread 1/3 of the sauce over the quinoa. Then layer with all of the zucchini. Add a layer of all the cottage cheese mixture. Add half of the remaining sauce. Add all the spinach. Finish with remaining sauce and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top. Note: if there is not enough sauce, omit the second layer and use it on the top layer. Bake until hot and cheese is bubbling and slightly brown around the edges, this should take thirty-five to forty-minutes. Let stand ten minutes before serving. ---------- Sour Cream Pound Cake by Sabrina Simmons Ingredients: 3 cups of cake flour 3 cups of sugar 3 sticks of butter 5 large eggs 3/4 cup of sour cream 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt, optional Method: Combine sugar and butter in a bowl until mixed well. Mix in the sour cream. Add one cup of flour sifted with baking powder and salt. Add the last two cups of flour alternating with the eggs until mixed well. Grease a ten-cup Bundt cake pan. Pour batter into pan. This is a cold oven cake, do not preheat the oven. Place pan into the cold oven, bake at 350 degrees for one hour and twenty minutes. Stick a knife in the center of the cake to make sure it is done. Let cool in pan for fifteen minutes and serve as desired. ---------- Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Elected: The following officers and board members were elected at the annual Treasure State Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Montana on September 22, 2018: president, Jim Marks; first vice president, Joy Breslauer; second vice president, Sheila Leigland; secretary, Robert Jaquiss; treasurer, Ted Robbins; board members Jeff Haworth and Jim Aldrich. Elected: The following officers were elected at the October meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Montana Electric City Chapter (in Great Falls): president, Sheila Leigland; first vice president, Bruce Breslauer; and secretary-treasurer, Joy Breslauer. Elected: The following people were elected to two-year terms at our recent convention of the NFB of Washington: president, Marci Carpenter; first vice president, Kris Colcock; second vice president, Doug Trimble; secretary, Ben Prows; treasurer, Corey Grandstaff; board position one, Mike Forzano; board position two, Buna Dahal. Congratulations to all of those elected to advance our work together. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Walmart Sued by Blind Maryland Residents over Self-Service Checkout Kiosks National Federation of the Blind and Its Maryland Affiliate Also Plaintiffs When Cynthia Morales and her boyfriend Linwood Boyd, who are both blind, made a routine trip to a Walmart in Owings Mills in late July of 2017, they didn't expect to have to get the police involved. But that was the result of a chain of events that began with Ms. Morales trying to use one of the self-service checkout kiosks that Walmart makes available to shoppers as an alternative to waiting in line for a cashier. Although the kiosks do issue some spoken prompts, those prompts don't provide enough information for a blind person to use the machines independently. Ultimately, Ms. Morales asked for help from a Walmart employee, who completed the checkout transaction but also, unbeknownst to Ms. Morales and Mr. Boyd, requested forty dollars in cash back, which the employee pocketed. Because no audio prompt gave Ms. Morales the total of her transaction, she didn't realize anything was wrong until the machine audibly prompted the user to take the money. Ms. Morales and Mr. Boyd then had a bystander outside the store read them the receipt; at that point, they realized they had been charged an additional forty dollars. The money was ultimately returned, but Ms. Morales and Mr. Boyd decided to do their regular shopping at a Walmart Supercenter in Randallstown from then on. Now they, together with Melissa Sheeder-another blind Marylander; the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); and the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland (NFB-MD) are suing Walmart under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit asks the Maryland federal district court to order the giant retailer to make its self-service checkout kiosks fully accessible to blind shoppers. Similar devices, such as ATMs, Amtrak ticket kiosks, and airline check-in kiosks, as well as some point-of-sale terminals like those in the back of many taxicabs, can be used independently by blind people. Usually voice prompts are spoken through headphones, and blind users respond with tactile keypads or accessible touch screens. The NFB has offered to work with Walmart to make its kiosks accessible, but Walmart has declined the offer. "What happened to Cindy Morales is an extreme example of what can occur when companies like Walmart deploy inaccessible self-checkout or point-of-sale technology," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. "The real problem is that Walmart has decided to treat blind customers differently from sighted customers. Walmart's refusal to deploy readily available technology to give blind shoppers the same choice sighted shoppers have-whether to check ourselves out or visit a cashier-makes us second-class customers. That is unlawful and unacceptable." The plaintiffs are represented by Eve L. Hill, Jessica P. Weber, and Chelsea J. Crawford of the Baltimore law firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP. 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. National Braille Press Touch of Genius Award Seeking Nominations: The National Braille Press's Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation is now accepting entries! Please help us spread the word. The Touch of Genius Prize was developed to inspire entrepreneurs, educators, or inventors to continue the promotion of Braille and tactile literacy for blind and deafblind people worldwide. This prize can be granted for innovative and accessible computer software, Android applications, iOS applications, or tactile hardware that promotes Braille and/or tactile literacy. NBP encourages all applicants to think outside the box to what can be used to help improve the lives of blind people. The winner of this prize will receive up to $20,000, which will help them to continue to innovate in the fields of technology and education for blind people. Frank Gibney and the Gibney Family Foundation helped fund and establish this award in 2007, inspiring people to go beyond what was thought possible. The deadline to apply is January 11, 2019. Full application details and more information can be found at http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/technology/tog/tog_prize. All questions can be directed to mailto:geniusprize at nbp.org. Learn Your Favorite Musical Instrument Completely by Ear: MusicForTheBlind.com has over 1,200 song lessons and over a dozen beginner courses for piano, guitar, banjo, bass, saxophone, and more! These lessons use no print, no video, and no Braille. These lessons are completely all-audio. See all of the great music resources we have at www.MusicForTheBlind.com and sign up for our newsletter to receive coupons and discounts on our easy-to-use music lessons designed just for those with visual impairments. 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: We have a BrailleNote Apex 32-cell with the following features: original box; carrying case; power cord and charger; V9.5 of KeySoft loaded (latest available); optional software Nemeth Tutorial enabled; optional software Oxford Concise Dictionary and Thesaurus (US Edition) enabled; and recently serviced, tested and tuned by HumanWare. Asking $1,000, contact Sheryl Pickering at 830-743-7655. ---------- 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.