[Blindtlk] Let Freedom Ring: Braille Letters to President Barack Obama is now available

[David Andrews]

Dear Federationists:

In the fall of 2009, the National Federation of 
the Blind put out a call for Americans to write 
letters to President Barack Obama expressing the 
role that being able to read and write Braille 
plays in their lives.  The NFB was flooded with 
responses from a large variety of blind and 
sighted people­from school children to working 
professionals to retired senior citizens.  While 
there are great variances in the people who 
responded, one factor was the same: that Braille 
plays a vital role in their lives and is an 
important, and indeed necessary, tool for the blind.

We have compiled one hundred of these letters 
into a book intended to be presented to President 
Barack Obama.  This morning, February 1, 2010, 
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan received the 
publication on behalf of the President at a 
ceremony at the United States Department of Education.

During the event, Secretary Duncan, other 
dignitaries from the Department of Education, and 
leaders of the NFB heard from various speakers, 
including Marc Maurer, President of the National 
Federation of the Blind, two school children, and 
a parent of a blind child.  Fredric K. Schroeder, 
First Vice President of the NFB, presented the 
book and asked the Secretary to support the NFB’s 
goal of doubling the number of school-age 
children reading Braille. Secretary Duncan left 
the event with the knowledge that Braille is 
vital to the independence of the blind.  And he 
left armed with the book that will give President Obama this knowledge as well.

Let Freedom Ring: Braille Letters to President 
Barack Obama is now available for you to read on 
our Web site at 
<file:///http://is.gd/7jiz3>http<file:///http://is.gd/7jiz3>://is.gd/7jiz3.

This event and the release of this book is a 
great way to begin our 2010 Washington Seminar!

Let Federationism Ring!


Mark A. Riccobono
Executive Director, Jernigan Institute
National Federation of the Blind
<file:///mailto:mriccobono@nfb.org>mriccobono at nfb.org