[Community-service] Introduction from Jewel of Raleigh, NC

[Jewel S.]

Dear all,

Good morning! My name is Jewel Shuping. Some of you likely know me
from one of the several listservs I'm on. I'm very excited to be a
part of this list. So, a little about me and my community service
projects.

I ive in Raleigh, NC (for now), and am 25 years old. I have been
legally blind for two years (to the day) now, as caused by a severe
facial burn and secondary glaucoma. Though I was lucky to have very
little obviouis facial scarring (just under my right eye and in the
corner of my left, and sometimes on the bridge of my nose), it caused
bad scarring in my eyes. I have been a member of the NFB of NC's Wake
County chapter for one year as of the second week of July *grin* and
have been very active in the group from the very beginning, asssisting
the group with the state convention that September and with Charity
Days at Belk's and the annual yard sale. Since then, I have started my
own projects, and gotten involved in legislative work. My first sorta
community service is my blog, Treasure Chest for the Blind
(<http://blindtreasurechest.blogspot.com>) and its new sister blog,
Treasure Chest for the Blind of Raleigh and NC
(<http://blindtreasurechestnc.blogspot.com>) which I just created
yesterday. These are there to tell people about technology, programs,
and other tools that they may not know about, especially free or
inexpensive ones, that can assist them in daily living, work, school,
and recreation. The featured tools, both old and new, have included
NFB-Newline, NVDA, Radegast for Second Life, and Disney's new access
tool for descriptive services. Please feel free to check it out!

The other project I have currently is for the local public library. A
young friend of mine told me once that she'd love to use the public
library to check out books on CD, but it was extremely frustrating for
her to have to 1) go to the librarian's desk to ask for assistance, 2)
wait for someone who could take the time to look, 3) listen to them
read off lots of titles she had no interest in, 4) settle on a book
she really didn't want, but got so that she didn't feel like she had
wasted the librarian's time. Why should a blind person have to do this
just to check out a book that when brought home, is accessible? Thus
was born my idea to get Braille labels added to each case in the audio
collection. This is, of course, an enormous project. Our local library
alone has nearly 5,000 cases in their audio collection (not books,
just cases-- some cases have more than one case). I am currently
working on writing a proposal for the Friends of the Library to seek
funding from there. The Wake Federation of the Blind has agreed to
assist with funds as needed (within reason, of course, since the
entire project for this one library will be over $700), and I will be
seeking funding from the Lion's Club and United Way if the Friends of
the Library cannot fund it. Thus far, I have four volunteers besides
me, and once I have funding, I'll be actively seeking more. I hope to
make this a county-wide project, to have Braille labels on the audio
cases at all the libraries in Wake County. It has already been quite
an educational adventure, and I'm extremely glad that I began it. Now
just to finish it! If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or
questions, I'd love to hear them!

My proposal outline is currently being gone over with a fine-toothed
comb by an advocate at Alliance for Disability Advocacy, and I'm
expecting it back today. Once I make any corrections she suggests,
I'll post it to this group, and start writing the actual proposal (I
only have an outline right now).

Glory, Glory Federation,
Jewel