[Diabetes-talk] What can we do?

Tue Feb 10 18:10:23 UTC 2009

Debbie:

This raises a few more questions.  I understand that people who are blind 
are on limited incomes and may not be able to afford to pay for a 
subscription to the Voice, but what about Doctor's, hospital's & other 
medical professionals?  Certainly, they can afford to pay a subscription 
fee.  Out of the circulation numbers, how many go to people who are blind 
and may not be able to cover the cost of a subscription & how many go to 
medical professionals?  Do doctor's give away services for free?  I think 
not.

And, why increase the cost of the publication with color pictures?  Isn't 
the mag primarily for those who are blind?  Perhaps the focus has changed 
somewhere along the line from presenting good information to the blind/vi 
community to trying to attract sighted readers?

Eileen

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "catdancing" <catdancing at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Diabetes Talk for the Blind" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] What can we do?

> this just seems to figure as far as diabetes and anything related to the 
> disease that doesn't bring in a lot of money to support the disease. The 
> Voice is a great magazine the reason it is being eliminated is because it 
> is helpful and no one in the medical field is making a huge profit from 
> it.
> Debbie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Elizabeth Lunt " <boo.lunt at verizon.net>
> To: "'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 4:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] What can we do?
>
>
>> Hello All,
>> I feel I must finally write in here. The cost of the Voice of the 
>> Diabetic
>> has not "skyrocketed" and I'm not sure where this information is coming
>> from. Even with the much-improved design and full color, the costs were
>> controlled, and money was coming in from ads and sponsorships. However, 
>> it
>> simply costs a lot to print and ship so many copies -- our circulation 
>> for
>> Voice of the Diabetic is over 300 thousand copies per quarter. It was 
>> very
>> popular among readers and diabetes educators and demand was high. 
>> Gathering
>> the information, selling advertisements and getting education grants, and
>> writing and editing the publication accounted for staff members' time, as
>> well as other diabetes advocacy activities such as pushing for accessible
>> diabetes technology. Dr. Maurer has made a decision to cut the entire
>> Diabetes Initiatives project, which included publishing Voice of the
>> Diabetic. He has said that some diabetes activities will be folded into 
>> the
>> duties of existing staff at the NFB, but the rest of us have been let go. 
>> We
>> did the best we could to present up-to-date, helpful and inspiring
>> information about both diabetes and coping with diabetes with limited or 
>> no
>> vision. There will not be another issue of the magazine, because Dr. 
>> Maurer
>> made his decision after the Winter issue went out, and he is folding the
>> project now, before another would have gone out in the spring.
>> Thank you for your support over the years. I have enjoyed working on this
>> publication. I hope you will get the full story, or try to, before
>> continuing this conversation with NFB leadership.
>> All the best,
>> Elizabeth Lunt
>> Editor, Voice of the Diabetic
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
>> [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Blindhands at aol.com
>> Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 1:17 PM
>> To: diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Diabetes-talk] What can we do?
>>
>> Diabetes is the number 1 cause of blindness in the USA.  It ranks up 
>> there
>> throughout the world.  What can we do to stop or have them at least
>> consider
>> another  way of continuing the Voice of the Diabetic  publication.
>>
>> NFB is always asking us to contact our Senators and House of 
>> Representative
>>
>> members, how about calling or emailing our President of NFB  to "Voice" 
>> our
>> opinion and thoughts on this?
>>
>> The blind depend on word of mouth to learn about things, that is why we 
>> are
>>
>> encouraged to talk about NFB to everyone blind and sighted.
>>
>> I understand that the cost of the publication has sky rocketed, but do we
>> need color photos and the new look of the Voice?  I am sure those are 
>> some
>> of
>> the reasons that caused the price  to soar.
>>
>> I am disappointed with this decision.  I do know that there has been
>> concerns in the past years about the  money going  out for this 
>> publication
>> and the
>> NFB covering the  cost.          the circulation of  this publication is
>> over
>> three hundred thousand .
>>
>> Mike, do you know if there will be a notice put into the Voice and  will
>> there be a final Voice sent out or is it just over like that ?
>>
>> Joyce
>> **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 
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>
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