[Fabs] NABS April Bulletin!

Fri Apr 22 01:50:26 UTC 2011

Hi all,
Please find the NABS bulletin pasted below and the minutes from our
last board meeting attached. Enjoy!
Arielle Silverman
President, National Association of Blind Students

National Association of Blind Students
>From the Desk of the President
April 21, 2011

In This Bulletin:
1.	Get Ready for National Convention!
2.	Student Division Spring Seminar Reports
3.	Feedback Needed About Technology Accessibility
Get Ready for Convention!
	This year the convention of the National Federation of the Blind will
be held in Orlando, Florida! Convention seminars begin on Sunday, July
3, and the convention will adjourn after the banquet on Friday, July
8. During the convention we will have several activities for students
including a weeklong track of events for teens, a student hospitality
social on Sunday evening, and our annual NABS seminar and business
meeting on Monday, July 4.
Rooms at the convention hotel, the Rosen Shingle Creek resort, are
sold out at this time. However, there are plenty of people who have
rooms and are looking for roommates to share with. If you would like
to find other people going from your state, or would like to request
financial assistance with travel expenses, contact your affiliate or
chapter president. You can also contact me directly at
Nabs.president at gmail.com
If you need help finding roommates, whether you have a room reserved
already or not.
Finally, pre-registration is available for the convention.
Pre-register by going to
www.nfb.org/registration
before May 31, and save up to $15 on your total convention cost.
See you in Orlando!

Student Division Spring Seminar Reports:
April has been an active month for our state student divisions. Below
please find reports from Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas
about their recent seminars. Congratulations to all the state
divisions on their hard work. If you would like to find out how to
join a student division in your state, go to
http://www.nabslink.org/state-contacts/index.php

>From Idaho:
The Idaho Association of Blind Students had our annual meeting at the
Idaho state convention last weekend.  We only have a few members, but
we are dedicated to raising awareness of our organization.  Mikaela
Stevens was elected president, with Lora Ireland as vice president and
Makenzie Stevens as secretary/treasurer.  We discussed the importance
of a student division and informed new members of our affiliation with
NABS.  If anyone is aware of any blind students in the state of Idaho,
please connect them with us.  Thank you!
>From Arizona:
Arizona Blind Students Bat Their Spring Seminar Out of the Park!

Our April 9 spring seminar in Phoenix was an enjoyable, successful
event. Blind college and high-school students discussed their
experiences inside and outside the classroom. We were inspired by
positive blind role models who discussed employment. There was an
awesome demonstration of Apple technology and we learned about how to
make accessibility evangelism work to open the world of information
technology to us. Young blind leaders talked about Youth Slam and
their experiences attending a leadership camp in Baltimore. Finally,
we found out about a scholarship opportunity available from the
National Federation of the Blind of Arizona.

We welcomed three new people to the Arizona Association of Blind
Students and are looking forward to their membership and active
participation.

We hope you can join us for our next event.

For more information, please contact Kristen Johnson, First Vice
President, by phone at 720-299-8039 or email kj4483 at gmail.com, or
Darrell Shandrow, Secretary, by phone at 480-389-5627 or email
darrell.shandrow at gmail.com.

The Arizona Association of Blind Students Board

>From Colorado:
The colorado asociation of blind students created a state plan that
would allow us to put on various seminars around the state.  One of
our goals for this plan is to build partnerships in the towns where we
would put on seminars.   In addition to building partnerships with
other entities, and strengthening both our devision and state
affilliate.  Each board member(s) runs the seminar.   We put on our
first seminar on the University of Colorado boulder campus.  This
seminar took place in march.  The seminar covered working with the DSS
office, attending an nfb training center, using technology,
Scholarships, the Global explorers program and Campus life.  We began
to build a partnership with the ACB rep in boulder, establishing a
partnership with the DSS, and with the NFB training center.  The
seminar consisted of presentations and breakout sessions, where we
could use tables and particepants were able to spend time with the
presenters.
After doing some revising and adding to the agenda, our second seminar
took place at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.  The
format was the same just with a few additions.  We had a brailler,
notepads, and pens and pencils for the particepants to provide us with
suggestions.  I believe that we also learned how to adapt our
surroundings.  This seminar was based more on presentations and open
discussions.  There wasn't any way to have a breakout session.  There
wasn't any way to get a representative from the DSS office or the
university.  However, we had two high school students, two teachers of
blind students, and a parent particepate in the seminar.  The
suggestion box idea is something that we will continue to use.  This
is a worthy tool that really helps us out.  One of our suggestions was
entitled excellent job.  It was also very positive for us as a board.
Our upcoming seminar will be held on April 30th.  from 11:00AM till
4:00Pm at the Colorado Center for the blind.  Once again, we have had
to adapt to unforeseen diffeculties.  The diffeculty this time is the
fact that we were unable to have the seminar on a college campus
because of financial reasons.  During this seminar, we will highlight
technology, and career exploration.

Blessings!
Sincerely,
Melissa Green, President, Colorado Association of Blind Students
>From Georgia:
On Saturday April 9 2011, Twenty-five students and professionals from
the state of Georgia gather at our third annual student convention!
This year Sean Whalen served as our NABS representative, and helped
our students get an understanding of how NABS is a part of the
National Federation of the Blind. In Addition, our students heard
presentations on how to get books for college, how to use  vocational
rehab to further their education, how to advocate for themselves when
vocational rehab was not working for them, and even got an inside
scoop on how the Georgia affiliate helps the student division.
      Aside from all the learning in the morning, the students heard
from a fellow GABS member, Ben Schuler. Ben shared his experiences of
growing up as a blind person, and how the Louisiana Center helped him
gain confidence and become an accomplished young man. After all the
information was distributed and consumed, we let loose with some Salsa
dancing lesson taught by our very own NFBGA 1st Vice President Ms.
JoAnn Collins. Our students went home having learned and socialized
and excited for other NFB events in the future.
>From Texas:
Hello NABS,

On the weekend of April 8th through the 10th, The Texas Association of
Blind Students, in partnership with the Texas Parents of Blind
Children, held a joint spring conference in Dallas Texas, sponsored by
NFB Newsline for Texas. The conference drew around 50 people, and
featured both joint and separate presentations covering just about
everything from products and services for the blind, independence
training programs for all ages, and calls for action involving local
legislative issues affecting blind Texans. Highlights from the
conference included our annual TABS Idol music competition, a game
educating our attendees on NFB trivia and fun facts , a beautiful
keynote speech delivered by our affiliate president, Kimberly Flores,
and a banquet to boot. This was the first such event for both
divisions, and I am proud to report that it was an overwelming
success, and all signs point to more where that came from next year.
Finally, I am excited to announce that all the good stuff will be
available as episode 2 in our newly relaunched TABS podcast series, so
stay tuned for that when the time comes. Now we turn our attention to
National Convention, so this is where my report must end. Thank you
NABS for the chance to keep you up to date on our happenings. See you
all this summer in Florida!

--
Respectfully,

Juan Carlos Munoz
President
Texas Association of Blind Students
www.nfb-texas.org/tabs.html
Feedback Needed About Technology Accessibility:
The NFB is seeking information about accessibility barriers in the
digital technology used by all students, teachers, and administrators
in K-12 schools, universities, and colleges in the United States.

We encourage students, teachers, administrators and parents of blind
students to complete the following survey so that the NFB can learn
more about educational technology that is either helping or hindering
the learning process for blind students.
http://www.nfb.org/technologyform

Thanks,

Sincerely,

Clara Van Gerven
Access Technology Content Specialist
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street
       at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD  21230
410-659-9314 x-2410
cvangerven at nfb.org
The Access Technology Blog

Learn something new about technology with the NFB's Access Technology Tips
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