[Home-on-the-range] (no subject)

[Susan Tabor]

Hi, Listers:

 

Below please find the article that appeared in today's Lawrence
Journal-World.

 

To each and every one of you, I also want to offer a strong Thank You! for
doing your part to make this convention a success. See the article below.

Susan Tabor

 

LJWorld.com


Annual event addresses issues for the blind


By Joe Preiner


 


November 14, 2010

Members of the Kansas community gathered in Lawrence this weekend for the
state convention for the blind. 

The yearly event through the National Federation of the Blind attracted a
number of area residents for a weekend filled with education and activity. 

About 60 people congregated at the Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive, Saturday to
take in the messages various speakers had to deliver. The presentations
ranged from the educational to the inspirational to the political, with
injustices addressed and resolutions offered.

Robert Fuller, the local NFB chapter treasurer, said the local chapter
distributes information about the blind to the community, a necessity
considering the rarity of blindness. Fuller, whose son is blind, said
blindness affects about a quarter of 1 percent of the national population.
Even small efforts to inform people about the difficulties the blind face
can benefit the nonseeing community.

"It's about blind people being independent," Fuller said. "It's not always
about getting the world to accommodate blind people."

Donna Wood, the state affiliate president, said the event presented an
opportunity for members of the blind community to escape the feeling of
isolation that can often accompany blindness.

"It gives us the support," Wood said. "The ability to get together like this
to share experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings, it eliminates part of
that isolation at least for a little while."

Membership with the NFB is not limited to the blind, though Wood said blind
people comprised the majority of the group. She stressed education as an
important part of the federation's mission.

"We try to dispel the myths and misconceptions about blindness," she said.
"It's an absolutely important part of what we do."

Along with working to educate the community about blindness, the NFB, the
nation's largest organization for the blind, also helps the blind receive an
education. Wood said the state affiliate offered five academic scholarships
to legally blind people entering the college, vocational or technical school
ranks in Kansas. 

The convention's activities are scheduled to continue through this
afternoon.

For more information about the National Federation of the Blind and
scholarship opportunities, visit nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org> .

Originally published at:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/nov/14/event-educates-residents-blind-peop
le/

 

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