[IABS-Talk] chicago minutes february 2021

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MEETING

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

The meeting took place via Zoom.
 President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 1:02 pm. We had 
22 participants in the meeting.
 Program Item: Dave played a recording which took place at our national 
convention on July 18, 2020 titled Not Blind to Color in the 
Federation: A Panel on the Experience of Black and Blind in America. 
The panelists comprised of Ever Lee Hairston, Denice Brown, Ron Brown, 
Bobbi Pompei and Tarik Williams. Ever Lee Hairston moderated the panel 
and to guide the discussion.
 Ever Lee Hairston: This is a sad day in some respects because of the 
death of Congressman Lewis. She walked with Congressman Lewis 57 years 
ago. John Lewis stood on the front of the line many times and he was 
beaten and he had his skull cracked walking in the protest line. Not 
blind to color in the Federation, black and blind experiences in 
America and in the Federation of the Blind. One of Ms. Hairston’s most 
profound experiences in the Federation was one that she thought that it 
was necessary to share. Several years ago she was asked to be the 
national representative at one of our state conventions. She was asked 
to meet with the state president to meet in the lobby at the hotel 
where the convention was. When Ms. Hairston was at an elevator bank, 
she heard 3 ladies walk up. She heard the cane and thought that these 
ladies were federationists. So Ms.Hairston said  Good evening ladies 
twice but no response. So then the elevator stopped on our floor. Ms 
Hairston asked the ladies if they were coming on. One lady’s reply was 
I don’t know who you are, but I’m not getting on that elevator with you 
and she called Ms. Hairston the N word. Ms. Hairston knew at that 
moment that she was there on a mission. She had a mission to fulfill. 
She was there to inform, to inspire, to motivate and serve and she 
could not stoop to her level. But the one thing that helped Ms. 
Hairston was thinking of a quote “Watch your thoughts because they 
become your words. Watch your words for they become your actions. Watch 
your actions for they become your habits. Watch your habits for they 
become your character. Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”
 Ron Brown: When Mr. Brown was learning to drive, his father told him” 
You’re old enough now to drive and I want you to understand a couple of 
things. One thing is this. When you’re driving, you may get pulled over 
by the police. And, if you do, I want you to keep your hands on top of 
the steering wheel. If they ask for your license, you say OK and you 
let them know that you are reaching for your license.”  Mr. Brown asked 
why they would pull me over, Dad. I’m just driving. I didn’t do 
anything wrong. His father told Mr. Brown You need to understand that 
you need to make sure your hands are where they could see them and let 
them know that you’re reaching for your license because this talk will 
help keep you safe. It will keep you secure and it will get you home 
alive.  As time progressed, Mr. Brown lost his vision and he started to 
teach orientation and mobility for the blind. He went and got a Masters 
degree out of Louisiana Tech University and he was teaching cane travel 
in a small town in an Indiana community. As Mr. Brown was teaching this 
young white girl, they were walking. Someone said to him, “Hey you, 
come here. Show me your license.”  This police officer said I want to 
see your license and Mr. Brown asked   “what did I do wrong?”  He said 
we got a report that a black man was following a white girl.  Mr. Brown 
asked the officer so what is my crime? I’m teaching her how to navigate 
from her home to the bus stop. This officer did not answer. So Mr. 
Brown answered for him.  So my crime is walking because I’m black?  The 
officer still didn’t answer. About 2 weeks later in the same community 
Mr. Brown was surrounded by 4 police cars this time. The officers again 
said to Mr. Brown let us see your license. Let us see your ID.  
Teaching the same little white girl in the same community, Mr. Brown 
asked the officers, “What did I do wrong?” They didn’t answer. One of 
them said we got a complaint that a black man was following a white 
girl.  Mr. Brown said again so my crime is walking because I’m black? 
And they didn’t answer. Mr. Brown said that he is a black 
African-American male, but his blackness does not define him nor does 
his blindness. He says to celebrate our differences and celebrate our 
diversities.
 Denice Brown: Before losing her vision, as a black woman, Ms. Brown 
saw racism in a couple of ways. Sometimes it would hit you right in the 
face. For example when going to a very high end fashion store in 
Philadelphia Ms. Brown was in there looking through the clothing. So 
she is looking and she hears a salesperson walking toward her. When the 
salesperson walked up to Ms. Brown, she said “We don’t do layaway 
here.”  Ms. Brown also experienced racism territorially. For a short 
period of time, she lived in a suburb of Philadelphia and in that 
particular suburb, it happened to be about 99% white. Ms. Brown was 
starting to look for a teaching position. She had set out applications 
all around the state. Ms Brown got a phone call from a particular 
school district saying that they saw her resume. They knew that she had 
just graduated from college 6 months earlier and that they wanted her 
to come in because they thought that she had everything that they 
needed. There was a second grade opening and Ms. Brown would fit well 
in that position. They wanted to know how soon she could get to the 
office to have an interview. So Ms. Brown made her appointment and she 
spoke to the same person that she spoke to on the phone. They had a 
great conversation and then she had to go to the superintendent who was 
doing the hiring. When Ms. Brown walked in the door of the 
superintendent, she barely got to sit down and he told her that she 
would not be able to get that job because she had just got out of 
school. When Ms. Brown came to the Federation, she was 42 years old. 
She quickly became president of her chapter and, not knowing the full 
philosophy of the Federation and knowing that she had to learn things, 
she started seeking out individuals who have been in leadership so that 
she could learn. Ms. Brown had 20 years of education as a teacher and 
she wanted to do other things. With her education background, she 
thought she would be a good candidate for the scholarship committee in 
Pennsylvania, but she was not able to get on that committee. Somewhere 
along the line in meeting people around the NFB, Ms. Brown heard about 
something called a leadership seminar which takes place at our national 
headquarters and she enquired about possibly being able to go to one of 
these seminars. At that time, she was told that she wasn’t really 
possessing the leadership qualities in order to go to one of these 
seminars. In 2009, Ms Brown got a call shortly after our convention in 
Detroit and it was inviting her to the leadership seminar for that 
year. The things that she learned at the leadership seminar, she will 
never lose them. Ms. Brown says the Diversity and Inclusion Committee 
is doing a great job. Ms. Brown states that this organization is not 
only changing what it means to be blind, but it’s changing what it 
means to be black and blind.
 Bobbi Pompei: Less than 2 years into the Federation and running for a 
presidential office, Ms. Pompei is at this convention and she is eager 
and putting in the work and networking. She was introduced to one 
particular NFB leader but it wasn’t the first time she was introduced 
to an NFB leader. During Ms. Pompei’s first Washington Seminar, she was 
invited to attend a dinner. On the way to the dinner, the people that 
she was going with stopped in the hallway and pulled her over to the 
side and they say Bobbi, it doesn’t matter and we don’t know how to ask 
you this, but are you black? We know that you go to a historically 
black college, but we’re just not sure because of how you talk.  Going 
back to her election and presidential bid, over the convention, she is 
getting closer to this leader. They were going to dinners, socializing 
together, getting comfortable with each other and, when comfortable, a 
leopard will show its spots. Somehow when she was not around, people 
find out that she is black. Last year someone else got comfortable with 
Ms. Pompei. This time it was a man who was black and blind. He pulled 
her to the side and said “Bobbi, I love your voice, because you don’t 
sound like you’re from the hood.”  He had the nerve to think that was a 
compliment. That is a micro aggression. Ms. Pompei finishes the story 
about the election. This leader knows that she is black. It’s the time 
of the election. She notices that there is a really large turnout. Ms. 
Pompei loses. She later found out that this leader had paid the dues of 
these unfamiliar faces. These members had not been dues-paying members 
before. But he had them come to the meeting and paid their dues so 
they’d be eligible to vote just so they could vote against her, because 
he did not want a black person to be president. Race is perceived in so 
many ways. These blind people use a sense of sound and they use a 
stereotype based on what it means to sound black. Within this 
organization, racism must be addressed, acknowledged and ultimately 
rectified because Ms. Pompei cannot live the life that she wants until 
black lives matter.
 Tarik Williams: Mr. Williams works in SAAVI Services for the Blind as 
an orientation and mobility instructor-snf student services 
coordinator. Black people for so many years before the Federation, 
uring the Federation and now today, are saying we’re oppressed, but the 
course of action hasn’t changed. We say it again and again and there is 
a collision and this collision has happened in so many different 
situations in our world today. Now, we’re still fighting some of the 
same battles today that we fought not so many generations ago-we think 
about Ruby Bridges, the first black individual to go to a white school 
and she’s only 65 years old. Obviously black people are in schools with 
white people, but there are still some battles we’re still fighting 
today that happened back then and some new ones now. Mr. Williams says 
that he comes across as a black blind individual proud of whom he is. 
There was a time where he was not proud of his blindness at all and the 
Federation helped him overcome that. With that being said, he thinks 
that it’s important to know that these traits don’t define him as a 
blind person, but they are important to him because they make up the 
person who he is. Mr. Williams says that he thinks about a time and a 
place where he can be comfortable and not feel that he has to put on a 
mask for who he is as a person. Mr. Williams quoted Langston Hughes who 
wrote a poem and he stated that “Let America be again the land that 
must be that hasn’t been yet. The land where every individual is free.”

Steve Hastalis commented that the Chicago Public Schools had a Braille 
department with resource rooms in several schools throughout Chicago. 
Steve said that he went from the Beverly Community on the Southwest 
side to Chesterfield around 91st and University; they didn’t intend to 
promote racial equality or understanding. But it happened that he ended 
up being the only person in his family who went to school with African 
American students, because of the way the Chicago Public School system 
administered its Braille department back then. They had bussing to take 
the students to and from school. So Steve went out of his home 
neighborhood to go to school, but he ended up having the benefit of 
going to school with African American students and that helped him 
immensely years later like 10 years after he graduated elementary 
school when he started working for CTA. Chapter, Jemal Powell said he 
found the stories rather interesting. He listened to a couple of 
stories and he also was thinking about Steve’s story about the Chicago 
Public Schools. When he was in 6th grade, he went to a vision resource 
room in a school in South Holland, IL. At that time, South Holland was 
going through some pronounced changes racially and Jemal remembered 
listening to the news and heard about people getting bricks thrown 
through the window in South Holland in the summer before he went to 
junior high there. Jemal was relatively nervous given the reputation of 
South Holland. He did not have any significant issues. he was aware of 
the reputation of the community at that time. Now that community is lot 
more diverse than they were in 1984, Hearing what Steve said brought 
out Jemal’s memories that he had of nervousness because of the tensions 
that were in that community at that time.
 Ice Breaker:, Patti Chang had an idea for making meetings cooler. The 
way this works is that each person gives 3 statements about themselves, 
so that you’ll learn something. The person who goes after someone has 
to tie something they say to the person before them. For example, Patti 
could say that she loves Cuban food, that she went to Michigan State 
University and that she grew up on a farm. Dave in his 3 comments would 
have to tie into one of Patti’s comments. Whoever goes after Dave has 
to tie something in what they say, so, if Pam’s next, for example, 
she’d have to tie to what Dave says. Dave and Patti are going to 
demonstrate and we should come away knowing a little more about each 
other. So try and give us facts that maybe are less well-known. Patti 
is married to a Chinese man who was born in Honduras who grew up in 
Belize. Patti grew up on a horse farm after it was initially a dairy 
farm and she went to Michigan State University. Dave is married to 
somebody who is not originally of this country she is of Slovenian 
descent and was born in BuenosAires, Argentina. He has a sister-in-law 
who grew up in Michigan. Among his musical experiences is that he has 
played a set with Frank Yankovic (the polka king). Dustin was born in 
Romania near Slovakian countries. He grew up playing brass instruments. 
He never played polka before, but he’s looking forward to polka 
Christmas with Dave hopefully this upcoming holiday season. He’s lived 
all his life in in Pekin, Illinois. Michal used to play a musical 
instrument. He took piano lessons for about 4 years. When he was a 
child, he used to be in a goal ball league. He loves polka as well. 
Bart Hickey got introduced to polka at a young age. He lived in Chicago 
all his life. He used to go fishing. Debbie Stein grew up in New Jersey 
and used to go deep see fishing with her dad and grandfather. She has 
lived in Chicago now since 1983 because she married a Chicagoan. She 
used to play the guitar. Bob Widman lived in Chicago for 52 years. He 
was born in Michigan. He used to like fishing. He used to play the 
trumpet for many years. He pointed out that Dr. Jernigan was born in 
Michigan. Ed Birmingham lived in Chicago his entire life. When he had 
better vision, he used to play golf and hockey. He’s been married 37 
years and he grew up with 4 sisters. He has 2 daughters, 2 
granddaughters and 1 grandson. Eileen had a few musical instruments but 
never played very well. She’s the 3rd of 5 kids. She watches all kinds 
of game shows on TV. Gina Falvo never played any musical instruments as 
a child, but a couple of years ago she started to learn how to play the 
recorder. Denise Avant grew up in Chicago. She does not like winter 
except that, if there has to be snow on the ground, she rather would be 
skiing in it. She doesn’t play a musical instrument, but she has sung 
alto in a gospel choir. The only time she has been out of Chicago for 
an extended period of time was when she had been at the University of 
Missouri Columbia during college and law school. Gregory Rosenberg 
played the ukulele a little bit. He has traveled to 67 countries on 5 
continents primarily for work. He loves winter snow. He has gone skiing 
on cross country trails. Jemal has lived in Chicago area for all his 
life. He’s only been out of the country once when he lived in Canada. 
He’s been cross country skiing for the past several years. He is 
watching cartoons. Ken Schad likes cartoons as well. He was originally 
from the central part of the state, a place called Havana. He likes a 
lot of mysteries. Marilyn watches local television. She watches the 
Joey Bishop Show. She had just started redoing her bedroom with bed 
linens and things and she has fallen in love with fleece sheets. Sara 
Luna grew up watching the 3 Stooges. She had very little musical 
skills, but she loved listening to music. The Beatles are her favorite 
band. She is African American and Mexican. She has visited Mexico. 
Ellen Bartelt did not grow up in Chicago or in Illinois. She grew up in 
Wisconsin in Madison. She grew up watching football. She moved to 
Chicago in October. Mary Grunwald loves baseball. Mary’s aunt used to 
drive her up to Michigan almost every year sometime during the summer. 
Pam G. is a White Sox fan. She was a pretty good catcher in the 7th 
grade. Ken Borst was originally from Hammond, Indiana. He moved to 
Chicago 42 years ago. He learned how to play the ukulele as a kid. 
Steve has played the flute since he was about 6 years old. He has a 
tremendous interest in anything you can ride, especially if it’s some 
kind of train. He’s held every position in the Chicago Chapter Board of 
Directors, recently a treasurer.

Approval of Minutes from January 9, 2021; Minutes were approved.

 Presidential Release #502: Today is Monday, February 1, 2021. 
President Riccobono is speaking from the NFB of Utah Auditorium at the 
Jernigan Institute, getting ready for our Washington Seminar. This is 
where we’re going to host the Great Gathering in, so hopefully you’ll 
be tuning in next Monday for that. Happy Black History Month and give a 
special shout out to our black leaders, especially to our board members 
who President Riccobono is learning from on a daily basis and who are 
guiding our diversity and inclusion work in the NFB. On January 29, we 
had our 10th anniversary of our Blind Driver Challenge. We will be 
collaborating with Dan Parker. He is a graduate of the Louisiana Center 
for the Blind. We’re collaborating with him on our Blind Driver 
Challenge and especially on Dan’s effort to build and operate a car to 
attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed for a 
car driven blindfolded. This is not a record for blind people. The 
Guinness World Record people never expected a blind person to set the 
record, which is why this is the fastest speed for a car driven 
blindfolded. In the fall of this year, we’ll be working with Dan and 
he’ll be attempting to set the record by driving independently at a 
speed above 200 miles an hour. You can read more about our refreshed 
blind driver challenge efforts at blinddriverchallenge.org. Also it’s 
the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Blindness Innovation and 
Research. This is our peer review open source journal. We have a number 
of great things in the Braille Monitor this month. Our publications 
continue to be part of an important vehicle for us to have discussions. 
If you feel compelled, you’ll write for the Monitor. President 
Riccobono often gets asked a question of who’s allowed to write for the 
Monitor. This is your publication. Submit an article. Work with Gary 
Wonder, our editor, he would love to have your contributions, your 
reactions to things that are published there.
On 2/15, we’ll be launching a diversity and inclusion survey to gather 
some baseline information about how we’re doing in the NFB, what the 
perceptions are and that will be our baseline for measuring progress 
that we make in diversity and inclusion. Please complete that survey. 
Please reach out to those folks that don’t have internet access, that 
don’t have computers and assist them to fill out the survey on Survey 
Monkey. We need as many members as possible to complete this diversity 
and inclusion survey. That survey is going to inform an initial 
training session we’re going to do for the National Board and for 
affiliate presidents in March. This is anti-bias training that is going 
to be offered to our staff at the national office to leaders of the 
Federation. Mr. Riccobono was requested by the diversity and inclusion 
committee. That group has helped to shape this training. This is an 
initial set of trainings that we think will be important for our 
leaders but then also help to guide and shape what we do going forward 
for Federation leaders. That training will also be offered initially to 
the national staff of the organization. On 3/8 at 7:00 pm central, the 
Diversity and Inclusion Committee will be holding an open diversity 
forum. Information for that gathering will be sent out by the 
committee. Regarding this meeting, President Riccobono encourages us to 
participate.
This year our Independence Market is going to be launching a number of 
sales every month and this month the market reports that you can get 
your hands on the Kenneth Jernigan Cornbread Kit for just $15. What is 
the Cornbread Kit? Kenneth Jernigan, our longtime leader was a big fan 
of cornbread and so he played with various methods to make at least 
from his perspective what was the right way. We sell a cast-iron muffin 
pan and some other materials as well as distribute the recipe in print 
and Braille as part of the kit. You can get it for $15 in the 
Independence Market. We’re also been going through our old stock of 
canes and we’ll be offering a number of them on special coming up. We 
currently have a carbon fiber rigid long white cane with a metal glide 
tip that we’ll be offering while supplies last in the Market for $15. 
You can get them in sizes 49 to 69. We also have a couple of games, 
solitaire and a fox and goose board game that you can get in the Market 
this month for $10. Call up the Market at our national office to get 
more information.
We continue to collect information about accessibility barriers. We are 
investigating barriers and denials related to unemployment benefits 
across the states. If you were terminated or laid off from your job 
within the past 2 years, we would like you to take time to complete our 
survey. You can find it at nfb.org/legal. This survey is related to 
unemployment websites and accessibility. If you know of people in your 
chapter or affiliate who have been laid off in the past 2 years and 
might need assistance filling out this survey, please help them with 
that. This data is very important especially as we consider our 
priorities in accessibility and making sure that government programs 
uphold their responsibilities to be accessible.
President Riccobono will be in this room on February 8 at 4:00 pm 
central time for our Great Gathering In, which is our official start to 
our Washington Seminar 2021.
John Pare: We have 4 issues planned for this year. First the Access 
Technology Affordability Act. The purpose of this bill is to help solve 
the problem of the high cost of access technology, whether screen 
reading software, Braille displays, Braille note takers and Braille 
embossers. These things are all very expensive and this bill would help 
defer some of the cost. It provides for a $2,000 refundable tax credit. 
Refundable means that you would get a tax credit even if you didn’t owe 
any taxes. So it’s a $2,000 refundable tax credit for use over a 3 year 
period. The bill has been introduced just recently in the House. It’s 
HR 431. We’re hoping to have the Senate companion introduced before the 
Washington Seminar. On the House side, the bill is sponsored by Mike 
Thompson, Democrat from California, and Mike Kelly, a Republican from 
Pennsylvania. So that is something that we came very close to doing in 
the 116th Congress and we can get it passed in the 117th.
The next is the Medical Device Non-visual Accessibility Act. The 
problem that this bill tries to solve or will solve is the large amount 
of non-visual home-based medical devices. This is something that you 
encounter especially during the Covid-19 outbreak. This is an ongoing 
problem that must be resolved. The lack of accessibility impacts safety 
and efficiency of these home-based medical devices. This bill would 
authorize the FDA to develop regulations and would ask them to put out 
a notice of proposed rule-making after 12 months, a final rule after 24 
months and then companies would need to need to comply with the final 
rule 36 months all after passage. Enforcement of the regulations would 
be with the FDA.
Our third issue has to do with a large number of inaccessible mobile 
apps and websites. The problem is the law requires the websites and 
mobile apps to be accessible, but there aren’t regulations and there’s 
not a clear-cut statutory definition of what accessibility means. This 
bill would solve that problem. It would create a clear-cut statutory 
definition and it would authorize the access board that has a lot of 
experience developing these types of regulations to create non-visual 
accessibility regulations for mobile apps and websites. It would have a 
similar timeline. Twelve months for an NPRM, 24 months for a final rule 
and 36 months for companies to comply. Companies want regulatory 
clarity, so we expect support for this bill from the business 
community. Currently on these 2 bills, on the medical devices and the 
21st century mobile apps, we’re still looking for bill sponsors, but we 
have a lot of good leads on people who are interested in doing this 
work with us.
The fourth issue is problems with the voting in the recent election or 
in previous elections. This is called the Americans with Disabilities 
Voting Rights Act. It would help ensure accessibility of various 
aspects of voting. First of all, there is a tremendous increase in vote 
by mail or vote from home and it would help mandate an accessible 
electronic ballot delivery. That’s when the Board of Elections sends 
the ballots to you electronically and would help mandate electronic 
ballot return. So that’s when you could return your ballot 
electronically when it’s time to vote. But not everybody has the 
equipment at home to do that, so we would continue to mandate that the 
equipment when you vote in person is also non-visually accessible. 
Though that is the law today, not enough of the machines are 
accessible. Also, in many cases, the ballot is distinguishable from 
other ballots. This bill would eliminate that inequity that results in 
the lack of a secret ballot. It also would extend back to registration, 
when you are registering to vote, making sure that that is accessible.
So these 4 bills together would dramatically improve accessibility, 
privacy and independence. It’s something that would improve the lives 
of all blind Americans.
This past week, Bobby Scott did introduce the Raise the Wage Bill, HR 
603, which has a section, Section 6, which would phase out and 
eliminate 14C. This is over a 5 year period. We support this portion of 
the bill and there’s a very good chance that we could pass. Bobby Scott 
was our featured speaker 1 year ago at our Great Gathering In and we 
influenced his desire to move this issue forward.
If you want to get more information on these issues, the fact sheets on 
each of these 4 issues can be found on our website. You go to 
nfb.org/washington-seminar. So you go to our home page. There are links 
off our home page at nfb.org/washington-seminar. The fact sheets are 
available in HTML, word, audio and Braille. We also have a sample mock 
meeting, which you can hear us talking about each of the issues. We 
also have the overall agenda for the Washington Seminar with all of the 
Zoom links. That’s available in HTML and word.
President Riccobono talked about the work of NFB to be a safer and 
welcoming environment and especially to support survivors of sexual 
misconduct within our organization. We announced last month that we are 
going to be launching training and that training is going to launch in 
late March starting with NFB staff and training center staff and will 
continue throughout the month of April through 10 different sessions. 
We will be training all national staff and contractors, all training 
center staff and students, all national board members and affiliate 
board members, and all national division board members. This training 
will be happening over a course of many weeks and obviously there are 
other people that we need to train. But this is going to be close to 
1,000 that we’ll be training over a five week period to level set 
expectations in how to prevent sexual misconduct within our 
organization. President Riccobono is excited about the training that’s 
being put together in collaboration with RAINN. All of those 
individuals who are going to be trained will be sent a training survey 
link later this week and we’re asking people to fill it out. It is an 
anonymous voluntary survey and we’re asking those leaders who are going 
to be trained to fill out the survey, so we can get some baseline 
information that will inform the level-setting training we’re doing 
with RAINN as our first step in this safety and improvement process.

Updates on the Federation’s Code of Conduct: Our Code of Conduct asks 
that we receive reports of incidents within a year of their happening. 
We do that to try to encourage timely reporting, so that we can deal 
with matters. We’re in a period right now where we want to contribute 
to our understanding of what has happened in the past and to find ways 
to improve the work we’re going to be doing going forward and to create 
greater healing within our organization. So the Board of Directors has 
asked that we put this one year ask on hold and we’re asking 
individuals to submit information about incidents that may have 
happened in the organization regardless of timeframe. We’re going to 
ask of this through August 1 of 2021. On August 1, we’ll revisit this 
decision and see what other changes we make. By the time we get to 
August 1, we will have gone through a significant process with RAINN of 
looking at our Code of Conduct, especially attuning it to sexual 
misconduct and abuse and appropriate response to those situations. As 
part of our ongoing commitment to transformational change within our 
organization to submit past incidents through our Code of Conduct. You 
can find the information on every single page of our webpage at the 
bottom. You can find the link to the Code of Conduct. All of these 
incidents that are reported through our Code of Conduct process, 
especially the online form, and by calling the number here at the 
National Office are going to an external party that will be reviewing 
these matters on behalf of the organization. Those 2 things are a 
direct result of our listening to survivors. No survivor should be 
forced to tell their story without their consent, It’s really important 
that with survivors that they’re comfortable reporting their stories 
through our code process or by talking to our survivor-led task force 
by sending an email to survivors at nfb.org or visiting the survivors 
webpage. This month we’ll also be working to publish on our code 
webpages some initial frequently asked questions about the Code of 
Conduct process as it currently exists. We’re revamping it, so the FAQs 
are going to be out of date and need to be updated. We’re finalizing 
our FAQs. They will be up later this month. Also, on behalf of our 
survivor-led task force, they have created 3 branches to the work that 
they are doing and these are divided into training and culture, 
communications and engagement and procedures and oversight. You can get 
more information about those branches and how you can get involved by 
going to nfb.org/survivors. The survivor-led task force will be holding 
a number of open meetings during the month of February to talk about 
each of those branches and how you can get involved. We do need 
everybody, as many people to be involved in these efforts, not just 
survivors but allies, experienced Federation members from many 
different areas. Thank you to our survivor-led task force. Thank you to 
our Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the transformational work 
that’s happening within the Federation in 2021.
Dustin asked in regards to blind driving power, did anyone know Mr. 
Parker’s qualifications in terms of developing this technology. Patti 
answered and said that this is a guy who was a sighted guy and designed 
his own vehicles then and he actually lost his vision in a race. He hit 
the wall and was injured and came back from it. He has already done a 
record attempt with us. He did the Salt Flats on his motorcycle.

State Presidential Report: Our next board meeting will be on 2-21 at 
7:00 pm. Committee reports are due in by 2-15. If you chair a 
committee, please send your report at president at nfbofillinois.org. If 
you have any questions, please call Marilyn Green at 312-343-8396. Our 
national convention will be virtual. The theme is anywhere and 
everywhere. The dates are 7-6 through 7-10.
Washington Seminar Recap: Denise said that they had just finished up 
our Washington Seminar and contacting our Illinois congressional 
delegation. We had a very successful week of meetings with our 
congressional delegation. Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of the 14th 
Congressional District has agreed to sign off on the Access Technology 
Affordability Act (HR 431), so we do have our first cosponsor on that 
bill and we look forward to having other Illinois cosponsors on that as 
well, because each of our offices that met with us indicated that if 
they signed off on it last year, they would more than likely sign off 
again this year. Even a couple of the offices that we didn’t get 
cosponsors last year are indicating that are very interested and would 
be willing to sign off as cosponsors on that bill. Everyone that we met 
with was very interested in our other 3 issues. They’re just waiting 
for bills to drop. They do believe that we should have the right to 
vote privately and independently in all aspects of the voting process, 
that we should have access to home use medical devices and that we 
should have accessibility in website and app platforms. They’re just 
waiting to see what the bills will say and, hopefully, we can get them 
all signed off on them. The only 2 people that we didn’t meet with last 
week that were rescheduled to the following week is Congressman Bobby 
Rush. We will meet with a staffer on 2/15, and Congressman SeanCaston 
We will meet with a staffer on Wednesday. Congressman Danny Davis’s 
office scheduled an appointment with us and did not attend the meeting 
without any notice to us. People who live in the 7th congressional 
district should call his local office and urge him to set up a meeting 
with the NFB Washington Seminar team, so that we could talk to him 
about our issues. We need a member in Mary Miller, who is a new 
congresswoman in the 15th congressional district. Perhaps if we have a 
member in the district, they can help us facilitate getting that 
meeting. We actually had an opportunity to meet with a lot of our 
representatives. We met with Raja Krishnamorthi, Brad Schneider, Jan 
Schakowski, Bill Foster and Darin LaHood. Denise thanked Dustin, 
Denise’s co-chair. It was his first time of being Washington Seminar 
co-chair. Denise thanked David Meyer and Ellen Bartelt, who were our 
appointment setters and Dave for taking care of making sure that all of 
our ratings got into the system. Please write or call your 
congressional representative and thank him for meeting with members of 
the NFB of Illinois and asking them for their support for our pieces of 
legislation.
State and National Scholarships: Sarah Luna was a national scholarship 
winner in 2020. As far as the applications go, we are in the midst of 
reaching out to teachers of blind students. The Lighthouse has agreed 
to send all of our stuff to their list of TVIs. Everyone should be 
reaching out to at least 1 student ,asking that they please apply. Even 
if they have applied before, apply again. The thing that is mentioned a 
lot from students is I didn’t win the last time.  Many students don’t 
win the first time they apply. Occasionally that happens, but mostly it 
doesn’t. We have a flyer if you need it. We have a video. Go to our 
website, nfbofillinois.org/scholarship.
Midwest Student Seminar: It is going to be taking place virtually on 
3-19 and 3-20, Friday and Saturday. As of right now, on 3/19, Friday 
night is going to be more of a social event for people to get to know 
other students around the region and on 3-20, it’s going to be a day 
full of programming centered around themes of identity and 
authenticity. We are getting door prizes for this event as well and 
having a wide range of speakers. The deadline for registration is 3/1 
and registration is $25. If somebody needs assistance with the 
registration, reach out to Kenya Flores at kflores at gmail.com. The 
registration is on the NABS website and on the NFBI website as well.
We do have an Illinois career mentoring program that is now between the 
ages of 14 and 22. Marilyn sent out a link on I’ll talk and IABS talk. 
So if you know any students who could benefit from that program, please 
have them go online and fill out that link as well as if there are any 
people who you think would be great mentors for the program. The 
national scholarship is open. The deadline is 3-31. Students can apply 
for scholarships, the state and the national scholarships. To apply for 
the national scholarships, you would go to www.nfb.org. Many of the 
pieces of information are the same to apply for the state scholarships. 
You would fill out the application and turn it in no later than 3/31 at 
11:59 pm eastern time. The one piece of information that you do need 
that you would not need for the state scholarship is that you do need 
to schedule an interview with the state president. You can reach out to 
Marilyn at 312-343-8396 or email Marilyn at 
president at nfbofillinois.org. Marilyn wanted to thank everyone who was 
able to attend the meetings and be in the audience to show their 
support for all of our legislation.

The Chicago Chapter Board will meet via Zoom on Thursday 2/18 at 7:00 
pm. We will use the state Zoom account. All of the credentials can be 
used to get into the board meeting. There will likely be an 
announcement on Il-Talk regarding those in Danny Davis district.
Old Business: The treasury has a balance of 2,710.

New Business: Roberta Glickman is in a rehab center. People at Friedman 
Place noticed that her legs were pretty swollen and that’s when they 
took her to Rush University Medical Center. Now she’s recovering at 
Astoria Place. Steve reports that on 2/2, there was a Metra ADA 
advisory committee meeting which he chaired. Jemal also attended that 
meeting. We discussed a lot of station renovation that’s going on and 
planned to get new cars and locomotives. If anybody has occasion to 
ride Metra these days and you have any concerns, please let Steve know. 
Email is steve.hastalis at gmail.com. His cell number is 773-848-5307.
The meeting adjourned at 3:21 pm.
Respectfully submitted: Eileen F. Truschke, Secretary, Chicago Chapter.