[il-talk] FW: The Braille Monitor, May 2009
denise avant
dravant at ameritech.net
Sat May 16 22:12:22 UTC 2009
Hello all,
I am forwarding this month's Braille monitor because of the in depth article
on Braille. Plus, there is a description of the hotel we will be at during
national convention.
You can also download the mp3 file which comes zipped for playing on your
computer or the stream.
-----Original Message-----
From: brl-monitor at nfbcal.org [mailto:brl-monitor at nfbcal.org] On Behalf Of
Brian Buhrow
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 11:44 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: The Braille Monitor, May 2009
[My apologies for getting this out so late. We'll be on track for June.
-Brian]
BRAILLE MONITOR
Vol. 52, No. 5 May 2009
Barbara Pierce, editor
Daniel B. Frye, associate editor
Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Marc Maurer, president
National Office
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
telephone: (410) 659-9314
email address: nfb at nfb.org
Website address: http://www.nfb.org
NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org
NFB-NEWSLINE® information: (866) 504-7300
Letters to the president, address changes,
subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature
should be sent to the National Office.
Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also
be sent to the National Office or may be emailed to bpierce at nfb.org.
Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per
year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the
subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation
of the Blind and sent to:
National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES
ISSN 0006-8829
© 2009 by the National Federation of the Blind
Detroit Site of 2009 NFB Convention
**********
The 2009 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take
place in Detroit, Michigan, July 3-8, at the Detroit Marriott, Renaissance
Center, 100 Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan 48243. Make your room
reservation as soon as possible with the Detroit Marriott staff only. Call
(800) 266-9432.
The 2009 room rates are singles, doubles, and twins $62; triples $66;
and quads $68 a night, plus a 15 percent sales tax. The hotel is accepting
reservations now. A $60-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation.
Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the
hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2009. The other 50
percent is not refundable.
Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Reservations may be made before June 1, 2009, assuming that rooms are still
available. After that time the hotel will not hold our block of rooms for
the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.
Guestroom amenities include cable television, coffeepot, iron and
ironing board, hair dryer, high-speed Internet access for a charge, and
free wireless Internet service in the lobby. The Detroit Marriott has four
excellent restaurants, twenty-four-hour-a-day room service, a food court on
the Promenade Level, and other top-notch facilities. It is in downtown
Detroit with excellent access to air, train, and bus service.
The schedule for the 2009 convention is a full day shorter than
recent conventions:
Friday, July 3 Seminar Day
Saturday, July 4 Registration and Packet Pick-up Day
Sunday, July 5 Board Meeting and Division Day
Monday, July 6 Motor City March and Opening Session
Tuesday, July 7 Business Session
Wednesday, July 8 Banquet Day and Adjournment
2009 National Convention Preregistration Form
Please register online at <www.nfb.org> or print legibly on this form or
provide all the requested information and mail to the address below.
Registrant Name ___________________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________________
City ____________________________________________________________
State ___________________________________ Zip ____________________
Phone __________________________________________________________
___ I will pick up my registration packet at convention.
___ The following person will pick up my registration packet:
Pickup Name ______________________________________
Please register only one person per registration form.
One check or money order may cover multiple registrations.
Check or money order (sorry, no credit cards) must be enclosed with
registration form(s).
Number of preregistrations x $15 = ____________
Prepurchased banquet tickets x $35 = ____________
Total ______________
All preconvention registration and banquet sales are final (no refunds).
Mail to: National Federation of the Blind
Attn: Convention Registration
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
Registrations must be postmarked by May 31, 2009.
Vol. 52, No. 5 May 2009
Contents
Making Change with a Dollar
Celebrating the Launch of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar
by Daniel B. Frye
The Braille Literacy Crisis in America
Facing the Truth, Reversing the Trend, Empowering the Blind
The Mythology of Discrimination
by Marc Maurer
Low-Cost Screen Readers
by the Access Technology Team
Going Round in Circles at the Detroit Marriott
by Doug Boone
Blind Voters Are Registered Voters
by A.J. Chwalow, L. Blake, and M. Riccobono
The State of Blindness
A Current Assessment
by Stanley Greenberg
My Tree Branch Cane
How I Became Blind and Then What
by Ed Bryant
2009 Brings ADA Changes
by Greg Trapp
Recipes
Monitor Miniatures
Precisely at noon on March 26, 2009, the United States Mint began
selling the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar. Some minutes before
that hour those who attended the official roll-out of the coin at the
headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind began lining up to buy
coins in Members' Hall. The first purchasers were lucky enough to have
their certificates of authentication initialed by the director of the Mint.
[CAPTION: The obverse of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar]
[CAPTION: The reverse of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar]
[CAPTION: The plaque presented to President Maurer by Edmund Moy, director
of the United States Mint--the plaque text appears in both print and
Braille, and the obverse and the reverse of both the proof (outer) and
uncirculated (inner) silver dollars can be seen. The proof coins are
mounted in transparent cases for protection, but the uncirculated coins can
be touched.]
[CAPTION: A standing-room-only crowd attended the March 26 roll-out of the
Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar.]
[CAPTION: Director of the Mint Ed Moy presents a Braille and print plaque
to President Maurer during his remarks at the celebration.]
[CAPTION: Fred Schroeder (at the podium) prepares to present the NFB's
report on Braille to presidential advisor Kareem Dale.]
Making Change with a Dollar
Celebrating the Launch of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar
by Daniel B. Frye
**********
On Thursday, March 26, 2009, the National Federation of the Blind
hosted a celebration to launch the release of the 2009 Louis Braille
Bicentennial Silver Dollar at our headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Over
three hundred Federationists, members of the general public, and media
representatives gathered in Members' Hall of the NFB Jernigan Institute to
watch Edmund C. Moy, director of the United States Mint, officially unveil
and present this commemorative coin to NFB President Marc Maurer. Mr. Moy
presented President Maurer a plaque incorporating four of the coins (two
proof and two uncirculated, displaying both the obverse and reverse of each
type of coin). The NFB first vice president and chairman of our national
Braille Readers are Leaders (BRL) campaign, Dr. Fredric Schroeder, also
introduced and presented the Federation's report "The Braille Literacy
Crisis in America: Facing the Truth, Reversing the Trend, Empowering the
Blind" to Kareem Dale, special assistant to the president for disability
policy. Mr. Dale reaffirmed President Obama's commitment to literacy and
education for all, including the blind, and he promised to take the report
back to the White House to digest its content and incorporate it in
administration policy.
Finally, Dr. Joyce Winterton, assistant administrator for NASA
education, made a surprise announcement that two of these Bicentennial
Silver Dollars will be launched into space later this year on STS-125, the
flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope, the
last space shuttle flight before the entire fleet is retired in 2010. The
gathering enthusiastically received this announcement. Many were also
touched when Dr. Winterton commented in passing that she intended to buy
six of the coins for her grandchildren.
[CAPTION: Dr. Joyce Winterton speaks at the podium.]
In addition to these presentations President Maurer delivered a
keynote address to mark this historic occasion in which he described the
government's decision to mint a coin honoring the two hundredth birthday of
Louis Braille as an implicit recognition of our value as blind people. U.S.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the original Senate sponsor of
our Braille coin legislation, offered a video message of congratulations.
Dr. Abraham Nemeth, the inventor of the Nemeth Braille mathematics code and
one of several national ambassadors for the BRL campaign present at the
celebration, reminisced with the audience about the powerful influence of
Braille in directing the trajectory of his career and life.
Dignitaries, including a representative from the French ambassador to
the United States, a staff member from Maryland Senator Benjamin Cardin's
office, the director of the National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission
for the Blind, and the superintendent of the Maryland School for the Blind,
all joined us for this momentous celebration. Jessica Bachicha, a staff
member in the NFB Department of Affiliate Action and a doctoral student
studying vocal performance at Catholic University, sang the aria "I Want to
Live" from act one of Charles Gounod's opera, Roméo et Juliet.
[DESCRIPTION: Jessica sings into a floor mic. Visible behind her is her
accompanist playing a grand piano, a United States flag on a stand, and
dignitaries at the head table. CAPTION: Jessica Bachicha sings an aria at
the celebration.]
To the delight of everyone present, three young Federationists,
Marché Daughtry, Brandon Pickrel, and Jason Polansky, demonstrated the
value of Braille when they read a resolution emphasizing the importance of
the code. The text of their resolution follows:
[CAPTION: Seated at a table with Braille and microphones in front of them
are (left to right) Jason Polansky, Marché Daughtry, and Brandon Pickrel.
Marché is reading her part of the resolution.]
**********
[Brandon] WHEREAS, I, Brandon Pickrel, am a first grader who is proud
to be one of the 10 percent of blind children who can read and write
Braille, and therefore, I am more likely to graduate from high school and
pursue advanced education; and
[Jason] WHEREAS, I, Jason Polansky, am a seventh grader who reads
Braille and, therefore, I am more likely to be successfully employed in my
field of choice; and
[Marché] WHEREAS, I, Marché Daughtry, am a sixth grader who loves to
read Braille and therefore salute the members of Congress for authorizing
the Louis Braille Silver Dollar, which will provide funds to the National
Federation of the Blind to ensure that many other blind children and adults
have the opportunity to be literate: Now, therefore,
[All three] BE IT RESOLVED that we will use the power of knowledge to
build a future full of opportunity with the support of the National
Federation of the Blind; and
[Brandon] BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that I will go to college because of
the investment in the next generation made by the National Federation of
the Blind; and
[Jason] BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that I will graduate from high school,
go to college, and be successful in my personal life and my career because
of the unwavering commitment to Braille literacy of the National Federation
of the Blind; and
[Marché] BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that I will be a midwife because the
members of the National Federation of the Blind will seize this moment in
time to make change with a dollar.
************
[All three] Ladies and gentlemen, we are Braille readers, and
therefore we'll be leaders. Please follow our lead and help us build a
brighter future by giving the gift of Braille to every blind person in
America.
**********
The coin launch ceremony received national and local television and
print press coverage. Our festivities were featured on the nationally
broadcast ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, and many newspapers
around the country carried a version of the Associated Press article
highlighting this centerpiece of our national BRL campaign. The text of the
AP article follows:
**********
Fewer Than 10 Percent of Blind Americans Read Braille
Jordan Richardson has a degenerative condition that eventually will
leave him completely blind. But as a child his teachers did not emphasize
Braille, the system of reading in which a series of raised dots signify
letters of the alphabet. Instead, they insisted he use what little vision
he had to read print. By the third grade he was falling behind in his
schoolwork.
"They gave him Braille instruction, but they didn't tell us how to
get Braille books, and they didn't want him using it during the day," said
Jordan's mother, Carrie Gilmer of Minneapolis. Teachers said Braille would
be "a thing he uses way off in the far distant future, and don't worry
about it."
That experience is common: Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million
legally blind people in the United States read Braille, and just 10 percent
of blind children are learning it, according to a report to be released
Thursday by the National Federation of the Blind. By comparison, at the
height of its use in the 1950s, more than half the nation's blind children
were learning Braille. Today Braille is considered by many to be too
difficult, too outdated, a last resort. Instead, teachers ask students to
rely on audio texts, voice-recognition software, or other technology. And
teachers who know Braille often must shuttle between schools, resulting in
haphazard instruction, the report says.
"You can find good teachers of the blind in America, but you can't
find good programs," said Marc Maurer, the group's president. "There is not
a commitment to this population that is at all significant almost
anywhere." Using technology as a substitute for Braille leaves blind people
illiterate, the Federation said, citing studies that show blind people who
know Braille are more likely to earn advanced degrees, find good jobs, and
live independently. "It's really sad that so many kids are being
shortchanged," said Debby Brackett of Stuart, Florida, who pressured
schools to provide capable Braille teachers for her twelve-year-old
daughter, Winona.
One study found that 44 percent of participants who grew up reading
Braille were unemployed, compared with 77 percent for those who relied on
print. Overall blind adults face 70 percent unemployment.
The Federation's report pulled together existing research on Braille
literacy, and its authors acknowledge that not enough research has been
done. The 10-percent figure comes from federal statistics gathered by the
American Printing House for the Blind, a company that develops products for
the visually impaired. The Federation also did some original research,
including a survey of five hundred people that found the ability to read
Braille correlated with higher levels of education, a higher likelihood of
employment, and higher income.
The report coincides with the two hundredth birthday of Louis
Braille, the Frenchman who invented the Braille code as a teenager.
Resistance to his system was immediate; at one point the director of
Braille's school burned the books he and his classmates had transcribed.
The school did not want its blind students becoming too independent; it
made money by selling crafts they produced. The system caught on but began
declining in the 1960s along with the widespread integration of blind
children into public schools. It has continued with the advent of
technology that some believe makes Braille obsolete.
"Back in about 1970 or so, I was heading to college, and somebody
said to me, 'Now that you've got the tape recorder, everything will be all
right.' In the early 1980s somebody else said, 'Now that you've got a
talking computer, everything will be all right,'" said Marc Maurer,
president of the Federation. "They were both wrong. And the current
technology isn't going to make everything all right unless I know how to
put my hands on a page that has words on it and read them."
"Audio books are no substitute," said Carlton Walker, an attorney and
the mother of a legally blind girl from McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania.
Walker once met a blind teenager who had only listened to audio books; the
teen was shocked to discover that "Once upon a time" was four separate
words. Walker also had to lobby teachers to provide Braille for her eight-
year-old daughter Anna instead of just large-print books.
"At three years old Anna could compete with very large letters. When
you get older, you can't compete," Walker said. She once asked a teacher,
"'What are you going to do when she's reading Dickens?' She said, 'Well,
we'll just go to audio then.' If that were good enough for everybody, why
do we spend millions of dollars teaching people to read?" Richardson, now
an eighteen-year-old aspiring lawyer, worked on his Braille in a summer
program when he was in middle school and can now read 125 words a minute,
up from his previous rate, an excruciatingly slow twenty words a minute.
"Just try it," Carrie Gilmer said. "Go get a paragraph, get a
stopwatch, and try to read twenty words a minute. Try and read that slow
and see how frustrating it is." Fluent Braille readers can read two hundred
words a minute or more, the Federation says. Carrie Gilmer is president of
a parents' group within the Federation of the Blind. She believes poor or
haphazard instruction is largely responsible for the decline in Braille
literacy, but she says sometimes teachers push Braille only to meet
resistance from parents. "They're afraid of their child looking blind, not
fitting in," Gilmer said.
The report outlines ambitious goals for reversing the trend,
including lobbying all fifty states to require teachers of blind children
to be certified in Braille instruction by 2015. But its immediate goal is
to simply make people aware that there's no substitute for Braille. "It's
not just a tool to help people function--it can bring joy," Maurer said.
"The concept of reading Braille for fun is a thing that lots of
people don't know," Maurer said. "And yet I do this every day. I love the
beautiful, orderly lines of words that convey a different idea that can
stimulate me or make me excited or sad. ... This is what we're trying to
convey."
**********
[CAPTION: Attendees stood patiently in line waiting for their turn to
purchase coins.]
As the formal ceremony concluded, members and guests scattered
throughout Members' Hall to take advantage of the Braille-related
activities on display. Most formed a winding circle around the hall's
perimeter to be one of the first to purchase the Louis Braille Bicentennial
Silver Dollar. Those present had an exclusive opportunity to buy this
keepsake before it went on public sale from the United States Mint at noon
on March 26. Others visited booths featuring the evolution of Braille; rare
books embossed in Braille and other tactile codes, including a first-
edition copy of a book in which Louis Braille introduced his new code to
the world; and an array of Braille technology. Cookies with the Braille
letters B, R, and L were available for sampling, and a lucky few got to
swing at a piñata that, when finally broken, disgorged hundreds of
chocolate Louis Braille coins for everyone to enjoy. Visit
<http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Audio-Video_Center.asp?SnID=520038847> to hear a
recording of the entire event.
[CAPTION: The refreshments at the celebration were frosted sugar cookies,
each with a Braille letter made of M&Ms. Here the three letters, B, R, L,
spell Braille.]
On the same day and throughout the following week, many Federation
affiliates and chapters held their own celebrations to recognize the
release of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar. Over thirty state
affiliates obtained proclamations and resolutions from political leaders
(mostly from governors or state legislatures) hailing the release of the
coin and all it symbolizes for blind Americans.
Our Nebraska affiliate, for example, held an event at the Lincoln
Children's Museum, where Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy presented a
gubernatorial proclamation declaring March 26, 2009, Braille Readers are
Leaders Day in Nebraska to affiliate president and NFB national board
member Amy Buresh. Scott LaBarre, president of the National Federation of
the Blind of Colorado, reported that forty Federationists braved an early
spring blizzard to be at the state capitol for an affiliate-sponsored press
conference and to watch the unanimous adoption of Joint Senate Resolution
31, noting the release of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar and
its attendant promise to create enhanced Braille literacy for many. Space
constraints do not allow us to profile every state or local event, but we
received reports from Michigan and New Jersey, among others, detailing
their efforts. Each event reflected the local color and personality of the
affiliate or chapter in question.
If you are interested in purchasing the Louis Braille Bicentennial
Silver Dollar to help promote the NFB's national BRL campaign, contact the
NFB Independence Market at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2216, or contact the United
States Mint at (800) 872-6468 (USA-Mint); the coin can also be bought
online from the United States Mint by visiting <http://www.usmint.gov>.
Please consider buying a coin or two. They will make wonderful historic
souvenirs, and they will help promote our Braille literacy efforts.
Finally, with the purchase of every ten thousand coins, one blank segment
in a forty-piece mystery artwork will be revealed, and, when all four
hundred thousand of the authorized coins have been sold, we'll all be able
to marvel at what should be a stunning picture. The emerging bas-relief
will be on display for all members and guests to see when they visit the
National Center for the Blind. The introduction of this artwork at the
conclusion of the celebration served as a bit of inspiration and motivation
to get about the serious work of raising money for Braille literacy. Now it
is up to you to do your part.
------------
The Braille Literacy Crisis in America
Facing the Truth, Reversing the Trend, Empowering the Blind
************
A Report to the Nation by the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan
Institute
************
March 26, 2009
************
Executive Summary
************
A good education is the key to success, and every American deserves
an equal opportunity to receive a good education. Inherent to being
educated is being literate. The ability to read and write means access to
information that, in turn, leads to understanding and knowledge. And
knowledge is power-the power to achieve, function in the family, thrive in
the community, succeed in a job, and contribute to society.
Nearly 90 percent of America's blind children are not learning to
read and write because they are not being taught Braille or given access to
it. There is a Braille literacy crisis in America.
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the largest and most
influential membership organization of blind people in the United States,
is taking swift action to reverse this trend. This year, 2009, marks the
two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the
system that allows blind people to read and write independently. Coinciding
with this anniversary, the NFB has announced specific action to address the
education of America's blind children so that every blind child who has a
need for Braille will have the opportunity to learn it.
In this report to the nation on the state of Braille literacy in
America, the NFB examines the history and decline of Braille education,
addresses the crisis facing the blind today and key factors driving it, and
proposes a number of action steps to double the Braille literacy rate by
2015 and eventually reverse it altogether.
************
Key Report Findings:
************
I. Facing the Truth
. Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million people who are legally blind in
the United States are Braille readers. Further, a mere 10 percent of
blind children are learning it.
. Each year as many as 75,000 people lose all or part of their vision. As
the baby-boom generation moves into retirement age and as diabetes (the
nation's leading cause of blindness) approaches epidemic proportions, the
NFB expects this number to increase dramatically and, if nothing is done,
the Braille illiteracy rate as well.
. The current effects of this crisis are dire. Over 70 percent of blind
adults are unemployed, and as many as 50 percent of blind high school
students drop out of high school.
Factors contributing to this low literacy among the blind include:
. The Teacher Crisis. There is a shortage of teachers who are qualified
to teach Braille. In 2003 there were approximately 6,700 full-time
teachers of blind students serving about 93,600 students. In that same
year the number of new professionals graduating from university
programs to work with blind or low-vision students fluctuated between
375 and 416 per year. In addition there is no national consensus on
what it means to be certified to teach Braille, and states have a
patchwork of requirements for certification.
. The Spiral of Misunderstanding. There are many misconceptions about
the Braille system. For example, "Braille isolates and stigmatizes
students from peers who read print," or "Braille is always slower than
reading print and difficult to learn." Yet studies have found that
Braille is an efficient and effective reading medium with students
demonstrating a reading speed exceeding two hundred words per minute.
. Blind Children with Low Vision Are Deprived of Braille Instruction.
Parents often find themselves battling with school administrators to
get Braille instruction for their children with low vision because of
the historical emphasis on teaching these children to read print. Many
students with residual vision cannot read print efficiently even with
magnification. Children with some residual vision account for around
85 percent of the total population of blind children.
. The Paradox of Technology. Eighty-nine percent of teachers of blind
students agree that technology should be used as a supplement to
Braille rather than as a replacement. Advances in technology have made
Braille more available than ever before. Computer software can
translate any document into literary, contracted Braille quickly and
accurately. Further, hundreds of thousands of Braille books are
available from Internet-based services.
************
II. Reversing the Trend
Undoubtedly the ability to read and write Braille competently and
efficiently is the key to success for the blind. The National Federation of
the Blind Jernigan Institute is committed to reversing this downward trend
in Braille literacy in order to ensure that equal opportunities in
education and employment are available to all of the nation's blind.
************
Braille literacy can be accomplished by:
. Increasing access to Braille instruction and reading materials in
every community nationwide.
. Expanding Braille mentoring, reading-readiness, and outreach programs.
. Requiring national certification in literary Braille among all special
education teachers. By 2015 all fifty states must enact legislation
requiring special education teachers of blind children to obtain and
maintain the National Certification in Literary Braille.
. Requiring all Braille teachers to pass the National Certification in
Literary Braille (NCLB) in order to assure their competency and
fluency in the literary code.
. Advancing the use of Braille in current and emerging technologies.
. Researching new methods of teaching and learning Braille.
. Making Braille resources more available through online sharing of
materials, enhanced production methods, and improved distribution.
. Educating the American public that blind people have a right to
Braille literacy so they can compete and assume a productive role in
society.
************
III. Empowering the Blind
Blind people who know Braille and use it find success, independence,
and productivity. A recent survey of five hundred respondents by the
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute revealed a correlation
between the ability to read Braille and a higher educational level, a
higher likelihood of employment, and a higher income.
Hundreds of thousands of blind people have found Braille to be an
indispensable tool in their education, their work, and their daily lives.
In the hearts and minds of blind people, no alternative system or new
technology has ever replaced Braille. For this reason the National
Federation of the Blind is launching a national Braille literacy campaign
to enhance the future prospects for blind children and adults in this
country and to help make Braille literacy a reality for the 90 percent of
blind children for whom reading is a struggle, if not an impossibility.
The future of sighted children depends on a proper education; the
future of America's blind children is no different.
************
************
Introduction
************
Unquestionably a good education is the key to success. In national
polls Americans routinely identified this issue as an important national
priority (Blackorby, 2004). Education is generally understood to encompass
literacy, defined as "the ability to read and write" (Concise Oxford
Dictionary, 2009). According to the National Institute for Literacy,
literacy is "an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English,
compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function
on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society"
(http://www.nifl.gov/). Schools not doing a good job of teaching children
to read and write are correctly seen as failing schools. Yet, for thousands
of children across the United States, it is considered acceptable to fail
to teach them to read and write. These children are blind, and they are not
learning to read and write because they are not being taught Braille.
Despite its versatility and elegance, and notwithstanding the fact
that it is the official system of reading and writing for the blind in the
United States, Braille is not being taught to most blind children or to
adults who lose their vision. This has led to a literacy crisis among blind
people. Many commentators on the Braille literacy crisis agree that one of
the most significant contributing factors is a negative societal attitude
toward Braille (Riccobono, 2006; Hehir, 2002). The bias against Braille is
further evidenced by hundreds of published accounts from blind people
themselves. The archives of the monthly publication of the National
Federation of the Blind, the Braille Monitor, are full of personal stories
detailing the problems blind people experience when they are not taught
Braille at an early age. When educators and parents insist that children
who are blind or have low vision read print to the exclusion of reading
Braille, the ultimate result is that many of them are functionally
illiterate.
Braille has been controversial since its invention. At the time Louis
Braille developed the system, most of those who were attempting to educate
the blind were not blind themselves but sighted people with altruistic
impulses (Lorimer, 2000; Mellor, 2006). They believed that the blind should
be taught to read print rather than using a separate system. Many educators
still believe this today, arguing that Braille is slow and hard to learn
and that it isolates blind children from their peers. These arguments and
their mistaken assumptions will be addressed in detail in the following
pages.
Beliefs among educators about Braille are only one reason, albeit a
very significant one, that Braille literacy has declined in the United
States to the point where it is estimated that only 10 percent of blind
children are learning it. Other factors include a shortage of teachers
qualified to give Braille instruction, the need for improved methods of
producing and distributing Braille, and not enough certified Braille
transcribers (Spungin, 1989, 2003). All of these issues must be addressed
if the downward trend in literacy among the blind is to be reversed. And it
must be reversed, for to fail to reverse it is to condemn blind children
and adults to illiteracy and to a permanent struggle to keep up with their
sighted peers in getting an education. By contrast, reversing the downward
trend in Braille literacy will ensure that current and future generations
of blind children, as well as adults who lose their vision, have access to
knowledge and the power and opportunity that it represents.
This report discusses Braille's history and effectiveness, the
reasons for the crisis in Braille literacy, and what the National
Federation of the Blind is doing to address this crisis. It is a call to
action for all who are concerned about the welfare of America's blind
children to join with the National Federation of the Blind in our effort to
ensure that every blind child and adult who has a need for Braille will
have the opportunity to learn it.
************
A Brief History of Braille
************
Braille is a system of raised dots that allows blind people to read
and write tactilely. Named for its inventor, Louis Jean-Philippe Braille
(1809-1852), the Braille code is the universally accepted method of reading
and writing for the blind. It is the only system that allows blind people
to read and write independently and to do both interactively. Because of
its effectiveness, Braille has been adapted for almost every written
language. Other Braille codes represent mathematical and scientific
notation and music. Even blind computer programmers have a Braille code,
computer Braille. All of these codes are based on Louis Braille's original
system, a cell consisting of six dots in parallel vertical columns of three
each. The Braille code was first introduced into the United States in 1869
but was not adopted until 1932 as the Standard English Grade II Braille
code.
************
Graphic: Braille cell
************
Graphic: Braille alphabet
************
For most of human history no method existed allowing blind people to
read and write independently. Some blind people did learn to read print in
a tactile form, but usually they had no way to write tactilely; even if
they learned to reproduce print characters accurately, they could not read
what they had written. In addition, the difficulty and expense of producing
books with embossed print lettering made such books rare. As a result most
blind people were condemned to illiteracy, along with the poverty and
deprivation accompanying it. If they earned a living at all, they did so as
storytellers or musicians or through certain kinds of manual labor,
including basketry and massage.
This was the state of affairs when Louis Jean-Philippe Braille was
born in the small village of Coupvray, France, just outside Paris, in 1809.
At the age of three Braille was blinded in an accident, probably resulting
from playing with tools in his father's harness-making shop (Lorimer, 1996,
2000; Mellor, 2006). Braille's family was not wealthy, but his parents were
literate and determined that their son would obtain an education. When it
became clear that the local school could no longer meet Braille's needs
(though he had progressed astonishingly far given that he could not read
and write), a local nobleman put up the funds for him to attend the Royal
Institute for the Young Blind in Paris, the world's first school for blind
children (Mellor, 2006; Lorimer, 1996). At this school Braille found a
limited number of books with embossed print letters and quickly read all of
them.
In 1821 a French army captain, Charles Barbier de la Serre, came to
the school to show the students an invention that he thought might be of
use to them. Barbier had developed a system called "night writing"
consisting of raised dots punched into cardboard with a stylus. A metal
frame, or slate, was used to guide the stylus in the proper placement of
the dots. This system was invented as a way for soldiers to transmit
messages in the dark without striking a match, which would give away their
position to enemy gunners. While Braille recognized the system's potential,
he believed that it could be improved. In particular he thought that the
dot formations should represent alphanumeric characters instead of sounds
(Barbier's system was also called sonography because the symbols
represented the sounds of speech rather than letters). He also thought that
the number of dots making up each character should be reduced so that they
could be read with a fingertip rather than having to be traced. Braille
worked on improving the system for several years. By the age of twenty he
had developed the six-dot Braille cell that is used today and had published
a booklet on the method.
Braille's fellow students adopted his new system immediately. Not
only could they now read books, which were hand transcribed by Braille and
his friends, but they could take their own notes in class and read them
back later rather than learning exclusively by listening and memorizing.
The instructors at the school were skeptical, however, and some of the
administrators were actually hostile. The school was a political showpiece
and made money from selling crafts produced by its blind students; if the
blind became too independent, its prestige and revenue might be reduced
(Mellor, 2006). At one point the school's director burned all of the books
that Louis Braille and his friends had transcribed by hand and confiscated
the students' slates and styluses. The result was an open rebellion among
students, who began to steal forks from the dining room to replace their
lost writing implements. This early struggle for the acceptance of the
Braille system would be only the first of many battles pitting blind people
against those who professed to know what was best for them. These struggles
continue to this day.
Despite these setbacks the Braille system was eventually adopted by
the Royal Institute for the Young Blind, and two years after Braille's
death it became the official system of reading and writing for the blind in
France. To this day Louis Braille is considered a national hero in his
native country; his body is interred in the Pantheon in Paris. The Braille
code was later adopted in England because of advocacy by the founders of
what is now the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and other blind
people and educational institutions for the blind began to use it. Helen
Keller reported using the system. Rosalind Perlman (2007), in her book The
Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story, reports that the first physician to
have been born blind, practicing in Chicago during the early part of the
twentieth century, learned Braille at the Illinois School for the Blind and
used it for notes in medical school and throughout his subsequent career.
Braille was adopted as the exclusive means of teaching blind people to read
and write in the United States in 1932. At the height of its use in the
United States, it is estimated that 50 to 60 percent of blind children
learned to read and write in Braille.
************
Attention Box on page 7: Only about 10 percent of blind children in the
United States are currently learning Braille. Society would never accept a
10 percent literacy rate among sighted children; it should not accept such
an outrageously low literacy rate among the blind.
************
The Decline of Braille Literacy
************
The decline in the number of Braille readers since 1963 (Miller,
2002) has been widely discussed by professionals and censured by consumer
groups (Rex, 1989; Schroeder, 1989; Stephens, 1989). Although there is no
consensus on the causes of this decline, a number of factors have been
cited. Among them are disputes on the utility of the Braille code (Thurlow,
1988), the decline in teachers' knowledge of Braille and methods for
teaching it (Schroeder, 1989; Stephens, 1989), negative attitudes toward
Braille (Holbrook and Koenig, 1992; Rex, 1989), greater reliance on speech
output and print-magnification technology, and a rise in the number of
blind children with additional disabilities who are nonreaders (Rex, 1989).
The greatest controversy over whether to teach a child Braille arises when
a child has some residual vision; such children account for around 85
percent of the total population of blind children (Holbrook and Koenig,
1992).
Pressure from consumers and advocacy groups has led thirty-three
states to pass legislation mandating that children who are legally blind be
given the opportunity to learn Braille. The Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act also mandates that the teams who help to write educational
plans for students with disabilities presume that all blind children should
be taught Braille unless it is determined to be inappropriate. But these
laws have not ended the controversy. Whereas professional groups have
called for a renewed emphasis on teaching Braille (Mullen, 1990), others
have opined that Braille is only one educational option. Braille should be
viewed as one tool among many, a tool that allows blind people to operate
at a high degree of proficiency when performing a multitude of functional
tasks (Eldridge, 1979, Waechtler, 1999). But rather than seeing Braille as
a tool that every blind child should have in his or her toolkit for dealing
effectively with vision loss, to be used in conjunction with and not to the
exclusion of techniques that rely on the child's remaining vision, some
educators insist that a choice must be made between print and Braille and
that only one reading medium must be used (Federman, 2005). These
disagreements translate in the field into disputes among professionals in
planning meetings researching how to deal with individual children. Parents
caught in the middle of these disputes and often themselves confused about
the best course of action find that they and their children become the real
victims in these academic battles.
************
The Crisis Facing the Blind Today
************
The American Foundation for the Blind (1996) has estimated that fewer
than 10 percent of people who are legally blind in the United States and
fewer than 40 percent of the estimated number who are functionally blind
are Braille readers. The American Printing House for the Blind estimates
the Braille literacy rate among children to be around 10 percent. Experts
estimate 1.3 million blind people live in the United States, and
approximately 75,000 people lose all or part of their vision each year.
These numbers may increase dramatically as the baby-boom generation reaches
retirement age. Macular degeneration, the most common form of blindness in
older Americans, is likely to increase as this population increases,
particularly since Americans are living longer. The nation's leading cause
of blindness, diabetes, has reached epidemic proportions in this country,
so a higher incidence of blindness can be expected.
************
The Teacher Crisis
************
U.S. education faces a chronic shortage of teachers qualified to
teach Braille. In 2003 there were approximately 6,700 full-time teachers of
blind students serving approximately 93,600 students (Spungin, 2003). Far
too few teachers of blind children have graduated from accredited programs;
a 2000 report observed that the total number of new professionals
graduating from university programs to work with students who are blind or
have low vision fluctuated between 375 and 416 per year during the previous
seven years (Mason, et al., 2000). Not all of these teachers are qualified
to teach Braille. Many teachers who are considered qualified to teach
Braille have not necessarily learned it themselves. There is no national
consensus on what it means to be certified to teach Braille, and states
have a patchwork of requirements for certification. Local school districts
depend upon state education agencies to set the certification standards for
teachers. All states have specific certification standards for those who
teach children who are blind or have low vision; however, these standards
vary across the country (Vaughn, 1997).
States license or certify candidates who want to teach children who
are blind or have low vision in three ways: requiring the candidate to
graduate from an approved bachelor's or master's program from an approved
college or university; requiring the candidate to have a generic degree in
special education; or requiring the candidate to have an endorsement to an
existing certificate in early childhood, elementary, secondary, or special
education, with certain courses needed to gain that endorsement (Frieman,
2004). In order to approve a program, the National Council for the
Accreditation of Teacher Education requires performance-based criteria. The
Council for Exceptional Children has developed performance-based standards
for programs to train teachers of students who have a visual impairment. If
a candidate graduates from an approved program that follows the Council for
Exceptional Children's standards, an administrator can predict that the
teaching candidate will have the necessary background to teach Braille.
However, only nineteen states require candidates to have graduated from an
approved program. Seven states require that candidates have only a generic
degree in special education with no specific mention of Braille. Twenty-
four states require candidates to have taken courses in order to earn an
endorsement. These standards specify that the teacher has taken at least
one course in Braille, but give no guarantee that the individual is
actually competent in Braille or is able to teach it (Frieman, 2004).
Teachers who are uncomfortable with Braille are likely to be reluctant to
teach it, especially when they can get by without doing so for students who
have low vision but can read some print.
To act in the best interests of blind children and adults, schools
must require that every child who is blind will have the right to be taught
Braille and that Braille be taught by someone who is competent in its use.
This is not what is currently happening in schools (Vaughn, 1997). Today
there is no guarantee that a teacher, even one with formal credentials,
will be fluent in Braille. In order to assure Braille fluency, teachers of
blind children must be tested on their actual Braille skills by way of a
comprehensive and validated test. States should require Braille teachers to
pass the National Certification in Literary Braille (NCLB) in order to
assure competency and fluency in the literary code. Passing the NCLB
examination will not in itself ensure effective Braille teaching, but it
will provide a measure of how well a person knows and uses Braille.
Even assuming a teacher is competent in Braille, the size of the
teacher's case load will often influence how well his or her students learn
Braille. An itinerant teacher is essentially a consultant who is
responsible for meeting the needs of several students. Teachers of blind
students often must travel within or even between school districts each
week to help a number of students. They are typically expected to teach
sixteen or more students who are widely spread over large geographic areas
(Caton, 1991). As a result many students are trained in Braille for only
two to three hours a week, and some even less than that.
************
Attention Box page 9: There is a chronic shortage of teachers who are
qualified to teach Braille. It was reported in 2003 that there were
approximately 6,700 full-time teachers of blind students serving
approximately 93,600 students.
************
Teachers of blind students must often teach a number of skills,
including cane travel and the use of technology such as a computer with
text-to-speech screen access software, and there is evidence that Braille
instruction is not prioritized. According to one survey respondents spent
an average of 35 percent of their instructional time using assistive
technology with students in grades 7-10 (Thurlow et al., 2001). The primary
goals most often cited for instructional time were "become a proficient
user of assistive technology" (42 percent) and "read using a combination of
approaches" (30 percent), with "become fluent Braille reader" (18 percent)
selected less often. Respondents spent an average of 27 percent of reading
instruction time on direct instruction of how to use assistive technologies
to assist in reading, 19 percent of time in supported reading aloud, and
only 9 percent of time in direct instruction of phonemic strategies
(Braille or print). Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that a teacher
of blind students spends more time tutoring than teaching blindness skills
(Amato, 2002).
************
Attention box page 10: Experts estimate that 1.3 million blind people live
in the United States, and approximately 75,000 people lose all or part of
their vision each year.
************
The Spiral of Misunderstanding
************
Attitudes about Braille, which are often based on myths and
misconceptions about the system, are also a barrier to proper Braille
instruction. One of the major reasons for the increasing illiteracy of the
blind and those with low vision is the historical emphasis on teaching
children with residual vision to read print (Spungin, 1996). Most blind
children have some residual vision; they are legally blind but not totally
blind. But many students who have residual vision cannot read print
efficiently even with magnification; attempting to read print results in
eye strain, headaches, and other problems. Furthermore, many degenerative
eye conditions are progressive, meaning that the student's vision will
continue to decrease over time, making print harder and harder to read.
Students with low vision are particularly at risk for not receiving
appropriate instruction in Braille. These students tend to receive less
direct service from teachers of blind students and are surrounded with more
emphasis on "vision" over nonvisual skills and learning techniques.
Additionally, if Braille is not introduced early, student motivation to
accept Braille will greatly decrease due to frustration in learning
Braille, emotional issues with looking and acting different from one's
peers, and issues involving emotional acceptance of additional vision loss.
It is important for educators to give these students appropriate
instruction based on their needs in the long term rather than simply
considering only their most immediate needs.
Parents often find themselves battling with school administrators to
get Braille instruction for their children with low vision. The Colton
family of Park City, Utah, took out a second mortgage on their home in
order to hire lawyers for litigation against the school district to get
Braille instruction for their daughter Katie, who has a progressive eye
disease (Lyon, 2009). "We'd had to argue a wait-to-fail model is not
appropriate for a progressive disorder," her mother was quoted as saying in
the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Jacobs family was told that their blind daughter could read print
if the font was 72 point or higher, so there was no need for Braille
(Jacobs, 2009). Needless to say, the child will never have access to print
that large in the real world, except perhaps on billboards. The school
system justified having the child read print by claiming that she was
"resistant to Braille." But a school district would never refuse to teach a
sighted child to read because he or she was "resistant" to reading.
Furthermore, resistance to Braille is often a product of the way it is
taught; if Braille is presented to a blind child as different and hard,
rather than the positive way in which reading is presented to sighted
children, then the child will naturally absorb the expectations of the
adults doing the teaching (Craig, 1996; Stratton, 1999).
The experiences of the Colton and Jacobs families are not uncommon;
they are merely examples of the experiences of hundreds of families across
the United States. On the other hand, the experiences of parents of blind
children who have successfully introduced their young readers to Braille
and fought for inclusion of the system in the child's education suggest
that, when Braille is simply presented as reading and reading becomes fun
for the family, children readily absorb the system.
Others argue that Braille isolates and stigmatizes students from
peers who read print. This has never been backed by any kind of research;
it is without foundation. Blind children will always have to use
alternative technologies or methods to read, ranging from holding a book
close to their face to using a magnification device or putting on
headphones to listen to recorded text. Their peers notice these differences
as surely as they notice that the child reads Braille instead of print, but
they do not necessarily treat the child differently because of reading
differences.
Ultimately, all of these mistaken beliefs about Braille come down to
low expectations of blind students. Whether they will admit it or not, many
of the sighted educators and administrators charged with providing
instruction to blind students do not believe in the capacity of their
students or in the effectiveness of Braille and other alternative
techniques used by blind people to live successful, productive lives. As
one commentator has put it: "A little honest reflection about this
situation (decline in Braille literacy) suggests that the real culprit here
is the inadequate and inappropriate education of the special education
teachers who are not competent or confident themselves in using Braille and
who also believe that their students should not be expected to compete
successfully in school or in life" (Ianuzzi, 1999).
Blind students who are not properly taught Braille and other
blindness skills and who therefore struggle with literacy ultimately
experience low self-confidence and a lack of belief in their own ability to
live happy, productive lives. By contrast, those who do receive effective
Braille instruction and use the code effectively gain a sense of hope and
empowerment. Dr. Fredric Schroeder (1996) commented that Braille literacy
"should be viewed more expansively than simply as a literacy issue."
Schroeder's analysis of interviews with legally blind adults "found that
issues of self-esteem, self-identity, and the 'stigma' of being a person
with a disability were integrally intertwined with the subjects' reported
feelings about using Braille...For some, Braille seems to represent
competence, independence, and equality, so the mastery and use of Braille
played a central role in the development of their self-identities as
persons who are capable, competent, independent, and equal."
Schroeder's work connects to other valuable work in self-efficacy and
demonstrates that blind people who learn to value and use Braille generally
have a higher degree of confidence and do not spend energy attempting to
reshape themselves as "normal" individuals. Schroeder's work is reinforced
by more recent investigations by Wells-Jensen (2003) and through the
published first-hand experiences of hundreds of blind individuals-some who
did and others who did not receive appropriate instruction in Braille in
childhood.
Another misconception about Braille that has contributed to the
decline in Braille literacy is the idea that reading Braille is always
slower than reading print and that Braille is difficult to learn. While
some studies suggest that Braille is slower than print and difficult to
learn because of its 189 English contractions-symbols and letter
combinations that reduce the size of Braille books by making it possible to
put more Braille on a page instead of spelling each word out letter-by-
letter-research in this area is unreliable since studies tend to be
anecdotal. Other studies have found that Braille is an efficient and
effective reading medium (Foulke, 1979; Wormsley, 1996). Furthermore, the
experience of Braille instructors shows that reading speed exceeding two
hundred words per minute is possible when students have learned Braille at
an early age (Danielsen, 2006).
************
The Paradox of Technology
************
It is often said that technology obviates the need for Braille. The
availability of text-to-speech technology and audio texts, for example, is
advanced as an argument against the use of Braille. But literacy is the
ability to read and write. While using speech output and recorded books is
a way for students to gain information, it does not teach them reading and
writing skills. Students who rely solely on listening as a means of
learning find themselves deficient in areas like spelling and composition.
Most teachers of blind students (89.4 percent [Wittenstein and Pardee,
1996]) agree that technology should be used as a supplement to Braille
rather than as a replacement, even though as cited above, many of them
spend more instructional time working with technology than teaching
Braille. No one would seriously suggest that alternate sources of
information, like television and radio, replace the need for a sighted
child to learn to read; the same should be true for Braille.
For the sighted, technology has not replaced print; it has in fact
simplified and enhanced access to the printed word. The same is true with
respect to Braille; advances in technology have made Braille more available
than it ever was in the past. Computer software can translate any document
into literary, contracted Braille quickly and accurately, although work
still needs to be done to make other Braille codes machine-translatable.
Braille displays and embossers can be attached to computers to generate
Braille documents on the fly. Thousands of Braille books are available from
Internet-based services like the Web-Braille service offered by the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the
Library of Congress (NLS) and the online community Bookshare.org. While
scarcity of Braille is still a problem, it is not nearly as bad as it has
been in the past. Certainly improvements can still be made in Braille
production methods and technology so that more Braille will be available,
and this is one of the goals of the Braille Readers are Leaders campaign of
the National Federation of the Blind. Assuming a commitment to Braille
instruction and Braille literacy is renewed in America and proper steps are
taken to ensure the production and distribution of more Braille materials,
there will be no need to avoid teaching Braille because of a shortage of
books.
************
Attention box page 12: Many teachers who are considered qualified to teach
Braille have not learned it themselves.
************
The Truth about Braille
************
The crisis in Braille literacy is real. Thousands of blind children
and adults who need adjustment to blindness training are being denied
access to the most effective means of reading and writing for the blind
ever invented. The effects of this crisis can be seen in the high
unemployment rate (over 70 percent) among blind adults, the high dropout
rate (40 to 50 percent) among blind high school students, and the lives of
dependence and minimal subsistence that many blind people lead. By
contrast, blind people who know the Braille code and use it regularly find
success, independence, and productivity.
A recent survey of five hundred respondents by the National
Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, conducted on a national random
sample selected from a list of 10,000 people who had had contact with the
NFB within the last two years, demonstrated that contact with the NFB
increases the likelihood of knowing Braille. Unlike the general sample of
blind individuals, where the AFB estimates that only 10 percent read
Braille, more than half (59 percent) of those interviewed in the NFB
Jernigan Institute study are Braille literate. This is probably due to the
Federation's emphasis on Braille literacy; those who have had contact with
the National Federation of the Blind tend to believe strongly in the
efficacy of Braille and to be committed to learning and reading it. In this
sample the ability to read Braille was also correlated with a higher
educational level, a higher likelihood of employment, and a higher income
level. These relationships were statistically significant.
Most disciplines accept that the primary indicators of socioeconomic
status in this society are employment and education leading to self-
sufficiency. A study by Dr. Ruby Ryles, now the director of the orientation
and mobility master's program at the Professional Development and Research
Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University, began to provide the
objective information needed on the question of Braille versus print. In a
comparison between two groups of blind people, one consisting of Braille
readers and the other of print readers, the study revealed that those who
were taught Braille from the beginning had higher employment rates, were
better educated and more financially self-sufficient, and spent more time
engaged in leisure and other reading than the print users (Ryles, 1996).
Dr. Ryles's work showed a striking difference between those who had
grown up learning Braille and those who had relied primarily on print. She
found that 44 percent of the Braille-reading group, as compared to 77
percent of the print-reading group, were unemployed. In other words the
unemployment rate for the print group was actually higher than the
generally reported unemployment rate among the blind as a whole (70
percent) (Riccobono, et al.), while the unemployment rate among Braille
readers was much lower. The Braille-reading sample had significantly
stronger reading habits than the print group, including more hours in a
week spent on reading activities, reading more books, and subscribing to
more magazines. While the overall educational rate between the two groups
was not statistically significant, a dramatic difference was observed at
the advanced degree level. Thirty percent of the Braille group had an
advanced degree compared to only 13 percent for the print group, with only
the Braille group having any individuals with doctoral degrees.
Last, the Braille group was over-represented in the higher income
level and under-represented in the lowest income level, while the print
group was under-represented at the high income level and over-represented
at the low income level (the two groups were comparable at a medium income
level). The print group contained significantly more people receiving non-
employment-related funding from the government (such as Social Security
Disability Income) as compared to the Braille group.
Dr. Ryles's research on the education and employment outcomes for
Braille readers, combined with the difference in confidence, self-efficacy,
and reported independence of Braille readers, suggests that Braille is
extremely valuable for those blind people who learn and use Braille in
their lives. The results of this study suggest that teaching Braille as an
original primary reading medium to children with low vision may encourage
them to develop the positive lifelong habit of reading as adults, enhance
their later employment opportunities, and increase the possibility of
financial independence.
************
The Future Is in Our Hands
************
There can be no doubt that the ability to read and write Braille
competently and efficiently is the key to education, employment, and
success for the blind. Despite the undisputed value of Braille, however,
only about 10 percent of blind children in the United States are currently
learning it. Society would never accept a 10 percent literacy rate among
sighted children; it should not accept such an outrageously low literacy
rate among the blind. The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan
Institute is committed to the reversal of this downward trend in Braille
literacy in order to ensure that equal opportunities in education and
employment are available to all of the nation's blind.
************
The overall goals of this effort are that:
. The number of school-age children reading Braille will double by 2015.
. All fifty states will enact legislation requiring special education
teachers of blind children to obtain and maintain the National
Certification in Literary Braille by 2015.
. Braille resources will be made more available through online sharing of
materials, enhanced production methods, and improved distribution.
. Courses in Braille instruction will be added to the curricula in high
schools and colleges and offered to all students to ensure that this
reading medium becomes an established, recognized method of achieving
literacy in our nation.
. The American public will learn that blind people have a right to Braille
literacy so they can compete and assume a productive role in society.
************
For over 150 years Braille has been recognized as the most effective
means of reading and writing for the blind. Hundreds of thousands of blind
people have found Braille an indispensable tool in their education, their
work, and their daily lives, even as professionals in the field of
blindness continued to debate the merits of the system. Certainly more
empirical research is needed to break down the wall of misunderstanding
that still stands between all too many blind people and proper Braille
instruction. The Braille codes and the technology to reproduce them can and
will continue to improve. But the lives of successful blind people testify
to the usefulness of Braille, and in the face of that testimony the only
truly professional and moral course of action is to ensure that all blind
people have access to competent Braille instruction. In the hearts and
minds of blind people, no alternative system or new technology has ever
replaced Braille where the rubber meets the road-in the living of happy,
successful, productive lives. That is why the National Federation of the
Blind is asking all who are concerned about the future prospects for blind
children and adults in this country to help us make Braille literacy a
reality for the 90 percent of blind children for whom reading is a
struggle, if not an impossibility. The future of sighted children depends
on a proper education, and the future of blind children is no different.
Let us make the commitment that no blind child or adult who needs Braille
as a tool in his or her arsenal of blindness techniques will be left
without it.
************
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[PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer]
The Mythology of Discrimination
by Marc Maurer
************
From the Editor: This address was delivered by President Maurer at
the University of Notre Dame on Friday, March 6, 2009. He was invited to
keynote a conference on blindness. Here is the text:
************
The idea that blindness and joy may be contemplated at the same
moment is strange to our society. Nevertheless, contemplating these
thoughts simultaneously is a fundamental element of the philosophy of the
National Federation of the Blind. It isn't that we believe that blindness
should bring joy-we haven't lost our minds. However, we know that blind
people can have joy and that, properly understood, the lives of blind
people can generate joy for others.
A community is thought to be an aggregation of human beings who share
similar interests. Many communities are being created in the United States
identified by characteristics such as race, educational attainments,
political standing, heritage, sex, and economic possessions. How valuable
is it to be a member of a community; what is required to be accepted as a
part of it; what is lost to an individual from joining a community; and how
are communities created? Answering these questions is part of what I do as
president of the National Federation of the Blind, the largest organization
of blind people in the United States.
In the past discrimination meant discernment-a positive
characteristic. "Discrimination" is a term that today signifies arbitrary,
improper, and illegal classifications of human beings. Our community is
composed of blind people and their friends who want to foster independence
for the blind and who reject as unfounded mythology-the mythology of
discrimination-the assumption that blind people have less ability than that
possessed by the sighted. Challenging established norms is controversial,
and one identifying characteristic of any group challenging discriminatory
practices is that it will become controversial. So much for the oft-
repeated argument that in matters dealing with blindness there can be no
rancor. Many people have told me that I should get along with the people
who disagree with the assessments of the National Federation of the Blind,
as if peace were the ultimate objective. In the past we had all the peace
we could tolerate along with massive discrimination. One way to interpret
the demand that we have peace is to recognize that others wish to tell us
that we should give up some of the fundamental beliefs that make us what we
are. This we cannot do. For somebody else to tell me that I should prefer
peace to participation is to assert that they know more about my business
than I do-that they know what is good for me.
Disability denominates a physical or mental characteristic that
prevents a person from performing tasks that others regard as among the
customary features of human interaction. The legal definition says that
disability interferes with a "major life activity." In the past disability
meant a legal or ecclesiastical prohibition. In the second half of the
twentieth century, the two terms, "disability" and "discrimination," came
together. The legal system of the United States recognized disability as a
characteristic often unreasonably employed to prohibit disabled individuals
from participation in otherwise lawful activities.
The change in legal thinking was no accident. Blind people, led by a
constitutional scholar, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, who was blind himself, joined
in a struggle to demonstrate that most prohibitions based solely upon
blindness or other disability are fundamentally unsound. Dr. tenBroek and
his colleagues created a civil rights movement for the blind and for others
with disabilities. To accomplish an alteration in thought and in law, a
community was required. A group of people needed to come together who
shared a point of view and a set of goals. This group is known as the
National Federation of the Blind, and this organization began the process
of creating the civil rights movement for the disabled. The Federation is
not the only organization that has stood forth in battle to combat the
prejudicial stereotypes of incapacity that have bedeviled the lives of the
blind, but it was the leading contingent in the struggle for equality, with
its leaders and members walking the halls of Congress and the state
legislatures as early as the 1940s.
Blindness is an isolating condition. The frequently expressed
assumptions about blind people are that the blind will not participate
except in limited circumstances and that blind people have very little to
contribute. Even when no intent to limit participation by the blind exists,
these assumptions effectively limit participation.
Blind people need more time to complete assignments than their
sighted peers, it is said. In school blind students need additional time to
complete homework, or the amount of the homework should be limited. If
sighted students are assigned fifty questions, it is acceptable to assign
only twenty-five to the blind. Blind people cannot participate effectively
in sports. Blind people are ineffective as public speakers because they
cannot gain eye contact with the audience. Blind people cannot be effective
lawyers because they cannot observe the expressions on the faces of the
jury. Blind people cannot be effective teachers because they cannot react
to the nonverbal communication of their students. The often repeated
customary belief is that vision is essential for learning, life, and love.
The stimulating significance of the passionate glance is recorded in song
and story and described in poetic imagery around the world. Although such
arguments are incomplete or incorrect, they are a part of the current coin
of the language, and the effects are inescapable.
Blind people are now teaching classes; appearing in court on behalf
of clients; engaging in sporting activities, including Olympic events;
doing their homework; performing assignments in school and on the job
completely and speedily; climbing mountains; riding horses; water-skiing;
and even giving public speeches. The portrayal often made of us is false,
but it persists. Is the false portrayal deliberate misrepresentation, or
does it arise from ignorance?
In 1829 the first school for the blind in the United States came into
being. For the first time educators believed that blind people could learn.
However, students did not leave the school to accept employment. Employers
did not want blind workers. Consequently, fairly soon after the
establishment of schools for the blind, sheltered workshops for the blind
came into being. They supplied an outlet for blind graduates seeking work,
and they were frequently a source of revenue for the schools.
Most of the work in the workshops was simple and repetitive. Rug
weaving, broom making, and chair caning are examples. Of course much of the
work in workshops for the sighted during the nineteenth century was also
simple and repetitive. However, the tasks in workshops for the blind have
not progressed much. When I myself attended a school for the blind in the
1950s and early 1960s, I learned chair caning. I was told that this form of
employment was likely to be my future. Of course I had no basis upon which
to challenge the assertions of my teachers, but I hoped fervently that they
were wrong. I left the school for the blind before I learned to make
brooms, but I imagine that I still remember how to cane chairs.
As I have observed, because of the difficulty in finding employment
for blind workers, workshops specifically oriented to work for the blind
were created. In 1938 the Congress adopted legislation supporting these
workshops through a system requiring government agencies to purchase
commodities produced in them. These commodities frequently bore the symbol,
"Blind Made." More than eighty of these workshops currently operate for the
blind in the United States. Although workers in these shops are often paid
at rates above the federally established minimum, no minimum wage
protection exists for these workers. Sheltered workshops for people with
disabilities other than blindness have also been established.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts run through
these sheltered workshops each year. The executives of the workshops (most
of them not disabled) receive very substantial rewards for serving as the
primary officials in them.
Despite the segregated conditions of these workshops and despite the
inequities built into the employment relationship, these workshops have
served a very useful purpose. Not only do they represent the assertion that
disabled workers have value, but they have served as a gathering place.
Blind people and other workers with disabilities could come together to
share ideas, to inspire one another, to plan for the future, and to hope to
build opportunities greater than had ever been available to them before
they knew each other. In other words, they were establishments in which a
community of like-minded people might be formed-most of the time without
the knowledge of management and without consent.
Today the schools for the blind are largely anachronistic, and the
workshops are waiting their turn. Most blind students attend the public
schools, in accordance with the provisions of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act. Blind students are mainstreamed. Because
blindness is a low-incidence disability, the concentration of resources at
the school for the blind, such as Braille maps, Braille texts, machines for
producing Braille, optical scanning equipment, and other material, is in
many cases no longer available. The public schools are overwhelmed by the
multiplicity of needs of both disabled and nondisabled students. In many
cases they can't or won't provide adequate education to blind students.
They have few teachers who know how to read and write Braille, they have
fewer teachers who know how to teach blind people to travel with a cane,
and they have precious little experience or background in the specialized
techniques for teaching the blind. This summation signifies that quality
education for blind students is almost unattainable. Furthermore, the
parents of these students are very often isolated from one another. They do
not know what expectations are reasonable for their children, and in the
name of privacy the public schools refrain from telling parents about
others who are similarly situated. The community of those with similar
interests is restricted.
Education in schools for the blind was segregated from instruction
for the sighted. Employment in sheltered workshops was segregated from
employment for the nondisabled. The administrators of the specialized
schools and shops argued that activities in these establishments could be
conducted in no other way. At the time these institutions were first
created, this proposition was probably true. Public opinion would probably
not have accepted widespread education of the blind in the public schools,
and widespread employment of the blind is still a goal to be attained. The
unemployment rate for blind people is estimated at 70 percent or greater.
Although this rate is tremendously high and although it has remained high
in spite of government programs directed at employment, the rate in the
1950s was estimated at 95 percent or above, and the rate in the 1940s was
estimated at 98 percent or above.
At the beginning of education for blind people, all blind students
(or all students who were identified as blind) were taught at schools for
the blind, were educated at home, or remained uneducated. At the beginning
of sheltered employment, almost all blind workers gained employment in
sheltered workshops. Although several thousand blind people still work in
them, many, many more blind people have jobs outside of the sheltered
industries. The valuable benefit of assisting with the creation of a
community of interest in these institutions has also diminished-almost
disappeared. However, the need for this community is as great today as it
has ever been.
High expectations are central to achievement; and without a sounding
board, without a reflection of hope, without a support structure to
reinforce the faith of a blind person seeking to attain success, the
accomplishments that may be expected are diminished. What did the
administrators of schools for the blind want their students to do and what
were the aspirations of the bosses in the workshops for their employees?
Did they glory in the creation of a community of independence-minded blind
people? Were they supportive of dreams bigger, more aggressive, and more
startling than they had tried to instill? Did they actively challenge those
in their programs to exceed the possibilities that they had imagined?
In the 1950s the National Federation of the Blind, which had been
formed in 1940, created a form of rehabilitation training previously
unknown. This form of training, led by the most imaginative teacher of the
blind of the twentieth century, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and incorporating the
philosophical underpinnings of the National Federation of the Blind,
expected of blind people that full participation in society-in schools, in
work, in social activities, in politics, and in almost all other pursuits-
is practical if the specialized skills used by the blind for participation
are mastered and if opportunity to use them can be created. One of the
elements of this specialized training is a grounding in the comprehension
of disability. What does it mean to be disabled, and what are the myths and
the false assumptions surrounding the idea? What is reasonable to expect
from a disabled person, and what alterations in the pattern of activity are
required to permit disabled people to make contributions? Blindness is a
characteristic of those who have it rather than a severe limitation.
Probably the most misunderstood and controversial statement about
blindness current today is: "The real problem of blindness is not the loss
of eyesight. The real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of
information that exist. If a blind person has proper training and
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a physical nuisance." This
statement is controversial because some have charged those who have said it
with believing that blindness is a minor matter. Blind people who have
faced severe isolation and discrimination have vociferated that their
blindness is no small hindrance. Officials who have believed that they are
responsible for the blind have taken this statement to mean that their jobs
are unimportant and their service to blind people negligible.
Blindness can be devastating, but with proper training and with
opportunity it need not be. Misunderstanding and lack of information are
endemic to the customary thinking about blindness. With misunderstanding
comes prejudice. This is the common experience faced by the blind. However,
being misunderstood is not the total experience of blind people.
The founding president of the National Federation of the Blind, Dr.
Jacobus tenBroek, was a lawyer, a professor, and a constitutional scholar,
as well as being blind. In 1955 he asserted that constitutional principles
apply to the blind and otherwise disabled. He said that civil rights for
the blind are an essential part of the legal structure of our nation and
that laws must be established to assure that the blind and otherwise
disabled have the same protections as are available to others. Furthermore,
he recognized that the laws are not self-executing-they must be enforced.
The National Federation of the Blind was challenging assumptions about
employment possibilities for blind people. It was demanding that
rehabilitation agencies assist blind people to find employment outside
sheltered workshops. It was insisting that blind people had the right to
speak on their own behalf. It was denying the authority of agencies for the
blind to tell legislatures, members of the public, and entities in
government (as well as blind people themselves) what blind people wanted or
needed. It was saying that agency officials could work with the blind but
could not speak for the blind.
In 1957 so much controversy had been created, so many blind people
had lost their jobs for speaking out, so many blind people had been denied
the right to rehabilitation services that a bill to protect the right of
blind people to join an organization of their own choice was introduced by
Senator John F. Kennedy in the Senate of the United States. The Right to
Organize bill brought into stark focus the reality that agencies for the
blind fight to protect their own interests, not the interests of the blind.
They want to preserve and expand their own turf. If they can do this while
advancing the interests of the blind, everybody benefits. If they believe
that their best interest is served by diminishing the aspirations of blind
people, they will take this course. By 1957 the battle between the blind
and the agencies for the blind had been joined. It lasted into the 1980s.
Vestiges of it still exist, but today most of the picket lines are gone.
These things occurred half a century ago. One argument asserts that,
because blind people are different from the sighted, differences in
treatment are appropriate. If blind people are, in some essential way,
different from the sighted, differences in treatment are not only useful
but necessary. However, if the fundamentals of the blind and the sighted
are the same, differences in expectation or responsibility or performance
or remuneration or involvement must be classified as inappropriate or
discriminatory or otherwise improper. We believe that blind people are
normal-or as normal as anybody else. The obvious difference is that sighted
people have sight and blind people do not. This demands that blind people
approach the task of performing jobs that sighted people would do with
their eyes from a different point of view.
The techniques used by the blind are not always the same as those
used by the sighted. But the expectations for blind people should be no
less dramatic, no less fulfilling, and no less rewarding than those for the
sighted. For example, many of us use Braille to read and write. Louis
Braille invented the system early in the nineteenth century. His teachers
at the school for the blind in Paris were not amused. They looked upon this
new reading and writing system with suspicion and annoyance. Blind kids
could pass notes that the teachers couldn't read. Braille, the reading and
writing system for the blind that has become known worldwide, was not
adopted in France, the home of Louis Braille, until after Louis Braille's
death.
Although Braille had been used in the United States as early as the
1860s, and although its use has opened career opportunities to hundreds of
thousands of blind people, in most public schools Braille is not taught to
blind students, and the right to learn Braille was not codified in federal
statutes of the United States until 1998. Two thousand nine is the two
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille. His reading and
writing system for the blind is the most important invention ever created
for blind people; it has brought opportunity and joy to the hearts of
millions. The National Federation of the Blind has declared this year the
year of Braille literacy-the year of Braille Readers are Leaders. We want
to double the Braille literacy rate for the blind of the nation, and we
have received support for our aspirations from many quarters. The United
States Mint has been instructed by Congress to strike a commemorative
silver dollar with readable, properly-made Braille embossed upon it. If our
society believes that blind people have something to contribute, then we
will believe in the tools used by the blind, and Braille is one of the most
important.
Much of what I have had to say so far is a reflection of conditions
for the blind in the past. How are we faring today? In 1997 José Saramago
published a book entitled Blindness. The story line is that a society of
human beings is afflicted by a mysterious disease that suddenly and
unexpectedly causes blindness. The disease is communicable, and most people
are susceptible. Those who become blind are quarantined in an abandoned
facility, where they are forcibly detained. The society established by the
blind inhabitants of this facility is brutal, licentious, chaotic, and
filthy. Blind people are depicted as having virtually no ability to
establish an orderly and decent mode of existence or to care for themselves
or their companions. However, some of the internees find the capacity to
create gangs in order to prey upon the others, controlling the food supply
and exacting sexual favors. Apparently Saramago did not notice the
inconsistency. If blindness signifies complete lack of ability, it should
also eliminate the possibility of organizing for the purpose of engaging in
criminal behavior.
A movie was made from this book that was released in theaters in
October 2008. Protest demonstrations conducted by the National Federation
of the Blind occurred throughout the United States, challenging the content
of the movie as an evil and false depiction of the blind. José Saramago
complained about these demonstrations, saying that the movie was an
allegorical portrayal of society as it currently is, not intended to depict
blind people as we are. He said that we should recognize allegory when we
encounter it and refrain from making complaints. The movie is not meant to
be taken literally, and we should have enough good humor and self-
possession to go along without a fuss. In other words, he can say whatever
he pleases about us, but we are not to respond. Such an attitude boggles
the mind. It tempts a human being to reply to the argument with short,
sharp phrases. Freedom of speech is as much a right for us as it is for
Saramago, and it will be exercised. We are not playing blind people; we are
blind people. To portray us as immoral and unclean is to add to the
isolation that is all too often a part of our reality. We reject the role
of being somebody else's metaphor.
On December 13, 2008, Saturday Night Live broadcast a skit featuring
an actor playing the role of Governor David Paterson of New York. Governor
Paterson is blind. He assumed the office of governor when Eliot Spitzer
resigned in the midst of scandal. The actor portraying the governor behaved
as if he were disoriented and unaware of his surroundings. In one scene
during the skit he held a statistical chart on display with the chart
upside down. The language of the skit (a purported interview with the
governor) indicates that the governor cannot be expected to perform
adequately in office because, after all, he has used cocaine and he is
blind. Equating blindness with drug addiction is just part of the fun. The
point of the skit was that blind people are incapable of participation in
the activities that others manage with ease and grace. Saturday Night Live
made fun of the governor because of his blindness.
Once again protests of this depiction of blind people occurred. A
number of individuals responded to these protests by telling blind people
that we should be willing to laugh at ourselves-that we should have a sense
of humor. Mark Twain said, "Against the assault of laughter nothing can
stand." In other words, laugh at the people you want to despise. Find a way
to make them the butt of your jokes.
Saturday Night Live broadcast more David Paterson blindness so-called
humor in January of 2009. How am I as the leader of the organized blind
movement in the United States to respond? What choices have I? I do not
believe in belittling my neighbors, and I do not intend to let them
belittle me.
Blind people are not humorless, touchy malcontents. Finding the humor
in life provides relief from the emotional pressure that often surrounds
us, and humor lifts the spirit and frequently offers perspective. If,
however, the humor is intended to belittle-to express superiority for the
sake of domination-its value is eclipsed by the damage it causes. However,
humor has other aspects. It can be employed to bring a group together to
express a common spirit. It is one tool in the arsenal for creating a
community.
A persistent theory about the capacity of blind people is that our
hearing, taste, smell, and touch are superior to those of the sighted. When
one of our senses is lost, the brain uses its mental agility to increase
the intensity of the others, we are told. The mental ability which had been
assigned to five senses is now spread over four.
While you ponder this supposedly scientifically based assertion about
the talent and abilities of the blind, consider some others that have
intrigued or bemused. When I was a student, I was told that one of the best
professions for blind people is perfume tester. Our senses of smell are
supposedly superior to those possessed by sighted people. Consequently it
would be easier for us to select the best perfumes. A description of the
HBO movie Blind Justice declares that the hero, a blind gunfighter, shoots
by the sense of hearing and by the sense of smell. Apparently the bandits
in his town don't bathe all that often. On the other hand, I was informed a
number of years ago that blind people do not smoke because smoking is
largely a visual experience. Then we are told that our sense of touch is
superior to that of the sighted in part because of brain plasticity and in
part because we are not distracted by the sense of sight. Our increased
acuteness in the sense of touch means that we are better at kissing than
the sighted. I leave this thought with the hope that interest in blind
people will increase but that crazy notions will diminish.
What makes a community? Individuals with similarity of purpose come
together to achieve common goals. However, something else may also be
occurring. Those who have been isolated meet others possessing the same
characteristics that they have, and they interact. These individuals
challenge one another, and they come through common, shared experience to
inspire one another. In the process of challenge and inspiration, they
create an identity. They identify who they are, what they want, what
possibilities exist for them, and what limitations are reasonable. They
formulate the expectations that will be sought and the program to reach
them.
For the blind our community was once circumscribed by the school for
the blind. Later it was expanded to the sheltered workshop. Later still it
became the statewide organization of independent blind people who had the
courage and the energy to believe in each other and to set about the
complex task of altering the legal system to protect the rights of the
blind. In 1940 seven of these statewide organizations came together to form
the National Federation of the Blind, a nationwide organization that also
works with others internationally.
One hundred and fifty years ago Irish immigrants to the United States
were frequently unwelcome. Signs were posted on places of employment
bearing the legend, "No Irish Need Apply." Today Americans with Irish
ancestors are not shunned. Rather they are regarded with honor and respect.
The respect is not diminished even though the humor about Irish Americans
is a broad subclass of the jokes in circulation.
One element of building a community is the acquisition of political
ability. The Irish have certainly managed that. From political action comes
recognition within the legal structure of the nation. However, legal rights
do not equal participation. Integration and social acceptance are far more
complicated than any legal structure. A fundamental step in the process of
integration is the creation of identity for the individuals who seek to be
integrated. This demands the formation of a community.
Joining a community imposes limitations on an individual. The
necessity to think about and plan for the wishes of the other members of
the community diminishes freedom of choice and restricts individuality.
Participation within the community requires diplomacy and the application
of political skill. Even the most benign communities can be threatening as
well as welcoming. However, mastering the disadvantages of being a part of
a community offers benefits. The power that can result from collective,
concentrated action and combining resources creates opportunities that
would not otherwise exist.
Those who complain that the blind have created a community do so
because they do not want to face combined, collected power or because they
wish that they had the power. The blind do not object to having other
people possess power, but we also want to share in the community, which
demands that we find a mechanism for obtaining this commodity. We do not
believe that our participation will diminish anybody else. Rather we
believe that our possession of power will enhance the opportunities
available to others. We represent a resource that has often been written
off-been declared to be unusable and undesirable. We reject this assessment
no matter who makes it, and we insist upon our right to join with others in
building the world to be the kind of place that we all want to share. We
are serious about this, but we are also fun-loving. Blindness and sorrow
are very often found together, but increasingly, in the hearts of blind
people throughout the nation, you will find joy and a spirit of adventure.
------------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Pictured here from left to right are IBTC Access Technology
Team members Wesley Majerus, Anne Taylor, and Tony Olivero.]
Low-Cost Screen Readers
by the Access Technology Team
************
From the Editor: In the following article the International Braille
and Technology Center Access Technology Team reviews four free or low-cost
screen readers: Thunder, NVDA, System Access, and WebAnywhere. This is what
they say:
************
Thunder
************
Thunder is a free screen-access program as long as its use is
personal. If Thunder is being used in a work setting, the company is asked
to contact Screenreader.net CIC to discuss pricing. Thunder can be
downloaded from <www.screenreader.net> and installed on any computer
running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista. Windows 98, ME, and earlier versions
are not compatible with Thunder. A pro version is available for a fee that
runs from a thumb drive.
Thunder is compatible with the following programs: Outlook Express,
Microsoft Word, WordPad, Notepad, MS Calculator, MS Excel, Nod32 AntiVirus,
Listen Again radio, and MS Sound Recorder. When you download Thunder, an
additional program called WebbIE is automatically downloaded and installed
with Thunder for browsing the Internet.
Thunder is controlled by standard Windows commands, and there are
special commands for controlling Thunder. Its greatest limitation is Web
browsing. The only way to navigate the Web is by using WebbIE. It is
important to read the hot keys list at <www.screenreader.net> because there
are several special commands for Web browsing. When filling out a form on
the Web, you must press Enter before typing in the form field.
************
NVDA
************
The next screen reader is NVDA, which stands for NonVisual Desktop
Access. It is free and can be downloaded by visiting <http://www.nvda-
project.org>. This is experimental software and may contain bugs. We find
it very responsive and easy to use. NVDA will run on Windows XP and Windows
Vista. NVDA supports both SAPI 4 and 5 voices, Audiologic, Display, and
Silence; it comes with eSpeak as the default speech synthesizer. It can be
installed to a PC, or the files can be placed on a CD or USB thumb drive
for portable use. If the installer is downloaded to a PC, voiced
instructions will guide the user through the installation. If the program
is placed on a USB thumb drive, the user will need to start the program
manually.
NVDA supports MS Word 2003, Firefox, Thunderbird, Internet Explorer,
Outlook Express, MS Excel 2003, IBM Lotus Symphony, and many other
programs. It is worth being cautious about using these screen-access
software packages outside of their stated scope. For example, NVDA
performed less than desirably with Microsoft Outlook 2003 (as opposed to
Outlook Express). While it was possible to read the Inbox message list and
read messages, a number of areas caused NVDA to stop responding. When
composing a new message, we could not read the auto-complete options for an
email address. Additionally, when reviewing the To, Cc, and Bcc fields, we
found the addresses unreadable. The address book, which opens when Outlook
prompts the user to confirm an address, did not read at all. Our system
also stopped responding when we reached the message edit area of the new
message form. We could enter text, but NVDA did not allow us to review or
edit it. The Outlook calendar and contacts folders were not read at all. A
blind user has no way of reviewing this information in the standard views.
There is currently no support for Microsoft Office 2007. When you are
in an edit field while browsing the Internet, Enter or the space bar must
be pressed before filling in the form or choosing a radio button. We
recommend that Firefox be used to browse the Web; however, we have used
Internet Explorer successfully. When you are going to a Web page that needs
to refresh automatically, Firefox will yield better results. When
navigating the Web, the user can move to forms, tables, headings, lists,
and links by pressing a single key. NVDA has built-in keyboard help. When
NVDA is installed on the computer, start-up time is very fast. User
settings can be changed and saved within the Preference menu of the
program. Voice settings, mouse settings, speech synthesizer, mouse, and
many other options are available from this menu.
************
System Access
************
Another screen-access software package is System Access. This low-
cost screen reader is available from <http://www.serotek.com>. It can be
purchased outright; alternatively, the user can get a monthly subscription.
Prices vary depending on the package you choose. Contact Serotek for
current pricing information or visit <http://www.serotek.com/cas.html>.
The AIR Foundation and Serotek now also offer System Access to Go,
which gives free screen access using the Website <www.satogo.com>.
System Access by default comes with Dectalk voices. For an additional
fee two Real Speak voices can be downloaded and installed. This program
runs on Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. System Access
supports the following applications: Notepad, WordPad, Outlook Express,
Email Center on a Vista machine, Excel, PowerPoint, Firefox, Internet
Explorer, Microsoft Office 2007, Skype, and many other programs. System
Access is easy to use because it uses many standard Windows commands.
Moreover, many screen-reader commands are the same as those in other screen
readers on the market today. When using Internet Explorer, you can get a
links list, tab to move by link, use first letter navigation to move to
headings, tables, lists, and many other elements as well. In Internet
Explorer, if a Webpage requires a lot of refreshing, this program may not
always work. If you are a subscriber to the System Access mobile network,
the page can be opened by the browser. With a System Access U3 USB thumb
drive, you can walk up to a computer, plug in the drive, and have System
Access begin talking. If users have System Access on a computer at home or
the office and have enabled remote access, they can use that computer from
any machine as if they were sitting at it. With System Access the user can
also remote-control another user's computer if that person accepts a
request from the other machine.
System Access provides access to the Microsoft Excel interface. The
user can input and manipulate data and formulas and interact with the menus
and toolbars. The user can also create a chart and, depending on the type,
read the data it contains. A dialog box, accessed by pressing the System
Access modifier key and F7, displays list boxes for all cells containing
data, cells containing links, totals cells (those containing totals derived
from a formula), and the worksheets contained in the Excel workbook.
Selecting one of the totals cells and pressing the space bar toggles the
automatic reading of that cell if the data it contains changes.
Access to the Microsoft Word word processor is also available with
System Access. Menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes are usable. When you move
by character or word, formatting details such as bold or italic are spoken
in a different voice after the word or character is read. However, elements
such as heading levels are not spoken. The spell check is accessible, and
System Access speaks the misspelled word and the recommended replacement.
System Access also supports the Alva Braille Controller 640 as a Braille
display; no other Braille support is documented.
************
Web Anywhere
************
Web Anywhere (WA) is not a screen reader in the traditional sense of
the word. It does provide audio output of screen contents but is restricted
to the Web browser solely. The Web Anywhere site was developed by the
Computer Science Department of the University of Washington and can be
accessed at <wa.cs.washington.edu>. When this page is launched, your
computer should begin reading Web Anywhere's start page. This page
describes the Web Anywhere system and provides a list of keystrokes that
can be used with Web Anywhere.
In a basic sense Web browsing can be achieved with Web Anywhere in a
traditional way. Users can arrow around the page and tab and shift tab
between the links. Above the page content is a box for typing in the URL
that you would like Web Anywhere to navigate to. WA loads your desired page
into the browser window that contains Web Anywhere, which is evident if you
examine the window with a screen reader like JAWS. However, with all other
screen readers shut down, you have access to only the part of the Web
browser where Web Anywhere and your desired page are located. You will not
be able to use any third-party applications while using WA.
In its current form Web Anywhere is an alpha release. It offers basic
Web browsing that includes navigation by heading, link, and input control.
There are also commands to read from the current cursor position, read from
the top, and move to the next and previous form control, regardless of what
type of control it is. WA currently lacks a traditional table-reading mode
but does offer ways to move through a table by row and by cell. It is
difficult to understand how the table is formatted because you cannot
easily navigate to cells and multiple rows. Web Anywhere also does not
provide ways to list links, controls, or other elements as you can in more
powerful screen readers.
Web Anywhere is an alpha project. It is available free of charge from
<wa.cs.washington.edu>. Since it is a Web-based application, you will
always have the latest version whenever you launch the site.
We have written this article to make users aware of free and low-cost
screen readers. System Access is the most powerful of the screen readers we
have discussed. JAWS, Hal, and Window-Eyes allow the user to write JAWS and
Hal scripts or Window-Eyes scripts or set files to customize programs to
work better. If a person wants to have basic use of the computer, the
screen-access software discussed in this article will allow this. We
believe that Thunder is the least powerful screen reader followed by NVDA,
and then System Access. Other than the limited Braille support for System
Access mentioned above, none of the screen-access software discussed in
this article has Braille support at this time. If you have further
questions, give our access technology line a call at (410) 659-9314, option
5.
------------
[CAPTION: The RiverWalk on the south side of the Marriott]
Going Round in Circles at the Detroit Marriott
by Doug Boone
************
From the Editor: If you attended the 1994 convention, which was held
at the Renaissance Hotel in Detroit, then under other management, you may
find, like me, that your only enduring memory is of walking around in
circles, hoping to find the room for which you were searching. This
experience was shared by blind and sighted conventioneers alike. The
facility has undergone substantial renovation since that last convention,
so much has changed. One thing, however, that has not changed is that the
facility is still circular, so figuring out where you are in relation to
where you want to be will undoubtedly save you steps and minutes of
exercise at this summer's convention. Even if articles like this one send
you to the aspirin bottle, I urge you to read on. Absorbing even part of
this information will hold you in good stead when you arrive at the Detroit
Marriott in July.
Imagine that the Renaissance Center is the number five on a die. The
dot in the center of the five is our convention hotel, the Detroit Marriott
and the four dots at the corners are the four General Motors office towers.
The 100 Tower is at the northwest corner of the complex, the 200 Tower is
at the northeast corner, the 300 Tower is at the southeast, and the 400
Tower is at the southwest. The Detroit River flows along the south side
with the RiverWalk following its north bank between it and the hotel. Our
Motor City March will take place in this general area, and we will exit and
reenter the hotel on this south side of the facility. The main entrance of
the Renaissance Center is on the north side, and the main entrance of our
hotel is on the west side. The first-floor area of the complex, called the
Motor Lobby, has high security. These guards have been trained to be
helpful and give directions. If they are not already very busy, they may be
a little more enthusiastic in offering help than you would prefer, but they
do know their way around and can help you get where you wish to go.
The hotel lobby is actually on the third floor. Our meeting rooms are
mostly on the fourth and fifth floors. All elevators in the central area
will travel to these floors and to the fortieth floor, which is the
crossover level. This is important to know if you find that you have
stepped onto the wrong set of elevators. You will also find escalators near
the elevator lobby, which is at the very center of the hotel. These
escalators connect the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
When you want to go to Level A to find the food court, you will need
to walk around the circle on the third floor (lobby level) to the south
side, where you will find an escalator that will take you down in three
stages to the food court on Level A. You will enter the food court at the
Coney Island hot dog stand. If you prefer using an elevator to get to the
food court, take the main elevators to the first floor and go to the 100
Tower, where you will find a single elevator that goes to Level A. You will
enter the food court just to the right of the popcorn shop. This means
that, when you wish to return to the hotel, you should find the popcorn
shop, and the hallway leading to the elevator will be just to your left as
you face the shop.
Here are a couple of facts that may help as you are mastering this
hotel. The Ontario Exhibit Hall, where the Independence Market and exhibits
will be located; the Renaissance Ballroom, where the board meeting and
convention sessions will take place; and the Mackinac Ballroom are stacked
one atop the other on the third, fourth, and fifth floors. Taxis, limos,
and private cars pull up to the Motor Lobby on the west side of the hotel,
off River Road. Parking for the hotel is across River Road in what
Michiganders call a parking ramp. The main entrance of the complex, and the
one you are most likely to use when coming and going from the hotel, is the
GM Lobby on the north side of the Renaissance Center, with Jefferson, a
very busy street, running east and west just to the north.
Now that you have this overview of the Renaissance Center and the
Marriott's place in it, you should be ready to read Doug Boone's
description of the hotel. Doug is an expert in orientation and mobility.
Here is the information he has gathered for us:
************
We begin our tour in the hotel lobby, which is on the third floor at
the west end of the hotel. Leaving the lobby, traveling east over the
bridge, you will find an up escalator on the right and an escalator coming
down from the fourth floor on the left. An identical set of escalators is
located just past the two banks of elevators on the east end of this
hallway.
Continuing east past the first escalators, the area opens up. Here
you have several options. Option 1: Continue walking straight ahead (east).
As the hall closes in again, you are entering the elevator area. The first
six elevators (three on each side) will take you to floors one, three,
four, and five and the sleeping rooms on floors forty to seventy. There is
only one call button for these elevators; it is located between the first
and second elevators on the left (north) side. Continuing east, past the
first six elevators, you may hear an echo in the center of the elevator
area. You will then find six more elevators, which give access to floors
one, three, four, and five and the sleeping rooms on floors nine through
forty. The only call button for these elevators is on the south side,
between the last and next-to-last elevators on the right side. Please note
that the fortieth floor is a crossover floor, which allows access to the
other set of elevators. Option 2: Continuing straight past the elevators
and the east escalators will take you to the Ambassador Ballroom at the far
east end of the hotel. Option 3: Immediately after passing the west
escalators, when you reach the area that opens up, turn to the right and
begin a counterclockwise route. It is possible to follow this hallway in a
complete circle, bringing you back to this point. If you progress only a
quarter of the way around the circle counterclockwise, you will find on
your right (south), a glass door or opening. At this point you have two
more options. A. This is the entrance to the Coach Insignia reception desk
and elevator to the premier restaurant, located on the seventy-second
floor. B. Walk past the desk for the restaurant (stay to the right) to the
back of the area, and you will find the first of three escalators needed to
reach the food court (Level A). Finding the food court will be addressed
later. Option 4: Turn left (clockwise) at the west end of the elevator area
and go a quarter of the way around and then turn left (north) to find the
walkway to the Ontario Exhibit Hall. It is also possible to reach this
point once you have progressed three quarters of the way around the
counterclockwise circle discussed in option 3 above. From that direction
the walkway to the Ontario Exhibit Hall will be on your right (still
north). Note: All of these choices give you access to destinations on the
outer circle. It is also possible to walk in a smaller, concentric circle
around the elevators.
Accessing the fourth floor by escalator: The fourth floor is composed
of an inner circle, which wraps around the bank of elevators and connects
to meeting rooms by bridges leading to the north, east, and west only. Once
you across the bridges, there is an outer circle that allows you to get to
all of the meeting rooms on this floor.
In the hotel lobby begin walking east across the bridge. Locate the
up escalator on the right. The next floor will be the fourth. Turn left at
the top and make a u-turn to the west and walk until you contact a convex
wall in front of you. You can find the restrooms by moving forward and to
your left. As you enter the restroom alcove, you will be heading south.
Back at the curved wall, you now have options:
1. If you turn right while facing the convex wall, you will move
clockwise around the circle. The meeting rooms will be on your left.
Heading this way around the north side of the circle, you will find the
Renaissance Ballroom consisting of the Cabot, Cartier, and Columbus rooms
(named for explorers). The Renaissance Ballroom can be accessed more
directly by turning left (north) at the top of the escalator and walking
clockwise around the inner circle until you can turn left or north. On this
bridge you will intersect the outer circle described above. Continue
straight across an open carpeted area into the ballroom.
2. Back at the rounded wall, if you turn to your left, you will be
making the counterclockwise revolution around the southern half of the
circle. All of the meeting rooms will be to your right. These rooms are
named for painters: DaVinci, Greco, Michelangelo, Monet, Renoir, and
Raphael.
Accessing the fifth floor by escalator: The fifth floor has only an
inner circle, though it is larger than the inner circle on the fourth
floor. When moving clockwise, you will find the rooms in A-B order on the
east half of the circle, and on the west half they are in B-A order.
From either the hotel lobby or fourth floor, take the escalator to
the fifth floor. At the top of the escalator you are facing east. If you
turn left to locate rooms, you will be looking for small bridges on your
left. The rooms are in the following clockwise order, beginning at the west
end of the elevator hall: Duluth B & A, Mackinac Ballroom, Joliet A & B,
Marquette A & B, (east end of elevator hall) LaSalle A & B, Cadillac A & B,
Banquet Services, Richard B & A, and Brule B & A. Braille and print markers
are located at the intersections of the circular hall and the bridges,
about four feet from the floor. All rooms have these markers except the
Mackinac Ballroom, which has a bridge about twice as wide as the other
bridges on this floor. Restrooms on the fifth floor are located at the
north end of the bridge, just before entering the Mackinac Ballroom.
Locating the food court, Level A: In the hotel lobby go east over the
bridge, and, when it widens, turn right, circle around (counterclockwise
along the right side of the circle) to glass doors. This is the entrance to
the Coach Insignia Restaurant. Turn right and then bear right (you are
circling around to the back of this small area). Stay to the right and
locate the down escalator. At the bottom you will be on the second floor.
Go right about forty feet and find another down escalator. At the bottom
you will be on the first floor. The next escalator will take you down to
Level A, where the food court is located. These escalators are close
together. Head toward the center of the building, and you will enter a
circle, which, when followed either clockwise or counterclockwise, will
take you to the food court. As of March, these were the purveyors located
in the food court: Arby's, Burger King, Coney Town, Fish City, Gyroland,
HotPOP!, McDonald's, Salsarita's, Fresh Cantina, Subway, That Sandwich
Place, Venice Italian Market, and Zoup!
Elevator access to the food court, Level A: Go to the hotel lobby,
take the elevator down to the Motor Lobby level. Upon exiting the elevator,
turn right and continue until you locate wood-clad glass doors. Go through
the doors and up a carpeted ramp until it levels off, then turn left.
Continue clockwise around this circular area, about 150 feet, until you
hear escalators on the left. Continue past the escalators. Stay left until
you can turn left and go down a ramp. Continue staying left (about thirty
feet) and locate a glass wall. Keep the glass wall on your left, and it
will circle counter clockwise to an opening. The elevator is located in
this area, which is about fifteen feet in diameter. It will open very near
the McDonald's in the food court.
Access to the People Mover: Greektown is ten to fifteen minutes away;
the train runs clockwise to this destination. Go to the hotel lobby. Take
the elevator down to the Motor Lobby level. Upon exiting the elevator, turn
right and continue walking until you locate the wood-clad glass doors. Go
through the doors and up a carpeted ramp until it levels, then turn left.
Continue clockwise around this circular area, about 150 feet, until you
hear escalators on the left. Find and go down the short flight of steps to
the left. You will pass the escalators you heard before starting down the
stairs (these go down to the lower level). At the bottom of the steps,
continue forward until you hear escalators, which will take you up to the
next level. You will be near the CVS drugstore. Find CVS and make sure it
is on your right. Stay to the right and go down the hallway, a bit more
than fifty feet. Go through the glass doors. Tokens can be purchased at a
machine about ten feet inside the entrance to the area (slightly to the
right). One dollar will get you two tokens, good for your outbound and
return trips. I was told you can also use exact change or pay with a dollar
on the train and get a token for the return, but this has not been
confirmed.
There you are. By July 9 you will have it down cold. But if you read
this article over several times between now and the convention, you will be
surprised how much it will help you to grasp the floor plans of the various
levels. Good luck; see you in orbit.
------------
[CAPTION: Buck and Mary Ann Saunders of West Virginia test accessible
voting machines.]
Blind Voters Are Registered Voters
by A.J. Chwalow, L. Blake, and M. Riccobono
************
From the Editor: Since passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA),
the NFB has been deeply involved with training blind voters and election
officials to use accessible voting machines. We have evaluated equipment
and written manuals. Immediately following the 2008 presidential election
the Jernigan Institute staff conducted a study of how well the election
process had gone for blind voters. Here is a layman's version of the final
report:
************
November 2008 was an exciting time for us all. No matter what your
politics, you had to be excited by the level of interest and eager to see
the results of the national and state elections. The National Federation of
the Blind Jernigan Institute (NFBJI) has been one of the leaders in
advocacy for blind voters and has been working with the government since
the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Our primary goal has
always been to make voting more accessible to blind voters at the national,
state, and local levels. The NFBJI has been active in training poll
workers, preparing manuals, and setting up training sessions for blind
voters by providing voting machines to practice on. As a part of HAVA the
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute has been awarded grants
in the past that have allowed it to evaluate the voting experience for
blind and visually impaired voters and to develop training curricula for
polling place workers that make the experience accessible. In support of
this objective, we commissioned a survey to be conducted with legally blind
voters immediately after the 2008 presidential election.
Between November 6 and 17, 2008, the NFBJI provided a list of 10,000
households located all over America. In order to be included in a telephone
survey, 994 households were contacted and screened for inclusion. Of these
581 indicated that a member of the household age eighteen or older cannot
read regular print, such as newspapers, at a normal reading distance, even
with best corrected vision. Of those 566 individuals were able and willing
to speak with an interviewer; of these, 560 were confirmed legally blind
and were interviewed.
Almost all (94 percent) of the legally blind people interviewed in
this study said they are registered voters, and nearly all of these
registered voters (96 percent) voted in the November 2008 election. This
strengthens any future advocacy efforts of the NFBJI, because we can show
that 96 percent of our members vote. Of these, a third (38 percent) voted
by mail or absentee ballot, while nearly two-thirds (62 percent) voted at
the polls.
Half (51 percent) of the blind voters who cast their ballots at a
polling place did so independent of assistance, while more than a third (39
percent) relied on the assistance of a family member or friend, only a
tenth (9 percent) required the assistance of a poll judge, and a few (1
percent) used a paper ballot and/or a magnifying glass.
Just under two-thirds (63 percent) who cast their votes at the polls
said they requested or were offered the use of an accessible voting
machine. Most said that the voting machine was up and running upon their
arrival (87 percent) and that the poll workers had no problems setting up
or activating the machine (81 percent).
A majority (87 percent) of voters who cast their votes using
accessible voting machines experienced no problems with the machine. Of the
13 percent who did encounter problems, the two most frequently mentioned
issues were that the workers were not trained and did not know how to
operate the machine or the machine was not set up, or they could not adjust
the audio speed or the audio did not work.
A majority (86 percent) who used accessible voting machines were able
to cast a secret ballot. The 14 percent who could not cast a secret ballot
most often said workers could not operate the machines, there were no
working machines available, or they felt more comfortable with assistance.
Blind voters appear to have felt they were treated well by poll
workers since nearly all believed that they were treated with respect (94
percent), they were treated with the same dignity as other voters (91
percent), and they were given the same privacy as other voters (85
percent). In addition, most felt that they had not been rushed (94
percent), poll workers did not make them feel as if they were a bother (92
percent), they were not treated as if they lacked the capacity to vote (90
percent), and they were not treated as if they were incapable of voting
independently (89 percent).
Including those who voted by mail and in person at the polls, 89
percent were satisfied with their overall experience, so it is not
surprising that a majority (61 percent) offered no suggested ways to
improve the experience. The most frequent suggestions were to make
accessible voting machines available (6 percent), educate or train poll
workers (5 percent), be sure accessible voting machines are set up and
working properly (4 percent), provide larger print or magnification (4
percent), and make it possible for blind voters to cast an independent and
private vote (4 percent).
Survey participants were also asked if they would be interested in
receiving training on the use of accessible voting machines. Those most
interested in receiving training were among those who were less than
satisfied with their most recent voting experience (72 percent).
More than half (59 percent) of the individuals interviewed in this
study can read Braille. The likelihood of being able to do so is higher
among those who are younger (81 percent under age twenty-five), the more
educated (73% with postgraduate education), the employed (68 percent), and
those with an income above $50,000 (65 percent).
************
Conclusions:
************
. The NFBJI's considerable advocacy work on behalf of blind voters since
the passage of the Help America Vote Act appears to have paid off,
because most legally blind voters interviewed had a good experience
voting in the November 2008 election, and practically everyone plans to
continue to vote in the future.
. Even with this very positive report card of the voting experience, some
clear areas for improvement still exist, considering that one in ten who
voted at the polls said an accessible voting machine was not available
for them, and nearly one in five who did attempt to use an accessible
voting machine said poll workers had problems setting up or activating
the machine (especially activating the audio ballot, which was the way in
which a great majority chose to use the machine).
. Along with additional training for poll workers, more than a quarter of
those interviewed report that they would like a training session.
. Being able to read Braille is clearly a key to independence since
respondents who can read Braille reported a better, more independent
experience in this study. In addition, Braille readers are more likely to
be employed and have an income over $50,000 and a postgraduate education.
We know the history of the NFBJI in advocacy for blind and low-vision
people. We can see that NFB members are more likely to read Braille and be
employed and educated. Since passage of the Help America Vote Act,
Federationists have been aware of the NFB's efforts to make voting for the
blind more accessible. With this evaluation we can now say that we have had
an impact at all levels of voting: national, state, and local.
------------
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Stan Greenberg]
The State of Blindness
A Current Assessment
by Stanley Greenberg
************
From the Editor: Dr. Stanley Greenberg is not a member of the
National Federation of the Blind, but you will see from the article that
follows that he is very familiar with our philosophy and is largely
sympathetic with our view of blindness and blind people in the world. He is
now retired and lives happily with his wife. They have four children and
eight grandchildren. He earned his doctorate from the Eastman School of
Music at the University of Rochester, and he has worked and traveled all of
his adult life using a white cane and, in recent years, a guide dog.
Stan has had two careers, first as a successful phonograph record
producer, arranger, and executive and second as a human services leader. He
retired from active employment in 1996 when he was executive director of
the Westside Center for Independent Living in Los Angeles. His music
activities include conducting orchestras, choruses, and theatrical
performances as well as being a professional pianist. Since retirement he
has been a member of several nonprofit boards and was chair of the Vermont
State Independent Living Council. He has devoted much of his life to
advocacy for the rights of African Americans, farm workers, and people with
disabilities. He is an avid sports fan and a voracious reader.
I find myself agreeing with many of Stan's assessments of the
situation blind people find ourselves in today. As frequently happens, I am
left with the conclusion that everything depends on whether you think the
glass is half full or half empty and how much time you spend fretting over
what is missing from your life. Everyone lives with some disadvantages: I
have a friend who cannot carry a tune and another who has no appreciation
of books. My husband is absent minded, and my daughter is allergic to
animals and flower and tree pollen. I know sighted adults who cannot read
or read well, and others who could not drive or have given up their cars.
Each of us has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, abilities and
inabilities. Our skills and interests make us the individuals we are.
In what follows you will find an objective and unsentimental catalog
of the limitations that blindness imposes. But I find myself raising
questions about the significance of a number of these limitations. If I now
have available to me more newspapers than I can read (and have them earlier
than sighted readers get them) and if I am overwhelmed by the number of
audio and Braille books that I can read at any moment, how much more
deprived am I than my husband, who hangs out in the college library every
morning and can read whatever he wants? I don't have access to a
frustrating number of household appliances and other equipment-a problem
that the NFB is addressing in Congress and with manufacturers--but my
husband also is often frustrated by modern gadgets. It is frustrating to
have to wait for our children or younger friends to figure out the
mysteries that surround us, but we would both classify this situation as a
nuisance. Be all that as it may, here is a contemporary assessment of what
blindness entails. I am still of the opinion that, given the public's
tendency to pity us and presume our incompetence, as an organization and as
well-adjusted blind people, we are better off minimizing our challenges and
refusing to dwell on them, dismissing them as nuisances. That is just one
reaction. See what you think:
************
"It's respectable to be blind." "We're changing what it means to be
blind." These mantras along with several others have been passed down
through the years from one blind person to another. They have been used as
rallying cries to educate the public, boost the spirits of the blind people
who have repeated them, and galvanize our advocacy efforts to gain our
rightful place in society. They have also helped us to accept the reality
that being blind is really okay in spite of conventional beliefs to the
contrary.
The most frequently quoted of these maxims is, "With appropriate
training and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to the level of a
nuisance." It is this assertion which we will examine with the benefit of
twenty-first century experience, knowledge, and understanding. We will
measure its validity against the generally accepted definition of
disability and suggest a new and more relevant clarion call.
First, however, it is important to retire an obsolete concept. If
there ever was a homogeneous group labeled "the blind," this group no
longer exists. While it may have been true in 1940, when the National
Federation of the Blind, the first consumer-driven blindness advocacy
organization, was founded, all blind people can no longer be lumped
together into a unique body with monolithic aspirations, jointly held
principles, and a common agenda. Certainly groups of people who are blind
can and do come together to achieve goals that individuals would be unable
to accomplish alone. However, these individuals differ from one another as
much as do any collection of people who are unique in every respect except
for their common interest. It is essential that we abandon the notion that
there is a discrete identity called "the blind" and instead devote our
energy and talents to "walking alone and marching together."
Less than seventy years ago, if you were a typical blind person, you
were all but shut out of society's mainstream. Your chances of obtaining a
traditional job were virtually nonexistent. You might find menial
employment caning chairs or tuning pianos, but even these opportunities
were few and far between. The public and private agencies established to
provide skills training, employment opportunities, and so-called adjustment
training served to perpetuate the same stereotypical images held by society
in general. Sheltered workshops run by highly paid sighted managers and
trainers used their legally protected status to pay their blind workers
unbelievably low wages. Managers of public places routinely denied entrance
and service to blind patrons. Our entertainment options were limited
largely to listening to Talking Book records and radio programs. The image
of a blind individual, dressed in tatters and begging for pennies, was the
caricature called to mind when most sighted people thought about a blind
person. Many of us were hidden from public view in the back rooms of our
families' homes. Some of us were sent to nursing homes or establishments
created to warehouse us. Naturally there were some glaring exceptions, but
for most of us our lives consisted of endless hopelessness, lack of
fulfillment, and degradation.
The group of determined individuals who founded the National
Federation of the Blind in 1940 undertook a bold strategy to change what it
meant to be blind. The effort consisted of three equally important
objectives. First, they set out to change public perceptions about
blindness through education and advocacy. Second, they undertook to
redirect the purpose of agencies serving blind people to provide the skills
and adjustment training necessary for us to be included fully in the world
around us. Third, they considered it mandatory to re-educate blind people
ourselves about our intrinsic value as human beings in general and as
individuals who happened to be blind in particular.
Approximately seventy years later the picture is dramatically
different. While the unemployment rate among blind people is unacceptably
high, we are filling a variety of positions in a wide spectrum of
employment disciplines. Sheltered employment remains an option for some,
but many of the workshops established for that purpose are either managed
by blind people ourselves or by sighted managers who understand their
duties as well as the aspirations of their blind employees. Blind people
are out and around, enjoying the broad array of leisure and entertainment
opportunities available to those who are not disabled. Many of us travel
locally, nationally, and internationally without incident or special
notice. We are educated as children and trained as adults by people, many
of whom are themselves blind, who understand our issues and promote our
full inclusion in a diverse society. The percentage of us warehoused in
facilities designed for that purpose has decreased and is continuing to
drop. Certainly the goal of equal status has not been reached, and there is
much more work to be done. However, many of us have achieved the status of
respectability. Moreover, our efforts to change what it means to be blind
have been largely successful. What about reducing blindness to the level of
a nuisance? Is that goal achievable?
The generally accepted definition of disability, included in the
Americans with Disabilities Act, refers to a condition which "limits one or
more major life activities." The legislation goes on to list many of those
activities, one of which is "seeing." The law's framers, in consultation
with many people with disabilities, recognized that, while it was eminently
possible to ameliorate the impact of a handicapping condition to some
extent through education, training, accommodation, and acceptance, the
disability itself imposed as yet unavoidable limitations. This reality does
not mean that disabled people in general and blind people in particular can
not and do not live full and productive lives. Many of us provide living
testimony to the contrary. It does mean, however, that obstacles are
imposed by our disability that rise far above the level of a nuisance.
Travel presents the first factor to be examined. To a great extent we
move from place to place easily and elegantly. We use canes, dog guides,
and other travel aids to assist us in getting from one place to another. We
have acquired the skills to know where we are, assess vehicle traffic, and
determine the best and safest way to get to our destination. We have access
to public and special transportation options, and of course we have family
members, friends, and coworkers to drive us to locations not served by
other means. We do not, however, have the ability to go wherever we want,
whenever we want, as quickly and as conveniently as we would like.
Blindness will not be just a nuisance until we are able to walk out of our
door, get into our own automobile, and drive ourselves to whatever location
we choose just as does a person who is sighted.
Next comes information. We have access to a voluminous amount of data,
literature, news, signage, and a mass of material on all subjects. We use
Braille, commercially recorded as well as government produced Talking Books
and newspapers, computers with speech and Braille access, radio and
television audio, and a variety of other sources to stay abreast of current
developments. However, that which we can access independently is a tiny
fraction of what is available to people who are not blind. Blindness will
not be just a nuisance until we can examine any document, read any book,
peruse any newspaper, check out any sign, and read any note written by
anyone who leaves it for us as do people who are sighted.
Our access to electrical appliances, communications equipment, games,
tools, and a wide variety of devices is increasing. Laws have been enacted
requiring manufacturers to make their products accessible if doing so is
"readily achievable." Some suppliers have gone the extra mile to include
blind consumers among their most valued customers. Of course a wide variety
of products are fully usable by us without modification of any kind. While
progress with the others is encouraging, the amount of inaccessible
equipment manufactured far exceeds that which is usable by us without
sighted assistance. Blindness will not be just a nuisance until we can
order any appliance, open any box, plug in any machine, and operate any
device without sighted assistance of any kind at any level.
As the spendable income of blind people increases, we are observed
regularly shopping in a wide variety of places. We dine out; purchase goods
and services in a broad spectrum of restaurants and stores; enjoy
entertainment in clubs, theaters, and stadiums; and make purchases on the
Internet. However, much of our shopping requires sighted assistance. The
vast majority of restaurants do not have Braille menus, and most of us can
not afford portable reading machines. Labels on most inventory are
inaccessible, and the cost of a barcode or currency reader is beyond our
available funds. An increasing number of Websites are becoming accessible,
but an overwhelming number are still beyond our ability to review.
Blindness will not be just a nuisance until we can enter any shop, order a
meal in any restaurant, appreciate any form of entertainment, and surf any
Website by ourselves.
We use our senses to have a wide variety of experiences. We listen to
a multitude of sounds, some artistic and pleasurable, some informational
and educational, and others simply in the background. We taste foods that
we enjoy and some that we would prefer not to eat, as well as medicines
that can be either pleasant or otherwise. Our entire bodies feel an
infinite number of sensations, and our noses inhale all kinds of smells.
These four senses enable us to have a rewarding, satisfying, and full life.
It is also true, however, that the wide spectrum of experiences available
to people who are not blind are available to us secondhand. We are told of
the beauty of visual arts by those who can see it. A multicolored sunset,
the majesty of a scenic view, the beauty of birds and animals in the wild,
and the magnificence of nature are made accessible to us through the eyes
and words of people who tell us about them. The faces of those we love, the
joy of seeing our new baby for the first time, the pleasure of watching our
children grow into adults, and the thrill of observing rites of passage all
come to us through the eyes and words of others. The selection of clothing,
the decoration of a home, the choice of the color of our cars, and the
decisions regarding all sorts of visual choices must be accomplished
through the descriptions of those who are with us. Blindness will not be
just a nuisance until the time comes when we can experience the visual
independently, without our eyesight.
As blind people we have developed a variety of techniques and
strategies enabling us to live as independently as possible. While our
hearing is no more sensitive than that of the average person, we have
developed the ability to use it to a far greater extent than people who are
sighted. We work at remembering and identifying sounds, even those whose
differences are marginal. We recognize and can recall the names of people
by the sound of their voices. We determine when it is safe to cross the
street by listening to the sound and movement of vehicular traffic. Some of
us have learned to be aware of that which is in front of us by the feeling
in our faces, a phenomenon known as "facial vision." We use our memory to
recall the arrangement of furniture in a room, the number of steps in a
staircase, the location of items on a table, and countless activities that
we experience daily. We carefully arrange our clothing, our print
materials, our toilet articles and drugs, and many others of our
possessions so that we can find them easily, but we simply can not
compensate for all of the ways to replace the countless situations in which
vision is used merely as a matter of course. We can not walk into a room,
glance around, and locate something for which we are looking. We can not
look across an expanse, recognize a person in a group, and make eye contact
with her or him. We can not know if someone is waving a greeting to us
across a street or ballroom. We can not read someone's mood by recognizing
a facial expression. We can not anticipate the subtle visual signals which
potentially dangerous situations transmit and which are received only by
the eyes. Blindness will not be just a nuisance until we can do virtually
everything without our eyes that a sighted person can do with them.
If blindness is really not just a nuisance and if blind people can and
do live independent and fulfilling lives in spite of the limitations
imposed by this severe disability, we would be wise to develop a new
rallying cry that embodies our present situation and our hopes for the
future. We must continue to educate both ourselves and those who are not
disabled about our intrinsic worth, our stunning capabilities, and our
insistence on being a seamless part of the world around us. We must settle
for nothing less than full inclusion, full recognition, and an
uncompromising determination to be completely integrated into the real
world.
Consequently, in an effort to embody all of our hopes, our goals, and
the task ahead of us, the following should become our rallying cry: "With
appropriate training, opportunity, research, and full inclusion in the
world around us, blindness will be reduced to just another personal
characteristic."
------------
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: This graphic is a triptych of three drawings. In the
first a man is wandering in the woods and bumping into branches. In the
second panel, the figure is cutting a branch to shape into a cane. In the
third panel, now equipped with a long cane made of a tree branch, the
figure strides out with confidence. CAPTION: After this article was
published in 1994, a prisoner who had read it in the Voice of the Diabetic
and been moved by the story drew this illustration and sent it to Ed
Bryant.]
My Tree Branch Cane
How I Became Blind and Then What
by Ed Bryant
************
From the Editor: The following article first appeared in the Voice of
the Diabetic, Volume 10, Number 4, Fall 1995, published by the Diabetes
Action Network (DAN) of the National Federation of the Blind. It was
updated in March 2009. Ed Bryant has been one of the formative figures
since the DAN was founded as the NFB Diabetics Division in 1985. When Karen
Mayry became too ill to continue as president of the division, Ed
unhesitatingly took on that task in addition to editing the quarterly
publication, which he had done from its beginning. Here is the story of how
one man found the organization that shared his personal philosophy:
************
Diabetes is a sneaky disease. It usually takes fifteen to twenty
years for chronic complications to be noticed, and many can stem from the
disease. Here are my story and some observations about blindness.
Fifty years ago I was diagnosed with early-onset diabetes. After the
initial shock of discovering I had sugar diabetes and learning how to give
myself insulin injections, my lifestyle returned to one of a very busy and
active teenager. The only differences were that I had to give myself one
shot a day and watch my diet. Eating a lot of sweets could cause problems.
At first I did not adhere to good diabetes practices. I was not good
at watching what I ate and drank. I did what my peers did, and I felt just
fine. I was not worried about my diabetes. Then, after I'd had the disease
almost sixteen years, I began to notice blurred vision. It was like looking
through a smoky haze.
At first I didn't pay much attention. In St. Louis, where I was
administrative manager for a corporation specializing in child photography,
my job required a lot of paperwork. I assumed I needed to see an eye doctor
and get glasses. But I didn't get glasses, and with time my vision
deteriorated. Finally, admitting I'd been foolish, I saw an
ophthalmologist, who diagnosed proliferative diabetic retinopathy. I had no
functional vision in one eye, and the prognosis for the other was not good.
The doctor recommended I see a diabetes specialist and get my disease under
good control. Then, maybe, he could give me laser treatments.
I immediately saw a physician who specialized in diabetes. I worked
to regulate my disease far more closely. In time, with my diabetes under
good control, the vision in my functional eye became substantially better.
I was elated. I could see well enough again to do almost anything. Working
as a photographer, I had driven in every state in America, and of course I
thought driving a car was essential to everyone's lifestyle. Now I could
even drive my little blue sports car again.
When I revisited my ophthalmologist, we decided to try vitrectomy
surgery in my bad eye. With luck the surgery would restore some of my
vision. It failed, as did a second vitrectomy on the same eye several
months later. I knew that by law I was legally blind, but I didn't consider
myself blind since I had so little trouble getting around and doing what I
wanted to do.
During the daytime my only troubles came while facing direct
sunlight. My main difficulties were at night. Unless an area was well lit,
I had trouble seeing where I was going. Late one evening I started walking
home. The area was well lit, but as I progressed, there were fewer and
fewer street lights. Soon I could barely see my path. At a wide point in
the sidewalk, landscapers had planted a preposterously huge tree right in
my way. I was walking at a pretty good clip-I ran into the tree. After my
very close encounter and a few frank words to that tree, I walked the rest
of the way home. As I look back, I can only laugh. If I'd had more wisdom,
I'd have been using a long white cane. Then I could have avoided both
possible injury and the tree.
Several years later my employment was phased out, and I found myself
out of work. I moved to Columbia, Missouri, home of the University of
Missouri. I would work out my future from there.
I had been offered upper middle-management positions with several
different companies with lucrative salaries, but, as soon as I told
prospective employers I was legally blind or that I had a severe eye
problem, their offers vanished. The jobs were either no longer available or
offered to me at wages less than half their original offer. It didn't
matter that I could do the work proficiently. My experience in business
administration and public relations didn't count. When employers heard the
words "blind" or "legally blind," they immediately assumed I was incapable
of doing the job.
I was out one night in Columbia when a friend accidentally poked me
in my good eye. I felt excruciating pain. My ophthalmologist recommended a
retina surgeon in Memphis, Tennessee. The specialist told me the eye was in
bad shape; however, vitrectomy surgery might help. Once again I underwent
surgery. However, it allowed me to see only in a very limited way.
In the following few months I lost my vision completely. I was
totally blind. I lived in an apartment, and I really had no way to get
around. After having managed my personal business and being independent for
years, I found it very difficult to let anyone help me. My parents offered
to build an extra room onto their home so I could live there. Although the
offer was loving and gracious, I would never consider such a thing. I'd
always been an independent person, and, if I'd moved into my parents' home
on a rural route, I would have been more or less trapped, since the area
had no bus service and the cost of a taxi to and from the country was very
high. I couldn't expect my parents to provide my transportation everywhere.
They had their own life.
I was an active person, used to travelling independently. I decided
to keep my apartment. I had no wish or reason to become dependent on
others. I knew I was perfectly capable of doing the things I'd always done.
My biggest problem was not being able to draw up my own insulin. For three
or four years my mother drew up a seven-day supply every week until I
learned of devices that allowed blind people to draw up their own insulin
accurately. Such a device allowed me to self-manage my disease.
My blindness made me angry and frustrated. Like many other newly
blind folks, I felt trapped and limited in what I could do. The fact was
that I was blind. But it seemed unreasonable to give up and abandon
independence simply because I couldn't see. I began to realize that in
actuality I wasn't limited. I could function very well in my apartment. I
knew where everything was. And with a little ingenuity I discovered I could
cook and do anything in the kitchen. Every day I discovered alternative
techniques that allowed me to do things just as well as I had done them
when I was sighted. I was learning how to help myself.
I telephoned Missouri's Bureau for the Blind and asked for a white
cane and someone to show me how to use it. After waiting two or three
weeks, I got angry. How could I be independent if I had to stay in my
apartment? So one day I took a hatchet and a kitchen broom and went
outside, using my broom as a cane. I headed for a spot where I knew a
little tree was located, and I chopped off a long branch. Returning to my
apartment with my prize, I chopped and whittled until the branch developed
into what I called a cane. I didn't know anything about cane dimensions,
but I figured it should be about as tall as I was. I ended up with a
makeshift cane about six feet long.
I went for short walks. I chuckle about it now, but I was probably a
danger to society with my tree branch cane; I was certainly a danger to
myself. The end of the cane kept getting stuck in the ground, and I came
close to rupturing my midsection on many occasions. Even though my cane was
homemade out of a tree branch, it helped me to get around the apartment
complex and many nearby roads. I had all the confidence in the world.
At last the man from the Bureau for the Blind arrived, bringing me a
better cane. After he left, I went for a walk. The top of my new cane
reached somewhere between my navel and breastbone. I had to bend over as I
walked with it, and it was obviously too short, but I could do a lot better
with it than with my tree branch. I knew where the city bus stopped, so I
took a bus downtown and spent the afternoon exploring.
I never had any formal mobility lessons, but I trained myself without
great difficulty. I finally moved to the downtown area, primarily because
there were sidewalks. I lived in a high-rise apartment close to the
University. There were many social activities, and something was always
happening. I could always find plenty for a guy like me to do.
At some point I found out about the National Federation of the Blind.
After attending a few meetings, I was more impressed with it than with any
other organization I had ever been involved in. It was a united body of
blind people doing everything possible to serve blind people, without
regard to the cause of their blindness. Federation philosophy ran parallel
to my own observations, made since I had become blind, that much of the
general public simply does not understand blindness. Many friends,
neighbors, and family members simply pity the blind person, thinking he or
she is not capable of doing very much. Along with the pity and sympathy
comes a great deal of discrimination, due to society's many myths and
misconceptions about the blind and blindness. The situation is improving,
but we in the National Federation of the Blind still need to spread the
word.
The key word is "education." We Federationists are aware that, with
proper training and use of alternative techniques, we can do just about
anything we decide to do. The NFB knows that society's perception of
inabilities can mislead blind people. If all they hear is talk of their
helplessness and that they can't, they may become convinced and think
themselves into helplessness and inactivity. This holds true as well for
blind diabetics, told incorrectly by many that they cannot draw insulin,
test blood glucose, or perform the other tasks of diabetes self-management.
Limitations, for most blind people, are self-imposed. The NFB strives
to enlighten society about the capabilities of blind people while striving
to improve the way many blind people think about themselves. We encourage
them to think "I can" rather than "I can't." We are a self-help and
advocacy organization. We show blind folks they are not alone and that,
whatever their situation, they have options. Our members are living proof
that blindness is not synonymous with inability.
------------
[CAPTION: Greg Trapp]
2009 Brings ADA Changes
by Greg Trapp
************
From the Editor: Greg Trapp is an attorney by training. He is the
director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind and a longtime member
of the National Federation of the Blind. In the following brief article he
explains in layman's language the impact of the recent important amendments
to the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is what he says:
************
The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA)
took effect on January 1, 2009. The ADAAA, which was signed by President
Bush on September 25, 2008, is intended to restore Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) provisions that had been eroded by a series of
Supreme Court decisions. The ADA, originally signed into law in 1990 by the
first President Bush, had used an expansive definition of disability that
did not consider the use of "mitigating measures." For those of us who are
blind the new law has the potential to produce positive changes, even
though the ADAAA primarily applies to people with disabilities other than
blindness.
The issue of vision was central to the Supreme Court case of Sutton
v. United Air Lines, the 1999 case that began the erosion of the definition
of disability. The ADA defines "disability" as a "physical or mental
impairment" that "substantially limits" one or more "major life
activities," a "record of such impairment," or being "regarded as having
such an impairment." Congress intended this definition of disability to
encourage that decisions be based on a person's merit and not merely on his
or her impairment. This precept was established in School Board of Nassau
County v. Arline, a 1987 Supreme Court case which granted protection under
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to a person with a "record" of a
disability. In Sutton, a more conservative court was confronted with facts
that caused the Court to interpret this language in a way that was
different from what Congress had intended and from what the Court had
recognized in Arline. Sutton involved a pair of twin pilots who had
corrected vision of 20/20 but who had uncorrected vision of 20/200. The
twins were not hired because their uncorrected vision did not meet the
vision requirements of United Air Lines. Confronted with this difficult set
of facts, the Supreme Court engaged in some linguistic gymnastics and found
that "substantially limits" was a "present indicative verb," and that it
required that the person be presently and not potentially or hypothetically
limited. The Court reasoned that, because the twins had corrected vision of
20/20, they were not substantially limited and were therefore not disabled.
The Sutton decision opened the door to consideration of other
"mitigating" measures, such as the taking of medications as in the
subsequent case of Murphy v. United Parcel Service. This meant that people
with conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, emphysema, and even cancer were
not necessarily covered by the ADA. To be covered, it had to be shown that
they were presently substantially limited by their condition. The
definition was further narrowed in the 2002 case of Toyota Motor Mfg. v.
Williams, which required consideration of an employee's ability to perform
activities that were of "central importance to most people's daily lives."
Toyota also required the impairment to be "permanent or long-term."
The Sutton and Toyota decisions dramatically limited the number of
people covered by the ADA. In the unfortunate words of former Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor, the ADA was for "the wheelchair bound," not people
with "carpal tunnel syndrome or bad backs."
In passing the ADAAA, Congress stated that it "intended the ADA to
provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of
discrimination against individuals with disabilities and provide broad
coverage." The ADAAA overturns the holdings in Sutton and Toyota and
reestablishes the standard of disability under Arline. With one exception
the ADAAA states that "mitigating measures shall not be a factor when
determining whether an impairment substantially limits a major life
activity." The only mitigating measures that can be considered are
"ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses that fully correct visual acuity or
eliminate refractive error," a recognition of the facts in Sutton that open
the door to the narrowing of the definition of disability and the
consideration of mitigating measures.
By expanding the definition of disability, the ADAAA brings into the
community of people with disabilities millions of Americans who can
contribute to the life, economy, and prosperity of the nation. Confronted
with millions of additional employees and prospective employees, employers
will be forced to familiarize themselves more fully with the provisions of
the ADA and ADAAA and revise their policies and procedures to comply with
the law. Enhanced compliance should translate into expanded opportunity for
all employees. By expanding the number of persons with disabilities, the
ADAAA also helps to normalize disability, making it a more natural part of
the human experience. While no law can ever substitute for good blindness
skills, we can hope that the ADAAA will give us a greater opportunity to
apply those skills.
------------
Recipes
************
The recipes this month were to have been offered by members of the
NFB of Tennessee. As you will read later in this issue, before he could
gather the recipes, NFB of Tennessee President Michael Seay died very
suddenly. As a result we are filling in with several recipes that first
appeared in the Voice of the Diabetic. These are healthy choices for
diabetics but also nutritious and tasty for everyone.
************
Baked Stew
by Gail Bryant
************
If you are constantly on the go or don't want a messy range top, this
recipe is just for you. Gail Bryant is the wife of longtime Diabetes Action
Network leader Ed Bryant and an active member of the NFB of Missouri.
************
Ingredients:
2 pounds stewing beef, diced
2 tablespoons flour
1 bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons shortening
6 stalks celery, diced
6 carrots, diced
4 potatoes, peeled and sliced small
1 cup water
1 pound fresh green beans, cut up
Salt and pepper to taste
************
Method: Dredge meat in flour. In the shortening in a large frying
pan, brown the meat. Add onion and bell pepper and brown. Arrange meat and
browned vegetables in baking dish. Add celery and carrots. Cover with
water. Bake one and a half hours. Add potatoes and green beans and bake an
additional one and a half hours.
Yield: 8 servings; calories: 300; diabetic exchanges: 1 1/2 meat, 1
bread, 2 vegetable, 1 fat.
------------
Green Beans with Mushrooms and Garlic
No Attribution
************
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh or frozen whole green beans
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
Dash freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)
************
Method: Trim fresh beans. Combine with two tablespoons water in a
microwave-proof 1-1/2-quart casserole. Microwave covered on high eight to
ten minutes or until beans are tender crisp. Stir at least once during
cooking. Drain. Set aside. In microwave-proof one-quart casserole combine
onion, garlic, mushrooms, and olive oil. Microwave covered on high one
minute or until vegetables are tender. Stir in remaining ingredients and
microwave covered on high for forty seconds. Toss with cooked beans.
Yield: 6 servings; calories: 50 per serving; diabetic exchanges: 1
vegetable, 1/2 fat.
------------
Krupsua (Finnish Oven Pancakes)
by Marsh Mayry
************
Marsh Mayry is from Rapid City, South Dakota. His wife Karen was a
founder and leader of the Diabetes Action Network and president of the NFB
of South Dakota before her death.
************
Ingredients:
2 cups 2 percent milk
1 egg
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup melted butter
************
Method: Melt butter on rimmed cookie sheet in 350-degree oven. Mix
remaining ingredients together. Pour into cookie sheet and bake for forty
minutes. Serve with butter and syrup, sprinkled with sugar, or spread with
jelly.
Yield: 9 servings; calories: 125; diabetic exchanges: 1 bread and 1
fat.
------------
Raspberry Sour Cream Dip
************
This recipe appeared in the Volume 1, Number 1, August 1993 issue of
the Equal Sweet News, reprinted with permission. Equal Sweetener is a
registered trademark of the NutraSweet Company.
************
Ingredients:
1 cup nonfat sour cream
1 cup low-fat custard-style raspberry yogurt
2 tablespoons minced or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried mint leaves
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons Equal Measure
Assorted fresh fruit, sliced and cubed
************
Method: Mix sour cream, yogurt, mint, lemon rind, and Equal Measure.
Refrigerate several hours for flavors to blend. Spoon dip into bowl; serve
with fruit for dipping.
Yield: 2 cups. Nutrition information per tablespoon serving: 25
calories, 2 g. protein, 5 g. carbohydrate, trace fat, less than 1 mg.
cholesterol, 19 mg. sodium. Diabetic exchanges: 1/2 fruit.
------------
Low-Cholesterol, Low-Fat Meat Loaf
by Gail Bryant
************
Ingredients:
3/4 pounds ground round
3/4 pounds ground turkey
1/2 cup regular oats
1 8-ounce can tomato puree
Approximately 1/4 cup onion, chopped (1 small onion)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon black or lemon pepper (lemon preferred)
1 clove garlic, minced
************
Method: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well. Press
mixture evenly into an ungreased loaf pan or use a 9-by-13-inch pan and
shape mixture into a loaf. Bake uncovered for one and a quarter to one and
a half hours or until center is no longer pink. Great with salad and
steamed vegetables.
Yield: 8 servings; calories: 200; diabetic exchanges: 2 1/2 meat.
------------
Low-Fat, Low-Calorie Slaw Dressing
by Gail Bryant
************
Ingredients:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 package sugar substitute
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Dash red pepper
************
Method: Combine all ingredients in a container with a tight lid and
shake well. Pour over large bowl of grated slaw greens. Allow to marinate
at least eight hours.
Serving size: 1/2 cup; diabetic exchanges: free for 1/2 cup.
------------
Cherry Fluff
************
We do not know where this recipe came from, but it sure sounds good.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons frozen apple juice concentrate
1 package (4 servings) sugar-free cherry gelatin
1/2 cup boiling water
8 ounces nonfat plain yogurt
16-ounce can water-packed dark cherries, pitted and drained
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
************
Method: Dissolve gelatin in boiling water and cool slightly. Combine
all ingredients in blender and whirl for thirty to forty-five seconds or
until smooth. Serve in fancy dessert glasses.
Yield: 5 servings; calories: 60; diabetic exchanges: 1 fruit.
For a slightly different twist prepare a box of sugar-free chocolate
fudge pudding according to package directions using 1 1/2 cups cold skim
milk. Pour evenly into the bottom of eight fancy dessert glasses and top
with the above cherry fluff. It will taste like chocolate covered cherries
and is still allowed in your meal plan.
Yield: 4 servings; calories: 100; diabetic exchanges: 1 fruit, 1/2
starch.
------------
Monitor Miniatures
************
News from the Federation Family
************
Resolutions for Convention:
Here is a message from Sharon Maneki, who chairs the NFB resolutions
committee:
Do you think we should change a government policy, take a stand
concerning an agency for the blind, or create new regulations? If you do,
consider writing a resolution. At the 2009 national convention the
resolutions committee meeting will be held on Saturday, July 4. The
committee will debate and discuss resolutions on a wide variety of
subjects. If passed by the Convention, these resolutions will become the
policy statements of the organization.
To ensure that your resolution will be considered by the committee,
please send it to President Maurer or to me by June 18, two weeks before
the committee meeting. If you miss this deadline, you must get three
members of the committee to sponsor your resolution and then get it to the
chairman before the meeting begins. I will be pleased to accept resolutions
by email, <nfbmd at earthlink.net>; fax, (410) 715-9597; or snail mail, 9013
Nelson Way, Columbia, Maryland 21045.
************
[PHOTO CAPTION: Michael Seay, November 18, 1956
to March 7, 2009]
The Y Is Silent, But the Seay Is Not:
On Thursday, March 5, the news began spreading across the Federation
family that NFB of Tennessee President Michael Seay had fallen down his
stairs and been gravely injured. Gradually we learned that a heart attack
had caused the fall and that, although he was on life support, the chances
of his survival were poor. So the report of his death two days later was
not a surprise, but it was a shock to everyone who had known Michael. The
preceding weekend the affiliate presidents had been together at the
National Center for intensive leadership training, and Michael was
apparently the life of the party. When the announcement was made on the
affiliate presidents listserv, the expressions of grief and loss were
immediate and general. I asked Anil Lewis, president of the NFB of Georgia
and a member of the NFB board of directors, to write a tribute to Michael.
Here it is:
************
My first memory of Michael Seay was at an NFB national convention
during the roll call of states. I recall a big, booming voice over the
microphone, "Dr. Maurer, I bring you greetings from the great state of
Tennessee!" His voice seemed to fill the hall. I thought he must be over
six feet tall. I met him later during the week and was surprised to find
that he was only a few inches over five feet. Although the big, booming
voice did not match his body, I quickly realized that it definitely matched
his heart. Mike was quick to engage me in conversation, asking questions
rather than making statements. He seemed genuinely interested in getting to
know me, and I came to know him as a truly friendly, caring, compassionate
person, full of humor and love. He was like this with everyone he met.
Mike had worked for the Social Security Administration for many years
but had recently left to pursue a new career. Ron Brown, president of the
NFB of Indiana, had convinced him to attend Louisiana Tech University to
earn a master's degree in orientation and mobility. Mike seemed extremely
happy as he worked to obtain this degree. He commented that he was
challenged by the program but very pleased that he had made the decision. I
was truly excited because from personal experience I knew that he would
have a tremendously positive impact on the lives of the blind people with
whom he would come in contact.
In addition to classes at Louisiana Tech, Mike participated in the
immersion program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, where Kathy Davis,
president of the NFB of Florida, came to be a student to work on improving
her alternative blindness skills and I followed sometime after to become a
more competent blind person. By the time I arrived, Mike had charmed the
staff and entire student body. Never one to be shy, he was involved in many
of the student activities. Moreover, he was active in the lives of many of
the students. As always, he took the time to listen and advise, to engage
and entertain, to care and to love. Because of his full, bold, unique voice
and constantly upbeat style, everyone knew when he entered the room and was
glad of it.
In February of this year Michael Seay, Pam Allen, Kathy Davis, and I
were on our way to the NFB national office in Baltimore for the affiliate
presidents seminar. We had recently returned from attending Mardi Gras in
New Orleans with LCB students and staff. Our conversation was fun and free
flowing. Although I had known Michael Seay for many years, I realized that
I did not know how to spell his last name. So I asked him. He replied, "S-E-
A-Y; the Y is silent."
I repeated, "The Y is silent," and then added, "but the Seay is not."
Michael, never known to be the silent one, reflected on what I had just
said and laughed in the unique way that made you feel really good inside.
The phrase continued to be our mantra for the rest of the weekend.
I was in South Bend on Friday, March 6, on the campus of Notre Dame
University when I heard the news. A few members of the NFB board of
directors had just attended a Louis Braille symposium, at which President
Maurer had offered an excellent keynote presentation. We were winding down
at the end of a long day in the lounge of the Mission Inn on campus. Dr.
Maurer called me over to tell me that Pam Allen had just gotten a phone
call saying that Michael Seay had had an accident and a heart attack and
was in the hospital on life support. The next morning, as I was on my way
to the airport, Pam called to tell me Michael had passed away. It was
extremely comforting that Mike and I had recently had so many opportunities
to spend quality time together--Mardi Gras, the presidents seminar, and the
casual conversations at LCB. I reflected on each of these recent, and some
not so recent, interactions with him, and I was comforted by my wonderful
memories.
The outpouring of love and affection expressed on the NFB affiliate
presidents listserv, the many telephone calls of sadness and regret, and my
many personal conversations with those whom Mike had known validate his
existence and worth. He truly had purpose and stood for something greater
than himself. His compassion and caring, his love of life, and his love for
others are an example to us all.
I count myself blessed to have known him. My prayers are with his
daughter, Michael Joye Seay, and the rest of his family. His presence will
be sorely missed, but his legacy lives on. The influence he has had on me
and many others lives on after him. His big, booming voice still rings in
my heart and the hearts of so many of our Federation family that it will
never be silenced. The Y is silent, but the Seay is not.
************
Useful Detroit Bus Information:
You will spend about twenty-five minutes and $40 traveling by taxi
from the airport to the Detroit Marriott. If the $1.50 price of a bus
ticket seems more attractive, here is information you will find helpful.
Current city route descriptions and schedules are available on the Smart
Bus Website, <www.smartbus.org>, or by calling customer information toll-
free at (866) 962-5515, press 2 for customer information. They can also
take orders for regular print, Braille, large print, or audio bus
schedules. Audio schedules are available on CD or cassette.
The 125 bus route between our convention hotel and the airport, Fort
Street to Eureka Road, follows:
Operates Monday through Sunday. Metro Airport-North Terminal and McNamara
Terminal. Between Downtown Detroit and Metro Airport by Fort Street, West
End, Jefferson, Outer Drive, Fort Street again, Eureka Road, Racho Road,
Pardee Road, Eureka Road, Middlebelt Road, Goddard Road, and Rogell Drive-
the access road to the airport. Hours of operation are 5:00 a.m. to 11:00
p.m. Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 7:00
a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Sunday. Total trip time from the airport to one block
north of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit is between seventy-five
and eighty-five minutes, depending on traffic conditions.
You have several options for walking from the bus stop to the
Renaissance Center. 1) Exit the bus at Fort and Cass and take the Downtown
PeopleMover to the Renaissance Center Station. 2) Exit the bus on the far
side of Randolph, walk south a half block on Randolph to a building
entrance of the Millender Center, go to the second floor, and take the
enclosed walkway to the Renaissance Center.
3) Exit the bus on the far side of Brush Street and walk one block
south on Brush to Jefferson. Jefferson is divided, and it is impossible to
cross both the eastbound and westbound lanes in one light cycle. Once on
the south side of Jefferson, continue straight up the steps to the
Renaissance Center main entrance. More adventurous travelers can turn right
before entering the building and follow the 100 Tower around to the hotel
entrance located on the west side of the building. It's a half block west,
then a half block south from the main Renaissance Center entrance to the
main hotel and valet entrance.
Michael Patten provided this information. He is the ADA coordinator and
travel trainer at SMART Travel, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional
Transportation, 535 Griswold Street, #600, Detroit, Michigan 48226; (313)
223-2304 desk, <mpatten at smartbus.org>.
Please note that bus transportation within the city, which includes
getting from the bus station or train station to the Detroit Marriott, is
operated by the Detroit Department of Transportation (D-DOT), not SMART.
Route and schedule information for D-DOT is available from (888) 336-8287.
************
Convention Hotel Cash Credit Policy:
Every year some people attending the national convention do not have a
credit card to present to the hotel at check-in and want to pay cash or use
debit cards linked to their bank accounts. If you are paying in actual
currency, the hotel will want enough cash up front at check-in to cover
your room and tax charges for the entire stay, plus a one-time $50 advance
deposit for incidentals to cover meals, telephone calls, Internet charges,
and other things you may charge to your room. The unused portion of the
incidentals deposit will be returned. Unused cash deposits for incidentals
are returned at checkout, and unused check deposits are returned by mail
after your departure. Understand, however, that, if your incidentals
charges exceed the $50 deposit credited, you will be responsible for
payment of the full balance at checkout.
If you are using plastic, it is much better to use a credit card
rather than a debit card when checking into the hotel, and we encourage you
to do so. If you must use your debit card, however, remember that the hotel
will put a hold on money in your checking account to cover the estimated
potential balance of your stay at the Marriott for the entire room and tax
charges for your stay plus the one-time $50 incidental deposit. You should
be aware that the hold can therefore be a considerable sum and that you
will not have access to that amount for other purchases or payments.
Holds can remain in effect for three to five days or even a week after
you check out. If you have preauthorized payments from your bank account or
you try to make a purchase with your debit card and it's refused, the hold
from the hotel can cause you trouble or result in overdraft fees for
purchases you thought you had money in your account to cover. Hotels also
put holds on credit cards, by the way, but those are not often a problem
unless they exceed your card's credit limit.
This means that, if you use a debit card, you'd better be certain you
have a high enough balance in your checking account when you come to
convention to cover any debit card holds. (Some travelers even open a
separate checking account used only for debits.) Remember, a hold will be
placed on your debit card, regardless of the way you end up paying the
bill, and the hold is not necessarily released right away, even if you pay
with a credit card or cash when you check out of the hotel.
************
Attention Writers:
Robert Leslie Newman, president of the NFB Writers Division, reports
that during national convention the Writers Division is hosting two events.
The first is a workshop on Friday, July 3, from 1:00 until 3:00 p.m. with
Lev Raphael, a Michigan author of fiction and nonfiction (Nick Hoffman
mysteries and My Germany, a new book about his parents, who were Holocaust
survivors). This event is open to everyone for a charge of $5 at the door.
The Writers Division annual meeting is Sunday, July 5, from 1:00 to 4:00
p.m. If you are at all interested in the world of writing, please come join
us.
************
Time to Prepare for the Braille Book Flea Market:
If you have gently used Braille Children's books that are no longer
being used, the 2009 Braille Book Flea Market would love to find them a new
home. At our 2009 national convention in Detroit, the Braille Book Flea
Market will once again provide many young readers with Braille books to
love and cherish at no cost to the children, so we need your children's
books.
Please send your Braille books by U.S. mail to UPS, 29855
Schoolcraft, Livonia, Michigan 48150. Attention NFB-Hold for Book Fair.
Books can be mailed using the Free Matter for the Blind privilege. If you
have any questions, contact Peggy Chong at (515) 277-1288 or at
<peggychong at earthlink.net>.
************
************
In Brief
************
Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor
readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we
have edited only for space and clarity.
************
Online Course Available:
Julie Goldbeck wants other Federationists to know that she is
teaching a course called Introduction to Children's Literature for ten
clock hours. This is a self-paced course you can complete in the
convenience of your own home or place of work. It is intended for
educators. All that is required is Internet access. The course will cover
all areas of children's literature including special events in children's
literature, U.S. and international children's literature awards, authors,
illustrators, children's book publishers, picture books, chapter books,
middle grade, young adult, etc. To register, you can email the instructor,
and she will email you the course materials. The course is offered through
the instructor, Julie Goldbeck, MIT, <goldbeckjm at comcast.net>.
************
Special Week Vacation in Cancun:
American Star Travel offers blind and visually impaired people seven
luxurious nights at the Oasis Cancun Hotel in Mexico from September 5 to
September 12, 2009. The group will have private check-in at arrival and
special tour orientation. Guide dogs are welcome.
The resort has something for everyone with up to twelve restaurants,
large relaxation areas, one of the biggest swimming pools in Latin America,
and tropical gardens. In addition to restaurants, it has eight bars, a nine-
hole (par three) golf course, quay for nonmotorized sports, two tennis
courts, multipurpose field, spa, and gymnasium. In addition Wi-Fi is
available in both guest rooms and main areas.
Our all-inclusive plan rate includes room accommodations; unlimited
food and drink (domestic and imported liquor); house wine; all resort
fitness and recreation facilities (spa services not included); all resort
activities and entertainment; nonmotorized water sports available at our
marina, located lagoon-side; green fees at nine-hole golf course; private
beach section; twenty-four-hour room service; Club Up and Down Dance Club;
and taxes and gratuities. Not included are in-room safes, motorized water
sports, night tennis and basketball, babysitting, massage and beauty
services, telephone and fax charges, Internet access, laundry and dry
cleaning, and outside tours and excursions.
The Oasis Cancun Hotel is located in the center of Cancun's hotel
zone, above a magnificent white sandy beach, very close to shopping
centers, bars, and restaurants, only twenty-five minutes from the airport,
and twenty minutes from Cancun's downtown. Depending on the number in our
group, American Star Travel will host a cocktail party on the first day to
welcome and introduce group members to each other.
For more information or to book for this one-week adventure, call
American Star Travel at (508) 815-4327. Fares for standard rooms start at
$459, taxes included. Airline bookings are not included. All room rates are
per person, based on double occupancy; triples are by request only.
American Star Travel will arrange any special assistance needed in airport
transfers and on your flights. You can arrange to stay as few as five
nights or more than seven. To guarantee this fare, you must book not later
than May 15, 2009. The earlier you book, the better airline fare you will
get. For more information visit <www.cancun09.com>. Remember, since 2007
all American citizens must have a valid passport in order to reenter the
country by air.
************
Monitor Mart
************
The notices in this section have been edited for clarity, but we can
pass along only the information we were given. We are not responsible for
the accuracy of the statements made or the quality of the products for
sale.
************
Braille Bible Available:
Braille King James translation of the Bible needs a new home.
Complete edition in very good condition (eighteen volumes). Free to anyone
who wants or needs it. Call Matt Lyles at (870) 837-2155 or email
<Lyles_J at sbcglobal.net>.
------------
NFB Pledge
I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National
Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for
the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to
abide by its constitution.
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