[il-talk] {Spam?} Fwd: ICBV Office Update January 26, 2016

[Denise R Avant]

Denise R. Avant
President
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
Live the life you want
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Kathy Ungaro <icbv at sbcglobal.net>
> Date: January 26, 2016 at 7:32:09 PM EST
> To: Kathy Ungaro <icbv at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: ICBV Office Update January 26, 2016
> Reply-To: Kathy Ungaro <icbv at sbcglobal.net>
> 
> ICBV Office Update
> January 26, 2016
>  
> *1) Calendar of Events
> *2) The Impact of the Affordable Care Act: A 2015 Status Report
> *3) New York Times – Listening to Braille
> *4) The Daily Herald – Suburban Blind Activist Seek Accessible Internet
> *5) Blind Bargain – Top Ten Adaptive Technology Events of 2015
> *6) Hadley School for the Blind
> Personality’s Role in the Workplace
> Make-Ahead Dishes Make Sense
> iHeartRadio
> *7) Humanware – Welcome to Unified Braille in the United States
> *8) Eyes on Success – Research About the Blind Shopping Experience
> *9) NAMA- Led Effort to Educate the Department of Energy
> *10) Uber Prepares Meal-Delivery Service for 10 U.S. Cities
> *11) How to Acquire Profitable Vending Locations
> *12) Brooklyn ATM Skimming Crew Captured in Skokie, IL
> *13) Broker News Saverino & Associates
> Mars
> Biscomerica
> Vitners
> *14) Distributor News Chicago Vendor Supply
> *15) Rebateable Manufacturers
> *16) RSA Buying Group Information
> NAMA
> Nestle Confections
> Frito Lay News Item
>  
> **1 Calendar of Events:
> January 28, 2016 1:00 p.m. CENTRAL time
> Shared by NFBEI & RSA Buying Group
> You're invited to a webinar featuring the Bureau of Engraving & Printing Meet the Expert and Learn about Future Currency Changes
> Join Wendy Haines, BEP Supervisory Manager for the  Banknote Equipment Manufacturer Program to learn about the changes coming to the U.S. currency.  Don't miss this interactive session from the BEP that will include an update on the new 10 dollar note and the upcoming raised tactile feature. The webinar is scheduled for January 28, 2016 at 2pm EST
> To join webinar portion Participants can join web portion via link below
> https://join.onstreammedia.com/go/78336035/012816  To join audio portion Participants dial: (888) 609-1607 (Toll-Free) or (862) 255-5334 (Toll) and will enter code: 47368347# where they will be placed into the MAIN room on a music hold.
>  
> Wednesday, February 24, 2016 10:00 a.m.
> From Dan Brander Chicago Vendors Supply - Training at ICRE
> Good Morning All, The date has been set for ICBV training. It will be on Wednesday, 2/24/16 at 10 am. The location will be the training facility on Wood Street at Roosevelt (Illinois Center for rehabilitation Education1151 S. Wood, Chicago IL). Chicago Vendor Supply will train any ICBV members on how to use our Vendchannel website. There will also be an Office Coffee Service (OCS) presentation from White Bear Coffee. It will train members to make their OCS business more profitable.
>  
> May 17 -20, 2016
> From the National Association of Blind Merchants -
> Greetings and Happy New Year! We’ve been getting lots of inquiries and we are happy to announce that registration is open for the Windy City BLAST. Our training conference will be held May 17-20, 2016, at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. Exciting things are being planned and we hope you will plan on joining us for this premiere training opportunity. Visit www.blindmerchants.org to register now and book your hotel room.
>  
> The most exciting thing is we have signed a deal with Disney to do a one-day pre-conference training. The training is entitled “The Disney Approach to Business Excellence” and will be held on Tuesday, May 17th from 8:00 – 4:00. This training is outstanding.
>  
> To All Illinois Members and Trainees:
> Letter From Raven Pulliam BEPB Program Administrator and Donnie Anderson, Chairman ICBV
> Re:        BLAST Conference
> The Department of Human Services, Business Enterprise Program for the Blind is pleased to announce that Illinois has been chosen to Host "Windy City BLAST".  This informational/training conference will be held at the Loews Chicago O'Hare Airport Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois on May 17th through 20th, 2016 starting with (the Disney Training and) an evening welcome reception.  Because of the length and quality of the training, this will be the only BEPB training offered this year.  We will be having our annual ICBV Elections during this time as well. DHS/DRS will be paying for lodging and registration fees.
>  
> To make this the best and biggest ever, we are thrilled to announce that Disney will be providing a one-day pre-conference training entitled "The Disney Approach to Business Excellence" being held on Tuesday morning May 17th from 8:00am to 4:00pm.  We are also extremely fortunate that the cost for this training for the first 175 registrars is only $100.00. 
>  
> The following statement is from the ICBV Chairman:  In keeping with the ICBV mission and goal of empowering our members to the fullest employment and education training possible, ICBV shall solicit $50 deposits from interested managers and trainees and ICVB will sponsor the other $50 for the cost of the Disney Training. A commitment check of $50 is required by March 1, 2016. The check is to be made payable to ICBV and mailed to 53 West Jackson, Suite 502, Chicago, IL 60604. If a manager fails to show up for the training after committing via check, then the full cost of $100.00 shall be paid by the manager to ICBV.
>  
> The keynote speaker will be Navy Seal Lief Babin, who will be discussing his new book "Extreme Ownership".  He talks about leadership skills and how to apply them to the Business World.  Lief's best friend and fellow Navy Seal was blinded in combat so he is excited for the opportunity to join us all.
>  
> So mark your calendar and (those in Illinois) please contact Letia Gossard at 217-558-2321 by February 11, 2016 to express your interest in attending "Windy City BLAST" as well as the Disney Training.  It is imperative that we get a head count as soon as possible. 
>  
> **2 From the National Council on Disability
> The Impact of the Affordable Care Act: A 2015 Status Report
> First of three reports on health care reform issued by the National Council on Disability
>  
> “Implementing the Affordable Care Act: A Roadmap for People with Disabilities”
>  
> Washington, DC –The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, and the topic if the National Council on Disability (NCD)’s latest report, is arguably one of the most sweeping and significant pieces of domestic legislation enacted in generations.
>  
> Implementing the Affordable Care Act: A Roadmap for People with Disabilities is the first in a series of three reports released over the next month by NCD — an independent federal agency — and examines ACA implementation. The second in the series examines the impact of ACA and will be released January 26. The third report focuses on monitoring and enforcement and will be released February 2. All reports will be available on NCD’s website.
>  
> In the first report, NCD equips the community of 57 million disabled Americans with an inventory of key policy choices at federal and state levels that could greatly affect people with disabilities, so the community can assess priorities and develop an agenda for ACA implementation.
>  
> The Implementing the Affordable Care Act report seeks to:
> --Provide an overview of future healthcare implementation decisions by private insurers and state and federal officials, along with an analytical supplement exploring policy options important to people with disabilities;
>  
> --Maximize ACA’s positive impact on people with disabilities while limiting risks to the disability community that could result from unwise implementation choices; and
>  
> --Evaluate the options facing states as they consider expanding Medicaid, structuring Medicaid benefits for newly eligible adults, defining essential health benefits, implementing state-based exchanges, taking up the Community First Choice State Option, integrating Medicare and Medicaid funding and services for dually eligible adults, and making other critical decisions.
>  
> “The first in our series of reports on the Affordable Care Act outlines key policy choices at all levels of ACA implementation that can either greatly help or harm people with disabilities depending on how they are conducted,” said NCD Chair Clyde Terry. “It is NCD’s hope that this report will provide the disability community with the tools they need to prioritize issues that warrant careful attention and help influence policymakers as decisions are made.”
>  
> NCD appreciates the assistance of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, who worked collaboratively with NCD in preparing this series of reports. “Implementing the Affordable Care Act” is available on NCD’s website at: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2016/implementing-affordable-care-act-aca-roadmap-people-disabilities
>  
> About the National Council on Disability (NCD): First established as an advisory body within the Department of Education in 1978, NCD became an independent federal agency in 1984. In 1986, NCD recommended enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. Since enactment of the ADA in 1990, NCD has continued to play a leading role in crafting disability policy, and advising the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policies, programs, and practices.
>  
> Second of three reports on health care reform by the National Council on Disability Link: http://go.usa.gov/cPHKx
>  
> January 26, 2016
> Washington, DC –The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare and the topic of the National Council on Disability (NCD)’s latest report, is one of the most sweeping and significant pieces of domestic legislation enacted in generations.
>  
> Released today, “The Impact of the Affordable Care Act: A 2015 Status Report” is the second in a series of three reports on ACA that NCD is releasing in the next month, each considering a different aspect of ACA’s implementation, impact, or ongoing enforcement. The first report focused on the implementation of the ACA was released January 19, and the third on monitoring and enforcement will be released February 2. All reports will be available on the NCD website.
>  
> In today’s release of the “Impact of the Affordable Care Act” report, NCD explores how ACA’s changes to the nation’s health care system are affecting Americans with disabilities by utilizing a formal literature review, interviews with key informants in ten diverse states, and a 50-state review of state policies involving key ACA provisions.
>  
> “For people with disabilities and their families, the quality, availability, and types of health care and long term services available to a person can have profound consequence on many other areas of life, including where one lives and how one pursues or maintains employment,” said NCD Chair Clyde Terry. “Although ACA is still in its infancy, NCD is grateful for the opportunity to provide a snapshot on the impact ACA has had on people with disabilities to date.”
>  
> NCD appreciates the assistance of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, who worked collaboratively with NCD in preparing this series of reports.
>  
> The “Impact of the Affordable Care Act” and the other reports in the ACA series will all be available on NCD’s website. Full report available at: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2016/impact-affordable-care-act-people-disabilities-2015-status-report
>  
> About the National Council on Disability: First established as an advisory body within the Department of Education in 1978, NCD became an independent federal agency in 1984. In 1986, NCD recommended enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. Since enactment of the ADA in 1990, NCD has continued to play a leading role in crafting disability policy, and advising the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policies, programs, and practices.
>  
> **3 Shared by John Gordon - Bureau Chief, IL Bureau of Bind Services
> New York Times:
> Listening to Braille By RACHEL AVIVDEC. 30, 2009
> AT 4 O'CLOCK each morning, Laura J. Sloate begins her daily reading. She calls a phone service that reads newspapers aloud in a synthetic voice, and she listens to The Wall Street Journal at 300 words a minute, which is nearly twice the average pace of speech. Later, an assistant reads The Financial Times to her while she uses her computer's text-to-speech system to play The Economist aloud. She devotes one ear to the paper and the other to the magazine. The managing director of a Wall Street investment management firm, Sloate has been blind since age 6, and although she reads constantly, poring over the news and the economic reports for several hours every morning, she does not use Braille. "Knowledge goes from my ears to my brain, not from my finger to my brain," she says. As a child she learned how the letters of the alphabet sounded, not how they appeared or felt on the page. She doesn't think of a comma in terms of its written form but rather as "a stop on the way before continuing." This, she says, is the future of reading for the blind. "Literacy evolves," she told me. "When Braille was invented, in the 19th century, we had nothing else. We didn't even have radio. At that time, blindness was a disability. Now it's just a minor, minor impairment."
>  
> A few decades ago, commentators predicted that the electronic age would create a postliterate generation as new forms of media eclipsed the written word. Marshall McLuhan claimed that Western culture would return to the "tribal and oral pattern." But the decline of written language has become a reality for only the blind. Although Sloate does regret not spending more time learning to spell in her youth - she writes by dictation - she says she thinks that using Braille would have only isolated her from her sighted peers. "It's an arcane means of communication, which for the most part should be abolished," she told me. "It's just not needed today."
>  
> Braille books are expensive and cumbersome, requiring reams of thick, oversize paper. The National Braille Press, an 83-year-old publishing house in Boston, printed the Harry Potter series on its Heidelberg cylinder; the final product was 56 volumes, each nearly a foot tall. Because a single textbook can cost more than $1,000 and there's a shortage of Braille teachers in public schools, visually impaired students often read using MP3 players, audiobooks and computer-screen-reading software.
>  
> A report released last year by the National Federation of the Blind, an advocacy group with 50,000 members, said that less than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind Americans read Braille. Whereas roughly half of all blind children learned Braille in the 1950s, today that number is as low as 1 in 10, according to the report. The figures are controversial because there is debate about when a child with residual vision has "too much sight" for Braille and because the causes of blindness have changed over the decades - in recent years more blind children have multiple disabilities, because of premature births. It is clear, though, that Braille literacy has been waning for some time, even among the most intellectually capable, and the report has inspired a fervent movement to change the way blind people read. "What we're finding are students who are very smart, very verbally able - and illiterate," Jim Marks, a board member for the past five years of the Association on Higher Education and Disability, told me. "We stopped teaching our nation's blind children how to read and write. We put a tape player, then a computer, on their desks. Now their writing is phonetic and butchered. They never got to learn the beauty and shape and structure of language."
>  
> For much of the past century, blind children attended residential institutions where they learned to read by touching the words. Today, visually impaired children can be well versed in literature without knowing how to read; computer-screen-reading software will even break down each word and read the individual letters aloud. Literacy has become much harder to define, even for educators.
>  
> "If all you have in the world is what you hear people say, then your mind is limited," Darrell Shandrow, who runs a blog called Blind Access Journal, told me. "You need written symbols to organize your mind. If you can't feel or see the word, what does it mean? The substance is gone." Like many Braille readers, Shandrow says that new computers, which form a single line of Braille cells at a time, will revive the code of bumps, but these devices are still extremely costly and not yet widely used. Shandrow views the decline in Braille literacy as a sign of regression, not progress: "This is like going back to the 1400s, before Gutenberg's printing press came on the scene," he said. "Only the scholars and monks knew how to read and write. And then there were the illiterate masses, the peasants."
>  
> UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY, blind people were confined to an oral culture. Some tried to read letters carved in wood or wax, formed by wire or outlined in felt with pins. Dissatisfied with such makeshift methods, Louis Braille, a student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, began studying a cipher language of bumps, called night writing, developed by a French Army officer so soldiers could send messages in the dark. Braille modified the code so that it could be read more efficiently - each letter or punctuation symbol is represented by a pattern of one to six dots on a matrix of three rows and two columns - and added abbreviations for commonly used words like "knowledge," "people" and "Lord." Endowed with a reliable method of written communication for the first time in history, blind people had a significant rise in social status, and Louis Braille was embraced as a kind of liberator and spiritual savior. With his "godlike courage," Helen Keller wrote, Braille built a "firm stairway for millions of sense-crippled human beings to climb from hopeless darkness to the Mind Eternal."
>  
> At the time, blindness was viewed not just as the absence of sight but also as a condition that created a separate kind of species, more innocent and malleable, not fully formed. Some scholars said that blind people spoke a different sort of language, disconnected from visual experience. In his 1933 book, "The Blind in School and Society," the psychologist Thomas Cutsforth, who lost his sight at age 11, warned that students who were too rapidly assimilated into the sighted world would become lost in "verbal unreality." At some residential schools, teachers avoided words that referenced color or light because, they said, students might stretch the meanings beyond sense. These theories have since been discredited, and studies have shown that blind children as young as 4 understand the difference in meaning between words like "look," "touch" and "see." And yet Cutsforth was not entirely misguided in his argument that sensory deprivation restructures the mind. In the 1990s, a series of brain-imaging studies revealed that the visual cortices of the blind are not rendered useless, as previously assumed. When test subjects swept their fingers over a line of Braille, they showed intense activation in the parts of the brain that typically process visual input.
>  
> These imaging studies have been cited by some educators as proof that Braille is essential for blind children's cognitive development, as the visual cortex takes more than 20 percent of the brain. Given the brain's plasticity, it is difficult to make the argument that one kind of reading - whether the information is absorbed by ear, finger or retina - is inherently better than another, at least with regard to cognitive function. The architecture of the brain is not fixed, and without images to process, the visual cortex can reorganize for new functions. A 2003 study in Nature Neuroscience found that blind subjects consistently surpassed sighted ones on tests of verbal memory, and their superior performance was caused, the authors suggested, by the extra processing that took place in the visual regions of their brains.
>  
> Learning to read is so entwined in the normal course of child development that it is easy to assume that our brains are naturally wired for print literacy. But humans have been reading for fewer than 6,000 years (and literacy has been widespread for no more than a century and a half). The activity of reading itself alters the anatomy of the brain. In a report released in 2009 in the journal Nature, the neuroscientist Manuel Carreiras studies illiterate former guerrillas in Colombia who, after years of combat, had abandoned their weapons, left the jungle and rejoined civilization. Carreiras compares 20 adults who had recently completed a literacy program with 22 people who had not yet begun it. In M.R.I. scans of their brains, the newly literate subjects showed more gray matter in their angular gyri, an area crucial for language processing, and more white matter in part of the corpus callosum, which links the two hemispheres. Deficiencies in these regions were previously observed in dyslexics, and the study suggests that those brain patterns weren't the cause of their illiteracy, as had been hypothesized, but a result.
>  
> There is no doubt that literacy changes brain circuitry, but how this reorganization affects our capacity for language is still a matter of debate. In moving from written to spoken language, the greatest consequences for blind people may not be cognitive but cultural - a loss much harder to avoid. In one of the few studies of blind people's prose, Doug Brent, a professor of communication at the University of Calgary, and his wife, Diana Brent, a teacher of visually impaired students, analyzed stories by students who didn't use Braille but rather composed on a regular keyboard and edited by listening to their words played aloud. One 16-year-old wrote a fictional story about a character named Mark who had "sleep bombs":
>  
> He looked in the house windo that was his da windo his dad was walking around with a mask on he took it off he opend the windo and fell on his bed sleeping mark took two bombs and tosed them in the windo the popt his dad lept up but before he could grab the mask it explodedhe fell down asleep.
>  
> In describing this story and others like it, the Brents invoked the literary scholar Walter Ong, who argued that members of literate societies think differently than members of oral societies. The act of writing, Ong said - the ability to revisit your ideas and, in the process, refine them - transformed the shape of thought. The Brents characterized the writing of many audio-only readers as disorganized, "as if all of their ideas are crammed into a container, shaken and thrown randomly onto a sheet of paper like dice onto a table." The beginnings and endings of sentences seem arbitrary, one thought emerging in the midst of another with a kind of breathless energy. The authors concluded, "It just doesn't seem to reflect the qualities of organized sequence and complex thought that we value in a literate society."
>  
> OUR DEFINITION of a literate society inevitably shifts as our tools for reading and writing evolve, but the brief history of literacy for blind people makes the prospect of change particularly fraught. Since the 1820s, when Louis Braille invented his writing system - so that blind people would no longer be "despised or patronized by condescending sighted people," as he put it - there has always been, among blind people, a political and even moral dimension to learning to read. Braille is viewed by many as a mark of independence, a sign that blind people have moved away from an oral culture seen as primitive and isolating. In recent years, however, this narrative has been complicated. Schoolchildren in developed countries, like the U.S. and Britain, are now thought to have lower Braille literacy than those in developing ones, like Indonesia and Botswana, where there are few alternatives to Braille. Tim Connell, the managing director of an assistive-technology company in Australia, told me that he has heard this described as "one of the advantages of being poor."
>  
> Braille readers do not deny that new reading technology has been transformative, but Braille looms so large in the mythology of blindness that it has assumed a kind of talismanic status. Those who have residual vision and still try to read print - very slowly or by holding the page an inch or two from their faces - are generally frowned upon by the National Federation of the Blind, which fashions itself as the leader of a civil rights movement for the blind. Its president, Marc Maurer, a voracious reader, compares Louis Braille to Abraham Lincoln. At the annual convention for the federation, held at a Detroit Marriott last July, I heard the mantra "listening is not literacy" repeated everywhere, from panels on the Braille crisis to conversations among middle-school girls. Horror stories circulating around the convention featured children who don't know what a paragraph is or why we capitalize letters or that "happily ever after" is made up of three separate words.
>  
> Declaring your own illiteracy seemed to be a rite of passage. A vice president of the federation, Fredric Schroeder, served as commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration under President Clinton and relies primarily on audio technologies. He was openly repentant about his lack of reading skills. "I am now over 50 years old, and it wasn't until two months ago that I realized that 'dissent,' to disagree, is different than 'descent,' to lower something," he told me. "I'm functionally illiterate. People say, 'Oh, no, you're not.' Yes, I am. I'm sorry about it, but I'm not embarrassed to admit it."
>  
> While people like Laura Sloate or the governor of New York, David A. Paterson, who also reads by listening, may be able to achieve without the help of Braille, their success requires accommodations that many cannot afford. Like Sloate, Paterson dictates his memos, and his staff members select pertinent newspaper articles for him and read them aloud on his voice mail every morning. (He calls himself "overassimilated" and told me that as a child he was "mainstreamed so much that I psychologically got the message that I'm not really supposed to be blind.") Among people with fewer resources, Braille-readers tend to form the blind elite, in part because it is more plausible for a blind person to find work doing intellectual rather than manual labor.
>  
> A 1996 study showed that of a sample of visually impaired adults, those who learned Braille as children were more than twice as likely to be employed as those who had not. At the convention this statistic was frequently cited with pride, so much so that those who didn't know Braille were sometimes made to feel like outsiders. "There is definitely a sense of peer pressure from the older guard," James Brown, a 35-year-old who reads using text-to-speech software, told me. "If we could live in our own little Braille world, then that'd be perfect," he added. "But we live in a visual world."
>  
> When deaf people began getting cochlear implants in the late 1980s, many in the deaf community felt betrayed. The new technology pushed people to think of the disability in a new way - as an identity and a culture. Technology has changed the nature of many disabilities, lifting the burdens but also complicating people's sense of what is physically natural, because bodies can so often be tweaked until "fixed." Arielle Silverman, a graduate student at the convention who has been blind since birth, told me that if she had the choice to have vision, she was not sure she would take it. Recently she purchased a pocket-size reading machine that takes photographs of text and then reads the words aloud, and she said she thought of vision like that, as "just another piece of technology."
>  
> The modern history of blind people is in many ways a history of reading, with the scope of the disability - the extent to which you are viewed as ignorant or civilized, helpless or independent - determined largely by your ability to access the printed word. For 150 years, Braille books were designed to function as much as possible like print books. But now the computer has essentially done away with the limits of form, because information, once it has been digitized, can be conveyed through sound or touch. For sighted people, the transition from print to digital text has been relatively subtle, but for many blind people the shift to computerized speech is an unwelcome and uncharted experiment. In grappling with what has been lost, several federation members recited to me various takes on the classic expression Scripta manent, verba volant: What is written remains, what is spoken vanishes into air.
>  
> Rachel Aviv is a Rosalynn Carter fellow for mental-health journalism with the Carter Center and writes frequently on education for The Times.
>  
> A version of this article appears in print on January 3, 2010, on page MM42 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Listening to Braille. Today's Paper|Subscribe  
>  
> **4 Shared by Denise Avant, NFBI President – an Article from the Daily Herald
> By Burt Constable: Suburban blind activists seek accessible Internet
> The Americans with Disabilities Act has been the law of the land since President George H.W. Bush signed it on July 26, 1990. More than a quarter century later, local activists with the National Federation of the Blind will travel to Washington, D.C., this week (weather permitting) with a quest to make the ADA the law of cyberspace.
>  
> "The practical reality is that's not working," says Glenn Moore, a 33-year-old Elgin resident who serves as secretary of the Illinois chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. While brick-and-mortar stores are built with adaptations to make them accessible to people with disabilities, "things online aren't as well-established," Moore says.
>  
> Using voice software that reads the words on a webpage, a blind person might be getting the information he needs, only to be stopped by something as simple as one of those Captcha boxes requiring that a human type a message shown on the screen, or a PDF file that doesn't include an audio file.
>  
> "It depends on the website," says Leslie Hamric, 40, a Schaumburg woman who volunteers as president of a local at-large chapter of the NFB. Sometimes, even companies with accessible websites don't extend that technology to their apps, she adds.
>  
> "There's still a lot of work that needs to be done," says Annette Grove, 76, a federal legislative director for the Illinois chapter, who has been on many lobbying trips to Congress. "The reality is some people simply cannot use some of the online tools.
>  
> In a 2010 ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the ADA, President Obama announced that new website accessibility rules issued by the Department of Justice would be "the most important updates to the ADA since its original enactment," and scheduled the changes to be enacted by January 2012. That date later was extended until sometime in 2018. "
>  
> We don't expect things to change overnight. We want it to be the beginning of a larger conversation," says Moore, who has gone to Washington on a couple of lobbying junkets. A graduate of Elgin Community College, Moore worked for seven years with the Salvation Army, operating social services for the charity's Carpentersville Service Center. Now he's taking online classes through the University of Missouri, working toward a business administration degree and an MBA.
>  
> "For many blind people, getting a college degree is very important," Moore says, noting lobbyists will continue to pressure academic institutions to make every class accessible to people with disabilities.
>  
> The group already has sponsors for bills pushing two other changes for people with disabilities. The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act, known as TIME and presented in HR-188 , would ensure that blind workers are covered under minimum-wage laws. Current laws allow some employers to pay lower wages to people with disabilities. The Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans bill, HR-2264 , would add veterans with disabilities to a program allowing military veterans to travel free on military aircrafts.
>  
> The NFB lobbyists also are hoping for a change in international law through the adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty , which would eliminate some copyright infringements and allow for the sharing of millions of printed works to be distributed across borders in Braille, audio or digital formats.
>  
> People with vision issues "continue to face a lot of discrimination in hiring and access," says Grove, who lives in downstate Belleville and travels often in her job conducting compliance audits for Goodwill International.
>  
> "The ADA has been around since 1990, and 26 years later, 70 percent of blind people are still unemployed," notes Hamric, who has worked for Easter Seals and the Lighthouse social service agency that offers many programs for people with vision impairments. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Hamric, who, with her husband, Andy, has a 6-year-old son, Michael, teaches cello and also performs and sings with her church's musical groups.
>  
> "Our motto is 'Live the life you want,'" Moore says. "We're working to make sure blind people can have full participation, inclusion and equality in society.
>  
> Link to full story: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160124/news/160129398/
>  
> **5 From Flying Blind LLC
> The crew from Blind Bargains has ascertained what they believe to be the Top Ten Adaptive Technology Events of 2015. The only way we've found to get a complete listing is to listen to Blind Bargains Qast Episode 48: http://blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=14032 (Find the podcast by following the preceding link.)
>  
> Return to Top
>  
> **6 From Hadley School for the Blind
> Seminars at Hadley Presents: Personality's Role in the Workplace
>  Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2016
> Time: 10:00 AM CST, 16:00 GMT
> Personality plays a role in the professions we choose, the workplace culture we seek and in how well we get along with co-workers. Would you like to gain a better understanding of your own temperament and character, and how this understanding can offer greater satisfaction in your professional life?
>  
> Join Seminars at Hadley as Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor Lauri Dishman presents her insights into the impact of personality in the workplace. Larry Muffett, a member of Hadley’s Seminars Team, will moderate this 60-minute seminar. A question and answer session will be included as part of the seminar.
>  
> This seminar is an audio-only seminar. Space in this seminar is limited. Please only register if you are available to attend so that others are not closed out. Register Now for Workplace Personality on January 27.
>  
>  
> Seminars at Hadley Presents: Make-Ahead Dishes Make Sense
>  Date: Thursday, February 4, 2016
> Time: 10:00 AM CST, 16:00 GMT
> If your weekdays are too exhausting to make dinner every night, your weekends are overbooked or you don’t want to spend your entire party in the kitchen cooking, make-ahead recipes can be the solution.
> Set that pricey take-out menu down and join Seminars at Hadley as we explore make-ahead options that you can take from the fridge, freezer or slow cooker to the table. Bring your tips to add as presenters Linn Sorge and Sue Melrose, both Hadley instructors, share their ideas and make-ahead tips. Dawn Turco, Hadley Senior Vice President, will co-present and moderate this 60 minute seminar. Bring your ideas along to share and join in the fun!
>  
> This seminar is an audio-only seminar. Space in this seminar is limited. Please only register if you are available to attend so that others are not closed out. Register Now for  Make-Ahead Dishes on February 4.
>  
> Tune In!
>  Listen in to iHeartRadio this weekend to hear Hadley's Director of The Forsythe Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship (FCE), Colleen Wunderlich, talk about the FCE and the upcoming BLAST conference!
>  
> Websites: 
> Saturday, January 23rd: 103.5 KISS-FM at 7am CST
> http://www.1035kissfm.com/
> Sunday, January 24th: WLIT-FM (93.9)
> http://www.939myfm.com/
> Big955Chicago (95.5) at 7am CST
> http://www.big955chicago.com/
>  
> Learn more and subscribe to Seminars at Hadley Podcasts.  
>  
> **7 From Humanware
> Welcome to Unified English Braille in the United States
> With the calendar turning over to 2016, it is time to officially transition to the Unified English Braille (UEB) code in the United States. Change does not need to be scary, and with the right braille technology, the transition can be as natural as simply using your HumanWare BrailleNote Apex or Brailliant.
>  
> The BrailleNote Apex has been used in classrooms around the world to support the Braille learning process. As the Apex has supported UEB since its launch, UEB has been integrated into all of the BrailleNote’s applications and functions. BrailleNote Apex users can:
> Read and write in UEB using the Apex’s word processor, KeyWord, and instantly print a copy for a sighted teacher or peer.
>  
> Learn UEB symbols using KeySoft’s UEB symbol selector. Simply find the desired category and choose the UEB symbol. KeySoft will effortlessly insert it directly into the document.
> Improve UEB reading skills by reading a braille book in UEB using KeySoft’s Book Reader.
>  
> The BrailleNote Apex was the first device to provide an all-in-one solution to allow a student to enter their math assignments in both Nemeth and UEB math braille, and produce a readable print copy for a sighted classroom teacher. As the United States allows for the combination of UEB and Nemeth for science and math content, the Apex’s natural ability to combine these two braille codes will greatly simplify this learning curve.
>  
> Below you will find BrailleNote Snapshot videos to assist you in your UEB transition.
> Click here to view a video explaining how to use Unified English Braille to read and write on the Apex.
> Click here to view a video explaining how to type in Nemeth braille on the BrailleNote Apex.
> Click here to see how to use the Apex’s symbol selector as a teaching tool for quick memorization of braille symbols.
> Click here to see how to create a print copy of a math assignment
>  
> Happy New Year and all the best for 2016 from your friends at HumanWare
> The HumanWare Team
>  
> Return to Top
>  
> **8 This week on Eyes on Success
> 1604 Research about the Blind Shopping Experience (Jan. 20, 2016)
> Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Alex Cohen, a graduate student in the Business school at Drexel University, who is studying how people with various disabilities interact with the on-line marketplace. He's hoping to
> convince vendors that it is to their and their customers' advantage to have their sites easier to use for everybody.
>  
> **9 A message from Eric Dell, NAMA Government Afffairs
> Industry Advocate,
> Thank you for participating in the recent NAMA-led effort to educate the Department of Energy (DOE) on the detrimental impacts of their proposed energy conservation standards on beverage vending machines. The DOE issued its final rule on January 8, 2016. Your participation saved the industry nearly $2 Million dollars, created substantial energy conservation and protected consumers from higher prices. This NAMA-led effort would not have been successful without YOU!  Thank you for being a part of our advocacy efforts.  Below are a few highlights of the results of your participation.
>  
> The final rule:
> created an estimated savings of $130,000 for small vending machine manufacturers;
>  
> created an estimated savings of $421,000 for large vending machine manufacturers;
>  
> created a cumulative reduction in CO2 emissions through 2030 amounting to 1.16 Metric Tons, which is equivalent to the emissions resulting from the annual electricity use of more than 160,000 homes; and
>  
> relaxed the energy conservation standards for all classes of beverage vending machines to a technologically feasible and economically justifiable level.
>  
> The savings impacts the entire industry, especially the end user: the vending operator. If the proposed rule had been implemented there would have been a significant increase in costs of vending machines for vending operators.
>  
> Thanks again,
> NAMA’s Government Affairs Team
> W. Eric Dell, Esquire
> Senior Vice President, Government Affairs
> NAMA
> 1600 Wilson Blvd., Suite 650
> Arlington, VA 22209
> (202) 669-6139 
> 
> **10 From the Wall Street Journal
> Uber Prepares Meal-Delivery Service for 10 U.S. Cities
> Customers in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere will be able to use dedicated UberEats app By Douglas MacMillan
> Updated Jan. 20, 2016 5:10 p.m. ET
>  
> Uber Technologies Inc. is preparing to go live with a full-scale meal delivery service across 10 cities in the U.S., an expansion that will test the company’s ability to use its drivers to move goods.
>  
> In the coming weeks, customers in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Austin, Texas, will be able to use a new, dedicated UberEats app to order from the full menus of dozens of local restaurants and have their food quickly...
>  
> You have to subscribe to get to the full article, but thought I would give you a heads up - http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-to-ring-the-dinner-bell-in-10-u-s-cities-1453324399
>  
> **11 From Vending Times:
> How to acquire profitable vending locations...
>  
> 1) Establish a list of businesses in your area that employs 75 or more people. Scrub the list of any of your existing accounts or other accounts you deem unsatisfactory.
>  
>  2) Call up potential accounts and tell them you want to send them some information on your vending and micro market service. Ask who you should address this information too? If they will not release this information, call back at a later time and ask for the purchasing or human resources department. Repeat the question ask who you should address this information, too? If you have not received a name at this point, go to the top and send it to the head of the organization.
>  
> 3) The next step is what sets your business apart from your competition? My Lay's potato chips are the same as other vending companies. By offering custom graphics on the vending machines, you set yourself apart from the competition. Everyone likes to see their name up in lights. This pleases the location's ego. GTP will create stunning custom design presentations that will wow your prospects. GTP will produce these designs at no cost to you. On average we go to print on 62% of the designs we create. Hence, if you solicit 10 accounts with custom designs, you should pick up five to six locations.
>  
> Graphics That Pop
> 972-905-3523
> sales at graphicsthatpop.com
> Graphicsthatpop.com   
>  
> Designs in 1 day. Print and ship in 3 business days
>  
> **12 From Vending Times
> Issue Date: Vol. 56, No. 1, January 2016, Posted On: 1/8/2016       
> Brooklyn ATM Skimming Crew Captured In Skokie, IL
> by Hank Schlesinger
> SKOKIE, IL -- Four men have been arrested in Skokie, IL, for allegedly using skimming devices on ATMs. The arrests on Dec. 10 highlight the interstate and international nature of identity theft at unattended points of sale. The perpetrators, all Brooklyn, NY, residents, originally from Russia and Kazakhstan, were charged with felonies. At the time of their arrests, law enforcement officials found card readers and other identity-theft equipment in the men's car and hotel room. Arrested were Irmiyo Izraelov, 24; Bakai Marat-Uulu, 23; Yevgeniy A. Dubovskiy, 24; and Konstantin Miroshnikov, 24. Each was held on $500,000 bail. The use of skimming devices has become a growing problem for operators of ATMs and gas station pumps, among other unattended card-based payment points. Increasingly sophisticated, skimmers capture data held on cards, as well as PINs. With these data, criminals can clone cards to make purchases. Data can also be sold on the Internet black market. –
>  
> See more at: http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=Vending+Features&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=4660535DCF86455E96FB394179617FF3#sthash.goq98nTX.dpuf
>  
> **13 Broker Information – Mark Saverino, Saverino & Associates
> Mars:
> To get the most out of your Mars rebate follow these guidelines:
> 40% of total dollar purchases in Snickers and M&M peanut (single or sharing size),
>  
> One facing each of Snickers and M&Ms Peanut (required)
>  
> 15% of total dollar purchases in Twix/M&M: Twix Caramel or Peanut Butter and any M&Ms other than peanut (single or sharing size),
>  
> At least one facing in the Twix/M&Ms (required),
>  
> 45% of total dollar purchases in All Other: any other Mars program items not listed above (singles, sharing and bites)
>  
> At least one facing in the All Other (required)
>  
> The fifth facing can be in any of these three categories to be paid rebate. 
>  
> Higher rebates can be earned by achieving eight or ten facings.
>  
> Biscomerica:
> Biscomerica Q1 2016 Savings! Deliveries between January 1 and March 31, 2016
>  
> 59961 Sweet Serenity Chocolate Chip Cookies 60/2oz extra rebate $1.20
> 54809 Sweet Serenity Chocolate Chip Cookies 48/3oz extra rebate $0.96
> 59862 Sun-Maid Blueberry Greek Yogurt Chip 60/1.75oz extra rebate $3.00
> 59863 Sun-Maid Cranberry Chocolate Chip 60/1.8oz extra rebate $3.00
>  
> Any combination of above products delivered between January 1 and March 31, 2016 and written by a Biscomerica representative on this form will qualify for a rebate. Biscomerica will verify proof of delivery. Form must be submitted by April 29, 2016.
>  
> THIS PROMOTION CANNOT BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANY OTHER REBATE OR PROMOTION.
> MINIMUM REBATE AMOUNT THAT WILL BE PAID IS $10.00
> REBATE PROCESSING WILL BE HANDLED BY SAVERINO & ASSOCIATES, INC. ONCE PROMOTION HAS CONCLUDED AND PURCHASES CAN BE VERIFIED.
>  
> Call Mark to place your order: Telephone: 800-242-6036
>  
> Vitners:
> Look for Distributor Off Invoice amounts throughout the 1st Quarter
> 402475 Plain Chips 36/1.5oz, 402476 Sweet & Tangy BBQ Chips 36/1.5oz, 402477 Chicago Smokehouse Rib Ridgetts 36/1.5oz, 402478 Jalapeno 36/1.5oz, 402479 Sweet Southern Heat BBQ 36/1.5oz, 402481 Buffalo Wing & Blue Cheese 36/1.5oz, 402480 Sizzlin’ Hot Potato Chips 36/1.5oz
>  
> **14 Distributor News – Dan Brander, CVS
> Little Debbie Vending - Micro Market Program
> That's right! Purchase 2 cases of Little Debbie Vend Products for your
> Micro Market locations and get 1 case FREE. You must purchase 3
> di­fferent varieties to qualify. Quantities cannot exceed 1 carton per variety per micro market. We kindly ask for a 90 day commitment in each micro market. Product must deliver by February 28, 2016.
>  
> Little Debbie Vend Products
> included in the program are:
> Double Decker
> Oatmeal Creme Pie
> Nutty Bars
> Zebra Cake
> Fudge Brownie
> Fudge Round
> Peanut Butter Creme Pie
>  
> “We carry three of the items, and can special order the others. Please read it. You must purchase three different varieties to get the promo.”
>  
> Dan also wants you to be on the lookout for the following price increases on certain products from the following manufacturers:
> Paramount, Biscomerica, Knotts, Herrs Cheestix, Taylor bag candy, and Coke.
>  
> **15 2016 Rebateable Manufacturers
> RSA Buying Group – note that the manufacturers with a + preceding it are some of the lowest rebates received for dollars spent.  Also note that there are some manufacturers missing from this list, such as Wrigley’s.  For those that you see that we are not receiving any rebate, it is best when at all possible to avoid purchasing their products unless the value far exceeds rebates that could be earned.  Also note that no purchases from Sam’s earns you rebate.  Purchases must be made from a qualified Vend Distributor.
>  
> Compliance Programs - Elite (Best Rebates) 
> 5 - Hour Energy Elite
> Back to Nature Elite Direct
> Cloverhill RSA Program
> Dolly Madison Elite Rebate
> Frito Lay Quarterly Elite Rebate
> General Mills Elite NV
> Herr's Elite Program.
> Hershey Elite Rebate
> Hostess Brands Elite Rebate
> Jack Links Elite Program
> Just Born Elite Program
> Kars Nuts Elite
> Kraft Heinz Elite Rebate
> Mars Quarterly Elite Rebate
> Mondelez Elite Rebate
> Mr Nature Elite
> Mrs Freshleys Elite Rebate
> Nestle Confections Elite
> Nestle Price Protection RSA Rebate
> Promotion In Motion Elite
> Red Bull Elite Quarterly Program
> Schwans Program Elite
> Snyders Lance Elite Rebate
>  
> USG Base Programs
> Adams & Brooks Inc, Program
> Arizona Beverage Rebate
> Barrie House Coffee
> Big Red USG Program
> Biscomerica Quarterly Program
> Blue Bunny Ice Cream
> Brother Kane's Peanuts
> Buddys Kitchen
> Bumble Bee
> Chattanooga Bakery
> Chicago Vending Supply Direct
> D & S Vending
> Dannon
> Del Monte Foods
> + Deli Express
> Diamond Crystal Rebate
> Dole - Mrs Mays
> Dole Packaged Foods
> Dolly Madison USG Rebate
> + Florida's Natural
> Fritolay Rold Gold Direct
> Fritolay XVL Rebate
> Heinz Previous Quarter Rebate
> + International Cup Corp
> International Paper
> Inventure Foods Program
> Johnsonville Sausage
> Just Born Goldenberg USG Program
> + Kelloggs USG Direct Q3-15
> Mars Ice Cream
> Merisant Equal Program
> Michelinas/Bellisio
> + Monogram Food Solutions Base Program
> + Nestle Waters
> Otis Spunkmeyer
> Pearson Candy Company Rebate
> Pepsi USG Rebate
> Pop Chips Rebate
> Popz Popcorn
> SOLO-Sweetheart Cup
> Stefano Foods
> Superior Cup, Inc.
> Sysco Direct - Q3-15
> Sysco Foil Promotion
> True Lemon
> Van Holten
> Vendors Supply Direct
> Vistar Direct
> + Welchs
> White Castle Direct
> Windsor Foods USG Program  
>  
> **16 RSA Buying Group Information
> NAMA Special Rates – Illinois Members contact Kathy at icbv at sbcglobal.net if you are interested in attending NAMA for possible sponsorship by ICBV.
>  
> RSA Members: I wanted to be the first to let you know that due to RSA’s commitment to provide a substantial number of attendees to the One Show, we have received a special rate that you can take advantage of today. The rate is $159. This is nearly a 25% discount and lower than the early bird price. To receive this special rate you need to use the code RSA16 when you register and stay in the One Show’s reserved housing block if you are securing a hotel.
>  
> To register click:  https://www.xpressreg.net/register/ones0416/attendee/start.asp . If you have questions registering, for customer service, please call 508-743-8552 (Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm EST).
>  
>  To reserve a hotel in the room block, obtain information on airline discounts and Shuttle discounts click: https://aws.passkey.com/event/14276542/owner/1418/home .
>  
> We are happy to be able to provide this savings to you. We ask that you do not forward this email to anyone who is not an RSA member so that we can continue to be able to receive savings like this for you in the future.
>  
> Nestle Confections
> January 25, 2016 PurchasePower Deal!! Nestle!! Earn extra rebate on the following:
> Butterfinger Bar Singles
> Baby Ruth Regular Singles
> Crunch Singles Chocolate
>  
> Deal Parameters: Book orders January 25th through February 19th, 2016 and Ship by March 4th 2016 Also There is no Case Capp for USG Members!!
>  
> Q116 Frito-Lay News Item
> LSS Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger
> and/or
> LSS Kettle Cooked 40% Less Fat Jalapeno Cheddar
> Everyone is required to purchase at least “1” case of one of the above during1st Quarter 2016 to qualify for the Frito-Lay Rebate.
>  
>  
> Thank you,
> Kathy Ungaro
> ICBV, Business Manager
> (630)234-4444
> 
> Illinois Committee of Blind Vendors
> 53 W. Jackson Blvd. Suite 502
> Chicago, IL 60604
> (312)663-3007
> 
> This message (including attachments) is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it without further distribution and reply to the sender that you have received the message in error.
> <ICBV Office Update 1_26_16.docx>