[Mdpobc] {Definitely Spam?} FW: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, March 2013

[Trudy Pickrel]

Trudy L. Pickrel
Maryland Parents of Blind Children 
www.mdparentsofblindchildren.org
TLC by the Lake's Standard Poodle's
www.tlcbythelake.com
301-501-1818
 
 


 From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 23:01:47 -0800
To: brl-monitor at lothlorien.nfbcal.org
Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, March 2013

BRAILLE MONITOR
 
Vol. 56, No. 3 March 2013
 
Gary Wunder, Editor
 
Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive
(see reverse side) by
 
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
 
Marc Maurer, President
 
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 gwunder at nfb.org.
 
Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty 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
 
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
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
 
© 2013 by the National Federation of the Blind
 
Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or
USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a
National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two
slots--the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable
carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the
headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove
the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb
drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter
resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge
slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player
will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the
player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If
you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you
insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped.
 
You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to
your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb
drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return
in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return label enclosed
with the drive when you return the device.
 
Orlando Site of 2013 NFB Convention
 
The 2013 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take
place in Orlando, Florida, July 1-6, at the Rosen Centre Hotel at 9840
International Drive, Orlando, Florida 32819. Make your room reservation
as soon as possible with the Rosen Centre staff only. Call (800)
204-7234.
 
The 2013 room rates are singles, doubles, and twins, $79; and triples
and quads, $85. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax,
which at present is 13.5 percent. No charge will be made for children
under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is
requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $90-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 May 28, 2013. 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, 2013, assuming that rooms are
still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block
for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in
soon.
 
Guest-room amenities include cable television; in-room safe;
coffeemaker; hairdryer; and, for a fee, high-speed Internet access.
Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa.
The Rosen Centre Hotel offers fine dining at Executive Chef Michael
Rumpliks award-winning Everglades Restaurant. In addition, there is an
array of dining options from sushi to tapas to a 24-hour deli. The
hotel has first-rate amenities and shuttle service to the Orlando
airport.
 
The schedule for the 2013 convention is:
 
Monday, July 1 Seminar Day
 
Tuesday, July 2 Registration Day
 
Wednesday, July 3 Board Meeting and Division Day
 
Thursday, July 4 Opening Session
 
Friday, July 5 Business Session
 
Saturday, July 6 Banquet Day and Adjournment
 
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
 
201
3 National Convention Preregistration Form
 
Please register online at <www.nfb.org/registration> or use this
mail-in form. Print legibly, provide all requested information, and
mail form and payment to:
 
National Federation of the Blind
 
Attn: Convention Registration
 
200 East Wells Street
 
Baltimore, MD 21230
 
Please register only one person per registration form; however, one
check or money order may cover multiple registrations. Check or money
order (sorry, no credit cards) must be enclosed with registration(s).
 
Registrant Name ______________________________________________
 
Address _____________________________________________________
 
City ______________________ State _____________ Zip ___________
 
Phone ____________ Email ____________________________________
 
___ I will pick up my registration packet at convention.
 
or
 
___ The following person will pick up my registration packet:
 
Pickup Name ______________________________________
 
Number of preregistrations x $25 = ____________
 
Number of pre-purchased banquet tickets x $50 = ____________
 
Total = ____________
 
PLEASE NOTE:
 
1. Preconvention registration and banquet sales are final (no refunds).
 
2. All preregistration mail-in forms must be postmarked by May 31.
 
Vol. 56, No. 3 March 2013
 
Contents
 
Illustration: The Fully Accessible Interactive Bulletin Board in the
Betsy Zaborowski Conference Room
 
The 2013 Washington Seminar in Review
 
by Gary Wunder
 
Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans: Priorities for the 113th
Congress, First Session
 
The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act 2012
 
The Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and Higher
Education Act
 
Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans (HR 164)
 
Blindness and the Message of Dr. King
 
by Ed McDonald
 
Oh Where, Oh Where, Oh Where are the Braille Books?
 
by Jan A. Lavine
 
Reading, Reading, Actually Reading the News
 
by Nijat Worley
 
Accessible Astronomy
 
by Glenn Chaple
 
NHTSA Proposes Rules for Automakers to Add Sound to Hybrids
 
by Gabe Nelson
 
Blind Community Calls Plea Bargain for Blind Thief from Rumford
Outrageous
 
by Terry Karkos
 
My Dream, My Business, and My Life
 
by Vincent M. Tagliarino
 
Interns Efforts Broaden Access to Vital Historical Documents
 
by Doug Moore
 
The Role of Labor in My Life and in the Progress of the Organized Blind
Movement
 
by Ivan Weich
 
My Experiences in the National Federation of the Blind
 
by Janice Toothman
 
Convention Scholarships Available
 
by Allen Harris
 
Recipes
 
Monitor Miniatures
 
Illustration: The Fully Accessible Interactive Bulletin Board in the
Betsy Zaborowski Conference Room
 
The Betsy Zaborowski Conference Room in the NFB Jernigan Institute
features a fully accessible, interactive bulletin board. Developed by
the Institute's Education team, the bulletin board serves two purposes:
to showcase what the NFB Jernigan Institute is doing and to demonstrate
for teachers how to make a fully accessible and attractive bulletin
board.
 
This quarter the title of the bulletin board is WE LOVE BRL; YES WE DO!
WE LOVE BRAILLE; HOW ABOUT YOU? This quarters board proclaims our love
for Braille to the world. The title for this display is a spinoff of a
ditty President Maurer frequently sings which begins, I love Braille:
yes I do!/ I love Braille. The associated audio clip, which visitors
can hear by pressing the button to the right of the board, features Dr.
Maurer singing his Braille ditty.
 
The boards valentines theme featurs red, white, pink, and purple hearts
of all sizes. The plain black background of the board allows the hearts
to take center stage. Each phrase of the title appears on its own large
heart. The four large title hearts are clustered somewhat randomly in
the center of the board. Scattered around the title are twenty-six
hearts featuring the letters of the alphabet in raised print, standard
Braille, and simulated Braille, with small tactile hearts representing
the dots in each letter. The alphabet hearts are diverse in
construction. The red, white, pink, and purple base hearts are made
from craft foam or balsa wood or small cardboard heart-shaped boxes.
The simulated Braille dots of each letter are foam and rhinestone
hearts and heart-shaped brads. Scattered around the alphabet hearts are
other tactile hearts of various sizes made from the materials mentioned
above. The heart theme is carried all the way to the border, where
multi-colored tactile hearts frame the display.
 
A message on the board invites guests to take a heart-shaped card from
the supply provided at the bottom of the board to write (in Braille or
print) a message about why they love Braille, and pin it to the board
for others to read.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Two hands writing Braille notes used in chronicling the
Washington Seminar.
 
The 2013 Washington Seminar in Review
 
by Gary Wunder
 
>From the Editor: Gary Wunders writings are sometimes found in the pages
of the Braille Monitor, but his unfortunate tendency to turn exciting
meetings into dull prose frequently shortchanges the national events
that represent the best of our history and tradition. Lacking anything
else to substitute as a lead for this month, we reluctantly give
readers of the Monitor the following:
 
I frequently talk with my school-age children and grandchildren about
school; they are excited about science, like reading, and enjoy
English. Unfortunately history and civics are two classes they don't
like, and, when asked to describe them, they use words such as boring,
stupid, and a waste of time. How different might those classes be if
some part of them were devoted to the study of blind people and the
formation and work of the National Federation of the Blind?
 
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s some in society openly questioned the
right of the blind to create their own organizations. Didnt
professionals already speak for them? Was it healthy to let defectives
try to speak for themselves? Wasn't it obvious that the blind would
always fall into that class of unfortunates who would require the care
and supervision of their family, friends, and government?
 
Consider the change todays students would see, from the days of arguing
for the right to speak for ourselves to the days when our annual visit
to Capitol Hill is anticipated by the 535 most powerful elected men and
women in the nation. What a contrast they could observe between the
pitiable and helpless wards we were once considered to be and the
people we are today. Today the blind have formed a group which has
compiled a legacy of legislative accomplishments that rival those of
any group of citizens in America: the White Cane laws that exist in
every state, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the inclusion of the
blind in the Voting Rights Act, and most recently the Pedestrian Safety
Enhancement Act. How could anyone be apathetic or long entertain the
thought that personal responsibility and collective action don't
matter? What better example could we find to convince our children that
they can influence their future and the future of those around them
through citizen involvement and participation in our representative
democracy?
 
But it is not enough to recite the history of the blind when so much
remains to be done if the equality of opportunity America proclaims and
seeks to deliver is to be more than words. With this in mind blind
people from every state in the nation converged on Washington, DC, for
the NFBs annual Washington Seminar. So long have we met at the Holiday
Inn Capitol that it seems like our second home. "Welcome back, the bell
captain said. I have been here twenty-five years, and you were coming
even before I started working with this hotel." Tell the staff what the
blind will need? Forget it! They already know. Occasionally there are
those little glitches, like not having the traditional peanut butter
pie on hand, but these problems are soon handled, and off to the Hill
we go to take on larger issues.
 
On the weekend preceding our work on Capitol Hill, the legislative
directors or presidents of state affiliates met with our national staff
responsible for advancing the legislative priorities of the Federation
on Capitol Hill. Members were taught how to help draft bills, find
senators and representatives to sponsor them, create brief but
effective presentations, develop a state legislative agenda, use
legislative technology, and make effective use of the media.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Brown, Kathryn Carroll, Terrin Barker, and other
representatives of the National Association of Blind Students line up
to report on progress in their states.]
 
The Washington Seminar began on Monday, February 4, 2013, with meetings
of the National Association of Blind Students, the state presidents of
the National Federation of the Blind, the cash and caring committee,
and finally the great gathering-in annual meeting at 5 p.m. To
understand the mood and feeling of those attending, remember that on
the previous day the Baltimore Ravens had beaten the San Francisco
Forty-Niners in Super Bowl XLVII. The many who were elated frequently
mentioned this victory, and those who favored the Forty-Niners
responded with groans and a promise that next year things would be
different.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: President Maurer shows his pride in the Baltimore
Ravens by wearing his Joe Flacco jersey.]
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: President Maurer addresses the great gathering-in
meeting.]
 
After the falling of the gavel and the roar of the crowd, President
Maurer began the great gathering-in by saying: "We come to Washington;
we come to the Capitol of the United States; we come to the place where
power is located because we intend to participate in that power. We
come to talk about things that matter." As the evening would soon
reveal, the things that matter included fair wages for blind people,
access to usable technology in our colleges and universities, and the
right of disabled veterans to fly on military aircraft under the Space
Available Program.
 
Before addressing these three issues, President Maurer began by
announcing an agreement between Monster.com and the National Federation
of the Blind that will result in the accessibility of the nation's
primary website for listing and finding jobs. The long-term benefits
for blind people will be immense, and those needing skilled employees
will benefit significantly from the people they will find.
 
The proposed regulations to implement the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement
Act have been published. They will implement the law passed in 2010 to
ensure that vehicles generate enough sound that they are not a hazard
to pedestrians, blind or sighted. It took a tremendous effort to create
public awareness of the danger posed by vehicles too quiet to hear, to
gain the support of the automobile industry, and to get the attention
of a Congress opposed to creating any new regulations; but the National
Federation of the Blind promised we would do it, and we did.
 
In 2008 amendments were added to the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act proclaiming that Braille would be the presumed reading
medium for blind students. Sometimes, however, legislation is not
enough, and the rights declared must be established by precedent and
enforced by binding agreements. For three years the National Federation
of the Blind has been fighting to see that Hank Miller, a blind student
from New Jersey, will receive Braille instruction. At our meeting
President Maurer read an announcement which said: "The New Jersey
affiliate will meet in this room immediately following the great
gathering-in meeting. This note, written in Braille, was signed by Hank
Miller.
 
Last year the National Federation of the Blind worked to defeat
legislation that would have devastated the Randolph-Sheppard program
that gives blind people priority in running vending businesses on
federal and state property. The amendment that would have significantly
eroded that priority was defeated in the United States Senate by a vote
of eighty-six to twelve. In recognition of the Federation's work to
preserve these business opportunities, the National Association of
Blind Merchants presented a check for $40,000 to the national
organization. The applause from the audience was not only for the money
but for the working relationship the donation represents and the desire
of the merchants division to give back part of what has so willingly
been given in support of blind entrepreneurs.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Representative Tom Rice of the Seventh District of
South Carolina]
 
At last year's great gathering-in meeting Parnell Diggs announced that
he was running for a seat to represent South Carolina in the nation's
House of Representatives. He did not win that election, but his
influence as a representative of blind people brought his opponent to
speak to the National Federation of the Blind. The Honorable Tom Rice,
from the Seventh District of South Carolina, said he was honored to be
a part of our meeting and that he recognized a bond between us. He said
that people who run for congressional seats are often characterized as
fighters because they have to deal with the unexpected and do what is
required to win, but Congressman Rice believes that the blind of the
nation truly deserve the title "fighters" for the flexibility we
demonstrate in meeting each day's challenges and our determination to
show the world that we can compete on terms of equality. Before being
elected to Congress, Representative Rice practiced as an attorney in
South Carolina, and he said it was an honor for him to know a fine and
honorable colleague, Parnell Diggs (who is also a lawyer). The
Congressman concluded by saying he would see all of us on the Hill and
pledged to do everything he could to help us.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: John Paré]
 
John Paré was welcomed to the podium to introduce the legislative
agenda of the National Federation of the Blind for 2013. He said that,
in keeping with the traditions of the Federation, we would explain to
the political leaders of America what the blind needed and would do so
with our characteristic resolve to be persistent, professional, and
polite. He emphasized the need to be clear but concise, to structure
presentations so that they would take no longer than fifteen or twenty
minutes, and to lead with the issues in which the member of Congress is
likely to have the most interest and influence, based on their
committee assignments.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis]
 
Anil Lewis addressed the gathering and began his remarks by asking the
crowd to join him in the message we want to send about Section 14(c) of
the Fair Labor Standards Act: "That's not work; that's not training;
that's not right!" For almost seventy-five years labor law in this
country has allowed the payment of subminimum wages to disabled people,
assuming that we are innately less productive than our coworkers. The
system that has developed to take advantage of this exemption from the
minimum wage defends its practice of paying low wages by saying that a
primary focus of its work is training. When statistics clearly
demonstrate that fewer than 5 percent of those employed in sheltered
workshops transition to other employment, a poor training record for
any institution, the workshops change the argument and say they are not
primarily for training but for production and that the majority of
those they serve are not trainees but workers. When asked why they do
not pay their workers at least the minimum wage, though they pay no
taxes, are the recipients of preferential government contracts, receive
state and federal subsidies, and solicit direct contributions from the
public, the shops revert to the argument that they are not places of
employment but institutions dedicated to the training of their disabled
consumers. We have heard these arguments for almost three quarters of a
century, and the National Federation of the Blind and fifty other
disability organizations intend to tell the Congress that Section 14(c)
has to go!
 
Last year we had eighty-one cosponsors of the Fair Wages for People
with Disabilities Act; this new session of Congress means we start over
with a new bill number and the need to find a lead sponsor and
cosponsors once again.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Lauren McLarney]
 
Lauren McLarney was introduced to talk about the Technology, Education,
and Accessibility in Colleges and Higher Education (TEACH) Act that we
are seeking to have introduced. After some humorous banter about the
victory of the Baltimore Ravens, Lauren began her remarks by saying the
following:
 
"In 2008 the National Federation of the Blind went to Congress, and we
said that technology has altered the landscape of postsecondary
education. Traditional instructional materials are being replaced with
digital books, courseware, online library databases, web-based content,
and mobile applications. We said that, while innovations in
accessibility may be evolving and nonvisual accessibility may be
available, manufacturers are not embracing these solutions. The lack of
supply is compounded by the fact that colleges and other institutions
of higher learning are not demanding that educational technology be
accessible. This is creating barriers for blind and other
print-disabled students, and something has to be done about it.
Congress listened to us and amended the 2008 reauthorization of the
Higher Education Opportunity Act to create the Advisory Committee on
Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for
Students with Disabilities. That's a really long title, so we just call
it the AIM Commission. This commission brought together government
leaders, representatives from institutions of higher education, the
Association of American Publishers, and the National Federation of the
Blind.
 
In 2011 the AIM Commission issued its report, and guess what it found?
It found that inaccessible technology permeates higher education, that
blind and other disabled students have to bear the burden of going to
their school and asking it to buy a separate and therefore unequal
technology, while the mainstream students use inaccessible devices. The
report also found that blind students don't have to be treated
differently from mainstream students. Manufacturers need guidance on
how to make their equipment accessible, and schools need to demand that
the marketplace provide accessible products. This demand should be
accompanied by a commitment to buy only those devices that are
accessible.
 
This year the American Association of Publishers said it wanted to
partner with us on the very first recommendation made by the AIM
Commission: to establish accessibility standards for instructional
materials used in postsecondary settings. The partnership thus
established has resulted in the TEACH draft bill. It does not seek to
preclude manufacturers from building and selling inaccessible
technology; it does seek to ensure that any technology that colleges
and universities procure meets the accessibility standards proposed in
the AIM Commission report.
 
"Congress undoubtedly has questions we will need to answer. Will this
proposal result in additional expense for colleges and universities?
The answer is that this act will lower the cost of accessible
technology by creating a market that has not existed before. The
expense to colleges and universities will be far less than what they
incur now as they continue to duplicate accessible instructional
materials for blind students one college or university at a time."
Lauren concluded by urging that we go forth and teach about TEACH.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Jesse Hartle]
 
Jesse Hartle was next introduced. He amused the crowd by saying that
for several weeks he had been feeling ill and presumed he had some form
of the flu, but he has finally come to understand that his physical
discomfort comes from being around so many Ravens fans. After all of
the previous references to the awesome Ravens, Forty-Niner fans enjoyed
this quip immensely.
 
The briefing Jesse came to provide was about H.R. 164, an act to amend
Title X of the United States Code, to permit veterans who have a
service-connected, permanent disability rated as total, to travel on
military aircraft in the same manner and to the same extent as retired
members of the Armed Forces entitled to such travel. This issue,
brought to us by the NFBs National Association of Blind Veterans, would
let those who left the service as a result of blindness or some other
disabling condition take advantage of the Space Available Program
operated by the Air Command within the Department of Defense. This bill
is being sponsored by Congressman Gus Bilirakis, and the chance to show
our support for and help blind and disabled veterans was one the crowd
clearly embraced with enthusiasm. At the time of our meeting the bill
had nine cosponsors. That number would change significantly by weeks
end.
 
Jesse concluded his remarks by saying: "At one time in their lives they
answered the call of Semper fi or Hooah; sometimes they said `Anchors
Aweigh; and sometimes they said `Off We Go; and off they went to defend
the rights of all Americans, blind and sighted. Ladies and gentlemen,
it's time that off we go to defend the rights of disabled veterans."
 
Chris Danielsen, the director of public relations for the National
Federation of the Blind, emphasized that the job of promoting our
legislation must not only focus on Senators and Representatives but
come to be a part of the public's consciousness. This is done by
sharing our proposals with family and friends and then by making sure
they get out to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. He
concluded by saying, "Let's really make it known to the world that
we're in Washington, that we're fighting against separate-but-equal,
and that we're going to change the lives of blind Americans."
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Allen]
 
President Maurer next introduced former Congressman Tom Allen, who now
serves as the president of the Association of American Publishers. Mr.
Allen noted that this is not the first time the Federation and the
Association have worked together. "Our first collaborative effort
culminated in the passage of the Chafee Amendment, but that was
seventeen years ago. We next worked together on the IDEA amendments of
2004, which accelerated the ability of K-12 students to get
instructional materials. That legislation created the National
Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards (NIMAS) to ensure
uniform standards of accessibility for students with print
disabilities. ... AAP and NFB next worked on the Higher Education
Amendments of 2008, which authorized the AIM Commission that produced
the Consensus Report we've talked about this evening."
 
Mr. Allen went on to say that the issue is no longer how to convert
print books into something blind people can read, as it was seventeen
years ago, but how to deal with the digital technology that is coming
to dominate the publishing industry. He said that during the long and
sometimes laborious process followed by the AIM Commission, the major
stakeholders, including the National Federation of the Blind and the
Association of American Publishers, agreed on the goal that published
products should be available in the marketplace and accessible to the
print-disabled at the same time they are to others. The publishers not
only support this goal, but they have concerns of their own. Some of
the Association's members still have the concern that a system which
allows for the reproduction of copyrighted material in specialized
formats could allow the diversion of materials intended for the blind
and print-disabled to be made more broadly available to the larger
public free of charge, thus weakening publisher markets. The sooner
accessible materials are readily available in the marketplace, the
sooner publishers can cease to worry about the diversion of their
materials to others without special needs. We have the same goal, you
and I: As soon as possible, make materials available and accessible to
the print-disabled when they are first sold to the public at large.
 
Our particular challenge, yours and ours, is to bring along the
software and hardware industries, including those which manufacturer
e-readers and similar platforms without which our products cannot be
fully accessible." Mr. Allen concluded by noting that we share a vital
common interest during this Congress, and that interest will continue
as long as there is a need to make materials accessible to and
therefore purchasable by the blind.
 
President Maurer next introduced Representative Gus Bilirakis, the
primary sponsor of H.R. 164. The Congressman said, "It is an honor to
join you in promoting initiatives that ensure a high quality of life
for all disabled persons. I want to tell you that I am visually
impaired-the font has to be very big here for me to see. I am also
hearing impaired, but, you know, we can do anything if we put our minds
to it.I would especially like to recognize the efforts of your
president, Dr. Maurer, whom I met with last week, and Dan Hicks, your
president in my home state of Florida. I wish all of you an enjoyable
trip to Washington. Enjoy yourselves, let's get some work done, and
let's go get em!"
 
Jim Gashel, the secretary of the National Federation of the Blind,
talked with us about the Jacob Bolotin Awards that are presented each
year in recognition of the pioneering efforts of Dr. Jacob Bolotin.
This year we intend to award more than $50,000 to deserving individuals
and organizations who have made a significant contribution to advancing
the cause of the blind. Nominations will be accepted until March 31 and
can be submitted online at <https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main>. Though
the committee prefers that applications be made online, they can be
sent using email by writing to <BolotinAward at nfb.org> or through the
U.S. Postal Service by writing to Bolotin Award Committee, National
Federation of the Blind, 200 E. Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.
 
Mark Riccobono came to the microphone to say that, while he didn't want
to mention the Baltimore Ravens specifically, he did want to observe
that the National Federation of the Blind is different from either of
the teams who played in the Super Bowl because we keep marching, even
when the lights go out. Of course this was a reference to the power
outage that took place at the Superdome in New Orleans and temporarily
halted the game.
 
Mark said, "We are powerful! We are powerful because we imagine a
future full of opportunity; we are powerful because we imagine a future
in which every blind child gets Braille; we are powerful because we
imagine a future in which we have the same book at the same time and at
the same price as everybody else. We imagine a future in which blind
parents don't have to worry about retaining custody of their children
simply because those parents are blind; we imagine a future in which
technology is designed from the beginning to be accessible to all of
us; we imagine a future in which every person is guaranteed the minimum
wage; we also imagine a future in which a blind person can win a Nobel
Prize in physics." He went on to observe that, not only do we dream of
and imagine a future full of opportunity for blind people, but we
actively work to build that future. One of the greatest investments we
make is in our youngest blind members. Despite the funding difficulties
we now face, we are going to have a program for young people that
focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is
really exciting to realize that some of the first beneficiaries of our
STEM programs are now teaching them.
 
To fund these innovative programs for young people, we must find a way
to increase our contributions from the public. Each affiliate is being
asked to contribute something of value from its state that can be used
in a Cyber Monday auction following Thanksgiving.
 
Mark closed with a plea to help the student division with the
fundraiser that was taking place during the seminar. He encouraged
contributions to President Sean Whalen's fundraising bucket. He then
reluctantly revealed that his plea to help Sean was as much personal as
financial; the person whose bucket contained the most money would get a
pie in the face later in the evening, and President Whalen's two
competitors were Anil Lewis and Mark Riccobono.
 
President Maurer next introduced Scott LaBarre to say a word or two
about the Preauthorized Check Program. He reported that PAC pledges and
contributions are at an all-time high but that this might be the last
time he appeared at the Washington Seminar on behalf of the
Preauthorized Check Program. This is so because we need to change its
name to reflect the way financial transactions now occur. Most are now
electronic, and, though we have grown attached to this name and have
even honored it with a song, the word PAC is too often thought to mean
that the National Federation of the Blind sponsors a political action
committee. Scott and his committee will soon be announcing a contest to
come up with a new name for the most successful membership-financed
tool in our history. Please look for contest rules in an upcoming issue
of the Braille Monitor, and help us come up with a fitting name for the
successor to the Preauthorized Check Program.
 
The great gathering-in meeting concluded with announcements about the
upcoming national convention, a generous donation of doughnuts by the
District of Columbia affiliate for those trudging off to Capitol Hill
in the early morning, and some logistical information about the hotel
from Diane McGeorge. For the first time in the history of the great
gathering-in meeting, we adjourned before 7 p.m.
 
On the first day of meetings with the 113th Congress, Federation
members had significant progress to report, and this they did at the
6:00 p.m. meeting. Ramona Walhof began with an announcement from the
cash and caring committee. One way we may be able to generate some
badly needed funds for the Federation and have a good time while doing
it is to take the quiz on blindness which can be found at
<http://www.quizonblindness.blogspot.com>. In addition to teaching
people about blindness through this graded quiz, it will give
participants the opportunity to make a donation to support the programs
of the National Federation of the Blind and will be a part of a drawing
to win $100. Not only should all of us take the quiz, but we should
tell our friends and neighbors about it, including those who follow us
on Twitter and Facebook.
 
Congressman Greg Harper, representing the Third District of
Mississippi, has agreed to sponsor the Fair Wages for People with
Disabilities Act in the United States House of Representatives. Several
affiliates reported being greeted by their Senators and Representatives
with the comment, "You are here to talk about fair wages, aren't you?"
Before our march to Capitol Hill, H.R. 164 had nine cosponsors. By the
end of our first day we had more than doubled that number.
 
The Honorable Thomas Petri, representing the sixth district of
Wisconsin, came to express his support for the principle that
educational materials used by colleges and universities should be as
usable by the blind as they are the sighted. Congressman Petri serves
on the Education and Workforce Committee, was the sponsor of the
Accessible Instructional Materials Act in 2003, was a significant
player in 2008 in getting language included in the Higher Education
Reauthorization Act which created the Accessible Instructional
Materials Commission, and has been a longtime supporter of the National
Federation of the Blind. He reaffirmed his commitment to accessibility,
his determination to involve all of the major stakeholders in arriving
at a solution that will provide accessible hardware and software for
the blind, pledged to do his best to keep this from becoming a partisan
issue in which the merits of the legislation can become secondary in
the fight to get the bill enacted into law, and pledged his support to
do whatever he could to get the ball across the goal line for the
blind.
 
At the end of our second day on Capitol Hill, Federationists gathered
for our 6 o'clock meeting. When Diane McGeorge gaveled the meeting to
order, those assembled applauded with vigor and yelled her name in
recognition of her long years of service in coordinating the logistics
for the Washington Seminar. Diane acknowledged the appreciation but
said that she would be remiss were she not to mention the stellar work
of Lisa Bonderson, who takes calls several months before the seminar to
make sure that the reservations get made and that roommates are found
for those who want them.
 
Lauren McLarney reported that our day on the Hill generated more
interest in the TEACH proposal, and the search for cosponsors is
encouraging. Of course there can be no cosponsoring until the bill is
dropped, but Congress seems to understand the imperative that equality
of opportunity for blind students include equivalent access to the
technology used by their peers. One congressional staffer said that
many proposals are prematurely brought to the Congress before all of
the parties involved have tried to work out a resolution. She said that
too often the assumption is that Congress should tell business what to
do, when business has never been afforded the opportunity to speak to
the issue. She asked whether we had been involved in negotiations with
providers such as Amazon, and, when she realized that collaboration had
been ongoing since at least 2008, her support for our cause and
admiration for our work were quite evident.
 
Two more cosponsors were added to include disabled veterans in the
Space Available Program, H.R. 164, and two of the representatives who
pledged their support serve either on the Armed Services Committee or
on the Veterans Affairs Committee.
 
As the seminar concluded, I was reminded of the question I so often get
about what part of the blind population the National Federation of the
Blind represents. Sometimes the question is asked in all innocence; at
other times it is asked with the intention of asserting that our
organization represents only the super blind, the elite, and that, in
so doing, it shuns those who have multiple disabilities, are less
educated, are more economically disadvantaged, or are nontraditional
students. It is hard to make that case when one reflects on the
Federation's legislative agenda for 2013. Our concern for blind
students at all levels is undeniable; our concern for those who work in
the sheltered shops and our willingness to champion their cause is
unmatched by any organization of or for the blind in the nation; our
concern for blind veterans goes beyond honoring them for their service,
by affirmatively embracing one of their issues and making it our own.
The legislative agenda of the National Federation of the Blind does not
begin to encompass all of the programs and activities we undertake, but
it clearly shows our commitment to all of those who are blind and to
their aspiration to make the most of their God-given assets in the
America we call the land of opportunity. For thousands of blind people
we are making the dream come true. And for thousands upon thousands of
sighted people we are demonstrating that the course of history can be
changed and the theories contained in the civics books are just as
vital and relevant as the framers of our Constitution envisioned. With
willing hands, willing hearts, and an unquinchable desire to better our
lives, the blind of America concluded our Washington Seminar and vowed
to travel the long and winding road that leads to equality.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Michael Hingson, Congressman Eric Swalwell, Brian
Buhrow, Mary Willows, and Jennifer Holloway, a group from the NFB of
California, visit about the issues important to the blind and leave
their Congressman with our legislative agenda and factsheets.]
 
Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans:
 
Priorities for the 113th Congress, First Session
 
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the nations oldest and
largest nationwide organization of blind people. As the voice of the
nations blind, we represent the collective views of blind people
throughout society. All of our leaders and the vast majority of our
members are blind, but anyone can participate in our movement. There
are an estimated 1.3 million blind people in the United States, and
every year approximately 75,000 Americans become blind.
 
The NFBs three legislative initiatives for 2013 are:
 
· The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act
 
This legislation phases out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act, which allows employers to pay disabled workers subminimum wages.
If Congress ends this exploitative practice, disabled Americans will
receive equal protection under the law to earn at least the federal
minimum wage and reach their full employment potential.
 
· The Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and Higher
Education Act
 
Electronic instructional materials and related technology have replaced
traditional methods of learning in postsecondary settings. Although it
would be inexpensive to create e-books, courseware, applications, and
other educational devices and materials in accessible formats, the
overwhelming majority of these materials are inaccessible to disabled
students. This bill calls for minimum accessibility standards for
instructional materials, ending the separate-but-equal approach to
learning.
 
· Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans (HR 164)
 
The Space Available Program allows active-duty military, Red Cross
employees, and retired members of the armed services to travel on
military aircraft if space is available. HR 164 reverses the exclusion
of 100 percent service-disabled veterans who were discharged before
retirement and entitles them to the programs privileges.
 
The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight; it is the
misunderstanding and lack of information that exist. Given the proper
training and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a physical
nuisance. Blind Americans need your help to achieve these goals and
reach economic security and full integration into society. Supporting
these measures will benefit more than just the blind because promoting
our economic welfare increases the tax base. We urge Congress to hear
our demands for equality and support these legislative initiatives.
 
----------
 
The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013
 
Current labor laws unjustly prohibit workers with disabilities
 
from reaching their full socioeconomic potential.
 
Written in 1938, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
discriminates against people with disabilities
by allowing the secretary of labor to grant Special Wage Certificates
to employers, permitting them to pay workers with disabilities less
than the minimum wage. Despite enlightened civil rights legislation
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, this antiquated
provision is still in force, with some disabled workers making only
three cents an hour.
 
The subminimum wage model actually benefits the employer, not the
worker.
Subminimum wage employers receive taxpayer and philanthropic dollars
because the public believes they are providing training and employment
for people with disabilities. The executives use the substantial
proceeds to compensate themselves with six-figure salaries on the backs
of disabled workers they pay pennies per hour. People who raise their
own standard of living while taking advantage of those who do not have
the same rights as every other American are engaging in discrimination,
not charity.
 
This discrimination persists because of the myths that Section 14(c)
is:
 
Myth 1a compassionate offering of meaningful work. Although the
entities that engage in this practice demand the benefits that come
from being recognized as employers, subminimum wage work is not true
employment. These so-called employers offer days filled with only
repetitive drudgery for which workers are compensated with third-world
wages, leading disabled employees toward learned incapacity and greater
dependence on social programs.
 
Myth 2an employment training tool for disabled workers. Fewer than 5
percent of workers with disabilities in subminimum wage workshops will
transition into integrated competitive work. In fact data show that
they must unlearn the skills they acquire in a subminimum wage workshop
in order to obtain meaningful employment. Therefore Section 14(c) is a
training tool that perpetuates ongoing underemployment.
 
Myth 3a controversial issue among the disability community. More than
fifty disability-related organizations and counting support the repeal
of Section 14(c) of the FLSA, and many former subminimum wage employers
have abandoned the use of the Special Wage Certificate without
terminating anyone. Only entities profiting from this exploitive
practice refuse to acknowledge that it is discrimination.
 
The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013:
 
Discontinues the practice of issuing Special Wage Certificates. The
secretary of labor will no longer issue Special Wage Certificates to
new applicants.
 
Phases out all remaining Special Wage Certificates over a three-year
period. Entities currently holding Special Wage Certificates will begin
compensating their workers with disabilities at no less than the
federal minimum wage, using the following schedule:
 
· private for-profit entities certificates will be revoked after one
year;
 
· public or governmental entities certificates will be revoked after
two years; and
 
· nonprofit entities certificates will be revoked after three years.
 
Repeals Section 14(c) of the FLSA. Three years after the law is
enacted, the practice of paying disabled workers subminimum wages will
be officially abolished, and workers with disabilities will no longer
be excluded from the workforce protection of a federal minimum wage.
 
STOP THE DISCRIMINATION.
 
Create opportunities for real work at real wages.
 
Cosponsor the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act.
 
For more information contact:
 
Anil Lewis, Director of Advocacy and Policy
 
National Federation of the Blind
 
Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2374 email: <alewis at nfb.org>
 
----------
 
The Technology, Education, and Accessibility
 
in College and Higher Education Act (TEACH)
 
Inaccessible technology in the classroom creates a separate-but-equal
 
approach to learning that discriminates against disabled students.
 
The evolution of technology has fundamentally changed the education
system.
The scope of instructional materials used to facilitate the teaching
and learning process at institutions of higher education has expanded.
Curricular content comes in the form of digital books, PDFs, webpages,
etc.; and most of this content is delivered through technology such as
courseware, library databases, digital software, and applications.
These advancements have revolutionized access to information, but the
majority of these materials are partially or completely inaccessible to
students with disabilities.
 
Barriers to access for disabled students create a separate-but-equal
approach to learning.
According to a 2009 Government Accountability Office report,
approximately 10.8 percent of students enrolled in postsecondary
institutions had some disability. The mass deployment of inaccessible
electronic instructional materials creates barriers to learning for
millions of disabled students. When a website is not compatible with
screen-access software, a blind student is denied access to online
course information; if nondisabled students are using an inaccessible
e-reader, a student who cannot read print has to petition the school
for an accessible device and thus potentially different content. This
approach to access is discriminatory and places unnecessary barriers in
the way of students with disabilities.
 
Technology exists to remedy this discrimination, but postsecondary
institutions are not investing in accessibility. Innovations in
text-to-speech, refreshable Braille, and other technologies have
created promise for equal access for disabled students; yet an
unacceptable number of postsecondary institutions do not make it a
priority to purchase accessible technology. Schools are buying
inaccessible instructional materials and then separate, accessible
items on an ad-hoc basis for students with disabilities. Some resort
merely to retrofitting the inaccessible technology, which sometimes
makes accessibility worse. Until postsecondary institutions harness
their purchasing power, the market for accessible instructional
materials will remain limited, and disabled students will continue to
be left behind.
 
Equality in the classroom is a civil right.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with
Disabilities Act prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.
The deployment of inaccessible instructional materials violates these
laws.
 
Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and Higher
Education Act:
 
Develops accessibility guidelines for instructional materials. The
Access Board will consult experts and stakeholders to develop technical
specifications for electronic instructional materials and related
information technologies so that those materials are usable by
individuals with disabilities.
 
Establishes a minimum accessibility standard for instructional
materials used by the government and in postsecondary academic
settings. The Department of Justice will implement the guidelines
developed by the Access Board as enforceable standards applicable to
all departments and agencies of the federal government and institutions
of higher education covered in Titles II and III of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
 
Promotes competition while ensuring equality. The guidelines provide
guidance to manufacturers on how to develop products that are fully
accessible to disabled users, and the required standards will ensure
that all colleges, universities, and federal agencies procure and
deploy only fully accessible instructional materials, ending the
separate-but-equal approach to learning.
 
PROTECT EQUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM.
 
Cosponsor the
Technology, Education, and Accessibility
 
in College and Higher Education Act (TEACH).
 
For more information contact:
 
Lauren McLarney, Government Affairs Specialist
 
National Federation of the Blind
 
Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2207 email: <lmclarney at nfb.org>
 
----------
 
Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans (HR 164)
 
The Space Available Program denies 100 percent of
 
Service-Disabled Veterans the opportunity to participate.
 
Discharged service-disabled veterans are not entitled to air travel
privileges to which other members of the military have access.
The Space Available Program allows members of the active military, some
family members, Red Cross employees, and retired members of the armed
services to travel on military aircraft if space is available. However,
members of the military who are 100 percent service disabled do not
qualify for this program because they do not fall into one of those
categories.
 
This unintentional exclusion denies discharged service-disabled
veterans a privilege to which they would be entitled had they not been
disabled during service. Those service members who are disabled during
active duty and are medically discharged do not have the chance to stay
on active duty or fulfill the twenty years requirement to become
qualified for this program. Had they not been medically discharged, 100
percent service-disabled veterans are likely to have served until
retirement. These men and women have earned the right to
space-available travel just as others have because they have defended
our country.
 
Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans would:
 
Provide travel privileges to totally disabled veterans.
This bill amends Title X of the U.S. Code, to permit veterans who have
a service-connected, permanent disability rated as total to travel on
military aircraft in the same manner and to the same extent as retired
members of the Armed Forces entitled to such travel.
 
HONOR OUR SERVICE-DISABLED VETERANS WITH
 
PRIVILEGES THEY ARE ENTITLED TO.
 
Cosponsor HR 164.
 
To cosponsor the bill, contact:
 
Mirium Keim, Legislative Assistant
 
Office of Congressman Bilirakis (R-FL)
 
Phone: (202) 225-5755 email: mirium.keim at mail.house.gov
 
For more information contact:
 
Jesse Hartle, Government Affairs Specialist
 
National Federation of the Blind
 
Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2233 email: <jhartle at nfb.org>
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Ed McDonald]
 
Blindness and the Message of Dr. King
 
by Ed McDonald
 
>From the Editor: Ed McDonald is a past president of the National
Federation of the Blind of West Virginia and a former member of the
National Federation of the Blind board of directors. He is kind,
thoughtful, and reflective. He has been a keen observer of the times in
which he has lived, remembering his reactions as a child to historic
events and weighing them now as an adult.
 
In January of 2006 the Braille Monitor
printed remarks Ed had made a year earlier for a Martin Luther King Day
observance. The following remarks are different enough that we think
readers will benefit from reading them. They were made on the day
before the first black president was inaugurated in the United States;
and, given this months focus on activism, speaking about the truth of
our lives to those in power, and the inauguration of our forty-fourth
president for a second term, they seem quite appropriate to appear in
this issue.
 
Fellow Federationists: Martin Luther King Day has always been a special
day for Karen and me. Each year I do a radio show featuring music that
I hope reflects the message of Dr. King. This year Karen sang with and
accompanied a community choir which presented a special program for the
occasion. In addition, on Martin Luther King Day I am always reminded
of how much we as Federationists share with all of those who have
struggled for civil rights.
 
With that in mind I thought I would share with you some remarks I
presented four years ago at another MLK Day program in our community.
It was the eve of President Obama's first inauguration, so perhaps that
gives the remarks a bit more relevance today. Some of you may have read
them before, and I apologize if they become long and boring.
Nevertheless-at the risk of personal grandstanding-I hope a few of you
may find in them some renewed reasons to celebrate Martin Luther King
Day.
 
Tri-Towns Ministerial Association
 
Westernport, MD
 
Today is the day we observe a national holiday to celebrate the
birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. I am sure that for some the
occasion may be little more than a day off from work or school, but for
many-including those of us who are gathered here this evening-it's a
significant occasion. This year it's especially significant because
four score years have passed since Dr. King was born. Adding to the
significance is the fact that tomorrow we will experience a landmark
event in the fulfillment of the dream that we often associate with Dr.
King.
 
Today, no doubt, we have celebrated this day in many different ways.
Perhaps the media have reminded us of the basic facts of Dr. King's
life, and we might even have heard a few seconds of that magic voice
talking about his dream. Many of us will sing songs and say prayers
together, and a few of us will stand up and make speeches that try to
give some meaning and perspective to the occasion.
 
I won't even pretend to offer new insights or understandings about Dr.
King, his life, or the spirit of the holiday. I can only share with you
a few personal thoughts about how the principles that he talked about
and lived by make sense to me as a member of a social minority.
 
Unlike Dr. King, I am not African American, so I really don't know how
it feels to be rejected for a job; to be denied the opportunity to live
in the home of my choice; to be taunted, scorned, feared, or hated
because of the color of my skin. However, as a blind person I do know
something about what it's like to be regarded as virtually helpless; to
be denied educational opportunities; or to be turned down for jobs that
I know I'm qualified to do, simply because I happen not to see.
 
Just like the people Dr. King inspired to take a firm stand for freedom
and human dignity, I too am a member of a minority group within
American society-a minority whose members have often been denied the
rights of first-class citizenship, not because we are inferior, but
simply because of a personal characteristic over which we have no
control.
 
With that in mind it has become increasingly clear to me over the past
four decades that what Dr. King had to say, the principles that he
fought for, and the strategies he used to bring about change were as
relevant to me as they were to those who marched in Montgomery or
Selma. But I must admit that's not something I have always understood.
 
When Martin Luther King was killed in April of 1968, I was a high
school senior preparing to graduate from the West Virginia School for
the Blind. Like the rest of America, I listened to the news accounts of
the assassination and its aftermath. But, having grown up in what I
realize now was a rather racist family environment, I really didn't
feel as though the death of this black leader-I may have even regarded
him as a troublemaker-had any real impact on me.
 
A few months later I went off to college and discovered people my own
age embracing the civil rights movement, protesting the Vietnam War,
and expressing all sorts of other radical ideas that sounded foreign to
me. Some of my most fundamental values and beliefs were being
challenged by new ideas. In the midst of all of this I was invited to a
meeting of a group called the National Federation of the Blind-men and
women who were trying to create an organization of blind college
students in West Virginia. Until then I didn't know there was any kind
of organization of blind people and really didn't know why there should
be, but they persuaded me to become secretary of this new student
division, and thus began my lifelong involvement in the organized blind
movement.
 
The following summer I attended the state convention of the National
Federation of the Blind. Incidentally, that was forty years ago this
summer, and I haven't missed a convention since. The featured speaker
was the national president of the Federation, a man named Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan. I didn't understand it all right away, but that convention
introduced me to a man who was intelligent, articulate, successful, and
blind. As I read more of his essays and listened to more of his
recorded speeches, I realized that Dr. Jernigan's role in the lives of
blind people was a lot like that of Dr. King in the lives of African
Americans. I learned from Dr. Jernigan that the real issues we faced as
blind people had little to do with our physical lack of eyesight and a
lot to do with the myths, misunderstandings, and prejudices about
blindness and blind people that have existed for centuries. I learned
from Dr. Jernigan that, if we as blind people wanted to break down the
barriers that keep us from first-class citizenship, we needed to join
together and do what we could to change public attitudes about
blindness. Dr. Jernigan helped us understand how much we had in common
with the civil rights movement in which African Americans were most
prominent, and he encouraged us to respect ourselves and not be afraid
to stand up for the things we believed in.
 
That sounds a lot like Dr. King, doesn't it? Like Dr. Jernigan, Dr.
King understood and articulated the barriers that relegated most
African Americans to something less than first-class citizenship, and
he was able to inspire large numbers of people to join together to
destroy those barriers forever.
 
I am sure that, as a result of Dr. King's life, many other black
Americans were inspired to remain involved throughout their lives in
the struggle for justice and equality for themselves and their brothers
and sisters. In much the same way Dr. Jernigan's message has inspired
me to stay involved for the past four decades in an organization that
remains dedicated-as we often say-to changing what it means to be
blind. As a result I have written resolutions and press releases;
carried banners and picket signs; raised money and raised cane, so to
speak; chaired meetings and conventions; and met with lawmakers in
Charleston and Washington as a member of the National Federation of the
Blind. Twenty-five years after he spoke at my first convention, Dr.
Jernigan asked me to serve on the Federation's national board of
directors, and it was a privilege for me to do so for three years.
 
The issues and problems, the solutions and strategies, the tactics and
of course even the leadership of the organized blind have evolved over
those four decades, but the basic purpose of the movement remains the
same-security, equality, and opportunity for all blind Americans.
Surely the experience of black Americans over those same forty years
has been very much the same.
 
Public education is just one example of an area in which black people
and blind people have shared a similar experience. Until 1954
segregated education was the norm for African Americans, and we know
that segregated schools usually meant an inferior education for a
variety of reasons. Thus integration into the educational mainstream
offered African Americans a better chance of becoming integrated into
the social and political mainstream as well. But the court decisions
outlawing segregated schools were not absolute victories. African
Americans are still working hard to ensure equal treatment and equal
opportunity in the nation's education system, and I understand further
that the elimination of all black schools may have contributed to the
erosion of some of the solidarity that unified and strengthened the
African American community. So it has become necessary to find new ways
to nurture that sense of community.
 
Similarly, until the early 1970s, segregated institutions were the norm
for the education of blind children-state-run residential schools,
where blind kids lived in dormitories, often separated from their
families for months at a time. The education offered by these
institutions was based largely on the use of Braille as the means of
reading and writing, and without them most blind people would have
remained illiterate and otherwise uneducated. Both my wife Karen and I
attended such a school, and, if we hadn't done so, the two of us would
never have met. So I have no real complaints about my segregated
education. It is true, however, that these schools for the blind were,
simply because of their relatively small size, unable to offer the
breadth and diversity of educational opportunities that most kids would
experience in the public school mainstream. Thus it was a major step
forward as more and more blind children were integrated into the public
school system, but I believe this trend has also contributed to the
loss of some sense of community. What's more, since Braille in the
public schools is the exception rather than the rule, the rate of
Braille literacy among blind children has actually declined over the
past three decades.
 
This year of 2009 is the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Louis Braille, the young Frenchman who invented the system of reading
and writing that I'm using right now. As part of the bicentennial
celebration, we're not just telling the story of our hero, Louis
Braille, but we're launching a long-term campaign to make sure blind
people of all ages are not denied the opportunity to learn to read and
write. This is of course yet another example of a group of people
identifying a real problem and then working together to solve it.
 
So what's the point of talking about these parallels and commonalities
between black people and blind people? Well, in many ways it seems we
live in a time when division and polarization have come to dominate our
society. However, as a blind person, taking time to recognize the many
common experiences that I share with my African American brothers and
sisters-not to mention my two African American step-sons-reminds me
that more things unite us than divide us. What's more, I know that
black people and blind people are not the only two minorities that
share these common experiences. Whether we face injustice resulting
from race, ethnicity, disability, gender, or any other characteristic,
we can all gain knowledge, understanding, wisdom, strength, courage,
and commitment from the words and the example of Dr. Martin Luther
King. His message was simple yet universal, but the business of really
believing it, understanding it, and living it is not always easy.
 
In a few minutes we'll join together and sing a song that thousands,
indeed millions of people have sung together over the years in their
struggle for freedom and human dignity. In the words of that song we
find the fundamental truths that guided Dr. King and that continue to
guide and inspire all of us who really care about matters of justice,
equality, and opportunity. We shall organize; we'll walk hand in hand;
we're not afraid; and someday we will all be free because deep in our
hearts we really do believe that we shall overcome. It's important for
us to sing these words together. The more we repeat them, the more we
know they're true.
 
I remember, when I first heard Dr. Jernigan say that it was respectable
to be blind, that with proper training and opportunity blind people
could compete on terms of equality with sighted people, and that we
really could achieve first-class citizenship, his words made more sense
than anything I had ever heard before about blindness; but deep in my
heart I'm not sure I really believed it. I had to hear and say those
words over and over again, and with time I have come to believe them at
a much deeper level. Even after forty years I'm still learning and
understanding more and more about what it means and, for that matter
what it doesn't mean, to be blind. And each of us can have a similar
experience.
 
Those who marched with Dr. King did not do it because they took some
pleasure in fighting a losing battle. Similarly my commitment to the
organized blind movement has not been a forty-year walk through the
wilderness with no hope of reaching the Promised Land. Like Dr.
Jernigan and Dr. King, I know and you know deep in our hearts that we
can and we shall overcome.
 
Dr. King gave us not only a dream to believe in but also the tools to
help make it come true. During recent years we've come through some
hard times in pursuit of that dream, but the historic event that the
entire nation will experience tomorrow should remind us that the dream
is still very much alive. Of course we all know that the inauguration
of a black man as president of the United States will not bring about a
sudden and immediate solution to all of our problems. Nevertheless it
should be for every one of us an occasion for hope, inspiration, and a
renewed commitment to pursue and fulfill the dream.
 
Thank you for the opportunity to share this evening with you. As Dr.
Jernigan often said at the close of a speech, and I know Dr. King would
agree: "Come, join me on the barricades, and we will make it come
true!"
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Jan Lavine]
 
Oh Where, Oh Where, Are the Braille Books?
 
by Jan A.
Lavine
 
>From the Editor: Jan Lavine received the 2011 Braille Student of the
Year Award from the Hadley School for the Blind. She loves Braille so
much that she became a National Library Service
patron, a certified Literary Braille transcriber, and a certified
Braille proofreader. Jan was asked to help provide hands-on Braille
instruction to adults at the Edmond Chapter of the National Federation
of the Blind of Oklahoma starting in the spring of 2010. She continues
to teach and mentor new Braille readers. Here is what Jan has to say:
 
I was a print reader until things changed in my life on March 27, 2006.
After a day filled with working on house projects, I jumped into the
shower and was giving my eyes a good rubbing, when I heard and felt a
"pop," and it was not a champagne bottle. The next day I noticed my
vision had started to deteriorate rapidly due to leaking blood vessels
behind my retina, filling the pigment epithelial detachment (PED),
which was the "pop." Within seventeen hours I could not read those huge
highway signs on the interstate, and within weeks I could not make out
the golden arches. All I had was a small area of clear undistorted
vision in which I could see only three small print letters at a time
while reading. There was no way I was going to be reading print
competently at that rate. I knew at some point that even that small
window would disappear; would I really have to give up reading?
 
Although I had never known any blind people, I did know they used
Braille to read. What I didn't know was where to find Braille
instruction. The NFB has a brochure, "New Approaches to Consider:
Suggestions for Individuals with Recent Vision Loss," by Ramona Walhof.
What a great brochure for people like me! In this brochure the Hadley
School for the Blind is listed as a resource offering correspondence
courses in Braille reading and writing. I contacted Hadley for a
catalogue and learned that its courses were all free.
 
With over ninety years of experience Hadley definitely knows how to
create and teach Braille correspondence courses. I had taken
correspondence courses years ago for my job, so I knew I could do this.
First I had to fill out an application and get my eye doctor to sign
the Hadley eye report. Then I was ready to start to learn Braille. For
its students without any Braille or tactile experience, Hadley offers
six easy lessons providing practice for hand movements and to start the
brain-hand tactile awakening. This is part one of a four part series
called "Braille Literacy."
 
All the Hadley Braille literacy courses arrive with Braille workbooks
and audio cassettes, which contain all the information and lessons.
Since a tremendous advantage of correspondence courses is the ability
to work through them at your own pace and in the privacy of your own
home, I would sit down comfortably in my recliner with a Braille
workbook in front of me and put on a cassette. It felt as if the Hadley
Braille instructor was right there with me, providing hints,
suggestions, and encouragement to improve my Braille skills. With the
tapes I could stop the lesson temporarily when I needed to think or
rewind it whenever I wanted to hear something again. It was easy to
complete sections in approximately fifteen minutes. Success often
depends on making things bite size, and fifteen minutes each morning to
learn Braille was quite doable. This was easy.
 
After I finished a lesson, I had to complete a short assignment to send
off to my instructor for grading. One must submit an assignment at
least once a month, but it was so easy that I could get many done in
thirty days.
 
In no time I was ready for Braille Literacy 2, the class in which you
learn the Braille alphabet and how to make Braille labels to use around
the house. This was tremendous, but I wanted a real Braille book that I
could search through to find the letters and words I was learning.
Where could I find Braille books? I went to our public library: no
Braille books. I went to new and used bookstores in our city and in
larger ones nearby: no Braille books. We even took a trip over to the
city that housed the school for the blind: no Braille books there
either. Okay, I hear you laughing, but keep in mind I was new to
blindness and to Braille. I was accustomed to finding print anywhere I
went; why would Braille not be the same?
 
Finally I found our state library for the blind. After another
application signed by my eye doctor, I registered to get access to
Braille books from the National Library Service (NLS). Concurrent with
working through Braille Literacy 2 I requested an uncontracted Braille
book. NLS sent me Cinderella, but at the time I sat down to read it I
didn't yet know its title. I had just gone through the first lesson in
Braille Literacy 2, learning the Braille letters l, c, a, and d. With
the NLS book on my lap, my fingers were on the search for those first
letters. Lo and behold, my fingers found a c, d, and lla. It was almost
certain that this word was "Cinderella." I was ecstatic to find my
first word but then shocked to find that the Braille word "Cinderella"
filled most of a Braille line.
 
Braille Literacy 3 is the class in which the real work of reading and
writing uncontracted Braille occurs. And here I was, getting ahead of
myself by trying to read, though I hadn't yet learned more than twenty
letters of the Braille alphabet. It didn't take me long to see that
most Braille books are published in contracted Braille. Now I needed to
take the Hadley Braille Literacy 4 course in order to learn the 189
Braille contractions. This course has thirty lessons. It might sound
like a lot, but it wasn't-it was fun.
 
I found that my instructor would grade three assignments at a time. It
took ten days for the assignments to make the round trip: leave my
house, travel in the mail, get graded, and finally be returned to me.
Within ten days it was easy to complete another three lessons.
 
When I began this course, I found that NLS had my favorite cookbook in
Braille, so, inspired, I spent my mornings doing my Hadley lessons and
my afternoons brailling recipes. I Brailled enough recipes to fill five
volumes. Braille consumed my every waking moment. I fell in love with
Braille and with Hadley.
 
But I still wanted my own Braille books, books I didn't have to Braille
myself or borrow from the NLS and then return. I attended my first NFB
national convention in 2008 in Dallas. The Hadley School for the Blind
had a booth in the exhibit hall. Who was at the Hadley booth? Why, it
was my first Braille instructor. It was exciting finally to meet her in
person. What was even more amazing was the high percentage of people
passing by the Hadley booth who also turned out to be her Braille
students. Had they all read Ramona Walhof's brochure?
 
The biggest draw for me to attend my first NFB national convention was
the Braille Book Fair presented by the National Organization of Parents
of Blind Children (NOPBC) and the National Association to Promote the
Use of Braille (NAPUB). Why, it was just what they advertised it would
be: an opportunity for me to obtain "free, gently used Braille books,"
to read. I would have Braille books all to myself.
 
Waiting in the long line to get into the Braille Book Fair seemed to
take forever, but, wow, was it ever worth it. Adult books were on one
side of the room, children's books on the other. I went on a mad dash
for the cookbooks. Oh do I love cookbooks; I happily picked up one for
preparing recipes using a Crock-Pot®. At the adult book area I found a
Sudoku puzzle book by Will Shortz and an all-time favorite, The Bridges
of Madison County. My arms filled with books, I headed over to the
volunteers who packed up my new treasures for shipping.
 
About thirty minutes later when the crowd around the children's book
area was gone and so too were most of the books, I made my way over
there and managed to pick up yet another armful. Oh, the joy of having
my very own Braille books and all those pages to turn.
 
During the national convention I attended the meeting of the National
Association to Promote the Use of Braille. At this meeting I learned
about <www.sharebraille.org>, the NFB website for exchanging Braille
books. As soon as I read one of those books I had gotten at the Braille
Book Fair, I decided to share it, and no sooner had I posted it on the
site than a person wanted it. What a great way to exchange and keep
those Braille books moving into other people's hands.
 
Through Hadley I obtained Braille skills. Through the NFB I obtained
Braille books to satisfy my thirst to read in Braille. Braille allows
me to keep reading and keep turning those pages, albeit in a different
format. Someday I hope to find a copy of that first book, Cinderella,
at the Braille Book Fair or on <www.sharebraille.org>.
 
Over 10,000 students annually take courses from Hadley, ranging from
art to container gardening. And, if you missed the chance, you can even
get your high school diploma through Hadley. But guess which courses
are the ones with the highest enrollment? You got it, Braille.
 
For more information contact the Hadley School for the Blind, 700 Elm
Street, Winnetka, Illinois 60093. Call toll-free at (800) 323-4238 or
visit the website at <www.hadley.edu>.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Nijat with his morning coffee and NFB-NEWSLINE on his
iPhone]
 
Reading, Reading, Actually Reading the News
 
by Nijat Worley
 
>From the Editor: Nijat Worley is a recent college graduate who now
works at the National Center for the Blind as the manager of marketing
and outreach for sponsored technology. He was born in Azerbaijan, and
his appreciation for a free press and the importance of journalism is
instructive for those of us who take them for granted or malign them
when they make us uncomfortable. Here is what Nijat has to say, not
only about the virtues of a free press, but also about the service that
helps him enjoy it:
 
I have always been somewhat different from my peers. I dont like loud
parties; I dont like to go to bars to drink; and I avoid getting into
dangerous and rash situations such as slacklining (walking on a rope
similar to tightrope walking, except that there is less tension on the
line, so the rope bounces and makes the task more difficult), skiing,
snowboarding, or any other dangerous sport for that matter. This may be
unusual to hear from a guy in his early twenties, but I am disappointed
to say that these are some of the activities that people my age enjoy
the most. I wish more of my peers would spend a Sunday afternoon like
me, reading the news and becoming informed about the political and
environmental happenings in the world.
 
Before you make comments about ivory towers, please let me explain. I
have always been a bit different from my peers. While most of the kids
my age sat in the other room and played video games, I would sit with
the adults as they drank coffee and discussed politics, international
relations, and the rules of war and peace. I dont know why, but I have
always enjoyed philosophy, politics, history, and social studies. These
interested me the most, and they still sustain me in my free time,
which is why I love reading news and current events. This is why
NFB-NEWSLINE® has come to play such a big role in my life.
 
I have been an NFB-NEWSLINE subscriber for over ten years now, and I
use it religiously every day to read my favorite publications because I
enjoy knowing about politics and events taking place all over the
world. Did you know that there was an attempted coup by the military in
Eritrea yesterday? How many of you even know where Eritrea is? No, it
is not a de facto independent region on the eastern tip of Canada.
Well, you get my point. NFB-NEWSLINE makes it very easy for me to have
up-to-the-minute access every day without even thinking about it.
Unlike my older colleagues who once complained that the lack of access
to quality news was a significant problem in their lives, I simply take
it for granted that I should be able to wake up in the morning and
listen to the New York Times while I am exercising, eating breakfast,
or riding the bus to work.
 
Some might say, You dont have to use NFB-NEWSLINE to get news and
information. There are many other methods for accessing them through
television, radio, the Internet, and thousands of applications and
programs on mobile devices. NFB-NEWSLINE is not the only way for a
blind person to receive news in the twenty-first century. These people
are right, but none of those other methods of accessing news reports
provide me with as many choices and as much flexibility as
NFB-NEWSLINE. This versatile service gives me one place to go to access
content from over three hundred publications, all guaranteed to be
readable from my home phone, on my iPhone connected to a Braille
display, or using my home or laptop computer with the screen reader of
my choice.
 
Half an hour of broadcast news on television provides the listener with
only half a page of newsworthy information, because in the thirty
minutes devoted to a news broadcast, two or three commercial breaks
interrupt the news segments. Dont even get me started on the opinions
and commentary of the reporters and news anchors that get slipped in
between the news reports! I find it impossible to make sense of the
important issues and the relevant material I should know to really
comprehend them given the sensational celebrity gossip and
thirty-second sound bites that precede every segment of a news report.
 
Anyway, before I rant about the deficit of professional journalism in
the media culture of the twenty-first century, lets return to the
importance of reading printed news from highly regarded publications
such as the New York Times. I value excellence in journalism and the
painstaking process that journalists go through to bring us valuable
news reports from the center of the action. Whether it is from the
midst of the violent protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, the frontlines
of the war in Afghanistan, the boiling political inquiries of the White
House press room, or the center of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in
New Yorks Financial District, real live journalists put themselves in
danger every day to bring us information from every corner of the world
about the events that matter the most. This is why I owe it to them to
honor their work by taking the time to read what they have gathered and
synthesized.
 
One of the tenets of democracy that we hold dear in this country is a
free press, which is more than the Eritreans can say. The purpose of a
free press is to provide unrestricted reporting of the issues that
concern us as citizens and allow us to have a public discourse on those
issues and come to some consensus. I cannot tell you how thrilling and
emotionally moving it is for me to read public responses to an
editorial on an important political issue such as gun control in the
Sunday edition of the New York Times. I believe that I fulfill an
important duty as an active citizen when I closely read and analyze
well-written news reports by intelligent professionals trained in
providing accurate reports right from the heart of the action.
 
Perhaps the most subtle and yet the most important benefit of reading
newspapers and magazines on NFB-NEWSLINE for me is the ease with which
I am able to navigate through thousands of different articles from
hundreds of different publications right from my telephone or my
iPhone. I would not find the experience nearly as enjoyable if I had to
read the same material while tied to my desk by a desktop computer or
was limited to reading on a laptop while sitting in a chair. Instead I
read what I want to read while eating breakfast at the table or while
lying in bed with the earpiece of my phone pressed against my pillow.
Sometimes the way one reads and the environment in which he reads can
make all the difference in whether the experience is arduous or
pleasurable.
 
NFB-NEWSLINE gives me the freedom to choose from hundreds of
publications and to move effortlessly among their sections. It gives me
important information on images and the captions for those images; it
allows me to read every detail of an article from the funny spelling of
a word to the playful placement of a punctuation mark for emphasis;
nothing escapes me when I am reading newspapers on NFB-NEWSLINE.
Therein lies the true value of NFB-NEWSLINE. It allows me, a blind
person, fully and independently to access enormous amounts of
information at the simple touch of a few buttons on a home phone or a
few taps on a touchscreen at my leisure. I dont have to be in a
specific location; I dont have to read the news according to somebody
elses time; I can easily and fully independently read all my favorite
print publications from the comfort of my armchair, the waiting room of
my doctors office, or the noisy cabin of a Boeing 747 cruising at an
altitude of 35,000 feet.
 
Thanks to the work of the National Federation of the Blind and the work
we do in this organization to improve the lives of the blind in
America, I am able to participate actively in the public discourse in
this country. The NFB has promoted the rights of the blind in America
for seven decades now, and bringing access to printed media is just one
small part of that effort that has drastically changed the lives of
blind people like me. Can I live without NFB-NEWSLINE? Of course I
could, but my life would not be as enriched and as fulfilling without
this excellent service bringing me so much information every day.
NFB-NEWSLINE allows me to gain knowledge and have intelligent
conversations with the people that I interact with on a daily basis.
That is why I am so thankful for it and cherish it.
 
Oh, and just so you know, Eritrea is a small country about the size of
Pennsylvania in eastern Africa bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti
and Sudan. It has a population of six million and no political freedoms
whatsoever: hence the lack of a free press. So the next time you want
to talk about international affairs or have an intellectual political
discussion, feel free to call on me. Thanks to NFB-NEWSLINE, I can be
certain that I will be ready to go toe to toe with you. Just do me a
favor; dont try to entice me to go water skiing or mountain climbing.
Id rather spend my Sunday afternoon reading editorials and writing
responses. Although I have to say that going skydiving does sound like
fun.
 
For more information; go to <www.nfbnewsline.org>.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Glenn Chaple]
 
Accessible Astronomy
 
by Glenn Chaple, Astronomy
Magazine
 
>From the Editor: This article first appeared in the August 2012 issue
of Astronomy magazine. The author dedicated it to Ellie Isaacs, whose
pen-and-ink portrait of Stephen Hawking appeared in the May 2012 issue
of Astronomy. Chaple makes the point that having any sort of disability
shouldnt prevent anyone from actively participating in astronomy
activities. Here is what he says:
 
Imagine this. You are standing at your telescope waiting for the next
interested person to take a peek, when you notice someone in a
wheelchair approaching you. All you can think of is What should I do??
(Noreen Grice, Everyones Universe: A Guide to Accessible Astronomy
Places, You Can Do Astronomy LLC, 2011)
 
What would you do? Approximately one in five individuals copes with a
disability such as visual and/or hearing impairments, communication
challenges, or wheelchair confinement. None of us is immune. An
illness, accident, or simply the aging process can leave a once
able-bodied person with a disability. And its quite possible that such
an individual will show up at a public star party you or your club is
conducting.
 
Having a disability shouldnt prevent anyone from active participation
in astronomy. In fact many have overcome handicaps to make notable
astronomical contributions. In 1783 astronomer John Goodricke, who was
deaf-mute, was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society of England
for his work on variable stars. Until 1932 Edwin Frost was both
director of the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and editor of The
Astrophysical Journal despite having become blind 11 years earlier.
Blindness is no hindrance to modern-day astronomers. For example, Wanda
Diaz-Merced, though blind, is an active radio astronomer with NASAs
Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and a PhD student at the
University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.
 
But perhaps the most celebrated astronomer (well, physicist) with a
mobility and communications disability is Stephen Hawking. Despite
being confined to a wheelchair and dependent on a computerized voice
system to speak (a result of having contracted Lou Gehrigs disease),
Hawking has used his mathematical genius to probe some of cosmologys
greatest mysteries.
 
Modern technology has brought research astronomy into our homes-a boon
to individuals with disabilities. Computer users with mobility or
hearing problems can access robotic telescopes or work on Internet
projects like Zooniverses Galaxy Zoo, Moon Zoo, and Planet Hunters. To
support the upcoming Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer
mission, NASA is asking volunteers to make meteor counts using FM radio
receivers. Find details of this project, a nice fit for visually
impaired space enthusiasts, at
<http://lunarscience.nasa.gov/articles/radio-meteor-counts>.
 
But back to the original question: what would you do should a person in
a wheelchair approach you at a star party? Noreen Grice has some
answers. She became an advocate of astronomy for visitors with
disabilities after a planetarium show she conducted for a group of
children who were blind. An assessment of the program according to the
kids? It stunk!
 
Spurred by the incident, Grice began to research strategies for
presenting astronomy to individuals with a variety of disabilities.
Ultimately she established You Can Do Astronomy LLC-a company whose
mission is to make astronomy and space science accessible to people of
all abilities. Her book Everyones Universe: A Guide to Accessible
Astronomy Places is a must-read for anyone involved in astronomy
outreach and should be in the possession of every astronomy club and
science facility.
 
Everyones Universe is designed to educate both astronomy clubs and
participants with disabilities. Suggestions for accessible outreach
efforts include eyepiece extenders for those using wheelchairs, tactile
books like Grices Touch the Stars (National Braille Press, 2002) for
readers who are visually impaired, picture boards to assist individuals
with communication challenges, and simple paper and pen or iPad to
interact with a person who cannot hear. Everyones Universe also
provides a state-by-state listing of accessible astronomy facilities,
such as planetariums and observatories.
 
But why wait for a person with a disability to show up at your star
party? Be proactive and organize an accessible star party in your
community! In Everyones Universe, Grice spotlights Project Bright Sky,
developed by the Pomona Valley Amateur Astronomers (PVAA) in
California. Through this project, the PVAA conducts private star
parties for those who are visually impaired and offers tactile
astronomy classes at local Braille Institutes. For more on You Can Do
Astronomy and Project Bright Sky, visit
<http://www.youcandoastronomy.com> and <http://brightsky.pvaa.us>,
respectively.
 
As we strive to infuse the excitement of astronomy into the public, we
mustnt neglect the 20 percent of the population suffering from some
kind of disability. Who knows? That person approaching your telescope
might be a potential contributing member of your astronomy club,
possibly even a future scientist. You can help make the universe more
accessible!
 
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at <gchaple at hotmail.com>.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: The 2012 Toyota Prius, the first model year to make an
electronic whirring sound automatically when traveling at speeds below
fifteen mph as a standard feature.]
 
NHTSA Proposes Rules for Automakers to Add Sound to Hybrids
 
by Gabe Nelson
 
>From the Editor: The following story appeared in Automotive News
on Monday, January 7, 2013. The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, but
it appears that pedestrians actually will get the protection from
silent cars that we have been fighting for. Here is the story:
 
Automakers would need to make hybrids and electric vehicles emit sound
under rules that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) proposed on Monday. The rules, ordered by Congress three years
ago, are meant to protect pedestrians and bicyclists from vehicles that
make little sound when using electric power. NHTSA says that designing
the vehicles to make noise at speeds below eighteen mph would prevent
about 2,800 injuries over the life of each model year of vehicles.
 
Adding the needed speaker system would increase the cost of
manufacturing a car or light truck by about $30, the agency estimates.
NHTSA estimates it would cost the whole industry $23 million in 2016,
once the rules are in effect. "Our proposal would allow manufacturers
the flexibility to design different sounds for different makes and
models while still providing an opportunity for pedestrians,
bicyclists, and the visually impaired to detect and recognize a
vehicle," NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in a statement.
 
Before finalizing the rules NHTSA must publish them in the Federal
Register and address any problems that are brought up during a
subsequent sixty-day public comment period. The rules would apply to
passenger cars and light trucks, as well as motorcycles, heavy-duty
trucks, and buses.
 
Adding Speakers
 
To meet the requirements automakers would need to add speakers that are
audible from the street but still protected from the elements. These
speakers would need a digital processor so that they would play the
chosen sound--often a humming noise similar to that of a
gasoline-burning engine--only at low speeds. Beyond the cost of those
components the added weight would increase fuel costs by about $5 over
the lifetime of a light vehicle, NHTSA says. That, combined with the
$30 in components, means the total cost of a vehicle would increase by
about $35.
 
Automakers have started adding speakers to hybrids and electric
vehicles. The 2013 version of the Chevrolet Volt, the best-selling
plug-in hybrid on the market, lets the driver activate a warning sound
using a button on the end of the turn signal lever. The Nissan Leaf,
the best-selling battery-electric vehicle, has a similar system that
plays a sound at speeds of up to eighteen mph. It plays automatically,
but a driver can deactivate the sound by pressing a button beneath the
navigation screen. And, starting with the 2012 model year, all U.S.
versions of the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gasoline-electric
hybrid, automatically make an electronic whirring sound. The sound
plays at speeds below fifteen mph. Toyota does not let drivers disable
the sound on its hybrids, as advocates for the blind and the elderly
have insisted is necessary.
 
Compelling Argument
 
Regulators said on Monday that they find that argument compelling.
During a visit to the headquarters of the National Federation of the
Blind, NHTSA officials tried to cross city streets while blindfolded.
They "found the sound of idling vehicles necessary for determining
whether there was a vehicle present at the intersection and whether it
was safe to cross," the proposal says. Under the proposal drivers would
not be able to deactivate a warning sound while a vehicle is in motion,
which NHTSA says "would compromise pedestrian safety." But the proposal
says regulators have not yet decided whether vehicles should be
required to make noise while idling. Though some drivers have chafed at
hearing noise instead of near-silence, automakers have largely
recognized the risk quiet cars can present to pedestrians. Yet the
rules will require some automakers to add more equipment and others to
change how they design their warning systems.
 
Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, said the group had no immediate comment because it is
still reviewing the proposal. She wrote in an email on Monday: "We have
been working closely with the blind community and NHTSA on this issue
for several years and are continuing to do so to achieve a balanced and
effective rule."
 
----------
 
Blind Community Calls Plea Bargain for Blind Thief from Rumford
`Outrageous
 
by Terry Karkos
 
>From the Editor: A major focus of the programs of the National
Federation of the Blind is justice for blind people. When we talk about
rights, we also talk about responsibilities; when we talk about
equality of opportunity, we do not mean preferential treatment, but
fair and just treatment under the law. When the blind of Maine heard
about a blind mans stealing more than ten thousand dollars from his
neighbor drawing no jail time and being required to pay back less than
a tenth of what had been stolen, they reacted by expressing concern to
the prosecutor, the court, and the newspaper which originally reported
the case.
 
This article first appeared on the Bangor Daily News
website on December 3, 2012. It is reprinted with permission.
 
An Oxford County Superior Court felony theft case earlier this month
has raised the ire of members of the National Federation of the Blind
of Maine. Theyre incensed that a man considered legally blind by the
court would receive no jail time and be required to reimburse the
victim only a fraction of the value of her household belongings he
admitted stealing.
 
On November 14 Charles E. Hamilton, forty-seven, of Rangeley Place in
Rumford pleaded guilty to stealing items valued at eleven thousand
dollars from his neighbors house in May. As part of the plea bargain, a
felony burglary charge was dismissed. Justice Robert W. Clifford gave
Hamilton a two-year deferred disposition. That means he must make
restitution of twelve hundred dollars at fifty dollars a month through
the district attorneys office and refrain from committing another
crime.
 
When the case began, Hamilton gingerly approached his court-appointed
lawyer Maurice Porter and Clifford, sweeping a walking cane for the
blind from side to side ahead of him. Prosecutor Joseph OConnor
acknowledged during the bench trial that Hamilton is legally blind and
on disability. Clifford said the restitution amount is based on
Hamiltons financial condition. If he fails to meet the obligation, he
faces up to five years in prison and a five thousand dollar fine.
 
When asked Friday if he had any regrets or had received any reaction
from the public since pleading guilty, Hamilton said he couldnt
comment, because his case was still before the court. I dont know what
Im allowed to say, he said. Even though Hamilton pleaded guilty and
received a deferred disposition, he is correct. The case is still
before the court, Rosemary Reese, legal secretary for the district
attorneys office in Paris, said Friday.
 
She said that if Hamilton makes the required restitution, commits no
further crime, and abides by the conditions of the disposition, he will
be allowed to plead guilty to a Class D misdemeanor theft and any other
charges would be dismissed. Speaking on behalf of OConnor, Reese said
the plea bargain and deferred disposition were not based on Hamiltons
being legally blind or on disability income.
 
According to OConnor Reese said the victim knew Hamilton and let him
live in her house. And she allowed him to take some things, so there
was a whole bunch of issues with proof on this case. Reese said some
items were recovered and some were not. There was insufficient
evidence, Reese said. Basically, (OConnor) could not prove the case
beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
Patricia Estes and Mark Tardif of the National Federation of the Blind
of Maine and Steve Hoad, a former member, said they believe blindness
did factor into the courts decision. They contacted the Sun Journal and
said they were outraged after learning about the cases outcome during a
discussion about it on November 15 at a Federation meeting. Estes, of
Auburn, is the Federations vice president. Estes, Tardif of Grand Isle,
and Hoad of Windsor are blind. The outrage that someone can weasel out
of felony theft with no time served and next to no compensation is the
same outrage anyone would feel upon hearing such a miscarriage of
justice, Estes stated Tuesday by email. Blindness had no business
factoring into the case at all, she said. That it did is all the more
outrageous.
 
In my opinion Hamilton should have been punished to the full extent the
law allows, Tardif wrote in a letter to the Sun Journal published
Tuesday. Unfortunately, the legal establishment and Hamilton used
stereotypes regarding the blind that responsible blind people have been
trying to show are just not accurate. Hamilton seems to have the idea
that, because he is blind, the consequences of his criminal behavior
should be lessened for him, Tardif said.
 
The circumstances may be a real pitfall in the meting out of justice,
Hoad said Thursday by email. Blind people, whether partially sighted or
not, can and do work, Hoad said. Although the unemployment rate is high
among the blind, there are many well-trained and capable individuals
ready for the workforce whose reputation may be negatively affected by
any inference that pity rather than justice was involved in this case.
 
Tardif said the National Federation of the Blind of Maine is a consumer
organization of blind people and their sighted supporters whose
intention is to empower blind people to live independent, integrated
lives as much as possible. Estes and Tardif said theyve been working
for years to change perceptions about the blind.
 
Maine, however, is behind the curve, Estes said. The pity for this
blind thief was not based on fact, it seems to me, and the next
potential employer, admissions office, or job training program will
find it hard to accept the blind of Maine who have tried so hard to
work, to be educated and trained and to be respected as an individual.
 
Most of us are law-abiding, responsible citizens who expect to be
treated on an equal basis with the sighted, Tardif said.
 
Hoad agreed. We are not interested in pity, Hoad said. We are living in
the real world where reality is exactly the type of treatment we
expect.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Vincent Tagliarino]
 
My Dream, My Business, and My Life
 
by Vincent M
. Tagliarino
 
>From the Editor: Most articles that come to my attention are in an
electronic format. Occasionally I get an article in Braille, but
less frequently do I get one in print. Never does anything these days
come from a typewriter, with the mistakes and strikeovers that are so
easily corrected with a word processor. This one did, but I hope you
will agree it was well worth the effort to transcribe and edit.
 
Some of the history we have covered in recent issues has emphasized the
importance of a university education, but a valid question that blind
people whose strength isnt found in books repeatedly ask is What's out
there for me? Vincent's story shows that success comes in many forms
and doesn't always require a college education or an advanced degree.
What is required is identifying ones talent, exercising the discipline
to develop it, and creating the opportunity to try to succeed in making
a dream come true. Here is how it happened for Vincent Tagliarino, a
charter member of the Buffalo Chapter of the NFB of New York:
 
Most of my relatives and friends call me Vinny. I had sight until I was
eleven years old. Then I started having problems reading the blackboard
at a distance. The eye doctor told my parents that I should not strain
my eyes, so a friend who had the same eye condition (retinitis
pigmentosa) told me that there was a school for the blind in Batavia
called the New York State School for the Blind. My parents applied on
my behalf, and off I went.
 
The school made me repeat fifth grade because I had to learn how to
read and write Braille. They said that it would take me about a year to
do it well. I am extremely happy they made me learn Braille because to
this day everything I do revolves around being able to read and write.
Unlike the situation for today's school children, I had no choice;
Braille it was.
 
In addition to the normal subjects one studies in school such as
reading, writing, arithmetic, and history, the school gave students the
opportunity to learn several trades. It offered courses in music, piano
tuning, woodworking, poultry (yes, the care and feeding of chickens),
home economics, and others I don't now remember.
 
I knew what I wanted to be; my dream was to become a musician and own a
music store. In elementary school I signed up for piano lessons and
band. After I entered high school, I signed up to learn how to be a
piano tuner. They offered excellent training, and I was impressed by
the fact that my piano-tuning teacher was partially blind. After five
years of piano lessons I was able to sign up to learn to play the pipe
organ. I stayed in Batavia for two extra years to learn other skills
that would help me in starting and running a business: how to keep the
books, make out bills, and write business letters.
 
The year I graduated I had to put on a graduation recital using the
pipe organ and the piano. The public was invited, and my family came up
from Buffalo to hear me play. After graduation I got a scholarship to a
summer music camp and enough money for the first semester at Hartwick
College in northeastern New York State. Unfortunately my parents did
not have enough money for me to continue my college education, so I
returned to Buffalo to live.
 
The first thing I had to do was join the musicians union in order to
play in hotels and banquet facilities. The union listed me in the union
directory as a piano, accordion, and organ musician. I was also listed
as a piano tuner and technician. The latter was a fortunate listing
because it helped me meet many piano players who needed someone to tune
their instruments.
 
In my second year out of school and still with no work, I was fortunate
to audition for a quartet that played on the road. They knew I was
blind and didn't care; all they cared about was that I play well enough
to be in their band. I traveled extensively in New Jersey, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and New York State. Not only did I earn some money and do
some traveling, but I proved that I could sell myself as a blind person
and as a musician. This gave me the confidence to keep on trying when
times got tough. It confirmed for me what the National Federation of
the Blind said about blind people, and I have spent most of my life
trying to communicate that message to blind and sighted people alike.
 
After six months on the road I was offered a job playing piano six
nights a week in Buffalo. I took that job because the band did not
always have work, and this job let me stay home and avoid the expenses
that came with traveling. A blind friend who also graduated from the
school for the blind in Batavia was teaching organ and piano lessons in
the Wurlitzer Music Store in downtown Buffalo. He was able to get a
grand piano to work on and asked me if I could help him recondition it
to sell. His idea was that in this way we could both make some money
for ourselves. At no charge the store gave us a spot where we could
recondition it, and we went to work. While at the store I met the other
piano tuners who worked there and also got to know the salesmen. Six
months later one of the piano tuners retired, and I was offered a
full-time job as the inside piano tuner for this five-floor music
store. Needless to say, I was very happy.
 
In my four years working in the store, I met many musicians and people
who wanted me to tune their pianos. These became my private customers,
and I handled their business on evenings and weekends. In 1960 I left
the store and started my own business doing piano tuning. My mother
helped me by driving three days a week, and I hired a part-time driver
for the other two days. When I branched out and started to get busy
doing repair work, my father let me use his workshop in the basement.
Before long I got so much work that I needed more space. The work was
starting to take over the house, so I asked my parents if I could build
a shop in the back. They said okay, and I immediately went to the bank
for a loan. I hired my uncle to do the work. He knocked down the old
garage and built a thirty-by-thirty building. With this space I was
able to bring in bigger items to work on, and I also started buying
used pianos to recondition and sell.
 
Soon I got into the business of selling new pianos. Before long I once
again needed more room. About a block away from my shop, I saw a for
rent sign on a storefront property. I signed a one-year lease with the
option to renew it for a second year. I soon realized I needed more
money to buy merchandise and equipment to operate the store and made an
appointment with the Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped
to see if they could help me purchase these things. After I filled out
the paperwork and waited several weeks, the Buffalo office of the
agency okayed my application and sent it off to Albany, where the
higher-ups had their headquarters. A few weeks later I received
disappointing news; my request for money to expand my business had been
rejected.
 
Now what could I do? I had already rented the store and ordered the
merchandise to fill it. I and those from whom I had purchased my stock
had assumed approval from the district office was sufficient. The
warehouse had shipped my showcases and other equipment to the store.
This was quite a blow to me, so I went to the owner of the warehouse
and described my predicament. He felt very sympathetic and understood
my situation. He made a deal with me. He asked how much money I could
come up with, and, when I told him, he agreed to make me a loan from
his own pocket at no interest. Even with this help I had to borrow more
money from the bank, but I was able to open the store.
 
After a year I decided not to renew the lease. The expenses were a
little too high. I moved back into my original shop, but several of my
friends were excited about what I was doing and wanted to help me meet
other people who might increase my business. I was encouraged to join
an exclusive business club that offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. In
exchange for playing piano at their parties for no charge, I would not
have to pay their membership fees, and I would get drinks and food at
no cost to me. What a deal! I met a lot of great business people, and,
as my friends had expected, this paid off.
 
Eventually I was fortunate enough to get a franchise on new pianos.
Again I started running out of room, so I asked my parents if I could
put a storefront on the house and open the whole downstairs area to the
public. They said all right, and again I got a contractor to make the
needed modifications to the building. Money being tight, I asked an
aunt, with whom I was close, if I could borrow some money to pay the
contractor, and she said yes. Once again my business was growing and
prospering.
 
Some eight years later I told my wife that I wanted a bigger store near
the University of Buffalo. I found a store for sale on Main Street
across from the University. Because of a fire in the building, it
needed a great deal of remodeling, both inside and out. My wife joked
that only a blind guy would buy it, but I saw visions of what this
building could be when I was done with it. So I put in a bid and got
the building. To buy the building and remodel it, I went to the Small
Business Administration for a loan and eventually got it.
 
What helped this business grow was the name. I named my business
Buffalo Piano Sales and Tuning, Inc., with Tagg's Music as a division
of the corporation. I thought that with a big name like that I would
get a great deal of business, and I did. Three large school systems,
several nursing and assisted living facilities, a number of churches,
and many residential customers came to trust me to do their work. My
business soon employed three professional servicemen, including me. One
tuner worked in the shop, one did the residential calls, and I did the
commercial work. Because I could do anything required to service a
piano, I did more concert work than any other piano tuner in western
New York. I can say this with confidence because I worked with one
promoter who sponsored concerts six nights a week, Monday through
Saturday, and a different concert on Sunday. Many of these concerts
were held in a large tent that held about 3,300 people. I had to tune
every Monday before the opening night and Sundays before the evening
concert. There were about fifty to sixty tunings in the summer alone.
Two other big promoters held their concerts at the football stadium.
Working for them meant I met many stars. I came to feel very good about
myself, knowing I could compete quite successfully with sighted tuners
and still manage to build a successful business.
 
In my many years in business I have learned that it is essential to
know your profession thoroughly and to do anything you must do to
satisfy the customer. This I was and still am able to do. In addition
to tuning and repair, I write up insurance estimates on damaged pianos
and give second opinions to many customers who have problem pianos and
have been discouraged from fixing them. Many of these I am able to
repair.
 
Back in 1956 I was involved in starting the Buffalo Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind. At that time it was called the Empire
State Association of the Blind. I was a charter member, have been a
member for fifty-seven years, and have been on the board of directors
for most of that time. In 1977 I became president of the chapter and
served for twenty-two years until 1999. At that time I asked the
chapter to vote in my vice president as our leader; they voted me in as
vice president, and I am still proudly serving today.
 
Since I joined as a charter member, this organization has been very
dear to me. I have worked with Dr. Jernigan; Dr. Maurer, for whom I
have tremendous respect; and James Gashel, who taught me much about how
to work with other people who are blind. When we had a lawsuit against
the Blind Association of Western New York, Mr. Gashel and I were on
television several times. I was also on the radio for four hours
talking about our issues concerning the blind in the sheltered shop.
One thing I learned in working with James was that blind people, like
sighted people, are quite different from one another, that we all have
different wants and needs, and we all bring differing abilities to the
world. I learned to understand blind people as individuals.
 
In the fifty-seven years I have been a member of the Buffalo chapter,
the NFB has given me many awards. In 1982 I received my first plaque
for distinguished service. In 2006, at our NFB state convention, the
Buffalo chapter gave me a plaque for fifty years of service, for being
a charter member, and for outstanding service working with the blind.
In 2008 the National Federation of the Blind of New York gave me a
plaque for my volunteer service.
 
I have long believed what the Federation says about getting out and
mixing with the sighted public to demonstrate that blind people are
capable, so I have made an effort to be involved in several activities
outside my business. I have belonged to the Lions Club for fifty-six
years, and in that time have received awards at all levels from my
club, my district, and our International Lions Clubs. I also belong to
the Lancaster Depew Chamber of Commerce and was nominated for the
businessman of the year award in 2006.
 
On December 9, 2011, the Herald Tribune magazine and the front page of
the New York Times newspaper ran an article about a famous jazz
musician, Boyd Dunlop, who is in a nursing facility. He is from Buffalo
and played in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other large
cities. The nursing home had a piano which was in bad shape, and I was
called upon to replace two keys and tune it back to pitch. Mr. Dunlop
was so happy that he put my name in the write-up with him. I received
calls from friends in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina teasing me
about being a celebrity. What fun!
 
I like the philosophy that the National Federation of the Blind has
taught me: as a blind person you can do it. I have often been
encouraged by this and have tried hard to give that encouragement to
others. When people care enough to help other people, wonderful things
can happen. My story demonstrates it; my life is better for it; and
because of my work the world is just a little more in tune.
 
For further information on the profession of piano tuning, contact:
 
NFB's Piano Technology Group
 
Don Mitchell, chairperson
 
Home: (360) 696-1985
 
E-mail: <donmi at pianotuningschool.org>
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Sierra Gregg at the 2012 National Convention in Orlando
where she received a scholarship.]
 
Intern's Efforts Broaden Access to Vital Historic Documents
 
by Doug Moore
 
>From the Editor: Sierra Gregg was a winner of a National Federation of
the Blind scholarship in 2012. She is an impressive young woman, as the
article that appeared in
St. Louis Today for January 6 attests:
 
Sierra Gregg was excited about her internship at the Office of
Presidential Libraries in Washington. Her task in the summer of 2011
was to help beef up the offices social media presence on sites such as
Facebook and Twitter. As the twenty-first anniversary of the Americans
with Disabilities Act was approaching, Gregg, a student at Truman State
University, began looking for records to feature but found only two,
neither of which was a copy of the law that changed the way those with
disabilities are treated in the U.S. And neither was in a format that
would allow software or reading equipment used by those visually
impaired to be of use.
 
I was shocked and kind of mad, I guess, because, of all the events Id
been covering and researching, this was the one I was looking forward
to the most, said, Gregg, twenty-one, who grew up in the small St.
Louis County community of Oakland, near Kirkwood. So I mentioned this
to my supervisor, that I wanted more ADA records to be digitized. And
we came up with the idea to create a webpage to feature these records.
Greggs passion for making more documents accessible to those with
disabilities is understandable. She was born with a rare birth defect
that left her legally blind.
 
On July 26, the twenty-second anniversary of the signing of the ADA,
the National Archives launched Greggs new webpage, which contains
fifty-six newly digitized documents. The records include letters Helen
Keller wrote to President Herbert Hoover and a letter written in
Braille by a thirteen-year-old boy to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
 
The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President
George H.W. Bush in 1990, a year before Gregg was born. I have grown up
in a world where my visual impairment is not a hindrance to my success,
only a characteristic of who I am, said Gregg, who went to Ursuline
Academy and is now working on a computer science degree at Truman
State.
 
Jeannie Chen, social media coordinator for the Office of Presidential
Libraries, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration,
said Greggs passion brought to light the shortage of documents readily
accessible. We had hoped to find more of those records already scanned
and online, Chen said. Sierra helped us realize this was an area where
we could serve more people.
 
Presidential Gems
 
Gregg began looking through the websites for the thirteen presidential
libraries. Documents already online were not always in a format that
could be manipulated to be read more clearly. So the office, with the
help of other summer interns, began transcribing them so they could be
digitally formatted. Doing so allows the text to be greatly magnified
online for the visually impaired.
 
The records Gregg helped collect for the site, archives.gov, go beyond
the ADA. For example, there are documents from the administration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio and started what is now the March
of Dimes. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn elevated
awareness of mental health care. And President John F. Kennedys sister,
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was the driving force behind the creation of
the Special Olympics.
 
This was a great project because it broadened the types of records we
have. Sierra worked on making things more accessible in general, Chen
said. The site explains the highlighted documents this way: From
personal letters to historic legislation, these records provide insight
into efforts over the past century to establish programs and to protect
the rights of people with disabilities.
 
Greggs efforts were noted on the White House Blog, where she detailed
her internships during the summers of 2011 and 2012. Susan K. Donius,
director of the Office of Presidential Libraries, introduced Greggs
blog entry, saying the college student recognizes the importance of
sharing presidential records related to disability history. She has
been closely involved in a project to make a selection of these
documents accessible to a wide audience.
 
In the blog post Gregg said at least one record from every presidential
administration since Hoover is included on the site, including her
favorite, a letter from a sixth-grade boy to Eisenhower in 1956,
offering advice for his re-election campaign. Dear Ike, the letter from
John Beaulieu, a student at a Massachusetts school for the blind,
begins. I decided to write you a little speech which might help you to
win the election. Little it was. Vote for me. I will help you out. I
will lower the prices and also your tax bill. I also will help the
Negroes so that they may go to school.
 
Eisenhower, who won re-election, replied to Beaulieu: Dear John: It was
nice of you to send me a little speech to help win the election. I wish
I were able to write back to you in Braille also, but I am sure that
one of your teachers will be happy to read this to you.
 
In her blog post Gregg also noted that two letters written to President
Hoover by Keller are among the documents on the site. Gregg said Keller
wrote letters to eight U.S. presidents, starting in 1903 with Theodore
Roosevelt, and met with thirteen presidents, from Grover Cleveland to
Lyndon B. Johnson. I must admit to feeling a twinge of envy when I
learned that during a visit to the White House, she investigated her
historic surroundings with touch. She even identified a bust of George
Washington with her fingers, Gregg said of Keller.
 
Culture Shock
 
John Thompson, president of Lighthouse for the Blind--St. Louis, which
provides various services to the visually impaired, said Greggs efforts
are impressive, especially given her personality. I remember when I
first met her; timid is putting it mildly, said Thompson. Gregg went
through Lighthouses three-week residential program for teens, stressing
independence, including communication and social skills. There is a
tendency for so many kids who are visually impaired to not go out to
get the experiences that sighted kids get, Thompson said. As they go
through adolescence, they tend to become an island into themselves.
 
Gregg said she recalled getting an email accepting applications for the
internship and thought it would fit nicely with her plans to go to
graduate school for a library science degree. But she admits Washington
was culture shock for her. Her commute to work included crowded buses
and trains. Using public transportation is something encouraged in the
Lighthouse program Gregg participated in. Had she not gone through the
program, I would never have made it in D.C., Gregg said. Lighthouse
also provided scholarships to help with her housing costs in
Washington.
 
As Gregg works to complete her studies with an eye on library
management, Chen says she is glad the young woman from St. Louis spent
two summers in Washington. She brought such a strong interest, Chen
said. As a result we were able to create a really wonderful resource at
the agency that will end up being valuable to the general public.
 
If you are interested in reading more blind history, check out the
offerings on The Blind Cat at
<http://webopac.infovisionsoftware.com/nfb/>.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Ivan Weich]
 
The Role of Labor in My Life and in the Progress of the Organized Blind
Movement
 
by Ivan Weich
 
>From the Editor: Ivan Weich is president of the National Association of
Blind Public Employees and the chapter president of the Kitsap County
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington. He also
works full-time for the federal government. As part of his job he is a
national union representative. Last year he was elected national fair
practices and affirmative action coordinator for the American
Federation of Government Employees District Eleven, which covers eight
states of the Pacific Northwest. His union represents over six hundred
thousand federal employees and employees of the District of Columbia.
 
It is clear that Ivan feels passionately about his union work, an
emotion any of us who feel dedicated and passionate about what we do
and why we do it will have no trouble understanding. No matter ones
position on the contentious issues that sometimes divide labor and
management, all of us can be proud that a blind person has found yet
another place to shine in the diverse workforce of America. This is
what he says:
 
Before I proceed, I want to say that this article is about the U
word-union. I know that some people do not like to talk about unions,
but we have to discuss them here. Unions are an institution in this
country, and, like the Federation, unions are here to stay. As a matter
of fact, the Federation has a great deal to be thankful for from the
unions. Dr. Jernigan reminded us on many occasions that we in the
National Federation of the Blind have the right to select our
representatives to present our views and grievances, and we have the
right to assemble peaceably to air them. These are the same rights
given to unions.
 
When I first joined the Federation in the 1980s, the NFB was referred
to by some as "the evil ones," "that militant organization," and "that
bunch of radicals." Fortunately many have now come to understand what
we have known all along: that the NFB is an incredible organization
with integrity, clout, and respect.
 
Before my government career I worked in private industry, where we had
no unions and where I was treated quite unfairly. Even so, back then my
impression of unions was dismal. All I had to go on were the images of
union picketers disrupting work, stories about arson and assaults for
which they were blamed, and service delays during strikes which of
course were the fault of those greedy people pushing for more and more.
Sometimes I made legitimate complaints about service delays, only to be
told by company representatives that they were because of the union.
 
On the first day of my federal career, I took my loyalty oath and
minutes later was addressed by the union steward. It felt awkward and
struck me as ironic that first I had taken an oath not to strike
against the government and then I was addressed by the employees'
union. It made no sense to me; I didn't think we could have a union
because we couldn't strike, which was what I thought the union did.
Over time I have learned that we can accomplish a great deal without a
strike or work stoppage.
 
After two years on the job with the government, I went to my union
steward to file a grievance because my supervisor and manager had
passed me up for a temporary assignment in a field office. After the
steward called my manager on it, I got a duty assignment to an office
near my home. I was so happy that I started assisting the union and
then became a union steward. Six months later I was asked by my local
president to prepare an appellate brief to the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, since my background and training were in legal
research and writing. About ninety days later we received a decision on
the appeal, and the Commission ruled in our favor.
 
In 1994 my local president asked me if I would be willing to serve as a
union official. I thought about it and said yes. My family kept telling
me that I was making a big mistake. I told them that I had not been
getting anywhere without the union, and, if I did not speak up for
myself and others, I would always be beaten down, and so would others.
 
My union responsibilities include meeting with employees, determining
their issues, and developing the evidence. I also prepare a reply to
any proposal from management. My work is similar to what is done by an
attorney, but of course I cannot give legal advice. By 1999 I had
become the secretary/treasurer of my local, I was being considered for
national representative, and I was doing the full range of union
representation. In November of 1999 I had to give all of that up when I
transferred to Washington State to care for my father, who was dying of
cancer.
 
In my nine-year absence from union leadership, I still kept up on the
laws that affect union representation and federal employment. In 2007 I
was elected as a delegate to my new local in Washington State, and I
was a unit delegate to the Central Labor Council in my town. In 2010 I
was elected as sergeant at arms of my local and resumed union work
almost immediately. In 2011 I was asked to run for fair practices
affirmative action coordinator for District Eleven. I was surprised
because I thought I had to wait five years before I could be nominated
for anything. I gave it some thought, ran for the position at the
district caucus, and was sworn into service minutes after the results
were announced.
 
My position requires serving as a resource person for equal employment
opportunity and affirmative action issues. Doing the job involves
teleconferences, meetings, travel, and time away from my usual work. In
some cases I make referrals to our union's attorneys for assistance. As
part of my job I provide training on basic federal EEO law and
representation. My position puts me on the national Human Rights
Committee for the union. In this group we focus on issues of human
rights, civil rights, and worker rights.
 
In order to do my job, I have several alternative skills. First, I use
adaptive technology. I have an iPhone so I can stay up-to-date on my
email. I also have a backup system in case the computer is down and
needs its Prozac. That backup is an At-A-Glance 8.5x11 appointment book
to keep track of appointments, meetings, and travel.
 
When I travel to other cities, arrangements are made ahead of time for
a local union officer or staffer to pick me up at the train station or
the Dog House [the Greyhound station]. When I work out of the national
office, I am provided a computer with adaptive software, and, when
attending national-office-sponsored training, I am assigned an intern
who serves as my reader. Handouts, forms, and worksheets are produced
in large print for me. Most of the time I book my own travel through
our contracted travel agent.
 
Since I have been in office, we have made significant strides on behalf
of disabled members, staffers, employees, delegates, and
representatives. We are introducing two resolutions this year at our
national convention. The first one is to establish a disabled employees
coalition. The second is to ensure that materials are made available in
alternative formats (including Braille) for attendees, delegates,
staffers, representatives, officers, and employees when they attend
conventions, caucuses, training classes, and national meetings.
 
Organized labor is like any large organization or employer-we need good
people to work for us as employees. Some positions require an advanced
degree and/or professional license as in the case of an attorney,
accountant, or economist. Some positions require a four-year degree in
journalism, finance, labor studies, human resources, or political
science. Some positions are program-specific, and an applicant must
have both education and experience in a special field such as EEO or
health and safety. Unions also need office professionals and
secretaries. They hire organizers for membership and mobilization.
These are sales jobs requiring one to meet goals for recruiting new
members and helping locals retain them.
 
Like the NFB, our union has national resources that are generously
shared with the local labor organizations. National representatives
work in each district to help locals with representational issues.
These include helping to organize elections to determine whether
employees want to join a union and handling disputes that sometimes
occur during those elections. Representatives also provide basic
steward training, advanced litigation training for seasoned stewards,
and leadership training for local leaders. To become a national
representative, one must start out as a local officer and then be
selected after years of experience in the diverse demands placed on
union officials. Just as in the Federation, union employees serve at
the pleasure of the national president.
 
The best way to compete for union work is to master your union job. All
employees must have a strong interest in organized labor. No matter
what position one occupies, part of the job is selling the union to a
prospective member. So sold are we on collective bargaining that even
employees of unions are themselves represented by a union.
 
If you are interested in organized labor and if you are in college and
studying labor, law, accounting, journalism, or political science, you
can inquire about internship programs at any unions national office.
You can also check with your adviser or school placement office for
union opportunities in your area.
 
Being a union officer is no popularity contest. A good union officer
must be able to 1) manage a local in order to represent the needs of
all covered employees, 2) lead in a fair and equitable manner
(including financial management), 3) be a leader, 4) be a good
listener, 5) be willing to challenge questionable decisions of the
employer, 6) be willing to sacrifice your time and resources to benefit
your covered employees, and 7) be able to sell your union to potential
members. The parallel is clear; one could easily insert Federation in
place of union in this list and it would be every bit as appropriate.
 
The National Federation of the Blind has benefited a great deal from
organized labor. Aside from the Labor Day holiday, the creation of the
Social Security Act, and the overtime law, the Federation has benefited
from the traditions the union has established and perfected to
communicate with the public. Public meetings, rallies, pickets, and the
right to present our views were all made acceptable by organized labor,
and, when called upon to take our message to the public, the Federation
has made good use of these tools. Labor too has been influenced by the
National Federation of the Blind. It has become an excellent career
opportunity for talented people, including those who are disabled. As
the blind become ever more visible in the work of the unions, we become
more integrated into the mainstream of society, demonstrating our
energy, our competitive spirit, and our social conscience. I think this
is what our founders had in mind, and I am grateful to play a part in
our ongoing struggle to gain the equality of opportunity and the
security to which we commit ourselves each time we recite the
Federation pledge.
 
----------
 
[Photo/Caption: Janice Toothman]
 
          My Experiences in the National Federation of the Blind
 
by Janice Toothman
 
>From the Editor: The following article first appeared in the newsletter
of the Washington Metropolitan Association of the Deaf-Blind. It was
reprinted in the the summer 2012 issue of the Blind Spectator, the
publication of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.
According to the editor, Janice Toothman is a hard worker and embodies
the spirit of the Federation in many ways. She is not afraid to take on
new challenges and doesn't give up when the going gets tough. Here is
her story:
 
In 2006 I had been blind for two years. However, I was feeling pretty
isolated and alone, not being able to work and not feeling confident
enough in my cane skills to go out and walk as I used to do. I learned
about the National Federation of the Blind when I received a letter
asking me if I would like to meet other blind people to learn
independence skills and how the NFB works to benefit the lives of the
blind. It was at that meeting that I met the Sligo Creek Chapter
president, Debbie Brown, and the vice president, Pauline Johnson. Both
of these women were working full-time and supporting themselves. I was
glad to meet other blind women whom I could talk to and get to know.
 
I was overwhelmed when I went to my first national NFB convention in
Atlanta in 2006. My parents took me, and we stayed for only the first
three days. We went to the technology seminars but did not go to the
general sessions. I had not yet become a member of the NFB. In the
coming months I went to the Sligo Creek Chapter monthly meetings. By
this time I had become a member. That fall I was not confident, so I
did not participate in any of the activities or fundraising events. In
the spring of 2007 I took my first steps toward empowerment. I wrote
letters to senators, delegates, and Congressmen asking for their
support for bills that the NFB was trying to pass to benefit the blind.
Debbie, the chapter president, was teaching me and three other women
from the chapter to read and write Braille. We met once a week on
Sunday afternoons for two years. By the time we were finished I had
learned contracted Braille.
 
Since those early years I have blossomed into an active member of the
NFB. In 2009 I received the Anna Cable Award at the Maryland state
convention for achievement and excellence in acquiring independence
skills and encouraging others toward independence. I am now a board
member of the Sligo Creek Chapter. I am also the secretary for the
deaf-blind division in the NFB. I am also trying to establish a guide
dog division in the state of Maryland. I value the friendships that I
have with many blind men and women. In particular I appreciate getting
to know other deaf-blind individuals within the NFB and helping them
get the most out of conventions. I also feel it is imperative that we
work toward legislation to improve prospects for the blind and
deaf-blind. Fundraising has given me more confidence to go out into the
world and show people that despite being deaf-blind I can be
independent. Through my association with the NFB I have learned that
the deaf-blind are not second-class citizens. The NFB has taught me to
ask for the accessibility tools I need in my everyday life activities.
In joining the NFB, I recognized that as a deaf-blind person I must
advocate for change on both the state and national levels so that the
deaf-blind can enjoy more opportunities in employment and greater
access to technology.
 
----------
 
Giving a Dream
 
One of the great satisfactions in life is having the opportunity to
assist others. Consider making a gift to the National Federation of the
Blind to continue turning our dreams into reality. A gift to the NFB is
not merely a donation to an organization; it provides resources that
will directly ensure a brighter future for all blind people.
 
Seize the Future
 
The National Federation of the Blind has special giving opportunities
that will benefit the giver as well as the NFB. Of course the largest
benefit to the donor is the satisfaction of knowing that the gift is
leaving a legacy of opportunity. However, gifts may be structured to
provide more:
 
§ Helping the NFB fulfill its mission
 
§ Realizing income tax savings through a charitable deduction
 
§ Making capital gain tax savings on contributions of appreciated
assets
 
§ Providing retained payments for the life of a donor or beneficiary
 
§ Eliminating or lowering the federal estate tax in certain situations
 
§ Reducing estate settlement costs
 
NFB programs are dynamic:
 
§ Making the study of science and math a real possibility for blind
children
 
§ Providing hope and programs for seniors losing vision
 
§ Promoting state and local programs to help blind people become
first-class citizens
 
§ Educating the public about blind peoples true potential
 
§ Advancing technology helpful to the blind
 
§ Creating a state-of-the-art library on blindness
 
§ Training and inspiring professionals working with the blind
 
§ Providing critical information to parents of blind children
 
§ Mentoring blind job seekers
 
Your gift makes you a partner in the NFB dream. For further information
or assistance, contact the NFB planned giving officer.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Allen Harris]
 
Convention Scholarships Available
 
by Allen Harris
 
>From the Editor: Allen Harris chairs the Kenneth Jernigan Convention
Scholarship Fund committee. He has an important announcement for those
who would like to attend this year's national convention but find
themselves short of funds. This is what he says:
 
The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund is looking for
individuals who can use some financial assistance to attend our
national convention in Orlando, Florida. At the 2012 convention in
Dallas we were able to assist sixty-three people. In 2013 our
convention will begin on Monday, July 1, and run through Saturday, July
6. The convention is a day shorter than you might expect, ending with
the banquet Saturday evening.
 
Who is eligible to receive a Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship?
If you are a member of the National Federation of the Blind who has not
yet attended a national convention, you are eligible to apply.
 
What do I have to do to apply for a Kenneth Jernigan Convention
Scholarship? You must do the following and are responsible for meeting
these application requirements:
 
1. Each individual who applies for a Kenneth Jernigan Convention
Scholarship must write a letter to the selection committee. You will
send your letter of application to your NFB state affiliate president.
A list of state presidents is posted on the NFB website <www.nfb.org>.
He or she will forward your completed application, along with his or
her recommendation, to the committee at <kjscholarships at nfb.org>. You
and your state president should make contact by telephone so that he or
she is well aware of your financial need and your wish to attend the
convention in Orlando. If you have questions, you may also send a
message to the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship chairman by addressing your
email to the scholarship submission email address.
 
2. You must write a letter to the Kenneth Jernigan Fund committee
expressing the reasons why you want a scholarship. Describe your
participation in the Federation and what you think you would contribute
and receive at the convention.
 
3. You must register for and attend the entire convention, including
the banquet.
 
What else must I do to insure that my application will be considered?
We must have all of the following information:
 
1. Your full name
 
2. Your address
 
3. Your telephone numbers (home, business, and cell)
 
4. Your email address (if you have one)
 
5. Your state president's name and the name of your local chapter, if
you attend one
 
All applications must be received by April 15, 2013.
 
How do I get my scholarship funds? You will get a debit card at the
convention loaded with the amount of your scholarship award. The times
and locations to pick up your debit card will be listed in the notice
you receive if you are a scholarship winner. The committee is not able
to provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and
state affiliate to assist you by advancing funds you can pay back when
you receive your scholarship.
 
When will I know if I have been selected as a Kenneth Jernigan
Scholarship winner?
 
The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May
15, but you must do several things to be prepared to attend if you are
chosen:
 
1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from
attending, you can cancel your reservation.
 
2. You will receive a letter with the convention details which should
answer many of your questions. It is also helpful to find a mentor from
your chapter or affiliate to act as a friend and advisor during the
convention. Although you will not know officially whether or not you
have been selected until mid-May, you must make plans to attend and
then adjust your arrangements accordingly.
 
Last summer in Dallas the Jernigan Fund scholarship committee awarded
sixty-three Kenneth Jernigan Scholarships. Grants ranged from $400 to
$500. The amount we can give will depend on the funds available; we
attempt to award additional funds to families. You can include in your
letter to the committee any special circumstances which the committee
may choose to take into consideration. Above all, please use this
opportunity to attend your first convention and join several thousand
other blind Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind
in the world.
 
If you have questions or need additional information, call Allen Harris
at (205) 520-9979 or email him at <kjscholarships at nfb.org>. We look
forward to seeing you in Orlando.
 
----------
 
Recipes
 
This months recipes come from members of the National Federation of the
Blind of Maine.
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Leon Proctor, Jr.]
 
Stuffed Rigatoni
 
by Leon Proctor
 
Leon Proctor is president of the NFB of Maine. He has been a member for
one-and-a-half years. He lives with his wife Suzanne in Lewiston. He
says, I created this recipe about eight months ago. We think it is very
tasty.
 
Ingredients:
 
At least 1 pint ricotta cheese
 
1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef
 
1 large bag shredded mozzarella cheese
 
1 pound box rigatoni
 
2 large jars spaghetti sauce
 
Method: Brown ground beef in a 10- to 12-inch skillet on medium heat.
Be sure to separate meat well with a spoon as it cooks to be sure that
it is all thoroughly cooked. Drain fat and set aside. In large pot
bring water to boil and cook rigatoni according to package directions.
While waiting for water to come to a boil, in large mixing bowl mix a
pint of the ricotta cheese, two cups mozzarella cheese, and cooked
ground beef. Mix till all ingredients are well combined. When rigatoni
is just cooked, drain water and return rigatoni to pot. Fill a pastry
bag with the cheese and meat mixture and then fill each rigatoni noodle
by hand. (This takes some time, so, if you have a spouse or friend
willing to help, feel free to ask.) After filling rigatoni, place
noodles in a lasagna pan with spaghetti sauce covering the bottom of
the pan. Halfway through filling lasagna pan, add more sauce. Stir
gently till pan is filled with rigatoni and sauce all mixed together.
Top the stuffed rigatoni with remaining mozzarella cheese and bake for
twenty to twenty-five minutes at 350 degrees, till cheese is melted and
mixture is bubbly. Let dish stand for fifteen to twenty minutes before
serving. If you like lots of cheese, use more of either or both.
 
----------
 
Italian Chicken
 
by Leon Proctor
 
Ingredients:
 
2 bags of frozen mixed vegetables (wax beans, string beans, and
carrots)
 
2 16-ounce bottles or 1 large bottle of zesty Italian dressing
 
Family package of boneless chicken breasts, cubed
 
Method: Place both bags of frozen vegetables and cubed raw chicken in
Crock-Pot®. Then pour at least a whole bottle of Italian dressing over
the top. (You may need both bottles; use your judgment.) Cover
Crock-Pot and cook on high for four hours. Serve over rice or mashed
potatoes.
 
----------
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Patricia Estes and NFB of Georgia President Garrick
Scott outside Beckys Diner]
 
Tourtière, Traditional Franco-American Pork Pie
 
by Patricia Estes
 
Pat Estes is first vice president of the NFB of Maine. She and her
husband Skip are longtime Federationists and live in Auburn.
 
Pat explains that tourtière is a traditional French dish that is served
to this day in eastern Canada and the many Franco-American settlements
in Maine. It is a meat pie, usually pork, served at the feast called
"Reveillon," which occurs after midnight mass on Christmas Eve.
However, Pat grew up not waiting to feast, and this is the recipe she
has settled on over the years. It is most like her Mémère's, who just
giggled when Pat asked her for her recipe. Here is Pats version:
 
Ingredients:
 
One pound lean ground pork and 1/2 pound lean ground beef or all ground
pork
 
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
 
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
 
1/8 teaspoon pepper
 
1 cup water
 
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
 
1 to 2 cups mashed potatoes without milk
 
Method: Combine first five ingredients in pot and cover. Cook slowly
for forty-five minutes to an hour. Add cinnamon and cloves and cook for
fifteen minutes longer. Add one to two cups mashed potatoes without
milk to the meat mixture and simmer very slowly for two hours. Let meat
filling cool. Meanwhile, roll out bottom crust and line a nine-inch pie
plate. Fill this unbaked pie shell with meat mixture and cover with top
crust. Score the top and seal edges of pie. Bake at 400 degrees for
forty-five minutes. Remove from oven and brush crust with butter or
milk. Serve hot with the following simple side salad.
 
----------
 
Side Salad
 
On each plate arrange two or three bright green leaves of romaine
lettuce. place one unsweetened canned peach half on lettuce bed and top
with softened cream cheese.
 
-----------
 
Hot Fudge Sundae Cake
 
by Pat Estes
 
This family favorite is mixed, baked, and served in the same pan.
 
Ingredients:
 
1 cup flour
 
3/4 cup sugar
 
2 tablespoons cocoa
 
2 teaspoons baking powder
 
1/2 cup milk
 
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
 
1 cup brown sugar
 
1/4 cup cocoa
 
1 3/4 cup hot water
 
Method: Sift or mix together with fork the dry ingredients in a
9-by-9-inch baking pan. Then stir in milk, oil, and vanilla until
smooth. Add nuts and stir to mix. Spread batter evenly over bottom of
pan. Mix brown sugar and quarter cup of cocoa together thoroughly and
sprinkle over batter. Then gently pour water over entire surface. Do
not stir in. Bake cake in preheated 350-degree oven for forty minutes.
Serve warm with ice cream.
 
----------
 
Spinach Dip in Bread Bowl
 
by Bobbie LaChance Bubier
 
Bobbie Lachance Bubier is a romance novelist, and she is the
affiliate's queen of door prizes. Bobbie and her husband Richard live
in Auburn and have been members for two years.
 
Ingredients:
 
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
 
1 can water chestnuts, drained
 
16 ounces sour cream
 
1 envelope Knox vegetable soup mix
 
1 cup mayonnaise
 
1 round loaf bread, hollowed out
 
Raw vegetables
 
Crackers
 
Method: Mix first five ingredients together and chill for at least two
hours. Serve in bread bowl with a selection of veggies and crackers for
dipping.
 
----------
 
Peanut Butter Pie
 
by Bobbie LaChance Bubier
 
Ingredients:
 
4 ounces cream cheese
 
1 cup powdered sugar
 
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
 
2 tablespoons milk
 
8 ounces Cool Whip
 
1 9-inch chocolate graham cracker crust pie shell
 
Method: Combine and beat together first four ingredients until smooth
and well mixed. Fold in Cool Whip. Pile into pie shell and chill for at
least four hours.
 
----------
 
Bean and Rice Soup
 
by Faith Armstrong
 
Faith Armstrong is secretary of the NFB of Maine. She and her husband
John Smythe live in Sabattus and have been NFB members for almost a
year. John is a Brit, and his dry sense of humor fits right in here in
Maine--if he would only stop fighting the war.
 
Ingredients:
 
2 slices bacon, chopped
 
1 onion, chopped
 
1 rib celery, chopped
 
4 cups water
 
1 16-ounce can small white beans, undrained
 
1 16-ounce can pinto beans, undrained
 
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
 
1 teaspoon garlic powder
 
1 teaspoon salt
 
1/4 teaspoon pepper
 
1 cup Minute Rice
 
Method: Cook chopped bacon in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring
constantly, until meat is done. Add chopped onion and celery, cooking
and stirring until tender. Add water, beans, tomato sauce, garlic
powder, and salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Add rice and
stir. Cover pan again and remove from heat. Let stand for five minutes.
Serve immediately.
 
----------
 
Monitor
Miniatures
 
News from the Federation Family
 
[PHOTO CAPTION: Robert M. Eschbach, August 26, 1932, to January 22,
2013]
 
In Memoriam:
 
It is with deep sadness and profound respect that we report the death
on January 22, 2013, of a longtime Federation leader, the Rev. Robert
Eschbach. Here is a tribute written by his friend and colleague,
Barbara Pierce:
 
Bob Eschbach was a musician, social worker, ordained minister in the
United Methodist Church, blindness agency administrator in two states,
NFB affiliate president, member of the NFB board of directors, and
president at one time or another of both the National Association of
Guide Dog Users and the Deaf-Blind Division. Wherever he went, Bob was
a voice for calm reason and Christian love. Bobs parents were
missionaries in the Philippines when he was born. Because of his
blindness and hearing loss, he was sent home to Ohio to attend the Ohio
State School for the Blind. After graduating from Otterbein College, he
earned an MDiv from the United Theological Seminary, and a masters of
social work from the University of Kansas. He worked in community
mental health and pastored five United Methodist churches in Ohio
before going into work with the blind. During these years he discovered
the National Federation of the Blind and quickly rose to the presidency
of a then troubled affiliate. Under his leadership the NFB of Ohio
became a strong and committed part of the NFB.
 
In 1974 Dr. Jernigan called Bob to tell him that an energetic young
woman in Oberlin had written to him with plans to organize an NFB
chapter in Lorain County, Ohio. Bob called me and offered both
friendship and wise advice about writing a constitution. He asked to
come visit, arriving in time for dinner. After a meal that he continued
to rave about throughout our long friendship, we discussed Federation
philosophy and the Ohio affiliate. By the time he left the next
morning, I was committed to his vision of the work to be done in the
state to improve the lives of blind Ohioans, and I was eager to get
started as a member of his team.
 
Bob served as president of the NFB of Ohio from 1973 to 1984, when he
became assistant director of the Ohio Bureau of Services for the
Visually Impaired. For sixteen years during the late seventies and
eighties he was also a member of the NFB board of directors. In recent
years Bob and his wife Pat lived in Arizona, where he generously made
his years of experience available to the Arizona affiliate. The
Eschbachs were planning to return to the Otterbein Retirement Community
in Ohio early this year. A week before his death, doctors discovered
cancer throughout his body. He died quietly at home with his family
around him. Bob is survived by his devoted wife Pat, his children Mary
and Fred, and Marys two sons Jason and Ian. Also surviving him are a
legion of his friends and colleagues, who will miss his wisdom and
humor.
 
Elected:
 
The Central Idaho Chapter is pleased to announce the results of its
most recent elections, held November 26, 2012: president, Chris Jones;
vice president, Glade Whiting; secretary, Judy Jones; and treasurer,
Jacque Whiting.
 
Elected:
 
At its January 2013 meeting the Clark County Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Washington elected the following: president,
Betty Watson; vice president, Don Mitchell; secretary, Maurice Mines;
and treasurer, Doug Trimble. Congratulations to the new officers. Les
Fitzpatrick, who has served as the chapter president for several terms,
and the other outgoing officers are to be commended for their
outstanding service to the chapter, to the state affiliate, and to the
National Federation of the Blind.
 
Election:
 
At its monthly meeting on Saturday, January 12, 2013, the Des Moines
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa held its annual
elections for officers and board members with the following results:
president, Cindy Ray; vice president, April Enderton; secretary, Curtis
Chong; treasurer, Mary McGee; and board members, Sharon Omvig, Jill
Clausen, and Kasey Walker.
 
Elected:
 
The newly reorganized Greater Ouachita Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Louisiana has held elections, and the
following officers were elected: president, Jerry Whittle; first vice
president, Gary Kammerer; second vice president, Don Russ; treasurer,
Kristen Sims; secretary, Paula Williams; and board members, Laronica
Coleman and Afia Kammerer.
 
Elected:
 
During its meeting on January 19, 2013, the Greater Seattle Chapter of
the NFB of Washington conducted elections with the following results:
president, Marci Carpenter; first vice president, Mike Mello; second
vice president, Noel Nightingale; secretary, Mary Helen Scheiber;
treasurer, Cindy Bennett; and board members, James Janney and Jacob
Struiksma. Congratulations to the new officers and board of directors,
and a hearty thanks to the outgoing officers and board members for a
job well done.
 
Elected:
 
On October 21, 2012, the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan
elected its current board of directors: president, Larry Posont; first
vice president, Mike Powell; second vice president, Joe Sontag;
secretary, Terri Wilcox; treasurer, Mark Eagle; and board member, Mary
Wurtzel.
 
The Ann Arbor Chapter also had elections and called upon the following
members to serve and lead: president, Terri Wilcox; vice president,
Nick Wilcox; secretary, Gloria Kolb; and treasurer, Larry Keeler.
 
Deaf-Blind Division Officer Candidates Needed:
 
The Deaf-Blind Division will be holding elections of all officers in
Orlando, Florida, in 2013. If anyone is interested in running for
president, first vice president, second vice president, treasurer,
secretary, or the two board positions, contact either Scott Davert or
Cathy Miller of the nominating committee at <scottdavert at gmail.com> or
<guillcat at gmail.com>. The Division will be selling 50/50 raffle tickets
for $2.00 a ticket and the Braille alphabet T-shirts at the Orlando
Convention in 2013.
 
NFB Travel and Tourism Division 2013 Las Vegas and National Parks Tour:
 
We are offering a great rate on a fabulous tour package for Las Vegas
and nearby national parks. The tour runs October 9 to 13, and the
package covers the tour bus, tour guide, hotels, all meals, entrance
fees to the parks, and taxes. Not covered in the package are expenses
to and from Las Vegas and the tip for the tour guide at the end of the
trip.
 
If you are totally blind and worried that the tour will be too visual
to be worth it, dont be! We are working with both the owner and the
manager of Scenic Tours to make sure that this doesnt happen. We want
everyone to enjoy the trip and will ensure it stimulates all of your
senses.
 
You must pay 20 percent of the cost of the trip at booking. Payment
plans are available. The amount of the full deposit is due by 8/1/13,
and the final payment is due by 9/1/13. Rates per person are as
follows: single occupancy, $860, $172 due at booking; double occupancy,
$721, $145 due at booking; triple occupancy, $625, $120 due at booking.
 
Itinerary:
 
Day 1: Las Vegas, NV: Fly into Las Vegas. You will be met at the
airport and shuttled to your hotel downtown. You will have the evening
to explore and catch some sleep before our big trip. Lodging will be at
Ballys Resort.
 
Day 2: After an early breakfast we will depart at 7:00 a.m. to the
South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. We will cross over the new
bridge in front of Hoover Dam and catch the famous Route 66 in Kingman,
AZ. After a short break we will continue down Route 66 to Williams, AZ.
>From there we will enter into the national park. We will make three
stops along the rim and view this natural wonder of the world. We will
also enjoy lunch inside the park before we move on. After leaving we
will cross the Navajo Indian Reservation on our way to Page, AZ, where
we will stay the night at the Quality Inn.
 
Day 3: We will depart Page for Zion National Park. Once we arrive, we
will enjoy lunch at the Zion Canyon Lodge. After lunch we will enjoy
the Zion Canyon and the picturesque oasis within, as well as seeing the
east bench of Zion. It is a unique area that offers a different view of
the sandstone cliffs that make up this park. We will then depart and go
to Bryce Canyon National Park. In Bryce Canyon we will visit Fairyland,
Sunset, and Bryce Points. Afterward we will check into Rubys Inn for
the evening.
 
Day 4: After a delicious breakfast, we will depart Bryce Canyon and
travel down one of the most beautiful highways in America, Highway 12.
This road provides you with a view of the sandstone canyons and the
wonders of mountain vistas. We will then travel to Capital Reef
National Park. In the park we will visit some petroglyphs, the old
school house, and the capitol dome. Once we have finished our tour of
Capital Reef and a delicious boxed lunch, we will depart for our return
journey to Las Vegas. We will travel through the Aquarius Plateau and
then get back to the I-15 corridor. We will stop in St. George, UT, for
a final dinner and a pleasant walk in town. After dinner we will travel
to Las Vegas where we will spend the night.
 
Day 5: Breakfast and returning to the airport.
 
For more information and to book your trip, please contact Cheryl
Echevarria, president of the NFB Travel and Tourism Division at (631)
456-5394 or email <reservations at echevarriatravel.com>
 
Writers Division Critique, Now an Ongoing Service:
 
Have you just written a masterpiece? Would you like a seasoned writer
to evaluate your material? The Writers Division of the National
Federation of the Blind has established an ongoing editorial service to
critique your writing. For $10 you will receive a written evaluation of
your short story (max of 3,000 words), first chapter (or first twenty
pages) of your novel, up to three poems (thirty-six lines max per
poem), childrens story (max of 3,000 words), memoir (first twenty pages
max), or nonfiction article (first twenty pages max).
 
The critique will contain feedback on the format, mechanics, and
overall quality of your work. Those interested should submit their work
by email as an attachment in MS Word format and double spaced. Send it
to Robert Leslie Newman, president, NFB Writers Division,
<newmanrl at cox.net>. Material may be submitted at any time. Critiques
will be emailed back within thirty days from when the reviewer receives
the material; our pool of qualified editors is small, and sometimes a
submission will need to wait for a short time until an editor is free.
 
Make your $10 check out to NFB Writers Division, and send it to Robert
Leslie Newman, 504 S. 57th St., Omaha, NE 68106; or use PayPal on the
Writers Division website, <http://www.nfb-writers-division.net>.
 
A Group in the Planning:
 
My name is Alexander Scott Kaiser. I'm a young blind adult with
cerebral palsy. I am forming a group for blind and visually impaired
individuals who have cerebral palsy. This groups purpose is to provide
support, mentoring, and legal advocacy. From problem-solving
rehabilitation issues to civil rights challenges unique to those with
both CP and visual impairment, this group will provide support from
others who understand.
 
Meetings will be held by conference call on the first Sunday of the
month, starting April 7, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. To access the
conference, dial (567) 314-1708 and use access code 999999#. If you are
interested in joining the group, contact me by postal mail at 3928
Northwest 89th Avenue, Coral Springs, Florida 33065; send me email at
<alexander.kaiser at myacc.net>; or call me at (954) 594-2710.
 
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.
 
Help Needed with Software and Accessibility:
 
I am interested in learning about scoping software. If anyone has
learned either Eclipse or Case CATylist with JAWS and would be willing
to answer some questions to help me, please email David Faucheux at
<Scopist65 at gmail.com>.
 
Asking for Magazines:
 
I live in Macedonia and am asking readers to help me get several
magazines regularly. I find Readers Digest, Ladies Home Journal,
Newsweek and the New York Times particularly interesting and
informative. I would appreciate your help. These magazines would also
help my students to practice their Braille skills and would help them
with English. If you can send them to me regularly in any format except
four-track tape or large print, please email me at
<adrijana.prokopenko at gmail.com>.
 
Monster.com Now Accessible:
 
Here is a press release distributed on January 31, 2013, reporting an
important accessibility breakthrough:
 
Monster.com First in Industry to Make Website Accessible for Blind
Users
 
Effort a Result of Agreement between Monster Worldwide, the
Massachusetts Attorney Generals Office, and National Federation of the
Blind; First Job Search Website to Be Fully Accessible
 
The popular job search website Monster.com will be the first job search
and recruitment website in the industry to provide blind job seekers
with full and equal access to all of its products and services,
including mobile applications, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Monster
Worldwide, Inc., and the National Federation of the Blind announced
today.
 
The announcement is the result of an agreement with the AGs Office and
the NFB and provides meaningful benefit to blind or visually impaired
people nationwide, including more than 35,000 residents in
Massachusetts. As part of the agreement Monster will contribute $50,000
to the Commonwealth that will be used to fund the Massachusetts
Commission for the Blinds job internship program. Monster will also
make a $50,000 contribution to the NFB and serve as the title sponsor
of the NFBs annual convention in 2013.
 
Unemployment and underemployment in the blind community are significant
problems, and, given the extent to which computers and the Internet
have become integral to our daily lives, it is essential that websites
be accessible to everyone, AG Coakley said. We are pleased to have
worked with the NFB and Monster to make the companys valuable products
and services accessible and to provide better employment opportunities
to job seekers who are blind, are visually impaired, or have other
print disabilities such as dyslexia. We are hopeful that with the
ability to access written information in an audible text-to-speech
format, these users will now have access to jobs, and better jobs, than
ever before. We want technology to improve peoples lives, not create
obstacles or barriers.
 
Over the past year a team at Monster has been working closely with
teams from the National Federation of the Blind and the Massachusetts
Attorney Generals Office to enhance our Monster.com website in a way
that will provide more opportunities for blind job seekers to find
jobs, said Mark Conway, chief information officer, Monster Worldwide.
Although portions of our site were already accessible, we all agreed we
could do more. Based on the work of these teams, the Monster.com site
will be enhanced to make its website and mobile applications accessible
to blind job seekers. This has been an enormous undertaking and is an
exciting accomplishment for which we can all be proud.
 
The National Federation of the Blind works for full and equal access by
blind Americans to all forms of digital information, said Dr. Marc
Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. Access to
digital information and applications is critical to success in the
twenty-first century in all areas of life, including searching and
applying for career opportunities. We are therefore pleased that
Monster is making this commitment to full and equal access to its
website and mobile applications. We also thank the attorney general of
Massachusetts for being such a strong partner and advocate for
accessibility.
 
We are excited to partner with Monster and the National Federation of
the Blind to provide access to job opportunities available to
individuals who are blind, said Commissioner Janet LaBreck of the
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. The MCB internship program
gives individuals the opportunity to access early work experience.
Using accessible technology available on Monsters website to conduct a
job search ensures that individuals who are blind can independently and
successfully perform the same tasks as other job-seeking candidates.
 
To make its website and mobile applications accessible to blind job
seekers, Monster is making them compatible with innovative technology
called screen-access software that renders on-screen information into
Braille or speech so that blind people can use keyboard commands to
access the same information as sighted users.
 
In accordance with the agreement Monster is in the process of making
its desktop and mobile websites fully and equally accessible and will
have its mobile applications accessible within two years. Monster has
also ensured that the templates employers use to post job
advertisements on its site will be fully and equally accessible within
six months.
 
Monster will also train its customer service representatives to assist
blind users and will establish a standing committee to oversee
implementation of the agreement and other issues related to
accessibility in the future. In addition, Monster has agreed to work
with the NFB to encourage higher education programs to incorporate
accessible design and assistive technology in their core curricula.
 
The agreement is the most recent result of collaboration between AG
Coakleys Office and the NFB. Past collaborations have included making
Apples iTunes services and Cardtronics ATMs fully and equally
accessible to the blind. State and federal laws not only prohibit
disparate treatment of individuals with disabilities in employment and
housing, but also require that all businesses operating places of
public accommodation provide people with disabilities with full and
equal enjoyment of their goods, services, and facilities.
 
Monster.com is the worldwide leader in connecting people to jobs and
provides a full array of job-seeking, career-management, recruitment,
and talent-management products and services in more than forty
countries.
 
This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Genevieve C.
Nadeau and Paralegal Bethany Brown of Attorney General Coakleys Civil
Rights Division and Assistant Attorney General Maura Healey, Chief of
Attorney General Coakleys Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau.
 
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.
 
For Sale:
 
I have in mint condition an HP netbook with Microsoft Windows 7. The
unit has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and has three USB
connections, an SD card slot, and a connection for a VBA monitor.
Software includes Window-Eyes 7.2, including the Window-Eyes
instruction manual, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10. The unit
also includes a Logitek wireless headphone/microphone headset, an
external USB powered HP CD/DVD reader, and a carrying case. This
computer was used for about fifteen hours.
 
The asking price of $1,200 includes insured shipping by UPS. For more
information call Steve at (517) 347-7046.
 
----------
 
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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