[MN-at-Large] Fwd: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 09/ 03/2019

Wed Sep 4 01:14:10 UTC 2019

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>President's Notebook
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>National Federation of the Blind
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>Mark A. Riccobono
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><mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>officeofthepresident at nfb.org
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>410-659-9314
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>Dear Fellow Federationists,
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>I am hoping that each of you had a relaxing 
>Labor Day weekend. As the Riccobono children 
>were sent off to school today with excitement in 
>their voices, I am reminded that each of us is 
>engaged daily in learning. Leadership is a 
>journey and building our affiliates is a process 
>of continuous improvement. I hope you approach 
>it like the Riccobono children approach the new 
>school year. I am certainly prepared to help do 
>my part to make your affiliate-building 
>successful. Do not hesitate to call on me for 
>assistance; I am here to support your work. 
>Furthermore, I appreciate that you continue to 
>advance my own thinking about what we should do 
>with the resources we have in our movement.
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>We require talent and expertise at all levels of 
>our organization. I encourage you to promote 
>career opportunities at our national office. 
>They can be found at 
><https://www.nfb.org/about-us/career-opportunities>https://www.nfb.org/about-us/career-opportunities. 
>We are currently seeking a new manager of 
>governmental affairs and will soon put up a 
>posting for a social media coordinator. We are 
>always seeking talent. Please continue to invite 
>people you know to apply. Your word-of-mouth 
>advertising of our career opportunities is the 
>best tool we have for promoting the Federation team.
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>Finally, note that I will be making the 
>presidential release on Thursday, so it will be 
>ready for Saturday chapter meetings. If you have 
>feedback for me about the release and what would 
>be most helpful to chapter development, I would love to hear from you.
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>News:
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>Amazon Employment Discrimination Case Filed:
>We have filed a suit in the Federal District 
>Court for the Eastern District of Michigan 
>against Amazon.com for employment 
>discrimination. Maryann Murad, a blind member 
>and co-complainant, tried to apply for a virtual 
>customer service position with Amazon but could 
>not complete the inaccessible online assessment 
>on Amazonâ€™s proprietary customer service 
>platform, which is incompatible with Voiceover, 
>the Apple text-to-speech screen-reading 
>software. We tried to work with Amazon to 
>resolve the issue, but we were unsuccessful. 
>More information can be found 
><https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/blind-woman-files-employment-discrimination-suit-against-amazoncom>in 
>the press release on our website.
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>Labor Day:
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>As many celebrated a long weekend, the National 
>Federation of the Blind continued to fight 
>against the federal law that creates a 
>second-class workforce. Read the recent blog 
>post, 
>â€œ<https://www.nfb.org/blog/shout-out-forgotten-laborers>Shout 
>Out to the Forgotten Laborers.â€ Additionally, 
>we commend those who are committed to fair wages 
>for all, such 
>as<https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/07/12/the-power-of-inclusion-extending-our-learnings-from-the-supported-employment-program/> 
>Microsoft who will not work with any supplier 
>that participates in subminimum wages.
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>Open-House Gathering—Calls for Prospective Members:
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>Share this event information with contacts who 
>are interested in the National Federation of the 
>Blind but are not members yet: On Wednesday, 
>September 18, 2019, at 8:00 p.m., we are hosting 
>another call for blind people to learn more 
>about the benefits of membership. Take advantage 
>of this opportunity to hear from active members 
>and leaders on the myths and uncertainties of 
>the Federation. Sign up by emailing 
><mailto:membership at nfb.org>membership at nfb.org or 
>calling 410-659-9314, extension 2509.
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>Meet the Blind Month—Webb and Technology:
>We celebrate Meet the Blind Month every October, 
>with members conducting outreach activities 
>across the country. If you are still looking for 
>ideas for the month, a recommendation is to 
>focus on web and technology accessibility. Here 
>are some ideas: demonstrate accessibility and 
>the tools used for daily activities using an 
>iPhone or computer at a public library, a local 
>event, or a school; or plan a presentation to a 
>local business such as a bank. If you arenâ€™t 
>comfortable with a technology demonstration, 
>plan an event in your local community to talk 
>about blindness and the NFB philosophy. There is 
>still time to order materials from the 
>Independence Market such as Braille alphabet 
>cards. Send your date, location, and a brief 
>description of the event details to 
><mailto:web at nfb.org>web at nfb.org. Please use #MeetTheBlind in social media.
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>Complete WebAIM Screen-Reader-User Survey:
>WebAIM, a web accessibility solutions provider, 
>conducts an annual survey to help inform 
>development choices for those creating 
>accessible web content and web standards. There 
>are thirty-three brief questions that will take 
>approximately ten to fifteen minutes to 
>complete. It is the most comprehensive 
>collection of data on these topics and is also 
>referenced by many in the industry when 
>discussing trends and making decisions in the 
>field of web 
>accessibility. 
><https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey8/>Take the survey now!
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>Imagineering Our Future:
>Our monthly e-newsletter is a great way for 
>members, supporters, volunteers, and 
>contributors to stay up-to-date with what is 
>happening and learn about the awesome work we do 
>every day. Please encourage those who are 
>friends and family of the Federation to sign up 
>for our newsletter and to follow up on the 
>action items in each monthâ€™s issue. This is 
>especially helpful if you can encourage our 
>local chapter and state affiliate donors to do 
>so. It helps us keep in regular touch with them. 
>Sign up at 
><https://nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/imagineering-our-future>https://nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/imagineering-our-future.
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>Live Streaming Conventions:
>A number of our affiliates have been live 
>streaming their affiliate conventions. Sometimes 
>these streams are operated by third parties 
>which do not reflect the brand of the Federation 
>and which leverage our name for their own 
>benefit. In the interest of keeping a unified 
>brand with consistent delivery of content, we 
>are exploring supporting affiliates with the 
>backbone components of streaming. This might 
>include our operating a stream around the clock 
>to provide Federation content—something some of 
>you have long advocated for us to do.
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>If you have a fall convention and if you 
>currently have been doing streaming, would you 
>want to use such a service from the national 
>organization? If you have not been offering 
>streaming, would you want to invest in streaming 
>for this fall? Please reply by the end of the 
>week if possible. You can send your reply to 
>Ross Kirschner at <mailto:rkirschner at nfb.org>rkirschner at nfb.org.
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>Keep in mind that there will be some work on 
>your end to make streaming work properly. 
>However, we believe a national infrastructure 
>could better serve our organization as a whole.
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>Most importantly, I urge you to vet use of any 
>third-party streaming vendors through our 
>national organization before doing further work with them.
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>Dates to Keep in Mind:
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>    * September 18, 2019: Open-House Gathering; 
> email <mailto:membership at nfb.org>membership at nfb.org to sign up
>    * September 24, 2019: Accessibility Boutique 
> on Website Accessibility Basics; email 
> <mailto:KZimnik at nfb.org>KZimnik at nfb.org to sign up
>    * February 10, 2020: Great Gathering-In; Washington Seminar begins
>    * March 26-27, 2020: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium, Baltimore, Maryland
>    * June 30-July 5, 2020: NFB National Convention, Houston, Texas
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>The National Federation of the Blind knows that 
>blindness is not the characteristic that defines 
>you or your future. Every day we raise the 
>expectations of blind people, because low 
>expectations create obstacles between blind 
>people and our dreams. You can live the life you 
>want; blindness is not what holds you back.
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>Mark A. Riccobono, President
>200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
>(410) 659-9314 | 
><mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>officeofthepresident at nfb.org
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><https://nfb.org/>
>National Federation of the Blind
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><http://www.facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind>
>Facebook
>     <https://twitter.com/NFB_Voice>
>Twitter
>     <https://www.youtube.com/NationsBlind>
>Youtube
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>The National Federation of the Blind is a 
>community of members and friends who believe in 
>the hopes and dreams of the nationâ€™s blind. 
>Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want.
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