[Nd-talk] NFB of ND - Newswire - Vol. 1, No. 14

Fri Dec 1 04:11:31 UTC 2017

NEWSWIRE

National Federation of the Blind of

North Dakota

Vol. 1, No. 14

Happy Holidays!!!

You are cordially invited to join the members and friends of the National
Federation of the Blind of North Dakota for our Christmas party! 

Eat! Drink! Play games! Sing along Christmas carols! $10 Secret Santa gift
exchange 

When: Saturday, December 9, 2017

Time: 2:00pm to 6:00 pm

Where: Holiday Inn 3803 13th Ave S, Fargo 58103 

Phone (701) 282-2700

Sleeping rooms $114 per night 

Party will take place at the Gallery Restaurant Club room #1(pay on own)

Main entrance, walk straight ahead and Gallery restaurant is on the right

Please rsvp ASAP or for any questions, call Sherry Shirek 701-781-3055 or
sherrybeth7 at gmail.com <mailto:sherrybeth7 at gmail.com> 

The Christmas party at the Holiday Inn in Fargo will be in place of the
December meeting, so you will be responsible to finding and listening to the
December Presidential Release on your own. We will resume our monthly
meetings on the second Saturday of the month along with dial-in for those
who are unable to come to Fargo in January, 2018.

Organization Says Senate Tax Bill Disastrous for Education, Employment of
Blind Americans

National Federation of the Blind Denounces Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Baltimore, Maryland 

(November 29, 2017): 

The National Federation of the Blind officially opposes the United States
Senate's current Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

The organization cites a probable dramatic increase in unemployment among
blind Americans, which already approaches sixty percent, as the reason for
its opposition.

According to projections by the Congressional Budget Office, the losses in
tax revenue under the TCJA will be so high, at least initially, that they
will trigger the "pay-as-you-go" rules of the Office of Management and
Budget. This will eliminate funding for vital programs and services for the
blind, such as Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) and Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding. These vital services link blind
people to educational and employment opportunities by providing the training
and resources that they need.

The 2015 American Community Survey, the most recent data available, reported
that, for working age adults reporting significant vision loss, only 42.0%
were employed.

"The detrimental impact the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will have on blind
Americans cannot be denied," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National
Federation of the Blind. "This bill slams the door on education and
vocational rehabilitation, and ultimately on employment, for some seven
million blind Americans. We call upon the United States Senate either to
protect these critical programs and services, or to vote no."

Same Place, New Look!

In August of this year, our national office hosted a training session for
webmasters to learn how to setup Drupal and use the new template that will
make affiliate websites look more like the national site. This is in effort
of the NFB Branding. Jesse Shirek was sent to help get the NFB of North
Dakota rolled over to the new template so that the NFB of North Dakota's
website will have a more similar look like the national one. You will see
the new logo, the one-minute statement about who the National Federation of
the Blind is, along with basically the same menu structure as the national
site. The site is still under construction and will have more content as
time goes on. You are welcome to visit the site at http://nfbnd.org/

Now, you ask, what is Drupal - this is a "contact management system, CMS"
and it will make it easier to maintain as a webmaster.

Should you have any questions please contact me and I'll try to answer them
as your webmaster. My contact by e-mail is mota1252 at gmail.com
<mailto:mota1252 at gmail.com>  or you can call me at (701) 731-0511.

NFBNJ: fourth national technology seminar

>From the desk of NFBNJ President Joe Ruffalo.

Received from Jane Degenshein, President, NFBNJ Technology Division.

The National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey's technology division is
proud to present our fourth   nationwide technology seminar featuring Marty
Schultz and his Blindfold Games and more on Monday, December 18 at 8 PM.

Marty Schultz, owner of Blindfold Games, will tell us all about his apps
that are made accessible for blind and visually impaired users on their
favorite iOS powered devices such as an iPhone, iPad, or an iPod Touch. To
learn more about Blindfold Games, please visit www.blindfoldgames.org
<http://www.blindfoldgames.org> .

To attend the call, dial 515-604-9570, then use access code 612068 pound.
You will hear the code you entered repeated. Press 1 if it is correct. Press
2 to re-enter it. If you press 1, you then announce yourself by stating your
name and you will then be entered into the conference call.

In order to obtain the best possible sound for the call, the host will put
all callers into mute mode until the Q and A portion of the call. You will
be able to hear everything during the call but background noise from your
location will not disturb others listening in on the conversation. During
the Q and A portion of the call, you can unmute yourself by pressing star 6.
Before giving a comment or asking a question, please announce your name and
what state you are from, and then wait for the moderator to recognize you
before speaking. We can have too many people trying to seek the floor at one
time and chaos can occur. The moderators will do their very best to
recognize as many callers as possible however, they will determine the order
in which speakers proceed. When finished with your comments or questions,
press star 6 again to go back into "mute" mode to facilitate better,
uncluttered communication for everyone. Star 6 also works when you have your
phone on speaker.

The times for the call are

*         8:00pm Eastern

*         7:00pm Central

*         6:00pm Mountain

*         5:00pm Pacific

Please determine for yourself the time to enter the call if you live in a
time zone other than those listed above.

If you have any specific questions for Marty Schultz, kindly email Janie
Degenshein at:

 <mailto:jdegen16 at comcast.net> jdegen16 at comcast.net

and put tech div seminar in the subject line.

To learn how to listen to previous seminar calls, please visit
<http://www.nfbnj.org/technology-seminars>
www.nfbnj.org/technology-seminars.

Looking forward to a powerful and rewarding seminar with you!

In Closing!

My wife Charlene and I would like to wish all of you a Happy and Safe
Holiday as 2017 comes to a close and we bring in 2018 with many new and
exciting things to come, especially with the National Federation of the
Blind of North Dakota.

Please feel free to distribute this newsletter to anyone who you think might
be interested in reading about us.

Milton Ota, President

National Federation of the Blind of North Dakota

Web: http://nfbnd.org/

909 8th St., S.

Fargo, ND 58103-2723

Cell: (701) 731-0511

E-mail: mota1252 at gmail.com

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. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES.

With Love, Hope and Determination, We Turn Dreams Into Reality.

Together We Change What It Means to Be Blind.

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