[Nfb-dc] Fwd: FW: NFB Jernigan Institute Newsletter - January Beginnings
NFB-DC Affiliate
capitol.matters at gmail.com
Tue Jan 14 18:22:14 UTC 2014
Image removed by sender. Graphic: NFBJI logoImagineering Our Future
Issue 60
January 2014
In this issue:
* Message from the Executive Director <>
* What's News at the NFB
* Profiles <>
* Education <>
* Braille Initiative <>
* Advocacy <>
* Product and Access Technology Talk <>
* From the tenBroek Library <>
* Independence Market <>
* NFB Calendar <>
* Citation <>
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Message from the Executive Director
Dear Friends,
The year of 2014 has arrived with a celebration of Braille at the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Jernigan Institute. Our members
did not take much time to ring in the New Year before jumping on
planes and trains to come for our 2014 NFB Braille Enrichment through
Literacy and Learning (BELL) Program seminar which began on January 2.
Image removed by sender. Louis Braille birthday party
As we celebrated Louis Braille's birthday during our seminar this past
weekend, I could not help but recall how important Braille has been in
my own growing appreciation of poetry. Poetry can be quite enjoyable
when read artfully by a human, but I never gained an appreciation for
poetry read by synthesized speech. When I finally had the opportunity
to learn Braille, I found poetry to be a different experience. This
led me to reflect on the fact that the number fourteen has the
significance of being the number of lines in a sonnet. In a sonnet the
first eight lines present the problem or question to be pondered,
while the final six give the answer.
Thus, maybe 2014 is the year for the solution to the Braille literacy
problem in our country to be realized. Maybe this year will be the
time when our NFB BELL Program comes to be known all across this
country. We need more work on the solution--and it seems poetic to
make fourteen our year. During our seminar this past weekend, you
could feel the hope and inspiration as Federation members from
twenty-four of our affiliates planned and imagined how local
communities would be different once the NFB BELL Program was complete
in 2014.
Maybe I will make a New Year's resolution to write a sonnet in honor
of the tremendous code that Louis Braille created and that we are now
teaching through our NFB BELL Program. Most certainly I will require
the use of Braille to complete my task and I think the exercise will
help focus my imagination on the innovative solutions that we will
forge for the blind in the coming year. I hope your resolutions for
this year include a pledge of support to work closely with the NFB to
ensure that all blind people can live that the life they want.
Poetically yours,
Image removed by sender. Graphic: Signature of Mark Riccobono
Mark A. Riccobono, Executive Director
NFB Jernigan Institute
P.S. Check out the video from the Quest for the Salt on the NFB page
on YouTube <http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2924&qid=318325>
.
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What's News at the NFB
2013 Onkyo Braille Essay Contest Winners
The Onkyo Braille Literacy Essay Contest is administered in the U.S.
by the NFB on behalf of the North American/Caribbean Region of the
World Blind Union. The essay contest, which is sponsored by the Onkyo
Corporation and the Braille Mainichi, was created to promote Braille
literacy and to encourage the sharing of social and cultural
information among blind and visually impaired persons.
The essays were required to be written in Braille, and to pertain
either to how the individual gains knowledge or independence through
Braille, or to an individual concept about world peace from the
viewpoint of persons with disabilities. There were two groups of
competitors: a junior category for persons up to age twenty-five and a
senior category for persons over age twenty-six. Each winner received
a substantial cash prize, a plaque, and other gifts from the Onkyo
Corporation.
The seven winners from the North America/Caribbean Region were as follows:
Ootsuki Prize
Jerry McKee, Alabama
Excellent Work Award, Senior
Lynn Spittle, South Carolina
Excellent Work Award, Junior
Anna Avramenko, Kansas
Fine Work Award, Senior
Jeremiah Rogers, North Carolina
Carolyn Fish, Virginia
Fine Work Award, Junior
Aspen Poole, New York
Tamer Zaid, Texas
NFB Bid for Equality
Thank you to everyone who supported our Bid for Equality online
auction. We are grateful for our members that helped with this effort,
including those that spread the word about the auction. And we
especially appreciate those that made a "bid for equality." The
package with the highest leading bid was Texas’s two music badges to
the South by Southwest Music Festival, including hotel accommodations,
which was followed by Indiana’s pearl necklace and earring set and New
York’s weekend getaway.
We are excited to report that we received more than $10,000 in bids to
support our programs. We are already looking forward to next year’s
auction.
TEACH Act Collaboration
The National Association of Blind Students (NABS) is collaborating
with the NFB advocacy and policy department in their efforts to
advocate for the Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College
and Higher Education (TEACH) Act. They are collecting stories about
blind students' experiences with higher education, with a goal of
collecting stories from constituents living in every congressional
district in the United States.
They need stories from current and recent students who are, and have
been, affected by the lack of accessibility in the classroom, whether
it was through inaccessible instructional materials or a lack of,
late, or inadequate accessible materials. Instructional materials
could be any form of curricular content, from digital books, to Web
content, to PDF, to online digital databases. If you have information
to share, compose your paragraph-long story and send it to Cindy
Bennett at clb5590 at gmail.com. Be sure to include a sentence of how
accessibility guidelines would have prevented or solved your problem.
Please include the school you attend or attended, and any
congressional districts that you live in. For example, if your
permanent address is in a different congressional district from the
district in which you go to school, list both. If you do not know this
information, you can use your ZIP code to look it up at
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2885&qid=318325>
.
The second way that you can help is by reinforcing the appointments
the NFB has with Congress. If someone has an appointment with your
congressperson, Cindy will contact you with the date of the
appointment, and you can call your congressperson's office and tell
your story. This will show your congressperson that one of their
constituents is directly affected by inadequate accessibility and
needs the TEACH Act. This part is very important as members of
Congress work for their constituents.
If you have any questions, contact Cindy Bennett at clb5590 at gmail.com
or Lauren McLarney at LMcLarney at nfb.org. For more information about
the TEACH Act, please read the fact sheet found at
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/word/2013%20teach%20fact%20sheet.doc
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2886&qid=318325>
.
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Profiles
Chelsea Cook
Chelsea Cook, who was a student in NFB STEM programs and is now a
mentor and instructor in those programs, recently gave a presentation
at the Virginia Tech TEDX event. The link to the video is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr2wFIFft2w
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2925&qid=318325>
.
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Education
The NFB BELL Program
At the NFB Jernigan Institute, we celebrated Louis Braille’s birthday
with a planning meeting for our summer Braille program—the NFB BELL
program. Members of the NFB, educators, and other leaders in the field
of blindness gathered to share information and resources related to
hosting engaging and authentic Braille instruction for blind youth
across the country. In the summer of 2014, twenty-four states will
host NFB BELL programs. Seven of those affiliates—Arizona, the
District of Columbia, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina,
and Oregon—will host the program for the first time!
Stay tuned for more information about the 2014 NFB BELL programs in
the coming months to ensure that the blind children in your life don’t
miss out on this exciting learning opportunity. To learn about the NFB
BELL programs hosted in the summer of 2013, read the November issue of
the <http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2887&qid=318325>
Braille Monitor, which contains several articles about the programs
that took place throughout the country.
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Braille Initiative
Braille Certification Training Program
Under a contract with the National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress (NLS), the NFB administers
the courses leading to NLS certification of Braille transcribers and
proofreaders. Successful completion of these rigorous courses requires
a great deal of time and effort on the part of the students. We
congratulate the following individuals who earned certification during
the month of October 2013:
Literary Braille Transcribing
Alabama
Bobby Alan Nunn, Talladega
California
Jocelyne Cardenas, Pico Rivera
Martin Albert Zahorik, Camarillo
Connecticut
Sean Patrick Murphy, Cheshire
Indiana
Nola Marie Zimmerman, Richmond
Iowa
Kim David Archer, Anamosa
Minnesota
Carol Jean Rubin, Minneapolis
New York
Kathy Marie Holden, Hilton
North Carolina
Curtis R. Fields, Laurinburg
Anthony Darrell Long, Laurinburg
Jason DeMartrice Marriner, Laurinburg
Allen Curtis Mayes, Laurinburg
William Jared Rose, Laurinburg
Scott Stephens, Laurinburg
Oklahoma
Robert James Loomis, Taft
Texas
Ceyma Rena' Bina, Gatesville
Jennifer Jean Blaschke, Gatesville
Lisa Marie Ortiz, Gatesville
Barbara Leanne Price, Gatesville
Sandra Leilani Reyna, Gatesville
Larissa Ann Saucedo, Gatesville
Washington
Therese Beem, Vancouver
Sean Adam Southworth, Vancouver
Wisconsin
Traci Lynn McDonald, Cottage Grove
Music Braille Transcribing
Missouri
Kevin Dyal, Jefferson City
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Advocacy
CCSS-Aligned Field Tests Begin in Spring 2014: Will Your Child Have
Access to Accommodations?
Beginning in March 2014, over one million students nationwide will
participate in field tests aligned to the new Common Core State
Standards (CCSS).
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers
(PARCC) will validate test questions and computer-based delivery
platforms with students ranging from grades three through twelve when
schools administer its Performance-Based Assessment and End-of-Year
Assessment.
The NFB is currently investigating the accessibility features
available for the impending PARCC field tests, including the
availability of Braille and screen access software. Your feedback on
this matter is critical. School districts were notified in the fall
of 2013 whether or not they would be included in the testing. If your
child is scheduled to participate in either the PARCC
Performance-Based Assessment or End-of-Year Assessment, NFB needs to
hear from you.
Please call Valerie Yingling, paralegal, at 410-659-9314, extension
2440, if your child will participate in the testing. If you are
unsure whether or not your child will be involved, ask your school’s
principal. If your child will not be included in the testing because
his or her accommodations will not be available, please call Valerie
Yingling.
PARCC field tests may be conducted in the following states and
district: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, the District of Columbia,
Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi,
New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
and Tennessee.
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Product and Access Technology Talk
It is 2014, which means that the access technology team is starting to
ready itself for the 29th Annual International Technology and Persons
with Disabilities Conference, known to its friends as CSUN. We will be
presenting at the conference in San Diego, as we usually do. The
topics this year are varied: Phones for Low Vision and Blind Seniors,
3D Printing and 3D Creation for Tactile Graphics, Communication
Technologies for Those Who are Deaf-Blind, Non-Visual Access to Cloud
Productivity Suites on Mobile Devices, and Non-Visual Access to Cloud
Productivity Suites on Desktop Computers.
Prior to that in March, Anne Taylor and John Baker, CEO of
longstanding ally Desire2Learn, will be on a panel with the title
"Education for All - Accessibility Innovations" at legendary tech,
music, film, and more festival, South by Southwest, in Austin, Texas.
They will be joined by Kel Smith from Anikto LLC and David Rose from
CAST. You can find more information on this panel here:
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/21192
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2922&qid=318325>
.
Finally, keep an eye on this space for information about technology
day at the 2014 NFB National Convention in Orlando this summer; we
expect to be announcing those sessions very soon.
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>From the tenBroek Library
Are you interested in conducting research at the tenBroek Library?
We are pleased to welcome researchers interested in many of the
aspects of blindness, with the exception of its treatment and
prevention. Our collections focus on the organized blind movement, the
education of blind children, disability law and policy, the history of
attitudes toward blind people, and literary works by blind authors. We
work hard to preserve the history of blind people in a variety of
ways, including collecting NFB literature, maintaining the
Federation's archives, and building our collections of archival papers
and published works. We also document the life experiences of blind
people in the United States in interviews collected through our oral
history program.
Our collections are open for use by all and the holdings of the
tenBroek Library can be accessed in three ways:
* The Blind Cat
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2888&qid=318325>
: Our online public access catalog (OPAC) where researchers can search
our collection of published materials. The scope of our published
materials, which extends to all facets of blindness except the medical
treatment or prevention of blindness, includes print, talking book,
Braille, and digital formats.
* The Cane Tip <http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2889&qid=318325>
: Our online finding aid database describes the manuscript and
archival collections held by the library, including the personal and
professional papers of NFB Founder Jacobus tenBroek, the papers of
past NFB President Kenneth Jernigan, and the NFB Institutional
Archives, as well as several smaller collections.
* E-mail: Send your reference questions to jtblibrary at nfb.org and
we’ll contact you to discuss your project!
To learn more about the holdings of the Jacobus tenBroek Library,
please visit the Blind Cat, the Cane Tip, or contact us by e-mail at
jtblibrary at nfb.org to schedule a visit!
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Independence Market
If you have left it to the last minute to get a Braille or large-print
2014 calendar, the NFB Independence Market can help. The following
2014 calendars and planners are available for ordering.
2014 American Action Fund Braille Calendar
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2890&qid=318325>
This comb-bound, pocket-sized Braille calendar measures 6 x 6 1/2
inches. Each calendar page includes the days of the month and lists
major holidays. A page for personal notes is in the back. The calendar
is available free of charge.
2014 Large-Print Calendar
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2891&qid=318325>
This spiral-bound, large-print appointment calendar measures 8 1/2 x
11 inches with inside pockets. Each month is displayed on two facing
pages and features two-inch blocks for each day of the month. The
months are tabbed and include a section for monthly notes as well as a
three-month calendar overview. The calendar costs $10.00, plus
shipping and handling.
2014 Large-Print Planner
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2891&qid=318325>
This organizer, designed with low-vision professionals in mind,
features easy-to-read large print. The spiral-bound, 144-page planner,
with a black leatherette cover, measures 8 1/2 x 11 inches. All
calendar views are spread over two pages and include current and
upcoming year-at-a-glance views, as well as twelve monthly and
fifty-three weekly views. Pages for names and addresses, notes, and
personal information are also included. The calendar costs $20.00,
plus shipping and handling.
New!
2014 Large-Print Wall Calendar
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2891&qid=318325>
When fully opened, this monthly wall calendar measures 22 x 17 inches.
The daily boxes are 2-1/4-inch squares and the numbers marking the
date are 3/4 inch tall. The date markers are in the top right corner.
At the bottom, there are four lines for notes between small versions
of the previous- and next-month calendars. The calendar also includes
an overview for the previous and next years. The calendar costs
$10.00, plus shipping and handling.
Products, including the items listed above, can be ordered from the
NFB Independence Market online or by phone. For more information,
contact us via e-mail at IndependenceMarket at nfb.org,or by phone at
410-659-9314, extension 2216.
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NFB Calendar
Upcoming Events
Washington Seminar
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2919&qid=318325>
– Great Gathering-In – January 27, 2014
Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2892&qid=318325>
, "Disability Rights in the 21st Century: Creative Solutions for
Achieving the Right to Live in the World" – April 24-25, 2014
NFB National Convention
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2920&qid=318325>
at the Rosen Center - July 1-6, 2014
Start of the NFB's 75th year – November 16, 2014
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Citation
More and more the words (and therefore, the thoughts and the deeds) of
the work place and the home, the school and the church, the street and
the playground reflect this new mood. And underlying it all, fueling
the change and focusing the progress, is (as it has been for the past
half century) the National Federation of the Blind. With all of the
problems and all of the work we still have to do, we come to this
meeting tonight with a feeling of hope and a mood of gladness. We come
with a joy and a certainty of triumph. At long last we know who we are
and what we must do. We are organized, confident, and prepared for
what lies ahead—and no force on earth can turn us back. Our words, our
thoughts, and our dreams reach for a tomorrow which is bright with
promise, and the heart of that promise is the individual determination
of each of us and the unshakable power of our vehicle for collective
action—the National Federation of the Blind. The past has belonged to
others, but the future belongs to us. Let us speak, think, and act in
support of each other—and we will make it all come true!
--Marc Maurer. "Language and the Future of the Blind
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2921&qid=318325>
." Banquet speech, 1989 NFB National Convention, Denver, Colorado,
July 8, 1989.
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Thank you for reading the NFB Jernigan Institute’s Imagineering Our Future.
Help make a significant difference in the lives of blind people across
the country.
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<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2893&qid=318325>
Make a Gift Today
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Make a Gift Today
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2884&qid=318325>
To donate a vehicle to the NFB, call toll-free
1-855-659-9314
or visit our
vehicle donation
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2894&qid=318325>
page.
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If this issue was forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe,
please e-mail JerniganInstitute at nfb.org.
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Please check with your company to see if it offers a matching program
that will match your gift.
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Interesting links:
Archive of Straight Talk About Vision Loss videos
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2895&qid=318325>
National Center for Blind Youth in Science
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2896&qid=318325>
Access Technology Tips
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2897&qid=318325>
TeachBlindStudents.org
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2898&qid=318325>
Image removed by sender. Photo: Martial Arts
Blogs:
Access Technology
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2899&qid=318325>
Voice of the Nation's Blind
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2900&qid=318325>
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Support the NFB Jernigan Institute through the Imagination Fund
<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2901&qid=318325>
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National Federation of the Blind
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at Jernigan Place
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United States
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