[Nfb-editors] Connecticut Newsletter- attached

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Dear Editors, 

 

Not sure why Chris's attempt to get this document in your inbox failed and
mine did not. 

 

Chris wanted this to come to you as a Word document, because of the nature
of its construction; has live links that jump you to an article. MMM. Think
I'll both attach it and paste it into this message (gives you the option to
see how it may function differently from one media to another.

 

The Federationist In Connecticut

"The Blind Speaking for Themselves"

 


Chris Kuell, Editor                                      Fall/Winter 2010



	
	A Publication of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
477 Connecticut Boulevard, Suite 217
East Hartford, Connecticut 06108
(860) 289-1971
www.nfbct.org
	
 


Description: NFB_ICON_K

 

 

Articles reproduced in The Federationist comply with public law 104-197, the
Copyright Amendment of 1996. This law allows authorized entities to
reproduce previously published, non-dramatic literary works in specialized
formats, for exclusive use by blind or disabled people. 

 

Table of Contents

 

 

See The Universe <> 

                

One Million Books <> 

 

Verizon Accessible Cell Phone <> 

 

Crowd Control And Other Olympic Sports <> 

 

 

Lions VIP Fishing Derby <> 

NFB Successful in Infant Case <> 

 

Blind Newscaster Drives Away Stereotypes <> 

 

What Did You Say? <> 

 

NFB National Scholarships <> 

 

Miscellany and Notes <> 

 

 

Reprinted from the Plainville Citizen, March 19, 2010

Woman's Mission Helps Sight-Impaired 'See' The Universe

Author Noreen Grice doesn't just help sight-impaired children see. She helps
them touch the stars.

Known worldwide for her innovations in making astronomy accessible to the
blind, the New Britain resident makes her way to the Plainville Library once
a month to meet with fellow National Federation of the Blind members. She's
also donated five of her Braille books and two projects to the library in
order to continually serve a population that captured her heart 26 years
ago.

When working as a planetarium presenter at the Boston Museum of Science in
1984, Grice spoke with a disgruntled group of blind children who couldn't
enjoy the show. "They said 'the show stunk,' because there was no way to see
anything," Grice said. "It bothered me so much that I decided I just had to
do something about it." And the rest is history.

Grice soon learned that the pricey cost of Braille books made Braille
astronomy books extremely rare. Still attending Boston University at the
time, Grice shocked her professors by changing her senior project to solve
that problem.

She and her professor were soon experimenting with Play-doh to create
tactile images for blind readers that would become her first published book
down the road. But that wasn't good enough for Grice. She still wanted to
improve conditions in museums for the sight-impaired.

During the next few years, Grice worked against many challenges to
eventually make the Boston Museum of Science accessible to the blind,
handicapped and other disabled populations.

After obtaining a master's degree in astronomy from San Diego State
University, Grice returned to Boston and asked if she could apply for a
grant that would give her a Braille printer to help create inexpensive
tactile pictures. She received the grant and was soon printing pictures that
allowed the blind to see the wonder of space for the first time.

She then revisited her senior project and used her new printing methods to
create "Touch the Stars," her first Braille astronomy book published by
Boston Museum of Science. The book is now in its fourth edition and has been
used as a textbook at a school for the blind.

She has since published four other Braille books including "Touch the Sun: A
NASA Braille Book," which was her first book for NASA, and "Touch the
Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy."

Grice also started a company called You Can Do Astronomy in 2004, focused on
making astronomy and space science accessible to people with disabilities.

Becoming a household name in the sight-impaired community, Grice has been a
speaker at National Federation of the Blind's workshops and many other
conventions nationwide. She also works with NASA to create educational
materials for the sight-impaired.

"Noreen doesn't see blind people as broken-sighted people, she looks at them
as people that have capability and how do we give them accessibility to
information presented visually, usually out of convenience, not necessity,"
said NFB Executive Director Marc Riccobono. "She believes in her work and
it's that real belief that's in her heart and in her mind that makes her so
effective."

Although Grice is dedicated to helping the sight-impaired see the beauty of
space that she's adored since she was a child, Grice's determination doesn't
stem from a friend or loved one being blind. Her motivation comes from also
being misunderstood, she said.

"When I was little we lived in the public housing projects and I couldn't go
over my friend's house because her parents made an assumption about me,
about being poor," Grice said. "So I understood the feeling of hitting a
barrier because other people were making an assumption."

She said some institutions have assumed that visually-challenged people are
not interested in visiting a planetarium, which Grice said is not the case.

Grice said although there are an estimated 10 million people in North
America with visual impairments, the majority of museums offer little or no
accommodations, since most exhibits sit behind glass cases. Grice is working
to help museums and education organizations revise their facilities through
a combination of design and consulting to allow everyone to enjoy learning.

And so many already have, Grice said.

"Kids will come up and say somebody gave them 'Touch the Stars' and I'm
going to be an astronaut now because I know I can do this," Grice said. "I
talked to a college engineering student determined to be the first blind
astronaut in space, just because he read my book. It's so rewarding to hear
that."

Her work at the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science also
included introducing captioning devices to enable the hearing impaired to
follow the show. Working her way up to operations coordinator of the
planetarium, she recently left her position at the museum. She said she
feels her work there came full circle from having no special aids to help
visitors with certain impairments to learn and enjoy the museum, to opening
a new world for many.

Grice said she'll have more time to hopefully impact more children by trying
to incorporate Braille books into the general school sector. "For some
reason I feel this kindredship with them (the blind), and now I'm working on
my own and able to do so much more," Grice said. "It doesn't matter if its
science or art, it's just important that they can 'see' it too."

To see Grice's work, visit www.youcandoastronomy.com.

 

Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic

Reprinted from The Washington Post

By BROOKE DONALD, The Associated Press 5/6/10


SAN FRANCISCO -- Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves
and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of
titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.

A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in
San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of
people to scan thousands of books into its digital database - more than
doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.

Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially
make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from
foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a
subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.

"We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody then
donates a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the
collection," he said.

The problems with many of the digitized books sold commercially is that
they're expensive, they're often abridged, and they don't come in a format
that is easily accessed by the visually impaired.

The collections are also limited to the most popular titles published within
the past several years.

The Internet Archive is scanning a variety of books in many languages so
they can be read by the software and devices blind people use to convert
written pages into speech. The organization has 20 scanning centers in five
countries, including one in the Library of Congress.

"Publishers mostly concentrate on their newest, profitable books. We are
working to get all books online," Kahle said.

Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, says getting
access to books has been a big challenge for blind people. "Now, for the
first time, we're going to have access to an enormous quantity," he said.

Maurer, who is blind, said that when he was in college, he hired people to
read books to him because the Braille and audio libraries were so limited.
"That has been the way most students have gotten through school," he said.
"This kind of initiative by the Internet Archive will change that for many
people."

Only about 5 percent of published books are available in a digital form
that's accessible to the visually impaired, Maurer said, and there are even
fewer books produced in Braille.

Brad Foss, a San Francisco man with dyslexia, says having so many more books
available is liberating. He compares it to a million more ramps being added
throughout a city for a person who uses a wheelchair.
"For me, it's about access. They have provided flexibility and freedom to
get books in a format that I use every day," said Foss, 36, who is the
director of access technology in the digital health group at Intel Corp.

The digitized books scanned by the Internet Archive will be available for
free to visually impaired people through the organization's website. The
organization does not run into copyright concerns because the law allows
libraries to make books available to people with disabilities, Kahle said.

Jessie Lorenz, an associate director at the Independent Living Resource
Center San Francisco who has been blind since birth, said it has been hard
to find controversial or edgy titles in a format she can use, and choices
are often dictated by institutions or service groups who have selected
certain books for scanning.
"For individuals living with print-related disabilities, this is
ground-breaking," she said. "This project will enable people like me to
choose what we read."

Lorenz, 31, has already decided what she wants: Howard Stern's autobiography
"Private Parts," Andrew Weil's "The Natural Mind," and, perhaps most
importantly, her grandmother's cookbook.

 

 

Accessible Cell Phone: Samsung Haven from Verizon 
By Walter Gramza


It's finally here! An affordable fully accessible phone from Verizon
Wireless. As of July 29th, 2010, Verizon Wireless has available in its
stores a phone for blind and visually impaired persons which is fully
audible via Nuance speech.

There is no extra charge for the speech package, as it is already
installed in the phone and ready for use out of the box. It is
important to note here that when you go to the store, please make sure
that you tell the person assisting you to be sure to turn on the
voices called read outs, located under settings, then sounds, and down
to voices. The six items to be turned on are: 

1. Menu read out

2. digit read out

3. alert read out

4. flip open and talk

5. text message read out

6. full read out 

In order for the phone to be audible these features need to be turned
on. 

Placing a Call

You can enter the contact list by pushing the right soft key in the
upper right hand corner of the phone and then arrow through the
contacts or by pressing the letter of the contact you wish to call.
For example, "v" for Verizon Wireless. Then you can hit ok to view the
contact information and hit send to place a call.

You can enter into your call list of choice which are: 1. missed
calls, 2. dialed calls, 3. answered calls, 4. all calls. After
entering any one of the lists, you can edit the list and if desired, 
delete the specific name and number within the list.

You can find out how much battery strength you have, signal strength, 
and how many messages, voice mails, missed calls, you have. You can
use the alarm clock, set a time audibly, use the calculator, tip
calculator, and send and read texts.

In short, you are prompted through every one of the functions you are
performing. You can even ask it to call someone provided that they are
in the contact list. 

A Braille manual is available through Samsung. Remember, when you go
to Verizon Wireless you'll need to get the hex number, which they can
give you. You then call Samsung at 888-987-4357 and provide them with
this number along with your address information and it will take about
one month to receive the manual. 

You can also purchase an extended battery which lasts one and one
half times longer than the standard battery. This is best as any phone
with speech uses more battery power and shortens the life of the
battery. By having the extended battery it should bring you through
the day safely. I always make it a habit to charge the phone each
night so that I begin a new day; the phone also begins a new day as
well. When you put the phone into the base charger it says "charging."
When the phone is charged it says "charge complete." 

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer and are eligible for an
upgrade, you can get the phone for free. If you want to start a new
contract with Verizon Wireless, you get the phone for $40.00 complete
with speech software included. 

If anyone will need assistance in learning the functions of the
phone, they may contact me via email at: wgramza1 at verizon.net. 




 

Crowd Control and Other Olympic Sports
By Ryan Knighton

Reprinted from www.rknighton.blogspot.com

March 3, 2010


My pals and readers who live beyond the 4 square blocks I tend to restrict
myself to, they've been asking how It all went, life in the Olympic city. To
them I can only say this.

The Olympics were here?

Wouldn't have known it in my neighborhood. For that I'm grateful. Last thing
I wanted to suffer was all the guidance. I can just see it. Crowds of red
mittens grabbing at my elbows, trying to exercise some patriotic
do-gooderness on the local blind guy.

But I did venture downtown once. Once. That was enough. Almost didn't make
it home.

One afternoon I took the Skytrain to Granville Station. Wanted to pick up a
fancy mixer at the Bay for Tracy for Valentine's Day.

Before you scoff, before you denounce my dippy choice of romantic gifts -
yeah, yeah, nothing says love like a muffin production gadget - let me say
Tracy has had it on her wish list for some time now. It ain't just a mixer.
This thing is a GPS, editing suite and a mobile surgical facility in a box.

And my plan was to get it for my gal, all those winter sports hooligans be
damned.

The numbers weren't on my side, though. Sure were a lot of those folks
around. Enough so that they packed the Skytrain like never before. So when
we arrived at the Granville station, getting off wasn't the usual breeze.
The crowd slowly spilled out. Toothpaste-like. Except me.

I was that last guy, the one who the doors close on. Only the doors didn't
close on me exactly, they closed on my white cane. Think of two teeth biting
down on a toothpick, but sideways.

I wrenched and yanked, but couldn't get my mobility aid out. The handle
remained inside the car with me, but about 3 feet stuck outside, pointing in
the direction I'd meant to go.

And then the train took off.

"Hey, that thing stuck?" an Olympic enthusiast asked, tapping me on the
shoulder with his red mitten.

I gave up yanking and instead tried to lever the cane like an oar. No give.

"Well whaddya know," I said, and wrenched again. "Who'd of thought."

Three feet of cane continued to jut from our car's door and greet the tunnel
we were about to enter.

"Do you think it'll clear the wall?" I asked.

"Uh oh," said the red mittens.

We both stepped back from the cane's handle, and waited to see what would
happen. It was sort of like observing a feral animal that might be dead, or
could be ready to pounce.

But the handle just hung there. The outside half didn't seem to graze
anything, or spark, or snap off. Not yet.

"Think you're okay," the mittens finally said.

As we pulled into the next station I imagined what it must have looked like
to folks waiting on the platform, this cane sticking out of the door,
cutting along like a scythe.

But no decapitations followed. Not that I know of.

Finally the car stopped, the doors opened, the cane fell into my hand, and
what had been a scythe now returned to its gentler nature.

Now I could cheerfully be pissed off, about being lost at the wrong station
and all that. Bloody crowds, bloody cane. Wait'll I'm carrying an
industrial-grade food processor, I thought. 



 

 

 

Impressions: 2010 VIP (Visually Impaired People) Fishing Derby

By Chris Kuell

 

Sunday, May 16th. 5:58 a.m.-too early for a Sunday. Enjoy Salsa omelette,
bagel, brush teeth, throw ice in cooler and go.  

 

Ronnie, my neighbor Cindy's pseudo-boyfriend, seems irked that I'm late.
It's 7:05 a.m. Theo, Ronnie's eight-year-old son, gets the front seat. 

Over to Galobek-land in no time, we change vehicles to Al's radio-less van.
We find Sage Pond Park in Berlin with no difficulty. Right on time. Thank
you Lord.  

 

Meet Bob Christensen from the Berlin Lions Club, the sponsors of today's
event. Really nice guy, everything during the day runs smoothly. 

 

Meet Nancy, from Rhode Island. She's my sighted assistant for the day,
although I won't know that until the van ride home. I just thought she was a
nice lady who probably had a thing for Al.   

 

Say hello to Beth and Charlie, Justin Salisbury and his dad. Justin says
he's an experienced fisherman. Oh boy-I'm in trouble. Unbelievable sunshine
and me with no sunscreen. Helping my dermatologist pay off that condo in
Vale. Must use their poles and bait. No bobber, just a weight and these
little pink and yellow balls for bait. Stocked pond. Judged by inches of
fish caught. First, second and third place get a free trip to the Lions Club
National VIP Fishing Derby in North Carolina this October. Sweet. 

 

9:05 and Al pulls in the first fish of the day. An Eleven-and-a-half inch
rainbow trout-and we're off. Justin across the way catches a twelve-incher
and gives it to us because Ronnie wants to keep them for eating. 9:40 and I
think I got a bite. Or more likely, a stick. 

 

We move at ten o'clock to try another spot. While we are moving, a snapping
turtle the size of a dinner plate comes in to where our (well, Al and
Justin's) fish were tethered on a line, and eats one. Theo starts speaking
in tongues he's so excited about the ghastly incident. I stand out on a rock
and cast maybe 100 times before we move again.   

 

The derby will end at 11:45. It's five minutes to eleven, people are
catching fish left and right, but I've got nothing but a sunburn. Ronnie
runs to his tackle box to get some sort of fish love-scent to spray on our
bait. It doesn't help.  

 

Ronnie searches frantically for a better spot. After a few more fruitless
casts we return to the rock spot we'd fished before and Ronnie asks another
contestant if he's sure we can't try worms. We can't. Five minutes later,
I've got a fish. It puts up a little fight, but not as much as I would
expect for a big one. Yet, it turns out to be an eleven-and-a-half incher.
Theo, who has adopted the position of net boy, helps secure the fish. Ronnie
performs a radical tracheotomy on the trout in order to retrieve my hook.
I've caught a fish. Thank you Jesus. 

 

Brian Sigman from BESB comes over to chat, which is nice, but I'm focused on
angling more fish. Three-minutes later, I catch another trout. Thank you
Elvis. It's slimy and muscular--a fifteen-inch rainbow, and must have put me
close to the top of the leader-board. I think to myself that if I catch
another fish, I'll give it to Al.         

 

A quarter hour goes by without a hit. Nobody else seems to be catching
anything, either. I hear people talking about never catching fish in the
heat of the day. We move back to near our original spot. Bam-Al catches a
twelve-incher. Bam-he catches another, this one twelve -and-a-half. At 11:40
I get a nibble, give the pole a quick tug and I've got one. Fights about the
same as the other two, but it's only a seven inch sunny. After measuring,
Ronnie stuns the sunny, then throws it out to the snapping turtle, who
apparently ate it in two-bites. Theo did a back flip and wet his pants he
was so excited. The volunteer who kept track of the competitor's catches
whispers to us that Al and I are in first and second place. Theo runs around
chanting, "We're goin' to North Carolina!" in a not-so-bad imitation of a
Carolina lilt.

 

Frantically I cast, wanting to assure our victory with another fish. The
whistle blows and all poles are called in.

 

I ate a hamburger, 2 hot dogs, a bag of chips and a peanut-butter thingee
Nancy made that shot my blood sugar straight over 600. Ronnie went to the
van to get my cooler of liquid refreshments.  

 

The scorekeeper comes over to me as I'm shooting up with insulin and
whispers that she made a mistake, and a girl named Lexi was first. No
problem. First three places are going to national-right?

 

First place indeed goes to Lexi, a fifteen-year-old high school student from
Bristol with fifty inches of fish. Holy guacamole. Fifty inches. She also
won a trophy for the biggest fish, at fifteen-and-a-half inches. A mere
half-inch bigger than mine. 

 

Second place went to Allan at 36 inches. Third place went to a guy named
Larry from New Milford at 34 inches. Once again, I was a half-inch shy.

 

Ronnie lead me off in the woods to commune with nature, then didn't wait for
me so I had to bushwhack my way back to the group. Lots of hugging and
thanking and see-you-next-yearing. We left with a stringer of fish, full
bellies, and a mornings worth of solar and fishing therapy. Not a bad catch
at all.

 

For information about the Connecticut Lions VIP Fishing Derby, call Bob
Christensen at 860-680-7227

 


National Federation of the Blind Successful in Returning Infant to Her
Parents


Family Reunited After Wrongful Seizure of Child

 

Independence, Missouri (July 22, 2010): The National Federation of the Blind
(NFB) and its Missouri affiliate announced today that they have succeeded in
a legal fight to bring a two-month-old infant, Mikaela Sinnett, home to her
parents, Blake Sinnett and Erika Johnson of Independence.  The NFB of
Missouri hired an attorney to assist the couple after Mikaela was taken from
them at Centerpoint Hospital almost immediately after she was born.  For
fifty-seven days the couple, both of whom are blind, were allowed to visit
their child in foster care but were not allowed to bring her home.  The sole
reason given by Missouri's Department of Social Services was that the couple
was blind and could not properly care for Mikaela without the assistance of
a sighted person twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.  An
evidentiary hearing was scheduled for July 20, but at the last minute the
state of Missouri dismissed the case against the couple.

 

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
"The National Federation of the Blind is pleased that the state of Missouri
has dismissed its case against Blake Sinnett and Erika Johnson and returned
baby Mikaela to their care.  Despite the fact that blind parents are
successfully raising children across the nation, blind Americans continue to
find that misconceptions and stereotypes about the capabilities of blind
people too often result in hasty and unwarranted decisions to remove
children from the custody of blind parents.  The worst nightmare of parents
everywhere-having a child taken away-is sadly part of the lives of too many
blind parents.  The National Federation of the Blind stands ready and
willing to help state officials across the country understand how blind
people use alternative techniques to care for their children.  But the blind
of America will not tolerate our children being taken from us."

 

"We were and are outraged at the action of Centerpoint Hospital and the
state of Missouri," said Gary Wunder, president of the National Federation
of the Blind of Missouri.  "Children's services have the job of protecting
children from abuse and we have nothing but admiration for that work.
Taking a child away because her parents are blind is an entirely different
matter which violates state and federal law.  We have gotten Mikaela back
home, but we must fundamentally change a system that presumes the
incompetence of blind parents and operates on a principle of guilty until
proven innocent rather than the reverse.  We cannot help but think that new
parents who are blind in Missouri will avoid seeking medical and social
services that they may need for fear that they will experience a similar
ordeal.   We can never give back the two months this family has lost, nor
can we restore to Erika the joy of nursing her child that this separation
has made impossible.  What we can do is use their adversity to change the
system that allowed this atrocity and educate the people who have mistakenly
equated blindness with a lack of perception, intellect, and judgment."

 

On May 21, 2010, Erika and Blake went to Centerpoint Hospital, where Erika
delivered Mikaela.  When trying to nurse the baby for the first time, Erika
asked for assistance from a nurse when she thought something was wrong.  The
nurse said that the baby was turning blue and helped reposition the baby,
who then began to take nourishment.  The nurse assured Erika that it was
common for new mothers to need some instruction and that she was doing fine.
Blake and Erika were therefore surprised when, some four hours later, they
were met by a children's services worker who made inquiries about their
vision; asked how they would feed, diaper, and supervise their child; and
eventually decreed that Baby Mikaela would not be allowed to be discharged
with her mother unless the social worker could be assured there would be
constant supervision by someone with sight.  On the recommendation of
Missouri's Children's Protective Services, Mikaela was placed in foster care
and one-hour visits were arranged for several times each week.  When the
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri determined that blindness was
the only reason the child was taken by the state, the organization hired
attorney Amy Coopman to handle the case.  The National Federation of the
Blind now has the option to file complaints with the Missouri Human Rights
Commission and/or the federal Office for Civil Rights, as well as at least
three options that can be pursued in the state's courts.

 

 

Blind Traffic Reporter Driving Away Stereotypes

Reprinted from www.wbnh.com September 13, 2010


When asked, "Have you always been like that?" Tommy replies, "Like
what? Tall and cute?"

Tommy Edison is the traffic reporter for popular Connecticut radio
station 99.9. He has been informing the state's hoards of commuters
for years about the traffic situations in all parts of the state. He
does it with no knowledge of what the traffic looks like, either, as
he has been blind since birth. By using scanners and an onslaught of
constant phone calls, Tommy relays his information across the air
waves and gets people where they need to go.

Now, Tommy wants to inform the public about his condition and dispel
the rumors that are so prevalent within the sighted community. With
the help of a good friend of his, Ben Churchill, he is making a
documentary about living life as a blind person. Ben remarks that it's
tough to sit back behind the camera and watch sometimes, especially
when people insist on giving aid that really isn't needed. For the
sake of the documentary, he has to bite his tongue to get the real
picture.

Tommy and Ben plan to pitch the documentary to multiple TV networks
in hopes that it will air and the sighted community can get a glimpse
of how blind people don't live any differently than they do.

As Bob Branco often points out in his Op Ed pieces, the sighted
community is wrought with assumptions about the blind. Some are more
innocent than others, but they are all a result of a lack of education
about how blind people really live. As Tommy said, "Why is it that
because I am blind I have to sit home or panhandle in front of Grand
Central Station?" By creating a documentary about his life, Tommy will
be able to give a true picture of what his world is like, and
hopefully reveal that the world he lives in--the world with baseball
and picnics and camping--is no different than the world that anyone
else lives in.



 

What Did You Say? What's That? Say It Again?

By Agnes Allen

Now I ask you to look up at the moon and the stars. How shining and bright
they are! I ask you to listen to a Beethoven symphony. How majestic and
grand it sounds. Taste a sweet, juicy orange. How succulent! Come smell a
lovely, blossoming rose. How fragrant! Pet a soft furry kitten. How silken! 

 

Can you imagine for a moment what it is like to be bereft of any of the five
remarkable senses? In the ensuing essay I would like to share with you some
of the ways in which I personally have experienced the loss of two of the
sentient gifts bestowed upon mankind: total vision loss and partial (but
moderately severe) hearing loss.

 

Most people take sight and hearing for granted, to be without one or both is
unthinkable. I have been totally blind since early childhood and have lived
with a major hearing deficiency for much of my adult life. Since I lost my
sight early on, adjustment to my plight was a relatively simple matter.
Training and education made it possible to live normally and actively in my
world. But developing a hearing impairment along with blindness in my
maturity was indeed devastating. I was neither psychologically or
emotionally ready to cope with this double whammy. Nor could I have foretold
being adaptable to it in the future. I could not make eye contact with
someone, nor would I be comfortable in communicating freely with others.
Yes, wearing hearing aids, to a degree, enhances hearing. But that is just
watt they are: hearing 'aids'. I find them to be of very little help in
certain situations. 

 

If a person speaking to me turns his head even slightly, not facing me
directly, the words expressed become unintelligible. Nor do I understand
what the person sitting across the table is saying if any other noise is
occurring simultaneously. This may take place, for example, in a restaurant
where talking and clattering music are at fault. 

 

Prior to the change in my lifestyle engendered by the hearing loss, I was a
successful student, a productive employee, and a dedicated mother of three
girls. But with the onset of hearing loss, I was compelled to meet new
challenges. One of the most important of these was to search for employment
in which sight or hearing was not absolutely crucial. The skill of Braille
literacy had become second nature, and a professional Braille proofreader
suggested that I try to find employment as a proofreader for a non-profit
agency for the blind in Philadelphia. I followed up on my friend's
suggestion and arranged an interview with the head of the department. After
serving in the field of Braille proofreading I found employment as a tutor
of two blind students being educated in the Vineland, NJ public school
system.

 

>From time to time I am invited to speak to various groups about blindness
and Braille. Often audiences wish to follow up with questions or comments,
and I am struck by the nagging fear of being unable to hear or understand.
To somewhat alleviate this situation I like to ask someone in the front row
to repeat what was said when I was not able to hear clearly.

 

At a social gathering or meeting, when a joke or funny remark is being
passed along, I can't join in the ensuing laughter; I sit in silence and let
the whole episode pass me by. 

 

There are occasions on the telephone when words or sentences are utterly
incomprehensible and frustration begins to build for both me and the person
at the other end. When I am listening for an important number, I can come up
with a wrong number because a nine and a five, for instance, contain the 'I'
vowel and can be confused. Vowels are not always clear.

 

It would be less stressful, I am certain, to remain at home and avoid the
foregoing situations, but then how could I, as a recluse, remain happy? I
would become less of a person for doing so. It is so easy to isolate oneself
and begin to question "why me, Lord?" and be tempted to feel inferior to
thus around me who can see and hear. At such times I must take stock of my
own talents and capabilities, focusing on what I can do, not what I can't.

 

A sense of humor lightens the pain of most hardships. It softens the
vicissitudes imposed by the condition. This is no less true of
deafblindness. For example, Bill, a hearing impaired man said to his friend,
"Joe, I just received a new hearing aid and it is simply wonderful! " To
which assertion Joe replies, "Oh, yeah, what kind is it?" To which Bill
responds, "Two-thirty." Then there is John, who said to his wife, "Suzie, go
do the bills." To which Suzie retorts, "Did you say go take a pill?" 

 

In the foregoing witticism, unintelligible speech is the culprit. Hearing
technology seems to be keeping moderate pace with general technology. I have
benefitted exceedingly from digital hearing aids, comparatively speaking.
Without them the hearing world shuts down. My digitals contain a built-in
switch which, when activated, allows my hearing to adjust to different
environments. When the switch is on program 1, it sets the tone for normal
conversation. When programmed on 2, it reduces background noise. This
mechanism reigns on the targeted voice. 

 

When I am riding in a car or bus, for instance, my digitals can be set to
diminish the roaring sound of outside traffic, making it easier to converse
with the driver.

 

Once I attended a wedding reception at which the surroundings were so
fraught with noise, that I could scarcely hear what was being said by the
woman sitting next to me. I could hardly await the return to my peace and
quiet at home. 

 

If an interesting topic is introduced at a meeting or social gathering, it
is difficult to follow the discussion to which I would so like to
contribute. In such a situation, I feel isolated and excluded. If I ask a
question or make a comment, I do not know whether what I say has any
relevance. My tendency is to remain quiet in order to stave off
embarrassment. 

 

The acoustics of a room can affect the quality of hearing. An entire lecture
or discourse can be lost or muffled. A sighted and hearing person may be
able to salvage some of the information by watching the speaker's gestures
and other visual clues. The pastor of my church has kindly installed a
transmitting and receiving system especially designed to improve the
auditory quality of the mass or other services. When the system is working
efficiently I can hear the homily and other parts of the service. 

 

When one learns that someone has a hearing difficulty, the tendency of the
person talking is to raise the voice when all that is needed may be just a
clear, modulated voice. Loudness can distort the sound. High frequencies in
some women's high pitched voices can play havoc with communication.

 

Although the human ear has never been replicated, the miracles of technology
are phenomenal. Hearing technology has really made great strides over the
past decades. Gone are the days of old-fashioned hearing contraptions which
little improved the hearing of the effected individual. As sophisticated and
revolutionary as modern hearing technology has become, it has yet to
transform the original and natural hearing function of the human ear. Nor do
I ever visualize it doing that. Of course, no one can predict the future,
who can tell what miracles may be produced for people with hearing loss?

 

I look forward to a time when it will no longer be necessary for me to ask,
"What's that?" Or, "Say it again?" Or, "Beg pardon?" How spectacular that
day will be!

 

 

Do you need money for college?

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND - 

The NFB Scholarship Program

Applications are now available online.  This national scholarship program is
available to persons who are legally blind and living in the United States
or Puerto Rico.  There are 30 awards, from $12,000 to $3,000.  In addition,
each winner will be assisted to attend the NFB Annual Convention for 2011 in
Orlando, Florida.  The annual contest began the first week of November 2010;
all documents required from the applicants must be postmarked by the March
31, 2011, deadline. Applications and full details are available online at
http://www.nfb.org/scholarships
<http://www.nfb.org/scholarships%3ewww.nfb.org/scholarships>
>www.nfb.org/scholarships.
Questions may be emailed to: scholarships at nfb.org





Miscellany and Notes:

 

Prodigy releases new Count-a-Dose. Count-a-dose is a medical device that
allows a blind or vision impaired person with diabetes to fill an insulin
syringe independently without assistance. In addition to the release of the
count-a-dose, Prodigy is pleased to announce a new Low Vision Center on
their website, this center contains information about the ProdigyR
Count-a-doseT, Prodigy VoiceT Meter, and soon to be Prodigy IQ Pump
information. For additional information or to place your orders for the
Count-A-Dose please call: 866-908-9201. You can also order these products
from the NFB Independence Market.

 

 

Do you love your new Digital Talking Book Player, but don't like to download
books on to a flash drive which sticks out of the side of the machine? Now
you can buy a blank, 1 GB talking book cartridge For $14.95, and a 36 inch
USB compatible cable for $3.95 from Adaptive Technologies. 1-978-462-3817
www.perkinsproducts.org

 

Have you always wanted to play a musical instrument, but don't know where to
begin? Check out Bill Browns beginner audio series for guitar, piano,
harmonica, saxophone, violin and flute. Visit www.musicfortheblind.com or
call 1-888-778-1828 for more information.

 

 

Movie Theatres with audio description come to CT!

Rave Accessible Theatre Locations (each has one equipped auditorium) 
Rave Motion Pictures Buckland Hills (Manchester) 
Rave Motion Pictures Connecticut Post 14 (Milford) 
Rave Motion Pictures North Haven (North Haven) Rave Motion Pictures
Southington (Southington)

 

two new online resources for described movie fans.
http://www.describedmovies.org <http://www.describedmovies.org/>  will get
folks to a page which lists DVD and Blu-ray titles that have description,
and offers an amazon click through option to go directly to amazon to
purchase the movie.  A separate page, linked from that URL, lists all the
movies Rave has described since DVS debuted in 1990.  

 

Speaking of descriptive movies. you can download free descriptive movies at
www.blindmicemart.com . You will need to register (which is free) then enter
the site, click on the movie vault link, and browse the hundreds of movies
which are available for download.

 

Public Release: 26-May-2010
Journal of Neuroscience Methods
UCI researchers create retina from human embryonic stem cells
UC Irvine scientists have created an eight-layer, early-stage retina from
human embryonic stem cells, the first three-dimensional tissue structure to
be made from stem cells.
Lincy Foundation, private donations
Contact: Tom Vasich
tmvasich at uci.edu
949-824-6455 

 

Are you frustrated by not being able to read nutritional facts or directions
on the food you purchase at the grocery store? Now there is a web site with
thousands of product labels available in either large font or in a speech
friendly format. Visit: http://directionsforme.org/  to see what you've been
missing.

 

In September 2010, the Connecticut Office of State Ethics ruled that while
employees and Board members of BESB (the Board of Education and Services for
the Blind) are public officials, they are entitled to receive services from
BESB, and there is no inherent conflict of interest. Members of the
Deafblind Advisory Committee, the Agency Consumer Advisory Committee (ACAC),
the Statewide Committee of Blind Vendors and the State Rehabilitation
Council (SRC) were determined not to be public officials as their roles are
more advisory in nature.

 

 

Robert Leslie Newman

President, Omaha Chapter NFB

President, NFB Writers' Division

Division Website

 <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org> http://www.nfb-writers-division.org

Personal Website-

 <http://www.thoughtprovoker.info> http://www.thoughtprovoker.info

 

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