[Nfb-editors] Connecticut Newsletter

[David Andrews]

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



[]



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: 
<mailto:wgramza1 at verizon.net>wgramza1 at verizon.net.



Crowd Control and Other Olympic Sports
By Ryan Knighton
Reprinted from <http://www.rknighton.blogspot.com>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 boy­I’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 trout­and 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. Bam­Al catches a twelve-incher. 
Bam­he 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 national­right?

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 everywhere­having a 
child taken away­is 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 <http://www.wbnh.com>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 benefited 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%3ewww.nfb.org/scholarships>http://www.nfb.org/scholarships>www.nfb.org/scholarships.
  Questions may be emailed to: 
<mailto:scholarships at nfb.org>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 Prodigy® Count-a-dose™, 
Prodigy Voice™ 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 
<http://www.perkinsproducts.org>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 
<http://www.musicfortheblind.com>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 
<http://www.blindmicemart.com>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
<mailto:tmvasich at uci.edu>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/>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.

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