[Nfb-editors] New "QUE Pasa" from New Mexico (march 2011)

Tue Mar 15 11:52:59 UTC 2011

Que Pasa, March 2011

James Babb, Editor

jim.babb at samobile.net

505-792-9777

In this issue:

Preamble

President's Message

That Well Known Road

A Trip to the Roundhouse

Airlines Could Do A Better Job Of Assisting Passengers

Announcing The Addition Of Job Listings On NFB-Newsline 

Scholarship Program for Blind Students

Poems Submitted by Richard Derganc

Good Eating

Meetings and Announcements

Preamble

The National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico (NFBNM) is a 501 (c) 3
consumer organization comprised of blind and sighted people committed to
changing what it means to be blind.  Though blindness is still all too often
a tragedy to those who face it, we know from our own personal experience
that with training and opportunity it can be reduced to the level of a
physical nuisance.  We work to see that blind people receive services and
training to which they are entitled and that parents of blind children
receive the advice and support they need to help their youngsters grow up to
be happy, productive adults.  We believe that first-class citizenship means
that people have both rights and responsibilities, and we are determined to
see that blind people become first-class citizens of these United States,
enjoying their rights and fulfilling their responsibilities.  The most
serious problems we face have less to do with our lack of vision than with
discrimination based on the public's ignorance and misinformation about
blindness.  Join us in educating New Mexicans about the abilities and
aspirations of New Mexico's blind citizens.

(Adapted from NFB of Ohio newsletter.) 

President's Message

As always, the NFB of New Mexico continues to be an advocate for the blind
in New Mexico and across the nation.

In January, six Federationists met with Governor Martinez's staff heads of
Commissions, Boards and Councils to stress the importance of keeping Greg
Trapp as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind.
Those of us present at the meeting felt that it went very well and the
NFBNM's support of Greg Trapp was beneficial to keeping him on as the
Executive Director of the Commission.  We also spoke to them about
re-appointing Art Schreiber to the three-person Commission board and
suggested they appoint Governor Dave Cargo to the board as well.  Dallas
Allen, the third member of the board, is not up for re-appointment.  At the
time of this writing, we are uncertain as to the outcome of these requests.

On February 7, Art Schreiber and I along with Commission staff were present
at the House Appropriations committee regarding the Commission's budget.
Greg Trapp presented the case for approval of the Legislative Finance
Committee's (LFC) budget recommendation as opposed to the Department of
Finance Administration (DFA) committee recommendation, the LFC being the
higher of the two.  We were very pleased that the committee voted to approve
the LFC recommendation.

I am pleased to report to you that the National Federation of the Blind
(NFB) announced on January 29, 2011, that for the first time a blind
individual has driven a street vehicle in public without the assistance of a
sighted person.  Mark Riccobono, a blind man who directs technology,
research, and education programs for the NFB, was behind the wheel of a Ford
Escape hybrid equipped with nonvisual technology and successfully navigated
1.5 miles of the road course section of the famed track at the Daytona
International Speedway.

Four New Mexico Federationists attended Washington Seminar this year: Art
Schreiber,  Amanda Youngblood, a student at University of New Mexico, Susan
Martinez, parent of a blind child, and myself.  There were three initiatives
this year:  1. The Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind; 2.  Establish a
commission within the Department of Education to set uniform national
standards for the education of blind students in grades K through 12; and 3.
The Americans with Disabilities Business Opportunities Act.

We met with Senator Bingaman and Senator Tom Udall, and I am pleased to
report that Senator Udall has agreed to be a Democratic sponsor of the
Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind.  The House of Representatives was
not in session while we were in Washington D.C.  Since all of our
Congressmen were in their home districts, we met with their legislative
aides who will inform them of our three initiatives.

We thanked all of our congressional delegation for their support of the
Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, signed by the president on December 28,
2010.

We were a bit concerned about getting back to Albuquerque because of weather
delays, but we lucked out and were only delayed by two hours.  When we were
getting ready to land at the Albuquerque airport, the pilot announced that
it was one degree.  To our surprise, the weather was better in Washington
D.C. than at home in Albuquerque.

By the time you receive this issue of Que Pasa and my President's message,
you will have received the pre-registration information and form for our
annual state convention to be held on April 8, 9 and 10.  We are putting
together a fun and informative agenda that I believe will be enjoyed by all.

Some of you may wonder why you are not receiving the Braille Monitor.  Last
year the national office, in order to save on cost, asked subscribers to
contact the national office in Baltimore to let them know if you would like
to continue receiving the Monitor.  If you failed to notify them that you
would still like to receive the Monitor, you can call the national
headquarters at (410) 659-9314, extension 2344, and let them know in what
format you wish to receive it, Braille, large print, 2- or 4-track
cassettes.  If you are unable to make the call yourself, let me know and I
will put the request in for you.

See you at convention, if not before.

Christine Hall

That Well Known Road

By Nancy Burns

"Do you know where you are?"  asked the elderly-sounding man who was in
front of us in the check-out line waiting to pay for a purchase.  I suppose
he asked this question as my husband and I were both using white canes.  I
truly wanted to scream and say something like, "No, we are totally lost."
This sort of inquiry is directed to us frequently.  I bit my tongue because
I felt that deep down the man was trying to assist but didn't have a clue
how to do so.  These questions are demeaning and would have a powerful
impact on someone who was perhaps adjusting to a recent vision loss.  Since
my husband and I are well-adjusted blind adults, such comments are simply
annoying.  

As a woman who happens to be blind, I have spent my adult life attempting to
educate the general public that it is okay to be different, and
specifically, it is okay to be blind.  The majority of people don't see it
that way.  When I am asked these kinds of questions, it puts me in a
difficult position.  My desire is to educate, but these belittling questions
or comments are not always easy to resolve.  There is a fine line between
educating or alienating someone.  For me, it is like walking a tight rope
and I am never quite sure which way to go. When the waitress asks my sighted
friend "what would she like?"  she is under some kind of erroneous
assumption.  I suspect she believes that since I can't read the menu that I
obviously don't know what to order.  Or perhaps the all-too-common
misconceptions about blind people kick in and she just feels I am unable to
function.  Interestingly enough, some of these individuals even speak louder
assuming that my hearing is also impaired.

In books, or movies, or in the media, blind people are often portrayed as
either extremely amazing or extremely helpless and dependent.  Why is it so
difficult for the general public to understand that those of us who happen
to be blind are in fact just people with all the abilities, hopes and
desires of the sighted world?  If there are blind people (and there are
some) who appear to be helpless and unproductive, could it possibly be that
inaccurate belief systems and false impressions about the lack of sight on
the part of the general public have contributed to these inequalities?  If
you expect nothing of us, nothing is what you will get.  Societal attitudes
about blindness or vision loss must change in order for those of us who are
blind to truly be considered as normal (whatever that is) citizens.  If you
believe in equality-equality is what we will all gain.     

A Trip to the Roundhouse

By Jim Babb

Harold Martinez did a great job in a recent leadership role. He put together
a plan designed to protect the Commission for the Blind, its Director and
Commissioners, it's SRC, and more. He began calling some of us: myself
(Jim), Christine and Marina on Tuesday January 11. We as a group were to
meet with recent high level appointees of the Martinez Administration on
Thursday, January 13. He provided transportation, brought supporting
documents (resumes, statistics, etc.) and even bought our lunch afterwards.

He arranged for us to meet at 10:00 with Ryan Candeluci and Adam Feldman.
They appeared to be very interested in the Commission and its services. We
worked as a team explaining the Commission's services, its structure, its
leadership in the Nation's services to blind consumers, etc. We made strong
recommendations to retain Mr. Trapp, Virginia Murphy, Arthur Schreiber and
Dallas Allen. We recommended a new commissioner, former Governor Cargo. They
seemed to be favorably impressed and said that they would be contacting Mr.
Trapp that very day.

Postscript: They did indeed call Mr. Trapp for an interview. He was
interviewed that next day; things look good for him! Stay tuned.

Airlines Could Do A Better Job Of Assisting Passengers        

(Article from the Columbus Dispatch)

By  Deborah Kendrick      

Last week, the Department of Transportation fined Delta Airlines $2 million
for violating rules regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities.

All public conversation regarding the situation, including Delta's own blog,
refers to the dignified and appropriate handling of people who use
wheelchairs and their mobility equipment. I have friends who use
wheelchairs, and any measure that can enhance their travel experience is one
I applaud. But there are plenty of disabilities that don't involve
wheelchairs at all, and that news flash isn't always reaching the airline
radar screens. 

When I fly, I ask at the gate for a "Meet and assist" request to be entered
into the computer for me. What I need, I explain each time, is a person who
knows the route from gate to exit, gate to baggage claim, Gate A to Gate B
if making connections. That's it. A person who knows the way and who won't
mind my walking alongside them. 

Before I go any further, I should also explain that not every person who is
blind or visually impaired will need or want this kind of assistance. Some
visually impaired people who fly frequently learn the layout of particular
airports and, thus, can travel within them independently. If I had a job at
the airport, was traveling out of or into the same airport every week, or
frequented an airport location consistently for any other reason, that's
exactly what I would do. But as a person who travels about a dozen times a
year, out of and into different airports, using my available mental real
estate for developing maps of said airports is a low priority. The most
efficient method for me is simply to follow someone who knows the way and
get where I want to go. 

Requesting this assistance from airline staff gets successful results about
50 percent of the time. Knowing that, I will often simply get off the plane
and ask a fellow passenger who has initiated friendliness, "Could I follow
you to baggage claim? or wherever. 

Last year, I was traveling with a group in which one person needed a
wheelchair. It struck me at the time as laudable that the assistant with the
wheelchair was right there on the jetway when we deplaned. 

Another time, while traveling alone and having made the above request, it
struck me as odd that, as I came off the plane, a guy standing there asked,
"Are you the person who requested the wheelchair? 

When I explained that I wasn't but that I did indeed need someone to follow
to the ground transportation area, he turned his back on me, waiting for the
passenger with the "real" disability to arrive. 

Last week, I was flying from Dayton to Tampa with a 40-minute connection in
Atlanta. When I made my usual request at the gate in Dayton, the agent
recognized me and warned, "I'll put it in the computer, but know that since
you don't need a wheelchair, it might not work. 

That time it did, but coming back to Ohio, I was even more nervous when the
Atlanta connection was only 30 minutes. 

When I boarded the first plane, the woman beside me struck up a
conversation. I quickly learned that she was making the same connection. I
asked if I could follow her to the gate. 

No problem. She had requested a wheelchair, she said, and they are "always
right there." She was a lovely woman and able to walk, but is in the habit
of requesting wheelchair assistance because her knee sometimes "pops" out. 

Sure enough, a guy with a golf cart was right there when we came off the
plane - and drove us all of three gates away! 

There's something to this, I thought, while recognizing the irony that I
could have walked it in the same amount of time but might well have been
waiting for someone to give me the right direction had I not been with this
fellow wheelchair-requesting passenger. 

When we arrived in Dayton, her prediction was again fulfilled. Wheelchair
guy was right there when we deplaned, and by following him, I was among the
first to arrive at the baggage claim. 

When he heard my puzzlement over the different handling of our two requests,
he demurred, "Oh, you must have asked for a 'Meet and assist. Sometimes, if
there's no wheelchair involved, those requests don't even go out. 

Hmmmm. 

His advice matched that of my newfound friend from the airplane: Just
request a wheelchair and take a ride. 

Maybe it's a solution, but it's the wrong one. 

I can walk. My disability is that I can't see the signage guiding me back to
civilization. Requesting a wheelchair would be ridiculous. 

More important, if I adopt that easy solution, I'm feeding the clear
misconception behind the practice. 

Airline and airport training could incorporate common sense. Simple message:
There are some 50 million Americans who might fly with you who have
disabilities. Some of them will request assistance and some won't. The
assistance needed is as varied as the number of passengers themselves. Some
will need wheelchairs. Some won't. Any accommodation you provide enhances
customer satisfaction and keeps them coming back. 

Deborah Kendrick is a Cincinnati writer and advocate for people with
disabilities. 

dkkendrick at earthlink.net 

Announcing the Addition of job Listings on NFB-NEWSLINE

In addition to the hundreds of publications and TV listings available,
NFB-NEWSLINE now offers subscribers the ability to independently access job
classifieds and apply for open positions.  

With this groundbreaking job listings feature, blind and print disabled
people will be able to search for job openings that match their education,
skills, and interests.  

Subscribers can easily search through hundreds of thousands of job listings
from all across the country and look for openings in their hometowns.

With the addition of content from a national job classifieds provider,
NFB-NEWSLINE subscribers can conduct searches for job openings in over fifty
categories such as banking and education, and if desired, can narrow the
search to look for certain keywords within the listings.  

Subscribers can also request that a particular job listing be sent to them
via e-mail by pressing pound nine when hearing the listing; the e-mail will
contain the listing as well as a link that will provide a Web page with the
position's application form.

To access the job listings, subscribers call into the NFB-NEWSLINE service
(the listings are currently only available via phone) and press "nine" from
the main menu.  

>From there, subscribers then set up their search profile by identifying the
zip code from which the job listings are culled, and create and save their
search preferences (category and keyword).  

Because the job listings are pulled afresh from the classifieds provider on
each call, subscribers get the most up-to-the-minute search results.  

Subscribers can choose to save (or discard) listings for later access by
pressing five when listening to a listing, and navigation through the
listings is accomplished by using the one and three keys.

The job Listings Main Menu is as follows:

To edit or change your search setup, press 1.  

The search setup includes setting the zip code and search preferences.

To view all of your job search results, press 2.  

This pulls up all of the results for positions in the provided zip code
matching the category and keyword selection.

To hear your saved jobs, press 3.  

 Subscribers can review jobs that were saved earlier.

To hear only new jobs, press 4.  

This allows subscribers to skip over jobs that were previously heard; any
jobs not heard since the last search will also be available in this area.  

To hear only previously accessed jobs, press 5.  

This option provides the ability to review a previously heard listing.

To view only discarded jobs, press 6.  

This allows subscribers to access listings that were deleted in error.

To experience the revolutionary job-listings feature, call today!

>From the NFB-NEWSLINE Team. 

866-504-7300

E-mail: nfbnewsline at nfb.org

www.nfbnewsline.org

www.nfbnewslineonline.org

Scholarship Program for Blind College Students

To recognize achievement by blind scholars, the National Federation of the
Blind annually offers blind college students in the United States and Puerto
Rico the opportunity to win one of thirty national scholarships ranging from
$3,000 to $12,000, and the 30 winners will be assisted to attend the 2011
NFB Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida.  For further information,
including eligibility requirements, the online application form, and the
Scholarship Checklist detailing all required documents, go to
www.nfb.org/scholarships.  Deadline: March 31, 2011. 

Chairperson Patti Chang, Esq.

NFB Scholarship Committee

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

200 East Wells Street

Baltimore, MD 21230 

at Jernigan Place

Office:  (410) 659-9314, x2415; 

E-mail:  scholarships at nfb.org

Website:  www.nfb.org/scholarships

Poems Submitted by Richard Derganc

It started with an ADAM of Hydrogen, in fact.

And on the EVE of solstice some Helium did react.

Then CANE all the thunder, lightning and such.

We were newly ABLE to create all the elements we thank you very much.

Give them any name u like,

They all have numbers, too.

And in combination,

They formed me and you.

Genetic Defective

FEB 2011

You'd never know just looking at me,

That I have a congenital abnormality.

I was "normal" for much of my life.

No external indication, no threat to life.

None that I knew of at any rate.

None that pointed-out differences, great.

In my early 20s the doctors did find,

Something disturbing in both of my eyes.

Walter Reed, John's Hopkins, NIH and Columbia studied my eyes.

Then they decided on what was the cause.

Retinoblastoma they finally proclaimed.

As the cause of my decreasing functional use of my eyes.

One-in-a-million they bestowed on me!

A trans-chromosomal abnormality!

Apparently my chromosome, number 13,

Was visiting elsewhere when it ought not to be.

When all the genes were gathered together,

My chromosomes didn't "have it together."

They said the condition typically,

Was fatal if undiagnosed by age five.

So what I wondered, happened to me?

Spontaneously Regressed, I was proclaimed to be.

The cancer hid out in my DNA until age 23.

Then a genetic defective, I was acclaimed to be.

I've been an object of study for most of my life,

Dubious distinction, producing much strife.

Imagine a spouse, willing to gamble,

That our offspring would prove to be nothing but "normal."

We had a child and right after birth,

I rushed the placenta to a foreign place.

They sampled and tested and finally pronounced,

Three of four chances went to the house.

My daughter has grown-up to be

A wonderful person and so special to me.

She does have the genetic defect from me.

A professional and loving wife has she come to be.

So despite your illness, or your heredity

Your obligation is to be all you can be!

Richard Derganc (with Katherine in mind)

GOOD EATING

This is one of my absolutely favorite salads.  The best thing about it, you
can eat it hot or right out of the fridge. Yum 

Submitted by: Veronica Smith

'SWEET POTATO SALAD w/ TOASTED PECANS & DRIED CRANBERRIES' 

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2 inch cubes

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

Kosher salt & freshly grated black pepper

2 tablespoons finely diced sweet onion

2 tablespoons chopped, toasted pecans

2 tablespoons dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Dressing:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons sugar-free or regular honey

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place diced sweet potatoes in a shallow baking
dish. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary, salt and
pepper. Stir to coat. Roast for 25-30 minutes or just until fork tender.
(Overcooking will cause them to be mushy when you stir them into the
remaining ingredients.) Allow to cool slightly.

To make the dressing, in a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon
juice, honey, salt and black pepper. Transfer potatoes to a medium bowl.
Stir in onions, pecans, cranberries, and parsley. Drizzle with dressing and
gently stir until coated. 

Serve either warm, room temp or cold. 

Makes 5 side-dish servings.

MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

March 31, 2011 Deadline for NFB College Scholarships application

March 31, 2011 Deadline application for Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award.

April 8-10, 2011 NFB of New Mexico State Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico

April 14, 2011 Deadline for application for financial assistance to attend
NFB national convention held in July. 

For more details contact Christine Hall at 505-268-3895.

July 3-8, 2011 NFB National Convention, Orlando, Florida

July 17-23, 2011 NFB youth Slam, Towson University, Maryland

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

Chair, Newsletter Publication committee

Personal Website-

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