[Nfb-editors] Spring-Summer 2011 The Federationist in Connecticut, newsletter

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Here is editor, Chris Kuell's new issue of his affiliate's newsletter- 32
pages at 8,983 words:

 

The Federationist

In Connecticut

"The Blind Speaking for Themselves"

Chris Kuell, Editor


Spring/Summer 2011

 

The real problem of blindness is not the lack of eyesight. The real problem
is the misunderstanding and lack of information which exist. If a blind
person has proper training and opportunity, blindness is only a physical
nuisance. The National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut is a state
affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and works to improve
the lives of blind people in Connecticut. By providing information and
education to its members and the public, the NFB of Connecticut is changing
what it means to be blind.

 

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

 

Blind Faith <>                                                     page 2

 

President Signs Pedestrian Safety Act <>              page 15

 

My Dream Fulfilled <>                                     page 17

 

Digital Books Forevermore <>                      page 19

 

The 2011 Washington Seminar <>              page 21

 

Taking Life By The Reigns <>              page 22

 

Here We Go Again <>                          page 25

 

New, Accessible Job Listings <>                    page 29

 

Blind Man Drives Car <>                                 page 30

 

Miscellany and Notes <>                                page 32

 

 

 

Blind Faith

 

By Georgina Kleege

 

My eyes always deceive me, but my blindness never lets me down. Here's an
example of what I mean. One late winter afternoon I caught a glimpse of the
setting sun through the bedroom window. It had been a lowering, overcast
day, but the clouds had lifted enough at the horizon to reveal the sun as an
intense orange disk, set off by the general grayness of the darkening sky. I
thought-Aha, a sunset, and obedient to the writers imperative to pay
attention to such things, I sat down on the bed to watch. 

 

Time passed, but the sun did not seem to have progressed much. It remained
in the same place that I had first noted it, and appeared to be the same
size and shape. Also, the sky was growing steadily darker even though the
sun's light stayed at the same level of intensity. Still I continued to
watch, thinking that if this seemed strange to me, it was only because I had
not been paying enough attention to sunsets lately, and had grown unfamiliar
with the natural course of the phenomena. 

 

More time passed, and at last I recognized my mistake. The orange light I
had taken for the sun was in fact only a sodium vapor street lamp. 

 

I have been legally blind since the age of eleven. Like most legally blind
people, I retain some residual vision. In my case, I can perceive light,
color and motion with some degree of accuracy. I cannot perceive fine
detail, such as print on a page or features on a face. Forms appear
amorphous, mutable and with unstable outlines, threatening always to
dissolve into their surroundings. I cannot tell for sure how lines and
curves in a visual array come together, and I have next to no depth
perception. What I was responding to on this occasion was mainly color,
specifically the juxtaposition of two colors, the orange and the grey. This,
plus the fact that it was the correct hour for sunset, led me astray. I
would not have jumped to the sunset conclusion at another hour of the day.
It seems possible that a person with average vision might have made the same
mistake, but a second glance would have spotted the structure of the street
light and the other relevant details that I cannot make out.

 

This incident, however, did not make me feel sad. No pang of grief for my
lost vision. I have been blind too long to mourn about it. If anything, I
felt a little silly about my desire to conform to some stereotypically
romantic ideal pairing of writers and sunsets.    

 

Though I try to be alert to the world around me, I am actually not that sort
of writer. Beyond occasioning some mild self-mockery, the incident was just
another example of what is a commonplace for me. Despite more than four
decades of experience with severely impaired vision, when I rely on my
vision alone I am likely to be tricked. When I rely on my other senses and
more general knowledge about the laws of nature, I do better. In other
words, my eyes always deceive me, but my blindness never lets me down.

 

Here's another example. In the basement of the house mentioned above, there
were glass blocks in the windows. When the light was right, usually early on
a sunny morning, the prismatic effect of the blocks made flecks of
iridescent light appear on the gray, cement floor. Without fail, I took
these flecks of light for scraps of     Mylar gift wrap or confetti. I would
reach down to grasp one in wonder and have my error confirmed through touch.
No matter how often this occurred, I never failed to be duped. When it
happened a couple of days in a row, I forced myself to look before reaching
down. But even when I made a deliberate effort to look carefully, the
intensity of the light and colors made it impossible for me to believe I was
not seeing something substantial. It can be annoying to be tricked in the
same manner day after day, but I suppose I was perpetually enchanted by the
idea that someone-was it the cats-might be having a party in my basement
festive enough to require iridescent confetti. 

 

To use the technical term, I am 'legally blind with some useable sight'. The
need for a legal definition of blindness arose in the 1930s to determine
eligibility for newly established, federally funded, educational and
rehabilitation programs. In America, as in most of the industrialized world,
a person is legally or certifiably blind if her or his acuity measures
20/200 or less; or if her or his field of vision is twenty degrees or less
in the better eye, with corrective lenses. 

 

The prepositional phrase, with some useable sight, begs several questions.
How much is some? What kind of sight is useable and what is useless? For
that matter, what exactly is sight? These questions have increasing urgency.
Demographers predict that as     the baby-boom generation ages and becomes
prone to the leading causes of vision loss that occur later in life, the
number of blind people, with and without residual vision, will increase
dramatically.  by the year 2020, the National Institute of Health projects,
with uncharacteristic wit, that there will be 5.5 million blind and visually
impaired persons forty years of age or older. This is between five and ten
times the number of the current population. For those of us who are already
blind and visually impaired, this promises     a proliferation of goods and
services designed to aid us. Talking computers, talking ATMs and other
vending machines, new currency with large print and/or tactile markings,
global positioning devices, audible traffic signals. In the future, blind
people adapting to vision loss will have more resources to draw upon as they
determine how much vision they retain and what use they might make of it.   

 

Making this determination is trickier than it sounds. Descriptions in
ophthalmology and perception texts are not necessarily helpful. These
descriptions are written from the perspective of someone looking at the
impaired eyes from the outside and extrapolating what the visible
imperfections there would do to an undamaged eye would see. In other words,
authors of those texts take an image and erase the parts they imagine would
be affected by the visual impairment. They rarely consult with anyone
looking at the world through those impaired eyes. At best, they compile a
list of symptoms that an eye-care specialist should expect to hear from a
patient experiencing some new vision loss. More significant, these medical
descriptions rarely take into account how the experience of lost vision
might change over time. One may lose faith in vision that has failed to be
faithful to reality.

 

Assigning words to my fragmentary visual experience, the orange disk in the
sky, the iridescent flecks on the floor, makes them sound more definite than
they were. If I can come up with words to describe my visual experiences, it
is because I have a lot of practice at it. In reality, vision isn't
naturally at the forefront of my attention. 

 

Some years ago I was washing potatoes for dinner one evening. At the time I
was writing a book about living with impaired sight and was in the habit of
putting my visual experiences into words. Every activity, however mundane,
provided additional practice. On this occasion I was trying to find words to
express the look of the running water. A tricky visual phenomenon involving
transparence in motion. I was having trouble separating what I was seeing
from what I was feeling. The slightly fizzy stream of warm, and what I was
hearing, the shush of water over the faint gurgle of the drain. I could tell
that the    sounds were influencing the image. The vibration that is always
at the center of my visual field was somehow in sync with the sound. Further
complicating matters was the bright, white sheen off the chrome faucet,
perpendicular to the softer, white tube of flowing water. 

 

And then I told myself to turn it off. I already had enough examples. This
one was at once too complex and too silly. Instantly, everything changed.
The image did not go blank or black, it simply receded from the taught
center of my attention. I allowed myself to go back to being blind. I
relaxed into the sensation coming from my hand as my fingers rubbed the skin
of the potato with a few last remnants of dirt off and dissolved in the
running water. Does anyone actually need to look at the potato while washing
it? Isn't touch the more useful sense in this situation?        

 

To say that my blindness never lets me down will be jarring to many readers.
Blindness is usually understood to be a lack, an absence, a void. Since
seeing and knowing are so often conflated in people's thinking, blindness is
defined as the opposite of knowing, a state of non-knowing. People speak of
losing sight, never of gaining blindness. For this reason, blind people are
thought to be cut off from reality. Cut loose, adrift. While we may use our
other senses to get around and identify objects we encounter, our knowledge
of the world is assumed to be incomplete, flimsy and make-shift. A poor
imitation of true knowledge. In my definition, blindness is something to be
trusted and relied upon rather than something to work around and overcome. I
am speaking of blindness as an array of non-visual perception and other
forms of acquired knowledge, that when used in combination, provide me with
more reliable and useful information than my eyes   ever do.

 

According to this definition then, many sighted people make use of blindness
in their daily lives. Here I am not speaking of simulation exercises, where
a sighted person dons a blindfold to promote empathy. Rather, I'm thinking
of occasions when non-visual techniques might be better suited to the task.
Cooks test the doneness of food through touch, smell and even hearing.
Physicians and auto mechanics often make preliminary diagnoses through touch
and sound. 

 

Place an unfamiliar object before me and no amount of looking will tell me
what it is. The longer I fixate on it, the more     its form, size, even
color will appear to change as my brain attempts to make educated guesses to
interpret the fragmentary information my eyes supply. These guesses are
guided by expectation. If I am in a china shop, I expect that the object
might be a tea cup. If I am in a pet shop, it might be a turtle, but only
touching it will let me know for sure. Contrary to popular belief, touch
does not replace sight for blind people. The details I observe through the
tactile examination of an object do not produce an image in my mind's eye.
Similarly, the information that comes to my hand through my white cane does
not create a mental map of my surroundings. In fact, using a white cane is
as much a matter of hearing as of touch. Or more accurately, I use hearing,
touch, and sometimes even olfactory perception in combination to get me
where I want to go. The cane's tip sweeps the ground before my feet to alert
me to obstacles and curbs and to announce details about     the texture of
the surface underfoot. On regular routes, changes in the pavement's texture
signal that I am approaching a destination or turning point. But while I
attend to this tactile information I am still conscious of sounds -both the
echoes the cane makes which can sometimes tell me about my surroundings, and
the sound of traffic, children at play in a schoolyard, footsteps behind or
coming toward me, music playing at a corner bar, and so forth. Restaurants,
bakeries, flower stands, drug stores and bookshops all exhale their
particular scents.

 

To take advantage of all this information direct my attention outward in all
directions, creating a sort of sphere of perception around me as I move. And
for me to absorb all this, it is necessary for me to ignore the information
coming to me through my eyes. When I am at a large party and want to find
someone to talk to, I listen for familiar voices. It can take a minute or
two to adjust to the general sounds in the room and to sort out voices of
different pitches. The process has a tactile element to it. I feel myself
sorting out different layers of sounds, with     higher voices up around my
head and lower voices somewhere around my chest. Once I have orally located
a familiar voice I begin to move in that general direction, hoping the
person will stay put and stop me when I draw near. 

 

These habits have evolved gradually during the course of my life, and I
cannot recall employing a conscious effort to figure out how to do things
non-visually. I recognize, however, someone who has recently acquired a
visual impairment will find it hard to abandon sighted habits. I was
standing at a bus stop the other day when a woman, aged around 70 judging by
her voice, approached me and said, "You don't see very well, do you?" 

 

I knew what she meant. People assume using the word 'blind' will be
insulting. I waved my white cane back and forth and said that, yes, I did
not see very well, and in fact I was blind. She went on to ask, "How do you
get the bus drivers to do that?"

 

She had noticed that the drivers call out the number of their bus line to
me, as they are trained to do whenever they see someone with a white cane or
service dog. I was not surprised to learn that the woman also 'did not see
well', and was intimidated by the surly responses of drivers who did not
feel compelled to strain their voices for someone who did not display a sign
of blindness.  After a few more exchanges, the woman admitted that she was
in fact legally blind, and even that she had received some training with a
white cane, but did not like to use it. She did not explain why.

 

Was it the fear of displaying vulnerability to purse snatchers, or possibly
more violent criminals on the street? More likely she did not feel blind
enough. Like others, she seemed to subscribe to the myth of the blindness
police, the vigilante militia who patrols the streets ready to denounce any
hapless cane user who shows signs of residual vision. She argued that she
could still find her way, more or less, but simply couldn't read the signs
on buses. She said that her husband complained that her posture was getting
bad because she was always stooping over to see the pavement or her feet. 

 

I suggested that the cane was a simple solution to these problems. It would
signal to bus drivers that they needed to call out to her, and would allow
her to scan the pavement before her feet so she could straighten her spine.
My point was that if the vision she had was inadequate to perform these
tasks, it made sense to put her faith into a simple tool of blindness. 

 

The woman and I ended up boarding the same bus, and she told me she had
readily adopted other blind tools and techniques, especially recorded books.
In fact, she enjoyed recorded books even before she lost her sight, and
admitted that she was delighted to discover the wide range of free sources
for electronic books specifically for the blind. Perhaps it was a first step
toward thinking of blindness in a new way.

 

On another occasion, I sat next to a blind man on an airplane. He used a
white cane but seemed to rely more heavily on a sighted companion, which
lead me to believe he was another newcomer to blindness. But it turned out
that he had been visually impaired for 20 years. He had no vision in one eye
and restricted vision in the other, though he could still read enlarged
print and perceive color and form with that eye. We did what blind strangers
do when we meet-we compared tools and techniques. My telescoping cane versus
his folding model. My Braille watch versus his talking one. My computer's
synthesized voice versus his screen enlargement software. We went on to
discuss common aspects of our different impairments. He described his
problems with depth perception. He demonstrated his difficulty in laying his
hand on the latch to release the table from the seat back in front of him.
His good eye told him it was nearer to him than it actually was. 

 

I was utterly stupefied. Why would he bother to try to perform such a task
visually? "Do it with your eyes closed," I suggested. Sure enough, once he'd
squared himself in his seat, he got it on the first try.

 

We discussed the hazards of staircases. He told me that when he found
himself at the top of a staircase, it filled him with terror. I knew what he
meant. When I look down at a flight of steps, what I see is an undulating
ramp rippling with slanty, horizontal lines. Nothing about its appearance
would make is seem a safe place to put my foot, so I don't look at it. I
keep my eyes straight ahead, sometimes even close them, grasp the banister
with one hand, my cane with the other, and take the first step. 

"Isn't that why you have the cane?" I asked.

 

It came out that he had resigned from his job as a hospital administrator
when he became visually impaired. I could not guess his age, and he was old
enough that his resignation could have been more of an early retirement.
Still, as he asked me about the technologies I used to do my job, I sensed
some wistfulness on his part. Although the types of technology I use now
were barely in their infancy 20 years ago, I sensed he was wondering if he
was too hasty in giving up work. It might seem that someone formerly
employed in the medical field would have access to more information.
Unfortunately, the ophthalmologists who diagnose vision impairment do not
always know how blind people live. They refer patients to low vision
specialists, optometrists, opticians, and rehabilitation consultants who
prescribe a vast array of high and low tech aids for visual tasks. The great
virtue of the low vision philosophy is that the specialists realize that
what we call vision is in fact a range of discreet visual activities. The
parts of the eye and brain required to read print are very different from
those needed to move through space. But for many patients, being handed off
from the physicians to this collection of techies can feel like abandonment.
And as in every other facet of human interaction, some of these specialists
do a better job than others. 

 

A friend of mine who had recently been diagnosed as legally blind came home
from the low vision clinic with a carload of gadgets and devices. She was
showing me a magnifying lens that was to be worn around the neck and propped
up against the chest so she could look through it at her hands while doing
embroidery. 

 

"I didn't know you did embroidery," I said.

 

After a pause, she admitted that she didn't do embroidery-or any other kind
of needlework. In the silence that followed, we both recognized the
miscommunication. Because someone somewhere had thought to invent the
device, and an expert was showing it to her, she felt an obligation to take
it home. It was as if becoming blind meant taking up new hobbies,
particularly those of the most demure and sedentary kind. 

 

The man on the plane said he'd not liked to call himself blind. I told him
that I preferred the word to any of the alternative terms. I told him that I
figure if I'm blind in the eyes of the law, why should I encumber my speech
with adverbs and prepositional phrases? I said that although the vision I
have is entertaining, and sometimes aesthetically pleasing, it is so
unpredictable and unreliable that it would be misleading to claim to use it.
I doubt I convinced him, and it's really none of my business what word one
wants to use to identify oneself. I just wanted him to think about  whether
he resisted using the word 'blind' because it was inaccurate, or if he
wanted to distance himself from the connotations of helplessness ,
ineptitude, ignorance and prejudice such idioms such as blind drunk, blind
frenzy, and blind folly. There are many who reserve the word blind to refer
to those individuals who have absolutely no visual perception at all. Some
purists would even restrict the term to people who have been totally blind
since birth, excluding people who have lost their sight as adults either
gradually through some disease such as retinitis pigmentosa, or suddenly
through a traumatic injury such as a gunshot wound. The adventitiously blind
are thought not to be quite as blind as the congenitally blind because they
often retain and make use of visual memory. The legal definition of
blindness makes no separate division for total or congenital blindness. 

 

The National Federation of the Blind, established in 1940, has long held
that making distinctions between the totally, congenitally blind and
adventitiously blind, the legally blind with some useable sight, the
visually impaired, the partially sighted, and all other cumbersome terms
sets up a divisive hierarchy that dilutes the political and social impact of
a group with common interests and goals. Because degrees of vision loss can
be precisely calibrated, there is a temptation to think of a spectrum of
human visual variation, with the totally congenitally blind at one end and
the totally, congenitally sighted at the other. But this schema fails to
take into account other factors, such as the age of onset and rapidity of
sight loss. How is it different to lose sight as a child, and to lose it
late in life? How is it different to experience sight loss gradually, over
many months or years, and to lose it suddenly-in the blink of an eye? The
problem is that these differences are often understood in terms of degrees
of tragedy. If blindness is synonymous with tragedy, an emblem of all human
loss, then total blindness must be therefore more tragic than partial
blindness. Early blindness must be more tragic than later blindness. Or are
the born blind   better off for not knowing what they are missing? 

 

If, however, we abandon ideas of individual tragedy and consider instead how
changing certain aspects of the culture enlarges opportunities for a wide
range of possibilities with all degrees of sight loss, a different image
emerges.

 

Public transportation benefits those who have always been totally blind and
those who used to drive cars. Ready availability of books in electronic
formats increases the educational and employment opportunities for people
who can read enlarged print, those who use text to speech technology, and
those who prefer to print the file in Braille. I know why people resist the
word. What I want to do is reassign meaning to it, to talk of blindness as

Something other than a lack, a loss, an absence. Blind people are neither
pathetic nor heroic. Blind people are resourceful, innovative, flexible,
good problem solvers, good listeners. We know where we are going and what we
are doing. The quantity of quality assistive technology and opportunities
for the blind and visually impaired has increased exponentially in my
lifetime, but understanding of blindness lags behind. I can only hope that
as the blind population grows in the coming years, our public image will
take on new dimensions. In the meantime, if anyone asks me to offer advice
to someone who is newly diagnosed as legally blind, I would recommend that
the person consult other blind people-as many as possible. There are growing
numbers of blind people employed as rehabilitation counselors and technology
consultants, but even the average blind person on the street has valuable
expertise.  If reading the words 'blind' and 'expertise' in the same
sentence wrangles, it signals that the biggest hurdle to overcome is
abandoning previous beliefs about blindness. 

 

So my advice would be this: Forget everything you know about blindness. If
vision no longer works there are non-visual alternatives. Learn to trust the
blindness. It won't let you down.    

 

Georgina Kleege teaches literature and creative writing in the English
department of the University of California at Berkley. Blind Faith first
appeared in The Yale Review, Volume 98, number 3, (2010)

 

 

The National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut is working to change
what it means to be blind through the efforts of our members and Outreach
Office to inform members and the public regarding the truth about blindness.
Blindness need not be tragic. With proper training and attitude, blind
people can lead successful, fulfilling, contributing lives. Please help our
efforts by making a tax-deductible donation in any amount to the NFB of CT,
477 Connecticut Blvd, Suite 217, East Hartford, CT 06108. For more
information, call our Outreach office at (860) 289-1971

 


President Signs Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act


 

Washington, D.C. (January 5, 2011): The National Federation of the Blind
today commended President Barrack Obama for signing into law the Pedestrian
Safety Enhancement Act (S. 841), which will protect the blind and other
pedestrians from injury as a result of silent vehicle technology. 

"The National Federation of the Blind is pleased that this critical
legislation has been signed into law, preserving the right to safe and
independent travel for the blind," said Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the
National Federation of the Blind.  "The blind, like all pedestrians, must be
able to travel to work, to school, to church, and to other places in our
communities, and we must be able to hear vehicles in order to do so.  This
law, which is the result of collaboration among blind Americans, automobile
manufacturers, and legislators, will benefit all pedestrians for generations
to come as new vehicle technologies become more prevalent.  We look forward
to working with the Department of Transportation throughout the regulatory
process."

Because blind pedestrians cannot locate and evaluate traffic using their
vision, they must listen to traffic to discern its speed, direction, and
other attributes in order to travel safely and independently.  Other people,
including pedestrians who are not blind, bicyclists, runners, and small
children, also benefit from hearing the sound of vehicle engines.  New
vehicles that employ hybrid or electric engine technology can be silent,
rendering them extremely dangerous in situations where vehicles and
pedestrians come into proximity with each other.

 

 

 

My Dream Fulfilled

 

By Barbara Blejewski 

The year was 1963. I sat in the third grade classroom while my teacher, Mrs.
Howie read the announcements.  There was a special assembly to take place
later in the morning. "I guess this will be one of those boring assemblies
with a speaker that drones on about an uninteresting topic," I thought to
myself.   

 

The class filed into the gymnasium and sat in the seats designated for the
third grade. An older student introduced the speaker, Mr. Whitstock, from
The Seeing Eye.  Wait a minute!  Isn't this suppose to be boring? Yet, I was
riveted to the speaker's every word.  Before I knew it, the speech had
ended.  Was I dreaming?  If only I could touch one of those Seeing Eye Dogs.
. . 

 

A couple of years had gone by.  I sat quietly in Mr. Callahan's fifth grade
class.  He informed the class that Miss Louise Callahan, an intern from
Springfield College, would be supervising the recreational activities with
Mr. Farina, the Recreation Director.  She, too, worked with a Seeing Eye
dog.  Was this my chance to touch a Seeing Eye Dog and get up close and
personal? Not yet. 

 

 

During high school, I learned to travel with a white cane.  I walked with my
white cane throughout college.  My white cane also served me well when I
crossed streets, went shopping, or used public transportation. 

 

It was time to move on again.  I applied to Graduate School at the
University of Connecticut.  It was also time to fulfill my dream.  I applied
to the Seeing Eye for a Seeing Eye dog.  I trained with Tamber, my first
Seeing Eye dog, during the summer before beginning the first semester of
Graduate School. My dogs and I have either walked or have taken buses to
work.  We have gone on shopping excursions, and used public transportation
on our various adventures.  I am currently working with my fifth dog, a
black Labrador named Farina.  She is full of energy which keeps me full of
zest for life. 

 

If I had never learned to use a white cane or to work with Seeing Eye dogs,
I would not have had the confidence to travel to England and across the
United States.  I may never have gone to college or graduate school.
Perhaps I would never even have stepped out of my house.

 

Barbara Blejewski is the president of the Hartford Chapter of the NFB of CT.
She's a former BESB Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. She also worked at
Info Line and The Greater Hartford Association for Retired Citizens. Barb
currently works part-time as a Volunteer Coordinator at the Independent
Transportation Network.   

 

 

Digital Books Forevermore

 

By Wendy Eisenberg, NLS Librarian

 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I listened, weak and weary, 

To many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, 
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly I heard a tapping, 
As of something gently snapping, snapping from my player's core.
"Tis the tape", I sadly muttered, as a quiet curse I swore,
"Just the tape, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, 
As I in a fit of temper threw that tape upon the floor, 
So many times my player failed me, with frustration it had ailed me, 
Many new ones they had mailed me, saying "this one's good for sure", 
But each time I'd press that button, it seemed it was all for nothing, 

"Would I ever find that something lets me listen?" I implored,
"To my books forevermore?"  

Eagerly I wished for morrow, for perhaps, surcease of sorrow
Would come with the next tape I would borrow, Without hiss or pop or
roar,
Without stop, or twist, or tangle, maybe it would play me more,
Dare I hope that I could someday hear a book straight through once
more?
One day sit, relax, and listen, find my reading joy restored
By a book forevermore?
I woke that morning, after dreaming, in my room the sunlight streaming
Tried again to play that tape I'd thrown upon the floor.
Then I heard a quiet tapping, as of someone gently rapping,
'Twas the postal carrier tapping, tapping on my dwelling's door
"Friend", he said, with smile of greeting, "this is such a merry meeting,
For I bring the gift of reading, reading that is now restored
By digital books forevermore!"
I took the package that he gave me, could this package truly save me
>From the anguished cries I made when my books would play nevermore?
I opened up the package, beaming; inside a black machine was gleaming,
And a small white cartridge, seeming much too small one book to hold,
But I put that cartridge in it, and within a single minute,
I knew that this machine would win it, win my heart forevermore.
And cassette tapes? Nevermore!

 

 

 

The 2011 Washington Seminar

 

Still full of excitement from the successful NFB Blind driver Challenge, NFB
of CT President Beth Rival and six other Connecticut Federationists went to
Washington DC January 31 through February3 to discuss the national
legislative initiatives with the legislators of the 112th Congress.

 

The three primary legislative issues discussed were 1)   A Technology Bill
of Rights for the Blind. This means that consumer electronics, home
appliances, kiosks, and electronic office technologies and software must
provide user interfaces which are accessible through non-visual means.   
2)   Ensuring Equal Education for Blind Children: Setting Standards that
Promote Excellence. We'd like Congress to establish a commission within the
Department of Education to set uniform national standards for the education
of blind students in grades K-12.   
3)   The Americans with Disabilities Business Opportunity Act. We'd like
Congress to authorize tax credits to for-profit businesses that purchase
goods or services from businesses owned by individuals with disabilities
(including from businesses operated under the federal Randolph-Sheppard
program), and Create training and technical assistance programs to prepare
individuals with disabilities to operate businesses capable of securing
federal and private contracts.  

 

For more details, visit the legislative link at our web site: www.nfbct.org

   

   

Reprinted from Shore Publishing, December 9, 2010

Melissa Carney Takes Life by the Reigns 

 

By Holly D'Addio

 

Deep River resident Melissa Carney is used to overcoming
obstacles-literally. Blind from cancer since the age of two, Melissa hasn't
let that get in the way of her living her life, as she has ridden horses
since the age of four and downhill skied since age eight-all while being
involved with music and winning awards along the way.

Melissa started riding horses with High Hopes in Old Lyme and is currently
riding with Lord Creek Farms in Old Lyme. She used to do horse shows growing
up with 4-H-trail, pleasure, and application-and is now just recently
training to compete in events such as cross-country jumping, stadium
jumping, and dressage starting next year.

"My first horse show I wasn't really that good, but then in the next show I
got first after placing last the first time, so that raised my confidence,"
says Melissa, who attends John Winthrop Middle School. "In 2007, I had a big
year-I received two second-place finishes in both pleasure and trail and a
first-place finish in application, which earned me the championship ribbon
in the end. Since that, I haven't done many shows because I am now focusing
on riding and training for events next year."

Melissa won the High Hopes Rider of the Year (out of 200-plus riders) in
2008 and has also done several riding demonstrations through NARHA (North
American Riding for the Handicapped Association) for instructors from across
the country who have come to UConn for the program.

"Riding makes me happier because when I'm on a horse, I know I'm free," says
Melissa of her favorite pastime. "I find-and my instructor agrees with
me-that if sighted people close their eyes, they can really feel when
they're riding. Sight can get in the way of the true experience. I have
fallen off a horse once, but it didn't deter me. It actually made me happy
because it showed me that I didn't want to stop riding."

Skiing has been yet another obstacle Melissa has overcome in her lifetime.
Starting at the age of eight, she took lessons with Ski Sundown and, after
becoming more comfortable, began accompanying her family to resorts in
Massachusetts and Vermont.

"I had a really nice ski instructor at Ski Sundown," says Melissa. "She was
so impressed and said at the end of the day she never even saw a sighted
person get off the chair lift on the first try. My mom and dad were skiers
when they were younger and my brother joined the school ski club so I
thought, if he's doing it, why can't I try?"

Melissa's drive to learn-and her instructor-helped her immensely. Her
instructor skied backwards in front of her, holding Melissa's hand while
teaching her to turn and keep her tips together while maintaining her
position.

"It totally amazed me that she could ski backwards," says Melissa. "Portions
of the hill she'd let me do alone-I'd follow her voice around. Then I
started using tethers and wore a bright vest-my instructor would count down
on the chair lift for when we had to get off. When my instructor isn't with
me, my mom goes with me with the tethers. I ski alone, but always have
someone with me behind me giving me direction and I always have the tethers
attached for safety reasons. I usually go on beginner slopes and sometimes
intermediate slopes."

To make this even more impressive, Melissa also competes in a race held each
year at Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts. Sponsored by Stride, the race is for
handicapped people and involves racing on a slalom course. Melissa has
received two gold medals and a silver in the three years she's participated.

Melissa has won the National Federation of the Blind Connecticut Chapter's
Braille Readers are Leaders Contest three years in a row, having read 6,422
Braille pages-the most in Connecticut. She has also read the Governor's
proclamation for White Cane Safety Day and BESB Awards Program for the
second time at a ceremony in Hartford, is a high honors student at John
Winthrop, plays trumpet in the school band, and is a member of the Drama
Club, having participated in chorus and in the production of Oklahoma!
Loving to sing, Melissa is also a member of the Connecticut Music Educators
Association as a choral member and is an alumni of the Deep River Junior
Ancient Fife and Drum Corps as a bass drummer.

"I'd like to thank my mom and dad for driving me everywhere, and my brother,
Christopher, for being really supportive of me," says Melissa, who always
enjoys swimming recreationally. "I want to thank my instructors Terry Zagryn
(skiing) and Jonnie Edwards (horseback riding) who have all been so
supportive and have always encouraged me and never been easy on me, but not
too tough. I like that because it gives me something to work for. I want to
thank the owner of Lord Creek, Janie Davidson, for letting me ride there,
Patty Ganey for letting me ride her horse and starting cross-country jumping
with her, and the horses for giving me my pleasure."

 

 

 

Here We Go Again

 

By Chris Kuell

 

On January 20, 2011, senate republicans introduced SB 387, an act
consolidating state agencies, including the Board of Education and Services
for the Blind (BESB). Governor Malloy announced his budget proposal on
February 16, and democrats immediately introduced two more bills-HB 6380 and
SB 1012. The bills will, you guessed it, consolidate BESB into the
Department of Education and the Department of Social Services (DSS).    

 

In the fourteen years since I lost my sight, Connecticut legislators have
tried to 'consolidate' BESB four times. Our elected representatives use the
word consolidate, which may make them feel better, but it effectively means
eliminating the state agency for the blind by breaking it apart and severing
any continuity of services, which is in part the key to BESB's
effectiveness.  

 

The state of Connecticut is facing a $3.4 billion deficit for 2012/13, and
this figure is expected to rise to nearly $10 billion over the following
three years. Obviously the governor and our elected representatives have a
difficult task before them. In the past two years over 30 other state
agencies have been 'consolidated', and the blind have been fortunate to
evade the chopping block thus far. But can we do it again?

 

As of this writing, there is a public hearing scheduled before the
Appropriations Committee of the General Assembly on March 4, 2011. The
hearing is scheduled at 5:00 p.m.  On a Friday-a time which assures that
few, if any, committee members will be present. Since the hearing will
likely take many hours, it is at a time when blind people who rely on public
transportation will find it difficult to attend (the last bus to my home
town of Danbury departs Hartford at 5:30 on weeknights). A cynic like me
can't help but think this timing was intentional.

 

Connecticut is not alone in wanting to eliminate their independent agency
for the blind to save a few dollars. Twenty-six states have undergone
'consolidation 'of their agencies for the blind, and while I can't find any
data substantiating financial benefits to the state as a result of
consolidation (every states except North Dakota is currently experiencing
record budget deficits) there is plenty of data that shows a decline in
literacy rates, high school graduation rates, college attendance rates,
decreased employment outcomes and decreased average salaries for blind
people in these states.

  

The reasons for these discrepancies are intuitively obvious. Issues facing
the blind are unique and quite different from other disabilities. If you
have a heart valve problem you don't go to a General Practitioner-you go to
a cardiologist who specializes in heart valve issues. 

 

An independent agency like BESB offers specialized, Comprehensive and
integrated services which complement and supplement each other. Blind
students are known to Vocational Rehabilitation counselors and the
transition coordinator which helps them move from school to work or college
and then into a job. BESB has technologists to help train and provide
equipment to optimize educational and work opportunities. They have the
know-how to help blind people start their own businesses, work in the
Business Enterprise program, or obtain the training they need for the career
they wish to pursue. They provide seniors experiencing vision loss with the
tools and training they need to continue to live independent, fulfilling
lives. 

 

As an independent agency, BESB is scrutinized by the public, and more
importantly, by the people they serve. It has a lay-person board of
directors composed primarily of people who are blind and hold high
expectations. Consolidation will eliminate the blind in decision making by
removing all power from the board of directors. Power that the organized
blind fought hard for and power which has transformed BESB into one of the
best agencies serving blind people in the country. 

 

As with all state government, BESB has had to adapt to the challenge of
providing timely and quality services during increasingly difficult economic
times. BESB lost 3.2 million dollars of state funding between 2009 and 2011
(a 22% overall reduction, primarily from Children's Services). However, BESB
employees have found ways to conserve and reduce costs and have managed to
meet the challenges without adversely affecting service delivery. 

 

BESB is a lean agency, utilizing $11.6 million in state money annually. The
state has a statutory obligation to educate blind, visually impaired and
multiply handicapped children; to provide rehabilitative services to blind
people who want to work; and to provide seniors and non-VR clients with
Independent living skills training. The Business Enterprise Program is
completely self-sufficient and employs 50 blind people. BESB's office is
accessible and directly on a bus line for clients and blind employees, it
contains a successful low vision center and independent living training
center, and the state signed a multi-year lease for the building.  My point
is that breaking BESB apart will result in the laying off of four BESB
employees and will only save the state $400 thousand, or 0.01% of the
projected deficit. Put another way, it's like saving forty cents when you
owe $3400-it's negligible, especially when weighed against the negative
impact it will have on Connecticut's blind residents and their families.

 

It's simple. The blind people of this state want to be productive, active
members of society. We want to be tax payers instead of tax users. The best
way to assure this happens is via proper training and attitude. An
independent BESB is an investment in our state. It's an investment in our
future.

 

 

 

Hundreds of Thousands of Job Listings Now Available

Baltimore, Maryland.  The  National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the
nation's oldest and largest organization of the  blind, is pleased to
announce that a  revolutionary new feature has been added to  NFB-NEWSLINe,
the free audible information  service for the blind and others who cannot
read  print due to a physical or learning  disability.  With this
groundbreaking job-listings feature, blind and print-disabled people will be
able to easily and independently search for job openings that match their
education, skills, and interests.

 

Marc Maurer, President of the NFB, said, "The addition of this exciting new
feature will address a critical need of blind and print-disabled Americans
the need for timely and independent access to job listings.  The
availability of these listings will be of tremendous help in reducing the
estimated 70 percent rate of unemployment among this population.
Subscribers can 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 dozens
of categories such as banking and education, and  if desired, can narrow the
search to look for  certain keywords within the  listings.  Subscribers can
save their searches and request that a particular job listing be sent to
them via email; the email will contain the listing as well as a link that
will provide a Web page with the position's application form.

 

"For over fifteen years NFB-NEWSLINE has played a vital role in the daily
lives of tens of thousands of blind and physically disabled Americans," said
Scott White, director of the NFB-NEWSLINE program for the NFB.  "Now, with
the addition of the innovative job-listings feature, NFB-NEWSLINE
subscribers can gain more than ever from this valuable service.  By making
the process of searching and applying for jobs easier, NFB-NEWSLINE is
increasing the independence of those blind and print-disabled individuals
who are looking for employment."

 

NEWSLINE allows those who cannot read conventional newsprint due to a visual
or physical disability to access publications as well as television and job
listings over the telephone, on the Web, or by download to digital talking
book players or MP3-playing devices.
To learn more about NFB-NEWSLINE, please visit www.nfbnewsline.org. 
Those interested in subscribing to the service may fill out the online
application form, write to mail to: nfbnewsline at nfb.org
<mailto:mail%20to:%20nfbnewsline at nfb.org>  
or call (866) 504-7300.  In order to be eligible for NFB-NEWSLINE, an
individual must be a US resident who is legally blind or has a physical or
learning disability that prevents the independent reading of newspapers.





Blind Man Drives Car Independently

Baltimore, Maryland (January 29, 2011) The National Federation of the Blind
announced today 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 executive who directs technology, research, and education
programs for the organization, 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.

The historic demonstration was part of pre-race activities leading up to the
Rolex 24 at Daytona. Mr. Riccobono not only successfully navigated the
several turns of the road course but also avoided obstacles, some of which
were stationary and some of which were thrown into his path at random from a
van driving in front of him. Later he successfully passed the van without
collision. The Ford Escape was equipped with laser range-finding censors
that conveyed information to a computer inside the vehicle, allowing it to
create and constantly update a three-dimensional map of the road
environment. The computer sent directions to vibrating gloves on the
driver's hands, indicating which way to steer, and to a vibrating strip on
which he was seated, indicating when to speed up, slow down, or stop.

Mr. Riccobono said, "The NFB's leadership in the Blind Driver Challenge has
taken something almost everyone believed was an impossible dream and turned
it into reality. It was thrilling for me to be behind the wheel, but even
more thrilling to hear the cheers from my blind brothers and sisters in the
grandstands-today all of the members of the NFB helped drive us forward. It
is for them and for all blind Americans that the National Federation of the
Blind undertook this project to show that blind people can do anything that
our sighted friends and colleagues can do as long as we have access to
information through nonvisual means. Today we have demonstrated that truth
to the nation and the world."

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said,
"Just as our colleague Mark Riccobono successfully surmounted many obstacles
on the Daytona course today, blind people routinely surmount barriers by
using alternative techniques and technologies. When there is not a solution
available, we muster our resources and combine them with those of the
partners who make common cause with us to produce the innovations necessary
to create such a solution. That is how the NFB Blind Driver Challenge came
to happen, and that is how we will make all of our dreams come true."

The NFB Blind Driver Challenge is a research project of the National
Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute-the only research and training
facility on blindness operated by the blind. The Jernigan Institute
challenged universities, technology developers, and other interested
innovators to establish NFB Blind Driver Challenge (BDC) teams, in
collaboration with the NFB, to build interface technologies that will
empower blind people to drive a car independently. The purpose of the NFB
Blind Driver Challenge is to stimulate the development of nonvisual
interface technology. The Virginia Tech/TORC NFB BDC team, under the
direction of Dr. Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and Mechanisms
Laboratory at Virginia Tech., is the only team that accepted the challenge.
The team uses the By Wire XGVT developed by TORC technologies as the
research platform for the development and testing of the nonvisual interface
technologies that allow a blind person to drive.

For more information about the NFB, please visit www.nfb.org. For our
digital news release about the Blind Driver Challenge and the debut of the
BDC car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, including audio and video clips for
television and radio, please visit www.DigitalNewsRelease.com/?q=NFB_CarKit.

 

 

 

Miscellany and Notes:

    

It's never too early to start thinking about the NFB of Connecticut State
Convention. This year and next the convention will take place at the Crown
Plaza Hotel in Hartford, and room rates are $89 plus tax per night. State
conventions are always fun and interesting, a great place to network, hang
out with a national rep, learn, and get reacquainted. The date hasn't been
set yet, but it's usually the first weekend in November. Call the Outreach
Office at 860-289-1971 for more information.

   

The NFB of CT once again hosted a table at the Connecticut Kid's Fair in
Wethersfield last February. We covered the admission price of families with
blind children and made brailled, tactile valentines for the kids to take
home. A big thanks go out to Beth and Charlie for their efforts.

The Danbury Chapter of the NFB will hold their annual picnic at the Moose
Lodge in Danbury on Saturday, August13th. Food and beverages will be
plentiful, and music will be provided by the remaining members of the Guess
Who. All are welcome and a great time is guaranteed. Call Chris Kuell
(203-730-8884) for more information.

FREE AUDIO MAGAZINE

Choice Magazine Listening produces a free, bi-monthly, eight hour recorded
magazine of the best written articles, short stories, essays and poetry to
anyone who is blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped or dyslexic.

The materials are chosen by the editors, who read approximately 100
magazines such as National Geographic, Time, The New Yorker, Smithsonian,
Business Week, Discover, Sports Illustrated, Foreign Affairs and more. The
pieces are read, unabridged, by professional narrators who bring each
selection to life.

Choice Magazine Listening is a non-profit organization that has been
providing this free service for almost 50 years. Please call 516-883-8280 or
1-888-724-6423 if you would like to subscribe to their free service.  Their
issues can also be downloaded from the National Library Service website.  

 

On October 8, 2010, President Obama signed the 21st Century Communications
and Video Accessibility Act, which will require manufacturers of smart
phones to add accessibility features for blind and low vision consumers.
Another feature of the new law requires that non-visual access be added to
the   menus of DVD players.  Other provisions include restoring and
expanding previous requirements for video description of television
programs, including making cable companies make their program guides
accessible; assures that people who are blind have access to emergency
broadcast information; it provides $10 million annually for research into
improved accessibility for those who are deafblind, and ensures that
internet-based mobile phones will be hearing aid compatible.

 

 

 

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