[Nfb-editors] {Spam?} Utah's "Blindness Matters" 3rd Edition 2012

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Third Edition August 2012 

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
OF UTAH
Blindness Matters AUGUST, 2012 NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the third issue of Blindness Matters, the National Federation of
the Blind of Utah's news letter. It is a quarterly letter produced in
Braille, large print and electronic formats , distributed to all those
Interested in changing what it means to be blind.
This issue focuses primarily on the Utah State convention and the recently
held National Convention as well as local chapter news and upcoming events. 
If there are problems, future articles, or questions about this news letter
please contact Jerry Nealey Editor at utahnfb at gmail.com
Or Barbie Elliott Co-editor barbieelliott at msn.com
President Bacon's Bits:
The 2012 National Federation of the Blind's 72nd Annual Convention was held
in Dallas, TX. The NFB of Utah had a total of 53 individuals represent our
great state, there were many attendees who have been to convention in the
past and there were also a good crop of first time attendees! The highlight
of the convention was of course the banquet and Utah was very loud and proud
at this favorite event. For the first time in Utah's illustrious NFB
history, we were awarded the much admired and coveted Pack Rat! The
Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) plan is a way NFB members can contribute
monthly to the many causes of our national office. For many years now,
Maryland has consistently won this award but this year, because of the
generosity of our Utah members, 2012 is our year! We had many long time
members like Norm Gardner and Karl Smith increase their contributions. We
also had many members start brand new PAC plans like Diane Yoder, Missy
Grandy, Dave Sarle and many more! I want to personally thank all of those
who contribute to the PAC plan. The nFB is also grateful to all of you as
well! I do hope you enjoy this special news letter highlighting both our
state and National conventions. The conventions are packed full of so many
great things we as members can be proud to be a part of. The convention is
also a way for many members to catch up with old friends and start new
relationships! I also want to recognize Brandon Terry who won a National
scholarship! Brandon was a great representative for Utah and was awarded a
$7,000 scholarship, congratulations Brandon!
First Time Conventioners:

Ian Reed Red Rocks Chapter Treasurer 
First time conventionee 
I attended my first NFB National Convention this year. It was amazing to to
be in such a large hotel with over 2500 other blind and visually impaired
people.
It was great to become familiar with the hotel and improve my comfort level
getting around from one meeting to another on my own.
Among other meetings I attended the computer science division meeting. There
were some good presenters and it was cool to realize that there were just
over 100 other people who are part of the division.
Everyone from Utah shared a Camaraderie and this year Utah one the PAC rat
award.
I attended a meeting about Intuit's accessibility.
The main presenter was a developer who has been working on his own to create
scripts for JAWS that make the Quickbooks desktop application more
accessible and more efficient to use.
The second was a fairly high up fellow who recently joined Intuit and is in
charge of the efforts to make Intuit's products (especially their new web
products) accessible.
He expressed Intuit's new devotion to accessibility and also how impressed
he is at Intuit's ability to really focus it's efforts in order to meet the
goals it sets.
As a personal side note, my company has contracted several people to Intuit
Financial Services and I know that Intuit has had company wide training
sessions on how to make their products accessible so they are definitely
working toward this goal.
The second presenter stated that they test with JAWS and NVDA.
I also attended a meeting that discussed different ways to run windows on a
mac machine.
I also attended 2 Humanware meetings that day, one was on the Victor Reader
Stream and the other was on the Trekker Breeze.
I attended a meeting for NFB Chapter presidents and treasurers.
That evening I attended the sponsors product showcase.
Some notes from that meeting are:
There is an interesting new perkins brailler that has visual, braille and
speech. It saves what you write to text files on a usb drive.
I attended the Voiceye break out session during one of the general session
evenings.
GWConnect is made by GWMicro and is a skype replacement but has short ads
every 30 minutes in order to keep it free.
Braille Press makes a guide on how to use the iPhone and iPad products.
Kurzweil is now known as Cambian.
EZ LLC. does Tactile Graphics.
Jerry Nealey actually tried this in the exhibit hall and described it to me.
He said that you put special paper on a special board and use any pointed
device to draw on it.
As you draw the paper creates raised lines.
You can erase using a small device they called an iron.
They are working on extensions to the product that will store the drawings
on your computer so you can print them repeatedly with a raised line
embosser or print them on a normal printer.
Serotek offers their own web meeting, chatting and file sharing software
called accessible 
event.
Deque systems makes a plugin called Fire Eyes which analyzes your sites
accessibility.
I attended the web developers meeting.
Descriptive video exchange sounds pretty cool.
envision america has a device for reading prescription bottles.
braille to go is a new note taker device that has built in wifi, bluetooth,
and gps.
It runs on the android OS.
Panasonic has made a voice guidance feature that makes their TVs speak.
All the 2012 models in the UK have this feature.
NLS announced they are working on an iPhone application for consuming bard
books.
disability at who.eop.gov is a mailing list you can sign up for to get
information about what the white house is doing for disability.
(Editers note, I had the privilage of being Ian's roommate for National
Convention. He didn't need a mentour he was out and running, learned the
hotel by walking it to all of these events. He got everything and more out
of his first convention. End Editors note)
A First timer's perspective
By Stefon Marquez a member of the Weber/Davis Chapter 
I would like to thank the N.F.B. for allowing me the opportunity to
experience this year's convention in Dallas. For me it was an amazing
epiphany to understand that I'm not terminally unique and that the N.F.B.
has a singleness of purpose. 
In Dallas I was pleasantly surprised with the wonderful exhibit's and the
manufactures helpfulness. In the N.F.B. Market Place I was amazed with all
the low vision products. I purchased a Chris Park Carbon Fiber Telescopic
Cane and would have purchased much more if I had full wallet.
The general sessions were very interesting and full of useful information.
The first morning of general session I mistakenly sat in the hug me state;
no the show me state. I didn't know tell later on that I was to sit in the
greatest state. The merchant's meeting was very useful and informative for
the next chapter for me in the B.E.P. I very much enjoyed the Rookie
Round-up, the Human Wear Product Show Case, the H.I.M.S. Product's Seminar,
the Apple Seminar, the Mock Trial, Diabetes Action Network Seminar and the
Employment Committee Meeting. I also took 3rd place in the Monte Carlo poker
night.
Finally, I would very much like to thank you for introducing me to Robert
Olsen, he had great suggestions and useful information and gave me insight
in what to expect in my upcoming career, I also had the pleasure of visiting
with the Gardner Family and also meeting new friends from around the
Country. The banquet and program was first class, I had a wonderful time at
the dinner and would look forward to next year's national convention.
Stepping Out of the Geek Zone
by Karl Smith
In 2012 I attended my 35th consecutive NFB national convention in Dallas.
>From my first convention in 1978 in Baltimore I have been interested in and
involved with all things related to assistive technology. Needless to say
there was much less technology in 1978 than in 2012.
This year things were a little different. Although I still checked out new
and improved assistive technology I stepped out of the geek zone a bit and
participated for the first time in the travel and tourism division with
president Cheryl Echevarria from New York and with our own Milton Taylor who
serves as treasurer.
Cheryl and Milton asked me to participate on a panel discussing travel as a
blind person. We talked about sources for travel information, described our
travel experiences around the world and answered the oft asked question,
"Why would you travel somewhere if you can't see?"
I was able to describe interesting experiences traveling with my family and
friends Joanne and Harold Wilson in Viet Nam, New Zealand, Australia,
Europe, Guatemala and more. Among other things we climbed a volcano, got to
pet a tazmainien devil, met a blind penguin named Elvis and spent an
afternoon in one of the first concentration camps built by the Nazis in
Poland. These experiences have broadened all our perspectives on different
people and cultures. These experiences would not have been possible from
reading books or listening to others describe them.
An NFB convention, whether it is a state or national convention, can and
does offer many opportunities to expand horizons and open the world to new
possibilities. If you have never attended a convention, or even if you have,
I encourage you to begin planning today to attend our 2013 Utah state
convention and the 2013 national convention in Orlando, Florida.
2012 National Convention
Merchants Division Report
The National Association of Blind Merchants met on Monday, July 2nd from
1:00 to 5:00 PM in the Senators Lecture Hall, located in the Tower Lobby.
The theme of the division meeting was Revolutionizing Randolph-Shepherd: The
New NFB Entrepreneur's Initiative.
Attendees were encouraged to protect and defend the Randolph-Shepherd
Program. There is a pressing need to expand business opportunities and to
develop new business initiatives for the blind of America.
Jessie Hartle, Government Affairs Specialist for the NFB, gave a compelling
speech entitled The Washington Perspective. He said that we must always
remain on the offensive, and keep our program and initiatives in front of
the Senatorial and Congressional Legislators that represent us.
If they are in your area, for whatever reason, go to the event and make
yourself known to them as a constituent and business owner in the BEP. That
way you can feel comfortable contacting them in the future by citing the
date of the event and that you made a personal contact with them. This will
fortify your position. We can't afford to be complacent in our fight for our
Business Enterprise Programs nation-wide.
While we were in the meeting, the legislators passed the Transportation
Reauthorization Bill that affords blind vendors the vending rights on
highways nation-wide. The bill also approved the selling of DVDs, historical
products, and lottery tickets in states where it is legal and where BEP
vendors operate commercial roadside vending locations. The President is
expected to sign the bill within a few days of our convention.
Robert L. Olsen
BEP Vendors Committee Chairman
and President, Red Rocks Chapter NFB of Utah
Membership committee meeting highlights
By Ron Gardner Member of the Weber/Davis Chapter 
Our annual meeting of the NFB Membership Committee was convened Sunday
evening during the national convention. Special thanks go to Jessica Beecham
who is currently employed at the Colorado Center for the Blind. She worked
hard to identify agenda items and issues to be discussed and she facilitated
the meeting, along with the committee chair, Ron Gardner. 
Patty Estes presented an inspiring story of how our affiliate in Maine has
exploded in membership, participation and leadership growth. Patty is a very
well organized leader. Her presentation included the process of being
elected as president of our affiliate in Maine with very few members. She
used a telephone conference line to generate interest in blindness topics
around the state. Everyone, including non-members, were invited. After
several months the open conference call was converted to an affiliate at
large chapter meeting. Officers were elected and they are operating with
enthusiasm. More information may be obtained by contacting Patty Estes at
207-783-3025 or pece03 at gmail.com. 
Barbie Elliott is one of the managers of the Project STRIVE transition
program currently being operated in the NFB of Utah. She shared the story of
how this transition program has been extremely successful in helping recruit
high school, college and young adult blind individuals into the Federation.
It is a very compelling story of a project which is very successful and
truly changing the lives of many individuals. Project STRIVE stands for
"Successful Transition Requires Independence, Vocation and Education." It is
currently being funded by a grant from our state's Department of Work Force
Services, the executive director of which is our own Kris Cox. Members of
the membership committee were thrilled with Barbie's presentation. More
information may be obtained by contacting Barbie Elliott at 801-546-0670 or
barbieelliott at msn.com. 
We also heard from Jason Ewell from the Affiliate Action Department. He
discussed how to acquire and effectively use lists containing people's names
and contact information. He did a great job of promoting the White Cane
list. This free white cane service is one of the most effective ways of
attracting and contacting new members of our NFB affiliates. 
Norm Gardner announced and demonstrated the new NFB Library Card. This is
the same card he introduced at the Utah convention this spring. This SD card
contains approximately 60 hours of speeches given by Dr. TenBroek, Dr.
Jernigan and Dr. Maurer in their own voices. This card also contains live
speeches by other individuals, including Dr. Fred Schroeder. It also
contains over 140 documents which focus on specific topics of our Federation
history and philosophy and other critical and useful documents such as all
the Kernel books and articles, etc. The contents of this card are too
numerous to list here. This information was collected and assembled into
this convenient library card format through the generous efforts of Dr. Norm
Gardner. Each member of the Federation remembers the moment when he or she
heard a speech or read an article that touched them so deeply in their heart
that it forever sealed the understanding that it is respectable to be blind
and which generated a desire to help our organization change what it means
to be blind. Our Federation literature is empowering and enlightening to
every individual who reads it, member or non-member alike. This card will
allow Federation leaders and members to share our literature with those who
are not members of the Federation. Doing so will generate an overwhelming
interest and desire of non-Federationists to join with us and remain with us
as we march forward together. 
There are two primary reasons why this card provides an invaluable resource
for members nation wide.
1) It is a ready source usable at your fingertips to learn from and be
inspired by the history, philosophy and success of the National Federation
of the Blind. 
2) It provides a resource enabling affiliate and chapter leaders to quickly
identify and copy a specific article to be shared with others. For example,
a specific article can be readily shared with every individual who calls the
NFB for information. It is a great resource for chapter presidents to use to
share a specific article or speech to be discussed in chapter meetings, etc.

More information about the NFB Library card is available by contacting Dr.
Norm Gardner at 801-380-3138 or norm.gardner at brlcenter.org. 
Am I A Federationist?
By Traci McDonald Red Rocks Chapter member 
The Utah Chapter of The National Federation of The Blind held their state
convention in The Red Lion Inn over the weekend of May 17 - 20. It was the
first such event that I have personally attended with The NFB. I have gotten
to know a few of the members of the federation since I joined last year.
, but this was by far the most exposure I have had. 
The weekend was full of well planned and executed meetings, speeches,
classes and meals. The information was invaluable, and the people were
wonderful. On an individual basis The National Federation of The Blind is
like any other organization that works for the good of those who fit into
its ranks. We were able to meet and hear about wonderful programs.
Successful people, and watch those who work hard excel to recognition. On a
whole I felt the Federation has much to offer.
During one portion of the meetings we were introduced to a group of people
from many different parts of the state of Utah who are shining in their
activity with the Federation. Sort of the superstars who have made their
work for and with the blind their badge of honor. The statements these
individuals made told the rest of us Why they are a Federationist, and how
the federation has changed their lives. It was a powerful testimonial time
with touching stories of struggle, tragedy, and overcoming. Although I felt
the good work and superb efforts of many people who have flourished in spite
of their blindness; I felt the frustration and fear of some of the audience
as they listened to the testimonials.
Of the 200 plus people who attended, the superstars were only a handful.
There were a good number of people who were lost, confused, lonely, and
frustrated. I heard complaints of being lost in the jumble of classrooms and
no one who could help. I heard frustration over under booked rooms and
callousness in shoving people from Hotel to Hotel with no regard for the
comfort of the person, or their confidence in being able to cross a very
busy street to return to the convention. While the Federationists were
showing off, the good, kind people behind the scenes were making
arrangements for the Federationists that do not yet know if they will shine.
As I experienced this marvelous group of people from the back row of the
well read speeches, I realized; there is not one federation. There is a
federation that is angry, tired of feeling victimized by the sighted and
ready to fight against it, and There is a federation who is finding their
way through blindness in that world, learning what it means to be blind, and
happy for the chance to find people whom they have things in common.
Am I a Federationist? That is a difficult question to answer. While I
understand the need to fight against injustice and inequality for the blind;
I also understand that some of us are busy trying to fight the darkness in
our own worlds.
If the federation is for those of us who want to make a stand and march on
capital hill as well as take a stand and march out our own front doors,
then.yes.
If the federation is for people who want to make their lives about working
for the blind and for people who just want to make their lives about being a
working member of society then.yes.
If the federation is about showing the sighted that we are just as capable
as anyone else, and its also about proving to ourselves that our own
perception of who we are is the most important.
Then I am a Federationist.
Those are lofty goals for the new administration to take on, but the most
important thing to remember is that while we are a conglomerate of
individuals who share blindness. We are also individuals who must learn on
an individual basis to share blindness with the conglomerate: Without fear,
without anger, and without resentment.
Chapter news and updates
Contact chapter presidents for the latest news about events and meetings in
your area.
Cache Valley:
Sachin Pavithron-- sachin.pavithran at usu.edu 435-512-6877
Weber-Davis:
Barbie Elliott-- barbieelliott at msn.com 801-546-0670
Salt Lake:
Mark Turley-- blindsquid at yahoo.com 801-572-7607
Utah Valley:
Steven Phelps-- stevenjphelps at gmail.com 801-404-4604
Iron County:
Tara Lamoreaux-- taralamoreaux at yahoo.com 435-867-8904
Red Rocks:
Robert Olsen-- rolsen5999 at aol.com 435-673-0616
Division news and updates
Contact the coordinator/chair of the division to learn more about upcoming
events and ways to get involved.
Seniors:
Milt Taylor-- milt2533 at gmail.com 801-913-2533
Please come join us on Saturday, October 13th, 2012, at our NFB Senior
Seminar. It has come to our attention that you or a loved one may be
experiencing problems with vision. We estimate that there are ten thousand
people in Utah who are dealing with vision degradation or loss. A majority
of these folks are seniors like us. There are three common causes of vision
degradation for seniors; (1) Macular Degeneration (MD), (2) Retinitis
Pigmatosis (RP), and (3) Diabetes.
Many seniors have eye disease and it takes a period of time for us to adjust
to the ongoing loss and regain the freedom we once had. This is the purpose
of the Senior Division of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah in
helping us return to independence. National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
friends will reach out to seniors to help us through our physical and mental
adjustment. 
This is a cordial invitation to attend our NFB of Utah Senior Seminar to be
held on Saturday, October 13th, 2012, from 10 AM to 4 PM at the Weber County
Pleasant Valley Library. 5568 South Adams Ave., Ogden, Utah 84405. The
library is across the street from Ogden Regional Hospital. If you can't
attend, please pass this on to someone who is experiencing age-related
vision loss.
If you think this seminar is only for those who are experiencing the vision
loss, you may be wrong. The spouses and friends are going through an equally
challenging time trying to help you. In many cases it is harder for them
because they may have watched your self-worth vanish or your independence
diminish. We will have a session for spouses and friends only, so we can get
down to the issues. Please come join us and feel free to bring along any of
your friends.
Sincerely,
Milt Taylor, 
President, Senior Division NFB of Utah 
801-913-2533
milttaylor at comcast.net 
RSVP (required if you would like a lunch). Oct. 10th is cut-off date for
lunch reservations. Please call Bill Clapp at 801-317-4967 with your RSVP or
if you have questions. There will be a $5 charge per person for registration
and lunch.
Parents of blind children:
Julie Ledford-- jasi4kids at gmail.com 801-455-3934
Students:
Brandon Tary-- brandon.s.terry at gmail.com 435-705-3053
Project STRIVE for youth and young adults seventh grade through 26 years
old.
Adam Rushforth-- adam at rushforth.org 801-367-7881
We are looking forward to another exciting year in Project STRIVE! We will
continue to meet on the second Saturday of each month. On September 8, we
will be learning about dressing for success and how to shop for that perfect
look! We will be enjoying a fun day at the new City Creek center. Also
applications for this year's paid positions for junior mentors are being
accepted from now through August 12th. Contact Barbie Elliott for more
information.

 

 

Robert Leslie Newman

Personal Website-

Adjustment To Blindness And Visual impairment

http//www.thoughtprovoker.info

NFB Writers' Division, president

http://www.nfb-writers-division.net 

Chair of the NFB Communications Committee