[Nfb-editors] Arizona's Monthly Newsletter from the President

[Robert Leslie Newman]

June 10, 2013 

 

Hello, fellow Federationists, 

 

 

The NFBA state convention pre-registration form is attached to this message.

Also, registration at the convention hotel is now available.  

 

 

The letter for asking for auction items and doorprizes is attached to this
message.  You can use this 501c3 letter to give to merchants and store
managers when requesting donations of these items for our state convention.

 

 

 

The most current roster of NFBA members is attached.  Please check to see
that your contact info is correct, or if you know that a NFBA member is
missing from the list, please notify Bob Kresmer to update the roster.  

 

 

NFBA raffle tickets have been distributed to chapter presidents, so you can
pick up packets of our travel package raffle tickets to sell to family,

friends, and others who want to support our causes.    

 

 

Amy Murillo, NFBA board member, reports that she has registered 63 SAAVI
students and staff to participate in NFB national convention this year!  If
you are participating in our NFB national convention this year, would you
please contact me by email or phone?  Toll free phone is 888 899-6322, and
email is krezguy at cox.net.  I need to ask participants if the would like to
volunteer as mentors or mentees, or if they will volunteer for other ways to

make our convention successful.    Thanks! 

 

 

* We can now register for the September 13 through 15, 2013 NFBA state
convention at the Radisson Suites hotel in Tucson.  Suites are $79.00 for
double, $89.00 for three to a room, and $99.00 for four to a room.

Breakfast is included.  You can go online at -http://www.radisson.com/nfba
Be sure to use the registration code 913nfb 

 

 

* From Eric Billy, Northern Arizona chapter president - 

 

Elections were held June 8, and elected to our newest NFBA chapter were:

president Eric Billy; vice president Jaron Dalton; treasurer Heather Joe;
secretary Eve Sanchez; and board members Roy Dotson and Troy Cole.  Our July

13 meeting will be by telephone conference call and our August meeting will
be in Flagstaff.  Our chapter expressed thanks to the affiliate for helping
to establish the chapter after many years of hope.  

 

 

* From Sharonda Greenlaw, Phoenix chapter president - The Phoenix Chapter
will be having our monthly meetings in a new location, beginning with our
July 6 meeting!!!

 

We will be at the SAAVI Phoenix office

4222 E. Thomas Rd.

Suite 130

Phoenix, az 85018

For more information, call Sharonda at 602-281-5955 

 

I will have another announcement about our fundraiser on June 20 at the
California Pizza Kitchen. The address is 2400 e. Camelback. Just mention

phoenix NFB      whenever you go that day

 

 

* From Mark Feliz, East Valley president - Terry Dinges wrote the following
on Art's one year anniversary of his death:

 

Arthur L. Dinges 74, of Phoenix, Arizona, lived from 1938 through June 3rd,
2012. Hello my special Angel. Well, it's been a year since you got your
wings and your new job, and what a great job you are doing.

You welcomed our good friends, Tom & Barbara O'Brian, two weeks ago, so they
have now joined you in your new venture. With the three of you, we are
blessed to have several loving eyes watching out after us.

We all miss you. A bus driver told me he misses your corny jokes. I miss all
of who you are and were. Continue on with all of the good work you are
doing, my love. You are always in my thoughts and forever in my heart. .

 

The East Valley Chapter is proud to announce James Garret Mooney and Somaya
Tarin have graduated from Mountain View High School. Garret will attend the
adult program at the Colorado Center for six months then return to begin his
college career with an interest in political science and law. Somaya intends
to begin her college career in the fall with an interest in bio chemistry
and pediatrics. Both Garret and Somaya have received scholarships to assist
with their endeavors.

 

Our treasurer, Carol Scharlat, is back in action after recovering from her
surgery.

 

Debbie Feliz' mother peacefully passed away on May 5, 2013.

 

Debbie Feliz is recovering from knee replacement surgery.

 

The East Valley Chapter had two very successful events for White Cane week
in May. First, Luann Schmidt and Debra Williams set up a White Cane exhibit
in a Mesa library branch as well as read Braille to children sy yhr library.

Second, Garret and Somaya, with the guidance of Debra Smith, put together a
Powerpoint presentation for five classes of the Driver Training class at
Mountain View High School.

They covered much ground on the white cane, the white cane law, and many
more blindness related questions.

 

 

* From Donald Porterfield, NFBA legislative director - Legislative Update
and Call to action:

 

As most of you are aware, the national Federation of the Blind has three
major legislative initiatives this year.  They are: Fair Wages for Workers
with Disabilities; Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and
Higher Education (TEACH); and Equal Access to Air Travel for Service
Disabled Veterans.

 

Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities HR 831 has been introduced in the
House and is sponsored by Representative Gregg Harper of Mississippi.
Currently this bill has 37 co-sponsors, none of which are from Arizona.

No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

 

In an effort to gather more support the NFB is circulating a petition, which
can be found at www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition.  The online petition has an
email validation process to prevent the petition from being compromised.

Since there are many people who do not have access to email, the petition is
also available on an Excel spreadsheet.  Please contact Donald Porterfield
at donaldpfield at gmail.com or 520-850-2180 if you need a print copy of the
petition.

 

Equal Access to Air Travel

HR 164 has been introduced in the House by Congressman Gus Bilirakis of
Florida and has 162 co-sponsors.  Sponsors from Arizona are; Rep. Raul
Grijalva, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, Rep. Ed Pastor, and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

The companion bill in the Senate, introduced by Senator Jon Tester of
Montana is S 346 and has 14 co-sponsors, none of whom are from Arizona.

 

Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher Education

(TEACH)

Currently, this initiative does not have a sponsor in the House or Senate.

 

As you can see, there is still a lot of work needed on these initiatives.  I
am asking each of you to contact your representative and senators to ask for
their support for these issues.  For additional information, or assistance
in contacting your congressmen, please contact Donald Porterfield at
donaldpfield at gmail.com, or 520-850-2180.

 

 

* A Kernel book story from the book "Reflecting the Flame" - Static on a
Distant Station by Jody W. Ianuzzi There are thousands of blind adults today
(and the numbers are growing) who deeply regret that no one required them to
learn Braille at a period in their lives when mastering it would have been
relatively easy. Jody Ianuzzi is active in the National Federation of the
Blind of New Hampshire and is a Silver Life Member of the United States Judo
Association. She knows firsthand about limited opportunities and
disappointed expectations. She is articulate and outspoken, and her message
is compelling. Here is what she has to say:

I consider myself to have been functionally illiterate for most of my life!

When I was growing up as a blind child in the public school system in
Connecticut, I didn't have to learn Braille; I could read print. I had a
little eyesight, and with my nose in the book I could read my first grade
primer. It was work, but I could make out the letters.

By the fourth grade the print began to get smaller, so I had to try even
harder. In the seventh grade I was assigned to remedial reading classes
because my reading speed was still at the third grade level. In high school
I got all my work done; it just took me four times as long as my classmates.

I loved learning, and I wove wonderful dreams for myself of academic success
after high school.

I went off to college, but instead of succeeding, I fell flat on my face!

There was no way I could keep up with the work load using the reading skills
I had been taught. My totally blind friends had little trouble taking notes,
reading, organizing their readers, etc. I told myself that I should have
done better than they; after all I had some sight. But the fact was that I
couldn't study as a sighted student, and I didn't have the skills to study
as a blind one.

I am thirty-eight years old, and I am now learning Braille. It isn't a
difficult task. I love Braille! My reading time and speed are not limited as
they are in print. I find Braille to be a refreshing experience with endless
possibilities.

Reading print has always been like trying to listen to music on a distant
radio station: the sound is so faint and there is so much static that it is
hard to appreciate the music itself because listening is so much work.

Reading Braille is more like sitting in a symphony hall. The music fills you
without your even having to work. My well-meaning teachers thought they had
made the right decision for me. Oh, how I wish I had learned Braille as a
child.

My story is not unique or exceptional. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of blind
adults now recognize that they missed out on a proper education. And the sad
thing is that not much has changed. There are blind children today with less
sight than I have who are being taught print only. Why can't teachers make
Braille special in a positive way? 

Braille was originally based on a system devised by the French army to send
secret messages at night. The night writing was later perfected by Louis
Braille for use by the blind. Why not give children the feeling that they
are learning a secret code?

The blind child can read in many places where his or her sighted friends
can't-such as under the covers without the use of a flashlight. You can even
read your Braille book in your desk without your teacher's knowing it. Why
not make Braille fun!

If I could speak directly to today's teachers of blind children, I would say
to them, "Ask yourselves this question: in twenty years will your students
be grateful to you for teaching them the skills they needed, or will they be
learning them on their own and trying to make up for lost time?"

 

 

* An article from the New York Times -

Device From Israeli Start-Up Gives the Visually Impaired a Way to Read By
JOHN MARKOFF

Published: June 3, 2013

JERUSALEM - Liat Negrin, an Israeli who has been visually impaired since
childhood, walked into a grocery store here recently, picked up a can of
vegetables and easily read its label using a simple and unobtrusive camera
attached

 

Ms. Negrin, who has coloboma, a birth defect that perforates a structure of
the eye and afflicts about 1 in 10,000 people, is an employee at OrCam, an
Israeli start-up that has developed a camera-based system intended to give
the visually impaired the ability to both "read" easily and move freely. 

Until now reading aids for the visually impaired and the blind have been
cumbersome devices that recognize text in restricted environments, or, more
recently, have been software applications on smartphones that have limited
capabilities. 

In contrast, the OrCam device is a small camera worn in the style of Google
Glass, connected by a thin cable to a portable computer designed to fit in
the wearer's pocket. The system clips on to the wearer's glasses with a
small magnet and uses a bone-conduction speaker to offer clear speech as it
reads aloud the words or object pointed to by the user. 

The system is designed to both recognize and speak "text in the wild," a
term used to describe newspaper articles as well as bus numbers, and objects
as diverse as landmarks, traffic lights and the faces of friends. 

It currently recognizes English-language text and beginning this week will
be sold through the company's Web site for $2,500, about the cost of a
midrange hearing aid. It is the only product, so far, of the privately held
company, which is part of the high-tech boom in Israel. 

The device is quite different from other technology that has been developed
to give some vision to people who are blind, like the artificial retina
system called Argus II, made by Second Sight Medical Products. That system,
which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in February, allows
visual signals to bypass a damaged retina and be transmitted to the brain. 

 By Amnon Shashua

Liat Negrin, an employee at OrCam who has limited sight, demonstrates the
Orcam device, which helps her cross streets, read menus and shop at the
supermarket.

The OrCam device is also drastically different from Google Glass, which also
offers the wearer a camera but is designed for people with normal vision and
has limited visual recognition and local computing power. 

OrCam was founded several years ago by Amnon Shashua, a well-known
researcher who is a computer science professor at Hebrew University here. It
is based on computer vision algorithms that he has pioneered with another
faculty member, Shai Shalev-Shwartz, and one of his former graduate
students, Yonatan Wexler. 

"What is remarkable is that the device learns from the user to recognize a
new product," said Tomaso Poggio, a computer scientist at M.I.T. who is a
computer vision expert and with whom Dr. Shashua studied as a graduate
student. "This is more complex than it appears, and, as an expert, I find it
really impressive." 

The advance is the result of both rapidly improving computing processing
power that can now be carried comfortably in a wearer's pocket and the
computer vision algorithm developed by the scientists. 

On a broader technology level, the OrCam system is representative of a wide
range of rapid improvements being made in the field of artificial
intelligence, in particular with vision systems for manufacturing as well as
fields like autonomous motor vehicles. (Dr. Shashua previously founded
Mobileye, a corporation that supplies camera technology to the automobile
industry that can recognize objects like pedestrians and bicyclists and can
keep a car in a lane on a freeway.) Speech recognition is now routinely used
by tens of millions of people on both iPhones and Android smartphones.
Moreover, natural language processing is making it possible for computer
systems to "read" documents, which is having a significant impact in the
legal field, among others. 

There are now at least six competing approaches in the field of computer
vision. For example, researchers at Google and elsewhere have begun using
what are known as "deep learning" techniques that attempt to mimic
biological vision systems. However, they require vast computing resources
for accurate recognition. 

In contrast, the OrCam technique, which was described in a technical paper
in 2011 by the Hebrew University researchers, offers a reasonable trade-off
between recognition accuracy and speed. The technique, known as Shareboost,
is distinguished by the fact that as the number of objects it needs to
recognize grows, the system minimizes the amount of additional computer
power required. 

"The challenges are huge," said Dr. Wexler, a co-author of the paper and
vice president of research and development at OrCam. "People who have low
vision will continue to have low vision, but we want to harness computer
science to help them." 

Additionally the OrCam system is designed to have a minimal control system,
or user interface. To recognize an object or text, the wearer simply points
at it with his or her finger, and the device then interprets the scene. 

The system recognizes a pre-stored set of objects and allows the user to add
to its library - for example, text on a label or billboard, or a stop light
or street sign - by simply waving his or her hand, or the object, in the
camera's field of view. 

One of the key challenges, Dr. Shashua said, was allowing quick optical
character recognition in a variety of lighting conditions as well as on
flexible surfaces. 

"The professional optical character readers today will work very well when
the image is good, but we have additional challenges - we must read text on
flexible surfaces like a hand-held newspaper," he said. 

Although the system is usable by the blind, OrCam is initially planning to
sell the device to people in the United States who are visually impaired,
which means that their vision cannot be adequately corrected with glasses. 

In the United States, 21.2 million people over the age of 18 have some kind
of visual impairment, including age-related conditions, diseases and birth
defects, according to the 2011 National Health Survey by the U.S. National
Center for Health Statistics. OrCam said that worldwide there were 342
million adults with significant visual impairment, and that 52 million of
them had middle-class incomes. 

 

.               Please pre-register for our state convention, and plan with
your

chapter or division how you can find doorprizes and auction items.  We are
constructing our convention agenda, so if you have good ideas about how to
make our state convention interesting and relevant, please let me know quite
soon! 

 

Thanks, 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Kresmer, president NFBA

Toll free (888) 899-6322 

 

Wondering what to do with your old car or truck? Donating your vehicle to
the National Federation of the Blind is convenient and may qualify you for a
tax deduction. Call 1-855-659-9314 or visit www.carshelpingtheblind.org 

 

Your Donation can Take the Blind Further!

 

 

 

 

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