[Nfb-editors] Utah's- Blindness Matters - fifth edition

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Blindness Matters: The fifth issue of the NFB of Utah Newsletter, October,
2013 

 

We are excited to bring you the fifth edition of our Affiliate Newsletter,
Blindness Matters. It has been a busy 7 months. The future has many 

activities planned that will keep us all helping to change what it means to
be blind in Utah. 

 

A Quote by President Doctor Mark Maurer from the 28th Kernel book September
2005: Celebrate, "The Airplane, the Cobra, and the Lighthouse""

 

We in the National Federation of the Blind believe that blindness is More a
social problem than a physical one, we work with blind people 

throughout The United States and sometimes in other parts of the world to
create a spirit Of independence and to bring greater understanding of 

the blind."

 

In this issue we will read President Bacon's Bits to learn about events in
the Utah affiliate; then, relive a young Federationists experience in 

the Step Program at Louisiana Center for the Blind summer program, enjoy a
first-hand personal experience of a first time Attendee at the 

National Convention; next, read submissions from 3 Utah Federationists who
attended the National leadership seminar in Baltimore; then it will be 

time to share in the success story of one of us; Then sit back and enjoy
reading about the memories of our chapter events over the summer as well 

as, a glimpse into the future; then there is a dynamic article on the
happenings of Project STRIVE activities; and then we wrap up with an 

article on Technology. 

 

If you are not receiving emails from our affiliate including a copy of this
newsletter and would like to do so, please send a message to 

nfbutah at gmail.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. Please note
that if you'd like a copy in Braille let your chapter presidents 

know.

 

Any questions or submissions of future articles please notify Jerry Nealey
Editor utahnfb at gmail.com 

 

President Bacon's Bits:

 

Fellow Federationists, this summer has been a hot one! Not only in
temperature but it has been hot with activity in the NFB of Utah. The fourth


annual Braille Enrichment, Literacy and Learning (BELL) program for young
blind and visually impaired children took place in June; we had 12 

participants, and lots of fantastic support from Federationists. Project
STRIVE ended their year in June with a wonderful boating/waterskiing 

activity at Jordanelle Reservoir. Our National Convention saw 46 members of
our affiliate attend this annual event in Orlando. We had several 

first time attendees in Laura Vincent, Kaitlyn Ferrin, Hassan Jamshed,
Brooke Lovel, Aaron Timm, Tara Purcell, and others just to name a few. We 

are so proud of our national scholarship winners, Steven Phelps and Brooke
Lovel! Project Strive also received a 2013 Jacob Bolotin award at the 

national convention. The National Convention was a highlight for many of our
members as you will read in Hassan's article. BBQ's were definitely 

popular as all chapters have held a summer BBQ! The Salt Lake Chapter held
their annual fundraiser, "Smashing the Myths of Blindness" at the SLC 

County Fair. A big federation thanks goes out to the Cache Valley Chapter
for their hard work in making the 1st annual NFB of Utah Charity Golf 

Tournament a success! We were able to raise over $7000 and this would not
have been possible without the help of the Cache Valley Chapter!

 

October is "Meet the Blind Month" and the NFB of Utah has several events
planned with more to come! The Senior Division and the SLC chapter are 

partnering to have a booth at the annual Senior Expo in Sandy, UT. The Cache
Valley Chapter will be holding a story telling event on the campus 

of Utah State University on Oct. 10. The Weber/Davis Chapter will be holding
a fundraiser at a local Wendy's, and The Iron County Chapter had a 

table at the county fair in Cedar City this past July. Look for other events
to come from the Red Rocks Chapter and the Utah Valley Chapter very 

soon!

 

Our Parents of Blind Children were highlighted on Fox 13 for a special event
held at Komatsu Equipment. Many of our blind children were able to 

touch and climb on to large machines and equipment that blind people usually
never get the opportunity to put their hands on! You can find out 

more about this event by contacting Julie Ledford, the UPBC President. Last
but certainly not least, Tina Haskin, our student division President 

informs me that UABS will be hosting a special event on November 16th at
Utah State University!

 

As you can see the NFB of Utah is very busy and there is so much to do and
be a part of! We hope to see many of you at an upcoming chapter 

meeting! 

Everette Bacon

President, NFB of Utah

 

What I gained from attending the Step Program, by Kortnee Barton

 

Project STRIVE made it possible for me to have the best experience I have
ever had this past summer. Because of them I was able to attend the 

STEP program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. 

 

During that time I learned to clean, cook and do my own laundry. We had cane
travel for two hours each day. Before I went to LCB I often relied 

on sighted guide to help me get around. Since then I require very little
help while traveling. One experience that stands out in my mind was when 

we went to an outdoor mall. The counselors allowed us to go off in small
groups and explore the mall without them. We ended up walking into some 

employee only entrances and got shouted at. All in all it was a great
feeling to be trusted enough to travel the mall by ourselves. It helped me 

gain confidence in my travel skills.

 

The last three weeks I was in Louisiana I was given a job in a library. I
was required to catalog books. I learned a lot about responsibility 

during the time that I worked. The best part of the job was receiving my
first paycheck after I returned home. 

 

We also had the opportunity to attend the NFB Convention in Florida. It was
very inspiring and I learned a lot from the speakers and workshops I 

attended. I also learned that hotel travel is not that hard. 

 

This experience made me much more independent in both travel and home living
skills. I also learned to be a better advocate for myself which has 

already helped me this year as I started high school. I made some lifelong
friends from the program. We keep in touch daily and discuss things 

that are happening in our lives and ways to overcome problems that we face.
The only way that I can ever repay STRIVE for giving me this 

opportunity is to use everything that I learned at LCB is to make myself a
better person using the skills that I was taught.

 

First Time Attendee at the National Convention by Hassan Jamshe

 

I had a great experience at my first national NFB convention. Having Mike
Harvey as my mentor was an absolute blessing to start things off with; 

he helped me so much with everything and made sure I had an amazing time at
my first convention. 

 

Also, getting to mingle with so many exceptional people who share my
challenge of being blind left me feeling less isolated and also nurtured 

some continuing contacts and friendships with several of them. It also gave
me the confidence that the challenges I face can be overcome if I put 

in the hard work and the effort. The workshops and the general session
addresses were both educational and inspirational. The speech by Raveena 

Ali, the brave 5-year old girl who talked about her experiences and her
goals in life literally left me awe-struck and convinced me that only 

perseverance, courage and hard work guarantee success in life. 

 

I also learnt about a lot of new technology that is now available to assist
visually impaired individuals and it was fascinating to get a hands-

on experience with these devices. I appreciate having so much helpful
information available in one venue. 

 

It was a bonus to be able to travel to a vacation spot like Florida and
enjoy exposure to a new locale. I really appreciate the NFB-Utah and 

Project STRIVE for giving me this remarkable adventure!

 

Our Experience at Leadership Seminar By Marnie West and Willie Black

 

Willie and I were asked to attend the leadership seminar around the
beginning of August and then it was time to scramble to find someone crazy 

enough to stay with our four kids. Once we got all of that sorted out we
were nervous and excited to go. 

 

The conference was very fascinating and informative for me. I learned so
much about the history of the NFB as well as the struggles that have 

been faced over the years. We talked a lot about legislation and fund
raising and how to keep an organization going. The seminar promoted and 

taught strong leadership skills as well as the importance of networking and
then being there to assist and support each other not only on 

resolving issues relating to blindness but just being there for each other
in our daily lives. I found this refreshing because sometimes I feel I 

get caught up in my own daily activities and I need to remember to reach out
to others as well. Willie enjoyed seeing some old friends and making 

new ones and of course, the homemade cookies were awesome! 

 

We are very appreciative of the opportunity we had to go to Baltimore and
learn. The National Center was amazing! We took a tour and we felt like 

it went too fast and that we didn't get to spend enough time learning about
all the different rooms and programs. We would recommend possibly 

going a day early if you want to see any sights in Baltimore besides the
National Center. Willie and I actually thought about doing this and if 

we didn't have so many obligations at home we would have done exactly that.
The nice folks at the National Center were extremely open to us 

coming early if that is what we had decided to do. 

 

We definitely spent much of our time in meetings. In fact, we got there
Wednesday night and went outside that first night for a bit and then all 

of a sudden it was Saturday and I was feeling sun-deprived and I realized I
hadn't been out since Wednesday. This wasn't true for all 

participants, many people would go for walks after the meetings but
truthfully I was so excited to sleep without being awakened by a baby that I


took full advantage of my sleeping time. 

 

Overall, this was a fantastic learning opportunity for us. It made us
excited to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves. 

 

Learning to Love the Legacy of Leadership By Barbie Elliott

 

The fall 2013 Leadership Seminar in Baltimore was an amazing experience. I
came away from the seminar feeling empowered to help strengthen the 

NFB in Utah and nationally. We come from an amazing state with incredible
leaders and remarkable members of the NFB. It is a bit daunting to 

follow in their footsteps and work to continue the legacy of making Utah the
best affiliate in the nation. 

 

In Utah, we have an amazing youth program in Project Strive, the best
scholarship program in the country, an incredible bell program for 

children, an outstanding senior program and some of the best chapters in the
nation, but we still have a lot more work to do.

 

For those who have been to our national center, even though the M and M
tradition has been discontinued, you will be pleased to hear that the 

delicious cookies and fantastic food is still there!

 

We were in Baltimore from Wednesday August 28 through September 1. We began
the seminar by cooking steaks on large round grills. Each day began 

with fun old time music blasting through the building at 6:00 A.M. and
dismissing around 10:00 P.M. each evening. Most of our time was spent in 

DR Maurer's luxurious office discussing every aspect of the National
Federation of the blind from legislation to leading with love, and history 

to hospitality. We read letters from real people facing real life problems
encountered by blind people in our nation. No joke, the day I came 

home, I had 4 letters from wonderful NFB Weber-Davis chapter members needing
advice, friendship and help. The recent discussions gave me more 

confidence to answer these letters.

 

We shared stories and made new friends. Mostly I gained an appreciation for
the leadership and hard work done by others before me to make life 

better for all blind people in America. I feel honored to have been given
the opportunity to go to the leadership seminar this year.

 

Member Highlight: Tara Cotteral Iron County Chapter President

 

Tara Cotteral is a member of our organization that we can be proud of! Tara
is a graduate of Southern Utah University and has been diligently 

looking for employment in the Cedar City area for over 5 years now. During
this frustrating time of applying for numerous jobs and over 30 job 

interviews, Tara never gave up or varied from her goal of employment.
Recently, Tara interviewed for an Employment Counselor position with the 

Utah Department of Workforce Services office in Cedar City and I am proud to
say that Tara has accepted the position and now has been employed 

for about a month now! This just shows that determination and perseverance
pays off! I want to congratulate Tara, who also recently remarried! 

She is a shining example of a Federationist!

 

Current Events:

 

The Salt Lake Chapter is doing great. We held two fun events in August. The
first was our biggest annual fundraiser. I know most of you have 

heard of it and many of you came to visit it this year. It is, of course,
the "Smashing the Myths of Blindness" activity at the Salt Lake County 

Fair. Dave Sarle organized the event and he arranged for Sommer's Wrecking
yard to donate the use of an old car and Mark Harris to deliver it to 

the Fair. We then painted one side red for the Utes and one side Blue for
the Cougars. We then charged the public $1 to hit the car, on their 

chosen side, with a sledgehammer. We did this for four days, and by the end
the car was a complete disaster, especially the blue side. The hood 

came off and the roof was completely collapsed into the car. One new fun
addition was a blacksmith came by and loaned us a huge sledgehammer. It 

was, by far, the biggest sledgehammer I have ever seen, weighing 47 pounds!
We had over 150 hours of volunteer time given to the fundraiser and 

we made the most money this year since we first started in 2009. Thank you
to all who volunteered their time to make the event a success.

 

Our second event was our annual barbeque. We held it in partnership with the
Utah Parents Division and the Utah Association of Blind Students. It 

was held in the Turley backyard and we had a great turnout with tons of
food. It was the first year we got rained on, though that is understating 

the situation. It was more of a monsoon. I have never seen so many people
huddled together on my covered patio before. Even though there was no 

swimming this year, we all still had a great time and ate some fantastic
food. We had around 80 people attend.

 

We normally hold our monthly chapter meetings at the downtown library at
10:00 AM on the 4th Saturday. Please come and join us.!

 

The Weber-Davis chapter will be holding a fund raiser meet the blind month
activity in October at Wendys restaurants in Weber and Davis counties 

on a specific date that will be announced soon from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. You do
not need a flyer or coupon, all you need to do is go to a 

participating Wendy's restaurant and make a purchase. Exact locations and
dates will be sent out when we are notified. Wendys has offered to give 

the Weber-Davis chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah 10%
of all the prophets they make that night. Please come and support us 

by bringing your family and friends to Wendys for a good time and help
promote the idea that the blind are happy and involved in the Weber-Davis 

area.

 

We usually meet on the third Saturday of each month alternating between
Weber and Davis counties. Contact Barbie Elliott Weber-Davis Chapter 

president for more information.

 

Project Strive News

 

Project Strive is back in full swing for the 2013 2014 school year. We would
like to congratulate our 3 new junior mentors, Maddy Stafford, 

Kendyl Floyd, and Kortnee Barton. We received more applications than ever
before and the competition was tough, Project Strive generally meets 

the second Saturday of each month. 

 

In October we are holding a Halloween activity including cooking without
looking, and building and racing your own pinewood derby car. Some 

participants have already had the opportunity to start building their cars,
but many others will be starting theirs this month.

 

On Saturday November 16th we will be joining with the Utah Association of
Blind Students for an exciting event on the Utah State University 

campus in Logan. Note that this is a change from our usual second Saturday
meeting date.

 

If you would like more information about how to register and attend these
and other project strive activities for youth and young adults from 7th 

grade through 26 years old, contact any member of the Project Strive team.

 

Technology Corner by Everette Bacon

 

There are so many blind individuals today taking advantage of both the
iPhone and the iPad! Apple has just released a large software update to 

these devices called IOS 7. This is a free update and has many changes to
the built in accessibility features of these devices. I have listed all 

of the changes below! Enjoy!

 

Overview of Accessibility Features in iOS 7

 

Update: My good friend and fellow ADE Daniela Rubio has created a similar
post for our Spanish speaking friends on her Magnetics blog.

 

The long wait is over. It's finally here: iOS 7, the latest and radically
redesigned version of Apple's mobile operating system. Along with the 

redesigned interface, iOS 7 has a number of new and updated accessibility
features which I will outline here (with videos to come soon). I will 

organize these according to the kinds of supports they provide.

 

The first thing you notice is that it is now easier to navigate to the
accessibility area in the Settings. In iOS 6, Accessibility was toward the 

bottom of the General pane . In iOS 7, it is much closer to the top of the
pane, so that you don't have to scroll. A small change, but one that 

hopefully will get more people to explore these settings and to become aware
of the powerful assistive technology that is built into their 

devices. It will also aid with navigation for the people who actually use
features like VoiceOver and Switch Control.

 

Visual Supports

Large cursor for VoiceOver: you can now choose to have a larger, thicker
cursor when VoiceOver is enabled. This is great for me, as I always had 

a difficult time seeing the old cursor's faint outline. This option is found
at the bottom of the VoiceOver pane.

Enhanced voices and language support: The Language Rotor option for
Voiceover has been replaced with a Languages and Dialects pane which
provides 

a lot more flexibility. In this pane, you can specify a default dialect for
your language (U.S. English, Australian English, etc.) and add 

languages to the rotor like you could in iOS 6. For each dialect or
language, you can now download enhanced versions of the voices as well as 

separately control the speech rate.

VoiceOver's option to use phonetics now has a few options (off, character
and phonetics, and phonetics only), whereas before you could only turn 

the feature on and off.

You can use a switch to disable the VoiceOver sound effects. These are the
sound cues that let you know when you are at the edge of the screen 

and so on.

New options in the VoiceOver rotor: you can add the option for turning sound
effects on and off to the rotor, and there is a new handwriting 

option for navigation. When this option is selected in the rotor, you can
use your finger to draw a letter on the screen and VoiceOver will 

announce the number of apps with a matching name that starts with that
letter.

Enhanced braille support: VoiceOver now supports Nemeth Code for equations,
and there is an option for automatic braille translation (supporting 

U.S., Unified and United Kingdom options).

The Large Text option is now called Dynamic Type and it can work with any
app that supports the feature rather than the limited set of built-in 

apps in previous versions of iOS. The size of the text is controlled using a
slider rather than by choosing from a list and a live preview shows 

how the text will appear.

Bold type and other visual appearance adjustments: overall, iOS 7's new
design has less contrast than previous versions. However, in addition to 

large type, there are a number of adjustments you can make to the UI to make
it easier to see items on the screen. You can make text bold 

(requires a restart), increase the contrast when text appears against
certain backgrounds, remove the parallax motion effect, and enable on/off 

labels (I'm guessing this feature is for people who are color blind. The
feature will add a small mark to indicate when a control is in the 

on/off position, which would be helpful because green is used quite a bit
throughout the interface and the changes in state could be difficult to 

perceive for those who are color blind to this color).

 

Auditory Supports

 

The big addition here is a Subtitles and Captions pane. This pane brings the
Closed Captioning support under the Accessibility area of the 

Settings, whereas before it was found under Videos. It is a global setting
that will control closed captions throughout iOS.

 

In addition to having a global control for closed captions, the Subtitles
and Captioning pane also allows you to select from several presets that 

make captions more attractive and easier to read. You can even go further
and specify your own styles for captions, with many options ranging 

from font, text size, color and opacity to the color and opacity of the box
the captions sit on.

 

Learning Supports

 

Guided Access now allows disabling the Sleep/Wake and Volume buttons in iOS
7. You can also access the other options in your triple-click home 

shortcut (which has now been renamed the Accessibility Shortcut) while
Guided Access is enabled. This will allow you to use VoiceOver, Zoom and 

other accessibility features along with Guided Access.

 

Like VoiceOver, Speak Selection has enhanced language support, including
selection of different speaking rates for each of the supported 

languages and dialects as well as enhanced quality voices that are available
for download as needed.

 

Both of these features are also supposed to get new APIs which I will verify
once I can locate apps that implement them. For Speak Selection, a 

new speech API will allow apps to tap into the built-in voice support of
iOS. The idea is that by not having to include as much voice data, the 

apps can be smaller and take up less space on the devices. In the case of
Guided Access, a new API will allow developers to hide parts of the 

screen to reduce distractions. This builds on the previous version's feature
of disabling touch in certain areas of the screen.

 

The built-in dictionary feature now supports additional languages which can
be downloaded and managed in the Define popover. When you select a 

word in a foreign language and tap Define, iOS will open the definition in
the appropriate language if you have that dictionary downloaded. This 

is a nice feature for language learners.

 

Motor Supports

 

Probably the biggest addition in iOS 7 for accessibility is Switch Control.
This feature has the potential to do for people with motor and 

cognitive impairments what VoiceOver has done for the blind community. With
Switch Control, items on the screen are highlighted with a cursor 

sequentially, and when the desired item is highlighted it can be activated
by tapping the screen or a separate adaptive device connected to the 

iOS device over Bluetooth. A menu can also be brought up to access
scrolling, saved gestures and a number of device functions such as clicking 

the Home button. Switch control is highly configurable in iOS 7:

you can enable auto scanning and adjust the timing parameters for the auto
scanning feature, including the number of times it will loop, how long 

you have to hold down the switch to activate an item (hold duration) and so
on.

you can adjust the visual appearance and audio effects: for the visual
appearance you can choose a large cursor and select from a number of 

colors for the scanning cursor (I actually wish this feature were available
for VoiceOver as well). For audio, you can choose to hear an audio 

cue when the cursor advances, as well as enable speech and adjust the
speaking rate. This last feature may be helpful to someone who needs to use 

a switch device but also has low vision and needs the audio cues for the
items on the screen.

You can add multiple switch sources, and the switch source supports three
options: external, screen and camera. The first two are pretty self-

explanatory. You either tap on an external device or on the iOS device's
screen to activate an item. I set my iPad up to interpret a tap on the 

screen as a select action and my external switch (a Pretorian Bluetooth
switch/joystick device) to pause scanning. The last option is pretty 

interesting. The camera can be set to recognize your head movements as an
action, and you can assign different actions to either a right or a 

left head turn. When a head movement is added as a switch source an option
for adjusting the head movement sensitivity will be available. One 

thing to note is that you should probably have your iOS device on a stand if
you plan to make use of the camera as a switch source. Otherwise, 

moving the device may cause the camera to not recognize your face as
desired.

 

Other

 

Although not considered an accessibility feature, the improved Siri personal
assistant with higher quality male and female voices could come in 

handy for people with disabilities when they wish to look up information or
control their devices quickly. For example, Siri recognizes a number 

of new commands: you can turn some of the settings on and off with a simple
command ("turn Bluetooth on," or "enable Do Not Disturb"), or 

navigate to specific areas of the Settings with a voice command ("open
accessibility settings" or "go to accessibility settings").

 

Similarly, the new Touch ID feature (currently available only on the iPhone
5S) should make it easier for individuals who are blind or who have 

cognitive disabilities to access the information in their devices. As great
as VoiceOver is, entering text has never been a strength, even when 

it is just a few digits on the lock screen. Using the fingerprint reader
built into the Home button of the iPhone 5S (and hopefully future iPads) 

will make it easier to unlock the device while also ensuring privacy. For
individuals with cognitive disabilities, the passcode becomes one less 

thing they have to remember.

 

On the iPhone, the Control Center includes a Torch feature that uses the
flash to provide a constant source of light. I can see this feature 

being useful for those who need to scan documents in order to perform OCR.
Along with the improved cameras in the new phones released with iOS 7, 

the additional light could improve the performance of the scanning apps used
by many people with print disabilities.

 

iOS 7 also added the ability to perform automatic updates for apps you own.
This could have some accessibility implications because you may have 

an app installed that is accessible in its current version but may become
inaccessible after an update. To prevent this from happening, you can 

turn off the option for automatic updates in Settings > iTunes & App Store >
Updates. The App Store also supports the option for redeeming gift 

cards using the camera (a feature already available on the Mac with iTunes).
For individuals with low vision, the redeem codes on iTunes gift 

cards can be difficult to read, and this option to scan it with the camera
makes the process of redeeming gift cards much easier.

 

Of the new accessibility features, I am most excited about the captioning
styles and Switch Control. These two features build on Apple's strong 

support for the blind community to extend accessibility to even more people
(especially so in the case of Switch Control and its potential impact 

for people with motor and cognitive disabilities).

 

This concludes the fifth edition of the Blindness Newsletter for the
affiliate of Utah.

Jerry Nealey Editor 

Archived Newsletters

Fourth Edition February 2013 

Third Edition August 2012  

Second Edition April 2012 

First edition of the Blindness Matters Affiliate News letter March 2011

 

Robert Leslie Newman

Personal Website-

Adjustment To Blindness And Visual impairment

http//www.thoughtprovoker.info

NFB Writers' Division, president

http://writers.nfb.org 

Chair of the NFB Communications Committee   

Nebraska Senior Division, Vice President