[Nfb-idaho] {Disarmed} Fw: JI Newsletter - Sailing to Your Dreams

[Ramona Walhof]

I thought members might be interested in this NFB Jernigan Institute Newsletter. Dave Andrews might put it on all lists, but I don't think he has yet.   

Ramona
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mark Riccobono 
To: Ramona Walhof 
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 7:21 AM
Subject: JI Newsletter - Sailing to Your Dreams


       
            Imagineering Our Future
           
                  Issue 46
                 October 2012
                 



            In this issue:

                a.. Message from the Executive Director

                b.. What’s News at the NFB

                c.. Education

                d.. Braille Initiative

                e.. Advocacy

                f.. Product and Access Technology Talk

                g.. From the tenBroek Library

                h.. Independence Market

                i.. Spotlight on the Imagination Fund

                j.. NFB Calendar

                k.. Citation


            Message from the Executive Director
            Dear Friends,

            As the summer comes to a close, we are looking forward to our annual Meet the Blind Month (October) events. During Meet the Blind Month, our local chapters and state affiliates launch new outreach efforts to engage with the community to help demystify blindness and help change what it means to be blind.

            Here in Baltimore, we started a little early this year. On September 22, a number of our National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Jernigan Institute staff and local chapter members participated in a sailing regatta in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. This event was hosted by the Downtown Sailing Center—a community sailing organization that recently reached out to us asking to get more blind people involved in their accessible sailing program.  It is not that often that community organizations make specific efforts to include blind people in their programs. More often, a blind person initiates the contact.

            During the regatta, I was asked how it is that sailing is interesting and even manageable by a blind person. I replied with a simple statement that seems obvious to me but surprised those who heard me say it. I noted that the wind is largely invisible to the eye. In fact, your other senses are extremely helpful, if not essential, in knowing the direction and intensity of the wind. Once you understand that, knowing how to use the wind to power a boat is a matter of training and opportunity—fundamental aspects of the empowering programs of the NFB.

            I regret to say that I did not win my heat in the regatta. My colleague Jason Ewell—a member of our Affiliate Action team—was the first-place winner. I did have a great time on the water, and I was proud to participate in the first regatta on the Baltimore Harbor with a heat that included only blind sailors. We changed expectations for the sailing community in Baltimore. We have also taught a number of blind people about an area of sport and exploration that they previously might have thought was not open to them. 

            What is true in sailing is true in the NFB. Vision is not a requirement for success. With proper training and opportunity, new horizons are available. And the way to make a wave is to start with the first ripple. 

            Happy autumn to each of you,
             
            Mark A. Riccobono, Executive Director
            NFB Jernigan Institute



            What's News at the NFB

            National Federation of the Blind Collaborates with AccuWeather®


            The NFB and its newspaper service for the blind, NFB-NEWSLINE®, are joining forces with AccuWeather®, an online weather information service, to provide emergency weather alerts to blind and print-disabled subscribers throughout America. Prior to this collaboration, blind people had to rely on family and friends to relay the emergency information that scrolls across the bottom of the television screen during weather events. Now the AccuWeather® information service will be offered on NFB-NEWSLINE®, giving blind and print-disabled people access to the alerts through the telephone, online, and on the iPhone.

            NFB-NEWSLINE® is a free audible information access service that provides over three-hundred newspapers and magazines to the blind. For more information, or to register for NFB-NEWSLINE®, visit www.nfbnewsline.org, write to nfbnewsline at nfb.org, or call 1-866-504-7300.
             

            Follow Flat Whozit

            The latest edition of our accessible bulletin board in the Betsy Zaborowski conference room is on display. This one is particularly special as it features the work of the NFB BELL program students across the country. 

            Playing off a popular series of children’s books, Flat Stanley, the title of the latest bulletin board is “Follow Flat Whozit,” which highlights the 2012 NFB BELL (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning) programs. 

             This Whozit-colored (red, purple, blue, white, and yellow) board is flanked by pictures that were created by students in the various NFB BELL programs after reading the story of Flat Whozit. A scalloped blue border defines the top and bottom edges of the board. The title, “Follow Flat Whozit,” serpentines across the top left corner. At the end of the title is a tactile Whozit made from colored craft foam. To Whozit’s right is a craft-foam cut-out of Maryland, representing the beginning of Whozit’s journey. Observers can chart Whozit’s journey through all eleven BELL states by following the string, adorned with mini bells, which starts at Maryland and stops at each of the eleven states in the order they joined the BELL choir: Maryland, Georgia, Utah, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. Each state is made of craft foam, and above it is a list of statistics in print and Braille about that state’s programs, including locations of the program(s), the 2012 dates of the program(s), the year the state hosted its first BELL program, and the number of students this year. The path of Whozit’s journey snakes across the board from right to left and back again. Scattered around the board are pictures from various BELL programs featuring children playing Braille games, learning to use the slate and stylus, and reading Braille. At the very bottom, in the middle of the board, is a pocket folder holding Braille and print versions of the Flat Whozit story that the students in the BELL programs read this summer.


             

            Education
            Braille Chat = #BrlChat


            About a month ago, some teachers of the blind who are also members of the Federation organized a Twitter chat to facilitate the sharing of ideas among professionals in the field. Every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 p.m. (EST) teachers (and others interested in the education of blind students) from across the country and around the world log on to Twitter to discuss the topic the community has selected. Topics have included: tips and tricks for making Braille instruction fun, getting blind youth involved in PE and extra-curricular recreation, and how and when to teach access technology. 


            Are you interested in the education of blind children? Come join the conversation and build your professional learning network. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, sign up at https://twitter.com/signup. Then hop on Twitter Thursday evenings and follow the hashtag #BrlChat by typing #BrlChat in the search box. Contribute your thoughts and questions on the evening’s topic by including #BrlChat in your tweet. 

            For testimonials about #BrlChat read these blog posts: A Learning High by @nlshaheen and Inaugural #BrlChat – Thursday, August 23, 2012 by @Kea_Anderson.



            2012-2013 Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest

            The NFB Jernigan Institute and the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB) are pleased to announce the fourth annual Braille Readers Are Leaders contest for adults. This contest encourages adults around the country to be proud of their ability to read Braille, and to continually work to improve their skills. Adults will read as many Braille pages as they can in two months (November 1, 2012, through January 4, 2013) to compete for cash prizes, national recognition, and bragging rights. 

            In addition, teams of two to five participants can compete to win the highly coveted “Team of the Year” prize. 

            Registration begins October 1, 2012. Sign up as an individual or a team, get some interesting reading material, and warm up your fingers! For detailed information about the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest for adults, please visit www.nfb.org/bral. Contact us with your questions at BrailleReadersAreLeaders at nfb.org, or 410-659-9314, extension 2312.

            This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the K-12 Braille Readers Are Leaders program. To celebrate thirty years of success, we will be expanding the program and launching Braille Readers Are Leaders 360: A Community of 21st Century Braille Readers—the first-ever accessible online community for children who read Braille! The Braille Readers Are Leaders 360 (BRL360) online community will provide a safe place online where Braille readers in kindergarten through twelfth grade can share their literacy experience through online discussions about their favorite books, book trailers, live author chats, videos of themselves reading Braille, and much more! Continuing with the Braille Readers Are Leaders mission, BRL360 will promote a pride in Braille and a joy of reading among blind children all year long. The Web site is expected to go live later this fall. Stay tuned for more information about the expansion of our K-12 Braille Readers Are Leaders program. Contact us with your questions at BRL360 at nfb.org, or 410-659-9314, extension 2418.



            Braille Initiative
            Braille Certification Training Program
            Under a contract with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress (NLS), the NFB administers the courses leading to NLS certification of Braille transcribers and proofreaders. Successful completion of these rigorous courses requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of the students. We congratulate the following individuals who earned certification during the month of July, 2012:

            Literary Braille Transcribing

            California
               J. G. Bourgoin, Norwalk
               Terri Keith, Woodland
               Thomas Lamar Nelson, Camarillo 
               Sarah Elizabeth Jane Schmid, Anaheim
               Deanna Christine Williams, Huntington Beach

            Connecticut
               George Andino, Windsor

            Florida
               Jela Vlacic, Clearwater

            Kentucky
               Joseph Barrett Burrell, Louisville
               Sara Lee, Louisville

            Michigan
               Alan Joseph Gamble, Jackson
               Ellen Sue Kozar, Portage 

            Nevada
               Brian Richard Lee, Las Vegas
               Gary Shepard, Las Vegas

            North Carolina
               Michael K. Anderson, Laurinburg
               Robert D. Greene, Laurinburg
               Patricia Doyle Williamson, Greensboro

            South Dakota
               James Jackson McGee, Sioux Falls

            Tennessee
               William Alan Schenk, Nashville 

               Debbie Elaine Clement Brito, Gatesville
               Letitia Treneice Edwards, Houston

            Virginia
               Ana Nezzer, Troy

            Washington
               Zachary A. Lattin, Vancouver

            Wisconsin
               Terri Konecke Wittig, Fon du Lac

            Literary Braille Proofreading

            Pennsylvania
               Elizabeth Renee Mayeux, Brookhaven

            Music Braille Transcribing

            Florida
               Nancy S. Rowitt, Orlando



            Advocacy
            A complaint filed by the NFB with the United States Department of Justice, Office of Civil Rights, against the Sacramento Public Library Authority has been resolved. Prior to the complaint, the library system had been in the practice of lending NOOK e-readers. The NOOK, manufactured and sold by Barnes & Noble, does not have text-to-speech capacity or the ability to send content to a Braille display. Therefore, the device cannot be used by blind and print-disabled readers.   

            The goal of the agreement is “to provide a library e-reader circulation program where library patrons, with and without vision disabilities, are able to access and use the same technology to the maximum extent possible.”  As a result of the agreement, the library will be in accordance with the 2009 resolution passed by the American Library Association, which recommended that all libraries employing electronic resources "require vendors to guarantee that products and services comply with Section 508 regulations, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, or other applicable accessibility standards and guidelines.”

            For more information, view the press release on the NFB Web site. 



            Product and Access Technology Talk
            These are exciting times in the world of technology. At the NFB Jernigan Institute our "new thing" radars have been beeping like crazy, and we’ve been testing away. The most prominent new item is iOS 6. There is a blog post on that at http://www.nfb.org/at-blog. Other topics of interest on the blog are the review of HumanWare’s Deaf-Blind Communicator app and the first impressions of Amazon’s newly released Kindle series. 

            On a programming note, the Tactile Graphics Conference will now be held on April 12-13 instead of in November. Nobody loves a schedule change, but we are happy to say that this one has resulted in our adding some really exciting speakers, while we’ve been able to keep the original program intact. It’s a free conference, and the enthusiasm for the topic and the event is proving positively infectious.

            Finally, the IBTC remodeling is progressing nicely—here are two photos, one from just after the new flooring was put in, and one of the current state with the cabinetry being put in. We’re going to be putting in the new standing workstations and computers shortly.

              



            From the tenBroek Library
            Why Children’s Books?


            Last month we announced our new program of providing lists of recently cataloged material. Each recent acquisitions list will be posted in the library section of the NFB Web site, and we will periodically include them here, in Imagineering our Future, and at times in the Braille Monitor as well. 

            As it happens, we recently acquired a number of children’s books, some of them many decades old, so this month’s list of recently cataloged items is heavily weighted toward books for kids and teenagers, especially in the 800s of the Dewey Decimal classification, which is literature and fiction.

            Since we often point out that the tenBroek Library is a research library on blindness (the only one that is owned and controlled by the blind themselves), you may ask, what are all these children’s books doing in a research library? 

            Be assured, there’s a good answer!

            The NFB has an important educational function that we carry out at the Jernigan Institute, through the activities of state affiliates and local chapters, and especially by the example Federationists set as they conduct their daily lives. Educational efforts directed at the sighted public generally have as their goals demonstrating, first, that blind people are no different from anyone else except that they cannot see; and, second, that blind people are capable of doing just about anything anyone else can do, and that alternative techniques exist for doing them without sight.

            Unfortunately, as we have seen, popular culture frequently presents a different view of the blind: perhaps helpless, perhaps evil, or perhaps saintly. This can come across in movies, TV shows, magazines, advertisements, and books—including children’s books.

            We want the tenBroek Library to be a tool for use in the NFB’s educational work and we hope that research in the library can lead to a better understanding of how the media (including that directed at children) may help lead to distorted ideas about blindness and blind people. We currently have close to a thousand items that were produced with children or adolescents as their intended readers. Most are in print, some are in Braille, and some have print and Braille on the same page or adjacent pages, like the Twin-Vision books distributed by the Kenneth Jernigan Library of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. 

            Please take a few minutes to look through THE BLIND CAT. If you type in the subject word “juvenile” you may find some old favorites and some books you might want to recommend to sighted kids who need to learn something about blindness. Alternatively, you can consult the most recent list of newly cataloged items on the NFB Web site.



            Independence Market 
            Everyone by now must surely be aware that our country is once again in the full swing of election season. The NFB Independence Market distributes some literature pieces that may be of interest to blind and visually-impaired voters and their friends and families.

            Election reform legislation became a priority following the presidential election of 2000, and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) became law in 2002. The NFB worked hard to make sure that the provisions of this law addressed the voting needs of blind citizens to vote privately and independently. As a result, each federal election polling place that is using election technology purchased after 2006 must have an accessible voting machine. The NFB developed the documents below as part of our activities under our HAVA grants.

            The Blind Voter's Guide to Voting 


            The Blind Voter's Guide to Voting (MSWord) 


            The Blind Voter's Guide to Voting (BRF) 


            The Blind Voter's Guide to Voting (audio) 


            The Blind Voter Registration Drive Guide 


            The Blind Voter Registration Drive Guide (MSWord)


            The Blind Voter Registration Drive Guide (BRF)


            Blind Poll Worker Recruitment Program 


            Blind Poll Worker Recruitment Program (MSWord) 


            Blind Poll Worker Recruitment Program (BRF) 


            We have provided links so that readers can download their own copies of the above documents in print or Braille. However, should you wish to order hard copies in print and/or Braille, please contact the NFB Independence Market by e-mail at IndependenceMarket at nfb.org, or by phone at 410-659-9314, extension 2216.  



            Spotlight on the Imagination Fund
            Fueling the Dream Machine—We Need Your Dreams! 

            As many of you will recall, the Imagination Fund “Dream Machine” made its first appearance at this year’s national convention. Convention attendees were able to write their dreams in print or Braille and deposit them into the Dream Machine. Many of you placed your dreams in the machine, but we need more!

            Do you want to be the first blind astronaut? Tell us. Do you envision a future where all blind students have access to Braille? Share your vision. Is your dream to gain the blindness skills you’ll need to be a successful business owner? Let us know. Whatever your dream is—no matter how big or small—we need to hear it! We are planning exciting future projects around these dreams, and we want to make sure everyone has a chance to provide ideas. 

            Please take a few minutes to share your dream with us. Simply send your dream, or your dream for a blind person, or even your dream for all blind people to Mika Baugh via e-mail at mbaugh at nfb.org, or mail it using the following address:

               National Federation of the Blind
               Attn: Mika Baugh
               200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
               Baltimore, MD 21230

            Please know that you may make submissions anonymously. Your name and personal information will not be used in the future projects that incorporate the dreams that are submitted. 

            Your voice drives the programs of the NFB Jernigan Institute. So let your voice be heard! 



            NFB Calendar
            Upcoming Events

            Meet the Blind Month - October, 2012 



            State Conventions

            NFB of Alaska State Convention - October 5-6, 2012

            NFB of Arkansas State Convention - October 5-7, 2012

            NFB of Illinois State Convention - October 5-7, 2012

            NFB of Nebraska State Convention - October 11-14, 2012

            NFB of California State Convention - October 18-21, 2012

            NFB of District of Columbia State Convention - October 19-21, 2012

            NFB of Indiana State Convention - October 19-21, 2012

            NFB of Michigan State Convention - October 19-21, 2012

            NFB of Washington State Convention - October 19-21, 2012

            NFB of Colorado State Convention - October 25-28, 2012

            NFB of Minnesota State Convention - October 26-28, 2012

            NFB of Oregon State Convention - October 26-28, 2012

            NFB of Maine State Convention - October 27, 2012

            NFB of Connecticut State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Georgia State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            Montana Association for the Blind State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Nevada State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Ohio State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Pennsylvania State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Virginia State Convention - November 2-4, 2012

            NFB of Kansas State Convention - November 9-11, 2012

            NFB of Maryland State Convention - November 9-11, 2012

            NFB of New Jersey State Convention - November 9-11, 2012

            NFB of New York State Convention - November 9-11, 2012

            NFB of Texas State Convention - November 9-11, 2012

            NFB of Puerto Rico State Convention - November 11, 2012



            Citation
            "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."  Mark Twain





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      Interesting links:

      Archive of Straight Talk about Vision Loss videos

      National Center for Blind Youth in Science

      Access Technology Tips

      TeachBlindStudents.org



           




      Blogs:

      Access Technology

     
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