[Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: Help on the horizon

Wed Dec 18 21:07:54 UTC 2013

Not right now.  This was an old e-mail I found, while cleaning up.

Terry P.

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindhands at aol.com [mailto:Blindhands at aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 4:01 PM
To: nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: Help on the horizon

Terry,

Do you get the magazine?  What type of crafting is in it?

Joyce  Kane
_www.KraftersKorner.org_ (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
Blindhands at AOL.com   

In a message dated 12/17/2013 3:47:19 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Terry.Powers at nih.gov writes:

Look  What I found!!!

Terry P.

-----Original Message-----
From:  H. Field [mailto:missheather at comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 4:07  PM
To: NFB-Talk at NFBnet.org
Subject: Help on the  horizon

Chicago Daily Herald
Monday, May 20,  2002

Help on the horizon Crystal Lake-based agency for blind,visually  impaired
celebrates 25th anniversary

By Elizabeth  Harmon

Imagine not being able to read your phone bill or having to  experience
museum exhibits only through taped lectures.

Blind since  birth, Camille Caffarelli was quite familiar with those
situations and  plenty of others like them.

And Caffarelli's blindness made her  uniquely qualified to help companies 
and
institutions find ways to address  them.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Horizons for the  Blind, the
small, not-for-profit agency that Caffarelli founded in  Chicago's Rogers
Park neighborhood
in 1977, now makes its home in  downtown Crystal Lake. It employs more than
20 people - many of them blind  or visually impaired.   With a mission of
improving
the  quality of life for the visually impaired through better  a
ccessibility,
Caffarelli and her staff act as consultants and produce  Braille, large 
print
and audio materials for public institutions,  corporations, small businesses
and individuals.

It's no accident  that the invitations to Horizons' 25th anniversary gala
contained both  printed and Braille versions.

"I wanted to make a statement that  accessibility is something that should
just be done across the board," said  Caffarelli, who serves as Horizons'
executive
director.

"Braille  readers are not illiterate; we just use a different code  of
writing."

The impetus to launch Horizons stemmed not from her  personal frustrations,
but the need to earn a living in the aftermath of a  family tragedy.

A stay-at-home mother with three young children,  Caffarelli was suddenly
thrust into the working world when her husband  died.

Though she had earned a degree in psychology from Loyola  University, her
desire to work within walking distance of her home and her  children's 
school
seriously
limited her options.

But the May 1977  passage of Section 504 of 1973's Rehabilitation Act, which
required that  all publicly funded institutions be made accessible to all,
gave
her an  idea. The Rehabilitation Act was a precursor to the more recent
Americans  With Disabilities Act.

Caffarelli began working with Chicago museums to  help them improve their
accessibility to the blind and visually impaired.  This included creating
print
materials and signs, and even helping to  create touchable exhibits and
artifact replicas, giving the blind an  alternative to dull, taped
descriptions.

Within a few years,  Horizons' customer base had expanded to include Braille
billing services  for utility companies and other businesses.

"Each month, when a blind  person got their phone bill, they would have to
have someone else read it  to them. That's no one else's business,"
Caffarelli
said. "When the bill  is in Braille, it's good (public relations) for the
company, and it's good  for the self-respect of the individual, and 
generally
speaking,
they pay  their bills faster."

Caffarelli said she founded Horizons as a  not-for-profit agency in order to
serve visually impaired individuals at no  charge.

"If an individual wants something in Braille, they should be  able to have
it," she said.

Horizons also publishes a nationally  distributed magazine, "Seeing It Our
Way," which includes recipes and  crafts.

The agency also relies on a core of volunteers and donations  from the
community.

Horizons' Crystal Lake headquarters puts  Caffarelli's philosophy of
across-the-board accessibility into practice. It  is located within walking
distance
of the Metra station to serve the  needs of the workers who commute from Des
Plaines, Elmwood Park, Harvard  and other communities.

Horizons also uses a PACE bus to bring in other  employees not served by
Metra.

The two-level office boasts an  open-floor layout with work- stations 
grouped
around the rooms' perimeters.  Each work-station is customized to meet the
physical
and occupational  needs of the person who uses it.

Computers are equipped with  large-print monitors and vocal screen readers.

Raised, tactile pictures  decorate the walls. In a conference room, 
touchable
models of animals,  landmark buildings and the human reproductive system 
help
employees to  better understand and describe objects they have never  seen.

Downstairs, Braille printers produce reams of material, including  nearly
8,500 monthly utility and credit card statements in both English  and
Spanish.

Crystal Lake city councilman Jeff Thorsen serves as  treasurer of Horizons'
board of directors and has worked closely with the  agency as president of
the
community's Lions Club chapter.

"Our  charge as Lions is to serve people who are sight- and hearing-impaired
so  our mission falls right in with what Horizons does," Thorsen said.

"Not  only is Horizons providing employment, but of course their ultimate
goal is  to help people conduct their day-to-day business with ease,"  he
said.

Thorsen and other members of the Lions were on hand for  Horizon's 25th
Anniversary dinner earlier this month at the Holiday Inn in  Crystal Lake.

In addition to entertainment by the "Those Were The Days"  radio players
troupe, the event also featured awards to three companies,  the Hyatt Hotel
Corporation,
Convergys and Motorola, which have made a  commitment to improving their
accessibility.

Hyatt has been a  Horizons client since 1992, and the agency produces about
half of the  company's Braille and large-print customer information 
packages,
said Vice  President of Engineering Thomas Riegelman. Company-wide, Hyatt 
has
found  that promoting a philosophy of accessibility benefits not  only
customers
but employees as well.

"It's improved the attitude  of our employees in general and improved our
ability to recruit employees  with disabilities," Riegelman said.

"We have hundreds of employees with  various conditions, from a senior vice
president down to line workers in  the hotels," he added.

"In our reservations office in Omaha, we have a  man who is legally blind 
and
uses a talking computer to do his job. He's  one of our best
reservationists."

None of that would come as a  surprise to Caffarelli.

"Disability is just a small part of who a  person is, and while ours is a
very visible thing - people take one look at  us and know we're blind - it's
a lot
less inhibiting than some of the  other physical things that people have to
work with," she  said.

"Camille has really tried to stress that there are no handicaps,  just
different ways to do things," Thorsen  said.

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