[Nfb-new-hampshire] Newsline newsletter

Finn, Bill BFINN at ed.state.nh.us
Fri Dec 11 14:22:39 UTC 2009


Marie,
I know this is a late response but my email bucket overfloweth <grin>. I
could not let this opportunity pass without congratulating you and all
the Newsline users who keep Newsline going strong in New Hampshire.
Marie, your hard work and dedication has carried this forward and kept
it available.  NFB of New Hampshire is to be commended for its
commitment, over and above words, to this service by stepping up to the
plate to fill the gap between the legislated funding amount and the
additional unanticipated expense over the past two years. 
Great Work! Great Benefits!

Bill

William A. Finn, Administrator
Services for Blind and Visually Impaired
21 So. Fruit St.
Concord, NH 03301
Tel: 603-271-3537
Tinyurl.com/NHSBVI


-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-new-hampshire-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfb-new-hampshire-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Marie Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 1:39 AM
To: New Hampshire NFB State Affiliate Board
Cc: Student Division; NHBLIND-TALK NH Blind/Low Vision List; Discussion
list NFB NH
Subject: [Nfb-new-hampshire] Newsline newsletter

Hi folks,
First off I wanted to point out a snipet of the newsletter that I get
from 
the Newsline team, congratulating NH as well as 3 other states for 
continuing to maintain our "above 90%" usage status. Below that is the
full 
newsletter, if you are interested in hearing it for yourselves or just 
reading the rest of the stats!
I felt it was really important to point this out, so that all of us that
use 
the service will continue to keep up the great work and keep the lines 
humming. Newsline, no matter how you choose to receive it, either by
phone 
or internet, is one of the most important lines of communication we
have, 
that offer us the daily opportunity to access all the info we want and
need 
to know. .
Thank you to everyone that uses and supports this valuable service and 
please pass on the information about Newsline to anyone that you think
will 
benefit from it.
Let's strive to get the numbers up in NH and stay on top of what's
happening 
in our communities.

Regards
Marie

* the snipet...
Feast your eyes (or ears, or fingers, depending) on these nummy numbers!
In 
October we received a total of 154,040 calls, that's 2,677 more than
were 
received in September. Salad, oops, Solid! We also harvested plenty of
new 
subscribers; a total of 1,299 new folks were signed up for
NFB-NEWSLINE(r). 
Also, congrats to regulars Delaware, District of Columbia, New
Hampshire, 
and Connecticut, who all had local phone-line usage of above 90%!

* the full newsletter...
NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Newsletter
The Newsletter for Sponsors November 2009

In This Issue
Your Monthly Helpful Hint
Main Menu
Channel Chat
Statistics
Subscriber's Corner


  Your Monthly
Helpful Hint


As you may know, we offer promotional tapes and CDs that market 
NFB-NEWSLINE(r) with an upbeat message, a description of the benefits to

subscribers, and a brief demonstration of the service.  The
informational 
audio materials are geared directly toward blind and physically
handicapped 
potential subscribers.  The conclusion of the promotional tape or CD is 
adaptable to state-specific information such as the sponsor's or state 
affiliate's telephone number or short messages from the sponsor.  If
you'd 
like to modify these tapes or CDs, known as the Information audio
material, 
please let us know by contacting Renee West at rwest at nfb.org.


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Quick Links

NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Home Page

NFB-NEWSLINE(r)  Online




Got Questions? Get Answers!


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NFB-NEWSLINE(r) is a service of the National Federation of the Blind




:: 410-659-9314
 Dear Marie,

Welcome, Sponsors, to the November 2009 issue of NFB-NEWSLINE(r)
Happenings! 
We hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving, and that you are enjoying this 
beautiful autumn season.


Take care, and should you have any questions about this newsletter,
please 
e-mail me at rwest at nfb.org.


Main Menu

Sometime during December we will be moving a majority of NFB-NEWSLINE(r)

computer hardware to an offsite location to offer more redundancy of 
Internet connections and power supply.  This is a necessary step in
rolling 
out our Voice Over Internet Protocol-based phone lines, which has the 
potential to offer an increased number of local telephone numbers.
We'll 
keep you posted as things develop!



We are now able to conduct Webinars (seminars held online) about our
service 
that you might find useful for yourself, your staff, or your volunteers.

There will be two Webinars; one will cover NFB-NEWSLINE(r) basics and
the 
other focuses on NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Online.  Supplemented with our handbook
and 
other materials, these Webinars can serve as a part of an effort to
ensure 
your staff is knowledgeable about the service and its benefits. Please 
e-mail Renee West, Marketing and Outreach Manager, at rwest at nfb.org if
you'd 
like to schedule a Webinar-based training session.

Two new publications have been added to our roster since the last 
newsletter, they are Hattiesburg American, out of Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, 
and Popular Science.  Popular Science is a monthly magazine of science
and 
technology. Each issue covers the latest developments in cars,
electronics, 
communications, tools, energy, aviation, science, and space exploration.
We 
will also be adding an additional three magazines over the next two
months; 
stay tuned to see what we'll offer!

Don't forget that you can always be the first to get the scoop on new 
publications and other service enhancements by following us on Twitter!
Our 
account may be found at http://twitter.com/NFB_NEWSLINE.

Channel Chat

As this is holiday season, it might be helpful to post on your state's 
Information Channel holiday schedules for your agency and other
important 
entities that serve the print-disabled community in your state.  Your 
channel is a great venue to notify those you serve if meetings are to be

held on a different day and time than is usual, or you have reduced
hours or 
closures.

Examples of agencies to contact:

*  NLS regional and sub-regional libraries
*  State agency providing services for the blind
*  Technology Assistance Program
*  Client Assistance Program
*  Centers for Independent Living (contact your

    state's Independent Living Council chair)

           Statistically Speaking



Feast your eyes (or ears, or fingers, depending) on these nummy numbers!
In 
October we received a total of 154,040 calls, that's 2,677 more than
were 
received in September. Salad, oops, Solid! We also harvested plenty of
new 
subscribers; a total of 1,299 new folks were signed up for
NFB-NEWSLINE(r). 
Also, congrats to regulars Delaware, District of Columbia, New
Hampshire, 
and Connecticut, who all had local phone-line usage of above 90%!

Top Ten Minutes Used:

I've got to dish about these statistics!  NFB-NEWSLINE(r) subscribers
savored 
a total of 2,979,980 minutes of service in October.  Massachusetts' 
subscribers have been pudding, er, putting our servers to use with an 
increase of 14,164 more minutes than were used in September;
Pennsylvania 
and California's subscribers also enjoyed a bounty of minutes with
increases 
of 6,561 and 2,397 more minutes than in the previous month,
respectively.

1.               California              287,574
2.               Massachusetts      193,038
3.               New York             190,793
4.               Florida                 180,139
5.               Illinois                  152,162
6.               Ohio                    149,179
7.               Texas                  120,811
8.               Maryland              120,647
9.               Pennsylvania         117,840
10.             Michigan               100,420

Top Ten New Subscribers:

Well, we've done it!  As of the end of October we gathered a cornucopia
of 
new folks and now can boast a total of 72,555 subscribers. I am so
thankful 
for your efforts in this regard.  Some "main course" states this month
are 
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Illinois, who have all exceeded September's
new 
subscriber statistic with an increase of 18, 8, and 6 new subscribers, 
respectively.

1.        Florida with 843
2.        Pennsylvania with 53
3.        Texas with 32
4.        Illinois with 28
5.        California with 25
6.        North Carolina and Wisconsin with 24 each
7.        Massachusetts with 18
8.        Ohio and Oregon with 17 each
9.        New Jersey and Arizona with 15 each
10.      New York with 13

Online Superstars:

Chow down on the delish data below! Texas is hot with an increase of
2,181 
more e-mails than were delivered in September, and Florida shouldn't be 
leftover in receiving notice, because they also increased their e-mails 
delivered by 618.

1.           Texas                   15,477
2.           New York              10,406
3.           Florida                   9,604
4.           Pennsylvania           8,973
5.           Colorado                7,373
6.           California                7,363
7.           Massachusetts        7,225
8.           Maryland                6,473
9.           North Carolina         5,961
10.         Virginia                  5,457

Top Ten Registered Subscribers:

Here's the premi-yum pack!

1.          Florida with 14,238
2.          California with 6,705
3.          Maryland with 3,024
4.          Texas with 2,930
5.          Michigan with 2,668
6.          North Carolina with 2,631
7.          Wisconsin with 2,413
8.          New York with 2,378
9.          Ohio with 2,293
10.        Massachusetts with 1,951

Subscriber's Corner

 For this Subscriber's Corner I am providing you with an excerpt of an 
article that appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Future Reflections, the 
magazine of the National Organization of Blind Parents.  Mr. Osentowski
now 
lives and works in Colorado and is still an active user of the service.
He 
says about NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Online:  "I have been using NFB-NEWSLINE(r)
In Your 
Pocket...and it has transformed the way I read the newspaper.  It makes
my 
hour-long morning commute to work pass much more quickly, and it is far
less 
costly and more convenient than holding a cellular phone to my ear
during 
the trip."  This article is provided to you to emphasize the importance
of 
promoting NFB-NEWSLINE(r) to blind and otherwise print-disabled youth. 
NFB-NEWSLINE(r) offers these young individuals a tool that, as with
other 
tools provided by your agency or organization, can be used to build a
life 
of success, much as Ryan has done.  If you'd like to discuss ways in
which 
your agency can promote NFB-NEWSLINE(r) to youth in your state, please
contact 
Renee West at rwest at nfb.org.  Note: The Kearney Hub is now available on 
NFB-NEWSLINE(r) along with over 300 additional newspapers and magazines.

***

EQUAL ACCESS TO A BLACK AND WHITE WORLD
by Ryan Osentowski

"Dad, what does `arson' mean?"  I asked as I sat next to him on the
couch, 
interrupting him midway through an article he was reading aloud to me
from 
the Kearney Daily Hub.

"It's when people set fires on purpose," he answered.

"Like in a fireplace?"  I asked.

"No, like in a building," he patiently answered. "Sometimes people burn 
buildings because--" but I had already lost interest in what my dad was 
saying.  Mention of the fireplace had caused me to reach up and feel the

newspaper he was holding in front of his face.  Until then I had assumed

that newspaper was just something you stuffed into a fireplace to help
the 
fire burn brighter.  But here was my father reading to me from one.

"Dad, why are you reading that?"  I asked.

"I like to know what's going on around town," he answered, putting down
the 
paper.  Evidently he had decided that he would never make it to the
sports 
page with a curious four-year-old pestering him with questions.  I 
immediately grabbed another page, putting it to my nose and smelling the

ink.  I ran my hands over the smooth surface of the paper, listening to
the 
rustle as it gave way between my fingers.  Then, after a few seconds of
this 
exploration, I crushed it into a ball, fired the papery projectile
across 
the room, and laughed.  My dad sighed and commented that he hadn't
really 
wanted to read the sports page anyway.

Ten years later I began to realize how much more important a newspaper
was 
than mere fire fuel.  In my eighth-grade social studies class, our
teacher, 
Mr. Henderson, began a weekly ritual of Friday morning current events
trivia 
contests.  He told our class that we were to read the Thursday evening 
paper, and he was going to test us on Friday morning to see how much we
had 
absorbed.  The person who answered the most questions correctly would
win a 
free soft drink and candy bar from the teachers' lounge.  Soft drinks
and 
candy bars might as well have been contraband at the time, since no
vending 
machines were available to students at our school.

This prize was enough to jar the students out of the world of comic
books 
and television for one night in order to acquaint themselves with the
real 
world reflected in the Kearney Daily Hub.  I realized that I would have
to 
enlist my parents' aid to help me win, so I began urging them to read
the 
paper to me on Thursday nights.  Unfortunately, raising three boys and 
working full time didn't always afford them the necessary time to read
the 
complete Kearney paper aloud.  I soon discovered that I could bribe my 
friends to read the paper to me.  This worked for about two weeks until
my 
mother found out what I was doing and informed me in no uncertain terms
that 
lunch money was to be used for lunch and nothing else.  Somehow I
couldn't 
convince my mother that a soft drink and candy bar were as nourishing
for 
lunch as the daily mystery meat and potatoes that faced us in the
cafeteria.

I cursed motherly intuition and began searching for another option.
Then I 
learned about our state radio reading service, but was disappointed to
learn 
that they did not read the Kearney paper regularly.  When they did read
the 
Hub, they excerpted it.  Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that I

would never win a free soft drink and candy bar.

Six years after that Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and the National Federation of
the 
Blind brought one of my fondest dreams to reality with the creation of 
"NEWSLINE for the Blind."  During high school and early college I began 
paying more attention to current events.  I watched the evening news and

listened to AM talk radio and political commentary.  Many times I heard
a 
journalist on TV or radio quote from an article in USA Today, the Wall 
Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times.  I found myself frustrated that

they would never read the entire article.  My curiosity was aroused, but
I 
could never find out more about the subject being discussed.  Mixed with
my 
frustration, however, was a growing fascination that the media pundits
on 
radio and television always quoted from the newspaper.  This told me
that, 
despite the thriving world of electronic media, the printed word in 
newspapers still had its place.

I always felt frustrated, convinced that I was shut out from a part of
the 
world of current events into which my sighted classmates could freely
dip. 
I had a computer but hadn't yet logged onto the Internet.  When I heard
that 
the NFB had invented a service by which blind people could read the
entire 
text of a newspaper by telephone, I became excited.  My excitement was 
short-lived when I learned that it wasn't available in Nebraska, where I
was 
attending college.  I experienced that same old feeling of 
disappointment--no soft drink and candy bar for me.  But this time it
was 
worse.  Instead of sugary treats, I was being denied equal access to a
big 
part of the ever-changing face of our world.  Newspaper articles were
often 
discussed in political science, journalism, and philosophy classes that
I 
took.  I had better luck convincing classmates to read an occasional
article 
to me if it grabbed my interest, but I still could not browse an entire 
newspaper at will.

Three years later I had the opportunity to see NFB-NEWSLINE(r) in
action.  I 
was attending the Federation's annual Washington Seminar, and Dr. Maurer

demonstrated NFB-NEWSLINE(r) by speaker phone during the great
gathering-in. 
I was impressed and excited when Dr. Maurer informed us that we could
all 
use NFB-NEWSLINE(r) while we visited Washington, thanks to a test number
set 
up by the national office in Baltimore.  I stayed up much too late those
few 
nights, browsing the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, soaking up
the 
latest headlines.  I couldn't get enough, much to the annoyance of my 
roommates, who were more interested in getting sleep than the news.  We
all 
left Washington full of determination.  I was determined to help fight
to 
get NFB-NEWSLINE(r) in Nebraska, while my two roommates were determined
to 
find a different roommate the following year.

In June of 1999 my hopes were finally realized as the NFB of Nebraska 
officially launched NFB-NEWSLINE(r) in Lincoln with a grand
ribbon-cutting 
ceremony.  I was like a kid in a candy store, getting my Coke and
Snickers 
bar ten years late.  I was always on the phone checking out national 
headlines as well as the Omaha World-Herald.  By that time I enjoyed 
Internet access, but the idea of walking around my apartment with my 
cordless phone in hand, browsing the Washington Post, was very
liberating.

It was a big step up from the days of readers and radio reading
services, 
but I still felt limited.  I had only four papers to choose from.  Yet I

loved the service and felt I had come full circle when I became the
Nebraska 
NFB-NEWSLINE(r) outreach coordinator in the fall of 2000.  The work
itself is 
easy and rewarding, demonstrating NFB-NEWSLINE(r) for blind persons who
are 
interested and helping them to sign up for the service.  I take a great
deal 
of pride in sharing the joy of equal access with others who can benefit
from 
NFB-NEWSLINE(r).

Since I have been a part of NFB-NEWSLINE(r), I have seen it grow and
touch the 
lives of more people.  With the new national service that came to us 
courtesy of Congress in March of 2002, the limits have become even less 
constricting.  Whereas before I was able to read only four newspapers, I
am 
now able to choose among some fifty-five state and national papers.  The

benefits of this became starkly clear last semester when my criminal
justice 
professor took up an issue of USA Today one morning and began reading an

article about the Enron scandal.  I realized that I had read that very 
article just a few hours before.  I could finally recognize an article
that 
my professor was quoting.  I made it a point to approach him after class
and 
discuss the article in depth.  Later that semester I had the opportunity
to 
debate my philosophy professor in his office regarding an article from
the 
New York Times on cloning.  He was impressed that I was so well read and

asked, "Who reads your newspapers for you?  Do you have to pay someone?"

"Not at all," I said and pointed to the telephone on his desk.  "I get 
everything from this."  Needless to say, my professor was impressed.

NFB-NEWSLINE(r) has made a strong impact on my life, and the results are

nothing but positive.  Along with my daily news headlines, I can read
movie 
and book reviews, editorials, and human interest.  I can keep up with
the 
Nebraska Cornhuskers on the sports page or find out if it's raining in 
Baltimore.  The world of black and white denied me for so long is now at
my 
fingertips, and it serves me well.

In reflecting upon the benefits that NFB-NEWSLINE(r) has offered to me,
I find 
it difficult to understand how anyone could oppose NFB-NEWSLINE(r).  We,
the 
blind of this country, have taken a great leap forward in gaining access
to 
a world that was largely denied to us for many years.  NFB-NEWSLINE(r)
truly 
embodies Dr. Jernigan's vision of independence, and any blind person can
be 
a part of it.  I hope those who have not yet signed up for this 
revolutionary service will do so and enjoy the world of black and white
that 
I have come to love.



We Need Your Help!


Support Braille Literacy and help provide blind children and adults with
the 
tools they need to succeed by purchasing the Louis Braille Coin.
Created in 
honor of the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, this beautiful coin is
made of 
90 percent silver and is the first US coin ever to feature readable
Braille. 
Visit www.braille.org or call the National Federation of the Blind at
(410) 
659-9314, extension 2216, to learn how you can make change with a
dollar!










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