[NFB-NM] The Braille Monitor, January 2018
Tonia Trapp
nfbnewmexicosecretary at gmail.com
Sat Jan 27 21:21:52 UTC 2018
Tonia Trapp, secretary
National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico
nfbnewmexicosecretary at gmail.com
www.nfbnm.org
Live the life you want.
The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want.
-----Original Message-----
From: brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org [mailto:brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org]
On Behalf Of Brian Buhrow
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2018 6:59 PM
To: brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, January 2018
BRAILLE MONITOR
Vol. 61, No. 1 January 2018
Gary Wunder, Editor
Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash
drive, by the
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Mark Riccobono, President
telephone: (410) 659-9314
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National Federation of the Blind
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Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE
CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE
EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES
BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT;
BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR
OURSELVES.
ISSN 0006-8829
) 2018 by the National Federation of the Blind
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Vol. 61, No. 1 January
2018
Contents
Illustration: A New Home for the Records Center
Ending Accreditation without Authenticity: A Call to Action for the Fourth
Generation of the Federation
by Mark Riccobono
Accreditation: The Pros and Woes of Credentialing
by Edward Bell
Of Little Faith: A Troubling Trend with Blindness Professionals
by Lisa Ferris
To Teach is to Touch a Life Forever: Jerry Whittle: Cherished Teacher,
Mentor, Author, Advocate, and Leader
Our Fight for Literacy
by Lyn Petro
Building the National Federation of the Blind Brand
by Kirsten Mau
Tax Deductions for the Blind: Are They Something We Deserve, and Should We
Fight for Them?
by Mark Riccobono
Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-The New and Improved Rules of
the Road
by Amy Mason
National Convention Reflections
by Alyssa Shock
Recipes
Monitor Miniatures
[PHOTO CAPTION: The old records center full before the file cabinets were
moved to the new location.
[PHOTO CAPTION: A group of staff wrestle with a filing cabinet to get it
into its proper place.
[PHOTO CAPTION: Staff members smile as they remove file boxes from a cart
to be refiled in the new records center.
[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono smiles as he checks in on the crew moving
files and filing cabinets. Staff member, Ryan Pugh, stands in the
background with a cart full of file boxes.
[PHOTO CAPTION: The old records center all emptied out.
[PHOTO CAPTION: The new records center full of newly filled filing cabinets
and wire shelving.
A New Home for the Records Center
On a cold December day in Baltimore, a large group of the NFB staff came
together to complete what was truly a herculean task. Their goal was to
move the NFB Record Center from the 4th floor to its new home on the 2nd
floor. A team of nearly thirty enthusiastic staff members moved 110 filing
cabinets, containing the Federation's history spanning from the early 1940s
all the way to the early 2000s. These cabinets contain almost everything
about the NFB during this time period, from the files of the first user
experience study with the Kurzweil Reading Machine in 1977, to the records
of every single Washington Seminar ever held, and to the correspondence of
every NFB affiliate stretching back in time to the early days of the
Federation.
However, it was not just the size and scope of the materials being moved
that proved to be challenging, nor even the sheer weight of so much
collected paper. But the contents of about sixty filing cabinets had to be
unloaded into boxes, moved to the new location, and put back, all while
carefully maintaining their order. Another challenge, this one unexpected,
was the discovery that many of these cabinets had been bolted together from
the inside and needed to be separated before they could be moved.
Yet, undeterred, the amazing team rose to the occasion, put their backs and
their brains into it, and completed this humongous job in under just 6
hours! Once again, the NFB proves that it has some of the best staff in the
world. But what else would you expect from an organization as committed and
inspired as the National Federation of the Blind?
[PHOTO CAPTION: Federationists walk with signs protesting NAC in New York
in 1986.]
Ending Accreditation without Authenticity: A Call to Action for the Fourth
Generation of the Federation
by Mark Riccobono
From the Editor: When I first came into the Federation and started
receiving the Braille Monitor, I read about a battle with an agency called
NAC, then the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind
and Visually Handicapped. NAC said its goal was to bring standards to work
with the blind and to improve the services the blind received, so the
question I needed answered was why my newly-found Federation would object.
It didn't take much reading of the correspondence between President
Jernigan and officials of NAC to understand why. It was made abundantly
clear that the organized blind were not a part of the process; we might be
blind, but we weren't "professionals" in the field and shouldn't pretend to
know the first thing about quality services. The Federation would
articulate a concrete concern, and someone from NAC would respond by saying
that as consumers we could not be expected to understand the work of this
accrediting body, the standards it used, or the reason for those standards;
nor did we have the education and experience to make a determination as to
whether they had been followed. The Federation was told, sometimes gently
and sometimes not, that our error was in presuming to speak to standards
and to service. Indeed we were blind, indeed some of us were articulate,
indeed some of us had impressive credentials in other fields, but this did
not make us qualified to participate in the process of service delivery,
let alone accreditation. In NAC's pronouncements it was clear that, no
matter what we might write or say or do, our opinions were not needed or
sought. We might parrot the language of the professionals and ape their
behavior by dressing well, showing up for meetings, and addressing the
press, but the fact was that being blind meant only that we suffered from
the condition. We certainly could not know anything about how to serve or
take care of those who were blind, let alone administer the agencies that
directed their lives.
With this reaction to our worthiness as full-fledged human beings
whose very opportunities were being influenced by those who would not
listen, many of us for the first time decided to do the unthinkable-we
would take to the streets and protest. By marching and chanting outside
gatherings of NAC, we earned the ire of some who would give us names that
did not fit with our mission or self-concept. We were called "radical,"
though we did not advocate revolution or even thorough and complete social
reform. Our straightforward and eminently reasonable demand was to have
some influence over the agencies designed to serve us. Sometimes we were
called "militant," but we were not combative, aggressive, or violent in our
call to be heard and recognized. Though the rallying cry "nothing about us
without us" had its origins in fifteenth-century Poland and certainly was
found in our own country's revolution when angrily we denounced taxation
without representation, the slogan did not gain popularity for people with
disabilities until the early 1990s, two decades after the blind
demonstrated our commitment to the concept on the streets of many cities in
our nation.
The National Accreditation Council has been offensive to blind people
not just because we were left out in its construction, its standards, and
its administration. NAC has let itself be used in ways which have given
agencies a free pass when accused of the misuse of agency money or even the
abuse of blind people, especially blind children. When the Federation
brought legitimate concerns about bad behavior to agency administrators and
their governing boards, these were dismissed. When we took those same
concerns to the press, they were often published, but the agency's defense
began and ended with the assertion that they were accredited by the
National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually
Handicapped. These assertions were verified by NAC, and the charges of bad
conduct and abuse were never investigated by the so-called accrediting
agency. Sometimes the word accreditation was so powerful that in the press
coverage, legitimate concerns of consumers finished a distant second to the
idea that the people in charge of these agencies were professionals who
were being watched over by other professionals. The blind who complained
were portrayed as malcontents who just didn't understand the complexity of
service delivery and who seized upon small incidents and tried to turn them
into significant issues.
Over time our persistence paid off. The American Foundation for the
Blind, which had given hundreds of thousands of dollars for the creation
and maintenance of NAC, withdrew its funding. The United States Department
of Education, which had been persuaded that accreditation would ensure
quality education, eventually withdrew its funding and its strong push to
have every blindness program in the country accredited by NAC. The number
of agencies accredited by NAC fell each year, the best agencies being the
first to withdraw, and the worst being those who clung to NAC as their
single best defense against accountability and change.
For more than two decades NAC has existed in name, but has not been a
significant player in the blindness field. Its annual reviews have been
self-studies, and we have never known any of its member agencies to be
rebuked or removed from the NAC family. Agencies wanting meaningful
evaluation have turned to the organizations that represent the consumers
they serve and have relied on other accrediting bodies which deal with
education and rehabilitation. They have decided that nothing in the annual
dues paid to NAC enhances their service and that the satisfaction of their
consumers is the real test of quality service and genuine partnership.
So imagine our surprise when, after twenty years of relative
inactivity, we learn that NAC has been newly named the National
Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services and is being
maintained on life support by the Association for the Education and
Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). Here is what
president Riccobono has to say about the attempt to resurrect NAC and its
continued failure to seek out the input of the organized blind:
This is a call to action for the blind of America to ensure that the
struggles of our past do not resurface in a manner that impedes our future.
As the fourth generation of the Federation has come into leadership, we
have brought with us a perspective that has been shaped by our history but
has not been significantly influenced by some of the most contentious
struggles of our civil rights movement. This is both an advantage and a
disadvantage. For the leaders of my generation, we grew up in a time when
the National Federation of the Blind was emerging into the position of true
leadership in the field of work with the blind. In many situations during
the past thirty years, we have worked collaboratively with key
professionals in the field to advance issues of significant concern to the
blind.
In this call to action I will not recount the well-documented history
of NAC. However, for those of my generation who did not live through the
NAC-tracking period of the Federation and for those who need a reminder, I
offer the following excerpts and provide a few references to previous
Monitor articles for background.
"Through 1966 articles appeared in the Braille Monitor
condemning a lack of consumer participation in the planning process
and the regressive nature of many recommendations being proposed for
the future NAC. The Commission was criticized for institutionalizing
practices resulting in dependency. To many blind people as well as to
several agency directors, a small group of professionals with similar
and overlapping institutional affiliations were trying to dominate the
field of rehabilitation through a new inclusive organization which was
saddled with negative and regressive assumptions about blindness
(Vaughan, 1993)."
"In a 1971 convention address Dr. Kenneth Jernigan made clear
that the NFB's quarrel with the National Accreditation Council was
neither over the concept of accreditation nor because of efforts to
improve services to blind people. In this same speech Jernigan
explained his perception of NAC and the way it operated. Consumer
participation was minimal-tokenism."
"Over the next twenty years an average of seven articles per
year appeared critiquing and exposing alleged and documented
shortcomings of NAC-accredited agencies. Up until 1990 the annual NAC
board meetings were picketed by two to three hundred blind people who
traveled from all over the United States to meeting sites (Rabby,
1984). In almost every state Federation members continually tried,
often with success, to persuade agencies to disassociate from NAC."
Although my generation of Federationists did not live through the
right to organize battles of the 1950s, the use of an accreditation system
to protect agencies doing harm to blind people, and active efforts to
prevent blind people from being eligible to teach travel, we should not act
as though those events are not relevant to who we are today and the dreams
we seek for blind people. The history matters, and we the blind are
determined to shape the future. It is said that those who do not learn
history are doomed to repeat it, but I think Mark Twain's perspective might
be more appropriate: History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
On the eve of the seventy-seventh anniversary of the National
Federation of the Blind, I participated in conversations regarding the
field of work with the blind that sounded very familiar to the stories I
have read about the past-a familiar tune by a new set of performers.
Specifically I am talking about the recent announcement by the Association
for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
(AER) that AER has brought the accreditation program previously managed by
the National Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC)
under the executive management of AER. In AER's own words, "This represents
an extraordinary opportunity for AER and the clients who are served by
agencies committed to delivering high-quality services."
My personal history with NAC might give you some insight as to how I
approached the conversation that appears below. In June 2000, I was
appointed to serve as Director of the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and
Visually Impaired (a state agency that has responsibility for providing a
number of statewide services for children and adults in Wisconsin including
operating a residential school). In that position I worked on the
accreditations the agency was required to have as a K-12 school operating
in the state. In 2002 I learned about the NAC Summit meeting that was
planned for Florida in December. As a member of the Council of Schools for
the Blind [COSB], I provided my concerns about the failed NAC accreditation
program to the individual who would be representing NAC at the summit. As a
member of the National Federation of the Blind, I wanted to be with
Federation members protesting the meeting itself, but my schedule would not
allow me to be away at the time of the meeting in Florida. Therefore, I
settled for urging COSB to encourage NAC to close its doors and go out of
business-an opinion that was shared at the summit meeting by others as you
will find in the February 2003 issue of the Braille Monitor. NAC was never
a topic of discussion at any of the conferences I attended related to the
education of blind children, so I rarely gave it much thought.
In November of 2003 I moved to Maryland to work for the National
Federation of the Blind. In 2004 Lou Tutt left the presidency of the
Maryland School for the Blind, and I was surprised to learn that the school
was accredited by NAC. When a new president was appointed to lead the
Maryland School for the Blind (a woman I knew from my time participating in
the Council of Schools for the Blind), I approached her about dropping NAC
accreditation. I thought I might be able to convince her that the students
at the school were not better off because of the NAC accreditation. She
decided that the matter required more study even though the National
Federation of the Blind of Maryland urged her to drop the useless
accreditation. Eventually the Board of Trustees for the Maryland School for
the Blind dropped the accreditation and found a new president to administer
the programs of the Maryland school. Since that time the Federation and the
Maryland School for the Blind have found opportunities to work
collaboratively on a number of projects, including a Braille conference in
October 2017. NAC was not providing Maryland with any value, and
eliminating it saved the school dollars that could be put into programming
and improved its ability to partner with blind consumers. Based on my
experience, I have always believed that NAC would eventually close its
doors when the small number of agencies still paying NAC for the privilege
of doing a self-assessment of their services got tired of receiving no
value for their dollars.
In September a Federation leader forwarded the announcement below from
AER:
From: AERBVI Member Services [mailto:aer at aerbvi.mmsend.com] On Behalf
of AERBVI Member Services
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2017 3:28 PM
Subject: Update to Members
A message from AER's Board President Joe Catavero & Executive Director
Lou Tutt...
A few short weeks ago we wrapped up an extraordinary AER conference. A
conference that served as a valuable educational event for Orientation
& Mobility specialists and other professionals in the field; and one
that reflected our strong commitment to you as members. Over the last
months, we have listened carefully to our members. In addition, we
have studied the last few years-examining our operations, member
services, and the professional environment in which we work. As a
result, the AER Board President appointed a Strategic Planning Team.
An analysis was conducted that pinpointed AER's strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This data served as the framework
that drove a process that spanned several weeks and led to the
creation of an operational plan to move AER towards elevated
excellence by 2020-The AER Strategic Plan 2017-2020.
We adopted a new mission: The mission of AER is to serve and empower
professionals to deliver standards-based practices that lead to
improved educational and rehabilitative outcomes for individuals with
visual impairment and blindness. This mission embodies what we do and
the importance of our work and will serve as a guiding light for the
services and support that we will provide to you. We have a set of new
operational goals that will better position AER to realize our bold
new vision, which is to be a dynamic and thriving professional
membership community with innovative practices and standards that
result in responsiveness, recognized leadership, and improved outcomes
for individuals who are blind and visually impaired. And, we will at
all times hold true in all that we do to our four core values:
COMPASSION
AER deeply and actively cares about the success of its members and
those who are served; and provides resources and support to help them
exceed their own expectations.
DIVERSITY
AER respects the worth and uniqueness of each individual and embodies
a culture where diverse backgrounds, experiences, approaches, and
ideas are revered.
INDEPENDENCE
AER is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of
circumstances will achieve the greatest level of independence and
success.
INTEGRITY
AER adheres to the highest ethical standards and promotes an
environment complete with honesty and transparency.
In addition, we are pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2017,
the accreditation program previously managed by the National
Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services is under the
executive management of AER. This represents an extraordinary
opportunity for AER and the clients who are served by agencies
committed to delivering high-quality services. We are working
steadfastly to ensure that this change will reflect an even stronger
focus on quality and service delivery. Over the next few weeks, we
will complete our assessment and make adjustments as necessary to
strengthen the overall program. There is a new Accreditation Council
that has chief [responsibility] for setting and enforcing the
standards. This body will be tactically examining the current program
and will make strategic modifications that will result in a guarantee
of high merit and excellence in service delivery.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email:
nac at aerbvi.org
Our commitment to you is immediate; and we cannot emphasize strongly
enough your value to the field. Our promise is to listen, build on our
strengths, make improvements, and work to provide the services and
resources that you need. These are extraordinary times at AER; and we
sincerely thank you for the life-changing work that you do and for
being a part of AER.
Sincerely,
Lou Tutt
Executive Director
Joe Catavero
AER Board President
In October 2017, I attended the meeting of the North American
Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union, which was held in conjunction
with the annual meeting of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH).
Lou Tutt was in attendance for some of the meeting and never mentioned
AER's plans for the NAC accreditation program. Since it did not get
mentioned, I wondered if AER had decided to let the accreditation fade
away. However, in other meetings during the APH conference, Mr. Tutt
mentioned AER's great excitement about the NAC accreditation. This raised
concerns among other members of the Federation, who asked me what I knew
about AER's plans and whether or not we were asked to be involved in the
accreditation council that was mentioned in Mr. Tutt's presentations. I
advised these Federation members that we were not invited to participate,
that it had not even been mentioned to us directly as an organization, and
that I would follow-up with AER.
I sent the letter that appears below to the executive leadership of
AER:
October 30, 2017
Joe Catavero, Board President
Lou Tutt, Executive Director
Association for Education and Rehabilitation
of the Blind and Visually Impaired
1703 N. Beauregard Street
Suite 440
Alexandria, VA 22311
jcatavero at nyise.org
lou at aerbvi.org
Dear Mr. Catavero & Mr. Tutt:
I am writing to you regarding the announcement that the
Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and
Visually Impaired (AER) is taking responsibility for the programs
previously offered by the National Accreditation Council for Blind and
Low Vision Services (NAC). I am requesting a meeting with you as soon
as possible to discuss the concerns of the organized blind movement
regarding this unfortunate action. From my previous work with Mr.
Tutt, I know that he is personally aware of the history of the
problems that this accrediting entity has caused in the field. One of
the early announcements from AER regarding this matter (from late
August) states, "This represents an extraordinary opportunity for AER
and the clients who are served by agencies committed to delivering
high-quality services." The fact that the National Federation of the
Blind has not been invited to discuss this matter raises questions
about the commitment to quality for the clients of agencies serving
the blind under AER.
For decades the National Federation of the Blind has raised
concerns about the philosophy, work, and direction of NAC. This is
well documented in the Braille Monitor, and I would be pleased to send
you direct links if you are not yet aware of this information. A great
number of organizations have come to recognize the problems with NAC
and stopped their support. Even the American Foundation for the Blind,
which originally sponsored NAC, pulled its support. In 2002 the
president of AFB said, "This board needs to face the reality that, no
matter how good NAC is or could be, it's not going to be effective,
and I strongly urge its board of directors to dissolve the
organization." That AER has decided to recover this brand and its
practices sends a very disturbing message. More significantly, to
bring the NAC brand of operation into the AER program priorities
without even openly dialoguing with the organized blind movement tells
blind people that their concerns are second class to the
professionals.
I am prepared to meet with you regarding this matter at your
earliest convenience. I expect that this letter is not a surprise to
you. However, I approach the conversation as if this was a genuine
oversight-although a rather significant one. Although I am very
interested in a meeting, I am also aware that our concerns are well
known by the AER leadership. Therefore, I will assume that lack of a
prompt reply suggests that AER has no time or interest in a meeting.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the Blind
I was pleasantly surprised to receive a prompt reply from Mr. Tutt
even if the reply avoided the question of why the Federation had not been
contacted about the accreditation program sooner. Here is the response:
From: Lou Tutt
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2017 5:54 PM
To: President, National Federation of the Blind
<OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org>
Cc: Joe Catavero <jcatavero at nyise.org>; Lou Tutt <lou at aerbvi.org>
Subject: RE: From Mark Riccobono: Meeting Request Regarding
Accreditation
Dear President Riccobono:
On behalf of AER, I would like to thank you for your candid
comments about NAC, and for contacting AER.
It was with great consideration that AER accepted the
opportunity to manage the accreditation program. We accepted with a
commitment to individuals who have vision loss. Our commitment is
holistic, and we are committed to ensuring that services are provided
under the most appropriate conditions and generate the best results
for those who are served. We recognize that there have been concerns
in the past.
However, we fully recognize the value of having a system in
place that evaluates both operations and services. AER wants to hear
from you. We want to speak with you via conference call and will
schedule at a time that is convenient for you. In advance of the call,
please send me your specific concerns. I would like to have a list of
specific problems that you believe exist with the accreditation
program.
Our goal is singular, and that is to operate in solution mode.
We are dedicated to having a high quality accreditation program and
would value your input. We would like to schedule the conference call
this week. Next week, President Catavero and I will be attending an
annual conference away from both our central offices.
Sincerely,
Louis M. Tutt
Executive Director
Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually
Impaired (AER)
It is worth noting that Mr. Tutt's response suggests that AER needed
me to explain to them the "specific problems" with the NAC accreditation
program. This is despite the fact that our history with NAC has been well
documented in the Braille Monitor. This question also presumes that the NAC
accreditation program has operated with transparency-it has been impossible
to find a list of accredited agencies for many years. Even more surprising
is that Mr. Tutt is asking this question. He served as president of the
Maryland School for the Blind for fourteen years (departing in 2004), and
during that time leaders of the Federation explained to him on many
occasions the problems with the NAC accreditation program.
Nevertheless, I responded to Mr. Tutt via email on October 31 as
follows:
Dear Mr. Tutt:
I appreciate your prompt response. I am asking Beth Braun in my
office to work with you on finding a time that we can meet by
telephone as you suggest.
You have asked me for "a list of specific problems that you
believe exist with the accreditation program." This presumes that the
plan of AER is to continue the program as it has run for decades. If
this is the case, laying out concerns is a fairly easy thing to do. It
strikes me that AER cannot really be considering continuing the same
failing process that has existed since the 1960s, but I should not
make assumptions. In other words, we cannot raise concerns until we
know the details of what is being planned. The goal here was to have a
dynamic conversation rather than a static response based on little to
no information. My hope was that we would begin a discussion that is
likely many months overdue.
In the spirit of offering questions, here are a dozen that come
to mind (with a 13th in honor of Halloween):
. What are the plans for the new accreditation?
. Will existing agencies be permitted to roll into the new
accreditation?
. Will the formerly published NAC standards be used, or will new
ones be created?
. If new standards are being developed, what role will the
National Federation of the Blind be invited to play in the
development?
. Will the decision about accreditation be based on self-study or
an on-site review?
. What role will the National Federation of the Blind have as a
consumer advocate in the accreditation process?
. Given the history of NAC, what assurance do we have that this
process will not be used in an attempt to invalidate the expressed
concerns of consumers, and how does AER plan to alleviate the problems
discovered in the past? (We are all for solutions, but ignoring the
history suggests that the concerns of the past have no place in
shaping the future-that is not acceptable.)
. How does this accrediting body plan to fund itself?
. What pressure will it bring to bear on other agencies to become
involved? And will it try to paint agencies negatively if they choose
to be accredited by some other entity such as CARF?
. Will accreditation cover services for adults, services for
children, guide dog schools, medically oriented programs, all of
these, or a subset?
. Will accreditation require membership in AER or is it distinctly
separate?
. Who is leading the accreditation process, and what partners are
currently at the table?
. Will AER be promoting or supporting legislation to make state or
federal funding contingent on its accreditation?
I look forward to our meeting and to learning the answers to
some, if not all, of these questions. Please let me know if the above
is not sufficient to understand the concerns we have about AER's
recent announcement.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the Blind
On November 9, 2017, I had a call with Mr. Tutt and the AER staff
member responsible for managing the accreditation process. Participating in
the call with me were Anil Lewis, executive director for the Federation's
research and training programs, and Everette Bacon, a member of the
Federation's board of directors. For more than an hour, we attempted to get
AER to explain to us what value they found in the NAC accreditation and
what plans they had for the accreditation going forward.
We received no clear answers on why AER made the decision to take over
the accreditation, except that a logic model was used by the AER board to
determine that the NAC accreditation program had value. We were told that
they were well read on the history related to the Federation's concerns
about NAC, yet we were asked on many occasions to articulate our concerns-
which are well documented in the history. We explained that the entire NAC
accreditation program is flawed and should be shut down. I urged that AER
explain what value they find in specifically reviving NAC rather than
simply building something new from the ground up. Although it was suggested
a number of times that AER is starting over, no justification was given for
why they are building on the previous NAC program, and no specifics were
articulated for what role the National Federation of the Blind might play
in the accreditation process. We were told that it was still early in the
process, and they had fully intended to reach out to us. Keep in mind that
we reached out to AER on October 30, a full two months after the August 31
correspondence to the AER membership which stated, "Over the next few
weeks, we will complete our assessment and make adjustments as necessary to
strengthen the overall program." At many points in the conversation, it was
stated that they want to move forward and wish not to dwell on the past. I
explained to them that they chose to embrace the past by making a decision
to carry on the NAC accreditation program and that ignoring the history was
offensive to the blind of America. To his credit, Mr. Tutt began the
meeting by attempting to address some of the thirteen questions I shared
with him in advance. The most important question-why continue a failing
accreditation program-remains unanswered, and certain questions were left
open for the future such as the possibility that AER may seek to
incorporate the requirement of NAC accreditation into state or federal law.
After our meeting I wrote to Mr. Tutt as follows:
Dear Lou:
Thank you for the call today with you and Angela regarding AER's
administration of the NAC accreditation program. I appreciate your
attempt to address the questions we posed in our email of Tuesday,
October 31.
During our call you explained that all existing NAC accredited
agencies will retain their accreditation under AER. You explained that
the NAC standards were being revised and that they will be vetted by a
committee of experts. You further explained that the accreditation
process will be voluntary, will not be tied to membership in AER, and
undue pressure will not be placed on agencies that choose not to seek
accreditation. You left open the possibility for future legislative
action which may or may not tie funding at the state or federal level
to successful NAC accreditation under AER.
We advised you that AER is making a mistake by attempting to
refresh the NAC accreditation program. We explained that the NAC
accreditation is flawed in a number of ways, but especially in its
lack of substantive engagement and direction by leaders of the
National Federation of the Blind. We further emphasized that a better
approach would be to start with a blank slate, building an
accreditation program with clear ties to elected leaders of the blind.
On a number of occasions, we asked what value the AER board found in
NAC beyond what is provided by other accreditation programs. We never
received a clear answer to the question except to learn that AER found
value in the NAC accreditation program. A logic model was referenced,
and it was suggested that an opportunity might emerge for us to learn
more about the model that was used to make this decision.
I have agreed that we would be willing to host a meeting in
January to further discuss accreditation, assuming that AER comes
prepared to explain how the organized blind movement will play a
substantive role in the process and outcomes. We are prepared to
engage in substantive conversations regarding accreditation in the
blindness field, where it is needed, and what the measures of high
performance might include. We are not prepared to talk about ways that
the previous NAC accreditation can be improved. If the goal is to
build something completely new or, in your terms, build the airplane
while it is still on the ground, then we have the potential to make
progress together, especially if you are prepared to detail the
significant ways blind people will have influence in the process. If
the goal is simply to remodel the plane that we have kept grounded for
decades because of its inability to take blind people to new heights,
I do not expect us to find more common ground in our next meeting.
If you are prepared to meet in January based on my summary of
the understandings of the meeting, please follow-up with Beth Braun in
my office. I again wish you the happiest of holiday seasons and a
happy 2018.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the Blind
Mr. Tutt responded saying that AER looks forward to meeting with the
National Federation of the Blind in 2018. It is worth our speculating about
what decisions will have already been made without us. AER began managing
the NAC accreditation on July 1, 2017. They tell us they want us to be
involved, but they made no effort to reach out to the Federation, and even
after the first six months of AER's administration, we will have hardly any
information about their plans.
History may not repeat itself, but we are smart enough to recognize a
familiar rhythm. The NAC accreditation has been harmful to blind people,
has not improved agencies for the blind, and has perpetuated the myth that
there are two classes in the blindness field-the first-class professionals
and the second-class blind. The previous generations of the Federation were
effective at putting this harmful accreditation system in its place. It is
now up to the fourth generation to end it once and for all. Now is the time
for us to put an end to this failed idea. Let AER know that it is not
acceptable to create systems for agencies for the blind without the blind.
Let AER know that the consumers matter and that we urge them to close down
the NAC accreditation program once and for all. Let AER know that the blind
are not opposed to accreditation itself, but we are opposed to repeating
all of the sad songs of the past. Send an email to nac at aerbvi.org to voice
your disappointment with AER. Respectfully let them know that we share the
principle "nothing about us without us" and that it is time for NAC to go.
You should also make your voice heard in social media by sending a Tweet
naming @AERBVI and using the hashtag #GoodbyeNAC. Make your voice heard on
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AERBVI/.
I do not know when another meeting with AER will take place. I do know
that we will continue to seek ways to improve agencies for the blind by
bringing an authentic consumer perspective to the leadership of those
agencies. Today the National Federation of the Blind works in partnership
with many outstanding professionals and agency leaders. We are successful
in raising expectations, and we have worked together to create the most
dynamic programs for the blind ever imagined. We will continue to seek
those partnerships and to raise expectations. The existence of NAC has
never stopped us, and AER's attempt to recover a failing program will not
stop us in the future.
References:
Why Accreditation Failed Agencies
https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm98/bm980603.htm
February 2003 Braille Monitor
https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm03/bm0302/bm0302tc.htm
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Edward Bell]
Accreditation: The Pros and Woes of Credentialing
by Edward Bell
From the Editor: In 1995 Eddie Bell received a scholarship from the
National Federation of the Blind. With his innate intelligence,
persistence, and passion to help blind people, he has given back in ways
that are exemplary. Dr. Bell is the director of the Professional
Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech
University. He has extensive experience in rehabilitation for the blind and
visually impaired and has presented widely throughout the United States and
Europe. He has degrees in rehabilitation education and research,
educational psychology, and human development. In addition, he possesses
certification in educational statistics and research methods,
rehabilitation counseling, and orientation and mobility. What distinguishes
him, however, is the work he does to tie together teacher training,
certification, and the evaluation of programs with the needs of consumers
in search of quality programs leading to lives of success and independence.
Here is what he has to say about training, certification, licensure, and
accreditation and the way all of these should relate to services that lead
to positive outcomes:
In the field of blindness education and rehabilitation, the terms
accreditation, certification, licensure, competency, and evaluation are
used both to describe good and bad practices. While most recognize the
value of having an accredited college or university, a certified teacher,
or a licensed physician, blind people have also found that these terms have
brought with them negative consequences. So what are these concepts, and
are they something to be embraced or fought? The answer is that it depends
on what value these processes serve in helping people who are blind to live
the lives they want, free from custodial practices and discriminatory
policies.
At their core, all of these concepts have largely to do with ensuring
that individuals receive quality training and education and are protected
from negligence and incompetence. These are principles that I believe all
members of the National Federation of the Blind would embrace and hold
true. But where the departure begins is in how concepts like quality,
training, competence, negligence, and incompetence are defined, which at a
deeper level comes down to the values and expectations that one holds for
the services provided.
Accreditation is the process of one agency or organization certifying
that other organizations that are in the business of certifying
professionals are doing that job in an ethical, systematic, and objective
manner. Think of accreditation as the people who certify the certifiers.
The certifiers, on the other hand, are the organizations that provide
assurance that professionals are performing their duties in a competent,
ethical, and professional manner. Many people need to be certified in order
to do their jobs, including teachers, lawyers, doctors, special education
personnel, and rehabilitation teachers-not to mention plumbers,
electricians, contractors, and school bus drivers.
While we are on the subject, the terms "certification" and
"licensure" are used interchangeably but often confuse the layperson in
their meaning. For the purpose of this conversation there is little
difference between these concepts, but for clarity's sake here is the
distinction. Licensure is handled state by state and contains legal
ramifications for violations. Typical professions that are licensed by the
state might include general contractors, licensed professional counselors,
plumbers, electricians, physical therapists, real estate brokers,
nutritionists, teachers, and medical practitioners. Certification, on the
other hand, is governed by professional organizations that define the scope
of practice for professionals, set the minimal criteria for demonstrating
competence, and can revoke that certification if violations to the code of
ethics or practice are violated. Certification does not have the same legal
ramifications as licensure; however, it should be noted that many state
licenses are based on professional certification and/or hold professional
certification as a prerequisite to licensure. In both cases the purpose of
certification or licensure is to set a minimal standard for acceptable
practice, determine the appropriate fee structure, and bar entrance to the
profession for those who do not meet the agreed-upon professional standard-
in other words, to be the gatekeepers over that particular professional
practice.
Certification, then, is the systematic process by which an
organization establishes standards of practice, rigorous evaluation
criteria, and methods of measuring performance in an objective manner. The
certifying body will then set a minimum criterion for competence, and all
applicants must meet at least this minimal standard in order to be deemed
competent in that skill or profession. Today, most certifying organizations
also establish some sort of ongoing professional development, continuing
education, and/or a requirement to renew certification on a periodic basis.
As a process then, certification seeks to establish reasonable standards,
the means to measure whether individuals can live up to those standards,
the roles and responsibilities for those who are deemed eligible under
those criteria, and the mechanisms by which individuals who cannot meet the
standards are barred from practicing in that profession.
As a principle, these certification practices have worked well across
many professions. However, in the blindness field they have not always
worked to serve consumers. Take, for example, the profession of orientation
and mobility. The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind
and Visually Impaired (AER) created the Certified Orientation and Mobility
Specialist (COMS) credential back in the 1960s as a means of certifying
that those interested in teaching cane travel were competent in teaching
the skills to blind people. However, several of the organization's criteria
for certification were based on visual acuity. Arguably, visual acuity is
an objective measure and one that can be evaluated for each applicant.
However, visual acuity is not a valid requirement for teaching mobility
skills at all. One case in point: Dr. Fred Schroeder graduated from the O&M
program at San Francisco State University with high marks but was
subsequently denied certification as a COMS by AER based on his blindness.
While the COMS certification has now been transferred to the ACVREP
[Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education
Professionals] organization, many of the certification principles continue
to be based on visual efficiency and visual reference and are therefore not
viewed by everyone as the most appropriate means of certifying competence
in teaching orientation and mobility.
In 1999 the National Orientation and Mobility Certification (NOMC)
was created specifically to (1) serve as a non-discriminatory certification
avenue for blind and sighted people; and (2) to be based on the Structured
Discovery method of cane travel, which is a nonvisual approach to teaching
which capitalizes on the individual's self-efficacy and self-awareness. The
NOMC certification, being based on Structured Discovery, set as its
criteria for competence the ability to teach individuals nonvisual mobility
skills, increase their confidence, and promote the personal attitudes and
public awareness of expectations surrounding blindness. Those who were not
able to demonstrate these skills were not deemed competent using the NOMC
certification framework.
In 2001 the National Blindness Professional Certification Board
(NBPCB) was incorporated to govern the NOMC credential and its recipients.
In its articles of incorporation the NBPCB purpose was established as: "To
promote services of the highest quality for individuals who are blind or
visually impaired through standards and certification to assure that
professionals who serve such individuals are qualified; To establish,
publish, and administer standards used to determine the qualifications of
such professionals; To implement a process of certification and re-
certification of professionals, based on the published standards; To
continue, revoke, or suspend certification, based on findings relating to
adherence to the standards; and To undertake other projects, programs, and
activities."
The first class of NOMC applicants was officially credentialed in
July of 2001. Most of these have obtained and maintained employment for
more than two decades, lending credibility to the methods and principles
undergirding this certification practice. NOMC men and women maintain that
certification for five years and then have to undergo recertification
either through retesting or continuing education. Through continuing
education, NOMC certificants are put in the position of continuing to work
together, to learn together, to uphold a common standard of excellence, and
to ensure that certificants remain true to their code of ethics.
In 2006, after more than twenty years of work by the National
Federation of the Blind and the National Library Service and other
constituents, a national standard for Braille competence was established,
and a test of teacher proficiency was created. This exam was then pilot
tested and validated by the National Federation of the Blind through
rigorous field testing. However, other certifying organizations were not
sufficiently interested in Braille proficiency to take on this
responsibility. Consequently, in 2007 the NBPCB took on the literary
Braille test and created the National Certification in Literary Braille
(NCLB). As with other certification processes, those seeking NCLB
credential had to apply to the NBPCB and complete a test of their ability
to produce Braille using a Braillewriter and slate, proofread a passage,
and know the rules of Braille. If minimal competence was demonstrated,
those women and men were endorsed with the NCLB credential for a period of
five years, after which time they would again need to retest in order to
maintain their certification.
This practice was in keeping with mainstream certification principles
and was the only means by which any organization could attest to the
Braille proficiency of its certificants. The need for this test in the
first place was due to the fact that no national standard ever existed for
teachers to demonstrate that they in fact knew Braille. Having no national
standard, the all-too-frequent result was that teachers would pass a
Braille test at their university, with some tests being appropriately
rigorous while others would be woefully inadequate. This single exit exam
would then serve as the only assurance that the teacher knew Braille, with
no need to again demonstrate this skill throughout their career. In fact
there have been court cases and due process hearings because students were
not being taught Braille even though they had a certified teacher of the
visually impaired. In these cases, schools could state that their teacher
of the visually impaired knew Braille because he or she passed a Braille
test prior to starting their job, even if that was decades ago and the
teacher did not remember any Braille. Today, as Braille competency tests
are gaining steam, significant push-back has been observed in a number of
states by TVIs who have held their jobs for many years and who know they do
not have enough remaining Braille knowledge to be deemed proficient. Yet,
these TVIs still work with children who are blind, many of whom should be
taught Braille.
Certification, then, is the most promising protection against these
types of injustices, so long as the certification practices are valid and
consistent with the purpose for which they were created: (i.e., Braille
proficiency) and that procedures ensure that professionals maintain some
level of proficiency throughout their years of practice. How many of us
would go to a surgeon who graduated medical school thirty years ago but who
hasn't performed a single surgery in twenty-five years?
In 2012 the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) announced that
Unified English Braille (UEB) would become the standard in the United
States, which meant that every aspect of Braille would change. This change
would involve everyone from the Braille reader to the publisher. While
panic overtook many in the field, the NBPCB took on the task of writing
professional competency standards, and by 2014 the National Certification
in Unified English Braille (NCUEB) had been created. Between January and
July of 2015, more than eighty-five people across eleven unique testing
venues nationwide participated in a pilot test of the NCUEB. Individuals
were eligible for the pilot test if they had participated in a UEB workshop
and had made a commitment to learn the UEB code. Those data were analyzed,
and strong evidence demonstrated that the NCUEB exam was equally as valid
as its NCLB predecessor, that it appropriately identified those who were
proficient in UEB versus those who were not, and thereby set the stage for
the standard that should be followed for teachers and others who wish to
demonstrate their proficiency in the UEB code. The full validation report
was published in the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, and
those wishing to obtain more information about the procedures that were
followed should refer to that publication. The valid NCUEB exam, coupled
with the five-year recertification period, made the NCUEB the first valid
proficiency test of the new Braille code, and it was in place and ready for
operation in advance of the January 2016 date set by BANA as the official
UEB adoption date.
Meanwhile, other organizations have worked to catch up in testing
competence in UEB. Instead of working with the organized blind, some
professionals in the field of education of the blind sought out Educational
Testing Services (ETS) in order to create a Braille proficiency test for
teachers. Since ETS is a long-established testing company and since ETS
provides the PRAXIS and GRE exams (which are required by most university
programs), it was somewhat logical to seek them out for this task. However,
by the admission of officials at ETS, they do not know much about Braille
itself, have no vested interest in Braille, don't know the distinction
between EBAE [English Braille American Edition] and UEB, and do not have
qualified people on staff who are proficient in Braille.
As a consequence, the resulting Braille proficiency test that was
created by outside consultants looks rigorous and comprehensive on the
surface, but it is not all that it promises. Two fundamental problems exist
with the ETS Braille test. First, while ETS maintains responsibility for
the grading of the Braille exams, they leave it to each state to establish
the minimal passing score for teachers. So, regardless of how rigorous the
exam itself is, a state department of education can determine that getting
60 percent of the answers correct is sufficient to declare a teacher
competent, while another state could set the standard higher or lower. Why
would any state set such a low standard? They might because there is a
significant teacher shortage in this country, the vast majority of
personnel preparation programs are not holding students to high levels of
Braille proficiency, and failing a high-stakes test would make the teacher
ineligible for employment. And, to prevent lawsuits and unhappy parents,
most state departments of education would rather dumb down the minimal
competency standard for Braille proficiency than to tell parents they don't
have a teacher to serve their children. So the vicious circle continues,
with no single organization holding individuals accountable for being
competent in the skill that they are hired to teach and no consistent
metric for what constitutes reasonable competence. That is, except for the
NCUEB, which to date is the only nationally representative measure of
Braille proficiency that has been developed to serve this purpose.
Perhaps of greater concern is ETS's track record of providing
accommodations to blind people. Any blind college student who has had to
take the PRAXIS, GRE, or other ETS test and who has had to obtain
accommodations can attest to the nightmare of qualifying for and obtaining
reasonable accommodations through ETS. While it is true that most teachers
of the blind are sighted, an increasing number of professionals entering
the field are blind. Now, some of you may be thinking, "But why would a
blind person who is a Braille reader need accommodations on a test of
Braille proficiency?" And, this is perhaps the best question that you could
ask and one that should be asked of the officials at ETS. Yes, it should
sound ludicrous to you that a blind person would need to seek
accommodations such as a sighted reader in order to take a test of his or
her Braille proficiency. But that is exactly what you must do if you are a
blind person and wish to take the ETS Braille proficiency test. If you are
a blind person, you cannot take the ETS Braille competency test without a
sighted reader as an accommodation. In keeping with ETS tradition, a
sighted applicant can walk in off the street and take their Braille exam,
receive a passing grade by some state department of education employee who
likely doesn't know Braille, and maintain this endorsement for the rest of
her/his career, even if he/she never touches Braille again. On the other
hand, a blind person who may have been a proficient Braille reader from
childhood must undergo rounds of red tape in order to get the accommodation
of a sighted person in order to take a Braille test.
And this is the credentialing world in which we live. So, whose
responsibility is it to ensure that testing companies and certification
organizations are creating standards and tests that are valid and
appropriate for the consumers it serves? This is where accreditation comes
into play. Accreditation ensures that a certifying organization's practices
are acceptable, meaning that they are competent to test and certify third
parties, behave ethically, and employ suitable quality assurance. In
practice, however, this all-too-frequently means that the organization in
question is following the basic principles of establishing some standard,
creating an evaluation around that standard, and ensuring that individuals
can meet the standard. However, accreditation does not account for what is
actually being certified or whether that certification has meaningful
outcomes for the consumers who are affected. ETS, for example, could be
said to be following all recommended standards for certification and would
thereby be eligible for accreditation. But any third grader understands
that a blind person should be able to take a Braille test without having a
sighted person to serve as the reader.
When will those who wield authority in agencies and organizations
that serve the blind finally determine that involving the consumer
perspective is a key factor in any certification practice that will
ultimately affect blind consumers? Not soon enough. Readers of the Braille
Monitor know well the controversial history of the National Accreditation
Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). Many pages of the Braille
Monitor have been dedicated to protesting the reckless practices of NAC and
the detrimental impact that NAC-accredited agencies have had on people who
are blind, yet the input of the blind is still not a priority for these
organizations. The proof is in the pudding. And, when consumers find that
the pudding leaves a bad taste in their mouth, they will quickly discard
that pudding in favor of something more satisfying.
The National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB) was
incorporated in 2001 to govern the NOMC certification. In 2007 the NCLB
Braille certification test was created and was successfully implemented
until it was replaced by the NCUEB test of Unified English Braille in 2015.
In 2015 the National Certification in Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind
(NCRTB) was created to certify rehabilitation teachers for the blind.
In 2009 the NBPCB created the agency certification process for
training centers operating under the Structured Discovery approach. Using
this process, a training center can be evaluated in six areas, and, if
deemed competent, that center can be certified as a Structured Discovery
center for immersion and training. While this process is not accreditation
in the strictest sense of the word, it does operate under established
criteria for demonstrating a minimal level of competence, using objective
measures for evaluation, setting a criterion for acceptable practice, and
providing strengths and weaknesses in a written report. Such agencies must
undergo this evaluation every three years in order to maintain this
designation and are provided reports of continuous improvement. Evaluations
are conducted on-site by members of the NBPCB, who assess all areas of the
curriculum, including the administration, instructional staff, student
body, core curriculum, facilities, and involvement with consumer
organizations. Currently, the centers who are recognized by NBPCB as
meeting Structured Discovery standards include BLIND Inc, Colorado Center
for the Blind, Louisiana Center for the Blind, Hawaii's Ho`opono New
Visions Program, Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired,
and the New Mexico Commission for the Blind.
The NBPCB has continued to work to meet the needs of the constituents
who are the ultimate beneficiaries of its service-people who are blind. The
NBPCB was recognized by the National Federation of the Blind in 2014 with a
Dr. Jacob Bolotin award for excellence. This honor was bestowed on the
NBPCB for its focus on high-quality training and certification-training and
certification that is based on rigorous evaluation criteria and one which
shares the values of its consumers.
How can an organization whose job it is to accredit the certification
programs for professionals who serve the blind do this job effectively
without consistent and comprehensive work with the organized consumer
organizations? The answer is they cannot. For this reason, the NBPCB
proudly has members of a consumer organization on its board of directors,
NBPCB leadership attend the annual convention of the NFB, and its
leadership has consistent and ongoing communication related to
certification standards.
But there is also a cautionary tale here. As we know from history,
members of the AER and AFB were also closely aligned with the members of
NAC, served on each other's boards, and worked behind closed doors to agree
on common practices-all of which had detrimental consequences for blind
people. The NBPCB, however, guards against this threat by working not only
with the consumers it serves, but also by conducting evaluations of its
certificants and by obtaining professional feedback from the employers of
those individuals. It is a fact that the current demand for NBPCB-certified
professionals continues to outstrip the available supply. This does not
happen unless an organization has rigorous standards, valid measures for
assessing applicant competence, procedures for continuing to strengthen its
training, consistent and productive communication with its consumers, and a
world view that is based on a simple principle-to create highly qualified
professionals whose mission is to help blind people live the lives they
want.
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Of Little Faith: A Troubling Trend with Blindness Professionals
by Lisa Ferris
From the Editor: Lisa Ferris was first introduced to the NFB when she
was a student at the Nebraska Commission for the Blind Training Center. The
philosophy she learned there has informed her life ever since. She went on
to get a Master's in Education, with a concentration in multiple
disabilities and deafblindness. She is deafblind herself and works
alongside her husband at Miles Access Skills Training, their assistive
technology consulting and training business. She is a member of the
Portland Central Chapter of the Oregon affiliate of the NFB as well as the
Oregon Parents Division. Here is her story about traveling through an
education system that often offered messages that made her bite her tongue
to get through. It is also a story of taking the best that the system had
to offer, enhancing and correcting its message when it wasn't consistent
with her life and her experience with other blind people, and creating a
business that provides the kind of service that enriches the lives of blind
people and helps them raise the bar for us all:
Attending college courses in my special education major as a
deafblind person was a bit of a trip. I was always the only one who was
disabled in my classes. I would sit there and listen to third-person
descriptions of people like me, deafblind or otherwise disabled people, as
my face turned flush and the hairs on my neck stood on end. I could feel
people averting their gaze. The class grew silent and uncomfortable if I
disagreed too vocally. At the same time, I had to fight for a semblance of
professional belonging. I had to carefully balance my strong urge to speak
up on behalf of my disabled peers while trying to maintain a professional
distance in order to fit in and not be "the gimp with a chip on her
shoulder."
So I listened as I was told that blind and deaf people could only
hope to be as literate as a third-grade reader and that it was certain that
we would face isolation, depression, anxiety, and a low quality of life.
Most of us-or "them" in the vernacular of my classes, "those people"-would
live a life below poverty level, be un- or underemployed, and only be able
to live independently with lifelong services and supports from
professionals. It was very bleak for "them," but how wonderful it was that
there were saviors like us! We were the special people who were going to
come in and intervene and improve the lives of this poor lot. They were to
be pitied, and we were to save them.
Once I sat through a guest lecture from one of these saviors. She was
a teacher of the vision impaired (TVI) who was hailed as a wonderful,
special person who was helping the blind in her district so much. At the
time I was a volunteer in a mainstream organization that focused on adult
literacy. I was asked by the organization to work with one of her former
students. He was eighteen years old, couldn't read, spell, dish up a plate,
or tie his shoes. He was not cognitively disabled; he was very intelligent
and well-read, using talking books. I taught him how to read and write
Braille in six months and how to tie his shoes in fifteen minutes. No one
had ever taught him before, he said. This was when I learned to be
cautiously critical of every single thing I learned in college.
The content of the courses that earned me a bachelor's and master's
degree in special education were not totally without merit. I did learn
some things. I learned about statistics, standard deviations, and
assessment basal and ceiling scores. I learned about laws such as the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and how to comply with its
required tedious IEPs. I learned some useful skills like how to break down
a task into its smallest components and how to make a multimodal
communication system for nonsymbolic or nonverbal communicators. I learned
about methods of functional assessment and positive behavior supports for
students with violent and difficult behaviors. Some of this has been
worthwhile and useful over the years.
What I didn't learn, at least from my college courses, was anything
useful about actual kids and adults with disabilities. All the descriptions
of third-grade reading levels and poverty rates and the prevalence of
depression may have been statistically true, but the implication was that
this was just inherent to the disability itself. The pathology of
disability was that it was bad, a deficit that could be mitigated somewhat
but never completely overcome. There was only so much anyone could do to
really help a blind person. Those few really successful disabled people we
knew about were the outliers-supercrips who had, through sheer grit and
incredible talent, achieved amazing things such as having a career, a
family, an independent lifestyle. Basically, what is considered average for
everyone else was considered outstanding for the disabled.
A Disturbing Trend
Even now, in my career as a skills trainer/consultant for people with
vision loss, I see this attitude. The talk has gotten more upbeat and less
bleak. Now when I go speak at conferences for TVI teachers, I hear words
like independence, exemplary outcomes, and high expectations. It all sounds
wonderful. How things have changed! But then, during the lunch breaks and
hall discussions, I hear it. You do not have to scratch too far below the
surface to find that these high expectations have a definite limit in the
minds of many TVIs. "Oh, you know never to go out in the dark without a
person to help you!" I hear a teacher telling a college student who has
night blindness. "We can't teach these blind people anything! They won't
learn," says a tech teacher to another group of teachers as they nod their
heads in frustration. "I had to do my two hours of CEUs [continuing
education units] under blindfold," says an orientation and mobility
instructor. "I hated every minute of it and was scared to death to cross a
busy street. Thank goodness I only have to know how to teach it and not do
it," she continues to the nods and empathetic laughter of her colleagues.
It is hard for me to sit and silently observe that we have changed the
public talk but not the deeply-held feelings about the people we teachers
and rehabilitators are educated and paid to serve.
My partner and I teach adults with vision loss and sometimes other
disabilities to use assistive technology. Many of our clients are older,
private-pay clients who do not qualify for state services because they are
retired. Newly blinded, they wish to stay independent and maintain their
homes and relationships. Some of them are not tech savvy, but they tend to
learn quickly. We also have contracts with many different organizations to
teach working-age blind people the assistive technology that will help them
become employable again. Some of these clients are newly blind due to
accident or disease. Others have grown up with vision impairment and came
out of the special education system.
We started to notice a pattern: the ones who came out of the school
system and grew up blind were more likely to lack a fundamental level of
proactivity and-I'll call it "wherewithal" with their skill building. Now,
some will say learning is easier for those who used to be able to see-and
there is truth to that. Having some visual references, even if fuzzy and
long ago, does help when communicating learning material in a visual world.
It can take more effort, more descriptive language, more tactile
interventions, and other strategies to teach a visual concept to someone
with no visual experience. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I'm
talking about a lack of initiative, a dependence on task-analyzed lists and
steps, and the teacher to turn to at every instance of frustration. Of
course, this is a generalized observation, a trend. There are people who
have been blind since birth who don't display these traits.
At first I thought this was a mistake in teaching method-an
overemphasis on task analysis and an under-emphasis on problem-solving.
Task analysis is the method of breaking down a task into very specific
subtasks and providing step-by-step instructions to each one in a routine.
This can be a very effective method to teach some students with
developmental disabilities who need really concrete and consistent
instruction. It can also help in the initial learning of brand new,
unfamiliar material to get started up the learning curve. Learning how to
create task-analyzed learning programs is big in special education. Maybe,
I thought, the use of task analysis has been overgeneralized to the extreme
with students who have vision impairments.
But then, when I started working with and watching TVIs more closely,
I started to realize that they weren't overusing task analysis as a
learning strategy. Instead, they were task-analyzing skill sets because
they themselves knew the skill only on a very basic, step-by-step, look-at-
the-user-manual level. Most TVIs and orientation and mobility instructors
seem to have only a cursory or very basic knowledge of the skills they are
teaching. Because they are only at a sort of beginner's step-by-step level
with blindness skills, that is how they teach them. There is no teaching to
full expert mastery at a problem-solving, synergistic level because they
never got there themselves. Now again, this is a trend I see. I also know
both blind and sighted TVIs who are highly skilled at what they teach and
have achieved mastery and automaticity with blindness skills.
Blindness Skills: The Building Blocks to Success
Blindness skills-or alternative techniques of blindness-are nonvisual
methods to accomplish the same things others commonly do with vision. With
a few exceptions, there is a way for the average blind or low-vision person
to accomplish pretty much everything a sighted person can. These skills
range from Braille to using screen readers on computers, cooking and
sewing, home maintenance, traveling and transportation, managing health,
and advocating for accommodations and fair treatment for oneself. All are
good, solid, dependable skills that do take practice to learn. And most are
completely mistrusted and misunderstood by the general public and by many
blindness professionals.
When you are blind, not a day goes by when you don't get told that
what you do is amazing, and no one knows how you do it. There is no way
they could ever do what you do. The flip side is that not a day goes by
when you've done something normal, like gone to the store, cooked dinner,
gotten dressed, whatever, and you get told that you couldn't have done that
by yourself. Where is your sighted helpmate who helped you? You need a
sighted person. The skills of blindness are not truly trusted or believed
in by most sighted people. Many sighted people have only had just seconds
or minutes of experience under nonvisual conditions and have had no
instruction in blindness skills. TVIs and O&M instructors often have had
only a few hours or days. It's not surprising that the skills are not well
understood. But it is difficult that, unlike other unique skills, people
often refuse to take your word for your competence in them and how
effective they are.
Think of a skill that is a little unusual to have. Maybe being able
to figure skate well enough to do some jumps and spins, or playing a harp
or piano, or running a marathon. Most people realize that these skills take
years of practice, but if you put in the time, they are not impossible.
Sure, only an elite few will get to the Olympics in figure skating, but at
any local public rink you will find figure skaters who can skate
impressively and do jumps and spins. The same goes for playing the harp or
running a marathon. These skills take time, dedication, good instruction,
and commitment. But if you put the time in and have a good coach, it is not
surprising that you will become very good at them.
The same is true for blindness skills. People with good blindness
skills have put in lots of time and practice and have often had very good
coaches and mentors in other blind individuals. It's a skill set that not a
lot of people have, but anyone can acquire blindness skills with practice,
practice, practice. Traveling around town without sight is not especially
amazing and superhuman. It is not foolhardy and scary, either. It's just a
skill you learn with some work and dedication. Give yourself six to twelve
months without sight, and with lots of good practice and instruction, you
are going to be a decent traveler. Keep working on it a few more years, and
you will be an expert. It will become so second nature that you will not
think about it.
Those Who Can't, Can't Teach Well
Good mentorship and coaching always helps. And herein lies the
problem. TVIs and O&M instructors get so little practice under blindfold in
blindness skills that they never truly believe in the skills as a real,
viable alternative to sight. They often see the techniques as a poor
substitute that only provides barely adequate functioning for a blind
person. They don't really believe in what they teach. It would be like
learning figure skating from a coach who still has to hold on to the sides
of the rink, or a piano instructor that only knows how to play
"Chopsticks," or a running coach who's maybe jogged a couple of times but
has never run a 5K, much less a marathon. Part of teaching is imparting the
skills, and the other part is helping someone believe they can do it. This
is very hard to do if you've never learned the skills beyond the basics
yourself.
Here is an example: Braille is probably one of the best skills for
literacy, employability, and learning that is available for blind people.
There are two basic parts to learning Braille-there is memorizing the code,
and there is building up tactile awareness and speed. And for prereaders,
there is also learning phonetics and reading comprehension to go along with
that. In many TVI programs, teachers learn to read visual Braille. This is
a print version of Braille that completely ignores the part in which you
have to feel the code, keep track of where you are, develop a flow,
understand Braille syntax, etc. Maybe they have a class where they try
their hand at tactile Braille, maybe they read a chapter about how to teach
it, but they never master this skill. (To their credit, some TVIs have gone
on to master Braille on their own, but most cannot read Braille much past
visually looking at the code.) It is very discouraging to be a student and
to be the only one you know who reads Braille, including your teacher! It
would be a powerful mentorship moment to be able to ask your Braille
teacher to read Braille and have her just sail away on it. But when asked,
most TVIs cannot read Braille with their fingers with any speed. This
matters.
Independent travel, too, is one of the most powerful equalizers for
blind people to work and be included in their communities. But many
orientation and mobility instructors have limited experience traveling on
their own. The most dangerous thing I have noticed that travel instructors
sometimes do (unintentionally, I'm sure) is to instill such a level of
anxiety in their students about travel that the students literally develop
what appears to be not unlike an anxiety disorder or phobia in regard to
travel. Blind kids don't usually start this way. They learn it from
everyone constantly telling them how unsafe it is for them to go anywhere
without lots of tedious instruction. If you don't know-really know-that
these travel skills can and are trustworthy and effective, you cannot
instill that confidence in your students. Travel skills are almost entirely
in your head. Both as a problem-solving exercise (Which direction am I
going? What are the clues around me to give me information about my
surroundings? Where do I need to go next?) and, more importantly, having
confidence in the ability to travel safely without sight. No one will ever
say that traveling without sight is as easy as having sight. It takes more
thought, attention, and ability. But it is not unsafe or unreliable. Many
O&M instructors task analyze travel so much that blind students get afraid
to go anywhere that hasn't been approved and routed out with explicit
directions and deemed safe by their sighted instructor. This makes for a
very limiting existence.
Assistive technology is another area where I see this. A low vision
specialist told my partner a "funny story" about how she was teaching a
student about using Blind Square, an app that assists with mobility and
mapping using GPS. When with a student, she got lost in a downtown area.
What a great opportunity to model problem solving to get re-oriented! But
instead, she panicked and called her husband (this was after hours during a
night walk lesson). And her husband was able to find her using his phone's
tracking technology and came and rescued them. My partner said to her, "You
know if you just shake your phone, Blind Square will tell you where you
are, right?" No, she had no idea. She did not know the app well enough. Not
only does this show a lack of tech knowledge, but it also demonstrates a
lack of faith in the ability to use real, solid skills (both high and low
tech) to get yourself out of a fix. This is one of the most important
skills a blind person needs for independent travel.
And this is also where I see a dependence on task-analyzed steps
instead of thinking through problems and using a variety of different
skills to solve them. Many adaptive tech instructors we see have only a
basic understanding of the tech they teach and thus can only teach using
very scripted steps in a sequence. It's okay to start here, but to really
get comfortable and competent with tech, you need a teacher who is really
comfortable and competent with tech and believes in it instead of seeing it
as a frustrating substitute to sighted methods. Tech is ever changing and
quirky. And there are always five ways to do things. Knowing these five
ways gets you out of messes. If you only know how to use a limited set of
scripted steps, tech is going to be so frustrating that it's almost
useless.
Those Who Can Have Faith and Believe Their Students Can Too
Because TVIs and O&M instructors only get a limited amount of
instruction in blindness skills, they tend to deprioritize them. They often
overly rely on vision maximization strategies (magnification, lighting,
etc.) because they are easier to teach and they are more comfortable with
them. Although sometimes vision enhancement strategies are appropriate to
have in the tool belt, many students miss out on blindness skills and are
never able to achieve their full potential with magnification alone.
Overall, without real ability in blindness techniques, it is almost
impossible to believe in the skills and model and teach them effectively to
students. This translates into generalized low expectations and poor
outcomes for many students. It reinforces the idea that the poor quality of
life issues mentioned in my special ed classes are inherent to blindness,
not inherent to poor educational opportunities and attitudes. It offers a
nice excuse for not doing better.
The TVI and O&M professions would be richly enhanced by including
more competent blind instructors in their ranks. Historically, blind
professionals have been excluded from the profession. Just a couple of
decades ago, official policies of professional and licensing organizations
excluded professionals with vision impairments. It was a powerful statement
on the outlook and expectations of the profession responsible for the
education of our blind youth that they did not believe any blind person was
competent enough to teach blind people. Though laws and lawsuits made
explicit policies illegal, it is still extremely difficult for blind people
in some blindness professional programs today. I recently heard of a
program that could not accommodate a blind student in its Braille class
because all of its Braille instructional materials were in printed Braille,
and they did not know how to translate all of those graphic representations
of Braille to Braille dots. I'm not making that up. In another instance,
blind students complained to a university office for students with
disabilities about poor blindness accommodations in TVI programs with
testing and written material. The office, as well as the state agency for
the blind, offered to assist the TVI program to step up their accessibility
level, but their energy and expertise were declined, and the students
continued to struggle through the program-a program that was to teach them
how to accommodate blind students but couldn't accommodate them. If they
saw the irony, they did not admit to it. There has been a level of tension
through the years between blind and sighted professionals in the field to
the point where a conspiracy theorist might wonder if these programs
weren't intentionally making it difficult for blind professionals to get
through the program.
But I don't discount that sighted teachers can have the ability to
become highly competent teachers of the blind with high expectations and
outcomes for their students and strong faith in the skills they teach. I
have met many such TVIs and O&M instructors over the years. These
instructors have often taken it upon themselves to go the extra mile to
really learn and understand blindness skills. They spent hours under
blindfold learning skills on their own, often with the help of the blind
community. They brush up on their blindness skills on a regular basis and
keep up with technology trends. They spend time with blind leaders and
professionals, go to self-advocate conferences, and come to understand the
issues in the community. These teachers have gotten past the learning curve
and have knowledge and faith in the skills and students they teach.
A large part of the resistance to learning blindness skills under
blindfold for an adequate period of time seems to be, at its base, that
doing so is hard and scary. Well, sure, at first. But if a professional
can't get past this, maybe it's time for them to ask themselves whether it
will be fair and effective for them to expect their students to or whether
their fear and trepidation might rub off on their students in a negative
way. Maybe another profession might be a better fit for their skills. There
is no substitute for really knowing and experiencing what you teach.
University programs and also employers could help to facilitate this
by providing opportunities for long-term blindness skills training at
immersion centers or by creating their own semester or year-long full-day
immersion experience. Employers could support sabbaticals to these centers
and provide funding or at least time off and CEU credits for self-advocate
conferences and opportunities. There is no real reason why sighted
instructors should be teaching chopsticks to a pianist who dreams of
playing Rachmaninov. It is not too much to expect that teachers know how to
play Rachmaninov as well. With work, mentorship, and time, anyone-blind or
sighted-can become highly competent at navigating the world without sight.
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Merilynn and Jerry Whittle]
To Teach Is to Touch a Life Forever:
Jerry Whittle: Cherished Teacher, Mentor, Author, Advocate, and Leader
From the Editor: Unlike most articles that appear in the Braille
Monitor, this one does not begin with a byline. The person who helped put
it together chose to express her love for Jerry Whittle by organizing the
heartfelt tributes that follow, and Rosie Carranza should know that we see
her handiwork in this article and the love it represents. One other person
has worked to coordinate this collection of the tributes that spring from
love, and you will not be surprised to learn that this silent contributor
is none other than Pam Allen. I am taking the liberty of including the
remarks she sent in forwarding this article in the tributes that follow
this introduction.
What is abundantly clear is that many of Jerry's starfish have
returned to the sea. They have not taken their new lease on life for
granted; they have taken the time to say thank you. They have recognized
the blessings received and have made a conscious choice to pass on and add
to those blessings with their own commitment of energy, love, dedication,
and passion.
Jerry and I shared one thing in common; we both enjoy reading and
writing. Debbie and I had the joy of vacationing once with Merilynn and
Jerry, and both of us spent a lot of time on benches while our wives
searched the stores of North Carolina looking for treasures that begged for
a new home. I hope you enjoy reading this tribute to Jerry Whittle as much
as I have enjoyed editing it. Thank God for this man, and thank God for the
people who cared enough to stop and say thank you.
[PHOTO CAPTION: Jerry Whittle and others stand in the courtyard of the
Louisiana Center for the Blind next to the Freedom Bell.]
Joanne Wilson
In 1985 the Louisiana state legislature gave funding to the NFB of
Louisiana to establish the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Inspired by my
own life-changing rehabilitation experience, I wanted to replicate the
ground-breaking training model that Dr. Jernigan used to teach me and
countless other blind people in Iowa. My search for Center staff led me to
Jerry and Merilynn Whittle, whom I heard about through the "blind
grapevine." I called them up, explaining that we were only awarded one year
of funding and that we had no building, no equipment, and no students.
Essentially our empowering NFB philosophy and our nonvisual training
methods were the two forces pushing our dream forward.
Jerry and Merilynn did not hesitate; they immediately agreed to
become part of our pioneering team of instructors. Jerry came first, and
when her job concluded, Merilynn arrived in Louisiana. They brought with
them an unwavering belief in blind people, a deep loyalty to the
Federation, a joyous energy, and a willingness to sacrifice and give to
others. They were dependable and so hardworking; they worked day and night
to launch the Center.
Soon we had our inaugural group of students. Our first training
center operated out of a four-room house. Mismatched donated furniture and
lively chatter filled the space. The Braille classroom that Jerry and his
students occupied had a large table that was made by attaching legs to an
old door.
Even in the early years of his teaching career, Jerry recognized that
his job as Braille instructor was just the beginning. He fulfilled the
roles of counselor and mentor. He spoke with students about their futures,
what jobs they could do, and what they could become as blind people.
With great enjoyment, Jerry also dispensed love advice to those
seeking a partner. For instance, he warned, "You should never marry someone
unless you have traveled with them on a trip. You learn a lot on these
trips that might influence your decision." More broadly, he told students
"If you want to succeed in life, you must look at your fatal flaws and
change them. We all have them." Jerry had such a tremendous sense of humor.
When crossing a street, you could hear Jerry shouting, "Oh, feet, don't
fail me now!" And, oh my, did Jerry get after students if they were
slacking or not fulfilling their potential. These are just some of the
phrases and techniques that I witnessed Jerry using as tools to create
bridges to the lives of his students.
The most significant thing that Jerry gave us was the "minor
ingredients," the invaluable elements that made our dream of creating a fun
and productive training center come true. Jerry developed many traditions
and pursued projects that engaged the varied interests of Center students.
He started a garden, devised creative fundraising activities, and organized
many trips to festivals, movies, concerts, flea markets, and sporting
events. He formed a blind football team and wrote many plays. He started a
Toastmasters group to provide students the opportunity to enhance their
public speaking skills. He planted trees with the students to beautify the
city and to memorialize students or staff who had passed away. Jerry also
awarded "Whittle sticks" to recognize the Braille achievements of his
students. He carefully selected tree branches that he lovingly made into
beautiful walking sticks that his students eagerly worked to earn.
Jerry started our freedom bell tradition. He began ringing the bell
whenever a student conquered a challenge or met an important milestone-
crossing a busy street, reading at a certain speed in Braille, getting
married, or becoming employed. He would say, "When the bell sounds, all
blind people have gained new ground."
Yes, Jerry, you have and will continue to help the blind gain new
ground. Your life is a real tribute to our dream.
Suzanne Mitchell
Jerry Whittle's life was changed when he found the National
Federation of the Blind, and the lives of thousands of blind people were
changed as well. I first met Jerry while organizing a chapter of the NFB of
South Carolina near Jerry's hometown of Central located in the northwest
corner of the state. Jerry served in numerous leadership roles both
nationally and in the NFB of South Carolina and was integral in the
development of programs at the Federation Center of the Blind (the NFB of
South Carolina headquarters) and Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center
of the Blind. His penultimate (Jerry's favorite word) achievement, however,
was his over thirty years of service as the Braille instructor at the
Louisiana Center for the Blind.
As a young man, Jerry played his beloved sport of baseball. He
discovered his blindness while playing one night in a lighted stadium and
finding that he could not see the ball as it sailed to him at second base.
This was a whole new world to Jerry and one in which he struggled to adapt.
Early on, he found little encouragement about his future from his
vocational rehabilitation counselor who, as Jerry once told me, suggested
that he go into a workshop or janitorial work. But Jerry knew intuitively
that he could do more with his life. He responded to a public service
announcement by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and thus began the journey to
realizing his dreams for a literary career. He graduated from Clemson
University, and his academic success led to graduate school at the
University of Tennessee where he earned a masters in creative writing.
Jerry and I shared so many memorable times as friends and colleagues.
I remember most vividly our NFB work and the adventures around our
pioneering establishment of the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston
under the leadership of Joanne Wilson. Always at his side, Merilynn shared
in all of our triumphs as we celebrated the accomplishments of our students
and the growth of the Center. From the acorn grew the strong oak of Jerry
Whittle.
He brought the gift of Braille literacy to thousands of blind people,
sprinkling his lessons with philosophy and high expectations. Throughout
his tenure as a teacher and beyond, Jerry continued to pursue his love of
writing, producing plays to inspire and engage blind actors and publishing
a number of fictional and autobiographical works. Jerry was Godfather to my
oldest son, Nicholas, and we are blessed to have many of his original
manuscripts of his plays. How grateful we all are that Jerry did not
succumb to the low expectations of the early guidance about his career
choices. How fortuitous that he found the NFB, and how truly fortunate that
the world and thousands of blind people found him. By knowing Jerry and
loving him, our lives have been enriched beyond measure, and he will always
reside in our hearts and minds.
Roland Allen (LCB alumnus, 1987)
It is so hard to describe adequately the impact Jerry Whittle had on
me. When I enrolled at the Louisiana Center for the Blind shortly after my
high school graduation, I did not consider myself to be blind, and I was
not sure what to think about the idea of blind instructors. Jerry had a
unique way of meeting people where they were and helping them to discover
themselves, conquer their fears, and build self-confidence-to realize that
it was respectable to be blind. Regardless of a person's life experiences,
he would find a way to connect. I knew early on in my training how
important the National Federation of the Blind was to him, how it had
changed his life in ways he shared with us. Though we certainly worked on
Braille, and I learned to read and write with confidence, we also tackled
other philosophical topics in Braille and outside of class. Jerry and
Merilynn were always ready for an adventure and encouraged all of us to
join in, even if it was something we might never have experienced before.
They showed us how to seek and find beauty in the small miracles of life
and how to live each day to the fullest. Jerry was always honest and
genuine. He listened and gave advice and was not afraid to challenge me and
my fellow students to push the boundaries imposed by society and the low
expectations about blindness we faced.
Like Jerry, I have retinitis pigmentosa, and I was reluctant to
travel in unfamiliar places, especially at night or in dimly lit venues
like movie theaters. Jerry and I had discussed this at length, and he knew
that I would always go to the movies with a friend or sibling. He invited
me and some other students to the movies one evening. Before the movie
began, he showed me how to use my cane to navigate around the theater and
find my seat. Because of his encouragement and belief in me, I applied what
he taught and independently found my own seat. I can remember the pride I
felt as I turned to yell to him from several rows ahead "I did it!" Jerry
knew that accomplishing this "little thing" in life would be one of the
many building blocks that allowed me to grow and achieve those "big
milestones" later in life. I had no idea then that I would ultimately
become a cane travel instructor helping people overcome their fears and
replace self-doubt with hope as he did for me. Jerry was, and still is, an
amazing role model for me in the ways he gave above and beyond the call of
duty. He always took time to listen, to give without counting the costs, to
share his love of the Federation, and to find ways to cultivate talents in
others. Later, when I began to work at the Center, I continued to learn
from him as a colleague and peer. He kept dispensing advice and wisdom and
even gave a toast at my wedding.
Most importantly, Jerry was my beloved friend! I knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt that I could count on him. And I know today that he knows he can
count on me to continue to challenge myself and push myself and my students
beyond what we thought was possible, to share the lessons he taught me and
so many, and to continue his legacy through my work at LCB and in the
National Federation of the Blind. Every time Pam and I see a movie, one of
our favorite pastimes, we will smile and think of him. I will forever be
indebted.
[PHOTO CAPTION: The Hartle family]
Jesse Hartle (LCB alumnus, 1997)
While attending my church service tonight, my priest said that we
know God loves his children because he always provides for them. If that is
true, then I can only assume that it is also true that Jerry Whittle loved
his students, because he always gave to them. When we had concerns, he gave
us his counsel. If we were having a rough day, he gave us his humor. When
we thought we would never improve our reading or writing skills, he gave us
encouragement. When we accomplished a goal, he gave us a pat on the back
for a job well done. If we were slacking off, he gave us a swift kick in
the pants. He gave us knowledge through Braille. He gave us Austen, Brontk,
Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Faulkner, Tolstoy, Steinbeck, and many more. Jerry
Whittle was never just an eight-to-five instructor. He gave us his time.
Students were always welcome to join the Whittles for a Friday night
trip to the movies, a Louisiana Tech football game, a night at the theater,
an afternoon at the flea markets, or a myriad of activities outside of
normal class time at the LCB. He gave us challenges that would make us
better the next day than we were before, whether that meant stepping out on
stage or stepping on to the football field. He gave us a view of his faith,
and he certainly showed us his love for Ms. Merilynn. Every single day,
Jerry Whittle gave us his all so that we might succeed.
When I was twelve years old, I was a quitter. I was accepted into the
Louisiana Center for the Blind's Buddy Program, but after three weeks I
decided to quit. Frankly, it was just too hard to learn the nonvisual
skills my counselors were trying to teach. This decision of course was a
mistake, but from mistakes come opportunities to learn. While waiting on my
parents to come and take me home, I was invited to go to lunch with Mr.
Whittle. Knowing what I now know about Jerry Whittle, this was not just a
kind gesture. It was another opportunity to do what he loved-to do his best
to teach blind people that blindness did not have to dictate the terms of
their life. That day I heard the story of someone who had experienced all
that I was experiencing at that moment. Mr. Whittle had been told by
sighted people about the limited jobs available to a blind person. Only he
had a different plan which did not include settling for such low
expectations. He discussed the important role that the training he received
played in accomplishing his goals. I remember admitting to him at some
point in the conversation that I could understand how the cane could be
useful for me, but I could not see the point in learning Braille. He
explained that a blind person had to develop a well-rounded set of skills
to maximize chances for success. For example, if you were the best traveler
in the world, but you could not read, you would probably not be able to get
a job. Likewise, if you had great technology skills, but you did not have
the ability to match your own clothes, you probably were not going to keep
a job. While I now understand this thought process, to a stubborn twelve-
year-old boy, this man clearly did not realize that he was talking to me,
the exception to the rule.
However, during the next year his words would come back to me. I
began to question myself when certain situations came up. Was I choosing
not to go to the movies like other people my age because I really didn't
like movies or because I did not have the travel skills to maneuver in dark
places? Was reading just stupid, or did I not like it because I could only
read around twelve words per minute on a CCTV? An honest self-evaluation
told me that in most cases I was letting blindness dictate the terms of my
life. I knew that the annual NFB of Louisiana student seminar in Ruston was
approaching, so I began to put a mental list of questions together about
how blind people could accomplish certain tasks. I remember getting off the
bus and walking into the activity center, where dinner was already
underway. And there at the front of the line, waiting to show those of us
who did not know how to serve our own plate, was Jerry Whittle, once again
leading by example. If you have been privileged to know Jerry Whittle, you
know that my story is not unique. All I had to do was scroll through my
Facebook feed on the days around his passing to see the affect that this
man had in the lives of blind people. We may not have cleared every bar
that he set for us, but it was not because he did not expect us to! What a
world it would be if we all lived like Jerry Whittle taught us, by striving
to be better tomorrow than we are today. I will miss you Dr. Dots, but I
will never forget our lunch on that Monday afternoon in July 1991. The food
the waiter brought was generally forgetful, but the food for thought you
served was life changing.
Zach Shore (LCB alumnus, 1988)
I first met Jerry Whittle in June of 1988 when I arrived as a student
at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. I last spoke with him at length by
phone in April of 2017. In those three decades I never stopped marveling at
what he had to teach me. It was so much more than Braille.
The greatest teachers are not great because of what they teach. They
are great because of what they give. Jerry Whittle gave so much to so many.
He gave us his words through the books, plays, and stories he wrote about
the blind and our struggles for dignity. He gave us his wit through his
corny humor, puns, and word plays. He once quipped that old Braille
teachers never die; they just get de-pressed. He gave us his wisdom; that
nothing is ever granted freely to the blind. If we want equality, we have
to earn it. We have to help our blind brothers and sisters as well; he
showed that through his work in the NFB. Sometimes, it's not fair, but
gritty determination sure beats self-pity and sloth.
Above all he gave us his warmth through the love he ceaselessly
showed to those around him. He would stay late at work to help a student
finish reading his first Braille book or write her first Braille sentence
with a slate and stylus. He would organize a literary night at his home
with his wife Merilynn to instill in us a love of reading. It seemed to me
that he knew no off-hours. Quietly, reliably, selflessly, he simply offered
what he had. I hope he knew how much we profited from all the gifts he
gave. Thank you, Mr. Whittle. We miss you beyond words.
[PHOTO CAPTION: Mandi Bundren]
Mandi Bundren
I was introduced to Mr. Whittle through a dear college friend. I
needed some extra cash, and Mr. Whittle needed a reader. The friend who
introduced us said Mr. Whittle and I would become fast friends; however,
little did I realize that my part-time gig would grow into a genuine
friendship that would have a lasting impact on my future.
Anyone who knew Mr. Whittle knew about his aversion to technology.
Part of my job was to bridge the gap between the world of computers and the
world of Jerry Whittle. My first project was to help him type and edit a
manuscript for one of his plays. I quickly came to realize that our
business relationship was atypical, because our work tasks often veered
into witty conversations about Mr. Whittle's life. He certainly didn't mind
that our paid hours of reading time usually descended (or ascended) into
colorful stories of his past and present.
On occasion Mr. Whittle would have me read through Braille book
catalogs, from which he selected literature for the Louisiana Center for
the Blind library. When I became curious about Braille, Mr. Whittle eagerly
put a Braille block in my hand and began to teach me. This was, as well, on
his time. He didn't mind.
I also assisted him by going through his numerous emails. Mr. Whittle
had a social network before social networking was cool. He received
countless emails every day from friends, family, colleagues, coworkers, and
strangers. He answered every single one. I learned a lot about a lot of
people I didn't know-the NFB, Federationists, the LCB, the Braille
Authority of North America, former students, and many more. Mr. Whittle and
I spent hours engaged over the content of all those emails. I asked Mr.
Whittle one time if he knew he was paying me to hang out with him. And he
said, "I know that Mandi...don't you?"
During my time spent as Mr. Whittle's reader, all of the
misconceptions I had about blindness and Braille vanished. After graduation
I went home for a while and tried to begin my life as a college graduate.
But in the back of my mind I knew what I wanted; I wanted to teach blind
kids. I didn't realize it at the time, but Mr. Whittle had been molding me
with his stories and with his passion for Braille.
I applied for the O&M and TBS programs at Louisiana Tech University
and went back to Ruston. And in the year and a half that followed I gained
invaluable experience, achieved my master's, met my husband, and received
multitudes of opportunities that got me to where I am now. Today I am
teaching Braille and encouraging my students to live the lives they want.
My job as Mr. Whittle's reader became secondary to what I gained from
knowing him. Much of who I am now I attribute to the influence that he had
on my life. I can say with all honesty that if not for Mr. Whittle, I would
not have the fulfilling life that I have today.
Karl Smith (LCB alumnus and Chairman of the LCB Board of Directors, 1989)
I first met Jerry Whittle in 1988. I was on a tour of the Louisiana
Center for the Blind, where I became a student in 1989. I was immediately
impressed with his commitment and passion for the importance of Braille and
also with his encouragement that I set goals that push me outside my
comfort zone in all aspects of life. It was during this tour that I first
heard Jerry say, "If you want to kill time, you have to work it to death."
And "We're not running a happy home for the blind here."
During my training, Jerry helped me build my Braille reading speed
and taught me to make the slate and stylus a working tool. As valuable as
these lessons were, I found that I learned some of the most important
things about myself, my blindness, and what it meant to live the life I
wanted to live outside Braille class. These informal life lessons occurred
during many conversations that we had after hours, over a burger, or over a
glass of muscadine juice. It was during these discussions that Jerry
suggested that a few of us get together and produce and act in a play. Two
fellow students, Jamie Lejeune and Jennifer Dunnam, and I along with Jerry,
produced and performed John Brown's Body, a play based on the epic poem by
Steven Vincent Benit. We performed this play for the Ruston community at
the Louisiana Tech University Theater.
This experience served as the foundation for the subsequent plays
that Jerry Whittle would write and direct, casting Center students like
myself to perform at national conventions for more than twenty-five years,
with the proceeds going to support the Buddy Program at the Louisiana
Center for the Blind. He believed so strongly in giving our blind children
the skills for success and immersion in the positive philosophy and
mentoring of the National Federation of the Blind. Because of these
experiences, I auditioned for and was selected as a lead player in a
musical presented at the Promise Valley Playhouse in Salt Lake City in 1993
and 1994. I would never have had the courage to attempt such a thing
without Jerry's encouragement. Needless to say, I learned my lines for all
these plays with a Braille script. Jerry continued to be a good friend and
mentor in the years since I graduated from the Center. I value all the
times we had together talking, joking, playing poker, and solving the
world's problems. I will miss him greatly, but I will always value his
wisdom and strong values.
Angela Frederick (LCB alumna, 1995)
How does one begin writing about a man who was such a powerful
influence on the lives of his students? Of course, I immediately think of
the gift of Braille literacy and the love for reading and writing Jerry
Whittle gave to his students. But it was the special way he offered this
gift that made Mr. Whittle such a force for change in his students' lives.
Mr. Whittle had a unique way of recognizing the core of his students and
offering them a version of literacy which spoke to that core. "Oh, you're
interested in presidential history" he would say. "I have an amazing book
about Abraham Lincoln for you."
I am a sociologist now. My life's work is teaching, researching, and
writing in the academy. I can trace much of my love for reading and
learning to Jerry Whittle. The beautiful Braille library he built at the
Louisiana center was the first library I entered that felt like it was
built for me. During my summers I spent at LCB as a teenager and young
adult, I would spend hours looking through his vast collection of books. I
would have to stand on chairs to reach the top of the mountains of pages he
created along the walls of the Braille Room and the center library.
As a young person growing up in Louisiana, I was desperate for
information about the larger world. One of the most well-read people I had
met, Mr. Whittle's presence felt like a gateway to something bigger for me.
I always tried to finagle my way to sit next to him to soak up all of his
wisdom. And I would always find myself gravitating to the Braille room,
where I knew some kind of lively conversation would be happening between
Mr. Whittle and his students.
Jerry Whittle had a unique capacity to love you dearly and scold you,
all in the same breath. He didn't hesitate to give you the world's greatest
compliment or take you down a notch, depending on his assessment of what
you needed to hear that day. In between explaining how to remember the
Braille letter E and telling his infamous jokes to keep us on our toes, Mr.
Whittle would offer his students little nuggets of life wisdom in the LCB
Braille Room. And one nugget of wisdom he offered me as a young adult has
stayed with me for decades, "Truly smart people can create the world they
want to live in." We love you, Mr. Whittle.
[PHOTO CAPTION: Louise and two of her girls, Miriam and Caitlin, are shown
on their favorite hike at the top of Pilot Mountain in North Carolina.]
Louise Walch (LCB alumna, 2006)
First there was Louis Braille, and then there was Jerry Whittle.
Doubtless there were some in between, but that was the sequence for me. If
there were a Braille hall of fame, Mr. Whittle's face, complete with grey
beard, would be up on the wall, larger than life. Between Braille lessons
he would tell stories of his college escapades and more about his early
days "beating the bushes" to find blind people and organize NFB chapters.
During one of my Braille lessons, he mentioned he had been thinking a lot
about how blind people don't tend to play much football, and it wasn't many
weeks after that we all found ourselves measuring up for uniforms. That's
how the first blind football team was formed. We were a motley crew, but
you better believe none of us were sitting on the sidelines. We were in the
game.
Mr. Whittle was coach on the blind football field and coach in the
classroom. We were always strategizing on how to get better and faster at
reading Braille. He would regularly time all his students, and on those
days when you were really zipping along, he might praise you with one of
his signature Whittle phrases like "Wow, you are really tearing up the pea
patch." That was when you knew you could be proud. Or if you were really
lucky, he might hand you a can of his favorite Buffalo Rock ginger ale. Or
on one of your not-so-hot days he might say, "You sound as nervous as a cat
in a room full of rocking chairs." Then you could have a laugh and get back
on the job.
I remember him telling me once about how as a young blind adult he
would give himself daily travel assignments. Although he had no orientation
and mobility instructor at the time, he would hone his cane skills just by
getting out there with a stick and doing it. I'm sure there were many
setbacks and a lot of discovery, but in the end, it was his decision to act
rather than to be acted upon, that set the upward trajectory for his life.
He encouraged all his students not to be afraid of a little dot five
W. That's Braille shorthand for work.
I was just one of the thousand or more students who sat across the
table from him during one of his thirty years of teaching Braille, but any
one of those students would tell you that it wasn't just Braille that he
taught; he taught us to believe in blind people, to believe in ourselves.
This brand of belief had little to do with platitudes, the kind of empty
words you might read on some website. No, his belief was soul deep. Whether
you were there sitting across the table from him surrounded by those floor-
to-ceiling bookshelves of Braille that he was so proud of or in a raft
shooting down whitewater in Tennessee or rehearsing one of the many plays
he wrote and directed or donning the helmet for a game of Coach Whittle's
no-kidding-around blind football or just sitting with him in a diner
chatting over a bowl of grits, you would know that you were somebody, and
here was a man who believed in God and believed that whatever might knock
you down, you could get right up again. It might be inconvenient, but it's
okay to be blind. You learned that you had blind brothers and sisters
around the country in the NFB who were there for you. Get yourself a good
mentor like Mr. Whittle if you can, but just get yourself out the door.
Bre Brown (LCB alumna, 2012)
When I met Mr. Whittle in 2011 as a student at the Louisiana Center
for the Blind, he was incredibly welcoming. He made class challenging and
entertaining. Yes, we did Braille, but we learned so much about life. He
was always sharing stories and educating us about various things, such as
how to live on your own as a blind person or how to navigate at a football
game or Mardi Gras. He strongly believed every person should go and live
independently at least once, in order to set in stone the fact that a
person was truly able to be successful and trust themselves. He often
shared his passion for nature, flowers, trees, and plants. His love for
students was palpable. He always found ways for people to be involved in
activities such as plays and cultural events. He also spent time with
students to discover what motivated them. For example, Mr. Whittle gave me
opportunities to try new things, such as directing one of his plays.
Earlier this year, he asked me to help direct his play, All Shot,
performed at this year's national convention. I never could have imagined
it would be his last one. In October he asked me to direct Santa Rides
Again, the play he wrote about Santa Claus losing his vision and receiving
training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Directing the play also
involves supervising the choir. I love to sing, and this is a fun and
challenging way of using my skills. I really love how he showed everyone,
including me, that you can do whatever you desired, including loving life
despite blindness. I am thankful for all of his thought-provoking questions
he had for me, his encouragement even when I doubted myself, and his way of
living life as a pure example-open and honest, loving and caring, with
every imperfection acting as a learning opportunity, not a downfall.
Six years ago I had no idea that I would be a Braille teacher. I have
always loved Braille, and the National Federation of the Blind showed me
that I could be a teacher. As a student I learned so much about teaching
Braille from Mr. Whittle through observation. He showed me that just
because you know Braille, there are still things you can learn or upon
which you can improve. Over the years, he answered any question I had about
teaching Braille as I was working in the LCB summer programs. He also
instilled in me a belief that Braille class is not just about Braille;
there are many important life lessons to learn. Some of it is life skills
like budgeting and list creations, discussing student perspectives on
blindness, motivating people to continue no matter their circumstance, and
truly listening and empathizing with students. I saw from his example that
the learning did not stop, even after five.
As we all know, Mr. Whittle was not a fan of technology, but he
enjoyed learning about his iPhone. He did learn how to text with dictation.
A few years ago, we started texting with each other almost every day. Some
days it was just simply saying hello. It was sharing stories, him
encouraging me as I continued through college and started my career,
talking about vacations, just anything. He often said, "Go get 'em," even
if it was just going to class, teaching Braille, or doing something totally
new.
These exchanges and life lessons meant the world to me as a student
and are just pieces of what Mr. Whittle gifted me. He taught me so much
that it is difficult to narrow it down. Today, I have the incredible honor
of continuing the legacy that Mr. Whittle has built. I am so thankful to
keep giving the gift of literacy, the gift of Braille, and to find ways to
keep students involved in the National Federation of the Blind to which he
gave so much, their communities, and their own lives. "Read until you
bleed!"
Pamela Allen
It is so hard for all of us to capture what Jerry meant to each of
us. Words just don't seem sufficient. I think the suddenness of his passing
has made it even more emotional for all of us to absorb. You will see the
common thread in these words. The hard thing is there are thousands more
where these came from. Jerry was humble and hardworking, loyal and loving,
humorous and creative, steady and trustworthy, and not afraid to admit when
he was wrong and make amends as needed. He and Merilynn set such a
wonderful example as a blind and a sighted role model. The ripples they
made will be felt forever! So many whom Jerry taught are now teachers and
leaders in the field of blindness. So many are using Braille and his life
wisdom to propel themselves forward in other careers outside of blindness.
So many are part of our Federation family because of his love and
encouragement! He never had biological children but raised many children
throughout his time with us.
Jerry always said, "Time is not eternal." This is just another
reminder of how we can never take the time we have for granted nor fail to
share our love and appreciation for the people we have in our lives. Jerry
always did this!
Dr. Marc Maurer
Jerry Whittle was not only quite knowledgeable about literature,
history, philosophy, and education; but he was also a quiet, understated,
and most jolly human being. He could find humor in most things, and he was
friendly in showing you where it was.
I met Jerry Whittle first in South Carolina, where he was working to
bring blind people into our movement. I came to know him even better in
Louisiana, when he was teaching Braille. I visited the Louisiana Center for
the Blind, and I sat in his classroom with him and students. He asked me if
I could read poetry, and I admitted that I could. He said he wanted to
record me doing so. I agreed. He turned on the recorder and handed me a
copy of "Jabberwocky." I had never before read "Jabberwocky." It is a poem
that contains many words that do not appear anywhere else in the English
language. One of the simpler lines is, "The vorpal blade went snicker-
snack!" I did my best. I have no idea what the recording sounded like, but
I read the "Jabberwocky."
Jerry Whittle talked me into doing many things I did not expect to
do. He called me to say that football was needed by the blind, and he asked
me for money to get the equipment together. I wanted to know what he meant.
He said that blind people were going to play football with some rules that
he had devised for the game. He said that when you run onto the field and
smack into a guy on the other team and knock him flat, this is fun. I, who
am smaller than he was, wondered if he could really mean it. I wasn't as
sure that I would enjoy it as he was.
Jerry always believed that he could do something to bring joy to
people's lives, and he was prepared to go the extra mile to do it. He
thought that there was not enough literature depicting the reality of
blindness. He was helping to solve this problem by writing plays that
brought the daily experiences of the blind to life. He worked with his
mind, but he also worked with his hands. He made me a walking stick from a
piece of blackthorn that I carry still. I love the feel of my Whittle
Stick. My life is richer because I knew Jerry Whittle.
----------
Our Fight for Literacy
by Lyn Petro
From the Editor: This article is taken from a presentation given at
the 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. It
describes the struggle two parents must endure to see that their daughter
gets to learn to read and write. It is moving for what it has to say about
the commitment of two fine people to help their child be successful; it is
disgusting in what it reveals about some school districts and their total
disregard for helping their students become happy, productive, and
contributing citizens. This story is about the fight to get a child
Braille, but it is also about what our system does to force a parent to
become an advocate and sometimes at significant financial cost. As Lyn
says, "My biggest passion in life is my children, but Braille literacy is a
close second. Most people really don't understand how little instruction
and materials blind and visually impaired students receive. It's my choice
to educate others. I will not let others make the choice about whether or
not my child will be able to read, learn, or succeed in life. It will
happen for Brooke!" Here is the article:
Thank you for asking me to share our family's journey with you. Our
daughter Brooke is a bright and beautiful eleven-year-old who also happens
to be legally blind. She is a Braille reader, but does utilize her limited
vision. My husband and I feel blessed to have been chosen to be her
parents.
While our family has been fortunate to be able to provide for and
fight for Brooke's educational rights, other families are not as fortunate.
This is why we have made our fight for Braille literacy as public as
possible. This is not just about Brooke. There truly is a Braille crisis in
Kansas.
We know of six students across three different Kansas school
districts who have stopped receiving Braille in the last two years. Four of
the six kids receive services in the school district that we pay taxes in.
We are familiar with two other students across the state line in Missouri
that the same thing happened to. For some of these students, this was
temporary until the parents threatened legal action. For others, Braille
was taken away permanently. Less than 10 percent of visually impaired
people are Braille readers. Sometimes it's because individuals lose their
sight at an older age. More likely, it's because they aren't offered proper
time with a trained teacher of the visually impaired to learn Braille. Or
maybe the school district refuses to pay for Braille materials. While some
educators say that audio books or paraprofessionals can make up the
difference in not having Braille materials, it's not true. You can't learn
how to spell or use punctuation properly from audio books. Audio books are
great for pleasure reading, but not as an educational tool. You can't
complete your schoolwork if you don't learn how to use technology. If your
aide fills in the answers to your work after you verbalize the answer, you
become dependent on someone else. In short, you are illiterate. You will
not be independent in school or in life.
When we went to enroll Brooke in preschool, we were told by the Blue
Valley School District that she did not need Braille instruction. Brooke
has a degenerative eye condition. We knew her prognosis would not allow her
to be a print reader for long. Blue Valley refused to help pay for any
specialized instruction, so we paid privately for Brooke to go to the
Children's Center for the Visually Impaired so that she could start
learning Braille at age three. My background as an occupational therapist
made me realize that the best time to have the sensory and touch fibers in
her hands expand their abilities was at a young age. The brain is plastic.
You can mold and change your neurologic abilities much more easily when you
are younger. This includes learning another language, including a written
tactile language such as Braille.
We met with the school district multiple times before deciding where
to send Brooke to elementary school. At Blue Valley Brooke was offered
minimal time with a TVI [teacher of the visually impaired], but we were
assured that she would get paraprofessional support-a paraprofessional who
does not know Braille, that is. As is quoted on the TSBVI [Texas School for
the Blind and Visually Impaired] website, "When simply assigned to a
student without proper preparation, paraeducators may act as a barrier
between the student and peer involvement, improperly direct instruction
away from the teachers, or reduce independent skill acquisition. Over-
reliance on a paraeducator over time can lead students to develop passivity
and dependence on prompts from others." Dependence on others is not at all
what we wanted for Brooke.
Because Brooke was not offered a free and appropriate public
education, we chose to compromise with the school district. They agreed to
pay for her Braille materials at a private school as well as offering her
Braille instruction, assistive technology instruction, and occupational
therapy for a total of four hours per week in the public setting. In turn
we paid for her weekly orientation and mobility training because they
refused to take her off the public school campus. We also provided her with
three to five extra hours of TVI instruction at the private school each
week. Trust me, it has been expensive to say the least. But, we have said
from the beginning that Brooke deserved a chance to be independent in life.
Illiteracy does not lead to independence.
This was the arrangement until January 7, 2016, when we were told by
Blue Valley officials that they would no longer provide her with Braille
materials for the next school year. The special education director told us,
"I'm sure it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under you." Kind
of an understatement, don't you think? They had been advised by an attorney
at the Kansas Department of Education that they could change Brooke's
Individual Education Plan (IEP) without our consent. Brooke's IEP was
changed by a prior written notice. In Kansas, a material change of 25
percent in an IEP requires parental consent. Blue Valley states that
because they offered Brooke Braille materials of the Blue Valley
curriculum, they did not change her services. They call it a "site change."
The only site change that occurred was when they moved Brooke from
one elementary school to another to receive services. The new school had
numerous ADA violations specific to visually impaired students according to
federal regulations. Brooke was also not offered any O&M training prior to
starting at this new building. To get that, we had to refuse to send her to
the new school without safety training for emergency evacuation routes and
sue the school district to be able to get that done.
We also had to file due process again due to the fact that the school
district changed our child's IEP without our consent. While the Blue Valley
School District states that we have no reason to sue them since they don't
have to provide our child with Braille materials because she goes to a
private school, that's not even part of our lawsuit. We didn't sue them to
provide Braille for Brooke. That's another matter entirely. But, what
cannot continue to happen is that school districts are allowed to sidestep
the laws in Kansas. Just last week we found out that Blue Valley had
removed the screen reader, screen magnification, and Braille translation
software from the computer that our daughter uses at her school, despite
the fact that they are legally obligated to provide those according to her
education plan. Brooke could not complete her work until this was
reinstalled on the computer. Families should not have to be constant
watchdogs over school officials that we pay taxes to support.
Blue Valley told us that they spent $72,000 producing Brooke's
Braille materials in third grade. Last year we were able to provide her
with Braille materials for about $24,000. That includes the cost of
purchasing a new computer, an embosser, updating Duxbury software, and
buying paper and office supplies to produce the needed classroom materials.
We borrow some textbooks from the Kansas Instructional Resource Center or
other libraries for the blind. I type the rest of her required materials. I
adapt a math workbook for her to use with her CCTV. Her private TVI
produces her tactile graphics. Last year we spent almost $4,000 for a
Braille prison program to produce her math materials because we aren't able
to do that. We also outsource most of her maps since those can be difficult
for us to produce.
That's a lot of materials to cover with $24,000, but I know it can be
done. Instead of spending taxpayer's money providing children with Braille
materials that statistics say make them much more probable of finding
employment, the Blue Valley School District claims to have spent $130,000
of taxpayer's money to avoid paying for our daughter's books. $130,000 is
only what they say they've spent on legal costs. Others claim that is not
even close to what has actually been spent.
Is it a struggle for us to be able to provide Brooke with what she
needs for the classroom? Yes. I cannot work outside of the home because I
have to type materials for Brooke. It's financially draining. Is it
cheating on the part of the school district? Yes. Is all of this worth it?
Absolutely! Brooke is a straight-A student whose dream is to work at NASA.
She is also a three-time defending champion of the National Braille
Challenge. Since first grade, Brooke has won the highest score in reading
comprehension once and twice has had the highest score in the spelling
portion of the National Braille Challenge tests. People can say this is
because Brooke is bright, but the only way it's possible is because of
intense instruction with a teacher of the visually impaired. School
districts choose to persecute the most vulnerable students. If textbooks
weren't offered to a child who reads print, there would be a public outcry.
Teachers who aren't certified aren't allowed to teach mainstream students.
Laws protect those kids. But the blind kids can do without books and
materials as well as having teachers that aren't certified. I know because
that's what my daughter deals with every day. These kids are already blind;
why rob them blind when it comes to an education on top of their
disability? When I checked the Kansas legal statutes on Braille
instruction, there were seven sentences in total. The TSBVI website has a
document that is thirty-two pages long. Something has to change in our
state. Braille instruction is critical.
The unemployment rate for visually impaired people is 74 percent.
School districts and colleges in Kansas are directly contributing to this
high rate of unemployment when kids are shuffled through their system
without proper support, materials, and instruction. Let me share with you
some sobering statistics about blind or visually impaired people in the
United States from nfb.org:
. 23.7 percent have less than a high school education
. 31 percent have a high school diploma or GED
. 30 percent have some college education or associate degree
. Only 13 percent have a Bachelor's degree or higher
With statistics such as these, you can guarantee that visually
impaired kids are destined to require public assistance. Why not promote
Braille and ensure that these kids can be productive citizens who are able
to be employed? School districts in Kansas hide behind loopholes and cheap
legal tactics in an effort to justify their failure to educate these
children. As a family, we have proven that it can be done. With the help of
a tremendous TVI and a school that allows us to provide Brooke with what
every blind child should receive, it can be done. I just want to reiterate
that the Blue Valley School District has chosen to spend $130,000 of
taxpayer's money instead of the $24,000 that it would take to provide
Brooke with Braille. At the very least, it's the definition of
incompetence; it's certainly negligence, and it's evidence that there truly
is a Braille crisis in Kansas. We will continue our fight not only for
Brooke, but also for all visually impaired students in Kansas. It's not an
exaggeration to say that we are changing the world one dot at a time.
----------
Leave a Legacy
For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind
has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people
into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades
to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring
movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial
beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in
your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a
way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that
leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and
adults.
With your help, the NFB will continue to:
. Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille;
. Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long
white canes to blind people in need;
. Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind
youth that science and math are within their reach;
. Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide
blind people the essential information necessary to be actively
involved in their communities;
. Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain
their independence; and
. Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their
dreams.
Plan to Leave a Legacy
Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your
possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are
distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear
creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older.
Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the
most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is
easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise
your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial
beneficiary. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314,
extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope,
determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into
reality.
Invest in Opportunity
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life you
want; blindness is not what holds you back. A donation to the National
Federation of the Blind allows you to invest in a movement that removes the
fear from blindness. Your investment is your vote of confidence in the
value and capacity of blind people and reflects the high expectations we
have for all blind Americans, combating the low expectations that create
obstacles between blind people and our dreams.
In 2016 the NFB:
. Distributed over seven thousand canes to blind people across the
United States, empowering them to travel safely and independently
throughout their communities.
. Hosted forty-five NFB BELL Academy programs, which served more than
three hundred and twenty-five blind students throughout the United
States.
. Provided over one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to blind
students, making a post-secondary education affordable and attainable.
. Delivered audio newspaper and magazine services to 115,491
subscribers, providing free access to over four hundred local,
national, and international publications.
. In the third year of the program, over three hundred fifty Braille-
writing slates and styluses were given free of charge to blind users.
Just imagine what we'll do next year, and, with your help, what can
be accomplished for years to come. Below are just a few of the many
diverse, tax-deductible ways you can lend your support to the National
Federation of the Blind.
Vehicle Donation Program
The NFB now accepts donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats,
motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call (855) 659-9314 toll-free,
and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation-it
doesn't have to be working. We can also answer any questions you have.
General Donation
General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and
the work to help blind people live the lives they want. Donate online with
a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit
www.nfb.org/make-gift for more information.
Bequests
Even if you can't afford a gift right now, including the National
Federation of the Blind in your will enables you to contribute by
expressing your commitment to the organization and promises support for
future generations of blind people across the country. Visit
www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2422, for more
information.
Pre-Authorized Contribution
Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters
sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making
recurring monthly donations by direct withdraw of funds from a checking
account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, visit www.nfb.org/make-
gift, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to
the address listed on the form.
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Kirsten Mau]
Building the National Federation of the Blind Brand
by Kirsten Mau
From the Editor: Kirsten Mau is the director of marketing and
communications for the National Federation of the Blind. She started her
work with us when we developed the messages that would better explain and
put more focus on our brand. This is the first in a series of articles to
explain how best to use the tools we have to explain who we are, what we
stand for, and the kind of culture we live in the NFB. Here is what she
says:
What is a brand? What do I have to do with building the National
Federation of the Blind brand?
There are many ways to define a brand. One of my favorite ways to
think about a brand is that it is the sum of many parts. These parts
include all the beliefs, experiences, perceptions, and interactions one has
with a product or an organization. Take Nike for instance. For me, the Nike
brand represents the first blue Nike tennis shoes with a yellow swish I
owned as a kid, elite sports figures sponsored by Nike, years of ads
featuring the "Just Do It" motivator, and athletic gear that helps me get
out the door. But certainly the Nike brand means more than that.
Ultimately, Nike is about an individual's "authentic athletic performance."
Its goal is to inspire me to be my best physical self.
With nonprofits it helps to think of an organization's brand as its
reputation. Does it make good on its mission, and do I trust it to do the
work it promises in an ethical and reliable way? While products and
organizations strive to present a unified brand to the outside world, every
individual has their own perception of those brands based on many factors,
including personal experience.
Having worked in advertising and communications for the duration of
my career, I have had both personal and professional experience with lots
of different brands. Most I respected; some not quite as much. Quaker Oats
is one of my favorites. When I was a kid, Quaker Oatmeal meant a cozy, warm
breakfast made by my mom as I headed out to school on a cold morning or a
nourishing meal with lots of butter and brown sugar when I was home sick.
The cylindrical red and blue packages became doll beds or fodder for other
crafts. The "Quaker man" has been a familiar face in my cupboard all of my
life.
When I started to work with Quaker Oats as a client, I learned lots
of new things about the brand. For instance, that the "Quaker man" is
actually named Larry, about the real health benefits of oatmeal, how the
organization is committed to finding ways to grow organic oats (and lots of
their trade secrets I can't share here!) Over time my perception of the
Quaker brand shifted and grew. As I became a parent, I shared my
experiences with my daughters. Now the round Quaker box is a fixture for
them as well. I won't buy the cheaper store brand of oats because I believe
in this brand. Even though the instant versions aren't any healthier than
most cold cereals, I have bought into the idea that a warm breakfast is
better. I am certain my perception of the Quaker brand shares similarities
and differences with yours.
What does Quaker Oats have to do with the National Federation of the
Blind?
In understanding the importance of a brand, it is critical to accept
that we can only control a portion of it. People make their own decisions
about the brands they trust and support based on all the information
available to them. That is why it is so important for everyone who
represents our NFB brand to bring it to life in a consistent way. Every
member, every leader, and every staff person is a critical building block
in the National Federation of the Blind brand.
The National Federation of the Blind brand is defined by our brand
architecture. The brand architecture is the internal framework that
explains the components of our brand: our values, our personality, our
positioning, our value proposition, and our brand promise. It is important
that each of us understands and embraces these components so those outside
the organization will know who we are, what we value, why we exist, and
what we intend to achieve.
Over the next several months we will feature several articles in the
Braille Monitor with the goal of defining our brand and bringing it to
life. If we all understand the important elements of our brand and live by
them, those who identify with our brand will support us in transforming our
dreams into reality.
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono]
Tax Deductions for the Blind: Are They Something We Deserve, and Should We
Fight for Them?
by Mark Riccobono
From the Editor: We live in a time of significant political change,
and each issue we examine confronts us with two questions: Does this affect
blind people, and will our advocacy to see that the blind do not lose hard-
won victories be perceived as a partisan stance by the organization?
President Riccobono gets a number of letters asking these questions, and
here he shares a recent one regarding legislation to change our nation's
tax system. Here is the letter he received and his response:
Dear President Riccobono:
Over the past few days I've noticed that the National Federation of
the Blind has really been pushing for the legislature to keep the tax
deduction that is granted to all blind individuals, and I'm curious as to
why this is. It seems to me that allowing us to pay fewer taxes just
because we cannot see goes against NFB philosophy, just as cutting in line
at amusement parks and pre-boarding airplanes goes against our values.
Giving blind people a tax deduction seems to imply that we are not as
capable of working as our sighted peers and thus require special treatment.
We don't want to be seen as entitled just because of our disability, and
this tax deduction seems to do just that.
I understand that blind people can incur expenses that our sighted
peers do not, such as screen readers and other assistive technology. But I
can't help feeling that when blind people purchase these types of items,
they should receive a tax credit, just as people do when they buy an
extremely expensive vehicle. I feel that if we manage to pass the law
granting tax credits for the purchase of assistive technology, this blanket
tax deduction would be rendered obsolete.
All that said, I don't know much about how and why this tax deduction
for blind people was implemented. There could very well be information I
don't currently have that completely justifies this. I thought it would be
prudent to email an expert before deciding whether or not to start lobbying
my legislators. Thank you for your time and consideration in reading this
message.
Dear ----
Thank you very much for your thoughtful message.
You have made a very reasonable observation: "It seems to me that
allowing us to pay fewer taxes just because we cannot see goes against NFB
philosophy, just as cutting in line at amusement parks and pre-boarding
airplanes goes against our values. Giving blind people a tax deduction
seems to imply that we are not as capable of working as our sighted peers
and thus require special treatment. We don't want to be seen as entitled
just because of our disability, and this tax deduction seems to do just
that."
I agree with you completely about our own sense of entitlement and
being viewed as less capable especially in the work context. We also have
to balance that against whether we have equality of opportunity in society
and whether we need certain supports to compete on terms of equality. You
compare the increased standard deduction to cutting a line or pre-boarding
an airplane, and I think this is not a fair comparison. Blindness does not
prevent a blind person from following a crowded line or walking effectively
down a jetway and boarding a plane. Yet, when I go to a store to buy
products, I do not have equal access to the labels on the food boxes or the
tags on the clothing. When I go to inquire about a job, I often do not have
equal access to the application, and I rarely have equal access to the job
listings themselves. My examples are instances where society is built in a
way that it prevents equal access by those who do not use vision as a
primary method of gathering information. Weighing whether we need some
additional advantage to compensate for those inequalities is a question
worth examining regularly. I believe that there are still enough artificial
barriers that we need to give blind people methods of overcoming those
obstacles in order to compete on terms of equality.
If that argument is not enough, let us examine the current politics.
Even if you believe that we have enough advantage, that we have all the
equality we need, Congress decided to eliminate the increased standardized
deduction, and blind people were not consulted. Since when does Congress
get to speak for us without us? As you know we offered the Access
Technology Affordability Act earlier this year knowing that Congress would
be discussing taxes. The ATAA was built on the idea that the increased
standardized deduction was in place. These are different means of providing
a basic level of support to overcome the artificial barriers so blind
people have a fair shot at competing in the marketplace. The ATAA is a
limited measure that will benefit blind people making little or no money
when they spend their own dollars to purchase technologies. The increased
standard deduction that the U.S. House of Representatives proposes
eliminating helps blind tax payers get a little bit of benefit to overcome
all of the other inequalities we face. Most importantly, both of these tax
provisions, even added together, are a very small slice of the overall tax
picture in the United States. We should not support throwing something out
until we absolutely need to do so. It is much harder to get something new
than it is to keep something we have. Since the ATAA has not yet passed, we
also do not know how effective it will be in helping blind people move to a
stronger position in society.
We also must think of this not as a specific element in isolation. We
should think of the proposal to eliminate this benefit in the context of
other proposals being considered in Congress. Most significantly, proposals
to water down the Americans with Disabilities Act and weaken the civil
rights protections we have gained. Should we accept elimination of a
benefit meant to compensate for the lack of equal access in society at the
same time that some are saying we have pushed too far with our movement for
equality? One proposal feeds into the other. If we make the argument that,
in fact, society has advanced enough that we do not require some additional
support to overcome those artificial barriers, we may actually find
ourselves in a worse place once the entire wave of disability elimination
proposals washes away.
My friend, you have raised a very important question and, in
principle, I agree with you about the disconnect with our philosophy. We
must always keep in mind that our philosophy has to operate in the world
where we are today and with a diversity of people. Many blind people do not
need the increased standard deduction because they have achieved a level of
success that overcomes the benefit that the deduction provides. However,
many blind people are not even close. Our challenge is to continue to raise
expectations every day but not be so idealistic that we hold ourselves back
in the process. That is the challenge that you and I must continue to meet
together in the coming decades of the Federation. I appreciate that we have
you to ask these thoughtful questions. I hope that my response has provided
some better context for the conversation. If not, I anticipate more
questions from you.
In closing, let me say that the National Federation of the Blind is
always free to make up its mind. If you think our policy is wrong, you can
work with your Federation colleagues to get the organization to adopt a
different position.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
Mark
----------
[PHOTO CAPTOIN: Amy Mason]
Driving Blind on the Information Superhighway-The New and Improved
Rules of the Road
by Amy Mason
From the Editor: Amy Mason hails from Nebraska and brings her
considerable intellect and people skills to the Jernigan Institute
International Braille and Technology Center. For a blind person there is a
lot to know about the World Wide Web before he or she can use it
effectively. Things that are intuitive visually are not obvious when using
the web with a screen reader, and what are simple mouse clicks for the
sighted person must be done with keystrokes that the blind person must
learn so well that they become second nature. The evolution of the web
requires screen readers to evolve, and this means ongoing learning for
blind people. The task is doable, but it requires more explanation than we
can get in one article. Here is the first of several in which we try to
take some of the mystery out of surfing the web, make it as fun to use for
people who are blind as for people who have sight, and to do it as
comfortably and efficiently as our friends and neighbors. Here is Amy's
advice:
Back in the dark ages of computing (the 90's) the world was
fascinated and confused by Sir Tim Berners-Lee's 1989 invention: the World
Wide Web. We didn't really know what to do with it, why or how to use it,
or even what to call it. Before settling on the more commonly known terms
of "the web" or "the internet," we tried out some very unusual and unique
terms. One of my personal favorites has always been "The Information
Superhighway." The idea of a road trip, with its breathtaking opportunities
for discovery, silly sing-alongs, car games, and yes, real dangers and
risks, has always seemed an apt metaphor for what the internet makes
possible.
According to Berners-Lee, "The power of the web is in its
universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential
aspect." Sadly, on our more frustrating days, a more overused and untrue
phrase has seldom been uttered.
When viewing the web and its history with a cynical eye, a blind
person may conclude that we have always and will always trail behind in
access to technology, and, by extension, the internet. For instance, in
1995 JAWS for Windows 3.1 was released, while at the same time sighted
users were humming "Start Me Up," and exploring Windows 95 with all the
excitement of a child on Christmas morning or an Apple fan on iPhone launch
day. We gained access a year later. We have seen many products fall into
this mold. By the time many notetakers make their way through development,
they seem comically behind mainstream devices, and somehow, more than
twenty-five years on, we still have to educate developers on the importance
of labeling graphics, buttons, and form fields.
Even so, the internet has changed the lives of millions of blind
people for the better. Tools like Bookshare have unlocked more books than
ever before. As we deal with correspondence and other business using print-
reading technology and online applications, many of us have cut our time
with human readers from an hour or two a day or perhaps two to four hours
per week to an inconceivable hour or two each week. Even shopping and
transportation have been transformed.
When the web was new, it was like we had set out in a Model-T. We
couldn't go far or fast, but everything was new and exciting. Today we are
driving on an eight-lane interstate highway. In many ways, using the web,
like driving the interstate, has lost some of its thrill of adventure. To
others it's still marvelous and exciting in all new ways. The road is
flatter, smoother, and generally in better repair. The speeds are faster.
The perils have changed. New road side attractions, amenities, and pitfalls
exist. On-ramps, off-ramps, seedy motels, gas stations, and restaurants
have transformed our expectations while travelling. Even the cars we drive
are unrecognizable when we compare them to those we used twenty years ago.
To get the most out of this faster, busier, more complex internet, we
need to learn what the signs mean, understand the strengths and weaknesses
of our browsers and other tools, and have a proper understanding of what
accessibility and access to the web means. Therefore, today, I'm going to
start by taking you to school-driving school, to be exact.
Welcome to Driving School
Definitions and Concepts
Greetings, class. In today's lesson we are going to discuss what you
need to know before you get behind the wheel of your shiny new car- I mean
browser. If you've been using the web for a while, you may be rolling your
eyes at the idea of learning anything new in a definitions and concepts
course, but I'm going to ask that you play along, just so we have a shared
vocabulary going forward.
For the First Timers
If you are very new to the idea of browsing the web, you will
probably want to spend some time with a one-on-one coach or, barring that,
some very good tutorials on how this whole web browsing thing works. But I
want to at least lay out the general terms you will hear throughout the
rest of these articles. If you are more experienced, please feel free to
skim past this section, but do so at your own risk. Now for the
definitions:
The internet: The network made up of all computers and other devices
that are connected in order to allow them to communicate. Everything you do
that involves your computer talking with another computer outside of your
home network involves information traveling across this network in one form
or another. This includes email, the bank statement you downloaded
yesterday, and videos of kittens purring on YouTube.
The World Wide Web: This is often what people mean when they say they
were on the internet. It is made up of many unique locations, known as web
pages or websites, that are put up by government entities, companies,
organizations, and individuals.
Web pages/websites: These are individual locations on the worldwide
web or web for short. Some websites you may know about include www.nfb.org,
the National Federation of the Blind's website; www.google.com, the world's
most heavily used search engine (a site to search for information from the
web); www.facebook.com, a large website where people can communicate; and
www.amazon.com, a big online store.
Web browser/browser: The software you use to view and interact with
web pages. Common examples include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet
Explorer.
Links: These are the connections from one website to another or from
one piece of information to another. When you activate a link, you will be
taken to the information it connects to.
Buttons: These perform actions, such as submitting a form or
rearranging information when you activate them.
Headings: Information on websites is laid out so that people can skim
for the information most relevant to them. In print, headings are bigger,
bolder, or otherwise more noticeable than other text on the page. Blind
users can use a screen reader to jump among headings in order to find
information more quickly as well.
Landmarks: A new way to organize websites, you can think of Landmarks
as big buckets that separate large parts of a website from one another,
like the links at the top (sometimes called navigation) from the article in
the middle.
Text Fields: This is where you can type a piece of information onto
the web; some screen readers announce these as "text area" for large ones
and "text field" for small ones.
Radio Buttons: Like the buttons on an older car radio, only one of
these can be selected from a group at a time.
Checkboxes: Like radio buttons, they allow one to answer a question,
but more than one can be chosen for any given question.
So what makes an accessible website anyway? I'm so glad you asked.
Accessible is a difficult term to define, so we are going to break it down
for this series in a few different ways. In its most basic form, a website,
piece of software, book, home appliance, or other device can be called
"accessible" for any given user if he or she can gain access to its
features and operate or use it without assistance. Unfortunately, everyone
has different criteria for determining if something works for them; so this
definition, while clear, does not actually help us to define the term in a
way that we can all agree on. Therefore, I am going to propose a few
definitions we will use in these articles to better describe how blind
people interact with lots of everyday objects, including the web.
Inaccessible: The device or product has one or more essential
features that someone cannot use independently and are not likely to find a
workaround, adaptation, or alternative that will allow them equivalent
access.
Usable: A state in which the item or device can be used by someone,
but is not as blind friendly-it may not be as efficient or straightforward
as it is for others or as a blind user would wish it to be. Many websites
fall into this category for a large number of blind users, even though they
will present accessibility challenges that would make them inaccessible for
others. The usability of a device or website will depend on both the nature
of that item and the user's flexibility, knowledge, or resources.
Functional Accessibility: This is the gold standard. If something is
functionally accessible, it is easy and straightforward to use. A person
can get done what he or she needs to without undue hardship. Once again,
this is a subjective measure.
Technical Accessibility: Accessibility based on agreed-upon
standards.
Websites that meet these standards will usually be usable and
functionally accessible for many more people than those that do not.
Technical Accessibility is not a perfect guarantee that something will be
usable for everyone, but it is a pretty good indicator that it is more
likely to be.
At the end of the day, usability, functional accessibility, and
inaccessibility are states that are only partially based on the technical
accessibility of a site. Instead, these states are made up of that site's
technical accessibility, the browser and screen reader (or other access
technology) conveying enough information about the site, and the user's
training and experience. So, you see, we actually have quite a bit of
control over the experiences we have on the web.
Rules for Road Builders: WCAG and the Technical Standards
The web community has spent a lot of time in the past debating what
technical accessibility really looks like. Today, however, they are largely
reaching an agreement. The technical standard that is far more popular than
any other is the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 2.0 at the AA Level (WCAG 2.0 AA, for short). These standards
are referenced directly and indirectly by many governments crafting their
own accessibility guidelines. This will officially include the United
States beginning in the first few months of 2018. The US has had an
accessibility standard called Section 508 since 1998, but these rules were
difficult to test, and therefore they were difficult to enforce.
Consequently the federal government has recently completed a refresh
process for Section 508 which directly references the WCAG Guidelines going
forward. This is good news for the accessibility of the web since these
guidelines are easier to test for, and because it means that government and
public websites are going to be held to the same standard.
There are four overarching principles which WCAG calls on websites to
meet. Each of them contains a number of guidelines that expand upon that
main idea. The four principles are:
Perceivable: a user needs to be able to tell that there is something
there and make out what it is. Examples of this include graphics having
descriptions that can be read with a screen reader, videos offering
captions and audio descriptions, and websites having enough contrast that
they can be read.
Operable: An operable site can be navigated and interacted with.
Items in this section include ensuring that the site can be navigated using
only a keyboard, making sure that there is nothing flashing that might
cause a user to have a seizure, and ensuring that the purpose of a link is
easy for users to understand.
Understandable: Success criteria and guidelines under this major
point include ensuring that the webpage tells the user's computer what
language it is written in (so that screen readers can use an appropriate
voice or accent and computers can load the correct characters and fonts on
screen), a user's focus won't be moved without warning, and that when
filling in forms, the user is provided with all the information they need
to finish the form successfully.
Robust: This is the hardest to understand. Criteria under this
heading essentially boil down to the idea that a website is going to work
across a wide number of devices and in a lot of different environments.
This includes telling screen readers and browsers what different controls
are and how to expect them to behave so that information can be provided to
the user.
The discussion of web standards is a much bigger and broader topic
than we can cover in detail here, but it's helpful to understand the idea
of what constitutes "technical accessibility" so that you can determine
what you should expect to know to use the web effectively and what you
should be able to expect from web developers (whether or not they meet
those expectations).
Evaluating Road Conditions: The State of the Web Today
Let's take a moment here and be very blunt. The state of the web is
really mixed. That's why we are having these lessons. It's sometimes hard
to figure out when a problem you are having is because you don't understand
something that should work, or when the problem isn't you but that the
website was created badly. The bad news is that this is the case for all of
us-sighted people too have this question as they surf the web. However,
there is plenty of good news. More web developers are coming to recognize
the value of accessible and intuitive design and are trying to implement it
in their products. We are seeing some very powerful and very functional
sites. Increasingly because of work done by the National Federation of the
Blind and many others, through legislation, education, and (when nothing
else works) litigation, more sites than ever before are working with
varying levels of success to reach proper technical accessibility as
described in WCAG. Even better, there are some true leaders in the field
who are moving beyond concern for "technical accessibility," and are
working on ways to create truly functional accessibility for as many users
as possible. These organizations are testing with blind and other disabled
users, hiring specialists, and working hard to innovate in the field. They
want to build the best web they can for everyone.
Many developers are pushing the envelope of what is possible in
designing accessibly for the web, which means that we users will find lots
of new information being presented by our screen readers. Think of it
almost like road signs. Initially we only had a few: links, buttons, edit
fields, etc. Now there are some really wild bits of work like calendars
that allow you to choose the date from a grid or autocomplete programs that
will offer suggestions for what's next even before you hit enter.
Therefore, we users must realize that we can no longer pull our Model A out
of the garage and tootle down the road, expecting gravel lanes and a twenty-
miles-per-hour speed limit. To make the most of the highway on which we
find ourselves, we need to learn how to read the signs and make sure we
know what to do to get the most out of our car/browser. If we don't, we're
going to be left in the dust.
Final Thoughts
Initially I was intending this project to be a single article
discussing how to improve one's web browsing experience as a blind user,
but as I outlined it, I realized that this is far too much information for
a single piece. Instead, over the next several months new installments will
be published here in the Braille Monitor. Topics in this series will
include:
Browsers: Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Journey
Screen Readers: Efficient Driving Requires the Right Sensors
Basic Navigation: Hitting the Road and Finding Your Way
Defensive Driving: Strategies for More Complex or Less Accessible Journeys
Browser Tune-Up: Customizations that Can Increase the Pleasures of the
Journey
Social Media: Making the Most of Some of the Web's Finest Roadside
Attractions
So, class dismissed-for now.
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Alyssa Shock]
National Convention Reflections
by Alyssa Shock
From the Editor: This article originally appeared in the fall 2017
issue of The Sounding Board, the official publication of the National
Federation of the Blind of New Jersey. Here is the way it was introduced:
As a psychology major I've been asked: Isn't psychology just common
sense? The fact is, no, psychology is not just common sense. One thing a
psychology major quickly learns is that he or she will be looking at a lot
of scientific research in the course of his or her education. Psychology
majors also learn basic skills to design and answer research questions. I
applied for the NFB scholarship because I had a sort of "research question"
of my own: Can someone with my qualifications and experience win a
scholarship and a great opportunity to attend a convention from the biggest
scholarship program for the blind in the United States? I proceeded to
submit my application.
I was out to dinner on a Sunday when I got a call from an unknown
number. I usually don't pick up calls from unknown numbers because of all
the sales and scam calls promising things such as discounts on my electric
bill. If it was important, I thought, the caller would leave a voicemail,
and this caller did. Because I volunteer for a sexual violence resource
center, I was worried that an emergency had come up, and someone from there
was trying to contact me. So, in the middle of dinner, I proceeded to
listen to my message. When I discovered the call was from a member of the
NFB Scholarship Committee, I couldn't help but call back immediately.
I spent the rest of that meal celebrating the fact that I had won an
NFB scholarship-and wondering how in the world I would manage to make it
through the convention by myself. I had been to convention once before with
my mother and an aunt, but I knew this time I would be on my own. The
thought of that was a bit scary.
Before I knew it, I was inside the hotel on the first day of
convention. Since I am easily overstimulated, I did find it overwhelming.
One of the first things I learned was that to keep calm I was going to have
to break everything down into small steps and focus on the action I was
taking at the moment. For example: if I wanted to get to a meeting from my
room, first I would have to get to the first floor, then find my way around
the rotunda, and so on. I would need to focus on each step and try to keep
everything else out of my mind.
Once I figured out how to cope with the environment, I was able to
gain a lot of information from the meetings. I learned about forms of
discrimination and access barriers that blind people have faced and how the
NFB helps overcome these issues. For example, I learned that the NFB has
fought for blind people who have faced low expectations from teachers and
how these students lacked necessary accommodations to gain the same
knowledge as their sighted counterparts.
To be honest, I have personally faced little discrimination and few
access barriers thus far in my life. I was shocked to hear about the
terrible ways in which blind people have been slighted and times when they
have been cheated out of opportunities and experiences. I believe that
continuing the fight to overcome discrimination and access barriers is
extremely important. With all of this in mind, I want to take a moment to
thank those who have been extremely accommodating and given me wonderful
experiences throughout my life, including, especially, my family, the
Dumont (NJ) School District, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the YWCA
of Bergen County.
At convention I also learned about technologies intended to help
overcome access barriers, such as the awesome development of a Braille
display that makes images tactile. I also learned about Aira, a new
technology that helps blind people have easier access to information. I
would be lying if I said that I have come home from convention without the
desire to invest in some new technologies for myself.
Probably the most important thing I learned is that blind people all
over the nation and the world are overcoming barriers and getting the
degrees, finding the jobs, and having the experiences they want. In other
words, they are living the lives they want.
My mentors during convention were people I will never forget. They
affirmed my belief that I can obtain my career goal of becoming a mental
health counselor. Even more significantly, they affirmed that I can do
anything I put my mind to and truly want, even if doing so does require me
to overcome discrimination and access barriers. Speaking of that, I learned
that the NFB will do everything they can to help blind people with these
kinds of struggles.
Of course, I did not spend all of my time in convention activities. I
used my spare time meeting new friends and visiting with old ones. When
things became too overwhelming, my friends helped me relax and find some
peace. Learning did not stop when I was outside the convention. I learned
and shared perspectives even in my spare time. All of this learning was fun
and certainly did not feel like work.
With all of this in mind, I would definitely recommend that everyone
who is blind or visually impaired try to go to an NFB convention. There is
so much to experience and so many great people to meet. However, I do have
one word of caution regarding convention: sleep may be hard to come by.
There is so much to do that getting the normal six to eight hours per night
may not be possible.
Looking back from home, I cannot believe that one small "research
question" could lead to such awesome results. A final thanks is due to the
NFB Scholarship Committee for making possible the awesome experience I had
at convention.
----------
Recipes
Recipes this month are provided by the National Federation of the
Blind of Indiana.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
by Cori Wills
Cori is an up-and-coming leader in the Federation in Indiana. He also
works for Bosma Enterprise for the Blind and does a lot of work in our
local Lions Club.
Ingredients:
1 pound chicken breast, shredded
1 8-ounce brick of cream cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 cup buffalo sauce
1/4 cup bacon bits
1 cup ranch dip
Method: Mix all ingredients in sauce pan and heat through. This can
also be microwaved. Do not overcook. Enjoy with corn scoops or tortilla
scoops.
----------
Cream Cheese Ball
by Cori Wills
Ingredients:
1 8-ounce block of cream cheese
garlic salt (to taste)
8 green olives
1/3 cup of shredded cheese
4 slices of chipped beef, chipped honey ham or combination (sometimes I add
4 or 5 pieces of pepperoni)
1 onion (if desired)
Method: Take your cream cheese and set it out for about one hour to
get room temperature. Take your meat, olives, cheese, and onion (if using
one) and chop it in the food processor or small pieces by hand. Open cream
cheese and put it on a plate and flatten it with a fork. Sprinkle garlic
salt on cream cheese. Add your chopped meat, cheese, olive, and onion. Mix
together (you can use a fork or your fingers). I like to add a little bit
of the olive juice for flavor, but that's up to you. Refrigerate. This will
keep for five to seven days if you don't eat it all the first day.
----------
BBQ Pork
by Cori Wills
Ingredients:
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 to 3 pounds pork butt
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup BBQ sauce
Salt and pepper
Method: Place onion on bottom of crockpot. Rub the pork with salt and
pepper; place pork on top of onion. Pour chicken broth over pork. Pour BBQ
sauce over pork. Cook on low for eight hours. Pull apart with forks, then
serve.
----------
Single-Serve Apple Pies
by Cori Wills
These are really good; however only make what you are going to eat
right away, because they are not good reheated. The instructions have been
broken down so that you can make only one at a time if you wish.
Ingredients:
crescent rolls
1/3 teaspoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
apples (I bought apple slices in a package, and they come with either
peanut butter or caramel; that way if I only want to make three, I could
eat the rest and have dip.)
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take one crescent roll, which is
going to be triangular in shape. Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar together.
Take the crescent roll with the wide end toward you. Sprinkle the cinnamon
and brown sugar mixture on the crescent roll, leaving a pinch to dust the
top. Take one slice of an apple (if it is really thin you can use two
slices). Put the apple slice on the wide end and roll it, then sprinkle the
rest of the cinnamon and brown sugar on top. Bake this for eleven to
thirteen minutes.
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Jean Brown]
Hamburger Pie
by Jean Brown
Jean Brown is the first lady of the Indiana Affiliate. She has been
the state fundraising chair for over thirty years, and she is known in the
affiliate for her famous fried chicken.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 8-ounce can of Campbell's tomato soup
1 8-ounce can cut green beans
3/4 cup of grated cheese (more if desired)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box of potatoes (follow box instructions or use your favorite mashed
potato recipe, using 4-5 potatoes)
Method: Preheat oven to 360 degrees while the ground beef is cooking
over medium high heat. Use a fork or spatula to break up the pound of beef.
When the beef is cooked, drain the fat from the meat and transfer the meat
to a glass baking dish or pan. Stir in the tomato soup and seasonings.
Drain the green beans and add to the dish; make sure all ingredients are
covered with the soup. Use a large cooking spoon to put four or five
heaping spoons of potato on top of the pie. Sprinkle the cheese on top of
the potato mounds. Bake about twenty-five minutes or until the cheese is
golden brown. Serve with a side salad, garlic bread or rolls; makes four to
five servings. Enjoy!
----------
[PHOTO CAPTION: Susan Jones]
Mexican Casserole
by Susan Jones
Susan is a longtime member of the NFB of Indiana. She is retired from
the Social Security Administration. She also is one of their BELL project
teachers and does a lot of volunteer work in the community.
Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 15-ounce can kidney beans
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Cornbread topping:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
Method: Brown meat and onion, add tomatoes, beans, and seasonings,
and simmer on low ten minutes. Grate cheese and set aside. Lightly grease a
four-quart casserole dish and pour the meat mixture into it. Top with the
grated cheese.
Mix up the cornbread, and spread evenly over the top. Bake at 425
degrees for twenty minutes. Cut into wedges, and serve upside down on
plates.
----------
Monitor Miniatures
News from the Federation Family
Eligible Sprint Customers Can Get a KNFB Reader Enterprise License for
Free:
Starting November 20, 2017, Sprint customers who purchase a new line
of service or eligible upgrade through Sprint Accessibility will receive a
free license to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app on up to two mobile
devices.
If you are a new or upgrading Sprint customer, you may be able to get
the power to convert printed documents into speech or Braille instantly and
accurately at no extra cost!
All you need to do is:
1. Visit sprint.com/vision or a Sprint store to purchase a new line of
service or eligible upgrade.
2. Call (855) 885-7568 and ask a Sprint Accessibility Care
representative for the KNFB Reader Enterprise app.
3. Sprint will provide you with the information you need to create a
username and password that will activate your new KNFB Reader
Enterprise license.
4. Download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app from the Apple App Store,
Google Play Store, or Windows 10 Store.
5. When you launch the app, enter the username and password from step
3 above, and you're all set!
Please be sure to download the KNFB Reader Enterprise app, not KNFB
Reader for $99.99. The KNFB Reader Enterprise app is listed free in the app
stores and can be activated with your free KNFB Reader Enterprise License
from Sprint. KNFB Reader Enterprise allows users to enjoy the power of KNFB
Reader on multiple devices. Make sure that KNFB Reader Enterprise is the
app that you download onto your devices to take advantage of this offer.
KNFB Reader Enterprise works on Apple, Android, Windows 10 devices, and
Windows 10 laptops and PCs.
You'll be able to use KNFB Reader Enterprise on up to two devices
with the KNFB Reader Enterprise license that Sprint provides. Just download
KNFB Reader Enterprise on both devices and use the same username and
password. For example, you can download KNFB Reader Enterprise onto your
Sprint phone and also to your Windows 10 laptop. Alternatively, you can use
the product on both your Android phone and Android tablet.
To learn more about what the KNFB Reader Enterprise can do, visit
www.knfbreader.com.
Happy reading from the National Federation of the Blind and Sprint
Accessibility!
Elected:
At the Sixty-first Annual Convention of the National Federation of
the Blind of New York the following officers were elected: president, Mike
Robinson; vice president, Chancey Fleet; second vice president, Catherine
Mendez; secretary, Lucy Marr; treasurer, Kate Carroll.
The 2017 White Cane Banquet-A White Cane Day Celebration:
The atmosphere was tinged with enthusiasm as Federationists filled a
private room at the El Patron restaurant. This event was planned and hosted
by the West Mesa Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of New
Mexico. The occasion was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
White Cane Law. New Mexico played a high-profile role in this historical
event as then Governor David Cargo signed the law into effect in 1967.
West Mesa Chapter President Don Burns shared the fact that he had
obtained White Cane proclamations from the mayors of Rio Rancho and
Albuquerque as well as from Governor Martinez. The highlight of the event
was the guest speaker, Stephanie Kean, field representative for
Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham. She brought regards from the
Congresswoman and commended the NFB for our positive work in protecting the
rights of the blind population who use a white cane or guide dog. Her
comments were well received. Caroline Benavidez, first vice president of
the NFBNM and retired school teacher, shared her thoughts on the importance
of her white cane as a professional woman. Tara Chavez, a mom, working
woman, and president of the Albuquerque Chapter told about the importance
of her guide dog.
Arthur Schreiber, president emeritus, recounted the difficulty in
obtaining this important law. Curtis Chong, treasurer of the NFBNM, read
the proclamation from his Braille copy. All of these presentations were
given before Ms. Kean had to leave for another event. We thanked her for
attending and expressed our appreciation for bringing comments from
Congresswoman Lujan Grisham.
West Mesa Chapter members had decorated the tables with miniature
white canes and provided two door prizes. This event highlighted the
history and importance of the White Cane Law and the important role played
by the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico. The White Cane Law
plays a key role in allowing us to live the lives we want.
Monitor Mart
The notices in this section have been edited for clarity, but we can
pass along only the information we were given. We are not responsible for
the accuracy of the statements made or the quality of the products for
sale.
For Sale:
I have one never-used HP netbook which includes Window-Eyes, Dragon
Naturally Speaking, and a wireless headset. I will provide free shipping. I
am asking $499. Please call Steve at (517) 347-7046.
----------
NFB Pledge
I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National
Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for
the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to
abide by its constitution.
More information about the NFB-NM
mailing list