<div style="color:;font: 10pt Helvetica Neue;">Sh<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">aron</span>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you for sending the article.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember hearing about the end of insurance discrimination in Iowa at the NFB of Iowa state convention in 1976. The article brought back memories.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shawn<br>
</span><br>
<div style="clear:both">
<div style="font:10pt Helvetica Neue;">Shawn Jacobson<br>
sdj60259@aol.com<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"><font size="2">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Sharon Maneki via NFBMD <nfbmd@nfbnet.org><br>
To: central-md-chapter@nfbnet.org; greater-baltimore@nfbnet.org; mabm@nfbnet.org; md-atlarge@nfbnet.org; md-sligo@nfbnet.org; mdabs@nfbnet.org; mdpobc@nfbnet.org; nationalharbor@nfbnet.org; nfbmd@nfbnet.org; nfbmdtlc-chapter@nfbnet.org<br>
Cc: Sharon Maneki <nfbmdsm@gmail.com><br>
Sent: Sat, Apr 30, 2022 12:55 pm<br>
Subject: [NFBMD] Jim Omvig<br>
<br>
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<div>Hello All,</div>
<div><br>
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<div>Jim Omvig, a great leader in the NFB, passed away on Wednesday, April 27 after a long illness. He was president of the NFBMD from 1982 to the fall of 1984. The below article by Gary Wunder is a great introduction if you did not know Mr. Omvig. It is a great walk down memory lane for those of us who had the privilege to know him. Enjoy. <br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:New serif;">At
least we got to tell Jim over and over again that he was admired,
trusted, and loved. Here is what we wrote for him while he could read and
appreciate it:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:30pt;color:black;">A Modern-Day Pioneer in Our Midst: An Attempt to Say Thank You to a Civil Rights Leader for the Blind<u></u><u></u></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">by Gary Wunder</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">One
of my jobs as the state president in Missouri has been to deliver
eulogies for Federationists whose long service and love of the
organization deserve a tribute. I have written them for two past
affiliate presidents, several other leaders of prominence, and many
friends. The honor in being asked to deliver a eulogy is that you may be
saying the most important words that have been or will ever be said
about someone's life. The sadness is that it isn't being said to the
person we are honoring. At best one must take on faith that the remarks
will be heard, felt, sensed, or known by the one being honored, and at
worse the comments come too late to matter to that person.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">What
a pleasure it is when sometimes we are able to say thank you to a gem
while he or she is still around to appreciate it, correct us when we
don't quite get it right, and tell us just a bit more that we don't
quite know as we write the remarks to share their lives with those who
may not have known them as well as their family and friends. So it is
that I have drawn an ace from the deck and have the honor of putting
down some part of Jim Omvig's life story: an inspiration, a tribute to
what can happen when one works hard, meets the right people, is
encouraged, and takes advantage of the opportunities offered.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><u></u><img style="width:2.625in;min-height:3.4583in;" alt="Jim Omvig" width="252" height="332" align="right" class="yiv7986259091ycb3325718034"><u></u><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
was raised in Slater, Iowa, and for a time attended the public school
there. Though he tried hard, much of his effort focused on using vision
he simply didn't have. Eventually he went to the Iowa Braille and Sight
Saving School in Vinton. While competing academically and athletically
was made easier by the lack of emphasis on vision, the school brought
with it other difficulties. Foremost among these was the attitude held
by the school about its blind charges. Those with the most sight were
the most blessed: those called upon for giving the school tours, for
pitching the tents during scouting events, and for looking after “the
totals” (those without any usable vision). The school believed the blind
could be educated, but the fields in which they could participate were
quite limited, and, given this philosophy, the school provided
vocational technical training in the few jobs they believed their
graduates could do. The staff members were good, honest people, but they
saw their calling to be to teach the blind some academic skills, help
them compete with other blind people athletically, and acquaint them
early on with the limitations of blindness. These would not have been
the words they used, but certainly the attitude they conveyed to Jim and
his fellow students.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">After
high school Jim lived at home almost eight years. Most of his days were
not so much living as existing, always waiting for that piece of
medical news that would change his life. His mother so wanted him to see
that she went to eye doctors, offering one of her eyes if only they
could give it to Jim so that he might have vision. Since no operation,
regardless of the sacrifice, could give him the vision he would need to
be a productive citizen, he and his family lived from day to day, with
Jim doing what little he could to help with family chores. Occasionally
he got work in a local creamery, where his strength could be used in
moving butter and loading trucks with products bound for the city. This
was not the kind of work that could provide a real income, but any extra
money was helpful, and so too was any reason to get up in the morning.
This was not the life he wanted, but it was the life he had been given,
and people from Iowa knew there was only so much time that could be
given over to grief about what one had lost and wanted back.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
lived what he now regards as an isolated life. Though tall and good
looking, he decided early on that it would be irresponsible to get
involved with women. In his mind a man's role was to be the provider,
the leader in his home. He believed that being blind precluded this, so
there was no reason to offer his heart or to ask for the heart of
another.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">When
he was twenty-five, Jim was contacted by the Iowa Commission for the
Blind and invited to go to Des Moines to tour the agency. His sister Jan
was then a student and encouraged him to come. He figured he already
knew much of what there was to know about what blind people could do and
become from his time at the school in Vinton, but he agreed to visit if
for no other reason than for the brief change in daily routine the
visit would afford.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Mr.
Omvig remembers his first interview with agency Director Kenneth
Jernigan and the questions that set him on a path he never thought
possible. The first question was whether or not he was blind, and Mr.
Omvig gave what he regarded as a cutesy but accurate answer. "I am hard
of seeing," he said, at which point Mr. Jernigan asked "How many fingers
am I holding up?" and then told Jim unequivocally that he was blind.
Jim remembers that this answer cut deeply and stung bitterly. Mr.
Jernigan asked Jim his age. When Jim said he was twenty-five, Mr.
Jernigan said, "My, my, twenty-five. So a man your age can expect to
live for another fifty years. Jim, what are you going to do for the next
fifty years?" As he considered his answer, he remembers feeling sick at
heart. Fifty years was more a sentence than a promise. Jim's reply was
that he didn't know, but what he feared was that he did and that those
years would be spent doing just what he had done since high school
graduation.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">But
the very asking of the question hinted that there were possibilities
beyond returning to Slater and living out his life as the dependent son
and brother. Kenneth Jernigan suggested that Jim come to the Orientation
and Adjustment Center for training and told him that a man with some
motivation and brains could be a productive citizen. Jim wasn't sure he
believed it, but he could clearly see that the man offering the
opportunity did. What was the risk? Unrealized hopes would hurt, but so
would returning to Slater, where nothing was happening or likely to
happen for a blind man named Omvig.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Although
Jim agreed during his visit to come to the center for training, he
still had one hope—that he might regain his vision. Friends told him
about a doctor in South Dakota doing miraculous work, so he took all of
his money, got a friend to drive him, and once again got the sad news
that vision was not in his future.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
spent nine months at the center: learning Braille, cane travel, typing,
wood working, and engaging in challenge activities he had previously
thought to be well beyond what blind people could do. Nearing the end of
his training, Jim was asked what he would like to do with his
future—what he might like to do for a living. Full of enthusiasm for
what he was experiencing, he replied that he would like to run a
training center and do what Mr. Jernigan was doing to help the blind.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Mr.
Jernigan responded with a question: "Mr. Omvig, do you want to go into
work with the blind and run a center because you think you would truly
love it and be good at it or because you really believe you can't
succeed at anything else and that getting into work with the blind will
be easy?" When Jim said that he didn't know if he could answer the
question honestly, Mr. Jernigan suggested that he consider another
career.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">What
Jim had considered foolish and impossible only a year before was
reshaping his life. Those crazy people from the commission were offering
him the chance to go to college and promised financial support that his
family could never hope to provide. Beyond the financial support, they
convinced Jim that they believed in him, let him observe a few blind
people who were successfully pursuing careers and raising families, and
suggested to him that he could do the same. What he came to understand
later was that he was being given the opportunity to be a modern-day
pioneer, to assume a special place as part of a social experiment to
determine if the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind was
simply a fine-sounding theory or whether it would prove to be true and
could change lives in the way its proponents proclaimed.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
finished his training at the commission, went to college, and was the
first blind person to attend and graduate from the Loyola University of
Chicago's School of Law. He recalls that 144 students entered the
school, and of those only thirty-six were granted law degrees. Having
this degree meant that the man who once had nothing to do and plenty of
time to do it in would find himself busy for the rest of his life,
taking his place as a senior warrior in the civil rights struggle of the
blind and eventually appearing before the justices of the United States
Supreme Court to be granted the right to practice law before that
august body.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">But,
after graduating in 1966 with good grades and a degree from a
prestigious law school, Jim had to arrange and participate in 150
interviews before he landed a job. Even this took some political
intervention from his friend and mentor, Kenneth Jernigan. Mr. Omvig
moved to Washington, DC, and became the first blind employee of the
National Labor Relations Board. Although he was admired and well-liked
by his fellow employees, several did try to convince him that his long
hours and prodigious output raised the bar for them and let it be known
that they were none too happy about this. Jim told them that they were
free to work as much or as little as they liked, but he was there to do
more than earn an income and provide for himself: he was there to
convince the world that blind people could do high-quality work and do
it as well as their sighted coworkers. His fellows saw the logic in
this, and it added to their respect for him. But the secretary who had
been assigned to him said, "Mr. Omvig, you are a damned workaholic, and
you're not going to make one out of me." Given the friction, Mr. Omvig
asked for a different secretary and got one, and his former employee was
transferred.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">While
rewarding, his job in DC primarily involved doing administrative
research and paperwork. But Jim wanted real courtroom experience and
requested a transfer. It was granted, and he moved to New York to
continue his work with the agency. He found the work more rewarding, but
it posed some challenges he had not faced in DC. He had relied
primarily on volunteer readers in his first appointment, but when, as a
field attorney, he began serving as a hearing officer, there were times
when he was presented with written material and required to decide
whether or not it should be admitted into the record. In these cases it
is traditional for the hearing to be recessed while the hearing officer
studies the material. It was not practical for Jim to send the material
out for recording or to expect a volunteer to sit with him throughout
his workday. The solution he arrived at was ideal: he asked that the
stenographer, who was already being paid, act as his reader during the
recess, and in this way he had access to printed documents without
incurring additional cost or inconvenience to himself or his employer.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">As
he settled into his job, Jim began to be asked by President Jernigan to
visit state affiliates as a national representative. He appreciated
being asked, thrived on being able to serve, and gladly took up the
task. What he found surprised him. At some level he knew that Iowa
represented something tremendously different in rehabilitation than
could be found in the rest of the country, but knowing this wasn't quite
the same as seeing firsthand the denials that blind people were facing
when they sought to become self-sufficient and to exercise some control
over their education and careers.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
recalls meeting a woman from New Hampshire who had always wanted to be a
teacher. Having gone blind in her teens, she approached the
rehabilitation agency there and was told by her counselor that her goal
was unrealistic and that certainly he would not approve the college
education that teaching would require. Having read in the <i>Braille Monitor</i> about
Judy Young, a blind teacher in Iowa, the woman in New Hampshire took
her case to the agency director. He agreed with the counselor, telling
her that a college education was unrealistic and that any thought of
landing a teaching job was foolish. When she told him about the article
she had read in the magazine of the National Federation of the Blind, he
said that he knew about that Jernigan guy, a crazy man who was setting
blind people up to fail. He, the agency director, would have none of it,
and he suggested that she continue at the workshop, where she was
making twenty-four dollars a week. In this case, like so many, Jim knew
that the answer was not for everyone to move to Iowa, but to build and
strengthen the Federation in each state and then to bring about the
changes that the National Federation of the Blind and the Iowa
Commission for the Blind were proving possible. Encounters such as these
pushed Jim in the direction of trying to answer the question Mr.
Jernigan had posed to him on his graduation from the orientation center.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Eventually
Jim gained enough self-confidence to say to Mr. Jernigan that he really
did want to learn to direct a training center, that he had convinced
himself and others that he could cut it alongside his sighted
colleagues, and that his turning to the blindness field for employment
was not to hide but actively to contribute to what had so changed his
life and the way he would spend the most productive years of it. Jim
wanted to be a part of encouraging blind people to dream and to see
those dreams become reality. Mr. Jernigan agreed, and Jim moved back to
Iowa, first to work as a rehabilitation counselor and later to head the
orientation center.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">While
in training to become a counselor, Jim accompanied coworkers to learn
the ropes. Knowing that his primary job was to observe, Jim nevertheless
wanted to become involved in the sessions so clients would come to know
him. One day he asked a client how long he had been blind. The newly
blinded client was angered and put off. On the drive to their next
appointment, Jim learned from his coworker that coming to understand
that one is blind is often a gradual process and that asking how long
the client had been having trouble with his vision would have been more
appropriate. Coming to understand and admitting that one is blind is
crucial to acceptance and getting on with one's life, but for some
people the subject should be approached with gentleness and
understanding. Jim took the advice as sound and has tried to be mindful
that the journey to accepting one's blindness and a new understanding of
what it means to be blind sometimes takes a firm, direct approach and
that sometimes it takes time, patience, and gentleness.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Although
Jim's return to Iowa put the right man in the right place, the
transition was not without difficulty. He had decided that he could be a
provider and that risking to become involved with another was not
precluded by being a blind man. He married Jan, a fellow Iowan, and
together they brought Jamie Omvig into the world in 1966. But their
marriage ended in 1972, and the door that closed led to the opening of
one that would lead James Omvig and Sharon Lewis to find that they were
soul mates. Meeting for a casual drink one evening in the fall of 1973,
they found that their talking kept them for hours. Sharon describes
their courtship and marriage this way: "It may not have been the love
story of the century, but I'm sure it was the love story of the decade."
On January 31, 1974, Jim and Sharon Omvig were united in marriage, and
since then they have been inseparable in their faith, love, and work.
>From the time they became two hearts beating as one, any mention of Jim
could, if not for the cumbersomeness of the construction, be Jim and
Sharon or Sharon and Jim.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">The
man who once believed that he could never share his heart not only has
enjoyed a wonderful marriage but has composed two songs in honor of his
soulmate. One of them, titled, “She’s My Wife,” says:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Have you seen her?<br>
She's the loveliness of spring.<br>
Have you seen her?<br>
She's the song that I sing.<br>
With her tender lips and her glowing eyes,<br>
Her smile is a wondrous thing.<br>
And her arms can make a man a king.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">You should know her.<br>
She's an angel from above.<br>
With a heart that's filled with love.<br>
Oh, you should know her; she is my life.<br>
She's my lady, she's my lover, she’s my wife.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Before
leaving the National Labor Relations Board, Jim learned from a
colleague that a decision of the NLRB made in 1960 declared that blind
people did not enjoy the same rights as other workers when it came to
organizing and being represented by a union. He highlighted this unfair
segregation of the blind in a speech delivered at the NFB convention in
1969. Appearing with him were prominent members of the AFL-CIO (American
Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) who
agreed, after some tough questioning from President Jernigan, to help
the blind change laws forbidding blind people from organizing.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Work
started that year to build a Sheltered Shop Division in the NFB and to
find blind people who wanted to be represented by a union. Mr. Omvig
warned that gaining the right to organize and be represented would take a
long time. A request to organize had to be made and rejected, and an
appeal would have to be made to the members of the National Labor
Relations Board. It took more than half a decade, but in 1976 the NLRB
reversed itself and said that blind people, like other workers, did
indeed have the right to be represented by a union if they chose. This
delightful news came the day before Jim was to attend the national
convention in Los Angeles, so he hurriedly constructed and delivered a
speech at the convention.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">The
Federation knew from long years of experience that blind people were
the victims of discrimination in the sale of insurance. Deciding to test
the waters for themselves, Jim and Sharon went to the ticket counter
prior to their trip to the Los Angeles convention, purchased insurance
for Sharon in the amount of $350,000, and then tried to purchase
insurance for Jim. To his surprise, Jim learned that he could purchase
insurance, but the maximum amount he could buy was $20,000. The ticket
agent could offer no reason for the rule, and arguments that Jim did not
want to fly the plane but only ride on it were wasted. Rules were
rules.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">On
his return from Los Angeles Jim contacted the insurance commissioner
for the state of Iowa, Herbert Anderson, and convinced him to accept a
charge of unfair discrimination against the blind using the Iowa Unfair
Trade Practices Act. The commissioner conducted a survey of all
insurance companies doing business in Iowa, and the findings were so
disturbing that he caused regulations to be created prohibiting
discrimination against the blind by any company licensed to do business
in the state. Mr. Anderson then took his findings to the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners, and that organization passed a
resolution condemning such discrimination. Just as it did with the Model
White Cane Law, the national body of the Federation drafted a model
insurance regulation and encouraged its enactment by state insurance
regulators. Jim was extremely helpful in providing guidance to state
affiliates and even testified before state insurance commissions in
support of the prohibition.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">As
Fredric Schroeder observes: "Today, we do not think much about the
ability to purchase life insurance, and that is due in large part to Mr.
Omvig. In the 70s and 80s, many blind people were denied life insurance
on the assumption that blind people were more likely to die as a result
of accidents. Mr. Omvig understood that assumptions about blind people
were at the heart of lost opportunities: lack of access to a good
education, lack of access to employment, lack of access to renting hotel
rooms, and lack of access to buses and trains. In short, Mr. Omvig knew
that discrimination was the major barrier facing blind people, and
discrimination in all its forms had to be opposed."<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">After
nine wonderful years working at the Iowa Commission for the Blind, Jim
accepted a Federation assignment and moved to Baltimore to work for the
Social Security Administration. At the time about 150 blind people were
working for the agency, but they were limited to answering telephones
and fielding questions from the public. James Gashel, the head of the
National Federation of the Blind's Washington office, was instrumental
in convincing officials of the agency that the way to greater employment
opportunities for the blind and avoiding a lawsuit from the Federation
lay in hiring someone who could look at the procedures of the agency and
figure out how to open other employment opportunities. It seemed to
President Jernigan and Mr. Gashel that Jim would be the perfect fit,
being a lawyer and having previous experience in the federal government.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
was hired, and in 1981 the glass ceiling preventing blind people from
accepting other positions within the agency was shattered. Nearly three
years of work resulted in the following policy statement being read by
the newly appointed director of the Social Security Administration:
"Today, I wish to announce a clarification of the policy which affects
employment and promotional opportunity for otherwise qualified partially
and totally blind SSA employees. I have determined that there are no
significant factors which make it impossible for blind persons to
perform the full range of the GS 10 claims representative (CR) position.
Therefore, it is SSA policy that otherwise qualified partially or
totally blind individuals may be promoted to the journeyman GS 10 CR
position within the standard CR position description . . . . I am
committed not only to providing equal employment opportunity for blind
persons, but also for all qualified handicapped individuals." This
breakthrough was significant not only for the Social Security
Administration but for other agencies in the federal government that had
good, quality jobs blind people were capable of performing.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">In
the late 1970s the National Federation of the Blind found that
regulations which had been passed to assist the blind and otherwise
physically disabled in air travel were being used to limit them. Many
Federationists were arrested for insisting on their right to use and
keep with them the canes that provided independent mobility. Some of us
were asked to sit on blankets, the logic being that some handicapped
people had accidents and soiled airline seats. Mr. Omvig was one of
those who were arrested, and he and many others testified at hearings
sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result of those
hearings blind people can now travel with their guide dogs and canes;
there is no limit as to the number of blind passengers who can fly on an
aircraft; there is no requirement that we sit on blankets or other
items used in dealing with incontinence. We are prevented from sitting
in exit rows, but the frustration we encounter with airlines today is
far less than it was, and this is due in no small part to the work of
Mr. Omvig's talent in writing, speaking, and developing important
relationships with the policymakers of that era.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">After
five years working for the Social Security Administration, Mr. Omvig
once again returned to the pursuit of his dream to direct an orientation
and training center. This took him to the state of Alaska in the fall
of 1984. When he arrived, he found himself in charge of an agency that
was housed in a World War II Quonset hut. Bleakness and despair were in
evidence in the blind people seeking services. In January of 1985 Mr.
Omvig went to the governor and the legislature, and the funds to run the
agency were doubled. A new five-unit apartment building was purchased
and remodeled to become a residential training center for blind adults.
It contained sleeping rooms for twelve residents, one staff apartment,
and administrative offices. Putting the building into service as a
training center required asking the city of Anchorage to rezone the
property, which they did. In the spring of 1986 governor Bill Sheffield
dedicated the Alaska Center for Blind Adults. Though the willingness of
state officials to purchase and remodel the center was commendable, they
did not provide funds to furnish the building. To Mr. Omvig and other
leaders of the NFB in Alaska fell the task of going to Lions Clubs with
the request that they help in furnishing the center. Through the work of
individual clubs and the statewide body, the center was furnished and
began serving students.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">In
1987 Jim found himself troubled with bad health, and by the end of that
year his doctor told him that he had no choice but to stop working. It
would take several years for Jim to be diagnosed with a rare condition
known as porphyria. Jim and Sharon moved to Arizona, and both became
active in the affiliate, assisting significantly and advancing its
legislative agenda for providing better services to blind people. He
continued writing about the value of separate agencies for the blind and
what proper training in those agencies could do, and, as he began to
exert better control over his health, he was asked to visit many states
to evaluate their programs and make recommendations for improvement.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Although
one of the goals of the Federation is to see that quality
rehabilitation is available to all blind people regardless of where they
live, the reality is that not all rehabilitation centers are equal, and
not all of them are guided by the positive philosophy of the National
Federation of the Blind. In 1992 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
were passed and signed into law. One of those amendments introduced the
concept of informed choice into the act, providing in federal law the
opportunity for recipients of rehabilitation services to decide where
they would go to receive service. In theory this would mean that a
person living in Montana could go to a rehabilitation center in
Louisiana, or that a person living in Maryland could go to Colorado or
Minnesota. Practically speaking, however, rights guaranteed in federal
law have been slow to be implemented in the states, and they have
strongly favored either rehabilitation centers that they fund or centers
with which they have done business in the past. Implementing informed
choice in practice has often meant finding people who want to go to a
center outside their state, helping them to appeal the denial of the
rehabilitation counselor, and getting and winning a fair hearing. Mr.
Omvig has used his skills as a lawyer and an advocate in helping to
draft these appeals and has traveled extensively to participate in these
hearings.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">In
all of the assignments he has been given as a Federation member, none
was more difficult than the one that brought him to work to advance the
rights of blind people working in sheltered workshops. President Maurer
and other colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind believed we
needed someone to work from the inside to make changes in the system
that employed thousands of blind people at wages that were far below
their productive capacity. Mr. Omvig was persuaded to apply for and was
appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Committee for
Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. He was
initially appointed in 2003 and was reappointed in 2007. During his
tenure Mr. Omvig served on a number of important subcommittees and task
forces and was elected as vice chairman of the committee.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">When
accepting his newest Federation assignment, Jim knew that there was
little the National Federation of the Blind and what would come to be
called the AbilityOne Commission had in common. Certainly each group had
little respect for the other. What the organizations knew about one
another they didn't like. The committee viewed the NFB as a group of
malcontents and rabble-rousers who knew nothing about running businesses
that employed the blind. The NFB believed the committee to be composed
of self-serving agency directors who cared less about uplifting the
blind people they were to serve than they did about increasing their own
prestige and income. In the opinion of the Federation, these were
people who may have come to do good but who stayed to do well. Their
salaries and their place in the community came on the backs of
hard-working blind people, who got little from their effort in money,
benefits, or their productive work.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">When
Mr. Omvig began his work with the committee, he followed a strategy
that had evolved from a question Dr. Jernigan had once asked him and his
fellow students: "What is the purpose of a speech?" The answer was "To
get people to love you. If you can't get them to love you, they won't
pay much attention to what you have to say." This became Jim's compass.
He would not go to make war—soldiers on each side knew full well how
that could be done. Instead, he would go as an ambassador, a man in
search of friends, a human face that would go the first few steps in
dispelling the myths about Federationists as unreasonable, militant, and
foolish dreamers who believed in a future the blind could never have
because they weren't capable enough to earn or retain it. Jim would
build relationships based on common traits and would show that this
commonality could be used as a foundation to build trust. On that trust
he and his new-found friends could begin to make change that might one
day revolutionize the sheltered workshop system where thousands of blind
people worked and sometimes lived.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">But
the Omvig strategy was not obvious to some of his Federation colleagues
and disappointed more than a few of his friends. He had gone to the
committee to represent the Federation, so where were his protests? Why
wasn't he using his seat to make changes so long overdue? Because Jim
was a part of the Federation family, some who loved and cared about him
and who cared deeply about rights for shop workers came to him with
their concerns. Although he appreciated the chance to clarify his
strategy, to explain his understanding that most fundamental changes
take time, and to show the incremental changes his participation was
having, the idea that he might not be trusted hurt, and carrying out
this work proved to be one of the hardest assignments he ever undertook.
He gave nine years of his life to traveling, negotiating, and trying to
change how those in the system felt about blind people.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Even
with his sadness at having his motives—or at least his
strategy—questioned, Mr. Omvig is proud of the change in workshops he
has witnessed over the past forty years and is proud to count among his
friends people who once thought that he and his fellow Federation
members were meatheads—people who were dead from the neck up. He is
proud of the expanded employment opportunities that have resulted from
his service on the committee, and he is proud to have played some small
part in National Industries for the Blind paying at least the minimum
wage in all of its sheltered shops having AbilityOne contracts and
requiring that any agency doing business with it do likewise. In its
most recent move, National Industries for the Blind has decided that no
person affiliated with a workshop that holds a section 14(C) certificate
can hold a position on its Board of Directors.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Jim
has been active in a number of other efforts to help in the education
and rehabilitation of the blind. He has served on the board of directors
of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at
Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. This is the first
institute of its kind to implement the philosophy of the National
Federation of the Blind in teacher-training programs. In addition to
needing better teacher training, Jim and other Federation colleagues
realized that the certifying authority for providing training to the
blind often used vision as a requirement for certification. And so was
born the National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB),
whose purpose was to develop standards that did not discriminate against
the blind and which also emphasized competence in teaching the skills
that were most likely to lead to an education, a job, and a life equal
to those enjoyed by sighted Americans. He also served proudly on this
board and has also been instrumental in helping to develop the policies
and standards of the body.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Increasingly over the last two decades Mr. Omvig has turned his attention from writing articles to writing books. <i>Freedom for the Blind: The Secret is Empowerment</i> has
won widespread praise in the field of rehabilitation, and many students
credit this book with encouraging them to go into the field. <i>The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words</i> has
also figured prominently in documenting the challenges and triumphs of
what many have called "the miracle of Iowa," but Mr. Omvig concludes
that there was no miracle there, only the application of good, solid
attitudes and the willingness to believe in blind people.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">One
of the things Mr. Omvig is most proud about is that his service extends
well beyond organizations of and for the blind. He became the founding
president of the Des Moines East Town Lions Club and was elected as
president of the congregation of the Grant Park Christian Church in Des
Moines. He was vice president of the Catonsville, Maryland, Lions Club
and was a deacon (which came with the job of serving communion) and a
member of the board of trustees of the Christian Temple in the Disciples
of Christ Church in Baltimore. He has also served as the president of
the International Air Crossroads Lions Club in Anchorage, Alaska.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Of
all the honors and awards Mr. Omvig has received, none has touched him
more deeply than the Jacobus tenBroek award in 1986. He received this
award for helping gain the right of blind shop workers to unionize, for
leading the effort to eliminate insurance discrimination against the
blind, for helping to end discrimination against blind air travelers,
and for his writings on how to provide quality training to vocational
rehabilitation clients.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">No
single article can do justice to the life's work of Jim Omvig.
Thankfully there are others who have committed his story to paper and
places where he gives first-hand accounts of what it has been like to be
one of the pioneers in the civil rights movement for the blind. I can
think of no better way to conclude this article than with comments made
by two of Mr. Omvig's finest friends and admirers. Not surprisingly both
have given a significant amount of their energy to the field of
rehabilitation, taking the improvement of it as one of their Federation
responsibilities and assignments. About her friends, the Omvigs, Joanne
Wilson says: "Jim and Sharon worked with a tireless passion to give back
to the movement what they got from the NFB. They worked on systemic
problems that would make the lives of the blind better, but they also
spent hours and hours talking with individuals, both blind and sighted,
over dinners in their home, at conventions, on a plane, in a discussion
group, and anywhere they were—sharing the truth about blindness. They
have truly dedicated their lives to giving back what they learned about
blindness so others could have more enriched lives. Thanks for asking me
to be a small part in giving them this tribute."<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">And
Fred Schroeder says: "When I think of Mr. Omvig, I think of kindness; I
think of a man with tremendous ability and one blessed with the power
of persuasion. Mr. Omvig knows how to lead, knows how to inspire others
to do more than they believe they are capable of doing, and knows what
it means to share the disappointment of exclusion and heartache that
come from society's low expectations. He is not a man to live according
to the assumptions of others; he is not content to build a life just for
himself and his family; he is a man who gives all that he has on behalf
of blind people. He is a role model, a mentor, a leader, and, most of
all, a friend."<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;">Seize the Future</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">The
National Federation of the Blind has special giving opportunities that
will benefit the giver as well as the NFB. Of course the largest benefit
to the donor is the satisfaction of knowing that the gift is leaving a
legacy of opportunity. However, gifts may be structured to provide more:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<ul type="disc"><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Helping the NFB fulfill its mission<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Realizing income tax savings through a charitable deduction<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Making capital gain tax savings on contributions of appreciated assets<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Eliminating or lowering the federal estate tax in certain situations<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Reducing estate settlement costs<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">NFB programs are dynamic:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<ul type="disc"><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Making the study of science and math a real possibility for blind children<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Providing hope and training for seniors losing vision<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Promoting state and local programs to help blind people become first-class citizens<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Educating the public about blind people’s true potential<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Advancing technology helpful to the blind<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Creating a state-of-the-art library on blindness<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Training and inspiring professionals working with the blind<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Providing critical information to parents of blind children<u></u><u></u></span></li><li style="color:black;" class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Mentoring blind job seekers<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul>
<div class="yiv7986259091MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black;">Your gift makes you a partner in the NFB dream. For further information or assistance, contact the NFB.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<div><b><font size="2">Sharon Maneki, Director of Legislation and Advocacy</font></b></div>
<div><font size="2">National Federation of the Blind of Maryland</font></div>
<div><font size="2">410-715-9596</font></div>
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<div><font size="2">The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Everyday 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.<br>
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