[nfbmi-talk] Braille Monitor Articles

[Larry Posont]

Monitor Miniatures News from the Federation Family Resolutions for
Convention: Here is a message from Sharon Maneki, who chairs the NFB
resolutions committee: Do you think we should change a government
policy, take a stand concerning an agency for the blind, or create new
regulations? If you do, consider writing a resolution. At the 2012
national convention the resolutions committee meeting will be held on
Sunday, July 1. The committee will debate and discuss resolutions on a
wide variety of subjects. If passed by the Convention, these
resolutions will become the policy statements of the organization. To
ensure that your resolution will be considered by the committee,
please send it to President Maurer or to me by June 15, two weeks
before the committee meeting. If you send a resolution to me by email
and do not receive a response acknowledging your email in two or three
days, please call or send it again. If you miss the deadline, you must
get three members of the committee to sponsor your resolution and then
get it to the chairman before the meeting begins. I will be pleased to
accept resolutions by email, <nfbmd at earthlink.net>; fax, (410)
715-9597; or snail mail, 9013 Nelson Way, Columbia, Maryland 21045.
How to Pay for Your Hotel Stay in Dallas: This helpful information
comes from Tony Cobb, who has been a fixture in the lobby of our
convention hotels for as long as I can remember. Here is his advice
about paying for your hotel stay: Every year at our national
convention we have serious trouble with use of debit cards or cash
payments at hotel check-in, and, having worked to solve these problems
for years, I can tell you they can nearly ruin the convention week for
those experiencing them. Planning to attend our national convention
should therefore include thinking seriously about how to pay the
hotel, and I cannot urge you strongly enough to avoid using cash or a
debit card as your payment method. Doing so may seem convenient, but
you should not do so. If you do not have a credit card of your own to
use instead, prevail upon a close friend or family member to let you
use one just for convention. Here's why: If you are paying in actual
currency, most hotels will want enough cash up front at check-in to
cover your room and tax charges for the entire stay, plus a one-time
advance incidentals deposit to cover meals, telephone calls, Internet
service, and other things you may charge to your room. The unused
portion of the incidentals deposit may be returned at check-out or by
mail after departure. Understand, however, that, if your incidentals
charges exceed the incidentals deposit credited, you are responsible
for payment of the full balance at checkout. The total can end up
being a very large sum indeed. If you use a debit card, however, you
are really at a potentially painful disadvantage. The hotel will put a
hold on money in your bank account linked to the debit card to cover
the estimated balance of your stay-that is, for the entire week's room
and tax charges plus a one-time incidentals deposit to cover meals,
movies, and so on charged to your room. You should be aware that the
hold can therefore be a considerable amount of money and that you will
not have access to that amount for any other purchases or payments
with your card. (Hotels sometimes also put authorizations on credit
cards, by the way, but those are not often a problem unless they
exceed your card's credit limit.) Holds can remain in effect for three
to five days or even a week after you check out. If you have
pre-authorized payments from your bank account, for example your
monthly mortgage payment, or if you try to make a purchase with your
debit card and it's refused, the hold from the hotel can cause you
trouble or result in very large overdraft fees for payments you
thought you had money in your account to cover. I have seen this hit
some of our members in the form of hundreds of dollars in overdraft
fees. This means that, if you use a debit card, you would have to be
certain you have a high enough balance in your checking account when
you come to convention to cover any debit card holds. This is a
perilous practice since charges may exceed your estimate by a
considerable amount. (Some frequent travelers even open a separate
checking account used only for debits like these.) Remember, a hold is
going to be placed on your debit card regardless of how you end up
paying the bill, and the hold is not necessarily released right away,
even if you pay with a credit card or cash when you check out of the
hotel. Planning ahead in this area can ensure an untroubled week at
convention, leaving you free to enjoy fully the world's largest and
most exciting meeting of the blind. See you as usual in the lobby at
check-in-using a credit card, I hope. Attention All Federationists
with Cerebral Palsy: Come one and all to form a new division of the
National Federation of the Blind to help improve the lives of blind
people with cerebral palsy. It will be the National Federation of the
Blind with Cerebral Palsy Division. If you have cerebral palsy and you
are blind, or if you know someone who is blind who has cerebral palsy,
this is a good opportunity for networking to develop this division.
The purpose of the division is to provide support for blind people
with cerebral palsy in pursuing successful and independent lives. If
anyone is interested in developing this division, contact Alex Kaiser
at <AScottKaiser90 at inbox.com>. He can also be reached at (973)
525-8096. Meetings of this group will be held by telephone conference
call on the first Monday of each month from August through June from
7:00 p.m., to 8:30 p.m. Eastern in a free Conference Pro conference
room. The conference dial-in telephone number is (218) 632-3715. The
access code to enter after the greeting is 999999 followed by the
pound key. Feel free to contact Alex with additional questions. The
2012 National Convention Youth Track: Meleah Jensen of the Jernigan
Institute Education Department sends us the following information: The
annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind is always
jammed with exciting activities, and this year in Dallas will be no
different. If you are between the ages of eleven and eighteen or are
bringing a young person to convention who is, you should definitely
plan to participate in the Youth Track activities. These activities on
the convention agenda are specifically for young people. They will
foster positive attitudes about blindness and encourage social
interactions between blind youth and successful blind adult mentors.
This year the Youth Track will consist of twelve activities spread
across six days. In some of the activities the whole group will stay
together. In others the group will be divided into eleven- to
fourteen-year-olds and fifteen-to-eighteen-year-olds. All of the
activities are interactive and high energy. The Youth Track will open
with a creative problem-solving activity called "Balloon Build or
Bust," first thing Saturday, June 30. Activities will continue
throughout Saturday and will include opportunities for creative
expression, exploration of NFB popular culture, and our own
Federationbook activity, the social media network you may not have
heard of. Throughout the rest of the week youth will participate in
activities in which they will explore the Federation, socialize,
recreate, and put on their creative-writing caps. We are looking
forward to seeing all the youth in Dallas. As we get closer to
convention, we will publish an official Youth Track agenda. Watch for
it on the listservs and at < www.nfb.org/YouthTrack >. Some of the
activities will have limited space and will require prompt
registration. For more information and to ask questions, please
contact Meleah Jensen at (410) 659-9314, extension 2418, or by email
at < mjensen at nfb.org >. NAGDU Now on Facebook: The National
Association of Guide Dog Users, (NAGDU), a division of the National
Federation of the Blind, is pleased to announce its move into social
media. NAGDU now has a Facebook page in which guide dog users, puppy
raisers, guide and service dog trainers, and those interested in the
training and use of guide and service dogs can discuss and exchange
information about these wonderful animals and the human-animal bond.
Please check out our page by following these steps: 1. In the search
field of your Facebook page type "National Association of Guide Dog
Users" or "NAGDU" and click on groups. Please take note of the capital
letters and the symbols when searching for the NAGDU group. 2. You can
also access the NAGDU group directly by clicking on the following
link: < http://m.facebook.com/groups/124908860968667?
view=members&status=1&stype=atgs&number=0&refid=0&_rdr >. 3. If the
link does not take you to the NAGDU page, copy and paste the link into
your web browser and press enter. NAGDU is please to make this forum
available to everyone and hopes that you will join in discussions,
provide comments, and share information with everyone. New Chapter:
The newly formed At-Large Chapter of the NFB of Illinois elected the
following board at its April meeting: president, Leslie Hamric; vice
president, Linda Hendle; secretary/treasurer, Charlene Elder; and
board members, Sid Weiner and Danny Mandrell. Rice University and CCB
Students in the News: The following story appeared in the Wednesday,
March 7, 2012, edition of the Littleton Independent: Center for Blind
Students Host Visitors from Texas by Jennifer Smith, Community Media
of Colorado A team of students from Rice University in Houston spent
part of their spring break in Littleton [Colorado] on "The Mile High
Mission: Overcoming Disability. Part of the mission was to help
Colorado Center for the Blind students move into the apartment
building the center recently purchased near Lowell Boulevard and
Bowles Avenue. But a larger part was walking in the blind students'
shoes for a few hours, learning that blindness does not equal defeat.
You're all to be congratulated," Julie Deden, the center's director,
told the Rice students on March 2, the last day of their visit. You've
learned so much in such a short period of time. ... With good
training, being blind does not have to be a barrier at all. It can be
very natural. The visit was arranged through Rice's Community
Involvement Center, to which students have to apply and be accepted.
The beginning of their week was spent skiing with disabled students in
Winter Park, in cooperation with the National Sports Center for the
Disabled. The NSCD and the CCB are both so unique in their approach to
working with disability and so established throughout the country that
the trip is made more effective by going all the way to Colorado to
study the social issue," according to Rice's website. Judging from the
emotional goodbyes after the going-away luncheon, which everyone
helped prepare while wearing sleep shades, the social aspect of the
visit was successful. You guys make it seem like a vacation," said
Rice student Natalie Lazarescou. You feed us every day and you tell us
stories. And we get the pleasure of seeing a different community, of
stepping out of the hedges and realizing it's not all about us. It's
so refreshing. The Rice students did, however, use words like
"disorienting" and "isolating" to describe their sleepshade
experiences. It's absolutely amazing what you guys do on a daily
basis," said Rice student Shaurya Agarwal. The CCB students, in turn,
enjoyed teaching their visitors about their lives. Thank you for the
time you took away from your spring break to be with us," said CCB
student Trish Cavallaro. Now you know we have a great life, and we
experience great things, just like you. Requests for Accommodations
Based on Disability: The convention of the National Federation of the
Blind is intended to be accessible, especially to blind people.
Materials are offered in accessible formats, and other nonvisual aids
are provided. If you require specific accommodations based on your
disability other than the blindness-related accommodations routinely
provided by the Federation in order to participate fully and equally
in the convention, let us know as soon as possible. Because of the
size and complexity of this convention as well as the need to plan for
additional human and other resources, requests for specific
accommodations must be submitted no later than May 31, 2012. In order
to make a request, 1) preregister for the convention by visiting <
http://www.nfb.org/registration >; and 2) send your request for
specific accommodations in writing to the attention of Mark Riccobono
by email at <mriccobono at nfb.org>. Be sure to include your name, the
dates you plan to be at the convention, information on the best method
of following up with you, and your specific request. Attention Braille
Book Lovers: Last month we carried a notice entitled "Braille Book
Fair 2012. Here is additional information about the event from Barbara
Cheadle: Last year Peggy Chong announced the Braille Book Flea
Market/Fair, and introduced me as the new coordinator. Thanks to our
book donors and volunteers, it was a great event. Here are the details
about this year's event and information about how you can help. Date
and Location: Monday, July 2, 2012, NFB convention, Hilton Anatole
Hotel, 2201 North Stemmons Frthat's eeway, Dallas, Texas 75207.
Donations: If you can donate Braille books, send them to the address
below. As always, we desperately need print/Braille children's
storybooks. Ship the books to Vanessa Pena, 10155 Monroe, Dallas, TX
75229. You can ship them Free Matter for the Blind using the Postal
Service. Please keep volumes of the same book together if at all
possible. Recognition: If you donate books, please send me a note
telling me how many books or boxes of books you are shipping. We want
to recognize your donations in our magazine, Future Reflections ,
after the event. We don't have time to check return addresses when we
unpack and sort the books at the event, so sending me a note when you
ship the books is the best way to make sure we can recognize your
generous donation. Send your information to Barbara Cheadle at <
bacheadle at msn.com > or 230 North Beaumont Ave., Catonsville, MD 21228;
home (410) 747-3472; cell (410) 300-5232. Volunteers Needed: We need
print- and Braille-reading volunteers to unpack, sort, setup, assist
customers, and clean up. Please contact me if you can volunteer for
two or more hours any time between noon and 8:00 p.m. on Monday, July
2, 2012, at the NFB convention. The actual event will occur between
5:00 and 7:00 p.m.