[Nfbmo] Intern's efforts broaden access to vital historic documents

[Julie McGinnity]

Hi everyone,  This is an article I read about my friend Sierra Gregg,
who was a national scholarship winner in 2012.  I thought this article
was pretty good, and the work she has done is so interesting and
impressive.

Intern's efforts broaden access to vital historic documents

Doug Moore


Sierra Gregg was excited about her internship at the Office of
Presidential Libraries in Washington. Her task in the summer of 2011
was to help beef up the office’s social media presence on sites such
as Facebook and Twitter.

As the 21st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act was
approaching, Gregg, a student at Truman State University, began
looking for records to feature, but found only two, neither of which
was a copy of the law that changed the way those with disabilities are
treated in the U.S. And neither was in a format that would allow
software or reading equipment used by those visually impaired to be of
use.

“I was shocked and kind of mad, I guess, because of all the events I’d
been covering and researching, this was the one I was looking forward
to the most,” said, Gregg, 21, who grew up in the small St. Louis
County community of Oakland, near Kirkwood. “So I mentioned this to my
supervisor that I wanted more ADA records to be digitized. And we came
up with the idea to create a Web page to feature these records.”

Gregg’s passion for making more documents accessible to those with
disabilities is understandable. She was born with a rare birth defect
that left her legally blind.

On July 26, the 22nd anniversary of the signing of the ADA, the
National Archives launched Gregg’s new Web page, which contains 56
newly digitized documents. The records include letters Helen Keller
wrote to President Herbert Hoover and a letter written in Braille by a
13-year-old boy to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law by President
George H.W. Bush in 1990, a year before Gregg was born.

“I have grown up in a world where my visual impairment is not a
hindrance to my success, only a characteristic of who I am,” said
Gregg, who went to Ursuline Academy and is now working on a computer
science degree at Truman State.

Jeannie Chen, social media coordinator for the Office of Presidential
Libraries, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration,
said Gregg’s passion brought to light the shortage of documents
readily accessible.

“We had hoped to find more of those records already scanned and
online,” Chen said. “Sierra helped us realize this was an area where
we could serve more people.”

PRESIDENTIAL GEMS

Gregg began looking through the websites for the 13 presidential
libraries. Documents already online were not always in a format that
could be manipulated to be read more clearly.

So the office, with the help of other summer interns, began
transcribing them so they could be digitally formatted. Doing so
allows the text to be greatly magnified online for the visually
impaired.

The records Gregg helped collect for the site, archives.gov, go beyond
the ADA. For example, there are documents from the administration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio and started what is now the March
of Dimes. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, elevated
awareness of mental health care. And President John F. Kennedy’s
sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was the driving force behind the
creation of the Special Olympics.

“This was a great project because it broadened the types of records we
have. Sierra worked on making things more accessible in general,” Chen
said.

The site explains the highlighted documents this way: “From personal
letters to historic legislation, these records provide insight into
efforts over the past century to establish programs and to protect the
rights of people with disabilities.”

Gregg’s efforts were noted on The White House Blog, where she detailed
her internships during the summers of 2011 and 2012. Susan K. Donius,
director of the Office of Presidential Libraries, introduced Gregg’s
blog entry, saying the college student “recognizes the importance of
sharing presidential records related to disability history. She has
been closely involved in a project to make a selection of these
documents accessible to a wide audience.”

In the blog post, Gregg said at least one record from every
presidential administration since Hoover is included on the site,
including her favorite, a letter from a sixth-grade boy to Eisenhower
in 1956, offering advice for his re-election campaign.

“Dear Ike,” the letter from John Beaulieu, a student at a
Massachusetts school for the blind, begins. “I decided to write you a
little speech which might help you to win the election.”

Little, it was.

“Vote for me. I will help you out. I will lower the prices and also
your tax bill. I also will help the Negroes, so that they may go to
school.”

Eisenhower, who won re-election, replied to Beaulieu: “Dear John: It
was nice of you to send me a little speech to help win the election.
... I wish I were able to write back to you in Braille also, but I am
sure that one of your teachers will be happy to read this to you.”

In her blog post, Gregg also noted that two letters written to
President Hoover by Keller are among the documents on the site. Gregg
said Keller wrote letters to eight U.S. presidents, starting in 1903
with Theodore Roosevelt, and met with 13 presidents, from Grover
Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson.

“I must admit to feeling a twinge of envy when I learned that during a
visit to the White House, she investigated her historic surroundings
with touch. She even identified a bust of George Washington with her
fingers,” Gregg said of Keller.

CULTURE SHOCK

John Thompson, president of Lighthouse for the Blind-St. Louis, which
provides various services to the visually impaired, said Gregg’s
efforts are impressive, especially given her personality.

“I remember when I first met her, timid is putting it mildly,” said
Thompson. Gregg went through Lighthouse’s three-week residential
program for teens stressing independence, including communication and
social skills.

“There is a tendency for so many kids who are visually impaired to not
go out to get the experiences that sighted kids get,” Thompson said.
“As they go through adolescence, they tend to become an island into
themselves.”

Gregg said she recalled getting an email accepting applications for
the internship and thought it would fit nicely with her plans to go to
graduate school for a library science degree.

But she admits Washington was culture shock for her. Her commute to
work included crowded buses and trains. Using public transportation is
something encouraged in the Lighthouse program Gregg participated in.

Had she not gone through the program, “I would never have made it in
D.C.,” Gregg said. Lighthouse also provided scholarships to help with
her housing costs in Washington.

As Gregg works to complete her studies with an eye on library
management, Chen says she is glad the young woman from St. Louis spent
two summers in Washington.

“She brought such a strong interest,” Chen said. As a result, “we were
able to create a really wonderful resource at the agency that will end
up being valuable to the general public.”

Link to article:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/intern-s-efforts-broaden-access-to-vital-historic-documents/article_1879a78e-fbc3-5b04-9711-95660351b414.html




-- 
Julie McG
National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life."
John 3:16