[Nfbmo] The Blind Missourian
Eugene S. Coulter
escoulter at centurytel.net
Mon Jun 30 05:17:05 UTC 2014
June 2014
National Federation of the Blind
Of Missouri
“Striving to achieve Equality, Opportunity, and Security for the Blind”
Table of Contents
Presidential Report 1
2014 Resolutions 9
Mark Laird Retires: By Gary Wunder 12
Dr. Richard J. Smith Leaves Wolfner Library to Run
Network Services for NLS in Washington, DC.: By Dan Flasar 14
Grace Haner: By Rita Lynch 16
Graduating Class of 2014: By Carol Coulter 16
A Little About Me: By Carol Coulter 17
Presidential Report
By Gary Wunder
Presented to the
Fifty-Second Convention of the
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
March 29, 2014
Columbia, Missouri
What a pleasure it is to stand before you this afternoon to report on the progress of our affiliate over the last twelve months. This report will no doubt be a bit shorter than some I have presented, certainly a relief to the editor of the Blind Missourian who, last year, asked if I thought that there were certain parts that could be omitted prior to publication. Now I'm not always the most perceptive guy in the room, but even I got the idea that this address might have gone on a little long. So, let me see if I can condense, be a bit more concise, and still give you the flavor of what it was like to be a part of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri since the last time I made this address.
Few pieces of news can upset a household more than a letter in the mail telling them that next month's check will not arrive or receiving a call from the bank telling them that their account is overdrawn and the last deposit expected never came. This has been the experience of far too many Missourians who are the recipient of the Blind Pension, a monthly allotment of $711, which is accompanied by medical benefits that often make the difference between having healthcare and not.
This year we have been overrun by complaints. Sometimes they come from the blind people who are directly affected and sometimes from relatives who have been asked to take up the slack when they learn that their mother, father, brother, or sister has lost a good part of their monthly income. Many who make these distress calls have no idea what agency it is that sends them their money; sometimes they think that we are the advocates who can get it straight, but, more often than not, they call to voice their frustration at us, believing we are the ones who have stopped their much-needed payments. It is a rare week when we don't get at least three distress calls, and there is nothing as moving and compelling as these voices to convince us that our organizing, our meetings, and our discussions are no game: we conduct real business that affects real people and does so in the most dramatic of ways.
Some of these complaints I can triage: call the number on the letter, talk with someone at the center in Jefferson City, write a letter appealing your dismissal, take your application to your local office of the Family Support Division and get a signature for its receipt. Many others, however, I direct to the man in our organization who knows the most about the ins and outs of the Blind Pension program and that is Gene Coulter. He is the patient fellow who listens to how life has been for the last six months without a check, the meetings that have been held, the letters that have allegedly been sent but never received, and the consequences when the money stops. He is the man who often goes back one or two years to find the glitch in the paperwork that stopped the checks from coming. He is the one who helps to see that they start again. Gene is the fellow who can tell you off the top of his head the names of at least thirty people he has helped this year, and I know that he has helped at least twice that many, calls that he doesn't remember, probably ones he has taken over dinner or some other meal but hasn't written on his list.
So what is this problem with blind pension really all about? First and foremost it's about a system that has an annual requirement to be recertified, a system that sends out notices to recipients and allows only ten days for them to provide proof of income, assets, and important changes since their last review. It's about forms that do not come with clear labeling so that the reader understands that what he or she is being asked to complete is as important as their $711 a month and their medical care. Last but not least, it is about blind people who refuse to take seriously the obligation to have a system in place to read and respond to the printed word when it comes on paper in an envelope delivered by the Postal Service. The reading of our mail should be as second nature as eating and sleeping, but without a system in place, this task too often falls to a sighted spouse, a child, or an occasional friend or family member who passes by.
In our next agenda item we will talk about what problems can and should be addressed by the Family Support Division and the system it uses for notifying Blind Pension recipients that they must be recertified. We will also talk about the timeframe allowed for this recertification and about the inability of the blind recipient to talk with someone who can really assist him or her in the struggle to see that the monthly check they count on continues.
In 2010 we played a pivotal role in reuniting a father, a mother, and their blind infant when she was taken by children's services workers and placed in foster care for fifty-seven days. Since that time we have been trying to figure out what we can do to keep this kind of thing from happening again. After raising the money, paying for legal work, and getting baby Mikaela home, we turned our attention to the Missouri General Assembly and got a bill (actually more than one) introduced to prohibit blindness from being used as a reason to remove a child from his or her parents. These bills were eventually merged, passed by the legislature, and signed by the governor. The statute should make it more difficult for children to be removed from the custody of their blind parents.
But legislation is not enough. How can we change the system that transformed what should have been a day of happiness into a day of horror? As Anil Lewis is fond of telling us, making changes in the world is all about relationships. The people we need to reach are the social workers and supervisors whose job it is to protect young children. We want them to have contact with competent blind parents, to get their questions answered about how these parents perform the most routine activities involved in child care, and, most importantly, to learn the ways in which these parents assure that their children are raised in safe and nurturing environments. From a 50,000 foot view this looks pretty easy, but the devil is in the details. How do we address people in 114 counties? How do we deal with the turnover that exists in the field and ensure that the message we deliver today is still known by a majority of the workers who are serving the system in three years? In weighing what we wanted to do against the available options, we decided to do a video that can be used in conjunction with some personal presentations and can, if desired, be placed on the state of Missouri's website that is used for training caseworkers for children's services. We have spent more than a year making this video, and you saw the results this morning. I ask that you join me in thanking Carol Coulter and all of those who helped her in making this video a reality. I also ask for your support in seeing that we take every opportunity available to us to distribute it to children's services workers and others who will have a say in whether or not we who are blind have the right to raise our children free from unwarranted interference.
In late January the Missouri Affiliate was represented by six people at the Washington Seminar. They were Rosina Foster, Shelia Wright, Dan Flasar, Debbie Wunder, Bethany Bennington, and yours truly. We talked with the Congress about fair wages for persons with disabilities, the importance of technology we can use in the classroom, and the need for access to the technology that is available to most air travelers by virtue of purchasing a ticket. Our delegation was outstanding, and I hope you will join me in applauding them for their work during the seminar and their follow-up on returning home. These are important issues, and I thank all of you who take the time to make a call, write a letter, send a tweet, or Facebook your member of Congress as we work to get these bills enacted into law.
Ten days after our trip to DC, many of us found ourselves in Jefferson City talking with the legislature about strengthening the law that mandates the teaching of Braille and tying it to the National Reading Media Assessment, getting voting machines we can use for every election (not just the federal ones), and changing the law to exempt people who are permanently blind from the periodic vision exams currently required by law and paid for at the expense of the taxpayer. All of the proposals we went there to advance have been introduced as bills, and you will hear more about them tomorrow in a report from our most capable chairman of Governmental Affairs, Shelia Wright. Please join me in thanking her, all of those on her committee, and all who attended our Jefferson City Seminar and who continue to work so hard to see that we make legislative progress here in Missouri.
The president of our Missouri Association of Blind Students is Bethany Bennington. Last fall she organized a chemistry event at the Missouri School for the Blind which featured a session for the elementary students and one for the junior high and high school students. I know she will talk about the chemistry sessions in her report tomorrow, but I think that she has helped us take an important step in establishing a relationship with children at the school and has given them a glimpse of the future ahead of them should they choose to pursue careers involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Bethany has energy, intelligence, motivation, and talent; we are blessed by the fact that she chooses to share some of these with us and is a committed Federationist. I applaud her for her efforts in working to build and strengthen the student division and for her building bridges between the National Federation of the Blind and the Missouri School for the Blind.
This year has been a tough year in terms of those we have lost. I say tough when what I really want to say is that our losses have been almost unbearable. It has been difficult to go about the work we must do without the spark of Cora Underwood. I will miss the enthusiasm that Sam Parker came to find as he began to take hold of reenergizing the merchants division and sought to bring in people with whom we had never had contact before. I will miss Grace Haner and the admiration that I always felt whenever I heard her identify herself at a meeting. Grace was not just a person we helped when she was terminated from her job by a new supervisor who thought the blind had no business providing patient care; unlike so many, she was a person who decided to stay and herself become a helper. We can't replace the people we have lost, but we can see that we bring in new people who will come to occupy similarly special places in our lives and in the life of our organization. We'll do this for ourselves, for the blind people whose futures depend on us, and for those we have lost this year who counted on us to do the right thing during their lifetime and who now count on us to do what they would've done had they not been taken from us.
One of the things I value most about being a member of the National Federation of the Blind is the events we have during the course of the year that serve to recharge my batteries and rejuvenate my spirit. The national convention, our state convention, the national board meeting, the quarterly board meetings we have, the legislative seminars, and the chapter meetings where so much of our work is done all serve this purpose for me. But not all of our uplifting meetings are annual or predictable. This year I witnessed something that I consider nothing less than spectacular. The event was a leadership seminar dreamed up by our Missouri Affiliate board. The officers from every chapter were invited to participate in a Friday evening/all-day Saturday meeting, and the topics covered ranged from chapter friction to chapter cohesion; fundraising to philosophy; and advocacy that enables to systems that smother, overprotect, and enable bad behavior. The seminar was chaired by Julie McGinnity, and that is enough in itself to tell you that it was lively, upbeat, and energetic. What you may not associate with this person are characteristics such as organized, timely, and thorough. I pride myself on seeing the best in people and sometimes in uncovering qualities they never knew they had, but Julie on time, Julie the disciplinarian, Julie the enforcer. Who'd have thunk it? Every member who appeared on a panel first participated in email discussions and conference calls prior to the seminar, and each had a good idea about what they would say and what they would hear from their fellow panel members. I can't say enough about how positive I found the gathering and how impressed I am with all of the people who worked to make it a success. Julie, your organizational skills are far better than I ever hoped or dreamed they would be, your people skills are first-rate, and your enthusiasm is infectious. Thank you for deciding to share your time and energy with us as you continue the difficult balance in working your way through graduate school, maintaining an active social life, working a part-time job, and helping your fellow blind Americans.
One of the challenges we have been asked to address in the last several years is figuring out ways to help meet the shortfall in funding that has resulted from a poor economy and a downturn in many of the traditional sources we have used to raise money nationally. Soliciting by mail has become more difficult; asking for funds using the telephone is more expensive and less profitable. Bequests that have been so significant in determining whether we finished the year in the red or in the black are diminishing as the average middle-class family finds it more difficult to save and is often required to borrow against their most significant asset—their home. This year we were an active participant in the national auction that took place over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Bid for Equality. We made a significant contribution to help meet the fundraising goal during Meet the Blind Month. In February of this year we opened a thrift shoppe here in Columbia, and although it is a for-profit business, a percentage of its gross sales go to support the programs of the National Federation of the Blind. President Maurer and my son, Jason Sutton, worked out an agreement, and I encourage all of you, not now but when you are next in Columbia, to go by the Value Giant Thrift Shoppe, find yourself a bargain, and make a purchase that supports a local business and contributes to the finest charity I know.
Kendra Damron's name has been in several of these reports. We began working with her when she was in the second grade; she is now in the fifth. Her parents, Rusty and Ronda, have asked that she be taught Braille. Initially the school district agreed but changed its mind and discontinued Braille instruction. We told the Damron family that, if we could not get the school to teach Kendra Braille, we would do it ourselves. Ruby Polk, our second vice president and the owner of Braille Skills of Kansas City took on this task. Because of the distance that separates Ruby and Kendra, and because of Kendra's busy school schedule, the work that they have done together has been limited to weekends and holidays, but the instruction is ongoing, and Ruby reports good progress. There are also some hopeful signs from the school. Last summer at the national convention Kendra was evaluated using the National Reading Media Assessment, and this evaluation was provided to the school for consideration in Kendra's individualized education plan. Her school has also hired a different teacher of the blind, and the new teacher has done an evaluation which indicates that Kendra is capable of reading for only about fifteen minutes without experiencing a significant decrease in her reading speed, eyestrain and headaches. It now appears that Kendra will be provided with Braille instruction as a part of extended school year services, and these will begin in June. There is also a goal in her IEP that says she will know all of the 189 Braille contractions by the end of the upcoming school year. This implies that instruction will continue beyond the summer session and into the 2014-2015 school year.
Part of what is still missing in this plan is the true integration of Braille into Kendra's regular studies. The way that people build proficiency in reading and writing print is that it is required in almost all of their daily school routine. Reading and writing are bolstered in their study of literature, history, social studies, science, current events, and mathematics. The challenge for the Damron family is to see that Braille is integrated into Kendra's daily workload, not as a subject separate and apart from the meat of her school assignments. Please join me in thanking Ruby Polk for volunteering to provide instruction for Kendra, and in thanking Ronda and Rusty for believing in us and for daring to do what is required to see that their daughter will learn to efficiently read and write.
Last year I mentioned our intention to start an at-large chapter. We did, and tonight at the banquet we will charter the Show-Me Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri. Debbie Wunder spearheaded its creation and served as its first informal president. Chris Tisdal is the man who has made the monthly reminder calls and worked through lists of potential participants to engage others. This group, which meets by conference telephone once each month, has elected Dan Keller as its president and has even helped to initiate an activity that has garnered national attention and publicity. They have started a petition that Gene Fleeman will discuss tomorrow, and their work and our follow-up may well determine whether home appliances allow us to continue to live independently in our homes or cause us to retreat to nursing homes because the devices we need in order to remain independent are inaccessible.
In closing I want to talk with you about a few of our challenges. Getting the funding we need is always an issue, but it is one that may not be apparent by looking at our treasurer's report. When you listen to it tomorrow, I ask that you not only think about the ending balance that you hear, but about the decrease this represents from what we had last year. Then consider these things: we have dedicated ourselves to being one of twenty-six states to operate a BELL (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning) Program. It will take place this summer and will last two weeks. The board of directors has already committed $5,000 to the project, but how far will $5,000 go when we must rent a building, hire a teacher, find lodging for our staff, purchase insurance for the event, and, if we can, work out a way to find transportation for the students who want to come. This will not happen on a budget of $5,000. Even without the BELL Program, we are strongly encouraged as a nonprofit organization to have liability insurance. Although I'm looking for better rates, the best information I have right now is that this is likely to cost us upwards of $4,000.
Many of the tasks we undertake get done because we have a strong and dedicated staff of volunteers, but volunteer effort doesn't cover the cost of building rental, transportation, lodging, or insurance. Sweat equity can only buy us so much when we have to hire legal counsel. It is likely we will soon begin producing the Blind Missourian on a flash drive that can be read by the machines provided by the National Library Service through Wolfner. This means that the cost of an audio version of the newsletter will go from sixty cents to about three dollars. If we really want to make our newsletter readable by people who are blind and people who are not comfortable with or efficient in using email and the Internet, we're going to have to have an audio version they can read and a Braille version they can get their hands on. A volunteer will still edit our newsletter, but getting it out will take money, more money than we have been accustomed to spending.
When Carol Morgan takes the floor tomorrow, I hope that you will make her feel welcome in her new role as the chairperson of the Ways and Means committee, but I hope you will do more than that. I hope you will not see this as Carol's work but as our work, that you will take the tickets we have to sell and ask your friends, neighbors, and loved ones to contribute to the work that is so important to you. We must look for new and creative ways to fund the work we do, and all of us have a dog in this fight. I want a BELL Program; I want us to provide legal assistance to blind people who need it; I want us to make more videos that tell people who we are and why our organization exists. I want to send more people to the national convention and to have us represented on more local and statewide committees. Let's make this happen by raising the money that is required. I know we can, and I believe we will!
I want to conclude by thanking you for all of the support you have given to me and to the work we jointly share. It is an honor to be the president of this organization, but I still feel the same urgency that I have communicated over the past several years about finding someone to take on this job. I will not foolishly run away from it without trying to ensure that we have someone willing and able to take on the responsibility, but I want to make it clear that my talk about transition is serious and sincerely felt. Loving the work we do not only means taking the responsibility that goes with it but seeing to its continuance. Please help me as together we search for someone who has the energy, the passion, and the desire to lead this organization. I know that when we find that person, you will give them all of the love, support, and dedication you have given to me. I thank you for this from the bottom of my heart, and I pledge to give you the best I have to give in the year to come.
The following are the resolutions that were passed at the 2014 Missouri Affiliate Convention:
Resolution 2014-01
A RESOLUTION REGARDING ACCESSIBLE EQUIPMENT FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF DIABETES
WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind has, since 1940, championed the independence of the blind and worked to make the world accessible to and safe for the blind; and
WHEREAS, to help increase the independence of blind people, the National Federation of the Blind has fought to make technology that is readily available to the sighted accessible for the blind; and
WHEREAS, according to the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness, affecting 4.1 million American adults over age forty; and
WHEREAS, very little technology currently on the market for constantly or periodically monitoring blood glucose, accurately delivering insulin, or performing other tasks to control diabetes is accessible to the blind, and insulin pens carry a disclaimer that they should not be used by the blind without supervision; and
WHEREAS, technology has been demonstrated to increase diabetes control in the sighted, and the same technology, made accessible to the blind, would improve diabetes control among blind and visually impaired diabetics and increase independence in maintaining such control; and
WHEREAS, the need for improved accessibility of lifesaving diabetes technology has been largely overlooked: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri in convention assembled this 30th day of March, 2014, in the City of Columbia, Missouri, that we strongly urge companies developing pens, pumps, glucometers, and other lifesaving diabetes control tools and technologies to integrate accessibility for the blind into the design and manufacture of such items, using the expertise available from the International Braille and Technology Center run by the National Federation of the Blind; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the Congress of the United States to mandate that accessibility standards be developed and implemented covering all such products manufactured or sold in this country; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the Missouri General Assembly to adopt similar standards that apply to equipment sold in Missouri; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the American Diabetes Association and other organizations dedicated to the management of and eventual cure of diabetes to publicize widely the shortcomings of diabetes tools and equipment currently marketed and the necessity of remedying these in their future products.
Resolution 2014-02
A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE TEACHING OF BRAILLE TO BLIND STUDENTS
WHEREAS, Missouri statutes provide that blind students shall be taught to read and write Braille, but THESE do not specify what evaluation tools should be used to make this determination for children who are blind and have some remaining vision; and
WHEREAS, HB 2089 is currently being considered by the Missouri General Assembly and specifies that the National Reading Media Assessment or other research-based assessments be used in making this determination; and
WHEREAS, passage of this legislation will result in blind children with some remaining vision being evaluated to determine whether print or Braille is the medium most likely to allow them to efficiently read and write: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri in convention assembled this 30th day of March, 2014, in the City of Columbia, Missouri, that we urge the Speaker of the House to assign this bill to a committee, that it be heard and passed, and that it be approved by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor so that blind children get the education that will allow them to participate fully and productively in the workforce of the twenty-first century.
Resolution 2014-03
A RESOLUTION REGARDING VOTING FOR THE BLIND
WHEREAS, the Help America Vote Act provides for an accessible voting machine in each precinct; and
WHEREAS, some precincts in Missouri only use these machines during federal elections, meaning that blind people cannot cast a secret ballot for state and local elections; and
WHEREAS, HB 1278 will require that these machines be made available for all elections, thereby affording the blind the right to a secret ballot: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri in convention assembled this 29th day of March, 2014, in the City of Columbia, Missouri, that we support and encourage the passage of HB 1278 and that we stand firmly for the position that any voting technology used in Missouri provide the blind the opportunity to vote using a secret ballot.
Resolution 2014-04
A RESOLUTION REGARDING VISION TESTS FOR THE PERMANENTLY BLIND
WHEREAS, recipients of the Missouri Blind Pension are periodically required to submit to visual examinations to ensure they still qualify to receive the Missouri Blind Pension; and
WHEREAS, the blindness of some recipients is permanent, as in the case of those who have prosthetic eyes, and repeated examinations cost the state without providing any benefit to the individual or the program: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri in convention assembled this 29th day of March, 2014, in the City of Columbia, Missouri, that this organization urges the passage of HB 1835, a bill that eliminates the requirement for periodic testing of blind people whose blindness is certifiably permanent and irreversible.
Resolution 2014-05
A RESOLUTION COMMENDING DR. RICHARD SMITH
WHEREAS, Dr. Richard Smith has been the Director of the Wolfner Talking Book and Braille Library for more than a dozen years; and
WHEREAS, his tenure has seen tremendous advances in the collection of books about Missouri and written by Missourians; and
WHEREAS, he has helped to bring about significant advancements in the electronic distribution of books and his efforts led to Missouri being one of the first pilot states to test the National Library Service for the Blind and Visually Handicapped digital player: Now, therefore,
BE it RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri in convention assembled this 29th day of March in the City of Columbia, Missouri, that we commend Dr. Smith for his stellar service to the library and for his commitment to expanding the materials available to the blind of Missouri.
Mark Laird Retires
By Gary Wunder
In mid-May we learned that Mark Laird would be retiring effective June 1, 2014, from his job heading Rehabilitation Services for the Blind. His has been a long and distinguished career, marked by a good relationship with the blind people the agency serves and an enthusiasm that is unparalleled in recent memory. Here is a letter I wrote to Mark on learning of his leaving. It sums up how I feel about him and how I think our organization will miss his steady hand at RSB:
Hello, Mark. I am shocked, am saddened for the agency, but my dominant emotion is happiness for you. You have meant a great deal to me, and I'm not sure I can quite do justice to it in a note.
The first time I remember meeting you was at a meeting of the Bureau for the Blind Advisory Committee or perhaps it was the current incarnation of the State Rehabilitation Council. Whenever it was, you were a counselor working out of the Springfield office, and your delight at being able to place people in jobs was a model for what I wanted rehabilitation workers to feel like at the end of the day. You had confidence in your clients, confidence in the goodwill of employers, and confidence in your agency's ability to bring about change for the better in the lives of those you touched. You were modest, yet assertive. You were articulate without trying to use big words or professional jargon.
As you climbed the ladder, I watched your assent, again with mixed emotions. I knew that you were too good for the agency to ignore, by which I mean that I knew you deserved promotion with the thought that you could positively influence other staff members and the direction of the agency. The sad part was that you were being removed from providing direct services. This is a familiar dilemma that superintendence and other school administrators must feel when they promote a teacher who has demonstrated such stellar performance in the classroom with the hope that he or she will cause other teachers to emulate their behavior.
I can't tell you in a few simple sentences what it has meant to work with you in our respective capacities. Although I was very angry at the state agency for limiting the kind of information that could be distributed to its blind consumers, had a difficult time when the agency was headed by people who knew nothing about blindness, found it terribly difficult when one senior Rehabilitation Services for the Blind official served for a time as the director, I have long contended that Rehabilitation Services for the Blind is one of the best agencies in the country. I think that in large part this is due to how you feel about the role of rehabilitation and the capacity of blind people to be integrated into the broader society. In Kansas the rehabilitation agency will not come to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. They discourage their counselors from coming, the thought being that, while there, they might inadvertently run into one of their consumers and that this would be inappropriate. How different it is to have a director who not only comes for his presentation but stays to enjoy the weekend with us.
I have no idea what you will do in your retirement, but I hope that you find great joy in it. I also hope that you will supply me with contact information and that we can continue to correspond and cultivate an already substantial friendship. Congratulations, my friend.
Your friend, and very proud to be so,
Gary
Dr. Richard J. Smith Leaves Wolfner Library to Run
Network Services for NLS in Washington, DC.
By Dan Flasar
Dr. Richard J. Smith, who served as Director of the Wolfner Library, Missouri's National Library Service (NLS) affiliated Talking Books program for the last 14 years, has been appointed to serve as the Network Services Director for NLS in Washington DC.
Dr. Smith led Wolfner through major changes during his tenure, including:
The highly successful transition of the NLS Talking Books Program from audio tape to digital media was particularly effective here in Missouri under Dr. Smith's leadership. Early in the programs rollout, for example, the NLS digital players were in limited supply. Dr. Smith approached the Friends of Wolfner with the suggestion that the Friends provide funding to purchase 500 Victor Reader Streams to be lent to Wolfner patrons, hence offering Missourians much greater access to NLS digital books and magazines than most other states. Wolfner's jumpstart of the digital transition spurred the NLS to eventually provide extra digital players in Missouri to accommodate our high acceptance of the program.
Dr. Smith made the production of locally-produced recordings of Missouri and regional books a high priority. Under his leadership, Wolfner's recording facilities were updated and special emphasis was placed on recruiting more volunteers to read and monitor works by Missouri authors. Smith pushed to ensure that all Wolfner produced books were compatible with NLS digital book standards and protocols.
The creation of the "You Say It How?" website, which provides audio pronunciation of over 9,000 names, domestic and international, found in public news sources.
http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/SayHow/
Smith was also very active in national and regional NLS library activities, encouraging efforts to share experiences in managing the digital transition with other NLS libraries. He was also instrumental in aligning Wolfner with national NLS state library consortiums to share locally-produced Missouri books with those from other states such as Idaho, Washington, and Colorado.
Dr. Richard Smith maintained strong ties with Wolfner patrons via regularly scheduled Advisory Board meetings, surveys and outreach activities throughout the state. He and Wolfner staff attended both the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the Missouri Council of the Blind (MCB) conventions.
An early adopter in extending library services via intra and internet networks, Smith's expertise in cyber networking served Wolfner patrons well over these 14 years. Although we will certainly miss Dr. Smith here in Missouri, we can take consolation that he will bring his talents and initiatives to his new duties as Director of Networks Services for the NLS - which means he'll be working to make the Talking Book Program more efficient and innovative for all NLS patrons.
Our Friend, Grace
By Rita Lynch
It was a very sad day on Thursday, March 14th, when we lost Grace Haner, vice president of our Jefferson City Chapter. We were all so shocked because it happened very suddenly. She fell on Tuesday, March 12th, and was hospitalized as a result of a broken bone in her shoulder and a broken pelvis. Although this must have been very painful, we had no idea this accident would contribute to her death. There is a huge void within our group. We truly miss Grace, because she played a very active part in our Chapter.
I remember the first time I spoke with Grace by phone. She called me and said she had heard that the NFB might be able to help her with an employment discrimination problem she had recently experienced. After she explained it, I told her I felt we could help and, as you will remember, it was successfully resolved in her favor.
Grace was a member of the Jefferson City Chapter for nine years and took part in all activities, whether it was fundraising, membership recruiting, outreach, or legislative activities that needed to be done, she could be counted on to help. She was always available to make any event a success.
Grace came to understand the importance of the Federation and the value in working together for the good of the blind. She chose to help in whatever way she could and gave generously of her time and her energy. Grace made many close friends in the Federation which meant so much to her and she to them. I know Grace is now enjoying eternal life with those she loved who have gone before her. We miss her more than we can say but know God has her in His care, and we have her in our hearts.
Graduating Class of 2014
By Carol Coulter
This year seems to have been quite the year for graduations. Many of our federation family members have reached the end of one journey and are ready to embark on another. They have all traveled down the road to success at different speeds and have encountered different road blocks and detours, but what they all have in common is that they all have successfully completed the journey.
Those graduating this year are: Shirley Grauel, Midwestern Baptist College; Chris Griggs, Lincoln University; Gary Horchem, Ozark Technical College; Laura Rios, Missouri State University; Halley Korff, University of Central Missouri; Meghanne Chirchirillo, Missouri School for the Blind; and Abby Trimble, Oakville High School. I apologize to anyone I might have left out and send out congratulations to everyone for your accomplishments and best wishes for the future.
A Little about Me
By Carol Coulter
Hello everyone. I decided it was about time people knew more about one of the more popular people in our affiliate, largely due to the fact that she is the treasurer. I also didn’t get the information on the person I was going to write about and didn’t want to have an issue without a bio on someone, so you are about to learn more about the lady with the long gray hair that is always running around at state conventions and whose letters are never left unopened.
I was born in Jefferson City, Missouri to Ruby Jean and Norbert Walter Giesing on September 18, 1959. I am the second of four children, having one older and one younger brother and a younger sister. Both my older brother and I were born with congenital Cataracts. My mom was an LPN and my dad was a factory worker, and, even though he only had an eighth grade education, he was one of the smartest men I have ever known.
I attended public school most of my life except for the year and a half that I went to the Missouri School for the Blind. I guess it was suggested to my parents that I go, so half way through my kindergarten year we moved to St. Louis, and I finished kindergarten and first grade. After first grade it was decided that I had good enough vision that I could attend public school, so we moved back to Jefferson City. I remember one time at MSB my teacher having me show another teacher how I was able to identify some change and thinking what is the big deal; could this have been foreshadowing for my present board position?
When I was eight years old, I lost my mother in a house fire, and so for the next four years it was dad, raising four kids, ages 6 months to eleven years, on his own. I learned to do a lot of cooking (for those of you who know me, no laughing—I really did) and I also did cleaning at an early age. I would go with my dad at night to clean a small meat packing plant because I was too chicken to stay at home with the two younger kids. At age eight I could clean and fold a large saw blade as good as anyone.
The summer before my seventh grade year, my dad remarried and we moved to St. Martins, MO. I attended Catholic school for seventh and eighth grade and then went to Jefferson City Senior High--go Jay Birds. I went all through high school without any type of adaptive equipment. I don’t even think they knew they had a blind student at the school. My Biology teacher gave me a microscope with the highest magnification he had, my typing teacher gave me a stand for my typing book so it wasn’t lying flat on the desk, and none of the teachers got after me for talking to the person behind me for asking what was on the board. I think they all knew I couldn’t see very well, but they didn’t consider me blind.
After graduation I moved to Columbia to attend the University of Missouri. I came for the summer orientation program which the Bureau for the Blind sponsored. This is where I learned about readers, books on tape, and special arrangements for test taking. This is where I also met many of my federation friends, like Gail Bryant, Tom Stevens, Gary Wunder, and Gene Coulter, just to mention a few. I graduated in 1982 with a Bachelors of Science in Education for preschool through elementary school.
On August 9, 1980, I married Eugene Coulter. We first met when I was in high school, and he was my brother’s roommate while they were both attending MU. Gene worked as a unit clerk at the hospital on the night shift, so sometimes I would pull an all-nighter and study in the break room, so he could stop by on his breaks.
In 1982 my dad died from a heart attack at work. He had just got to work and was putting stuff in his locker. He just missed meeting his grandson, Larry, who was born in February of 1983. Shortly after Larry was born, we moved to Jefferson City because Gene had a chance to run a vending facility, but, shortly after we moved, the program decided that that location was going to be closed because it wasn’t profitable. So then we were both unemployed and living in Jefferson City with a one year old. In April of 1984 we moved to Kansas City because I got a job as a social worker with the Department of Social Services. Gene was hired that September as a caseworker. I put in my year with the state and then got a job working at the daycare where Larry was attending. I was the lead teacher in the infant room and in charge of closing the whole place in the evening.
We missed Columbia, so Gene transferred to the Columbia office, and I opened my home daycare. In July of 1986 we were blessed with our daughter Elisabeth, who spent the first nineteen days of her life in an intensive care unit because of a virus she was born with. We had a welcome home party the day we brought her home. I was in business for twenty-seven years and just retired in August of 2013. It was a hard decision, I miss the kids, but it was taking a toll on my hips and back. In July of 2005 I was again blessed with the birth of my grandson, Cyrus. He, like his dad and aunt before him, was able to attend grandma’s daycare before he started school
I enjoy music of all kinds, especially Country. In high school I was in choir and would have loved to have been in band, but, with my eyesight, I didn’t know how I could do that since I couldn’t see the music. I like doing jigsaw puzzles and other types of word or number puzzles. Family and friends are important to me so I love to socialize when possible. Volunteering is another thing that brings me happiness, I like helping other people. Maybe this comes from the fact that so many people helped my family after my mom died. We took a vacation to Germany and Austria one year with a tour company. Elisabeth and Larry were the youngest, being in junior high and high school, and everyone else was somehow connected to education. We had students, teachers, principals, professors, and administrators. It was a very educated and fun group to travel with.
I joined the NFB in January of 1979 and was elected secretary of the Columbia chapter and am now the treasurer. I was president of the Student Division while in college. We have been members of the Jefferson City, Jackson County, and Kansas City Chapters. We have attended a few national conventions, and one of my biggest honors was getting to speak before the national convention in Dallas in 1990 about my daycare. I also was honored by the Missouri Affiliate when I was awarded the Jernigan Award in 1994. At our 2014 state convention I took great pride in presenting the parent video that combined my love of children and the federation. I hope this will go a long way in eliminating discrimination. In 1991 I was honored to be elected as treasurer and every day I appreciate your support, faith, and trust in me.
PLEDGE OF THE
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
I pledge to participate actively in the effort 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.
Board of Directors
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
Officers:
Gary Wunder, President Julie McGinnity, Recording Secretary
Shelia Wright, First Vice President Dacia Cole, Corresponding Secretary
Ruby Polk, Second Vice President Carol Coulter, Treasurer
Board Members:
Eugene Coulter Gene Fleeman
Gary Horchem Dan Flasar
Chris Tisdal Melissa Smith
Erin Magoon
Chapter Presidents
Dacia Luck, Columbia Helen Parker, South Central
Rita Lynch, Jefferson City Gary Horchem, Springfield
Ruby Polk, Kansas City Bryan Schulz, St. Louis
Chris Tisdal, Lewis and Clark
Blind Missourian Editor Carol Coulter
Proof Readers Helen Stevens
Shelia Wright
Gary Wunder
FREE MATTER FOR THE
BLIND AND PHYSICALLY
HANDICAPPED
NFB of Missouri
1504 Furlong Dr.
Columbia, MO 65202
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