[NFBofSC] FW: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, June 2023

[Steve Cook]

Steve Cook

SteveCook at tweesecake.social

@CSTDofNFBSC at tweesecake.social

If you would like to join a brand new Email list dedicated to Mastodon and
supporting apps! Below is the information to subscribe and post to the
Mastodon list!

To subscribe, send a message to:  <mailto:mastodon+subscribe at groups.io>
mastodon+subscribe at groups.io

To post send a message to :  <mailto:mastodon at groups.io> mastodon at groups.io

 

From: brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org <brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org> On
Behalf Of Brian Buhrow
Sent: Thursday, June 1, 2023 3:12 PM
To: brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, June 2023

 


The Braille Monitor, June 2023


BRAILLE MONITOR


Vol. 66, No. 6 June 2023

Gary Wunder, Editor

Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by
the

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Mark Riccobono, President

telephone: 410-659-9314

email address: nfb at nfb.org <mailto:nfb at nfb.org> 

website address: http://www.nfb.org

NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org

NFB-NEWSLINE® information: 866-504-7300

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind

Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice

Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind

Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and orders
for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles for the
Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national office or
may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org <mailto:gwunder at nfb.org> .

Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year.
Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription
cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind
and sent to:

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE
CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE
EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES
BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT;
BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND—IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR
OURSELVES.

ISSN 0006-8829

© 2023 by the National Federation of the Blind

Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB
flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National
Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots—the familiar
book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second
slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is
used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this
slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you
encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the
cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital
player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the
player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you
remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it
again, reading should resume at the point you stopped.

You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your
computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives
can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to
stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive
when you return the device.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Hilton Americas-Houston Convention Center Hotel]


Convention Bulletin 2023


There are plenty of reasons one might travel to Houston, Texas, the fourth
most populous city in the United States. One might visit for the nearly
three-week-long Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The city’s vibrant arts
scene boasts the largest concentration of theater seats outside of New York
City. And no Houston resident would let a visitor forget that the city is
home to the 2022 World Series Champion Houston Astros. There is little
question that Houston has a great deal going for it. The city’s real draw,
however, is that it will play host to the National Federation of the Blind’s
2023 National Convention.

It has now been more than fifty years since the largest gathering of the
organized blind last convened in Houston, Texas, and our return in 2023 will
be an event not to be missed. The Hilton Americas-Houston hotel (1600 Lamar
Street, Houston, TX 77010) will serve as our convention headquarters hotel.
Situated in the heart of downtown Houston across the street from the
beautiful twelve-acre Discovery Green Park, the Hilton Americas is an ideal
location for our annual event. Ballrooms, breakout space, and sleeping rooms
are all stacked in the same tower housed on a single city block, simplifying
navigation and minimizing travel distances. In-room internet is
complimentary to all attendees as is access to the health club and swimming
pool on the 22nd floor. There are several dining options on the hotel’s
lobby level (including a Starbucks for those of you requiring a caffeine
fix) and many more choices within easy walking distance from the Hilton’s
front door.

The nightly rate at the Hilton Americas-Houston is $119 for singles,
doubles, triples, and quads. In addition, the sales tax rate is 8.25
percent, and the hotel occupancy tax rate is 17 percent. To book your room
for the 2023 convention, call 1-800-236-2905 after January 1 and ask for the
“NFB Convention” block. For each room, the hotel will take a deposit of the
first night’s room rate and taxes and will require a credit card or a
personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged
against your card immediately. If a reservation is cancelled before
Thursday, June 1, 2023, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise
refunds will not be made.

We have also secured overflow space at the wonderful Marriott Marquis
Houston. The Marriott is only a three-block walk directly across Discovery
Green, or attendees can walk entirely indoors through the George R. Brown
convention center, connecting both hotels on the second level. You will find
many of the same amenities at the Marriott as well as a Texas-shaped lazy
river pool. The room rate at the Marriott Marquis is an to $125 per night
for singles, doubles, triples, and quads. To book a room, call
1-877-622-3056 after January 1. Again, ask for the “NFB Convention” block.
Similarly, the same deposit and cancellation policies apply.

The 2023 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be a truly
exciting and memorable event, with an unparalleled program and rededication
to the goals and work of our movement. A wide range of seminars for parents
of blind children, technology enthusiasts, job seekers, and other groups
will kick the week off on Saturday, July 1. Convention registration and
registration packet pick-up will also open on Saturday. Breakout sessions
continue on Sunday along with committee meetings. Monday, July 3, will kick
off with the annual meeting, open to all, of the Board of Directors of the
National Federation of the Blind. National division meetings will follow the
board meeting that afternoon and evening. General convention sessions will
begin on Tuesday, July 4, and continue through the afternoon of Thursday,
July 6. Convention ends on a high note with the banquet Thursday evening so
be sure to pack your fancy clothes. The fall of the gavel at the close of
banquet will signal convention’s adjournment.

Remember that as usual we need door prizes from state affiliates, local
chapters, and individuals. Once again prizes should be small in size but
large in value. Cash, of course, is always appropriate and welcome. As a
rule, we ask that prizes of all kinds have a value of at least $25 and not
include alcohol. Drawings will occur steadily throughout the convention
sessions, and you can anticipate a Texas-sized grand prize to be drawn at
the banquet. You may bring door prizes with you to convention or send them
in advance to the National Federation of the Blind of Texas at 1600 E
Highway 6, Suite 215, Alvin, TX 77511.

The best collection of exhibits featuring new technology; meetings of our
special interest groups, committees, and divisions; the most stimulating and
provocative program items of any meeting of the blind in the world; the
chance to renew friendships in our Federation family; and the unparalleled
opportunity to be where the real action is and where decisions are being
made—all of these mean you will not want to miss being a part of the 2023
National Convention. To assure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at
convention rates, make your reservations early. We plan to see you in
Houston in July.

Vol. 66, No. 6 June 2023


Contents


Illustration: Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees

Convention Bulletin 2023

Jacob’s Ladder: Hosting Sports Fans in a Rising Career

by Jamal Mazrui

Transformation in Employment: Smart Partnership to Build the Future Together

by Regina Kline

Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic

by Kenneth Jernigan

Blindness: Physical Handicap, Characteristic, Identity, or Something Else

by Gary Wunder

Gratitude

by Curtis Willoughby

Creativity Is More Accessible Than Meets the Eye

by Rishika Kartik

National Federation of the Blind Applauds the Introduction of the Access
Technology Affordability Act in the Senate

Can We Change the World?

by Jo Elizabeth Pinto

The Blind Do Lead the Blind

by Dr. Jacob Freid

Four Leading Brands and The National Federation of the Blind Join Be My
Eyes’ Virtual Volunteer Corporate Beta Test

Accessible Remote Access with RIM

by Karl Belanger and Matt Hackert

Lift Up with Lyft Round Up

by Patti Chang

Summer Tips for Parents of Blind Students

by LaShawna Fant

[PHOTO CAPTION: President Riccobono and Len Olijar examine the raised
tactile features on the next generation $10 bill.]

[PHOTO CAPTION: Left to Right: Kyle Walls, John Paré, President Mark
Riccobono, and Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Len Olijar.]


Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees


It is manufactured by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). On
Thursday, April 13, President Riccobono met with the director of the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing, Len Olijar, to discuss the next generation of
paper currency in the United States. The meeting was productive. President
Riccobono and John Paré were able to preview the upcoming redesign of the
ten-dollar bill, scheduled to be released in 2026. We say preview. They were
only able to touch the raised tactile feature. Nothing else. It was highly
secretive. It was wrapped in other paper and Len Olijar walked through the
very thoughtful process they've been going through to add this to the paper
currency of the United States.

This is based a lot on work that they did with us over the last decade. Some
of you probably participated in activities at the national convention, and
we have urged them to be at our national convention again this year. They
will. We don't know what they'll be able to show at this year's convention
because the release of the first bill with a raised tactile feature is still
a couple years away. But we do believe they will be at the convention. As
mentioned in the May Presidential Release, President Riccobono did offer
that the Federation would be happy to run a free samples program for the new
$10 bill. They didn't take him up on it, but we're still negotiating. So
really great progress on that project.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Jamal Mazrui]

[PHOTO CAPTION: Jacob Struiksma]


Jacob’s Ladder: Hosting Sports Fans in a Rising Career


by Jamal Mazrui

>From the Editor: Thanks to Jamal, we are given an opportunity to see into
the life of a blind person who is doing things most of us have never
seriously considered. We train for white collar jobs, but we know that not
every person wants to do those for a living.

Thanks to Jamal for giving some of his busy time writing this. He is married
to Susan and together they have two daughters. He works for Amazon teaching
people how to use this megastore on the web. Enjoy the fruits of his
interview and the fine man this article is about:

Last year, my supervisor at Amazon mentioned that she recently attended a
Seattle Mariners baseball game where one of the staff at the stadium was
blind. “He helped us find our seats,” she said, “and it seemed like he was
the most knowledgeable person around who could answer questions and give
directions.” I smiled and replied that “I’m pretty sure that the person you
mention is someone I know from the Greater Seattle Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind.”

The fellow chapter member and friend of mine is Jacob Struiksma. I first met
him at an NFB meeting in 2016, after my family moved from the Washington DC
area to Seattle.

I soon learned why Jacob has the reputation of being a transportation guru.
It seems that you can give him almost any two addresses in King County, and
he will tell you what options are available for traveling between them,
whether this involves buses, trains, or walking. Over the years, he has
earned nicknames like “Transit Dude” and “Metro Man.”

Born in Everett, Washington, in 1979 and now age forty-three, Jacob comes
from a dairy farming family in the state of Washington. He has three younger
brothers. The family is close, and his parents still live in the area.

Jacob joined the Federation in 1999 and attended his first national
convention in Philadelphia in 2001. He became a lifetime member of the
Seattle Chapter in 2021 and has served as vice president, among other roles.
His example convinced me, as well as my wife Susan, to also become lifetime
members in 2022.

Jacob is a tall man, about six foot three inches. He travels with probably
the tallest cane in Seattle, sixty-nine inches. His cane tap is distinctive
in sound, leading folks to joke that “You hear Jacob coming and then
encounter his cane well before he appears in person!”

Applying aptitudes for understanding layouts and explaining directions,
Jacob launched a career in hosting services at major sports arenas in
Seattle. His ability to quickly learn the layout of an environment and to
helpfully answer questions with precise information have been valuable to
such public venues (although persistent job applications and demonstrations
were needed to remove all doubt).

Over the course of a year, Jacob helps many fans find seats, refreshments,
and memorabilia at various sports, music, or other entertainment events. He
also processes tickets when they first arrive.

His hosting career began in February of 2018 when Jacob joined guest
services at the Seattle Mariners baseball stadium. He eventually became a
seasonal employee with three companies that deliver support services for
large events in the city, year round. Jacob now works regularly for Seattle
Mariners baseball at T-Mobile Park, Seattle Seahawks football at Lumen
Field, and Seattle Kraken hockey at Climate Pledge Arena. At Lumen Field, he
also supports Seattle OL Reign soccer and Seattle Sounders soccer. At
Climate Pledge Arena, he supports Seattle Storm basketball as well.

All three arenas host music concerts in addition. These have included famous
talents like Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, Green Bay, The Who, and the Dave
Matthews Band. Comedy shows have featured Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle,
among others. During the holiday season, a variety show for families
includes fancy lights, a scavenger hunt, Santa Claus, and Christmas music.

When Jacob works an event, he is typically on his feet from six to eight
hours nonstop, except for a couple of short breaks. He finds most aspects of
the work environment to be nonvisually accessible. Some online systems for
employees, e.g., an electronic time sheet, have been unnecessarily
problematic, as is still too common across industry, unfortunately. As a
reasonable accommodation, a supervisor or coworker assists in such cases.

Jacob is liked and respected among support staff at Seattle’s biggest
events. Based on his positive experience, he is helping to recruit other
blind people to this line of work.

In an occupation that has generally not employed blind people, Jacob shows
that a blind person can perform successfully in its integrated, competitive
environment. This is someone who is living the life he wants, and he is
changing what it means to be blind. Go Jacob!

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Regina Kline]


Transformation in Employment: Smart Partnership to Build the Future Together


by Regina Kline

>From the Editor: We are constantly bombarded by messages that suggest that
if we don’t want to work for someone else, the answer is to be an
entrepreneur. If we don’t want to face the discrimination that comes from
employers not believing we can do a job, the answer is to become an
entrepreneur. In this address, a woman who has worked as our legal counsel
and has long been an advocate for entrepreneurism talks about how we who are
blind can become entrepreneurs and the way all of us in the Federation can
support programs to make this easier. Here is what she says:

Thank you, Mr. President! Hello and good afternoon, members of the
Federation! What a privilege it is to come back here today after being gone
and apart for a couple of years. This has a lot of significance to me
personally, and I know it has to you. This convention is so much a
homecoming and a homecoming this year during such challenging times that we
all have been through.

But it does reflect a critical moment to celebrate community and to
celebrate the energy that's created by this community in particular. There's
potent power in this room! There are ideas and actions in this room that
will lift up those that are here and those that are not, and it will do this
for the rest of the year and for years to come.

Well, I was introduced just now by the President in my role as founder of
EnAble Ventures and SmartJob, both companies aimed to close the disability
wealth gap and grow an entrepreneurial system throughout the blind
community, as I will mention. But, as was said in my introduction, I first
entered this work as a lawyer. I was honored to work as senior counsel in
the United States Department of Justice under the Obama administration,
where I fought on matters that the NFB has always led on—and that is to
advance the interests of workers with disabilities, to achieve competitive
employment. That means avoiding unnecessary, unjustified segregation. It
means being able to leave sub-minimum wage work when you can and want to
work for competitive wages. As you well know, NFB has always been on the
cutting edge of civil rights for workers in the organized blind movement, to
work in employment in a range of jobs, to advance the highest expectations
of people who are blind, and for the full inclusion of the organized blind
in work and the economy. I look out today, and I see some of my great
friends—Eve Hill, I worked with her back at DOJ. She's one of the great
lawyers in the United States advancing the ADA. Anne Raish, still at the DOJ
advancing civil rights. But this was back in the DOJ when we were pushing to
apply the case law of Olmstead to cover places where people with
disabilities worked. Now we know that people with disabilities can thrive in
the job market with a range of opportunities and that there is a recognized
right in the United States for people with disabilities to receive the
services and supports they need to work in the community.

Later in my career, I went on and worked with Eve Hill and Dan Goldstein,
who is in the audience, and other lawyers here from Brown, Goldstein &
Levy—oh, yeah, let's hear it for Brown, Goldstein & Levy! [Applause]—a law
firm truly with singularity that has worked hand-in-glove with the NFB to
advance the rights of people with disabilities and people in this community
for decades.

We worked on matters across the United States with the NFB, advancing the
rights of blind workers to avoid unlawful, unnecessary segregation, to be
treated equally on the job, to access ladders of opportunity, and that is
work that is still carrying on today with the NFB and with these lawyers
that have dedicated so much of their lives to making sure that people with
disabilities have equal rights.

It was just around the start of 2020, however, that my work took me in a
very interesting and very different place. I began to assess the sum of
these experiences, and I was assessing what it meant that I had worked with
some of the most talented people I've ever met in this community, in this
room, and rooms like this around the country. And I began to realize that
there were two different realities at play. First, thirty years after the
ADA, it remained the case that two-thirds of working-age adults with
disabilities are in fact not employed. Second, and this is really important,
there is an abundance of raw innovation, invention, and ingenuity throughout
the blind community. [Applause] It's everywhere! Talent is lying everywhere!
And it's in this convention hall today. This sparks the question in all of
us, which is how can we harness that talent to access more than just the
right to be free from discrimination? What additional tools can we use to
allow talented people with disabilities to achieve a freedom that works
hand-in-glove with equality that is economic justice? In the movement for
disability rights, how do we build on the equality already achieved and the
battles yet to be fought, while leveling up to the word that is
"equity"?—that which gives people economic opportunities, employment, and
greater access to wealth. I turned to entrepreneurship to address these
questions.

Now, ask me what entrepreneurship is. To me, it's a prayer to the kind of
world you want to live in in the future. It's a prayer that through
consistent and dedicated folks, you will into the world. Through the power
of a single idea, you will it into reality. Even despite the odds—yes, even
despite the odds that it might not succeed.

The history of successful entrepreneurs is replete with examples of people
who have succeeded in spite of the odds, in spite of great barriers. They've
been excluded from traditional avenues of employment. As the founder of
LinkedIn, Reed Hoffman, wrote in a 2013 op-ed about the subject of
immigration: Immigration is pure entrepreneurship. You see, you leave behind
everything familiar to start somewhere new. To succeed, you develop
alliances. You must acquire skills. You will have to improvise on occasion.
That's a bold proposition, he said.

Well, like the experience of immigration, so many of the entrepreneurs with
disabilities that I meet every day are fantastically situated for the
experience of entrepreneurship. Each day they battle and bust through
barriers in a world that was not written with them in mind. Each day, they
see opportunities they don’t have, not because of their merit but because of
the biases of the world. They seek new paths with new additional skills.
Their lives are ones of inventing work-arounds, hacks, and better ways. And
they are uncompromising in their belief that they can and will live in a
world where the experience of disability is equated with problem-solving,
innovation, and a better way. [Cheering and applause].

I founded SmartJob in 2020, and this year in 2022 partnered with Jim
Sorensen, a world-renowned impact investor of the Sorensen Impact Platform,
to create EnAble Ventures, a market-rate venture firm. Our job is to find
the most talented entrepreneurs with disabilities in the world who are
leveraging the disability experience as an asset. In their businesses, they
are creating inclusively designed products and services. And they're
launching startups that will increase the employment of people with
disabilities. We connect these entrepreneurs with funding to allow their
companies and enterprises to grow, to scale, to be sustainable.

These entrepreneurs and companies are bringing new products to the market
that will improve the lives of themselves, others, and the lives of people
with disabilities. In our estimation, by backing and supporting these
innovators and entrepreneurs, we are working, and we need you to help us. We
are working on building smarter jobs. We don't need to build any smart
people. We've got them here; we've got them everywhere! [Cheering and
applause]. We don't need to get more talent. We have talent here! We have
talent everywhere!

What we need to do is change the way we design work. There is a rising class
of entrepreneurs with disabilities around the world who will do that, will
reimagine work for everyone.

My friend Tracy over there gives me a hard time in NFB—let's hear it for
Tracy Soforenko from NFB of Virginia. [Laughter]

He says, Gina, you're too much Wall Street, not enough Main Street. You're
too Harvard, not enough rock and roll. [Laughter]

Okay, Tracy, here's some regular language about what we do. We're providing
our support to entrepreneurs and early-stage companies that are inventing
new wayfinding solutions, next generation Braille displays, digital training
and hiring platforms designed to screen in, not screen out. You heard Anne
from the US DOJ. They're worried about technologies coming along that are AI
driven that screens workers out. We're looking for technologies that intend
and are designed to screen workers IN. [Cheering and applause]. We're
backing entrepreneurs with disabilities with powerful ideas who are seeking
funding, in order to grow and scale the kind of companies that will hire
other people with disabilities, that will promote accessibility in their
supply chains that will be designed with the community in mind from the
beginning. [Applause]

It means that SmartJob is finding and supporting a global community of
disability tech accelerators, small business incubators, and
entrepreneurship programs that provide entrepreneurs with those critical
skills—the critical skills, support, and information they need to be
successful on their entrepreneurial journeys. You know, some of the
fastest-growing jobs in our economy today are in the technology sector.
That's an industry where people with disabilities, including people who are
blind, are absolutely underrepresented. It is estimated that hundreds of
thousands of jobs that exist today will be gone by 2030 because of the
lightning speed of innovation, automation, and because of this increasing
digital divide. People who have unequal access to technology will be the
hardest hit with these labor force trends. And as you know, here we are in
2022, and the internet remains so often inaccessible to blind people
thirty-two years after the enactment of the ADA.

To solve for these problems—in addition to the good work, the profound work
of the NFB in its crusade for civil rights with so many talented lawyers—to
solve for this problem, SmartJob is building relationships. And we're
building a lot of them. We're building relationships with coding, digital
accessibility, and other technology training boot camps. We're trying to
connect workers with new inroads into that tech industry. We're working to
pave alternative and accessible learning and training paths right into the
technology sector to drive inclusion into the heart of tech by making it
easier for tech to meet our talented workforce: the members of the National
Federation of the Blind and people across the disability community who can
and want to work in tech and can bring their talents to bear on the next
generation of technology.

So, I've got to tell you since 2020 I've met with hundreds of entrepreneurs
with disabilities from around the world. We're talking about inventors and
dreamers and founders and makers. They're leveraging the experience of
disability as an asset to business and as an asset to the world. They're
expanding the disability market and the general market (the general consumer
market, as they're doing it).

If you’re not an entrepreneur today, you might ask yourself why you should
care about this. Again, why should you care about this? What does it have to
do with your life?

Today, entrepreneurs throughout the world are working on solutions. They're
working on solutions that you'll buy at the store. They're working—and many
of them are blind—working on solutions to remove barriers from people with
disabilities' lives. That's true. But the right solutions need funding to
scale; in order to be sustainable, to reach you, they need funding in order
to get off the ground, to hit a wider distribution, to have a lower price
point, to make it. To make the sustainability of those products, they need
sustained funding. They need a magic ingredient, which we in investing call
product market feed. They need feedback like the relationship we've formed
under President Riccobono with the National Federation of the Blind to know:
what is the user experience? What do blind people think about this product?
What does the community need to be built? Who in the community wants to
build it?

So we are working on all these issues together. As we are looking to support
and grow companies, we're also looking to support and grow the interests of
consumers as to what they need. You know what you need, and you know what
you'd like to see on the shelf in the future.

When entrepreneurs with disabilities and those co-designing with them have
more funding, when they have more support, when they have more guidance,
consumers do have a wider array of choices in their lives, and that levels
the playing field. On this journey, as I mentioned—and I really want to
underscore this—the NFB has been an indispensable partner. This should be of
little surprise, as the NFB has been at the forefront of not only, as we
mentioned, advancing employment for much of its eighty-plus-year history.
But NFB has been at the edge, the cutting edge, of advancing innovation for
all of its history. Certainly, blind innovation since the very beginning has
very directly influenced the history of innovation at large in the world.
You can draw a straight line from the invention of the typewriter to text to
voice to audio books. Many of the component features of your iPhone in your
pocket—that started in the organized blind community. That started with
blind innovators! That started here! [Cheering and applause] That started in
the community. Those innovations changed the world. They changed the world.

I know that your president knows that. NFB knows that. And looking out into
the future, they know that there are innovators and inventors in the
audience here today—all across this country—who will create the next
generation of solutions in the next fifty years.

We are very excited by this partnership, and the ability to announce two
special opportunities that are coming online right now in this partnership
between SmartJob and the NFB. We have supported and brought to the community
Synergies Works—it's a small microbusiness incubator. This is Tracy again:
“What does incubator mean, Gina?” It's a place where entrepreneurs can get
end-to-end support on their ideas, mentorship, the opportunity to meet with
coaches about their ideas, the opportunity to receive support in accounting
and marketing, understanding how to reach consumers and test products, and
the opportunity to learn how to make a business plan.

We're bringing this online, and the opportunity is currently open to members
of the National Federation of the Blind! [Cheering and applause]

The other thing we have to tell you is that we're bringing online, thanks to
the folks at Include, LLC, a "How to Raise Venture Capital" course, how to
get funding from angel investors and venture capitalists for great business
ideas here in the NFB community. That course is opening right now as well.
We've got lots of opportunities, and we hope that we'll see many of you
participating in these as we move forward.

Thank you very much!

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan]


Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic 


by Kenneth Jernigan

>From the Editor: The speech that follows was first delivered at the banquet
of the National Federation of the Blind convention in 1963. It has sparked a
great deal of discussion, but many of us who are Federationists tend to
regard blindness primarily as a characteristic and take as one of our major
responsibilities providing the training and opportunity that will keep it
from being more in the lives of the blind.

As you read this speech, keep in mind that some of the phraseology might be
different from what we would use today. If we cannot read words written a
half-century ago without objecting to the fact that they are not the words
we might use today, we have to close the door on much of history, what it
has to teach, and the times in which it was written. People tell me that we
should rewrite some of our literature to modernize it. I have no quibble
with the concept, but I do make two observations: one is that the newer
pieces do not need to replace what was pioneering at the time it was
written. My second observation is that sadly, many who have suggested we
need newer literature have not set themselves to the task of writing it even
when promised every opportunity to work with a willing editor to bring a new
piece of Federation material into being. I hope people who have not read
this before will enjoy it and that those of us who have will appreciate the
opportunity to stroll down memory lane. In whichever group you fall, please
read the article that follows and add your voice to the dialogue.

It has been wisely observed that philosophy bakes no bread. It has, with
equal wisdom, been observed that without a philosophy no bread is baked. Let
me talk to you, then, of philosophy—my philosophy concerning blindness—and,
in a broader sense, my philosophy concerning handicaps in general.

One prominent authority recently said, “loss of sight is a dying. When, in
the full current of his sighted life, blindness comes on a man, it is the
end, the death, of that sighted life... It is superficial, if not naive, to
think of blindness as a blow to the eyes only, to sight only. It is a
destructive blow to the self-image of a man ... a blow almost to his being
itself.”

This is one view, a view held by a substantial number of people in the world
today. But it is not the only view. In my opinion it is not the correct
view. What is blindness? Is it a "dying"?

No one is likely to disagree with me if I say that blindness, first of all,
is a characteristic. But a great many people will disagree when I go on to
say that blindness is only a characteristic. It is nothing more or less than
that. It is nothing more special, or more peculiar, or more terrible than
that suggests. When we understand the nature of blindness as a
characteristic—a normal characteristic like hundreds of others with which
each of us must live—we shall better understand the real need to be met by
services to the blind, as well as the false needs which should not be met.

By definition a characteristic—any characteristic—is a limitation. A white
house, for example, is a limited house; it cannot be green or blue or red;
it is limited to being white. Likewise, every characteristic—those we regard
as strengths as well as those we regard as weaknesses—is a limitation. Each
one freezes us to some extent into a mold; each restricts to some degree the
range of possibility, of flexibility, and very often of opportunity as well.

Blindness is such a limitation. Are blind people more limited than others?

Let us make a simple comparison. Take a sighted person with an average mind
(something not too hard to locate); take a blind person with a superior mind
(something not impossible to locate)—and then make all the other
characteristics of these two persons equal (something which certainly is
impossible). Now, which of the two is more limited? It depends, of course,
entirely on what you wish them to do. If you are choosing up sides for
baseball, then the blind man is more limited—that is, he is "handicapped."
If you are seeking someone to teach history or science or to figure out your
income tax, then the sighted person is more limited or "handicapped."

Many human characteristics are obvious limitations; others are not so
obvious. Poverty (the lack of material means) is one of the most obvious.
Ignorance (the lack of knowledge or education) is another. Old age (the lack
of youth and vigor) is yet another. Blindness (the lack of eyesight) is
still another. In all these cases the limitations are apparent, or seem to
be. But let us look at some other common characteristics which do not seem
limiting. Take the very opposite of old age—youth. Is age a limitation in
the case of a youth of twenty? Indeed it is, for a person who is twenty will
not be considered for most responsible positions, especially supervisory and
leadership positions. He may be entirely mature, fully capable, in every way
the best qualified applicant for the job. Even so, his age will bar him from
employment; he will be classified as too green and immature to handle the
responsibility. And even if he were to land the position, others on the job
would almost certainly resent being supervised by one so young. The
characteristic of being twenty is definitely a limitation.

The same holds true for any other age. Take age fifty, which many regard as
the prime of life. The man of fifty does not have the physical vigor he
possessed at twenty; and, indeed, most companies will not start a new
employee at that age. The Bell Telephone System, for example, has a general
prohibition against hiring anyone over the age of thirty-five. But it is
interesting to note that the United States Constitution has a prohibition
against having anyone under thirty-five running for President. The moral is
plain: any age carries its built-in limitations.

Let us take another unlikely handicap—not that of ignorance, but its exact
opposite. Can it be said that education is ever a handicap? The answer is
definitely yes. In the agency which I head I would not hire Albert Einstein
under any circumstances if he were today alive and available. His fame
(other people would continually flock to the agency and prevent us from
doing our work) and his intelligence (he would be bored to madness by the
routine of most of our jobs) would both be too severe as limitations.

Here is an actual case in point. Some time ago a vacancy occurred on the
library staff at the Iowa Commission for the Blind. Someone was needed to
perform certain clerical duties and take charge of shelving and checking
talking book records. After all applicants had been screened, the final
choice came down to two. Applicant A had a college degree, was seemingly
alert, and clearly of more than average intelligence. Applicant B had a high
school diploma (no college), was of average intelligence, and possessed only
moderate initiative. I hired applicant B. Why? Because I suspected that
applicant A would regard the work as beneath him, would soon become bored
with its undemanding assignments, and would leave as soon as something
better came along. I would then have to find and train another employee. On
the other hand, I felt that applicant B would consider the work interesting
and even challenging, that he was thoroughly capable of handling the job,
and that he would be not only an excellent but a permanent employee. In
fact, he has worked out extremely well.

In other words, in that situation the characteristic of education—the
possession of a college degree—was a limitation and a handicap. Even above
average intelligence was a limitation; and so was a high level of
initiative. There is a familiar bureaucratic label for this unusual
disadvantage: it is the term "overqualified." Even the overqualified, it
appears, can be underprivileged.

This should be enough to make the point—which is that if blindness is a
limitation (and, indeed, it is), it is so in quite the same way as
innumerable other characteristics which human flesh is heir to. I believe
that blindness has no more importance than any of a hundred other
characteristics and that the average blind person is able to perform the
average job in the average career or calling, provided (and it is a large
proviso) he is given training and opportunity.

Often when I have advanced this proposition, I have been met with the
response, "But you can't look at it that way. Just consider what you might
have done if you had been sighted and still had all the other capacities you
now possess."

"Not so," I reply. "We do not compete against what we might have been, but
only against other people as they are, with their combinations of strengths
and weaknesses, handicaps and limitations." If we are going down that track,
why not ask me what I might have done if I had been born with Rockefeller's
money, the brains of Einstein, the physique of the young Joe Louis, and the
persuasive abilities of Franklin Roosevelt? (And do I need to remind anyone,
in passing, that FDR was severely handicapped physically?) I wonder if
anyone ever said to him:

"Mr. President, just consider what you might have done if you had not had
polio!"

Others have said to me, "But I formerly had my sight, so I know what I am
missing."

To which one might reply, "And I was formerly twenty, so I know what I am
missing." Our characteristics are constantly changing, and we are forever
acquiring new experiences, limitations, and assets. We do not compete
against what we formerly were but against other people as they now are.

In a recent issue of a well-known professional journal in the field of work
with the blind, a blinded veteran who is now a college professor, puts
forward a notion of blindness radically different from this. He sets the
limitations of blindness apart from all others and makes them unique. Having
done this, he can say that all other human characteristics, strengths, and
weaknesses, belong in one category—and that with regard to them the blind
and the sighted individual are just about equal. But the blind person also
has the additional and unique limitation of his blindness. Therefore, there
is really nothing he can do quite as well as the sighted person, and he can
continue to hold his job only because there are charity and goodness in the
world.

What this blind professor does not observe is that the same distinction he
has made regarding blindness could be made with equal plausibility with
respect to any of a dozen—perhaps a hundred—other characteristics. For
example, suppose we distinguish intelligence from all other traits as
uniquely different. Then the man with above one hundred twenty-five IQ is
just about the same as the man with below one hundred-twenty-five IQ—except
for intelligence. Therefore, the college professor with less than one
hundred twenty-five IQ cannot really do anything as well as the man with
more than one hundred twenty-five IQ—and can continue to hold his job only
because there are charity and goodness in the world.

"Are we going to assume," says this blind professor, "that all blind people
are so wonderful in all other areas that they easily make up for any
limitations imposed by loss of sight? I think not." But why, one asks,
single out the particular characteristic of blindness? We might just as well
specify some other. For instance, are we going to assume that all people
with less than one hundred twenty-five IQ are so wonderful in all other
areas that they easily make up for any limitations imposed by lack of
intelligence? I think not.

This consideration brings us to the problem of terminology and semantics—and
therewith to the heart of the matter of blindness as a handicap. The
assumption that the limitation of blindness is so much more severe than
others that it warrants being singled out for special definition is built
into the very warp and woof of our language and psychology. Blindness
conjures up a condition of unrelieved disaster—something much more terrible
and dramatic than other limitations. Moreover, blindness is a conspicuously
visible limitation; and there are not so many blind people around that there
is any danger of becoming accustomed to it or taking it for granted. If all
of those in our midst who possess an IQ under one hundred twenty-five
exhibited, say, green stripes on their faces, I suspect that they would
begin to be regarded as inferior to the non-striped—and that there would be
immediate and tremendous discrimination.

When someone says to a blind person, "You do things so well that I forget
you are blind—I simply think of you as being like anybody else," is that
really a compliment? Suppose one of us went to France, and someone said:

"You do things so well that I forget you are an American and simply think of
you as being like anyone else"—would it be a compliment? Of course, the
blind person must not wear a chip on his shoulder or allow himself to become
angry or emotionally upset. He should be courteous, and he should accept the
statement as the compliment it is meant to be. But he should understand that
it is really not complimentary. In reality it says:

"It is normal for blind people to be inferior and limited, different and
much less able than the rest of us. Of course, you are still a blind person
and still much more limited than I, but you have compensated for it so well
that I almost forget that you are inferior to me."

The social attitudes about blindness are all pervasive. Not only do they
affect the sighted but also the blind as well. This is one of the most
troublesome problems which we have to face. Public attitudes about the blind
too often become the attitudes of the blind. The blind tend to see
themselves as others see them. They too often accept the public view of
their limitations and thereby do much to make those limitations a reality.

Several years ago, Dr. Jacob Freid, at that time a young teacher of
sociology and now head of the Jewish Braille Institute of America, performed
an interesting experiment. He gave a test in photograph identification to
Negro and white students at the university where he was teaching. There was
one photograph of a Negro woman in a living room of a home of culture—well
furnished with paintings, sculpture, books, and flowers. Asked to identify
the person in the photograph, the students said she was a "cleaning woman,"
"housekeeper," "cook," "laundress," "servant," "domestic," and "mammy." The
revealing insight is that the Negro students made the same identifications
as the white students. The woman was Mary McLeod Bethune, the most famous
Negro woman of her time, founder and president of Bethune-Cookman College,
who held a top post during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, and a
person of brilliance and prestige in the world of higher education. What
this incident tells us is that education, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and
that when members of a minority group do not have correct and complete
information about themselves, they accept the stereotypes of the majority
group even when they are false and unjust. Even today, in the midst of the
great civil rights debate and protest, one wonders how many Negroes would
make the traditional and stereotyped identification of the photograph.

Similarly with the blind the public image is everywhere dominant. This is
the explanation for the attitude of those blind persons who are ashamed to
carry a white cane or who try to bluff sight which they do not possess.
Although great progress is now being made, there are still many people
(sighted as well as blind) who believe that blindness is not altogether
respectable.

The blind person must devise alternative techniques to do many things which
he would do with sight if he had normal vision. It will be observed that I
say alternative not substitute techniques, for the word substitute connotes
inferiority, and the alternative techniques employed by the blind person
need not be inferior to visual techniques. In fact, some are superior. Of
course, some are inferior, and some are equal.

In this connection it is interesting to consider the matter of flying. In
comparison with the birds, man begins at a disadvantage. He cannot fly. He
has no wings. He is "handicapped." But he sees the birds flying, and he
longs to do likewise. He cannot use the "normal" bird-like method, so he
begins to devise alternative techniques. In his jet airplanes he now flies
higher, farther, and faster than any bird which has ever existed. If he had
possessed wings, the airplane would probably never have been devised, and
the inferior wing-flapping method would still be in general use.

This matter of our irrational images and stereotypes with regard to
blindness was brought sharply home to me some time ago during the course of
a rehabilitation conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. I found myself engaged
in a discussion with a well-known leader in the field of work with the blind
who holds quite different views from those I have been advancing. The error
in my argument about blindness as a characteristic, he advised me, was that
blindness is not in the range of "normal" characteristics; and, therefore,
its limitations are radically different from those of other characteristics
falling within the normal range. If a normal characteristic is simply one
possessed by the majority in a group, then it is not normal to have a black
skin in America or, for that matter, a white skin in the world at large.

It is not normal to have red hair or be over six feet tall. If, on the other
hand, a normal characteristic is simply what this authority or someone else
defines as being normal, then we have a circular argument—one that gets us
nowhere.

In this same discussion I put forward the theory that a man who was sighted
and of average means and who had all other characteristics in common with a
blind man of considerable wealth would be less mobile than the blind man. I
had been arguing that there were alternative techniques (not substitute) for
doing those things which one would do with sight if he had normal vision.
The authority I have already mentioned, as well as several others, had been
contending that there was no real, adequate substitute for sight in
traveling about. I told the story of a wealthy blind man I know who goes to
Hawaii or some other place every year and who hires sighted attendants and
is much more mobile than any sighted person I know of ordinary means. After
all of the discussion and the fact that I thought I had conveyed some
understanding of what I was saying, a participant in the conference said—as
if he thought he was really making a telling point, "Wouldn't you admit that
the wealthy man in question would be even more mobile if he had his sight?"

Which brings us to the subject of services to the blind and more exactly of
their proper scope and direction. There are, as I see it, four basic types
of services now being provided for blind persons by public and private
agencies and volunteer groups in this country today. They are:

1. Services based on the theory that blindness is uniquely different from
other characteristics and that it carries with it permanent inferiority and
severe limitations upon activity.

2. Services aimed at teaching the blind person a new and constructive set of
attitudes about blindness—based on the premise that the prevailing social
attitudes, assimilated involuntarily by the blind person, are mistaken in
content and destructive in effect.

3. Services aimed at teaching alternative techniques and skills related to
blindness.

4. Services not specifically related to blindness but to other
characteristics (such as old age and lack of education), which are
nevertheless labeled as "services to the blind" and included under the
generous umbrella of the service program.

An illustration of the assumptions underlying the first of these four types
of services is the statement quoted earlier which begins, "Loss of sight is
a dying." At the Little Rock conference already mentioned the man who made
this statement elaborated on the tragic metaphor by pointing out that "the
eye is a sexual symbol" and that, accordingly, the man who has not eyes is
not a "whole man." He cited the play Oedipus Rex as proof of his contention
that the eye is a sexual symbol. I believe that this misses the whole point
of the classic tragedy. Like many moderns, the Greeks considered the
severest possible punishment to be the loss of sight. Oedipus committed a
mortal sin (unknowingly he had killed his father and married his mother);
therefore, his punishment must be correspondingly great. But that is just
what his self-imposed blindness was—a punishment, not a sex symbol.

But this view not only misses the point of Oedipus Rex—it misses the point
of blindness. And in so doing it misses the point of services intended to
aid the blind. For according to this view what the blind person needs most
desperately is the help of a psychiatrist—of the kind so prominently in
evidence at several of the orientation and adjustment centers for the blind
throughout the country. According to this view, what the blind person needs
most is not travel training but therapy. He will be taught to accept his
limitations as insurmountable and his difference from others as
unbridgeable. He will be encouraged to adjust to his painful station as a
second-class citizen—and discouraged from any thought of breaking and
entering the first-class compartment. Moreover, all of this will be done in
the name of teaching him "independence" and a "realistic" approach to his
blindness.

The two competing types of services for the blind—categories one and two on
my list of four types—with their underlying conflict of philosophy may
perhaps be clarified by a rather fanciful analogy. All of us recall the case
of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Suddenly, in the 1930s, the German Jew was told
by his society that he was a "handicapped" person—that he was inferior to
other Germans simply by virtue of being a Jew. Given this social fact, what
sort of adjustment services might we have offered to the victim of
Jewishness? I suggest that there are two alternatives—matching categories
one and two of my list of services.

First, since he has been a "normal" individual until quite recently, it is,
of course, quite a shock (or "trauma," as modern lingo has it) for him to
learn that he is permanently and constitutionally inferior to others and can
engage only in a limited range of activities. He will, therefore, require a
psychiatrist to give him counseling and therapy and to reconcile him to his
lot. He must "adjust" to his handicap and "learn to live" with the fact that
he is not a "whole man." If he is realistic, he may even manage to be happy.
He can be taken to an adjustment center or put into a workshop, where he may
learn a variety of simple crafts and curious occupations suitable to Jews.
Again, it should be noted that all of this will be done in the name of
teaching him how to live "independently" as a Jew. That is one form of
adjustment training: category one of the four types of services outlined
earlier.

On the other hand, if there are those around who reject the premise that
Jewishness equals inferiority, another sort of "adjustment" service may be
undertaken. We might begin by firing the psychiatrist. His services will be
available in his own private office, for Jews as for other members of the
public, whenever they develop emotional or mental troubles. We will not want
the psychiatrist because the Nazi psychiatrist likely has the same
misconceptions about Jews as the rest of his society. We might continue then
by scrapping the "Jew trades"—the menial routines which offer no competition
to the normal world outside. We will take the emphasis off of resignation or
of fun and games. We will not work to make the Jew happy in his isolation
and servitude, but rather to make him discontent with them. We will make of
him not a conformist but a rebel.

And so it is with the blind. There are vast differences in the services
offered by various agencies and volunteer groups doing work with the blind
throughout the country today. At the Little Rock conference this came up
repeatedly. When a blind person comes to a training center, what kind of
tests do you give him, and why? In Iowa and some other centers the
contention is that he is a responsible individual and that the emphasis
should be on his knowing what he can do. Some of the centers represented at
the Little Rock conference contended that he needed psychiatric help and
counseling (regardless of the circumstances and merely by virtue of his
blindness) and that the emphasis should be on the center personnel's knowing
what he can do. I asked them whether they thought services in a center were
more like those given by a hospital or like those given by a law school. In
a hospital the person is a "patient." (This is, by the way, a term coming to
be used more and more in rehabilitation today.) The doctors decide whether
the patient needs an operation and what medication he should have. In
reality the "patient" makes few of his own decisions. Will the doctor "let"
him do this or that? In a law school, on the other hand, the "student"
assumes responsibility for getting to his own classes and organizing his own
work. He plans his own career, seeking advice to the extent that he feels
the need for it. If he plans unwisely, he pays the price for it, but it is
his life. This does not mean that he does not need the services of the law
school. He probably will become friends with the professors and will discuss
legal matters with them and socialize with them. From some he will seek
counsel and advice concerning personal matters. More and more he will come
to be treated as a colleague. Not so the "patient." What does he know of
drugs and medications? Some of the centers represented at the Little Rock
conference were shocked that we at the Iowa Commission for the Blind
"socialize" with our students and have them to our homes. They believed that
this threatened what they took to be the "professional relationship."

Our society has so steeped itself in false notions concerning blindness that
it is most difficult for people to understand the concept of blindness as a
characteristic and for them to understand the services needed by the blind.
As a matter of fact, in one way or another, the whole point of all I have
been saying is just this: blindness is neither a dying nor a psychological
crippling—it need not cause a disintegration of personality—and the
stereotype which underlies this view is no less destructive when it presents
itself in the garb of modern science than it was when it appeared in the
ancient raiment of superstition and witchcraft.

Throughout the world, but especially in this country, we are today in the
midst of a vast transition with respect to our attitudes about blindness and
the whole concept of what handicaps are. We are reassessing and reshaping
our ideas. In this process the professionals in the field cannot play a lone
hand. It is a cardinal principle of our free society that the citizen public
will hold the balance of decision. In my opinion, it is fortunate that this
is so, for professionals can become limited in their thinking and committed
to outworn programs and ideas. The general public must be the balance staff,
the ultimate weigher of values and setter of standards. In order that the
public may perform this function with reason and wisdom, it is the duty of
each of us to see that the new ideas receive the broadest possible
dissemination. But even more important, we must examine ourselves to see
that our own minds are free from prejudices and preconception.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Wunder]


Blindness: Physical Handicap, Characteristic, Identity, or Something Else


by Gary Wunder

Almost fifty years ago Dr. Kenneth Jernigan wrote an essay entitled
“Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic.” His assertion seemed revolutionary
at the time, his argument being that blindness was more a characteristic
than a handicap, more a nuisance and an inconvenience than the tragic
condition it was so often portrayed to be. I first saw the article when a
blind professor for whom I was working asked me to read and comment about it
because he found it intriguing but wasn’t quite certain how he felt about
the proposition.

Being a relatively new member of the National Federation of the Blind at
that time, I knew that I admired Kenneth Jernigan, but my father had always
called me visually handicapped, and I wasn’t quite certain about whether I
could get behind rejecting that label. Certainly what President Jernigan
wrote was moving and articulate, but even as a young college student, I knew
that this wasn’t the test as to whether or not the proposition was true.


Is the Answer Truly Binary?


As I experienced more of life and read Federation literature, I became much
more comfortable with the idea that blindness was indeed a characteristic. I
found that I did not have to reject the assertion that sometimes it was also
a handicap, though either/or is very often the kind of proposition we
present in trying to figure out how to put major pieces of the puzzle of
life together. Believing that the world is made up only of round pegs and
square pegs and deciding where to put the pieces is often a cause of
unnecessary conflict, and in my life this has too often resulted in my
trying to impose my perceptions as making up the reality of the world.

Although we clearly refer to blindness as one of many characteristics and
not the characteristic that defines us, this doesn’t really address the
issue of what part it plays in identity. Its role in my life and the lives
of others was next brought top of mind when I attended a conference on
bioethics at the invitation of Dr. Adrienne Asch. She was a renowned
bioethicist, a scholar, and a prominent figure in advancing civil rights for
people with disabilities and particularly those of us who are blind. One of
the topics discussed was whether one would choose to reverse or eliminate
their disability if such were possible. I had never seriously put much
mental energy into the question because I had long since come to regard my
blindness, as they say in the law, permanent and irreversible. It seems to
me that those two words are the same, but I’ve read them so often that they
just seem to go together. The proposition being advanced by some at the
conference was that to wish for or to embrace a cure was to admit that one
was not happy with themselves and willing to throw away a foundational part
of their identity. While I certainly believed then and believe now that
blindness has played a major part in shaping my identity, I had never really
considered the possibility of regaining sight as suggesting that I was
unhappy as a blind person and that blindness was something I did not like
about myself. One question that occurred to me during the conference was
whether any disability I might encounter would immediately become a part of
my identity. I have to believe that most people would consider me crazy if I
broke my leg but refused to have it fixed on the assumption that it would be
to reject a new me.


Admitting What I Have Gotten by Being Blind


I admit that blindness has shaped me in some positive ways such as getting
me a free college education, helping me to become a problem-solver by
thinking out of the box, exposing me to people I likely would never have met
had I not moved from my small town and the homogenous group of people who
lived there. Had it not been for blindness, I doubt I would have met every
member of the Missouri Congressional Delegation. It is likely, like my
father and my siblings, I might continue to be one of the alienated who
think of themselves as the powerless little guy.


Be Careful What You Wish For


A friend of mine was told by his surgeon that a cornea transplant would
restore most or all of his vision. He had been blind since birth but at an
earlier point in his life had had significantly more vision. He believed his
doctor was offering a wonderful opportunity, took it, and was pleasantly
surprised to realize that his vision was so improved that he could read the
newspaper. After a bit of celebrating, he took a much lower profile because,
apparently for the first time, he thought through what it would mean to no
longer be blind. He was a part of the Randolph-Sheppard vending program, a
reasonably successful manager who liked the work and desperately needed the
income. He was also a recipient of Missouri’s blind pension and of the
monthly check provided through his Social Security Disability Insurance
benefit. Like most of us, his household budget had him spending about as
much as he took in, and the realization that he would lose all of this
income was bone chilling for him. So this temporarily sighted man decided to
no longer share with the world this newfound blessing, and for years he
sweated about the possibility that he might be found out and wrestled with
his concept of being a truth-telling man and the consequences that truth
would mean for a person who was no longer young enough to reasonably start
out on a new career path. We, his friends, who would’ve been quick to expose
fraud if we saw a person who had always had vision trying to take advantage
of blindness programs, were silent. We too were holding our breath—knowing
he was breaking the law, but wondering what we would do if placed in the
same circumstance.


Would I Gamble on Sight?


Let us dismiss for a moment all of the practical issues involved in whether
or not I could ever really see and for this purpose let us talk about
philosophy, self-concept, and identity. Some of you may have read the book
Crashing Through by Mike May. If you haven’t, spoiler alert: he could see
until about the age of three, went through his life amassing many
accomplishments as a blind person, felt good about himself, was offered the
opportunity to regain vision, and had to wrestle with the idea of whether or
not to do it. After all of the soul-searching, his decision came down to
this: I’m happy as a blind guy; I’ve done most everything I want to do, but
the things that have brought me the most joy in life have involved adventure
and new activities. What could be more of an adventure than figuring out
what it is like to see?

If I have accurately summarized what Mike said and felt, there isn’t much
more I have to say. I do not believe I would be selling out myself or other
blind people. I do not believe I would be running from a life that has
frustrated me with failure after failure. I do not believe I would be
turning my back on friends I consider family. Gaining truly usable vision is
a highly questionable proposition given what we now know about the
plasticity of the brain and needing to learn to see at a fairly early age,
but I think that in my soon to be retirement I might just be a chauffeur for
blind people. It wouldn’t hurt me at all to see the money flowing the other
way, and I would be assured of writers who were interesting, informative,
and able to think outside the box. For those of you who remember my little
essay on controlling the car, this rideshare driver would give full control
of the electric windows and the car radio to his passengers.

Would I like to see a sunrise, a sunset, the stars at night, the flames
coming out of a rocket as it heads toward space? You bet I would. Would I
like to learn what is special about the smile of the Mona Lisa? Why not?
Would I like to learn the magic of converting a two-dimensional drawing into
something that looks like a horse running across the prairie? Yes, not just
for the beauty of the horse and the prairie but for the whole idea that it
can be displayed two dimensionally and be meaningful. I grant that there are
other mysteries in life that are probably more important, and I grant that
they are also beyond my ability to comprehend, let alone solve. But the fact
that I do not have most of the things I’ve put on this list doesn’t mean
that I have to be defensive and say that I don’t care anything about them.
Neither do I have to give them so much bandwidth that they get in the way of
my enjoying the beautiful life I have in the wonderful opportunities I’ve
been blessed to enjoy and that are arguably more important.


Why This Article?


One of the things I most hope for when we publish an issue of the Braille
Monitor is that it will get response. It is fun to write my thoughts, but
for me the real challenge in life isn’t just getting to say what I think; it
is prompting others to say what they think and then engaging in a genuine
attempt to understand. Please write in response to this article and the one
that comes above it. I believe that Rishika Kartik would appreciate
responses to the moving speech she gave in a TED Talk that also appears in
this issue. This magazine belongs to you; please take ownership of it and
let your voice be heard!

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Cutis Willoughby]


Gratitude


by Curtis Willoughby

>From the Editor: Curtis Willoughby has been a real pioneer, being the first
blind electrical engineer I know. Throughout his career, he has remained a
steadfast Federationist, even given the tremendous work his jobs have
required. Now he wishes to say thank you for one of the things we have done
for him. When one becomes eligible for Social Security Disability benefits,
regardless if he draws them, it should make a difference in the calculation
of his retirement benefits, but never does this happen without appeals.

Back in about 2001, I retired from my employment and remembered that I
should be eligible for a special Social Security benefit that was created in
the 1960s or 1970s. I contacted Jim Gashel in the NFB national office and
determined that it would be worth a lot of money if I followed up on it.
With Jim's help, I requested an administrative review, and then an appeal,
which are required. These always resulted in denials. This is because the
Social Security Administration carefully left out of the manual the
existence of this rule, though it was in the regulations.

Jim then got me in touch with a couple of lawyers in Virginia who had worked
on some other cases for us. These folks took my case through the next steps
in the internal Social Security review process. After that, it was necessary
to take the case to the federal district court. This is where Scott LaBarre
comes in. Scott took my case to the Federal District Court, which ruled in
my favor. I will always be indebted to Scott, who did such a good job on my
case.

The Social Security payment office tried anew to get the Social Security
Appeals Council to take the case, but they sat on it long enough that I won
because they sat on it so long. It took until about 2009, but my Social
Security income has been much higher, retroactive to 2001.

Thank You, Scott, Jim and the NFB for your help!

----------


We Need Your Help


Very soon after I went blind, I went to my first convention of the National
Federation of the Blind. Though as a six-year-old I was not scared about my
future as a blind person, learning about the NFB and going to conventions
showed me tons of independent blind people who I could look up to. Real life
superheroes that I could aspire to be like. —Abigail

Blind children, students, and adults are making powerful strides in
education and leadership every day across the United States, but we need to
continue helping kids like Abigail. For more than eighty years, the National
Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of
thousands of blind people into reality. With support from individuals like
you, we can continue to provide powerful programs and critical resources now
and for decades to come. We hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring
movement by including the National Federation of the Blind in your
charitable giving and in your estate planning. It is easier than you think.

 


With your help, the NFB will continue to:


*	Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille.
*	Mentor young people like Abigail.
*	Promote independent travel by providing free, long white canes to
blind people in need.
*	Develop dynamic educational projects and programs to show blind
youth that science and math careers are within their reach.
*	Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide
blind people the essential information necessary to be actively involved in
their communities.
*	Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain
their independence.

Below are just a few of the many tax-deductible ways you can show your
support of the National Federation of the Blind.

LYFT Round Up

By visiting the menu, choosing donate, and selecting the National Federation
of the Blind, you commit to giving to the National Federation of the Blind
with each ride.

Vehicle Donation Program

We accept donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or
recreational vehicles. Just call 855-659-9314 toll-free, and a
representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation. We can also
answer any questions you have.

General Donation

General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work
to help blind people live the lives they want. You can call 410-659-9314,
extension 2430, to give by phone. Give online with a credit card or through
the mail with check or money order. Visit our Ways to Give Page at:
https://nfb.org/give.

Pre-Authorized Contributions

Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain
the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring
monthly donations by direct withdrawal of funds from a checking account or a
charge to a credit card. To enroll, call 877-NFB-2PAC, or fill out our PAC
Donation Form https://www.nfb.org/pac.


Plan to Leave a Legacy


The National Federation of the Blind legacy society, our Dream Makers
Circle, honors and recognizes the generosity and imagination of members and
special friends who have chosen to leave a legacy through a will or other
planned giving option. You can join the Dream Makers Circle in a myriad of
ways.

Percentage or Fixed Sum of Assets

You can specify that a percentage or a fixed sum of your assets or property
goes to the National Federation of the Blind in your will, trust, pension,
IRA, life insurance policy, brokerage account, or other accounts.

Payable on Death (POD) Account

You can name the National Federation of the Blind as the beneficiary on a
Payable on Death (POD) account through your bank. You can turn any checking
or savings account into a POD account. This is one of the simplest ways to
leave a legacy. The account is totally in your control during your lifetime,
and you can change the beneficiary or percentage at any time with ease.

Will or Trust

If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National
Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary.

Visit our Planned Giving webpage
(https://www.nfb.org/get-involved/ways-give/planned-giving) or call
410-659-9314, extension 2422, for more information.


In 2022 our supporters helped the NFB:


*	Send 371 Braille Santa and Winter Celebration letters to blind
children, encouraging excitement for Braille literacy.
*	Distribute over three thousand canes to blind people across the
United States, empowering them to travel safely and independently throughout
their communities.
*	Deliver more than five hundred newspapers and magazines to more than
100,000 subscribers with print disabilities free of charge.
*	Give over seven hundred Braille-writing slates and styluses free of
charge to blind users.
*	Mentor 207 blind youth during our Braille Enrichment for Literacy
and Learning® Academy.
*	Award thirty scholarships each in the amount of $8,000 to blind
students.

Just imagine what we will do this year, and, with your help, what can be
accomplished for years to come. Together with love, hope, determination, and
your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Rishika Kartik]

[PHOTO CAPTION: A couple walks arm in arm down a street under an umbrella
and a canopy of trees, with old light posts visible on their right.]


Creativity Is More Accessible Than Meets the Eye


by Rishika Kartik

>From the Editor: I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a bad TED talk, but what I do
know is that I’ve never heard one better than this. Rishika, following in
her father’s footsteps, volunteered for and learned from the Colorado Center
for the Blind, and as with most bright, motivated, and giving students, she
is now amplifying and giving back. Here is her talk, which you can also find
in a link at the end of this article:

Don't Touch the Art. Heard this before? Perhaps in a museum or a gallery?

"Don't Touch the Art."

It's four simple words, and yet, it disproportionately impacts over 253
million blind or visually impaired people worldwide.

Art prides itself on pushing boundaries, yet we still view creativity two
dimensionally, literally—pencil portraits, Instagram posts, sculptures we
must stay ten feet from at all times—the kind of art you can look at, but
cannot fully experience.

It is precisely this view that is stopping us from a more inclusive,
innovative future. Making creative outlets accessible isn't just "nice to
have"; it's essential.

According to a global CEOs study at IBM, creativity is the most crucial
factor for future success. Yet, a study by Adobe revealed that 75 percent of
people surveyed do not feel they are living up to their creative potential.

What if I told you that there's a way for almost everyone, including you, to
unlock your creativity and experience the world in a way you've never
experienced it before? It's easy, and it starts with viewing accessibility
as an opportunity for creativity.

Now, I know what you're thinking. I'm a sighted seventeen-year-old. This
talk is about accessibility, creativity, and blindness. That's like a
dolphin giving a keynote about open heart surgery. It's true. I'm not blind,
and I'm not a professional artist.

Funny enough, for the longest time I was convinced that I was uncreative. A
creative person was a cool, elusive Edge Lord, holed up in a dim room with
brilliant ideas and black coffee. I was a loud, awkward nerd with
regrettable fashion sense and a caffeine intolerance.

However, four years ago I discovered that creativity is significantly more
accessible than most of us believe. I was volunteering at a center for blind
students. And you know what I noticed most? I noticed that there, when a
student is struggling, it's viewed as an opportunity. The teacher has to
creatively find a solution that works for the student. The emphasis wasn’t
about helping students fit the mold, as I was used to. It's about changing
the mold.

One evening, one of my friends from the center, Sarah, showed me a painting
I’ll never forget. And I’m going to show it to you. But, before I do, close
your eyes, take a moment, let me describe it first.

Twinkling streetlights and trees with crisp fall foliage line the path for a
couple in love. Colorful fractals dance on a rainy floor beneath their
peaceful silhouette.

Can you picture that? My guess is that if I asked each of you to create a
version of this painting for yourself, you would each come up with a vastly
different interpretation.

Okay, keep the image of your version in your mind. Now, here is what the
painting actually looks like.

It turns out that the artist, John Bramblitt, lost his vision due to
complications with seizures and epilepsy. When I found out, I felt terrible.
My heart went out to him. But then Sarah showed me a quote from Bramblitt
himself. He said: "My world is a more colorful place than ever before." She
explained that, while disability is challenging, it gives people like
herself and Bramblitt an opportunity to view the world differently.

John Bramblitt once aspired to be a creative writing teacher. Believe it or
not he did not start painting seriously until after vision loss. So let me
ask you: if he hadn't lost his vision, would he have become a world-renowned
artist? His blindness was what allowed him to innovate in his field, using
unique color combinations to convey emotion and textures to bring the scene
alive. He created work that could not only be aesthetically admired, but
touched and intimately experienced.

Just like each of you imagined a different painting based on my description,
artists who are blind can imagine different worlds of possibility.
Creativity is not bound to visual definitions. Creativity should include
everyone.

So why doesn't it? The medical model of disability. This way of thinking
views blindness as a physical limitation that must be cured in order to help
people live “normal” lives. The medical model comes from a compassionate
place. But when we talk about needing to cure blindness without actually
listening to blind people, we walk a tightrope between empathy and pity.
Instead, I learned to embrace the theory of complex embodiment. Complex
embodiment views disability as a unique personal experience, much like race
or sexuality. Some view their disability physically; others view their
disability as a cultural identity. Some people don’t want to be defined by
their condition. Others view blindness as a central part of who they are.

So if you want to learn more about blindness, ask people who are blind.
You’ll be surprised at how diverse individual experiences can be.

Everyone, including nondisabled people like me, benefits from inclusion. Did
you know that typewriters were created to help blind people send letters?
Voice control technology we use every day like Siri was created to help
blind people navigate technology.

Disability should never be mistaken for inability. Just ask John Bramblitt.
He’s the recipient of three Presidential Service Awards, and his art has
been sold in over one hundred and twenty countries. Traditional narratives
on blindness would have painted his story as a tragedy and then told him,
"Don’t touch the art."

Bramblitt's work gave me a new perspective and an interest in tactile art.
This interest would lead me to flour-caked hands, clay-stained tables, and
cinnamon scented paints. I joined tactile art classes. Eventually, I got to
teach tactile art classes. I even got to meet John Bramblitt in real life.

I went from thinking I was fundamentally uncreative to finding a passion for
the arts. Because I wasn't uncreative; our idea of creativity is just wrong.
In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, an international advisor on education in
the arts, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with
anything original.”

Creativity is not an elusive trait reserved only for the 1 percent of
artists and geniuses. In fact, creativity does not require inherent
intelligence at all. Creativity requires courage.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I was daunted by taking my hands-on teaching
style online. My first virtual tactile art workshop was a clay pottery
class, and our clay substitute—flour and water—refused to mold into a
traditional form. I worried that my blind students would be discouraged by
such a messy experience.

Yet while I grappled with executing a pre-planned project, my students
continued to create with delight. While I could only think of clay as
pottery, they transformed clay into textured paint, silly putty, and
papier-mâché paste. They reminded me that art doesn’t play by the rules.
Sometimes, the best work happens when we stop planning and start
improvising. That’s what makes these students artists.

Most people are terrified of improvising when it comes to creation. We are
comfortable with a well-planned strategy, and when a project veers from that
strategy, we fear we might be ridiculed, judged, or shamed. When we allow
this fear to take over, more often than not, we stop generating ideas. We
simply do not pursue creativity at all.

The way to overcome this fear is to dismantle ableism. Current approaches to
disability inclusion send one message: "conform." We’re afraid of disability
because it deviates from what we consider to be normal.

There was a nationwide poll published in the ophthalmology journal of the
American Medical Association. Researchers asked people, “What is one of the
worst possible health outcomes that could happen to you?” Nearly half of
respondents said losing vision. Where does this fear come from? It’s because
we see no other way to live than visually. We wrongly equate the "right way"
of doing things with the "sighted way" of doing things. By reinforcing what
we think of as normality, we are killing our creativity.

Accessibility is currently an afterthought; we design products, art pieces,
buildings, and school systems assuming everyone is nondisabled and then
create separate spaces for those who don’t fit this mold. If this
separationist mentality continues, every one of us will be affected by it.

According to the CDC, one in four have a disability. This means it's likely
that you have one, will develop one, or will be close to someone with one.

So, what can you do? First, prioritize disability inclusion from the
beginning. Post alt-text descriptions on social media. Offer project-based,
3D learning opportunities in schools. Build architecture intended for every
person to enter.

Next, collaborate with people with disabilities and learn from them. You
literally cannot do something if you don't know it exists. So learn about
how you can bring accessibility to your school, workplace, and community,
and spread your knowledge to others.

Finally, reject the sighted savior mentality. Embrace complex embodiment and
celebrate unique perspectives. Imagine a world where everyone could express
themselves and belong; a school system or museum where students could read a
textbook, touch a sculpture, listen to music; a world where everyone feels
called to innovate.

In the words of John Bramblitt, "Everyone has an artist somewhere in them;
sometimes they just need a little help letting it out."

To build a more creative world, we must radically redefine the way we view
disability. There is no "right way" to be creative. When we explore the
unconventional, we develop new modes of problem-solving, learning, and
connecting. Accessibility IS an opportunity for creativity.

So smell the art. Hear the art. Feel the art. And yes, please, touch the
art.

TEDx Talk YouTube Link - https://youtu.be/0jiTWP0lCls.
----------


National Federation of the Blind Applauds the Introduction of the Access
Technology Affordability Act in the Senate


Baltimore, Maryland (May 8, 2023): The National Federation of the Blind, the
transformative advocacy organization of blind Americans, applauds the
introduction of the Access Technology Affordability Act of 2023 (S. 1467) in
the United States Senate by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD). Senators John Boozman
(R-AR), Ron Wyden (D-Or), and Todd Young (R-IN) are original co-sponsors of
the bill. This legislation removes an education and employment barrier
commonly experienced by blind Americans who cannot afford the high cost of
access technology by creating a refundable tax credit in the amount of
$2,000 to be used over a three-year period to offset the cost of these
technologies.

Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“My wife, my two daughters, and I are all blind, and the children’s
technology needs will increase as they complete their education and start
their careers. My family is not unique; blind people across the nation face
this challenge, and this legislation will provide critical assistance. We
thank and commend Senators Cardin, Boozman, Wyden, and Young for being
champions of this act, which will help give blind people the technology they
need to live the lives they want.”

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Jo Elizabeth Pinto]


Can We Change the World?


by Jo Elizabeth Pinto

>From the Editor: This article is taken from the April issue of the Blind
Coloradan, the publication of the National Federation of the Blind of
Colorado. How realistic is it for us to want to change the world? Here is
our author’s take. Here is the way the article was introduced by Kevan
Worley:

>From the aggregator: Readers of this blog are probably familiar with author
Jo Elizabeth Pinto. She is a frequent contributor. We have also enjoyed her
poetry at NFBCO state convention banquets. Here is what she offers up for
this Blind Coloradan.

Sometimes I get frustrated because the world isn’t changing fast enough. It
angers and saddens me when prejudice and ignorance happen, especially in
front of impressionable young people.

I need to get blood drawn regularly because of my autoimmune issues. During
one of my visits to the local hospital, the woman who checked me into the
lab was nearly young enough to be my daughter. During her long list of
routine questions, she inquired about my insurance. I told her I have
Medicare.

She saw the guide dog sitting placidly beside me and asked, "You're
disabled, right?"

I affirmed that I'm blind.

She said, "So you don't work."

Irritated, I started to ask her what my disability had to do with not
working. But before I got my mouth open, my teenage daughter spoke up. "My
mom edits books."

The woman turned to my kid and asked, "She edits books? But she does it for
free, doesn't she?"

"Why would my mom work for free?" My daughter laughed in that condescending
way only a teenager can. "No one does that."

"Oh ... um ... she's disabled, and she works for money?" the woman
stammered.

"Sure she does. Lots of disabled people work for money," my daughter replied
as if the woman had just sprouted an extra head.

"I'm self-employed," I broke in. "I draw Social Security Disability and
freelance as a Braille proofreader. Let's move on with the relevant
questions, please."

This is the New Millennium, people. Our kids understand equality as
naturally as breathing when they grow up with it, but we're still explaining
the basics to professionals.

Thirty years ago, I thought we could change the world in sweeping waves.
These days, I'm older and wiser, and I’ve learned that change comes one
hard-won inch at a time. When I speak up for myself at the hospital, or when
my daughter laughs because an uninformed lab tech suggests I must work for
free because I’m blind, that’s an inch. When members of the NFB gather at
the Capitol to speak to their elected officials or demand textured pavers on
the Sixteenth Street Mall, that’s an inch.

The answer is yes. We can change the world, inch by precious inch!

----------


The Blind Do Lead the Blind


by Dr. Jacob Freid

Delivered before the NFB annual convention, Los Angeles, July 1976

>From the Editor: We often recognize in these pages the Blind Who Lead the
Blind. Sometimes we run the rather lengthy article recognizing each member
of the board and its officers. At other times we run biographies of those
newly elected. But mostly what we read is about who the blind are who lead
the blind, not what they must strive to be for all of us. So here is a
definition of the characteristics we want in the blind who lead the blind,
written by Dr. Jacob Freid and delivered at the 1976 Convention of the
National Federation of the Blind in Los Angeles. Anyone wanting to know more
about Dr. Freid should do a bit of research; it will be well worth your
while. Here is his presentation:

Before this National Federation of the Blind came into being, the dictum
from the Gospel according to St. Matthew prevailed: that "if the blind lead
the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." This was literally taken to be
the "Gospel truth." Several of Kenneth Jernigan's inspired addresses
revealed the influence of this canard in the crucial areas of literature and
history which have so prejudicially influenced attitudes to the blind into
harmful, discriminatory, and bigoted stereotypes through the ages.

But that was B.C.—"Before Chick"—and now A.J.—"After Jernigan"—the miracle
of change for the better is taking place in erasing this libel. Certainly in
the quarter century since this speaker began to march to the beat of this
historic movement, he has witnessed a virtual miracle occur in the
betterment of the cause of the blind.

Our leaders and you, our Convention delegates from all fifty states, are the
living proof that the blind do lead the blind. We know that each of us has
to realize his own potentialities and cope with the special circumstances of
our own life. In a more fundamental sense the blind who lead the blind
stress the goal each of us is striving to achieve together—that the good of
each, the good human life requires liberty, equality, opportunity, and
security to engage in what Jefferson wished for each of us—the successful
pursuit of happiness.

The blind who lead the blind understand that the happy or good life is
essentially the same for all human beings. What is really good for any human
being is really good for all other human beings; so if happiness consists in
a life enriched by all the things that are really good for a man, happiness
is the same for all men and women.

We here are the living testimony to the NFB-achieved miracle that the blind
do lead the blind—that we don't need or want an American Foundation for the
Blind to lead the blind; that we don't need or want a National Accreditation
Council for the Blind to lead the blind; that we do have a National
Federation of the Blind and by the blind to lead the blind.

This is where we are in Los Angeles on July 6, 1976, in the day when the
blind lead the blind. As Mayor Bradley told us this morning, David Hartman
became the first blind person in 104 years to graduate from an American
medical school when he received his medical degree from Temple University
this June 2. Hartman, who is twenty-six, was blinded by glaucoma when he was
eight. He will practice psychiatry and rehabilitative medicine. After
compiling straight A records in high school and college, Hartman was
rejected by nine medical schools. But the tenth took him, and now he is the
first blind person to receive a medical degree.

This is indicative of the new era that is dawning under the able leadership
of the blind who lead the blind.

Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein were men whose probings
into new frontiers changed the attitudes and beliefs of mankind toward the
past from which he came, toward himself and toward the space and time in
which he and the globe on which he dwelled existed in relation to the vast
orbital, nebular universe.

Darwin attacked man's need for ego afflatus out of which he had created God
in man's image. Man was not the creation painted in Michelangelo's Sistine
Chapel masterpiece as coming to life out of the inert clay at the touch of
the Almighty's fingertip. Instead, blasphemed Darwin the heretic, he had
evoluted through the eons from the primeval slime to an arboreal habitat as
a primate—an ape from whom man had descended to earth, learned to stand
erect, to walk, and to become humanoid.

Freud stormed the bastions of man's rationality and facade to reveal the
hidden terra incognita of the disguised and repressed inner being of his
libido, id, and ego which, like the iceberg, was nine-tenths concealed
beneath his surface in the subconscious, with its fears and passions and
schizoid irrationalities and nightmares.

Einstein shattered the Ptolemaic universe already battered by Copernicus,
with his theory establishing the interrelation of mass and energy. He
completely revised existing concepts of fundamental universal laws and paved
the way for the atomic age. Against skeptics, the Orthodox Church, and
entrenched beliefs this trinity of explorers into the uncharted seas of
knowledge prevailed with the truth of their brilliant insights put forward
with unflagging and courageous perseverance against the storms and diatribes
of the outraged defenders of the establishment.

Since these men, our individual sense of frontier has been drawing inward
until today the greatest voyages are not the astronauts rocketing to the
moon, but those of self-discovery for enlightenment, personal growth,
self-understanding, and self-appreciation of the potential regardless of our
degree of sight to fulfill one's self through proper training and education
and to realize one's hopes and aspirations.

Like these three, our own immortals, Jacobus tenBroek and Kenneth Jernigan
were brilliant and iconoclastic searchers for truth whose new insights and
revolutionary views concerning the blind person and his world brought
counterattacks and ostracism from the paternalistic, patronizing
establishment lords of things-as-they-are. Out of their knowledge and
keen-honed intellects they preached a doctrine of self-understanding,
self-help, self-organization, and self-fulfillment that was a scathing
indictment of the benevolent despotism and feudalism that maintained the
blind as indentured servants and wards whose obeisance to the status quo was
their necessary passport for service. It is no wonder that these blind men
who led the blind and who challenged as frauds those who proclaimed
themselves the monopolists of the only Sinaitic Revelation, and their NFB
movement were an anathema to be exorcised and excommunicated, by the AFB-NAC
establishment and their sycophant, the Judas lackey, the American Council of
the Blind.

The first of this famous Chick-Ken duo who hatched the NFB movement of the
blind who lead the blind, Chick tenBroek, became the prophet of a new
revelation of the blind as normal individuals who cannot see, but with the
right to fulfillment of their talents, aspirations, and personalities. Chick
pointed the way to self-discovery, and fought for equality of education,
training, and employment opportunity to achieve the potential of which the
normal blind man was capable. He realized that only through the instrument
of a democratic movement in which the blind led the blind could they storm
the imprisoning fortresses that girded the country of the blind so that they
could leave the captivity of their feudal serfdoms, and cross the frontier
to freedom and the chance to share the American dream of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness. Chick is gone but his spirit marches on with us
here today. His Joshua is Kenneth Jernigan, and today the struggle still
persists on new battlefields. We still have to put on our warpaint and go
out to do battle: for a White Cane Law here, for proper vending stand and
sheltered workshop conditions there, for the right to teach somewhere else
against all attempts to homogenize us, to set standards for us rather than
with us and et cetera, et cetera and et cetera, as the King of Siam said to
Anna.

Today we are embattled on this field of who justifiably and democratically
accredits whom. With the knowledge of how far we have progressed from what
we were, with the promise that we can scale the heights though the climb be
hard and wearisome and beset by obstacles to be overcome, we shall be
alchemists of the present under our peerless blind leader of the blind. Dr.
Jernigan, the fighter who has taken the torch from Chick tenBroek's hands,
knowing that we are part of the process that is turning the base metal of
the pejorative "blind" to the golden image of a man who like all normal men
can be a citizen who is master of his soul and his life, and a contributing
member to a better life for himself, his community, his nation, and all
mankind.

Here and now the blind who lead the blind pledge that the American
tricentennial shall see freedom, equality, security, and opportunity for the
blind as a goal attained. Here today as we begin this third century of our
Nation's existence, the blind who lead the blind declare that a blind person
can be an equal citizen in society provided we overcome the critical problem
facing the blind in our time—the attitude of the sighted majority who
control the passways to equality of training, opportunity, employment, and
first-class citizenship in our society. So long as this battle is not won
the blind will remain among the most disadvantaged, discriminated-against
minority group in our society.

Last year I was privileged to read Dr. Jernigan's keynote address to the
first World Conference of the Jewish Blind in Jerusalem, Israel. We also
showed our NFB film at that historic meeting. Golda Meir was so impressed by
this conference that she asked to see me. I told her that "unlike the Abu
Rudeis oil fields, the blind of Israel are a rich natural resource which you
don't have to give back to the Arabs."

The blind who lead the blind have made a commitment to a comprehensive
program of positive and creative life for the properly educated and trained
blind in a democratic society. They know that this great movement offers us
an opportunity to serve the blind in a fiduciary capacity to the best of our
talents, knowledge, professional training, and experience.

We meet together in a time of ferment, innovation, and experiment on the
frontiers of social action, civil rights, public education, and
intercommunity relations between the blind and the sighted world in general
and personnel directors and business and industrial leaders who command the
gateways to employment in particular. Obviously we will experience
frustrations, disagreements, and setbacks. But we know from the achievements
of the blind under the leadership of the blind that we will continue to make
significant contributions to equality, security, and employment
opportunities for the blind.

The fact is that it is the blind who lead the blind who developed a program
of legislation, social action, and public education. The blind who lead the
blind proved through the actions of the NFB that legislation and litigation
are sharp tools in the battle against discrimination. Legal action, however,
has only an indirect bearing upon the reduction of personal prejudice. It
cannot influence thoughts or instill subjective tolerance. The law is
intended only to control the overt expression of intolerance in the denial
of proper employment, education, public accommodations, and housing
opportunities. But outward action as our psychological and sociological
findings determine has an eventual effect upon inner habits of thought and
feeling: for this reason legislative action has been one of the major moves
in reducing, not only public discrimination, but private prejudice as well.

We have made our most progress in this area of legislation which has opened
up primarily civil service and teaching opportunities for the properly
educated and trained blind.

The other major area on which we are just making inroads is public
education. This is necessary to create a positive aura to overcome the
latent subconscious prejudice of the majority culture. Proper public
education provides a positive framework against which personnel directors
and employers are willing to open opportunities. It is in this area which
the blind who lead the blind feel is among the most important positive paths
for us to follow. A survey made by a committee on public education showed
that the incidence of employment for the blind was in direct correlation to
the success of the public education programs in these communities. That is
why it has become a cliche that if you are blind it is best to be blind in
Iowa.

The blind who lead the blind demand equal acceptance and participation in
society. They declare that blindness is not essentially a severe handicap;
that blind people are normal human beings; that blindness in itself is only
a physical lack which can be met and mastered, not an impairment of mental
powers or psychological stability. Therefore, all arbitrary barriers and
discriminations—legal, economic, and social—based on the false assumption
that the blind are somehow different from those with sight must be abolished
in favor of equality of opportunity for all who are blind.

In summation we ask what is it that the blind essentially want from society
and those in the seats of power. We declare that the blind want the
recognition that we have the ability and the right to be equals and partners
in determining the agency and government policies that concern us because
they control our destiny and the quality and shape of our lives and position
in society.

Therefore, the blind who lead the blind want the sighted world to have a
respect for life, and the lives of the blind; to have a sense of the rights
of the blind; to operate as partners with the blind in all decisions without
secrecy and with decency and integrity; to join as equals with the blind and
with an equal concern in formulating together the best program and standards
possible for the blind.

We declare that we cannot, we will not accept anything less.

Under the blind leaders who do lead the blind the day will come when,
following our Joshua, Dr. Jernigan, we will blow our trumpets until the
walls of Jericho built against us will crumble into dust. This will be done,
and so for the battles won and for those ahead that we will win, I salute
you Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and you the delegates of this great assemblage who
are the blind who lead the blind as front-line soldiers in the victory ahead
in the liberation war for humanity.

----------


Four Leading Brands and The National Federation of the Blind Join Be My
Eyes’ Virtual Volunteer Corporate Beta Test


>From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind has had a
long-standing relationship with Be My Eyes and was so inspired by the
project that we presented the Bolotin Award in the amount of $25,000 to the
company in 2018. Having all the volunteers we could ever want is a
significant accomplishment; adding a virtual assistant is a tremendous
milestone. Here is the announcement about the ongoing beta testing:

We’re excited to announce that Hilton, Microsoft, P&G, Sony, and The
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) have joined our Virtual Volunteer™
beta test. Virtual Volunteer is the first-ever digital visual assistant
powered by OpenAI’s new GPT-4 language model. Users can send images via our
app to an AI-powered Virtual Volunteer, which will answer any question about
that image and provide instantaneous visual assistance for a wide variety of
tasks. Our goal is to continue building this technology with and for the
global community of people who are blind or have low vision to pursue our
mission.

“Working with these amazing brands and the National Federation of the Blind
is about two things: first, it’s to ensure the consumer experience is not
only excellent, but also solves real world use cases and needs. Second, it’s
about continuing to build this technology by working directly with the blind
and low vision community,” said Mike Buckley, Be My Eyes CEO. “I want to
publicly thank Hilton, Microsoft, P&G, Sony, and NFB for their commitment to
accessibility and partnership with Be My Eyes.”

For Hilton, we will test Virtual Volunteer in and around hotel environments.
Hilton has graciously offered free hotel stays to many beta testers to
enable real world results which we’ll interpret and utilize for
hospitality-centric product improvements.

"Hilton's participation with Be My Eyes' Virtual Volunteer is an incredible
next step in our company's journey as a leader in inclusive hospitality. We
look forward to learning from the beta test to improve our experience for
guests of all abilities through the power of artificial intelligence."
—Becky Ploeger, Global Head of Reservations and Customer Care, Hilton

For Microsoft, a longtime Be My Eyes customer, we’re going to test Virtual
Volunteer in its customer service. Microsoft has a long history of
leadership in accessibility, and its Disability Answer Desk will prove
incredibly helpful in testing the abilities and limitations of the
technology.

“Be My Eyes has played an important role in improving how Microsoft can give
effective technical support inclusive of all our customers and their needs.
With Virtual Volunteer, we continue to improve on creating a safe and
accessible environment for our blind and low vision customers.”—Neil
Barnett, Director, Inclusive Hiring and Accessibility at Microsoft

As one of the world’s largest consumer products companies, our existing
customer P&G will work with Virtual Volunteer to test how it performs on
everything from identifying specific products, ingredients, and uses, to
exploring how it may be used in broader customer service applications.

“P&G is excited to participate in the Be My Eyes artificial intelligence
pilot with Open AI. We’re looking forward to testing the new technology and
understanding how it can improve the lives of our blind and low vision
consumers.” —Sumaira Latif, Accessibility Leader at Procter & Gamble

Sony has been a Be My Eyes partner since October 2022, and we are excited to
welcome them to the Virtual Volunteer corporate beta. Together with Sony, we
will test Virtual Volunteer's ability to help blind and low vision users set
up their new Sony product, get access to a wide variety of post sales
services, and find all the necessary information about the accessibility
features of Sony products.

“Virtual Volunteer will allow us to bring even more simplicity for our Sony
customers using Be My Eyes—we are excited to be part of the future of
accessibility by ensuring our products are accessible and enjoyable to
everyone.”—Michelle Ward, Policy Lead at Sony

Finally, our partnership with the NFB will provide early access to Virtual
Volunteer to one of the world’s most important blindness organizations. NFB
will help keep us honest and provide blunt feedback on the product and its
limitations. Together, we will fulfill our public promise to build this new
level of accessibility with the direct involvement of the blind and low
vision community.

“Throughout our history, the National Federation of the Blind has created
and advanced technologies that are built on the authentic experience of
blind people to empower our living the lives we want. Examples include our
NFB-NEWSLINE® audio information service, print reading technology for
today’s smartphones, and much more. We are therefore proud to be part of
this exciting beta program to shape the latest generative AI technology in
ways that can enhance the productivity and independence of the blind. Be My
Eyes is a forward-thinking company that is putting the experience and
expertise of its blind users first as it leverages Chat GPT-4, and we look
forward to this collaboration and the many potential benefits it will bring
to our community.”—Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of
the Blind

Be My Eyes will continue to expand our corporate and organizational beta
test in the coming months. If your organization is interested in joining the
program, please email us at solutions at bemyeyes.com
<mailto:solutions at bemyeyes.com> .

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Karl Belanger]

[PHOTO CAPTION: Matt Hackert]


Accessible Remote Access with RIM


by Karl Belanger and Matt Hackert

>From the Editor: If you are blind, have you ever noticed how hard it is to
give or get technical support? A new product offers significant advancement
in this area, whether a blind person is offering technical support to
another blind person, to a sighted person, or is getting support from a
sighted person who does not use a screen reader. Here is an article from two
experts who explain how it works and pass along their enthusiasm for the
beauty of this software:

Ever lost your mind when a tech support representative on the phone asks you
to click “that gear-shaped thingy,” or to look for some icon “down at the
bottom of the screen”? Or, conversely, as you try to help a family member
troubleshoot some problem, you ask them to click on Settings, however they
just see icons on the screen with no text labels, and you have no way of
directing them or telling them what to look for because there’s a disconnect
in how sighted users understand their computing environment and how blind
people navigate. Often, it just becomes easier when the tech support help
can “take over” the computer and eliminate all the talking past one another
that seems to occur because technical folks and the rest of us just have
very different ways of communicating.

Pneuma Solutions, an accessibility-minded software developer, recently
released a new tool that is accessible to the blind that allows just that!
Meet the Remote Incident Manager (RIM). It’s an innovative tool that allows
one person to use their computer to “see” and control what’s happening on
another’s computer, regardless of location so long as both are connected to
the internet. The user may not even be aware that the person remotely
connected is blind or uses a screen reader.


Getting Started


We’ll define some terms to help minimize confusion. “Controller” refers to
the computer offering to provide assistance, and “Target” is the computer
that’s being helped.

To set up and install RIM: Type “getrim.app” in your browser’s address bar.
Select the Download link. Your computer will install a small file. Open this
executable from your downloads folder to begin installation.


The Interface


The RIM interface is similar to a webpage. It includes headings, links, and
buttons. Quick navigation commands work as you would expect them to, and
entering information in edit boxes requires forms mode (JAWS) or object mode
(NVDA).

The first time you open the RIM application, you’ll be asked for your email
address. Enter the address associated with your account. RIM will send a
verification code and will ask you to enter it into the application window.
You should be taken to either the “Receive Help” screen, or the “Provide
Help” screen—RIM takes you to whichever you most recently visited.


Receiving Help


When the “Receive Remote Help” screen loads, focus moves to the Keyword edit
box. You can immediately type a keyword provided to you by the control
computer. Pressing Enter activates the Connect button, and you are ready to
go. The computers will be connected once the controller enters the same
keyword on their end. The other buttons on the “Receive Remote Help” screen
are “Provide help instead”, “Add to RIM Account”, and “About”.

“Provide help instead” switches the interface to the controller screen. “Add
to RIM Account” is for larger environments with multiple employees’
computers running the RIM client under a master account.


Providing Help


The interface for the person operating the controller computer has some
additional options, but the interface is still simple. Below the heading
indicating that you are providing remote help, you will find the Keyword
edit box, a checkbox to toggle use of voice assistance, and a “Start”
button. Once you enter the Keyword you provided to your target computer
operator, press Enter (or click Start). The two machines are connected.

The checkbox to provide voice assistance allows both the controller and
target user to communicate verbally while their computers are connected,
using a microphone headset at each end.

The Provide Help screen also includes “Choose a machine”, “RIM Dashboard”,
“Receive help instead”, “About”, “Logout”, and “Cancel” options. “Choose a
machine” provides a list of computers you’ve configured for unattended
connections that you can select from. “RIM Dashboard” takes you to the
dashboard, discussed below. “About” provides your client’s version
information, “Logout” logs you out of the account you last signed into, and
“Cancel” closes the application.


RIM Dashboard


The RIM Dashboard looks different depending on your account subscription
tier. The dashboard allows you to manage unattended target computers, create
custom RIM installers, and view session histories. Pro and Enterprise
accounts have additional features.


Pricing


There are three subscription tiers available—Personal, Pro, and Enterprise.
Here’s the basic breakdown of the different tiers:

*	“Personal” costs $99 annually ($9.95/month) and allows you to set up
one controller and up to ten computers with unattended connections. More
targets will incur additional costs. You could pay up to $549 annually
($54.95/month).
*	“Pro” starts at $999 annually ($99/month) and allows an unlimited
number of target machines. Pro accounts may have up to three controller
machines and can include up to three simultaneous sessions.
*	“Enterprise” costs $5,000 annually, plus a one-time $1,000 setup
fee; there is no monthly billing option. Enterprise accounts can have
unlimited target computers, can configure groups to help manage target
machines, and can configure access control to users on the account by target
group. Enterprise accounts can set up unattended access to Windows servers
and can set up completely silent installation for unattended target
computers.

Additionally, RIM allows free access for thirty minutes at a time per
twenty-four-hour day and also sells day passes which you can purchase. These
day passes allow for twenty-four hours of use, according to the time
connected, not the calendar day, which is nice. Definitely visit the Pneuma
Solutions website for full details.


The Screen Reader Difference


Remote Incident Manager is a streamlined, low-latency remote access tool. I
think its biggest strength is its ambivalence to and full compatibility with
different screen readers. JAWS and NVDA both have tandem tools for
connecting with other computers running the same program, but RIM doesn’t
differentiate between them. RIM works whether or not a screen reader is
running.

So, how does this work? Let’s first consider a blind technician wishing to
control a remote computer without a screen reader installed. The controller
machine must be running NVDA. RIM installs an add-on (developed for NVDA)
which allows the local version of NVDA to act as the screen reader for the
target computer. The target computer’s user has no overt sign that the
controller was using access technology. They would not hear speech.

Let’s consider a sighted controller connecting to a target computer running
a screen reader. RIM provides both the video and audio outputs of the target
computer, and it transmits both mouse and keyboard inputs. The person
operating the controller would hear the screen reader on the target
computer, but their work isn’t inhibited.

What if both computers are running screen readers? Once the connection is
established, the person on the controller computer operates the target
computer using its local screen reader.


Conclusion


RIM is a true breakthrough in remote desktop access, especially for blind
Information Technology professionals. It’s a fast, simple, secure means of
connecting to your home and office computers. Both remote and local users
can operate the target computer simultaneously, making it a unique tool for
providing one-on-one training. Pro and Enterprise subscription tiers offer a
variety of advanced tools and functionality, even making remote access to
Windows servers possible, without the need to install screen reading
software directly on the server. We’ve only scratched the surface of RIM’s
capabilities but are seeing valuable benefits from its use at our Baltimore
office.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Patti Chang]


Lift Up with Lyft Round Up


by Patti Chang

>From the Editor: Everything we do takes funding, and it is good when a
business acknowledges our worth and gives customers an opportunity to help.
Here is what Patti Chang, our executive director of development, offers to
promote this opportunity:

Lyft and the National Federation of the Blind have been working together for
some time. Our partnership often means that we hold Lyft accountable and
provide honest feedback on their progress. That feedback is not always
positive, particularly when we report issues related to ride denials
involving guide dog handlers, but this article shares news about Lyft we
hope you will welcome.

In December, the National Federation of the Blind joined Lyft’s Round Up
program and became one of only thirteen charities invited to participate.
Anyone who is a Lyft user can select the National Federation of the Blind in
the app, and Lyft will round up the rider’s fare to the nearest dollar. One
hundred percent of the difference is forwarded to the National Federation of
the Blind. The Lyft Round Up program has potential to bring in much needed
financial assistance to the National Federation of the Blind from members
and non-members alike.

“It took me all of two minutes to sign up, and I feel good about helping the
Federation to fund things like free white canes, early childhood programs,
NFB-NEWSLINE®, and BELL® Academy.”—NFB Member.

Signing up is easy—go to the menu, hit donate, and choose the National
Federation of the Blind. We hope that readers of the Braille Monitor will
also ask their friends, family, and colleagues to sign up for Lyft Round Up
and select the Federation too.

Here is an example of what you can share to encourage those you know to sign
up. This would be perfect for a text, social media post, or an outline of
what to say in conversation.

“An exciting and easy giving option for everyone: the organized blind
movement has joined the Lyft Up program, so you can contribute every time
you ride with Lyft. The program will round up the cost of your ride to the
nearest dollar and donate the difference. In the Lyft app, simply go to the
menu, navigate to donate, and choose National Federation of the Blind. Share
this with all of your friends and family, because all of our small change
leads to making a big difference. Thank you for your support!”

--------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Lashawna Fant]


Summer Tips for Parents of Blind Students


by LaShawna Fant

Summer reminds us of sweet lemonade, barbecues, swimming, and beaming
sunshine. Convertibles, beaches and sandcastles, outdoor walks, and the joy
and excitement surrounding the end of the school year are icons, as well.
During these summer months, kids will need time to learn and play. Parents,
please slide down this refreshing list of ideas to help prepare your child
for the upcoming school year and everyday life.

Slice out time for your child to have fun, relax, and enjoy their summer.

Arrange opportunities for them to learn their accommodations, how to
advocate for themselves, and what needs to be done to receive the
appropriate support.

Create social opportunities for your child to interact with others.

Organize a staycation or vacation for the family. Either of them can be
filled with sunny moments.

Have them participate in transition activities to help plan and nurture
their postsecondary goals.

Allow time to work on daily duties involving cleaning, organization,
personal health, and any needed tasks to propel their independence.

Schedule moments for them to explore communities and areas using various
modes of transportation and their orientation and mobility skills.

Download various accessible apps and ensure your child can maneuver them
(shopping, navigation, games, learning platforms).

Talk with your child about their goals and subjects for the upcoming school
year and assist them with learning some of the content over the summer
months.

Attend the National Federation of the Blind’s 2023 National Convention in
Houston, Texas, to attain resources, interact with others, and learn lots of
current information.

---------


NFB Pledge


I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation
of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind;
to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its
constitution.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbofsc_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230601/6bee8233/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Brl-monitor mailing list
Brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
https://nfbcal.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/brl-monitor