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

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From: brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org <brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org> On
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Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, October 2023

 


The Braille Monitor, October 2023


BRAILLE MONITOR


Vol. 66, No. 9 October 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

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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.

Vol. 66, No. 9 October 2023


Contents


Illustration: Celebrating our Work throughout the Movement

Together Living Blindfully: Perspectives on the Wisdom of the Shared Blind
Community

by Jonathan Mosen

Blindness, Hope, and Belief from Liberia to Littleton and Back

by Dan Burke

Idaho’s Blind Share Our Stories on YouTube

by Ramona Walhof

Yes, Virginia, Chapters Can Pass Resolutions

by Daniel Garcia

Guillory Presented the National Educator of Blind Children Award

by Cathi Cox-Boniol

Gary Van Dorn, “Go to Guy” at NFBCO, wins Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer
Award

by Cindy Piggott

Reflecting on the Ten-Year Anniversary of the Marrakesh Treaty

by Marc Maurer

We Should All Live Ambitiously

by John G. Paré

Aiming Big to Achieve Our Objectives

by Jeff Kaloc

Progress on Medical Access and Equal Wages

by Justin Young

My Journey of Discovery, Risk, and Reward

by Jesse Shirek

Save the Date: 2024 Washington Seminar

by Kyle Walls

Monitor Miniatures

[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono gives the September Presidential Release at a
Chicago restaurant with many NFB members in attendance.

[PHOTO CAPTION: NFB members clap and cheer for Dan O’Rourke’s completion of
the Ride for Literacy.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono addresses the crowd at the Ride for Literacy
finale at the Chicago Public Library.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Dan O’Rourke speaks to the members at the Ride for Literacy
finale.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono and Dan O’Rourke pose with Chicago Chapter
Ride for Literacy Committee, Michelle Ault, Patti Chang, Dustin Cather,
Marilyn Green, and Denise Avant.


Celebrating our Work throughout the Movement


On September 8, 2023, the last of several “pit stop parties” along Dan
O’Rourke’s Route 66 Ride for Literacy took place in Chicago, the city where
the historic highway he had just traversed reaches its end. A preview of the
celebration took place the night before as President Riccobono broadcast the
Presidential Release Live from the Exchequer Pub in downtown Chicago, and
the pictures here come from that event. In addition to celebrating Dan’s
accomplishment, the release highlighted the work of the Chicago Chapter
through presentations by Chapter President Denise Avant and Debbie Kent
Stein, who spoke of both the chapter’s history and its current initiatives.
You can access their remarks and the rest of the Presidential Release Live
at https://nfb.org/presidential-releases. The event was a fitting
culmination of Dan’s journey, which had featured visits with several other
chapters and affiliates along the way, and an opportunity to once again
highlight the work that takes place in communities across the nation every
day in order to amplify the impact of the organized blind movement.
Similarly, this issue of the Braille Monitor contains several articles that
highlight efforts by chapters, affiliates, and individuals to advance our
goals and spread our message. October is Blind Equality Achievement Month,
when chapters focus specifically on community events to celebrate
achievement and advance equality. We hope these articles serve as revealing
snapshots of the inspiring, innovative, and powerful accomplishments that
occur throughout the Federation every day and the unsung heroes that make
them possible.

-------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Jonathan Mosen]


Together Living Blindfully: Perspectives on the Wisdom of the Shared Blind
Community


by Jonathan Mosen

>From the Editor: The National Convention agenda listed Jonathan Mosen as
“CEO, Workbridge, and Producer and Presenter, Living Blindfully; Wellington,
New Zealand.” While accurate, the notation does not begin to describe all
that Jonathan Mosen does or all the ways in which he has informed, inspired,
and influenced the global blind community. It is no exaggeration to say that
he is a world thought leader in our movement. Nor is his advocacy any less
fierce and forthright for being delivered with grace and good humor. With
his characteristic humility, Jonathan acknowledges that he might not be the
advocate he is today without his early contact via computer bulletin boards,
that were not even yet known collectively as the internet, with Federation
philosophy as expressed in the writings of Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and Dr.
Kenneth Jernigan. The thoughts that he shared with the convention on the
morning of July 6 show that he absorbed that content, built upon what he
learned, and has now taken his place as a critical voice providing wise
direction for the work that still needs to be done so that “living
blindfully” is also living with equality. Here are his remarks:

Thank you, Mr. President, for the introduction and for the invitation to
speak today, and good morning to my friends in the Federation.

I am delighted to be at another NFB convention. When I attend one, I always
feel replenished, ready to make more positive change, and prouder than ever
to be blind. [Applause]

Among the many things I’ve done in my life, I have a background in radio.
After all these years of hosting shows about blindness current events,
technology, providing entertainment to our community, and raising money for
an important cause or two, I still believe in the power of the internet to
do good, to be a vehicle for sharing knowledge, to have a place that’s
uniquely ours where we’re not trying to explain blindness to sighted people;
we are exclusively, unashamedly talking about the things that matter to us.

My current podcast, Living Blindfully, brings blind people together from, at
last count, 113 countries. [Light applause] Living Blindfully discusses a
wide range of topics including policy, philosophy, employment, parenting,
and more. We also talk a lot about technology because it can assist with
equal participation in society. It’s technology I’d like to focus on today.

I do so mindful of the enormous responsibility this organization bears. The
companies that develop the major operating systems and much of the hardware
we use are based here in the United States. So blind people everywhere are
counting on you to be articulate, focused, and resolute, advocating in a way
that honors your proud traditions. Any success you have in bringing about
more accessible technology has a direct positive benefit to many millions of
blind people beyond your borders.

In an age where technology plays a critical role in all aspects of society,
the Federation has been relentless in its advocacy for accessible technology
as part of its pursuit of security, equality, and opportunity. To assess the
effectiveness of that advocacy, we only need to reflect on how much more
information we have access to in 2023 versus, say, 1983. Computerization in
general, and the internet in particular, mean it is easier for everyone to
work, shop, bank, travel, communicate, be informed, and entertained. The
increasing digitization of society was inevitable because of technological
change. But the social change required for the blind to be included was not.
Accessibility didn’t magically appear out of the goodness of people’s
hearts. It happened because people in this room, alongside many pioneers in
advocacy and technology who are no longer with us, and who we remember with
appreciation and respect, put in the effort and made it happen. [Applause] 

Achieving the degree of accessibility we enjoy today required the use of a
range of advocacy tools, including building strong relationships, being
thought leaders, and, when it was absolutely necessary, legislative and
legal action. It was true then, and it is still true today, that even some
blind people decry the advocacy necessary to win those battles using terms
like militant, radical, whining, and entitled.

Now, in January I became a grandfather for the first time. [Cheers] Thank
you for that. My little granddaughter, Florence, is adorable. One of the
many cool things about being a granddad is that I’m reading kids’ books
again. (Just wait until Christmas when I hit the toy stores!) So, the story
of the little red hen has been on my mind lately. For those who don’t know
it, spoiler alert, the short version is that the little red hen tried to get
help to plant the seeds, harvest the wheat, and bake the bread, but the
other farm animals couldn’t be bothered. Oh but when the bread was ready,
they happily volunteered to eat it. Isn’t it ironic that those who malign us
as militant, who denigrate the doers, who ridicule us as radical, who attack
the advocates, who berate the bakers of the bread, are publishing that
criticism using the very tools that wouldn’t have been accessible were it
not for the advocates they’re criticizing. [Applause] To those critics, I
say the proof of the baked bread is in the eating, and you can eat it even
if you didn’t bake it. To my friends in the Federation, you are the ones who
make a difference, so wear the badge with honor, and take pride in being
little NFB hens.

We have baked a lot of bread, but the work is far from done. If the bread
does not continue to be baked, we will starve.

And I wish today to suggest some of the bread we must bake next. The
provision of assistive technology by mainstream companies has created new
advocacy challenges just as important as the battles we have won. I don’t
begrudge for a moment the accolades these companies receive for their
accessibility initiatives. I applaud the fact that we can now walk up to
most computers and smartphones and have immediate access to them. We have
life-changing tools, some of them blindness-specific, in the palm of our
hand for a fraction of what they used to cost. That is staggering progress.
But there’s a little secret that tends not to be covered in the media. While
impressive innovation continues at pace, the quality and reliability of some
of the tools we use remains a serious concern, as resolutions at several NFB
conventions have recorded. I’ve worked in the technology industry, and I
know that software cannot be bug-free. But today we are enduring
show-stopping bugs unique to the blind that significantly degrade our
ability to use some of these devices. In my own advocacy efforts, I have
found it useful to apply a concept of equivalency. In other words, what
would be an equivalent bug for the sighted, and would it be such a
show-stopping bug that the sighted would demand a speedy resolution? I’ll
give you a few examples. I am not going to call out any company by name, but
if these examples are affecting you, you’ll know the companies to which I’m
referring.

If your screen reader suddenly and regularly stops speaking, that would be
the same as a sighted person’s screen flickering and then completely
blanking out at random intervals. Do you think the sighted would patiently
wait for months until their screen worked properly again? [Shouts of “No!”
from the audience] The media would be all over this, and would be calling it
“screengate.”

If you’re typing on your smartphone using Braille Screen Input and you’re
regularly experiencing unexpected behavior that slows you down or results in
you typing gibberish, then that would be the equivalent of the virtual
keyboard being next to useless for a sighted person, causing them to
understandably protest loudly about them not being able to do their job,
communicate, input data, and close the deal.

If you are blind and wear hearing aids, and your screen reader is quiet to
the point of being unusable when you’re on a phone call, this would be the
same as a sighted person having their screen so dim every time they make a
call that they can’t see it well enough to use it.

If you, in good faith, install the beta of an operating system only to find
that your screen reader doesn’t work at all, that would be equivalent to a
sighted person installing a beta, understanding that there may be defects,
but finding with horror that their screen was blank, making their device
completely useless. And imagine what would happen to the reputation of that
company if it was later revealed that the team responsible released that
software knowing full well that this is what it would do.

If you scrimp and save to buy a popular Braille display, only to find you
can’t connect your smartphone to it via Bluetooth because a protocol about
which there was an industry-wide consensus, and that the company promised to
support, hasn’t been implemented, this is the equivalent of a sighted person
buying one of the leading printers on the market today, only to find that
the operating system developer hasn’t kept their promise to support it.

I could fill the remainder of my time with examples. If bugs like these were
happening to sighted people, it would be headline news. Stock prices would
plummet. Senior leaders would be filled with their email boxes overflowing,
and eventually fired to give the public accountability.

The eaters who are not the bakers will say that we must be realistic and
patient. We shouldn’t expect prompt resolution to blindness-specific
show-stopping issues. They say assistive technology isn’t the core business
of these mainstream companies, so things are bound to be a bit rough around
the edges. We must be grateful, and thankful, or they might take it all
away. We are a tiny fraction of their customers, so we must wait our turn.
Well, the bakers know, because they baked it, that there is no legislation
covering consumer rights, civil rights, accessibility, or government
procurement that says it’s OK for companies to provide an inferior product
to blind people. [Applause] But I’ve found plenty of law that gives this
sort of behavior a name. They call it discrimination. [Cheers of agreement]
The National Federation of the Blind has always been clear. Discrimination
will not stand. [Applause]

A poorer standard of product for the blind is not merely a legal issue, it
is a moral one. It is also a financial one. These large, successful
companies undoubtedly have the means to resource accessibility properly. But
when they prepare their annual budgets, they are allocating resources in a
way that short-changes you and me. [Shout of “That’s right! from the
audience]

I’d like to address these manufacturers directly. You have made a remarkable
difference to our lives. Working with us, you have helped to ensure that
there has never been a better time in history to be blind. Thank you for all
you have done and all you continue to do. But we are not charity cases.
[Applause] Were you not doing what you are doing, you would lose the
business of many entities who would no longer be permitted to buy your
products. So, the relationship is a reciprocal one.

Our money is as good as anyone else’s. [Applause] We express our thanks like
any other customer, by helping to return a profit to your shareholders when
we buy what you’re selling. When we do this, we create a contract that you
will provide us with a product that is fit for purpose. We then integrate
your technology into our lives, and we come to rely on it. These products
should not have such egregious accessibility defects that a blind person
requires two degrees in order to operate them: one in computer science so we
can work around all the bugs, and the other in Zen meditation.

For those of us fortunate enough to have found work, our jobs were usually
hard won. We got them knowing full well the fundamental truth upon which the
National Federation of the Blind was founded: that the problem of blindness
is not the lack of eyesight, the problem is what people think blindness
means. [Applause] If we, competent blind people on the job, cannot do our
jobs as well as we’re capable of because of serious defects in your products
you decline to fix in a timely manner, you are perpetuating myths about
blindness by making us appear foolish in front of our employers. You are
jeopardizing the security of our livelihoods. If there is bias in your
defect assessment processes causing our mission-critical bugs to languish
because they only affect a small number of people, you are preventing our
equality by implying through your inaction that we are second-class
customers. If your products are not dependable, you tantalize us with the
promise of opportunity, but it is a promise that is not fully kept. This
must stop! [Applause]

I want to propose the following four-point plan to ensure these products
become as dependable for us as they are for everyone else.

First, in consultation with the organized blind movement, all mainstream
technology companies offering assistive technology should agree on, and
publish, a framework that seeks to define a line where an accessibility bug
is so critical that it requires extraordinary remedial action beyond the
normal software release cycle. As a working title, let’s call this the
defect equity framework, or DEF for short.

Second, with the DEF in place, mainstream technology companies should
collaborate with the organized blind movement to resolve the
under-resourcing that is contributing to this situation. This must include
hiring more blind people. [Applause] We use it; we are the best people to
test it and fix it.

I want to take a moment to express my profound admiration and gratitude for
all the blind people working in any capacity on the technology we use every
day. They can’t ever completely switch off, because when it’s time to stop
thinking about work for the day, they are still blind. Sometimes, they’ll be
fighting battles on the inside we can never know about. It can be tough
work, but it’s vital work. So, let’s be kind to our own who are doing this
work. [Applause] We need them there, and we need many more of us there.

Third, each company should establish a public database for accessibility
defects, so the blind can check what bugs have already been submitted and
what priority they have been accorded. We must have input into that
prioritization. Right now, too many of us feel despondent and frustrated
about volunteering our time and expertise to these companies, filing
detailed bug report after detailed bug report, only to be ignored and fobbed
off with a canned response and no progress updates.

And fourth, every Global Accessibility Awareness Day, mainstream technology
companies must do more than just publish marketing hype about new
initiatives. They must provide a transparent, independently audited report
that demonstrates progress as measured against the defect equity framework.

Second-class status is something we stopped accepting long ago. This
proposal is a constructive, specific, better way. Let the blind and the
technology industry work together and get this done. But if they will not
work with us, we should not continue to accept the status quo. As Dr.
Jernigan repeatedly put it, we know how to join together on the barricades.

Inadequate quality control is not the only advocacy challenge we face.
Sometimes, a mainstream company can kill our productivity with kindness.
It’s often said that activity should not be confused with achievement. I
would also submit that accessibility should not be confused with usability.
If we’re not consulted, well-intentioned sighted people may cause an app or
operating system to be so verbose—and frankly, so patronizing—that it slows
us down and adds no value whatsoever. Blind people must be involved in all
aspects of the user experience.

And finally, as we’ve always done, we must be vigilant about talented people
who, out of a genuine desire to make a difference, use their talent to
create something they assume blind people need. As Dr. tenBroek so
brilliantly put it all those years ago, my road to hell is paved with your
good intentions. This behavior is a high-tech form of colonization. It is
also the high-tech equivalent of that person on the street who genuinely
wants to be helpful, but without permission or knowledge of our destination
grabs us and assumes that we need help and that they know where we are
going. Knowing the needs of the market you seek to serve is Business 101.

The ideas I’ve shared with you today are a mere snapshot of the important
discussions that we’ve had on Living Blindfully. I hope that you will be a
part of this vibrant, stimulating global conversation, as well as continuing
to do the work so many of us around the world rely on you to do at the
chapter, affiliate, national, and international levels through the National
Federation of the Blind. Let us all continue to bake the bread of progress,
never forgetting for a moment that we are worthy, together, living
blindfully. Thank you so much.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: At the end of their two weeks with us, our Liberian guests
each spoke to the assembled staff and students about their experience at CCB
and what they will take back to their blind students. They also received
certificates from Julie. Left to right are Nokutula Ncube, Julie Deden, Noah
Z. Gibson, Maureen Nietfeld, Suahibu Paasewe, Miatta Kollie, and Dan Burke.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Noah Z. took advantage of our computer lab while his
colleagues learned Braille. He completed over half of the 40 typing lessons
in two weeks.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Our guests were diligent learners, but especially in their
Braille class. Suahibu and Miatta examine a Braille page on a Perkins
Brailler.

[PHOTO CAPTION: There are few if any sidewalks, especially in Liberian
villages, let alone paved roads. ITP student Noah B. walks with Miatta on
the bike path near the Center, just for the experience of something other
than concrete and asphalt.


Blindness, Hope, and Belief from Liberia to Littleton and Back


by Dan Burke

>From the Editor: This article originally appeared on the official blog of
the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB) at
https://cocenter.org/blindness-hope-and-belief-from-liberia-to-littleton-and
-back/. It is an account of how a visit from an Uber driver with a willing
spirit but a lack of expertise on blindness led to a collaboration that is
helping to bring hope and opportunity to a part of the world where those
priceless things are not always available, especially not to the blind. Here
is how Dan Burke tells the story:

Late in the summer of 2022, an Uber driver named Ebenezer Norman dropped
into the Center and asked to speak to Executive Director Julie Deden.
Norman, as he prefers to be called, unfolded the incredible and inspiring
story of his efforts to raise money to build a school in Liberia, his
country of origin. Liberia is a small country on the west coast of Africa
which was originally founded by former slaves from the United States.
Norman, who was fortunate enough to come to the US and attend Regis
University, knows that good education is the future for children in Liberia
and for the country as a whole.

Following many tribulations, including tragic losses which required that the
school be rebuilt twice, his school, A New Dimension of Hope, is now
teaching seven hundred to eight hundred Liberian children. You can visit the
school on the web at https://www.ndhope.org/ and view a video of Norman’s
story and the tribulations of getting his school up and running at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=LVeCG7_EhrM> &v=LVeCG7_EhrM.

Norman raises funds for his school. He has excellent administrators and
educators, textbooks, a computer lab—all the things to build and maintain an
outstanding education for all those children. But there was another,
unexpected problem that troubled Norman and school officials. Blind children
wanted to come to school, too, but they had no idea how to teach those
children.

To the credit of Norman and the faculty at A New Dimension of Hope, they
didn’t want to simply send those blind kids away. They wanted them to also
have the hope that education can bring. They wanted to teach those blind
children.

Norman found the Colorado Center for the Blind’s website and, while out
driving his Uber one day, made his way to the Center and talked with Julie
Deden, and a new partnership for Norman’s school and our Center took hold.
Julie, indeed all of us at the Center, were and still are moved by the
thought of blind children wanting so desperately to come to school with
their sighted siblings and friends, hungry for their chance to learn. We
believe that blind people around the globe are our brothers and sisters, and
blind children everywhere are our kids, too.

Last September, six educators from A New Dimension of Hope in Liberia and a
partnering school in neighboring Ghana came for two weeks. We taught them
all the Braille they could hold in that time, put learning shades on them,
and gave them lessons in traveling with a white cane, taught them hands-on
kitchen techniques, and generally did our level best to instill in our
guests the notion that blind people can learn and become productive. Sadly,
with few opportunities for blind people, many must turn to begging to
support themselves in both Ghana and Liberia. Like Norman, these educators
thought there could be more for those blind children, should be more for
them.

Liberia’s is a different physical environment than what most of us have
experienced in the United States. There are few paved roads and almost no
sidewalks or intersections with traffic lights. Many people in the villages
surrounding the school still cook over fires every day, so no microwaves
with tactile markings or Instant Pots with Bluetooth controls. But knife
skills and basic measurements and determining when food is fully cooked are
still useful. And so is the use of the white cane so that blind children can
travel more independently and safely in their village and, soon, on their
way to school.

For the past two weeks, we hosted another four educators from A New
Dimension of Hope, including the school’s principal, Suahibu Paasewe; nurse,
Nokutula Ncube; and math teacher Miatta Kollie. Once more, we stuffed them
with Braille, including lots of slate and stylus practice, as well as some
work on the Perkins Brailler. There was regular cane travel under learning
shades and time in the kitchen again. In fact, our guests traveled back to
the Center’s apartments with Independence Training Program (ITP) students
and instructors.

This group included the first blind person from Liberia we had the privilege
to host. Noah Zowie Gibson teaches history at A New Dimension of Hope and
another school. He is active in the United Blind Association of Liberia and
spent all the time he could using our typing program so he could master the
keyboard by touch. He finished more than half of the program’s forty or so
lessons in just two weeks!

For blind children everywhere, Braille is the bedrock of true literacy and
lifelong learning. In a small, poor country struggling to come into the
internet age, Braille is even more critical, if that is possible. So, we are
very grateful to the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults for
donating 75 slates and styli to A New Dimension of Hope for the blind
children to use at the school.

When it comes to technology access, we showed our Liberian guests how the
free, open source screen reader, NVDA worked with a Windows laptop and on
the internet. Since they have primarily Chrome Books in their computer labs,
we invited Showe Trela from Colorado’s Blind & Low Vision Services to give a
demonstration of the accessibility options with that device’s built-in
Chrome Vox screen reader. And our own Charlie Acheson spent a couple of
sessions with our guests discussing smart phones like the accessibility
features available on Android phones, as inexpensive Android devices are
most prevalent in Liberia.

“What struck me most was just how limited the opportunities were for blind
people there,” says Julie Deden. “We’re happy to do these small things that
can give those blind children greater opportunities in their lives.”

Nonvisual blindness skills are essential elements for success, of course.
But that’s only one aspect of what we aspire to teach at the Colorado Center
for the Blind, whether we are talking about our students, older blind
participants, the kids in our youth programs, or sighted members of the
community, because skills aren’t enough without belief—belief in the value
of those skills, in yourself as a blind person, and in the potential of all
blind people to learn, grow, and contribute. Belief is the secret sauce and,
working with our guests from Liberia, it is obvious that they were open to
embracing that belief and carrying it home to those blind kids who are so
hungry to learn that they will walk to the school and wait, all the while
hoping for their opportunity to learn.

For many of them, the next few months will bring the start of the new school
term and an end to waiting.

-------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Ramona Walhof]


Idaho’s Blind Share Our Stories on YouTube


by Ramona Walhof

>From the Editor: Ramona Walhof needs little introduction. She has served in
various capacities in the National Federation of the Blind for the past six
decades, including as secretary of the national organization. Ramona is
always eager to share what she has learned through her various leadership
roles with other national, affiliate, and state leaders, and she has a knack
for finding and explaining good ideas to grow our movement. Even as she
steps back from the spotlight, she is still learning and sharing, and we all
benefit from her wisdom. In this article, she tells us about Idaho’s journey
starting and maintaining a channel on the video-sharing platform YouTube.
Although Ramona acknowledges that, like many of us, she still has much to
learn about making and editing videos, she understands the importance of
visual storytelling and has gained a great deal of insight about what kind
of content drives engagement. Here is what she has to say:

I have been active in the National Federation of the Blind since the 1960s.
I have held both state and national offices, and I have lived and worked in
four different affiliates, the latest being the National Federation of the
Blind of Idaho. Since I am growing older (I am almost eighty), I am no
longer a primary leader, which is as it should be. But as long as I am able,
I hope and believe that I will never stop finding useful things to do. Long
ago I learned that the best way to get something done is to pitch in and do
it yourself or to lead the way and hope that others will catch the fever.
They usually do.

In 2016, a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Idaho who was a
senior in high school offered to create a YouTube channel for us. What a
good idea to help more people learn about blindness and to give our members
a chance to share their stories! This young lady, Siera, created the channel
and helped us shoot an introductory video. Then she moved out of state for
college. For a while, we struggled to keep the channel going. Our webmaster,
Kevin Pirnie, put up a few more videos and used some material from our
national site. A few videos were shot at state conventions. We added a few
more during the COVID pandemic, but none of this was enough to build real
momentum. Too few of us had experience shooting and editing high-quality
video, and it was too expensive to hire professionals more than
occasionally.

I have always struggled with computer technology. I didn't get started
learning about it until after I retired, and using it does not seem to come
as easily as using things that I can get my hands on physically. But
recently I have had a teacher a couple or three times a month and have been
learning slowly and painfully to do some things with my iPhone. Then I hired
a reader who is a college student and is interested in shooting videos. An
NFBI member who is a YouTube afficionado also began helping. Bailie Weir
found some inexpensive Rode lapel microphones on Amazon; these connect to an
iPhone and produce good-quality sound. Stephanie Cascone, who directs
communications and marketing efforts at the NFB Jernigan Institute, advised
me to chop up some longish videos into shorter ones for new posts. My
daughter has editing experience and is willing to do a limited amount. Our
treasurer, Don Winiecki, has done some simple editing as well. I recruited
people I barely knew or just met to shoot videos at our recent national
convention in Houston, and Linda Hurlock from Montana and Grace Anderson
from Alabama shot some particularly good stuff! Also during national
convention, our Treasure Valley Chapter President, Susan Bradley, shot some
videos and learned to operate WeTransfer, the platform we use to share the
videos with each other prior to posting. I want to take this opportunity to
thank everybody who has helped and everybody who has been the subject of one
or more videos, whether you are named here or not. With all of this recent
acquisition of knowledge, equipment, and helpers, our YouTube effort has
really begun to take off. We will have more people involved as we go along,
hopefully some from every chapter! I will never run out of ideas for videos,
and I know that more blind people from Idaho and beyond have interesting
stories to tell. So, as we grow our collective capacity to shoot and edit
videos, the opportunities to use YouTube as a platform become more exciting.

One of the wonderful things about YouTube and other social media is that
there are ways of measuring whether your messages are reaching a wide
audience. YouTube shows us how many people view, like, and comment on our
videos, and this number is steadily increasing. As of this writing, we have
120 subscribers and 125 videos posted, with an additional twenty-five or so
ready to be posted. Many people are intimidated by social media because they
are unsure what to post. We have found that the only way to learn what
messages resonate and engage our audience is to try posting a wide variety
of videos and then to observe audience reaction. It is impossible to predict
which videos will be most popular, but videos of people using a white cane
independently are often viewed by many. Indeed, the first video on our
channel to receive three thousand views was of me crossing the street with
my white cane. Not surprisingly, kids are often fun to watch. Although a
close-up of somebody talking about a hobby or experience may be viewed a
lot, interesting locations and activities make a high number of views more
likely. The titles matter, too. They should be catchy, descriptive, or both.
Kevin Pirnie is naming most of our videos; one called “Beautiful Blind
African Lady Riding Idaho Cowboy's Horse into the Sunset” is very popular.
Kevin also creates themed playlists: state convention, Cycle for
Independence (our annual fund-raising bike-a-thon), national convention,
employment, BELL and Beyond, and "kids loving Braille.” At last count,
twenty-two of our videos had been viewed more than a hundred times each, and
this will change soon because several have close to a hundred views. So far
our highest number of views is 3,100, but you never know when something new
will take off. And you never know when something not so new will suddenly
get some attention. We shot a video about library services for the blind
which sat there with little attention for a month or more. Then suddenly it
shot up to 153 views in a couple of days. It is fun for Kevin and me to
track our video metrics and learn from what we observe. Right now we have
more than 21,000 views altogether, and that number will hopefully be much
higher by the time you read this. This means that we have reached somewhere
between 3100 and 21,000 people with a bit of the Federation message.

Our videos are intended to interest, educate, and entertain sighted people
about blindness and blind people. Of course, we also welcome blind and
low-vision subscribers and viewers, their family members, and professionals,
all of who may benefit from exposure to our positive philosophy of
blindness. The videos have turned out to be an excellent way to help members
learn more about each other as well.

I do not believe that every affiliate needs to do a similar channel, but I
do think it is wise for as many affiliates as possible to have a presence on
social media. Many affiliates already have a presence on Facebook, X
(formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, Instagram, or some other platform.
While some of these platforms allow text-only posts, many also allow the
posting of images and videos, and TikTok, like YouTube, is primarily
intended for video content. As mentioned in an informative article in the
July issue of the Braille Monitor, affiliates are now being encouraged to
establish a presence through our new nfb.social instance on Mastodon. The
NFB national channel there, @nationsblind at nfb.social, is helpful to all of
us and sets a high standard. With all of these platforms, as Idaho has
learned from our YouTube experience, there is no substitute for posting
items that might be of interest and then seeing what sparks engagement.

I have plans for many more videos when I have time and have help to shoot
them. Perhaps I can eventually learn to shoot some of the videos myself, as
many of my blind friends do. In the meantime, I am always looking for more
help shooting, editing, and thinking up new things to post. As long as the
NFB of Idaho remains active and new people join, we have new raw material!
Everybody has stories worth sharing.

Our YouTube channel is an important part of our activities during Blindness
Equality Achievement Month, but like many such efforts, it will be most
successful if we keep it going strong all year long! Blind Equality
Achievement Month is intended to be a time when we share our experiences as
blind people with the public. While the in-person events that we create
during the month are a part of this sharing, posting videos and other
content expands the potential audience, allowing our friends and neighbors
to learn about our lives whenever they wish to do so.

The NFB of Idaho welcomes you to subscribe to Idaho's Blind on YouTube. You
can do so by visiting https://www.youtube.com/@idahosblind. We will
appreciate your comments, since feedback will help us create more engaging
content, but you are also welcome to just silently “lurk” there. We often
post five or six new videos in a week. You will recognize some of your
friends, and you will meet people you do not know! If you want to contribute
something, we love to receive videos from outside Idaho as well. After all,
you are our friends and our Federation family! See you soon!

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Daniel Garcia]


Yes, Virginia, Chapters Can Pass Resolutions


by Daniel Garcia

>From the Editor: Chapters are the local organizational units of the National
Federation of the Blind, and they act not merely as social clubs, but as a
means for blind people to engage in collective action on the local level.
They can do the same things that affiliate conventions and the national
convention can do, including passing resolutions, as long as their
activities are in line with the national constitution and do not conflict
with affiliate or national policy. In this short article, Daniel Garcia,
president of the Kansas City Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind
of Missouri, explains how his chapter and a neighboring one engaged in
advocacy on local transportation issues with which we can all identify
through the passage of a resolution. Here is what he has to say:

In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of
the New York Sun newspaper asking a most profoundly important question: “Is
there a Santa Claus?” The answer she received was an unequivocal: “Yes,
Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” In the same way that many people are
unaware of the true existence of Santa Claus, many Federationists may not
realize that passing resolutions is not the exclusive purview of national
and state conventions. Chapters can (and should) pass resolutions. The
Kansas City and Ivanhoe Chapters recently did.

The December 2022 issue of the Blind Missourian featured an article I wrote
about how the Kansas City Chapter promoted the goals of Blind Equality
Achievement Month. In that article, I explained that I had contacted the
Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) about the inaccessibility
of the application for the complementary paratransit service. I then
received a call from Lewis Lowry, Chief Transportation Officer for the
KCATA, and he agreed that the KCATA and the NFB would work to resolve this
issue. This conversation led to Mr. Lowry attending our November 12 chapter
meeting. In January and February 2023, we attempted to contact the KCATA to
continue our conversation about issues of concern to blind Kansas City
passengers. Our efforts were unsuccessful, so during the March 18 chapter
meeting, we passed a resolution calling on the KCATA to meet with
representatives of the NFB of Missouri, Kansas City Chapter. The Ivanhoe
Chapter passed a similar resolution during its March 25 meeting. The text of
the resolution passed by the Kansas City Chapter is below.

As I was writing the draft resolution in February, I was reviewing some old
Kansas City Chapter records that have been given to me to sort and upload to
our affiliate archive. I was humbled by the realization that what we were
about to do on March 18 was nothing novel. The Kansas City Chapter has
passed resolutions before. It gives me great satisfaction to know that our
chapter is continuing a proud tradition of strong advocacy in Kansas City.


A Resolution Regarding Improving Public Transportation for Kansas City
Passengers


WHEREAS the National Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest
nationwide organization defending the rights of blind Americans; and

WHEREAS the Kansas City Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of
Missouri is one of two chapters in Kansas City, Missouri that advocates for
the rights of blind Kansas Citians; and

WHEREAS the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is a bi-state agency
responsible for providing public transportation in the Kansas City area; and

WHEREAS blind Kansas Citians have experienced various problems with public
transportations recently including: the inaccessibility of the application
for the RideKC Freedom complementary paratransit service, paratransit trips
being canceled without the passengers’ consent, paratransit passengers being
picked up after the agreed upon time window to initiate the trip, RideKC
Freedom on-demand trips not being honored, shortage of fixed-route bus
drivers causing passengers to have to wait for the next regularly scheduled
bus, and fixed-route buses not announcing the bus number and route at the
bus stop; and

WHEREAS over the past few months the National Federation of the Blind of
Missouri, Kansas City Chapter has repeatedly tried to secure a meeting with
Kansas City Area Transportation officials to address these issues and share
ideas about how to improve transportation for blind Kansas Citians; and

WHEREAS our efforts have so far been unsuccessful: Now therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, Kansas
City Chapter, assembled this 18th day of March, 2023, that we urge Kansas
City Area Transportation Authority officials to meet with representatives of
the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, Kansas City Chapter, and
reengage the Rider Advisory Board; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon members of the city council and
Mayor Quinton Lucas to renew the Mayor’s Committee for People with
Disabilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of
Missouri, Kansas City Chapter will continue to advocate for improved
transportation services in the Kansas City Area by various means such as
contacting our elected officials, engaging in public relations to bring
media attention, and partnering with other like-minded organizations
representing people with disabilities and passengers.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Krystal Guillory]


Guillory Presented the National Educator of Blind Children Award


by Cathi Cox-Boniol

>From the Editor: Those who attended the Board of Directors meeting at the
2023 National Convention, or who read about it in the August/September issue
of this magazine, may recall that Krystal Guillory was surprised when,
instead of simply being called upon to give a presentation about the annual
Braille Book Fair, she instead found herself receiving the Distinguished
Educator of Blind Students Award. Others present were perhaps not quite as
surprised as she was, since Krystal is well known for her advocacy for blind
students and her many activities within the Federation. But she received the
award specifically for the work she does every day in the schools of Lincoln
Parish, Louisiana, and the local papers there took notice of the
recognition. This article originally appeared on July 14, 2023 in the Ruston
Daily Leader, the newspaper serving the hometown of both Krystal and the
Louisiana Center for the Blind. It is reprinted here with the newspaper’s
kind permission. Here it is:

When Krystal Guillory headed to Houston for the National Federation of the
Blind conference, she had one thing on her mind—ace her presentation. So,
when her name was called as the recipient of the annual Distinguished
Educator of Blind Students Award, she was caught completely off guard.

“I was in shock to say the least,” Guillory said. “Never in my wildest
dreams did I think I would win a national award for teaching. I pour into my
students daily, but I think as teachers we are always thinking what’s next,
and there’s so much more to do.”

A teacher of blind students for over twenty years, Guillory credits her
involvement in the National Federation of the Blind with dramatically
increasing her effectiveness in inspiring and motivating her students. She
also serves as coordinator for NFB BELL academies in the state of Louisiana
and is a board member of the Louisiana division of the National Organization
of Parents of Blind Children.

“Krystal Guillory has an outstanding track record of raising expectations
for blind students and their families in Louisiana, both those whom she
instructs directly and others throughout the state,” said Mark Riccobono,
President of the National Federation of the Blind. “She is an advocate for
Braille literacy, early cane travel, and other critical blindness skills.
She was instrumental in helping to create NFB BELL Academy In-Home Edition
to serve blind students across the nation during the pandemic, and she
enhances that program and other Braille literacy efforts across Louisiana
and the United States. These qualities make her an outstanding recipient of
our Distinguished Educator of Blind Students award.”

The Distinguished Educator of Blind Students award carries with it a $1,000
cash prize and an opportunity to address hundreds of parents of blind
students and network with other blind individuals and teachers of blind
students.

Pam Allen, Executive Director for the Louisiana Center for the Blind, said
the recognition was well deserved.

“Krystal serves as the treasurer for the NFB of Louisiana, is a loving and
devoted wife, mother, and leader in church,” Allen said. “She always goes
the extra mile and has incredibly high expectations. Because of her
creativity, commitment, leadership and dedicated service, the lives of blind
children and their families have been truly transformed.”

In addition to Allen’s submission, Guillory was nominated by several
individuals including parents of students she has served, students, and
colleagues. Because she wasn’t involved in the nomination process, the honor
came as a complete surprise.

“My colleagues and husband were all in cahoots on the nomination and I did
not know about it until I was at the conference and prepared to speak about
a Braille Book Fair that I help to coordinate,” Guillory said. “I think that
I am the first teacher that they have ever surprised as normally the
recipients prepare a speech.”

Guillory also gives credit where credit is due. Noting the support of her
husband Eric and the encouragement of Ruby Ryles, who championed the push
for Braille for students regardless of their functional vision, she also
offers gratitude for the immense support at the local level.

Sharing that Lincoln Parish benefits from supportive administrators,
colleagues and paraeducators that believe in blind children, she sees the
award as a recognition for a superb team.

“Pam Allen has been a huge support for me, my students, and families
throughout our state,” Guillory added. “She has never told me no about any
need when it comes to our students. She has helped us secure teaching
materials and equipment, supported families to come to conventions, provided
a means for us to have weekend events, and other things. And while I am so
blessed to have received the Distinguished Educator of Blind Students award,
I have only been successful because I work with phenomenal teams filled with
hardworking teachers and blind mentors.”

In reflecting on how the award might impact her ongoing commitment and work,
Guillory is notably moved.

“As teachers, there usually aren’t many accolades received. We receive
intangible gifts—a student reading for the first time, a student graduating
with honors—but this tangible plaque is something I can have in my classroom
reminding me even in the long, hard days that I am making a difference and
touching lives. This award has rejuvenated and inspired me to dream bigger
for my students and the future.”

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Van Dorn and Jean Kerr]


Gary Van Dorn, “Go to Guy” at NFBCO, wins Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer
Award


by Cindy Piggott

>From the Editor: Cindy Piggott chairs the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer
Award Committee, which presents an award each month to an outstanding
volunteer in the Denver area. According to their website, the award’s
namesake was “a community leader dedicated to improving the quality of life
for all people. Educated as an attorney, Minoru Yasui served as the
Executive Director of the Denver Commission on Community Relations for
sixteen years and was a champion of civil rights. Mr. Yasui died in 1986.”
In August of 2023, the committee recognized Gary Van Dorn, who was nominated
by his Federation family. Here is the profile that the committee shared with
local readers through a community blog hosted by the Denver Post:

Gary Van Dorn’s motto is “to believe in the security, equality and
opportunity for the blind.” The blind should be able to do all the things
that everyone else can do! A sunny day on the 16th Street Mall was the stage
for the August celebration honoring Van Dorn with the Minoru Yasui Community
Volunteer Award in celebration of his extraordinary volunteer efforts with
the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado.

The National Federation of the Blind of Colorado is made up of visually
impaired people of all ages, their families, and friends. Their members and
leaders provide advocacy and support to blind and visually impaired
Coloradans across the state. They work together to promote full
participation and integration of blind people in all areas of life. They
serve as an advocate for change when equal access and treatment of the blind
is denied. Their specific mission is to achieve widespread emotional
acceptance and intellectual understanding that the real problem of blindness
is not the loss of eyesight but the misconceptions and lack of information
that exist. They do this by bringing blind people together to share
successes, to support each other in times of failure, and to create
imaginative solutions.

Van Dorn, who is legally blind, has worked for the past thirty years as a
policy/risk analyst for the Internal Revenue Service. During that time, he
also has volunteered at NFBCO, serving on its board of directors.

He attends every meeting of the [Federation] and provides professional
advice regarding tax code and filing expertise. Quietly outgoing, he never
seeks the limelight and always reaches out to new members on the fringe of
the organization making them feel welcome. Van Dorn is always there to lend
a hand setting up for conventions and meetings. He is the “Go to Guy” for
any and all transportation questions or general information about Denver.
His phenomenal memory provides accurate detailed information for those he
talks with to quickly access the details they need or help them find the
proper contact to answer questions.

In 2011, Van Dorn recognized that while NFBCO currently had a chapter in the
Littleton area, there was a significant need for a chapter that would meet
in downtown Denver. He sprang into action and organized the Mile High
Chapter, which meets in the downtown area on Wednesday evenings. Van Dorn
served as the president of this chapter from 2011-2015. He continues to
serve as the treasurer of the chapter and remains very involved.

Van Dorn’s focus is transportation. Public transportation is challenging for
people who can see. For those who are visually impaired or blind, it can be
harrowing. Van Dorn has served as an extraordinary advocate for transit in
the downtown Denver area. Not just an advocate, he is one of the 16th Street
Mall “project champions.” He volunteers as a board member for the Downtown
Denver Partnership and ensures that the mall and the business occupants of
the mall are aware of any accessibility issues for the blind. He is actively
involved in meetings regarding the Colfax redevelopment project. He is the
spokesperson for the blind for RTD and frequently attends RTD meetings
representing the Mile High Chapter of NFBCO. Van Dorn pays particularly
close attention to changes in routes to ensure equal accessibility for the
blind community.

As the organization’s Transportation Committee chairperson, Van Dorn has
inspired committee members to focus on critical issues affecting the blind
community. These include:

*	Ensuring that audible announcements on the 16th Street Mall Free Bus
work, even when the buses are detoured due to construction;

*	Working with the Denver International Airport to improve rideshare
pickup and drop-off procedures for the blind;

*	Studying state regulations governing transportation networks such as
Lyft and Uber to prevent price gouging; and

*	Collaborating with technology experts to ensure that transportation
schedules are non-visually accessible.

In his nominating letter, Curtis Chong wrote, “Mr. Van Dorn is a caring and
warm-hearted individual who never seems too busy to help someone in need. He
believes in the innate normality of people who are blind or who struggle
with other disabilities while at the same time, holding them to a high
standard of accomplishment.”

Van Dorn donated the $2,000 cash award to The National Federation of the
Blind of Colorado.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, ”The purpose of life is not to be happy. It
is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some
difference that you have lived and lived well.” The Minoru Yasui Community
Volunteer Award celebrates those extraordinary volunteers who make a
contribution and change lives. They choose to “live well.”

The Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award is now a program of Spark the
Change Colorado. Sponsors of this award include The Yasui Family, Lanny and
Sharon Martin, Lynne Butler, Don and Liza Kirkpatrick, Sharon Bishop, About
Time Awards, and MYCVA Committee members. If you know of an extraordinary
volunteer or would like to donate to this award, please visit our website at
www.minyasui.org <http://www.minyasui.org> .

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer]


Reflecting on the Ten-Year Anniversary of the Marrakesh Treaty


by Marc Maurer

Editor’s Note: On the afternoon of Monday, July 3, the National Association
of Blind Lawyers convened for its annual meeting. One of the first items on
the agenda was this presentation from Dr. Marc Maurer, the Immediate Past
President of the National Federation of the Blind. Here is what he said to
the gathering:

The Marrakesh Treaty, officially entitled Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate
Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or
Otherwise Print Disabled, is a document created in a meeting that took place
in Marrakesh, Morocco, in June of 2013. The meeting was a diplomatic
conference attended by representatives from dozens of countries, known by
the cognoscenti as a dipcon. I was then serving as President of the National
Federation of the Blind, but I could not attend the meeting because I was
working to get ready for our 2013 National Convention. I sent Scott LaBarre
to be our representative, and a very fortunate choice that it was for us.

The World Blind Union had proposed that such a treaty be created in 2008,
and the National Federation of the Blind strongly supported the treaty. Long
before we reached the gathering in Morocco, officials in the Obama
administration had tried to talk us out of the treaty. They said they would
support a non-legal international understanding (a “soft law” approach they
called it) that would facilitate lending accessible books for the blind
across country borders. They said that this would have the same effect as a
treaty. Getting a treaty adopted would be next to impossible, they told us.
Even if we could get it adopted, the Senate would never ratify it.

Within a few months, we hosted an executive committee meeting of the World
Blind Union in Baltimore. Maryanne Diamond, who has served as president of
the World Blind Union, asked, “Why are you giving up without a fight? Don’t
you believe that we should share materials for the blind throughout the
world?” This changed the approach of the National Federation of the Blind.
We informed the Obama administration that we wanted a treaty, that we would
do our best to get it, and that we would not settle for inferior substitutes
that do not have the force of law.

In Marrakesh, Scott LaBarre had the tricky assignment of finding ways to
negotiate the proper language for the treaty. He was required to be
sufficiently demanding to get the language in the treaty that we wanted and
sufficiently charming to get people to want the language to be there.
Everybody seemed to want to water down the treaty. Libraries could (some
people said) share books with each other, but they would have to keep
records of who borrowed the books and produce those records on demand along
with proof that the people borrowing them met the definition of print
disability. The librarians had a fit. They said that they could not violate
the privacy rights of all their patrons and that the workload of keeping
such records would be intolerable. The publishers said that lending books in
Braille would be fine but that lending electronic books couldn’t be in the
treaty. Blind organizations from around the world said that the treaty would
have to include electronic books because the entire publishing industry was
headed that way. Some publishers said that recorded books could not be lent
across borders because a print book has its copyright, and as soon as you
make a recorded book, it’s a different book with a different copyright. The
new book has its own protection, and even if there’s a copyright exception
to the print book, it doesn’t apply to recorded material.

The arguments seemed endless. When Scott LaBarre got to Marrakesh,
thirty-seven distinct differences in language remained for discussion in the
proposed draft of the treaty. As negotiations continued, additional
differences in language and arguments about what the treaty should say were
presented by the representatives of the countries involved in the diplomatic
conference.

The proposed treaty was regarded with alarm by rights holders of
intellectual property from many, many different disciplines. Copyright law
in the United States is intended to protect the rights of those who own the
copyright. Most treaties dealing with copyright are written to give added
emphasis to the protections required for the holders. This treaty was
directed toward creating exceptions to copyright protections, and the rights
holders were worried that it might be the forerunner of other efforts to
loosen copyright protection. Not only the Motion Picture Association of
America but also Exxon Mobile, GE, Caterpillar, Adobe, IBM, Association of
American Publishers, International Publishers Association, and many, many
others opposed the treaty. Our job was to change their minds or silence the
criticism. Many of our opponents came to recognize the value of the treaty
and joined us in supporting it before the end of negotiations. On June 25,
2013, the language was complete. The final version was adopted on the 28th.

In October 2013, the United States signed the treaty. Then began another
negotiation to get the treaty through the executive branch and onto the
Senate floor. Once again, the arguments seemed endless. The State Department
creates a packet of material to be presented to the Senate so that the
treaty can be considered. The treaty cannot come into force, however, unless
conforming legislation is adopted by Congress to bring American law into
line with the provisions of the treaty itself. When the Senate considers a
treaty, it can reject it or accept it. If the Senate determines to accept a
treaty, it can do so with exceptions, known in the trade as
RUDs—reservations, understandings, and declarations. If the Senate loads a
treaty with enough of these exceptions, the force of that treaty is
diminished. Scott LaBarre’s job was to get a clean packet of material out of
the State Department so that the treaty could come to the Senate floor with
as few exceptions as possible.

In the meantime, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the
segment of the United Nations that deals with copyright around the world,
formed in the spring of 2014 the Accessible Book Consortium to manage
accessible titles that could be transported across borders to libraries for
the blind. Scott LaBarre served as one of the founding board members of this
international organization.

The State Department finally completed the package of materials for the
Senate in the spring of 2016. In the spring of 2018, the Foreign Relations
Committee of the Senate received testimony from the State Department, the
National Federation of the Blind, and others before unanimously recommending
the treaty for passage to the Senate. The chairman of the committee noted
that in a most unusual occurrence in Washington, there was bipartisan,
enthusiastic support for the treaty. The Senate ratified the treaty by
unanimous consent in June 2018 and adopted implementing legislation to
conform US law to the treaty language. The House of Representatives adopted
the same conforming bill in September. The president signed that bill into
law on October 9, 2018. In February 2019, an emissary from the United States
carried a ratification document to Geneva to indicate that the treaty was in
effect in the United States. The United States was the fiftieth country to
ratify the treaty. The title of the treaty, the Marrakesh Treaty to
Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually
Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, is significant. In Marrakesh,
arguments occurred repeatedly that this title was too long, too cumbersome,
too verbose. Scott LaBarre said we have done all this work, we have
negotiated with so many for so long in good faith, we are not leaving blind
out of the title. It must show that this treaty is to serve blind people.
His argument to maintain the descriptive title was successful.

Now, nonprofit organizations or governmental entities that have a primary
part of their business to serve as libraries for the blind can share books
across country borders for the use of the blind. The books can be recorded,
electronic, Braille, or large print. More than 130,000 books from the
blindness collection in the National Library Service for the Blind and Print
Disabled of the Library of Congress have been shared with the World
Intellectual Property Organization. Almost 5,000 titles from the World
Intellectual Property Organization have been added to the Library of
Congress collection of books for the blind. WIPO has books in eighty
different languages, and since the adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty, books
in thirteen new languages have been added to the Library of Congress books
for the blind collection. According to the latest information from WIPO,
there are more than three quarters of a million books in its collection.

The Accessible Books Consortium came into being only nine years ago. Its
collection of books being distributed for the World Intellectual Property
Organization will undoubtedly be one of the world’s greatest libraries for
the use of the blind. This happened because of the work of the National
Federation of the Blind, but especially because of the contributions of
Scott LaBarre.

----------


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: John G. Paré]


We Should All Live Ambitiously


by John G. Paré

>From the Editor: John is the executive director of our Advocacy and Policy
Team, and he led the team in providing information about the programs he
supervises and the legislative proposals we support. Along with his team,
which some call the four J’s (John, Justin, Jeff, and Jesse); they gave us
both our progress and our marching orders. Here is what John said to the
2023 National Convention:

CNBC recently began promoting the tagline “Live Ambitiously.” Their website
includes a video where each of their anchors and newscasters describe how
their ambition helped get them to where they are today. I wonder how many
people think about blind people when they think about living ambitiously. Do
they think we have dreams of a good education, rewarding jobs, a welcoming
home, and a family? Or are their expectations so low that they think we are
happy to just sit at home fighting inaccessible websites, applications, and
technology?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines ambition as “a strong wish to achieve
something.” That’s exactly what I observe with the members of the National
Federation of the Blind. We are determined to live the lives we want and we
are willing to work as hard as necessary to ensure all blind Americans have
this opportunity.

This concept is not new for us. In his 1956 speech, “Within the Grace of
God,” Dr. tenBroek said: “Our access to the mainstreams of community life,
the aspirations and achievements of each of us, are to be limited only by
the skills, energy, talents, and abilities we individually bring to the
opportunities.” Not only are we individually ambitious, but we, the whole of
the National Federation of the Blind, have collective ambition as well.

One example is our effort to pass laws and influence regulations that would
improve opportunities and protect the civil rights of blind Americans. You
will be hearing more about our specific bills in a few minutes.

On May 18, Tony Coelho, the father of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
and Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, published an
article on Websites and Software Applications Accessibility. They said:
“It’s about time that businesses embraced digital accessibility as a key
brand imperative and took ownership of the role that web and software design
play in the employee and customer experience. People with disabilities
should be able to universally access technology even as new innovations
occur.” We could not agree more.

We are working with Senator Duckworth and Representative Sarbanes to get the
Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act reintroduced in both
the Senate and House respectively. Regarding ADA website accessibility
regulations, the DOJ must move forward on both the Title 2 and Title 3 NPRM.
They began this work in 2010. Twelve years is long enough. The DOJ Civil
Rights Division must move forward NOW.

On March 27, 2023, Elizabeth Schoen, a member of the National Association of
Blind Students, was scheduled to fly on JetBlue from Minneapolis to Boston.
But JetBlue refused to let her board her plane because she was traveling
with a guide dog. They said there was a problem with her paperwork but
refused to work with her to resolve the issue. JetBlue employees even mocked
her when she took the initiative to call customer service. While she did not
fly that day, Elizabeth did not stop advocating for herself. She reported
the problem to JetBlue and filed a complaint with the US Department of
Transportation.

On April 27, 2023, Al Elia, Justin Young, and I accompanied Elizabeth to the
Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, to meet with Blane Workie,
the Assistant General Counsel for the Office of Aviation Consumer
Protection. Elizabeth told her story once again reliving each traumatic
moment. It is because of Elizabeth and so many others who have reported
airline discrimination that we now have the attention of the Department of
Transportation. Blind people who travel with guide dogs have the right to
travel on airlines and we will do everything in our power to protect that
right.

California SB581 is a bill that would dramatically hinder our legal advocacy
in that state. Tim Elder, the president of the NFB of California wrote the
bill sponsor with our concerns and offered edits to rectify the issue. At
the last moment, the state legislature scheduled a hearing on this and other
bills. We contacted Shannon Dillon, who coordinates our California
state-level advocacy, and asked her if she could attend and speak at the
hearing. She dropped everything she had planned and went to the state
legislature for the morning hearing. After several hours, the hearing was
adjourned until the evening. Shannon went home and then returned at 5:00
p.m. to learn that nearly forty bills would be discussed. She had to wait
until 10:30 p.m. to testify. As a result of Shannon’s perseverance and
persuasive testimony, I am happy to report the bill was suspended.

Scott White is responsible for our NFB-NEWSLINE® service. NFB-NEWSLINE is
the largest and most effective newspaper and information service available
to the blind anywhere in the world. It is available via the telephone, the
web, the Victor Reader Stream, the NLS digital talking book player, the
Amazon Echo, and the IOS app. There are 577 publications and some portion of
NFB-NEWSLINE is accessed every 1.4 seconds. Recent additions include the
Modesto Bee, Bismarck Journal, Hickory Daily Record, Shanghai Daily, and
Kiev Independent. There are also TV listings for every cable and satellite
provider, seven-day weather forecasts, emergency alerts, and job listings.
If you do not already use NFB-NEWSLINE, I urge you to sign up.

Sean Seward is our manager of the Independence Market. He, along with our
organizational technology group, is working hard to launch our eCommerce
system. In the meantime, you can browse our catalog on our website and order
items by calling our main number. We have over 400 items in our catalog
including white canes, Braille and audio watches, kitchen aids, measuring
tools, and games. We also have NFB logoed shirts, jackets, and hats. If you
don’t already have any NFB logoed attire, check out our catalog.

United States Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, once said: “We all have
dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot
of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” Our dream is a
world where blind people can live the lives we want as valued and respected
members of society.

We will not let low expectations of blind people diminish our dreams for an
equal education.

We will not let low expectations diminish our dreams for employment and
career advancement. We will not let the discrimination we experience
diminish our ambition. When we encounter an inaccessible website, we will
demand that it is fixed. When we encounter an inaccessible medical device,
we will strengthen our advocacy. When regulations hinder our opportunities,
we will demand that they are changed.

This work is not easy but we are up to the task. Our resolve is steadfast,
our determination is relentless, and our ambition is strong. We will work
together with love, hope, and determination, and we will live the lives we
want ambitiously.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Jeff Kaloc]


Aiming Big to Achieve Our Objectives


by Jeff Kaloc

>From the Editor: As John Paré pointed out when introducing him to the
convention, Jeff Kaloc has experience as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Now he
brings that expertise to the other side of the table in helping us to craft
our legislative efforts. Here is what Jeff said to the convention:

It is good to be with everyone here in Houston! The fact that you are here
at this convention, the largest gathering of blind people, speaks volumes
about what becoming a member of the National Federation of the Blind means
by expressing our voices, contributing to the organized blind movement, and
making progress each and every day!

Houston is known for many things. The same can be said about the entire
state of Texas. The saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas. Now that
I’ve been here a few days, I’d have to agree. Let’s keep that sentiment in
line with our goals, to aim big with our policy objectives.

The Access Technology Affordability Act’s support has grown enormously since
it was introduced several Congresses ago. With politics becoming more
partisan, it is refreshing to forward a bill that is bipartisan because
accessibility isn’t solely a Republican or Democratic policy, it is an
American ideal. The bipartisan support is evident in its reflection of
cosponsors. In the 117th Congress, the bill had 165 House cosponsors and
forty cosponsors in the Senate. In the current Congress, the 118th Congress,
the bill has been introduced by Representative Mike Kelly, a House
Republican, with Representative Mike Thompson, a Democrat, as the lead
cosponsor. In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Democratic Senator Ben
Cardin and Senator John Boozman, a Republican, as the lead cosponsor. The
support for this bill has grown in other ways, too. It is legislation known
by committee staff and recognized by Congressional leadership.

None of this progress would have been possible without our hard work and
dedication to advocate for this legislation. Whether it be attending
Washington Seminar, calling and writing your members of Congress, attending
at town halls, and being active on social media, we made sure our voice was
heard and this bill has gotten the attention it deserved. We understand the
importance of addressing the high cost of access technology that places far
too many blind people at a disadvantage. Affordable access technology is
often the determining factor to passing a class or applying for a job
opening. It allows blind people to interact in the digital world that has
now become a necessity for everyday life. That is why we must stay vigilant
in our efforts by continuing to advocate until this legislation is passed
and signed into law!

None of our advocacy would be possible without the ability to cast a ballot.
How can we feel that our ballots matter if it cannot be cast both privately
and independently? That is why we at the National Federation of the Blind
have been relentless in our efforts to ensure that whether you choose to go
to the polls or remain at home, voting can and must be accessible for all
blind Americans. We need to continue to advocate for enhanced training at
polling places. Poll workers need to be properly trained and equipped to
operate ballot-marking devices. We need to ensure that ballot-marking
devices are set up and fully operational from the beginning of Election Day.
In addition, we also urge that more blind people become poll workers,
thereby becoming involved in the election process.

Since the pandemic, remote voting has increased significantly. Countless
states have allowed voters without disabilities to cast their ballots from
the safety and convenience of their homes. The same principle must be
allowed for blind voters. Thirteen states permit accessible remote voting
for the blind and print-disabled by allowing blind voters to cast ballots
through electronic ballot delivery and return. These states have worked with
security experts to ensure that this process is both accessible and secure.
Over thirty states have allowed for blind voters to request a ballot to be
delivered electronically. While this helps in requesting and marking the
ballot, the entire process is not accessible, as it requires us to still
print, sign, and return a ballot by mail. We know there is a better way to
provide security and accessibility because, as mentioned previously,
thirteen states allow electronic ballot delivery and return.

These policies are more important now than ever. We now face new challenges
that impede our path to accessible remote voting. Relentless attempts from
organizations entrenched with ill-advised policies have provided state
legislatures and governors’ offices with misguided and nonfactual
information about election security concerns regarding electronic ballot
return—attempts cloaked in fear rather than expertise. The baseless attempts
have caused havoc, thereby stalling our efforts to provide electronic ballot
return in numerous states.

But the National Federation of the Blind has never been known to back down
from a fight! That is why we cannot stop our advocacy now. That is why we
are continuing our efforts to educate our lawmakers and state officials
about the practice that can be put into place to ensure election security
and enhance accessibility. Everything that we have worked for is on the
ballot in 2024, and we will continue to advocate until every blind voter in
the United States can vote with the same ease of use as voters without
disabilities!

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[PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Young]


Progress on Medical Access and Equal Wages


by Justin Young

>From the Editor: John Paré told the convention that Justin Young is
sometimes called the smartest member of the government affairs team because
he has associates, masters and doctorate degrees. Here is what Justin told
the convention about progress on his areas of focus:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines progress as “a forward or onward
movement to an objective or goal.” Over the past year, we have made progress
in the areas of nonvisual access to medical devices, accessible prescription
labels, and ending the payment of subminimum wages.

On March 1, 2023, Representative Jan Schakowsky from Illinois, along with
thirty-two initial cosponsors, introduced H.R. 1328, the Medical Device
Nonvisual Accessibility Act. The bill authorizes the FDA to adopt nonvisual
access standards for class II and III medical devices with digital
interfaces. Some examples include continuous glucose monitors, insulin
pumps, and CPAP machines. By adopting these new nonvisual accessible
standards, it would ensure we are able to independently, safely, and
accessibly operate our medical devices. Between the months of March through
May, as a direct result of our hard work, we have gained an additional
sixteen cosponsors, bringing the current count to forty-eight. This is
significant because for the 117th Congress, which is a two-year cycle, we
had a total of sixty-five. I know we can meet and exceed that number in the
118th Congress. We are working diligently to ensure there will be a
companion bill in the Senate this Congress.

Along with having access to medical devices, we must also be able to
correctly identify prescription medicine. Several affiliates have done work
to ensure that pharmacies are required to provide accessible prescription
drug labels. In 2023, the states of Maryland and Hawaii passed laws
mandating that prescription drug labels are nonvisually accessible.
Additionally, the State Boards of Pharmacy in Washington and Florida are
working on regulations to adopt guidelines for accessible prescription
labeling. Furthermore, Tennessee, which passed a law on accessible
prescription labeling last year, has begun the implementation process.

Along with making progress on accessible medical devices and prescription
labeling, we are also making progress on eliminating the practice of
subminimum wages both at the federal and state levels. On February 27 and
28, 2023, the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act was
introduced in the United States Senate and House of Representatives
respectively. The Senate bill is S. 533, and the House bill is H.R. 1263.
This bill will phase out, over a five-year period, Section 14C of the Fair
Labor Standards Act, ensuring we all have the right to a fair wage. It is
time to eliminate this antiquated and discriminatory practice. In addition
to the introduction of the Transformation to Competitive Integrated
Employment Act, the AbilityOne Commission adopted a policy that went into
effect on October 19, 2022, which prohibits subminimum wages on AbilityOne
contracts. At the state level, there has also been progress to eliminate
subminimum wages. On April 12, 2023, the Virginia Governor signed HB1924,
which phases out the payment of subminimum wages completely by 2030, making
it the seventeenth state to eliminate or limit the use of subminimum wages.
There have also been efforts in Minnesota, Illinois, and Kentucky to end
subminimum wages over the past year. It is past time for us to earn a fair
wage for the work we perform. With the strong determination of the National
Federation of the Blind, we will achieve our goal of living the lives we
want as valued and respected members of society.

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[PHOTO CAPTION: Jesse Shirek]


My Journey of Discovery, Risk, and Reward


by Jesse Shirek

>From the Editor: Jesse Shirek is the newest member of the government affairs
team in the Advocacy and Policy Department at the NFB Jernigan Institute in
Baltimore. He was originally hired to work with the NFB-NEWSLINE® team after
proving himself in multiple technology and affiliate leadership roles. Here
is what Jesse had to say to the national convention:

My path to our national convention stage has been a journey of discovery; of
risk and reward.

I have served in many capacities in the National Federation of the Blind,
including serving on the national scholarship committee and as NFB of North
Dakota affiliate president. My dreams came true when I was invited to become
a national staff member in 2021, advancing our NFB-NEWSLINE program.

Let me take you back to my first job delivering newspapers in North Dakota
at age twelve. Yes, people used to be paid to deliver newspapers. What do
you think is the biggest struggle for a blind person delivering a newspaper?
I bet you cannot guess. The biting thirty-below-zero cold? Uh-uh. Trying to
keep your eyes open, walking a mile at 5:00 a.m. every morning? Not it. The
hardest thing is watching your father read the newspaper that you just
delivered. You are separated by those pages; you cannot read the words on
the page because you are blind. As a young blind person, there were many
things out of my reach. I did not believe I could hold a job at a
restaurant, give a speech, graduate from a university, convince a
congressman to cosponsor legislation, and I did not believe I could downhill
ski. But yet I have done all of these things and many more. [Applause] Each
milestone I conquered involved risk, physical or emotional. I was terrified
starting out, and in some cases, the first and second time, I failed.

Let me tell you about learning to downhill ski. This activity involves risk,
in my case more to other skiers than myself. If you have not skied blind,
you are matched with a person, hopefully an advanced skier, to give
instructions like “turn left, turn right, slow down, stop, stop, STOP!” I
skied the beginner hill for a half-hour, feeling shaky and nervous. We went
up the ski lift to the intermediate hill. What could possibly go wrong? My
first run, gravity took over and I slid under the orange fence meant to keep
me out of the trees. I made my way down with my guide and was willing to
give it a second chance. On the next run, he told me to turn left. I turned
left. I sensed someone in front of me and quickly shifted right. I felt two
bumps under my skis. I realized I just ran over someone’s skis and I hit the
ground. I sat there shocked. I then heard a familiar voice say, “What was
that?” Her ski guide, Dale, responded, “That would be your boyfriend.” My
now wife, Sherry, with her infinite wisdom, said to her guide, “Dale, you
have to teach him how to ski. His ski guide does not know what he’s doing
and he’s going to kill somebody.” With Dale’s good instructions, soon I was
skiing from the top of the mountain. I share the story because I want to
remind us there is no reward without risk. It is always important to get up
when we crash, and be careful who we trust to guide us. If we want to find
success as a blind person, look within our Federation family. Reach out and
ask for help. And be guided down the mountain by a fellow Federationist.

Each person in this room guides government affairs as we ski our legislative
priorities down the mountain. We share what issues are important to blind
people. We share personal stories. Legislation is crafted based on the
collective experience of our movement, and our leadership formulates a plan.

You may have guessed that I have traversed my way from NFB-NEWSLINE to
government affairs. I have two major areas to move: autonomous vehicles and
Social Security.

We will get the Blind Americans Return to Work Act introduced in Congress.
This legislation affects blind people who receive Social Security disability
benefits. Currently there is a limit to the amount of money a blind person
can earn each month before completely losing their benefits; it is called
substantial gainful activity or SGA. We refer to this as the earnings cliff
because we, as blind people, are harmed by the earnings cliff if we fall
off. For example, if a blind person receives $1,000 in disability benefits,
you would lose $12,000 in earning potential. That's what it looks like to
fall off the earnings cliff.

Blind people are limiting our opportunities because we don't want to fall
off the earnings cliff.

Our movement wants to make working less risky for blind people. [Applause]
We are asking the government to eliminate the earnings cliff. [Applause] We
propose a two-for-one phase-out. For every two dollars of income that a
blind person earns after SGA, you would give back one dollar of benefits. We
would gradually be moved down the hill to full employment without the need
for benefits. [Applause] When this legislation is introduced, we will hear
about it through our many channels of communication. And we will call on the
organized blind movement to contact our congressmen and senators to ask them
to cosponsor our legislation.

I want to encourage each of us: take some risks in our lives. Help the
National Federation of the Blind with our advocacy efforts. We cannot expect
the future to change unless we are willing to change our beliefs, question
what is possible, try something new, push harder. We have a strong voice.
Our voice matters! I challenge each of us: change our future! Push forward
our priorities today! Thank you!

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Kyle Walls]


Save the Date: 2024 Washington Seminar


by Kyle Walls

>From the Editor: Kyle Walls does a great deal of work behind the scenes that
is crucial to advancing the legislative and policy goals of the National
Federation of the Blind, including writing, research, and logistical
support. Here is his reminder about our annual midwinter visit to the halls
of Congress:

The 2024 Washington Seminar is only a few months away! Next year’s event
will be held at the Holiday Inn Washington Capitol (550 C Street, SW) from
Monday, January 29, through Thursday, February 1, and we can’t wait to hear
the sound of hundreds of white canes once again confidently striding through
the halls of Congress. In accordance with longstanding tradition, the Great
Gathering-In, one of the premier Federation events and the official kickoff
meeting of the Washington Seminar, will take place on Monday, January 29,
from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Capitol Ballroom at the hotel. Then all of you
will meet with your members of Congress over the next three days. We will
have more details, including hotel reservation information, the legislative
priorities, and a full schedule of events as the date gets closer. We look
forward to seeing all of you in our nation’s capital!

----------


Monitor Miniatures


News from the Federation Family


Rookie Roundup Report


by Pam Allen and Tracy Soforenko

>From the Editor: Pam Allen, the first vice president of the National
Federation of the Blind and chair of its board of directors, organizes the
Rookie Roundup, a gathering for first-time convention attendees, each year.
Tracy Soforenko, president of the National Federation of the Blind of
Virginia and also a member of the national board, chairs the Jernigan Fund
Committee, which provides financial assistance to individuals attending
their first convention. Here is what they have to say about this year’s
gathering:

Enthusiasm at our first day of convention reached Texas proportions as we
kicked off our Rookie Roundup. As first-time convention attendees arrived,
we observed everyone singing and clapping to “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”
Using a rodeo theme, 400 attendees learned tips and tricks from a diverse
set of Federation leaders from across the country. Presentations included
welcoming remarks in English and Spanish; a special greeting from President
Riccobono and First Lady Melissa; and remarks from Norma Crosby, NFBTX
president and national treasurer, along with several members of our Jernigan
Fund Committee and Texas affiliate, all designed to help our first-time
attendees make the most of their convention experience. John Berggren,
convention chair extraordinaire, reviewed some logistics to help the week
run smoothly. We were delighted to hear reflections from Dr. and Mrs. Maurer
as our evening concluded. One attendee commented that they could not wait to
put some of the networking strategies shared into practice, while another
said that they were motivated by the positivity and energy in the room,
reassuring them they were not alone and were part of a larger community. The
rookies felt especially welcomed by the many veterans who greeted them
personally and by the team of Louisiana Center for the Blind staff and
alumni who helped distribute special ribbons and tote bags as the evening
ended and they headed out to experience all the convention had to offer.
Throughout the week, it was exhilarating to hear the cheers from the
first-timers whenever they were recognized from the stage. Thanks to all our
affiliates who work throughout the year to find ways to encourage members to
attend convention and to all who support the Jernigan Fund, which offers
convention scholarships. We are already planning for 2024!


First-Time Conventioneers Share Their Experiences:


A Hot Time in Houston


by Maryanne Melley

>From the Editor: Maryanne Melley is president of the National Federation of
the Blind of Connecticut.

The National Federation of the Blind Convention in Houston this year was hot
and steamy both outside and in. There were many pleasurable moments and some
disappointments. For the most part the positives outweighed the negatives. I
send my sincere gratitude to Norma Crosby and the Texas affiliate for
hosting an amazing event. I can only imagine the magnitude of effort it
takes to prepare for such a task, and Norma handled it with such grace and
grit. It was a wonderful surprise to have the return of local tours at the
convention again. The last time I recall this taking place was in Atlanta,
Georgia, in 2007. Tours of the Museum of Natural Science, The Houston Space
Center and a Houston Astros baseball game offered a variety of choices.
Having President Riccobono throw the first pitch at the ball game to chants
of “NFB!” from the crowd was incredible. And that’s just the fun stuff. The
vast array of meetings that we were offered, the opportunity to attend and
learn about so many products and issues was enough to keep anyone busy
throughout the week. The speakers during General Sessions were compelling
and informative. It is difficult to pick favorites for this article and not
take up ten pages so I will only pick three.

Saturday’s “What’s New with JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion” seminar shed new
light on many new keystrokes that are up and coming that will make using our
computers much more streamlined. But one of the best new features coming out
in the autumn will be JAWS assisting you to line yourself up properly for a
Zoom meeting. It will be able to tell you if your face is on the screen
rather than your shirt; also if you forgot to put the dirty laundry away, it
will let you know that also. Imagine how professional you will look in a job
interview or in a meeting with your legislators if they are seeing your face
and a clean background.

Another informative meeting was the National Association of Guide Dog Users.
President Raul Gallegos held a meeting with updates on the Air Carrier
Access Act for travelers with guide dogs. We have been having issues with
the airlines which you may recall hearing President Riccobono speak about.
They require us to fill out a form for our dogs before they can fly with us.
These forms are inaccessible. Though we would prefer the airlines to have
the same ADA laws apply to us, for now thanks to NAGDU there is progress
being made toward these forms becoming obsolete.

Finally, at the “How to Get Legislation Passed in Your State” session, the
information that was shared on electronic ballot delivery and return was
frustrating but helpful. Hearing about the hard work that was done on bills
being passed just to be vetoed by the state governor was disheartening.
However, we are not deterred. With what I learned at the meeting plus the
language of Resolution 2023-04, I now feel more confident than ever to
approach my legislators in Connecticut to achieve accessible independent
voting for the blind.

The only disappointing part of this convention is the same I find at every
national convention. It is the lack of common courtesy at the elevators.
Many people do not allow those that are on the elevators to get off before
they go charging in. They also trample over people who are in front of them
waiting in line, even though they have been told that they are there. Why
does this happen every year? What happens to “we are a loving family” when
it comes to elevators? Don’t get me wrong, plenty of people were very kind
and helpful with swiping their card so people could then press their floor
number. Doing both was a challenge. I just wish people would remember from
year to year how to behave in a more generous manner. We are all going to
the same places. We all must be patient and wait our turn. In the big scheme
of things this is a minor matter but an important one. All in all, let us
all keep deep in our hearts and minds what President Riccobono said in his
banquet speech: It is up to us, the blind, to change our world for the
better. Whether it be accessible websites, voting, medical devices, and
more. Nobody is going to do it for us.


A First-Timer’s Convention Story


by Cindy Scott-Huisman

I hadn’t solo traveled since college days in the 1980s, but I didn’t let
that keep me from making plans to attend my first National Convention of the
National Federation of the Blind 2023.

I first attended an NFB meeting in late 2019, and became Central Arkansas
Chapter president in 2020. I joined the State Board in March of this year.

Once I made my decision to attend convention, I wasted no time making
reservations for the Houston-Americas Hotel, and air travel. I was on the
same flight with my friends, Cindy and Kyle Kiper, departing Little Rock,
but I had a different connection in Dallas, so I was on my own for that leg
of the trip and from the airport to the hotel. I made friends along the way.

I have traveled extensively, both during the fifty-one years of my life
before central-eyesight loss and the five-plus years since becoming legally
blind, almost entirely with family and friends. My husband of almost
thirty-three years was confident I would be fine, yet somehow it felt a bit
like when a parent drops their child off at kindergarten on the first day of
school. Although I had reservations about a few of the details, everything
went perfectly smoothly!

I experienced so much friendliness every step of the way on this adventure.

During the weeks after making reservations and as the time approached for my
departure, I thought through all kinds of preparations, and worked towards
being organized. I felt at ease throughout the entire trip. I uploaded the
Hilton Honors app, and was so pleased by its accessibility.

The first evening after I arrived a small group went to Xin Chao, one of
[blind chef] Christine Ha’s restaurants. This was a definite highlight. I
had just finished watching her win Season 3 of Master Chef the day before I
left town.

There’s so much to do during convention days. With plans already on my
calendar before and after convention dates, I opted to arrive on July 3.
Lesson learned! In order to feel like there is enough time to get through
the Exhibit Hall and everything else, I want to attend the entire convention
in the future.

I volunteered in the Independence Market. This was a fun opportunity to
interact with fellow attendees. Another memorable activity was going to the
hot tub with a friend from my chapter. She and I grew closer throughout the
week.

I truly appreciate the information provided on NFB-NEWSLINE® about
surrounding restaurants, the room service menu, and the item about the
layout of the hotel and convention facility.

One evening twelve of us went out to eat together at a nearby restaurant
owned by Pat Green, The Rustic. I made new friends and got to reconnect with
others.

I loved all the teamwork on display for getting around. One time I was
waiting in the elevator bay in the lobby, and someone suggested that we
spread out and pay attention to each of the six elevators, and when the next
one arrived, alert the others. Everyone present seemed to think this was a
great idea.

For future convention plans, I hope to figure out how to meet up with people
more successfully. There were a couple of folks I tried to find, and I never
did. I did make it up to the Presidential Suite one morning, and I was happy
to get to meet President Riccobono. While I was there, I also got to have a
quick visit with Shawn Callaway. He had spoken to the Central Arkansas
Chapter a couple of years ago. 

I was amazed by the packed-full schedule of speakers, punctuated by fit
breaks and door prize announcements throughout the three days of General
Sessions. The culmination of the banquet was remarkable.

My travels home were seamless.

All in all, I am proud of myself for reaching a bit out of my comfort zone,
and learning so much in the process.


In Memoriam: Tom Anderson:


>From the Editor: Rob Tabor, first vice president of the National Federation
of the Blind of Kansas, shared the sad news of Tom’s passing to the
affiliate listserv. Rob said:

We of the Kansas affiliate regret to announce the loss of a good man and a
longtime Federation leader. Tom Anderson passed on Tuesday of this week in
the late afternoon hours at Advent Health in Overland Park, Kansas, where he
was hospitalized to treat very severe COVID symptoms. Many Federationists
will fondly remember Tom's eloquently delivered invocations at NFB national
conventions over many years. Those involved with the Communities of Faith
Division will miss his leadership in the devotional services which take
place every morning at convention. As a Braille and communications
instructor at Colorado Center for the Blind, Tom touched untold hundreds of
lives over many years before retiring and returning to Kansas. Back in
Kansas, Tom went immediately to work, serving on several state advisory
committees pertaining to blind Kansans, while serving as a member of the
Kansas affiliate board of directors. Above all, Tom was a wonderful husband
to his wife Linda, also a long-time Federationist. Tom will definitely be
missed by all and forgotten by none.

----------


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.

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