[NFBofSC] FW: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2024

[floza58 at bellsouth.net]

From: brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org <brl-monitor-bounces at nfbcal.org> On
Behalf Of Brian Buhrow
Sent: Thursday, February 1, 2024 10:33 AM
To: brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2024

 


The Braille Monitor, February 2024


BRAILLE MONITOR


Vol. 67, No. 2 February 2024

Gary Wunder, Editor

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

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Mark Riccobono, President

telephone: 410-659-9314

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

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

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

NFB-NEWSLINE® information: 866-504-7300

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind
<http://Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind> 

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Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind
<http://YouTube.com/NationsBlind> 

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

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

National Federation of the Blind

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

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

ISSN 0006-8829

© 2024 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. 67, No. 2 February 2024


Contents


Convention Bulletin 2024

How Blessed to be Living a Life in which Gratitude Plays a Part

by Gary Wunder

How Difficult it Sometimes is to be a Good Citizen

by Rose Warner

Not Letting the Flood of Doubt Win

by Marinela Ortiz

The 2023 End of Year Board Meeting

by Gary Wunder

An Interview with Kimble Funchess: Mississippi School for the Blind's Music
Educator

by LaShawna Fant

Tom Page: Musician, Audio Engineer, Mentor

Marilyn Green: Passionate Advocate, Energetic Worker, and Lover of
Connecting with People

When Braille is not the Total Answer

by Gary Wunder

Eureka! It All Matters!

by Cary Supalo

Voting Using Android Phones/Tablets

by Curtis Chong

My Career Story

by Shelley Keeland

The Blind Encyclopedist

by Tyler Zahnke

My Perspective on the Ninety-Third Leadership Seminar

by Cindy Scott-Huisman

Introducing Menus4ALL: The iPhone App That Makes Restaurant Menus Accessible
for Everyone

by Stephanie Jones

Monitor Miniatures

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Rosen Centre Hotel at night.]


Convention Bulletin 2024


Join us for the biggest event of the year. Start planning your trip now.

Wednesday, July 3 through Monday, July 8, 2024
Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Centre

If this will be your first convention or if you need a refresh, access our
First Timer’s Guide.
(https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention/first-timers-guide)


Book Your Hotel


For 2024 convention room reservations, please call the hotel at (800)
204-7234. Ask for the “NFB Convention” block. Here are important things to
know about the rates and booking the room:


Rates


Our 2024 convention room rate for singles and doubles is $129. Room rate for
triples and quads is $139.


Taxes and Deposit


*	Occupancy taxes and surcharges are an additional 13.5 percent.
*	There is no charge for children under eighteen if no extra bed is
requested.
*	At the time you make a reservation, a $146 deposit is required for
each room reserved. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged
against your card immediately, just as would be the case with a $146 check.


Cancellations


If a reservation is cancelled before Saturday, June 1, 2024, half of the
deposit will be returned. Otherwise, refunds will not be made.


Amenities


*	Complimentary in-room Wi-Fi
*	In-room safe, coffeemaker, mini-fridge, hairdryer, and a
wall-mounted 50” HDTV with a multi-outlet connectivity bar beneath to keep
your devices charged
*	Guests can enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa.

Please note that the hotel is a no-smoking facility. To assure yourself a
room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, you should make
reservations early. The hotel will be ready to take your call beginning
January 1.


Registration


Registration for convention will open in March. Registration will be $25 per
person plus $75 per banquet ticket. Register early because prices go up if
you register onsite in Orlando. Registration includes the biggest event of
the year, access to the event app, and communications on the latest news and
events.


Request for Door Prizes


Door prizes are submitted from state affiliates, local chapters, and
individuals. Prizes should be small in size but large in value—at least $25.
Cash is always appropriate and welcome. Please do not include alcohol.
Drawings will occur throughout the convention sessions with a grand prize of
truly impressive proportions drawn at the banquet. If you have a prize that
must be shipped in advance of the convention, please email affiliate
president Paul Martinez at president at nfbflorida.org
<mailto:president at nfbflorida.org>  to make arrangements.


Division, Committee, Group Meetings


Over 200 sessions and meetings happen during convention. If you are a leader
in a division, committee, or group that will meet at convention, please
don’t wait to organize. Start planning your agenda, goals, and connections
now. Stay tuned for details from the Convention Chair, John Berggren.


Volunteer


Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who help make national convention a
big success. If you are interested in learning more about how to get
involved, please connect with your state affiliate president. Additionally,
register early to get access to all volunteer opportunities.


Countdown to Orlando


The best collection of exhibits featuring new technology; meetings of our
special interest groups, committees, and divisions; the most stimulating and
provocative program items of any meeting of the blind in the world; the
chance to renew friendships in our Federation family; and the unparalleled
opportunity to be where the real action is and where decisions are being
made—all of these mean you will not want to miss being a part of the 2024
National Convention. We can’t wait to be with you in Orlando in July. Visit
nfb.org/convention for more convention details.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Wunder]


How Blessed to be Living a Life in which Gratitude Plays a Part


by Gary Wunder

So often my life has been filled with blessings that I have considered them
my right, my normal, and have therefore taken them for granted. Perhaps this
is not unique, but in my case, it has meant failing to appreciate many
things until after they are gone. At my most materialistic, the sadness has
come when my long-play record that so degraded that my favorite singer came
to sound like he was recording while traveling on a gravel road. Then there
has been a tape that wore out or broke, a radio that stopped working.

Of course the more important losses have come in the form of people:
relatives and friends who have died or moved away. But the saddest of the
sad feelings come from my own action or inaction: people I have let slide
out of my life. Only when I realize that I can’t or don't know how to
recover the relationship do I feel the real pain for those I have let go.
Each time that I am tempted to think of people or things is an obligation or
something I'll get too later, I remember the pain and my vow not to keep
making those same mistakes.

What can happen with objects and people can happen with organizations. It is
harder to envision because organizations are shared with so many that it
seems my role must be minor at best. The question then becomes: How
important can my participation be?

When I listen to reasons why people want to back off and find myself
starting to share in them, one of the first ones is “I’m tired.” There are
four reasons I can identify for being tired. One of them is a state of
depression that makes life so difficult to get through that one always feels
exhausted. This is not something that I know how to address with advice. I
have experienced it, and moving beyond that experience required both therapy
and drugs. I feel great gratitude that my immersion into this kind of
tiredness has happened only twice and has been short-lived.

The second reason for tiredness is that we have the mistaken belief that it
is heroic to become exhausted and that seven to nine hours of sleep each day
is a perfect waste of time. “You will have plenty of time to sleep when you
are dead,” is a common refrain. However, we are learning about the many
disadvantages of undervaluing sleep, including a shorter life, diabetes, and
even Alzheimer’s.

The third reason is boredom. How many times have you run into people who get
up in the morning with nothing to do and at the end of the day only have it
half done? What makes them tired that day is the same thing that made them
tired yesterday and for the many yesterdays that came before. It is also the
gloomy prospect that this is what will make them tired tomorrow, the day
after, the day after that, and for as long into the future as they can see.

The fourth reason for tiredness is a quite different one, one that is
gratifying rather than depressing, and one we have a greater ability to
control. It is being tired because we have experienced a day full of
activity. We may not have gotten everything done that we wanted, but we have
used our time wisely, have enjoyed the effort, and believe that in some
small way we have left the world better for some incredibly special people
we care about. In doing this, we have also made the world better for
ourselves and a more welcoming place to return to in the morning.

When I reflect on some of my most important blessings and contributions, the
National Federation of the Blind plays prominently in my mind. I am thankful
that it found a sixteen-year-old kid who thought that understanding
blindness had more to do with being able to list out my limitations than it
did the options that were truly available to me. I am grateful for the role
models it provided who stretched my imagination and suggested that I think
primarily about what I wanted to do as a human being and then consider what
I would have to do to make that happen as a human being who is blind. I’m
thankful for the techniques I’ve been taught that have meant I didn’t need
to reinvent the wheel, and when new techniques have been required, I am glad
to have been welcomed as we build upon that wheel so that it gets larger,
covers more distance, and has more traction when the going gets rough.

When I find myself deciding that I have given my fair share, that I deserve
to retire from the fray, and that it’s time for someone else to carry the
load, I remind myself how tedious boredom can be, how excessive time for
self-reflection can lead to despair, and how isolation and the loneliness
that comes from it has not in the past led to happiness and there is little
reason to believe it will in the future. I think about how easy it is to
destroy a thing by failing to give it the attention it needs and how much
more difficult it is to rebuild. Undoubtedly there will be a time when I
cannot make contributions to the organization we share, but for as long as I
can, I’m going to make sacrifices, and I’m going to set aside times such as
Thanksgiving, New Year’s, and other important holidays to count my
blessings, one of the foremost among them being the people who share in the
love of our organization.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Warner]


How Difficult it Sometimes is to be a Good Citizen


by Rose Warner

>From the Editor: It is interesting to hear the irritation in the voices of
those who get called on to serve on juries. Usually these folks are sighted,
and their immediate goal is to figure out a way to dodge the obligation.
Those of us who are blind usually have a different take; we are hopeful that
we will be called upon, and any irritation springs from the knowledge that
we will likely be disqualified on the basis of blindness. As Rose clearly
shows in this story, the problems don’t begin with rejection; they start
with just showing up. Here is what she says:

I got the “dreaded” piece of mail—the one everyone tries to avoid. For the
first time since moving to Denver in May of 2022, I was summoned to jury
duty.

Luckily, I don’t dread jury duty. In fact, I look forward to it and have had
“serve on a jury” on my bucket list for as long as I have been eligible to
serve. You see, I’m currently a law student at the University of Denver. I
have an unusual interest in the justice system. What better training to
become a lawyer than to have firsthand experience in the courtroom as a
juror?

Anyway, I got up early on Wednesday, November 15, 2023. I arrived at the
courthouse, ready to serve. I waited in a long security line with other
potential jurors, and I noticed that everyone took out all of their metal
items as if they were going through the dreaded line at the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA). I also noticed a sign that said, “prohibited
items,” but I couldn’t read it. Besides that, what could I possibly have
that would be prohibited anyway?

I emptied my bag: my metal water bottle, my metal coffee mug, my wallet with
a metal zipper—along with my keys, charger, and cell phone.

As I’m about the put my now very light backpack through the scanner, I
suddenly remembered—I had a monocular and a battery-operated magnifying
glass in my bag. I alerted the security guard about these items in my bag to
see if I needed to take them out. The security guard said, “Binoculars
aren’t allowed.”

Undeterred, I said, “I am legally blind, and this is an accommodation.” The
security guard went to check.

When the security guard returned, she informed me that magnifying glasses
were okay, but I needed to put my “binoculars” back in my car. With wide
eyes and utter shock, I replied, “I didn’t drive here. I don’t have a car to
put them into. I’m legally blind.”

Then I’m informed that I must put the binoculars in a locker at the aid
center. I asked where that is. The guard said, impatiently, “It’s on 14th
street.” Without bothering to give me directions, they sent me on my way.

Exasperated, I left the courthouse to Google “the aid center.” As it turns
out, they didn’t open until 8:00 a.m. After going to the wrong place—it was
a hotel that was open—I got good directions to the aid center. Once there, I
was shown a locker to put my monocular in. I went back to the courthouse,
stood in the security line, and took all of my metal objects out of my
backpack again.

I finally got to the jurors room and took out my laptop, ready to work on my
final paper for my Military and Veterans Advocacy class. Before I knew it,
two jury pools were selected. I looked around and thought to myself, there
are not many people left. I know—if they call another jury pool, I am going
to be on it.

The lady calling the juror numbers came to the podium and asked the
remaining potential jurors to look at their number. My number was easy to
remember—6868. She calls the first number, 6868. So I gather my things and
head to the door at the back of the room. Once the rest of the pool is
called and arrived, we are informed that we will be doing everything in the
order we were called in. I will be first to enter the court room, first to
sit down, and first to be questioned to determine if the lawyers choose me
to be on the jury.

As soon as we are lined up in front of the courtroom door, I tell the clerk,
“I just want to let you know that I am legally blind. I don’t want this to
be a red flag. I want to partake in my civic duty, but in case the judge
makes a hand motion or I need to read something, I just want you to know I
won’t be able to see it—and the security guard took away my monocular.”

She says, “Thanks for letting me know,” and she entered the courtroom.
Shortly, she returned, and we potential jurors entered the courtroom. We all
rose for the judge. Then we were given a short synopsis of the case. We were
told that it’s a DUI.

Before we do anything else, the judge said, “Juror number one, can you come
to my bench please?”

I approach the bench. She and the lawyers inquire if I think I can be a
juror. I assure them that I can, but I tell them that if there were
exhibits, the monocular would be helpful for me to see it better.

The judge seemed shocked that the security guards took away my monocular and
she assured me that I would get it back. I ask, do you want me to go get it?
She says, forcefully, that I’m “not going anywhere.” I explain that I was
told I had to put my monocular in a locker—that I only know the code to—at
the aid center. She asks, clearly frustrated—where’s that? I say—14th
street.

The next thing I know, the judge is calling a twenty minute recess so that I
can go BACK to locker to get my monocular. The clerk walks me out.

At this point—I feel a bit bad. Everyone—the defendant, the lawyers, the
judge, the clerks, and the potential jurors, are all waiting on me to get my
monocular. But on the other hand, I am incredibly glad and relieved. My
faith in the justice system had just been crushed. I had a bit of an
identity crisis, wondering how I would ever be a litigator if I was not
permitted to have an accommodation I rely on in my workplace?! I knew the
security guards were wrong—but in that moment—I did not feel I was in a
position to argue, as I did not want to cause a scene nor hold everyone else
in the security line up behind me.

I went back to retrieve my monocular, and with the clerk present, the
security guard says nothing about the “prohibited” monocular.

Once I’m back in the courtroom, we must answer about ten questions to
introduce ourselves to the lawyers. In the process I disclose that I’m a
part-time law student and that my dad works in the law enforcement field.
Then the lawyers give their opening statements and ask the jurors specific
questions.

Finally, it’s time to pick the jury. As it turns out, I, along with a
practicing attorney, are both cut from the jury. I had been cut in
situations like this before—I think because of my dad’s profession.

I left assured that I was not dismissed because of blindness, but because of
my knowledge, interest, and exposure to the justice system. I respect and
appreciate the judge who proceeded over that trial so incredibly much, and I
hope that the security guards learned a thing or two about reasonable
accommodations that day, too. Hopefully, the next blind person to serve on a
Denver jury will have a smoother process than I did—and by the way—in case
you were wondering, binoculars were NOT on the list of prohibited items in
the courthouse.

----------

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Marinela Ortiz in her cap and gown at her George Mason
University graduation.]


Not Letting the Flood of Doubt Win


by Marinela Ortiz

>From the Editor: Marinela is the second vice president of the Writers'
Division and writes this article to describe her struggle to achieve the
goal of getting her master’s degree. She has a rare form of retinitis
pigmentosa which leaves her with no tunnel vision but peripheral vision. She
is a published author and is working on her series, Backwards Fairy Tale,
and teaches assistive technology in Daytona Beach, Florida. Here is what she
has to say about her struggle to make it through school, to find a job, and
to continue her upward climb to be certified as an assistive technology
professional through the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology
Society of North America (RESNA). Until I read this article, I did not know
that, currently, college graduates often decorate the top of their
mortarboards with motos and doodads.

I woke up in Fairfax, Virginia, on a cold morning on December 14, 2023. I
was walking across the stage again, this time to receive a degree higher
than a bachelor's, which I had worked hard for over the past two years. My
fiancé and I arrived after 12:30 to the arena in which the ceremony was
going to be held. My main cheerleader, RJ, helped me don the green gown and
the light blue hood to represent my degree program. He also gently placed a
braided chord across my shoulders, and the exciting part was the cap with
its green and gold tassel with song lyrics that echoed in my head and which
I kept close to my heart through my studies. I also looked up to the clear
blue sky and said to myself, "Are you watching, Mom?"

Blindness was the reason that some people told me that I could only get a
bachelor's degree and nothing more. I believed those words that broke me
down while I was at the University of Central Florida. I hoped to go into
the counseling graduate program to become a blind services counselor myself.
I also worked on a minor in exceptional education. Unfortunately, I was
placed in my writing and rhetoric minor as a result of pressure from my
school and rehabilitation counselor. I knew I had talent in the field in
which I minored; it was something I was good at, but I found it hard to find
a job and start a career. It took me three years to find a paying job even
after changing my career goal to assistive technology. Before that job
materialized, I got work experience doing volunteer teaching at a blind
rehab center where I was a past student. Also I had to improve my student
interaction skills by volunteering in my county's school district.

Once hired in 2018, I still felt like I was missing something and pursued a
master's program. The University of Massachusetts Boston was my first
choice, and I was able to get into the school on provisional status. The
coursework focused more on visual impairments when it came to assistive
technology rather than on the broader spectrum of technology for people with
other disabilities. This school was oriented to teaching so one could get
the CATIS (Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist)
certification, its passage being part of the requirements in completing the
program. It was not an easy program due to the way some items were visual,
and some of the assignments caused me to question how they relate to
assistive technology. Eventually, I was told to withdraw due to my grades
slipping. My reading comprehension was also questioned during Zoom meetings
I had with my professors. I felt so upset that I threw my functional visual
assessment kit that I spent my hard work and money on across the room. I did
call some people to tell them the news, and they were surprised that I had
to leave a program I worked so hard to get into. One person who cheered me
up was my mom, who told me that I would figure it out and get my master's. I
let her words sink in and gave myself some time to heal before applying to
another school.

George Mason University was my second choice if things didn't work out. I
looked into their program and noticed they focused more on technology for
other disabilities in addition to blindness. I applied in August and waited
for the email to give me my status. Halloween weekend in 2021 was when I saw
the acceptance telling me that I was a George Mason Patriot in their
Assistive Technology Program. A condition of my admission was that I had to
pass my first four classes with a B or above. I met that demand by studying
hard and working on my assignments every week throughout my two years at the
school.

What I didn't know is that with the victory came challenges. I had to move
into a new place where my fiancé, roommate, and I would have to live
together in a two-bedroom apartment. It got flooded out during a hurricane,
so again we had to move. But the true and most significant challenge was
losing a parent. On February 9, 2023, I was at work after finishing up some
schoolwork earlier in the morning. There I received a call from my dad
telling me that my mom was in the hospital. She was battling COVID and was
in a coma due to her other health complications. I was devastated. I felt
even worse when she was taken off life support the next day. I felt like I
was losing a part of myself when I recalled how much my mom was there for me
when we found out about my blindness and was upset for me after every
doctor's visit at Bascom Palmer in Miami. What would I do without her
encouragement and affirming statements such as when she said I was stronger
and braver than her? She said this after my giving her the news about being
terminated at the University of Massachusetts. She said, "I know you can
figure things out! You're strong."

In the end, I accomplished a major feat when going through my remaining
semesters at George Mason University. I pushed away my doubts about myself
and came out on top. Gaining new knowledge gave me a new outlook on
possibilities for people who are disabled. This made me feel wonderful,
feeling my heart pound as RJ and I went up the ramp leading to the stage.
Hearing him counting down as we walked up was exhilarating. As we walked
across, he and I stopped, and he lifted my arm into the air as a way to say,
"Champion!" I had my pictures taken and headed back to our seats, where the
remaining graduate program names were called from the College of Education
and Human Development. The song that I had on my cap played in my ears as
done by my all-time favorite band, Newfound Glory singing it. The line that
resonated most was, "I am brave, I am bruised, I am who I'm meant to be;
this is me!"

You may contact mariwritercat85 at gmail.com <mailto:mariwritercat85 at gmail.com>
.

----------

[PHOTO/CAPTION: The NFB Board of Directors. Left to Right, back row: Adelmo
Vigil, Marilyn Green, Ron Brown, Shawn Callaway, Donald Porterfield, Tracy
Soforenko, Everette Bacon, Carla McQuillan. Front row: Shelia Wright, Norma
Crosby, Jessica Beecham, Pam Allen, Mark Riccobono, Barbara Manuel, Grace
Pires, Marci Carpenter. (Tom Page not present.)]


The 2023 End of Year Board Meeting


by Gary Wunder

One of the wonderful Federation events the week after Thanksgiving is the
in-person meeting of the Board of Directors. This is an intense time of
information gathering, shared deliberation, and making the tough decisions
that go hand-in-hand with an organization that thrives on risks, choices,
speculation, and faith in one another.

One inspiring part of being with the Board is watching as frustration and
difficulty is transformed into resolve and an even greater commitment. We've
been working at this for eighty years with what may be the foolish idea that
we will work ourselves out of a job. What is transformative is to see how
our leaders energetically and creatively convert frustration into resolve
and shared problems into a bond of faith that we will be here for as long as
it takes. It is affirming to watch as the promise that we will not sell out
those who have worked for eight decades is made real, and the actions we
take during these meetings will make the decades we have to offer meaningful
in a way that does honor to our founders as well as love and respect for the
blind people of today and tomorrow.

What is presented here is by no means a comprehensive list of things the
Board discussed and addressed. Rather, it is an attempt to share the
diversity of issues our leaders must confront, and, at the suggestion of the
President, this is the editor’s best attempt to do this without violating
the many confidential issues that were on the floor. The Board also
considered and passed a number of policies to strengthen support for and
guidance to state affiliates. These policies have not been covered here, but
they will be rolled out to affiliate presidents at their annual retreat held
immediately before the 2024 Washington Seminar.

One of our biggest challenges this year, and likely in the next, has been
financing. We have enjoyed great public support by asking for it through the
mail, but this form of fundraising is dying as postal costs go up, the price
of creating and doing the mailings continues to rise, and fewer people
choose to give using the postal service. When people believe growth in the
economy is unpredictable, a reduction in giving follows. The drop is usually
not immediate, and often it is cyclical. But new times will require the kind
of innovation in fundraising that we demonstrate in our programs year after
year. The idea that as members we must worry about our chapters and
affiliates and that the national treasury will find its own way has no
relationship to reality, if in fact it ever did.

To thank those who have made substantial contributions, the Board again held
a supporter celebration both to say thank you to our donors and to share a
bit with them about what their donations have made happen. We also shared a
video message about the work that remains for all of us to do.

There was tremendous excitement when we talked about the Museum of the Blind
People’s Movement. Our initial fundraising is encouraging, but we have a
long way to go to meet our goal. Most certainly the amount to do this right
will definitely increase because of inflation and the passage of time.

It is hard to believe, but even our new building is now two decades old.
Many of the warranties that came with the new product have now expired, so
we encounter the maintenance obligations that anyone with a building must
address: heat, air-conditioning, repairs to the roof, plumbing, and the list
is very familiar to all of us who own houses.

The Board is very proud of the work we do in contracting with the Library of
Congress for Braille certification. Through our work, we continue to bring
new transcribers into the field, and this is completely consistent with our
goal of making more Braille available on more subjects and to more people.

STEM2U continues to be a groundbreaking program and one that has expanded to
our affiliates. We continue to teach the teachers so that students have
quality training closer to where they live.

Our Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL®) program was a
success again in 2023. We had both virtual and in-person programs, and of
those, ten were conducted locally.

In keeping with tradition, the Board decided the issues we would take to the
Washington Seminar. In 2024 these will be the Website Software Applications
Accessibility Act, the Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act, and the
Blind Americans Return to Work Act. The fact sheets and more information
about the Washington Seminar can be found at
https://nfb.org/washington-seminar, and a full report will appear in the
March issue.

We continue to view with real excitement our Teacher of Tomorrow Program,
because it gives us the opportunity to influence the education of many more
students than we can gather for the seminars we provide and lets our
influence be felt on a daily basis. Our motto: “If they will not teach the
teachers, we will do it.”

Our early childhood initiatives are always a source of inspiration. These
initiatives include giving parents print and Braille materials to work with
their preschoolers, along with some advice for instruction. We also provide
children with their first cane and again provide parents with some
instruction they can use in being their child’s first cane travel
instructor.

The Board continues to discuss the future of the International Braille and
Technology Center, admiring what it has done while taking on the challenge
of figuring out what it should do in the future. Our role may evolve from
maintaining a physical location to a dynamic online presence, leveraging
web, podcasts, and local technology vendors to maximize our effect on blind
people wanting to know more about the alternatives they may employ. The
Board welcomes thoughts from all Federationists about what our constantly
evolving International Braille and Technology Center should become.

We continue to participate in the accessible cities project, not only to
enhance the freedom of blind people to function independently, but to work
against those trends that threaten our independent mobility as we try to
navigate in the places where we live and visit.

We continue to be involved with the developers of autonomous vehicles, our
emphasis being on their usability by blind people. It will do us little good
to have a vehicle that can drive itself if the interface to tell it where to
go and to find out where we are on the route requires vision.

We continue to be involved in the area of accessible COVID testing, which
leads, of course, to all of the other in-home testing that is becoming a
reality. As it is with every other aspect of emerging technology, keeping
tabs on all that is ongoing is a significant challenge.

The Board is very excited about the membership initiatives and the
technology that has been developed to support them. Members having access to
their profile and chapter presidents being able to onboard new members are
significant contributions to recruiting blind people into our movement.

The Board continues to discuss the role of divisions. Sometimes divisions
enhance the advancement of a cause, but sometimes a committee or a group
might better address the issue with less fuss and maintenance. Work on the
Monarch, a joint project of the National Federation of the Blind, the
American Printing House for the Blind, and HumanWare, continues to fascinate
the Board. It is clear that getting this technology in the hands of blind
students will significantly enhance their ability to deal with graphics and
to enjoy the benefits of Braille being displayed in multiple lines.

After ten years we are now reviewing our branding and seeing that our key
messaging continues to represent the kind of organization we are, the kind
we aspire to be, and the message we want to send to the public about the
authentic experience of blind people. More information will follow in later
issues of this magazine.

In wrapping up this report, it is important for all of us to remember that
member input is absolutely critical for the Board to do the best job it can.
All of us who have suggestions, opinions, or questions should remember that
each of us can write to the National Federation of the Blind Board of
Directors at boardofdirectors at nfb.org <mailto:boardofdirectors at nfb.org> 

At the end of what was essentially a three-day session, everyone left with a
sense of pride and enthusiasm at the work we have done, the strong
realization that there is much work remaining, and the clear conclusion that
being leaders in the National Federation of the Blind is not a ceremonial
honor but a real commitment to enhancing the life opportunities of blind
people. Although this is certainly no game we play by being leaders in the
National Federation of the Blind, what we do or fail to do has real
consequences. It is clear to any observer that we will embrace the
challenges, meet them with innovative solutions, and do everything we can to
keep the promise of a future that is brighter tomorrow because of the work
we will do today.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: LaShawna Fant]

[PHOTO CAPTION: Kimble Funchess]


An Interview with Kimble Funchess: Mississippi School for the Blind's Music
Educator


by LaShawna Fant

>From the Editor: Mr. Funchess has been at the Mississippi School for the
Blind for two years. This is LaShawna's way of introducing him to our
nation's blind. LaShawna has undertaken this task for several folks. Thanks
to her for helping us getting to know one another more than we would without
her effort.

LaShawna Fant: Hello, Mr. Funchess. It is a privilege and honor to interview
you. Please introduce yourself to the readers of this flagship publication.

Kimble Funchess: My name is Kimble Funchess. I grew up in Crystal Springs,
Mississippi. My mother was a custodian for our local school district, and my
dad worked for Western Auto. My parents had thirteen children, nine girls
and four boys. I am a proud husband and father of four beautiful daughters
and also a loyal fan of the New Orleans Saints.

LF: Where did you attend college, and what was your experience overall?

KF: I attended Jackson State University for undergrad and graduate school.
My major was Music Education. Later, I attended Mississippi College and
earned a Master of Education in School Counseling. My experiences at Jackson
State University were life changing. As I got older, I realized the value of
the relationships developed while we were students in the band. It continues
to amaze me how our band directors had their hands on the pulse of how
important being a part of Sonic Boom of the South was for students who grew
up in the neighborhoods surrounding our campus, let alone a young aspiring
trumpeter from my hometown. Many of my experiences as a band student helped
me to grow into a young adult. Being in the band at Jackson State, traveling
with the band, and long rehearsals greatly affected my life. The Sonic Boom
of the South and the Jackson State University Music Department were truly
defining institutions in our lives. They were there to help guide us in the
classroom setting and learning that took place outside of the class, which
positively affected the whole student's life. The sense of nurturing during
that time is the model I use today as an educator. Later, during my graduate
studies at Mississippi College, the Counseling/Psychology Department
supported my efforts to effectively infuse counseling practices into my
daily instruction as a music educator. The professors helped me bridle those
ideas and concepts into a fundamentally sound template and further add to it
as a long-term plan. My experiences at both of these great institutions were
beneficial to my personal and professional life. I have a great relationship
with many of my college professors. Several are my mentors and life coaches.
They continue to positively affect my growth as an educator and, most
importantly, as a person.

LF: That's great! Why did you become a music educator and band/choral
director, specifically of blind students?

KF: As I matriculated through the Copiah County School District, I quickly
developed a love for music. After marching for several years in the Sonic
Boom of the South and watching the band directors, I developed a passion for
teaching. While in college, I was fortunate to perform with artists such as
Johnnie Taylor, The Spinners, and The Fifth Dimension. Those opportunities
allowed me to perform with The Temptations, The Four Tops, The O'Jays, The
Williams Brothers, Dorothy Moore, Bobby Rush, and many more. After all of
those experiences, I knew that the gift I was given to play, write, and
perform music was not just for me. I knew that I wanted to share it with the
next generation. Each opportunity is an occasion to grow. In my career, it
was time for a new form of growth. I knew I had something to offer students
who learn differently, and working at Mississippi School for the Blind would
stretch my talent and growth as an educator. Additionally, I appreciate the
experience of educating the students at Mississippi School for the Blind.
Every day, I strive to provide them with experiences and skills to help them
as students and throughout their lives.

LF: Mr. Funchess, thanks for sharing your passion for educating the
students. What are some of your goals in better equipping the students?

KF: One goal is to continue using the daily practice of infusing life skills
into daily instruction. Music is a catalyst for doing that and consists of
the tools to create good citizens who are musicians. Learning to play an
instrument is a by-product of practicing these skills. As a daily practice,
students will be encouraged to value focus differently. We will practice a
counting exercise while using breathing for four counts. We will inhale for
four counts, hold our breath for four counts, and then exhale for four
counts. As it relates to music, the students are experiencing the value of a
whole (four counts).

By participating in this activity, the students have to concentrate on that
one central exercise point. After repeating this activity three times within
a one- to three-minute window, we develop our focus muscle. Let's say we do
this activity five days a week for one-to-three minutes daily. We can
increase our focus muscle for some time. As we reinforce this activity daily
as a tool in music education, it quickly becomes a tool that students can
and will take to their core subject areas. It also becomes an effective
cross-curricular tool. Once we develop a sense of consistency, the student
will learn to manage this tool independently. This is my belief and hope.
Lastly, I will continue to aim to employ descriptive language, hands-on
learning, community-based opportunities, structure, and accommodations.

LF: Please let the readers know what "Mindfulness Through Music" is and how
you utilize it to help individuals.

KF: Mindfulness Through Music (MTM) is a program founded and developed by my
wife and me. MTM infuses the arts, mental health nurturing, focusing, paying
attention to details, and valuing problem-solving as a daily practice. This
helps the young professionals navigate the way to become effective learners
and reach their full potential. MTM is available for school programs. We
have partnerships in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. You can find more
information about Mindfulness Through Music on Facebook and Instagram.
Please Like our page, and follow the work that we are doing.

Here are links to our Mindfulness Through Music pages:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094348626318
<https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094348626318&mibextid=LQQJ4d>
&mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnessthroughmusicllc?igsh=ZGNjOWZkYTE3MQ==

LF: How long have you played the trumpet, and what drives your passion?

KF: I started playing the trumpet in the fifth grade. I saw Mr. Louis
Armstrong on television playing the trumpet. After he finished, he did that
famous laugh while his arms were opened wide, and the audience erupted in
applause. They embraced what he was sharing, and he gave the same love back
to them. I told my parents: "Whatever he had, just give me a little bit of
that, and I'll be okay." The trumpet quickly became my identification, and I
have played it ever since.

LF: You have traveled to many places and have had several opportunities to
work alongside famous musical artists. What have been some of these
opportunities, and what are some things you learned?

KF: I have been blessed to perform all over the United States and parts of
Europe such as Amsterdam. I can literally say that I have performed with a
Steel Band in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and even Abu Dhabi. Having the opportunity
to record/perform with artists my family grew up listening to has been so
valuable to me as I become older. I often reflect on conversations with
Johnnie Taylor, The Williams Brothers, Willie Clayton, Dorothy Moore, Lenny
Williams, Mavis Staples, Boo Mitchell, Charlie Pride, B. B. King, Mr. Willie
Mitchell, Dr. Benjamin Wright Jr, Harrison Calloway Jr, Eddie Cotton, Castro
Coleman, Ali-Ollie Woodson, and countless musicians and people that I have
learned from through my experiences. I have learned that it is genuinely
about establishing rapport, building relationships, sharing experiences, and
paying it forward.

LF: Wow! Those were beautiful experiences, and that is such rich
information. Regarding your heart and the person you are, what are five
words to best describe you?

KF: Determined, purposeful, driven, intentional, and altruistic.

LF: How important is family and community to you?

KF: Family is important to me because it is a foundational pillar. My family
is a continuous driving motivator for me. They gently remind me that it is
not all about me, and I must be mindful of my decisions. I am conscious that
I stand on the shoulders of my parents, siblings, family in general, and
many others who have invested in me on my journey. They sacrificed so much.
It is my turn to model specific characteristics, behaviors, and other
attributes as I make my greatest effort to pay it forward and leave the next
generation in the best possible position for life. That is what has been
done for me, and it is still being done for me in many cases. This is why it
is vital for all of us to be mindful of who is in our season of paying it
forward.

LF: What are some of your hobbies and things you like to do for fun?

KF: I enjoy yardwork, in particular weed-eating and trimming, because I like
to have a tailored or unique look to our yard. That is relaxing for me. I
also enjoy having downtime where I do not plan activities, meet deadlines or
tasks, or have to be somewhere. As adults, we have enough of that already. I
also enjoy watching Westerns, old movies, and movies with Louis Armstrong in
them. I remember when we were younger, we would see the reruns of the Golden
Classic movies on Sunday evenings. That was a pastime for my dad and me. He
could only stand a few of them for a short period. LOL.

LF: It is certainly good to enjoy life. Who have been some of your mentors?

KF: Truthfully, I have had many mentors; by this, I mean my middle/high
school band directors, the music department at Jackson State University
while I was a student, and the Counseling/Psychology Department at
Mississippi College during my studies there. Also, Mr. Harrison Calloway Jr.
and Dr. Benjamin Wright Jr. have been my mentors on this journey in the
music business. More importantly, I appreciate how they encouraged me to
embrace the artist within and grow as a music educator when investing in me
as a trumpeter, horn arranger, and horn section contractor.

LF: What would you want your legacy to be?

KF: I would like for my legacy to be that I could balance life as it
happened and be supportive and attentive to my family. I was ever evolving
in my career regarding growth to make a valuable difference. Mostly, I made
someone's life better, was concerned about making a difference, and was
genuinely concerned for all humankind.

LF: Do you have any final words you want to leave with the readers?

KF: My final words to leave with the readers who are determined, driven, or
intentional in their efforts to leave the world in a better place than they
found it are to:

*	Understand that there may not be a blueprint for what you want to
do.
*	Understand that you have to believe in your purpose, be confident,
know your value, and then stand on what you believe in.
*	Understand that sometimes you may have to follow your dreams with
little or no support; follow them anyway.
*	Leave hope for the next generation.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Page playing his guitar.]


Tom Page: Musician, Audio Engineer, Mentor


Thomas O. "Tom" Page was born on December 28, 1972, in Gainesville, Florida,
the first of three children born to Thomas L. and Leslie Page. His eyesight
issues first became obvious when he was a toddler, around two to three years
old, as he struggled with tracking in the dark. However, intervention did
not come until he reached the first or second grade when he was prescribed
glasses, which, he recalls, did not improve matters much. At the age of
fourteen, “when I started wanting to drive,” he remembers, Tom learned his
diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa.

Throughout his early education, Tom’s family moved a lot, residing in
Florida, Kansas, and Illinois, among other places. Once diagnosed, he was
exempted from school activities that seemed inappropriate to administrators
(such as photography and sports) rather than being accommodated to
participate in them. Although there was consideration of him attending a
nearby school for the blind in Jacksonville, Illinois, when he lived in
nearby Springfield, he decided against it.

Tom attended Wichita State University and earned a degree in experimental
psychology. He then accepted a job at his alma mater as a statistics
liaison. His journey towards adopting blindness techniques and becoming a
Federationist began when, seemingly from one day to the next, he found it
increasingly difficult to read job-related materials, even with the most
powerful magnification he could access. “People had been telling me I was
blind for years,” he says, “and I finally decided that maybe I needed to
listen and figure out how it is that blind people survive.” He connected
with a rehabilitation teacher named Donna Wood, also a leader in the
National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. Initially, she visited him every
two weeks at his home for one to two hours. During one of these visits, he
recalls, she made it clear that he would never fully develop good cane
travel skills with such limited instruction. She advised him to put on sleep
shades and practice walking in his neighborhood. As time passed, he
graduated to moving beyond his own block, crossing busier streets, and
becoming a truly proficient traveler.

While Tom worked on his blindness skills, he also began his career in music
following the end of his employment with the university. He formed a guitar
duo with a sighted guitar teacher and friend, and they began to seek paid
gigs wherever they could. Donna Wood, who had been encouraging Tom to
investigate the Federation, shrewdly hired the duo, known as Grandpa’s .38,
to perform at Federation meetings and state conventions. “She worked it
pretty well,” Tom recalls with a chuckle. His involvement was further
cemented when he won an NFB scholarship in 2004 while pursuing his master’s
degree in interdisciplinary research methodology at Wichita State. Like many
other Federationists, Tom says attending that national convention in Atlanta
was a critical turning point for him. “I barely knew myself as a blind
person, but suddenly I was fully immersed in the world of blind people,” he
remembers. “It was quite an experience, and I decided I wanted more of it.”

Tom was elected to the Kansas affiliate board shortly after. He became first
vice president when Donna Wood was elected president, and when her health no
longer permitted her to serve in that role, he was elected to succeed her in
2013 and has held the position ever since. He was elected to the national
board of directors at the 2023 National Convention in Houston, Texas.

Outside of his Federation involvement, Tom completed his master’s degree,
but by that time his music career was allowing him to make a living, and in
2009 he was able to purchase a local commercial building to house his own
recording studio as well. For the past several years, he has been touring
with the band Haymakers, which has released four albums. The latest of these
are Waconda Flyer, which contains primarily original material, and 100 Years
of Hank, the band’s tribute to the legendary Hank Williams. Their website is
www.haymakersict.com <http://www.haymakersict.com> , and their music is also
available on digital platforms. Many Federationists had a chance to enjoy
their performance at the 2023 National Convention. Tom also makes recordings
for other musicians at his studio, as well as occasionally taking other
voiceover and audio engineering jobs.

While Tom enjoys leading the Kansas affiliate, serving on the national
scholarship committee, and his new role as a national board member, he finds
the greatest meaning through mentoring others. He fondly recalls recently
celebrating the achievements of a young Kansan who graduated from a cooking
program and secured her first job. “The big things we do are of course
critically important, like advocating for systemic change at the national
and even international level,” Tom says. “It’s gratifying and gives me a
huge sense of pride in our movement when years of effort pays off in a big
way. But what I really appreciate most are those small moments that
demonstrate how we make a difference in the lives of blind people.”

Tom and his partner, Nicole Taylor, live in Wichita. His sister Katie is the
associate dean of the architecture and design school at Kansas State
University, and his brother Will works as an appellate attorney in New York.
“As a musician, I guess I’m the black sheep of the family,” he jokes. But
Tom is, in reality, pleased with where his life journey has led him so far,
and his mentees and peers throughout the Federation are certainly enjoying
and benefitting from his many talents.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Marilyn Green]


Marilyn Green: Passionate Advocate, Energetic Worker, and Lover of
Connecting with People


In a remarkable journey marked by resilience, adaptability, and a deep
commitment to advocacy, Marilyn Green has risen to prominence in the
National Federation of the Blind. Elected to the National Board of Directors
in July of 2023, Marilyn's story is one of overcoming obstacles, shattering
stereotypes, and forging a path of leadership and inspiration for many.


Early Life and Challenges


Born on June 12 in Blue Island, a suburb of Chicago, Marilyn's life was
characterized by a quiet, introspective nature. Perhaps this came from being
an only child or, just as likely, it is one of the native attributes that
has made Marilyn a special person. When asked about her family life, Marilyn
humorously remarks, "I have lots of kids, but no tuition."

Marilyn did not initially think much of her vision and never considered
herself blind. She understood that she wore thick glasses, but she was
confident that the reason she sat at the front of the room was that was
where the smart people sat. Her blindness stemmed from an amalgamation of
cellulitis, glaucoma, and cone-rod dystrophy. If she moved more timidly than
others, sometimes on tiptoe, she chalked this up to being cautious, an
attribute that she considered totally consistent with being smart.

It wasn't until she started experiencing debilitating migraines at sixteen
that the reality of her situation began to unfold. Not one to look for
excuses or reasons to complain, she considered the migraines a difficulty
she would just have to deal with, and if they came on as a result of reading
too much, she would just do a better job of managing her reading load.


Education and Early Career Struggles


Her academic journey, though challenging, was marked by determination and
excellence. Marilyn attended Edgar Allan Poe Classical School during her
elementary years and Morgan Park for her junior high and high school
education, the latter being a renowned magnet school. She cherished her high
school years, forming friendships that remain strong to this day. “Some of
those friends were hard to make, and perhaps that is why they have endured.”

Marilyn pursued higher education at DePaul University, majoring in english
literature and women’s studies. Loving literature, it is no surprise that
her first job was in publishing. Struggling with the intense reading load
and unable to differentiate between font changes due to her worsening
vision, Marilyn faced the harsh reality of having to admit to blindness and
techniques that blind people would use, or taking what she saw as the high
road, refusing any accommodations, and quitting her job. The fact that she
was valued in that job was clearly evidenced by the suggestion of her
supervisor that together they work on accommodations, but Marilyn would have
none of it. She called her mother with the message, “Mom, I’m coming home.”


Finding Her Path


It was in this period of introspection and recalibration that Marilyn found
a new calling. She transitioned to a role at the Chicago Public Library,
where she thrived as a reader advisor. Her responsibilities ranged from
teaching computer skills to conducting financial literacy classes to
educating on landlord-tenant rights. However, the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic prompted another career shift, leading her to her current position
as the director of an agency for the blind.


Impact and Advocacy in the National Federation of the Blind


Marilyn's work with the National Federation of the Blind has been
transformative. She passionately advocates for those of us who are blind,
emphasizing the importance of maintaining personal connections and thinking
beyond oneself. Her legislative work has been instrumental in increasing the
number of cosponsors from Illinois for national legislation. Moreover, her
efforts in mentoring, raising funds for scholarships, and her involvement in
the Story Bank Program of the Federation have been invaluable.

Marilyn's personal life is as vibrant as her professional one. Despite her
busy schedule, she finds time for yoga, loves travel, and is an avid Spanish
speaker, something that serves her well when she goes to Puerto Rico, a
place she loves.

Marilyn joined the Federation by being part of the member-at-large chapter
and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the state president in 2020.
Her first national convention in Florida was a turning point, solidifying
her commitment to the organization and its cause. Her decision to attend was
pragmatic. She reasoned that if she liked it, she would participate, and if
she didn’t like it, she would visit Disneyland and other tourist
attractions. She instantly felt a part of all that was going on, and as she
participated, her commitment to the organization grew.


The Essence of Leadership


Marilyn's approach to leadership is grounded in humility and self-awareness.
She believes in the importance of not losing oneself in titles and
positions. Her friends describe her as fun-loving, adventurous, and an
excellent communicator—qualities that are essential in a leader. Her life
mantra, "I never plan to forget who I am and where I’ve come from," reflects
her grounded and genuine approach to life and leadership.

Marilyn Green's journey is a testament to the power of perseverance,
adaptability, and the human spirit's capacity to overcome challenges. Her
story is not just about dealing with blindness but about seeing the world in
a more compassionate, understanding, and inclusive way. As she continues her
work with the National Federation of the Blind, Marilyn vows that success
will not be the path that leads to arrogance, indifference, and an
insurmountable distance between her and those who get so much from her. On
the contrary, she will continue to advocate for a world in which every
individual has the opportunity to thrive and contribute meaningfully, and
she will do so as quietly and unnoticed as she can.

----------


When Braille is not the Total Answer


by Gary Wunder

I feel so grateful to have been born in a time when Braille was available,
providing a great way for blind people to read and write. I use it for
labeling, notes, phone numbers, and even editing things that I write or
review that other people have written. I understand the concept of an
outline because of Braille and have a better feel for the grouping that goes
into a paragraph.

Not getting people Braille is such a crime against their potential that
sometimes we forget that Braille can be as inaccessible for blind people as
print. If you are a blind person with neuropathy, you may not be able to
feel let alone differentiate between the dot patterns that distinguish
letters and words. If you learn Braille later in life, it may never serve
you well for reading long letters, articles, or books. If, despite your best
efforts, you can't read Braille at a speed you consider effective for
reading a book, entertaining children, or speaking publicly, what
alternatives exist?

What I want to talk about today is cases in which Braille is not enough and
caution against an emphasis on Braille that suggests to others that they
cannot be fully successful or meaningful blind people or Federationists if
they aren't proficient users of the system of reading by touch. We would not
stand for people being shamed because they could not read print, but
sometimes we are perceived as shaming people for not reading Braille. I want
to suggest that there are alternatives, and that while Braille is just as
important to blind people as print is to sighted people, we must continue to
look for alternatives when our senses and our situations do not allow for
either of these reading methods to suffice.

If people can learn and use Braille efficiently, we know that audio as a
substitution is wrong. Audio does not allow us to learn to spell passively
through repeatedly observing a word under our fingers. Neither does it help
us to learn spelling to repeated exposure to words so we can envision their
shapes in our head and decode them into letters. We know that audio does not
make clear when we are moving from one paragraph to the next. At the same
time, many of us also know that we love Talking Books, and there are many
situations in which we simply don't care about what we are missing or we
will find other ways to get it. A phone number may be more easily retrieved
in Braille, but a good audio device provides a great way to put it down.
After years of listening to speech synthesis and compressed speech, many of
us can listen to audio more rapidly than we can read Braille, and I suspect
most of us find it more pleasurable to fall asleep to an audio book than
Braille or large print.

Print and Braille both lend themselves to reading from a manuscript,
ensuring that every word spoken is well-considered and not an off-the-cuff
remark. Speaking from a manuscript may also be desired by presenters who
want their remarks reprinted as delivered. If a presenter cannot read
Braille or print, how can the benefits above be realized? One answer has
been proposed by Bruce Gardner in his creation of what he calls the Audible
Teleprompter. In its most basic form, the presenter listens to the words he
wants to speak and then delivers them with the emphasis he wants for the
audience to hear. The text the presenter listens to may be the monotone
presentation given by many text-to-speech systems, but the presenter uses
the full range of human options in his delivery. At a minimum this includes
emphasizing words through vocalization, by pauses, or by the volume of one’s
voice.

The key to this effectively working depends on two things. The first is the
ability to stop and start speech from the listening device and have it stop
immediately and restart after the last word spoken. The second is sufficient
practice so that what is said represents what is demanded of a good public
speaker. This practice is also required of one reading from Braille or
print. Being able to read aloud is a necessary skill for delivering a
speech, but an effective presentation goes far beyond the recitation of
words. Beyond intonation and pauses, an effective speaker must account for
audience reaction, up to and including shouts of support, applause, or even
heckling. Although the goal is to speak from a clearly written presentation,
every good speaker knows how to roll with the audience and to make a brief
remark in response. Most of us who present try to place in our remarks
something that someone earlier in the day has said, be that a meaningful
observation, an interesting question to consider, or a humorous remark. The
presenter has to be skilled in adjusting to changing time constraints such
as delays in the schedule that must be made up somewhere, and the event
planner takes some time from the presenter’s speech.

Although the Audible Teleprompter was created with blind people in mind, a
search of the web reveals that there are others who have trouble speaking
from a manuscript, and there are commercial devices that rely on an earbud
and wireless technology. One of the websites I came across offers the
hardware and training, but determining the cost of the product, the length
of the training, and the specific hardware used is made difficult by the
requirement to first undergo an interview to see if one is eligible. I did
not think this necessary in order to discuss the Audible Teleprompter but
did find it interesting that others have developed a similar solution for
presenters who presumably have sight.

One thing I use Braille for is labeling, and I consider it tremendous. I
realize, however, that this is not the only solution. Some who cannot feel
Braille can feel the bump dots that we sell in the Independence Market. They
can easily be used to mark the location of buttons, though admittedly they
do not convey their functions. One can easily conceive of a homegrown system
in which one bump dot on a can designates corn, two dots for peas, three
dots for green beans, etc. The same system can be used for frozen foods or
beef or produce. When the labeling system becomes too complicated for
memory, a small digital recorder may suffice to generate the list.

In addition to the low tech solutions for labeling, there are also several
systems that allow for affixing a label which, when read by a device, will
announce the contents of a package or any other item that needs identifying.
Two that readily come to mind are the PenFriend and the WayAround. There are
also a number of systems that can read the electronic label used by most
stores to speed the checkout of items and keep track of inventory.

I know there is always some fear in discussing alternative ways of doing
things when there is the possibility that the alternative may be used as a
shortcut. For the longest time, I had a hard time getting blind people to
understand that dictating to a computer could dramatically increase their
output. I could demonstrate that the system worked, but the real fear from
skeptics was that blind folks would avoid learning keyboarding skills with
the idea that they were no longer needed if one could simply talk to the
computer. While there's always a chance that some may choose the seemingly
easier path to productivity, this possibility doesn't justify neglecting the
development and promotion of alternative methods. Canes, dogs, Braille
writers, slates, refreshable Braille displays, and digital players and
recorders are tools we use; they do not determine our worth as blind people.
Like anyone who carries a toolbox, it behooves us to know how to use each
tool and, based on that knowledge, determine which tool to use when.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Cary Supalo]


Eureka! It All Matters!


by Cary Supalo

>From the Editor: Dr. Cary Supalo is a research chemist, a consultant with
Educational Testing Services (ETS), and the founder of Independence Science,
a company that develops and markets tools that make science measurement
equipment accessible to blind students. In his presentation at the 2023
Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Dr. Supalo talked about
the magic of science and how parents can help their children consider this a
viable career option. This article originally appeared in the 2023
Convention Issue of Future Reflections, the newsletter for parents of blind
children produced by the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults.

Children often ask the question, what is science? As you can imagine, this
question has many different answers. Science can simply mean investigating
phenomena around us and seeking answers to scientific questions. To others
it might mean trying to gain a greater understanding. And to others, it
might mean applying the scientific method to try to understand and explain a
phenomenon. I think a simple definition would be fundamental problem
solving. How can we ask scientific questions and answer them? This
fundamental critical thinking skill set can and usually does go beyond
scientific questions. Your child can use this valuable life skill to figure
out how to go from Point A to Point B. It might also mean for your child
what to do to make a chocolate cake from scratch, or to explore plant life
in the back yard. Do you see where I am going with this? Fundamental problem
solving is at the core of what scientists do for a living.

Moving on, chemistry is the study of matter. There are different branches of
chemistry. Some of these branches are organic chemistry, inorganic
chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and physical or theoretical
chemistry. Many blind people tend to go into the theoretical realm of
chemistry. This area of chemistry involves lots of complex computations that
are usually done on a computer. However, most chemists are experimentalists.
These are the ones who get to design experiments and conduct all kinds of
chemical reactions and perform extensive diagnostic tests, depending on the
theory being evaluated.

In my graduate research at Penn State University, I studied inorganic
chemistry, which is the study of the transition metals or the D block
elements on the Periodic Table. My research interest involved the synthesis
of different transition metal-supported catalysts. We were investigating how
hydrogen gas could be produced from different organic materials for the
purposes of serving as an alternative fuel source. I worked in conjunction
with researchers from Universal Oil Products and other chemical engineers
from the Illinois Institute of Technology in downtown Chicago.

Much of the research instrumentation I was expected to work with was not
accessible with any access technology. Therefore, I had to come up with
work-arounds. My primary tool at that time, in the early 2000s, was a human
research assistant. I will simply call this assistant a lab technician, or
lab tech for short. I had to recruit my lab techs from the pool of
undergraduate chemistry and other science majors. I interviewed and hired
them, and in some cases fired them when things did not work out well. These
individuals were paid a decent wage for undergraduate students. I was able
to work out a funding structure for their pay. My research advisor, the
chemistry department, and the office for student disability services each
paid one-third of the assistant's wage. Thus the financial obligation was
spread around so I could get the hours I needed to do my work.

I always needed to have several lab techs available in case someone called
in sick. Sometimes exams would get a little overwhelming during a particular
week, and thus the techs were unable to work. Lab tech time was almost
always scheduled in advance, but sometimes the research experiments required
working at non-normal hours, i.e., at 2:00 a.m. Scientific discovery does
not always work on a schedule that is convenient to us, but rather when
Mother Nature says the discovery will be revealed to us as scientists. It is
up to us both to be there and to recognize the discovery when it happens,
and of course to document observations and other key data.

Next, I will mention the documenting of observations. Blind people need to
have good ways to take and keep organized notes. I use electronic
notetakers. However, the slate and stylus is also a popular method. Some may
record observations on a computer or smart tablet device. Whatever the tool,
the important thing is for a blind person to have an accessible way to
record their own observations.

Also, blind people need to know what is and is not important. We must know
what types of clarification questions to ask at the appropriate times with
minimal, if any, disruption.

We must also have good communication skills and develop an innate ability to
read other people's behavior through inflections in voice and direction of
speaking. Overall, we must know how attentive others are to what we are
saying.

Another challenge is to communicate visually by drawing visual graphics.
Many blind students like to describe graphics in words. This tends to be all
right for a blind audience, but for sighted colleagues in a scientific
meeting, this method does not often go over very well. Being able to draw
graphical representations using raised-line drawing kits is a good starting
skill to develop. This method may eventually transition to drawing on
whiteboards for groups of people.

I had the pleasure of serving as an assistant professor of chemistry at a
state university. I was asked to teach first-year general chemistry lab
courses and upper-level science education methods courses for future
teachers. My ability to draw molecular structures, chemical equations, and
other mathematical calculations on a whiteboard helped my instruction a
great deal. My students tended to be very vocal if I did not write something
clearly!

I also was expected to grade lots of handwritten homework, lab reports, and
quizzes. I accomplished this by employing a human reader who read the
response to each question, and I assigned the points that were properly
earned. Eventually I was assigned a grader to assist me with the application
of rubrics and other answer keys that I prepared.

In the end, a lot of what was required to serve as a faculty member was good
time management, the ability to use alternative skills of blindness, and the
capacity to think outside the box. A blind faculty member must figure out
how to access information which, by its very nature, is not innately
accessible.

Now, why is all of this relevant to you? Some of you are wondering, how can
my son or daughter succeed in science? I will say that science is not for
everyone. However, for a long time, blind students were discouraged from
pursuing science careers at all. We were told that science is too visual, or
that lab work is not safe. A teacher might simply say, "I have no idea how
you can do this work."

I am here to ask you today if your child has an interest in science. One
good indicator is they ask lots of inquisitive questions about why things
are the way they are. Or maybe they like doing math problems. Or they like
animals and/or going to science museums. The key thing for you as parents is
to encourage them and keep them engaged in science activities. Enroll them
in enrichment programs, take them to science museums where they can take
part in firsthand, engaging activities. Sometimes if you can get a group of
blind students together to go to a science museum and let the staff know
several weeks in advance, they can arrange a special hands-on session for
you. It just requires a little planning. Once you have done this, please
write about your experiences for Future Reflections. Share your ideas with
other parents about things they can do to keep their children engaged in
science activities.

With regards to IEP meetings, I have learned in recent times that it is
important to document the types of access technology your child will be
using in their classes. For your information, multi-line refreshable Braille
devices are coming in the extremely near future. You can see some of them on
display in the exhibit hall at this convention. It is expected that these
devices will be commercially available within the coming school year. If you
want your child to have the use of these technologies for their schoolwork
and their K-12 standardized tests, make sure these technologies are
mentioned in their IEP.

Finally, I want to circle back to my initial message. Scientists perform
fundamental problem solving each and every day. No two days are ever alike.
If you can learn how to ask good questions, you can be a scientist. If you
can learn how to apply the scientific method and use data to answer
questions, you can become a scientist. Knowing your blindness skills,
leveraging human assistance when necessary, and understanding the
limitations of access technologies is just as important as what access
technology can do. If your child can learn to do all of these things as they
mature, they will be able to pursue almost any career path they choose. I
hope that some of them will want to study science. Not all of them will, and
that is all right. It's one thing for them to choose not to pursue science
as a career; it's quite another thing for them to be told they cannot study
science, that science is out of reach for them because they are blind.

I am going to end with one of my favorite quotations from a famous 1980s
movie, Back to the Future. "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish
anything.” Thank you very much.

----------


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: Curtis Chong]


Voting Using Android Phones/Tablets


by Curtis Chong

>From the Editor: Voting privately and independently is definitely one of our
top priorities. Curtis is one of the more active members working on this
issue, and he makes this request:

I am working with a company called Tusk Philanthropies on mobile voting
using iOS and Android devices. Tusk Philanthropies is devoting quite a bit
of resources to the development of test mobile apps for voting and ballot
validation. This outfit has done a lot to involve blind people in the
testing effort. Tusk Philanthropies spoke to the general session at one of
our national conventions, and their team has come to in-person national
conventions in recent times to run focus groups to test their work.

I am hoping to find people who are familiar with and regular users of
Android who might be willing to become a part of the testing effort to
ensure that the mobile voting app works well for blind/low vision Android
users. I am not seeking an Android geek. Rather, I am looking for a person
who understands and uses Android who can think like a nontechnical voter. If
mobile voting is going to become a reality in our lives, it needs to work
for everyone—not just for the technologically-gifted.

No money is to be made for this effort, I regret to say. If you are
interested in participating in this effort, please write to me at
chong.curtis at gmail.com <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com> . Together we can
make private and independent voting a reality for blind people.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Shelley Keeland takes down the words of the court.]


My Career Story


by Shelley Keeland

>From the Editor: Shelley Keeland wrote this in response to our request for
information that we could use during Blind Equality Achievement Month. It
arrived too late to appear in our October issue, but the story has
tremendous value no matter when we run it.

When I was asked to share the story of my career and how it came to be, I
thought about how important it is for me to talk about not only how I was
able to achieve my dream, but also how important it is to have a support
system along the way. I am totally blind, and I was a court reporter in
juvenile court for twenty-eight years. I am the first and only blind person
in Arkansas to become a court reporter and the second person in the United
States. One woman before me was able to somehow find a way to read her steno
shorthand notes and provide verbatim transcripts of court proceedings. My
situation was different because I attended a school that taught not only the
steno and the proper way to produce a transcript but also something we call
computer-aided transcription. We type the shorthand on our steno machine and
then transfer all of this information to a computer software program via
Bluetooth, which translates most of that steno into English text right on
your computer screen. The training for this career is so challenging because
we must be certified to type 225 words per minute at 95 percent accuracy. As
you can probably imagine, it is so hard to know when you enter a training
program if you can ever achieve this level.

It’s not just about determination. It’s about whether your brain can work so
quickly that you automatically take down everything you hear without having
time to think about what you’re doing. In fact, if you start to think about
whether you dropped a word and try to catch up, you lose your rhythm and
become thrown off completely. The drop-out rate for court reporting students
was somewhere around 95 percent, and they weren’t blind. I had no idea if I
could make it through the training because there was no guarantee that I
could ever write fast enough on the steno machine.

We also realized at the time I began the program that we didn’t have the
Braille or speech technology to read any of the steno I was writing. Our
goal was to use computers in the end, but students at the school had to type
speed tests directly from their steno notes on a typewriter the
old-fashioned way. I learned the steno shorthand and could comprehend it in
my head, but I never saw what I wrote myself until I was almost ready to
graduate from school. We eventually found the screen reader that could read
both the English text and also any steno that did not translate in the
computer program as English, but I couldn’t have made it through school
without the help of my sighted friends. If another student decided they
didn’t write well enough on a speed test to type it and turn it in for a
grade, they would practice by reading my steno to me and typing it for me.
We all learned the same shorthand theory, so they could just ask me to tell
them what I meant when I had a misstroke.

I finally became certified in 1991 after nearly three years of hard work
toward that end. Then I had the difficult task of trying to find work and
break the barriers we all face when we have a disability because employers
often don’t want to give us a chance. They either think we can’t do the job
or they don’t want to spend the money to make the job accessible. I worked
out the accessibility part with the help of Division of Services for the
Blind here in Arkansas, so I just had to find a job. It took nearly two more
years for that to happen. Finally, Judge Wiley Branton gave me the shot I
needed. He was a newly appointed judge to the bench in 1993 and started
building his staff from scratch. He hired me, and we were able to work
together to make sure we had a solution to any unforeseen issues. I wasn’t
following in the footsteps of another court reporter in that court, so we
all started learning together.

Now that my career is mostly over, since my retirement in 2021, I still stop
and wonder how this could happen. There seemed to be so many obstacles that
it couldn’t work. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have a
good support system around you. This is also the month where we try to
interest potential employers in learning about what we can do instead of
what we can’t do. We recently lost Judge Branton, but he gave me so much
when he decided to think outside the box and give me a chance. I hope this
story can help others realize it is possible to achieve our dreams, but we
can’t do it alone. It truly takes a team, a lot of courage and
determination, and belief in yourself. My support group here in Arkansas is
the National Federation of the Blind of Arkansas. Together we have built a
family so that we can find strength in each other and work toward promoting
change in the future to try to eliminate, not just for us, but for future
generations, some of the barriers we have faced.

----------

[PHOTO CAPTION: Tyler Zahnke]


The Blind Encyclopedist 


by Tyler Zahnke

>From the Editor: I remember that we were roundly criticized by some for
sponsoring Erik Weihenmayer in his attempt to climb Mount Everest. What good
would it do for the average blind person? Read to the end of this article
and see for yourself.

Tyler likes to write and has always wanted to be a contributor to an
encyclopedia. He is making his dream come true, and here is his story:

I live in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area, and I am a musician, singer,
songwriter, writer, and I am one of the only examples in history of a blind
encyclopedist. Now, I'm sure there are quite a few of you who are wondering
just what an encyclopedist is. According to the online edition of
Merriam-Webster, an encyclopedist is "One who compiles and writes for an
encyclopedia."

You might be thinking that there are millions of people now, both sighted
and blind, who could call themselves encyclopedists, given that sites like
Wikipedia and Everything2 can receive contributions from pretty much anyone.
However, this article refers specifically to professional encyclopedists:
people who contribute to and often get paid for contributing to
carefully-inspected, academic-quality encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia
Britannica, World Book, and New World Encyclopedia. I am proud to say that,
after years of being an amateur encyclopedist at crowd-sourced websites, I
have taken the next big step, and I am now a paid contributor to New World
Encyclopedia. At first I was worried, because I had never heard of any other
blind contributors to professional reference works, but luckily I was able
to work with them, use their accessible editing software, and there was
exactly one accessibility issue that came up, and they were extremely
willing to help me through that. But getting to be the blind encyclopedist I
am today was quite a journey.

Information, and the sharing thereof, has always been a fascination of mine;
being born in the late 90s, I was aware of the power of the internet from a
young age. Shortly before I went into the third grade, I discovered
Wikipedia when looking up fun mathematical facts about Skewes' Number and
googolplex, and around the same time, I saw some educational pieces about
encyclopedias on a VHS tape of some 1950s Mickey Mouse Club shows. My
journey with wiki-based websites and encyclopedias was only beginning;
often, when Googling various topics, I would find either Wikipedia,
Wiktionary, or the unrelated site WikiAnswers. A few years later, the Fandom
site, known at the time as Wikia, intrigued me; they hosted many websites
that were like mini-Wikipedias for specific subjects; Harry Potter Wiki,
Disney Wiki, Blind Wiki, and so on. The concept of online communities
devoted to sharing certain types of information was fascinating. The very
idea that there are these sites where members can contribute information by
editing the article and submitting the edit, with knowledgeable
administrators and experienced editors, who ensure the accuracy of this
content, was something I saw as a truly revolutionary concept. When I was in
elementary school, I had no idea that Wikipedia was publicly editable, but I
was well aware that it was a gigantic trove of information—a collection so
large that it would fill several sections of a library if printed! At first,
when I was told that Wikipedia was publicly editable, I was shocked; the
information on there seemed so carefully written! But, over the following
year, I realized how highly structured the site was, and I came to the
conclusion that there wasn't much to worry about. However, I researched so
much more than encyclopedic topics. Thanks to my love of words, I discovered
the Wikipedia-affiliated online dictionary, Wiktionary; because I enjoyed
scripts and quotes from movies and TV shows, I discovered Wikiquote; because
I enjoyed reading information in a book-like format, I often used Wikibooks
to study computer programming. Though I used many websites to get news,
especially Google News, I quickly developed a fascination with Wikinews. I
was starting to realize that I was becoming one of those wiki people: The
people who know that wiki isn't just short for Wikipedia; I was one of those
people who knew all the Wikimedia Foundation-owned websites, but I was
quickly becoming aware of plenty of completely unrelated wiki sites!

Just as I was turning thirteen, I taught myself wiki markup code so I could
edit websites such as Wikipedia effectively; I started out editing the
above-mentioned Fandom sites, as they were closer to my writing style at the
time, as opposed to the more professional style of sites like Wikipedia.
Though I still haven't written an article for Wikipedia to this day, I
started fixing occasional spelling and grammar errors on Wikipedia within a
few months, while doing editing and even administrative duties on some
Fandom wikis. Eventually I noticed that there was so much the Internet had
to offer as far as wikis go, and Fandom was only a small part of it! As 2010
went on and I continued to be fascinated by today's technology, I eventually
came to WikiIndex, a guide to the wide world of wikis on the web. This is
where I started to realize that Wikipedia was not alone as far as general
encyclopedias that allow users to link from article to article so
seamlessly. The now defunct website 1911Encyclopedia was literally an
encyclopedia from 1911, specifically Encyclopedia Britannica, that had been
pasted into wiki software, and volunteers made the information more
connected. But even if you don't count historical encyclopedias, other
encyclopedias were being powered by wiki technology, including an extremely
liberal encyclopedia called RationalWiki and an extremely conservative one
called Conservapedia, as well as a wiki encyclopedia where every article had
to be carefully approved by certified experts, Citizendium, which was
created by a Wikipedia founder who left the Wikipedia project early on.
Encyclopedias started to fascinate me even more, and not just wikis; my
favorite non-wiki encyclopedia was the official Britannica website, which
always has the latest articles, as opposed to the wiki with articles from
1911. I very quickly learned about the history of wiki technology; very few
people realize that there were wikis before Wikipedia, including
WikiWikiWeb, a community for programmers, and MeatballWiki, a community for
people who enjoyed online communities including wikis. Like many other
people, my knowledge of wikis started with Wikipedia, I eventually learned
about all the wikis that came before it, though even better were the Fandom
wikis, the other similar encyclopedias, and other sites that came after
Wikipedia that put different twists on the wiki encyclopedia concept.

In June 2010, while I was exploring some of Wikipedia's competitors,
especially the ones with a political bias, I would often read about even
more encyclopedias and wikis, and sometimes it felt like the more wikis I
read, the more wikis I would find! Well, one of these encyclopedias had an
article that discussed the history of wiki sites and wiki encyclopedias—New
World Encyclopedia! It was said to be an encyclopedia that made use of wiki
technology while being checked over and approved by people with academic
backgrounds, much like Citizendium. However, according to the article in
this other encyclopedia, New World Encyclopedia pays their writers, while
the average wiki, even Citizendium, is volunteer-powered. As soon as I read
this article, I decided to check out the requirements for a paid writing
position at New World Encyclopedia. Though the site had only a fraction of
the number of articles that Wikipedia has, each article seemed to have a
professional touch to it that most wikis just didn't have. I guess you could
say the same thing about something like Citizendium or Scholarpedia, but NWE
just seemed to have more articles while still having those professional
quality standards.

I remember that day in the middle of June 2010 when, after only seeing a
couple of its beautifully polished articles, I decided to look at its
application form for writers. The form was beautiful and accessible, with
several questions that you would expect to see on a job application,
including a place to upload a résumé. Of course, at the time, I had no idea
how to make/format a résumé, and perhaps at that age I wouldn't have had
much experience to put on it anyway. However, the encyclopedia was shrouded
in mystery. Sure, anyone could read its thousands of officially approved
articles in their entirety for free, but it was amazing to see a website
that looked exactly like a wiki encyclopedia, but with no login button! Much
like Willy Wonka's factory, those products just kept coming out; yet nobody
ever saw anyone go in. It was a feeling of wonder. What kind of wiki doesn't
have a login button? You just go on there and read but can't submit
anything. Sure, other non-wiki encyclopedias like Britannica are like this,
but since this one looked exactly like a wiki, with the table of contents on
the article, the "Powered by MediaWiki" banner at the bottom of the site,
and so on, I wasn't expecting such professional content and editing from a
wiki, and the website started appearing in my dreams at night. I had dreams
about being one of the lucky writers invited to contribute to this fine
reference work, submitting a great wealth of knowledge related to music,
literature, film, television, and technology, emailing with experts in these
fields, getting paid every month for my contributions, and learning new
things while also providing information so others can learn new things as
well. I had a feeling that, once I had experience and a résumé, I would be
able to be part of this beautiful yet somewhat mysterious website.

As I continued to gather volunteer experience throughout my teens and early
twenties, often through contributing to wiki websites like WikiIndex and
Encyc, and spreading the good word of accessibility at NFB of Michigan state
conventions and other NFB of Michigan-connected events, occasionally I would
think back to those dreams of contributing to the New World Encyclopedia.
When I was seventeen, I started writing music reviews that would then be
forwarded to artists, managers, and producers in the industry. This was my
first time getting paid for my writing, though it was mere cents per review
since this was just a little task anyone could do without a résumé.

Shortly after turning eighteen, I started doing some freelance writing for a
content provider, so I got to write custom articles for those who ordered
them from the content provider site. In some ways, this experience felt like
my encyclopedia dream come true. I got to write articles, sometimes on a
small handheld device and sometimes on a laptop, and as soon as the articles
got accepted, they were added to my pay table so they would know how much to
pay me on Monday. This gig went fairly well until the end of the year, when
the company's small staff couldn't manage all of the tens of thousands of
writers who were signed up for these gigs. I went quite far while it lasted,
going from a three-star writer, picking up random assignments, to a
four-star writer with a writing coach. During these gigs, I got to write for
everything from news websites to ads for social media, and I even had an
opportunity to be a co-author of a novel. But my contributions weren't quite
what they were looking for, so they ended up finding another co-writer. The
fact that I was in the final two is something I will never forget.

I took a brief break from my wiki volunteer writing when my freelancing
started, but it wasn't long until I returned to volunteer writing, though
less frequently than before. I looked around for other writing gigs, and I
even experimented with MyLot a little bit. This is a social media site that
shares its advertising revenue with users, but due to my posts not being all
that popular, I only got a few cents here and there, similar to the now
defunct site Postloop, which pays users to comment on forums and blogs as a
form of traffic sharing; users get points, and those points can be cashed
in. Still, I did not get paid much, and the content provider freelancing
paid more, though it still wasn't much. But all of these experiences taught
me a lot about writing for an audience.

By 2017 my priorities had shifted, and I was focusing on getting music
performance gigs rather than writing gigs. In that year, mostly I did
volunteer performing, but due to making connections with various arts
organizations, I had my first paying music gig in 2018. At this point, I had
gone back to volunteer writing, for the most part for the sake of
contributing information to sites that needed it. I wrote for cryptocurrency
wikis not having certain coins and programming wikis not having a certain
example in a certain programming language, and, on rare occasions, a music
website not having information on a certain music company.

In May 2019, I finally found a paying gig; I got to write a series about
historical music albums for Channillo, a subscription service for books and
other written material. However, because I did not have that many
subscribers, I did not get paid all that much, though, since the issues are
still online and subscribers occasionally still read them, I get occasional
residuals, as small as they are.

At this point in my life, I often wanted to do more paying gigs, whether
they be writing or performance. I knew I was going to need to take a big
step to make myself more marketable; I was going to need to make a résumé!

Originally, I was scheduled to do some résumé building work with the Bureau
of Services for Blind Persons in 2019. I did pick up a few tips at the time,
though admittedly my work with them slowed down a little bit during the
pandemic. At least I was starting to feel more confident and independent,
and when they offered to help me find internships, I happily accepted,
instead of limiting myself to writing and music. Throughout the next few
years, I did several internships, including social media for a musicians
union, accessibility evaluation and background music searching for a
marketing firm, and accessibility evaluation and research for a music
school. But at this point I was fully confident to say yes to Selective Case
Management when they offered to help me build and format a résumé! By
October 2022 I had a completed résumé, though this was followed by some more
music gigs, preparation for another internship, and lots of music practice
for college. Because I am a music major, and after all of that was out of
the way, a technical difficulty that involved needing to wait almost a month
for a computer repair shop to receive a part they ordered delayed me a bit.
Luckily, right before that technical issue, I put my résumé in a format
where it could easily be accessed, and Selective Case Management gave me
that little extra push to convince me that my résumé and cover letter were
ready to send out to potential employers. So, at the very end of April, I
sent it off to the place I dreamed about thirteen years ago—a site that I
would still visit occasionally, pleased that it was still online and
actively being edited—New World Encyclopedia.

Five days went by without a response, but Selective Case Management
convinced me to send a follow-up email. I created the email right away, and
within a day, I got an email telling me to send writing samples. Being a
freelance writer, I had writing sample files prepared for this situation,
mostly articles about albums that I wrote for Channillo. I replied with
these samples within minutes, and I was surprised to receive an introduction
document with a link to the writers’ guidelines and even a paragraph about
payment! This made me feel like I had a good chance of being accepted, and
on May 5, right before I went to a Cinco de Mayo block party, they told me
that within the next few days they would be setting up an account for me! I
couldn't believe it! Only people who have been accepted get accounts on this
website! I had a spring in my step for the next week, though I was also
aware that I had to organize an online festival for an organization for
which I was volunteering. This is probably what made my first article for
New World Encyclopedia so difficult—the knowledge that I had so much to do
besides that. Luckily, within a week, I got the whole article about session
musicians complete, though it, like many other New World Encyclopedia
articles, ended up having so much Wikipedia content in it that it needed a
Wikipedia source template at the bottom, new sections were needed, and a
more academic-grade references section to make the article more
professional.

Though the first article was frustrating, it was so exciting when I
submitted each revision to the site. Being a wiki, the writers-only website
was the same kind of interface as a lot of the volunteer writing I had been
doing for years, and therefore it was just like the dreams about that site
that I had thirteen years ago when I was only thirteen. At the beginning of
June, when that paycheck came in the mail, I was so thrilled! Being a wiki,
the writing and editing process was perfectly accessible, and I managed to
complete the entire article without the editor knowing about my blindness.
However, once I had to create the formatted invoice, an accessibility issue
appeared. Though I was given a template invoice that I happily edited and
made my own, with the editor still oblivious to my blindness, she needed a
picture of my signature. Though I can sign my name when told where to sign,
taking a picture of said signature would require some assistance, but once
the editors realized I was blind, they decided that my email and my name on
the document was enough as long as the editor placed her signature on it as
evidence that it was an approved invoice. So with that out of the way, it
was 100 percent accessible smooth sailing from there!

Though the session musician article from May is still my only full
encyclopedia article to this date, in June I found out that the encyclopedia
also features short definition pages for words. Since the English language
and other languages as well are a deep fascination of mine, and I enjoyed
many English classes throughout my life, I asked about doing some of these
definitions since they are quick, short, and a lot of fun. Since June I have
done over seventy-five of these definitions, receiving a paycheck every
month since I got accepted. In September, I also got approved to write a Did
You Know column. The encyclopedia has had a Did You Know column for many
years, and because I am a big fan of collecting fun little factoids, I
decided to ask about contributing some. So now I am defining words,
collecting fun facts, and hoping one day to write another full article.

My dream of getting paid from home to contribute to a large information
collection with nothing but a laptop and an Internet connection was finally
realized—not just any collection of information, but the very same
encyclopedia I dreamed of as a teenager! Whenever that check arrives in the
mail, my face beams with joy, much like Charlie Bucket when he unwrapped
that Wonka chocolate bar and, upon seeing the Golden Ticket, realized that
he is one of very few people in the entire world to get to see the inside of
this mysterious factory. Sure, anyone on the internet can read New World
Encyclopedia, but the joy of being fully approved to contribute information
and be part of this reference work cited by many a podcaster and YouTuber
discussing everything from science to history to religion is tremendous.
Sure, there are millions of people who have the right to contribute to
Wikipedia, but the number of people with accounts on New World Encyclopedia
is in the hundreds, and only sixteen are recognized on the website's
community portal as currently active contributors. Being one of these
contributors makes me feel like I am an important part of information
collecting in the world of professional/academic information, and it gives
me the desire to be an inspiration to blind people around the world. Whether
blind or sighted, pursuing dreams like computer programming, submitting
essays to literary magazines, or contributing to reference works is
essential. Doubts, whether due to blindness or other reasons, should not
hinder you. Success is uncertain unless you try. After many dreams about the
encyclopedia and saying I would try to apply if I only had a résumé,
eventually the desire was so strong that I made the creation of my résumé a
priority, and here I am today, one of the world's only blind encyclopedists!
Sure I may have started out at volunteer encyclopedias like Encyc and
Wikipedia, with the slight fear that professional encyclopedias would one
day disappear thanks to the volunteer sites, but I pushed through, checked
the professional encyclopedias every so often to see if they still existed,
and once my résumé and life were in the right place, I went for it! Much
like twenty years ago when I learned about a blind man successfully climbing
mountains, professional encyclopedias have always been one of my mountains,
and every paycheck, email from the editor, or change made to one of my
contributions by an editor reminds me that I safely made it to the top of
the encyclopedia mountain, and I will continue to create beautiful things on
top.

----------

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Cindy Scott-Huisman]

[PHOTO/CAPTION: The last evening of the Fall 2023 Presidential Leadership
Seminar, the Twisted Pilots crowded together for a group photo in the Diane
McGeorge Living Room. Left to right, back row moving forward: Mark
Riccobono, Grace Anderson, Anil Lewis; Dean Charlier, Cindy Scott-Huisman,
Jim Portillo (obstructed), Shirley Dorris, Nick Reisner, Matt Yanuzzi;
Denise Charlier, Jessica Beecham, Nikki Jackson, Tina Reisner, Amanda
Juetten; Amelia Pellicciotti, Kiva Smith, Syed Rizvi, Rasheta Bunting, Mona
Coker, Wendy Walker, Sanho Steele-Louchart.]


My Perspective on the Ninety-Third Leadership Seminar


by Cindy Scott-Huisman

>From the Editor: For more than half a century, the National Federation of
the Blind has been holding leadership seminars at our national office. Those
who attend are recommended by affiliate presidents and other leaders in the
movement. Cindy recently attended a seminar and shares her reaction to being
invited, planning to attend, and the experience while in the seminar.

It was an honor and a challenge to attend the ninety-third Presidential
Leadership Seminar. I had heard about leadership training from a friend who
has really taken me under wing. It was so exciting to receive the phone call
letting me know I was being asked to attend. The dates for Leadership
Seminar for the autumn of 2023 fell on my thirty-third wedding anniversary.
There was no way I was going to turn down the chance to learn more about
leadership alongside other selected participants, so I gently informed my
husband about my conflict with celebrating on the exact day. This would be
for the first time. I softened the news with an invitation to come to
Baltimore on my last day of training so we could spend a few days together.
It all worked out wonderfully well. We enjoyed exploring Baltimore and look
forward to returning.

It felt like there were a lot of unknowns prior to attending the Leadership
Seminar, even with several emails from the National Federation of the Blind
Jernigan Institute, written to prepare attendees. There was a reading list
that included the book, Walking Alone and Marching Together, convention
banquet speeches, and other reference materials. There was also a detailed
document about staying at the Jernigan Institute, as well as helpful
information about navigating the airport and ground transportation.

Even with all of these preparations, I'd have to admit that I was feeling
more nervous than excited the morning my husband dropped me off at the
Little Rock airport. I have had very little experience traveling alone. I am
grateful for this opportunity to have expanded upon my solo travels.

I had heard about the benefits of attending a National Federation of the
Blind Training Center from folks who have gotten to go to one of them and
was intrigued by the account from Andrew Leland about time he spent at the
Colorado Center, in his book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End
of Sight. I have not attended one of the training centers, and I have
trouble seeing myself breaking away from life as a small-business owner long
enough to attend. So, if I use my imagination, it seems like this
three-and-a-half-day super-intense leadership training will possibly be the
closest I'll get to attending one of the training centers.

I felt more independent and empowered after Leadership Seminar—more
confident and focused. I learned an incredible amount from each and every
person involved, not just by their words but by their example through a
jam-packed schedule of sessions, touring the entire building, and during
meal-times. There were various activities and discussions that addressed
leadership, ideals, and blindness. The different aspects of what the
National Federation of the Blind does came to life and had new meaning when
I got to visit all the areas of the Jernigan Institute. It's inspiring to be
in the space where the future Museum of the Blind People's Movement will
reside. Spontaneously, not on any agenda, conversations occurred about
topics such as fundraising, and it was so interesting to exchange ideas with
others.

I was fully sighted until shortly after I turned fifty-one late in 2017. Our
son lost his central eyesight in 1999 at age seven, so the blind/low-vision
world was not completely foreign to me. I have tried to transition from
sighted to where I am now by tackling the day-to-day obstacles. I show up
each day and learn new ways of doing life. These improvements are mostly
incremental steps. Anything a person does on a regular enough basis becomes
easier over time. The mental eagerness to accept the invitation to attend
Leadership Seminar was a knee-jerk reaction. The reality of pushing myself
way beyond didn't hit me until days before my departure. The wheels were all
in motion at that point, and I knew there was no backing out. If we don't
make those movements toward doing something new and perhaps a little
uncomfortable every once in a while, how else do we expand our abilities and
comfort-zone?

I don't know the actual age-range of the leadership participants involved in
the ninety-third Seminar, but I can guess that it is a wide range. There
were approximately twenty of us. We all brought different backgrounds,
perspectives, experiences, and talents to the table. During the very first
informal gathering of participants, I was sharing about a TSA worker talking
more about me than to me, saying that people who are "visually impaired"
don't have to take off their shoes. I have traveled multiple times since
sight-loss, and no one has ever mentioned this before, so I was wondering
what that was about. One of the much younger participants remarked that
people who are over seventy don't have to take off their shoes when going
through security in the airport. This made me laugh, because I didn't know
if she was commenting on my age or volunteering a random "fun fact." We may
never know.

There are specifics that I'll not go into about attending Leadership
Seminar, mainly because we want to preserve the experience for others who
will attend in the future. We found out that the ninety-second Leadership
Seminarians had voted to not allow recording of the sessions during the
ninety-third Seminar, so it was up to us to pay attention and take notes.
This helped to facilitate more open and honest discussion about relevant
topics and matters happening in state affiliates currently. By the ending
segment of our Seminar, the Twisted Pilots followed suit and also voted to
not allow the following Seminar to record their sessions either.

Each Leadership Seminar earns a name for their group. How did we get the
name Twisted Pilots? We aren't certain, but there were some theories.

One special moment that I'll never forget was, on the day of our wedding
anniversary, President Riccobono had me call my husband, and the whole room
full of seminarians sang to him. There was no rehearsal, so we weren't all
singing the same exact song, but the love came through, and it was
thoughtful, exuberant, and appreciated.

The entire nomination process for attending Leadership Seminar is perhaps a
bit mysterious among members. The one thing I know for sure is that the
final decision about who is invited to attend is made by President Mark
Riccobono. Around the time I was selected to attend, I was approaching three
years as Central Arkansas Chapter President. I was recently elected to serve
on the NFB of Arkansas affiliate board, and I had attended my first national
convention. Are any of these roles or involvement kind of a prerequisite? I
can't say for sure, but I'd presume that active leaders are more likely to
become noticed. The purpose is to cultivate strong leaders in our movement.
I do understand that participation in at least one national convention is
essential in providing the perspective needed to get the most out of the
experience. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn and grow, and it enriches
my confidence immensely. It feels like something really special that we got
to be a part of, and I feel enthused and blessed.

The Twisted Pilots have a new network of other leaders across the country.
We are occasionally in touch, and it's proven to be a valuable resource.
It's an experience I'm sure we all cherish.

I am thankful to President Mark Riccobono for selecting each of us to
attend. So, if you ever get the call inviting you to attend a Presidential
Leadership Seminar, I sincerely hope you will carefully consider attending.
I believe it will change your life for the better.

----------


Introducing Menus4ALL: The iPhone App That Makes Restaurant Menus Accessible
for Everyone


by Stephanie Jones

>From the Editor: I got a note about this app as a result of a suggestion
from Everette Bacon. After talking with Stephanie, it seems this is a
valuable app for readers to know about. Here is her introduction to a new
way to read restaurant menus and more:

Friday night is here, and I'm eager for the weekend to begin. My friends and
I have plans to visit this new, popular restaurant that I've been excited to
try. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to view the menu online because it was an
image format that my screen reader couldn't interpret. Moreover, I doubt
that the restaurant will have a Braille menu. With the expected crowd, the
wait staff may not have time to read through the menu with me either.
Although my friends will be kind enough to help, I'd like to access the menu
independently.

This is where Menus4ALL comes in. It's a groundbreaking iPhone app that
provides access to over one million restaurant menus throughout the United
States and 80,000 more in Canada. It's the only app of its kind on the
market, released in December 2022, and is designed to be entirely accessible
from the start. Accessibility is fundamental to the app, not an
afterthought. Menus4ALL is compatible with low vision customizations,
refreshable Braille displays, VoiceOver, and Voice Control to help everyone
access restaurant menus confidently and independently.


Menus4ALL App Tabs


*	Near Me - Opening screen with a list of accessible restaurant menus
based on your current location
*	Search - Search for restaurants by name or menu item to find menus
within twenty miles of your current location or search by address, postal
code, city, or province when planning a trip
*	Favorites - Bookmark your favorite menus in one place in an
alphabetical order for ease of use
*	Waiter Alert - Let wait staff know that you can use assistance at
the table using the light on your phone to signal

Discover an extensive network of accessible restaurant menus with Menus4ALL.
Begin your journey by using our fourteen-day trial, and then enjoy unlimited
access to the app for just $2.99 per month. Alternatively, you may receive
two months free with a $29.99 annual membership. For additional details or
to book a Menus4ALL group presentation, please contact our Vice President of
Marketing, Stephanie Jones, at stephanie at menus4ALL.com
<mailto:stephanie at menus4ALL.com> . Share your accessible restaurant
experience with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Menus4ALL.com
<http://menus4all.com> .

----------


Monitor Miniatures 


News from the Federation Family


Some Inspiration from our Brothers and Sisters in South Carolina


This is taken from the Palmetto Blind. It was written in mid-December, so
what appears here represents looking forward into 2024. The first piece is
written by affiliate president Marty McKenzie, and the second by David
Houck, a man who is celebrating his fortieth year of service as a staff
member for the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina. Here is
what they say:

Marty on the subject of winning teams: The key points are: Teams must
understand each other and their roles, capitalize on each member's
strengths, reach consensus as a team, build trust, and respect each other.
We are a winning team.

David concludes the newsletter with a "FINAL THOUGHT:"

HAPPY NEW YEAR! When midnight strikes on December 31, 2023, after all the
holiday get-togethers and parties are over, the 2024 New Year dawns as a
clean slate. We take into account our blessings for those who have gone
before us, paving our way toward a bright future. It is time to awake,
become active, participate in those things which make life better for
everyone, and actively participate!

When we all work as a team, we can conquer huge tasks and make a real
difference for all concerned. Let's not sleep through the winter season,
hoping that spring will solve our problems. Don't spectate, but participate!

----------


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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