[NFBOK-Talk] Fwd: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, October 2015
Audrey Farnum
atfarnum at icloud.com
Sat Oct 3 02:27:17 UTC 2015
Audrey T. Farnum
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
> From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow)
> Date: October 2, 2015 at 5:33:52 PM CDT
> To: brl-monitor at lothlorien.nfbcal.org
> Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, October 2015
> Reply-To: buhrow at nfbcal.org
>
>
> BRAILLE MONITOR
> Vol. 58, No. 9 October 2015
> Gary Wunder, Editor
>
>
> Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive
> (see reverse side) by the
>
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>
> Mark Riccobono, President
>
>
> telephone: (410) 659-9314
> email address: nfb at nfb.org
> website address: http://www.nfb.org
> NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org
> NFB-NEWSLINE® information: (866) 504-7300
> Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind
> Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice
> Watch and share our videos: YouTube.com/NationsBlind
>
>
> Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and
> orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles
> for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national
> office or may be emailed to gwunder at nfb.org.
>
>
> 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
> © 2015 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. 58, No. 9 October
> 2015
>
> Contents
>
> Illustration: A Bridge to Information: NFB-NEWSLINE® Celebrates its
> Twentieth Year
>
> Proving I Could Live the Life I Want
> by Brian Buhrow
>
> The Blind and Amazon
> by Chris Danielsen
>
> The Nature of Blindness
> by Marc Maurer
>
> Sixty Years of Living and Singing in the Federation
> by Tom Bickford
>
> Advocacy and Policy Report
> by John Paré, Lauren McLarney, Gabe Cazares, and Rose Sloan
>
> Shirley Morris: A Life Remembered
> by Mary Ellen Jernigan
>
> #NCBYS: Making the Connection and Equipping the Next Generation
> by Angel Ayala
>
> A Growing Partnership for Accessibility: Google and the Organized Blind
> Movement
> by Kannan Pashupathy
>
> Leadership through Law: Perspective on Advancing Civil Rights for the Blind
>
> by Maura Healey
>
> Recipes
>
> Monitor Miniatures
>
>
>
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Scott White using a telephone to access NFB-NEWSLINE]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Pat Maurer using an NLS Player]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason listening to NFB-NEWSLINE on her Victor Reader]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares uses NFB-NEWSLINE with a Braille display]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis listens to NFB-NEWSLINE on his iPhone using a
> Bluetooth earpiece]
>
> A Bridge to Information: NFB-NEWSLINE® Celebrates its Twentieth Year
>
> Back in the 1990s the National Federation of the Blind decided to
> harness computer technology to bring newspapers to the blind. This
> represented a remarkable possibility, for most of us who were blind had all
> but given up hope of having access to a daily newspaper and had tried to
> content ourselves with whatever we could get from the radio. NFB-NEWSLINE
> made reading our local newspaper as easy as using a touch-tone telephone,
> but it didn't stop there. The telephone system is still a major staple of
> the NFB-NEWSLINE network, but now one can read newspapers, magazines,
> television listings, and blindness-related information using a player from
> the National Library Service, DAISY book readers from various third-party
> vendors, and even on one's iPhone. All of the flexibility that has been
> built into NFB-NEWSLINE is well documented and available from our NEWSLINE
> team, and all that a blind person needs to do today is decide how much he
> wants to read, when he wants to read it, and on what device he wishes to do
> his reading. The rest is done by the dedicated and competent men and women
> whose pictures appear on these pages. Thank you NFB-NEWSLINE, and thank you
> to the men and women who make it all look so easy.
>
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Brian Buhrow]
> Proving I Could Live the Life I Want
> by Brian Buhrow
>
>> From the Editor: Brian Buhrow is a network engineer for Vianet
> Communications in California. He is blind, but he believes his blindness is
> far less significant than his ability to think, to problem-solve, and to
> live the life he wants.
>
> In this story Brian recounts his adventures as a student who won the right
> to take classes abroad and the way his desire to see more than his
> classroom led to a predicament that would test his ability to remain cool
> while in crisis and to think his way out of a most uncomfortable situation.
> Here is his story:
>
> As I stood in the vestibule of this stranger's home listening to her
> shouting at me though I did not understand her, I wondered how I had gotten
> here. The short answer was that I'd been out for the evening, and I'd taken
> a wrong turn getting home, but the long answer was much more complicated
> and interesting. It had to do with what we talk about every day in the
> National Federation of the Blind: how to change what it means to be blind
> and how to live the life we want in the world alongside our fellow human
> beings. This moment, alone, in a stranger's front hall was the culmination
> of all my work to prove that I could be truly independent and travel where
> and when I wanted.
> So how was that moment going? Before I answer that, let me provide a
> bit of background. I have been blind since birth. I was fortunate in that I
> went to a preschool for the blind, where it was determined that I should
> learn Braille as young as possible. I was also fortunate to encounter
> teachers who stressed to my parents that I be given a mainstream education
> during my elementary and high school years. This meant that, while I was
> learning Braille and receiving mobility training, I was also attending
> school with my sighted peers. As a result I became used to living alongside
> sighted children in all aspects of my daily life. They, in turn, got some
> exposure to a student who happened to be blind.
> I was a good student and rose to the top of my classes-not always the
> very top, but certainly near the top. Consequently, by the time I reached
> high school, I'd earned a certain amount of respect from my peers. Another
> change which occurred when I reached high school was that I attended a
> school where there were a number of other blind students. From fifth grade
> to eighth grade I'd been the only blind student on campus, and I'd gotten
> used to that state of affairs.
> As it happened, most of the other blind students on campus had
> disabilities beyond blindness, so, instead of just being one of the blind
> students, I became the star blind student, the special blind student who
> was different from the other blind students. By the time I reached my
> senior year of high school, I was feeling pretty full of myself. I had good
> travel skills, was accepted to several prestigious universities, received a
> substantial number of scholarships, and was pretty sure I could walk on
> water! To add to my confidence, one of the scholarships I received was from
> the National Federation of the Blind. Barbara Pierce woke me up on a Sunday
> morning to tell me that I'd won and that I should pack myself off to
> Chicago alone and at the NFB's expense to receive my reward.
> It was at this point that I began to wonder if perhaps I wasn't as
> confident as I'd been making myself out to be or as competent as my
> teachers said I was. I didn't have much experience traveling on an
> airplane, certainly not cross-country and by myself. Still I was "amazing,"
> and I had no reason to doubt myself as I set out for Chicago as a cocky
> young high school graduate. Barbara told me everything would be taken care
> of, and I had no reason to believe otherwise. I'd been to conventions of
> the blind, and they were awash with volunteers who could help me at every
> turn if I needed it.
> My first lesson came when I reached the Chicago airport. I expected
> someone would meet me at the plane, and I'd be driven to the convention
> hotel. Such was not the case. Instead I found myself collecting my own bag
> from the baggage carrousel and searching for a shuttle to take me to the
> hotel. Once I reached the hotel, the front desk didn't know who I was, and
> I ended up waking the scholarship coordinator so she could give me my room
> assignment.
> As the week progressed, I began to understand that I was not amazing
> at all, but rather someone who was reasonably trained in techniques of
> blindness and reasonably well educated. There were blind people at the
> convention who regularly traveled the world as part of their jobs, others
> who worked for multinational companies, and still others who were doing
> things that I could only aspire to do. My fellow scholarship winner,
> roommate for the week, and now very dear friend John Miller was a
> mathematical genius who ran his own paper route in his hometown. And did I
> mention that he completed one of his Boy Scout badges by setting up and
> camping alone in the woods for a night? I couldn't see myself doing that in
> a million years. In short, I learned I was normal and that I didn't have to
> live up to the hype my teachers instilled in me back home.
> The experience was incredibly humbling and empowering at the same
> time. Here were people who were pursuing their dreams and lives with skill,
> dignity, and independence. If I worked hard and learned my alternate
> techniques, I might, just might, be able to go to college, graduate, get a
> job, and live as a first-class citizen. For the first time I saw this as a
> realistic possibility. I still didn't know how I was going to do it, but at
> least I'd met people who were, and, if I stuck with them, they might teach
> me how it was done.
> "Okay, okay," I hear you asking, "but what about that lady
> incoherently shouting at you in her house back at the beginning of this
> tale?" Don't worry, we're almost there. When I left Chicago at the end of
> the week with my scholarship in hand, I realized that I had received much
> more than the dollars the NFB offered to help me further my education. Just
> how much more, however, wouldn't become clear for a bit longer. I went to
> college, where I studied a combination of computer science and English
> literature. I liked the technical aspects of computer science, but I needed
> the humanity and connectivity of English lit.
> As I pursued this twin course of study, an opportunity came for me to
> apply to the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP) as an exchange student for
> my junior year. Since I wasn't very good at foreign languages, I applied to
> study in the UK, either in Ireland or England. The competition for these
> countries was fierce, and I was told my chances of being selected were
> pretty slim. When, as part of my application, I was asked how I would
> function as a blind person in a foreign country, I assured everyone that
> I'd do it the same way I did in the US. I knew how to work with professors
> and lecturers to get the materials I needed for classes, and I was familiar
> with working with readers for getting materials "just in time" that weren't
> available in alternative forms. I had a year and a half of college plus
> summer school under my belt, and I'd lived both on- and off-campus with
> roommates and housemates for all that time. The selection committee for the
> EAP told me I had a strong application but not quite strong enough to make
> the initial cut. However, I was placed second or third on the waiting list,
> I don't remember which, and, as time went by, my name got closer and closer
> to the top. Finally, in August, between my sophomore and junior years, I
> emerged from the waiting list and became part of the 1990-91 UC Education
> Abroad Program class.
> That summer I flew to London for our orientation and took my place as
> a student at Leeds University in Leeds, England. Living in England as an
> exchange student, especially that year during the first Gulf War, was an
> experience I shall treasure forever. The pace of courses at English
> universities was more laid back than at the UC Santa Cruz campus, where the
> quarters raced by in ten-week blurs. I appreciated the non-US-centric
> perspectives I gained from my fellow students, and I enjoyed traveling to
> different parts of England, so I signed up for an Interrail pass which
> would let me travel the trains throughout Western Europe. The Interrail
> pass is much like the Eurail Pass bought in the US, except it's a lot
> cheaper and requires that you be a current resident of the European Union.
> I decided I would travel during the last three weeks of June before leaving
> England for the US and the NFB national convention. I bought Let's Go
> Europe, a popular tour guidebook for Europe, and a membership in the Youth
> Hostel Association.
> The original plan for the trip involved one of my housemates. He and
> I were going to travel together, staying at youth hostels in Amsterdam,
> Berlin, and Paris. Two weeks before our departure he experienced a family
> emergency and was required to leave for his native Malaysia immediately at
> the end of the school year. I briefly considered canceling my trip but
> decided that, since I'd already been living abroad for a year, if I really
> was an independent blind person, I should prove it to myself and make the
> journey alone. I announced this to my friend, who, after arguing with me
> for some time about the merits of my decision, helped me prepare by reading
> large swaths of the Let's Go Europe book as well as the youth hostel
> guidebook. And so it was that in early June of 1991, I found myself armed
> with endless Braille notes on where to find youth hostels in Berlin and
> Amsterdam and heading for the North Sea Ferry to take me to Rotterdam.
> When I got to Rotterdam I took a train to Amsterdam and thence to
> Berlin. While on the train to Berlin, I met a group of Americans who were
> setting out to explore Western Europe with the idea that they'd end up in
> Prague in a week or two. They seemed to know where a good hostel was to
> bunk at in Berlin, so, rather than finding my original destination, I
> elected to stick with them for the three days they were going to be in
> Berlin.
> We found our hostel, dropped our bags, and set out to explore the
> city. We visited the synagogue where Mendelssohn is buried and learned just
> how thoroughly the Nazis denuded the lands of Jewish people. This synagogue
> had over 30,000 members before Hitler came to power. By the time the
> Marshall plan was implemented, there were 1,300 people left. We spent the
> next two days exploring various tourist sites in Berlin, as well as
> sampling a few of its beer gardens. On the third day, I said goodbye to my
> new friends, and they boarded the train for Prague. I decided to explore
> the area of Berlin around the Wall more thoroughly, and I enjoyed the
> afternoon I spent at one of the museums commemorating the history of the
> Wall and what it meant for it to be torn down.
> That evening I went to a small beer garden and enjoyed some excellent
> German beer as well as a very tasty and generous meal. I'd become familiar
> with the subway system in Berlin over the past few days and was quite
> comfortable making my way through its environs. My hostel was just a few
> blocks from the subway stop, and I was confident I knew where it was.
> So after my meal and a pleasant walk in the fine summer evening, I
> boarded the subway and got off at the appropriate stop. My hostel was three
> blocks to the right, a left turn after crossing the third street, and the
> seventh house on the right. The hostel consisted of two buildings,
> separated by a courtyard. One walked through the first building, straight
> back, into the courtyard, and thence to the rear building, where the
> sleeping rooms were.
> On all the other occasions when I'd returned to the hostel, the door
> to the front building had always been open. It was more of a breezeway to
> the courtyard rather than a building. On this occasion the door was closed
> and apparently locked. "No problem," I thought. I'd always returned earlier
> in the evening. Perhaps they had a policy of closing up after a certain
> hour. I rang the bell and waited. After a few minutes the door opened, and
> a woman asked me something in German. Now I was confused. I'd never seen a
> woman caretaker at the hostel before. Surely she knew I was a guest there.
> I tried explaining what I wanted in English, and she became even more
> confused. After a few more attempts at communicating, she invited me into
> the hall and asked me to wait. When I stepped in, I realized I'd done
> something terribly wrong. The hall was warm and brightly lit, and there was
> a cozy living room adjacent to it. None of that existed at the hostel. Soon
> the woman came back with a man, probably her husband, and we tried again.
> His English was slightly better than hers, but still not enough to tell me
> exactly where I was.
> At some point I realized there was no way we were going to gain an
> understanding, and they were becoming more and more distressed by the
> moment. I decided the best way out of this situation was to flee! I headed
> for the door and quickly left, not knowing how to do anything else to
> comfort these people I'd so rudely disturbed. As I retraced my steps to the
> subway station, I reflected on the predicament I was in. Here I was in a
> country where I didn't speak the language, in a city where I knew no one.
> Nor was I quite sure of the address or name of my hostel. In those days
> cell phones were virtually nonexistent, and GPS technology was used only by
> the military. In other words, I was on my own, and I would have to get
> myself out of this situation. When I reached the subway station, I thought
> about my options. This didn't take long since I couldn't think of many. One
> way or another, I had to find my hostel because all my belongings were
> there, and I'd already paid for the lodging for the night. So I tried
> again.
> Three blocks to the right, cross the third street, turn left, and
> find the seventh house on the right. This time, when I tried it, I found
> the door open as I expected, the front building was like a breezeway, there
> was the courtyard, and most important there was the sleeping room with my
> stuff on one of the beds. As I climbed into bed that night, I was not only
> extremely happy that I'd found my bed, I also realized that I had found
> true independence.
> The next morning I awoke, made my way to Cologne, Germany, took a
> cruise on the Rhine River, and ended up in Amsterdam. I finished my travels
> in Amsterdam, where I met another American traveler who agreed to go tandem
> bicycling with me through the Dutch countryside. While I didn't get to
> Paris on that trip, I did see a good bit of Germany and got a good feel for
> the attractions Amsterdam has to offer, as well as what the surrounding
> countryside looks and feels like.
> It hasn't always been easy to make my way forward in life since that
> nerve-wracking night in Berlin, but that night plus my continuing
> participation in the activities of the National Federation of the Blind and
> the consequent association with the brightest and most forward-thinking
> blind of our nation has served as a constant reminder that I can succeed
> even when others believe that I cannot. As a result I've had the privilege
> of living a full and adventurous life. I've been able to earn and retain
> good jobs; travel widely, participating in many adventures during those
> travels; and live life as a contributing member of my community and
> society. And to think, in many ways, it all started for me while I stood in
> a stranger's front hall and listened to her interrogate me in a language I
> did not know.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Danielsen]
>
> Preliminary Victory for New York City's Blind Students: City School System
> Backs Away from Amazon Distribution and Content Deal
>
>
> by Chris Danielsen
>
>
>> From the Editor: Chris Danielsen is the director of Public Relations for
> the National Federation of the Blind, a lawyer, and a person who is able to
> tell a story involving significant technical detail and keep it
> interesting. Here is what he has to say about our ongoing struggles to see
> that students get the materials they need to compete in the classroom:
>
> On August 25, 2015, the National Federation of the Blind scored a
> preliminary victory in our long-running battle with Amazon Digital Services
> Inc., which has been trying to push inaccessible content into America's
> public schools and institutions of higher education for over half a decade.
> Our victory came in the form of a decision by the New York City Department
> of Education (DOE) to back away from a proposed $30 million contract with
> Amazon. The widely-publicized proposal would have seen the company build a
> digital storefront for the school system and provide the city's schools
> with e-textbooks and other electronic educational materials. The DOE's
> Panel for Educational Policy, which has the final say on such contracts,
> had scheduled a vote on the deal for August 26. But, after learning of the
> Federation's long-standing concerns about the accessibility of Amazon's e-
> textbooks and its touted content distribution system, known as WhisperCast,
> and with the threat of blind protesters picketing the meeting, the vote was
> very publicly postponed, with little indication of when the contract would
> be considered again. Federation leaders are now hopeful that this high-
> profile setback will finally bring Amazon to the table for discussions that
> will resolve the issues that currently prevent blind students from fully
> and equally accessing educational content provided by the Seattle-based
> company.
> Since 2007 Amazon has been selling a family of ebook readers and
> applications, along with content to read on them, under the brand name
> Kindle. Blind Americans have been asking Amazon to make its Kindle products
> accessible since 2008, shortly after they were first released. Dr. Marc
> Maurer, Immediate Past President of the National Federation of the Blind;
> Dr. George Kerscher, the creator of the first ebooks used by the blind (or
> anyone else, for that matter); and others met with Amazon officials to urge
> them to make the Kindle platform a model for equal access to ebooks so that
> at last the information playing field would become truly level for blind
> people. In 2009 Amazon did introduce the first Kindle devices with text-to-
> speech output, but blind users could not independently access this feature.
> Furthermore, under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon allowed authors
> and publishers to turn off text-to-speech for specific books. When Amazon
> began peddling Kindles to institutions of higher education, the NFB brought
> suit and filed complaints against several of these institutions. These
> claims prompted a June 29, 2010, joint letter from the US Departments of
> Education and Justice warning higher education institutions not to purchase
> inaccessible technology. A follow-up "Frequently Asked Questions" document
> (known as an FAQ) from the Department of Education made it clear that the
> prohibition against the purchase of inaccessible technology also applied to
> libraries and K-12 schools.
> Federation members took our concerns directly to Amazon's door in
> December of 2012 with an informational protest outside the company's
> Seattle headquarters. Following the protest, Amazon added some
> accessibility features to its Kindle app for iPhones and other Apple
> devices in May of 2013. Blind readers can now access Kindle content with
> VoiceOver on these devices, regardless of whether or not the publisher has
> allowed text-to-speech output. However, while the Kindle app is acceptable
> if one is merely reading for pleasure, its features are not robust enough
> to be used in the educational setting-more on the particular barriers that
> still remain below.
> The National Federation of the Blind has made its concerns about
> remaining accessibility barriers in the education context clear to Amazon
> and to the public from the very day the more accessible Kindle for iOS app
> was released. Moreover, we have publicly observed many times that
> Whispercast, the distribution system that allows teachers to provide
> content directly to students' devices-including notes, highlights,
> bookmarks, and other instructor- or student-created content-remains
> inaccessible, meaning that blind students do not have the same opportunity
> to interact with their teachers and peers as sighted students. The United
> States Department of Education affirmed in a May 2013 letter, in response
> to questions from attorney Daniel F. Goldstein-who has represented the
> Federation in this and many other matters-that inaccessible software with
> the feature set of Whispercast is not acceptable in the classroom under
> federal law. Despite all this, Amazon is still seeking to have Kindle
> ebooks and devices, Whispercast, and Amazon storefronts deployed in K-12
> schools and institutions of higher education, and many school districts and
> colleges across the United States have already adopted these technologies.
> Indeed, Amazon boasts that its technology is in 130 of the nation's 250
> largest school districts.
> Recently we learned that the New York City Department of Education
> was considering a contract with Amazon. The New York City school system is
> the largest in the nation, with eighteen hundred schools and over a million
> students, around a thousand of whom are blind, as well as some blind
> faculty members. Many other school districts would likely follow the
> system's lead if it were to adopt Amazon's technology. Accordingly, we
> responded swiftly. On August 7, 2015, President Mark Riccobono sent a
> letter to the chancellor of the New York City Department of Education,
> Carmen Fariña, and the chairperson of its Panel on Educational Policy,
> Vanessa Leung, outlining our objections to the proposed deal. A copy of the
> letter was also sent to Commissioner Victor Calise, who heads the New York
> City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. Three days later,
> President Riccobono received an email from Ms. Leung requesting further
> information. Here is his response:
>
> Dear Ms. Leung, Chancellor Fariña, and Commissioner Calise:
>
>
> Thank you for Ms. Leung's August 10, 2015, email response to our
> August 7 letter. We appreciate that the panel is engaging in
> discussions and seeking additional information about the proposed
> contract between NYC DOE [New York City Department of Education] and
> Amazon prior to the August 26 meeting.
> We write to clarify the specific aspect of the proposed
> arrangement between DOE and Amazon about which we are most troubled:
> the limitations of Kindle ebooks.
> Increasingly, mainstream publishers deliver digital files to
> booksellers like Amazon in an ePub3 format that allows a print-
> disabled person using screen-reader software to intelligibly read
> tables, read mathematical symbols correctly and mathematical equations
> in correct syntactical order, and take advantage of markup and
> structural data to navigate from, say, one paragraph to the next or
> from one heading to the next. Unfortunately, Amazon takes ePub3
> content and, due to the limitations of its MobiPocket converter,
> strips the ePub3 files of this rich reading experience, rendering them
> accessible only to the sighted reader. The upshot is that, even using
> an accessible device and an accessible e-reading software platform, a
> blind reader attempting to work with a Kindle ebook that is anything
> more than a simple novel will encounter significant accessibility
> barriers because Amazon's proprietary process of converting the ebook
> file from ePub3 format to Kindle format has scrubbed the file of the
> meta-data needed by the blind person's assistive technology.
> The best Kindle reading experience for a blind student or
> teacher is using the Kindle for iOS app on an iPad. However, because
> of the limitations to the Kindle file format (not the app), the blind
> student or teacher would be unable to:
>
>
> . Read tables
> . Skip to the previous or next block or paragraph of text
> . Skip to the previous or next hyperlink or heading
> . Read the "alt text" labels on photos, illustrations, or graphics,
> i.e., know what the photos, graphics, or illustrations in the book
> are
> . Move reliably between footnotes/endnotes and where they are
> indicated in the text
>
>
> Barriers are explained in greater detail at EPUBTest's "Fundamental
> Accessibility Tests: Kindle for iPad".[1]
> Unlike the ePub3 file format that publishers deliver to Amazon
> and other distributors, the Kindle ebooks file format does not support
> Math Markup Language (MathML), a markup language for mathematical and
> scientific content developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
> that, among other things, makes digital mathematical and scientific
> notations accessible to screen readers. [2]
> In sum, Kindle books are wholly unsuited for the rigors of the
> classroom, whether in a purely verbal subject, such as English, or a
> STEM subject requiring mathematical and scientific notation, such as
> biology. By contrast, there are many other distributors that, unlike
> Amazon, sell digital books in the ePub3 format used by major
> publishers. These ePub3-formatted books provide blind and other print-
> disabled students and faculty the same rich reading experience as
> their nondisabled peers.
> We trust this letter demonstrates how Amazon's lack of regard
> for accessibility when creating Kindle ebook content would leave blind
> students and teachers far behind their sighted peers if NYC DOE
> chooses to proceed with the proposed contract with Amazon. We hope you
> will take these concerns seriously, and we remain eager to sit down
> with you and other panel members or other DOE personnel to discuss
> these issues further. Please respond to Mehgan Sidhu, Esq., General
> Counsel to the National Federation of the Blind, at (410) 659-9314
> extension 2314 or <msidhu at nfb.org>, to inform us if you are amenable
> to such a meeting.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Mark A. Riccobono, President
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> After the August 13 letter several days passed without further word
> from NYC DOE, and with the vote of the Panel for Educational Policy pending
> on August 26, President Riccobono felt that a more aggressive plan of
> action was needed. This plan consisted of two components: a protest outside
> the building where the panel meeting would take place, and direct
> participation by blind people, such as students and parents of blind
> children, in the public comment portion of the meeting itself. Email blasts
> went out to affiliate leaders in the New York City area and to other
> supporters. A social media campaign was also begun by the Federation's new
> coordinator of social media and member engagement, Danielle Trevino,
> anchored by a blog post on the Voice of the Nation's Blind, the
> Federation's official blog. Here is the full text of the blog post:
>
> We Must Stop the Amazon Fail!
>
>
> Once again, Amazon Inc. is trying to push its inaccessible
> technology into public schools, despite our years of advocacy, and
> clear warnings against the adoption of inaccessible technology by the
> United States Departments of Education and Justice. In this case,
> blind students throughout the New York City public school system will
> be denied an equal education if the city goes through with a proposed
> $30 million deal under which Amazon would construct an electronic
> storefront for New York City schools and become the primary provider
> of electronic textbooks and related educational materials for
> students. Unfortunately, Amazon ebooks inhibit the ability of blind
> students to access complex material like tables and equations and the
> ability to easily navigate through a book, among other significant
> accessibility barriers. We have informed New York City Department of
> Education officials of these issues in two separate letters, sent on
> August 7 and August 13, but so far we have received no acceptance of
> our offer to meet with these officials, nor any firm indication that
> the proposed deal will be altered or scrapped.
> Since we have not been offered a meaningful reply to our
> concerns or an in-person meeting with relevant officials, we have
> decided to take more public action. The school system's Panel for
> Educational Policy, which has the final say on the deal, will meet
> next Wednesday, August 26, to vote on it, and blind Americans will be
> there in force to let the panel members and the public know that this
> is a bad deal for blind students and faculty and, therefore, for New
> York City schools. We plan to tell the panel that a vote for this deal
> is an outrageous act of deliberate discrimination against blind
> students and an equally outrageous and deliberate violation of federal
> law. Following the demonstration we will enter the auditorium where
> the meeting is taking place and participate respectfully so that we
> can encourage the Educational Policy Panel to do the right thing and
> shut down this "Amazon Fail!"
> If you would like to attend the protest, you can get more
> details by viewing our Facebook event, which we hope you will also
> take the time to share with others. If you are not able to attend the
> protest, you can still get involved by posting on social media using
> the following information.
> Be sure to tweet the New York City public schools (@NYCSchools),
> the mayor of New York (@NYCMayorsOffice), and Amazon (@Amazon) to tell
> them that blind children deserve equal access to e-textbooks. Use the
> hashtag #AmazonFail when you tweet so that our collective posts can
> all be found in one place.
> It is imperative that we protect the rights of blind students in
> New York City and throughout America by stopping this deal and sending
> a clear message to the New York City public schools, to Amazon, and to
> school systems across America that we will not tolerate blind children
> being treated like second-class citizens in our nation's classrooms.
> Help stop the #AmazonFail!
>
> That was our blog entry. Other protest plans were made: chants were
> composed, buses to transport members to the protest site were arranged, and
> signs from previous Kindle-related protests were removed from storage. But
> on August 25, President Riccobono received an official response from the
> school system. The text of this letter follows:
>
> Dear Mr. Riccobono,
>
>
> Thank you for your letter on August 13th. We take your concerns
> about the accessibility of Amazon ebooks seriously. In particular, you
> stated, among other things, that readers with visual impairments
> working with an Amazon ebook containing illustrations, graphics, or
> mathematical notations would not have access to such information
> because it is not programmed to be accessible through assistive
> technology.
> The DOE continues to evaluate the accessibility features of
> Amazon's services and other contractors. Please send us your best
> practices on procuring and incorporating electronic and information
> technology in the classroom to help us with our evaluation. It is
> worth noting that the procurement of digital books is only one aspect
> of the DOE's long-term technology vision for our schools. At the
> moment, DOE has no storefront for e-content, which is a detriment to
> our students and our learning communities. The goal of the contract
> with Amazon is to utilize a web platform for the distribution of e-
> content, including assistive technology, to schools. Regardless of
> which contractor creates the online distribution tool for the DOE, the
> DOE will retain its ability to procure content from different vendors.
> We appreciate any guidance NFB could share in regards to our goal.
> In the meantime, the vote regarding the proposed Amazon
> agreement scheduled for the August meeting of the Panel for
> Educational Policy will be postponed while we continue to consider all
> our options.
> We look forward to working with you.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Ursulina Ramirez, Chief of Staff, New York City Department of
> Education
> cc: Vanessa Leung, Panel for Educational Policy Chair
> Victor Calise, Commissioner, New York City Mayor's Office for People
> with Disabilities
>
> This letter did not specifically respond to our request for a meeting
> with NYC DOE officials. However, President Riccobono judged it a
> sufficiently promising gesture to justify postponing the protest. He issued
> a statement saying as much, while making it clear that the National
> Federation of the Blind stands ready to take further action if needed.
> Quoting fully, he said, "The National Federation of the Blind is firmly
> committed to the principle that blind students must have equal access to
> the materials used by their sighted peers if they are to receive an equal
> education and live the lives they want. That is why we have expressed our
> strong opposition to the deal with Amazon as currently proposed. While we
> stand ready to take any and all steps necessary to protect the rights of
> New York City's blind students, we are now hopeful, in light of the
> cancellation of tomorrow's vote on this deal, that we can resolve the issue
> through an amicable and productive dialogue with school officials. We
> continue to urge everyone concerned about the rights of students who are
> blind or who have print disabilities to contact Chancellor Carmen Fariña
> and let her know that equal access and equal education are one and the
> same."
> While the picket outside the meeting location was dropped from our
> strategy, it was decided that a representative should still speak to the
> panel during the public comment portion of the meeting and that blind
> people from the New York City area should still attend. Maria Garcia, a
> Brooklyn parent of a blind child, was permitted to speak to the panel
> before any other business was conducted. Her prepared remarks follow:
>
> Good evening. My name is Maria Garcia. My family and I are
> longtime residents of West Harlem. I currently serve as the president
> of the Parents of Blind Children of New York and have served on the
> boards of the Citywide Council on Special Education and the National
> Organization of Parents of Blind Children. I also serve on the
> Executive Board of the NYS Commission for the Blind as the governor's
> appointee.
> Most important, I am the parent of a wonderful daughter who
> happens to be blind and has Cerebral Palsy. Elora is 18 and attends
> the Bronx Collaborative High School. Both as a parent and
> representative of parents of blind children in New York, I have seen
> how critical decisions like the Amazon contract are to the academic
> and future success or failure of our blind children. I want to thank
> the commissioner and panel for postponing today's vote on the contract
> to investigate accessible options. My daughter, like the more than one
> thousand blind students in this district, has tremendous potential to
> live a meaningful and productive life and strong ambitions of what she
> might accomplish. But when a school employs inaccessible technology,
> the opportunities for our blind kids shrink as the hurdles to
> education increase. At its best, Amazon's e-content would mean a blind
> student like my daughter would be unable to navigate through a book
> and access critical information available to her sighted peers. At its
> worst, Amazon's e-textbooks exclude blind students altogether. When
> our children with disabilities are excluded, they fall behind not only
> in their academic growth, but in their own belief about their
> abilities as equal members of school and society. They internalize
> themselves as second-class citizens. This need not be so. The
> technology exists and is commercially available to make these books
> and technology accessible and to put our blind children on an equal
> footing.
> New York City's DOE has the largest population of blind students
> in the nation. The impact of your decision is tremendous. As you
> consider how to move forward, this administration faces the choice to
> entrench barriers that push our district's blind students and other
> students with disabilities further behind or to choose to serve as an
> example to uphold the value of students with disabilities and your
> legal obligation to provide equal educational opportunities. I hope
> you will choose the latter course and be a role model to districts
> around the country and know the NY Parents of Blind Children stand
> ready to assist in that effort.
>
> President Riccobono quickly responded to Ms. Ramirez's August 25
> letter with two detailed pieces of correspondence outlining the
> accessibility barriers inherent to Kindle content. Both letters are
> reproduced below. Please note: Both pieces of correspondence refer to a
> chart comparing the accessibility of Amazon's ebooks with those of another
> provider. The chart was included with both letters, but revisions to it
> were made after the first letter to incorporate information about access to
> math content. Only the second, more complete chart is reproduced at the end
> of the second letter.
>
> August 26, 2015
> VIA EMAIL
> Ursalina Ramirez, Chief of Staff
> New York City Department of Education
> 52 Chambers Street
> New York, NY 10007
> <URamirez at schools.nyc.gov>
>
>
> Re: Proposed Contract Between the New York City Department of
> Education and Amazon Digital Services Inc.
>
>
> Dear Ms. Ramirez:
>
>
> Thank you for your letter of yesterday's date. You note that the
> Department of Education will retain the right to order books
> elsewhere, but it appears to us that teachers and school
> administrators wishing to buy books and take advantage of deep
> discounts would be inclined to buy Amazon's content through the DOE
> storefront. Regardless of the original source of the ebooks or
> econtent, if DOE distributes the book through Amazon's current
> distribution software, the student or teacher will receive content
> with the same accessibility shortcomings as Amazon's Kindle content.
> Amazon's distribution mechanism converts all content to Amazon's
> proprietary Kindle format, including accessible ePub3 content provided
> by publishers or accessible instructional materials provided by a
> teacher. While Amazon's converter accepts ePub and other accessible
> content, it locks the distributed content into the Kindle format.
> Unlike many other vendors, Amazon's current distribution platform does
> not permit "side loading" that would enable non-proprietary formats to
> be presented in the reading system. As a result, otherwise accessible
> content, when channeled through Amazon's distribution system, will
> have the shortcomings described in the attached document, or worse.
> The attached document shows the problems with two Kindle formats
> in two charts. The first chart addresses Amazon's Print Replica
> formatted ebooks, books that even when used by a blind student on the
> optimum device, the Kindle Fire, still have significant deficits
> compared to the reading experience for the sighted student. The second
> addresses the standard Kindle format when the blind student uses iOS
> hardware, the optimum device for this format, and again results in
> inferior access to information. To demonstrate that there are
> commercially available alternatives that deliver to the blind student
> a more equivalent reading experience, the document shows that the
> features unavailable to blind students in the Kindle formats are
> available to all students in ePub3 books on the VitalSource platform.
> VitalSource is by no means the only choice.
> With respect to best practices, we can be of greater assistance
> if we have a more in-depth meeting to explore what the DOE wants to
> offer all students. In broad terms, ePub3, a set of HTML standards,
> includes accessibility standards that represent all that technology
> can currently offer to students with print disabilities, such as the
> ability to read MathML, tables, and a rich markup to allow quick
> navigability. There are a number of web-based readers that are
> accessible and can make available all of the content features present
> in ePub3. Some, like Kobo and the Adobe Digital Editions reader, rely
> on the open-source software of the Readium Foundation that fully
> supports ePub3. Others, like Apple, use their own distribution format,
> but they also support the reading of other formats such as ePub3.
> Apple has the additional advantage of offering an authoring tool
> targeted at education; iBook Author is designed to empower authors and
> faculty to create ePub3 content.
> If you wish to learn further on this topic, I note that James
> English of the New York Public Library is on the Readium Board of
> Directors; thus, he may be able to acquaint you further with the pros
> and cons of various readers that use the Readium software to deliver
> ePub3 to the reader. I have never spoken with Mr. English, but have
> been advised that he is extremely knowledgeable. For more information
> about best practices around ePub3, you can obtain "Accessible EPUB 3,
> Best Practices for Creating Universally Usable Content," a free book
> by Matt Garrish from O'Reilly Publishers,
> <http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do>.
> Obviously, the web platform for ordering or selecting books must also
> meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards.
> Finally, you raise the question of distribution. Again, there
> are a number of accessible choices. For example, VitalSource, a member
> of Readium, has a distribution system that includes the ability to
> share notes or bookmarks, enabling the teacher to give assignments and
> raise questions or comments across the class. I would also note that
> VitalSource integrates with other portals, such as Blackboard.
> By contrast, here is what happens with content loaded on to
> Whispercast for distribution. NFB tried loading an accessible ePub3
> book on to a Whispercast account but was unsuccessful because ePub3 is
> not a format supported by Whispercast. The only way to get this
> accessible title to read would have been to convert it into Amazon's
> Kindle file format, which would have stripped it of all markup, as
> described in the table in the attached chart that addresses reflowable
> text. NFB also uploaded the attached chart as a fully accessible .docx
> format document to Whispercast. The result: a blind user could not
> tell there were tables, could not know what column and row was being
> read, and, since the alt tags were gone, could not know whether the
> cell contained a check mark, an X, or a caution sign. Finally, NFB
> uploaded a .pdf file that it knew to be accessible (NFB's annual
> report). On an iOS device, Voiceover stated "This file format is not
> supported." On the Kindle Fire, nothing was vocalized at all-it simply
> could not be read.
> We are not endorsing any given product. To the contrary, we
> continue to request a true dialogue where we can give you information
> about the accessibility of different features that you identify as
> pedagogically important. I am confident that when selecting Amazon for
> final consideration, you were unaware of the accessibility barriers
> present in Kindle content-barriers that the National Federation of the
> Blind knows all too well. I am equally confident that a meeting would
> allow us to help you identify the people, resources, and products that
> can help you get a solution that will serve all of your students
> optimally.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Mark A. Riccobono, President
> National Federation of the Blind
>
>
> Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks
> Subject: From Mark Riccobono: NFB addendum email to New York City
> Department of Education
>
>
> Please see below and attached.
>
>
> Ms. Ramirez:
>
>
> In our letter of Wednesday's date, we excluded reference to the
> ability to read math correctly (to read presentations in MathML) from
> the charts we attached, because we had not had the opportunity to re-
> confirm that VitalSource books have that capacity. Since that time, we
> have received the following statement from VitalSource: "We support
> MathML in all clients equally (browser, Mac, Windows, Android, Kindle
> Fire, Chrome Book, iOS). Specifically: VitalSource uses the evolving
> standard MathJax javascript framework to renderMathML. MathJax fully
> supports accessibility including ChromeVox, Texthelp, JAWS, and
> MathPlayer with more player support planned. We handle the
> implementation internally. In other words, publishers just have to
> provide valid MathML markup. VitalSource's platform handles the rest.
> When inquiries from end users, or institutions are received by
> VitalSource, we have the capability to test markup and work with the
> publisher in implementing and enhancing their MathML titles." As we
> have earlier stated, there is no Kindle format that correctly reads
> MathML. Please consider this an addendum to our information from
> Wednesday.
>
>
> Mark A. Riccobono, President
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> To further elaborate on the inaccessibility of the Kindle ebook
> experience for blind students, the tables sent to Ms. Ramirez are reprinted
> here:
>
>
> Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks
>
> Compiled by the National Federation of the Blind, August 2015
>
> Amazon currently offers ebooks and econtent in two formats: Print Replica
> and reflowable text. The following two charts identify accessibility
> barriers for academic reading.
>
>
>
> Inaccessibility of Kindle Print Replica Ebooks
>
>
> Typically, Amazon's electronic textbooks are only available in Kindle Print
> Replica format and cannot be accessed as reflowable text. The most
> accessible experience available from Amazon for reading Print Replica books
> is with the Kindle Fire. Even so, a blind student who follows the
> instructions provided by the Fire will be unable to read a Kindle Print
> Replica book at all. A technologically sophisticated adult can force the
> reading experience, but it is a difficult, inconsistent, and buggy reading
> experience that would cause a blind student to read far less efficiently
> than other students.
>
> The following chart assumes that a blind student has managed to get the
> Kindle Fire to read the Print Replica book. The chart describes those tasks
> that a sighted student will be able to perform that a blind student cannot.
> As a point of comparison, the chart also shows how the reading experience
> on VitalSource's desktop application allows both sighted and blind students
> to accomplish these same tasks.
>
> Please Note: Traditionally, iOS is considered the most accessible platform
> for accessing Kindle books, but when a Print Replica book is loaded, a
> blind user will hear the message, "VoiceOver does not support this
> content," rendering iOS unusable for Print Replica textbooks.
>
>
> |Features |Usable by Blind |Usable by Blind |
> | |Students: |Students: |
> | |Kindle Print Replica |VitalSource Desktop |
> | |Ebooks |Platform |
> |Look up the meaning of |[pic] |[pic] |
> |words and terms | | |
> |Read a text description |[pic] |[pic] |
> |of a picture or graphic | | |
> |Highlight text |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Make notes |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Read by paragraph |[pic][3] |[pic] |
> |Read tables |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Read MathML |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Return to highlights and|[pic][4] |[pic] |
> |notes | | |
> |Read text in Braille |[pic][5] |[pic] |
> |Determine the spelling |[pic][6] |[pic] |
> |of a word or term | | |
>
>
>
>
> Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks with Reflowable Text
>
>
> Amazon's Kindle ebooks with reflowable text (text that can be sized
> independently of layout constraints) are most accessible on an iOS device.
> Even then, a blind student will encounter many significant barriers to
> having a reading experience equivalent to his sighted counterparts. The
> chart below describes activities that cannot be successfully completed by a
> blind student with Kindle for iOS and compares these activities to the
> experience of reading a textbook in the desktop VitalSource application,
> which is one of the ebook platforms the National Federation of the Blind
> knows to be accessible.
>
>
> |Features |Usable by Blind |Usable by Blind |
> | |Students: |Students: |
> | |Kindle on iOS |VitalSource Desktop |
> |Read tables |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Skip to the previous or next block|[pic] |[pic] |
> |or paragraph of text | | |
> |Skip to the previous or next |[pic] |[pic] |
> |hyperlink or heading | | |
> |Read the "alt text" labels on |[pic] |[pic] |
> |photos, illustrations, or | | |
> |graphics, i.e., know what the | | |
> |photos, graphics, or illustrations| | |
> |are that appear in the book | | |
> |Move reliably between footnotes / |[pic] |[pic] |
> |endnotes and where they are | | |
> |indicated in the text | | |
> |Read MathML |[pic] |[pic] |
> |Highlight text |[pic][7] |[pic] |
> |Make notes |[pic][8] |[pic] |
> |Braille support in text |[pic][9] |[pic] |
>
>
> Please Note: The preceding table focuses on the tools that are unavailable
> or impractical for a blind student to use with Kindle on iOS. Students are
> able to read basic text continuously, and by both character and word. They
> are also able to use bookmarks, search for terms, use the table of
> contents, and go directly to a specific location in the book. These
> features make the Kindle suitable for basic leisure reading, but without
> the features described in the preceding table, a blind student would be
> wholly unable to participate in the majority of classroom activities
> independently.
>
>
> As mentioned earlier, the proposed deal between Amazon and the NYC
> DOE had attracted a good deal of publicity, owing to the size of both the
> deal and the NYC school system. The sudden postponement of the vote on the
> contract also attracted notice in the media. The New York Daily News
> reported on the vote's cancellation via its website almost immediately.
> Although school officials had not mentioned our pending protest, we had
> alerted the media in the area and so the paper quickly put two and two
> together and contacted us for our reaction. As a result, a substantial part
> of President Riccobono's statement was included in the published article,
> which ran under the headline "Ebooks at NYC Public Schools Leave Out Blind,
> Advocates Say." Education Week, which is widely read by K-12 educators,
> also ran a story on the deal's failure to sail through as expected on its
> Marketplace K-12 blog. Blogger Michelle Molnar wrote in part:
> New York City schools delayed a vote this week on awarding a $30
> million contract to Amazon to develop an online ebook storefront for
> educators, after advocates for blind and visually impaired individuals
> raised accessibility concerns.
> The National Federation of the Blind is questioning whether its
> community would have full accessibility in the online platform that
> would be built for teachers and principals to order ebooks and digital
> content, and whether blind and visually impaired educators and
> students will be able to adequately use the content once it is
> downloaded via the Kindle file format.
> "Our concern is that what we knew of the criteria for the
> project didn't include clear accessibility requirements in either
> area," said Mark Riccobono, the president of the Federation, in a
> phone interview. His organization's objections to the Kindle's
> custom file format date to 2008, he said, because visually impaired
> users who access ebooks that way cannot read tables, skip around in
> the text, or know what illustrations are in them.
> The vote on the agreement, originally scheduled to take place on
> August 26, has been postponed until a meeting in the fall, although no
> specific date has been set. "We are working closely with Amazon and
> community partners to ensure that all school communities-including
> those serving visually impaired students-will be able to take
> advantage of the ebook and e-content marketplace when it meets their
> needs," said Devora Kaye, the press secretary for the city's
> Department of Education, in a prepared statement.
>
>
> It is unclear what will happen next in this saga, but the National
> Federation of the Blind remains willing to engage in constructive
> conversations with all parties. Watch this space for further developments.
>
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer]
> The Nature of Blindness
>
> An Address Delivered by
> Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President
> At the Convention of the
> National Federation of the Blind
> July 10, 2015
>
>> From the Editor: We spend a lot of time at conventions critiquing our
> progress and planning for the future we intend to make for ourselves and
> those who follow. But sometimes we ask ourselves difficult questions, ones
> the world may think have already been answered, but which, with a bit of
> analysis, prove to be superficial and unimaginative. "Blindness, Handicap
> or Characteristic," seemed an absurd title to many of us who saw it for the
> first time, but a quick read through revealed that there was more to know
> about this topic than we had thought, and a second and third reading
> revealed some of the wisdom contained in Kenneth Jernigan's life altering
> article. What follows is another speech that may well change how people
> come to feel about blindness, and it is obvious that our former president
> has not stopped thinking about or exploring all of the ramifications, real
> or imagined, that are associated with it. Here is what he says:
>
> What is the nature of blindness? When a person becomes blind, how
> does that person change? Inasmuch as blind people and sighted people do not
> have identical characteristics, how are blind people different from the
> sighted? After seventy-five years of work in the National Federation of the
> Blind, it may seem that these questions must already have been answered. We
> must already know everything there is to tell.
> This speculation comes to mind because Gary Wunder, editor of the
> Braille Monitor, president of the National Federation of the Blind of
> Missouri, a former board member of the National Federation of the Blind,
> and a man who has been a very good friend of mine for a quarter of a
> century, sent me an email that he had received from Sabra Ewing dated April
> 29, 2014. A portion of the text in that email says:
>
> I think someone should write an article about the advantages of
> being blind. You might be thinking that articles like this already
> exist, but the ones I have found are about people who use their
> blindness to avoid lines and do inappropriate things, which even if
> viewed as advantages, are a result of the way society views blindness
> rather than blindness itself.
> Lots of people who were born blind, including me, want to remain
> that way even if given the choice to become sighted. We still want to
> be blind even though society sends lots of messages that this attitude
> isn't okay. Why do we still want to be blind even knowing that we
> could fit into society so much better as sighted people? In my case I
> don't know why I want to stay blind, but I know it doesn't have to do
> with fear, and it's not a coping mechanism like some sighted people
> would suggest. That must mean there are lots of advantages to being
> blind. I think it would also be good for sighted people to read the
> article so they can learn to avoid insulting people who are happy with
> their blindness.
>
> In responding to this email, Gary Wunder said in part: You seem to hold
> that it [blindness] is a blessing, an unexplored territory that offers a
> great deal to those of us who are blind if only we would take the time to
> reflect upon it.
> When I encountered this correspondence, I thought: fair enough-an
> interesting point of view, and one which suggests certain lines of thought.
> Maybe, Sabra, I wondered, you want to remain blind because you know quite
> well how to manage your life as a blind person. Maybe you are identifiably
> and interestingly different from people who are sighted. Maybe the thought
> of change, of becoming a sighted person, is challenging to you. But just
> maybe, being blind carries with it enough advantages to make it attractive
> to you.
> A brief look at the internet tells us that the Yahoo company believes
> the three major advantages of being blind are: enhanced senses of smell and
> touch, an increased confidence, and a heightened capacity for sensuality.
> Although this list has a certain charm, I suspect that the reporter for
> Yahoo was not thoroughly informed. On the other hand, my own experience
> indicates that advantages do exist.
> In 1940 Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder and first president of the
> National Federation of the Blind, said that blind people are normal,
> useful, and self-respecting. However, he did not attribute these
> characteristics to the blindness itself.
> In 1963 Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, who later served as the second long-
> term president of the National Federation of the Blind, delivered an
> address to the banquet of the national convention of the Federation
> entitled "Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic." He said that blindness is
> a characteristic but that it is not a handicap unless certain conditions
> make it one. Furthermore, other characteristics can also, under certain
> circumstances, become handicaps.
> Dr. Jernigan pointed out that every characteristic is a limitation.
> He stated that ignorance and poverty are limiting, but he also asserted
> that the opposite of ignorance, intelligence, is itself a limitation. My
> daughter faced this limitation when she was urgently seeking work. When she
> applied to become a barista, she was refused the position because she had
> graduated from college. The owner of the coffee shop said that college
> graduates do not become baristas for very long, and she (the owner) wanted
> a permanent employee.
> Because all characteristics are limitations, blindness is also a
> limitation. However, it is only a disadvantage if the activity being
> pursued by the person who is blind is one that requires sight. If the
> activity being pursued does not require sight, blindness may become an
> advantage. Furthermore, most activities of life do not require sight-even
> though many sighted people use vision to perform them. Thus, blindness,
> though a limitation, is not more limiting than many other characteristics.
> However, we are here considering not the limitations of blindness but
> its advantages. What do blind people get that others do not? Blind people
> are free of the requirement to do things visually. I, a totally blind
> person, can read in the dark or perform other tasks without worrying about
> light. When I was working as a lawyer for the Civil Aeronautics Board,
> several of us visited the flight facility operated by the Federal Aviation
> Administration in Oklahoma. We were examining what is involved in emergency
> evacuations of aircraft. In one of the demonstrations, an official filled
> the fuselage of an airplane with nontoxic but very dense smoke. My
> colleagues were disoriented, but I was not. They were worried about my
> safety, and they offered me a great deal of advice about what to do to
> avoid collisions with obstacles. I had no problem finding my way, but they
> felt that I must be disoriented because they were.
> All of the systems designed to provide illumination or present images
> are almost entirely irrelevant to me except when I am helping out my
> sighted friends. I do not need a computer monitor, a flashlight, or a
> candle except when the candle is being used as a votive offering or a dish
> warmer. Because I do not use visual mechanisms, my mind takes advantage of
> alternative methods of knowing about the world in which I live. When we
> were working on the construction of the National Federation of the Blind
> Jernigan Institute, many of my sighted colleagues learned of the nature of
> planned construction by means of drawings. However, I often found myself
> making revisions to the plans with mental images instead of relying on
> paper.
> This brings to mind the consideration of imagination. Inventive
> genius is often highly regarded. Inventions benefiting society have come
> into being (at least in part) to serve the blind. Thomas Edison wrote in
> his application for a patent on the phonograph that this product could be
> used to create talking books for the blind. Decades later, the long-play
> phonograph record was invented for the Talking Book program. The recording
> industry quickly adopted the long-play record which brought profound change
> in the music business.
> Inventive genius intended to benefit the blind has been dramatically
> enhanced when the blind themselves have been involved. A good many of us,
> as blind students, invented symbols for writing concepts in Braille which
> had not previously existed. Dr. Jacobus tenBroek invented a shorthand
> system for legal writing in Braille that he used to keep notes on
> disability law and constitutional matters. The shorthand he devised is
> recognizable to me though the one I used in law school is much different.
> Dr. Abraham Nemeth invented a symbol set for writing mathematical and
> scientific notation. The symbol set was big enough to be called a code, and
> Dr. Nemeth fought fiercely to ensure that it was adopted within the field
> of work with the blind.
> When Dr. Raymond Kurzweil was inventing the Kurzweil Reading Machine
> for the Blind, we asked him to include blind engineers in the inventive
> process. Dr. Kurzweil told me later that this request was among the most
> beneficial he received. Having blind people work on the reading machine was
> useful because those who were building it could incorporate within the
> design the characteristics they wanted it to have.
> To build a proper reading machine, Dr. Kurzweil had to invent a
> scanner, which came to be a necessary product for offices throughout the
> world. Scanning information, capturing it electronically, and making it
> capable of transmission by computer benefited the blind, but it also
> brought enormous benefit to the sighted. The reading machine for the blind
> changed substantially the possibilities for sighted people working in
> offices to gain access to information.
> Those who possess disabilities know that the systems customarily used
> by others are not always readily available to them without adaptation.
> Consequently, using such systems often demands ingenuity. The necessity for
> imaginative thought becomes a pattern of behavior in many disabled people,
> and invention of systems, techniques, or products accompanies this
> imaginative thought. Invention is a necessity for disabled people who want
> to participate in society.
> Can blind children play tag? Many people would think not. However,
> one small blind child in a schoolyard thought the answer should be
> otherwise. He altered the rules of the game slightly. He brought a small
> can to school which contained a stone. He required those who played tag and
> who were "it" to hold the can and to shake it as they ran. With this minor
> alteration, invented by a child in kindergarten, the game of tag was
> modified so that the blind and the sighted could play it together.
> At the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Jerry Whittle and some of his
> colleagues invented a modified version of football that can be played by
> the blind. I learned of this when he asked me for some funds to obtain
> uniforms for the team. He told me that when you run out onto the field,
> smash into opposing team members, and knock your opponent base over apex,
> this is fun. Simultaneously an advantage and a disadvantage for the blind
> came into being. We can now play football, but we also know that a bunch of
> big ornery blind people are looking forward to smashing us into oblivion.
> A common misunderstanding is that blind people have a perpetual
> experience of darkness, but I do not. The world I encounter contains light,
> shadow, and color along with occasional elements of darkness. These visual
> images come from my imagination, but language and literature tell me that
> these characteristics are essential-the world cannot be constructed without
> them. Therefore, the image that I project may be different from the image
> that a sighted person has, but I never touch anything without ascribing to
> it a color.
> Many people fear darkness, but I do not. When I work at it, I can
> identify the difference between light and darkness, and I can speculate
> about the alterations that come with the change from one to the other. But
> most of the time the worry about darkness is unimportant. I do the things
> that I do without looking, and I regard this as natural. Perhaps this
> accounts for the Yahoo assertion that we who are blind have increased
> confidence.
> Occasionally this pattern leads to unfortunate accidents. One time I
> invited a man into my office, a room without windows, for a meeting.
> Somebody had shut off the lights in my office to save money on electricity.
> My custom is to turn them on in the morning and to leave them that way. As
> I am totally blind, I did not know they were shut off. I closed the door to
> my office, and I discussed the business at hand. My companion seemed very
> tentative, but I did not know until the meeting was over that we were
> having our conference in the dark. Although the man with whom I was having
> the meeting had wanted to sell me some products, he never came back. Maybe
> he was afraid of the dark.
> Numerous articles have been written about the plasticity of the
> brain. The visual cortex in blind people is not idle, they say. What are
> these people doing with their visual cortex? Are they thinking with it? I
> do not believe that blind people are noticeably more thoughtful or more
> intelligent than the sighted people I know, but I have never tested the
> hypothesis. On the other hand, I have found many thousands of blind people
> prepared to contemplate with equanimity altered patterns of understanding
> from those frequently encountered. These altered patterns of understanding
> provide a greater perspective than would otherwise exist, which necessarily
> requires a degree of imaginative work. I believe that the willingness to
> engage in this kind of mental exercise builds comprehension. I have also
> speculated that blind people, who must face challenges often not
> encountered by others, may be less fearful than some who have not faced
> such challenges. Independence for the blind demands a measure of rebellion,
> and rebellion cannot occur without mental effort.
> One of the elements of the rebellion involves the insistence that we
> who are blind have the right to participate fully in our society on equal
> terms with others. We have demanded that systems for providing access to
> information be constructed such that they can be used either visually or
> non-visually. We have been told that this insistence limits creativity and
> stifles invention on the part of companies providing information. However,
> a senior official of one of the premier technology companies of the world
> expressed the exact opposite to me. He said that requiring his company's
> systems to have multiple mechanisms for presentation of information helped
> his engineers to assure that internal mismatches between his company's
> programs had disappeared. He considered that our demand for equal access to
> information was a significant assistance to his inventors in creating a
> more thoroughly integrated and manageable system of presenting information
> to any of the populations he serves.
> Mr. Frank Kurt Cylke, the former director of the National Library
> Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of
> Congress, told me that blind library patrons read more books than sighted
> borrowers. Many blind people listen to computer voices or recorded material
> at several hundred words a minute, faster than most sighted people can
> comprehend.
> A good many blind people have devised mechanisms for ensuring that
> their socks match and that their items of apparel present a coordinated
> appearance without being able to look at the colors. Invention, rebellion,
> creativity, planning-these are words that I associate with the successful
> blind people I know.
> What are the other advantages that come with blindness? We who read
> Braille can deliver speeches with the documents under our hands, which lets
> us "look" at the audience, but of course having your hands in one place
> does cut down on the gestures. We can read notes stashed in a briefcase or
> pocket without other people (at least most of the time) knowing we are
> doing so.
> We are not troubled by visual appearance. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan liked
> very sweet bananas, and he was not discouraged from eating them by the
> color. When bananas are very ripe, they lose the yellow which is
> characteristic of them becoming brown or black. He was attracted by the
> taste but not deterred by the appearance. I am told that human beings who
> are pretty, slender, and white get more promotions than others. These
> characteristics, which are primarily visual, have generally not been a part
> of the decisions I have made. I suspect that discrimination based on visual
> appearance occurs less often with blind people than it does with others.
> This offers a notion about some of the advantages of blindness, but
> undoubtedly there are others. Because some people believe that the absence
> of our vision causes other senses to be heightened, they suggest that we be
> placed in certain professions. A proposal made forty years ago recommended
> that blind people be employed as perfume testers because the absence of
> vision increased the olfactory capacity. Wine tasting has also been
> recommended because the taste buds of the blind are superior to those of
> the sighted. An article from a Hawaii newspaper offers the observation that
> our heightened sense of touch makes the blind better at kissing than the
> sighted. Could Yahoo be right after all about our sensuality? I can't be
> sure, but it might be interesting to find out.
> I do not really believe that blind people have enhanced senses, but I
> do think that blind people often concentrate on the use of some of them
> more assiduously than sighted people. Consequently, the experience of
> identifying objects by touch is probably more thoroughly developed in blind
> people than it is in the sighted.
> How much would you pay to get your sight? The answer to this question
> is often a million dollars or more. When I have thought about the question,
> I know that I would not pay a million. The debt load I would have to carry
> would be just too great. If the price tag were smaller, I might think that
> trading the advantages I currently have as a blind person for those I would
> have as a sighted person would be worthwhile. However, becoming sighted
> would demand work. I do not know how to read print. If I became sighted,
> people would expect me to know this. I would also have to master all of the
> other things that sighted people do with sight. I believe that observing
> things visually is a learned experience, and all learning requires effort.
> One of my good friends (unfortunately now deceased) was Ray McGeorge.
> He had been a blind person, and he gained his sight. He bought a car for
> himself, and I rode in it while he drove. One of the things he liked to do
> very much was read the advertising on boxes and bottles in the grocery
> store. The wide variety of what was available had not previously occurred
> to him. When he became blind again, he felt discouragement and depression,
> but the teachings and the experience he had obtained in the National
> Federation of the Blind got him through. Both in becoming sighted and
> becoming blind, he had no real serious problems in regaining his
> equilibrium.
> I believe that the world is a more interesting place with disabled
> people in it than it would be without us. Although we in the National
> Federation of the Blind have emphasized how similar blind people are to
> sighted people-how our talents, our aspirations, and our capacity to
> function have not been diminished by our blindness-we are in certain ways
> different from sighted people, and the difference is sometimes a
> disadvantage and sometimes an advantage. As you know, I am not a broken
> sighted person; rather, I am a blind person. This expression indicates that
> I believe each of us has value, blind or sighted, and I believe that the
> value that each of us represents should be cherished.
> Therefore, Sabra, when somebody wonders what there is about blindness
> that makes you think it is worthwhile, let your inquisitor know that the
> advantages are abundant. Blindness helps to teach me to know the world by
> touch, to read extensively in environments where others cannot, to imagine
> a world of possibilities that others have not attempted, to invent, to
> plan, to face the challenges that come, and to approach the world without
> the ancient fear of the dark. Let your questioner know that ours is not a
> restricted life but a liberated one. In the autumn when the leaves begin to
> fall, you may observe us chasing the pigskin. Furthermore, those of us who
> are blind never have to spend our hours hunting for a parking spot; well,
> anyway, not yet. This too is a place that will require our further thought
> and invention.
> Those who believe that we live in a constant experience of darkness
> and despair do not know the joy that we have found, the excitement we have
> created, but we will tell them. The voice of the National Federation of the
> Blind rises in a thunderous declaration to proclaim what we know to be
> true. We will determine the destiny that must and will be ours. We will
> imagine the future as we want it to be. We will invent the techniques, the
> devices, and the programs that we need. We will use the advantages, the
> intellect, the energy, and the spirit within us to build a life of
> participation, equality, and joy for the blind-and nothing on earth can
> stop us. Our hearts are filled with gladness; we feel the power that rises
> within us. When we are together, the future is ours!
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Bickford]
> Sixty Years of Living and Singing in the Federation
> by Tom Bickford
>
>> From the Editor: Tom Bickford is well known to many in the Federation both
> because of his tenure in the organization and his notoriety as a
> songwriter, singer, and as the author of The Care and Feeding of the Long
> White Cane. Here is an amazing account of his observations about the
> National Federation of the Blind during his sixty years as a member:
>
> Thank you. In the beginning there were seven states, as we know. The
> president of the Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind, Gayle Burlingane,
> invited other states to come to his 1940 convention to form a regional-or
> perhaps larger-organization. And larger is what happened. Six states
> responded: Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California.
> I'm not going to tell you all the people who came; that's more names than I
> can say. Those people got together in a separate room and organized the
> National Federation of the Blind. Because of the Federation you and I can
> live the lives we want to live. The NFB taught me what to do, how to do it,
> and then gave me a good shove and said, "Now go out and do it," so I have.
> The most important influence in my years of blindness has been the
> National Federation of the Blind. In 1955-that was sixty years ago-I
> enrolled in the Orientation Center for the Blind in California, where I met
> Kenneth Jernigan and the National Federation of the Blind. And when you met
> Kenneth Jernigan, you for sure met the National Federation of the Blind. At
> the orientation center Jernigan gave of himself to the students in many
> ways. Here's one example: in men's gymnasium class, where he both taught
> and participated, there were several goals that he set for us to achieve in
> order to earn a steak dinner that he would buy for us. I got my steak
> dinner for 370 continuous jump ropes. No, I couldn't do it now. A couple of
> years after I graduated from the orientation center, my mother said to me
> once, "When you came back, you weren't the same person that we sent to that
> orientation center." And I say that was good!
> Live the life you want. At one time a friend of mine said to me I had
> taught her how to walk with a cane. That surprised me because I had never
> given her any lessons. She said she just paid attention to what I did, then
> did the same. Another time, a lady I knew who was married to a blind friend
> of mine said that I had helped her husband so much. Again, what had I done?
> I had offered him my friendship and shared experiences with him, which
> included taking him to some Federation meetings, and I'm sure that most of
> you here in the room have had this same experience: sharing your lives with
> other blind people and showing the Federation to the world. [Applause]
> Employment is one of the areas that the Federation has worked on from
> the beginning. First, getting financial aid for blind people, then helping
> blind people to believe in ourselves and giving us the confidence and
> determination to find employment so we can live the lives we want. We're
> not going to get tired of that phrase, are we? In about 1950 the Federation
> began the work to open the federal civil service to blind people. The law
> case of Russell Kletzing, himself a blind lawyer, was the opening battle in
> that war. Kletzing later served two terms as president of the National
> Federation in the mid-1960s.
> We have the capable and eager members. We have the determination. We
> have a lawyer's division of our own. We have the capable and willing
> lawyers to help us on our side, we just heard from one. Both Kenneth
> Jernigan and Marc Maurer and many others have used the word "love." The
> English language is not always very specific in its usages. The Greek
> language has three words, all of which can be translated into English as
> "love." When we say "love" we sometimes would think of what the Greeks
> would call "eros," romantic love. That's not the kind of love I'm thinking
> of now, although we are fully capable of that kind of love-good for us. The
> next word is "philia," which is usually translated as "brotherly love."
> That's closer to my thought, but it's still not the one I want. I think of
> the Federation kind of love as "agape," A-G-A-P-E, agape: kindly concern or
> predetermined goodwill. Before I meet you to know you individually, I want
> good things for you. We want good things for each other. [Applause] Dr.
> Jernigan, at his last convention in 1998, said, "Why do we do these things
> for each other?" And he answered his own question: love. That, I think, is
> agape-kindly concern or predetermined goodwill.
> Dr. Maurer in 2002 said, "And love, freely given, is at least as
> demanding as any other taskmaster." I will say it again, "And love, freely
> given, is at least as demanding as any other taskmaster." We take that
> seriously. Love, given to us freely, requires many things of us. Love is
> why we buy raffle tickets. [Laughter] Love is why we give door prizes for
> other people to win. Love is why we write letters to our state and federal
> officials and attend hearings. Love is why we go to our own meetings and
> greet each other.
> The world changes, and so does the NFB. In 1957 we adopted the small,
> round membership pin with words, "Security, Equality, Opportunity." Those
> words are still in our NFB pledge. In 2002 we adopted the Whozit as our
> logo. Last year, President Riccobono kept the Whozit and put six of them
> around in a circle. In 1968 two New Yorkers, Floyd Fields and Josephine
> Huff introduced what they wanted to be the official NFB song. Other people
> wanted in on the act, so we had a year-long contest. In 1969 their song,
> "The NFB Battle Hymn" that we know much better as "Glory, Glory Federation"
> was adopted as the official song. This year, for the seventy-fifth
> anniversary, James Brown will introduce a new song to us. It shows up on
> the Friday agenda. After all, musical tastes have changed in the last forty-
> six years, so we're changing with the times. After the first song contest
> the musical ideas just broke forth; everybody wanted a song. We started
> hearing songs that had already been sung, and new songs appeared as the
> time occurred. When it was time to tell United Airlines that blind people
> should keep our canes with us in the plane, we gave them back their own
> music: [singing] "Don't fly unfriendly skies of United/don't take our long
> white canes/we have the right to be free/We take care of ourselves/we're
> the NFB." [applause]
> A couple of years ago an air hostess wanted to take my cane from
> where I had it between my seat and the wall of the plane. I said, "No, it
> can stay here, that case has been to court." She dropped the subject.
> The most prolific songwriter I met was Ted Young of Pennsylvania. I
> met him at a Chicago convention one year, and one of the songs I learned
> from him had to do with getting more help than we sometimes need. Here's
> the chorus: "Helping, helping, helping, helping/sometimes it's help that I
> can use/but sometimes I feel like yelping/especially from a 'helping'
> bruise." After the convention who should I meet in the airport but some
> Pennsylvania delegates. We were in the "helping" area where the airport had
> asked us to wait to be assisted to our departure gates. The dear little
> ground hostess would come running up in quite a dither, and she'd say,
> "Who's next?" And then she'd take somebody off to their departure gate.
> Those of us who were still there smiled at each other and sang, "Helping,
> helping, helping, helping/sometimes it's help that I can use/but sometimes
> I feel like yelping/especially from a 'helping' bruise."
> In 1990, the fiftieth anniversary, three of my Maryland friends-
> Debbie Brown, Lloyd Rasmussen, and Judy Rasmussen made use of their time
> waiting in the restaurant line to compose the "Ode to the Code": "Going to
> the school/to write an IEP/the teacher says use print, because your child
> can see/the equipment is too big/and large print is too rare/and fifteen
> words a minute will not get you anywhere./Oh, Braille is here/Braille is
> here/Braille is here to stay/We will keep on using it/we don't care what
> you say/ Braille is here/Braille is here/we will sing its praise/it's the
> system for the blind/to get a job that pays."
> These songs and many more are on the NFB's website-check them out,
> learn them, sing them, write some more of your own. I plan to keep coming
> back and singing, as long as money and health hold out. You do the same!
> Thank you.
> ----------
> Advocacy and Policy Report
> by John Paré, Rose Sloan, Gabe Cazares, and Lauren McLarney
>
>> From the Editor: Before I could afford to go to the convention, the part of
> the Braille Monitor I most looked forward to reading was the Washington
> Report by James Gashel. I loved hearing about our legislative skirmishes,
> the arguments made against us, and the way we were so often able to
> prevail. Much of the Monitor was interesting, but this section was where I
> got my marching orders-something I could really do beyond my local chapter
> to help the National Federation of the Blind. It is with these thoughts in
> mind that I try to include much of what we now know of as the Advocacy and
> Policy Report. I hope you enjoy the remarks made by these dedicated men and
> women as much as I do:
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: John Paré]
> John Paré: Good Afternoon, fellow Federationists. The Advocacy and
> Policy Department is responsible for NFB-NEWSLINE®, public relations, and
> governmental affairs. The mandate for our department is to promote equality
> and opportunity for all blind people so that we can live the lives we want.
> This is our assignment and our joy.
> The problem is that society views blindness as a tragedy. Our founder
> Dr. tenBroek said, "The principal misconception, the one that embodies and
> epitomizes all the rest, is that blindness means helplessness-social and
> economic incapacity; the destruction of the productive powers; the
> obliteration of the ability to contribute to or benefit from normal
> community participation; in short, the lingering image of the helpless
> blind man."
> I know a lot about these dismal views of blindness and the hope the
> NFB has to offer because of the role the NFB has played in my own life.
> About twenty years ago I began losing my eyesight. At the time I was
> working for the Advanced Digital Information Corporation and was one of
> their top salespersons. The company would fly me all over the country and
> sometimes the world so I could tell prospective clients about our high-end
> digital mass storage equipment. While on a business trip in Chicago, I
> first noticed problems with my vision. My eyesight deteriorated slowly, and
> it took several years for a retina specialist to finally diagnose my
> condition as cone rod retina degeneration. The doctor told me that my
> condition was incurable and degenerative.
> As the late 90s progressed my eyesight got worse and worse.
> Eventually I had to stop driving and turned in my driver's license for a
> state-issued ID card. In retrospect my biggest problem was my lack of a
> role model. I did not understand how a blind person could be successful at
> much of anything, and as I became a blind person I did not think I could be
> successful. I progressively relinquished all of my responsibilities at work
> to others because I didn't think I could do the work as a blind person.
> Eventually I agreed with my employer that the only option for me was to
> leave the company and go on SSDI [Social Security Disability Insurance]. I
> was resigned to the fact that I would spend the rest of my life sitting at
> home, very busy at nothing.
> In 2001 I was living in Tampa, Florida. I had learned about NFB-
> NEWSLINE® and spent hours listening to the service. I began to wonder: if
> the NFB was able to create a service as great as NFB-NEWSLINE, maybe I
> should learn more. One day I researched the NFB and discovered that there
> were hundreds of chapters and that one met close to where I lived. I went
> to the meeting and after all those years of feeling isolated and alone, I
> met another blind person. In fact, I met lots of them. But they were not
> sitting at home busy doing nothing. They had careers, families, and
> avocations. I was amazed. I was intrigued. I was motivated. I was filled
> with hope.
> I quickly got involved in NFB-NEWSLINE at the state level and
> traveled to the national center for NFB-NEWSLINE administrator training. I
> met Jim Gashel and Dr. Maurer and others. I was even more motivated and
> inspired to know that I could live the life I wanted to live. I could go
> back to living the life I used to live, but I would simply do it as a blind
> person. This would require me to do a lot of things nonvisually, but I
> quickly learned, from my ever-increasing number of NFB friends, that I
> could still do what I wanted to do.
> In February 2004, after attending the Washington Seminar, Dr. Maurer
> invited me to the national center to interview for a job. Well, as most of
> you know, I got the job.
> At the NFB we say that our battles are not over until we win. That is
> because our battles are personal. At one time I perceived being blind as an
> insurmountable problem. I was wrong. But being blind in a sighted world can
> pose some challenges. I am frustrated when I encounter inaccessible
> websites, inaccessible apps, inaccessible kiosks, inaccessible
> instructional materials, inaccessible home appliances, and inaccessible
> technology of all types--which brings me back to the Advocacy and Policy
> Department. We all share a similar story: our bond is our personal journeys
> to conquer our blindness; not with restored eyesight, but with our shared
> attitude that blindness is not what holds us back, that blindness does not
> have to be viewed as a tragedy.
> As you have heard, NFB-NEWSLINE is what introduced me to the NFB, and
> this year is the twentieth anniversary of this terrific service. It was
> conceived, designed, and implemented by the blind for the blind.
> NFB-NEWSLINE is available in forty-five states and the District of
> Columbia. It serves over 108,000 subscribers. There are 347 newspapers,
> sixteen breaking news sources, fourteen international newspapers, and forty-
> three magazines. Over the last year NFB-NEWSLINE subscribers have: enjoyed
> over thirty-eight million minutes of news, made over two million calls,
> received over two million emailed articles, logged into our web portal over
> two million times, and accessed our mobile app over 260,000 times.
> Over the past year several new features and services were added to
> the system. In December of 2014 we introduced a new continuous reading mode
> for the telephone access method. By simply pressing 99 at the section level
> of a publication, a subscriber can hear the entire publication read cover-
> to-cover without having to prompt the system to move to the next section or
> article. I love this feature.
> Two of the most recent publications added to the magazines category
> are Braille Book Review and Talking Book Topics. Books listed in these two
> publications are listed as individual articles which can be emailed to you
> by pressing #9. These emails can then be forwarded to your regional Talking
> Book Library to request these books.
> I still listen to NFB-NEWSLINE every day, but now I do it with
> purpose and pride. I am proud that the NFB could create such a valuable
> service for blind people. And I listen to learn how we can convince more
> companies to make their websites accessible, to make their apps accessible,
> to make their kiosks accessible, to make electronic instructional material
> accessible, to hire more blind people in competitive integrated employment,
> and to increase access to Braille. I am now part of the strongest, most
> effective advocacy group of blind people in America. When I go to the halls
> of Congress or to Fortune 500 companies or to universities, I go with my
> long white cane, the confidence you have given me, and the knowledge that
> we are all working together side by side to live the lives we want. Thank
> you for what you have done for me. [Applause]
> Alright, we have more to go. We're going to go through more details
> with each of our three specialists. The first one I would like to introduce
> is Lauren McLarney:
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Lauren McLarney]
> Lauren McLarney: Good afternoon, friends. I'm here to talk to you
> about the TEACH Act, so I want to know what that stands for: [tepid
> audience response] Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and
> Higher Education. What does the bill do: it creates guidelines [slight
> audience response when uttering that line]. Oh, that was awful. Okay, what
> does the bill do? [The audience responds, "It creates guidelines."]
> Okay, you guys got it. Before I get into any more details, I want to
> start by saying that this is my fifth or sixth convention, and the one
> thing that I notice is that you get to hear from us in government affairs,
> but there are a lot of other people at the National Center who work on
> these issues, particularly higher education, that you don't get to hear
> from. So there is Kristian Kuhnke and Mya Jones-they do a lot of our
> administrative support-Chris Danielsen helps with public relations. Mehgan
> Sidhu is our general counsel, and she has listened to me rattle on and on
> about the higher ed lobby for hours. Stephanie Witt is the person who did
> the TEACH Act video. Jen White makes me smile every day. There are tons of
> people at the national office who support our higher education issues, so
> if everybody could acknowledge their work even though they're not up here
> talking [applause].
> Now back to the TEACH Act and just a brief reminder of what brought
> us here. We saw the effect of inaccessible technology on students with
> disabilities in college. We saw that blind students were delaying their
> education, changing majors, even dropping out-not because they didn't have
> the work ethic and not because they weren't smart enough, but because the
> very technology that should've leveled the playing field for them was
> inaccessible and creating needless barriers. We knew we had to do something
> to stop it, and so we initiated litigation. We went to the Department of
> Justice; our student division started letter-writing campaigns; we did
> petitions; we have done everything, but we knew that nothing would change
> unless the market was stimulated to include accessible things, and that
> meant schools needed to be told that "This is what accessibility looks
> like, this is the criteria you should follow, and this is what you should
> ask for." So that is what the TEACH Act was meant to do. We introduced it
> in November, and then Senators Warren and Hatch introduced the Senate
> companion the following February. Then we got fifty-six cosponsors in the
> House and six in the Senate. We had twenty-two different groups endorsing
> the bill. We had over 1,000 views of our video, we were on a roll, and we
> were feeling good! And then the higher ed lobby said "We don't like the
> bill." Then members of Congress said "You might want to get them to like
> the bill." We thought that this made sense. We don't like it when other
> people who are not blind people say they know what's best for the blind. We
> say that we know what's best for the blind, so when Congress says higher
> education knows what's best for higher education, go talk to them; this
> made sense. So we reached out to them; that was nine months ago.
> I will tell you that we have spent the last nine months negotiating
> with them, and in that time I've had several moments of frustration. I keep
> hearing in my head this line from one of my favorite comedy bits, where the
> comedian is talking about how absurd it is when the airline tells you that
> when the oxygen mask drops down, you should adjust your mask before helping
> the person next to you. He says, "I did not need to be told that." And I
> have heard that in my head countless times over the last nine months.
> The education people told us that they do more for students with
> disabilities than anybody else. I asked if they had any specifics. They
> said no, we have 7,000 institutions, and we couldn't possibly tell you any
> specifics. They told us that the experiences that our students were
> reporting were the exception and not the rule, that we were only hearing
> from students who are having problems. We said no: we are listening to the
> National Association of Blind Students, not the National Association of
> Blind Students with Problems at institutions of higher education.
> They then began to lecture us, saying that they want help because
> they don't want to have to spend all of this money on accommodations. They
> say that the accommodations model, the separate but equal model, is really
> expensive, and again I thought, "I don't need to be told that; I know, and
> that's why we're here trying to help you." They told us that they wanted a
> new title for this bill. We said that was okay. They said they wanted a
> purposed-base commission instead of the access board, and we said we would
> be glad to think about it. Then they said they wanted a safe harbor for
> considering the guidelines during the decision-making process-just
> considering them-they should be able to buy whatever they want but should
> get a reward for considering buying accessible technology. This was the
> equivalent of saying, I sat outside the bank, and I considered not robbing
> it, but I decided to go in and rob it, and you shouldn't arrest me because
> I really thought about it. We said we would never accept that. I'm happy to
> report that nine months later, as of about two or three weeks ago, we have
> finally reached an agreement with the higher education lobby on the TEACH
> Act. [Applause]
> So what does this agreement look like? First of all, it has a new
> name. It's called the SMART Act, so scratch all of that practicing about
> what the TEACH Act stood for. The SMART Act stands for Stimulating the
> Marketplace to Make Accessibility a Reality Today. The guidelines will be
> created by a purpose-based commission with equal representation from all of
> the different stakeholder groups, so there will be seven representatives
> from the disability community, including two students with disabilities.
> There will be two or three technology experts, seven representatives from
> institutions of higher learning-higher education, and five industry reps.
> There will also be a bifurcated safe harbor, which is a fancy way of saying
> that they didn't get what they asked for. They are going to get the safe
> harbor that we proposed in the first bill, and then they will also be
> incentivized to adopt the guidelines into their decision-making process and
> write down why they make the decisions that they make, what's available on
> the market that they're choosing to reject, and how they are going to
> provide equal access to students with disabilities.
> So the next step is getting all of the different disability groups to
> join us. I thought this would be really easy, but I was on a call last week
> with a few other blindness groups, and it was kind of eye-opening. They had
> some concerns. They started out by saying, "Well, up until now we really
> appreciate all you have done. Up until this point NFB has done some
> phenomenal legal advocacy-what you have done with your litigation, those
> settlement agreements-those settlement agreements have changed everything,
> and accessibility is mandatory because of those settlement agreements."
> Then they said that their biggest concern was not the change in the safe
> harbor, not the purpose-based commission, not the new name: their biggest
> concern was that the guidelines were not mandatory. And I said, "The bill
> last year had voluntary guidelines and all of you endorsed those."
> And they said, "Well, we had a different interpretation of that
> bill."
> So I read them this line: "Nothing in this Act is to be construed to
> require an institution to only use technology that conforms to these
> guidelines." I asked them if they really thought that meant that it was
> mandatory. They said yes.
> But, when we were wrapping this conversation up, the group said they
> couldn't support it. And I said, "Okay, I'll take your concerns back to the
> higher ed lobby." And they said, "When you go back to them, go back with
> strength." I did not need to be told that. What did they think we had been
> doing for the last nine months--and they weren't there when we were doing
> it!
> Here is what NFB is doing: we have initiated over a dozen lawsuits;
> we have settled those lawsuits; the Department of Justice has intervened in
> some of our lawsuits; we have had the Department of Justice issue guidance
> that we urged them to initiate; we have conducted two or three letter-
> writing campaigns, we have met with presidents of institutions of higher
> education, we have brought the higher education lobby to the table, and
> they agreed to this bill. What have these other groups done for blind
> students? Nothing! So I'd like to have them with us, but we don't need them-
> they either need to steer clear of us or join our team, because we don't
> need anything from a group that doesn't understand this bill, the lawsuits
> they don't help us with, and the negotiations they don't participate in.
> [Applause]
> So what's next? Well, we're going to pass the bill, so we have to
> write it. The person who is going to write it you will meet in a minute,
> but the reason I'm not going to write it is because I'm leaving in August
> to go back to school. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to say:
> First, don't forget me because I want to come back. Second, what has driven
> my career choice is a quote; it's really cheesy, but I like it. William
> Carey says, "I'm not afraid of failure; I'm afraid of succeeding at things
> that don't matter." And that has driven my choices.
> The Federation is changing lives, and nothing can matter more than
> that. I have loved being a part of this family, so thank you!
> To tell you more about the SMART Act and how important this is for
> students with disabilities, here is the newest member of our team. First he
> was my friend; now he is my colleague. Please welcome Gabe Cazares.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares]
> Gabe Cazares: Howdy to my record-breaking Federation family! It's an
> honor for me to address you this afternoon as the newest member of our
> government affairs team for the National Federation of the Blind. By way of
> introduction, my journey in the Federation began in the summer of 2009 when
> I applied for a summer work program through the school for the blind. I had
> the privilege of working for the National Federation of the Blind of Texas
> as an intern. The internship was supposed to be six weeks long that summer,
> but six years later here I am.
> Because of the mentorship and love I received in my home affiliate,
> the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, and the skills and
> confidence I gained by attending the Louisiana Center for the Blind, I am
> now living the life I want. As a student I have experienced firsthand the
> barriers and frustrations that inaccessible technology pose. For instance,
> during the 2015 spring semester, my last semester of college, I took a math
> course to fulfill a core curricular requirement. The textbooks, homework,
> and quizzes for the course were all web-based. I'm a Braille reader, so I
> requested Braille copies of all the course materials since, as is too often
> the case, the web-based interface was completely inaccessible. However,
> because of a staff change in the office of disability services, my request
> for Braille materials was never submitted. So what did the school decide to
> provide me as a reasonable accommodation you may be wondering: a print copy
> of the textbook and a human reader/scribe. I was fortunate in the sense
> that the reader/scribe is also a mathematics instructor and a friend of
> mine who truly understands both the importance of Braille and the capacity
> of blind people. But stop to think about what could have happened if the
> circumstances had been different. What if I had been unsuccessful in
> completing my course assignments, my quizzes, my exams successfully because
> of the lack of access in the course? I would have failed and not graduated
> from college on time.
> The frustrating reality is that I know my story isn't the only story.
> Hundreds of students are here this week who know what it's like to be left
> behind by the same technology that has the potential to level the playing
> field for us. When you need to sign up for a course, but you can't
> independently access the registration system, that is second-class
> citizenship. When you need to check your grades-although some of us would
> rather not sometimes-but you can't independently access the learning
> management system, that is second-class citizenship. When a professor
> assigns you an online reading, but the PDF file they upload is not properly
> tagged, making it impossible for you independently to access it, that is
> second-class citizenship. It's time for developers of electronic
> instructional material and institutions of higher education to stop
> thinking about accessibility after the fact. It's time for schools to stop
> adopting a separate but equal attitude about accessibility. We will not
> accept second-class citizenship in society, and we will not accept it in
> the classroom.
> But this is what it's all about, right? This is not necessarily just
> about education. It's about the fact that, if we settle for less than
> equality in the classroom, then we are settling for being one, two, three
> steps behind everyone else for the rest of our lives. To those outside the
> Federation it's easy to assume that this second-class citizenship is just
> part of being blind-that technology benefits plenty of people-just not
> blind people, yet. And accessibility is too far beyond the horizon. We are
> just going to have to wait, and we should learn to live with this
> discrimination. But I know this is not true, and I know this is not the
> life I want to live. [Applause]
> Students are the only ones who can change the landscape, and that is
> why the National Federation of the Blind has fought for the rights of the
> blind, and we will continue to do so until both developers of electronic
> instructional material and institutions of higher education understand that
> we will not accept being an afterthought. We are not against innovation; in
> fact we know the innovation is and should be there. What we are against is
> the deployment of technology that shuts out blind students. Because having
> equal access to education is not a privilege; it's our right.
> In closing I'd like to address students in particular. As we move
> forward with the SMART Act, I call on you to be engaged and active. Passing
> this proposed legislation will revolutionize the development and
> procurement of electronic instructional materials. But we need your help.
> Tell your story. The National Association of Blind Students is always
> collecting stories about the effects of inaccessible technology. Talk to a
> fellow NABS member, and learn about how your story can make a huge impact
> in the fight for equal access. When we call for grassroots mobilization,
> don't sit on the sidelines. No one does grassroots like the National
> Federation of the Blind, and that's because our members are active,
> engaged, and energized.
> In the last few months I've been sitting in on and participating in
> our negotiations with the higher education lobby. They're at the table,
> it's true, but they don't get it. And how could they? They haven't heard
> from us. They need to hear from us, and I'm calling on you students to make
> it happen. One of the reasons I wanted to come work at the National Center
> for the Blind is because I want to take my experience as a blind student
> and use it to bring about meaningful change for blind students across the
> country. I know what it's currently like to be a blind student in the
> United States. And let me tell you something, Federation family: it's
> unacceptable. However, I take comfort in knowing that with our grassroots
> movement, our legislative influence, and the love, hope, and determination
> of the nation's blind, we will see complete access to electronic
> instructional materials become the norm, not the exception. [Applause]
> Thank you for giving me the privilege of working for our movement. I
> sincerely look forward to building the Federation with you.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Sloan]
> Rose Sloan: Good afternoon, NFB family! It's so great to be here at
> our seventy-fifth convention. Before I begin I'd like to take a moment to
> say thank you to someone who has been a huge positive influence on me. And
> also, you might want to know who I am. I'm Rose Sloan, and I'm also a
> government affairs specialist at the NFB National Center. I specifically
> handle everything employment with regard to policy. The person who I would
> really like to say thank you to is someone I talked to two years ago in
> this very room. I sought her out because she had the type of job I wanted.
> Ladies and gentlemen, the person who has been such a role model to me is
> Lauren McLarney. Thanks in part to her advocacy on my behalf, I got a shot
> at working at the national office. Lauren, I, along with many
> Federationists, will really miss you. You've inspired and motivated us all
> with your never-ending determination and energy, and we can't thank you
> enough. I wish you the best of luck as you further your education. Can we
> take a moment to show Lauren our appreciation? [Cheers, applause] You'll
> truly be missed. I also wish to welcome Gabe to the team; wasn't his
> presentation great? Finally, I just wanted to say I cannot wait to start
> working with Mr. Parnell Diggs; it'll be wonderful.
> As our one-minute message so eloquently states, we raise expectations
> for blind people, because low expectations create obstacles. These
> obstacles couldn't be more prevalent than in the employment sphere, and
> specifically in the jobs and wages that are assigned and paid to people
> with disabilities.
> Passed in 1938, but practiced prior to, and even today in 2015,
> people with disabilities are being paid sub-minimum wages. Some of our
> fellow Americans with disabilities are being paid a dollar, a quarter, even
> zero dollars and zero cents per hour! [Boos from crowd] But although this
> practice may not be affecting you directly, it is absolutely affecting each
> and every one of us indirectly. The low expectations that society sets for
> us stem from many places, but the mere fact that we can be paid sub-minimum
> wages does not reflect our attitude of high expectations. The low wages
> that are paid to our brothers and sisters with disabilities are a
> reflection of the low expectation set for them and, in effect, for all of
> us. We, the National Federation of the Blind, are committed to ending this
> antiquated, discriminatory, and demeaning practice of paying people with
> disabilities sub-minimum wages. We support H.R. 188, the Transitioning to
> Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act, or the TIME Act. Sponsored by
> Congressman Gregg Harper from Mississippi, the TIME Act will responsibly
> phase out section 14(c) over a three-year period. The idea of repealing
> section 14(c) is supported by over eighty disability organizations, and
> thanks to all of your hard work at and after the Washington Seminar, I'm
> happy to report that the TIME Act is up to forty cosponsors. And to me, the
> very exciting thing about these particular forty cosponsors is that there
> are eighteen Republicans and twenty-two Democrats-very bipartisan
> legislation so far.
> I encourage all of you, especially if you live in districts that have
> a Republican representative, please to write, email, or call your national
> legislators, and urge them to join the forty members of Congress who
> already support the TIME Act. Maybe you wrote them after Washington
> Seminar. It's time to write them again; it's time for 14(c) to be repealed.
> After all, a few states in our great nation have already shown that every
> person, regardless of disability, is worthy of at least the minimum wage.
> On May 7, 2015, the governor of New Hampshire signed S.B. 47 into law. S.B.
> 47 says that no entity can pay a person with a disability a sub-minimum
> wage. Congratulations, New Hampshire!
> Other steps have been taken, too. For example, the Workforce
> Innovation and Opportunity Act created a committee tasked with increasing
> the integrated and competitive opportunities for workers with disabilities.
> Dr. Schroeder is a member of this committee. I want to join him in urging
> all of you to write emails to the committee, and now there's a simpler way
> to do this. To personalize a template email, please visit
> <www.nfb.org/ice>. ICE stands for Integrated Competitive Employment;
> remember ICE. The form will allow you to include your own personal reasons
> as to why you feel that 14(c) should be phased out. Perhaps you might
> explain how discriminatory and unhelpful sub-minimum wage environments are
> for people with disabilities. Maybe you'll remind the members of the
> committee that there are alternatives to 14(c) certificates such as
> customized and supported employment. Or maybe you'll mention that New
> Hampshire and Vermont have already figured it out, and there are
> competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with
> disabilities. If enough of us use our voices, the committee will recommend
> that Section 14(c) be responsibly phased out. Who can I count on to fill
> out the form at <www.nfb.org/ice>? [Cheers] That's what I thought. No other
> group does it like us; our voices will surely be heard by the committee.
> Since I last spoke to you at Washington Seminar in January, the
> legislative affairs team has been working diligently on legislation that
> will help improve the Social Security Disability Insurance system. As
> you've likely noticed, SSDI is a rather hot topic right now. The trust fund
> will be insolvent as early as December of next year, and, unless Congress
> takes action, SSDI beneficiaries will see about a 19 percent cut in their
> benefits. As you can imagine, Congress does not want this to happen, as
> demonstrated by actions they are taking every day. This morning they held a
> meeting about this very topic. The insolvency of the SSDI trust fund is not
> the only problem. The work incentives currently in place for blind SSDI
> beneficiaries are broken. To illustrate my point and explain the need for
> change, I'm going to tell you about my friend, Allison Duttner.
> Allison is a smart woman who loves to teach. She taught in New Mexico
> and now lives in California. She is an SSDI beneficiary. Because she cannot
> live on her SSDI benefit alone, and because, quite frankly, she doesn't
> want to just sit at home all day collecting money from the government,
> Allison works part-time as an electronic transcriber. But Allison has to be
> really careful about how much money she earns. Because, believe it or not,
> she could lose money if she works too much. And Allison isn't alone in this
> predicament. In fact, many blind people throughout this nation are either
> turning down jobs or discouraged from looking for work at all because it
> could cost them money. Simply put, blind SSDI beneficiaries can maximize
> their take-home income by working part-time and collecting SSDI as opposed
> to working full-time. This is backwards! Blind individuals want to raise
> expectations for ourselves; we want to be independent, but the system
> doesn't allow us to do that.
> So what will the reform look like? As long as we make our voices
> heard, it will encompass the Blind Persons Return to Work Act, a piece of
> proposed legislation that will create a two-for-one phase out of benefits,
> eliminate the confusing and unhelpful trial work period, and expand work
> expenses to blind SSDI beneficiaries.
> Low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our
> vocational dreams. We want real jobs at real wages. [Applause] We want an
> SSDI system that encourages us to always work to our full potential. By
> working together as we have been doing for seventy-five years, we will be
> heard on Capitol Hill. We will ensure that the TIME Act and the Blind
> Persons Return to Work Act are signed into law. No one does it like the
> Federation; no one does it like us. Be on the lookout for emails that will
> alert you to contact your members of Congress about all of the legislative
> priorities you've heard about today. Have a great convention, everyone.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Shirley Morris]
> Shirley Morris: A Life Remembered
> by Mary Ellen Jernigan
>
> Shirley Morris passed away on August 10, 2015. An active
> Federationist for nearly fifty years, Shirley and her husband Don (high
> school sweethearts who had eloped during their senior year) celebrated
> their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary earlier in the year. Their life-long
> partnership was so complete that one rarely thought about "Shirley" or
> "Don." Rather what came to mind almost invariably was the unit which one
> thought of simply as "the Morrises." It is difficult to think about Shirley
> without feeling the warmth of her seemingly ever-present smile.
> Shirley joined the Federation in 1968 at the time Don was one of Dr.
> Jernigan's students at the Iowa Commission for the Blind Adult Orientation
> and Training Center. Not merely an "accompanying spouse" Shirley quickly
> became a Federationist in her own right. Many came to know her as the
> capable manager of convention registration processes and the compassionate
> problem solver when an individual had troubles-be it a mangled spelling on
> a name badge, a lost banquet ticket, a lost cane, a lost wallet, or, in
> many a case, offering comfort to those who felt that they themselves were
> the "lost item" and were in need of encouragement. At the national
> convention (in later years often with a grandchild in tow), and at the
> Maryland state convention, Shirley carried out these tasks with dedication,
> grace, and that radiant smile for more than thirty years.
> A lesser known fact about Shirley is that in the early 1970s when the
> national office of the Federation was located in the Randolph Hotel
> Building in Des Moines, Iowa, she more or less single-handedly managed what
> today we would call the Independence Market and the Materials Center. At
> that time there were very few sources where a blind person could buy such
> things as Braille watches, Braille playing cards, measuring devices, and so
> on, and Dr. Jernigan asked Shirley to help get our program underway and to
> otherwise manage the operation of that office.
> Most often we tend to think about the value of participation in the
> Federation in terms of what it does in the lives of blind people. Far less
> frequently do we consider and recognize the very significant gifts all of
> us-whether blind or sighted-get from the kind of training and life
> experience the Federation offers. In the case of a sighted Federationist, I
> am talking about something more than merely having a blind spouse or
> sighted children who have blind parents or sighted parents who have blind
> children and the benefits gained by such families in their understanding of
> blindness.
> Shirley gave deep expression to what I am describing in how she dealt
> with her cancer. Having fully understood and embraced the tenets of the
> Federation for much of her adult life, she knew the path she would take. So
> for eighteen years she refused to let cancer be the characteristic that
> defined her life. She did the things that it made sense for her to do with
> respect to it, making this or that accommodation in the way she did things
> as necessary, and then she lived the life she wanted to live. The low
> expectations of others never came between her and her dreams. She lived
> with love and joy and hope-radiating those qualities to her family and
> others in her wide circle of friends and admirers. She combined her very
> considerable natural attributes of grace and generosity with her Federation
> training to leave to those of us who loved her a profound legacy for
> living.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Angel Ayala]
> #NCBYS: Making the Connection and Equipping the Next Generation
> by Angel Ayala
>
>> From the Editor: We know that the road to success often begins with a good
> education, and we know how often this is where a string of failures leading
> to passivity, low expectations, and a poor self-concept can begin. Not only
> do we pledge to change that system but to work with those currently in it
> so that they get what they need to think of themselves as positive and
> productive human beings.
>
> Angel Ayala is now a freshman in college, but at the time of his
> presentation he was a newly graduated high school senior. Here is what he
> has to say about his school experience and the part the National Federation
> of the Blind has played in helping him to think of himself as someone who
> can make a difference:
>
> Good morning. My name is Angel Ayala, and I am honored to speak to
> you about the NFB STEM2U apprenticeship program. But first, I think I
> should tell you who I am. I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and at the
> time I was a healthy little boy. Blindness was the last thing on my mother
> and father's minds. That all changed when I started to get sick. I was
> about eight months old, and the doctors were a bit confused as to what was
> happening to me. The only thing that was clear was that I was losing my
> vision. Not only were my parents extremely young, but now their firstborn
> was rapidly losing his vision. I took a battery of tests, and the doctors
> confirmed that I had a rare form of ligneous conjunctivitis. Soon after my
> diagnosis my parents moved us to Philadelphia. I have lived in Philadelphia
> ever since.
> After years of checkups, tests, and different doctors, it finally
> occurred to me that I wasn't getting my vision back. At first I was
> depressed. I didn't think I would be able to be on the same level as my
> brothers and sisters. I saw them playing outside or inside on the GameCube,
> and I thought I was less a person, that my lack of sight was what defined
> me. But I eventually realized that I was wrong.
> My mom enrolled me in the Overbrook School for the Blind's early
> childhood program, where I started to learn Braille. That was the point at
> which I realized that I love to learn new things. I loved to challenge the
> things that I've read, and I love to ask questions about the things that I
> didn't know. I learned about Louis Braille and Helen Keller, and this gave
> me the hope that I needed to challenge what I believed was a wall that I
> could never get past.
> Fast-forward five years. I was a troublesome kid when I came to
> school. I would get my work done, and I was left with nothing to do for the
> last thirty-five minutes of the class. So I would start to joke around and
> mess with the other students in my class. I knew it wasn't helpful to the
> staff or the students for that matter, but I was bored, and I had nothing
> else better to do. It was frustrating because I knew what the issue was. I
> was not challenged. The work was way too easy, but who was I to say that?
> With no one listening to what I had to say, I was labeled a bad apple, and
> that was pretty much it.
> Two years and many middle school parent-teacher conferences later, I
> finally felt like someone was taking notice of what the real issue was. My
> IEP was restructured, and I was placed in a classroom that was challenging.
> For the first time in years it was great. I was challenged; I got the help
> I needed; I got the materials I needed to succeed.
> But public school came with its own set of battles. The physical
> education instructor told me that I couldn't participate in class because
> she didn't want me to get hurt. [Moans from the audience] So let me paint
> this picture for you. There were thirty-five sighted students playing and
> exercising around me, and if I so much as made a move to do something
> productive, I got in trouble. Honestly my favorite time was when the
> teacher got sick. A substitute would come in who didn't know about the
> regular rules when it came to me, so I was able to play basketball with my
> classmates; I was taught to jump rope. I was simply tired of people telling
> me what I couldn't do, so I made the extra effort to prove that I could.
> My mom gave me the freedom to learn whatever I wanted to do. She let
> me do things myself. But the independence I enjoyed at home didn't carry
> over to my school environment, and that was frustrating. When I started
> high school, I realized that I was not prepared for the transition like I
> should've been. My O&M skills were severely lacking, and I still had some
> issues when it came to my visual impairment. Despite feeling unprepared, I
> took advantage of all the opportunities high school had to offer. I joined
> the swim team; I began to wrestle; I played goalball, and I did track and
> field. I also got involved in my community-many community service projects
> such as the campout for hunger, which is a Thanksgiving canned food drive.
> It was through community involvement that I ran across the NFB STEM2U
> apprenticeship program. NFB STEM2U was a science, technology, engineering,
> and math (STEM) program that focused on the development and mentoring of
> both elementary and high school students. At the program elementary school
> students were called juniors, and the high school students-we were called
> the apprentices. Each program was run in collaboration with a science
> museum. This past school year the NFB STEM2U program was held in Baltimore,
> Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and Boston, Massachusetts. Each program had eight
> to ten apprentices and twenty juniors. At the program all the students
> learned a lot of STEM: for example, we learned how to build racecars out of
> recyclable items and how to assemble circuits to power fans. In addition to
> learning STEM, the apprentices had another job to do. Our job was to help
> the younger students, if needed, to make sure they were safe and to help
> bring them information and knowledge throughout the program.
> At the beginning of the school year in September, the apprentices
> from all the different regions met at the NFB Jernigan Institute in
> Baltimore, Maryland, for the NFB STEM2U Leadership Academy. The objective
> of this leadership academy was to teach how to be good mentors, role
> models, and leaders of the younger students. Among other things, we learned
> how to interact with the juniors and learned the nonvisual techniques for
> keeping track of kids. We also took time to lay down goals that we wanted
> to keep in mind during our regional program. We exchanged contact
> information at the leadership academy because we learned that we would have
> to have weekly meetings until the program weekend was here so that we could
> prepare for the activities and get the information that we needed to make a
> successful program.
> We were responsible for completing different tasks in order to
> prepare ourselves for the regional programs with the juniors. For example,
> we figured out which students would be with which mentor, and we determined
> the junior-to-apprentice ratio that would be most helpful. We also planned
> the opening activities for all the juniors. We spent a lot of time
> preparing ourselves for the regional program, but we still felt a little
> uneasy going into it. This was a new role for all of us, and we weren't
> sure how it would go.
> It was finally time for the Baltimore program, which I had the
> pleasure to be a part of. I took an Amtrak train for the first time, and
> others took a plane or two to get to the NFB Jernigan Institute. We got to
> meet the juniors we were responsible for as well as their parents. We had
> to show the parents and their children how to get to the different
> activities. This meant posting mentors in the hallways as marshals to help
> participants to find their way to meals, lessons, and workshops. That
> weekend took a lot of teamwork and communication, not only among the
> mentors, but also between the juniors and the parents. During the Baltimore
> NFB STEM2U regional program we taught the juniors that "I can't" is not an
> option. We taught them to be advocates for themselves. We had to show the
> juniors that the possibilities are endless and that, if you create a goal
> and develop ways to reach that goal in order to reach that bigger picture,
> you will succeed.
> The NFB STEM2U program improved my self-confidence in several
> different areas. It made me realize that with some help I can make a
> difference in these young juniors' lives. I didn't really know how big of
> an impact I made on the juniors' lives until a parent of one of the juniors
> for whom I was responsible reached out to my homeroom teacher and let her
> know that after the NFB STEM2U, she saw a boost in her son's willingness to
> try new things. The mom said that the mentors took a great amount of time
> and patience with the juniors, and that allowed them to focus on the
> activities that were provided for the parents that weekend. When I learned
> what this mom had said about our work, it made me smile. I didn't know if
> the lessons we taught that weekend would actually stick over time. This is
> when I figured out that I could really make a difference.
> Another way the NFB STEM2U affected me was my traveling skills. First
> of all, I had never taken Amtrak. I had taken a plane several times by
> myself, but I had never taken Amtrak. It was a new experience that
> encouraged me to travel more and to learn everything I could when it came
> to O&M. I plan on taking the confidence I have gained from the NFB STEM2U
> mentorship program with me to community college. I recently was accepted
> into the honors program, and I want to get my associates degree in music
> production. But I am extremely scared. I'm starting to second-guess my
> decision. Music has always been a passion of mine that I have had since I
> was a young boy, but I don't want to get a degree that I will do absolutely
> nothing with. Too many people achieve degrees that they do not end up
> using. What does this mean? Well, they have a degree, and they also have a
> huge debt but no way to pay it off. I don't want to be stuck in that
> position, but I also don't know what I can do that would make me happy and
> also pay the bills. I guess only time will tell.
> You all probably know this already, but I want to reinforce what a
> big impact programs like NFB STEM2U have on everyone who is involved.
> Children are our future, and in order to make sure that they have the
> skills they need to succeed, we must start the learning process early in
> their lives. A Hebrew proverb states, "A child is not a vessel to be filled
> but a lamp to be lit." NFB STEM2U has lit many lamps. I hope that we can
> continue to have programs like NFB STEM2U so that we can reach these
> children at a younger age. Programs like the NFB STEM2U allow young adults
> to mentor young juniors, expanding their willingness to learn new things,
> and I would love to remain involved in programs that help youth. I know
> that I am not the only apprentice who feels this way. By the time the NFB
> STEM2U Baltimore program was over, many of the mentors asked if we could do
> it again. I enjoyed teaching, I enjoyed helping the young students, and I
> know that the other mentors did as well. I'd like to thank the NFB for
> hosting a program like the NFB STEM2U in order to prepare the youth for the
> future. I'd also like to thank Natalie Shaheen, Mika Baugh, and Ashley
> Ritter for being a part of our conference calls every week leading up to
> the program. Your insight into how to deal with our juniors was very much
> needed. Thank you to everyone who gave their time instructing both the
> apprentices and juniors. I believe it took all of us working together in
> order to make this program work. Thank you to my fellow mentors. There was
> no way I could've done this alone. It took a lot of preparation and
> teamwork, but because we all pulled our own weight, we were able to give
> the juniors the tools they will use for the rest of their lives. Thank you
> to Mr. Mark Riccobono for giving me this opportunity to speak to you about
> a program that has affected so many people's lives. Words aren't enough to
> show the gratitude that I feel, so I think I will just stick with thank
> you. If you are thinking about participating in a program involving youth,
> my advice is to just do it. It is an experience that I wouldn't trade for
> the world. Thank you.
> ----------
> Giving a Dream
>
> One of the great satisfactions in life is having the opportunity to
> assist others. Consider making a gift to the National Federation of the
> Blind to continue turning our dreams into reality. A gift to the NFB is not
> merely a donation to an organization; it provides resources that will
> directly ensure a brighter future for all blind people.
>
> Seize the Future
>
> The National Federation of the Blind has special giving opportunities
> that will benefit the giver as well as the NFB. Of course the largest
> benefit to the donor is the satisfaction of knowing that the gift is
> leaving a legacy of opportunity. However, gifts may be structured to
> provide more:
> . Helping the NFB fulfill its mission
> . Realizing income tax savings through a charitable deduction
> . Making capital gain tax savings on contributions of appreciated assets
> . Eliminating or lowering the federal estate tax in certain situations
> . Reducing estate settlement costs
>
> NFB programs are dynamic:
> . Making the study of science and math a real possibility for blind
> children
> . Providing hope and training for seniors losing vision
> . Promoting state and local programs to help blind people become first-
> class citizens
> . Educating the public about blind people's true potential
> . Advancing technology helpful to the blind
> . Creating a state-of-the-art library on blindness
> . Training and inspiring professionals working with the blind
> . Providing critical information to parents of blind children
> . Mentoring blind job seekers
> Your gift makes you a partner in the NFB dream. For further
> information or assistance, contact the NFB.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Kannan Pashupathy]
> A Growing Partnership for Accessibility: Google and the Organized Blind
> Movement
> by Kannan Pashupathy
>
>> From the Editor: Readers of the Braille Monitor will remember that we did
> an in-depth article about Google in the June 2014 issue. That article began
> with generally accepted criticisms of productivity tools being offered by
> Google to state governments, colleges, and universities. It explained how
> this mass deployment of products would be almost irresistible to those
> organizations, and therefore Google's products must meet a higher bar and
> be accessible since the result would be lesser opportunities for blind
> people if they could not be used. That article ended with a positive
> interview featuring Eve Andersson and Kannan Pashupathy. In it they
> promised many positive changes in Google products, and this report confirms
> that they are as good as their word and have made major strides in making
> their products usable by blind people. Here is what Mr. Pashupathy said:
>
> I was really taken by deputy secretary Lu's speech, and frankly I
> have forgotten what I was going to say. [Laughter] Fortunately I have some
> written notes here.
> A very, very good morning to all of you, and thank you for inviting
> me to speak at this gathering. When Mark sent a letter to me, he said this
> was the largest gathering of blind people in the United States and some
> people said maybe in the world. I heard that you set a record-a Guinness
> World Record-congratulations on that. [Applause]
> As was said, my name is Kannan Pashupathy, and for the last couple of
> years I have had the pleasure and the honor of leading Google's
> accessibility efforts globally. I know that you've heard from Alan Eustace
> in years prior, and Alan decided that we clearly weren't making the kind of
> progress that we needed to make as a company and asked me to step in and
> take charge. This has involved ensuring that all our products work well for
> people of all abilities, creating a culture where designing for
> accessibility is baked into our DNA and engaging with organizations such as
> the NFB to make sure that we're meeting and exceeding your needs.
> As many other speakers have mentioned, it's particularly a great time
> to be talking to you here on the important milestone of the seventy-fifth
> anniversary of the NFB. I also want to congratulate Jim Gashel on the
> twenty-fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As you all
> know, his role was pivotal in the creation and the passage of the ADA, and
> I happened to share a ride with Ray Kurzweil yesterday on the flight over
> from San Francisco, and he was telling me stories about back then when they
> used to talk a lot while the passage of the ADA was in progress.
> It was two years ago, and I had just taken over this role at Google
> that I just mentioned. At our very first meeting Dr. Maurer invited me to
> the convention to experience what you all go through every year here in
> Orlando. So I came, and boy what an experience it was. I'd never seen
> anything like this before, so I went back extraordinarily inspired. I was
> here, of course, to learn: learn about the community, learn about your
> hopes and aspirations, and learn about how well we were or were not serving
> the community. My goodness, as I said, it was a great experience along so
> many different dimensions, and I was so glad to have come.
> At the end of that, while I was sitting at the banquet, I resolved
> that I would not only work hard to make our current products accessible but
> that we would also undertake to make fundamental changes in the way in
> which we approach the notion of accessibility right from design to
> implementation to launch. I vowed that we would make a positive impact on
> the culture of the company with regard to accessibility.
> To do this we started training programs in accessibility for every
> new engineer, product manager, and user experience designer who joined the
> company. As you probably know, accessible product design is not something
> that is taught in universities. This was a big surprise to me-I thought
> that this would be something that would be part of the standard curriculum
> in computer science, but it isn't. By the way, this is something that I'm
> trying to fix on the side.
> We also developed programs for engineers who are already in the
> company and even non-engineers. We have created online courses for
> developers both inside and outside the company as well and have set each
> product area of the company on a path to address all of the critical
> issues, whether they be bugs to fix or features that we needed to develop.
> You may not know this, but throughout this entire process we've had
> regular meetings with the NFB. Throughout this process we were guided by
> the NFB and in particular Dr. Maurer, Mark [Riccobono] here, Jim, of
> course, and Anne Taylor, I know is here, who encouraged us when they knew
> that we were trying our best to make these very large and critical changes
> at the company. They scolded us when they thought that it was not enough,
> but, most importantly, I think they inspired us to innovate in this
> important area, and I really feel privileged to have had a chance to work
> with such strong advocates for the blind and just such fantastic human
> beings. So thank you.
> As I mentioned, we were also fortunate to have a pioneer and a friend
> of the NFB, Ray Kurzweil, [applause] as a key advisor to us in our efforts,
> along with Vint Cerf, who many of you know is often called the father of
> the internet. Both of these folks are Googlers-my colleagues-and people who
> kept us honest and played a pivotal role in making sure that what we were
> attempting to do was not a flash in the pan but built to last.
> I recall that when I came two years ago a journalist had written at
> the time that Google had begun to listen but that listening was not enough
> and that we would be judged by our actions and our results. [Applause]
> While I would be the first one to acknowledge that we continue to have a
> lot to do, and you have my word that we'll stay on it, I'm proud of the
> work that we have done so far to make meaningful improvements in our
> products and innovating across a number of areas to go beyond current
> notions of accessibility and to have fundamentally changed how Google the
> company now looks at accessibility. Our teams are passionate, they are
> driven, they are inspired to do the best for all of you. Some of them were
> actually here until a couple of days ago-you guys have dueling conventions,
> so they had to spend part of their time here and go off to the other
> convention that is also happening this week. I hope that many of you got a
> chance to meet them. One of them, Astrid, was even working hard over the
> last couple of days in doing user experience research with many of you on
> our hangouts and Google cross products. I'm here to tell you that this is
> only the beginning and that there's a lot more to come, and I hope that one
> day we will not only have earned your respect but your love of our products
> and our efforts. [Applause]
> The product-related efforts that we're doing at the company are too
> numerous to mention-I won't bore you, and I believe that you're running a
> little late, so I'll cut it short. But, let me go through a few things-
> particularly those where I know you've experienced some positive changes
> because I've gotten that feedback and also because most of these were
> prioritized based on input from the NFB. To begin, let me mention the
> innovations and accessibility improvements in Google Docs, Sheets, and
> Slides, including Braille keyboard input and output on Docs. I know we need
> to do more work here-lots of improvements coming-but we're really happy to
> have made the progress we have on that in the last year. We have seen lots
> of improvement in Google's Chrome OS Operating System (which you may know
> is the one that runs on our Chromebook laptops) including touchscreen
> gestures like you would use on a phone, Braille keyboard input, Unified
> English Braille support, and other features. Roger Benz, who is a blind
> Google employee who was here earlier in the week, has narrated many
> "Getting Started with Google Docs" videos that you can take a look at on
> YouTube. Those are a great way to get started if you haven't had a chance
> to see all of the improvements that we've made.
> In addition, on Android we've worked on features like color inversion
> to help people with low vision, color correction for people who are
> colorblind, and something new called Switch Access to help people who have
> motor impairments actually use the phone effectively. Earlier this year we
> won the FCC Chairman's Award for advancement in accessibility for our
> reCAPTCHA improvements. This is one thing Dr. Maurer complained about at
> the very first meeting I had with him. We're actually going a step further-
> we've been able to replace most CAPTCHAs with something called no CAPTCHAs.
> This is where the user just has to hit a checkbox and say "I'm a human;
> leave me alone." Yes, we did test it with screen readers, and it works.
> As Secretary Lu mentioned in recounting the story of the company he
> saw, we've also been working on various automated and manual and testing
> tools to allow developers both inside and outside Google to automatically
> test their software for accessibility issues like missing image descriptors
> or unlabeled buttons that I know you've been very frustrated about. These
> tools should really simplify how people develop and test accessibility
> features in their applications across all of these different platforms that
> I've mentioned, and these are only some of the improvements that we've made
> in the past year.
> You may have heard that Mark and Jim were at Google I/O, our annual
> developer's conference, a few weeks ago. At that meeting Mark inspired a
> large gathering of developers about why they should be thinking about
> accessibility early and often and exhorted them to innovate in this space.
> He even showed us a video of him driving one of the cars, which I believe
> is a research project that has been going on at NFB for a while. This talk
> by Mark was done in the context of a larger session on accessibility, where
> we spoke with developers about how to do a great job of making products
> fully accessible on all of our platforms. At this event we also launched a
> very important initiative which was a $20 million grant funding from
> Google.org, our philanthropic arm, for a first-of-its-kind Google Impact
> Challenge focused entirely on disabilities. [Applause] This challenge will
> last a year, and throughout the challenge we will identify, fund, and
> support nonprofits working to increase access to opportunities for people
> living with disabilities. We are looking for big ideas here from nonprofits
> with technology at their core that show serious potential to scale the
> impact on people around the world who are living with a disability. You can
> learn more by doing a Google search for Google Impact Challenge. I know the
> team here at NFB is working on coming up with some great ideas; I'm looking
> forward to hearing about them soon.
> Finally, I was very heartened to hear from Jim just a few minutes ago
> that you've actually passed resolution seventeen this year, which
> acknowledges our efforts and improvements that we've made in Google Drive,
> Docs, Spreadsheets, and Slides. That vote of confidence is a real
> inspiration for me and our team, and I really thank you for your support in
> acknowledging that.
> As I've already said, I know that we have a lot more work to do,
> particularly on Braille support, and we will continue to work on it; you
> have my word. With that let me thank the NFB leaders and the members for
> working with us to make the internet and its vast array of products and
> benefits fully available to all blind people, and we look forward to a long
> and continuing partnership in the years to come.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Maura Healey]
> Leadership through Law: Perspectives on Advancing Civil Rights for the
> Blind
> by Maura Healey
>
>> From the Editor: Maura Healey is the attorney general of Massachusetts. The
> National Federation of the Blind has partnered with her in a number of
> actions which have resulted in significant advancements in access. Her
> commitment to civil rights and her belief in serving the public is clear.
> Here are the remarks she made on Friday afternoon, July 10, 2015, following
> a presentation by Dr. Raymond Kurzweil:
>
> Thank you so much, Mr. President. Good afternoon, everyone. It is
> great to be here. I'm just reminded, Ray-see I chickened out. I was a
> government major in college-go figure-I stayed away from all that science,
> but God bless Ray and all the folks out there who take the time to do that
> great and important work. That was fascinating.
> Happy birthday, NFB! It's so great, and indulge me: I want to give a
> shout-out to our Massachusetts delegation back there: David, Amy, Mika, and
> I've got to give a shout-out to Maryland as well. You see, I was born in
> Bethesda; I spent the first two years of my life in Rockville. And how
> about that Guinness World Record? That is so impressive: give yourselves a
> hand! I'm going to tweet that on our site. We're going to blast that out
> all over Massachusetts, and let everybody know what you did.
> I got down here last night late, but I know some of you had to get up
> really early in the morning to do that, to make that beautiful mosaic, and
> to make such a bold statement. Live the life you want; you better believe
> it. Good for all of you; it's just great.
> As was mentioned, I worked in the attorney general's office long
> enough that I actually became the attorney general. I started life as a
> young lawyer at a big firm after I hung up my basketball shoes. If you were
> to see me--I'm about five-foot-four; you wouldn't see that one coming--but
> I was a feisty point guard in college and then ended up playing ball
> overseas for a few years. So I was always a little bit used to being
> underestimated most of my life, not being taken seriously on the court, not
> exactly fitting the profile, not exactly fitting people's expectations. But
> I, like many of you, came to use that to my advantage. I ultimately decided
> that basketball wasn't going to be the be-all and end-all for me. At some
> point my knees were going to give out. So I went to law school, and I went
> to law school because I wanted to be an advocate; I wanted to help people.
> I graduated from law school, got some terrific training at a big law firm
> in private practice, but then followed my heart, left that to join the
> attorney general's office eight years ago, and had a wild ride to the point
> where I loved it so much I actually quit that job two years ago to run for
> attorney general. People thought I was nuts because I wasn't a politician,
> hadn't run for anything before, but I believed passionately in the power
> and the possibility of the law and what it could do to change people's
> lives and make a difference. I'm going to come back to that, because I have
> to tell you that I would not be attorney general of Massachusetts were it
> not for the NFB: Were it not for the experience that all of you in this
> organization taught me about the law and about how you can use it to make a
> difference. I am just so honored to be here; I am so privileged to be here
> among all of you.
> Flash forward-I won the race last November, and I got sworn in in
> January. So we're just a few months into the work, but the work of the
> attorney general's office in this area has been ongoing for many years.
> In my time, I want you to know that I have come to know first-hand
> the value and the power of this organization. I have been wanting to come
> to Orlando for many years, not to Disney, but to this convention. I've got
> to tell you: I'm so happy to be here.
> So the NFB is unique. You are a remarkable organization with a
> dedicated staff and incredible leadership. I want to commend President
> Riccobono and all of your team who put on this wonderful event. It's
> amazing with over 50,000 members, and chapters and affiliates in all fifty
> states. You are such a powerful voice for individuals: pushing
> expectations, breaking barriers, shifting the lens in such important ways-
> not only to see what is possible but also what is right-what is right and
> what it should be. Your mission is one that I admire, that I embrace, that
> I support: education, empowerment, teaching people the tools to live the
> life that they want. This is so, whether it's ensuring access to housing;
> employment; transportation; education; equal access in public spaces, both
> physical and digital; and equal access to quality healthcare.
> Now I know that equal access doesn't just happen. It takes thoughtful
> policy-making, strong advocacy, and aggressive enforcement. But most of all
> it takes people like you: the members of NFB out there every day, living
> your lives, telling your stories, and teaching people along the way about
> what is possible and what is right. The NFB has done that time and time
> again, from dedicated legal representation to your legislative and
> regulatory advocacy across this country, to your investment in new
> technologies and research. The NFB has truly been and continues to be a
> leader in fighting for equality, for accessibility, and for what is right.
> [Applause]
> But your work goes beyond that. It's about the community that you've
> built together-it is inspiring. With young and old, with programs, with
> training, with encouragement of Braille literacy, the NFB-NEWSLINE® talking
> newspaper and more: in so many ways you are so remarkable.
> But enough about the NFB. Let me get back to me for a minute, okay?
> I'm going to tell you a little story. I'll tell you the story about how I
> came to know the NFB. In March of 2007 I quit my job in private practice,
> took a big pay cut, and became chief of the civil rights division in the
> attorney general's office in Massachusetts-a dream job for me. I was so
> excited to be there and so excited at the opportunity to use the law to
> advance civil rights. But I didn't know a whole heck of a lot. I had the
> passion and the commitment, but I had a lot of education in front of me. I
> also had a new boss, who had just gotten elected, and we were all sort of
> feeling one another out.
> One day in my office I got a telephone call from a guy named Dan
> Goldstein; have you heard of him? [Applause] Well, one of my colleagues had
> given me a little bit of a warning about Dan-in the nicest of ways
> described him as tough, persistent, the smartest lawyer I'll ever meet, and
> a real advocate.
> I took the call, of course, and I was blown away and at that point
> began my education-an education that has led me to today. Dan told me a
> little story about one of his clients, an organization called the NFB. He
> told me about some of the problems that the NFB was having with a little
> company called Apple. Now, I'd heard of Apple; I hadn't heard of the NFB.
> In no time at all, Dan was offering, in his indomitable way, to hop on a
> plane and bring to Boston a guy named Marc Maurer. I didn't know Marc
> Maurer, but boy did I come to know Marc Maurer.
> A few weeks later Dan, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, and the terrific folks
> from Brown, Goldstein, & Levy, accompanied by folks from NFB-let's give it
> up again for Dr. Maurer [Applause]-how about that? [Chanting of "Dr.
> Maurer"] Those are better than any cheers I ever heard on any basketball
> arena-that's pretty good.
> So they came to town. They came to Boston, and they told the story
> about what it was that was happening with regard to Apple. Now I have to
> say this was a real education. JAWS-I thought Jaws was a movie about
> sharks; I had no idea what they were talking about. But, as they walked me
> and the team in the office through the issue, demonstrating the problem
> with the technology, I quickly realized how Apple products were leaving
> students and users behind, leaving them in the dust. In the wake of
> incredibly interesting emerging technology, there was going to be a whole
> category of people in this country who were going to be left behind. I
> understood fundamentally as a civil rights lawyer that that was wrong.
> But the story continues, and my education continued. I got an
> invitation from Dr. Maurer to go to Baltimore. I visited the NFB, and I
> toured the NFB. I went to the Jernigan Institute. I had the privilege of
> attending the Jacobus tenBroek program-wonderful-and learned so much from
> those sessions. You know what I also learned? I learned that so much of the
> civil rights laws and civil rights stories and speeches from people like
> Dr. Martin Luther King-you know who inspired that? Jacobus tenBroek. That's
> where so much of that began. That's something that not enough people in
> America know. But that is the truth, and that is a rich part of the history
> of this organization.
> At some point I figured we had accumulated enough information to be
> able to go forward, and I can't say enough to you about the lawyers that
> you have on your staff: Mehgan Sidhu and her folks-just amazing people, and
> also the folks-the advocates, the lawyers that you have at Brown, Goldstein
> & Levy. I think they all deserve a great round of applause [Applause]
> because this took some work. At first when we reached out to Apple, they
> didn't believe it was true; they didn't think that it was a problem, and
> they resisted. But the NFB persisted, and ultimately we were able to reach
> an agreement with Apple to ensure that iTunes and iTunes U would be
> accessible to blind and print-disabled consumers who depended on screen-
> reading software. That was groundbreaking, and I so appreciate all that NFB
> members did to move that forward. Because it took the NFB to show Apple the
> way.
> I remember being in conference rooms with engineers, executives, and
> lobbyists from Apple who just didn't understand what the issue was. It took
> NFB members actually demonstrating the technology and the failures-and also
> the workarounds and the fixes to be able to get this done. It really was
> remarkable and a huge credit to this organization.
> I also remember the first time Apple showed up in our office, and
> they brought us the very first talking iPod. That was pretty cool, too.
> Again, all inspired by the effort and the fight of this organization.
> [Applause]
> In this rapidly changing world it is so important that technology not
> leave anyone behind, particularly when it comes to educational
> opportunities. I learned how important collaboration is, that it's so
> important that we work with companies and businesses to make sure that they
> are incorporating accessibility into their design of software and
> technology. Otherwise, how else do we fulfill the promises of equal
> opportunity that the laws require? What this collaboration with Apple also
> showed me was that we have good laws on the books which promise inclusion
> and equal opportunity-great words on the page, but they are not self-
> executing. They require aggressive and creative enforcement, and this is
> often best accomplished through partnership. At the attorney general's
> office we are willing and able to bring cases to vindicate these rights.
> Using our experience with the NFB, we proceeded to go after movie theater
> chains, look at what they were doing, and ultimately reach agreements with
> the nation's three largest movie chains to provide more accessibility to
> persons who are visually impaired, blind, and deaf. [Applause] Because
> everybody should be able to go to the movies with their friends, their
> spouses, their loved ones.
> In 2013 it was mentioned that we worked with the NFB to reach an
> agreement with Monster.com, the popular job website. This was important
> because it is about websites needing to be accessible, but it's also about
> jobs. I know how serious a problem it is when it comes to underemployment
> and unemployment in your community, and it's why we need to do things like
> take on Monster.com.
> In addition to agreeing to change the website, I know we worked with
> NFB to make sure that Monster paid $100,000 to fund the Massachusetts
> Commission for the Blind's job internship program and to sponsor the NFB's
> annual convention a few years ago. This case illustrated to Monster and to
> the business community as a whole that failing to consider accessibility on
> the front end has significant costs. Every time we bring a case or Dan
> Goldstein threatens to bring a case, the learning curve for the defendant
> is one of the biggest challenges. But this is where the NFB comes in-in
> getting people up to speed. We want every business, every landlord, every
> municipality to think about accessibility and access up front, on the front
> end, when making their daily decisions. [Applause] Daily decisions, daily
> activities: this is about people being able to live their lives the way
> that they want and exercising what everybody would want to exercise in the
> regular course of the day. You know, that's what the Cardtronics case was
> all about. Again, so important: the work that this organization did. Our
> office was so proud to be able to partner with you on that. The fact of the
> matter is that so many sighted people take for granted the ability to
> conveniently withdraw money from ATMs. It was just wrong that for so long
> those who are blind or visually impaired were shut out from that. I know
> that we were pleased when the court approved the settlement agreement, when
> Cardtronics failed to comply that the court then ordered them to comply,
> and I know how great it was for you all to get that check earlier this week-
> that's terrific, $1.5 million, terrific!
> Look, it would be difficult to overstate for me the important role
> that disability rights work has played in my career and in shaping the
> perspective that I now bring to bear as an attorney general. From the NFB I
> learned about the harm of judgements; the harms of stereotypes; the harm
> that is incurred when people set expectations that are unfounded, that are
> misplaced, that are too low. It's why in my office in a few weeks' time
> we're going to do something that hasn't been done before and institute
> office-wide unconscious-and implicit-bias training. I want people who work
> for me in this public agency to understand unconscious bias, understand
> something about stereotypes and judgements, and I'm hoping that every
> agency and everybody in law enforcement and every business in Massachusetts
> also undergo that same training. From my good friend David Ticchi I learned
> the importance of educating employees and staff. David, you know, on the
> side works with one of the leading restaurant chains, Legal Sea Foods, in
> Massachusetts and teaches all of their new servers and employees about how
> to best interact and sort of the how-tos of engaging with customers who are
> blind or visually impaired. Really really important work-something we're
> also going to do in our office. Because this is about breaking barriers and
> breaking down stereotypes. It's also important as an office that we listen,
> that we listen to the stories like we did when we put the cases together
> with NFB.
> We field hundreds of disability rights complaints every year from
> people across Massachusetts. Often after educating both parties, we've been
> able to mediate quick and effective resolutions, whether it's handicap
> parking spaces, staircase railings, restroom grab bars-we help with service
> animals, with changes to employer policies, and with unlawful terminations.
> But we wouldn't be able to do this if people didn't come forward and be
> willing to tell their stories. I encourage you to do that: face injustices
> head-on, report them to your authorities, and certainly if you're in
> Massachusetts (though I'll take complaints from anywhere), let your
> attorney general's office know. Because as attorney general, I am committed
> to reaching out to other attorney generals across this country. So you may
> be in another state, but know that I'd be the first to pick up the phone
> and try to work with an attorney general from another state to get at
> discrimination and to make things right.
> I also know that when education and mediation attempts fail, the
> power of the law is important. I understand that fundamentally, and I want
> you to know that that was made clear to me and taught to me by the work
> that I was able to do with NFB. As Jacobus tenBroek said, "The right to
> live in the world consists in part of the right to live out of it. The
> blind, the deaf, the lame, and the otherwise physically disabled have the
> same right to privacy that others do; not only the right to rent a home or
> an apartment, public or private housing, but the right to live in it; the
> right to determine their living arrangement, the conduct of their lives;
> the right to select their mates, raise their families, and receive due
> protection in the safe and secure exercise of these rights." Nobody could
> say it any better, and that's what we strive to put into practice today,
> day in and day out.
> Later this month we're going to celebrate the twenty-fifth
> anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a tremendous law. But
> make no mistake about it: as we celebrate the anniversary of this landmark
> civil rights law, it's important not only to reflect on what has happened,
> but more important that we look ahead at where we still need to go. It's a
> brilliant law. It provides a brilliant framework for eradicating injustice
> and discrimination and ensuring equal access to the civic, social, and
> economic elements of our society. But we need to do more work; more work is
> ahead. When you look at all the websites that are out there that are still
> inaccessible, you know we have work to do. When we look at the lack of
> affordable and accessible housing, you know we have more work to do. When
> you look at the rates of unemployment and underemployment in this
> community, we have more work to do. When you look at the low rates of
> Braille literacy, we know we have more work to do, and that is something
> that I am committed to talking publicly about in Massachusetts. I want
> every child to have access to learning Braille at an early age. When we
> look at what is happening to parents when it comes to parental rights and
> child custody, we know we have more work to do. And we know we have more
> work to do when it comes to accessing healthcare. Doctors and hospitals
> must have the equipment they need to provide appropriate care to all
> patients, and all patients need to be able to easily access healthcare.
> This is something that is so important: no person with a disability should
> ever have to leave his or her dignity at the door or rely on the help of a
> stranger in order to receive or access necessary medical treatment or care.
> So we know we have more work to do. In the area of education, with
> the infusion of technology into every classroom, we need to make sure that
> all of the technology that is available is accessible to all students. We
> cannot continue to allow technology to create a divide among students, and
> thanks to Ray Kurzweil and others, we know we won't.
> I'm committed to advancing an aggressive agenda within my office and
> beyond on these matters. This is about civil rights. This is about human
> rights. And all of us benefit when those rights are advanced. Whether we're
> fighting about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability,
> at the end of the day it is the same.
> This morning I woke up and watched and listened to the story that was
> unfolding in South Carolina with the removal of the Confederate flag.
> [Applause] I mention that because that's what we're talking about; we're
> talking about persistent discrimination that exists across so many lines in
> our country: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and the like.
> But I'm inspired when I see something that I think many of us thought was
> not possible, and that should give us hope and continued inspiration and
> also should reaffirm that we are all in this together.
> Again, I want to thank you for having me here today. Congratulations
> to the NFB on seventy-five years. Keep up all of the great work that you
> do. Live the life you want, and let your own imagination be your only
> limitation.
>
> ----------
> Recipes
>
> This month's recipes are from the National Federation of the Blind of West
> Virginia.
>
> Mama's Easy No-Yeast Dinner Rolls
> by Sandy Streets
>
> Sandy is the secretary/treasurer of the Harrison County Chapter.
> Sandy is very creative and enjoys doing crafts and crocheting.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 cup flour
> 1 teaspoon baking powder
> 1 teaspoon salt
> 1/2 cup milk
> 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
>
> Method: Combine all ingredients. Spoon batter into a greased muffin
> pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes or until
> golden brown. Makes five to six rolls.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Charlene Smyth]
> Easy Potato Soup
> by Charlene Smyth
>
> Charlene is the president of the West Virginia affiliate and of the
> Harrison County Chapter. She has worked for twenty years as an office
> assistant for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services.
> Charlene has a good friend, Tina, to thank for this recipe.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 bag of frozen hash browns (30- or 32-ounce bag, the round ones, not
> shredded)
> 1 32-ounce carton chicken broth
> 1 can cream of celery soup
> 1 can cream of chicken soup
> 1 8-ounce package cream cheese (not fat-free, but 1/3 less fat is okay)
> Bacon bits to taste
> Chopped onions to taste
> Chopped celery or celery salt to taste
>
> Method: Combine all ingredients in pot. Let cook until potatoes are
> tender, or throw in the crockpot in the morning. When the potatoes are
> done, or when you return home, slice up and add cream cheese, let melt. You
> can top your bowl of soup with shredded cheddar cheese if desired. I always
> double the recipe, so I use a combination of cream cheese and Cheese Whiz.
> I like the mix, although you could use Cheese Whiz instead of cream cheese.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Sheri Koch]
>
> Spicy Shrimp and Pasta
> by Sheri Koch
>
> Sheri is the president of the Kanawha Valley Chapter and the legislative
> chairperson for her affiliate.
>
> Ingredients:
> 6 ounces linguine
> 3 tablespoons olive oil
> 2 garlic cloves, minced
> 1 medium onion, slivered
> 4 mini tri-colored sweet peppers, sliced
> 12 ounces uncooked small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
> 2 cups tomato juice
> 1/2 cup tomato sauce
> 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce
> 1 tablespoon cornstarch
> 1/4 cup white wine
> 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
>
> Method: Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in
> a large nonstick skillet, sauté garlic, onion, and peppers in oil for three
> minutes. Stir in the shrimp and sauté for three or four minutes. Add tomato
> juice, tomato sauce, Sriracha and basil. (If using fresh basil, add at the
> end.) In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and wine until smooth; stir into
> skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for five or six
> minutes until shrimp is done and sauce is thickened. Stir drained linguine
> into sauce. Enjoy! Yields four servings.
> ----------
> Baked Rigatoni
> by Karen Haught
>
> Karen is the board member for the Sightless Workers' Guild of Wheeling
> Chapter as well as executive director for the Seeing Hand Association.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 pound of rigatoni
> 1 pound of sage or Italian sausage crumbled
> 8 ounces of pepperoni
> 1 quart of favorite marinara, homemade or jarred
> 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
> Grated parmesan cheese
>
> Method: Preheat oven to 375. Cook pasta in salted water according to
> al dente time. Brown sausage in a skillet and drain, slightly brown
> pepperoni in same skillet and drain. Heat sauce together with sausage and
> pepperoni in skillet. Drain pasta and place in large shallow baking dish.
> Stir in meat sauce. Mix in half of the cheese and top with the remainder of
> the cheese. Grate some parmesan on top. Bake uncovered for about half an
> hour or until slightly browned and bubbly. For variation, add eight ounces
> of ricotta cheese with the other ingredients--makes it more like lasagna.
> Get an extra jar of sauce to top with after it is cooked if you like it
> saucier.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Karen McDonald]
> Ed and Karen's Italian Hash
> by Karen McDonald
>
> Karen McDonald is a member-at-large of the West Virginia affiliate. She is
> the wife of longtime member and first vice president Ed McDonald. She has
> been a member of the affiliate for over twenty years, and she serves as its
> state secretary. She is also a musician and a partner in the couple's
> broadcast production business, EIO Productions.
>
> The McDonalds put this recipe together one evening when they didn't have
> all the necessary ingredients for the dish they had in mind, and they ended
> up with a concoction that turned out to be a favorite.
>
> Ingredients:
> 2 pounds ground beef
> 2 peppers
> 2 or more onions, depending on size
> 1 28-ounce can tomatoes or two fourteen-ounce cans
> 1 tablespoon salt
> 1 tablespoon fresh garlic
> 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
> 1 box of any kind of macaroni
>
> Method: Brown ground beef, drain. Cook macaroni according to package
> directions. Grease slow cooker, add all ingredients and cook for three to
> five hours on high or seven to nine hours on low.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Sheena Struble]
> Orange Cream Cupcakes
> by Sheena Struble
>
> Sheena has lived in a variety of places including Delaware, Maryland,
> Pennsylvania, and now, fortunately for us, West Virginia. She has a long
> work history as an executive with AT&T, but is now retired. Sheena is a
> member of the Kanawha Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the
> Blind of West Virginia and holds our newly established office, Chef and
> Cook. We are fortunate to have her aboard.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
> 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
> 1/4 teaspoon salt
> 2 large eggs, room temperature
> 2/3 cup granulated sugar
> 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter
> 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
> 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
> 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
> 1 cup sour cream
>
> Frosting:
> 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
> 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
> 10 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
> 1 cup confectioners' sugar
> 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
> 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
> 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
> 6 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
> 2 drops red food coloring (optional)
>
> Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with
> cupcake liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
> Beat the eggs, granulated sugar, and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on
> medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Reduce the
> speed to medium low, then add the orange zest, vanilla, and orange extract.
> Beat half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Then beat in the
> sour cream and end with the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just
> combined (do not over mix). Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups,
> filling each muffin cup about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick
> inserted into the centers comes out clean, about eighteen minutes. Let cool
> five minutes; then remove the cupcakes from the muffin tins to a rack to
> cool completely.
> Meanwhile, make the frosting. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a
> saucepan; reduce the heat to medium and simmer until reduced to 1 1/2
> tablespoons, about eight minutes. Let cool. Beat the cream cheese in a
> large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy. Beat
> in the butter, a little at a time, until smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to
> low; sift the confectioners' sugar into the bowl and beat until smooth. Add
> the vanilla, the cooled orange syrup, orange extract, orange zest and food
> coloring and beat on medium speed until combined. Refrigerate if needed
> until spreadable, about fifteen minutes. Spread the frosting on the
> cupcakes.
> ---------
> Monitor Miniatures
>
> News from the Federation Family
>
> Wilbur Webb Dies:
> We are saddened to announce the passing of our longtime leader Wilbur
> Webb on August 5. Wilbur had been a dedicated Federationist since the New
> York Affiliate was chartered in 1956. He helped build the Syracuse Chapter
> and was a staunch advocate for changing lives of the blind.
> Wilbur participated in many NAC rallies. He was fond of telling the
> story of helping carry the NAC coffin through the streets of New York City
> in the late 1960s. He also helped remove the barriers that prevented blind
> people from attending college in the SUNY system simply because they could
> not pass the physical exam which included an eye test. Wilbur was the only
> person most of us know that actually knew and worked for our founder, Dr.
> tenBroek. He was instrumental in growing the Federation in New York, and he
> also went to other states to promote the NFB. He was a pioneer.
> He will be missed, but his legacy lives on because his efforts will
> continue to positively affect the lives of all blind people in New York.
>
> Science and Engineering Division 2015 STEM Conference Scholarship:
>
> The Science and Engineering Division of the National Federation of
> the Blind is proud to announce that it is now taking applications for the
> 2015 STEM conference stipend award. All applications must be submitted by
> December 1, 2015. The award includes up to $2,000 towards attending a
> technical conference in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or
> mathematics. The winner of the award will attend a conference and submit
> receipts to the science division for reimbursement.
> The science division is excited to share the accomplishments of blind
> scientists with other blind people. The science division asks that when
> submitting receipts the winner also provide an approximately 500 word essay
> describing the conference experience and what was learned. We will share
> this information on the science and engineering division listserv. The
> stipend award also includes up to $500 toward costs of attending the next
> NFB convention after attending the STEM conference.
> The science division would like to send a worthy candidate to a STEM
> conference of their choosing. The science division also invites the
> selected candidate to attend the science division meeting and make a ten
> minute presentation on the candidate's interest in science and what was
> learned at the conference.
> A candidate is eligible if he or she is legally blind and attending a
> full time college or graduate program in a STEM field in the US in the fall
> of 2015. A candidate is also eligible if he or she is legally blind and has
> received a bachelors or graduate degree in a STEM field in the spring of
> 2013 or later and is currently living in the US. The science division
> welcomes both blind students that are working toward a STEM degree and
> blind new STEM professionals to apply. Email your application to John
> Miller at johnmillerphd at hotmail.com. The application should include: proof
> of legal blindness, college transcripts, a personal essay, and a contact
> phone number. The personal essay should be no more than 500 words, describe
> your interest in science, and describe the blindness techniques you use in
> performing scientific work. The essay should also list the conference you
> wish to attend and the dates of the conference. If you do not know the
> exact conference at the time of application, then please describe the field
> of the conference and some candidate conferences that you are considering.
> You need not present at the conference in order to receive the STEM
> conference stipend.
> As part of the application process the science division may contact
> you to discuss your application. The STEM stipend will be awarded by
> January 15, 2015. The STEM stipend is a great opportunity for personal
> growth in a field of science.
>
> Buffalo Chapter Elections:
> The National Federation of the Blind of New York, Buffalo Chapter,
> held its elections in May. Elected are Michael P. Robinson, President;
> Christian Minkler, vice president; Margo Downey, secretary; Jessica Snyder,
> treasurer; and board members Julie Phillipson; Angie Robinson; and Linda
> Kaminski.
>
> Web Accessibility Training Day:
> The National Federation of the Blind Center of Excellence in
> Nonvisual Access to Commerce, Public Information, and Education (CENA) and
> the Maryland Technology Assistance Program are proud to announce that we
> will be hosting another Web Accessibility Training Day on November 4, 2015.
> This year we are expanding both the technical and the policy tracks to
> pack more content that fits your needs into the day. Whether you are
> wondering how to implement accessibility in education, curious about the
> Section 508 update, or wanting to learn more about how to test for web
> accessibility, we've got you covered.
> The registration fee will be $100, and the event will be held at the
> NFB Jernigan Institute at 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place,
> Baltimore, MD 21230
> For more information, please visit <https://nfb.org/web-accessibility-
> day>, or contact Clara Van Gerven at <cvangerven at nfb.org>.
> Come learn with us!
>
> New Novel:
> If you would like a print autographed copy of Jerry Whittle's
> baseball romance, Slingshot, or his novel, Standing with Better Angels,
> about a blind minister who works in the New Orleans' French Quarter, please
> send a check or money order for $20 (includes shipping) to 506 University
> Blvd., Ruston, LA 71270. These and other books by Jerry are available as
> Kindle editions at <www.amazon.com>. Ten percent of sales are donated to
> the NFB.
>
>
>
> In Brief
>
> Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor
> readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we
> have edited only for space and clarity.
>
> The 2016 Ski for Light International Week:
> The forty-first annual Ski for Light (SFL) International Week will
> take place from Sunday, January 24 through Saturday, January 30, 2016. Note
> that the traditional Sunday to Sunday SFL week has been shortened by one
> day to a Sunday to Saturday event for 2016.
> The 2016 Ski for Light event will take place in Northwest Lower
> Michigan on the grounds of Shanty Creek Resorts in Bellaire, Michigan.
> Located just forty-five minutes from the Traverse City airport, Shanty
> Creek Resorts is a 4,500 acre complex containing three housing and
> entertainment villages, both cross-country and downhill ski trails, a
> tubing hill, several swimming pools and hot tubs, a fitness center and spa,
> and much more.
> Applications are requested by November 1. Late applications can only
> be considered on a space-available basis. Full details about the event and
> the accessible online application, which can be completed on the Ski for
> Light website, can be found at <www.sfl.org/event>.
> If you are a novice and want to learn how to cross-country ski, or if
> you have skied before and just want to be matched with an experienced guide
> and meet new friends for a wonderful week of fun in the snow, this is the
> event for you!
> In addition to finding more details on the SFL website, information
> about the event can be obtained by contacting Bob Hartt at
> <bobmhartt at gmail.com>.
>
> A Message of Hope from Unity:
> Unity Message of Hope® is an outreach program sharing the assurance
> of God's love and grace by providing free spiritual materials to a variety
> of audiences including individuals who are visually impaired. The program
> provides a virtual library of downloadable Braille (.brf file) Unity
> publications, available free of charge and accessible on a computer with
> Braille translation software, Braille notetaker, or digital talking book
> player. For more information visit <www.unity.org/Braille>, call Message of
> Hope toll-free at (866) 421-3066, or email us at <message-of-
> hope at unityonline.org>.
>
> Envision Seeking Blind Employees:
> Envision is proud to be a leading employer of individuals who are
> blind or visually impaired. At Envision we focus on ability, not
> disability. Each Envision employee comes to work driven by a sense of
> purpose in what they do, and they see their purpose in action through the
> employment opportunities, programs, and services which their work with
> Envision helps fuel. Each Envision employee has different roles and
> responsibilities, but everyone works toward the same mission: to improve
> the quality of life and provide inspiration for the blind and visually
> impaired through employment, outreach, rehabilitation, education, and
> research.
> For more information or to apply for an open position, please visit us
> at <www.envisionus.com/careers>. We look forward to hearing from you.
>
> Donations Needed for Bangladesh Library:
> The Louis Braille Memorial Library for the Blind and Physically
> Handicapped provides free services for all ages of blind, deaf, deaf-blind,
> and other physically handicapped people in Bangladesh. They are looking for
> donations of any used Braille materials, print books, large print books,
> magazines, or journals of any type, including religious materials. They are
> also looking for white canes, talking watches, talking calculators, Perkins
> Braillers, Braille writing paper, Braille slates and boards, laptops,
> computers, printer paper, or a copy machine.
> Donations can be mailed through the post office with "Free Matter For
> the Blind and Physically Handicapped" on the label. Ship to: Ms. Afroza
> Mili, Librarian, Louis Braille Memorial Library for the Blind and
> Physically Handicapped, Plot # 11/1 Road # 06 Block # E Section # 12
> Pallabi, Mirpur Dhaka-1216 Bangladesh. Example label below:
>
> |FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND AND HANDICAPPED |
> | |
> |DONATION OF BOOK AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE |
> |BLIND AND HANDICAPPED |
> | |
> | FROM |
> | NAME: ------------------------------------------ |
> | ORGANIZATION |
> |NAME:-------------------------------------- |
> | MAILING |
> |ADDRESS:------------------------------------------------|
> |--------- |
> |To |
> |Ms. Afroza Mili |
> |Librarian |
> |LOUIS BRAILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY FOR THE |
> |BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED |
> |Plot # 11/1, Road # 06, Block # E, Section # 12, |
> |Pallabi, |
> |Mirpur, Dhaka - 1216, Bangladesh. |
>
> ----------
> 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.
>
>
> -----------------------
> [1] See http://epubtest.org/rs/182/accessibility/
> [2] See http://www.w3.org/Math/whatIsMathML.html
> [3] Kindle Fire instructions for reading by paragraph result in a student
> reading by sentence fragment. No workaround strategy has been identified.
> [4] Because blind users cannot highlight, the returning-to-highlights-and-
> notes feature could not be tested.
> [5] Braille can only be used with difficulty. Word wrap is not supported.
> Navigation of text is difficult as text is interpreted as one block per
> page for purposes of Braille, so paragraph markers and other separations in
> the text are lost.
> [6] As students will be required to start from the top of a page when
> searching for each word they are trying to spell and reading commands are
> inconsistent, it is technically possible but very labor and time intensive
> for a student to learn the spelling of a term.
> [7] Text cannot be selected with Braille. The word that is first
> highlighted when a student begins to select text is not the same word as
> that which she had intended to select.
> [8] This would be available only when text has been successfully
> highlighted.
> [9] Braille navigation is limited to the ability to move page by page, or
> the length of the Braille display, so a user cannot move to different
> paragraphs in the text easily. Paragraph breaks are not clearly displayed.
> The ability to move only within these smaller chunks of text hampers a
> blind student's ability to skim content quickly.
>
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From: Audrey Farnum <atfarnum at icloud.com>
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<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br><br>Audrey T. Farnum<div>Sent from my iPhone</div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org">buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org</a> (Brian Buhrow)<br><b>Date:</b> October 2, 2015 at 5:33:52 PM CDT<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:brl-monitor at lothlorien.nfbcal.org">brl-monitor at lothlorien.nfbcal.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, October 2015</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> <a href="mailto:buhrow at nfbcal.org">buhrow at nfbcal.org</a><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span></span><br><span> BRAILLE MONITOR</span><br><span>Vol. 58, No. 9 October 2015</span><br><span> Gary Wunder, Editor</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive</span><br><span>(see reverse side) by the</span><br><span></span><br><span> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND</span><br><span></span><br><span> Mark Riccobono, President</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> telephone: (410) 659-9314</span><br><span> email address: <a href="mailto:nfb at nfb.org">nfb at nfb.org</a></span><br><span> website address: <a href="http://www.nfb.org">http://www.nfb.org</a></span><br><span> <a href="http://nfbnet.org">NFBnet.org</a>: <a href="http://www.nfbnet.org">http://www.nfbnet.org</a></span><br><span> NFB-NEWSLINE® information: (866) 504-7300</span><br><span> Like us on Facebook: <a href="http://facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind">Facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind</a></span><br><span> Follow us on Twitter: @NFB_Voice</span><br><span> Watch and share our videos: <a href="http://youtube.com/NationsBlind">YouTube.com/NationsBlind</a></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, and</span><br><span>orders for NFB literature should be sent to the national office. Articles</span><br><span>for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also be sent to the national</span><br><span>office or may be emailed to <a href="mailto:gwunder at nfb.org">gwunder at nfb.org</a>.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about forty dollars per year.</span><br><span>Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the</span><br><span>subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind and sent to:</span><br><span></span><br><span> National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span> 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place</span><br><span> Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998</span><br><span></span><br><span> THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE</span><br><span> CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE</span><br><span> EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES</span><br><span> BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT;</span><br><span> BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND</span><br><span> IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND-IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR</span><br><span> OURSELVES.</span><br><span></span><br><span>ISSN 0006-8829</span><br><span>© 2015 by the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span> Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick</span><br><span>or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a</span><br><span>National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the</span><br><span>familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and</span><br><span>a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This</span><br><span>smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad</span><br><span>covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one</span><br><span>position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again.</span><br><span>(Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive,</span><br><span>the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is</span><br><span>inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital</span><br><span>materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges,</span><br><span>when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped.</span><br><span> You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to</span><br><span>your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb</span><br><span>drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in</span><br><span>order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with</span><br><span>the drive when you return the device.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Vol. 58, No. 9 October</span><br><span>2015</span><br><span></span><br><span> Contents</span><br><span></span><br><span>Illustration: A Bridge to Information: NFB-NEWSLINE® Celebrates its</span><br><span>Twentieth Year</span><br><span></span><br><span>Proving I Could Live the Life I Want</span><br><span>by Brian Buhrow</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Blind and Amazon</span><br><span>by Chris Danielsen</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Nature of Blindness</span><br><span>by Marc Maurer</span><br><span></span><br><span>Sixty Years of Living and Singing in the Federation</span><br><span>by Tom Bickford</span><br><span></span><br><span>Advocacy and Policy Report</span><br><span>by John Paré, Lauren McLarney, Gabe Cazares, and Rose Sloan</span><br><span></span><br><span>Shirley Morris: A Life Remembered</span><br><span>by Mary Ellen Jernigan</span><br><span></span><br><span>#NCBYS: Making the Connection and Equipping the Next Generation</span><br><span>by Angel Ayala</span><br><span></span><br><span>A Growing Partnership for Accessibility: Google and the Organized Blind</span><br><span>Movement</span><br><span>by Kannan Pashupathy</span><br><span></span><br><span>Leadership through Law: Perspective on Advancing Civil Rights for the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span>by Maura Healey</span><br><span></span><br><span>Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span>Monitor Miniatures</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Scott White using a telephone to access NFB-NEWSLINE]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Pat Maurer using an NLS Player]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Amy Mason listening to NFB-NEWSLINE on her Victor Reader]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares uses NFB-NEWSLINE with a Braille display]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Anil Lewis listens to NFB-NEWSLINE on his iPhone using a</span><br><span>Bluetooth earpiece]</span><br><span></span><br><span> A Bridge to Information: NFB-NEWSLINE® Celebrates its Twentieth Year</span><br><span></span><br><span> Back in the 1990s the National Federation of the Blind decided to</span><br><span>harness computer technology to bring newspapers to the blind. This</span><br><span>represented a remarkable possibility, for most of us who were blind had all</span><br><span>but given up hope of having access to a daily newspaper and had tried to</span><br><span>content ourselves with whatever we could get from the radio. NFB-NEWSLINE</span><br><span>made reading our local newspaper as easy as using a touch-tone telephone,</span><br><span>but it didn't stop there. The telephone system is still a major staple of</span><br><span>the NFB-NEWSLINE network, but now one can read newspapers, magazines,</span><br><span>television listings, and blindness-related information using a player from</span><br><span>the National Library Service, DAISY book readers from various third-party</span><br><span>vendors, and even on one's iPhone. All of the flexibility that has been</span><br><span>built into NFB-NEWSLINE is well documented and available from our NEWSLINE</span><br><span>team, and all that a blind person needs to do today is decide how much he</span><br><span>wants to read, when he wants to read it, and on what device he wishes to do</span><br><span>his reading. The rest is done by the dedicated and competent men and women</span><br><span>whose pictures appear on these pages. Thank you NFB-NEWSLINE, and thank you</span><br><span>to the men and women who make it all look so easy.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Brian Buhrow]</span><br><span> Proving I Could Live the Life I Want</span><br><span> by Brian Buhrow</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Brian Buhrow is a network engineer for Vianet</span><br></blockquote><span>Communications in California. He is blind, but he believes his blindness is</span><br><span>far less significant than his ability to think, to problem-solve, and to</span><br><span>live the life he wants.</span><br><span></span><br><span>In this story Brian recounts his adventures as a student who won the right</span><br><span>to take classes abroad and the way his desire to see more than his</span><br><span>classroom led to a predicament that would test his ability to remain cool</span><br><span>while in crisis and to think his way out of a most uncomfortable situation.</span><br><span>Here is his story:</span><br><span></span><br><span> As I stood in the vestibule of this stranger's home listening to her</span><br><span>shouting at me though I did not understand her, I wondered how I had gotten</span><br><span>here. The short answer was that I'd been out for the evening, and I'd taken</span><br><span>a wrong turn getting home, but the long answer was much more complicated</span><br><span>and interesting. It had to do with what we talk about every day in the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind: how to change what it means to be blind</span><br><span>and how to live the life we want in the world alongside our fellow human</span><br><span>beings. This moment, alone, in a stranger's front hall was the culmination</span><br><span>of all my work to prove that I could be truly independent and travel where</span><br><span>and when I wanted.</span><br><span> So how was that moment going? Before I answer that, let me provide a</span><br><span>bit of background. I have been blind since birth. I was fortunate in that I</span><br><span>went to a preschool for the blind, where it was determined that I should</span><br><span>learn Braille as young as possible. I was also fortunate to encounter</span><br><span>teachers who stressed to my parents that I be given a mainstream education</span><br><span>during my elementary and high school years. This meant that, while I was</span><br><span>learning Braille and receiving mobility training, I was also attending</span><br><span>school with my sighted peers. As a result I became used to living alongside</span><br><span>sighted children in all aspects of my daily life. They, in turn, got some</span><br><span>exposure to a student who happened to be blind.</span><br><span> I was a good student and rose to the top of my classes-not always the</span><br><span>very top, but certainly near the top. Consequently, by the time I reached</span><br><span>high school, I'd earned a certain amount of respect from my peers. Another</span><br><span>change which occurred when I reached high school was that I attended a</span><br><span>school where there were a number of other blind students. From fifth grade</span><br><span>to eighth grade I'd been the only blind student on campus, and I'd gotten</span><br><span>used to that state of affairs.</span><br><span> As it happened, most of the other blind students on campus had</span><br><span>disabilities beyond blindness, so, instead of just being one of the blind</span><br><span>students, I became the star blind student, the special blind student who</span><br><span>was different from the other blind students. By the time I reached my</span><br><span>senior year of high school, I was feeling pretty full of myself. I had good</span><br><span>travel skills, was accepted to several prestigious universities, received a</span><br><span>substantial number of scholarships, and was pretty sure I could walk on</span><br><span>water! To add to my confidence, one of the scholarships I received was from</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind. Barbara Pierce woke me up on a Sunday</span><br><span>morning to tell me that I'd won and that I should pack myself off to</span><br><span>Chicago alone and at the NFB's expense to receive my reward.</span><br><span> It was at this point that I began to wonder if perhaps I wasn't as</span><br><span>confident as I'd been making myself out to be or as competent as my</span><br><span>teachers said I was. I didn't have much experience traveling on an</span><br><span>airplane, certainly not cross-country and by myself. Still I was "amazing,"</span><br><span>and I had no reason to doubt myself as I set out for Chicago as a cocky</span><br><span>young high school graduate. Barbara told me everything would be taken care</span><br><span>of, and I had no reason to believe otherwise. I'd been to conventions of</span><br><span>the blind, and they were awash with volunteers who could help me at every</span><br><span>turn if I needed it.</span><br><span> My first lesson came when I reached the Chicago airport. I expected</span><br><span>someone would meet me at the plane, and I'd be driven to the convention</span><br><span>hotel. Such was not the case. Instead I found myself collecting my own bag</span><br><span>from the baggage carrousel and searching for a shuttle to take me to the</span><br><span>hotel. Once I reached the hotel, the front desk didn't know who I was, and</span><br><span>I ended up waking the scholarship coordinator so she could give me my room</span><br><span>assignment.</span><br><span> As the week progressed, I began to understand that I was not amazing</span><br><span>at all, but rather someone who was reasonably trained in techniques of</span><br><span>blindness and reasonably well educated. There were blind people at the</span><br><span>convention who regularly traveled the world as part of their jobs, others</span><br><span>who worked for multinational companies, and still others who were doing</span><br><span>things that I could only aspire to do. My fellow scholarship winner,</span><br><span>roommate for the week, and now very dear friend John Miller was a</span><br><span>mathematical genius who ran his own paper route in his hometown. And did I</span><br><span>mention that he completed one of his Boy Scout badges by setting up and</span><br><span>camping alone in the woods for a night? I couldn't see myself doing that in</span><br><span>a million years. In short, I learned I was normal and that I didn't have to</span><br><span>live up to the hype my teachers instilled in me back home.</span><br><span> The experience was incredibly humbling and empowering at the same</span><br><span>time. Here were people who were pursuing their dreams and lives with skill,</span><br><span>dignity, and independence. If I worked hard and learned my alternate</span><br><span>techniques, I might, just might, be able to go to college, graduate, get a</span><br><span>job, and live as a first-class citizen. For the first time I saw this as a</span><br><span>realistic possibility. I still didn't know how I was going to do it, but at</span><br><span>least I'd met people who were, and, if I stuck with them, they might teach</span><br><span>me how it was done.</span><br><span> "Okay, okay," I hear you asking, "but what about that lady</span><br><span>incoherently shouting at you in her house back at the beginning of this</span><br><span>tale?" Don't worry, we're almost there. When I left Chicago at the end of</span><br><span>the week with my scholarship in hand, I realized that I had received much</span><br><span>more than the dollars the NFB offered to help me further my education. Just</span><br><span>how much more, however, wouldn't become clear for a bit longer. I went to</span><br><span>college, where I studied a combination of computer science and English</span><br><span>literature. I liked the technical aspects of computer science, but I needed</span><br><span>the humanity and connectivity of English lit.</span><br><span> As I pursued this twin course of study, an opportunity came for me to</span><br><span>apply to the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP) as an exchange student for</span><br><span>my junior year. Since I wasn't very good at foreign languages, I applied to</span><br><span>study in the UK, either in Ireland or England. The competition for these</span><br><span>countries was fierce, and I was told my chances of being selected were</span><br><span>pretty slim. When, as part of my application, I was asked how I would</span><br><span>function as a blind person in a foreign country, I assured everyone that</span><br><span>I'd do it the same way I did in the US. I knew how to work with professors</span><br><span>and lecturers to get the materials I needed for classes, and I was familiar</span><br><span>with working with readers for getting materials "just in time" that weren't</span><br><span>available in alternative forms. I had a year and a half of college plus</span><br><span>summer school under my belt, and I'd lived both on- and off-campus with</span><br><span>roommates and housemates for all that time. The selection committee for the</span><br><span>EAP told me I had a strong application but not quite strong enough to make</span><br><span>the initial cut. However, I was placed second or third on the waiting list,</span><br><span>I don't remember which, and, as time went by, my name got closer and closer</span><br><span>to the top. Finally, in August, between my sophomore and junior years, I</span><br><span>emerged from the waiting list and became part of the 1990-91 UC Education</span><br><span>Abroad Program class.</span><br><span> That summer I flew to London for our orientation and took my place as</span><br><span>a student at Leeds University in Leeds, England. Living in England as an</span><br><span>exchange student, especially that year during the first Gulf War, was an</span><br><span>experience I shall treasure forever. The pace of courses at English</span><br><span>universities was more laid back than at the UC Santa Cruz campus, where the</span><br><span>quarters raced by in ten-week blurs. I appreciated the non-US-centric</span><br><span>perspectives I gained from my fellow students, and I enjoyed traveling to</span><br><span>different parts of England, so I signed up for an Interrail pass which</span><br><span>would let me travel the trains throughout Western Europe. The Interrail</span><br><span>pass is much like the Eurail Pass bought in the US, except it's a lot</span><br><span>cheaper and requires that you be a current resident of the European Union.</span><br><span>I decided I would travel during the last three weeks of June before leaving</span><br><span>England for the US and the NFB national convention. I bought Let's Go</span><br><span>Europe, a popular tour guidebook for Europe, and a membership in the Youth</span><br><span>Hostel Association.</span><br><span> The original plan for the trip involved one of my housemates. He and</span><br><span>I were going to travel together, staying at youth hostels in Amsterdam,</span><br><span>Berlin, and Paris. Two weeks before our departure he experienced a family</span><br><span>emergency and was required to leave for his native Malaysia immediately at</span><br><span>the end of the school year. I briefly considered canceling my trip but</span><br><span>decided that, since I'd already been living abroad for a year, if I really</span><br><span>was an independent blind person, I should prove it to myself and make the</span><br><span>journey alone. I announced this to my friend, who, after arguing with me</span><br><span>for some time about the merits of my decision, helped me prepare by reading</span><br><span>large swaths of the Let's Go Europe book as well as the youth hostel</span><br><span>guidebook. And so it was that in early June of 1991, I found myself armed</span><br><span>with endless Braille notes on where to find youth hostels in Berlin and</span><br><span>Amsterdam and heading for the North Sea Ferry to take me to Rotterdam.</span><br><span> When I got to Rotterdam I took a train to Amsterdam and thence to</span><br><span>Berlin. While on the train to Berlin, I met a group of Americans who were</span><br><span>setting out to explore Western Europe with the idea that they'd end up in</span><br><span>Prague in a week or two. They seemed to know where a good hostel was to</span><br><span>bunk at in Berlin, so, rather than finding my original destination, I</span><br><span>elected to stick with them for the three days they were going to be in</span><br><span>Berlin.</span><br><span> We found our hostel, dropped our bags, and set out to explore the</span><br><span>city. We visited the synagogue where Mendelssohn is buried and learned just</span><br><span>how thoroughly the Nazis denuded the lands of Jewish people. This synagogue</span><br><span>had over 30,000 members before Hitler came to power. By the time the</span><br><span>Marshall plan was implemented, there were 1,300 people left. We spent the</span><br><span>next two days exploring various tourist sites in Berlin, as well as</span><br><span>sampling a few of its beer gardens. On the third day, I said goodbye to my</span><br><span>new friends, and they boarded the train for Prague. I decided to explore</span><br><span>the area of Berlin around the Wall more thoroughly, and I enjoyed the</span><br><span>afternoon I spent at one of the museums commemorating the history of the</span><br><span>Wall and what it meant for it to be torn down.</span><br><span> That evening I went to a small beer garden and enjoyed some excellent</span><br><span>German beer as well as a very tasty and generous meal. I'd become familiar</span><br><span>with the subway system in Berlin over the past few days and was quite</span><br><span>comfortable making my way through its environs. My hostel was just a few</span><br><span>blocks from the subway stop, and I was confident I knew where it was.</span><br><span> So after my meal and a pleasant walk in the fine summer evening, I</span><br><span>boarded the subway and got off at the appropriate stop. My hostel was three</span><br><span>blocks to the right, a left turn after crossing the third street, and the</span><br><span>seventh house on the right. The hostel consisted of two buildings,</span><br><span>separated by a courtyard. One walked through the first building, straight</span><br><span>back, into the courtyard, and thence to the rear building, where the</span><br><span>sleeping rooms were.</span><br><span> On all the other occasions when I'd returned to the hostel, the door</span><br><span>to the front building had always been open. It was more of a breezeway to</span><br><span>the courtyard rather than a building. On this occasion the door was closed</span><br><span>and apparently locked. "No problem," I thought. I'd always returned earlier</span><br><span>in the evening. Perhaps they had a policy of closing up after a certain</span><br><span>hour. I rang the bell and waited. After a few minutes the door opened, and</span><br><span>a woman asked me something in German. Now I was confused. I'd never seen a</span><br><span>woman caretaker at the hostel before. Surely she knew I was a guest there.</span><br><span>I tried explaining what I wanted in English, and she became even more</span><br><span>confused. After a few more attempts at communicating, she invited me into</span><br><span>the hall and asked me to wait. When I stepped in, I realized I'd done</span><br><span>something terribly wrong. The hall was warm and brightly lit, and there was</span><br><span>a cozy living room adjacent to it. None of that existed at the hostel. Soon</span><br><span>the woman came back with a man, probably her husband, and we tried again.</span><br><span>His English was slightly better than hers, but still not enough to tell me</span><br><span>exactly where I was.</span><br><span> At some point I realized there was no way we were going to gain an</span><br><span>understanding, and they were becoming more and more distressed by the</span><br><span>moment. I decided the best way out of this situation was to flee! I headed</span><br><span>for the door and quickly left, not knowing how to do anything else to</span><br><span>comfort these people I'd so rudely disturbed. As I retraced my steps to the</span><br><span>subway station, I reflected on the predicament I was in. Here I was in a</span><br><span>country where I didn't speak the language, in a city where I knew no one.</span><br><span>Nor was I quite sure of the address or name of my hostel. In those days</span><br><span>cell phones were virtually nonexistent, and GPS technology was used only by</span><br><span>the military. In other words, I was on my own, and I would have to get</span><br><span>myself out of this situation. When I reached the subway station, I thought</span><br><span>about my options. This didn't take long since I couldn't think of many. One</span><br><span>way or another, I had to find my hostel because all my belongings were</span><br><span>there, and I'd already paid for the lodging for the night. So I tried</span><br><span>again.</span><br><span> Three blocks to the right, cross the third street, turn left, and</span><br><span>find the seventh house on the right. This time, when I tried it, I found</span><br><span>the door open as I expected, the front building was like a breezeway, there</span><br><span>was the courtyard, and most important there was the sleeping room with my</span><br><span>stuff on one of the beds. As I climbed into bed that night, I was not only</span><br><span>extremely happy that I'd found my bed, I also realized that I had found</span><br><span>true independence.</span><br><span> The next morning I awoke, made my way to Cologne, Germany, took a</span><br><span>cruise on the Rhine River, and ended up in Amsterdam. I finished my travels</span><br><span>in Amsterdam, where I met another American traveler who agreed to go tandem</span><br><span>bicycling with me through the Dutch countryside. While I didn't get to</span><br><span>Paris on that trip, I did see a good bit of Germany and got a good feel for</span><br><span>the attractions Amsterdam has to offer, as well as what the surrounding</span><br><span>countryside looks and feels like.</span><br><span> It hasn't always been easy to make my way forward in life since that</span><br><span>nerve-wracking night in Berlin, but that night plus my continuing</span><br><span>participation in the activities of the National Federation of the Blind and</span><br><span>the consequent association with the brightest and most forward-thinking</span><br><span>blind of our nation has served as a constant reminder that I can succeed</span><br><span>even when others believe that I cannot. As a result I've had the privilege</span><br><span>of living a full and adventurous life. I've been able to earn and retain</span><br><span>good jobs; travel widely, participating in many adventures during those</span><br><span>travels; and live life as a contributing member of my community and</span><br><span>society. And to think, in many ways, it all started for me while I stood in</span><br><span>a stranger's front hall and listened to her interrogate me in a language I</span><br><span>did not know.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Danielsen]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Preliminary Victory for New York City's Blind Students: City School System</span><br><span> Backs Away from Amazon Distribution and Content Deal</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> by Chris Danielsen</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Chris Danielsen is the director of Public Relations for</span><br></blockquote><span>the National Federation of the Blind, a lawyer, and a person who is able to</span><br><span>tell a story involving significant technical detail and keep it</span><br><span>interesting. Here is what he has to say about our ongoing struggles to see</span><br><span>that students get the materials they need to compete in the classroom:</span><br><span></span><br><span> On August 25, 2015, the National Federation of the Blind scored a</span><br><span>preliminary victory in our long-running battle with Amazon Digital Services</span><br><span>Inc., which has been trying to push inaccessible content into America's</span><br><span>public schools and institutions of higher education for over half a decade.</span><br><span>Our victory came in the form of a decision by the New York City Department</span><br><span>of Education (DOE) to back away from a proposed $30 million contract with</span><br><span>Amazon. The widely-publicized proposal would have seen the company build a</span><br><span>digital storefront for the school system and provide the city's schools</span><br><span>with e-textbooks and other electronic educational materials. The DOE's</span><br><span>Panel for Educational Policy, which has the final say on such contracts,</span><br><span>had scheduled a vote on the deal for August 26. But, after learning of the</span><br><span>Federation's long-standing concerns about the accessibility of Amazon's e-</span><br><span>textbooks and its touted content distribution system, known as WhisperCast,</span><br><span>and with the threat of blind protesters picketing the meeting, the vote was</span><br><span>very publicly postponed, with little indication of when the contract would</span><br><span>be considered again. Federation leaders are now hopeful that this high-</span><br><span>profile setback will finally bring Amazon to the table for discussions that</span><br><span>will resolve the issues that currently prevent blind students from fully</span><br><span>and equally accessing educational content provided by the Seattle-based</span><br><span>company.</span><br><span> Since 2007 Amazon has been selling a family of ebook readers and</span><br><span>applications, along with content to read on them, under the brand name</span><br><span>Kindle. Blind Americans have been asking Amazon to make its Kindle products</span><br><span>accessible since 2008, shortly after they were first released. Dr. Marc</span><br><span>Maurer, Immediate Past President of the National Federation of the Blind;</span><br><span>Dr. George Kerscher, the creator of the first ebooks used by the blind (or</span><br><span>anyone else, for that matter); and others met with Amazon officials to urge</span><br><span>them to make the Kindle platform a model for equal access to ebooks so that</span><br><span>at last the information playing field would become truly level for blind</span><br><span>people. In 2009 Amazon did introduce the first Kindle devices with text-to-</span><br><span>speech output, but blind users could not independently access this feature.</span><br><span>Furthermore, under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon allowed authors</span><br><span>and publishers to turn off text-to-speech for specific books. When Amazon</span><br><span>began peddling Kindles to institutions of higher education, the NFB brought</span><br><span>suit and filed complaints against several of these institutions. These</span><br><span>claims prompted a June 29, 2010, joint letter from the US Departments of</span><br><span>Education and Justice warning higher education institutions not to purchase</span><br><span>inaccessible technology. A follow-up "Frequently Asked Questions" document</span><br><span>(known as an FAQ) from the Department of Education made it clear that the</span><br><span>prohibition against the purchase of inaccessible technology also applied to</span><br><span>libraries and K-12 schools.</span><br><span> Federation members took our concerns directly to Amazon's door in</span><br><span>December of 2012 with an informational protest outside the company's</span><br><span>Seattle headquarters. Following the protest, Amazon added some</span><br><span>accessibility features to its Kindle app for iPhones and other Apple</span><br><span>devices in May of 2013. Blind readers can now access Kindle content with</span><br><span>VoiceOver on these devices, regardless of whether or not the publisher has</span><br><span>allowed text-to-speech output. However, while the Kindle app is acceptable</span><br><span>if one is merely reading for pleasure, its features are not robust enough</span><br><span>to be used in the educational setting-more on the particular barriers that</span><br><span>still remain below.</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind has made its concerns about</span><br><span>remaining accessibility barriers in the education context clear to Amazon</span><br><span>and to the public from the very day the more accessible Kindle for iOS app</span><br><span>was released. Moreover, we have publicly observed many times that</span><br><span>Whispercast, the distribution system that allows teachers to provide</span><br><span>content directly to students' devices-including notes, highlights,</span><br><span>bookmarks, and other instructor- or student-created content-remains</span><br><span>inaccessible, meaning that blind students do not have the same opportunity</span><br><span>to interact with their teachers and peers as sighted students. The United</span><br><span>States Department of Education affirmed in a May 2013 letter, in response</span><br><span>to questions from attorney Daniel F. Goldstein-who has represented the</span><br><span>Federation in this and many other matters-that inaccessible software with</span><br><span>the feature set of Whispercast is not acceptable in the classroom under</span><br><span>federal law. Despite all this, Amazon is still seeking to have Kindle</span><br><span>ebooks and devices, Whispercast, and Amazon storefronts deployed in K-12</span><br><span>schools and institutions of higher education, and many school districts and</span><br><span>colleges across the United States have already adopted these technologies.</span><br><span>Indeed, Amazon boasts that its technology is in 130 of the nation's 250</span><br><span>largest school districts.</span><br><span> Recently we learned that the New York City Department of Education</span><br><span>was considering a contract with Amazon. The New York City school system is</span><br><span>the largest in the nation, with eighteen hundred schools and over a million</span><br><span>students, around a thousand of whom are blind, as well as some blind</span><br><span>faculty members. Many other school districts would likely follow the</span><br><span>system's lead if it were to adopt Amazon's technology. Accordingly, we</span><br><span>responded swiftly. On August 7, 2015, President Mark Riccobono sent a</span><br><span>letter to the chancellor of the New York City Department of Education,</span><br><span>Carmen Fariña, and the chairperson of its Panel on Educational Policy,</span><br><span>Vanessa Leung, outlining our objections to the proposed deal. A copy of the</span><br><span>letter was also sent to Commissioner Victor Calise, who heads the New York</span><br><span>City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. Three days later,</span><br><span>President Riccobono received an email from Ms. Leung requesting further</span><br><span>information. Here is his response:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Dear Ms. Leung, Chancellor Fariña, and Commissioner Calise:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Thank you for Ms. Leung's August 10, 2015, email response to our</span><br><span> August 7 letter. We appreciate that the panel is engaging in</span><br><span> discussions and seeking additional information about the proposed</span><br><span> contract between NYC DOE [New York City Department of Education] and</span><br><span> Amazon prior to the August 26 meeting.</span><br><span> We write to clarify the specific aspect of the proposed</span><br><span> arrangement between DOE and Amazon about which we are most troubled:</span><br><span> the limitations of Kindle ebooks.</span><br><span> Increasingly, mainstream publishers deliver digital files to</span><br><span> booksellers like Amazon in an ePub3 format that allows a print-</span><br><span> disabled person using screen-reader software to intelligibly read</span><br><span> tables, read mathematical symbols correctly and mathematical equations</span><br><span> in correct syntactical order, and take advantage of markup and</span><br><span> structural data to navigate from, say, one paragraph to the next or</span><br><span> from one heading to the next. Unfortunately, Amazon takes ePub3</span><br><span> content and, due to the limitations of its MobiPocket converter,</span><br><span> strips the ePub3 files of this rich reading experience, rendering them</span><br><span> accessible only to the sighted reader. The upshot is that, even using</span><br><span> an accessible device and an accessible e-reading software platform, a</span><br><span> blind reader attempting to work with a Kindle ebook that is anything</span><br><span> more than a simple novel will encounter significant accessibility</span><br><span> barriers because Amazon's proprietary process of converting the ebook</span><br><span> file from ePub3 format to Kindle format has scrubbed the file of the</span><br><span> meta-data needed by the blind person's assistive technology.</span><br><span> The best Kindle reading experience for a blind student or</span><br><span> teacher is using the Kindle for iOS app on an iPad. However, because</span><br><span> of the limitations to the Kindle file format (not the app), the blind</span><br><span> student or teacher would be unable to:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> . Read tables</span><br><span> . Skip to the previous or next block or paragraph of text</span><br><span> . Skip to the previous or next hyperlink or heading</span><br><span> . Read the "alt text" labels on photos, illustrations, or graphics,</span><br><span> i.e., know what the photos, graphics, or illustrations in the book</span><br><span> are</span><br><span> . Move reliably between footnotes/endnotes and where they are</span><br><span> indicated in the text</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Barriers are explained in greater detail at EPUBTest's "Fundamental</span><br><span> Accessibility Tests: Kindle for iPad".[1]</span><br><span> Unlike the ePub3 file format that publishers deliver to Amazon</span><br><span> and other distributors, the Kindle ebooks file format does not support</span><br><span> Math Markup Language (MathML), a markup language for mathematical and</span><br><span> scientific content developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)</span><br><span> that, among other things, makes digital mathematical and scientific</span><br><span> notations accessible to screen readers. [2]</span><br><span> In sum, Kindle books are wholly unsuited for the rigors of the</span><br><span> classroom, whether in a purely verbal subject, such as English, or a</span><br><span> STEM subject requiring mathematical and scientific notation, such as</span><br><span> biology. By contrast, there are many other distributors that, unlike</span><br><span> Amazon, sell digital books in the ePub3 format used by major</span><br><span> publishers. These ePub3-formatted books provide blind and other print-</span><br><span> disabled students and faculty the same rich reading experience as</span><br><span> their nondisabled peers.</span><br><span> We trust this letter demonstrates how Amazon's lack of regard</span><br><span> for accessibility when creating Kindle ebook content would leave blind</span><br><span> students and teachers far behind their sighted peers if NYC DOE</span><br><span> chooses to proceed with the proposed contract with Amazon. We hope you</span><br><span> will take these concerns seriously, and we remain eager to sit down</span><br><span> with you and other panel members or other DOE personnel to discuss</span><br><span> these issues further. Please respond to Mehgan Sidhu, Esq., General</span><br><span> Counsel to the National Federation of the Blind, at (410) 659-9314</span><br><span> extension 2314 or <<a href="mailto:msidhu at nfb.org">msidhu at nfb.org</a>>, to inform us if you are amenable</span><br><span> to such a meeting.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Sincerely,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Mark A. Riccobono, President</span><br><span> National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span> After the August 13 letter several days passed without further word</span><br><span>from NYC DOE, and with the vote of the Panel for Educational Policy pending</span><br><span>on August 26, President Riccobono felt that a more aggressive plan of</span><br><span>action was needed. This plan consisted of two components: a protest outside</span><br><span>the building where the panel meeting would take place, and direct</span><br><span>participation by blind people, such as students and parents of blind</span><br><span>children, in the public comment portion of the meeting itself. Email blasts</span><br><span>went out to affiliate leaders in the New York City area and to other</span><br><span>supporters. A social media campaign was also begun by the Federation's new</span><br><span>coordinator of social media and member engagement, Danielle Trevino,</span><br><span>anchored by a blog post on the Voice of the Nation's Blind, the</span><br><span>Federation's official blog. Here is the full text of the blog post:</span><br><span></span><br><span> We Must Stop the Amazon Fail!</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Once again, Amazon Inc. is trying to push its inaccessible</span><br><span> technology into public schools, despite our years of advocacy, and</span><br><span> clear warnings against the adoption of inaccessible technology by the</span><br><span> United States Departments of Education and Justice. In this case,</span><br><span> blind students throughout the New York City public school system will</span><br><span> be denied an equal education if the city goes through with a proposed</span><br><span> $30 million deal under which Amazon would construct an electronic</span><br><span> storefront for New York City schools and become the primary provider</span><br><span> of electronic textbooks and related educational materials for</span><br><span> students. Unfortunately, Amazon ebooks inhibit the ability of blind</span><br><span> students to access complex material like tables and equations and the</span><br><span> ability to easily navigate through a book, among other significant</span><br><span> accessibility barriers. We have informed New York City Department of</span><br><span> Education officials of these issues in two separate letters, sent on</span><br><span> August 7 and August 13, but so far we have received no acceptance of</span><br><span> our offer to meet with these officials, nor any firm indication that</span><br><span> the proposed deal will be altered or scrapped.</span><br><span> Since we have not been offered a meaningful reply to our</span><br><span> concerns or an in-person meeting with relevant officials, we have</span><br><span> decided to take more public action. The school system's Panel for</span><br><span> Educational Policy, which has the final say on the deal, will meet</span><br><span> next Wednesday, August 26, to vote on it, and blind Americans will be</span><br><span> there in force to let the panel members and the public know that this</span><br><span> is a bad deal for blind students and faculty and, therefore, for New</span><br><span> York City schools. We plan to tell the panel that a vote for this deal</span><br><span> is an outrageous act of deliberate discrimination against blind</span><br><span> students and an equally outrageous and deliberate violation of federal</span><br><span> law. Following the demonstration we will enter the auditorium where</span><br><span> the meeting is taking place and participate respectfully so that we</span><br><span> can encourage the Educational Policy Panel to do the right thing and</span><br><span> shut down this "Amazon Fail!"</span><br><span> If you would like to attend the protest, you can get more</span><br><span> details by viewing our Facebook event, which we hope you will also</span><br><span> take the time to share with others. If you are not able to attend the</span><br><span> protest, you can still get involved by posting on social media using</span><br><span> the following information.</span><br><span> Be sure to tweet the New York City public schools (@NYCSchools),</span><br><span> the mayor of New York (@NYCMayorsOffice), and Amazon (@Amazon) to tell</span><br><span> them that blind children deserve equal access to e-textbooks. Use the</span><br><span> hashtag #AmazonFail when you tweet so that our collective posts can</span><br><span> all be found in one place.</span><br><span> It is imperative that we protect the rights of blind students in</span><br><span> New York City and throughout America by stopping this deal and sending</span><br><span> a clear message to the New York City public schools, to Amazon, and to</span><br><span> school systems across America that we will not tolerate blind children</span><br><span> being treated like second-class citizens in our nation's classrooms.</span><br><span> Help stop the #AmazonFail!</span><br><span></span><br><span> That was our blog entry. Other protest plans were made: chants were</span><br><span>composed, buses to transport members to the protest site were arranged, and</span><br><span>signs from previous Kindle-related protests were removed from storage. But</span><br><span>on August 25, President Riccobono received an official response from the</span><br><span>school system. The text of this letter follows:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Dear Mr. Riccobono,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Thank you for your letter on August 13th. We take your concerns</span><br><span> about the accessibility of Amazon ebooks seriously. In particular, you</span><br><span> stated, among other things, that readers with visual impairments</span><br><span> working with an Amazon ebook containing illustrations, graphics, or</span><br><span> mathematical notations would not have access to such information</span><br><span> because it is not programmed to be accessible through assistive</span><br><span> technology.</span><br><span> The DOE continues to evaluate the accessibility features of</span><br><span> Amazon's services and other contractors. Please send us your best</span><br><span> practices on procuring and incorporating electronic and information</span><br><span> technology in the classroom to help us with our evaluation. It is</span><br><span> worth noting that the procurement of digital books is only one aspect</span><br><span> of the DOE's long-term technology vision for our schools. At the</span><br><span> moment, DOE has no storefront for e-content, which is a detriment to</span><br><span> our students and our learning communities. The goal of the contract</span><br><span> with Amazon is to utilize a web platform for the distribution of e-</span><br><span> content, including assistive technology, to schools. Regardless of</span><br><span> which contractor creates the online distribution tool for the DOE, the</span><br><span> DOE will retain its ability to procure content from different vendors.</span><br><span> We appreciate any guidance NFB could share in regards to our goal.</span><br><span> In the meantime, the vote regarding the proposed Amazon</span><br><span> agreement scheduled for the August meeting of the Panel for</span><br><span> Educational Policy will be postponed while we continue to consider all</span><br><span> our options.</span><br><span> We look forward to working with you.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Sincerely,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Ursulina Ramirez, Chief of Staff, New York City Department of</span><br><span> Education</span><br><span> cc: Vanessa Leung, Panel for Educational Policy Chair</span><br><span> Victor Calise, Commissioner, New York City Mayor's Office for People</span><br><span> with Disabilities</span><br><span></span><br><span> This letter did not specifically respond to our request for a meeting</span><br><span>with NYC DOE officials. However, President Riccobono judged it a</span><br><span>sufficiently promising gesture to justify postponing the protest. He issued</span><br><span>a statement saying as much, while making it clear that the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind stands ready to take further action if needed.</span><br><span>Quoting fully, he said, "The National Federation of the Blind is firmly</span><br><span>committed to the principle that blind students must have equal access to</span><br><span>the materials used by their sighted peers if they are to receive an equal</span><br><span>education and live the lives they want. That is why we have expressed our</span><br><span>strong opposition to the deal with Amazon as currently proposed. While we</span><br><span>stand ready to take any and all steps necessary to protect the rights of</span><br><span>New York City's blind students, we are now hopeful, in light of the</span><br><span>cancellation of tomorrow's vote on this deal, that we can resolve the issue</span><br><span>through an amicable and productive dialogue with school officials. We</span><br><span>continue to urge everyone concerned about the rights of students who are</span><br><span>blind or who have print disabilities to contact Chancellor Carmen Fariña</span><br><span>and let her know that equal access and equal education are one and the</span><br><span>same."</span><br><span> While the picket outside the meeting location was dropped from our</span><br><span>strategy, it was decided that a representative should still speak to the</span><br><span>panel during the public comment portion of the meeting and that blind</span><br><span>people from the New York City area should still attend. Maria Garcia, a</span><br><span>Brooklyn parent of a blind child, was permitted to speak to the panel</span><br><span>before any other business was conducted. Her prepared remarks follow:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Good evening. My name is Maria Garcia. My family and I are</span><br><span> longtime residents of West Harlem. I currently serve as the president</span><br><span> of the Parents of Blind Children of New York and have served on the</span><br><span> boards of the Citywide Council on Special Education and the National</span><br><span> Organization of Parents of Blind Children. I also serve on the</span><br><span> Executive Board of the NYS Commission for the Blind as the governor's</span><br><span> appointee.</span><br><span> Most important, I am the parent of a wonderful daughter who</span><br><span> happens to be blind and has Cerebral Palsy. Elora is 18 and attends</span><br><span> the Bronx Collaborative High School. Both as a parent and</span><br><span> representative of parents of blind children in New York, I have seen</span><br><span> how critical decisions like the Amazon contract are to the academic</span><br><span> and future success or failure of our blind children. I want to thank</span><br><span> the commissioner and panel for postponing today's vote on the contract</span><br><span> to investigate accessible options. My daughter, like the more than one</span><br><span> thousand blind students in this district, has tremendous potential to</span><br><span> live a meaningful and productive life and strong ambitions of what she</span><br><span> might accomplish. But when a school employs inaccessible technology,</span><br><span> the opportunities for our blind kids shrink as the hurdles to</span><br><span> education increase. At its best, Amazon's e-content would mean a blind</span><br><span> student like my daughter would be unable to navigate through a book</span><br><span> and access critical information available to her sighted peers. At its</span><br><span> worst, Amazon's e-textbooks exclude blind students altogether. When</span><br><span> our children with disabilities are excluded, they fall behind not only</span><br><span> in their academic growth, but in their own belief about their</span><br><span> abilities as equal members of school and society. They internalize</span><br><span> themselves as second-class citizens. This need not be so. The</span><br><span> technology exists and is commercially available to make these books</span><br><span> and technology accessible and to put our blind children on an equal</span><br><span> footing. </span><br><span> New York City's DOE has the largest population of blind students</span><br><span> in the nation. The impact of your decision is tremendous. As you</span><br><span> consider how to move forward, this administration faces the choice to</span><br><span> entrench barriers that push our district's blind students and other</span><br><span> students with disabilities further behind or to choose to serve as an</span><br><span> example to uphold the value of students with disabilities and your</span><br><span> legal obligation to provide equal educational opportunities. I hope</span><br><span> you will choose the latter course and be a role model to districts</span><br><span> around the country and know the NY Parents of Blind Children stand</span><br><span> ready to assist in that effort.</span><br><span></span><br><span> President Riccobono quickly responded to Ms. Ramirez's August 25</span><br><span>letter with two detailed pieces of correspondence outlining the</span><br><span>accessibility barriers inherent to Kindle content. Both letters are</span><br><span>reproduced below. Please note: Both pieces of correspondence refer to a</span><br><span>chart comparing the accessibility of Amazon's ebooks with those of another</span><br><span>provider. The chart was included with both letters, but revisions to it</span><br><span>were made after the first letter to incorporate information about access to</span><br><span>math content. Only the second, more complete chart is reproduced at the end</span><br><span>of the second letter.</span><br><span></span><br><span> August 26, 2015</span><br><span> VIA EMAIL</span><br><span> Ursalina Ramirez, Chief of Staff</span><br><span> New York City Department of Education</span><br><span> 52 Chambers Street</span><br><span> New York, NY 10007</span><br><span> <<a href="mailto:URamirez at schools.nyc.gov">URamirez at schools.nyc.gov</a>></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Re: Proposed Contract Between the New York City Department of</span><br><span> Education and Amazon Digital Services Inc.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Dear Ms. Ramirez:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Thank you for your letter of yesterday's date. You note that the</span><br><span> Department of Education will retain the right to order books</span><br><span> elsewhere, but it appears to us that teachers and school</span><br><span> administrators wishing to buy books and take advantage of deep</span><br><span> discounts would be inclined to buy Amazon's content through the DOE</span><br><span> storefront. Regardless of the original source of the ebooks or</span><br><span> econtent, if DOE distributes the book through Amazon's current</span><br><span> distribution software, the student or teacher will receive content</span><br><span> with the same accessibility shortcomings as Amazon's Kindle content.</span><br><span> Amazon's distribution mechanism converts all content to Amazon's</span><br><span> proprietary Kindle format, including accessible ePub3 content provided</span><br><span> by publishers or accessible instructional materials provided by a</span><br><span> teacher. While Amazon's converter accepts ePub and other accessible</span><br><span> content, it locks the distributed content into the Kindle format.</span><br><span> Unlike many other vendors, Amazon's current distribution platform does</span><br><span> not permit "side loading" that would enable non-proprietary formats to</span><br><span> be presented in the reading system. As a result, otherwise accessible</span><br><span> content, when channeled through Amazon's distribution system, will</span><br><span> have the shortcomings described in the attached document, or worse.</span><br><span> The attached document shows the problems with two Kindle formats</span><br><span> in two charts. The first chart addresses Amazon's Print Replica</span><br><span> formatted ebooks, books that even when used by a blind student on the</span><br><span> optimum device, the Kindle Fire, still have significant deficits</span><br><span> compared to the reading experience for the sighted student. The second</span><br><span> addresses the standard Kindle format when the blind student uses iOS</span><br><span> hardware, the optimum device for this format, and again results in</span><br><span> inferior access to information. To demonstrate that there are</span><br><span> commercially available alternatives that deliver to the blind student</span><br><span> a more equivalent reading experience, the document shows that the</span><br><span> features unavailable to blind students in the Kindle formats are</span><br><span> available to all students in ePub3 books on the VitalSource platform.</span><br><span> VitalSource is by no means the only choice.</span><br><span> With respect to best practices, we can be of greater assistance</span><br><span> if we have a more in-depth meeting to explore what the DOE wants to</span><br><span> offer all students. In broad terms, ePub3, a set of HTML standards,</span><br><span> includes accessibility standards that represent all that technology</span><br><span> can currently offer to students with print disabilities, such as the</span><br><span> ability to read MathML, tables, and a rich markup to allow quick</span><br><span> navigability. There are a number of web-based readers that are</span><br><span> accessible and can make available all of the content features present</span><br><span> in ePub3. Some, like Kobo and the Adobe Digital Editions reader, rely</span><br><span> on the open-source software of the Readium Foundation that fully</span><br><span> supports ePub3. Others, like Apple, use their own distribution format,</span><br><span> but they also support the reading of other formats such as ePub3.</span><br><span> Apple has the additional advantage of offering an authoring tool</span><br><span> targeted at education; iBook Author is designed to empower authors and</span><br><span> faculty to create ePub3 content.</span><br><span> If you wish to learn further on this topic, I note that James</span><br><span> English of the New York Public Library is on the Readium Board of</span><br><span> Directors; thus, he may be able to acquaint you further with the pros</span><br><span> and cons of various readers that use the Readium software to deliver</span><br><span> ePub3 to the reader. I have never spoken with Mr. English, but have</span><br><span> been advised that he is extremely knowledgeable. For more information</span><br><span> about best practices around ePub3, you can obtain "Accessible EPUB 3,</span><br><span> Best Practices for Creating Universally Usable Content," a free book</span><br><span> by Matt Garrish from O'Reilly Publishers,</span><br><span> <<a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do</a>>.</span><br><span> Obviously, the web platform for ordering or selecting books must also</span><br><span> meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards.</span><br><span> Finally, you raise the question of distribution. Again, there</span><br><span> are a number of accessible choices. For example, VitalSource, a member</span><br><span> of Readium, has a distribution system that includes the ability to</span><br><span> share notes or bookmarks, enabling the teacher to give assignments and</span><br><span> raise questions or comments across the class. I would also note that</span><br><span> VitalSource integrates with other portals, such as Blackboard.</span><br><span> By contrast, here is what happens with content loaded on to</span><br><span> Whispercast for distribution. NFB tried loading an accessible ePub3</span><br><span> book on to a Whispercast account but was unsuccessful because ePub3 is</span><br><span> not a format supported by Whispercast. The only way to get this</span><br><span> accessible title to read would have been to convert it into Amazon's</span><br><span> Kindle file format, which would have stripped it of all markup, as</span><br><span> described in the table in the attached chart that addresses reflowable</span><br><span> text. NFB also uploaded the attached chart as a fully accessible .docx</span><br><span> format document to Whispercast. The result: a blind user could not</span><br><span> tell there were tables, could not know what column and row was being</span><br><span> read, and, since the alt tags were gone, could not know whether the</span><br><span> cell contained a check mark, an X, or a caution sign. Finally, NFB</span><br><span> uploaded a .pdf file that it knew to be accessible (NFB's annual</span><br><span> report). On an iOS device, Voiceover stated "This file format is not</span><br><span> supported." On the Kindle Fire, nothing was vocalized at all-it simply</span><br><span> could not be read.</span><br><span> We are not endorsing any given product. To the contrary, we</span><br><span> continue to request a true dialogue where we can give you information</span><br><span> about the accessibility of different features that you identify as</span><br><span> pedagogically important. I am confident that when selecting Amazon for</span><br><span> final consideration, you were unaware of the accessibility barriers</span><br><span> present in Kindle content-barriers that the National Federation of the</span><br><span> Blind knows all too well. I am equally confident that a meeting would</span><br><span> allow us to help you identify the people, resources, and products that</span><br><span> can help you get a solution that will serve all of your students</span><br><span> optimally.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Sincerely,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Mark A. Riccobono, President</span><br><span> National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks</span><br><span> Subject: From Mark Riccobono: NFB addendum email to New York City</span><br><span> Department of Education</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Please see below and attached.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Ms. Ramirez:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> In our letter of Wednesday's date, we excluded reference to the</span><br><span> ability to read math correctly (to read presentations in MathML) from</span><br><span> the charts we attached, because we had not had the opportunity to re-</span><br><span> confirm that VitalSource books have that capacity. Since that time, we</span><br><span> have received the following statement from VitalSource: "We support</span><br><span> MathML in all clients equally (browser, Mac, Windows, Android, Kindle</span><br><span> Fire, Chrome Book, iOS). Specifically: VitalSource uses the evolving</span><br><span> standard MathJax javascript framework to renderMathML. MathJax fully</span><br><span> supports accessibility including ChromeVox, Texthelp, JAWS, and</span><br><span> MathPlayer with more player support planned. We handle the</span><br><span> implementation internally. In other words, publishers just have to</span><br><span> provide valid MathML markup. VitalSource's platform handles the rest.</span><br><span> When inquiries from end users, or institutions are received by</span><br><span> VitalSource, we have the capability to test markup and work with the</span><br><span> publisher in implementing and enhancing their MathML titles." As we</span><br><span> have earlier stated, there is no Kindle format that correctly reads</span><br><span> MathML. Please consider this an addendum to our information from</span><br><span> Wednesday.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> Mark A. Riccobono, President</span><br><span> National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span> To further elaborate on the inaccessibility of the Kindle ebook</span><br><span>experience for blind students, the tables sent to Ms. Ramirez are reprinted</span><br><span>here:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks</span><br><span></span><br><span>Compiled by the National Federation of the Blind, August 2015</span><br><span></span><br><span>Amazon currently offers ebooks and econtent in two formats: Print Replica</span><br><span>and reflowable text. The following two charts identify accessibility</span><br><span>barriers for academic reading.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Inaccessibility of Kindle Print Replica Ebooks</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Typically, Amazon's electronic textbooks are only available in Kindle Print</span><br><span>Replica format and cannot be accessed as reflowable text. The most</span><br><span>accessible experience available from Amazon for reading Print Replica books</span><br><span>is with the Kindle Fire. Even so, a blind student who follows the</span><br><span>instructions provided by the Fire will be unable to read a Kindle Print</span><br><span>Replica book at all. A technologically sophisticated adult can force the</span><br><span>reading experience, but it is a difficult, inconsistent, and buggy reading</span><br><span>experience that would cause a blind student to read far less efficiently</span><br><span>than other students.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The following chart assumes that a blind student has managed to get the</span><br><span>Kindle Fire to read the Print Replica book. The chart describes those tasks</span><br><span>that a sighted student will be able to perform that a blind student cannot.</span><br><span>As a point of comparison, the chart also shows how the reading experience</span><br><span>on VitalSource's desktop application allows both sighted and blind students</span><br><span>to accomplish these same tasks.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Please Note: Traditionally, iOS is considered the most accessible platform</span><br><span>for accessing Kindle books, but when a Print Replica book is loaded, a</span><br><span>blind user will hear the message, "VoiceOver does not support this</span><br><span>content," rendering iOS unusable for Print Replica textbooks.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>|Features |Usable by Blind |Usable by Blind |</span><br><span>| |Students: |Students: |</span><br><span>| |Kindle Print Replica |VitalSource Desktop |</span><br><span>| |Ebooks |Platform |</span><br><span>|Look up the meaning of |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|words and terms | | |</span><br><span>|Read a text description |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|of a picture or graphic | | |</span><br><span>|Highlight text |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Make notes |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Read by paragraph |[pic][3] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Read tables |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Read MathML |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Return to highlights and|[pic][4] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|notes | | |</span><br><span>|Read text in Braille |[pic][5] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Determine the spelling |[pic][6] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|of a word or term | | |</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Inaccessibility of Kindle Ebooks with Reflowable Text</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Amazon's Kindle ebooks with reflowable text (text that can be sized</span><br><span>independently of layout constraints) are most accessible on an iOS device.</span><br><span>Even then, a blind student will encounter many significant barriers to</span><br><span>having a reading experience equivalent to his sighted counterparts. The</span><br><span>chart below describes activities that cannot be successfully completed by a</span><br><span>blind student with Kindle for iOS and compares these activities to the</span><br><span>experience of reading a textbook in the desktop VitalSource application,</span><br><span>which is one of the ebook platforms the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>knows to be accessible.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>|Features |Usable by Blind |Usable by Blind |</span><br><span>| |Students: |Students: |</span><br><span>| |Kindle on iOS |VitalSource Desktop |</span><br><span>|Read tables |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Skip to the previous or next block|[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|or paragraph of text | | |</span><br><span>|Skip to the previous or next |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|hyperlink or heading | | |</span><br><span>|Read the "alt text" labels on |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|photos, illustrations, or | | |</span><br><span>|graphics, i.e., know what the | | |</span><br><span>|photos, graphics, or illustrations| | |</span><br><span>|are that appear in the book | | |</span><br><span>|Move reliably between footnotes / |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|endnotes and where they are | | |</span><br><span>|indicated in the text | | |</span><br><span>|Read MathML |[pic] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Highlight text |[pic][7] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Make notes |[pic][8] |[pic] |</span><br><span>|Braille support in text |[pic][9] |[pic] |</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Please Note: The preceding table focuses on the tools that are unavailable</span><br><span>or impractical for a blind student to use with Kindle on iOS. Students are</span><br><span>able to read basic text continuously, and by both character and word. They</span><br><span>are also able to use bookmarks, search for terms, use the table of</span><br><span>contents, and go directly to a specific location in the book. These</span><br><span>features make the Kindle suitable for basic leisure reading, but without</span><br><span>the features described in the preceding table, a blind student would be</span><br><span>wholly unable to participate in the majority of classroom activities</span><br><span>independently.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> As mentioned earlier, the proposed deal between Amazon and the NYC</span><br><span>DOE had attracted a good deal of publicity, owing to the size of both the</span><br><span>deal and the NYC school system. The sudden postponement of the vote on the</span><br><span>contract also attracted notice in the media. The New York Daily News</span><br><span>reported on the vote's cancellation via its website almost immediately.</span><br><span>Although school officials had not mentioned our pending protest, we had</span><br><span>alerted the media in the area and so the paper quickly put two and two</span><br><span>together and contacted us for our reaction. As a result, a substantial part</span><br><span>of President Riccobono's statement was included in the published article,</span><br><span>which ran under the headline "Ebooks at NYC Public Schools Leave Out Blind,</span><br><span>Advocates Say." Education Week, which is widely read by K-12 educators,</span><br><span>also ran a story on the deal's failure to sail through as expected on its</span><br><span>Marketplace K-12 blog. Blogger Michelle Molnar wrote in part:</span><br><span> New York City schools delayed a vote this week on awarding a $30</span><br><span> million contract to Amazon to develop an online ebook storefront for</span><br><span> educators, after advocates for blind and visually impaired individuals</span><br><span> raised accessibility concerns.</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind is questioning whether its</span><br><span> community would have full accessibility in the online platform that</span><br><span> would be built for teachers and principals to order ebooks and digital</span><br><span> content, and whether blind and visually impaired educators and</span><br><span> students will be able to adequately use the content once it is</span><br><span> downloaded via the Kindle file format.</span><br><span> "Our concern is that what we knew of the criteria for the</span><br><span> project didn't include clear accessibility requirements in either</span><br><span> area," said Mark Riccobono, the president of the Federation, in a</span><br><span> phone interview. His organization's objections to the Kindle's</span><br><span> custom file format date to 2008, he said, because visually impaired</span><br><span> users who access ebooks that way cannot read tables, skip around in</span><br><span> the text, or know what illustrations are in them.</span><br><span> The vote on the agreement, originally scheduled to take place on</span><br><span> August 26, has been postponed until a meeting in the fall, although no</span><br><span> specific date has been set. "We are working closely with Amazon and</span><br><span> community partners to ensure that all school communities-including</span><br><span> those serving visually impaired students-will be able to take</span><br><span> advantage of the ebook and e-content marketplace when it meets their</span><br><span> needs," said Devora Kaye, the press secretary for the city's</span><br><span> Department of Education, in a prepared statement.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> It is unclear what will happen next in this saga, but the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind remains willing to engage in constructive</span><br><span>conversations with all parties. Watch this space for further developments.</span><br><span></span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer]</span><br><span>The Nature of Blindness</span><br><span></span><br><span>An Address Delivered by</span><br><span>Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President</span><br><span>At the Convention of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>July 10, 2015</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: We spend a lot of time at conventions critiquing our</span><br></blockquote><span>progress and planning for the future we intend to make for ourselves and</span><br><span>those who follow. But sometimes we ask ourselves difficult questions, ones</span><br><span>the world may think have already been answered, but which, with a bit of</span><br><span>analysis, prove to be superficial and unimaginative. "Blindness, Handicap</span><br><span>or Characteristic," seemed an absurd title to many of us who saw it for the</span><br><span>first time, but a quick read through revealed that there was more to know</span><br><span>about this topic than we had thought, and a second and third reading</span><br><span>revealed some of the wisdom contained in Kenneth Jernigan's life altering</span><br><span>article. What follows is another speech that may well change how people</span><br><span>come to feel about blindness, and it is obvious that our former president</span><br><span>has not stopped thinking about or exploring all of the ramifications, real</span><br><span>or imagined, that are associated with it. Here is what he says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> What is the nature of blindness? When a person becomes blind, how</span><br><span>does that person change? Inasmuch as blind people and sighted people do not</span><br><span>have identical characteristics, how are blind people different from the</span><br><span>sighted? After seventy-five years of work in the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind, it may seem that these questions must already have been answered. We</span><br><span>must already know everything there is to tell.</span><br><span> This speculation comes to mind because Gary Wunder, editor of the</span><br><span>Braille Monitor, president of the National Federation of the Blind of</span><br><span>Missouri, a former board member of the National Federation of the Blind,</span><br><span>and a man who has been a very good friend of mine for a quarter of a</span><br><span>century, sent me an email that he had received from Sabra Ewing dated April</span><br><span>29, 2014. A portion of the text in that email says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> I think someone should write an article about the advantages of</span><br><span> being blind. You might be thinking that articles like this already</span><br><span> exist, but the ones I have found are about people who use their</span><br><span> blindness to avoid lines and do inappropriate things, which even if</span><br><span> viewed as advantages, are a result of the way society views blindness</span><br><span> rather than blindness itself.</span><br><span> Lots of people who were born blind, including me, want to remain</span><br><span> that way even if given the choice to become sighted. We still want to</span><br><span> be blind even though society sends lots of messages that this attitude</span><br><span> isn't okay. Why do we still want to be blind even knowing that we</span><br><span> could fit into society so much better as sighted people? In my case I</span><br><span> don't know why I want to stay blind, but I know it doesn't have to do</span><br><span> with fear, and it's not a coping mechanism like some sighted people</span><br><span> would suggest. That must mean there are lots of advantages to being</span><br><span> blind. I think it would also be good for sighted people to read the</span><br><span> article so they can learn to avoid insulting people who are happy with</span><br><span> their blindness.</span><br><span></span><br><span>In responding to this email, Gary Wunder said in part: You seem to hold</span><br><span>that it [blindness] is a blessing, an unexplored territory that offers a</span><br><span>great deal to those of us who are blind if only we would take the time to</span><br><span>reflect upon it.</span><br><span> When I encountered this correspondence, I thought: fair enough-an</span><br><span>interesting point of view, and one which suggests certain lines of thought.</span><br><span>Maybe, Sabra, I wondered, you want to remain blind because you know quite</span><br><span>well how to manage your life as a blind person. Maybe you are identifiably</span><br><span>and interestingly different from people who are sighted. Maybe the thought</span><br><span>of change, of becoming a sighted person, is challenging to you. But just</span><br><span>maybe, being blind carries with it enough advantages to make it attractive</span><br><span>to you.</span><br><span> A brief look at the internet tells us that the Yahoo company believes</span><br><span>the three major advantages of being blind are: enhanced senses of smell and</span><br><span>touch, an increased confidence, and a heightened capacity for sensuality.</span><br><span>Although this list has a certain charm, I suspect that the reporter for</span><br><span>Yahoo was not thoroughly informed. On the other hand, my own experience</span><br><span>indicates that advantages do exist.</span><br><span> In 1940 Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder and first president of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind, said that blind people are normal,</span><br><span>useful, and self-respecting. However, he did not attribute these</span><br><span>characteristics to the blindness itself.</span><br><span> In 1963 Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, who later served as the second long-</span><br><span>term president of the National Federation of the Blind, delivered an</span><br><span>address to the banquet of the national convention of the Federation</span><br><span>entitled "Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic." He said that blindness is</span><br><span>a characteristic but that it is not a handicap unless certain conditions</span><br><span>make it one. Furthermore, other characteristics can also, under certain</span><br><span>circumstances, become handicaps.</span><br><span> Dr. Jernigan pointed out that every characteristic is a limitation.</span><br><span>He stated that ignorance and poverty are limiting, but he also asserted</span><br><span>that the opposite of ignorance, intelligence, is itself a limitation. My</span><br><span>daughter faced this limitation when she was urgently seeking work. When she</span><br><span>applied to become a barista, she was refused the position because she had</span><br><span>graduated from college. The owner of the coffee shop said that college</span><br><span>graduates do not become baristas for very long, and she (the owner) wanted</span><br><span>a permanent employee.</span><br><span> Because all characteristics are limitations, blindness is also a</span><br><span>limitation. However, it is only a disadvantage if the activity being</span><br><span>pursued by the person who is blind is one that requires sight. If the</span><br><span>activity being pursued does not require sight, blindness may become an</span><br><span>advantage. Furthermore, most activities of life do not require sight-even</span><br><span>though many sighted people use vision to perform them. Thus, blindness,</span><br><span>though a limitation, is not more limiting than many other characteristics.</span><br><span> However, we are here considering not the limitations of blindness but</span><br><span>its advantages. What do blind people get that others do not? Blind people</span><br><span>are free of the requirement to do things visually. I, a totally blind</span><br><span>person, can read in the dark or perform other tasks without worrying about</span><br><span>light. When I was working as a lawyer for the Civil Aeronautics Board,</span><br><span>several of us visited the flight facility operated by the Federal Aviation</span><br><span>Administration in Oklahoma. We were examining what is involved in emergency</span><br><span>evacuations of aircraft. In one of the demonstrations, an official filled</span><br><span>the fuselage of an airplane with nontoxic but very dense smoke. My</span><br><span>colleagues were disoriented, but I was not. They were worried about my</span><br><span>safety, and they offered me a great deal of advice about what to do to</span><br><span>avoid collisions with obstacles. I had no problem finding my way, but they</span><br><span>felt that I must be disoriented because they were.</span><br><span> All of the systems designed to provide illumination or present images</span><br><span>are almost entirely irrelevant to me except when I am helping out my</span><br><span>sighted friends. I do not need a computer monitor, a flashlight, or a</span><br><span>candle except when the candle is being used as a votive offering or a dish</span><br><span>warmer. Because I do not use visual mechanisms, my mind takes advantage of</span><br><span>alternative methods of knowing about the world in which I live. When we</span><br><span>were working on the construction of the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>Jernigan Institute, many of my sighted colleagues learned of the nature of</span><br><span>planned construction by means of drawings. However, I often found myself</span><br><span>making revisions to the plans with mental images instead of relying on</span><br><span>paper.</span><br><span> This brings to mind the consideration of imagination. Inventive</span><br><span>genius is often highly regarded. Inventions benefiting society have come</span><br><span>into being (at least in part) to serve the blind. Thomas Edison wrote in</span><br><span>his application for a patent on the phonograph that this product could be</span><br><span>used to create talking books for the blind. Decades later, the long-play</span><br><span>phonograph record was invented for the Talking Book program. The recording</span><br><span>industry quickly adopted the long-play record which brought profound change</span><br><span>in the music business.</span><br><span> Inventive genius intended to benefit the blind has been dramatically</span><br><span>enhanced when the blind themselves have been involved. A good many of us,</span><br><span>as blind students, invented symbols for writing concepts in Braille which</span><br><span>had not previously existed. Dr. Jacobus tenBroek invented a shorthand</span><br><span>system for legal writing in Braille that he used to keep notes on</span><br><span>disability law and constitutional matters. The shorthand he devised is</span><br><span>recognizable to me though the one I used in law school is much different.</span><br><span> Dr. Abraham Nemeth invented a symbol set for writing mathematical and</span><br><span>scientific notation. The symbol set was big enough to be called a code, and</span><br><span>Dr. Nemeth fought fiercely to ensure that it was adopted within the field</span><br><span>of work with the blind.</span><br><span> When Dr. Raymond Kurzweil was inventing the Kurzweil Reading Machine</span><br><span>for the Blind, we asked him to include blind engineers in the inventive</span><br><span>process. Dr. Kurzweil told me later that this request was among the most</span><br><span>beneficial he received. Having blind people work on the reading machine was</span><br><span>useful because those who were building it could incorporate within the</span><br><span>design the characteristics they wanted it to have.</span><br><span> To build a proper reading machine, Dr. Kurzweil had to invent a</span><br><span>scanner, which came to be a necessary product for offices throughout the</span><br><span>world. Scanning information, capturing it electronically, and making it</span><br><span>capable of transmission by computer benefited the blind, but it also</span><br><span>brought enormous benefit to the sighted. The reading machine for the blind</span><br><span>changed substantially the possibilities for sighted people working in</span><br><span>offices to gain access to information.</span><br><span> Those who possess disabilities know that the systems customarily used</span><br><span>by others are not always readily available to them without adaptation.</span><br><span>Consequently, using such systems often demands ingenuity. The necessity for</span><br><span>imaginative thought becomes a pattern of behavior in many disabled people,</span><br><span>and invention of systems, techniques, or products accompanies this</span><br><span>imaginative thought. Invention is a necessity for disabled people who want</span><br><span>to participate in society.</span><br><span> Can blind children play tag? Many people would think not. However,</span><br><span>one small blind child in a schoolyard thought the answer should be</span><br><span>otherwise. He altered the rules of the game slightly. He brought a small</span><br><span>can to school which contained a stone. He required those who played tag and</span><br><span>who were "it" to hold the can and to shake it as they ran. With this minor</span><br><span>alteration, invented by a child in kindergarten, the game of tag was</span><br><span>modified so that the blind and the sighted could play it together.</span><br><span> At the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Jerry Whittle and some of his</span><br><span>colleagues invented a modified version of football that can be played by</span><br><span>the blind. I learned of this when he asked me for some funds to obtain</span><br><span>uniforms for the team. He told me that when you run out onto the field,</span><br><span>smash into opposing team members, and knock your opponent base over apex,</span><br><span>this is fun. Simultaneously an advantage and a disadvantage for the blind</span><br><span>came into being. We can now play football, but we also know that a bunch of</span><br><span>big ornery blind people are looking forward to smashing us into oblivion.</span><br><span> A common misunderstanding is that blind people have a perpetual</span><br><span>experience of darkness, but I do not. The world I encounter contains light,</span><br><span>shadow, and color along with occasional elements of darkness. These visual</span><br><span>images come from my imagination, but language and literature tell me that</span><br><span>these characteristics are essential-the world cannot be constructed without</span><br><span>them. Therefore, the image that I project may be different from the image</span><br><span>that a sighted person has, but I never touch anything without ascribing to</span><br><span>it a color.</span><br><span> Many people fear darkness, but I do not. When I work at it, I can</span><br><span>identify the difference between light and darkness, and I can speculate</span><br><span>about the alterations that come with the change from one to the other. But</span><br><span>most of the time the worry about darkness is unimportant. I do the things</span><br><span>that I do without looking, and I regard this as natural. Perhaps this</span><br><span>accounts for the Yahoo assertion that we who are blind have increased</span><br><span>confidence.</span><br><span> Occasionally this pattern leads to unfortunate accidents. One time I</span><br><span>invited a man into my office, a room without windows, for a meeting.</span><br><span>Somebody had shut off the lights in my office to save money on electricity.</span><br><span>My custom is to turn them on in the morning and to leave them that way. As</span><br><span>I am totally blind, I did not know they were shut off. I closed the door to</span><br><span>my office, and I discussed the business at hand. My companion seemed very</span><br><span>tentative, but I did not know until the meeting was over that we were</span><br><span>having our conference in the dark. Although the man with whom I was having</span><br><span>the meeting had wanted to sell me some products, he never came back. Maybe</span><br><span>he was afraid of the dark.</span><br><span> Numerous articles have been written about the plasticity of the</span><br><span>brain. The visual cortex in blind people is not idle, they say. What are</span><br><span>these people doing with their visual cortex? Are they thinking with it? I</span><br><span>do not believe that blind people are noticeably more thoughtful or more</span><br><span>intelligent than the sighted people I know, but I have never tested the</span><br><span>hypothesis. On the other hand, I have found many thousands of blind people</span><br><span>prepared to contemplate with equanimity altered patterns of understanding</span><br><span>from those frequently encountered. These altered patterns of understanding</span><br><span>provide a greater perspective than would otherwise exist, which necessarily</span><br><span>requires a degree of imaginative work. I believe that the willingness to</span><br><span>engage in this kind of mental exercise builds comprehension. I have also</span><br><span>speculated that blind people, who must face challenges often not</span><br><span>encountered by others, may be less fearful than some who have not faced</span><br><span>such challenges. Independence for the blind demands a measure of rebellion,</span><br><span>and rebellion cannot occur without mental effort.</span><br><span> One of the elements of the rebellion involves the insistence that we</span><br><span>who are blind have the right to participate fully in our society on equal</span><br><span>terms with others. We have demanded that systems for providing access to</span><br><span>information be constructed such that they can be used either visually or</span><br><span>non-visually. We have been told that this insistence limits creativity and</span><br><span>stifles invention on the part of companies providing information. However,</span><br><span>a senior official of one of the premier technology companies of the world</span><br><span>expressed the exact opposite to me. He said that requiring his company's</span><br><span>systems to have multiple mechanisms for presentation of information helped</span><br><span>his engineers to assure that internal mismatches between his company's</span><br><span>programs had disappeared. He considered that our demand for equal access to</span><br><span>information was a significant assistance to his inventors in creating a</span><br><span>more thoroughly integrated and manageable system of presenting information</span><br><span>to any of the populations he serves.</span><br><span> Mr. Frank Kurt Cylke, the former director of the National Library</span><br><span>Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of</span><br><span>Congress, told me that blind library patrons read more books than sighted</span><br><span>borrowers. Many blind people listen to computer voices or recorded material</span><br><span>at several hundred words a minute, faster than most sighted people can</span><br><span>comprehend.</span><br><span> A good many blind people have devised mechanisms for ensuring that</span><br><span>their socks match and that their items of apparel present a coordinated</span><br><span>appearance without being able to look at the colors. Invention, rebellion,</span><br><span>creativity, planning-these are words that I associate with the successful</span><br><span>blind people I know.</span><br><span> What are the other advantages that come with blindness? We who read</span><br><span>Braille can deliver speeches with the documents under our hands, which lets</span><br><span>us "look" at the audience, but of course having your hands in one place</span><br><span>does cut down on the gestures. We can read notes stashed in a briefcase or</span><br><span>pocket without other people (at least most of the time) knowing we are</span><br><span>doing so.</span><br><span> We are not troubled by visual appearance. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan liked</span><br><span>very sweet bananas, and he was not discouraged from eating them by the</span><br><span>color. When bananas are very ripe, they lose the yellow which is</span><br><span>characteristic of them becoming brown or black. He was attracted by the</span><br><span>taste but not deterred by the appearance. I am told that human beings who</span><br><span>are pretty, slender, and white get more promotions than others. These</span><br><span>characteristics, which are primarily visual, have generally not been a part</span><br><span>of the decisions I have made. I suspect that discrimination based on visual</span><br><span>appearance occurs less often with blind people than it does with others.</span><br><span> This offers a notion about some of the advantages of blindness, but</span><br><span>undoubtedly there are others. Because some people believe that the absence</span><br><span>of our vision causes other senses to be heightened, they suggest that we be</span><br><span>placed in certain professions. A proposal made forty years ago recommended</span><br><span>that blind people be employed as perfume testers because the absence of</span><br><span>vision increased the olfactory capacity. Wine tasting has also been</span><br><span>recommended because the taste buds of the blind are superior to those of</span><br><span>the sighted. An article from a Hawaii newspaper offers the observation that</span><br><span>our heightened sense of touch makes the blind better at kissing than the</span><br><span>sighted. Could Yahoo be right after all about our sensuality? I can't be</span><br><span>sure, but it might be interesting to find out.</span><br><span> I do not really believe that blind people have enhanced senses, but I</span><br><span>do think that blind people often concentrate on the use of some of them</span><br><span>more assiduously than sighted people. Consequently, the experience of</span><br><span>identifying objects by touch is probably more thoroughly developed in blind</span><br><span>people than it is in the sighted.</span><br><span> How much would you pay to get your sight? The answer to this question</span><br><span>is often a million dollars or more. When I have thought about the question,</span><br><span>I know that I would not pay a million. The debt load I would have to carry</span><br><span>would be just too great. If the price tag were smaller, I might think that</span><br><span>trading the advantages I currently have as a blind person for those I would</span><br><span>have as a sighted person would be worthwhile. However, becoming sighted</span><br><span>would demand work. I do not know how to read print. If I became sighted,</span><br><span>people would expect me to know this. I would also have to master all of the</span><br><span>other things that sighted people do with sight. I believe that observing</span><br><span>things visually is a learned experience, and all learning requires effort.</span><br><span> One of my good friends (unfortunately now deceased) was Ray McGeorge.</span><br><span>He had been a blind person, and he gained his sight. He bought a car for</span><br><span>himself, and I rode in it while he drove. One of the things he liked to do</span><br><span>very much was read the advertising on boxes and bottles in the grocery</span><br><span>store. The wide variety of what was available had not previously occurred</span><br><span>to him. When he became blind again, he felt discouragement and depression,</span><br><span>but the teachings and the experience he had obtained in the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind got him through. Both in becoming sighted and</span><br><span>becoming blind, he had no real serious problems in regaining his</span><br><span>equilibrium.</span><br><span> I believe that the world is a more interesting place with disabled</span><br><span>people in it than it would be without us. Although we in the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind have emphasized how similar blind people are to</span><br><span>sighted people-how our talents, our aspirations, and our capacity to</span><br><span>function have not been diminished by our blindness-we are in certain ways</span><br><span>different from sighted people, and the difference is sometimes a</span><br><span>disadvantage and sometimes an advantage. As you know, I am not a broken</span><br><span>sighted person; rather, I am a blind person. This expression indicates that</span><br><span>I believe each of us has value, blind or sighted, and I believe that the</span><br><span>value that each of us represents should be cherished.</span><br><span> Therefore, Sabra, when somebody wonders what there is about blindness</span><br><span>that makes you think it is worthwhile, let your inquisitor know that the</span><br><span>advantages are abundant. Blindness helps to teach me to know the world by</span><br><span>touch, to read extensively in environments where others cannot, to imagine</span><br><span>a world of possibilities that others have not attempted, to invent, to</span><br><span>plan, to face the challenges that come, and to approach the world without</span><br><span>the ancient fear of the dark. Let your questioner know that ours is not a</span><br><span>restricted life but a liberated one. In the autumn when the leaves begin to</span><br><span>fall, you may observe us chasing the pigskin. Furthermore, those of us who</span><br><span>are blind never have to spend our hours hunting for a parking spot; well,</span><br><span>anyway, not yet. This too is a place that will require our further thought</span><br><span>and invention.</span><br><span> Those who believe that we live in a constant experience of darkness</span><br><span>and despair do not know the joy that we have found, the excitement we have</span><br><span>created, but we will tell them. The voice of the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind rises in a thunderous declaration to proclaim what we know to be</span><br><span>true. We will determine the destiny that must and will be ours. We will</span><br><span>imagine the future as we want it to be. We will invent the techniques, the</span><br><span>devices, and the programs that we need. We will use the advantages, the</span><br><span>intellect, the energy, and the spirit within us to build a life of</span><br><span>participation, equality, and joy for the blind-and nothing on earth can</span><br><span>stop us. Our hearts are filled with gladness; we feel the power that rises</span><br><span>within us. When we are together, the future is ours!</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Bickford]</span><br><span> Sixty Years of Living and Singing in the Federation</span><br><span> by Tom Bickford</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Tom Bickford is well known to many in the Federation both</span><br></blockquote><span>because of his tenure in the organization and his notoriety as a</span><br><span>songwriter, singer, and as the author of The Care and Feeding of the Long</span><br><span>White Cane. Here is an amazing account of his observations about the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind during his sixty years as a member:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Thank you. In the beginning there were seven states, as we know. The</span><br><span>president of the Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind, Gayle Burlingane,</span><br><span>invited other states to come to his 1940 convention to form a regional-or</span><br><span>perhaps larger-organization. And larger is what happened. Six states</span><br><span>responded: Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California.</span><br><span>I'm not going to tell you all the people who came; that's more names than I</span><br><span>can say. Those people got together in a separate room and organized the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind. Because of the Federation you and I can</span><br><span>live the lives we want to live. The NFB taught me what to do, how to do it,</span><br><span>and then gave me a good shove and said, "Now go out and do it," so I have.</span><br><span> The most important influence in my years of blindness has been the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind. In 1955-that was sixty years ago-I</span><br><span>enrolled in the Orientation Center for the Blind in California, where I met</span><br><span>Kenneth Jernigan and the National Federation of the Blind. And when you met</span><br><span>Kenneth Jernigan, you for sure met the National Federation of the Blind. At</span><br><span>the orientation center Jernigan gave of himself to the students in many</span><br><span>ways. Here's one example: in men's gymnasium class, where he both taught</span><br><span>and participated, there were several goals that he set for us to achieve in</span><br><span>order to earn a steak dinner that he would buy for us. I got my steak</span><br><span>dinner for 370 continuous jump ropes. No, I couldn't do it now. A couple of</span><br><span>years after I graduated from the orientation center, my mother said to me</span><br><span>once, "When you came back, you weren't the same person that we sent to that</span><br><span>orientation center." And I say that was good!</span><br><span> Live the life you want. At one time a friend of mine said to me I had</span><br><span>taught her how to walk with a cane. That surprised me because I had never</span><br><span>given her any lessons. She said she just paid attention to what I did, then</span><br><span>did the same. Another time, a lady I knew who was married to a blind friend</span><br><span>of mine said that I had helped her husband so much. Again, what had I done?</span><br><span>I had offered him my friendship and shared experiences with him, which</span><br><span>included taking him to some Federation meetings, and I'm sure that most of</span><br><span>you here in the room have had this same experience: sharing your lives with</span><br><span>other blind people and showing the Federation to the world. [Applause]</span><br><span> Employment is one of the areas that the Federation has worked on from</span><br><span>the beginning. First, getting financial aid for blind people, then helping</span><br><span>blind people to believe in ourselves and giving us the confidence and</span><br><span>determination to find employment so we can live the lives we want. We're</span><br><span>not going to get tired of that phrase, are we? In about 1950 the Federation</span><br><span>began the work to open the federal civil service to blind people. The law</span><br><span>case of Russell Kletzing, himself a blind lawyer, was the opening battle in</span><br><span>that war. Kletzing later served two terms as president of the National</span><br><span>Federation in the mid-1960s.</span><br><span> We have the capable and eager members. We have the determination. We</span><br><span>have a lawyer's division of our own. We have the capable and willing</span><br><span>lawyers to help us on our side, we just heard from one. Both Kenneth</span><br><span>Jernigan and Marc Maurer and many others have used the word "love." The</span><br><span>English language is not always very specific in its usages. The Greek</span><br><span>language has three words, all of which can be translated into English as</span><br><span>"love." When we say "love" we sometimes would think of what the Greeks</span><br><span>would call "eros," romantic love. That's not the kind of love I'm thinking</span><br><span>of now, although we are fully capable of that kind of love-good for us. The</span><br><span>next word is "philia," which is usually translated as "brotherly love."</span><br><span>That's closer to my thought, but it's still not the one I want. I think of</span><br><span>the Federation kind of love as "agape," A-G-A-P-E, agape: kindly concern or</span><br><span>predetermined goodwill. Before I meet you to know you individually, I want</span><br><span>good things for you. We want good things for each other. [Applause] Dr.</span><br><span>Jernigan, at his last convention in 1998, said, "Why do we do these things</span><br><span>for each other?" And he answered his own question: love. That, I think, is</span><br><span>agape-kindly concern or predetermined goodwill.</span><br><span> Dr. Maurer in 2002 said, "And love, freely given, is at least as</span><br><span>demanding as any other taskmaster." I will say it again, "And love, freely</span><br><span>given, is at least as demanding as any other taskmaster." We take that</span><br><span>seriously. Love, given to us freely, requires many things of us. Love is</span><br><span>why we buy raffle tickets. [Laughter] Love is why we give door prizes for</span><br><span>other people to win. Love is why we write letters to our state and federal</span><br><span>officials and attend hearings. Love is why we go to our own meetings and</span><br><span>greet each other.</span><br><span> The world changes, and so does the NFB. In 1957 we adopted the small,</span><br><span>round membership pin with words, "Security, Equality, Opportunity." Those</span><br><span>words are still in our NFB pledge. In 2002 we adopted the Whozit as our</span><br><span>logo. Last year, President Riccobono kept the Whozit and put six of them</span><br><span>around in a circle. In 1968 two New Yorkers, Floyd Fields and Josephine</span><br><span>Huff introduced what they wanted to be the official NFB song. Other people</span><br><span>wanted in on the act, so we had a year-long contest. In 1969 their song,</span><br><span>"The NFB Battle Hymn" that we know much better as "Glory, Glory Federation"</span><br><span>was adopted as the official song. This year, for the seventy-fifth</span><br><span>anniversary, James Brown will introduce a new song to us. It shows up on</span><br><span>the Friday agenda. After all, musical tastes have changed in the last forty-</span><br><span>six years, so we're changing with the times. After the first song contest</span><br><span>the musical ideas just broke forth; everybody wanted a song. We started</span><br><span>hearing songs that had already been sung, and new songs appeared as the</span><br><span>time occurred. When it was time to tell United Airlines that blind people</span><br><span>should keep our canes with us in the plane, we gave them back their own</span><br><span>music: [singing] "Don't fly unfriendly skies of United/don't take our long</span><br><span>white canes/we have the right to be free/We take care of ourselves/we're</span><br><span>the NFB." [applause]</span><br><span> A couple of years ago an air hostess wanted to take my cane from</span><br><span>where I had it between my seat and the wall of the plane. I said, "No, it</span><br><span>can stay here, that case has been to court." She dropped the subject.</span><br><span> The most prolific songwriter I met was Ted Young of Pennsylvania. I</span><br><span>met him at a Chicago convention one year, and one of the songs I learned</span><br><span>from him had to do with getting more help than we sometimes need. Here's</span><br><span>the chorus: "Helping, helping, helping, helping/sometimes it's help that I</span><br><span>can use/but sometimes I feel like yelping/especially from a 'helping'</span><br><span>bruise." After the convention who should I meet in the airport but some</span><br><span>Pennsylvania delegates. We were in the "helping" area where the airport had</span><br><span>asked us to wait to be assisted to our departure gates. The dear little</span><br><span>ground hostess would come running up in quite a dither, and she'd say,</span><br><span>"Who's next?" And then she'd take somebody off to their departure gate.</span><br><span>Those of us who were still there smiled at each other and sang, "Helping,</span><br><span>helping, helping, helping/sometimes it's help that I can use/but sometimes</span><br><span>I feel like yelping/especially from a 'helping' bruise."</span><br><span> In 1990, the fiftieth anniversary, three of my Maryland friends-</span><br><span>Debbie Brown, Lloyd Rasmussen, and Judy Rasmussen made use of their time</span><br><span>waiting in the restaurant line to compose the "Ode to the Code": "Going to</span><br><span>the school/to write an IEP/the teacher says use print, because your child</span><br><span>can see/the equipment is too big/and large print is too rare/and fifteen</span><br><span>words a minute will not get you anywhere./Oh, Braille is here/Braille is</span><br><span>here/Braille is here to stay/We will keep on using it/we don't care what</span><br><span>you say/ Braille is here/Braille is here/we will sing its praise/it's the</span><br><span>system for the blind/to get a job that pays."</span><br><span> These songs and many more are on the NFB's website-check them out,</span><br><span>learn them, sing them, write some more of your own. I plan to keep coming</span><br><span>back and singing, as long as money and health hold out. You do the same!</span><br><span>Thank you.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Advocacy and Policy Report</span><br><span> by John Paré, Rose Sloan, Gabe Cazares, and Lauren McLarney</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Before I could afford to go to the convention, the part of</span><br></blockquote><span>the Braille Monitor I most looked forward to reading was the Washington</span><br><span>Report by James Gashel. I loved hearing about our legislative skirmishes,</span><br><span>the arguments made against us, and the way we were so often able to</span><br><span>prevail. Much of the Monitor was interesting, but this section was where I</span><br><span>got my marching orders-something I could really do beyond my local chapter</span><br><span>to help the National Federation of the Blind. It is with these thoughts in</span><br><span>mind that I try to include much of what we now know of as the Advocacy and</span><br><span>Policy Report. I hope you enjoy the remarks made by these dedicated men and</span><br><span>women as much as I do:</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: John Paré]</span><br><span> John Paré: Good Afternoon, fellow Federationists. The Advocacy and</span><br><span>Policy Department is responsible for NFB-NEWSLINE®, public relations, and</span><br><span>governmental affairs. The mandate for our department is to promote equality</span><br><span>and opportunity for all blind people so that we can live the lives we want.</span><br><span>This is our assignment and our joy.</span><br><span> The problem is that society views blindness as a tragedy. Our founder</span><br><span>Dr. tenBroek said, "The principal misconception, the one that embodies and</span><br><span>epitomizes all the rest, is that blindness means helplessness-social and</span><br><span>economic incapacity; the destruction of the productive powers; the</span><br><span>obliteration of the ability to contribute to or benefit from normal</span><br><span>community participation; in short, the lingering image of the helpless</span><br><span>blind man."</span><br><span> I know a lot about these dismal views of blindness and the hope the</span><br><span>NFB has to offer because of the role the NFB has played in my own life.</span><br><span>About twenty years ago I began losing my eyesight. At the time I was</span><br><span>working for the Advanced Digital Information Corporation and was one of</span><br><span>their top salespersons. The company would fly me all over the country and</span><br><span>sometimes the world so I could tell prospective clients about our high-end</span><br><span>digital mass storage equipment. While on a business trip in Chicago, I</span><br><span>first noticed problems with my vision. My eyesight deteriorated slowly, and</span><br><span>it took several years for a retina specialist to finally diagnose my</span><br><span>condition as cone rod retina degeneration. The doctor told me that my</span><br><span>condition was incurable and degenerative.</span><br><span> As the late 90s progressed my eyesight got worse and worse.</span><br><span>Eventually I had to stop driving and turned in my driver's license for a</span><br><span>state-issued ID card. In retrospect my biggest problem was my lack of a</span><br><span>role model. I did not understand how a blind person could be successful at</span><br><span>much of anything, and as I became a blind person I did not think I could be</span><br><span>successful. I progressively relinquished all of my responsibilities at work</span><br><span>to others because I didn't think I could do the work as a blind person.</span><br><span>Eventually I agreed with my employer that the only option for me was to</span><br><span>leave the company and go on SSDI [Social Security Disability Insurance]. I</span><br><span>was resigned to the fact that I would spend the rest of my life sitting at</span><br><span>home, very busy at nothing.</span><br><span> In 2001 I was living in Tampa, Florida. I had learned about NFB-</span><br><span>NEWSLINE® and spent hours listening to the service. I began to wonder: if</span><br><span>the NFB was able to create a service as great as NFB-NEWSLINE, maybe I</span><br><span>should learn more. One day I researched the NFB and discovered that there</span><br><span>were hundreds of chapters and that one met close to where I lived. I went</span><br><span>to the meeting and after all those years of feeling isolated and alone, I</span><br><span>met another blind person. In fact, I met lots of them. But they were not</span><br><span>sitting at home busy doing nothing. They had careers, families, and</span><br><span>avocations. I was amazed. I was intrigued. I was motivated. I was filled</span><br><span>with hope.</span><br><span> I quickly got involved in NFB-NEWSLINE at the state level and</span><br><span>traveled to the national center for NFB-NEWSLINE administrator training. I</span><br><span>met Jim Gashel and Dr. Maurer and others. I was even more motivated and</span><br><span>inspired to know that I could live the life I wanted to live. I could go</span><br><span>back to living the life I used to live, but I would simply do it as a blind</span><br><span>person. This would require me to do a lot of things nonvisually, but I</span><br><span>quickly learned, from my ever-increasing number of NFB friends, that I</span><br><span>could still do what I wanted to do.</span><br><span> In February 2004, after attending the Washington Seminar, Dr. Maurer</span><br><span>invited me to the national center to interview for a job. Well, as most of</span><br><span>you know, I got the job.</span><br><span> At the NFB we say that our battles are not over until we win. That is</span><br><span>because our battles are personal. At one time I perceived being blind as an</span><br><span>insurmountable problem. I was wrong. But being blind in a sighted world can</span><br><span>pose some challenges. I am frustrated when I encounter inaccessible</span><br><span>websites, inaccessible apps, inaccessible kiosks, inaccessible</span><br><span>instructional materials, inaccessible home appliances, and inaccessible</span><br><span>technology of all types--which brings me back to the Advocacy and Policy</span><br><span>Department. We all share a similar story: our bond is our personal journeys</span><br><span>to conquer our blindness; not with restored eyesight, but with our shared</span><br><span>attitude that blindness is not what holds us back, that blindness does not</span><br><span>have to be viewed as a tragedy.</span><br><span> As you have heard, NFB-NEWSLINE is what introduced me to the NFB, and</span><br><span>this year is the twentieth anniversary of this terrific service. It was</span><br><span>conceived, designed, and implemented by the blind for the blind.</span><br><span> NFB-NEWSLINE is available in forty-five states and the District of</span><br><span>Columbia. It serves over 108,000 subscribers. There are 347 newspapers,</span><br><span>sixteen breaking news sources, fourteen international newspapers, and forty-</span><br><span>three magazines. Over the last year NFB-NEWSLINE subscribers have: enjoyed</span><br><span>over thirty-eight million minutes of news, made over two million calls,</span><br><span>received over two million emailed articles, logged into our web portal over</span><br><span>two million times, and accessed our mobile app over 260,000 times.</span><br><span> Over the past year several new features and services were added to</span><br><span>the system. In December of 2014 we introduced a new continuous reading mode</span><br><span>for the telephone access method. By simply pressing 99 at the section level</span><br><span>of a publication, a subscriber can hear the entire publication read cover-</span><br><span>to-cover without having to prompt the system to move to the next section or</span><br><span>article. I love this feature.</span><br><span> Two of the most recent publications added to the magazines category</span><br><span>are Braille Book Review and Talking Book Topics. Books listed in these two</span><br><span>publications are listed as individual articles which can be emailed to you</span><br><span>by pressing #9. These emails can then be forwarded to your regional Talking</span><br><span>Book Library to request these books.</span><br><span> I still listen to NFB-NEWSLINE every day, but now I do it with</span><br><span>purpose and pride. I am proud that the NFB could create such a valuable</span><br><span>service for blind people. And I listen to learn how we can convince more</span><br><span>companies to make their websites accessible, to make their apps accessible,</span><br><span>to make their kiosks accessible, to make electronic instructional material</span><br><span>accessible, to hire more blind people in competitive integrated employment,</span><br><span>and to increase access to Braille. I am now part of the strongest, most</span><br><span>effective advocacy group of blind people in America. When I go to the halls</span><br><span>of Congress or to Fortune 500 companies or to universities, I go with my</span><br><span>long white cane, the confidence you have given me, and the knowledge that</span><br><span>we are all working together side by side to live the lives we want. Thank</span><br><span>you for what you have done for me. [Applause]</span><br><span> Alright, we have more to go. We're going to go through more details</span><br><span>with each of our three specialists. The first one I would like to introduce</span><br><span>is Lauren McLarney:</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Lauren McLarney]</span><br><span> Lauren McLarney: Good afternoon, friends. I'm here to talk to you</span><br><span>about the TEACH Act, so I want to know what that stands for: [tepid</span><br><span>audience response] Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and</span><br><span>Higher Education. What does the bill do: it creates guidelines [slight</span><br><span>audience response when uttering that line]. Oh, that was awful. Okay, what</span><br><span>does the bill do? [The audience responds, "It creates guidelines."]</span><br><span> Okay, you guys got it. Before I get into any more details, I want to</span><br><span>start by saying that this is my fifth or sixth convention, and the one</span><br><span>thing that I notice is that you get to hear from us in government affairs,</span><br><span>but there are a lot of other people at the National Center who work on</span><br><span>these issues, particularly higher education, that you don't get to hear</span><br><span>from. So there is Kristian Kuhnke and Mya Jones-they do a lot of our</span><br><span>administrative support-Chris Danielsen helps with public relations. Mehgan</span><br><span>Sidhu is our general counsel, and she has listened to me rattle on and on</span><br><span>about the higher ed lobby for hours. Stephanie Witt is the person who did</span><br><span>the TEACH Act video. Jen White makes me smile every day. There are tons of</span><br><span>people at the national office who support our higher education issues, so</span><br><span>if everybody could acknowledge their work even though they're not up here</span><br><span>talking [applause].</span><br><span> Now back to the TEACH Act and just a brief reminder of what brought</span><br><span>us here. We saw the effect of inaccessible technology on students with</span><br><span>disabilities in college. We saw that blind students were delaying their</span><br><span>education, changing majors, even dropping out-not because they didn't have</span><br><span>the work ethic and not because they weren't smart enough, but because the</span><br><span>very technology that should've leveled the playing field for them was</span><br><span>inaccessible and creating needless barriers. We knew we had to do something</span><br><span>to stop it, and so we initiated litigation. We went to the Department of</span><br><span>Justice; our student division started letter-writing campaigns; we did</span><br><span>petitions; we have done everything, but we knew that nothing would change</span><br><span>unless the market was stimulated to include accessible things, and that</span><br><span>meant schools needed to be told that "This is what accessibility looks</span><br><span>like, this is the criteria you should follow, and this is what you should</span><br><span>ask for." So that is what the TEACH Act was meant to do. We introduced it</span><br><span>in November, and then Senators Warren and Hatch introduced the Senate</span><br><span>companion the following February. Then we got fifty-six cosponsors in the</span><br><span>House and six in the Senate. We had twenty-two different groups endorsing</span><br><span>the bill. We had over 1,000 views of our video, we were on a roll, and we</span><br><span>were feeling good! And then the higher ed lobby said "We don't like the</span><br><span>bill." Then members of Congress said "You might want to get them to like</span><br><span>the bill." We thought that this made sense. We don't like it when other</span><br><span>people who are not blind people say they know what's best for the blind. We</span><br><span>say that we know what's best for the blind, so when Congress says higher</span><br><span>education knows what's best for higher education, go talk to them; this</span><br><span>made sense. So we reached out to them; that was nine months ago.</span><br><span> I will tell you that we have spent the last nine months negotiating</span><br><span>with them, and in that time I've had several moments of frustration. I keep</span><br><span>hearing in my head this line from one of my favorite comedy bits, where the</span><br><span>comedian is talking about how absurd it is when the airline tells you that</span><br><span>when the oxygen mask drops down, you should adjust your mask before helping</span><br><span>the person next to you. He says, "I did not need to be told that." And I</span><br><span>have heard that in my head countless times over the last nine months.</span><br><span> The education people told us that they do more for students with</span><br><span>disabilities than anybody else. I asked if they had any specifics. They</span><br><span>said no, we have 7,000 institutions, and we couldn't possibly tell you any</span><br><span>specifics. They told us that the experiences that our students were</span><br><span>reporting were the exception and not the rule, that we were only hearing</span><br><span>from students who are having problems. We said no: we are listening to the</span><br><span>National Association of Blind Students, not the National Association of</span><br><span>Blind Students with Problems at institutions of higher education.</span><br><span> They then began to lecture us, saying that they want help because</span><br><span>they don't want to have to spend all of this money on accommodations. They</span><br><span>say that the accommodations model, the separate but equal model, is really</span><br><span>expensive, and again I thought, "I don't need to be told that; I know, and</span><br><span>that's why we're here trying to help you." They told us that they wanted a</span><br><span>new title for this bill. We said that was okay. They said they wanted a</span><br><span>purposed-base commission instead of the access board, and we said we would</span><br><span>be glad to think about it. Then they said they wanted a safe harbor for</span><br><span>considering the guidelines during the decision-making process-just</span><br><span>considering them-they should be able to buy whatever they want but should</span><br><span>get a reward for considering buying accessible technology. This was the</span><br><span>equivalent of saying, I sat outside the bank, and I considered not robbing</span><br><span>it, but I decided to go in and rob it, and you shouldn't arrest me because</span><br><span>I really thought about it. We said we would never accept that. I'm happy to</span><br><span>report that nine months later, as of about two or three weeks ago, we have</span><br><span>finally reached an agreement with the higher education lobby on the TEACH</span><br><span>Act. [Applause]</span><br><span> So what does this agreement look like? First of all, it has a new</span><br><span>name. It's called the SMART Act, so scratch all of that practicing about</span><br><span>what the TEACH Act stood for. The SMART Act stands for Stimulating the</span><br><span>Marketplace to Make Accessibility a Reality Today. The guidelines will be</span><br><span>created by a purpose-based commission with equal representation from all of</span><br><span>the different stakeholder groups, so there will be seven representatives</span><br><span>from the disability community, including two students with disabilities.</span><br><span>There will be two or three technology experts, seven representatives from</span><br><span>institutions of higher learning-higher education, and five industry reps.</span><br><span>There will also be a bifurcated safe harbor, which is a fancy way of saying</span><br><span>that they didn't get what they asked for. They are going to get the safe</span><br><span>harbor that we proposed in the first bill, and then they will also be</span><br><span>incentivized to adopt the guidelines into their decision-making process and</span><br><span>write down why they make the decisions that they make, what's available on</span><br><span>the market that they're choosing to reject, and how they are going to</span><br><span>provide equal access to students with disabilities.</span><br><span> So the next step is getting all of the different disability groups to</span><br><span>join us. I thought this would be really easy, but I was on a call last week</span><br><span>with a few other blindness groups, and it was kind of eye-opening. They had</span><br><span>some concerns. They started out by saying, "Well, up until now we really</span><br><span>appreciate all you have done. Up until this point NFB has done some</span><br><span>phenomenal legal advocacy-what you have done with your litigation, those</span><br><span>settlement agreements-those settlement agreements have changed everything,</span><br><span>and accessibility is mandatory because of those settlement agreements."</span><br><span>Then they said that their biggest concern was not the change in the safe</span><br><span>harbor, not the purpose-based commission, not the new name: their biggest</span><br><span>concern was that the guidelines were not mandatory. And I said, "The bill</span><br><span>last year had voluntary guidelines and all of you endorsed those."</span><br><span> And they said, "Well, we had a different interpretation of that</span><br><span>bill."</span><br><span> So I read them this line: "Nothing in this Act is to be construed to</span><br><span>require an institution to only use technology that conforms to these</span><br><span>guidelines." I asked them if they really thought that meant that it was</span><br><span>mandatory. They said yes.</span><br><span> But, when we were wrapping this conversation up, the group said they</span><br><span>couldn't support it. And I said, "Okay, I'll take your concerns back to the</span><br><span>higher ed lobby." And they said, "When you go back to them, go back with</span><br><span>strength." I did not need to be told that. What did they think we had been</span><br><span>doing for the last nine months--and they weren't there when we were doing</span><br><span>it!</span><br><span> Here is what NFB is doing: we have initiated over a dozen lawsuits;</span><br><span>we have settled those lawsuits; the Department of Justice has intervened in</span><br><span>some of our lawsuits; we have had the Department of Justice issue guidance</span><br><span>that we urged them to initiate; we have conducted two or three letter-</span><br><span>writing campaigns, we have met with presidents of institutions of higher</span><br><span>education, we have brought the higher education lobby to the table, and</span><br><span>they agreed to this bill. What have these other groups done for blind</span><br><span>students? Nothing! So I'd like to have them with us, but we don't need them-</span><br><span>they either need to steer clear of us or join our team, because we don't</span><br><span>need anything from a group that doesn't understand this bill, the lawsuits</span><br><span>they don't help us with, and the negotiations they don't participate in.</span><br><span>[Applause]</span><br><span> So what's next? Well, we're going to pass the bill, so we have to</span><br><span>write it. The person who is going to write it you will meet in a minute,</span><br><span>but the reason I'm not going to write it is because I'm leaving in August</span><br><span>to go back to school. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to say:</span><br><span>First, don't forget me because I want to come back. Second, what has driven</span><br><span>my career choice is a quote; it's really cheesy, but I like it. William</span><br><span>Carey says, "I'm not afraid of failure; I'm afraid of succeeding at things</span><br><span>that don't matter." And that has driven my choices.</span><br><span> The Federation is changing lives, and nothing can matter more than</span><br><span>that. I have loved being a part of this family, so thank you!</span><br><span> To tell you more about the SMART Act and how important this is for</span><br><span>students with disabilities, here is the newest member of our team. First he</span><br><span>was my friend; now he is my colleague. Please welcome Gabe Cazares.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Gabe Cazares]</span><br><span> Gabe Cazares: Howdy to my record-breaking Federation family! It's an</span><br><span>honor for me to address you this afternoon as the newest member of our</span><br><span>government affairs team for the National Federation of the Blind. By way of</span><br><span>introduction, my journey in the Federation began in the summer of 2009 when</span><br><span>I applied for a summer work program through the school for the blind. I had</span><br><span>the privilege of working for the National Federation of the Blind of Texas</span><br><span>as an intern. The internship was supposed to be six weeks long that summer,</span><br><span>but six years later here I am.</span><br><span> Because of the mentorship and love I received in my home affiliate,</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, and the skills and</span><br><span>confidence I gained by attending the Louisiana Center for the Blind, I am</span><br><span>now living the life I want. As a student I have experienced firsthand the</span><br><span>barriers and frustrations that inaccessible technology pose. For instance,</span><br><span>during the 2015 spring semester, my last semester of college, I took a math</span><br><span>course to fulfill a core curricular requirement. The textbooks, homework,</span><br><span>and quizzes for the course were all web-based. I'm a Braille reader, so I</span><br><span>requested Braille copies of all the course materials since, as is too often</span><br><span>the case, the web-based interface was completely inaccessible. However,</span><br><span>because of a staff change in the office of disability services, my request</span><br><span>for Braille materials was never submitted. So what did the school decide to</span><br><span>provide me as a reasonable accommodation you may be wondering: a print copy</span><br><span>of the textbook and a human reader/scribe. I was fortunate in the sense</span><br><span>that the reader/scribe is also a mathematics instructor and a friend of</span><br><span>mine who truly understands both the importance of Braille and the capacity</span><br><span>of blind people. But stop to think about what could have happened if the</span><br><span>circumstances had been different. What if I had been unsuccessful in</span><br><span>completing my course assignments, my quizzes, my exams successfully because</span><br><span>of the lack of access in the course? I would have failed and not graduated</span><br><span>from college on time.</span><br><span> The frustrating reality is that I know my story isn't the only story.</span><br><span>Hundreds of students are here this week who know what it's like to be left</span><br><span>behind by the same technology that has the potential to level the playing</span><br><span>field for us. When you need to sign up for a course, but you can't</span><br><span>independently access the registration system, that is second-class</span><br><span>citizenship. When you need to check your grades-although some of us would</span><br><span>rather not sometimes-but you can't independently access the learning</span><br><span>management system, that is second-class citizenship. When a professor</span><br><span>assigns you an online reading, but the PDF file they upload is not properly</span><br><span>tagged, making it impossible for you independently to access it, that is</span><br><span>second-class citizenship. It's time for developers of electronic</span><br><span>instructional material and institutions of higher education to stop</span><br><span>thinking about accessibility after the fact. It's time for schools to stop</span><br><span>adopting a separate but equal attitude about accessibility. We will not</span><br><span>accept second-class citizenship in society, and we will not accept it in</span><br><span>the classroom.</span><br><span> But this is what it's all about, right? This is not necessarily just</span><br><span>about education. It's about the fact that, if we settle for less than</span><br><span>equality in the classroom, then we are settling for being one, two, three</span><br><span>steps behind everyone else for the rest of our lives. To those outside the</span><br><span>Federation it's easy to assume that this second-class citizenship is just</span><br><span>part of being blind-that technology benefits plenty of people-just not</span><br><span>blind people, yet. And accessibility is too far beyond the horizon. We are</span><br><span>just going to have to wait, and we should learn to live with this</span><br><span>discrimination. But I know this is not true, and I know this is not the</span><br><span>life I want to live. [Applause]</span><br><span> Students are the only ones who can change the landscape, and that is</span><br><span>why the National Federation of the Blind has fought for the rights of the</span><br><span>blind, and we will continue to do so until both developers of electronic</span><br><span>instructional material and institutions of higher education understand that</span><br><span>we will not accept being an afterthought. We are not against innovation; in</span><br><span>fact we know the innovation is and should be there. What we are against is</span><br><span>the deployment of technology that shuts out blind students. Because having</span><br><span>equal access to education is not a privilege; it's our right.</span><br><span> In closing I'd like to address students in particular. As we move</span><br><span>forward with the SMART Act, I call on you to be engaged and active. Passing</span><br><span>this proposed legislation will revolutionize the development and</span><br><span>procurement of electronic instructional materials. But we need your help.</span><br><span>Tell your story. The National Association of Blind Students is always</span><br><span>collecting stories about the effects of inaccessible technology. Talk to a</span><br><span>fellow NABS member, and learn about how your story can make a huge impact</span><br><span>in the fight for equal access. When we call for grassroots mobilization,</span><br><span>don't sit on the sidelines. No one does grassroots like the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind, and that's because our members are active,</span><br><span>engaged, and energized.</span><br><span> In the last few months I've been sitting in on and participating in</span><br><span>our negotiations with the higher education lobby. They're at the table,</span><br><span>it's true, but they don't get it. And how could they? They haven't heard</span><br><span>from us. They need to hear from us, and I'm calling on you students to make</span><br><span>it happen. One of the reasons I wanted to come work at the National Center</span><br><span>for the Blind is because I want to take my experience as a blind student</span><br><span>and use it to bring about meaningful change for blind students across the</span><br><span>country. I know what it's currently like to be a blind student in the</span><br><span>United States. And let me tell you something, Federation family: it's</span><br><span>unacceptable. However, I take comfort in knowing that with our grassroots</span><br><span>movement, our legislative influence, and the love, hope, and determination</span><br><span>of the nation's blind, we will see complete access to electronic</span><br><span>instructional materials become the norm, not the exception. [Applause]</span><br><span> Thank you for giving me the privilege of working for our movement. I</span><br><span>sincerely look forward to building the Federation with you.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Sloan]</span><br><span> Rose Sloan: Good afternoon, NFB family! It's so great to be here at</span><br><span>our seventy-fifth convention. Before I begin I'd like to take a moment to</span><br><span>say thank you to someone who has been a huge positive influence on me. And</span><br><span>also, you might want to know who I am. I'm Rose Sloan, and I'm also a</span><br><span>government affairs specialist at the NFB National Center. I specifically</span><br><span>handle everything employment with regard to policy. The person who I would</span><br><span>really like to say thank you to is someone I talked to two years ago in</span><br><span>this very room. I sought her out because she had the type of job I wanted.</span><br><span>Ladies and gentlemen, the person who has been such a role model to me is</span><br><span>Lauren McLarney. Thanks in part to her advocacy on my behalf, I got a shot</span><br><span>at working at the national office. Lauren, I, along with many</span><br><span>Federationists, will really miss you. You've inspired and motivated us all</span><br><span>with your never-ending determination and energy, and we can't thank you</span><br><span>enough. I wish you the best of luck as you further your education. Can we</span><br><span>take a moment to show Lauren our appreciation? [Cheers, applause] You'll</span><br><span>truly be missed. I also wish to welcome Gabe to the team; wasn't his</span><br><span>presentation great? Finally, I just wanted to say I cannot wait to start</span><br><span>working with Mr. Parnell Diggs; it'll be wonderful.</span><br><span> As our one-minute message so eloquently states, we raise expectations</span><br><span>for blind people, because low expectations create obstacles. These</span><br><span>obstacles couldn't be more prevalent than in the employment sphere, and</span><br><span>specifically in the jobs and wages that are assigned and paid to people</span><br><span>with disabilities.</span><br><span> Passed in 1938, but practiced prior to, and even today in 2015,</span><br><span>people with disabilities are being paid sub-minimum wages. Some of our</span><br><span>fellow Americans with disabilities are being paid a dollar, a quarter, even</span><br><span>zero dollars and zero cents per hour! [Boos from crowd] But although this</span><br><span>practice may not be affecting you directly, it is absolutely affecting each</span><br><span>and every one of us indirectly. The low expectations that society sets for</span><br><span>us stem from many places, but the mere fact that we can be paid sub-minimum</span><br><span>wages does not reflect our attitude of high expectations. The low wages</span><br><span>that are paid to our brothers and sisters with disabilities are a</span><br><span>reflection of the low expectation set for them and, in effect, for all of</span><br><span>us. We, the National Federation of the Blind, are committed to ending this</span><br><span>antiquated, discriminatory, and demeaning practice of paying people with</span><br><span>disabilities sub-minimum wages. We support H.R. 188, the Transitioning to</span><br><span>Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act, or the TIME Act. Sponsored by</span><br><span>Congressman Gregg Harper from Mississippi, the TIME Act will responsibly</span><br><span>phase out section 14(c) over a three-year period. The idea of repealing</span><br><span>section 14(c) is supported by over eighty disability organizations, and</span><br><span>thanks to all of your hard work at and after the Washington Seminar, I'm</span><br><span>happy to report that the TIME Act is up to forty cosponsors. And to me, the</span><br><span>very exciting thing about these particular forty cosponsors is that there</span><br><span>are eighteen Republicans and twenty-two Democrats-very bipartisan</span><br><span>legislation so far.</span><br><span> I encourage all of you, especially if you live in districts that have</span><br><span>a Republican representative, please to write, email, or call your national</span><br><span>legislators, and urge them to join the forty members of Congress who</span><br><span>already support the TIME Act. Maybe you wrote them after Washington</span><br><span>Seminar. It's time to write them again; it's time for 14(c) to be repealed.</span><br><span>After all, a few states in our great nation have already shown that every</span><br><span>person, regardless of disability, is worthy of at least the minimum wage.</span><br><span>On May 7, 2015, the governor of New Hampshire signed S.B. 47 into law. S.B.</span><br><span>47 says that no entity can pay a person with a disability a sub-minimum</span><br><span>wage. Congratulations, New Hampshire!</span><br><span> Other steps have been taken, too. For example, the Workforce</span><br><span>Innovation and Opportunity Act created a committee tasked with increasing</span><br><span>the integrated and competitive opportunities for workers with disabilities.</span><br><span>Dr. Schroeder is a member of this committee. I want to join him in urging</span><br><span>all of you to write emails to the committee, and now there's a simpler way</span><br><span>to do this. To personalize a template email, please visit</span><br><span><<a href="http://www.nfb.org/ice">www.nfb.org/ice</a>>. ICE stands for Integrated Competitive Employment;</span><br><span>remember ICE. The form will allow you to include your own personal reasons</span><br><span>as to why you feel that 14(c) should be phased out. Perhaps you might</span><br><span>explain how discriminatory and unhelpful sub-minimum wage environments are</span><br><span>for people with disabilities. Maybe you'll remind the members of the</span><br><span>committee that there are alternatives to 14(c) certificates such as</span><br><span>customized and supported employment. Or maybe you'll mention that New</span><br><span>Hampshire and Vermont have already figured it out, and there are</span><br><span>competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with</span><br><span>disabilities. If enough of us use our voices, the committee will recommend</span><br><span>that Section 14(c) be responsibly phased out. Who can I count on to fill</span><br><span>out the form at <<a href="http://www.nfb.org/ice">www.nfb.org/ice</a>>? [Cheers] That's what I thought. No other</span><br><span>group does it like us; our voices will surely be heard by the committee.</span><br><span> Since I last spoke to you at Washington Seminar in January, the</span><br><span>legislative affairs team has been working diligently on legislation that</span><br><span>will help improve the Social Security Disability Insurance system. As</span><br><span>you've likely noticed, SSDI is a rather hot topic right now. The trust fund</span><br><span>will be insolvent as early as December of next year, and, unless Congress</span><br><span>takes action, SSDI beneficiaries will see about a 19 percent cut in their</span><br><span>benefits. As you can imagine, Congress does not want this to happen, as</span><br><span>demonstrated by actions they are taking every day. This morning they held a</span><br><span>meeting about this very topic. The insolvency of the SSDI trust fund is not</span><br><span>the only problem. The work incentives currently in place for blind SSDI</span><br><span>beneficiaries are broken. To illustrate my point and explain the need for</span><br><span>change, I'm going to tell you about my friend, Allison Duttner.</span><br><span> Allison is a smart woman who loves to teach. She taught in New Mexico</span><br><span>and now lives in California. She is an SSDI beneficiary. Because she cannot</span><br><span>live on her SSDI benefit alone, and because, quite frankly, she doesn't</span><br><span>want to just sit at home all day collecting money from the government,</span><br><span>Allison works part-time as an electronic transcriber. But Allison has to be</span><br><span>really careful about how much money she earns. Because, believe it or not,</span><br><span>she could lose money if she works too much. And Allison isn't alone in this</span><br><span>predicament. In fact, many blind people throughout this nation are either</span><br><span>turning down jobs or discouraged from looking for work at all because it</span><br><span>could cost them money. Simply put, blind SSDI beneficiaries can maximize</span><br><span>their take-home income by working part-time and collecting SSDI as opposed</span><br><span>to working full-time. This is backwards! Blind individuals want to raise</span><br><span>expectations for ourselves; we want to be independent, but the system</span><br><span>doesn't allow us to do that.</span><br><span> So what will the reform look like? As long as we make our voices</span><br><span>heard, it will encompass the Blind Persons Return to Work Act, a piece of</span><br><span>proposed legislation that will create a two-for-one phase out of benefits,</span><br><span>eliminate the confusing and unhelpful trial work period, and expand work</span><br><span>expenses to blind SSDI beneficiaries.</span><br><span> Low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our</span><br><span>vocational dreams. We want real jobs at real wages. [Applause] We want an</span><br><span>SSDI system that encourages us to always work to our full potential. By</span><br><span>working together as we have been doing for seventy-five years, we will be</span><br><span>heard on Capitol Hill. We will ensure that the TIME Act and the Blind</span><br><span>Persons Return to Work Act are signed into law. No one does it like the</span><br><span>Federation; no one does it like us. Be on the lookout for emails that will</span><br><span>alert you to contact your members of Congress about all of the legislative</span><br><span>priorities you've heard about today. Have a great convention, everyone.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Shirley Morris]</span><br><span> Shirley Morris: A Life Remembered</span><br><span> by Mary Ellen Jernigan</span><br><span></span><br><span> Shirley Morris passed away on August 10, 2015. An active</span><br><span>Federationist for nearly fifty years, Shirley and her husband Don (high</span><br><span>school sweethearts who had eloped during their senior year) celebrated</span><br><span>their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary earlier in the year. Their life-long</span><br><span>partnership was so complete that one rarely thought about "Shirley" or</span><br><span>"Don." Rather what came to mind almost invariably was the unit which one</span><br><span>thought of simply as "the Morrises." It is difficult to think about Shirley</span><br><span>without feeling the warmth of her seemingly ever-present smile.</span><br><span> Shirley joined the Federation in 1968 at the time Don was one of Dr.</span><br><span>Jernigan's students at the Iowa Commission for the Blind Adult Orientation</span><br><span>and Training Center. Not merely an "accompanying spouse" Shirley quickly</span><br><span>became a Federationist in her own right. Many came to know her as the</span><br><span>capable manager of convention registration processes and the compassionate</span><br><span>problem solver when an individual had troubles-be it a mangled spelling on</span><br><span>a name badge, a lost banquet ticket, a lost cane, a lost wallet, or, in</span><br><span>many a case, offering comfort to those who felt that they themselves were</span><br><span>the "lost item" and were in need of encouragement. At the national</span><br><span>convention (in later years often with a grandchild in tow), and at the</span><br><span>Maryland state convention, Shirley carried out these tasks with dedication,</span><br><span>grace, and that radiant smile for more than thirty years.</span><br><span> A lesser known fact about Shirley is that in the early 1970s when the</span><br><span>national office of the Federation was located in the Randolph Hotel</span><br><span>Building in Des Moines, Iowa, she more or less single-handedly managed what</span><br><span>today we would call the Independence Market and the Materials Center. At</span><br><span>that time there were very few sources where a blind person could buy such</span><br><span>things as Braille watches, Braille playing cards, measuring devices, and so</span><br><span>on, and Dr. Jernigan asked Shirley to help get our program underway and to</span><br><span>otherwise manage the operation of that office.</span><br><span> Most often we tend to think about the value of participation in the</span><br><span>Federation in terms of what it does in the lives of blind people. Far less</span><br><span>frequently do we consider and recognize the very significant gifts all of</span><br><span>us-whether blind or sighted-get from the kind of training and life</span><br><span>experience the Federation offers. In the case of a sighted Federationist, I</span><br><span>am talking about something more than merely having a blind spouse or</span><br><span>sighted children who have blind parents or sighted parents who have blind</span><br><span>children and the benefits gained by such families in their understanding of</span><br><span>blindness.</span><br><span> Shirley gave deep expression to what I am describing in how she dealt</span><br><span>with her cancer. Having fully understood and embraced the tenets of the</span><br><span>Federation for much of her adult life, she knew the path she would take. So</span><br><span>for eighteen years she refused to let cancer be the characteristic that</span><br><span>defined her life. She did the things that it made sense for her to do with</span><br><span>respect to it, making this or that accommodation in the way she did things</span><br><span>as necessary, and then she lived the life she wanted to live. The low</span><br><span>expectations of others never came between her and her dreams. She lived</span><br><span>with love and joy and hope-radiating those qualities to her family and</span><br><span>others in her wide circle of friends and admirers. She combined her very</span><br><span>considerable natural attributes of grace and generosity with her Federation</span><br><span>training to leave to those of us who loved her a profound legacy for</span><br><span>living.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Angel Ayala]</span><br><span> #NCBYS: Making the Connection and Equipping the Next Generation</span><br><span> by Angel Ayala</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: We know that the road to success often begins with a good</span><br></blockquote><span>education, and we know how often this is where a string of failures leading</span><br><span>to passivity, low expectations, and a poor self-concept can begin. Not only</span><br><span>do we pledge to change that system but to work with those currently in it</span><br><span>so that they get what they need to think of themselves as positive and</span><br><span>productive human beings.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Angel Ayala is now a freshman in college, but at the time of his</span><br><span>presentation he was a newly graduated high school senior. Here is what he</span><br><span>has to say about his school experience and the part the National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind has played in helping him to think of himself as someone who</span><br><span>can make a difference:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Good morning. My name is Angel Ayala, and I am honored to speak to</span><br><span>you about the NFB STEM2U apprenticeship program. But first, I think I</span><br><span>should tell you who I am. I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and at the</span><br><span>time I was a healthy little boy. Blindness was the last thing on my mother</span><br><span>and father's minds. That all changed when I started to get sick. I was</span><br><span>about eight months old, and the doctors were a bit confused as to what was</span><br><span>happening to me. The only thing that was clear was that I was losing my</span><br><span>vision. Not only were my parents extremely young, but now their firstborn</span><br><span>was rapidly losing his vision. I took a battery of tests, and the doctors</span><br><span>confirmed that I had a rare form of ligneous conjunctivitis. Soon after my</span><br><span>diagnosis my parents moved us to Philadelphia. I have lived in Philadelphia</span><br><span>ever since.</span><br><span> After years of checkups, tests, and different doctors, it finally</span><br><span>occurred to me that I wasn't getting my vision back. At first I was</span><br><span>depressed. I didn't think I would be able to be on the same level as my</span><br><span>brothers and sisters. I saw them playing outside or inside on the GameCube,</span><br><span>and I thought I was less a person, that my lack of sight was what defined</span><br><span>me. But I eventually realized that I was wrong.</span><br><span> My mom enrolled me in the Overbrook School for the Blind's early</span><br><span>childhood program, where I started to learn Braille. That was the point at</span><br><span>which I realized that I love to learn new things. I loved to challenge the</span><br><span>things that I've read, and I love to ask questions about the things that I</span><br><span>didn't know. I learned about Louis Braille and Helen Keller, and this gave</span><br><span>me the hope that I needed to challenge what I believed was a wall that I</span><br><span>could never get past.</span><br><span> Fast-forward five years. I was a troublesome kid when I came to</span><br><span>school. I would get my work done, and I was left with nothing to do for the</span><br><span>last thirty-five minutes of the class. So I would start to joke around and</span><br><span>mess with the other students in my class. I knew it wasn't helpful to the</span><br><span>staff or the students for that matter, but I was bored, and I had nothing</span><br><span>else better to do. It was frustrating because I knew what the issue was. I</span><br><span>was not challenged. The work was way too easy, but who was I to say that?</span><br><span>With no one listening to what I had to say, I was labeled a bad apple, and</span><br><span>that was pretty much it.</span><br><span> Two years and many middle school parent-teacher conferences later, I</span><br><span>finally felt like someone was taking notice of what the real issue was. My</span><br><span>IEP was restructured, and I was placed in a classroom that was challenging.</span><br><span>For the first time in years it was great. I was challenged; I got the help</span><br><span>I needed; I got the materials I needed to succeed.</span><br><span> But public school came with its own set of battles. The physical</span><br><span>education instructor told me that I couldn't participate in class because</span><br><span>she didn't want me to get hurt. [Moans from the audience] So let me paint</span><br><span>this picture for you. There were thirty-five sighted students playing and</span><br><span>exercising around me, and if I so much as made a move to do something</span><br><span>productive, I got in trouble. Honestly my favorite time was when the</span><br><span>teacher got sick. A substitute would come in who didn't know about the</span><br><span>regular rules when it came to me, so I was able to play basketball with my</span><br><span>classmates; I was taught to jump rope. I was simply tired of people telling</span><br><span>me what I couldn't do, so I made the extra effort to prove that I could.</span><br><span> My mom gave me the freedom to learn whatever I wanted to do. She let</span><br><span>me do things myself. But the independence I enjoyed at home didn't carry</span><br><span>over to my school environment, and that was frustrating. When I started</span><br><span>high school, I realized that I was not prepared for the transition like I</span><br><span>should've been. My O&M skills were severely lacking, and I still had some</span><br><span>issues when it came to my visual impairment. Despite feeling unprepared, I</span><br><span>took advantage of all the opportunities high school had to offer. I joined</span><br><span>the swim team; I began to wrestle; I played goalball, and I did track and</span><br><span>field. I also got involved in my community-many community service projects</span><br><span>such as the campout for hunger, which is a Thanksgiving canned food drive.</span><br><span>It was through community involvement that I ran across the NFB STEM2U</span><br><span>apprenticeship program. NFB STEM2U was a science, technology, engineering,</span><br><span>and math (STEM) program that focused on the development and mentoring of</span><br><span>both elementary and high school students. At the program elementary school</span><br><span>students were called juniors, and the high school students-we were called</span><br><span>the apprentices. Each program was run in collaboration with a science</span><br><span>museum. This past school year the NFB STEM2U program was held in Baltimore,</span><br><span>Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and Boston, Massachusetts. Each program had eight</span><br><span>to ten apprentices and twenty juniors. At the program all the students</span><br><span>learned a lot of STEM: for example, we learned how to build racecars out of</span><br><span>recyclable items and how to assemble circuits to power fans. In addition to</span><br><span>learning STEM, the apprentices had another job to do. Our job was to help</span><br><span>the younger students, if needed, to make sure they were safe and to help</span><br><span>bring them information and knowledge throughout the program.</span><br><span> At the beginning of the school year in September, the apprentices</span><br><span>from all the different regions met at the NFB Jernigan Institute in</span><br><span>Baltimore, Maryland, for the NFB STEM2U Leadership Academy. The objective</span><br><span>of this leadership academy was to teach how to be good mentors, role</span><br><span>models, and leaders of the younger students. Among other things, we learned</span><br><span>how to interact with the juniors and learned the nonvisual techniques for</span><br><span>keeping track of kids. We also took time to lay down goals that we wanted</span><br><span>to keep in mind during our regional program. We exchanged contact</span><br><span>information at the leadership academy because we learned that we would have</span><br><span>to have weekly meetings until the program weekend was here so that we could</span><br><span>prepare for the activities and get the information that we needed to make a</span><br><span>successful program.</span><br><span> We were responsible for completing different tasks in order to</span><br><span>prepare ourselves for the regional programs with the juniors. For example,</span><br><span>we figured out which students would be with which mentor, and we determined</span><br><span>the junior-to-apprentice ratio that would be most helpful. We also planned</span><br><span>the opening activities for all the juniors. We spent a lot of time</span><br><span>preparing ourselves for the regional program, but we still felt a little</span><br><span>uneasy going into it. This was a new role for all of us, and we weren't</span><br><span>sure how it would go.</span><br><span> It was finally time for the Baltimore program, which I had the</span><br><span>pleasure to be a part of. I took an Amtrak train for the first time, and</span><br><span>others took a plane or two to get to the NFB Jernigan Institute. We got to</span><br><span>meet the juniors we were responsible for as well as their parents. We had</span><br><span>to show the parents and their children how to get to the different</span><br><span>activities. This meant posting mentors in the hallways as marshals to help</span><br><span>participants to find their way to meals, lessons, and workshops. That</span><br><span>weekend took a lot of teamwork and communication, not only among the</span><br><span>mentors, but also between the juniors and the parents. During the Baltimore</span><br><span>NFB STEM2U regional program we taught the juniors that "I can't" is not an</span><br><span>option. We taught them to be advocates for themselves. We had to show the</span><br><span>juniors that the possibilities are endless and that, if you create a goal</span><br><span>and develop ways to reach that goal in order to reach that bigger picture,</span><br><span>you will succeed.</span><br><span> The NFB STEM2U program improved my self-confidence in several</span><br><span>different areas. It made me realize that with some help I can make a</span><br><span>difference in these young juniors' lives. I didn't really know how big of</span><br><span>an impact I made on the juniors' lives until a parent of one of the juniors</span><br><span>for whom I was responsible reached out to my homeroom teacher and let her</span><br><span>know that after the NFB STEM2U, she saw a boost in her son's willingness to</span><br><span>try new things. The mom said that the mentors took a great amount of time</span><br><span>and patience with the juniors, and that allowed them to focus on the</span><br><span>activities that were provided for the parents that weekend. When I learned</span><br><span>what this mom had said about our work, it made me smile. I didn't know if</span><br><span>the lessons we taught that weekend would actually stick over time. This is</span><br><span>when I figured out that I could really make a difference.</span><br><span> Another way the NFB STEM2U affected me was my traveling skills. First</span><br><span>of all, I had never taken Amtrak. I had taken a plane several times by</span><br><span>myself, but I had never taken Amtrak. It was a new experience that</span><br><span>encouraged me to travel more and to learn everything I could when it came</span><br><span>to O&M. I plan on taking the confidence I have gained from the NFB STEM2U</span><br><span>mentorship program with me to community college. I recently was accepted</span><br><span>into the honors program, and I want to get my associates degree in music</span><br><span>production. But I am extremely scared. I'm starting to second-guess my</span><br><span>decision. Music has always been a passion of mine that I have had since I</span><br><span>was a young boy, but I don't want to get a degree that I will do absolutely</span><br><span>nothing with. Too many people achieve degrees that they do not end up</span><br><span>using. What does this mean? Well, they have a degree, and they also have a</span><br><span>huge debt but no way to pay it off. I don't want to be stuck in that</span><br><span>position, but I also don't know what I can do that would make me happy and</span><br><span>also pay the bills. I guess only time will tell.</span><br><span> You all probably know this already, but I want to reinforce what a</span><br><span>big impact programs like NFB STEM2U have on everyone who is involved.</span><br><span>Children are our future, and in order to make sure that they have the</span><br><span>skills they need to succeed, we must start the learning process early in</span><br><span>their lives. A Hebrew proverb states, "A child is not a vessel to be filled</span><br><span>but a lamp to be lit." NFB STEM2U has lit many lamps. I hope that we can</span><br><span>continue to have programs like NFB STEM2U so that we can reach these</span><br><span>children at a younger age. Programs like the NFB STEM2U allow young adults</span><br><span>to mentor young juniors, expanding their willingness to learn new things,</span><br><span>and I would love to remain involved in programs that help youth. I know</span><br><span>that I am not the only apprentice who feels this way. By the time the NFB</span><br><span>STEM2U Baltimore program was over, many of the mentors asked if we could do</span><br><span>it again. I enjoyed teaching, I enjoyed helping the young students, and I</span><br><span>know that the other mentors did as well. I'd like to thank the NFB for</span><br><span>hosting a program like the NFB STEM2U in order to prepare the youth for the</span><br><span>future. I'd also like to thank Natalie Shaheen, Mika Baugh, and Ashley</span><br><span>Ritter for being a part of our conference calls every week leading up to</span><br><span>the program. Your insight into how to deal with our juniors was very much</span><br><span>needed. Thank you to everyone who gave their time instructing both the</span><br><span>apprentices and juniors. I believe it took all of us working together in</span><br><span>order to make this program work. Thank you to my fellow mentors. There was</span><br><span>no way I could've done this alone. It took a lot of preparation and</span><br><span>teamwork, but because we all pulled our own weight, we were able to give</span><br><span>the juniors the tools they will use for the rest of their lives. Thank you</span><br><span>to Mr. Mark Riccobono for giving me this opportunity to speak to you about</span><br><span>a program that has affected so many people's lives. Words aren't enough to</span><br><span>show the gratitude that I feel, so I think I will just stick with thank</span><br><span>you. If you are thinking about participating in a program involving youth,</span><br><span>my advice is to just do it. It is an experience that I wouldn't trade for</span><br><span>the world. Thank you.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>Giving a Dream</span><br><span></span><br><span> One of the great satisfactions in life is having the opportunity to</span><br><span>assist others. Consider making a gift to the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind to continue turning our dreams into reality. A gift to the NFB is not</span><br><span>merely a donation to an organization; it provides resources that will</span><br><span>directly ensure a brighter future for all blind people.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Seize the Future</span><br><span></span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind has special giving opportunities</span><br><span>that will benefit the giver as well as the NFB. Of course the largest</span><br><span>benefit to the donor is the satisfaction of knowing that the gift is</span><br><span>leaving a legacy of opportunity. However, gifts may be structured to</span><br><span>provide more:</span><br><span> . Helping the NFB fulfill its mission</span><br><span> . Realizing income tax savings through a charitable deduction</span><br><span> . Making capital gain tax savings on contributions of appreciated assets</span><br><span> . Eliminating or lowering the federal estate tax in certain situations</span><br><span> . Reducing estate settlement costs</span><br><span></span><br><span>NFB programs are dynamic:</span><br><span> . Making the study of science and math a real possibility for blind</span><br><span> children</span><br><span> . Providing hope and training for seniors losing vision</span><br><span> . Promoting state and local programs to help blind people become first-</span><br><span> class citizens</span><br><span> . Educating the public about blind people's true potential</span><br><span> . Advancing technology helpful to the blind</span><br><span> . Creating a state-of-the-art library on blindness</span><br><span> . Training and inspiring professionals working with the blind</span><br><span> . Providing critical information to parents of blind children</span><br><span> . Mentoring blind job seekers</span><br><span> Your gift makes you a partner in the NFB dream. For further</span><br><span>information or assistance, contact the NFB.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Kannan Pashupathy]</span><br><span> A Growing Partnership for Accessibility: Google and the Organized Blind</span><br><span> Movement</span><br><span> by Kannan Pashupathy</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Readers of the Braille Monitor will remember that we did</span><br></blockquote><span>an in-depth article about Google in the June 2014 issue. That article began</span><br><span>with generally accepted criticisms of productivity tools being offered by</span><br><span>Google to state governments, colleges, and universities. It explained how</span><br><span>this mass deployment of products would be almost irresistible to those</span><br><span>organizations, and therefore Google's products must meet a higher bar and</span><br><span>be accessible since the result would be lesser opportunities for blind</span><br><span>people if they could not be used. That article ended with a positive</span><br><span>interview featuring Eve Andersson and Kannan Pashupathy. In it they</span><br><span>promised many positive changes in Google products, and this report confirms</span><br><span>that they are as good as their word and have made major strides in making</span><br><span>their products usable by blind people. Here is what Mr. Pashupathy said:</span><br><span></span><br><span> I was really taken by deputy secretary Lu's speech, and frankly I</span><br><span>have forgotten what I was going to say. [Laughter] Fortunately I have some</span><br><span>written notes here.</span><br><span> A very, very good morning to all of you, and thank you for inviting</span><br><span>me to speak at this gathering. When Mark sent a letter to me, he said this</span><br><span>was the largest gathering of blind people in the United States and some</span><br><span>people said maybe in the world. I heard that you set a record-a Guinness</span><br><span>World Record-congratulations on that. [Applause]</span><br><span> As was said, my name is Kannan Pashupathy, and for the last couple of</span><br><span>years I have had the pleasure and the honor of leading Google's</span><br><span>accessibility efforts globally. I know that you've heard from Alan Eustace</span><br><span>in years prior, and Alan decided that we clearly weren't making the kind of</span><br><span>progress that we needed to make as a company and asked me to step in and</span><br><span>take charge. This has involved ensuring that all our products work well for</span><br><span>people of all abilities, creating a culture where designing for</span><br><span>accessibility is baked into our DNA and engaging with organizations such as</span><br><span>the NFB to make sure that we're meeting and exceeding your needs.</span><br><span> As many other speakers have mentioned, it's particularly a great time</span><br><span>to be talking to you here on the important milestone of the seventy-fifth</span><br><span>anniversary of the NFB. I also want to congratulate Jim Gashel on the</span><br><span>twenty-fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As you all</span><br><span>know, his role was pivotal in the creation and the passage of the ADA, and</span><br><span>I happened to share a ride with Ray Kurzweil yesterday on the flight over</span><br><span>from San Francisco, and he was telling me stories about back then when they</span><br><span>used to talk a lot while the passage of the ADA was in progress.</span><br><span> It was two years ago, and I had just taken over this role at Google</span><br><span>that I just mentioned. At our very first meeting Dr. Maurer invited me to</span><br><span>the convention to experience what you all go through every year here in</span><br><span>Orlando. So I came, and boy what an experience it was. I'd never seen</span><br><span>anything like this before, so I went back extraordinarily inspired. I was</span><br><span>here, of course, to learn: learn about the community, learn about your</span><br><span>hopes and aspirations, and learn about how well we were or were not serving</span><br><span>the community. My goodness, as I said, it was a great experience along so</span><br><span>many different dimensions, and I was so glad to have come.</span><br><span> At the end of that, while I was sitting at the banquet, I resolved</span><br><span>that I would not only work hard to make our current products accessible but</span><br><span>that we would also undertake to make fundamental changes in the way in</span><br><span>which we approach the notion of accessibility right from design to</span><br><span>implementation to launch. I vowed that we would make a positive impact on</span><br><span>the culture of the company with regard to accessibility.</span><br><span> To do this we started training programs in accessibility for every</span><br><span>new engineer, product manager, and user experience designer who joined the</span><br><span>company. As you probably know, accessible product design is not something</span><br><span>that is taught in universities. This was a big surprise to me-I thought</span><br><span>that this would be something that would be part of the standard curriculum</span><br><span>in computer science, but it isn't. By the way, this is something that I'm</span><br><span>trying to fix on the side.</span><br><span> We also developed programs for engineers who are already in the</span><br><span>company and even non-engineers. We have created online courses for</span><br><span>developers both inside and outside the company as well and have set each</span><br><span>product area of the company on a path to address all of the critical</span><br><span>issues, whether they be bugs to fix or features that we needed to develop.</span><br><span> You may not know this, but throughout this entire process we've had</span><br><span>regular meetings with the NFB. Throughout this process we were guided by</span><br><span>the NFB and in particular Dr. Maurer, Mark [Riccobono] here, Jim, of</span><br><span>course, and Anne Taylor, I know is here, who encouraged us when they knew</span><br><span>that we were trying our best to make these very large and critical changes</span><br><span>at the company. They scolded us when they thought that it was not enough,</span><br><span>but, most importantly, I think they inspired us to innovate in this</span><br><span>important area, and I really feel privileged to have had a chance to work</span><br><span>with such strong advocates for the blind and just such fantastic human</span><br><span>beings. So thank you.</span><br><span> As I mentioned, we were also fortunate to have a pioneer and a friend</span><br><span>of the NFB, Ray Kurzweil, [applause] as a key advisor to us in our efforts,</span><br><span>along with Vint Cerf, who many of you know is often called the father of</span><br><span>the internet. Both of these folks are Googlers-my colleagues-and people who</span><br><span>kept us honest and played a pivotal role in making sure that what we were</span><br><span>attempting to do was not a flash in the pan but built to last.</span><br><span> I recall that when I came two years ago a journalist had written at</span><br><span>the time that Google had begun to listen but that listening was not enough</span><br><span>and that we would be judged by our actions and our results. [Applause]</span><br><span>While I would be the first one to acknowledge that we continue to have a</span><br><span>lot to do, and you have my word that we'll stay on it, I'm proud of the</span><br><span>work that we have done so far to make meaningful improvements in our</span><br><span>products and innovating across a number of areas to go beyond current</span><br><span>notions of accessibility and to have fundamentally changed how Google the</span><br><span>company now looks at accessibility. Our teams are passionate, they are</span><br><span>driven, they are inspired to do the best for all of you. Some of them were</span><br><span>actually here until a couple of days ago-you guys have dueling conventions,</span><br><span>so they had to spend part of their time here and go off to the other</span><br><span>convention that is also happening this week. I hope that many of you got a</span><br><span>chance to meet them. One of them, Astrid, was even working hard over the</span><br><span>last couple of days in doing user experience research with many of you on</span><br><span>our hangouts and Google cross products. I'm here to tell you that this is</span><br><span>only the beginning and that there's a lot more to come, and I hope that one</span><br><span>day we will not only have earned your respect but your love of our products</span><br><span>and our efforts. [Applause]</span><br><span> The product-related efforts that we're doing at the company are too</span><br><span>numerous to mention-I won't bore you, and I believe that you're running a</span><br><span>little late, so I'll cut it short. But, let me go through a few things-</span><br><span>particularly those where I know you've experienced some positive changes</span><br><span>because I've gotten that feedback and also because most of these were</span><br><span>prioritized based on input from the NFB. To begin, let me mention the</span><br><span>innovations and accessibility improvements in Google Docs, Sheets, and</span><br><span>Slides, including Braille keyboard input and output on Docs. I know we need</span><br><span>to do more work here-lots of improvements coming-but we're really happy to</span><br><span>have made the progress we have on that in the last year. We have seen lots</span><br><span>of improvement in Google's Chrome OS Operating System (which you may know</span><br><span>is the one that runs on our Chromebook laptops) including touchscreen</span><br><span>gestures like you would use on a phone, Braille keyboard input, Unified</span><br><span>English Braille support, and other features. Roger Benz, who is a blind</span><br><span>Google employee who was here earlier in the week, has narrated many</span><br><span>"Getting Started with Google Docs" videos that you can take a look at on</span><br><span>YouTube. Those are a great way to get started if you haven't had a chance</span><br><span>to see all of the improvements that we've made.</span><br><span> In addition, on Android we've worked on features like color inversion</span><br><span>to help people with low vision, color correction for people who are</span><br><span>colorblind, and something new called Switch Access to help people who have</span><br><span>motor impairments actually use the phone effectively. Earlier this year we</span><br><span>won the FCC Chairman's Award for advancement in accessibility for our</span><br><span>reCAPTCHA improvements. This is one thing Dr. Maurer complained about at</span><br><span>the very first meeting I had with him. We're actually going a step further-</span><br><span>we've been able to replace most CAPTCHAs with something called no CAPTCHAs.</span><br><span>This is where the user just has to hit a checkbox and say "I'm a human;</span><br><span>leave me alone." Yes, we did test it with screen readers, and it works.</span><br><span> As Secretary Lu mentioned in recounting the story of the company he</span><br><span>saw, we've also been working on various automated and manual and testing</span><br><span>tools to allow developers both inside and outside Google to automatically</span><br><span>test their software for accessibility issues like missing image descriptors</span><br><span>or unlabeled buttons that I know you've been very frustrated about. These</span><br><span>tools should really simplify how people develop and test accessibility</span><br><span>features in their applications across all of these different platforms that</span><br><span>I've mentioned, and these are only some of the improvements that we've made</span><br><span>in the past year.</span><br><span> You may have heard that Mark and Jim were at Google I/O, our annual</span><br><span>developer's conference, a few weeks ago. At that meeting Mark inspired a</span><br><span>large gathering of developers about why they should be thinking about</span><br><span>accessibility early and often and exhorted them to innovate in this space.</span><br><span>He even showed us a video of him driving one of the cars, which I believe</span><br><span>is a research project that has been going on at NFB for a while. This talk</span><br><span>by Mark was done in the context of a larger session on accessibility, where</span><br><span>we spoke with developers about how to do a great job of making products</span><br><span>fully accessible on all of our platforms. At this event we also launched a</span><br><span>very important initiative which was a $20 million grant funding from</span><br><span><a href="http://google.org">Google.org</a>, our philanthropic arm, for a first-of-its-kind Google Impact</span><br><span>Challenge focused entirely on disabilities. [Applause] This challenge will</span><br><span>last a year, and throughout the challenge we will identify, fund, and</span><br><span>support nonprofits working to increase access to opportunities for people</span><br><span>living with disabilities. We are looking for big ideas here from nonprofits</span><br><span>with technology at their core that show serious potential to scale the</span><br><span>impact on people around the world who are living with a disability. You can</span><br><span>learn more by doing a Google search for Google Impact Challenge. I know the</span><br><span>team here at NFB is working on coming up with some great ideas; I'm looking</span><br><span>forward to hearing about them soon.</span><br><span> Finally, I was very heartened to hear from Jim just a few minutes ago</span><br><span>that you've actually passed resolution seventeen this year, which</span><br><span>acknowledges our efforts and improvements that we've made in Google Drive,</span><br><span>Docs, Spreadsheets, and Slides. That vote of confidence is a real</span><br><span>inspiration for me and our team, and I really thank you for your support in</span><br><span>acknowledging that.</span><br><span> As I've already said, I know that we have a lot more work to do,</span><br><span>particularly on Braille support, and we will continue to work on it; you</span><br><span>have my word. With that let me thank the NFB leaders and the members for</span><br><span>working with us to make the internet and its vast array of products and</span><br><span>benefits fully available to all blind people, and we look forward to a long</span><br><span>and continuing partnership in the years to come.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Maura Healey]</span><br><span> Leadership through Law: Perspectives on Advancing Civil Rights for the</span><br><span> Blind</span><br><span> by Maura Healey</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From the Editor: Maura Healey is the attorney general of Massachusetts. The</span><br></blockquote><span>National Federation of the Blind has partnered with her in a number of</span><br><span>actions which have resulted in significant advancements in access. Her</span><br><span>commitment to civil rights and her belief in serving the public is clear.</span><br><span>Here are the remarks she made on Friday afternoon, July 10, 2015, following</span><br><span>a presentation by Dr. Raymond Kurzweil:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Thank you so much, Mr. President. Good afternoon, everyone. It is</span><br><span>great to be here. I'm just reminded, Ray-see I chickened out. I was a</span><br><span>government major in college-go figure-I stayed away from all that science,</span><br><span>but God bless Ray and all the folks out there who take the time to do that</span><br><span>great and important work. That was fascinating.</span><br><span> Happy birthday, NFB! It's so great, and indulge me: I want to give a</span><br><span>shout-out to our Massachusetts delegation back there: David, Amy, Mika, and</span><br><span>I've got to give a shout-out to Maryland as well. You see, I was born in</span><br><span>Bethesda; I spent the first two years of my life in Rockville. And how</span><br><span>about that Guinness World Record? That is so impressive: give yourselves a</span><br><span>hand! I'm going to tweet that on our site. We're going to blast that out</span><br><span>all over Massachusetts, and let everybody know what you did.</span><br><span> I got down here last night late, but I know some of you had to get up</span><br><span>really early in the morning to do that, to make that beautiful mosaic, and</span><br><span>to make such a bold statement. Live the life you want; you better believe</span><br><span>it. Good for all of you; it's just great.</span><br><span> As was mentioned, I worked in the attorney general's office long</span><br><span>enough that I actually became the attorney general. I started life as a</span><br><span>young lawyer at a big firm after I hung up my basketball shoes. If you were</span><br><span>to see me--I'm about five-foot-four; you wouldn't see that one coming--but</span><br><span>I was a feisty point guard in college and then ended up playing ball</span><br><span>overseas for a few years. So I was always a little bit used to being</span><br><span>underestimated most of my life, not being taken seriously on the court, not</span><br><span>exactly fitting the profile, not exactly fitting people's expectations. But</span><br><span>I, like many of you, came to use that to my advantage. I ultimately decided</span><br><span>that basketball wasn't going to be the be-all and end-all for me. At some</span><br><span>point my knees were going to give out. So I went to law school, and I went</span><br><span>to law school because I wanted to be an advocate; I wanted to help people.</span><br><span>I graduated from law school, got some terrific training at a big law firm</span><br><span>in private practice, but then followed my heart, left that to join the</span><br><span>attorney general's office eight years ago, and had a wild ride to the point</span><br><span>where I loved it so much I actually quit that job two years ago to run for</span><br><span>attorney general. People thought I was nuts because I wasn't a politician,</span><br><span>hadn't run for anything before, but I believed passionately in the power</span><br><span>and the possibility of the law and what it could do to change people's</span><br><span>lives and make a difference. I'm going to come back to that, because I have</span><br><span>to tell you that I would not be attorney general of Massachusetts were it</span><br><span>not for the NFB: Were it not for the experience that all of you in this</span><br><span>organization taught me about the law and about how you can use it to make a</span><br><span>difference. I am just so honored to be here; I am so privileged to be here</span><br><span>among all of you.</span><br><span> Flash forward-I won the race last November, and I got sworn in in</span><br><span>January. So we're just a few months into the work, but the work of the</span><br><span>attorney general's office in this area has been ongoing for many years.</span><br><span> In my time, I want you to know that I have come to know first-hand</span><br><span>the value and the power of this organization. I have been wanting to come</span><br><span>to Orlando for many years, not to Disney, but to this convention. I've got</span><br><span>to tell you: I'm so happy to be here.</span><br><span> So the NFB is unique. You are a remarkable organization with a</span><br><span>dedicated staff and incredible leadership. I want to commend President</span><br><span>Riccobono and all of your team who put on this wonderful event. It's</span><br><span>amazing with over 50,000 members, and chapters and affiliates in all fifty</span><br><span>states. You are such a powerful voice for individuals: pushing</span><br><span>expectations, breaking barriers, shifting the lens in such important ways-</span><br><span>not only to see what is possible but also what is right-what is right and</span><br><span>what it should be. Your mission is one that I admire, that I embrace, that</span><br><span>I support: education, empowerment, teaching people the tools to live the</span><br><span>life that they want. This is so, whether it's ensuring access to housing;</span><br><span>employment; transportation; education; equal access in public spaces, both</span><br><span>physical and digital; and equal access to quality healthcare.</span><br><span> Now I know that equal access doesn't just happen. It takes thoughtful</span><br><span>policy-making, strong advocacy, and aggressive enforcement. But most of all</span><br><span>it takes people like you: the members of NFB out there every day, living</span><br><span>your lives, telling your stories, and teaching people along the way about</span><br><span>what is possible and what is right. The NFB has done that time and time</span><br><span>again, from dedicated legal representation to your legislative and</span><br><span>regulatory advocacy across this country, to your investment in new</span><br><span>technologies and research. The NFB has truly been and continues to be a</span><br><span>leader in fighting for equality, for accessibility, and for what is right.</span><br><span>[Applause]</span><br><span> But your work goes beyond that. It's about the community that you've</span><br><span>built together-it is inspiring. With young and old, with programs, with</span><br><span>training, with encouragement of Braille literacy, the NFB-NEWSLINE® talking</span><br><span>newspaper and more: in so many ways you are so remarkable.</span><br><span> But enough about the NFB. Let me get back to me for a minute, okay?</span><br><span>I'm going to tell you a little story. I'll tell you the story about how I</span><br><span>came to know the NFB. In March of 2007 I quit my job in private practice,</span><br><span>took a big pay cut, and became chief of the civil rights division in the</span><br><span>attorney general's office in Massachusetts-a dream job for me. I was so</span><br><span>excited to be there and so excited at the opportunity to use the law to</span><br><span>advance civil rights. But I didn't know a whole heck of a lot. I had the</span><br><span>passion and the commitment, but I had a lot of education in front of me. I</span><br><span>also had a new boss, who had just gotten elected, and we were all sort of</span><br><span>feeling one another out.</span><br><span> One day in my office I got a telephone call from a guy named Dan</span><br><span>Goldstein; have you heard of him? [Applause] Well, one of my colleagues had</span><br><span>given me a little bit of a warning about Dan-in the nicest of ways</span><br><span>described him as tough, persistent, the smartest lawyer I'll ever meet, and</span><br><span>a real advocate.</span><br><span> I took the call, of course, and I was blown away and at that point</span><br><span>began my education-an education that has led me to today. Dan told me a</span><br><span>little story about one of his clients, an organization called the NFB. He</span><br><span>told me about some of the problems that the NFB was having with a little</span><br><span>company called Apple. Now, I'd heard of Apple; I hadn't heard of the NFB.</span><br><span>In no time at all, Dan was offering, in his indomitable way, to hop on a</span><br><span>plane and bring to Boston a guy named Marc Maurer. I didn't know Marc</span><br><span>Maurer, but boy did I come to know Marc Maurer.</span><br><span> A few weeks later Dan, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, and the terrific folks</span><br><span>from Brown, Goldstein, & Levy, accompanied by folks from NFB-let's give it</span><br><span>up again for Dr. Maurer [Applause]-how about that? [Chanting of "Dr.</span><br><span>Maurer"] Those are better than any cheers I ever heard on any basketball</span><br><span>arena-that's pretty good.</span><br><span> So they came to town. They came to Boston, and they told the story</span><br><span>about what it was that was happening with regard to Apple. Now I have to</span><br><span>say this was a real education. JAWS-I thought Jaws was a movie about</span><br><span>sharks; I had no idea what they were talking about. But, as they walked me</span><br><span>and the team in the office through the issue, demonstrating the problem</span><br><span>with the technology, I quickly realized how Apple products were leaving</span><br><span>students and users behind, leaving them in the dust. In the wake of</span><br><span>incredibly interesting emerging technology, there was going to be a whole</span><br><span>category of people in this country who were going to be left behind. I</span><br><span>understood fundamentally as a civil rights lawyer that that was wrong.</span><br><span> But the story continues, and my education continued. I got an</span><br><span>invitation from Dr. Maurer to go to Baltimore. I visited the NFB, and I</span><br><span>toured the NFB. I went to the Jernigan Institute. I had the privilege of</span><br><span>attending the Jacobus tenBroek program-wonderful-and learned so much from</span><br><span>those sessions. You know what I also learned? I learned that so much of the</span><br><span>civil rights laws and civil rights stories and speeches from people like</span><br><span>Dr. Martin Luther King-you know who inspired that? Jacobus tenBroek. That's</span><br><span>where so much of that began. That's something that not enough people in</span><br><span>America know. But that is the truth, and that is a rich part of the history</span><br><span>of this organization.</span><br><span> At some point I figured we had accumulated enough information to be</span><br><span>able to go forward, and I can't say enough to you about the lawyers that</span><br><span>you have on your staff: Mehgan Sidhu and her folks-just amazing people, and</span><br><span>also the folks-the advocates, the lawyers that you have at Brown, Goldstein</span><br><span>& Levy. I think they all deserve a great round of applause [Applause]</span><br><span>because this took some work. At first when we reached out to Apple, they</span><br><span>didn't believe it was true; they didn't think that it was a problem, and</span><br><span>they resisted. But the NFB persisted, and ultimately we were able to reach</span><br><span>an agreement with Apple to ensure that iTunes and iTunes U would be</span><br><span>accessible to blind and print-disabled consumers who depended on screen-</span><br><span>reading software. That was groundbreaking, and I so appreciate all that NFB</span><br><span>members did to move that forward. Because it took the NFB to show Apple the</span><br><span>way.</span><br><span> I remember being in conference rooms with engineers, executives, and</span><br><span>lobbyists from Apple who just didn't understand what the issue was. It took</span><br><span>NFB members actually demonstrating the technology and the failures-and also</span><br><span>the workarounds and the fixes to be able to get this done. It really was</span><br><span>remarkable and a huge credit to this organization.</span><br><span> I also remember the first time Apple showed up in our office, and</span><br><span>they brought us the very first talking iPod. That was pretty cool, too.</span><br><span>Again, all inspired by the effort and the fight of this organization.</span><br><span>[Applause]</span><br><span> In this rapidly changing world it is so important that technology not</span><br><span>leave anyone behind, particularly when it comes to educational</span><br><span>opportunities. I learned how important collaboration is, that it's so</span><br><span>important that we work with companies and businesses to make sure that they</span><br><span>are incorporating accessibility into their design of software and</span><br><span>technology. Otherwise, how else do we fulfill the promises of equal</span><br><span>opportunity that the laws require? What this collaboration with Apple also</span><br><span>showed me was that we have good laws on the books which promise inclusion</span><br><span>and equal opportunity-great words on the page, but they are not self-</span><br><span>executing. They require aggressive and creative enforcement, and this is</span><br><span>often best accomplished through partnership. At the attorney general's</span><br><span>office we are willing and able to bring cases to vindicate these rights.</span><br><span>Using our experience with the NFB, we proceeded to go after movie theater</span><br><span>chains, look at what they were doing, and ultimately reach agreements with</span><br><span>the nation's three largest movie chains to provide more accessibility to</span><br><span>persons who are visually impaired, blind, and deaf. [Applause] Because</span><br><span>everybody should be able to go to the movies with their friends, their</span><br><span>spouses, their loved ones.</span><br><span> In 2013 it was mentioned that we worked with the NFB to reach an</span><br><span>agreement with <a href="http://monster.com">Monster.com</a>, the popular job website. This was important</span><br><span>because it is about websites needing to be accessible, but it's also about</span><br><span>jobs. I know how serious a problem it is when it comes to underemployment</span><br><span>and unemployment in your community, and it's why we need to do things like</span><br><span>take on <a href="http://monster.com">Monster.com</a>.</span><br><span> In addition to agreeing to change the website, I know we worked with</span><br><span>NFB to make sure that Monster paid $100,000 to fund the Massachusetts</span><br><span>Commission for the Blind's job internship program and to sponsor the NFB's</span><br><span>annual convention a few years ago. This case illustrated to Monster and to</span><br><span>the business community as a whole that failing to consider accessibility on</span><br><span>the front end has significant costs. Every time we bring a case or Dan</span><br><span>Goldstein threatens to bring a case, the learning curve for the defendant</span><br><span>is one of the biggest challenges. But this is where the NFB comes in-in</span><br><span>getting people up to speed. We want every business, every landlord, every</span><br><span>municipality to think about accessibility and access up front, on the front</span><br><span>end, when making their daily decisions. [Applause] Daily decisions, daily</span><br><span>activities: this is about people being able to live their lives the way</span><br><span>that they want and exercising what everybody would want to exercise in the</span><br><span>regular course of the day. You know, that's what the Cardtronics case was</span><br><span>all about. Again, so important: the work that this organization did. Our</span><br><span>office was so proud to be able to partner with you on that. The fact of the</span><br><span>matter is that so many sighted people take for granted the ability to</span><br><span>conveniently withdraw money from ATMs. It was just wrong that for so long</span><br><span>those who are blind or visually impaired were shut out from that. I know</span><br><span>that we were pleased when the court approved the settlement agreement, when</span><br><span>Cardtronics failed to comply that the court then ordered them to comply,</span><br><span>and I know how great it was for you all to get that check earlier this week-</span><br><span>that's terrific, $1.5 million, terrific!</span><br><span> Look, it would be difficult to overstate for me the important role</span><br><span>that disability rights work has played in my career and in shaping the</span><br><span>perspective that I now bring to bear as an attorney general. From the NFB I</span><br><span>learned about the harm of judgements; the harms of stereotypes; the harm</span><br><span>that is incurred when people set expectations that are unfounded, that are</span><br><span>misplaced, that are too low. It's why in my office in a few weeks' time</span><br><span>we're going to do something that hasn't been done before and institute</span><br><span>office-wide unconscious-and implicit-bias training. I want people who work</span><br><span>for me in this public agency to understand unconscious bias, understand</span><br><span>something about stereotypes and judgements, and I'm hoping that every</span><br><span>agency and everybody in law enforcement and every business in Massachusetts</span><br><span>also undergo that same training. From my good friend David Ticchi I learned</span><br><span>the importance of educating employees and staff. David, you know, on the</span><br><span>side works with one of the leading restaurant chains, Legal Sea Foods, in</span><br><span>Massachusetts and teaches all of their new servers and employees about how</span><br><span>to best interact and sort of the how-tos of engaging with customers who are</span><br><span>blind or visually impaired. Really really important work-something we're</span><br><span>also going to do in our office. Because this is about breaking barriers and</span><br><span>breaking down stereotypes. It's also important as an office that we listen,</span><br><span>that we listen to the stories like we did when we put the cases together</span><br><span>with NFB.</span><br><span> We field hundreds of disability rights complaints every year from</span><br><span>people across Massachusetts. Often after educating both parties, we've been</span><br><span>able to mediate quick and effective resolutions, whether it's handicap</span><br><span>parking spaces, staircase railings, restroom grab bars-we help with service</span><br><span>animals, with changes to employer policies, and with unlawful terminations.</span><br><span>But we wouldn't be able to do this if people didn't come forward and be</span><br><span>willing to tell their stories. I encourage you to do that: face injustices</span><br><span>head-on, report them to your authorities, and certainly if you're in</span><br><span>Massachusetts (though I'll take complaints from anywhere), let your</span><br><span>attorney general's office know. Because as attorney general, I am committed</span><br><span>to reaching out to other attorney generals across this country. So you may</span><br><span>be in another state, but know that I'd be the first to pick up the phone</span><br><span>and try to work with an attorney general from another state to get at</span><br><span>discrimination and to make things right.</span><br><span> I also know that when education and mediation attempts fail, the</span><br><span>power of the law is important. I understand that fundamentally, and I want</span><br><span>you to know that that was made clear to me and taught to me by the work</span><br><span>that I was able to do with NFB. As Jacobus tenBroek said, "The right to</span><br><span>live in the world consists in part of the right to live out of it. The</span><br><span>blind, the deaf, the lame, and the otherwise physically disabled have the</span><br><span>same right to privacy that others do; not only the right to rent a home or</span><br><span>an apartment, public or private housing, but the right to live in it; the</span><br><span>right to determine their living arrangement, the conduct of their lives;</span><br><span>the right to select their mates, raise their families, and receive due</span><br><span>protection in the safe and secure exercise of these rights." Nobody could</span><br><span>say it any better, and that's what we strive to put into practice today,</span><br><span>day in and day out.</span><br><span> Later this month we're going to celebrate the twenty-fifth</span><br><span>anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a tremendous law. But</span><br><span>make no mistake about it: as we celebrate the anniversary of this landmark</span><br><span>civil rights law, it's important not only to reflect on what has happened,</span><br><span>but more important that we look ahead at where we still need to go. It's a</span><br><span>brilliant law. It provides a brilliant framework for eradicating injustice</span><br><span>and discrimination and ensuring equal access to the civic, social, and</span><br><span>economic elements of our society. But we need to do more work; more work is</span><br><span>ahead. When you look at all the websites that are out there that are still</span><br><span>inaccessible, you know we have work to do. When we look at the lack of</span><br><span>affordable and accessible housing, you know we have more work to do. When</span><br><span>you look at the rates of unemployment and underemployment in this</span><br><span>community, we have more work to do. When you look at the low rates of</span><br><span>Braille literacy, we know we have more work to do, and that is something</span><br><span>that I am committed to talking publicly about in Massachusetts. I want</span><br><span>every child to have access to learning Braille at an early age. When we</span><br><span>look at what is happening to parents when it comes to parental rights and</span><br><span>child custody, we know we have more work to do. And we know we have more</span><br><span>work to do when it comes to accessing healthcare. Doctors and hospitals</span><br><span>must have the equipment they need to provide appropriate care to all</span><br><span>patients, and all patients need to be able to easily access healthcare.</span><br><span>This is something that is so important: no person with a disability should</span><br><span>ever have to leave his or her dignity at the door or rely on the help of a</span><br><span>stranger in order to receive or access necessary medical treatment or care.</span><br><span> So we know we have more work to do. In the area of education, with</span><br><span>the infusion of technology into every classroom, we need to make sure that</span><br><span>all of the technology that is available is accessible to all students. We</span><br><span>cannot continue to allow technology to create a divide among students, and</span><br><span>thanks to Ray Kurzweil and others, we know we won't.</span><br><span> I'm committed to advancing an aggressive agenda within my office and</span><br><span>beyond on these matters. This is about civil rights. This is about human</span><br><span>rights. And all of us benefit when those rights are advanced. Whether we're</span><br><span>fighting about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability,</span><br><span>at the end of the day it is the same.</span><br><span> This morning I woke up and watched and listened to the story that was</span><br><span>unfolding in South Carolina with the removal of the Confederate flag.</span><br><span>[Applause] I mention that because that's what we're talking about; we're</span><br><span>talking about persistent discrimination that exists across so many lines in</span><br><span>our country: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and the like.</span><br><span>But I'm inspired when I see something that I think many of us thought was</span><br><span>not possible, and that should give us hope and continued inspiration and</span><br><span>also should reaffirm that we are all in this together.</span><br><span> Again, I want to thank you for having me here today. Congratulations</span><br><span>to the NFB on seventy-five years. Keep up all of the great work that you</span><br><span>do. Live the life you want, and let your own imagination be your only</span><br><span>limitation.</span><br><span></span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span>This month's recipes are from the National Federation of the Blind of West</span><br><span>Virginia.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Mama's Easy No-Yeast Dinner Rolls</span><br><span> by Sandy Streets</span><br><span></span><br><span> Sandy is the secretary/treasurer of the Harrison County Chapter.</span><br><span>Sandy is very creative and enjoys doing crafts and crocheting.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 cup flour</span><br><span>1 teaspoon baking powder</span><br><span>1 teaspoon salt</span><br><span>1/2 cup milk</span><br><span>2 tablespoons mayonnaise</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Combine all ingredients. Spoon batter into a greased muffin</span><br><span>pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes or until</span><br><span>golden brown. Makes five to six rolls.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Charlene Smyth]</span><br><span> Easy Potato Soup</span><br><span> by Charlene Smyth</span><br><span></span><br><span>Charlene is the president of the West Virginia affiliate and of the</span><br><span>Harrison County Chapter. She has worked for twenty years as an office</span><br><span>assistant for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services.</span><br><span>Charlene has a good friend, Tina, to thank for this recipe.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 bag of frozen hash browns (30- or 32-ounce bag, the round ones, not</span><br><span>shredded)</span><br><span>1 32-ounce carton chicken broth</span><br><span>1 can cream of celery soup</span><br><span>1 can cream of chicken soup</span><br><span>1 8-ounce package cream cheese (not fat-free, but 1/3 less fat is okay)</span><br><span>Bacon bits to taste</span><br><span>Chopped onions to taste</span><br><span>Chopped celery or celery salt to taste</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Combine all ingredients in pot. Let cook until potatoes are</span><br><span>tender, or throw in the crockpot in the morning. When the potatoes are</span><br><span>done, or when you return home, slice up and add cream cheese, let melt. You</span><br><span>can top your bowl of soup with shredded cheddar cheese if desired. I always</span><br><span>double the recipe, so I use a combination of cream cheese and Cheese Whiz.</span><br><span>I like the mix, although you could use Cheese Whiz instead of cream cheese.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Sheri Koch]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Spicy Shrimp and Pasta</span><br><span> by Sheri Koch</span><br><span></span><br><span>Sheri is the president of the Kanawha Valley Chapter and the legislative</span><br><span>chairperson for her affiliate.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>6 ounces linguine</span><br><span>3 tablespoons olive oil</span><br><span>2 garlic cloves, minced</span><br><span>1 medium onion, slivered</span><br><span>4 mini tri-colored sweet peppers, sliced</span><br><span>12 ounces uncooked small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined</span><br><span>2 cups tomato juice</span><br><span>1/2 cup tomato sauce</span><br><span>2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce</span><br><span>1 tablespoon cornstarch</span><br><span>1/4 cup white wine</span><br><span>2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in</span><br><span>a large nonstick skillet, sauté garlic, onion, and peppers in oil for three</span><br><span>minutes. Stir in the shrimp and sauté for three or four minutes. Add tomato</span><br><span>juice, tomato sauce, Sriracha and basil. (If using fresh basil, add at the</span><br><span>end.) In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and wine until smooth; stir into</span><br><span>skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for five or six</span><br><span>minutes until shrimp is done and sauce is thickened. Stir drained linguine</span><br><span>into sauce. Enjoy! Yields four servings.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Baked Rigatoni</span><br><span> by Karen Haught</span><br><span></span><br><span>Karen is the board member for the Sightless Workers' Guild of Wheeling</span><br><span>Chapter as well as executive director for the Seeing Hand Association.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 pound of rigatoni</span><br><span>1 pound of sage or Italian sausage crumbled</span><br><span>8 ounces of pepperoni</span><br><span>1 quart of favorite marinara, homemade or jarred</span><br><span>2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese</span><br><span>Grated parmesan cheese</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat oven to 375. Cook pasta in salted water according to</span><br><span>al dente time. Brown sausage in a skillet and drain, slightly brown</span><br><span>pepperoni in same skillet and drain. Heat sauce together with sausage and</span><br><span>pepperoni in skillet. Drain pasta and place in large shallow baking dish.</span><br><span>Stir in meat sauce. Mix in half of the cheese and top with the remainder of</span><br><span>the cheese. Grate some parmesan on top. Bake uncovered for about half an</span><br><span>hour or until slightly browned and bubbly. For variation, add eight ounces</span><br><span>of ricotta cheese with the other ingredients--makes it more like lasagna.</span><br><span>Get an extra jar of sauce to top with after it is cooked if you like it</span><br><span>saucier.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Karen McDonald]</span><br><span> Ed and Karen's Italian Hash</span><br><span> by Karen McDonald</span><br><span></span><br><span>Karen McDonald is a member-at-large of the West Virginia affiliate. She is</span><br><span>the wife of longtime member and first vice president Ed McDonald. She has</span><br><span>been a member of the affiliate for over twenty years, and she serves as its</span><br><span>state secretary. She is also a musician and a partner in the couple's</span><br><span>broadcast production business, EIO Productions.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The McDonalds put this recipe together one evening when they didn't have</span><br><span>all the necessary ingredients for the dish they had in mind, and they ended</span><br><span>up with a concoction that turned out to be a favorite.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>2 pounds ground beef</span><br><span>2 peppers</span><br><span>2 or more onions, depending on size</span><br><span>1 28-ounce can tomatoes or two fourteen-ounce cans</span><br><span>1 tablespoon salt</span><br><span>1 tablespoon fresh garlic</span><br><span>1 tablespoon Italian seasoning</span><br><span>1 box of any kind of macaroni</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Brown ground beef, drain. Cook macaroni according to package</span><br><span>directions. Grease slow cooker, add all ingredients and cook for three to</span><br><span>five hours on high or seven to nine hours on low.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Sheena Struble]</span><br><span> Orange Cream Cupcakes</span><br><span> by Sheena Struble</span><br><span></span><br><span>Sheena has lived in a variety of places including Delaware, Maryland,</span><br><span>Pennsylvania, and now, fortunately for us, West Virginia. She has a long</span><br><span>work history as an executive with AT&T, but is now retired. Sheena is a</span><br><span>member of the Kanawha Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind of West Virginia and holds our newly established office, Chef and</span><br><span>Cook. We are fortunate to have her aboard.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour</span><br><span>1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder</span><br><span>1/4 teaspoon salt</span><br><span>2 large eggs, room temperature</span><br><span>2/3 cup granulated sugar</span><br><span>1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter</span><br><span>2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon orange extract</span><br><span>1 cup sour cream</span><br><span></span><br><span>Frosting:</span><br><span>3/4 cup fresh orange juice</span><br><span>1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature</span><br><span>10 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, room temperature</span><br><span>1 cup confectioners' sugar</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon orange extract</span><br><span>2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest</span><br><span>6 drops yellow food coloring (optional)</span><br><span>2 drops red food coloring (optional)</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with</span><br><span>cupcake liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.</span><br><span>Beat the eggs, granulated sugar, and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on</span><br><span>medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Reduce the</span><br><span>speed to medium low, then add the orange zest, vanilla, and orange extract.</span><br><span>Beat half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Then beat in the</span><br><span>sour cream and end with the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just</span><br><span>combined (do not over mix). Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups,</span><br><span>filling each muffin cup about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick</span><br><span>inserted into the centers comes out clean, about eighteen minutes. Let cool</span><br><span>five minutes; then remove the cupcakes from the muffin tins to a rack to</span><br><span>cool completely.</span><br><span> Meanwhile, make the frosting. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a</span><br><span>saucepan; reduce the heat to medium and simmer until reduced to 1 1/2</span><br><span>tablespoons, about eight minutes. Let cool. Beat the cream cheese in a</span><br><span>large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy. Beat</span><br><span>in the butter, a little at a time, until smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to</span><br><span>low; sift the confectioners' sugar into the bowl and beat until smooth. Add</span><br><span>the vanilla, the cooled orange syrup, orange extract, orange zest and food</span><br><span>coloring and beat on medium speed until combined. Refrigerate if needed</span><br><span>until spreadable, about fifteen minutes. Spread the frosting on the</span><br><span>cupcakes.</span><br><span> ---------</span><br><span> Monitor Miniatures</span><br><span></span><br><span> News from the Federation Family</span><br><span></span><br><span>Wilbur Webb Dies:</span><br><span> We are saddened to announce the passing of our longtime leader Wilbur</span><br><span>Webb on August 5. Wilbur had been a dedicated Federationist since the New</span><br><span>York Affiliate was chartered in 1956. He helped build the Syracuse Chapter</span><br><span>and was a staunch advocate for changing lives of the blind.</span><br><span> Wilbur participated in many NAC rallies. He was fond of telling the</span><br><span>story of helping carry the NAC coffin through the streets of New York City</span><br><span>in the late 1960s. He also helped remove the barriers that prevented blind</span><br><span>people from attending college in the SUNY system simply because they could</span><br><span>not pass the physical exam which included an eye test. Wilbur was the only</span><br><span>person most of us know that actually knew and worked for our founder, Dr.</span><br><span>tenBroek. He was instrumental in growing the Federation in New York, and he</span><br><span>also went to other states to promote the NFB. He was a pioneer.</span><br><span> He will be missed, but his legacy lives on because his efforts will</span><br><span>continue to positively affect the lives of all blind people in New York.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Science and Engineering Division 2015 STEM Conference Scholarship:</span><br><span></span><br><span> The Science and Engineering Division of the National Federation of</span><br><span>the Blind is proud to announce that it is now taking applications for the</span><br><span>2015 STEM conference stipend award. All applications must be submitted by</span><br><span>December 1, 2015. The award includes up to $2,000 towards attending a</span><br><span>technical conference in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or</span><br><span>mathematics. The winner of the award will attend a conference and submit</span><br><span>receipts to the science division for reimbursement.</span><br><span> The science division is excited to share the accomplishments of blind</span><br><span>scientists with other blind people. The science division asks that when</span><br><span>submitting receipts the winner also provide an approximately 500 word essay</span><br><span>describing the conference experience and what was learned. We will share</span><br><span>this information on the science and engineering division listserv. The</span><br><span>stipend award also includes up to $500 toward costs of attending the next</span><br><span>NFB convention after attending the STEM conference.</span><br><span> The science division would like to send a worthy candidate to a STEM</span><br><span>conference of their choosing. The science division also invites the</span><br><span>selected candidate to attend the science division meeting and make a ten</span><br><span>minute presentation on the candidate's interest in science and what was</span><br><span>learned at the conference.</span><br><span> A candidate is eligible if he or she is legally blind and attending a</span><br><span>full time college or graduate program in a STEM field in the US in the fall</span><br><span>of 2015. A candidate is also eligible if he or she is legally blind and has</span><br><span>received a bachelors or graduate degree in a STEM field in the spring of</span><br><span>2013 or later and is currently living in the US. The science division</span><br><span>welcomes both blind students that are working toward a STEM degree and</span><br><span>blind new STEM professionals to apply. Email your application to John</span><br><span>Miller at <a href="mailto:johnmillerphd at hotmail.com">johnmillerphd at hotmail.com</a>. The application should include: proof</span><br><span>of legal blindness, college transcripts, a personal essay, and a contact</span><br><span>phone number. The personal essay should be no more than 500 words, describe</span><br><span>your interest in science, and describe the blindness techniques you use in</span><br><span>performing scientific work. The essay should also list the conference you</span><br><span>wish to attend and the dates of the conference. If you do not know the</span><br><span>exact conference at the time of application, then please describe the field</span><br><span>of the conference and some candidate conferences that you are considering.</span><br><span>You need not present at the conference in order to receive the STEM</span><br><span>conference stipend.</span><br><span> As part of the application process the science division may contact</span><br><span>you to discuss your application. The STEM stipend will be awarded by</span><br><span>January 15, 2015. The STEM stipend is a great opportunity for personal</span><br><span>growth in a field of science.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Buffalo Chapter Elections:</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind of New York, Buffalo Chapter,</span><br><span>held its elections in May. Elected are Michael P. Robinson, President;</span><br><span>Christian Minkler, vice president; Margo Downey, secretary; Jessica Snyder,</span><br><span>treasurer; and board members Julie Phillipson; Angie Robinson; and Linda</span><br><span>Kaminski.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Web Accessibility Training Day:</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind Center of Excellence in</span><br><span>Nonvisual Access to Commerce, Public Information, and Education (CENA) and</span><br><span>the Maryland Technology Assistance Program are proud to announce that we</span><br><span>will be hosting another Web Accessibility Training Day on November 4, 2015.</span><br><span> This year we are expanding both the technical and the policy tracks to</span><br><span>pack more content that fits your needs into the day. Whether you are</span><br><span>wondering how to implement accessibility in education, curious about the</span><br><span>Section 508 update, or wanting to learn more about how to test for web</span><br><span>accessibility, we've got you covered.</span><br><span> The registration fee will be $100, and the event will be held at the</span><br><span>NFB Jernigan Institute at 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place,</span><br><span>Baltimore, MD 21230</span><br><span> For more information, please visit <<a href="https://nfb.org/web-accessibility-">https://nfb.org/web-accessibility-</a></span><br><span>day>, or contact Clara Van Gerven at <<a href="mailto:cvangerven at nfb.org">cvangerven at nfb.org</a>>.</span><br><span> Come learn with us!</span><br><span></span><br><span>New Novel:</span><br><span> If you would like a print autographed copy of Jerry Whittle's</span><br><span>baseball romance, Slingshot, or his novel, Standing with Better Angels,</span><br><span>about a blind minister who works in the New Orleans' French Quarter, please</span><br><span>send a check or money order for $20 (includes shipping) to 506 University</span><br><span>Blvd., Ruston, LA 71270. These and other books by Jerry are available as</span><br><span>Kindle editions at <<a href="http://www.amazon.com">www.amazon.com</a>>. Ten percent of sales are donated to</span><br><span>the NFB.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> In Brief</span><br><span></span><br><span> Notices and information in this section may be of interest to Monitor</span><br><span>readers. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information; we</span><br><span>have edited only for space and clarity.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The 2016 Ski for Light International Week:</span><br><span> The forty-first annual Ski for Light (SFL) International Week will</span><br><span>take place from Sunday, January 24 through Saturday, January 30, 2016. Note</span><br><span>that the traditional Sunday to Sunday SFL week has been shortened by one</span><br><span>day to a Sunday to Saturday event for 2016.</span><br><span> The 2016 Ski for Light event will take place in Northwest Lower</span><br><span>Michigan on the grounds of Shanty Creek Resorts in Bellaire, Michigan.</span><br><span>Located just forty-five minutes from the Traverse City airport, Shanty</span><br><span>Creek Resorts is a 4,500 acre complex containing three housing and</span><br><span>entertainment villages, both cross-country and downhill ski trails, a</span><br><span>tubing hill, several swimming pools and hot tubs, a fitness center and spa,</span><br><span>and much more.</span><br><span> Applications are requested by November 1. Late applications can only</span><br><span>be considered on a space-available basis. Full details about the event and</span><br><span>the accessible online application, which can be completed on the Ski for</span><br><span>Light website, can be found at <<a href="http://www.sfl.org/event">www.sfl.org/event</a>>.</span><br><span> If you are a novice and want to learn how to cross-country ski, or if</span><br><span>you have skied before and just want to be matched with an experienced guide</span><br><span>and meet new friends for a wonderful week of fun in the snow, this is the</span><br><span>event for you!</span><br><span> In addition to finding more details on the SFL website, information</span><br><span>about the event can be obtained by contacting Bob Hartt at</span><br><span><<a href="mailto:bobmhartt at gmail.com">bobmhartt at gmail.com</a>>.</span><br><span></span><br><span>A Message of Hope from Unity:</span><br><span> Unity Message of Hope® is an outreach program sharing the assurance</span><br><span>of God's love and grace by providing free spiritual materials to a variety</span><br><span>of audiences including individuals who are visually impaired. The program</span><br><span>provides a virtual library of downloadable Braille (.brf file) Unity</span><br><span>publications, available free of charge and accessible on a computer with</span><br><span>Braille translation software, Braille notetaker, or digital talking book</span><br><span>player. For more information visit <<a href="http://www.unity.org/Braille">www.unity.org/Braille</a>>, call Message of</span><br><span>Hope toll-free at (866) 421-3066, or email us at <message-of-</span><br><span><a href="mailto:hope at unityonline.org">hope at unityonline.org</a>>.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Envision Seeking Blind Employees:</span><br><span> Envision is proud to be a leading employer of individuals who are</span><br><span>blind or visually impaired. At Envision we focus on ability, not</span><br><span>disability. Each Envision employee comes to work driven by a sense of</span><br><span>purpose in what they do, and they see their purpose in action through the</span><br><span>employment opportunities, programs, and services which their work with</span><br><span>Envision helps fuel. Each Envision employee has different roles and</span><br><span>responsibilities, but everyone works toward the same mission: to improve</span><br><span>the quality of life and provide inspiration for the blind and visually</span><br><span>impaired through employment, outreach, rehabilitation, education, and</span><br><span>research.</span><br><span> For more information or to apply for an open position, please visit us</span><br><span>at <<a href="http://www.envisionus.com/careers">www.envisionus.com/careers</a>>. We look forward to hearing from you.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Donations Needed for Bangladesh Library:</span><br><span> The Louis Braille Memorial Library for the Blind and Physically</span><br><span>Handicapped provides free services for all ages of blind, deaf, deaf-blind,</span><br><span>and other physically handicapped people in Bangladesh. They are looking for</span><br><span>donations of any used Braille materials, print books, large print books,</span><br><span>magazines, or journals of any type, including religious materials. They are</span><br><span>also looking for white canes, talking watches, talking calculators, Perkins</span><br><span>Braillers, Braille writing paper, Braille slates and boards, laptops,</span><br><span>computers, printer paper, or a copy machine.</span><br><span> Donations can be mailed through the post office with "Free Matter For</span><br><span>the Blind and Physically Handicapped" on the label. Ship to: Ms. Afroza</span><br><span>Mili, Librarian, Louis Braille Memorial Library for the Blind and</span><br><span>Physically Handicapped, Plot # 11/1 Road # 06 Block # E Section # 12</span><br><span>Pallabi, Mirpur Dhaka-1216 Bangladesh. Example label below:</span><br><span></span><br><span>|FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND AND HANDICAPPED |</span><br><span>| |</span><br><span>|DONATION OF BOOK AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE |</span><br><span>|BLIND AND HANDICAPPED |</span><br><span>| |</span><br><span>| FROM |</span><br><span>| NAME: ------------------------------------------ |</span><br><span>| ORGANIZATION |</span><br><span>|NAME:-------------------------------------- |</span><br><span>| MAILING |</span><br><span>|ADDRESS:------------------------------------------------|</span><br><span>|--------- |</span><br><span>|To |</span><br><span>|Ms. Afroza Mili |</span><br><span>|Librarian |</span><br><span>|LOUIS BRAILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY FOR THE |</span><br><span>|BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED |</span><br><span>|Plot # 11/1, Road # 06, Block # E, Section # 12, |</span><br><span>|Pallabi, |</span><br><span>|Mirpur, Dhaka - 1216, Bangladesh. |</span><br><span></span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> NFB Pledge</span><br><span> I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for</span><br><span>the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to</span><br><span>abide by its constitution.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>-----------------------</span><br><span>[1] See <a href="http://epubtest.org/rs/182/accessibility/">http://epubtest.org/rs/182/accessibility/</a></span><br><span>[2] See <a href="http://www.w3.org/Math/whatIsMathML.html">http://www.w3.org/Math/whatIsMathML.html</a></span><br><span>[3] Kindle Fire instructions for reading by paragraph result in a student</span><br><span>reading by sentence fragment. No workaround strategy has been identified.</span><br><span>[4] Because blind users cannot highlight, the returning-to-highlights-and-</span><br><span>notes feature could not be tested.</span><br><span>[5] Braille can only be used with difficulty. Word wrap is not supported.</span><br><span>Navigation of text is difficult as text is interpreted as one block per</span><br><span>page for purposes of Braille, so paragraph markers and other separations in</span><br><span>the text are lost.</span><br><span>[6] As students will be required to start from the top of a page when</span><br><span>searching for each word they are trying to spell and reading commands are</span><br><span>inconsistent, it is technically possible but very labor and time intensive</span><br><span>for a student to learn the spelling of a term.</span><br><span>[7] Text cannot be selected with Braille. The word that is first</span><br><span>highlighted when a student begins to select text is not the same word as</span><br><span>that which she had intended to select.</span><br><span>[8] This would be available only when text has been successfully</span><br><span>highlighted.</span><br><span>[9] Braille navigation is limited to the ability to move page by page, or</span><br><span>the length of the Braille display, so a user cannot move to different</span><br><span>paragraphs in the text easily. Paragraph breaks are not clearly displayed.</span><br><span>The ability to move only within these smaller chunks of text hampers a</span><br><span>blind student's ability to skim content quickly.</span><br><span></span><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Brl-monitor mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:Brl-monitor at nfbcal.org">Brl-monitor at nfbcal.org</a></span><br><span><a href="https://nfbcal.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/brl-monitor">https://nfbcal.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/brl-monitor</a></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>
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