[NFBOK-Talk] {Spam?} Fwd: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2016
Audrey Farnum
atfarnum at icloud.com
Fri Jan 29 17:59:52 UTC 2016
See below for the latest issue of the Braille Monitor.
Audrey T. Farnum
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
> From: buhrow at lothlorien.nfbcal.org (Brian Buhrow)
> Date: January 29, 2016 at 10:12:58 AM CST
> To: brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
> Subject: [Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2016
> Reply-To: buhrow at nfbcal.org
>
>
> BRAILLE MONITOR
> Vol. 59, No. 2 February 2016
> Gary Wunder, Editor
>
>
> Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash
> drive, with the audio version being available in both Spanish and English
> (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
> © 2016 by the National Federation of the Blind
> Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick
> or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a
> National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots-the
> familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and
> a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This
> smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad
> covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one
> position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again.
> (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive,
> the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is
> inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital
> materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges,
> when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped.
> You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to
> your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb
> drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in
> order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with
> the drive when you return the device.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance to Rosen Shingle
> Creek Resort]
>
> Orlando Site of 2016 NFB Convention
>
> The 2016 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take
> place in Orlando, Florida, June 30 to July 5, at the Rosen Shingle Creek
> Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your
> room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only.
> Call (866) 996-6338.
> The 2016 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and
> quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at
> present is 13.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under
> seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested.
> The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required
> to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if
> notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before May 27,
> 2016. The other 50 percent is not refundable.
> Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
> Reservations may be made before May 27, 2016, assuming that rooms are still
> available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the
> convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.
> All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include
> plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed
> internet capabilities, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair
> dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site
> spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options,
> including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room
> service.
> The schedule for the 2016 convention is:
> Thursday, June 30 Seminar Day
> Friday, July 1 Registration Day
> Saturday, July 2 Board Meeting and Division Day
> Sunday, July 3 Opening Session
> Monday, July 4 Business Session
> Tuesday, July 5 Banquet Day and Adjournment
>
>
> Vol. 59, No. 2
> February 2016
>
> Contents
>
> Illustration: NFB BELL Academy December Seminar Highlights
>
> A Dustup in Oklahoma and Its Importance to Blind Oklahomans
> by Gary Wunder
>
> Brad Smith's Address at the 2015 Accessibility Summit
>
> A Modern-Day Pioneer in Our Midst: An Attempt to Say Thank You to a Civil
> Rights Leader for the Blind
> by Gary Wunder
>
> The Blind in the World: From Paternalism to Self-Determination
> by Fredric K. Schroeder
>
> NAC: What Price Accreditation
> by Kenneth Jernigan
>
> Introducing Braille: Begin With a Positive Experience
> by Doris Willoughby
>
> Blindness: The Pattern of Freedom
> by Kenneth Jernigan
>
> How the First Self-Advocacy Organization of the Blind Met the Challenge of
> Social Security, 1940-1950
> by Anna Kresmer
>
> Making Diversity Work
> by Elaine Warn
>
> The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund
> by Allen Harris
>
> Recipes
>
> Monitor Miniatures
>
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Cane walk in the lunchroom: Corrb O'Connor (KY) leads James
> Bevels (NC) on a Cane Walk under learning shades in the lunchroom of the
> National Center for the Blind in Baltimore, MD.
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Participants cutting out materials during a hands-on
> activity: (Left to right) Mary Jo Partyka (NJ) cuts out a face that has
> raised lines on its perimeter for accessibility while Rebecca Sherman (ID)
> reads the lesson plan for this activity from the NFB BELL Academy
> curriculum. Alison Steven (ID) and Debbie Wunder (MO) tactually review
> their cut-out faces.
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Participants making a beach ball make sound by adding
> spaghetti noodles and rice: (Left to right) Wendy Bybee (UT) adds spaghetti
> noodles to a beach ball so that it will make sounds when NFB BELL Academy
> participants use it in a lesson. Beside her, Katie Chevalier (UT) does the
> same with rice as the noise-making material.
> NFB BELL Academy December Seminar Highlights
>
> Each year, state coordinators and teachers from around the nation
> gather to discuss upcoming Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning
> (BELL) programs that will be conducted in their states. Teaching Braille to
> young students in a two-week program can be challenging, and especially
> when the students range in age from four to twelve years old. Since there
> is no requirement that students come, at least part of the success of the
> program must be in making what is done not only educational but fun.
> At this year's BELL Academy, where the job was to train the trainers,
> fifty-seven participants from thirty-one states and the District of
> Columbia joined in the learning. Lodging and meals were provided for all,
> and travel costs for one person from each state was provided. Twenty-eight
> hours of training helped to fill a busy three-day seminar. But it isn't
> just about the scheduled training. BELL Academy gives BELL coordinators and
> teachers from across the country a chance to mingle, sharing experiences,
> tips, tricks, and support as they prepare for the 2016 BELL sessions. A
> single session was devoted to letting veteran BELL teachers and
> coordinators share their experiences, while other sessions covered topics
> like training for Facebook novices, specific strategies for using social
> media to advertise BELL, grant writing, insurance and liability, and many
> other topics.
> Attendees got a chance to practice actual lessons and hands-on
> activities from the curriculum including Braille Twister, UEB or Not To BE,
> Cane Walks, Stick Out Your Braille Tongue, Splash Words, Drawing With Your
> Perkins Brailler, Slides and Mountains, Frogs Do Jump High, Spreading 101
> and All About Spreads, Pouring Practice, Beach Ball Braille (Letters,
> Contractions, Nemeth, and Words), and making homemade scented play dough.
> If the teachers got to have that much fun, just imagine how
> interesting, amazing, and exciting the summer of 2016 will be for those
> states lucky enough to have a BELL Program.
>
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Director Joe Cordova]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Division Administrator Douglas Boone]
> A Dustup in Oklahoma and Its Importance to Blind Oklahomans
> by Gary Wunder
>
> In the June 2013 issue of the Braille Monitor, the lead article was
> "The Rehabilitation System in Oklahoma: Progress, Setbacks, and the Hope
> for Greater Opportunities." It revealed that two leading rehabilitation
> officials were fired or resigned three days apart, and the article
> discussed the reasons for their severance. More importantly, it discussed
> the progress that had been made in providing rehabilitation services to the
> blind of Oklahoma and expressed the hope that it would not be derailed by
> the inappropriate behavior of its previous rehabilitation officials.
> The fear that elected officials in Oklahoma would retreat from the
> task of improving their rehabilitation system by promoting low-profile
> bureaucrats and ordering them to keep rehabilitation services below the
> radar was unfounded. Oklahoma moved boldly to hire Joe Cordova as the
> executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services
> (ODRS) in December of 2013. His work in the field is well known to members
> of the National Federation of the Blind and professionals in the field of
> rehabilitation, having distinguished himself throughout the country as an
> innovative and hard-working leader in getting services leading to
> employment. He has been the assistant commissioner for services for the
> blind in New Mexico, headed the Division for the Blind in the
> Rehabilitation Services Administration, became a regional commissioner in
> that agency, and then moved to Hawaii to head their general rehabilitation
> agency. "We want people to have good jobs at good wages, and we want to
> avoid providing the kind of minimalist service that leads to them coming
> back to the department again and again because they don't make enough money
> or the employment doesn't represent something they really want to do."
> Cordova is emphatic in his conviction that the bar for his agency is not
> met or exceeded by helping clients secure entry-level employment and then
> walking away with the agency feeling satisfied that it has a case closure.
> The agency should feel that it has been successful only when it has helped
> one of its consumers to find employment where they make a good, sustainable
> living wage. Cordova believes that achieving this goal can often require
> several years of hard work to produce these results, but he notes with
> pride that the wages of disabled customers in Oklahoma went up by 5 percent
> this year. This is happening in a state that is currently suffering
> significant financial difficulty as a result of lower oil prices and the
> need to dramatically cut government expenditures.
> Many of the changes brought by Cordova have been warmly welcomed, and
> as we detail those that deal specifically with rehabilitation for the blind
> later in this article, it is easy to see why blind residents of Oklahoma
> are embracing the changes. One change, however, that has generated some
> controversy is the replacement of the superintendent of the Oklahoma School
> for the Blind, a department which falls under Cordova's jurisdiction.
> Cordova says that the decision to dismiss Dr. James Adams was difficult and
> that he made it after it became clear that he and Adams did not share the
> same vision for student success. Cordova says that Adams did a good job in
> coordinating the day-to-day activities of the school, but his expectations
> of students and the careers that might be theirs were not consistent with
> Cordova's. "We need a long-term vision for people at the school. Our data
> for a six-year period clearly demonstrated that graduates of the school
> performed below blind students who attended public school. I believe that
> the expectation for students should be that they will get an education
> beyond their post-secondary experience." But Cordova said this was not what
> Dr. Adams envisioned. Cordova says that Adams believed that the
> superintendent should not be encouraging students to go to college and that
> their demonstrated failure to thrive in this environment was an indication
> that they could not. Cordova believes that the more appropriate view for
> the school and the rehabilitation agency to take is that the failure of the
> students is more likely the result of deficiencies in training that the
> school should identify and address. He believes that the school needs to
> assess how it's doing in providing academics, independent living skills,
> and extracurricular activities and to use these assessments to improve the
> ability of the school's students to face the challenges they must meet to
> succeed in the world today. "If we aren't producing successful students,
> either something in the curriculum needs to be changed or maybe we need to
> give them some remedial courses, tutoring, and other support services that
> will help them get to that place."
> The charge has been made that changes at the school for the blind
> have occurred in an attempt to eliminate the residential school. Cordova
> says this couldn't be further from the truth. "As a former blind student
> who has attended a school for the blind from age five until graduation in
> my home state of New Mexico, I believe I can speak from personal experience
> as to the many benefits of attending a specialized residential school for
> the blind, benefits which are not always readily available in regular
> public schools. I attribute much of my success over the years directly to
> the programs and services offered in a special residential school for the
> blind, and I want future blind students to have the same opportunity to
> benefit from those types of programs and services here at the Oklahoma
> School for the Blind."
> Cordova removed Adams in June of 2015, having made the decision
> earlier but not wanting to disrupt the school year. He was replaced by
> Christine Boone, the wife of Douglas Boone, who is the director of Visual
> Services. This sparked charges of nepotism, but, in fact, these have no
> legal legs. Neither of the Boones supervises the other, both reporting
> directly to Cordova. Cordova says, "I have worked with Christine for more
> than thirty years, and I trust her to implement the policies that I believe
> will lead to better outcomes for students. I appointed her to serve as the
> interim director while we do a nationwide search. Finding a qualified
> superintendent is a difficult task, and I cannot think of one blind person
> who currently serves in that capacity in the United States." As this
> article is being finalized, interviews are currently being conducted to
> find a full-time superintendent.
> On the subject of rehabilitation services for blind people, there are
> many positive accomplishments to report. Cordova hired Doug Boone in
> January of 2014 to head the blindness agency, a unit that is strangely
> named Visual Services. Boone says that when he was looking for a house and
> told people where he would be working, they wanted to know how many
> different kinds of glasses the agency provided and what a person had to do
> to get services. He says they never once assumed that the agency was set up
> to serve blind people, and both he and Cordova are proposing a name change
> for the blindness unit. There seems to be good support for changing the
> name to Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and
> the name change is expected to be finalized at the end of 2016.
> Boone said that when he came to Visual Services, the definition of
> blindness being used by the agency often resulted in ambiguity in who would
> be served and the services the agency could provide to them. The agency has
> now updated its definition of blindness so that it is less confusing and
> unambiguously complies with federal regulations. It clarifies that the
> agency serves the legally blind, the visually impaired, those who have a
> progressive condition which is certain to lead to blindness, and those who
> are functionally blind-people who are photophobic and cannot see during the
> day although at certain times and under certain lighting conditions may
> have 20/20 vision. He says the agency has also addressed training for its
> counselors in the area of low vision. "Sometimes there is this perception
> that our state services for the blind discourages the use of vision. If
> one's vision is dependable and makes one competitive, that is good, and we
> try to make the most of it. But, if it works now, but it won't work at 2:00
> o'clock in the afternoon, that's a problem."
> One of Boone's concerns has long been that people who are newly
> blinded have their first meeting with the agency and after two hours are
> left with a mountain of paperwork that they have no idea how to process.
> "For many of these people print is no longer an option, but we were leaving
> them all of this paperwork and actually contributing to their sense of
> defeat about what it means to be blind. Signing up for services to address
> blindness is an emotional time, and, when I was a counselor, I often felt
> frustrated at that first meeting, knowing that a client could only retain
> about 20 percent of what I told him. We have created a much better system,
> and it is one that is long overdue."
> The agency has developed an information cartridge that is readable
> using a National Library Service (NLS) book player. The cartridge includes
> a document detailing the rights and responsibilities of applicants,
> information about how to contact the Office of Disability Concerns (known
> in many states as the Client Assistance Program), a pamphlet on library
> services and how to use them, information pamphlets about and from both
> consumer organizations, and a list of out-of-state training centers with
> whom the state agency contracts. The cartridge also includes information
> about the Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council, and this is critical because
> agency consumers need to know how to contact those who are responsible for
> overseeing the program that gives them service.
> "By the time we leave their house, we have delivered them an NLS
> machine, and they are signed up for library services and shown how to use
> the machine. Not only do we leave them with critical information, but by
> signing them up for library services, we once again open to them the wide
> world of information and the stories and adventures that literature can
> bring."
> Boone believes that there must be stronger relationships built
> between the staff of his agency and the consumers they serve. To this end
> his division is encouraging staff members to attend state conventions of
> the National Federation of the Blind and the Oklahoma Council of the Blind.
> "We can't serve people well if we don't know them." So that staff are aware
> of the broader issues faced by blind people, they are invited to attend
> national conventions of the two major organizations in the country. The
> agency will pay their expense to attend the convention of the American
> Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind. "If you
> attend the convention of the National Federation of the Blind one year, you
> are obligated to attend the convention of the American Council of the Blind
> the next. Likewise, if your first convention that the agency pays for is
> the American Council of the Blind, you are obligated to go to the
> convention of the National Federation of the Blind the next year. We will
> pay for our staff to attend two conventions, and if they choose to continue
> going to one or both, we will grant them leave time to do so. Our
> division's impartiality has to be above reproach."
> Under Boone's leadership the agency has placed increased emphasis on
> immersion training in blindness. This can only be received at a residential
> rehabilitation center, and no such center for the blind exists in Oklahoma.
> The division therefore maintains contracts with six agencies around the
> country from which its consumers can choose. Boone feels that residential
> training is so important that he has created a contest funded from his
> pocket to encourage the division's staff to send clients for training. If a
> staff member gets three students to attend intensive rehabilitation
> training, Boone will give that staff member a hundred-dollar bill. "I have
> put my money into this because I think people need to know that this is
> where my heart is and that I am committed to quality training. Money is a
> great motivator. I think the effectiveness of the contest can be seen in
> the figures. In 2014 we sent twelve people for center training. In 2015
> there have been twenty-six people participating in intensive training."
> With the passage of the most recent amendments to the vocational
> rehabilitation act, known as the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act,
> tremendous emphasis is being placed on providing transition services for
> people ages sixteen to twenty-one. For the first time the division
> sponsored the Transition Independence Program. This two-week course gave
> blind students an experience in which they lived in a dormitory, learned to
> travel from the dormitory to the cafeteria, learned to do some light
> cooking, received additional training in orientation and mobility services,
> went on community trips, received daily instruction in Braille and
> assistive technology, and got some technology they could take home as their
> own. The program purchased an iPod Touch, and with the assistance of the
> National Federation of the Blind of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Council of
> the Blind, iTunes cards were provided so that each student could purchase a
> copy of the KNFB Reader and thereby have access to the printed page. The
> program concluded with a cookout, giving many of the students their first
> opportunity to grill their own hamburger and hot dogs. "Several of our
> students had never worked around a fire, and one was deathly afraid of it.
> This meant that we had to do lots of preparation with a cold grill so
> students could see the layout of everything in a cool, touchable
> environment. It was so exciting to see a seventeen-year-old in the program
> lighting her first match and starting our fire. I have never seen anyone as
> excited as she was, and this is what we are all about."
> Visual Services has recently advertised a transition facilitator
> position. The person hired will help young people ages fourteen to sixteen
> to acquire the skills of blindness and will work with their parents to make
> sure that other soft skills are acquired. The person filling this position
> will also work with students from ages sixteen to twenty-one, the focus
> being on transitioning from high school to college or some other program
> oriented to training one for employment. Since parents are key, the agency
> is developing a video that shows successful blind people working and
> participating in their communities. The agency will also set up periodic
> meetings across the state so that parents can meet blind people and have
> their questions addressed.
> The agency has added an assistive technology coordinator to improve
> services to clients and to do outreach to potential employers. The
> coordinator doesn't do placement but does try to plow new ground in getting
> employers to see that the jobs they have to offer are ones that can be done
> by blind people. "Our hope is that when they have job openings, they will
> think about blind people to fill them. What we are trying to create is a no-
> pressure environment where an employer has a license to ask questions in an
> honest way."
> Expanding assistive technology services to make sure that the agency
> is providing quality instruction and follow-up is important to Boone. The
> agency is adding a toll-free number its customers can use when having
> problems with technology, be it hardware or software. Division staff can
> either talk them through their problem or can connect to their computer to
> provide direct assistance. "Training will continue to be in-person, but the
> phone can be used to refresh what you already know but have kind of
> forgotten," says Boone. The division has always had an assistive technology
> lab, but nothing has existed for people in the eastern part of the state.
> The agency now has a building in Tulsa and is waiting for furniture. The
> building will house a technology lab, but, more importantly, it will allow
> all of the staff in Oklahoma City to function under one roof, increasing
> the coordination of services that the division provides. In addition to the
> training provided by agency staff, the division has contracted with
> Langston University to teach keyboarding, JAWS for Windows, and mainstream
> applications. "Our intent in working with the university is to increase the
> computer literacy of our clients and to get people job-ready," says Boone.
> As an added benefit, the university can work with staff members to enhance
> their training on the technology that is so important in the workplace.
> There is a lot of it out there, and it is no small task to stay current.
> In addition to the consolidation taking place in Tulsa, the agency is
> working on bringing staff together in Oklahoma City. Library services will
> be moving from a mall into a state-owned building. All services provided by
> staff in the Oklahoma City area will also be under one roof. This building
> will house an access technology lab, a kitchen for training, a washer and
> dryer, and administrative offices. "Our goal is to get people in Oklahoma
> City to see the library as a central place to go to get services," says
> Boone. Given the downturn in Oklahoma's economy as a result of low oil
> prices, one significant benefit is that this move will eliminate some
> rental fees and will also bring federal dollars to the library because
> vocational rehabilitation programs have to pay rent somewhere.
> Changes in the business enterprise program are ones Boone sees as
> particularly exciting. The agency is upgrading requirements to enter the
> program and offering those who think they are interested in food service
> the opportunity to have extended visits at business enterprise facilities.
> "This business is not for the faint of heart," said Boone. "There is a lot
> of standing, a lot of dealing with growly customers, but the business
> opportunities represent a significant shot at advancing, and we strongly
> support the program." People who decide they want to go into food service
> will attend a training center and, while learning or refreshing one's
> skills of blindness, the business enterprise program trainee will be taking
> a training course offered by the Hadley School for the Blind to learn about
> food preparation, running a small business, and other job functions
> required to be a successful business person. "Our expectation is that when
> they get back to Oklahoma, they will be very close to bidding for and
> getting a facility."
> With all of the emphasis on employment that is required by the
> Rehabilitation Act, some have speculated that it is the intent of the
> agency to do away with homemaker services. Boone says this couldn't be
> further from the truth and that, when asked to provide comments on the
> latest revisions resulting in the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act,
> he wrote unequivocally supporting the retention of the homemaker status.
> What he does object to is the practice previously followed in Oklahoma of
> automatically placing people fifty-five and over into homemaker status,
> noting that the consumer should always be asked what he or she would like
> to do, regardless of their age. He notes that a woman who was seventy-nine
> years old resumed her work as a tax preparer after she received services
> from the agency. Boone believes this is how it should work and that
> informed choice doesn't mean that only young people have the right to
> exercise control over their lives.
> Overall Boone is happy about the progress made so far. He says that
> standards and indicators are up, wages are up for people who have received
> training and are being placed, and good things are being done as the agency
> works diligently to better serve its consumers.
> While the controversy surrounding the Oklahoma School for the Blind
> is regrettable, it should not overshadow the significant work being done to
> help the blind of the state. Neither should it obscure the commitment of
> elected officials in Oklahoma to take the high road, offering to the blind
> of Oklahoma a chance for the education and training that leads to gainful
> employment and a major step toward the full integration of the blind and
> the sighted. While the innovators in Oklahoma should be given due credit
> for their forward-thinking attitudes and programs, I unashamedly express my
> hope that other agencies will follow suit and that what seems spectacular
> today will become commonplace throughout the nation. Of course, the chances
> that this transformation will occur are directly proportional to how much
> we in the National Federation of the Blind press for it, and I hope that
> the pages of this magazine can chronicle such changes until they no longer
> are newsworthy but are so commonplace that they are simply expected.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Brad Smith]
>
> Brad Smith's Address at the 2015 Accessibility Summit
>
> From the Editor: From November 17 to 19, 2015, representatives from
> the National Federation of the Blind participated in an accessibility
> Summit sponsored by Microsoft. Present were representatives from the World
> Blind Union, the American Council of the Blind, and the Canadian National
> Institute for the Blind. The keynote address was delivered by the president
> of Microsoft, Brad Smith. The remarks he made were moving, especially
> coming from someone of his rank in one of the major technology companies in
> the world. Not all that he said can be related here because the technical
> groups in which we participate often require the signing of nondisclosure
> agreements, but what we can print does represent a significant commitment
> by Microsoft.
> Here is a brief introduction written by Microsoft's public relations
> department, followed by a reconstruction of President Smith's remarks:
>
> On November 17, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad
> Smith kicked off the 2015 Accessibility Summit. In his remarks he provided
> an overview of the company's approach to accessibility, outlined steps
> Microsoft is taking to improve the accessibility of products and services,
> and closed with an assurance that this is and will continue to be a top
> priority for Microsoft. In December, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella followed
> up on these remarks, citing accessibility as a "top of mind" issue in his
> year-end memo distributed to all Microsoft employees.
> Below are key excerpts from Brad's remarks at the Accessibility
> Summit:
>
> I want to provide an overview of how Microsoft is thinking about
> accessibility to you today. We are at an interesting moment in time in our
> company, where the height of our ambition to make our products accessible
> is exceeded only by our humility about the work yet to be done to
> accomplish this. We have high ambition because the world demands that of
> us, and we are listening to what you and other organizations have told us
> about where we need to improve. But this ambition is also rooted in our
> mission as a company. In his twenty months as CEO, Satya Nadella has
> developed our new mission statement, which is "To empower every person and
> organization on the planet to achieve more." This mission statement speaks
> to who works at Microsoft and why they work here. That mission statement
> speaks to what we are about as a company-enabling people, through
> technology, to lead richer lives. We are there to reach every person in
> every country, which helps us think beyond the US. It also speaks to what
> technology can do for people of all abilities.
> We know that there are many people with many kinds of disabilities.
> Nearly every one of us deals with disability in our daily lives, whether it
> is our own or a friend, family member, colleague, or a neighbor with a
> disability. This helps us appreciate the importance of accessibility in a
> concrete way. We also understand that people are defined by what they can
> do, and people with disabilities are capable of doing all kinds of things.
> Technology can empower people, which is why it is imperative that Microsoft
> does a great job of creating technology that empowers all people with
> disabilities. That is our ambition. But it must be coupled with humility.
> We did a great job at accessibility in the early stages of Microsoft, and
> we want to be great again-but we are not there yet. We need to stay humble
> to understand the opportunity and seize it.
> There are a few core areas that we are focused on to address
> accessibility. The first is engineering capability. We are moving quickly
> to enhance our engineering capabilities as a company and in the
> accessibility space, and our senior leadership team has ensured that our
> teams have the appropriate resources to meet our ambitions. It's important
> that our words are backed up by this investment-words are cheap, but
> technology is expensive and difficult to produce, but we are. Part of this
> shift is helped by having an engineer as CEO; leadership really flows from
> that office across the company. Second, we are working to provide greater
> clarity around our goals through product roadmaps. These roadmaps
> articulate our goals, which allow our engineers to go forth and build them
> into products. Third, we are also focused on accountability. Even with
> engineering capability and goals, if we lack discipline, then we are likely
> to miss meeting these goals. That requires us to find a way to measure
> success and progress, one that is robust but also not too complicated. The
> cross-company accessibility team has created a good measurement system so
> we can better monitor and grade ourselves on our progress. We will be
> taking stock of our products throughout the development process, including
> a review prior to release with accessibility in mind. Fourth, we are taking
> steps to evolve our culture, both in our engineering approach through
> inclusive design and also in our hiring practices. This "one Microsoft"
> approach is breaking down silos and embedding accessibility in every
> department of the company.
> Finally, we need partners who will keep us honest and humble and also
> help us learn. We hope along the way to earn your trust and respect, and we
> will do this by backing up our good intentions with actions. Right now we
> are trying to catch up to meet the basic needs of people with disabilities
> in the marketplace. But we have the opportunity to dream bigger dreams. We
> are thinking broadly and creatively about how technology can create new
> opportunities to empower people and enrich their lives. The very best ideas
> have probably not yet been found-but, working together, I believe we can
> move this innovation agenda forward.
>
> From the Editor: The commitments made in the foregoing remarks are
> significant, and they expand on remarks made by Microsoft's chief executive
> officer Satya Nadella in December of 2015:
>
> As I think about living our mission, top of mind for me heading into
> 2016 is how we must make Microsoft products accessible to the more than 1
> billion people globally of all abilities. This is a shared goal. Universal
> design is central to how we realize our mission and will make all our
> products better. Along with our Senior Leadership Team, I will continue to
> devote my time and passion to this priority.
> Specifically, we will do three things: First, be transparent in
> sharing our goals and plans to ensure our products are accessible. Second,
> be accountable, which means engineering leads will prioritize universal
> design in the development of all products and services going forward.
> Third, continue to make this part of our work on building a more inclusive
> culture, including efforts to expand our existing accessibility hiring and
> awareness training initiatives and programs.
>
> From the Editor: As a result of our meeting in January of last year
> with Satya Nadella, our work with Microsoft has taken place on several
> levels. One of the benefits of contact at the highest levels of Microsoft
> is that we can go beyond specific technical problems with their products
> and join with them in bringing about systemic change in our nation.
> Microsoft's intention to partner with the National Federation of the Blind
> in going outside its company to press for significant technological change
> is evidenced in the following letter which is signed by Mark Riccobono,
> president of the National Federation of the Blind, and Brad Smith,
> president and chief legal officer of Microsoft:
>
> SENT VIA EMAIL
>
> January 14, 2016
>
> President Barack Obama
> The White House
> 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
> Washington, DC 20500
>
> Dear President Obama:
>
> Over five years ago, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for
> Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regarding website
> accessibility was issued by the United States Department of Justice. The
> ANPRM reflected your administration's recognition that the internet is an
> essential part of American life; among other things, a quality education
> and a desirable employment outcome are virtually impossible to achieve
> without accessing it.
>
> The issue of equal access to websites is therefore of critical importance
> to blind individuals as represented by the National Federation of the
> Blind, to technology companies like Microsoft, and other online businesses.
> Yet the release date of the NPRM for revising the Title III regulations of
> the ADA, originally scheduled for January of 2012, has been extended no
> less than five times. Most recently, it was postponed until 2018, eight
> years after this regulation process started.
>
> The need for a regulation providing accessibility guidance for public
> accommodations doing business on the internet is even more urgent today
> than it was five years ago. In 2014, Cisco Systems released the results of
> a study of white collar workers from around the world, which found that 57
> percent of the Americans surveyed between the ages of eighteen and fifty
> look at their smartphone before anything else every morning, and 39 percent
> had never made it through a full day of using their smartphone without
> accessing a website. Regulations from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are
> needed to provide companies with clear and meaningful guidelines so they
> can serve their clients and customers with disabilities. Thus, as you said
> on July 26, 2010, these rules are "the most important updates to the ADA
> since its original enactment." We agree, and urge you to release the NPRM
> for Title III of the ADA without further delay.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mark A. Riccobono, President
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> Brad Smith, President
> Microsoft
>
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Omvig]
> A Modern-Day Pioneer in Our Midst:
> An Attempt to Say Thank You to a Civil Rights Leader for the Blind
> by Gary Wunder
>
> One of my jobs as the state president in Missouri has been to deliver
> eulogies for Federationists whose long service and love of the organization
> deserve a tribute. I have written them for two past affiliate presidents,
> several other leaders of prominence, and many friends. The honor in being
> asked to deliver a eulogy is that you may be saying the most important
> words that have been or will ever be said about someone's life. The sadness
> is that it isn't being said to the person we are honoring. At best one must
> take on faith that the remarks will be heard, felt, sensed, or known by the
> one being honored, and at worse the comments come too late to matter to
> that person.
> What a pleasure it is when sometimes we are able to say thank you to
> a gem while he or she is still around to appreciate it, correct us when we
> don't quite get it right, and tell us just a bit more that we don't quite
> know as we write the remarks to share their lives with those who may not
> have known them as well as their family and friends. So it is that I have
> drawn an ace from the deck and have the honor of putting down some part of
> Jim Omvig's life story: an inspiration, a tribute to what can happen when
> one works hard, meets the right people, is encouraged, and takes advantage
> of the opportunities offered.
> Jim was raised in Slater, Iowa, and for a time attended the public
> school there. Though he tried hard, much of his effort focused on using
> vision he simply didn't have. Eventually he went to the Iowa Braille and
> Sight Saving School in Vinton. While competing academically and
> athletically was made easier by the lack of emphasis on vision, the school
> brought with it other difficulties. Foremost among these was the attitude
> held by the school about its blind charges. Those with the most sight were
> the most blessed: those called upon for giving the school tours, for
> pitching the tents during scouting events, and for looking after "the
> totals" (those without any usable vision). The school believed the blind
> could be educated, but the fields in which they could participate were
> quite limited, and, given this philosophy, the school provided vocational
> technical training in the few jobs they believed their graduates could do.
> The staff members were good, honest people, but they saw their calling to
> be to teach the blind some academic skills, help them compete with other
> blind people athletically, and acquaint them early on with the limitations
> of blindness. These would not have been the words they used, but certainly
> the attitude they conveyed to Jim and his fellow students.
> After high school Jim lived at home almost eight years. Most of his
> days were not so much living as existing, always waiting for that piece of
> medical news that would change his life. His mother so wanted him to see
> that she went to eye doctors, offering one of her eyes if only they could
> give it to Jim so that he might have vision. Since no operation, regardless
> of the sacrifice, could give him the vision he would need to be a
> productive citizen, he and his family lived from day to day, with Jim doing
> what little he could to help with family chores. Occasionally he got work
> in a local creamery, where his strength could be used in moving butter and
> loading trucks with products bound for the city. This was not the kind of
> work that could provide a real income, but any extra money was helpful, and
> so too was any reason to get up in the morning. This was not the life he
> wanted, but it was the life he had been given, and people from Iowa knew
> there was only so much time that could be given over to grief about what
> one had lost and wanted back.
> Jim lived what he now regards as an isolated life. Though tall and
> good looking, he decided early on that it would be irresponsible to get
> involved with women. In his mind a man's role was to be the provider, the
> leader in his home. He believed that being blind precluded this, so there
> was no reason to offer his heart or to ask for the heart of another.
> When he was twenty-five, Jim was contacted by the Iowa Commission for
> the Blind and invited to go to Des Moines to tour the agency. His sister
> Jan was then a student and encouraged him to come. He figured he already
> knew much of what there was to know about what blind people could do and
> become from his time at the school in Vinton, but he agreed to visit if for
> no other reason than for the brief change in daily routine the visit would
> afford.
> Mr. Omvig remembers his first interview with agency Director Kenneth
> Jernigan and the questions that set him on a path he never thought
> possible. The first question was whether or not he was blind, and Mr. Omvig
> gave what he regarded as a cutesy but accurate answer. "I am hard of
> seeing," he said, at which point Mr. Jernigan asked "How many fingers am I
> holding up?" and then told Jim unequivocally that he was blind. Jim
> remembers that this answer cut deeply and stung bitterly. Mr. Jernigan
> asked Jim his age. When Jim said he was twenty-five, Mr. Jernigan said,
> "My, my, twenty-five. So a man your age can expect to live for another
> fifty years. Jim, what are you going to do for the next fifty years?" As he
> considered his answer, he remembers feeling sick at heart. Fifty years was
> more a sentence than a promise. Jim's reply was that he didn't know, but
> what he feared was that he did and that those years would be spent doing
> just what he had done since high school graduation.
> But the very asking of the question hinted that there were
> possibilities beyond returning to Slater and living out his life as the
> dependent son and brother. Kenneth Jernigan suggested that Jim come to the
> Orientation and Adjustment Center for training and told him that a man with
> some motivation and brains could be a productive citizen. Jim wasn't sure
> he believed it, but he could clearly see that the man offering the
> opportunity did. What was the risk? Unrealized hopes would hurt, but so
> would returning to Slater, where nothing was happening or likely to happen
> for a blind man named Omvig.
> Although Jim agreed during his visit to come to the center for
> training, he still had one hope-that he might regain his vision. Friends
> told him about a doctor in South Dakota doing miraculous work, so he took
> all of his money, got a friend to drive him, and once again got the sad
> news that vision was not in his future.
> Jim spent nine months at the center: learning Braille, cane travel,
> typing, wood working, and engaging in challenge activities he had
> previously thought to be well beyond what blind people could do. Nearing
> the end of his training, Jim was asked what he would like to do with his
> future-what he might like to do for a living. Full of enthusiasm for what
> he was experiencing, he replied that he would like to run a training center
> and do what Mr. Jernigan was doing to help the blind.
> Mr. Jernigan responded with a question: "Mr. Omvig, do you want to go
> into work with the blind and run a center because you think you would truly
> love it and be good at it or because you really believe you can't succeed
> at anything else and that getting into work with the blind will be easy?"
> When Jim said that he didn't know if he could answer the question honestly,
> Mr. Jernigan suggested that he consider another career.
> What Jim had considered foolish and impossible only a year before was
> reshaping his life. Those crazy people from the commission were offering
> him the chance to go to college and promised financial support that his
> family could never hope to provide. Beyond the financial support, they
> convinced Jim that they believed in him, let him observe a few blind people
> who were successfully pursuing careers and raising families, and suggested
> to him that he could do the same. What he came to understand later was that
> he was being given the opportunity to be a modern-day pioneer, to assume a
> special place as part of a social experiment to determine if the philosophy
> of the National Federation of the Blind was simply a fine-sounding theory
> or whether it would prove to be true and could change lives in the way its
> proponents proclaimed.
> Jim finished his training at the commission, went to college, and was
> the first blind person to attend and graduate from the Loyola University of
> Chicago's School of Law. He recalls that 144 students entered the school,
> and of those only thirty-six were granted law degrees. Having this degree
> meant that the man who once had nothing to do and plenty of time to do it
> in would find himself busy for the rest of his life, taking his place as a
> senior warrior in the civil rights struggle of the blind and eventually
> appearing before the justices of the United States Supreme Court to be
> granted the right to practice law before that august body.
> But, after graduating in 1966 with good grades and a degree from a
> prestigious law school, Jim had to arrange and participate in 150
> interviews before he landed a job. Even this took some political
> intervention from his friend and mentor, Kenneth Jernigan. Mr. Omvig moved
> to Washington, DC, and became the first blind employee of the National
> Labor Relations Board. Although he was admired and well-liked by his fellow
> employees, several did try to convince him that his long hours and
> prodigious output raised the bar for them and let it be known that they
> were none too happy about this. Jim told them that they were free to work
> as much or as little as they liked, but he was there to do more than earn
> an income and provide for himself: he was there to convince the world that
> blind people could do high-quality work and do it as well as their sighted
> coworkers. His fellows saw the logic in this, and it added to their respect
> for him. But the secretary who had been assigned to him said, "Mr. Omvig,
> you are a damned workaholic, and you're not going to make one out of me."
> Given the friction, Mr. Omvig asked for a different secretary and got one,
> and his former employee was transferred.
> While rewarding, his job in DC primarily involved doing
> administrative research and paperwork. But Jim wanted real courtroom
> experience and requested a transfer. It was granted, and he moved to New
> York to continue his work with the agency. He found the work more
> rewarding, but it posed some challenges he had not faced in DC. He had
> relied primarily on volunteer readers in his first appointment, but when,
> as a field attorney, he began serving as a hearing officer, there were
> times when he was presented with written material and required to decide
> whether or not it should be admitted into the record. In these cases it is
> traditional for the hearing to be recessed while the hearing officer
> studies the material. It was not practical for Jim to send the material out
> for recording or to expect a volunteer to sit with him throughout his
> workday. The solution he arrived at was ideal: he asked that the
> stenographer, who was already being paid, act as his reader during the
> recess, and in this way he had access to printed documents without
> incurring additional cost or inconvenience to himself or his employer.
> As he settled into his job, Jim began to be asked by President
> Jernigan to visit state affiliates as a national representative. He
> appreciated being asked, thrived on being able to serve, and gladly took up
> the task. What he found surprised him. At some level he knew that Iowa
> represented something tremendously different in rehabilitation than could
> be found in the rest of the country, but knowing this wasn't quite the same
> as seeing firsthand the denials that blind people were facing when they
> sought to become self-sufficient and to exercise some control over their
> education and careers.
> Jim recalls meeting a woman from New Hampshire who had always wanted
> to be a teacher. Having gone blind in her teens, she approached the
> rehabilitation agency there and was told by her counselor that her goal was
> unrealistic and that certainly he would not approve the college education
> that teaching would require. Having read in the Braille Monitor about Judy
> Young, a blind teacher in Iowa, the woman in New Hampshire took her case to
> the agency director. He agreed with the counselor, telling her that a
> college education was unrealistic and that any thought of landing a
> teaching job was foolish. When she told him about the article she had read
> in the magazine of the National Federation of the Blind, he said that he
> knew about that Jernigan guy, a crazy man who was setting blind people up
> to fail. He, the agency director, would have none of it, and he suggested
> that she continue at the workshop, where she was making twenty-four dollars
> a week. In this case, like so many, Jim knew that the answer was not for
> everyone to move to Iowa, but to build and strengthen the Federation in
> each state and then to bring about the changes that the National Federation
> of the Blind and the Iowa Commission for the Blind were proving possible.
> Encounters such as these pushed Jim in the direction of trying to answer
> the question Mr. Jernigan had posed to him on his graduation from the
> orientation center.
> Eventually Jim gained enough self-confidence to say to Mr. Jernigan
> that he really did want to learn to direct a training center, that he had
> convinced himself and others that he could cut it alongside his sighted
> colleagues, and that his turning to the blindness field for employment was
> not to hide but actively to contribute to what had so changed his life and
> the way he would spend the most productive years of it. Jim wanted to be a
> part of encouraging blind people to dream and to see those dreams become
> reality. Mr. Jernigan agreed, and Jim moved back to Iowa, first to work as
> a rehabilitation counselor and later to head the orientation center.
> While in training to become a counselor, Jim accompanied coworkers to
> learn the ropes. Knowing that his primary job was to observe, Jim
> nevertheless wanted to become involved in the sessions so clients would
> come to know him. One day he asked a client how long he had been blind. The
> newly blinded client was angered and put off. On the drive to their next
> appointment, Jim learned from his coworker that coming to understand that
> one is blind is often a gradual process and that asking how long the client
> had been having trouble with his vision would have been more appropriate.
> Coming to understand and admitting that one is blind is crucial to
> acceptance and getting on with one's life, but for some people the subject
> should be approached with gentleness and understanding. Jim took the advice
> as sound and has tried to be mindful that the journey to accepting one's
> blindness and a new understanding of what it means to be blind sometimes
> takes a firm, direct approach and that sometimes it takes time, patience,
> and gentleness.
> Although Jim's return to Iowa put the right man in the right place,
> the transition was not without difficulty. He had decided that he could be
> a provider and that risking to become involved with another was not
> precluded by being a blind man. He married Jan, a fellow Iowan, and
> together they brought Jamie Omvig into the world in 1966. But their
> marriage ended in 1972, and the door that closed led to the opening of one
> that would lead James Omvig and Sharon Lewis to find that they were soul
> mates. Meeting for a casual drink one evening in the fall of 1973, they
> found that their talking kept them for hours. Sharon describes their
> courtship and marriage this way: "It may not have been the love story of
> the century, but I'm sure it was the love story of the decade." On January
> 31, 1974, Jim and Sharon Omvig were united in marriage, and since then they
> have been inseparable in their faith, love, and work. From the time they
> became two hearts beating as one, any mention of Jim could, if not for the
> cumbersomeness of the construction, be Jim and Sharon or Sharon and Jim.
> The man who once believed that he could never share his heart not
> only has enjoyed a wonderful marriage but has composed two songs in honor
> of his soulmate. One of them, titled, "She's My Wife," says:
>
> Have you seen her?
> She's the loveliness of spring.
> Have you seen her?
> She's the song that I sing.
> With her tender lips and her glowing eyes,
> Her smile is a wondrous thing.
> And her arms can make a man a king.
>
> You should know her.
> She's an angel from above.
> With a heart that's filled with love.
> Oh, you should know her; she is my life.
> She's my lady, she's my lover, she's my wife.
>
> Before leaving the National Labor Relations Board, Jim learned from a
> colleague that a decision of the NLRB made in 1960 declared that blind
> people did not enjoy the same rights as other workers when it came to
> organizing and being represented by a union. He highlighted this unfair
> segregation of the blind in a speech delivered at the NFB convention in
> 1969. Appearing with him were prominent members of the AFL-CIO (American
> Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) who agreed,
> after some tough questioning from President Jernigan, to help the blind
> change laws forbidding blind people from organizing.
> Work started that year to build a Sheltered Shop Division in the NFB
> and to find blind people who wanted to be represented by a union. Mr. Omvig
> warned that gaining the right to organize and be represented would take a
> long time. A request to organize had to be made and rejected, and an appeal
> would have to be made to the members of the National Labor Relations Board.
> It took more than half a decade, but in 1976 the NLRB reversed itself and
> said that blind people, like other workers, did indeed have the right to be
> represented by a union if they chose. This delightful news came the day
> before Jim was to attend the national convention in Los Angeles, so he
> hurriedly constructed and delivered a speech at the convention.
> The Federation knew from long years of experience that blind people
> were the victims of discrimination in the sale of insurance. Deciding to
> test the waters for themselves, Jim and Sharon went to the ticket counter
> prior to their trip to the Los Angeles convention, purchased insurance for
> Sharon in the amount of $350,000, and then tried to purchase insurance for
> Jim. To his surprise, Jim learned that he could purchase insurance, but the
> maximum amount he could buy was $20,000. The ticket agent could offer no
> reason for the rule, and arguments that Jim did not want to fly the plane
> but only ride on it were wasted. Rules were rules.
> On his return from Los Angeles Jim contacted the insurance
> commissioner for the state of Iowa, Herbert Anderson, and convinced him to
> accept a charge of unfair discrimination against the blind using the Iowa
> Unfair Trade Practices Act. The commissioner conducted a survey of all
> insurance companies doing business in Iowa, and the findings were so
> disturbing that he caused regulations to be created prohibiting
> discrimination against the blind by any company licensed to do business in
> the state. Mr. Anderson then took his findings to the National Association
> of Insurance Commissioners, and that organization passed a resolution
> condemning such discrimination. Just as it did with the Model White Cane
> Law, the national body of the Federation drafted a model insurance
> regulation and encouraged its enactment by state insurance regulators. Jim
> was extremely helpful in providing guidance to state affiliates and even
> testified before state insurance commissions in support of the prohibition.
> As Fredric Schroeder observes: "Today, we do not think much about the
> ability to purchase life insurance, and that is due in large part to Mr.
> Omvig. In the 70s and 80s, many blind people were denied life insurance on
> the assumption that blind people were more likely to die as a result of
> accidents. Mr. Omvig understood that assumptions about blind people were at
> the heart of lost opportunities: lack of access to a good education, lack
> of access to employment, lack of access to renting hotel rooms, and lack of
> access to buses and trains. In short, Mr. Omvig knew that discrimination
> was the major barrier facing blind people, and discrimination in all its
> forms had to be opposed."
> After nine wonderful years working at the Iowa Commission for the
> Blind, Jim accepted a Federation assignment and moved to Baltimore to work
> for the Social Security Administration. At the time about 150 blind people
> were working for the agency, but they were limited to answering telephones
> and fielding questions from the public. James Gashel, the head of the
> National Federation of the Blind's Washington office, was instrumental in
> convincing officials of the agency that the way to greater employment
> opportunities for the blind and avoiding a lawsuit from the Federation lay
> in hiring someone who could look at the procedures of the agency and figure
> out how to open other employment opportunities. It seemed to President
> Jernigan and Mr. Gashel that Jim would be the perfect fit, being a lawyer
> and having previous experience in the federal government.
> Jim was hired, and in 1981 the glass ceiling preventing blind people
> from accepting other positions within the agency was shattered. Nearly
> three years of work resulted in the following policy statement being read
> by the newly appointed director of the Social Security Administration:
> "Today, I wish to announce a clarification of the policy which affects
> employment and promotional opportunity for otherwise qualified partially
> and totally blind SSA employees. I have determined that there are no
> significant factors which make it impossible for blind persons to perform
> the full range of the GS 10 claims representative (CR) position. Therefore,
> it is SSA policy that otherwise qualified partially or totally blind
> individuals may be promoted to the journeyman GS 10 CR position within the
> standard CR position description . . . . I am committed not only to
> providing equal employment opportunity for blind persons, but also for all
> qualified handicapped individuals." This breakthrough was significant not
> only for the Social Security Administration but for other agencies in the
> federal government that had good, quality jobs blind people were capable of
> performing.
> In the late 1970s the National Federation of the Blind found that
> regulations which had been passed to assist the blind and otherwise
> physically disabled in air travel were being used to limit them. Many
> Federationists were arrested for insisting on their right to use and keep
> with them the canes that provided independent mobility. Some of us were
> asked to sit on blankets, the logic being that some handicapped people had
> accidents and soiled airline seats. Mr. Omvig was one of those who were
> arrested, and he and many others testified at hearings sponsored by the
> Federal Aviation Administration. As a result of those hearings blind people
> can now travel with their guide dogs and canes; there is no limit as to the
> number of blind passengers who can fly on an aircraft; there is no
> requirement that we sit on blankets or other items used in dealing with
> incontinence. We are prevented from sitting in exit rows, but the
> frustration we encounter with airlines today is far less than it was, and
> this is due in no small part to the work of Mr. Omvig's talent in writing,
> speaking, and developing important relationships with the policymakers of
> that era.
> After five years working for the Social Security Administration, Mr.
> Omvig once again returned to the pursuit of his dream to direct an
> orientation and training center. This took him to the state of Alaska in
> the fall of 1984. When he arrived, he found himself in charge of an agency
> that was housed in a World War II Quonset hut. Bleakness and despair were
> in evidence in the blind people seeking services. In January of 1985 Mr.
> Omvig went to the governor and the legislature, and the funds to run the
> agency were doubled. A new five-unit apartment building was purchased and
> remodeled to become a residential training center for blind adults. It
> contained sleeping rooms for twelve residents, one staff apartment, and
> administrative offices. Putting the building into service as a training
> center required asking the city of Anchorage to rezone the property, which
> they did. In the spring of 1986 governor Bill Sheffield dedicated the
> Alaska Center for Blind Adults. Though the willingness of state officials
> to purchase and remodel the center was commendable, they did not provide
> funds to furnish the building. To Mr. Omvig and other leaders of the NFB in
> Alaska fell the task of going to Lions Clubs with the request that they
> help in furnishing the center. Through the work of individual clubs and the
> statewide body, the center was furnished and began serving students.
> In 1987 Jim found himself troubled with bad health, and by the end of
> that year his doctor told him that he had no choice but to stop working. It
> would take several years for Jim to be diagnosed with a rare condition
> known as porphyria. Jim and Sharon moved to Arizona, and both became active
> in the affiliate, assisting significantly and advancing its legislative
> agenda for providing better services to blind people. He continued writing
> about the value of separate agencies for the blind and what proper training
> in those agencies could do, and, as he began to exert better control over
> his health, he was asked to visit many states to evaluate their programs
> and make recommendations for improvement.
> Although one of the goals of the Federation is to see that quality
> rehabilitation is available to all blind people regardless of where they
> live, the reality is that not all rehabilitation centers are equal, and not
> all of them are guided by the positive philosophy of the National
> Federation of the Blind. In 1992 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act were
> passed and signed into law. One of those amendments introduced the concept
> of informed choice into the act, providing in federal law the opportunity
> for recipients of rehabilitation services to decide where they would go to
> receive service. In theory this would mean that a person living in Montana
> could go to a rehabilitation center in Louisiana, or that a person living
> in Maryland could go to Colorado or Minnesota. Practically speaking,
> however, rights guaranteed in federal law have been slow to be implemented
> in the states, and they have strongly favored either rehabilitation centers
> that they fund or centers with which they have done business in the past.
> Implementing informed choice in practice has often meant finding people who
> want to go to a center outside their state, helping them to appeal the
> denial of the rehabilitation counselor, and getting and winning a fair
> hearing. Mr. Omvig has used his skills as a lawyer and an advocate in
> helping to draft these appeals and has traveled extensively to participate
> in these hearings.
> In all of the assignments he has been given as a Federation member,
> none was more difficult than the one that brought him to work to advance
> the rights of blind people working in sheltered workshops. President Maurer
> and other colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind believed we
> needed someone to work from the inside to make changes in the system that
> employed thousands of blind people at wages that were far below their
> productive capacity. Mr. Omvig was persuaded to apply for and was appointed
> by President George W. Bush to the President's Committee for Purchase from
> People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. He was initially appointed in
> 2003 and was reappointed in 2007. During his tenure Mr. Omvig served on a
> number of important subcommittees and task forces and was elected as vice
> chairman of the committee.
> When accepting his newest Federation assignment, Jim knew that there
> was little the National Federation of the Blind and what would come to be
> called the AbilityOne Commission had in common. Certainly each group had
> little respect for the other. What the organizations knew about one another
> they didn't like. The committee viewed the NFB as a group of malcontents
> and rabble-rousers who knew nothing about running businesses that employed
> the blind. The NFB believed the committee to be composed of self-serving
> agency directors who cared less about uplifting the blind people they were
> to serve than they did about increasing their own prestige and income. In
> the opinion of the Federation, these were people who may have come to do
> good but who stayed to do well. Their salaries and their place in the
> community came on the backs of hard-working blind people, who got little
> from their effort in money, benefits, or their productive work.
> When Mr. Omvig began his work with the committee, he followed a
> strategy that had evolved from a question Dr. Jernigan had once asked him
> and his fellow students: "What is the purpose of a speech?" The answer was
> "To get people to love you. If you can't get them to love you, they won't
> pay much attention to what you have to say." This became Jim's compass. He
> would not go to make war-soldiers on each side knew full well how that
> could be done. Instead, he would go as an ambassador, a man in search of
> friends, a human face that would go the first few steps in dispelling the
> myths about Federationists as unreasonable, militant, and foolish dreamers
> who believed in a future the blind could never have because they weren't
> capable enough to earn or retain it. Jim would build relationships based on
> common traits and would show that this commonality could be used as a
> foundation to build trust. On that trust he and his new-found friends could
> begin to make change that might one day revolutionize the sheltered
> workshop system where thousands of blind people worked and sometimes lived.
> But the Omvig strategy was not obvious to some of his Federation
> colleagues and disappointed more than a few of his friends. He had gone to
> the committee to represent the Federation, so where were his protests? Why
> wasn't he using his seat to make changes so long overdue? Because Jim was a
> part of the Federation family, some who loved and cared about him and who
> cared deeply about rights for shop workers came to him with their concerns.
> Although he appreciated the chance to clarify his strategy, to explain his
> understanding that most fundamental changes take time, and to show the
> incremental changes his participation was having, the idea that he might
> not be trusted hurt, and carrying out this work proved to be one of the
> hardest assignments he ever undertook. He gave nine years of his life to
> traveling, negotiating, and trying to change how those in the system felt
> about blind people.
> Even with his sadness at having his motives-or at least his strategy-
> questioned, Mr. Omvig is proud of the change in workshops he has witnessed
> over the past forty years and is proud to count among his friends people
> who once thought that he and his fellow Federation members were meatheads-
> people who were dead from the neck up. He is proud of the expanded
> employment opportunities that have resulted from his service on the
> committee, and he is proud to have played some small part in National
> Industries for the Blind paying at least the minimum wage in all of its
> sheltered shops having AbilityOne contracts and requiring that any agency
> doing business with it do likewise. In its most recent move, National
> Industries for the Blind has decided that no person affiliated with a
> workshop that holds a section 14(C) certificate can hold a position on its
> Board of Directors.
> Jim has been active in a number of other efforts to help in the
> education and rehabilitation of the blind. He has served on the board of
> directors of the Professional Development and Research Institute on
> Blindness at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. This is the
> first institute of its kind to implement the philosophy of the National
> Federation of the Blind in teacher-training programs. In addition to
> needing better teacher training, Jim and other Federation colleagues
> realized that the certifying authority for providing training to the blind
> often used vision as a requirement for certification. And so was born the
> National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB), whose purpose
> was to develop standards that did not discriminate against the blind and
> which also emphasized competence in teaching the skills that were most
> likely to lead to an education, a job, and a life equal to those enjoyed by
> sighted Americans. He also served proudly on this board and has also been
> instrumental in helping to develop the policies and standards of the body.
> Increasingly over the last two decades Mr. Omvig has turned his
> attention from writing articles to writing books. Freedom for the Blind:
> The Secret is Empowerment has won widespread praise in the field of
> rehabilitation, and many students credit this book with encouraging them to
> go into the field. The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words has
> also figured prominently in documenting the challenges and triumphs of what
> many have called "the miracle of Iowa," but Mr. Omvig concludes that there
> was no miracle there, only the application of good, solid attitudes and the
> willingness to believe in blind people.
> One of the things Mr. Omvig is most proud about is that his service
> extends well beyond organizations of and for the blind. He became the
> founding president of the Des Moines East Town Lions Club and was elected
> as president of the congregation of the Grant Park Christian Church in Des
> Moines. He was vice president of the Catonsville, Maryland, Lions Club and
> was a deacon (which came with the job of serving communion) and a member of
> the board of trustees of the Christian Temple in the Disciples of Christ
> Church in Baltimore. He has also served as the president of the
> International Air Crossroads Lions Club in Anchorage, Alaska.
> Of all the honors and awards Mr. Omvig has received, none has touched
> him more deeply than the Jacobus tenBroek award in 1986. He received this
> award for helping gain the right of blind shop workers to unionize, for
> leading the effort to eliminate insurance discrimination against the blind,
> for helping to end discrimination against blind air travelers, and for his
> writings on how to provide quality training to vocational rehabilitation
> clients.
> No single article can do justice to the life's work of Jim Omvig.
> Thankfully there are others who have committed his story to paper and
> places where he gives first-hand accounts of what it has been like to be
> one of the pioneers in the civil rights movement for the blind. I can think
> of no better way to conclude this article than with comments made by two of
> Mr. Omvig's finest friends and admirers. Not surprisingly both have given a
> significant amount of their energy to the field of rehabilitation, taking
> the improvement of it as one of their Federation responsibilities and
> assignments. About her friends, the Omvigs, Joanne Wilson says: "Jim and
> Sharon worked with a tireless passion to give back to the movement what
> they got from the NFB. They worked on systemic problems that would make the
> lives of the blind better, but they also spent hours and hours talking with
> individuals, both blind and sighted, over dinners in their home, at
> conventions, on a plane, in a discussion group, and anywhere they were-
> sharing the truth about blindness. They have truly dedicated their lives to
> giving back what they learned about blindness so others could have more
> enriched lives. Thanks for asking me to be a small part in giving them this
> tribute."
> And Fred Schroeder says: "When I think of Mr. Omvig, I think of
> kindness; I think of a man with tremendous ability and one blessed with the
> power of persuasion. Mr. Omvig knows how to lead, knows how to inspire
> others to do more than they believe they are capable of doing, and knows
> what it means to share the disappointment of exclusion and heartache that
> come from society's low expectations. He is not a man to live according to
> the assumptions of others; he is not content to build a life just for
> himself and his family; he is a man who gives all that he has on behalf of
> blind people. He is a role model, a mentor, a leader, and, most of all, a
> friend."
> ----------
> 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.
> ----------
> The Blind in the World: From Paternalism to Self-Determination
> by Fredric K. Schroeder
>
> From the Editor: In 2016 the General Assembly of the World Blind
> Union will meet in the United States of America. This meeting will be
> hosted by the National Federation of the Blind and will take place in late
> August. So that Federationists and other readers of the Braille Monitor
> know about and understand the reason for this meeting, we intend to run
> several articles about the World Blind Union, starting here with its
> history as featured in chapter seven of the book entitled Building the
> Lives We Want, an e-book detailing the first seventy-five years of the
> National Federation of the Blind. Here is what Dr. Schroeder wrote:
>
> "Could not blind persons from Asia and Africa speak for the
> blind of their countries? . . . Four-fifths of [the estimated blind
> population] lived in rural areas, but that need not preclude their
> leaders from attending a world conference to discuss, compare, and
> counsel. But did they have leaders, I wondered. That was the pivotal
> question, and as yet it was one I could not answer."
> - Isabelle Grant, 1959[?]
>
> The history of the blind throughout the world is bleak. It has been
> characterized by low expectations, paternalism, poverty, and isolation. It
> is also the story of human resilience and the unquenchable drive for
> freedom. It is the story of marginalized people rejecting the role defined
> for them by society and demonstrating their ability, drive, and
> determination to live and work as others.
> When blind people appear in ancient literature, they are usually
> described as beggars, helpless beings who seek alms from passersby. During
> the Middle Ages in Western Europe, the church began to provide for the
> blind by establishing homes, called hospitals, where the blind and other
> indigent people could live. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
> local governments in Europe and the United States took over the task of
> creating institutions to educate, care for, and employ the blind. Work was
> poorly paid and rudimentary, and it was completely controlled by private or
> public agencies (see Chapter One).
> Early in the twentieth century, blind people in the United States
> began to form local and statewide organizations to fight for better working
> conditions and opportunities. Seven state organizations formed the nucleus
> of the National Federation of the Blind in 1940 (see Chapters Two and
> Three).
> The service agencies for the blind did not welcome the emergence of
> representative organizations of blind people. They regarded blind people to
> be as helpless as two-year-old children, incapable of taking charge of
> their lives and exploring the extent of their abilities. They viewed the
> Federation as little more than a forum for the ungrateful and maladjusted.
> The NFB threatened the institutions established to govern blind people's
> lives.
>
> The World Council on Welfare of the Blind
>
> In 1949, representatives from blindness agencies throughout the world
> gathered in Rome to establish the World Council on the Welfare of the Blind
> (WCWB). As its founding president the nascent organization elected Colonel
> Edwin Albert Baker. At that time, Colonel Baker was one of the world's best-
> known blind leaders, heading the Canadian National Institute for the Blind
> (CNIB).
> During its early years the WCWB was dominated by powerful service
> agencies for the blind: the CNIB, the American Foundation for the Blind
> (AFB), and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) of the United
> Kingdom. Agencies for the blind had total control over the organization.
> The few existing organizations of blind people were viewed with suspicion
> and hostility. Nevertheless, the WCWB claimed to represent not only the
> governmental and private agencies, but also blind people themselves.
> Despite the agency domination, the NFB felt somewhat hopeful about
> the WCWB. The fledgling WCWB was headed by a blind person, Colonel Baker.
> Perhaps, under his leadership, the new organization might work to improve
> the condition of the blind of the world. In a letter dated July 17, 1952,
> NFB President Jacobus tenBroek advised the leadership of the WCWB that on
> July 15, 1952, at its national convention in Nashville, Tennessee, the
> Federation's membership had voted to join the World Council for the Welfare
> of the Blind.[?]
> It did not take long before the Federation realized that the WCWB
> would not open the way to a progressive future for the blind. It would
> simply further paternalism and agency control. From today's perspective,
> words such as subjection, domination, and control in regard to agencies for
> the blind may seem exaggerated. The quotes below convey the thinking of
> those times in all of its chilling reality.
> In the mid-1950s a well-known and respected educator of the blind
> wrote, "With many persons there was an expectation in the establishment of
> the early schools that the blind in general would thereby be rendered
> capable of earning their own support, a view that even at the present is
> shared in some quarters. It would have been much better if such a hope had
> never been entertained or, if it had existed, in a greatly modified
> form."[?] At about the same time, the director of a prominent
> rehabilitation agency wrote, "After he is once trained and placed, the
> average disabled person can fend for himself. In the case of the blind, it
> has been found necessary to set up a special state service agency which
> will supply them not only rehabilitation training but other services for
> the rest of their lives. The agencies keep in constant contact with them as
> long as they live. So the blind are unique among the handicapped in that,
> no matter how well-adjusted, trained, and placed, they require lifelong
> supervision by the agencies."[?] The agencies did not view their role as
> one of supporting the move of the blind toward full and equal
> participation; the idea of protecting and guiding the blind was
> unquestioned and universal. It was assumed that the blind needed care, and
> even more important, needed direction, supervision, and control. They had
> no hope of integration and certainly no hope of equality.
> In the United States, the struggle for self-expression was
> contentious and bitter, and its success was by no means assured. (See
> "Telling Our Story through Legislation in Washington.") Yet many joined the
> struggle, and it was clear that the movement needed to spread across the
> world. If the blind of the world were to achieve true independence, the
> effort must be led by blind people themselves.
> Never a truly representative organization, the WCWB sought to
> suppress the voice of the blind on the international stage. In 1962 the
> WCWB president used a sleight-of-hand parliamentary maneuver to strip the
> National Federation of the Blind of its seat on the Executive Committee.
> Then Federation President Perry Sundquist advised the WCWB that its ongoing
> attempts to suppress the blind were awakening a growing worldwide sentiment
> that a new and truly representative international organization of the blind
> was needed. The will of blind people to achieve full integration could not
> be extinguished. There was no money to build representative organizations
> of the blind throughout the world, and there were few individuals to help;
> but the need was great, and the spirit of the blind was unquenchable.
> In 1959, Dr. Isabelle Grant, a talented blind teacher from
> California, launched a one-woman crusade to expand education and training
> for blind people internationally. On a one-year sabbatical from her
> teaching position, she visited twenty-three countries to study the
> education and rehabilitation of blind children. She understood the
> importance of representative organizations of the blind and worked
> tirelessly to spread the Federation message of self-determination and hope.
> Dr. Grant's views on the education of blind children were nothing
> short of revolutionary. At that time, nearly all blind children in the
> United States were educated in special schools for the blind. In the United
> States and throughout the world, Dr. Grant was an early proponent of
> integrated education. If blind children were educated alongside their
> sighted peers, she believed that they could learn to compete in an
> integrated world.
> Dr. Grant's views on education fit well with her interest in
> expanding opportunities for the blind worldwide. Poor countries had no
> money to build special schools for the blind. Integration (later to be
> known as mainstreaming and eventually as full inclusion) offered a cost-
> effective way of educating the blind. The resources were meager and the
> obstacles overwhelming, but Dr. Grant did what she could to make a
> difference. Her example illustrates the power of blind people working
> together to change their own condition.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: A group of blind Nigerians stands beside a bus. On the side
> of the bus is the name Nigerian Association of the Blind.]
> An International Voice
>
> The impact of the WCWB was insignificant. From its inception, it had
> lacked the will and the structure to represent the interests of blind
> people. At the 1964 convention of the National Federation of the Blind in
> Phoenix, Arizona, the problem was discussed in detail. As President
> Sundquist had predicted, the WCWB's efforts to suppress the voice of the
> blind only made the blind more determined to govern their own lives. Later
> that summer, in New York, the International Federation of the Blind (IFB)
> was born. Dr. tenBroek became its first president, and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan
> drafted its constitution.
> The IFB had a promising beginning. Organizations of the blind began
> to emerge throughout the world, and a convention was planned for 1969 in
> Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. But in 1968 Dr. tenBroek died. He had been the
> driving force behind the IFB. After his death the IFB languished, along
> with many of the hopes and dreams of blind people throughout the world. By
> the early 1980s it seemed clear that the IFB would fade away unless it
> joined with the WCWB. Once again there would be one international
> organization to speak for blind people and for the agencies that served
> them.
> In 1984 a joint meeting of the IFB and WCWB was held to merge the two
> organizations, leading to the creation of the World Blind Union (WBU). The
> founding general assembly of the WBU met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in
> October 1984. Since then, general assemblies have been held once every four
> years: Madrid, 1988; Cairo, 1992; Toronto, 1996; Melbourne, 2000; Cape
> Town, 2004; Geneva, 2008; and Bangkok, 2012. The next worldwide general
> assembly will take place in 2016 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: During the General Assembly meeting of the World Blind
> Union in Cairo in 1992, several NFB leaders and staff go for a camel ride
> in the desert. Left to right can be seen Kenneth Jernigan, Mary Ellen
> Jernigan, Patricia Miller, Donald Capps, and Betty Capps. Behind Mrs.
> Capps, Marc Maurer shares a camel with Pat Maurer.]
>
> The WBU is organized into seven regions: North America/Caribbean,
> Africa, Asia, East Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle
> East. Each region has a president and executive committee to coordinate the
> work of its member organizations. To ensure the representative nature of
> the WBU, the president, both vice presidents, and the secretary general
> must all be blind people. The only exception among the executive offices is
> the position of treasurer, which on occasion has been filled by a sighted
> person.
> From the outset, the NFB was an influential force in the WBU. The
> Federation's long-term leader, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, understood that, if
> the WBU was to succeed and make a real difference in the lives of the
> blind, organizations of the blind must lead the way. Dr. Jernigan became a
> powerful political and philosophical force within the WBU. By 1987, he had
> become president of the North America/Caribbean Region, a position he held
> until the fall of 1997 when ill health forced him to resign. During his
> tenure, Dr. Jernigan advanced the foundational principle that the blind
> must be the ones to lead the blind. Others can and do help, but it is up to
> the blind themselves to determine their own future. Dr. Jernigan understood
> that self-determination was not simply a good idea, but a foundational and
> enduring truth. The spirit and experience of the NFB has been critical to
> the WBU. The NFB's positive and progressive influence continued, even after
> Dr. Jernigan no longer held a leadership position.
>
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer and Mary Ellen Jernigan visit the Great Wall of
> China during a WBU meeting in Beijing.]
> Dr. Marc Maurer, who succeeded Kenneth Jernigan as president of the
> NFB, recognized the need for the Federation to remain active in the affairs
> of the blind of the world. In his 2004 Presidential Report, Dr. Maurer
> said,
>
> The National Federation of the Blind is an active participant in
> the World Blind Union. For ten years Dr. Jernigan served as president
> of the North America/Caribbean Region, and I have also held that
> office. The World Blind Union brings together agencies for the blind
> and organizations of the blind. Because within the entities that make
> up the organization there are strikingly different approaches to the
> subject of blindness, this amalgamation of groups sometimes creates
> frustration. However, we learn much about programming for the blind
> from throughout the world, and we have an opportunity for interaction
> with leaders of the blind in other countries.[?]
>
> The NFB stands as a beacon of hope for the blind of the world, and
> the Federation is a living testament to the power of collective action. At
> the opening session of the WBU's 2008 Quadrennial General Assembly in
> Geneva, Switzerland, NFB President Marc Maurer gave the keynote address,
> entitled "Breaking the Mold: The Power of the Unpredictable." He said, in
> part,
>
> The beginning of the possession of power is the assertion that
> it belongs to us. I want us to have power. Furthermore, in my own
> country I face challenges that cannot be solved within the borders of
> my own nation. I need the cooperation and the power of others around
> the world to bring equality to the blind of the United States, and I
> believe that those of us in the United States can help bring equality
> to the blind of the world.[?]
>
> Today the WBU is widely recognized as an effective international
> advocacy organization. It represents 285 million blind and partially
> sighted people in 190 member nations. The WBU has consultancy status as a
> nongovernmental organization (NGO) with the United Nations.
> The WBU is the international voice of the blind, speaking to national
> governments and a wide range of United Nations agencies. It works to
> address the human and civil rights of the blind. It brings organizations of
> blind people together with service organizations to work on issues
> affecting the quality of life for blind people. In its relatively brief
> history, it already has made a difference.
>
> The WBU at Work
>
> In 2008 the international Free Matter for the Blind mailing privilege
> came up for review by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an agency of the
> United Nations. The WBU launched an effort not only to preserve the Free
> Matter privilege, but to broaden its scope. Since Free Mailing was
> established in the 1950s, the exemption applied only to "literature for the
> blind," covering little more than Braille books. The WBU pushed to expand
> the international mailing privilege to include items such as talking
> watches, digital audio equipment, and other devices for the blind.
> At the October 2012 UPU Congress in Qatar, the WBU succeeded in
> pushing through changes that would modernize the international mailing
> privilege for the blind. Accordingly, the UPU amended the international
> convention that governs the exchange of international mail. Article 7
> defines the "Exemption from postal charges" for the blind. The amended
> article reads in part, "3.1 Any item for the blind sent to or by an
> organization for the blind or sent to or by a blind person shall be exempt
> from all postal charges."[?]
> In addition, the WBU has worked to secure the rights of blind people
> and others with disabilities. The WBU was actively engaged in crafting
> language for inclusion in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
> Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first human rights charter of the
> twenty-first century. At the time the treaty language was being negotiated,
> there was a strong move to keep all references in the treaty general to
> persons with disabilities and to refrain from identifying any particular
> disability group or services that applied to a specific disability type.
> Many delegates objected to any mention of blindness, Braille, or any
> service specific to blind people. The WBU pushed hard on these issues and
> was successful in getting language included that recognized Braille by
> name. Article 2 (Definitions) of the Convention reads,
>
> For the purposes of the present Convention: 'Communication'
> includes languages, display of text, Braille, tactile communication,
> large print, accessible multimedia, as well as written, audio, plain-
> language, human-reader and augmentative and alternative modes, means
> and formats of communication, including accessible information and
> communication technology.
>
> Through the efforts of the WBU, Braille is also referenced in Article
> 9, Accessibility; Article 21, Freedom of Expression and Opinion, and Access
> to Information; and in Article 24, Education.
> The mere mention of Braille may not in and of itself appear to be
> significant. Indeed it may be viewed as simply symbolic or hortatory, with
> no real meaning or impact. Nevertheless, Article 24 on Education is an
> example of the true impact of the work of the WBU. Initially, the delegates
> insisted on integration as an absolute principle in the Convention. Yet for
> many blind children, schools for the blind remain the best, and in some
> cases, the only option for attaining an education. Through the efforts of
> the WBU and of deaf and deaf-blind advocates, the language of the
> Convention was modified. Language was removed that would have established
> an absolute requirement that all children with disabilities be educated in
> integrated settings. In its place, the language of the treaty now says that
> no child should, by virtue of disability, be excluded from integration.
> That compromise left the door open for specialized training. Specifically,
> Article 24, Section 3c, states:
>
> Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular
> children, who are blind, deaf or deafblind, is delivered in the most
> appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the
> individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social
> development.[?]
>
> On Thursday, June 27, 2013, a diplomatic conference of the World
> Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the Marrakech Treaty to
> Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually
> Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. The Marrakech Treaty includes two
> major provisions. First, it calls on nations to produce more books for the
> blind; and second, it authorizes nations to share accessible books across
> national borders.
> For many years United States law has allowed books to be produced in
> Braille and other accessible formats without first having to obtain the
> permission of the copyright holder. This authority, known as the Chafee
> Amendment, has been the law since the late 1990s, and it has worked very
> well.
> As of 2015, fifty-seven nations around the world have copyright laws
> similar to the US Chafee Amendment. The Marrakech Treaty will expand this
> authority. As each WIPO member nation ratifies the book treaty for the
> blind, it agrees to change its national copyright law to permit books to be
> produced in accessible formats without having to seek the prior permission
> of the copyright holder. This will greatly increase the production of
> accessible works around the world. But that is only the first step in
> ending what many have called the "book famine." For the first time, the
> Marrakech Treaty allows WIPO member states to share copies of accessible
> works across national borders.
> At present, the WBU, together with the NFB, is working to address the
> danger electric and hybrid electric vehicles pose to all pedestrians, and
> in particular to blind people traveling the streets and byways of the
> world. The WBU is working with the United Nations Economic Commission for
> Europe (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)
> to develop international standards to require electric and hybrid electric
> vehicles to emit a minimum alert sound. The international effort will build
> on the work undertaken in the United States. In 2010, the NFB led an effort
> to persuade the United States Congress to adopt legislation mandating a
> minimum sound standard for hybrid, electric, and other quiet vehicles. The
> US law, known as the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, is the first, and
> so far, the only national legislation mandating a safe level of sound to be
> made by these very quiet cars.
>
> Looking to the Future
>
> The WBU's many successes highlight the critical importance of an
> international organization to address the chronic and emerging barriers to
> social and economic participation faced by blind people throughout the
> world. The WBU works on increasing access to literacy, education, and
> employment, all well-known, pervasive, and persistent barriers to full
> participation. It is also addressing new challenges brought about by
> advancing technology. Most important, the WBU is a vehicle for collective
> action.
> The continued success of the WBU will depend on the degree to which
> it values and retains its representative nature. The service agencies must
> never seek to overshadow the rights and aspirations of the blind
> themselves. This is not to disparage the agencies for the blind; it is not
> to ascribe dire motives, hubris, and ill will. Rather, it is a recognition
> that the progress of the blind is a direct outgrowth of the will and
> determination of extraordinary blind people, people who faced
> discrimination and the damage of low expectations but managed to forge new
> frontiers, beyond the established norms of the day.
> The WBU is a forum, an organization, a means of advancing the
> integration of the blind. It helps to continue the movement of the blind
> toward full equality. Progress will come, quickly or slowly, but it will
> come because the will and spirit of blind people cannot be forever
> suppressed by the misunderstanding of others. The challenge of the WBU is
> our individual and collective challenge. If we give of ourselves and
> encourage and support one another, we will replace the heartache of
> nonparticipation with hope and the realization of our dreams.
> The history of the blind is bleak, but our future is bright. We can
> work together to shape the future for ourselves. Whenever one of us
> succeeds, whenever one of us refuses to accept a life of diminished
> opportunity, our collective future is forever changed. Together we can and
> will hasten society's recognition of our ability to live and work as
> others.
>
> For Further Information
>
> "Withdrawal from International Federation of the Blind." (1984) Braille
> Monitor, November. Internet Archive (2010)
>
> Jernigan, Kenneth. (1988) "North American/Caribbean Regional Report,"
> Braille Monitor, November.
> <https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm88/brlm8811.htm#14>
>
> tenBroek, Jacobus. (1964) "The Parliament of Man: The Federation of the
> World." Banquet Speech, National Federation of the Blind National
> Convention, Phoenix, AZ. Audio, MP3 format.
> <https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Audio/BanqSpeech/bsp-1964.mp3>
> ----------
>
> NAC: WHAT PRICE ACCREDITATION
> A Report to National Federation of the Blind Members
> on COMSTAC and NAC
> by Kenneth Jernigan, President
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> From the Editor: In the early 1960s the National Accreditation
> Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped was formed,
> its major purpose being to thwart the legitimate concerns of consumers by
> waving the banner of accreditation in defense of agencies providing poor
> service to the blind. The battles between NAC and the Federation are
> legendary, but to many new Federationists, the reason for NAC's creation
> and why we fought its attempts to thwart the will of the organized blind
> are the stuff of myth and history, lacking any reality or the need for
> action today. The assumption has been that NAC is dead, and the threat is
> gone. Would that it were so, but it is not. The state agency for the blind
> in Florida requires that any agency for the blind there be accredited by
> NAC in order to use state money to provide services to blind Floridians.
> The consortium that binds together small service providers for the blind in
> the state of Pennsylvania also strongly encourages NAC accreditation. NAC
> is actively encouraging guide dog training schools to affiliate with it,
> and one prominent school has unfortunately lent its name and quality
> services to an accrediting body which is widely frowned upon by involved
> and informed blind people.
> It seems time that we reeducate ourselves about NAC and prepare once
> again to demand that any accreditation be meaningful and that it involve
> the voice of the organized blind. Following is a speech delivered by Dr.
> Kenneth Jernigan in 1971 when he was the president of the National
> Federation of the Blind and a member of the NAC board. This speech has
> appeared in the pages of the Braille Monitor at least one other time, that
> being in 1991, and here is the way Dr. Jernigan introduced it when he was
> serving as the editor of this publication.
> Kenneth Jernigan's Headnote: I delivered this address at the 1971
> convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Houston. NAC's
> president and executive director had come to discuss what NAC was doing and
> why. My remarks were meant to set the tone for the debate. In the context
> of NAC's current maneuvering I think this 1971 analysis is still pertinent.
> Here it is:
>
> When the Commission on Standards and Accreditation on Services for
> the Blind (COMSTAC) and its successor organization, the National
> Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Impaired
> (NAC), came into being during the 1960s, the leaders of the organized blind
> movement sounded the alarm. It was pointed out that the American
> Association of Workers for the Blind had unsuccessfully tried, during the
> 1950s, to gain control of the field of work for the blind by instituting
> what it called a "seal of good practices." Of the several hundred agencies
> and organizations in this country doing work with the blind only twenty or
> thirty ever applied for and received this "seal." Several of those which
> did were not regarded by the blind as either very effective or very
> progressive. As the decade of the '60s approached, the proponents of rigid
> agency control apparently decided to change tactics. The American
> Foundation for the Blind and certain other leading agency officials adopted
> the idea of establishing a so-called "independent" accrediting system for
> all groups doing work with the blind. Although individual blind persons who
> were agency officials were involved in the establishment and development of
> COMSTAC, the blind as a group were not consulted-that is, the
> representative organizations of the blind were not given a voice, except
> occasionally as a matter of tokenism. Thus, the consumers of the services
> were not heard in any meaningful way, and they had no part in developing or
> promulgating the standards to govern the agencies established to give them
> assistance.
> Profiting by the earlier failure of the AAWB [American Association of
> Workers for the Blind] "seal of good practices" experiment, the authors of
> COMSTAC built more carefully. The American Foundation for the Blind
> appointed an "independent" commission-the Commission on Standards and
> Accreditation for Services for the Blind (COMSTAC). The full-time staff
> consultant for COMSTAC was a staff member of the AFB, on loan to the group,
> purely as a means of demonstrating the Foundation's concern with the
> improvement of services for the blind. To add respectability, people of
> prestige outside of the field of work with the blind were placed on the
> commission-public officials, business executives, the dean of the Temple
> Law School, etc. These were people of good will and integrity, but they
> were not knowledgeable concerning the problems of blindness. Obviously they
> took their tone and orientation from the Foundation appointees on COMSTAC.
> All of these appointees, it must be borne in mind, were high-ranking
> officials doing work with the blind. Not one of them represented the blind
> themselves. Not one of them came from a membership organization of blind
> persons.
> As its work developed, COMSTAC divided into subcommittees, involving
> hundreds of people throughout the country, since the subcommittees further
> subdivided into smaller groups. Again, the pattern was followed. The
> subcommittees, or the subcommittees of the subcommittees, had, in every
> instance, at least one of the COMSTAC agency officials as a member, plus
> people of prestige and ordinary rank and file agency workers or board
> members. In fact, at the sub-subcommittee level a few members of the
> organized blind movement were even added.
> The American Foundation for the Blind and COMSTAC were later to
> proclaim with pride that they had sought and achieved a broad consensus
> throughout the field of work with the blind. However, the method of
> arriving at that consensus was, to say the least, novel. At Denver in the
> summer of 1965, for instance, the AAWB convention was largely taken up with
> a discussion of the COMSTAC standards-to gather opinions and achieve
> consensus, it was said. Only the discussion leaders had copies of the
> standards (there had been a delay in mimeographing), and any touchy point
> which was raised was answered either by the statement that it was covered
> somewhere else in the COMSTAC standards or that another group was
> discussing that matter and it was not properly the concern of the group in
> which it had been raised.
> Home teachers from throughout the country were present and were
> considering the standards affecting their specialty. The overwhelming
> majority apparently disagreed with a particular item in the COMSTAC
> document and suggested that a vote be taken to determine the sentiments of
> the group. They were informed by the discussion leader that a vote
> certainly would not be taken but that their views would be reported to
> COMSTAC, which had the sole responsibility for deciding such matters.
> Throughout the summer and fall of 1965 promises were repeatedly made
> that copies of the proposed COMSTAC standards would be made available. They
> were forthcoming, hundreds of pages of them-three days prior to the final
> conference in New York City, which brought together hundreds of agency
> representatives for the announced purpose of arriving at a final consensus.
> Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and I attended that conference. Again, the democracy
> and fair play with which it was conducted were novel. One had to indicate
> in writing ahead of time which particular group discussion he would like to
> attend. There was no assurance that his choice would be honored. He might
> be assigned to another group. He could not move from group to group at all.
> If he had not received a special invitation, he could not attend the
> meetings. COMSTAC appointees were stationed at the door to check
> credentials, and I personally witnessed the turning away of one agency
> director who had been critical of COMSTAC.
> It is no wonder that the blind people of the country felt
> apprehensive. What type of standards were likely to emerge from a
> commission so appointed and so conducted? Not only the blind but also many
> of the agencies expressed concern. Many felt that the AFB and federal
> rehabilitation officials (unwittingly aided by people of prestige in the
> broader community) would impose a system of rigid controls-which would
> stifle initiative, foster domination, and take the emphasis off of real
> service and place it on bureaucracy, red tape, and professional jargon. It
> was further felt that what purported to begin as a voluntary system would
> (once firmly established) become mandatory. The AFB and other proponents of
> COMSTAC and its successor organization, NAC, vigorously denied these
> assertions. COMSTAC and NAC were to be truly independent. Their very
> watchword was to be objectivity. They were to be the means of improving
> services to blind people throughout the country and the vehicle for
> progressive thought and constructive change.
> Readers of the Braille Monitor will remember that from 1965 through
> 1968 a detailed analysis was made of the COMSTAC and NAC reports and
> activities. The fact that the Federation has not called attention in recent
> months to COMSTAC and NAC should not lead the blind to believe that the
> threat has passed or the situation improved. Quite the contrary is the
> case.
> The question of NAC's independence, for example, is no longer a
> matter for serious debate. The Scriptures tell us that "where a man's
> treasure is, there will his heart be also." In an official NAC document
> entitled "Budget Comparison-1968 and 1969," dated April 15, 1968, the
> following items appear.
> "Total approved budget calendar year 1968, $154,034; total projected
> calendar year 1969, $154,000. Estimated income 1968: grant from American
> Foundation for the Blind $70,000; grant from Department of Health,
> Education, and Welfare $75,000. Estimated income 1969: grant from American
> Foundation for the Blind $70,000; grant from Department of Health,
> Education, and Welfare $70,000."
> Today (in 1971) the overwhelming majority of NAC's funds still come
> from HEW and the American Foundation for the Blind. Many of the NAC
> meetings are held at the AFB building in New York, and the executive
> director of NAC is a former Foundation staff member, the same one who was
> on "loan" to COMSTAC. When the first annual NAC awards were given, in 1970,
> it may be of significance that two recipients were named: Mr. Jansen Noyes,
> President of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for the
> Blind; and Miss Mary Switzer, the long-time head of rehabilitation in the
> federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Even more to the
> point may be Miss Switzer's comments upon that occasion as reported in the
> NAC minutes of April 24, 1970: "She predicted that difficult times might
> lie ahead if agencies accept the idea of standards but do nothing about
> them. The expending or withholding of public money can provide the
> incentive that is needed."
> Thus spoke Miss Switzer, confirming what Federation leaders had
> predicted and COMSTAC spokesmen had denied a decade ago. The full meaning
> of Miss Switzer's statement was spelled out by Alexander Handel, Executive
> Director of NAC, as reported in the NAC minutes of April 25, 1970: "Mr.
> Handel reported a new and important step in encouraging accreditation. The
> Council of State Administrators has passed a resolution that by July 1,
> 1974, state rehabilitation agencies will require that agencies from which
> they purchase services be accredited." The use of the word "encouraging" in
> this context is almost reminiscent of George Orwell's double-think and new-
> speak of 1984-only thirteen years away, at that. Perhaps sooner. The
> "encouraging" of agencies to seek accreditation from NAC will probably be
> called by some by the ugly name of blackmail. The pressure for conformity
> and the concentration of power could well be the most serious threat to
> good programs for the blind in the decade ahead.
> Federationists who attended the 1966 Louisville convention will
> remember that a report on COMSTAC and NAC was given at that time. I had
> been officially asked to serve on the NAC board. The offer was, of course,
> tokenism of the most blatant sort; and the question was whether to accept,
> leaving the Federation open to the charge of approving NAC actions, or to
> reject, exposing us to the charge of non-cooperation and leaving us with no
> means of observing and getting information. Federationists will remember
> that it was decided that I should accept the invitation. Thus, I have been
> a member of the NAC board since its inception. In the spring of 1970 I was
> elected to another three-year term. There are more than thirty NAC board
> members, of whom I am one.
> While expressing my minority views, I have tried to be personally
> congenial and friendly with the NAC board members. Nevertheless, tokenism
> remains tokenism. The other members of the board not only seemed
> unconcerned with but unaware of the non-representative character of NAC. It
> is as if General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, and American Motors should set up
> a council and put six or seven officials from each of their companies on
> its board and then ask the UAW to contribute a single representative. What
> would the unions do in such a situation? What would racial minorities do if
> their representative organizations were offered such tokenism in the
> establishment and promulgation of standards affecting their lives? I think
> we know what they would do. They would take both political and court
> action, and they would instigate mass demonstrations. Perhaps the blind
> should take a leaf from the same book. We cannot and should not exhibit
> endless patience. We cannot and should not forever tolerate the
> intolerable. I continue to sit on the NAC board, but I often wonder why. It
> does not discuss the real problems which face the blind today or the
> methods of solving those problems. In fact, NAC itself may well be more a
> part of the problem than the solution. I repeat that tokenism by any other
> name is still tokenism. In May of 1969, for instance, I received a document
> from NAC entitled "Statement of Understanding Among National Accreditation
> Council, National Industries for the Blind and the General Council of
> Workshops for the Blind." This document was sent to all NAC board members
> with the request that they vote to approve or disapprove it. It contained
> six points, of which one and five are particularly pertinent. They are as
> follows: "1. By June 30, 1970, all NIB affiliated shops shall have either:
> a. applied to NAC for accreditation and submitted a self-study guide (or)
> b. applied to the General Council for a Certificate of Affiliation with NIB
> and submitted a self-study guide. 5. Certificates of Affiliation with NIB
> entitle shops to membership in the General Council and to access through
> NIB to: a. Government business allocated by NIB, b. Commercial business
> allocated by NIB, c. Consulting services of NIB, d. Any and all other
> benefits of NIB affiliation." In other words if a workshop for the blind
> wishes any contracts from the federal government, it had better get into
> line and "volunteer" for accreditation by NAC. No pressure, of course,
> merely a system of "voluntary accreditation!" As you might expect, I voted
> no on the NIB agreement. Along with my ballot, I sent the following
> comments:
> "I do not approve this statement because I do not believe government
> contracts and other benefits to workshops should be conditioned upon their
> accreditation by NAC. Rather, receipt of government contracts and other
> benefits should depend upon the quality of performance of the workshop in
> question. Does the shop pay at least a minimum wage? Do its workers have
> the rights associated with collective bargaining? What sort of image of
> blindness does it present to the public?
> "Prior to NAC (in the days of COMSTAC) many of us said that NAC would
> become a vehicle for blackmail-dressed out nicely, of course, in
> professional jargon. It would appear that the prophecy is beginning to come
> true, earlier assurances to the contrary notwithstanding."
> As I say, I voted no. What do you suppose the final tally of the
> ballots indicated? Twenty-seven yes votes and one no vote. How different
> the results might have been if there had been equal representation of the
> blind themselves and the agencies! Yes, tokenism is still tokenism.
> In order that my position cannot be twisted or misinterpreted I would
> like to say that the quarrel is not with the concept of accreditation
> itself. Rather, we object to what is being done in the name of
> accreditation. Proper accreditation by a properly accredited group is a
> constructive thing. What NAC is doing is something else altogether.
> There is, of course, not time here to go into the details of all of
> the standards originally developed by COMSTAC and now being fostered by
> NAC, but a brief sample is sufficient to make the point. Federationists
> will remember that the Braille Monitor for February, 1966, carried an
> analysis of the COMSTAC standards on physical facilities. That analysis
> said in part:
> "The standards [on physical facilities] are perhaps notable chiefly
> in that they are so vague and minimal as to be equally applicable to office
> buildings, nursing homes, or universities by the simple substitution of the
> names of these other facilities...."
> Perhaps a brief run-down of the standards themselves would serve as
> the best and most complete illustration (headings theirs).
>
> 1. Overall Suitability-The total facility is constructed to best serve
> the needs of the particular agency. It will adequately serve everyone
> concerned. It will meet the requirements of its governing body, the
> Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the city building
> code. The physical facilities will be helpful to the program.
> 2. Location-The facility is located where it can easily be reached by
> staff, clients, and others who need to use it. The facility should be
> close to shopping and other community interests. The location is
> reasonably safe, with hazards minimized.
> 3. Grounds-The grounds will be large enough to allow for future
> expansion. They will be pleasant ("free of undue nuisances and
> hazards,"), with parking areas and roadways. Signs will be posted to
> help people locate the proper areas.
> 4. Activity Area-The layout of the facility will be efficient. The
> facility will be designed for the planned activities, will be large
> enough and well organized (reception rooms next to entries, work areas
> together, etc.). Sufficient maintenance will be provided for.
> 5. Privacy-People will have as much privacy as individual cases call for.
> Confidentiality will be maintained.
> 6. Health and Safety-The health and safety codes of the community will be
> met. Sufficient heat and light will be provided. Sanitary conditions
> will be as good as possible. Suitable entries will be provided for
> wheelchairs, etc. Safety features will be related to the level of
> competence of the occupants, the activities undertaken, and the
> equipment used. Adequate first aid facilities are provided.
> 7. Fire and Disaster Protection-All buildings will be so designed and
> equipped as to minimize the danger of fire. The buildings will be
> inspected by local authorities and/or independent authorities and
> records of inspection kept. Smoking areas are clearly specified.
> Proper protection shall be provided the occupants of the facility to
> minimize danger should fire or disaster occur. Suitable fire
> extinguishers will be provided. Fire alarms will be installed as to be
> heard throughout the facility. Fire drills will be held irregularly.
> Special provisions will be made for fire warnings to deaf-blind.
> 8. Maintenance-"The condition of the physical facility gives evidence of
> planful and effective maintenance and housekeeping."
> 9. Remodeling-When remodeling is undertaken, it should be to best suit
> the needs of the program.
>
> The preceding is an inclusive summary! One can imagine the breadth of
> interpretation that can result from application of these standards. One can
> also imagine the range of individual whim and axe-grinding, not to say
> blackmail and favoritism, that can enter into the proposed accreditation of
> agencies for the blind based on such vague and capricious requirements. The
> danger to be anticipated is the possibility of varying application of
> standards to friends and foes when "accrediting" agencies....
> One is tempted to dismiss this entire report of "Standards for
> Physical Facilities" with the single word, "Blah!" But more intensive study
> indicates otherwise. Tucked away among the platitudes and the generalities
> are the age-old misconceptions and stereotypes.
> What, for instance, is meant by the requirement that a facility for
> the blind be located near to shopping and other community interests, and
> that it be in a location reasonably safe, with hazards minimized? The exact
> words of the committee are, "Where undue hazards cannot be avoided, proper
> measures are instituted to assure the safety of all persons coming to the
> agency. (For example, where an agency is on a street with heavy traffic, a
> light or crosswalk or other means is available for safe crossing by blind
> persons.)"
> If this standard is simply meant to express the general pious
> platitude that everybody ought to be as safe as possible, then what a
> farcical and pathetic waste of time and money to assemble a committee to
> spell out what everybody already knows. On the other hand, if the standard
> means to imply that the blind are not able to live and compete among the
> ordinary hazards of the regular workaday world and that they need more
> shelter and care than others, the implications are not only false but they
> are insidiously vicious.
> Of a similar character is the committee's statement that the grounds
> must "provide pleasant and appropriate surroundings, and be free of undue
> nuisances and hazards." Surely we do not need a special commission on
> standards and accreditation to tell us that people should live in pleasant
> surroundings that are free of undue hazards, if this is all that is meant.
> If, however, the committee is saying that the blind require surroundings
> that are more "pleasant and free from hazards" than the surroundings
> required by other people, one cannot help but be unhappily reminded of the
> 19th century concept that the blind should be entertained and provided with
> recreation, that they should be helped in every way possible to "live with
> their misfortune."
> If this type of analysis seems blunt, one can only reply that this is
> no time for nice words and mousy phrases. The people who were formerly the
> Commission on Standards, and are now the National Accreditation, hold
> themselves out to the public at large as the qualified experts, the people
> who have the right to make standards and grant or refuse accreditation to
> all and sundry. These are not children indulging in the innocent games of
> childhood. They are adults, playing with the lives of hundreds of people.
> Federationists should review the Braille Monitor from 1965 through
> 1968 to study the COMSTAC reports in light of present developments. I have
> not tried here to analyze the content of those reports. Mostly it is bad,
> and the standards and rules established by COMSTAC and NAC harmful. Let
> anyone who doubts this assertion read the COMSTAC reports and the Monitor
> analyses. They speak for themselves.
> One final matter requires comment. At a recent meeting of the
> National Accreditation Council I was telling a new member of the board (a
> prominent businessman totally uninformed about the problems faced by the
> blind) that I thought most of the actions of NAC were irrelevant. He seemed
> surprised and said something to this effect:
> "If you think what we are doing here is not relevant, what is
> relevant?"
> To which I said, "Last fall a blind man in Minneapolis (a person who
> had worked for several years as a computer programmer at Honeywell and was
> laid off because of the recession) applied to take a civil service
> examination for computer programmer with the city of Minneapolis. His
> application was rejected, on the grounds of blindness. The National
> Federation of the Blind helped him with advice and legal counsel. As a
> result, he took the examination, and he now has a job with the city of
> Minneapolis as a computer programmer.
> "How many of the people who are on the NAC board," I asked, "are even
> aware that such an incident occurred? How many of them think it is
> important?"
> "Or," I went on, "consider another incident. A few weeks ago in Ohio
> a blind high school senior (duly elected by her class) was denied the right
> to attend the American Legion Girls' State. The story was carried
> nationwide by United Press, and the matter is still pending. Do you see any
> of these people here today concerned or excited about this case? Do you see
> them trying to do anything about it?"
> "Well," my companion replied, "your organization seems to be working
> on matters like this. Maybe NAC is doing good in other areas."
> "The difficulty," I told him, "is that the actions of NAC are helping
> to create the kind of problem situations I have been describing to you."
> "How?" he asked me.
> "NAC," I said, "accredits workshops, for instance. What kind of
> standards does it use in determining whether a shop should be approved and
> presented to the public as a worthy and progressive institution? NAC is
> concerned about whether the workshop has a good accounting system. It is
> concerned about good pay and good working conditions for the professional
> staff (almost all of them sighted). It is concerned with the physical
> facilities and (perhaps) whether there is a psychologist or psychiatrist
> available to minister to the blind workers. But what about minimum wages
> for those same blind workers, or the right of collective bargaining, or
> grievance committees? On such items NAC is silent. It will accredit a
> sheltered shop which pays less than fifty cents an hour to its blind
> workers. By so doing, it puts its stamp of approval on such practices. It
> helps perpetuate the system that has kept the blind in bondage and made
> them second-class citizens through the centuries. It helps to slam the door
> on the computer programmer in Minneapolis and the high school student in
> Ohio. Worst of all, perhaps, it reinforces and helps to continue the myth
> that blindness means inferiority, that the blind are unable to compete on
> terms of equality in regular industry or the professions, that the blind
> should be grateful for what they have and stay in their places. The
> workshop example is only that, an example. The same theme is everywhere
> present in NAC's action and standards-and, for that matter, in its very
> makeup."
> As we talked, my businessman companion seemed shocked that there were
> sheltered shops paying less than the minimum wage to blind workers. Yet, he
> is on the NAC board, lending his name to the accreditation. I pointed out
> to him a variety of other ways in which the work of NAC is helping to
> promote misconceptions about blindness and add to our problems. I can only
> hope that the seeds I planted will bear fruit.
> To round out the picture we are considering today, one further item
> might be mentioned. The April 25, 1968 minutes of NAC report as follows:
> "Over thirty agencies and schools have indicated, in writing, an
> interest in applying for accreditation. Official applications have been
> received from six agencies. Some of these have already paid the application
> fee. The American Council of the Blind is the first membership association
> to apply for membership in the National Accreditation Council."
> In a letter dated July 11, 1968, from Alexander Handel, Executive
> Director of the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the
> Blind and Visually Handicapped, to members of the NAC Board of Directors an
> article is discussed which appears in the July, 1968, issue of the Braille
> Forum (the official publication of the American Council of the Blind). The
> article says in part:
> "It should be emphasized, however, that from the first, ACB officers
> and members actively consulted with the various committees developing the
> standards, and ACB was the only national organization of the blind which
> both participated in and financially supported the National Conference on
> Standards which led to the formation of the National Accreditation
> Council."
> I give you this quotation without comment. It speaks for itself. So
> do the actions of NAC. I presume all of you have read the exchange of
> correspondence concerning the appearance of NAC representatives at this
> meeting today. The contempt and condescension inherent in NAC's bland
> assumption that it was proper to reject our invitation to appear at this
> convention because a debate might occur are clear for all to see. Likewise,
> the agreement just concluded between NAC and the American Foundation for
> the Blind whereby the Foundation will work with agencies and help prepare
> them for accreditation is equally revealing.
> In any case the one central point which must be repeatedly hammered
> home is the total irrelevance of NAC as it is now constituted and as it is
> now performing. What we need today and in the years ahead is not more
> detailed standards but a real belief in the competence and innate normality
> of blind people, a willingness on the part of agency officials to help
> blind people secure meaningful training and competitive employment, a
> recognition that the blind are able to participate fully in the mainstream
> of American life. We need acceptance and equality, not shelter and care.
> When seen in this light, NAC must be viewed as one of our most
> serious problems in the decade ahead. The blind of the nation should
> thoroughly inform themselves about its activities and should insist upon a
> voice in determining the character of programs affecting their lives. We
> should insist that state and federal governments not delegate their powers
> of setting standards for state agencies to a private group, which is not
> responsive to the needs or views of the consumers of the services. It is
> true that many of the agencies doing work with the blind need to be
> reformed and improved, but NAC is not the entity to do it. We the organized
> blind intend (in the best tradition of American democracy) to have
> something to say about the scope and direction of the reform and the
> improvement. We are not children, nor are we psychological cripples. We are
> free citizens, fully capable of participating in the determination of our
> own destiny, and we have every right and intention of having something to
> say about what is done with our lives.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Doris Willoughby]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Margery Herrington]
> [PHOTO CAPTION: A full Braille cell]
>
> Introducing Braille-Begin with a Positive Experience
> by Doris Willoughby
>
> From the Editor: Doris Willoughby has provided a number of articles
> for the Braille Monitor about the education of both sighted people and
> blind people. This topic has also caused her to write several books that
> are fixtures in many classrooms in which teachers of blind children toil
> daily. In the article below, she and her sister describe examples of
> positive introductions to Braille and to blindness:
>
> Ever since I met my husband Curtis, who is blind, and ever since I
> started teaching blind children, I have observed that when people are shown
> the Braille alphabet, they tend to react by saying, "Wow! That looks hard!"
> I wished for a way to illustrate that Braille is no harder to learn
> than print. While the whole Braille alphabet may seem daunting, it can be
> learned in a measured and organized way.
> Now, when I speak to a group about blindness, I like to give out
> cards that display just a few symbols that are very different from each
> other. Each card only has one symbol on it. Good examples are the letter
> "a" (one single dot), the letter "g" (four dots together in a square), and
> the letter "l" (three dots aligned vertically). I make sure that
> participants rely on their sense of touch when they examine the dots.
> My sister, Margery Herrington, who is a volunteer Braille
> transcriber, has provided a positive introduction to Braille to many people
> through the college anatomy classes she taught. Here is her description:
>
>
> In the seventeen years I was on the biology faculty at Adams
> State University in Alamosa, Colorado, I taught over 2,000 anatomy
> students to read the Braille letters "a," "g," and "x" by touch as
> part of one of the laboratories for the course. I got many positive
> comments such as "This is really cool," and "This is easy; I thought
> it would be a lot harder."
> At the beginning of the period I gave a short introduction to
> Braille and wrote the patterns for "a," "g," and "x" on the
> blackboard. The dark dots indicate raised dots.
> I gave students three-by-five-inch cards with two rows of
> Braille letters that I had made using a slate. The upper row had four
> a's, followed by four g's, and four x's, with a space after each
> letter. The lower row had a total of ten letters (a's, g's, and x's)
> in random order with spaces between the letters. Each Braille letter
> had the corresponding print letter written below it.
> Students used the top row of letters and their fingers to learn
> how the letter patterns felt. They then used touch but not sight to
> read the second row, while their laboratory partners checked their
> accuracy. After recording the number of right answers (usually ten
> out of ten), the students read the second row again, using their
> elbows instead of their fingers (remember that this was an anatomy
> class) in order to compare the sensitivity of different regions of the
> body. Students recorded the number of correct answers for the elbow
> (usually zero, one, or two) and then wrote down some possible reasons
> why the fingers were easier to use than the elbow. Typical answers
> were that the elbow had rougher skin, fewer nerve endings, and a
> larger surface area.
> Before students could turn in their laboratory reports with
> results from all the activities done that day, I had them take an exit
> test using a card with four Braille letters on it (for example, agxg,
> gaax, or xgax) with spaces between the letters. Students enjoyed
> showing that they could read quickly and accurately, and most of them
> got the required grade of 100 percent on the first try. A few students
> missed a letter and needed to try again on a different version of the
> test, but I never had a student who had a difficult time passing.
> After a student had read the four letters, I made a comment such as
> "One hundred percent! You're an efficient Braille reader." A number
> of students also did the optional Braille activity during the
> laboratory, writing their names in Braille on cards using a slate and
> stylus with minimal guidance.
>
> So there you have my sister, teaching anatomy, and finding yet
> another use for Braille. Unfortunately, in contrast to the above examples,
> people often "simulate blindness" through an exercise that actually is much
> more harmful than helpful. A person is given a challenging task such as
> eating an entire meal in complete darkness or navigating a complicated path
> while blindfolded without adequate instruction or meaningful practice. This
> actually tends to mislead people about blindness and to make attitudes
> worse instead of better. Arielle Silverman discusses this problem in detail
> in her article in the Journal on Blindness Innovation and Research.*
> Exercises that incorporate mastery of blindness skills can be helpful
> in showing the way alternative techniques provide effective ways to do
> things that are usually done visually. If you have wished you could help
> give sighted students a positive introduction to Braille, you might want to
> do an activity similar to the ones that my sister and I have used.
>
>
> *Silverman, Arielle. The perils of playing blind: problems with blindness
> simulation and a better way to teach about blindness. Journal on Blindness
> Innovation and Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan at the 1985 national convention]
> Blindness: The Pattern of Freedom
> by Kenneth Jernigan
>
> From the Editor: Last month the Braille Monitor ran an article by
> Prof. JW Smith in which he discussed the importance of the banquet speech
> delivered annually to the national convention of the Federation. In that
> article he interviewed Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, Dr. Marc Maurer, and the
> longtime editor of the Braille Monitor and a former president of the
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Barbara Pierce. When each
> participant was asked to identify their favorite banquet speech, the one
> given in 1985 was mentioned. It seems appropriate here to reprint that
> speech, and to enjoy what three people who have closely followed the
> literature generated by this organization believed to be one of its major
> works. Here is what Dr. Jernigan said to the 1985 convention banquet:
>
> When the playful dawn came down to the sea,
> I ruffled its hair with gladness.
> I saw the waves and flexed my soul in freedom.
> Humanity comes through the optic nerve, And justice lives in the eye.
> Not creed or law or politics
> But curvature and the nature of light.
> The blind man yearns in a land apart,
> Slave though richest king.
> Not for him the full broad sweep of mind and spirit
> Dark the channel, nerve and tissue;
> Long eternal through the night.
> Day comes down to touch the ocean,
> And I stand up to look and live.
> Books of science unromantic-freedom's passport to the soul. [ 1. ]
>
> When I first read that poem, I thought how literate, how polished,
> how skillfully written-how absolutely gross and totally false. Poetry is
> the art of saying so much in so few words that prose will not work as a
> means of expression. It does for language what the computer does for
> science and what the aerial photograph does for a landscape. On nothing
> more than a sheet of paper you can do any calculation which the most up-to-
> date computer can do, but if the problem is complex, you will do it more
> slowly-so much so that you will never live to finish it. You will not
> understand the patterns and relationships-or, for that matter, even know
> they exist. They will be buried in minutiae and lost in delay. Likewise,
> you can walk the earth and map a continent, but you can never see its
> patterns and perspectives. There is too much detail, and it will take too
> long to put together.
> Poetry (properly used) cuts through verbiage and speaks to the soul.
> Like the computer and the aerial photograph, it condenses time and reveals
> patterns. But we must not be bamboozled. There is no magic in sophisticated
> tools. They are only as good as our understanding. Ancient astronomy
> predicted quite accurately the course of the stars and the date of
> eclipses, but it was based on the mistaken notion that the earth is flat
> and the center of the universe. In the absence of understanding a computer
> would not have brought enlightenment. It would only have reinforced the
> misconceptions. Aerial photographs are equally subject to
> misinterpretation. They give us data but not the wisdom to comprehend it.
> Poetry is the same. It does not live in a vacuum but is built on a
> frame of accepted values and assumed truths. Therefore, when the poet tells
> us that humanity comes through the optic nerve and justice lives in the eye-
> when he speaks of freedom as a product of sight-he is not proclaiming new
> discoveries but repeating old superstitions: our common heritage-man's
> ancient fear of the dark, the equation of sight with light and light with
> good. He is doing what the perceptive poet always does. He is resolving
> contradictions and distilling (whether true or false) the essence of
> cultural consensus. He is going to the core of our inner being and making
> us face what we truly believe.
> But, of course, an increasing number of us do not believe it. In
> fact, it is not a question of belief. As we go about our business from hour
> to hour and minute to minute, we know from personal experience that it is
> false. Blindness does not mean dehumanization. In our homes and our
> offices, in factories and laboratories, on farms and in universities, in
> places of recreation and forums of civic accomplishment we live the
> refutation of it every day. While it is true that 70 percent of us do not
> have jobs and that all of us are routinely treated like children and wards,
> it is equally true that 30 percent of us do have jobs and that all of us
> are coming to realize that the problem is not blindness but mistaken
> attitudes. If even one of us can be a scientist (and many of us are), that
> does not prove that if an individual is blind he or she can be a scientist,
> but it does prove that blindness will not prevent a person from being a
> scientist. In short, it proves that blindness is not the barrier.
> Sight is enjoyable; it is useful; it is convenient. But that is all
> that it is-enjoyable, useful, and convenient. Except in imagination and
> mythology it is not more than that. It does not have mysterious
> psychological implications; and it is not the single key to happiness, the
> road to knowledge, or the window to the soul. Like the other senses, it is
> a channel of communication, a source of pleasure, and a tool nothing less,
> nothing more. It is alternative, not exclusive. It is certainly not the
> essential component of human freedom. The urge to liberty and the need to
> be free are commodities of the spirit, not the senses. They divide
> civilization from savagery and human beings from animals.
> Liberty has been the focal point of more study and comment than
> perhaps any other idea which has ever troubled, motivated, and inspired
> mankind. It is the stuff of dreams, not optic nerves and eyeballs. The
> effort is always to understand and, by so doing, make life better and more
> in tune with ultimate reality-a combination of bread and the prayer book,
> food for the body and food for the soul.
> Liberty and freedom. Two words, one concept. Always noble, always
> imposing-ever the dream, ever the mover of nations. And while we cannot
> capture freedom in a rigid cage, we can describe it, seek it, and recognize
> its transcendent power.
> Harold Laski said: "We acquiesce in the loss of freedom every time we
> are silent in the face of injustice."
> Daniel Webster said: "God grants liberty only to those who love it,
> and are always ready to guard and defend it."
> Benjamin Franklin said: "They that give up essential liberty to
> obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> Samuel Adams said: "If you love wealth better than liberty, the
> tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go
> home from us in peace."
> John Dewey said: "Liberty is not just an idea, an abstract principle.
> It is power, effective power to do specific things. There is no such thing
> as liberty in general; liberty, so to speak, at large."
> Cicero said: "Freedom is participation in power."
> Herbert J. Muller said: "Freedom is the condition of being able to
> choose and to carry out purpose."
> Herbert Spencer said: "No one can be perfectly free until all are
> free. No one can be perfectly moral until all are moral."
> The nineteenth-century German writer Max Stirner said: "Freedom cannot
> be granted. It must be taken."
> Walter Lippmann said: "Men cannot be made free by laws unless they
> are in fact free because no man can buy and no man can coerce them. That is
> why the Englishman's belief that his home is his castle and that the king
> cannot enter it, like the American's conviction that he must be able to
> look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell, are the very essence of
> the free man's way of life."
> So the tapestry of freedom is constantly being woven, and we are part
> of the fabric; but there is something beyond. There always is. Each
> minority has its separate pattern, its road to freedom, its task to be
> done. And for the blind that task is monumental. It is nothing less than
> the total redirection of society's effort and perception-for we are not
> patients, and (contrary to popular belief) our problem is not lack of
> eyesight or inability to perform.
> What we need most is not, as the professionals would have it, medical
> help or psychological counseling but admission to the main channels of
> daily life and citizenship, not custody and care but understanding and
> acceptance. Above all, what we need is not more government programs or
> private charitable efforts. Instead, we want jobs, opportunity, and full
> participation in society. Give us that, and we will do the rest for
> ourselves. Give us jobs, equal treatment, and a solid economic base; and we
> will do without the counseling, the sheltered workshops, and the social
> programs. We will not need them. We have the same medical, vocational,
> social, and recreational needs as others; but our blindness does not create
> those needs, and it does not magnify or enlarge them. It does not make them
> special or different. We are neither more nor less than normal people who
> cannot see, and that is how we intend to be treated. We want no strife or
> confrontation, but we have learned the power of collective action, and we
> will do what we have to do to achieve first-class status. We are simply no
> longer willing to be second-class citizens.
> When the National Federation of the Blind came into being in 1940,
> the means were limited and the numbers few, but the goal was clear. Today
> (almost fifty years later-when we have tens of thousands of members and are
> the strongest presence in the affairs of the blind) the purpose is
> unchanged. It is exactly what it was in 1940. It can be told in a sentence.
> We want freedom-jobs, homes, the chance to succeed or fail on our own
> merit, access to places of public accommodation, interdependence with our
> neighbors, and full participation in society. The words are easy, but the
> fact has been long delayed. From the dawn of history blind men and women
> have worked and hoped and waited, but only in recent years (only with the
> coming of the National Federation of the Blind) has our dream approached
> reality. And now the waiting is over. Yes, we have waited-oh, God, how we
> have waited!-but never again! No more! In this generation our time has
> finally come-for we are determined at long last to live the truth of what
> we are, and not what others think we are or try to make us become or
> believe. As Cicero said: "Freedom is participation in power." And as Max
> Stirner said: "Freedom cannot be granted. It must be taken."
> There are four essential elements in the pattern of our freedom. Each
> has a different part to play, and each is necessary. They blend to form a
> tapestry, which can never be finished without the composite.
> The first and most important of these elements is internal. It is
> what we believe and become within ourselves. The second is public
> education. The third is the law. The fourth is confrontation. Other people
> tend to treat and value us as we treat and value ourselves. In matters of
> the spirit, before a thing can become reality, we must believe it; and
> before we can believe it, we must say we believe it.
> We say we are as good as the sighted, able to compete with them on
> terms of equality. We say that we deserve all of the privileges and
> responsibilities of citizenship and that we are capable of exercising them.
> We say that it is respectable to be blind. When the time comes that a
> majority of us know for a certainty within ourselves that these things are
> true (know it so surely that we act and live it every day and do not even
> need to think about it or question it), our battle will largely be won.
> Dr. Walter Stromer is a blind professor. He lives in a small town in
> Iowa and teaches at the local college. He is thought of by his colleagues
> and students as successful, quite successful-and he doubtless shares that
> opinion. But do his associates think of him as successful measured by
> others on the campus, or only by the standard of what they think a blind
> person can do and can be expected to do? Which standard does Dr. Stromer
> use? For that matter, does he even know that there are different standards?
> Does he perhaps enjoy being thought of as remarkable, unusual, inspiring,
> and brave-failing to realize that he has made a bad bargain and that the
> eye is not freedom's passport to the soul?
> A number of years ago Dr. Stromer appeared on a panel to discuss the
> meaning of blindness, and as a result he published a paper entitled "One
> Day in the Life of Me." Speaking of his early morning radio listening, he
> says: "Fortunately the station I listen to most is near the end of the
> dial. Finding stations in the middle of the dial can be a problem unless
> you know exactly what program to listen for."
> Progressing to the time of departure for work, he says: "Just before
> I leave for class I remember I forgot to have my wife record the grades for
> the speeches made yesterday. I could do it in Braille, but it would be most
> tedious and time-consuming."
> In further reference to Braille he says: "Looking for one sheet of
> paper in a stack is not bad when you can see; it's maddeningly slow when
> you have to run your fingers over the first dots of every sheet to figure
> out what it is."
> As he leaves the house, he says: "But finally I'm off to school,
> after pausing in the door for a minute to try to remember if I've got
> everything. Others do that, too, but they can see things lying on the chair
> or table, to remind them to take along; with me it has to be a more
> conscious mental effort. Which explains of course why I'm so alert, because
> I have to use my brain more, which is what keeps it sharp, or wears it to a
> frazzle."
> His thoughts as he goes from home to campus are in the same vein:
> "Walking to school is fairly relaxing," he says. "At least once a week I
> try to remember to be grateful for not having to fight the noise and
> congestion of the city." What a melodramatic piece of self-pity! Many
> people prefer small towns to cities, but I wonder how many of them are able
> to work blindness and pathos into it. After all, the city has advantages,
> too-and you could probably get blindness into that as well if you put your
> mind to it.
> And how does Dr. Stromer feel about his teaching? He says: "In a few
> minutes I'm in class. After twenty-two years I'm fairly comfortable."
> After all of this tension and heavy introspection, it is only natural
> that Dr. Stromer feels tense and a little weary. A counteractant might be
> in order. "Home to lunch now," he says. "Just a good eight-minute walk,
> downhill all the way. A small glass of wine, a short nap, maybe only five
> minutes, and then lunch and I'm ready for the afternoon.... I stretch out
> for a nap before supper. I wonder if all blind people need those naps as
> much as I do. I think I'm fairly relaxed, but I'm sure an average day takes
> more nervous energy out of me than it does out of somebody with good
> vision, because so many things that sighted people can do without thinking,
> I have to do with a good bit of conscious effort."
> Stromer is not a phony. He believes it-and his associates believe it.
> But it is false to the core. It is what I call "The Stromer Syndrome." His
> neighbors think (within the limits, of course, of common sense and what
> they believe a blind person can do) that he is wonderful. They make of him
> a conversation piece. They tell him, each other, and anybody else who will
> listen that he is witty, accomplished, and inspiring. He uses the same
> words we use-independence, understanding, realistic approach to blindness,
> full participation in society, and all of the rest-but he does not mean
> what we mean.
> In his daily life and thinking he exemplifies almost every
> misconception about the inferiority and helplessness of the blind that I
> have ever heard: Blind people have difficulty tuning in radio stations.
> Braille is tedious and ineffective. It cannot be scanned. Blind people have
> more trouble than others remembering what to take to work. This makes their
> minds alert. They meet their problems with humor. They are grateful to live
> in a small town to avoid the congestion of cities. After twenty-two years
> they are fairly comfortable teaching. They have more tensions than others
> and, therefore, require more naps, and a little wine.
> Dr. Stromer undoubtedly feels that his attitudes and behavior are a
> plus in the struggle of the blind for advancement, but every day his
> influence is negative. Society (knowing nothing about blindness) has made
> him what he is and taught him its values. Now, he returns the compliment.
> He reinforces the misconceptions and teaches society. If his situation were
> unique (if the "Stromer Syndrome" were personal to the man), it would
> hardly be worth our attention. We would simply turn our heads in pity and
> embarrassment and let it go at that. But it is not personal. It is endemic
> and generic. It has dogged the heels of every minority that has ever walked
> the road to freedom.
> How many blacks in the early part of this century tried to straighten
> their hair and look white? How many laughed, shuffled their feet, and
> played Amos and Andy to fit the mold of the times? Even more to the point,
> how many secretly thought the role they were given was just and proper? All
> of them some of the time, and some of them all of the time. The incentive
> to believe was overwhelming. Every day they were rewarded for conforming
> and punished for objecting. Believing, they lived the myth and helped it
> come true-and both they and society were diminished accordingly.
> As Herbert Spencer said: "No one can be perfectly free until all are
> free. No one can be perfectly moral until all are moral." Only when a
> majority of the blacks came to realize that no imagined advantage, no
> immediate gain, and no avoidance of punishment could take the place of the
> privileges and, for that matter, the pains and responsibilities of first-
> class status did they begin to experience fulfillment-and, then, the world
> changed.
> As it was with the blacks, so it is with the blind. We are part of
> the general culture, and the pressure to believe and conform is constantly
> with us. It all comes together in a single sentence in a letter I recently
> received from a man in Ohio. After telling me that he was losing his sight,
> he said: "I believe I would rather be dead than blind." Consider the
> capacity for enjoyment and productive work and the level of daily activity
> of the average member of the National Federation of the Blind, and ask
> yourself whether you believe this man's opinion results from dire
> predicament or cultural conditioning.
> Sometimes, of course, the blind person's acceptance of the stereotype
> is not just conditioning but an attempt (whether conscious or otherwise) to
> use it for advantage. Phillip Mangold is a blind man who lives in
> California. In 1980 he wrote a booklet called: The Pleasure of Eating for
> Those Who Are Visually Impaired. We do not have to go beyond the title to
> find the problem. There is pleasure in eating, and those who are blind eat;
> but to imply that there is a connection is a distortion and a disservice.
> It plays upon the notion that the blind are mysteriously different from the
> sighted and that we require expert help (presumably from Mr. Mangold) to do
> the simplest task. His appeal to the public's fears and misconceptions may
> sell his booklet and promote his employment, but (whether he knows it or
> not) the price is too high and the bargain bad.
> When we consider public education (the second of the four essential
> components in our pattern of freedom), we are reminded again that none of
> the four stands alone. They overlap and interweave to form a composite.
> What the blind believe about themselves, they teach to the public; and what
> the public believes conditions the blind. Not only individuals but also
> organizations may have negative impact and mistaken attitudes. The American
> Council of the Blind is a prime example.
> Its state affiliate, the Missouri Council of the Blind, plans to hold
> its 1985 convention in St. Joseph. Carolyn Anderson, Secretary-Treasurer of
> the local chapter of the Missouri Council of the Blind, talked to the St.
> Joseph News-Press about the matter last fall. In an article appearing
> October 28, 1984, she says: "We have a commitment from Boy Scouts who are
> working on merit badges to serve as volunteer guides when needed by a
> delegate. Free transportation from both bus stations to the hotel has been
> arranged. And, since there is no day or night for the blind, the hotel is
> even providing for food service in case someone decides it's breakfast time
> at two in the morning."
> If we did not know the philosophy of the American Council of the
> Blind, we might be astonished. As it is, we accept this statement as
> standard procedure-simply another obstacle to overcome on our road to
> freedom. In an article captioned "Blind But Not Dumb" which appeared in the
> St. Joseph News-Press of November 20, 1984, Beryl Gordon (our local NFB
> president) tried to mitigate the damage. He said:
> "Often I am asked, 'Why can't organizations of and for the blind get
> together? They are all working toward the same thing, aren't they?'
> "This is a very hard question to answer in one short sentence, and
> until you see something in the newspaper such as I have recently read you
> don't even try.
> "A member of the Missouri Council of the Blind was quoted as saying
> that since there is no day or night for the blind, the hotel where they
> will be holding their 1985 convention will be providing food service in
> case one of them would decide it was breakfast time at 2:00 a.m.
> "Can you just imagine what life would be like for the blind if all of
> us believed something this ignorant? Can you imagine what potential
> employers might think when reading something this degrading about blind
> persons' intelligence?
> "It's no wonder we can't find jobs. It is no wonder public facilities
> do not want us to come in. It is no wonder others have the attitude that we
> need to be taken care of."
> In case you think Ms. Anderson was misquoted by the reporter, listen
> to her answer in the News-Press of November 29, 1984. She says: "As usual,
> the National Federation of the Blind misinterprets and twists things for
> their own purposes. We believe the NFB confronts everything with rudeness,
> abruptness and single-mindedness. Such negative reactions make it more
> difficult for those of us trying to work in a positive way. We try to deal
> with local businesses, officials and the public without considering them to
> be our enemies. Focusing our efforts on the good and the positive and
> remembering with gratitude the help we get from the sighted in our
> community, we have improved our outlook. We try to keep a sense of humor
> and look at life's inconveniences with some amount of laughter. Perhaps the
> NFB should try this and not be critical of other people and their efforts."
> Whatever else may be said, Carolyn Anderson and Beryl Gordon are not
> working for the same thing. In one sense, of course, she is right: We could
> laugh at ourselves, be grateful for whatever we get, and accept the
> stereotype-but the price is too high. Such conduct translates into
> exclusion from employment, custodial treatment, and second-class status;
> and it also blights the spirit and shrivels the soul-for whatever we live
> and believe, that we surely become.
> And we are not just dealing with generalities. It is not simply a matter of
> being nice or saving feelings. To the extent that we fail to find a way to
> educate the public, lack the courage to provide that education even in the
> face of hostility, or are unable to understand our true potential, we and
> all other blind people suffer. I recently received a letter from the
> sighted mother of an adopted blind child expressing appreciation for our
> literature and encouragement: "My daughter Shelly," she said, "is now
> eleven years old. She is fully integrated in a local school and has learned
> to read and write Braille.
> "Six years ago, when we adopted her, she was a 'potential unknown,'
> high-risk adoption case. We took her out of a small institution, where she
> had lived all of her life. She had spent most of her time confined to a
> large hospital sized crib, with no stimulation and little human contact.
> She was in diapers and ate only pureed baby food, which had to be fed to
> her. In the past six years this same child has become bilingual, is in her
> third year of piano lessons, skates, swims, rides a double bike, reads and
> writes, and is no longer a 'potential unknown' but rather a child of great
> potential."
> So writes this sighted mother, and her words give us perspective. It
> is not pleasant to disagree with others and take public stands, but
> sometimes the alternative is worse. We do not regard our neighbors as
> enemies, but this does not mean that we are willing to submit to diapers
> and pureed baby food. It does not mean that we are willing to accept
> slavery-even if the slavery is gently offered, kindly meant, and well
> intentioned. As John Dewey said: "Liberty is not just an idea, an abstract
> principle. It is power, effective power to do specific things." And as
> Benjamin Franklin said: "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a
> little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." We want no
> strife or confrontation, but we are not willing to give up essential
> liberty to obtain a little temporary safety. We have learned the power of
> collective action, and we will do what we have to do. We are simply no
> longer willing to be second-class citizens.
> The need for public education is everywhere apparent. The fact is
> typified by an article appearing in the Omaha World-Herald of December 5,
> 1984. Headlined "Donations Pay for Glasses for Needy During the Year," the
> article says: "Detecting and solving vision problems are important in the
> proper development of children, said Dr. Matilda Mclntire, director of
> community pediatrics at Creighton University. That is why the cooperative
> effort of the World-Herald Good Fellows and Creighton is valuable to the
> community, she said. 'We feel very strongly that a child cannot learn if he
> cannot see.'" To which we reply, thousands of us grew up as blind children
> and have achieved a moderate degree of literacy and success. If Dr.
> Mclntire is right, I wonder how we did it.
> Early this year I received a letter from one P. F. Membrey, who
> described himself as the director of CAPEX, a product consulting and export
> firm from London, England. He said, concerning a new Braillewriter which he
> wished to sell: "Following its recent introduction to the United Kingdom
> market, CAPEX have been appointed sole distribution agents for this unique
> product. Accordingly, we are now able to supply the Braillewriter to those
> institutions or individuals who work with or have care of blind or
> partially sighted people."
> Mr. Membrey, Carolyn Anderson, and Dr. Stromer would probably say we
> are nitpicking, but people usually say what they mean even if they do not
> mean to say what they say. The orientation which (whether inadvertently or
> not) leads to talk of selling a product to "institutions or individuals who
> have care of blind or partially sighted people" is destructive and
> damaging. We must observe it, reject it, and attack it-not only for public
> enlightenment but for our own self-respect. As Harold Laski said: "We
> acquiesce in the loss of freedom every time we are silent in the face of
> injustice." We want no strife or confrontation, but we are simply no longer
> willing to be second-class citizens.
> The need for public education about blindness is repeatedly
> demonstrated. Emotional newspaper articles appear telling about sighted
> people who blindfold themselves to know what it is like to be blind; the
> National Geographic talks about an inchworm "groping along slowly,
> reminiscent of a blind man with a cane," [2.] and in a descriptive brochure
> Ewing Mays (the founder of Mays Mission for the Handicapped) says: "Every
> day there are handicapped people here training handicapped people ... one
> amputee working with another amputee, one deaf person training another deaf
> person, and even a blind person guiding another blind person." The
> operative word, of course, is "even." Why "even?"
> In that one word is summed up the prejudice of centuries-a way of
> life and a system we are determined to change.
> And we are changing the system. We are heightening our own self-
> awareness and conducting extensive campaigns of public education-but this
> is not enough. We must deal with the legal system and the law. Again, let
> us consider the blacks. Before they could begin to achieve equality, they
> had to build an image within themselves. That was the first and most
> important thing. Then, they had to educate the public, for they could not
> exist in a vacuum or live what the culture would not accept. But they also
> had to do something else. As long as the law made it impossible for them to
> buy or rent certain property, required them to attend segregated schools,
> made them ride in the back of the bus, and even said they must use separate
> water fountains and bathrooms, all of the self-belief and public education
> in the world would not be sufficient. They had to change the laws and the
> interpretation of the laws, and they did change them.
> Our situation is parallel. We must fight in the courts and fight in
> the Congress. Judges order children to be taken from blind parents on the
> ground that the blind cannot raise them; airline officials tell us we
> cannot occupy exit row seating and that we must sit on blankets for fear we
> cannot control our bladders; insurance companies deny us coverage;
> amusement parks refuse to let us ride; health clubs decline to let us in;
> and employers routinely discriminate. Unless we can move toward equal
> treatment under the law, self-belief and public education will not be
> sufficient and cannot be sustained. And, of course, we are making headway.
> Through court action we have repeatedly restored children to their blind
> parents. We have persuaded Congress and the state legislatures to expand
> opportunities and remove discrimination-and we currently have at least a
> dozen lawsuits under way.
> Let anyone who believes we can live with the law as it is presently
> written consider the following section of the Tennessee Code: "Section 22-1-
> 102. Incompetent persons.-Persons convicted of certain infamous offenses
> specially designated in this code, persons of unsound mind, persons not in
> the full possession of their senses of hearing and seeing, and habitual
> drunkards are incompetent to act as jurors."
> That section of the Code is the law in Tennessee at this very moment.
> John Robb, a blind Tennessean, served on a jury in Nashville last year, but
> he did it on sufferance and at the whim of the judge. The Tennessee jury
> law is not only degrading-it is false in its premises. Today we are
> striking down such laws in state after state, and an increasing number of
> us are proving their absurdity by serving on juries. I did it myself last
> year.
> As we make progress in reforming the law and getting new
> interpretations by the courts, we strengthen our self-belief and educate
> the public. Self-belief, public education, and the law-these three elements
> intertwine and overlap. But something else is required-the fourth element,
> confrontation.
> What minority has ever gone from second-class status to first-class
> citizenship without it? What minority could? As we come to feel that we
> deserve equality, we increasingly resist coercion. But it goes beyond that.
> Unless we are willing to be absolutely docile and totally self-effacing,
> confrontation is inevitable.
> In this connection our experience with the airlines is instructive.
> They deal with us in an arbitrary, capricious, and custodial manner. If we
> are willing to be humiliated publicly and handled like children, airline
> personnel will generally treat us fairly well. Otherwise, we are likely to
> be subjected to anything from a tongue lashing to a trip off the plane with
> the police.
> A few months ago a blind woman in the state of Washington was plopped down
> on a blanket in an airplane seat, told by airline personnel that she must
> sit there, and loudly and publicly informed by the flight attendant that,
> as the attendant put it, it was not because she might "wet" her "pants" but
> so that in case of emergency she could be quickly lifted onto the
> evacuation slide. Explaining that she was quite mobile and unwilling to
> endure such treatment, the blind woman vocally refused to sit on the
> blanket and pushed it onto the floor. Later she brought a legal action
> against the airline and was given monetary damages and an apology. But if
> she had meekly followed orders, the lawsuit would never have been filed.
> She would have been humiliated and "put down," and her self-esteem and the
> public image would have suffered accordingly. But in objecting she created
> hostility and might have been arrested. If we intend to stand up for our
> rights at all, we can simply not avoid a certain amount of confrontation.
> Mike Uribes is one of our members in Fresno, California. Not long ago
> his chapter president had occasion to write the following letter to a
> Fresno business establishment:
> "On December 19, Mr. Michael Uribes, a blind Fresno resident, while
> shopping in your mall, was approached by one of your security employees,
> Mr. Tim Levinson. Mr. Levinson asked Mr. Uribes if he needed any
> assistance. Mr. Uribes responded that he did not. However, Mr. Levinson
> proceeded to follow Mr. Uribes through the mall and a couple of times even
> put his hand on Mr. Uribes' arm. Again, Mr. Uribes stated that he really
> did not need any assistance and thanked Mr. Levinson for his offer. Mr.
> Levinson walked away indignantly saying, 'Those damned blind people! They
> sure are arrogant.'
> "If Mr. Uribes had been a sighted person, this incident would not
> have happened.
> "Mr. Uribes has lived in Fresno all of his life and has been shopping
> without aid in your mall for at least twelve years. He travels
> independently.
> "Mr. Uribes is a member of the National Federation of the Blind of
> Fresno, which is affiliated with a state and national organization of the
> same name. Blind persons have the same rights and responsibilities as the
> sighted and wish to be treated as first-class citizens."
> In writing that letter our Fresno president undoubtedly created
> hostility, but what was she to do? For that matter, what was Mike Uribes to
> do? He could have avoided confrontation by meekly doing as he was told and
> allowing himself to be led around the store at Mr. Levinson's whim. By
> taking Mr. Uribes' arm when he was asked not to do so, Mr. Levinson
> committed a battery and violated the law; but public sentiment being what
> it is, he was probably never in danger of being prosecuted. However, what
> if Mr. Uribes had responded in kind? What if he had showed as much bad
> temper as Mr. Levinson did? Can we always be sure that the blind person
> will be cool, polite, level-headed, long-suffering, and patient-even if the
> sighted person is not? In fact, is that what we want?
> As Walter Lippman said: "Men cannot be made free by laws unless they
> are in fact free because no man can buy and no man can coerce them. That is
> why the Englishman's belief that his home is his castle and that the king
> cannot enter it, like the American 's conviction that he must be able to
> look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell, are the very essence of
> the free man's way of life."
> Is that sort of thing all right (in fact, praiseworthy) for the
> sighted but not all right for the blind? And what does Lippman mean when he
> says that no man can coerce you if you are truly free? Does he mean that it
> is all right for the sighted to resist coercion-even if it means looking
> somebody in the eye and telling him to go to hell-even if it means using
> necessary force-but that it is not all right for the blind? Is Lippman's
> pronouncement meant only for everybody else-or does it include us, too? Can
> blind people hope to be free Americans? We gave our answer to that question
> almost fifty years ago. We formed the National Federation of the Blind-and
> it is still here, stronger and more active today than ever before in its
> history.
> It is not only the "Stromer Syndrome" which is arrayed against us. It
> is also the "be grateful and do as I tell you, or I'll call you militant"
> syndrome. Let those who oppose our march to freedom call us what they
> please and say what they like. We will not grovel; we will not pretend that
> right is wrong; and we will not turn back from the course we have set. No,
> we do not want strife and confrontation-and yes, we prefer peace and
> reason. But we know the power of collective action, and we will do what we
> have to do. We are simply no longer willing to be second-class citizens.
> Self-belief, public education, the law, and confrontation-these are
> the elements in the pattern of our freedom, and each is necessary. They
> overlap and interweave, and if any one of them is omitted, all of the rest
> become meaningless and impossible. Because of the work of the National
> Federation of the Blind, we who are blind have it better today than ever
> before in our history, and the hostility we face is not a cause for
> dejection but an omen of victory; for until a minority is close to its
> goal, confrontation is neither achievable nor useful. Earlier it is
> impossible, and later it is unnecessary.
> The beginning strands of the pattern of freedom are always woven by
> slaves, and we have known slavery. Some of us still endure it, and none of
> us has totally escaped it. A few of us are so immersed in it that we even
> say we like it and do not know another way exists. But the National
> Federation of the Blind is abroad in the land, and the blind are learning
> new ways. We hear the statements of freedom, and they call to our souls and
> quicken our dreams:
> "If," said Samuel Adams, "you love wealth better than liberty, the
> tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go
> home from us in peace."
> "They that give up essential liberty," said Benjamin Franklin, "to
> obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> "Freedom," said Max Stirner, "cannot be granted. It must be taken."
> We hear, and we understand. We know what we must do, and we have
> counted the cost. We fight not only for ourselves but also for those who
> went before us, for Dr. tenBroek and the other founders of our movement-and
> for those who come after, the blind of the next generation, the children
> and the children to be. And we will not fail. The stakes are too high and
> the alternative too terrible. Tomorrow is bright with promise.
> We go to meet it with gladness: And we take with us all that we have-
> our hopes and our dreams, our will to work and our knowledge of
> deprivation, our faith and our purpose, and our heritage of slavery. And
> this also we take-our trust in ourselves, our love for each other, and our
> belief in the ultimate goodness of people. My brothers and my sisters, the
> future is ours! Come, join me-and we will march together to freedom!
>
> Notes
> 1. This poem was copied from a wall in New York City in 1985.
> 2. National Geographic, August, 1983, page 222.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Anna Kresmer]
> How the First Self-Advocacy Organization of the Blind Met the Challenge
> of Social Security, 1940-1950
> by Anna Kresmer
>
> From the Editor: There are many blessings for which we in the
> National Federation of the Blind are thankful, and one of them is the
> caliber of the staff who come to work with us and who decide to become a
> part of us. Anna Kresmer is just such a person, working to share with all
> of us the treasures that are to be found in the Jacobus tenBroek Memorial
> Library. In this article she discusses one of the reasons we formed the
> National Federation of the Blind and our first effort to confront head-on a
> new federal bureaucracy that threatened to erode our hard-won gains for a
> secure income and the opportunity to go beyond government assistance.
> Here's what she says:
>
> For seventy-five years, the National Federation of the Blind has
> strived to achieve first-class citizenship for all blind Americans through
> collective action and self-advocacy. Over the years, the Federation's focus
> and energy have shifted to address the most pressing problems of the day,
> from the right to organize in the 1950s, to the fight against NAC in the
> 1970s, to the ongoing mission to make the internet and technology
> accessible. Some long-standing challenges have proven to be stubborn and
> the battles rage on, such as the mission to end subminimum wage, while
> other challenges have been met and relegated (at least for the time being)
> to the annals of history. Each of these issues, and the many others not
> mentioned here, have confirmed the continuing need for an organization like
> the NFB, but one issue in particular is directly responsible for the
> formation of the Federation in 1940.
> In the first few decades of the twentieth century, aid to the blind
> was primarily treated as a local or state-level concern. Organizations
> formed to meet that concern were mainly charities ran by sighted people,
> sheltered workshops, social clubs, schools for the blind, and the
> occasional state-run pension plan. The populations they served were
> generally limited by geography and could, therefore, reasonably be
> addressed by organizations of the blind of similar size and scope, like the
> Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind or the Central Committee of the Blind
> of Illinois.
> But all that changed in 1935 with the passing of the first Social
> Security Act (SSA). Its aim was to protect segments of the population at
> risk of poverty including the unemployed, senior citizens, needy families
> with children, and the blind. It is unsurprising that blind people were
> included in this landmark legislation, since they were seen by society as
> generally uneducable, unemployable, and in need of custodians. This view is
> clear even in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who remarked on
> the third anniversary of the SSA's passing in 1938 that now, "...forty
> thousand blind people are assured of peace and security among familiar
> voices."[?]
> The Social Security Act of 1935 was the first federal legislation to
> address the poverty faced by most blind people. Before the SSA, aid to the
> blind was spotty, unregulated, and varied wildly from state to state. Some
> states did not even have a pension program, while others set their rates so
> low that blind pensioners could not afford to feed themselves. The SSA
> sought to impose standards in welfare and to share the burden of supporting
> the "needy blind" by supplementing state funds with federal contributions.
> On the surface it sounded like a wonderful idea to the politicians
> who voted for it and to the sighted agencies that lobbied for it, and the
> bill was enacted on August 14, 1935. However, not everybody was so
> thrilled.
> From the start blind Americans found problems with Title X, the
> portion of the law which handled aid to the blind, and with the way that it
> was administered. The problems mainly stemmed from the concentrated
> decision-making power placed in the hands of the appointed Social Security
> Board, who set aid rates low and eligibility criteria high. States were
> required to adopt these standards if they wanted to receive the federal
> contributions, which meant that some state programs actually improved.
> However, in other states where larger organizations of the blind had
> already worked hard to get better benefits, the Federal regulations
> threatened to roll back their hard-won gains.
> Perhaps the biggest objection, though, was that the original bill was
> passed largely without input from the people it was meant to help.
> Representatives from seven different organizations for the blind came to
> testify before the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committees,
> including the American Association of Workers for the Blind, the National
> Society for the Prevention of Blindness, and several state commissions and
> agencies for the blind.[?] The only actual blind person to testify before
> Congress concerning the proposed bill was Robert Irwin, representing the
> American Foundation for the Blind and advocating for a smaller pension
> program than was eventually passed into law. So why were these custodial
> national and state organizations of sighted workers for the blind the only
> voices heard in Washington in 1935? The answer is simple: There was no
> national organization of the blind which could address Congress on behalf
> of all blind Americans.
> The National Federation of the Blind was founded in 1940 by Dr.
> Jacobus tenBroek and blind representatives from seven state associations of
> the blind. It was the first national organization created by blind people
> and led by all blind officers with a primarily blind membership. Their goal
> was to promote the economic and social welfare of the blind by securing
> access to three basic rights: security, equality, and opportunity. However,
> looking at the speech given by Dr. tenBroek at the founding meeting, there
> can be little doubt that the NFB's founding focused on the first of these
> rights-security-and that their first mission was to lobby the federal
> government on Social Security.
> In his speech at the founding meeting, Dr. tenBroek called to the
> blind of the nation, saying:
>
>
> There are many goals upon which we can unite: the ultimate
> establishment of a national pension which will eliminate the
> diversities of treatment of the blind among the states and insure an
> adequate support to all; the correction of the vices that have crept
> into the administration of the Social Security Act by seeking its
> amendment in Congress... governmental recognition of the fact that the
> blind are not to be classified as paupers and that they have needs
> peculiar to and arising out of their blindness... adequate methods for
> restraining the influence and defining the place of the social worker
> in the administration of aid laws... legislative and administrative
> encouragement of the blind who are striving to render themselves self-
> supporting... [and] governmental recognition of our inalienable right
> to receive public assistance and still retain our economic, social,
> and political independence...
>
> In 1997, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan succinctly explained why the
> Federation's initial focus rested squarely on security, specifically on the
> need for government aid, saying that, "When the National Federation of the
> Blind came into being almost six decades ago, our problem was simple. It
> was to find enough food to keep body and soul together-not for all of us,
> of course, but for many. If you are hungry, it is hard to think about
> anything else. And the blind were hungry."[?]
> To satisfy this hunger, the NFB immediately began its campaign to
> turn Social Security into a program that truly benefited all blind people.
> As early as 1941, they began sending representatives to urge Congress to
> amend the act. They submitted memoranda and testimony to the House Ways and
> Means Committee and repeatedly called on their growing membership to write
> to Congress in support of their legislative proposals. Also during this
> time, the NFB attempted (not always successfully) to create legislative
> proposals in collaboration with other blindness-related organizations and
> lobbied the labor unions to support their cause.
> Initially, all this hard work seemed to result in not much of
> anything. Aside from a pair of federal $5-a-month-increases to aid benefits
> passed in 1946 and 1948, the SSA saw little change regarding aid for the
> blind throughout the 1940s.[?]
> All this changed on August 28, 1950, when President Truman signed the
> Social Security Amendments of 1950 into law. This was the first major
> overhaul to SSA that affected blind people receiving aid. The changes seem
> basic today, but they clarified much of the vague language in the wording
> of the act. Beyond the usual increase in aid rates, the act now stipulated
> that aid applications had to be processed by state agencies within a
> reasonable amount of time, fair hearings had to be provided when claims
> were denied or not acted upon quickly, and aid had to be furnished promptly
> to all eligible individuals.[?]
> Undeniably though, the greatest change for blind people realized by
> the 1950 amendments was that state aid programs were now required to exempt
> up to $50 a month in earned income when calculating aid payments. According
> to an NFB legislative bulletin, dated May 6, 1950 (when the provision was
> initially passed by the Senate):
>
> These changes represent a forward step of the utmost importance.
> They firmly establish the principle of exempt earnings as a mandatory
> requirement on all of the States. They thus completely reverse the
> policy of the Federal Security Agency by which blind recipients of
> relief suffer a deduction of one dollar in their public assistance for
> every dollar earned by them. By accepting the principles of exempt
> earnings and making it a mandatory requirement on the States, the
> Senate Committee is reorienting the whole system of public assistance
> away from pauperism and permanent dependence and towards
> rehabilitation and opportunity.[?]
>
> The 1950 amendments are arguably the first, although by no means the
> last, major victory in the NFB's campaign to amend Social Security. Over
> the years, the Social Security Act would be amended many more times and
> other laws affecting the livelihood of the blind would be proposed, passed,
> and amended. But as the urgent threat of poverty receded and more blind
> people joined the employment rolls, the Federation began to shift its focus
> to the other two rights that it had championed since its inception:
> equality and opportunity.
>
>
> [1] Grant, Isabelle. Crooked Paths Made Straight.
> [2] tenBroek, Jacobus to Alfred Allen. (1952) Letter, July 17. Jacobus
> tenBroek Personal Pape Grant, Isabelle. Crooked Paths Made Straight.
> [3] tenBroek, Jacobus to Alfred Allen. (1952) Letter, July 17. Jacobus
> tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library, National Federation of
> the Blind Jernigan Institute, Baltimore, MD.
>
> [4] tenBroek, Jacobus. (1956) "Within the Grace of God." Speech, National
> Federation of the Blind National Convention, San Francisco, CA, July 1.
> <https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/convent/tb1956.htm>
> [5] Ibid.
> [6] Maurer, Marc. (2004) "Presidential Report 2004." National Federation of
> the Blind National Convention, Atlanta, GA, July
> 2.<https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/publications/convent/presrep04.htm>
> [7] Maurer, Marc. (2008) "Breaking the Mold: The Power of the
> Unpredictable." Braille Monitor, November.
> <https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081003.htm>
> [8] World Blind Union. (2012) "Universal Postal Union Rules Updates
> Regarding Free Post for the Blind." News release, October.
> <http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/Universal-Postal-Union-
> Rules-Updates-Regarding-Free-Post-for-the-Blind.aspx>
> [9] United Nations. (2006) Article 24, Convention on the Rights of Persons
> with Disabilities.
> <http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml>
>
>
> [i] Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Social Security Program Must Include All
> Those Who Need Its Protection" (radio address on the third anniversary of
> the Social Security Act, August 15, 1938),
> https://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html#radio.
> [ii] "Reports & Studies: Senate Hearings on 1935 Bill,"
> https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/35senate.html.
> [iii] Kenneth Jernigan, "The Day After Civil Rights" (banquet speech,
> National Federation of the Blind 1997 National Convention, New Orleans,
> Louisiana, July 4, 1997),
> https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/banque97.htm.
> [iv] "Achievements of the National Federation of the Blind," June 20, 1950,
> Jacobus tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library.
> [v] Wilbur J. Cohen & Robert J. Myers, "Social Security Act Amendments of
> 1950: A Summary and Legislative History," The Social Security Bulletin
> (October 1950), https://www.ssa.gov/history/1950amend.html.
> [vi] "Legislative bulletin: H.R. 6000-Senate Finance Committee," May 6,
> 1950, Jacobus tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library.
> ----------
> [PHOTO CAPTION: Three members of Elaine's Girl Scout troop at a meeting.
>> From left to right: Missy Wunder, Grace Warn, and Dacia Luck (now Cole).]
> Making Diversity Work
> by Elaine Warn
>
> From the Editor: In these pages we feature a number of articles
> written by blind people giving their perspectives on the world, what it is
> like to be misunderstood, the difficulties in getting an education, and the
> barrier that one must overcome fully to be a part of his or her community.
> Rarely do we get the perspective of someone who can tell us their
> experience when first meeting a blind person and who can demonstrate that
> the same common sense approach works in getting information about blindness
> as it does when trying to learn something about any group different from
> our own.
> Elaine Warn is the mother of Grace Warn, a woman who assists me in
> getting a draft of each month's publication to our proofers. She was the
> Girl Scout leader who needed information about teaching blind people when a
> young Dacia Cole, now the recording secretary for the National Federation
> of the Blind of Missouri, wanted to be a part of her Girl Scout troop. Here
> is what Elaine says:
>
> Once upon a time I worked with girls in a youth organization. At our
> largest, there were twenty-nine in the troop. To say that we were a diverse
> group is an understatement. Over time our membership included girls from
> different ethnicities and religions, a variety of family settings, a wide
> spectrum of economic situations, and a number of different countries.
> Several girls spoke very limited English. There were girls who had asthma,
> two who had seizures, one with a severe skin condition, one with Down
> syndrome, and one who was blind.
> What I learned early on was that I was not alone and that there was a
> wealth of information out there to help me when I had questions. First and
> foremost, sit down with yourself, and get an idea what questions/concerns
> you have. The internet can help with this process, but be aware of the
> limitations and that not all websites are created equal. While searching
> for information on religions, I found that I could learn much about the
> history of a religion and much in general about a faith, however, none of
> it told me exactly what the specific family in my troop believed/practiced.
> In fact, when I met with the father of a girl from Saudi Arabia, I came
> with a large stack of information-books and pamphlets with post-its marking
> things that needed clarification. It took some time, but when we were done,
> I had a clear idea of what his sect practiced.
> I found that the school was also a wealth of helpful information as
> long as I asked questions that weren't specific to my girl. Example: I
> could ask for suggestions for working with a blind student for activities.
> I couldn't ask how the school did activities with Dacia. I was given
> contact information for someone who worked for the state of Missouri who
> gave me some wonderful suggestions that made things easier.
> Obviously, you need to talk with the parents; sometimes that can mean
> having two separate conversations if the parents are divorced and not
> speaking to each other. Parents should have a lot of the answers and
> suggestions. For Dacia I needed to know about mobility. She used a cane,
> however, I was clueless as to whether we should offer an arm, elbow, hand-
> which arm-and whether it is better to assist from the right or left.
> Alternatively, is it better not to touch and just talk a lot.
> The troop did crafts and camping. I needed to know her skill level
> using scissors, knives, etc. All of the girls packed their clothes in large
> zippy bags with one day's outfit in each bag. It made getting dressed quick
> and kept their clothes dry should it rain. For my blind girl this was
> perfect; her parents just needed to affix a Braille label so she could find
> the right bag. All of the activities and adventures we did were possible
> with the right planning and information, and she wasn't even the most
> dangerous one with a flaming marshmallow when it came to making s'mores.
> It all comes down to knowledge and taking a moment to think. You have
> to sit down and figure out what you don't know or when what you do know
> will need altering to work for everyone. From there, it's a question of
> deciding what questions you need to ask, who you need to ask, and finding
> answers. With those answers you can make adjustments to activities so they
> will be accessible and enjoyable to everyone. Whether the adjustment is
> tracing the lines on a paper with a crayon so that Dacia can feel them to
> cut the craft out herself, changing the menu of a troop campout because
> it's over Lent and one girl can't eat meat, or buying all-beef hotdogs so
> that your Muslim girl can enjoy them too; or knowing exactly which parent
> is picking up from the meeting this week according to the custody
> agreement. The answer may not be immediately apparent, but with a little
> thought and open communication between everyone involved, you can make it
> happen.
> ----------
> The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund
> by Allen Harris
>
> From the Editor: Allen Harris is the chairman of the Kenneth Jernigan
> Fund Committee and was one of the people who came up with the idea of
> honoring our former president and longtime leader by establishing a program
> to promote attendance at the national convention, where so much inspiration
> and learning occur. Here is Allen's announcement about the 2016 Kenneth
> Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Program:
>
> Have you always wanted to attend an NFB annual convention but have
> not done so because of the lack of funds? The Kenneth Jernigan Convention
> Scholarship Fund invites you to make an application for a scholarship
> grant. Perhaps this July you too can be in the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in
> Orlando, Florida, enjoying the many pleasures and learning opportunities at
> the largest and most important yearly convention of blind people in the
> world.
> The three biggest ticket items you need to cover when attending an
> NFB national convention are the roundtrip transportation, the hotel room
> for a week, and the food (which tends to be higher priced than at home). We
> attempt to award additional funds to families, but, whether a family or an
> individual is granted a scholarship, this fund can only help; it won't pay
> all the costs. Last year most of the sixty grants were in the range of $400
> to $500 per individual.
> We recommend that you find an NFB member as your personal convention
> mentor, someone who has been to many national conventions and is able to
> share money-saving tips with you and tips on navigating the extensive
> agenda in the big hotel. Your mentor will help you get the most out of the
> amazing experience that is convention week.
>
> Who is eligible?
> Active NFB members, blind or sighted, who have not yet attended an
> NFB national convention because of lack of funding are eligible to apply.
>
> How do I apply for funding assistance?
> 1. You write a letter giving your contact information, and your local
> NFB information, your specific amount requested, and then explain why this
> is a good investment for the NFB. The points to cover are listed below.
> 2. You contact your state president in person or by phone to request
> his or her help in obtaining funding. Be sure to tell the president when to
> expect your request letter by email, and mention the deadline.
> 3. You (or a friend) send your letter by email to your state
> president. He or she must add a president's recommendation and then email
> both letters directly to the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund
> Committee. Your president must forward the two letters no later than April
> 15, 2016.
>
> Your letter to Chairperson Allen Harris must cover these points:
> .Your full name, and all your telephone numbers and label them-cell phone,
> home, office, other person (if any).
> .Your mailing address and, if you have one, your email address.
> .Your state affiliate and state president; your chapter and chapter
> president, if you attend a chapter.
> .Your personal convention mentor, and provide that person's phone number.
> .Your specific request:
> Explain how much money you need from this fund to make this trip
> possible for you. We suggest you consult with other members to make a rough
> budget for yourself.
>
> The body of your letter should answer these questions:
> How do you currently participate in the Federation? Why do you want
> to attend a national convention? What would you receive; what can you share
> or give? You can include in your letter to the committee any special
> circumstances you hope they will take into consideration.
>
> When will I be notified that I am a winner?
> If you are chosen to receive this scholarship, you will receive a
> letter with convention details that should answer most of your questions.
> The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May 15,
> but you must do several things before that to be prepared to attend if you
> are chosen:
> 1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from
> attending, you can cancel the reservation. (Yes, you may arrange for
> roommates of your own to reduce the cost.)
> 2. Register online for the entire convention, including the banquet,
> by May 31.
> 3. Find someone in your chapter or affiliate who has been to many
> conventions and can answer your questions as a friend and advisor.
> 4. If you do not hear from the committee by May 15, then you did not
> win a grant this year.
>
> How will I receive my convention scholarship?
> At convention you will be given a debit card or credit card loaded
> with the amount of your award. The times and locations to pick up your card
> will be listed in the letter we send you. The committee is not able to
> provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and state
> affiliate to assist you by obtaining an agreement to advance funds if you
> win a scholarship and to pay your treasury back after you receive your
> debit or credit card.
> What if I have more questions? For additional information email the
> chairman, Allen Harris, at <kjscholarships at nfb.org> or call his Baltimore,
> Maryland, office at (410) 659-9314, extension 2415.
> Above all, please use this opportunity to attend your first
> convention on the national level and join several thousand active
> Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind in the world. We
> hope to see you in Orlando.
> ----------
> Recipes
>
> Over the course of the past year, because of various projects
> relating to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the National Federation of the
> Blind, we at the Monitor found ourselves looking back in the archives at
> old issues for various reasons. As we looked for other articles, we noticed
> that there were quite a number of delicious-looking recipes hiding in the
> past. So, instead of waiting for someone to write in and request that we
> reprint a specific recipe, we decided to showcase a few of the recipes that
> we felt deserved another look.
>
> Spinach Dip
> by John Halverson
>
> This recipe first appeared in the October 1998 Monitor with this
> introduction: Dr. John Halverson is the president of the Public Employees
> Division and a longtime leader in the NFB. He is the Regional Manager,
> Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
> Region VII, located in Kansas City, Missouri.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 pound mild Mexican Velveeta cheese with jalapeño peppers
> 1 large jar picante sauce, medium
> 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach
> 1 4-ounce can green chilies
>
> Method: In a large bowl microwave spinach and break into small pieces
> with a fork. Add picante sauce and chilies (including liquid) and microwave
> for two minutes more. Cube the cheese, add to mixture, and return to
> microwave for four minutes or until cheese is completely melted. Mix
> thoroughly and serve with blue corn chips. To increase the heat, substitute
> hotter picante sauce or hotter cheese.
> ----------
> Island Fruits with Cottage Cheese Honey Lime Dip
> by Nani Fife
>
> This recipe first appeared in the March 2001 Monitor and was offered
> by the NFB of Hawaii president, Nani Fife.
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 platter of fresh fruit (sliced melon, strawberries, pineapple, etc.)
> 4 cups low-fat cottage cheese
> 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
> 1/4 cup honey
> 1 cup orange juice
> 1/2 cup blackberries
> 1/2 cup blueberries
> 1/2 cup raspberries
>
> Method: Beginning with the cottage cheese, combine all dip ingredients in a
> blender until smooth. This fruit platter is an ideal dessert for a party
> buffet.
> ----------
> Spaghetti Pizza(
> by Debraghetti Pizza?
> by Debra Smith
>
> This recipe first appeared in the June 1993 Monitor and was submitted
> by Debra, an active member of the Black Hawk Chapter of the National
> Federation of the Blind of Iowa.
>
> Ingredients:
> 15 ounces uncooked spaghetti noodles?
> 2 eggs?
> 1/2 cup skim milk?
> 10 1/2 ounces mozzarella cheese?
> 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder?
> 4 ounces ground beef?
> 2 15-ounce containers Weight Watchers spaghetti sauce
>
> Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook spaghetti according to
> label directions and drain. Beat eggs. Add milk and four ounces of cheese.
> Add spaghetti. Spread on jelly roll or pizza pan covered with cooking
> spray. Form an edge. Bake fifteen minutes. Remove from oven and reduce heat
> to 350 degrees. Spread sauce on crust. Sprinkle surface with garlic powder.
> Top with ground meat and remaining cheese. Bake thirty minutes. Serves ten.
> ----------
> No-Fuss Chicken?
> by Betty Capps
>
> This recipe first appeared in the April 1996 Monitor. Betty Capps was
> the first lady of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina at
> the time, and the recipe ran with this introduction: This recipe could
> hardly be simpler to prepare. The chicken gets a wonderful tangy taste, and
> no one will know you used convenient ingredients like a bottle of salad
> dressing and onion soup mix unless you tell them.?
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 16-ounce bottle Russian or Catalina salad dressing
> 2/3 cup apricot preserves
> 2 envelopes dry onion soup mix
> 16 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves?
>
> Method: In a bowl combine dressing, preserves, and soup mix. Place
> chicken in two ungreased eleven-by-seven-by-two-inch baking pans, top with
> dressing mixture. Cover and bake for twenty minutes at 350 degrees. Baste,
> and bake uncovered twenty minutes longer or until chicken juices run clear.
> Yields sixteen servings.?
> ----------
> Wild Rice Casserole
> by Corinne Whitesell
>
> This recipe first appeared in the February 1992 Monitor. Corinne
> Whitesell was the treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind of
> Alaska at the time, and she had this to say about the casserole: This
> recipe is a favorite in the North and goes well with wild game. For the
> folks in the lower forty-eight, chicken or turkey can substitute for wild
> game.
>
> Ingredients:?
> 1 cup wild rice?
> 1 stick butter ?
> 1/2 cup slivered almonds?
> 1 pound fresh mushrooms?
> 1 bunch green onions?
> 3 cups chicken broth
>
> Method: Chop the green onions and mushrooms and sauté together.
> Combine with the rest of the ingredients and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350
> degrees in an oven-proof casserole dish. Fluff rice with a fork before
> serving.
> ----------
> Run For the Roses Pie
> by Mary Heaven
>
> This recipe first appeared in the April/May 1985 Monitor, and
> included this introduction to the recipe and the person who submitted it:
> Mary Heaven is one of the leaders of the NFB of Kentucky. Since we are
> holding the national convention in Louisville this summer, her recipe seems
> particularly appropriate. She writes: "Dear Monitor readers: Here is a
> recipe to start you thinking about your trip to the Derby City for our
> national convention this year. The recipe has many variations in name and
> content and is often served at festivities during derby week."
>
> Ingredients:
> 1 cup chocolate chips
> 3 eggs slightly beaten
> 1 cup sugar
> 1/2 cup butter or margarine (melted)
> 1/2 cup flour
> 1 cup walnuts coarsely broken
> 1 tablespoon vanilla
> 9" unbaked pie shell
>
> Method: Mix flour and sugar; add eggs and butter; fold in nuts,
> chocolate chips, and vanilla; pour into shell and bake at 350 degrees for
> thirty minutes. Best served warm with whipped cream.
> ----------
> Strawberry Rhubarb Pie?
> by Betty Bowman
>
> This recipe appeared in the May 1990 Monitor in a collection of
> strawberry-themed recipes. Betty had this to say about her recipe: While we
> were collecting these recipes, I promised several people that a strawberry
> rhubarb pie would be included. Someone even promised to send me a favorite
> recipe for one, but, of course, I have forgotten who that kind soul was,
> and no recipe appeared. I do not make this pie because my husband does not
> care for rhubarb, but I love it. This is my mother's version, and I can
> attest to its excellence. As a child I considered that the risk of
> encountering snakes was well worth the anxiety when strawberry rhubarb pie
> was the reward.
>
> Ingredients: ?
> pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie?
> 2 cups of washed, hulled, and sliced strawberries?
> 2 cups of sliced rhubarb stalks?
> 1-1/3 cups sugar?
> 6 tablespoons flour?
> 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel?
> 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
> 1-1/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
>
> Method: In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and orange
> peel. Stir well to spread the flour through the sugar. Add the fruit and
> stir to coat rhubarb and strawberries with the dry ingredients. Line a 9-
> inch pie plate with rolled pastry and fill with the fruit. Dot the top with
> butter or margarine. Then roll the top crust and slash the center several
> times so that the steam can escape. Carefully lay the crust across the top
> of the pie and seal the edges. Bake for forty to fifty minutes at 425
> degrees.
> ----------
>
> Monitor Miniatures
>
> News from the Federation Family
>
> Writers' Division 2016 Writing Contest:
> The 2016 writing contest has gotten under way. Sponsored by the
> Writers' Division of the National Federation of the Blind, it is a contest
> for writers of all ages of youth and adults, with the youth contest being
> done to promote literacy in Braille. There are two new things to be aware
> of for this year: one, members of the Writers' Division will have
> discounted entry fees; and two, there is a new category in the youth
> contest.
> This new category is called Federation History. Entries can be written
> in any form or genre, but must pertain to the history of the National
> Federation of the Blind. The best of this category will have the chance to
> present their piece at the National Convention in Orlando this July to the
> National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. In the youth contest,
> there are still the traditional categories of poetry and fiction, all of
> which are broken down by grade level.
> In the adult contest, there are four categories: poetry, fiction,
> nonfiction, and stories for youth. Be sure to read through the guidelines
> for all specifics. These can be found at
> <http://writers.nfb.org/ContestPage.html>. And remember, the contest closes
> on April 1st so that the results can be announced at the July business
> meeting in Orlando. If you have any further questions, contact Eve Sanchez,
> president of the Writers' Division at <thirdeyeonlyinaz at gmail.com>.
> Now go put on your thinking caps and limber up your fingers to start
> writing the words you want. We cannot wait to read them all.
>
> Circle City Chapter Celebrates Twelfth Annual Angel Child Gifting and
> Service Award Banquet:
> On December 5, 2015, The Circle City Chapter of the National
> Federation of the Blind of Indiana celebrated its twelfth annual Angel
> Child Gifting and Service Award Banquet. This program assists qualified
> families coping with blindness to overcome some of the holiday obstacles
> and also honors members in the community with twenty-five years or more of
> service while raising the expectations of blind citizens.
> This year's honorees were Mr. William (Bill) Powell, director of
> assistive technology of Bosma Enterprises; Mrs. Brenda Jinks, orientation
> and mobility instructor; and Miss Nancy Ford Winters, social worker/Social
> Security advocate. Each recipient has thirty-five years of service and
> continues to strive in their specified careers.
> This year's keynote speaker was Mr. James Michaels, vice president of
> programs, Bosma Enterprises, and his speech was "Keys To Success and
> Happiness."
>
> Free Braille Books Available:
> Great news! Every blind or visually-impaired child (ages zero to
> twenty-one) in the US and Canada may now get three free books from
> Seedlings Braille Books for Children! Seedlings has expanded its Book Angel
> Program for 2016. The program was originally called "Anna's Book Angel
> Project" in memory of our Director's nineteen-year-old daughter who was
> killed by a drunk driver in 2001. Each year, every blind child registered
> received one free book in Anna's name, but thanks to Seedlings' generous
> donors, that number is now three! Just register your child or student by
> going to <http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel2009.php>.
> For more information about the program, or about Seedlings Braille
> Books for Children in general, check out our website at
> <www.seedlings.org>, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
> (@SeedlingsBrlBks).
>
> KNFB Reader App Wins Golden Apple:
> Since its launch in 2012, the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards have
> afforded blind and low vision users an opportunity to recognize and
> acknowledge the hard work and dedication which developers have put into
> making great and accessible iOS and OS X applications during the given
> year.
> To be shortlisted for this year's Golden Apple Awards, apps must:
> . Be fully accessible to blind and low vision users.
> . Have been launched or significantly updated during 2015.
> . Be from a developer with a demonstrated and long-term commitment to
> full accessibility.
> . Demonstrate excellence in design, functionality, and operation.
>
> Candidates for Developer of the Year must:
> . Have a long-standing, exemplary commitment to making their apps fully
> accessible to blind and low vision users.
> . Be receptive and responsive to the needs of blind and low vision users
> in a timely manner.
> . Have delivered significant new features or updates to their app(s)
> during 2015, particularly updates which directly benefit blind and low
> vision users.
>
>
> The 2015 AppleVis Golden Apples consist of awards in five categories:
> . Best iOS App
> . Best iOS Game
> . Best Assistive iOS App
> . Best Mac App
> . Developer of the Year
>
> For the Best iOS App of 2015, the AppleVis community chose Workflow:
> Powerful Automation Made Simple <https://itunes.apple.com/app/workflow-
> powerful-automation/id915249334?ign-mpt=uo%3D8>. Perhaps not surprising as
> Workflow has already won an Apple Design Award this year for its VoiceOver
> support and been rated an App Store Best of 2015. 1Password - Password
> Manager and Secure Wallet
> <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1password/id568903335?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8>
> took second place, and Overcast: Podcast Player
> <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-
> player/id888422857?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> came third.
> In the closest ever vote in the history of these Awards, Dice World -
> Dice with Friends! <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dice-world-farkle-yatzy-
> balut/id553269986?mt=8> took the Golden Apple for Best iOS Game of 2015. A
> Blind Legend <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-blind-
> legend/id973483154?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> followed as a very close second,
> and Blindfold Bowling <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindfold-
> bowling/id1038994263?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> was just a handful of votes
> further back in third place.
> In a landslide vote, the AppleVis community voted KNFBReader
> <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knfbreader/id849732663?mt=8&ign-
> mpt=uo%3D8> Best Assistive iOS App of 2015. BlindSquare
> <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindsquare/id500557255?mt=8&ign-
> mpt=uo%3D8> took second place, and Be My Eyes - helping blind see
> <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/be-my-eyes-helping-blind-
> see/id905177575?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> placed third.
> Audio Hijack <http://rogueamoeba.com/> was voted as the best Mac app
> of 2015 by a wide margin. 1Password - Password Manager and Secure Wallet
> came in second, and LaunchBar
> <https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html> placed third.
> Kid Friendly Software (Creator of the 'Blindfold' series of iOS audio
> games; <https://stemmiami.wordpress.com/>) was voted as the Developer of
> the Year, with MIPsoft (Creator of BlindSquare; <http://blindsquare.com/>)
> and DeskConnect, Inc. (Creator of Workflow - Powerful Automation Made
> Simple; <https://workflow.is/>) rounding out the top three.
>
> Robert Vick Wins Another Award:
> Lifetime-member of the NFB of New Mexico Robert Vick won the US
> Food's Food Fanatic Hero Award for the menu in his restaurant, Vick's
> Vittles Country Kitchen, but also for his generosity and employment of
> disabled people. Earlier this year, Robert also won the New Mexico
> Restaurant Association's Restauranteur of the Year award, during the
> organization's Hospitality Industry Awards September 14, 2015.
> The NFB of New Mexico's Albuquerque Chapter meets each month at
> Vick's Vittles Country Kitchen for our local chapter meeting. Many of those
> nights, Robert is on hand greeting his guests as well as chapter members to
> his place of business. The chapter has been meeting at Vick's free of
> charge for the past several years.
> The year 2015 has been full of ups and downs for Robert. We in the
> Albuquerque Chapter thank Robert for his generosity and congratulate him on
> his latest honor.
>
>
> 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.
>
> Three New Courses on Unified English Braille:
> The Hadley School for the Blind's UEB Braille classes have been the
> most popular of any of our course offerings since our inception ninety-five
> years ago. We are pleased to announce two new Braille courses:
>
> UEB Braille Literacy 3: Uncontracted Braille available February 29,
> 2016:
> Increase your ability to read and write Braille by learning
> uncontracted Braille in which every word is written out letter for letter
> (often called grade one Braille). The course covers the Braille alphabet,
> numbers, punctuation, and some special signs. Directions for using the
> Braillewriter as well as the slate and stylus are included.
> Prerequisite: "Braille Literacy 1: Tactile Readiness" and "Braille
> Literacy 2: Learning the Braille Alphabet," or the ability to read all
> letters of the Braille alphabet by touch.
> Course ID: EBR-923, Media: DTB [digital talking book] with UEB
> workbook; Lessons: nine.
> This tuition-free course is designed for Hadley students who are
> blind only-not for sighted family members in our Family program or for
> sighted blindness professionals in our HSPS program.
>
> UEB Contracted Braille available March 31, 2016:
> The Braille code used for most written material is contracted
> Braille. Being able to read and write in contracted Unified English Braille
> (UEB) will enable you to assist your family member or client who is blind.
> After attaining this goal, you may decide to advance your Braille skills by
> enrolling in a professional transcriber course or other advanced Braille
> and Braille teaching courses.
> Prerequisite: Completion of Hadley's "Introduction to Braille" within
> six months prior to enrollment in "Contracted Braille" and with a grade of
> B or higher OR adequate competency as determined by Hadley's "Uncontracted
> Braille Assessment."
> Course ID: CBR-213, CBR-223, Media: OL [online] or P [print];
> Lessons: twenty-five
> This course is designed for sighted students in either our Family or
> HSPS (blindness professionals) programs.
>
> An Uncontracted Braille Assessment is also available on March 31,
> 2016. Here is some information about it:
> Have you learned uncontracted Braille in another setting, or has it
> been over six months since you completed Hadley's "Introduction to Braille"
> or "Introduction to Braille, UEB Edition" course? Enrollment in "Contracted
> Braille, UEB Edition" requires a certain level of proficiency with
> uncontracted Braille. This short assessment measures your ability to read
> and emboss letters, numbers, and a variety of punctuation marks in
> uncontracted Braille. The results determine which Braille course is
> appropriate for you.
> Assessment: UBA-010, Media: LP [large print] or OL [online]; Lessons:
> 1
> This assessment is designed for sighted students in either our Family
> or our HSPS (blindness professionals) programs.
> Prospective and current students should call Toll Free: 800-323-4238
> to ensure course availability-enrollment dates are subject to change.
>
> Norwegian Cruise Lines Demonstrates Continued Commitment to Accessibility:
> Norwegian Cruise Lines recently christened a new ship, Escape. The
> christening was a special two-day event, open only to those agents and
> press personally invited to attend. Because of all the work Cheryl and
> Nelson Echevarria have done with Norwegian Cruise Lines, they were part of
> the select crowd at this event. It wasn't all champagne and Pitbull
> concerts, though. Cheryl got the chance to speak to Cathy Vazquez, access
> manager of Norwegian Cruise Lines and Mr. Andrew Garnett, president and CEO
> of Special Needs Group. There were three specific topics that Cheryl
> addressed with Ms. Vazquez and Mr. Garnett: the Norwegian Cruise Lines app,
> the KNFB reader, and the introduction of Braille onboard Norwegian Cruise
> Lines ships.
> The Norwegian Cruise Lines iConcierge app is free to download on
> Apple or Google Play Store, but unless you are booked on the cruise line,
> you do not have access to it at all. The app is to help you make dining
> reservations, spa reservations, and find out about activities going on
> across the ship. Some of it worked, and some did not. Ms. Vazquez took
> notes on the problem areas of the app to pass on to the appropriate people.
> The KNFB Reader app for Android had just come out the week before,
> and Cheryl took the opportunity to demonstrate how the app could be used to
> read a print menu. Both Ms. Vazquez and Mr. Garnett were impressed and
> interested in how the app would make cruising easy and accessible for their
> customers.
> The final bit of business they discussed was about Braille. Currently
> Norwegian Cruise Lines is offering Braille menus produced through Special
> Needs Group. The company also handles guide dog relief boxes, wheelchair
> and scooter rental, and many other services and products. But Ms. Vazquez
> told Cheryl that Norwegian Cruise Lines is testing and learning to use
> Braille embossers so that, when they have a customer who reads Braille, all
> of their printed materials can be offered in Braille for the customer's
> convenience. The ultimate goal is to have the Braille materials ready and
> waiting for the customer in their cabin upon arrival.
>
> New State Resource Handbooks Available:
> I have created ten screen reader-friendly Resource Handbooks
> containing resources pertaining to the blind and visually impaired, for use
> by consumers and professionals. This handbook is for the residents of those
> states and includes the many organizations for the blind and visually
> impaired covering areas such as employment, housing, transportation, and
> more. Currently available are handbooks for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
> California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
> The handbook includes contact information on the local, regional, and
> national level.
> For more information on pricing and formats please contact Insightful
> Publications by email at <insightfulpub at gmail.com>, by phone at (808) 747-
> 1006, or visit our website at <http://www.in-sightful.com/orderpage.html>.
>
> UEB Course Offering for People Who Want to Read Braille Visually:
> Want to read Braille visually? This introductory course provides the
> tools for those interested in learning to read and write Braille, so they
> can communicate with family members who use Braille. It presents the
> fundamentals of the Braille code, including the letters of the alphabet,
> numbers, and punctuation. The goal is to enable you to read and write
> uncontracted Unified English Braille (UEB). The course includes nine
> lessons and is available in print and online. A slate and stylus is mailed
> to the student. Interactive programs that simulate the Braillewriter and
> the slate and stylus are included in the online course only. These programs
> are for practice purposes and cannot be used to produce Braille.
> For more information contact Sheryl Bass, Hadley School for the Blind
> by writing to <Sheryl at hadley.edu> or by calling (847) 784-2751.
> ----------
> 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.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Brl-monitor mailing list
> Brl-monitor at nfbcal.org
> https://nfbcal.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/brl-monitor
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>See below for the latest issue of the Braille Monitor. <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> January 29, 2016 at 10:12:58 AM CST<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:brl-monitor at nfbcal.org">brl-monitor at nfbcal.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Brl-monitor] The Braille Monitor, February 2016</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. 59, No. 2 February 2016</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</span><br><span>drive, with the audio version being available in both Spanish and English</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> 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>ISSN 0006-8829</span><br><span>© 2016 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>[PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance to Rosen Shingle</span><br><span>Creek Resort]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Orlando Site of 2016 NFB Convention</span><br><span></span><br><span> The 2016 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take</span><br><span>place in Orlando, Florida, June 30 to July 5, at the Rosen Shingle Creek</span><br><span>Resort, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. Make your</span><br><span>room reservation as soon as possible with the Shingle Creek staff only.</span><br><span>Call (866) 996-6338.</span><br><span> The 2016 room rates are singles and doubles, $83; and for triples and</span><br><span>quads $89. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at</span><br><span>present is 13.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under</span><br><span>seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested.</span><br><span>The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required</span><br><span>to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if</span><br><span>notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before May 27,</span><br><span>2016. The other 50 percent is not refundable.</span><br><span> Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.</span><br><span>Reservations may be made before May 27, 2016, assuming that rooms are still</span><br><span>available. After that time the hotel will not hold our room block for the</span><br><span>convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.</span><br><span> All Rosen Shingle Creek guestrooms feature amenities that include</span><br><span>plush Creek Sleeper beds, 40" flat screen TVs, complimentary high-speed</span><br><span>internet capabilities, in-room safes, coffee makers, mini-fridges, and hair</span><br><span>dryers. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site</span><br><span>spa. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort has a number of dining options,</span><br><span>including two award-winning restaurants, and twenty-four-hour-a-day room</span><br><span>service.</span><br><span> The schedule for the 2016 convention is:</span><br><span>Thursday, June 30 Seminar Day</span><br><span>Friday, July 1 Registration Day</span><br><span>Saturday, July 2 Board Meeting and Division Day</span><br><span>Sunday, July 3 Opening Session</span><br><span>Monday, July 4 Business Session</span><br><span>Tuesday, July 5 Banquet Day and Adjournment</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Vol. 59, No. 2</span><br><span>February 2016</span><br><span></span><br><span> Contents</span><br><span></span><br><span>Illustration: NFB BELL Academy December Seminar Highlights</span><br><span></span><br><span>A Dustup in Oklahoma and Its Importance to Blind Oklahomans</span><br><span>by Gary Wunder</span><br><span></span><br><span>Brad Smith's Address at the 2015 Accessibility Summit</span><br><span></span><br><span>A Modern-Day Pioneer in Our Midst: An Attempt to Say Thank You to a Civil</span><br><span>Rights Leader for the Blind</span><br><span>by Gary Wunder</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Blind in the World: From Paternalism to Self-Determination</span><br><span>by Fredric K. Schroeder</span><br><span></span><br><span>NAC: What Price Accreditation</span><br><span>by Kenneth Jernigan</span><br><span></span><br><span>Introducing Braille: Begin With a Positive Experience</span><br><span>by Doris Willoughby</span><br><span></span><br><span>Blindness: The Pattern of Freedom</span><br><span>by Kenneth Jernigan</span><br><span></span><br><span>How the First Self-Advocacy Organization of the Blind Met the Challenge of</span><br><span>Social Security, 1940-1950</span><br><span>by Anna Kresmer</span><br><span></span><br><span>Making Diversity Work</span><br><span>by Elaine Warn</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund</span><br><span>by Allen Harris</span><br><span></span><br><span>Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span>Monitor Miniatures</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Cane walk in the lunchroom: Corrb O'Connor (KY) leads James</span><br><span>Bevels (NC) on a Cane Walk under learning shades in the lunchroom of the</span><br><span>National Center for the Blind in Baltimore, MD.</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Participants cutting out materials during a hands-on</span><br><span>activity: (Left to right) Mary Jo Partyka (NJ) cuts out a face that has</span><br><span>raised lines on its perimeter for accessibility while Rebecca Sherman (ID)</span><br><span>reads the lesson plan for this activity from the NFB BELL Academy</span><br><span>curriculum. Alison Steven (ID) and Debbie Wunder (MO) tactually review</span><br><span>their cut-out faces.</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Participants making a beach ball make sound by adding</span><br><span>spaghetti noodles and rice: (Left to right) Wendy Bybee (UT) adds spaghetti</span><br><span>noodles to a beach ball so that it will make sounds when NFB BELL Academy</span><br><span>participants use it in a lesson. Beside her, Katie Chevalier (UT) does the</span><br><span>same with rice as the noise-making material.</span><br><span> NFB BELL Academy December Seminar Highlights</span><br><span></span><br><span> Each year, state coordinators and teachers from around the nation</span><br><span>gather to discuss upcoming Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning</span><br><span>(BELL) programs that will be conducted in their states. Teaching Braille to</span><br><span>young students in a two-week program can be challenging, and especially</span><br><span>when the students range in age from four to twelve years old. Since there</span><br><span>is no requirement that students come, at least part of the success of the</span><br><span>program must be in making what is done not only educational but fun.</span><br><span> At this year's BELL Academy, where the job was to train the trainers,</span><br><span>fifty-seven participants from thirty-one states and the District of</span><br><span>Columbia joined in the learning. Lodging and meals were provided for all,</span><br><span>and travel costs for one person from each state was provided. Twenty-eight</span><br><span>hours of training helped to fill a busy three-day seminar. But it isn't</span><br><span>just about the scheduled training. BELL Academy gives BELL coordinators and</span><br><span>teachers from across the country a chance to mingle, sharing experiences,</span><br><span>tips, tricks, and support as they prepare for the 2016 BELL sessions. A</span><br><span>single session was devoted to letting veteran BELL teachers and</span><br><span>coordinators share their experiences, while other sessions covered topics</span><br><span>like training for Facebook novices, specific strategies for using social</span><br><span>media to advertise BELL, grant writing, insurance and liability, and many</span><br><span>other topics.</span><br><span> Attendees got a chance to practice actual lessons and hands-on</span><br><span>activities from the curriculum including Braille Twister, UEB or Not To BE,</span><br><span>Cane Walks, Stick Out Your Braille Tongue, Splash Words, Drawing With Your</span><br><span>Perkins Brailler, Slides and Mountains, Frogs Do Jump High, Spreading 101</span><br><span>and All About Spreads, Pouring Practice, Beach Ball Braille (Letters,</span><br><span>Contractions, Nemeth, and Words), and making homemade scented play dough.</span><br><span> If the teachers got to have that much fun, just imagine how</span><br><span>interesting, amazing, and exciting the summer of 2016 will be for those</span><br><span>states lucky enough to have a BELL Program.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Director Joe Cordova]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Division Administrator Douglas Boone]</span><br><span> A Dustup in Oklahoma and Its Importance to Blind Oklahomans</span><br><span> by Gary Wunder</span><br><span></span><br><span> In the June 2013 issue of the Braille Monitor, the lead article was</span><br><span>"The Rehabilitation System in Oklahoma: Progress, Setbacks, and the Hope</span><br><span>for Greater Opportunities." It revealed that two leading rehabilitation</span><br><span>officials were fired or resigned three days apart, and the article</span><br><span>discussed the reasons for their severance. More importantly, it discussed</span><br><span>the progress that had been made in providing rehabilitation services to the</span><br><span>blind of Oklahoma and expressed the hope that it would not be derailed by</span><br><span>the inappropriate behavior of its previous rehabilitation officials.</span><br><span> The fear that elected officials in Oklahoma would retreat from the</span><br><span>task of improving their rehabilitation system by promoting low-profile</span><br><span>bureaucrats and ordering them to keep rehabilitation services below the</span><br><span>radar was unfounded. Oklahoma moved boldly to hire Joe Cordova as the</span><br><span>executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services</span><br><span>(ODRS) in December of 2013. His work in the field is well known to members</span><br><span>of the National Federation of the Blind and professionals in the field of</span><br><span>rehabilitation, having distinguished himself throughout the country as an</span><br><span>innovative and hard-working leader in getting services leading to</span><br><span>employment. He has been the assistant commissioner for services for the</span><br><span>blind in New Mexico, headed the Division for the Blind in the</span><br><span>Rehabilitation Services Administration, became a regional commissioner in</span><br><span>that agency, and then moved to Hawaii to head their general rehabilitation</span><br><span>agency. "We want people to have good jobs at good wages, and we want to</span><br><span>avoid providing the kind of minimalist service that leads to them coming</span><br><span>back to the department again and again because they don't make enough money</span><br><span>or the employment doesn't represent something they really want to do."</span><br><span>Cordova is emphatic in his conviction that the bar for his agency is not</span><br><span>met or exceeded by helping clients secure entry-level employment and then</span><br><span>walking away with the agency feeling satisfied that it has a case closure.</span><br><span>The agency should feel that it has been successful only when it has helped</span><br><span>one of its consumers to find employment where they make a good, sustainable</span><br><span>living wage. Cordova believes that achieving this goal can often require</span><br><span>several years of hard work to produce these results, but he notes with</span><br><span>pride that the wages of disabled customers in Oklahoma went up by 5 percent</span><br><span>this year. This is happening in a state that is currently suffering</span><br><span>significant financial difficulty as a result of lower oil prices and the</span><br><span>need to dramatically cut government expenditures.</span><br><span> Many of the changes brought by Cordova have been warmly welcomed, and</span><br><span>as we detail those that deal specifically with rehabilitation for the blind</span><br><span>later in this article, it is easy to see why blind residents of Oklahoma</span><br><span>are embracing the changes. One change, however, that has generated some</span><br><span>controversy is the replacement of the superintendent of the Oklahoma School</span><br><span>for the Blind, a department which falls under Cordova's jurisdiction.</span><br><span>Cordova says that the decision to dismiss Dr. James Adams was difficult and</span><br><span>that he made it after it became clear that he and Adams did not share the</span><br><span>same vision for student success. Cordova says that Adams did a good job in</span><br><span>coordinating the day-to-day activities of the school, but his expectations</span><br><span>of students and the careers that might be theirs were not consistent with</span><br><span>Cordova's. "We need a long-term vision for people at the school. Our data</span><br><span>for a six-year period clearly demonstrated that graduates of the school</span><br><span>performed below blind students who attended public school. I believe that</span><br><span>the expectation for students should be that they will get an education</span><br><span>beyond their post-secondary experience." But Cordova said this was not what</span><br><span>Dr. Adams envisioned. Cordova says that Adams believed that the</span><br><span>superintendent should not be encouraging students to go to college and that</span><br><span>their demonstrated failure to thrive in this environment was an indication</span><br><span>that they could not. Cordova believes that the more appropriate view for</span><br><span>the school and the rehabilitation agency to take is that the failure of the</span><br><span>students is more likely the result of deficiencies in training that the</span><br><span>school should identify and address. He believes that the school needs to</span><br><span>assess how it's doing in providing academics, independent living skills,</span><br><span>and extracurricular activities and to use these assessments to improve the</span><br><span>ability of the school's students to face the challenges they must meet to</span><br><span>succeed in the world today. "If we aren't producing successful students,</span><br><span>either something in the curriculum needs to be changed or maybe we need to</span><br><span>give them some remedial courses, tutoring, and other support services that</span><br><span>will help them get to that place."</span><br><span> The charge has been made that changes at the school for the blind</span><br><span>have occurred in an attempt to eliminate the residential school. Cordova</span><br><span>says this couldn't be further from the truth. "As a former blind student</span><br><span>who has attended a school for the blind from age five until graduation in</span><br><span>my home state of New Mexico, I believe I can speak from personal experience</span><br><span>as to the many benefits of attending a specialized residential school for</span><br><span>the blind, benefits which are not always readily available in regular</span><br><span>public schools. I attribute much of my success over the years directly to</span><br><span>the programs and services offered in a special residential school for the</span><br><span>blind, and I want future blind students to have the same opportunity to</span><br><span>benefit from those types of programs and services here at the Oklahoma</span><br><span>School for the Blind."</span><br><span> Cordova removed Adams in June of 2015, having made the decision</span><br><span>earlier but not wanting to disrupt the school year. He was replaced by</span><br><span>Christine Boone, the wife of Douglas Boone, who is the director of Visual</span><br><span>Services. This sparked charges of nepotism, but, in fact, these have no</span><br><span>legal legs. Neither of the Boones supervises the other, both reporting</span><br><span>directly to Cordova. Cordova says, "I have worked with Christine for more</span><br><span>than thirty years, and I trust her to implement the policies that I believe</span><br><span>will lead to better outcomes for students. I appointed her to serve as the</span><br><span>interim director while we do a nationwide search. Finding a qualified</span><br><span>superintendent is a difficult task, and I cannot think of one blind person</span><br><span>who currently serves in that capacity in the United States." As this</span><br><span>article is being finalized, interviews are currently being conducted to</span><br><span>find a full-time superintendent.</span><br><span> On the subject of rehabilitation services for blind people, there are</span><br><span>many positive accomplishments to report. Cordova hired Doug Boone in</span><br><span>January of 2014 to head the blindness agency, a unit that is strangely</span><br><span>named Visual Services. Boone says that when he was looking for a house and</span><br><span>told people where he would be working, they wanted to know how many</span><br><span>different kinds of glasses the agency provided and what a person had to do</span><br><span>to get services. He says they never once assumed that the agency was set up</span><br><span>to serve blind people, and both he and Cordova are proposing a name change</span><br><span>for the blindness unit. There seems to be good support for changing the</span><br><span>name to Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and</span><br><span>the name change is expected to be finalized at the end of 2016.</span><br><span> Boone said that when he came to Visual Services, the definition of</span><br><span>blindness being used by the agency often resulted in ambiguity in who would</span><br><span>be served and the services the agency could provide to them. The agency has</span><br><span>now updated its definition of blindness so that it is less confusing and</span><br><span>unambiguously complies with federal regulations. It clarifies that the</span><br><span>agency serves the legally blind, the visually impaired, those who have a</span><br><span>progressive condition which is certain to lead to blindness, and those who</span><br><span>are functionally blind-people who are photophobic and cannot see during the</span><br><span>day although at certain times and under certain lighting conditions may</span><br><span>have 20/20 vision. He says the agency has also addressed training for its</span><br><span>counselors in the area of low vision. "Sometimes there is this perception</span><br><span>that our state services for the blind discourages the use of vision. If</span><br><span>one's vision is dependable and makes one competitive, that is good, and we</span><br><span>try to make the most of it. But, if it works now, but it won't work at 2:00</span><br><span>o'clock in the afternoon, that's a problem."</span><br><span> One of Boone's concerns has long been that people who are newly</span><br><span>blinded have their first meeting with the agency and after two hours are</span><br><span>left with a mountain of paperwork that they have no idea how to process.</span><br><span>"For many of these people print is no longer an option, but we were leaving</span><br><span>them all of this paperwork and actually contributing to their sense of</span><br><span>defeat about what it means to be blind. Signing up for services to address</span><br><span>blindness is an emotional time, and, when I was a counselor, I often felt</span><br><span>frustrated at that first meeting, knowing that a client could only retain</span><br><span>about 20 percent of what I told him. We have created a much better system,</span><br><span>and it is one that is long overdue."</span><br><span> The agency has developed an information cartridge that is readable</span><br><span>using a National Library Service (NLS) book player. The cartridge includes</span><br><span>a document detailing the rights and responsibilities of applicants,</span><br><span>information about how to contact the Office of Disability Concerns (known</span><br><span>in many states as the Client Assistance Program), a pamphlet on library</span><br><span>services and how to use them, information pamphlets about and from both</span><br><span>consumer organizations, and a list of out-of-state training centers with</span><br><span>whom the state agency contracts. The cartridge also includes information</span><br><span>about the Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council, and this is critical because</span><br><span>agency consumers need to know how to contact those who are responsible for</span><br><span>overseeing the program that gives them service.</span><br><span> "By the time we leave their house, we have delivered them an NLS</span><br><span>machine, and they are signed up for library services and shown how to use</span><br><span>the machine. Not only do we leave them with critical information, but by</span><br><span>signing them up for library services, we once again open to them the wide</span><br><span>world of information and the stories and adventures that literature can</span><br><span>bring."</span><br><span> Boone believes that there must be stronger relationships built</span><br><span>between the staff of his agency and the consumers they serve. To this end</span><br><span>his division is encouraging staff members to attend state conventions of</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind and the Oklahoma Council of the Blind.</span><br><span>"We can't serve people well if we don't know them." So that staff are aware</span><br><span>of the broader issues faced by blind people, they are invited to attend</span><br><span>national conventions of the two major organizations in the country. The</span><br><span>agency will pay their expense to attend the convention of the American</span><br><span>Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind. "If you</span><br><span>attend the convention of the National Federation of the Blind one year, you</span><br><span>are obligated to attend the convention of the American Council of the Blind</span><br><span>the next. Likewise, if your first convention that the agency pays for is</span><br><span>the American Council of the Blind, you are obligated to go to the</span><br><span>convention of the National Federation of the Blind the next year. We will</span><br><span>pay for our staff to attend two conventions, and if they choose to continue</span><br><span>going to one or both, we will grant them leave time to do so. Our</span><br><span>division's impartiality has to be above reproach."</span><br><span> Under Boone's leadership the agency has placed increased emphasis on</span><br><span>immersion training in blindness. This can only be received at a residential</span><br><span>rehabilitation center, and no such center for the blind exists in Oklahoma.</span><br><span>The division therefore maintains contracts with six agencies around the</span><br><span>country from which its consumers can choose. Boone feels that residential</span><br><span>training is so important that he has created a contest funded from his</span><br><span>pocket to encourage the division's staff to send clients for training. If a</span><br><span>staff member gets three students to attend intensive rehabilitation</span><br><span>training, Boone will give that staff member a hundred-dollar bill. "I have</span><br><span>put my money into this because I think people need to know that this is</span><br><span>where my heart is and that I am committed to quality training. Money is a</span><br><span>great motivator. I think the effectiveness of the contest can be seen in</span><br><span>the figures. In 2014 we sent twelve people for center training. In 2015</span><br><span>there have been twenty-six people participating in intensive training."</span><br><span> With the passage of the most recent amendments to the vocational</span><br><span>rehabilitation act, known as the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act,</span><br><span>tremendous emphasis is being placed on providing transition services for</span><br><span>people ages sixteen to twenty-one. For the first time the division</span><br><span>sponsored the Transition Independence Program. This two-week course gave</span><br><span>blind students an experience in which they lived in a dormitory, learned to</span><br><span>travel from the dormitory to the cafeteria, learned to do some light</span><br><span>cooking, received additional training in orientation and mobility services,</span><br><span>went on community trips, received daily instruction in Braille and</span><br><span>assistive technology, and got some technology they could take home as their</span><br><span>own. The program purchased an iPod Touch, and with the assistance of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Council of</span><br><span>the Blind, iTunes cards were provided so that each student could purchase a</span><br><span>copy of the KNFB Reader and thereby have access to the printed page. The</span><br><span>program concluded with a cookout, giving many of the students their first</span><br><span>opportunity to grill their own hamburger and hot dogs. "Several of our</span><br><span>students had never worked around a fire, and one was deathly afraid of it.</span><br><span>This meant that we had to do lots of preparation with a cold grill so</span><br><span>students could see the layout of everything in a cool, touchable</span><br><span>environment. It was so exciting to see a seventeen-year-old in the program</span><br><span>lighting her first match and starting our fire. I have never seen anyone as</span><br><span>excited as she was, and this is what we are all about."</span><br><span> Visual Services has recently advertised a transition facilitator</span><br><span>position. The person hired will help young people ages fourteen to sixteen</span><br><span>to acquire the skills of blindness and will work with their parents to make</span><br><span>sure that other soft skills are acquired. The person filling this position</span><br><span>will also work with students from ages sixteen to twenty-one, the focus</span><br><span>being on transitioning from high school to college or some other program</span><br><span>oriented to training one for employment. Since parents are key, the agency</span><br><span>is developing a video that shows successful blind people working and</span><br><span>participating in their communities. The agency will also set up periodic</span><br><span>meetings across the state so that parents can meet blind people and have</span><br><span>their questions addressed.</span><br><span> The agency has added an assistive technology coordinator to improve</span><br><span>services to clients and to do outreach to potential employers. The</span><br><span>coordinator doesn't do placement but does try to plow new ground in getting</span><br><span>employers to see that the jobs they have to offer are ones that can be done</span><br><span>by blind people. "Our hope is that when they have job openings, they will</span><br><span>think about blind people to fill them. What we are trying to create is a no-</span><br><span>pressure environment where an employer has a license to ask questions in an</span><br><span>honest way."</span><br><span> Expanding assistive technology services to make sure that the agency</span><br><span>is providing quality instruction and follow-up is important to Boone. The</span><br><span>agency is adding a toll-free number its customers can use when having</span><br><span>problems with technology, be it hardware or software. Division staff can</span><br><span>either talk them through their problem or can connect to their computer to</span><br><span>provide direct assistance. "Training will continue to be in-person, but the</span><br><span>phone can be used to refresh what you already know but have kind of</span><br><span>forgotten," says Boone. The division has always had an assistive technology</span><br><span>lab, but nothing has existed for people in the eastern part of the state.</span><br><span>The agency now has a building in Tulsa and is waiting for furniture. The</span><br><span>building will house a technology lab, but, more importantly, it will allow</span><br><span>all of the staff in Oklahoma City to function under one roof, increasing</span><br><span>the coordination of services that the division provides. In addition to the</span><br><span>training provided by agency staff, the division has contracted with</span><br><span>Langston University to teach keyboarding, JAWS for Windows, and mainstream</span><br><span>applications. "Our intent in working with the university is to increase the</span><br><span>computer literacy of our clients and to get people job-ready," says Boone.</span><br><span>As an added benefit, the university can work with staff members to enhance</span><br><span>their training on the technology that is so important in the workplace.</span><br><span>There is a lot of it out there, and it is no small task to stay current.</span><br><span> In addition to the consolidation taking place in Tulsa, the agency is</span><br><span>working on bringing staff together in Oklahoma City. Library services will</span><br><span>be moving from a mall into a state-owned building. All services provided by</span><br><span>staff in the Oklahoma City area will also be under one roof. This building</span><br><span>will house an access technology lab, a kitchen for training, a washer and</span><br><span>dryer, and administrative offices. "Our goal is to get people in Oklahoma</span><br><span>City to see the library as a central place to go to get services," says</span><br><span>Boone. Given the downturn in Oklahoma's economy as a result of low oil</span><br><span>prices, one significant benefit is that this move will eliminate some</span><br><span>rental fees and will also bring federal dollars to the library because</span><br><span>vocational rehabilitation programs have to pay rent somewhere.</span><br><span> Changes in the business enterprise program are ones Boone sees as</span><br><span>particularly exciting. The agency is upgrading requirements to enter the</span><br><span>program and offering those who think they are interested in food service</span><br><span>the opportunity to have extended visits at business enterprise facilities.</span><br><span>"This business is not for the faint of heart," said Boone. "There is a lot</span><br><span>of standing, a lot of dealing with growly customers, but the business</span><br><span>opportunities represent a significant shot at advancing, and we strongly</span><br><span>support the program." People who decide they want to go into food service</span><br><span>will attend a training center and, while learning or refreshing one's</span><br><span>skills of blindness, the business enterprise program trainee will be taking</span><br><span>a training course offered by the Hadley School for the Blind to learn about</span><br><span>food preparation, running a small business, and other job functions</span><br><span>required to be a successful business person. "Our expectation is that when</span><br><span>they get back to Oklahoma, they will be very close to bidding for and</span><br><span>getting a facility."</span><br><span> With all of the emphasis on employment that is required by the</span><br><span>Rehabilitation Act, some have speculated that it is the intent of the</span><br><span>agency to do away with homemaker services. Boone says this couldn't be</span><br><span>further from the truth and that, when asked to provide comments on the</span><br><span>latest revisions resulting in the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act,</span><br><span>he wrote unequivocally supporting the retention of the homemaker status.</span><br><span>What he does object to is the practice previously followed in Oklahoma of</span><br><span>automatically placing people fifty-five and over into homemaker status,</span><br><span>noting that the consumer should always be asked what he or she would like</span><br><span>to do, regardless of their age. He notes that a woman who was seventy-nine</span><br><span>years old resumed her work as a tax preparer after she received services</span><br><span>from the agency. Boone believes this is how it should work and that</span><br><span>informed choice doesn't mean that only young people have the right to</span><br><span>exercise control over their lives.</span><br><span> Overall Boone is happy about the progress made so far. He says that</span><br><span>standards and indicators are up, wages are up for people who have received</span><br><span>training and are being placed, and good things are being done as the agency</span><br><span>works diligently to better serve its consumers.</span><br><span> While the controversy surrounding the Oklahoma School for the Blind</span><br><span>is regrettable, it should not overshadow the significant work being done to</span><br><span>help the blind of the state. Neither should it obscure the commitment of</span><br><span>elected officials in Oklahoma to take the high road, offering to the blind</span><br><span>of Oklahoma a chance for the education and training that leads to gainful</span><br><span>employment and a major step toward the full integration of the blind and</span><br><span>the sighted. While the innovators in Oklahoma should be given due credit</span><br><span>for their forward-thinking attitudes and programs, I unashamedly express my</span><br><span>hope that other agencies will follow suit and that what seems spectacular</span><br><span>today will become commonplace throughout the nation. Of course, the chances</span><br><span>that this transformation will occur are directly proportional to how much</span><br><span>we in the National Federation of the Blind press for it, and I hope that</span><br><span>the pages of this magazine can chronicle such changes until they no longer</span><br><span>are newsworthy but are so commonplace that they are simply expected.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Brad Smith]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Brad Smith's Address at the 2015 Accessibility Summit</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: From November 17 to 19, 2015, representatives from</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind participated in an accessibility</span><br><span>Summit sponsored by Microsoft. Present were representatives from the World</span><br><span>Blind Union, the American Council of the Blind, and the Canadian National</span><br><span>Institute for the Blind. The keynote address was delivered by the president</span><br><span>of Microsoft, Brad Smith. The remarks he made were moving, especially</span><br><span>coming from someone of his rank in one of the major technology companies in</span><br><span>the world. Not all that he said can be related here because the technical</span><br><span>groups in which we participate often require the signing of nondisclosure</span><br><span>agreements, but what we can print does represent a significant commitment</span><br><span>by Microsoft.</span><br><span> Here is a brief introduction written by Microsoft's public relations</span><br><span>department, followed by a reconstruction of President Smith's remarks:</span><br><span></span><br><span> On November 17, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad</span><br><span>Smith kicked off the 2015 Accessibility Summit. In his remarks he provided</span><br><span>an overview of the company's approach to accessibility, outlined steps</span><br><span>Microsoft is taking to improve the accessibility of products and services,</span><br><span>and closed with an assurance that this is and will continue to be a top</span><br><span>priority for Microsoft. In December, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella followed</span><br><span>up on these remarks, citing accessibility as a "top of mind" issue in his</span><br><span>year-end memo distributed to all Microsoft employees.</span><br><span> Below are key excerpts from Brad's remarks at the Accessibility</span><br><span>Summit:</span><br><span></span><br><span> I want to provide an overview of how Microsoft is thinking about</span><br><span>accessibility to you today. We are at an interesting moment in time in our</span><br><span>company, where the height of our ambition to make our products accessible</span><br><span>is exceeded only by our humility about the work yet to be done to</span><br><span>accomplish this. We have high ambition because the world demands that of</span><br><span>us, and we are listening to what you and other organizations have told us</span><br><span>about where we need to improve. But this ambition is also rooted in our</span><br><span>mission as a company. In his twenty months as CEO, Satya Nadella has</span><br><span>developed our new mission statement, which is "To empower every person and</span><br><span>organization on the planet to achieve more." This mission statement speaks</span><br><span>to who works at Microsoft and why they work here. That mission statement</span><br><span>speaks to what we are about as a company-enabling people, through</span><br><span>technology, to lead richer lives. We are there to reach every person in</span><br><span>every country, which helps us think beyond the US. It also speaks to what</span><br><span>technology can do for people of all abilities.</span><br><span> We know that there are many people with many kinds of disabilities.</span><br><span>Nearly every one of us deals with disability in our daily lives, whether it</span><br><span>is our own or a friend, family member, colleague, or a neighbor with a</span><br><span>disability. This helps us appreciate the importance of accessibility in a</span><br><span>concrete way. We also understand that people are defined by what they can</span><br><span>do, and people with disabilities are capable of doing all kinds of things.</span><br><span>Technology can empower people, which is why it is imperative that Microsoft</span><br><span>does a great job of creating technology that empowers all people with</span><br><span>disabilities. That is our ambition. But it must be coupled with humility.</span><br><span>We did a great job at accessibility in the early stages of Microsoft, and</span><br><span>we want to be great again-but we are not there yet. We need to stay humble</span><br><span>to understand the opportunity and seize it.</span><br><span> There are a few core areas that we are focused on to address</span><br><span>accessibility. The first is engineering capability. We are moving quickly</span><br><span>to enhance our engineering capabilities as a company and in the</span><br><span>accessibility space, and our senior leadership team has ensured that our</span><br><span>teams have the appropriate resources to meet our ambitions. It's important</span><br><span>that our words are backed up by this investment-words are cheap, but</span><br><span>technology is expensive and difficult to produce, but we are. Part of this</span><br><span>shift is helped by having an engineer as CEO; leadership really flows from</span><br><span>that office across the company. Second, we are working to provide greater</span><br><span>clarity around our goals through product roadmaps. These roadmaps</span><br><span>articulate our goals, which allow our engineers to go forth and build them</span><br><span>into products. Third, we are also focused on accountability. Even with</span><br><span>engineering capability and goals, if we lack discipline, then we are likely</span><br><span>to miss meeting these goals. That requires us to find a way to measure</span><br><span>success and progress, one that is robust but also not too complicated. The</span><br><span>cross-company accessibility team has created a good measurement system so</span><br><span>we can better monitor and grade ourselves on our progress. We will be</span><br><span>taking stock of our products throughout the development process, including</span><br><span>a review prior to release with accessibility in mind. Fourth, we are taking</span><br><span>steps to evolve our culture, both in our engineering approach through</span><br><span>inclusive design and also in our hiring practices. This "one Microsoft"</span><br><span>approach is breaking down silos and embedding accessibility in every</span><br><span>department of the company.</span><br><span> Finally, we need partners who will keep us honest and humble and also</span><br><span>help us learn. We hope along the way to earn your trust and respect, and we</span><br><span>will do this by backing up our good intentions with actions. Right now we</span><br><span>are trying to catch up to meet the basic needs of people with disabilities</span><br><span>in the marketplace. But we have the opportunity to dream bigger dreams. We</span><br><span>are thinking broadly and creatively about how technology can create new</span><br><span>opportunities to empower people and enrich their lives. The very best ideas</span><br><span>have probably not yet been found-but, working together, I believe we can</span><br><span>move this innovation agenda forward.</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: The commitments made in the foregoing remarks are</span><br><span>significant, and they expand on remarks made by Microsoft's chief executive</span><br><span>officer Satya Nadella in December of 2015:</span><br><span></span><br><span> As I think about living our mission, top of mind for me heading into</span><br><span>2016 is how we must make Microsoft products accessible to the more than 1</span><br><span>billion people globally of all abilities. This is a shared goal. Universal</span><br><span>design is central to how we realize our mission and will make all our</span><br><span>products better. Along with our Senior Leadership Team, I will continue to</span><br><span>devote my time and passion to this priority.</span><br><span> Specifically, we will do three things: First, be transparent in</span><br><span>sharing our goals and plans to ensure our products are accessible. Second,</span><br><span>be accountable, which means engineering leads will prioritize universal</span><br><span>design in the development of all products and services going forward.</span><br><span>Third, continue to make this part of our work on building a more inclusive</span><br><span>culture, including efforts to expand our existing accessibility hiring and</span><br><span>awareness training initiatives and programs.</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: As a result of our meeting in January of last year</span><br><span>with Satya Nadella, our work with Microsoft has taken place on several</span><br><span>levels. One of the benefits of contact at the highest levels of Microsoft</span><br><span>is that we can go beyond specific technical problems with their products</span><br><span>and join with them in bringing about systemic change in our nation.</span><br><span>Microsoft's intention to partner with the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>in going outside its company to press for significant technological change</span><br><span>is evidenced in the following letter which is signed by Mark Riccobono,</span><br><span>president of the National Federation of the Blind, and Brad Smith,</span><br><span>president and chief legal officer of Microsoft:</span><br><span></span><br><span>SENT VIA EMAIL</span><br><span></span><br><span>January 14, 2016</span><br><span></span><br><span>President Barack Obama</span><br><span>The White House</span><br><span>1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW</span><br><span>Washington, DC 20500</span><br><span></span><br><span>Dear President Obama:</span><br><span></span><br><span>Over five years ago, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for</span><br><span>Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regarding website</span><br><span>accessibility was issued by the United States Department of Justice. The</span><br><span>ANPRM reflected your administration's recognition that the internet is an</span><br><span>essential part of American life; among other things, a quality education</span><br><span>and a desirable employment outcome are virtually impossible to achieve</span><br><span>without accessing it.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The issue of equal access to websites is therefore of critical importance</span><br><span>to blind individuals as represented by the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind, to technology companies like Microsoft, and other online businesses.</span><br><span>Yet the release date of the NPRM for revising the Title III regulations of</span><br><span>the ADA, originally scheduled for January of 2012, has been extended no</span><br><span>less than five times. Most recently, it was postponed until 2018, eight</span><br><span>years after this regulation process started.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The need for a regulation providing accessibility guidance for public</span><br><span>accommodations doing business on the internet is even more urgent today</span><br><span>than it was five years ago. In 2014, Cisco Systems released the results of</span><br><span>a study of white collar workers from around the world, which found that 57</span><br><span>percent of the Americans surveyed between the ages of eighteen and fifty</span><br><span>look at their smartphone before anything else every morning, and 39 percent</span><br><span>had never made it through a full day of using their smartphone without</span><br><span>accessing a website. Regulations from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are</span><br><span>needed to provide companies with clear and meaningful guidelines so they</span><br><span>can serve their clients and customers with disabilities. Thus, as you said</span><br><span>on July 26, 2010, these rules are "the most important updates to the ADA</span><br><span>since its original enactment." We agree, and urge you to release the NPRM</span><br><span>for Title III of the ADA without further delay.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Sincerely,</span><br><span></span><br><span>Mark A. Riccobono, President</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span>Brad Smith, President</span><br><span>Microsoft</span><br><span></span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Omvig]</span><br><span> A Modern-Day Pioneer in Our Midst:</span><br><span> An Attempt to Say Thank You to a Civil Rights Leader for the Blind</span><br><span> by Gary Wunder</span><br><span></span><br><span> One of my jobs as the state president in Missouri has been to deliver</span><br><span>eulogies for Federationists whose long service and love of the organization</span><br><span>deserve a tribute. I have written them for two past affiliate presidents,</span><br><span>several other leaders of prominence, and many friends. The honor in being</span><br><span>asked to deliver a eulogy is that you may be saying the most important</span><br><span>words that have been or will ever be said about someone's life. The sadness</span><br><span>is that it isn't being said to the person we are honoring. At best one must</span><br><span>take on faith that the remarks will be heard, felt, sensed, or known by the</span><br><span>one being honored, and at worse the comments come too late to matter to</span><br><span>that person.</span><br><span> What a pleasure it is when sometimes we are able to say thank you to</span><br><span>a gem while he or she is still around to appreciate it, correct us when we</span><br><span>don't quite get it right, and tell us just a bit more that we don't quite</span><br><span>know as we write the remarks to share their lives with those who may not</span><br><span>have known them as well as their family and friends. So it is that I have</span><br><span>drawn an ace from the deck and have the honor of putting down some part of</span><br><span>Jim Omvig's life story: an inspiration, a tribute to what can happen when</span><br><span>one works hard, meets the right people, is encouraged, and takes advantage</span><br><span>of the opportunities offered.</span><br><span> Jim was raised in Slater, Iowa, and for a time attended the public</span><br><span>school there. Though he tried hard, much of his effort focused on using</span><br><span>vision he simply didn't have. Eventually he went to the Iowa Braille and</span><br><span>Sight Saving School in Vinton. While competing academically and</span><br><span>athletically was made easier by the lack of emphasis on vision, the school</span><br><span>brought with it other difficulties. Foremost among these was the attitude</span><br><span>held by the school about its blind charges. Those with the most sight were</span><br><span>the most blessed: those called upon for giving the school tours, for</span><br><span>pitching the tents during scouting events, and for looking after "the</span><br><span>totals" (those without any usable vision). The school believed the blind</span><br><span>could be educated, but the fields in which they could participate were</span><br><span>quite limited, and, given this philosophy, the school provided vocational</span><br><span>technical training in the few jobs they believed their graduates could do.</span><br><span>The staff members were good, honest people, but they saw their calling to</span><br><span>be to teach the blind some academic skills, help them compete with other</span><br><span>blind people athletically, and acquaint them early on with the limitations</span><br><span>of blindness. These would not have been the words they used, but certainly</span><br><span>the attitude they conveyed to Jim and his fellow students.</span><br><span> After high school Jim lived at home almost eight years. Most of his</span><br><span>days were not so much living as existing, always waiting for that piece of</span><br><span>medical news that would change his life. His mother so wanted him to see</span><br><span>that she went to eye doctors, offering one of her eyes if only they could</span><br><span>give it to Jim so that he might have vision. Since no operation, regardless</span><br><span>of the sacrifice, could give him the vision he would need to be a</span><br><span>productive citizen, he and his family lived from day to day, with Jim doing</span><br><span>what little he could to help with family chores. Occasionally he got work</span><br><span>in a local creamery, where his strength could be used in moving butter and</span><br><span>loading trucks with products bound for the city. This was not the kind of</span><br><span>work that could provide a real income, but any extra money was helpful, and</span><br><span>so too was any reason to get up in the morning. This was not the life he</span><br><span>wanted, but it was the life he had been given, and people from Iowa knew</span><br><span>there was only so much time that could be given over to grief about what</span><br><span>one had lost and wanted back.</span><br><span> Jim lived what he now regards as an isolated life. Though tall and</span><br><span>good looking, he decided early on that it would be irresponsible to get</span><br><span>involved with women. In his mind a man's role was to be the provider, the</span><br><span>leader in his home. He believed that being blind precluded this, so there</span><br><span>was no reason to offer his heart or to ask for the heart of another.</span><br><span> When he was twenty-five, Jim was contacted by the Iowa Commission for</span><br><span>the Blind and invited to go to Des Moines to tour the agency. His sister</span><br><span>Jan was then a student and encouraged him to come. He figured he already</span><br><span>knew much of what there was to know about what blind people could do and</span><br><span>become from his time at the school in Vinton, but he agreed to visit if for</span><br><span>no other reason than for the brief change in daily routine the visit would</span><br><span>afford.</span><br><span> Mr. Omvig remembers his first interview with agency Director Kenneth</span><br><span>Jernigan and the questions that set him on a path he never thought</span><br><span>possible. The first question was whether or not he was blind, and Mr. Omvig</span><br><span>gave what he regarded as a cutesy but accurate answer. "I am hard of</span><br><span>seeing," he said, at which point Mr. Jernigan asked "How many fingers am I</span><br><span>holding up?" and then told Jim unequivocally that he was blind. Jim</span><br><span>remembers that this answer cut deeply and stung bitterly. Mr. Jernigan</span><br><span>asked Jim his age. When Jim said he was twenty-five, Mr. Jernigan said,</span><br><span>"My, my, twenty-five. So a man your age can expect to live for another</span><br><span>fifty years. Jim, what are you going to do for the next fifty years?" As he</span><br><span>considered his answer, he remembers feeling sick at heart. Fifty years was</span><br><span>more a sentence than a promise. Jim's reply was that he didn't know, but</span><br><span>what he feared was that he did and that those years would be spent doing</span><br><span>just what he had done since high school graduation.</span><br><span> But the very asking of the question hinted that there were</span><br><span>possibilities beyond returning to Slater and living out his life as the</span><br><span>dependent son and brother. Kenneth Jernigan suggested that Jim come to the</span><br><span>Orientation and Adjustment Center for training and told him that a man with</span><br><span>some motivation and brains could be a productive citizen. Jim wasn't sure</span><br><span>he believed it, but he could clearly see that the man offering the</span><br><span>opportunity did. What was the risk? Unrealized hopes would hurt, but so</span><br><span>would returning to Slater, where nothing was happening or likely to happen</span><br><span>for a blind man named Omvig.</span><br><span> Although Jim agreed during his visit to come to the center for</span><br><span>training, he still had one hope-that he might regain his vision. Friends</span><br><span>told him about a doctor in South Dakota doing miraculous work, so he took</span><br><span>all of his money, got a friend to drive him, and once again got the sad</span><br><span>news that vision was not in his future.</span><br><span> Jim spent nine months at the center: learning Braille, cane travel,</span><br><span>typing, wood working, and engaging in challenge activities he had</span><br><span>previously thought to be well beyond what blind people could do. Nearing</span><br><span>the end of his training, Jim was asked what he would like to do with his</span><br><span>future-what he might like to do for a living. Full of enthusiasm for what</span><br><span>he was experiencing, he replied that he would like to run a training center</span><br><span>and do what Mr. Jernigan was doing to help the blind.</span><br><span> Mr. Jernigan responded with a question: "Mr. Omvig, do you want to go</span><br><span>into work with the blind and run a center because you think you would truly</span><br><span>love it and be good at it or because you really believe you can't succeed</span><br><span>at anything else and that getting into work with the blind will be easy?"</span><br><span>When Jim said that he didn't know if he could answer the question honestly,</span><br><span>Mr. Jernigan suggested that he consider another career.</span><br><span> What Jim had considered foolish and impossible only a year before was</span><br><span>reshaping his life. Those crazy people from the commission were offering</span><br><span>him the chance to go to college and promised financial support that his</span><br><span>family could never hope to provide. Beyond the financial support, they</span><br><span>convinced Jim that they believed in him, let him observe a few blind people</span><br><span>who were successfully pursuing careers and raising families, and suggested</span><br><span>to him that he could do the same. What he came to understand later was that</span><br><span>he was being given the opportunity to be a modern-day pioneer, to assume a</span><br><span>special place as part of a social experiment to determine if the philosophy</span><br><span>of the National Federation of the Blind was simply a fine-sounding theory</span><br><span>or whether it would prove to be true and could change lives in the way its</span><br><span>proponents proclaimed.</span><br><span> Jim finished his training at the commission, went to college, and was</span><br><span>the first blind person to attend and graduate from the Loyola University of</span><br><span>Chicago's School of Law. He recalls that 144 students entered the school,</span><br><span>and of those only thirty-six were granted law degrees. Having this degree</span><br><span>meant that the man who once had nothing to do and plenty of time to do it</span><br><span>in would find himself busy for the rest of his life, taking his place as a</span><br><span>senior warrior in the civil rights struggle of the blind and eventually</span><br><span>appearing before the justices of the United States Supreme Court to be</span><br><span>granted the right to practice law before that august body.</span><br><span> But, after graduating in 1966 with good grades and a degree from a</span><br><span>prestigious law school, Jim had to arrange and participate in 150</span><br><span>interviews before he landed a job. Even this took some political</span><br><span>intervention from his friend and mentor, Kenneth Jernigan. Mr. Omvig moved</span><br><span>to Washington, DC, and became the first blind employee of the National</span><br><span>Labor Relations Board. Although he was admired and well-liked by his fellow</span><br><span>employees, several did try to convince him that his long hours and</span><br><span>prodigious output raised the bar for them and let it be known that they</span><br><span>were none too happy about this. Jim told them that they were free to work</span><br><span>as much or as little as they liked, but he was there to do more than earn</span><br><span>an income and provide for himself: he was there to convince the world that</span><br><span>blind people could do high-quality work and do it as well as their sighted</span><br><span>coworkers. His fellows saw the logic in this, and it added to their respect</span><br><span>for him. But the secretary who had been assigned to him said, "Mr. Omvig,</span><br><span>you are a damned workaholic, and you're not going to make one out of me."</span><br><span>Given the friction, Mr. Omvig asked for a different secretary and got one,</span><br><span>and his former employee was transferred.</span><br><span> While rewarding, his job in DC primarily involved doing</span><br><span>administrative research and paperwork. But Jim wanted real courtroom</span><br><span>experience and requested a transfer. It was granted, and he moved to New</span><br><span>York to continue his work with the agency. He found the work more</span><br><span>rewarding, but it posed some challenges he had not faced in DC. He had</span><br><span>relied primarily on volunteer readers in his first appointment, but when,</span><br><span>as a field attorney, he began serving as a hearing officer, there were</span><br><span>times when he was presented with written material and required to decide</span><br><span>whether or not it should be admitted into the record. In these cases it is</span><br><span>traditional for the hearing to be recessed while the hearing officer</span><br><span>studies the material. It was not practical for Jim to send the material out</span><br><span>for recording or to expect a volunteer to sit with him throughout his</span><br><span>workday. The solution he arrived at was ideal: he asked that the</span><br><span>stenographer, who was already being paid, act as his reader during the</span><br><span>recess, and in this way he had access to printed documents without</span><br><span>incurring additional cost or inconvenience to himself or his employer.</span><br><span> As he settled into his job, Jim began to be asked by President</span><br><span>Jernigan to visit state affiliates as a national representative. He</span><br><span>appreciated being asked, thrived on being able to serve, and gladly took up</span><br><span>the task. What he found surprised him. At some level he knew that Iowa</span><br><span>represented something tremendously different in rehabilitation than could</span><br><span>be found in the rest of the country, but knowing this wasn't quite the same</span><br><span>as seeing firsthand the denials that blind people were facing when they</span><br><span>sought to become self-sufficient and to exercise some control over their</span><br><span>education and careers.</span><br><span> Jim recalls meeting a woman from New Hampshire who had always wanted</span><br><span>to be a teacher. Having gone blind in her teens, she approached the</span><br><span>rehabilitation agency there and was told by her counselor that her goal was</span><br><span>unrealistic and that certainly he would not approve the college education</span><br><span>that teaching would require. Having read in the Braille Monitor about Judy</span><br><span>Young, a blind teacher in Iowa, the woman in New Hampshire took her case to</span><br><span>the agency director. He agreed with the counselor, telling her that a</span><br><span>college education was unrealistic and that any thought of landing a</span><br><span>teaching job was foolish. When she told him about the article she had read</span><br><span>in the magazine of the National Federation of the Blind, he said that he</span><br><span>knew about that Jernigan guy, a crazy man who was setting blind people up</span><br><span>to fail. He, the agency director, would have none of it, and he suggested</span><br><span>that she continue at the workshop, where she was making twenty-four dollars</span><br><span>a week. In this case, like so many, Jim knew that the answer was not for</span><br><span>everyone to move to Iowa, but to build and strengthen the Federation in</span><br><span>each state and then to bring about the changes that the National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind and the Iowa Commission for the Blind were proving possible.</span><br><span>Encounters such as these pushed Jim in the direction of trying to answer</span><br><span>the question Mr. Jernigan had posed to him on his graduation from the</span><br><span>orientation center.</span><br><span> Eventually Jim gained enough self-confidence to say to Mr. Jernigan</span><br><span>that he really did want to learn to direct a training center, that he had</span><br><span>convinced himself and others that he could cut it alongside his sighted</span><br><span>colleagues, and that his turning to the blindness field for employment was</span><br><span>not to hide but actively to contribute to what had so changed his life and</span><br><span>the way he would spend the most productive years of it. Jim wanted to be a</span><br><span>part of encouraging blind people to dream and to see those dreams become</span><br><span>reality. Mr. Jernigan agreed, and Jim moved back to Iowa, first to work as</span><br><span>a rehabilitation counselor and later to head the orientation center.</span><br><span> While in training to become a counselor, Jim accompanied coworkers to</span><br><span>learn the ropes. Knowing that his primary job was to observe, Jim</span><br><span>nevertheless wanted to become involved in the sessions so clients would</span><br><span>come to know him. One day he asked a client how long he had been blind. The</span><br><span>newly blinded client was angered and put off. On the drive to their next</span><br><span>appointment, Jim learned from his coworker that coming to understand that</span><br><span>one is blind is often a gradual process and that asking how long the client</span><br><span>had been having trouble with his vision would have been more appropriate.</span><br><span>Coming to understand and admitting that one is blind is crucial to</span><br><span>acceptance and getting on with one's life, but for some people the subject</span><br><span>should be approached with gentleness and understanding. Jim took the advice</span><br><span>as sound and has tried to be mindful that the journey to accepting one's</span><br><span>blindness and a new understanding of what it means to be blind sometimes</span><br><span>takes a firm, direct approach and that sometimes it takes time, patience,</span><br><span>and gentleness.</span><br><span> Although Jim's return to Iowa put the right man in the right place,</span><br><span>the transition was not without difficulty. He had decided that he could be</span><br><span>a provider and that risking to become involved with another was not</span><br><span>precluded by being a blind man. He married Jan, a fellow Iowan, and</span><br><span>together they brought Jamie Omvig into the world in 1966. But their</span><br><span>marriage ended in 1972, and the door that closed led to the opening of one</span><br><span>that would lead James Omvig and Sharon Lewis to find that they were soul</span><br><span>mates. Meeting for a casual drink one evening in the fall of 1973, they</span><br><span>found that their talking kept them for hours. Sharon describes their</span><br><span>courtship and marriage this way: "It may not have been the love story of</span><br><span>the century, but I'm sure it was the love story of the decade." On January</span><br><span>31, 1974, Jim and Sharon Omvig were united in marriage, and since then they</span><br><span>have been inseparable in their faith, love, and work. From the time they</span><br><span>became two hearts beating as one, any mention of Jim could, if not for the</span><br><span>cumbersomeness of the construction, be Jim and Sharon or Sharon and Jim.</span><br><span> The man who once believed that he could never share his heart not</span><br><span>only has enjoyed a wonderful marriage but has composed two songs in honor</span><br><span>of his soulmate. One of them, titled, "She's My Wife," says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Have you seen her?</span><br><span> She's the loveliness of spring.</span><br><span> Have you seen her?</span><br><span> She's the song that I sing.</span><br><span> With her tender lips and her glowing eyes,</span><br><span> Her smile is a wondrous thing.</span><br><span> And her arms can make a man a king.</span><br><span></span><br><span> You should know her.</span><br><span> She's an angel from above.</span><br><span> With a heart that's filled with love.</span><br><span> Oh, you should know her; she is my life.</span><br><span> She's my lady, she's my lover, she's my wife.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Before leaving the National Labor Relations Board, Jim learned from a</span><br><span>colleague that a decision of the NLRB made in 1960 declared that blind</span><br><span>people did not enjoy the same rights as other workers when it came to</span><br><span>organizing and being represented by a union. He highlighted this unfair</span><br><span>segregation of the blind in a speech delivered at the NFB convention in</span><br><span>1969. Appearing with him were prominent members of the AFL-CIO (American</span><br><span>Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) who agreed,</span><br><span>after some tough questioning from President Jernigan, to help the blind</span><br><span>change laws forbidding blind people from organizing.</span><br><span> Work started that year to build a Sheltered Shop Division in the NFB</span><br><span>and to find blind people who wanted to be represented by a union. Mr. Omvig</span><br><span>warned that gaining the right to organize and be represented would take a</span><br><span>long time. A request to organize had to be made and rejected, and an appeal</span><br><span>would have to be made to the members of the National Labor Relations Board.</span><br><span>It took more than half a decade, but in 1976 the NLRB reversed itself and</span><br><span>said that blind people, like other workers, did indeed have the right to be</span><br><span>represented by a union if they chose. This delightful news came the day</span><br><span>before Jim was to attend the national convention in Los Angeles, so he</span><br><span>hurriedly constructed and delivered a speech at the convention.</span><br><span> The Federation knew from long years of experience that blind people</span><br><span>were the victims of discrimination in the sale of insurance. Deciding to</span><br><span>test the waters for themselves, Jim and Sharon went to the ticket counter</span><br><span>prior to their trip to the Los Angeles convention, purchased insurance for</span><br><span>Sharon in the amount of $350,000, and then tried to purchase insurance for</span><br><span>Jim. To his surprise, Jim learned that he could purchase insurance, but the</span><br><span>maximum amount he could buy was $20,000. The ticket agent could offer no</span><br><span>reason for the rule, and arguments that Jim did not want to fly the plane</span><br><span>but only ride on it were wasted. Rules were rules.</span><br><span> On his return from Los Angeles Jim contacted the insurance</span><br><span>commissioner for the state of Iowa, Herbert Anderson, and convinced him to</span><br><span>accept a charge of unfair discrimination against the blind using the Iowa</span><br><span>Unfair Trade Practices Act. The commissioner conducted a survey of all</span><br><span>insurance companies doing business in Iowa, and the findings were so</span><br><span>disturbing that he caused regulations to be created prohibiting</span><br><span>discrimination against the blind by any company licensed to do business in</span><br><span>the state. Mr. Anderson then took his findings to the National Association</span><br><span>of Insurance Commissioners, and that organization passed a resolution</span><br><span>condemning such discrimination. Just as it did with the Model White Cane</span><br><span>Law, the national body of the Federation drafted a model insurance</span><br><span>regulation and encouraged its enactment by state insurance regulators. Jim</span><br><span>was extremely helpful in providing guidance to state affiliates and even</span><br><span>testified before state insurance commissions in support of the prohibition.</span><br><span> As Fredric Schroeder observes: "Today, we do not think much about the</span><br><span>ability to purchase life insurance, and that is due in large part to Mr.</span><br><span>Omvig. In the 70s and 80s, many blind people were denied life insurance on</span><br><span>the assumption that blind people were more likely to die as a result of</span><br><span>accidents. Mr. Omvig understood that assumptions about blind people were at</span><br><span>the heart of lost opportunities: lack of access to a good education, lack</span><br><span>of access to employment, lack of access to renting hotel rooms, and lack of</span><br><span>access to buses and trains. In short, Mr. Omvig knew that discrimination</span><br><span>was the major barrier facing blind people, and discrimination in all its</span><br><span>forms had to be opposed."</span><br><span> After nine wonderful years working at the Iowa Commission for the</span><br><span>Blind, Jim accepted a Federation assignment and moved to Baltimore to work</span><br><span>for the Social Security Administration. At the time about 150 blind people</span><br><span>were working for the agency, but they were limited to answering telephones</span><br><span>and fielding questions from the public. James Gashel, the head of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind's Washington office, was instrumental in</span><br><span>convincing officials of the agency that the way to greater employment</span><br><span>opportunities for the blind and avoiding a lawsuit from the Federation lay</span><br><span>in hiring someone who could look at the procedures of the agency and figure</span><br><span>out how to open other employment opportunities. It seemed to President</span><br><span>Jernigan and Mr. Gashel that Jim would be the perfect fit, being a lawyer</span><br><span>and having previous experience in the federal government.</span><br><span> Jim was hired, and in 1981 the glass ceiling preventing blind people</span><br><span>from accepting other positions within the agency was shattered. Nearly</span><br><span>three years of work resulted in the following policy statement being read</span><br><span>by the newly appointed director of the Social Security Administration:</span><br><span>"Today, I wish to announce a clarification of the policy which affects</span><br><span>employment and promotional opportunity for otherwise qualified partially</span><br><span>and totally blind SSA employees. I have determined that there are no</span><br><span>significant factors which make it impossible for blind persons to perform</span><br><span>the full range of the GS 10 claims representative (CR) position. Therefore,</span><br><span>it is SSA policy that otherwise qualified partially or totally blind</span><br><span>individuals may be promoted to the journeyman GS 10 CR position within the</span><br><span>standard CR position description . . . . I am committed not only to</span><br><span>providing equal employment opportunity for blind persons, but also for all</span><br><span>qualified handicapped individuals." This breakthrough was significant not</span><br><span>only for the Social Security Administration but for other agencies in the</span><br><span>federal government that had good, quality jobs blind people were capable of</span><br><span>performing.</span><br><span> In the late 1970s the National Federation of the Blind found that</span><br><span>regulations which had been passed to assist the blind and otherwise</span><br><span>physically disabled in air travel were being used to limit them. Many</span><br><span>Federationists were arrested for insisting on their right to use and keep</span><br><span>with them the canes that provided independent mobility. Some of us were</span><br><span>asked to sit on blankets, the logic being that some handicapped people had</span><br><span>accidents and soiled airline seats. Mr. Omvig was one of those who were</span><br><span>arrested, and he and many others testified at hearings sponsored by the</span><br><span>Federal Aviation Administration. As a result of those hearings blind people</span><br><span>can now travel with their guide dogs and canes; there is no limit as to the</span><br><span>number of blind passengers who can fly on an aircraft; there is no</span><br><span>requirement that we sit on blankets or other items used in dealing with</span><br><span>incontinence. We are prevented from sitting in exit rows, but the</span><br><span>frustration we encounter with airlines today is far less than it was, and</span><br><span>this is due in no small part to the work of Mr. Omvig's talent in writing,</span><br><span>speaking, and developing important relationships with the policymakers of</span><br><span>that era.</span><br><span> After five years working for the Social Security Administration, Mr.</span><br><span>Omvig once again returned to the pursuit of his dream to direct an</span><br><span>orientation and training center. This took him to the state of Alaska in</span><br><span>the fall of 1984. When he arrived, he found himself in charge of an agency</span><br><span>that was housed in a World War II Quonset hut. Bleakness and despair were</span><br><span>in evidence in the blind people seeking services. In January of 1985 Mr.</span><br><span>Omvig went to the governor and the legislature, and the funds to run the</span><br><span>agency were doubled. A new five-unit apartment building was purchased and</span><br><span>remodeled to become a residential training center for blind adults. It</span><br><span>contained sleeping rooms for twelve residents, one staff apartment, and</span><br><span>administrative offices. Putting the building into service as a training</span><br><span>center required asking the city of Anchorage to rezone the property, which</span><br><span>they did. In the spring of 1986 governor Bill Sheffield dedicated the</span><br><span>Alaska Center for Blind Adults. Though the willingness of state officials</span><br><span>to purchase and remodel the center was commendable, they did not provide</span><br><span>funds to furnish the building. To Mr. Omvig and other leaders of the NFB in</span><br><span>Alaska fell the task of going to Lions Clubs with the request that they</span><br><span>help in furnishing the center. Through the work of individual clubs and the</span><br><span>statewide body, the center was furnished and began serving students.</span><br><span> In 1987 Jim found himself troubled with bad health, and by the end of</span><br><span>that year his doctor told him that he had no choice but to stop working. It</span><br><span>would take several years for Jim to be diagnosed with a rare condition</span><br><span>known as porphyria. Jim and Sharon moved to Arizona, and both became active</span><br><span>in the affiliate, assisting significantly and advancing its legislative</span><br><span>agenda for providing better services to blind people. He continued writing</span><br><span>about the value of separate agencies for the blind and what proper training</span><br><span>in those agencies could do, and, as he began to exert better control over</span><br><span>his health, he was asked to visit many states to evaluate their programs</span><br><span>and make recommendations for improvement.</span><br><span> Although one of the goals of the Federation is to see that quality</span><br><span>rehabilitation is available to all blind people regardless of where they</span><br><span>live, the reality is that not all rehabilitation centers are equal, and not</span><br><span>all of them are guided by the positive philosophy of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind. In 1992 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act were</span><br><span>passed and signed into law. One of those amendments introduced the concept</span><br><span>of informed choice into the act, providing in federal law the opportunity</span><br><span>for recipients of rehabilitation services to decide where they would go to</span><br><span>receive service. In theory this would mean that a person living in Montana</span><br><span>could go to a rehabilitation center in Louisiana, or that a person living</span><br><span>in Maryland could go to Colorado or Minnesota. Practically speaking,</span><br><span>however, rights guaranteed in federal law have been slow to be implemented</span><br><span>in the states, and they have strongly favored either rehabilitation centers</span><br><span>that they fund or centers with which they have done business in the past.</span><br><span>Implementing informed choice in practice has often meant finding people who</span><br><span>want to go to a center outside their state, helping them to appeal the</span><br><span>denial of the rehabilitation counselor, and getting and winning a fair</span><br><span>hearing. Mr. Omvig has used his skills as a lawyer and an advocate in</span><br><span>helping to draft these appeals and has traveled extensively to participate</span><br><span>in these hearings.</span><br><span> In all of the assignments he has been given as a Federation member,</span><br><span>none was more difficult than the one that brought him to work to advance</span><br><span>the rights of blind people working in sheltered workshops. President Maurer</span><br><span>and other colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind believed we</span><br><span>needed someone to work from the inside to make changes in the system that</span><br><span>employed thousands of blind people at wages that were far below their</span><br><span>productive capacity. Mr. Omvig was persuaded to apply for and was appointed</span><br><span>by President George W. Bush to the President's Committee for Purchase from</span><br><span>People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. He was initially appointed in</span><br><span>2003 and was reappointed in 2007. During his tenure Mr. Omvig served on a</span><br><span>number of important subcommittees and task forces and was elected as vice</span><br><span>chairman of the committee.</span><br><span> When accepting his newest Federation assignment, Jim knew that there</span><br><span>was little the National Federation of the Blind and what would come to be</span><br><span>called the AbilityOne Commission had in common. Certainly each group had</span><br><span>little respect for the other. What the organizations knew about one another</span><br><span>they didn't like. The committee viewed the NFB as a group of malcontents</span><br><span>and rabble-rousers who knew nothing about running businesses that employed</span><br><span>the blind. The NFB believed the committee to be composed of self-serving</span><br><span>agency directors who cared less about uplifting the blind people they were</span><br><span>to serve than they did about increasing their own prestige and income. In</span><br><span>the opinion of the Federation, these were people who may have come to do</span><br><span>good but who stayed to do well. Their salaries and their place in the</span><br><span>community came on the backs of hard-working blind people, who got little</span><br><span>from their effort in money, benefits, or their productive work.</span><br><span> When Mr. Omvig began his work with the committee, he followed a</span><br><span>strategy that had evolved from a question Dr. Jernigan had once asked him</span><br><span>and his fellow students: "What is the purpose of a speech?" The answer was</span><br><span>"To get people to love you. If you can't get them to love you, they won't</span><br><span>pay much attention to what you have to say." This became Jim's compass. He</span><br><span>would not go to make war-soldiers on each side knew full well how that</span><br><span>could be done. Instead, he would go as an ambassador, a man in search of</span><br><span>friends, a human face that would go the first few steps in dispelling the</span><br><span>myths about Federationists as unreasonable, militant, and foolish dreamers</span><br><span>who believed in a future the blind could never have because they weren't</span><br><span>capable enough to earn or retain it. Jim would build relationships based on</span><br><span>common traits and would show that this commonality could be used as a</span><br><span>foundation to build trust. On that trust he and his new-found friends could</span><br><span>begin to make change that might one day revolutionize the sheltered</span><br><span>workshop system where thousands of blind people worked and sometimes lived.</span><br><span> But the Omvig strategy was not obvious to some of his Federation</span><br><span>colleagues and disappointed more than a few of his friends. He had gone to</span><br><span>the committee to represent the Federation, so where were his protests? Why</span><br><span>wasn't he using his seat to make changes so long overdue? Because Jim was a</span><br><span>part of the Federation family, some who loved and cared about him and who</span><br><span>cared deeply about rights for shop workers came to him with their concerns.</span><br><span>Although he appreciated the chance to clarify his strategy, to explain his</span><br><span>understanding that most fundamental changes take time, and to show the</span><br><span>incremental changes his participation was having, the idea that he might</span><br><span>not be trusted hurt, and carrying out this work proved to be one of the</span><br><span>hardest assignments he ever undertook. He gave nine years of his life to</span><br><span>traveling, negotiating, and trying to change how those in the system felt</span><br><span>about blind people.</span><br><span> Even with his sadness at having his motives-or at least his strategy-</span><br><span>questioned, Mr. Omvig is proud of the change in workshops he has witnessed</span><br><span>over the past forty years and is proud to count among his friends people</span><br><span>who once thought that he and his fellow Federation members were meatheads-</span><br><span>people who were dead from the neck up. He is proud of the expanded</span><br><span>employment opportunities that have resulted from his service on the</span><br><span>committee, and he is proud to have played some small part in National</span><br><span>Industries for the Blind paying at least the minimum wage in all of its</span><br><span>sheltered shops having AbilityOne contracts and requiring that any agency</span><br><span>doing business with it do likewise. In its most recent move, National</span><br><span>Industries for the Blind has decided that no person affiliated with a</span><br><span>workshop that holds a section 14(C) certificate can hold a position on its</span><br><span>Board of Directors.</span><br><span> Jim has been active in a number of other efforts to help in the</span><br><span>education and rehabilitation of the blind. He has served on the board of</span><br><span>directors of the Professional Development and Research Institute on</span><br><span>Blindness at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. This is the</span><br><span>first institute of its kind to implement the philosophy of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind in teacher-training programs. In addition to</span><br><span>needing better teacher training, Jim and other Federation colleagues</span><br><span>realized that the certifying authority for providing training to the blind</span><br><span>often used vision as a requirement for certification. And so was born the</span><br><span>National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB), whose purpose</span><br><span>was to develop standards that did not discriminate against the blind and</span><br><span>which also emphasized competence in teaching the skills that were most</span><br><span>likely to lead to an education, a job, and a life equal to those enjoyed by</span><br><span>sighted Americans. He also served proudly on this board and has also been</span><br><span>instrumental in helping to develop the policies and standards of the body.</span><br><span> Increasingly over the last two decades Mr. Omvig has turned his</span><br><span>attention from writing articles to writing books. Freedom for the Blind:</span><br><span>The Secret is Empowerment has won widespread praise in the field of</span><br><span>rehabilitation, and many students credit this book with encouraging them to</span><br><span>go into the field. The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words has</span><br><span>also figured prominently in documenting the challenges and triumphs of what</span><br><span>many have called "the miracle of Iowa," but Mr. Omvig concludes that there</span><br><span>was no miracle there, only the application of good, solid attitudes and the</span><br><span>willingness to believe in blind people.</span><br><span> One of the things Mr. Omvig is most proud about is that his service</span><br><span>extends well beyond organizations of and for the blind. He became the</span><br><span>founding president of the Des Moines East Town Lions Club and was elected</span><br><span>as president of the congregation of the Grant Park Christian Church in Des</span><br><span>Moines. He was vice president of the Catonsville, Maryland, Lions Club and</span><br><span>was a deacon (which came with the job of serving communion) and a member of</span><br><span>the board of trustees of the Christian Temple in the Disciples of Christ</span><br><span>Church in Baltimore. He has also served as the president of the</span><br><span>International Air Crossroads Lions Club in Anchorage, Alaska.</span><br><span> Of all the honors and awards Mr. Omvig has received, none has touched</span><br><span>him more deeply than the Jacobus tenBroek award in 1986. He received this</span><br><span>award for helping gain the right of blind shop workers to unionize, for</span><br><span>leading the effort to eliminate insurance discrimination against the blind,</span><br><span>for helping to end discrimination against blind air travelers, and for his</span><br><span>writings on how to provide quality training to vocational rehabilitation</span><br><span>clients.</span><br><span> No single article can do justice to the life's work of Jim Omvig.</span><br><span>Thankfully there are others who have committed his story to paper and</span><br><span>places where he gives first-hand accounts of what it has been like to be</span><br><span>one of the pioneers in the civil rights movement for the blind. I can think</span><br><span>of no better way to conclude this article than with comments made by two of</span><br><span>Mr. Omvig's finest friends and admirers. Not surprisingly both have given a</span><br><span>significant amount of their energy to the field of rehabilitation, taking</span><br><span>the improvement of it as one of their Federation responsibilities and</span><br><span>assignments. About her friends, the Omvigs, Joanne Wilson says: "Jim and</span><br><span>Sharon worked with a tireless passion to give back to the movement what</span><br><span>they got from the NFB. They worked on systemic problems that would make the</span><br><span>lives of the blind better, but they also spent hours and hours talking with</span><br><span>individuals, both blind and sighted, over dinners in their home, at</span><br><span>conventions, on a plane, in a discussion group, and anywhere they were-</span><br><span>sharing the truth about blindness. They have truly dedicated their lives to</span><br><span>giving back what they learned about blindness so others could have more</span><br><span>enriched lives. Thanks for asking me to be a small part in giving them this</span><br><span>tribute."</span><br><span> And Fred Schroeder says: "When I think of Mr. Omvig, I think of</span><br><span>kindness; I think of a man with tremendous ability and one blessed with the</span><br><span>power of persuasion. Mr. Omvig knows how to lead, knows how to inspire</span><br><span>others to do more than they believe they are capable of doing, and knows</span><br><span>what it means to share the disappointment of exclusion and heartache that</span><br><span>come from society's low expectations. He is not a man to live according to</span><br><span>the assumptions of others; he is not content to build a life just for</span><br><span>himself and his family; he is a man who gives all that he has on behalf of</span><br><span>blind people. He is a role model, a mentor, a leader, and, most of all, a</span><br><span>friend."</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> The Blind in the World: From Paternalism to Self-Determination</span><br><span> by Fredric K. Schroeder</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: In 2016 the General Assembly of the World Blind</span><br><span>Union will meet in the United States of America. This meeting will be</span><br><span>hosted by the National Federation of the Blind and will take place in late</span><br><span>August. So that Federationists and other readers of the Braille Monitor</span><br><span>know about and understand the reason for this meeting, we intend to run</span><br><span>several articles about the World Blind Union, starting here with its</span><br><span>history as featured in chapter seven of the book entitled Building the</span><br><span>Lives We Want, an e-book detailing the first seventy-five years of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind. Here is what Dr. Schroeder wrote:</span><br><span></span><br><span> "Could not blind persons from Asia and Africa speak for the</span><br><span> blind of their countries? . . . Four-fifths of [the estimated blind</span><br><span> population] lived in rural areas, but that need not preclude their</span><br><span> leaders from attending a world conference to discuss, compare, and</span><br><span> counsel. But did they have leaders, I wondered. That was the pivotal</span><br><span> question, and as yet it was one I could not answer."</span><br><span> - Isabelle Grant, 1959[?]</span><br><span></span><br><span> The history of the blind throughout the world is bleak. It has been</span><br><span>characterized by low expectations, paternalism, poverty, and isolation. It</span><br><span>is also the story of human resilience and the unquenchable drive for</span><br><span>freedom. It is the story of marginalized people rejecting the role defined</span><br><span>for them by society and demonstrating their ability, drive, and</span><br><span>determination to live and work as others.</span><br><span> When blind people appear in ancient literature, they are usually</span><br><span>described as beggars, helpless beings who seek alms from passersby. During</span><br><span>the Middle Ages in Western Europe, the church began to provide for the</span><br><span>blind by establishing homes, called hospitals, where the blind and other</span><br><span>indigent people could live. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,</span><br><span>local governments in Europe and the United States took over the task of</span><br><span>creating institutions to educate, care for, and employ the blind. Work was</span><br><span>poorly paid and rudimentary, and it was completely controlled by private or</span><br><span>public agencies (see Chapter One).</span><br><span> Early in the twentieth century, blind people in the United States</span><br><span>began to form local and statewide organizations to fight for better working</span><br><span>conditions and opportunities. Seven state organizations formed the nucleus</span><br><span>of the National Federation of the Blind in 1940 (see Chapters Two and</span><br><span>Three).</span><br><span> The service agencies for the blind did not welcome the emergence of</span><br><span>representative organizations of blind people. They regarded blind people to</span><br><span>be as helpless as two-year-old children, incapable of taking charge of</span><br><span>their lives and exploring the extent of their abilities. They viewed the</span><br><span>Federation as little more than a forum for the ungrateful and maladjusted.</span><br><span>The NFB threatened the institutions established to govern blind people's</span><br><span>lives.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The World Council on Welfare of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span> In 1949, representatives from blindness agencies throughout the world</span><br><span>gathered in Rome to establish the World Council on the Welfare of the Blind</span><br><span>(WCWB). As its founding president the nascent organization elected Colonel</span><br><span>Edwin Albert Baker. At that time, Colonel Baker was one of the world's best-</span><br><span>known blind leaders, heading the Canadian National Institute for the Blind</span><br><span>(CNIB).</span><br><span> During its early years the WCWB was dominated by powerful service</span><br><span>agencies for the blind: the CNIB, the American Foundation for the Blind</span><br><span>(AFB), and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) of the United</span><br><span>Kingdom. Agencies for the blind had total control over the organization.</span><br><span>The few existing organizations of blind people were viewed with suspicion</span><br><span>and hostility. Nevertheless, the WCWB claimed to represent not only the</span><br><span>governmental and private agencies, but also blind people themselves.</span><br><span> Despite the agency domination, the NFB felt somewhat hopeful about</span><br><span>the WCWB. The fledgling WCWB was headed by a blind person, Colonel Baker.</span><br><span>Perhaps, under his leadership, the new organization might work to improve</span><br><span>the condition of the blind of the world. In a letter dated July 17, 1952,</span><br><span>NFB President Jacobus tenBroek advised the leadership of the WCWB that on</span><br><span>July 15, 1952, at its national convention in Nashville, Tennessee, the</span><br><span>Federation's membership had voted to join the World Council for the Welfare</span><br><span>of the Blind.[?]</span><br><span> It did not take long before the Federation realized that the WCWB</span><br><span>would not open the way to a progressive future for the blind. It would</span><br><span>simply further paternalism and agency control. From today's perspective,</span><br><span>words such as subjection, domination, and control in regard to agencies for</span><br><span>the blind may seem exaggerated. The quotes below convey the thinking of</span><br><span>those times in all of its chilling reality.</span><br><span> In the mid-1950s a well-known and respected educator of the blind</span><br><span>wrote, "With many persons there was an expectation in the establishment of</span><br><span>the early schools that the blind in general would thereby be rendered</span><br><span>capable of earning their own support, a view that even at the present is</span><br><span>shared in some quarters. It would have been much better if such a hope had</span><br><span>never been entertained or, if it had existed, in a greatly modified</span><br><span>form."[?] At about the same time, the director of a prominent</span><br><span>rehabilitation agency wrote, "After he is once trained and placed, the</span><br><span>average disabled person can fend for himself. In the case of the blind, it</span><br><span>has been found necessary to set up a special state service agency which</span><br><span>will supply them not only rehabilitation training but other services for</span><br><span>the rest of their lives. The agencies keep in constant contact with them as</span><br><span>long as they live. So the blind are unique among the handicapped in that,</span><br><span>no matter how well-adjusted, trained, and placed, they require lifelong</span><br><span>supervision by the agencies."[?] The agencies did not view their role as</span><br><span>one of supporting the move of the blind toward full and equal</span><br><span>participation; the idea of protecting and guiding the blind was</span><br><span>unquestioned and universal. It was assumed that the blind needed care, and</span><br><span>even more important, needed direction, supervision, and control. They had</span><br><span>no hope of integration and certainly no hope of equality.</span><br><span> In the United States, the struggle for self-expression was</span><br><span>contentious and bitter, and its success was by no means assured. (See</span><br><span>"Telling Our Story through Legislation in Washington.") Yet many joined the</span><br><span>struggle, and it was clear that the movement needed to spread across the</span><br><span>world. If the blind of the world were to achieve true independence, the</span><br><span>effort must be led by blind people themselves.</span><br><span> Never a truly representative organization, the WCWB sought to</span><br><span>suppress the voice of the blind on the international stage. In 1962 the</span><br><span>WCWB president used a sleight-of-hand parliamentary maneuver to strip the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind of its seat on the Executive Committee.</span><br><span>Then Federation President Perry Sundquist advised the WCWB that its ongoing</span><br><span>attempts to suppress the blind were awakening a growing worldwide sentiment</span><br><span>that a new and truly representative international organization of the blind</span><br><span>was needed. The will of blind people to achieve full integration could not</span><br><span>be extinguished. There was no money to build representative organizations</span><br><span>of the blind throughout the world, and there were few individuals to help;</span><br><span>but the need was great, and the spirit of the blind was unquenchable.</span><br><span> In 1959, Dr. Isabelle Grant, a talented blind teacher from</span><br><span>California, launched a one-woman crusade to expand education and training</span><br><span>for blind people internationally. On a one-year sabbatical from her</span><br><span>teaching position, she visited twenty-three countries to study the</span><br><span>education and rehabilitation of blind children. She understood the</span><br><span>importance of representative organizations of the blind and worked</span><br><span>tirelessly to spread the Federation message of self-determination and hope.</span><br><span> Dr. Grant's views on the education of blind children were nothing</span><br><span>short of revolutionary. At that time, nearly all blind children in the</span><br><span>United States were educated in special schools for the blind. In the United</span><br><span>States and throughout the world, Dr. Grant was an early proponent of</span><br><span>integrated education. If blind children were educated alongside their</span><br><span>sighted peers, she believed that they could learn to compete in an</span><br><span>integrated world.</span><br><span> Dr. Grant's views on education fit well with her interest in</span><br><span>expanding opportunities for the blind worldwide. Poor countries had no</span><br><span>money to build special schools for the blind. Integration (later to be</span><br><span>known as mainstreaming and eventually as full inclusion) offered a cost-</span><br><span>effective way of educating the blind. The resources were meager and the</span><br><span>obstacles overwhelming, but Dr. Grant did what she could to make a</span><br><span>difference. Her example illustrates the power of blind people working</span><br><span>together to change their own condition.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: A group of blind Nigerians stands beside a bus. On the side</span><br><span>of the bus is the name Nigerian Association of the Blind.]</span><br><span>An International Voice</span><br><span></span><br><span> The impact of the WCWB was insignificant. From its inception, it had</span><br><span>lacked the will and the structure to represent the interests of blind</span><br><span>people. At the 1964 convention of the National Federation of the Blind in</span><br><span>Phoenix, Arizona, the problem was discussed in detail. As President</span><br><span>Sundquist had predicted, the WCWB's efforts to suppress the voice of the</span><br><span>blind only made the blind more determined to govern their own lives. Later</span><br><span>that summer, in New York, the International Federation of the Blind (IFB)</span><br><span>was born. Dr. tenBroek became its first president, and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan</span><br><span>drafted its constitution.</span><br><span> The IFB had a promising beginning. Organizations of the blind began</span><br><span>to emerge throughout the world, and a convention was planned for 1969 in</span><br><span>Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. But in 1968 Dr. tenBroek died. He had been the</span><br><span>driving force behind the IFB. After his death the IFB languished, along</span><br><span>with many of the hopes and dreams of blind people throughout the world. By</span><br><span>the early 1980s it seemed clear that the IFB would fade away unless it</span><br><span>joined with the WCWB. Once again there would be one international</span><br><span>organization to speak for blind people and for the agencies that served</span><br><span>them.</span><br><span> In 1984 a joint meeting of the IFB and WCWB was held to merge the two</span><br><span>organizations, leading to the creation of the World Blind Union (WBU). The</span><br><span>founding general assembly of the WBU met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in</span><br><span>October 1984. Since then, general assemblies have been held once every four</span><br><span>years: Madrid, 1988; Cairo, 1992; Toronto, 1996; Melbourne, 2000; Cape</span><br><span>Town, 2004; Geneva, 2008; and Bangkok, 2012. The next worldwide general</span><br><span>assembly will take place in 2016 in Orlando, Florida, USA.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: During the General Assembly meeting of the World Blind</span><br><span>Union in Cairo in 1992, several NFB leaders and staff go for a camel ride</span><br><span>in the desert. Left to right can be seen Kenneth Jernigan, Mary Ellen</span><br><span>Jernigan, Patricia Miller, Donald Capps, and Betty Capps. Behind Mrs.</span><br><span>Capps, Marc Maurer shares a camel with Pat Maurer.]</span><br><span></span><br><span> The WBU is organized into seven regions: North America/Caribbean,</span><br><span>Africa, Asia, East Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle</span><br><span>East. Each region has a president and executive committee to coordinate the</span><br><span>work of its member organizations. To ensure the representative nature of</span><br><span>the WBU, the president, both vice presidents, and the secretary general</span><br><span>must all be blind people. The only exception among the executive offices is</span><br><span>the position of treasurer, which on occasion has been filled by a sighted</span><br><span>person.</span><br><span> From the outset, the NFB was an influential force in the WBU. The</span><br><span>Federation's long-term leader, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, understood that, if</span><br><span>the WBU was to succeed and make a real difference in the lives of the</span><br><span>blind, organizations of the blind must lead the way. Dr. Jernigan became a</span><br><span>powerful political and philosophical force within the WBU. By 1987, he had</span><br><span>become president of the North America/Caribbean Region, a position he held</span><br><span>until the fall of 1997 when ill health forced him to resign. During his</span><br><span>tenure, Dr. Jernigan advanced the foundational principle that the blind</span><br><span>must be the ones to lead the blind. Others can and do help, but it is up to</span><br><span>the blind themselves to determine their own future. Dr. Jernigan understood</span><br><span>that self-determination was not simply a good idea, but a foundational and</span><br><span>enduring truth. The spirit and experience of the NFB has been critical to</span><br><span>the WBU. The NFB's positive and progressive influence continued, even after</span><br><span>Dr. Jernigan no longer held a leadership position.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer and Mary Ellen Jernigan visit the Great Wall of</span><br><span>China during a WBU meeting in Beijing.]</span><br><span> Dr. Marc Maurer, who succeeded Kenneth Jernigan as president of the</span><br><span>NFB, recognized the need for the Federation to remain active in the affairs</span><br><span>of the blind of the world. In his 2004 Presidential Report, Dr. Maurer</span><br><span>said,</span><br><span></span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind is an active participant in</span><br><span> the World Blind Union. For ten years Dr. Jernigan served as president</span><br><span> of the North America/Caribbean Region, and I have also held that</span><br><span> office. The World Blind Union brings together agencies for the blind</span><br><span> and organizations of the blind. Because within the entities that make</span><br><span> up the organization there are strikingly different approaches to the</span><br><span> subject of blindness, this amalgamation of groups sometimes creates</span><br><span> frustration. However, we learn much about programming for the blind</span><br><span> from throughout the world, and we have an opportunity for interaction</span><br><span> with leaders of the blind in other countries.[?]</span><br><span></span><br><span> The NFB stands as a beacon of hope for the blind of the world, and</span><br><span>the Federation is a living testament to the power of collective action. At</span><br><span>the opening session of the WBU's 2008 Quadrennial General Assembly in</span><br><span>Geneva, Switzerland, NFB President Marc Maurer gave the keynote address,</span><br><span>entitled "Breaking the Mold: The Power of the Unpredictable." He said, in</span><br><span>part,</span><br><span></span><br><span> The beginning of the possession of power is the assertion that</span><br><span> it belongs to us. I want us to have power. Furthermore, in my own</span><br><span> country I face challenges that cannot be solved within the borders of</span><br><span> my own nation. I need the cooperation and the power of others around</span><br><span> the world to bring equality to the blind of the United States, and I</span><br><span> believe that those of us in the United States can help bring equality</span><br><span> to the blind of the world.[?]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Today the WBU is widely recognized as an effective international</span><br><span>advocacy organization. It represents 285 million blind and partially</span><br><span>sighted people in 190 member nations. The WBU has consultancy status as a</span><br><span>nongovernmental organization (NGO) with the United Nations.</span><br><span> The WBU is the international voice of the blind, speaking to national</span><br><span>governments and a wide range of United Nations agencies. It works to</span><br><span>address the human and civil rights of the blind. It brings organizations of</span><br><span>blind people together with service organizations to work on issues</span><br><span>affecting the quality of life for blind people. In its relatively brief</span><br><span>history, it already has made a difference.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The WBU at Work</span><br><span></span><br><span> In 2008 the international Free Matter for the Blind mailing privilege</span><br><span>came up for review by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an agency of the</span><br><span>United Nations. The WBU launched an effort not only to preserve the Free</span><br><span>Matter privilege, but to broaden its scope. Since Free Mailing was</span><br><span>established in the 1950s, the exemption applied only to "literature for the</span><br><span>blind," covering little more than Braille books. The WBU pushed to expand</span><br><span>the international mailing privilege to include items such as talking</span><br><span>watches, digital audio equipment, and other devices for the blind.</span><br><span> At the October 2012 UPU Congress in Qatar, the WBU succeeded in</span><br><span>pushing through changes that would modernize the international mailing</span><br><span>privilege for the blind. Accordingly, the UPU amended the international</span><br><span>convention that governs the exchange of international mail. Article 7</span><br><span>defines the "Exemption from postal charges" for the blind. The amended</span><br><span>article reads in part, "3.1 Any item for the blind sent to or by an</span><br><span>organization for the blind or sent to or by a blind person shall be exempt</span><br><span>from all postal charges."[?]</span><br><span> In addition, the WBU has worked to secure the rights of blind people</span><br><span>and others with disabilities. The WBU was actively engaged in crafting</span><br><span>language for inclusion in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of</span><br><span>Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first human rights charter of the</span><br><span>twenty-first century. At the time the treaty language was being negotiated,</span><br><span>there was a strong move to keep all references in the treaty general to</span><br><span>persons with disabilities and to refrain from identifying any particular</span><br><span>disability group or services that applied to a specific disability type.</span><br><span>Many delegates objected to any mention of blindness, Braille, or any</span><br><span>service specific to blind people. The WBU pushed hard on these issues and</span><br><span>was successful in getting language included that recognized Braille by</span><br><span>name. Article 2 (Definitions) of the Convention reads,</span><br><span></span><br><span> For the purposes of the present Convention: 'Communication'</span><br><span> includes languages, display of text, Braille, tactile communication,</span><br><span> large print, accessible multimedia, as well as written, audio, plain-</span><br><span> language, human-reader and augmentative and alternative modes, means</span><br><span> and formats of communication, including accessible information and</span><br><span> communication technology.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Through the efforts of the WBU, Braille is also referenced in Article</span><br><span>9, Accessibility; Article 21, Freedom of Expression and Opinion, and Access</span><br><span>to Information; and in Article 24, Education.</span><br><span> The mere mention of Braille may not in and of itself appear to be</span><br><span>significant. Indeed it may be viewed as simply symbolic or hortatory, with</span><br><span>no real meaning or impact. Nevertheless, Article 24 on Education is an</span><br><span>example of the true impact of the work of the WBU. Initially, the delegates</span><br><span>insisted on integration as an absolute principle in the Convention. Yet for</span><br><span>many blind children, schools for the blind remain the best, and in some</span><br><span>cases, the only option for attaining an education. Through the efforts of</span><br><span>the WBU and of deaf and deaf-blind advocates, the language of the</span><br><span>Convention was modified. Language was removed that would have established</span><br><span>an absolute requirement that all children with disabilities be educated in</span><br><span>integrated settings. In its place, the language of the treaty now says that</span><br><span>no child should, by virtue of disability, be excluded from integration.</span><br><span>That compromise left the door open for specialized training. Specifically,</span><br><span>Article 24, Section 3c, states:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular</span><br><span> children, who are blind, deaf or deafblind, is delivered in the most</span><br><span> appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the</span><br><span> individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social</span><br><span> development.[?]</span><br><span></span><br><span> On Thursday, June 27, 2013, a diplomatic conference of the World</span><br><span>Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the Marrakech Treaty to</span><br><span>Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually</span><br><span>Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. The Marrakech Treaty includes two</span><br><span>major provisions. First, it calls on nations to produce more books for the</span><br><span>blind; and second, it authorizes nations to share accessible books across</span><br><span>national borders.</span><br><span> For many years United States law has allowed books to be produced in</span><br><span>Braille and other accessible formats without first having to obtain the</span><br><span>permission of the copyright holder. This authority, known as the Chafee</span><br><span>Amendment, has been the law since the late 1990s, and it has worked very</span><br><span>well.</span><br><span> As of 2015, fifty-seven nations around the world have copyright laws</span><br><span>similar to the US Chafee Amendment. The Marrakech Treaty will expand this</span><br><span>authority. As each WIPO member nation ratifies the book treaty for the</span><br><span>blind, it agrees to change its national copyright law to permit books to be</span><br><span>produced in accessible formats without having to seek the prior permission</span><br><span>of the copyright holder. This will greatly increase the production of</span><br><span>accessible works around the world. But that is only the first step in</span><br><span>ending what many have called the "book famine." For the first time, the</span><br><span>Marrakech Treaty allows WIPO member states to share copies of accessible</span><br><span>works across national borders.</span><br><span> At present, the WBU, together with the NFB, is working to address the</span><br><span>danger electric and hybrid electric vehicles pose to all pedestrians, and</span><br><span>in particular to blind people traveling the streets and byways of the</span><br><span>world. The WBU is working with the United Nations Economic Commission for</span><br><span>Europe (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)</span><br><span>to develop international standards to require electric and hybrid electric</span><br><span>vehicles to emit a minimum alert sound. The international effort will build</span><br><span>on the work undertaken in the United States. In 2010, the NFB led an effort</span><br><span>to persuade the United States Congress to adopt legislation mandating a</span><br><span>minimum sound standard for hybrid, electric, and other quiet vehicles. The</span><br><span>US law, known as the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, is the first, and</span><br><span>so far, the only national legislation mandating a safe level of sound to be</span><br><span>made by these very quiet cars.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Looking to the Future</span><br><span></span><br><span> The WBU's many successes highlight the critical importance of an</span><br><span>international organization to address the chronic and emerging barriers to</span><br><span>social and economic participation faced by blind people throughout the</span><br><span>world. The WBU works on increasing access to literacy, education, and</span><br><span>employment, all well-known, pervasive, and persistent barriers to full</span><br><span>participation. It is also addressing new challenges brought about by</span><br><span>advancing technology. Most important, the WBU is a vehicle for collective</span><br><span>action.</span><br><span> The continued success of the WBU will depend on the degree to which</span><br><span>it values and retains its representative nature. The service agencies must</span><br><span>never seek to overshadow the rights and aspirations of the blind</span><br><span>themselves. This is not to disparage the agencies for the blind; it is not</span><br><span>to ascribe dire motives, hubris, and ill will. Rather, it is a recognition</span><br><span>that the progress of the blind is a direct outgrowth of the will and</span><br><span>determination of extraordinary blind people, people who faced</span><br><span>discrimination and the damage of low expectations but managed to forge new</span><br><span>frontiers, beyond the established norms of the day.</span><br><span> The WBU is a forum, an organization, a means of advancing the</span><br><span>integration of the blind. It helps to continue the movement of the blind</span><br><span>toward full equality. Progress will come, quickly or slowly, but it will</span><br><span>come because the will and spirit of blind people cannot be forever</span><br><span>suppressed by the misunderstanding of others. The challenge of the WBU is</span><br><span>our individual and collective challenge. If we give of ourselves and</span><br><span>encourage and support one another, we will replace the heartache of</span><br><span>nonparticipation with hope and the realization of our dreams.</span><br><span> The history of the blind is bleak, but our future is bright. We can</span><br><span>work together to shape the future for ourselves. Whenever one of us</span><br><span>succeeds, whenever one of us refuses to accept a life of diminished</span><br><span>opportunity, our collective future is forever changed. Together we can and</span><br><span>will hasten society's recognition of our ability to live and work as</span><br><span>others.</span><br><span></span><br><span>For Further Information</span><br><span></span><br><span>"Withdrawal from International Federation of the Blind." (1984) Braille</span><br><span>Monitor, November. Internet Archive (2010)</span><br><span></span><br><span>Jernigan, Kenneth. (1988) "North American/Caribbean Regional Report,"</span><br><span>Braille Monitor, November.</span><br><span><<a href="https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm88/brlm8811.htm#14">https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm88/brlm8811.htm#14</a>></span><br><span></span><br><span>tenBroek, Jacobus. (1964) "The Parliament of Man: The Federation of the</span><br><span>World." Banquet Speech, National Federation of the Blind National</span><br><span>Convention, Phoenix, AZ. Audio, MP3 format.</span><br><span><<a href="https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Audio/BanqSpeech/bsp-1964.mp3">https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Audio/BanqSpeech/bsp-1964.mp3</a>></span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span></span><br><span>NAC: WHAT PRICE ACCREDITATION</span><br><span>A Report to National Federation of the Blind Members</span><br><span>on COMSTAC and NAC</span><br><span>by Kenneth Jernigan, President</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: In the early 1960s the National Accreditation</span><br><span>Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped was formed,</span><br><span>its major purpose being to thwart the legitimate concerns of consumers by</span><br><span>waving the banner of accreditation in defense of agencies providing poor</span><br><span>service to the blind. The battles between NAC and the Federation are</span><br><span>legendary, but to many new Federationists, the reason for NAC's creation</span><br><span>and why we fought its attempts to thwart the will of the organized blind</span><br><span>are the stuff of myth and history, lacking any reality or the need for</span><br><span>action today. The assumption has been that NAC is dead, and the threat is</span><br><span>gone. Would that it were so, but it is not. The state agency for the blind</span><br><span>in Florida requires that any agency for the blind there be accredited by</span><br><span>NAC in order to use state money to provide services to blind Floridians.</span><br><span>The consortium that binds together small service providers for the blind in</span><br><span>the state of Pennsylvania also strongly encourages NAC accreditation. NAC</span><br><span>is actively encouraging guide dog training schools to affiliate with it,</span><br><span>and one prominent school has unfortunately lent its name and quality</span><br><span>services to an accrediting body which is widely frowned upon by involved</span><br><span>and informed blind people.</span><br><span> It seems time that we reeducate ourselves about NAC and prepare once</span><br><span>again to demand that any accreditation be meaningful and that it involve</span><br><span>the voice of the organized blind. Following is a speech delivered by Dr.</span><br><span>Kenneth Jernigan in 1971 when he was the president of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind and a member of the NAC board. This speech has</span><br><span>appeared in the pages of the Braille Monitor at least one other time, that</span><br><span>being in 1991, and here is the way Dr. Jernigan introduced it when he was</span><br><span>serving as the editor of this publication.</span><br><span> Kenneth Jernigan's Headnote: I delivered this address at the 1971</span><br><span>convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Houston. NAC's</span><br><span>president and executive director had come to discuss what NAC was doing and</span><br><span>why. My remarks were meant to set the tone for the debate. In the context</span><br><span>of NAC's current maneuvering I think this 1971 analysis is still pertinent.</span><br><span>Here it is:</span><br><span></span><br><span> When the Commission on Standards and Accreditation on Services for</span><br><span>the Blind (COMSTAC) and its successor organization, the National</span><br><span>Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Impaired</span><br><span>(NAC), came into being during the 1960s, the leaders of the organized blind</span><br><span>movement sounded the alarm. It was pointed out that the American</span><br><span>Association of Workers for the Blind had unsuccessfully tried, during the</span><br><span>1950s, to gain control of the field of work for the blind by instituting</span><br><span>what it called a "seal of good practices." Of the several hundred agencies</span><br><span>and organizations in this country doing work with the blind only twenty or</span><br><span>thirty ever applied for and received this "seal." Several of those which</span><br><span>did were not regarded by the blind as either very effective or very</span><br><span>progressive. As the decade of the '60s approached, the proponents of rigid</span><br><span>agency control apparently decided to change tactics. The American</span><br><span>Foundation for the Blind and certain other leading agency officials adopted</span><br><span>the idea of establishing a so-called "independent" accrediting system for</span><br><span>all groups doing work with the blind. Although individual blind persons who</span><br><span>were agency officials were involved in the establishment and development of</span><br><span>COMSTAC, the blind as a group were not consulted-that is, the</span><br><span>representative organizations of the blind were not given a voice, except</span><br><span>occasionally as a matter of tokenism. Thus, the consumers of the services</span><br><span>were not heard in any meaningful way, and they had no part in developing or</span><br><span>promulgating the standards to govern the agencies established to give them</span><br><span>assistance.</span><br><span> Profiting by the earlier failure of the AAWB [American Association of</span><br><span>Workers for the Blind] "seal of good practices" experiment, the authors of</span><br><span>COMSTAC built more carefully. The American Foundation for the Blind</span><br><span>appointed an "independent" commission-the Commission on Standards and</span><br><span>Accreditation for Services for the Blind (COMSTAC). The full-time staff</span><br><span>consultant for COMSTAC was a staff member of the AFB, on loan to the group,</span><br><span>purely as a means of demonstrating the Foundation's concern with the</span><br><span>improvement of services for the blind. To add respectability, people of</span><br><span>prestige outside of the field of work with the blind were placed on the</span><br><span>commission-public officials, business executives, the dean of the Temple</span><br><span>Law School, etc. These were people of good will and integrity, but they</span><br><span>were not knowledgeable concerning the problems of blindness. Obviously they</span><br><span>took their tone and orientation from the Foundation appointees on COMSTAC.</span><br><span>All of these appointees, it must be borne in mind, were high-ranking</span><br><span>officials doing work with the blind. Not one of them represented the blind</span><br><span>themselves. Not one of them came from a membership organization of blind</span><br><span>persons.</span><br><span> As its work developed, COMSTAC divided into subcommittees, involving</span><br><span>hundreds of people throughout the country, since the subcommittees further</span><br><span>subdivided into smaller groups. Again, the pattern was followed. The</span><br><span>subcommittees, or the subcommittees of the subcommittees, had, in every</span><br><span>instance, at least one of the COMSTAC agency officials as a member, plus</span><br><span>people of prestige and ordinary rank and file agency workers or board</span><br><span>members. In fact, at the sub-subcommittee level a few members of the</span><br><span>organized blind movement were even added.</span><br><span> The American Foundation for the Blind and COMSTAC were later to</span><br><span>proclaim with pride that they had sought and achieved a broad consensus</span><br><span>throughout the field of work with the blind. However, the method of</span><br><span>arriving at that consensus was, to say the least, novel. At Denver in the</span><br><span>summer of 1965, for instance, the AAWB convention was largely taken up with</span><br><span>a discussion of the COMSTAC standards-to gather opinions and achieve</span><br><span>consensus, it was said. Only the discussion leaders had copies of the</span><br><span>standards (there had been a delay in mimeographing), and any touchy point</span><br><span>which was raised was answered either by the statement that it was covered</span><br><span>somewhere else in the COMSTAC standards or that another group was</span><br><span>discussing that matter and it was not properly the concern of the group in</span><br><span>which it had been raised.</span><br><span> Home teachers from throughout the country were present and were</span><br><span>considering the standards affecting their specialty. The overwhelming</span><br><span>majority apparently disagreed with a particular item in the COMSTAC</span><br><span>document and suggested that a vote be taken to determine the sentiments of</span><br><span>the group. They were informed by the discussion leader that a vote</span><br><span>certainly would not be taken but that their views would be reported to</span><br><span>COMSTAC, which had the sole responsibility for deciding such matters.</span><br><span> Throughout the summer and fall of 1965 promises were repeatedly made</span><br><span>that copies of the proposed COMSTAC standards would be made available. They</span><br><span>were forthcoming, hundreds of pages of them-three days prior to the final</span><br><span>conference in New York City, which brought together hundreds of agency</span><br><span>representatives for the announced purpose of arriving at a final consensus.</span><br><span>Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and I attended that conference. Again, the democracy</span><br><span>and fair play with which it was conducted were novel. One had to indicate</span><br><span>in writing ahead of time which particular group discussion he would like to</span><br><span>attend. There was no assurance that his choice would be honored. He might</span><br><span>be assigned to another group. He could not move from group to group at all.</span><br><span>If he had not received a special invitation, he could not attend the</span><br><span>meetings. COMSTAC appointees were stationed at the door to check</span><br><span>credentials, and I personally witnessed the turning away of one agency</span><br><span>director who had been critical of COMSTAC.</span><br><span> It is no wonder that the blind people of the country felt</span><br><span>apprehensive. What type of standards were likely to emerge from a</span><br><span>commission so appointed and so conducted? Not only the blind but also many</span><br><span>of the agencies expressed concern. Many felt that the AFB and federal</span><br><span>rehabilitation officials (unwittingly aided by people of prestige in the</span><br><span>broader community) would impose a system of rigid controls-which would</span><br><span>stifle initiative, foster domination, and take the emphasis off of real</span><br><span>service and place it on bureaucracy, red tape, and professional jargon. It</span><br><span>was further felt that what purported to begin as a voluntary system would</span><br><span>(once firmly established) become mandatory. The AFB and other proponents of</span><br><span>COMSTAC and its successor organization, NAC, vigorously denied these</span><br><span>assertions. COMSTAC and NAC were to be truly independent. Their very</span><br><span>watchword was to be objectivity. They were to be the means of improving</span><br><span>services to blind people throughout the country and the vehicle for</span><br><span>progressive thought and constructive change.</span><br><span> Readers of the Braille Monitor will remember that from 1965 through</span><br><span>1968 a detailed analysis was made of the COMSTAC and NAC reports and</span><br><span>activities. The fact that the Federation has not called attention in recent</span><br><span>months to COMSTAC and NAC should not lead the blind to believe that the</span><br><span>threat has passed or the situation improved. Quite the contrary is the</span><br><span>case.</span><br><span> The question of NAC's independence, for example, is no longer a</span><br><span>matter for serious debate. The Scriptures tell us that "where a man's</span><br><span>treasure is, there will his heart be also." In an official NAC document</span><br><span>entitled "Budget Comparison-1968 and 1969," dated April 15, 1968, the</span><br><span>following items appear.</span><br><span> "Total approved budget calendar year 1968, $154,034; total projected</span><br><span>calendar year 1969, $154,000. Estimated income 1968: grant from American</span><br><span>Foundation for the Blind $70,000; grant from Department of Health,</span><br><span>Education, and Welfare $75,000. Estimated income 1969: grant from American</span><br><span>Foundation for the Blind $70,000; grant from Department of Health,</span><br><span>Education, and Welfare $70,000."</span><br><span> Today (in 1971) the overwhelming majority of NAC's funds still come</span><br><span>from HEW and the American Foundation for the Blind. Many of the NAC</span><br><span>meetings are held at the AFB building in New York, and the executive</span><br><span>director of NAC is a former Foundation staff member, the same one who was</span><br><span>on "loan" to COMSTAC. When the first annual NAC awards were given, in 1970,</span><br><span>it may be of significance that two recipients were named: Mr. Jansen Noyes,</span><br><span>President of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for the</span><br><span>Blind; and Miss Mary Switzer, the long-time head of rehabilitation in the</span><br><span>federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Even more to the</span><br><span>point may be Miss Switzer's comments upon that occasion as reported in the</span><br><span>NAC minutes of April 24, 1970: "She predicted that difficult times might</span><br><span>lie ahead if agencies accept the idea of standards but do nothing about</span><br><span>them. The expending or withholding of public money can provide the</span><br><span>incentive that is needed."</span><br><span> Thus spoke Miss Switzer, confirming what Federation leaders had</span><br><span>predicted and COMSTAC spokesmen had denied a decade ago. The full meaning</span><br><span>of Miss Switzer's statement was spelled out by Alexander Handel, Executive</span><br><span>Director of NAC, as reported in the NAC minutes of April 25, 1970: "Mr.</span><br><span>Handel reported a new and important step in encouraging accreditation. The</span><br><span>Council of State Administrators has passed a resolution that by July 1,</span><br><span>1974, state rehabilitation agencies will require that agencies from which</span><br><span>they purchase services be accredited." The use of the word "encouraging" in</span><br><span>this context is almost reminiscent of George Orwell's double-think and new-</span><br><span>speak of 1984-only thirteen years away, at that. Perhaps sooner. The</span><br><span>"encouraging" of agencies to seek accreditation from NAC will probably be</span><br><span>called by some by the ugly name of blackmail. The pressure for conformity</span><br><span>and the concentration of power could well be the most serious threat to</span><br><span>good programs for the blind in the decade ahead.</span><br><span> Federationists who attended the 1966 Louisville convention will</span><br><span>remember that a report on COMSTAC and NAC was given at that time. I had</span><br><span>been officially asked to serve on the NAC board. The offer was, of course,</span><br><span>tokenism of the most blatant sort; and the question was whether to accept,</span><br><span>leaving the Federation open to the charge of approving NAC actions, or to</span><br><span>reject, exposing us to the charge of non-cooperation and leaving us with no</span><br><span>means of observing and getting information. Federationists will remember</span><br><span>that it was decided that I should accept the invitation. Thus, I have been</span><br><span>a member of the NAC board since its inception. In the spring of 1970 I was</span><br><span>elected to another three-year term. There are more than thirty NAC board</span><br><span>members, of whom I am one.</span><br><span> While expressing my minority views, I have tried to be personally</span><br><span>congenial and friendly with the NAC board members. Nevertheless, tokenism</span><br><span>remains tokenism. The other members of the board not only seemed</span><br><span>unconcerned with but unaware of the non-representative character of NAC. It</span><br><span>is as if General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, and American Motors should set up</span><br><span>a council and put six or seven officials from each of their companies on</span><br><span>its board and then ask the UAW to contribute a single representative. What</span><br><span>would the unions do in such a situation? What would racial minorities do if</span><br><span>their representative organizations were offered such tokenism in the</span><br><span>establishment and promulgation of standards affecting their lives? I think</span><br><span>we know what they would do. They would take both political and court</span><br><span>action, and they would instigate mass demonstrations. Perhaps the blind</span><br><span>should take a leaf from the same book. We cannot and should not exhibit</span><br><span>endless patience. We cannot and should not forever tolerate the</span><br><span>intolerable. I continue to sit on the NAC board, but I often wonder why. It</span><br><span>does not discuss the real problems which face the blind today or the</span><br><span>methods of solving those problems. In fact, NAC itself may well be more a</span><br><span>part of the problem than the solution. I repeat that tokenism by any other</span><br><span>name is still tokenism. In May of 1969, for instance, I received a document</span><br><span>from NAC entitled "Statement of Understanding Among National Accreditation</span><br><span>Council, National Industries for the Blind and the General Council of</span><br><span>Workshops for the Blind." This document was sent to all NAC board members</span><br><span>with the request that they vote to approve or disapprove it. It contained</span><br><span>six points, of which one and five are particularly pertinent. They are as</span><br><span>follows: "1. By June 30, 1970, all NIB affiliated shops shall have either:</span><br><span>a. applied to NAC for accreditation and submitted a self-study guide (or)</span><br><span>b. applied to the General Council for a Certificate of Affiliation with NIB</span><br><span>and submitted a self-study guide. 5. Certificates of Affiliation with NIB</span><br><span>entitle shops to membership in the General Council and to access through</span><br><span>NIB to: a. Government business allocated by NIB, b. Commercial business</span><br><span>allocated by NIB, c. Consulting services of NIB, d. Any and all other</span><br><span>benefits of NIB affiliation." In other words if a workshop for the blind</span><br><span>wishes any contracts from the federal government, it had better get into</span><br><span>line and "volunteer" for accreditation by NAC. No pressure, of course,</span><br><span>merely a system of "voluntary accreditation!" As you might expect, I voted</span><br><span>no on the NIB agreement. Along with my ballot, I sent the following</span><br><span>comments:</span><br><span> "I do not approve this statement because I do not believe government</span><br><span>contracts and other benefits to workshops should be conditioned upon their</span><br><span>accreditation by NAC. Rather, receipt of government contracts and other</span><br><span>benefits should depend upon the quality of performance of the workshop in</span><br><span>question. Does the shop pay at least a minimum wage? Do its workers have</span><br><span>the rights associated with collective bargaining? What sort of image of</span><br><span>blindness does it present to the public?</span><br><span> "Prior to NAC (in the days of COMSTAC) many of us said that NAC would</span><br><span>become a vehicle for blackmail-dressed out nicely, of course, in</span><br><span>professional jargon. It would appear that the prophecy is beginning to come</span><br><span>true, earlier assurances to the contrary notwithstanding."</span><br><span> As I say, I voted no. What do you suppose the final tally of the</span><br><span>ballots indicated? Twenty-seven yes votes and one no vote. How different</span><br><span>the results might have been if there had been equal representation of the</span><br><span>blind themselves and the agencies! Yes, tokenism is still tokenism.</span><br><span> In order that my position cannot be twisted or misinterpreted I would</span><br><span>like to say that the quarrel is not with the concept of accreditation</span><br><span>itself. Rather, we object to what is being done in the name of</span><br><span>accreditation. Proper accreditation by a properly accredited group is a</span><br><span>constructive thing. What NAC is doing is something else altogether.</span><br><span> There is, of course, not time here to go into the details of all of</span><br><span>the standards originally developed by COMSTAC and now being fostered by</span><br><span>NAC, but a brief sample is sufficient to make the point. Federationists</span><br><span>will remember that the Braille Monitor for February, 1966, carried an</span><br><span>analysis of the COMSTAC standards on physical facilities. That analysis</span><br><span>said in part:</span><br><span> "The standards [on physical facilities] are perhaps notable chiefly</span><br><span>in that they are so vague and minimal as to be equally applicable to office</span><br><span>buildings, nursing homes, or universities by the simple substitution of the</span><br><span>names of these other facilities...."</span><br><span> Perhaps a brief run-down of the standards themselves would serve as</span><br><span>the best and most complete illustration (headings theirs).</span><br><span></span><br><span> 1. Overall Suitability-The total facility is constructed to best serve</span><br><span> the needs of the particular agency. It will adequately serve everyone</span><br><span> concerned. It will meet the requirements of its governing body, the</span><br><span> Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the city building</span><br><span> code. The physical facilities will be helpful to the program.</span><br><span> 2. Location-The facility is located where it can easily be reached by</span><br><span> staff, clients, and others who need to use it. The facility should be</span><br><span> close to shopping and other community interests. The location is</span><br><span> reasonably safe, with hazards minimized.</span><br><span> 3. Grounds-The grounds will be large enough to allow for future</span><br><span> expansion. They will be pleasant ("free of undue nuisances and</span><br><span> hazards,"), with parking areas and roadways. Signs will be posted to</span><br><span> help people locate the proper areas.</span><br><span> 4. Activity Area-The layout of the facility will be efficient. The</span><br><span> facility will be designed for the planned activities, will be large</span><br><span> enough and well organized (reception rooms next to entries, work areas</span><br><span> together, etc.). Sufficient maintenance will be provided for.</span><br><span> 5. Privacy-People will have as much privacy as individual cases call for.</span><br><span> Confidentiality will be maintained.</span><br><span> 6. Health and Safety-The health and safety codes of the community will be</span><br><span> met. Sufficient heat and light will be provided. Sanitary conditions</span><br><span> will be as good as possible. Suitable entries will be provided for</span><br><span> wheelchairs, etc. Safety features will be related to the level of</span><br><span> competence of the occupants, the activities undertaken, and the</span><br><span> equipment used. Adequate first aid facilities are provided.</span><br><span> 7. Fire and Disaster Protection-All buildings will be so designed and</span><br><span> equipped as to minimize the danger of fire. The buildings will be</span><br><span> inspected by local authorities and/or independent authorities and</span><br><span> records of inspection kept. Smoking areas are clearly specified.</span><br><span> Proper protection shall be provided the occupants of the facility to</span><br><span> minimize danger should fire or disaster occur. Suitable fire</span><br><span> extinguishers will be provided. Fire alarms will be installed as to be</span><br><span> heard throughout the facility. Fire drills will be held irregularly.</span><br><span> Special provisions will be made for fire warnings to deaf-blind.</span><br><span> 8. Maintenance-"The condition of the physical facility gives evidence of</span><br><span> planful and effective maintenance and housekeeping."</span><br><span> 9. Remodeling-When remodeling is undertaken, it should be to best suit</span><br><span> the needs of the program.</span><br><span></span><br><span> The preceding is an inclusive summary! One can imagine the breadth of</span><br><span>interpretation that can result from application of these standards. One can</span><br><span>also imagine the range of individual whim and axe-grinding, not to say</span><br><span>blackmail and favoritism, that can enter into the proposed accreditation of</span><br><span>agencies for the blind based on such vague and capricious requirements. The</span><br><span>danger to be anticipated is the possibility of varying application of</span><br><span>standards to friends and foes when "accrediting" agencies....</span><br><span> One is tempted to dismiss this entire report of "Standards for</span><br><span>Physical Facilities" with the single word, "Blah!" But more intensive study</span><br><span>indicates otherwise. Tucked away among the platitudes and the generalities</span><br><span>are the age-old misconceptions and stereotypes.</span><br><span> What, for instance, is meant by the requirement that a facility for</span><br><span>the blind be located near to shopping and other community interests, and</span><br><span>that it be in a location reasonably safe, with hazards minimized? The exact</span><br><span>words of the committee are, "Where undue hazards cannot be avoided, proper</span><br><span>measures are instituted to assure the safety of all persons coming to the</span><br><span>agency. (For example, where an agency is on a street with heavy traffic, a</span><br><span>light or crosswalk or other means is available for safe crossing by blind</span><br><span>persons.)"</span><br><span> If this standard is simply meant to express the general pious</span><br><span>platitude that everybody ought to be as safe as possible, then what a</span><br><span>farcical and pathetic waste of time and money to assemble a committee to</span><br><span>spell out what everybody already knows. On the other hand, if the standard</span><br><span>means to imply that the blind are not able to live and compete among the</span><br><span>ordinary hazards of the regular workaday world and that they need more</span><br><span>shelter and care than others, the implications are not only false but they</span><br><span>are insidiously vicious.</span><br><span> Of a similar character is the committee's statement that the grounds</span><br><span>must "provide pleasant and appropriate surroundings, and be free of undue</span><br><span>nuisances and hazards." Surely we do not need a special commission on</span><br><span>standards and accreditation to tell us that people should live in pleasant</span><br><span>surroundings that are free of undue hazards, if this is all that is meant.</span><br><span>If, however, the committee is saying that the blind require surroundings</span><br><span>that are more "pleasant and free from hazards" than the surroundings</span><br><span>required by other people, one cannot help but be unhappily reminded of the</span><br><span>19th century concept that the blind should be entertained and provided with</span><br><span>recreation, that they should be helped in every way possible to "live with</span><br><span>their misfortune."</span><br><span> If this type of analysis seems blunt, one can only reply that this is</span><br><span>no time for nice words and mousy phrases. The people who were formerly the</span><br><span>Commission on Standards, and are now the National Accreditation, hold</span><br><span>themselves out to the public at large as the qualified experts, the people</span><br><span>who have the right to make standards and grant or refuse accreditation to</span><br><span>all and sundry. These are not children indulging in the innocent games of</span><br><span>childhood. They are adults, playing with the lives of hundreds of people.</span><br><span> Federationists should review the Braille Monitor from 1965 through</span><br><span>1968 to study the COMSTAC reports in light of present developments. I have</span><br><span>not tried here to analyze the content of those reports. Mostly it is bad,</span><br><span>and the standards and rules established by COMSTAC and NAC harmful. Let</span><br><span>anyone who doubts this assertion read the COMSTAC reports and the Monitor</span><br><span>analyses. They speak for themselves.</span><br><span> One final matter requires comment. At a recent meeting of the</span><br><span>National Accreditation Council I was telling a new member of the board (a</span><br><span>prominent businessman totally uninformed about the problems faced by the</span><br><span>blind) that I thought most of the actions of NAC were irrelevant. He seemed</span><br><span>surprised and said something to this effect:</span><br><span> "If you think what we are doing here is not relevant, what is</span><br><span>relevant?"</span><br><span> To which I said, "Last fall a blind man in Minneapolis (a person who</span><br><span>had worked for several years as a computer programmer at Honeywell and was</span><br><span>laid off because of the recession) applied to take a civil service</span><br><span>examination for computer programmer with the city of Minneapolis. His</span><br><span>application was rejected, on the grounds of blindness. The National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind helped him with advice and legal counsel. As a</span><br><span>result, he took the examination, and he now has a job with the city of</span><br><span>Minneapolis as a computer programmer.</span><br><span> "How many of the people who are on the NAC board," I asked, "are even</span><br><span>aware that such an incident occurred? How many of them think it is</span><br><span>important?"</span><br><span> "Or," I went on, "consider another incident. A few weeks ago in Ohio</span><br><span>a blind high school senior (duly elected by her class) was denied the right</span><br><span>to attend the American Legion Girls' State. The story was carried</span><br><span>nationwide by United Press, and the matter is still pending. Do you see any</span><br><span>of these people here today concerned or excited about this case? Do you see</span><br><span>them trying to do anything about it?"</span><br><span> "Well," my companion replied, "your organization seems to be working</span><br><span>on matters like this. Maybe NAC is doing good in other areas."</span><br><span> "The difficulty," I told him, "is that the actions of NAC are helping</span><br><span>to create the kind of problem situations I have been describing to you."</span><br><span> "How?" he asked me.</span><br><span> "NAC," I said, "accredits workshops, for instance. What kind of</span><br><span>standards does it use in determining whether a shop should be approved and</span><br><span>presented to the public as a worthy and progressive institution? NAC is</span><br><span>concerned about whether the workshop has a good accounting system. It is</span><br><span>concerned about good pay and good working conditions for the professional</span><br><span>staff (almost all of them sighted). It is concerned with the physical</span><br><span>facilities and (perhaps) whether there is a psychologist or psychiatrist</span><br><span>available to minister to the blind workers. But what about minimum wages</span><br><span>for those same blind workers, or the right of collective bargaining, or</span><br><span>grievance committees? On such items NAC is silent. It will accredit a</span><br><span>sheltered shop which pays less than fifty cents an hour to its blind</span><br><span>workers. By so doing, it puts its stamp of approval on such practices. It</span><br><span>helps perpetuate the system that has kept the blind in bondage and made</span><br><span>them second-class citizens through the centuries. It helps to slam the door</span><br><span>on the computer programmer in Minneapolis and the high school student in</span><br><span>Ohio. Worst of all, perhaps, it reinforces and helps to continue the myth</span><br><span>that blindness means inferiority, that the blind are unable to compete on</span><br><span>terms of equality in regular industry or the professions, that the blind</span><br><span>should be grateful for what they have and stay in their places. The</span><br><span>workshop example is only that, an example. The same theme is everywhere</span><br><span>present in NAC's action and standards-and, for that matter, in its very</span><br><span>makeup."</span><br><span> As we talked, my businessman companion seemed shocked that there were</span><br><span>sheltered shops paying less than the minimum wage to blind workers. Yet, he</span><br><span>is on the NAC board, lending his name to the accreditation. I pointed out</span><br><span>to him a variety of other ways in which the work of NAC is helping to</span><br><span>promote misconceptions about blindness and add to our problems. I can only</span><br><span>hope that the seeds I planted will bear fruit.</span><br><span> To round out the picture we are considering today, one further item</span><br><span>might be mentioned. The April 25, 1968 minutes of NAC report as follows:</span><br><span> "Over thirty agencies and schools have indicated, in writing, an</span><br><span>interest in applying for accreditation. Official applications have been</span><br><span>received from six agencies. Some of these have already paid the application</span><br><span>fee. The American Council of the Blind is the first membership association</span><br><span>to apply for membership in the National Accreditation Council."</span><br><span> In a letter dated July 11, 1968, from Alexander Handel, Executive</span><br><span>Director of the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the</span><br><span>Blind and Visually Handicapped, to members of the NAC Board of Directors an</span><br><span>article is discussed which appears in the July, 1968, issue of the Braille</span><br><span>Forum (the official publication of the American Council of the Blind). The</span><br><span>article says in part:</span><br><span> "It should be emphasized, however, that from the first, ACB officers</span><br><span>and members actively consulted with the various committees developing the</span><br><span>standards, and ACB was the only national organization of the blind which</span><br><span>both participated in and financially supported the National Conference on</span><br><span>Standards which led to the formation of the National Accreditation</span><br><span>Council."</span><br><span> I give you this quotation without comment. It speaks for itself. So</span><br><span>do the actions of NAC. I presume all of you have read the exchange of</span><br><span>correspondence concerning the appearance of NAC representatives at this</span><br><span>meeting today. The contempt and condescension inherent in NAC's bland</span><br><span>assumption that it was proper to reject our invitation to appear at this</span><br><span>convention because a debate might occur are clear for all to see. Likewise,</span><br><span>the agreement just concluded between NAC and the American Foundation for</span><br><span>the Blind whereby the Foundation will work with agencies and help prepare</span><br><span>them for accreditation is equally revealing.</span><br><span> In any case the one central point which must be repeatedly hammered</span><br><span>home is the total irrelevance of NAC as it is now constituted and as it is</span><br><span>now performing. What we need today and in the years ahead is not more</span><br><span>detailed standards but a real belief in the competence and innate normality</span><br><span>of blind people, a willingness on the part of agency officials to help</span><br><span>blind people secure meaningful training and competitive employment, a</span><br><span>recognition that the blind are able to participate fully in the mainstream</span><br><span>of American life. We need acceptance and equality, not shelter and care.</span><br><span> When seen in this light, NAC must be viewed as one of our most</span><br><span>serious problems in the decade ahead. The blind of the nation should</span><br><span>thoroughly inform themselves about its activities and should insist upon a</span><br><span>voice in determining the character of programs affecting their lives. We</span><br><span>should insist that state and federal governments not delegate their powers</span><br><span>of setting standards for state agencies to a private group, which is not</span><br><span>responsive to the needs or views of the consumers of the services. It is</span><br><span>true that many of the agencies doing work with the blind need to be</span><br><span>reformed and improved, but NAC is not the entity to do it. We the organized</span><br><span>blind intend (in the best tradition of American democracy) to have</span><br><span>something to say about the scope and direction of the reform and the</span><br><span>improvement. We are not children, nor are we psychological cripples. We are</span><br><span>free citizens, fully capable of participating in the determination of our</span><br><span>own destiny, and we have every right and intention of having something to</span><br><span>say about what is done with our lives.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Doris Willoughby]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Margery Herrington]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: A full Braille cell]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Introducing Braille-Begin with a Positive Experience</span><br><span> by Doris Willoughby</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Doris Willoughby has provided a number of articles</span><br><span>for the Braille Monitor about the education of both sighted people and</span><br><span>blind people. This topic has also caused her to write several books that</span><br><span>are fixtures in many classrooms in which teachers of blind children toil</span><br><span>daily. In the article below, she and her sister describe examples of</span><br><span>positive introductions to Braille and to blindness:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Ever since I met my husband Curtis, who is blind, and ever since I</span><br><span>started teaching blind children, I have observed that when people are shown</span><br><span>the Braille alphabet, they tend to react by saying, "Wow! That looks hard!"</span><br><span> I wished for a way to illustrate that Braille is no harder to learn</span><br><span>than print. While the whole Braille alphabet may seem daunting, it can be</span><br><span>learned in a measured and organized way.</span><br><span> Now, when I speak to a group about blindness, I like to give out</span><br><span>cards that display just a few symbols that are very different from each</span><br><span>other. Each card only has one symbol on it. Good examples are the letter</span><br><span>"a" (one single dot), the letter "g" (four dots together in a square), and</span><br><span>the letter "l" (three dots aligned vertically). I make sure that</span><br><span>participants rely on their sense of touch when they examine the dots.</span><br><span> My sister, Margery Herrington, who is a volunteer Braille</span><br><span>transcriber, has provided a positive introduction to Braille to many people</span><br><span>through the college anatomy classes she taught. Here is her description:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> In the seventeen years I was on the biology faculty at Adams</span><br><span> State University in Alamosa, Colorado, I taught over 2,000 anatomy</span><br><span> students to read the Braille letters "a," "g," and "x" by touch as</span><br><span> part of one of the laboratories for the course. I got many positive</span><br><span> comments such as "This is really cool," and "This is easy; I thought</span><br><span> it would be a lot harder."</span><br><span> At the beginning of the period I gave a short introduction to</span><br><span> Braille and wrote the patterns for "a," "g," and "x" on the</span><br><span> blackboard. The dark dots indicate raised dots.</span><br><span> I gave students three-by-five-inch cards with two rows of</span><br><span> Braille letters that I had made using a slate. The upper row had four</span><br><span> a's, followed by four g's, and four x's, with a space after each</span><br><span> letter. The lower row had a total of ten letters (a's, g's, and x's)</span><br><span> in random order with spaces between the letters. Each Braille letter</span><br><span> had the corresponding print letter written below it.</span><br><span> Students used the top row of letters and their fingers to learn</span><br><span> how the letter patterns felt. They then used touch but not sight to</span><br><span> read the second row, while their laboratory partners checked their</span><br><span> accuracy. After recording the number of right answers (usually ten</span><br><span> out of ten), the students read the second row again, using their</span><br><span> elbows instead of their fingers (remember that this was an anatomy</span><br><span> class) in order to compare the sensitivity of different regions of the</span><br><span> body. Students recorded the number of correct answers for the elbow</span><br><span> (usually zero, one, or two) and then wrote down some possible reasons</span><br><span> why the fingers were easier to use than the elbow. Typical answers</span><br><span> were that the elbow had rougher skin, fewer nerve endings, and a</span><br><span> larger surface area.</span><br><span> Before students could turn in their laboratory reports with</span><br><span> results from all the activities done that day, I had them take an exit</span><br><span> test using a card with four Braille letters on it (for example, agxg,</span><br><span> gaax, or xgax) with spaces between the letters. Students enjoyed</span><br><span> showing that they could read quickly and accurately, and most of them</span><br><span> got the required grade of 100 percent on the first try. A few students</span><br><span> missed a letter and needed to try again on a different version of the</span><br><span> test, but I never had a student who had a difficult time passing.</span><br><span> After a student had read the four letters, I made a comment such as</span><br><span> "One hundred percent! You're an efficient Braille reader." A number</span><br><span> of students also did the optional Braille activity during the</span><br><span> laboratory, writing their names in Braille on cards using a slate and</span><br><span> stylus with minimal guidance.</span><br><span></span><br><span> So there you have my sister, teaching anatomy, and finding yet</span><br><span>another use for Braille. Unfortunately, in contrast to the above examples,</span><br><span>people often "simulate blindness" through an exercise that actually is much</span><br><span>more harmful than helpful. A person is given a challenging task such as</span><br><span>eating an entire meal in complete darkness or navigating a complicated path</span><br><span>while blindfolded without adequate instruction or meaningful practice. This</span><br><span>actually tends to mislead people about blindness and to make attitudes</span><br><span>worse instead of better. Arielle Silverman discusses this problem in detail</span><br><span>in her article in the Journal on Blindness Innovation and Research.*</span><br><span> Exercises that incorporate mastery of blindness skills can be helpful</span><br><span>in showing the way alternative techniques provide effective ways to do</span><br><span>things that are usually done visually. If you have wished you could help</span><br><span>give sighted students a positive introduction to Braille, you might want to</span><br><span>do an activity similar to the ones that my sister and I have used.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>*Silverman, Arielle. The perils of playing blind: problems with blindness</span><br><span>simulation and a better way to teach about blindness. Journal on Blindness</span><br><span>Innovation and Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Kenneth Jernigan at the 1985 national convention]</span><br><span> Blindness: The Pattern of Freedom</span><br><span> by Kenneth Jernigan</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Last month the Braille Monitor ran an article by</span><br><span>Prof. JW Smith in which he discussed the importance of the banquet speech</span><br><span>delivered annually to the national convention of the Federation. In that</span><br><span>article he interviewed Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, Dr. Marc Maurer, and the</span><br><span>longtime editor of the Braille Monitor and a former president of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Barbara Pierce. When each</span><br><span>participant was asked to identify their favorite banquet speech, the one</span><br><span>given in 1985 was mentioned. It seems appropriate here to reprint that</span><br><span>speech, and to enjoy what three people who have closely followed the</span><br><span>literature generated by this organization believed to be one of its major</span><br><span>works. Here is what Dr. Jernigan said to the 1985 convention banquet:</span><br><span></span><br><span>When the playful dawn came down to the sea,</span><br><span>I ruffled its hair with gladness.</span><br><span>I saw the waves and flexed my soul in freedom.</span><br><span>Humanity comes through the optic nerve, And justice lives in the eye.</span><br><span>Not creed or law or politics</span><br><span>But curvature and the nature of light.</span><br><span>The blind man yearns in a land apart,</span><br><span>Slave though richest king.</span><br><span>Not for him the full broad sweep of mind and spirit</span><br><span>Dark the channel, nerve and tissue;</span><br><span>Long eternal through the night.</span><br><span>Day comes down to touch the ocean,</span><br><span>And I stand up to look and live.</span><br><span>Books of science unromantic-freedom's passport to the soul. [ 1. ]</span><br><span></span><br><span> When I first read that poem, I thought how literate, how polished,</span><br><span>how skillfully written-how absolutely gross and totally false. Poetry is</span><br><span>the art of saying so much in so few words that prose will not work as a</span><br><span>means of expression. It does for language what the computer does for</span><br><span>science and what the aerial photograph does for a landscape. On nothing</span><br><span>more than a sheet of paper you can do any calculation which the most up-to-</span><br><span>date computer can do, but if the problem is complex, you will do it more</span><br><span>slowly-so much so that you will never live to finish it. You will not</span><br><span>understand the patterns and relationships-or, for that matter, even know</span><br><span>they exist. They will be buried in minutiae and lost in delay. Likewise,</span><br><span>you can walk the earth and map a continent, but you can never see its</span><br><span>patterns and perspectives. There is too much detail, and it will take too</span><br><span>long to put together.</span><br><span> Poetry (properly used) cuts through verbiage and speaks to the soul.</span><br><span>Like the computer and the aerial photograph, it condenses time and reveals</span><br><span>patterns. But we must not be bamboozled. There is no magic in sophisticated</span><br><span>tools. They are only as good as our understanding. Ancient astronomy</span><br><span>predicted quite accurately the course of the stars and the date of</span><br><span>eclipses, but it was based on the mistaken notion that the earth is flat</span><br><span>and the center of the universe. In the absence of understanding a computer</span><br><span>would not have brought enlightenment. It would only have reinforced the</span><br><span>misconceptions. Aerial photographs are equally subject to</span><br><span>misinterpretation. They give us data but not the wisdom to comprehend it.</span><br><span> Poetry is the same. It does not live in a vacuum but is built on a</span><br><span>frame of accepted values and assumed truths. Therefore, when the poet tells</span><br><span>us that humanity comes through the optic nerve and justice lives in the eye-</span><br><span>when he speaks of freedom as a product of sight-he is not proclaiming new</span><br><span>discoveries but repeating old superstitions: our common heritage-man's</span><br><span>ancient fear of the dark, the equation of sight with light and light with</span><br><span>good. He is doing what the perceptive poet always does. He is resolving</span><br><span>contradictions and distilling (whether true or false) the essence of</span><br><span>cultural consensus. He is going to the core of our inner being and making</span><br><span>us face what we truly believe.</span><br><span> But, of course, an increasing number of us do not believe it. In</span><br><span>fact, it is not a question of belief. As we go about our business from hour</span><br><span>to hour and minute to minute, we know from personal experience that it is</span><br><span>false. Blindness does not mean dehumanization. In our homes and our</span><br><span>offices, in factories and laboratories, on farms and in universities, in</span><br><span>places of recreation and forums of civic accomplishment we live the</span><br><span>refutation of it every day. While it is true that 70 percent of us do not</span><br><span>have jobs and that all of us are routinely treated like children and wards,</span><br><span>it is equally true that 30 percent of us do have jobs and that all of us</span><br><span>are coming to realize that the problem is not blindness but mistaken</span><br><span>attitudes. If even one of us can be a scientist (and many of us are), that</span><br><span>does not prove that if an individual is blind he or she can be a scientist,</span><br><span>but it does prove that blindness will not prevent a person from being a</span><br><span>scientist. In short, it proves that blindness is not the barrier.</span><br><span> Sight is enjoyable; it is useful; it is convenient. But that is all</span><br><span>that it is-enjoyable, useful, and convenient. Except in imagination and</span><br><span>mythology it is not more than that. It does not have mysterious</span><br><span>psychological implications; and it is not the single key to happiness, the</span><br><span>road to knowledge, or the window to the soul. Like the other senses, it is</span><br><span>a channel of communication, a source of pleasure, and a tool nothing less,</span><br><span>nothing more. It is alternative, not exclusive. It is certainly not the</span><br><span>essential component of human freedom. The urge to liberty and the need to</span><br><span>be free are commodities of the spirit, not the senses. They divide</span><br><span>civilization from savagery and human beings from animals.</span><br><span> Liberty has been the focal point of more study and comment than</span><br><span>perhaps any other idea which has ever troubled, motivated, and inspired</span><br><span>mankind. It is the stuff of dreams, not optic nerves and eyeballs. The</span><br><span>effort is always to understand and, by so doing, make life better and more</span><br><span>in tune with ultimate reality-a combination of bread and the prayer book,</span><br><span>food for the body and food for the soul.</span><br><span> Liberty and freedom. Two words, one concept. Always noble, always</span><br><span>imposing-ever the dream, ever the mover of nations. And while we cannot</span><br><span>capture freedom in a rigid cage, we can describe it, seek it, and recognize</span><br><span>its transcendent power.</span><br><span> Harold Laski said: "We acquiesce in the loss of freedom every time we</span><br><span>are silent in the face of injustice."</span><br><span> Daniel Webster said: "God grants liberty only to those who love it,</span><br><span>and are always ready to guard and defend it."</span><br><span> Benjamin Franklin said: "They that give up essential liberty to</span><br><span>obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."</span><br><span> Samuel Adams said: "If you love wealth better than liberty, the</span><br><span>tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go</span><br><span>home from us in peace."</span><br><span> John Dewey said: "Liberty is not just an idea, an abstract principle.</span><br><span>It is power, effective power to do specific things. There is no such thing</span><br><span>as liberty in general; liberty, so to speak, at large."</span><br><span> Cicero said: "Freedom is participation in power."</span><br><span> Herbert J. Muller said: "Freedom is the condition of being able to</span><br><span>choose and to carry out purpose."</span><br><span> Herbert Spencer said: "No one can be perfectly free until all are</span><br><span>free. No one can be perfectly moral until all are moral."</span><br><span> The nineteenth-century German writer Max Stirner said: "Freedom cannot</span><br><span>be granted. It must be taken."</span><br><span> Walter Lippmann said: "Men cannot be made free by laws unless they</span><br><span>are in fact free because no man can buy and no man can coerce them. That is</span><br><span>why the Englishman's belief that his home is his castle and that the king</span><br><span>cannot enter it, like the American's conviction that he must be able to</span><br><span>look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell, are the very essence of</span><br><span>the free man's way of life."</span><br><span> So the tapestry of freedom is constantly being woven, and we are part</span><br><span>of the fabric; but there is something beyond. There always is. Each</span><br><span>minority has its separate pattern, its road to freedom, its task to be</span><br><span>done. And for the blind that task is monumental. It is nothing less than</span><br><span>the total redirection of society's effort and perception-for we are not</span><br><span>patients, and (contrary to popular belief) our problem is not lack of</span><br><span>eyesight or inability to perform.</span><br><span> What we need most is not, as the professionals would have it, medical</span><br><span>help or psychological counseling but admission to the main channels of</span><br><span>daily life and citizenship, not custody and care but understanding and</span><br><span>acceptance. Above all, what we need is not more government programs or</span><br><span>private charitable efforts. Instead, we want jobs, opportunity, and full</span><br><span>participation in society. Give us that, and we will do the rest for</span><br><span>ourselves. Give us jobs, equal treatment, and a solid economic base; and we</span><br><span>will do without the counseling, the sheltered workshops, and the social</span><br><span>programs. We will not need them. We have the same medical, vocational,</span><br><span>social, and recreational needs as others; but our blindness does not create</span><br><span>those needs, and it does not magnify or enlarge them. It does not make them</span><br><span>special or different. We are neither more nor less than normal people who</span><br><span>cannot see, and that is how we intend to be treated. We want no strife or</span><br><span>confrontation, but we have learned the power of collective action, and we</span><br><span>will do what we have to do to achieve first-class status. We are simply no</span><br><span>longer willing to be second-class citizens.</span><br><span> When the National Federation of the Blind came into being in 1940,</span><br><span>the means were limited and the numbers few, but the goal was clear. Today</span><br><span>(almost fifty years later-when we have tens of thousands of members and are</span><br><span>the strongest presence in the affairs of the blind) the purpose is</span><br><span>unchanged. It is exactly what it was in 1940. It can be told in a sentence.</span><br><span>We want freedom-jobs, homes, the chance to succeed or fail on our own</span><br><span>merit, access to places of public accommodation, interdependence with our</span><br><span>neighbors, and full participation in society. The words are easy, but the</span><br><span>fact has been long delayed. From the dawn of history blind men and women</span><br><span>have worked and hoped and waited, but only in recent years (only with the</span><br><span>coming of the National Federation of the Blind) has our dream approached</span><br><span>reality. And now the waiting is over. Yes, we have waited-oh, God, how we</span><br><span>have waited!-but never again! No more! In this generation our time has</span><br><span>finally come-for we are determined at long last to live the truth of what</span><br><span>we are, and not what others think we are or try to make us become or</span><br><span>believe. As Cicero said: "Freedom is participation in power." And as Max</span><br><span>Stirner said: "Freedom cannot be granted. It must be taken."</span><br><span> There are four essential elements in the pattern of our freedom. Each</span><br><span>has a different part to play, and each is necessary. They blend to form a</span><br><span>tapestry, which can never be finished without the composite.</span><br><span> The first and most important of these elements is internal. It is</span><br><span>what we believe and become within ourselves. The second is public</span><br><span>education. The third is the law. The fourth is confrontation. Other people</span><br><span>tend to treat and value us as we treat and value ourselves. In matters of</span><br><span>the spirit, before a thing can become reality, we must believe it; and</span><br><span>before we can believe it, we must say we believe it.</span><br><span> We say we are as good as the sighted, able to compete with them on</span><br><span>terms of equality. We say that we deserve all of the privileges and</span><br><span>responsibilities of citizenship and that we are capable of exercising them.</span><br><span>We say that it is respectable to be blind. When the time comes that a</span><br><span>majority of us know for a certainty within ourselves that these things are</span><br><span>true (know it so surely that we act and live it every day and do not even</span><br><span>need to think about it or question it), our battle will largely be won.</span><br><span> Dr. Walter Stromer is a blind professor. He lives in a small town in</span><br><span>Iowa and teaches at the local college. He is thought of by his colleagues</span><br><span>and students as successful, quite successful-and he doubtless shares that</span><br><span>opinion. But do his associates think of him as successful measured by</span><br><span>others on the campus, or only by the standard of what they think a blind</span><br><span>person can do and can be expected to do? Which standard does Dr. Stromer</span><br><span>use? For that matter, does he even know that there are different standards?</span><br><span>Does he perhaps enjoy being thought of as remarkable, unusual, inspiring,</span><br><span>and brave-failing to realize that he has made a bad bargain and that the</span><br><span>eye is not freedom's passport to the soul?</span><br><span> A number of years ago Dr. Stromer appeared on a panel to discuss the</span><br><span>meaning of blindness, and as a result he published a paper entitled "One</span><br><span>Day in the Life of Me." Speaking of his early morning radio listening, he</span><br><span>says: "Fortunately the station I listen to most is near the end of the</span><br><span>dial. Finding stations in the middle of the dial can be a problem unless</span><br><span>you know exactly what program to listen for."</span><br><span> Progressing to the time of departure for work, he says: "Just before</span><br><span>I leave for class I remember I forgot to have my wife record the grades for</span><br><span>the speeches made yesterday. I could do it in Braille, but it would be most</span><br><span>tedious and time-consuming."</span><br><span> In further reference to Braille he says: "Looking for one sheet of</span><br><span>paper in a stack is not bad when you can see; it's maddeningly slow when</span><br><span>you have to run your fingers over the first dots of every sheet to figure</span><br><span>out what it is."</span><br><span> As he leaves the house, he says: "But finally I'm off to school,</span><br><span>after pausing in the door for a minute to try to remember if I've got</span><br><span>everything. Others do that, too, but they can see things lying on the chair</span><br><span>or table, to remind them to take along; with me it has to be a more</span><br><span>conscious mental effort. Which explains of course why I'm so alert, because</span><br><span>I have to use my brain more, which is what keeps it sharp, or wears it to a</span><br><span>frazzle."</span><br><span> His thoughts as he goes from home to campus are in the same vein:</span><br><span>"Walking to school is fairly relaxing," he says. "At least once a week I</span><br><span>try to remember to be grateful for not having to fight the noise and</span><br><span>congestion of the city." What a melodramatic piece of self-pity! Many</span><br><span>people prefer small towns to cities, but I wonder how many of them are able</span><br><span>to work blindness and pathos into it. After all, the city has advantages,</span><br><span>too-and you could probably get blindness into that as well if you put your</span><br><span>mind to it.</span><br><span> And how does Dr. Stromer feel about his teaching? He says: "In a few</span><br><span>minutes I'm in class. After twenty-two years I'm fairly comfortable."</span><br><span> After all of this tension and heavy introspection, it is only natural</span><br><span>that Dr. Stromer feels tense and a little weary. A counteractant might be</span><br><span>in order. "Home to lunch now," he says. "Just a good eight-minute walk,</span><br><span>downhill all the way. A small glass of wine, a short nap, maybe only five</span><br><span>minutes, and then lunch and I'm ready for the afternoon.... I stretch out</span><br><span>for a nap before supper. I wonder if all blind people need those naps as</span><br><span>much as I do. I think I'm fairly relaxed, but I'm sure an average day takes</span><br><span>more nervous energy out of me than it does out of somebody with good</span><br><span>vision, because so many things that sighted people can do without thinking,</span><br><span>I have to do with a good bit of conscious effort."</span><br><span> Stromer is not a phony. He believes it-and his associates believe it.</span><br><span>But it is false to the core. It is what I call "The Stromer Syndrome." His</span><br><span>neighbors think (within the limits, of course, of common sense and what</span><br><span>they believe a blind person can do) that he is wonderful. They make of him</span><br><span>a conversation piece. They tell him, each other, and anybody else who will</span><br><span>listen that he is witty, accomplished, and inspiring. He uses the same</span><br><span>words we use-independence, understanding, realistic approach to blindness,</span><br><span>full participation in society, and all of the rest-but he does not mean</span><br><span>what we mean.</span><br><span> In his daily life and thinking he exemplifies almost every</span><br><span>misconception about the inferiority and helplessness of the blind that I</span><br><span>have ever heard: Blind people have difficulty tuning in radio stations.</span><br><span>Braille is tedious and ineffective. It cannot be scanned. Blind people have</span><br><span>more trouble than others remembering what to take to work. This makes their</span><br><span>minds alert. They meet their problems with humor. They are grateful to live</span><br><span>in a small town to avoid the congestion of cities. After twenty-two years</span><br><span>they are fairly comfortable teaching. They have more tensions than others</span><br><span>and, therefore, require more naps, and a little wine.</span><br><span> Dr. Stromer undoubtedly feels that his attitudes and behavior are a</span><br><span>plus in the struggle of the blind for advancement, but every day his</span><br><span>influence is negative. Society (knowing nothing about blindness) has made</span><br><span>him what he is and taught him its values. Now, he returns the compliment.</span><br><span>He reinforces the misconceptions and teaches society. If his situation were</span><br><span>unique (if the "Stromer Syndrome" were personal to the man), it would</span><br><span>hardly be worth our attention. We would simply turn our heads in pity and</span><br><span>embarrassment and let it go at that. But it is not personal. It is endemic</span><br><span>and generic. It has dogged the heels of every minority that has ever walked</span><br><span>the road to freedom.</span><br><span> How many blacks in the early part of this century tried to straighten</span><br><span>their hair and look white? How many laughed, shuffled their feet, and</span><br><span>played Amos and Andy to fit the mold of the times? Even more to the point,</span><br><span>how many secretly thought the role they were given was just and proper? All</span><br><span>of them some of the time, and some of them all of the time. The incentive</span><br><span>to believe was overwhelming. Every day they were rewarded for conforming</span><br><span>and punished for objecting. Believing, they lived the myth and helped it</span><br><span>come true-and both they and society were diminished accordingly.</span><br><span> As Herbert Spencer said: "No one can be perfectly free until all are</span><br><span>free. No one can be perfectly moral until all are moral." Only when a</span><br><span>majority of the blacks came to realize that no imagined advantage, no</span><br><span>immediate gain, and no avoidance of punishment could take the place of the</span><br><span>privileges and, for that matter, the pains and responsibilities of first-</span><br><span>class status did they begin to experience fulfillment-and, then, the world</span><br><span>changed.</span><br><span> As it was with the blacks, so it is with the blind. We are part of</span><br><span>the general culture, and the pressure to believe and conform is constantly</span><br><span>with us. It all comes together in a single sentence in a letter I recently</span><br><span>received from a man in Ohio. After telling me that he was losing his sight,</span><br><span>he said: "I believe I would rather be dead than blind." Consider the</span><br><span>capacity for enjoyment and productive work and the level of daily activity</span><br><span>of the average member of the National Federation of the Blind, and ask</span><br><span>yourself whether you believe this man's opinion results from dire</span><br><span>predicament or cultural conditioning.</span><br><span> Sometimes, of course, the blind person's acceptance of the stereotype</span><br><span>is not just conditioning but an attempt (whether conscious or otherwise) to</span><br><span>use it for advantage. Phillip Mangold is a blind man who lives in</span><br><span>California. In 1980 he wrote a booklet called: The Pleasure of Eating for</span><br><span>Those Who Are Visually Impaired. We do not have to go beyond the title to</span><br><span>find the problem. There is pleasure in eating, and those who are blind eat;</span><br><span>but to imply that there is a connection is a distortion and a disservice.</span><br><span>It plays upon the notion that the blind are mysteriously different from the</span><br><span>sighted and that we require expert help (presumably from Mr. Mangold) to do</span><br><span>the simplest task. His appeal to the public's fears and misconceptions may</span><br><span>sell his booklet and promote his employment, but (whether he knows it or</span><br><span>not) the price is too high and the bargain bad.</span><br><span> When we consider public education (the second of the four essential</span><br><span>components in our pattern of freedom), we are reminded again that none of</span><br><span>the four stands alone. They overlap and interweave to form a composite.</span><br><span>What the blind believe about themselves, they teach to the public; and what</span><br><span>the public believes conditions the blind. Not only individuals but also</span><br><span>organizations may have negative impact and mistaken attitudes. The American</span><br><span>Council of the Blind is a prime example.</span><br><span> Its state affiliate, the Missouri Council of the Blind, plans to hold</span><br><span>its 1985 convention in St. Joseph. Carolyn Anderson, Secretary-Treasurer of</span><br><span>the local chapter of the Missouri Council of the Blind, talked to the St.</span><br><span>Joseph News-Press about the matter last fall. In an article appearing</span><br><span>October 28, 1984, she says: "We have a commitment from Boy Scouts who are</span><br><span>working on merit badges to serve as volunteer guides when needed by a</span><br><span>delegate. Free transportation from both bus stations to the hotel has been</span><br><span>arranged. And, since there is no day or night for the blind, the hotel is</span><br><span>even providing for food service in case someone decides it's breakfast time</span><br><span>at two in the morning."</span><br><span> If we did not know the philosophy of the American Council of the</span><br><span>Blind, we might be astonished. As it is, we accept this statement as</span><br><span>standard procedure-simply another obstacle to overcome on our road to</span><br><span>freedom. In an article captioned "Blind But Not Dumb" which appeared in the</span><br><span>St. Joseph News-Press of November 20, 1984, Beryl Gordon (our local NFB</span><br><span>president) tried to mitigate the damage. He said:</span><br><span> "Often I am asked, 'Why can't organizations of and for the blind get</span><br><span>together? They are all working toward the same thing, aren't they?'</span><br><span> "This is a very hard question to answer in one short sentence, and</span><br><span>until you see something in the newspaper such as I have recently read you</span><br><span>don't even try.</span><br><span> "A member of the Missouri Council of the Blind was quoted as saying</span><br><span>that since there is no day or night for the blind, the hotel where they</span><br><span>will be holding their 1985 convention will be providing food service in</span><br><span>case one of them would decide it was breakfast time at 2:00 a.m.</span><br><span> "Can you just imagine what life would be like for the blind if all of</span><br><span>us believed something this ignorant? Can you imagine what potential</span><br><span>employers might think when reading something this degrading about blind</span><br><span>persons' intelligence?</span><br><span> "It's no wonder we can't find jobs. It is no wonder public facilities</span><br><span>do not want us to come in. It is no wonder others have the attitude that we</span><br><span>need to be taken care of."</span><br><span> In case you think Ms. Anderson was misquoted by the reporter, listen</span><br><span>to her answer in the News-Press of November 29, 1984. She says: "As usual,</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind misinterprets and twists things for</span><br><span>their own purposes. We believe the NFB confronts everything with rudeness,</span><br><span>abruptness and single-mindedness. Such negative reactions make it more</span><br><span>difficult for those of us trying to work in a positive way. We try to deal</span><br><span>with local businesses, officials and the public without considering them to</span><br><span>be our enemies. Focusing our efforts on the good and the positive and</span><br><span>remembering with gratitude the help we get from the sighted in our</span><br><span>community, we have improved our outlook. We try to keep a sense of humor</span><br><span>and look at life's inconveniences with some amount of laughter. Perhaps the</span><br><span>NFB should try this and not be critical of other people and their efforts."</span><br><span> Whatever else may be said, Carolyn Anderson and Beryl Gordon are not</span><br><span>working for the same thing. In one sense, of course, she is right: We could</span><br><span>laugh at ourselves, be grateful for whatever we get, and accept the</span><br><span>stereotype-but the price is too high. Such conduct translates into</span><br><span>exclusion from employment, custodial treatment, and second-class status;</span><br><span>and it also blights the spirit and shrivels the soul-for whatever we live</span><br><span>and believe, that we surely become.</span><br><span>And we are not just dealing with generalities. It is not simply a matter of</span><br><span>being nice or saving feelings. To the extent that we fail to find a way to</span><br><span>educate the public, lack the courage to provide that education even in the</span><br><span>face of hostility, or are unable to understand our true potential, we and</span><br><span>all other blind people suffer. I recently received a letter from the</span><br><span>sighted mother of an adopted blind child expressing appreciation for our</span><br><span>literature and encouragement: "My daughter Shelly," she said, "is now</span><br><span>eleven years old. She is fully integrated in a local school and has learned</span><br><span>to read and write Braille.</span><br><span> "Six years ago, when we adopted her, she was a 'potential unknown,'</span><br><span>high-risk adoption case. We took her out of a small institution, where she</span><br><span>had lived all of her life. She had spent most of her time confined to a</span><br><span>large hospital sized crib, with no stimulation and little human contact.</span><br><span>She was in diapers and ate only pureed baby food, which had to be fed to</span><br><span>her. In the past six years this same child has become bilingual, is in her</span><br><span>third year of piano lessons, skates, swims, rides a double bike, reads and</span><br><span>writes, and is no longer a 'potential unknown' but rather a child of great</span><br><span>potential."</span><br><span> So writes this sighted mother, and her words give us perspective. It</span><br><span>is not pleasant to disagree with others and take public stands, but</span><br><span>sometimes the alternative is worse. We do not regard our neighbors as</span><br><span>enemies, but this does not mean that we are willing to submit to diapers</span><br><span>and pureed baby food. It does not mean that we are willing to accept</span><br><span>slavery-even if the slavery is gently offered, kindly meant, and well</span><br><span>intentioned. As John Dewey said: "Liberty is not just an idea, an abstract</span><br><span>principle. It is power, effective power to do specific things." And as</span><br><span>Benjamin Franklin said: "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a</span><br><span>little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." We want no</span><br><span>strife or confrontation, but we are not willing to give up essential</span><br><span>liberty to obtain a little temporary safety. We have learned the power of</span><br><span>collective action, and we will do what we have to do. We are simply no</span><br><span>longer willing to be second-class citizens.</span><br><span> The need for public education is everywhere apparent. The fact is</span><br><span>typified by an article appearing in the Omaha World-Herald of December 5,</span><br><span>1984. Headlined "Donations Pay for Glasses for Needy During the Year," the</span><br><span>article says: "Detecting and solving vision problems are important in the</span><br><span>proper development of children, said Dr. Matilda Mclntire, director of</span><br><span>community pediatrics at Creighton University. That is why the cooperative</span><br><span>effort of the World-Herald Good Fellows and Creighton is valuable to the</span><br><span>community, she said. 'We feel very strongly that a child cannot learn if he</span><br><span>cannot see.'" To which we reply, thousands of us grew up as blind children</span><br><span>and have achieved a moderate degree of literacy and success. If Dr.</span><br><span>Mclntire is right, I wonder how we did it.</span><br><span> Early this year I received a letter from one P. F. Membrey, who</span><br><span>described himself as the director of CAPEX, a product consulting and export</span><br><span>firm from London, England. He said, concerning a new Braillewriter which he</span><br><span>wished to sell: "Following its recent introduction to the United Kingdom</span><br><span>market, CAPEX have been appointed sole distribution agents for this unique</span><br><span>product. Accordingly, we are now able to supply the Braillewriter to those</span><br><span>institutions or individuals who work with or have care of blind or</span><br><span>partially sighted people."</span><br><span> Mr. Membrey, Carolyn Anderson, and Dr. Stromer would probably say we</span><br><span>are nitpicking, but people usually say what they mean even if they do not</span><br><span>mean to say what they say. The orientation which (whether inadvertently or</span><br><span>not) leads to talk of selling a product to "institutions or individuals who</span><br><span>have care of blind or partially sighted people" is destructive and</span><br><span>damaging. We must observe it, reject it, and attack it-not only for public</span><br><span>enlightenment but for our own self-respect. As Harold Laski said: "We</span><br><span>acquiesce in the loss of freedom every time we are silent in the face of</span><br><span>injustice." We want no strife or confrontation, but we are simply no longer</span><br><span>willing to be second-class citizens.</span><br><span> The need for public education about blindness is repeatedly</span><br><span>demonstrated. Emotional newspaper articles appear telling about sighted</span><br><span>people who blindfold themselves to know what it is like to be blind; the</span><br><span>National Geographic talks about an inchworm "groping along slowly,</span><br><span>reminiscent of a blind man with a cane," [2.] and in a descriptive brochure</span><br><span>Ewing Mays (the founder of Mays Mission for the Handicapped) says: "Every</span><br><span>day there are handicapped people here training handicapped people ... one</span><br><span>amputee working with another amputee, one deaf person training another deaf</span><br><span>person, and even a blind person guiding another blind person." The</span><br><span>operative word, of course, is "even." Why "even?"</span><br><span> In that one word is summed up the prejudice of centuries-a way of</span><br><span>life and a system we are determined to change.</span><br><span> And we are changing the system. We are heightening our own self-</span><br><span>awareness and conducting extensive campaigns of public education-but this</span><br><span>is not enough. We must deal with the legal system and the law. Again, let</span><br><span>us consider the blacks. Before they could begin to achieve equality, they</span><br><span>had to build an image within themselves. That was the first and most</span><br><span>important thing. Then, they had to educate the public, for they could not</span><br><span>exist in a vacuum or live what the culture would not accept. But they also</span><br><span>had to do something else. As long as the law made it impossible for them to</span><br><span>buy or rent certain property, required them to attend segregated schools,</span><br><span>made them ride in the back of the bus, and even said they must use separate</span><br><span>water fountains and bathrooms, all of the self-belief and public education</span><br><span>in the world would not be sufficient. They had to change the laws and the</span><br><span>interpretation of the laws, and they did change them.</span><br><span> Our situation is parallel. We must fight in the courts and fight in</span><br><span>the Congress. Judges order children to be taken from blind parents on the</span><br><span>ground that the blind cannot raise them; airline officials tell us we</span><br><span>cannot occupy exit row seating and that we must sit on blankets for fear we</span><br><span>cannot control our bladders; insurance companies deny us coverage;</span><br><span>amusement parks refuse to let us ride; health clubs decline to let us in;</span><br><span>and employers routinely discriminate. Unless we can move toward equal</span><br><span>treatment under the law, self-belief and public education will not be</span><br><span>sufficient and cannot be sustained. And, of course, we are making headway.</span><br><span>Through court action we have repeatedly restored children to their blind</span><br><span>parents. We have persuaded Congress and the state legislatures to expand</span><br><span>opportunities and remove discrimination-and we currently have at least a</span><br><span>dozen lawsuits under way.</span><br><span> Let anyone who believes we can live with the law as it is presently</span><br><span>written consider the following section of the Tennessee Code: "Section 22-1-</span><br><span>102. Incompetent persons.-Persons convicted of certain infamous offenses</span><br><span>specially designated in this code, persons of unsound mind, persons not in</span><br><span>the full possession of their senses of hearing and seeing, and habitual</span><br><span>drunkards are incompetent to act as jurors."</span><br><span> That section of the Code is the law in Tennessee at this very moment.</span><br><span>John Robb, a blind Tennessean, served on a jury in Nashville last year, but</span><br><span>he did it on sufferance and at the whim of the judge. The Tennessee jury</span><br><span>law is not only degrading-it is false in its premises. Today we are</span><br><span>striking down such laws in state after state, and an increasing number of</span><br><span>us are proving their absurdity by serving on juries. I did it myself last</span><br><span>year.</span><br><span> As we make progress in reforming the law and getting new</span><br><span>interpretations by the courts, we strengthen our self-belief and educate</span><br><span>the public. Self-belief, public education, and the law-these three elements</span><br><span>intertwine and overlap. But something else is required-the fourth element,</span><br><span>confrontation.</span><br><span> What minority has ever gone from second-class status to first-class</span><br><span>citizenship without it? What minority could? As we come to feel that we</span><br><span>deserve equality, we increasingly resist coercion. But it goes beyond that.</span><br><span>Unless we are willing to be absolutely docile and totally self-effacing,</span><br><span>confrontation is inevitable.</span><br><span> In this connection our experience with the airlines is instructive.</span><br><span>They deal with us in an arbitrary, capricious, and custodial manner. If we</span><br><span>are willing to be humiliated publicly and handled like children, airline</span><br><span>personnel will generally treat us fairly well. Otherwise, we are likely to</span><br><span>be subjected to anything from a tongue lashing to a trip off the plane with</span><br><span>the police.</span><br><span>A few months ago a blind woman in the state of Washington was plopped down</span><br><span>on a blanket in an airplane seat, told by airline personnel that she must</span><br><span>sit there, and loudly and publicly informed by the flight attendant that,</span><br><span>as the attendant put it, it was not because she might "wet" her "pants" but</span><br><span>so that in case of emergency she could be quickly lifted onto the</span><br><span>evacuation slide. Explaining that she was quite mobile and unwilling to</span><br><span>endure such treatment, the blind woman vocally refused to sit on the</span><br><span>blanket and pushed it onto the floor. Later she brought a legal action</span><br><span>against the airline and was given monetary damages and an apology. But if</span><br><span>she had meekly followed orders, the lawsuit would never have been filed.</span><br><span>She would have been humiliated and "put down," and her self-esteem and the</span><br><span>public image would have suffered accordingly. But in objecting she created</span><br><span>hostility and might have been arrested. If we intend to stand up for our</span><br><span>rights at all, we can simply not avoid a certain amount of confrontation.</span><br><span> Mike Uribes is one of our members in Fresno, California. Not long ago</span><br><span>his chapter president had occasion to write the following letter to a</span><br><span>Fresno business establishment:</span><br><span> "On December 19, Mr. Michael Uribes, a blind Fresno resident, while</span><br><span>shopping in your mall, was approached by one of your security employees,</span><br><span>Mr. Tim Levinson. Mr. Levinson asked Mr. Uribes if he needed any</span><br><span>assistance. Mr. Uribes responded that he did not. However, Mr. Levinson</span><br><span>proceeded to follow Mr. Uribes through the mall and a couple of times even</span><br><span>put his hand on Mr. Uribes' arm. Again, Mr. Uribes stated that he really</span><br><span>did not need any assistance and thanked Mr. Levinson for his offer. Mr.</span><br><span>Levinson walked away indignantly saying, 'Those damned blind people! They</span><br><span>sure are arrogant.'</span><br><span> "If Mr. Uribes had been a sighted person, this incident would not</span><br><span>have happened.</span><br><span> "Mr. Uribes has lived in Fresno all of his life and has been shopping</span><br><span>without aid in your mall for at least twelve years. He travels</span><br><span>independently.</span><br><span> "Mr. Uribes is a member of the National Federation of the Blind of</span><br><span>Fresno, which is affiliated with a state and national organization of the</span><br><span>same name. Blind persons have the same rights and responsibilities as the</span><br><span>sighted and wish to be treated as first-class citizens."</span><br><span> In writing that letter our Fresno president undoubtedly created</span><br><span>hostility, but what was she to do? For that matter, what was Mike Uribes to</span><br><span>do? He could have avoided confrontation by meekly doing as he was told and</span><br><span>allowing himself to be led around the store at Mr. Levinson's whim. By</span><br><span>taking Mr. Uribes' arm when he was asked not to do so, Mr. Levinson</span><br><span>committed a battery and violated the law; but public sentiment being what</span><br><span>it is, he was probably never in danger of being prosecuted. However, what</span><br><span>if Mr. Uribes had responded in kind? What if he had showed as much bad</span><br><span>temper as Mr. Levinson did? Can we always be sure that the blind person</span><br><span>will be cool, polite, level-headed, long-suffering, and patient-even if the</span><br><span>sighted person is not? In fact, is that what we want?</span><br><span> As Walter Lippman said: "Men cannot be made free by laws unless they</span><br><span>are in fact free because no man can buy and no man can coerce them. That is</span><br><span>why the Englishman's belief that his home is his castle and that the king</span><br><span>cannot enter it, like the American 's conviction that he must be able to</span><br><span>look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell, are the very essence of</span><br><span>the free man's way of life."</span><br><span> Is that sort of thing all right (in fact, praiseworthy) for the</span><br><span>sighted but not all right for the blind? And what does Lippman mean when he</span><br><span>says that no man can coerce you if you are truly free? Does he mean that it</span><br><span>is all right for the sighted to resist coercion-even if it means looking</span><br><span>somebody in the eye and telling him to go to hell-even if it means using</span><br><span>necessary force-but that it is not all right for the blind? Is Lippman's</span><br><span>pronouncement meant only for everybody else-or does it include us, too? Can</span><br><span>blind people hope to be free Americans? We gave our answer to that question</span><br><span>almost fifty years ago. We formed the National Federation of the Blind-and</span><br><span>it is still here, stronger and more active today than ever before in its</span><br><span>history.</span><br><span> It is not only the "Stromer Syndrome" which is arrayed against us. It</span><br><span>is also the "be grateful and do as I tell you, or I'll call you militant"</span><br><span>syndrome. Let those who oppose our march to freedom call us what they</span><br><span>please and say what they like. We will not grovel; we will not pretend that</span><br><span>right is wrong; and we will not turn back from the course we have set. No,</span><br><span>we do not want strife and confrontation-and yes, we prefer peace and</span><br><span>reason. But we know the power of collective action, and we will do what we</span><br><span>have to do. We are simply no longer willing to be second-class citizens.</span><br><span> Self-belief, public education, the law, and confrontation-these are</span><br><span>the elements in the pattern of our freedom, and each is necessary. They</span><br><span>overlap and interweave, and if any one of them is omitted, all of the rest</span><br><span>become meaningless and impossible. Because of the work of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind, we who are blind have it better today than ever</span><br><span>before in our history, and the hostility we face is not a cause for</span><br><span>dejection but an omen of victory; for until a minority is close to its</span><br><span>goal, confrontation is neither achievable nor useful. Earlier it is</span><br><span>impossible, and later it is unnecessary.</span><br><span> The beginning strands of the pattern of freedom are always woven by</span><br><span>slaves, and we have known slavery. Some of us still endure it, and none of</span><br><span>us has totally escaped it. A few of us are so immersed in it that we even</span><br><span>say we like it and do not know another way exists. But the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind is abroad in the land, and the blind are learning</span><br><span>new ways. We hear the statements of freedom, and they call to our souls and</span><br><span>quicken our dreams:</span><br><span> "If," said Samuel Adams, "you love wealth better than liberty, the</span><br><span>tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go</span><br><span>home from us in peace."</span><br><span> "They that give up essential liberty," said Benjamin Franklin, "to</span><br><span>obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."</span><br><span> "Freedom," said Max Stirner, "cannot be granted. It must be taken."</span><br><span> We hear, and we understand. We know what we must do, and we have</span><br><span>counted the cost. We fight not only for ourselves but also for those who</span><br><span>went before us, for Dr. tenBroek and the other founders of our movement-and</span><br><span>for those who come after, the blind of the next generation, the children</span><br><span>and the children to be. And we will not fail. The stakes are too high and</span><br><span>the alternative too terrible. Tomorrow is bright with promise.</span><br><span> We go to meet it with gladness: And we take with us all that we have-</span><br><span>our hopes and our dreams, our will to work and our knowledge of</span><br><span>deprivation, our faith and our purpose, and our heritage of slavery. And</span><br><span>this also we take-our trust in ourselves, our love for each other, and our</span><br><span>belief in the ultimate goodness of people. My brothers and my sisters, the</span><br><span>future is ours! Come, join me-and we will march together to freedom!</span><br><span></span><br><span>Notes</span><br><span>1. This poem was copied from a wall in New York City in 1985.</span><br><span>2. National Geographic, August, 1983, page 222.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Anna Kresmer]</span><br><span> How the First Self-Advocacy Organization of the Blind Met the Challenge</span><br><span> of Social Security, 1940-1950</span><br><span> by Anna Kresmer</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: There are many blessings for which we in the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind are thankful, and one of them is the</span><br><span>caliber of the staff who come to work with us and who decide to become a</span><br><span>part of us. Anna Kresmer is just such a person, working to share with all</span><br><span>of us the treasures that are to be found in the Jacobus tenBroek Memorial</span><br><span>Library. In this article she discusses one of the reasons we formed the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind and our first effort to confront head-on a</span><br><span>new federal bureaucracy that threatened to erode our hard-won gains for a</span><br><span>secure income and the opportunity to go beyond government assistance.</span><br><span>Here's what she says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> For seventy-five years, the National Federation of the Blind has</span><br><span>strived to achieve first-class citizenship for all blind Americans through</span><br><span>collective action and self-advocacy. Over the years, the Federation's focus</span><br><span>and energy have shifted to address the most pressing problems of the day,</span><br><span>from the right to organize in the 1950s, to the fight against NAC in the</span><br><span>1970s, to the ongoing mission to make the internet and technology</span><br><span>accessible. Some long-standing challenges have proven to be stubborn and</span><br><span>the battles rage on, such as the mission to end subminimum wage, while</span><br><span>other challenges have been met and relegated (at least for the time being)</span><br><span>to the annals of history. Each of these issues, and the many others not</span><br><span>mentioned here, have confirmed the continuing need for an organization like</span><br><span>the NFB, but one issue in particular is directly responsible for the</span><br><span>formation of the Federation in 1940.</span><br><span> In the first few decades of the twentieth century, aid to the blind</span><br><span>was primarily treated as a local or state-level concern. Organizations</span><br><span>formed to meet that concern were mainly charities ran by sighted people,</span><br><span>sheltered workshops, social clubs, schools for the blind, and the</span><br><span>occasional state-run pension plan. The populations they served were</span><br><span>generally limited by geography and could, therefore, reasonably be</span><br><span>addressed by organizations of the blind of similar size and scope, like the</span><br><span>Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind or the Central Committee of the Blind</span><br><span>of Illinois.</span><br><span> But all that changed in 1935 with the passing of the first Social</span><br><span>Security Act (SSA). Its aim was to protect segments of the population at</span><br><span>risk of poverty including the unemployed, senior citizens, needy families</span><br><span>with children, and the blind. It is unsurprising that blind people were</span><br><span>included in this landmark legislation, since they were seen by society as</span><br><span>generally uneducable, unemployable, and in need of custodians. This view is</span><br><span>clear even in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who remarked on</span><br><span>the third anniversary of the SSA's passing in 1938 that now, "...forty</span><br><span>thousand blind people are assured of peace and security among familiar</span><br><span>voices."[?]</span><br><span> The Social Security Act of 1935 was the first federal legislation to</span><br><span>address the poverty faced by most blind people. Before the SSA, aid to the</span><br><span>blind was spotty, unregulated, and varied wildly from state to state. Some</span><br><span>states did not even have a pension program, while others set their rates so</span><br><span>low that blind pensioners could not afford to feed themselves. The SSA</span><br><span>sought to impose standards in welfare and to share the burden of supporting</span><br><span>the "needy blind" by supplementing state funds with federal contributions.</span><br><span> On the surface it sounded like a wonderful idea to the politicians</span><br><span>who voted for it and to the sighted agencies that lobbied for it, and the</span><br><span>bill was enacted on August 14, 1935. However, not everybody was so</span><br><span>thrilled.</span><br><span> From the start blind Americans found problems with Title X, the</span><br><span>portion of the law which handled aid to the blind, and with the way that it</span><br><span>was administered. The problems mainly stemmed from the concentrated</span><br><span>decision-making power placed in the hands of the appointed Social Security</span><br><span>Board, who set aid rates low and eligibility criteria high. States were</span><br><span>required to adopt these standards if they wanted to receive the federal</span><br><span>contributions, which meant that some state programs actually improved.</span><br><span>However, in other states where larger organizations of the blind had</span><br><span>already worked hard to get better benefits, the Federal regulations</span><br><span>threatened to roll back their hard-won gains.</span><br><span> Perhaps the biggest objection, though, was that the original bill was</span><br><span>passed largely without input from the people it was meant to help.</span><br><span>Representatives from seven different organizations for the blind came to</span><br><span>testify before the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committees,</span><br><span>including the American Association of Workers for the Blind, the National</span><br><span>Society for the Prevention of Blindness, and several state commissions and</span><br><span>agencies for the blind.[?] The only actual blind person to testify before</span><br><span>Congress concerning the proposed bill was Robert Irwin, representing the</span><br><span>American Foundation for the Blind and advocating for a smaller pension</span><br><span>program than was eventually passed into law. So why were these custodial</span><br><span>national and state organizations of sighted workers for the blind the only</span><br><span>voices heard in Washington in 1935? The answer is simple: There was no</span><br><span>national organization of the blind which could address Congress on behalf</span><br><span>of all blind Americans.</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind was founded in 1940 by Dr.</span><br><span>Jacobus tenBroek and blind representatives from seven state associations of</span><br><span>the blind. It was the first national organization created by blind people</span><br><span>and led by all blind officers with a primarily blind membership. Their goal</span><br><span>was to promote the economic and social welfare of the blind by securing</span><br><span>access to three basic rights: security, equality, and opportunity. However,</span><br><span>looking at the speech given by Dr. tenBroek at the founding meeting, there</span><br><span>can be little doubt that the NFB's founding focused on the first of these</span><br><span>rights-security-and that their first mission was to lobby the federal</span><br><span>government on Social Security.</span><br><span> In his speech at the founding meeting, Dr. tenBroek called to the</span><br><span>blind of the nation, saying:</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> There are many goals upon which we can unite: the ultimate</span><br><span> establishment of a national pension which will eliminate the</span><br><span> diversities of treatment of the blind among the states and insure an</span><br><span> adequate support to all; the correction of the vices that have crept</span><br><span> into the administration of the Social Security Act by seeking its</span><br><span> amendment in Congress... governmental recognition of the fact that the</span><br><span> blind are not to be classified as paupers and that they have needs</span><br><span> peculiar to and arising out of their blindness... adequate methods for</span><br><span> restraining the influence and defining the place of the social worker</span><br><span> in the administration of aid laws... legislative and administrative</span><br><span> encouragement of the blind who are striving to render themselves self-</span><br><span> supporting... [and] governmental recognition of our inalienable right</span><br><span> to receive public assistance and still retain our economic, social,</span><br><span> and political independence...</span><br><span></span><br><span> In 1997, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan succinctly explained why the</span><br><span>Federation's initial focus rested squarely on security, specifically on the</span><br><span>need for government aid, saying that, "When the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind came into being almost six decades ago, our problem was simple. It</span><br><span>was to find enough food to keep body and soul together-not for all of us,</span><br><span>of course, but for many. If you are hungry, it is hard to think about</span><br><span>anything else. And the blind were hungry."[?]</span><br><span> To satisfy this hunger, the NFB immediately began its campaign to</span><br><span>turn Social Security into a program that truly benefited all blind people.</span><br><span>As early as 1941, they began sending representatives to urge Congress to</span><br><span>amend the act. They submitted memoranda and testimony to the House Ways and</span><br><span>Means Committee and repeatedly called on their growing membership to write</span><br><span>to Congress in support of their legislative proposals. Also during this</span><br><span>time, the NFB attempted (not always successfully) to create legislative</span><br><span>proposals in collaboration with other blindness-related organizations and</span><br><span>lobbied the labor unions to support their cause.</span><br><span> Initially, all this hard work seemed to result in not much of</span><br><span>anything. Aside from a pair of federal $5-a-month-increases to aid benefits</span><br><span>passed in 1946 and 1948, the SSA saw little change regarding aid for the</span><br><span>blind throughout the 1940s.[?]</span><br><span> All this changed on August 28, 1950, when President Truman signed the</span><br><span>Social Security Amendments of 1950 into law. This was the first major</span><br><span>overhaul to SSA that affected blind people receiving aid. The changes seem</span><br><span>basic today, but they clarified much of the vague language in the wording</span><br><span>of the act. Beyond the usual increase in aid rates, the act now stipulated</span><br><span>that aid applications had to be processed by state agencies within a</span><br><span>reasonable amount of time, fair hearings had to be provided when claims</span><br><span>were denied or not acted upon quickly, and aid had to be furnished promptly</span><br><span>to all eligible individuals.[?]</span><br><span> Undeniably though, the greatest change for blind people realized by</span><br><span>the 1950 amendments was that state aid programs were now required to exempt</span><br><span>up to $50 a month in earned income when calculating aid payments. According</span><br><span>to an NFB legislative bulletin, dated May 6, 1950 (when the provision was</span><br><span>initially passed by the Senate):</span><br><span></span><br><span> These changes represent a forward step of the utmost importance.</span><br><span> They firmly establish the principle of exempt earnings as a mandatory</span><br><span> requirement on all of the States. They thus completely reverse the</span><br><span> policy of the Federal Security Agency by which blind recipients of</span><br><span> relief suffer a deduction of one dollar in their public assistance for</span><br><span> every dollar earned by them. By accepting the principles of exempt</span><br><span> earnings and making it a mandatory requirement on the States, the</span><br><span> Senate Committee is reorienting the whole system of public assistance</span><br><span> away from pauperism and permanent dependence and towards</span><br><span> rehabilitation and opportunity.[?]</span><br><span></span><br><span> The 1950 amendments are arguably the first, although by no means the</span><br><span>last, major victory in the NFB's campaign to amend Social Security. Over</span><br><span>the years, the Social Security Act would be amended many more times and</span><br><span>other laws affecting the livelihood of the blind would be proposed, passed,</span><br><span>and amended. But as the urgent threat of poverty receded and more blind</span><br><span>people joined the employment rolls, the Federation began to shift its focus</span><br><span>to the other two rights that it had championed since its inception:</span><br><span>equality and opportunity.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[1] Grant, Isabelle. Crooked Paths Made Straight.</span><br><span>[2] tenBroek, Jacobus to Alfred Allen. (1952) Letter, July 17. Jacobus</span><br><span>tenBroek Personal Pape Grant, Isabelle. Crooked Paths Made Straight.</span><br><span>[3] tenBroek, Jacobus to Alfred Allen. (1952) Letter, July 17. Jacobus</span><br><span>tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library, National Federation of</span><br><span>the Blind Jernigan Institute, Baltimore, MD.</span><br><span></span><br><span>[4] tenBroek, Jacobus. (1956) "Within the Grace of God." Speech, National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind National Convention, San Francisco, CA, July 1.</span><br><span><<a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/convent/tb1956.htm">https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/convent/tb1956.htm</a>></span><br><span>[5] Ibid.</span><br><span>[6] Maurer, Marc. (2004) "Presidential Report 2004." National Federation of</span><br><span>the Blind National Convention, Atlanta, GA, July</span><br><span>2.<<a href="https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/publications/convent/presrep04.htm">https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/publications/convent/presrep04.htm</a>></span><br><span>[7] Maurer, Marc. (2008) "Breaking the Mold: The Power of the</span><br><span>Unpredictable." Braille Monitor, November.</span><br><span><<a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081003.htm">https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081003.htm</a>></span><br><span>[8] World Blind Union. (2012) "Universal Postal Union Rules Updates</span><br><span>Regarding Free Post for the Blind." News release, October.</span><br><span><<a href="http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/Universal-Postal-Union-">http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/Universal-Postal-Union-</a></span><br><span>Rules-Updates-Regarding-Free-Post-for-the-Blind.aspx></span><br><span>[9] United Nations. (2006) Article 24, Convention on the Rights of Persons</span><br><span>with Disabilities.</span><br><span><<a href="http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml">http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml</a>></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>[i] Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Social Security Program Must Include All</span><br><span>Those Who Need Its Protection" (radio address on the third anniversary of</span><br><span>the Social Security Act, August 15, 1938),</span><br><span><a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html#radio">https://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html#radio</a>.</span><br><span>[ii] "Reports & Studies: Senate Hearings on 1935 Bill,"</span><br><span><a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/35senate.html">https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/35senate.html</a>.</span><br><span>[iii] Kenneth Jernigan, "The Day After Civil Rights" (banquet speech,</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind 1997 National Convention, New Orleans,</span><br><span>Louisiana, July 4, 1997),</span><br><span><a href="https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/banque97.htm">https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/banque97.htm</a>.</span><br><span>[iv] "Achievements of the National Federation of the Blind," June 20, 1950,</span><br><span>Jacobus tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library.</span><br><span>[v] Wilbur J. Cohen & Robert J. Myers, "Social Security Act Amendments of</span><br><span>1950: A Summary and Legislative History," The Social Security Bulletin</span><br><span>(October 1950), <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/1950amend.html">https://www.ssa.gov/history/1950amend.html</a>.</span><br><span>[vi] "Legislative bulletin: H.R. 6000-Senate Finance Committee," May 6,</span><br><span>1950, Jacobus tenBroek Personal Papers, Jacobus tenBroek Library.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Three members of Elaine's Girl Scout troop at a meeting.</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>From left to right: Missy Wunder, Grace Warn, and Dacia Luck (now Cole).]</span><br></blockquote><span> Making Diversity Work</span><br><span> by Elaine Warn</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: In these pages we feature a number of articles</span><br><span>written by blind people giving their perspectives on the world, what it is</span><br><span>like to be misunderstood, the difficulties in getting an education, and the</span><br><span>barrier that one must overcome fully to be a part of his or her community.</span><br><span>Rarely do we get the perspective of someone who can tell us their</span><br><span>experience when first meeting a blind person and who can demonstrate that</span><br><span>the same common sense approach works in getting information about blindness</span><br><span>as it does when trying to learn something about any group different from</span><br><span>our own.</span><br><span> Elaine Warn is the mother of Grace Warn, a woman who assists me in</span><br><span>getting a draft of each month's publication to our proofers. She was the</span><br><span>Girl Scout leader who needed information about teaching blind people when a</span><br><span>young Dacia Cole, now the recording secretary for the National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind of Missouri, wanted to be a part of her Girl Scout troop. Here</span><br><span>is what Elaine says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Once upon a time I worked with girls in a youth organization. At our</span><br><span>largest, there were twenty-nine in the troop. To say that we were a diverse</span><br><span>group is an understatement. Over time our membership included girls from</span><br><span>different ethnicities and religions, a variety of family settings, a wide</span><br><span>spectrum of economic situations, and a number of different countries.</span><br><span>Several girls spoke very limited English. There were girls who had asthma,</span><br><span>two who had seizures, one with a severe skin condition, one with Down</span><br><span>syndrome, and one who was blind.</span><br><span> What I learned early on was that I was not alone and that there was a</span><br><span>wealth of information out there to help me when I had questions. First and</span><br><span>foremost, sit down with yourself, and get an idea what questions/concerns</span><br><span>you have. The internet can help with this process, but be aware of the</span><br><span>limitations and that not all websites are created equal. While searching</span><br><span>for information on religions, I found that I could learn much about the</span><br><span>history of a religion and much in general about a faith, however, none of</span><br><span>it told me exactly what the specific family in my troop believed/practiced.</span><br><span>In fact, when I met with the father of a girl from Saudi Arabia, I came</span><br><span>with a large stack of information-books and pamphlets with post-its marking</span><br><span>things that needed clarification. It took some time, but when we were done,</span><br><span>I had a clear idea of what his sect practiced.</span><br><span> I found that the school was also a wealth of helpful information as</span><br><span>long as I asked questions that weren't specific to my girl. Example: I</span><br><span>could ask for suggestions for working with a blind student for activities.</span><br><span>I couldn't ask how the school did activities with Dacia. I was given</span><br><span>contact information for someone who worked for the state of Missouri who</span><br><span>gave me some wonderful suggestions that made things easier.</span><br><span> Obviously, you need to talk with the parents; sometimes that can mean</span><br><span>having two separate conversations if the parents are divorced and not</span><br><span>speaking to each other. Parents should have a lot of the answers and</span><br><span>suggestions. For Dacia I needed to know about mobility. She used a cane,</span><br><span>however, I was clueless as to whether we should offer an arm, elbow, hand-</span><br><span>which arm-and whether it is better to assist from the right or left.</span><br><span>Alternatively, is it better not to touch and just talk a lot.</span><br><span> The troop did crafts and camping. I needed to know her skill level</span><br><span>using scissors, knives, etc. All of the girls packed their clothes in large</span><br><span>zippy bags with one day's outfit in each bag. It made getting dressed quick</span><br><span>and kept their clothes dry should it rain. For my blind girl this was</span><br><span>perfect; her parents just needed to affix a Braille label so she could find</span><br><span>the right bag. All of the activities and adventures we did were possible</span><br><span>with the right planning and information, and she wasn't even the most</span><br><span>dangerous one with a flaming marshmallow when it came to making s'mores.</span><br><span> It all comes down to knowledge and taking a moment to think. You have</span><br><span>to sit down and figure out what you don't know or when what you do know</span><br><span>will need altering to work for everyone. From there, it's a question of</span><br><span>deciding what questions you need to ask, who you need to ask, and finding</span><br><span>answers. With those answers you can make adjustments to activities so they</span><br><span>will be accessible and enjoyable to everyone. Whether the adjustment is</span><br><span>tracing the lines on a paper with a crayon so that Dacia can feel them to</span><br><span>cut the craft out herself, changing the menu of a troop campout because</span><br><span>it's over Lent and one girl can't eat meat, or buying all-beef hotdogs so</span><br><span>that your Muslim girl can enjoy them too; or knowing exactly which parent</span><br><span>is picking up from the meeting this week according to the custody</span><br><span>agreement. The answer may not be immediately apparent, but with a little</span><br><span>thought and open communication between everyone involved, you can make it</span><br><span>happen.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> The Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund</span><br><span> by Allen Harris</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Allen Harris is the chairman of the Kenneth Jernigan</span><br><span>Fund Committee and was one of the people who came up with the idea of</span><br><span>honoring our former president and longtime leader by establishing a program</span><br><span>to promote attendance at the national convention, where so much inspiration</span><br><span>and learning occur. Here is Allen's announcement about the 2016 Kenneth</span><br><span>Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund Program:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Have you always wanted to attend an NFB annual convention but have</span><br><span>not done so because of the lack of funds? The Kenneth Jernigan Convention</span><br><span>Scholarship Fund invites you to make an application for a scholarship</span><br><span>grant. Perhaps this July you too can be in the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in</span><br><span>Orlando, Florida, enjoying the many pleasures and learning opportunities at</span><br><span>the largest and most important yearly convention of blind people in the</span><br><span>world.</span><br><span> The three biggest ticket items you need to cover when attending an</span><br><span>NFB national convention are the roundtrip transportation, the hotel room</span><br><span>for a week, and the food (which tends to be higher priced than at home). We</span><br><span>attempt to award additional funds to families, but, whether a family or an</span><br><span>individual is granted a scholarship, this fund can only help; it won't pay</span><br><span>all the costs. Last year most of the sixty grants were in the range of $400</span><br><span>to $500 per individual.</span><br><span> We recommend that you find an NFB member as your personal convention</span><br><span>mentor, someone who has been to many national conventions and is able to</span><br><span>share money-saving tips with you and tips on navigating the extensive</span><br><span>agenda in the big hotel. Your mentor will help you get the most out of the</span><br><span>amazing experience that is convention week.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Who is eligible?</span><br><span> Active NFB members, blind or sighted, who have not yet attended an</span><br><span>NFB national convention because of lack of funding are eligible to apply.</span><br><span></span><br><span> How do I apply for funding assistance?</span><br><span> 1. You write a letter giving your contact information, and your local</span><br><span>NFB information, your specific amount requested, and then explain why this</span><br><span>is a good investment for the NFB. The points to cover are listed below.</span><br><span> 2. You contact your state president in person or by phone to request</span><br><span>his or her help in obtaining funding. Be sure to tell the president when to</span><br><span>expect your request letter by email, and mention the deadline.</span><br><span> 3. You (or a friend) send your letter by email to your state</span><br><span>president. He or she must add a president's recommendation and then email</span><br><span>both letters directly to the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship Fund</span><br><span>Committee. Your president must forward the two letters no later than April</span><br><span>15, 2016.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Your letter to Chairperson Allen Harris must cover these points:</span><br><span>.Your full name, and all your telephone numbers and label them-cell phone,</span><br><span>home, office, other person (if any).</span><br><span>.Your mailing address and, if you have one, your email address.</span><br><span>.Your state affiliate and state president; your chapter and chapter</span><br><span>president, if you attend a chapter.</span><br><span>.Your personal convention mentor, and provide that person's phone number.</span><br><span>.Your specific request:</span><br><span> Explain how much money you need from this fund to make this trip</span><br><span>possible for you. We suggest you consult with other members to make a rough</span><br><span>budget for yourself.</span><br><span></span><br><span> The body of your letter should answer these questions:</span><br><span> How do you currently participate in the Federation? Why do you want</span><br><span>to attend a national convention? What would you receive; what can you share</span><br><span>or give? You can include in your letter to the committee any special</span><br><span>circumstances you hope they will take into consideration.</span><br><span></span><br><span> When will I be notified that I am a winner?</span><br><span> If you are chosen to receive this scholarship, you will receive a</span><br><span>letter with convention details that should answer most of your questions.</span><br><span>The committee makes every effort to notify scholarship winners by May 15,</span><br><span>but you must do several things before that to be prepared to attend if you</span><br><span>are chosen:</span><br><span> 1. Make your own hotel reservation. If something prevents you from</span><br><span>attending, you can cancel the reservation. (Yes, you may arrange for</span><br><span>roommates of your own to reduce the cost.)</span><br><span> 2. Register online for the entire convention, including the banquet,</span><br><span>by May 31.</span><br><span> 3. Find someone in your chapter or affiliate who has been to many</span><br><span>conventions and can answer your questions as a friend and advisor.</span><br><span> 4. If you do not hear from the committee by May 15, then you did not</span><br><span>win a grant this year.</span><br><span></span><br><span> How will I receive my convention scholarship?</span><br><span> At convention you will be given a debit card or credit card loaded</span><br><span>with the amount of your award. The times and locations to pick up your card</span><br><span>will be listed in the letter we send you. The committee is not able to</span><br><span>provide funds before the convention, so work with your chapter and state</span><br><span>affiliate to assist you by obtaining an agreement to advance funds if you</span><br><span>win a scholarship and to pay your treasury back after you receive your</span><br><span>debit or credit card.</span><br><span> What if I have more questions? For additional information email the</span><br><span>chairman, Allen Harris, at <<a href="mailto:kjscholarships at nfb.org">kjscholarships at nfb.org</a>> or call his Baltimore,</span><br><span>Maryland, office at (410) 659-9314, extension 2415.</span><br><span> Above all, please use this opportunity to attend your first</span><br><span>convention on the national level and join several thousand active</span><br><span>Federationists in the most important meeting of the blind in the world. We</span><br><span>hope to see you in Orlando.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span> Over the course of the past year, because of various projects</span><br><span>relating to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind, we at the Monitor found ourselves looking back in the archives at</span><br><span>old issues for various reasons. As we looked for other articles, we noticed</span><br><span>that there were quite a number of delicious-looking recipes hiding in the</span><br><span>past. So, instead of waiting for someone to write in and request that we</span><br><span>reprint a specific recipe, we decided to showcase a few of the recipes that</span><br><span>we felt deserved another look.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Spinach Dip</span><br><span> by John Halverson</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the October 1998 Monitor with this</span><br><span>introduction: Dr. John Halverson is the president of the Public Employees</span><br><span>Division and a longtime leader in the NFB. He is the Regional Manager,</span><br><span>Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,</span><br><span>Region VII, located in Kansas City, Missouri.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 pound mild Mexican Velveeta cheese with jalapeño peppers</span><br><span>1 large jar picante sauce, medium</span><br><span>1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach</span><br><span>1 4-ounce can green chilies</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: In a large bowl microwave spinach and break into small pieces</span><br><span>with a fork. Add picante sauce and chilies (including liquid) and microwave</span><br><span>for two minutes more. Cube the cheese, add to mixture, and return to</span><br><span>microwave for four minutes or until cheese is completely melted. Mix</span><br><span>thoroughly and serve with blue corn chips. To increase the heat, substitute</span><br><span>hotter picante sauce or hotter cheese.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Island Fruits with Cottage Cheese Honey Lime Dip</span><br><span> by Nani Fife</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the March 2001 Monitor and was offered</span><br><span>by the NFB of Hawaii president, Nani Fife.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 platter of fresh fruit (sliced melon, strawberries, pineapple, etc.)</span><br><span>4 cups low-fat cottage cheese</span><br><span>1 teaspoon fresh lime juice</span><br><span>1/4 cup honey</span><br><span>1 cup orange juice</span><br><span>1/2 cup blackberries</span><br><span>1/2 cup blueberries</span><br><span>1/2 cup raspberries</span><br><span></span><br><span>Method: Beginning with the cottage cheese, combine all dip ingredients in a</span><br><span>blender until smooth. This fruit platter is an ideal dessert for a party</span><br><span>buffet.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Spaghetti Pizza(</span><br><span> by Debraghetti Pizza?</span><br><span>by Debra Smith</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the June 1993 Monitor and was submitted</span><br><span>by Debra, an active member of the Black Hawk Chapter of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind of Iowa.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>15 ounces uncooked spaghetti noodles?</span><br><span>2 eggs?</span><br><span>1/2 cup skim milk?</span><br><span>10 1/2 ounces mozzarella cheese?</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon garlic powder?</span><br><span>4 ounces ground beef?</span><br><span>2 15-ounce containers Weight Watchers spaghetti sauce</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook spaghetti according to</span><br><span>label directions and drain. Beat eggs. Add milk and four ounces of cheese.</span><br><span>Add spaghetti. Spread on jelly roll or pizza pan covered with cooking</span><br><span>spray. Form an edge. Bake fifteen minutes. Remove from oven and reduce heat</span><br><span>to 350 degrees. Spread sauce on crust. Sprinkle surface with garlic powder.</span><br><span>Top with ground meat and remaining cheese. Bake thirty minutes. Serves ten.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> No-Fuss Chicken?</span><br><span> by Betty Capps</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the April 1996 Monitor. Betty Capps was</span><br><span>the first lady of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina at</span><br><span>the time, and the recipe ran with this introduction: This recipe could</span><br><span>hardly be simpler to prepare. The chicken gets a wonderful tangy taste, and</span><br><span>no one will know you used convenient ingredients like a bottle of salad</span><br><span>dressing and onion soup mix unless you tell them.?</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 16-ounce bottle Russian or Catalina salad dressing</span><br><span>2/3 cup apricot preserves</span><br><span>2 envelopes dry onion soup mix</span><br><span>16 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves?</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: In a bowl combine dressing, preserves, and soup mix. Place</span><br><span>chicken in two ungreased eleven-by-seven-by-two-inch baking pans, top with</span><br><span>dressing mixture. Cover and bake for twenty minutes at 350 degrees. Baste,</span><br><span>and bake uncovered twenty minutes longer or until chicken juices run clear.</span><br><span>Yields sixteen servings.?</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Wild Rice Casserole</span><br><span> by Corinne Whitesell</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the February 1992 Monitor. Corinne</span><br><span>Whitesell was the treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind of</span><br><span>Alaska at the time, and she had this to say about the casserole: This</span><br><span>recipe is a favorite in the North and goes well with wild game. For the</span><br><span>folks in the lower forty-eight, chicken or turkey can substitute for wild</span><br><span>game.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:?</span><br><span>1 cup wild rice?</span><br><span>1 stick butter ?</span><br><span>1/2 cup slivered almonds?</span><br><span>1 pound fresh mushrooms?</span><br><span>1 bunch green onions?</span><br><span>3 cups chicken broth</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Chop the green onions and mushrooms and sauté together.</span><br><span>Combine with the rest of the ingredients and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350</span><br><span>degrees in an oven-proof casserole dish. Fluff rice with a fork before</span><br><span>serving.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Run For the Roses Pie</span><br><span> by Mary Heaven</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe first appeared in the April/May 1985 Monitor, and</span><br><span>included this introduction to the recipe and the person who submitted it:</span><br><span>Mary Heaven is one of the leaders of the NFB of Kentucky. Since we are</span><br><span>holding the national convention in Louisville this summer, her recipe seems</span><br><span>particularly appropriate. She writes: "Dear Monitor readers: Here is a</span><br><span>recipe to start you thinking about your trip to the Derby City for our</span><br><span>national convention this year. The recipe has many variations in name and</span><br><span>content and is often served at festivities during derby week."</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 cup chocolate chips</span><br><span>3 eggs slightly beaten</span><br><span>1 cup sugar</span><br><span>1/2 cup butter or margarine (melted)</span><br><span>1/2 cup flour</span><br><span>1 cup walnuts coarsely broken</span><br><span>1 tablespoon vanilla</span><br><span>9" unbaked pie shell</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Mix flour and sugar; add eggs and butter; fold in nuts,</span><br><span>chocolate chips, and vanilla; pour into shell and bake at 350 degrees for</span><br><span>thirty minutes. Best served warm with whipped cream.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Strawberry Rhubarb Pie?</span><br><span> by Betty Bowman</span><br><span></span><br><span> This recipe appeared in the May 1990 Monitor in a collection of</span><br><span>strawberry-themed recipes. Betty had this to say about her recipe: While we</span><br><span>were collecting these recipes, I promised several people that a strawberry</span><br><span>rhubarb pie would be included. Someone even promised to send me a favorite</span><br><span>recipe for one, but, of course, I have forgotten who that kind soul was,</span><br><span>and no recipe appeared. I do not make this pie because my husband does not</span><br><span>care for rhubarb, but I love it. This is my mother's version, and I can</span><br><span>attest to its excellence. As a child I considered that the risk of</span><br><span>encountering snakes was well worth the anxiety when strawberry rhubarb pie</span><br><span>was the reward.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients: ?</span><br><span>pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie?</span><br><span>2 cups of washed, hulled, and sliced strawberries?</span><br><span>2 cups of sliced rhubarb stalks?</span><br><span>1-1/3 cups sugar?</span><br><span>6 tablespoons flour?</span><br><span>1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel?</span><br><span>1/8 teaspoon cinnamon</span><br><span>1-1/3 tablespoons butter or margarine</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and orange</span><br><span>peel. Stir well to spread the flour through the sugar. Add the fruit and</span><br><span>stir to coat rhubarb and strawberries with the dry ingredients. Line a 9-</span><br><span>inch pie plate with rolled pastry and fill with the fruit. Dot the top with</span><br><span>butter or margarine. Then roll the top crust and slash the center several</span><br><span>times so that the steam can escape. Carefully lay the crust across the top</span><br><span>of the pie and seal the edges. Bake for forty to fifty minutes at 425</span><br><span>degrees.</span><br><span> ----------</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>Writers' Division 2016 Writing Contest:</span><br><span> The 2016 writing contest has gotten under way. Sponsored by the</span><br><span>Writers' Division of the National Federation of the Blind, it is a contest</span><br><span>for writers of all ages of youth and adults, with the youth contest being</span><br><span>done to promote literacy in Braille. There are two new things to be aware</span><br><span>of for this year: one, members of the Writers' Division will have</span><br><span>discounted entry fees; and two, there is a new category in the youth</span><br><span>contest.</span><br><span> This new category is called Federation History. Entries can be written</span><br><span>in any form or genre, but must pertain to the history of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind. The best of this category will have the chance to</span><br><span>present their piece at the National Convention in Orlando this July to the</span><br><span>National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. In the youth contest,</span><br><span>there are still the traditional categories of poetry and fiction, all of</span><br><span>which are broken down by grade level.</span><br><span> In the adult contest, there are four categories: poetry, fiction,</span><br><span>nonfiction, and stories for youth. Be sure to read through the guidelines</span><br><span>for all specifics. These can be found at</span><br><span><<a href="http://writers.nfb.org/ContestPage.html">http://writers.nfb.org/ContestPage.html</a>>. And remember, the contest closes</span><br><span>on April 1st so that the results can be announced at the July business</span><br><span>meeting in Orlando. If you have any further questions, contact Eve Sanchez,</span><br><span>president of the Writers' Division at <<a href="mailto:thirdeyeonlyinaz at gmail.com">thirdeyeonlyinaz at gmail.com</a>>.</span><br><span> Now go put on your thinking caps and limber up your fingers to start</span><br><span>writing the words you want. We cannot wait to read them all.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Circle City Chapter Celebrates Twelfth Annual Angel Child Gifting and</span><br><span>Service Award Banquet:</span><br><span> On December 5, 2015, The Circle City Chapter of the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind of Indiana celebrated its twelfth annual Angel</span><br><span>Child Gifting and Service Award Banquet. This program assists qualified</span><br><span>families coping with blindness to overcome some of the holiday obstacles</span><br><span>and also honors members in the community with twenty-five years or more of</span><br><span>service while raising the expectations of blind citizens.</span><br><span> This year's honorees were Mr. William (Bill) Powell, director of</span><br><span>assistive technology of Bosma Enterprises; Mrs. Brenda Jinks, orientation</span><br><span>and mobility instructor; and Miss Nancy Ford Winters, social worker/Social</span><br><span>Security advocate. Each recipient has thirty-five years of service and</span><br><span>continues to strive in their specified careers.</span><br><span> This year's keynote speaker was Mr. James Michaels, vice president of</span><br><span>programs, Bosma Enterprises, and his speech was "Keys To Success and</span><br><span>Happiness."</span><br><span></span><br><span>Free Braille Books Available:</span><br><span> Great news! Every blind or visually-impaired child (ages zero to</span><br><span>twenty-one) in the US and Canada may now get three free books from</span><br><span>Seedlings Braille Books for Children! Seedlings has expanded its Book Angel</span><br><span>Program for 2016. The program was originally called "Anna's Book Angel</span><br><span>Project" in memory of our Director's nineteen-year-old daughter who was</span><br><span>killed by a drunk driver in 2001. Each year, every blind child registered</span><br><span>received one free book in Anna's name, but thanks to Seedlings' generous</span><br><span>donors, that number is now three! Just register your child or student by</span><br><span>going to <<a href="http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel2009.php">http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel2009.php</a>>.</span><br><span> For more information about the program, or about Seedlings Braille</span><br><span>Books for Children in general, check out our website at</span><br><span><<a href="http://www.seedlings.org">www.seedlings.org</a>>, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter</span><br><span>(@SeedlingsBrlBks).</span><br><span></span><br><span>KNFB Reader App Wins Golden Apple:</span><br><span> Since its launch in 2012, the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards have</span><br><span>afforded blind and low vision users an opportunity to recognize and</span><br><span>acknowledge the hard work and dedication which developers have put into</span><br><span>making great and accessible iOS and OS X applications during the given</span><br><span>year.</span><br><span> To be shortlisted for this year's Golden Apple Awards, apps must:</span><br><span> . Be fully accessible to blind and low vision users.</span><br><span> . Have been launched or significantly updated during 2015.</span><br><span> . Be from a developer with a demonstrated and long-term commitment to</span><br><span> full accessibility.</span><br><span> . Demonstrate excellence in design, functionality, and operation.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Candidates for Developer of the Year must:</span><br><span> . Have a long-standing, exemplary commitment to making their apps fully</span><br><span> accessible to blind and low vision users.</span><br><span> . Be receptive and responsive to the needs of blind and low vision users</span><br><span> in a timely manner.</span><br><span> . Have delivered significant new features or updates to their app(s)</span><br><span> during 2015, particularly updates which directly benefit blind and low</span><br><span> vision users.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> The 2015 AppleVis Golden Apples consist of awards in five categories:</span><br><span> . Best iOS App</span><br><span> . Best iOS Game</span><br><span> . Best Assistive iOS App</span><br><span> . Best Mac App</span><br><span> . Developer of the Year</span><br><span></span><br><span> For the Best iOS App of 2015, the AppleVis community chose Workflow:</span><br><span>Powerful Automation Made Simple <<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/workflow-">https://itunes.apple.com/app/workflow-</a></span><br><span>powerful-automation/id915249334?ign-mpt=uo%3D8>. Perhaps not surprising as</span><br><span>Workflow has already won an Apple Design Award this year for its VoiceOver</span><br><span>support and been rated an App Store Best of 2015. 1Password - Password</span><br><span>Manager and Secure Wallet</span><br><span><<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1password/id568903335?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1password/id568903335?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8</a>></span><br><span>took second place, and Overcast: Podcast Player</span><br><span><<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-</a></span><br><span>player/id888422857?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> came third.</span><br><span> In the closest ever vote in the history of these Awards, Dice World -</span><br><span>Dice with Friends! <<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dice-world-farkle-yatzy-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dice-world-farkle-yatzy-</a></span><br><span>balut/id553269986?mt=8> took the Golden Apple for Best iOS Game of 2015. A</span><br><span>Blind Legend <<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-blind-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-blind-</a></span><br><span>legend/id973483154?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> followed as a very close second,</span><br><span>and Blindfold Bowling <<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindfold-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindfold-</a></span><br><span>bowling/id1038994263?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> was just a handful of votes</span><br><span>further back in third place.</span><br><span> In a landslide vote, the AppleVis community voted KNFBReader</span><br><span><<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knfbreader/id849732663?mt=8&ign-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knfbreader/id849732663?mt=8&ign-</a></span><br><span>mpt=uo%3D8> Best Assistive iOS App of 2015. BlindSquare</span><br><span><<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindsquare/id500557255?mt=8&ign-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindsquare/id500557255?mt=8&ign-</a></span><br><span>mpt=uo%3D8> took second place, and Be My Eyes - helping blind see</span><br><span><<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/be-my-eyes-helping-blind-">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/be-my-eyes-helping-blind-</a></span><br><span>see/id905177575?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8> placed third.</span><br><span> Audio Hijack <<a href="http://rogueamoeba.com/">http://rogueamoeba.com/</a>> was voted as the best Mac app</span><br><span>of 2015 by a wide margin. 1Password - Password Manager and Secure Wallet</span><br><span>came in second, and LaunchBar</span><br><span><<a href="https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html">https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html</a>> placed third.</span><br><span> Kid Friendly Software (Creator of the 'Blindfold' series of iOS audio</span><br><span>games; <<a href="https://stemmiami.wordpress.com/">https://stemmiami.wordpress.com/</a>>) was voted as the Developer of</span><br><span>the Year, with MIPsoft (Creator of BlindSquare; <<a href="http://blindsquare.com/">http://blindsquare.com/</a>>)</span><br><span>and DeskConnect, Inc. (Creator of Workflow - Powerful Automation Made</span><br><span>Simple; <<a href="https://workflow.is/">https://workflow.is/</a>>) rounding out the top three.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Robert Vick Wins Another Award:</span><br><span> Lifetime-member of the NFB of New Mexico Robert Vick won the US</span><br><span>Food's Food Fanatic Hero Award for the menu in his restaurant, Vick's</span><br><span>Vittles Country Kitchen, but also for his generosity and employment of</span><br><span>disabled people. Earlier this year, Robert also won the New Mexico</span><br><span>Restaurant Association's Restauranteur of the Year award, during the</span><br><span>organization's Hospitality Industry Awards September 14, 2015.</span><br><span> The NFB of New Mexico's Albuquerque Chapter meets each month at</span><br><span>Vick's Vittles Country Kitchen for our local chapter meeting. Many of those</span><br><span>nights, Robert is on hand greeting his guests as well as chapter members to</span><br><span>his place of business. The chapter has been meeting at Vick's free of</span><br><span>charge for the past several years.</span><br><span> The year 2015 has been full of ups and downs for Robert. We in the</span><br><span>Albuquerque Chapter thank Robert for his generosity and congratulate him on</span><br><span>his latest honor.</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>Three New Courses on Unified English Braille:</span><br><span> The Hadley School for the Blind's UEB Braille classes have been the</span><br><span>most popular of any of our course offerings since our inception ninety-five</span><br><span>years ago. We are pleased to announce two new Braille courses:</span><br><span></span><br><span> UEB Braille Literacy 3: Uncontracted Braille available February 29,</span><br><span>2016:</span><br><span> Increase your ability to read and write Braille by learning</span><br><span>uncontracted Braille in which every word is written out letter for letter</span><br><span>(often called grade one Braille). The course covers the Braille alphabet,</span><br><span>numbers, punctuation, and some special signs. Directions for using the</span><br><span>Braillewriter as well as the slate and stylus are included.</span><br><span> Prerequisite: "Braille Literacy 1: Tactile Readiness" and "Braille</span><br><span>Literacy 2: Learning the Braille Alphabet," or the ability to read all</span><br><span>letters of the Braille alphabet by touch.</span><br><span> Course ID: EBR-923, Media: DTB [digital talking book] with UEB</span><br><span>workbook; Lessons: nine.</span><br><span> This tuition-free course is designed for Hadley students who are</span><br><span>blind only-not for sighted family members in our Family program or for</span><br><span>sighted blindness professionals in our HSPS program.</span><br><span></span><br><span> UEB Contracted Braille available March 31, 2016:</span><br><span> The Braille code used for most written material is contracted</span><br><span>Braille. Being able to read and write in contracted Unified English Braille</span><br><span>(UEB) will enable you to assist your family member or client who is blind.</span><br><span>After attaining this goal, you may decide to advance your Braille skills by</span><br><span>enrolling in a professional transcriber course or other advanced Braille</span><br><span>and Braille teaching courses.</span><br><span> Prerequisite: Completion of Hadley's "Introduction to Braille" within</span><br><span>six months prior to enrollment in "Contracted Braille" and with a grade of</span><br><span>B or higher OR adequate competency as determined by Hadley's "Uncontracted</span><br><span>Braille Assessment."</span><br><span> Course ID: CBR-213, CBR-223, Media: OL [online] or P [print];</span><br><span>Lessons: twenty-five</span><br><span> This course is designed for sighted students in either our Family or</span><br><span>HSPS (blindness professionals) programs.</span><br><span></span><br><span> An Uncontracted Braille Assessment is also available on March 31,</span><br><span>2016. Here is some information about it:</span><br><span> Have you learned uncontracted Braille in another setting, or has it</span><br><span>been over six months since you completed Hadley's "Introduction to Braille"</span><br><span>or "Introduction to Braille, UEB Edition" course? Enrollment in "Contracted</span><br><span>Braille, UEB Edition" requires a certain level of proficiency with</span><br><span>uncontracted Braille. This short assessment measures your ability to read</span><br><span>and emboss letters, numbers, and a variety of punctuation marks in</span><br><span>uncontracted Braille. The results determine which Braille course is</span><br><span>appropriate for you.</span><br><span> Assessment: UBA-010, Media: LP [large print] or OL [online]; Lessons:</span><br><span>1</span><br><span> This assessment is designed for sighted students in either our Family</span><br><span>or our HSPS (blindness professionals) programs.</span><br><span> Prospective and current students should call Toll Free: 800-323-4238</span><br><span>to ensure course availability-enrollment dates are subject to change.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Norwegian Cruise Lines Demonstrates Continued Commitment to Accessibility:</span><br><span> Norwegian Cruise Lines recently christened a new ship, Escape. The</span><br><span>christening was a special two-day event, open only to those agents and</span><br><span>press personally invited to attend. Because of all the work Cheryl and</span><br><span>Nelson Echevarria have done with Norwegian Cruise Lines, they were part of</span><br><span>the select crowd at this event. It wasn't all champagne and Pitbull</span><br><span>concerts, though. Cheryl got the chance to speak to Cathy Vazquez, access</span><br><span>manager of Norwegian Cruise Lines and Mr. Andrew Garnett, president and CEO</span><br><span>of Special Needs Group. There were three specific topics that Cheryl</span><br><span>addressed with Ms. Vazquez and Mr. Garnett: the Norwegian Cruise Lines app,</span><br><span>the KNFB reader, and the introduction of Braille onboard Norwegian Cruise</span><br><span>Lines ships.</span><br><span> The Norwegian Cruise Lines iConcierge app is free to download on</span><br><span>Apple or Google Play Store, but unless you are booked on the cruise line,</span><br><span>you do not have access to it at all. The app is to help you make dining</span><br><span>reservations, spa reservations, and find out about activities going on</span><br><span>across the ship. Some of it worked, and some did not. Ms. Vazquez took</span><br><span>notes on the problem areas of the app to pass on to the appropriate people.</span><br><span> The KNFB Reader app for Android had just come out the week before,</span><br><span>and Cheryl took the opportunity to demonstrate how the app could be used to</span><br><span>read a print menu. Both Ms. Vazquez and Mr. Garnett were impressed and</span><br><span>interested in how the app would make cruising easy and accessible for their</span><br><span>customers.</span><br><span> The final bit of business they discussed was about Braille. Currently</span><br><span>Norwegian Cruise Lines is offering Braille menus produced through Special</span><br><span>Needs Group. The company also handles guide dog relief boxes, wheelchair</span><br><span>and scooter rental, and many other services and products. But Ms. Vazquez</span><br><span>told Cheryl that Norwegian Cruise Lines is testing and learning to use</span><br><span>Braille embossers so that, when they have a customer who reads Braille, all</span><br><span>of their printed materials can be offered in Braille for the customer's</span><br><span>convenience. The ultimate goal is to have the Braille materials ready and</span><br><span>waiting for the customer in their cabin upon arrival.</span><br><span></span><br><span>New State Resource Handbooks Available:</span><br><span> I have created ten screen reader-friendly Resource Handbooks</span><br><span>containing resources pertaining to the blind and visually impaired, for use</span><br><span>by consumers and professionals. This handbook is for the residents of those</span><br><span>states and includes the many organizations for the blind and visually</span><br><span>impaired covering areas such as employment, housing, transportation, and</span><br><span>more. Currently available are handbooks for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,</span><br><span>California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York, Ohio, and Texas.</span><br><span> The handbook includes contact information on the local, regional, and</span><br><span>national level.</span><br><span>For more information on pricing and formats please contact Insightful</span><br><span>Publications by email at <<a href="mailto:insightfulpub at gmail.com">insightfulpub at gmail.com</a>>, by phone at (808) 747-</span><br><span>1006, or visit our website at <<a href="http://www.in-sightful.com/orderpage.html">http://www.in-sightful.com/orderpage.html</a>>.</span><br><span></span><br><span>UEB Course Offering for People Who Want to Read Braille Visually:</span><br><span> Want to read Braille visually? This introductory course provides the</span><br><span>tools for those interested in learning to read and write Braille, so they</span><br><span>can communicate with family members who use Braille. It presents the</span><br><span>fundamentals of the Braille code, including the letters of the alphabet,</span><br><span>numbers, and punctuation. The goal is to enable you to read and write</span><br><span>uncontracted Unified English Braille (UEB). The course includes nine</span><br><span>lessons and is available in print and online. A slate and stylus is mailed</span><br><span>to the student. Interactive programs that simulate the Braillewriter and</span><br><span>the slate and stylus are included in the online course only. These programs</span><br><span>are for practice purposes and cannot be used to produce Braille.</span><br><span> For more information contact Sheryl Bass, Hadley School for the Blind</span><br><span>by writing to <<a href="mailto:Sheryl at hadley.edu">Sheryl at hadley.edu</a>> or by calling (847) 784-2751.</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></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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