<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><b>The Braille Monitor, April 2017</b></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>Reply-To:</b> <a href="mailto:buhrow@nfbcal.org">buhrow@nfbcal.org</a><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span></span><br><span> BRAILLE MONITOR</span><br><span>Vol. 60, No. 4 April 2017</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, by the</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@nfb.org">nfb@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@nfb.org">gwunder@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>© 2017 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>[PHOTO CAPTION: Palm-lined drive leading to front entrance of Rosen Shingle</span><br><span>Creek Resort]</span><br><span> Orlando Site of 2017 NFB Convention</span><br><span></span><br><span> The 2017 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take</span><br><span>place in Orlando, Florida, July 10 to July 15, 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 2017 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 12.5 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 June 1,</span><br><span>2017. 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 June 1, 2017, 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 service, 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 2017 convention is:</span><br><span>Monday, July 10 Seminar Day</span><br><span>Tuesday, July 11 Registration and Resolutions Day</span><br><span>Wednesday, July 12 Board Meeting and Division Day</span><br><span>Thursday, July 13 Opening Session</span><br><span>Friday, July 14 Business Session</span><br><span>Saturday, July 15 Banquet Day and Adjournment</span><br><span></span><br><span>Vol. 60, No. 4 April</span><br><span>2017</span><br><span></span><br><span> Contents</span><br><span></span><br><span>Illustration: Cleaning Where No Human Has Cleaned Before</span><br><span></span><br><span>Walking a Mile: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Simulations</span><br><span>by Mark Riccobono</span><br><span></span><br><span>Progress on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: The Regulations, the</span><br><span>Law, and What They Will Mean for the Blind</span><br><span>by John Paré</span><br><span></span><br><span>Aira, the Next Technology Revolution in Devices for Blind People</span><br><span>by Michael Hingson</span><br><span></span><br><span>What Do We Really Think of Sight?</span><br><span>by Eric Duffy</span><br><span></span><br><span>There's a List for That</span><br><span>by David Andrews</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Urgency of Optimism</span><br><span>by Marc Maurer</span><br><span></span><br><span>Dots from Space!: Voices from the Past</span><br><span>by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer</span><br><span></span><br><span>David Young is a Champion for Blind Iowans</span><br><span>by Jim Omvig</span><br><span></span><br><span>Independence Market Corner</span><br><span></span><br><span>Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span>Monitor Miniatures</span><br><span></span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: A view of the unspoiled wilderness and clear atmosphere of</span><br><span>Mars.]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: The picture taken by the Mars Rover shows the pristine</span><br><span>Martian vista marred by tracks left by the Rover.]</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: NASA missions to the Moon have left not one but three of</span><br><span>these Lunar Rovers abandoned to deteriorate without care on the surface of</span><br><span>our closest celestial neighbor.]</span><br><span> Cleaning Where No Human Has Cleaned Before</span><br><span></span><br><span> April is the month when we celebrate Earth Day, a tradition started</span><br><span>back in the early 1970s when we realized the vulnerability of our planet</span><br><span>and the need for humans to exercise some care for it. Many in that original</span><br><span>movement hailed from California, a state long known for its progressive</span><br><span>attitudes and the willingness to tackle big problems.</span><br><span> Always on the forefront of change, Californians, particularly members</span><br><span>of the National Federation of the Blind of California, have turned their</span><br><span>attention to other parts of the universe, creating the first-of-its-kind</span><br><span>Mars Day. Why Mars, you might ask? The answer is best summed up by Ever Lee</span><br><span>Hairston, the president of the affiliate. "Well, we know what we have done</span><br><span>to our own planet, but what is more disturbing but less well known is what</span><br><span>we have done to other bodies near us. We went to the Moon, walked on the</span><br><span>Moon, and even golfed on the Moon. What did we leave: a sign saying we came</span><br><span>in peace for all mankind-that's good, but think about the trash. We sent</span><br><span>Ranger Seven to the Moon, admired its pictures as it soared toward the</span><br><span>lunar surface, but we didn't land it-no, we crashed it. Any thoughts about</span><br><span>picking it up: not on your life. That first lunar module that carried</span><br><span>Armstrong and Aldrin: when we were through with it, what did we do? We</span><br><span>crashed it into the Moon, and after observing the seismic impact, we</span><br><span>haven't given it a single thought. We simply must be better neighbors in</span><br><span>the solar system and in the universe at large, and if we don't start it</span><br><span>here, who will?"</span><br><span> Brian Buhrow, a man with a technical background, good literary</span><br><span>skills, and a keen sense of fairness and justice goes further: "At this</span><br><span>point Mars is a pretty pristine place. It has a few foreign bodies on it</span><br><span>and a rover whose warranty is about to run out, but it's never too late to</span><br><span>start reclaiming our trash and disposing of it in a manner befitting of at</span><br><span>least one intelligent species in the universe. All of us want good American</span><br><span>jobs and to build infrastructure, so why not create and deploy the first</span><br><span>trash truck capable of interstellar travel? Perhaps we'll have to work on</span><br><span>revising overtime rules for the waste disposal engineers, but we can do</span><br><span>this in a way that creates good, well-paying, and meaningful jobs for</span><br><span>Americans and at the same time dispel the myth that there are some dirty</span><br><span>jobs Americans just won't do. There can be no better project to demonstrate</span><br><span>America's commitment to hard work and the harnessing of technology and</span><br><span>being for the world that city on the hill made so popular by Former</span><br><span>President Ronald Reagan."</span><br><span> Not surprisingly there are some Federationists who gently offer some</span><br><span>cautionary advice. Lisamaria Martinez, the former president of the Sports</span><br><span>and Recreation Division, worries that the gravity on Mars will be so much</span><br><span>less than that of Earth that those who work there will become accustomed to</span><br><span>the lower energy required to move about and heft objects into the space</span><br><span>receptacles that will carry the trash away. "The gravity on Mars is about</span><br><span>.376 that of Earth. This means it will take just over one-third the energy</span><br><span>from our muscles to do on Mars what we do on Earth. Just how we will keep</span><br><span>muscle tone when working, eating, and sleeping will be so radically</span><br><span>different. Unless exercise is a part of our ambitious plan, I don't think</span><br><span>our division can really get behind this, but I am confident that the</span><br><span>Federation, given its tradition of negotiation in getting along with</span><br><span>interstellar beings as evidenced by multiple incarnations of Star Trek, is</span><br><span>up to the job."</span><br><span> For more information about Mars Day, call (111) MARSDAY or 627-7329.</span><br><span>Because of the intense effort in planning and advertising this event,</span><br><span>please use only the number above. Members of the California effort are too</span><br><span>preoccupied to take calls for general information and have contracted with</span><br><span>the publicist for the dissemination of further information.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Mark Riccobono]</span><br><span> Walking a Mile: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Simulations</span><br><span> by Mark Riccobono</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Since a central tenet of the National Federation of</span><br><span>the Blind is to change the way people think about being blind and by</span><br><span>extension to increase the opportunity for those who are, we must think</span><br><span>seriously about the tools we have to bring about this transformation.</span><br><span>Simulating blindness has for some time now been a way in which we and</span><br><span>others have sought to increase the public's understanding of what we need</span><br><span>from it in order to enjoy lives that are as rich and productive as those of</span><br><span>people who can see. In this article our President discusses the subject of</span><br><span>blindness simulation, how it is used, the reasons for its use, when it is</span><br><span>effective, and when it serves as a stumbling block that comes between blind</span><br><span>people and our dreams. Here is what he says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> One of the highest aspirations of human beings is to understand one's</span><br><span>fellows, to know the world as they see it, and to share empathy without</span><br><span>judgment or condemnation. Long before I heard the word empathy I was</span><br><span>familiar with the adage, "You can never really know a man until you have</span><br><span>walked a mile in his shoes." Since we don't all have the same size feet,</span><br><span>what is the practical way to take this journey? Traditionally we have tried</span><br><span>to do this by spending some time learning about and reflecting on another</span><br><span>person's life situation: What is it like to have money? What is it like to</span><br><span>be without it? What is it like to have a disability?</span><br><span> For the past few decades the attempt to understand another person's</span><br><span>life has been to try simulating it. Some of the most popular simulations</span><br><span>have involved letting a nondisabled person spend some time as a person with</span><br><span>a disability. The motives behind these simulations are as varied as the</span><br><span>ways in which they are conducted, and here I'd like to look at what they</span><br><span>are, how well they work, and specifically what a simulation is intended to</span><br><span>communicate.</span><br><span> Given the complexity of life, a reasonable question to ask is whether</span><br><span>simulations not meant to train but to inform can ever serve a purpose. They</span><br><span>can, but making sure they communicate what we want them to takes</span><br><span>considerable thought, a clear definition of what we want to communicate,</span><br><span>and an understanding of how much a person can absorb at one time.</span><br><span> Let's look at a common disability simulation that seems to work, one</span><br><span>in which a person is asked to spend some time in a wheelchair. If I am a</span><br><span>user of a wheelchair and want the public to understand the lack of access I</span><br><span>face, putting someone in a chair and showing him how impossible it is to</span><br><span>reach a doorknob, walk a flight of stairs, or cross a street at which there</span><br><span>is no ramp works quite well. I have not asked him to function without one</span><br><span>of his senses; I have only asked that he sit in a chair and observe how</span><br><span>many things are beyond his reach because we have failed to make simple</span><br><span>environmental changes that will benefit everyone in a wheelchair and</span><br><span>everyone who is a pedestrian. The problems become obvious and so do the</span><br><span>solutions, ones society can implement with minor physical changes.</span><br><span> If I spend an hour in a wheelchair, do I really understand the life</span><br><span>of the man who uses one? I do not. I have to take his word for the way it</span><br><span>feels when people talk down to him, stand behind his chair to converse, or</span><br><span>show the pity they feel for him when they define his existence as being</span><br><span>confined to that chair. To the extent that I am able to understand, that</span><br><span>understanding comes through observation, conversation, and through the</span><br><span>building of a personal relationship.</span><br><span> Of course the goal of his simulation is not to get me to understand</span><br><span>the condition that requires his use of a wheelchair, but to glimpse the</span><br><span>environmental changes to make dealing with it easier. I come away</span><br><span>understanding why my city taxes go for ramps and why we require all public</span><br><span>facilities to have elevators.</span><br><span> Before discussing the simulation of blindness, let's distinguish</span><br><span>between simulations to help blind people function without sight and getting</span><br><span>sighted people to understand blindness. We actively encourage blind</span><br><span>students to do some or most long-term training under learning shades. If</span><br><span>one has some vision, we encourage training that does not rely on it but</span><br><span>relies on alternative techniques. In a society that is overly interested in</span><br><span>visual cues, most people are quickly conditioned to subconsciously believe</span><br><span>that vision is a requirement for success. Through our intensive training</span><br><span>programs we break down the misconception that vision is the requirement for</span><br><span>success and build the understanding that a variety of techniques including</span><br><span>a robust set of nonvisual techniques can empower a blind person to live the</span><br><span>life they want regardless of their level of vision. At the end of training,</span><br><span>one's unreliable vision is no longer at the core of what he or she can do</span><br><span>but serves as a supplement, and the individual can make an informed</span><br><span>decision about which technique (nonvisual or visual) or combination of</span><br><span>techniques is most effective. The loss of more vision due to age or</span><br><span>deterioration through disease will be uncomfortable, but limited vision</span><br><span>will not determine whether one can independently learn, travel, cook,</span><br><span>clean, handle money, and a whole host of other things for which sighted</span><br><span>people use vision. What is key in training is that students are allowed to</span><br><span>proceed slowly in what they do under learning shades. There is time to</span><br><span>explain the underlying philosophy in their use, they have the time to</span><br><span>observe blind people doing what they will be asked to do, and the message</span><br><span>is always that the students can and will be able to do what they need</span><br><span>without vision. More importantly, the student has the opportunity to build</span><br><span>an understanding of how to counteract the misconceptions and</span><br><span>misunderstandings that come from interacting with a public who does not</span><br><span>understand blindness.</span><br><span> Unless simulations are well planned in terms of what we ask people to</span><br><span>do, what we tell them about blindness, and how long we have to work with</span><br><span>them under shades, the experience is likely to be more negative than</span><br><span>positive, reinforcing everything they have felt about the world of darkness</span><br><span>in which they believe we live.</span><br><span> I submit that, in most cases, understanding blindness by one who is</span><br><span>sighted is better communicated through observation than personal</span><br><span>experience. Ask a newly blindfolded person to travel the streets so she</span><br><span>comes to understand the value of traffic sounds, and her predominant</span><br><span>emotion will be fear. Without understanding how blind people travel and</span><br><span>having the confidence that she can do so safely, the experiment will scare</span><br><span>rather than inform. How then can we make a case for modifications that are</span><br><span>necessary for our continued independent travel? The answer is for us to do</span><br><span>the traveling and for the person we are trying to influence to observe us.</span><br><span>When I am observed walking with my cane and run into a guidewire hanging</span><br><span>over a sidewalk at chest level, the person watching me understands the</span><br><span>function of my cane, what it can and cannot detect, and how the problem I'm</span><br><span>experiencing can be solved if the guidewire did not pass over the sidewalk</span><br><span>or did so at an angle that wasn't impossible for a cane to detect. Now it</span><br><span>becomes clear that the challenge is one for an engineer, and the work done</span><br><span>will benefit everyone who walks that sidewalk be they blind or sighted.</span><br><span> Suppose I want someone with influence to understand the difficulty</span><br><span>when I try to use an inaccessible program. If he is blindfolded and made to</span><br><span>sit at a computer, what simulation can we do? He may understand the concept</span><br><span>of a screen reader, but will he know that most programs say a line when the</span><br><span>insert and up arrow keys are pressed? Will he understand that movement</span><br><span>between programs is done by pressing the alt and the tab keys and that</span><br><span>determining which program has focus is accomplished by pressing the insert</span><br><span>key with the letter t? The answer is that he won't. His initial impression</span><br><span>will be that using the computer as he knows it is impossible and that a</span><br><span>number of complicated key presses is difficult when compared with the point</span><br><span>and click methods that constitute the majority of his navigation.</span><br><span> On the other hand, suppose he observes me using a computer with a</span><br><span>screen reader and a Braille display. When he watches the screen, hears what</span><br><span>I hear through computerized speech as I navigate, and listens as I read</span><br><span>what is presented under my fingers in Braille, he is likely to understand</span><br><span>the problem that exists when I encounter graphics that aren't labeled,</span><br><span>buttons that aren't identified, and programs that will not respond to</span><br><span>keyboard presses. He will understand that navigation in addition to what is</span><br><span>provided by a mouse is required and can see how easily arrow and tab keys</span><br><span>can be used to efficiently navigate when I show well-designed programs.</span><br><span> I have talked with many sighted people about the difficulties posed</span><br><span>by misguided individuals we encounter in airports and the extra stress it</span><br><span>puts on blind people. The physical travel through airports is mostly</span><br><span>straightforward, even if getting information generally posted on signs is</span><br><span>not. Although I have talked with people about the problems we encounter,</span><br><span>there is no better simulation than traveling with a sighted person and</span><br><span>letting them observe for themselves. As they watch the looks on people's</span><br><span>faces; have the opportunity to tell people that they are not my caretaker</span><br><span>but rather just a friend; witness me being grabbed, pushed, and pulled; and</span><br><span>overhear the difficulty of my getting a simple question answered they</span><br><span>understand in a meaningful way things that it was hard for them to believe</span><br><span>when I first told them.</span><br><span> I think the question we really need to address is this: Do I want the</span><br><span>general public to know what it is like to be blind? Not really. In the</span><br><span>first place I don't think they can. Many sighted people are convinced the</span><br><span>blind see darkness; the reality is that some blind people do not see</span><br><span>anything while many others see some unreliable combination of light,</span><br><span>shadow, and color (that often varies from day to day). The understanding of</span><br><span>blindness is only complicated by people who have some usable vision and the</span><br><span>obsession of the sighted in understanding what those people see,</span><br><span>particularly when that vision varies from day to day. Those who can see</span><br><span>think I live in a world which is dominated by the absence of light, a world</span><br><span>that deprives me of much that is meaningful. I contend my world has all the</span><br><span>elements that make life worth living: the ability to experience love, to</span><br><span>know the joy of happiness, and to raise my family. I know both the joy and</span><br><span>the stress of being needed, the imperative of making a living, and what it</span><br><span>is like when my children look to me in their attempt to understand the</span><br><span>world. In short, the important things in my life are the same as for the</span><br><span>person who sees, with variations that are sometimes difficult but which</span><br><span>never obscure the joy of being human.</span><br><span> I want the public to understand those parts of blindness that pose</span><br><span>obstacles they can help me overcome. I want them to see how training can</span><br><span>make all the difference and is deserving of their private and public</span><br><span>support. I want them to understand that for training to be meaningful it</span><br><span>must be followed by opportunity. True opportunity means more than failing</span><br><span>to say no; it aggressively embraces the journey to determine how to say</span><br><span>yes. I want people to understand that independent travel is crucial and</span><br><span>that one important element that makes it possible is an environment in</span><br><span>which cars make enough sound that I can hear and respond to them. I want</span><br><span>people to understand that living in my own home is important and that my</span><br><span>home is just as much a castle for me as theirs is for them. To live</span><br><span>independently means being able to do the things they do: cook, clean, and</span><br><span>enjoy the entertainments found in most homes. A challenge for me is that</span><br><span>most new home appliances use visual displays that make no allowance for</span><br><span>those who cannot see. Adding a function to make stoves, ovens,</span><br><span>refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers talk is not only</span><br><span>possible but inexpensive and beneficial to all, including senior citizens.</span><br><span>I want the public to understand that the internet presents great</span><br><span>opportunities for access to information as long as the websites are built</span><br><span>with equal access in mind. Otherwise, I need to spend twice as much time</span><br><span>trying to book an appointment at the doctor, find information about city</span><br><span>services, read the calendar for the school our children attend, report</span><br><span>crime information, or dozens of other things people take for granted. These</span><br><span>are areas in which the general public can help, creating a community</span><br><span>standard that considers unthinkable leaving out people whose inclusion</span><br><span>could so easily be accomplished through inexpensive design and</span><br><span>manufacturing techniques, of which there are many examples.</span><br><span> To restate, in time I believe I can change people's perspective about</span><br><span>the meaningfulness I find in life, but that belief about living in a world</span><br><span>of darkness may be something they take with them to their graves. Perhaps</span><br><span>they can't really walk a mile in my shoes, but they can help me get to the</span><br><span>place where I can purchase those shoes and enjoy my journey through days of</span><br><span>adventure, activity, and living life to the fullest.</span><br><span> Even if we can effectively provide experiences to teach sighted</span><br><span>people about the artificial barriers we face in the physical and digital</span><br><span>environments we encounter, we cannot fully get them to understand the</span><br><span>emotional experience of facing low expectations in society every day. A</span><br><span>couple of years ago I was in a leadership program in Baltimore City. During</span><br><span>that program we spent a morning in a "walk a mile" activity where we</span><br><span>simulated the experience of navigating the struggle of a low-income family</span><br><span>attempting to meet the demands of life. The activity helped me understand</span><br><span>the barriers that poorly designed social services, lack of reliable</span><br><span>transportation, and burdensome supports put on a family with limited means.</span><br><span>However, my real understanding has come from interacting with and knowing</span><br><span>people who live that experience daily and who can share all of the social</span><br><span>bias they face. In other words, I think we need to be completely honest</span><br><span>that any simulation activity does not impact some of the most important</span><br><span>understandings we want the sighted to know in their heart and their head-</span><br><span>that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us, that the</span><br><span>misunderstandings and low expectations about blindness are our biggest</span><br><span>obstacle, that those misunderstandings create artificial barriers that</span><br><span>prevent us from fully participating, and those false limitations build into</span><br><span>something that holds us back.</span><br><span> Short of training blind people to be blind, are there simulations we</span><br><span>can do that will let sighted people glimpse how we do what they do? I</span><br><span>believe the answer is yes. We must make it clear that they are not</span><br><span>experiencing blindness but that we are giving them a taste of the way we do</span><br><span>some of our daily tasks. Having them sit in a chair, covering their eyes,</span><br><span>and handing them coins can show how we identify them by touch. Dropping a</span><br><span>coin on a hard surface and helping them learn the denomination by sound</span><br><span>provides them another clue about how we manage money and adds to the</span><br><span>message that we have quality alternative techniques that serve well in our</span><br><span>daily lives.</span><br><span> The tasks we give should not be threatening. If we want them to spend</span><br><span>some time using a cane, explain that they will not be encountering steps</span><br><span>and that their job is to find the wall in front of them. Tell them their</span><br><span>task is to navigate around a chair and how the cane is used to detect it.</span><br><span>Get sighted people to measure something with a click rule and mark a</span><br><span>precise spot. Teach them how blind people effectively pour liquids without</span><br><span>spilling, and give them an opportunity to practice. In a short amount of</span><br><span>time I have been able to teach sighted people under learning shades to</span><br><span>pour, and when I have given them the option of using the same technique to</span><br><span>pour a cup of coffee for themselves many do so and have little trouble.</span><br><span>There are dozens of other examples, and we should find ways to share</span><br><span>information about the activities that work best. The activities must be</span><br><span>supported by meaningful dialogue with blind people in an environment set up</span><br><span>to facilitate honest communication. When those going through these</span><br><span>experiences have an opportunity to engage blind people around some of the</span><br><span>questions we know they are thinking about, a new avenue of understanding is</span><br><span>created.</span><br><span> So far we have not touched on one critical facet that determines</span><br><span>whether a simulation of blindness is helpful or harmful, that being the</span><br><span>motivation for performing it. This is further complicated by the fact that</span><br><span>simulations are often paired with fundraising. This incorporates all of the</span><br><span>baggage and emotional strings that come with the typical charity model-</span><br><span>people participate to help those less fortunate than they are. The biggest</span><br><span>problem with simulating blindness is that it all-too-easily plays into the</span><br><span>sense of loss and ineptitude that people believe to be our lot in life and</span><br><span>the lives they would live were vision to disappear. This benefits</span><br><span>organizations whose goal is to reverse or eliminate blindness, the recent</span><br><span>activities of the Foundation Fighting Blindness being a prime example. If</span><br><span>the idea is to eradicate blindness by raising money for research, scaring</span><br><span>people is a powerful motivator. As much as all of us support research to</span><br><span>preserve or perhaps restore sight, raising that money must not make living</span><br><span>more difficult for we who are blind. Preserving sight should be supported</span><br><span>on the many merits of vision and not on the portrayal of its absence as a</span><br><span>significant barrier to the enjoyment of life.</span><br><span> So each of us must ask the question: At what cost is the way money is</span><br><span>raised to do research too high? When we fight for the right of blind people</span><br><span>to be parents and an organization suggests that the sighted try being a</span><br><span>parent for one minute with their eyes closed, the experience can only serve</span><br><span>to emphasize the danger when a young child is not observed, a situation</span><br><span>bordering on leaving her unattended. The cost to blind people is too high!</span><br><span>When one is encouraged to dine in the dark without first learning how to</span><br><span>serve oneself, cut one's meat, or have the experience of finding one's</span><br><span>mouth with a fork, how can the mess and the message be reconciled with</span><br><span>blind people leading lives of independence in which we can feed ourselves,</span><br><span>teach our children, and represent our employers without embarrassment when</span><br><span>the job calls for us to attend lunches and dinners? Again, the cost to</span><br><span>blind people is just too high! The potential to raise money through fear</span><br><span>and pity is enormous, but so is the toll on the lives of blind people and</span><br><span>the efforts we make to convince others we are capable of living in the</span><br><span>world as competent human beings.</span><br><span> Everyone has freedom of speech, but with that freedom comes the</span><br><span>responsibility to speak truth, to do no harm, and to advantage rather than</span><br><span>disadvantage the people about whom one is speaking. Because we in the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind are the authentic voice of blind people-</span><br><span>representing the broad diversity of people who experience blindness</span><br><span>firsthand-we must raise expectations and lead the way regarding best</span><br><span>practice for simulation activities. We must also honestly evaluate what we</span><br><span>do and whether it meets our goals, the test of our philosophy about</span><br><span>blindness, and ensure that it is authentic to the experience of a blind</span><br><span>person who has had training and opportunity. We must make certain that the</span><br><span>simulations we do meet this standard and should demand that others do the</span><br><span>same. These should be our guiding principles as we teach the world what it</span><br><span>means to be blind, and these should be the standards to which we hold other</span><br><span>organizations who would diminish our lives and opportunities in the</span><br><span>misguided belief that a quality life can only be achieved if one is</span><br><span>sighted.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: John Paré]</span><br><span> Progress on the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: The Regulations, the</span><br><span> Law, and What They Will Mean for the Blind</span><br><span> by John Paré</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: John Paré is the executive director of strategic</span><br><span>initiatives for the National Federation of the Blind, and he is the staff</span><br><span>member who has put in the most time, energy, and intense concentration on</span><br><span>the issue of silent cars. He shares the concern for the safety of</span><br><span>pedestrians that all of us carry in our hearts and in our heads, but he is</span><br><span>the person who has translated that concern into responses which distinguish</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind by acknowledging our early work on the</span><br><span>issue, our innovative ways to bring it to the attention of people capable</span><br><span>of doing something about it, and riding herd over the process to make sure</span><br><span>that it did not stall or go astray. Here is what John has to say about the</span><br><span>fight to get a bill enacted, the challenge of getting that act into a</span><br><span>proposed rule, and the difficulty in getting the Obama administration to</span><br><span>publish a rule that the blind, other pedestrians, and the auto makers could</span><br><span>accept as reasonable, doable, and in the interest of all involved:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Much of what we do in the National Federation of the Blind focuses on</span><br><span>enhancing the quality of life for blind people through creating</span><br><span>opportunities and raising expectations. Anything that comes between blind</span><br><span>people and living fruitful and fulfilling lives is something we target. But</span><br><span>on rare occasions we are called on to do more than work on quality of life</span><br><span>issues and deal with the preservation of life itself. This was the case</span><br><span>when we found that something essential to our independent travel was</span><br><span>changing in a way that could take it away and could easily result in injury</span><br><span>or death.</span><br><span> In 2005 the buzz was all about hybrid electric cars. They were coming</span><br><span>to market, and many things about them were appealing: they used less fuel,</span><br><span>emitted less pollution, and generated less noise. All of us were excited;</span><br><span>all of these things we viewed as positive. But when we learned that less</span><br><span>noise translated to no useable sound, a real issue of safety emerged for</span><br><span>blind and sighted pedestrians alike that we could not ignore. Silent</span><br><span>vehicles are essentially stealth vehicles to blind people, and although it</span><br><span>is less obvious, they are nearly as dangerous for people who can see. This</span><br><span>is because a pedestrian who can see is often alerted about where to look</span><br><span>based on what he or she hears. For an in-depth discussion about how the</span><br><span>Federation came to identify the problem of nearly silent vehicles, the</span><br><span>denials that a problem existed, the work to find allies, and the struggle</span><br><span>to get a bill passed and signed by the president to address the issue, I</span><br><span>urge you to read an excellent piece written by Debbie Kent Stein entitled</span><br><span>"Belling the Cat: The Long Road to the Passage of the Pedestrian Safety</span><br><span>Enhancement Act," which appeared in the June 2011 issue of the Braille</span><br><span>Monitor. On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Pedestrian</span><br><span>Safety Enhancement Act, requiring that the United States Department of</span><br><span>Transportation write regulations to implement a minimum sound that vehicles</span><br><span>must make when traveling the streets of this country. The signing of the</span><br><span>act represented a big step forward in recognizing that it is desirable that</span><br><span>vehicles be quiet, but that they be no quieter than safety will allow.</span><br><span>Throughout this article I will simply refer to this as the act. Even in our</span><br><span>most optimistic moments we realized that writing the regulations would take</span><br><span>time, getting them reviewed would be painfully slow, and the phase-in</span><br><span>period would leave us unprotected far longer than we wished. Even so, few</span><br><span>of us believed it would be 2016 before the final regulations were published</span><br><span>and probably 2020 before the act is fully implemented.</span><br><span> In drafting regulations, four distinct issues had to be addressed:</span><br><span>safety, stakeholder agreement, conducting and interpreting the research,</span><br><span>and embracing the global trend that would set the direction of carmakers.</span><br><span>Although we tend to think of American legislation as something that</span><br><span>primarily involves Americans and American policy, the automobile industry</span><br><span>is one of the few uniquely global marketplaces. In September 2009, before</span><br><span>the passage of the act and certainly strengthening the case for it, a</span><br><span>report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said</span><br><span>that hybrid electric vehicles were twice as likely to be involved in</span><br><span>accidents with pedestrians than their internal combustible engine</span><br><span>counterparts. In a second report issued in October 2011, using a much</span><br><span>larger sample size, the same agency said that there was a 35 percent</span><br><span>greater likelihood of accidents involving hybrid electric vehicles and</span><br><span>pedestrians. It also found a staggering 57 percent greater likelihood in</span><br><span>accidents involving quiet cars and cyclists.</span><br><span> In all, NHTSA produced three research reports that together totaled</span><br><span>more than 900 pages. Separately and together, all pointed to the undeniable</span><br><span>conclusion that sound and safety are inextricably bound together.</span><br><span>Guidelines for the industry had previously stressed the reduction of sound</span><br><span>through the establishment of a maximum noise emission standard. Noise was</span><br><span>the enemy of the automotive engineer, a word so vile that there was no way</span><br><span>to use it with these professionals and communicate anything hinting at</span><br><span>something positive. "You will undermine your case for a minimum sound</span><br><span>standard if you say you want the car to make noise. You do not want noise.</span><br><span>You want usable sound, not noise." This was the message from one of the</span><br><span>more vocal members at a meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers back</span><br><span>in 2008, and his vocabulary lesson was one we took to heart.</span><br><span> What the reports issued by NHTSA made clear was that safety would</span><br><span>require a minimum sound standard so that pedestrians would be aware of</span><br><span>vehicles in their vicinity and take reasonable precautions to avoid</span><br><span>contact. What was needed was an addition to the law governing sound</span><br><span>emissions by vehicles, a law that called for vehicles to be as quiet as</span><br><span>they could safely be, but no quieter.</span><br><span> When the law was passed, it called for the issuance of a Notice of</span><br><span>Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to be issued no later than eighteen months after</span><br><span>its passage. The purpose of an NPRM is to alert interested parties about</span><br><span>what the regulations for new laws will look like, offering a chance for</span><br><span>those with an interest to comment on and influence how the final</span><br><span>regulations will be crafted and the law enforced. But NHTSA did not issue a</span><br><span>proposal by July 1 of 2012. That meant that the final rule that should have</span><br><span>been issued by January 4, 2014, did not come out. The NPRM wasn't published</span><br><span>until January 10, 2013, the agency arguing that the complexity of the issue</span><br><span>and the research required meant that the time frames in the law for</span><br><span>implementation could not be met. The NFB made our response to the NPRM in</span><br><span>March 2013, and it wasn't until December 2016 that the final rule, the one</span><br><span>which was supposed to be published in January 2014, was issued. In the</span><br><span>interim the United States Department of Transportation commissioned a study</span><br><span>to determine how many hybrid electric vehicles were being sold in this</span><br><span>country, and that study concluded that, on average, 1,563 are sold each</span><br><span>day. These cars are not yet covered by the act or its regulations; luckily</span><br><span>some manufacturers have seen the writing on the wall and have implemented</span><br><span>systems to provide sound alerts. Although they may not comply with the</span><br><span>regulations that have now been published, their presence is welcomed by</span><br><span>those of us who regularly place our faith in safely crossing streets on</span><br><span>what we hear.</span><br><span> So which vehicles are covered by the law and which by the</span><br><span>regulations? What are the key points of each? We make a distinction between</span><br><span>the law and the regulations because the regulations are not just a detailed</span><br><span>prescription of how to implement the law, but differ from it in some</span><br><span>significant ways. We are left to speculate as to why, but the rumor has</span><br><span>been floated that differences exist because of insufficient data to support</span><br><span>detailed regulations as envisioned in the law and that when such data</span><br><span>becomes available the regulations may be modified accordingly.</span><br><span> Here are the main points you should know about the act as it will be</span><br><span>implemented: only four-wheeled vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds</span><br><span>are covered, meaning commercial trucks and motorcycles have been excluded.</span><br><span>They are part of the law but not the regulations.</span><br><span> Fifty percent of vehicles produced after September 1, 2018, and 100</span><br><span>percent of vehicles produced after September 1, 2019, must meet the sound</span><br><span>standard.</span><br><span> One issue that sparked significant debate even among allies for the</span><br><span>law was whether there should be a switch that the driver could use to</span><br><span>disable the audible alerts it mandates. We were opposed to what in the</span><br><span>industry is called a pause switch, but what has come to be called a kill</span><br><span>switch by the blind. For us the issue is simple: the ability to hear a</span><br><span>quiet car should not depend on the judgment of the driver as to whether or</span><br><span>not a usable sound should be emitted by his vehicle. This would be</span><br><span>equivalent to allowing a driver to make his car invisible simply because he</span><br><span>believed he wouldn't encounter pedestrians, animals, or other cars along</span><br><span>his journey.</span><br><span> In the current regulation there is no selectable sound from which a</span><br><span>car owner may choose, though the law clearly allows for a set of selectable</span><br><span>sounds so long as those sounds are provided and certified by the</span><br><span>manufacturer to meet the minimum sound standard. Although research</span><br><span>indicated that duplicating the sound of a standard internal combustion</span><br><span>engine would be the most identifiable sound by the greatest number of</span><br><span>pedestrians, it also demonstrated that the sounds were not the most</span><br><span>effective in penetrating the noise found in most rural and urban</span><br><span>environments. Both pedestrians and automobile manufacturers were concerned</span><br><span>that leaving the sound that a vehicle would make to the discretion of</span><br><span>automobile owners could lead to situations in which a vehicle would not be</span><br><span>identified as a danger to be avoided. Discussions on blogs indicated that</span><br><span>if owners were allowed to select their own sound, some would choose the</span><br><span>sound of a carousel, some an ice cream truck, and some the clatter of</span><br><span>horseshoes. An arbitrary sound just would not do to provide certainty in</span><br><span>identification. But a second concern was from the manufacturers. It was</span><br><span>that a sound provided by a driver might be considered offensive, and the</span><br><span>result would be the rejection by the public of all sounds. This would</span><br><span>reflect negatively on the manufacturers, the law, and the pedestrians it</span><br><span>was designed to protect.</span><br><span> In the law provisions were made for vehicles to come with several</span><br><span>selectable sounds from which the driver of a quiet car could choose, but</span><br><span>the regulations make no provision for these other than to say that a 2020</span><br><span>Toyota Prius will sound like every other 2020 Toyota Prius. The same is</span><br><span>true for a 2019 Chevrolet Volt.</span><br><span> One point of contention between pedestrians and car manufacturers was</span><br><span>whether a vehicle should emit some sound when not in motion. The car</span><br><span>companies contended that where there was no motion there was no danger. The</span><br><span>Federation took the strongly held position that knowing of a car's presence</span><br><span>at a traffic light, a four-way stop, or any other kind of intersection was</span><br><span>essential whether that car was moving or at rest. An informed decision to</span><br><span>cross requires that one be aware not only of vehicles on the move but</span><br><span>vehicles that are waiting for the opportunity to move. Both the law and the</span><br><span>regulation make it clear that a vehicle is to emit a sound while stopped,</span><br><span>but the regulation does provide that no sound need be made if the vehicle</span><br><span>is in park.</span><br><span> Although most hybrid electric vehicles do not use a manual</span><br><span>transmission, those which do must make sound any time the key is on and the</span><br><span>parking brake is off. While we would have preferred that a quiet car make</span><br><span>some sound when the driver's seat is occupied, we have gotten most of what</span><br><span>we wanted in this section of the regulation, and it is a far cry from what</span><br><span>some of the manufacturers were demanding, provisions which, had they been</span><br><span>adopted, would have done much to negate the safety issues spawning the</span><br><span>creation of the law.</span><br><span> How loud must a vehicle sound be? From stationary to less than ten</span><br><span>km/h [kilometers per hour], it must create a sound that is at least forty-</span><br><span>four decibels. A moving vehicle going from ten km/h up to less than twenty</span><br><span>km/h must generate a sound of at least fifty-one decibels. From twenty to</span><br><span>less than thirty km/h, the vehicle must generate a sound of at least fifty-</span><br><span>seven decibels. At thirty to thirty-two km/h the sound emitted must be</span><br><span>sixty-two decibels. For vehicles traveling in reverse, a sound of forty-</span><br><span>eight decibels is required. These figures were based on significant testing</span><br><span>by NHTSA, and only time will reveal whether the published levels are</span><br><span>appropriate to provide an adequate and reliable warning for pedestrians,</span><br><span>particularly those who are blind.</span><br><span> With traditional internal combustion engines most of the sound</span><br><span>generated by a slow-moving vehicle comes from the engine itself. At some</span><br><span>point, no matter how a vehicle is powered, the majority of the sound comes</span><br><span>from wind and tire noise. This is defined in the act as the "crossover</span><br><span>speed." With quiet cars the issue that had to be negotiated was when the</span><br><span>artificial sound could be stopped, and the sound from the movement of the</span><br><span>vehicle would be sufficient. The rule as it stands today says that the</span><br><span>electronically generated sound must continue until a vehicle reaches thirty-</span><br><span>two kilometers, or 19.88 miles, per hour. From the perspective of the NFB</span><br><span>this is good news, a lower crossover speed would have been preferred by the</span><br><span>car companies. What complicates arriving at any fixed number is the</span><br><span>commendable attempt by the industry to reduce tire friction and wind</span><br><span>resistance to increase how far a vehicle can travel with a specific amount</span><br><span>of energy. When tire friction and wind resistance change, so too does the</span><br><span>sound generated. Numbers that are used today may be irrelevant tomorrow, so</span><br><span>again we may have to reevaluate these sound levels as we gain experience</span><br><span>with new cars coming off the assembly line.</span><br><span> In negotiating what sounds a vehicle should make, blind people were</span><br><span>committed to the idea that pitch shifting should be part of the car's sound</span><br><span>emission. Pitch shifting is an easy way to detect acceleration and</span><br><span>deceleration, and it is commonly heard with internal combustion engines.</span><br><span>Although this provision was a part of the NPRM, it is not found in the law</span><br><span>or the final regulation. Experience will again be required before we can</span><br><span>say definitively whether the change in volume/amplitude will be sufficient</span><br><span>to tell us what a vehicle is doing. If it is, the law can stand as is. If</span><br><span>not, this may be something for which we press in future legislation.</span><br><span> The car companies have filed a petition for reconsideration to extend</span><br><span>by one year the time by which they must fully comply with the law. Their</span><br><span>argument is that the law envisioned a longer time in which to comply than</span><br><span>does the regulation. If their petition is granted, it will be 2020 before</span><br><span>full compliance is required. While we understand the need for protection</span><br><span>and the frustration of having watched as six years have passed, and knowing</span><br><span>that every day we extend that compliance date is one more day in which</span><br><span>vehicles are manufactured which make blind and sighted pedestrians</span><br><span>vulnerable to stealth vehicles, we must freely admit that the law did offer</span><br><span>a three-year timeframe for compliance. We have to acknowledge that if we</span><br><span>were on the other side and the regulations suggested a longer period for</span><br><span>implementation than the law states, we might be the ones appealing for a</span><br><span>change.</span><br><span> As complicated as all of this is, some points stand out clearly and</span><br><span>require little explanation: we are the organization that brought this to</span><br><span>the attention of the press, the industry, the public, and finally those who</span><br><span>exercise the levers of power in the government. We have worked to turn a</span><br><span>two-page law, which necessarily speaks in broad, guiding generalities, into</span><br><span>a 375-page rule that seeks to be specific enough that manufacturers know</span><br><span>precisely how to do what they must to make the streets safer for</span><br><span>pedestrians. We have first sought to do this in the United States but are</span><br><span>working to get standards that apply worldwide for pedestrians, no matter</span><br><span>where they may live. No issue so clearly demonstrates our commitment to</span><br><span>safe and independent travel, and no issue has tested our perseverance more</span><br><span>than this one. At first we had no allies. The quiet car enthusiasts wanted</span><br><span>less noise pollution, so they dismissed our concerns in favor of a quieter</span><br><span>environment. The car companies started by denying there was a problem but</span><br><span>eventually came to work with us. Bloggers asked why blind people would be</span><br><span>so negligent as to attempt traveling by ourselves, and some even suggested</span><br><span>that if we had no more common sense than this, it might be better for the</span><br><span>intelligence of the world if we were no longer a part of it. But we know</span><br><span>who we are, we will never go back, and we knew that with persistence,</span><br><span>ongoing education, the goodwill of the public, and the dogged determination</span><br><span>to see this through from start to finish, we would prevail. Keep following</span><br><span>these pages for further details, but take some time to celebrate what it</span><br><span>means to be a vital part of the National Federation of the Blind.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO/CAPTION: Michael Hingson]</span><br><span></span><br><span> Aira, the Next Technology Revolution in Devices for Blind People</span><br><span> by Michael Hingson</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Michael Hingson is a man who can boast of many</span><br><span>accomplishments and who has made significant contributions in advancing the</span><br><span>cause of blind people while keeping his Federation philosophy and active</span><br><span>participation front and center. There aren't many blind people who are</span><br><span>electrical engineers, but Michael is one. There aren't many people who are</span><br><span>financial experts capable of making their living in the heart of New York's</span><br><span>financial district, but Michael is one. There aren't many blind</span><br><span>Californians who understand the techniques espoused by the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind to lead active and independent lives and who are</span><br><span>open to the positive changes that new technologies may bring, but Michael</span><br><span>is one. Here is what he has to say about a new service being offered to the</span><br><span>blind which harnesses the power of technology, joins it with the humanity</span><br><span>of a highly-trained professional to relate what he or she sees, and merges</span><br><span>these in meeting the infrequent but difficult challenges that blind people</span><br><span>face when the blindness techniques we use aren't quite enough. Here is what</span><br><span>he says about Aira [pronounced I-rah]:</span><br><span></span><br><span> It isn't often that any of us can be involved with the birth of a</span><br><span>technology that will significantly change our lives. Helping in that birth</span><br><span>is an even rarer occasion. I had such an opportunity in 1976 when our</span><br><span>president at the time, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, asked me to accept a job with</span><br><span>the Federation to coordinate the day-to-day operation of a joint project</span><br><span>between the National Federation of the Blind and Ray Kurzweil and his</span><br><span>company, Kurzweil Computer Products Inc. to test and to bring the Kurzweil</span><br><span>Reading Machine to market. Out of our joint project, blind people</span><br><span>throughout the world gained access to a technology that brought the</span><br><span>personal reading of print into our lives.</span><br><span> I never thought I would have a chance to help steer another great</span><br><span>advance that offered as much potential for change as the Kurzweil Reading</span><br><span>Machine. However, in early 2015 I received an email from Mr. Lawrence Bock</span><br><span>asking me to join the technical advisory board of a start-up company, Aira</span><br><span>Tech Corp. Through conversations with Mr. Bock and the company's founder,</span><br><span>Suman Kanuganti, I learned that Aira had developed a system that could</span><br><span>provide blind people always-on information anywhere at any time. Far-</span><br><span>fetched? Perhaps, but as I delved into the company's operation and saw its</span><br><span>product in action, I realized that indeed the claims of its founders could</span><br><span>be true.</span><br><span> Here is how Aira works. The user puts on what is called a "wearable</span><br><span>device," which in this case is a pair of glasses that contain a high</span><br><span>definition digital camera, miniaturized sensors, and the ability to connect</span><br><span>to the internet using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. The system also uses</span><br><span>an app which resides on an iPhone or Android smartphone.</span><br><span> When the user wishes to use Aira, he or she activates the app, which</span><br><span>in turn establishes a Wi-Fi connection with the wearable device. Once this</span><br><span>connection is established, the user can press a button within the app to</span><br><span>contact an Aira agent. As soon as the agent comes online, they see images</span><br><span>transmitted by the glasses. The agent also sees geographical information</span><br><span>and information about the user's surroundings on their special software</span><br><span>dashboard. The user has two-way voice contact with the agent through the</span><br><span>smartphone and can request whatever information they require. The agent,</span><br><span>through their dashboard, can access the internet, use the user's visual</span><br><span>surroundings, and incorporate other tools to provide answers to the user's</span><br><span>needs.</span><br><span> The information requested by users can be anything from asking for</span><br><span>help with finding something in a store to requiring assistance while</span><br><span>traveling through an airport to seeking assistance in assembling a product</span><br><span>he or she has purchased. Literally agents can help with any task by</span><br><span>providing visual descriptions and information wherever eyesight is needed</span><br><span>to create access for blind people.</span><br><span> I became involved as an advisor with Aira because I saw the potential</span><br><span>of the product and also to ensure that the technology, when brought to</span><br><span>blind customers, would be provided in the most effective way possible. The</span><br><span>most significant concern I had about Aira was how the agents presented</span><br><span>information to customers. Given all my years in the NFB and from all my</span><br><span>experiences with assistive technology, I know that good products and</span><br><span>services work best when their feature sets consider what we who are blind</span><br><span>want and need. Aira can either be a contributor to our independence and</span><br><span>self-determination or it can be a barrier. If the agents, for example, are</span><br><span>trained not only to provide information but to interpret that same</span><br><span>information, then the product would be little more than the kind of service</span><br><span>we presently get from untrained sighted people. For example, if I were</span><br><span>using Aira to get information about a street intersection and the agent</span><br><span>told me that it was now "safe to cross the street," then the agent would be</span><br><span>drawing a conclusion that I should be making for myself based on my</span><br><span>mobility skills. If, on the other hand, the agent said that the light had</span><br><span>turned green and that they did not see any cars traveling across my path,</span><br><span>then the agent would be giving me information I could use to determine on</span><br><span>my own when to cross. This example is a simple one, but the point is that</span><br><span>the agent should be charged only with providing information and leaving all</span><br><span>decisions up to me, the user. One of my main tasks has been to help set the</span><br><span>philosophical tone for how the agents operate. To date fifteen agents have</span><br><span>joined the Aira staff. Its hours of operation are from 7 AM Eastern time to</span><br><span>7 PM Pacific time seven days a week. Over the course of this year Aira</span><br><span>expects to offer 24/7 service.</span><br><span> Aira has had a visible presence at the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind national convention for the past two years and will be in Orlando</span><br><span>again this year signing up users and showing any interested attendee how</span><br><span>the product works. Aira is also gaining visibility with other organizations</span><br><span>and agencies. Recently, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Aira Tech</span><br><span>Corp was chosen by PC Magazine as the best new startup company at the show.</span><br><span> The one drawback to Aira for many blind people is the same one that</span><br><span>faced Ray Kurzweil in the 1970s, although not to the same degree. There is</span><br><span>a cost to using Aira. At present, there are two pricing plans. Users can</span><br><span>have unlimited access to Aira for a price of $199 per month. A lesser price</span><br><span>of $129 per month will give users eight hours of access, and Aira</span><br><span>anticipates a lower price plan in the next month. Aira is exploring ways to</span><br><span>lessen the cost challenge by securing insurance coverage as well as looking</span><br><span>for government agency subsidies for some of the Aira services. Aira is also</span><br><span>working on rolling its free autonomous functionality through its artificial</span><br><span>intelligence engine which is constantly learning. The National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind has partnered with Aira not only to help make the product the</span><br><span>best it can be, but also to help find ways to make it available to all</span><br><span>blind people.</span><br><span> Aira is only at the beginning of its existence. I am certain that</span><br><span>over time the cost of the product will drop significantly. The cost aside,</span><br><span>Aira offers any blind person the most full and complete access to whatever</span><br><span>information he or she might need. I personally have used Aira to move</span><br><span>through airports, malls, and shops. While on a speaking trip I used Aira to</span><br><span>explore a three-story guest house provided to me by an event sponsor. An</span><br><span>Aira agent assisted me in assembling a laundry cart I purchased and</span><br><span>received in the mail. I assembled the cart independently, with assistance</span><br><span>from Aira after I discovered that the instructions were only pictures with</span><br><span>no text at all. I know of others who have used it to read the contents of</span><br><span>computer screens and kiosks. At least one person has used Aira while</span><br><span>bowling and when experiencing Disneyland, just to name a few; Aira's uses</span><br><span>are only as limited as our imaginations.</span><br><span> You can learn more about Aira by visiting <a href="http://www.aira.io">www.aira.io</a>. On Aira's</span><br><span>website is a link to a page you can visit to become an Aira Explorer and</span><br><span>begin exploring the world around you in a way never available before. I</span><br><span>truly believe Aira is the next revolution in technology that will help us</span><br><span>further take our place as blind first-class citizens. I also believe that</span><br><span>Aira will grow to provide services outside the specific needs of blind</span><br><span>people, but Aira's core purpose and philosophy will always start with the</span><br><span>needs of the blind.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> What Do We Really Think of Sight?</span><br><span> by Eric Duffy</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: Eric Duffy currently works for the New Jersey</span><br><span>Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a technological support</span><br><span>specialist. He is a former affiliate president, having recently served as</span><br><span>the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio.</span><br><span> Many of us have come from backgrounds in which we were more dependent</span><br><span>on vision than we now consider comfortable or necessary. We value the</span><br><span>alternative techniques that give us independence, still realizing that from</span><br><span>time to time we need the help of people with sight or, as is becoming more</span><br><span>and more possible, the use of visually aware devices to help us. For some</span><br><span>people this creates an internal conflict-how dependent must I be on vision?</span><br><span>When am I using vision when I could rely on the nonvisual techniques I've</span><br><span>worked so hard to master and to offer to other blind people as a way to</span><br><span>become independent.</span><br><span> In this article, Eric Duffy discusses the extreme emphasis that was</span><br><span>placed on sight by the family who loves him, his own journey to learn and</span><br><span>use nonvisual techniques, and his awareness that in a balanced life there</span><br><span>must be a merging of alternative techniques and visual ones to live the</span><br><span>life he wants. Here is what he says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> At times in our lives many of us have had to consider how much we</span><br><span>value sight. Sometimes we ask ourselves this question because of an</span><br><span>experience we have had, and sometimes we ask because of a development in</span><br><span>the medical or technology fields. Most recently I have found myself</span><br><span>pondering this question because of a visual interpreting service offered by</span><br><span>Aira.</span><br><span> Through a special pair of glasses or the camera on a smartphone, one</span><br><span>can connect to a live agent who is looking at a computer screen and who can</span><br><span>see exactly what the camera on the glasses or phone can see. During an Aira</span><br><span>session the agent also has access to GPS on the user's phone, Google maps,</span><br><span>and more.</span><br><span> Shortly before sitting down to work on this article, I went to a</span><br><span>store that I had not been to before. I bought some storage bowls for my</span><br><span>home and a coffeemaker for my son. That was the first time I have gone to a</span><br><span>store and shopped without the assistance of a family member, friend, or</span><br><span>store employee. How did I do it? I did it with the help of an Aira agent of</span><br><span>course.</span><br><span> I first heard about Aira at the 2016 National Convention of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind, where I saw a demonstration of the</span><br><span>service. At that point I asked myself what I would be saying about me and</span><br><span>blindness in general if I began using such a service. How would using it</span><br><span>fit into my own beliefs about blindness and my understanding of the</span><br><span>philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind, which are very much one</span><br><span>and the same? These two questions and the questions of several of my</span><br><span>friends forced me to examine closely my attitudes about blindness.</span><br><span> So I asked myself how much I value sight. In large part the answer</span><br><span>defines how I feel about blindness. I was one of eight children and the</span><br><span>only one with a disability. I had very limited functional vision as a</span><br><span>child. I did what I could to learn colors and to identify as many things as</span><br><span>I could using that vision.</span><br><span> When I accurately identified colors, my parents were happy because I</span><br><span>could see. When I misidentified colors or objects, I could hear the</span><br><span>disappointment in their voices. They weren't disappointed with me; they</span><br><span>were disappointed because I couldn't see. That told me how much they valued</span><br><span>sight. I went to an endless series of specialists in Philadelphia,</span><br><span>Baltimore, New York City, New Orleans, and too many cities to remember in</span><br><span>Ohio, which is where I grew up. Although my mom didn't like to drive in big</span><br><span>cities, she would do it if she had to in order to get me to an eye doctor.</span><br><span>That told me how much she wanted me to see. Sight was quite valuable to</span><br><span>her.</span><br><span> As a child I loved McDonald's. If I got close enough, I could see the</span><br><span>McDonald's Golden Arches. One night as we were traveling in the car, my</span><br><span>little sister asked if we could stop at McDonald's. My parents said they</span><br><span>might stop at the next one they saw. My sister was quick to point out the</span><br><span>next one that she saw, but my dad did not stop. I told my sister just to</span><br><span>elbow me gently the next time she saw a McDonald's sign, and she happily</span><br><span>agreed. When she not-so-gently elbowed me, I excitedly said, "There, I see</span><br><span>it. I see McDonald's!" We stopped at that McDonald's.</span><br><span> On more than one occasion as a child, I found my mother crying. She</span><br><span>told me that she was sad because I couldn't see. She said that she often</span><br><span>prayed and asked God to let me see even if she had to sacrifice her sight</span><br><span>so that I might see. I learned how steep a price she would pay in order for</span><br><span>me to see.</span><br><span> In junior high school I lost the little bit of vision I had. A doctor</span><br><span>told my parents and me that he could remove a cataract and perform a cornea</span><br><span>transplant and that I would get some vision back if he did so. My mom</span><br><span>thought that the eyes were too close to the brain to take such a risk, so I</span><br><span>learned that she feared my losing my life or something else happening to me</span><br><span>and that her desire to keep me safe was greater than my having sight.</span><br><span> What did I think? I wanted to have the surgery. I knew what my</span><br><span>parents thought about blindness. I knew that even at the Ohio State School</span><br><span>for the Blind those who had some vision were expected to do things and</span><br><span>allowed to do things that the totally blind students were not. I knew how</span><br><span>valuable sight was.</span><br><span> How does all of this relate to Aira? When walking into a crowded</span><br><span>room, most blind people I know don't think twice about taking directions</span><br><span>from someone with sight when looking for an empty seat. Getting assistance</span><br><span>from someone with sight is the only practical way to do shopping. How many</span><br><span>of us take the elbow of a sighted person (or for that matter even a blind</span><br><span>person with usable vision) when walking through a noisy and crowded room?</span><br><span>How many of us are willing to accept sighted assistance when going through</span><br><span>a buffet line? Most of us need sighted assistance when at a restaurant that</span><br><span>does not offer Braille menus. Many of us have at one time or another paid</span><br><span>readers.</span><br><span> Many of us use apps on our smartphones to identify currency. There is</span><br><span>an app that will let us know if the lights in a room are on or off. Working</span><br><span>with our friend and colleague Ray Kurzweil, the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind has developed an app that enables us to read the printed word, the</span><br><span>KNFB Reader. To do these things we rely on the cameras on our phones and</span><br><span>artificial intelligence. In short, we rely on artificial vision. Yet none</span><br><span>of us question whether or not we should use these apps, and I think that is</span><br><span>the way it should be.</span><br><span> Recently I called Aira and asked them to perform a relatively simple</span><br><span>task on the internet for me. A friend asked me why someone with my</span><br><span>technology skills would use Aira to do something that simple. My answer was</span><br><span>immediate: "Because I could." I said we both know that we have the skills</span><br><span>and confidence to walk to some of the places to which we wish to travel,</span><br><span>but we also have the ability to use buses and trains. We could ask someone</span><br><span>to drive us. We could in fact hire someone to drive us in a taxi. In fact</span><br><span>we usually find it more convenient and less expensive to use one of those</span><br><span>new-fangled ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber. All of these</span><br><span>solutions insert sighted people and technology between us and walking to</span><br><span>our destination.</span><br><span> After completing my shopping trip today, I told my son and Claire,</span><br><span>the Aira agent, how happy I was to do my shopping without assistance from</span><br><span>those around me. However, after discovering that I had left my iPhone in</span><br><span>the Uber vehicle, I was delighted to have my sighted son go and retrieve it</span><br><span>for me. I could have done it, but it was more convenient and less expensive</span><br><span>for him to do it.</span><br><span> Aira provides sight assistance only when you request it. It is</span><br><span>available when you need it, and there is no waiting until later when it is</span><br><span>more convenient for someone to provide the visual information you have</span><br><span>requested. Aira has not made me more dependent on sight; rather, it has</span><br><span>changed the way I do some things. As far as I am concerned, this is a</span><br><span>change for the better.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> There's a List for That</span><br><span> by David Andrews</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: David Andrews occupies one of the most active roles</span><br><span>in our organization but with little visibility to members who are not a</span><br><span>part of a Federation list. He has the unenviable task of reading almost</span><br><span>every message that goes across our lists, and he does what he can to keep</span><br><span>messages on topic and to deal with the most egregious of them when someone</span><br><span>unfamiliar with or hostile to our mission tries to cause problems for list</span><br><span>members. Our lists are a tremendous resource, and so too is our friend,</span><br><span>colleague, and Federationist David Andrews. Here is what he says:</span><br><span></span><br><span> Those of you who have read the Braille Monitor for a while will</span><br><span>remember that in the 1990s and early 2000s we used to publish articles</span><br><span>talking about new lists on <a href="http://nfbnet.org">nfbnet.org</a>. However, with the growth of</span><br><span>technology and its use, the proliferation of our lists, and the increased</span><br><span>use of social media, this is no longer feasible. Consequently, we are going</span><br><span>to publish short monthly columns that talk about mailing lists in one area.</span><br><span>That area can be geographic, such as a state, or it can be a topic, such as</span><br><span>technology or blind kids. We will alternate between geographic and topical</span><br><span>presentations.</span><br><span> As you may know, the site <a href="http://www.nfbnet.org">http://www.nfbnet.org</a> offers hundreds of</span><br><span>lists that discuss specific topics. These vehicles are often called</span><br><span>listservs or listserves, make your choice. Technically, Listserv is a</span><br><span>software package, not a list, like Kleenex is a brand, not a generic term</span><br><span>for facial tissue. Personally, I prefer to call them "internet mailing</span><br><span>lists."</span><br><span> A list is something you subscribe to or join. It has a specific</span><br><span>purpose and can be public or private, announce-only or open for discussion.</span><br><span>Once you subscribe, your email address is on the list, along with that of</span><br><span>everyone else who has joined. If it is an open list, anything you or anyone</span><br><span>else who is subscribed writes is sent to all the other members. And if you</span><br><span>reply to a message, it automatically goes to everyone else who is</span><br><span>subscribed to the list. If it is an announce-only list, the number of</span><br><span>people authorized to post is limited, and the list is only used for</span><br><span>announcements, not discussions or questions. Overall, internet mailing</span><br><span>lists are an easy, efficient, and quick way to get information out to</span><br><span>thousands of Federationists and others in the blind community. It is a good</span><br><span>way for local chapters, state affiliates, committees, divisions, and others</span><br><span>to communicate and hold discussions. Who doesn't have email?</span><br><span> An alphabetical list of all our public internet mailing lists can be</span><br><span>found at <a href="http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/">http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/</a>. There are approximately</span><br><span>240 lists on the page, so finding something can be a little overwhelming-</span><br><span>hence this monthly column. As you can see from the webpage, each list has a</span><br><span>list name and a short description. The list name is also a link and takes</span><br><span>you to an info page from which you can subscribe. You can go directly to a</span><br><span>list's info page with the URL</span><br><span><a href="http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/listname_nfbnet.org">http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/listname_nfbnet.org</a>, where</span><br><span>"listname" is the aforementioned list name. You can also go directly to a</span><br><span>list's archive with the URL</span><br><span><a href="http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/listname_nfbnet.org">http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/listname_nfbnet.org</a>. Finally, you can</span><br><span>subscribe directly to a list using email by sending an email to listname-</span><br><span><a href="mailto:request@nfbnet.org">request@nfbnet.org</a> and put the word "subscribe" in the subject line by</span><br><span>itself.</span><br><span> The <a href="http://NFBNet.org">NFBNet.org</a> server also contains three lists to which you cannot</span><br><span>subscribe, but you are probably receiving an occasional email from them.</span><br><span>They are NFBNET-Members-List, NFBNET-Master-List, and NFBNET-Students-list.</span><br><span>These lists are generated dynamically as needed. Their membership is</span><br><span>automatically taken from the other lists on <a href="http://NFBNET.org">NFBNET.org</a>. The Members List is</span><br><span>composed of those lists concerned with the NFB and its business. The Master</span><br><span>List is composed of everybody on all lists on the server-there are a few</span><br><span>non-NFB lists that others may be on-generally dedicated to a specific</span><br><span>topic, and the Students List is composed of people from all our student-</span><br><span>related lists. We used to send important messages to all the lists that</span><br><span>might be interested. This was time consuming for me and resulted in a</span><br><span>person getting multiple copies of a message if she was subscribed to</span><br><span>multiple lists, as many people are. This way you just get one message. You</span><br><span>can ask to be excluded from these lists; however, they are the best way to</span><br><span>keep up with what is happening in the Federation and with breaking events.</span><br><span>We sometimes need to contact legislators on short notice, and other things</span><br><span>frequently need immediate attention, and this is the best way to inform</span><br><span>thousands of Federationists easily and quickly.</span><br><span> The NFBNET server also supports approximately forty-five websites for</span><br><span>state affiliates, local chapters, and divisions of the NFB. There are also</span><br><span>approximately eighty private lists that support various affiliates,</span><br><span>chapters, divisions, and projects run by the Federation. These are private</span><br><span>spaces where people can openly discuss things only of interest to them.</span><br><span>Membership on these private lists is by invitation only, and their archives</span><br><span>are not public.</span><br><span> Next month we will get started by telling you about the lists for the</span><br><span>state of Maryland. Our lists are valuable resources, and the more we know</span><br><span>about them the better able we are to make full use of them.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO CAPTION: Marc Maurer at the 2008 National Convention]</span><br><span> The Urgency of Optimism</span><br><span> An Address Delivered by</span><br><span> Marc Maurer</span><br><span> at the Banquet of the 2008 Annual Convention</span><br><span> of the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span></span><br><span> Much has been written about the balance between optimism and</span><br><span>pessimism-as if these two approaches to living were opposite, mutually</span><br><span>exclusive but equally viable methods of thought.</span><br><span></span><br><span> McLandburgh Wilson said:</span><br><span> Twixt the optimist and the pessimist</span><br><span> The difference is droll:</span><br><span> The optimist sees the doughnut</span><br><span> But the pessimist sees the hole.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Frederick Langbridge said,</span><br><span> "Two men look out the same prison bars:</span><br><span> One sees mud and the other stars."</span><br><span></span><br><span> However, some imaginative thinkers have suggested that optimism is</span><br><span>not simply a way of looking at a set of circumstances, but a positive</span><br><span>element of power.</span><br><span> William James said, "Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power."</span><br><span> Nicholas Murray Butler said, "Optimism is essential to achievement,</span><br><span>and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress."</span><br><span> Colin Powell said, "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."</span><br><span> For optimism to be an element in the acquisition of power, it must be</span><br><span>more than a cheerful cast of countenance. Rather it must consist in a</span><br><span>commitment to bringing into being a future containing elements of</span><br><span>possibility that have not been a part of the past. Optimism and reality may</span><br><span>(properly understood) be inseparable. If reality signifies all that has</span><br><span>currently been created, this measure of existence is frozen in time. If, on</span><br><span>the other hand, reality denotes both that which has been built and that</span><br><span>which can be brought into being, the potential for growth encompasses a</span><br><span>much more magnificent formulation of life than would otherwise be</span><br><span>comprehensible. In other words, the grandest understanding of reality</span><br><span>incorporates the optimistic anticipation of innovative thought, and it also</span><br><span>implies commitment and effort.</span><br><span> Anaïs Nin said, "Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the</span><br><span>actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the</span><br><span>highest form of living."</span><br><span> Douglas Everett said, "There are some people who live in a dream</span><br><span>world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who</span><br><span>turn one into the other."</span><br><span> Although a goodly number of Americans have been pessimistic (Henry</span><br><span>David Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the</span><br><span>grave with the song still in them."), ours is an optimistic nation. We have</span><br><span>traditionally held the view that we could conquer the frontier, govern our</span><br><span>futures, or invent the tools for our own success. There is even an American</span><br><span>expression for this faith-Yankee ingenuity.</span><br><span> Just as individuals have a life cycle, the theorists tell us that</span><br><span>organizations do. They are established; they grow; they mature; they</span><br><span>prosper for a time; and they cease to exist. At least a part of the reason</span><br><span>for the continued existence of an organization depends on its optimism.</span><br><span>Every organization must possess a purpose and the faith that the purpose</span><br><span>can be achieved. When that faith dissipates, the organization dwindles,</span><br><span>becomes dormant, and ceases to be.</span><br><span> As we have observed in the National Federation of the Blind,</span><br><span>leadership is one vital element of progress. As an organization must have</span><br><span>faith in its future, the leaders of the organization must be optimistic.</span><br><span>Pessimism signifies atrophy. Operating the same old program in the same old</span><br><span>way will not encourage growth. Optimism and an openness to imagination must</span><br><span>be a part of the leadership. Every organization is faced with the same</span><br><span>imperative: build or wither, grow or die. The openness to imaginative</span><br><span>thought and the faith to believe that better, more effective programs can</span><br><span>be created are part of the spirit of the National Federation of the Blind.</span><br><span> Reflections on optimism and discussions about blindness are rarely</span><br><span>found in the same place. People who write or speak about blindness often</span><br><span>grieve, sometimes weep, and frequently employ the most dismal descriptive</span><br><span>words to signify the potential for blind people. It is extraordinarily rare</span><br><span>for somebody to write or think, "Oh good, a whole bunch of blind people!"</span><br><span>In fact, a convention of blind people is, in the minds of many, an anomaly-</span><br><span>almost a contradiction in terms. At conventions people are supposed to have</span><br><span>fun. But, if most of the people at the convention are blind, how ineffably</span><br><span>dismal could this be? Adding one miserable life to another in thousands of</span><br><span>iterations simply magnifies the horror of it all. Blind people who are</span><br><span>optimistic about their future-they must be deluded or liars. How could any</span><br><span>substantial group of people wake every day facing the disadvantages that</span><br><span>blindness brings and at the same time maintain optimism in their hearts? Is</span><br><span>there any group so naïve as to take this position?</span><br><span> Well, one group of this character does exist. We have created it. It</span><br><span>is the most powerful force ever established in the field of work with the</span><br><span>blind in the United States, and it has a purpose that will not be abridged</span><br><span>or thwarted or denied. That purpose is hard to achieve but simple to</span><br><span>proclaim-it is that the blind will have recognition, that we will be known</span><br><span>for the vital human beings we are with all of the talent, the energy, and</span><br><span>the joy that we possess-that equality must and will be ours. The</span><br><span>organization we have created, the organization that carries this banner,</span><br><span>the organization with the optimistic drive to change our lives for all time</span><br><span>is the National Federation of the Blind.</span><br><span> Some people depict the blind as unemployed, isolated, frequently</span><br><span>uneducated, and beset with characteristics denoting inability. The</span><br><span>assertion that this summation is reality is made by some of those dealing</span><br><span>with programming for the blind. A senior official of the Department of</span><br><span>Education responsible for rehabilitation of the blind said within the last</span><br><span>few years that the 70 percent unemployment rate for blind people has</span><br><span>remained unchanged for decades.</span><br><span> Why, I wondered, has this figure remained so high? Do blind people</span><br><span>not want to work? Are blind people lazy, lackadaisical loafers who are</span><br><span>turning down good jobs so that they can continue to receive government</span><br><span>benefits, or has the system failed? Are rehabilitation programs unequal to</span><br><span>the challenge? Are the programs conducted by the Department of Education</span><br><span>unproductive? Is the 70 percent unemployment rate for blind people an</span><br><span>indication of a lack of leadership?</span><br><span> "Not on your life," said this high official in the Department of</span><br><span>Education. "This rate of unemployment is an indicator that blind people</span><br><span>cannot achieve success unless they are among the most talented 30 percent</span><br><span>of the blind in society. Continuing to spend money on programming for the</span><br><span>blind," he said, "is a waste of state and federal resources."</span><br><span>Rehabilitation for blind clients costs more than rehabilitation for those</span><br><span>with other disabilities. Therefore specialized programs for the blind</span><br><span>should be eliminated because they cost too much. Never mind that these</span><br><span>programs produce positive results, create tax savings by limiting the</span><br><span>number of people receiving federal and state support, and bring trained and</span><br><span>talented blind people into the workforce. They should be eliminated because</span><br><span>they cost too much, he told me. This federal official in the Department of</span><br><span>Education gave up on 70 percent of the clients assigned to the programs he</span><br><span>is expected to supervise. He thinks that handing out government benefit</span><br><span>checks to blind people is better than training them to work for their own</span><br><span>lives. With such an attitude, with such a failure of optimism, with such a</span><br><span>lack of faith in the clients the Department of Education is expected to</span><br><span>serve, it is not the least bit surprising that the programs of this</span><br><span>department are failing.</span><br><span> Sometimes it appears that certain officials of the Department of</span><br><span>Education are seeking to punish the blind for demanding equality. Sometimes</span><br><span>it appears that these officials are saying, "You can demand equality if you</span><br><span>want to, but if you do, we will cut funds from your programs. If you do as</span><br><span>we say-if you behave as we require-if you are docile, subservient, properly</span><br><span>grateful blind people-we will grant you a modicum of support. However, if</span><br><span>you want to be pushy, obnoxious, and uppity; if you want to be demanding</span><br><span>and insistent, you will be sorry."</span><br><span> Fortunately, though the Department of Education is responsible for</span><br><span>making policies regarding programs it conducts, it has no power to make</span><br><span>policy for the blind. We of the National Federation of the Blind determine</span><br><span>our own policy and create our own destiny. Those who serve in government</span><br><span>are responsible to the people who put them there, not the other way around.</span><br><span>The blind of the nation have a right, perhaps even a duty, to examine the</span><br><span>performance of the officials who are selected to conduct the programs to</span><br><span>serve us. Those public officials are responsible to us to demonstrate that</span><br><span>they have served well enough to continue to remain in office, and we demand</span><br><span>an accounting.</span><br><span> At the time of the founding of the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>in 1940, almost no blind people in America were employed. By the late 1950s</span><br><span>estimates were that 3 or 4 percent of the blind of the nation had jobs. By</span><br><span>the mid-1970s this estimate had increased to 30 percent. In certain</span><br><span>programs the number of blind people who receive employment after training</span><br><span>is above 80 percent, and some approach 90 percent. What makes these</span><br><span>programs successful? They listen to the blind; they are responsive to the</span><br><span>needs and wishes of blind people; they learn from the organized blind</span><br><span>movement; they form partnerships with the most powerful entity dealing with</span><br><span>blindness in the nation. Do officials in the Department of Education know</span><br><span>these facts? Do they care? Have they studied the factors that are part of</span><br><span>the success for the most productive programs?</span><br><span> Those who believe that inability or isolation or dismal despair</span><br><span>describe our lives do not know us and cannot speak for us. We are the</span><br><span>blind, and we will make our own way and live our own lives. We will do it</span><br><span>with the support and encouragement of those who understand the reality we</span><br><span>face. We will welcome partners from government or private programs for the</span><br><span>blind who have the faith to believe in us. We will conduct our activities</span><br><span>with the fundamental faith that blindness cannot inhibit our progress and</span><br><span>with the optimism to know that we can face whatever obstacle may come. But</span><br><span>above all else we will build our own future, and nothing on earth can stop</span><br><span>us!</span><br><span> One of the elements necessary to the public acceptance of the blind</span><br><span>as equals in society is a correct understanding of what blind people are.</span><br><span>How are the blind perceived almost a decade into the twenty-first century?</span><br><span> A report circulated by Fox News in May of this year describes an</span><br><span>incident in which a blind man was refused the opportunity to ride on a</span><br><span>roller coaster because of blindness. The report says that the blind man had</span><br><span>already ridden the roller coaster three times that day. When the owner of</span><br><span>the amusement park discovered that the blind man was seeking a fourth ride,</span><br><span>management refused. Management personnel said that safety requires a person</span><br><span>to assume certain positions during a roller coaster ride. These positions</span><br><span>can be anticipated only by those who can see well enough during the course</span><br><span>of the ride that they can anticipate the twists and drop-offs before they</span><br><span>happen. Furthermore, if the roller coaster were to malfunction, management</span><br><span>said, a blind person could not easily escape from the contraption without</span><br><span>danger.</span><br><span> The denial of the opportunity to participate in the experience of</span><br><span>riding a roller coaster is an example of the idiocy that blind people often</span><br><span>face. The blind man in question had already ridden the roller coaster three</span><br><span>times without incident or injury. The owner of the amusement park ignored</span><br><span>the evidence. He had already decided that blind people were not welcome.</span><br><span>Evidence was irrelevant.</span><br><span> Of course evidence is not required from the sighted. If sighted</span><br><span>people need not provide any evidence of their capacity to ride, blind</span><br><span>people should not be expected to provide it either. Nevertheless, the</span><br><span>evidence was there. Consequently, this is a case in which double</span><br><span>discrimination has taken place. I am pleased to say that we in the National</span><br><span>Federation of the Blind assisted in giving this case the publicity it</span><br><span>deserved, and the amusement park owner has changed his mind. The blind are</span><br><span>welcome to ride.</span><br><span> In 1997 the Portuguese Nobel Prize winning author José Saramago</span><br><span>released the English version of his novel, entitled Blindness. The premise</span><br><span>in this book is that the members of society become blind unexpectedly,</span><br><span>totally, irreparably, and instantly. The description of society as an</span><br><span>increasing number of its members become blind is one of filth, greed,</span><br><span>perversion, and vice. Blind people are depicted as unbelievably incapable</span><br><span>of everything, including finding the way to the bathroom or the shower.</span><br><span>Saramago wants a world view that serves to offer an allegory for the worst</span><br><span>description he can possibly imagine. He selects blindness as his metaphor</span><br><span>for all that is bad in human thought and action. He describes the blind as</span><br><span>having every negative trait of humanity and none of the positive ones. He</span><br><span>argues that this is an allegory for a picture of the reality of the world</span><br><span>today. The book was used as the basis for a movie of the same name, which</span><br><span>has been shown at the Cannes film festival this spring. The only positive</span><br><span>element to the release of this film is the almost universal reaction of the</span><br><span>critics that it is a failure.</span><br><span> The depiction of the blind in this movie is fundamentally flawed for</span><br><span>two reasons. First, blindness does not denote the characteristics the</span><br><span>author attributes to it. The capabilities of those who become blind remain</span><br><span>essentially the same after they lose vision as they were before they lost</span><br><span>it. Although the loss of any major asset (including vision) will bring a</span><br><span>measure of sadness to some and despair to a few, it will also stimulate</span><br><span>others to assert their will. Blindness can be a devastating loss, but it</span><br><span>also has the power to galvanize some to action. The reaction to blindness</span><br><span>is not the least bit one-dimensional. Therefore the description is false.</span><br><span> In addition to this, the viciousness attributed to the blind is</span><br><span>inconsistent with the assertion of incapacity. Viciousness demands both</span><br><span>venality and ability-at least organized viciousness does. To say that the</span><br><span>blind are completely incompetent and to assert that they have the ability</span><br><span>to organize for the pursuit of vice is a contradiction in terms.</span><br><span> But leave the internal inconsistency. The charge that loss of vision</span><br><span>creates a personality alteration of sordid and criminal character is in</span><br><span>itself sordid and defamatory to an entire class of human beings. To give a</span><br><span>man who writes such foolishness the Nobel Prize for Literature belittles</span><br><span>what has often been regarded as a prestigious award. For as long as I can</span><br><span>remember, certain comedians have thought it good sport to make fun of the</span><br><span>blind, and as pernicious as this may be, most authors have not sought to</span><br><span>make us objects of fear and revulsion.</span><br><span> The description in Blindness is wrong-completely, unutterably,</span><br><span>irretrievably, immeasurably wrong. That such falsity should be regarded as</span><br><span>good literature is revolting and amazing. We know the reality of blindness,</span><br><span>we know the pain it can bring, we know the joy that can come from</span><br><span>correcting the misinformation about it, and we are prepared to act on our</span><br><span>own behalf. We will not let José Saramago represent us, for he does not</span><br><span>speak the truth. He does not write of joy or the optimism of building a</span><br><span>society worth calling our own. We do, and we will.</span><br><span> On November 13, 2007, an article appeared in USA Today entitled,</span><br><span>"Blinded by War: Injuries Send Troops into Darkness," which describes the</span><br><span>incidence of eye injuries to military personnel facing enemy combatants in</span><br><span>Iraq and Afghanistan. This article indicates that current conditions for</span><br><span>combat cause a higher proportion of injuries to the eye than in previous</span><br><span>conflicts. Though the article is quite sympathetic to the troops who are</span><br><span>blinded, it contains a reiteration of many of the myths and stereotypes</span><br><span>that have inhibited progress for the blind during the course of recorded</span><br><span>history. Brief portrayals of the lives of three soldiers are part of this</span><br><span>writing.</span><br><span> Here are excerpts from the article: "About 70 percent of all sensory</span><br><span>perception is through vision, says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an army major and</span><br><span>staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. As a</span><br><span>result the families of visually impaired soldiers wrestle with a</span><br><span>contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving personalities that have</span><br><span>helped them succeed in the military. Now dependent on others, they find it</span><br><span>difficult to accept help."</span><br><span> I interrupt to say that though the army major may not know it, blind</span><br><span>people do not necessarily lead lives of dependency, some blind people have</span><br><span>hard-driving personalities, and the old story about visual perception being</span><br><span>the primary method of learning is a myth of long standing but little</span><br><span>credence. However, there are other pieces to the article.</span><br><span> "Even now, more than a year after her husband's return from Iraq,"</span><br><span>[the article continues] "Connie Acosta is taken aback to find her home dark</span><br><span>after sunset, the lights off as if no one is there. Then she finds him-</span><br><span>sitting in their Santa Fe Springs, California, house, listening to classic</span><br><span>rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was blinded in a mortar attack twenty-two</span><br><span>months ago. He doesn't need the lights. That realization often makes Connie</span><br><span>cry. 'You kind of never get used to the fact that he really can't see,' she</span><br><span>says. 'He has no light in his life at all.'"</span><br><span> Again I interrupt. If the article is merely reporting that this</span><br><span>soldier is blind, I would have no argument with the fact. However, more is</span><br><span>implied than the fact of blindness. The meaning is much broader and much</span><br><span>more devastating. The spiritual, the poetic, the inspirational, the</span><br><span>romantic aspects of life are no more for this combat victim, implies USA</span><br><span>Today. Of course USA Today is only a newspaper. Its reporters have no</span><br><span>extensive experience with blindness, and its editors have not studied in</span><br><span>this realm or learned what reality is for the blind. Personnel at the</span><br><span>newspaper have lived with the myth of deprivation, and this is what they</span><br><span>report. They cannot comprehend that something else might be at least as</span><br><span>important.</span><br><span> Is it really fair to say for those of us who are blind that we "have</span><br><span>no light in our lives at all" with all of the unspoken implications</span><br><span>contained in this phrase? Is sight essential for poetry? Can there be no</span><br><span>inspiration without the visual sense? Is romance a thing of the past? Is</span><br><span>the song of the spirit only a faint echo in the lives of blind people when</span><br><span>compared with that robust clamor which thrills the inner being of the</span><br><span>sighted? When blindness comes, does it invariably signify meaningless</span><br><span>emptiness? This is what the article would have us believe. Consider what</span><br><span>the reporter says. "Nothing in the house can be moved [the article</span><br><span>continues]; he's memorized the location of every chair and table."</span><br><span> The final segment of the article poignantly sums up the grief. This</span><br><span>is what it says: "The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro</span><br><span>says. 'I've had dreams where I know I'm blind and, guess what? I've</span><br><span>regained my vision,' he says. Reality floods back each morning. 'There's</span><br><span>not a night that I don't pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I wake up</span><br><span>seeing.'"</span><br><span> This is the report from USA Today about the prospects for blinded</span><br><span>veterans. The only good news is the dream of waking up seeing; everything</span><br><span>else is bad. To imagine a life consisting in its primary elements of</span><br><span>waiting from the time of each waking moment for the next hour when sleep</span><br><span>can be coaxed to disguise the reality of daily existence with a dream world</span><br><span>is to accept despair. What we say to this soldier, to USA Today, and to all</span><br><span>human beings who have become blind is: "Don't you believe it!" Your</span><br><span>reporter has missed the good news. Blindness is indeed a loss, but it is</span><br><span>the loss of sight only, not the loss of the ability to live. Nobody can</span><br><span>give us hope unasked, and nobody can create for us the kind of spirit that</span><br><span>will give meaning to what we do or who we are. However, the hope is</span><br><span>abundantly available for those who seek it; the joy is part of the world we</span><br><span>can build; and the future is as bright with promise as any imagination that</span><br><span>exists or has ever existed. This is what our experience has demonstrated;</span><br><span>this is what we know; and this is the story that should have been reported.</span><br><span> Incidentally, I get a little tired of the argument that 70 percent or</span><br><span>80 percent or 83 percent or 90 percent of all information comes through the</span><br><span>eye. The implication is always that, although blind people have some</span><br><span>information, we have only 30 percent or 20 percent or 17 percent or 10</span><br><span>percent of that which all other people have. This is false, and I find</span><br><span>myself annoyed with the necessity of responding to this idiotic notion</span><br><span>repeatedly.</span><br><span> I am told that the beginning of this argument came from an</span><br><span>advertisement in 1923 put together by Thomas Edison. He was trying to sell</span><br><span>film projectors to school systems. In an effort to sell his projectors, he</span><br><span>said that "83 percent of all knowledge comes through the eye." I wish he</span><br><span>had found a better way to sell projectors. Though I presume sighted people</span><br><span>might learn 70 percent of all they know by using their eyes, I also</span><br><span>recognize that this is not the only way to learn. All of us learn through</span><br><span>such senses as we have, and we learn through using such mental capacity as</span><br><span>we possess. Sense impression is necessary for learning, but it is only one</span><br><span>element in the process. Identifying and manipulating information involves</span><br><span>pattern recognition. Sometimes visual observation helps in recognizing</span><br><span>patterns, but other ways to recognize them also exist, and imagination is</span><br><span>at least as valuable.</span><br><span> Even though I have been thinking seriously about the subject of</span><br><span>blindness for almost forty years, I am still amazed by some of the things</span><br><span>that people believe about blindness. When I read articles like this one, I</span><br><span>think to myself, "Did you say that, did you really say that, how could you</span><br><span>say such things about the blind?" Can you really think that our lives are</span><br><span>meaningless, or empty, or without romance or poetry or passion? Have you</span><br><span>observed any of us for more than a moment? Do you know the struggle that we</span><br><span>face to gain recognition for our talent? Have you heard the ripple of our</span><br><span>laughter or the cadence of the song we sing? If you believe that romance</span><br><span>and passion are possible only through the eye, your experience lacks</span><br><span>perspective and imagination. Love, joy, a fascination with the arts and</span><br><span>sciences, exploration of the unknown, and the unquenchable determination to</span><br><span>build a better life for ourselves and for others-these we claim as</span><br><span>belonging to us, belonging to the human spirit which is ours. In your</span><br><span>reporting you have not included these factors as a part of our lives, but</span><br><span>we know that we possess capacity, and we will not let you forget it.</span><br><span> To give perspective to the thought of blind people and romance,</span><br><span>consider the testimony of a Federation member who, as a college project,</span><br><span>decided to find out how blind people fall in love. Here is a portion of the</span><br><span>notice that this student distributed to a number of blind people in the</span><br><span>Northeast:</span><br><span></span><br><span> This year I am a senior, and I will be working on an honors</span><br><span> thesis investigating the attraction and courtship process for</span><br><span> individuals without sight. The purpose of this project is to explore</span><br><span> ways in which blind individuals use senses other than sight in</span><br><span> choosing partners and in maintaining intimate relationships.</span><br><span> It is argued that sight is the most important factor in how</span><br><span> people fall in love. What about those of us who lack the benefit of</span><br><span> eye contact and visual cues? I want to explore the roles of other</span><br><span> senses in the process of falling in love. This question is of great</span><br><span> personal interest to me because I was able to experience 'love at</span><br><span> first sight' when I met my future husband, despite the fact that I</span><br><span> could not rely on my sense of sight. I am very interested in</span><br><span> investigating the variety of ways that visually impaired individuals</span><br><span> fall in love.</span><br><span></span><br><span> These are statements from the notice created by the student. She</span><br><span>takes for granted that blind people have romantic interest, and she seeks</span><br><span>less to know whether it exists than how it operates. I suspect that the</span><br><span>research has already been concluded. However, if more evidence is required,</span><br><span>I will let you know.</span><br><span> The National Federation of the Blind receives unsolicited proposals</span><br><span>to support, endorse, or help to promote individuals, books, films, or</span><br><span>projects about blindness on a very regular basis. Some of these make sense</span><br><span>and get our support, but others have no redeeming social importance.</span><br><span> A few months ago we received a proposal that the National Federation</span><br><span>of the Blind become a promoter of a project known as "Charlesville," a</span><br><span>housing community to be built in Georgia adapted to the specialized needs</span><br><span>of the blind. The slogan of Charlesville, which gives an idea about the</span><br><span>project, is: "A Community Where the Blind Can Really See." The promoters</span><br><span>plan to construct 164 homes for the blind in a housing development along</span><br><span>with a theater, places for other small businesses, a supermarket,</span><br><span>playgrounds, and a "work facility." The proposal, laid out in a substantial</span><br><span>notebook, contains statements such as, "Homes...will have Voice</span><br><span>instructions to assist the Blind in being able to see in their homes, as</span><br><span>well as in their outside yards," and "The streets will be designed to have</span><br><span>Voice controls to assist the Blind in seeing where their neighbors live,</span><br><span>their playgrounds are, as well as their work facility." One other statement</span><br><span>in the notebook is, "Our firm has been given the 'Vision of Creating Home</span><br><span>Ownership, and Employment' in Charlesville where the Blind can see</span><br><span>themselves become normal independent citizens of our great country."</span><br><span> Such are statements from the planners of Charlesville. And you</span><br><span>thought you were normal; you thought you were independent-not unless you</span><br><span>live in Charlesville. Move to Charlesville or you're not even a citizen of</span><br><span>this great country of ours, according to the movers and shakers of</span><br><span>Charlesville.</span><br><span> I spoke with the people who sent this proposal to the Federation.</span><br><span>They told me that they understood the problems of blindness; they</span><br><span>sympathized with the plight of blind people; and they wanted to construct a</span><br><span>living community in which the blind could have an experience of home as</span><br><span>close as possible to that which is experienced by the sighted. With this in</span><br><span>mind they imagined that specialized technology would be installed which</span><br><span>would explain to the blind the interiors of their houses. Other technology</span><br><span>would explain what was in the neighborhood. The explanations would include</span><br><span>audible descriptions of where each neighbor lived and where each</span><br><span>nonresidential building could be located. Special blind-friendly technology</span><br><span>to control the streets would be one of the features of the community,</span><br><span>though what this technology would do had not yet been completely planned.</span><br><span> The mind boggles at what might be incorporated in the audible</span><br><span>descriptions of the neighbors. It is tempting to try to offer certain</span><br><span>imaginative examples, but those that you have already constructed are no</span><br><span>doubt equally good. I confess that I found myself intrigued by the notion</span><br><span>that the streets themselves could be controlled. What would a human being</span><br><span>want the streets to do? Although I did not express these thoughts to those</span><br><span>visiting the National Federation of the Blind, I wondered if they meant</span><br><span>that control gates would be installed at street crossings similar to those</span><br><span>used for railroad crossings. When a blind person planned to cross the</span><br><span>street, the press of a button could bring down the control arms, halting</span><br><span>traffic and providing a tactile railing or fence for the blind person to</span><br><span>follow from one side of the street to the other. Indeed, the concept of</span><br><span>controlling the streets tickled my fancy. I wondered if I should suggest to</span><br><span>these planners that they build their community so that a blind person</span><br><span>stepping out for a walk could instruct the streets to go downhill. Maybe</span><br><span>the new slogan for Charlesville could be, "The Community for the Blind:</span><br><span>Where All the Streets Go Downhill."</span><br><span> Those creating the community thought that having sighted people to</span><br><span>assist the blind with their medications might be useful as well as having</span><br><span>individuals dedicated to leading the blind from place to place. The</span><br><span>planners wanted to know if I had any suggestions for other specialized</span><br><span>technologies or services, and they asked for a grant of more than a million</span><br><span>dollars.</span><br><span> I doubt that it will come as a surprise that I decided not to get the</span><br><span>checkbook. I was polite, but I wondered if the people making the proposal</span><br><span>had read any of the Federation's literature. We do not recommend that the</span><br><span>blind be segregated from society. We do not believe that specialized homes</span><br><span>are required for the benefit of the blind. We do not recommend that</span><br><span>communities be built to isolate the blind even with voice-controlled</span><br><span>streets, whatever this might mean.</span><br><span> The concept of a segregated community is not merely offensive but</span><br><span>also dangerously socially irresponsible. Some years ago in Japan, Dr.</span><br><span>Kenneth Jernigan, who was totally blind, and Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan were</span><br><span>walking along the sidewalk. A bicyclist almost struck Dr. Jernigan. In the</span><br><span>brief heated discussion that followed the near-accident, the bicyclist said</span><br><span>that a portion of the sidewalk had been set aside with tactilely raised</span><br><span>identifying marks for the blind. This is where the blind should be, the</span><br><span>cyclist said. Implied in the statement is the further thought that blind</span><br><span>people should not be permitted outside the specialized areas designated for</span><br><span>the blind.</span><br><span> Some people have advocated for a special college for the blind. The</span><br><span>argument is that the needs of blind students are sufficiently different</span><br><span>from those of other students that a college designed to serve the blind</span><br><span>would be a significant advantage. Books could be provided in Braille or in</span><br><span>recorded form. Blind people could have assurance that the lectures, the</span><br><span>handouts, and the laboratories would be designed to ensure accessibility in</span><br><span>nonvisual ways. However, we in the National Federation of the Blind have</span><br><span>never endorsed such a concept; we have actively opposed it. No matter how</span><br><span>useful it would be to have Braille books and tactilely labeled laboratory</span><br><span>equipment, a college for the blind would segregate and isolate the blind</span><br><span>from society rather than integrate us into it. We want to be a part of the</span><br><span>society in which we live. We want to attend the colleges and universities</span><br><span>of our own choice. We want our intellectual capacity to be recognized for</span><br><span>the value that it has. We want all colleges to understand the necessity of</span><br><span>making their educational curricula accessible to us and useable by us. We</span><br><span>will fight for our right to be included in all aspects of community life.</span><br><span>We oppose segregation for the blind, we oppose all schemes that would</span><br><span>isolate us from the communities in which we live, and we promote full</span><br><span>integration of the blind into society on the basis of equality. We demand</span><br><span>equality of opportunity for all blind people, and we will settle for</span><br><span>nothing less.</span><br><span> Sometimes people ask me how I approach blindness. It is as much a</span><br><span>part of me as dozens or hundreds of other characteristics. I don't forget</span><br><span>it, but I don't concentrate on it either, most of the time. Other people</span><br><span>often magnify this one characteristic out of all proportion to what seems</span><br><span>reasonable to me.</span><br><span> In the early 1980s I was conducting a law practice in Baltimore,</span><br><span>Maryland. Each business day I traveled to my office, very often by bus, and</span><br><span>each evening I returned home, using the same method of transportation. One</span><br><span>summer evening I was standing at a bus stop in downtown Baltimore. I was</span><br><span>dressed in a suit, which is my customary work attire. I had a briefcase</span><br><span>with me, which is almost always a companion of my travels. I was also</span><br><span>carrying a can of coffee. I had run out of coffee at home, and I needed</span><br><span>this can, which, fortunately, I had on hand at the office. The evening was</span><br><span>warm, and the bus was late. Because I had remained in my office to complete</span><br><span>some work, the rush hour had already passed, and I was feeling weary. The</span><br><span>breeze came off the hot asphalt and did little to dissipate the warmth. I</span><br><span>was the only one at the bus stop, which suited me because I could review</span><br><span>the events of the day without having to worry about fellow bus passengers</span><br><span>or other distractions. A person came up to me and peered at me from one</span><br><span>side. Then the person walked around to my other side and peered again. I</span><br><span>was standing next to the pole that had the bus stop sign on it. My</span><br><span>briefcase was sitting on the ground next to my left leg, I was leaning on</span><br><span>my cane, and I had the can of coffee in my hand. After I had been examined</span><br><span>from both sides, a man's voice said to me, "Where's the slot?"</span><br><span> "What?" I asked.</span><br><span> To which my companion responded, "Where do you put the money?"</span><br><span> Although I was startled by these questions, I realized suddenly that</span><br><span>he wanted to put some change into the canister I was holding. He thought I</span><br><span>was begging. What else would a respectably dressed blind man with a</span><br><span>briefcase and a coffee can be doing?</span><br><span> "This is my coffee," I said, and my companion left.</span><br><span> Sometimes we let others make us believe that blindness matters more</span><br><span>to us than reality would suggest. Sometimes we let fear of the unknown</span><br><span>control us, and we attribute the fear to blindness.</span><br><span> One of the presentations that I have made as president of the</span><br><span>National Federation of the Blind deals with the topic of getting lost. I</span><br><span>have been lost many times, and I expect to be lost many more. In my younger</span><br><span>days I thought that being lost was bad. However, I have learned that</span><br><span>accepting the uncertainty of being lost means that I can find new places,</span><br><span>meet new people, have new experiences, and expand my horizons. I also tell</span><br><span>other people it is perfectly all right to be lost. How different is this</span><br><span>attitude from the one that I found on the Internet recently. Here is what</span><br><span>one blind person said:</span><br><span></span><br><span> If I don't know a state, I won't take buses anywhere. Why on</span><br><span> earth would I wish to get lost? I wouldn't even know how to tell the</span><br><span> transportation where I wanted to go. I would ask others if they are</span><br><span> going the same way I wish to go. If not, there isn't any reason to go</span><br><span> there then. I would just stay home where I know I could get help if</span><br><span> needed and not feel afraid of getting lost.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Many of us may have faced this kind of fear as part of learning who</span><br><span>we are, and many of us may face it again. Nevertheless, with the support of</span><br><span>one another we know that we can solve the problems that come to us, large</span><br><span>or small, dramatic or mundane. Though I sometimes find myself in unfamiliar</span><br><span>surroundings, I never find myself without capacity, and I never encounter a</span><br><span>day in which my colleagues in the Federation are not willing to help me if</span><br><span>I need it. I realize that I have the ability to learn what I need to know</span><br><span>to get from the place where I am to the place where I need to be.</span><br><span>Furthermore, I will always want to know what we can do to build a brighter,</span><br><span>more productive future. I will always want to know what is around the next</span><br><span>bend in the road or over the summit of the next hill. I will always want to</span><br><span>know what I can do to bring joy to my friends. I will always want to know</span><br><span>how I can show them that there is excitement in being lost.</span><br><span> Optimism is an element in the acquisition of power, and the power</span><br><span>once derived fosters optimism. The power of optimism stimulates the</span><br><span>optimism of power. Optimism is one element of our faith. It is inherent in</span><br><span>all that we say and all that we do. Because it has come to be such an</span><br><span>integrated part of our thought process, we sometimes fail to recognize the</span><br><span>urgency of optimism.</span><br><span> For all time blind people have been regarded as dependent,</span><br><span>incompetent, and subnormal-some would even describe us as subhuman.</span><br><span>However, we know better than to accept such a description of us, for it is</span><br><span>false. We have decided to correct the error of the authors who tell us that</span><br><span>we are base and unhuman, of those rehabilitation officials who write off 70</span><br><span>percent of us as fundamentally incompetent, of the newspaper reporters who</span><br><span>tell us that our lives are empty and meaningless, and of the amusement park</span><br><span>operators who believe that we can't even ride a roller coaster. We have</span><br><span>made this decision because we know the strength which is within us, we</span><br><span>share the spirit that is part of us, and we feel the determination to</span><br><span>create the factors that will shape the future.</span><br><span> Who can tell us what our lives will become? Nobody can do this except</span><br><span>us. There are those who would like to dismiss us, but we will be heard.</span><br><span>There are those who would like to instruct us, but from our experience we</span><br><span>have gained more information than they can hope to accumulate. There are</span><br><span>those who would like to control us, but if they try, they will do so at</span><br><span>their peril. Partners we seek from every aspect of public and private life,</span><br><span>but those who would seek to dictate to us what our lives should be will be</span><br><span>tolerated not at all.</span><br><span> As we face the struggles of the time to come, we know with absolute</span><br><span>certainty that we will take whatever action is necessary to confront those</span><br><span>who would stop our progress or belittle our ambitions. We will make</span><br><span>whatever sacrifice is necessary; we will pay whatever price is required. We</span><br><span>will demand the equality that must and will be ours, and we will never</span><br><span>cease our efforts until we have it. We have the will, we have the strength,</span><br><span>we have the optimism. The future belongs to us; we will make it our own!</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>Leave a Legacy</span><br><span> For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind</span><br><span>has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people</span><br><span>into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades</span><br><span>to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring</span><br><span>movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial</span><br><span>beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in</span><br><span>your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a</span><br><span>way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that</span><br><span>leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and</span><br><span>adults.</span><br><span></span><br><span>With your help, the NFB will continue to:</span><br><span> . Give blind children the gift of literacy through Braille;</span><br><span> . Promote the independent travel of the blind by providing free, long</span><br><span> white canes to blind people in need;</span><br><span> . Develop dynamic educational projects and programs that show blind</span><br><span> youth that science and math are within their reach;</span><br><span> . Deliver hundreds of accessible newspapers and magazines to provide</span><br><span> blind people the essential information necessary to be actively</span><br><span> involved in their communities;</span><br><span> . Offer aids and appliances that help seniors losing vision maintain</span><br><span> their independence; and</span><br><span> . Fund scholarship programs so that blind people can achieve their</span><br><span> dreams.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Plan to Leave a Legacy</span><br><span> Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your</span><br><span>possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are</span><br><span>distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear</span><br><span>creating a will or believe it's not necessary until they are much older.</span><br><span>Others think that it's expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the</span><br><span>most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is</span><br><span>easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise</span><br><span>your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial</span><br><span>beneficiary. Visit <<a href="http://www.nfb.org/planned-giving">www.nfb.org/planned-giving</a>> or call (410) 659-9314,</span><br><span>extension 2422 for more information. Together with love, hope,</span><br><span>determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into</span><br><span>reality.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Dots from Space!</span><br><span> Voices from the Past</span><br><span> by Amy Mason and Anna Kresmer</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: This is episode four from our monthly serial "Dots</span><br><span>from Space!" If you missed any of the earlier episodes, refer to the</span><br><span>January, February, and March issues.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Drawn ever onward by the mysteries left behind by the previous</span><br><span>inhabitants, the team rolls through the maze-like corridors, paneled in</span><br><span>smooth wood, to the far side of the empty building. At long last they reach</span><br><span>the end of another seemingly endless hallway and discover that they are</span><br><span>standing on the remains of a large deck. Watery sunlight shines down on the</span><br><span>explorers as they spread out to examine the debris strewn across the deck,</span><br><span>while the soft breeze brings the sounds of water in the bay to them.</span><br><span> "There's nothing here but dirt and rocks, ma'am," Lieutenant Commander</span><br><span>Jot calls out, as she forms a trowel and eagerly begins to shove some of</span><br><span>the detritus away.</span><br><span> "Wait! There's something over here! You'd better come take a look at</span><br><span>this everyone." The triumphant urgency in Counselor Mote's voice leaves the</span><br><span>entire team with little choice but to clamor to see what she has found.</span><br><span> "Report, Counselor," Captain Dottie commands.</span><br><span> The counselor rolls a few feet to the side to reveal the twisted metal</span><br><span>remains of a large charcoal grill lying on its side on the ground. Putting</span><br><span>her trowel to good use, the lieutenant commander begins to sweep away the</span><br><span>dirt to reveal grilling tongs, now long rusted, and a heavy-duty grilling</span><br><span>glove riddled with holes.</span><br><span> Eager to show off, the counselor quickly explained. "It appears to be</span><br><span>the remains of a rudimentary cooking method, Captain. Unlike our species,</span><br><span>which can simply absorb nutrition from the materials we come into contact</span><br><span>with, I surmise that the inhabitants of this world burned their food with</span><br><span>fire and then ingested it."</span><br><span> "A most inefficient system indeed," mused Doctor Spot.</span><br><span> Young Bean, curious as always, reaches into the pile of rusty metal</span><br><span>utensils and pulls out the crumbling remnants of a pair of sleepshades.</span><br><span>"What do you suppose this was used for? And why would they need it for food</span><br><span>preparation?" he asks.</span><br><span> The crew all ponder this question for a moment, but it is Counselor</span><br><span>Mote, rolling her rotund body in a small circle on the ground in her haste</span><br><span>to be first, who beats them to the punch. She pulls the sleepshades from</span><br><span>the ensign's appendage and plasters the mask to the surface of her body,</span><br><span>the impression of a nose and mouth appearing below it. "Isn't it obvious?</span><br><span>This is a ceremonial mask used to ask their deities to bless their food!"</span><br><span> "Interesting theory Counselor, however, I think there is a simpler</span><br><span>explanation. Their mission was to teach others that there were alternatives</span><br><span>to using sight to complete everyday tasks. I believe that this device was</span><br><span>meant to discourage the use of sight during educational activities."</span><br><span> "Sight, Doctor?" asks Lieutenant-Commander Jot.</span><br><span> "From the evidence that we have gathered on this planet so far, we</span><br><span>have discovered that most of the inhabitants used the perception of light</span><br><span>to interact with their environment. However, not everyone used this method.</span><br><span>Those that did, used what was called 'sight.' While those who did not or</span><br><span>could not rely on this sense used alternative techniques and called</span><br><span>themselves 'blind.'"</span><br><span> "And what are you basing this theory upon, Doctor?" Captain Dottie</span><br><span>inquires.</span><br><span> "Simple, Captain. I read it in this article I found in the hallway."</span><br><span>[Note: Link to "The Hierarchy of Sight", by Eric Guillory, Future</span><br><span>Reflections, Volume 33, Number 2,</span><br><span><a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr33/2/fr330211.htm">https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr33/2/fr330211.htm</a>]</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span>[PHOTO/CAPTION: Iowa Congressman David Young]</span><br><span> David Young is a Champion for Blind Iowans</span><br><span> by James H. Omvig</span><br><span></span><br><span> From the Editor: James Omvig is a man with a long history of work on</span><br><span>behalf of blind people and whose mantra has long been "Let's go build the</span><br><span>Federation." This he has done in every part of the country in which he has</span><br><span>lived and in every part he has visited on behalf of the organized blind of</span><br><span>America. Jim has spent more than eight decades on this earth and has more</span><br><span>than his share of health issues, but he still manages to put the work of</span><br><span>the National Federation of the Blind as one of his highest priorities.</span><br><span> Jim did not attend the 2017 Washington Seminar, but he felt an</span><br><span>obligation to carry forward the issues highlighted there. Here is an</span><br><span>article which appeared in the Des Moines Register on March 2, 2017. Hats</span><br><span>off to you, Jim, and thank you for writing:</span><br><span></span><br><span> National Federation of the Blind of Iowa, Letter to the Editor</span><br><span></span><br><span> Through the National Federation of the Blind, the world's oldest and</span><br><span>largest educational and civil rights organization of blind people, the</span><br><span>blind of America are working continuously to achieve security, equality,</span><br><span>and opportunity for the blind. As we advance, many challenges still lay</span><br><span>ahead. One of the most significant is the barrier the blind face with</span><br><span>accessible technology. In the ever-changing market of computers, tablets,</span><br><span>and phones, keeping devices accessible is always a work in progress for the</span><br><span>NFB.</span><br><span> One recent issue the blind have encountered is the high cost of</span><br><span>custom-made, accessible technology such as Braille displays, screen-reading</span><br><span>software, and other technology that is specifically designed for the use of</span><br><span>the blind. These necessary devices can be extremely costly, making it</span><br><span>difficult for the average blind person to afford them. Leaders of the</span><br><span>Federation have therefore developed the Access Technology Affordability</span><br><span>Act, which will be introduced into the Congress soon. It would offer a</span><br><span>refundable tax credit for blind purchasers of specialized technology to</span><br><span>help defray cost and therefore help blind people have equal access to</span><br><span>information.</span><br><span> At the Federation's recent Washington Seminar, hundreds of blind</span><br><span>people from across America traveled to Washington, DC, to educate US</span><br><span>congressmen and senators about this urgent need. After he learned of the</span><br><span>problem of the exorbitant costs associated with this technology, Rep. David</span><br><span>Young agreed to be our champion sponsor of the Access Technology</span><br><span>Affordability Act. Congressman Young has repeatedly advocated for the blind</span><br><span>and our causes and has sponsored legislation on our behalf several times</span><br><span>now.</span><br><span> We wish to offer a public thank you to Young for his understanding,</span><br><span>his help, and his support.</span><br><span></span><br><span>- James H. Omvig, National Federation of the Blind of Iowa</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Independence Market Corner</span><br><span></span><br><span> The NFB Independence Market is the conduit through which our</span><br><span>organization distributes our literature about blindness and how to adapt to</span><br><span>living successfully with severe vision loss. Our members and friends use</span><br><span>our literature to share our can-do approach to blindness to encourage other</span><br><span>blind people and to educate the general public about the abilities of the</span><br><span>blind.</span><br><span> Through the Independence Market the NFB also makes available some</span><br><span>products, which enhance the independence of blind and vision impaired</span><br><span>individuals. Perhaps the product which has the greatest impact on the</span><br><span>independence of blind people is the long white cane. Once someone has</span><br><span>learned to use the long white cane effectively, that blind person can</span><br><span>travel safely and comfortably both in familiar and unfamiliar places. The</span><br><span>freedom gained from such independent mobility has a tremendous effect on</span><br><span>the self-confidence of blind people. It is, therefore, not surprising that</span><br><span>the white cane has become a symbol of our independence and self-reliance.</span><br><span> Over the years the NFB promoted longer and lighter weight canes, as</span><br><span>our members found the longer, lighter canes easier to use. The additional</span><br><span>length provides users more advanced warning of obstacles in the</span><br><span>environment, giving them the confidence and competence to walk at a faster</span><br><span>pace. Knowing that one's longer cane will detect the top of a flight of</span><br><span>steps with enough reaction time to approach the first step with ease</span><br><span>contributes to a blind traveler's sense of safety and security. The NFB</span><br><span>recommends that a cane is long enough that it reaches between the chin and</span><br><span>the nose of the user. Some people who walk very fast prefer even longer</span><br><span>canes. The NFB also pioneered the use of canes for young blind children,</span><br><span>even toddlers. If young blind children already have canes in their hands</span><br><span>when they start walking, then the cane becomes a natural tool to explore</span><br><span>their environment. And once such early cane adopters reach the self-</span><br><span>conscious teen years, they have already internalized the knowledge that</span><br><span>using the long white cane enables them to move around safely and</span><br><span>independently.</span><br><span> The NFB Independence Market sells several types of long white canes</span><br><span>ranging from rigid ones to telescoping and folding ones for all ages and</span><br><span>sizes from toddlers to tall adults. All our light-weight canes are hollow</span><br><span>and made either from fiberglass or a carbon fiber composite.</span><br><span> The Care and Feeding of the Long White Cane, written by longtime</span><br><span>member Tom Bickford, is a good introductory guide for those unfamiliar with</span><br><span>using a long white cane as a mobility aid. This book gives good tips for</span><br><span>using a long white cane in various everyday situations. The text is</span><br><span>available on our website at</span><br><span><a href="https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/CFCANE/canetc.htm">https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/CFCANE/canetc.htm</a>. The book</span><br><span>can also be obtained in Braille or print from the Independence Market free</span><br><span>of charge. Audio copies may be borrowed by NLS patrons from their local</span><br><span>library for the blind.</span><br><span> For more information about the products and literature available from</span><br><span>the Independence Market or to request a catalog in Braille or in print</span><br><span>visit us online at <a href="https://nfb.org/independence-market">https://nfb.org/independence-market</a>. You may also</span><br><span>contact us using email at <a href="mailto:independencemarket@nfb.org">independencemarket@nfb.org</a> or by phone at (410)</span><br><span>659-9314, extension 2216, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM</span><br><span>Eastern Time. Our staff will be glad to assist.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Recipes</span><br><span></span><br><span> Recipes this month were provided by the National Federation of the</span><br><span>Blind of Florida.</span><br><span></span><br><span> Corn Casserole</span><br><span> by Sylvia Young</span><br><span></span><br><span> Sylvia Young has been a sighted member of the NFB for about six</span><br><span>years. She now serves as the Tallahassee Chapter and state affiliate</span><br><span>secretary. She and her husband James have been married for seventeen years</span><br><span>and have nine children and thirteen grandchildren in their blended family.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 can whole kernel corn</span><br><span>1 can cream style corn</span><br><span>1/2 cup sour cream</span><br><span>2 eggs</span><br><span>1 cup grated cheddar cheese</span><br><span>1 box Jiffy cornbread mix</span><br><span>1 stick of margarine (melted)</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased pan or</span><br><span>dish. Bake for forty-five minutes to one hour at 325 degrees. Let stand for</span><br><span>ten minutes before serving. You may slice it or scoop it out.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Traditional Lasagna</span><br><span> by Scott Wilson</span><br><span></span><br><span> Scott Wilson is a passionate cook, parent of two children, and a</span><br><span>successful business owner for more than ten years. In his copious free time</span><br><span>Scott enjoys learning new things, like languages. He currently speaks</span><br><span>Irish, with more languages to follow.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 pound ground beef</span><br><span>3/4 pounds bulk pork sausage</span><br><span>3 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce</span><br><span>2 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste</span><br><span>2 garlic cloves, minced</span><br><span>2 teaspoons sugar</span><br><span>1 teaspoon Italian seasoning</span><br><span>1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt</span><br><span>1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper</span><br><span>3 large eggs</span><br><span>3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley</span><br><span>3 cups (24 ounces) 4 percent small curd cottage cheese</span><br><span>1 carton (8 ounces) ricotta cheese</span><br><span>1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese </span><br><span>9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained</span><br><span>6 slices provolone cheese (about 6 ounces)</span><br><span>3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: In a large skillet over medium heat, cook and crumble beef</span><br><span>and sausage until no longer pink; drain. Add next seven ingredients. Bring</span><br><span>to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, one hour, stirring occasionally.</span><br><span>Adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Meanwhile, in</span><br><span>a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add parsley; stir in cottage cheese,</span><br><span>ricotta and parmesan cheese. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread one</span><br><span>cup meat sauce in an ungreased thirteen-by-nine-inch baking dish. Layer</span><br><span>with three noodles, provolone cheese, two cups cottage cheese mixture, one</span><br><span>cup mozzarella, three noodles, two cups meat sauce, remaining cottage</span><br><span>cheese mixture and one cup mozzarella. Top with remaining noodles, meat</span><br><span>sauce and mozzarella (dish will be full). Cover; bake fifty minutes.</span><br><span>Uncover; bake until heated through, twenty minutes. Let stand fifteen</span><br><span>minutes before cutting. Yields twelve servings.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Yellow Squash Casserole</span><br><span> by Alicia Kilby</span><br><span></span><br><span> Alicia Kilby is a homemaker. As a single, disabled mother of two</span><br><span>young children, she tries to be creative and likes to explore new recipes,</span><br><span>keeping in mind children's tastes are sometimes narrow and limited. She's a</span><br><span>responsible, independent, part-time student working on a degree in social</span><br><span>work. She is also a volunteer and mentor at a local elementary school,</span><br><span>living every day for a better tomorrow because she can live the life that</span><br><span>she wants.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>8 medium yellow squash</span><br><span>16 saltine crackers</span><br><span>2 cups mozzarella cheese (or whatever you prefer)</span><br><span>½ cup milk</span><br><span>2 eggs</span><br><span>1 stick butter</span><br><span>Salt and pepper to taste</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Slice squash and boil until tender. Drain, crush crackers</span><br><span>until fine, and beat eggs. Put all ingredients into two-and-a-half-quart</span><br><span>casserole dish and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serves</span><br><span>eight.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Smothered Rabbit</span><br><span> by Tinetta Cooper</span><br><span></span><br><span> Tinetta is a legally blind, diabetic mother who has been an NFBF</span><br><span>member for ten years. She loves to cook and bake. She says, "The recipe</span><br><span>I've submitted is unique and simple to prepare, and the results are</span><br><span>delicious!"</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 rabbit, cut into small pieces</span><br><span>Salt to taste</span><br><span>Paprika to taste</span><br><span>Flour</span><br><span>3 tablespoons butter</span><br><span>1 to 2 onions sliced</span><br><span>1 cup sour cream</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Season the rabbit with salt and paprika. Coat pieces with</span><br><span>flour. Melt butter in a crockpot, add rabbit, and cover meat thickly with</span><br><span>onion slices. Sprinkle onions with salt. Pour in the sour cream. Cover and</span><br><span>simmer one hour or bake at 325 until tender.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> A Cup, A Cup, A Cup of Peach Cobbler</span><br><span> by Sylvia Young</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 cup of canned peaches</span><br><span>1 cup of flour (self-rising)</span><br><span>1 cup of milk</span><br><span>1 cup of sugar</span><br><span>1 stick of butter</span><br><span>1 lemon</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat oven 350 degrees. Place peaches in bowl, add 1/8 cup</span><br><span>of sugar and squeezed lemon, stir and set aside. Melt butter in backing</span><br><span>dish. Mix flour and the rest of the sugar and milk together. Pour into the</span><br><span>pan with the melted butter. Add fruit on top (with some of the juice). Bake</span><br><span>one hour. Serve with or without ice cream on top.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Floating Peach Cobbler</span><br><span> by Alicia Kilby</span><br><span></span><br><span> There's always room for variations in life, especially when it comes</span><br><span>to delicious desserts.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>1 cup self-rising flour</span><br><span>1 cup sugar</span><br><span>2/3 cup milk</span><br><span>1 29-ounce can sliced peaches in heavy syrup</span><br><span>1 stick margarine (not butter)</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat oven 350 degrees. Melt butter then pour into a ten-by-</span><br><span>ten-inch baking dish. Stir together flour, sugar, and milk until smooth.</span><br><span>Pour into center of dish on the margarine (do not stir). Spoon the peach</span><br><span>slices all over the batter gently (so you don't stir). Then add the syrup</span><br><span>from can. Bake forty-five minutes until golden brown. Serve at room</span><br><span>temperature.</span><br><span> ----------</span><br><span> Florida Cracker Orange Pie</span><br><span> by John Bailey</span><br><span></span><br><span> John is a sighted board member of the NFB of Florida Statewide</span><br><span>Chapter and has been an NFB member for about five years. He got interested</span><br><span>in the NFB because of his girlfriend Tinetta Cooper. He truly believes in</span><br><span>the NFB and its philosophy.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Ingredients:</span><br><span>6 large egg yolks</span><br><span>1 cup sugar</span><br><span>4 tablespoons flour</span><br><span>2 tablespoons sweet butter, melted</span><br><span>2 tablespoons grated orange zest</span><br><span>2 cups fresh orange juice</span><br><span>1 nine-inch deep dish flaky pie crust</span><br><span></span><br><span> Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put egg yolks in mixer bowl and</span><br><span>beat until smooth. Beat in sugar, flour, butter, orange zest, and orange</span><br><span>juice one ingredient at a time. Pour orange mixture into pie shell. Bake</span><br><span>thirty minutes until set. Let cool completely. Top with whipped cream.</span><br><span>Chill before serving.</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>STEM Tutorials for Blind Students to be Offered at the 2017 NFB National</span><br><span>Convention:</span><br><span> Are you a blind student interested in studying science, technology,</span><br><span>engineering, or math? Do you feel daunted by the prospect of doing lab work</span><br><span>in a chemistry class or producing visually readable results in a math</span><br><span>class? Perhaps you're a professional in a technical field who finds it</span><br><span>challenging to produce graphs and charts for sighted colleagues? If so,</span><br><span>then come to the convention of the National Federation of the Blind and</span><br><span>plan to arrive in time for Seminar Day on Monday, July 10. The NFB in</span><br><span>Computer Science, the NFB Science & Engineering Division, and the NFB</span><br><span>National Association of Blind Students Division will host the STEM tutorial</span><br><span>workshop. STEM educators and technologists will come from around the world</span><br><span>to help blind students and professionals learn to use a variety of tools to</span><br><span>assist them in excelling in their chosen technical field. Best of all,</span><br><span>individual tutoring sessions will be offered throughout the week for those</span><br><span>folks who want one-on-one training from experts who are familiar with the</span><br><span>access technology they're teaching, as well as the technical field it's</span><br><span>being used for. The topics to be discussed and for which tutoring will be</span><br><span>available include: access math in electronic materials directly or to</span><br><span>convert it to Braille; write math in formats directly accessible to sighted</span><br><span>people; read STEM graphs, charts, and diagrams, and create simple graphics;</span><br><span>and participate in chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering labs.</span><br><span> There is no charge to attend either the seminar on Monday or the</span><br><span>tutoring sessions throughout the week. The seminar on Monday will give an</span><br><span>overview of the technologies to be taught, as well as an introduction to</span><br><span>the tutors themselves. It is strongly recommended that folks who are</span><br><span>interested in being a part of this invaluable opportunity plan to arrive at</span><br><span>the convention in time to begin participating in events on the morning of</span><br><span>July 10.</span><br><span> For more information, contact: John Gardner, STEM tutorial</span><br><span>coordinator, at <a href="mailto:john.gardner@oregonstate.edu">john.gardner@oregonstate.edu</a>.</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>State Resource Handbooks Available for Purchase :</span><br><span> I have created twenty-three 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</span><br><span>specific states and includes the many organizations for the blind and</span><br><span>visually impaired covering areas such as employment, housing,</span><br><span>transportation, and more. Currently the handbooks are for Alabama, Alaska,</span><br><span>Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida,</span><br><span>Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Texas,</span><br><span>Oregon, Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, and South Dakota.</span><br><span> The handbooks include contact information on the local, regional, and</span><br><span>national level. For more information on pricing, order form, and formats</span><br><span>please contact Insightful Publications by email at <a href="mailto:insightfulpub@gmail.com">insightfulpub@gmail.com</a>,</span><br><span>by phone at (808) 747-1006, or by visiting</span><br><span><a href="http://www.insightful.com/orderpage.html">http://www.insightful.com/orderpage.html</a>.</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></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Brl-monitor mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:Brl-monitor@nfbcal.org">Brl-monitor@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>