[Ohio-talk] Fw: NFB-NEWSLINE® Monthly Sponsor Newsletter - November 2009
Dr. Smith
jwsmithnfb at verizon.net
Mon Nov 30 22:25:29 UTC 2009
fyi
jw
Dr. J. Webster Smith
President National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
P.O.BOX 458 Athens, Ohio, 45701-0458
Phone Number - 740-592-6326
"Changing What it Means to be Blind"
----- Original Message -----
From: NFB-NEWSLINE®
To: jwsmithnfb at verizon.net
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 4:51 PM
Subject: NFB-NEWSLINE® Monthly Sponsor Newsletter - November 2009
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NFB-NEWSLINE® Newsletter
The Newsletter for Sponsors November 2009
In This Issue
Your Monthly Helpful Hint
Main Menu
Channel Chat
Statistics
Subscriber's Corner
Your Monthly
Helpful Hint
As you may know, we offer promotional tapes and CDs that market NFB-NEWSLINE® with an upbeat message, a description of the benefits to subscribers, and a brief demonstration of the service. The informational audio materials are geared directly toward blind and physically handicapped potential subscribers. The conclusion of the promotional tape or CD is adaptable to state-specific information such as the sponsor's or state affiliate's telephone number or short messages from the sponsor. If you'd like to modify these tapes or CDs, known as the Information audio material, please let us know by contacting Renee West at rwest at nfb.org.
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NFB-NEWSLINE® is a service of the National Federation of the Blind
:: 410-659-9314
Dear J.W.,
Welcome, Sponsors, to the November 2009 issue of NFB-NEWSLINE® Happenings! We hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving, and that you are enjoying this beautiful autumn season.
Take care, and should you have any questions about this newsletter, please e-mail me at rwest at nfb.org.
Main Menu
Sometime during December we will be moving a majority of NFB-NEWSLINE® computer hardware to an offsite location to offer more redundancy of Internet connections and power supply. This is a necessary step in rolling out our Voice Over Internet Protocol-based phone lines, which has the potential to offer an increased number of local telephone numbers. We'll keep you posted as things develop!
We are now able to conduct Webinars (seminars held online) about our service that you might find useful for yourself, your staff, or your volunteers. There will be two Webinars; one will cover NFB-NEWSLINE® basics and the other focuses on NFB-NEWSLINE® Online. Supplemented with our handbook and other materials, these Webinars can serve as a part of an effort to ensure your staff is knowledgeable about the service and its benefits. Please e-mail Renee West, Marketing and Outreach Manager, at rwest at nfb.org if you'd like to schedule a Webinar-based training session.
Two new publications have been added to our roster since the last newsletter, they are Hattiesburg American, out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Popular Science. Popular Science is a monthly magazine of science and technology. Each issue covers the latest developments in cars, electronics, communications, tools, energy, aviation, science, and space exploration. We will also be adding an additional three magazines over the next two months; stay tuned to see what we'll offer!
Don't forget that you can always be the first to get the scoop on new publications and other service enhancements by following us on Twitter! Our account may be found at http://twitter.com/NFB_NEWSLINE.
Channel Chat
As this is holiday season, it might be helpful to post on your state's Information Channel holiday schedules for your agency and other important entities that serve the print-disabled community in your state. Your channel is a great venue to notify those you serve if meetings are to be held on a different day and time than is usual, or you have reduced hours or closures.
Examples of agencies to contact:
* NLS regional and sub-regional libraries
* State agency providing services for the blind
* Technology Assistance Program
* Client Assistance Program
* Centers for Independent Living (contact your
state's Independent Living Council chair)
Statistically Speaking
Feast your eyes (or ears, or fingers, depending) on these nummy numbers! In October we received a total of 154,040 calls, that's 2,677 more than were received in September. Salad, oops, Solid! We also harvested plenty of new subscribers; a total of 1,299 new folks were signed up for NFB-NEWSLINE®. Also, congrats to regulars Delaware, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, who all had local phone-line usage of above 90%!
Top Ten Minutes Used:
I've got to dish about these statistics! NFB-NEWSLINE® subscribers savored a total of 2,979,980 minutes of service in October. Massachusetts' subscribers have been pudding, er, putting our servers to use with an increase of 14,164 more minutes than were used in September; Pennsylvania and California's subscribers also enjoyed a bounty of minutes with increases of 6,561 and 2,397 more minutes than in the previous month, respectively.
1. California 287,574
2. Massachusetts 193,038
3. New York 190,793
4. Florida 180,139
5. Illinois 152,162
6. Ohio 149,179
7. Texas 120,811
8. Maryland 120,647
9. Pennsylvania 117,840
10. Michigan 100,420
Top Ten New Subscribers:
Well, we've done it! As of the end of October we gathered a cornucopia of new folks and now can boast a total of 72,555 subscribers. I am so thankful for your efforts in this regard. Some "main course" states this month are Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Illinois, who have all exceeded September's new subscriber statistic with an increase of 18, 8, and 6 new subscribers, respectively.
1. Florida with 843
2. Pennsylvania with 53
3. Texas with 32
4. Illinois with 28
5. California with 25
6. North Carolina and Wisconsin with 24 each
7. Massachusetts with 18
8. Ohio and Oregon with 17 each
9. New Jersey and Arizona with 15 each
10. New York with 13
Online Superstars:
Chow down on the delish data below! Texas is hot with an increase of 2,181 more e-mails than were delivered in September, and Florida shouldn't be leftover in receiving notice, because they also increased their e-mails delivered by 618.
1. Texas 15,477
2. New York 10,406
3. Florida 9,604
4. Pennsylvania 8,973
5. Colorado 7,373
6. California 7,363
7. Massachusetts 7,225
8. Maryland 6,473
9. North Carolina 5,961
10. Virginia 5,457
Top Ten Registered Subscribers:
Here's the premi-yum pack!
1. Florida with 14,238
2. California with 6,705
3. Maryland with 3,024
4. Texas with 2,930
5. Michigan with 2,668
6. North Carolina with 2,631
7. Wisconsin with 2,413
8. New York with 2,378
9. Ohio with 2,293
10. Massachusetts with 1,951
Subscriber's Corner
For this Subscriber's Corner I am providing you with an excerpt of an article that appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Future Reflections, the magazine of the National Organization of Blind Parents. Mr. Osentowski now lives and works in Colorado and is still an active user of the service. He says about NFB-NEWSLINE® Online: "I have been using NFB-NEWSLINE® In Your Pocket...and it has transformed the way I read the newspaper. It makes my hour-long morning commute to work pass much more quickly, and it is far less costly and more convenient than holding a cellular phone to my ear during the trip." This article is provided to you to emphasize the importance of promoting NFB-NEWSLINE® to blind and otherwise print-disabled youth. NFB-NEWSLINE® offers these young individuals a tool that, as with other tools provided by your agency or organization, can be used to build a life of success, much as Ryan has done. If you'd like to discuss ways in which your agency can promote NFB-NEWSLINE® to youth in your state, please contact Renee West at rwest at nfb.org. Note: The Kearney Hub is now available on NFB-NEWSLINE® along with over 300 additional newspapers and magazines.
***
EQUAL ACCESS TO A BLACK AND WHITE WORLD
by Ryan Osentowski
"Dad, what does `arson' mean?" I asked as I sat next to him on the couch, interrupting him midway through an article he was reading aloud to me from the Kearney Daily Hub.
"It's when people set fires on purpose," he answered.
"Like in a fireplace?" I asked.
"No, like in a building," he patiently answered. "Sometimes people burn buildings because--" but I had already lost interest in what my dad was saying. Mention of the fireplace had caused me to reach up and feel the newspaper he was holding in front of his face. Until then I had assumed that newspaper was just something you stuffed into a fireplace to help the fire burn brighter. But here was my father reading to me from one.
"Dad, why are you reading that?" I asked.
"I like to know what's going on around town," he answered, putting down the paper. Evidently he had decided that he would never make it to the sports page with a curious four-year-old pestering him with questions. I immediately grabbed another page, putting it to my nose and smelling the ink. I ran my hands over the smooth surface of the paper, listening to the rustle as it gave way between my fingers. Then, after a few seconds of this exploration, I crushed it into a ball, fired the papery projectile across the room, and laughed. My dad sighed and commented that he hadn't really wanted to read the sports page anyway.
Ten years later I began to realize how much more important a newspaper was than mere fire fuel. In my eighth-grade social studies class, our teacher, Mr. Henderson, began a weekly ritual of Friday morning current events trivia contests. He told our class that we were to read the Thursday evening paper, and he was going to test us on Friday morning to see how much we had absorbed. The person who answered the most questions correctly would win a free soft drink and candy bar from the teachers' lounge. Soft drinks and candy bars might as well have been contraband at the time, since no vending machines were available to students at our school.
This prize was enough to jar the students out of the world of comic books and television for one night in order to acquaint themselves with the real world reflected in the Kearney Daily Hub. I realized that I would have to enlist my parents' aid to help me win, so I began urging them to read the paper to me on Thursday nights. Unfortunately, raising three boys and working full time didn't always afford them the necessary time to read the complete Kearney paper aloud. I soon discovered that I could bribe my friends to read the paper to me. This worked for about two weeks until my mother found out what I was doing and informed me in no uncertain terms that lunch money was to be used for lunch and nothing else. Somehow I couldn't convince my mother that a soft drink and candy bar were as nourishing for lunch as the daily mystery meat and potatoes that faced us in the cafeteria.
I cursed motherly intuition and began searching for another option. Then I learned about our state radio reading service, but was disappointed to learn that they did not read the Kearney paper regularly. When they did read the Hub, they excerpted it. Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that I would never win a free soft drink and candy bar.
Six years after that Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and the National Federation of the Blind brought one of my fondest dreams to reality with the creation of "NEWSLINE for the Blind." During high school and early college I began paying more attention to current events. I watched the evening news and listened to AM talk radio and political commentary. Many times I heard a journalist on TV or radio quote from an article in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. I found myself frustrated that they would never read the entire article. My curiosity was aroused, but I could never find out more about the subject being discussed. Mixed with my frustration, however, was a growing fascination that the media pundits on radio and television always quoted from the newspaper. This told me that, despite the thriving world of electronic media, the printed word in newspapers still had its place.
I always felt frustrated, convinced that I was shut out from a part of the world of current events into which my sighted classmates could freely dip. I had a computer but hadn't yet logged onto the Internet. When I heard that the NFB had invented a service by which blind people could read the entire text of a newspaper by telephone, I became excited. My excitement was short-lived when I learned that it wasn't available in Nebraska, where I was attending college. I experienced that same old feeling of disappointment--no soft drink and candy bar for me. But this time it was worse. Instead of sugary treats, I was being denied equal access to a big part of the ever-changing face of our world. Newspaper articles were often discussed in political science, journalism, and philosophy classes that I took. I had better luck convincing classmates to read an occasional article to me if it grabbed my interest, but I still could not browse an entire newspaper at will.
Three years later I had the opportunity to see NFB-NEWSLINE® in action. I was attending the Federation's annual Washington Seminar, and Dr. Maurer demonstrated NFB-NEWSLINE® by speaker phone during the great gathering-in. I was impressed and excited when Dr. Maurer informed us that we could all use NFB-NEWSLINE® while we visited Washington, thanks to a test number set up by the national office in Baltimore. I stayed up much too late those few nights, browsing the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, soaking up the latest headlines. I couldn't get enough, much to the annoyance of my roommates, who were more interested in getting sleep than the news. We all left Washington full of determination. I was determined to help fight to get NFB-NEWSLINE® in Nebraska, while my two roommates were determined to find a different roommate the following year.
In June of 1999 my hopes were finally realized as the NFB of Nebraska officially launched NFB-NEWSLINE® in Lincoln with a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony. I was like a kid in a candy store, getting my Coke and Snickers bar ten years late. I was always on the phone checking out national headlines as well as the Omaha World-Herald. By that time I enjoyed Internet access, but the idea of walking around my apartment with my cordless phone in hand, browsing the Washington Post, was very liberating.
It was a big step up from the days of readers and radio reading services, but I still felt limited. I had only four papers to choose from. Yet I loved the service and felt I had come full circle when I became the Nebraska NFB-NEWSLINE® outreach coordinator in the fall of 2000. The work itself is easy and rewarding, demonstrating NFB-NEWSLINE® for blind persons who are interested and helping them to sign up for the service. I take a great deal of pride in sharing the joy of equal access with others who can benefit from NFB-NEWSLINE®.
Since I have been a part of NFB-NEWSLINE®, I have seen it grow and touch the lives of more people. With the new national service that came to us courtesy of Congress in March of 2002, the limits have become even less constricting. Whereas before I was able to read only four newspapers, I am now able to choose among some fifty-five state and national papers. The benefits of this became starkly clear last semester when my criminal justice professor took up an issue of USA Today one morning and began reading an article about the Enron scandal. I realized that I had read that very article just a few hours before. I could finally recognize an article that my professor was quoting. I made it a point to approach him after class and discuss the article in depth. Later that semester I had the opportunity to debate my philosophy professor in his office regarding an article from the New York Times on cloning. He was impressed that I was so well read and asked, "Who reads your newspapers for you? Do you have to pay someone?"
"Not at all," I said and pointed to the telephone on his desk. "I get everything from this." Needless to say, my professor was impressed.
NFB-NEWSLINE® has made a strong impact on my life, and the results are nothing but positive. Along with my daily news headlines, I can read movie and book reviews, editorials, and human interest. I can keep up with the Nebraska Cornhuskers on the sports page or find out if it's raining in Baltimore. The world of black and white denied me for so long is now at my fingertips, and it serves me well.
In reflecting upon the benefits that NFB-NEWSLINE® has offered to me, I find it difficult to understand how anyone could oppose NFB-NEWSLINE®. We, the blind of this country, have taken a great leap forward in gaining access to a world that was largely denied to us for many years. NFB-NEWSLINE® truly embodies Dr. Jernigan's vision of independence, and any blind person can be a part of it. I hope those who have not yet signed up for this revolutionary service will do so and enjoy the world of black and white that I have come to love.
We Need Your Help!
Support Braille Literacy and help provide blind children and adults with the tools they need to succeed by purchasing the Louis Braille Coin. Created in honor of the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, this beautiful coin is made of 90 percent silver and is the first US coin ever to feature readable Braille. Visit www.braille.org or call the National Federation of the Blind at (410) 659-9314, extension 2216, to learn how you can make change with a dollar!
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