[Ohio-talk] FW: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 11/07/2016

Tue Nov 8 00:42:52 UTC 2016

From: President, National Federation of the Blind [mailto:OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org] 
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2016 5:00 PM
To: President, National Federation of the Blind
Subject: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 11/07/2016

President’s Notebook

National Federation of the Blind

Mark A. Riccobono

officeofthepresident at nfb.org

(410) 659-9314

Dear Fellow Federationists,

Congratulations to a new corps of NFB state affiliate presidents who have been elected during the past couple of weeks. A special thank you to our long-standing affiliate leaders who have passed the torch of leadership forward in order to keep our affiliates vibrant and growing. I encourage our affiliate presidents to continue to network with each other, and I urge our veteran leaders to share their tremendous background knowledge with our new presidents. With that in mind, it seems fitting to remind all affiliate presidents that we will have a gathering for all affiliate presidents beginning at 6:00 p.m. on January 28 at our national office in Baltimore. Affiliate presidents should plan to stay at the Jernigan Institute and plan on meetings all day on January 29 and into the evening. The group will travel together to Washington on January 30. More details and a survey soliciting topics for the seminar will be coming soon. 

We have received a number of concerns about Uber’s new mobile app and its accessibility. We will be reaching out to our technical contacts at Uber to ask what they are doing to address these concerns. As you know, we have been pressing Uber to build their technology with accessibility and quality accessibility testing but we have not yet made all of the progress we would like. I wanted you to know we are aware of the issue and are pursuing it.

Critical Actions This Week:

NFB Voting Hotline:
We will be hosting an Election Day hotline for blind and visually impaired voters, poll workers, and voting rights advocates to call when problems with accessible voting technology or other barriers are preventing a blind voter from casting a private and independent ballot. The hotline will be available November 8, 2016, from 7:00 a.m. Eastern to 10:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 p.m. Pacific). The number is (877) 632-1940. 

News:

Presidential Release:
The November Presidential Release is available from the NFB website at https://nfb.org/presidential-releases. 

NFB-Pearson STEM Survey
Please take time to complete the NFB-Pearson STEM survey, or encourage your child or student to complete this detailed survey, by Friday, December 2. Participation in the survey is critical; the results will help us better understand barriers blind students encounter in the classroom and how to broaden access to STEM subjects for future blind students. Participants will be entered into a drawing to win one of twenty $25 Amazon gift cards. 

STEM survey for college students and adults <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFBAdultSTEM>  

STEM survey for middle and high school students <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFBTeenSTEM> 

Reminders:

NFB Scholarship Program:
We are accepting scholarship applications from November 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017. This annual program offers thirty scholarships worth from $3,000 to $12,000 to eligible students, from high school seniors beginning their freshman year in the fall semester of 2017, up through graduate students working on their PhD degrees. Go to www.nfb.org/scholarships for complete rules and requirements.

Parent Leadership Program (PLP):

Our National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) is seeking recommendations for our next Parent Leadership Program (PLP) to be held at the 2017 Washington Seminar. Please send recommendations by Nov. 18 to carol_castellano at verizon.net. Please note: PLP workshops will begin the morning of Sunday, January 29, so PLP participants need to arrive in DC on Saturday, January 28, earlier than most seminar participants.

Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Program:
The award program will be accepting nominations online from November 15, 2016, to April 15, 2017. Applicants must have demonstrated exemplary leadership and extraordinary accomplishments in improving the lives of blind people in the United States. An application for an award may be made either by the applicant directly or by third parties who nominate an applicant. Additional information can be found at https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main.

Dates to Keep in Mind:

·         Fall Conventions <https://nfb.org/state-conventions> 

·         November 8: Election Day; NFB voter hotline available at (877) 632-1940

·         January 30, 2017: Great Gathering-In 

·         January 30-February 2, 2017: Washington Seminar <https://nfb.org/washington-seminar> 

·         March 30-31, 2017: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium

·         July 21-29, 2017: Youth Slam, Towson University

·         September 12-17, 2017: BLAST, Nashville, Tennessee

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

Mark A. Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

Phone: (410) 659-9314

Fax: (410) 659-5129

Email: officeofthepresident at nfb.org

Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice

Web:  <http://www.nfb.org/> www.nfb.org