[Ohio-Talk] BECOMING THE LEADERS WE DESERVE

Tue May 19 16:12:40 UTC 2020

Norma Beathard was born on January 25, 1956, in Conroe, Texas. She was the
first of five children born to Robbie and Joseph Beathard. Norma was born
legally blind because her mother contracted rubella during her pregnancy;
however, Norma's blindness remained undetected until she began walking. At
that time her parents began to notice that she seemed to bump into things
that a sighted child should see, and they had her vision tested. A
determination was made that she was blind when she was two years old. Years
of surgery followed with no improvement.

Norma was an active child. She joined her siblings in most of the games they
played, and her blindness was not a real obstacle when she was small. But
she couldn't read the blackboard when she started school, and she
experienced a number of problems related to her vision as she grew older.

Norma always attended school in rural communities, a circumstance which she
describes as "both a blessing and a curse." Because no one in her life knew
anything about blindness skills, she wasn't able to learn Braille or cane
travel. She used large print books, which were bulky and heavy for a tiny
girl. Since her vision was extremely limited, she had to read with her nose
practically touching the pages of her books, even though the print was
enlarged. Despite the lack of training in blindness skills, Norma feels that
she received a quality education because she had caring teachers who always
found ways of making it easier for her to learn. She was fortunate to have
the same teacher from her first grade year through her third grade year, and
that teacher was determined that Norma would be included in everything the
class did. Her name was Jean Todd, and she spent countless hours offering
Norma one-on-one instruction. Other teachers with similar attitudes were a
part of Norma's life throughout her K-12 experience.

Professionals in the field of work with the blind were not as helpful. When
Norma asked for Braille training, she was told by a rehabilitation
professional that she was wasting his time, and she was made to feel guilty
because, according to him, she was depriving a "real" blind person of the
opportunity to learn by making this frivolous request. Eventually she was
able to convince him that he should provide her with training, and he
traveled to her small town and spent two hours with her. This was woefully
inadequate, but it did allow her to learn the alphabet, Braille numbers, and
some punctuation symbols. Her experience with inadequate Braille training
has made Norma a strong advocate for providing Braille education to children
with low vision.

After completing her education, Norma found herself living in a small
community with no opportunities for a blind person. She knew she had to
leave her rural home if she was to become successful. Her father was opposed
to her leaving, but her mother understood that a different environment would
provide Norma with a better chance of living the life she wanted to live. So
she took the unusual step of going against the wishes of Norma's father;
drove Norma to the bus station in Lufkin, Texas; and purchased a ticket to a
better life for her daughter. Norma traveled to Austin that day, and
although she had no idea what she would do to become successful, she was
confident that she would be able to make a life for herself.

Norma began her working life as an employee at the Travis Association for
the Blind. That employment did not last long because Norma found that she
couldn't live on the $1.05 an hour that the sheltered workshop was paying
its trainees, and her questions about how to make a higher wage went
unanswered. In fact, it became clear that she was unlikely to be paid the
federal minimum wage anytime soon, so Norma began to look for other work.
She also married during this time and began a family. Her first son was born
on March 10, 1976, and her second son was born on March 10, 1978. Once her
children were out of diapers, Norma started work at the Texas School for the
Blind. She worked as a dorm parent at the school from 1979 to 1982.

After a divorce Norma found the National Federation of the Blind and became
an active member in 1983. By 1985 she was living in Houston, and she was an
important part of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas leadership.
She didn't hold elective office in the Federation, but she worked hard to
help the affiliate president and other leaders to carry out the
organization's mission. She became president of the Houston Chapter in 1989,
and she continued in that role for eight years.

When Norma joined the Federation, she met Glenn Crosby. Glenn was serving as
president of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, and as the two
worked closely together, a personal relationship developed. They were
married on April 15, 1989. Each of them had two children, and the two
families have blended into a harmonious group. Glenn and Norma are now the
proud grandparents of seven grandchildren, ranging in age from three to
twenty.

Four years before they married, Glenn asked Norma to begin managing the
office for his food service business, and they became professional partners.
The Crosbys owned five food service locations during the late 1980s and
early 1990s, but they sold all but two of the locations and were operating
those two locations when they retired in 2013.

Though both Norma and Glenn grew up in Texas, they decided they wanted a
change in 2001, and they spent about a year in South Dakota. Then they spent
several months in Ajijic, Mexico. Ajijic is near Guadalajara, and, while
they enjoyed their time there, they needed to be closer to home for business
reasons. So in 2005 they moved to Ruston, Louisiana. Shortly after arriving
in Ruston, Norma was elected to serve as president of the North Central
Chapter of the NFB of Louisiana. She remained in that position until January
of 2009, when she and Glenn made the decision to move back to their native
Texas. They now live in Alvin, near Houston, on four acres of land and have
a few cows.

In 2012, Norma was chosen to serve as the first president of the Lone Star
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Then, at the
affiliate's 2014 convention, she was elected to serve as the state
president. While Norma believes strongly that it is not necessary to hold an
office in order to be an effective leader, she is honored to serve as both
the president of the NFB of Texas
<https://www.nfb.org/about-us/state-affiliates/texas>  and, since her
election at the 2015 National Convention, as a member of the organization's
national board of directors.

Everette Bacon
Rehabilitation Professional

Everette Bacon was born in Huntington Beach, California. At the age of five
he was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a condition which had run in his
family on his mother's side for thirteen generations, causing rapid-onset
blindness primarily in female family members. Despite the diagnosis,
Everette's family took the advice of teachers and medical experts, believing
(or, more accurately, hoping) that since Everette was male and his vision
was not deteriorating rapidly like that of other family members, he was
unlikely to go blind. As a result, Everette did not learn Braille or other
alternative techniques during his school years. Looking back, Everette says,
his mother and other family members wish that they had encouraged him to
learn Braille and other blindness skills.

When Everette was around eighteen his entire family moved to Texas. Everette
pursued a degree in church music at Dallas Baptist University. He jokes that
he was pushed toward music because "you know, blind people sing." His first
job was teaching a seventh grade choir, but he found it not to his liking.
Searching for other employment in order to earn money to help his wife
through medical school, Everette ultimately accepted a management position
with Blockbuster Video in 1997. He was very successful in this position,
winning several awards and steady promotions. By 2004, he was managing ten
stores in the Houston area.

Everette's eye condition began to worsen, and instead of giving up, he
adapted by using alternative techniques. "I started carrying a cane, mainly
for identity, but I was using it when I felt I needed it." "I was never
embarrassed or ashamed about becoming blind, because I grew up around blind
people, adapting was something you just became accustomed to doing."
However, when he asked for reasonable accommodations from his employer,
instead of granting these accommodations, Blockbuster terminated his
employment despite his outstanding record. The company even went so far as
to describe Everette's conduct as "fraudulent," implying that he had
deceived the company about his capabilities, even though he had previously
been praised and awarded for his work.

This experience traumatized Everette and his family. His wife, mother, and
other family members sent angry emails to everyone they could; urging
readers to avoid shopping at Blockbuster based on discrimination against the
blind. One of these emails found its way to Scott LaBarre, the president of
the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado and a successful disability
rights attorney. Scott took Everette's case, and ultimately Everette
received a settlement from Blockbuster. More importantly, though, he learned
about the National Federation of the Blind and the many battles the
organization has fought in the effort to advance and protect the civil
rights of blind people. "I had heard of the Federation and been told that
they were militant," Everette says, "but my experience taught me the
importance of our advocacy." There are so many reasons to be proud of whom
we are as blind people, and the Federation has paved the way for our climb
to the top of the mountain of civil rights!

In 2004, Everette and his wife, Dr. Angela Peters, moved to Salt Lake City,
Utah. Everette became involved in the Utah affiliate and developed what he
describes as life-changing relationships with dedicated Federationists like
Nick Schmitroth, Karl Smith, and Deja Powell. These friends helped Everette
improve his blindness skills and grow in the movement. Everette was also
looking for new employment opportunities in Utah and heard about a job
opening as a Blindness Skills Teacher at the Utah Division of Services for
the Blind and Visually Impaired. Everette remembers speaking with Ray Martin
about the fact that he knew nothing about teaching blind people, Martin told
him that being blind was the most important qualification. The agency
supported Everette in his pursuit of a master's degree in rehabilitation. He
went from teaching technology to supervising the technology staff, and now
serves as the agency's field services coordinator, overseeing all of the
agency's technology and employment services, supervising a staff of nine.

Everette began advocating for Utah's blind residents with an effort to
encourage a prominent local cinema chain to incorporate audio description
technology into its theaters, so that blind people who wanted to experience
movies with audio description could do so. An avid movie fan with an
extensive collection dating from his Blockbuster days, he believes that
audio description can enable blind people to connect more easily with their
sighted peers when discussing entertainment. "One of the most valuable
lessons I have learned from the NFB is the understanding that blending in to
society is an important skill. Being able to relate to our sighted
colleagues about movies, television, politics, and sports are excellent
paths to opportunities that help change common misconceptions about
blindness."

In 2012, Everette was elected president of the National Federation of the
Blind of Utah. He is proud of the affiliate's successful advocacy for a
state "mini-508" law requiring accessibility of new state websites and
procurement of accessible electronic and information technology; subject to
fines when agencies fail to comply. His advocacy for accessibility made him
an outstanding candidate to serve as the Federation's representative on the
Disability Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC). He was nominated for appointment to this committee by President
Riccobono and duly appointed to serve by the FCC in 2015. Everette is chair
of the Utah Library Advisory Board. He also sits on the Utah Assistive
Technology Council and the Library of Congress' National Library Service for
the Blind's Audio Equipment Advisory Committee (Western Region). He was
unanimously elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of
the Blind at the organization's 2015 convention. He and Angela and their two
dogs live in Salt Lake City, but Everette still roots for his beloved Dallas
Cowboys.

James R. Gashel
Secretary
Advocate, Ambassador, Executive, and Father

Jim Gashel was born in 1946 and grew up in Iowa. After his early
introduction to the National Federation of the Blind as Kenneth Jernigan's
student at the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the 1960s, he has been
devoted to serving the blind community in various capacities. A 1969
graduate of the University of Northern Iowa with work toward a master's
degree in public administration at the University of Iowa, Jim started his
career teaching speech and English for one year in Pipestone, Minnesota. He
then accepted a position as assistant director at the Iowa Commission for
the Blind in Des Moines. With that move, he found his calling is working
with the blind and finding ways of solving the problems that face them as
individuals and as a minority.

On January 1, 1974, Jim joined the staff of the National Federation of the
Blind as chief of the Washington office, where he became one of the best
known advocates for the blind in the United States; combining his commitment
to blind people with his interest in the political process. As the
Federation's scope and influence evolved, so did his roles and
responsibilities. In his professional career of almost thirty-four years
with the Federation, he held the positions of chief of the Washington
office, director of government affairs, and executive director for strategic
initiatives. Jim's Federation work has led to significant changes in
virtually every law directly affecting blind Americans: the Social Security
Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the Americans with
Disabilities Act, the Copyright Act, the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, and the Help America Vote Act. In addition to championing
these causes, Jim has won the love and respect of the thousands of blind men
and women across America who have directly benefited from his informed and
effective personal advocacy. No matter what his position, through his drive
and devotion to Federationism, Jim has earned the informal title of the
organization's non-lawyer lawyer.

With his first wife Arlene, Jim is the father of three adult children and
the grandfather of nine. His daughter Andrea and her husband Jeremiah
Beasley have four children, daughter Valerie and husband Sam Costanza have
three, and his son Eric and wife Miranda have two.

During Jim's service at the NFB, he received the Commissioner's Award for
Outstanding Leadership in Rehabilitation Services to the Disabled, the
highest honor presented by the commissioner of the United States
Rehabilitation Services Administration. He is also a recipient of the
secretary of labor's Outstanding American Award. In 2001 Jim and his second
wife, Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, jointly received the NFB's highest honor, the
Jacobus tenBroek Award, honoring them for their achievements through decades
of leadership in work with the blind.

In November 2007, Jim and Betsy moved from Baltimore to Denver, Colorado,
but Betsy soon died after a recurrence of the condition retinal blastoma,
which had caused her blindness from childhood. In September 2012, Jim
married Susan Kern, now Susan Gashel. Their marriage occurred a few months
after Susan had returned to Colorado after retiring as an assistant attorney
general in the state of Hawaii. Beyond continuing Jim's active work on
behalf of the blind through involvement in the Federation, and Susan's work
to uphold rights and opportunities for blind Randolph-Sheppard vendors, Jim
and Susan are passionate about downhill skiing and all the Rocky Mountains
have to offer near where they lived for a time in the Vail Valley of
Colorado. They now live in Hawaii.

Beyond his volunteer activities, Jim served as vice president of business
development and product evangelist for KNFB Reader, LLC, until his
retirement in December 2017. While serving as the Federation's executive
director for strategic initiatives, he led the public introduction and
launch of the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, the world's
first truly portable text-to-speech reading device for the blind. As part of
this effort he raised and administered the funds necessary to support
pre-release beta testing, product announcement, and public promotional
efforts to bring the product to market in 2006. Jim's work with our KNFB
reading technology brought him full circle in his career since, after first
meeting Ray Kurzweil in April 1975, he also organized and raised the funds
necessary to test and launch the original Kurzweil Reading Machine, released
in 1977 as the world's first text-to-speech reading system for the blind.

Jim was elected to the NFB's national board of directors in 2008 to fill an
unexpired term and was reelected in 2009. He was then subsequently elected
to the position of national secretary, a position he has held since 2010.
Serving in each of these capacities, he brings to the board both expertise
and contacts in the blindness field and an abiding commitment to the work of
the NFB. In accepting his 2001 Jacobus tenBroek Award, Jim offered comments
that remain relevant today and reflect his approach to our mission. "All I
would ask is that all of you remember that it's all of our responsibilities
to go out and work for the movement. We can't all go out and climb a
mountain like Erik [Weihenmayer] did, and we can't all do the wonderful
things that every one of you do all the time, or raise five or six million
dollars like Betsy did, but we can all work for this movement. We all have a
place in it." Jim's place is absolutely unique.

National Federation of the Blind of Ohio

Extend an invitation for you to join a powerful presentation on: "BECOMING
THE LEADERS WE DESERVE".

May 19, 2020

7:00 P.M. EDT.

The most effective and inspiring leaders are defined by their core values.
Their behavior reflects and reinforces those values.  Good leaders operate
from a deeply held set of moral or ethical principles at the core of their
commitment to make a change.

So, come and learn from three dynamic and influential leaders in the
National Federation of the blind, Norma Crosby, Business-Minded, Self-Taught
Entrepreneur, Everette Bacon, Member of the National Board of Directors and
Utah Affiliate President and James Gashel, Secretary of the National Board
of Directors and Vice President of Business Development at K-NFB Reading
Technology Inc.

Richard Payne is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

The meeting will be held on May 19 at 7 PM EDT.

This meeting is open to all so please join us.

Topic: BECOMING THE LEADERS WE DESERVE!

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/4081850851

Meeting ID: 408 185 0851

One tap mobile

+16468769923,,4081850851# US (New York)

+13017158592,,4081850851# US (Germantown)

Dial by your location

+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

Meeting ID: 408 185 0851

Find your local number:  <https://zoom.us/u/abUfeUkQWm>
https://zoom.us/u/abUfeUkQWm

Join by Skype for Business

 <https://zoom.us/skype/4081850851> https://zoom.us/skype/4081850851

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 100163 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200519/6190c71c/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 17069 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200519/6190c71c/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: james gashel secretary nfb 2-2020.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 116595 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200519/6190c71c/attachment.docx>