[stylist] DAISY Consortium features NFB author

Mon May 19 04:33:21 UTC 2014

Donna,
Your article came through on that web address just fine. So interesting and
well done. Your personal story cannot but help the marketing of your book.
Congratulations and know that your efforts are paying off, and will
increasingly do so. 

Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of DEW Hill via
stylist
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2014 6:04 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] DAISY Consortium features NFB author

Hi Friends,
The international reading rights/accessible digital books organization the
DAISY Consortium is featuring my story in the April & May editions of their
Daisy Planet newsletter. The link  and article are below my name. I hope it
comes through OK; I copied it from an html file.
Donna
http://www.daisy.org/stories/donna-hill-part-1 

Donna Hill Part 1 - April 2014

[Heading under photo in DAISY Planet: An abiding certainty that I would
overcome all obstacles was not something I experienced.] 

 Donna Hill sitting with her dog guide Hunter in her lap. (Photo taken by
Rich Hill.)
<http://www.daisy.org/images/stories/DonnaHill-with-Hunter-in-her-lap.jpg>
Donna Hill is an author, song writer, singer and journalist. She also
advocates for equality - equality for people who are blind or have low
vision. Proceeds from the sale of her book 'The Heart of Applebutter Hill'
provide braille books for students who are blind. 

It was not until she was 19 that she started reading recorded books - at
that time they were from RFB (which became RFB&D and then was renamed more
recently Learning Ally <http://www.daisy.org/member/69/Learning%20Ally> ).
Those early talking books arrived on reel to reel tapes. She was 60 when she
signed up for Bookshare <https://www.bookshare.org/>  and she still reads
books from NLS
<http://www.daisy.org/member/237/National%20Library%20Service%20for%20the%20
Blind%20and%20Physically%20Handicapped>  and Learning Ally. This is Part 1
of Donna W. Hill's story.

Donna Hill's Story: Part 1

Score one for Bookshare!

My first novel, The Heart of Applebutter Hill, was available through
Bookshare in April, 2013 - two months before being published in print. It
makes sense - a blind writer, two blind characters and a sighted boy in a
wheelchair, who uses recorded books. The book even opens with Abigail
listening to a magazine on her digital book player.

OK, it's not surprising to find it on Bookshare, but before other formats?
As is often the case, the obvious reasons don't tell the whole story.

I was born with Retinitis
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinitis_pigmentosa> Pigmentosa with a field
restriction so severe that I never could see at night. My parents could have
sent us to a school for blind children, but they wanted my younger brother
and me to live at home and attend school with our peers. They respected
authority, however, and the prevalent view was that you were either blind or
sighted. Since we could see somewhat, we should read print and get around as
best as we could - no Braille, no white cane, no recorded books. 

And, so began my journey as the first legally blind child mainstreamed in
our local schools. First grade wasn't bad, except for the bullying; my
friends melted into the woodwork whenever it started. My teacher seemed to
genuinely like me though, and my love of learning and desire to teach were
awakened in her classroom.

One afternoon, I received an A on a test, and was called up front to collect
my paper. I was "looking" where I was going, but, due in part to the lack of
color contrast, I didn't know anything about the wooden chair in the aisle
until I was in the process of flying over it head-first. I bashed my
forehead on the toppled chair. A collective gasp went up from the class. 

The teacher sent me to the nurse's office bleeding. I should have had
stitches, but I seemed so composed. I was, in fact, so angry and so
humiliated that I wasn't going to acknowledge it with tears or complaints.
My teacher wrote a note to my parents telling them how incredibly brave I
was to fall like that and not even cry. We found the note with my mother's
belongings after she passed away.

My second-grade teacher, however, couldn't stand watching me struggle with
my workbook. Despite above-average grades, she recommended my transfer to
the "Special Class." The "garbage can class", as the kids called it,
warehoused a dozen students from five to 15, dealing with every manner of
disability. We received a short individualized lesson, after which we were
allowed - compelled, really - to go back and play with the blocks. My
assignments were first-grade level, and I was not permitted to try to catch
up. I was given large-print books, which were more difficult to read than
regular print - probably due to the non-uniform nature of my central vision.

A few months later, when our ophthalmologist found out, he hit the roof. He
insisted I be placed with my peers, vowing to leave his beloved Philadelphia
and take me out of Special Class himself if necessary. His confidence in my
ability would have to hold me for years. The third-grade teacher who 'drew
the short straw' was not happy to have me in her class. She allowed and
participated in open bullying and punished the girl behind me for reading
test questions from the board to me.

 Flights of stairs leading to a large building. This image, Cathedral Of
Lausanne Switzerland, is courtesy of David Castillo Dominici, available on
FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
<http://www.daisy.org/images/stories/Flights-of-Stairs-small.jpg> I started
having recurring nightmares. I was running behind a pack of people heading
for the wide cement steps leading to a large building. People kept passing
me, and although I was running flat-out, I was falling further and further
behind. Soon the crowd and the building were just a dark blur on the
horizon.

As time passed, my vision grew worse, the work became more difficult and I
had to prioritize. English and science were in, math and history were out.
Piano lessons stopped when I was twelve, because of the increasing
difficulty with seeing well enough to memorize the music. Still, Braille
wasn't mentioned.

I was getting mixed messages. One faction took every opportunity to remind
me that I would never make it in college, live alone, have a career or find
a husband. My unwillingness to accept my limitations branded me as someone
who didn't know her place. The other group maintained that I was an
under-achiever and faking my vision problems. I knew I was faking something,
but not that. I was trying to see as hard as I could, even to the point of
getting sick from eye strain. 

Retinitis Pigmentosa was a never-ending succession of losses, and there was
no one to talk to. No one even understood the condition. Writing stories and
poetry helped. At fourteen, I taught myself to play guitar and started
writing songs, though I was a long way from sharing them in public.

Some people seem to know that they are going to succeed. They don't doubt
themselves, but that wasn't my experience. I had to start over time after
time on what my heroine Abigail would call my "ragged march to maturity". An
abiding certainty that I would overcome all obstacles was not something I
experienced. At the end of the day, all I really knew was that I didn't want
any of the naysayers to be right, and that proved to be my salvation. 

In Part 2 of Donna's story Part 2 of Donna's
<http://www.daisy.org/stories/donna-hill-part-2> story we learn about her
rocky journey and her decision to break away from her natural community and
head for the great unknown, and about how technology changed her life.
Donna's website is donnawhill.com <http://donnawhill.com/> .

Photo Credits

The photograph of Donna and her dog guide Hunter was taken by Rich Hill.

The image of flights of stairs leading to a large building is a photograph
of the Cathedral of Lausanne Switzerland. It is courtesy of David Castillo
Dominici, available on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

-- The Heart of Applebutter Hill - a novel on a mission:

http://DonnaWHill.com <http://donnawhill.com/> 

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