From dandrews at visi.com Thu Oct 23 23:53:28 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:53:28 -0500 Subject: [Uabs] Server Report Message-ID: Dear NFBNET.ORG users: I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have successfully gotten the new nfbnet.org server to work and switched services over to it. There are still a few things to clean up, but most things are as they were previously, or as you would expect them to be with the new software. We still need to process the message archives to adjust some links, which have changed. Otherwise our mailing lists should function as they did before. This processing may not take place until early next week, but otherwise the lists should function normally. For you web masters, the sites are up and running. We are going to try and sync content once more tonight, to capture the changes that some of you made last weekend or earlier this week. That should happen this evening, hopefully. I will write web masters separately with new instructions. If you have any problems, or find something that doesn't work, please contact me at dandrews at visi.com Once again I thank everybody for your patience. Because of the complexity, the process was somewhat messier then we would have liked. It turns out that there was a bug in the software that IBM uses to control the RAID array for our disk drives. They characterized it as a "code issue," but it was a bug if you ask me. Once we got the firmware updated things happened as expected. Happy computing! David Andrews, SysOp and List Owner From jsorozco at gmail.com Fri Oct 24 01:30:01 2008 From: jsorozco at gmail.com (Joe Orozco) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:30:01 -0400 Subject: [Uabs] 10 Best Tips for High School Students Message-ID: <17857A90048A4B01951C599E2ACE8ED5@MonkeyPaw> Hello all, I just discovered my mass mailing announcing the NABS web site development skipped a handful of student divisions. You didn't miss anything. The short of it is that I am working with the NABS board to launch the official NABS web site in the next few months. One of the items I am incorporating into the site is a compilation of quick tip sheets on a number of subjects of interest to students, tip sheets generated based on your own personal experiences. To start, I am looking for college students who can share their top ten best tips for high schoolers on the verge of applying for college. What did you look for in a college or university? How should high schoolers prepare for in the way of readers, accommodations, dealing with professors? My own tip is this: Learn how to use Microsoft Office. Downloading illegal music, swapping e-mails and chatting on messengers is only going to get you so far, and I am still surprised by the number of students who enter college unable to correctly format a research paper. For that matter, learn how to write, or at least spell, but one step at a time. Send us your own tips. One or ten. Help us make this a good list for high school students to peruse as they make preparations for this very important step in their lives. I'll work with the NABS board to incorporate your suggestions into a final document which will then be made available on the site when it is launched. Regards, Joe Orozco "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."--James M. Barrie From dandrews at visi.com Sun Oct 26 19:12:24 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:12:24 -0500 Subject: [Uabs] Register Now for the Motor City March! Message-ID: From: Kristi Bowman [ mailto:kbowman at nfb.org] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: Register Now for the Motor City March! National Federation of the Blind logo Graphic Photo boy with cane on the beach March for Independence logo Greetings, Summer has faded and Autumn is upon us. It's time to reengage for this year's March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity walk-a-thon event in Detroit, this July. Once again, our goal this year is to raise at least one million dollars. This will take our collective energy, action, and imagination. I encourage all of you that have yet to register for this year's event to do so now. Whether you are a returning participant or you are signing up for the first time, you will find instructions on how to register at the end of this e-mail. We will be announcing an assortment of bonuses for those of you who are registered, raising money, and making your goals early, so sign up now and start raising your funds. Once you are registered for this year's Motor City March you can begin personalizing your Web page and sending out e-mails to your contacts, colleagues, family, and friends. This year there are some changes and additions to everyone's personal page. First of all, everyone will get a template page when they register. Pages will not carry over from last year. If you need your text from last year, or your pictures, please call. We will retrieve the information and forward it to you. Additionally, there is an option to blog on your Web page! This is not just a good marketing tool, it is also a great way to keep your network updated on your progress. We are also finalizing efforts to add widgets to social networking sites like Facebook. Stay tuned! Please pass this message and the registration instructions far and wide. We would like to see one thousand registered and raising by December 31, 2008. Together, we can do this! If you have any questions please contact Kristi Bowman at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 or via e-mail at < mailto:kbowman at nfb.org > kbowman at nfb.org. Thank you, Thank you...I look forward to working with each and every one of you and serving our organization for what will prove to be another exciting year. At your service, Kevan Worley Imagination Fund Chairman Register now for the Motor City march! New Participants 1. Go to MarchForIndependence.org. 2. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. 3. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 4. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 5. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence- A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 6. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 7. Enter your contact information as requested in the on screen form directly into the edit boxes on your screen. 8. Click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 9. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 10. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 11. Your can now begin personalizing your March For Independence - A Walk for Opportunity Web page. 12. Follow the online instructions to personalize your page. Some people find the online training in MP3 format helpful, the link for online training is in the left hand navigation bar. 13. Be creative! Remember our goal is to educate, raise awareness, and to raise at least one million dollars this year. Keep this in mind as you create your page. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 for assistance. We will be happy to help get anyone registered and help build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 16. Have fun raising money and know that you are sharing in the NFB dream! Returning Participants 1. Go to http://www.marchforindependence.org/ . 2. Log in using your user name and password.* 3. Once you are logged on, the screen will refresh, welcoming you to the Website. 4. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 5. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. 6. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 7. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 8. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 9. The next screen will display the contact information that you registered with LAST YEAR. Incorrect information, changed e-mail addresses, or phone numbers can be corrected by directly editing the fields on the form. After you are sure all of the information is correct, click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 10. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 11. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 12. If you personalized your Web page last year, you will not have the same changes. This year everyone will start with the same template page. Your thermometer graphic will be reset to zero, your goal may be different than last year (if you increased it this year), and the scrolling honor roll of donor names will be empty unless you have already received gifts, in which case you will also be registered. 13. You should personalize your page with your NFB story. Education, awareness are our first priority. People will donate to YOU because of your STORY. Add your story, download pictures, show everyone how the NFB has changed what it means to be blind for you and your family. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406, for assistance. We will be happy to register you and help you build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 15. Now the fun begins.. * Click here to have your login information sent to you via e-mail. Unsubscribe | Update Preferences | Visit Our Web Site | Tell-A-Friend 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, MD 21230 410-659-9314 From JFreeh at nfb.org Tue Oct 28 21:18:07 2008 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:18:07 -0500 Subject: [Uabs] Comments Needed for Blindness Review in O: the Oprah Magazine Message-ID: Dear Fellow Federationists: It has come to the attention of the Public Relations office at the National Federation of the Blind?partly through e-mails from some of these lists?that a positive review of the movie Blindness appears in the October issue of O: the Oprah Magazine. The text of the review is pasted below for your convenience. Several of you have already written to the magazine to express your condemnation of its coverage of this outrageous and offensive film. If you have not already done so, please consider submitting a comment on the magazine?s feedback form to explain why this film is detrimental to blind people. This link: http://www.oprah.com/contactus will take you to the contact page, and from there you will find a link to a comment form for the magazine. The National Federation of the Blind has submitted a comment and it is also pasted below as a sample, but please feel free to use your own words and your own personal experiences to illustrate why this movie is inaccurate in the degrading way in which it portrays blindness and blind people. If you have any trouble using the feedback form on the Oprah Web site, please let us know by contacting Anne Taylor, Director of Access Technology, at ataylor at nfb.org. Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Sincerely: Chris Danielsen Review O, the Oprah Magazine October 2008 Live Your Best Life (LYBL) section Page 68 Housewife Saves the World! At last, a movie that portrays women?s work as a heroic calling It is a truth universally acknowledged that good actresses in Hollywood are in want of good parts, and even the juicy roles are too often defined by the character?s connection to a man. She?s the wife, the secretary, the mistress. She?s strictly support staff. So it is with Blindness, adapted from Jos? Saramago?s novel about a mysterious illness that makes a nation go blind. The female characters are ID?d as if they were possessions: the Doctor?s Wife, the First Blind Man?s Wife, etc. (There?s also the Woman with Dark Glasses, but that?s a euphemism?she?s actually the Woman Who Sleeps with Men for Money.) What?s startling about Blindness is that for once, the housewife gets to be the visionary. Literally: The Doctor?s Wife (Julianne Moore) is the only one who?s immune to the blinding virus, though she loyally follows her husband (Mark Ruffalo) into the quarantine wards, which soon descend into squalor and madness. The Wife starts out as a tippling, flute-voiced homemaker; as the situation worsens, her pitch drops, her jaw sets, and a gunmetal gleam of resolution lights up those functioning eyes as she labors doggedly to keep herself and her insta-family of fellow detainees from plunging into utter depravity. Blindness conjures a world where an ordinary gal has a uniquely menial kind of greatness thrust upon her, where the drudgery of mopping and laundering is a noble calling and procuring groceries is a do-or-die blood sport?a test of leadership, in fact. Who would have thought it: women?s work as the stuff of movie heroism. ?J.W. Sample Comment The National Federation of the Blind is shocked and amazed to read the positive review of the film Blindness in the pages of your October issue. This film is not about a heroic woman who saves the world; rather, it is about blindness and the myth that being sighted is inherently superior to being blind. The character played by Julianne Moore is only superior to the other characters in the story because she can see and they cannot. This formulation is offensive to the nation?s blind and furthers misconceptions and stereotypes that the general public holds about blindness and blind people. The blind people in the film are helpless, incompetent, and morally degenerate; Moore?s character is portrayed as physically, spiritually, and morally superior to them because she can see. In the world imagined by this film, the blind can only be ?saved? through the assistance of the sighted. This kind of thinking contributes to an unemployment rate of over 70 percent among working-age blind adults. For this magazine to endorse the world view of this film is to amplify and affirm the film?s offensive, demeaning, and harmful portrayal of blind people. From jsorozco at gmail.com Wed Oct 29 04:16:37 2008 From: jsorozco at gmail.com (Joe Orozco) Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:16:37 -0400 Subject: [Uabs] 10 Best Tips for Professors Message-ID: <16BCC3AD3DEB453CA44BB8EFFA871DEB@MonkeyPaw> Hello all, Thank you for the excellent feedback of this past week regarding the best tips for up and coming high school students. I'll be compiling all your e-mails into a document for the NABS board's approval. The document will then be made available with the launch of the web site. You guys had a number of excellent thoughts. I'm trusting your guidance will continue this week as we turn to professors. If a document could be drafted to be made available to teachers and professors, how would it read? What would the top ten pieces of advice be for faculty members regarding blind students? Ultimately, we'd all like to be treated equally, but break it down for those individuals who may be completely afraid to deal with something they may never have conceived of before. My advice, to get things started: Do not single out the blind kid in class. No one likes to have the spotlight shined on them for being exceptionally smart or exceptionally, special. No one wants to hear about Charlie and how Charlie is blind and how Charlie will need buddies to get some of the work done. Can you tell I have firsthand knowledge? Anyway, no doubt you'll have better ideas. Send them in, on list or off-list. You're helping create what will be useful, downloadable tip sheets of use to a diverse audience. We're counting on you! Best, Joe Orozco "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."--James M. Barrie From JFreeh at nfb.org Fri Oct 31 23:29:24 2008 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:29:24 -0500 Subject: [Uabs] Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Message-ID: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Public Relations Specialist National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (cell) cdanielsen at nfb.org Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Terms of Proposed Settlement Agreement Will Revolutionize Blind People's Access to Books Baltimore, Maryland (October 31, 2008): The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's leading advocate for access to information by the blind, announced today that the recent settlement between Google and authors and publishers over the Google Books project, if approved by the courts, will have a profound and positive impact on the ability of blind people to access the printed word. The terms of the settlement that was reached on October 28, among Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers, on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers, allow Google to provide the material it offers users "in a manner that accommodates users with print disabilities so that such users have a substantially similar user experience as users without print disabilities." A user with a print disability under the agreement is one who is "unable to read or use standard printed material due to blindness, visual disability, physical limitations, organic dysfunction, or dyslexia." Blind people, like other members of the public, will be able to search the texts of books in the Google Books database online; purchase some books in an accessible format; or access accessible books at libraries and other entities that have an institutional subscription to the Google Books database. Once the court approves the settlement, Google will work to launch these services as quickly as possible. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Access to the printed word has historically been one of the greatest challenges faced by the blind. The agreement between Google and authors and publishers will revolutionize access to books for blind Americans. Blind people will be able to search for books through the Google Books interface and purchase, borrow, or read at a public library any of the books that are available to the general public in a format that is compatible with text enlargement software, text-to-speech screen access software, and refreshable Braille devices. With 7 million books already available in the Google Books collection and many more to come, this agreement means that blind people will have more access to print books than we have ever had in human history. The blind, just like the sighted, will have a world of education, information, and entertainment literally at our fingertips. The National Federation of the Blind commends the parties to this agreement for their commitment to full and equal access to information by the blind." "Among the most monumental aspects of the settlement agreement," said Jack Bernard, assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, "are the terms that enable Google and libraries to make works accessible to people who have print disabilities. This unprecedented opportunity to access the printed word will make it possible for blind people to engage independently with our rich written culture. Moreover, it is refreshing to find accessibility for people with disabilities explicitly included upfront, rather than begrudgingly added as an afterthought." "One of the great promises of the settlement agreement is improving access to books for the blind and for those with print disabilities," said Dan Clancy, engineering director for Google Book Search. "Google is committed to extending all of the services available under the agreement to the blind and print disability community, making it easier to access these books through screen enlargement, reader, and Braille display technologies." ### About the National Federation of the Blind With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind. Please visit our Web site: www.nfb.org.