[VABS] Fwd: Info and Articles

Fri Sep 8 00:14:40 UTC 2017

Many Thanks And Much Respect.

Sincerely,

Naim Muawia Abu-El Hawa

Student: Northern Virginia Community College.
Member: Virginia Association of Blind Students.
Member: National Association of Blind Students.
Member: National Federation of the Blind.

Email Address: nmabuelhawa at gmail.com

Cell Phone Number: (202) 848-8932

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
Robert H. Goddard

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Joy" <jrelton at verizon.net>
> Date: September 7, 2017 at 3:08:06 PM EDT
> To: <jdavies4 at aol.com>, <cathy at sks.net>, <goosey1011 at gmail.com>, <sharonmjosee0518 at gmail.com>, <carl.knoetttner at verizon.net>, <jon.c.cohn at gmail.com>, <nmabuelhawa at gmail.com>, "'daidaluehrs at gmail.comm_:'", "Holly Frisch" <Holly at volunteersfortheblind.org>, "Rodney Neely" <blindlion at verizon.net>, <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>, <wptaylor13 at gmail.com>, "Annette Carr" <amcarr1 at verizon.net>, <jamesbaker at gmail.com>, <jburke51 at yahoo.com>, "'Naim Abu-ElHawa'" <nmabuelhawa at gmail.com>, <csranker at cox.net>, <dranker at cox.net>, <daidaluehrs at gmail.comm>, <johnsons7 at hotmail.com>, "John Bailey" <john_bailey17 at hotmail.com>, "Annette Carr" <amcarr1 at verizon.net>, <jamesbaker at gmail.com>, <jburke51 at yahoo.com>, <david.montgomer-mitchell at gmail.com>, <leahs5132 at gmail.com>, <lenavanfb at gmail.com>, <fred at sks.net>, <changedheart421 at gmail.com>, <robertac058 at gmail.com>
> Subject: FW: Info and Articles
> 
> For your reading pleasure.
> 
> Have a nice day!
> 
> Joy
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul D'Addario [mailto:mostreliable at verizon.net] 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 11:43 AM
> To: nova-acb at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Info and Articles 
> 
> Greetings fellow NOVA members and friends -
> 
> Below are some articles and information you or someone you know may find of interest.
> 
> Please distribute to anyone you know who may benefit.
> 
> Each item is separated by ***
> -cheers-
> -Paul
> Paul D’Addario
> NOVA Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired The Northern Virginia Chapter of ACB of Virginia, an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) Learn more about ACB at www.acb.org Follow ACB on Twitter @ acbnational Like ACB  on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AmericanCounciloftheBlindOfficial
> ***
> *   Touch History Tours Now Available at Library of Congress Building  
> * Blind student and Paralympic skier sues Dartmouth over accessibility
> * 16-year-old invents 3D printed eye test for preventing blindness in diabetics
> 
> ***
> September 19th : Touch History Tour 
> 
> The Visitor Services Office of the Library of Congress would like to invite you to a  free Touch History tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building.  
> Touch History is a new tour for visitors who are visually impaired.  
> The next  tour will be Tuesday , September 19 2017 at 8:30 a.m.  
> The Thomas Jefferson Building is located at:
> 10 First Street
> Washington, D.C 20540
> To RSVP and for information on other dates please click on the link below.  
> 
> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/touch-history-a-verbal-description-of-the-thomas-jefferson-building-tickets-36492848091
> 
> :
> WASHINGTON (AP) — The Library of Congress is offering a new tour of its Thomas Jefferson Building, a tour designed for visitors with visual impairments.
> The library said in a statement that the "Touch History" tour will run the first and third Tuesday mornings of each month with the exception of September, when the tour will only be given on the 19th.
> The library says tours will be led by docents who will use "vivid language to describe the building to participants." In addition, participants will be able to feel various shapes, wall carvings and sculptural elements.
> The Jefferson building, which faces the U.S. Capitol, opened in 1897.
> Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
> 
> Contact: : Kathy Tuchman
> ktuchman57 at gmail.com
> 
> ***
> 
> Blind student and Paralympic skier sues Dartmouth over accessibility
> 
> Staci Mannella, featured in this article, is a former ACB scholarship winner.
> 
> Blind student and Paralympic skier sues Dartmouth over accessibility Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/college/2017/09/03/blind-student-and-paralympic-skier-sues-dartmouth-over-accessibility/614196001/
> 
> A student at Dartmouth College who is legally blind is suing the school, claiming it failed to provide her with reasonable accommodations for her disability.
> When Staci Mannella, 21, was deciding which university she wanted to attend as a senior in high school, she had a few criteria it needed to meet. Mannella is a Paralympic skier, so her university needed to be flexible with scheduling so she could take time off in the winter to ski. It needed to have a good equestrian team, because she has been riding horses since she was 10 years old It needed to be known for its academics.
> And, wherever she went needed to be able to accommodate her disability. Mannella says she was excited that a school like Dartmouth ticked all her boxes — that is, until, as she claims, the Ivy League school failed to live up to its promises.
> “I thought, like, this is Dartmouth. It’s one of the best schools in the country. There’s no way that I would have an issue with accessibility there,” Mannella says. “You don’t expect something that seems so straightforward to be such a big issue.”
> Mannella has achromatopsia, a genetic eye disease that affects her acuity, sensitivity to light and ability to see color. She gets around using her guide dog, Smidge, and is studying anthropology and biology at Dartmouth.
> Before enrolling at Dartmouth, Mannella says she met with the accommodations services office at Dartmouth to discuss what she would need to succeed academically at Dartmouth. These included, the lawsuit alleges, timely access to digital files compatible with software that reads aloud electronic text, note takers in classes where notes are given on boards she can’t see, and exam readers to assist her with all written tests.
> Yet, Mannella alleges in the lawsuit, she was either denied access or given delayed access to these accommodations.
> “At first it was like I was getting things, but quite late, like late access to readings. I would get access to these readings after they were already due,” Mannella tells USA TODAY College. “I would go to class, and I wouldn’t have a note taker for the first few days of the course.”
> She says that late access probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but at a school that operates on a year-round quarter system, a couple weeks of delay is a significant setback “In one instance, I got access to an accessible practice exam key after I’d already taken the final,” she says.
> A copy of the lawsuit obtained by USA TODAY College also alleges that Mannella — who is identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe but who disclosed her identity to USA TODAY College and other news outlets — was told by multiple faculty and administrators that she would not be able to succeed in Dartmouth’s science courses.
> In one instance, during a biology exam that required Mannella to identify images through a microscope, the lawsuit alleges that she “approached the professor during the test and asked for help.” It further alleges that the professor, instead of helping, suggested that Mannella “transfer to a school that was less academically challenging, with a longer term and slower curriculum.”
> Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, postsecondary institutions are required to provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities, unless these accommodations would place an “undue burden” on the institution. Different sections of the ADA apply to public and private schools, while Section 504 applies to any school that receives federal funding, like Dartmouth.
> This isn’t the first time a college has been accused of failing to provide adequate resources for blind students. In a 2014 case versus Miami University, student Aleeha Dudley claimed that the school failed to provide her with access to materials and trained assistants The case was settled, with Miami paying damages and tuition and allowing for the expungement of some of her course grades.
> Florida State University also paid damages to two blind students after a case of inaccessibility.
> Mannella directed questions regarding her lawsuit to her lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold, a personal injury lawyer in New Jersey who is also her aunt.
> Arnold says after Dartmouth moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which was denied by the court, the pending lawsuit is being transferred to New Hampshire, where the college is located, from its original filing in New Jersey, Mannella’s home state.
> The complaint notes the plaintiffs, which include Mannella’s parents, are suing for damages in excess of $75,000 to cover out-of-pocket expenses for tutors, a tuition refund and compensation for emotional pain and suffering.
> In high school, Mannella says, she was a high-achieving student, which is what enabled her to be admitted to an Ivy League college. She says she never had problems with accessibility before college. Her high school, she says, was designed to accommodate individual learning styles and needs, including her own.
> “It was pretty easy for me to have equal access to all the material, and so that really was a reflection on my grades in high school and the fact that my grades were good enough to get me into Dartmouth,” Mannella says.
> It wasn’t just her grades that got her into Dartmouth, though, Mannella believes. A champion skier, she competed in the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
> “I had a story coming in,” Mannella says. And the lawsuit cites Dartmouth’s usage of Mannella’s story in its promotional materials, pointing out the disconnect between the school’s actions and its messaging. She has been featured in articles and on the school’s social media channels.
> “It was not surprising to me that Dartmouth wanted to use my image and my brand, and I was happy to do it. … But I feel like they just wanted to use my name and didn’t go above and beyond to make sure that I was actually receiving the education that I am entitled to,” Mannella says. “I would love to be able to say to any of my disabled friends or any of my blind friends that they should come to Dartmouth, but honestly, I would not be able to do that right now.”
> Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence declined to comment to USA TODAY College on the lawsuit, the school’s promotional materials or its accommodations for Mannella. In a previous statement to Dartmouth’s student newspaper, Lawrence said that “the claims in the lawsuit have no merit” and that the school has “met all of our legal obligations to Staci.”
> Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for advocacy organization National Federation of the Blind, says the organization is supporting proposed legislation called the Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act of 2017 that would provide guidance to institutions on accessible technology.
> “Sadly, the failure of colleges and universities to provide accessible technology and course content to blind students is all too common,” he writes in an email to USA TODAY College. “This is usually due to a lack of knowledge by university faculty and administrators on how to procure accessible technology and/or create accessible content.”
> Arnold also maintains that delaying accommodations is already illegal.
> Mannella remains a dedicated athlete, student, sorority member and peer mentor for other students with disabilities. She says the school’s actions are out of ignorance and not malice, and hopes her lawsuit can bring awareness to the issue of accessibility.
> “It’s not just Dartmouth. I think this is an issue for students with disabilities wanting a higher education throughout the country,” Mannella says. “I’d like to think that this will leave a positive impact on Dartmouth, and maybe Dartmouth can be seen as an example for other schools.”
> 
> ***
> 16-year-old invents 3D printed eye test for preventing blindness in diabetics by Beau Jackson
> 
> To read this article online, go to https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/16-year-old-invents-3d-printed-eye-test-preventing-blindness-diabetics-119763/.
> 
> Kavya Kopparapu, a 16-year-old student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia, has invented a 3D printed device that can detect signs of degenerative eye disease.
> 
> The device works with an AI smartphone app. Kopparapu and her team digitally trained the Eyeagnosis package which is intended to be a cheaper, more accessible eye care alternative for patients with diabetes.
> 
> A fast-acting diagnosis to prevent blindness
> 
> Development of Eyeagnosis started when Kopparapu’s grandfather began exhibiting symptoms of diabetic retinopathy in his eye.
> 
> The disease, which affects around one third of diabetics worldwide, causes degeneration of blood vessels in the retina. If untreated, severe cases can also cause blindness.
> 
> Looking for a solution to provide fast-acting diagnosis with bare-minimum equipment, Kopparapu, her 15-year-old brother Neeyanth, and high school classmate Justin Zhang, decided to put their computer science knowledge to the test.
> 
> Teaching smartphones to read the retina
> 
> The 3D printed device created by the team is a frame designed to fit comfortably on the back of a typical smartphone.
> 
> With a lens to focus the light from a phone camera’s flash, the device works the same as an eye-doctor’s pen torch –  illuminating the retina at the back of the eye. A photo is taken of the retina, and it is run through the Eyeagnosis app.
> 
> The app was trained to detect symptoms by Kopparapu and her team using image data from the NIH National Eye Institute’s eyeGENE database.
> 
> The finished device has since been tested by Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital in Mumbai that proved the package is able to diagnose with accuracy of a human ophthalmologist.
> 
> Tools to create change
> 
> Ever the innovator, Kopparapu has gone on to establish her own nonprofit organization, GirlsComputingLeague, teaching coding to underprivileged children.
> 
> The work of her and her team is an inspiring example of how technology is providing people with the tools necessary to create change around the globe.
> 
> ###
> 