[Youth-outreach] {Disarmed} JI Newsletter - Giving Thanks

Tue Dec 4 15:45:58 UTC 2012

	IMAGINEERING OUR FUTURE  

	ISSUE 48   

	DECEMBER 2012  

	IN THIS ISSUE: 

	* 

	* 

	MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR [1]  
	* 

	WHAT’S NEWS AT THE NFB [2]  
	* 

	EDUCATION [3]  
	* 

	BRAILLE INITIATIVE [4]  
	* 

	ADVOCACY [5]  
	* 

	PRODUCT AND ACCESS TECHNOLOGY TALK [6]  
	* 

	FROM THE TENBROEK LIBRARY [7]  
	* 

	INDEPENDENCE MARKET [8]  
	* 

	NFB CALENDAR [9]  
	* 

	CITATION [10]  

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

	Dear Friends, 

	This is truly a wonderful time of the year. We just finished
decorating the NFB Jernigan Institute for the holidays and enjoyed
hosting the annual fall meeting of the NFB board of directors. It is
always refreshing to review the progress that we have made and
participate in discussions of what the future plans should be.  

	While we were promoting Giving Tuesday and inviting people to explore
our holiday giving book earlier this week, I could not help but be
distracted by some of the barriers confronting us as blind people
today. My wife, Melissa, who serves as president of the NFB of
Maryland, has been spending time during the past month helping a blind
father regain custody of his daughter. Sadly, the child was taken from
her dad simply because he is blind, and a misguided social services
worker could not imagine how he would be able to properly care for his
daughter. It is hard to believe that such a thing could happen in late
2012, and it is more unbelievable that it is happening in the same
city where my wife and I are raising our three young children. 

	I am thankful that we have an organization that believes in the
capacity of blind people, works daily to change the misunderstanding
of blindness that exists in society, and protects the rights of the
blind to live in the world. I am especially thankful to those who are
helping to spread the word about our work and are sharing the truth
about blindness with their friends and family.  

	As you consider what you are thankful for, I invite you to reflect on
how far we have come as blind people and how much public education is
left to be done. While I admit to feeling frustrated and even very
angry about some of the truly discriminatory things happening to blind
people, I am ultimately optimistic about the future. We have a greater
network of chapters and members than ever before. More partners,
businesses, and sighted individuals are actively working with us to
change what it means to be blind and build new opportunities. And our
resolve to fulfill our mission and innovate new solutions has never
been stronger. 

	As you gather with your family this holiday season, take a moment to
share a story about the work of the NFB and why you believe it is
important. That story might just be the flap of an angel's wing that
ends up changing an encounter that a blind man has when he and his
daughter are at the park, when a blind child talks to his guidance
counselor about career options, or when a newly blind woman returns to
work. If we each take a moment to educate a friend or family member
this season, we will make 2013 begin with more hope and opportunity. 

	From my family to yours, have a joyous, safe, and warm holiday
season. Thank you for all that you do to support the work of the NFB. 

	Warmly,

Mark A. Riccobono, Executive Director
NFB Jernigan Institute 

WHAT\\'S NEWS AT THE NFB

	THE HOLIDAY GIVING BOOK IS HERE!  

	If you’re like most people, you have at least one person on your
holiday shopping list for whom it is nearly impossible to find the
perfect gift. This year, skip the traditional pair of socks or silk
tie, and consider purchasing an item through our holiday giving book
[11]. Even “someone who has everything” might not have the
satisfaction of knowing that a blind child received a letter from
Santa in Braille in his or her name. Not many people can claim that a
blind student gained confidence in his or her ability to succeed in
the science, technology, engineering, and math fields because of a
generous contribution made in his or her name. Use our holiday giving
book to avoid the last-minute mall crowds and, instead, give the gift
of independence, dignity, and hope. You can find the entire holiday
giving book online at www.nfb.org/holiday-giving-book [12]. Help us
continue to build a future full of opportunities and consider making
this tax-deductible gift today! 

	SANDY RELIEF FUND 

	At the recent NFB of New Jersey state convention, a fund was created
to assist members who lost blindness-related adaptive equipment due to
the hurricane. For more information on this fund, please contact
either Jane Degenshein (Sandy committee chair) at 973-736-5785, or by
e-mail at jdegen16 at comcast.net, [13] or Joe Ruffalo (president, NFB of
New Jersey) at 973-743-0075, or by e-mail at nfbnj1 at verizon.net [14]. 

	OPEN HOUSE 

	The NFB Jernigan Institute will be hosting a holiday open house on
Saturday, December 8, from 12:00-4:00 p.m. at the NFB Jernigan
Institute at 200 East Wells Street in Baltimore, Maryland. We will be
providing tours of the facilities, and demonstrating new technologies
that are assisting blind people around the world. There will be a
kids' zone with many fun educational tools and games the NFB offers to
children of all ages. The atmosphere will be especially festive with a
special visit from Santa Claus and delicious holiday treats. We will
be raffling items from local restaurants and shops, as well. Everyone
is welcome to ring in the holiday season with us at the open house! 

EDUCATION

	LETTERS FROM SANTA 

	Santa has once again called upon his friends at the NFB Jernigan
Institute to help him Braille letters and design other activities to
share with boys and girls this Christmas season. In addition to a
letter from Santa, children will receive a tactile coloring page, a
couple of Santa’s favorite recipes, and some other fun surprises. To
request a letter from Santa, visit our Web site [15]. Also, check out
the "Letters from Santa" video [16] containing footage of Santa’s
visit to the NFB Jernigan Institute, as well as a conversation between
Santa and one of the elves from the NFB Jernigan Institute. 

BRAILLE INITIATIVE

BRAILLE CERTIFICATION TRAINING PROGRAM

	Under a contract with the National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress (NLS), the NFB administers
the courses leading to NLS certification of Braille transcribers and
proofreaders. Successful completion of these rigorous courses requires
a great deal of time and effort on the part of the students. We
congratulate the following individuals who earned certification during
the month of September, 2012: 

	LITERARY BRAILLE TRANSCRIBING 

	California
   Marion Mercadante Dawirs, Yorba Linda 

	Florida
   Susan Steele, Stuart 

	Michigan
   Debra Jeanette Walker, South Lyon 

	Missouri
   Robert Michael Hicks, Jefferson City 

	Montana
   Grace Angelee Palmer, Missoula 

	North Carolina
   Jerry Pittman, Laurinburg 

	Michigan
   Nathaniel John Enright, Lincoln Park 

	New Jersey
   Renee Migner, West Caldwell 

	North Carolina
   Jerry Pittman, Laurinburg 

	Texas
   Edna TeQuanda Dotson Smith, Gatesville
   Bobbi Joan Elvington, Gatesville
   Karen Jo Moyer, Gatesville
   Gerrett Heather O'Keefe, Burleson 

	Wisconsin
   James M. Howard, Oshkosh 

	LITERARY BRAILLE PROOFREADING 

	Indiana
   Danny Darling, Bunker Hill
   Darryl L. Trafford, New Castle 

	Nebraska
   Thomas Silvers, Lincoln 

	MATHEMATICS (NEMETH) BRAILLE TRANSCRIBING 

	Maryland
   Kathy T. Haskins, Hagerstown 

	MUSIC BRAILLE TRANSCRIBING 

	Iowa
   Mitchell James Ronek, Anamosa 

ADVOCACY

	Amazon.com is undertaking a massive effort to deploy its Kindle
e-readers and Kindle e-books to K-12 schools across the United States.
In some cases, Kindle devices have been donated directly to schools,
including schools that serve children who are blind or have other
disabilities. More important, and more disturbing, is the fact that
Amazon has also built a system called Whispercast that allows teachers
and school administrators to distribute Kindle content to devices
other than Kindles. The problem with all of these plans is that
neither the Kindle devices nor the book files used in conjunction with
them are accessible to students who are blind or who have other print
disabilities. Since school districts have an obligation under federal
law to purchase or deploy only accessible technology and content,
Amazon must either make Kindle e-books accessible or cease and desist
from its efforts to have them used in the classroom.  

	On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, we will be holding an informational
protest regarding the distribution of inaccessible Kindle e-books in
K-12 schools, outside of Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
We will be delivering letters from blind students, parents, and
friends to Mr. Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, as part of the
protest. You are urged to send these letters to Chris Danielsen at
cdanielsen at nfb.org [17]. You are also urged to send a YouTube video of
the student reading the letter. More information on this protest,
including background information and template letters, is available on
the NFB Web site at www.nfb.org/kindle-books [18]. 

	If you are unable to participate in our informational protest on
December 12, you can still help inform Amazon of the need to make its
Kindle e-books accessible to blind K-12 students. Leading up to and
during the protest, we will be posting live photo and video to our
Twitter and Facebook feeds. We encourage you to share this content
with your own networks. We also encourage you to create your own
content--videos, photos, or blog posts--and share the content on
social networks. When posting content about this issue on Twitter,
please use our hash tag #KindleBooks4All, as well as the mainstream
hash tags and Twitter handles popularized by Amazon and used by the
general public. The Twitter handles are @Amazon and @AmazonKindle. 
The hash tags are #Amazon, #AmazonKindle, and #ebooks. We also
encourage you to post comments to Amazon's relevant Facebook pages:
Amazon [19] and Amazon Kindle [20].  

	Another way to spread the message about the inaccessibility of Kindle
e-books and the harm that will be done by distributing this
inaccessible technology in K-12 schools is by leaving reviews on
Amazon.com's Kindle Web page [21] or other popular consumer review Web
sites. If you are a blind child or teen, or the parent of a blind
child or teen, and own one of the Kindle devices, you can share in the
review that you and/or your blind child cannot use it because it is
not accessible.  

PRODUCT AND ACCESS TECHNOLOGY TALK

	The access technology team has had quite a few projects going on,
most of which involved trying out and demonstrating new products, or
updates to existing ones. On November 9, the team presented on tablets
and on iOS at the NFB of Maryland’s convention in Annapolis. The
tablet session compared the Microsoft Surface RT, the Google Nexus 7,
and the iPad. The iOS session was divided between covering some basics
and talking about especially useful and/or good apps. 

	The blog has been a hive of activity. We did our first-ever unboxing
video (experimental!) and initial review of the Microsoft Surface;
both the device and filming the unboxing were quite an adventure. We
also did brief reviews of the Kindle Paperwhite and the Nook HD
(tablet). We had a guest post from Elaine Ober from Pearson Higher
Education about their accessibility work. Stop by and share your
feedback at www.nfb.org/at-blog [22]! 

	Finally, we’ve had fun preparing some activities for the holiday
open house that is happening on December 8 here at the NFB Jernigan
Institute, so keep an eye out for us there as well. 

FROM THE TENBROEK LIBRARY

	Since 1957, the _Braille Monitor_ has been the flagship publication
of the NFB, carrying the positive philosophy of the Federation to
blind people across the United States and around the globe. While
documenting the activities and events of the NFB and its membership,
it also covers the full range of critical issues facing the blindness
community as a whole, including employment, education, the Braille
literacy crisis, blind parenting, legislation, and the ongoing
struggles for equal access and civil rights. Its reputation has been
built issue by issue over the last fifty-five years, and today the
_Braille Monitor_ is not only considered the leading publication of
its kind, it is also the voice of the nation’s blind. 

	As part of the mission of the Jacobus tenBroek Library, we are
committed to preserving this important historical resource for future
generations and to making it available to all interested in the
history of the organized blind movement in America. To achieve this
goal, in 2010 the tenBroek Library partnered with the Internet Archive
[23] to scan the legacy issues of the _Braille Monitor_ from the years
1957 to 1984. During the last two years, the library staff has worked
to make these scanned issues fully accessible for all readers on the
NFB Web site, and editions from 1957 to 1967 are now available at
www.nfb.org/braille-monitor.  

	Our eventual goal is to have every issue of the publication available
on the NFB Web site. However, at this time there are still seventeen
years of the _Braille Monitor_ that are only available online through
the Internet Archive. The years 1968 to 1984 were pivotal both to the
development of the NFB and to the evolution of the blind civil rights
movement. The historic events described within their pages include the
death of Dr. tenBroek (1968), the struggles with the airlines
(1970s-1980s), the standardization of the Nemeth Braille Code for
Mathematics (1972), the passing of section 504 of the U.S.
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the establishment of NFB affiliates in all
fifty states, including Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. (1975), and
the protests throughout the 1970s against the National Accreditation
Commission for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped
(NAC). 

	To learn more about these and other important landmarks in the
history of the organized blind movement from 1968 to 1984, please go
to www.archive.org and search for the _Braille Monitor_. Issues are
available for download in multiple formats, including full text,
Daisy, EPUB, and PDF. Users can also have the text read aloud directly
from the Web site or flip through the pages of the Internet
Archive’s visually realistic eBook version. We highly encourage
everyone to take advantage of this wonderful resource. 

INDEPENDENCE MARKET

	In a recent issue of _Imagineering Our Future_ it was announced that
most of the brochures published by the NFB, and distributed to our
members and the general public through the NFB Independence Market,
can now be read online. The first three brochures listed below are
newly available online in Braille, also. We are providing links to the
HTML text as well as the links to the Braille version for your
convenience.  

	What Is the National Federation of the Blind? brochure 

	www.nfb.org/what-is-nfb [24] 

	www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/brochures/LBW04B-WhatistheNationalFederationoftheBlind.brf
[25] 

	Do You Know a Blind Person? brochure 

	www.nfb.org/Do-You-Know-Blind-Person [26] 

	www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/brochures/lbd38-doyouknowablindperson.brf
[27] 

	Meeting a Working Guide Dog Team brochure 

	www.nfb.org/WorkingGuideDogTeam [28] 

	www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/brochures/LBG12P-MeetingaWorkingGuideDogTeam.brf
[29] 

	NFB Jernigan Institute brochure 

	www.nfb.org/institute-brochure [30] 

	NFB-NEWSLINE® brochure 

	www.nfb.org/newsline-brochure [31] 

	To order hard copies of these brochures in either print or Braille,
please contact the NFB Independence Market via e-mail to
independencemarket at nfb.org [32], or by phone at 410-659-9314,
extension 2216. Please note that we are now only accepting calls
Monday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time. We
welcome visitors to the Independence Market from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m., and encourage you to stop by during the morning hours, so that
we may better serve our phone customers in the afternoon. 

NFB CALENDAR

	UPCOMING EVENTS 

	NFB Holiday Open House [33]: December 8, 2012 

	Washington Seminar [34]: February 5-7, 2013 

	Tactile Graphics Conference [35]: April 12-13, 2013 

	Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium [36]: April 18-19, 2013 

CITATION

	"I predict that you will soon find yourselves to be the first, but
not the last, generation to have the same access to our great
collective heritage as is afforded to everyone else. A great barrier
is poised to topple." 

	--Daniel Goldstein, "Shaping the Standard for the Legal Community:
The Neccessity for Access to Information for All." [37] 2009 NFB
National Convention 

	The speech was followed by the crowd chanting, "same book, same time,
same price." 

	Thank you for reading the NFB Jernigan Institute’s _Imagineering
Our Future_. 

	Help make a significant difference in the lives of blind people
across the country. 

	MAKE A GIFT TODAY [38] 

	Back to Top [39] 

	MAKE A GIFT TODAY [40] 

	IF THIS ISSUE WAS FORWARDED TO YOU AND YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE,
PLEASE E-MAIL JERNIGANINSTITUTE at NFB.ORG. [41] 

	Support the Jernigan Institute through the _Imagination Fund_ [42] 

	INTERESTING LINKS: 

	Archive of Straight Talk about Vision Loss videos [43] 

	National Center for Blind Youth in Science [44] 

	Access Technology Tips [45] 

	TeachBlindStudents.org [46] 

	BLOGS: 

	Access Technology [47] 

	  Unsubscribe [48] 
 National Federation of the Blind200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
United States
410 659-9314 

Links:
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[12] http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1148&qid=68961
[13] mailto:jdegen16 at comcast.net
[14] mailto:nfbnj1 at verizon.net
[15] http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1164&qid=68961
[16]
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[17] mailto:Cdanielsen at nfb.org
[18] http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1170&qid=68961
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[42] http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1147&qid=68961
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