[blindkid] 2012 Convention Highlights - Wow! & Double Wow!

Tue Jul 10 06:10:48 UTC 2012

Welcome Kimberly,
I¹m not sure how Penny managed to write so much, so well, so quickly, but to
add to what she shared, here is my take as a now seasoned NOPBC parent of 2
blind kids, now ages 11 & 15.
I remember thinking ³Wow!² when we attended our first NFB National
Convention in Atlanta many years ago  We had already been to a number of
non-NFB conferences, but that first NFB National Convention was
perception-changing & life-changing experience for all of us.
We have grown a lot since then. After a while, it might be easy to be lulled
into thinking ³I pretty much know it all²  a ³been there, seen that, done
that² attitude, but in all honesty, I think that this was the best
conference we have attended to date.
The Saturday NOPBC Parent Conference was great.
The adult speakers were outstanding, as were the student speakers.
One theme that seemed to be echoed throughout the morning & kept popping up
in different venues throughout the conference was the vital role that
parents play. This came out in the talks by Dr Mauer,
Parnell Diggs, Gary Wunder & others  their parents held high expectations -
their parents had an NFB Philosophy about blindness without necessarily
knowing it ,truly believing in the capacity & abilities of the blind.
The talks emphasized how kids need to be encouraged to reach out & explore;
to be pushed to problem solve & figure things out for themselves. I think it
was Gary who shared that his parents told him something along the lines of
³you will not be lazy - you have a brain & functioning body - figure out how
to do it². One student shared the quote: ³The greatest gifts you can give
your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of
independence.²
My high schooler noted this parental influence theme as well  when I asked
him what he got out of Saturday morning, he shared that parents shape their
kids.
It was refreshing to hear acknowledgment of the vital role that we as
parents play in the lives of our children.
It was also neat to see so many high-achieving students & scholarship
winners & hear stories of where they are in their studies; what they have &
what they still hope to accomplish.
My elder son & I went to the Community Service Division Meeting & were both
really impressed by the attitudes & service projects of the mostly young
adult presenters, many of whom were mentors or participated in volunteer
programs outside of the blind community. We learned a variety of helpful &
neat strategies for learning how to find out about rewarding & fun community
service opportunities.
We learned so many new things last week.
My kids have no functional vision & both will be in instructional situations
next year that involve iPads. One of our goals was thus to learn to maneuver
through the iPad & link it with their BrailleNotes. I have to admit that
pre-convention I had still had reservations & remained somewhat skeptical of
how they would be using the iPad/iPhone, but we got some 1-on-1 instruction
& a few other opportunities to interact with totally blind users & I am now
convinced that these will be important tools for my kids  Importantly,
after a week at Convention my kids can now maneuver through the iPad/iPhone,
write in Notes, read iBooks, & have started exploring various apps.
There are some great apps for blind individuals  we will explore these
further & I can share more on that at the end of the summer.
Both my boys went out on own more than ever before & came back excited &
more confident in their abilities to do things.
Convention is a great opportunity to meet, connect & re-connect with people.
It provides a glimpse into what potential opportunities & obstacles lie down
the road so that you can take a more proactive & preemptive role as you make
decisions about raising & educating your child/children.
I will sum up our experience this year as ³Wow! & Double Wow!²
Sincerely,
Eric V

On 7/9/12 9:49 PM, "Penny Duffy" <pennyduffy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kim,
> 
> Welcome.
> 
> My daughter 8 year old daughter became blind about two years ago.  One of
> the very best things I have done is getting invovled with the NOPBC
> (National Organization of Parents of Blind Children) and the NFB.  In case
> you don't know the NOPBC is the parent's division of the NFB.  Its the best
> resource a parent can have.
> 
> I am a little tired so I hope my answer is clear.  I love convention.  I
> know we hope to go to every single convention we can.
> 
> The NOPBC conference is a wonderful event than generally  has some going on
> from for the first 4 days of the Convention.
> Some of the highlights of this years conference
> 
> 
> 
> 1. a wonderful style for the kids.  This was something new thing year but
> it was wonderful to see the kids show their pride of walk down showing
> their outfits and answering questions.
> 
> 2. Kid Talk with Dr Maurer (who is the national president of the NFB) He
> gets right on the floor and answers all kinds of questions from the kids.
> 
> 3.  A wonderful IEP information session I have learned new things every
> single year.
> 
> 4. Other wonderful topics in work shops.  Including the ones about reading.
> 
> 
> 5. Two wonderful panels one with collage age kids and the other with
> younger kids.  The kids steal the show.
> 
> 6.  Everything else. There is nothing that isn't valuable or useful Nothing
> beats being able to show your child great blind role models.
> 
> 7. How did I forget the braille book fair.  If you want to see a singular
> event that shows that braille is far from outdated or dead then this is for
> you.  Its a frenzy filled and overwhelming experience that is
> a celebration of literacy. My daughter left with 3 large boxes of books.
> 
> I know i missed something. I haven't writen my blog post for this years
> convention.
> 
> I know looking at the whole NFB convention can seem like too much but
> really if its possible i would stay for the the whole thing and go to all
> the general sessions.  There is always great speakers and it also helps you
> understand how the NFB does its business and how it works. I know my first
> year I saw it extra. It didn't seem seem important. It is VERY important.
> There is also other great meeting going on other days but i never have time
> to do everything.  It is not possible to do everything. Visiting the
> exhibit hall is always great. I saw some great new products and nothing
> beat seeing something in person.
> 
> I bet there will be some articles about this years convention in both
> Future Reflections and the Braille Monitor. So keep on the look out for
> that. I imagine the August Braille monitor and the the next Future
> Reflections (which comes out a few times a year) will go over some of the
> stuff of this years convention.
> 
> Here is a link to last years Future Reflections
> http://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr30/4/fr3004tc.htm   under the
> personal reflections you will find one writen by me which was my first
> convention experience.
> 
> -- 
> -- 
> --Penny
> ----------
> My Blog - visionfora.blogspot.com
> 
> NH Parents of Blind Children http://www.nhpobc.org/
> NHPOBC on facebook   https://www.facebook.com/nhpobc
> 
> On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 11:56 PM, Kimberly Ruffin
> <nursekimber94 at yahoo.com>wrote:
> 
>>  Hi Everyone,
>>  I'm new to the NFB, our two youngest children are VI our daughter who is 5
>>  has CVI. Our son is 4 with bilateral detached retinas. We plan on going to
>>  this years Ohio convention and next year's national convention. I would
>>  love to hear from parents who have been.
>>  Thanks,
>>  Kim Ruffin
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