THE BRAILLE MONITOR Vol. 43, No. 8 August/September, 2000 Barbara Pierce, Editor Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT National Office 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 NFB Net BBS: http://www.nfbnet.org Web Page address: http://www.nfb.org Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, orders for NFB literature, articles for the Monitor, and letters to the Editor should be sent to the National Office. Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per year. Members are invited, and non-members are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES ISSN 0006-8829 Vol. 43, No. 8 August/September, 2000 Contents 2000 Convention Roundup by Barbara Pierce Presidential Report by Marc Maurer Creating Our Own Future: Building the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind by Barbara Pierce Changing Patterns in the Rehabilitation System: Meeting the Needs of the Blind and Otherwise Disabled by Fredric K. Schroeder, Ph.D. The Scholarship Class of 2000 The Personality of Freedom by Marc Maurer NFB Awards 2000 2000 Convention Resolutions Report by Sharon Maneki Resolutions Adopted by the Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, July 8, 2000 Convention Miniatures Copyright (c) 2000 National Federation of the Blind [#1 LEAD PHOTO DESCRIPTION: President Maurer is driving a miniature crane into the convention hall. Above is the capital campaign sign. Mr. Cheadle, wearing a hard hat, walks beside the crane with his hand through the window. Mrs. Jernigan is to the rear. All three are smiling broadly. CAPTION: It was fitting that July 6, 2000, was Dr. tenBroek's eighty-ninth birthday. It was also the convention day devoted to discussion of the NFB's capital campaign to raise $18,000,000 to build the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind on the grounds of the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore. Dramatically demonstrating that we must embrace new ways of thinking and working if our dream is to come to fruition, President Maurer swept into the convention hall riding a miniature crane and wearing his capital campaign T-shirt and a hard hat. John Cheadle walked beside the crane, and Mrs. Jernigan walked behind. The sounds of heavy equipment at work filled the room as Federationists cheered and clapped their greeting.] 2000 Convention Roundup by Barbara Pierce ********** The 2000 convention was a time of new beginnings--new divisions, a Job Fair, a new structure for family activities, and most of all a new approach to the creation of our new Research and Training Institute for the Blind. Offsetting the unfamiliar was the familiarity of the Marriott Marquis, which we knew to be a marvelous site for convention meetings. If anything, the staff was even more friendly and constructive this year, giving information and good directions when requested and happy to let us figure out the layout when that was more helpful. The Hilton and the Hyatt, our overflow hotels, were also excellent facilities. A raft of UPS volunteers were on hand as well to provide information about hotels and the City of Atlanta. Robert Parrish, President of the National Association of the Blind in Communities of Faith, saw an example of the genuine helpfulness of the Marriott staff on the final day of the convention. Leaving the exhibit hall for the last time, he met a Federationist whose cane had just broken. The tip needed to be glued. She was upset because she had a plane to catch and no idea of how to get herself a working cane for the trip home in the time she had left. Together they went to the front desk, where a member of the security staff found them and listened to the problem. He then excused himself and made a phone call. He came back to report that he had located glue and would repair the cane for the woman in a few minutes. That was not an isolated example of staff helpfulness and efficiency. Mr. Cobb, who deals with reservations difficulties, reports that check-in and out were the easiest he can ever remember. All three hotels handled our members by and large with speed and courtesy. All in all, the consensus seemed to be that we would be pleased to return to Atlanta for a National Convention. [#2 PHOTO/CAPTION: The campaign wall of honor and the model of the National Research and Training Institute as displayed in the Jernigan suite] The Presidential suite and the Georgia hospitality suite were delightful places to visit and meet people. But Mary Ellen Jernigan's suite was the headquarters for the capital campaign, and people flocked there to examine the nearly indestructible model of the proposed National Research and Training Institute for the Blind and to make their campaign pledges. One of the most interesting displays in the suite was mounted behind the model. It was a temporary version, in print and Braille, of the wall of honor, on which the names of those who have already made contributions of $5,000 or more are inscribed. Ultimately the wall will be a permanent part of the Institute, but volunteers made changes to the paper version in Mrs. Jernigan's suite as the week went along. [#3 PHOTO/CAPTION: John Cheadle gives directions about exhibit hall set up as Bob Braswell (right) and Harry Gawith and Bea Hodgkiss (left) listen.] [#4 PHOTO/CAPTION: Kris Cox unpacks American Action Fund Braille calendars.] [#5 PHOTO/CAPTION: Peggy Chong spreads a cloth over a table in the exhibit hall.] Convention registration this year opened on Monday, July 3. By any reasonable measure Sunday, the second, should have felt like a preparation day, and certainly scores of people were busy unloading the trucks that had arrived the day before from the National Center and setting up all kinds of tables in the exhibit hall. But the remainder of the headquarters hotel was also filled with activity. The Writers, Guide Dog Users, Secretaries and Transcribers, and Deaf-Blind divisions all scheduled meetings or seminars that day. Those interested in ham radio, the NFB computer bulletin board, or using the Internet could find meetings or workshops. People hoping to learn about Blazie or Myna products also found workshops to assist them. And people wanting NEWSLINE(r) demonstrations or training for the NFB's capital campaign could get training. The Job Opportunities for the Blind National Seminar provided hundreds of participants a fascinating mix of solid advice about jobs and job searching, information about effective training in job skills and the necessary skills of blindness, and inspiration for the hard work of job-hunting. The emphasis this year was on short, information-filled presentations, so the audience had to stay on its toes in order not to miss a thing. [#6 PHOTO/CAPTION: The NOPBC activities registration line] In addition to all these activities, July 2 was the occasion of an entire day filled with family activities sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. The morning began with registration and continental breakfast. Several interest-group tables were located around the room: general information, multiply impaired children, home schooling, gifted students, residential schools, etc. Particularly inspiring among the historical blind figures being impersonated at the gathering was Dr. Jacobus tenBroek as recreated by Jerry Whittle. One of the new things this year was a pilot mentoring program staffed by college-student members of the National Association of Blind Students. They were available to spend time with young teens. The program seems to have been a great success and will be expanded next year. From 10:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. blind and sighted youngsters were welcome to attend the Braille Carnival. Carnival Buddies were available to escort the kids through the many activities available for them. I looked in on the fun at one point, and the booths were so crowded that there was no way to count the kids engaged in Braille activities. Easily sixty or seventy kids and their buddies were at work on the activities. The parents seminar took place from 10:00 a.m. to noon, and the afternoon consisted of workshops that were repeated often enough for people to get to at least three. The workshops were "Got a Hammer? Blind Kids Can Take Shop Class"; "Teaching Self-Advocacy Skills; Tactile, Auditory, and Visual Techniques for Low-Vision Children"; "Modeling Social Skills for Blind Kids: Discussion Group"; "The Braille Lite in the Classroom"; and "Beginning Braille for Parents." [#7 PHOTO/CAPTION: Carla McQuillan talks to an attentive group of soon-to-be baby-sitters.] The afternoon also presented several choices for teens. Again this year we conducted separate discussion groups for young men and young women to give teens an opportunity to talk about issues of concern to them as blind people reaching adulthood. At the same time Carla McQuillan taught a baby-sitting class for those interested in earning a bit of extra cash during the week and beyond. [#8 PHOTO/CAPTION: An adult volunteer hands out candy to scavengers who succeeded in finding him during their hunt.] That evening families had a chance to get to know each other over pizza. At the same time teens in one group and older pre-teens in another enjoyed scavenger hunts that took teams of kids practicing their cane skills all over the hotel to collect a specified list of items that could prove where they had been. Blind Industries and Services of Maryland (BISM) sponsored a drop-in room for teens Monday, and NOPBC had a supervised hang-out room during the rest of the week, where teens could meet and get to know other kids. [#9 PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer sings at Karaoke Night.] But back to the peaceful day of pre-convention activities. The Georgia affiliate sponsored a dance--"Welcome to Georgia, Kick up Your Heels!" with live music provided by the Blend. Those who were interested in doing more than dancing could show everyone how it's done at the Karaoke Night sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Blind Students and BLIND, Inc. Among those who sang was President Maurer , who performed all the verses of "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," including the introduction. (It is entirely possible that he is the only person alive who knows the whole introduction.) Monday morning began with the traditional pre-opening long line outside the ballroom designated for convention registration. As always, the moment the doors opened, the lines began to melt, and by late morning people were walking through the process with no wait at all. It is always an amazing experience to watch this process work. It is impeccably planned and managed, but it also depends for its success on the scores of volunteers who staff the operation from beginning to end. [#10 PHOTO/CAPTION: Kyra Sweeney of California examines a snake.] [#11 PHOTO/CAPTION: Kyle Conley of Ohio meets a lioness.] At 9:00 a.m. the 2000 Sensory Safari opened for two days of exploration and discovery of wild animals under the guidance of the Georgia chapter of Safari Clubs International, which supplied the mounts and the guides. Adults and children alike enjoyed their exploration. As soon as convention registration opened, the exhibit hall also opened for business. As usual both print and Braille lists of exhibitors and their locations in the huge hall were available to visitors at the door. This helped, but people also enjoyed wandering the aisles and discovering what was to be found. Fifty-seven vendors from beyond the NFB had displays, and thirty-one Federation-connected groups had tables. [#12 PHOTO/CAPTION: Bob Brackett (left) listens while his daughter Winona talks with cane teacher Eddie Bell.] One very special event at the convention seems to grow more popular each year. This is the cane walk. On registration morning volunteer cane instructors work with youngsters and their parents, helping them find the right cane and learn to use it effectively. Many kids discover for the first time that it can be cool to use a cane when you know what you are doing. All morning long this year children and their parents got a taste of cane travel, Federation style. Monday afternoon found the Resolutions Committee assembled to consider thirty-six resolutions, thirty-four of which made their way to the Convention floor for consideration Saturday afternoon. This was certainly one of the largest collections ever of resolutions considered by a National Convention. A discussion of the various resolutions and their complete texts appear elsewhere in this issue. In two respects the Resolutions Committee was a bit different this year. Sheryl Pickering, who has served as secretary to the Committee for twenty years, was unable to attend the convention this year. Sharon Omvig stepped in at the last minute and did a wonderful job in this important task. Also Second Vice President Peggy Elliott, who is always an active participant in the resolutions process, was absent from the meeting because her husband Doug had been hospitalized earlier that day. Though Doug remained several days in the hospital for observation, he was back on the Convention floor by the end of the week and has now returned to full health. Following the Resolutions Committee meeting, the mock trial, sponsored by the National Association of Blind Lawyers, was gaveled to order by Judge Charles Brown. This was the third such event, and again the presenters contrived both to educate and to amuse the audience/jury with their antics. This time we did not see a reenactment of a trial that had actually taken place. In the case under consideration, the City of Monroe, Louisiana, dropped the charges of trespassing and aiding and abetting trespass against the blind defendants before they could be tried. So we were treated to the trial that might have taken place. The prosecution team of Bennett (Prows E. Cuter) Prows of Washington and Ray Wayne of New York were faced by the valiant defense team of Scott LaBarre of Colorado and Anthony Thomas of Illinois. The case before us arose when students and staff from the Louisiana Center for the Blind were arrested outside a bar after they refused to allow themselves to be escorted everywhere they wished to go inside the establishment. Memorable performances were turned in by Carla McQuillan as the bar owner, Kevan Worley as the arresting officer, and Noel Nightingale as a helpless blind singer who testified that blind people had to be led around because customers refused to stay in one place or leave the furniture where it belonged. Melody Lindsey was an LCB student who did not choose to be arrested, Jim Marks played her sighted boyfriend, and Harold Wilson played himself. Along with Larry Povinelli, who substituted for Peggy Elliott as the bailiff, they provided great fun and a sobering reminder of just how helpless many blind and sighted people think we are. [#13 PHOTO/CAPTION: Nani Fife teaches a room full of Federationists how to do the hula.] Monday evening was filled with ten committee and division meetings and seminars. The Diabetes Action Network and the National Association of Blind Students conducted information-packed seminars that attracted hundreds of people. One of the most unusual events, however, was instruction in how to do the hula. The class was taught by Nani Fife, President of the NFB of Hawaii. The annual meeting of the NFB Board of Directors began promptly at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, July 4. President Maurer began proceedings by dedicating the convention to our campaign to create the National Research and Training Institute. The phrase adopted to express our intention was "Let's build it now!" Everyone then stood for a moment of silent recollection of those of our Federation family who are no longer among us, followed by the pledge to the American flag and recital of the NFB pledge. Among the announcements made at the start of the meeting was that Spanish translation of Convention proceedings would be available this year. Dr. Maurer announced that convention rates at the Renaissance Center in Detroit next year will be $55 for singles and $65 for doubles, twins, triples, and quads. The banquet will take place on Thursday, July 5, so we are back on the standard convention schedule. Almost $100,000,000 has been spent renovating the facility since the last time we were there in 1994, and it is now a Marriott property, so we are all looking forward to the same kind of service and facility we have enjoyed in Atlanta. Dr. Maurer also announced that the 2002, 2003, and 2005 conventions will be at the Galt House in Louisville, and they will all take place during the first part of July with banquets on Thursday evening. This news was greeted by loud cheers. Where the 2004 convention will be held is still uncertain. The eighteenth Kernel Book was released at the convention, and President Maurer read the introduction and part of the first story, which he had written. He then urged people to write Kernel Book stories and send them to Mrs. Jernigan. He also reviewed prices for various publications and called attention to several new items available at the NFB store in the exhibit hall and later from the Materials Center at the National Center. Among these were a talking pedometer and a talking measuring tape. Steve Benson, Chairman of the Blind Educator of the Year Selection Committee, presented the 2000 award to Priscilla McKinley of Iowa. A full report of the presentation appears elsewhere in this issue. [#14 PHOTO/CAPTION: Barbara Walker and Carlos Servan] One of the most delightful moments of the Board meeting was the brief presentation made by Barbara Walker and Carlos Servan of Nebraska. They came forward to announce that as of July 1 Nebraska was the proud possessor of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind. This is what Barbara Walker said: ********** I am pleased, on this the two hundred twenty-fourth anniversary of our country's freedom, to bring you news of another declaration of independence. On April 10 of this year Governor Mike Johanns signed into law the existence of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. On May 8 we held a ceremony at which Governor Johanns; Senator LaVon Crosby, sponsor of the bill; Michael Floyd, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska; Pearl Van Zandt, Director of the agency; and I as the Federation's recommended designee for the Commission Board made remarks. I would like to share an altered version of what I said there with you here. In his 1999 banquet address entitled "The Mental Discipline of the Movement," Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "We have the capacity to think and the mental discipline to reach conclusions that will alter the future for us all. We possess the confidence to bring those conclusions to reality. "Our future is bright with promise, because it belongs to us. And there is no force on earth that can stop us." In Nebraska we put this to the test in our quest to create a Commission for the Blind. In 1943 an agency called Rehabilitation Services for the Visually Impaired was established under the Board of Control. Two years later the Nebraska Services for the Blind became a separate department. In 1962 this agency, now called Nebraska Rehabilitation Services for the Visually Impaired, was transferred to the Department of Public Institutions, and in 1996 to the Department of Health and Human Services under the Partnership Act. When our efforts not to have this agency included in the Partnership Act failed and it was once again buried in a department where it didn't belong, we turned to concerted action and began in earnest the process of creating a Commission for the Blind. Earlier this year, when the Lincoln Journal/Star carried an editorial in opposition and several of us received a letter from Governor Johanns stating he hadn't yet decided what to do, our multi-year roller coaster ride took another dive, and seeds of doubt once again churned in our stomachs. Around that time I read an article in the April Reader's Digest in which Judy Sheindlin, commonly known as Judge Judy, said, "If I had to boil my message down to one sentence, it would be that people create their own opportunities." She went on to explain that it happens through "self-discipline, individual accountability, and responsible conduct." That, of course, is how we've done this. We showed self-discipline when we made calls, wrote letters, responded to the negative newspaper article, and educated legislators (including the one who said he knew about blindness from having lived for years across from the school for the blind in Omaha--meaning, by the way, the school for the deaf; the school for the blind is in Nebraska City). We showed individual accountability when we sat quietly in the chamber while our bill was debated, even when the previously mentioned Senator said that a vote for our bill would be a vote against the blind. And we showed responsible conduct when we remained respectfully silent when other legislators movingly supported our efforts and resoundingly passed the bill, causing the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired officially to come into being on July 1, 2000. On June 12 Bob Burns, Bill Orester, Maya Samms, Dorothy Westin-Yockey, and I received calls from the Governor's office with news of our appointments to the Commission Board. All of us are blind. Four of us are, among other things, members of the National Federation of the Blind. There are three lawyers, a therapist, and I. As a single parent of teenagers, I've dealt with, and sometimes felt like, both a lawyer and a therapist. My term, according to the certificate I received, is from June 7, 2000, through December 31, 2003. I have, in preparation for this responsibility, been studying the intricacies of our new law. I can't help mentioning one of them that particularly struck me. Section 8 (2) (b) says that the Commission may "facilitate small business incubation." Can't you just imagine a bunch of people in chicken suits perched on nests around a table waiting for eggs under them to hatch? I know. The word incubate can also mean "to cause to develop or take form, as by thought or planning." But that's so mundane. Be all of that as it may, we in Nebraska have created the opportunity to take ourselves into that bright future which Dr. Maurer spoke of last year. We shall meet it with confidence and claim it with dignity; we shall shape it with love and live it with respect. For we know from where we've come, and neither we nor future generations must ever go back there. It's still up to us, and we're ready to go! ********** Carlos Servan in his beautiful, strongly accented English, then said: ********** I don't intend to compete against Barbara's speech. "If an organization of the blind is not strong enough and independent enough to cause agencies for the blind trouble and do them damage (that is, jeopardize their budget, create political problems for them, and hurt their public image), it is probably not strong enough and independent enough to do them any good either. Likewise, if agencies for the blind don't have enough authority to damage the lives of the blind they are hired to help, they almost certainly don't have enough authority to give them much assistance." This is what Dr. Jernigan most eloquently told professionals in work with the blind in 1994, and the impact of his words still rings today. State agencies for the blind are seriously threatened today unless they work in true partnership with consumers. Several years ago most state agencies for the blind were custodial in nature, concerned about what they called professionalism, and involved with administrative complexity and prestige rather than common sense and what was good for the blind. Our role as blind people today is to shape our own future and determine our own destiny. This is because sixty years ago the National Federation of the Blind tasted collective freedom. Blind people must be respected and be exposed to good training so that they can use their talents and abilities. When I, a newly blind person, entered the rehabilitation program in Nebraska--I'm sorry, New Mexico, I feel like a Nebraskan; I am a Nebraskan, by the way. (You might have noticed my midwestern accent. [laughter and applause]) Eleven years ago I didn't speak English, didn't have a college education, didn't have high expectations about myself, and doubted that I could be successful. The New Mexico Commission for the Blind under the leadership of Dr. Schroeder elevated my self-esteem and my expectations and supported me. The support was by investing a lot of education in me. They spent money--a good bit of money, by the way. And now I hold a master's in public administration and a juris doctor degree, and I am a deputy director of the newly created Nebraska Commission for the Blind. This would not have been possible if the New Mexico Commission for the Blind had not been a consumer-driven agency with primary input from the National Federation of the Blind. Considering the intricacies, technicalities, and divided responsibilities under a huge umbrella agency, neither legislator nor governor can track everything down. On the other hand, if you have a board appointed by the governor, the commissioners can inspire and provide the Commission for the Blind much better direction. When in 1996 the Nebraska Rehabilitation Services for the Visually Impaired was moved into the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services system, both agency personnel and consumers were told there would be no negative impact. Almost immediately, however, both the business manager and the public relations specialist were removed to the state office building and buried under the demands of a 6000-employee entity. Today, however, with the new Nebraska Commission for the Blind and the five Commissioners who are blind under the direction of Barbara Walker, the agency has the hope and willingness to work in partnership with consumers to provide the best services, the type of services they now get. Dr. Jernigan trained several of our leaders. He gave good education. He believed in investment, and as Dr. Schroeder mentioned at several conventions he attended in Nebraska, successful rehabilitation is the way to get jobs for blind people, not just jobs, but quality jobs, jobs that will allow blind people to use their full talent and capabilities. I have no doubt that this will happen in Nebraska under the new structure. [applause] President Maurer commented following these remarks: ********** There is a notion that the existence of separate, identifiable programs for the blind is likely not to continue in the structure of government, that the trends are all against it, that nothing can be done. Look at Nebraska! [cheers] It is not a matter of prediction; it is a matter of decision and work. If we put it together, it will happen; we can make it occur. We've done it in Nebraska. ********** [#15 PHOTO/CAPTION: The Leonard Euler Award] John Miller, President of the Science and Engineering Division, then came forward to present the first-ever Leonard Euler Award to Chris Weaver of the MAVIS Program at the University of New Mexico for the extraordinary contribution the program has made in helping blind people achieve in science and mathematics. A full report of this presentation appears elsewhere in this issue. Sharon Maneki next presented the 2000 Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award to Marlene Culpepper of Georgia. The text of this entire presentation appears elsewhere in this issue. Even though Peggy Elliott was unable to be present at the Board meeting, the members of the 2000 scholarship class were introduced to the Convention and given a moment to tell the group something about themselves. This was the largest scholarship class we have ever had. The program was expanded this year, and the value of a number of the scholarships was increased. A full report of this year's scholarship program appears elsewhere in this issue. The executive vice president for business development of CrossMedia Network Corporation, Michael Pratt, then made a brief presentation of the company's e-mail-by-phone product, which was on display at the convention. CrossMedia has sought out the NFB for advice and assistance in developing a product that is truly useful to and useable by blind people. Tom Stevens, who chairs the Associates Committee, announced that Mary Ellen Jernigan earned the right to wear the gold associates ribbon for raising $9,387. Art Schreiber won the gold for recruiting 414 members-at-large and associates, which was a record. The Associates Program is an important way of inviting friends, family members, and acquaintances to join us in the important work we are doing in the NFB. Associate forms are available from the National Office. Following the discussion of the Associates Program, President Maurer adjourned the meeting of the Board of Directors. The remainder of the day was crowded with division and committee meetings and gatherings of interest groups. Among these, those interested in the performing arts actually took the necessary steps to become a division by the close of convention. The tenBroek Fund auction, with Bennett Prows serving as auctioneer, drew a number of interested bidders. The item of chief interest on the block was Dr. Jernigan's NFB jacket. The Eloquence of Courage was the name of Jerry Whittle's newest play, staged by the Louisiana Center for the Blind Players. In this short drama Louis Braille must overcome the cruelty and cunning of his associates to keep his reading and writing code alive. Two performances took place Tuesday evening. [#16 PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer prepares to open the first general session of the 2000 Convention.] [#17 PHOTO/CAPTION: McArthur Jarrett, President of the NFB of Georgia] [#18 PHOTO/CAPTION: Al Falligan, Georgia Chairman of Convention Arrangements] With an enthusiastic roar from the delegates and President Maurer's shouted announcement, the first general session of the 2000 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind opened precisely at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5. Following the opening door prize and the invocation, McArthur Jarrett, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia, and Al Falligan, Georgia Chairman of Convention Arrangements, welcomed the delegates. Members of the Georgia affiliate were busy passing out fans in the shape of a Georgia peach on a stick. The inscription read: "We are fans of NFB of Georgia, National Federation of the Blind Convention 2000, Atlanta, Georgia" Then to the strains of "Sweet Georgia Brown" the audience clapped and fanned up a breeze to keep cool. Irvin Mitchell, the representative of Georgia Governor Roy Barns, then welcomed the convention to Atlanta. Longtime Federationist Ruth Falligan next brought greetings from the office of the Mayor of Atlanta, Bill Campbell. Mr. Jarrett then gave his own rousing greeting to Convention delegates. President Maurer called attention to the corporate banners displayed below the front edge of the platform. They were present throughout the convention and belonged to Freedom Scientific and CNN, both gold sponsors, and UPS, a silver sponsor of the convention. Dr. Maurer then pointed out that this convention was dedicated to our promise to ourselves, to one another, and to the blind people who come after us to build it now. We have conceived of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind, and now we are engaged in raising the funds that will build it and make it possible for the blind to change the nature of blindness in the years ahead. At this point it became clear that even more than usual this would be a working convention. Post cards picturing the Institute as we have conceived it were available by the hundreds. They were addressed to the governor of Maryland. President Maurer asked us all to write a brief message to the governor asking him to allocate state funds to assist with this building campaign. The message was that the Institute would have national status and be important to the lives of the blind of the nation. Dr. Maurer also urged the audience to take post cards home to those waiting to fill them out and send them in following the convention. Continuing the theme of a working convention, Jim Gashel next urged state delegations to assist members to write letters to RSA Commissioner Fred Schroeder in support of his proposed rulemaking of June 26 requiring that employment in sheltered workshops no longer count as competitive-outcome closures. Sheltered-shop employees would then be eligible for continued VR services. The final rule will be influenced by the comments received during this comment period, so we must communicate our view that closure must mean real jobs with living wages, and those who have not yet achieved that goal must continue to be eligible for VR services to assist them to reach that dream. One other project required delegate effort during the convention. We circulated petitions urging Congress not to permit the Librarian of Congress to redirect National Library Service funds to other purposes. This effort was successful. Shortly after the convention the appropriations bill passed with this protection in place. At this writing, the post card and letter-writing campaigns have not yet borne fruit, but we are still working. The roll call of states is the primary order of business during the opening general session of the NFB Convention. Each state delegation is asked to announce the names of the official delegate and alternate delegate to the Convention and the name of the state's member of the Nominating Committee. President Maurer also asks for the date and place of the next state convention and the name of the national representative if one has already been assigned. Once the delegate gets the floor, however, a good bit of additional information is also announced. Here is a small sample of the information delegates offered. Braille bills became law during the past year in Michigan and New York. When Nebraska got busy orchestrating its bill creating a commission for the blind, they added on language to obtain ongoing funding for NEWSLINE(r) for the Blind and to insure that all technology purchased by state government be compatible with access technology. A number of state agency for the blind directors were or soon would be in attendance at the convention. These included newly appointed directors in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and South Dakota; and directors in New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington State. In addition past-director Dick Davis of Minnesota, who Joyce Scanlan said cared more about services for blind people than developing one-stop job centers and who therefore was no longer the state agency director, was part of the Minnesota delegation. A number of states announced that they now have or are almost immediately going to have Jobline, our phone-access-technology connection to the Department of Labor's America's Job Bank. These states are Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia. The states that have acquired one or more NEWSLINE sites in the past year are Arizona (3), Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri (3), Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. The afternoon session began as always on the first day with the Presidential Report. It appears elsewhere in this issue in its entirety, but this is the way it began: ********** During the past twelve months the National Federation of the Blind has been as vigorous and as active as it has ever been. Our programs to assist blind children and adults have continued at an accelerating rate, and we have undertaken new initiatives as well. Although the Federation is expanding in size and diversity, we remain committed to the principles that brought our organization into being sixty years ago. We are the blind--from every economic segment of society and every geographic area of our nation--blind workers in the sheltered shops, blind vendors, blind employees in industry or the professions, blind people seeking employment, blind college students, parents of blind children, those who are newly blinded, and blind people who have not yet discovered what the future can hold for them. Our movement is made up of all blind people who possess the faith to believe that working together we can build a future that is brighter than has ever existed for the blind. This is our dream; this is our purpose; this is the essence of the organized blind movement; this is the National Federation of the Blind. ********** [#19 PHOTO/CAPTION: Ever Lee Hairston] The audience response to this report was tumultuous, and the next agenda item kept delegates on the same exulted plane. "Black, Blind, and Successful: the Story of a Fighter" was the title of a powerful address by Ever Lee Hairston, First Vice President of the NFB of New Jersey. She described her journey from a sharecropper's cabin in the deep South to her life, work, and volunteer activity today in New Jersey. [#20 PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman Bob Barr] The next agenda item was titled "America's Labor Shortage: Recognizing the Contributions Blind Americans Offer the Marketplace" by the Honorable Bob Barr, Assistant Deputy Whip and Member of Congress from Georgia. He delivered a strong endorsement of our conviction that blind and disabled workers deserve to have artificial barriers removed from their path so that we can work and earn competitively. Congressman Barr is a cosponsor of H.R. 3540, which would remove the sub-minimum-wage exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act for blind sheltered-shop employees. He urged the audience to keep working with Congress to express our views. In some ways one of the most interesting and revealing presentations of the entire convention was the "Report from the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled" delivered by Air Force Brigadier General, Retired, Leon Wilson, newly appointed Executive Director of the Committee. The General delivered a speech urging people across the entire disability community to unite to see that twenty-three million jobs are created for disabled people. He explained that not everybody wants a white-collar job, that working with your hands is respectable. Nothing that he said opposed our views, except that it became clear in the discussion after his remarks that he believed that workers whose only disability is blindness, but not all blind workers, may perhaps deserve to earn a living wage--a term that seems to mean to him something more than the minimum wage. David Pillischer, President of Sighted Electronics, then delivered a fascinating compilation of good advice for blind technology users titled "Engineering New Products for the Blind." He pointed out that competition is the only truly successful force leading to effective technology product development. But he warned that users must not be satisfied to accept negative reports about new technology. Very often competitors spread bad news or highly inflated stories about competitors' product problems. "Just When We Thought We Knew it All" was the title of an address by Gerald Kass, Executive Vice President of the Jewish Braille Institute of America. Mr. Kass is about to retire after thirty-three years of service at JBI. He pointed out that questions have a way of changing just when we thought we knew the answers. He drew parallels between the solutions being offered by JBI and the NFB and thanked the organized blind for our determination to raise expectations and answer emerging questions. Following announcements and a final door prize, Dr. Maurer recessed the Convention, and people left the room with as much expediency as possible since the room had to be cleared for the dance that evening with music by the Kid Brothers. [#21 PHOTO/CAPTION: The dance floor was as crowded with fun-loving people as everything else at the 2000 convention.] In addition more division seminars and workshops were scheduled as well as the Music Division's Showcase of Talent. [#22 PHOTO/CAPTION: Left to right, Theron Bucy, Mary Ellen Jernigan, and John Berggren in the foreground and behind them John Cheadle and Lloyd Jernigan all clad in their campaign T-shirts, stand in front of the boxes of T-shirts ready to be handed out.] At both the meeting of the Board of Directors and the first general session of the Convention, Dr. Maurer had admonished delegates to wear their campaign T-shirts to the Thursday morning session. An effort had been made this spring to send everyone who registered at the 1999 convention a new capital campaign T-shirt. So those who had received shirts in the mail this spring and who had remembered to bring them to the convention came to the session properly attired. When the rest of us arrived, we found volunteers posted outside the ballroom doors ready to equip us with shirts as well, at least as long as the supply lasted. The result was that the vast majority of those attending the session that morning were wearing brightly colored shirts depicting the National Research and Training Institute with fireworks exploding above it. The legend read "Let's Build it Now." The first order of business Thursday morning was the election. It being an even-numbered year, all of the officers and six at-large members of the Board were up for election. The six whose terms had not expired were Don Capps, South Carolina; Wayne Davis, Florida: Priscilla Ferris, Massachusetts; Bruce Gardner, Arizona; Noel Nightingale, Washington; and Joanne Wilson, Louisiana. Those nominated by the committee to serve another term and elected by the Convention by acclamation were Marc Maurer, Maryland, President; Joyce Scanlan, Minnesota, First Vice President; Peggy Elliott, Iowa, Second Vice President; Ramona Walhof, Idaho, Secretary; Allen Harris, New York, Treasurer; and Board Members: Steve Benson, Illinois; Charles Brown, Virginia; Sam Gleese, Mississippi; Diane McGeorge, Colorado; Carla McQuillan, Oregon; and Gary Wunder, Missouri. As soon as the election was complete, President Maurer gaveled the delegates to as much order as that many people in one very large room can ever achieve. He explained that never before during his presidency had he turned over the gavel to the First Vice President but that he was required to go deal with a piece of convention business. With that Joyce Scanlan assumed the chair. After commenting that this was a first for her at the National Convention, she presided over a couple of door prizes and introduced Sharon Maneki for a report from the Resolutions Committee. Sharon had just begun to speak when a loud noise began at the back of the convention hall. Dr. Maurer, wearing his capital campaign T-shirt and a hard hat, was slowly driving a miniature crane down the center aisle. John Cheadle, also in a hard hat, was walking on one side and Wayne Wilhelm on the other. Mrs. Jernigan was walking behind. Mr. Wilhelm was responsible for creating the crane. He used an ambulatory assistance scooter as the base and constructed it of plywood. It measures three feet wide and about five feet long, with silver painted caterpillar-type treads extending in front and behind. The crane itself is painted construction yellow and has a door on the left side and windows. A six-foot boom extends at a forty-degree or so angle in front with a pulley and hook dangling down and held back with ropes. The existence of the crane was a closely held secret in the weeks preceding the convention. Mr. Cheadle and Dr. Maurer practiced having Dr. Maurer guide it in response to Mr. Cheadle's spoken commands. This worked beautifully and would have done so in the convention hall except that Craig Gildner, who runs the NFB recording studio, had prepared a digital tape of construction noise, which was broadcasting over a very powerful speaker on a shelf located behind Dr. Maurer. The result was that he could hear none of Mr. Cheadle's commands. Inspired by the necessity of the moment, they discovered that, if Mr. Cheadle reached through the window and tweaked the carry basket in front of the handle bars with which Dr. Maurer was steering, he could understand what Mr. Cheadle wanted him to do and execute the instruction. Using this system, they drove down one aisle, and across the front of the hall, going back up an aisle on the other side of the room. Then they came down the center and stopped just behind the video platform. Meanwhile the audience had exploded into cheers, clapping, and laughter. Periodically the chant, "Let's Build it Now!" would burst out spontaneously. Needless to say, convention activity came to a complete stop for many minutes together. [#23 PHOTO/CAPTION: Mr. Cheadle stands beside the crane] When order was at last restored, President Maurer said: Many, many things I have done for and in this organization. Never have I done such as this, but never have I anticipated as much need for us to think and act in a way that will change what we are and what the rest of the world thinks about us. Almost nobody has ever seen me in a T-shirt, but, as you observe, here at the podium of the Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, I am wearing one. [cheers and applause] In a sense I do it for the same reason Dr. Jernigan wore, for the first time ever, a tuxedo at the 1971 convention banquet. The speech was "To Man the Barricades," as dramatic a statement of our intentions and philosophy as the name implies. We were at the height of the NAC battle. We intended to put an end to custodialism. It would no longer be business as usual. We would no longer tolerate exclusion from the boardrooms of power. We would make the decisions and control our own lives. The tuxedo symbolized all of that and more. We left that convention knowing that the time was now to do what we had never done before and to do it in a different way. We had an assignment to change what it means to be blind, and we have done so in ways beyond our wildest expectations. So why the T-shirt? Because we are not done yet. We are not done until every man, woman, and child in this country and beyond comes to know, understand, and believe as we do about blindness. Just as the exclusivity of the tuxedo came to symbolize our assault on the then existing, self-proclaimed elite of the blindness power structure, so the universality of the T-shirt will come to symbolize our final assault on the hearts and minds of all who have not yet come fully to share our understanding of blindness. Today we begin that. Or today we begin the behavior that will change forever what has been to what can be. Today we commit ourselves to build it, and to build it now. ********** With that as introduction, we then turned to "Creating our Own Future: Building the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind." A panel of Federationists and friends spoke about the campaign and their part in it. A more complete report on this important agenda item appears elsewhere in this issue. [#24 PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman Johnny Isakson] "Pay Equity for Blind Americans: the Future of the Subminimum Wage Policy Affecting Blind Workers" was the topic addressed by the Honorable Johnny Isakson, Member of Congress from Georgia. Congressman Isakson had been on the platform during the preceding agenda item and was so moved by what he heard that he began by making his own campaign pledge. He then went on to tell the audience why he introduced H.R. 3540 to remove the sub-minimum wage exemption for blind workers. It was a rousing speech, and it is clear that here is one Member of Congress who understands the importance of removing the barriers that prevent people from demonstrating their potential. Frank Kurt Cylke, Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, next discussed "The Digital World." This was a summary of the exhaustive process the NLS is engaged in to determine exactly what every element of the current recorded book program costs. They have identified ninety-eight component parts and now have the cost for each. Next they will be able to consider the costs of various alternative digital systems for providing the same level of service in this upgraded mode. They calculate that switching to a different system will cost in the neighborhood of 150 million dollars, so they need to demonstrate that they can spend the money wisely and efficiently. Following Mr. Cylke on the agenda was Glen Cavanaugh, President of Multimedia/Audio Communications of Telex Communications, Inc. His title was "Producing Machines for the Talking Book Program: Twenty-Five Years of Development and Plans for Tomorrow." He sketched the history of Telex and the role of the cassette playback machines made by Telex in the Talking Book Program and assured the audience that Telex will continue to bring its expertise and high standards to future NLS production contracts. With that the general session ended, and delegates scattered to enjoy an afternoon and evening on the town. A number of tours were available, but many activities were also to be found at the hotel. The first National Job Fair to be held at a national convention drew more than 150 Federationists to displays and discussions conducted by a number of major employers. It is not yet clear how many job offers actually came out of this event, but participants on both sides of the tables were very excited about the experience. This is an event that will definitely happen again. The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children sponsored three different drop-in discussions for families facing various kinds of challenges. These are always popular and extremely valuable since detailed personal help with specific problems is available. In addition, the Social Security workshop drew people struggling with SSDI and SSI problems. Committees met, and various groups hosted receptions, information sessions, and video-described films. The National Association of Blind Students sponsored its traditional Monte Carlo night. This year chances were drawn for an opportunity to sit down and enjoy ice cream and talk with President Maurer. He actually came down and spent the evening with students and did, indeed, have ice cream with the winners. Friday morning the general session began fifteen minutes earlier than announced in the agenda because of the press of business. The first speaker was our own Erik Weihenmayer, who recently returned from Nepal, where he and his team trained for their attempt to ascend Mt. Everest next spring by climbing her next-door neighbor, Ama Dablam, the Mother's Charm Box, as the Sherpa people call it. Though the team did not reach the summit because of bad weather, the experience they shared has prepared them for Everest more completely than a climb to the summit in good weather could ever have done. Erik's remarks were inspiring, and we are all eager for the next installment of his adventure. The next agenda item was a series of presentations titled "The NFB in the World." The first speaker was Dr. Euclid Herie, President of the World Blind Union and President of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Dr. Herie was making his thirteenth consecutive address to the NFB. He described the efforts the WBU is making to preserve the international Free-Matter mailing privilege. He reminded his audience that 90 percent of the world's blind population has little access to education and no access to technology or even slates and styluses. He ended by saying that the new Research and Training Institute we are planning is precisely the sort of thing necessary to make the breakthrough needed in dealing with blindness around the world. So the CNIB has determined to make a $10,000 contribution to the capital campaign. Kicki Nordstrom, First Vice President of the World Blind Union and First Vice President of Synskadaes Riksforbund (the Swedish National Association of the Visually Impaired), reviewed the history of her organization going back to the formation of a self-help organization of blind brush-makers in 1889. The SRF today is comprised of blind and visually impaired people who are committed to self-expression and who work to achieve equality for the blind of Sweden. As Kicki Nordstrom was leaving the platform, Dr. Maurer mentioned that she is a candidate for President of the World Blind Union this November. Harold Snider, too, is running for office. He is seeking to become Secretary General of the WBU with the backing of the NFB. Dr. Maurer said that he was pretty confident that Kicki will win her contest. ONCE, the Spanish National Organization of the Blind, is backing its own candidate for Secretary General, so it is far from clear who will win that election. The next speaker was Dr. Michael Tobin from the United Kingdom. He gave an interesting report on his research on Braille at the University of Birmingham over the past thirty or so years. He characterized himself, though sighted, as addicted to Braille. Certainly the breadth and depth of his research makes that clear. Coreen Bradbury, who was attending her fourth convention and is a leader of the NFB of the United Kingdom, then spoke briefly. She brought greetings from the President of the European Blind Union and Chairman of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, Sir John Wall. Sir John was scheduled to address the Convention, but ill health prevented his making the trip. But Coreen was pleased to tell the audience that he had recently been knighted by the Queen in her birthday list. "Accessibility to Electronic Information for the Blind" was the title of the next portion of the agenda. In introducing the first speaker, Dr. Maurer said that we have often been frustrated in trying to deal with Microsoft to solve access problems with the company's programs. But as we have gotten to know Janis Hertz, Director of Products and Technology, Accessibility and Disabilities Group at Microsoft, we have gradually come to understand that she is willing to listen and eager to find solutions to the problems together. Ms. Hertz reviewed the progress Microsoft is making at present and described some of the future projects the company hopes to bring to fruition. Chuck King, Product Manager at the IBM Accessibility Center, then spoke about IBM's commitment to access for disabled users. He pointed out that fifty-eight years before the first disability legislation, in 1914, IBM hired its first disabled employee. The company has been demonstrating its commitment to developing products that are accessible ever since. IBM now requires that all the software it purchases for internal use or resale be accessible, and the company is putting pressure on the independent programmers doing work for it to insure that their programs are accessible. Mr. King also briefly touched on IBM's plans for the future in accessibility. The next speaker turned out to be three. Deane Blazie, then president of Blazie Engineering, and Ted Henter, then president of Henter Joyce, joined forces with Dick Chandler, a management expert with access to venture capital, to bring the company Freedom Scientific into being. Jim Fruchterman and his company, Arkenstone, have now also joined Freedom Scientific. Deane and Ted, both longtime Federationists, shared the microphone to tell the story of their decision and what it has meant to them personally and to blind people all over the world. Both men were tired of running businesses and yearned to get back to the hands-on work they love. Now that they are both vice presidents for development, they can do just that. They believe that they will be able to integrate products more effectively and make development dollars go further. They introduced Dick Chandler, who said that he, too, was committed to changing the world for people with sensory and learning disabilities. He is confident that in two or three years all of us will share his conviction that this merger has been a good thing for the field. Dr. Maurer announced that the following week the Canadian National Institute for the Blind would present its 2000 Winston Gordon Award for contributions in technology or access to information for the blind to Ted Henter. The award consists of a gold medal and $10,000. Bill Long, President of Clever Devices, was the next speaker. His title was "Smart Buses: Solving the Problem of Calling Bus Stops." His company's research indicates that bus drivers are frequently afraid of the microphones necessary to make the stop announcements required by the ADA. If transit companies are to comply with the law, technological solutions must be found. The resulting announcements must be accurate, clear, and friendly. That's what his company has done for a number of transit systems with the advice and assistance of the NFB. "Using the Internet Without a Computer" was the final agenda item of the morning. The presenter was Jack Gorman, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Speak Link, Inc. His company's work is to voice-enable Web sites on the Internet. It also provides a voice portal for reaching the sites that can be investigated using voice commands over the telephone. Early on they realized that blind people would be a significant part of the market for their services, so they contacted the Washington affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind. They discovered that they had not anticipated many things that would prove to be problems to blind users. They quickly learned that, while a service may be good for the general population, it may not adequately serve the blind. But the reverse is not true. If a technology is good for the blind, it greatly increases the usability for the general population. He urged the audience not to tell the competition this truth, at least not for a while. As a result of the close working relationship that has been formed with the NFB, all the beta testers for the Speaklink system are members or friends of the NFB. Curtis Chong now sits on the company's advisory board, and the NFB's Web site will soon be voice-enabled. Mr. Gorman said in response to a question that a number of exhibitors at the convention had expressed interest in having their Web sites voice-enabled. He said he hoped that very soon the company's portal would include a blind channel that surfers could use to reach sites of particular interest to blind consumers. The afternoon session opened with a stirring address by Victor Siaulys, Founder of Ache Laboratorios Pharmaceuticals and Co-founder of Laramara, the National Association for Assistance to Visually Impaired Children in Brazil. His title was "Building the Future for the Blind in Brazil." Mr. Siaulys is a self-made businessman and philanthropist. He and his wife Mara had a blind daughter, Laura, twenty-two years ago. They set out to learn what they could about blindness and how to enable their daughter to live a full and productive life. The couple has established the nonprofit organization Laramara to provide what they have learned in a multi-disciplinary setting to blind children and their families in Brazil. Mr. Siaulys became friends with Dr. Jernigan when Laramara sponsored an international conference at which Dr. Jernigan was the keynote speaker. The friendship has clearly shaped his dreams and dedication to serve blind children and their families. "A Coordinated Effort of Business to Employ the Disadvantaged Including the Blind" was the title of remarks given by Rodney Carroll, Chief Operating Officer of the Welfare to Work Partnership and an Executive on loan from UPS. His job is to contact members of the business community and bring them to the understanding that they are not facing a shortage of workers but the necessity to look for them in different places from the traditional sources of potential employees. He assured the audience that more and more companies are coming to understand that blind people have skills to offer. The next speaker was an old friend and colleague of the organized blind, Dr. Fredric Schroeder, Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration. The text of his address appears elsewhere in this issue. [#25 PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman Robert Ehrlich shakes hands with President Maurer at the podium.] Robert Ehrlich, Congressman from Maryland and sponsor of the Blind Empowerment Act, then addressed the delegates. He reviewed his philosophy of employment opportunity, which sounds very much like that of the National Federation of the Blind. He then said that the probable next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has pledged to him that he will help get this measure to the floor of the House during the 107th Congress. He urged us all to go home and bother every Member of the House who is not yet a co-sponsor of H.R. 1601. He assured the group that constituents are the very best tool he has for getting this bill enacted into law. [#26 PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman John Shimkus] The Honorable John Shimkus of Illinois next addressed the Convention on the subject of "The Minimum Wage: Extending the Benefits of the Minimum Wage to All Americans Including the Blind." Congressman Shimkus is one of the most enthusiastic cosponsors of H.R. 3540, which would assure that blind sheltered shop workers get at least the minimum wage. Mr. Shimkus described the dear colleague letter which was circulated on May 15 of this year. It asked for Congressional support for this measure, and it did so in Braille. The letter caused quite a stir, but he too urged Federationists to raise Cain with our Representatives in order to gather cosponsors and general support for the measure. "Plextalk, the Digital Book Player" was the title of brief remarks made by Motoaki Kaneko, President of Plextor Company of Japan. Mr. Kaneko reviewed the history of his company and of the digital book. RNIB in the United Kingdom has bought 10,000 of the Plextor machines, which play audio books on CD's. The RNIB will be producing books in this format, and the NFB is looking into producing a couple of NFB publications on CD. Walking Alone and Marching Together, including all the original recordings of the speeches, will fit on one CD. Mr. Kaneko invited Gilles Pepin to use a little of the time allotted to Plextor to talk about the Victor portable digital book player, a competitor product manufactured in Canada. Both machines were available for inspection and demonstration in the convention exhibit hall. [#27 PHOTO/CAPTION: Marvin Sandler demonstrates the Odyssey Talking Tactile Globe to Tim Cranmer and another Federationist.] The next speaker was Marvin Sandler, President of Independent Living Aids. His topic was "Talk is Cheap and Becoming Cheaper: A History of Talking Devices for the Blind." He pointed out that his is the oldest private company selling retail aids for disabled people, having opened in 1977. He reminded the audience of some of the early talking equipment and its great expense. He demonstrated several clocks, watches, and calculators for sale today at a fraction of early prices. He ended by mentioning that in a matter of weeks now we will have a talking remote TV control and a Braille watch with up to five reminder alarms. Dr. Ruby Ryles, a longtime Federationist and coordinator of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness and Masters Program for Orientation and Mobility at Louisiana Tech/Louisiana Center for the Blind, delivered a moving and exciting address titled "Teaching the Professionals That Teach the Blind: The Innovative Program at Louisiana Tech/Louisiana Center for the Blind." She reviewed the reason for and the history of the wonderful program she directs. Of the twenty-three mobility teachers trained so far in her program, eighteen have been blind. Funding has just arrived to establish the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness, which she also coordinates. Two more master's degree programs are underway, one for teachers of blind children and the other for rehabilitation counselors of the blind. Wonderful research can be expected from all of these programs in the future, and we were delighted to hear firsthand about what is happening. [#28 PHOTO/CAPTION: Tuck Tinsley displays APH's new relief map of the United States.] The final speaker of the afternoon was Dr. Tuck Tinsley, President of the American Printing House for the Blind. His title was "Employing the Techniques of Modern Business in the Production of Materials for the Blind." Recently Toyota Motors adopted APH to help it become more productive using Toyota's four philosophies, which APH has now made its own: the customer comes first, people (employees) are the most valuable resource, continuous improvement, and shop floor focus. Dr. Tinsley spoke briefly and persuasively about each of these commitments and pointed out how APH's services and production have improved because of this new way of doing business. Among other things he mentioned that from developing ten new products a year several years ago, APH has improved to the point of developing seventy-two new ones this year with thirty more that no one has yet had time to develop despite their having been approved. The most touching moment of Dr. Tinsley's presentation was his unveiling of the prototype of the "Kenneth Jernigan Map of the United States." This is a relief map of all fifty states with incised outlines of the states in the frame and Braille state names in each. At the Kentucky convention in 1997 Dr. Jernigan told Dr. Tinsley that APH should produce such a map to replace the old APH map of the continental forty-eight states. The title of the map appears in print at the top of the map and in Braille across the bottom. The rest of the inscription is "Master Educator of the Blind of the Twentieth Century, President and Leader of the National Federation of the Blind." On that high note the Convention recessed so that everyone could prepare for the annual banquet. [#29 PHOTO/CAPTION: Allen Harris stands with his hand on President Maurer's shoulder at the banquet.] It is safe to say that the NFB has never experienced a banquet like the one in 2000. A number of things were familiar. Allen Harris performed as the master-of-ceremonies with his usual skill and assurance. Three awards were presented: The Newel Perry Award went to Congressman Robert Ehrlich. The International Braille Research Center's Louis Braille Award was presented to Dr. Michael Tobin of the United Kingdom. And our own Dr. Tim Cranmer received the Jacobus tenBroek Award. All three presentations appear in full elsewhere in this issue. Allen drew a great number of door prizes, and a number of division drawings took place. We did some singing, and Dr. Ray Kurzweil briefly addressed the banquet audience. He recollected his twenty-five-year relationship with the organization and what he has learned about blindness and from blind people. The really astonishing part of the banquet was upon us almost before anyone knew what was happening. By this next-to-the-last evening of the convention, our capital campaign was within $100,000 of the $5,000,000 mark. An anonymous donor in the audience made it known that a matching gift of up to $50,000 was available to get us to the five million mark. That was the beginning. Gifts and five-year pledges began coming to the podium. When the dust settled that evening, about $600,000 had been raised at the banquet alone. The total amount of contributions and pledges raised during the convention was $1,100,000, making the total raised to date $5,600,000. Being a part of such an outpouring of love and hope for the future stirred us all profoundly. President Maurer delivered a truly remarkable banquet address titled "The Personality of Freedom." When told that NFB banquet addresses are a never-to-be-forgotten experience, those who have never attended an NFB banquet or read one of the speeches might be tempted to dismiss descriptions of the long series of moving, inspiring, and thought-provoking speeches we have listened to through the years as no more than the usual after-dinner fare churned out by hundreds of speakers on the rubber-chicken circuit. They could not be more wrong. The entire text of the banquet address appears elsewhere in this issue, but here is a taste of the speech as well over two thousand people heard it in person on the evening of Friday, July 7, and others around the world heard it from our Web site on real audio: ********** The mechanisms of our movement change, but the fundamental purpose remains the same. Sometimes we achieve our objectives through letter-writing campaigns, sometimes by marching in the streets, sometimes by confrontations, sometimes by educational symposia, sometimes by creating a literature of hope and belief, sometimes through actions in the courts, and sometimes by designing our own research facility. However, though the method may shift, the objective does not--it is the complete, unhampered, total independence of the blind. In this year of new beginnings, as the 1900's cease to be, we look to the future and wonder what the decades ahead will bring. The specific details may be obscure, but the direction is abundantly clear. The future belongs to us. The doctors can tell us that we cannot live independently; the computer specialists can deny us access to information; the inventors can assert that we are unable to find the toilet paper; and the newspapers can print that some of us think it would be better for us to jump in front of a bus. In the long run such arguments are of no significance. They cannot stop us, for we will not let them. We will form our personality to fit our own image, and we will keep on marching--never quitting, keep on battling--never stopping, keep on living our independence--never altering our irrepressible spirit. Whatever the challenges, we will meet them. Whatever the obstacles, we will surmount them. Whatever the costs, we will pay them. We will not be ignored or stifled or intimidated--and we will prevail. This is our determination; this is our personality; this is the National Federation of the Blind! Come: join me, and we will make it come true! ********** The final event of this extraordinary evening was the presentation of scholarship awards. A full account of this ceremony appears elsewhere in this issue. Angela Sasser of Texas was the winner of the $21,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. [#30 PHOTO/CAPTION: Sharon Maneki and Barry Hond of Maryland display the attendance banner that Frank Coppel from South Carolina has just presented to them.] The partying went on into the small hours of the morning, but precisely at 9:00 Saturday morning the gavel fell, marking the beginning of the final day of the convention. The invocation for the day was sung by Federation leader David Stayer. President Maurer told the delegates that David had postponed some necessary surgery until the following week in order to be present at the convention. Everyone certainly wished David well as he traveled home. The first item of business on the morning's agenda was the financial report, which President Maurer made. Then final reports were given on PAC, SUN, Associates, the Jernigan Fund, and the capital campaign. Barbara Pierce announced that Macy McClain of Ohio, age nine, had just returned from the CNN studios, where she was interviewed and invited to read a bit of a Harry Potter book aloud. July 8, you will remember, was the day of the release of the fourth of these books. Macy not only read Braille on network television but informed the interviewer that Braille was easy and that she didn't have time to sit around and read all day long because she has chores to do and 4H projects to complete. Following the contribution announcements made by affiliates and divisions during the Honor Roll Call of States, Jim Gashel and Kristen Cox delivered the Washington report. Mr. Gashel reviewed our continuing struggle to eliminate work disincentives for blind Social Security Disability Insurance recipients. We made progress this session, which is good, but we must be prepared to go back and do it all over again in the 107th Congress. Exciting progress has been made in our efforts to legislate access to electronic texts for blind students. We have reached an agreement with the Association of American Publishers to go to Congress together to develop language we all can live with to accomplish this goal. The last time we had to find a legislative solution to a publishing problem, reaching an agreement with the publishers was the necessary first step, and we are optimistic that we can now achieve the access to electronic texts we need. Nine states have already passed technology bills: Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia. The rest of us must redouble our efforts to pass state laws to make sure that all technology purchased with state funds has the capacity to be made accessible to disabled users if needed. During the past year we won a lawsuit giving the Randolph-Sheppard Program priority over military mess halls. That decision is now being appealed, but we intend to win at the appeal level. After all, the RSA Commissioner and the General Council's Office of the Department of Defense agree with our position. We should go home and urge state Business Enterprise Programs to begin trying to get these sites for blind vendors. Mrs. Cox commended Convention delegates for generating more than a thousand letters to Dr. Schroeder in support of the RSA proposed rulemaking to stop accepting sheltered-shop placements as competitive closures. In the months immediately ahead we must clearly tell our Senators and Representatives that we do not want language in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor HHS) Appropriations bill conference report which would prevent the Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation from redefining an employment outcome. Such language is now in the Senate version, and even though it is not binding, we do not want it making its way into the conference report. Calls should still be made on this matter in September and October. The work of the NFB Office of Governmental Affairs never stops, and we are always facing a crisis or deadline somewhere in the legislative arena. Mrs. Cox and Mr. Gashel do a wonderful job for us on the Hill, but we are the ones who have to make what they say stick. The 2001 Washington Seminar will be February 4 through 7, and Mr. Gashel charged us with the challenge of having all fifty states represented in Washington. The entire afternoon session was devoted to reading, debating, and passing thirty-four resolutions. By the time 5:00 arrived, everyone was tired but satisfied. We had completed a marvelous convention. We had experienced the wonderful hospitality of the Georgians and the City of Atlanta. The time had come to turn our thoughts toward the demands and opportunities of the year ahead. Old friendships renewed, new friendships made, batteries recharged--we packed our bags and returned home to get back to the unremitting work of changing what it means to be blind. Ringing in our ears was the invitation of Fred Wurtzel and the members of the Michigan affiliate to come to Detroit and have some fun in two thousand one! ********** ********** ***************************************************************** Life Insurance ********** Life insurance constitutes a very special gift to the National Federation of the Blind. A relatively easy and direct form of planned giving is a new life insurance policy. You can make the NFB the beneficiary and owner of a life insurance policy and receive a tax deduction on the premium you pay. For example, at age fifty you purchase a $10,000 whole life insurance policy on yourself and designate the NFB as beneficiary and owner of the policy. The premium cost to you is fully tax-deductible each year. You may even decide to pay for the entire policy over a specific period of time, perhaps ten years. This increases your tax deduction each year over the ten-year period and fully pays up your policy. You may, however, already have a life insurance policy in existence and wish to contribute it to the NFB. By changing the beneficiary and owner to the National Federation of the Blind, you can receive tax savings, depending on the cash value of the policy. Your attorney, insurance agent, or the National Federation of the Blind will be able to assist you if you decide to include the NFB in your planned-giving program through life insurance. For more information contact the National Federation of the Blind, Special Gifts, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998, phone (410) 659-9314, fax (410) 685-5653. ************************************************************* [#31 PHOTO/CAPTION: Marc Maurer delivers the 2000 Presidential Report] Presidential Report National Federation of the Blind July 5, 2000 by Marc Maurer ********** During the past twelve months the National Federation of the Blind has been as vigorous and as active as it has ever been. Our programs to assist blind children and adults have continued at an accelerating rate, and we have undertaken new initiatives as well. Although the Federation is expanding in size and diversity, we remain committed to the principles that brought our organization into being sixty years ago. We are the blind--from every economic segment of society and every geographic area of our nation--blind workers in the sheltered shops, blind vendors, blind employees in industry or the professions, blind people seeking employment, blind college students, parents of blind children, those who are newly blinded, and blind people who have not yet discovered what the future can hold for them. Our movement is made up of all blind people who possess the faith to believe that working together we can build a future that is brighter than has ever existed for the blind. This is our dream; this is our purpose; this is the essence of the organized blind movement; this is the National Federation of the Blind. The Smithsonian Institution serves as the national museum of the United States. It has recently decided to establish an exhibit showing the development of the disabilities rights movement. One significant part of this movement is the story of the National Federation of the Blind. Starting in 1940, the National Federation of the Blind was the pioneer of self-organization among the members of any disability group. We showed the way for other organizations of the disabled, which did not emerge until decades later. The Smithsonian Institution has asked us to supply a number of artifacts of the Federation. These artifacts, which are now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian, came from the hands of Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder and first president of the Federation, and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, our second great president. The exhibit will be placed on display for the public later this year. The names of our presidents and of the National Federation of the Blind are listed as part of American history at the Smithsonian. In 1990, on the fiftieth birthday of the National Federation of the Blind, we established the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind, which contains at least one of each computer-driven device or program, of which we are aware, to provide information to the blind in Braille, in refreshable Braille, or in speech. At the time this center was founded we promised ourselves that we would keep it up to date, acquiring all new products for the blind that became available. This year we have added twelve Pentium III computers configured as Internet workstations with T-1 capability, one Braille music-translation program and digital music keyboard, two kinds of Braille note-takers with speech output, three types of Braille note-takers with refreshable Braille displays, one talking Web browser called the IBM Home Page Reader, four different software speech synthesizers for the Windows operating system, a Braille embosser for Windows, a Braille embosser able to generate graphics using programs running under Windows, one tactile image enhancer capable of generating raised-line drawings, three refreshable Braille displays, one book-reading device called the Bookworm which features an eight-cell refreshable Braille display, two stand-alone reading machines--the Portset and the Pronto, four screen reading programs for Windows, one Scan-A-Can program to read and interpret bar codes, a Kurzweil 1000 Version 5 reading system, a laptop with a built-in refreshable Braille display--the SuperBraille, one scientific calculator with a built-in Braille display, and the software packages necessary to run all of these products. Not only do we acquire technology built by others, but we continue to upgrade our own. The NEWSLINE(r) for the Blind Network, which first came into being in 1994, has continued to expand, from fifty-nine local service centers to seventy-two currently in operation. We have added sites in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. NEWSLINE is available in thirty-two states, the District of Columbia, and Toronto, Canada. The number of papers provided on NEWSLINE has also expanded from twenty-eight a year ago to forty-three. Thirty-six of these papers are of local interest, and seven of them are national in scope. More than seven thousand subscribers have been added to the NEWSLINE network since last year, and the patterns indicate that the pace of growth is accelerating. The America's Jobline Network, a technology created by the National Federation of the Blind, has continued to expand. Fourteen states currently have Jobline sites, and we believe that sites in nine others will soon be in operation. Because over thirty thousand job orders per day are transmitted to each Jobline site, we have upgraded the transmission system to employ a digital modem pool connected to T-1 lines capable of handling twenty-three simultaneous transmissions. We have increased our efforts to improve access to information on the Internet. During the past year we have received many requests for assistance regarding technology from private companies and governmental institutions such as IBM, Microsoft, H&R Block, CNN, the Health Care Financing Administration, and Citibank. Nonvisual access solutions must be incorporated in the design of Web pages. Retrofitting Web sites is clumsy, expensive, and often ineffective. Providing equal access to information is not merely good corporate strategy--it is required by law. In 1991 guidelines were adopted under the authority of the Americans with Disabilities Act that require automatic teller machines to be independently usable by people who are blind. These guidelines have now been in place for nine years, and the technology has been developed to comply with the requirements. However, compliance is almost nonexistent. Last year the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania, along with several individual blind people, filed suit against Mellon Bank to require it to install accessible ATMs. In May of this year the National Federation of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind of the District of Columbia along with several blind individuals commenced litigation in the District of Columbia to demand that Chevy Chase Bank, Rite Aid Corporation (a drugstore chain), and the Diebold Corporation (a manufacturer of ATMs) install accessible machines. Some of the ATMs manufactured by Diebold can be programmed to provide information to the customers verbally. However, although Diebold has agreed with Rite Aid that it will install and operate ATMs in Rite Aid stores, the machines it has installed are not independently usable by the blind. ATMs currently provide cash, financial transaction information, and the opportunity to transfer funds from one place to another to customers. However, manufacturers of these products anticipate that the number of services which will be provided through these machines will increase. Tickets to the theater, to a ball game, or to ride on the train will be (we are told) issued by the ATM. Information about restaurants and directions to reach such establishments will be found at the ATM. Payroll checks will be accepted and cashed at the ATM. SmartCards will be purchasable at the ATM. If these machines are not usable with nonvisual mechanisms, the entire class of people who are unable to read the screen will be shut out of an increasing percentage of business transactions as well as opportunities for entertainment and leisure. We have been told repeatedly that equal access to information is the policy of our nation, and we insist that this policy be enforced. Blind people have historically been systematically prevented from full participation in the economic sector of our society. This must change. We will avoid confrontation if we can. We will cooperate with our neighbors if they will cooperate with us. However, if we can find no way to achieve our ends peacefully, we will fight. We are simply not prepared to be ignored or intimidated or forgotten. It is not only good business; it is required by law. Then there is the Internal Revenue Service--the arm of the Department of the Treasury that seems always to be outstretched to seek yet further sums of money from the taxpayers. The Internal Revenue Service has decided to place considerable emphasis on having taxpayers file documents and make payments electronically. To assist in this process, the IRS contracted with a number of financial software-development companies to build tax-filing software programs on the Internet. These companies (H&R Block, Intuit, H.D. Vest, and Gilman & Ciocia) created their tax-filing programs without making them accessible to the blind. Perhaps it should be said that the blind have no more interest in paying taxes than the rest of the citizenry, but we have no less interest in paying our fair share. However, when we have made our payments and met our obligations, we expect to have as much access to information and as much ease in using it as others do. The creation of the Financial Management Systems sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service will inevitably alter mechanisms for dealing with commerce, and the blind will not be shut out. We joined forces with the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal. We sent letters of demand to the contractors hired by the Internal Revenue Service. In these letters we informed the contractors that we had examined the Web-based tax-filing programs, that we had found them to be unusable by the blind, and that this was a violation of the law. Within two weeks from the time that our letters were dispatched, we had received responses from all concerned. Tax programs to be used for filing returns in the spring of 2001 will be usable by the blind. H&R Block has already visited with us to discuss methods of making their tax programs usable by blind taxpayers, and the other companies have promised to work with us in the months to come. This is only the beginning. It is essential that programs accessible on the Web can be used by the blind. It is especially important that this be true when such programs are created by our own tax dollars. We do not intend for the money that we pay to be used to create a system that shuts us out. It is not only good business; it is the law. Another part of the computer world in which we expect to be included is America Online (AOL). Blind people have complained about the inaccessibility of AOL for years. In many instances computer-based information is offered in a fashion that permits access technology to present the material in Braille or speech. However, AOL offers its information only in pictographs without identifying text labels. Consequently, it is virtually impossible for blind people independently to use the AOL system. We sought the opportunity to discuss the importance of making AOL information accessible to the blind, but officials at the company seemed uninterested. When we insisted, they told us that they would get back to us. However, we are not prepared to wait indefinitely. On November 4, 1999, we brought suit in Federal District Court against America Online, asking that the company be ordered to make its Internet computer system accessible to the blind. AOL has something in the neighborhood of twenty million subscribers. It has decided to become the company that will create the standard for providing information to the public. That standard excludes the blind. We have repeatedly asked in the past that this standard be modified to include blind participants. Sympathetic responses have been made, but modifications have not come. How long should we wait? How much patience should we have? How much tolerance should the blind be expected to possess? Why should other people have what the blind can never get? We are not prepared to be shut out or ignored or intimidated or forgotten. If the information age is important (and we are repeatedly told that it is), we who are blind intend to be as much a part of it as anybody else. This is the message we sent through the filing of the lawsuit. The AOL lawsuit was filed in November, and it generated substantial interest in the applicability of nondiscrimination law to the Internet. Commerce, education, entertainment, and communications are increasingly dependent on Internet providers. On February 9, 2000, members of Congress held a hearing dedicated to considering the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the Internet. A number of people in the business community argued at the hearing that the Act does not apply and that there is no obligation to make the Internet accessible to blind consumers. However, we the National Federation of the Blind vehemently opposed this position, and we were able to place a member of our own board of directors, Gary Wunder, on the list of witnesses to provide testimony. The cogent and incisive report he gave to the members of the committee was compelling. Blind people need access to the Internet at least as much as other people do. Although there were those who had predicted that the hearing would be used as a method for attacking and defeating our lawsuit against AOL, the outcome has been more in support of our position than against it. Sometimes our success on Capitol Hill is measured not by what happens but by what does not happen. In this case the proposal to galvanize public opinion against our position failed. The arguments we made were strong enough to prevent actions from being taken against us. The Randolph-Sheppard Act provides a priority for blind persons operating cafeterias on federal property. However, this priority has been under attack by the Department of the Army and by agencies that run workshops for people with severe disabilities. NISH, formerly known as National Industries for the Severely Handicapped, is a non-profit organization which distributes federal contracts to such workshops. NISH asserts that the priority under the Randolph-Sheppard Act does not apply to government dining facilities such as military mess halls because the government (not individual employees of the government) is buying the meals. NISH filed a lawsuit late in 1999 claiming that the Randolph-Sheppard Act does not apply to military dining facilities at Fort Lee, Virginia. We intervened on behalf of all blind vendors. Although the case is less than a year old, a decision has now been reached. The Federal Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has a reputation for speed. Lawyers sometimes call it the rocket-docket. The opinion of the court, which was issued on April 25, 2000, held that mess halls are cafeterias as defined by the Randolph-Sheppard Act, that blind people have a priority to operate them, and that other government procurement regulations do not supersede the Randolph-Sheppard Act. You will not be astonished to learn that NISH has filed an appeal. However, we intend to pursue the case as far as is necessary to preserve the rights of blind vendors, and we intend to win. During the past year Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan and I have continued to serve as delegates to the World Blind Union from the National Federation of the Blind. I am also President of the North America/Caribbean Region and a member of the World Fund-raising Committee. To conduct the business of the organization and to represent the members of the National Federation of the Blind, Mrs. Jernigan and I traveled to Lewes, England; Stockholm, Sweden; and Beijing, China. At the Fund-raising Committee meeting, which occurred in Lewes, England, we discussed the urgent need for additional participation by blind individuals and organizations. In one sense the World Blind Union has not lacked funding. Tens of thousands of dollars are channeled through the organization each year to support this or that favored project or priority established by the funding organization. However, virtually no money exists to be spent on needs identified through democratic policy determinations made by the organization itself. We believe this is wrong and perpetuates an unwholesome and undemocratic class system among the members of the world organization. The National Federation of the Blind has taken the lead in trying to open the WBU to full participation for all of its members by making an unearmarked challenge grant in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars on the condition that a number of other organizations do likewise. The World Blind Union can become the voice of the blind of the world only when it can determine its own priorities and policies, and it can do this only when it controls its own treasury. We will continue our participation because we need a world organization to change opportunities for the blind in our own country and throughout the world. The work of the National Federation of the Blind continues to receive recognition in our own country and in other lands as well. In February of 2000 I was invited to give lectures on civil rights for the blind at Oxford University and Birmingham University, England. Fundamental within these lectures was the attitude of independence and self-reliance of the blind that is at the heart of Federation philosophy. The Oxford lecture was videotaped and is available for all students on campus. While I was in England, I spoke with members of the National Federation of the Blind of the United Kingdom. The great joy that we feel in attaining self-sufficiency is reflected in our colleagues in that country, and it is a pleasure to know that we can join hands with others in different parts of the world. In fact, we have considered conducting seminars on leadership for the blind in different nations. How can we gain independence for the blind in other countries and in our own? Create a movement of the blind; find friends who will share our burdens and join with us to accomplish what we had formerly thought could only be a dream. Shortly before last year's convention, I asked Dr. Norman Gardner, a long-time leader of the National Federation of the Blind, to travel to Mexico to speak on behalf of the Federation at a congress of individuals that had been brought together to consider programs for the disabled. An increasing quantity of our Federation literature has been translated into Spanish. Several members of our organization contribute to this effort: Michael Marucci, husband of Marie Marucci, who is a staff member at the National Center for the Blind; Angela Ugarte, mother of Ana Ugarte, a scholarship winner of the National Federation of the Blind; and Alpidio Rolon, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Puerto Rico. Norman Gardner informed me that the Spanish literature he took with him to Mexico was collected with astonishing speed. It was as valuable, he said, as water in the desert. We will continue to produce more literature in Spanish. I have asked Dr. Gardner to coordinate and expand this effort. Those who make the translations are volunteers, but their contributions are changing lives for people not only in the United States but also throughout much of the rest of the world. One of our translators, Angela Ugarte, has personal experience with this kind of change. She tells us why she is committed. Her letter says: "When my daughter Ana Marie lost her vision, I became her eyes in many ways. However, my constant concern was, `What will she do when I die?' Then the National Federation of the Blind offered the opportunity to go to Denver to become an independent person. After she finished the training and I saw the different person she had become, I thought, `I can now die in peace because the National Federation of the Blind is behind her.' I offered Dr. Jernigan to do translations because I felt from the bottom of my heart I had to give something back to the NFB." This mother of a blind daughter discovered a solution to what she had thought was an insurmountable problem. Her daughter also gained immeasurably. She found freedom. Our Job Opportunities for the Blind Program has continued to grow. During the last year we have enrolled more than two hundred new participants and placed dozens in competitive employment with entities such as Amerix Corporation, Cendant Travel, Sears, the Social Security Administration, Travelers Insurance, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Service Master Aviation Services, WESLA Federal Credit Union, Catholic Charities, the General Services Administration, and the Baltimore Harbor Court Hotel. Other employers have asked us to find applicants for them to consider. Protecting and defending separate and identifiable programs for the blind is part of the ongoing work of the National Federation of the Blind. Our experience has shown that better service is provided for a greater number of people when the administrative structure of state governmental programs for the blind is separate and accountable to the blind. During the past year programming for the blind has been attacked in South Dakota, Florida, and Louisiana. In South Dakota the outcome is particularly definitive. In a memorandum dated August 26, 1999, John Jones, Secretary of the Department for Human Services, announced that he was scrapping a plan to combine rehabilitation services for the blind with other functions of government. This was done despite the fact that Mr. Jones and others had indicated that the plan to eliminate separate programs for the blind could not be stopped. Karen Mayry and our members in South Dakota, working with me and others in our National Office, combined our efforts to oppose elimination of separate programs for the blind. The reason Mr. Jones decided to change his mind is clear from his own words in the memorandum he issued: "Hard core opposition from the blind." In Florida, too, the proposal to eliminate separate programs for the blind died. In Louisiana the President of the National Federation of the Blind of Louisiana, Joanne Wilson, brought together a massive public protest in the capital. More than five hundred people attended, and the proposal to privatize rehabilitation there was killed. This is the power of the National Federation of the Blind. In Nebraska the Federation urged members of the legislature to create a separate commission for the blind, and legislation to establish this agency has been adopted and signed by the governor. On July 1, 2000, the Nebraska Commission for the Blind came into being. It is governed by a five-member board. One representative is a long-time member of the National Federation of the Blind, Barbara Walker. The Fair Labor Standards Act contains a provision that allows employers to pay blind workers less than the minimum wage. For decades we have fought to eliminate this unfair discriminatory provision. Earlier this year at our request Congressman Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut introduced bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate to eliminate subminimum wages for the blind. Our efforts to bring pay equity to blind people have been reported by CNN, the Washington Post, and many other news outlets. Support for ending the policy that permits subminimum wages for the blind is growing in Congress, and we are creating the momentum. A proposal has been introduced in Congress to authorize officials within the Library of Congress to shift money from one line item within the budget to another. What difference does this make to the blind, you may ask. Funds appropriated to provide books for the blind could be used for other purposes if this bill is adopted. Almost all of the reading material available to the blind comes from the Library, and the blind of the nation need it urgently. If we do not have the full range of information available to us that others have, our capacity for participation is severely restricted. The proposal to permit shifts in allocated funds within the budget of the Library of Congress is not new, and it constitutes a severe threat to one of the most important and vital programs for the blind currently in existence. Therefore we have opposed this proposal in the past, and we are continuing to do so today. For ourselves, for blind children who cannot readily speak for themselves, for the blind who will come after us, we say: maintain the funds; give us books; let us read! We have also been active in supporting the rights of blind people through the courts. As I reported a year ago, Monica Stugelmeyer is a blind woman living in Spokane, Washington, and a long-time member of the National Federation of the Blind. Some time ago she became employed at the Cowles Publishing Company, which produces the Spokesman Review newspaper. After working on the paper for some time, she sought a promotion to become an inserter operator, but her request was denied because of blindness. We assisted Monica Stugelmeyer in filing a complaint of discrimination. In late October last fall the case was settled. The settlement agreement says that we cannot disclose the amount received by Monica Stugelmeyer. However, it is big enough that Cowles Publishing will not soon forget. Norwegian Cruise Lines offers pleasure voyages that originate in United States ports. However, several members of the National Federation of the Blind have recently been informed that blind people are unwelcome onboard unless they accept conditions of travel laid down by Norwegian that do not apply to the sighted. Robert Stigile and Joy Cardinet are members of the Federation from California who were planning a honeymoon cruise with Norwegian. However, the cruise line demanded that they sign waivers of liability, that they obtain advice from a physician regarding risks of travel for those who are blind, and that they purchase special travelers' insurance to cover the supposedly added risk of damage faced by blind passengers. If this set of conditions seems onerous, it is not all that was demanded. Robert and Joy were informed that they would not be permitted onboard unless they agreed to make the cruise accompanied by a non-disabled passenger, who would stay with them in their cabin. Does this condition sound particularly impressive for those planning a honeymoon cruise? We are assisting with the case. We have asked the Department of Justice to take an interest. We reject every single one of the conditions imposed by Norwegian Cruise Lines, and we will find a way for the blind to sail along with others without restraint, without harassment, and without some snoopy sighted person to bother us in our cabins. Dr. Daryush Sattari is a blind teacher living in Georgia. For two years he has taught earth sciences in Jonesboro. All six of his performance evaluations give him the highest rating, and his supervisors have consistently indicated that he is a good teacher. However, a new principal has been assigned to the school where he teaches. Shortly before this convention Dr. Sattari was informed that he will not be retained as a teacher because there are problems with his classroom management. Although all other teachers in the school received letters from the district superintendent requesting that they continue to teach, Dr. Sattari was told to pack up and leave. We are working with the teachers union to file a complaint of discrimination. The union is with us; it recognizes unfairness; and it is prepared to fight. Good performance demands recognition, and we intend to get this for Dr. Sattari, along with a renewal of his contract or damages for discriminatory behavior. Bob Clark lives in Indiana and is a blind father of a three-year-old daughter. In a custody battle with his former wife he was denied the opportunity to have unsupervised custody of his child because of blindness. If he wanted to see her, he must have with him a full-time sighted supervisor, the court ruled. We learned about the case and assisted him by filing a brief on his behalf in the Indiana Court of Appeals and by appearing for him in the court. On March 10, 2000, the Court of Appeals issued its decision reversing the lower court. Bob Clark can visit with his daughter without the necessity of a sighted person to supervise the two of them. Blind people have as many family obligations and rights as others possess, and this was made clear by the decision of the Court of Appeals. Rose Tillis is a blind person living in a rural community of Georgia called Ellavell. This spring she gave birth to her daughter, Angel La Rose Tillis. When it was time for her to leave the hospital, personnel there said blind parents could not competently care for newborn children, and they insisted that Rose Tillis sign papers to grant custody of her new baby to her sighted sister. The National Federation of the Blind learned of the matter. We investigated and found that Rose Tillis is competent. We sent lawyers to Georgia along with dozens of blind parents to serve as witnesses, and we filed a petition of Habeas Corpus demanding that the child be released to her mother. As we gathered in the court room for the hearing, with the blind parents prepared to give testimony and the newspaper and television reporters prepared to write the story, the sister of Rose Tillis and hospital officials agreed to do what should have been done in the beginning. They released Angela La Rose Tillis to her mother. The family has been reunited through the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. Carol Randolph is a blind teacher in Greenville, South Carolina, who was informed that she would not get a job teaching in the district because she is blind. Negotiations failed, so we assisted with the lawsuit, and the matter has now been resolved. Carol Randolph has been offered a contract, and she will be teaching. In addition the school district has paid for the harm it caused. Carol Randolph received more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. At our convention last year we announced a campaign to raise capital to construct the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind. This is one of the most ambitious endeavors we have ever undertaken. We estimate that the construction will cost approximately eighteen million dollars. Concept documents have been drafted, and we have asked for support from thousands of individuals, dozens of companies, and many foundations. The purpose of the campaign is to bring into the field of work with the blind an emphasis in research which recognizes the fundamental capacity of blind people. We also intend to include within this facility the Jacobus tenBroek Library, which will collect documents and writings on blindness from all over the world. It has been said that revolutions begin in the libraries. Our revolution was initiated in the hearts and minds of the blind, but it is not finished. We intend to promote it within the research library we plan to build. As we come to this convention, we have raised approximately four and a half million dollars in outright gifts and pledges for the construction of this facility. We hope to have sufficient funding to begin construction in a little more than a year's time. We must build our own future. With the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind, we intend to do exactly that. In 1991, 1993, and 1996, we conducted at the National Center for the Blind jointly with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind US-Canada conferences on technology for the blind. The fourth of these occurred in the fall of 1999, once again hosted by the National Federation of the Blind at the National Center. This conference, as did its predecessors, invited decision-makers from all major manufacturers of products for the blind and organizations involving blindness in the United States and Canada. New technology was discussed along with trends in development of access systems for the blind. Joint efforts to shape policy so that blind people are considered when systems are developed was a high priority. Exchange of ideas and information has been a fundamental force in bringing these conferences together. However, the fourth US-Canada Conference on technology for the blind also encouraged an exchange of mutual support. It brought greater harmony and cooperation to matters dealing with technology for the blind than has previously existed. A full report of the proceedings appeared in the January, 2000, issue of the Braille Monitor. Last fall we hosted a meeting of the International Council on English Braille, inviting representatives from all English-speaking parts of the world to support Braille programs for the blind everywhere. Promoting independence of the blind through increased literacy was a favorite mission of Betty Niceley, who served as President of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille and who had formerly been a member of the National Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. Betty was elected President of the International Council on English Braille last November. Within weeks of her election we learned that she had serious heart disease; she died within a few short months. However, her dream of greater Braille literacy for the blind of the world remains, and we give it our full support. We have continued during the past year to conduct programs and activities that have come to be a part of the Federation. We have taught seminars to parents and educators of blind children and given classes in Braille and nonvisual technology. We have assisted in creating a training video on the handling of blind passengers for United Airlines. We have supported a blind mountain climber, Erik Weihenmayer, in his efforts to scale the tallest peaks in the world. We have conducted seminars for blind high school students from New York and New Jersey at the National Center for the Blind. We have increased our scholarship program to provide thirty students with scholarship grants that range in amount from four thousand to twenty-one thousand dollars. We have commenced conducting community education breakfasts at the National Center for the Blind to which we invite business and sports leaders. The tennis champion and news commentator Pam Shriver served as one of the keynote speakers. We are currently upgrading our Web site, nfb.org, which offers 3,426 files to the public. Four hundred and twenty-two thousand, nine hundred and sixty visitors from 113 different countries sought information from our site in the last year, and the requests for information numbered 1,354,097. From our Materials Center we filled more than six thousand orders, distributing approximately two million items to blind people in the United States and throughout the world. A record number of visitors came to the National Center for the Blind, almost two thousand from twenty-one different countries. We have continued to distribute the Braille Monitor, with a circulation of approximately thirty-five thousand per month, and Voice of the Diabetic, which is now being distributed to more than 280,000. We continue to produce and distribute the Kernel Books, those volumes of firsthand accounts about blindness that offer a depth of understanding about the problems we face to members of the public. The eighteenth Kernel Book, Oh Wow!, is being released at this convention; and the nineteenth book, I Can Feel Blue on Mondays, will be released later this fall. Blindness is often misunderstood, but with the distribution of our Kernel Books we are having a powerful impact in bringing greater understanding. There are currently more than four million of these volumes in circulation. Then there are Future Reflections, the magazine for parents and educators of blind children; the American Bar Association Journal, recorded edition; and a number of other newsletters and magazines of divisions and affiliates of the Federation. As I reflect upon the activities of the Federation for the preceding twelve months, I believe that we have never been in better health--never been more active--never been better able to promote our own goals and carry out our own programs. Some of the programs we undertake change from year to year, but the fundamental purposes of the Federation do not. I came to be a part of the movement over thirty years ago, and my first convention was a revelation to me--it was fresh, exciting, stimulating, challenging. It placed the responsibility for our future squarely in our own hands, and it demanded that we find a way to make that future bright both for us and for those who would come after us. The convention insisted that we recognize and adopt a pattern of behavior which would give to our lives independence and productive accomplishment. We knew it wouldn't happen overnight. We knew it would be demanding. We knew it would require sacrifice and the capacity to believe in ourselves and our blind brothers and sisters. But we also knew that the faith we shared could never be crushed, the progress we made could never be thwarted, and the dreams we possessed could never be extinguished if we would only maintain the proper spirit. It was true when I came to the Federation. It is true in this convention today. It will be true when we come together in the decades to come! What causes our dreams to become real? Why do we continue to gain greater success? We in the Federation have a bond of shared love and trust. As long as we share our sorrows, our disappointment, and our burdens, none is too great for us to bear. And, of course, with the sharing of work and responsibility comes also the sharing of triumph and joy. I have said in the past, and I repeat today, that we in the Federation have a mutual commitment--you as members and I as President. As long as you want me to do so, I will lead our movement with as much wisdom and firmness as I am capable of bringing to the task. I will give my time, my energy, my interest, my imagination, and my resources. I will not shirk or duck responsibility or try to cut corners, and I will be prepared to stand in the front line of the battles and to take whatever comes. You too have a responsibility to our movement, and I will not hesitate to ask that you meet it. You must believe in what we are doing and give of your time, your imagination, your resources, and your dedication. You must also support me when the challenges come. With this bond--this commitment--there is nothing on earth that can prevent us from reaching our objectives. I have looked into the hearts of Federation members, and I know the spirit that burns within them. We the National Federation of the Blind are absolutely unstoppable. This is my faith in our future. This is my commitment, and this is my report to you. ********** ********** [#32 PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Two people and one guide dog are entering the ballroom, all wearing T-shirts. CAPTION: Everyone with access to a "Let's Build It Now" T-shirt wore it to the Thursday morning session.] Creating Our Own Future: Building the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind by Barbara Pierce ********** Thursday, July 6, 2000, will go down in the annals of Federation history as T-shirt day and the day President Maurer drove a crane onto the Convention floor. Those who had brought their "Let's Build it Now" T-shirts wore them to the morning session. People who are never seen at Federation events in less than correct business attire strolled in looking as if they were ready for anything but a Convention session of the National Federation of the Blind. Luckily, volunteers also stood ready at every door to pass out shirts to everyone unfortunate enough to be without what later that morning was referred to as the uniform for this army. [#33 PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer, wearing his T-shirt like everyone else, and also his hard hat, returns to the podium after driving the crane.] As described in the Convention Roundup, the first part of the morning session went pretty much as usual, except for the fireworks exploding behind pictures of the National Research and Training Institute pictured on everybody's chest. Then Dr. Maurer asked Joyce Scanlan to preside while he left the platform, and suddenly nothing was business as usual. In he drove on a crane, surrounded by the noise of construction, and we knew that it was truly a new day in the National Federation of the Blind. [#34 PHOTO/CAPTION: Ron Gardner] The panel presentation that followed Dr. Maurer's introductory remarks once he had returned to the chair was a cross section of the Federation family and of the friends who have come to know us and what we stand for. The first speaker was Ron Gardner, President of the NFB of Utah. Taking President Maurer's lead, he discussed the importance of doing things in new ways. Instead of talking about blindness, he would talk about seeing, or rather c-ing. The four C's he mentioned were first Mrs. Helen Colby, whose estate enabled the Utah affiliate to make its challenge grant of $500,000 to the capital campaign. The other three C's were courage, commitment, and character. We must all find the courage to step out into this new way of life, the commitment to follow President Maurer and the Board where they lead us, and the character to do what is best for the blind of tomorrow. [#35 PHOTO/CAPTION: Deane Blazie] Deane Blazie, who with his wife and Ted Henter and his wife made a gift of $500,000 to the campaign, told the audience that his primary commitment was to education, and he believes that the Institute will stimulate education about blindness in new ways. [#36 PHOTO/CAPTION: Ted Henter] Ted Henter told the audience about being discouraged from getting a master's degree in computer science because the dean of the school thought a blind student would slow down the rest of the class. That detour sent Ted in another direction to get the same thing done, but it also committed him to changing what it means to be blind. That's what the Institute will do, and that's why he is a supporter. [#37 PHOTO/CAPTION: Hazel Staley] Hazel Staley has been a leader and an anchor in the Federation for more than thirty years. Her speech gave a clear indication of why. This is what she said: ********** Dr. Maurer introduced me as a former president of our affiliate [the National Federation of the Blind of North Carolina], and so I am. But believe me; I'm still in there pitchin'. I'm not on the sidelines twiddlin' my thumbs. I'm serving as Vice President; I'm chairman of our Membership, our SUN, and our Associate Programs; and I'm Secretary of my local chapter; and I love everything I'm doing. I first heard of the National Federation of the Blind in 1969. I thought: "O, wow, I didn't know anybody else in the world felt like I do," so I joined, and I've been in there ever since. And I plan to stay in there as long as I live. I want to direct my words this morning to the retirees and the people who have limited incomes. Last year I sat in our convention, and I heard one person after another come up and pledge thousands of dollars to the Research and Training Institute for the Blind. I felt left out. I thought: "I wish I could do that." But I'll be eighty-four years old next month, and I might begin to need to start thinking about some type of assisted living or long-term nursing care--I haven't got there yet, but I'm thinkin' about it. Then I remembered that the Federation isn't all about me. Since I joined the Federation more than thirty years ago, I have worked my heart out doing all that I could to try to improve the lives of blind people and make things better for them. I can't stop now. I see the Research and Training Institute as a kind of insurance, a way of knowing that the work that my predecessors and I have done will grow and go on and on and on to improve the lives of blind people in future generations. This is exciting. You and I can't give a million dollars, but all that's expected of any of us is to do the very best that we can with what we have. It isn't healthy or wise to determine what we do by what someone else does. So you may feel, as I did last year, that you couldn't buy more than one or two bricks, but every brick helps in building this building, you know. Individually we may feel that the little contributions that we can make won't make much difference, but listen to me: our collective small gifts may be all that is needed to bring this project to fruition. When it's done, just think how good you'll feel to know that you have had a part, even a small part, in changing what it means to be blind. So come on, all you people who are on limited incomes, as I am; let's not let those making the big contributions have all the fun. It's our Federation too, you know, and there just might be more of us than there are of them. So I say to you this morning: if you can't bring caviar to the party, then by golly bring soda crackers and enjoy! [#38 PHOTO/CAPTION: Wayne Wilhelm] The next speaker was Wayne Wilhelm, whose expertise as a builder has been of material assistance to the NFB through the years. He told us how in the early years he bid repeatedly on contracting jobs for the NFB without getting any business. When his bid was finally chosen, he discovered what it was like to know and work with Dr. Jernigan. He came to appreciate the integrity and values of the organization and the power of our dreams. He went on to say: "The architecture of the new building addition is a wonderful collaboration of the old and of the new. This is to say that the new structure will blend in very well with the existing structure. The technology that will be developed in the new center will complement those that already exist. This is another blending of the old and the new. The new structure is full of character and prominence and will never be mistaken for anything other than a first-class facility. It will be built of steel, bricks, mortar, and glass. The steel and the bricks indicate strength, and the glass indicates vision. These are all virtues of the National Federation of the Blind. With this new Institute and the Kenneth Jernigan Memorial Fund, the legacy of Dr. Jernigan will go on forever. I know that through construction, a relationship, and a dream my life has been changed forever. I thank God for allowing Dr. Jernigan and the National Federation of the Blind to become part of my life." [#39 PHOTO/CAPTION: Mitch Diamond] Mr. Diamond is a retired advertising executive who first learned about the abilities of blind people years ago when he gave assembly business to sheltered workshops with blind workers. He noticed then that the blind workers out-produced his own employees. He concluded it was because they wanted more passionately to succeed. In 1998, just a few days after moving to Washington, D.C., his wife was hospitalized and never again left the hospital. Losing her was a bitter blow to him, and his friend from the Masons, Harold Snider, and his wife Linda were instrumental in helping him to recover from his loss. He now looks back and realizes that, even in the midst of great deprivation, one can find blessings. He numbers several friends, including Dr. Maurer, in that category. Mr. Diamond has now, at the age of eighty-two, established a trust with a significant amount of money to be used for charitable purposes. The largest beneficiary of the trust is the National Federation of the Blind. He concluded by telling his audience that they must be willing, as Harold was, to ask people for campaign gifts. They must also be willing to give themselves even if the gift must be small. Not everyone has large sums to contribute, but everyone has something. We must be willing to give to good causes ourselves, and expectantly we must ask others to help as well. [#40 PHOTO/CAPTION: Kathleen and Larry Sebranek] Larry and Kathleen have been leaders in the NFB of Wisconsin for many years. Larry explained that they had been thinking of making a capital campaign gift of perhaps $10,000. That would have required some pinching of their budget to do over a five-year period, but they thought the Research and Training Institute was worth some belt-tightening. Then Larry heard a program that talked about the tax advantages of making charitable contributions. Larry had sold a farm some years before and invested the money, some of which had appreciated significantly. The tax bite on such appreciated funds is pretty substantial, but the entire charitable gift can be deducted from your taxable income, providing a real benefit. When he and Kathleen talked with their accountant about whether or not they could afford to give as much as $50,000, he said certainly, but that they should remember their family. Larry's answer, as he recounted the conversation, touched everyone present. He said: "The NFB is our family, so we decided to give a significantly larger gift." When Kathleen's turn came to speak, she said she had attended the last twenty-nine conventions, and she had worked as a rehabilitation teacher for twenty-eight years. She said that she uses what the NFB has taught her every day of her life, and she teaches our hope and optimism across the kitchen table to every blind person she works with. Both Kathleen and Larry stressed that they are very private people. Talking about their personal financial decisions does not come easily to them. They agreed to tell their story in the hope that it might inspire others who love what the NFB is and does to look at their own financial situations and perhaps discover that they too can make larger gifts than they had thought possible. [#41 PHOTO/CAPTION: Cheralyn Braithwaite] In contrast to Kathleen Sebranek, the next speaker, scholarship winner Cheralyn Braithwaite, was attending only her fifth convention. She talked about the children's book, The Giving Tree, which is about a tree that gives of itself at every stage of a man's life. Cheralyn said that the NFB has been a giving tree in her life. "From the NFB philosophy I have taken mentors, friends, resources, skills, and ultimately confidence. The capital campaign sounded like a perfect way for me to give back to something that had given so much to me." She went on to say that she believed in this project passionately because she looks back and sees all the things that she missed out on--the blindness skills and healthy attitudes that no one ever taught her. The Institute is one way to see that the same thing does not happen to another generation of blind children. Believing in the campaign was the first step for her. Last year President Maurer urged us all to decide on a gift significant enough in our budgets to hurt. For a twenty-five-year-old teacher in Utah who is returning to school this fall, a gift of almost any size will certainly hurt. But she looks on her gift as an investment in the future. Each month money is withdrawn from her pay check for retirement, for savings, and now for the capital campaign. She sees her contribution as an investment in the lives of all blind people in the future. [#42 PHOTO/CAPTION: Mark Riccobono] The final speaker on the panel was Mark Riccobono, President of the NFB of Wisconsin. He pointed out that the first step of this campaign of action is finished. It is the original conception of the Institute. We are now the army charged with building the facility. The tools we bring to the job are our minds and our pledges. The third step will be to dream up and execute the Institute programs that will accomplish what needs to be done to bring about the changes that must occur for blind people to reach full participation as first-class citizens. As a new college graduate, Mark made his pledge last year. It was sizeable enough to hurt, but he made it because his generation and those who come after have the most to gain from the Institute and will take an active part in implementing the programs we conceive that will be carried out through it. Four weeks before the convention Mark was named to head the Wisconsin agency responsible for all youth services in the state. He sees first-hand the wasted abilities of kids who have not been taught what they need to know in order to succeed. This is a constant reminder of why we need the Institute. During the convention Mark doubled his pledge. He concluded by reminding students--who are by definition poor--that they have a greater earning potential than any other group in the Federation. Students must step forward and begin to contribute now. From beginning to end the panel presentation was inspiring, and the audience responded with warmth and enthusiasm. Ramona Walhof reminded us throughout the week of the importance of recommending the names of those who may be able to make a campaign pledge. Immediately following this article appears the prospect form, which can be detached, filled out, and returned to the National Center. Please take a moment to consider whom you may know that should be invited to join our effort to change what it means to be blind. ********** ********** NFB Confidential Donor Prospect Form Name of referring party: _________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________ Phone: H) _______________________ W) _________________________ Prospective donor's name:___________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________ Phone: ____________________________________________________________ Employer, if applicable: _________________________________________ Relationship to the referring party: _______ Relative _______ Business associate _______ Friend _______ NFB supporter _______ Other (please specify) _________________________________ Why this individual might give to the capital campaign: _______ Blind or low vision him/herself _______ Friend or family member who is blind _______ Interest in and/or commitment to the NFB _______ Wants to be associated with a national project _______ Other (please specify) _________________________________ Most likely to make a five year total pledge of: _______ $100,000 or more _______ $50,000 to $99,999 _______ $25,000 to $49,000 _______ $10,000 to $24,000 _______ Less than $10,000 Can you get this individual to meet with you and another NFB representative? _____ If not, how would you suggest making a contact with this individual? ________________ Other information known about this prospective donor which would be helpful, i.e. types of charitable causes supported in the past, approximate net worth, special interests, desire to be recognized for gifts, etc. _________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Date form completed: ______________________________________________________ Name of capital campaign volunteer who solicited this prospect referral: _______________________________________________________________________ ********** ********** Have you made your campaign pledge yet? We need everyone's help. The construction cost of our projected National Research and Training Institute for the Blind is eighteen million dollars. Please take this opportunity to complete your pledge form. Without you our job will be just that much harder. ********** The Campaign To Change What It Means To Be Blind Capital Campaign Pledge Intention ********** Name:_______________________________________ Home Address:_______________________________ City, State, and Zip:_______________________ Home Phone: __________ Work Phone:_____________________ E-mail address:_____________________________ Employer:___________________________________ Work Address:_______________________________ City, State, Zip:___________________________ ********** To support the priorities of the Campaign, I (we) pledge the sum of $___________. ********** My (our) pledge will be payable in installments of $ __________ over the next ____ years (we encourage pledges paid over five years), beginning _____________, on the following schedule (check one): __ annually, __ semi-annually, __ quarterly, __ monthly I (we) have enclosed a down payment of $ ________________ ___ Gift of stock: _____________________ shares of _____________ ___ My employer will match my gift. Please list (my) our names in all Campaign Reports and on the Campaign Wall of Honor in the appropriate Giving Circle as follows: __ I (We) wish to remain anonymous. Signed: ________________________________ Date: __________________ ********** ********** ********** [#43 PHOTO/CAPTION: RSA Commissioner, Dr. Fredric Schroeder, addresses the 2000 convention of the National Federation of the Blind.] Changing Patterns in the Rehabilitation System: Meeting the Needs of the Blind and Otherwise Disabled by Fredric K. Schroeder, Ph.D. ********** From the Editor: Friday, July 7, was the day that Dr. Fred Schroeder, for many years a leader in the National Federation of the Blind and now the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Education, addressed the sixtieth convention of the National Federation of the Blind. This is what he said: ********** As all of you know, there will be an election this fall, and we will have a new President and a new Administration. So I thought that it might be good to take a few minutes to review with you the major accomplishments of the past eight years. Under the Clinton Administration the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Program has assisted 1,676,900 people with disabilities to go to work, and there continues to be a steady increase in the number of people who go to work each year. In 1992, 191,890 people were assisted in finding work. Last year 229,829 people found jobs with the help of state rehabilitation agencies. This means that last year 37,939 more people went to work than in 1992, at the beginning of the Clinton Administration, an increase of 20 percent over eight years. But of course the number of people going to work does not speak to the quality of that work. As you know, we have emphasized quality and in particular wages, benefits, and upward mobility potential. So what about wages? As you may be aware, the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) has completed a longitudinal study of the VR services program. We found that people placed in competitive, integrated employment make rapid gains in earnings and in access to health insurance over time. During the period of the study people placed in competitive employment averaged $7.56 per hour at closure, hardly a princely sum, but watch what happens over time. One year later the average hourly wage rose to $8.23. Two years later those people placed in competitive employment earned $10.25 per hour, and three years later they earned on average $13.48 per hour. This represents an increase of just over 78 percent in earnings in three years from $7.56 per hour to $13.48 per hour for those people placed in integrated, competitive work. During this same period access to health insurance rose. According to the longitudinal study at closure only 38.2 percent of competitively employed people had access to health insurance. However, one year later 49.2 percent had access to health insurance. Two years later that number had risen to 55.3 percent, and three years later 58.8 percent of people competitively employed had access to health insurance--58.8 percent, a number nearly approximating the access to health insurance among the general population (estimated at 64.5 percent). In short, the longitudinal study shows rehabilitation services resulting in a steady increase in earnings and a steady increase in access to health insurance--good wages and good benefits, careers, not simply jobs. But, if our expectation is high-quality employment, careers not simply jobs, then each individual must have the opportunity to pursue a challenging career goal. As you are aware, the employment goal for each person is determined individually, and the services provided by the rehabilitation agency are designed to help the individual obtain his or her employment goal. But what does the rehabilitation system use as a standard for establishing an employment goal for an individual? In the past federal policy defined an employment goal as nothing more challenging than "suitable employment." "Suitable employment" was defined as "reasonably good entry-level work an individual can satisfactorily perform." Or in other words, low-skilled, low-wage jobs. In line with our commitment to high-quality employment, in August of 1997 we issued a policy directive (PD 97-04) rescinding the old standard of "suitable employment" and replacing it with a new standard that embodies the concepts of maximization, career advancement, and above all informed choice. To support further our emphasis on high-quality employment, RSA has developed performance standards and evaluation indicators to measure objectively the quality of the work of state rehabilitation agencies. The standards and indicators emphasize wages and integration as measures of high-quality employment. In policy development, in monitoring, and in technical assistance we, the Administration, continue to emphasize the fundamental tenets of good rehabilitation practice--an individualized program rooted in informed choice leading to challenging, high-quality employment. This theme is reflected in changes we proposed to the Rehabilitation Act during its most recent reauthorization. The Act now contains strengthened provisions concerning informed choice. The role of the Rehabilitation Council has been broadened, and the Council's authority has been strengthened and is no longer simply advisory. Recipients of Social Security Supplemental Income and beneficiaries of Social Security Disability Insurance are now presumed eligible for rehabilitation services. The right of an individual to seek assistance outside of the rehabilitation agency in developing his or her employment plan is now reflected in statute. An individual may now write his or her own plan or may seek assistance from anyone he or she chooses, or he or she may seek assistance from a rehabilitation counselor in the customary fashion. These are changes that support access to needed services, support the dignity of the individual and the individual's right to make informed choices, and support and strengthen the principle of high-quality employment--careers, not simply jobs. As you know, the prime barriers to employment facing blind people are public attitudes and misconceptions about blindness. Barriers arising out of myth and ignorance have taken many forms. Yet the most common is exclusion based on expressed concerns about safety. In the past university programs did not accept blind people to train to work as Orientation and Mobility instructors. Fortunately, the situation today is much improved. In 1992 language was added to the Rehabilitation Act requiring certification of rehabilitation personnel. Given the historic exclusion of blind people from university training programs, we were not prepared to let certification requirements unfairly discriminate against blind people in the field of Orientation and Mobility. Accordingly, as we developed implementing regulations, we explicitly exempted blind people wishing to teach Orientation and Mobility from certification requirements when working for state rehabilitation agencies, and we intend to reaffirm that exemption in the next set of regulations. But barring discrimination is only half the battle. It is not enough simply to prohibit the exclusion of blind people from the Orientation and Mobility profession. We believed and continue to believe that blind people should be encouraged to bring their perspectives and experiences to the teaching of cane travel. For this reason we funded the first university training program in Orientation and Mobility based on a teaching methodology that works equally well for blind and sighted instructors and which provides superior results for blind cane travel students. Turning to another matter, as you know, I serve as a member of the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled (the Committee). The Committee administers the Javits-Wagner O'Day (JWOD) Act, which directs federal contracts to non-profit agencies that employ people with disabilities. For many years RSA and the Committee have disagreed on the applicability of the Randolph-Sheppard Act to military troop dining facilities. It is our contention and the opinion of the Department of Defense General Counsel that the Randolph-Sheppard Act applies to military troop dining. As Dr. Maurer discussed with you earlier this week, last year NISH (formerly known as the National Industries for the Severely Handicapped) filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court challenging the priority afforded to blind vendors under the Randolph-Sheppard Act in military troop dining facilities. On April 25, 2000, the Court found in favor of the Department of Defense and agreed that the military troop dining facility at Ft. Lee, Virginia was indeed subject to the Randolph-Sheppard Act. In its suit NISH sought to draw a distinction between appropriated funded activities and concession activities. In other words, NISH asserted that, if a vendor is paid with a government check, then the cafeteria is not a Randolph-Sheppard operation, but if a vendor is paid directly by soldiers who pull dollar bills out of their pockets, then it is a Randolph-Sheppard cafeteria. We, of course, believe the Act makes no such distinction. The Court agreed, and in fact in reaching its decision the Court referenced an August 14, 1997, memorandum from me to the Committee for Purchase in which I stated, "[a]ny attempt to draw a distinction between appropriated-funded cafeterias and concession cafeterias is merely a fiction to justify placing full food-service activities on the [JWOD Act] Committee's procurement list. There is no basis either in the Act or in the legislative history for [such a] position." These are some of the accomplishments of the past eight years, but where do we go from here? One issue of great concern is the placement of blind people and others in sheltered workshops. We believe that any person who gets up and goes to work each day deserves our respect and the respect of society generally. However, in recent years amendments to the Rehabilitation Act have given increasing emphasis to integrated employment. Accordingly, over the past two decades placement in sheltered workshops has decreased by about 50 percent both in real numbers and as a percentage of all placements. In addition to integration we are concerned about whether sheltered work genuinely gives blind people and others the opportunity for economic self-sufficiency. That is, do people placed in sheltered work make enough money to live on? Of the 7,765 people placed in sheltered work by VR agencies in 1998, 6,934 (or 89.3 percent) earned less than the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. In fact, the average hourly rate for those placed in sheltered work was $2.53. This is in sharp contrast to the average hourly rate of $8.65 for those placed in competitive employment the same year. Our longitudinal study confirms the fact that people placed in sheltered work earn far below the minimum wage and fail to make gains in earnings overtime. According to our longitudinal study the average hourly earnings for people placed in sheltered work was $3.03. One year later average hourly wages dropped to $2.64 an hour. Two years later average hourly wages rose slightly to $2.84 but were still less than these same people earned when they began working two years earlier. The problem of low wages is compounded by limited work hours and limited access to health insurance. According to the longitudinal study people placed in sheltered work worked an average of 27.6 hours per week. One year later the average work week was 28.1 hours, and the following year 29.1 hours per week. For people placed in sheltered work, only 16 percent had health insurance at time of closure. One year later the number dropped to 12 percent, and two years later the percent of people in sheltered work who had access to health insurance dropped again to 11.7 percent. But how do blind people fare in sheltered work? A total of 434 blind and visually impaired people were placed in sheltered work in 1998. Of these, 297 people (or 68 percent) made less than the minimum wage. For the 137 blind people making minimum wage or above, how much above minimum wage did they make? Eighty percent or 109 made between $5.15 and $6.00 per hour; 13 made between $6.01 and $7.00 per hour; five made between $7.01 and $8.00; two made between $8.01 and $9.00; two more made between $9.01 and $10.00; and six, not six percent, but six people made $10.01 and above. In addition to concerns about integration, this raises concerns about the quality of sheltered employment generally. These findings are in dramatic contrast to wages and access to health insurance for people placed in integrated work. Let me reiterate that we do not devalue the dignity or the worth of any person working in a sheltered facility. We do not consider people who are employed in sheltered workshops to be failures. Instead we believe that all people must have the opportunity to prepare for and pursue the best possible employment. With the Rehabilitation Act setting forth a clear policy in support of integration, coupled with a disturbing picture of segregated work characterized by low wages, limited work hours, and minimal benefits, on June 26, 2000, the Rehabilitation Services Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which would amend its definition of an allowable employment outcome to exclude sheltered work. This change would require state rehabilitation agencies to establish a goal of competitive, integrated employment for all people entering the program. We believe this is the right policy, a policy that recognizes that blind people and others are capable of working productively and competitively, a policy predicated on the belief that blind people and others can no longer be marginalized and relegated to isolation and poverty. But what if an individual genuinely wants employment in a sheltered workshop? This policy change would not close sheltered workshops. No person currently employed in sheltered work would lose his or her job. No one would be forced against his or her will to leave the sheltered workshop. Instead this requirement would press state rehabilitation agencies to seek integrated employment opportunities for all people served by the program. We believe this change supports the emphasis we have placed on high-quality employment opportunities. We believe it is consistent with the efforts we have undertaken over the past eight years, efforts that have resulted in a steady increase in the number of people who find employment each year, efforts that have emphasized wages and upward mobility, efforts that have reinforced the right of each individual to receive services that will enable the individual to pursue a lifetime of employment--careers, not simply jobs, efforts that have expanded access to the system for Social Security recipients, efforts that have resulted in a recognition that not all people need or want the same level of assistance in planning for their lives, in short, efforts that support the dignity of each person and recognize the right of all people to pursue challenging, rewarding employment and to assume their rightful place as productive members of society. The accomplishments of the past eight years can be catalogued in many ways--by the number of people who went to work, by hourly wages and fringe benefits--but the true measure of success is the degree to which our efforts have moved us closer to the day when all Americans, blind and sighted alike, will be able to live and work according to their own talents and determination, in short, the day when blind people will no longer suffer the denial of opportunity brought about by myth and tradition, the day when integration and self-sufficiency are no longer the goal but the ordinary experience. ********** ********** [#44 The Scholarship class of 2000: (left to right) back row: Kristen Witucki, Nathan Danes, Peter Berg, Amy Mason, Jessica McKinney, Nicole Ditzler, Zachary Battles, Rod Barker, Nathanael Wales, and Erik Motsinger; middle row: Angela Sasser, Stacy Cervenka, Thomas Philip, Michael Leiterman, Suzanne Westhaver, John Miller, Cheralyn Braithwaite, Kelsey Korsgard, Melinda Zuniga, and Teresa (Tai) Tomasi; front row: Kimberly Aguillard, Debra DeLorey, Priscilla Ching, Lisa Hansen, Brook Sexton, Melissa Lehman, Jessica Hosier, Seth Leblond, Robin House, and Denise Cunningham.] ********** The Scholarship Class of 2000 ********** From the Editor: In celebration of and preparation for leadership in the new millennium, the National Federation of the Blind this year expanded our scholarship program yet again. During the annual banquet on July 7 we awarded thirty scholarships: twenty-two in the amount of $3,000, four of $5,000, three of 7,000, and the newly named Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship of $21,000. This last award was made in recognition of the new century. It will return to $10,000 next year. In addition, in memory of Dr. Jernigan, the Kurzweil Foundation again presented an additional $1,000 scholarship, a document scanner, and, from the Kurzweil Education Group, the latest software for the Kurzweil 1000 reading system to each winner. Dr. Ray Kurzweil was on the platform to present a check and plaque to each student during the ceremony. This year's was a remarkably strong class. At the banquet Peggy Elliott, Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, made a few remarks while the winners were making their way to the platform and then read each name in turn with the name of the award being made and a brief description of what the student is studying and planning to do in the future. This is what she said: ********** The National Federation of the Blind is in the business of meeting challenges. I was reminiscing this evening with Mrs. Jernigan and Father Gregory about Dr. Jernigan, who was one of the first people ever to give me challenges. Dr. Jernigan gave to all of us. He gave a lot of us Macadamia nuts, or a persimmon or two, and fresh cantaloupe--he gave, he gave. But he loved most to give challenges and to accept challenges himself. He was never better than when he was reveling in a challenge and devising a solution to that challenge. Dr. Jernigan challenged each one of us in the National Federation of the Blind to find our inner selves and to find the way to make our lives the best they could be, and then to make sure to reach out and link hands with other blind people. He challenged us to grow ourselves and also to grow with the National Federation of the Blind. Of course tonight we've addressed another challenge in the growth of the National Federation of the Blind, the Capital Campaign to add to our National Federation's Center for the Blind. Now the thirty men and women we're about to meet and honor are also challenge-meeters. Each of these men and women has gone to college or graduate school. These men and women have not only passed, they have prevailed--they're at the tops of their classes, and they're also present and future leaders of the National Federation of the Blind, which is the organization that will meet the challenges for the future of blind people. Allen Harris asked me when I came up here, "How much money are we giving away tonight?" I said, "Well it depends on which answer you want." But when you add it all up together, which I am about to do for you, I got the number $203,000! We will be giving twenty-two scholarships each in the amount of $3,000. We'll be giving four scholarships each in the amount of $5,000. We'll be giving three scholarships each in the amount of $7,000 and one scholarship in the amount of $21,000. Some of these scholarships I am about to read to you have been endowed by individuals or families. Many of the scholarships, in fact the vast majority, have been endowed by you and me, members of the National Federation of the Blind, and generous donors who support our work. I will in each case identify the person as the donor unless it is all of us, and those are the scholarships named the National Federation of the Blind. In addition to the money I just listed for you, we have the opportunity and the participation of Dr. Ray Kurzweil in the scholarship presentation as well. Dr. Kurzweil, as you can tell, was a friend and admirer of Dr. Jernigan and, in honor and in memory of Dr. Jernigan, will add to the money I've already told you about. To each scholarship winner he will present a check for $1,000, a scanner, and a plaque that is embossed in both print and Braille--those three items being provided by the Kurzweil Foundation. In addition to them the Kurzweil 1000 software used with the scanner is donated by the Kurzweil Education Group of Lernout and Hauspie. The total value of Dr. Kurzweil's enhancement to each scholarship winner in cash, hardware, and software is $2,500. As each scholarship winner's name is called, I will read a few remarks about him or her. He or she will come onto the stage, move to the center, and have the opportunity to shake hands with and be congratulated by Dr. Maurer. After Dr. Maurer has had that opportunity, Dr. Kurzweil is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him and will also have a chance to congratulate and to talk to each of the scholarship winners. Scholarship winners of the year 2000: the first thirteen scholarships I am going to read are scholarships each in the amount of $3,000: Rod A. Barker, Oregon, Oregon: Rod is completing his senior year at Portland State University, where he is earning a bachelor's degree in business and finance and is about to enter his career as a law student at the University of Oregon School of Law in the fall. Rod's vocational goal is obviously to be a lawyer. [applause begin] Ladies and gentlemen, there are twenty-nine other wonderful people; let's hold applause for all of them until the end. ********** Denise L. Cunningham, Missouri, Missouri: Denise is currently not in school, being employed full-time teaching first- and second-graders near her home in St. Louis. She is entering the University of Missouri at St. Louis in the fall as a first-year graduate student, where she intends to earn a Ph.D. in education and become a professor of elementary education. ********** Nicole E. Ditzler, Minnesota, Minnesota: Nicole has just completed her junior year and will begin her senior year in the fall at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where she is earning a bachelor's degree in psychology with a concentration in child and family studies. She intends ultimately to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and to become a Head Start teacher and eventually a family therapist. ********** Lisa Ann Hansen, Wisconsin, Wisconsin: Lisa is currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, where she has just completed her sophomore year. Lisa is earning a bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in Spanish. She intends to earn an advanced degree in education and become a middle-school teacher of language arts and Spanish. Lisa is a chapter president in the National Federation of the Blind. ********** Jessica Ann Hosier, Iowa, Iowa: Jessica is currently not in school and will be returning to her studies at the University of Iowa in the fall, where she will be a junior. She is currently earning a bachelor's in social work and intends to make herself a career as a social worker in the rehabilitation context. ********** Robin L. House, Missouri, Missouri: Robin is enrolled at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and is classified as a senior. Robin is currently earning a bachelor's in elementary education. She intends to go on and earn a master's degree and become an elementary school counselor. ********** Kelsey Lynn Cox Korsgard, Oklahoma, Oklahoma: Kelsey is a graduate student at Oklahoma State University, where she will be beginning her second year in the fall. She is earning a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, and she intends to be in private practice as a marriage and family therapist. ********** Melissa A. Lehman, Wisconsin, Wisconsin: Melissa is attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she will be a senior in the fall. Her degree program is a bachelor's in psychology, and she intends to earn advanced degrees in her chosen field and to be a child psychologist. Melissa is the President of the Wisconsin Association of Blind Students. ********** Amy Crystal Mason, Nebraska, Illinois: Amy is attending Lincoln Christian College, where she will be a sophomore in the fall. Amy is earning a bachelor's degree in counseling and intends to be a Christian counselor for children in crisis. She is an officer of her state student division. ********** Jessica Bates McKinney, South Carolina, South Carolina: Jessica is currently attending Furman University, where she will be classified as a junior in the fall, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology and political science. It seems to me that some of our politicians should do the same. Jessica intends to become a psychologist. ********** John A. Miller, California, California: John is the first of our five tenBroek fellows this year. He won his first scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind in the year 1988. John is currently a graduate student at the University of California at San Diego. He is earning a Ph.D. in electronic and computer engineering, and he wants to be an electrical engineering professor. His professors say he is a truly brilliant student and teacher. ********** Teresa (Tai) Tomasi, Massachusetts, Vermont: Tai is studying at the University of Vermont, where she will be a junior in the fall. Tai is earning a bachelor's degree in political science and in French. She intends to earn a juris doctorate and to be a disability advocacy lawyer or lobbyist. ********** Melinda Louise Zuniga, Montana, Montana: Melinda is currently studying in the graduate program at the University of Montana, where she is earning a master's degree in physical therapy. Melinda intends to be a physical therapist and to emphasize the treatment of back pain. ********** The next scholarship is entitled National Federation of the Blind Educator of Tomorrow Award in the amount of $3,000. ********** Brook Nichole Sexton, California, Utah: Brook is a tenBroek fellow who won her first scholarship in 1996. She is currently a senior at Brigham Young University, where she is earning a bachelor's degree in family science with a concentration in human development. Brook intends to be a teacher of blind children and serves as President of the Utah Association of Blind Students. ********** The National Federation of the Blind Humanities Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. ********** Kristen M. Witucki, New Jersey, New York: Kristen is a graduating high school senior from Overbrook Regional High School. She is entering Vassar College as a freshman in the fall. She will be earning a bachelor's degree in English, and she wants to be a high school English teacher. ********** The National Federation of the Blind Computer Science Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. ********** Zachary J. Battles, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania: Zachary is earning three different academic degrees--two undergraduate and one advanced, at the same time. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but he is at Pennsylvania State University. He is earning degrees in the areas of computer science and mathematics, and he will conclude his studies with a Ph.D. in computer science. Zach obviously intends to be a computer scientist, but I also want to mention that Zach has a vocation of teaching English as a second language to his current country of interest, the Ukraine. ********** Hermione Grant Calhoun Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. ********** Stacy Leigh Cervenka, Illinois, Minnesota: Stacy will be a sophomore in the fall at Concordia College, where she is earning a bachelor's degree in political science and French. She intends to conclude her studies by earning a juris doctorate degree and then to become a foreign service officer. Stacy serves in her state student division as an officer. ********** The Mozelle and Willard Gold Memorial Scholarship for $3,000 endowed by Sharon Gold in loving memory of her parents. We all know the contribution Sharon has made to the National Federation of the Blind. She in turn chose to honor her parents with this scholarship, which goes to: ********** Priscilla Ching, California, Louisiana: Priscilla is currently attending Louisiana Tech University in a master's degree program in educational psychology with a concentration in O & M, and she wants to design and coordinate programs for blind children. ********** The Frank Walton Horn Memorial Scholarship is given by Katherine Horn Randall and her family in memory of Katherine's father. The amount is $3,000, and the scholarship, if possible, is to be given to a person who is studying in one of the non-traditional fields for a blind person--one of the hard sciences: ********** Nathan Earl Danes, Idaho, Idaho: Nathan is currently studying at Albertsons College in Idaho, where he will be a sophomore in the fall. He is earning a bachelor of science degree in physics and computer science. He intends to earn a master's or further advanced degree in physics and computer science and then to be a nuclear physicist with a particular interest in research into anti-matter fusion. ********** The Kuckler-Killian Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $3,000 is endowed by June Rose Killian and her family in loving memory of her father and her mother: ********** Suzanne Rowell Westhaver, Connecticut, Connecticut: Suzanne is currently a student at the University of Connecticut at Waterbury, where she will be classified as a senior in the fall. She is earning a degree in the discipline of English. Her final degree she hopes will be a Ph.D. Suzanne intends to be an English professor. She also announced her intention to be a best-selling author and has organized a chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. ********** Howard Brown Rickard Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. The longest-standing scholarship of the National Federation of the Blind, and one that I have a particular fondness for since it was the scholarship I won a few years ago. ********** Erik C. Motsinger, Oklahoma, Oklahoma: Eric is currently a sophomore at Oklahoma State University, where he will continue in the fall toward a bachelor's degree in business administration. Eric intends to earn a law degree, and he wants to be a prosecuting attorney. ********** And the final $3,000 scholarship, named the E. U. Parker Scholarship in the amount of $3,000. This one is always particularly hard and a particular joy for me to give since I was a friend and admirer of E. U. Parker for lo these many years. This is endowed by E. U.'s wife Jean Parker and is given to someone who has shown unusual service to the National Federation of the Blind with a particular interest in fund-raising, which E.U. had such a magic touch at. ********** Debra Delorey, Massachusetts, Virginia: Debbie is a tenBroek fellow and a colleague of many of ours. Debbie won her first scholarship in 1996, and, if any of you have ever been to a Washington Seminar or to an occasional convention of the National Federation of the Blind, you will find Debbie walking around with roses in her hand selling them to you. She's currently a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is earning a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling. She intends to complete her studies with a Ph.D. and become a rehabilitation counselor. ********** The next four scholarships are National Federation of the Blind Scholarships. Each of these four is in the amount of $5,000. ********** Kimberly Aguillard, Texas, Texas: Kim has just graduated from high school in Beaumont, Texas, and will be matriculating at Texas A & M University as a freshman in the fall, where she will begin her studies in psychology. Kim would like to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and then to serve as a psychiatric counselor. Kim serves as an officer of her state student division and at the age of eighteen founded a chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. ********** Peter Andrew Berg, Illinois, Illinois: Peter is currently a senior at North Central College, where he is working on a bachelor's degree in history. Peter will be starting studies as a first-year graduate student at DePaul University in the fall and intends to complete his studies with a master's degree in history. Peter wants to be a high school history or social studies teacher. ********** Seth Justyn Leblond, Maine, Maryland: Seth has just graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine, and will be attending Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, in the fall, where he will start his studies on a degree in communications with a concentration in radio and TV journalism. Seth intends to be a writer and a broadcaster. This eighteen-year-old gentleman serves as an officer of his state affiliate and also as a chapter president. ********** Michael Anthony Leiterman, Ohio, Ohio: Michael is currently a senior at the University of Cincinnati, where he is earning a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. He will be continuing at the University of Cincinnati in the fall and plans to complete his studies ultimately with a law degree so that he can be a genetic biologist and lawyer. ********** The next scholarship is named the Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $7,000. This is a scholarship endowed by Melva T. Owen's husband in her loving memory and has been given for a number of years by this man who is dedicated to his wife's memory and to honoring blind people, and he particularly prizes achievement by blind people. ********** Cheralyn Braithwaite, Utah, Utah: Cheralyn, as we all know, is currently not in school because she is teaching. She will be starting her studies as a graduate student in the fall at the University of Utah, where she intends to earn a master's degree in special education. She wants to be a special education school administrator. Cheralyn is an officer of her state affiliate and is also a chapter president. ********** National Federation of the Blind Scholarships, two scholarships, each of which is in the amount of $7,000. ********** Thomas Ladu Philip, Minnesota, Minnesota: Thomas is a student at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He is currently classified as a senior and will be continuing his studies in the fall, earning a degree in English literature and creative writing. Thomas will ultimately earn a Ph.D. in the same subject and intends to be a professor of English literature and also a creative writer. He is already a published poet and serves as the President of the Minnesota Association of Blind Students. ********** Nathanael Thomas Wales, California, California: Nathanael is a tenBroek fellow, having won his first scholarship in 1997. He is currently studying at the University of California at Davis, where he will be classified as a senior in the fall, completing a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. He intends to earn a law degree and wants to work as a civil and environmental engineer and as a lawyer. Nathanael serves on the board of his state affiliate, is a chapter officer, and is also the President of the California Association of Blind Students. ********** The next scholarship is entitled the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. It is in the amount of $21,000. Now you all know, I am sure, that the person who wins this scholarship has also earned the right to speak briefly to the National Federation of the Blind Convention. While this person comes forward, I will read her name and a little about her; then we will hear from her. ********** Angela Renee Sasser, Louisiana, Texas:[loud cheers and applause] Angela is a tenBroek fellow, having earned her first scholarship--and apparently quite a number of friends and colleagues--in 1997. She is currently studying at the University of Texas at Austin, where she will be a senior in the fall. Her current degree program is entitled "Humanities Honors," and she is also earning an elementary education certificate. She intends to complete her studies with a master's degree in elementary education and to be an elementary art teacher. That's only one of many aspirations. She also intends to be an artist herself and to work in the field of museums and presentation to both blind and sighted persons. Angela, as you would expect, also serves as the President of the Texas Association of Blind Students. My friends, join me please in welcoming this year's Kenneth Jernigan Scholar, Angela Sasser. [applause] ********** [#45 PHOTO/CAPTION: Angela Sasser addresses the 2000 banquet.] Angela Sasser: Oh wow! This is such a great honor. It means a great deal to me to have this scholarship, but even more than that, it means a great deal to me because it is in honor of Dr. Jernigan. The spark that Dr. Jernigan began with Dr. tenBroek burns deep in my heart. (I am trying not to cry.) This Federation means so much to me, and everybody here is like my big family. John Keats said, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." There's nothing more beautiful than the truth about blindness that I've found in the National Federation of the Blind. [applause] ********** Peggy Elliott: Before I give the microphone back to the Master of Ceremonies, I do want to ask to say something for just a minute to the Scholarship Class of the Year 2000. Scholarship winners, you are winners; each and every one of you is a winner. But I want to say also, so is the National Federation of the Blind. You know during this week we've sat with you; we've eaten with you; some of us have tippled with some of you; we've gotten wet with you; and we've played cards with you. Through all of that we have offered the greatest gift to you we have, and that great gift is not money; it is the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. tenBroek, Dr. Jernigan, and now Dr. Maurer challenge each one of us to find our place in the world and to find our place in the National Federation of the Blind. We challenge you scholarship winners of 2000 to step forward and join our family. We challenge you to step forward and join the march toward freedom for blind people and challenge you to step forward and take those leadership positions that your studies and achievements obviously suit you to take. We challenge you in other words to accept the gift, not of the money we have given you, but of the National Federation of the Blind; and most of all we challenge you to understand that the greatest thing the Federation has is its bond among blind people, the love we bear each other and the absolute determination we have to support each other and to bring every blind person to that land of freedom. Scholarship winners of 2000, we challenge you to become members of our family. Congratulations, Class of 2000. ********** ********** [#46 PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer delivers the 2000 Banquet Address.] [#47 PHOTO/CAPTION: Exuberant Federationists crowded the banquet room Friday evening.] The Personality of Freedom by Marc Maurer ********** An Address Delivered by Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, July 7, 2000 ********** An essential element of the development of an individual, an organization, or an entire society is its personality--that pattern of traits (emotional, behavioral, temperamental, or intellectual) that gives the entity its unique impact upon the rest of the world. All personalities are a mixture of traits, but at any specific moment one characteristic will be dominant. What a society or an organization is and what it can accomplish are, in large measure, determined by its personality. However, personalities are not immutable--they are constantly being revised, frequently without anybody's awareness that the alteration is taking place. The change need not occur by happenstance; it can be directed. Alterations in personality come from within. The ability to vary the personality requires the knowledge that it can be done and the determination that it will be. If an increased respect for human dignity and enhanced opportunities are the objectives, then there must be an openness to all facets of learning--from the multiplication table to the most profound philosophical concepts. Some people argue that it is possible to teach facts but that character cannot be learned. These people believe that a human being is either courageous or not, sensitive or otherwise, gentle or brutal and that trying to obtain character traits that are not already evident within a personality is futile. Such a pessimistic estimation of the human condition is nonsense. Patterns can be changed, and those who truly learn will come to know that decency and fairness make sense, that there is no such thing as cheating and getting away with it, and that generosity and love are necessary for a good life. It is said of Michael Faraday, the eminent English scientist of the nineteenth century, that he had greater appreciation of the facts of scientific discovery and took more delight in them than other people because he had a greater depth of understanding than his colleagues. His personality made him aware of wonder. As it is with scientific discovery, so it is with other learning. I am frequently delighted with generosity not only because of the gift but because of the spirit of the giver. I am intrigued with the thought that there is a measure of understanding which I have not yet come to appreciate--there are things to know that we have not yet been able to discover. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, who became President of the National Federation of the Blind in 1968 and served as its principal leader throughout much of his life, often startled me by his decision-making, not so much because of what he did but because of his reason for doing it. What we know is important, but the element that affects our personality more than what we have already learned is what we intend to discover. So what knowledge have we gained from the time of the founding of the organized blind movement in 1940, and what is it that we plan to learn? From the innocence of our inexperience each of us has at one time or another accepted an assessment of our capacity which is much more limited than is justified. Yet we have learned to question such assessments, and we reject them. We have been told in the past (and sometimes it is repeated even today) that blind people fit a certain pattern--that we possess negligible intellect because our opportunities for education are circumscribed and our channels for learning restricted, that we have indifferent physical capacity because so much of physical movement demands vision, that we experience only limited ambition because the full range of human activity is not available to us, and that our psychological makeup gives us a passive personality with a spectrum of emotion that ranges from somnolence to despair. Is that an accurate description of you and me? Not then; not now; not ever! Those who believe such things should be with us in our thousands tonight. They would learn firsthand that we who are members of the organized blind movement are anything but passive. We reject the portrayal of a former day. We are reshaping our image and creating a personality that is confident, knowledgeable, unwilling to be taken in by other people's misunderstanding of our capacity, possessing freedom of speech and independence of action, and having sufficient aggressiveness to care for ourselves and our blind brothers and sisters. We do not believe that all learning comes from us, but some does. We are prepared to learn from others, but the blind, too, have something to teach, and we intend to share our knowledge. Nobody else can take our experience and plumb the depths of meaning within our lives--we must do that for ourselves, and we must find a way for the truth of what we learn to become recognized within the broader society. We will discover our innate potential; we will demonstrate it to others; we will insist that it be accepted; and we will never rest until it is. We are the voice of the blind--the voice that will never cease until it is heard. In 1940, when Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the brilliant blind professor and scholar of constitutional law, brought together along with him a handful of other blind individuals at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to form the National Federation of the Blind, the knowledge we possessed about blindness was comparatively slight; but our belief in ourselves was growing; and our hope for the future was irrepressible. Indeed there was at the beginning little else but hope and belief. Almost one hundred percent of blind people were unemployed. Some sheltered workshops existed, but wages were pitifully low and working conditions dismal. Although the hope of a college education sometimes existed, for most of us it was a distant dream. For the vast majority of blind people a job, a home, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship were out of reach. The Books for the Blind Program of the Library of Congress had been established in the 1930's, but there was little expectation that blind people would use this resource for studious research. The vending stand program had been initiated, but opportunities were few and the pay meager. However, Dr. tenBroek and those who joined with him at the beginning of our movement had faith and hope. Without Dr. tenBroek's vivid imagination the National Federation of the Blind would never have been formed. As soon as we became an organization, we had to learn to speak independently and to believe in our own capacity for self-governance. The early years were not easy--there were constant challenges to the right of the blind to speak and act in their own best interest. As Dr. tenBroek said: ********** The career of our movement has not been a tranquil one. It has grown to maturity the hard way. The external pressures have often been unremitting. We have been counseled by well-wishers that all would be well, and we have learned to resist. We have been attacked by agencies and administrators. We have learned to fight back. We have been scolded by guardians and caretakers, and we've learned to talk back. We have cut our eyeteeth on legal and political struggle, sharpened our wits through countless debates, broadened our minds and deepened our voices by incessant contest. Most important of all, however, we have never stopped moving, never stopped battling, never stopped marching toward our goals. We who are blind knew in 1940 that, if we wished to be free, if we meant to gain those inestimable privileges of participation for which we had so long yearned, then we must organize for purposes of self-expression and collective action. ********** With these words Dr. tenBroek expressed the spirit of the Federation--that spirit which began as we were founded, has continued as a constant within the movement, and persists at this convention and throughout the Federation today. With this fighting spirit the founders of the Federation commenced the arduous task of learning to build a national organization that could stand on its own and speak on behalf of the blind. In 1952 (when the Federation was twelve years old), Dr. Kenneth Jernigan became active in the movement at the national level. Dr. tenBroek was a philosopher and a theoretician. Dr. Jernigan, who loved Dr. tenBroek and the philosophy he taught, was a builder and an advocate of political action. He expanded Dr. tenBroek's ideas and gave them substance in practical programs within the Federation. By the time of Dr. tenBroek's death in 1968, Dr. Jernigan had created in Iowa the best known program of rehabilitation for the blind in the United States. He did this by incorporating within it that philosophy he had learned from Dr. tenBroek. For his innovative effort in building programs for the blind, Dr. Jernigan received a Presidential citation, and the lives of thousands of blind people were enriched. Ten years later, in 1978, the Federation secured the National Center for the Blind, a substantial pile of bricks and mortar in what was formerly a rundown section of Baltimore, Maryland. With broken windows, leaks in the roof, antiquated electrical and plumbing systems, and an outdated heating plant, this building required the vivid imagination of Dr. Jernigan to bring its potential into being. Dr. Jernigan gave some of us a tour shortly after the building was acquired. He said, "Here is the conference room; here is the kitchen; this area will be used for the aids and appliances program." There were no interior walls in the areas we were examining; Dr. Jernigan was explaining to us how the building would be--after it had been remodeled. To many of us the whole place seemed like a big, dirty, empty, dreary, cavernous, uninteresting building. However, as was true for the pioneers in 1940, with the inspiration of our leader, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, we had hope and belief. We needed the space for the programs we were then operating, and we needed even more space for those we would plan to establish. We started the long, arduous task of creating the National Center for the Blind, which is today the nerve center of programming for the blind in our country, the home of the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind, and the facility in which plans are made to expand educational programs for blind children and to increase the availability of information systems to serve the blind. The National Center for the Blind is a source of pardonable pride for those in the Federation, for we make it what it is. What we know is important, but of even greater significance to our personality is what we hope to discover. During the 1980's the Federation continued to develop programs at the National Center for the Blind; served as an instrument to bring harmony and cooperation among agencies and organizations in the field of blindness; established rehabilitation centers in Louisiana, Colorado, and Minnesota; created the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children along with Future Reflections, the magazine for parents and educators of those children; started Voice of the Diabetic, the largest circulation magazine dealing with blindness in the United States; increased the emphasis on Braille literacy for blind children and adults; and sought methods for financing the programs we had been operating and those that were coming into being. The dreams and efforts of the 1980's laid the foundation for a decade of astonishing progress during the last ten years of the century. In this short span of time, the Federation has established the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind, produced and distributed over four million Kernel Books (eighteen of them now in circulation, and the nineteenth to be released later this year), conducted four international symposia on technology for the blind, and instituted the NEWSLINE(r) for the Blind Network and America's Jobline Network--which provide greater quantities of information to blind people over the telephone than have previously been available in all recorded history. As the decade was nearing its end, we embarked upon what is perhaps the most ambitious effort we have undertaken from the time of our founding--the creation of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind--a facility that exists today only in imagination, but which will be constructed in the early years of the twenty-first century. Dr. Jernigan was a builder. He became the director of programs for the blind in Iowa in 1958, which, under his leadership, were recognized as the best in the nation. In 1978, twenty years later, he founded the National Center for the Blind and began the work to put it into shape. Twenty years thereafter, in 1998, within only a few months of his death, he formulated the concept of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind and had the plans drawn for its construction. Building this facility will demand from us a change in our personality. We must adopt the belief that we can stimulate major financial investment in programs and ideas of our own creation. When we have raised the funding to establish the research institute, we must find a way to attract and stimulate the most imaginative researchers. Much research is conducted involving blindness. The vast majority of it is centered on locating cures for diseases of the eye. Of the percentage that remains, much is directed toward alleviating the supposedly stressful and dismal condition of those who are blind. Almost no research is conducted in the realms that we find of interest. When the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind has been built, we must put the facility to use. It will not be enough to expand what we are already doing; we must dream of programs that do not exist. In the mid 1970's we assisted Dr. Raymond Kurzweil in his work of inventing a reading machine. It was, at that time, so outrageously innovative that most people believed it could not be built. Even we wondered. The electronic scanner, which was a necessary part of the device, is now standard office machinery. Dr. Kurzweil's machine was the first, but today there are a number of reading machines available at a low enough price that many, many blind people can afford them. The invention was helpful for the blind, but it also benefited the larger society. The machines will continue to drop in price and increase in capacity. This change in technical ability occurred within twenty-five years. What is it that we want to build which, in our wildest imaginings, could be constructed for the blind? What programs can be imagined to offer literacy both for blind adults and for the children who are now in school? What teaching methods can improve mobility for the blind, and how can we inspire increased confidence? How long will it take to devise a personal vehicle that we can operate? What is the best method for persuading the shapers of American thought--filmmakers, university teaching programs, outlets in the news media, and others--to portray blind people in the way we know them to be, rather than as helpless, foolish, or inconsequential? What is the best way to give blind people access to the written word whether it is in print or in electronic form? How can education for blind children be stimulated? These questions arise from our dreams of a brighter tomorrow. We intend to use our institute to answer not only these but dozens of others. Today, as we raise the funds and make the plans to create the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind, I have heard it said that research should be left to the researchers, that the blind should stick to matters of special interest to the blind--Braille, lessons in the activities of daily living, teaching blind students to operate equipment for the blind, and the like. Research (if it is to be effective) must explore realms that are highly complex, rigorously demanding, and technically innovative. Sometimes it is not so much said as implied. Why do the blind need a research institution? Surely the universities can do it at least as well as or better than the blind can. To those who believe that we who are blind are incapable of the intellect, the skill, and the dedication to conduct our own research in our own way, I say this: we have the capacity to learn, but we can also teach. We have a resource that none of you possess; we have the experience of tens of thousands of blind people collected in one place and represented by a body of literature which has produced more independence and self-reliance for the blind than any other. Our point of view will not be yours; our results will not be yours; and our contributions will not be yours. We are prepared to learn, but we also have something to teach. Ours is a vibrant and an aggressive personality. In creating the research institute, we make a leap of faith. Is there a fundamental reason that the unemployment rate for the blind should hover in the neighborhood of 70 percent? We say emphatically, no! Is there some kind of a physical limitation that keeps the Braille literacy rate for blind children in the neighborhood of 10 percent? The answer is equally emphatic and exactly the same, no! A new direction must be found. We, the organized blind of the United States, have decided that we will find it. This determination has become an element of our personality. We are the voice of the blind--the voice that will never cease until it is heard. Is there really a need for a different kind of research and a new institution to study the problems of blindness? If you doubt the urgency, consider this. The M.D.'s Wellness Journal from the Whitaker Wellness Institute, winter 2000 edition, carries an article entitled "Save Your Vision NOW!" Some excerpts from this article are instructive. They say: "It's true--we're all slowly going blind. The miraculous transformation of light into nerve impulses, which your brain sees as color, shape, and depth, eventually wears out your eye. It is called age-related macular degeneration (AMD). . . .While this condition is universal to everyone, it's one of the most terrifying threats to your health, independence, and enjoyment of life as you age." ********** [I interrupt to ask whether blindness necessarily must be terrifying. If it is not correctly understood, it certainly can be. However, with thorough understanding and proper training the "terrifying threat" can be reduced to a physical nuisance. Furthermore, have we who are blind lost our independence or the capacity for the enjoyment of life? But back to the article. It continues:] ********** Without your vision, you can't drive, you can't work, you can't read, you can't see your grandchildren or a movie. You can't easily travel, shop for yourself, or remain independent. For heaven's sake, you can hardly walk into the next room or around the block without difficulty! ********** [Once again I interrupt. Although those who are newly blinded are sometimes quite timid in asserting independence, is this description at all accurate for the blind? Do we work, read, shop, walk around the block, or attend the theater? Of course we do all of these things and many others. But there is more of the article.] ********** While you can't stop this process, [it continues] you can surely and dramatically slow it down so that you keep your vision in reasonable shape for as long as you live. . . . Numerous studies have shown certain antioxidants protect your retina from free radical damage. . . . The gentle herb which dramatically improves vision. . . was discovered by World War II British pilots who ate it and reported much better night vision! Works by improving blood flow to your eyes. ********** These statements come from the M.D.'s Wellness Journal. They do not specify the gentle herb that so dramatically increases night vision, but other reports I have gathered tell me that it is a nutrient in the unpretentious, humble carrot. How many blind children have been told to eat their carrots because they are good for the eyes? For all I know, it may be true, but the story did not start with science. It began with deception and trickery. It is said that during World War II the British invented the first radar. With this device operators could see enemy airplanes in the midst of clouds and fog or even in the dark. Unless the Germans were led to believe that a program to enhance the vision of British pilots had been instituted, they would inevitably come to the conclusion that a technological development, such as radar, had been discovered. British intelligence knew it was important to prevent the Germans from seeking to discover new scientific apparatus. Radar gave the British air force a distinct advantage over the Luftwaffe. Those in British intelligence made it appear that they inadvertently permitted German spies to discover that the British airforce had embarked upon a campaign to feed massive quantities of carrots to the pilots because, they said, this diet dramatically increased their night vision. It was all done in an effort to mislead the Germans to prevent them from learning that a scientific breakthrough had been achieved. Although carrots are undoubtedly good for you, I can report that I have consumed substantial quantities without producing a noticeable difference in the quality of my vision. Whitaker's journal exaggerates beyond all reason the limitations of becoming blind. In most cases blindness is not an advantage, but Dr. Whitaker's description is out of proportion. He says blind people can't work, can't read, can't travel easily, can't shop unaided, can't remain independent, and can't walk around the block or into the next room without difficulty. Every single one of these assertions is a lie! Yet they are dressed up to make it appear as if they are part of scientific research. They are issued by a health institute and written by a doctor. Two of his many statements have an element of truth. Those of us who are blind can't see our grandchildren in the same way that sighted people do, and we can't drive an automobile. However, coming to know our grandchildren, caring for them, nurturing them, loving them, taking them to the zoo, and having the other experiences that grandparents find so dear are part of daily activity for the blind. Then there is driving. Blind people do not drive cars. However, with a little planning and ingenuity, we are mobile. Many people think driving is of the utmost importance. Take my son David, who is sixteen, for example. He is sighted, and he believes that driving a car offers him not only independence of movement but status among his peers as well. He has persuaded me to buy a car for him to drive. I even ride in it occasionally if he doesn't have it off somewhere inaccessible to me. He probably would not believe me if I told him, but I am more mobile than he is even though I am unable personally to drive an automobile. Most of the time I get where I want to go with minimal inconvenience to me and to others. This is the test of mobility. I am older and more experienced than my son, and I have more ready cash available to me. Even though he drives the car, I exercise more freedom of movement than he does. Dr. Whitaker was not researching blindness, but a cure for a disease of the eye. In doing so, he portrayed the prospects for the blind as nothing less than tragic. His portrayal comes from a former time, and it is without understanding and without depth. We reject it. We will not permit misunderstanding and false information to determine our future. We will challenge the dismal summation of the doctor and replace it with an image of competence and success. We are the voice of the blind--the voice that will never cease until it is heard. As Federation members know, the primary problem blind people face is one of misunderstanding. The misunderstanding comes in different guises. Sometimes our methods for doing things are not comprehended; sometimes our capacity for performance is not appreciated; and sometimes the misperception involves the importance of our doing anything at all. The loss of eyesight requires blind people to use alternative techniques to do the same things sighted people do with vision. Some modifications to the environment are necessary to permit blind people to compete successfully. This is especially true in handling information, which is frequently presented visually. One of the major providers of information is America Online (AOL). Officials of this company have said that their product is unique and beneficial. However, they have systematically refused to consider building the AOL system in a way that would permit the blind to get at the information. Why? Some people would argue that they have never thought about the question. But of course they have had every opportunity to think about it. Blind people have complained about the inaccessibility of AOL for years. The attitude of AOL seems to have been that the blind do not have enough to contribute to AOL or to society as a whole to make an alteration in their system worth serious thought. Most of the time, when the matter has been raised, they have told us to wait or to seek access to their information through somebody else's technology or to get our knowledge from another provider or to forget it. AOL officials are not against the blind; they just don't think we are worth the time and effort it would take to give us the same access that other people have. To AOL the blind are objects of charity--not customers, people for whom things are done--not contributors, in a word inconsequential. When we the blind had been forced to conclude by the actions and attitude of AOL officials that their perception would not change, we took measures to protect our own interests and secure our future--we brought suit against them in the federal court. They may believe that the blind are inconsequential, but we do not share this opinion, and we also have something to teach. Compare this attitude to one exhibited by a man in Montana, Pat Schildt, who has decided to do something for us--he has designed a special toilet for the blind. I confess that this one took me by surprise. Blind people do not have a different physical form from the sighted. What could possibly be done, I wondered, to make a toilet more effective or easier to use for the blind? I speculated that Mr. Schildt may have thought blind men would be unable to aim for the proper spot. Perhaps, I thought, he had devised a funnel attachment which would make the aiming unnecessary. However, this is not the case. An article which appeared in the Tuesday, April 25, 2000, edition of the Missoulian describes the genesis of this product as follows: ********** [Pat] Schildt realized that people with disabilities, particularly people with limited vision or no vision, often were frustrated by having to hunt for the most basic things--like toilet paper dispensers." Schildt said, "They [blind people] don't know if the seat is wet or if it's dirty, if there is toilet paper or where it is--or, if it is there, how to get it out of its container." ********** Schildt's solution, which he has named the Hygienic Toilet for the Blind and Physically Challenged, is a stainless steel toilet with covered toilet paper dispensers attached to each side of the bowl. I kid you not; you can read it in the paper. Why do people come up with such crazy ideas? Why do information-providers refuse to consider including the blind? The answer is simple. They do not believe blind people are in the same class with the rest of humanity. They think that being blind sets us apart from others, that we are different, unable to make substantial contributions, unimportant. The attitude is not one deliberately to belittle the blind. It would be better for us if it were. Rather it is to assign blind people to a role so insignificant that our problems are never considered, our presence is never desired, our contributions never sought, and our abilities never observed. However, this attitude, although at one time almost all-pervasive, is waning, and those who hold it are fewer than they once were. What has occurred to cause this transformation? How has the personality shift come into being? It is through the efforts of the organized blind movement--through the activities and spirit of the National Federation of the Blind. In the past we were the unheard minority, but that must and will change. We are the voice of the blind--the voice that speaks with an insistent cadence--the voice that will never cease until it is heard. The public misconceptions about blindness are not confined to the sighted. Blind people, being a part of the public, also share them. When these misconceptions are repeated by the blind, they have the appearance of substance even when there is none. An article which appeared in The Washington Post on June 9, 2000, depicts a stark, tragic, unrelenting world of misery as described by a man who became blind within the last few years. Entitled "A World Darkened by Despair," this article says in part, "I was walking to my car the other day [says the reporter, Courtland Milloy] when a blind man named John Sterling called out, 'Am I on Third Street?' He was indeed. Right smack dab in the middle of it, with traffic bearing down on him. The least I could do was offer him a ride home, which he gladly accepted. Turns out that Sterling needed somebody to talk to almost as much as he needed to get out of the street. In fact, he confessed, he sometimes deliberately walks in the streets--either to get attention from sympathetic passersby or in hopes of actually getting hit by a vehicle. `Being blind is so boring,' he told me. `Sometimes you just get tired of waking up to face the same old thing--nothing--every day. Sometimes, I just want to walk right out in front of a bus and end it all.'" ********** [Or get a free ride home with a passing newspaper reporter along with a dollop of sympathetic press. I confess that this last thought was not in The Washington Post, but it does seem to come to mind. What a distorted and dismal picture. Blindness, according to Sterling, offers no hope. Life itself may not be worth living for the blind, he tells us, and he tells us in The Washington Post. But we are not through with this news feature.] ********** Sterling insisted [continues the article] that he needs a job, anything to do besides sleep all day. And he is not alone. About 20,000 blind people live in the Washington area, and, despite the booming economy and low unemployment rate, 70 percent of working-age blind people are without jobs. `There are a lot of blind people in our area, but how many do you see?' Sterling asked. `That's because they stay indoors all day, mostly sleeping or talking on the telephone, trying to keep from feeling that nobody cares,' he said. ********** [I interrupt this article to point out that the people who should care the most about the blind are the blind themselves. Somebody else cannot achieve independence for us. Somebody else cannot win our freedom. We must gain these things through our own efforts or be without them. Do our sighted friends and neighbors care? Of course they do. Growing numbers are joining with us in the effort to bring self-reliance to the blind, and we are glad to welcome them. But charting the course of our lives is not their responsibility; it is ours. However, there is still more in The Washington Post.] ********** About a year ago, [continues the article] Sterling completed an eight-month mobility training course for the blind. But he still bumps into fences and parked cars, stumbles along cracked sidewalks, and occasionally falls. `Basically I paid $4,000 to learn how to tap the ground with this stick,' he said. `See, with this stick, I go zigzagging all over the place. I walk twice as long to get half as far.'" ********** Such are excerpts from the article that appeared in The Washington Post, and one wonders how to respond. Sterling's description of his experience and the despair he feels may be his honest appraisal, but the assessment is not accurate. There are blind people who have given up, but the great majority have not. There are those who have accepted the assertion that blindness means the end of productive living, but most of us know that this is wrong. The educational programs of the Federation are having an impact, and employment opportunities for the blind are expanding. Sterling has caused his description to be printed in the paper, and his view of blindness will help create the disadvantages and erect the barriers that the rest of us must confront. However, his voice is not the only one. We have also learned to speak, and we have an abiding hope and faith. Blindness need not be tragic, and we will not permit this description to go unchallenged. We are the voice of the blind--the voice that speaks with an insistent cadence--the voice that will never cease until it is heard. Every year we receive many thousands of letters from blind people. Some of these tell of the tragedy that misunderstanding and lack of information cause. Here are parts of one such communication. The language is stark. The exclusion is total. The injuries to the spirit of this blind person are still raw. This is what she says: ********** Let me tell you what Magoo and related things did to me. I remember, with agonizing clarity, the pain, humiliation, suffering, and fear--yes, fear of my childhood. I was called `Blinky,' `Missus Magoo,' `Four Eyes,' and other hurtful names. I know the sound of hatred. I remember what the rocks felt like as they hit my face. I remember the taste of my own blood. I remember that at each new school the first thing I did was search for hiding places! My favorite school was the one that had a coal chute. When the bell went, I would dash for the hiding place trying to get there before the bullies could grab me. Since this was the Fifties and Sixties, the heyday of Magoo and long before sensitivity issues, there was no recourse. Teachers and principals would tell me `Just stop annoying the bullies,' or `Ignore them.' Let me ask you. . . how do you ignore a circle of children, standing around you while you feel around on the ground to find your glasses, which are under the foot of one of the biggest kids? How do you pretend not to be bleeding? I now know that the reason my grades were so poor was that I could not concentrate on learning. I was in a war zone. My ability to work is damaged due to faulty learning. ********** The woman who wrote this letter was hurt physically by the rocks, but what bruised and twisted her spirit was the constant apprehension--the fear that she was alone and friendless in a hostile world. She did not know of the National Federation of the Blind, and we did not know of her. In the 1960's we were smaller and less powerful than we are today, but we would have offered support and comfort. We cannot change the past, but we are absolutely committed to a brighter future. Frequently children (especially blind children) do not possess the experience or training to protect themselves. Blindness is a particularly visible characteristic which is sometimes employed to divide blind people from the rest of the group. Often the only reasonable alternative available to a blind person is seeking assistance from others to establish a secure environment--to shift the emphasis away from fear and toward the exercise of independent choices. We know that blind children are vulnerable, and we will take steps to protect them. Because there is strength in numbers, because the power to belittle the blind diminishes when we face it together, we have formed our vehicle for collective action--we have established the National Federation of the Blind. We, the organized blind movement, have decided to alter our personality so that the role of insignificance that was once assigned to the blind is swept away and replaced with a character that is bold, assertive, self-confident, joyous, and successful. To do this, we must change ourselves. We must believe that the alteration can occur, and we must insist that it come into being. It is your responsibility and mine. Will we succeed? Will we set the standard for pioneering a new image of blindness? Will we find a way to build for the blind of this generation and the next programs that do not yet exist? You know the answer as well as I--you know the spirit of the Federation--you know our absolute, unshakable, unbendable determination to achieve first-class citizenship within society. The personality of freedom cannot be brought into being by a single human being, by a handful, or even by a multitude; it must be shaped by the entire movement--it must be created by you and me. I will not ask of you what I myself am not willing to give, but I will not hesitate to ask. Our movement needs all the best within us--our imagination, our love, our dedication, our shared commitment, our belief in ourselves and each other. The mechanisms of our movement change, but the fundamental purpose remains the same. Sometimes we achieve our objectives through letter-writing campaigns, sometimes by marching in the streets, sometimes by confrontations, sometimes by educational symposia, sometimes by creating a literature of hope and belief, sometimes through actions in the courts, and sometimes by designing our own research facility. However, though the method may shift, the objective does not--it is the complete, unhampered, total independence of the blind. In this year of new beginnings, as the 1900's cease to be, we look to the future and wonder what the decades ahead will bring. The specific details may be obscure, but the direction is abundantly clear. The future belongs to us. The doctors can tell us that we cannot live independently; the computer specialists can deny us access to information; the inventors can assert that we are unable to find the toilet paper; and the newspapers can print that some of us think it would be better for us to jump in front of a bus. In the long run such arguments are of no significance. They cannot stop us, for we will not let them. We will form our personality to fit our own image, and we will keep on marching--never quitting, keep on battling--never stopping, keep on living our independence--never altering our irrepressible spirit. Whatever the challenges, we will meet them. Whatever the obstacles, we will surmount them. Whatever the costs, we will pay them. We will not be ignored or stifled or intimidated--and we will prevail. This is our determination; this is our personality; this is the National Federation of the Blind! Come: join me, and we will make it come true! ********** ********** NFB Awards 2000 ********** From the Editor: National Federation of the Blind awards are not bestowed lightly. If an appropriate recipient does not emerge from the pool of candidates for a particular award, it is simply not presented. At this year's convention six presentations were made. The first three took place during the Board of Directors meeting Tuesday morning, July 4. The first of these was presented by Steve Benson, who chairs the Blind Educator of the Year Selection Committee. This is what he said: ********** [#48a PHOTO/CAPTION: Steve Benson Presents the Blind Educator of the Year Award to Priscilla McKinley.] The Blind Educator of the Year Award ********** Jacobus tenBroek was a constitutional scholar, award-winning author, outspoken and eminent authority on social welfare and civil rights, and founder of the National Federation of the Blind. He earned five academic degrees, served as chairman of the speech department at the University of California, and chaired the California Social Welfare Board. Dr. tenBroek's prowess as a teacher on the Berkeley campus was renowned among students and faculty alike. We, though, are more familiar with his consummate teaching skills beyond the university campus. He taught blind people and the public that blind people have the same rights of citizenship as sighted people, that we have the same desires and aspirations as everybody else, and that we have the same right to expect to achieve those aspirations. Kenneth Jernigan too was a consummate teacher. He taught many of us, firsthand, how to live and fulfill our dreams. He taught all of us how to build the strongest organization of the blind in the world. The immediacy of Dr. Jernigan's teaching is palpable for those of us who worked beside him; and the impact of his lessons has left an indelible imprint on this organization and on the public mind. Now President Maurer adds his knowledge and spirit to lessons taught and learned as we forge ahead in the full current of life as equals in this society. Each of these leaders has taught; each has defined a standard toward which we strive. It is the task of the Blind Educator of the Year Award Committee (Judy Sanders, Adelmo Vigil, Ramona Walhof, and me) to select an award recipient who emulates tenBroek, Jernigan, and Maurer in Federation terms and who distinguishes him- or herself in the competitive classroom. The Committee has once again selected a winner whose nominating letters indicate the highest regard among teaching colleagues and highest praise from students. One nominating letter says: "She enters a classroom prepared for discussion and debate." Another says: "She has exemplified exactly the qualities of character and academic achievement that the Blind Educator of the Year Award recognizes." A third letter says: "She is an inspiration to the academic community and to the blind of the state in which she lives and works." Yet another says: "She has taught advanced writing courses rarely assigned to graduate students." The 2000 recipient of the Blind Educator of the Year Award teaches in the manner and style of tenBroek, Jernigan, and Maurer. She serves on a state affiliate board of directors. She has organized an active and energetic chapter. Very early on a recent Saturday morning, I was tuning across the radio dial and heard a public service announcement for her chapter's meeting. Fellow Federationists, the winner of the 2000 Blind Educator of the Year Award is Priscilla McKinley. While Priscilla is making her way to the platform, I will tell you that she is President of the Old Capital Chapter in Iowa City, Iowa, and she is First Vice President of the NFB teachers division. Priscilla won a national scholarship in 1996, and she was a tenBroek Fellow in 1998. She earned a master of fine arts degree from the very prestigious University of Iowa Writers Workshop in nonfiction writing. She has published essays, and she is an adjunct professor of English at the University of Iowa. One colleague describes Priscilla's classes as fun and engaging. Priscilla, here is a check in the amount of five hundred dollars and a plaque that reads: ********** THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND HONORS PRISCILLA MCKINLEY DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND CHILDREN FOR YOUR SKILLS IN TEACHING BRAILLE AND THE USE OF THE WHITE CANE FOR GENEROUSLY DEVOTING EXTRA TIME TO MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR STUDENTS AND FOR INSPIRING YOUR STUDENTS TO PERFORM BEYOND THEIR EXPECTATIONS. YOU CHAMPION OUR MOVEMENT, YOU STRENGTHEN OUR HOPES, YOU SHARE OUR DREAMS. ********** Congratulations! Here is Priscilla McKinley. ********** My mom was an English teacher, and my dad was a poet who happened to farm, and when I went off to the University of Iowa a long time ago, it was natural for me to go into teaching. But when I got the application in the mail, I didn't do the natural thing; I wrote down that I wanted to go into pre-med. Of course, after my first course in advanced chemistry, I decided to be natural and to go into teaching, which is where my heart was. Then I lost my sight, and people told me that I couldn't teach. Worse than that, I told myself that I couldn't teach. Then I met the National Federation of the Blind. I met people like Dr. Jernigan, Allen Harris, Carla McQuillan, etc., and they all taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in life, which is that it is respectable to be blind. Thanks. [applause] ********** ********** [#48b PHOTO/CAPTION: John Miller presents the Leonard Euler Award to Chris Weaver and the MAVIS Project.] The Leonard Euler Award ********** John Miller, President of the Science and Engineering Division, came to the podium a little later during the Board meeting to present a new award intended to honor those who smooth the way for blind students and scientists and engineers to do their work. This is what he said: ********** We are doing something this year, and I'm very excited about it. I would like to thank the Committee members for this award-- Brian Buhrow, Chairman of the Research and Development Committee; Dr. Michael Gosse; and Robert Jacquiss. They created the Leonard Euler Award for scientific excellence, the purpose of which is to recognize those who help blind people succeed in science and engineering and to make of them an example for other vendors to develop products and solutions as outstanding as the ones acknowledged here. In the year 2001 Brian Buhrow will be chairing the selection committee, so get your nominations in if you see a product that is good at helping blind people do math. If you know a high school student and something that is getting him or her a necessary education in scientific matters, then get that nomination in to Brian Buhrow. Leonard Euler was born in the 1700's, and by the time he was twenty-eight, he had lost his sight in one eye. This blind mathematician soon lost the sight in his other eye and became totally blind for the rest of his life. As his blindness was coming upon him, he prepared for his future career as a blind person. He learned to write his mathematical formulas on a slate so that he could communicate with others without using any vision. Also he used a reader and dictated the many books and papers that would soon be published. He lived a full, balanced life. He was an outstanding parent and, as a blind person, was a more prolific mathematician and publisher than he had been as a sighted young man. When Catherine the Great of Russia enticed him to come to Russia and serve in the court there, the accommodations she offered him and his thirteen children and wife were a cook and a house; and he was glad to have the accommodations. He was born in 1707 and died in 1783. He authored 886 books and papers. His name appears in a formula in every branch of classical mathematics, the field of engineering, and business. Euler is famous for the notation of the natural logarithms (the letter "E" representing the base is for his name), the notation i for the square of negative one, the notation of the mathematical function Y = F(X), and a formula about closed polyhedrons--the number of faces plus the vertices minus the number of edges equals two. I checked it out this morning. It holds for a pyramid and for a cube. The winner this year and the first recipient of the Leonard Euler Award for Scientific Excellence is the MAVIS Project. Here as its recipient is Chris Weaver. [applause] While Chris is coming forward, let me tell you about this award. Dr. Jernigan said that with training and opportunity blind people can compete on terms of equality with the sighted. The MAVIS Project is making this possible for us in science. MAVIS has created software for an off-the-shelf program called Scientific Notebook 3.0, in which a sighted person can typeset mathematics just the way it would look in a published book, knowing nothing about Braille or a blind person's need to read something mathematical, and can use the MAVIS software to have the material appear in Nemeth Braille code. Not stopping there, this program is now a front-end product of Duxbury Systems. It is in Alpha test and will soon be available commercially to all blind people. But better still, as an example, Chris himself has been an active part of the National Federation of the Blind and the Science Division, attending our conventions, giving freely of his advice and support, showing the kind of mentorship and learning that we want between vendors and the blind. Let me read to you the actual award and mention that the National Federation of the Blind brought Chris to this convention, and we have a check for $300 for the MAVIS Project. The award has the logo of the National Federation of the Blind and the text etched on a glass disk. The glass is held in place by two marble arcs forming the base and two isosceles triangles holding the piece of glass in a vertical position. The text reads: ********** THE LEONARD EULER AWARD OF SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DIVISION NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND THE MAVIS PROJECT NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY IN RECOGNITION OF ITS ONGOING WORK FOR USING INNOVATIVE TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES MAKING MATHEMATIC AND SCIENTIFIC BRAILLE AVAILABLE TO BLIND STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS. JULY 4, 2000 ********** Chris, there is your trophy, and here is your check for $300 from the National Federation of the Blind. ********** Chris Weaver: Thank you very much, National Federation of the Blind. I just want to point out that this is not a one-man effort. We have roughly ten people working on our team, including our principal investigator Arthur Karshmer, Gopal Gupta, Sandy Geiger, Kelly Burma, Haifeng Guo, Jose Mendez Mateos, and a fellow named Jack Medd who is a volunteer from MacKichan Software, who wrote most of the code for the MAVIS Scientific Notebook to Nemeth code to convert it. I just want to thank the NFB for the influence that you had on our project. My colleague Sandy Geiger and I got started when we had a blind student that came to our classroom, as you may have read in the June Braille Monitor. When we got started, we had good intentions, and I think that, as a result of our good intentions, we were very much in danger of becoming an organization that was custodial, just like all the other organizations out there. Then in stepped the Federation, and thanks to all of your input, we are developing all of our software to make sure that blind people have exactly the same kinds of opportunities in science and mathematics that all of their sighted peers do. [applause] Thank you very much for your support. ********** ********** [#49 PHOTO/CAPTION: Sharon Maneki reads the text of the plaque while Marlene Culpepper displays the award.] Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award ********** Shortly before the close of the Board meeting, Sharon Maneki, who chairs the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award Committee, made her committee's presentation. Here is the way it happened: ********** Good morning, Mr. President and fellow Federationists. The goals of the National Federation of the Blind, as we know, are security, equality, and opportunity. The best vehicle to achieve these goals is through education. So in the National Federation of the Blind we have created the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award. This year's recipient is someone who is a neighbor. She didn't have as far as some of us to come to this convention because she is from Georgia--Columbus, Georgia, as a matter of fact. She sees to it that her students travel miles because she makes sure that they have what they need. She was nominated by parents: Donna and Larry Jones. Their daughter Heather is blind, and some of us heard Heather at the parents' seminar on Sunday. I just want to read a little bit of what Donna and Larry had to say about the recipient, and you will understand why the Committee of Jacqueline Billey, Allen Harris, Joyce Scanlan, and me chose her. She is a teacher who is adamant in her belief that proficiency in Braille is essential to the literacy of the blind. She encourages and expects her students to read daily and provides a vast array of reading materials. Our school's Braille library has over three hundred Braille books and includes bestsellers such as the Harry Potter series. As the parent of a blind child, I cannot express in words what it means for my child to be able to choose a book that she is interested in and not to have to settle only for what is available. Even though the teacher has a limited budget, you will never hear one of her students remark, "I don't have anything good to read." She constantly amazes us in her never-ending search for new resources to purchase new books. This year's recipient is Marlene Culpepper from the Miscogee County Public Schools. [applause] First of all, Marlene, I have a check for you, and I will take a minute to read the award: ********** THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND HONORS MARLENE CULPEPPER DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND CHILDREN FOR YOUR SKILL IN TEACHING BRAILLE AND THE USE OF THE WHITE CANE, FOR GENEROUSLY DEVOTING EXTRA TIME TO MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR STUDENTS, AND FOR INSPIRING YOUR STUDENTS TO PERFORM BEYOND THEIR EXPECTATIONS. YOU CHAMPION OUR MOVEMENT. YOU STRENGTHEN OUR HOPES. YOU SHARE OUR DREAMS. ********** Congratulations. ********** Marlene Culpepper: Thank you, Federationists. I am honored to be here and receive this award. However, I don't feel that I do anything more than what a good teacher of blind children should do. And that is, I hope, to inspire my children to dream, and I hope to give them the tools with which to do it and the ability to use them. Thank you. ********** ********** [#50 PHOTO/CAPTION: Don and Betty Capps look on while Congressman Ehrlich holds the plaque and Allen Harris addresses the audience.] The Newel Perry Award ********** Fairly soon after dinner and early in the banquet proceedings, Congressman Robert Ehrlich made his way from his seat at the head table to Dr. Maurer to explain that he had a plane to catch and to say good-bye. President Maurer asked him to be seated for just a moment more and told Allen Harris to make the presentation of the Newel Perry Award. Here it is: ********** Newel Perry was a pioneer long before the National Federation of the Blind was born in 1940. Newel Perry was a person who at the age of eight became blind and was sent off to the School for the Blind in Berkeley, California, where he began his education and where he stayed throughout the rest of grammar school, middle school, and high school. Newel Perry was a brilliant student and did extremely well. Upon graduation from the Berkeley California School for the Blind, Newel Perry enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley to study mathematics, where he again excelled as a student. He was a scholar rarely paralleled by his colleagues at the time. He continued through the four years of undergraduate work, receiving a baccalaureate degree from the University of California and at that point, with a bachelor's degree and being already of a reputation and notoriety, he was offered an opportunity to go to Europe, where he studied and eventually earned a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in mathematics. Although Dr. Perry was eminently qualified, although he was clearly a man renowned among mathematicians, he ended up in New York City tutoring children in rudimentary mathematics. Why? Newel Perry was blind. He applied to more than five hundred institutions of one kind and another to be a teacher and was turned down by all of them. He struggled and looked for work with impeccable credentials but could not find work. Newel Perry went back then after a time to the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, where he began teaching and tutoring children. Among the students that he encountered was Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, who at that time was not a doctor, but a student at the California School for the Blind. Newel Perry stands for all that the Federation has come to believe and to understand. Newel Perry faced the problems that blind people had encountered throughout the centuries and through the decades on into the 1960's when he finally passed away in 1961. It is our pleasure tonight to present the Newel Perry Award to a friend who has worked with us, who has been stalwart for us in a place where it matters, the United States Congress. Congressman Ehrlich, would you please join us at the podium? Congressman Ehrlich is holding up the plaque so that you can take a look at it. It's a fine-looking plaque. On this plaque it says: ********** NEWEL PERRY AWARD NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND ********** IN RECOGNITION OF COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP AND OUTSTANDING SERVICE, THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND BESTOWS THE NEWEL PERRY AWARD UPON THE HONORABLE ROBERT L. EHRLICH: OUR COLLEAGUE; OUR FRIEND; OUR BROTHER ON THE BARRICADES. HE CHAMPIONS OUR PROGRESS; HE STRENGTHENS OUR HOPES; HE SHARES OUR DREAMS. JULY 7, 2000 ********** Robert Ehrlich: Thank you all very much. I have a plane to catch, and I just said goodbye to Marc. I said, "I'm leaving now for the airport," and he said, "No, you're not. Go sit down." So I had an idea maybe something was up, but that's the first I had insight that something would occur this evening. I have a question for you all. I know we do a lot of important things at this convention. We nominate our Presidential candidates in four days, and you all take a week: now that is serious work. I am very impressed. I am very honored with this award. Some of you know that I have the office that President Kennedy had when he was in the House of Representatives. It's a very historic office, 315 Cannon House Office Building. This award will hang in that office in honor of you. I thank you all very much. I love what you do. I love your spirit; I'm proud to be associated with you. You are my friends. Godspeed, and thank you again. ********** ********** [#51 PHOTO/CAPTION: Michael Gosse presents the Louis Braille Memorial Award to Michael Tobin.] The Louis Braille Memorial Award ********** An award was presented at this year's banquet by the International Braille Research Center. Dr. Michael Gosse, the newly elected President of the IBRC, made the presentation. This is what he said: ********** The Louis Braille Memorial Award is given by the International Braille Research Center in recognition of past and continuing contributions to research for the advancement of Braille literacy. The recipient is nominated by the distinguished IBRC Council of Research Fellows and confirmed by the IBRC Board of Directors. This year's recipient is Dr. Michael Tobin. Dr. Tobin graduated with honors from the University of London with a bachelor of arts. After obtaining his teaching certificate, he continued to a Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham. He later completed the rigorous requirements for the Doctor of Literature in education. Dr. Tobin currently serves as Professor of Special Education in Visual Disabilities at the University of Birmingham, where he is the director of the University Research Center for the Education of the Visually Handicapped. In addition to serving as the chairman of the IBRC Council of Research Fellows, he serves as a fellow of the British Psychological Society of Chartered Psychologists and the Association for the Education and Welfare of the Visually Handicapped. With over a hundred books, reports, and papers to his credit, Dr. Tobin first became addicted to Braille in the latter 1960's when he completed ground-breaking research in the teaching of Braille by touch to newly blinded adolescents and adults. Other research has included developing a Braille reading test to measure speed, accuracy, and comprehension and an experimental investigation of print and computer-based text and its decoding by visually impaired readers. He has numerous other research projects that are ongoing. With these credentials Dr. Tobin certainly rises to the standards set forth for the Louis Braille Memorial Award. Dr. Tobin, it is my honor to present to you the Louis Braille Memorial Award, which consists of a scroll mounted on a plaque. The scroll reads: ********** THE INTERNATIONAL BRAILLE RESEARCH CENTER LOUIS BRAILLE MEMORIAL AWARD PRESENTED TO DR. MICHAEL TOBIN IN RECOGNITION OF OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCH RELATING TO BRAILLE LITERACY AND EDUCATION OF THE BLIND PRESENTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ATLANTA, GEORGIA JULY 7, 2000 ********** In addition we have a true gold medallion, four ounces of gold that I've been carrying around all day, and I'm glad I'm getting rid of it. On the front is an image of Louis Braille, and on the back are the dates "1809 to 1852" and the words "Louis Braille medal." I present these to you, Dr. Tobin, and the microphone for any comments you would like to make. ********** What an evening this has been--something totally out of my experience. I'd just like you to think for a moment of some of the great and powerful inventions made by mankind: the combustion engine, radio, television--you name it--herbicides and insecticides--all powerful inventions, but every one of them has a down side to it, some deleterious effect. I suggest to you that there has been one great, powerful invention by mankind that has no down side to it, that has no deleterious effects. It was made by Louis Braille. Braille, I suggest to you, is one of the great, powerful, epoch-making inventions of mankind. I'm enormously proud to receive this medal, particularly since the first recipient was Dr. Emerson Foulke. He was a great friend and teacher of all of us who do research. I'm sure nothing could be better for me than to follow in the footsteps of Emerson. I shall be retiring next year. I should have done it last year, but the University wanted to keep me on because we have a research exercise whereby the University gets money depending on the quality of its research. My bosses want me to stay on until this research assessment is over. But I want to say that tonight receiving this gold medal is the peak, the summit of my academic and research career, and I thank you most sincerely. [applause] ********** ********** [#52 PHOTO/CAPTION: Ramona Walhof reads the text of the tenBroek Award while Tim Cranmer displays the plaque.] The Jacobus tenBroek Award ********** Near the end of the banquet Ramona Walhof, who chairs the Jacobus tenBroek Award Committee, came to the microphone for a presentation. This is what she said: ********** The National Federation of the Blind voted in 1974 to establish an award in memory of our beloved founder, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek. This award would be presented to leaders of the organization as often as there is someone who deserves special national recognition for outstanding contributions to the blind and to the NFB. Considering leaders for this award is a delightful assignment for the committee, which consists of Jim Omvig, Joyce Scanlan, and me. One of the things the Federation can be proud of is the quality and the number of its leaders who take on more and more responsibilities with increased success. The tenBroek award has been given sixteen times to individuals from thirteen states. This year we have chosen a gentleman whose contributions to the Federation and to the blind of the country are as great as any who has ever received the award. The work of this man has affected every blind person in the room tonight and everyone who is not here as well. Our tenBroek award recipient directed a state rehabilitation agency for the blind for seventeen years, but that is not what he is best known for. He has worked in various capacities to improve production and circulation of Braille, to improve technology for the blind, to improve employment for the blind; and he has written numerous articles and presented many speeches on these matters. Many of you first met Tim Cranmer's work when you purchased your first abacus, the Cranmer abacus. But let's go back to the early years. Tim Cranmer was enrolled at the Kentucky School for the Blind from 1933 to 1938. At age fourteen he decided he could learn more productively by dropping out of school (we don't recommend it) and borrowing books in Braille from Hadley School for the Blind and other libraries. He was fascinated with chemistry, physics, electricity, and math. At age sixteen he figured out how to solidify plastic. For a number of years he made solid plastic jewelry: earrings, brooches, pendants, and rings. I hope some of these items are still around; they must be very interesting. His jewelry customers were blind vendors and local stores. At age eighteen Tim Cranmer was hired by Kentucky Industries for the Blind, but this job was short-lived. When he was dismissed, he said, if he ever worked for that shop again, he would run it. Later he did just that. Tim worked for ten years as a piano technician and earned about a $1.50 a day. In 1948 he married Thelma, and the couple have one daughter, Linda. In 1952 Tim Cranmer went to work for the Kentucky Division of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind as a counselor and placement specialist. Ten years later he was named Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Kentucky. At that time Kentucky Industries for the Blind was a part of the division. In 1979, after Tim Cranmer and other Federationists worked hard to separate Kentucky Rehabilitation for the Blind out into a separate department, Tim Cranmer became Director of Technology instead of director of the agency. Also in 1979 Tim Cranmer became Dr. Cranmer when the University of Louisville conferred on him the honorary degree doctor of applied sciences. The National Rehabilitation Association honored Dr. Cranmer with its Outstanding Service award. Boston University presented Dr. Cranmer with its Neil Pike Award for Distinguished Service. And the NFB of Kentucky honored Dr. Cranmer with its Susan B. Rarick Award for Outstanding Service to Blind Men and Women. Dr. Cranmer has served as First Vice President of the NFB of Kentucky for more years than I know. A soft-spoken man, his voice rings loud in affairs affecting the blind in Kentucky and around the world. Dr. Cranmer has done considerable grant writing with good success. Since his retirement from rehabilitation in 1982 from the Kentucky Department of the Blind, he has served as President of the Braille Research Center and has taken primary responsibility for funding that operation. This year Dr. Cranmer has been a principal leader in the Federation's Capital Campaign. In fact Tim Cranmer has been principally responsible for requesting and guiding the donation of $300,000 from Mrs. Emerson Foulke. He has worked closely with others who have made generous gifts and donations as well. What Dr. Cranmer is best known for, however, is his inventions. I have never before had the opportunity to list patents and inventions in the presentation of an award, but here are some of Dr. Cranmer's: he developed a vacuum-curing process for making costume jewelry out of plastic, which he sold himself. He invented the Cranmer Abacus, which was and is distributed by the American Printing House for the Blind. He modified the Perkins Brailler electronically for special uses. It was manufactured and distributed by Maryland Computer Products. He developed audio/tactile Braille displays for use with clocks, stopwatches, clinical system monitors, etc. He created a Braille font with tactile graphics for use with the Pixelmaster. He developed the Speaqualizer Speech-Access program. You will recognize this. He made major contributions to electronic circuitry and design for the Braille 'n Speak and the Braille Lite, which as we all know are distributed by Blazie Engineering and Freedom Scientific. In addition to numerous articles in the Braille Monitor and the publication of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille, Tim Cranmer has written significant scientific materials that have been published in the Braille Technical Press, Popular Electronics, and other magazines. He has made presentations at the International Congress on Technology for the Handicapped, the International Conference on Technology sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind, and a conference at Trace Research Center at the University of Wisconsin; and he has presented papers at all four U.S./Canada Conferences on Technology for the Blind sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind. We are proud of you, Dr. Cranmer, and we are proud to have you as one of us. We are proud of your work and your spirit. We give you the Jacobus tenBroek Award tonight with love and pride. Now I have a plaque for you, which you can hold up. It reads: ********** JACOBUS TENBROEK AWARD NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND PRESENTED TO TIM CRANMER FOR YOUR DEDICATION, SACRIFICE, AND COMMITMENT ON BEHALF OF THE BLIND OF THE NATION. YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS NOT MEASURED IN STEPS, BUT IN MILES, NOT BY INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES, BUT BY YOUR IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF THE BLIND OF THE NATION. WHENEVER WE HAVE ASKED, YOU HAVE ANSWERED. WE CALL YOU OUR COLLEAGUE WITH RESPECT; WE CALL YOU OUR FRIEND WITH LOVE. JULY 7, 2000 ********** Tim Cranmer: I would have much more to say if they had less. I want to say also that I owe an apology to Dr. Maurer. He called me this last week and asked me a few pointed questions about things I had done, and I said to myself, "He's preparing my obituary." [laughter] Dr. Maurer, I'm not as old as I'm going to be. I thank you, but I also want to say that I have received many awards over the years, and nothing ever compares to the recognition that I get from my fellow Federationists. It has meant a life to me. I could not have been what I am without being a part of the Federation. Thank you so much. ********** ********** [#53 PHOTO/CAPTION: At the Resolutions Committee meeting Sharon Omvig reads into the microphone while Sharon Maneki listens.] 2000 Convention Resolutions Report by Sharon Maneki ********** From the Editor: Sharon Maneki chairs the NFB Resolutions Committee. The following is her brief description of each resolution considered by the committee at the 2000 convention. The texts of the thirty-four resolutions passed by the convention follow this article immediately. This is what Sharon says: ********** By longstanding tradition the resolutions committee meets on the first day of registration for the convention. This year was no exception. The meeting was held on the afternoon of Monday, July 3. Another tradition is that the resolutions committee is large and truly represents the breadth and depth of the Federation. This year forty-three members comprised the committee. It is also customary to have a large audience in attendance. The 2000 convention followed this tradition as well. The 2000 convention will be remembered for the record or near record number of resolutions introduced and for the innovative solutions recommended in these resolutions. The committee considered thirty-six resolutions. Thirty-four of them came to the floor of the convention. Two were defeated in committee. The thirty-four resolutions passed by the convention deal with suggestions to the 106th Congress, changes to Social Security, reforms in rehabilitation, improvements needed in education, and nonvisual access issues. The participation of so many authors enhanced the quality and diversity of these resolutions. The convention passed two resolutions expressing opposition to legislation under consideration by the 106th Congress. Carlos Servan, the Deputy Director of the new Nebraska Commission for the Blind, introduced resolution 2000-15. This resolution expresses the Federation's opposition to H.R. 2870, the Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act. One major reason for our opposition to this bill is that learning to live as a blind person is not a medical issue. As the resolution explains: "This legislation would have the ultimate consequence of replacing the coordinated and comprehensible approach envisioned in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, with a fragmented and bureaucratic rehabilitation-delivery system, governed more by the objectives of managed care than by the provision of services needed by and planned for the individual." Resolution 2000-19, sponsored by Scott LaBarre, President of the National Association of Blind Lawyers, outlines the reasons for our opposition to H.R. 3590, the Americans With Disabilities (ADA) Notification Act. Title III of the ADA prohibits public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, stores, banks, and other covered entities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. This bill would require a potential plaintiff in Title III ADA cases to notify the owner of public accommodation of his or her intention to sue and describe how the owner discriminated against the person with a disability. The potential plaintiff would also have to wait ninety days before filing a suit. Such an approach hardly enables the aggrieved blind person to obtain the desired goods and services. In the National Federation of the Blind we take a proactive approach. We did not merely pass resolutions opposing existing legislative proposals. We also passed several resolutions calling on Congress to initiate and pass legislation. Kristen Cox, Assistant Director of the NFB's Department of Governmental Affairs, sponsored resolution 2000-02, which urges Congress to enact legislation to compel publishers of textbooks to provide usable versions of electronic texts purchased for sighted children to school districts that serve blind children. Blind students must receive their materials in accessible formats if they are to have a quality education. Two resolutions called upon the Congress to improve the plight of blind sheltered shop workers. In resolution 2000-03, introduced by Jason Ewell, a 1997 scholarship winner who attends John Carroll University in Ohio, we demand that wage equity for blind individuals be included in any changes to the federal minimum wage law. The second resolution was also introduced by a student, Angela Sasser, President of the Texas Association of Blind Students. In resolution 2000-07, we urge Congress to amend the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act to ensure that blind shop workers have the opportunity to hold management and supervisory positions. Once again we urge Congress to eliminate earnings limits placed on blind people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance. As Sheila Koenig, Secretary of the National Association of Blind Educators and the author of resolution 2000-06, explained: "The earnings limit is the number one barrier to productive work by the blind." Resolution 2000-23 also calls for changes in Social Security policy. As its author, Mrs. Cox explained that blind people who receive Social Security benefits must report earnings from work activity. Frequently disputes about whether the beneficiary has been overpaid arise. During the appeal process the Social Security Administration stops all benefits even though a final determination is yet to be made. This resolution insists that the Social Security Administration abandon this unfair policy. Further we call upon Congress to amend the Social Security Act to eliminate this policy if the Administration fails to take action. These resolutions demonstrate that the Federation will be very busy on Capitol Hill during the coming year. The convention passed six resolutions concerning rehabilitation services. Jim Antonacci, president of the NFB of Pennsylvania, proposed resolution 2000-01. This resolution expresses our opposition to efforts made in Louisiana and Florida to privatize rehabilitation services. We call upon the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration to prevent privatization from occurring in any state. Resolution 2000-10 promotes informed choice by calling upon the Rehabilitation Services Administration to publish such statistics as outcome information on an accessible Web site. Mrs. Cox, the proponent of this resolution, explained that such information would be useful to clients and advocates as they develop their individualized plans for employment. In resolution 2000-14 we call upon the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration to establish a policy prohibiting state vocational rehabilitation agencies from counting blind people who work in sheltered employment as successfully rehabilitated clients. Noel Nightingale, a member of the national Board of Directors, President of the NFB of Washington, and the author of the resolution, remarked that sheltered employment should not be considered a final employment outcome for blind people. They must have access to further vocational rehabilitation services. Jim Willows, President of the NFB of California, proposed two resolutions to enhance rehabilitation services. First, resolution 2000-17 calls for the elimination of the order of selection for blind persons. Order of selection is a procedure that state agencies use to determine eligibility for vocational rehabilitation services during times of tight budgets. Mr. Willows's second resolution, 2000-27, calls upon the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration to reissue policy guidance ordering state agencies to purchase adaptive technology for blind employees. Too many state agencies try to make the employer pay for this technology instead of doing the job themselves. The last resolution dealing with rehabilitation is 2000-29, proposed by Ted Young, a long-time Federation leader in Pennsylvania. Because of this resolution, the Federation will seek federal support to establish specialized independent living centers to serve blind people. The convention passed five resolutions concerning education. The trend in kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade education is to measure progress in education by proficiency testing in subject areas and school-accountability testing. Three resolutions address problems with these tests experienced by blind students across the country. In resolution 2000-09, introduced by Pam Dubel, Director of Youth Services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, we urge state departments of education to adopt policies to insure that blind students have the opportunity to participate in all testing programs and to obtain standard high school diplomas. Kim Aguillard, a 2000 national scholarship winner who just graduated from high school, proposed resolution 2000-13. In this resolution we urge state departments of education to adopt policies compelling all developers of standardized educational tests to consult with professionals in the blindness field and blind people as they develop proficiency and accountability tests so that these tests can be readily and appropriately adapted in nonvisual formats for blind and visually impaired students. Resolution 2000-22 was also introduced by a student, Allison Hilliker, from Michigan. This resolution affirms the authority of the student's Individualized Education Program team to determine appropriate accommodations for the student to use when taking these standardized tests. Another area of testing in which problems with accommodations have developed is the General Educational Development (GED) test, the alternative path to completion of high school. Doris Willoughby, a renowned author of books and articles on the education of blind children, addressed this issue in resolution 2000-25. The GED test regulations illegally prohibit the use of a live reader to read test questions. A second problem is that there is some indication that the test will not be available in Braille when it is revised. In resolution 2000-25 we call upon the American Council on Education to administer the GED test in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The last education issue that the convention dealt with by resolution was the role of disabled student services offices on university campuses. The two sponsors of this resolution, 2000-31, have direct knowledge of the problems. Shawn Mayo is President of the National Association of Blind Students, and Jim Marks directs a disabled student services program in Montana. The resolution urges that: "This organization urge the Association on Higher Education and Disability and the U. S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to join with it in developing and publishing a guideline and best-practice model for accommodating blind students in higher education to maximize learning and eliminate the unnecessary, unintentional, and widespread fostering of dependency now occurring on America's college campuses." The largest category of resolutions passed by the convention dealt with access issues. Several resolutions covered policies, while the remainder dealt with access to specific sources of information. These resolutions also urge both the government and private industries to work closely with us to eliminate nonvisual access barriers. Michael Gosse, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, proposed resolution 2000-11. This resolution would expand nonvisual access by calling upon Congress to apply the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to all recipients of federal grants and contracts. Currently Section 508 accessibility requirements apply only to the federal government, itself. Resolution 2000-16 would expand nonvisual access requirements by including them in the Universal-Service-Initiative provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The purpose of this initiative is to provide greater access to the Internet and other telecommunications services through public schools and libraries. In this resolution we call upon the Federal Communications Commission to develop rules covering nonvisual access. This resolution was proposed by Mrs. Cox and Steve Jacobson, a leader in the NFB of Minnesota and Vice President of the NFB in Computer Science. Four resolutions address research access issues. In its National Digital Library Program the Library of Congress is digitizing selected collections of its archival materials. Nathanael Wales, president of the California Association of Blind Students, proposed resolution 2000-18. In this resolution we call upon Congress to make sure that the National Digital Library Program materials are accessible to blind people. The remaining three resolutions concern access to the World Wide Web with its wealth of research material. Gary Wunder, a member of the national Board of Directors and President of the NFB of Missouri, proposed resolution 2000-21. This resolution offers specific suggestions to industry and training institutions to promote the design of accessible Web sites. Resolution 2000-30, proposed by Chris Danielsen, a leader in the NFB of South Carolina, offers an interesting suggestion to manufacturers and service providers of personal digital assistants that could also increase access to Web information for the blind. The resolution reads in part: Personal digital assistant "manufacturers and service providers have used specially encoded electronic files. . . which provide text versions of information available on Internet Web sites in a format designed to be compatible with the PDA technology and small screens used on PDA's. . . ." It is the opinion of the National Federation of the Blind that this method of presenting Web-based information could also be used effectively by blind users of desktop computers and other access devices." We intend to work with industry to explore these possibilities further. John Miller, President of the Science and Engineering Division of the National Federation of the Blind, and members of the Federation's Research and Development Committee came up with a method to increase access to scientific and mathematical material. In resolution 2000-24 we call on publishers who offer scientific publications on the World Wide Web to offer these publications in MathML, an electronic markup language for displaying and reusing mathematical and scientific notation. The convention passed four resolutions dealing with access to information delivered by technologies other than computers. Brian Miller, a former scholarship winner and a leader in the NFB of Iowa, proposed resolution 2000-05, concerning audio description on television. As the resolution explains: "The blind are routinely denied access to text information flashed on the screen such as emergency weather updates, news bulletins scrolled along the bottom of the screen, sports scores, program guides, phone numbers in advertisements, the identities of speakers during news programs, and other data not otherwise read aloud. The resolution then resolves that: "This organization call upon the Federal Communications Commission to modify its currently proposed and narrowly focused mandate for descriptive video in favor of one that would prioritize making universally accessible, important on-screen textual information available to America's blind television viewers through a standardized audio format." Resolution 2000-04, mandating audio description of all television programming and DVD, was defeated in committee. The resolutions committee also killed resolution 2000-12, calling for the support of low-power FM radio. Resolution 2000-28 was proposed by Curtis Chong, the director of technology for the National Federation of the Blind. In this resolution we "call upon national, state, and local election officials to abandon their misguided efforts to develop tactile overlay schemes and to concentrate instead upon providing full nonvisual access to electronic voting technologies which permit the blind to cast and verify their votes without sighted assistance." Resolution 2000-32 proposes that the cellular phone industry provide nonvisual access to all cell phone features. This resolution was sponsored by Cary Supalo, a 1994 NFB scholarship winner who currently attends Penn State University, and Jamal Powell from Illinois. Kevan Worley, the newly elected President of the Blind Merchants Association, sponsored resolution 2000-34, which calls upon the cable and satellite-dish industry to work with us to develop an effective, convenient, and inexpensive method to make all on-screen programming information available to blind consumers. The remaining six resolutions cover a variety of subjects that do not fit into one specific category. Curtis Willoughby, a long time federation leader from Colorado, proposed resolution 2000-08 concerning accessible pedestrian signals. We urge the United States Access Board to adopt standards that provide for tactile accessible pedestrian signals only where unusual circumstances exist and where other methods of making the intersection pedestrian-friendly are in use but are not sufficient. The resolution also resolves that: "This organization insist that traffic engineers and public officials employ all practical methods to make all intersections pedestrian-friendly and use tactile rather than audible signals where accessible pedestrian signals are installed." Most conventions pass at least one resolution concerning the Randolph-Sheppard program. Resolution 2000-20 expresses our opposition to a proposal by the General Services Administration to apply performance criteria to blind vendors which are arbitrary, capricious, and not in compliance with the law. This resolution was proposed by Larry Povinelli, Treasurer of the NFB of Virginia. Restrictive dealerships of assistive technology were the subject of resolution 2000-26, proposed by Curtis Chong and Michael Jones, president of the NFB of Alabama. In this resolution we call upon manufacturers of assistive technology for the blind to eliminate practices which stifle competition and limit consumer choice. The convention passed two resolutions objecting to a new certification scheme for professionals in the field of work with the blind. Resolution 2000-33 was proposed by Debbie Stein, First Vice President of the NFB of Illinois. It outlines our objections to the Academy for the Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals, which was incorporated this past January. Mrs. Cox proposed resolution 2000-36. In this resolution we call upon all state and local education agencies to refrain from recognizing certification by AER or by the Academy for the Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals in determining qualifications for orientation and mobility instructors. The last resolution that I will describe in this article is resolution 2000-35. It was proposed by Rami Rabby, a longtime federationist who works for the U. S. Department of State and is currently stationed at the United Nations. In this resolution we call upon the U. S. government fully to support the formulation by the United Nations of an international convention on the rights of people with disabilities. The above information is merely an introductory description of the resolutions considered and passed by the convention. Readers should examine the complete text of each resolution to understand our policy on these subjects fully. ********** ********** Resolutions Adopted by the Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind July 8, 2000 ********** Resolution 2000-01 ********** WHEREAS, the passage of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 was intended to provide better access to employment services to all citizens, including access to vocational rehabilitation services; and ********** WHEREAS, some states have interpreted this law as authority to lump the funding streams for all employment services, including services for the blind, together with funds for other programs, setting aside requirements for funds to be spent only for the purposes originally authorized; and ********** WHEREAS, states such as Louisiana and Florida have also sought to implement the Workforce Investment Act by promoting privatization of services rather than maintaining the capacity of the state itself to provide certain essential services; and ********** WHEREAS, our experience has shown that efforts to lump services for the blind together with programs for the disabled or others who are unemployed or to privatize such services usually result in disregard for the specialized needs of blind persons; and ********** WHEREAS, in order to achieve full independence, blind persons must first acquire confidence in themselves and an understanding of prevailing social attitudes about blindness, along with the specialized skills needed to function efficiently without sight, none of which can be provided by generic disability and employment programs; and ********** WHEREAS, a program conducted through consolidated work force centers and privatized services is aimed at mass production, in which the needs of the majority are best understood and specialized needs are least understood, emphasizing fast placement of the easiest-to-place rather than comprehensive, individualized services, all of which will have the effect of excluding blind persons from receiving meaningful rehabilitation services; and ********** WHEREAS, the result of consolidating and privatizing services will be to relegate the blind to the end of the unemployment line, due to lack of proper training and the skills needed to compete on equal terms with others in the workplace: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization oppose any efforts to consolidate and privatize rehabilitation services that diminishes in any way the responsibility and authority of separate agencies designed to meet the needs of blind persons, whether through abolishing or lowering the status of such agencies or through privatizing rehabilitation services; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization deplore the efforts made in the states of Florida and Louisiana to privatize rehabilitation services for blind persons and ask the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration to use all means at his disposal to prevent such privatization from occurring in these or any other states. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-02 ********** WHEREAS, a high-quality education is essential in order to compete for jobs, participate in community life, and sustain economic independence; and ********** WHEREAS, Congress recognized the right of individuals with disabilities to receive a free, appropriate public education by enacting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires individualized plans of instruction to meet the particular needs of each disabled student but does not always put in place efficient systems to meet those needs; and ********** WHEREAS, despite IDEA, the lack of accessible instructional materials is still a barrier to a high-quality education for blind students, largely due to the labor-intensive and costly process of converting texts and other materials into accessible formats such as Braille when the conversion must be done by hand; and ********** WHEREAS, this conversion process could be streamlined significantly to reduce the burdens of both time and cost currently placed on local school districts if publishers of textbooks would promptly furnish an electronic version of each textbook that could then be converted into specialized formats for blind children; and ********** WHEREAS, some states have enacted legislation to address this need by requiring publishers to provide an electronic version of materials to education agencies when such agencies purchase print editions for sighted students, but this state-by-state approach does not address the needs of all blind children covered by IDEA since publishers do not often furnish electronic texts in states not requiring them to do so; and ********** WHEREAS, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) acknowledges that providing electronic text to support conversion of instructional materials into specialized formats for the blind is part of the responsibility of publishers; however, in spite of expressed good intentions, this responsibility is not being met voluntarily: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon Congress to turn the promise of IDEA into the reality of books for our nation's blind children by enacting legislation to compel publishers to provide usable electronic versions of textbooks purchased for sighted children to school districts serving blind children. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-03 ********** WHEREAS, since its enactment in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act has contained an exemption from the minimum wage for persons who are visually impaired or blind, an exemption which insults every blind American and results in pay to blind workers as low as half the minimum wage; and ********** WHEREAS, section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act requires the Secretary of Labor to grant exemptions from the minimum wage to employers who hire workers whose productive capacity is claimed by the employer to be impaired by conditions, including impaired vision or blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, a legal wage below the minimum is supposed to be based on individual productivity of the impaired person as compared to standard productivity of unimpaired persons for essentially the same work and is justified only where there is a finding that sub-minimum wages are necessary to prevent curtailment of employment opportunities--a finding that has never been made regarding the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, this unfair and unjustified exemption from the minimum wage in the case of the blind allows employers to make wage determinations without any procedures for accountability whatsoever, leading to the kind of abuse and exploitation that the Fair Labor Standards Act seeks to curb; and ********** WHEREAS, blind persons have demonstrated that employers and not employees control virtually all of the factors which affect worker productivity, leading to the unfair situation of employers failing to manage correctly and then paying blind workers less than the minimum wage as a method of balancing the books while the managers receive manager-level salaries for this unseemly but perfectly legal practice; and ********** WHEREAS, legislation has been passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives that would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour, which could lead to even greater disparity in pay between the blind and others; and ********** WHEREAS, blind persons in the United States have demonstrated their ability to produce on equal terms and earn equal pay in the workplace; and ********** WHEREAS, Congressman Johnny Isakson and Senator Christopher Dodd have introduced legislation in the form of H.R. 3540 and S. 2031, respectively, which would prohibit employers from using blindness as a basis for paying a sub-minimum wage: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization demand that wage equity for blind individuals be included in any changes to the federal minimum wage law; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon every American to recognize and commend the firm and forthright stand taken by Congressman Johnny Isakson and Senator Christopher Dodd to insist that work to produce items sold in commerce should be recognized as the criterion for protection of the minimum wage and that the presence or absence of vision should be irrelevant in America's wage law; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon Congress to pass H.R. 3540 and S. 2031, during the present session so that impaired vision or blindness may not be used by any employer, including any sheltered workshop, as the basis for paying less than the minimum wage to anyone in America who is blind. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-04 was not considered. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-05 ********** WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a rule requiring the four networks to offer descriptions of a minimum amount of entertainment programming per quarter, averaging approximately four hours of prime-time entertainment programming per week, provided through the Separate Audio Programming (SAP) audio channel; and ********** WHEREAS, the blind are routinely denied access to textual information flashed on the screen such as emergency weather updates, news bulletins scrolled along the bottom of the screen, sports scores, program guides, phone numbers in advertisements, the identities of speakers during news programs, and other data not otherwise read aloud; and ********** WHEREAS, making such textual information accessible to the blind in a standardized form through the secondary audio channel would be a relatively easy and inexpensive process to develop and automate if that specific outcome was firmly and universally required by the FCC; and ********** WHEREAS, it is doubtful that most networks will address the issue of access to on-screen textual information under the FCC's proposed mandate, which requires only that description be provided for entertainment programs; and ********** WHEREAS, the vast array of broadcast information currently printed and not voiced is information far more vital and valuable for America's television viewers than is the entertainment programming targeted by the FCC proposal; and ********** WHEREAS, the FCC should handle first things first and move to entertainment programming only after civic, safety, and health-related information including advertising is routinely provided to viewers without sight: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Federal Communications Commission to modify its currently proposed and narrowly focused mandate for descriptive video in favor of one that would prioritize making important on-screen textual information universally available to America's blind television viewers through a standardized audio format. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-06 ********** WHEREAS, according to the Social Security Administration 120,000 blind persons receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits since they do not have substantial earnings or are not currently working at all; and ********** WHEREAS, these benefits, including cash payments and coverage under Medicare, are a vital safety net for blind persons and their families when sight loss occurs or earnings stop; and ********** WHEREAS, this safety net often becomes a cruel trap for beneficiaries, since the earnings limit applied to the blind is currently less than $12,000 per year, forcing them to make the choice between receiving benefits on the one hand and accepting a job at a level of income that does not replace benefits on the other; and ********** WHEREAS, this cruel trap is the primary cause of the high unemployment rate among the blind, estimated to be 74 percent of the blind of working age; and ********** WHEREAS, until the law was changed, effective January 1, 2000, America's seniors aged sixty-five to seventy faced the same cruel dilemma even though they were penalized only by a reduction of $1 in benefits for every $3 of earnings while the blind still face an absolute limit resulting in the abrupt termination of benefits with no offset for earnings that exceed the limit; and ********** WHEREAS, the removal of the seniors' earnings limit was based on the view that persons of retirement age can still contribute to our nation's economy and have skills that are needed in the workforce, but this pro-work policy for seniors was deliberately not applied to blind people of working age; and ********** WHEREAS, in 1977 Congress recognized that the blind and seniors were situated similarly by creating an identical earnings limit for blind SSDI beneficiaries and age sixty-five retirees except for the offset provided to seniors for earnings above the limit; and ********** WHEREAS, bills now pending in Congress--H.R. 1601 and S. 285 with strong bipartisan support in both bodies--would eliminate the earnings limit for the blind just as Congress has now eliminated it for seniors: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization urgently call upon the 106th Congress to enact this legislation this year since this will remove the number one barrier to productive work by the blind and do more than any other single change in the law could do to reduce substantially the shocking unemployment rate suffered by the blind. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-07 ********** WHEREAS, the Act now known as the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act, originally enacted in 1938, requires federal agencies to purchase products and services from non-profit agencies employing the blind on the basis of a non-competitive priority, a priority which was later extended to non-profit agencies that employ persons with severe disabilities as well; and ********** WHEREAS, these have been the most substantive (and essentially the only) changes to the Act since 1938; and ********** WHEREAS, the employment opportunities resulting for blind or disabled people are essentially direct labor, since the law excludes management and supervisory work and specifies that 75 percent of the direct labor hours devoted to government work must be performed by blind or disabled people; and ********** WHEREAS, this anachronistic requirement has enshrined in federal law an artificial limit on the advancement and promotion of blind and otherwise disabled persons, wrongly holding them in positions classified as direct labor as opposed to supervisory or management positions since the "direct labor" requirement cannot be met by blind or disabled persons serving as supervisors or working in management, resulting in an arbitrary ceiling on the advancement of blind and disabled persons in workplaces ostensibly created for their benefit; and ********** WHEREAS, requiring 75 percent of the direct labor to be performed by blind or disabled persons encourages such practices as job-stretching (giving a number of disabled persons a little piece of a job one could easily perform) which meets the direct labor requirement but depresses wages and also creates a sheltered and segregated work environment: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization strongly urge Congress to amend the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act to extend criteria for employment of blind persons to all classifications of positions within an agency eligible for the priority; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the Congress to include criteria to require that the percentage of pay and fringe benefits distributed to blind and disabled individuals must equal or exceed the percentage of pay and fringe benefits distributed to employees who are not blind or disabled. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-08 ********** WHEREAS, traffic signals adapted to assist blind pedestrians are now known as accessible pedestrian signals; and ********** WHEREAS, accessible pedestrian signals now include tactile as well as audible signals; and ********** WHEREAS, one design uses arrows known as vibrotactile accessible pedestrian signals which can be felt pointing in the direction that the pedestrian should walk and which vibrate during the walk interval; and ********** WHEREAS, other possible design approaches have the potential for producing worthwhile tactile accessible pedestrian signals; and ********** WHEREAS, tactile accessible pedestrian signals can provide a way for blind and deaf-blind pedestrians to learn the state of the walk signal without disrupting the environment with extraneous and unnecessary noise; and ********** WHEREAS, in contrast to tactile accessible pedestrian signals, audible accessible pedestrian signals actually interfere with the safe travel of blind people by adding loud and distracting noise to the environment at locations where effective hearing is critical, while providing little useful direction-of-travel information to the blind, and none at all to the deaf-blind; and ********** WHEREAS, the costs and attitudinal disadvantages of all accessible pedestrian signals mean that they should be deployed only in situations where other methods of making the intersection more pedestrian-friendly are not adequate; and ********** WHEREAS, the United States Access Board is currently considering standards for accessible pedestrian signals; Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization support the use of accessible pedestrian signals only where other methods of making the intersection pedestrian-friendly are not sufficient, and the use of tactile accessible pedestrian signals where accessible pedestrian signals are installed; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the United States Access Board to adopt standards that provide for accessible pedestrian signals only where unusual circumstances exist such as unusually wide streets, very high noise levels, very high speeds, or other peculiar circumstances and where other methods of making the intersection pedestrian-friendly are in use and are not sufficient; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization insist that traffic engineers and public officials employ all practical methods to make all intersections pedestrian-friendly and use tactile rather than audible signals where accessible pedestrian signals are installed. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-09 ********** WHEREAS, standards-based reform has dramatically increased the prevalence of high-stakes proficiency and accountability tests in school systems across the country; and ********** WHEREAS, preparation for these tests consumes a significant portion of classroom instructional time; and ********** WHEREAS, results of these tests may determine the type of diploma a student receives upon graduation; and ********** WHEREAS, the loss of vision alone in no way impairs the capacity of a student to meet or exceed the academic standards set for his or her non-disabled peers; and ********** WHEREAS, if students who are blind or visually impaired are not present during test-preparation instructional time, they will not benefit from the knowledge gained during these instructional periods, an all-too-common practice since teachers send the blind student out for Braille or mobility lessons while other students study for the test; and ********** WHEREAS, equally unfortunate is the common failure to provide blind and visually impaired students with study materials, survey tests, and practice tests in the appropriate alternative medium so that these students can prepare for high-stakes tests on an equal basis with non-disabled peers; and ********** WHEREAS, without the educational or credentialed background that proper instruction and testing with appropriate alternative media and IEP-based accommodations could have provided for them, these students will transition into the workplace with enormous, if not insurmountable, disadvantages; and ********** WHEREAS, IDEA requires that students with disabilities must be included in all district and statewide assessments; and ********** WHEREAS, IDEA further requires that students with disabilities have access to the regular education curriculum; and ********** WHEREAS, state departments of education bear a significant responsibility for implementing policies in their states to assure that blind and visually impaired students receive a free and appropriate education under the provisions of IDEA; Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization strongly urge state departments of education to adopt and implement statewide policies that will require blind and visually impaired students to receive the full range of instruction, support, and materials available to their sighted peers in the process of preparing for state-required, high-stakes proficiency or accountability tests; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urge state departments of education to adopt policies which insure the right of blind and visually impaired students to pursue and earn a standard high school diploma, to the extent to which their abilities enable them. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-10 ********** WHEREAS, the 1998 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 promote increased responsibility for consumers to exercise informed choice and participate actively in developing and agreeing to the plan that outlines the vocational rehabilitation services they will receive, known as the Individualized Plan for Employment; and ********** WHEREAS, exercising informed choice allows an individual to make decisions relating to the selection of an employment outcome, appropriate vocational rehabilitation services, the entity charged with providing such services, and the methods by which such services will be procured; and ********** WHEREAS, in order for individuals to take full advantage of informed choice, they must be able to analyze current and relevant information regarding successful outcomes achieved by others and to compare outcome information of various service providers; and ********** WHEREAS, information concerning outcomes must be gathered and filed with the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the United States Department of Education by state vocational rehabilitation agencies along with information concerning agency performance, consumer demographics, standards and indicators, and other relevant data delineating the data by type of disability; and ********** WHEREAS, this vast and relevant information database now resides in the RSA bureaucracy and is not conveniently or readily available to be used by consumers or their advocates in a timely manner; Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Rehabilitation Services Administration to publish on an accessible Web site the kind of detailed factual and comparative information that would assist consumers and advocates in exercising the right of informed choice as they develop their individualized plans for employment. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-11 ********** WHEREAS, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requires federal agencies to comply with accessibility standards for all electronic and information technology which is purchased, developed, used, or maintained by the federal government for federal employees and the public; and ********** WHEREAS, with the exception of limited application to state programs, to the extent specified in the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, the requirements of Section 508 apply only to federal agencies and do not apply to recipients of federal grants or contracts; and ********** WHEREAS, This is a glaring omission since federal grantees and contractors are often used to provide services with government support and supply products or services to the government, using hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to do so; and ********** WHEREAS, the combined activity of federal programs, grantees, and contractors accounts for a significant portion of the demand for electronic and information technology in use today, resulting in a vast economic significance in the technology market, which can and should be used to affect the design of technology for use by blind and disabled persons; and ********** WHEREAS, in the twenty-first century access to electronic and information technology is essential for participation on terms of equality in our society and particularly in employment, which now depends upon access to technology to compete effectively in most jobs; Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon Congress to apply the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to all recipients of federal grants and contracts. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-12 was not considered ********** ********** Resolution 2000-13 ********** WHEREAS, performance on proficiency and accountability tests is often used to determine student placement and advancement, and the use and reliance on such tests for students in grades one through twelve is growing year by year around the country; and ********** WHEREAS, many students who are legally blind must by law participate in these examinations; and ********** WHEREAS, too often the materials on these tests, particularly the tests for students in lower grades, is highly visually oriented and extremely difficult, or sometimes impossible, to adapt to a nonvisual format for students who are legally blind; and ********** WHEREAS, the education, placement, and advancement of blind and visually impaired students is negatively affected when the test items on proficiency and accountability examinations are not susceptible of being properly adapted; and ********** WHEREAS, this problem could be avoided and test items perfected which are easily adapted to alternative formats if the tests were developed from the ground up with the idea that they will necessarily be administered in nonvisual formats to students without vision; and ********** WHEREAS, the lack of standards for production of visual graphs and charts in alternative, nonvisual formats can also negatively affect the performance of blind and visually impaired students on such exams; and ********** WHEREAS, state departments of education bear a significant responsibility for implementing policies in their states to assure that blind and visually impaired students receive a free and appropriate education under the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization strongly urge state departments of education to adopt policies compelling all developers of standardized educational tests within their borders to consult with professionals in the field of blindness and persons who are blind in the development of proficiency and accountability tests so that any tests which are adopted for use by the state can be readily and appropriately adapted in nonvisual formats for blind and visually impaired students; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge state departments of education to consult with professionals and persons who are blind to establish standards for production of graphical material in alternative formats. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-14 ********** WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind is an organization founded and governed by blind people for the purpose of achieving first-class status in our society, which includes ensuring that blind people receive high-quality vocational rehabilitation services as a foundation to enable them to compete with their sighted peers for employment; and ********** WHEREAS, reaching the top rung of the ladder of societal status means that blind people must be able to participate in society in the same way as their sighted peers, including employment in the competitive labor market; and ********** WHEREAS, the federal/state vocational rehabilitation program also has a goal of assisting blind people to secure employment which maximizes their potential and results in their integration into the competitive labor market; and ********** WHEREAS, sheltered employment, when used as a first step, can usefully serve as a springboard for some blind vocational rehabilitation program clients to master skills and gain needed work experience; and ********** WHEREAS, in any honest use of the English language, sheltered workshops are not integrated nor are they in the mainstream of society nor do they constitute settings in the competitive labor market; and ********** WHEREAS, placement of blind vocational rehabilitation clients in sheltered employment should not end the vocational rehabilitation services provided to them and should not be considered a final employment outcome; and ********** WHEREAS, vocational rehabilitation services should continue to be provided to blind people who want to receive them while they are employed in a sheltered setting: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED, by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the United States Department of Education to establish a policy prohibiting state vocational rehabilitation agencies from counting blind people who work in sheltered employment as successfully rehabilitated and mandating continued vocational rehabilitation services for such blind people whenever they desire them. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-15 ********** WHEREAS, since 1940 the National Federation of the Blind has been the voice of the blind speaking for themselves on issues concerning all aspects of their lives; and ********** WHEREAS, during the first session of the 106th Congress Representative Michael Capuano introduced the Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act of 1999 (H.R. 2870), legislation which would affect the lives of blind people throughout the nation; and ********** WHEREAS, this bill would amend Title 18 of the Social Security Act to provide for coverage of rehabilitation services for the blind, described in the bill as "vision rehabilitation services," under the Medicare program; and ********** WHEREAS, this bill would allow Medicare to pay the cost of the same services currently available through the Vocational Rehabilitation system, resulting in a programmatic conflict which would force vocational rehabilitation agencies to deny services to blind persons on the basis that comparable services and benefits are available; and ********** WHEREAS, this legislation would have the ultimate consequence of replacing the coordinated and comprehensive approach envisioned in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, with a fragmented and bureaucratic rehabilitation-delivery system, governed more by the objectives of managed care than by the provision of services needed by and planned for the individual; and ********** WHEREAS, although the ability of medical doctors, ophthalmologists, and optometrists to help maintain, enhance, or restore sight is a component necessary in treating an individual's physical condition, learning to live as a blind person is not a medical condition, but is a confluence of skills and attitudes best learned from other blind people and qualified experts in rehabilitation; and ********** WHEREAS, Section 2 of the proposed Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act would give medical doctors the authority to prescribe "plans for care," undermining the responsibility and knowledge of blind people and rehabilitation professionals and allowing medical practitioners to assert jurisdiction in the field of rehabilitation, which is far beyond their scope of medical training; and ********** WHEREAS, another provision of this bill would require personnel employed to provide services to be licensed by the state or certified by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), if licensing is not required by the state; and ********** WHEREAS, this proposed requirement is particularly odious to the blind since AER has a well-documented history of excluding blind individuals from its certification processes by making visual observations of student performance a prerequisite for certification even though there are numerous blind professionals competently serving the blind today; and ********** WHEREAS, this attempt to exclude qualified blind professionals from the group authorized to serve the blind denies blind people the opportunity to teach and learn from one another and creates a climate which is counterproductive to the goals of vocational rehabilitation: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization vigorously and vehemently oppose the proposed Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Act of 1999 and promptly advise the Congress that this legislation represents an ill-conceived and unacceptable approach. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-16 ********** WHEREAS, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 includes the Universal Service Initiative to increase access to the Internet and availability of other telecommunications services through substantially discounted rates for public schools and libraries, significantly affecting the kind and quality of services they offer; and ********** WHEREAS, the selection of service providers made by schools and libraries can either support or limit access for persons who are blind, depending on the technology used by the service provider; and ********** WHEREAS, technology already exists that permits blind persons to take advantage of much of what the Internet has to offer with little or no modification required when selections are made with a little forethought; and ********** WHEREAS, some Internet service providers require that specific Web browsers and proprietary software be used to access fully their services, which in some cases have been developed in a way that makes it impossible for blind people to use their access technology; and ********** WHEREAS, most Internet service providers do not make their services dependent on specific Web browsers or software, allowing greater flexibility for everyone including blind persons; and ********** WHEREAS, although some of the information provided as a result of this initiative will be visual, certain choices can make even basic text difficult for blind persons to access: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Federal Communications Commission to develop rules insuring that discounts will be provided only for service and software configurations that permit use by blind people with the addition of appropriate access technology; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization make it clear that the requirement it seeks is not intended to mandate that the access technology itself be provided by this initiative. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-17 ********** WHEREAS, the federal/state vocational rehabilitation system is responsible for providing comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities, including those with legal blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, in some states the vocational rehabilitation agency serving the blind is currently using an order of selection process to determine which eligible consumers will be served in case of a budgetary shortfall; and ********** WHEREAS, vocational rehabilitation services should be provided as a top priority to eligible blind persons, since it is reasonable to classify blindness as among the most severe disabilities; and ********** WHEREAS, many legally blind persons in states where an order of selection is used are deprived of necessary and crucial vocational rehabilitation services because states claim that they are not the most severely disabled clients; Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED, by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon Congress to eliminate the use of an order of selection process in the case of all legally blind, eligible consumers; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the United States Department of Education to participate actively in seeking the elimination of the harmful restrictions imposed on blind people by the order of selection process. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-18 ********** WHEREAS, the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program (NDLP) is assembling a digital library of reproductions of primary source materials to support the study of the history and culture of the United States; and ********** WHEREAS, the NDLP is now in the process of digitizing selected collections of Library of Congress archival materials that chronicle the nation's rich cultural heritage, including books, pamphlets, motion pictures, manuscripts, and sound recordings; and ********** WHEREAS, the NDLP will substantially augment traditional libraries and research methods with significantly increased flexibility of access to materials, tremendous ease of use of materials and other library resources, and superior integration with software specializing in electronic document creation and presentation; and ********** WHEREAS, the NDLP is receiving millions of taxpayer dollars from Congress to create an effective interface between users and materials that should be designed to meet the needs of all end users, but the current design ignores nonvisual access and excludes the blind from the wealth of information the Digital Library offers; and ********** WHEREAS, nonvisual design methods are now widely available and their use would be most effective, most timely, and least costly during the design process rather than after a system has been designed and implemented: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon Congress immediately to require through regulation and budget obligation that nonvisual access be incorporated into all current and planned digitization of materials and the integration of the design and development of user interfaces and other related services provided by the National Digital Library Program. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-19 ********** WHEREAS, Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, stores, businesses, banks, private testing agencies, and other covered entities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities; and ********** WHEREAS, Congressman Mark Foley and Congressman E. Clay Shaw have introduced H.R. 3590, the ADA Notification Act; and ********** WHEREAS, this legislation would require a potential plaintiff in Title III ADA cases to notify the owner of the public accommodation describing the violation and then to exhaust a ninety-day waiting period before a lawsuit can be filed; and ********** WHEREAS, the expressed justification for the legislation is that a flood of frivolous ADA suits is being filed by overly litigious attorneys; and ********** WHEREAS, the fact is that over 90 percent of ADA lawsuits are dismissed, causing the vast majority of attorneys to be very cautious about bringing ADA litigation; and ********** WHEREAS, the ADA itself and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure impose sanctions on attorneys who bring frivolous suits and allow defendants who have been sued frivolously to collect their attorneys' fees and costs; and ********** WHEREAS, the real effect of this proposed law would be that an owner of a public accommodation would be given statutory permission to discriminate against the blind and disabled until notified of the violation and for at least ninety days thereafter; and ********** WHEREAS, for the blind the effect of H.R. 3590 would be particularly odious because the mandatory ninety-day waiting period would very likely expire long after a blind person would need the goods or services provided by the public accommodation; and ********** WHEREAS, unlike almost all state and federal civil rights statutes, Title III of the ADA is comparatively weak because it does not allow for monetary damages to be awarded to plaintiffs, so that the only legal remedies people have under Title III are court-imposed orders to fix the problem and the possibility of recovering their attorneys' fees; and ********** WHEREAS, almost all other state and federal civil rights statutes do not require written notice and none allows for a ninety-day correction period: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization voice its strong opposition to H.R. 3590, the ADA Notification Act. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-20 ********** WHEREAS, the Randolph-Sheppard Act provides a priority for blind persons to operate vending facilities on federal property; and ********** WHEREAS, blind vendors must be licensed by the state vocational rehabilitation agency serving the blind in order to benefit from this priority; and ********** WHEREAS, pursuant to the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the selection, assignment, and supervision of blind vendors is clearly the sole responsibility of the state licensing agency; and ********** WHEREAS, an agreement, normally called a permit for operation of a vending facility on federal property, is negotiated between the state licensing agency and the federal agency responsible for the property in question; and ********** WHEREAS, except for the United States Postal Service and the Department of Defense, both of which manage the federal property under their control, the General Services Administration (GSA) is the landlord for most federal agencies; and ********** WHEREAS, GSA is currently promoting a proposal to make each blind vendor's selection and continuation contingent upon approval by GSA officials even though the Randolph-Sheppard Act provides for selection of vendors to be made by the state licensing agency and prohibits suspension or termination unless, after affording the vendor an opportunity for a full evidentiary hearing, the agency finds that the vending facility is not being operated in accordance with the rules; and ********** WHEREAS, in addition to compliance with health codes, which already apply to blind vendors, GSA is also proposing to apply its own criteria to blind vendors, vending facility employees, and personnel of the state licensing agency, including the following: "Vendors will conduct themselves at all times both personally and in business in a first-class, professional, and businesslike manner with integrity consistent with reputable business standards and practices, and [so] that their behavior is also consistent with promoting a high reputation and positive image of GSA and the United States of America"; and ********** WHEREAS, criteria such as these are subject to whimsical interpretation and are legally unenforceable by GSA under the Randolph-Sheppard Act: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization condemn and deplore the proposal of the General Services Administration to apply performance criteria to blind vendors which are arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge all state licensing agencies to object to GSA's unilateral proposal and join with the National Federation of the Blind by insisting that GSA abide by the law and abandon the further consideration of performance criteria which are both outrageous and unacceptable. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-21 ********** WHEREAS, the World Wide Web is fast becoming the source of choice for people with information to publish and those needing that information; and ********** WHEREAS, this same technology is becoming an ever-increasing force in the world of commerce, allowing men and women to view, read about, and purchase items from the convenience of their homes; and ********** WHEREAS, when Web pages which make information and services available are correctly coded, blind people, using software known as screen readers, have access to the information contained on the World Wide Web and thus can fully access the resources that abound there; and ********** WHEREAS, two problems contribute to the creation of inaccessible Web pages, the first being the failure to consider that not all members of the audience will use vision to access the content of the Web page and the second being the failure of Web-authoring tools to include accessibility features which would, as a part of developing any Web page, prompt for the required information, ensuring that the page is usable by screen-reading software, and, ********** WHEREAS, laws such as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the Americans with Disabilities Act address accessibility needs but cannot be expected on their own to create widespread Internet access for the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, most Internet training and certification programs do not include nonvisual access as part of their curricula and requirements for Web certification; and ********** WHEREAS, incorporating the methodologies that successfully make Web pages accessible for people who are blind into the training and certification programs that now exist could go a long way toward building accessibility into Web sites from the ground up, rather than having such accessibility be an afterthought, requiring changes to an already existing site; and ********** WHEREAS, much of the foregoing difficulty can be addressed through vigorous advocacy and education on the part of the blind, capitalizing on the desire of Web-page developers and those for whom they work to include the largest possible audience for the products and services they offer: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon leaders in the computer industry to join with us in publicizing the need for Web-page accessibility and the solutions which currently exist to make this a reality; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon institutions providing training and certification in Web design to incorporate information about the accessibility needs of the blind into their curriculum and to make certification of Websites contingent on the implementation of coding practices which incorporate this accessibility; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call on developers of Web-authoring tools to work with us in designing their products so that required information to provide accessibility is sought and entered as the page is being written, thereby resulting in the creation of Web-based documents readily useable by the blind. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-22 ********** WHEREAS, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) establishes as the fundamental tool for guiding the education of a student receiving special services the IEP (Individualized Education Program), a document periodically prepared and updated by all those most familiar with and responsible for the education of the student (parents, teachers, administrators, and the student); and ********** WHEREAS, no special education or related services can be provided to such a student without a valid IEP in effect nor can any such services not specified in the IEP be provided to the student; and ********** WHEREAS, the accommodations and methods specified on the IEP have been determined to be the most appropriate for that particular blind or visually impaired student, a determination having the force of federal law since all special education and related services must be defined and delivered through the IEP process; and ********** WHEREAS, state-required proficiency or accountability tests are becoming increasingly common in school systems across the country; and ********** WHEREAS, these tests are often the deciding factor in determining whether a student may graduate and get a high school diploma or pass on to the next grade or educational level; and ********** WHEREAS, in some instances problems have arisen concerning the medium in which a test should be administered to a blind or visually impaired student when policies by state departments of education conflict with the IEP team's authority to determine appropriate test-taking methods and accommodations for that student; and ********** WHEREAS, instances have arisen in which a blind or visually impaired student is required to take a proficiency test in a medium (such as Braille) in which the student is not yet fluent due to recent sight loss--a situation which forces the student to take a high-stakes test without proper skills due to no fault of his or her own and contrary to the dictates of the student's IEP in effect at the time; and ********** WHEREAS, other instances have arisen in which state officials refuse to produce a test in Braille when the IEP team has provided for all instruction and testing in Braille, a situation in which the student is unfairly subjected to high-stakes testing in a medium contrary to the IEP and in which the student is not fluent; and ********** WHEREAS, state departments of education bear a significant responsibility for implementing policies in their states to assure that blind and visually impaired students receive a free and appropriate education under the provisions of IDEA: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization demand that state departments of education establish policies which acknowledge and defer to the authority of the blind or visually impaired student's IEP team in the selection of appropriate accommodations and methods for all tests, including all state-required proficiency and accountability examinations. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-23 ********** WHEREAS, the vast majority of working-age blind people receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, which are often their principal source of income; and ********** WHEREAS, beneficiaries who work must report their earnings to the Social Security Administration and be evaluated from time to time to determine their continued eligibility, often resulting in claims of overpayment being made against beneficiaries; and ********** WHEREAS, overpayment claims may be appealed and are often reversed, but the Social Security Administration is still permitted to suspend benefits during the appeal if the extent of a beneficiary's work activity is in dispute; and ********** WHEREAS, the suspension of benefits in work-activity disputes occurs without affording the beneficiary due process before needed benefits are completely withheld, and the unexpected and abrupt suspension of benefits can leave beneficiaries in financially devastating circumstances, compounded by an appeals process that is often prolonged and may take years to complete: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization insist that the Social Security Administration adopt regulations which would prohibit the suspension of benefits during an appeal; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon Congress, if the Administration fails to adopt new regulations, to amend the Social Security Act to eliminate this unfair policy. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-24 ********** WHEREAS, successful academic progress in fields of science and engineering requires reading current scientific periodicals in a timely manner; and ********** WHEREAS, employment as a scientist requires the same access to scientific publications; and ********** WHEREAS, the 1972 Revision of the Nemeth Braille Code is a standard system for Braille mathematics notation for the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, Braille transcribers certified in the Nemeth Braille Code are in short supply; and ********** WHEREAS, preparing a scientific article in the Nemeth Braille Code takes significant time and effort, usually six months or longer; and ********** WHEREAS, MathML is an electronic markup language for displaying and reusing mathematical and scientific notation; and ********** WHEREAS, MathML is in the process of being adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium, a standards body with wide industry support as shaper of the World Wide Web; and ********** WHEREAS, the MathML format offers the possibility of automatic and accurate translation into the Nemeth Braille Code; and ********** WHEREAS, publishers of standards and academic journals provide databases of publications via the World Wide Web in formats inaccessible to the blind: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call on publishers who offer publications via the World Wide Web, including I.E.E.E. Press, to offer scientific Web publications in the MathML format, to publish materials in MathML at the same time as publishing these materials in inaccessible formats, and to work with standards bodies that include the organized blind before adopting new formats for publishing via the Web; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call on developers of Braille translation software to develop software that provides Braille translation of MathML documents into the Nemeth Braille Code. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-25 ********** WHEREAS, the certificate of General Educational Development (GED) is offered in all fifty states as the alternative path to high school completion, essential for vocational preparation and success; and ********** WHEREAS, one-half million people per year achieve this important goal by passing a five-part standardized test; and ********** WHEREAS, among these test-takers are blind men and women seeking a high-school equivalency certificate along their personal path to growth and development; and ********** WHEREAS, the GED Testing Service of the American Council on Education produces this test and issues the regulations for its administration, including regulations that provide for use of large-print, Braille, and taped versions of the test and for use of a live scribe to write down answers during administration of the test to blind test-takers; and ********** WHEREAS, the GED regulations puzzlingly and illegally prohibit the use of a live reader to read the questions even though this is a standard method for taking tests by the blind, used in the administration of every other standardized test in this country; and ********** WHEREAS, this prohibition is totally unacceptable, placing an unnecessary and unlawful stumbling block in the path of blind persons taking the personal responsibility of doing their best to better their condition and is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and its implementing regulations; and ********** WHEREAS, the next revision of the test (projected for the year 2001) is expected to rely much more on graphics than the current version does, making it more likely that more blind test-takers will wish to choose live readers since providing effective graphics in Braille and on tape is an inexact science; and ********** WHEREAS, despite the fact that modern technology has made Braille easy to produce, there is some indication that the test will not continue to be provided in Braille: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the American Council on Education to administer the GED in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the amendment of its regulations where necessary, to ensure that all blind test-takers have and continue to have their choice among all of the four standard media routinely used by blind persons to access standardized tests: large print, Braille, tape, and live reader. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-26 ********** WHEREAS, blind and visually impaired consumers of assistive technology have, at the national level, a limited number of vendors from whom to purchase such equipment; and ********** WHEREAS, for the typical blind consumer this means that the vendor of a particular product cannot be found in the local area; and ********** WHEREAS, in response to this problem manufacturers of assistive technology for the blind often establish dealer networks to provide a more local presence; and ********** WHEREAS, the ability to purchase technology from a dealer who is closer geographically than a national vendor of technology in effect affords the blind consumer with a better opportunity to shop for assistive technology--similar to the way everyone shops for goods and services by going to a retail store; and ********** WHEREAS, some vendors of assistive technology have adopted the practice of permitting only one person or entity to sell their products in a given geographic area or prohibiting local dealers of their technology from selling competing products; and ********** WHEREAS, these practices have the effect of restricting competition in a free and open market and forcing blind consumers to buy from dealers who may not be providing the highest level of service in a given area; and ********** WHEREAS, the right of the consumer to purchase goods and services from competing retailers in a given geographic area has been firmly established in the general market; and ********** WHEREAS, it is commonplace for local retailers of goods and services in the general commercial market to offer consumers a choice of competing brands: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon manufacturers of assistive technology for the blind to eliminate practices which stifle competition and limit consumer choice--particularly those practices which limit the number of dealers of a specific technology in a given geographic area and which prohibit dealers from selling competing technologies. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-27 ********** WHEREAS, it is the role of the federal/state vocational rehabilitation system to provide comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services to people with disabilities, including those who are legally blind; and ********** WHEREAS, the central focus of vocational rehabilitation services is employment; and ********** WHEREAS, adaptive electronic technology frequently enables legally blind people to perform essential job functions; and ********** WHEREAS, adaptive electronic technology is often sufficiently costly that prospective employers frequently consider the provision of this accommodation unreasonable; and ********** WHEREAS, there has been no appreciable increase in the employment rate of legally blind persons since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 and its provisions for employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities; and ********** WHEREAS, state vocational rehabilitation agencies continue to use the reasonable-accommodation provision of the ADA to shirk their responsibilities by insisting that employers pay for adaptive technology, ignoring policy guidance from the Rehabilitation Services Administration; and ********** WHEREAS, the practice of the vocational rehabilitation system to request employer participation in the provision of reasonable accommodations to legally blind employees is inadvertently causing employment discrimination: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the United States Department of Education to strengthen and reissue policy guidance ordering state vocational rehabilitation agencies to refrain from the practice of asking employers of legally blind people to participate in the provision of costly accommodations and to provide these accommodations themselves. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-28 ********** WHEREAS, in a misguided effort to make the voting process more accessible to the blind, various election boards have developed a system using tactilely-marked plastic overlays which are placed over the printed ballot; and ********** WHEREAS, in theory this system permits the blind voter to place the appropriate mark on the ballot next to the name of the preferred candidate or a "yes" or "no" choice; and ********** WHEREAS, a unique plastic overlay and an accompanying audiocassette must be custom-made for each local election, meaning that for each election hundreds of different overlays and audiocassettes must be created; and ********** WHEREAS, there is no way, using the tactile overlay, for the blind voter to verify without sighted assistance that the ballot has been marked correctly; and ********** WHEREAS, the tactile overlay system represents a costly logistical nightmare for state and local election officials and a false promise of independence for the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, for the blind working with a sighted assistant or reader of the voter's choice has been and continues to be a viable method for full participation in the electoral process; and ********** WHEREAS, new electronic voting technologies, designed with nonvisual access, offer the best long term hope for providing the blind with another way to cast their votes independently and the ability to verify without sighted assistance that the correct votes have been cast: Now, Therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization express its strong opposition to the use of tactile overlays and audiocassettes as a means of providing blind voters with the ability to cast their votes in a so-called independent manner; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon national, state, and local election officials to abandon their misguided efforts to develop tactile-overlay schemes and to concentrate instead upon providing full nonvisual access to electronic voting technologies which permit the blind to cast and verify their votes without sighted assistance. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-29 ********** WHEREAS, federal law has long recognized the special needs of blind persons as demonstrated in Chapter 2 of Title 7 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, which provides authority for funds to support a targeted program of services to older blind individuals; and ********** WHEREAS, regardless of the age of onset of blindness, a person can acquire a set of specific and sensible skills and attitudes that allow the newly-blinded person to continue to live a full and productive life; and ********** WHEREAS, long experience has shown that many workers in generalized agencies which handle a variety of disabilities unconsciously reflect the myths and misconceptions about blindness held by society in general and lack the knowledge of positive attitudes and adaptive skills and equipment that enable blind persons to live full, active, and productive lives; and ********** WHEREAS, national statistics show that, among all those who become blind, the onset of blindness occurs after age sixty in over half the cases, and common sense indicates that newly blinded older persons have lived most of their lives with the public perception of the blind as helpless and dependent, a situation which can lead to the newly-blinded person's accepting a philosophy of dependence; and ********** WHEREAS, without the right information and services, the newly-blinded person may give up personal dignity and independence rather than learning the specialized alternative techniques of blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, to overcome this difficulty requires skilled professionals in work with the blind who believe in the capabilities of blind persons and have knowledge of the specialized skills and techniques of living with blindness and are capable of providing support and encouragement because of this knowledge and belief; and ********** WHEREAS, federal and university-based studies have clearly shown that blind people are best served in specialized agencies for the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, federal law requires that funds for community-based independent living centers can be provided only to centers that serve all disabilities, a requirement which results in overlooking the specialized needs of blind people in favor of a general disability approach: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization seek amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, to provide federal support for centers for independent living which are established and operated to serve the blind, as long as all other requirements pertaining to independent living centers are met. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-30 ********** WHEREAS, the use of desktop personal computers and other devices which use current computing technology is increasingly an essential part of modern life, both in the workplace and in leisure activities; and ********** WHEREAS, the blind, like their sighted colleagues, use computer technology for many purposes, including the gathering of information available on the Internet and the World Wide Web; and ********** WHEREAS, while an abundance of information is available on the Internet, the World Wide Web itself has become less user-friendly for blind computer users as Web developers rely increasingly on graphical images, which cannot be read or reproduced by adaptive technology used by the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, this increased use of a graphically-oriented interface on the Web is rendering many Web sites essentially useless to blind computer users; and ********** WHEREAS, the blind benefit from the presentation of information on the Web in a text-based format; and ********** WHEREAS, the increased use of personal digital assistants (PDA's), which have small screens and are unable to present graphic images, has meant that the computer industry in general and the PDA industry in particular must seek ways to present information on the Web in textual formats that can easily be presented and read on small screens; and ********** WHEREAS, PDA manufacturers and service providers have used specially encoded electronic files, sometimes called Web clippings, which provide text versions of information available on Internet Web sites in a format designed to be compatible with the PDA technology and small screens used on PDA's; and ********** WHEREAS, it is the opinion of the National Federation of the Blind that this method of presenting Web-based information could also be used effectively by blind users of desktop computers and other access devices especially designed for the blind, including accessible PDA's: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization work with representatives of the PDA industry to explore whether the methods used to present information from the Web on PDA's might be used to deliver information from the Web to desktop computers and other access devices, thus allowing the blind to use readily available adaptive software and devices to read the information in a text-based format. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-31 ********** WHEREAS, history demonstrates that blind students in higher education achieve success through self-reliance and mastery of the alternative skills and techniques of blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, has been misinterpreted to overemphasize the universally accessible learning environment and institutional management of legal liabilities, causing colleges to do for blind students what they are perfectly capable of doing for themselves; and ********** WHEREAS, in yet another misinterpretation of the ADA, state rehabilitation agencies for the blind dump many of their rehabilitative responsibilities on colleges in the mistaken assumption that the law requires colleges to be fully responsible for blind students, thus taking on aspects of rehabilitation; and ********** WHEREAS, the purpose of higher education is to provide an education and the purpose of rehabilitation agencies is to provide rehabilitation, which includes training as well as auxiliary aids and services such as funding for readers, purchasing adaptive equipment, and providing training in the alternative techniques of blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, no comprehensive guideline or best-practices model for accommodating blind students in higher education is available as a reference for colleges, rehabilitation agencies for the blind, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, and blind students, leading to overaccommodation and college imposition of unnecessary and unwanted custodial restrictions on blind students simply because the disability service staff are untrained and unaware of the capabilities of the blind, including their need to learn independence; and ********** WHEREAS, the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), an organization of disability service providers in post-secondary education, has the ability and duty to participate in the publication and distribution of guidelines and best-practice models on how to accommodate blind college students: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call on state rehabilitation agencies for the blind to perform their duties of preparing blind students for college study and providing the necessary services for study in college; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge colleges to refrain from doing for blind students what blind students are capable of doing for themselves and to refrain from assuming responsibilities correctly borne by state rehabilitation agencies for the blind; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the Association on Higher Education and Disability and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to join with it in developing and publishing a guideline and best-practice model for accommodating blind students in higher education to maximize learning and eliminate the unnecessary, unintentional, and widespread fostering of dependency now occurring on America's college campuses. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-32 ********** WHEREAS, for many blind people the cell phone is an appliance they use every day and for some is a necessity; and ********** WHEREAS, a number of cell-phone service providers such as AT&T and Cellular One have recently eliminated mechanisms which have enabled blind customers to keep track of the number of minutes used during cell phone calls without sighted assistance; and ********** WHEREAS, customers who want to track the number of minutes used for their cell phone calls are now being told to use their cell phone minute counters, which are inherently visual and not accessible to the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, the lack of nonvisual access to the cell phone minute counter is symptomatic of a broader problem with today's cell phone technology, which to an increasing extent requires the customer to use a visual display, inaccessible to the blind, to exercise all of the features of this ubiquitous appliance: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon AT&T, CellularOne, and other cell phone service providers to maintain, restore, or create a means through which all customers, including the blind, can call a toll-free number to determine the number of minutes that have been used on their personal accounts; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon AT&T, CellularOne, and other cell-phone service providers to work with the National Federation of the Blind, the largest and most effective consumer organization of the blind, to develop technologies, procedures, and practices designed to enable the blind to use, without sighted assistance, all features incorporated into the cell phones of today and tomorrow. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-33 ********** WHEREAS, blind people successfully use a wide variety of alternative techniques in order to function independently; and ********** WHEREAS, blind people who have mastered alternative techniques and who have a positive philosophy about blindness can tackle most challenges in education, career, and daily life; and ********** WHEREAS, sadly, not all persons providing training as professionals in the field of work with the blind have achieved the deep sense of the capabilities of the blind and of the wide horizons open to blind people that more and more blind people have actually achieved for themselves; and ********** WHEREAS, proper training in alternative techniques and exposure to a positive philosophy of blindness are essential in the rehabilitation and education of blind people; and ********** WHEREAS, members of the blind community who practice these techniques and this philosophy are in an excellent position to judge the adequacy of professionals who teach blind people; and ********** WHEREAS, the Academy for the Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (the Academy) was incorporated in January, 2000, for the following purposes: 1) to develop, implement, and administer evaluative standards for the certification and recertification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals; 2 ) to grant recognition to individuals who meet the standards; and 3) to monitor and take action to revoke, suspend, or continue certification based on adherence to the standards by certificants; and ********** WHEREAS, this certification process, dressed up in the form of a new academy is simply the replacement for certification conducted by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), having essentially the same criteria and characteristics as the AER approach; and ********** WHEREAS, in keeping with the practice of AER, the Academy has never sought the participation of organized blind consumers and has actually established itself without input either regarding the need for such a body in the first place or meaningful input in the form of ongoing participation in its governance by persons genuinely representative of the modern view of blindness; and ********** WHEREAS, representatives of blind consumers, chosen by the blind themselves, have special expertise in the alternative techniques and positive philosophy of blindness and have a deep and abiding commitment to insure the best possible rehabilitation and education for blind people; and ********** WHEREAS, in this day and age it is unthinkable for a certifying body such as the Academy to be established without input from the National Federation of the Blind; and ********** WHEREAS, the only explanation that fits the facts is that blind people were deliberately excluded from the determination of need and are being deliberately excluded from the ongoing operation of this organization purely and simply because the founders do not value the knowledge and experience which capable blind persons could offer, apparently not being capable themselves of imagining that blind people have anything whatsoever to contribute, with the result that must remain dependents rather than peers: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Academy first to admit that representatives of the NFB chosen by the blind themselves are their peers in knowledge and professional commitment to the growth of blind persons and, second, to recognize that blind persons must be meaningfully involved in ongoing governance of the Academy; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization declare its intention to oppose the Academy and all its works if the Academy fails to demonstrate its ability to value capable blind professionals by way of commitment to training the blind for real independence rather than the dependence to which so many blind persons have been sentenced by professionals of the old school. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-34 ********** WHEREAS, The National Federation of the Blind is the oldest and the largest organization of blind consumers in the United States; and ********** WHEREAS, blind people enjoy television as much as others in our society; and ********** WHEREAS, there is an ever-growing array of program choices available through cable and satellite-dish program providers; and ********** WHEREAS, it is difficult for blind, visually impaired, and print-handicapped subscribers of these services to access on-screen program schedules and ordering information; and ********** WHEREAS, both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Federal Telecommunications Act mandate media accessibility; and ********** WHEREAS, creative solutions to seemingly unsolvable access issues have been developed through partnerships between the organized blind and industries; and ********** WHEREAS, NEWSLINE(r) for the Blind, a partnership between the National Federation of the Blind and newspaper publishers that provides the blind with access to newspapers by telephone, is proof of what can be accomplished through such partnerships: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the cable and satellite-dish industry to work with the National Federation of the Blind to develop an effective, convenient, and inexpensive method to make all on-screen programming information available to blind consumers. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-35 ********** WHEREAS, in today's increasingly globalized world, it is incumbent upon the international community to ensure the full human rights and fundamental freedoms of people with disabilities and their equal opportunity to participate in all spheres of human activity, no matter where they may happen to be in the global village; and ********** WHEREAS, the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities is the principal international instrument specifically addressing the civil, political, economic, and social status of disabled persons, even though it is not legally binding under international law; and ********** WHEREAS, on the other hand, the UN has adopted international conventions, which are legally binding upon their states' parties, covering the human rights and fundamental freedoms of other historically disadvantaged populations, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and ********** WHEREAS, the fact that the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability was appointed in 1994 and twice re-appointed since then by the UN's Commission for Social Development rather than by its Commission on Human Rights indicates that the UN still views the problems of people with disabilities primarily in social-welfare terms rather than as a human-rights issue; and ********** WHEREAS, in March 2000 the five major world organizations in the disability field including the World Blind Union, at their meeting in Beijing, China, called for the formulation of an international convention on the rights of people with disabilities; and ********** WHEREAS, in April, 2000 at its fifty-sixth annual session in Geneva, the UN Commission on Human Rights adopted a consensus resolution in which it "invites the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development, to examine measures to strengthen the protection and monitoring of the human rights of persons with disabilities and to solicit input and proposals from interested parties"; and ********** WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of State has expressed its opposition to the concept of an international convention on the rights of people with disabilities, arguing that the rights of disabled persons are already sufficiently protected under existing international legal instruments and that the need to define disability in a new convention would pose extremely difficult problems: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the White House, the Department of State, and the Congress to adopt a policy fully supportive of the formulation by the UN of an international convention on the rights of people with disabilities; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the Administration and Congress to assume the leadership in marshalling broad international backing for such a convention, leadership no less bold and determined than that which they demonstrated a decade ago in promoting, promulgating, and implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act. ********** ********** Resolution 2000-36 ********** WHEREAS, the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) added orientation and mobility to the list of related services available to students with disabilities; and ********** WHEREAS, orientation and mobility services must be provided by qualified personnel as determined by state and local education agencies; and ********** WHEREAS, the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) is actively encouraging state education agencies to include AER certification in its definition of who is qualified to provide orientation and mobility services and has been successful to this end in some states; and ********** WHEREAS, the AER certification process may provide instructors with the functional knowledge of cane travel techniques, but it does not provide either a constructive or an enlightened view of the capacity of the blind, which is the essential ingredient to successful and independent travel for the blind; and ********** WHEREAS, without a deep and firm understanding of the capacities of blind individuals, AER-certified instructors often convey a negative and limiting attitude about blindness to young blind students receiving orientation and mobility instruction under IDEA at a time when the child's beliefs are being formed that will have lifelong consequences; and ********** WHEREAS, methods and standards are available to determine qualified orientation and mobility instructors other than AER certification which contain not only the functional knowledge of cane travel technique, but the important positive attitude about blindness: Now, therefore, ********** BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this eighth day of July, 2000, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon all state and local education agencies to refrain from recognizing certification by AER or that of its successor organization--the Academy for the Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals--in determining qualifications for orientation and mobility instructors; and ********** BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon state education agencies to consult with the National Federation of the Blind when developing and implementing standards and requirements that will be applied to orientation and mobility instructors. ********** ********** Convention Miniatures ********** [#54 PHOTO/CAPTION: Isabelle Cave] A Salute to Georgia's Hospitality Suite Volunteers: The administration of the Georgia affiliate recently sent us the following letter: As everyone knows, the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind was hosted by the NFB of Georgia in Atlanta, Georgia. The convention was a huge success. One of the reasons for its success was the Georgia hospitality suite directed by Mrs. Isabelle Cave. Mrs. Cave put her expertise in the catering business to work for the National Convention. In spite of many challenges Mrs. Cave persevered as a true Federationist. Because of her gracious southern hospitality, Federationists from all over the country felt right at home in the Georgia hospitality suite. Mrs. Cave serves as the hospitality coordinator for the NFB of Georgia State Board. Many thanks also go to the many NFB of Georgia members who helped in the suite. Mrs. Cave is also a Board Member of the NFB of Georgia, Decatur area chapter (Wayne High, President). Let's give a salute to a Federationist who always goes beyond the call of duty--Mrs. Isabelle Cave. ********** Elected: July 1 through 4, 2000, the various divisions of the National Federation of the Blind conducted their annual meetings. A number held elections. Here are the election results that we have been given: The National Organization of the Senior Blind elected Christine Hall, President; Ray McGeorge, First Vice President; Cathy Randall, Second Vice President; Judy Sanders, Secretary; Paul Dressell, Treasurer; and Sybil Irvin and Walter Woitasek, Board Members. The Division printed its first edition of A Handbook for Seniors Losing Vision in eighteen-point type. It is also available on cassette. It contains useful information for seniors who are experiencing severe vision loss and are unaware of resources available and ways to continue to live independently by using nonvisual techniques. ********** The National Organization of Blind Educators (NOBE) officers for 2000 are Mary Willows, President; Priscilla McKinley, First Vice President; J. Webster Smith, Second Vice President; Sheila Koenig, Secretary; Suzanne Whalen, Treasurer; and Caroline Rounds and David Ticchi, Board Members. A highlight of the NOBE meeting was the mock interviews held by the distinguished school principal, Fred Schroeder, for a teaching position. The person interviewed as a young teacher without a clue about accommodation was brilliantly played by tenBroek Fellow Brooke Sexton. She is quite an actress. Pat Munson played the old, experienced teacher. She did not even need to act; she just played herself. ********** The Science and Engineering Division election results were John Miller, President; Michael Gosse, Vice President; Brian Buhrow, Secretary; Robert Jacquiss, Treasurer; and Abraham Nemeth and Al Maneki, Board Members. ********** The National Association of Blind Merchants (having officially changed its name from the Merchants Division) elected new officers and board members. They are Kevan Worley, President; Charles Allen, Vice President; Bob Ray, Second Vice President; Pam Schnurr, Secretary; and Don Hudson, Treasurer. The new Board Members are Carl Jacobson, Don Morris, Joe Van Lent, and Gary Grassman. They join Kim Williams, Nick Geckos, Fred Wurtzel, and Billie Ruth Shlank on the Board. ********** The National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs elected the following officers at its annual division meeting: Marie Cobb, President; Ted Young, First Vice President; Sharon Gold, Second Vice President; Connie Leblond, Secretary; Paul Gabias, Treasurer; and Jim Skelton, John Blake, Robert Jacquiss, and Paul McIntyre, Board Members. ********** The Blind Industrial Workers of America held its election for the officers of 2000 to 2002. The results are as follows: Kenneth Staley, President; Robert Brown, First Vice President; Anthony Clay, Second Vice President; Diane Puffer, Secretary; Mary Helen Scheiber, Treasurer; and Robert Skilman, Remon Holmes, Jim Skelton, Cherlynn Skelton, Primo Foianini, and Marceile Foianini, Board Members. ********** The Deaf-Blind Division elected new officers for 2000 to 2002. They are Joseph B. Naulty, President; Burnell E. Brown, First Vice President; Richard J. Edlund, Second Vice President; Wendy L. Carter, Recording Secretary; Patricia L. Tuck, Corresponding Secretary; Kimberley Johnson, Treasurer; and Dana Ard, Robert A. Deaton, and Bruce Woodward, Board Members. ********** The National Association of Blind Secretaries and Transcribers (planning to change its name to the National Association of Blind Office Professionals) elected Lisa Hall, President; Janet Triplett, Vice President; Renee Zelickson, Secretary; and Carol Clark, Treasurer. ********** The National Association of Piano Tuners elected Don Mitchell, President; Richard Bennett, First Vice President; Leigh Winfield, Second Vice President; Albert Sanchez, Secretary; and Connie Ryan, Treasurer. ********** The National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB) elected Nadine Jacobson, President; Robert Jacquiss, First Vice President; Linda Mentink, Second Vice President; Pamela Dubel, Secretary; and Warren Figueiredo, Treasurer. ********** The Public Employees Division's new officers are John Halverson, President; Ivan Weeks, Vice President; Annette Anderson, Secretary; and Alice Marshall, Treasurer. ********** The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children elected the following officers and Board members: Barbara Cheadle, President; Carol Castellano, First Vice President; Martin (Marty) Greiser, Second Vice President; Christine Faltz, Secretary; Brunhilda Merk-Adam, Treasurer; and Sally Miller, Tammy Hollingsworth, Mark McClain, Brad Weatherd, Samuel Baldwin, and Maria Jones, Board Members. ********** Sandy Halverson, who chairs the Shares Unlimited in NFB (SUN) Committee, requests state SUN chairpeople to notify Mrs. Maurer in the national office with their names and contact information. The committee plans to produce a brochure this year and wants to be sure to whom to send the information for each state. You can contact Mrs. Maurer at (410) 659-9314, ext. 272, or write to her at 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230. ********** Maurer Mutts: The NFB of Maine brought nine enthusiastic members to the 2000 convention. At the roll call of states President Connie Leblond asked John Batron to present Dr. Maurer with a huggable, loveable Maurer Mutt. These stuffed puppies were made by hand by Mr. Batron's wife, and they were a big hit at convention. Mrs. Leblond said, "Dr. Maurer, we have brought with us what we call Maurer Mutts. Not that you have gone to the dogs, Sir, just that they are huggable and loveable, and we wanted you to have one." Dr. Maurer held the puppy up for all to see. The Maurer Mutts were adopted into numerous Federation homes. We continue to take orders. If you want a cuddly Maurer Mutt, call John Batron at (207) 657-2829. The cost is $15 and includes shipping. No home should be without one. ********** New Division: An enthusiastic group of Federationists gathered on Tuesday, July 4, 2000, to discuss establishing the Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind. They wrote a constitution and elected officers for the group. In the brief meeting of the Board of Directors following the convention, the division was approved and is now a part of the organized blind movement. Those elected to guide the new division are President, Angela Sasser (Texas); Vice President, Jane Elder (Nebraska); Secretary, Lisa Marie Martinez (California); and Treasurer, Stacey Servenka (Minnesota). This is what Angela Sasser wrote about the group: During convention a group of people met who were interested in the performing arts. We discovered that we have a talented group of individuals, some of whom have great contacts in the entertainment industry. The group took the necessary steps to become a division promoting the involvement of blind people in the performing arts as well as using performing opportunities to educate the public about the capabilities of blind performers. One issue that we all agreed on is that blind people must be portrayed more positively in movies, in television shows, and even on stage. Because society's ideologies and stereotypes are often instilled in people through the media, we hope to use our opportunity to talk and work together to change what it means to be a blind performing artist. ********** Another Election: At its annual meeting on July 6, 2000, the International Braille Research Center elected Dr. Michael Gosse, President; Darlene Bogart, Vice President; Dr. David Ticchi, Secretary; Deane Blazie, Treasurer; and Dr. Ralph Bartley, Dr. Hilda Caton, Dr. T. V. Cranmer, Rev. Robert Eschbach, Ronnie Milsap, and Dr. Michael Tobin, Board Members. ********** Exciting New Braille Technology on the Horizon: At the annual meeting of the International Braille Research Center during the NFB convention, renowned Braille-instruction expert Sally Mangold demonstrated an early model of a piece of technology designed to assist students learning Braille. Its principal virtue, as reported to the Braille Monitor, is its ability to tell the student upon request what a puzzling Braille character or combination of characters actually is. Everyone who remembers trying to distinguish between capital A and the st sign will applaud this breakthrough. Mrs. Mangold, who promises to write a more detailed description of her invention as soon as a few more problems are ironed out, says: "Speech-Assisted Learning (SAL) is the world's first stand-alone, interactive, multi-media Braille learning station. It combines state-of-the-art technology with spoken-word output and standard-paper Braille worksheets. It holds the potential to circumvent problems that have plagued educators and rehabilitation personnel for decades." It sounds good to us; we will look forward to more details later. ********** [PHOTO/CAPTION: David Stayer delivers the Saturday morning invocation.] Recovered: David Stayer, one of the leaders of the NFB of New York and a cantor who has given the invocation at a Convention general session each year for many years now, returned home July 9 to face surgery for a benign tumor on the outer surface of his brain. He had postponed the surgery in order to attend the convention, so it actually took place on July 13. David's wife Loraine reports that the surgery went very well and that there were no complications. David returned to work August 28 and seems to have made a complete recovery. ********** New Talking Medicine Identifier: Ed Bryant, President of the Diabetes Action Network, sent us the following report of a useful piece of new technology that many people had a look at during the convention. This is what he says: Last September President Maurer asked me to attend a meeting at the National Center for the Blind. Representatives from the ASKO Corporation there discussed and demonstrated a prototype of a device called the ALOUD Model 100 Audio Labeling System. We all have to take medications sometimes; many of us, especially diabetics, take them regularly. Blind or visually impaired people can have difficulty independently measuring medication because there are no tactile marks on the prescription container. The problem is greatly compounded if the consumer is a blind diabetic who uses insulin. All insulins are packaged in identically shaped, cylindrical vials. If the incorrect insulin is injected, the results can be serious. But we have been left to our own ingenuity, for the most part, creating our own recognition systems by attaching home-made Braille labels, rubber bands, or tape; storing medications in specific locations; putting medications in differently shaped containers; etc. The effectiveness and reliability of these homemade solutions is limited. Imagine being able to identify each one of your medications reliably and also being able to remember the directions for use of each medication--anytime, anywhere--without having to ask for help. A dream? No longer. A new product, the ALOUD Audio Labeling System from ASKO, can best be described as a talking prescription container. This is how it works: When a pharmacist dispenses your medication, an audio version of the printed prescription label (called an Audio Label) is also produced and attached to the medication container. When the Audio Label is placed in an ALOUD Replay unit, the Audio Label information recorded by your pharmacist is replayed. Each of your medications has its own Audio Label, and you can play the message over and over as many times as you like. It cannot be accidentally erased or altered. The only person who can change the message is your pharmacist, who has a special recorder in the pharmacy. The Audio Label is reusable so that, when you need to have your prescription refilled or changed, the message can be changed also and attached to your new prescription. The replay unit is portable. It is only four inches high, about two inches in diameter, and weighs less than eight ounces. It has a rechargeable battery, so you can use it anywhere. The audio fidelity is very good, and you can also use a small earphone for private listening. The construction is extremely durable, the product is manufactured in the USA, absolutely no maintenance is required, and the product comes with a one-year warranty. The ALOUD system is scheduled to be available later this year, but those attending the NFB National Convention in Atlanta had a preview when ASKO presented the product at our Diabetes Action Network seminar and in general sessions. I am extremely impressed with the ALOUD system, which I know will be beneficial for blind people. Although I have not heard a price, indications are that it will be reasonable and affordable. As soon as the product becomes available and a price is established, Braille Monitor readers will be apprised. For further information about the ALOUD system, contact ASKO Corporation, 2 South Street, Stamford, New York 12167; telephone, toll-free: (877) 732-9227; Web site: . ********** ********** NFB PLEDGE ********** I pledge to participate actively in the effort of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution. ?? 1