THE BRAILLE MONITOR
PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

                            CONTENTS
                                                      MARCH, 1991

VICTORY IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE: THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE FINALLY
OPENS ITS DOORS TO BLIND CANDIDATES
by Barbara Pierce

VALLEYFAIR: AN AMUSEMENT PARK NOT VERY AMUSING TO THE BLIND
by Curtis Chong

WHY SHE WALKED OUT ON ME
by Zach Shore

THE YARDSTICK: BECOMING A PART OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK
by Marc Maurer

DISCRIMINATION CAN COST DOLLARS
by Seville Allen

ORGANIZING A NEW CHAPTER
by Diane Starin

ON REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS AND EQUALITY
by Ted Young

INSENSITIVITY, RESPONSE, AND PROGRESS

I'LL FIGHT BEING MUGGED
by Greg Hanson

A REHABILITATION COUNSELOR WRITES TO THE BRAILLE MONITOR

MY EXPERIENCE AS A JUROR
by Gwen Nelson

WHAT'S IN AN ATTITUDE?

PARENTS FIND THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
by Erlinda Cantos

CONGRESSMAN SIKORSKI TALKS TO IRS ABOUT EMPLOYMENT FOR THE BLIND

SOCIAL SECURITY: FACTS ABOUT SSI ELIGIBILITY AND PAYMENT AMOUNTS

NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION: WHERE TO START
by Jerry Whittle

RECIPES

MONITOR MINIATURES


                                C
[LEAD PHOTO: Smoke stack in the courtyard at the National Center
for the Blind. CAPTION: In 1978 the buildings which now
constitute the National Center for the Blind were a rundown
factory complex. All of the structures were heated by a boiler,
located int he central courtyard building. Boilers, of course,
require smoke stacks, and this one was particularly impressive.
Therefore, when the factory complex gave way to the ultra modern
National Center for the Blind, the smoke stack was retained and
capped with concrete, marrying tradition and progress, history
and the future. Here in all of its grandeur is the smoke stack at
the National Center for the Blind.[PHOTO: Rami Rabby sitting at a table microphone. CAPTION: Rami
Rabby, a long-time leader of the National Federation of the Blind
and one of the newest Foreign Service Officers in the U.S.
Department of State.

     VICTORY IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE: THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE
           FINALLY OPENS ITS DOORS TO BLIND CANDIDATES
                        by Barbara Pierce

     On January 7, 1991, Avraham (Rami) Rabby of New York City
joined the most recent group of successful United States Foreign
Service applicants in Rosslyn, Virginia, where they began nine
weeks of intensive study in preparation for assignment to
overseas posts in the U.S. Department of State. There is nothing
unusual about this class of embryo Foreign Service Officers
(FSOs) unless you know that Rami Rabby passed his examinations
and security clearance two and a half years ago and has been
waiting ever since for this assignment. Rabby is an ideal
candidate for the Foreign Service, with undergraduate degrees in
French and Spanish from Oxford University in England and a Master
of Business Administration from the University of Chicago,
expertise in bank personnel management, and years of private
consulting work and writing. He was born in Israel and educated
in Great Britain before moving to the United States and becoming
a citizen. But Rabby is also blind, so for a number of years the
Department of State maintained that he could not pass its medical
exam and in fact that no blind person could pass the Department's
test of world-wide availability. 
     Rami Rabby is a leader in the National Federation of the
Blind, and we have been actively fighting this foolish and
illegal State Department policy for more than twenty-five long
years. But when Congressman Gerry Sikorski joined the battle late
in 1988, we began to hope that victory was in our grasp. The
struggle has been long and hard, but now the victory is finally
complete. By late spring of 1991 Rami Rabby should be serving his
country as a Foreign Service Officer overseas. 
     Though the history of blind people's interest in employment
in the Foreign Service can be clearly traced back as far as 1960,
when Dr. Fareed Haj attempted to apply for a job as a Foreign
Service Officer, the National Federation of the Blind did not
find a case of Department discrimination with clear-cut issues
until 1975. In the mid-sixties several Federationists, including
the then Director of Governmental Affairs, wrote letters on
behalf of Harold Snider, who was a student at Georgetown
University's School of Foreign Service. Snider was told that he
might as well transfer to another program because, as a blind
man, he had no chance of being selected for the United States
Foreign Service. In 1975 Maryanne Masterson actually applied and
was refused consideration for the Foreign Service because of her
blindness. The NFB argued forcefully that the State Department
was in violation of Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973, which prohibits the Federal government from discriminating
against disabled people in employment. (See the Braille Monitor
issue of November, 1975.) Eventually Masterson decided to accept
a Civil Service job at the Department of State, and the matter
was dropped for the moment. 
     In 1981, however, the issue arose once again. Don Galloway--
a blind man with much experience, including a stint as the
Director of the Peace Corps in Jamaica--tried unsuccessfully to
become a Foreign Service Officer. (See the July, 1982, issue of
the Braille Monitor.) The story was the same. The State
Department believed that it was above the law. The grounds were
medical: Galloway could not possibly serve in out-of-the-way
posts. This time the dispute took almost three years to resolve,
but in the end the case was settled with the Department of State
paying Galloway more than $200,000 in compensation for the injury
done him. But still the Foreign Service included no officers 
who, as blind people, had knowingly been hired by the Department.
     Encouraged by the Galloway victory, Rami Rabby began his
effort to change that situation in December of 1985. He took the
written test for the Foreign Service, the first step in the
complicated application process. His entire adventure is
recounted in the February, 1989, issue of the Braille Monitor.
When the State Department eventually realized that it was dealing
with a highly qualified candidate who had resoundingly passed all
of its tests and met all of its qualifications except the visual
acuity portion of the medical examination, it realized that
something had to be done. 
     In the late eighties, the Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission (EEOC) had conducted a survey of the Department of
State and reported that, while the Department had a commendable
record of hiring the disabled in Civil Service posts in this
country, it was very far from being in compliance with Section
501 in the Foreign Service. The Department was under pressure to
do something. It had been providing equal access to its
examination process in full knowledge that blind candidates would
be consistently rejected at a later stage because they would
necessarily fail the vision portion of the medical examination.
     The Department decided to rule that it did not have to
comply with the provisions of Section 501 because of safety and
national security considerations, so it reassessed its own
accommodations procedures for the written portions of its tests
and changed the rules so that its entire process was at least
consistent. It announced in November of 1988 that it would no
longer provide readers or Braille materials to people taking the
tests. If blind applicants could pass the exam without such
assistance, then they were welcome to try. The entry examination
would be treated as a preliminary test of an individual's ability
to deal independently with original documents. No matter that
overseas personnel routinely use the services of secretaries and
interpreters to help with their work and ambassadors who had lost
their sight while employed in the Foreign Service were serving in
overseas posts; blind applicants must demonstrate their ability
to read independently in order to be considered at all for
employment. 
     This decision, together with Mr. Rabby's and the
Federation's opposition to it, received wide media attention,
providing us an excellent forum to argue persuasively that blind
people can compete on terms of equality if we are permitted to
try. But of even more immediate assistance, the discussion
attracted the attention of Congressman Gerry Sikorski, an 
energetic member of the House of Representatives from
Minneapolis, Minnesota, who chaired the Sub-committee on Human
Resources of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee. Mr.
Sikorski knew first-hand about discrimination since he had grown
up (as he is fond of saying) "a poor Polish boy." He also knows
something about the abilities of the blind because his
Minneapolis office is run by Judy Sanders, an extremely competent
blind woman who happens to be a leader in the National Federation
of the Blind. Congressman Sikorski was outraged that well
qualified blind people, who wanted nothing more than an
opportunity to serve their country, were being denied the chance
to do so. He organized an informal committee hearing called a
briefing on Capitol Hill in February of 1989 and summoned State
Department Officials to explain and defend their policy
prohibiting the blind from consideration for the Foreign Service.
(See the April/May, 1989, issue of the Braille Monitor.) Mr.
Sikorski was not impressed with what he heard and began talking
with several of his Congressional colleagues to plan ways of
tying the Department of State's budget authorization for the
following fiscal year to its compliance with federal law. 
     This was language that the Department understood; and, as
soon as the Department realized that Mr. Sikorski and the other
members of Congress whom he had interested in this problem were
not going to go away and leave Department officials in peace,
things began to happen. In the fall of 1989 the State Department
announced that its examinations would once again be made
accessible to blind candidates and that it would eliminate the
visual acuity requirement from its medical assessment. It also
announced that it was about to make a Foreign Service job offer
to a blind candidate. 
     To no one's surprise, that candidate was Rami Rabby. But it
took a year to work out the details. The Department wanted to
determine independently when reader assistance would be
advisable, what forms of technological accommodation could be
made, and when each was appropriate. Rabby insisted that such
decisions should be made in consultation with the blind Foreign
Service Officer. 
     At last every i was dotted and t crossed so that the way was
cleared for Rabby to join the next class of recruits, which was
scheduled to begin intensive preparation at the Foreign Service
Institute in Rosslyn, Virginia on January 7, 1991. Following this
general course in the ways of American diplomacy and five weeks
of consular training, two more intensive courses specific to each
person's assignment will take place. At this writing, in mid-
January, Rabby does not yet know where he will be posted, but he
expects to be on the job overseas by May or June. He has already
established his competence in French, Spanish, and Hebrew. If new
FSOs cannot demonstrate facility in one foreign language by
passing a rigorous test of reading and writing comprehension
before leaving the Foreign Service Institute, they must remain
for six months of language study. Rabby has more than fulfilled
this first requirement for achieving tenure in his chosen field. 
     What are Rami Rabby's chances for promotion in the Foreign
Service? How serious is the Department of State about providing
equal access to blind employees? No one knows the answers to
these and other important questions. But one thing is certain.
Until Rami Rabby accepted this job offer, no blind person had
ever been hired as a Foreign Service Officer by the United States
Department of State. Rami Rabby is now most assuredly an FSO,
awaiting his overseas assignment. He now has an opportunity to
demonstrate his ability to do the job he has been offered. 
     Interestingly, he is not the only blind member of his class.
The State Department has a policy that its Civil Service
employees can move to the Foreign Service without taking the
entry examinations. Maryanne Masterson, who accepted the offer of
a Civil Service job in 1975 rather than continue to fight for her
right to a Foreign Service career, seems to have been stalled in
a job answering visa questions over the telephone for a number of
years. When she heard that Rabby really had broken the barrier
into the Foreign Service, she decided to make the switch and join
him as a new recruit. 
     One more thing should be noted. When the written examination
for the Foreign Service was administered in the fall of 1990,
several blind people actually took it using Braille materials or
readers. This was in marked contrast to the 1988 test, which took
place immediately following the State Department's announcement
that the written examination would be the first test of each
applicant's ability to deal independently with source documents.
(No test was administered in 1989 because of the cultural bias
lawsuit in progress against the Department of State at the time.
Women and minority group members won that suit, and the 1990 test
was altered to contain less culturally biased material.) 
     A new day has dawned for many minority group-members in the
United States Foreign Service. The blind can thank a Polish
Congressman from Minnesota, who understood that all Americans
should have the right to serve their country, and a tenacious New
Yorker, who was willing to fight for six years to get a job for
which he knew he was ideally suited. But most of all blind people
can thank the National Federation of the Blind--the organization
that was articulating our dreams of equality before most of us
were old enough to understand the concept and that began fighting
this battle with the State Department before most of today's
blind Foreign Service applicants were old enough to know what
foreign countries are. 
     We in the National Federation of the Blind are fond of
saying that we sometimes lose skirmishes and occasionally lose
battles, but we never lose wars because our wars are not over
until we have won. It begins to look as if the armistice with the
U.S. Department of State has been signed.






[PHOTO: Curtis Chong speaking at podium/microphone. CAPTION:
Curtis Chong, First Vice President of the National Federation of
the Blind of Minnesota.]

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Portrait of Ronda Del Boccio.]

                  VALLEYFAIR: AN AMUSEMENT PARK
                  NOT VERY AMUSING TO THE BLIND
                         by Curtis Chong

     For many years blind people have been going to amusement
parks. We enjoyed the same rides and attractions as the sighted
public. Like them, our hearts quickened with anticipation as we
climbed the seemingly endless slope that presaged the swooping
flight of the roller coaster, and like everyone else we reveled
in the fear and excitement of the ride as it plunged through its
many sharp drops, twists, and turns.
     Most amusement parks thought nothing of the fact that some
of their guests were blind. No special policies and procedures
governing their treatment were in place, and none were asked for
by the overwhelming majority of blind visitors. 
     In Shakopee, Minnesota, there is an amusement park called
ValleyFair. For many years blind people came to the park and
enjoyed the rides and attractions there--all with no fuss or
bother from anyone. Then, in the late 1980s, ValleyFair decided
to make its park accessible to the handicapped. To that end,
ValleyFair developed a whole raft of special policies and
procedures. Without consulting the supposed beneficiaries of its
efforts, the handicapped, ValleyFair put together a set of rules
and procedures designed to make the park safe and accessible to
them. However, for the blind, these policies and procedures had
exactly the opposite effect.
     On July 17, 1989, Janet Lee, who is blind, went to
ValleyFair with a friend to celebrate her birthday. Janet is a
leader in the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota and
serves as vice president of Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions
(BLIND, Inc.), the Federation's training center for the adult
blind in Minnesota. Because she had been to ValleyFair many times
before and had taken many of the rides without any trouble, she
expected to have a good time. Alas, it was not to be.
ValleyFair's policies regarding the handicapped were now in
force.
     Janet's first indication that something was amiss was at the
entrance to the park. There she observed prominent signs
proclaiming that handicapped persons must report to Guest
Relations so that they could be informed about the park's
policies concerning specific rides. Assuming that the term
"handicapped" applied to someone with a mobility impairment,
Janet ignored the signs and entered the park.
     At the gate the attendant told Janet that she had to go to
Guest Relations so that she could be told which rides she could
and couldn't ride. Janet told the attendant that she had been to
the park many times before and that she was perfectly capable of
riding any of the rides. The gate attendant insisted that,
nevertheless, she should go to Guest Relations. Janet pushed past
the attendant and went into the park.
     When Janet tried to board the bumper cars, a ride which she
had frequented numerous times before, she was told by the ride
operator that, because of her blindness, she could not drive the
bumper car. In true Federation style, Janet stuck to her guns,
and the operator ultimately permitted her to ride as she had done
many times before.
     This incident, which Janet rightfully regarded as blatantly
discriminatory, prompted her to do some investigation. She
learned that ValleyFair had a policy specifically prohibiting
blind people from driving the bumper cars and the antique cars.
She promptly filed a charge of discrimination against ValleyFair
with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
     Unfortunately the Minnesota Human Rights Department was
hoodwinked by the safety argument with which Federationists, in
dealing with the airlines, have become all too familiar.
ValleyFair maintained that its policies regarding the blind had
been developed in consultation with a rehabilitation specialist
and a biodynamics engineer and that, for safety reasons, blind
people should not be permitted to drive the bumper cars. After
all, the park maintained, its policies really weren't designed to
discriminate against the blind. Rather, they were in place for
reasons of safety. So, although in February, 1990, the Human
Rights Department did rule that the prominent signs at the
entrance to the park requiring handicapped persons to go to Guest
Relations were discriminatory, it found no discrimination in
ValleyFair's policy prohibiting the blind from driving the bumper
cars.
     In the meantime, unbeknownst to anyone, ValleyFair was
developing an even more demeaning and discriminatory policy
dealing with the blind. This policy manifested itself in July of
1990.
     On July 22, 1990, Judy Sanders and I took members of our
families to ValleyFair to spend the day at the park. In all, the
group consisted of Judy Sanders; her sister and her sister's
three children (Jason, Jodi, and Joshua); my twelve-year-old
daughter Tina; and me. At the park, Judy and I both encountered
situations in which park personnel addressed the children who
were in our care instead of communicating with us directly. On
one occasion Judy Sanders was not permitted to take her cane
aboard one of the rides.
     Tina, Jason, and I went off to enjoy some of the more
energetic rides. On two separate occasions I was required to sit
next to one of the children on the High Roller (a roller
coaster). The first time the attendant refused to communicate
with me but instead said to the two children, "One of you has to
ride with him."
     This prompted me to pay a visit to the Guest Relations
booth. There I was told that, because I was blind, I was required
to be accompanied by a responsible adult while riding the High
Roller. Apparently, twelve-year-old Tina qualified as a
responsible adult in this case. As it turned out, the High Roller
was not the only ride for which blind guests were required to be
accompanied by a responsible adult. I asked for and received a
written copy of ValleyFair's ride policy pertaining to the blind.
Here is the text of that policy:

     This information is a guide for a person with the following
disability: Blind
     A guest with the above disability may be safely accommodated
on all rides and attractions not noted with an "X." The guest
should be accompanied by a responsible adult on all rides noted
with an "*."
     NOTE: Applicable height requirements apply.

___Amphitheater                     * Monster
+* Antique Cars                     * Northern Lights
 * Bayern Kurve                    @* Pinocchio
+* Bumper Cars                     ___Red Garter
 * Carousel                        @* Roadsters
_X Children's Climbing Castle       * Scrambler
 * Corkscrew                       @* Sea Planes
 * Enterprise                      _*_Super Cat
 * Excalibur                        * Thunder Canyon
 * Ferris Wheel                     * Tilt-a-Whirl
 * Flying Trapeze                  TOT TOWN
 * Flume                            * Ball Crawl
___High Dive Show                  _X Moon Walk
 * High Roller                     ___Swing Art
 * Hot Air Balloons                _X Towering
___Imax                             * Bike Race
@* Kiddie Coaster                   * Water Ladder
@* Kiddie Train                    @* Rub-a-Dub
@* Kiddie U-Turn                   @* Kiddie
@* Lady Bugs                        * Trabant
 * Looping Starship                 * Trolleys
___Monkey Show                      * Wild Rails

     Comments: + Passenger only.
     @ The accompanying adult may not ride, should explain the
ride to the blind guest and help with loading and unloading.
     NOTE: Seeing eye dog refer to introduction section.
                      ____________________
     Needless to say, Judy and I both filed charges of
discrimination with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights
against ValleyFair. At the same time, through the National
Federation of the Blind of Minnesota, we got busy spreading the
word to the media about ValleyFair's demeaning and insulting
treatment of the blind. The story was picked up by a number of
radio stations, the local wire service, and quite a few
newspapers around the state. The following article, reprinted
from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is typical of the favorable
coverage we received:

             Group Says Park is Biased Against Blind
                        by Les Suzukamo 

     ValleyFair amusement park may have been built for kids, but
an advocacy group for the blind says its adult members don't have
fun there because the park treats them like children.
     The National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota announced
Monday that nine of its members are filing discrimination
complaints with the Minnesota Human Rights Department against the
Shakopee amusement park because ValleyFair illegally tried to
prevent the blind adults from boarding several rides unless they
were accompanied by a sighted adult.
     "Instead of a good time," said Joyce Scanlan, Federation
president, "they were harassed, publicly humiliated, insulted,
and treated like children." The group went to the fair on
September 23. The fair closed for the 1990 season on Sunday.
     The Human Rights Department plans to investigate the
complaints once the paperwork is formally filed, enforcement
officer Pat Gambill said. The department already is trying to
negotiate a settlement with the park over a 1989 complaint in
which it believes the park discriminated against a blind woman.
The woman, Janet Lee, is one of two blind people who is filing a
second complaint against the park, and the park disputes the
department's finding.
     ValleyFair marketing director Linnea Stromberg-Wise said the
policy against letting blind people ride unaccompanied is a
safety consideration and is not intended to discriminate against
the blind.
     "I talked to a blind man today who told me he needed someone
to tell him what would happen on a ride; he couldn't go upside
down because he was on some medication," Stromberg-Wise said
Monday.
     She said blind people can board any ride, but the park
requires them to be accompanied by a sighted person during busy
times to explain what will happen during the ride. During slow
periods park personnel can do that themselves, she said.
     "If one is able to see the ride, one naturally is able to
see what will happen," she said. "If they can't see the ride,
they need someone to explain it to them."
     But Scanlan said that blind people who want a description of
the ride can ask for themselves.
     "I just think it's really presumptuous of them to decide
they need to tell all blind adults what type of ride they're
going on," said Scanlan, who is blind.
     Curtis Chong, Fderation vice president and one of the nine
people who is filing a complaint over the September 23 visit, had
filed a previous complaint over a visit in July with his 12-year-
old daughter, who is sighted.
     The amusement park ride operators made her ride with her
father on a roller coaster, even though she wanted to ride with a
friend, he said. The operators talked only to her and acted as if
he wasn't there, Chong said.
     "I was humiliated," said Chong, who has been blind since
birth. He has been a computer systems programmer with IDS for the
past 10 years.
     "Here I am, trying to teach my daughter, who's sighted and
who's 12, that blind people are capable...and they treat her like
she's my caretaker," he said.
     Scanlan said after the Federation heard about Chong's
experience, nine members decided to pay another visit to
ValleyFair with a public radio reporter "as a test" of their
policy. Chong's July visit complaint is under investigation,
Gambill said.
                      ____________________
     That is what the article said. In response to the charges of
discrimination, ValleyFair trotted out the same tired old
arguments about safety. Here is an excerpt from the letter
prepared by Dorsey & Whitney, attorneys for ValleyFair:
     In regards to Mr. Chong's objection to the fact that he was
not allowed to ride the High Roller without another person,
ValleyFair firmly denies Mr. Chong's claim that this requirement
was discriminatory. In order to ensure the safety of its guests,
ValleyFair has compiled an analysis on the characteristics of
each ride at the Park as well as the nature of various
disabilities.... As indicated on the High Roller criteria list,
experts evaluating that ride have advised ValleyFair that a blind
individual should not ride the High Roller alone. This
recommendation was made based on safety considerations. Given
this recommendation, ValleyFair had two options: to not allow
blind individuals to use the ride or to require that blind
persons be accompanied by another individual. ValleyFair believes
the latter alternative to be the more preferable.
     In this charge, Mr. Chong points out that the ValleyFair
policy indicates that on certain rides blind guests are to "be
accompanied by a responsible adult." ....Apparently, Mr. Chong
did not understand how his twelve-year-old daughter qualified.
The ValleyFair policy, however, clarifies this issue:
     "For the purpose of our Ride Admission Policy, a responsible
adult is defined as someone taller than the post requirement
(four feet) who can assist the accompanied person in boarding or
deboarding and maintaining his postural control under the dynamic
conditions of the ride."
     ....Again, the purpose of ValleyFair's ride policy is
evident--ensuring the safety of its patrons. This is not a
discriminatory policy....
                      ____________________
     There you have a taste of the communication from
ValleyFair's high-priced attorneys. It is interesting to note
that nowhere in the pile of paperwork prepared by these sober
minions of the law could we find a shred of evidence
substantiating the claim that the blind, for safety reasons,
should not ride the High Roller (or any other ride) alone. Yet,
despite the lack of evidence, the blind are presumed to require
more safety precautions than the sighted.
     Consider, too, ValleyFair's unique definition of the term
"responsible adult." The commonly accepted definition of 
responsible adults is people with their wits about them who are
at least eighteen years or older. Apparently, at ValleyFair,
anyone over four feet tall qualifies as a responsible adult.
Using this twisted logic, a responsible adult could easily be a
ten- or twelve-year-old child; and, since the definition contains
no references to sight, a blind child could also qualify. 
     With all of this as background, we decided to test
ValleyFair's policies dealing with the blind. On Sunday,
September 23, Russell Anderson, Ronda Del Boccio, Nadine
Jacobson, Steve Jacobson, Scott LaBarre, Janet Lee, Judy Sanders,
Heidi Sherman, and I paid a visit to the amusement park. We were
accompanied by two sighted friends and Chris Tetlin, a reporter
from Minnesota Public Radio.
     We first decided to ride the roller coaster. (ValleyFair
calls it a High Roller.) We climbed aboard, and after a short
delay the ride began. We later learned that the initial delay had
been caused by a ride operator, who found it necessary to phone a
supervisor to get permission to let the ride proceed with all
those blind people aboard.
     We then proceeded to a roller coaster-like ride called the
Corkscrew. Here is where the real trouble began. At the head of
the line, we were prevented from boarding the ride. An individual
identifying himself as a manager told me that the members of my
group could not sit together on the ride. Each one of us, he
said, was required to sit next to a responsible adult. I pointed
out that every member of the group qualified as a responsible
adult by ValleyFair's own policy. The manager responded that the
responsible adult had to see. It was clear at this point that
park management was not going to let us ride the Corkscrew. We,
on the other hand, were determined that we would ride. Six
members of our group proceeded to climb aboard the ride, and 
management promptly closed down the ride.
     It is interesting to note some of the different perspectives
Federationists had during the seemingly endless waiting which
followed. Truly, it was a test of nerves. Would management, as
some predicted, summon the park's security guards and haul the
blind people off the ride? How would the public react to having
to stand in line while park management and the blind discussed
the issue?
     Janet Lee, who occupied one of the cars with Heidi Sherman,
tells of how a ValleyFair employee tried to intimidate her by
yanking open the car's restraining bar and ordering her to "get
out of the car!" When she would not move, the employee went away.
     Steve Jacobson said that this reminded him a lot of a
similar situation he experienced while sitting in an exit row
aboard a United Airlines flight in Louisville, Kentucky.
     Scott LaBarre said that this was the very first real
experience he had ever had with outright discrimination against
the blind. "I knew this kind of thing happened to other people,"
he said, "but this is the first time I have ever experienced it.
When you think of it, ValleyFair is really being rather stupid."
     In the ever-lengthening line, members of the public were
growing irritated by the long delay. Many of them wanted to know
why management simply wouldn't let the blind people ride. Judy
Sanders, who had declined to ride the Corkscrew because it simply
wasn't her kind of ride, happened to be standing in line; and it
was a good thing, too. Judy was able to explain the issue to
people who were growing impatient with the long delay. One group
started up a chant: "Let 'em go! Let 'em go!"
     After forty minutes park management caved in and agreed to
let us--but not until they described the ride to us first.
Although most of us had ridden the Corkscrew before, we agreed to
listen.
     One of the managers then launched into a description of the
ride, making references to steep inclines, chain-linked drives,
and "double helixes." All in all, the description was totally
incomprehensible.
     Before the ride started up, I heard one park employee ask
the manager if the Corkscrew shouldn't be tested first because it
had "been down" for quite a while. I distinctly heard the manager
say, "Let 'em go."
     In three hours we were able to take in only four rides. Park
managers trailed us everywhere we went, and at every ride
operators insisted that we could not ride together. On the Ferris
Wheel, for example, ride operators inveigled sighted people to
ride with us. However, to their credit, most members of the
public would have none of it. Finally, management apparently gave
in. The park was about to close anyway. They simply authorized
each ride operator to let the blind folks ride together.
     Chris Tetlin, the Minnesota Public Radio reporter, had his
tape recorder running throughout the entire visit to the park. He
interviewed members of the public and park management. The
following story was broadcast:

     News Anchor: Eight blind people caused long delays on some
rides last night at ValleyFair Amusement park by boarding a
number of rides without sighted companions. Protesters are
members of the National Federation of the Blind. They say the
park's rules are discriminatory. The rules say blind people must
be with sighted people on most rides. Chris Tetlin was at the
park, and he has this report:
     Chris Tetlin: The group of blind people rode the roller
coaster, the ferris wheel, the Carousel, and a roller-coaster-
like ride called the Corkscrew. During the group's evening visit
to the park a trio of ValleyFair managers followed the group to
most rides, and in a couple of cases shut the rides down while
they tried to convince the blind to allow sighted people to join
them. The manager shut down the Corkscrew for forty minutes after
three pairs of blind people climbed into cars and refused to get
out. Park managers got a chorus of catcalls from the dozens of
people standing in line, and at one point there was a chant, "Let
'em go! Let 'em go!" The ride eventually started with the blind
people still aboard. ValleyFair adopted its special rule a couple
of years ago with the intent of protecting blind customers. Park
Operations Manager Rich Hertzel says the purpose of the rule is
to prevent blind people from being frightened or hurt when a ride
takes a sudden dip or turn. 
     Rich Hertzel: The rationale for the rule is that we want
somebody to be able to ride with the visually impaired person to
describe the activity of the ride. We normally, as sighted
individuals, assimilate a lot of data that we are unconscious of,
the way we react. We just want them to have the same benefit.
     Chris Tetlin: But at least some of ValleyFair's blind
customers resent the special rule. They say they'll ask for help
if they need it. Three of the eight blind people who went to the
park last night (Jan Lee, Judy Sanders, and Curtis Chong) have
already filed discrimination complaints against ValleyFair with
the State Human Rights Department. They have been to the park on
numerous occasions, and they're angry that the park requires
blind people to go on most rides with "a responsible adult." In
practice a responsible adult means a sighted person who is at
least four feet tall. The organizer of last night's protest,
Curtis Chong, says the rule is demeaning and discriminatory.
     Curtis Chong: We believe they don't need any special
policies with respect to the blind, and history will bear us out.
We have, as blind people, been going to amusement parks since
amusement parks were ever invented with no trouble, no problem.
We never asked for any special help and never required any.
That's where the evidence is that shows that we can function and
do all the things everybody else does in an amusement park, and
we want ValleyFair to regard us in that way. 
     Chris Tetlin: Demonstrator Judy Sanders says the safety
issue is bogus.
     Judy Sanders: One of the things that we discovered a long
time ago is that it's the attitude of the public about blindness
that is the problem. There is no safety issue here. And while
they were sitting on the ride, the public was learning and
agreeing with us that it's stereotypic notions that caused the
park to have these archaic rules, and the National Federation of
the Blind is not going to let them have these rules anymore.
     Chris Tetlin: Protestors were eventually allowed to go on
the rides, but they faced such long delays that they got only
four rides in three hours. The delays angered some of the park's
other customers too. Dan Hall from Northfield was one of a few
customers who spoke up to defend the park. Hall had five
grandchildren with him, and he was mad about being stuck in line
at the Corkscrew.
     Dan Hall: I wish they would change the policy in one
respect, but if they've got the policy, it must be for a good
reason. I don't know the reasons, but I'm sure they've thought it
through. That is what management is for. So right now, I am on
ValleyFair's side, and it's too bad, but I hope it can be settled
so rides don't have to be shut down every time somebody wants to
come up there and protest.
     Chris Tetlin: But most customers who spoke out were angry at
ValleyFair. Laura Chesmer and her sister Terese Chesmer of
Minneapolis waited in line at the Ferris Wheel while park
managers negotiated with several blind people who were trying to
take the ride. 
     Laura and Terese Chesmer, first voice: I think it's total
discrimination. It made me sick to my stomach to see that. 
     Second voice: I mean, just because they're blind, does that
mean they can't have fun on the ride, and they shouldn't be
allowed to go on it? I mean, they are adults. They aren't going
to jump off or something. Some guy in line says, "Stop letting
them hold the line up! Let 'em protest some other time, and let
the normal people..." What do you mean normal? What's normal?
     First voice: Yeah!
     Chris Tetlin: The five protestors who haven't filed
discrimination charges against the park say they plan to now. The
three complaints already on file are on review by the State Human
Rights Department. Officials say they can't comment on the human
rights complaints while the investigation is underway. This is
Chris Tetlin.
                      ____________________
     About a week after the ValleyFair visit, the National
Federation of the Blind of Minnesota issued a press release
announcing that nine blind Minnesotans were filing charges of
discrimination against ValleyFair with the Minnesota Department
of Human Rights. Again, we received a lot of favorable coverage,
typified by this story from the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

            Blind Visitors Take Issue With ValleyFair
                     by Julio Ojeda-Zapata 

     A blind man and woman from Minneapolis have filed
discrimination complaints with the Minnesota Human Rights
Department against ValleyFair, an amusement park in Shakopee.
     Curtis Chong and Judy Sanders visited ValleyFair on July 22
with another blind adult and four sighted children.
     Chong said he was not permitted to ride alone on the park's
High Roller, a roller coaster. On two occasions, he said,
employees insisted his 12-year-old daughter sit beside him.
     Throughout his visit Chong, 36, said ValleyFair gatekeepers
and other employees repeatedly treated him in a condescending
manner by addressing all remarks to his daughter instead of to
him.
     "There I was, a responsible adult with a job in computers, a
father who raised his daughter, and they were assuming that she
was responsible for me," Chong said.
     "The implication is that we can't take care of ourselves.
The implication is that we, as blind people, must be handed on to
other people like pieces of baggage without feelings or
competence."
     Sanders also alleges that ValleyFair employees treated her
in a condescending manner and that she was not allowed to carry
her white cane on some rides.
     Linnea Stromberg-Wise, ValleyFair's director of marketing,
would not comment on the incidents.
     "We don't make it a practice or policy to discriminate
against any individual or group," Stromberg-Wise said.
"ValleyFair's number one concern and interest is safety."
     According to a ValleyFair document, blind people must be
accompanied or supervised by a "responsible adult" to board 36 of
45 rides, including the children's carousel, the Kiddie Train and
the Kiddie Lifter.
     "We strongly object to any special policies or procedures at
ValleyFair dealing with the blind," said Joyce Scanlan, president
of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota.
     "We neither want nor need anything above or beyond what is
provided to the sighted public," Scanlan said. "We are perfectly
capable of taking care of ourselves at ValleyFair, and it is high
time that ValleyFair treat us like the responsible adults we
are."
     Chong is the Federation's vice president.
                      ____________________
     That's what the news media had to say, and it is reasonable
to ask where things stand today. The charges of discrimination
against ValleyFair have been formally filed with the Minnesota
Department of Human Rights. We are taking every opportunity to
publicize ValleyFair's deplorable and demeaning treatment of
persons who are blind. The tremendous support and understanding
that this issue has received from the general public is immensely
encouraging. Yes, when blind people go to ValleyFair today, they
will be required to be accompanied by a "responsible adult," who
will likely be a small child. Yes, if blind people visit
ValleyFair today they will not be given the right to ride
together. And yes, when blind people visit ValleyFair, they can
be assured that park employees will address sighted people who
happen to be visiting with them.
     But things will certainly not remain at a standstill. Blind
people, through their own organization, the National Federation
of the Blind, are waging the struggle for equality. Like it or
not, ValleyFair will modernize its thinking toward the blind; and
like it or not, ValleyFair will learn to treat blind guests as
the first-class citizens and responsible adults they truly are!


[PHOTO: Portrait of Zach Shore. CAPTION: Zach Shore, Student
Division leader and active member of the National Federation of
the Blind.]

                    WHY SHE WALKED OUT ON ME
                          by Zach Shore

     From the Associate Editor: As the president of a state
affiliate, I get lots of telephone calls from people with
problems. Some of them are folks hoping to get rid of a young dog
by giving it to a blind person to act as a dog guide. At the
opposite extreme are those blind people so depressed and damaged
by their perceptions of blindness that there is very little
anyone can initially do to help them. Most, however, are people
urgently in need of for someone to listen and understand what
they are going through. I can listen; I hope I can understand;
and when I can, I help. 
     The following article, which appeared in the fall, 1990,
edition of Insight, the newsletter of the National Federation of
the Blind of South Dakota, reminded me painfully of two calls I
received this past week. The first was from a woman who became
blind rather suddenly last February. She and her husband have two
sons about to enter their teens, so she has many responsibilities
in her home and no current interest in getting a job. Right now
she does not believe that blind people can hold down jobs
anywhere, but then she herself is also prey to the stereotypes.
She does not even believe she can go up or down stairs without
the strong probability of falling. She needs rehabilitation and
has established her eligibility to receive it with the state, but
she has been calling her counselor for months to beg for
training. Mostly he does not return her calls, but this week he
told her--or at least so she says--that she could not have any
training because she does not want to work outside her home. I am
now trying to get to the bottom of that misunderstanding, but in
the meantime, I found myself talking to her about ways of moving
about safely and easily in her home.
     The other call was similar. This woman was sent to her local
rehabilitation center for training of various kinds last winter.
She was given some cane travel training, but the instructor based
his teaching heavily on use of her remaining sight. She
questioned him about what would happen if she lost that bit of
vision, and he told her to think positively. She woke up one
morning seven weeks ago to discover that she was totally blind.
She called the agency that had given her the original training,
but they told her that her case was closed and there was nothing
they could do. In desperation she called the Federation. One of
our members drove to her home to give her a usable cane and
stayed to work with her a little. She was calling me because she
was veering badly and could not safely cross streets. She is
about to be married and does not want to be a prisoner of
blindness in her own house. I found myself giving her advice
about what causes veering and how to correct the problem. 
     I wonder what the professionals who so violently disapprove
of the blind helping other blind people with cane travel would
have had me do. Granted, I was not out on the street with either
of these women, but if I had been close enough to them, I would
have been. That would have been far more helpful to them than my
telephone instructions. Of course I can help to see that both of
them get the cane travel lessons they need, but simple humanity
demands that I pass on to them the information I have and they so
desperately need. 
     Zach Shore is one of our most dedicated and talented younger
leaders. Having graduated last spring from the University of
Pennsylvania, he has now moved to Seattle, Washington, where he
is an active member of our Washington affiliate. Here is what he
had to say at the South Dakota convention last May:
 
     I have been speaking before large groups since my high
school days. Over the years I have made people laugh, cry, and
get excited. Some I have even put to sleep. But not until I spoke
in Rapid City at the state convention of the NFB of South Dakota
had I ever given a speech which angered anyone to the point of
leaving the room.
     What I said in that presentation was so offensive, so
morally reprehensible, and so emotionally disturbing to one woman
that she could not even remain in the room to hear the whole of
my remarks. What did I say to evoke such a response? Did I attack
any agencies or blaspheme against any groups? Not at all. Did I
mock or insult this particular woman? Not at all. Did I use
profanity or make obscene gestures? Certainly not.
     What, then, could I have said to prompt such an emotional
reaction? It is very simple. I told the convention how I went
with Andre, a twelve-year-old blind student, to his new middle
school and gave him his first cane lesson. Most people in the
audience seemed pleased to hear about Andre's success. This irate
woman, however, would hear none of it. Why not? This
rehabilitation counselor and mobility instructor felt compelled
to walk out because she believes it is wrong for me to instruct
anyone in cane travel when I am not certified to do so.
     This counselor is correct about one thing: my college degree
is not in education, and I am not a certified mobility
instructor. To some degree her distress is understandable.
Credentials are generally important and meaningful. I would not
want someone to perform surgery on a child if that person had not
graduated from medical school and obtained the necessary
certification. And, if mobility instruction really required a
master's degree and an official certificate of approval, I would
refuse ever to teach any blind person cane techniques until I had
obtained the necessary documents. But of course this is not how
it is.
     I believe that the incensed counselor, and many other
professionals like her, are outraged by something much deeper
than our lack of certification. They believe that blind people
are truly unsafe and therefore are endangering another's life
when we teach travel. Many people, both sighted and blind,
espouse this view. When they say it, they reveal their lack of
belief in the blind. If they do not believe that blind people can
travel well enough to teach the techniques, then how can they
believe that the blind can ever be safe, efficient travelers at
all?
     When Andre first began exploring his new middle school with
a long cane, he was uncertain and sheepish, but he caught on
quickly. He stopped staring at his feet and started looking
forward. Negotiating stairs no longer seemed like an obstacle
course. Finding classroom doors became easy for the first time.
He moved faster and with self-assured strides. After only 30
minutes Andre was feeling comfortable and much less frightened.
That was when we met his vision teacher.
     This woman explained that she would arrange for all of
Andre's classes to be located on the same floor. She also assured
him that he would get plenty of extra time to get from one class
to the next. As she recited her incantation about how difficult
it would be for him to navigate the school building, all of
Andre's newfound confidence melted away. The more she talked, the
more Andre's demeanor mimicked her defeatist words. I tried to
counteract her spell by saying that Andre might be a bit slower
at first; but, if he were pushed to keep up with his classmates,
I was certain he would do just fine. Unfortunately for Andre I
was unable to convince her.
     Blind people are teaching other blind people to travel
independently every day, and they are doing it without
certification. They cannot obtain certification solely because
the Association of Educators and Rehabilitators of the Blind
(AER) refuses to certify any and all blind mobility instructors.
But these blind mobility instructors will go on doing their jobs
while irate professionals wave their degrees and stamp their
feet. None of this is to suggest that all professionals are bad
or against us. That is not true. The blindness system, however,
is predominantly out of touch with the realities of what the
blind can do.
     This is not an issue of safety or of certification. It is
simply a matter of fact that blind people can both travel and
teach travel safely, whether professionals choose to believe it
or not. The angry counselor does not believe the blind are as
capable as she, and this is why she walked out on me. It is for
that very same reason that we cannot, must not, walk out on
Andre.


[PHOTO: Mr. Maurer standing at podium microphone at a head table.
CAPTION: Marc Maurer addresses the New York affiliate of the AFL-
CIO.]

                         THE YARDSTICK:
        BECOMING A PART OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK
                         by Marc Maurer

     When we consider the problems that beset blind people today-
-massive unemployment; imbecilic airline officials, who are
convinced that the blind are second-rate; effective training so
scarce that in many places it is nonexistent; and a host of
others--it is sometimes difficult to appreciate the progress we
have made. Nevertheless, we have greater opportunity, more
training, and a wider acceptance today than we have ever had. 
     Much has been written about the intrinsic value of the
individual. However, the measurement of success in our country
today is very frequently economic. Those who ask what you are
worth are saying:  "How much money do you have?" Therefore,
recent events in Buffalo and Lake Kiameska, New York, help to
illustrate that increasingly the blind are being accepted as a
part of our culture, using the standard yardstick of America. On
the 27th of July, 1990, the employees of the Association for the
Blind of Western New York (the sheltered workshop for the blind
in Buffalo) voted to be represented in labor negotiations by the
Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, Local 200-C. For
the first time ever, blind workers in New York have become
unionized. The president of the local, Tom Beady, invited me to
participate in a meeting to celebrate this union victory. On
August 15, 1990, I went to Buffalo to join with my blind brothers
and sisters in rejoicing at the success of our efforts and in
planning for the inevitable hard work to come. First, employees
become a part of a union. Eventually the time comes to negotiate
for higher wages and better working conditions. At the time of my
visit, management was paying blind shop workers $2.50 an hour. 
     A week after the sheltered shop workers' meeting in Buffalo,
the state-wide convention of the AFL-CIO in New York was held at
Lake Kiameska. Although we had been acquainted for only a very
short time, I was invited to make a brief presentation at that
event. The 2,000 delegates at Lake Kiameska were astonished to
learn of the problems facing blind workers. A number of people
commented that the conditions and wages imposed on the blind are
a reminder of those faced by all American workers at the
beginning of the union movement. Here are the comments I made to
the 1990 New York State Convention of the AFL-CIO on August 28,
1990:
 
     President Cleary, delegates, members, and guests:  It is a
great pleasure for me to come to this convention of the AFL-CIO.
In my capacity as President of the National Federation of the
Blind, I am continually confronted with this question:  What does
it mean to exploit a worker? Is it fair in 1990 to pay an
employee two dollars and five cents an hour? Does the answer to
this question change if the worker is blind?
     A century ago most American workers were fighting for the
right to form labor unions. But the blind have been waging this
battle much more recently. Blind workers were prohibited from
participating in organized labor until the late 1970s. Since that
time there have been successful efforts to organize in Houston,
Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Lubbock, Texas. For blind American
laborers, joining labor unions was illegal only fifteen short
years ago. We, the fifty-thousand-member National Federation of
the Blind, fought the employers before the National Labor
Relations Board and in the courts, and we won. But it didn't
happen without effort and cost. Only a month ago the workers at
the Association for the Blind of Western New York in Buffalo
voted to be represented by the Service Employees International
Union, AFL-CIO, CLC, Local 200-C. Blind people across the United
States rejoice with our brothers and sisters in the Buffalo
workshop.
     How should top management behave? Is it fair to pay workers
two dollars an hour? Those who are on the line manufacturing the
products, producing the profits that are paid to management, and
creating the goods that are being sold, should receive a decent
daily wage for an honest day's work. In Lubbock workers were
receiving two dollars five cents an hour. In Buffalo they have
been getting two fifty-one. Workshop managers in Lubbock said
that the blind employees could increase their pay if they worked
hard and met the production schedule. However, the equipment in
the shop was ancient and dilapidated. The piece-rate standard
demanded that complex helmet straps be fabricated at the rate of
four thousand a day--five hundred an hour. Shop workers told me
that the equipment couldn't handle much more than that. For
making four thousand helmet straps a day, workers were paid two
dollars and five cents an hour.
     All blind people have a hard time getting work. Those doing
the hiring believe that if they themselves were to become blind,
they wouldn't be able to handle the job. So blind job seekers
don't get many offers. This means that a job at the sheltered
workshop is often the only available choice. Monopolies are
supposed to be against the law, but sheltered shop managers have
a virtual monopoly on the labor of the blind. The result is that
oppression often occurs.
     I have met with the blind workers in Buffalo and have sat at
the table and shared in a celebration with them and the local
leaders of this union. Your leaders know that any unprotected
worker is at the mercy of management. This is equally true for
the blind worker. If those of us who are blind were not able to
produce at the same rate as others, different standards of pay
would be reasonable. But the evidence is plain. We make as many
boxes, sew as many pillow cases, and manufacture as many helmet
straps as the sighted. Two dollars and a half for an hour's work
is not fair, but it is still legal if the worker is blind. The
way to change the situation is to organize. We of the National
Federation of the Blind are prepared to put our energy and
resources into this effort. We are proud to call you our friends,
and we look forward to working with you in the months and years
ahead. Our joint activity will help the blind workers, it will
help American labor, and it will benefit the American economy.


                 DISCRIMINATION CAN COST DOLLARS
                        by Seville Allen

     From the Editors: Seville Allen is one of the leaders of the
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia and ably edits The
NFBVigilant, its newsletter. This article is reprinted from the
November, 1990, issue of that publication:
     
     Capital Management, the owner of a fast food restaurant
called Pik-a-Pita, learned through its checkbook that
discrimination costs money. As the result of a complaint I filed
with the Human Rights Commission of Arlington County, Virginia,
Capital Management paid the National Federation of the Blind
$500.
     On January 19, 1990, two friends and I walked up to the Pik-
a-Pita fast food restaurant located in the food court of a local
Arlington shopping mall. Of the three women, two are blind, and
the third is sighted. The sighted woman placed her order, but we
blind women were not served.
     Finding this type of treatment unacceptable, I wrote as
follows to the mall management on January 23 explaining what
happened:
     "...I followed my sighted friend in line. I waited to be
asked my order. I was not acknowledged by the cashier taking
orders. When I asked him if he were waiting on customers or was
he not, he replied that he was not. I waited for a few minutes,
but he did not indicate that he would take an order from me, nor
did any other Pik-a-Pita employee. I find this type of
discriminatory treatment intolerable and unacceptable. My mind
flashes back to the early 1960s when, as a teenager, I watched
news stories of blacks being refused service at food counters.
The blind are refused at a food counter almost thirty years
later."
     I received a polite apology from the mall management and
from Capital Management. Capital Management even went an
inappropriate step further by explaining that perhaps we blind
women weren't served because the employees did not speak much
English and perhaps did not understand that we wanted to order
food. I could not figure out how the employees understood the
sighted woman's English and not my own. As far as I know
blindness does not produce an accent making English spoken by
blind people difficult to understand. Therefore, finding
apologies and poor excuses insufficient and inappropriate,I filed
a complaint with the Arlington Human Rights Commission on April
9, 1990. When asked what I wanted as a remedy for the alleged
discrimination, I said that Capital Management should buy an ad
in the Washington Post stating that the Pik-a-Pita will not
discriminate against handicapped persons, and that Capital
Management should pay the National Federation of the Blind $500.
     On August 17, 1990, I received a call from the Human Rights
Office investigator. He informed me that Capital Management would
agree to place the ad in the Washington Post and donate $500 to
the National Federation of the Blind. The Federation has received
the check; and on September 27, 1990, Capital Management placed a
statement in the Official Notices section of the Washington Post
saying that Pik-a-Pita has a commitment to provide accommodations
to handicapped individuals.
     I said, when I filed the complaint, that people have to pay
for their inappropriate and unacceptable behavior; and I wanted
to see to it that Capital Management did just that.


[PHOTO: Diane Starin sitting on a horse. CAPTION: Diane Starin is
a horsewoman by profession and avocation. She is also the
President of the Glenn-Tehama Chapter of the National Federation
of the Blind of California.]

                    ORGANIZING A NEW CHAPTER
                         by Diane Starin

     From the Associate Editor: Chapter organizing is a topic of
steady interest among active Federationists, and it is certainly
a very important one. The Spring, 1990, edition of The Blind
Citizen, the newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind
of California, included the transcript of a talk delivered at the
1989 NFB of California convention by Diane Starin, President of
the Glenn-Tehama Chapter. It is filled with good advice and
useful illustrations and should be helpful to anyone
contemplating the organization of a new Federation chapter. This
is what Diane Starin had to say:

     Last year at the Chapter Interaction Breakfast during our
1988 Convention, I promised that I was going to start a new
chapter. And one month later I did. What I want to talk to you
about is how I organized our chapter. I'd also like to talk a
little bit about our fund-raising activities and what our chapter
is now doing. 
     I became a committed member of the National Federation of
the Blind in 1982 or 1983. I attended my first national
convention in Kansas City. At that time you could say that I
really needed the organization. I was one of these "I don't need
a cane" people, but I progressed very fast. 
     If you are thinking about starting a chapter, the word I
want you to keep in mind is "positive." Even though that is what
we always profess and try to live, if you don't really think
positively in chapter organizing, your efforts  won't work. But,
if you believe in the old adage "Where there's a will, there's a
way," it will. 
     Our chapter is in a rural area. I live eighty to ninety
miles south of the Oregon border. It is an area where a lot of
people probably assumed we would be lucky to have a small
chapter. I began organizing very positively, and I was determined
that we would grow. I have a goal that by next year at this time
the attendance at our meetings will be equal to that of the
Sacramento Chapter. I say that because currently there are
already twelve to nineteen people in attendance at each chapter
meeting. We are talking about a chapter located in counties made
up of ranch country with three towns spread many miles apart. 
     I started recruiting members and learning where blind people
lived in this way. I moved to Orland, California, a year and a
half ago. I'd only been there about six months when I decided to
start the chapter. Not only did I not know blind people, I didn't
know anyone. I started by calling churches, explaining why I was
looking for blind people and telling them about the organization.
That effort identified quite a few blind residents. 
     The second thing I did was to get to know my mail-carrier. I
said to her, "Gee, do you know any other people that get Talking
Books from the library?" 
     She said, "Oh, yes. There's so and so, and so and so." She
just went on and on, telling me where they all lived. So I got
hold of those people too. You know, that strategy can work in a
larger city as well as a small town. Everyone has a mail-carrier,
and he or she knows other mail-carriers. Of course, once I got
some people into the chapter, then those who had lived in the
community awhile brought other people. 
     It's important at the first meeting to have the press. Tell
the reporters what you are doing and why. Get a big article. We
did that at our organizing meeting. The reporter wrote a
companion piece about me that was later reprinted in the Braille
Monitor. (See the Braille Monitor, July 1988.) On the front page
of the local paper, beside the article and a large picture of me
and one of my horses, was the caption, "Diane Starin, who happens
to be blind, with her horse." That got attention because people
here love animals--horses, dogs, anything. They looked at that
front page and said, "What's this?" The people read the caption,
and then they read the article. Suddenly, the calls came flooding
in, "Will you speak at my service club, my civic organization?"
The press really is important.
     My public relations effort after that first meeting was also
important. Radio and television stations have community service
announcement bulletin boards on which they carry notices for
nonprofit organizations. They all have different deadlines. You
can call the station to learn its address and airing
requirements. They'll tell you to send your written announcement
one or two weeks in advance, whatever the requirement is, and
they'll put it on the air free of charge. What better coverage
can you get than that--free coverage on radio and television!
Many newspapers also provide space for nonprofit organizations.
In this way you can announce monthly meetings and fund-raising
activities, especially those that involve the community. Public
service announcements are an option that should never be
forgotten. 
     Here's another little public relations technique that I plan
to use. We are in sheep ranching country, and in our town we have
a big lamb festival each spring. Every community has its special
celebrations. I take part in an activity (horseback riding) that
the general public doesn't think of blind people doing. I intend
to ride in the parade and pass out balloons with the NFB logo to
all of the children and NFB literature to their parents so that
they can find out what that logo means. I know that many of you
don't ride horses; however, you do have your hobbies. And, if
what you like to do is something that the public doesn't think a
blind person can do, it is a good way to educate people. 
     Another important thing that raises community awareness is
doing community service yourself. I am a full-time volunteer for
the local humane society. That tells people in my community that
I do the same things and volunteer for the same things that
others do. It also puts me in contact with more people, which
helps me find more members.
     Currently I am in the process of speaking to student
assemblies in every school in Glenn and Tehama Counties. I always
invite parents (those not working during school hours) to come
and attend. The Glenn-Tehama Chapter then gives a copy of
"Questions Kids Ask About Blindness" to the school library. 
     It's really important for you to speak to local Kiwanis and
other service clubs because that's where you meet business
people. To whom is it better to speak about blindness than
business people? Educating them can result in jobs for blind
people. Service club members are the employers in your community.
     Fund-raising activities provide a means for public education
and can serve as membership drives as well. In less than a year,
the Glenn-Tehama Chapter has raised approximately fifteen hundred
dollars. We raised the first nine hundred of that in the first
four months, but you have to know your community. Know the
interests of the people. Candy and bake sales are great, because
people like to eat. Come up with unusual things that fit the
hobbies and careers of the town's residents. In my community that
happened to be western key rings. We couldn't order them fast
enough. So get a feel for your area and what will sell. Also be
sure to get items that won't deteriorate so that, if they don't
all sell at once, you can store them and sell them later. 
     We like to do annual events that people come to expect, to
which they can look forward. Garage sales are one. This year we
intend to have our first annual bus trip to the Grand National
Rodeo Finals at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. That is
something my community enjoys. This can become an annual fund-
raising activity that the community will look for and come to
expect. It is also something that our chapter can join in and do
with the townspeople. It gets the general community and the
chapter membership involved together and raises money at the same
time. 
     One of the important things to do in a new chapter,
especially when, as in my case, the president is the only one who
knows anything about the NFB, is to make a list of NFB acronyms
and explain their meanings to the members so that they are not
interrupting the meeting to ask what DIG, NAC, or PAC means.
Knowing something about the vocabulary of the organization helps
members to feel a part of it. 
     We also have philosophy discussions. A recent newspaper
article that we discussed at one Glenn-Tehama Chapter meeting was
about a dog guide problem in San Francisco. A young woman and her
dog guide were traveling from her office during her lunch hour.
Her dog relieved himself, and the woman didn't clean it up. A
policeman thought that she ought to. The young woman argued with
him. She said that the law exempted her from cleaning up after
her dog. Unfortunately, it's true that she didn't have to clean
up after the dog. There is such a law in San Francisco. However,
what we discussed at the chapter meeting was the damage that
incident caused blind people and the image of all blind people it
gave the public. If you can do so, discuss current issues from
the newspaper. Try to anticipate members' reactions and help them
to move in a positive direction. 
     When there are new members and the chapter is raising money,
it is important for the newcomers to begin thinking about the
whole organization, not just the local chapter. As the state
convention approaches, you, as the chapter leader, can set the
tone by saying, "Let's give x number of dollars to the state and
national treasuries." Chapter members who do not understand the
structure and function of our organization may begin by saying,
"We don't want to do that! That's too much money!"  
     When I brought the issue of how much money to bring to this
convention to a vote, everybody was in total agreement. There
wasn't even any discussion on the amount. I was very pleased. It
showed that our whole chapter is developing a healthy philosophy
about our relationship to the whole organization and that it
makes sense to the membership. I also noticed that, when the
subject of buying a DIG policy on our youngest member was brought
to a vote, there was no opposition, and the chapter voted to buy
a policy on Tenaya Flournoy. 
     Let me talk a minute about a few of our successes. Believe
me, you'd better be ready to work when you start a chapter. I am
now teaching cane travel and Braille to five people. Many of the
Glenn-Tehama members are newly blinded. I'm very proud of our
Vice President Mary. She joined the chapter as a newly-blinded
person, and she couldn't bring herself to say that she was blind.
This was in April. We had a garage sale in August. I was showing
Mary how to count her change when a lady came up and said, "How
much is this?" and held up the price tag. Mary said, "I don't
know." The lady said, "What's the matter? Are you blind?" Mary
said, "Yes, I am." The other important thing for new members to
learn about is the power of the NFB. Tenaya Flournoy is a blind
child, and her school district was attempting to cut her hours of
Braille instruction and reduce Tenaya's exposure to Braille. When
her mother, Mrs. Flournoy, said that she was going to bring a
person from the National Federation of the Blind to the IEP
meeting, suddenly the time of the appointment changed and nobody
knew when it was to be. Then, when Mrs. Flournoy told the school
officials that she was a member of the National Federation of the
Blind and her daughter was too, suddenly the whole issue was
dropped and the hours of Braille instruction were not cut. 
     When we were organizing, one of the new members asked me,
"Who does what work in the chapter?" I said, "As things arise and
there is need for things to be done, I'll let you know. Whether
it's with fund-raising, public education, or any other task the
chapter needs done, I, as president, will delegate
responsibility."  
     The person said, "Well, I wouldn't have to do what you
wanted. I would do it only if I wanted to."  
     My reply to that new member was, "You get back what you
give," and that is what I really believe. That is what I have
discovered in building a new chapter.


[PHOTO: Ted Young standing at microhpone. CAPTION: Ted Young,
President of the National Federation of the Blind of
Pennsylvania.]

            ON REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS AND EQUALITY
                          by Ted Young

     From the Associate Editor: Ted Young is the thoughtful
president of the National Federation of the Blind of
Pennsylvania. This article appeared in the June issue of the
Blind Activist, the newsletter of the NFB of Pennsylvania. As
members of a consumer organization, we are often asked to help
employers and would-be employees resolve questions about
reasonable accommodation. Ted's reflections should help us all
focus our own thinking. Here's what he has to say:

     All of us, whether we take the time to analyze them
consciously or not, have opinions on the subject of reasonable
accommodation. Some blind people believe that they can ask for
their rights but should not aggressively seek them. Others
believe that just being given the right to participate equally in
an event is sufficient. But there are those who look further and
believe that the blind person should have the right to derive
equal or similar benefits from that participation. And yes,
unfortunately, there are those who believe that the world owes
them everything just because they are blind and who hold that the
world does not have the right to require an equivalent return
from them. If equality is the sought-after goal, then the crucial
point is defining what you believe to be equal. Consider your
notion of equality as you read the following examples. Some time
around 1972 or 1973 I learned of a blind woman whose husband was
in prison. One day she went to see him and participated in the
visitation program, which for all visitors consisted of sitting
down, facing the prisoner through a glass window, and talking on
the telephone. The blind woman had her visit just like everyone
else and left.
     If you have read this paragraph and seen nothing wrong, then
you and I differ fundamentally in our understanding of equality.
There was a time when I would have felt that the blind woman in
question had received equal treatment. After all, she
participated in the visitation program to the same extent as any
other visitor. But later it occurred to me that I was wrong.
Although she was treated the same and although she went through
the same actions as other spouses, she did not gain the same
benefit from her participation in the activity. For the other
couples, the visit enabled them to exchange countless non-verbal
communications with each other. For the blind woman the results
of the visit would have been the same had she stayed home and
made a telephone call. In other words, the question is not so
much whether she was allowed to participate fully in the
activity, but whether she gained the same or an equivalent result
or benefit from her participation.
     This brings us to the question of how one assures equal
benefits so that they are truly equal with those obtained by
others. Having the couple sit across the table from each other

(with appropriate measures taken to maintain prison security)
might be equal, whereas a conjugal visit would clearly go beyond
the intent of the visitation program. So how far should a person
be accommodated in order to achieve the same result or an
equivalent?
     A blind person once took a clerical exam for the federal
government, and a job came open. The job consisted of taking
calls from clients, walking over to a large tub file, getting the
appropriate card from the thousands that were there, filling it
out, and replacing it. That was the job, all day long. There were
no tasks to trade, no easy modifications. The only way that the
job could have been done was to have another full-time clerical
worker help the blind clerical worker. Obviously that would not
have been a reasonable accommodation because the sighted
assistant would actually have been doing the job.
     We have now reached another concept: a blind person must be
able to use the data gained from a reasonable accommodation in
order to make a contribution to the job equivalent to that made
by any other employee. In order for an accommodation to be
considered reasonable, an employer should receive the benefit he
or she expects of any other worker in return for the
accommodation. Therefore, if a person cannot provide that return
despite the accommodation or if the expected accommodation yields
far less work than the employer would get from another worker,
the accommodation is not reasonable.
     I believe that in addition to reasonable accommodations
there is an area of what I will call equivalent accommodations.
These do not cost any more to the employer than the
accommodations provided to all employees; they consist of
adjusting the work environment or available resources to achieve
equality. It may become necessary for an accommodation to occur
because of a piece of broken specialized equipment or medical
complication. For example, if a dog guide is sick and it is the
employee's only means of travel, should that person be allowed to
take a sick day rather than one of a limited number of vacation
days? Before some say "no" too quickly, consider the common
situation in which employees have the right to take sick days to
care for sick family members.
     Here is another example for clarification. Suppose that a
blind person can do an entry-level job in a factory. The next
step in the promotion process, as set forth in the labor
contract, is a job that clearly requires sight, such as driving a
fork lift. The step above that one is a job that a blind person
could do. However, since the labor contract has spelled out the
promotion system, the blind person is denied the option to skip
the interim position. It seems clear to me that an equivalent
accommodation would be one which allowed the blind person to
remain in the first step for a longer period of time and then
skip the intervening step. How long should the blind worker
remain in the entry-level position? If one said that the blind
worker should be eligible for the third-level at the same time as
a comparable sighted worker would be, I would argue against that
notion.
     Presumably the second- and third-step jobs would pay more,
so the blind worker should move into the third-level job soon
enough to match the sighted worker's overall pay.
     I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that
reasonable accommodation must vary according to circumstances.
We, as blind people, will always be forced to grapple with such
cases. So, when you contemplate what is reasonable accommodation
and what is not, ask yourself if you are treating the case
fairly. How will your notion of equality influence your
decisions?  Only when we have a clear understanding of what
equality means will we know what to fight for.


[PHOTO: Portrait of Dennis Polselli. CAPTION: Dennis Polselli,
President of the Metro West Chapter of the National Federation of
the Blind of Massachusetts.]

              INSENSITIVITY, RESPONSE, AND PROGRESS

     From the Editor: Dennis Polselli is one of the leaders of
the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts. He is also
an administrator at Framingham State College. When he first went
to Framingham, the atmosphere was one of doubt and chill, but it
is clear from recent occurrences that real progress has been
made.
     In a letter to me dated November 7, 1990, Mr. Polselli
summed up the situation as follows:

Dear Dr. Jernigan:
     Enclosed is a letter written by Cynthia Forrest, Dean of
Students and chairperson of a search committee for Director of
Counseling at our college, a committee I served on. One of the
prejudices we face is that people are not used to seeing blind
persons in a decision-making capacity as part of a committee as
to who should or should not be hired. Such was the case when the
applicant for the position turned the tables on me and started
asking questions about my slate and stylus and how I take notes.
At the end of the interview she commented on how remarkable it
was that I maneuvered around the room, got my own coffee, and
threw my own trash away. The search committee, in the next
meeting, was outraged and without my prodding, voted to take a
stand. The enclosed letter is the result, and I wish to share it
with the blind of this country, for as you and I have previously
discussed, my road to acceptance in college administration was
not always an easy one; but I believe I'm having positive impact.

                                          Yours in Federationism,
                                                           Dennis
                      ____________________

                                        Framingham, Massachusetts
                                                 October 31, 1990

Dr. Barbara Spence
Worcester, Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Spence:
     During our recent interview with you for the Director of
Counseling position at Framingham State College, there was a
moment in the interview which caused us some concern that we
would like to bring to your attention. There was a question that
was directed to Dennis Polselli regarding the stylus he was using
to take notes. While this question was most likely intended to be
quite innocent, the focusing of the interview on the writing
instrument of this committee member who is blind seemed confusing
and inappropriate, since we were moving through our questions of
you at the time. This questioning by you focused attention on
Dennis and his blindness rather than on the interview of you. We
felt that you were perhaps uncomfortable with Dennis and the fact
that he was blind.
     As a Committee, we wanted to express our concern that, while
we believe that you did not intend to treat either the Committee,
collectively, or Dennis, individually, with insensitivity, the
end result was that this line of questioning did, in fact, focus
on Dennis and his writing instrument rather than on the
interview.
     At the close of the interview you also made a statement to
Dennis that mentioned he moved around the room with ease. This
statement was another moment of insensitivity. We hope that this
feedback will be taken in the spirit of learning which is our
goal in sharing this information with you. Please feel free to
call on any one of us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Cynthia Forrest
Nancy Cherico
Jeff Desjarlais
Abha Ghosh
Jesse Harmon
Beth Jacavanco
Maureen Krier
Dennis Polselli


                     I'LL FIGHT BEING MUGGED

                         by Greg Hanson

     From the Editor:  Greg Hanson is a student at the University
of Iowa. He is also a blind person, a Monitor reader, and the
vice-president of the Five Seasons chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Iowa. He read the article by Michael
Baillif in the May, 1990, Braille Monitor entitled "I'd Rather be
Mugged," and he felt called upon to comment. If you haven't read
the Baillif article or if you did read it and don't now remember
it, you should look it up. It is thought-provoking. So are the
comments by Greg Hanson. Here they are:

     After reading Mr. Baillif's comments on muggings and pity
for the blind, I must confess that I agree with the basic premise
that we should not feel proud of being avoided by the street
people around our nation. I do, however, have to beg to differ
with Mike on one point of fact. Why should we let ourselves be
put in that position in the first place? In the case of to be or
not to be mugged, I would rather rely on my survival instinct and
martial arts skills to defend myself from these punks.
     Now you may ask the inevitable question, "Can a blind person
learn effectively to defend himself?" Well, I am here to tell you
that it is more than possible--it has been and is being done. I
am not saying that it is an easy task, this learning self-
defense, but it can be learned by blind people just as well as by
the sighted.
     I have been involved in martial arts training for close to
five years with a little sabbatical somewhere in the middle of it
all. By January of 1991 I will be a full black belt in Tae Kwon
Do, the Korean form of martial arts. I started two years after
totally losing my eyesight from diabetic retinopathy. Now I am
teaching self-defense to elementary school kids and single women
through our local neighborhood center.
     Learning martial arts, whether it be some form of karate,
judo, or Tae Chi, for instance, requires very little adaptation
from the norm. Most schools of martial arts use the "instructor
up front" method of teaching. That is, the instructor stands in
front of the students who are in ranks or lines and shows the
entire group the various techniques and stances. In the case of a
blind student, the instructor needs only to position the
student's arms, legs, hips, and shoulders in the appropriate
stance and move the various parts through the technique. It is
the student's duty, then, to remember the position and movement.
The blind student must also be aware of direction and location of
the instructor and other students. This is not extremely
difficult, because practice of almost all of the movements
requires a yell with each technique. Also, there are plenty of
other students around to point the disoriented blind person in
the right direction. Personal style is later developed and the
board-breaking and sparring take some ingenuity, but there are
medals and certificates hanging over my desk to prove that it can
be done.
     As far as self-defense against muggers is concerned, the
techniques developed in martial arts training are designed for
that purpose. Of course, there is a difference between sparring
for points and defending your very life. As independent and
progressive blind people, we have as much right to be on the
streets as anyone else. There have been a few attacks on blind
people in my state this year. The reaction of the press and law
enforcement officials is that the attacked blind should not have
been out there in the first place. That is the wrong attitude to
have. We need to bank, shop, stroll, and party once in a while,
too. Most of us can and should learn to survive. In a few short
weeks a reputable self-defense course or martial arts school can
teach the basics. How far you progress and how awesome you become
are entirely up to you. There is no reason to be helpless. And in
answer to Mr. Mike Baillif, "I'd rather not be mugged. Instead, I
will kick, punch, and dazzle my attacker with fancy footwork and
then fade into the shadows from whence he came." 
     No, I am no longer afraid to go where I need to and do the
things I and others do every day. There are limits, of course, to
everything. If it is a matter of a few dollars lost, I will
submit. There is no sense being extreme. If my life or safety is
in danger, though, that is a different story entirely. Then I
feel sorry for the maniac who does not expect a blind person to
survive. It is as simple as that. In a "live or die" situation, I
choose to live.
     For now I continue to train and work toward that coveted
black belt. I continue to teach the self-defense classes. I am
teaching fifth- and sixth-graders that they don't have to settle
for being victims, either. We who are blind are not the only
"easy targets." Children are victims more often lately. This is a
sad fact, but we do what we can to change the stats. How about a
commitment from each of us to do something about our own
security? Confidence and freedom are the ultimate rewards. A
little work and some determination are the only expense. Let us
quit being targets for the street thugs and crazies.













    A REHABILITATION COUNSELOR WRITES TO THE BRAILLE MONITOR


     From the Editor:  There are many myths in the blindness
field. One of them is that the National Federation of the Blind
hates and attacks all who work in the rehabilitation
establishment. The corollary is that everybody in the
rehabilitation establishment fears and/or hates the Federation.
The following correspondence is pertinent to this fallacy. It is
typical, not exceptional. With names and places omitted for
obvious reasons, here it is:

                                                December 11, 1990

Dear Mr. Jernigan,
     For some reason, several months ago I began receiving the
Braille Monitor at my office. I now begin to search my mail in
anticipation of each new issue. I am not blind. I am a
rehabilitation counselor for the blind. Your articles are
interesting and informative, and probably better information than
anything we in the field receive from our own state office. I
particularly enjoyed the October-November article, "The
Rehabilitation Services Administration:  Its Relationship to
Blindness and Consumerism." I am sure the contents are verbatim,
and are not cleaned-up for publication. It's easy to hear the
frustrations and concerns of consumers when something is
presented in this fashion. I would like to share with you that
the concerns expressed therein by consumer members of NFB are
concerns that are shared by rehabilitation counselors who want to
do what they should be doing for the blind and are hampered by a
lot of bureaucratic nonsense. It's too bad that NFB has to
"persuade" us to do what we should be doing anyway; but, as long
as we don't, keep up the pressure. I, for one, welcome it.
     These are issues that are close to us practitioners and this
is the kind of dialogue that we need in order to build a strong
partnership.
     I wish I could thank whomever put me on the mailing list,
but since I can't, please accept my $25 as "partial payment" of
my dues.
                                            Very Sincerely yours,
                      ____________________
                                              Baltimore, Maryland
                                                  January 2, 1991

Dear:
     I have your letter of December 11, 1990, and I am taking the
liberty of printing it in the Braille Monitor. Let me hasten to
add that I am so disguising it that even your own mother would
not recognize it. I have no wish to get you into trouble.
However, I think that others in the field should hear what you
have to say. We of the organized blind are not hostile to
rehabilitation practitioners who are truly professional and
sincere in their behavior, and we pose no threat to them. Quite
the contrary. Likewise, rehabilitation practitioners who are
interested in the well-being of their clients are not hostile to
us. There should be a natural alliance of enlightened self-
interest. This is a point which should be repeatedly made to
counter the propaganda of those in the rehabilitation
establishment who are more caught up in bureaucratic jargon and
feathering their own nests than helping blind persons achieve a
better life.
     Thank you for your letter and your contribution. Both are
appreciated. Incidentally, spread the word to your colleagues. We
will be happy to send the Braille Monitor (Braille, print,
talking book record, or cassette) to anybody who wants it.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                 Kenneth Jernigan
                                               Executive Director
                                 National Federation of the Blind



[PHOTO/CAPTION: Portrait of Gwen Nelson.]

                    MY EXPERIENCE AS A JUROR
                         by Gwen Nelson

     From the Editor: Gwen Nelson is the second vice president of
the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia. Her late
husband, Jimmy, was also active in the organization. Gwen takes
her Federationism seriously. Therefore, when she received a
summons to appear for jury duty, it caused her to do some soul
searching. Here (as reported in the NFBVigilant, the newsletter
of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia) is how Gwen
describes it:

     One afternoon I was looking through what seemed to be a
routine batch of mail when I found a rather official-looking
envelope. The envelope contained a summons for me to appear for
jury duty. I knew one blind person who had received this same
type of summons, and that individual wrote "blind" across the
envelope and returned it to the court. The individual was not
contacted again.
     For a brief moment I considered making the same responses as
my blind acquaintance. After all, I reasoned, jury duty certainly
would be an inconvenience. My term was to last for a month, and I
was to call a number at the court each day to hear if I was to
appear. My next thought was that even if I were to appear, I
would not be permitted to serve because someone might object to
my serving because I am blind.
     Then, as a Federationist, I was really ashamed, because many
blind people before me who believe as I do that blind people
should be first-class citizens, had stood by their convictions so
that now I had the opportunity to accept the responsibility and
privilege of taking my turn on jury duty.
     Yes, I did have to wait around the courthouse for hours. It
was inconvenient, but I did serve on a jury. I had the assistance
I needed to read printed materials submitted as evidence at the
trial. And, as I look back, I am truly glad that I chose to
fulfill my duty as a citizen. Jury duty was educational and
rewarding. Now, when people ask me, I will have one more reason
to say that I am proud to be a member of the National Federation
of the Blind.


[PHOTO: Lorraine Rovig standing at microphone. CAPTION: Lorraine
Rovig, Director of the Job Opportunities for the Blind program
and enthusiastic advocate for the rights and abilities of blind
people.]

                     WHAT'S IN AN ATTITUDE?

     From the Associate Editor: I have a friend who is accident-
prone. She walks into door jambs, slips off steps, stumbles over
tree roots, and crashes into coffee tables. I have another who
loses things and spends hours every week hunting for objects that
have vanished into thin air. My husband is absent-minded. He
depends heavily on his calendar, but I have learned through the
years that part of my job in our family is to remember things for
us both. All of these people happen to be sighted, and all are
inconvenienced to one degree or another and at one time or
another by these annoying traits. 
     All of us know dozens of people, including ourselves, who
have these inconvenient little characteristics. They shape our
lives to some small degree and have some slight impact on our
personalities, but they do not define our characters or determine
who we are. Generally we human beings are more interested in
learning whether others are bright, competent, trustworthy,
amusing, compassionate or cut-throat, dangerous, selfish,
intemperate, bigoted. This is so unless the individual under
scrutiny is disabled. Then character traits, good or bad, slide
out of focus, becoming nothing more than repercussions of the
disability--blind people are always cheerful or surly or patient
or whatever trait the disabled person is exhibiting at the
moment. Instead people concentrate on the superficial details of
existence, blowing them all out of proportion: How does that
person using a wheelchair negotiate stairs? Do the children of
blind people always put their toys away? Can he really pick up
that coin with a prosthetic hand? 
     As blind people, we have learned to tolerate this obsession
with the unimportant in the general public. It arises from
ignorance and can be combatted by patient education. Each of us
is engaged in this struggle for enlightenment every day. It is,
therefore, both dismaying and frustrating to find that a blind
woman has weighed into the battle for truth and perspective on
the opposite side. To make matters worse, she is clearly
talented, competent, and ambitious. Her name is Sally Hobart
Alexander, and she has written a book for children from the point
of view of her young daughter. It is called Mom Can't See Me, and
it contains virtually all the stereotyped notions and attitudes
about blindness that we fight to eliminate or put in their proper
perspective: Braille is hard to learn and difficult to use. Blind
people bump into things and depend on others to keep obstacles
out of their way. They can no longer teach school or even know
much about what goes on around them because they can't depend on
vision. All this comes from a woman who (also according to the
book) has a good marriage, is successfully raising two
attractive, well-balanced children; travels independently; goes
canoeing; and in general lives a perfectly full and normal life. 
     The whole thing is a tragedy. Of course, Mrs. Alexander has
the right to her view of the world and of blindness, and she is
free to write a book that reinforces the negative stereotypes of
blindness and magnifies out of all proportion the inconveniences
we face. It is not surprising that Macmillan Publishing Company
would choose to produce the book; after all, it appears to the
ignorant to be a refreshingly realistic portrayal of the daily
burden of blindness. Only the blind are damaged by it. Only our
efforts to educate the public about our abilities and competence
are undermined. 
     Galley proofs of this book were sent without comment to
Lorraine Rovig of our national staff in August of 1990.
Publishers usually do this when they are soliciting reviews.
Macmillan obviously hoped that the National Federation of the
Blind would provide a glowing review that it could use in
promotional materials. Sandy Halverson of Missouri and I happened
to be at the National Center when the manuscript arrived, and
Miss Rovig read it to us for our reaction. She then wrote to
Macmillan in an attempt to explain why the book would be damaging
to blind people. Of course, Macmillan has never replied to the
letter and has on the contrary arranged the usual promotional
book-signings and public relations efforts. We did not expect
anything else. Contracts had been signed, resources were
committed to the project, and editors were riding the fashionable
wave of disability texts for children. 
     In the end, my predominant reaction to this book is pained
regret that a woman with so much going for her seems to believe
that she is courageously breasting the tide of misfortune. If she
does not believe this, then she knows how lucky she is and has
chosen to make money by exploiting the public's misconceptions of
blindness. In either case our work has been made more difficult.
We must reach a little deeper and try a little harder to
demonstrate to the world, blind and sighted alike, that blind
people are not defined by a few inconveniences. We must demand
that the world focus on our accomplishments, not complications.
Here is the letter Lorraine Rovig wrote to Macmillan Publishing
Company: 

                                              Baltimore, Maryland
                                                  August 21, 1990

Ms. B. Lyons
Macmillan Publishing Company
New York, New York 

Dear Ms. Lyons:
     Thank you most sincerely for sending a galley copy of Mom
Can't See Me by Sally Hobart Alexander, photographs by George
Ancona. Unfortunately, although it has much to recommend it, it
does not meet our criteria for progressive books about blindness
and blind people. We could not recommend it to parents, teachers,
or children.
     No doubt you will wonder why. I wish you could have been in
the room when I read the copy of Mom Can't See Me to two blind
women, one from Ohio, the other from Kansas City, Missouri. Both
are totally blind professional women, wives, and mothers, who are
active in sports and social engagements; and both women were
appalled at some of the attitudes evidenced by the author.
     For example, neither woman believes she collects a great 
many bruises because she can't see. Both women have perfected
their ability to travel well with the long white cane. Both know
other women who use guide dogs in similarly successful fashion.
In fact, both women regularly travel around the United States
independently for speaking engagements and other activities.
     One woman believes that none of her children when young
successfully stole cookie dough without her knowledge; the other
believes her eleven-year-old son has a similar lack of success in
fooling Mom. I'd like to note that, since Mom Alexander is
writing this book, it seems odd for her to say that she doesn't
know that her daughter is stealing cookie dough. But I wonder how
many readers will notice the illogic of the statement made by the
child. We three women expect that the general attitude held by
the public will lead most readers to swallow the proposition that
blind mothers couldn't possibly know what their children are
doing. The National Federation of the Blind has had to go to
court in many cases to get children returned to blind mothers or
parents because some neighbor called a social worker, and the
social worker kidnapped the children based solely on this
proposition. 
     Both women recoiled at the strong suggestion that Mom cannot
teach elementary school after becoming blind. No, the copy does
not directly state this. Yes, most readers will leap to this
conclusion. As the director of the National Federation of the
Blind's national program Job Opportunities for the Blind, I can
put Mrs. Alexander or you in direct touch with totally blind
elementary school teachers with full-time and part-time jobs.
However, principals and other hiring personnel will find that
this book confirms their prejudices. Mom Can't See Me will put
one more brick in the wall that blind school teachers must break
down before being seriously considered on the basis of
credentials and personality, as are other candidates.
     My audience and I were particularly distressed that this
book states, "Braille is hard to learn." We know individuals
(with average intelligence) who have learned Braille in as little
as two weeks. We know many, many children and adults who learned
Braille or are currently learning it. The average length of time
to learn Braille well is six months. You likely learned print
when you were in first grade. It probably took you six months to
learn the print code well. (No more mistakes in knowing a "b"
from a "d" or forgetting the sound of a "th" and so forth.) Mrs.
Alexander's daughter says she knows because "I tried it." Does
this mean she studied Braille for five minutes whenever she
decided to play being blind? Did she sit down on a regular basis
with a teacher? Did she study the physical skill as you and I
studied the print code?
     Her mother is obviously intelligent. Did she have a teacher
who told her directly or by implication that learning Braille is
hard? Did her mother practice feeling the dots, as recommended,
for at least fifteen minutes each day? Have you heard the one
about the self-fulfilling prophecy? One of the major problems
facing blind children and adults today is the attitude of many
professional teachers in special education that Braille is hard
to learn. Without Braille many blind individuals are illiterate
and lack sufficient skill successfully to handle a competitive
job in the modern world.
     All three of us feel confident this book will continue to
reinforce the prevalent attitude about the incompetence of blind
adults. We find this especially regrettable since the author
shows a great deal of skill in writing and could have written a
book with a much more positive and more realistic tone.
     I've enclosed two articles written by blind mothers that
were printed in our national magazine. Upon request, I can give
you the names and phone numbers of these two authors and the
individuals to whom I read the text of the book by Mrs.
Alexander. Other material is available.
     As soon as print copies of Mrs. Alexander's books are
available for sale, we would like to purchase one copy of each
title for our Research Collection on Blindness. We wish to
acquire one copy of any book by a legally blind author or about
those who are legally blind.
     Again, thank you most kindly for sending a review copy.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                              Miss Lorraine Rovig
                                 National Federation of the Blind






                 ******************************

     If you or a friend would like to remember the National
Federation of the Blind in your will, you can do so by employing
the following language:
     "I give, devise, and bequeath unto National Federation of
the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a
District of Columbia nonprofit corporation, the sum of $_____ (or
"_____ percent of my net estate" or "The following stocks and
bonds: _____") to be used for its worthy purposes on behalf of
blind persons."

                 ******************************


[PHOTO: Portrait of Ollie Cantos. CAPTION: Ollie Cantos,
President of the California Association of Blind Students.]

        PARENTS FIND THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
                        by Erlinda Cantos

     From the Associate Editor: The following letter appeared in
the Winter, 1990-1991, edition of The Blind Citizen, the
publication of the National Federation of the Blind of
California. The story it tells of parental love and redoubled
hope for the future should encourage us all to work even harder
to reach out to blind high school and college students. Here are
excerpts from the article as it appeared in The Blind Citizen: 

     Erlinda and Orlando Cantos are the parents of Olegario
Cantos VII, the newly elected President of the California
Association of Blind Students (CABS). The 1990 convention of the
National Federation of the Blind was Ollie's first, and he was
inspired by our uplifting philosophy and his discovery that
blindness and blind people are respectable. When Ollie, who has a
little residual vision, returned home carrying a white cane and
desiring to learn to read and write Braille, his parents did not
understand why their son wanted to develop these skills. Like
many other parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cantos wanted their son to be
normal, and that meant reading and writing inkprint and going
about without drawing attention to blindness. The following
letter, written under date of November 9, 1990, from Erlinda and
Orlando Cantos to Sharon Gold, President of the National
Federation of the Blind of California, is another answer to the
question "Why the National Federation of the Blind?" and a
testimony to the way in which mutual love and respect can mold
the parent-child relationship.

                                                 November 9, 1990

Dear Sharon:

     I have just returned home from the 1990 convention of the
National Federation of the Blind of California, where I had the
chance to see for myself why this organization means so much to
my son Ollie. I directly observed how people who recognize that
it is respectable to be blind dealt with their blindness. 
     I would also like to say that Dr. Jernigan is the most
powerful, eloquent, and dynamic speaker I have ever heard. I
loved listening to him!  His enlivening speeches, along with
those of others including yours, made me more aware of what the
National Federation of the Blind is all about. I felt particular
pride and joy in seeing my son speak well in front of a large
crowd of state members.
     At the convention I had the real pleasure of meeting the
leadership and other members of the Federation. Everyone was
friendly, making me feel as if I was already a part of the
organization. 
     There were two highlights to my trip: being informed of
Ollie's election as President of CABS and seeing him receive the
Lawrence (Muzzy) Marcelino Memorial Scholarship. These two things
came as surprises to me. After Ollie told me about the kind of
person Muzzy was, I was honored to know that the scholarship was
given to Ollie in his memory. Now that he is in his junior year
in college, I really feel the burden of his heavy educational
expense, so the scholarship comes in handy.     
     I would like to thank you for acknowledging in public my
presence at the convention. I'm sorry that I was caught by
surprise and was not able to respond immediately. It's now time
to say to you what I should have said. "This is just the
beginning." With my husband (if his schedule permits), I will be
around at every state and national convention and will become a
permanent supporter of the Federation.
     One thing that I believe needs prompt action is the
resolution calling for all the blind to have the opportunity to
learn Braille because I feel that Ollie has been cheated by not
having learned it. When he delivered his remarks, the piece of
paper he was holding distracted him from delivering an even more
meaningful speech. Afterwards, Mrs. tenBroek, who was sitting
behind me, stood up and muttered to Fred Schroeder, who was
sitting next to me, "Ollie should learn Braille by next year." I
strongly agreed. None of the others had the same problem Ollie
had because they all knew Braille. 
     Admittedly, when he first came back from the convention and
told me about the idea of learning Braille, my response was,
"What for?" Now, after seeing the advantages of knowing Braille,
the first thing I told Ollie was to hurry up and finish learning
it all. Now he is learning even faster than before, with more
reinforcement from his mother. I had thought it was only for
totally blind people. I had felt the same way about the use of a
cane. When I picked Ollie up at the airport after his first
national convention and saw him carrying a cane, I was furious. I
thought that it was the most pitiful state in which I had ever
seen my son. My husband and I commenced a lengthy argument with
him that ended in hostility toward him for not listening to us.
Ollie stood firm with the support of his sister. I remember
saying to him, "You never used a cane for 20 years; why do you
need one now?" As days went by, we slowly realized why he needed
one, but we still had some reservations. 
     Since the convention I have made a complete turnaround. With
the support of my husband I am glad to say how proud we are that
our dearest son carries a cane. We remind him to keep it extended
at all times, even in our presence. Ollie said, "I prayed very
hard every single day that you would understand the reality, that
I needed to carry a cane." His prayers were heard and obviously
answered.
     The resolution concerning White Cane Safety Day, sponsored
by Ollie and passed by the ASLMU (Associated Students of Loyola
Marymount University), was the very first in any university. Its
adoption helps to set a precedent for all colleges and
universities throughout the country.     
     My husband and I would like to extend to you as the
outstanding and tireless leader of the NFB of California our
heartfelt thanks for everything you are doing to help our son to
become a future leader, not only in the NFB, but in the country.
He has all the potential to become a leader in whatever he does.
And as a way of showing our appreciation for enabling him to
become independent and giving him self-respect and
self-confidence, we will uphold the ideals of the Federation. As
a start we're now members of the PAC Plan. In addition I am now a
member of the Parents Division. My husband shares my strong
conviction that parents play a very important role in their
children's successes, and for this reason we would like to stay
involved in the movement. Since Ollie's early childhood we have
made sure we were aware of what was going on in his academic and
personal life. When he needed help, understanding, and advice, we
have always been there.
      Keep our warm regards, and more power to you.

                                                       Cordially,
                                         Linda and Orlando Cantos


                CONGRESSMAN SIKORSKI TALKS TO IRS
                 ABOUT EMPLOYMENT FOR THE BLIND

     From the Editors: One of the strongest champions for fair
treatment for the blind in employment is Congressman Gerry
Sikorski of Minnesota (see article elsewhere in this issue).
Whenever and wherever he can he seeks to help us achieve equal
opportunity and first-class status in society. One of his latest
attempts involves the Internal Revenue Service. His letter is
self-explanatory. Here it is:

                                           Minneapolis, Minnesota
                                                 November 9, 1990

Mr. Ron Patterson, Chief
Employee Program Section
Internal Revenue Service
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Patterson:
     As Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Civil Service, House
Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, I have been contacted
by Mr. Peter M. Scialli, Ph.D. with regards to your job vacancy
for a clinical psychologist (announcement #90-A-1032-N).
According to Job Opportunities for the Blind, a program run by
the National Federation of the Blind in cooperation with the
United States Department of Labor, seventy percent of employable-
age blind persons are either underemployed or unemployed. In
light of these statistics, it is not surprising Dr. Scialli has
expressed concern that, in spite of his credentials, his
application would not be taken seriously.
     As Chairman of the Subcommittee, I have continually fought
discrimination within the workplace, including aiding blind
applicants to the Foreign Service, investigating Hispanic
employment practices within the Federal government, and exposing
the underrepresentation of women and minorities at the Department
of State. It is important to recognize that blindness, like most
physical disabilities, does not in any way lessen an individual's
ability to work well and to be effective on the job. My District
Director is a prime example of this. Her blindness has in no way
limited her efficiency, knowledge, experience, and ability to do
her job effectively.
     In choosing the right applicant for your job vacancy of a
clinical psychologist, I am sure that your considerations will be
reflective of an individual's academic and professional
capabilities when making your decision. I am further confident
that your choice will be a wise one based on an applicant's
educational background, experience, and references.
     Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
GERRY SIKORSKI, Chairman
Subcommittee on Civil Service
Committee on Post Office and Civil Service



                        SOCIAL SECURITY:
         FACTS ABOUT SSI ELIGIBILITY AND PAYMENT AMOUNTS
                         by James Gashel

     The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is not for
the rich or the moderately well-to-do. It is for persons who have
low income or no income. It is a program which permits recipients
to better their condition by employment. How can a blind person
have gross wages of approximately $1,000 per month, month after
month, and still be paid an additional $300 per month tax-free
through SSI? This article answers that question and more.     

Standard Payment Amounts   

     There are standard federal payment amounts for individuals
and couples under SSI. These are the maximum payments made to SSI
recipients in states that do not make additional (state
supplementation) payments. Beginning January 1, 1991, the federal
payment amount for individuals is $407 per month and for couples
is $610. These are increased at the beginning of each new
calendar year to reflect annual cost-of-living adjustments
required by law. States can add a supplementation payment to the
federal amount. These vary from state to state. Specific living
arrangements of recipients may also increase or decrease the
amount that can be paid.
 
How Income Affects Payment Amounts

     Income from sources other than SSI affects the SSI payment
amount. Income includes money received in the form of Social
Security benefits of any kind. Recipients who do not have income
from other sources will receive the maximum federal payment
amount plus any state supplementation which may be paid. All
income must be reported, but not all of it is counted. Resources 
(savings and property) do not affect benefit amounts. 
     Working while receiving SSI is almost always to a blind
person's financial advantage. The earnings rules of the SSI
program actually allow blind recipients to have higher earnings
than are permitted for blind Social Security Disability Insurance
(SSDI) beneficiaries. The result is that many people who work
enough to lose SSDI eligibility may qualify for SSI checks
instead. 

How Resources Affect Eligibility 

     Resources do not affect SSI payment amounts but do affect
eligibility. Recipients cannot retain (or save) much money or
valuable property, but ownership of some money and property is
exempt. Ownership of a home of any value is not counted as a
resource. Cash (in the bank or otherwise) of up to $2,000 for
individuals and $3,000 for couples is exempt. Benefits cannot be
paid to persons who have resources that exceed these limits. 

How Income and Resources of Other Persons
Affect Payment Amounts and Eligibility  

     The income and resources of other family members may affect
anyone's eligibility or payment amount. For example, a blind
child younger than 18 may receive SSI checks if he or she is
living with parents whose income and resources are within certain
limits. The presence in the household of other children who are
ineligible will be considered. SSI payments to an adult who is
married to an ineligible spouse are affected by the ineligible
partner's income. The resources of an eligible spouse are also
considered. 
     Unmarried persons receive SSI checks as individuals. Married
persons who have spouses who are not aged, blind, or disabled may
also be paid as individuals. Married persons are counted as a
couple under SSI only if both members of the couple are aged,
blind, or disabled and if together they meet all other SSI
eligibility requirements. 

How Blindness Affects SSI 

     There are three categories of SSI recipients--the aged, the
blind, and the disabled. In many respects recipients in all three
categories are treated alike, but there are some special rules
which apply to the blind only. The most important of these is the
allowed deduction of work expenses from income to cover a blind
person's ordinary employment or self-employment costs. Another
difference is that state supplementation payments may in some
instances be higher for the blind than for others. California is
a notable example, but most states supplement all categories to
the same extent if they do it at all. 
     Eligibility for blind persons under SSI does not depend upon
inability to perform substantial gainful activity. However, rules
pertaining to substantial gainful activity (similar to rules used
in Social Security Disability Insurance) do apply to disabled
persons who are not blind. This is a significant difference and
an advantage for the blind. It simplifies eligibility. After the 
determination is made that resources are within the SSI limits,
income evaluation is essentially the only remaining step for
blind persons. 

Evaluation of Income 

     Income from all sources is evaluated to determine how much
of it must be counted. Countable income reduces SSI benefits
dollar for dollar. Income that is not countable is referred to as
"excluded" and has no impact on the recipient's SSI check. There
are two types of income--unearned and earned. Both must be
counted. Unearned income affects SSI payments more than earned
income.   
     Unearned Income: Money received from sources other than work
activity is generally considered to be unearned income. This
includes the amount of any Social Security check, payments from
private annuities or pension funds, veteran's benefits,
unemployment benefits, or worker's compensation payments. This is
not necessarily an all-inclusive list of the sources of unearned
income, but the examples should help. Unearned income may be
in-kind (the value of any goods or services received) as well as
cash. 
     Earned Income: Money from work activity is generally
considered to be earned income. If a person is self-employed, net
(before taxes) income from the business must be determined. The
amount of the gross revenues used to pay any business expenses
does not count as income. The income of an employee is the gross
amount of the wages paid. The income of a self-employed person is
the net amount earned by the business before individual
self-employment taxes are paid. Earned income may also be in-kind
as well as cash. 

Determining Countable Income 

     All income must be reported to the Social Security
Administration in order to obtain a properly-determined SSI
payment amount. SSI works on a monthly accounting period, so the
monthly income is the figure to be reported. Procedures for
evaluating this income must be carried out to determine how much
of it must be counted. Here is the basic method for determining
countable income and the resulting SSI payment amounts for blind
individuals or couples: 
     Step 1: Begin by obtaining the total monthly income from all
sources. Some forms, such as housing subsidies and food stamps,
are not counted as income, but it is safe to assume that all
other forms of income must be included. If the calculation is
being done for an eligible couple, use the couple's combined
income. 
     Step 2: Divide the total monthly income into two
categories--unearned and earned. These will be treated somewhat
differently, so it is necessary to know the amount of income in
each. It is possible that one category or the other will have no
income. 
     Step 3: Use this step to determine countable unearned
income. Some unearned income can be excluded from the total
amount. Go to step 4 if there is no unearned income. 
     (a) In all cases where there is unearned income, up to $20
is subtracted (or excluded) from the total. If the unearned
income is less than $20, the remaining portion of this $20
deduction is subtracted as described in step 4 (a). The deduction
of $20 does not increase if the calculation is being made for a
couple. 
     (b) Some SSI recipients participate in a program called PASS
(plan to achieve self support). To have a PASS one must have the
plan approved in advance by Social Security. Any amount of
unearned income being used in a PASS should be subtracted from
the remaining unearned income at this point. If there is no
approved PASS (or no unearned income being used in an approved
PASS), go to step 4. For a couple's calculation, all unearned
income being used in a PASS for either or both partners should be
combined and subtracted from the unearned income. 
     (c) The remaining unearned income is countable. Save this
figure for use under step 5. 
     Step 4: Use this step to determine countable earned income.
Some earned income can be excluded from the total amount of
earned income. Make the following subtractions in the order
indicated, stopping whenever the resulting figure reaches zero: 
     (a) Subtract any remaining portion of the unearned income
deduction not used under step 3. If the unearned income were $15,
$5 would be left over for use in this step. If the unearned
income were $20 or more, none of it would remain for use in this
step. If there were no unearned income, the entire $20 deduction
should be taken in this step.      
     (b) Subtract $65 from the remaining earned income. The
deduction of $65 does not increase if the calculation is being
made for a couple. 
     (c) Divide the remaining monthly earned income in half. One
half is excluded, and the other half is countable. From this
point forward deal only with the countable half. This is the
remaining countable earned income, but there are more deductions
to be made. 
     (d) Subtract the full amount of any ordinary and necessary
work expenses for blind persons. If both members of an eligible
couple are blind and if both are working, subtract the total
amount of their combined work expenses. Costs that may be
included are the following:
     1. Income tax payments or the amount of taxes withheld from
an employee's wages, including FICA and self-employment Social
Security contributions; 
     2. The cost of transportation to and from work or of any
work-related transportation not paid for by someone else, such as
an employer; 
     3. The cost of meals while at work; 
     4. Dog guide expenses; 
     5. The cost of purchasing any equipment or supplies used in
the performance of the work; 
     6. Professional fees or union dues; and 
     7. Any other expenses that are reasonably necessary and
work-related. Self-care expenses do not count. 
     (e) Subtract from the remaining earned income the amount of
any earned income being used to fulfill a PASS. As described in
step (3) the PASS must have been approved in advance by the
Social Security Administration in order for this subtraction of
earned income to be made. 
     (f) The remaining earned income is countable. 
     Step 5: Determine the total countable income by adding the
resulting figures from steps 3 and 4. 
     Step 6: Subtract the total countable income from the monthly
payment amount for individuals or couples. Only use the couples
rate if both persons are eligible for SSI. Subtract the countable
income from the combined federal and state payment amounts.
Contact a Social Security office in your state to determine if
state supplementation applies. The resulting figure after
subtracting the countable income is the monthly SSI benefit
amount that should be paid. 
     By following this explanation step by step, you should be
able to calculate SSI payment amounts in many circumstances. Try
computing an SSI payment amount with a simple example such as a
blind person's having monthly earned income of $1,000. Apply the
subtractions called for in steps 3 and 4. It is reasonable to
expect that the resulting countable income would be approximately
$87 per month. This $87 must be subtracted from $407--the payment
amount for an individual in a state without supplementation. It
would be subtracted from a higher amount in a state with
supplementation. 

A Word to the Wise 

     There are many individual considerations which may apply in
particular circumstances and which may significantly affect
eligibility or benefit amounts. All of the facts must be
presented to the Social Security Administration for a formal
determination. Any determination can be reconsidered or appealed
in a hearing. 
     The National Federation of the Blind has made a concerted
effort to assist blind persons in dealing with SSI issues. It is
no accident that through the years blind people are legally one
of the three categorical groups under SSI, and the distinctions
made between the blind and others have significance. Working with
the Congress and the Social Security Administration over a period
of many years, the National Federation of the Blind is
responsible for bringing about many of these distinctions.
Sometimes we understand the application of the SSI law better
than representatives at the Social Security office. 
     No one can seriously challenge the role that the Federation
has played in this area. We have successfully attempted to shape
and direct the SSI program toward offering blind people a hand
up, rather than strictly providing a handout. Why do blind people
need a strong and effective National Federation of the Blind? The
answer can be found in many of the rights and benefits provided
to the blind by SSI and other programs of the Social Security
Administration. It is only by our own concerted action, through
the National Federation of the Blind, that blind people can know
the facts and make sure that the law works as intended. The
purpose of the National Federation of the Blind is fulfilled when
we help one another and ourselves through collective action. This
is exactly what we have done for blind people in the SSI program.



[PHOTO/CAPTION: The French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana.]

[PHOTO/CAPTION: A streetcar passes Jax Brewery in New Orleans.]

             NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION: WHERE TO START 
                        by Jerry Whittle

     From the Associate Editor: Jerry Whittle is one of the
leaders of the National Federation of the Blind of Louisiana and
one of the most prolific contributors to the efforts of the
Writers Division. He is also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable
proponent of the attractions of New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a
walking encyclopedia of what to do and see in the city where the
1991 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be
held. Here are his tips about what you should see and do:

     This year's National Federation of the Blind convention at
the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, poses a
pleasant problem. Because of the rich heritage and historic
significance of this bustling port city, there are so many varied
and exciting activities that it will be impossible to find the
time to do everything that is available.
     The names and locations of the myriad restaurants, bars, and
clubs reveal the Spanish, French, African, Indian, and Irish
influences upon this unique American city. Brennan's on Royal is
famous for its sumptuous brunches and haute cuisine, including
eggs benedict and bananas foster. Try Mr. B's crayfish fettucini
with a delicious sauce. For that special lunch, try Commander's
Palace in uptown New Orleans on Washington. If it is jazz that
tickles your fancy, the Pete Fountain Club at 2 Poydras Place on
the third floor of the Hilton is a popular haunt. Snug Harbor on
Frenchmen's Street offers a wonderful singer; Tipitina's on
Napoleon, Club My-Oh-My on Chartres, The Ol' Toones Saloon, Papa
Joe's, Ryan's Irish Pub, and The Famous Door-all on Bourbon are
just a few of the clubs featuring jazz and potables.
Incidentally, while in New Orleans, almost everyone ventures into
the world famous Pat O'Brien's on St. Peter's for a hurricane.
While in your favorite pub, you might want to try a Ramos gin
fizz, which consists of egg white, orange flower water, and gin.
Another popular drink is cafe brulot, which consists of hot
coffee, spices, orange peel, and liqueurs blended in a chafing
dish, ignited, and served in a special cup.
     If you want to learn how to prepare some of the wonderful
dishes that have made New Orleans famous the world over for fine
food, perhaps you would like to take a class in creole cooking
taught by a professional chef. The demonstration includes
sampling, in addition to lunch and transportation. Creole cooking
has four main ethnic influences. It blends the Spanish flair for
sharp seasoning, the French mastery of sumptuous sauces, the
African skill in fine cooking, and the Indian's knowledge of
special herbs and fruits. Speaking of Creole, conventioneers will
certainly want to try gumbo while in New Orleans. Gumbo is the
African word for okra; however, there is also a filet gumbo.
Filet is powdered sassafras leaves and is sometimes used as a
substitute for okra. Gumbo can include a variety of meats:
chicken, turkey, ham, or fish, to name a few. It is served with
rice as a spicy soup or a main course. Another staple of New
Orleans is andouille. Andouille is a plump and spicy country
sausage that is often served in red beans and rice.
     In addition to all the varied cuisines and the festive
atmosphere of New Orleans, one can find other fascinating places
to visit. Plantation homes are popular historic sites for adults
and children. The most famous of these, the Beauregard-Keyes
House, was built in 1826 and was the home of Confederate general
Pierre Gustave Beauregard. It was later purchased by Francis
Parkinson Keyes and has been preserved with many of the original
antiques. Other homes abound, surrounded by lovely gardens and
courtyards and offering elegant dining on the premises, such as
the restaurant at Randolph Hall. 
     There are many riverboat cruises featuring dixieland jazz,
dancing, and fine food. The Creole Queen is just one of the
paddle wheelers plying the mighty Mississippi. The Audubon Zoo,
containing over 1200 species in their natural habitats, is
another popular tourist site. Transportation is provided. Many
Federationists might enjoy a walking tour of the French Quarter
or Vieux Carre. This educational stroll also includes the Cafe du
Monde and shopping at the Riverwalk and Jax Brewery on Decatur.
     The Aquarium of the Americas is one of the newest
attractions, at the base of Canal Street in the French Quarter.
It features aquatic life of every description in a variety of
authentic natural settings. This stroll through nature should
also whet one's appetite for a unique American excursion--a swamp
tour--replete with alligators, water snakes, and hundreds of
species of birds including egrets. Transportation and lunch are
provided. Perhaps you have heard of the term "Bayou," which is a
Choctaw Indian word for creek, referring to the thousands of
inland water passageways that wind through Louisiana.
     These are just some of the possible sights to see in the
wild and wonderful city of New Orleans. When one couples all this
variety with the full agenda of the annual convention of the
National Federation of the Blind, one is almost overwhelmed by
the question of where to start. No matter where Federationists
begin, they cannot lose. 
     Wonderful accommodations at the Hyatt Regency Hotel are
guaranteed. Southern hospitality at its best will be extended by
this year's host affiliate--the National Federation of the Blind
of Louisiana. As in the past, hotel room rates for the convention
are phenomenally low: singles, $28; doubles and twins, $35;
triples, $38; and quads, $40. An additional occupancy tax of $2
per night will be added to the room rates, plus sales tax of
eleven percent. There will be no charge for children under twelve
in a room with their parents. Room reservations should be made by
writing to: Hyatt Regency New Orleans, 500 Poydras Plaza, New
Orleans, Louisiana 70140; phone: (504) 561-1234. Do not call the
Hyatt toll-free 800 number. A full convention agenda, including
division meetings, informative speakers, interesting exhibits of
the latest technology, and an exciting banquet are always
assured. All we can say is, "Laissez le bon temps roulet!"--Let
the good times roll.



                             RECIPES

     This year both Passover and Easter arrive in March. Both are
joyous celebrations of salvation, and many Americans look forward
to the festivity and good food of the holiday season. For the
first time in twenty-one years, the Easter Bunny will not be
hiding carefully dyed eggs around our house and adding candy of
his own. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I realize that
this year I will not be finding jellybeans in odd corners for
months to come. Whether your holiday prayer is "Next year in
Jerusalem" or "The Lord is risen," may your holiday celebration
be filled with friendship and joy. Here are recipes to help your
celebration along.

                            CHAROSIS
                       by Lorraine Stayer

     Lorraine Stayer is the editor of the Writer's Division
magazine, Slate and Style. She is also the wife of David Stayer,
one of the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind of New
York and the cantor who beautifully sings the invocation before
one general session each year at our National Convention. 
     The Passover meal is filled with symbols and tradition:
special prayers, unleavened bread, salt water, bitter herbs, and
a lamb shank. One of the dishes is charosis, which represents the
mortar for the bricks that the Children of Israel were forced to
make during their slavery before their escape from Egypt. In the
Middle East almonds are substituted for the walnuts of this
recipe, and three or four figs, a quarter of a cup raisins, or a
few dates are added since they are fruits readily available in
the area. Lorraine reports that, although this is a traditional
Passover dish, many people have commented that it would be
delicious as a side dish at other times of the year. 

Ingredients:
2 large apples, cored and peeled
1 cup walnuts
1/8 cup sweet, kosher red wine (Manischewitz will do, but Carmel
is better)
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

     Method: About an hour before serving, chop the apples and
nuts together. Add other fruits if desired. Season with spices to
taste and stir in enough wine to bind the mixture, making it
resemble the mortar it represents. Cover the mixture tightly and
refrigerate until serving time. 

                         HOT CROSS BUNS
                        by Barbara Pierce

     On Easter morning the Pierces have hot cross buns for
breakfast. When I acquired this recipe years ago, the
accompanying note informed me that hot cross buns baked on Good
Friday have miraculous powers. This may be so, but they taste
fresher on Easter if they are baked on Saturday. Last spring I
brought hot cross buns to the National Center staff at Easter
time. They vanished immediately. My family approve of them as
well.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 stick melted butter or margarine
4 well-beaten egg yolks
2 1/4 cups scalded, cooled milk
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
7 to 8 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg whites, beaten till frothy
1 cup rinsed currants
1/2 cup candied fruit (optional)

     Method: On the day before baking, in a large mixing bowl
combine sugar, butter, milk, egg yolks, and yeast dissolved in
the water. Stir in salt, nutmeg, and cloves, and half the flour.
Beat this mixture well with an electric mixer or with a wooden
spoon. Gently stir in the frothy egg whites, then stir in
currants and candied fruit, if desired. Work in enough additional
flour (3-4 more cups) to make a soft dough. Knead well, adding
more flour only as needed to handle the dough. This will take
about 10 minutes. The dough is ready when it is smooth and
elastic. Place it in a well-buttered bowl and butter the top of
the dough. Cover the top with a damp tea towel and put it in a
warm place for 2 to 3 hours. Refrigerate the dough overnight.  
     At least an hour before you are ready to make out the rolls,
remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it stand in a warm
place. Knead the dough lightly and divide it into 30-36 pieces of
equal size. Shape each piece into a smooth ball and place the
buns 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. If you wish, you may
cut a cross in the top of each bun. Butter all exposed surfaces
liberally, cover the rolls, and allow them to rise in a warm
place until they are doubled in bulk, about an hour and a half.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the buns with 1 egg yolk
and 2 tablespoons of water combined. Bake the buns until golden
brown, about 25 minutes. Remove buns to cooling rack, and when
they are cool frost them with a cup of confectioner's sugar, 2
tablespoons of lemon juice, and enough water to bring the glaze
to spreading consistency.

                           PLUM SAUCE
                        by Betty Niceley 

     Betty Niceley is President of the National Federation of the
Blind of Kentucky and of NAPUB, the National Association to
Promote the Use of Braille. She is also a good cook and an
enthusiastic sampler of unusual foods. Here is an excellent sauce
to dress up an Easter leg of lamb. Betty says that it makes a
nice change of pace from mint jelly and is delicious. 

Ingredients:
1-pound can purple plums, sieved
1/4 cup reserved syrup from plums
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 clove garlic, crushed (optional)

     Method: Stir all ingredients together to make sauce. If you
have a food processor, everything can be thrown in together and
mixed for a few seconds to puree the plums. Just be sure to
remove all seeds from the fruit. Sometimes they miss a seed or
two, even when they say the plums are seeded. Trim excess fat and
skin from a 5- or 6-pound leg of lamb. Rub the surface with dry
mustard and sprinkle it all over with seasoned salt, pepper, and
ground allspice. Roast it as you normally would, but baste it
four times with the sauce in the last hour of roasting. Any extra
sauce can be added to the pan drippings to enrich the gravy. Be
sure not to overcook the lamb. Cookbooks used to warn that lamb
should register at least 175 on a meat thermometer. The numbers
have been revised downward into the 160s so that the meat is
still nicely pink. 



                   * * MONITOR MINIATURES * *

**The Glenn Connection:
     From the Editor: Since 1974 we have had a souvenir coffee
mug at the banquet each year at NFB conventions. For the past
four years we have bought the mugs from George Glenn, a man who
is interested in our work and who sells a variety of specialty
advertising. He asked me whether some of the state affiliates or
others who read the Monitor might be interested in doing business
with him, so I told him we would run an announcement and see.
George Glenn is honest; he delivers as promised; and he has a
variety of products. Here is part of what he wrote for inclusion
in the Monitor:

     Specialty advertising is everywhere. From the logo on an ink
pen to the message on your morning coffee mug. Lapel pins to
keychains. Jackets to t-shirts. The shapes and forms it can take
are endless. I can handle small orders or large at a reasonable
price, providing items for use in fund raising or as souvenirs at
state conventions or other meetings. These items can be
personalized with any message. Call George Glenn, toll-free: 1
(800) 673-6089, or write: Glenn Connection, 228 West Patrick
Street, Frederick, Maryland 21701; FAX: (301) 663-6656.

**Notebooks:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement: Used
notebook sale. Although these notebooks have printed
advertisements on them, they are much sturdier than anything I
have found in stores. They are large, three-ring notebooks, which
will hold between sixty and seventy Braille pages (size 8-1/2 by
11 paper). Price: $1 each. Contact: Charlene Groves, 1899
Washington Valley Road, Martinsville, New Jersey 08836.

**Elected:
     We recently received the following announcement from Norma
Baker of the Austin, Texas, Chapter: The Austin Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Texas elected officers at the
January meeting. They serve a one-year term. Elected were the
following: President, Tommy Craig; First Vice President, Jeff
Pearcy; Second Vice President, Jeanine Lineback; Secretary, Norma
Gonzales Baker; Treasurer, Zena Pearcy; and Board Members,
William C. Johnson and Aundrea Moore.

**South Dakotans Recognized:
     We recently received the following news item: The 1990 South
Dakota volunteers of the year were announced by Governor George
Mickelson in January of 1991. Among them were Karen Mayry and Art
Peterson, both volunteers in the NFB of South Dakota office.
Certificates were written as follows: "Certificate of
Appreciation from the State of South Dakota. Awarded in grateful
appreciation for your dedication and devotion in providing
volunteer services to the people in your community and the
state's citizens."

**Pen Pal:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement: I am
learning Braille and would like pen pals from anywhere. I'm
interested in the Federation, music, motorcycling, animals, and
reading. I know Grade 1 Braille and am learning the contractions.
Please write me: Ruth Davis, 4450 California Avenue, #222,
Bakersfield, California 93309.

**Free Religious Quarterly:
     From the Editor: We recently received the following letter:
     "Please announce in the Monitor that there is a free
religious quarterly, Glad Tidings, containing three sections:
articles of inspirational and instructional nature; a news
section, containing news of and about the readers; and The
Question Box, which contains Bible questions sent by the readers
with whom we deal. John Bessire, Editor, 2704 Flannery Road, San
Pablo, California 94806."

**Elected:
     Janet Caron, Federationist from Florida, writes as follows:
     In January of 1991 the South Palm Beach Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Florida held elections, with
the following results: Joseph B. Naulty, President; Janet Caron,
Vice President; Pamela Gregory, Secretary; David Evans,
Treasurer; Joan Gregory, Board Member; Marion Jackson, Board
Member, Richard Giombetti, Board Member; and Betty English, Board
Member.

[PHOTO: Clarence Green and Denis Howard stand inside a church
wearing crowns and sashes. CAPTION: Clarence Green and Denise
Howard, winners of the 1991 Mr. and Miss NFB of Chatham County,
Georga, Pageant.]

**Extravaganza:
     We recently received the following communication from Tyrone
Palmer and Ernest Robbins, Federation leaders from Georgia:
     As Monitor readers know, the National Federation of the
Blind of Chatham County, Georgia, holds its annual benefit gospel
musical extravaganza about this time every year. This year's
program was held on Sunday, November 18, 1990, at the Bethlehem
Baptist Church. And if I say so myself, this year's program was
without a doubt the most scintillating and the most successful
program that we have ever had. For example, this year's master of
ceremonies was radio personality and choir director, Mr. E. Larry
McDuffie. And also, we were very proud of the fact that Sunday,
November 18, 1990, was officially declared National Federation of
the Blind of Chatham County Day by the mayor of Savannah, the
Honorable John P. Rousakis. During our gospel musical
extravaganza we crowned the winners of the 1990-91 Mr. and Miss
National Federation of the Blind of Chatham County Pageant. The
two runners up were Mrs. Maggie Smart and Mr. Isaac Heyward. And
the winners were Miss Denise Howard and Mr. Clarence Green. And,
incidentally, the theme that was chosen for this year's joyous
occasion was "We won't give up."

**Sharon Maneki Honored:
     The Winter, 1990-91, edition of The Braille Spectator, the
newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland,
included the following announcement: "On October 9, 1990, Sharon
Maneki [President of the NFB of Maryland] was recognized as the
National Security Agency's Disabled Employee of the Year at a
luncheon attended by the Director of the National Security Agency
and other dignitaries. In presenting the award, the Director
recognized Sharon's outstanding contributions to the NSA mission
and her civic activities." We join the National Security Agency
staff in congratulating Mrs. Maneki.

[PHOTO:Portrait of Mary Main. CAPTION: Mary Main, committed
Federationist and great lady.]

**A Drop in the Bucket:

     From the Associate Editor: Mary Main, whom I think of as the
dowager duchess of Connecticut, but who is in reality one of the
kindest, most down-to-earth, yet remarkable women it has ever
been my privilege to know, recently wrote me the following
letter: 

                                            Stamford, Connecticut
                                                November 27, 1990

Dear Barbara,
     I was particularly interested in your article about the
services for the blind in Jamaica. I know there must be many
countries that have fewer services and less equipment, but I have
always had a certain sentimental sympathy for Jamaica because a
forebear of mine, who came to America in Colonial days, was
granted a large property there and became enormously wealthy--I
don't like to think by what means. Alas, the land was sold and
the wealth dissipated long before I was born, but my father, who
was to have been sent there as a young man to manage the
property, often spoke of it. For this reason I felt a particular
sympathy for those blind Jamaicans who have so little.
     I have decided to ask my daughter-in-law to send my very
small collection (a few commercially recorded books, some
embossed maps, talking clock, slate and stylus, etc., but, alas,
no Braille books) to them after my death. The books at least
would be more suitable for adults and perhaps you could send me
an address to which they can be sent.
     I realize this is only a very small drop in the bucket, but
if you have ever had a leaky roof, you will know that drops
eventually fill a bucket. Perhaps if this letter were to be
published in the Braille Monitor others might send equipment they 
no longer need or have it sent after death. Of course, no matter
how many drops we contribute, we can never begin to fill that
ocean of need out there, but this should not stop us from trying
to fill one bucket.

                                                With best wishes,
                                                        Mary Main

     Right you are Mary, and every drop that splashes into the
bucket will help. The address for the Jamaica Library for the
Blind is: Attention Mr. Lawson, Jamaica Society for the Blind,
111 1/2 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6, Jamaica, WEST INDIES.

**Elected:
     We recently received the following announcement: The Tucson
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Arizona held
its election November 17, 1990, with the following results:
President, Karen Ortega; Vice President, Jennifer Feingold;
Secretary, Darrell Shandrow; Treasurer, Sharon Omvig; and Board
Member, Robert Tullis.

**Braille Authority of North America:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     "The Braille Authority of North America is pleased to
announce the following slate of officers: Darleen Bogart,
Chairman, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Toronto,
Ontario; Ralph McCracken, Vice Chairman, American Printing House
for the Blind, Louisville, Kentucky; Lynne Luxton, Secretary,
American Foundation for the Blind, New York, New York; and Sally
Hering, Treasurer, Lake Bluff, Illinois. Two new organizations
have joined BANA: National Braille Press and California
Transcribers and Educators for the Visually Handicapped."

[PHOTO: Portrait of Dan Frye. CAPTION: Dan Frye is a first-year
law student at the University of Washington, where he is putting
to work the leadership skills and political acumen he learned as
a member of the National Federation of the Blind.]

**Student Leader: 
     Dan Frye is a first-year law student at the University of
Washington Law School. He recently ran against ten other students
who were seeking election to fill two seats on the Executive
Council of the Student Bar Association. Dan won one of those
seats and is therefore one of two representatives upholding the
interests of the first-year class on that Executive Council. Dan,
who is the immediate past president of the South Carolina Student
Division, is a 1990 graduate of Erskine College. He is also a
1990 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship winner. Before
beginning the 1990-91 academic year last October, Dan spent four
months working in the NFB of California Office, serving as an
advocate for blind persons.

**George Blackstock Receives Award: 
     The Public Works Department of the City of Napa, California,
reports that George Blackstock has received a Metropolitan
Transportation Commission Award of Merit for his design of a tool
that provides a guide for engraving bus stop poles with the
Braille letters "BUS." The Metropolitan Transportation Commission
is the regional transportation planning agency for the San
Francisco Bay Area. The engineer's drawing for the new tool is
being made available to municipalities and transit agencies that
wish to use it. Mr. Blackstock is a member and officer of our NFB
of Napa Valley Chapter and the owner of the Fix-A-Bike Shop.

**Lon Sumner Donates Picture:      
     Lon Sumner is the First Vice President of the NFB of
Sacramento and a vendor in the California Business Enterprises
Program. In the early 1950's Congressman Jennings Randolph, the
co-author of the Randolph-Sheppard Act, gave Lon an autographed
picture of himself. This picture has hung in Lon's living room
ever since. Lon has donated this historic picture to hang at the
National Center for the Blind. His generosity in sharing this
picture will bring enjoyment to the blind of the nation in the
coming years.

**Newsletter: 
     Some of our chapters circulate a monthly newsletter. The
Orange County Chapter of the NFB of California has been writing a
newsletter for six years. The December, 1990, issue contains an
appeal for membership, which accurately describes the advantages
and opportunities of joining and becoming active in the NFB.
There is reward in doing for oneself, but there is even greater
reward when we do for others. In the case of the NFB, we benefit
individually from our collective effort. The appeal reads: "HELP
WANTED. We are looking for an unlimited number of creative,
energetic, positive, hardworking individuals that want to change
what it means to be blind. Benefits: equal friendship, increased
knowledge about blindness, and feeling good about helping
others."

**Convention Report:
     Patricia Munson, Editor of The Blind Citizen, the newsletter
of the National Federation of the Blind of California and a
member of the affiliate's board of directors, writes to report on
the most dynamic and exciting state convention in the California
affiliate's history. More than a dozen new parents of blind
children attended, and some fifty-seven members raised their Pre-
authorized Check Plan pledges or joined PAC for the first time.
This is what she says: 
     Enthusiasm was especially evident among California
Federationists as we gathered for the 1990 National Federation of
the Blind of California Convention, November 1 to 4. There was
the usual excitement brought about by our coming together in
common purpose. However, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding
of the National Federation of the Blind and California's fiftieth
year as an NFB affiliate was a high point and cause for exuberant
spirits. We were especially proud to have Dr. and Mrs. Jernigan
in attendance to represent the National Office.
     The weekend activities included special interest seminars as
well as a lively convention agenda. The convention considered
sixteen resolutions and a whole host of issues concerning the
blind of California, including the quality of rehabilitation
services and instruction available from the California
Orientation Center for the Blind, education available to blind
children, and employment opportunities for the blind. 
     Officers re-elected at this convention were Sharon Gold,
President; James Willows, First Vice President; Nancy Marcello,
Second Vice President; John Bates, Secretary; and Donna Siebert,
Treasurer. Re-elected to the Board of Directors were Sandy
Ritter, Betty Hendricks, Nick Medina, and Patricia Munson. Other
members who serve on the Board of Directors and who were elected
at last year's Convention are Dora Mae Dobbins, Jerrold Drake,
and Joy Smith. 
     Dr. Jernigan's banquet address kept the audience on the edge
of their chairs with interest as he described how individual
Federationists are applying our collective action to resolve
local issues of prejudice and discrimination against the blind.
Ollie Cantos received the Lawrence (Muzzy) Marcelino Memorial
Scholarship, and Lynn Coats received the LaVyrl (Pinky) Johnson
Scholarship. Three new chapters received charters, including the
NFB of Tracy, Matt Millspaugh, President; the Shasta County
Chapter, Jillian Brooks, President; and the Diabetics Chapter,
Donovan Cooper President. 
     A number of special awards were presented following the
banquet address. Lavon Johnson, the Director of the Sacramento
Braille Transcribers, was presented with the Kenneth Jernigan
Award for outstanding service to the blind community. Mrs.
Johnson joins the National Federation of the Blind by openly and
publicly supporting our proclamation that it is respectable to
read and write Braille. Hazel tenBroek received the Golden
Anniversary Award. When presenting this award to Mrs. tenBroek,
Jim Willows, First Vice President of the NFB of California, said,
"This award we give with love and deep respect to a very special
person, for fifty years and more of meritorious service to the
blind of this nation." 
     NFB of California President Sharon Gold presented the final
1990 award by saying, "We have one other award that we give--not
every year, but when we find someone who has given significantly
to our movement, someone whose work and dedication in the
National Federation of the Blind stands out beyond all others.
This award is named after Jacobus tenBroek, who, of course, was
the founder of our movement fifty years ago, and he probably has
been in our minds more this year because of our fiftieth
anniversary. It is sometimes hard to separate all of our leaders
because they are so united in what they have done. They carry on,
one after another, because of the teaching and training of one
another. Therefore, it is hard to think about Dr. tenBroek
without thinking about the person whom we wish to honor tonight.
This person has also given many long years of dedicated service. 
     "He came to the movement as a young man nearly forty years
ago and made a significant impact upon the organization almost
immediately. He grew with us and guided us and led us so that we
have grown with him. It is Dr. Jernigan whom we honor with the
Jacobus tenBroek Award from the National Federation of the Blind
of California." 
     He was presented with a walnut plaque. At the top is the
engraved logo of the National Federation of the Blind. The plaque
reads, "National Federation of the Blind of California Jacobus
tenBroek Award Presented to Kenneth Jernigan for Outstanding
Service to the Blind of California and this Nation. November 3,
1990."

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Examining the capstan of the brig Niagara are
(left to right): Jack and Penny Warmbrad, Judy Jobes, state
representative Tom Scrimenti, and a tour guide.]

**Chapter Building:
     Judy Jobes, President of the National Federation of the
Blind, Erie County, Pennsylvania, reports that the organization
conducted a very successful chapter-building activity on
September 16, 1990. The brig Niagara, a restored sailing ship
which originally served in the War of 1812, has recently been
opened for public tours at the port of Erie. The Chapter
organized and broadly publicized a specially arranged tour of the
ship for interested blind people and local dignitaries. Area
press and television, a state representative, a local judge, and
a number of blind people turned out for the occasion. Following
the tour, refreshments were served in a nearby facility, where
Judy Jobes and other chapter members had a chance to talk with
people about the Federation and its projects. Federationist
student leader Zach Shore was on hand for the event since he had
been working with Judy on student chapter building that weekend.
All in all it was a useful and enjoyable activity for everyone
who attended.

**Soul Searching:
     In the January, 1991, edition of News and Views, the
newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of North
Carolina, Wayne Shevlin, the new editor of this publication,
included the following thought-provoking little poem. Everyone
can benefit from pondering its truth: 

                           COMMITMENT

Are you an active member--the kind that would be missed?
Or are you just content that your name is on the list?
Do you attend meetings and mingle with the flock?
Or do you stay at home to criticize and knock?
Do you take an active part to help the work along?
Or are you satisfied to be the kind that just belongs?
Do you ever go to visit a member who is sick? 
Or do you leave the work to a few and talk about the clique?
Think this question over; you know right from wrong.
Are you an active member, or do you just belong?opyright,
National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1991