Convention Resolutions 1991

Convention Resolutions 1991

PRESIDENTIAL

REPORT

National Federation of the Blind

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, July 3, 1991

by Marc Maurer

The past year has been a time of unprecedented activity for

the National Federation of the Blind—the largest, most dynamic organization

of blind people in the nation. Our aspirations have always been high, and our

single-minded dedication to the achievement of full equality for the blind has

always remained a constant driving force of our movement—which accounts

for much of the progress we have made. The unity and harmony of the Federation

are as strong as they have ever been, but there is also something else—we

have expanded our horizons, diversified our endeavors, and accelerated our pace.

One of the key components in creating a climate of independence

for the blind is education of the public to the abilities of blind people. A

necessary part of the proper perception of blindness is the recognition that

only those who have been democratically elected by the blind can rightfully

speak for the blind. Because blind individuals have often been regarded as incompetent,

recognition that we can (and indeed must) represent our own interests in the

halls of Congress, in the offices of the executive branch, and in the private

sector has been coming slowly; but in ever broadening arenas, it is coming.

On January 9, 1991, Federation members traveled to the White

House at the invitation of America's First Lady, Barbara Bush. We spoke of the

needs, hopes, and dreams of the nation's blind. We described our efforts in

the Federation to achieve independence and self-sufficiency. During the course

of our interchange, we presented to Mrs. Bush an autographed copy of the definitive

history of the blind of the United States, Walking Alone and Marching Together.

The White House is, of course, a symbol of freedom and the nucleus of our democratic

process. It is the place where the chief executive of our nation lives and works—the

place where the wishes of Americans are given focus and direction—the place

where the actions are taken to generate a better society. We the blind, organized

in our Federation, the largest and most vital movement of blind people in the

nation, are a part of this focal point—we in this room are a part of our

society and the America of the future—we of the National Federation of

the Blind.

November 16, 1990, was the fiftieth birthday of the National

Federation of the Blind. Shortly before this date Federation members asked Congressman

Paul E. Kanjorski to sponsor a resolution recognizing the fifty years of progress

we in the National Federation of the Blind have made. Congressman Kanjorski

represents Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the Federation. He

is proud of what we have done, and he was not only willing but pleased to sponsor

such a resolution. However, he pointed out that at least a majority of the members

of the House of Representatives and Senate must be listed as co-sponsors if

the resolution was to be adopted. The congressional session had almost come

to an end. There were those who felt that there was not sufficient time to enlist

the support of an adequate number of senators and representatives. Within less

than two weeks, a majority of the members of the House and Senate had joined

as co-sponsors of Joint Resolution 667, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary

of the National Federation of the Blind and to designate November 16, 1990,

as "National Federation of the Blind Day." On November 15, 1990, the

day before our birthday, President Bush signed the proclamation commemorating

the vital work of the Federation and our fifty years of progress toward independence

for the blind. On the following day, Congressman Kanjorski traveled to the National

Center for the Blind in Baltimore to present the Presidential Proclamation in

a public ceremony honoring the Federation (along with a United States flag which

had been flown over the Capitol that morning).

Our organization is a people's movement. While the ceremonies

were occurring at the National Center for the Blind, similar celebrations of

our fifty years of progress were being conducted with appropriate public recognition

by chapters and affiliates of the Federation in every part of the nation. The

message of the proclamation of the President of the United States is clear—the

National Federation of the Blind deserves credit not only for our fifty years

of achievement but also for the savvy we possess today—the ability to enlist

support from the public, the press, and the members of Congress. Federation

members know how to get things done. Our congressional resolution was introduced,

passed, and signed by the President in less than six weeks.

One of the events occurring on November 16, 1990, was the grand

opening of the National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind. In addition

to the federal and state officials who participated in the celebration of our

fiftieth anniversary, one Federationist who was present at our founding, and

who has served the Federation for over five decades, assisted in the ribbon

cutting. Hazel tenBroek, the first of our First Ladies, a Federationist with

the faith to believe that the blind can create the destiny we want to achieve,

remembered the days of our beginnings. Dr. tenBroek, she told us, could not

have imagined that the Federation would have built so powerfully and well. But,

she added, we have remained true to the hopes and beliefs of the founders of

our movement, and although Dr. tenBroek might be astonished by the extent of

the progress we have made and by the distance we have traveled toward our goal

of first-class citizenship for the blind, he would also be immeasurably pleased.

At the ceremonies inaugurating the National Braille and Technology Center for

the Blind, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan—who has been the leader of our Federation

for a quarter of a century, the man with the imagination to create the National

Center for the Blind and the skill to build it, the innovator who established

the National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind—introduced the

Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, Nell Carney; the

Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped,

Frank Kurt Cylke; the Attorney General of Maryland, Joseph Curran; and other

state and federal officials.

The National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind is

collecting in one place each commercially available computerized Braille embossing

device and each piece of equipment or computer program to retrieve computerized

information in speech which can be had anywhere in the world. Nowhere else is

it possible to study all of these products at the same time and to compare their

characteristics. Already dozens of employers and hundreds of other persons have

visited the Center. We have answered volumes of mail and hundreds of phone requests

for information. The vast majority of what we have done in the National Braille

and Technology Center for the Blind has been directed toward helping blind people

to know what equipment or piece of software can be used most effectively so

that the blind individual can perform at a certain job, can study a given discipline,

or can acquire the skills necessary to advance in employment or enter a new

career.

As Federationists know, we have been operating a low-interest

loan program for the last seven years. This program provides resources to blind

individuals who need them in order to enter a job or enhance their present employment.

This year we have launched, in conjunction of the opening of the National Braille

and Technology Center for the Blind, an additional effort—the Technology

Assistance Loan Program. With the same low interest rate—3%—we are

providing the means for blind people to obtain technology for work, for study,

or for any other useful purpose. Those who wish to examine technology and consider

its purchase can do so at the National Braille and Technology Center for the

Blind. It belongs to us—the National Federation of the Blind.

At our fiftieth anniversary convention, held last year, Dr.

Kenneth Jernigan announced that we would be creating a time capsule to be opened

on the hundredth anniversary of the Federation in the year 2040. One of the

significant features of our movement is the leadership seminars. We have been

conducting them for almost twenty years. Our movement has evolved and developed

through the seminars. Consequently, it is fitting that the New Year's seminar

for the end of 1990 (known as the "Now and Then Seminar") packed and

sealed the time capsule. Chapters and affiliates from throughout the Federation

sent material to be placed in the capsule. Each member of the "Now and

Then Seminar" put several items inside, and all participated in bolting

the cover to the case.

As Federation members know, we have long been a strong proponent

of Braille literacy. We have distributed our magazine, the Braille Monitor,

in Braille from its beginning. We provide slates and styluses at a lower cost

than anybody else in the country, and we are the largest publisher of Braille

material (other than the Library of Congress) in the nation. We have established

the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille; we have supported research

and development efforts to encourage Braille teaching and reading. We sponsor

the "Braille Readers Are Leaders" contest each year. We encouraged

the appointment (and we participated in the work) of a committee to study the

establishment of a national certification for teachers of the blind in the use

of Braille, and we have recommended a set of standards to be used in measuring

the ability of such educators to perform the functions of reading and writing

Braille.

A few months ago we initiated significant additional action

further to support and encourage literacy for the blind. In response to widespread

demand, we designed and distributed a model bill entitled the "Blind Persons'

Literacy Rights and Education Act," to be recommended for adoption by state

legislatures. This proposal would amend the laws in each of the states so that

students who want to learn Braille or whose parents want them to learn Braille

will get the chance to do it. Even though this new measure was circulated less

than six months ago, it has been adopted in a number of states, including South

Carolina and Kansas.

Perhaps our most innovative formulation of this legislation

is the act which was recently passed by the Texas legislature. This measure

not only directs that school districts make Braille teaching available to blind

students, but it goes further. Textbook publishers who wish to sell material

in Texas must also publish it in Braille or provide information on computer

disk so that anybody with the proper computer and Braille printer can produce

a Braille copy. There are those who have said that this landmark legislation

was originated, developed, introduced, and promoted by the agencies for the

blind. It is ever thus. After years of battling for the right to read (often

against heavy opposition from some of the professionals in the field), the organized

blind movement decided that something had to be done. We formulated a plan and

devised a strategy to solve an urgent problem. Shortly after the conclusion

of this convention, the governor of Texas will sign our Braille literacy bill

in a public ceremony. Now that the work has been completed and the legislation

adopted, the agencies are trying to get the credit. But it won't work. Let those

who believe that Braille is outmoded or anachronistic hear our voice. We shall

not be denied Braille. For the blind there shall be literacy. And we are not

prepared to wait interminably to get it. And when I say we, I mean the National

Federation of the Blind!

Our efforts regarding Braille literacy have attracted national

attention. This spring National Public Radio interviewed me regarding the importance

of Braille. The news item appeared on the nationally broadcast program "Morning

Edition." The position of the National Federation of the Blind that Braille

should be available to all blind people who wish to learn it was opposed by

a representative of an agency for the blind. Braille, he asserted, was not for

everybody. It is (he said) a specialized skill suitable only for a limited number

of tasks to be performed by a restricted group of individuals. Besides, he implied,

it doesn't contribute very much to an individual's ability to perform, and modern

technology has made it largely obsolete. To which we answer, nonsense!

On Sunday, May 12, 1991, the New York Times carried a front-page

story entitled "How Best to Teach the Blind: A Growing Battle Over Braille,"

which described the struggle of the blind to achieve literacy. Sighted agency

administrators, it said, are not always highly supportive of Braille. The blind,

it continued, feel differently. And who do you suppose was featured prominently

as the most outspoken proponent of Braille? You know the answer as well as I

do. It is the National Federation of the Blind.

Immediately following the publication of the New York Times

article, the Scripps Howard News Service invited the Federation to write one

of the arguments for its weekly syndicated point-counterpoint column, distributed

to over 350 newspapers throughout the United States. We said just what you would

expect: that Braille is valuable, that new technology is helpful but that it

is no replacement for Braille, that those who are partially blind should use

remaining vision but should also have Braille as an option, that sighted children

have eyes and ears to get information and blind children should have ears and

fingers to do the same, that resistance to Braille is often the result of prejudice

against blindness and the techniques used by the blind, and that Braille can

be competently read at several hundred words a minute. The other half of the

argument, drafted by a representative from an agency for the blind, was predictable.

Last April the National Federation of the Blind served as a

consultant to the "Sally Jessy Raphael Show," a nationally televised

interview broadcast. The producer called to get background information and material

about blindness. An actor, Dana Elcar, who is one of the star performers on

the "MacGyver" television show, is becoming blind. (He is, incidentally,

participating in this convention.) The "Sally Jessy Raphael" program

was planning to feature his life along with other examples of successful blind

individuals, and we were asked to supply information. What can a blind person

expect to do? Especially, what can a blind actor hope to accomplish? We provided

to the producer of the "Sally Jessy Raphael" program quantities of

information about successful blind people performing in a wide range of roles.

As a result, a large segment of the feature on blindness portrayed one of our

Federation leaders, Barbara Cheadle, president of the Parents of Blind Children

Division of the National Federation of the Blind, along with her blind son Charles.

When our telephone number was displayed on the television screen and repeated

on the air, the switchboard at the National Center for the Blind was almost

immediately jammed with calls. We sent hundreds of packets of information to

interested viewers, and we responded to literally thousands of questions.

One of the people who learned about the National Federation

of the Blind from this interview program was Dana Elcar. Within a few days he

visited the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore, and we have worked closely

together since that time. You will be hearing from him later in the week. Whether

it is the teaching profession, the sales and marketing business, the manufacturing

occupation, the lawyering trade, or an acting career, the blind can compete

and do so successfully. We will find a way: that is the promise and the reality

of the National Federation of the Blind.

For a quarter of a century blind people have sought employment

in the Foreign Service of the United States. The State Department has steadfastly

refused. At our convention in 1989 Congressman Gerry Sikorski of Minnesota came

and shared the enthusiasm of the Federation for fairness and equality for all

segments of society. He promised that he would lend his support to assist Federation

members to gain the opportunity to enter the Foreign Service.

Last year I reported to you that the State Department had made

its commitment to consider the blind for employment in Foreign Service jobs

on equal terms with the sighted. No job had been offered, but the commitment

had been made. Today, the circumstances are different. Rami Rabby, who is a

long-time Federation leader and who is familiar with five different languages,

is now a State Department Foreign Service employee. His assignment is in London.

As Federationists know, we sometimes lose skirmishes; occasionally we lose battles.

But we never lose wars—for the war is never over until we win it.

The National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the

Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) came into being just about twenty-five

years ago. From its very beginning NAC was the center of turmoil, political

maneuvering, and discord. NAC's avowed purpose was to set high standards for

work with the blind, but its real effort was directed at gaining control over

blindness-related programs and services. There will be a full report on the

status of NAC later during this convention. However, I am pleased to be able

to tell you that events this year have evolved in such a way that the end of

the NAC era appears to be close at hand.

We have continued to work toward solutions of the problems

faced by blind employees in sheltered workshops. Workers at the Association

for the Blind of Western New York, a sheltered shop in Buffalo, were receiving

$2.51 an hour—substantially less than the minimum wage. We assisted with

the formation of a labor union. The union, Local 200-C of the Service Employees

International, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, and its local president have become

staunch allies in the struggle to obtain adequate pay and decent working conditions

for blind workers.

The workshop has continued to pay as little as $2.51 an hour

to the blind. In contract negotiations with the union, shop management has refused

to alter this policy. Because of the refusal by management to bargain, a federal

mediator has been appointed. This is the first time that the Federal Mediation

and Conciliation Service has ever been used in a sheltered workshop pay dispute.

Two dollars fifty-one cents an hour is not a fair wage. It isn't legal for the

sighted, and we intend to see that it is no longer acceptable for the blind.

The prevailing wage in the area is higher than the federal minimum established

by law, and we intend to see that blind workers get their fair share. We who

are blind know that we must produce the goods, but when we do, we must also

be paid. And, incidentally, the Buffalo workshop is one of those NAC-accredited

agencies. NAC can no longer be used as a shield for mismanagement or exploitation

of the blind. We don't need NAC. Especially when it supports the payment of

wages at the level of $2.51 an hour!

In August of last year I addressed the entire delegate assembly

of the New York State AFL-CIO. The invitation came at the request of the Service

Employees International Union—the representative of the blind workers at

the Buffalo workshop. From the results of that meeting I can assure you that

the commitment of the New York State labor movement to join with us in supporting

blind workers is strong. The union officials are not willing to accept management's

claim that the blind are worth less than the minimum wage. They have pledged

to negotiate for a favorable contract through the federal mediation process,

and they intend to work with us in the Congress to change the law so that subminimum

wages are completely eliminated.

James Grasso is employed by the Rehabilitation Institute in

Mineola, New York. He, a blind worker, is paid far below the federal minimum

wage. Most of the time he receives a little over $1 an hour. Often, although

he is required to be present at the shop for a full forty-hour week, he is given

a job to do only part of the time, and he is paid only for the time that he

works. As a result, his paycheck for a full forty-hour week is sometimes as

little as $20.

Mr. Grasso does various hand-packing jobs, such as putting

plastic utensils into bags. Sighted workers in competitive industry in the area

are paid wages between $5.00 and $7.00 an hour for comparable performance. We

are helping Mr. Grasso challenge the workshop's decision to pay him as little

as $20 for a forty-hour week.

On June 20, 1991, just a few days ago, a hearing was held before

an administrative law judge of the United States Department of Labor. Mr. Grasso's

representative is James Gashel, our Director of Governmental Affairs and one

of the most knowledgeable individuals in the nation regarding labor statutes

applicable to the blind. We will know the results shortly. One thing we know

for certain. With only $20 a week Mr. Grasso is in no position to contest the

determination to pay such miserable wages. An argument with management requires

skill, guts, and money. There must also be the backing of the law. Until only

a few years ago there was no right for a blind worker receiving subminimum wages

to petition the Labor Department for a wage hearing. In 1986, at the request

of the National Federation of the Blind, the law was changed. In 1991 Jim Grasso

is using this law and being represented by the blind of the nation. We have

already changed the law. Now we must change the practice. This, too, is why

we have formed the National Federation of the Blind.

Last year I reported to you about the case involving the unlawful

payment of subminimum wages to workers at the Southwest Lighthouse for the Blind

in Lubbock, Texas. When the workers filed a fair wage petition with the Department

of Labor, management declared bankruptcy. But the workshop was not really broke.

In a settlement involving the reorganization of the Lighthouse, all of the workers

who had received less than the minimum wage were to be paid back wages totaling

approximately $30,000. This $30,000 settlement was intended to repay the blind

employees for management's violations of fair wage requirements prior to October

15, 1989. Beginning on that date the Lighthouse was required to pay every worker

the proper wage as determined in accordance with standards of the Department

of Labor. Unless the Lighthouse could show that a subminimum wage payment was

warranted, all workers would receive at least the federal minimum wage. However,

despite its agreement to do so, despite the order of the bankruptcy court, despite

the determination of the Department of Labor, the Lighthouse is not paying.

We are pursuing the Southwest Lighthouse for the Blind once again under the

Fair Labor Standards Act. We are determined that management shall pay fair wages,

and we are prepared to settle for nothing less. We are the National Federation

of the Blind.

Programs of the Social Security Administration directly affect

a large number of blind persons in this country. Consequently, we have sought

improvements in Social Security such as the opportunity to select the rehabilitation

agency that will provide the services purchased with Social Security dollars

or better work incentive provisions for those receiving benefits. Not all of

the suggestions we have made have been implemented, but a number of them have.

Susan Parker, the Associate Commissioner for Disability at

the Social Security Administration, attended our 1990 convention. At our urging

she made a strong commitment to reform the rehabilitation segment of Social

Security. The first steps in that effort are now being taken. The new program,

called Project Network, will be operated directly by the Social Security Administration.

The opportunity for Social Security recipients to choose the

agencies, the programs, and the services which they receive will be a significant

part of Project Network. Not all of the elements of this experimental program

have been worked out. Even so, it is clear that the goal we have set (to provide

blind persons with greater opportunities in the choice of rehabilitation and

employment assistance) is being achieved.

We are also involved in a substantial number of Social Security

appeals. Brian Conneely is a blind person living in Connecticut. He runs a small

vending facility that provides him with an income of less than $10,000 annually.

Three years ago the Social Security Administration sent Brian a letter saying

that he had received disability insurance benefits for several years during

which he was not entitled to them. The overpayment, they said, was more than

$26,000. He made the proper appeal, but nothing happened. Then he came to the

National Federation of the Blind.

Through our Connecticut affiliate, with backup assistance from

the National Office, we are helping. A hearing was held on June 10, 1991. The

conclusions we have reached are that Brian has not been overpaid, that he does

not owe the money, and that he will not have to pay it back. We feel confident

that the decision of the Social Security Administration will affirm our understanding.

What would have happened to Brian Conneely, and others like him, if there were

no National Federation of the Blind? The question is more than rhetorical. You

know the answer, and so do I. Those who are blind cannot afford to be without

the National Federation of the Blind.

When Russell Jeffreys, from Cincinnati, Ohio, received a notice

from the Social Security Administration telling him that he owed the government

almost $94,000, he hired a lawyer. But the lawyer lost the case. Although it

was late in the appeal process, Russell Jeffreys called upon the Federation.

Earlier this year a hearing was held. The case has not been concluded, but the

initial results are recorded: The amount of the overpayment has been reduced

by over $90,000, and we hope to have the Social Security benefits reinstated

as well.

In another case involving an incorrectly calculated Social

Security payment, the Federation made the difference. Because of the amount

of the claim in this case, I will not indicate the name. For several years the

individual had not been receiving all of the Social Security benefits to which

she was entitled. Because of our intervention on her behalf, this staunch Federationist

is now being paid the correct amount each month. She has also received a check

for the money that should have been paid. The amount is over $91,000.

In a vending case dealing with Dennis Franklin of Kentucky,

we have been able to reinforce a vital principle for blind vendors. In 1987,

the day he was leaving to attend the convention of the National Federation of

the Blind, Dennis had been summarily dismissed as the manager of a Postal Service

cafeteria which he had successfully operated for many years. He came to the

convention anyway. We encouraged him to appeal. It is not legal for a state

agency to remove a blind vendor without notice and the opportunity for a hearing.

As a result of our efforts, the state agency has been ordered to pay Dennis

Franklin $16,000, and I am pleased to tell you that he has received the money.

Tom Linker and Frank Rompal have filed an arbitration against

the California Department of Rehabilitation. Both of them were refused the opportunity

for promotion within the vending program. If the rules for advancement had been

observed, at least one of them would probably have been selected for a better

location. The arbitration is now over, and a settlement has been reached. Both

Linker and Rompal have obtained promotions, and the California Department of

Rehabilitation has learned of the determination of the Federation to challenge

arbitrary and capricious decisions. It would not have happened without the National

Federation of the Blind.

Helen Eckman operates a vending facility in Alaska. She has

been a leader of the Federation for a number of years. Consequently, she is

knowledgeable about matters dealing with blindness, and she is familiar with

the methods to secure her rights. When the rehabilitation agency circulated

a contract with a notice to all vendors that they must sign it or be expelled

from the vending program, Helen was suspicious. When she read the document,

her suspicion was confirmed. The state agency had decided without consulting

the vendors that it would charge a set-aside fee of five percent of the proceeds

from each vending location. The decision had been made without following the

requirements of Alaska law or of federal rules. Any vendor who did not sign

immediately, agency officials said, would be expelled from the program.

Helen Eckman called our National Office. Working with vendors

in Alaska, we prepared for legal action. But the rehabilitation agency backed

down. Vendors were not required to sign the contract, and Helen Eckman did not

lose her vending location. We in the National Federation of the Blind can protect

ourselves, and when we must, we will.

In Tennessee we are helping Larry Reynolds to commence litigation

to alter court-imposed limitations placed upon him in visiting his six-year-old

daughter. He is presently required to visit his daughter in the presence of

her mother, who is sighted, or in the presence of another sighted person acceptable

to the mother. Larry Reynolds is a responsible and caring father. If he were

sighted, the visitation rights would have been handled differently. On the grounds

of his blindness he is being denied the right to visit his six-year-old daughter

alone. This court-adopted policy is demeaning to the blind—to all of us.

It says that the sighted are competent but that the blind are not. We must (it

says) be supervised when visiting our own children. Such a pernicious belief

about the blind cannot be left unchallenged. We have as much right to be with

our children as anybody else, and we insist that we be accorded the same rights

as others. Family relationships are among the most fundamental in our society.

The blind will not be without them. This is another reason for the National

Federation of the Blind.

Last year I reported that we were assisting Dave Schuh with

an appeal of his dismissal as a supervisory accountant at a Pillsbury plant

in Denison, Texas. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

in the United States Department of Labor, has conducted an investigation of

the matter. The OFCCP findings support our conclusion that Dave Schuh was fired

because he is blind.

Pillsbury officials were asked to try to reach a reconciliation.

They offered Dave Schuh a job as a receptionist in the accounting office. He

refused. They offered to pay him $11,000 if he would agree never again to seek

employment with the Pillsbury company. He refused once more. During all of his

time with Pillsbury Dave Schuh's work performance was among the best. The case

is now in the hands of the Department of Labor's attorneys for enforcement.

This means that, unless Pillsbury reverses the position it has taken, the company

could be prohibited from receiving federal contracts for at least three years.

The formal action being taken against Pillsbury (known as debarment proceedings)

should begin within a few months. Dave Schuh is at this convention. He has moved

to Wausau, Wisconsin, where he is president of our Central Wisconsin Chapter.

His experience with Pillsbury has taught him a valuable lesson. It is necessary

to have friends, and some of the toughest allies are the members of the National

Federation of the Blind.

Mary Jo Edwards is a blind nurse living in Illinois. She studied

hard to learn the skills of nursing, and she has demonstrated competence to

perform the tasks required. Nevertheless, when she attempted to get her nursing

license, she was told that she could not have it because she is blind. Mary

Jo Edwards came to the National Federation of the Blind, and we helped her find

a lawyer, and we supplied background information and materials. The case has

now been settled, and Mary Jo Edwards has entered the nursing profession. Blind

people shall not be prevented from working in the medical profession. This is

true because of the work of the National Federation of the Blind.

One of our most important objectives is to educate the public

about the abilities and capacities of the blind. In the past year we have been

at least as effective in disseminating a positive image of blindness as we have

ever been. We have shipped from the National Center for the Blind almost one

and three-quarter million items. Our initiatives have attracted visitors from

locations all over the globe: Canada, Germany, England, Pakistan, Denmark, Brazil,

Saudi Arabia, and the Caribbean. We have distributed our materials to countries

all over the world: Bermuda, the Philippines, Spain, Japan, Australia, Czechoslovakia,

Poland, countries in Africa, countries in Asia, and elsewhere. Dr. Jernigan

has continued to serve as the president of the North America/Caribbean Region

of the World Blind Union. During the past year he has traveled to Jamaica, Uruguay,

Argentina, and Canada to represent our interests and exchange information. Although

it is vital for us to address the problems of the blind in our own country,

we must also work in partnership with the blind of other lands. If we do not,

we will face mistaken attitudes about the blind as they are imported from abroad.

But our increasing influence in affairs of the blind throughout the world has

begun the process of initiating change.

Reaching more than 30,000 blind individuals in the United States

and forty-three foreign countries, our magazine, the Braille Monitor,

remains the most influential and widely circulated publication in the field

of work with the blind. We have also continued the distribution of our other

publications: Future Reflections, our magazine for parents and educators

of blind children, now being circulated to more than 10,000 people; the Voice

of the Diabetic, our journal for blind diabetics, being sent to more than

35,000 individuals and institutions; our Job Opportunities for the Blind Bulletins

and related materials, of which we have distributed over 30,000; and the newsletters

of our chapters, affiliates, and divisions. With the cassettes that we produce,

the American Bar Association Journal, Presidential Releases, and other specialized

items—we have become a major producer of recorded material. We have duplicated

approximately 50,000 tape recordings since our last convention.

Our national headquarters, the National Center for the Blind,

continues to be one of the most functional and impressive facilities of its

kind in the world. We have placed approximately three miles of additional shelving

on the second floor, and we are constructing additional office space and installing

new equipment. The front entrance of our building is being redesigned to make

it accessible for wheelchair users and to bring it in line with the standards

of the National Center for the Blind.

The majority of our work has always been accomplished by volunteers.

This is one of the elements that has made us the unstoppable movement we are.

Whenever we need additional hands, we can call upon ourselves, the members.

My wife Patricia is an example of what I mean. She spends almost full time volunteering

her services at the National Center for the Blind. But of course, there are

tens of thousands of others: the newsletter editors, the candy sellers, the

JOB recruiters, the public relations coordinators, the writers, the drivers,

the telephone callers—the people of the movement. We work together because

we care for one another and for the goal we are striving to achieve.

There are some in the blindness field—fortunately a diminishing

number—who still fail to comprehend what we are as a movement. Our critics

at one end of the spectrum say that we are unthinking automatons and that we

are radical and militant. Those at the other end of the spectrum say that we

are overly conservative and reactionary—even, if you please, Neanderthal.

Superficially this hostility seems out of proportion to reality. But of course,

the reason is easy to understand. We in the Federation have something they don't—something

they can't believe exists. We believe with all of our being that the blind are

capable of equality, and we are willing to give of ourselves and our resources

to make it come true. We are not only willing but glad to accept self-discipline

and sacrifice to achieve the objective. Our cause is as noble as the will to

be free. It is as just as the demand for first-class citizenship—and nothing

on Earth can keep us from it. Let those who would stop us say what they will

and call us what they please. We will not falter or turn back.

Within the past year I have traveled throughout the Federation

and worked and dreamed with thousands of you the members. I have represented

the blind of America in the White House, and I have shared a victory celebration

supper of fried chicken and beans with you, my fellow Federationists, in the

workshop in Buffalo, New York. As I have gone throughout the movement, I have

felt a sense of authentic inner security and peace of mind. Of course, there

are troubles aplenty, but we can solve them. There is a tacit understanding

in the Federation. We accept individual responsibility for our own freedom,

and we believe in our capacity to achieve it. The deep and abiding faith that

we have in the future stems from our willingness to assist one another when

the need is great and to join in the triumph of success. Those who have not

been a part of this movement, who have not shared the commitment and the passion

of bringing genuine togetherness to the blind, cannot believe that the spirit

of our movement is real. But it is, and it makes us what we are. With such belief,

such dedication, such mutual love and trust, and such determination, we will

make our future what we want it to be. We are moving at an accelerating pace,

and the realization of our dream for freedom and independence is within our

reach. We the blind, organized in our tens of thousands, will gain our objectives

through our own organization, the National Federation of the Blind. Our past

declares it; our present proclaims it; and our future demands it! This is our

pledge to each other—and this is my report to you for 1991.

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Updated: March 14, 2002