2023 Jernigan Award Presentation
Presented by Mary Ellen Jernigan
From the Editor: This award was given on July 6 at the banquet of the 2023 National Convention. It was written and presented by former first lady Mary Ellen Jernigan.
Precisely thirty years, ten months and five days ago, I met the individual we are honoring tonight. The occasion was a meeting in the fourth-floor conference room of the NFB headquarters. It was an invitation-only meeting. The invitations were to individuals, not to the organizations they were associated with.
Only two organizations were permitted to issue the invitations. This person was not invited by the Federation. The meeting was the Second US/Canada Technology Conference for the Blind held in November of 1993, and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind had issued an invitation to the head of a relatively small and fairly new Canadian company. Neither the company nor its founder was very well-known.
This company, no longer “relatively small,” no longer “relatively new,” and as for being “not very well known,” it is today known and respected by blind people the world over. I am, of course, talking about Gilles Pepin and the merged entity of VisuAide and Pulse Data that became the HumanWare Group.
From that first meeting with Gilles, he has been a partner and colleague in our efforts to give blind people access to information. For those of you who were born around the time of that conference and afterwards, it may be difficult for you even to imagine the discouragement felt by the blind community at the headwaters of the ever-increasing pace of visual-based electronic information. Though convenient and visually pleasant for sighted people, information was presented in ways inconvenient and inaccessible to blind consumers. The shift from text to the new “Graphical User Interface,” seemed an impossible barrier to overcome.
Nevertheless, giving up was not an option—not for blind people, not for Gilles.
When “personal data assistants” like Blackberry and Palm appeared, HumanWare introduced “Maestro,” and refreshable Braille notetakers. When GPS guidance systems replaced maps, HumanWare responded with Trekker. When print calendars and stand-alone calculators were incorporated into electronic devices for the sighted, HumanWare incorporated them into its accessible devices for the blind. In short, as the methods used in the broader society to access and use information have undergone revolutionary changes in recent decades, Gilles and HumanWare have been at the heart of that revolution as it has affected blind individuals.
In the 1950s and ‘60s the National Library Service created Talking Books to be read straight through from beginning to end on a bulky 20-pound record player. By the ‘70s the seven-pound cassette machine had replaced the record player, but reading was still done beginning to end, and one still hoped (often in vain) not to find a missing or broken tape toward the end.
Today’s less than two-pound Digital Talking Book Machine was created for NLS by HumanWare. Books could now be read with navigation features of the kind available to sighted readers of print books.
Perhaps it does not surprise you that HumanWare’s design of the navigation features for the NLS Digital Talking Book Player came about with significant participation from the National Federation of the Blind.
At about this same time HumanWare was working in a more formal partnership with the National Federation of the Blind to develop its own Victor Reader Stream. Here again, the Federation contributed to the design of the user interface, with much of the usability testing taking place at the Jernigan Institute.
At this point, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Ray Kurzweil’s key, though silent, role in the success of the company Gilles Pepin has led:
From the time Dr. Kurzweil, who invented the first machine that gave blind people access to electronic information, he never failed to involve blind people in the development and testing of the user interface. Furthermore, Dr. Kurzweil always insisted that those involved be representatives of the organized blind movement, who bring vast knowledge and recommendations coming from the lived experience of blind people themselves. Learning this essential element for success from Dr. Kurzweil, Gilles Pepin has done the same.
I recently asked a question to a member of the Federation. A person I believe to be one of the most competent users of virtually every known access technology device. My question was: What is so special about the Victor Reader Stream? His answer was thoughtful, simple, and non-technical: “It’s the buttons,” he said. “They are big; they are tactile; they always do the same thing.”
No matter the source of the material; no matter how it is marked up; no matter where you are in the material, the buttons always do the same thing. To me this answer speaks volumes. Because in the end, it’s not about the genius of the technology itself, but about the blind people who use it.
Like our friend and colleague Dr. Kurzweil, Gilles Pepin has truly become one of us.
The Kenneth Jernigan Award has been given sparingly—only three times since its establishment. The common thread running through the accomplishments of those who have received it is that their work has been done in solid and ongoing relationship with the National Federation of the Blind.
Tonight, it is my honor to present the Kenneth Jernigan Award to Gilles Pepin.
The inscription on the plaque reads as follows:
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KENNETH JERNIGAN AWARD
For your dedication to the highest ideals;
For your commitment to extraordinary service;
For your imaginative leadership in expanding opportunities by designing technologies in partnership with the blind;
We, the organized blind movement, confer upon
Gilles Pepin
The Kenneth Jernigan Award
YOUR HAND ASSISTED IN EVERY CHALLENGE;
YOUR HEART RESPONDED TO EVERY NEED;
YOU ARE A TRUSTED COLLEAGUE AND VALUED FRIEND.
July 6, 2023