Attend the 2024 NFB National Convention If You Dare

by Karl Smith

This summer I’ll attend my 47th consecutive NFB national convention. How did this happen? I surely didn’t intend for it to when I attended my first convention in Baltimore in 1978. I attended that convention for two reasons, the $14 per night hotel rooms and Baltimore’s close proximity to Washington DC, a place I had wanted to visit since I was a child. I figured I would check into the cheap hotel room and spend the week visiting the nation’s capital. I was, after all, a young, smart blind guy with little in common with these people who seemed to need to hang around together and talk about their blindness. Oh how young and naïve I was, having no idea what I was getting into and what the long-term effect would be on the rest of my life.

From the moment I entered the Lord Baltimore Hotel, the spirit of the Federation was strong as I encountered throngs of blind people going about the business of checking in, catching up with old friends, and finding their way independently using their canes or dogs around the venue. It was then it began to dawn on me that I might have underestimated the power of thousands of blind people working together.

Over the next two days, I spent hours in the exhibit hall, seeing for the first time technology I had only heard about, attending committee and division meetings, meeting blind people from all over the country who were going to college, working, raising families and all the other things normal people do. I don’t remember hearing anyone whining about their blindness. They considered it an inconvenience which could be overcome with proper training and resources. People I just met shared their hopes and plans for the future and encouraged me to expand my own horizon. I was surprised to realize I had been drifting with little or no idea of what my own future might hold.

With all that, I still wasn’t prepared for the opening general session on Tuesday morning. Entering the arena, I was astonished by the electricity in the air generated by thousands of blind people gathered together working to help each other build productive lives. I have never felt anything else like that first exposure to the power of the NFB. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur, with general sessions, other committee and division meetings, and meeting Dr. Jernigan and all the other leaders. I left that convention with a completely new attitude about my blindness. Oh, and about touring Washington DC: I did get there on Wednesday afternoon. With hundreds of other blind people, I carried a sign protesting the airlines’ practice of taking blind people’s canes. And, at that point, I didn’t even carry a cane myself.

If I wrote everything that came out of attending that first convention, this article would be far too long. Instead, I’ll give just a few examples. Shortly after returning from the convention, I participated in organizing a new NFB chapter in my area and was elected its first president. I also decided to go back to college and pursue a career in computers, something I was always interested in but due to some accessibility issues in high school I did not think was possible.
In 1979 my wife and I attended a leadership seminar, The Fifty Gallon Seminar, with Dr. Jernigan. It was the first seminar held in our newly purchased national center in Baltimore. Shortly after the seminar, we attended the national convention in Miami Beach.

In 1980 I attended my first Washington Seminar where I met with congressmen and senators and learned they were actually approachable and, because the NFB had been coming regularly for several years by that time, they expected us and were mostly happy to see and hear from us. Since then I have attended approximately thirty Washington Seminars. Oh yes, I then attended the 1980 convention in Minneapolis.

In 1981 I was elected president of the Utah state affiliate, an office I held for fifteen years. Oh yes, that summer my wife and I and my three-month-old son attended the national convention in Baltimore where, along with hundreds of other blind people, we stood in the blistering heat on the west steps of the nation’s capital and heard from members of congress and Vice President George Bush.

In June of 1982 I graduated with a BS in information science and went immediately to work with Sperry Univac (now Unisys) as a systems network programmer. With no accrued vacation time, I attended the convention in Minneapolis in July without pay.

In 1983 I wrote testimony concerning our opposition to subminimum wages paid at sheltered workshops to be presented by Congressman Dan Marriott of Utah before a committee chaired by Congressman Barney Frank. Late the first afternoon of the hearing, I received a call from then Director of Governmental Affairs Jim Gashel telling me that the congressman hadn’t appeared. I immediately reserved a seat on a red-eye flight to DC, and at 8:30 the next morning, I walked into Congressman Marriott’s office asking his surprised staff why he hadn’t appeared as promised before Barney Frank’s committee. Within a half an hour they located Congressman Marriott, and he and I walked together to the Capitol where he presented the testimony. Until Congressman Marriott left Congress to run for governor of Utah, his office became the NFB of Utah’s base on Capitol Hill during subsequent Washington Seminars.

In 1985 the NFB of Utah established a service providing free Braille translation of materials not available in Braille such as instruction manuals, menus, newsletters, and even the Utah bar exam. I supervised and wrote grants to fund this program for the next ten years.

During the 1980s and ‘90s I served on the National Scholarship Committee, was a member of the Library Services Committee, the Research and Development Committee, the Computer Science Division, and many other committees and groups.

Over several months beginning in 1988 I became totally blind resulting from a detached retina. Lying in the hospital, I knew I needed good blindness training. It was then that all my years as an active member of the Federation, knowing and working with so many competent blind people, became personal. I immediately contacted my friend Joanne Fernandes who was then the director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind to ask how I could get training at her center. Once out of the hospital, I arranged for my family and me to visit the Center to see if it would make a good fit for me. I knew immediately I needed to become a student and get the kind of training unavailable in Utah.

I left Unisys on medical disability and my family in Utah after becoming a student at LCB in late January of 1989. Graduating in October, I returned home not only with improved Braille, cane travel, and other daily skills of blindness, but with the philosophy, spirit, and positive attitude of blindness taught in the NFB instilled in me more than ever before.

In the summer of 1990, I assisted in the establishment of the LCB STEP (Summer Training and Employment Project), designed to provide blind teenagers employment and training in the basic skills of blindness. I directed the program each summer through 1992.

At the end of 1992, Deane Blazie, inventor of the Braille ‘n Speak, said he was in need of trainers to provide in-person training for teachers and others on his product. I mentioned I was free at the moment and would love the opportunity to help. He first asked if I could travel alone to the various training sites. Then, after a short pause, he said, “Oh that’s right, you’re a Federationist.” I began working for him in early 1993. Over the next few years, I traveled widely around the country, providing training, attending conferences, handing out catalogs, and anything else he needed.

Interacting with the leaders in the assistive technology world, I realized there was an opportunity for me to start my own business, offering products, training, and assessment services to individuals, agencies, schools, etc. This was the beginning of the most rewarding and profitable work I have ever done and it continues to this day.

The following years were busy and active ones. In 1994, I assisted in writing and passing a Braille bill in Utah requiring that Braille be the presumed method for reading and writing for blind and low vision students. In 1995 I became a member of the board of directors of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, first serving as secretary and, more recently, as its president. Working closely first with Joanne Wilson and then Pam Allen, I continue to assist my fellow board members to guide the Center as its programs expand and mature.

Although we always home-educated our children, the flexibility afforded me with the success of my business allowed my wife and me new opportunities to provide experiences not possible while maintaining a forty-hour-per-week job. In 1999, we adopted two girls from Vietnam and in 2005 another girl from Guatemala. As a family, we have been able to travel widely, including to Alaska, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Israel and more. During this time, I also continued attending national conventions as well as other state conventions.

In 2005, along with members of the NFB of Utah and Erik Weihenmayer, I participated in the reality show Three Wishes starring Amy Grant. Each week three contestants were granted a wish. A newly blind woman, Nicole, was given the opportunity to rock climb with Erik, given travel and living skills training, and provided with the latest assistive technology.

In 2010 Utah established a BELL® Academy. From its inception, I have been responsible for writing grants and providing other assistance to BELL workers. 2024 will mark the fourteenth year of the program.

In 2021 I was honored to be asked by President Riccobono to be his representative at the NFB of Kansas state convention. In 2022 I once again represented him at the NFB of Pennsylvania convention. In April of this year, I’ll attend the NFB of South Dakota on his behalf.

Attending my first convention in Baltimore for all the wrong reasons resulted in fundamentally changing the direction of my life. I know I’m not the only one who has experienced this. So, now that you have been let in on the secret, let me encourage you to attend the 2024 National Convention, if you dare.