_______________________________________________________________________________
Vol. 69, No. 5 May 2026
Chris Danielsen, Editor
Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the
National Federation of the Blind
Mark Riccobono, President
telephone: 410-659-9314
email address: [email protected]
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National Federation of the Blind
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Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND ADVANCES THE LIVES OF ITS MEMBERS AND ALL BLIND PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. WE KNOW THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. OUR COLLECTIVE POWER, DETERMINATION, AND DIVERSITY ACHIEVE THE ASPIRATIONS OF ALL BLIND PEOPLE. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND—IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES.
ISSN 0006-8829
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Vol. 69, No. 5 May 2026
Convention Bulletin
From the Editor
by Chris Danielsen
Keeping Convention Weird: Plan Your Visit to Wacky, Wonderful Austin
by Norma Crosby
Resolution Reminders
by Donald Porterfield
Building Momentum from Coast to Coast
by Rachel Held
Two Displays, Two Philosophies: Comparing and Contrasting the Monarch
and the Dot Pad X
by Jonathan Mosen
The Courage to Bloom
by Elizabeth Rouse
Generational Federationism
by Latonya Phipps Cross
We Need Your Help
Course Corrections: Developments in LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired of San Francisco Governance and DeafBlind Services
by Chris Danielsen
The Nature of Independence
An Address Delivered by Kenneth Jernigan
Learning Independence through Life Experiences and the National Federation of the Blind
by Andrew D. Adams
The Meaning of Membership and Independence
by Melissa Riccobono, Anil Lewis, and Denise Avant
Oregon State University Commits to Accessibility Improvements for Blind and Low-Vision Students
NFB Kids Camp: Tons of Fun!
by Harriet Go
Copyright 2026 by the National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind’s National Convention brings together blind people from across the country and around the globe. We come from all walks of life. Some of us have been blind all our lives, while others may be new to blindness. Some are young, some have been around the sun more than a few times. Some are convention first-timers, while others have been attending for decades. Our patchwork of individual experiences makes us stronger together, and it means that our national conventions are a celebration of our diversity.
Over the course of eighty-five annual conventions, nearly three dozen cities reflecting similar diversity have played host to the NFB’s biggest event of the year. Yet, among this broad list of destinations, our convention has never come to the capital city of Texas to gather and celebrate. This will change next July when we head to the JW Marriott Austin for our annual National Convention!
Austin is widely known as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” having been home to the PBS program Austin City Limits for more than fifty years and host to the annual South by Southwest music and media festival. Austin also boasts a vibrant arts scene with many public art displays throughout the city. But Austin isn’t just fueled by creative energy. A strong technology sector thrives here, with many tech companies establishing headquarters in the city. Waymo and Tesla are two notable names, as both companies offer autonomous vehicle rides within Austin. The University of Texas at Austin, with over 50,000 students, sits just north of downtown. Visitors will notice an emphasis on local retailers over national chains. This broad and eclectic diversity perpetuates the popular “Keep Austin Weird” vibe and makes for a truly unique destination.
The upscale JW Marriott Austin will serve as our headquarters hotel and all convention events will take place here this July. Our block of sleeping rooms at the JW is fully booked. However, there is plenty of space at all our nearby overflow hotels.
The recently opened Austin Marriott Downtown is a couple blocks’ walk to the JW Marriott. Specify our room block code, BL1, when calling 800-627-7468 to book your room. The hotel offers several on-site dining options, a 24/7 fitness center, and a pool with rentable cabanas. Please note that rooms do not have refrigerators but are available upon request for those who must keep medications cold.
The Courtyard by Marriott Austin Downtown is just a few blocks from the JW Marriott and offers a Starbucks and Champions Sports Bar, a pool, fitness center, and breakfast buffet for just over 20 dollars. Call 800-321-2211, ask for the Courtyard by Marriott Austin Downtown, and mention the National Federation of the Blind National Convention to book a room.
Located at the same address as the Courtyard, the Residence Inn Austin Downtown includes access to Starbucks and a complimentary breakfast buffet at Champions Sports Bar for guests. The pool and fitness center are also available. To book, call 800-331-3131, ask for the Residence Inn Austin Downtown, and request the National Federation of the Blind National Convention room block.
All 2026 convention hotels offer our nightly rate of $139 for singles and doubles. Triples and quads are available for $155 per night. Sales tax and a tourism fee total a combined 19.7 percent. For each room you book, the hotel requires a deposit of the first night’s room rate, taxes, and fees, payable by credit card or a personal check. If a reservation is cancelled before Sunday, June 1, 2026, half of the deposit will be returned. Refunds will not be issued after that date.
In-person registration for convention is now open. Registration costs $25 per person plus $85 per banquet ticket. Register early because prices go up if you register onsite in Austin. Registration includes the biggest event of the year, access to the mobile app, and communications on the latest news and events. Registration for the Convention Virtual Experience is also open. The Virtual Experience registration fee is $10. Virtual Experience registration includes access to the mobile app and the opportunity to win door prizes. Links to both registration forms are at nfb.org/convention.
The 2026 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be an exciting and memorable event, with an unparalleled program and renewed dedication to the goals and work of our movement.
Make plans to be a part of it.
Remember that we need door prizes from state affiliates, local chapters, and individuals. Prizes should be small in size but significant in value. Cash, of course, is always appropriate and welcome. As a general rule, we ask that prizes have a value of at least $25 and do not include alcohol. Drawings take place throughout the convention sessions, and you can anticipate a grand prize of truly impressive proportions to be drawn at the banquet.
Important note for attendees: You must be registered to win a door prize!
If you or members of your chapter are first-time attendees, please learn about convention through the First-Timer’s Guide available at nfb.org/convention.
The best collection of exhibits featuring new technology; meetings of our special interest groups, committees, and divisions; the most stimulating and thought-provoking program items of any meeting of the blind in the world; the chance to renew friendships within our Federation family; and the unparalleled opportunity to be where the real action is and where decisions are made—all of these mean you will not want to miss being a part of the 2026 National Convention. To secure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, make your reservations early. We look forward to seeing you in Austin in July!
by Chris Danielsen
I am trying something a little different starting with this issue of the Braille Monitor, and I am eager to know what you think about it. Instead of affixing an editor’s note to every article in this issue, I am placing an overview of the issue here at the front. I am hopeful that it will be a useful guide to the reader as to what to expect, and, where appropriate, to tie the issue together thematically for both myself and our readers. Going forward, I personally hope that writing this introduction will help me do a better job of planning each issue, and hopefully you will find reading it equally useful. But however you feel about it, please let me know by sending an email to [email protected] or calling 410-659-9314, extension 2330. That invitation goes for any other feedback you have about the magazine as well, and of course for your own article submissions.
These pages are often devoted to discussions of what we describe as “Federation philosophy.” An excellent contribution to this genre of article appeared in our January 2026 issue. It was entitled “The Myth of the SuperBlind” and was written by Cricket X. Bidleman. In the article, Cricket posited that putting certain blind people (often leaders) on stage, literally or figuratively, both exert undue pressure on them to seem invulnerable and unintentionally sends the message that there is a certain type of blind person that every Federationist is expected to be or to become. The article generated both enthusiastic and caustic responses on our social media and in feedback that I received personally. Therefore, it seems appropriate that we continue to discuss what our philosophy of blindness is and is not, and how experienced leaders and members can make it real for new or struggling members without placing a barrier in their path when we mean to make that path smoother.
Our first impulse, when confronted with people who say that they have experienced our movement as a group of blind people whose primary goal is to establish our superiority to other blind people, is to deny that any person who has even passing familiarity with our movement could possibly think such a thing. But while some social media posts tell us that they find the Federation affirming and supportive, others say the opposite, and they cannot always be dismissed as the grumblings of the usual suspects who have never bothered to learn much about us. Indeed, I was personally recently surprised that someone whom I had known for several years publicly left our movement on their social media page, claiming that they had always found it cult-like and toxic.
To further the ongoing discussion, this issue includes both a classic speech of our movement and some responses to it. When I was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in the summer of 1992, some of our teenage students came back from that year’s national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a question: Why was then-President Emeritus Dr. Kenneth Jernigan seen walking with a sighted guide during much of the convention rather than simply traveling with his white cane, as these teenage students were learning to do? I remember well how this discussion played out in one of our seminars, and I remember that Joanne Wilson, the center director, encouraged the young people to write to Dr. Jernigan and ask him directly. They did, and the result was not only a thoughtful letter in reply but his 1993 Convention address “The Nature of Independence.”
We are reprinting that address in this issue, along with reflections upon it that were part of a recent episode of our Nation’s Blind Podcast and an article submitted by one of the participants in the 2025-2026 cohort of the Kenneth Jernigan Leadership in Service Program. We hope to include even more reflections on this topic in future issues, including yours; please see above for how to get them to us. I will close my own reflections on this seminal speech and what it seeks to address with this quotation from it: “We absolutely must not become so rigid and dogmatic about the means and precise details of achieving independence that we make ourselves and everybody else around us miserable. Down that road lies bigotry, as well as the loss of any real independence or true normality.”
Speaking of the Kenneth Jernigan Leadership in Service Program, two other members of the current cohort have submitted reflections that are, among other things, appropriate for the May celebration of Mother’s Day, so we’ve included those as well.
Technology is always a popular topic in these pages. In this issue, Jonathan Mosen, the Federation’s Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence, presents a comparison of two multiline Braille displays that are now on the market, one of which, the Monarch, the Federation had an important role in creating. This is in direct response to questions that our Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility has received, so we hope Jonathan’s thoughtful and thorough article helps readers choose the right Braille device for their specific needs.
Don’t worry, we did not forget that another national convention is approaching in July. Norma Crosby, president of our Texas affiliate, which is of course hosting our planned gathering in that state’s weird and wonderful capital city of Austin, has compiled some things you will want to know about said city. Donald Porterfield, president of our Arizona affiliate and chair of the Resolutions Committee, provides tips and reminders for those who are preparing proposed policies for our convention to adopt. And of course, there’s the Convention Bulletin, updated with all the latest information we can provide as the big event approaches.
We’ve rounded out the issue with the latest news from our movement and the blind community, including an update on developments at LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired of San Francisco, another victory for blind students of higher education, and information from Rachel Held, one of our outreach staff, on how chapters can participate in this year’s Coast to Coast Movement Challenge.
Happy reading, and please do share that feedback! As I have said before, this magazine truly reflects our movement only to the extent that all of the voices in our movement are part of it.
by Norma Crosby
Every year, members of the National Federation of the Blind gather for our family reunion, a.k.a. the National Convention. In 2026, we are gathering in Austin, Texas, and it promises to be a record-setting year.
Austin is a beautiful, weird city full of fun and excitement, and we plan to add to that excitement during the convention. The Texas affiliate is planning hospitality on par with our 2023 convention in Houston. Will it be the same as 2023? No. Austin and Houston are both great cities, but each has its own distinct personality. Houston is the big sister with glitz, glamour, and audacity. Austin is the little sister with an outlaw streak. Just ask the quintessential outlaw, Willie Nelson.
There is a lot of work to do at NFB 2026, but even the most dedicated Federationists find a way to have some fun wherever they go, and Austin lends itself to both hard work and lots of play.
Austin is the live music capital of the world, and that music ranges from country to jazz to blues, and everything in between. There are music venues all over town, and chances are that if you meet someone on the street, they are part of a band of some sort. Your grocery clerk probably has a band. State employees probably are in a band. Heck, even the legislators at the Capitol are likely to write songs and play guitar on the side.
You’ll find lots of live music along both East and West 6th streets. It is definitely a people’s place. So, if you don’t love crowds, find other places to visit.
East Austin is where you’ll find authentic Latin culture and real-deal Mexican and Tex-Mex dining. There are barbecue places all over town, and while Franklin’s is the gold standard, you’ll find other great places as well. Besides, you might not get to the head of Franklin’s line before the convention ends.
If you need a date night and want barbecue, try the County Line on the Lake. It is situated in a beautiful part of the city, but fair warning, it is about 25 minutes from the hotel. So, you might want to save it for a special night. It isn’t stuffy, and it is busy on the weekend. It isn’t just for date night; it is lively and kid-friendly too.
Texas Monthly is our state’s magazine, and every four years, they search for fifty of the best BBQ restaurants in the state. That list is read religiously by most Texans, and some make a pilgrimage around the state to visit all fifty. In 2025, Austin had eight of the fifty within its borders, and two of those were in the top ten. That’s great, and you’ll find them listed in the restaurant guide we’ll share for the convention. However, the truth is that most of any shack that serves barbecue in Texas will be just as good as these. In fact, I’ve found that the most unassuming BBQ restaurants are the best. We’ll dig those up for you as well.
Tex-Mex is another staple in the diets of most Texans, and you’ll find plenty of that during your visit to Austin. My personal favorite is Matt’s El Rancho, but just like the barbecue, it’s hard to go wrong, and there are some pretty good choices near our hotel.
After doing all that eating, you might want some exercise, and just down the road from our hotel is the Ann & Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. It circles Lady Bird Lake and is a beautiful walk or run. (Fun fact: Lady Bird Lake is also crossed by the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, home to the world’s largest urban bat colony, which means you can go and watch the bats fly from under the bridge for their nightly food forays if you so desire.) If you want to travel a little further, make a trip to Zilker Park with the family. It is about 30 minutes on foot or 10 minutes by car. Zilker is a beautiful park with a three-acre spring-fed pool called Barton Creek. It will really cool you off on a July day because the water temperature hovers around 68 degrees all year. It is an experience everyone should have, but beware, the bottom is slippery. So, bring your water shoes, and go on a weekday. It is very crowded on the weekend.
Now that I have convinced you to come to NFB 2026, let’s talk about how you can make your Austin visit less expensive. We all know that hotel prices are high, and we all know that eating every meal at the hotel is impossible for many of us. So, let’s talk about finding less expensive food options.
Many experienced convention-goers have discovered that we can save a fair chunk of change by ordering a grocery delivery or making a quick grocery run. Of course, you can always make a trip to Walmart, but that might not be how you want to roll. In Texas, we have a holy budget-food trinity: H-E-B, Buc-ee’s, and Whataburger. So, let’s start with H-E-B.
H-E-B is a Texas-based market that Texans would practically lay down their lives for. They have all the national brands, but better than that, they have their own product lines. Whether it is Central Market, Mi Tienda, Hill Country Fair, or one of the other store brands, they are less expensive than the national brands, and they are as good or better. That’s not why we love them, though. Aside from offering good prices, quality products, and friendly service, H-E-B is the first one there when there is a disaster requiring the community to pull together. During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, they found a way to open when other stores weren’t, and they set up kitchens to help make sure people were fed.
If you want delivery, you can use Uber Eats for Walmart and H-E-B, but you can also download the Favor app to order from H-E-B, pharmacies, and restaurants. Favor sometimes runs pretty good discounts with local restaurants. You might also want to gather a group of friends and make a grocery run. Having light food on hand can help you manage your money and still have a great food experience.
H-E-B has other company branded stores, like Central Market. There is a great one in central Austin. They often have live music, healthy options, an outdoor patio, and a playground for kids. Central Market is a fun experience and is located about fifteen minutes from downtown by car. CapMetro buses also stop nearby.
I mentioned Buc-ee’s, and if you live in a state where it exists, you know that it is an experience. Some call it a gas station, and it is that on steroids. Others call it the world’s largest convenience store, and it may also be that. What it really is is chaos, the opportunity to spend copious amounts of money on snacks, souvenirs, sandwiches, fudge, burritos, and millions of items I am not naming.
This may sound ridiculous, but we are considering a tour to Buc-ee’s. I’m serious. I won’t boast that it will save you money because you will buy some things you don’t need. You may question your life choices later, but if we do it, you will be with fellow Federationists. So, not only will you stock up on good snack food, you’ll have a great time.
If we get enough interest by May 15, a tour will happen. If you are in, send an email with the subject line Buc-ee’s Tour to [email protected], and I’ll add you to our mailing list. You will be notified by June 1 if the tour is on. Bring your wallet and an empty bag to pack the extra loot for your trip home. Ah, who am I kidding? You’ll eat it all in Austin.
The third element of our holy trinity is Whataburger. Some people, maybe me, stop at Whataburger every time they fly back into Texas after a trip to a place where no Whataburgers exist. Is there anything special about Whataburger? Well, if you want to save a little money, Whataburger is an option. Whether you grab a group and make a burger run or do a group Uber Eats order, it will cost less than hotel meals, and it’s good. Is it the best burger in the world? That depends on who you talk to. I will say that it is very good, and it originated in Texas. So, it is a rule that we have to love it even though the company sold out to a firm in Chicago a few years ago.
Lots of families come to our convention, and we love having them. So, I thought I would tell you about a couple of things for the kids. Of course, I already mentioned Zilker Park and Barton Creek. That would be a fun family excursion. But Austin has more to offer.
The Thinkery is a hands-on children’s museum with lots of fun activities. Some of the activities involve water, so they suggest bringing a change of clothes for children who may participate in those. The museum hires blind people from time-to-time, and our affiliate will be working to ensure that both our blind and sighted visitors have a good experience. The museum is not downtown, but it is only a ten-minute Uber ride away.
Other family friendly options include the BookPeople. The largest independent bookseller in Texas offers books for both adults and children, and they also have gifts that you might want to take home. Across the street is the flagship Whole Foods Market, with its rooftop playground, and before you leave the area, take the kids to the 24 Diner, a farm-to-table comfort food outpost.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Austin has to offer, and I promise we’ll share more in our restaurant and touring guide. We’ll post it by June 15. Of course, there is nothing more fun for kids and adults than the family reunion that happens each year at a Federation convention. Join us to learn how to make sure blindness does not hold you back. Spend time building your community. Introduce your children to all this organization has to offer.
We can’t wait to see y’all. Bring your boots and hats because there may be a $100 prize for the people judged to be the best dressed cowboy and cowgirl on the first day of general session.
Whether you love beer, barbecue, Tex-Mex, family fun in the outdoors, or seeing a million bats fly from under a bridge, Austin is the place for you. It’s quirky, maybe a little weird, but is one of Texas’s jewels. Add the chance to participate in the largest convention of blind people anywhere in the world into the mix, and Austin is the place to be from July 3-8.by Donald Porterfield
From the Editor: Donald Porterfield is a member of the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind and president of the Arizona affiliate. He is also an attorney who works as a prosecutor in Pima County, Arizona, and his legal skills no doubt serve him well in his role as chairperson of the National Federation of the Blind Resolutions Committee. Here is what he has to say about the writing and submitting of resolutions, which will very soon need to be composed and sent to him:
Do you want to make a difference in the lives of blind people today and in the future? Do you think we should change a government policy, take a stand concerning an agency for the blind, or create new regulations? If you do, consider writing a resolution. Here are a few reminders to help you, as well as some questions to think about when writing a resolution. First, the questions:
Please be mindful of our deadlines. To ensure that your resolution will be considered by the committee, please send it to President Riccobono or to me by June 4, 2026, one month before the committee meeting. Since things are always busy leading up to the convention, we appreciate you sending them earlier if you can. If you send a resolution to me by email and do not receive a response acknowledging your email in two or three days, please call me at 520-850-2180 or send it again. If you miss the deadline, you must get three members of the committee to sponsor your resolution and then get it to me before the meeting begins. I will be pleased to accept resolutions by email at [email protected].
All resolutions will be placed on the NFB website shortly before the committee meets at convention on the afternoon of July 4. This procedure will give the membership a chance to look over the resolutions before the meeting and advocate with the committee members to support or defeat the resolutions.
A resolution is one very long sentence divided into two parts. In the first part, a case is made that certain events have taken place or certain conditions exist that require action. The events are described in short statements that begin with the word WHEREAS. These statements should clearly set forth the reason a resolution is being written, without being so detailed that they make the reader wish the resolution had never happened. The second part of a resolution explains what will or should be done based on the argument laid out in the first section. Resolves are used to say what the NFB will try to persuade others to do. These, too, should be brief and to the point: long enough that they are not ambiguous and concise enough that they avoid repeating what has already been said.
You should begin by determining what your RESOLVED clauses are, that is, how many there should be and what their basic thrust is. You will know how many by the number of entities we need to address or the number of problems we need to fix. After you decide specifically how you want the problem fixed, determine the smallest number of concepts you need to explain to a person unfamiliar with the problem to convince them that there is a problem. The best resolutions can be picked up by a person unfamiliar with the issue and hold that person’s attention (in other words, they are as short as possible) while still actually explaining the problem and the solution or solutions. This method, deciding the ending first and then crafting the arguments to reach it, will result in the simplest and clearest resolution. Then, when you actually write the formal resolution, you can focus on the writing and the style, having already done the planning part.
Here are the punctuation and layout rules for writing resolutions:
Remember that the resolves are couched in the subjunctive mood, which is rarely used in English. This means that the third person verbs look singular instead of plural, with the s removed: “the organization urge,” “the NFB condemn and deplore,” etc. This is because the subjunctive mood is invoked by words like suggest, wish, demand, request. Compare the following two sentences:
She visits her cousin every week.
I suggest that she visit her cousin every week.
The second sentence is in the subjunctive mood because of the verb “suggest,” so the correct verb form is “visit” instead of “visits.” It is the same with resolutions.
The rather strained form of the resolution makes it sound unnatural and formal. Do not attempt to add to this effect by indulging in jargon and verbosity. Even though resolutions are frequently long, brevity is a virtue. Each argument should be made concisely but clearly. Jargon never helps this process. Substituting “utilize” for the short, vigorous word “use” and referring to people as “persons” or “individuals” are good examples of counterproductive inflation of the pomposity quotient. On the other hand, because resolutions are formal statements of a policy position, you should avoid slang or informal words like “exams” instead of “examinations” or “quotes” for “quotations.” Verb forms like “hunker down” or “get going” are also a bit too casual for use in resolutions.
You will remember that the NFB is on record as opposing people-first language, except as it happens for some reason to sound euphonious. We are also on record as opposing the use of the terms “visually impaired” or “visual impairment” in favor of “low vision” (hyphenated when used as an adjective) if any distinction needs to be made between totally blind people and those with some eyesight. In other words, “blind people” is perfectly acceptable, or, if there is a good reason to make the distinction, “blind and low-vision people.”
Capitalization should be consistent. Do not capitalize words for emphasis. Quotation marks should not be used for this purpose either. “Federal” is not capitalized unless it is part of an actual title or is the first word of a sentence. Since WHEREAS clauses begin with capital letters, “federal” is almost never capitalized in resolutions. “Congress,” on the other hand, is, as are “House of Representatives” and “Senate.” Names of departments and organizations are capitalized, but terms like “departments of education” or “vocational rehabilitation agencies” are generic and should not be.
Resolutions often pile up nouns as adjectives. When this happens, the terms should be hyphenated: access-program producers.
Congressional bill numbers are written H.R. 0000 or S. 0000.
Resolutions are an important part of the work of the national convention. The Braille Monitor is a good sounding board for new ideas and new policies. Consider writing an article about your new idea or policy so that the conversation can begin, and you will be ready to write your resolution for 2027. However, the most immediate task is to start working on the resolutions for 2026. Resolutions guide our organization. Put your thinking cap on and get your fingers typing. Let’s make sure we have a great set of resolutions for the 2026 Convention! The job of the membership is to make sure the committee has resolutions to consider. I look forward to receiving yours!
by Rachel Held
In the National Federation of the Blind, we often talk about building our movement in practical terms—growing our chapters, strengthening our connections, and increasing awareness in the communities where we live and work. These are not abstract ideas; they are the day-to-day actions that shape who we are and how we move forward together. The 2026 Coast-to-Coast Movement Challenge brings all of those ideas into focus, giving us a clear and timely opportunity to turn intention into action and purpose into measurable progress.
At its core, the challenge is a nationwide effort designed to encourage chapters and affiliates to organize movement-based activities that promote awareness, build relationships, and raise funds to support our mission. It is both structured and flexible, offering a shared framework while leaving room for creativity at the local level. This year, the initiative will connect to larger events such as the Bay Bridge Run, the California International Marathon, and, new this year, the Philadelphia Marathon. These anchor events provide visibility and energy, but they are only one part of a much bigger picture.
What matters most is what happens locally, when chapters take ownership of the challenge and design activities that reflect their own communities. No two chapters are exactly alike, and the strength of this initiative lies in that diversity. A chapter in a rural area may organize a community walk through a local park, while a chapter in a larger city might participate in a citywide race or attend a group fitness class.
Each of these approaches contributes to a shared goal, but each is shaped by the people and places involved. This local focus is what makes the effort meaningful and sustainable. We know that changing public perceptions about blindness does not happen all at once. It happens gradually, often through small, everyday interactions that challenge assumptions and open minds. When a chapter organizes a walk, participates in a community race, or hosts a wellness event, it creates opportunities to be seen, to be heard, and to engage in authentic ways. These are the moments when misconceptions begin to fade and understanding begins to grow. A conversation during a water break, a shared mile on a walking path, or a simple introduction at a community dance class can have a lasting impact.
At the same time, these activities strengthen our chapters from within. While meetings are essential to our work and provide structure and direction, they are not always where relationships are built most naturally. Shared experiences—especially those that involve effort, teamwork, or stepping outside of one’s comfort zone—create a different kind of connection. When members walk side by side, train together, or support one another through a challenge, they build trust and camaraderie. These experiences foster a sense of belonging that extends beyond formal gatherings and help to create a more cohesive and resilient chapter.
The Coast-to-Coast Movement Challenge also serves as a coordinated fundraising effort, aligning financial support with meaningful activity. Contributions raised through chapter-led events support the work of our national organization and help ensure that we can continue to expand programs, advocate effectively, and reach more blind people across the country. Fundraising becomes more than a task; it becomes part of a shared story. A walk becomes more than a walk; it becomes a statement of purpose and a contribution to lasting change.
To support participation and coordination, each chapter is asked to designate a Movement Champion. The Movement Champion serves as both a leader and a facilitator; someone who keeps the effort moving forward, encourages participation, and helps share the chapter’s progress and experiences. This role is essential, not because one person does all the work, but because effective coordination helps everyone contribute more fully. The Federation has set a goal of engaging at least thirty-five chapters in movement activities during 2026. Reaching that goal will require broad participation and a willingness to embrace a variety of approaches. Some chapters may choose to organize larger, highly visible public events that draw attention and media coverage. Others may focus on smaller, more informal activities that prioritize things like personal connection. Both approaches are valuable, and both contribute to the overall success of the initiative. What matters is not the scale of the activity, but the intention behind it and the impact it creates.
As with many of our most effective initiatives, the long-term value of the Coast-to-Coast Movement Challenge will be reflected not just in numbers, but in experiences. Chapters will discover new ways to connect with their communities, often building relationships that extend well beyond a single event. Members will find new ways to engage with one another, strengthening the internal fabric of the Federation. The stories that emerge, from first-time participants to seasoned advocates, will help illustrate the power of collective action and reinforce the message that blindness does not define or limit us.
These stories matter. They become part of how we communicate our mission, inspire new members, and demonstrate the impact of our work. A successful event is not only one that raises funds or draws a crowd, but one that creates a meaningful experience worth sharing. When these stories are told within chapters, across affiliates, and at the national level, they amplify the reach of our work and help sustain momentum over time.
Chapters that are interested in participating can begin with a few simple steps: attend an informational session, select a Movement Champion, and start a conversation about what kind of activity makes sense for their members. Planning does not need to be complicated. In fact, the most successful efforts are often those that are simple, intentional, and grounded in what people are genuinely excited to do. It is also important to remember that participation can evolve. A chapter might start with a small event and build on that experience in future years. Lessons learned—what worked well, what could be improved, what sparked the most engagement—can inform future efforts and help chapters grow stronger over time.
When chapters from coast to coast take part, each in their own way, shaped by their own communities, but all connected by a shared purpose, we create something larger than any single event. We create alignment, awareness, and most importantly, we create momentum. That momentum, built step by step and mile by mile in communities across the country, carries our movement forward. To learn more and to keep up with the Coast-to-Coast Movement Challenge, please visit nfb.org/movers or contact Rachel Held via email, [email protected].
by Jonathan Mosen
The fact that there is a need for me to write this article represents tremendous progress in Braille and tactile graphics technology. Today, there are multiple multiline Braille and tactile graphics devices on the market, after decades of us wishing such devices existed. That is an extraordinary place to be.
The two devices drawing the most attention right now are the Monarch, developed in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind by HumanWare and the American Printing House for the Blind, and the Dot Pad X, produced by the South Korean company Dot Inc. At the National Federation of the Blind’s Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility (CENA), we are receiving many inquiries about the differences between these two devices. Here is a broad overview of them both.
Both devices have the same kind of Braille cells in common. They use refreshable pin technology developed by Dot Inc. Dot’s cells have a distinctive feel about them because of the protective tactile membrane that covers the display. One limitation of the Dot Cells is that they will not refresh while your finger is on them, so neither device is suitable for applications where you need to monitor change in real-time, such as a stopwatch, or for monitoring fluctuating gauges. The Dot Pad X enjoys a minor advantage here in that it is using a newer generation of the Dot cell technology which refreshes more quickly. If you take your fingers off the display very briefly, the cells will refresh. That is largely where the similarities between the two devices end.
The Monarch is about the size of a fifteen-inch gaming laptop, featuring a Perkins-style keyboard and navigation buttons. It weighs approximately five pounds and includes HDMI output so a sighted teacher or colleague can see what the Monarch user is viewing on screen. It offers a battery life exceeding twenty-four hours. The Monarch renders tactile graphics integrated with Braille on a ten-line by thirty-two-cell refreshable display. Its approximate display area is ninety-six by forty equidistant pins, using 480 Braille cells. The cells contain nine pins instead of the traditional six to allow for crisper tactile graphics resolution. The result is a surface capable of rendering flowing multiline Braille text and spatially meaningful tactile images simultaneously on the same surface.
The most important thing to understand about the Monarch is that it is a full, self-contained computer. It does not need to be connected to a phone, a tablet, or a PC to perform its core functions, although you can certainly use it as a multiline Braille display for your computer and iPhone if you wish. It runs on the Android operating system, has its own applications, and its own Wi-Fi connection.
If you have used BrailleNote over the years, you will be familiar with the KeySoft applications on Monarch, which HumanWare has modified to be suitable for a multiline Braille environment. KeyWord, a full word processor, also includes math content created in Microsoft Word’s equation editor, which Monarch will translate into either Nemeth or UEB Math.
KeyMath is a graphing calculator created in partnership with Desmos that allows students to graph tactile functions on demand. The Tactile Viewer app connects via Wi-Fi to APH’s Tactile Graphics Image Library and can display graphics in JPG, PNG, and PDF formats, with over 2,000 tactile graphics available from that library. Victor Reader connects to online libraries including Bookshare and is compatible with Daisy and ePUB files. You can download and read publications from NFB-NEWSLINE®, including the Braille Monitor, right from the Monarch. KeyMail handles email compatible with all popular email services and protocols, and the Monarch includes an internet browser designed from the ground up for multiline Braille navigation.
The Monarch also supports the emerging eBraille format. Unlike static BRF files, eBraille offers rich semantics, support for navigation, and the inclusion of tactile graphics. The Monarch offers support for the cloud services OneDrive and Google Drive, making it easy for you to get documents onto and off of the device. A software development kit means we expect a growing ecosystem of external applications to emerge over time.
When you are editing a document and need to move the cursor to a specific word or character, cursor routing lets you do so. On a single-line display, this is straightforward, because a single row of cursor routing buttons costs little in space or money. On a display with ten lines and thirty-two cells per line, the problem is more complex. Rather than physical keys above each cell, the Monarch uses its touch-sensitive surface to detect where a finger lands and routes the cursor to that position. This preserves the full functionality of cursor routing, including the ability to place the cursor precisely.
The smaller and lighter Dot Pad X is about the size of an iPad Pro and is optimized for reading text and examining graphics. It is a high-quality, highly capable display that reflects and amplifies the intelligence of whatever device it is connected to. The software, the applications, and the content all live on the device you bring to it. This includes some applications such as Dot Book, developed for external devices by Dot Inc. for reading up to ten lines of six-dot Braille on the main display. Dot Inc. has also developed Dot Cloud, a library of tactile graphics. It is not a stand-alone computer. It has no operating system, no built-in storage for documents, no on-device applications for independent use, no built-in keyboard, no cursor routing functions, and no ability to retrieve or create content on its own.
The Dot Pad incorporates a 300 eight-pin Braille cell graphics area (thirty horizontal by ten vertical) and a single-line twenty Braille cell text area. The multiline area is designed first and foremost for graphics, although you can use this area for multiline Braille if you wish, and it works well. When using the larger display area for reading text, you will get twenty cells per line. The dedicated Braille line below the graphics area means you can follow text with one hand while exploring a graphic with the other simultaneously, in a way that feels natural. You control the device with six function keys, and it is these that facilitate moving forward and backward through screens of text. At approximately two and a half pounds and less than an inch thick, it is a device most users will carry without much thought. Curling up on the couch with Dot Pad X or using it while on a commute and reading a good book in Apple Books or Kindle is a great experience. A few people have told us it has rekindled (if I may use that expression) their love of reading Braille for pleasure again. It connects via Bluetooth LE or USB-C. Dot Inc. says the device offers over eight hours of active usage, although in our testing at the International Braille and Technology Center, we have found the battery to last a great deal longer.
To sum up, both devices are capable and have their place. The Monarch is a computer capable of both content creation and content consumption that includes a magnificent display and additionally can be connected to several popular screen readers. The Dot Pad X is a slightly smaller magnificent display designed for content consumption that connects to the computer you already have.
It is important to understand the purpose of these devices, so you can advocate for the one that best suits your needs. If one of them would make an appreciable difference to your work or study, you shouldn’t hesitate to make the case for it. Multiline Braille and electronic access to tactile graphics can significantly improve productivity in many areas.
The Monarch is priced at approximately $15,000, with some variation depending on region and purchasing channel. That figure can cause a sharp intake of breath, but some context helps. A traditional single-line eighty-cell Braille display commands prices of $9,000 and above. The Monarch contains 480 equidistant cells and replaces what would otherwise be a combination of a note-taker, a tactile graphics embosser, and a display. People typically procure the Monarch through educational funding channels, including the Federal Quota Program, and through vocational rehabilitation agencies. The Dot Pad X sells for around $6,000. Importantly, because the Dot Pad X requires a host device, those who do not already own a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Windows PC need to factor that into the total cost.
You can find more in-depth examination of these products through Access On, the National Federation of the Blind’s technology podcast. Check out episodes fifty-eight, fifty-nine, and sixty.
by Elizabeth Rouse
From the Editor: Elizabeth Rouse is a proud member of the 2025-2026 Kenneth Jernigan Leadership in Service Program cohort. While she has been blind since birth, she didn’t get heavily involved in the Federation until she began college in the fall of 2016. Now, almost ten years later, she wears lots of hats in our organization at both a state affiliate level and a national division level, and when asked, she shared that she “wouldn’t have it any other way!” Here are some reflections she shared that, among other things, are appropriate as we celebrate Mother’s Day:
Children begin asking one of life’s most pivotal questions at an early age—“Why?” While I can only imagine how quickly parents tire of being subjected to these curiosity-inspired lines of questioning, I will forever be grateful for my mother Monica’s willingness to tackle one of my life’s greatest inquiries: “Why do I have to be different?” While she didn’t know it in the moment, she planted a seed of positive blindness philosophy that parallels what we in the National Federation of the Blind know to be true. Blindness is not the characteristic that defines me or my future.
After being diagnosed with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) at around five months old, my parents worked hard to give me every opportunity childhood offered, including riding a bike, learning to swim, falling in love with books, and, with a slightly higher frequency, falling and getting hurt. When I began pre-school, an Orientation and Mobility Specialist placed a white cane in my hand for the first time, and I hated it on sight. I could not figure out for the life of me why I had to carry this obtrusive stick, a blatant indicator to anyone who looked that I wasn’t normal.
One day, out of frustration most likely, I asked my mom, “Why do I have to be different?” Instead of offering me some sort of placating remark, she painted me a visual image that still resonates to this day. “Different doesn’t have to be bad, Bethy. Think about it this way, you’re a flower just like everyone else, but in a field of daisies, you’re a violet.”
As I continued to progress through middle and high school, I tried to keep this guidance in mind, which is no easy task for young women. Anything that makes you stand out–height, weight, family make-up–is fodder for ridicule in the public eye. Thus, having the comfort of knowing my blindness didn’t have to be seen as a negative helped me navigate the treacherous waters of female adolescence.
Only after I found and embraced the Federation did I truly understand the wisdom of my mom’s explanation. The seed that was planted oh-so-long-ago was nurtured by mentors and friends who took the time to help me better understand that my blindness was simply a part of me. It didn’t have to be the biggest, best, or certainly not the worst part of me. My mother’s guidance made accepting the beliefs of our organization much simpler, and frankly, it laid a strong foundation for my willingness to accept others. Nowadays, I think it’s a bit more accurate to believe I’m a violet standing next to a rose, a chrysanthemum, and a tulip in that field full of unique flowers. Instead of fixating on our differences, though, I choose to celebrate the unity we share along with the attributes that make us our own blossoms.
by Latonya Phipps Cross
From the Editor: Latonya Phipps Cross is an attorney and serves as president of the Baltimore County Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. She is also part of the current Kenneth Jernigan Leadership in Service cohort.
Blindness was not a welcome characteristic in my household growing up. I remember my mother crying after doctor’s appointments and constantly being asked if I could see things. I internalized early that eyesight was better, and there must be something wrong with me if I could not see.
I grew up as a print reader using a small handheld magnifier. It doesn’t make much sense to me now, but the large-print books were actually too large for me to see. Over the years, the print would become more dim and harder to read. I remember sitting on top of my dresser at an angle so that the light reflected just right on the book for me to see it.
I did not know anyone who was blind until I lost all of my residual eyesight in my sophomore year of high school. Then, I attended the local school for the blind for a year, where I learned Braille and cane travel. I met other blind students, but in my mind there was still a hierarchy between the students who were totally blind and those who had some eyesight. I did not necessarily feel good about being blind.
At the end of my first year at the local school for the blind, I met with the guidance counselor, who suggested that I choose a vocation that did not require college. I explained to him that I planned to attend college. He dissuaded me from that goal, so I withdrew and went back to my public high school.
Once back at my high school, I used my Braille and technology skills. I read my books using cassettes and wrote my papers with a Braille-N-Speak. I thrived. I went from regular college preparatory classes to an honors slate of classes in my senior year. But although I was smart and thrived with the use of the alternative skills of blindness, I still felt different and somehow less-than as a blind person.
Winning a national scholarship totally changed my life. I heard for the first time that it was respectable to be blind. After decades in the National Federation of the Blind since winning that scholarship, I now know that sight is not better than blindness and no one is less of a person if they cannot see. Blindness is just what it is: the inability to perceive the environment visually. It does not change your value as a person.
In 2001, I became a parent. When I learned that my daughter had the same eye diagnosis as me, I initially was devastated. I knew the world would think of her as less-than because of the lack of eyesight. No one wants their child to grow up experiencing the same difficulties you experienced as a blind person. But, why not? If I learned to thrive as a blind person, why wasn’t that good enough for her as well?
So, I sought to give her every advantage that I did not have growing up. I pushed for her to learn Braille when she was just three years old and had significant usable vision. She was a part of the first-ever BELL® Academy program, which was pioneered in our home state of Maryland. Why? Because I knew that if she had the same diagnosis I had that she may one day be totally blind and I wanted her to be equipped with the necessary skills to live independently in the world.
When she was about four, we went to the Maryland Science Center for a Sunday afternoon trip. It was just the two of us. All of a sudden, she dropped to the floor and said that she could not walk. I had no idea what was going on, but I carried her out of the Science Center that day and went home. I let her rest and the next day sent her to preschool as usual. About mid-afternoon, I received a phone call from her teacher. Once again, my daughter was complaining of pain and could not walk. I went to pick her up and took her to the pediatrician, who said that he thought she had juvenile idiopathic arthritis. A subsequent visit to a pediatric rheumatologist confirmed this. My daughter had both uveitis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Great!
Now, as a totally blind single mother, I had to figure out how to rear a confident low-vision and arthritic child while being employed full-time at a job commuting from Baltimore to Washington, DC, daily. Easy, right?
I signed my daughter up for every program for which she was eligible. Independence 101 at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland was her first full-time emersion into life as a blind person. She continued to learn Braille there. She learned computer skills with a screen reader and rode public transportation. More importantly, she had low-vision and blind peers and mentors from whom to learn and grow. Her foundation was set as a middle schooler. As the Biblical book of Proverbs says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
We also got involved with the Arthritis Foundation. Like the National Federation of the Blind, the Arthritis Foundation encourages kids to live their best lives. Though your joints may hurt a little, that should not stop you from playing sports. My daughter signed up for soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, cross-country, and swimming. The highlight for her was practicing one summer to make the junior varsity volleyball team in high school.
Her school years would bring several surgeries and medication transitions. Even today, as a young adult, she is still managing these fluctuations in visual acuity and transitions in medications. She has lost significant visual acuity in the last three years. Earlier this year, it brought me joy to watch her share with her doctor that life goes on whether you are blind or not and you can have the same quality of life if you acquire the necessary skills. She often remarks that some people should attend the Louisiana Center for the Blind, as I did.
Last summer, my daughter invited me to meet her in Barcelona, Spain. Her job encouraged her team to travel internationally in August. She still had work responsibilities, so it was not a 100 percent vacation for her. I met her in Barcelona as any other mother would. I did not have special help, and I do not speak Spanish well at all. It was my first European trip, and I was traveling almost solo.
I am a big culture geek. Wherever I travel I want to learn about the people, the politics, the music, etc. I set up a guided tour. Prior to the tour, my daughter and I had walked for five hours through the shopping districts and parks and eaten lunch. When it came time for the tour, she said she would see me back at the hotel. She had to train the new analyst. Leaving your totally blind mom to fend for herself in the streets of Barcelona is the normal in our relationship.
Recently she met with a principal of a school where a blind child attends. She told the principal the expectations she should have for the blind student. As she spoke, I thought to myself, “Where did she get all of this information to not only live her best life, but to advocate for another blind child?” The National Federation of the Blind, of course.
In the Black community, we often speak of generational wealth. Through being a member of the National Federation of the Blind, I learned about generational Federationism. I learned that a single totally blind mom can rear a confident low-vision and arthritic child. I learned that I could be an example of working as a professional for a daughter who one day may be totally blind. My daughter learned that there are thousands of blind people all over the world who do not allow vision loss to stop their lives or their dreams. Together my daughter and I have learned the value of generational Federationism—that each generation can hand down wisdom to the next and achieve feats once thought unimaginable.Through the Federation, I learned that most of what I was taught to believe about blindness was untrue. Being blind wasn’t something to be ashamed of. Using my cane in public wasn’t weird. If I wanted to pick up my cane or my [guide] dog and walk somewhere, I could just do it because the fears of other people didn’t have to be my fears too. — Julie
Blind people across the United States are making powerful strides in education and leadership, but we need to continue helping people like Julie. For more than eighty years, the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality. With support from individuals like you, we can continue to provide powerful programs and critical resources now and for decades to come. We hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by including the National Federation of the Blind in your charitable giving and in your estate planning. It is easier than you think.
Below are just a few of the many tax-deductible ways you can show your support of the National Federation of the Blind.
We accept donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call 855-659-9314 toll-free, and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation. We can also answer any questions you have.
General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work to help blind people live the lives they want. You can call 410-659-9314, extension 2430, to give by phone. Give online with a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit our online contribution page at: https://nfb.org/donate.
Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring monthly donations by direct withdrawal of funds from a checking account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, call 877-NFB-2PAC, or fill out our PAC Donation Form https://www.nfb.org/pac.
The National Federation of the Blind legacy society, our Dream Makers Circle, honors and recognizes the generosity and imagination of members and special friends who have chosen to leave a legacy through a will or other planned giving option. You can join the Dream Makers Circle in a myriad of ways.
You can specify that a percentage or a fixed sum of your assets or property goes to the National Federation of the Blind in your will, trust, pension, IRA, life insurance policy, brokerage account, or other accounts.
You can name the National Federation of the Blind as the beneficiary on a Payable on Death (POD) account through your bank. You can turn any checking or savings account into a POD account. This is one of the simplest ways to leave a legacy. The account is totally in your control during your lifetime and you can change the beneficiary or percentage at any time with ease.
If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary.
Visit our Planned Giving webpage (https://www.nfb.org/get-involved/ways-give/planned-giving) or call 410-659-9314, extension 2422, for more information.
Just imagine what we will do in 2026, and, with your help, what can be accomplished for years to come. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality.
by Chris Danielsen
In December 2025, the Braille Monitor reported on a proposed merger between LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired (LightHouse), based in San Francisco, and the New York-based Lighthouse Guild, as well as concerns raised about LightHouse’s administration of the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) in California and other concerns and allegations surrounding the agency’s finances and governance. Since that time, significant developments have reshaped the situation—both within LightHouse governance and at the federal level.
After sustained engagement from the blind and deafblind communities, LightHouse announced on December 12, 2025, that its board of directors had voted not to go forward with the proposed merger with Lighthouse Guild. The organization reaffirmed this decision in a December 17 end-of-year communication. The rejection of the merger reflects the impact of organized community response and underscores the importance of transparency and accountability in decisions affecting blind and deafblind people. The proposed merger had raised concerns among stakeholders about programming, service delivery, and the preservation of local control.
About a month later, in a letter to kick off 2026, the board announced that Jennison Asuncion, its chair—who had been a vocal advocate for the merger—will step down effective April 30, 2026. Asuncion’s resignation had been called for by some advocates, especially the Decertify LightHouse Now campaign, but public statements by the agency do not indicate that this pressure or the rejection of the merger proposal played any role in the resignation. In the message, the agency said that “Jennison explained that given the numerous commitments he has on his plate, including: being Vice-Chair of a foundation he helped start, running an annual digital accessibility conference, in addition to his day job, he can no longer give the LightHouse the adequate and dedicated attention it deserves during this consequential period. The board is incredibly grateful for his time and leadership.” Federationists Tim Elder and Jamie Principato Crane continue to serve on the board. Mr. Elder is also president of the National Federation of the Blind of California.
At the same time, LightHouse has resumed its search for a permanent chief executive officer, with Mr. Elder chairing the search committee. The board has indicated that it hopes to have new leadership in place by the summer of 2026. Interim CEO Brandon Cox has been the target of sustained calls for his resignation or dismissal, but LightHouse had already said that it would seek a new CEO following the resignation of Sharon Giovinazzo in early 2025. That search, however, was paused while the merger proposal with Lighthouse Guild was considered. The rebooted search will be closely watched, as the next CEO will inherit both the operational challenges identified in federal proceedings and the broader tasks of stabilizing finances and rebuilding trust with the community.
Meanwhile, a formal complaint filed by accessibility consultant Mussie Gebre, a former LightHouse employee, has now been resolved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In a Memorandum Opinion and Order adopted and released March 25, 2026, the FCC found that LightHouse violated federal rules governing its administration of the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP), also known as the ICanConnect program, which was created by the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act and is governed by regulations promulgated under that law. LightHouse was the sole certified NDBEDP provider for the entire state of California.
The FCC concluded that LightHouse failed to comply with its obligations in four key respects:
These findings represented a partial victory for the complainant. However, the FCC declined to impose the most severe remedy sought—decertification of LightHouse as the NDBEDP provider for California.
Instead, the Commission referred the matter to its Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to determine and implement appropriate corrective measures.
That did not end the saga. On April 6, 2026, the FCC issued a public notice inviting new applications for iCanConnect certification in California. The notice informed the public that on March 31, LightHouse had relinquished its certification for its remaining term (which had begun in 2022 and was to last through June 30, 2027) effective June 30, 2026. The notice therefore sought applications for certification of an interim provider to cover the remainder of that term, to be submitted by May 5, 2026.
Taken together, these developments highlight both the power of community advocacy and the importance of federal enforcement mechanisms. The rejection of the merger demonstrates once again that organized blind and deafblind consumers can influence institutional decisions. At the same time, the FCC’s findings confirmed that, at least for a time, service to deafblind Californians under LightHouse’s iCanConnect administration was inadequate. Although the agency did not grant decertification, its findings appear to vindicate the concerns of deafblind Californians who complained about poor service throughout 2022 and 2023, and LightHouse apparently feels that it cannot meet the requirements going forward, or at least doesn’t want the increased oversight.
For the organized blind movement, these events reinforce a central truth: blind and deafblind people must be the ultimate authority on decisions that are made about services that affect our lives. Whether through advocacy at the community level or engagement with federal processes, our collective voice remains the most effective tool for ensuring that programs intended to serve us are administered with competence, transparency, and respect.
As LightHouse moves forward with new leadership and under increased scrutiny, the coming months will be critical. Its board has approved a deficit budget of $8.8 million for FY 2026, with plans to reduce deficits in 2027 and 2028 to $6 million and $4 million respectively while seeking to identify new revenue streams. This will undoubtedly lead to more controversial cuts and decisions, and the new CEO will have the challenge of balancing responsible financial stewardship with continued service delivery. For deafblind Californians, a new chapter will begin when a new entity is certified to take over iCanConnect services in California. The National Federation of the Blind will continue to monitor developments closely and to advocate for outcomes that are truly in the interest of blind and deafblind Californians.
An Address Delivered by Kenneth Jernigan
at the Annual Convention of the
National Federation of the Blind
Dallas, Texas, Tuesday, July 6, 1993
Shortly after last year’s convention, I received a number of letters from students at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. It was clear that the letters were written as the result of discussions held at the Center and that, although the apparent topic was independent mobility, the real issue was independence in general, and how blind persons should live and behave. I want to share those letters with you, then tell you how I answered them, and finally say a few things about what I think independence really is. The letters are all dated July 23, 1992. Here is a composite of them:
Dear Dr. Jernigan:
I am a sophomore in high school. Right now, I am in a teenage program that the Louisiana Center for the Blind is sponsoring. It is the STEP program. That means Summer Training and Employment Project. We are allowed to get jobs and make money as well as have classes.
A few weeks ago I attended the national convention. I really enjoyed all your speeches and everything. People noticed that you and Mr. Maurer walked sighted guide sometimes, [I interrupt to call your attention to the almost code-word use of the term “sighted guide.” Not “walking with a sighted guide” or “walking with a sighted person” or “holding the arm of a sighted person,” but “walking sighted guide.” This makes it clear that the concept of “sighted guide” has been the topic of considerable conversation. But back to the letter] and we thought you all would never walk sighted guide, because you all are so highly involved in the NFB. I never thought sighted guide was OK until then. So why did you all use sighted guide? I know there are many reasons why this might be. We discussed this in one of our talk times and came up with one reason this might be. We know that you all have to be at meetings all the time and it would be faster if you would use sighted guide. [I interrupt again to call your attention to the use in the following sentences of the depersonalized “it.” Now, back to the letter.] I am sure you don’t use it so much that you lose your cane travel skills. I am not trying to say this is wrong. I was just wondering why you do this. Someone brought up that if we, as the people being trained at the moment, were caught using sighted guide, they would fuss at us. And I realize that you are not the one in training, so it is not wrong. We couldn’t use sighted guide, because we might want to use it more than the cane if we use too much of it.
Yours truly,
Dear Dr. Jernigan:
During this past convention in North Carolina some of us noticed that you did not walk with a cane. I do not understand this at all. I can understand that you have to be in many places in a short amount of time at the conventions, and that might be the reason you went sighted guide. But I also know that when you came for a tour of the Center, you also went sighted guide. We do not understand this.
We all have our own theories as to why you went sighted guide, but we want to get the correct answer straight from the horse’s mouth.
Your fellow Federationist,
That’s a very clear-cut letter, and I am pleased to be called that end of the horse. Here is the last one:
Dear Dr. Jernigan:
This year I came to Charlotte to attend my third national convention of the NFB. I am currently a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in the STEP program for blind teenagers. This program stresses cane use, Braille literacy, employment readiness, and self-confidence based on achievement. While at the convention I heard from a friend that you were never actually seen using your cane. I discussed this with a group of friends, and it was decided that you most likely had many places to go and had to get to them quickly. This made sense, and the question seemed settled. Then one of the groups remembered you using sighted guide during a tour you took of the Center while passing through Ruston on the way to the Dallas convention in 1990. This was such a hectic situation, and the question was no longer settled because the only alternative travel technique anyone noticed you using was sighted guide.
I do not mean this letter to imply any disrespect towards you, the Federation, or its many achievements. If the Federation had not pushed so hard for independence for the blind, I would have no grounds on which to write this letter. It is because of my own personal convictions about independence that I ask why the figurehead of the NFB is not himself using the alternative techniques that his student, Joanne Wilson, has been teaching for nearly ten years in Ruston.
I would prefer to end the letter on a positive note. I realize that you are responsible for the training I am currently receiving, and I am grateful for it. I am not implying that you have no cane skills, because I do not honestly know.
Sincerely,
These are straightforward letters, seriously written. They raise fundamental questions, questions that deserve a reasoned answer. Here is the expanded substance of what I wrote:
Baltimore, Maryland
July 29, 1992
Under date of July 23, 1992, the three of you wrote to ask me why I didn’t travel alone with a cane during the national convention in Charlotte and why on a visit to the Louisiana Center in 1990 I took a sighted person’s arm instead of walking alone with a cane. I appreciate your letters and will tell you why I do what I do.
In the first place let us assume that I didn’t have any cane travel skills at all. This might be comparable to the situation of a parent who had no education but dreamed of an education for his or her child. That parent might preach the value of education and might work to send the child to high school and then to college. The parent might, though personally uneducated, feel tremendous satisfaction at the learning and accomplishment which his or her effort had made possible. In such circumstances what attitude should the child have toward the parent? The child might be critical of the parent for his or her poor grammar and lack of education and might even be ashamed to associate with the parent—or the child might feel gratitude for the sacrifice and the work that had made the education possible.
This is not an apt analogy since I have perfectly good cane skills, but it has elements of truth about it. When I was a child, there were no orientation centers or mobility training. The only canes available were the short heavy wooden type, and we youngsters associated carrying a cane with begging, shuffling along, and being helpless.
It was not until I finished college and had taught for four years in Tennessee that I first carried a cane. It was made of wood and had a crook handle. I might also say that it was longer than most of those in vogue at the time, forty inches. I started using it in 1953, just before going to California to work at the newly established state orientation center for the blind. The center had been in operation for only a few months and had enrolled only four or five students by the time of my arrival.
In those days the California Center was using 42-inch aluminum canes. They were a tremendous improvement over the 40-inch wooden cane I had been carrying, and I immediately adopted the new model. Even so, it seemed that something better was needed. I worked with the person who had been employed as the travel teacher, and we experimented with different techniques and canes.
In the mid-1950s the solid fiberglass cane was developed. It was first made by a blind man in Kansas, but we at the California Center popularized it and brought it into general use. We also worked to improve the tip. Our students received intensive training, those with any sight using blindfolds (or, as we called them, sleep shades), and our students and graduates were identifiable in any group of blind persons because of their competence and ease in travel. Since they had enjoyed the benefit of our study and experimentation, as well as intensive instruction and the time to practice, many of them probably became better travelers than I—and I felt pride and satisfaction in the fact. We were advancing on the road to freedom and independence.
In 1958 I went to Iowa as director of the state commission for the blind, and I carried with me the experience and knowledge I had acquired in California plus a 48-inch fiberglass cane and a head full of new ideas and hopes for the future. I hired a young sighted man who had no experience at all with blindness and spent several days giving him preliminary instruction in mobility, using blind techniques. First, I had him follow me all over Des Moines, watching me use the cane while crossing streets and going to various places. Then, he put on sleep shades, and I worked with him to learn basic skills. Next, I sent him to California for three or four weeks to gain further experience and to compare what I had taught him with what the California Center was doing. Finally he came back to Des Moines, and I spent several more weeks working with him until (though sighted) he could (under blindfold) go anywhere he wanted safely and comfortably using a cane.
During all of that time I worked with him on attitudes, for unless one believes that he or she is capable of independence as a blind person, independence in travel (as in other areas) is not truly achievable. This travel instructor’s name is Jim Witte, and he developed into one of the best I have ever known.
Iowa students rapidly became the envy of the nation. You could single them out in any group because of their bearing, their confidence, and their skill in travel. As had been the case in California, some of them undoubtedly traveled better than I, and I felt a deep sense of fulfillment in the fact. Joanne Wilson (the director of your own Louisiana Center) was one of those students, and I am sure she has told you how it was at the Iowa Center—how students were treated, what was expected of them, the relationship between staff and students, our dreams for the future, and how we set about accomplishing those dreams. Arlene Hill (one of your teachers) was also an Iowa student. Both Joanne and Arlene are living examples of what we taught and how it worked. So are President Maurer, Mrs. Maurer, Peggy Pinder, Ramona Walhof, Jim Gashel, Jim Omvig, and at least fifty others in this audience.
It was in Iowa that we developed the hollow fiberglass cane. It was an improvement over the solid cane, lighter and more flexible. We also gradually began to use longer and longer canes. They enabled us to walk faster without diminishing either safety or grace. As I have already told you, I started with a 40-inch wooden cane. Then I went to 42-inch aluminum—and after that to solid fiberglass, then to hollow fiberglass, and (three or four years ago) to hollow carbon fiber. As to length, I went from 40 inches to 42, then to 45, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, and 57. At present I use a 59-inch cane. It seems about right to me for my height and speed of travel. Will I ever use a still longer cane? I don’t know—but at this stage I don’t think so. Obviously there comes a time when a longer cane is a disadvantage instead of a help.
I’ve told you all of this so that you may understand something of my background and approach to independence in travel, and independence in general. The doctors who established the medical schools a hundred years ago were (with notable exceptions) not generally as competent and skilled as the doctors they trained, for they did not have the benefit of the kind of concentrated teaching they themselves were providing. Obviously they could not stand on their own shoulders. Through their students they extended their dreams into the future, building possibilities that they themselves had not known and could never hope to realize.
So it is with me in relation to you. You are the third generation of our mobility trainees, having the benefit of what I have learned and also of what Joanne and the other Iowa graduates have learned. Unless you make advances over what we have done, you will, in a very real sense, fail to keep faith with those who have gone before you and those who will follow. In this context I would expect and hope that some of you will become better travelers (and, perhaps, better philosophers and teachers) than I, and if you do, I will take joy in it.
Having said all of this, let me come back to my own travel skills. During the 1950s I traveled completely alone on a constant basis throughout this entire country, going to almost every state and dealing with almost every kind of environment—urban area, city bus, taxi, complicated street crossing, rural setting, hired private car, country road, and almost anything else you can imagine. During late December and early January of 1956 and 1957, for example, I traveled alone to fourteen states in eleven days, writing testimony for the NFB’s Right to Organize bill. It was no big deal, and not something I thought about very much. It was simply a job that had to be done, and the travel was incidental and taken for granted. I have taught travel instructors and have developed new techniques and canes. I travel whenever and wherever I want to go in the most convenient way to get there—and sometimes that means alone, using a cane.
Once when I was in Iowa, students observed that I walked to a barber shop one day with another staff member, and they raised with me some of the same questions you have raised. That afternoon in our business class (you may call it by some other name—philosophy or something else) I dealt with the matter. I told the students some of the things I have told you, and then I went on to say something like this:
“Although what I have told you should mean that even if I couldn’t travel with much skill at all I might still not merit your criticism, we don’t need to leave it at that. Follow me. We are going to take a walk through downtown traffic—and see that you keep up.”
I took the lead, and we walked for eight or ten blocks at a fast clip. When we got back to the classroom, I didn’t need to tell them what kind of travel skills I had. They knew.
Then, we talked about why I had walked to the barber shop with another staff member. In that particular instance I had matters to discuss, and I felt I couldn’t afford the luxury of doing nothing while going for a haircut. As a matter of fact, in those days I often made a practice of taking my secretary with me to the barber shop and dictating letters while getting my hair cut. Of course, I could have made a point of walking alone each time just to make a visible demonstration of my independence, but somehow I think that such insecurity might have made the opposite point and would certainly have been counterproductive.
In the Iowa days I was not only director of the state Commission for the Blind but also first vice president and then president of the National Federation of the Blind. Both were full-time jobs, requiring me to use to best advantage every waking minute.
I was up before 6:00 to go to the gym with the men students; I wrote over a hundred letters a week; I entertained legislators and other civic leaders an average of two or three nights a week to gain support for our program; I traveled throughout the state to make speeches; and I spent long hours working individually with students. Besides that, I handled the administrative details of the Commission and the NFB on a daily basis. At the same time I was doing organizing in other states and dealing with problems brought to me by Federationists throughout the country.
In that context it would have been a bad use of my time (and both Federationists and Iowa students and staff would have thought so) for me to spend much of my day walking down the street to make a visible show of my independent travel skills. I traveled alone when I needed to, and I gave demonstrations to students, legislators, and others when I needed to do that—but I never did either to convince myself or to establish in my own mind the fact of my capacity or independence. It didn’t seem necessary.
So what about the NFB convention in Charlotte? I was in charge of convention organization and arrangements, and there were a thousand details to handle. There were four hotels and a convention center, each with its own staff and each requiring separate handling and a myriad of decisions. Sometimes I had not only one but two or three people with me as I went from place to place, talking about what had to be done and sending this person here and that person yonder.
Even so, I might (you may say) have refused to take the arm of one of the persons with me and used my cane to walk alone. But for what reason? When a blind person is walking through a crowd or down a street with somebody else and trying to carry on a meaningful conversation, it is easier to take the other person’s arm. This is true even if you are the best traveler in the world and even if both of you are blind.
In fact, I contend that there are times when refusing to take an arm that is offered may constitute the very opposite of independence. If, for instance, you are a blind person accompanying a sighted person through a busy restaurant closely packed with tables and chairs, do you create a better image of independence by trying to get through the maze alone, with the sighted person going in front and constantly calling back, “This way! This way!” or by simply taking the sighted person’s arm and going to the table? What is better about following a voice than following an arm? From what I have said, I presume it is clear which method I favor. Of course, if no arm is conveniently available, you should be prepared to use another method, regardless of how crowded the restaurant or how labyrinthine the path. In either case you should do it without losing your cool.
But back to the convention. When you are trying to get through crowds quickly to go from meeting to meeting, and possibly also trying to find different people in those crowds in a hurry, the efficiency of sighted assistance multiplies. Incidentally, even if I were sighted and doing the things I do at national conventions, I would want two or three persons with me—to look for people in crowds, to send for this and that, and to talk and advise with.
As an example, consider what happened at last year’s convention with respect to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander. He has normal eyesight and is in every other way, so far as I know, able-bodied and energetic. I am sure that he can drive a car and walk vigorously. Yet, he sent an assistant to Charlotte a day in advance of his arrival. The assistant scouted out the convention and then went to the airport to meet the Secretary. The assistant drove the car from the airport to the convention, accompanied the Secretary into the meeting hall, went with him to the platform, met him at the edge of the platform when he finished speaking, and drove him back to the airport. If the Secretary had been blind, I wonder if somebody would have said, “Just look! He’s not independent. He has to have a sighted person with him at all times, accompanying him everywhere he goes and driving his car.”
Since I am not a student trying to learn to travel independently or to establish within my own mind that I can compete on terms of equality with others, and since I can and do travel by myself when that is most convenient, I feel no particular obligation to make a demonstration when it is more efficient to do otherwise. If I were a student, I should and would behave differently. As an example, I think a student should always use a rigid (not a collapsible) cane. But I generally use one that is collapsible. Why? Students often are uncomfortable with canes, and if they are allowed to use those that fold or telescope, they may tend to hide or conceal them because they think (even if subconsciously) that it will make them look less conspicuous. I have carried a cane for so long that I would feel naked without it, and I always carry one whether I am with somebody or not. Because they were so rickety, I refused to carry a collapsible cane until we developed the telescoping carbon fiber model. I pull it to such a tight fit that it doesn’t collapse as I use it, and I almost never collapse it unless I’m in close quarters. Again, it is a convenience, and my sense of independence is not so brittle that I think I have to carry the rigid cane to prove to myself or others that I am not ashamed to be seen with it or uncomfortable about blindness.
When I was teaching orientation classes in California and Iowa, I often said to those in attendance that students at a center tend to go through three stages: fear and insecurity, rebellious independence, and normal independence—FI, RI, and NI. During fear and insecurity one tends to be ultra cautious and afraid of everything, even if at times putting on a good front. During rebellious independence one tends to be overly touchy, resenting anybody who attempts to offer him or her any kind of assistance at all, even when the assistance is appropriate and needed. In the rebellious independence stage one is likely to be a pain in the neck, both to himself or herself and others—but this is a necessary step on the road from fear and insecurity to normal independence. Unfortunately some people never get beyond it.
Hopefully one will eventually arrive at the stage of normal independence, with relatively little need constantly to prove either to oneself or others that one is capable of independence and first-class citizenship. This means maturity in dealing with condescending treatment, and it also means flexibility in accepting or rejecting offers of assistance, kindness, or generosity. Sometimes such things should be graciously or silently taken, sometimes endured, and sometimes rejected out of hand—but the reason should never be because you doubt your own worth, have inner feelings of insecurity, or wonder whether you are inferior because of blindness.
Normal independence also means not rationalizing your fear or inability by saying that you are just doing what is convenient and efficient and that you don’t feel the need to prove something when in reality you are just covering up the fact that you are as helpless as a baby—and it means not going so far the other way and being so touchy about your so-called independence that nobody can stand to be around you. It means getting to the place where you are comfortable enough with yourself and secure enough with your own inner feelings that you don’t have to spend much time bothering about the matter one way or another. It means reducing blindness to the level of a mere inconvenience and making it just one more of your everyday characteristics—a characteristic with which you must deal just as you do with how strong you are, how old you are, how smart you are, how personable you are, and how much money you have. These are the goals, and probably none of us ever achieves all of them all of the time.
Nevertheless, we are making tremendous progress—and we are farther along the road now than we have ever been.
I am pleased that you wrote me, and I am especially pleased that you are able to receive training at the Louisiana Center. It is grounded in Federation philosophy, and it is one of the best. You are getting the chance while you are young to learn what blindness is really like, and what it isn’t like. You have the opportunity to profit from the collective experience of all of us—the things we tried that didn’t work, and those that did. On the foundation of love and organizational structure which we have established, you can make for yourselves better opportunities than we have ever known—and I pray that you will. The future is in the hands of your generation, and I hope you will dream and work and build wisely and well.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Jernigan
That is what I wrote, and there have been a number of subsequent developments. One person, hearing these letters, said, “I can see your point, but don’t you think you should try to be a role model?”
To which I replied, “I thought that was what I was doing.”
Then, there was the letter I got about a month ago from a person who attended a seminar at the National Center for the Blind last Christmas. She said in part:
The discussion about the letter from the students at the Louisiana Center for the Blind has stuck with me and helped me in two ways. I no longer feel the deep embarrassment I had been experiencing about being unable to read Braille and having less-than-perfect travel skills. I remain painfully aware that I could be much more efficient than I am, particularly if I could read and write Braille, but I no longer feel that I am less worthy because of the lack. And, by the way, I hope to take care of my deficiencies in that area soon.
The discussion also helped me better to appreciate and respect my dad, who was blinded by an on-the-job accident when he was 26. After he became blind, he went to law school, and I have always admired his relatively quick adjustment to blindness. On the other hand, I have always felt somewhat embarrassed that when traveling he uses a sighted guide the majority of the time. (For instance, I was horrified and disbelieving when I heard my dad flew to Alaska by himself to go fishing without his guide dog or a white cane!) He has a guide dog but only used him when he was going to work. I have never seen him use a white cane although I have just learned that he used one while in his office at work. However, the seminar discussion helped me to understand that everyone’s situation differs and that the opportunities available are not uniform. My dad has accomplished a lot: He was an administrative law judge until he retired last month; he is an avid fisherman; and he is as pro-Braille as anybody I have ever met.
That is what the seminarian wrote me, and her letter makes a point. It is simply this: We absolutely must not become so rigid and dogmatic about the means and precise details of achieving independence that we make ourselves and everybody else around us miserable. Down that road lies bigotry, as well as the loss of any real independence or true normality.
Usually when I go to bed at night, I read myself to sleep with a recorded book. A few months ago somebody took me to task for this. The person said something to this effect: “You should not read recorded books. You should use Braille. After all, the Federation advocates Braille literacy, and if you use tapes and talking books, you decrease the circulation of Braille from the libraries, and you also set a bad example. What kind of statement are you making? What kind of image are you creating? You have an obligation to serve as a role model.”
I didn’t argue with the person. It wouldn’t have done any good. Yes, I use Braille; and as you know, I find it helpful. More than that. My life would be poorer without it. But Braille is a means. It is a vehicle, not an article of faith. I am conscious of the fact that I have an obligation to be a role model, and I do the best I can to meet the requirement. But the kind of role model I want to be (for anybody who cares to see me that way) is that of a competent, well-balanced human being, not a caricature. The fact that I don’t want to die of thirst doesn’t mean that I want to drown.
What is independence? I would define it this way. With respect to reading, it means getting the information you want with a minimum amount of inconvenience and expense. For me that means Braille, but it also means using live readers, recordings, and (despite my limited competence in that area) a certain amount of work with computers. For somebody else the combination may be different, but any active blind person who lacks skill in Braille will be limited—not necessarily unable to compete but definitely limited.
As to travel, independence is the ability to go where you want when you want without inconvenience to yourself or others. Probably none of us (blind or sighted) ever fully achieves that goal all of the time—and almost all of us achieve at least some of it some of the time. Usually we are on a continuum.
If I could not travel by myself without discomfort or great expense, there are times when it would be a real problem. What about the trip I made to Kansas City in May of this year to meet with local Federationists and speak at a JOB seminar? My wife had other things to do, and it would have been inconvenient to take somebody else. I went alone. Did I have any assistance during the trip? Yes. At times—when it was convenient for me and not inconvenient to others.
What about the time last month when I was called for jury duty? It would have been very difficult for a guide to have accompanied me to the jury box or the jury room—so, of course, I went by myself. Does that mean that nobody showed me where the jury box was or gave other assistance? No. It means that I went where I needed to go without inconvenience to me or those around me. That is what I call independence.
Just as with the sighted, there are times when you as a blind person want privacy—want to go somewhere (to see a boyfriend or girlfriend, for instance) without being accompanied by your daily associates, want to buy a present for a friend or a loved one, or just feel like following a whim. In such cases a dog or a cane is helpful. On the other hand, there are times when the assistance of a sighted person is extremely beneficial. Taken by itself, the use or lack of use of a sighted guide has very little, if anything at all, to do with real independence. In fact, the whole notion of independence (not just in mobility but also in everything else) involves the concept of doing what you want when you want and doing it without paying such a heavy price (either monetarily or otherwise) that the thing is hardly worth having once you get it or do it.
In conclusion, I say to each member of this organization: Hold your head high in the joy of accomplishment and the pride of independence—but not because of dog or cane or human arm, and not because of your ability to read Braille or use a computer. These are the trappings of independence, not the substance of it. They should be learned and used when needed—but they should be regarded only as means, not ends. Our independence comes from within. A slave can have keen eyesight, excellent mobility, and superb reading skills—and still be a slave. We are achieving freedom and independence in the only way that really counts—in rising self-respect, growing self-confidence, and the will and the ability to make choices. Above all, independence means choices, and the power to make those choices stick. We are getting that power, and we intend to have more of it. That is why we have organized. That is why we have the National Federation of the Blind. We know where we are going, and we know how to get there. Let anybody who doubts it put us to the test. My brothers and my sisters, the future is ours! Let us meet it with joy; let us meet it with hope; and (most important of all) let us meet it together!
by Andrew D. Adams
From the Editor: Andrew D. Adams serves on the board of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina and is its fundraising chairman, as well as first vice president of one of its largest chapters, in the capital city of Columbia. He is a member of the current Kenneth Jernigan Leadership in Service Program cohort.
Upon finishing “The Nature of Independence,” I felt inspired to open up about my experiences in life. As I read Dr. Kenneth Jernigan’s classic speech, I found myself nodding along and completely agreeing with his definition of independence. Throughout his speech, he said things that I have learned about independence through my life. I’ve realized that just because you may need help with certain tasks in life does not mean you are not living independently. True independence means having the confidence and courage to make decisions that allow you to live your life to the fullest.
Before reading “The Nature of Independence,” I was gifted the unfortunate chance to know what it feels like to not be independent. After beating cancer, I was left with a body that had been weakened by the cancer-fighting drugs that saved my life. My immune system was shot, which caused me to have several health complications. I developed cytomegalovirus (CMV) and later meningitis, forcing doctors to put me in a medically-induced coma to treat. During this time, I was bedridden and unable to care for myself. For the first time in my adult life, my dad had to help me bathe and perform other tasks to get ready for the day. This was not only humiliating, but emotionally heartbreaking. It truly felt like my independence had been stolen from me.
I will admit that at that point in my life I took great pride in being able to do things for myself. So, when I was no longer able to, I struggled with having to depend on others. In my mind, I thought anything less than independence was weakness. However, as the years passed (and before I read Dr. Jernigan’s work) I began to learn that, while I was sick, accepting help did not make me any less independent. Accepting help allowed me to get better safely and carry on with my life. I can now say I knew what Dr. Jernigan was talking about when he stated “Our independence comes from within.” Independence is not about how you walk. It’s about strength, power over your own life, and self-esteem.
Losing my vision was another eye-opening moment for me. Not only did I have to relearn how to do basic tasks, I had to learn how to do everything differently. I needed people to help guide me where I needed to go, help me find clothes, and help me with other day-to-day tasks. Trust me when I say this process was very frustrating and broke me down emotionally more than once. However, it allowed me to learn how to take back my life.
With time, I learned how to use a white cane, travel to new places, use access technology, and learn how to do daily living tasks on my own again. One of the biggest factors that allowed me to regain my independence was the National Federation of the Blind. When I became involved with the Federation, I was introduced to like-minded individuals who believed in me and challenged the stereotypes I once believed about blindness. Not only did they show me that we are capable of doing anything we set our minds to, but they taught me how to look at blindness in a different way. Instead of viewing it as a limitation, I learned to view it as another aspect of my life that I could teach myself to work around with enough training, advocacy, and confidence. Most of all, the Federation showed me that independence isn’t about whether you accept help from others. It’s about having the confidence, know-how, and power to make decisions for yourself.
Now as the Assistant Director of South Carolina’s Successful Transitions program for young adults, I find myself trying to incorporate all of these things into my work. I am there to help students when they need me, but I also want them to realize how great they are. I want them to continue to push themselves and know that although they may encounter challenges, they are not limitations. Challenges allow us to grow as individuals and learn more about ourselves.
Reading “The Nature of Independence” solidified what I have learned about independence throughout my life. We are independent during some phases of our life and not so independent during others. The important thing is that we have the strength, confidence, and self-love to keep moving forward no matter what. That is what independence means to me and how I strive to live my life.
by Melissa Riccobono, Anil Lewis, and Denise Avant
From the Editor: The following is an edited transcript of excerpts from an episode of the Nation’s Blind Podcast entitled “The Myth of the SuperBlind.” To hear the full episode or read the full transcript, visit the podcast’s homepage on the NFB website.
Melissa Riccobono: Hello and welcome to the Nation’s Blind Podcast. I’m Melissa Riccobono, and I am here with the man who is actually coming to you from Baltimore for a change.
Anil Lewis: Hey! How about that?
Melissa Riccobono: So, we have Denise Avant, who I believe has been on our podcast before. She is a member of the tenBroek Board of the National Federation of the Blind, and she is from Chicago, Illinois. How are you, Denise?
Denise Avant: I am doing great. So glad that you guys have asked me to join you this afternoon. And yes, I have been on other podcasts with you all during convention and even at other times. So I’m always glad to come and be part of your podcast.
Anil Lewis: Sure. And you’re still a co-chair of our membership committee or are you chair of the membership group?
Denise Avant: I am chair of the membership committee.
Anil Lewis: Okay, got it. Yeah.
Melissa Riccobono: Oh, well, no wonder you’re on this podcast because we’re talking a lot about membership today. And we’re really trying to break it down and help people understand what being a member of the National Federation of the Blind means, but more importantly, what it doesn’t mean, because there’s so many rumors and misconceptions out there about what the NFB believes and what we don’t. And so we’re hoping that we can sort of break that down a little bit and talk about that. And Denise, I’m sure you get a lot of questions from people who are new members or who want to be members about these kinds of things. Is that true?
Denise Avant: That’s correct, because I currently serve as chapter president of our Chicago chapter. I’ve been chapter president for five years now. And oftentimes I do get calls from people asking, "Well, what does the National Federation of the Blind do? What do we offer? What will I learn?" And most are new to blindness. Others may not have had as much exposure to independent travel and living and things like that. So they come not knowing. And of course, myself and other more experienced Federationists, we are tasked with the responsibility of trying to really explain who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re trying to really help them accomplish for themselves.
Anil Lewis: That begs the question of independence, right? So I guess we start there. What does independence mean?
Melissa Riccobono: Yeah. What does it mean to you, Anil?
Anil Lewis: When I hear it now, I reflect back on some work that we were doing back when we were looking at reasonable accommodations and all that kind of thing. So what I’ve adopted as mine is having autonomy and the power to make your own decisions that create little to no inconvenience to others. So I define that by saying, "Yeah, I want to be able to do what I want. I want autonomy in doing what I want, but that doesn’t give me the right to make someone else do what I need to do in order to get that degree of autonomy."
Melissa Riccobono: Denise, what about you?
Denise Avant: I agree with that. I want to be able to go to the places I want to go, do the things that I want to do, and have the experiences that I want to have. And I don’t want to impose on people. I don’t want people to feel like they have to take care of me. If I need to request assistance, I can do that. But I try to limit that because I don’t want to impose on people, but yet I still want to get out and be out in the public because the public doesn’t meet and see a lot of blind people. And sometimes that has to do with why people in the public act the way they do, because they kind of put themselves in the position, “Well, if I were blind, I wouldn’t be able to do this. I wouldn’t be able to walk. I wouldn’t be able to stand up without holding onto something (Melissa laughs).” And it’s like, it’s not true. So I really do want to leave people with the impression, “No, you don’t have to take care of me, but if you could assist me with some directions or getting to a place, that would be great. But if I don’t need you, I’m just going to go on my own.”
Anil Lewis: Melissa?
Melissa Riccobono: I think for me, it’s really a work in progress. I think that there was a time in my life where I felt like independence had to mean that I did everything all by myself all the time. And then in a variety of ways, partly by actually reading Dr. Jernigan’s wonderful speech, “The Nature of Independence,” I have come to believe that it also means having the belief in myself that I can get things done and that my blindness is not always going to be an obstacle. And if I don’t know how to do something, knowing that I can talk to other people and say, “Hey, have you ever done this before?” And then decide, okay, I could learn how to. And it’s also though, for me, sort of testing my theories a little bit at a time and really figuring out, am I doing this because I think I have to do it this way? Am I doing this because I don’t feel like I can do it any other way? Or am I doing it because yeah, I could do it a different way, but—you know what?—this is just easier or this is more cost-effective right now.
Anil Lewis: I think the key to this whole discussion is that my definition is somewhat different than Denise’s definition, is somewhat different than your definition. And I think that that’s the key. It has to be individualized. Christian, one of our members from Louisiana, said it the best. She says, "Independence looks different on everyone." And I think that’s the real important piece because I think if we don’t look at it from that perspective, then we think that there is one clear universal definition that should be shared by everyone. And then that’s when we get into places where we disagree and disconnect.
Melissa Riccobono: I love that. And I got to say, and we’re going to talk about this in a little while, but independence looked a little bit different for me when I was younger and before I got diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, because once you have something else going on, sometimes the independence has to look a little bit different because there’s other things at play. And so I think that’s really important too.
Now, should we go into the common misconceptions? Or Denise, did you have anything else to say about independence before we go into some common misconceptions or some things that people might want to dive into with us?
Denise Avant: Well, one of the things that I just want to say, I think what we try to do is raise people’s expectations because people come to us not having ever tried a thing, whatever it is, whether it’s grilling a steak or doing a pie crust from scratch. And it’s like, "No, I can’t do it. I’m blind. I just can’t do it." And I’m like, "Well, why don’t I introduce you to some other blind people? And they will tell you about some of the things that they do, including making a pie crust from scratch." So I think that one of the things that we try to do, and maybe part of this is where misunderstanding comes in, we try to raise expectations because we are talking to people who have never had the experience. And so we are trying to raise those expectations and debunk some of the myths about the capabilities of blind people.
Melissa Riccobono: I love that, and sometimes the worst myths that we have to struggle against are the myths that we tell ourselves because it’s what society has told us or because we might believe something or know something in our head, but just don’t believe it in our hearts until we see somebody doing it. Or we feel like, “Well, they’ve been blind all their lives. Of course, they can do that. I just became blind three years ago, four years ago. I can’t do that, or I’m not them.”
Anil Lewis: You touched on something so powerful because it’s not even about just being newly blind. Some individuals who’ve been blind for an extended period of time and have really good skills have still been shaped by society’s perpetual bombardment of that message of lack of capacity.
Melissa Riccobono: So we try to raise expectations, but that sometimes creates misconceptions, including the perception that we as Federationists think we are superior to others. I think the hardest part with a lot of these misconceptions is that people have truly had conversations with others, and they have truly felt as if those other people have told them or have really looked down on them or had an attitude with them. Now, whether the other person did or whether the first person was just so set in their mind that, of course, they were going to be scorned, that’s all up for debate because, of course, communication takes two people. But I think it is hard once you’ve gotten that message or feel like you have truly gotten that message from someone who claims to be a member of the National Federation of the Blind. And then we come along and say, “No, it’s not really like that,” which is the truth. But how do we help people really experience our truth and give them the reason to try again if their first interactions with the NFB weren’t that great?
Anil Lewis: So Denise, how would you respond to that person that comes to you and says, “Well, I heard about you guys. You guys don’t like for us to use wheelchairs in the airport.”
Denise Avant: One of the things that I would first say is that we have all kinds of blind people in our organization. And just because you meet one person who might not have explained things in the way that would be inviting, that doesn’t mean that the rest of us feel that way. And we have evolved as an organization over time. The other thing is our organization, and also the Americans with Disabilities Act, recognizes that people have the right to make their own choices about what do you feel is best for you to use. Now, as a member of the Federation, I will suggest some alternatives, again, just to make you aware and just to maybe encourage you to try out something. And if you feel like you want to do the way you’ve always been doing, that you’re feeling more comfortable that way, then that’s not for me to say, and I’m not going to look down on you. If you feel more comfortable taking a wheelchair at the airport, then by all means, but also accord me the choice to say, “No, I want to walk because the people in the airport insist that this is best for me, and I want to show that as a blind person, there’s nothing wrong with my feet, there’s nothing wrong with my legs, and I can walk.” But each of us has the right to make the choice that you want to make. And one of the things that I know that we stress in the Federation is that you have the right to make your own decision, what’s best for you. I can show you, I can talk to you about it, but at the end of the day, the choice is going to be yours.
Anil Lewis: You said something that’s very important in that too, because I think it does work both ways. So yeah, as Melissa was saying earlier, you may run into a member who, based on the training they received, is really overzealous. What did Dr. Jernigan [say]? Radical independence.
Melissa Riccobono: Radical independence, yeah.
Anil Lewis: They reached a space of radical independence where they’re so proud of their independence that they may come off as being critical of you, not really recognizing that where you are is where they came from too. So it may not be as inspiring or encouraging. I try to be mindful, sticking with the whole analogy of the wheelchairs, when someone travels with me and they know I’m with the Federation, and they normally would take the wheelchair, choose not to take the wheelchair because they don’t want to feel diminished in my perception. I don’t put that burden on people, that’s something that they superimpose on themselves. So once they disclose that, I’m like, “No, let’s get you a wheelchair. That’s fine.”
Melissa Riccobono: When I went to guide dog school, they had something on my ticket that basically said she needs assistance. And so I got to the airport in Minneapolis and they had a cart for me. Now, this cart driver did not speak English hardly at all. There were also other people on the cart. And I was in a position where I had no idea where this cart was driving and I could not communicate well with the driver. I was so worried I wasn’t going to get to the gate where I needed to go because I didn’t know if he really understood where I needed to go. And when I finally got off that cart—and yes, I did get to the gate I wanted to go to—I just decided, “Never again, I do not ever want to give up my control again and just ride through the airport passively. I can’t do that. That takes away my autonomy and even the ways that I gather information.” But when my dad was dying, I had little tiny baby Oriana with me, and not only did I not have enough hands to get through security because I had this tiny little four-month-old, but I also was not in the head space to go around an airport and deal with people. I knew if somebody talked to me wrong or I got turned around or something happened, I was just going to break down and cry. And so yes, that day, I absolutely waited for the assistance, took every bit of assistance anybody would give me, every bit of kindness. I tell these stories to people so that they understand that you can make different choices at different times, and that’s fine, and you shouldn’t have to apologize for making those different choices.
Anil Lewis: Another misconception is that we don’t like guide dogs, and that our training centers do not allow them.
Denise Avant: Well, that’s not true either. Well, first of all, just let me say, if you really want to know the real information, just come to a convention, a national convention, and there are our share of guide dogs. We have a whole division that is devoted to guide dog use, and it has some of our more avid members in it. And we really devote the energy to making sure that guide dog users and their dogs are comfortable in our spaces, both at our national and our state conventions. And I know our training centers, because I’ve asked, they say, “You can bring your guide dog. You can walk to the class with him. And when lunch is, you can play and walk him and feed him, and also after class and on weekends. But when we’re doing classwork, we are going to ask you to use your cane because at the end of the day, if you’re a good cane traveler and are super aware of cardinal directions, that’ll really help your relationship with your guide dog because you don’t have the poor dog out there trying to figure out things for you.”
I’m not a guide dog handler, never have been, but anything that I think would strengthen that bond and would help you be a better traveler, even when you’re using a dog, you’re so much the better. But no, I think our training centers try to encourage you to be a strong cane user. You never know. Your dog might get sick or there may be places that you want to go, like a concert, and do you really want to take your dog to something where music is blasting and all of those kinds of things and there’s crowds of people? I don’t think so. But I’ll leave that to Melissa because I know that you’ve worked a dog.
Melissa Riccobono: What about blind people who have other disabilities? And I kind of did go over this just a little bit because now I do have chronic fatigue syndrome. I’m used to being blind. When I was first diagnosed with chronic fatigue, that was a whole new ball of wax for me. I had no idea what to do because all of a sudden everything that I had always just been able to count on wasn’t working for me anymore, particularly short-term memory.
Denise Avant: Well, I do want to say, as a leader, as a chapter president, I’m aware that we have an accessibility policy and that is designed so that we make sure that our physical space is accessible. A few months ago, one of our members broke her ankle. And so we were looking for a space to have our chapter meetings and we found this great restaurant. It was really wonderful. We had our own little room and it was quiet. There was only one problem. There were stairs, two of them only, but two stairs can be like a mountain to somebody who can’t get up those stairs. And so we were not able to meet at that place, even though the owner tried a portable ramp, but that didn’t work. And so I think that accessibility policy has made us aware that we need to be mindful that not everyone that’s coming to us is just blind.
They could have some other issues. Now, I will also say that sometimes we may need you to tell us what it is you need. That’s what the Americans with Disabilities Act is based on. And I would say that’s what the Federation is based on, is you letting us know what you need. I know that last year at our Washington Seminar, I wasn’t able to be at the seminar, but I’m told that one of the people who went was not as sure with walking and traveling as you might think as far as walking through the halls of Congress and getting to the different meetings, quick fast and in a hurry the way we do, getting off Capitol Hill and getting back, it would take them a little more time. I really was not aware of that. Had I known, I might’ve tried to schedule something a little different for that person. So if there’s something that you need, we’re not asking you to divulge your entire medical condition but at least let us know so that we can make arrangements. We have the DeafBlind Division and we now are starting to get the devices so that if people have trouble hearing during the meetings, we’re able to get that to them. So these are things that we really are working on as an organization. So if you had a bad experience, if you came to us once and you didn’t find that we met your needs, give us another chance and tell us what you need so that we can see what we can do. Chances I will be able to meet you where you are.
Anil Lewis: Any closing thoughts?
Melissa Riccobono: I would say that number one, read “The Nature of Independence,” and number two, really ask, have the conversation. If you feel like you’ve been dismissed or something has happened where you feel like your choices were belittled, have a conversation with maybe another member, maybe the person who talked to you. I don’t know. I think it just depends on what exactly took place, but I think communication is always so much better than just assuming. And I think giving each other grace, none of us are perfect. We’re all just trying to help each other be all that we can be and have high expectations because low expectations are really those things that create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. And we want blind people to be able to dream and to be able to have opportunities. And so I guess that’s my thing, just communicate, ask questions, keep looking for answers, keep exploring, and give us some grace, but also let us know. Let us know what you need or let us know when something really didn’t work out well, because we really can’t fix things if we don’t know what’s wrong or what you feel is wrong.
Anil Lewis: Yeah. The only advice I would offer is don’t make a decision about a whole organization based on a limited exposure.
Denise Avant: One person.
Anil Lewis: One, yeah, or even a small group of people because they may have found their group of people who believe as they believe, which is well within the grounds of the Federation. But I guarantee you, there are other people within the Federation that also resonate with you where you are and how you feel and your perspective as well. And one of the ways to find them is to get active, go to a chapter meeting. You get exposed to a lot of different people because that’s the purpose of our chapters, to put those hands on hands and have people really interact with people. So I encourage you to explore the organization because it’s more than just a conversation with one person or just a few people. But as was said earlier, I think Denise, you mentioned, go to a national convention. That’s where you can see all of it, all of it.
Melissa Riccobono: And even a state convention. And I would say, too, about chapters, if a chapter that’s closest to you, you’re just not clicking with them for some reason or they meet at a time that’s not convenient for you, it’s okay to go to another chapter as long as you can get there. Nothing says that you have to go to just this chapter. I mean, maybe the at-large chapter is better for you for whatever reason, or maybe there’s an evening chapter that’s better. That’s why we have a variety of chapters to try to make it so that people will enjoy coming to the meetings and really be able to get out of the chapter what they put into it.
Denise Avant: Well, I just want to let people know, yes, some people, we have our moments when, especially times of frustration, but as you all have said, we ask those of you who have come to us and may not have had a good experience to afford us a little grace. We are also striving to be better so that when we as leaders meet you, we are able to properly welcome you and meet you where you are. That’s what we want to do when you come to our chapters. We want to provide a safe and a comfortable space for you to come in and get to know members of the National Federation of the Blind. Some of the nicest people that I have known in this organization have been those who have very good blindness skills, but they’ve never once refused to help me and to show me how I can be better at what I’m trying to do as a blind person.
Anil Lewis: And there you have it. I hope this has been helpful for individuals who for whatever reason have adopted a different perspective of the organization, but trust me, there is room for you and we welcome anyone who wants to be part of the Federation family to come join us and do the work of the Federation, creating opportunities for blind people. Until then, remember, you can live the life you want.
Denise Avant: Blindness is not what holds you back.From the Editor: The following press release was issued by the National Federation of the Blind and Oregon State University. It is followed by the text of an FAQ document that further explains the agreement.
Corvallis, Oregon (April 7, 2026): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and Oregon State University (OSU) announced today that they have agreed to a settlement involving accessibility enhancements to university services, programs, and activities.
Oregon State will pay $475,000 to resolve claims brought by the nationwide membership and advocacy organization and by one of its members, who is a blind student at the university, involving concerns about the speed and accuracy with which course materials—particularly those needed for STEM courses—were made accessible by the university’s disability access services office in partnership with academic units.
The National Federation of the Blind made recommendations for additional staff positions to support accessibility work and OSU proactively established these positions. Additionally, in consultation with the NFB, OSU leaders have begun implementing changes including procuring tools to support the creation of accessible materials, expanding assistive technology and services that provide access to blind people, rewriting policies, and developing new procedures to ensure that accessibility will be better addressed in the future.
Moving forward, Oregon State faculty and staff will participate in additional training and be provided with information pertaining to accessible design and inclusive practices specific to blind and low-vision students, which will be included in new faculty orientations and departmental meetings.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter and collaborate with OSU to improve its services to blind students,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind.
“We appreciate the accountability and leadership that OSU is demonstrating by entering into this landmark agreement, recognizing that the experience and expertise of blind people are critical to advancing true accessibility,” he said. “It is long overdue for other institutions of higher education to follow OSU’s example and provide innovative approaches to equality and accessibility.”
OSU provides course materials through its disability access services (DAS) department as an important part of its land-grant mission to serve students, but in this case, the complex technical materials required for some science courses exceeded the capacity of DAS to act in a timely manner.
“OSU is dedicated to a mission where every student succeeds, and we fell short of living up to those values in this instance,” said GL Estes Wallace, Oregon State’s new Assistant Dean and director for DAS, who joined the university in January.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the National Federation of the Blind to redesign our practices. OSU embraces the concept that accessibility is a shared responsibility institution-wide and is committed to creating an accessible experience that offers equal opportunity for all learners. Settlements such as this one drive the university to advance its practices, engage in the exploration of creative solutions and cultivate a culture of belonging where all have equal access to be able to participate independently and with dignity,” Estes Wallace said.
Oregon State University has agreed to a $475,000 settlement with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), a membership organization of blind people, which presented claims on behalf of a student, in response to concerns that OSU did not consistently provide on-time and accurate accessible course materials. OSU and the Federation have worked together to implement guidance for how the school can better meet the needs of blind and low-vision students in the future.
Speed and accuracy can be challenging when making coursework for complex materials and images accessible. OSU’s Disability Access Services staff works diligently to meet every student’s needs, but the depth and complexity of the materials that needed to be adapted exceeded DAS capabilities at the time. Those capabilities are being improved, thanks to the student who raised concerns.
OSU will communicate its efforts to address accessibility needs with the National Federation of the Blind, which will use that information as it provides leadership to other institutions seeking to improve their accessibility for blind and low-vision community members.
by Harriet Go
Are you a child between the ages of six months and 12 years old?
Are you coming to the National Federation of the Blind National Convention in Austin, Texas, July 2026?
Do you want to escape sitting in long meetings with your caregivers?
If you answered yes to all three of these questions, then you are in luck! During national convention week, children six months through twelve years of age are invited to join in the fun and festivities of NFB Kids Camp! NFB Kids Camp offers more than just childcare; it is an opportunity for our blind and sighted children to meet and develop lifelong friendships. Our week schedule is filled with games, crafts, stories, and special activities designed to entertain, educate, and delight. The children are divided into groups according to age: infants and toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners, and elementary school children. Each room is equipped with a variety of age-appropriate toys, games, and books. If you are interested in signing up for this year’s program, please have your caregiver complete and return the registration form online. Go to https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention/nfb-camp-registration-form.
Preregistration with payment on or before June 15, 2026, is required for staffing purposes. Space is limited, so register early!
NFB Kids Camp will be open on July 3 and from July 5 through July 8, including the night of the banquet. NFB Kids Camp will be closed on July 4. Please see the registration form for exact times.
NFB Kids Camp is organized and supervised by Harriet Go, a certified teacher in elementary education and special education in Pennsylvania. Harriet has over twenty years of professional teaching experience in the School District of Philadelphia. She is a long-time leader in the Federation. She holds various positions in the organization including her role as second vice president of the National Organization of Blind Educators (NOBE), secretary of the NFB of Pennsylvania, and president of the Keystone Chapter of the NFB of PA.
If you are interested in helping out with this year’s NFB Kids Camp, please contact Harriet Go at [email protected] to learn how you can help. Additionally, we are always looking for people who have taught in a National Federation of the Blind Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning® (BELL) Academy as well as other volunteers. Experience working with children is always a plus but not required.
I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution.
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