JANUARY 1966
INKPRINT EDITION
VOICE OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
The National Federation of the Blind is not an organization speaking for the blind--it is the blind speaking for themselves
Monitor Headquarters 2652 Shasta Road, Berkeley, California 94708
Published monthly in braille and distributed free to the blind by the National Federation of the Blind, President: Russell Kletzing, 4604 Briarwood Drive, Sacramento, California, 95821
Inkprint edition produced and distributed by the National Federation of the Blind, 2652 Shasta Road, Berkeley, California 94708
Acting Editor: Jacobus tenBroek
Assistant Editor: Floyd W. Matson
2652 Shasta Road, Berkeley, California 94708
News items and changes of address should be sent to the Editor.
SPECIAL NOTICE -- PRESIDENT BUILDS A HOUSE
N.F.B. CONVENTION BULLETIN
By Kenneth Jernigan
VOCATIONAL REHAB AMENDMENTS: PRO AND CON
By John F. Nagle
DUTCH BLIND JOIN THE I.F.B.
By Dr. H. B. Frieman
COMSTAC'S STANDARDS FOR VOCATIONAL SERVICES
BLIND DIAL TALKING BOOKS IN D.C.
NEW JERSEY WHITE CANE DAY CEREMONIES
TESTING OF A DRUG ON HUMANS HALTS
By Harold M. Schmeck, Jr.
OLD FOLKS LOBBY WINS $7 MILLION
WORLD-WIDE COLLABORATION OF THE BLINDED PEOPLE FEDERATIONS
MISSOURI CONVENTION
By Gwen Rittgers
UNITY AND EQUALITY: THE I. F. B,
By Professor Jacobus tenBroek
FROZEN EYES LET SEVEN SEE
By Peter Fairley
SLASH 14 PAGES OF RED TAPE IN AID APPLICATIONS
AUSTRALIAN BLIND JOIN I. F. B.
CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR WELFARE
HEALTH PRACTICES OF THE POOR
By Lola M. Irelan
NEW JERSEY COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND IS REVAMPING PROGRAMS
By Arthur Linsinbigler, Jr., and Robert H. Owens
SIMPLE EYE-DROP TEST SEEN FOR GLAUCOMA
THE ROLE OF THE BLIND IN THE CURRENT REVOLUTION
By Dr. Herbert Greenberg
BLIND TEACHER HAS ACHIEVED THE GOOD LIFE
By Molly Burrell
AN EXPERIIVIENTAL PROGRAM OF JOB DEVELOPMENT
By Hon. Donald M. Eraser
COLORADO COORDINATING COUNCIL GETS UNDER WAY
By Alice Johnson
FUTURE IS NOT DARK FOR BLIND PEACE CORPSMAN
COMSTAC STANDARDS FOR AGENCIES AND PERSONNEL SERVING THE BLIND
TUMOR OF RETINA YIELDS TO DRUGS
A LEADER OF THE BLIND TURNS 100
BLIND HOME MAKERS' INSTITUTE IN MICHIGAN
By Kenneth Hinga
GOODWILL TO SHELTERED WORKERS?
NEW CHAPTER FOR MAINE AFFILIATE
"BREAKTHROUGH" -- JOB PLACEMENTS IN IOWA
SPEED HEARING FOR THE BLIND
By Edward Edelson
BLIND MAN FIGHTS JURY REJECTION
A.M.A. AUTHORIZES CHALLENGE TO MEDICARE LAW
DALE DAVIDSON, BLIND SUPERVISING CHEMIST
WELFARE LEADERS SEEK NEW U.S. AID
By Austin C. Wehrwein
GERMAN CONGRESS OF THE BLIND IN BERLIN
By Dr. H. Geissler
"STATE TRYING TO BURY THE BLIND WORKER"
By Ben Williams
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Summary of Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1965 Prepared by Vocational Rehabilitation Administration
Everyone should do it once in a lifetime. Once, however, is enough. Some say there is fulfillment in it. Others only frustrations. Anyhow, President Kletzing has done it -- he has built a house. Whatever this may mean in terms of frustrations or fulfillments to the Kletzings, one thing it means for all of us -- we note his change of address.
President Kletzing's new address is 4604 Briarwood Drive, Sacramento, California 95821. All Federation and personal correspondence should be addressed to him there.
By Kenneth Jernigan
First Vice-President
Come one, come all! Recent NFB Conventions have been getting bigger and better every year, and 1966 will be no exception. Read the following, and you will see why we think so:
The Convention will be held in Louisville in the heart of the Bluegrass Country, where mint juleps and old-fashioned southern hospitality abound. The first business session will open at 10 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, July 5 and the final session will adjourn at five o'clock on Friday afternoon, July 8. The Executive Committee meeting (open to all) will occur on Monday, July 4. In keeping with the custom of recent years many of the members and delegates will probably arrive sometime Sunday, July 3.
HOTEL
The hotel rates are the lowest we have had in more than a decade -- unbelievable is the only appropriate word. Those who attended the 1954 Convention in Louisville will remember the excellence of the Kentucky-Hotel. We are going back to the same place in 1966. It has undergone a complete remodeling and is even better now than in 1954. The rates are: Single rooms, $5.50; doubles, $7.50; room with twin beds $10.00. Free parking for all hotel guests.
BANQUET
The Banquet will occur at seven o'clock on Thursday evening, July 7. The price is only $3.50, and the menu will be good. Plans are shaping up for a memorable banquet program.
TOURS
The day for tours is Wednesday, July 6, and we are truly going to have a real double feature. On Wednesday afternoon we are going to the American Printing House for the Blind, where we can see how Braille books are made and how the talking books are recorded. We will see the entire Printing House plant. This trip is a real "must", educational as well as interesting.
The evening tour is equally a "must." Shortly after 7 p.m. we will go for a moonlight cruise on the beautiful Ohio River on a real, old-fashioned, paddle-wheeled river steamboat, "The Belle of Louisville." This is a large luxury river boat in the old tradition. We will have it all to ourselves for a charter cruise.
GENERAL COMMENTS
The drawing of prizes, initiated at the Arizona Convention and expanded at the Washington Convention, will be an even greater extravaganza at Louisville. Don't be late for the sessions and don't leave the meeting room. The prizes will be worth winning.
Kentucky is truly a wonderful state and the people of our Kentucky affiliate are as fine as their state. They know how to spread on the southern hospitality, and you won't want to miss this one. If you like, you can combine the Convention with a vacation trip, short or long. Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held each year, is located in Louisville, and Mammoth Cave and the home of Steven Foster are close by.
It will be a Convention to remember and cherish, so get on the ball! Send for reservations today! No, don't wait until tomorrow. Send requests for reservations to Reservations Manager, Kentucky Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky.
By the way, plans for the 1967 Los Angeles Convention are shaping up nicely, as are the plans for Des Moines in 1968. The prices will be good and the activities stimulating.
Kenneth Jernigan
National Convention Chairman
By John F. Nagle
Chief, Washington Office
National Federation of the Blind
Basic and far-reaching changes in the federal-state vocational rehabilitation program -- representing a mixed package of potential benefits and threats to blind Americans -- became official on November 8 when President Johnson signed into law H. R. 8310, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1965.
Last amended substantially and given a new direction in 1954, the rehab law has been the subject of congressional hearings several times over the past six years, but it was not until this year that major amendments were seriously considered and written into the act.
On the positive side of the ledger, the new amendments make these potentially constructive changes in the programs affecting blind people:
1) States will be entitled to receive on the average twice as much federal money for vocational rehabilitation services as before, and perhaps many times that amount, for special projects, expansion of programs, new services, etc. State agencies will no longer have the excuse of insufficient funds as a justification for inadequate services to blind and handicapped clients.
2) "Economic need" has been swept away as a federal requirement for any vocational rehabilitation service. Henceforth the onus of retaining a means test as a condition of eligibility will fall entirely upon the states which now are free to retain or abolish the means test. As originally introduced by the administration, the bill would have permitted the exemption only of reader services. As a result of the activities of the NFB, this provision was broadened to cover all services to which a means test had hitherto been applied.
3) Day-to-day supervision of vending stand programs is made a vocational rehabilitation service, thereby rendering it a federally reimbursable expense along with all other rehab services. The effect of this change is to make it possible for the states to reduce substantially or eliminate altogether their "set-aside" charges against blind stand operators designed to defray the costs of administering the program. Under the old law federal funds could not be used to meet the costs of day-to-day supervision.
4) The amendments authorize a maximum period of four years of federal financial assistance to any individual pursuing a course of professional study in rehabilitation. The old law had limited such assistance to two years. The effect of this liberalization should be to widen access and opportunity for blind persons in professional careers related to rehab and orientation.
5) The new financing formula drastically penalizes states which fall below the level of financing previously achieved. Thus there is only one way to go and that's up.
On the other hand, the new amendments contain a number of features potentially threatening --if not disastrous --to the long- range interests of blind and other handicapped clients of the federal- state programs. These include:
a) The law is broadened to embrace critically disabled persons for whom restoration to employment -- the basic vocational goal of the program --is virtually out of the question. What this fundamental shift of emphasis portends is the weakening of the job-training and job-placement orientation of the entire system. In short, vocational rehabilitation may be replaced by physical and medical rehabilitation -- a very different kettle of fish which reflects a victory for the forces of therapy and a defeat for the principle of economic integration and independence,
b) Still more resounding a victory has been won by sheltered workshops, which are heavily supported and reinforced in the amendment as facilities for vocational training. Whether this old guide dog can be taught new tricks is perhaps debatable; what is beyond argument is that for a century past the sheltered shops have constituted a dead-end and a blind alley for handicapped persons seeking to find their way back into the main stream of competitive employment.
The Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1965 have undoubtedly wrought the most significant and substantial changes in the program since the "New Look" amendments of 1954, and possibly since inauguration of the Barden-LaFollette program in 1943. But the overall character and direction -- and above all the quality -- of those changes remains at best uncertain and at worst plainly ominous from the standpoint of the majority of blind and physically handicapped clients.
The NFB, after all possibility for further amendment had been exhausted, finally gave its energetic support to the rehab amendments of 1965. It did so, realizing the potential for improvement in rehabilitation programs which those amendments provide. It did so, moreover, realizing the defects and wrongheadedness of some features of the bill.
The support of the National Federation was greatly welcomed by the NRA, the state rehabilitation directors, and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Once the bill was enacted into law and safely signed by the president, the NFB had hoped for a continuation of the collaborative effort, especially in connection with the drafting of the regulations. That hope was quickly dashed. The regulations have now been drafted and soon will be promulgated. In the process of drafting, the state directors and the NRA participated intimately with government officials. Nowhere to be found was an invitation extended to the NFB to do likewise.
Now that the rehab amendments of 1965 are on the books and the initial steps of administrative implementation have been taken -- now more than ever it will be the responsibility of the organized blind to maintain a vigilant watch on the development and iniplementation of the new vocational rehabilitation law.
For, as Socrates long ago pointed out, it is not the shoemaker who can tell you whether the shoe fits or whether it pinches. Ask the in an who wears one.
By Dr. H. B. Frieman
Secretary of the Netherlands League of the Blind
[Editor's Note: Exciting progress is to be reported in the International Federation. This issue of the MONITOR contains announcements of two new affiliates. One of them is the Australian Federation of Organizations of the Blind. The other is the Nederlandse Blindenbond. The report upon the Australian affiliation occurs later in this issue.
The executive board of the Nederlandse Blindenbond met in The Hague on Saturday, November 27. At this time Hazel and I were in Europe attending the convention of the Deutscher Blindenverband in Berlin and tending to other International Federation business. We were therefore happy to accept the invitation of F.G. Tingen, the current president and longtime leader of the Nederlandse Blindenbond, to travel with him from Amsterdam to The Hague. At The Hague we had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with H.B. Frieman, the secretary of the Dutch organization, and of extending greetings to the executive board. I was greatly impressed with the capacity and in-sight of the leaders of the new affiliate of the I.F.B and with the organizational prospects and activities.
Upon my request Mr. Frieman has produced a short account of the history, activities, and nature of the Nederlandse Blindenbond, which is reprinted below.]
A preliminary remark.
On the occasion of the affiliation of the Netherlands League of the Blind to the I.F.B. we should like to tell you something, by way of introduction, about our organization, how it is set up and what its activities, programme and accomplishments are. This introduction can, however, be only a brief one, because it has to be written in a hurry. Nevertheless we hope to succeed in giving you an impression of the new I.F.B. member.
Our history.
The N. L. B. dates from 27 May 1895 so that we have celebrated the 70th anniversary of our organization this year. Our basic principle has been from the start that the blind should manage their own affairs and this principle has been realized so far because we consider it as the essential feature of an organization of the blind and this is also the main reason why we have joined the I.F.B.
In the first four decades of our history the activity of our league was not very great: the ideal was "friendship through the handicap." In the twentieth a group of young people were, however, inspired by new ideals; they saw that there was a task for our organization in social respect because most of the blind people in Holland belonged to the socially forgotten men living in poverty. Besides the blind met obstacles formed by prejudices everywhere which made the struggle for life hardly possible. The leadership of our organization was entrusted to this young group who have enthusiastically fought against these obstacles of prejudices and for better social conditions for the blind. In this way the movement of the twentieth made of the N. L. B. a fighting organization for the welfare of the blind.
Our set-up.
Although our organization is by far the largest we have to mention that there are two other organizations of the blind in our country. Our organization is undenominational, but the other two are denominational ones namely a Roman Catholic one and a Protestant one.
According to the latest annual report our organization counts 1523 members and 16 regional branches. The leadership is in the hands of an executive board who are periodically elected by an annual meeting of delegates of the regional branches.
We publish a monthly "De Blindenbode" in braille as well as in inkprint, of which about 27,000 inkprint copies are sent to subscribers, members of Parliament and other official personalities.
Our activities.
Besides the annual meeting of delegates every year a gathering of members is held where a speech is delivered by the chairman and of which one of the purposes is to promote the contact amongst the members.
In every spring we hold a week-end conference which is attended by a great number of members and at which two lectures are delivered by experts and is discussed by the members.
Every summer we organize four one-week's holidays by which hundreds of members are enabled to enjoy a week in one of the most beautiful spots of Holland at half of the normal price.
Our Programme.
Realizing that we have entered a new time making totally different demands on our organization we are preparing a new programmie of which at this moment we can only say that it will be based on the principle of the complete integration of the blind into the social and cultural life.
Our accomplishments.
We may say that what we have achieved, especially since the end of the second world war, is too much indeed to be summarized in a few lines. The social conditions for the blind people in Holland have improved a great deal, many obstacles caused by prejudices have been overcome; but there are still too many left which we daily meet in our struggle for life. It is a very important thing that we have come to a collaboration with the denominational organizations of the blind in the Netherlands Councel of the Blind. This Councel has called into existence a federation of organizations of the blind and of societies and institutions working for the benefit of the blind. This federation in its turn has created a foundation running a rehabilitation centre.
From this the conclusion may be drawn that in our country there is a fruitful collaboration of the organizations of the blind with those of seeing people, which, however, does not mean that we are tutored by our seeing friends in any way, a tutoring which would not be accepted by us either, we can assure you.
1. Summary of Contents
This report begins with a rather good historical review of employment of the blind and the beginnings of the rehabilitation movement. The progressive attitudes and practices of the modern world are contrasted with those of a century ago, and the similarities between past and present are played down. "At that time (the 19th century) most blind people were employed in sheltered facilities as 'broom makers' and 'chair caners'. There is still a tendency toward this kind of sterotyping today."
Standards for current practices are divided into the following categories, with a chapter for each: general, personnel, vocational counseling, vocational evaluation, prevocational training, vocational training, and placement and follow-up.
2. Analysis
This report is less sterile and repetitious than the report on social services. It is shorter and more readable. It has content, describes goals, and is detailed in its portrayal of the vocational counselor. The counselor is, of course, a "professional" worker, with the requisite degrees and experience.
The counselor's role is to help blind persons to "discover them-selves and make productive decisions about their lives." He is a "warmly interested, non-threatening person who cares for him (the client) as an individual." He is concerned with the client's "feelings, hopes and cognitions" not to mention his "search for personal comfort and productive fulfillment."
Vocational counseling may be done by a team, but the Committee seems to favor the one counselor to one client approach. How can the necessary rapport be developed if a client has several specialized counselors? The ideal counselor is a public relations man, an expert in employment and economic trends, a personnel analyst, an analyst of psychological and vocational tests, a teacher, and, above all, a psychoanalyst. Although he is primarily interested in the client's self-discovery and release of inner potential, the counselor is not above incorporating ideas into the client's thinking or infusing him with skills. The counselor is a father figure, but as a father, he is slow to let his child achieve independence. The client may pass through the stages of evaluation, pre-vocational training, and vocational training finally to placement, only to find he is not rid of the ubiquitous counselor who maintains "periodic contacts with employee and employer."
The implication is that the psyche of the blind client needs reconstruction and constant support. Granted that an individual blind person would need the kind of service described in this Committee's report, it would take a trained psychoanalyst five years to accomplish it. Could a mere counselor ever accomplish it? Meanwhile, the blind client goes without the "service" which brought him to the agency to begin with, namely, employment.
The report fails to give evidence that all the various vocational services provided produce the desired result of employment. Isn't it at least possible that counselors would have better results if they spent more time educating the public and searching the job market, rather than counseling with and testing the client? What percentage
of clients actually need training of their auditory and kinesthetic senses, or help with the use of the telephone and personal grooming? These matters are described in detail, but job training is not.
The possible vocational goals for blind trainees include not only competitive employment, but also sheltered work, self-employment and homemaking. Vocational training "excludes training at the professional level. " Instead, it concentrates on the type of manual training that is rapidly being automated out of existence. Like the previous report, there is reliance on the standards and evaluative criteria of existing private and governmental agencies for judging the content of training programs and the wages and conditions for given types of jobs. There is no challenging of the status quo.
While not dealing specifically with professional training, the report does recognize that a few agencies have specialists in this type of placement. These agencies should have a "written procedure for preparing the client for entrance into college, for providing counseling during university training, for using community and agency resources to develop a favorable climate for client's entrance into a professional occupation, and to help the client through follow-up contacts surmount obstacles that he may encounter in seeking employment." Financial assistance during the period of education is not mentioned here or anywhere else in the report.
The failure to recognize the discrimination involved in the unemployment of blind persons leads the authors of the report to conclude that vocational counseling and training is not compensation for social injustice, but a special service for which the blind client must pay according to his ability. After the elaborate portrayal of the client's absolute dependence on the counselor, the final statement on fees argues that the blind person is not necessarily dependent or unable to provide for his own needs, therefore he should pay for the services given him.
This report, like the previous one on social services, talks about the individual, but ends up by lumping the blind together into a single, dependent category. Lip service is given to self-determination and progressive concepts, but the new language and psychiatric jargon cannot hide the paternalism that dominates this statement on vocational services to the blind.
967-8356 and 967-8357 are becoming magic telephone numbers for the blind readers of the District of Columbia who obtain their Talking Books from the Library of Congress Regional Library.
"When the first number is dialed, a taped voice recites a list of recorded book titles, identifying each by author, reader, and code number, and gives a sentence or two description of each.
The listener is then advised that he may obtain any of the books listed by dialing telephone number 967-8357, and he is asked to order the desired book by code number.
The listener then dials 967-8357, and a recorded voice not only invites him to name his book selections, but to make any other requests or comments he wishes -- and as the listener speaks, his voice is recorded on the tape.
John Nagle reports on this "Books by Telephone" technique with much enthusiasm -- he says he called one Monday evening, heard a book title that interested him, gave his request to the tape -- and received the book the following Wednesday.
"Much better than this you can't do! " says John.
John learned, as he talked with other blind patrons of the Library of Congress, that those who knew and had used the magic telephone numbers shared his enthusiasm; those who had not heard of them were glad to know of the new book-ordering method.
"The outstanding feature of the telephone-tape service to blind readers," John said, "is that it is available 24 hours a day. 7 days a week -- and this, of course, is most important to those who are unable to call the Library during regular office hours."
John also discussed the subject with Charles Gallozzi, Assistant Chief, Division for the Blind, Library of Congress.
"A sighted person can go into a library," said Gallozzi, "browse through the shelves, glance over the books -- and decide which titles he would like to read. The blind person can't do this -- not that he wouldn’t be welcomed by his regional librarian, but he can't do it because, usually, he lives many miles from his braille and recorded book library.
"So," declared the life -long librarian, "the regional librarian must think of ways to facilitate the use of library services by the remote reader."
Assistant Chief Gallozzi commented that the telephone method of ordering books is an experiment -- one of the many experiments being tried by the Library of Congress to assist the blind reader to learn of the recorded books available, and to get the ordered books to the blind reader as quickly as possible.
Mr. Gallozzi remarked: "If this new method of using the telephone and a tape recorder to increase the use of recorded books by blind people proves successful in the Washington, D.C. area, it will be recommended to the other regional librarians."
The Library of Congress official concluded his remarks with an invitation to braille and recorded book readers throughout the country to let the Division for the Blind know if they would like the telephone -- book ordering method available for their use in their regional libraries, and, he added: "We invite comments and suggestions from our users of the Books for the Blind Program not only with reference to this new development in library service, but we invite their comments and suggestions on all aspects of the library service we provide to them.
"Presently, we are serving less than a quarter of the estimated blind population of the country.
"This statistic is a Damoclean sword to the administrators of the Books for the Blind Program."
Letters should be addressed: Robert S. Bray, Chief, Division for the Blind, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540.
[Editor's Note: Reprinted below is a report on the vending stand program prepared by the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration of the Department of HEW and distributed to all licensing agencies. The report gives a striking picture of the scope and character of the vending stand program in the nation as a whole and in each of the states. Consequently it will be interesting to our readers in general. Further, however, it presents valuable data for NFB affiliates seeking state legislative improvement, and administrative reform.]
During the past fiscal year the Vending Stand Program nationally has achieved substantial gains in terms of 5.4 percent in new locations, 10.3 percent in gross sales, and 6 percent in average operator earnings. There is every reason to predict confidently that this increased momentum will continue and even accelerate provided the program is given adequate support.
The Vending Stand Program, with its gross sales now approximating $60,000,000, is big business. In comparison to potential growth possibilities, however, the program is still in its infancy. At our current rate of growth, we will achieve a $100,000,000 gross sales record by FY 1970, but with concerted effort, this figure should approach $150,000,000. The expansion could easily provide employment opportunities for nearly 10,000 persons. The recent study of the vending stand program conducted by Cresap, McCormick and Padget, supports our contention that the growth potential can be attained, but only if we can keep pace with the training management requirements.
Considering the above in conjunction with our new supportive legislation, there is a mandatory need for you to carefully evaluate your current program efforts to determine if suitable emphasis is being placed on training of operators and supervisors and whether you have sufficient management staff to adequately promote and administer your program. Our evaluation of the National program over the years leads us to recommend that no more than seventeen vending stands be assigned the average supervisor and preferably even less if he is also charged with promotional responsibilities.
While the vast majority of new location opportunities will be on other than Federal property, we would like to remind you of the appeal provisions now included in the Preference Regulations of the various Federal departments. These provisions allow any dispute, concerning the installation or operation of a vending stand, to be appealed to the top administrative level of the Federal department involved.
Table A presents national statistics comparing the Vending Stand Program of fiscal year 1965 with the programs of fiscal years 1963 and 1964. Included are number of stands, gross sales, number of operators, net proceeds, and average annual earnings per operator.
Table B reports detailed figures on a State and regional basis relating to number of stands, operators, and average operator earnings.
Table C lists the States alphabetically, giving the number of vending stands per 100,000 population, the average income for vending stand operators, and their rank nationally. It also reports, by agency, the set aside funds collected, less minimum return paid.
Table D contains regional data, including the number of vending stands, regional population, and stands per 100,000 population.
TABLE A
Breakdown of Figures on a Nation-Wide Basis From Annual Vending Stand Reports Submitted by State Licensing Agencies for Fiscal Year 1965
TABLE B
Selected Data Annual Vending Stand Report FY 1965
*Includes stands temporarily without operators.
TABLE C
Selected Comparative Data on State Vending Stand Programs
1. Based on population figures, published by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, August 27, 1965, Series P25, No. 317.
2. These management positions are as reported by each State agency; however, some agencies included only day-to-day management personnel while others included
fiscal or clerical staff.
TABLE D
Number of Vending Stands per 100,000 Eopulation by Region
(From Advance, Vol. 1, 1965)
Miss June Strelecki, Director of the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles, joined Associated Blind of New Jersey's fourth vice president Mrs, Marie Sullivan in marking the observance of October 15 as White Cane Safety Day in New Jersey at ceremonies in the offices of Governor Richard J, Hughes,
The Governor issued a proclamation at the request of Associated Blind. A giant, flat-surfaced white cane -- just about eye-level shorter than the six-foot governor -- was used as a "prop" in the publicity photo distributed to local newspapers and major wire services.
The state's charming motor vehicle director -- sometimes referred to affectionately as New Jersey's "Lady Driver," took time the day after the proclamation was issued to hand-write a personal note on plain paper to Mrs. Sullivan.
The fourth vice president sent the note along to THE ADVANCE to share it with members of Associated Blind. The text of the note follows:
Dear Marie
It was wonderful to see you again and have an opportunity to participate with you and Executive Director Owens in the white cane services at the Governor's office.
Am happy to find that you are as active and cheerful as ever.
Sincerely,
(S) June Strelecki
By Harold M. Schmeck, Jr.
(From New York Times, November 12, 1965)
The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that clinical trials of DMSO in human patients were being halted.
The compound, a clear liquid whose full name is dimethyl sulfoxide, has been known as an industrial solvent for 50 years. It has achieved new fame within the last three years as a result of tests by doctors.
On the basis of these tests a remarkable number of potential medical uses has been suggested. The drug is reported to have relieved pain from acute bursitis and some types of arthritis, to have speeded the healing of wounds and to have reduced inflammation.
It is also said to have a pronounced ability to penetrate the skin and other body membranes and, in some cases, to carry other chemicals with it.
In the Federal drug agency announcement it was estimated that 1,000 physicians were using or had used the compound for several thousand patients in closely supervised clinical trials.
The announcement yesterday indicates that most, or all, of this clinical testing must end pending further studies of the compound's effects on animals.
The reason given for the suspension was that changes in the eyes of animals under test with the drug had been observed by three laboratories: Huntington Laboratories in England and laboratories of two pharmaceutical concerns in the United States,
The clinical trials were halted through a voluntary agreement between the drug agency and the pharmaceutical concerns that have been sponsoring studies of the compound.
The eye changes that have been observed are alternations of the refractive index of the animals' eyes, according to scientists and drug company spokesmen familiar with the studies.
No similar changes in human eyes have been reported by the scientists studying DMSO's use in man, nor is it entirely clear that the changes seen in the animals represent adverse effects.
Nevertheless the six drug companies involved agreed to the halting of clinical trials. The parent firms involved are Geigy Chemical Company, Merck h Company, Schering Corporation, E.R. Squibb and Sons, Syntex Laboratories and Wyeth Laboratories.
Telegrams and letters announcing that the trials are being halted are being sent out to all clinical investigators using the drug in cooperation with any of the companies.
In a statement made public yesterday, Merck noted that these communications stressed that eye changes had not been noted in human patients who had been using the drug.
One of the scientists who have been prominent in testing DMSO's potential in man expressed disappointment yesterday over the halt in testing.
He said he believed it might legally be possible to continue using the drug for certain patients suffering serious diseases that had responded well to the compound.
Another scientist said he believed the growing and widespread use of the compound by individuals treating themselves with DMSO without any medical supervision was probably a factor in the drug agency's decision.
The commercial grade of DMSO, which some individuals have used on themselves, is available through suppliers of industrial chemicals. The medical grade is not legally available for sale except to qualified medical research men.
(From the Senior Citizens Sentinel, November, 1965)
The major 1965 push of the California League of Senior Citizens and the Old Folks Lobby paid off October 20, in a $7 million windfall for nearly 200,000 elderly Californians.
The historic victory for the League and the Lobby came in the office of Governor Brown, when the governor signed Assembly Bill No. 3, prohibiting the State and the Counties from seizing the lump sum, retroactive Social Security increases voted by the 89th Congress earlier in the year ....
The bill, which became law immediately, prevents the State and the Counties from deducting the Social Security increases from the Pension checks. It also requires those Counties which already made the deductions to restore the money as quickly as possible .... In its progress through four committees and both houses of the Legislature, only one vote was cast against the measure.
War blinded people (work) in elevated professions
(From Der Kriegs Blinde, October, 1965)
Nearly 600 war blinded people of the German Federal Republic are engaged in academic or similar elevated professions. There are in question here judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, officials at (public) authorities and administrations with academic education, more-over teachers at highschools, priests, clergymen, liberal, independent authors and artists, as well as employees in middle administrative services and similiar (ones). The great majority of these war-blinded people got their professional training only after their injuries and the loss of sight, only a very few actually work in a profession which they already practised before their injuries, or in such intellectual professions which they already performed before their injuries, or which they had intended to perform before this decisive event in their lives.
As a rule this group of professionally active war-blinded people Germany got their education and instruction at the reguliar, normal universities, high schools and superior special schools, where they had -- under more difficult circumstances -- in most of the cases as single, separate individuals among their full seeing fellow- students, to assert themselves and to stand up against the series of aggravations. That was possible and could be performed only by an extraordinary spiritual concentration and by an unflagging diligence, the results of which in most of the cases were extraordinarily good closing examinations.
The war-blinded veterans of World War One practically were the pioneers to give in a considerable scale to the blinded people the access to superior professions, and the war-blinded people of World
War Two being occupied in spiritual professions, contributed and are contributing to lift an elevate the esteem, appreciation of the blinded people by the respect which people have in view of the considerable performances of this very group of people.
It shall not be omitted to mention that the war-blinded people being engaged in spiritual professions, had to overcome a great many difficulties which permanently must be overcome each day anew at the work. They make use not only of the braille-script, by the use of writing plates, stenographic machines or braille-script sheet machines, but have at their disposal also the modern technical devices and expedients as for example dictaphones, magnetophones and reguliar, normal typewriters provided with expedients specially for blind people.
First of all however the war-blinded people of higher-ranked professions, as for example jurists, teachers, clergymen and so on, are supported by a seeing aid together with whom they perform their works. In all these cases it is the task of the seeing aid, to bring all the facts (of importance) to the knowledge of the blinded (exservice man), by which it will be possible for him to do the corresponding reflections to make his resolutions to come to the right point of view, in brief to perform that very spiritual activity which is important also at the seeing people, after having examination and scrutinizingly examined all the facts which give him the right thinking and resolving material. It ought to be easily comprehensible that such a collaboration cannot be offhand be realised entirely without any difficulties. In any individual case there is always needed a certain trial and accomodating period and there must always be a lot of good will, understanding and first of all patience, on both the parts.
As a rule such seeing collaborators of war-blinded academics or higher-ranked administrative officials are given at the disposal of the relative individual by the authority in which he works.
By Gwen Rittgers
November 21, 1965
What a grand convention of the Progressive Blind in 1965. It accomplished good publicity in press and T.V., a sound legislative program, a boost in the Ceylon Fund, and the election of a fine slate of officers.
Friday evening opened the hospitality room at which there was a good attendance. Saturday morning was devoted to the regular business of the organization.Saturday afternoon entailed a TV showing for Russell Kletzing; and in the convention itself, a fine panel of speakers, from Representative Phillip P. Scaglia and Senator Edgar J. Keating of the Missouri General Assembly to a talk by the national president on bringing us up-to-date on national legislation. One very lively and intriguing phase of the afternoon was the discussion of the 1965 amendments to the social security act as affecting the blind. This discussion was scheduled for a half hour, but would not have lost its sparkle for a good solid hour if time would have permitted.
The banquet saw a hundred people in attendance, and Russell Kletzing was a stimulating and superb part of this feature of the convention. Senator Edgar J. Keating was master of ceremonies. He presented the Perrin D. McElroy award (a United States Savings Bond) to Larry Tittle, a Progressive Blind member who is a law student at the University of Missouri. The award was given in the field of a person who had overcome the handicap of blindness. Russell Kletzing was active at the banquet in three ways: he presented the Jacobus tenBroek award (a beautiful plaque) to Flora Lee Hirsch of the Council of Jewish Women for her meritorious service in the cause of blindness. Russell acted as salesman for the hand-carved elephants sent to us by Rienzi which brought $56.00 into our duplicating fund, and now we have only $120.00 to go to purchase the duplicator. Russell's speech was based on the second beginning of the NFB after the twenty-five year period; the formation of new affiliates; the hopes and aims of the NFB through the new era for legislation, welfare, and education of the public. He told of some of the accomplishments of the past, and some of the failures and the causes of failures within the NFB on legislation and other programming. It was an honest, enlightening, and encouraging,
address for blind and sighted listeners.
My words are inadequate to express the fine response which Russell's speeches brought to Kansas City. He is a man of versatility , and people were impressed by his honesty, integrity, and leadership.
This morning the session was really interesting with the members telling about their impressions of Washington and the 25th convention of the NFB. Xena Johnson was wonderful to fill in many details which probably escaped many delegates. One of the things she related was Robert Kennedy's personal concern over Craig Kletzing's loss of his camera and his broken-hearted sobbing.
Officers elected for the next year are: President, Tiny Beedle; Vice President, Cotton Busby; Recording Secretary, Sonia Carr; Treasurer, Dr. Gerald Salter; Corresponding Secretary, Gwen Rittgers.
Members of the Board: Dillard Ory, Floyd Mohler, and George Rittgers.
Co-chairmen of the Political Action Committee: Mrs. Doris Timmons and Mrs. Helen Mohler.
By Professor Jacobus tenBroek President, International Federation of the Blind (Delivered at the Verbandstag des Deutschen Blindenverbandes) Berlin, Germany, 25 November 1965
The world is witnessing two great trends -- two irresistible movements of thought and action -- which are already shaking its foundations. One is the trend toward unity; the other is the trend toward equality.
Neither of these trends is likely to be realized immediately. Both are certain to be realized ultimately -- if mankind is to prevail. For the alternative to either is disaster.
The trend toward world unity is apparent on every side -- despite divisions, diversions and distractions. Ours is an age of proliferating international organization, touching every vital interest of humanity. The escalating technologies of communication and transport have shrunk the planet into a neighborhood -- a crowded and
clamorous neighborhood in desperate need of law and order, of common standards and common markets, and most of all of common sense. More and more of those universal human needs and interests, which once accepted the boundaries of the nation- state as the outer limit of expression and organization, are shifting their frame of reference to the great globe itself. Not only trade and commerce, not only politics and law, but the humane concerns of health and welfare, have become the targets of international programs and planetary frameworks.
Side by side with this great trend toward world unity is the trend toward equality. Indeed, equalitarianism is more than a trend: it is an insistent force, a swelling demand from the deserts and the rice-fields, the outlands and the back country and, it must be said, from the pulsing heart of industrial democracies. It is the dominant theme of what has been called the revolution of rising expectations. On its negative side this driving movement reflects the stark fact that the old injustices and inequalities, the vast gulfs between the haves and the have-nots, are no longer tolerable. What Abraham Lincoln said of his own nation a century ago applies with equal force to the world today: a society divided against itself cannot stand; the world cannot endure half-slave and half-free -- or half-starved and half-stuffed.
On its affirmative side this trend toward equality is a campaign for the reapportionment of rights: for equal representation, equal treatment, equal opportunity, equal protection of the laws.
Equality and unity: these are the directions in which the world is moving. These are the mandates of future change. These are the conditions of common survival.
Equality and unity: these are also the directions in which the blind of the world are moving. These are the mandates of their organized advance. These are the conditions of their integration.
And these are the trademarks of the International Federation of the Blind.
The organized movement of the blind of all nations is barely over one year old. But it has had a long gestation. The vision of world brotherhood -- of the blind people of all lands, free and united, joined in common effort and common cause -- has been with us for centuries. It dates back at least to the regional blind brotherhoods of the middle ages, which were universal in principle if still parochial in fact. But the dream of federation on a world scale has, necessarily, awaited the attainment of self-organization by the blind on the national scale -- not in all nations, but in enough of them to demonstrate the full capacity of the blind to lead the blind, without falling forward into the ditch or backward into the asylum.
During the six decades of the 20th century that demonstration has been made, again and again, with resounding success -- in Europe, in Asia, and in the Americas. It has been made in Germany through the Deutscher Blindenverband and its remarkably able leaders. It has been made in the United States through the National Federation of the Blind, which has just celebrated its first quarter-century of growth and achievement. It has been made in Great Britain, France, Holland, Italy, and many other European countries. It has been made or is being made in Japan, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand, and in a dozen other lands through similar voluntary associations of independent blind persons.
In these countries the blind have established or are establishing their unity: now they are on the way to proving their equality .
The dream of world federation took a tangible step toward reality in the city of Detroit, in July 1962. It came in the form of a unanimous resolution by the National Federation of the Blind of the United States, calling for the creation of an international association of the blind, by the blind, for the blind. The resolution enjoined the Federation's leadership to take all actions necessary to that end.
One month later, I made the first of several trips to Europe -- journeys as fruitful as they have been delightful. I came as the Federation's representative and delegate to the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, which was holding its biennial executive committee meeting in Hanover.
I made that trip for a dual purpose: first, to appeal to the leadership of the World Council to permit the internal reforms which might yet make that agency more representative of the world's blind peoples and more responsive to their needs. Second, I wished to explore the attitudes of organizations of the blind to the idea of an independent world federation.
The first mission was an unqualified failure. The second mission was a qualified success. The representatives of the organized blind, in many European countries, made clear their conviction that the time had come for the blind themselves to take a hand in the conduct of their welfare -- not just within their national boundaries but in the world at large.
On the basis of that preliminary endorsement, the worldwide movement of the blind was on its way.
The next major step toward the formal inauguration of an international body was taken at another convention of the U.S. Federation, in July 1964. Some 15 visitors from eight different countries gathered at Phoenix, Arizona, with the organized blind of America. Further meetings were held in New York City both with the original group of conferees and with others from a variety of European, Asian, and Near Eastern countries. These sessions culminated on July 30, when, at a charter meeting of delegates and prospective members, the International Federation of the Blind was officially inaugurated. Among the participants on that historic occasion were distinguished leaders of this organization the Deutscher Blindenverband, of the Bund der Kriegsblinden Deutchlands, and the Deutscher Blindenlehrerverband consisting of almost the entire West German delegation to the Assembly of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind -- Dr. Horst Geissler, Herr Alfred Stoekel, Dr. Ernst Dorner, Dr. Hans Ludwig, Dr. Franz Sonntag. Indeed the contribution of the West German delegation was outstanding. A number of substantive provisions of the IFB constitution is traceable directly to their perception and statesmanship. In fact, the very name of the organization, the International Federation of the
Blind is attributable to their persuasion. The title formerly chosen had been the World Federation. Dr. Horst Geissler is an honored member of our Executive Committee.
Full credit must also be given to another person whose organization is represented here today in the personage of its president, Francois Gerber. I refer to Andre' Nicolle of France, who spoke for the organized blind of his nation in furthering the common cause of the blind of the world.
Since that foundational meeting little more than a year ago, we have sounded the call of federationism on all continents. Everywhere the blind are heeding that call. We presently have affiliates in nine nations: West Germany, Ceylon, France, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, and the United States. The prospects are good for additional affiliates in the near future. Beyond the member groups, stretches a long line of blind persons and organizations throughout the world that are informally involved and wholeheartedly in sympathy with our cause.
What then is that cause? What are the purposes and objectives of this unprecedented combination of the world's blind? What is the spirit of federationism?
Federationism is many things to many men. Above all it is the essence of democratic association and collective self-direction: in short, it is the symbol of unity.
Federationism is another name for independence: the opposite of custodialism and dependency. It is blind people leading themselves, standing on their own feet, walking in their own paths at their own pace by their own command. It is the achievement of identity, the restoration of pride, the establishment of dignity. In short, it is the symbol of equality.
The objectives of the International Federation of the Blind are embodied in a series of ringing sentences which constitute the Preamble and Declaration of Purposes of the IFB's constitution. Here are those sentences:
"We join in this common cause to:
Cooperate with the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind in achieving its objective of providing the means of consultation between organizations of and for the blind in different countries.
Encourage self-organization and self-determination by blind people in all countries through their own voluntary associations, joined together in turn by membership in the International Federation.
Serve as a world assembly for meetings, communication and interchange among blind persons of all nationalities, toward the end of reinforcing their confidence in themselves, in each other, and in their common cause.
Provide a forum for collective self-expression and discussion by the blind of the world, and to act as the articulate voice for their joint decisions and common objectives.
Work for the progressive improvement and modernization, throughout the world, of public policies and practices governing the education, health, welfare, rehabilitation and employment of the blind.
Disseminate accurate information, increase knowledge and promote enlightened attitudes on the part of the peoples of the world toward blind persons.
Solicit the support of national governments everywhere for the programs and policies of the organized world blind, and advise and assist those governments in their implementation.
Furnish a beacon for the underprivileged and disadvantaged blind people of the earth -- and create a potent symbol through which blind people everywhere seek the rights and opportunities that are the birthright of all men.
Stand as living proof to the essential normality, equality, and capability of blind men and women as first-class citizens of the world as well as of their individual nations."
Those are the clear purposes of federationism among the blind of the world. They are the purposes of men of good will, and of great faith. They bespeak a revolution in the images that blind people have held of themselves -- and in the vision they are coming to share of their rightful role in the world society.
Those purposes of federationism align us unmistakably with the two overriding trends at work in the world today: the move toward unity and the drive for equality. The worldwide movement of the organized blind belongs to the wave of the future.
Those of us who live in highly industrialized and materially advanced nations of the world, those of us who live in the strength of our organizations and in the abundance of economic and worldly goods, must regard our role as one of special responsibility and peculiar opportunity. If we who have fail to share with those who do not, if we withhold our leadership and refuse our help we may live out our lives in self-satisfaction and in opulence but we shall outrage our good fortune, spurn morality and defy our common humanity.
Let us then heed the advice of William Shakespeare: "There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyages of their lives are bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat -- and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."
WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind publishes the BRAILLE MONITOR, a monthly magazine in braille, ink print, and magnetic tape, which features national and state legislative information and also other material of interest and benefit to the blind of the nation; and
WHEREAS, the publication of the BRAILLE MONITOR depends entirely upon contributions for its support; and
WHEREAS, it has been the policy of the Colorado Federation of the Blind, Inc. to support the publishing of the BRAILLE MONITOR because of its value as a source of information to the blind; now
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Colorado Federation of the Blind, Inc. in convention assembled at Denver, Colorado, this 30th day of October, 1965, that the officers and board of directors of the Colorado Federation of the Blind, Inc. be authorized to contribute $50.00 to the BRAILLE MONITOR to support the publication and distribution of this magazine; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all individuals receiving the BRAILLE MONITOR in any form be encouraged to make a personal contribution to the support of the BRAILLE MONITOR.
The foregoing resolution was adopted by the Colorado Federation of the Blind in convention October 30, 1965.
By Peter Fairley
(From Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, November 7, 1965)
London -- Three men, three women and a boy of 15 have made medical history by becoming the first people to see clearly through "deep frozen" eyes.
And, as a result, Britain is likely to become the first country to set up "eye banks."
The restoration of sight of the seven -- announced in the British Medical Journal -- marks an important step forward in spare-part surgery.
All seven had operations at Westminster Hospital.
Surgeons there replaced damaged corneas in their eyes with healthy corneas which had been kept in cold storage for periods of up to a month.
Previously cornea-grafting operations have had to be performed within 48 hours of a "spare" set of eyes becoming available because of the difficulty of preserving them. Wastage has been enormous.
This new success suggests that it may be possible to "bank" eyes for long periods -- perhaps for years -- and call for them when required.
The secret of how to do it was outlined by a team of ophthalmologists -- Dr. F. O. Mueller, Mr. Thomas Casey and Mr. Patrick Trevor-Roper.
They took up a discovery made by Medical Research Council scientists two years ago and improved on it.
For some time it had been thought that eyes could be stored at low temperatures if they were immersed in glycerol -- car "antifreeze."
But when surgeons tried to transplant the corneas into blind people they found that they went cloudy soon afterwards.
This was because a thin layer of tissue lining the back of the cornea -- known as the endothelium -- began disintegrating.
Now the Westminster team reports that by injecting a few drops of a chemical called dimethyl sulphoxide right into the middle of the eye just before it is put into cold storage the endothelial layer can be kept intact.
Nine operations have been carried out at the hospital using eyes "banked" in this way at -- 79 degrees C.
Five patients can see clearly more than six months later and two other grafts appear successful after two months.
The doctors say: "Although the number of grafts performed is small, our results indicate a higher success-rate than the methods previously used.
The behaviour of the deep-frozen material does not appear to differ from that of fresh donor material as long as it is treated and handled appropriately and the cases selected carefully. "
The two failures, they suggest, were probably due to the endothelial layer being damaged by the surgeon's instrument as he grafted the cornea.
Rabbits' eyes, they add, have been successfully deep-frozen for up to 114 days. Now, "further investigations will show if there is a time-limit for the low temperature storage of human eyes ..."
The seven successes include a 63-year-old man whose eyes were injured during sand blasting, a woman partially blinded by lime burns 15 years ago, a man and a woman who had suffered from eye ulcers since childhood and a 73-year-old widow who had undergone two previous cornea grafts.
They do not know who donated their "new" eyes.
(From the Senior Citizens Sentinel, November, 1965)
Los Angeles -- Recipients of Old Age Security Pensions in Los Angeles County will now fill out a two-page verification form instead of the former 16-page one, according to County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.
Hahn revealed the drastic reduction in red tape would go into effect with the new experimental program of verifying eligibility by mail which has been launched in four California Counties.
Los Angeles is the first County in the nation to implement the two-page simplified form, Hahn said. If it is applied nationwide it could save more than $40 million annually, he told the Board of Supervisors.
Verification by mail will save Los Angeles County taxpayers about $2 million a year and relieve about 100 social workers from making visits to the Elderly, Hahn said.
The California League has pointed out that these visits by social workers were most likely not appreciated by recipients and many times were the cause of arousing fears and frustrations among the Elderly.
The Australian Federation of Organizations of the Blind -- representing all the associations of civilian blind in the country voted unanimously at its November, 1965, convention to affiliate with the International Federation of the Blind.
The resolution, introduced by Tim Fuery and seconded by AFOB Chairman Hugh Jeffrey, was the subject of a 40-minute discussion marked by general approval and the absence of any expressions of opposition. The text of the motion reads:
"Believing in the aims and aspirations as enunciated in the preamble of the Constitution of the International Federation of the Blind and that it is in the best interests of blind people throughout the world that they should make common cause with one another, the Australian Federation of Organizations of the Blind shall seek and accept membership affiliation with the International Federation of the Blind."
Founded in 1913, the Australian Federation is composed of nine affiliated organizations of blind people from all of Australia's six states. Four of the affiliates are unions of sheltered shop workers, with the others (such as the Queensland Musical, Literary and Self- Aid Society for the Blind) of a more general nature. One affiliate, the Business and Professional Guild of the Blind, has helped to organize an Australia-New Zealand Association of Blind Teachers.
Like most other organizations of blind people, the Australian Federation has struggled for more than half a century to gain representation in agency groups concerned with blind welfare spearheaded by the Australian National Council for the Blind. Despite persistent efforts by the organized blind, the national agency has held a tight grip on both of Australia's seats in the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind.
Among the accomplishments of the Australian Federation of Organizations of the Blind are: welfare pensions free from a means test; free postage for tapes and braille letters; free travel on trains and trams; free radio and TV licenses, and (through blind workers' unions) gradually improved wages in the nation's sheltered workshops.
While seeking recognition and representation in the World Council, the AFOB has consistently refused to join the agency-run National Council for the Blind preferring to retain its own independence and identity as a democratic association of the blind themselves.
The affiliation of the organization of Australian blind people with the growing International Federation adds still another nation from another quarter of the globe to the roster of IFB members. It also contributes experienced leadership and proven dedication to the cause of "Organization, Opportunity, and Independence" for the blind of all nations.
Hugh Jeffrey, the president of the AFOB, and Tim Fuery, the delegate from the Queensland Musical, Literary and Self-Aid Society for the Blind, both attended the Phoenix Convention of the NFB in 1964, participated in the formative discussions of the IFB which took place there, and played an active role in the constitutional and inaugurative discussions which followed at New York.
(From the APWA Letter, November 1965)
Congress has appropriated a total of $3,475,030,000 for programs of the Welfare Administration for fiscal 1966, of which $3,214,414 was provided for in the regular HEW appropriation act (P.L. 89-156, August 31), and an additional $260,616,000 in the second supplemental act (P.L. 89-309, October 31). The regular appropriation allowed $3 billion for PA grants to states, which was a reduction of $242,100,000 from the President's budget. The House committee again commented that "this should be a very modest reduction to expect in view of the expansion of programs under the Social Security amendments of 1962 that were aimed at reducing dependency and whose sponsors promised the American people that they would reduce dependency; in view of the expansion of the vocational rehabilitation program which takes people off welfare rolls," in view of the expansion of the Appalachian and the anti-poverty programs, and in view of the current low level of unemployment. The supplemental appropriation added $222 million for PA grants, specifically to cover the increased costs resulting from the 1965 Social Security Amendments.
By Lola M. Irelan
(From Welfare in Review, October, 1965)
In almost every phase of health care and behavior, the poor behave differently from the middle class and more affluent sectors of American society. They have higher prevalence rates for many diseases, including schizophrenia. They have less accurate health information. Illness is defined differently. They are less inclined to take
preventive measures, delay longer in seeking health care, and participate less in community health programs. When they do approach health practitioners, they are more likely to select subprofessionals. And, under the care of professionals, they are apt to be treated differently from better-off patients.
At first glance, such a situation appears incredible. In an area such as health, where science and human need are most poignantly juxtaposed, one might expect highly rational, objectively determined behavior. Particularly in America, so bemused are we by the mystique of "science," action which seems to fly in the face of scientific knowledge is startling. Yet, in health measures as in other categories of human behavior, people are strongly influenced by their social identities. Between societies, and between different segments of single societies, health-related behavior varies markedly.
Only recently have practitioners given attention to the social elements in health patterns. Basic problems of acquiring knowledge about physical disease itself were formerly so great that the knotty problem of applying knowledge was neglected. Now, with a formidable bulk of available medical knowledge, and almost society-wide facilities for implementing it, we are discovering the potency of social barriers to such implementation. Ironically, it appears that the people most in need of medical services are the ones who least often procure them. The poor are simultaneously subjected to increased health hazards and insulated from sources of help. The beliefs and attitudes with which they adapt to a deprived existence act at the same time to perpetuate deprivation.
In a democratic society, such a condition is ideologically intolerable. In any society, it is economically unsound. Poor health is often an immediate cause of public dependency. It can contribute to intergenerational poverty.
Correcting the situation requires social as well as medical tools, Circumvention of social factors is an intricate, sensitive project at best. It can be fully successful only when relevant values and social relationships are well understood. The welfare profession's age-old concern for the health of its clients must be supplemented by
increased interest in their view of life and in the patterns of social relationships surrounding health practices in low-income strata.
Considerable descriptive information is already available on the sociocultural elements in health behavior. Comparative studies of total societies have demonstrated graphically the impact of differing values and social patterns.
Research to date reveals many similarities between cross-cultural and social class differences in health behavior.
By Arthur Linsinbigler, Jr. and Robert H. Owens
(From Advance, Vol. 1, 1965)
An estimated 45 to 50 representatives of the organized blind met with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind in the commission's Newark offices on October 13 in a second session of what has been established as annual meetings with organizations from throughout the state.
The first such meeting was held on January 15, 1964. Since then former executive director of the commission, George F. Meyer, resigned and the leadership of the state agency was assigned to 53-year-old Joseph Kohn, formerly assistant director.
In a very short seven months, the new leadership seems to have found direction, to be developing a new climate of progress in home industries, vending stands, vocational rehabilitation, home teaching and eye health.
With the meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. and the best available train leaving Trenton at 6:55, it wasn't easy for everyone to be punctual. But even a latecomer would have no difficulty discerning the overall attitude of earnestness and candor at the session.
Gone was the usual evasiveness and uncertainty, the vague answers to which representatives of the organized blind had become accustomed.
Myles Crosby of Englewood, president of the State Council of New Jersey Organizations of the Blind, questioned the director about a phrase he had used: "Does your reference to 'social isolationism' mean you are opposed to voluntary organizations of the blind?" Crosby asked.
"No." Kohn answered without hesitation.
Crosby explained that he had been told that the attitude of some officials at the commission's Newark training center is "cool" toward members of voluntary organizations of the blind.
Kohn said the commission is not against such organizations and regards a client's membership in such groups as a matter of personal right and privilege.
The meeting was conducted by George E. Burck of Leonardo, second-term blind member of the commission's seven-member board of managers. It was Burck who reported that the commission's long-running plans for a state Braille library in Trenton have not been completed. "There are always problems," he said.
As was the case at the 1964 meeting, much attention was given to the problems confronting the home industries department. The department employs about 400 homebound workers and earns in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars a year from sales. According to Dan Sullivan, a newcomer to the department, 85 per cent of the work is "therapeutic."
It was disclosed that most of the items made by the majority of the home based workers cannot be sold in open market and have been stock-piled to a point where thousands of dollars are tied up in non-saleable inventories.
One item was mentioned, specifically: baby bibs -- 50,000 of them. Nathan Rogoff, of Rutherford, a member of the board of managers, reported that the board personally inventoried items in the commission's warehouse.
Plans are reportedly under way to clear the inventories, standardize procedures and step-up the sales program. An attempt to meet market needs by suspending or discontinuing manufacture of items not in demand are already being set.
David Brown, coordinator for the commission's Newark and New Brunswick contract shops, said there are a total of 80 persons employed in the two shops where they earn a minimum wage of $1.25 per hour. Under questioning by Myles Crosby, he admitted that people with sight are employed for some jobs.
"Does 'sight' mean good sight, or partial sight?" Crosby asked.
"Good sight," answered Brown.
Philip Trupin, the commission's new director of vocational rehabilitation, reported that employment in either of the contract shops -- where packaging and assembly jobs are obtained on a competitive bid basis -- is counted as a client placement by the commission. He said annual placements by his department, in various types of jobs, including "homemaker," total between 175 and 200. He said earnings range from $10 a week to fifteen or sixteen thousand dollars a year.
The president of the New Jersey Foundation for the Blind had what he called a "pet gripe." He said the state's vending stand program is "decaying and rusting" and urged that the new director's hands not be tied. Michael Laciopa urged that "we clean house . . . start with a clear slate."
At the 1964 meeting Carl Hvarre, then in charge of vocational rehavilitation and now assistant director of the commission, reported there were "fifty-odd" stands in operation in the state. The indefiniteness was gone this time: Edward Sierzaga, a stand supervisor who is diligently working to expand the program, and hopes to do so by the end of the year, without batting an eyelid reported that there are exactly 46 stands. He said, "We don't feel this is a good showing."
"The average annual income for New Jersey vendors, " said Sierzaga, "is $4,089." He said the future looks brighter.
Michael Laciopa made reference to an unidentified member of the commission staff dragging his feet for a number of years -- "living off the blind. " David Endler, of Passaic, the second blind member of the board of managers (law requires that at least two members of the board be blind) interrupted the New Jersey foundation president, telling him any charges against an individual should be brought before the board; "not at a meeting of this type," Endler said.
Laciopa, who is a member of Associated Blind of New Jersey, said: "I thought this was a gripe session."
"It is," said Endler, "but not for that kind of gripe." He said such matters should be brought before the board.
"Alright, I'll say it wherever you want me to say it," said Laciopa.
The brief exchange between Laciopa and Endler was the closest the meeting came to losing its balance. Earlier, Endler had identified himself as the other member of the board who represents the blind of the state -- meaning that he and George Burck are members of the board by virtue of legislation won by the organized blind.
According to available information, Mr. Endler has not been active in any of the state's several organizations of the blind.
There was some good-natured joking about what Dan Sullivan might do to help rid the commission of its 50,000 baby bib surplus, and Mr. Laciopa raised the spirit of the meeting when he rose and asked if someone could open a window in the 80 to 85 degree temperature of the meeting room. "There aren't any windows, Mike," everyone sang out.
In a recent profile of Joseph Kohn in THE ADVANCE, it was reported that the commission's new director had been asked if there is any particular service he would improve or expand. He answered that he would be interested in the development of all service programs. He is.
(From New York Post, November 8, 1965)
Washington -- New studies suggest the possibility of developing an easy eye-drop test to detect potential victims of the most common form of glaucoma -- one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S.
This was reported today by a St. Louis eye specialist who said the still-hypothetical test conceivably could also spot innocent "carriers" of hereditary genes of the disease although they themselves would never be affected.
Dr. Bernard Becker of "Washington University said that if the theory proves correct, these benefits could result:
Prevention of many cases of blindness by keeping close tabs on potential victims and treating them with available drugs at the very first sign of glaucoma -- a disease characterized by excessive pressure within the eye.
By detecting carriers, it should he possible to advise against the potentially disastrous mating of men and women who each might possess the glaucoma gene, and thus face the hazard of producing a child having glaucoma.
Advances might be made in understanding how the disease actually develops -- thus paving the way for actual prevention.
The doctor told about it at a special seminar for science writers sponsored by Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., a voluntary health organization.
By Dr. Herbert Greenberg
[Editor's Note: Below we are reprinting a portion of an address, transcribed from the tape delivered by Dr. Greenberg at the Massachusetts convention last fall. Dr. Greenberg grew up in New York City, attending public schools after losing his sight at the age of ten. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees cum laude from City College of New York and his Ph.D. from New York University. His first position was with the New York Department of Welfare, where he was consultant on rehabilitation of handicapped clients. He also sold life insurance and mutual funds to bolster his income to support his family. After four and a half years with the Department of Welfare he joined the staff of the Texas Technological College as an assistant professor of psychology and associate director of the government-
sponsored rehabilitation counseling training program. In 1957 he moved to Rutgers University and subsequently taught at Fairly-Dickensen and Long Island University. He served as executive director of the Elizabeth, New Jersey Mayor's Commission on Human Rights. In 1961 he and David Mehr founded Marketing Survey and Research Company which markets psychological tests to aid in selecting salesmen and managers. To date this company serves over a thousand clients in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and the Common Market. In addition to their New York office they have offices in Montreal and London, and are planning offices in Geneva and Melbourne.]
. . . The revolution -- call it the civil rights revolution; call it the revolution for equality; call it anything you want; perhaps even call it the real American Revolution; perhaps call it the real, final attempt of this country to accept its heritage and to really get about the business of equality and liberty and equal opportunity. Maybe that's what's happening.
Well, this is happening, ladies and gentlemen, partially, yes, because society is ready to have it happen; and the whites are supporting the Negroes and the men are supporting the women in their fight, but basically it's happening because the groups that have been discriminated against are fighting like the devil to make it happen, and this is really what I'm here to talk to you about.
I don't believe -- bluntly and candidly -- that the blind as yet have reared up on their hind legs as the Negroes have and started fighting for equality. You'll very rarely hear one of the Negroes get up and say, "Maintain our separate Negro schools; it's more comfortable" -- and you know, it is. A Negro man or woman will tell you
it's a darn sight more comfortable to be just around Negroes. It's no strain; you don't have to work at relating to whites. You don't have to feel the looks that a Negro gets when he's the only Negro on the block or the only Negro in a previously all-white class in Mississippi. It's a strain, ladies and gentlemen; it's hard work. But it's necessary and they know it. It was no fun for James Meredith (or) for the others who pioneered for integration. And it's no fun for a blind youngster to go for the first time to a public school when he's the only blind child in that school. It's true.
Dr. Farrell -- I believe he is former principal at Perkins -- wrote an essay one day that a blind person in public school lives on the fringe of society and that his frustrations are more than the frustrations he would have in a school for the blind. In some ways this is true. I remember in my own experience at 15, 16, 17, calling a girl on the phone, trying to get a date with her, and having her turn me down because I was blind. That's no fun. It's rough. I never liked it particularly sitting on the sidelines when buddies went out and played baseball. That's no fun either. It's really -- and you know I'm not saying this glibly; I mean this from the bottom of my heart -- this is tough.
In other words, I suppose what I'm saying is that it's too bad people have to be blind. That makes it really tougher; there's no question about that -- it really does. Your previous speaker talked about a couple of questions that were brought out -- of cars coming around corners and missing catching you on the handle. I've come close a couple of times too. It's no fun. But you've got to do it . . . either you've got to do it or curl up and die. There's always that choice.
And so, what is the question? The question is this. If the blind as a group take the easy way they can step aside, step away from the fight for equality that's going on in this country; they can go on educating their children in separate easier situations where the kids will have all of the perfect braille equipment; where they will have specialized teachers teaching their classes; where all of the equipment and plant rationalizations can be utilized; where a youngster will go to school from age 6 to age 18 or 20 in a world of the blind. I'm sure we'll get an education, have it somewhat easier, and we'll play games adapted for the blind and we'll wrestle other schools for the blind. But then what?
One of the major things that we learned in developing our test to pick salesmen is that one thing any successful effective human being has to have is what we call "empathy" -- the ability to read another person, the ability to sense a reaction of another human being. Well, can anybody here sense the reactions of kangaroos? A silly question. But can anybody sense a reaction to people they don't know? Can a blind youngster who has never lived among the sighted hope to have empathy with the sighted, and for that matter, if you perpetuate the medieval pattern of keeping the blind behind stone walls, how in the name of Sam Hill can you expect the sighted to develop empathy for the blind? They don't know each other. I just mentioned to my assistant last night the topic of this talk and she said, "You know, I went to
several schools and I never saw a blind person except one or two beggars on the streets of New York." I was literally the first blind person she ever met -- she ever knew. And how true is this of millions and millions and millions of people in this country; and it continues to be true as long as we hide from them.
So, how do you develop empathy? You live with the people that you're hoping to work with. You go to school with them. That's what the Negroes are fighting for. You work with them. You sweat it out. You go to camp with them, and maybe when you try to find a me s shall when you go to camp, you bark your shins on a tree stump because there aren't guard rails leading you down the path. Tough. But what's the alternative? Again, psychologically -- and now I'm tapping back to my doctoral dissertation -- psychologically we've learned this: that living in a society, especially with our mass media of communications -- radio, books, TV, newspapers -- it is virtually impossible for any individual or group of individuals to develop a good sound sense of self if he is living out of the main stream. We studied hundreds of Negroes, hundreds of women, and hundreds of blind people, and I'll tell you what we found. We found that the Negroes, women, and blind people who are educated in segregated schools have less self-confidence than those educated in integrated schools. They were more submissive; they were less social; they had many more
neurotic problems; they could not assert themselves as effectively, and they oddly enough (and this is funny, because you hear all the time about how self-sufficient the schools for the blind make a blind child -- you know cane training, and all that) they were much less self-sufficient because the way a human being develops a sense of himself is to fight for himself -- to know that, win, lose or draw, he's in the mainstream, and that in the mainstream he will swim or he will go under, and most people when they have to, will swim and swim very, very well.
So if we want to go back to the two things that we look for in our test; if we want the blind to have empathy, the ability to sense the reactions of other people, and to have a strong ego, a sense of self, the ability to fight for the self, the ability to meet the challenge in a sales situation (and all of life is a sales situation really; we're selling ourselves whether we're selling a product or not), we then have to in a unified way fight for the blind to join our other minority groups, our other disadvantaged groups in the fight for civil rights. This means first of all that we as blind people have to be willing to adopt a united front, have to be willing to say, "Society, this is what we want. " We have to be willing to bleed a little bit, to bark our shins, to bump our noses. We have to be willing to take the raps and the pressures of going to school and living in an integrated society.
And the truth is that if we make the determination, if this really is what we want with today's climate, why couldn't civil rights acts read, "discrimination as a result of physical handicap?" Why isn't that in the civil rights law? And it isn't. But it's really all so much up to us, because the climate is ready; the sighted are ready; and if
we say -- if we get up on our hind legs now and say in a united way -- that we want equality now, now, right now -- very soon we can begin having equality.
And with integration (this is something the Negroes have learned) with integration comes understanding. With integration (even though the first people who integrate have it rough), slowly with ingegration comes an easing of the problem, because suddenly the Negro, or the blind person, or the Jew, or whatever we're talking about, is no longer the curiosity. You have to be the object of prejudice, whether that prejudice is called throwing stones or giving pity, it doesn't matter, it's prejudice. When you know somebody, it's tough to be prejudiced against them.
By Molly Burrell
(From the Independent-Press Telegram [Long Beach, Calif.] Nov. 8, 1965. Al Harper is an active leader in the California Council of the Blind and recently was elected president of its Orange County Chapter.)
High school teacher Al Harper, 32, has been blind since birth but his vision and drive are undimmed.
"It's been a struggle but I've made it -- I'm doing the thing I've always wanted to do. In a few years I plan to go on to my next ambition -- politics," says Harper.
Harper's struggle began at birth when doctors discovered his double cataracts. Despite a maximum of 6% vision in one eye. Harper was a star wrestler in high school, went out for cross country, was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, made the honor roll and became Pacific Coast champion in impromptu debate in his graduate days at Long Beach State College.
"I owe it all to three great teachers who jacked me up at critical times in my life when I was about ready to give up," he says.
"One was a woman at the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, one was Dr. Odegaard at Cal, and the third was Dr. Hurst at Whittier College. In their own ways they put it to me straight -- told me I had ability and they knew I could make the grade if I'd work. And I did -- for them."
Credential in hand. Harper went through a year of discouragement and applied at 60 different districts before he got a full time job.
"Every morning I'd get dressed and wait for the phone to ring and -- nothing. Finally, after substituting for several months, I got a call from Mr. Ryan, the principal at Anaheim Magnolia High School. He told me he didn't care if I was blue or green or blind or in a wheel-chair -- if I'm a good teacher he wanted me," Harper recalls.
Today, Harper is a popular teacher at Magnolia. His classroom is a model of quiet discipline and rapport between students and teacher.
He teaches U.S. history and government, and his enthusiasm for the subjects is contagious.
"I'm fascinated with the whole political process . . . Government is the foundation for the whole society. Everything is important -- the arts, music, philosophy -- but there must be a sound governmental system in order for these things to flourish. Not just a document or several documents -- 'Liberty, in the last analysis, resides in the hearts of the people,' as Hamilton said," Harper explains.
"I try to make my students aware of the relevance of their heritage, spark some interesting discussions of the strengths and weaknesses of the governmental system. If you like kids as I do, and if you know your subject -- that's what it takes. I strive for variety but without gimmicks . . . Discipline is no problem. This is one of the best
student bodies in the country, I think," he adds.
Harper commutes with a fellow teacher, pays a college student to read to him, has student assistants pass out papers, and write assignments on the board.
He also bowls, skates, hikes, plays touch football, wrestles, is a modern jazz buff, and has considerable color perception, enough to let him enjoy art exhibits.
"It's a good life -- it's worth all the struggle," says Harper.
By Hon. Donald M. Eraser
[Editor's Note: Over the years and in different countries various plans have been proposed or instituted to prevail on private industry to employ disabled persons by government inducement or coercion. One method is for the government to require large employers to hire a fixed percentage of disabled persons. Legislation of this sort is on the books in Germany, France, and England, for example. Another plan is to provide tax benefits or financial contributions to establishments employing disabled persons. Indeed this is sometimes an adjunct of the fixed percentage plan. In the 1930's Dr. Newel Perry, long-time leader of the blind of California, prepared a tax benefit financial contribution scheme which he prevailed on Congressman Tolan to introduce into Congress. The proposal made little headway.
Today another form of this proposal is being sponsored in Congress by Representative Donald M. Fraser of Minnesota. Congressman Eraser's explanation of his bill -- H. R. 11815 -- is presented below together with some key features of the bill. H. R. 11815 would not be confined to disabled persons. It would cover the unemployed and the underemployed generally.]
Friday, October 22, 1965
MR. FRASER. Mr. Speaker, we recognize that making maximum use of our human resources is one of our Nation's greatest challenges. President Johnson has stated our goal in these words:
"Each individual must have a fair chance to develop his abilities and to engage in productive and rewarding activity. In the Great Society, all men must have the self-respect and economic security that flow from full use of their talents."
For that part of our labor force with the least opportunity, skill, and education, we continue to develop programs which help match the man and the job. But still there are quite a number not reached by these programs, largely because our effort is directed at a special age group or type of disability or is of limited size.
For example, on-the-job training under the Manpower Training Development Act, the work experience program under title V of the Economic Opportunity Act, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, private operation of sheltered workshops, and other programs, have built-in limitations.
By introducing H.R. 11815, I have proposed greater involvement of private enterprise in the task of job development. This would be an experimental program of payroll assistance payments to make economically possible the employment of workers unable to meet the standards of the existing labor market.
Designing the job to fit the abilities of the worker is a sensible and necessary approach to employment of a portion of our potential work force. The conventional approach of designing jobs to match technology or tradition or according to efficient layout alone must be supplemented by a willingness to create a certain number of positions that can be handled by persons who do not possess otherwise marketable skills. To a large extent this means jobs for the unskilled laborer who cannot be, or is not likely to be converted to a semiskilled or skilled status.
I do not suggest that plants should not use modern efficient procedures and techniques that increase the productivity of their workforce. But I do believe that with a payroll assistance program, many companies could afford to have work done which is not now being done because it is uneconomical for the firm to hire anyone to do it.
It seems to me that the vast resources of private enterprise could be harnessed in this way to absorb thousands of men, women, and youth who are willing to work but find themselves unwanted in today's labor market.
H. R. 11815
Purpose
Section 1. It is the purpose of this Act to increase opportunities for long-term gainful employment in private or public establishments by providing payroll assistance payments to employers of workers whose productivity at the time they are hired will be less than the minimum required to meet the standards of the market.
Establishment of Program
Sec. 2. To carry out the purposes of this Act, the Secretary is authorized to establish a program for
(1) contracting with employers for their employment of individuals referred as eligible under the program,
(2) selecting, counseling, and referring individuals for employment under the program,
(3) reimbursing employers for any excess of wages and other designated costs of employing workers under this program over the fair value of goods and services estimated to have been produced by these workers, and to prescribe rules and regulations and make necessary arrangements for administration of the program.
State Agreements
Sec. 3. (a) The Secretary is authorized to enter into an agreement with each State, or with the appropriate agency of each State, pursuant to which the Secretary may, for the purpose of carrying out his functions and duties under this Act, utilize the services of the appropriate State agency and, notwithstanding any other provision of law, may make payments to such State or appropriate agency for expenses incurred for such purposes.
(b) Any agreement under this section may contain such provisions as will promote effective administration, protect the United States against loss and insure that the functions and duties to be carried out by the appropriate State agency are performed in a manner satisfactory to the Secretary.
(c) Each agreement under this section shall require counseling interviews and on-the-job inspections by competent personnel of the State agency at least once during each three months of employment of each individual employed under the program. Interviews and inspections shall be directed to ascertaining whether each individual under the program is being employed properly, productively, efficiently, and effectively in a suitable occupation and at an approariate and reasonable rate of pay; whether the employer is providing adequate supervision, on-the-job instruction, safe and suitable working conditions, and is endeavoring to prepare each individual for continuing employment in a suitable occupation; whether the employer and the worker are complying with requirements of this Act and of rules and regulations applicable thereunder; and other pertinent facts.
(d) Each agreement under this section shall provide for a quarterly report to be filed with the Secretary by the participating State agency not later than forty-five days after the close of the calendar quarter covered in the report. Each report shall contain information about the operation of the program in the State in such detail as the
Secretary may prescribe. Each report for the quarter ending with June of each year shall be accompanied by an annual report covering the full year in such detail as the Secretary may prescribe. The annual report may include recommendations from the participating State agency relating to future conduct of the program.
Selection of Eligible Individuals
Sec. 4. (a) The Secretary shall formulate, and the appropriate agency of each State which has entered into an agreement shall administer, a program for identifying, counseling, and selecting for employment under this Act those unemployed or underemployed persons who cannot reasonably be expected to secure continuing full-time employment without payroll assistance payments to employers.
(b) Priority in selection shall be extended to unemployed persons who have been unemployed for six months or longer at the time of selection or have exhausted their entitlement to unemployment compensation benefits. Persons in families with less than $1,200 net family income in the preceding year shall be considered to have been unemployed for six months or longer
(d) Employment subject to payroll assistance payments under the program shall ordinarily be limited to eighteen months for any one individual. The Secretary may prescribe in uniform rules and regulations that a State agency referring individuals for employment under the program shall give preference to persons who have not previously held employment under the program. Such rules and regulations may specify terms and conditions under which renewed eligibility may be accorded to an individual who has completed eighteen months of employment subject to payroll assistance payments under this Act or to an individual who, under the rules and regulations promulgated by the Secretary, has been discharged with cause before completing eighteen months of such employment.
Contracts with Employers
Sec. 5 . . . . (h) Each contract shall provide assurances that (1) employment of individuals under this program will not result in the displacement of any employed worker or impairment of any existing contract for services, (2) rates of pay and other conditions of employment will be appropriate and reasonable in the light of such factors as the type of work performed, geographical location, and prevailing rates of wages and other conditions of employment in the establishment, business
firm, or place of employment, and (3) the employer will make all reasonable efforts to prepare individuals hired under this program for regular employment and to retain them in such employment after the period for which payroll assistance payments are applicable with respect to any such persons.
By Alice Johnson
At our last convention of the Colorado Federation of the Blind, October 30, 1965, a resolution was passed authorizing our President, Ray McGeorge, to endeavor to form a coordinating council, consisting of organizations of the blind and for the blind of the state of Colorado. This he very aptly did by calling together the following groups for a consultation November 13, 1965: Three members of the State Services for the Blind, three from the Colorado Federation of the Blind, three members from the Parents of Blind Children, one member from Braille division of the Mile High Red Cross, one member from the Braille division of the Temple Emanuel. Our state President was voted chair of the council for its experimental duration of six months. He brought back to us a very favorable report on the cooperative attitudes of the members of all the organizations.
President Ray McGeorge learned in the process of this meeting of the council that our Braille division of the Mile High Red Cross was in difficulty. Their poor old Thermo-form machine is on its last leg. This group has done so much for the Braille transcribing of this state that we saw our chance to give them a pat on the back in the form of a new Thermo-form machine. The Denver Area Association is sponsoring this project with five hundred dollars from a bequest received by the Denver Area during the last year.
(From The Sacramento Bee, November 15, 1965)
Tucson, Ariz. -- Raymond Keith says it's nothing special that he's going with the Peace Corps to Panama. Others may disagree, though, because the 25-year-old from Washington, D.C., is blind.
During 12 weeks of training at the University of Arizona, Keith asked no favors. He got none.
He's been blind 15 years. A fellow student at a private school in Wilmington, Del., hit him in the eye with a nail. The other went blind eight months later.
Keith throws a football like a quarterback, bowls, rides horseback, plays baseball, wrestles and travels around the country by himself.
The other 37 Peace Corpsmen who graduated with him feel he has a remarkable memory, unusually keen hearing and an uncanny sense of direction.
Not so, says Keith. The course required a lot of reading and none of it was in Braille. Girls at the Delta Gamma sorority read to him and he remembered enough to pass with flying colors.
"I don't have a better memory than anyone else," he insists. "You just have to know how to study. Anyone can do it."
The same with hearing. "My hearing isn't any better than yours," he says. "I just listen more carefully."
Neither does he think that a blind person makes a better teacher of the blind. "If a person has been properly trained, sight doesn't matter," he says.
Keith will now pass along to the blind of Panama some of the things he learned getting his bachelor's degree at American University and his master's at Syracuse last June. When he comes back two years from now he hopes to get his doctorate in a field that will be of assistance to the blind.
[Editor's Note: The following article, by a recognized authority of long standing in the field of rehabilitation of the blind, was written in response to recent pronouncements of the Commission on Standards and Accreditation of Services to the Blind. (For details see "COM-STACKED against the Blind?", THE BRAILLE MONITOR, December, 1965) For reasons that become obvious upon reading the article, the author has asked that his name be withheld.]
The promulgation of standards for agencies and personnel serving the blind is based upon three presumptions -- of which the first is dubious, the second false, and the third downright vicious.
The first and dubious presumption is that we know both the goal to be reached and the qualities in agencies and personnel best calculated to achieve that goal. The goal may be stated simply as the integration of blind persons so completely in our society as to render unnecessary the very services about which we are talking. That goal is not in dispute; it is the list of qualities desirable in those designated to achieve it which is doubtful. This list can be stated succinctly as embracing
empathy, broad information, intelligence and industry. With these qualities, success is assured: without them, failure is inevitable.
The second and false presumption is that these qualities can be found and measured. Only now are the psychologists beginning to inch forward in their tentative efforts to measure intelligence and creative ability. No one has yet been so foolish as to suggest that, even in the future, we shall ever be able to measure the other necessary qualities. There is no test for these qualities except judgment. To pursue the chimera of standards in such matters is merely to avoid the obligation to exercise judgment.
The third, and vicious, presumption in the promulgation of standards is that there is a magic combination of education, training and experience which will unfailingly inculcate the necessary qualities and abilities -- and without which these desirable qualities and abilities cannot exist. Such a Procrustean bed, if it existed, would guarantee the rejection of the best and the acceptance of the inadequate. For, all too often, the things that can be measured or taught are not relevant, and the things that are relevant cannot be measured or taught.
Standards for a Rehabilitation Center for the Blind
The location, plant and staff of a rehabilitation or orientation center for the blind should be chosen to give the client or student the broadest possible experience of all facets of life. The most important factor in the success or failure of such an institution is the attitudes toward blind persons, toward blindness, and toward life itself, held by the individual members of the staff. If these attitudes are enlightened and constructive, a staff whose members have a broad range of specialized and general abilities will succeed.
There is no simple formula for the mass production of successful, well-adjusted blind people. Each student is a unique individual, and the program of the center should be designed to be as flexible as possible so as to do whatever is necessary to meet his personal needs. Thus, the staff should be sufficiently large, and the number of persons served at a time sufficiently small, to permit as much individual work as possible. This necessary flexibility precludes a standardized course of study or fixed length of stay at the center.
It is unimportant and unnecessary for the staff to construct for each student a fat file of written reports and test results. What is important is that the blind person should himself learn. It is of course important that he learn the physical skills needed to overcome the physical problems brought about by his blindness. It is more important,
however, that he come to realize -- not merely from having been told but from his own experience -- that he can share fully in the problems, duties and pleasures of life uninhibited by his blindness. The learning of physical skills does much to provide this vital experience.
Some of the useful skills which can be taught and for which expert teachers are required are: mobility; the communication arts of braille, typing and abacus arithmetic; the domestic arts of cooking, cleaning and sewing; the use of hand and power tools; personal care, grooming and daily living tasks. The client should also acquire some knowledge of the laws concerning blind persons, and should be made familiar with the array of special services available to him as a blind person.
It is important also to avoid the pitfall of assuming that what we already have is necessary, and that what is necessary we already have. Too many agencies for the blind interpret the needs of the blind on the basis of what they offer -- instead of gearing their programs to the actual needs of blind persons.
The client must come to realize that blindness does not render him abnormal or emotionally disabled. Thus medical and psychological services should be either avoided or kept to a minimum, and should never become the central portion of the rehabilitation center's program.
Physical exercise is vital to health and optimum, activity, and it should be promoted by athletics. Planned recreation, however, like the traditional handicrafts taught to the blind, should be avoided because such activities reinforce the stereotype of the blind person as restricted to certain recreational and occupational activities "suited to the blind." Planned recreation and emphasis on handicrafts for the blind nourish the client's presupposition that blindness will determine and delimit his future activities and career.
Standards for Mobility Instructors
The man who teaches blind persons to travel independently has lately taken to calling himself by many names -- including travel trainer, orienter, mobility instructor and perapetologist. This proliferation of typhlological terminology adds nothing. Capable blind persons have always traveled independently. On the other hand, the
social acceptance of independent travel by blind persons is indeed a recent and constructive development.
The long cane technique, like the Morse code and the typewriter keyboard, can be learned on a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing else to do. But the blind traveler -- also like the telegrapher and the typist -- must develop his skill through weeks and months of practice and varied experience. Only after such long and arduous self-imposed efforts can he walk the streets alone with ease and safety.
One who wishes to learn to teach blind persons to travel independently should learn the technique in a kind of apprenticeship program at a good rehabilitation center for the blind whose instructors have demonstrated success in teaching blind persons this invaluable skill. Whether or not a particular would-be instructor possesses the necessary qualifications is a matter of judgment; these characteristics are not subject to measurement, nor can they be taught.
The student who would be a teacher of travel techniques to blind persons must himself have complete confidence in those techniques. Only then can he instill such confidence in his blind students. The teacher should, therefore, himself learn to travel and to get along without seeing. If the teacher knows that in an emergency he can open his eyes or remove his blindfold, his experience is not comparable with that of his future blind students. The would-be travel trainer should, therefore, spend two or three weeks in the course of his training wearing a sealed blindfold which cannot be removed during that entire period without his being disqualified.
Our previous remarks on standards for agencies and personnel serving the blind certainly apply to travel trainers as well. No amount of standardized academic training will guarantee the production of a good travel trainer, and to make such training a requirement would deprive the blind of many who would be excellent trainers. Just as with athletes, entertainers and politicians, formal training does not guarantee success. It can be useful, to be sure, but many of the most successful have minimal formal training.
Our point is perhaps best illustrated by what occurred not long ago at one of the training programs for mobility instructors. The new graduates set up an organization for members of their new profession. The standards were such that their own excellent and successful teachers, who had practiced the profession for years, would have been excluded. A "grandfather clause" might protect those already in the field, but what of all the capable people who would in future be precluded by the imposition of such meaningless standards?
It should be borne in mind that neither the travel trainer nor the teacher of any other skill is the core of the program which enables a blind person to rehabilitate himself. Travel training is a full-time job. The travel trainer should therefore not be the administrator of the rehabilitation program. The ability to impart travel techniques, and the ability to administer a general program of service to the blind are quite different abilities. The same person may or may not have these two different skills, but there is no reason to assume that he does. Travel training should be looked upon as a career and not as a mere stepping stone for advancement to what some deem to be a higher rank in service to the blind.
Arlington, Va. -- The malignant tumor of the retina called retinoblastoma can now be cured in 85 to 90 percent of cases that are discovered early and treated by combinations of X-rays and drugs.
Dr. Richard B. Lyons, a geneticist at the University of Oregon, said recently that the outlook for this tumor, which mainly affects infants and children, had improved greatly during the last 20 years.
The untreated tumor eventually brings about a protrusion of the globe of the eye, with a resulting "pitiful as well as inescapable" appearance. Fortunately it is a rare disease, occurring only in one out of 14,000 live births.
Dr. Lyons and his team found an abnormal chromosome in cells from a 1-year-old boy, who later died of retinoblastoma. The geneticist warned, however, that this does not mean that the abnormality is present in all patients who have the tumor.
What he found was that a chromosome of the D group, one of seven groupings based on size and shape, was missing and was replaced by a much smaller fragment that was probably the remnant left after breakage or deletion of the original D chromosome.
A similar finding had been reported in London in one of six patients at the Galton Laboratory.
Dr. Lyon's patient was born with numerous congenital abnormalities, including small eyes and a keyhole -shaped defect in the iris, which caused the physician to make chromosome studies when the boy was a year old.
This child was the only one of a 19-year-old mother and a 20-year-old father, who had to withdraw from college to take care of the medical expenses of their son.
Both the mother and the father have resolved to have no more children of their own after living through this very unpleasant experience, Dr. Lyons said, but they are now in the process of adopting a child because they do want to raise children.
A previous speaker at the same ophthalmology seminar was Dr. A.B, Reese of Columbia University, who went so far as to advise a female survivor of such an affliction to have an abortion or be sterilized.
Dr. Reese has worked on the problem for 20 years. He said retinoblastoma occupied a unique position as the only truly malignant human tumor with definite hereditary characteristics, which, he said, are due to an autosomal dominant gene.
(From New York Post, December 3, 1965)
The frail, blind woman who reopened the world of books for the newly blinded veterans of World Wax I celebrates her 100th birthday today.
It's another milestone for Adelia M. Hoyt, the Iowa-born farm girl who became director of the Library of Congress' Braille transcription section. A special birthday present will be a check for $100 from the Assn. of the Workers for the Blind of the District of Columbia.
During her career, she trained more than 2,000 persons to transcribe the reading language for the blind.
She began at the plea of the American Red Cross when the blinded veterans of the first World War started to return home.
They were taught to read Braille as part of their rehabilitation. Then it was discovered there were no books available to read once they learned the system.
Miss Hoyt took on the task of training volunteer transcribers, organizing lessons, selecting manuscripts and setting up transcription chapters all over the country.
She knew how it felt to lose sight. Hers began to fade when she was six and when she was 13 she left her home near Cedar Falls to enroll in a school for the blind.
By Kenneth Hinga Coordinator, Division of Services for the Blind Michigan Department of Social Welfare
The Michigan Department of Social Welfare, through its Division of Services for the Blind under the direction of Supervisor Edward A. Fitting, successfully carried out a three-week Blind Homemakers' Institute. The institute was held at the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, August 8-28, 1965, and was designed to assist newly blinded women in their adjustment.
Dr. Robert Thompson, superintendent of the Michigan School for the Blind, cooperated with the Division in offering the facilities of his school for the undertaking. Much of the success of the effort was due to Miss Ruth Kaarlela and the special education staff of Western Michigan University. The entire operation was a good example of what can be accomplished when various agencies for the blind unite in a common effort. Among others, the three separate organizations of the blind in the state found this initial program a common ground for harmonious cooperation.
On opening day the institute greeted 18 visually handicapped homemakers -- most of whom were very frightened and wondering if they had done the right thing in making this decision. The best proof of our success is seen in the fact that none of the trainees surrendered to their fears and returned home. They stayed with us throughout the entire period, and when the course was over they wondered where the three weeks had disappeared to so quickly.
Every worker for the blind knows that it is extremely difficult to get newly handicapped people to take the first step of leaving home for extensive training. The fact that these ladies stayed for the entire session, plus the report now being prepared from various agencies through the state, assure us that our clients have gone back to their communities determined to continue an active adjustment plan.
Several of the students have written to my office expressing appreciation and requesting additional D.S. B, services. So encouraging has been the response that Michigan officials are already discussing plans for next summer's Blind Homemakers' Institute. Regardless of what changes are made the overall purpose will remain the same: To reach newly blinded persons and to stimulate them to constructive efforts to improve themselves and their situation.
Under the heading, "Goodwill Strike?" the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES recently published the following editorial:
"Officials of the non-profit Goodwill Industries have observed representatives of the Seafarers International Union passing out 'organization cards' to virtually every handicapped worker in the Goodwill organization. Seafarers vice-president Dominic A. Abata says the Goodwill workers are being paid 'substantially substandard
wages and they organized themselves and asked for help.' Abata has served notice that Oct. 26 is the target date for bargaining or the employees will walk out.
"Goodwill Industries does not pay standard industry wages. It does, however, conform to the wages and hours laws for a sheltered workshop. Goodwill Industries is chartered as a charitable organization. It employs about 500 handicapped persons. Each year it trains and places in jobs in industry about half of its work force.
"This newspaper applauded Abata and the Seafarers International Union for the gallant fight they made in defeating Joey Glimco in his effort to take over the taxi unions. We cannot applaud them in this threat to strike Goodwill Industries.
"Rather than threaten to strike an organization that does so much good for handicapped persons Abata and his union should meet the challenge made to them by the Goodwill Industries -- namely, 'We'd love to have Mr. Abata 's union work with us to find good-paying jobs for our people as fast as we can train them to take such jobs.'"
The road to hell for the handicapped is often paved with good intentions -- and even with "Goodwill."
What is overlooked by the SUN-TIMES in its well-intentioned gesture toward the handicapped is that a charitable organization employing handicapped persons -- that is, a sheltered workshop --is not necessarily more fair and equitable in its labor relations than is a profit-making concern employing able-bodied persons. In fact both types of enterprise have much the same goals: Namely, to maximize income and to minimize cost -- especially the cost of labor.
The wages and hours laws, coupled with the strength of organized labor, long ago brought an end to the common exploitation of able-bodied workers. Not so with the handicapped. Largely because they were unorganized, sheltered shop workers were unable to mount effective protests when their managerial employers lobbied for and obtained sweeping exemption from those laws. It is a cruel half-truth for the editorial writer to state that Goodwill Industries "does, however, conform to the wages and hours laws for a sheltered workshop."
The truth is of course that Goodwill, along with other sheltered industries both public and private, has legally avoided the overall intent of the law by the use of the law's device of certificates of exemption -- which permit to these employers a degree of exploitation unmatched anywhere else in our industrial economy. The files of the House Education and Labor Committee, which has conducted successive hearings and inquiries into the conditions of sheltered workers, bulge with documented reports of wage levels that are not merely "substandard" but virtually subhuman. There are still members of blind workers in sheltered shops who are receiving 10 to 15 cents an hour for a full day's work in the production of materials on subcontract from competitive industries.
But whether or not the employees of sheltered industries such as Goodwill are in fact underpaid or exploited, what is at issue is the fundamental right of such workers to organize independently, to bargain collectively, and if need be to protest their working conditions through the legal means of strike and walkout. The SUN-TIMES evidently supposes that the condition of being physically handicapped bars such persons from the normal rights of citizens to speak and to associate freely. THE BRAILLE MONITOR supposes otherwise.
No doubt, as the newspaper editorial asserts. Goodwill Industries of Chicago is an organization that does good for the handicapped. It is also an organization that does well by their labors. The extent of its genuine goodwill toward its own workers may be judged in coming months by the treatment it accords their efforts to organize for self-expression and self-improvement.
A new and active chapter -- the Sebasticook Valley Chapter of Active Blind -- was accepted into the Maine Council of the Blind by unanimous vote at the Council's monthly meeting November 14 in Augusta, Maine. The chapter was formed October 24 at an inaugural meeting held in Newport.
Elective officers of the Sebasticook Valley Chapter are: president, Mrs. Natalie Matthews of Newport; vice-president, Mrs. George Call of Troy; secretary, Mrs. Thelma Dorr of Hampden Highlands; treasurer, John Barney of Clinton. Presiding chairman at the organizational meeting was Richard Maynard of Newport.
An account of the founding and subsequent history of the National Federation of the Blind was presented to chapter members at the meeting by Mrs. Matthews, who noted that the NFB's achievements have "inspired us to build an active chapter -- as indicated by our official name." The Maine Council of the Blind is the state affiliate of the National Federation.
According to a report of the meeting published in a Newport newspaper, "The aims of this chapter are to create a closer understanding between the blind and the sighted public and to promote greater unity among the blind of this area ... . In keeping with the philosophy and purpose of the National Federation of the Blind and the Maine Council of the Blind, the members of the Sebasticook Valley Chapter will continually try to make contact with newly blinded persons to help them over problems of adjustment and orientation."
A real breakthrough in job placement has been made in Iowa. Under the able direction of NFB First Vice President, Ken Jernigan, the Iowa Commission for the Blind is beginning to move into a new dimension of activity and accomplishment. As Mr. Jernigan said recently: "Our program is coming to full fruition as our years of
training turn into successful jobs for more and more blind persons. In Iowa, where NFB philosophy is also the philosophy of the Commision for the Blind, we are proving what Federationists have always known . . . that (given training and opportunity) the average blind person can do the average job in the average place of business -- and do it as well as his sighted neighbor. Prejudice is being erased as we gain momentum. Our 'breakthroughs' into new areas of employment are the real payoff."
Even a partial list of recent Iowa placements tells a graphic story. Many Monitor readers know that Mervin Flander, an Iowa Center graduate, has recently taken over the position of Director of the newly organized Division of Services to the Blind of the state of Nevada. Also entering work with the blind just a few weeks ago was
Robert Nesler, another Iowa Center graduate, who became a rehabilitation counselor with the Metropolitan Society for the Blind in Detroit.
Prejudices in industry are being smashed in several fields. This past summer Linda Lyon went to work as an operator in the long lines division of the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, thus becoming the third Iowa Center graduate to be employed in such a position in two years. A tremendous first in the state was the placing, in September, of Curtis Willoughby, a graduate of the Center and of Iowa State University, as an electrical engineer with Collins Radio Company. Collins makes broadcasting equipment, vital aircraft radios and homing devices and communications necessities of all kinds. A Center graduate began work last month at the John Deere tractor manufacturing plant in Waterloo with the tongue-twisting title of multiple-spindle drill-press operator.
Several other exciting breakthroughs have also been made in the last few weeks. Employment of a computer programmer marked the entry of capable blind persons into the Dial Finance Company of Des Moines, one of the newest and fastest growing finance companies in the United States. Last spring Nyla Wisecup became the first blind cook in an Iowa nursing home. And just recently the giant Meredith Publishing Company (Better Homes & Gardens, Successful Farming , Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook -- largest selling book in the United States except the Bible) opened its doors to trained blind persons with tlie employment of an Iowa Center graduate as a secretary in the complaint department.
In another "first" a blind Iowan trained and sponsored by the Iowa Commission recently became a newspaper reporter with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. His latest letter indicates that he must be doing well. He says he is on the police beat and is learning to write first-rate obituaries -- the beginning point for most "cub" reporters.
In a recent letter to the Governor of Iowa, Commission Director Ken Jernigan said: "More important than any one of these individual job placements is the fact of their combined significance. All of these placements (as well as many others) have occurred during the past six months. This represents a real 'breakthrough' in opportunities for the blind. It points the way for the future and provides a new dimension in the lives of the blind of Iowa."
By Edward Edelson
(From New York World Telegram, December 1965)
After speed reading for the sighted has come speed hearing for the blind.
Electronics engineers have developed equipment that permits playback of recorded speech at 300 to 400 words per minute, twice the normal rate of speech, without the high-pitched gabbling effect of ordinary speeded-up voice recordings.
The idea and the equipment come from Bell Telephone Laboratories. The machine is being built by the American Foundation for the Blind.
Speed hearing is expected to be most helpful to blind students and professionals who must absorb large amounts of printed material.
"For instance, lawyers need to consume material faster than clerks can read to them, " said Daniel O'Connor of the Foundation for the Blind.
The new process involves more than just doubling the speed of a recording. That also doubles the frequency of the sound, which makes everyone sound like Donald Duck.
The new device, called a harmonic compressor, goes about it in a much more complex manner.
First, the recorded speech is fed into a bank of electronic filters that separate the sound into 36 different components called harmonics.
Then the frequency of each harmonic is halved, and the harmonics are put together again on a new recording. If that recording is played at twice its original speed, the results are listenable, with only a trace of Donald Duck.
The harmonic compressor goes back to 1938, the year that R. L. Miller of Bell Laboratories got a patent on the idea. It was revived by Manfred R. Schroeder and Roger M. Golden of Bell Labs when the foundation asked for help in bettering the method of recording for the blind.
The Bell Lab scientists proved the practicality of the idea by running a simulation on a computer. Engineers then designed working hardware, which is being built for the foundation.
The first test recording should be ready within a year. The extent to which the technique is used depends on how tests work out. It is expected to be confined to non-fictional material.
"I doubt very much whether anyone would approve of speed reading a novel, the Bible or a book of poetry," O'Connor said.
(From New York Times, November 19, 1965)
A blind man who was turned down for jury duty took court action yesterday on the ground that his rejection "because of physical blindness is without authority in law and is arbitrary. "
The petitioner is Dr. Edwin R. Lewison, a 35-year-old assistant professor in the department of history and political science at Seton Hall University, South Orange, N. J. Dr. Lewison received his bachelor's degree at Michigan University and a master's and doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University.
In his complaint filed in State Supreme Court, Brooklyn, he said that on last May 20 he received a jury notice at his home, 764 Quincy Street, and appeared the next to qualify.
However, Dr. Lewison continued, he was summarily rejected by William Ryan, chief clerk of the division of jurors. It has long been the practice of the office to excuse blind persons from jury duty.
"It is true that the petitioner is blind and has been so all his life," the complaint went on. "While it may be true that being blind in some types of cases may be a handicap, it would not apply in all cases. There arc blind lawyers who appear in court to argue cases yet no objection is taken to their qualifications."
(From New York Times, December 2, 1965)
Philadelphia -- The American Medical Association's policy-making House of Delegates authorized its board of trustees today to test the constitutionality of Medicare if an opportunity arose.
But officers of the board of trustees, which administers the 206,000-member association's day-to-day affairs, told a news conference later that they had no immediate plans to test the Medicare law,
"At this moment, " Dr. James Z. Appel, the A. M. A. president, said, "we have not been advised that any portion of the Medicare Act is unconstitutional."
In its first broad move against Medicare since its enactment last July, the 236-member House of Delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution to "study and investigate all aspects" of the law to determine "possible court action to test the legality and constitutionality of any provision or regulation issued under the law."
The delegates took the action on the last day of their 19th clinical convention, held at the Sheraton Hotel here.
Dr. Appel, a physician from Lancaster, Pa., said the association was studying the regulations being put out by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. "If our legal advisers think any regulation of the act is illegal," he said, "I assure you we will act against it."
In a stormy afternoon session, the House of Delegates urged the board of trustees to take legal action against Medicare at once.
"I'm tired of playing Ping-Pong," declared Dr. Ever Curtis, a delegate from Massachusetts. "The time to test the law's unconstitutionality is now."
Still other doctors demanded that the board put in the resolution stronger language than that finally adopted.
The only opposition came from Dr. Urban H. Ever sole of Massachusetts, who remarked, "Sometimes we should lead with our chins, but this is not the time."
Although declaring their intention not to test the law's constitutionality now, A.M. A. officials insisted that they would attempt to repeal or amend certain portions of the law. They said they would start with the requirement that a patient must be hospitalized for three days to become eligible for home nursing care.
Not only could this lead to overcrowding of hospitals, but it also interferes with the physician's determination of the type of care his patients should receive, delegates said.
The delegates approved a resolution freeing physicians "to choose the manner in which they are to be compensated, based upon the exercise of their independent judgment."
In another resolution, they opposed "any program of dictation, interference or coercion, whether direct or indirect, affecting the freedom of choice of the physician to determine for himself the extent and manner of participation or financial arrangement under which he shall provide medical care."
The doctors engaged in a lively debate over whether their A. M. A. dues should be raised.
In the red this year for more than $1 million and determined to keep fighting Medicare with costly advertising and legal programs, the association wants to raise its annual income by $4 million by increasing dues from $45 a month to $70.
So many doctors demanded tabling of the dues increase until the annual meeting next June that a vote on the measure was called for. The increase, effective Jan. 1, 1967, was approved, 148 to 72.
(From OCB Newsletter, Albany, California)
Dale, born and educated in Eugene, Oregon, has been a diabetic since 1939. In 1960, he suffered a detached retina of the left eye and underwent radiation treatments to try to prevent deterioration of the other eye but this proved futile and in 1964, he took a leave of absence from his job as a chemist with the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation in Lompoc, which mines diatomaceous earth used in insulation and filtering products, and entered the Orientation Center to learn to cope with blindness and its problems.
The greatest benefit derived from the Center was the restoration of self-confidence. Dale said. (This is at the heart of the school's philosophy.)
Through use of the white cane and good mobility techniques; ability to use power tools without looking; ability to do number computations on the abacus (he says the abacus is a better tool than the slide rule) and the acquisition of a medium of written communication (braille and typing), Dale felt that he was ready to return to work.
Although his rehabilitation officer had some doubts of Dale's ability to continue in the same capacity with the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, Dale felt that he had solved most of the problems in his own mind and was agreeably surprised to find that his supervisors shared this opinion.
Today, Dale supervises the company's Crude Evaluation Lab which judges the quality of the ore mined and decides where it can best be used. It is fortunate that the company doctor OK'd Dale for work in spite of the diabetic condition and subsequent blindness, (many doctors arbitrarily flunk job applicants if they have either one or both conditions, regardless of their job qualifications), fortunate, not only for Dale, but for the company who retained a highly skilled employee.
Dale, his wife, Lola, and his 16-year-old son, Kenneth are active members of their community and give much of their time to church work. They are grateful for the help that came at the time it was most needed which made it possible for Dale to continue as the bread-winner in his family.
By Austin C. Wehrwein
(From New York Times, December 2, 1965)
Chicago -- Welfare administrators from across the nation met here today with an eye on the Federal Treasury for miore money, mixed feelings about the antipoverty campaign and reports that birth control was becoming a generally accepted part of local welfare programs.
The occasion was the biennial national conference of the American Public Welfare Association, made up of nearly 2,000 state, local and voluntary welfare officials.
Interviews and speeches made it clear that welfare activities, focused on "the total family," had become far more complex and expensive than the concept of "relief" that started with the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties.
The theme was that Federal Welfare programs should assure that no needy person or family feel below an "adequate level of living."
There was agreement that the antipoverty campaign had helped broaden the view. But there was also an underlying suspicion of it as a rival to old-line welfare activities, and apparently many reservations about how much the poor should or could run antipoverty programs.
Marvin E. Larson, the association's president, who is director of the Kansas Welfare Department, said involvement of the poor was an excellent idea, adding:
"We've had a little too much of 'for the poor' and not enough of doing something 'with the poor'."
He said the poor should not make policy, but rather "participate," and that a community antipoverty project should represent the entire community. While saying this, he conceded that the poor would be in the minority.
Like others, Mr. Larson said the poverty campaign had sparked new public awareness of the problem. But he said the program did not provide "individual entitlement, " and lacked statewide scope.
The people running the projects are not in Civil Service, he added. others also touched on this point, reporting competition for scarce social workers who are enticed by high salaries in the antipoverty drive.
A top Chicago welfare administrator, speaking anonymously, said the poverty campaign was being run by " Johnny-come-late lies who try to fight poverty by fighting people who have been fighting it
"And I think Sargent Shriver, head of the war on poverty, is learning that, and I would say, too, that we suffer from bogus civil-rights leaders who are all protest and no program," he added.
Wayne Vasey, dean of Washington University School of Social Work, who headed the St. Louis community project for a year, took a different tack. He said there was danger that the representatives of the poor might be captured by the establishment.
Commenting on a report by Daniel P. Moynihan, former assistant Secretary of Labor, that stressed the legacy of slavery that made Negro women dominant in many Negro families, he said it did point up the breakdown in Negro family life. But he added:
"To treat it as though it were entirely pathological is to ignore that there can be a lot of strength in a matriarchical pattern."
Dean F. F. Fauri of the University of Michigan School of Social Work, who heads an advisory committee to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, reported a movement toward a desire for greater Federal responsibility, in marked contrast to the sentiment five years ago.
In an interview, Mrs. Ellen Winston, director of Welfare Administration in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, said the agency was "very conscious of an increasing spread" in local birth control programs because the department grants money for maternal care programs that can include what she called family
planning. She gave as reasons technical developments, such as birth control pills; concern that poor families should have the knowledge available to middle class families.
By Dr. H. Geissler
On November 25th and 26th, 1965 a general assembly of the German Association of the Blind (Deutscher Blindenverband, DBV) was held in the congress hall in Berlin. The President of the German Federal Republic and the office of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic had sent their greetings on the occasion of this meeting. At the inaugural session, the governing Mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, and the representative of the Federal Department of the Interior, Ministerialdirecktor Duntze, addressed the assembly. Also the foreign guests Prof. Dr. tenBroek, USA, President of the International Federation of the Blind, and Monsieur Gerber, President of the Amitie des Aveugles de France spoke to the delegates who had come from all parts of the Federal Republic, and gave fundamental statements. Prof. Dr. Schultz, Berlin, delivered an excellent report on the situation of the blind in modern society. Dr. Gottwald, Bad Godesberg, gave also a fundamental report on the theme: Organizations of the blind today and tomorrow. The high standard of these discourses was characteristic for the whole meeting.
At the election of the executive committee of the Association, the previous officers were re-appointed: Dr. Alfons Gottwald, president; Dr. Horst Geissler, vice-president; Dr. Friedel Heister, Wilhelm Marhauer, Ernst Sontheim, and Alfred Stoeckel members of the executive. It was decided that Heinz Keil, the news reporter of the Association, should be admitted as advisor to the meetings of the executive committee.
The retired director-substitute Fritz Gerling, director Friedrich Wilhelm Gust, and Mr. Alfred Stoeckel were unanimously appointed honorary members of the Association.
On application of the union of the blind in Bavaria, the general assembly decided to found an education committee, composed of approximately five experienced and expert persons occupying themselves with questions of the education of the blind from the standpoint of the self-aid organizations of the blind. It will be the task of this committee to support the officers of the executive committee in their efforts for an education system for the blind meeting the requirements of modern time, and to moderate the differences occurring sometimes between the organizations of the blind and the educational institutions for the blind.
Finally, the assembly took a resolution concerning an alteration of the DBV constitution, re-establishing the former conditions of admittance. Henceforth, persons who are seriously handicapped visually can also be admitted to the DBV member associations. Formerly, the so-called "practically blind" were admitted ordinary members of the self-aid organizations of the blind. As a consequence of the new definition of blindness, these persons were no longer acknowledged to be "blind" but only "seriously handicapped visually."
The day before the beginning of the DBV general assembly, the members of the executive committee were received for personal talks by the president of the chamber of deputies of Berlin, the Senator of Social Affairs and the Senator of Education. In one of the evenings the Berlin union of the blind (Allgemeiner Blindenverein Berlin) held a reception. The day after the general assembly a tour was organized through the free part of Berlin, where the participants got an impression of the actual state of the capital of the former "Reich" and visited the installations of the Berlin union of the blind. In fact, the delegates of the German congress of the blind in Berlin got a great number of impressions and initiatives which doubtless will have their effects for a long time.
By Ben Williams
(From San Francisco Examiner, December 4, 1965)
[Editor's Note: In California the Interim Committee on Social Welfare of the Assembly of the State Legislature is conducting an extensive investigation into the operations of the State Department of Rehabilitation. Among other programs being looked into is that of California Industries for the Blind. A number of public hearings have been held already and others are planned. It is hoped that the committee will come up with some legislative proposals substantially altering
and improving the state's sheltered workshop system.]
California's rehabilitation program for the blind often serves only to frustrate the ambitious and seldom prepares them for jobs in private industry.
That is the sentiment of two union officials who testified yesterday before the Assembly Interim Committee on Social Welfare in the State Building.
Ysidro Urena, blind worker at the Berkeley shop of the California Industries for the Blind and also an official of the Union of State Employees, told the committee the Department of Rehabilitation is trying to "bury the blind worker."
"I learned to make these in ten seconds," said Urena, holding high a pair of pot holders.
He said the operation is so simple he can do it with his hands almost as fast as with the machine used for the job.
He said counselors and other civil service workers who administer the program have such a condescending attitude that it was "shocking" to him when he joined CIB two and one half years ago.
"The foreman showed me a machine in the shop, then told me it was too dangerous for a blind person to operate. I was given another job," said Urena.
He said he eventually proved that that job and several other restricted jobs in the shop could be done by blind persons and they are now part of the training program.
Urena told the committee headed by Assemblyman Jack T. Casey, Democrat of Bakersfield, that workers were sometimes given imperfectly cut raw material that reduced their piecework output and consequently their pay.
No allowance is made for defective material which takes longer to process, he said.
Julius Karpen, business agent for local 411, of the state employees' union, representing most of the 90 workers at the Berkeley CIB shop, asked the committee to help establish a $350 minimum monthly wage for handicapped workers able to put in a 40-hour week.
Karpen said many now earn as little as $75 to $100 per month.
"The rehabilitation people look on these workers as clients being prepared for private industry. We look on them as workers because they just don't place them in industry. Some have been in CIB for years and they deserve a living wage."
David Mendelson, chief of the Department of Rehabilitation for the blind, testified that the state's revised program, which consolidates several services, is so new that it has not had time to straighten out "the muddle" inherited over the years.
"As of Jan. 1 (1966)," he said all three state rehabilitation centers "will have had a change in management."
Committee member Winfield Shoemaker, said the group will draft questionnaires to be sent to the state; 2,500 persons in the reliabilitation program to get their evaluation of it.
"Obviously it will have to be changed if the people in it don't feel it is doing them any good."
Casey agreed. "It appears we need a much more realistic program," he said.
The hearings will continue in Sacramento Dec. 7.
Planning for the 1966 NFB convention is underway. It is to be held in Louisville, Kentucky, the week of July 4 at the Kentucky Hotel. Ken Jernigan as Convention Chairman recently spent a few days in Louisville working on arrangements. He also broke out in the local press.
At the end of November Cotton Busby, well-known to Federationists and manager of the Monitor Tapes, left his position with the education and recreation center of the Kansas City Association for the Blind. On December 1 he began a new job as canteen supervisor in the New Federal Building in Kansas City.
Bob Whitehead of Kentucky reports these items of progress: "A new stand is being installed in the city building in Ashland; two new teachers have been added to the School for the Blind; cane travel is being taught in the higher grades; and a home teacher will soon be added to the Services for the Blind staff to work in the Ashland area."
At 83, Joe Dennis of Fall River, Mass., was cited by Governor Volpe for his more than 50 years of service to the blind people of the community.
Robert H. Owens, 39-year-old editor of THE ADVANCE and executive secretary-treasurer of Associated Blind of New Jersey, was elected to a sixth consecutive term as president of the Trenton Association of the Blind, in the group's October elections.
From the Oakland (Calif. ) Tribune, Fri. Dec. 3: Henry "Hank" Davis is the world's only blind professional bowler and instructor, and he squares off against noted pro-tourney winner Hank Lauman in a special match game tomorrow . . . Davis bowls a 190 average.
The dates for the Ohio Seminar are February 12 and 13, The place is the Southern Hotel in Columbus. The subject is the changes brought about by the Welfare Reorganization Bill as they affect the blind.
Benny Parrish, former social welfare worker in Alameda County, (Calif.) is now working on a federally-sponsored poverty project in Modesto.
Nelson Hinman, who studied Russian at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. under the Federal program, is now at Davis, Calif., working in the University of California (Davis) Russian Language Department.
Richard Knudson, who was hired in January, 1965, to teach Industrial Arts for the balance of the term at Oakland's Havenscourt Jr. High School, has had his contract renewed this fall.
Mr. Frank L. DeWeese, Executive Director to the Cambria County Branch of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, replaces Mrs. William Willet who has retired after 35 years of service to the blind in the Johnstown area.
Jim Fall, member of the NFB Executive Committee, and recently retired as president of the Arizona Federation, has received another award -- this time a "Citation for Meritorious Service conferred . . . in appreciation for exceptional contributions in furthering the employment of the handicapped" from the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. The batting average of the NFB Executive Committee beats that of Willie Mays. Don Capps and Audrey Tait have recently received similar awards.
With Mrs. Marfoeie Rowley as chairman, and Mrs. Jean Norris in attendance, the Action Committee of the American Brotherhood for the Blind held a rally luncheon in Encino, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 12, in the interests of the Twin Vision publications. Over forty Twin Vision enthusiasts were present. Dr. Isabelle Grant was the luncheon speaker.
On Wednesday, December 1st, the Boston Chapter of the Associated Blind of Massachusetts held elections, with the following results: President, Catherine Black; first vice president, Mary Marinello; second vice-president, Thomas Cotter; treasurer, Domenic Miirinello; recording secretary, Ethel Gould; corresponding
secretary, Winifred Tait; lay members, Philomena Pepe and Eleanor Tramontozi; trustee, Henry Fitzpatrick . . .
On Tuesday, December 7th, elections were held in the Worcester, Massachusetts Chapter, which now has the following officers: President, William H. Burke; first vice-president, Raoul J. Goguen; second vice-president, Rosamond M. Critchley; recording secretary, Dorothy Bailey; corresponding secretary, Elsie Baker; financial
secretary, Edward B. Murphy; treasurer, Irving MacShawson; members-at-large, Mary Bedrosian and Anthony Joyce.
Frank Allen, former president of the Wyoming Association of the Blind, and, with his wife Maxine, frequent participant in NFB conventions, has moved from the old Post Office Building to the snack bar in the new Federal Building. The occasion was celebrated by a feature story in the Cheyenne newspapers.