Future Reflections Summer 2000, Vol. 19 No. 2
Reprinted from the February, 2000 issue of the Braille Monitor.
Vision for the Future
The spirit and passionate
dedication of the over 50,000 members of the NFB are directed toward building a
future for the blind in this country that includes opportunity for education,
employment, and full participation in our society. Our message is one of hope and
personal responsibility. We are determined to demonstrate that blind people can
achieve and prosper if trained using a philosophy of blindness that emphasizes
capacity and mutual support. We envision a new approach to helping blind
people�an approach which transcends ancient images of darkness, ignorance, and
isolation. We foresee a revolution in services for the blind which views
blindness as a characteristic to be dealt with through the acquisition of
pragmatic skills and self-acceptance. We are a people with abilities and
dreams, a people of hope and tenacity, too long held down by our own and
others� misconceptions and fears. We are working toward a time when all of us
can achieve to our capacity and contribute fully to our society.
The next chapter of blind
people�s struggle for full integration into all aspects of our society will
include the nation�s first research and training institute inspired and
operated by the organized blind. We have long known who we are; now it is time
to demonstrate and implement model programs and services that will forever
change what it means to be blind.
The National Research and Training Institute for the Blind
A new five-story,
170,000-square-foot building will be attached to the present national
headquarters of the NFB, located in Baltimore, Maryland. The new facility will
include a research library, technology training labs, classrooms, a distance
learning center, an adaptive technology development center, and office and
flexible meeting space. We have begun an eighteen-million-dollar capital
campaign. Funds are being solicited from members and individual supporters of
the NFB, corporations, foundations, and governmental sources. The goal is to
raise the needed funds by summer 2001 and to complete the project in the summer
of 2003.
At least 50 percent of this
country�s 1.1 million blind citizens will be directly affected by the programs,
research, and technology developed during the first ten years of the
Institute�s operation:
Through the use of newly
developed distance learning technologies and training methods, we will work
toward providing an opportunity for all of the 57,000 blind children in this
country to learn Braille and other needed skills.
The 788,000 blind seniors
today, and the projected 1.6 million by 2015 and 2.4 million by 2030, will have
access to improved services and resources stimulated by the senior initiatives
of the Institute.
Partnerships between
private-sector employers and the NFB will result in lowering the 74 percent
unemployment rate among working-age blind people in this country.
Nonvisual speech and Braille
technology will be developed, making it possible for the blind to access an
ever-increasing number of services and resources delivered by computer
technology.
Major Initiatives
The following initiatives will
provide the structure for the programs, projects, and services of the National
Research and Training Institute for the Blind.
Technology Access and Training Initiative
Technology is a critical
element in both education and employment opportunities today and will be even
more so in the future, for the blind just as for the general public. Advances
in speech, Braille, and large-print access technology lead some to assume that
the blind now have or soon will have access to nearly all of what technology
has to offer.
Unfortunately, due to the
widespread obsession with visual design in technology, the shortage of good
technology training, the cost of equipment, and the rapid advancements of
technology applications, blind people now face the dismaying prospect of being
left out if nonvisual access is not continually updated and improved. This
means that advances in software and hardware must include design that allows
nonvisual access.
The Institute will be the
center of technological advancement for the blind. Along with development and
promotion of adaptive technology, training will be provided to ensure that the
blind move smoothly with their sighted peers into the emerging technological
age and do not become casualties of what Bill Gates has called the digital
divide.
Blind Children�s Initiative
The 57,000 legally blind
children in this country face unique educational and daily-living challenges.
Today the majority of blind children have other disabilities, are educated in
public schools rather than residential schools for the blind, and have other
individualized needs.
Blind children are often
discouraged from using alternative reading and travel methods because
uninformed parents and teachers believe that as far as possible their children
should avoid being labeled as blind. For too long these useful tools of
independence have been associated with the negative stereotype of the hopeless,
isolated blind. Unfortunately this has resulted in less than 10 percent of
blind children being able to read Braille and many not being able to travel
independently.
Because the NFB knows that
alternative skills are basic to self-esteem among the blind and to successful
employment (today 85 percent of blind people who use Braille are employed), we
have already directed significant resources toward changing this alarming
trend. By establishing a national Braille literacy campaign, promoting early
mobility training for young blind children, and contributing to development of
adaptive technology, the NFB has led the way in innovation and change. However,
because many school districts are hiring only general special education
teachers rather than specially trained teachers of the blind, families face a
growing shortage of qualified educators and services for their blind children.
Braille Literacy Initiative
In 1968 40 percent of blind
children in this country read Braille, 45 percent read large print, and only 9
percent read neither. However, today less than 10 percent of legally blind
children read Braille, and more than 40 percent read neither Braille nor large
print. This problem reflects a dangerous trend: the functional illiteracy of
tens of thousands of blind children.
In the 1970�s blind children
began to be mainstreamed into regular classrooms. Most school systems did not
know how to teach children Braille, so they tried to teach the children using
any method available. For blind children this meant listening and memorizing;
they never learned to read and write. For those with some sight, it meant the
use of magnifiers. Imagine trying to learn how to read when you can see only
one letter at a time. The result has been predictable: many blind children have
fallen behind in school and as adults are now significantly limited.
For too long Braille has been
associated with total blindness and many of the misconceptions associated with
this disability. Parents of blind children are easily convinced that, if their
child has some residual vision (even if that vision is minimal, unstable, or
likely to deteriorate), reading print will somehow mean their child is not
really blind. It takes people who are positive about Braille and familiar with
the real benefits of this alternative technique to convince reluctant parents.
Also much work is necessary to upgrade the Braille skills of teachers of the
blind and to improve Braille-production and Braille-teaching technology.
The National Research and
Training Institute will be the center of a growing Braille Literacy Initiative
that will ensure that the progress led by the NFB continues and that Braille is
recognized to be a communications tool as essential to the blind as American
Sign Language is to the deaf.
Research Initiative
Despite the tremendous outlay
of public and private funds throughout most of the decades of this century, the
objective situation of the blind as a group remains intractably bleak: 74
percent unemployment, functional illiteracy for tens of thousands of blind
children, and exclusion from the mainstream of society. These facts make it
starkly clear that the techniques and systems used to serve the blind in the
United States are in dire need of overhaul.
The unsolved problems demand
innovative solutions. Effective training programs that will teach the
professors who will teach the teachers and other professionals who will teach
the blind must be developed so that the age-old cycle of dependency and despair
can be broken. The Research Initiative of the National Research and Training
Institute will focus on identifying and solving the root causes of these endemic
problems.
Blind Seniors Initiative
Less money is spent and fewer
services are available to those over fifty-five losing vision than to younger
blind people. Yet far more people lose vision after retirement age than before.
New approaches must be developed and taught to state and local staff members in
rehabilitation, older blind, and older Americans programs and in centers for
independent living. The National Research and Training Institute will bring
together knowledgeable professionals who will design materials and develop
training programs to assist state and local agencies in helping blind and
visually impaired seniors remain independent and continue to participate in the
activities they hope for in their retirement years. Blindness can happen to anyone.
Without training and opportunity it can be devastating. In short, seniors have
huge needs. The Blind Seniors Initiative of the National Research and Training
Institute will focus on finding ways to meet them.
Employment Initiative
Work is one of the fundamental
ways in which individuals express their talents, make a contribution, and take
responsibility for themselves. For too long many blind people have been told by
their families, teachers, and even rehabilitation counselors that the world of
competitive employment is most likely out of reach for them.
Since its founding in 1940,
the NFB has been committed to the principle that otherwise-able blind people
should be expected to work and should be given every opportunity to achieve.
This means that the blind must believe in themselves and employers must learn
that qualified blind people make productive, loyal employees.
With an unemployment rate of
74 percent, many working-age blind people are not enjoying the challenges and
responsibilities of competitive employment. Although hundreds of millions of
dollars have been invested in job preparation programs around the country, this
staggering number has not changed in recent years. The employment initiative of
the National Research and Training Institute will provide focus, resources, and
direction for a comprehensive evaluation of contemporary methods for helping
the blind. From such an evaluation will come the necessary knowledge to
develop, demonstrate, and replicate innovative training programs to replace
existing efforts which have failed to bring the blind into the workforce.
The new National Research and
Training Institute will be the center of research, demonstrations, and
job-development partnerships with private industry. These partnerships in combination
with successful employment preparation programs will create national momentum
toward the full employment of the blind.
Contributors may choose to have their gifts recognized through dedication to one of the Institute�s Initiatives or through naming opportunities associated with specific floors, wings, rooms, facilities, equipment, or furnishings of the National Research and Training Institute. Please contact the NFB Capital Campaign Office for more information. Call (410) 659-9314 and ask for Mr. Vince Connelly.
The Campaign To
Change What It Means To Be Blind
Capital Campaign Pledge Intention
1800 Johnson Street� *� Baltimore, Maryland�� *�� 21230
Name:___________________________Home Address:______________________
City, State, and Zip:________________________________________________
Phone (H):______________Phone (W):________________E-mail:____________
Employer:__________________________________________________________
Work Address:______________________City, State, Zip:___________________
To support the priorities of the Campaign, I (we) pledge the sum of $___________.
My (our) pledge will be payable in installments of $____over
the next _____years
(we encourage pledges paid over 5 years), beginning_______, on the following
schedule (check one): [� ] annually,
[� ] semi-annually, [� ] quarterly, [� ] monthly
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Please list my (our) names in all Campaign Reports and on the Campaign Wall of Honor in the appropriate Giving Circle as follows:_________________________�_
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The Wall of Honor:
A permanent wall display listing individual donors above the $5,000 level will further recognize contributors. All contributors, including those below $5,000, will be listed in the appropriate gift level on the Campaign Honor Roll to be announced and published during the campaign victory celebrations.
Gift Amount��������������������������� Title
$1,000,000+��������� Jernigan Circle,
���������������������������� �Master Builder
$500,000+������������ President�s Circle,
���������������������������� �Program Builder
$250,000+������������ Director�s Circle,
���������������������������� �Opportunity Builder
$100,000+������������ Leader�s Circle,� Independence Builder
$50,000+�������������� Patrons
$25,000+�������������� Partners
$10,000+�������������� Benefactors
$5,000+���������������� Fellows
$4,999‑����������������� Friends