Future Reflections Convention Issue 2014 A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
The World Remade
by Deborah Kent Stein
On the first morning of convention, I crossed the lobby of the Rosen Centre Hotel, deep in discussion with the mother of a blind middle school student. Suddenly she broke off to exclaim, "I love seeing all these kids running around with their canes! They're just adorable!"
Her words swept me back to a conversation I had overheard just a week before. I was riding a bus in downtown Chicago on a field trip with our Illinois BELL program. "Look at all those poor little blind children!" sighed the woman behind me. "It breaks my heart!"
"Doesn't seem fair," agreed the man beside her. "Think of all the things they miss out on."
From the Rosen Centre lobby, that conversation seemed impossibly remote. Against a backdrop of tapping canes, people greeted one another, exchanged information, and mapped out the week ahead. Here were no sighs of pity. Here the children scampering along with their canes were adorable, and nobody was missing out on a thing.
The annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind is an unparalleled phenomenon. For nearly a week, convention brings together more than twenty-five hundred blind people, their relatives and friends, and professionals in teaching and rehabilitation. Conventioneers ask and answer questions, exchange ideas, share expertise, and build and strengthen connections. In the general public there are still people who think that blindness is a tragedy, but convention shows us the world as we dream it will become. The focus is positive. The message is clear and consistent--no one need be limited by blindness. Blind people can live the lives they want.
The seventy-fourth convention of the National Federation of the Blind took place July 1 through July 6 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Convention began with "Taking the Next Step," a day-long conference sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). During the days that followed, there were meetings of dozens of groups and divisions. Among them were blind people in health and human services, blind educators, blind people in the arts, blind people in communities of faith, blind people in computer science, blind lawyers, blind car fanciers, and blind parents. Anyone was welcome to attend any of these meetings, to ask questions, listen, and learn.
General sessions filled the last three days of convention. We heard a stirring report of the year's activities from President Marc Maurer. We listened to reports on new developments in technology. Civil rights attorney Dan Goldstein inspired us with his thoughts about breaking down barriers to inclusion, and Dan Parker roared down the aisle to the podium on his motorcycle. What would the couple on the bus have said about that?
This issue of Future Reflections contains articles based on some of the many presentations and workshops at the NOPBC conference and the NOPBC division meeting. There are also awards presentations, highlights from general sessions, and personal perspectives on the convention experience. If you attended the 2014 NFB convention, the articles and photos in this issue may bring back memories. If you haven't yet been to convention, perhaps this issue will inspire you to attend in 2015. It will be our seventy-fifth, a gala celebration that you won't want to miss!
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