Volume 39 Number 1 Winter 2020
A magazine for parents and teachers of blind children published by
the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in partnership
with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children.
Deborah Kent Stein, Editor
ISSN-0883-3419
Copyright © 2020 American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
For more information
about blindness and children contact:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230 • 410-659-9314
https://nfb.org/nopbc • [email protected] • [email protected]
The 2020 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Houston, Texas, July 14 to July 19, at the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, 1600 Lamar Street, Houston, TX 77010. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Hilton Americas-Houston. Call 1-800-236-2905 to reserve your room in the main hotel. If you wish to stay in our overflow hotel, the Marriott Marquis Houston, the number to call is 1-877-688-4323.
The 2020 room rate at our main hotel is $105 per night and applies to singles and doubles as well as triples and quads. Hotel and sales taxes in Houston are 13.38 percent and 8.25 percent, respectively. The rate for the overflow Marriott Marquis is slightly higher at $119. As with our main hotel, hotel and sales taxes are additional, and the nightly rate covers up to four in a room. Both hotels will take a deposit of the first night's room rate for each room and will require a credit card or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged against your card immediately. If a reservation is cancelled before Friday, June 1, 2020, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise refunds will not be made.
Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2020, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotels will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.
Both hotels offer complimentary in-room wireless internet (though the Marriott requires a free-to-establish Marriott Bonvoy account) and fitness center access for all guests. All rooms are furnished with mini refrigerators along with many of the usual amenities such as in-room safes, irons and ironing boards, and hair dryers. After the day's events, you can get your swim on at either hotel. The Hilton has an indoor pool on the 23rd floor, while the Marriott features an outdoor pool adjacent to its Texas- shaped lazy river pool. Both hotels have several on-premise dining outlets with a broad range of additional options within a short walk from the front door.
The schedule for the 2020 convention is:
Tuesday, July 14 Seminar Day
Wednesday, July 15 Registration and Resolutions Day
Thursday, July 16 Board Meeting and Division Day
Friday, July 17 Opening Session
Saturday, July 18 Business Session
Sunday, July 19 Banquet Day and Adjournment
FEATURE
Blind Youth in Physical Education
by Matthew Maurer, Lisa Farley, and Cara Burchett
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Helping Children with Sensory Impairments Explore and Learn
by Casey West Robertson
ADVOCACY
Teacher Shortages: What Choices Do Parents Have?
by Lydia Anne Schuck
Time for Action for Blind Students
by Kathryn Webster
Knowledge is Power: My Fight to Obtain Technology Training for My Daughter
by Heidi Scheffer
EMPLOYMENT
Breaking into the Workforce
by Nadia Montanez
Competing on Terms of Equality and Blending In: Government Service with Federation Style
by Kristen Cox
The Next Big Step: How to Keep Your Job and Thrive in the Workplace
by Yusef Dale
ACCESS
See3D: Creating Hands-on Access through the Power of 3D Printing
by Caroline Karbowski
PERSPECTIVES
Our NFB Journey
by a BELL Academy Parent
Growing Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
by Trisha Kulkarni
REVIEW
Dog Driven
by Terry Lynn Johnson
Reviewed by Deborah Kendrick
PROGRAMS
Eleven Years of BELL Academies: Gaining Skills, Enhancing Opportunities, and Building Relationships
by Karen Anderson
NOPBC
2019 NOPBC Conference Roundup
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
Houston, We Have a Solution! Failure is Never an Option
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The American Action Fund Needs Your Help
Learning Opportunities at NFB Summer Programs
Other Announcements
Odds and Ends
Are you the parent of a blind/low-vision child? Don’t know where to turn?
Have you ever wondered what your child will be capable of when he or she grows up? Are you concerned that your child’s future will be limited by blindness or low vision? Do you have questions about how to parent a blind child? We are here for you.
Founded in 1983, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), a proud division of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), is a membership organization of families, friends, and educators of blind children. We have thousands of members in all fifty states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
We have a very inclusive definition of blindness which includes children who have some usable vision. Instead of focusing on what the child can or cannot see, we focus on the child and what she or he wants to be.
NOPBC is for families, educators, and friends of blind children, including those who have some usable vision. We welcome all families of blind children, and many of our children have both blindness and other disabilities.
We help families and blind children themselves maximize the child’s abilities and opportunities; we hold high expectations for all of our children, regardless of any additional disabilities they may have.
As a division of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the largest and most influential organization of blind people in the world, the NOPBC is well informed about the societal, legislative, and technological issues that affect blind people. We enjoy the resources, support, and expertise of fifty thousand blind people who can serve as mentors and role models for us and our children. When we as parents join the NOPBC, our children belong to the Federation family.
The NOPBC:
Most states have an NOPBC affiliate chapter. You can find your state chapter at http://www.nopbc.org. If your state does not have a chapter and you would like to start one, please contact us. We may be able to offer training and other assistance to start a state NOPBC chapter.
We have been where you are, and we want to support you and your blind child. We know that blindness does not define your child's future. We can connect you with other families and blind adults who can serve as positive mentors and role models. They can teach you the attitudes and techniques that will enable your child to become independent and to succeed in life.
The NOPBC offers hope, encouragement, information, and resources for parents, families, and educators of blind children. NOPBC provides:
We offer a wide variety of programs, activities, and training to families, children, and youth. One of our most exciting activities is our annual conference. Every year since it was established, the NOPBC has conducted an annual conference for parents and teachers of blind children as part of the national convention of the NFB. This conference has grown to include five exciting days of workshops, training sessions, activities for all family members, including sighted siblings, and countless opportunities to meet blind adults and other families and children from around the country.
Contact Us:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
[email protected]
www.nopbc.org
by Matthew Maurer, Lisa Farley, and Cara Burchett
From the Editor: Dr. Matthew Maurer is a professor of education at Butler University; Lisa Farley is an associate professor of physical education, also at Butler; and Cara Burchett teaches physical education at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In this article the authors combine their expertise to explore an area of education from which blind and low-vision students are excluded far too often.
It is widely accepted, even by children themselves, that physical activity is important for all learners. According to the Journal of Community Health (2000), "Physical activity behavior proved to be a significant predictor of self-perceived health for students." Yet American children often do not engage in adequate physical activity, and they are not considered "naturally" active (Stuart, Lieberman & Hand, 2006).
This lack of physical activity may be especially pronounced in children who are blind or have low vision. Experts have shown that children with disabilities tend to be less fit than others due to a number of factors. Among these factors are the psychosocial constraints imposed by the beliefs of others about their capabilities (Longmuir & Bar-Or, 2000; Stuart, Lieberman & Hand, 2006).
During physical education class, a group of high school students are playing basketball. A lone blind student sits in the bleachers. The teacher explains, "We were playing basketball, and of course he can't do that, so we have him involved in the class by keeping score." Some teachers cite safety concerns when they exclude blind or low-vision students from taking part in physical activity. Others lack an understanding of the need for physical activity (Stuart, Lieberman & Hand, 2006).
The teacher's assumption that the blind student must be excluded from an active game such as basketball is misguided in several ways. First, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) emphasizes that children with disabilities must have access to the full general education curriculum. Physical education is part of that curriculum, and therefore it must be inclusive for students with disabilities. Second, if a sport is appropriately adapted, the blind student can indeed play. Third, delays in physical activity often result in delayed motor function and locomotor skills, so it is essential that we provide those opportunities for all children (Pereira, 1990). Finally, keeping score is not the same as being involved in the physical activity of playing basketball or any other game. The game is intended to be an activity that promotes movement and teaches movement skills. Those goals are not met by keeping score.
When researchers asked parents of blind children about their children's physical activities, parents were specific about the challenges. "The top three parent-identified barriers for children with low vision were (1) untrained physical education teachers, (2) the lack of peers to be active with, and (3) the lack of opportunities" (Stuart, Lieberman & Hand, 2006).
When a parent or other advocate raises concerns about the blind child's limited participation in physical activities, the issue of adaptation often arises. "Do you expect me to change the whole game for this one child?" is a typical response from teachers. "I'm not doing that! It's not fair to all the other children." Again, this statement is off base for several reasons. First, the law says that the child must have access to the curriculum, so the teacher's refusal is in violation of federal and most likely state law. Second, the blind child is a student like all of the others. With differentiated instruction teachers should consider the needs of all their students, including blind children. Third, we often find that when we adapt an activity for one child, there are unexpected benefits for all of the students. Until we try, we don't know how much the other children will learn from an adaptation to a sport. Finally, the concept of fairness should be understood to mean that everyone gets what they need, not that everyone gets precisely the same thing.
As we have seen, blind and low-vision students generally have few opportunities to engage in purposeful physical activity. The physical activity available to them is often dependent upon the educational preparation of the teacher and the teacher's attitudes about perceived barriers to instruction (Sherrill, 2004). As we implement adaptations we must guard against inadvertently promoting learned helplessness or a lessening of personal power.
One way to adapt an activity is to have a sighted child help the blind child in some way, such as serving as a guide during a track meet. This general approach can be positive or negative, depending on how it is implemented. For example, if the sighted child and the blind child are reliant on each other for different factors of the game, they co-construct meaning from the lesson in ways that strengthen them both. However, if a sighted child and a blind child are paired in a way that puts the sighted child in charge, we have set up a hierarchy of vision in which the person with more vision is most powerful. Such an imbalance lessens the blind child's personal power and may begin to teach the child to be dependent on people with vision.
Teachers can adapt physical activities for their blind and low-vision students in many ways. Start by talking to the student and learning what adaptations they need. Consider auditory and tactile adaptations. For example, the floor can be marked with rope under duct tape to help the blind child maintain an orientation to the field of play. Auditory devices such as bells in balls or beepers on goals can be employed. Brighter or highly contrasted colors can help the low-vision child spot the pertinent elements of a court or field. For a more extensive list of adaptations, see Letcher (2006).
Often we are criticized for "dumbing down" the curriculum when we talk about adaptations. In the case of physical education, the "dumbing down" is thought to take the form of reduced physical activity or curtailed learning of movement-related skills. If teachers do their homework and learn what they need to know, adaptations need not have a negative impact on the curriculum. A sport need not be less active or less strenuous because it is adapted for the blind child. There may be changes to the rules, changes to the teamwork, and/or changes to the playing field. However, within those changes, the same learning objectives can be accomplished, including physical activity for all. We will provide resources at the end of this article to help the reader find positive ways to adapt.
Let's consider an example to see how adaptation actually works. Consider basketball. In one scenario, we can station the blind child near the hoop. We can instruct the other players to hand the ball to the blind student from time to time and let him or her shoot the ball. If the blind child makes a basket under those circumstances, everyone cheers wildly and offers effusive congratulations. In this situation, the child is not advancing his or her locomotor or movement skills. In addition, this approach erodes children's independence and moves them down a path of learned helplessness. They learn that they must rely on the sighted students to hand them things, and they learn to misinterpret small accomplishments as great ones. That lesson sets the child up for powerful disappointments later in life.
In a different situation, we could adapt the game by using an audible basketball and a hoop with a bell in it. Significantly more auditory cues (player chatter, if you will) might be included in the game play. We can modify the court by creating tactile cues. With such adaptations, blind children can play independently, learning movement along with their peers. While this learning is taking place, the blind child is also developing teamwork and listening skills. The beauty is that the blind child's peers are doing the same. The learning is stronger for all the children.
Let's take another example, the standard ball-passing drill. This drill teaches hand-eye coordination to the typical child. On first thought, we may dismiss this activity as one the blind child will have to "sit out." Of course, we reject that first thought and think further. How can we involve the blind child in this activity? The blind child will not see the ball coming, and the sighted child will not throw the ball with absolute accuracy.
We may choose a larger, softer ball that can be used easily by all of the students. We can set up a routine in which the blind child knows the ball is coming, using nonvisual cues. Instead of simply having the students toss the ball to one another, we may introduce a single bounce, followed by a throw. As we adapt the activity for the blind child, consider how each adaptation also can serve other children in the class. For example, these adaptations can benefit children who are intimidated by a ball being thrown to them. When we try the activity, we may discover that the adaptations help other children as well.
Many people who think about physical education and blind children assume that there are a lot of activities a blind child cannot join. The list of limitations actually reveals limitations of imagination. If we study the possibilities and use all our resources, we can find ways to involve our blind students in nearly any physical activity. You may be thinking, "Aha! I have an exception—archery!" Not so fast! Check out the YouTube video from USA Archery (2017) from our resource list. Yes, a blind child can participate in archery, and many do!
As we consider the lifespan development of children who are blind, we must face the fact that we have failed a great number of our blind students, particularly early in their development. With this awareness, it is important that we pick up with their development wherever it may be and move forward. For example, if a blind high school student has never learned to run and jump, it will be very difficult to include this student in many of the activities that take place in a typical high school physical education class. That situation may sound farfetched, but it is more common than one might think.
A good bit of the learning for typical children is done by watching and imitating. Running and jumping fall into this category. Some educators and parents may be surprised to find that a blind child has little understanding of these basic activities. When children have not experienced running and jumping, they must be taught these skills as soon as possible. We need to help them understand what running and jumping are and encourage them to practice their execution.
The remediation of basic skills may require expertise in a specialized field called adapted physical education. Persons trained in adapted physical education have expertise and experience helping children with higher levels of difficulty in movement activities.
In addition to ensuring that the child has the basic motor and movement skills necessary for inclusion in physical education, we must make certain that children have an attitude that allows them to participate. The child must be willing to join in and take a few bumps from time to time. That is the nature of physical activity. As we develop basic physical skills, we need to get our blind children into classes and after-school programs that give them the opportunity to develop a movement-oriented attitude. Some blind people have a higher-than-average tendency toward a sedentary lifestyle, but that need not be the case. Early development of an attitude that favors activity and involvement can support a positive life change.
Field, H. (2012). "Sports and Recreation for Young Blind Children." Future Reflections, Summer 2012. https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr31/3/fr310304.htm (This article offers suggestions and base wisdom about getting young children involved in human movement activities.)
Jepsen, E. (2018) "Look Out! That Blind Kid Is Running Around!" Future Reflections, Winter. https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr37/1/fr370104.htm
(Written by the mother of a blind fourth grader, this article includes an interview with a physical education teacher who finds creative ways to include her blind student in class activities.)
Letcher, K. (2006). "Adapted Physical Education for the Blind and Visually Impaired." Overbrook School for the Blind. Retrieved from https://sites.aph.org/physical-education/articles/adapted-physical-education-for-the-blind-and-visually-impaired/ on October 30, 2019.
Longmuir, P.E., and Bar-Or, O. (2000). "Factors Influencing the Physical Activity Levels of Youths with Physical and Sensory Disabilities." Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 17, 40-53.
Newman, R. L. (2007). "Being Blind and Being Fit Are Compatible Characteristics." Braille Monitor, October 2007. https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm07/bm0709/bm070907.htm (This article describes a blind adult who has a lifetime fitness regimen, explaining what and why.)
Nicolay, K. (2018). "Let's Dance: How I Dealt with Choreography." Future Reflections, Summer 2018. (A young blind woman shares her story of successes and failures in learning show choir choreography. The story is typical of what many blind people go through in terms of successful and less than successful help from sighted peers.)
Pereira, L.M. (1990) "Spatial Concepts and Balance Performance: Motor Learning in Blind and Visually Impaired Children." Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 86, 174-177.
Sherrill, C. (2004). Adapted Physical Activity, Recreation and Sport: Crossdisciplinary and Lifespan, (6th ed.) Madison, WI: McGraw Hill.
Sight and Sound Technology. (2018). “10 Sports for Blind and Partially Sighted People.” http://www.sightandsound.co.uk/blog/10-sports-for-the-blind-and-partially-sighted/ (This British site highlights ten sports with a bit of information about adaptations; there is a strong British slant. The site includes eight sports that are played by both blind and sighted persons, along with goalball and a sport called polybat, an adaptation of table tennis.)
Stuart, M.E., Lieberman, L., & Hand, K.E. (April 2006). "Beliefs about Physical Activity among Children who are Visually Impaired and Their Parents." Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 100, 223-234.
USA Archery. (2017). How to: Visually Impaired Archery. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syXsFMmBEzo
Willings, C. (2018). "Teaching Students with Visual Impairments: Physical Education Adaptations." http://www.sightandsound.co.uk/blog/10-sports-for-the-blind-and-partially-sighted/ (This article offers some brief ideas on physical education adaptations. Some of the ideas may be a bit conservative for those who believe in pushing the limits of independence.)
Wisecarver, L. (2018). "Play Ball and Teach Sound Localization to Blind Students." Future Reflections, Summer 2018. https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr37/3/fr370308.htm (This is a short piece on teaching listening skills by playing ball. It focuses on listening as a component skill in orientation and mobility.)
by Casey West Robertson
From the Editor: Casey West Robertson is a teacher of blind students in northern Mississippi. She is also an instructor at Louisiana Tech University's Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness. In this article she summarizes strategies she has found useful to help children who have trouble processing sensory input.
Sensory impairments are not unique to blindness and low vision. They occur in many children, including those who are fully sighted. Some children with sensory impairments avoid sensory input, which they find overwhelming. On the other hand, some children feel compelled to seek additional sensory input. By avoiding or seeking sensory stimulation, these children calm themselves or gain focus.
Children who are over-responsive to stimulation easily can become overwhelmed by the information bombarding them from the senses. When children are overly sensitive to touch the condition is sometimes referred to as tactile defensiveness. A child also may be overly sensitive to sound, or auditorily defensive. It is important for parents and teachers to create an environment that will help these children obtain and organize sensory information so they can learn effectively.
When we try to introduce children to Braille at an early age, we often hear professionals say, "He's so tactile defensive, there's no way he's going to touch Braille right now! We need to wait a year or two." It's true that many blind kids—though certainly not all of them—are tactilely defensive when we start to teach them Braille. They are uncomfortable touching the dots, and they have trouble developing early reading skills. However, this is not a reason to delay Braille instruction! It's a reason to help the child become more receptive to various kinds of tactile stimulation.
Children perceive tactile stimulation in one of two ways: it can soothe and calm them or put them on the alert. Often activities that involve firm, continuous touch will help soothe or calm a child, while light, brisk touching will raise alertness.
Some children resist getting their hands dirty or touching materials with certain textures, such as those that are wet, gritty, or slippery. The goal of the teacher or parent is to introduce gradual exposure to a variety of materials, extending the exposure each time. For instance, if the child does not like soft, slimy materials, the teacher can introduce a material such as Slime to the child for a brief second. Probably the child will be reluctant to touch it. The next exposure will last for two or three seconds. With each exposure the time lasts a bit longer. The teacher may also take an object that the student likes to play with and add the Slime in one small spot. The child can touch the Slime gradually while playing with the object.
I have found that children often prefer soft, squishy items or hard, rough objects. Typically, there is no crossover. If the child likes hard items, you might start with a container full of hard macaroni noodles and allow the child to look for a toy in the bottom of the container. Next, have the child find a toy in a container with uncooked rice. Fill each additional container with a softer substance until finally the child is able to look for a toy in a container of cotton balls or feathers. These are great activities to do with a child at home in addition to lessons at school or sessions in occupational therapy.
Another way to help children cope with tactile defensiveness is to have them touch a variety of textures while they swing on a swing. For instance, have the child touch a Braille page or feel different types of fabric while swinging. Swinging helps soothe the sensory channels while the child is exploring a new texture. Deep pressure massages to the hands and arms before and after touching a new texture also help lessen the sensory overload. Having a weighted blanket on the lap while reading Braille or exploring new textures will relieve tactile defensiveness as well.
I have also found that students with tactile defensiveness can benefit from heavy workload activities to help calm the nervous system. Before you explore a new texture, try playing a quick game of tug-of-war. You might have the child walk around the room carrying a heavy book or a weighted book bag. The book bag should have just enough weight to let the child know that it is not empty.
I have discovered that the use of vibrating pens and toys also helps some children. You might play a quick game of catch using the kind of weighted beanbags or sandbags that are often found in the physical education classroom. Bouncing on an indoor trampoline often works well to calm the nervous system before a child explores Braille or some other new texture.
Every child is different, and as a parent or teacher you will need to find out which methods work best. The goal is to expand the child's world, to open new possibilities for exploration and learning. Be creative, follow your next hunch, and have fun along the way.
by Lydia Anne Schuck
From the Editor: Lydia Schuck is the parent of a blind young-adult daughter. Her daughter, who has additional disabilities, was homeschooled. Lydia Schuck has a deep interest in education. Her series of articles on transition was published in Future Reflections.
When children are ready to start school, parents face a lot of choices. They could choose the neighborhood public school, a charter school, private school, or homeschooling. Parents whose children are blind or have low vision have more complicated choices. Each option has its pros and cons, of course.
One option is your state's residential school for the blind. Not every state has one, and some residential school programs are stronger than others. If there is a residential school in the state, and if it meets the child's needs for academics or for special services, it can be a great choice. Some students attend a residential school long enough to gain specific skills, and then return to a local school with less intensive support.
Some parents choose to homeschool, with or without supports from the local district. Homeschooling takes time and commitment, and often means a loss of income. Parents who already are homeschooling or have homeschooled may offer help and support.
Most parents send their blind or low-vision children to local school programs. If you live in a populous area, the local or county district may offer a center-based program. The teacher of the blind and visually impaired (TVI) is there all day, working with several students. The children may come in and out of a "resource room" during the day, using it only for the support they need and spending most of the day in the regular classroom.
The most frequently chosen setting is an ordinary public school. In the local school, your child is often the only blind student. Typically, the TVI is "itinerant," traveling between schools to meet the needs of several children. Younger children, especially those learning to read, often have more TVI time each week than, say, a high school student whose Braille and technology skills are proficient.
Today many students are using online schools through their local districts. They have support provided by the local district TVI or through a TVI from another district or even another region.
In all of these school settings, parents expect that the child's TVI has the education and experience specified by state law. In one state, Michigan, special education regulations require a teacher of students with visual impairments to have thirty graduate credits in areas that are relevant to these students, including student teaching.
You may have heard stories of teachers who don't have the skills and experience necessary to provide the supports that a blind or low-vision student needs. Sometimes the teacher is qualified to hold the state certification or endorsement but has not kept up with technology or mastered other important skills. Sometimes the teacher holds a temporary approval or emergency certification.
It's completely legal under federal regulations for states to create temporary approvals, (e.g., in Michigan, see “Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education,” R340.173). Temporary approvals are needed because teacher shortages have prevented districts from finding fully qualified teachers. Teachers working under temporary approvals already have bachelor’s degrees, but may be required to take courses toward a certification in visual impairment as a condition of the temporary approval.
We've been hearing about teacher shortages for years. Colleges prepare enough teachers, so why are there shortages? The Learning Policy Institute (learningpolicyinstitute.org) has listed some reasons for the shortages, including the following:
For blind students, the shortages are real. There are not enough trained teachers of the blind. When new TVIs graduate from one program in the Midwest, they routinely have a choice of four to five teaching jobs, which indicates the kind of demand there is for these teachers. They can choose the kind of district they want to teach in. They might choose to stay in the suburbs or to stay near their college or family.
Additional factors influence the shortage of TVIs. Teachers of blind students are mostly itinerant, traveling from one school to another. Hours that could be spent instructing students are spent driving.
Many teachers became itinerant when students were mainstreamed out of state residential schools and into local schools in the 1990s. Preparation of new TVIs has not kept up with the need for more teachers since then.
When a child's teacher holds a temporary approval or can't meet a child's needs for other reasons, parents might feel really stuck. We all want what's best for our children. However, parents know that they may have to work with the teacher for several years, and they want the relationship to stay positive. What choice does a parent have when the teacher is not able to provide what the child needs?
Filing a complaint with the state board of education may or may not really help your child. Due to shortages, there may be no one else to step in anyway.
Students are entitled by the IDEA to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), but not to a teacher certified in a specific way. In some cases, FAPE has been interpreted as any access to a school education. A court will look at whether the education is "appropriate," not whether it is what the parents want. Students are not entitled to the best education, just FAPE. If your child is making progress of any kind, the court may decide that it's okay.
A fully approved teacher is not a guarantee of clear sailing. Even a fully approved teacher may have weaknesses. If the temporarily approved teacher is attending graduate classes, she or he actually may have more cutting-edge knowledge than a teacher who is already state approved as a TVI.
If you choose to file a complaint, acquaint yourself with the process that is followed in your particular state. Parent training and information centers, protection and advocacy agencies, and independent living centers may be able to provide you with information and help you through the process.
Some families move to another district or another state to find a more qualified teacher or better program. But most families cannot move. Parents might take advantage of a schools-of-choice arrangement to enroll the child in a nearby district. There may be a better teacher there, but there are some tradeoffs. Using schools of choice may require parents to provide transportation. Children from one family may end up in two different school districts. Going to another school district might not make any difference if all of the towns in one county are served by the same TVI.
Residential Schools: Parents might reconsider the choices they looked at earlier. A residential school may have the academic or other support services your child needs, and, given the TVI shortages, you might find the best education there. Some state schools for the blind have strong academic programs, and many are strong in serving students with multiple and complex disabilities.
Homeschooling: After a less-than-ideal experience in the local schools, some parents reconsider homeschooling. If an academically capable child has additional disabilities such as autism, homeschooling might provide the settled routine needed to make progress.
A growing number of families have found solutions by contracting with fully approved distance teachers who can provide the technology, math, or other learning the student needs. This kind of arrangement is getting more common, as audio-video communication has improved over the internet. Sometimes the arrangement is private, and at other times the school district will make this contract as part of the IEP process.
When we talk with other parents, we have to offer real and practical solutions. Most families cannot move, and even if they do move, other students may remain in the school district who still need better services.
If a state is not attracting the teachers it needs, especially the teachers it needs for students with low-incidence disabilities, it's time to look at the reasons and address them. Members of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) can work with state education officials to increase the number of teachers through alternative certifications and "grow-your-own" approaches.
Is there a paraprofessional in your district who might make a good teacher? Is there a current teacher who could pick up an extra certification in order to serve the one or two blind students in the district? We don't want to take teachers away from other kids with disabilities, but could we make it easier for an already-employed teacher, one who is settled in the community, to serve your child? This approach might work better than trying to entice a new teacher to move to the area, especially for a part-time teaching position. This strategy really can help in rural settings.
Meanwhile, we have to support the teachers we have, even, or perhaps especially if they are teaching under temporary approvals. The NOPBC chapter in your state can promote Braille and other skills of blindness by introducing the teacher to members of the National Federation of the Blind. Maybe a state affiliate could bring a promising teacher to the annual convention to support learning about blindness and to hear the teacher's perspective on schools and shortages. Look for ways to support that "grow-your-own" candidate or to attract new teachers right out of school.
BELL Academy summer programs can help new teachers as well as the students who attend. All kinds of helpers are needed, and a new teacher can catch enthusiasm about blindness skills by seeing kids learning together with blind adults. Invite your child's teacher to attend the BELL Academy in your state.
We all know that public schools are supposed to teach blind children Braille and learning strategies of all kinds. But if a teacher is not effective or is temporarily approved, parents will have to work on Braille and those other strategies at home. This is another place where your Federation friends can help. Look for a mentor among the adults in the Federation.
As a national organization we might try to educate the public about the need for teachers of blind students, the salary, and the rewards of the job. We could show kids learning and reading Braille, stressing the need for all students to become literate. Whenever we have a chance, we should promote higher salaries in shortage areas such as science and math, special education, and teaching in rural and urban districts.
We don't want to be perceived as the group that helps people make complaints. We want to be the people who support parents and children in finding solutions. Distance and hybrid supports can be an effective antidote to the problems of itineracy, eliminating the long-distance driving for teachers.
Before school started you had choices for your child's education. Even if the school year is a little rocky, you still have choices. Reconsider everything, and consider involving your Federation family in supporting the teacher you have. Then write a short article for Future Reflections so we all can find out what works in supporting our teachers.
by Kathryn Webster
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 63, Number 1, January 2020
From the Editor: For three days each winter, Federationists from across the United States gather on Capitol Hill for the annual event known as Washington Seminar. Delegations from every state affiliate of Federationists visit the offices of lawmakers to acquaint them with pending legislation of concern to the blind community and to ask for their support. The work does not end with Washington Seminar, however. As Kathryn Webster points out, the passage of critical legislation calls for an ongoing effort by blind people and our allies. Kathryn Webster serves as president of the National Association of Blind Students (NABS).
On Friday, December 6, 2019, blind students across the United States of America marveled at the great news of the introduction of the Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act (H.R. 5312/S. 3095), fondly referred to as AIM HIGH. Until a market-driven solution for accessible materials is achieved, blind college students are often denied access to critical course content. The AIM HIGH Act will remove these barriers to accessibility in the classroom by creating a set of guidelines that clearly define accessible instructional materials.
Parents can celebrate the introduction of this bill, which will encourage their blind children to shoot for the stars because they would be welcomed with open arms in higher education. Educators, too, can back the bill, knowing that its passage would provide mentorship and support to blind students. Let's face it—colleges don't have all the answers, but they want to accommodate our students as fully as they can. To leaders in the disability community, this bill would be paramount; the push for accessible and inclusive education is top of mind, as it very well should be. Most significantly, for blind students this monumental piece of legislation would level the playing field so we would have opportunities equivalent to those of our sighted counterparts in the classroom and beyond.
As president of one of the most proud, determined, and mighty divisions of the National Federation of the Blind—the National Association of Blind Students—I applaud Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN) and Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) for recognizing the value of this legislation and introducing it to the House of Representatives in hopes of driving it to majority support, and ultimately, implementation for the benefit of our students. We are eager to push efforts forward to ensure that all students who are blind or otherwise print disabled have full and equal access to university course materials such as textbooks, research equipment, and online learning platforms.
I'd like to share one small example in an attempt to illustrate moments where accessibility would have furthered one's reach in attaining aspirations. In my pursuit of a bachelor of science in data analytics and statistics, I struggled to comprehend concepts covered in a high-level statistics course at Wake Forest University because of the lack of accessible materials. My inability to grasp visual topics had nothing to do with my mind and brainpower; instead, it had everything to do with inaccessible textbooks and graphical measuring tools. Too often blind students are forced to push courses to the following semester; encouraged to take other, more text-heavy classes; or asked to do less than our peers simply because accessibility is not seen as a possibility when it truly is an option, and a needed one. This bill would reduce those barriers by making sure colleges and universities have somewhere to turn in order to explore solutions that can create inclusion in the classroom.
The leadership and membership of the National Association of Blind Students vehemently applauds the introduction of this bill, and we will put forth all efforts to educate, spread awareness, and broaden understanding of our capabilities as contributing and active members of society. It is our time to take action! I am leaning on our communities to push this bill forward.
1. If you are a blind student, write a paragraph about your experience in the classroom, whether you dealt with an access barrier or one of those rare and fortunate encounters with positive accessibility. Share your remarks with board member Trisha Kulkarni by emailing [email protected].
2. If you are an educator, parent, or ally, contact President Kathryn Webster at [email protected] to learn more about how you can support this effort.
3. If you are a member of Congress, we need your voice to ensure that our students receive equal and adequate education, allowing them to shine and contribute as we all eagerly desire to do.
We are beyond excited to witness an initiative that could change the landscape for blind students for years to come. We deeply appreciate any support and assistance in making this possible.
by Heidi Scheffer
From the Editor: Decades after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one might assume that blind students are receiving the same educational opportunities as their sighted classmates. As Heidi Scheffer discovered, however, blind students are still being excluded in an area that has become essential for success in today's world, training in the effective use of technology. In this article she recounts her struggle to obtain intensive technology training for her daughter and her efforts to ensure that her daughter had access to high-stakes testing.
Heidi Scheffer grew up in Argentina, speaking Spanish and German as her first languages. She and her husband operate a restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina.
My daughter, Jordan, was the first blind student to go through our public school system. When she entered kindergarten she was assigned to a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI). She was the teacher's first student. Jordan received some Braille instruction as a preschooler, and when she entered kindergarten she did very well.
We developed a wonderful relationship with Jordan's TVI, and she became almost a member of the family. From the beginning we made it clear that her involvement should phase out gradually. By the time Jordan was in twelfth grade, we envisioned that she would be able to work almost entirely on her own.
Everything seemed to be going well until Jordan entered middle school. She used a Braille notetaker and did her math on a Perkins Braillewriter, with the TVI translating her work for the classroom teachers. Her grades were excellent, and we believed she was keeping up with her classmates.
One day when I picked Jordan up from school, I asked her, "What did you do in class today?" "My class had a computer assignment," Jordan explained. "I couldn't participate in that, so they gave me something else to do." That was a real wake-up call! I knew something wasn't right!
When I began to ask questions, Jordan's TVI explained that she didn't have much background in assistive technology. She didn't feel qualified to teach Jordan to use a computer, but she would find someone to help. I started to do some research. Considering how far technology had advanced, there had to be a better way for Jordan to do math than a Perkins Braillewriter or even a Braille notetaker. My research led me to Dr. Denise Robinson, a TVI who teaches technology to blind students via Skype. I contacted Dr. Robinson, and she said she would be happy to work with Jordan. She said she even could teach Jordan to do math on the computer! Jordan and her TVI wouldn't have to haul the Perkins Brailler back and forth to classes, and the TVI wouldn't have to translate Jordan's work for the teachers.
The idea of using an iPad came into the discussion, but I couldn't see the iPad having real power to access all of Jordan's work, which Dr. Robinson later confirmed. A computer with the screen reader JAWS cannot be replaced by an iPad.
I asked Dr. Robinson if she had a checklist for the things a sixth-grade student should be able to do on the computer. I was shocked when I looked over the list she sent me. Jordan barely knew how to do any of the things on the list!
In the meantime, our TVI found a teacher in our state capital who could give Jordan some lessons via Skype. They worked together for a bit, and Jordan learned some of the computer basics. However, that teacher did not have Dr. Robinson's knowledge and experience. He really couldn't help Jordan catch up with her classmates.
I asked our school district to hire Dr. Robinson to give Jordan technology training, but the district refused. Essentially the school officials were saying that it was all right for Jordan to receive instruction that was sadly inadequate.
At that point I began to research the law. I looked at state laws and federal legislation. I gathered information about special education law and the laws that cover general education. I have a file of information that must weigh ten pounds!
One of the documents I studied was the mission statement from the North Carolina Division of Public Instruction (DPI). I noted each clause that said every student should learn to use technology. Every student meant my daughter!
I called emergency IEP meetings. I pleaded with the director of services for exceptional children. I said, "This person in Raleigh may be good, but there's only so much he can teach my daughter. I want Jordan to be able to do everything her peers are doing on the computer. I want her to be doing PowerPoint presentations. I want her to be doing math on the computer. I want her to be able to do research online. By the end of high school, she needs to be doing all those things. You have to provide this under the law." But they kept stalling. They would not hire Dr. Robinson. I figured they did not want to pay for the intensive instruction Jordan needed in order to catch up with her classmates.
Finally I requested that Jordan be given a technology assessment. Two technology experts came out from DPI and followed Jordan from class to class for three days. Then the director of technology from the DPI came out to see us. I gave him my whole speech—I literally begged and cried. I told him, "You have to give Jordan a chance in life! She deserves the chance to be on par with her peers so she can fulfill her dreams, whatever they might be. In order to live the life she wants, she needs to have technology skills." I knew how much blind students struggle in college when they don't have the computer skills they need. They end up needing someone to take notes for them in their classes. They need readers to help them do online research. They need special accommodations when they take their exams. I didn't want Jordan to depend on special accommodations any more than was absolutely necessary. I wanted her to be able to access information in the same way everybody else does.
I started our battle to get computer training when Jordan entered seventh grade. Over the next months I exchanged about 250 emails with school officials. At long last, when Jordan was in the middle of seventh grade, our school district approved her instruction with Dr. Robinson. Finally she could start the long journey toward true equality in the classroom.
Jordan worked intensively with Dr. Robinson for six or seven hours a week. At first computer instruction was very, very challenging. She was accustomed to using her Perkins Braillewriter and her Braille notetaker at school, and it was extremely hard for her to leave them behind and use the computer instead. As time passed, however, using the computer became second nature. Eventually she caught up with her classmates. She was able to do all of her schoolwork on the computer.
Unfortunately, our problems weren't over. The school provided Jordan with a laptop, but it kept crashing and causing her to lose her work. It turned out that there were all sorts of conflicts between JAWS and the firewalls on the school's computer system. It took about four months for us to figure out how to get everything to work properly. Finally, between the team of technology experts from the school district and Dr. Robinson's expertise with JAWS, we figured out how to solve the problems we were having.
Eventually we got Jordan a laptop of her own. This would bypass the roadblocks of firewalls on a school-owned computer. The school system's protection, with its periodic changes, interfered and caused many problems with JAWS.
Just as we had hoped when Jordan started kindergarten, she and her teachers now could send work back and forth without the intervention of the TVI. It was wonderful! Jordan's world opened up in ways that were beyond my wildest imagination!
I thought our struggles were over until it came time for Jordan to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes. To her dismay she discovered that many of the websites the classes used were not accessible with JAWS. We also had to fight with the state of North Carolina because the exams required by the state were not accessible. I had fought so hard for computer training that I figured I would just keep going and fight for access.
I believed that Jordan should be able to take her state tests online, just as her classmates did. Even after I requested a digital format accessible with screen reading technology, the people in charge of North Carolina testing did not approve. They wanted Jordan to use hardcopy Braille tests with a live reader to fill in her answer sheet. I said, "That's not how she does her work. She uses the computer like the other students."
I went online and gathered the email addresses for everyone I could find. When I wrote to DPI once more, I copied everyone I knew in the DPI that had any stake in the issue. I copied classroom teachers and TVIs. I copied our local director of special education. In my email to the testing bureau I said, "How dare you deny my child the chance to do her North Carolina testing on the computer," and I cited the ADA. Twenty minutes later I got an email back. It said, "We're so sorry! There was a misunderstanding. Of course your daughter's tests will be accessible electronically."
A few days later I received an email from a TVI I had never met. She wrote, "We've been requesting accessible tests for our students for years, and we've been denied over and over. You just changed the outcome for everybody! Sometimes one parent can do more than a group of teachers can." It was truly heartwarming to discover that I could make a change that would benefit others as well as my own daughter.
In 2017 it was time for Jordan to take the SAT, and we ran into problems with the College Board. The College Board also denied our request that she have an accessible online exam. They said she could take some parts of the test online, but they didn't approve others. I contacted Valerie Yingling, a paralegal at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind. She gave me the name of someone at the College Board, but that person said they couldn't do anything for us this year. Maybe next year…
Once again I sent emails and made requests, citing the ADA. I contacted people in the US Department of Education about accessibility in testing. I also located a nonprofit disability law firm in North Carolina, but they said they couldn't take my case. "May I copy you on my emails?" I asked. "That's all I need." As I suspected, things moved much faster when people saw the name of a law firm on my emails! The College Board said yes, they would make sure that Jordan could take her SAT online.
On the morning the SAT was given, the College Board flew a staffer down to Asheville. The staffer handed Jordan a USB thumb drive containing the exam for the first day of testing. He stayed in town overnight, and the next morning he handed her the drive with the tests for the second day. The College Board also provided hardcopy tactile graphics for all of the questions where graphics were involved.
Jordan also took the ACT. On the website it didn't look as though the ACT was accessible electronically. The page about accommodations listed several options, including hardcopy Braille and human readers, but electronic access was not on the list. It turned out that we had to check a box called "Other." When we checked the "Other" box, we were able to work out electronic access after all.
After she graduated from high school, Jordan went to the College Success Program run by the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. None of the other students in the program had Jordan's computer skills. She didn't need to take any of the computer classes, and she used her computer skills to assist her peers.
Students in the Perkins program had the option to take some classes at Harvard University. Several of the Perkins students enrolled, but Jordan was one of only two who completed the Harvard courses and received credit. Jordan's computer skills made all the difference.
Jordan is now a freshman at the University of North Carolina/Asheville. She has a Mac, an iPad, and an iPhone, but her go-to technology is still her laptop with JAWS. She hardly ever uses the disability services on campus because she doesn't need anything from them. She uses her laptop to access her textbooks, send her work to her professors, and take her exams.
I urge parents to make sure their blind children start to learn technology at the same time the sighted students are learning to use it. Our blind students fall behind unless they learn to use JAWS early on. Sadly, very few TVIs have a deep knowledge of the JAWS program, which contains more than three thousand built-in commands. We desperately need more TVIs like Denise Robinson who can equip our children with the tools they need for success in the classroom and beyond. There really are no limits for our blind children when they have the technology skills they need.
by Nadia Montanez
From the Editor: In the National Federation of the Blind we often focus on academic skills, success in college, and entering a profession. However, like their sighted counterparts, some blind students choose to pursue careers in fields that do not require a college degree. In this article Nadia Montanez, a recent graduate of the adult training program at BLIND, Inc., shares her story.
I graduated from Walter Payton High School, one of the most rigorous academic high schools in Chicago. I survived the program, but I struggled with math and some of my other subjects. Although people encouraged me to apply to college, I never felt comfortable with the idea. I had always wanted to work with my hands. During high school I thought about becoming an auto mechanic, and I even met a blind mechanic who works in the Chicago area. Unfortunately I learned that it's becoming more difficult for blind people to enter the auto-repair field because so much of the work now relies on inaccessible touch screens.
A couple of years after high school I enrolled in the adult training program at BLIND, Inc., in Minneapolis. The program totally changed my life! I gained more confidence than I ever thought possible. I especially built strength in two areas, cooking and independent travel. I used to be pretty scared in the kitchen, but now I can deep fry with the best of them! I learned to travel throughout the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and I use those skills every day now that I'm back in Chicago.
After BLIND, Inc., I still wanted to work in a trade rather than go to college. I did some research to figure out what career would suit my interests and skills. Finally I decided to enroll in a trade school where I could learn to install and maintain heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC). Most of the work in HVAC is still done by hand, and I thought I'd really enjoy it.
I applied to two HVAC programs in the Chicago area. As I worked on my applications I struggled with the question of when to disclose that I am blind. I told them before my interview with the first school, and they never called me back. That was pretty discouraging!
As I prepared for my interview with the second school, I faced the same looming question. After my last experience I worried that this school might write me off, too. Finally I decided to be frontal about my blindness and to disclose it before the interview. They were going to find out sooner or later anyway.
To my relief the second school was very open to considering my application. They asked some good questions about how I would do things, and they accepted my answers. Now we're working out a few issues around accommodations before I start the program.
When I returned to Chicago I moved back in with my mother, and I wanted to help cover my expenses. I decided to look for part-time work while I applied to trade school. Applying for jobs was very, very challenging! I applied for many, many positions, everything from telemarketing to being a pizza chef. Over a period of three months I went on interviews nearly every day, and sometimes on the same day I went to two interviews. I quite literally went on one hundred interviews. Sometimes I didn't get hired because I simply was not qualified for the position. Many employers clearly were not interested in hiring me because of my blindness. It was all very discouraging, but I knew I just had to keep going. I couldn't let myself think of giving up.
I'd always heard that networking is important when you look for a job, and in my case it turned out to be true. I remembered a woman I had known when I was a child. Back then she ran a restaurant, so I decided to look her up. I found out she runs a barbecue restaurant on Chicago's South Side. When I contacted her she remembered me, and she was very receptive to hiring me. Now I work three days a week as a dishwasher, and I'm very grateful to have the income.
In my job I work alone most of the time, running dishes through a big commercial machine. The staff helped orient me when I started my job, and I learned other parts of the work on my own. When the dishes come out of the dishwasher, I have to put them in their proper places, which means I have to move around in the kitchen quite a lot.
Sometimes other members of the kitchen staff get very anxious when I do certain things. This was especially true in my first few days on the job, but it still happens every now and then. One day as I was about to put a serving platter on a shelf above the stove, the chef tried to stop me. He said he was afraid I would burn myself. I explained that I could feel the heat, and I said there was no way I'd ever put my hand on the hot burner! Another time one of the waitresses was afraid to hand me a sharp knife. She kept saying, "I don't want to give this knife to you. It's very, very sharp, and you might cut yourself." Most of the time, though, I'm just another member of the crew. I do my job just like everybody else.
Washing dishes is fine for now, but I'm eager to start school and prepare for a real career. Whatever happens, blindness isn't going to stand between me and my dreams!
by Kristen Cox
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 62, Number 9, October 2019
From the Editor: Kristen Cox is the executive director of the Utah governor's office of management and budget. Many will remember her distinguished service as a part of our government affairs team almost twenty years ago. Here is what she said on the final afternoon of General Sessions at the 2019 NFB convention.
It's so great to be here. I love this organization, and the older I get, the more I appreciate the profound philosophy this organization embraces. I want to thank President Riccobono and the staff for putting on a conference of this size. I have put on one that isn't quite this big, so I know how much energy it takes, and I really want to thank him and the staff. [applause] Yes, they deserve a round of applause.
I run the office of management and budget. I am senior staff to Governor Herbert. He is the third governor I've worked for, and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about my job and the journey to get here. Essentially I am the COO and the CFO [chief operating officer and the chief financial officer] for the state of Utah. I manage a budget of almost $19 billion. We do all the revenue projections, I manage a team of economists, and we do all of the operations for the agencies. So it is complicated, and I also deal with the legislature. In fact, originally, way back in the day when I was completing my individualized plan for employment, I wanted to be Dian Fossey and study gorillas in the Congo. I never did that, but I do work with the legislature. Maybe—maybe—I'm just saying—it's a little close.
I have a great job, it's rewarding, but I couldn't be here in the position I am today without this organization. I want to share a little bit of my journey about how I got here and my gratitude. But before I do that, I do want to announce that there is a $10,000 donation coming to the organization. I wrote a book with a colleague and his colleague, who are fans of this wonderful organization. Proceeds from the book and the workshop we are doing in Japan will be coming to the NFB in August. So we're doing our best to get the mission of the NFB to the entire world, and wherever I go, people are impressed and inspired and more committed to helping our cause.
My journey is probably one that many of us have encountered. I started going blind at eleven. I did large print, I did magnifying glasses, I went through every dang plan you can imagine: an IEP [Individualized Education Plan], an IPE [Individualized Plan for Employment], a ticket to work program, and, after years of being in the school system and the rehab system, I graduated from school with no skills. I couldn't read Braille, couldn't do cane travel, had no adaptive technology. But I was independent, ambitious, and I had dreams and desires. But the idea of holding down a job seemed elusive to me.
Then I came across an invitation to go to a meeting of one of our local chapters in Utah, and I said, "Sure, I'll go." I met the Gardner brothers; many of you know the Gardner brothers, and that's where the beginning of my new life started. Norm Gardner introduced me to a Braille ‘n Speak. At that time we had our first son. I did not know Braille, and I wanted to read to our son. So I would teach myself one letter a day. Then I would go to grade 2 [contracted Braille], and then I could read Hop on Pop. Finally I read The Hobbit—I'm a big fan of The Hobbit series—so I learned Braille.
Then I started to dabble a little bit more into NFB philosophy and this idea of cane travel. I would get out my cane, but I wasn't quite convinced that I needed it, and I was a little embarrassed and had some shame about that. At the time, I had one of those collapsible canes. I would stick it in my backpack, and when I thought I needed it, I would pull it out. I'm sure people thought I was crazy because I was like, do I need a cane, do I not need a cane? What in the world am I thinking? So I would pull my cane out when I thought I needed it, and then I'd hide it away because I hated people staring at me.
One day I was walking home. I had just used my cane, had just put it back in my backpack, and I fell right into a manhole. The good news was that it was in the middle of winter, so the manhole was covered with ice-cold water. The bad news was that it was covered with ice-cold water. It was freezing, it was humiliating, and it was really an eye-opener for me to start thinking about getting honest with myself.
At this point I had been in the Federation for a couple of years, and intellectually I understood what we said. I could say the words: with the right training and opportunity, blindness could be reduced to the level of an inconvenience. I could say the words that the biggest problem with blindness was not blindness itself but the misperceptions and stereotypes we have about blindness. I could say the words, but I don't think I got them in my heart yet.
Then I had this amazing opportunity to come back and work at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. Marc Maurer was willing to take a chance on me, and so too were Mr. Jim Gashel, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and others. Getting hired at headquarters exposed me to the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had. I want to tell you about some of them.
Specifically there are four lessons that have had an impact on my life forever, not only on my personal life, but even on the way I do my work in government when we tackle big problems. The Federation philosophy impacts everything I do.
Here's one of the first things I did when I was back at the NFB. I don't know if Mr. Gashel will remember this or not. (I know we all use first names now back at the national center, but I just can't do it.) I think it was my first week back there, and I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do. He takes me to lunch, and we were walking down the street. I was so impressed with Mr. Gashel! He is so articulate, so smart, always on his game. So while we were walking to get lunch, I remember asking him this silly question: "How much can you see?" In my mind still then, even though I knew the words, I had this belief that how competent or successful I could be had something to do with how well I could see. Fortunately Mr. Gashel, in the Gashel form, ignored my question. In the months ahead I worked with such amazing people, including Dr. Maurer and the rest of the team, until I got to the place where I didn't wonder, can they see or not see, or how much or how little can they see? People everywhere were successful and competent and making a difference, and all of a sudden that question of how much can you see became irrelevant.
When I was running for lieutenant governor, one of the headlines said, "Blind Mormon woman running for governor." I said to myself, "Wait, what about the bald Jewish man running for Senate?" But we were out one day with Governor Ehrlich, and there had been a big flood. He had toured the site with his helicopter looking down, and when he got off, the press said to him, "How would your lieutenant governor candidate do this job? She couldn't have seen." And he was so great, because he got what I had learned by this point, which was that there are many, many ways to get information other than your eyes. He knew then what I had finally learned, that vision does not determine our success.
So I went on my journey, and I started to get this idea that vision wasn't the end-all, and then came this second lesson that was so important. The word is excellence. I remember doing my first factsheet for Washington Seminar and giving it to Mr. Gashel. It came back just redlined and redlined and redlined. I would spend hours working on these things, and the sentences were never good enough. Then I would go in with Dr. Maurer and study elements of style with grammar. Do you split your infinitives or not? Where do you punctuate? I came to understand that excellence, high standards, and being our best were critical.
If we want society to accept us, we've got to be our best. We can't go out to the workplace and compete on equal grounds if we are not bringing our best game to the table. I can't tell you how many classes I took in high school or college where no one gave me the kind of feedback I got at NFB headquarters. No one had! Because I was blind, they didn't want to hurt my feelings. They didn't have the expectations that I could do it, and this was after eight years of being in the system with all of the IEP and IPE you could have. I didn't have the basic skills. It was not until I got to the NFB that something changed: the expectations were elevated. They expected much more from me in everything that I did, and I've come to appreciate how important that is, because we will live up to the expectations people will set for us. Because of that we should set pretty dang high expectations for ourselves!
That was the second lesson, and there are two more. The third lesson was a story that Dr. Fred Schroeder told me. I've had so many wonderful mentors here in this room: Dr. Schroeder, Joanne Wilson, the list could go on and on. But I want to focus on a story that Dr. Schroeder told me. I'm going to repeat it if I can; I know I'll get the name wrong, but forgive me. This story really affected me, and I use it today with our Cabinet members as we ask them to really go after big results. Government is such a mess; I'm in it, and I can't stand it! It's such a mess, and we're asking them to improve, and they're telling us every reason why they can't. This story has always affected me. Dr. Schroeder, if I get it wrong I apologize, but this is how I remember it.
Dr. Schroeder was working with a boy—I call him Tony, but I think his name was Vincent. Anyway, he was working with Tony, who wanted to learn to play tag, and Dr. Schroeder thought about this. "How do I help this kid play tag?" was the question that he took home that night. The next day when Dr. Schroeder came back, Tony came up to him, and he had figured out how to play tag. He had taken jars, put pebbles in the jars, and had given them to his friends. There was no high-tech solution or anything like that: just use jars with pebbles in them so he could hear his friends at play and join them. I have two sons, and we tried this once. Instead of using jars with pebbles, I had everyone turn their phones on with music so I could hear where they were. We all wore blindfolds and played tag, and it was a blast.
This little boy, Tony, had the best mindset. So many times as adults we just assume that a thing can't get done. We give all the reasons why a thing is difficult, all the excuses, all the yes-buts. What is so remarkable about Tony is that it was not an issue of if the thing could be done, but how! This is what we need to understand, that the question is not if but how! The NFB teaches us about creative problem solving. Yes, we may do things differently, but we still get the job done.
Every day at work I am working with economists and spreadsheets and graphs and revenue projections, and every day there is a new challenge about how I'm going to access this or how I'm going to communicate on that. There is always a way if we assume the thing is possible, and it's just that we have to figure out the solutions. We just have to be creative problem solvers.
Again, this is so important! When Gov. Herbert first took office, he charged all the agencies to improve their performance by 25 percent. This was just after the recession, and our cabinet members were openly saying, "This is impossible." But I said no, because I have learned in the NFB that nothing is impossible. I take this philosophy to work every day, so the third lesson is not if the thing can happen, but it is how to make it happen and to be a creative problem solver.
This last lesson was so critical. I was blessed to go through residential training the NFB way and actually did it in the NFB center, and I'm so grateful for that. At the time we had one son, Tanner, and we went and did four or five months with the sleepshade training, Structured Discovery, and the whole bit. It was so great! This is where it became less an intellectual exercise but an emotional exercise of really getting it into my heart, what it meant to be an independent cane traveler, and to really learn the skills of blindness.
I remember working with Tony Cobb. He was my O&M instructor for the day. We were out practicing, and we were out in the park across from the headquarters. What is that park called? I can't believe I forgot the name! Yes, Riverside Park. So I'm at this park, doing my practice for the day, and I cannot get out of the park. I can hear where the highway is, but every time I'm walking, I'm hitting a bench. I hit grass. I hit dirt. I cannot get out of this dang park; it's like the Minneapolis airport. I hate that airport. That airport makes no sense to me, and I feel like I travel there once a month!
So I'm in this park, and I can't get out of it. So I just stopped, because it was frustrating. It felt hard to me. I did not know my way forward. Tony Cobb just let me struggle for a bit, let me struggle just enough, and then he came up behind me and said something that I think about frequently. He said, "Kristen, you've got to learn to walk through your confusion and your fear. You'll get no new information by standing still. You've got to take a step into the unknown to get that information." And that was so impactful for me!
As blind people we can sit back and wait for the world to come to us, but if we do that, it's going to pass us by. Sometimes it can feel uncertain, and sometimes when I'm traveling I have questions. Last year I was in Japan traveling by myself, and at first my feeling was "How am I going to do this?" But I set that aside because I know that in the NFB we know about persistence; we know about taking one step at a time. We know that when we set our minds to big goals that are important to us, even if we're not sure how we will achieve them, we can do it if we just take the next step—through our confusion, through our fear, through the uncertainty. That was a game changer then, and it's a game changer in my profession today. When the agencies say something can't be done, what do you think I tell them? [An audience member yells out yes. She echoes back the word yes with a laugh.] There's no mercy.
We have a lot of work still to do in Utah. We've made great progress, but vocational rehabilitation was transferred from the Department of Education to the executive branch eighteen months ago, and we have a lot of work to do there. Sometimes in government bureaucracy people can list all the reasons why a thing is impossible and why we can't do it. But again, in the NFB way, we will never let obstacles impede us from achieving our goals, either professionally or personally.
So I want to leave you with this: the National Federation of the Blind is one of the most profound organizations in the world. I have associated with senators and congress members and different associations, but the profound and simple philosophy that this organization embodies impacts everything we do, from legal action to training and education. More importantly, it penetrates our hearts. It's what gives us the hope and the ability to live out our dreams and totally make a positive contribution in the world around us. For that I am deeply grateful to the organization, and I am excited that we can give the $10,000 donation. The governor also wanted to make sure that I extend his gratitude. He has spoken before this group. I told him I was speaking. He knows we have work to do for the remainder of his term. He's committed to setting a very robust program to hire people who are blind within state government. I will be working closely with the NFB of Utah to make this happen. [Applause] We are going to get the job done in Utah, and with that, I thank you, my Federation family.
by Yusef Dale
Reprinted from the Illinois Independent, the Newsletter of the NFB of Illinois, Summer 2019
From the Editor: Yusef Dale is a lawyer with the US Attorney's office in Chicago. This article is based on a presentation he delivered at the Midwest Student Seminar in April 2019. Not only are his thoughtful comments relevant to blind lawyers and other professionals, they will be meaningful to any blind person who seeks to be valued and respected at school, on campus, or in the workplace. Mr. Dale is direct about the challenges we face as blind people, but he explains how we can meet those challenges and build lasting success.
At this seminar you've heard quite a bit about interviewing and getting hired for your first job. This morning I'd like to talk about what happens next. Once you get that job, you have to do some key things in order to retain that employment and to advance.
It may surprise you, but when it comes to keeping a job and advancing in the workplace, the guiding principle is reputation.
What do I mean by reputation? Reputation is part of the human condition in almost every institution. People talk. As a blind person, you're going to be scrutinized more carefully than most, and people are going to talk about you more than they talk about other people. You have to be prepared for that reality.
Reputation has its own momentum, and that momentum is exponential. When you start on the job, you need to get your reputation rolling in the right direction. To build that favorable momentum you have to be excellent at what you do, and you have to be excellent early!
Let me assure you that being excellent does not mean you have to be perfect. There's no such thing as perfection! Excellence, though, does mean striving for perfection and striving for it sincerely, with everything you have.
In the workplace reputation is key for everyone, whether you're blind or sighted. But when you are blind, people will attribute any mistake you make to your blindness. And guess what—you cannot undo your blindness! You are going to have to take your reputation seriously in the beginning and be excellent.
What steps do you need to take in order to be excellent? The first thing I want to say is no shortcuts! No shortcuts! I cannot tell you how important this is!
I work at the US Attorney's office in Chicago. It's a very prestigious office, one of the top litigation offices in the country, maybe behind the Southern District of New York. Pat Fitzgerald was the US attorney when I started, and he is legendary. When he was working in New York he prosecuted some of the biggest bomb terrorism cases. When I came to the US Attorney's office, I knew right away that I was going to be scrutinized. I said to myself, "Yusef, no shortcuts!"
The first thing you have to do to implement the no-shortcuts strategy is read, read, read! When you start a job you're going to undergo a training program for new employees. You're going to go to lectures, you're going to take notes, and you're going to get a vast amount of written material. Inevitably you'll be tempted not to read it all. You might think, "I'll go to the lectures, and I'll take notes on everything the trainers talk about. I'll learn that way." Don't do that! Read everything, and make sure you understand it all. If you don't understand something, ask questions of someone whose trust you have gained so that they don't judge you.
Once you start with the substance of your job, you're going to get what we call "go-bys." Everything has a go-by. For instance, in my office somebody has prosecuted a multi-defendant gang case, and they all pled out. What does the plea agreement look like? What does the cooperation agreement look like? If I'm flipping one person against another, what does that look like? Give me a document I can go by.
Go-bys are part of what everyone does, but sometimes you're tempted not to read those documents all the way through. You might think, "This paragraph is in every plea agreement—I don't have to understand it. I'll just put it in." Don't do that! Read and make sure you understand every statute. Don't fall to the temptation of not reading everything and not understanding everything. Remember that your reputation is everything, and if it gets rolling in the wrong direction, you're done.
As blind people we cannot afford the leeway of taking shortcuts. Question everything. Research everything. Make sure you know that everything in your document is right! Be excellent!
The next thing I want to tell you is to ask the right question, and ask it in the right way. Everyone has questions starting out in a new job. But everything applies to us disproportionately as blind people, so what we ask and how we ask it is very important.
What does it mean to ask the right question in the right way? No one respects a person who comes into their office and says, "Hey, what's the answer to this?" When you ask a question in the workplace, particularly if you're blind, you need to demonstrate that you have context for your question. You need to show that you have tried to answer the question before you go into your colleague's office.
Soon after I started at the US Attorney's office I dropped by the office of Lisa, one of my coworkers. I said, "I'm having an issue with understanding the safety-valve proffer. I've read Guidelines Section 5 K 1.1. I've read the statute that applies. Here's what the statute says, and the seminal case says this. Here's what I don't understand." I didn't just walk in and ask Lisa a question. I made sure she knew I had tried hard to get the answer. I showed her that I was thinking and that I'm not lazy.
I cannot tell you how important it is to ask the right question in the right way. Guess what's going to happen! The next time Lisa talks to one of her buddies, she'll say, "Wow! That new hire who's blind, he came into my office with a question, and you could tell he had read and researched before he asked me." Because we're blind, people are not going to expect that from us. There's a lot of depth to the ignorance out there in the work world. They will assume the worst unless you ask the right question in the right way.
Be intentional about demonstrating your work ethic. Make sure people know you're willing to work long hours. When I first got to the US Attorney's office I worked seven days a week a lot of the time. I worked till seven, eight, or nine every night, and people knew it. You can't be phony about it, of course. Don't send a 10 p.m. email if you don't have to send a 10 p.m. email! People will see through that! But if you have to send an email at 10 or 11 p.m., send it! You want people to know you have a strong work ethic, that you're willing to work long hours, and you're willing to work hard.
As a blind person coming into a new job, you have to deal with one huge issue that other people aren't dealing with. You have to learn to do your job without sight. That's an additional challenge that requires some extra work. Don't be ashamed to let people know you work hard. They're going to tell their friends, "Hey, I see him here on the weekends! I see him here late at night!" They respect you for that, and your reputation gets rolling in the right direction.
My next point is really a big one. Don't allow others to make excuses for you! I know you folks in here are not going to make excuses for yourselves. You've achieved a certain amount of success, and you're used to not making excuses for yourselves—at least you should be! But a sneaky thing happens in the work world. People will try to make excuses for you. It can be very subtle, and you might not notice at first. Your boss might come to your office and say, "You're doing great work here. But we've got these mortgage fraud cases, and they have a gigantic document load. We'll give you some other cases instead. You'll be doing the same amount of work as everyone else. We're just not going to assign you these document-heavy cases."
When that happens, the answer is no! Never let people make excuses for you and tell you what you cannot do. They may sound like they're complimenting you, but they're setting you up for failure. They're saying to themselves, "There are certain things I can't ask that employee to do." I don't want to sound melodramatic, but that is going to doom you to failure.
Once I got a lecture about this issue from someone I really liked and respected. So when that assignment came up I said, "I can do mortgage fraud cases. I've got this." And when you do the mortgage case and do it well, your reputation gets rolling! It's cooking now! It's cooking! So never let anyone make excuses for you!
Here's another example that was important in my career. I was handling a case with a really great prosecutor. She clerked for a Supreme Court justice. I always strive for excellence, but this time I understood I'd be measured by an especially tall yardstick. Whatever the prosecutor said about me—and she would say something, because that's human nature—whatever she said, I needed it to be good!
The case was a more or less straightforward bank robbery, but a lot of surveillance video was involved. Dealing with video is one of the biggest challenges for a blind person in this profession. You have to figure out how to explain it to a jury. The prosecutor said, nicely, "I'll handle this main FBI agent, because there's this video. But we'll still question the same number of witnesses."
I said no. Once I knew she thought I'd have trouble with the FBI agent, I insisted that I take that witness. I was really direct with her because I liked and trusted her. I said, "If I don't do this, you'll have doubts about whether I can do it. It's important that you not have those doubts."
I went out to the bank like we always do. I looked at the terrain. I had an assistant explain to me what was in the video, exactly what time things were happening. I went over and over it in my head. I went back to the bank. I walked the terrain again to make sure I understood it, and I put that FBI witness on the stand. It came out fine, and that's the point. The prosecutor was ready to make an excuse for me. But once I knew she thought I couldn't deal with the video, I insisted that I do it.
The last thing I want to talk about is proofreading your written work. If something goes wrong, you will not get the benefit of the doubt. I know, because I've been there. I know other blind professionals who've gone through it. When you're writing something in an email, be very, very careful about your grammar and your spelling! Make sure you have automatic spell-check turned on before you send an email. If you know you confuse certain words in your head, make sure you don't confuse them when you send out emails or when you turn in written product.
All day I write, write, write! People think lawyers spend all their time in court, but mostly I write. I write motions and sentencing memos. I write a prosecution memo at the beginning. I draft the indictment. Frankly, writing is not one of my gifts. I've become a good writer, but I had to work on it. For instance, I know the difference between except and accept, but when I'm typing like crazy at my computer, for some unknown reason I'll write except when I mean accept, like to accept an agreement. I've got to double-check it every time.
Listen, you might make a mistake. I've made one or two! But if your reputation gets rolling in the right way, people know you're a person who works hard. Then you'll get the benefit of the doubt.
Now I want to talk quickly about working with a human assistant, such as a reader or a driver. In the law business we have secretaries. The duties of my assistant sometimes extend a little beyond the usual, but it's not a big deal.
One thing an assistant can do for you is proofread your documents for formatting, because weird things happen sometimes when you're typing. One time I had two pages that were all in italics. I had no idea how it happened! When your document goes to the court or to your supervisor, you want it to be impeccable.
Make sure your assistant knows his or her role. Your assistant's job is not to think for you. Your assistant's job is to serve as your eyes. Carefully and delicately make sure your assistant understands that. In the work world people will sometimes try to give your assistant credit for the work you do. It's shocking, but it's something we all live with as blind people. When you refer to your assistant in your workplace, make sure people understand his or her role. I might say casually, "She sees well, and that's all I really need from her."
These are the things I think are really important about retaining employment once you have it. Get your reputation going, be excellent, no shortcuts, make sure you're doing things the right way, ask the right questions. I want to end with a story that speaks to these points.
I got to the US Attorney's office in 2007. I had previously worked for the Social Security Administration. I went to the US Attorney's office on what they call a detail. The Social Security Administration sends over an attorney to prosecute criminal fraud against Social Security. So you're sitting in the US Attorney's office, but you still work for Social Security.
Anybody who goes to the US Attorney's office from Social Security wants to stay there. It's a very prestigious office. You'll never have another job like it! I knew that once I worked for Pat Fitzgerald I could say that for the rest of my career! So I went there with the attitude that I was going to be excellent.
One of my first trials was a complicated bank fraud case. The defendant was accused of embezzling money from a bank where she worked and shuffling funds among various accounts. Then she orchestrated a bank robbery to try to cover up the theft! I was on that trial, and I actually put the bank witness on the stand. It was hugely complicated! There were rows and rows of debits and credits, numbers all over the place! I had to explain it during my direct testimony, and then I had to explain it at closing. My closing argument was not as good as I would have liked it to be, but I had those numbers down pat! I was able to explain everything to the jury. I showed them where those debits went and how this woman set up the bank robbery so she could pretend the money had been stolen.
The judge in that case was a former prosecutor from our office. She saw all the work I'd done. I didn't take any shortcuts. She saw that.
At the end of my two years, when my detail was nearly over, I wrote Pat Fitzgerald a letter. I said I wanted to stay on and become an assistant United States attorney. Pat Fitzgerald said, "You've done good work here. Let me go back and do my due diligence, and I'll let you know the decision of the office."
Later he came back, and he said, "We'd like to have you stay on. You're an addition to the office." Then I went next-door to Lisa. I said, "Wow! I've got some good news! I'm actually staying on!" And she said, "I know. I'm on the hiring committee." So all that time I was working and asking questions, she was assessing me. And, because the judge on that bank embezzlement trial was a former prosecutor in the office, and because she randomly happened to be assigned to a few of my cases, it would not have been unusual for her to share her impressions with the office. I feel pretty certain that, if she did so, she had favorable things to say.
That's the point of the story. You never know who you're talking to. It's important to remember that. Be excellent, and get your reputation going in the right way. It will lead you to success in the workplace.
by Caroline Karbowski
From the Editor: For several years a number of organizations have offered downloadable files that can be used to create 3-dimensional models through 3D printing. From amebas to galaxies, nearly anything can be rendered in a form that is tactilely accessible. But few people have access to a 3D printer or possess the expertise to turn a file into an actual object. For most blind people, the promise of access through 3D printing has remained unfulfilled.
Caroline Karbowski is an undergraduate student at The Ohio State University. In this article she explains how she founded a nonprofit called See3D. See3D is dedicated to getting 3-dimensional models into the hands of the blind people who want and need them.
It may seem unusual for someone who is sighted to read Braille by touch, but I didn't think twice about it when I was in sixth grade. I wanted to be able to read books in the car without getting carsick. I figured that if I learned Braille, I could read to my heart's content on family trips.
I learned Braille on my own, and I have been using it ever since. To this day I read Braille at night before I fall asleep. I use Braille to rehearse my theater lines backstage. I even labeled the controls in my car in Braille so I can keep my eyes on the road while I drive!
When I was in eighth grade I read an article on how 3D printing could make tactile models of images seen through a telescope or microscope. The models could be labeled in Braille for blind users. I realized I could label 3D-printed models and distribute them to people who are blind.
The technology club at my high school had a 3D printer. I was eager to put it to use, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to print. Then I remembered the article I had read the year before, and I realized I could use our printer to make 3D models for blind people. I built on this idea when I led a showcase project at TechOlympics, the area high school technology conference. Our technology team created a website, see3d.org. On this website anyone who is blind or anyone who is a parent/guardian or teacher of someone who is blind, can request a model. We can then print it, add Braille labels or descriptions as needed, and mail the model using Free Matter shipping.
After we presented at TechOlympics, we were invited to other maker events. I met a number of visitors who volunteered to print and design models. A woman named Emily Kiehl offered to improve our website.
At the start of the project I didn't actually know anyone who was blind. Then I met a blind woman at a college event, and she offered to give me feedback on a Cinderella Castle model. She introduced me to some of her blind friends. My mother connected me with some friends of hers who are teachers of blind students.
I wanted to learn about the educational tools currently being used for blind students, so I visited several schools and toured the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky. I also visited the Digital Fabrication Lab at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI). These visits gave me a clearer idea of how See3D could contribute to the availability of tactile learning tools.
At college I met a fellow student, Garrett Carder, who also offered to help with the website. Together we pitched for seed funding from The Innovation Studio at The Ohio State University (OSU). The funding helped us purchase 3D printing materials and convention admission fees. In addition, The Innovation Studio connected us with the Entrepreneurial Business Law Clinic at OSU, which helped us file to become a tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
Today, See3D has distributed more than six hundred models to blind people. We have filled requests from individuals, large group requests for conferences and schools, and a bit of everything in between.
Our most frequent requests are for models of things that cannot be touched or fully understood through touch in real life due to safety concerns or the size, cost, or delicate nature of the object. Most popular are butterflies, cells, sea creatures, DNA molecules, monuments, maps, buildings, snowflakes, and, of course, movie characters. We have designed a few original models, but our design capability is limited by the availability and ability of our volunteers. Mostly we print models that are available under Public Domain or Creative Commons licenses. Our main printing material is called PLA filament. We use cloud-based printers, so multiple people can load objects and control the printers. We are always looking for more volunteers to help design and print models, create Braille labels, and put packages in the mail.
Once a model has been designed on the computer, it can be posted online for anyone to download or modify. The files for 3D printing, which are known as STL files, are easily transferred electronically. In many cases we can fulfill a request without actually printing and mailing the model, as long as the recipient has a 3D printer. We fulfill many of our international requests by sending files to be printed. In other instances we send models with people who are traveling to the country where they are needed. We have sent actual models to places as far-flung as Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala, Canada, and Guyana. Through 3D printing students around the world can use the same models and collaborate on improvements.
Recently we have been working with the Model Club at the Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB). We demonstrate to the students and teachers how to operate their 3D printers. Students use screen readers and magnifiers to find STL files online, which they load into a slicer for printing. However, slicing programs often are inaccessible to users of screen readers. We are collaborating with 3D printing companies to help eliminate such barriers.
In the past another barrier in the printing process was the inaccessibility of 3D printers themselves. The maintenance controls and file names had to be selected on the printer's screen. During this school year we were able to connect the printer to a computer, so all of the printer functions could be controlled with a screen reader. Some students also use video call apps such as Aira to navigate the printer screen. This method allows students to be independent and discover more functions of the printer.
OSSB has a large collection of models of historical landmarks. Last year we mainly printed smaller replicas of the large models in the collection. Students can have their own personal copies of the smaller 3D printed models, and they can gain a general idea of the shape before they use the larger model for detail. Currently, students are printing models that interest them and models their teachers have requested for use in the classroom.
I'm a biology major, and I want to get involved in science education. This past summer Emily Kiehl and I led science activities at the 2019 BELL Academy of the NFB of Ohio. The highlight was a dogfish shark dissection. We wanted to expose the students to the shapes of different kinds of sharks, so we printed models of a manta ray, a whale shark, and a dogfish shark. We also showed them a dogfish shark as a tactile graphic. In this way the students were able to make connections between the 2D graphic, the 3D model, and the actual shark specimen. We decided to expand on this concept by printing models of human organs, including the eye, the intestine, the stomach, a neuron, and the cochlea. During the children's activities at the NFB of Ohio convention we paired these models with the images in a book of tactile anatomy graphics.
We have discovered that 3D printing can be a means to boost awareness about blindness. When we go to maker events, we spread awareness about Braille, web accessibility, and tactile learning. Many of the people who contact See3D to help print models have no personal connection with blindness. I realized 3D printing can become a great connection between people who are blind and those who are sighted. People of all ages and 3D printing abilities can become involved with See3D. Middle-school students have designed model requests. Since most requests already have a design available, a volunteer just needs to have access to a 3D printer to create the model itself. Our blind volunteers print models using screen readers and use video call apps to work around aspects that are not accessible yet. As we design and print models to be touched, it is our hope that more people are becoming aware of blindness and see the value of making the world more accessible.
You can request free 3D printed models when you visit our website at see3d.org.
by a BELL Academy Parent
From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind is a membership organization, and a vast amount of its work is carried out by volunteers at the state and chapter levels. Most of us pitch in wherever we feel we can make a difference. This story by one of our BELL Academy parents captures the spirit of the work we do in the NFB and the power of passing it forward.
We were trying, at the time, to get out of Dodge. Flustered and sleep-deprived, we were new parents who had recently learned that our firstborn baby's beautiful peepers were impaired and sensitive to the sun. The diagnosis suddenly made our bright, sunny town seem like a dangerous place for our new babe, and we started making phone calls in an attempt to move to a cloudier climate.
Among the countless calls we made was one to an early intervention specialist in another state. "Are you going to the NFB convention?" the person on the other end asked casually. "It's pretty close to you guys this year."
"I'm sorry, what's the NFB?" I asked her.
I don't recall her exact explanation, but whatever it was led my husband and me to pile into our car a few months later, travel squarely out of our comfort zone, and set our newly mobile crawler down on the floor of a hotel room. We really didn't know what we were doing, but we were there to meet blind people who could tell us what kind of life our son could lead.
Months earlier I made the decisive move to switch off our son's electronic baby swing lullaby and switch on the Stevie Ray Vaughan station on Pandora. It was a small decision, based on false stereotypes I held at the time. Even so, it signaled an important switch in my thinking. If our son's eyes couldn't see the rotating mobile on his baby swing, by golly, we were going to give his ears something better than beeping baby swing music! "We've got this," we told ourselves. "We'll figure it out."
We had never met a blind person in real life, but Hollywood told us that blind people were often musicians. At the NFB conference, we learned that, contrary to media stereotypes, blind people are also engineers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and members of just about any other profession one can imagine. We listened with a mixture of relief and awe as, one by one, these professionals forever changed our definitions of blindness and visual impairment. They were as poised, confident, and capable as any of their fully sighted counterparts. As one speaker described his journey as a successful, blind artist, tears welled up in my own artist eyes. I had not even realized those tears were there beneath the surface. My suppressed fear dissipated. My child might experience color and art after all, even if he did so differently from the way I experienced those things. Spoiler Alert: Our now elementary-school child enjoys music as much as anyone else. However, it turns out he is not a musical prodigy, but a budding artist, like a number of others in his family. Art is one of his favorite classes at school, and he spends a lot of time drawing and creating each day.
In a workshop at this first convention a fellow mom leaned forward and whispered into my ear, "Have you considered Braille for him?"
My eyebrows lifted. "We haven't considered potty training yet!" I exclaimed.
"Well, keep it in mind," she persisted. "How else will he read his valedictorian speech if the sun gets in his eyes?"
How else will he read his valedictorian speech if the sun gets in his eyes—it was such a powerful question. Her words stuck. We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend an NFB convention when our child was so young.
When we got home from the conference, I told our child's early intervention teacher where we had gone.
"The NFB?" she repeated, clearly skeptical. "They're kind of radical."
Fast forward a few years, past unrelated family losses and several moves. Past the very first IEP meeting, where Braille was suggested and we ignorantly turned it down. Flash past the first preschool experience, where our son's need for services and accommodations went ignored, where small print was expected, and where books were read in front of sunny windows. Head past the painful drives home from school when my sweet child rubbed his watering eyes and begged me to answer him, "Mommy, why do my eyes hurt so much? Can you make them stop hurting?" On we go, past my days of online graduate classes and headaches from my 20/20 eyes from reading PDF after PDF for hours on end. How would my low-vision child handle grad school, armed with only a computer screen and large print, when my fully sighted eyes were struggling? How would my language-enamored child read novels without getting headaches? How would he understand spelling, punctuation, and Shakespearean puns with nothing but audio? What about grad school math classes? Again that fellow mom's words echoed in my head, "How will he read his valedictorian speech if the sun gets in his eyes?"
Our son needed Braille.
The school district where we lived at the time disagreed. Without so much as an assessment, with barely a glance at my child playing happily on the playground, they refused Braille instruction and scoffed at our request. "He has too much vision," we were told.
Without many options, with little idea where to turn next, we called the "radical" NFB.
The NFB listened, and we learned. They told us about Functional Vision Assessments and advised us to request one. Sure enough, when the report came back, it recommended dual media; our son would learn to read both print and Braille!
Next we asked how we could help our son learn orientation and mobility (O&M) techniques to keep him safe. The local school district had declined to provide cane instruction. "Just hold his hand when you go out," they told us.
The NFB directed us to the section of our parents' rights booklet that said we had the right to request an independent evaluation if we felt the initial evaluation was not accurate. The assessment that followed was much more thorough, evaluating our son in unfamiliar areas in addition to the familiar setting of his school. The instructor agreed that yes, there were strategies he should learn that would help him stay safe in unfamiliar areas.
In the years that we've been involved with the NFB, we have yet to experience even one thing that is "radical"—unless you consider it radical to expect high standards for blind people, equal access to education and technology, and the elimination of destructive stereotypes. Sadly, we have learned that some people do consider this attitude radical.
We moved again and enrolled our then-preschooler in the NFB BELL Academy, where he learned nonvisual skills under the guidance of blind teachers. His confidence soared. After all our reading and research, after the early intervention and special opportunities we worked hard to provide for our son, the NFB BELL Academy gave him the critical gifts that we, as fully sighted parents, could not give. It gave him the skills, perspective, and confidence that can only come from blind and visually-impaired adults. It gave him the opportunity to play and bond with blind and low-vision friends his age. They laughed together as they practiced Braille, cane travel techniques, and other nonvisual skills.
Here's one thing about our kid (and about many kids with low vision or legal blindness): he can pass for fully sighted. Like many fully sighted and blind/low-vision kids, he's curious and intelligent. He races around the playground, plays community sports, and has tons of typical friends. Like the early intervention specialist who warned us that the NFB is "radical," other people have questioned our decision to send our child to a camp of blind kids. "He doesn't fit in," they said. "He won't like it."
But that's not what happened. In fact, our son loved it. Before BELL ended, my sweet child, with tears in his eyes, begged to go back the following year. In that two-week program he blew through his annual IEP goals. We had to hold an additional IEP meeting before school started so we could raise expectations appropriately. He's been to BELL several times now, and it's been a wonderful experience each year.
Every time my son has needed help, the NFB has been there. We have been touched by the power of so many passionate people who are willing to pay it forward. Just as people say, "There's an app for that," the NFB could very well say, "There's an experienced, capable, highly qualified blind professional for that." When it seemed that we would be forced to forego Braille instruction or prematurely take our child out of the Montessori school where he was thriving, we learned about a lovely, intelligent, snappy blind teacher. Not only was she a trained Montessorian, but she was the director of her own large, highly successful Montessori school. She readily shared her expertise by writing a letter explaining the benefits of both Montessori methods and Braille for visually impaired kids, and she attended our IEP meeting via phone from across the country. Our wonderful IEP team listened, and our child got to start public school when he was ready without missing any Braille instruction along the way.
The NFB's commitment to my child's education didn't stop there. Our supporters in the Federation stuck by us as our son began elementary school and learned to read. Even in the excellent district where we currently are lucky to live, we have found it helpful to bring an advocate to IEP meetings. Paid advocates cost hundreds of dollars, but through the NFB we have connected with blind adults and parents of blind children who are willing to advocate for my son free of charge. They have helped explain the importance of high standards and helped to make sure the IEP document protects our son's education the way it was intended to do. Through Facebook, even more Federationists have taken the time to answer questions, troubleshoot challenges, and even connect parents of blind children in my hometown. Even better than that, they have educated us on our own parental rights and helped to make me a better advocate for my son. I hope someday to pay it forward as they have done.
Best of all, the National Federation of the Blind has taught my son how to see himself—not with his eyes in the mirror, but in the ways that truly matter. Our friends in the Federation have taught him that he can live the life he wants, and that vision is not what holds him back.
You might ask how we know all that. The following story is just one of many examples:
Lately I've been reading James and the Giant Peach to my son at bedtime. For those of you who have not read it in a while, in the book there is a rather pessimistic earthworm character who is blind.
The worm's blindness had been mentioned three times in the story so far, always in a negative light. I just skipped the first two references because it was late, and we were all tired. The worm's blindness wasn't critical to the storyline, and honestly, I wasn't sure how to handle it. But last night I was going too fast, and I wasn't thinking. I didn't stop to censor a rather terrible part where the earthworm's friends are thinking about feeding him to seagulls, and the earthworm says something about being pecked to death and not even being able to see them coming because he's blind.
My happy, spunky kid's face fell. I tried to do some damage control by pointing out that real friends do not feed their friends to seagulls and explaining that the earthworm was smart and would figure out a way out. It helped some.
But tonight we talked about that earthworm again. This time we talked about what it means to have a victim mentality. And we talked about how some people, blind or not, see themselves as victims while others, blind or not, see themselves as strong. And we talked about how what we believe about ourselves matters because it tells us, and the rest of the world, what we can do.
Then I asked my kid, "How does the NFB see themselves, victim or strong?"
He replied, immediately, confidently, proudly, "Strong!"
Then I asked him, "And what about you? Victim or strong?"
His face quickly went through the most heart-melting transformation. He smiled. A kind of surprised-then-sure-then-cocky kind of smile.
"STRONG!" he replied with every bit as much confidence and pride.
Y'all, I could lie and say that confidence just comes from home, but I know it comes mostly from the NFB BELL Academy. It comes from learning nonvisual skills. It comes from having strong, capable, professional blind role models through the NFB. It comes from hearing smart, confident, accomplished blind people speak into microphones behind a podium and hearing others clap at their words. It comes from walking through a sleek, fancy building, touching the Braille on the plaques, and learning about all the things blind people can do.
The National Federation of the Blind gave our son that strength and confidence, and truth is more powerful than fiction.
Thank you, NFB.
by Trisha Kulkarni
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 62, Number 3, March 2019
From the Editor: Facing our fears and moving forward can be one of the greatest challenges in life. For those of us who are blind, that challenge is heightened when the low expectations of others seem to confirm that we have plenty to be afraid of. Trisha Kulkarni has given serious thought to these issues. She told her story in a speech at the meeting of the National Association of Blind Students (NABS) during the 2018 NFB Washington Seminar.
I am so excited to have the opportunity to speak to you today and to share some of my story. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Trisha Kulkarni, and although I've been a longtime contributor and leader in my community, I'm a new member of the National Federation of the Blind.
I had the privilege of being part of the 2018 National Federation of the Blind scholarship class. Through my trip to the NFB convention in Orlando, Florida, I gained exposure to the incredible efforts of this organization. I encourage all of you to apply for a national scholarship, because that experience really did change my life.
It is quite a humbling experience to stand in front of you today, not only because of the long journey that brought me to this moment, but because of the novelty of my work with the NFB. Seven years ago I did not know a single blind person, and I was convinced that Braille was simply decorative artwork on signage. Now I've moved across the country independently with my guide dog, Liberty, to seize life's opportunities in a new and exciting place. Of course I have fallen, both literally and figuratively, in the pursuit of my dreams, but I have realized that pushing past the boundaries of what is comfortable is the only way to see how far your capabilities can stretch.
Today I want to share with you a series of experiences that have defined my character and purpose within and beyond the NFB. More importantly, I want to challenge each of you to embrace the power you have to create meaning in every aspect of your life. In order to fuel the NFB forward into a new generation of leaders and advocates, we need to continue growing as individuals. Only then will we best be able to break down the barriers of low expectations that stand between us and our dreams.
My first story begins at a time in life that most people like to forget: middle school. At the start of seventh grade, I not only had to deal with pimples and the onset of puberty, but I also had to face a new challenge. A few months earlier I faced a retinal detachment that left me completely blind and face-down in bed for months to recover from surgery. When it was finally time to return to school, I had no orientation and mobility training, no knowledge of Braille, and no access to assistive technology. I was still trying to learn how to get around my house, and it seemed impossible that I would ever be able to match my clothes again.
However, I still had my academic ambitions. I worked hard to reach my goals in the classroom. With lots of support I finished middle school with good grades and a determination to continue finding success.
When I got to high school, however, it was harder to ignore the barriers that stood between me and my sighted peers. People began to hint that I would create too much work for my teachers and loved ones if I continued on the advanced track in school. When I sat in meetings fighting for my right to take honors coursework, I was told that the reason my Braille materials were coming in months late was that I was an anomaly for wanting to pursue a rigorous course of study. The suggestion was that perhaps there was an easier way to graduation.
But I refused to lower my standards. I started taking honors classes, and I sought involvement in extracurricular activities. Despite the resistance I faced, I sought to find success in these endeavors and true independence. I came to realize that there are a lot of preconceived notions about students with disabilities. The expectation is to bring these students up to average, but to excel seems unnecessary. I was often called an overachiever, as if I was striving to accomplish more than I should.
If you have a goal, do not let other people's skepticism deter you from reaching it. Stay grounded in the values and missions that are important to you, and do not limit your scope. Sometimes you will find that your actions change minds better than words can.
Of course, changing expectations came with many hard nights. But in the end the sleepless nights and sacrificed lunch periods served a greater goal than just getting my high school diploma.
The idea of college started entering conversations when I was in tenth grade. At my competitive high school, it never seemed to leave. My sighted peers and I worried about which university would best fit our personalities and our academic interests. But I also had to think about my blindness. It wasn't going to deter me from reaching my dream schools, but I devoted many hours to orientation and mobility training, and I received my guide dog before my senior year of high school.
There was just one problem: I didn't know where I wanted to go to school. On a vacation to the west coast, I finally found Stanford. I fell in love with the people and the talent that occupied every aspect of the campus. But as I walked the paved sidewalks, listening to the tour guide describe the beautiful scenery and rich history, I couldn't help the doubt that crept into my mind. Stanford was thousands of miles away from home; it covered eighty-eight hundred acres and had the lowest admission rate in the country—it felt crazy to imagine that I could go there! After my parents fell asleep that night, I stayed up for hours. It was easily the hardest night of my life! It was the first time I felt like my blindness would deter me from reaching what I wanted most.
However, after listening to my motivation mix on Spotify and talking to my family, I began to fill out the Stanford application. Suddenly all the steps I had taken forward to reach that moment didn't seem like enough progress. I worried how I'd measure up. But December 8 came sooner than anyone could have expected. As I sat in my living room with my family, with my finger hovering over the "view status" button, my heart began to pound. I read the word "Congratulations!" and began to scream.
That night meant so much more to me than just getting into college. It was the first time I'd realized how much there is to lose by not going after what you want. I came so close to not applying because of my fear that I was not good enough. Do not let your fear of failure be bigger than your dreams. Only you have the power to determine your self-worth.
Today I am in my second quarter at Stanford University. My transition to college has not always been comfortable, as a broken tooth, countless nights of no sleep, and many days lost on that 8,800-acre campus can speak for. But I have learned so much about myself and my aspirations since moving to California last September. Being away for school has shown me that I can venture out and find my own way. I discovered a new outlet for my voice by writing for The Stanford Daily, and I have taken on leadership positions in my dorm government. I survived my first computer science class, and I have applied to get some of my research published. I have explored the social scene of college life, and I have spent many late nights talking with my friends and eating way too much junk food.
College has shown me that every day is an adventure. With every step you take outside your comfort zone, you learn more about yourself and what is important to you.
I am a Federationist, but I am also a sister, a daughter, a friend, a writer, a black belt in Taekwondo, a chocolate lover, a Harry Potter enthusiast, a social advocate, and a terrible dancer. My purpose in the NFB is not defined by my blindness, but by all the other intersections that I bring to the table.
As I leave you today, I want to encourage you to grow comfortable with the idea of the uncomfortable. Life will throw you many adversities and opportunities that you will not be able to control, but they will define your character and purpose more than you realize. If you do not let your fear of failure stand in the way of what you want, and if you do not limit your potential, the world will be a better place with your contributions.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you today. Go make your dreams a reality!
by Terry Lynn Johnson
Reviewed by Deborah Kendrick
From the Editor: Deborah Kendrick is a freelance journalist based in Cincinnati. Most recently she is the author of Navigating Health Care When All They Can See Is that You Can't, published by National Braille Press.
Dog Driven
by Terry Lynn Johnson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
Available as audio download from audible.com
We learn in the opening paragraphs of Dog Driven that the main character, fourteen-year-old McKenna, is struggling with vision loss. She needs to be close to objects to see them. Her central vision is going away, and losing her sunglasses is physically painful.
McKenna's eight-year-old sister, Emma, has lost most of her sight to the inherited retinal condition known as Stargardt's disease, and McKenna now recognizes the same symptoms in herself. However, she keeps her failing vision a secret from everyone except her little sister. The girls make a pact: McKenna, a talented musher who adores her dogs, will compete in a mail run sled race through the Canadian wilderness to deliver Emma's letter to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, entreating them to find a cure for Stargardt's. In exchange, Emma promises to keep McKenna's failing vision a secret from their parents.
On one hand this is the tale of a teenager defying the elements, skillfully managing her dog team, and guarding the fact that she is struggling to see her surroundings. McKenna's evolving friendship with a fellow musher whose lead dog happens to be blind has some touching moments. McKenna sees the absolute trust her new friend places in his blind dog, and she comes to realize that other teens have real problems to face, too—sometimes problems they try to keep to themselves as she has hidden her vision loss.
On the other hand, the story might be seen in part as a cautionary tale for parents. McKenna's parents are consumed by grief and anger over Emma's blindness. McKenna, at only fourteen, is terrified to burden them with her own failing vision.
McKenna's little sister is chiefly portrayed as a sweet and feisty kid. She is smart and perceptive. Those traits are at odds with the references others make to her helplessness. While the parents hate the white cane, McKenna wishes her sister would learn to use it. Their mother still carries Emma about at times, and McKenna wishes she would stop.
In some ways, the most appealing characters in the book are the dogs—McKenna's eight wonderful huskies as well as her new friend's blind lead dog. Similarly, the most compelling scenes in the story are those that involve the race itself. The young mushers withstand the elements and solve such challenges as imposing cliff edges and broken sleds. McKenna meets these challenges competently (when she's not bemoaning what she can't see), and she cares for her team with love and respect. The author could have used her competence to convey a positive portrayal of a blind teen. McKenna's competence, however, is at times overshadowed by references to what is "wrong" with the two sisters.
At one point we finally see Emma standing tall, alone and confident with her white cane. The image seems to resonate with our heroine, offering her a hopeful glimpse of the future.
Terry Lynn Johnson has published several young-adult novels that focus on outdoor adventures. She does that well. She knows what it is to be a musher, to manage a team of dogs, and to interact with the Canadian wilderness and weather. She has brought that world into vivid perspective in this book and shared a little of what vision loss can be like for a teenager as well.
by Karen Anderson
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 62, Number 10, November 2019
From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind held its first BELL Academy in Maryland in 2008. Since then the program has expanded to include nearly every affiliate in the nation. BELL (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning) is a summer program for blind students that provides blind role models and helps children become active participants in life. As education programs coordinator at the NFB, Karen Anderson is busy throughout the year, planning and coordinating our BELL Academies.
On my clock at home I have a collection of bells, each signifying an experience in my life that allowed me to grow. The bell with the eagle on top is the one I received when I graduated from the Louisiana Center for the Blind. The one with the ship's wheel is the bell I got after I ran my first summer program for blind teens. And the bell with the plastic handle is the bell I took with me after running my first BELL Academy in Nebraska.
That bell reminds me of how much my students grew in only two weeks. I remember the six-year-old boy who learned to put on his seatbelt by himself, the eleven-year-old girl who was sure she couldn't do things without using her vision and ended up making a cake in a cup while wearing her learning shades, and the fourteen-year-old girl whose family traveled to Lincoln and stayed in a hotel so she could learn Braille because the school was not willing to teach her. At the end of the program I had the privilege of giving bells to each of these children who had come so far in such a short time. As I handed a bell to each student, I hoped that when they rang it throughout the year, they would remember how much I believed in them, and that they would continue to believe in themselves.
These days my favorite bells are the BELL (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning) Academies we hold every summer. BELL was started in Maryland in 2008 by Federationists who realized that our blind children were not being exposed to nearly enough Braille. Now more than twenty-five states hold BELL Academies each summer. Just like the bells that sit on my clock at home, each summer's BELL Academies signify opportunities for blind children to learn and grow.
In 2019 the NFB held thirty-five BELL Academies in twenty-six states. This means that more than 250 children (most of them between the ages of four and twelve) were exposed to Braille in a way that made literacy fun. The New Jersey BELL Academy started every day by having each student read a joke that had been Brailled for them and matched their personality. As they had fun with reading, students' confidence grew along with their knowledge of the Braille code. In New York, one nine-year-old boy began the program with very little knowledge of the code. Upon learning most of the letters, he was excited to be able to read and exclaimed, "I'm like a superhero. I can now read in the dark!"
One parent from New Jersey said, "For nine years of my son's life it has been recommended that he lean on his vision. Attending BELL Academy, my son learned the complete Braille alphabet in a mere two weeks, something that eluded us for nine years. What sticks out is how simple it was to start Braille and the shame it is that the world resists."
In each of our programs, children use learning shades so they can practice doing things without using their residual vision. This can be challenging for some kids, and sometimes it takes a while for students to get comfortable with their learning shades. Jenny Carmack from Missouri sent us this story about a returning student:
We do an activity for some of our children who are new to Braille, called Treasure Hunting. In this activity children must dig through dried pasta, beans, or rice to find what kind of treasure is in there, such as bells, gems, or animal-shaped beads. This is done with only their fingers, no vision. Last year one of our children did not like to do any activity in which he could not use his eyes. This year he was excited to turn off all of the lights and treasure-hunt with his fingers.
In addition, other students can serve as great encouragers for their classmates. One little girl in New York made a switch to try and encourage her classmates. "Instead of shame on you, let's try shades on you." She even made a song out of it.
Cooking and food are great motivators for many kids. In Utah, students got to make bread in a bag. They read a Braille recipe, measured and combined ingredients, and baked the loaves using nonvisual skills they had learned at the program. Other programs made Play Dough, banana animals, brownies, and even individual pizzas. One student in New Jersey took the skills he was learning at BELL home with him and came back the next day with cookies he had baked for everyone with very little help from his parents.
Students also work on skills that will help them be more independent at home. Stacie Gallegos from Texas sent us this story:
During the 2019 BELL Academy, I had the opportunity to work with Randy, one of our veteran BELL students. One of Randy's long-term goals has been to learn how to tie his own shoes. Randy was able to complete the first two steps but had difficulty mastering the task of the bunny ears. During the second week, we worked on shoe tying at the end of the day's lessons. By the end of the week, Randy was able to make bunny ears, although they were really big, and he managed to tie his own shoes. I had the opportunity to speak with a group of parents, including Randy's mother. I demonstrated to Mom the steps Randy and I followed for shoe tying. I encouraged Randy's mother to work with him a little each day on this task. I feel confident that with practice and the opportunity to do so, Randy will be tying his own shoes next summer.
For years BELL Academies have offered students the opportunity to be artistic and creative. Students get to decorate their long white canes using multi-colored duct tape, yarn, beads, bells, and other materials. This makes the cane, which is often awkward for students, feel like their own, and helps make it more fun to use. In addition to decorating, many academies find other ways to introduce students to tactile art. This year several of our academies partnered with local businesses that teach students to work with clay. In Baltimore, students worked on a mosaic that will be displayed at our Jernigan Institute, and in Mississippi students got to work on several clay projects, including writing their names in Braille.
This year, thanks to the generosity of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, each BELL participant was given an inTact Sketchpad, which helped them develop an understanding of tactile art and graphics. One child in Texas, who had previously only drawn using her limited vision, was able to create a fish with her hand, write her name and feel what the print letters look like, and draw several other shapes of her own choosing. One twelve-year-old student from New York has never liked drawing and was very resistant to drawing in the program. Once he learned to use the Sketchpad, he was ecstatic and exclaimed, "Yeah! I can play Pictionary with the family now!" In South Carolina, three students who loved art used the Sketchpads to draw their favorite Minecraft characters so the volunteers could feel what they looked like and gain a better understanding of one of their favorite games. In all these cases, students were developing tactile literacy skills.
As is so often the case with kids, some of the most impactful lessons come through play. Briley O'Connor from Minnesota sent us this story:
During recess one afternoon, we decided to go to the park across the street from BLIND, Inc. This park has no playground equipment, so I suggested the boys play a game of tag. Ben (age six) said he'd never played tag before. Silas (age four) said, 'How can he play tag? He can't see anything.' Challenge accepted. I told Silas he should be 'it' first and make a loud noise as he ran, so that way Ben could chase him. Silas took to this suggestion immediately, taking off at the count of three yelling 'beep, beep, beep,' as loudly as possible. Ben took some time to get used to running outside without help, but after a round or two, they needed no assistance from me. One blind child learned that he could run freely, and another learned that you don't need any vision at all to enjoy a game of tag.
As wonderful as all these activities are, it is the relationships that our teachers and volunteers form with students and parents that make the most difference. Sometimes we are the first successful blind people a family has ever met. One parent from Missouri posted on Facebook that her daughter, who has attended BELL for the past four years, looks forward to it every year. She went on to say that the best thing about the BELL Academy, in her opinion, is the fact that the staff who volunteer their time are blind and are great role models for the children. Other families are heartened to have found a group of people who believe in their children, have high expectations for them, and are willing to help the families fight for what is best for their kids. A mom from New Jersey said, "As parents who have recently found the NFB we are relieved to know that we are not alone and are fully supported moving forward." One grandmother in South Carolina plans to stay in touch with the Federation so she knows what she should ask in her grandchildren's IEP meetings. She wants to make sure they are being raised with high expectations.
Then there are the families who are not new to the Federation. BELL gives their blind kids an opportunity to be around kids like themselves. This story comes from Briley O'Connor, who, in addition to being the Minnesota BELL coordinator, is also the mom of a blind son:
As the coordinator, I knew this program would be great for my four-year-old son, Silas. I've done this before and have seen firsthand the positive impact BELL Academy can have on a child. What I did not anticipate was how dramatic a difference it would make in his understanding of himself and his identity as a blind person. Silas is in that tricky low-vision space where his parents refer to him as a blind person, his parents are blind, many of the people in his life are blind, but he still has a degree of usable vision that makes him feel like he can see. Convincing a kid at this age to eat his vegetables is hard enough, much less to understand the value of the alternative techniques of blindness, so the cane and Braille have been a bit of a hard sell for a while. Every day we would have him leave the house with the cane, and every day it'd be a battle of wills with the refrain of 'But I can see, I'm not blind like you,' echoing in our ears. After decorating his cane at BELL, being around other children who are using a cane like his, a positive blind instructor (Miss Michell) constantly reminding him to have it in his hand, and a curriculum that makes learning nonvisual skills fun, his attitude has improved significantly. He now refers to himself as 'mostly blind,' which is an enormous shift over such a short period of time. He takes the cane when we leave the house without an argument, and he uses it more effectively when we travel.
Because I spent a lot of my career as a teacher and I'm a blind person, I assumed Silas would have an easier time than he has around accepting his blindness. I'm grateful for the BELL Academy and for the National Federation of the Blind for making this possible. Parents are so important, but without this village, we'd still be fighting every day at the front door about the cane.
These stories, and hundreds of others like them, are the reason I choose to be so involved in the Federation. They are why members across the country volunteer hours of their time, talent, and creativity. We know that blindness does not have to hold these kids back, and programs like BELL help them and their families realize that, too. I love to imagine more than 250 blind kids across the country ringing their bells at the end of summer—a whole bell choir of freedom and independence.
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
From the Editor: At the 2019 convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Las Vegas, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) hosted a variety of activities for parents, children, and tweens. In this article NOPBC President Carlton Anne Cook Walker gives a quick recap of last summer's program.
More than two hundred parents, professionals, and allies from thirty-three different states registered for and attended the NOPBC Conference, "Blindness Skills: The Only Sure Bet in Vegas," at the NFB National Convention. This "conference within the convention" provides five days of content consisting of sessions, workshops, and activities. The conference aims to instill high expectations for all blind children, providing information and ideas for adults supporting blind children, and offering fun and engaging activities for blind children and their families.
On the first morning of Seminar Day, NOPBC and NFB leaders welcomed parents and allies to the NOPBC Conference and the NFB Convention. The general session featured "Kid Talk," when NFB President Mark Riccobono spent time conversing with, teaching, and learning from the blind and sighted children in the room. The general session also included an address entitled, "Playing the Long Game and Beating the Odds," by NOPBC president Carlton Anne Cook Walker; "The Sound of Confidence," a keynote address by Lisamaria Martinez; and "Stacking the Deck With Blindness Skills," a panel discussion with California college student Vejas Vasiliauskas, Florida high school student Alyssa Mendez, and dual enrollment (high school and college) student Anna Walker from Pennsylvania.
Morning breakout workshops included "Convention 411: How to Optimize Your Convention Experience," "Science Is Everywhere!: Encouraging Curiosity, Experimentation, and Tactile Exploration for Children Birth through Eight," "Saving for the Future with Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Accounts: What Are ABLE Accounts and How Might They Benefit My Blind Child?," and "Cane or Guide Dog?: I Use Both."
At lunchtime, we hosted a new session, "Lunch with the NOPBC Board," where families and allies brought their lunches and joined the board to ask questions, get to know each other, and build relationships. We welcomed many new parents and their children as we ate together and shared experiences.
In the afternoon we hosted two sets of breakout sessions. The first afternoon breakout session included "Sensory Integration Exercises: Could They Help Your Child's Development?," "Curiosity, Fun, and Science," "Science in Middle, High School, and Beyond," and "Tactile Skills or Visual Skills?: Efficiency's the Key." The second set of afternoon breakouts were "Transition to College or Work: What Is It Like? What I Wish I Had Known," "Fun with Science: A Solar System Make-and-Take," "Tactile Map Making," and a repeat of the morning's ABLE session.
Though already jam-packed, Seminar Day was not over yet. After a respite for dinner the NOPBC hosted our first-ever Family Game Night. We provided children, youth, parents, and allies with adapted games we purchased from the NFB Independence Market as well as some off-the-shelf accessible games to enjoy. As the saying goes, "A good time was had by all." In fact, so many people attended that we truly did not have enough seats. Next year we hope to extend the length of time for the activity and to hold it in a larger space. We also hope to add more off-the-shelf games that we can adapt for accessibility.
During Family Game Night, we had the honor of hosting the second annual Megan Bening Memorial Fund Technology Giveaway. A detailed report of that event appears later in this article.
In cooperation with SAAVI [an Arizona-based organization for blind children and adults], the NOPBC offered Youth Track activities to more than eighty youth ages eleven through eighteen at the 2019 NFB National Convention. Youth Track activities ran for five days, including the evenings of the first and second days of NFB General Session. In Youth Track blind and sighted students engaged in activities to build self-confidence, strengthen the roots of NFB philosophy, and build meaningful relationships with peers and with Federation role models. Youth attended NOPBC offerings such as Family Game Night, the NFB Cane Walk, and the Braille Book Fair. They also took part in events sponsored by the National Association of Blind Students (NABS): the NABS Networking gathering and the NABS Annual Meeting. At the National Federation of the Blind Board of Directors meeting, Youth Track participants were introduced to the thirty NFB Scholarship finalists. At the American Action Fund Century Celebration Braille Carnival, youth enjoyed games and crafts around the theme of sea creatures. Additional Youth Track sessions included "Looking Good, Feeling Good"; "Express Yourself through Art"; "Protect Yourself: Methods and Strategies of Self-Defense"; "Federation Philosophy"; "STEM for College and Career"; "Resolutions Explained"; "Exhibit Hall Challenge"; "What Kinds of Jobs Can Blind People Do?"; "All in the Family," (geared toward sighted siblings); and the ever-popular "Unconventional Convention Scavenger Hunt."
In the spring of 2017 the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children started a fund in memory of Megan Bening, daughter of board member Jean Bening and her husband Allan Bening. Megan graduated with a bachelor's degree in information technology and a minor in psychology. In January 2017, she was working toward her master's degree in information technology and was employed as a user experience manager at Minnesota State University/Mankato when, at the age of twenty-two, she died suddenly from a spontaneous brain hemorrhage.
Megan's dream of bringing technology to blind students lives on through the Megan Bening Memorial Fund. The NOPBC and friends sell "Angel Pins," lapel pins shaped like angels pinned to a card that describes the mission of the Megan Bening Memorial Fund.
In its inaugural year, at the 2018 NOPBC Conference during the 2018 NFB Convention, the Megan Bening Memorial Fund gave away $10,000 worth of accessible technology to fourteen blind children and teenagers. At the 2019 NFB Convention, the fund gave away technology with a retail value exceeding $10,000 to twenty-nine children and youth. Eric Guillory, president of the NFB's Professionals in Blindness Education Division and Director of Youth Services for the Louisiana Center for the Blind, offered technology training to each winner.
NOPBC continues to sell Angel Pins and to accept donations in order to give away more technology to blind students at the 2020 national convention. Through your donations and dedication to this mission, Megan's dream of providing blind children with the technology they need to live the lives they want comes true.
For many years at our NFB Annual Convention, NOMC professionals have volunteered their time and expertise to provide about ninety minutes of cane travel instruction to children and their family members. (NOMC stands for National Orientation and Mobility Certification). Sighted adults learn alongside the children, using learning shades and adult-size long white canes as teaching canes. Through the generous support of the National Federation of the Blind, the NOPBC is able to send each blind child and one family member home with a Cane Walk long white cane.
This year seventeen blindness professionals volunteered more than forty hours of cane travel instruction to twenty-eight individuals from twenty-one families during our two Cane Walk sessions. We know that many of these professionals and others provide even more time and instruction to children, youth, and families throughout the convention.
One hour before our Annual Meeting started, the NOPBC held a Vendor Fair. We invited vendors of blindness-related products and services to display their wares. Attendees had the chance to meet the vendors and learn what they had to offer. Parents and allies visited vendors, asked questions, and received personalized and in-depth responses. In addition, parents used this time to network with one another, including with our NOPBC board members.
The theme of the 2019 Annual Meeting of the NOPBC was "Independence and Success: The Best Show in Vegas (and Everywhere Else)." After a welcome from NOPBC president Carlton Walker, we heard from Anil Lewis, executive director of Blindness Initiatives for the NFB. Anil shared with parents the pivotal and unending role of the NFB in the lives of blind children in his presentation, "From Concept to Curtain Call—Making the Show Possible." Next the NFB 2019 Distinguished Educator of Blind Children, Adrienne Shoemaker, shared her experiences with the blind children and youth she serves in New Hampshire in a talk called "Building and Showcasing Talent." Dr. Fredric Schroeder counseled parents on the vital importance of encouraging a child's talents and interests without focusing on blindness; he inspired us all to honor our children's individuality and noted the opportunities NFB mentors provide in helping blind children and youth in "Finding the Right Role and the Right Stage."
We also heard from two panels, one composed of middle-school students and another of parents of blind students. Our student panel, "Taking the Stage," featured Passion Augustus of Louisiana, Emerie (Eme) Mitchell-Butler of Virginia, and Marley Rupp of Nevada, who shared their experiences of living the lives they want. In our parent panel, "Behind the Scenes Support from Parent Leaders," Sarah Erb, Utah Parents of Blind Children president; Emily Wagner Gindlesberger, Pennsylvania Parents of Blind Children president; and Carla Keirns, from the Missouri Parents of Blind Children told us how their chapters work with their state affiliates to reach out to and support blind children and youth and their families.
The last item of our annual meeting was elections. All ten board member positions were open. Four members of our 2018-2019 board stepped down from their positions: Jean Bening, Rosina Coleman, Carol Akers, and Hayley Alli. All four have served in their states and on the national level with honor and distinction. We recognized departing board member Jean Bening for her ten years of dedicated service to NOPBC. Her contributions include, but are certainly not limited to, her coordination of our annual Cane Walk, her ability to inspire donors, and, most importantly, her inception, coordination, and implementation of the Megan Bening Memorial Fund Technology Giveaway. As we welcome our new board members, we know that we can count on past board members to continue to serve the NOPBC and the National Federation of the Blind as mentors and leaders.
Everyone attending the Braille Book Fair in Las Vegas this summer hit the jackpot! At the fair each year, thousands of Braille books are given away to children and adults, and 2019 was no exception. In addition to a wide selection of print/Braille titles, including picture storybooks for our youngest readers, we had early chapter books, teen reading, adult fiction and nonfiction, cookbooks, and more to give away. The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults donated many Twin Vision® books from the Kenneth Jernigan Library to the Braille Book Fair. Not only did this donation greatly increase the number of print/Braille books we could offer, it allowed individuals to read a piece of history—the Kenneth Jernigan Library closed on March 1, 2018.
As always, NFB members donated books as well as funds to purchase the always-in-high-demand print/Braille books. NFB provides much support in this endeavor, including logistical assistance before, during, and after the event and storing the boxes of books year-round.
At the Braille Book Fair, volunteers boxed the books and addressed them to be shipped to each individual's home via Free Matter for the Blind. This year every single book found a new home! After the Braille Book Fair families got a bite to eat and returned to enjoy the Century Celebration Braille Carnival, which celebrated one hundred years of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults.
Thirteen parents and grandparents from seven states attended four hours of intensive leadership training, met members of the NOPBC Board, and were mentored by NOPBC and NFB leaders throughout our national convention. In addition to taking part in this intensive training, they read and discussed selected pieces of Federation literature and attended the NOPBC Conference and related activities throughout convention week. During General Sessions and at Convention Banquet, these individuals forged new relationships with their state president and members of their affiliates and solidified relationships that already existed.
As noted above, NOPBC is a proud division of the National Federation of the Blind. We veteran members of the NOPBC and NFB know the vital importance of the support we receive from the Federation. We make certain that families new to us understand our relationship with the NFB. One way we show our appreciation of and support for the Federation is through the PAC plan. PAC stands for preauthorized contributions. We encourage our parents and allies to begin a PAC plan or add to an existing one and note NOPBC as the division they support.
To encourage participation in the PAC Plan, NFB divisions compete each year for possession of a stuffed animal fondly known as the PAC Mule. At the 2019 NFB Convention, NOPBC was proud to receive the PAC Mule—demonstrating our unwavering dedication to our Federation family.
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
From the Editor: The 2020 NFB National Convention will be held in Houston, Texas, from July 14-19. As always, this year's convention will be jam-packed with activities for parents and teachers, children and teens. In this article NOPBC President Carlton Anne Cook Walker gives a preview.
Once again, for the eightieth year in a row, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) will host its annual convention. Blind people of all ages and their families and friends gather to share insight from the past, information for the present, and ideas for the future.
This year Houston, Texas will host our annual convention from July 14 through 19 at the Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel. As a proud division of the NFB, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) will again host our annual conference within the NFB annual convention. NFB members of all ages will gather to learn and share, reconnect with old friends, and form new friendships. We certainly hope you can join us.
On April 11, 1970, three astronauts with the United States space program launched into space on an exciting, yet relatively routine, trip to the moon on Apollo 13. Along the way, they encountered unforeseen obstacles that threatened their mission and their lives. Two days into the mission, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell realized that something unexpected, and potentially damaging, had occurred. He alerted Mission Control in Houston, Texas, "Houston, we have a problem."
At first no one in the spacecraft or in Mission Control or, indeed, anywhere on Earth knew the solution to the problem. Nevertheless, everyone at Mission Control in Houston jumped into action to find a solution. The 1995 movie, Apollo 13, recounts Mission Control's race against time to save the astronauts from certain death. The movie coined the phrase, "Failure is not an option."
When my daughter, Anna Catherine, had severe medical issues that eventually led to her blindness, I felt as though I were on Apollo 13. I had read all the right books, so I thought I knew what to expect from pregnancy and caring for an infant. I didn't expect to spend months of the first year of my daughter's life in hospitals, and I didn't expect to be told that her first Christmas with us would likely be her last.
Over time Anna Catherine's medical issues resolved, but then we found out that she was blind. Now what? We didn't have a Mission Control to call. Anna Catherine was healthy, but she was not as independent as sighted children her age and even younger. Month by month she fell farther behind. For two years we just did our own thing. Then we found the National Federation of the Blind and attended the first Blueprints and Beginnings Early Childhood Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Wow! We had finally found Mission Control—the National Federation of the Blind and its members across the nation. We had a problem; the NFB had many solutions. And, even when NFB didn't already have a solution, we soon learned that NFB members would devote themselves to working with us to find an answer. With the NFB failure is never an option.
The NOPBC is a proud division of the National Federation of the Blind. We thrive because of our relationships with incredible blind adults throughout the nation. Our annual conference in Houston is part of the NFB National Convention. As such we enjoy the support of the Federation in terms of expertise, advocacy, and mentorship.
Our conference offers activities and information for parents of blind and low-vision children birth through high school (and, sometimes, beyond). We know that many of our children have disabilities in addition to blindness, and we design our sessions and activities to be inclusive. In addition, we have activities for youth ages eleven through eighteen in our Youth Track. Parents of younger children may choose to use the childcare option provided by NFB Camp.
On Seminar Day (Tuesday, July 14), we hold concurrent sessions that address the needs of blind children at different ages and with different abilities. We look forward to meeting and getting to know conference attendees at our "Lunch with the Board" activity. On Tuesday evening we will enjoy Family Game Night, where everyone will be able to play adapted games for a great evening of family fun. This year every blind child ages birth through age twenty-one whose parents or guardians have registered for the NOPBC Conference will receive a free game to take home. These games will come with accessibility kits so the child and/or family members may make an off-the-shelf game accessible for everyone in the family!
Wednesday brings our Cane Walk sessions, where orientation and mobility professionals provide blind children and their sighted family members instruction in Structured Discovery cane travel—a method of instruction that promotes independence and problem solving. Through the generous support of the NFB, each blind child who participates in a Cane Walk session will receive a free NFB long white cane.
Our annual meeting (Thursday, July 16) will be packed with information for parents of blind children of all ages and abilities. Students will share their experiences of finding solutions through the NFB, and parents will learn more about how to become involved with our division. At the end of the annual meeting, we will elect new officers and board members. Attendees will receive priority entrance tickets for our annual Braille Book Fair, where you can get free Braille books and have them boxed up to send home—at no cost to you.
During convention week many other activities will be taking place. One highlight will be our Megan Bening Memorial Technology Giveaway. Last year we gave away more than ten thousand dollars' worth of accessible technology to blind children and youth.
Each day of convention week will bring information-packed sessions that will be of interest to parents of blind children of all ages. These sessions include meetings of divisions focused on areas such as law, teaching, and the performing arts. An annual favorite is the Mock Trial, hosted by the Blind Lawyers Division. No one should miss our Exhibit Hall, the NFB Independence Market, or the NFB literature table. At the Exhibit Hall, you will have opportunities for hands-on experience with accessible technology, and you may meet and speak to vendors of blindness and low-vision tools and technology. The NFB Independence Market is staffed by knowledgeable volunteers who can help you and your child handle, test out, and learn to use blindness and low-vision tools and technology, accessible games and household items, accessible watches, calculators, and other items—all available for purchase. The NFB literature table offers hundreds of articles, speeches, Kernel Books, and past issues of the magazines Future Reflections and Braille Monitor in print and Braille, all free for the taking.
The three days of the NFB General Sessions (Friday, July 17, through Sunday, July 19) are so important you won't want to miss a minute! At General Sessions you'll hear from nationally renowned speakers about emerging issues in blindness and topics that have an impact on blind people of all ages. During General Sessions we, the membership of the National Federation of the Blind, will vote on resolutions that set forth NFB policy in the years ahead. Throughout General Sessions you'll hear how the National Federation of the Blind is helping us tear down the obstacles that separate blind people from our dreams. What more could parents want for their children?
We cap off the week with our wonderful Convention Banquet on Sunday evening. At the banquet we enjoy the company of our Federation friends and hear the banquet address from NFB President Mark Riccobono. Also at the banquet, NFB will award scholarships to thirty blind college and graduate students from around the nation.
As you can see, the NFB convention will be a week packed with information and opportunities for learning. Truly, in Houston you will find solutions! Even more important, though, in Houston, you will meet and get to know confident and successful blind adults who are eager to serve as mentors for your child and for you. Remember, with the NFB, failure is never an option.
Come join us at the NOPBC Conference and the NFB Convention in Houston this July. Please join our sessions, which will include information and ideas for families of blind students from birth through college. Here is a quick rundown of what you will enjoy in Houston:
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults purchases and distributes tactile drawing kits for children. The Action Fund needs your support to keep teaching blind children and their families what is possible.
Each child who attended one of the 2019 BELL Academies (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning) was given a tactile drawing kit. "This year the children were really excited about the drawing kits," one BELL teacher wrote. "One of the cutest stories was of a twelve-year-old boy who has ROP [retinopathy of prematurity] and severe nystagmus. Drawing is difficult for him; actually, he hates it! He has a twin brother who's not a low-vision student, and he is pretty good at the craft. Our BELL student was very resistant to drawing. Once he learned to use the drawing kit under learning shades, he was ecstatic. He exclaimed, 'Yeah, now I can play Pictionary with my family!'"
For one hundred years the American Action Fund has brought Braille to thousands of blind children and adults. The Action Fund ships free books each month to any blind or deaf-blind child who wants them. Future Reflections is paid for by the American Action Fund. Tactile art is supported by the American Action Fund. We humbly ask for your help. Please support the American Action Fund by contributing. If you enjoy receiving Future Reflections, Braille books, or both, help us continue to support Braille, tactile art, and so much more.
You can donate online by visiting https://actionfund.org or you can send a check made out to American Action Fund, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.
Often the simplest and most significant way to make a charitable contribution is to plan to give a legacy gift. It is easier than you might think. You can plan to give all or part of a bank account, insurance proceeds, investment assets, real estate, or a retirement account. You can even give a required minimum distribution from your IRA directly to charity and avoid taxes on that money. After providing for your loved ones, you could bequeath a specific dollar amount or percentage of your estate to an organization whose mission is important to you. Your bequest carries with it the values and ideals that have been important to you throughout your lifetime and supports an organization whose mission you hold dear. In addition, planning for a legacy gift may reduce the total amount of your taxable estate, which can have a positive impact on any amounts you have designated for your heirs.
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults Legacy Society honors and recognizes the generosity and the vision of special friends of the Action Fund who have chosen to leave a legacy through a will or other planned giving option. If you wish to give part or all of an account, simply fill out a P.O.D. (payable on death) or T.O.D. (transfer on death) form. For pensions and insurance assets, simply designate a charity as a beneficiary. If you would like to leave a legacy to the Action Fund in your will, please include the following language:
"I give, devise, and bequeath unto the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, 1800 Johnson Street, Suite 100, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a Maryland nonprofit corporation, the sum of $______________ (or) _________ percent of my net estate or the following stocks and bonds: ____________________, to be used for its worthy purposes on behalf of blind persons."
If you have any questions or would like more information, please reach out to Patti Chang at 410-659-9315. If you have included the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in your will or have made some other provision for a future gift to us and would like to tell us about it, please contact Patti so we can recognize you as a member of our Legacy Society.
Legacy gifts provide for generations of blind children and adults. Please consider the American Action Fund in your future plans.
The National Federation of the Blind and the country's premier training centers for the blind offer a variety of summer programs for blind and low-vision children and young adults that build blindness skills and encourage independence. Here is a quick rundown of this summer's offerings.
NFB BELL Academy
https://www.nfb.org/programs-services/nfb-bell-academy
Contact: [email protected]
Ages: 4-12
Dates: varies from state to state
Location: nationwide
NFB BELL Academy is a one- or two-week summer program that prepares blind and low-vision children to become confident and independent adults. Children learn Braille and nonvisual skills through fun, hands-on activities in a daytime or residential setting.
NFB EQ (National Federation of the Blind Engineering Quotient)
https://www.nfb.org/programs-services/national-center-blind-youth-science/nfb-eq
Contact: 410-659-9314, Ext. 2418
[email protected]
Grades: 9-12
Dates: June 21-27, 2020
Location: Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
Application Deadline: March 29, 2020
NFB EQ is a week-long summer engineering program for blind and low-vision teens. Participants forge new friendships while increasing their engineering knowledge, problem solving abilities, self-confidence, and independence. NFB EQ is part of the NFBs Spatial Ability and Blind Engineering Research Project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The three NFB training programs sponsor a variety of summer programs that help children and teens build skills and confidence. We encourage you to learn about the offerings of each of the centers in order to determine which program will best meet your child's needs.
2020 Summer Programs at BLIND, Inc.
100 E. 22nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Contact: Michell Gip, 612-872-0100, Ext. 231
[email protected]
Buddy Program
Ages: 9-13
Dates: TBA
Buddies stay in the beautiful BLIND, Inc. mansion, which once belonged to the Pillsbury family. They will learn Braille reading and writing, cane travel, adaptive technology, independent living skills, and much more.
PREP (Postsecondary Readiness and Empowerment Program)
Grades 9-12
Dates: TBA
PREP is an eight-week summer program that helps blind teens learn new skills to become better prepared to attend college and transition into the workforce. PREP students live in apartments with counselors and fellow students. They shop for groceries, prepare meals, and clean their apartments as part of their personal management training. The program includes a three-week paid internship experience. Students will work approximately twenty hours a week in local businesses and agencies.
STYLE (Summer Transition Youth Learning Experience)
Ages: 14-21
The STYLE program offers three separate five-day theme-based educational/recreational programs, held at the Pillsbury Mansion. Students will learn skills, gain confidence, and have fun. Students may attend one, two, or all three programs. Day and residential options are available.
Summer College Comprehensive Program
Contact: Brian Dulude, 612-872-0100, Ext. 229
[email protected]
Ages: High school graduates 18 and older
Dates: TBA
This program is designed with the busy college student in mind. Participants enhance their blindness skills and build confidence during one or more summer programs.
2020 Summer Programs at the Colorado Center for the Blind
2233 W. Shepperd Ave., Littleton, CO 80120
Contact: Dan Burke, 303-778-1130
[email protected]
Confidence Camp
Ages 5-10
Dates: June 8-19, 2020
Confidence Camp is a two-week day program filled with learning, challenges, and fun. Children meet blind role models and focus on cooking, cleaning, Braille, independent travel, and technology. They also have fun swimming, rock climbing, making a tactile art piece, and going on exciting field trips.
Summer Short Courses
For those interested in a short program, the Colorado Center offers three modules throughout the summer. In all three modules students live in apartments with other students and counsellors, and build core skills in Braille, technology, home management, and cane travel.
Challenge and Adventure, Self-Advocacy Program
Ages: 11-21
Dates: June 5-19, 2020
In this program students practice guide running, play goalball and hockey, learn self defense, and go whitewater rafting. They can also try yoga, gymnastics, and develop and exercise routine. They learn to prepare delicious foods and maintain a nutritious diet.
Cracking the College Code, College Prep Program
Ages: 16-21
Dates: July 1-31, 2020
Blind students develop the skills they need to be successful in college. They learn about accessible tools and strategies for chemistry, biology, statistics, and robotics. In addition, they learn to practice self-advocacy and learn to navigate the landscape of higher education.
World of Work, Pre-employment Program
Ages: 11-21
Dates: June 5-26, 2020
Students travel to the Denver metro area via bus and light rail to meet with blind people who work in a variety of professions. They develop confidence, practice their interviewing skills, and build a resumé.
No Limits to Learning, Transition Youth
Ages: 14-21
Dates: June 5-July 31, 2020
This is an eight-week residential program. Students live in apartments and meet blind people who work in all kinds of jobs. They participate in rock climbing, goalball, whitewater rafting, and more. They also build core skills in Braille, technology, home management, and cane travel and attend the NFB national convention.
2020 Summer Programs at the Louisiana Center for the Blind
101 S. Trenton St., Ruston, LA 71270
Contact: Eric Guillory, 800-234-4166
[email protected]
Buddy Program, Putting the Pieces Together
Grades: 4-8
Dates: June 7-27, 2020
The Buddy Program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) has operated since 1989. Classes in cane travel, Braille, access technology, and daily living skills all are taught by knowledgeable blind adults. Children will enjoy participating in a wide variety of exciting activities such as swimming, tandem biking, and horseback riding.
STEP Program (Summer Transition and Empowerment)
Grades: 9-12
Dates: June 14-August 8, 2020
STEP introduces blind teens to the alternative techniques of blindness and workplace readiness skills through a paid internship. By interacting with mentors and peers (including attendance at the NFB National Convention), students acquire the skills and attitudes necessary for living independently and productively.
National Federation of the Blind Scholarships
www.nfb.org/scholarships
Contact: [email protected]
Application Deadline: March 31, 2020
The annual scholarship program of the National Federation of the Blind is the largest of its kind in the nation. Every year the NFB awards more than $120,000 to blind scholars across the fifty states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia in recognition of their aspirations and achievements. Thirty merit-based scholarships are available, ranging in value from $3,000 to $12,000. All scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence, community service, and leadership. The finalists attend the NFB national convention, where the winners of each individual scholarship are selected. Scholarship winners have gone on to succeed in careers ranging from computer science and engineering to civil rights law and international diplomacy.
To be eligible, an applicant must be legally blind in both eyes; must reside in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico; must be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, postsecondary course of study in a degree program in the US in the fall of 2020; and must participate in the entire NFB national convention and all of its scheduled scholarship program activities. Finalists will receive assistance to attend the national convention.
2020 Holman Prizes for Blind Ambition
www.holmanprize.org/apply
Contact: [email protected]
Application Deadline: March 15, 2020, at 5 pm PST
Now in its fourth year, the Holman Prize for Blind Ambition, sponsored by the San Francisco Light-House, is an international competition. Three prizes of up to $251,000 are awarded each year to blind individuals who wish to push their limits. The prize is named for James Holman, a nineteenth-century blind explorer who was the most prolific traveler before the era of modern transportation. From traversing the Bosphorus Strait via solo kayak, hosting the first conference in Mexico for blind children and their families led by blind professionals, and creating an app to enable blind citizen scientists to participate in the search for exoplanets by listening to space, the nine winners so far (hailing from five countries on four continents), each have found unique ways to change the world's perception of blindness. A big idea, a quick application form, and a ninety-second pitch video are all that is needed to apply.
Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards
https://nfb.org/programs/dr-jacob-bolotin-awards
Contact: James Gashel, 808-234-9259
[email protected]
Deadline for Applications: April 15, 2020
The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards are presented each year to persons or organizations that demonstrate exemplary leadership and extraordinary accomplishments in improving the lives of blind people in the United States. An application can be made by the applicant directly or by third parties who nominate an applicant. Each application requires an essay describing the work or project to be recognized. In addition, each application must have at least one letter of recommendation in support of the nominee.
Midwest Regional Student Seminar
https://www.nfbofillinois.org/midwest-students-spring-seminar/registration
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Dates: March 20-22, 2020
The time has come again for the Midwest Regional Spring Seminar hosted by the NFB of Illinois and the National Association of Blind Students (NABS). Please join students of the Midwest for a weekend of advocacy, networking, empowerment, and camaraderie!
EasterSeals Disability Film Challenge
disabilityfilmchallenge.com
Contact: Adri Palmieri, 310-248-6166 or 626-893-9317
Registration Deadline: March 31, 2020
Conference Dates: April 3-5, 2020
Location: Los Angeles, CA
The EasterSeals Disability Film Challenge, now in its seventh year, gives filmmakers the opportunity to collaborate and tell unique stories that showcase disability in its many forms. The film competition is open to anyone, with or without disabilities. Participants will have roughly fifty-five hours to write, shoot, and edit a three- to five-minute short film based on an assigned theme. While the filmmakers are not necessarily required to include disability in the storyline, each team must include at least one person with a disability in front of or behind the camera.
Nonvisual Access Conference
https://www.nfb.org/programs-services/center-excellence-nonvisual-access-trainings/nonvisual-access-conference
Contact: Matt Hackert, [email protected]
Dates: April 14-16, 2020
Location: National Federation of the Blind, 200 E. Wells St at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230
This conference is a three-day, hands-on series of working sessions being offered at the National Federation of the Blind that includes a seminar on teaching access technology using structured discovery techniques along with accessible app development seminars on the iOS and Android platforms. The seminar is for teachers of the blind, blindness professionals, and technology developers.
2020 Young Child Expo and Conference
Location: Wyndham New Yorker Hotel, New York, NY
Dates: April 28 to May 1, 2020
This conference offers professional development across all disciplines that work with young children, including general education and special education teachers; social workers; and occupational, physical, and speech therapists. More than eighty presentations will cover motor development, behavior management, autism, STEM education, brain development, and much more. Continuing education credits are available.
M-Enabling Summit
Dates: June 22-24, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
The M-Enabling Summit is proud to host the leading global conference dedicated to promoting accessible and assistive technology for users of all abilities. It is the annual meeting place for all who create and contribute accessible products, services, and consumer technologies. With its 2020 theme of "Digital Inclusion Strategies: A Catalyst for Action," the M-Enabling Summit will provide a platform for how organizations can successfully leverage enabling technologies to make their digital workplaces, learning environments, products, and services accessible to users of all abilities. Bringing together professionals, corporations, service organizations, and key thought leaders, the M-Enabling Summit is an all-inclusive conference and showcase featuring innovative technology, applications, connected devices, for services for more than 1 billion users worldwide. Topics include accessibility of virtual workplaces and gig economy platforms; integrating accessibility testing in the development cycle; smart homes technologies for independent living; and autonomous mobility and mobility as a service.
Survey on Audio Description of Video Streaming
https://aiv.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/sv0ihfp7vtkax6ppd
This survey is intended to help Amazon improve the accessibility of its Prime Video streaming service. Amazon continues to expand its library of audio-described movies and TV shows, and feedback from users through this survey will help ensure that the company provides high-quality described content. The survey is open to persons who are eighteen or older, who use a streaming video service such as Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, and who have watched an audio-described movie or television show within the past month.
K-12 and Higher Education Survey
https://nfb.org/edtechsurvey
The NFB is gathering information regarding the accessibility of educational technology used in our nation's schools, kindergarten through graduate level. If you are a student, parent, teacher, or administrator who uses screen access software or other accommodations to participate nonvisually in educational programs or services, or if you are the parent, teacher, or administrator of someone who does, please complete this survey once a semester.
Your Tech Vision on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/yourtechvision
Dr. Denise Robinson of Your Tech Vision has created hundreds of videos that explain how blind students can do mathematics on the computer using the JAWS screen reader. Examples include how to make a curved line in a graph using Excel, how to do geometry on the computer, labeling items in a graph, and using the Desmos Graphing Calculator.
BBC World Service—CrowdScience-Downloads
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04d42rc/episodes/downloads
CrowdScience offers an inexhaustible variety of free, downloadable podcasts on scientific topics and their impact on our lives. Among the wealth of topics are "Are Humans Capable of Outwitting Asteroids, Volcanoes, or Other Causes of Mass Extinction?", "What Is Infinity?", "How Low-Carbon Can CrowdScience Go?", and "What Is Empathy?"
New Books in UEB from Seedlings
Seedlings Braille Books for Children
http://www.seedlings.org/order.php
Contact: 800-777-8552
Seedlings has released six new titles in Unified English Braille (UEB), bringing the total to 540. The new titles are Magic Treehouse 8, Midnight on the Moon; Magic Treehouse 7, Sunset of the Sabertooth; The Velveteen Rabbit; Maniac Magee; First American Colonies; and Who Was King Tut?
Tactile Graphic Image Library
American Printing House for the Blind
The Tactile Graphic Image Library (TGIL) provides free PDF files that can be printed on a Tyger printer to create tactile graphics. Categories include coloring pages, mathematics, science, maps, monuments, and flags.
Braille Hub USA
www.braillehubusa.com
Contact: Tashya Taylor, 785-393-2202
[email protected]
Braille Hub USA is a transcription service based in Topeka, Kansas. In addition to producing Braille and large-print materials, including Braille music and Nemeth and UEB mathematics, Braille Hub USA provides tactile graphics for students from kindergarten through college. Products range from O&M maps to math, art, and life sciences.
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