Volume 43, Number 4 Convention 2024
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 © 2024 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]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Is Something Happening Here?
by Deborah Kent Stein
NOPBC CONFERENCE AND BOARD MEETING
Blaming It on Blindness
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
Where Flavor Meets the Federation
by Nick Oliver
NOPBC Twig Awards
Presented by Cassie McKinney and Melissa Riccobono
Training Parents about IEPs
by Casey West Robertson and Carlton Anne Cook Walker
We Believe in Your Children's Dreams
by Denise Avant
What the Federation Means to Me
by Silas O'Connor and Briley O'Connor
PROFESSIONALS IN BLINDNESS EDUCATION
Beyond Routes and Techniques: The Energy of Structured Discovery in Blindness Training
by Carlos Servan
Seeking the Holy Braille: The Promise of the Monarch
by Paul Schroeder
GENERAL SESSIONS
Inclusion by Example: Adventures of a Blind Woman Navigating the Oceans of STEM Professionals
by Amy Bower
Telling Our Stories: A Conversation about Blindness, Justice, and Shattering Misconceptions from the Federal Bench
by Judge David Tatel and Deepa Goraya
AWARDS
2024 Distinguished Educator of Blind Students, Dori Senatori
Presented by Carla McQuillan
NFB Scholarship Awards
Presented by Cayte Mendez
Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards
Presented by Everette Bacon
CONVENTION PERSPECTIVES
"That's How We Say Hello": Attending My First NFB Convention as a Teacher of Tomorrow
by Mary-Clare Cable
Strengthening Bonds through the Parent Leadership Program
by Kate Garcia and Sonia Timmons
Time Out for Art
by Ann Cunningham and the Art Room Volunteers
NEWS
New NOPBC Board Elected
Taking Pride in Braille Literacy with Braille Readers Are Leaders
Announcements
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 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 Deborah Kent Stein
The elevator doors slid shut, and I set down my luggage for a moment on my way up to my floor. Today the elevator wasn’t very crowded—nothing like it would be when Convention really got underway.
Suddenly a fellow passenger turned to me and asked, “Is something happening here? I see an awful lot of people with dogs and those white sticks.”
“We’re here for the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind,” I explained. “We’re a nationwide organization of blind people, working together to open up opportunities.”
The elevator doors slid open on Four. “My cousin doesn’t see too well,” my companion said as he stepped out. “Can I send her over here?”
“Please do,” I said. “Tell her something big is happening at the Rosen Shingle Creek.”
The 2024 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind began on July 3, widely known as Conference Day. The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) presented a day of talks and workshops to inform and inspire. At the same time the Professionals in Blindness Education (PIBE) held its annual conference, packed with information and ideas. In the days that followed, conventioneers explored the Exhibit Hall, where they had the chance to check out the latest assistive technology as well as low-tech kitchen and household gadgets. There were a host of meetings for special interest groups: blind educators, blind lawyers, blind people in human services, blind vendors, blind people in communities of faith, and blind people in the performing arts.
On the afternoon of July 6 Federationists gathered to hear twenty-five carefully worded resolutions that, if passed by the body of the convention, will guide the organization’s policies in the coming years. The resolutions approved by the committee were read later, at the Convention General Sessions, and voted on by the members assembled.
The final three days of Convention were devoted to General Sessions. More than twenty-five hundred blind people, along with our friends and family members, filled the vast conference room. Delegations were arranged alphabetically by state, making it remarkably easy for everyone to find the delegation where they belonged.
Convention concluded with the gala banquet. After everyone had enjoyed a sumptuous meal, NFB President Mark Riccobono delivered the annual banquet speech. This year’s address was entitled “Dignity, Respect, and Determination: The Momentum of the Blind People’s Movement.” You can find it at https://nfb.org/resources/speeches-and-reports/banquet-speeches/dignity-respect-and-determination-momentum-blind.
This issue of Future Reflections includes a selection of highlights from Convention 2024. It begins with presentations from the NOPBC conference and the PIBE conference, including an article about the Monarch, an exciting new Braille device that drew crowds in the Exhibit Hall. Two presentations from the General Sessions are also included in this issue.
In addition to these convention presentations, this issue includes articles by people who attended Convention as members of special programs, Teachers of Tomorrow and the Parent Leadership Program. There is also an article about the Drop-in Art Room, a perennial favorite among conventioneers of all ages.
If you attended the 2024 NFB National Convention, this issue of Future Reflections may bring back memories of the crowds in the Exhibit Hall and all those jam-packed elevators. If you weren’t able to attend in Orlando, you’ll have another chance next summer, when Convention will be happening in New Orleans. Plan to join us, and let the good times roll!
by Carlton Anne Cook Walker
From the Editor: As an attorney, a certified educator of blind/low-vision students, and the parent of a blind child (now a young adult), Carlton Walker brings a unique perspective to educational theory and advocacy practices for blind/low-vision students. She is an educational advocate and consultant with Blindness Education and Advocacy Resources (BEAR). In this article, based on a workshop she presented at the 2024 NOPBC Conference, she addresses some of the obstacles facing blind students and their families and explores solutions to the ubiquitous problem of “blaming it all on blindness.”
Blindness/low vision is called a “low incidence” disability. Students who have IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) with “visual impairment, including blindness” as their primary disability represent a tiny fraction of all students with IEPs. Less than one-third of one percent of all students with IEPs—about three students in one thousand—list blindness/low vision as their primary disability. Given that students with IEPs represent only ten percent of all students in US schools, there are only three students with an IEP for blindness/low vision for every ten thousand students enrolled in school.
Throughout the public-school journey of my blind child, including early intervention services, my child was the only blind/low-vision student in the school district. In fact, there had not been another blind student in our school district in years. This is the reality faced by students with low-incidence disabilities.
Educators who have little experience with blind/low-vision students often argue that minimal services, instruction, accommodations, and assistive technology are needed for the blind child. At the same time, they tend to assume that blindness is the cause of any educational challenges or obstacles the child encounters. In other words, they may minimize the true educational needs of the child, but then assume that any delays or struggles are the result of the child’s blindness—a disability for which they don’t want to provide adequate instruction, accommodations, or technology.
Sometimes even talented educators fail to identify the incongruity of these assumptions. They simply do not understand the adverse impact of atypical vision within a vision-centric education curriculum. Their inexperience with nonvisual educational tools often leads them to try to “maximize vision” or exempt the student from vision-based tasks. Both of these solutions rob blind/low-vision students of genuine access to the curriculum.
Most educators are typically sighted. Some cannot understand how anyone can function at a high level with atypical vision. In fact, they might never have met a blind adult. Given these realities, it’s not surprising that they have trouble imagining how a blind child can achieve at the same level as a sighted child can.
Sadly, even some teachers of blind/low-vision students fall into the trap of low expectations. When I was in the classroom teaching, I worked with many other professionals, including TVIs (Teachers of the Visually Impaired) with decades of teaching experience. Even some of these seasoned professionals had low expectations of their students.
IEPs typically deal with both accommodations and modifications. Accommodations are changes in presentation or methods that make the content accessible. Examples include Braille in lieu of print, tactile graphics instead of printed graphs and photos, and accessible digital materials. Modifications are changes to the content itself. Examples of modifications include shortened assignments, exemption from class projects, and the use of a human guide instead of independent travel in and around the school.
Low expectations can lead to assumptions that a student has disabilities in addition to blindness. I remember one student who was transitioning from early intervention (EI) services to school. The TVI who handled his early intervention services told me, “This child is so hyperactive, and he’s also very low intellectually.”
This child had very high myopia, and he was at risk for retinal detachment. Unfortunately, the EI TVI did not catch this important diagnosis. Instead, she insisted that the child “just liked getting up close.” She also failed to identify his difficulties in low light environments, despite the fact that she was also an orientation and mobility specialist. She minimized the impact of his significant low vision and failed to recognize its likely progression. Furthermore, due to her misunderstanding of his visual impairment and her rejection of his nonvisual needs, she asserted that he had additional disabilities.
I performed an NRMA (National Reading Media Assessment) on this student; this assessment is required under federal law for every IEP in which a blind or low-vision student is not receiving Braille instruction. As I performed the assessment, I noticed that every ninety seconds the student began wiggling around in his chair and looking out the window. He was off task literally every ninety seconds. What was going on?
This child was giving himself a visual break! After each visual break, he went right back to the task at hand. He knew he needed visual breaks, and he figured out ways to get them without having to ask for them. Does that sound like low intelligence?
As I administered the NRMA to this preschool child, we got to the part that looks at shapes. It includes circles, triangles, and squares. I showed him each shape, and I asked him, “What do you call this?” I don’t really care what a student calls each shape, as long as the child says the same thing every time—you can call them Riccobono, Maurer, and Jernigan as far as I’m concerned! It’s all good, as long as each time it’s the same. This child looked at the shapes and said, “That’s a ball, that’s a box, and that’s a roof.”
This child had very young parents, and there were two more children right after him. His parents hadn’t gone very far in school. His grandparents were doing the best they could to help, but the family had very limited resources. That TVI called this child “low intellectually” because he didn’t know the terms circle, square, and triangle. But he knew ball and box and roof! Low? Are you kidding me?
We really have to dig a bit when we evaluate these children, not just guess at easy answers. We need to take our time and talk to the child, give the child the chance to be himself or herself.
I had one student with no central vision. One day that student saw a bird fly by, and none of the rest of us noticed it. People said, “Look! He isn’t blind after all! He saw that bird!” But seeing a bird fly by is not the same as attending to instruction. The only vision this student had was peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is used to discern movement and irregular patterns. It kept us safe in the jungle with the lions. If we saw an irregular pattern, if we saw the leaves moving, there might be a lion there. That’s what peripheral vision is good for.
Peripheral vision is not good for reading. It’s not good for attending to instruction in the classroom. But when this student saw the bird, the staff assumed he must have good eyesight. Ironically, the only reason the child saw the bird was because he’s blind. Nobody else saw it, because nobody else was exclusively using their peripheral vision. This child couldn’t read print in a book, but he could find things on the floor. When it came to reading, he still needed to learn Braille.
How do we sort out whether a child is taking a visual break or avoiding a task? How do we rule out ADHD? Maybe the child’s inattention could be caused by low blood sugar. Maybe the child ate something with red dye in it.
In evaluating a blind child, experience helps. I became better at maintaining objectivity in my data gathering as I gained experience and collaborated with others.
I often collaborated with the school psychologist. Some school psychologists are better than others, and you’ll find out which ones you like to work with. One psychologist gave me a very useful piece of information: a disability will never cause a child to over-perform. What does that mean?
Let’s talk about IQ tests. On IQ tests the mean is 100, with average on either side, between 85 and 115. That’s the range from low average to high average. Now let’s add another fifteen points on either side, 70 to 84 at the low end and 116 to 130 at the high end. The higher score is not in the gifted zone yet, and the lower one is in the range we call delayed. When an IQ score is below 70 we consider intellectual disability. If the score is above 130 the child will be considered gifted.
When typically sighted children undergo IQ testing, they are given nine subtests to arrive at an overall score. Unfortunately, most of those subtests are highly visual in nature. They cannot be given to children who are blind or have low vision. When they are tested, blind/low-vision students are given only two subtests out of the nine given to their sighted peers.
There are reasons why nine subtests are typically given. They provide a lot of information about a child’s abilities. We cannot obtain that range of information about a blind or low-vision child through testing.
One of my students scored 70 on the processing test and 99 on the test for verbal comprehension. What should the IQ score be? That score of 70 should not be averaged with the child’s score of 99! We have to understand that the 99 is probably close to the child’s true score.
Another blind student had scores of 99 and 141 on the subtests. On the verbal test this child is well into the gifted range. But this child had something going on that tanked the working memory score. In this case, the IQ test validated the parents’ concerns that the child had dyslexia. Additional testing, in collaboration with an experienced professional in blindness education, yielded proof that this student was intellectually gifted and dyslexic, as well as legally blind.
I don’t believe that IQ tests should be used for blind/low-vision children as a general rule. Blindness or low vision artificially, absolutely lower the score. The score is not truly based on the test. Instead, it’s a score based on how the test is designed.
No IQ tests ever have been normed and validated for blind/low-vision students. The population is simply too small. Does that mean there are no gifted blind people? Of course not! Just because we don’t have the right tests, we can’t keep a child out of a gifted program that might be appropriate!
Probably most of us have had experience with children who are more intelligent than they’re given credit for at school. What about the other way around? What happens when a child gets excessive praise for things that are actually easy and age-appropriate?
Is the blind child being given good information about what other people are doing? Do they know they’re getting more praise than others receive? What do the other children think about someone who gets praise for doing something ordinary and basic? Sometimes a blind student gets to college and discovers that they’ve been sliding by their whole life, not doing the work that was expected of everyone else.
Sometimes modifications lead the blind child and the adults around them to overestimate the child’s performance. Think carefully about any modifications that are offered. Are they really necessary? Will they mask an area where more intervention is needed?
A modification we often find in IEPs for blind/low-vision students is a reduction in workload. This might mean:
Why do we encounter blind children who are doing only half of the work assigned to their sighted classmates? Often low expectations are to blame, but there are other possible causes as well. If the material is inaccessible, a modification may be the only way the student can engage with it at all. However, it is the school’s job to make the materials accessible. All of the student’s materials should be accessible—every time, on time!
If materials are inaccessible, the school has failed. It is never appropriate for the school to “solve” the problem of its failure by employing a modification to the curriculum. This “solution” only exacerbates the problem. It robs the student of educational opportunity by denying the student full access to the educational content. The modification only serves to hide these problems, making it harder to identify and correct them.
IEPs are supposed to be designed to meet the unique educational needs of a child with a disability, for the purpose of providing that child with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). However, IEP teams sometimes accept modifications that actually prevent the child from receiving FAPE. I call this “IEP-ING” the student out of FAPE. In these cases, the team gets so focused on the individualized aspect of the IEP that it individualizes the student out of access to educational opportunities that are available to nondisabled students. Examples include:
Perhaps the student does not yet have the skills needed to use nonvisual tools and techniques independently and efficiently. In that case the student likely will need some modifications. However, the key is to recognize that these modifications are a support that will be reduced as the student gains needed skills and builds confidence. In these cases, the IEP team must document that these modifications are to be withdrawn as the student develops independence skills and is provided with appropriate instruction and tools. Even in cases where some modifications will always be necessary, the IEP team must focus on providing the student with appropriate levels of instruction and access to tools and technology.
Students with disabilities only have the right to FAPE in grades K-12. Once the student graduates from high school or ages out of having an IEP (typically at twenty-one or twenty-two years old), the student no longer has the right to modifications or disability-related instruction. However, disabled individuals do have the right to reasonable accommodations in most educational, employment, and community settings after high school and for the rest of their lives.
Reasonable accommodations include accessibility, but they exclude modifications. IEP teams should focus on providing an appropriate level of disability-related instruction and access to tools and technology. Not only will such instruction allow the student to access educational opportunities in primary and secondary education. It also will prepare them for postsecondary life by helping them understand the accommodations they need.
Let’s look at a child who has a mixed level of skills. Is it appropriate to push that child into regular ed as though the child didn’t have a deficit? Every child deserves a shot.
I think we all can agree that children with intellectual disabilities don’t need to be saddled with intensive levels of formal, intellectually challenging tasks. Those tasks are inappropriate for a child with intellectual disabilities, regardless of the child’s level of vision. However, we must also recognize that sighted children get a lot of learning opportunities, even if they have intellectual disabilities.
Sighted children with intellectual disabilities receive instruction in classrooms full of pictures. Often they have opportunities to engage with technology (particularly the iPad). They may have a wealth of real-life experiences such as measuring, cooking, gardening, and cleaning.
Is there anything about Braille that makes it more intellectually challenging than print? (Hint: the answer is NO!) Is there any sound educational reason to withhold access to 3D models and tactile graphics? Should teachers refuse to provide nonvisual opportunities for a blind/low-vision child to measure, cook, garden, or clean, when other children of the same ability are doing those things?
Blind/low-vision children deserve the same educational opportunities that are offered to their sighted peers. This holds true for children with additional disabilities, including those with autism or intellectual disabilities. Nonvisual skills, tools, and technology open the doors of opportunity for all blind/low-vision students. Additional disabilities should never result in the reduction or elimination of these opportunities!
The IEP has to cover all areas of a student’s disability, not only their needs as a blind student. It’s important to include as many areas of disability as possible. We need to empower parents to be on board, and we need to empower the children, too. Of course, getting good data to support or refute the presence of one or more additional disabilities is not always an easy task.
Often I see blind children being diagnosed with autism. On the other hand, sometimes parents are told that their children cannot have autism because they’re blind. It would be false to say that all blind children are on the autism spectrum, and it would be just as false to say that no blind children are on the spectrum. Blind children are human, and they have lots of different qualities. There’s a whole spectrum of autism, just as there’s a whole spectrum of vision or lack thereof.
As a result of their atypical vision, blind/low-vision children may have fewer opportunities to experience the environment than their sighted peers have. This lack of experience or different type of experience may result in atypical behaviors in the blind child who is not autistic. Some of these behaviors are also encountered in children with true autism, blind or sighted.
We might see some autistic-like behaviors such as “stimming” in blind children who have had limited opportunity to experience their surroundings. Although they display some traits associated with autism, overall they are unlike a blind child who truly is autistic.
How can we make an accurate assessment? While it is not perfect, a good place to start is this chart, “Comparison of Development among Children Who Are Sighted and Typically Developing, Blind or Visually Impaired, and Blind or Visually Impaired with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.” It is found in Appendix 2A on pages 32-37 of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Visual Impairment (Gense & Gense), 2005, APH. The book is available on Bookshare. The preview on Google Books includes this chart: (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Autism_Spectrum_Disorders_and_Visual_Imp/
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Then we come to interventions. If a child has some characteristics of autism, and we find interventions that are successful, does it matter what the diagnosis is? We need to focus on the student and the student’s needs, not on labels or checklists.
Speech assessment tends to be pretty auditory. However, academic and learning assessments are often based on vision. How do we assess processing disabilities? Most tests for processing disabilities are largely based on vision, so they are not valid for our blind and low-vision children. When doing a physical therapy assessment the examiner will say, “Okay, now do this.” How do we conduct assessments that were never validated for blind and low-vision children?
In many cases, we simply can’t perform valid assessments. However, the existing assessment tools can provide some useful information about our students. IEP teams need to have the typical examiners collaborate with skilled teachers of blind students. These collaborations can yield better assessment plans and can determine the usefulness of the information that is gathered. Experienced individuals such as Casey Robertson can help the local teacher of the visually impaired and the person doing the assessment.
How can this information be useful? In some cases, the assessment is so vision-based that we can only use the results of the nonvisual portions to benchmark the student against himself/herself. In other words, the assessment can show individual progress. However, so much is missing that it cannot provide grade-level information.
What can we do to address tests that aren’t valid? Here’s a good question to ask: what does the test really tell us? Are we testing paragraph recognition? If we are, the test might not be valid for our low-vision children, depending on how much central vision they have. How about using tactile graphics? Are tactile graphics interchangeable with print graphics? Well, not really. First children have to be taught to read them. Sighted children see pictures everywhere—at the grocery store, on Sesame Street, in books, on signs. Our blind children never have anything close kin to that exposure! Even if they did, tactile graphics are very different from two-dimensional pictures, and children interact with them in different ways. We may have to do more informal assessments than the official occupational therapy assessment used with sighted children.
Another big concern with some of our blind/low-vision kids is behavior. Behavioral assessments can be incredibly unfair. All behavior is communication. Our children tend to be pushed harder on behavior than their sighted peers are.
I had a student with low vision who also had fetal alcohol syndrome. I first assessed him in his preschool setting. The preschool was held in a church, and the reading circle was huge. There were about thirty children in the reading circle. My student was sitting on one side of the circle, and the teacher was all the way at the other side. The teacher complained to me, “He can’t pay attention at all. He’s always getting in trouble. He’s always talking to everybody.” When I sat by this child, I could barely hear the teacher myself.
Was this child a behavior problem? He was engaging in off-task and disruptive behaviors, but there were certainly contributing factors. It’s very important for us to identify problems within the child’s environment.
The school’s behavior assessor may not have much experience with some of the behaviors they see in our blind children. For instance, the behavior scales ask what the child does when X, Y, or Z happens. The blind/low-vision child may not have that experience at all. We can’t assume that our children have had experiences that may seem ordinary to the examiner, such as picking out items at the grocery store or playing at the park. We can’t make any assumptions! There may not be any way to make a test valid, to compare our children with children who are sighted.
Instead of trying to shove our children into the assessment paradigm, we must assess their behavior objectively and document their environment. When we identify areas of concern, we can make plans to investigate. Once we have more information, we can determine what the appropriate intervention should be. Maybe the blind child needs intentional instruction in areas that sighted students typically learn incidentally. Maybe the child should have one or more nonvisual accommodations. Maybe a behavioral intervention is needed. Maybe it’s necessary to devise a combination of these strategies. The key is to gain data objectively and meet the student’s documented areas of need.
In an educational environment designed for typically sighted children, our blind/low-vision children face some vexing challenges. Since most of the assessments that are used with sighted students are not valid, we need to be patient and resourceful when we assess children who are blind. We must be careful not to tag our blind children with inaccurate labels that may stick throughout their educational experience. Through observation, reflection, and advice from experts on blind children, we can find ways to give our blind children the range of opportunities they need and deserve.
by Nick Oliver
From the Editor: By long tradition, blind students address the NOPBC Conference and share a bit about their lives. This year the assembled parents and teachers heard from Nick Oliver, a rising high school senior from Texas. Nick’s mother, Sandra Oliver, has been active in the NOPBC for years, and Nick grew up in the Federation. In his talk he shared how Federation philosophy and know-how shaped his experience growing up, and in particular, his exposure to cooking.
Good morning. I’ve been asked to talk about my experiences cooking as a blind person. To give you some context, I am seventeen years old, and I’m about to begin my senior year in high school. Before I talk about my experiences, I first thought it would be helpful to give you some background and talk a little about my experience in the Federation.
I’ve been attending NFB events since before I can remember. My parents brought me to NFB events as a baby. They chose the NFB due to its positive philosophy on blindness. Blindness is merely a characteristic; with the right training and resources, blind people can do anything that sighted people can do.
With this philosophy in mind, I continued to attend the NFB Convention annually, as well as taking part in various state and local activities throughout the year. These events certainly served as a reminder to me and my sighted parents that I needed to be doing everything my sighted brothers did, including cooking in the kitchen.
Like many kids, I had my first experience in the kitchen baking cookies, particularly cookies for Santa at Christmastime. All my life I have never enjoyed getting my hands messy. But this attitude was about to change. I would be in for a crash course, as cracking the eggs would often result in my hands getting sticky. Over time, I learned to avoid getting my hands messy. I also came to understand that it was sometimes necessary to be willing to get my hands dirty and to try things I might otherwise be uncomfortable trying. For someone who values cleanliness and organization, cracking eggs is not going to be a pleasant task at first. But with time and practice, it can get easier.
Another major hurdle I had to overcome was learning to stir and mix the ingredients. For the sighted, mixing ingredients is a fairly painless process. Sighted people need only stir until they see that the dough is crystalized and formed. However, if you do not have sight at your disposal, you rely on other methods to identify when the ingredients are mixed well. For one thing, using the mixing spoon to feel the clumps of dough in the bowl is helpful in identifying when the dough is fully formed. In order to identify when the dough is ready, it can be very helpful to feel it with your fingers and ensure that the ingredients are fully mixed. Again, for someone who values clean hands, this is not the most pleasant task. However, it is essential to accept that getting your hands messy and feeling things that sighted people might otherwise look at are essential parts of the process for a blind chef. With practice and persistence, it will continue to get easier.
After the cookies have been mixed and loaded onto a pan or cookie sheet, we reach what I felt was the scariest part of the process: placing the cookies into the oven. When I first started baking cookies, at four or five years old, I was not the one responsible for this arduous task. This is completely acceptable, as most parents might have trouble letting their sighted kids use the oven at four years old. But soon enough I was older, and it was my turn to load the cookies into the oven. Uncertain and apprehensive, I put on my oven mitts, opened the oven door, and slid the tray inside. Although this task was definitely scary at first, with practice and repetition, it became a task that now requires little to no thought. With practice and yes, a few minor burns, I learned some major lessons, such as the necessity of always wearing two oven mitts when carrying the pan and the importance of letting the pan cool down before touching it again.
Although it was hard and maybe a little scary at first, learning to properly use the oven and being willing to practice are essential in learning the ins and outs of successful cooking.
So far, I mostly have talked about the art of baking cookies. I should add baking in general, because I also remember baking with my nana, who is an exceptional baker and would always have us grandkids in the kitchen, helping her with cookies, pies, and other treats. However, this would prove merely to be the start of my cooking career. Over the years, I have expanded my cooking skills by learning to make sandwiches, scrambled eggs for breakfast, and burritos. I practiced many of these skills by participating in various NFB training programs, including the Buddy Program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) and the summer youth program at the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB).
But with all of this training, there was one skill I had yet to gain: grilling. I could bake cookies and scramble eggs with ease, yet I was useless when it came to making a tasty burger for lunch. Keep in mind that my dad is excellent at grilling burgers. My two sighted older brothers were as inexperienced as I was in this regard until they went off to college. This is not a dig on my dad; he taught us many things, just not the art of grilling.
To remedy this situation, my NFB mentors, whom I gained by joining the NFB Mentoring Program in my state, decided it was time I learned this valuable skill. The first order of business was gathering all of the necessary ingredients. As I was at my mentor’s house, the kitchen was unfamiliar to me. I had to find the meat, the buns, the seasoning, and the other toppings. Once this was done, it was time for me to decide what kind of seasoning to put on the burger. To answer this question, I had to learn to open each jar of seasoning, sniff it, and decide which one I liked the most.
Next up came one of the toughest parts: flattening and forming the burger patties. To do this, I had to learn to squeeze each burger patty between my hands to flatten it and form the patty. Yes, it is a messy part of the process, and it requires you to get your hands greasy. Still, flattening the burger patties between your hands is an essential part of making a tasty burger.
Finally, it was time to cook the burgers. For the grilling, my mentors decided to use a George Foreman countertop grill. This type of grill is easy to use in the kitchen due to its compact size and portability. Also, due to the fact that all of the cooking is done inside the grill under a lid, it is very easy to clean. So, after turning the grill on and setting it to the desired temperature, another important question came up: How do you know when the grill is ready? These grills vary in their accessibility, and many will produce a light or a visual indicator to show that they are ready. While this is a very good indicator for sighted people, a blind person would need to use alternative techniques. A good rule of thumb is to wait five minutes or so, then open the grill. Without touching the surface, hold your hand out over the surface to feel the heat. This is a valuable technique that will allow any blind person to cook on any grill, regardless of how inaccessible the indicators are.
For me, placing the burgers in the grill was mostly painless. I simply placed the burgers on the spatula and tilted the spatula down and into the grill, letting the patty fall into place. The harder part was identifying when one side of the burger was finished and flipping the burger over. Because I could not touch the burger without burning my hands, I learned the necessity of running my spatula along the burger patty to feel if it was hard enough and fully cooked. This would determine whether or not it was time to flip the patty over.
When the time came, I opened the lid and got ready to flip the patty over. So far, our cooking adventure was smooth and painless, and nothing had gone wrong. But that was about to change! When you first use a George Foreman grill, it is necessary to add non-stick cooking spray to the surface and to the lid to ensure that the patty does not stick. When my mentors and I first set up the grill, we made the unfortunate mistake of forgetting to apply the spray. Normally, flipping the patty over would have been a very simple motion with the spatula. However, when I positioned my spatula under the burger to flip it over, I realized to my dismay that the burger was completely stuck. No matter how hard I pushed, the burger would not move. In the end, the patty broke apart in the grill, and one of my mentors had to use a fork to remove the pieces. However, after cleaning the grill and applying some spray, everything worked out perfectly. From then on, I was able to flip and remove the burger patties with no issues. So, overall, despite there being one less burger available for lunch, my experience cooking burgers was a valuable one. It reminded me of the importance of executing each step in the process.
So far, I’ve described experiences that have shaped me and helped me grow as a blind chef. But the real reason I am here today is to give some advice. So, parents, what is my advice to you? For one thing, don’t be afraid to let your kids explore the kitchen. Show them where the utensils are, where the microwave is, and where the oven is. If you want to bake something with your kids, teach them how to find and gather the necessary utensils and ingredients. Truly allow them to get to know their kitchen!
Beyond that, don’t be afraid to let your kids get their hands messy. As I’ve said before, feeling things is essential in identifying aspects that would otherwise be identified with sight.
Finally, help your kids get and stay involved with the National Federation of the Blind. It was through the Federation that I had access to a lot of my training and mentors. Through my mentors, I gained many of the cooking skills I possess today. So, parents, with some time, practice, and a willingness to try new things, you can raise wonderful blind chefs able to cook wonderful meals for years to come. Thank you!
Presented by Cassie McKinney and Melissa Riccobono
From the Editor: Each year the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) presents one or more awards to persons whose dedication and hard work have enhanced opportunities for blind children and youth. These awards are called the Twig Awards, inspired by Alexander Pope’s wise words, “As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclin’d.”
This year NOPBC President Cassie McKinney presented two Twig Awards at the NOPBC Conference. Later, at the annual meeting of the NOPBC board, Melissa Riccobono presented a third award. Here is how Cassie and Melissa introduced the recipients of this year’s Twig Awards.
Cassie McKinney: Warrior, advocate, leader, and friend; these are all words to describe the person who is deserving of this award. I’d like to share with you how this award recipient demonstrates each of these qualities.
First, warrior. It is not just anyone who can show the strength that it takes, not only to fight for the rights of one’s own child but for the children of strangers, people you have never met. Not just anyone is able to show this strength and bravery and keep their composure, professionalism, and determination. Perhaps it is from this person’s faith that they draw their courage and unwavering devotion, to stand in the face of so much misunderstanding, fear, and outright disrespect for the rights of blind children.
Advocate. This person is willing to spend countless hours counseling parents and children on the rights that they have and helping them fight for those rights. This person is able to understand the law and not to waver when challenged.
Leader. This person has devoted so much of their time to our movement, to NOPBC and the Federation as a whole. They give even when things in their own life are not easy, and when it might be easier to say “NO.” They do all of this work, many times in the background, with no recognition and not expecting to be patted on the back or have their actions shared with many. They are a true leader in that they practice what they preach and every part of their mission is pure of heart.
Outside of the Federation, this person is a mom and caregiver, which is both a taxing and rewarding job. A wife and a teacher.
Friend. Most people who know this person count them as a friend because that is the spirit that they exude. They have the biggest heart and are always willing to share it with others. When I have a conversation with this person, they are always uplifting and supportive. They offer advice, counsel, and an ear to listen. I am honored, as are many, to call this person a friend.
Today we honor this person by awarding them with this recognition. We know that in the same spirit that it is given it is received. Today I am so honored to be able to award Casey Robertson with this Twig Award, not only as a leader in this movement but as my dear friend.
Casey Robertson: Thank you so very much! This is such an honor! I love this organization and all the work we do together. Thank you!
Cassie McKinney: Now for our second Twig Award.
What is a leader? Some might say that a leader is the person in the room with the best ideas, the most to offer, the loudest opinion, or the traits of a person who is known to many. However, is a leader not also the person who leads quietly, who shares only when ideas are needed, and who gently urges others to follow? Yes, all of these things and more are true of a leader.
At times the leader has a need to have their voice heard by many and to have their opinion shared, yet they are the ones who can be silent, watch what others do, and then guide them in a direction toward the greater good.
As members of the Federation, we have long known that resources come from many places. We have known that our children receive books in Braille, that Braille calendars are printed, and that canes, Braille slates, and other tools are available at no cost through the work of other entities. The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults is one of these groups. At the head of this organization is a leader who is strong yet gentle, a soft-spoken voice for many, and an outstanding guide for those who have come to know her.
When I first met this individual, I knew that they were special. They have been active in the NFB for many years and have gained so much from our movement. This person is a parent and has the true spirit of a mom. She is the kind of person who one can share anything with. She always shares wisdom and guidance, even when she might not know that she is doing so. Through her work and her leadership, countless children and adults have had life-changing experiences.
I am honored to know this person, and to call her a friend. I am honored to give this award today on behalf of NOPBC to Barbara Loos.
Barbara Loos: I’m speechless! I had no idea! Thank you so much! This is indeed an honor!
Melissa Riccobono: We are very proud and excited to present one more Twig Award for 2024. These awards are given to people the NOPBC believes have made a lasting contribution for blind children. We gave this award to two wonderful leaders, each of them in their way a quiet leader. This next person also is quiet, and she is constant. She’s sort of like a heartbeat—she’s always there, cheerfully doing the work that needs to be done. She is a cheerleader for the parents of blind children and for the children themselves. She has been a mentor for me in a lot of ways.
She came to her first convention in the 1960s, so she has been around this organization for a very, very long time. Her children both are sighted, but she herself was once a blind child. She knows firsthand about the barriers placed in front of blind children that prevent them from getting a proper education and living the lives they want. She has dedicated her life to helping in any way she can, helping blind children and blind adults get what they need.
This person volunteered every day at the National Federation of the Blind for over thirty years. During that time she answered thousands of calls that came in on our information line, and she can tell you stories about these calls. Many of those calls were from parents of blind children. This person was always ready to answer their questions, connect them to resources, and get them going on the right track.
She also worked for years on choosing the free Braille books given away by the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. If you enjoyed the Thirty-nine Clues, the Fluffy books, and My Weirder School, those choices were made by this person.
As I said, this person has mentored me in many, many ways. That is because she held the position that I now hold. She was the First Lady of the National Federation of the Blind when her husband, Dr. Marc Maurer, was the president. When I became First Lady I appreciated, and still appreciate, her guidance, her steadiness, her quiet advice about what to do and what not to do. She entrusted me with some of the jobs she used to do, such as picking out those free Braille books for blind kids. That is such a wonderful job!
So you all now know, if you didn’t know before, that this final Twig Award for 2024 goes to Mrs. Patricia Maurer. Please come up and receive your medal.
Patricia Maurer: I’m already crying. I appreciate this very much! That job was the joy of my heart! Thank you so much!
I didn’t learn Braille until I was sixteen. I couldn’t read print, and I couldn’t read Braille. I’ve spent a lot of time, I still spend a lot of time figuring out ways for blind kids to get Braille. I think this parents’ organization is one of the most important things for your kids, and I’m so glad that you’re here! I hope I can continue to help. I really, really believe in the NFB, and I believe in you! Thank you!
by Casey West Robertson and Carlton Anne Cook Walker
From the Editor: The Individualized Education Plan (IEP) outlines the goals and objectives in the education of a child with disabilities. For decades the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) and its state chapters have helped parents negotiate the IEP process to obtain the best outcomes for their blind children. This year the NOPBC and the NFB’s Jernigan Institute launched an exciting new program to train parents and Federationists as IEP advocates. Casey West Robertson introduced the IEP training program at the NOPBC board meeting.
Casey West Robertson: One thing to note about the National Federation of the Blind and NOPBC: if you have a great idea, be ready to carry it out! During a convention a couple of years ago, the NOPBC board started coming up with ideas about training parents on IEPs. Carlton Walker and I work around the country trying to get access for blind and low-vision students through their IEPs. We felt that parents need to have that knowledge. Parents need to be empowered to go into their IEP and get the services their child needs. We recognized that when a blind person goes to an IEP meeting with us, the entire atmosphere in the room shifts.
When a competent blind person walks into the meeting room, the low expectations the school staff have for the blind child go out the window. They can no longer say, “She can’t do that because she’s blind.”
Thinking about that phenomenon, Carlton and I realized we need to train both parents of blind children and blind adults to be IEP advocates. After going back and forth for a few days we came up with a name for our new program. We called it IEP Advocacy Academy.
At that point we had a plan, and we knew who we wanted to train. But where was the funding coming from? Fortunately, the LaVelle Fund partnered with the NFB to make our program possible. In May 2024 we trained the first sixteen advocates to focus on blindness and the IEP. This cohort will run IEP sessions here at Convention tomorrow night. Another part of their commitment is to go back to their states and hold an IEP training for parents and blind people at their state conventions.
We know we still need to do more. This is a two-year program. We will train another cohort of fifteen people this coming year. We continue the training through meetings every three months via Zoom. It’s as though we took a college course and condensed it. We filled the participants with information for three days in Baltimore and sent them out the door. We hit the basics in those first three days, and we give them more training through a webinar every three months.
Each participant will have a mentor when they go out on their first IEP advocacy case. Their mentor will work with them as they prepare for the IEP meeting. So we’re hitting this issue with a top-down and bottom-up approach.
We hope to continue this training for years to come. We hope there will be a new cohort training with us every year. We would love to have a spring cohort and a fall cohort someday.
An application for the next cohort will come out early in 2025. To show the need for this program, I’ll tell you we had fifteen spots to fill, and we had a hundred and twenty-five applications! Out of all those applications we had to select fifteen people—we actually ended up with sixteen. We tried to look at the geographical range across the nation. We tried to get a balance between blind people and sighted parents. Now Carlton will tell you about some of the things we worked on during the weekend when everyone came to Baltimore.
Carlton Walker: I started life as an attorney. Then I became the parent of a blind child, and later I became a teacher of blind students. It’s been an interesting journey. I get to do both my attorney thing and my teacher thing at the IEP Advocacy Academy.
We start with the basics. What is an IEP? What are the rules of the game: the laws, the statutes, the regulations, the Dear Colleague letters? How does all that material become integrated as we develop the IEP for a particular student? We also gave people boots-on-the-ground tips, things to look out for, things to say, things not to say. We highlighted the top issues for blind and low-vision students.
Being a lawyer, I love the Socratic method. We had lots of discussions, looking at why a rule applies one way at one time and another way at another time. We let the people in the seminar explore the IEP process to gain a deep understanding.
Casey Robertson: One of the highlights of the weekend took place on the final night. We had actors come in. The teams being trained rotated through different rooms where people acted in the roles of a school district and a set of parents. We held mock IEP meetings in these rooms. Each one was meant to bring out particular emotions in the advocates and the families. The participants could work on how to deal with the feelings brought out during various scenarios they might see. Sometimes it got very emotional! We left with tears!
Some of the parents had been through similar situations themselves. Other parents, who had had wonderful IEP experiences, realized how fortunate they were. They felt they were more prepared to go out and help other parents who were not having good experiences.
To learn more about resources in your state, contact [email protected]. You will reach the education team. Karen Anderson has a running list of IEP advocates. She and I will try to pair you with the best person in your state, and we’ll take it from there.
Carlton Walker: None of the advocates are attorneys. What we offer is not legal representation. There is no attorney-client relationship involved. What we provide is knowledge, experience, and emotional support.
by Denise Avant
Introduction by Cassie McKinney: Denise Avant is from Illinois. She’s very active in many capacities. She chairs our Membership Committee, so she connects with people on many levels. She has some important things to say to parents.
As Cassie said, I chair our NFB Membership Committee, and I think that’s important to you all as parents of blind children. I want to tell you a short story. Every year in June the church I attend recognizes all of the graduates, anywhere from preschool all the way up to postgraduate studies. This past Sunday we recognized one of our graduates. His name is Duke.
Duke is five years old. Duke is leaving preschool and going into kindergarten. He took a test, and for his age he tested in the 98th percentile for reading and in the 97th percentile for math. Duke told us back in May that he was accepted into ten schools, but he would not reveal which school he would be attending until the graduation ceremony.
Duke attends Sunday school. Most of the time when the little kids give their reports about how many people are in their class and what they studied and how much money they took in, the teacher has to say it all to the children so they can repeat it. But Duke actually is able to read for himself what is on the sheet of paper.
The reason Duke is able to do all this, why he is such an accomplished child, is that his mom, who has a PhD in education, and his grandmother, who is an accountant, read to him and taught him how to read. Duke is sighted. Duke says he wants to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a fireman, and an astronaut.
Why can’t blind children have dreams like that? Why can’t our children have scores that look like Duke’s when they’re age five? Why can’t our children read well, whether in Braille or large print?
Our children face low expectations. Sometimes when you realize that your child is blind or has low vision, others around you start to curb what your expectations should be for your child. I’m here to say you’re in the right place. We in the National Federation of the Blind believe in blind people. We believe in the hopes and dreams of blind people. We believe in your dreams for your children and the dreams your children may have. It’s part of our core vision that we dream big, and we will do everything we can to make sure your child can realize his dreams.
Your child’s blindness is not the characteristic that will define their future. Your children can live the lives they want.
We in the NFB have a number of programs. Maybe people have talked to you about them already. When I grew up, my mom didn’t have the programs that are available today. She didn’t have the National Federation of the Blind. She thought, as long as she can see a little she’ll be fine. But if she loses her vision, I don’t know what will happen. She didn’t have a parents of blind children organization where she could get the opinion of experts in the field of blindness. She didn’t have a program like Braille Reading Pals so she could sit with me and share a book that had both large print and Braille. There was no Early Explorers program so she could give me a little cane and let me get the feel for using it. I didn’t learn to use a cane until I was thirteen years old, getting ready to graduate from grammar school. These are some of the things that will give your child confidence as they grow older.
We also have our BELL® Academy. BELL stands for Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning. Our Bell Academies are held every summer. They are designed to expose your child to Braille and other nonvisual techniques. We find that oftentimes if a child has some vision, the way I did as a child, the school will encourage the child to use the vision they have in order to read, no matter how hard it is on their body. In BELL we expose children to the feel of Braille and try to get them interested in learning it.
One of the best things about BELL is that there are blind volunteers who serve as mentors. For what may be the first time, you and your child will see blind people from all walks of life traveling independently, taking care of themselves, and doing the things other people do with sight. In BELL we show the parents that the child is capable of doing things that are age appropriate. A child who is blind can go into the kitchen and make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You don’t have to make a sandwich for them. I’ve heard of blind teens who have no idea how to pour themselves a glass of milk!
We also have the National Reading Media Assessment. When a teacher administers the assessment, it will let you and the school district know whether your child should use large print or Braille, or maybe a combination of the two. Maybe your child should be a dual media learner.
Finally, you may want to look into our training centers. The Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB) has a summer program for children where they get to dissect a shark. The Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) has a year-round program for blind infants and toddlers. You can consult with experts in the field of blindness about the best ways to help your child grow from a toddler to a kindergartener.
These are some of the programs we have in the National Federation of the Blind to raise your expectations for your child and raise your child’s expectations as well, to give your child the confidence to succeed. I’m glad you’re here at this convention, but I urge you to go home and join your local NFB chapter. Join your state parents’ division so you can share with other parents and seek their support. You also can seek the support of other blind people in your local chapter. I think in the long run you will find it to be a confidence builder. You will have support when others try to tell you that your child can’t be in the STEM field, your child can’t become a teacher, because blind people can’t do those things.
I think that belonging to the National Federation of the Blind can help you. It will strengthen you, and ultimately it will strengthen your child.
by Silas O’Connor and Briley O’Connor
Introduction by Cassie McKinney: It’s always nice to hear from some of the children who have benefited from this organization. This afternoon Silas O’Connor is going to talk about what the Federation means to him, and maybe some of the cool things he does with Mom and Dad.
Briley O’Connor: Silas and I decided we should do this in an interview style. He can answer some questions about himself. Silas, how old are you?
Silas: Nine.
Briley: What grade are you going into?
Silas: Fourth.
Briley: What are some of your favorite things to do?
Silas: Podcasts, cars, mostly TV.
Briley: What do you spend time in your room building?
Silas: Legos. My mom plays with me, and Daddy sometimes.
Briley: You had a judo tournament a couple of weeks ago. Your first one. What happened there?
Silas: I met a blind kid that was there. One of the kids got a bloody nose so he had to stop, and I got to keep playing, so I won that one and then I got gold.
Briley: What is one of your favorite things about the NFB convention?
Silas: Probably NFB Camp. And also you can win all the tactile stuff. Also I can take pictures with my watch. I can take a picture with my mom’s phone and send it to my watch, and now it’s my background.
Briley: What is neat about the tactile art room? We went there yesterday. What’s some stuff we did there?
Silas: Soon they’re going to make it where everyone can just order it.
Briley: Oh, you mean the 3D photos we saw. If you haven’t been to that exhibit, there was a gentleman there with photographs of different parts of the country—the Golden Gate Bridge and a big spruce tree. They had the photograph, and then it was 3D printed.
Silas: And it changed per—per—however you say it when the picture went into the distance.
Briley: What’s something else we did in there together?
Silas: We had a lot of colorful clay. My mom made a pig’s head, and I made a giant apartment. But mine fell apart because it got stuck to the table.
Briley: You have done the BELL Academy how many times now?
Silas: I started when I was four. I think it’s my fifth one.
Briley: What is one of your favorite memories from BELL Academy?
Silas: I don’t feel weird because there’s a bunch of blind people, so it’s not like I’m the only kid with a so-called stick.
Briley: You’re not the only kid with a cane, that’s true.
Silas: The kid with a stick.
Briley: You are learning Braille right now, aren’t you?
Silas: Five days every week, because I have free time on Saturday and church on Sunday.
Briley: Why is learning Braille important for you? What do Mom and Dad tell you all the time?
Silas: Because I might get more blind when I get older.
Briley: How do you feel about being a blind person?
Silas: I like it.
Briley: Yeah? Why?
Silas: Writing Braille is cool. I have a friend, Jack, at my school, and he’s like, “Ooh! I want to learn Braille!” So then I can actually be a teacher.
Briley: You get to show Braille to one of your best friends.
Silas: And in exchange he teaches me about knights. Then I can find a cool knight costume for Halloween. I’m always waiting for Halloween with my costume.
Briley: I grew up in the NFB. My mom started the parents’ division in Virginia a long, long time ago. One of the things that’s been wonderful for me and that’s been great for Silas is the community and the high age-appropriate expectations. Silas, what kind of chores do you do around the house?
Silas: At my dad’s house I have to mop and vacuum the kitchen. For my mom I sweep the stairs and clean the kitchen and dining room. She does the carpet, though.
Briley: What else is your job? On Tuesdays.
Silas: I take out the trash. The most exciting job!
Briley: You even pull the big cans out to the curb, right?
Silas: Yeah. I like pretending they’re race cars. Otherwise it’s boring.
Briley: What is one thing that Mom always says to you?
Silas: Do this, do that.
Briley: Okay. Last question. What is one thing, if you could tell parents of blind kids, give them one piece of advice, what would you say?
Silas: I honestly have no idea.
Briley: Wouldn’t you tell them to treat their kid like every other kid?
Silas: Yes, but why wouldn’t they?
Briley: And now, for our customary ending, I give you Silas O’Connor with his joke.
Silas: This is a joke my dad found on his phone. He used it at the Rookie Roundup, but everyone booed. Why did Eeyore not like elevators?
Briley: I don’t know. Why?
Silas: Because they always brought him down.
[Laughter and applause]
by Carlos R. Servan
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 64, Number 8, August/September 2024
From the Editor: The Structured Discovery approach to orientation and mobility training is used by professionals across the country, and it is basic to the training philosophy at the NFB centers in Louisiana and Colorado. Nevertheless, many professionals, parents, and blind persons do not really know what Structured Discovery is and how it differs from other training methods. In his presentation at the Professionals in Blindness Education (PIBE) conference during the 2024 NFB Convention, Carlos Servan shared his story and explained the impact of Structured Discovery upon the lives of diverse students.
In the last few decades, scientists went from a conviction that there is no such thing as an energy field around the human body to a certainty that such fields exist and are scientifically important. Since living tissues are conductors of electricity, the laws of physics require that the currents set up by the heart and other muscles, and by the brain and peripheral nerves, will create fields in the space around the body, producing an aura. The aura has layers of vibrational frequencies and mindfulness. Thus, our thoughts shape our reality. We are more than flesh and bones; we are energy that influences others.
Other words that describe energy are vitality, vigor, action, and power.
So, when we talk about empowering consumers, we are also talking about transferring energy.
As we talk about Structured Discovery in rehabilitation programs, we must recognize the work of Dr. Jernigan, who brought in and perfected this approach throughout his tenure in Iowa. The Iowa experience was characterized by the magical energy Dr. Jernigan had when working with people.
To make a real difference in the training we provide, we must recognize that the main problem blind people face is public misconceptions and low expectations. Our Structured Discovery teaching extends beyond techniques. It is infused with lessons about attitudes—attitudes that empower greater confidence, advocacy, self-esteem, and hope.
I am originally from Peru. I became blind and lost my right hand as the result of a grenade explosion. I went from being in good physical condition, about to graduate as a lieutenant with a future full of opportunities, to being blind, missing my dominant hand, and doing nothing, with a future full of uncertainties—including whether or not I could get married and start a family. The only exposure I had to blind people before I lost my sight was a blind beggar who played some music with a couple of sticks and an empty can at a flea market.
A year after becoming blind, I spent a few months receiving traditional training at a center in Peru and trying to find independence. I was happy to get that training, but I did not know they were limiting my expectations. I wanted to go to college so eventually I could become an administrator, but they told me that blind people can only work with their hands or voice, as massage therapists, musicians, phone operators, broom makers, and so on. I have respect for all jobs, but I don’t think blind people should be limited to a few options. In the back of my mind I knew I could do more, but I had no idea how. I felt frustrated.
As I was part of society, I also had misunderstandings about blindness. I lost my dignity, my expectations, and my self-esteem; it was painful, a constant pain in my soul. I decided to look for more opportunities in the USA.
I came to America in 1989 and searched for help. Eventually I ended up at the National Federation of the Blind National Center. It was here where I was introduced to the philosophy that, with proper training and opportunity, blind people can be fully contributing members of society, and that the main problem we face is society’s misconceptions about the capability of the blind.
I went to New Mexico, a Structured Discovery Center, to start training. Not knowing much English or much about American culture other than some TV shows, and with no friends or family, I wondered about this training center. I remembered a short story where a grandpa is encouraging his granddaughter to get into the ocean. She asks, “Is the water cold?”
The grandpa says, “If you want to know how it is, dive into it.” So, I dove into it.
Upon arriving at the Center, I immediately noticed a stark contrast with the traditional approach in Peru. When I met the director, Dick Davis, he posed an unexpected question: “If you weren’t blind, besides being a detective, what would you like to do?”
Without hesitation, I replied, “I want to go to college and then graduate school so I can eventually become an administrator, a director.”
Dick Davis’s response caught me off guard. “Good! We will help you then.”
What frightened me the most was the matter-of-fact tone he used. Despite my excitement and elation, I was also gripped by fear, worrying that I might not meet his expectations. However, his matter-of-fact tone, though initially intimidating, also conveyed confidence in my abilities and a steadfast commitment to supporting me in reaching my full potential.
Through their actions and in their attitude, that they believed in me, that they wanted me to be successful, I sensed their vitality, and their energy when working with the students. They were investing in us. I had hope, I had control over my life again.
Structured Discovery provides the foundation for critical problem solving. We encourage our consumers to adapt, innovate, and find unique solutions to the challenges they encounter. One of the most difficult things for me was to figure out how to type with only one hand. I thought I couldn’t do it, as that is what they told me in the traditional center in Peru. However, at this Structured Discovery Center, the teacher encouraged me to try and not to give up. I could sense her aura; I could feel her honest belief in my capabilities. This gave me the motivation to try harder; I became determined. After several weeks of much trial and error, I was able to create my own typing system.
Our approach is also about elevating expectations. Dave Andrews, a blind man now working for the Minnesota State Services for the Blind, was a staff trainee in New Mexico when I was in training. I remember telling a group of students, “Listen, if you are frugal enough, you can live on minimum wage. You can rent a small apartment, find a roommate and split the cost. Only buy the groceries you need—no sodas, no cookies, only what is necessary. You can even only buy second-hand clothing.”
Dave said, “Carlos, you don’t want to settle for minimum wage. You can do more. I am making almost four times more than minimum wage. You can go to college; you have the skills and the brains. You don’t have to rent a small apartment; you can own a house and won’t need to have a roommate. You can have a family, buy nice clothing, own a car, go on vacation, save for a better retirement.”
I realized I was looking for excuses not to go to college or give my best effort.
Often, it takes the unwavering belief of someone like Dave to push past our own self-imposed limitations and strive for excellence. I did learn the nonvisual skills and was ready to start an independent life in America.
We also prepare our students to advocate for themselves, and to be ready to deal with low expectations from the community. Despite skepticism from many people in Peru and a few in America who told me I couldn’t handle the demands of law school, I drew inspiration from several successful blind attorneys and knew I could achieve that too. After finishing my training at the New Mexico Center, I learned enough English within six months to be accepted into college. Then, within seven years, I completed my bachelor’s degree, a master’s in public administration, and a juris doctorate. While attending school, I worked part-time for the Commission for the Blind and remained active in my community.
What set me and others apart and led to our success? It was the vitality and high expectations set by blind mentors and professionals who possessed an honest belief and understanding that, with proper training and opportunity, blind individuals can be fully contributing members of society. When blind individuals recognize their full potential and have opportunities, then we have a sense of purpose.
Neuroscientists have discovered that when we have a purpose, our body generates dopamine, which manufactures adrenaline and thus gives us energy. When we crave success, when we want to win, our body is generating dopamine. Therefore, our bodies are made to have forward action.
In New Mexico, Structured Discovery was expanded to field services and other programs such as transition. When I began running the Summer Training and Employment Program (STEP) for blind youth, I sent application packets to all the school districts and the school for the blind. Many of the teachers working with blind students, including those at the school for the blind, initially disagreed with the changes being implemented by the New Mexico Commission for the Blind, particularly in its training center using the Structured Discovery approach. I offered to visit the school for the blind to talk to the students about STEP, but the school administration informed me that it wasn’t necessary and requested that I just send the applications. That year, twenty-one students applied for STEP, eleven of whom had additional disabilities. All the applications from the school for the blind were from students with additional disabilities.
While I didn't want to entertain the idea that the school for the blind would try to sabotage our program, it was clear that there was a misunderstanding. Knowing that most of the students didn’t have any opportunities for the summer, we decided to accept all the applicants. STEP offered more than just a job; it provided nonvisual skills training, had high expectations, and fostered a positive attitude about blindness. Regardless of their additional disabilities, we set high expectations from the beginning. Since the students with multiple disabilities hadn’t been expected to do much at home or at school, they were eager to try new things and prove to themselves that they could be independent and successful. At the end of the program, we encouraged participants to continue being independent at home and at school: take out your garbage, make your beds, clean your rooms, carry your trays in the cafeteria, and use your canes at all times. Never forget, you can achieve anything you put your mind to.
About three weeks after the program ended, I received a call from an irate student named Michelle, who asked, “Why didn’t you send me an application for STEP? I was at home all summer doing nothing!”
Confused, I asked her what school she attended. Michelle, from the School for the Blind in Alamogordo, insisted that she never received an application. After getting her parents’ contact information, I assured her that an application would be sent to her next year.
Michelle and other disgruntled blind students who hadn’t been informed about STEP complained to the school’s administration. The following summer, at the start of the program, I asked Michelle, “How did you learn about STEP, and why were you so upset?”
Michelle explained, “Well, Carlos, when we returned from summer break, we noticed a big change in some of the students.” Intrigued, I asked for more details. Michelle continued, “We saw several students walking on their own, using their canes all the time—different from the ones we have—carrying their trays, and disposing of their garbage after meals. Not only that, but they were students with multiple disabilities. We observed a significant difference in their confidence and independence, so we asked them where and how they learned all of that. They told us about STEP and that they also worked and got paid. We were never informed before that we could get jobs or learn to be independent. That’s why we were upset!”
The year Michelle joined us, we received thirty-six applications, the majority from the school for the blind, including those without additional disabilities. By the midpoint of the program, a couple of staff members from the school for the blind came to observe our activities. We demonstrated what we do. The crucial aspect was conveying, through both our actions and words, that these were normal teenagers and that we believed in their capabilities and potential; moreover, that we not only cared about them but trained them with love—at times, employing tough love.
It is now recognized that the energy we emit is sensed by those we encounter, influencing how they perceive and react to us. No wonder that our students often surpass their initial expectations when leaving our centers.
About four years ago, in Nebraska, we organized a one-week training on robotics for blind high school students. They coded and assembled the parts, constructing their own robots. We filmed portions as well as the culmination of the training, where each student showcased their robot. We then uploaded the video to our website. A few months later, a blind college student expressed interest in studying robotics in college. However, upon arriving in class, the professor informed her that she couldn’t participate, as sight would be required. Without contention, the student left, conducted research, and found the training on robotics video on our website. She forwarded the link to the professor, who not only welcomed her to the class, but also gained insight into the capabilities of blind individuals. Success begets success.
Nebraska is well known for having a Structured Discovery Center since the seventies, even though we did not use that term back then. We also have expanded this comprehensive approach to other services. We had a robust transition program, even before federal law required us to do so. We have a robust Business Enterprise Program, doubling the number of vending sites and increasing the vendors’ income in the last few years. We have a robust program for the older blind, getting over a million dollars from the state in the last few years and providing quality services to more blind seniors. We have been contracting with blind engineers and blind scientists to train consumers in STEM areas such as robotics, dissecting organs, and doing chemical experiments using adaptive lab equipment we purchased. Most recently, we are partnering with museums to bring accessible art and science to blind consumers using 3D technology and audio description. Furthermore, to expose our clients and staff to the depth of vitality, action, energy, and power, we bring them to state and national conventions.
We have challenged stereotypes by showcasing the achievements of blind people. From lawyers, judges, politicians, teachers, administrators, assembly and factory workers, to farmers, successful businessmen and women, rehabilitation professionals, and those working in STEM fields, the list is endless. We have moved beyond mere belief; we now know and have proven that blindness doesn’t inhibit success or hinder contribution to society.
So, what is our challenge? As professionals in the blindness field, our challenge is not to be complacent, but to keep pushing ourselves and our students beyond our comfort zone. Advocates worked tirelessly for us to have laws that protect the disabled. However, the power of law is restricted; it may set limits on behavior, but it cannot create understanding. We are dedicated to continuing the training of blind students, training new professionals, and training ourselves. We should keep striving to lift blind people out of poverty.
About a year ago, I attended a conference pertaining to quality management for vocational rehabilitation. One of the statistics they gave is that around 35 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed and that people with disabilities, compared to people without disabilities, make $7,000 less per year and have less health insurance. We know the disparities for blind people are even higher.
While some blind individuals may have humble aspirations, these should not be confined to a narrow range of options, nor hindered by the misconception that blind people are unable to compete.
When blind people come to us, it is often the last place they go, their one chance to live a full and productive life. We can make a difference. We hold the key to breaking the cycle of dependency, underemployment, and the myths about blindness. Our goal is to provide proper training to our students so that they reflexively use the nonvisual skills and reflexively know how to deal with negative attitudes about blindness.
We are progressing, we are evolving; there is continuity, but not sameness. Structured Discovery is not static; it evolves. Evolving requires fresh perspectives to tackle new problems and develop new solutions. We learn from each student and from each other, refine our approaches and embrace innovation. We are part of this evolutionary process, shaping the future of O&M in rehabilitation, ensuring that blind people have the opportunity to navigate the world on their own terms.
We use the Structured Discovery model in our individual teachings, in our training centers, in our agencies; yet each of us, each training center, and each agency has its own identity. As Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
As we empower our students toward true independence, we honor the legacy of those who paved the way. We have the energy and collective experience to empower our students. We ignite a spark that propels them beyond our teaching. Like renewable energy, our influence endures. The knowledge we impart becomes the fuel for lifelong learning journeys.
by Paul Schroeder
From the Editor: In the field of Braille technology, the Monarch is one of the most exciting developments to appear in recent years. At the 2024 NFB Convention, visitors to the Exhibit Hall had the chance to experience the Monarch firsthand. In this article, Paul Schroeder of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) reviews the history of the Monarch and suggests how it can become available to more of the Braille readers who need it.
As a lifelong Braille reader and writer, I cannot imagine how I would have succeeded in education, employment, and life without ready access to Braille. I am now proud to work for the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), which has a longstanding commitment to providing access to Braille material. From improved embossing to portable Braille technology, APH is committed to putting Braille under students’ fingertips, whether on paper or through electronic displays.
It’s likely that many of you have heard about the Monarch, a revolutionary piece of technology that displays both Braille and tactile graphics, developed by and for people who are blind or have low vision. The Monarch is approximately the size of a 15-inch gaming laptop and weighs 4.5 pounds. It features a display surface that accommodates up to ten 32-cell Braille lines and has a total of 3,840 equidistant pins (dots). The Monarch has a standard Perkins-style Braille keyboard and HumanWare’s KeySoft interface, plus important controls such as page up/down and zoom in/out. It comes with USB and HDMI ports and Bluetooth and Wi-fi connectivity, as well as stereo audio output and an internet browser. It boasts a battery strong enough to keep the unit powered for a full day. The Monarch connects with APH’s free Tactile Graphics Image Library, allowing a student instant access to more than two thousand tactile graphics. Through a partnership with Desmos, students can graph tactile functions on demand with the built-in graphing calculator. Even more apps and functionality are on the horizon.
From the time the first device capable of rendering refreshable Braille appeared more than forty years ago, Braille readers have longed for a device that could deliver multiple lines of Braille. Developing such a device has proved extraordinarily difficult. Though many inventors have tried to develop a multi-line Braille display, our longing has remained unsatisfied. Some have described this quest as the search for “the Holy Braille.”
Just over four years ago, APH partnered with HumanWare to develop a portable device with multiple lines of electronic Braille. HumanWare devised the design for a multiline Braille display based on the Dot Braille cell technology developed by a South Korean company. This new Braille cell technology has the capacity to add extra dots for displaying tactile graphics. On September 17, 2024, a day I hope we celebrate for years to come, APH began shipping the Monarch to students.
APH has partnered with access technology companies such as HumanWare before, working together on Braille technology including the Mantis and the Chameleon. However, we knew that to bring the Monarch to fruition we needed deep engagement with our key stakeholders. Throughout the development of the Monarch, we met with blind students at the Center and worked in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). This partnership provided ongoing feedback, testing, direction, encouragement, and advocacy support. We also engaged teachers. We solicited their feedback and let them test and train on the device.
Our priority in developing this new technology was to make textbooks available more efficiently, with the added functionality of navigation, search, and access to the entire textbook by harnessing the advantages of electronic Braille. As any consumer of Braille material knows, paper Braille books often come in many large volumes. In contrast, numerous entire books can be stored in electronic files on modern refreshable Braille devices. However, if you’ve ever read one of those Braille book files (usually called a BRF), you know that there are deficiencies with the format. To cite just one example, most books using BRF are set for a 40-character line. Reading them on a 20- or 32-cell display causes weird breaks and spacing in the middle of a line of Braille text. Since there is very little formatting in a BRF, navigation by elements such as headings is not available.
Furthermore, with only a single line available at a time, standard electronic Braille files are incapable of producing maps, diagrams, or other tactile graphics. For the Monarch to deliver the holy Braille, a better format for electronic Braille would be essential.
Fortunately, after some discussion and advocacy, the community of Braille producers and consumers was ready for a better Braille file format. More than forty international organizations coalesced to form a working group to support a new format in Braille. The Daisy Consortium, an international consortium of consumer organizations and producers of accessible materials, agreed to develop the new file format known as eBraille. Earlier this year, the first draft of the eBraille format was released.
In another important development, Duxbury, the company that produces the most widely used Braille translation software, agreed to adopt eBraille as an output format. Transcribers of textbooks and other material soon will be able to produce greatly improved electronic Braille. In addition, a converter to change BRF files to eBraille is moving toward production. It will provide a much better reading experience for existing material in BRF. In fact, eBraille will lead to a better experience with all Braille technology.
At this point, it may be helpful to understand what APH is and how it works. APH, as many likely know, was chartered back in the nineteenth century to make books to support the education of students who were blind. Eventually, technology and other educational materials were added. APH received a federal mandate in 1879 when the US Congress passed the Act to Promote the Education of the Blind.
This act designates APH as the official supplier of educational materials to all students in the US who meet the definition of blindness or low vision and who are studying below college level. By this federal act, Congress provided annual funding for APH to manufacture and furnish books and other materials specifically adapted for the instruction of students in the United States who are blind or have low vision. The system through which these specialized materials are distributed is known as the Federal Quota Program. Through it, textbooks and instructional aids are provided free for eligible students.
At the heart of this program is a partnership with schools for the blind, state departments of education, and other agencies that are responsible for ordering material from APH to supply the students they serve. You may hear the term “Ex Officio Trustee.” It refers to the individual at each of these agencies who is responsible for working with APH to identify and provide material for students.
The revolution sparked by the Monarch is in its very early stages. The students who start using the Monarch in this school year will have access to a powerful device, with much more to come. In fact, it may be more appropriate to think of the Monarch as both a Braille/graphics device and a digital content access platform. Digital content is now central to classroom education as well as to many jobs. Textbooks have largely been replaced with online course content, and schools and workplaces are filled with information conveyed through charts and images. With its Braille and graphics display and network connectivity, the Monarch will evolve to support on-demand access to digital content as it is posted and to enhance collaboration with sighted peers.
To address the age-old problem of making maps, graphics, and images accessible, APH has already developed a drawing app to allow anyone to create images for tactile display on the Monarch. We are expecting many more apps as developers take advantage of the opportunity to add to the Monarch’s functionality.
While the Monarch is ushering in a new era of access to Braille and tactile graphics, significant challenges remain. Electronic Braille is expensive. No doubt some of you have tried to obtain one of the excellent electronic Braille notetaker or display devices on the market today, only to find that the price point was difficult to meet. For many reasons, it is challenging to manufacture and deliver a robust and effective electronic Braille device, and we acknowledge that cost is a serious issue for consumers.
Fortunately, the federal government has seen fit to help support education for students who are blind or have low vision through the appropriation to APH. The Monarch is available through the federal quota program, and many of our eligible agencies already have made purchases. Other organizations have been able to use alternate funds to procure the Monarch. Parents and advocates can make sure the Monarch is included in a student’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan).
At APH we are launching our own student pilot program to ensure that at least one student in every state has access to a Monarch. This is only the beginning, but with a quota price of $14,900, we know that cost will be a challenge, even for the federal quota program.
As Federationists know very well, your collective voice can move policymakers to action. One potential way to help ensure that Monarchs migrate to blind and low-vision students is to convince Congress to increase the appropriation for APH. Most of the funding provided to APH by the federal government comes right back to the states and schools to procure books, aids, and technologies through the federal quota program. Persuading Congress to increase this funding partnership is a great way to invest in the education of students who are blind or have low vision, with products such as the Monarch. If you are interested in advocating for additional funding, I would welcome hearing from you at [email protected].
Meaningful progress in the realm of technology for blind people has come in fits and starts. I left high school more than two generations ago, and the technology available to accomplish classroom work was truly primitive. I managed, as most blind students do, through a mix of valuable support, perseverance, and brute-force memory. I longed for better ways to do math, explore maps, and appreciate scientific principles. I am truly grateful that I get to play a small part in giving this next generation of blind students and workers a remarkable tool that will put so much creativity and learning into their hands.
You can find more information about the Monarch at APH’s Meet the Monarch page: https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/@meet-the-monarch-from-aph/#main.
by Amy Bower
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 67, Number 8, August/September 2024
From the Editor: One of the most enthralling presentations at the NFB Convention General Sessions was delivered by Dr. Amy Bower, a leading scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Dr. Bower’s story is packed with drama and accomplishment. She has truly broken barriers in her field, proving beyond question that blindness need not be a barrier to achievement in the sciences.
Are you ready for a sea story? Well, thanks for sticking around. I hope you won’t be disappointed.
These are words you never want to hear if you are on a ship at sea: “Attention, all personnel! Return to your staterooms immediately, and lock all your staterooms and passageways. A hostile vessel is circling our ship.” No textbook, no classroom, and no advanced degree can prepare you for a pirate attack on the high seas. But this is exactly what I experienced in 2001 as an oceanographer on an unarmed research ship in the Indian Ocean.
Before I tell you how this turned out—I’m going to keep you waiting a few minutes—let me rewind a few decades. Growing up in a small coastal community north of Boston, Massachusetts, I fell in love with the oceans. Yay, Mass! An insatiable curiosity had me turning over every rock at low tide to see what was hiding underneath and wondering what else lay below the waves. I was also curious in the classroom. I took nearly all the science and math classes offered at my small high school and found physics, oddly enough, to be the most interesting, so that is what I chose for my college major. But I quickly realized that most physicists focus on the invisible particles that are inside atoms, whereas I was more interested in the physical environment that we all experience every day: wind and weather, ocean waves and tides, and how it all fits together to shape our planet.
Exactly how I would turn my interest in these topics into a career was uncertain until I signed up for an off-campus college program called Sea Semester. It appealed to my adventurous spirit, sailing for six weeks offshore on a tall ship and learning everything about the ocean: its science, its history, its literature, and its policy.
I discovered there is a field called physical oceanography. I bet you never heard of it. This is the study of the physical forces that drive motion in the ocean. Now I knew how I could combine my training in math and physics with my passion for understanding how our planet works. Because, after all, to be good stewards of our one and only home, we need to understand what natural forces make our life on this celestial planet possible.
To be a physical oceanographer, I went off to graduate school. Starting in my very first year, I was involved in research expeditions to the Gulf Stream, where I learned to use sophisticated instruments to study the three-dimensional anatomy of this massive and important current. I loved it: the adventure, the sense of exploration, and the camaraderie that develops during remote fieldwork like this. I was completely hooked.
The frequent storms that I rode out with my shipmates in those early graduate school years did not prepare me for what happened next. In my third year of grad school at a routine eye exam, an abnormal blind spot was discovered. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, a twofer. Accompanying this totally unexpected diagnosis—no one in my family had a similar eye condition—was the demoralizing advice from an ophthalmologist to change careers and consider a career in science administration instead of research. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with administration, but it’s not what I wanted to do.
At that time I had not heard of any scientist anywhere in any field who was blind or had low vision. In fact, I didn’t know a single person who was blind or had low vision—not personally. I wanted to be an oceanographer and go to sea and do research on ships. Could I still do that? I was no longer sure.
The uncertainty in the prognosis was as unsettling as the diagnosis itself. I was informed that I would likely become fully or totally blind over some unknown number of years. It could be several years or several decades.
But since I’m standing here before you now as a physical oceanographer who is blind, with thirty-five years research experience behind me, you know I did not take that doctor’s advice. Instead, I signed up to see a low-vision specialist who had a totally different attitude. He had that positive can-do attitude. I think it helped that he was a sailor and understood the excitement of living and working on the ocean. He introduced me to various assistive technologies, and I started believing that maybe I could continue my graduate studies in my chosen career.
Indeed, I finished my PhD and then started my professional career as a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute or WHOI [pronounced Hooey] as we call it for short. It’s on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Yay, Mass!
So what do oceanographers do? Many think that we only study what are sometimes called charismatic megafauna. Anybody have a guess about what that is? Yes, whales, sharks, and dolphins. Yeah, the kinds of things we typically hear about and see in movies or read in books like Moby-Dick or JAWS or whatever. But oceanography is actually a vast field of study focused on a highly complex physical, biological, chemical, geological environment that covers 70 percent of earth’s surface. It is intricately connected to our climate and therefore to all life on earth. It’s in constant motion from waves at the surface to slow-moving but powerful currents in the abyss. These currents creep along more slowly than walking speed—maybe three or four miles an hour or less—but they transport huge volumes of salty water, heat, tiny marine organisms, as well as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
But where do all these currents go? Are they changing as the planet warms? It’s not easy to figure this out, and this is why. Below the sunlit surface, the ocean is a very inhospitable environment for both humans and the most sophisticated research tools. There is the crushing weight of the water overhead. You know if you pick up a gallon of water, it’s pretty heavy, right? Think of millions of gallons of water.
There is the cold—about three degrees Celsius through most of the deep ocean. There is corrosion. If not well protected, oceanographic instruments will stop working with exposure to saltwater. And it’s pitch dark. No one, sighted or not, can physically see what is going on with the currents at these depths.
So how do we measure ocean currents then? With my research team, I release hundreds of freely drifting buoys in currents more than a mile below the sea surface. We track them under water using sound as they trace out the pathways of ocean currents across entire ocean basins from months to years. Using these and other tools, we have discovered how one current can change the path of another current deeper in the ocean. We’ve learned how warm currents in the Gulf of Mexico fuel hurricanes, which are going to be bigger in the news this year, and how rotating features the size of Rhode Island trap salt, heat, and marine organisms in their swirling currents, like a slow-moving tornado, and transport them thousands of kilometers across the ocean. Think Dorothy in her house in The Wizard of Oz, but in slow motion.
The most thrilling aspect of being a physical oceanographer for me is going out on research ships. Just for the record, these are not the Love Boat. These are not cruise ships. They have large working decks, science labs, dorm-like staterooms (no luxury living), and cafeterias. Maybe, if you are lucky, you get an exercise room with a few weight machines.
I’ve sailed extensively around the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on these ships, staying at sea for up to six weeks at a time. You don’t go into port every night. If you’re out there, you’re out there.
After I lost most of my useful vision, I had to give up working with the equipment on the open deck, but I can still lead the expedition as the primary decision-maker or chief scientist, as we call it. I depend on some sighted assistance, though, because most of the data being collected by the ship is still not accessible in real time for blind or low-vision scientists.
On one such expedition in 2001, I was chief scientist on a research ship in the Indian Ocean. (This should start to sound familiar.) The currents in this remote region were a complete mystery, and we were mapping them for the first time. While on station off the coast of Somalia, we noticed a small boat approaching with six men on board who appeared to be wearing some kind of uniform, maybe like a local Coast Guard. They didn’t contact our ship by radio, which would have been normal operating procedure. Instead, they circled around our ship, shouting words we couldn’t hear. Then, suddenly, one of them stood up and brandished a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Immediately recognizing the danger, our captain got our ship underway at top speed. We had to get away. But the top speed of this ship is about fifteen miles an hour. That’s about as fast as a bicyclist on a good clip. The other boat, which was faster, started chasing close behind. Everyone on our ship was ordered to their staterooms and told to lock the doors, in case what we now realized were modern-day pirates got on board our ship.
For about an hour, they trailed close behind us, firing rifles and grenades at our ship, trying to get us to stop so they could get on board. But our captain knew much better. He knew we had to keep moving. If you’re in a small boat and trying to jump up and climb up the side of a bigger ship, it’s almost impossible if that ship is moving. So the captain knew: keep it moving!
Eventually the sea conditions forced the pirates to give up and turn back to shore. Whew!
As it probably would be for you as well, this was one of the most frightening experiences of my life—right up there with trying to cross any street in downtown Boston. My PhD studies did not prepare me for this test of leadership! Even though no one on the ship was harmed physically, everyone was traumatized to some extent. It was my responsibility and the captain’s to maintain a sense of calm and carry on with our research, even though I myself was as rattled as everyone else—and remember, I couldn’t really see everything going on during this incident. It was all being described to me. I was getting it in second or third person.
If you are interested in learning more about modern-day piracy, oceanography, and my career, I welcome you to check out the book Seven-Tenths: Love, Piracy, and Science at Sea by David Fisichella, which is available on Amazon and on BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download).
As a scientist with first low and then almost no vision, I’ve had to navigate a sea of obstacles to be the oceanographer I wanted to be—the single most daunting one probably being my own self-doubt. In the early days, not only was I a super minority in my professional community as an oceanographer with low vision; I was also a woman in a very male-dominated field, with just a handful of female peers.
I sometimes felt like I did not belong in physical oceanography. I was afraid I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t be successful with low vision, and that any day now my colleagues would figure it all out and kick me out. Some call this the “imposter syndrome.” But others have argued recently that the imposter syndrome is not really a syndrome at all. They suggest that these feelings, which are experienced by many, are a sign of an unwelcoming or unaccommodating community, and not an indication of some failing or inadequacy on my part.
Anyway, from my female colleagues I have learned that having a network of peers and mentors with similar lived experience was just as important for a successful career as being able to write a good grant proposal. Luckily, this was just when the World Wide Web was taking off. (I know I don’t look that old, but I am.) I could search beyond my immediate circle of colleagues for other blind scientists. Indeed, I was able to find and contact a few, all in other fields: none in my own field, but at least it was a start. Around the same time, I searched for support groups for blind professionals closer to home on Cape Cod. I finally found one in Boston, two hours away by bus, but it was the closest one I could get to by public transportation. This was my first significant connection with peers facing some of the same challenges I faced. I made more connections attending the international Ski for Light cross-country skiing events. Yay, Ski for Light, where I met many other blind and low-vision outdoor enthusiasts, and many of them also had professional careers.
I started to have more hope that maybe I could not only survive but thrive in my chosen career. Others seemed to be doing it, so why not me? My network and my confidence continued to grow, as my vision declined continuously.
I still had to contend with something important here, which is the tenure clock. Academics usually have a limited number of years to build an independent research program and demonstrate that they have made a significant impact on their discipline. At the end of that time, it’s up or out. Even with my video magnifiers and screen readers, many research tasks took me a bit longer than they took my sighted peers. Plus I constantly had to research new assistive technologies and learn to use them, as my vision continued to decline. With all this extra energy and time spent adapting to ever-changing vision, I wasn’t sure I could make tenure.
At that time, academic institutions were beginning to implement “slow the clock” policies, mainly as an accommodation for expectant mothers who were pursuing academic careers. It occurred to me that such an accommodation would be appropriate for someone in my situation as well. I too was experiencing a life event that was going to impact how quickly I could get my research program up and running. But I had to request this accommodation, and I was hesitant. As far as I knew, no one at WHOI had requested a “slow the clock” accommodation for reasons of disability. With the encouragement of my institution’s ombudsperson, I did make this request, and to my relief it was granted without hesitation.
I earned tenure in 1999, and a few years later I was promoted to the highest rank of scientist at WHOI, senior scientist. I was the first woman to achieve that rank in my department.
Over the next twenty years, I continued to grow my research program. Then, in 2018, I was selected by my colleagues to be the next department chair. I wasn’t expecting that! I was, there too, the first woman to serve in that position in my department and also the first blind person to hold any high leadership at WHOI at all. This meant I would be responsible for the professional well-being of over one hundred researchers, students, and administrative staff in the physical oceanography department. I would also join the other department chairs, vice presidents, and the president of WHOI to lead our world-renowned research institution of over one thousand employees.
Before I became chair, I was constantly running to keep up with my workload. After I became chair, I had to sprint to keep up with the huge increase in the volume of emails, reports, memos, spreadsheets, budgets, personnel concerns, and, oh, by the way, the response to a global pandemic. Many documents I had to read and digest as a department chair were not accessible, and decisions based on those documents sometimes had to be made very quickly and often at the same time that the PowerPoint or spreadsheet were being shared with me and the rest of the leadership team for the first time.
Screen reader accessibility was not familiar to this team at all. It was a big challenge for them to make their documents accessible. They were as busy and pressed for time as I was, making it challenging for them to find the time to make their documents accessible. I had to start pushing publicly and repeatedly for accessible documents to be provided with time for me to review them, which, I pointed out, would be good for the whole team—universal design, right?
This constant reminding, though, was not comfortable for me, but I just kept asking. After all, my department had chosen me to be its representative at the highest administrative level, and I did not want to disappoint them. In spite of my persistence, I didn’t always get these documents in an accessible format at the same time. Life is messy; it doesn’t always work out. I just had to ask a lot of questions and do the best I could.
It was not always an ideal situation by any stretch, but nonetheless I successfully completed my four-year term as a department chair two years ago. This experience made me realize, a little late maybe, that what I really needed to be on a level playing field with my peers in this kind of fast-paced career was an access assistant, a concept I recently learned about from Mona Minkara, a blind assistant professor at Northeastern University. Previously a few staff members in my department were assigned on an ad hoc basis to help make data, graphics, and documents accessible for me, but they had other responsibilities competing for their time and attention. As a result, I often hesitated to request access assistance when I needed it. Finally, last year, I requested that my institution support the salary for a dedicated access assistant, whose only job would be to help make inaccessible information available to me. I was so excited when the request was granted! Yay!
As far as I know, this is the first such approval at my institution. Until the STEM fields have embraced independent accessibility, it is my opinion that access assistance is required for one to reach their full potential. This dedicated access assistance has been the game changer I imagined. No longer do I hesitate to ask for help with making information more accessible. I suddenly feel free to be a scientist again, without the extra burden of scrambling for access just to get to the starting line with my colleagues. I wish I could wind back the clock and repeat the past twenty years or so of my career with an access assistant.
Over the past twenty years, I have spent some of my time sharing my experiences with the next generation of low-vision and blind students interested in science to help them realize that they, too, can succeed in STEM careers. With Perkins School science teacher Kate Frazier, I started an outreach program called Ocean InSight. With other members of my lab group, I visit Perkins classrooms and other classrooms with stories about my career and all my assistive technology. I explain how I have managed to carve out this career with data sonification—which I’m getting into more—and touchable oceanographic equipment for them to explore. We also host an accessible field trip to WHOI every year through the Perkins Outreach Program, where students can learn more about all the exciting research going on at WHOI.
At the beginning of my career, the odds seemed stacked against my dream to be an oceanographer. A doctor’s advice to give up on a career as a researcher left me awash with self-doubt. There was no network of low-vision or blind scientists in my field. Since I began to lose my vision as a young adult, I did not get any official blindness training as a youth. I was racing all the time to adapt to ever-changing vision, and all that time the tenure clock was ticking.
In my favor has been the supporting encouragement of my family, a somewhat accommodating employer—mostly accommodating, I should say—and the energizing curiosity and passion to understand the inner workings of Planet Earth, or, as more aptly described by Arthur C. Clarke, Planet Ocean. As my network of blind scientists and other professionals grew, so did my self-confidence, my comfort level requesting accommodations, and the realization that, yes, I can do this, and yes, I do belong, and so do all of you. Thank you!
by Judge David Tatel and Deepa Goraya
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 67, Number 9, October 2024
From the Editor: Judge David Tatel retired from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2023, and he is the author of a recent book entitled Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice. At the last General Session of the 2024 NFB National Convention he spoke with Deepa Goraya, a leader in the National Association of Blind Lawyers. Judge Tatel reminds us of the progress we have made as blind people and calls upon us to work even harder and more strategically at all levels of our government in the years ahead.
Deepa Goraya: Good afternoon, Federation family. Judge Tatel, I want to start out by asking you about your book. I’m in the middle of reading it. It’s called Vision, and it’s on Audible and also on Amazon. There is a QR code that gives 20 percent off to NFB members. I highly recommend it.
Judge Tatel, I want to start out by asking you, is this your first NFB convention?
Judge David Tatel: Yes.
Deepa: Awesome!
Judge Tatel: And I’m very pleased. Edie [my wife] and I are totally delighted to be here.
Deepa: You started to lose your sight as you became an adult. In your book you talk about how you’re not known as the blind judge, but you regret not making your blindness known. Can you talk about that inner struggle?
Judge Tatel: Deepa, you went right to the heart of the book awfully fast!
Deepa [laughing]: We only have twenty minutes.
Judge Tatel: I’m going to answer your question, but first I want to thank President Riccobono for this wonderful opportunity to talk about my book. He already introduced my wife Edie, but I want to introduce her again. Much of this book is about Edie and me and our lives together. And I also want to introduce my guide dog, Vixen, who is right here next to me.
As I said, Deepa went right to the heart of the book. I was diagnosed with RP [retinitis pigmentosa] when I was fifteen years old in 1957. Like other people with RP, I had trouble seeing at night, and no one knew what it was. This was a very long time ago. I was finally diagnosed at the National Institutes of Health. I was fifteen years old, and I tell the story in the book that I didn’t want to talk about it. That was sixty years ago. I can almost look back at fifteen-year-old David Tatel as if he’s someone else. And I ask myself, why did he do what he did? Well, he was fifteen, he wanted to be like his friends.
I developed all kinds of techniques for covering up my growing visual disability, techniques that expanded as my sight declined more. When I went to college and law school, I was functioning as a sighted person, although problems at night were growing, my peripheral vision was declining, and I was struggling to find other ways to deal with it without having to discuss it. Finally, when I was thirty-five and director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, I couldn’t really function anymore as sighted. I learned to use Braille and started using readers. So that’s the background.
In 1994, when President Clinton nominated me to the DC Circuit, I was using a cane, but it wasn’t much of a subject of conversation for me. I wanted to be on the DC Circuit. It was the thrill of a lifetime, but I wanted to be known as a judge who happened to be blind, not as a blind judge.
I’ve been in the court for thirty years. When I retired I had written over seven hundred opinions. I hope people think that I succeeded in those years in proving that I was a judge who just happened to be blind.
People ask, “Well, why did you write this book?” It’s not a book I really wanted to write. I was convinced by people who I care about that my story could be inspirational, not just to blind people, but to sighted people who hire blind people. I hope that the story the book tells will demonstrate to the world, to both blind people and, to be honest, mostly to sighted people, that blind people can function at the very highest levels, and that the David Tatel who served on the DC Circuit for thirty years was a judge who just happened to be blind. So that’s my story.
Deepa: Thanks for that. Going along with that, do you think your career would have been any different had you disclosed your blindness sooner? Have you experienced any discrimination in the workplace because of your blindness?
Judge Tatel: Deepa probably read this book more carefully than anybody so far! Deepa, I actually don’t know the answer to that question. I would really be interested to know what people think who read the book. When I was struggling with the increasing deterioration of my sight, it was a very different world than it is today. Not as different as it should be, but still very different from what it is today. This was in the 1970s, a long time ago. When I was going through law school and beginning to practice law, I worried that my employment opportunities would be limited if people knew I had a visual disability. It was that clear to me at that time. And I actually don’t think, as I look back on the experience, that thirty-year-old David Tatel was unjustified in thinking that. So Deepa, I don’t know. I do know this: as hard as I worked to downplay my declining vision, people who knew me and who worked with me, they knew. As I wrote this book, I interviewed some old friends, quite a few of them, and I asked them the old famous question, What did they know and when did they know it? And they were aware of my declining sight long before I was prepared to talk about it. I guess the bottom line is that I still don’t know the answer to the question.
I do know this: I talk in the book about how important role models were to me, lawyers who were the kind of civil rights lawyer I wanted to be when I grew up. They were very important to me, because they gave me a symbol of what I wanted, and they were also helpful in my career. What I did not have when I was thirty years old were any role models who were blind. None. There were no blind appeals court judges that I knew of. There were no partners in law firms who were blind that I knew of. I didn’t have that kind of role model. One of the reasons, I think, why I wrote this book is that I hope that people who are at the same stage of vision loss today as I was fifty years ago will see my story and my career as a role model for them.
Deepa: Thanks for that. A lot of us do experience this inner struggle where we try to figure out how much to disclose blindness and when, or in the workplace and not in the workplace. Especially for those of us who have low vision or are not in that stage where we’re ready to make our blindness visible, the book really highlights that struggle. I recommend people read it to understand that and know they’re not alone in the struggle.
In the book you talk about being the parent of four children and how your children kind of took your blindness in stride. They did stuff that came naturally to them, like describing things, going on hikes with you. I was wondering if you could talk about your experiences as a blind parent and how that was, if you encountered any struggles with that.
Judge Tatel: By the time our first child, Rebecca, was four or five years old and aware of things around her—at that point I wasn’t using a cane, but I was learning to use recorded books, and I was beginning to function more visibly as someone with a visual disability. I mention that only because all four of our children, their only experience was with a dad who had limited vision.
We have four fabulous kids. They’re all parents. One is even a grandparent now. They’re four fabulous human beings and great parents. We asked them at the beginning of the process, we sent them a questionnaire that Edie and I wrote, with a dozen questions. They all responded with written memos, which are total treasures to us. And we learned a lot from them.
I quote in the book in different places their observations about growing up with a blind dad. There are lots of them throughout. I’ll just mention two of them. One of my children said she went out with some friends. The friend’s parents drove somewhere, and she came back, and she said to her siblings, “I didn’t know that dads drove cars.” Because in our house, Edie drove the car.
And Emily, our youngest, tells a story that still moves both of us so much. She said one of her friends asked her, “What’s it like to have a blind dad?” And she said, “It’s just like having any other dad. He loves us just the same way any other dad does.” She said, “I felt loved, and it didn’t make any difference to me.”
From my side of it, being a parent, I was more dependent—well, two things I want to say. One is at the same time we were having children—and it was the time when parents read to their children—I was learning to use Talking Books from the Library of Congress. I learned to listen to books with the children, and that was magic. All four of the children grew up reading bedtime stories with me with Talking Books. I loved it and they loved it. I don’t think I lost anything as a dad with limited sight because of those wonderful books. And I did it with my grandchildren, too; it’s gone one after the other.
The other thing I will say is I was more dependent on my children than sighted dads are, for just moving around. It was natural in our family for the children to offer an arm when I needed it. I never even had to ask, by the way, which has gone on to the next generation. Even the littlest grandchildren still do that in the Tatel family. The book is full of stories about that.
Probably the most dramatic example of a dad depending on his children is my years of skiing in Colorado with the BOLD (Broadening Opportunity through Leadership and Diversity) program. Probably a lot of you know about BOLD in Colorado. In the last four or five years of skiing, two of my children became my guides. Talk about a dramatic example of parents relying on their children! Me skiing down the big berm led by my teenage daughter and son was about as dramatic an example as you can find of anything!
Deepa: I’m learning how to ski myself.
Judge Tatel: We’ll talk about that afterwards.
Deepa: I want to get to an important question before we run out of time. A big one. What problems for disability rights do you see stemming from the Chevron Decision that came out a few days ago from the Supreme Court, and how can the blindness movement come together to combat these problems?
Judge Tatel: Do we need to say what Chevron is?
Deepa: Sure, why don’t you?
Judge Tatel: Do you want to do it?
Deepa: No, you go ahead.
Judge Tatel: Deepa asked an important question for our country as a whole, but also for the disability community. Chevron is the doctrine, named for a Supreme Court opinion—it’s not a gas station! It’s a major Supreme Court opinion, Chevron versus the Natural Resources Defense Council. I think sometime in the 1980s, a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court said that when a court like mine reviews a regulation issued by an agency—let’s make this specific to the issue that everyone is concerned about. Let’s take, for example, the regulations issued by federal agencies under Section 504 and the ADA, all right? I mean, those are the regulations we all care about in this room. What Chevron says is that when the agency issues those regulations, or when it announces interpretations of them, and they’re challenged in court—which they always are, right?—the Court has to ask two questions. The first is does the statute—that is 504, the ADA, whatever the statute is—does the statute clearly make the regulation invalid? In other words, has the agency exceeded its authority under the statute? And if so, the Court has no choice but to vacate it. But those are very rare cases.
The second part of Chevron is, if the statute is unclear, if it’s ambiguous because it uses general language, then the courts have to defer to the agency’s reasonable interpretation of the statute, okay? So, let’s take, for example, the disability laws. They’re very general statutes. They speak in very general terms. Thou shalt not discriminate on the basis of a disability. That’s what it says. And the agencies, in my case HEW or the Justice Department, interpret that general language by issuing specific regulations saying exactly what that means in practice. What exactly do the schools and universities have to do to accommodate blind students? What do they have to do in terms of Braille? What do they have to do in terms of readers? What exactly is their obligation? They flesh out the statutory language. When those get challenged in court, since obviously statute language says you can’t discriminate based on disability, does it clearly prohibit the agency from saying schools have to provide readers for the blind? The question is, is that a reasonable interpretation of the statute?
One of the reasons why I think the agencies that enforce these laws have been so successful—not as successful as they should be yet, but still successful—is because the courts have deferred to the agencies under those laws. That’s what happened for the past forty years. These regulations that flesh out the general language of disability laws have survived legal challenges because the courts have deferred to them.
The Supreme Court last week overruled Chevron. It’s no longer the law. So now judges like me who have these cases will have nothing to go on but the general language of the statute. We’ll have the agency’s interpretation, but we’ll have no obligation to “defer” to it. We can read it as we would a brief, but it has no binding effect on us. My worry is there will be a huge amount of litigation in the next few years challenging agency regulations, not just from the disability field but throughout, and the courts will strike down lots of these, because the language is so general. The courts will say—I’m talking about conservative courts—their view will be that unless Congress specifically authorizes something, the agencies can’t do it. This is very dangerous right now. It’s bad enough without Chevron, but our federal courts are becoming increasingly hostile to federal agencies and the regulations they issue. I think it’s going to be a huge battle for civil rights advocates, whether under Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] or the disability laws to defend the progress made with all of these regulations.
I think this is a serious turning point. It’s going to be a major challenge for the lawyers working in the disability community to what has been accomplished and keeping agencies aggressively enforcing disability laws in the future. It’s a serious problem.
Deepa: Do you have any ideas what we can do in the organized blind movement or other disability groups, you know, combating these?
Judge Tatel: This isn’t the first time in my career we’ve faced a challenge from hostile courts. We faced it before. This is actually the worst, I think. It’s going to require superb lawyering. I’m looking at this from the point of view of a lawyer. There are so many things that groups like NFB can do in terms of organizing and bringing attention to the problem and raising money. But the fact is, the battle is going to be fought out in the courts, and it’s going to require superb lawyering.
So, the simple answer is, Deepa, people should go to law school. People should learn to litigate.
Deepa: More lawyers, yep.
Judge Tatel: And NFB and other groups should develop the toughest, most aggressive legal groups they can, because they’re going to be badly needed.
Can I say one more thing? This may sound naive, but our government has three branches, not just one. It’s not just the courts. It’s Congress and the president. And although it seems like an uphill battle, both of those branches can be a check on the courts. So one thing we should be focusing on is Congress. We should be getting Congress to write legislation that is specific enough to support what the agency is doing, so it’s very clear that when the agencies issue strong disability regulations, it’s supported by the law. Same thing when it comes to presidential elections. You should be voting for presidents who understand what their obligations are to faithfully enforce the law.
Then there are the entire fifty-state government system and state and local governments, which aren’t affected by these regressive Supreme Court cases. A huge amount could be done at the state and local levels. That takes organizing state by state. It takes raising money. It takes electing good members of state legislatures. It takes supporting the legislative activities of those bodies. It takes working with the governors’ offices, mayors’ offices, city councils. A huge amount can be done to protect civil rights at the state and local levels in this country.
Deepa: More advocates, legal and otherwise.
President Riccobono: That’s right.
Deepa: I don’t know how much time we have left, but I have a couple more questions.
President Riccobono: No time left, but there are many questions we could ask, so I hope this won’t be the last opportunity. But I do think, Judge Tatel, we should ask you to give a minute or a minute and a half to what role the National Federation of the Blind has played in your success. I know you have had many intersections with the Federation over the years, and particularly one service, but there might be others.
Judge Tatel: I think the point you made right at the beginning—when I became OCR [Office of Civil Rights] director, it was the beginning of the Carter administration, which if you remember your history followed the Nixon-Ford administration. The Nixon-Ford administration had done everything it could to close down the civil rights programs and even refused to issue the Section 504 regulations. The civil rights groups, including the National Federation of the Blind, sued HEW/OCR. So, when I became the director, I became the defendant in the lawsuit brought by the NFB to force HEW/OCR to issue the regulations and enforce the law. The reason that is so important is that it’s a great example of how advocates on the outside could work with advocates on the inside to do things that neither could do alone. I could not have gotten the 504 regulations issued or the policy interpretations we issued under them. I couldn’t have got that done without the pressure of NFB and the other civil rights groups. Because when I would make the case in the Carter administration for issuing these regulations and get pushback, my answer would be, “Well, you can push back all you want, but there is a federal judge supervising what we’re doing, and he’s going to rule against us if we don’t issue the regulations.” So it was a great example, as I said, of how powerful advocacy groups like NFB can shape how government agencies work, particularly if your allies take jobs in the administration. It’s a great combination.
President Riccobono: Thank you for being an ally, Judge Tatel. We do need to say, though, that you are one of the most avid users of NFB-NEWSLINE®. I know that is a daily tool that you have used, and it’s talked about in the book. We’re pleased that you and Edie will be at the banquet tonight.
I want to point out an important moment here, speaking of NEWSLINE. In his book Judge Tatel recognizes a number of people. One of them is one of our staff who works on NFB-NEWSLINE. This will be his final convention as a staff member, as he is retiring later this week. So we should give a round of applause to Bob Watson.
So Judge Tatel, there are many other topics that would be great to talk with you about. We’re going to give you the last word, okay? We will give you the last word. Let me say one more thing. Before you leave the stage, I want to say, you know, the National Federation of the Blind has taken on many things, and you talk about some of those intersections in your book. One of the things that we did which you discuss in your book is accessible currency. We undertook in 2009, a little bit before that, to get the first-ever US coin to have real readable Braille on it, the bicentennial silver dollar. So before you leave the stage we are going to give you a Louis Braille bicentennial silver dollar. [Cheers and applause] You get the last word, Judge Tatel.
Judge Tatel: In addition to thanking you for this wonderful opportunity, I want to say, and Edie will vouch for this, I probably spend three hours a day, seven days a week, with NEWSLINE. From the very beginning, and I don’t know how many times over the past many years I have sent emails to Bob Watson and Scott White. For all I know, all those emails to Bob may be one of the reasons he’s retiring, just to get away from them! But NEWSLINE is the best example I can think of, just a phenomenal program that allows blind people to function totally independently. I love it.
President Riccobono: Thank you for being here. I encourage everyone to read the book. We look forward to having you at the banquet and look forward to our continued relationship, to getting your wisdom as we do our advocacy with the courts, and as we get out to vote to make sure we are represented in all the halls of power.
Presented by Carla McQuillan
From the Editor: At the annual board meeting of the National Federation of the Blind, Carla McQuillan introduced the winner of the 2024 Distinguished Educator of Blind Students Award, Dori Senatori. Ms. Senatori received a prize of one thousand dollars, an expense-paid trip to the convention in Orlando, and a plaque in print and Braille. The plaque reads:
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND HONORS
Dori Senatori
As Distinguished Educator of Blind Students
For your skills in teaching Braille and other alternative techniques of blindness, for graciously devoting extra time to meet the needs of your students, and for empowering your students to perform beyond their expectations.
YOU CHAMPION OUR MOVEMENT. YOU STRENGTHEN OUR HOPES. YOU SHARE OUR DREAMS.
July 5, 2024
As Distinguished Educator, Dori Senatori had the opportunity to address the board of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). Here is what she shared about her experience and philosophy.
Hi, everyone! I’m Dori Senatori, and I teach at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired [TSBVI] in Austin, Texas. I’m incredibly honored to be selected as this year’s Distinguished Educator of Blind Students! I really have worked hard over the years to ensure that the students I work with have the services and supports they need, including ABLE accounts for financial security. I taught students ages eighteen plus for eight years, and that was one of the services I helped set up. I also worked on transitions, helping students shape their plans for the lives they wanted to live.
Our program is called EXIT, Experiences in Transition. Each year my students were different, and I would individualize the curriculum for each one. Everybody had different goals, but I always tried to teach the Core Curriculum, empowering students to live independently in their own communities. I always told my students, “You have a lifetime warranty with me after you graduate.” When they leave our campus, I want to be a resource to them and help them in any way I can. I still get emails years later, asking, “Do you still have my résumé? Can you share it with me?” or “Can you write me a letter of recommendation?” I help them connect with community agencies and other resources. What I love most is when former students call just to say hi and give me an update.
In the EXIT program at TSBVI we provide many opportunities for community connection. I realized a class needed to be added, so I implemented a class where we connected students with professionals in the community, and people working all throughout Texas. One way I did that was by coordinating guest speakers, usually in person, to talk with the students about their career paths and various resources. It was always helpful for the students to hear how someone else achieved their goals.
COVID necessitated that we had to move to having virtual speakers. As I was scrambling to figure all that out, I was put in touch with Rosy Carranza at the National Federation of the Blind. That was my introduction to the NFB. Rosy sent me virtual speakers, sometimes two or three people a month.
One of the things we did as community exploration was to meet each year with the NFB chapter in Austin. A group of NFB members would meet with my students. They talked about the NFB and explained how to join. We did that several years in a row, but I don’t think anyone ever joined the organization.
Then, as we listened to guest speakers, came a turning point in the way I taught. A lot of students came to the EXIT program with some idea of what they wanted to see in their future, but they had no good idea how to get there. Perhaps that was because they really had never seen examples of what that process might look like for them.
In my first few years of teaching at the Texas School, I tried to figure out how to combine my students’ perspective with my perspective as a teacher with vision. I knew something was missing from my curriculum. I really wanted to raise the bar and expose my students to different experiences, experiences I wanted them to integrate effectively as they transitioned into their adult lives.
By having NFB guest speakers, we started to have multiple perspectives. We heard from blind professionals all over the US. They were doing things that my students wanted to explore. I noticed that as they listened to guest speakers talk about their past experiences and how they reached their goals, our students began to get inspired. They got excited about who was coming next and what they were going to talk about.
After that year of virtual guest speakers from the NFB, I took part in the Teachers of Tomorrow program. That was back in 2021. It was as though a lightbulb came on! I thought, That’s what’s missing!
In the fall of 2021, I reached out to the Career Mentoring Program, which is for students ages fourteen to twenty-two. I asked them if they would be part of my class. I had seven students, and I wanted to teach them how to use mentors. I thought I could teach the overall program and collaborate with NFB mentors. The whole Career Mentor team was thrilled to work with us, and that’s when we embarked on this journey. We started the Career Mentoring Program at TSBVI.
We started with a handful of students. The first meeting was virtual; everybody met the mentors on Zoom. Then, in January of 2022, our in-person sessions began. Mentors come to the school and facilitate activities each month. I remember I was having students sign up for the program, and some of them were saying, “Wait! What? We have to do this every month? Why do you want us to talk to blind people, Miss Dori?” I was surprised by that one! Or they’d say, “This application is way too long! What am I going to say to these people? I don’t know them!” It was outside their comfort zone and maybe a little scary, but I knew this collaboration would turn into something really great. It’s exactly what I thought was missing in our transitions program.
To get back to one of the students who complained so much in the beginning. After a few months in the program, her attitude started to change. She happily participated in the monthly mentoring sessions. Instead of asking why we had to have all these meetings, she began looking forward to them. After graduation this student decided to go to the Louisiana Center for the Blind for training. Today she has her own apartment and attends community college.
Today that former student reminded me I used to say, “You’re in the driver’s seat.” I wanted my students to be empowered. I wanted them to understand that they can do it. It was just a matter of figuring out how to get there.
This past school year I was thrilled because my former student came back to mentor my current students as part of the Career Mentoring Program. I think that helped my current students. They saw an example of how someone can go from being a mentee to becoming a mentor. I’m honored to have served as their teacher.
This year we had a record twenty-two students participating in the program. I think the growth of this program can be attributed to the shared passion for teaching of all the wonderful NFB mentors who have worked with me and the students over the years. The program gave students experiences using nonvisual skills for everything from navigating a buffet line, calling for and riding in an Uber, and camping in a state park to traveling by plane on their own for the first time to attend the NFB Convention or Washington Seminar. Each session and all of these activities were facilitated by NFB mentors on and off the TSBVI campus.
Many students choose to continue participating in the NFB after they graduate from TSBVI. They can continue in the mentoring program through their postsecondary education. I’m always excited when I run into them at Convention! At this convention I counted seven, and in the past there were zero.
The mentoring program starts by matching my student with a mentor, possibly someone located in or near their home town. Because of their attachment to their NFB mentors I see many of my past students here today, rising as active participants in this community. I have witnessed students growing in ways I had not observed before they got involved with the mentoring program. I’m grateful for each and every opportunity I’ve had to serve Texas students and their families. I couldn’t have done it without the support of the NFB, as well as TSBVI colleagues and administrators. I will always keep this moment in my heart. It means a lot to me!
Presented by Cayte Mendez
From the Editor: One of the highlights of each convention is meeting our NFB Scholarship finalists. Scholarship Committee Chair Cayte Mendez gave each of the finalists an opportunity to give a brief introduction at the meeting of the NFB National Board, attended by thousands of Federationists.
Cayte Mendez: Good morning, Mr. President and members of the Board. This is the seventh year that it has been my privilege to introduce the National Federation of the Blind scholarship class to all of you. Every year it is as much of a privilege as it was the first time.
This year we have thirty wonderful students. They were selected because of their academic excellence, their leadership potential, their community involvement, and the quality of their applications. I am delighted to be able to present all of them to you and to the folks watching.
We’ll be passing the mic down. They each will have about thirty seconds to introduce themselves to you. They are going to tell you a little bit about who they are, where they’re from, what made them excellent candidates for the scholarship program, and a little about their vocational goals. This year we have two tenBroek Fellows with us.
Jacobus tenBroek was the first president of our organization, and we reserve the title of tenBroek Fellow for those receiving their second National Federation of the Blind Scholarship.
Scholarship finalists, are we ready?
Wonderful! They have been ready for the last two hours. They’re ready to go and get this done. I will be introducing them—first name, last name, home state, school state, and vocational goal. For the purposes of making sure the agenda moves along as it should, I’m going to ask that you hold your applause until the end. I know that can be extremely challenging, but please help us all out with that.
Without further ado ...
Lindsay Adair, Louisiana, Louisiana, psychology, social work:
Lindsay Adair: Hello, my name is Lindsay. My career goals are to be either working in psychology or social work, and I am a person who loves to help other people. I want to give back, and something I would like to do is to reach out to other blind people who may not have heard of us. I encourage you all to remember those who have no hope and who have not heard of NFB. Please reach out to those people. I do not know where I would be without this organization today. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Krystle Allen, New Jersey, New Jersey, social work:
Krystle Allen: Good morning everyone, and thank you to the Scholarship Committee for selecting me as one of the finalists. I am excited because I am a nontraditional student, and I am pursuing the goal to become a full-time employee. I currently work at the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired as their state community outreach specialist part-time. So with my education credentials that I’m acquiring for social work, I’m in the helping field, and I want to go full time so I can help more visually impaired and blind consumers to pursue their dreams. I’m excited that during my education experience I’m celebrating a milestone year with a nonprofit I founded ten years ago called “Eyes Like Mine, Inc.” I’m wearing a crown for you guys today, because I am Miss New Jersey 2024!
Cayte Mendez: Cole Carper, Arkansas, Alabama, aerospace engineering:
Cole Carper: Good morning, everyone. I just graduated high school in May. I’m super excited to be here. It’s a great honor; thank you to the National Federation for doing the convention. My career goal is eventually to work at NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX. I don’t have a specific company I want to work for yet; I just know I want to work in that industry.
Cayte Mendez: David Carrillo, Utah, Utah, counselor:
David Carrillo: Thank you to NFB for the honor of being chosen as one of the finalists this year. Right now I’m currently working on my Master of Social Work with the goal of becoming a licensed social worker so that I can be able to counsel specializing in grief, trauma, and bereavement. Having lost my three-year-old son in 2020 and my sister in 2022 to suicide, I feel particularly versed in order to understand grief and what comes with it. I want to be able to be there for those newly experiencing that and help them through that journey, knowing that there is a light at the end of the darkness.
Cayte Mendez: Hannah Clemenson, Montana, California, journalism and broadcasting:
Hannah Clemenson: Good morning, Board members, Scholarship Committee, and Federation family. I grew up in a really small town in Montana, and at the time National Public Radio was about the only sound on my dial. Despite my isolation in rural Montana, I was able to build a vivid and nuanced image of the world around me through listening to public radio. I want to use my scholarship to jump into that world and continue to be a storyteller for the people.
Cayte Mendez: Before I introduce the next finalist, I just have to tell you this. Those who sit through this presentation each year know that I love birthday trivia. August, you guys are my people, Leos and Libras. You almost made it this year, but with only five, we lost to May, which has six. This was the year to have a May birthday. And next: Abey Finklea, Wisconsin, Washington, elementary education:
Abey Finklea: Hello, everyone. I am very passionate about working with children, and I have had many wonderful experiences working with elementary schools and equine therapy programs for children. My goal is to use my degree to improve the education system and empower underserved students to reach their full potential. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Madison Flores, Texas, Texas, law:
Madison Flores: Good morning, everyone. It feels really great to be here. Thank you all for selecting me as a finalist. As for my career goals, I’m currently studying government at Austin Community College with plans to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin, where I will complete my bachelor’s in government before going to law school. Thank you so much.
Cayte Mendez: Tom Geraci, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, marketing and public relations:
Tom Geraci: I am Tom Geraci, a senior at Merrimack College, and I have been very involved in the local blind community in the Greater Boston area for most of my youth. I currently work at the school for the blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, in the marketing department, and I am pretty involved locally. But this is my first convention, and I have really enjoyed it so far. Thank you to Cayte Mendez, the rest of the Scholarship Committee, Ryan, Cassandra, and my mentors for guiding me through the whirlwind. Thank you to my fellow finalists, because it’s not easy being the only vision impaired student at your college, and you guys get it. Most importantly, thank you to the donors for giving these scholarships away and allowing me and other students to really live out the college experience we want and deserve. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Our scholarship class this year is representative of twenty-two states, but twenty-four affiliates. One of the affiliates that is not a state is the one from which our next finalist hails. Her name is Thelma González Santana. She is representing the affiliate of Puerto Rico, so Puerto Rico home state, Puerto Rico school state, and she is looking at going into a career in international development. She will be speaking through an interpreter, so we’re going to give time to let the process work out.
Thelma González Santana: Greetings. Good morning, Federation family. I am very honored to share with all of you. This is my first convention. I am studying strategic communications and international studies. My purpose is to project our philosophy to the entire population in general, so I am carrying out several projects. Among these is to create a database at the Puerto Rico level on how many blind people currently have a job. In addition, I’m trying to create empowerment in all our community with a mobile fashion application and also creating an educational committee for emergency management. The essential idea is to empower our community and let them know that we can all achieve what we want and fulfill our dreams and goals. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Ben Grelk, Nebraska, Nebraska, software engineer:
Ben Grelk: Hello, everyone. I was a military brat, so I popped around seven different addresses before settling in Nebraska. I am a software developer, and I love using my skills to contribute to open source, especially in the web accessibility space.
Cayte Mendez: Our next finalist is a tenBroek winner: Rachel Grider, California, Louisiana, orientation and mobility:
Rachel Grider: Hi, guys. I am so excited to be here today. First, thank you so much to the Scholarship Committee and the National Federation of the Blind for selecting me as a finalist. Up until less than a year ago, I was teaching music at a music academy. During the course of several years teaching there, I started becoming more and more involved in the National Federation of the Blind of California. As I was doing that, I started to see that more and more there is such a strong need for orientation and mobility instructors and all kinds of instructors of the blind who help empower blind people, and I started to feel a calling and passion to come and give back. I am back in school, and I am pursuing a degree in Structured Discovery cane travel, orientation and mobility, and my goal is to teach Structured Discovery in a place where there is not a lot of SDCT around. One of my dearest ambitions is to start a Structured Discovery center in California.
Cayte Mendez: Amanda Juetten, Tennessee, Tennessee, blindness training:
Amanda Juetten: Good morning, Federation family! How are you? I’m Amanda Juetten from Tennessee, currently getting my bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership, and I will go from there to work on a graduate certificate in blindness rehabilitation teaching. I am opening a training center in the wonderful state of Tennessee, and we have established our nonprofit and are working on the process of funding and development and getting that thing up and off the ground. I enjoy serving on many boards and positions within the Federation, but I mostly enjoy serving and doing whatever it takes to see the Federation reach the blind community. I believe in the philosophies of the Federation, and I believe that we need more quality teaching in the area of alternative skills of blindness. That is my aim, and that is my goal. Thank you so much; thank you for this opportunity.
Cayte Mendez: The next one I mispronounced twice. I’ll see if I get it right this time. This is Thor Kargatis. I mentioned earlier there were two affiliates, not states, represented in this class. Thor hails from the District of Columbia, going to school in New Jersey and pursuing a career in urban planning.
Thor Kargatis: Cayte actually got it right on the third time today. Nicely done! Good morning, everyone. I’m Thor Kargatis, the guy who has been doing neurodivergent things in the front right corner of the room for the past two hours. I’m interested in studying urban planning. I’ve come to realize there is often an overlooked aspect of accessibility, which is that accessibility means frequent buses and accessible Braille services and fare systems that work and whatnot. I’m very new to the NFB. I didn’t find out about its existence until I applied for the scholarship. I’m here to meet people. This is my first convention. I implore you to come up and say hello and talk to me about anything, whether you want to talk to me about me living in DC or urban planning or anything really. I’m eager to make some friends here.
Cayte Mendez: Miranda Lacy, West Virginia, West Virginia, social work:
Miranda Lacy: Hello, everyone. Good morning. I’m humbled and thankful that I have been chosen as a finalist from West Virginia. I’m studying social work at West Virginia University. My undergraduate degree is in psychology from West Virginia State University. I spent thirteen years out of the workforce thinking that I would never be able to work while raising my children as a single mother. I have two boys, ages twelve and eighteen, but blindness is not the characteristic that defines me. I am excited to start my internship at the Appalachian Center for Independent Living. It’s the first time I’ve worked in eighteen years. It’s been exciting and overwhelming. I found the National Federation of the Blind when I was seeking assistance with discrimination from my university. So I am thankful to have an advocate in the West Virginia chapter, Ms. Sheri Koch. I’m excited to be here and learn about the NFB philosophy. I am a new member. I can’t wait to get to know you all. Thank you so much.
Cayte Mendez: Julia LaGrand, Michigan, Massachusetts, violinist and educator:
Julia LaGrand: Good morning, Federationists. Thank you to everyone for giving me this incredible opportunity. I am about to start a joint degree program at the New England Conservatory at Harvard, pursuing violin performance and a liberal arts education. I want to continue my work becoming the best classical violinist I can be, but also be a more broadly educated person and continue my passion for disability advocacy. I have had a number of professional opportunities to engage in this kind of work, and I have also learned so much about the organized blind movement and how that interacts with music through my role as a board member of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division. I am so grateful for the Federation. In this year of music intensive training, I have heard so many times in different ways about how classical music doesn’t work with blindness, and I have been so grateful to my Federation family, who I have called often to hear reassurances and to grow, and it has changed me so much. I look forward to continuing to grow with the Federation, and thank you for making that all possible.
Cayte Mendez: Miles Little, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, finance:
Miles Little: Good morning, everybody. First off, I would like to say that I’m very thankful and grateful for being here, and I have plans to become a financial adviser. Also, one thing I’m excited about is that I want to show everybody that we can do it and that it is possible. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Tamara Lundy, Louisiana, New York, healthcare finance:
Tamara Lundy: Good morning, everyone. I am honored to be standing before you this morning. My career goal is to become a financial analyst or health insurance specialist. I served in a nonprofit clinic for fifteen years, and my passion is to serve patients. I’m honored to be able to do that once again. I’m looking forward to pursuing my CDC as a certified medical professional coder once I get my master’s degree. I also look forward to serving you all once again in New Orleans. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Enrique Mejia, Iowa, Iowa, special education teacher:
Enrique Mejia: Good morning, Federation family. My name is Enrique Mejia, and I’m currently pursuing my master of science in teaching with an endorsement in special education at Drake University. For the last ten years, I have worked at the Iowa Department for the Blind as a technology specialist where Dr. Jernigan developed the philosophy that we now refer to as Structured Discovery. During the summer I have worked with students to become empowered and pursue their goals. Throughout the years they have inspired me to no longer be a bystander and pursue my own goal to work with children who are receiving special education services. I am deeply thankful to the National Board and the Scholarship Committee, as well as the generations of Federationists who have come before me—Federationists like Shawn Mayo, Emily Wharton, and of course my wife, Helena Mejia, who is in the audience. Thank you, and let’s go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Cayte Mendez: José Andre Montano, District of Columbia, New York, jazz pianist:
José Andre Montano: Hello, everybody. I’m José Andre Montano. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be selected as a finalist. Thank you so much. My goal in the future is to become a piano teacher and mentor for other young musicians like me. Despite the challenges I have had, I’m still here today, transmitting joy and happiness with my music. Remember that life is a trip to be enjoyed, and we can all love our differences and who we are. Thank you so much.
Cayte Mendez: Sam Morgan, Colorado, Massachusetts, meteorology:
Sam Morgan: Good morning, Federation. I want to say that I’m deeply grateful to be here, and it’s an honor to be among such great people. For my degree, I am pursuing a master’s degree in meteorology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, with a minor in math and a minor in sustainability. Thanks to the Federation scholarship, this fall I’m going to be doing research in Iceland on how climate change is impacting precipitation trends in the Arctic. Further in my career I hope to be able to help with the presence of those with blindness and low vision in the fields of STEM and atmospheric science. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Joshua Olukanni, Georgia, Minnesota, organizational development:
Joshua Olukanni: Hello, everyone. Good morning. I just want to start off by saying I’m very appreciative to have the opportunity to be a scholarship finalist. I am currently majoring in human resource development at the University of Minnesota. I want to leverage this degree to become an organizational development consultant where I can come up with strategies to better implement DEI and how to best develop and organize an organization to make it run most efficiently. Currently I am learning a lot from the current internship I have at Unilever, and I hope I can continue to build on the foundation I have. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: So there are thirty-two years between our most seasoned scholarship finalist and our youngest. This next finalist is toward the younger end. Although I would like to shout out the most senior member of the scholarship class, I won’t say who that is. That person’s birthday is Valentine’s Day, which is really fun. Our next finalist is not the youngest; that one is coming later, but, Natalie Rankin, Texas, Texas, cybersecurity:
Natalie Rankin: Hi, everyone. I want to express how deeply grateful I am for this incredible opportunity that the Federation has offered me. I am deeply passionate about protecting privacy in this digital age that we live in, and I fully intend to use this scholarship to help in promoting a safer cyberspace that is accessible for all. Again, thank you so much.
Cayte Mendez: Casey Reyes, Utah, Utah, public relations:
Casey Reyes: Hello all. My name is Casey Reyes. I’m very grateful for having been selected as a 2024 scholarship finalist from the National Federation of the Blind. I’m currently studying strategic communication at the University of Utah and hope to pursue a degree to go on to pursue a career in crisis management. Mentorship is something that I deeply value, and since becoming more involved in the National Federation of the Blind, I have been blown away by the abundance of mentorship available to me. I look forward to taking advantage of this mentorship and growing. I cannot wait for where the Federation can take me and where I can take the Federation to live the life I want. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Muntaha Ruthba, Texas, Texas, international blindness program:
Muntaha Ruthba: Hi everyone. I am Muntaha Ruthba, and I go by Ruth. I’m a Bengali American woman from Austin, Texas. I’m majoring in psychology and minoring in disability studies at UT Austin. My goal is to remove mental and physical barriers for blind children and families so that they have the tools and training to be independent and successful. I’m so grateful for everyone who has made this scholarship possible. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Dishon Spears, Colorado, Colorado, nonprofit tech:
Dishon Spears: Hello, everyone. My name is Dishon Spears, and I want to thank the Board and NFB for giving me the opportunity to get this scholarship. I’m studying business right now with my focus being on nonprofit organizations. I hope to start my nonprofit and be able to give back to blind people in the technology area. Thanks again to the NFB and to all of you who helped raise money to make this possible.
Cayte Mendez: The youngest finalist is in the last group, and this person turned eighteen, which means they qualified for the scholarship, on July 2—just squeaked under. So, since we shared a fun fact about our most seasoned birthday, I thought it would be a fun fact about our least. As we commence the last group of scholarship finalists this year, we have Jonesti Steele, Mississippi, Alabama, rehab counselor:
Jonesti Steele: Good morning. For those of you who don’t know me, I went blind three years ago due to a physical assault. Initially I looked at my predicament so negatively until I realized I was blind but blessed. As a rehabilitation counselor, I aspire to continue working alongside my Federation family within our movement to make a difference. My plan is to encourage individuals to see capabilities before our disabilities. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Maranda Ulvestad, Arizona, Arizona, elementary teacher:
Maranda Ulvestad: Hello, Federation family. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be a finalist. For me, I have seen my confidence grow from being a member of the NFB through the opportunities that I have received from this organization, some of which include advocating for the blind community at the Washington Seminar, as well as working as a mentor for the BELL® Program this year. I am looking forward to becoming an elementary school teacher sometime in the future and working to build the NFB in the rural parts of my home state of Arizona.
Cayte Mendez: Our next finalist is a tenBroek winner. Colin Wong, Washington, Washington, professor:
Colin Wong: Thank you, everyone. My name is Colin Wong, and I’m honored to be here today. The Federation has shaped me to be who I am as a student of both CCB [Colorado Center for the Blind] and LCB [Louisiana Center for the Blind], and even my first job was offered to me outside the general session at Shingle Creek. So I’m incredibly thankful for the Federation and the Scholarship Committee for supporting me again in advancing my career and pursuing a PhD in educational leadership to become a university professor and researcher to study adult education and blindness education. There needs to be more research on blindness with the high expectations expected from the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: Lynn Wu, California, California, nonprofit tech:
Lynn Wu: Good morning, everyone. My name is Lynn Wu, and I am the youngest of the scholarship class this year. I just want to begin by saying how grateful I am to the NFB and the Scholarship Committee for selecting me as a scholarship finalist. I just graduated high school a month ago, and I’m going to pursue a major in computer science at Stanford University with the hope of improving digital accessibility, especially making STEM more digitally accessible to encourage and let more blind people explore the topics in STEM more easily to really help in the age where technology is rapidly advancing. Thank you.
Cayte Mendez: And last of all, this year in our fantastic group of scholarship winners, we have Henry Young, New Jersey, Montana, park ranger.
Henry Young: Hello, everyone. My name is Henry Young. Again, I would like to thank the Scholarship Committee for the great honor that you’ve given all of us; it is truly appreciated. I attend the University of Montana, studying history and mountain studies in beautiful Missoula, Montana. This summer, as well as after I graduate, I will be pursuing my dream of living in and working in the national parks, and that is for one simple reason: I love national parks. I want to spend as much time in them as possible, telling their stories in a way that is unafraid of conflict and controversy, yet one that showcases a common American narrative. At the same time, I want to help issue a special welcome to those Americans who do not yet feel a sense of ownership of their national parks, their common inheritance, America’s best idea—to show that these sacred spaces belong to all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, or disability.
Cayte Mendez: With that, Mr. President and members of the Board, I am pleased to conclude the presentation of the 2024 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship class.
At the Annual Banquet of the National Federation of the Blind, Cayte Mendez presented the 2024 National Scholarship Awards to this year’s winners. Each received a plaque in print and Braille contributed by the Ray Kurzweil Foundation and an award of eight thousand dollars from the National Federation of the Blind.
National Federation of the Blind Scholarships: Lindsay Adair, Krystle Allen, Cole Carper, David Carrillo, Abey Finklea, Tom Geraci, Benjamin Grelk, Thor Kargatis, Miles Little, Tamara Lundy, Natalie Rankin, Muntaha Ruthba, Maranda Ulvestad
Charles and Betty Allen Scholarship: Henry Young
EU and Jean Parker Scholarship: Jonesti Steele
Charles and Melba T. Owen Memorial Scholarships: Amanda Juetten, Julia LeGrand, and Joshua Olukanni
Edith R. and Alvin J. Domroe Scholarships: Enrique Mejia and Casey Reyes
Jesse and Hertha Adams Trust Scholarship: José Andre Montano
Jacqueline Billey Memorial Scholarship: Hannah Clemenson
Mimi and Marvin Sandler Award: Miranda Lacy
JAWS for Windows Award: Dishon Spears
NFB STEM Scholarship: Lynn Wu
Oracle Scholarship for Excellence in STEM Field: Sam Morgan
Adrienne Asch Memorial Scholarship: Colin Wong
Scott C. LaBarre Memorial Scholarship: Madison Flores
American Action Fund Scholarship: Rachel Grider
Kenneth Jernigan Memorial Scholarship: Thelma González Santana
Presented by Everette Bacon
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 67, Number 8, August/September 2024
From the Editor: On the final day of the 2024 NFB Convention, Bolotin Committee Chair Everette Bacon presented the seventeenth annual Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards. The awards are named in honor of Dr. Jacob Bolotin, a blind doctor who practiced in Chicago early in the twentieth century.
Everette Bacon: It’s always exciting to present the Bolotin Awards. It’s one of the highlights of the general sessions. It’s something we work hard on throughout the year, and I’m so excited to be here. This is our seventeenth year giving out these awards.
We usually put together a video, so I’m going to have that video queued up now so I’ll be able to play it for you. You’ll get a sneak peek at the winners and learn a little bit about them. Then I’ll introduce our committee members, and finally you get to meet all of the award winners.
[Music. During the following presentation, names and logos of organizations appear on screen as they are mentioned, and pictures of individuals appear as they speak.]
Narrator: Federationists and guests: The National Federation of the Blind is proud to introduce the recipients of our seventeenth annual Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards, made possible in part by the generous support of the Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust and the Santa Barbara Foundation.
These individuals and organizations have broken down barriers faced by blind people in innovative ways, changed negative perceptions of blindness and blind people, and pushed past existing boundaries to motivate blind people to achieve new heights.
The two individual winners are Deborah Kendrick and Donna Posont.
Deborah is a blind writer whose body of work has informed and represented the blind and people with disabilities, including a syndicated newspaper column.
Deborah Kendrick: The purpose of it, as the purpose of probably all of the writing that I’ve done in one way or another, is to connect people to people and let people understand in a visceral way that those of us who are blind or have other disabilities are more the same than we are different from others. The only real condition that matters is the human condition.
Narrator: Donna Posont, who leads the innovative Blind Birding and Beyond program at the Environmental Interpretive Center of the University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Donna Posont: When I started out, I wanted to learn nature as a blind person, and then I wanted to learn it in a way so that I could understand how to share it with other blind people. Through this, I see how much it helps improve skills of blindness. When children or adults learn how to identify birds by hearing their sounds, they get excited, and they gain confidence. When we go through the woods and we walk the trails and show them that they don’t have to use sighted guide but can follow the edge of the trail, that makes a difference. They can hear the sound of the wind; they can hear where the birds are; they gain a lot of confidence from that because they often don’t have that opportunity to walk trails and walk in the woods, and it makes it better when they are walking out on the sidewalks in the cities because they gain that level of confidence for using their canes.
Narrator: The first of our two organizational winners is Handid Braille Services for providing quality Braille transcription in multiple languages. Here’s founder Don Winiecki.
Don Winiecki: The company as a nonprofit has grown quite a bit, and without really planning for it, I’ve become a provider of non-English Braille as well as Unified English Braille. I specialize in Braille for languages that don’t use the Latin symbol system in their print alphabet—Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Farsi, and on and on. I do a bunch of that stuff now, as well as the more common non-English languages like Spanish and French and German. We hear over and over again “nothing about us without us.” I’m very sensitive to that idea. I don’t want to claim that I’m doing things for other people in a sense that I’m trying to take care of them! I’m doing things for people so that they can achieve more, and being a background part of that is such a rewarding thought! The acknowledgment that the NFB provides is just further ratification of that.
Narrator: Living Blindfully, a global podcast about living your best life with blindness and low vision. Here’s producer and host, Jonathan Mosen.
Jonathan Mosen: I interview a lot of movers and shakers for the podcast, and I take a long time before each interview to do my research. I ask the questions that I think listeners want me to ask. So I aim to be fair but also fearless. Another element of the show is that we have listeners who contribute from all over the world, and I’m proud that in an era where people do a lot of yelling at each other online, we’ve maintained a climate of respectful but robust debate.
To convey just how much receiving a Bolotin Award means to me, I have to be a bit vulnerable. Growing up as a blind teenager in New Zealand back in the eighties, I had so many big dreams, and I was confident that they were realistic dreams. But I quickly discovered that my biggest problem wasn’t my blindness. It was other people’s limiting perceptions of it.
I actually became very depressed about this when I was seventeen. That was in 1986. I got a 1200 baud modem, and I started logging on to bulletin boards using technology called Fido Net. Ultimately I got onto an online service called the CompuServe Information Service. It was from being online that I learned about the Federation, and it changed my life. Actually, if I’m being absolutely honest, I think knowing that there were other people out there who felt about blindness the way I feel about blindness saved my life. So to be recognized by the Federation with one of its most prestigious awards means more to me than I have the words to express, and it’s an honor I never expected.
Narrator: These winners each will receive a trophy and a monetary prize to advance their work to help blind people live the lives we want.
Now the National Federation of the Blind proudly presents them with their Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards.
[The end of the video is greeted with applause]
Everette Bacon: All right, are you excited? These are some outstanding winners, and we are excited to give them their awards.
First and foremost, I want to thank the members of the committee who served this year. Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan has been serving on the committee since it started and has been guiding all of us. Thank you, Mrs. Jernigan. Thank you to Donald Porterfield of Arizona. Thank you to Steve Jacobson of Minnesota. Thank you to Dr. Natalie Shaheen of Illinois, and last but not least, to Jessica Beecham of Colorado. Thanks to all of you for serving on the committee.
I also want to thank members of the National Federation of the Blind staff who have been so supportive. Yvette Castillo, Chris Danielsen, Beth Braun, and Suzanne Shaffer Schildwachter. They’re all wonderful supporters in making sure these awards are given out. Thank you to President Riccobono for having the faith in me to chair this committee.
Let’s get to the really great information about our award winners. You haven’t heard their monetary prizes. I know you want to know that, right?
We have two individual awards. The first individual award goes to Deborah Kendrick. Deborah Kendrick was nominated by Judy Dixon. When personal computers were a new American phenomenon in the 1980s, Deborah created a Braille-only magazine called Tactic. It would enjoy worldwide readership and garnered numerous awards from the Society of Technical Communication and others. That publication was acquired by the American Foundation for the Blind, and you may know it now as Access World. Deborah serves as senior editor and continues to contribute articles to this day. I am excited to give the award of $5,000 to Deborah Kendrick. We’re going to have Deborah Kendrick say a few words.
Deborah Kendrick: When I was sixteen, I met my first blind grownup. He was a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and he held the key—in other words, the money—to my college education. He said a blind girl couldn’t be a writer. Years later, with a pile of awards from both journalism and advocacy organizations as evidence that I was not only a writer but a writer who got it right, I learned about Kenneth Jernigan, who was also discouraged from pursuing his chosen career.
In my jobs, books, and elsewhere, I have told stories of people who are blind or have other disabilities, stories about the work they do. Many, too many, have told me that they were first told that a blind boy or a blind girl could not do what they wanted to do, and they did it anyway.
Then in 2007 I read the book The Blind Doctor. I learned about Dr. Jacob Bolotin, who not only did it anyway—became a doctor against the odds of his environment and swarms of naysayers—but became a truly gifted healer and dedicated physician. To be deemed worthy to be among those honored as following his example is both humbling and exhilarating.
One day several months ago, when a child asked me how many words I had written, I started playing with numbers in my head. Now, I have no idea how many words I have written, but I added up articles and books and columns, and I figure that I have published about two million words. So that’s a lot of stories—true stories, and there are many more stories to tell, yours and mine. Thank you so much for this honor and for the encouragement it gives me to keep writing.
Everette Bacon: Thank you, Deborah; what a wonderful award winner and wonderful story!
Donna Posont—Michigan is excited, Donna! These are some words from Donna herself in her application.
“Through the years, I have had the pleasure of witnessing some people who always wanted to walk with a sighted guide turn into scientists taking off down paths using their canes. There have been times when someone afraid to touch new things would eventually shape bird beaks and feet using homemade Play Dough after being involved in its cooking. Those afraid to speak in front of others could eventually write Braille notes and increase confidence to share information.”
If you don’t know anything about Donna, she has created a nature society in Michigan. She works with a university there and is doing such wonderful things to learn about birds and nature and so many things about our wilderness that we didn’t get a chance to use or become a part of as blind people. So I am excited, and it is my honor to give Donna Posont an award of $5,000.
[Sound of bird singing]
Donna Posont: Hey, for those who don’t know, that’s the American robin, beautiful State Bird of my beloved Michigan. Many of you have heard me say “It’s not about the birds.” I will explain a little about how I came to that through my journey. Fifty years ago this summer, I graduated from high school. I took off to college to get a degree in biology. About a week into that, I realized I had no skills and no way to learn biology. I had no skills of blindness, and I couldn’t do it. So I was redirected into social work—nothing against social work!
I graduated in ’77 and moved to Philadelphia and worked at the Upsale School for the Blind. It was there that I met the National Federation of the Blind, or more likely they got hold of me.
Through the years, I worked in the vending program in three different states, and I served as vice president of the Blind Merchants Division until I married the president of the Merchants Division, and I moved to Michigan where I have lived ever since. There we raised five children, and that indeed was the greatest joy of my life. And you know what is so amazing about them that really makes them stand out? They gave me twelve grandchildren, which is really an honor.
In 2008, I decided to once again pursue my dream, and I went to the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I didn’t know what you would call it, but I wanted to learn about nature so I could share it with others who were blind. It wasn’t about me so much anymore. I wanted to learn it, but I wanted to make it accessible to other blind people. Because through working at camps and so forth, I realized blind students often had been denied the opportunity to learn about the birds and the trees and the insects and the frogs, and I wanted to change that.
So, during that time, I started a program called Birding by Ear and Beyond, where we learned to identify birds by their sounds, and then we learned all about the birds. Then, in 2015, I graduated from the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a degree in environmental studies, and just to show I could do it, I got a minor in biology.
At that time the director, Dr. David Susko, asked if I wanted to come on the staff and do what I had been loving to do—for money—and get paid to do the Birding by Ear and Beyond Program. So that’s what I have been doing ever since. COVID gave us a little slowdown, but we’re back in business now. It’s not about the birds; it’s about sharing with blind people and helping them gain the confidence they need to travel the trails of life.
Everette Bacon: I’m really excited about our next awards; they are our organizational awards. We had two individual awards; now we have two organizational awards. Handid Braille Services. Don Winiecki. Don Winiecki was nominated or recommended by Tasnim Alshuli. As a gift for the blind Muslims of Ramadan, 2024, Don volunteered to produce a screen-reader-accessible version of a new translation of the Quran in both English and Arabic. This is pretty exciting! We are honored to give Handid Braille Services an award of $15,000.
Don Winiecki: Hello, Federation family! I’ve been a member of the Federation since 2016 when I joined the Treasure Valley Chapter in Idaho. Transformational is a word that comes out a lot when people talk about how the Federation has affected them. That word works for me, too.
Transcribing text into Braille allows me to contribute to a world that I would want to live in, a world I want all of us to live in. I never imagined I would come to specialize in producing Braille for languages other than English, much less languages that don’t use the alphabet we’re familiar with in English. It was a chance meeting with a director of the NLS at this convention in this venue a number of years ago that pointed out the terrific gap there was in producing Braille for multiple languages. I and my nonprofit company now have clients on six of the seven continents.
I regularly produce Braille in Arabic and Chinese, in simplified and traditional Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, French, German, Vietnamese, Navajo, and other languages—lots of Unified English Braille, and sometimes even English Braille American Edition (EBAE).
As we know, Braille is a code and not a language. However, languages and their unique orthography are codes too—codes that allow one to package intricate concepts into deceptively simple marks and tactile patterns. There are few things more amazing and beautiful than that. I allowed that beauty and quality to pull me in to learn how to learn Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more so that I could put them into Braille. I type Arabic at a rate faster, I’m told, than most native speakers.
Learning to read these languages has changed my life. The knowledge that I am producing materials enabling independence is transformational.
And there’s more. To help spread this independence, I’m starting work on developing Braille instruction for adults in the same languages I transcribe today. But I’ve got to tell you, it is immeasurably more meaningful to me that the National Federation of the Blind recognizes this work and ratifies what I do with the Bolotin Award. There is no collection of individuals more able to assess the value of what I do than you, my Federation family. Thank you.
Everette Bacon: We have one last award to give—last but certainly not least. I am excited to give our last or second organizational award to Living Blindfully, Jonathan Mosen.
An example of the podcast remaining true to its values is that Living Blindfully boasts a commitment that everyone working on the podcast will be blind. The podcast now employs a transcriber and an audio editor, both of whom are blind themselves. Living Blindfully is clear about its audience. It is not seeking to explain blindness to sighted people or to hold back on the important issues. Living Blindfully is unashamedly our place, our issues. I’m excited to give an award of $15,000 to my friend, Jonathan Mosen, Living Blindfully.
Jonathan Mosen: At this point I’m waiting to wake up and realize I’ve been dreaming this. This is incredibly special. Thank you so much to the Bolotin Committee and the National Federation of the Blind in general for this award. You know, media usually ignores us, and when it doesn’t, we often wish it did. It frequently underestimates us, it misrepresents us, and far too often it would have people believe that you mustn’t say that dreaded B word—blind.
I was observing yesterday that living visually impairedly just doesn’t have the same ring to it, you know, does it? So Living Blindfully seeks to give you an oasis from all that.
Now, in humbly accepting this award on behalf of the members of our Living Blindfully team, I want to mention them by name. It includes Hannah Mae Aldeza, who produces our transcripts so that, in particular, deafblind people aren’t excluded from the conversation, because so often deafblind people are excluded from the conversation, and it’s not right. Accessibility has benefits because it means that we also in that process build an extensive searchable repository of information and opinion on the issues of the day.
And also Derek Lane, our gifted and brilliant audio engineer who speeds up the production of the show by editing some of the interviews. And, of course, my wife Bonnie, who is here with us today to see Living Blindfully get this award. I love you so much.
And finally, I accept this on behalf of our listeners in over 113 countries now, and some of whom—good to know some are out there—and some of you share your thoughts on the issues that we cover and the things that matter to us. Thank you so much again for recognizing Living Blindfully, and I’ll conclude my acceptance with the way I conclude every episode.
Remember that when you are out there with your guide dog, you’ve harnessed success, and with your cane, you’re able.
Everette Bacon: Congratulations to all of these winners! As President Riccobono pointed out, when I said my friend, he’s everybody’s friend, that’s for sure. Jonathan Mosen is everyone’s friend. I’m just lucky to be one of them. Let’s do one big round of applause for all of these winners. Let’s do it. [Applause]
Every year we give these awards out. This is the seventeenth year of doing this, so that is pretty exciting. That means we’re going to have year eighteen in Louisiana next year. For year eighteen, if you want to know what we’re looking for, we’re looking for these types of dream makers who do innovative things in the field of blindness. This is your chance to apply. If you did apply and didn’t win this year, we keep all your applications. We review old applications each year, but if you want to apply again, we definitely encourage that. Please go to nfb.org/bolotin. You can also find it under Awards and Presentations.
We will open up the application process again on January 1, 2025, and we will have it open until April 15, 2025. These are awesome awards! We definitely want to hear what is going on out there in the field of blindness. Thank you, Mr. President. This is my report.
by Mary-Clare Cable
From the Editor: Among the first-time attendees at the 2024 NFB Convention in Orlando was an enthusiastic group of teachers of blind and low-vision students, participants in the NFB’s Teachers of Tomorrow program. In this article, Mary-Clare Cable reflects on her experience in the program and explains how it transformed her as a teacher.
I’m an itinerant teacher of blind and low-vision students based in Fairbanks, Alaska, just below the Arctic Circle. This being Alaska, my students are spread across a wide geographic area. I have thirty students in eighteen different schools, so I do a lot of traveling.
I’d been working as a paraprofessional in the schools for several years when I was asked to assist a high school student who was blind. I ended up working with him for three years. I found myself becoming very frustrated by the limitations people placed on him. For instance, his chemistry teacher immediately talked about excusing him from lab work instead of coming up with ways for him to participate and learn beside his classmates. I tried to think of ways to make every lesson accessible for him, but I had to figure it out on my own.
That first blind student sparked my curiosity and got me to challenge a lot of my own assumptions. Our work together inspired me to become a TVI, or teacher of the visually impaired. However, my training program gave me almost no exposure to blind people who were living active, productive lives. Mostly I was taught by sighted instructors who had very little firsthand experience with blind adults.
I only knew one blind TVI in Alaska, Bonnie Lucas. Bonnie was very helpful, and she had lots of valuable ideas to share. She was the only blind adult I had met, though, so I had no other perspectives.
I learned about Teachers of Tomorrow (TOT) from Ashley, a colleague of mine who had been in the program in 2021. I didn’t think I stood a chance of getting accepted, but Ashley sat down with me and helped me complete the application. I was very excited when I got a call a few months later. Karen Anderson interviewed me and asked a lot of excellent questions. For instance, she asked me, “Besides your students, do you know any blind people?” Believe it or not, no one had ever asked me that question before! If I didn’t know blind people, how could I truly understand the challenges my students faced and believe in their capacity to live the lives they wanted?
I was thrilled when I was accepted into the Teachers of Tomorrow program. I went in with high hopes, but I was pretty nervous. I was one of fourteen teachers from across the country in the 2024 TOT cohort. We met monthly over Zoom and got together face-to-face four times during the course of the year. In addition, we had ongoing communication through group chat.
From the beginning the program filled me with excitement. For the first time I was among people who truly supported knowledge and growth. In our Zoom sessions I learned about resources from all over the country, and I heard blind people with a wide variety of experiences talk about their lives. I had the chance to learn best practices from people who really used the skills I was trying to teach.
Our first face-to-face get-together was a visit to the NFB National Center in Baltimore. That trip was life-changing for me! It was wonderful to meet my TOT cohort in real time, to explore NFB headquarters, and to learn about the history of the organized blind movement from people who lived it.
When I trained to become a TVI, I was not encouraged to use the word blind. We used terms such as visually impaired or sight deficient. In Baltimore Karen and others encouraged us to use the word blind. We talked about helping people own their blindness and understand that it's okay to be blind.
Our second face-to-face trip took my Teachers of Tomorrow cohort to the nation’s capital to attend Washington Seminar. Unfortunately, it was forty below in Fairbanks that week, and most flights were canceled. I ended up joining the Alaska affiliate via Zoom and talking to my representative remotely since I couldn’t be there in person. Even at a distance it was thrilling to speak to my rep about bills that could make a difference in the lives of my students.
Our third face-to-face experience was a visit to the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB), the NFB training center in Ruston, Louisiana. Talking with teachers and students, observing classes, and absorbing the can-do atmosphere was a phenomenal experience! I met so many blind people who were living without limitations, people who were really rocking life. No one was telling them about things they couldn’t do. They were cooking, woodworking, going out, and enjoying life. The students were really excited about everything they had learned and what they felt they could do in the future.
It’s hard to describe how moving it all was! I knew my students were capable young people, but sometimes they didn’t believe in themselves. I’d never seen a program like the LCB, where students truly grew and thrived.
During my TVI training, the most I ever did under learning shades was pour water into a glass. At the LCB my cohort and I put on learning shades and baked brownies nonvisually. My group baked the worst brownies ever! I realized I have a lot to learn in order to teach my students effectively!
Our final face-to-face experience in the Teachers of Tomorrow program was a trip to attend the NFB National Convention in Orlando. Convention was amazing! It was incredible to see so many people with long white canes and guide dogs all in one place! Everyone looked totally confident and empowered. I remember once a fellow bumped into me accidentally. He smiled and said, “That’s how we say hello!” I realized that my students were always apologizing. They were upset if they knocked something over or bumped into someone. Now I asked myself, why should they be upset? It’s part of life—no harm done.
I’m so grateful I had the chance to take part in Teachers of Tomorrow and join such a phenomenal group of educators! I couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated and resourceful group of colleagues. My approach to teaching and to life has been changed forever by my firsthand experiences meeting blind people in Baltimore, in Ruston, and at the NFB National Convention. I want my students to experience the world fearlessly and joyfully, and through the authentic experience I have gained, I know that they truly can.
by Kate Garcia and Sonia Timmons
From the Editor: A key purpose of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) is to build parent leadership across the country. The Parent Leadership Program (PLP) began in 2006 to bring parent leaders together, introduce them to Federation philosophy, and strengthen the bonds of community. For parents in the PLP, attending the NFB National Convention for the first time can be a life-changing experience. In this article two members of the 2024 PLP cohort reflect on their experiences.
Kate Garcia: In October 2023, by a very lucky chance, I met Carol Castellano, founding president of New Jersey Parents of Blind Children (NJPBC) and a long-time leader in the NOPBC. Carol nominated me to take part in the 2024 Parent Leadership Program (PLP). At that point I hardly knew anything about the NFB or the NOPBC, but I decided to seize this opportunity and learn as much as I could.
As a PLP participant I visited the NFB headquarters in Baltimore and attended the 2024 Washington Seminar. In Baltimore our cohort of parents enjoyed three days of intensive training and discussions conducted by Carol, Melissa Riccobono, and other parent leaders from across the country. We also met powerful NFB leaders including Mark Riccobono, Pam Allen, and Anil Lewis. I felt genuine love and appreciation from the people I met. They extended a genuine welcome!
Until I went to Baltimore I really didn’t understand what the NFB is and how it carries out its mission. My meetings with deeply committed blind leaders awakened my sense of purpose. The NFB values and welcomes parents of blind children, yet it is clear that blind people themselves are the experts on what blind people need. I haven’t found that balance in any other blindness organization.
Our time at the NFB National Center was incredibly intense! Carol kept us busy thirteen or fourteen hours each day! We laughed, we cried, and we devoured reams of information. The PLP gave each of us a heavy binder full of articles, factsheets, and national resources. The idea was for us to take all that information back to our home states and pay it forward. Fortunately the National Center gave us plenty of wonderful cookie breaks. Believe me, we needed them!
Sonia Timmons: I lead the Parents of Blind Children chapter in South Carolina, so I knew a fair amount about the NFB before I went to Baltimore for the Parent Leadership Program. Even so, I learned so much during my days at the National Center! Federation leaders educated us about the history of the NFB and tied it to advocacy in our individual states. We met blind people who use blindness skills such as Braille and cane travel every day. They were employed and living active, independent lives.
One very special thing we did was brainstorming to design a program that would include our blind children in our state conventions. I used some of those ideas to create a children’s track for this year’s South Carolina convention. The kids did some entertainment at the reception, we had interactive games, we had a workshop on Braille skills, and we gave two of the children the chance to speak from the podium about their experiences. It was the first time children took on some leadership roles and showcased their skills. It went over very well! As our NFB leaders age we need to build a new generation of blind leaders, and this was a chance to start doing just that. I’m grateful that our state president is open to progressive ideas!
Kate Garcia: After our trip to Baltimore and our experience meeting legislators at Washington Seminar, we had the total immersion of the NFB National Convention in Orlando. On my first day I got lost in the convention hotel. I saw a guy with a cane and asked him for directions. He led the way unerringly to where we wanted to go. It was great for my daughter to connect with another blind person who was able to offer help.
At Convention I reconnected with everyone in my PLP cohort and met lots of parents who weren’t in the program. We had plenty of rich discussions, and I heard lots of stories. Everyone was eager to share, and we could connect people with resources right on the spot.
Sonia Timmons: My entire family, including my parents, attended the NFB National Convention for the entire week. It was our first convention, and at first it was overwhelming to see so many blind people—children and adults—all in one place. My parents got to see blind adults traveling, engaging, and learning independently. They’ve had a lot of concerns about my blind daughter, and being at Convention helped reassure them. The agenda was very well organized, and we were able to choose the activities we wanted. We even found time for karaoke and for hanging out around the pool. We’re already booked for New Orleans in 2025.
All across the NFB the leadership is phenomenal. The spirit of welcome toward newcomers is amazing! It’s not an overstatement to say that the knowledge and philosophy of the NFB have changed our lives!
by Ann Cunningham and the Art Room Volunteers
From the Editor: “Free tactile art exhibition and art activities for everyone!” announced the 2024 NFB Convention agenda. “Come with friends or come and meet new people. We will be teaching raised-line drawing, coloring, sculpting, origami, SVG (scalable vector graphics) coding, and LEGO® building. We will also have tactile picture books on hand!” For more than ten years the National Federation of the Blind has hosted a drop-in art room at its annual convention, coordinated by artist and teacher Ann Cunningham. In this article Ann and her team of volunteers reflect on the 2024 Art Room experience.
The agenda for the NFB Convention is packed with tightly scheduled events: workshops, committee meetings, seminars, and of course the dynamic presentations that fill three days of General Sessions. The Drop-in Art Room offers a very different experience. Open for two days from one to six p.m., the Art Room invites visitors to explore at their own pace, and, if they’re so inclined, to sit down at a table and create.
This year the Art Room was busier than ever before. At any given moment we had from twenty to forty visitors or more. Some made quick rounds of the tables, checking out the books and tools, before they headed out again. Others sat down with us for an hour or longer, drawing, building, and discussing possibilities.
Each table offered a different art experience. At one visitors could draw raised-line pictures, using Sensational BlackBoards. At others they could sculpt with Model Magic, build with Legos, or learn origami techniques. One table displayed an assortment of Braille books that included tactile pictures.
Dedicated volunteers staffed each table, answering questions and occasionally offering suggestions. One of this year’s volunteers was Marco Salsiccia, who had been a visual artist before losing his sight. “Several people came in who had been artists before their vision loss,” he said later. “They came in thinking that art couldn’t be part of their lives anymore. When we showed them all the ways they can create by touch, they got so excited! They left the room knowing they could welcome art into their lives again.”
“It was such an amazing experience, I’m still talking about it!” said Minh Ha, who volunteered this year for the first time. “The art room was cathartic. I got to talk to a lot of people, especially parents. Parents and kids were looking at tactile coloring books and different methods for telling crayons apart. I heard a lot of stories from blind adults about how they were discouraged from coloring when they were kids. People told them they couldn’t participate in art programs. In the art room we showed them ways they can be involved, like putting Braille labels on crayons. I came away from both days emotionally drained. It was hard work to absorb all those emotions, the negative stories we heard and the positive excitement of people making discoveries.”
“I loved the energy in the room!” said Lindsey Yazzolino. “People tried out tactile graphics. Conversations grew organically as people sat at the tables with us. People had so many experiences and ideas they wanted to share.”
Some visitors to the art room felt intimidated when they tried to make their own creations. On the first day volunteer Ka Li spent time with a young woman who was challenged by certain spatial concepts. “We worked through it, and eventually she was successful with her LEGO project,” he recalled. “She did a build on the first day, and she came back to work on another one the second day. It was really cool to see that level of engagement!”
If you didn’t have a chance to get to the Art Room this year, don’t worry. We’ll be back again at Convention 2025. See you in New Orleans!
During the annual board meeting of the NOPBC, the organization held its annual elections. The following members were elected to serve two-year terms:
President: Cassandra McKinney, Tennessee
First Vice President: Casey Robertson, Mississippi
Second Vice President: Melissa Riccobono, Maryland
Secretary: Carol Castellano, New Jersey
Treasurer: Sandra Oliver, Texas
The following members were elected to general board seats, serving for one year:
Cynthia Baker, Alabama
Andrea Benoit, Louisiana
Kate Garcia, New Jersey
Amber Gilbeau, Louisiana
Liz Marantz-Valdez, Alabama
Myra Gonzalez, Oregon
Tabby Mitchell, Hawai’i
Sonia Timmons, South Carolina
Congratulations to the new NOPBC board!
Each year the American Action Fund promotes the joy of reading for pleasure through the contest called Braille Readers Are Leaders. Designed for beginners and expert Braille readers alike and encompassing ages kindergarten through adults, this reading contest is a way to showcase your love of Braille reading. The 2023/2024 contest also, for the first time, opened up to teachers of blind students.
To demonstrate the importance of independent reading in the development of Braille literacy skills, the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest awards prizes to those who dedicate time to practicing their Braille skills. Every minute spent reading is another minute a blind student or adult is taking pride in Braille as an invaluable tool for literacy.
Karla Gilbride, general counsel for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a blind lawyer who has argued (and won!) in front of the US Supreme Court, is an avid Braille reader and supporter of the Braille Readers Are Leaders program herself. When presenting last year’s award winners, she had this to say about how important Braille is in her life:
“I was taught Braille in kindergarten, and it opened up all sorts of doors of imagination. As a kid I thought I had a superpower because I could read even after the lights went out at night. I took those calluses on my fingers as a badge of honor. Braille was an amazing door-opener in my education and now in my professional life. I use Braille all the time to do my work, and I even used Braille notes when I argued a case in front of the Supreme Court. Braille is an indispensable part of my life.”
Did you know that only 10 percent of blind students learn Braille in school and that 90 percent of employed blind adults are Braille readers? This journey starts with learning to love Braille as a tool for both work and fun. It is our hope that the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest will continue to foster a love of Braille for years to come, and we can do that with your support.
Learn more about our programs, including Braille Readers Are Leaders, on our website: www.actionfund.org/programs.
Your support helps keep our resources free for blind children and adults. You can contribute to the Action Fund in three easy ways.
Often the simplest and most significant way to make a charitable contribution is to plan a legacy gift. Creating a lasting impact is easier than you might think. Choose an option that works best for your circumstances.
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 the distribution. After taking care of your loved ones, you could bequeath a specific dollar amount or a percentage of your estate to an organization whose mission is important to you.
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults Legacy Society recognizes and honors the generosity of 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 POD (payable on death) or TOD (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, (EIN# 52-1192529) 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 questions or would like more information, please reach out to Patti Chang at 410-659-9315 or [email protected]. 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, please contact Patti so we can recognize you as a member of our Legacy Society.
Legacy gifts carry the values and ideals that have been important to you throughout your lifetime and provide for generations of blind children and adults. Please consider the American Action Fund in your future plans.
Deadline for Requests: December 16, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
The National Federation of the Blind and the American Action Fund are excited to provide Braille letters and activities to celebrate the holiday and winter season. Each letter is part of a fun packet of activities. The Braille celebration packet is accompanied by a print copy so the whole family can participate. Letters are available in English and Spanish.
FamilyConnect
https://aphconnectcenter.org/holiday/outside-the-box-holiday-gift-ideas-for-family-friends-or-colleagues-who-are-blind-or-low-vision/#main
FamilyConnect has created two videos to introduce friends and family members of people who are blind or low-vision to out-of-the-box ideas for holiday gifts. Whether it’s a ticket to a concert, play, or sporting event; a cooking class; or a lesson in a new skill such as dancing or playing a musical instrument, there is something for everyone.
nbp.org
Contact: 800-548-7323
[email protected]
National Braille Press has a variety of offerings to help you celebrate the holiday season. Check out the website to find holiday cards, print/Braille refrigerator magnets, print/Braille books, and games.
https://www.actionfund.org/index.php/BRAL
Registration: November 15, 2024-January 17, 2025
Contest Period: December 2, 2024 to January 17, 2025
The Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest has been created to promote the joy of reading for pleasure, to promote pride in Braille as a viable literacy medium equal to print, and to demonstrate the importance of independent reading in the development of Braille literacy skills. Blind and low-vision Braille-reading students and adults and teachers of blind students are eligible to participate. Winners will be notified on March 2. Contestants compete against their same-grade peers nationwide to read the most minutes during the reading period.
https://actionfund.org/resources/braille-calendars
Contact: [email protected]
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults produces more than eight thousand Braille calendars each year. They are given free of charge to any blind or deafblind person in the United States. These pocket calendars are great for the office, home, or travel bag. Individuals may order up to three calendars.
https://aphconnectcenter.org/familyconnect/education/literacy-and-braille/bringing-braille-basics-home
If you are looking to learn Braille at home, discover the short videos and practice pages you can use with your home computer. The Bringing Braille Basics Home series teaches the alphabet, punctuation, capital indicator, number indicator, and numbers.
The documentary Thunder Rolls! combines a thriller sports story with an educational message. When the rules of a game are changed, appropriate technologies are applied, and opportunities are opened, individuals with disabilities can play competitive sports at Olympic levels. Thunder Rolls! follows the Indy Thunder beep baseball team in its quest to win a world championship. In the process it illustrates how the team members and their coach, Darnell Booker, navigate their everyday lives and come together as a family. The documentary reveals a nuanced world that involves the full range of accomplishments and engagements of the individuals portrayed. Narrated by Jesse Eisenberg and with an original music score by Tyron Cooper, this is a spirited, humanistic sports story operating on many levels of entertainment and social significance.
Deborah Bonde, the founder of Seedlings Braille Books for Children, retired on December 1, 2024, after forty years of dedicated service. She will continue to cheer on Seedlings as it brings the gift of Braille literacy to children everywhere. Former assistant director Amanda Hercula will serve as Seedlings’ new executive director. You can read Deborah Bonde’s retirement message at https://myemail-api.constantcontact
.com/An-exciting-announcement-from-Seedlings-.html?soid=1102490454273&aid=jDszDca9JwU&_gl=1
*7dszfy*_gcl_au*MTg4NTAxOTMwNC4xNzI2Nzc4NzQy*_ga*M2Q5ZTBhYTUtM2U5My00MDhmLThjNDAt
MDMyYmMxZTJhMGQy*_ga_14T5LGLSQ3*MTcyODQwMTgzNC40Mi4xLjE3Mjg0MDIyNjMuMi4wLjA.
Contact: Mutiara Syifa
[email protected]
The A11y in Sci team is conducting research to understand what teachers know about technology accessibility in order to support teachers more effectively. The purpose of this study is to understand what teachers know about using technology to construct proactively accessible high school science classes. The findings will be used to design learning opportunities about technology accessibility that meet teachers’ needs. In alignment with NFB’s mission, this study will help science teachers understand the importance of accessibility and will help them provide accessibility in science classes. Participants must be teaching in a public high school (including schools for the blind), be a science teacher or teacher of blind and low-vision students. Interviews will take place early in 2025 and will run 60-90 minutes. Participants will be compensated with a $100 gift card.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqwh_hcoSzTUkskVASsV_g5r3zI7w64GLC_r5Ud86Qx3
mV1Q/viewform
Margie Torres Nowlin is conducting doctoral research on how two- and four-year colleges are improving the accessibility of STEM courses. She invites current and recent blind and low-vision college students to complete a short survey. Ten respondents will be selected for one-on-one interviews.
Dr. Alfred d’Agostino has written a book chapter on making the postsecondary chemistry curriculum accessible to blind and low-vision students, and he is seeking the firsthand experiences of students who have taken postsecondary chemistry courses. Please provide responses to these questions and email him at the address above:
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 the Education Technology Survey once a semester and contribute to this important research.