American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Convention Issue 2025 NOPBC BOARD MEETING
Education Opportunities from the NFB
by Karen Anderson
Introduction by Cassie McKinney: Our next speaker is a very busy person in the Federation! She loves being around kids and parents and students. Here is Karen Anderson!
Hi! I’m the Education Programs Coordinator for the National Federation of the Blind. I have the best job in the world. I get to work on programs for kids. Kids are fun—but yesterday I was less than thrilled by the one who told me he got to go to Kids’ Camp, and when I asked if I got to go to Grown-up Camp he said, “No, you have to work and be responsible!” [Laughter]
I get to do a lot of fun stuff with your kids. I get to work on our NFB BELL® Academies, and I get to work on STEM2U, which I’ll tell you more about in a minute. I also get to work on programs for adults, because sometimes I like to be around people who don’t tell me I have to work! You all would let me go to a grown-up camp, right? [encouraging laughter] I appreciate that!
I get to work with teachers of blind students, and I get to work with parents. When I’m not working, I love to knit. I have a house full of yarn. I just came back from a trip to Amsterdam, and I brought back a whole sweater worth of yarn. Then I came here, and I went to the yarn shop. I also have a sourdough starter that has survived since the pandemic. I don’t have kids, but I have raised a sourdough starter, and it’s never told me that I have to be responsible. I also have a toy poodle who is four-and-a-half pounds. I like to think she doesn’t run my household, but she does.
I tell you these things because I think it’s important that you, as parents, know that blind adults live fulfilling lives. We have hobbies. We do fun things. We have things we’re passionate about, and we have things we’re not passionate about. (I have not said that I am a runner!) I’m not a body builder, and while I have camps, I’m not exactly outdoorsy, either.
When we talk about blindness at conventions, and when you hear from blind adults, I think it’s important for you to hear that we are multi-faceted beings.
Our Federation programs are unique, not necessarily because of the content. Our content is awesome; our content is fun. We have our NFB BELL Academy—BELL stands for Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning. How many of you have kids who went to BELL? [cheers and applause] Has anyone participated in STEM2U? [More applause] Nice! STEM2U helps our blind kids realize they can be successful in science, technology, engineering, and math.
The experiments we do in STEM2U are not special experiments just for blind kids. When Ashleigh Moon designed our STEM program, she did research to find out what fun science experiments kids are doing in school. Then we figured out how we can make those experiments accessible. It wasn’t difficult. We didn’t change the premise of the experiment. Anybody can do this with the right understanding of nonvisual skills.
What we bring to our Federation education programs is our real understanding about blindness. We understand that blindness is just a characteristic. It’s a part of who you are. We bring in blind role models to work with your kids. We bring in blind leaders.
All of our programs are led by blind people. Even our programs that have sighted coordinators are being led by blind people. It is the blind people who do the leading.
One day your kids will look around, and they’ll see a world that is built for sighted people. Sighted people lead all the time. Does that mean sighted people are bad leaders? No! You are not all bad leaders! I have sighted friends, and I love my sighted friends!
But we see sighted people leading everywhere. Your kids will see almost nothing but sighted people leading. Forever. The difference in our education programs is that that’s not the case here. Sighted people are not the ones running the show. Do we have sighted people involved? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. It depends on the program. Some of my favorite blindness professionals are sighted. Casey Robertson, she’s sighted. It’s not her fault. [laughter] Krystal Guillory, Emily Gibbs, Kristen Sims, they’re all sighted. They’re lovely humans! And they all know that when they work with blind people, they need blind role models. They need to have blind leaders in their programs.
The other thing that makes our education programs different is that we let your kids fail. I sound like the meanest person on the planet! They’ll cast me as Elphaba in Wicked, the Wicked Witch of the West!
I have failed many times at this convention. I was confident that I was going to make my friends’ and my life easier by cutting across and going down the escalators on Two so we could avoid the madhouse of the lobby. It ended up I took us into a complete madhouse, and we had to wander around in the lobby for twenty minutes. It happens. I messed up. The only reason it didn’t send me into a spiral of anxiety or shame is that I have been around the Federation. I have been encouraged to, maybe even made to fail.
My teachers in the Federation did a great job of finding my dome of proximal development. That’s education-speak for that nice squishy place where you’re not comfortable, but you’re not so uncomfortable and so unready that you’re going to check out.
My Federation teachers have done a great job, and for that reason I can fail and get back up again. I cannot tell you how many kids I have worked with who don’t have that ability! They’ve never been allowed to fail. Someone has always made sure they’re successful, and everything they do is “amazing!” We work really hard in our education programs to find challenges that are age-appropriate for our kids, but that are going to give them opportunities to fail and try again.
I want to point out a couple of things that I think are under-known about our education programs. Our Early Childhood Initiatives are great programs for our kids from birth through age eight. These programs are our Braille Reading Pals and our Early Explorers. When you sign up for Braille Reading Pals, you get a free book every year. In both programs you get a birthday card in Braille. You get some really cool activities in the mail every quarter. You also get an electronic newsletter in the mail every month. If you have a little one, and you’re not registered for those programs yet, please go to nfb.org and search for Early Childhood.
I also want to talk about our IEP Advocacy Academy. If you have school-age kids, grades K through 12, you might need some help with your IEP. We’re here to help you find an advocate who can help make sure your kiddos are getting the services they deserve and that they are entitled to. We have our IEP Advocacy Academy thanks to a grant from the Lavelle Fund.
Finally, I want to talk about Teachers of Tomorrow. We have our former Teachers of Tomorrow in the room today. Teachers of Tomorrow aims to connect early career teachers of blind students with the lived experiences of blind people. Briley O’Connor and I just completed interviews for the next cohort. We interviewed fifty teachers. I would estimate that only five to ten percent of them had ever had contact with any blind people outside the classroom! These teachers of blind students didn’t know blind people! They’re working with your kids, and they don’t know any blind people! How are you possibly going to expect a teacher to have high expectations for your kid when they have never known a successful blind person?
Teachers of Tomorrow aims to make real connections. I think we’re being successful, at least in part, based on the fact that we have four or five former Teachers of Tomorrow at convention this year. We will be opening up applications for that program again next spring. Please get your kids’ teachers to apply! I’ve seen how the program changes education for students! It helps teachers get connected with families, and it helps build a network in your state.
The last thing I want to say is that we cannot do this work without you. We want to build education programs because we hear from our members that they’re needed. As parents, you are our members. If you see something that needs to be done, let’s work to make it happen.
Our programs only work because our members work to put them on. I promise you; I don’t put on NFB BELL Academies in twenty-five states by myself! I don’t put on fourteen STEM2U programs in a year singlehandedly. I don’t go to all the IEPs, and I don’t do all the Teachers of Tomorrow sessions myself. We are only successful because our members help.
If you have an idea, that’s great! Let’s work on it. We’re going to have to work on it together.
I want to remind you how incredibly important it is that you have blind friends in your tribe, just as your kids have blind people in theirs. If you have blind friends, blindness is going to be more normal to you. Your kids are going to see that, and that is going to make an impression. It’s also going to become more normal that blind people do some things a little differently from the way you do them. As someone who has many blind friends and many sighted friends, my sense is that it takes some time for sighted people to get comfortable with blindness skills. If you only see people using those skills here at convention, it’s going to be hard for you to see those skills as equally effective.
Your kids absolutely need blind people in their tribe. And so do you! Part of the power in our education programs is that, while your kids are doing one thing, you get to spend time with other people who get what you’re going through and who have high expectations for blind people. Blind people in your state are going through the same things you are. They can share their experiences. Maybe they’re baseball fans. Go to a game together! Maybe you want to go to the library together for a reading circle. Maybe you want to go to a yarn shop together! Go for it!
I hope you will continue to send your kids to our education programs. I hope you will get in touch with me with your thoughts and ideas. My email address is [email protected]. I’m happy to talk to parents at any time. I hope you have a great convention!