Announcements

Announcements

Future Reflections Special Issue on Low Vision
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Announcements
Braille Books
Braille Book Fair 2014
UPS
Elainna Moore, Area HR Manager
c/o 2014 NFB Convention Braille Book Fair
8901 Atlantic Ave.
Orlando, FL 32824
Contact: Krystal Guillory, (318) 245-8955
[email protected]
Calling all Braille readers, teachers, and parents! It's that time again--time to sort through all those boxes and donate your gently used but no longer needed Braille books to the 2014 Braille Book Fair sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. The book fair takes place at the NFB convention, and the books are given away to blind children free of charge on a first come, first served basis. The primary goal is to get more Braille books into the hands of children, youth, and beginning adult readers. Needed most are print/Braille storybooks, cookbooks, and poetry. Children are so hungry for their very own books that every year, despite generous donations, most of our books for young children are gone in less than twenty minutes. Please search through the books in your basement and attic, and ship them to Elainna Moore at the address above.
Science Programs
NFB STEM2U
<http://www.blindscience.org/nfb-stem2u>
Contact: Natalie Shaheen, [email protected]
Application deadline for high school students: June 15, 2014
Application deadline for teachers and elementary school students: July 30, 2014
The National Federation of the Blind, in partnership with museums and science centers, will facilitate three regional science, technology, engineering, and math programs in 2014-2015. NFB STEM2U is an extension of the NFB's National Center for Blind Youth in Science initiative in local communities. NFB STEM2U will provide great learning opportunities to blind students in elementary and high schools, parents of blind children, and teachers of blind students. The first NFB STEM2U programs will be held in Baltimore; Boston; and Columbus, Ohio.
Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCIVIS)
<http://www.tsbvi.edu/space>
Contact: Dan Oates, (304) 851-5680
[email protected]
September 20-25, 2014
SCIVIS is a week-long camp that takes place at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Open to blind and visually impaired students, the program is coordinated by teachers of the visually impaired, and all computers used by the students provide speech and large print output. Materials and equipment used during missions are available in Braille and large print. SCIVIS is comprised of four programs: Space Camp, for students in grades 4-6; Space Academy, for students in grades 7-12; Advanced Academy, for students in grades 10-12; and Aviation Challenge, for students in middle and high school. Registration is now open. Applications will be sent to registered students and teachers in late July.
Surveys
Common Core Assessment Survey
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MKPNP5T>
Contact: Valerie Yingling, (410) 659-9314, Ext. 2440
[email protected]
This spring over one million students nationwide will participate in field tests, practice tests, and training tests aligned to the new Common Core Standards. As the consortia selected by the US Department of Education to design and administer these new assessments, Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) are required to provide accessible tests that measure student mastery of curricula, rather than reflect their disabilities. Appropriate and individualized accommodations must be available. On February 24, 2014, PARCC and the NFB reached a settlement agreement in which PARCC committed to work with the NFB to ensure that blind students are not left behind in the assessment process. Under the terms of the settlement, PARCC will make its practice tests accessible to blind students in spring 2014 and will consult with the NFB to ensure that all subsequent practice tests and assessments will be available in accessible formats at the time of deployment. The NFB is continuing to gather information regarding both PARCC's and Smarter Balanced's field, practice, and training test availability and accessibility. As parents, students, and teachers, your feedback is critical. You can provide the NFB with valuable data reflecting the assessments' use within your local school districts. Please complete the survey and encourage others to do the same.
Parents' Survey on Experience in Education
Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB)
Louisiana Tech University
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdribp>
PDRIB invites parents of blind and visually impaired children to participate in a study on the education experiences of blind students in grades K through 12. The study will examine factors that have an impact on service options for and academic performance of blind and/or visually impaired youth. For a parent or guardian to participate in the study, a child must be between the ages of five and twenty-two and be enrolled in grades K-12 in the United States, use English as his/her primary spoken language, and have visual impairment listed as the primary diagnosed disability on the IEP.
Teachers' Survey on Education of Blind/VI Students
Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB)
Louisiana Tech University
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdribt>
PDRIB invites teachers of blind and visually impaired students to take part in a study to evaluate the services available to and the education experiences of blind/VI students in grades K-12. In order to participate, you must currently be a certified teacher of the visually impaired and have a caseload of one or more students with low vision or blindness as his/her primary diagnosed disability on his/her IEP.
Contest
Raise Up Spoken Word and Hip Hop Competition
Youth Speaks
<www.raiseupproject.org>
Participant Eligibility: Ages 15-22
Deadline for Entries: June 30, 2014
The Raise Up Project is sponsoring a public media spoken word and hip hop contest and radio special in partnership with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "We want to hear from young people around the US about the challenges they go through both individually and systemically," says a project spokesperson, "and we want to celebrate the successes of young people who have navigated the system and made it to graduation. Our goal is to encourage young people to raise their hands, raise their voices, raise up as an individual, raise up their schools, and ultimately use the power of their voices to help raise the rate of graduation." Each of the five winners will receive a $5,000 scholarship and will perform at the Kennedy Center.
Technology
Web Accessibility Training Day
<http://nfb.org/web-accessibility-day>
Contact: Clara Van Gerven: (410) 659-9314, Ext. 2410
[email protected]
Location: NFB Jernigan Institute
200 E. Wells St. at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Date: September 9, 2014
The National Federation of the Blind and the Maryland Technology Assistance Program will co-host a web accessibility training day. Topics will include enterprise implementation of accessibility, education implementation of accessibility, PDF accessibility in an enterprise setting, captioning and audio description, HTML5, and more.

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